Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Hana ni Arashi, Volume 7 (はなにあらし)

October 8th, 2021

In Volume 7 of Hana ni Arashi, (はなにあらし) something finally happens. Well…two things. Remembering that, in this series, “happen” is very broadly applied word. ^_^

The first thing is that, on the class trip, Nanoha and Chidori have, finally, gotten past their disagreement and are happily doing class trip things with their friends. Which, inevitably, because manga, includes bathing together.

Nanoha and Chidori battle their base desires and, ultimately manage to bathe together and it basically paralyzes them both so much that everyone else thinks they are fighting again.

During the (extended, my goodness, it felt like it went on forever….) bath scene, Nanoha’s elbow touches Chidori’s breast slightly and, while the scene itself is an eye-roll of service, the galaxy brain Nanoha keeps experiencing for the next several chapters cracked me up every  single time.

Like so.

 

The second things that happens is that the Mai issue finally resolves. Mai is explicitly asked to return to basketball to be the team manager but, since she was mostly motivated by Nanoha being there, she isn’t sure. Mai tells Chidori that she knows she’s dating Nanoha…and how she, Mai, feels. Chidori is kind and supportive, and, thankfully, neither jealous nor manipulative.

Mai goes to tell Nanoha that she saw Chidori and her kiss, that she, Mai has feelings for Nanoha, and likewise, Nanoha is kind and gentle, but explains that she’s taken. And, so, Mai returns to the basketball team, at which the manager bursts into tears of joy and the team welcomes her back.

Mai and Nanoha discuss the whole story, realize that they have to be more careful at school and, as the book comes to a close with a kiss, decide that tomorrow they’ll be more careful. ^_^

This story is sweet, with a wopping dollop of prurience, which never fails to pull me out of the story. But, for all that, Nanoha and Chidori are still the very personable stars of the show and their relationship is cute.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – Yes, the payoff is funny but, come on. Aren’t we tired of staring at girls in baths yet? I know I am.

Overall – 7

Volume 8 and Volume 9 are both available in Japanese and I’m still kind of surprised that no one has picked this up here yet.





Kita no Onna ni Tamesaretai （北の女に試されたい）

October 7th, 2021

Hokuryuu Aya, who is a tall, cool woman, meets Kuromizu Suzuka who is also a tall, cool woman and both are surprised that the other is as tall as they are, too. Somehow, this inspires them to take a road trip to Hokkaido, during which other women are equally surprised at them being tall. The goal of this road trip is to hook up with Northern women but instead, a bunch of other wacky stuff stuff happens in Volume 1 of Kita no Onna ni Tamesaretai (北の女に試されたい) by Minoda Kaido, who is also the artist for Mochi Au Lait’s vampire manga Byougetsu (病月).

As they head north Hokuryuu and Kuromizu do sort of pick up some women, because they are so tall, but as they sit in a bar and they all talk, it turns out that the other women kind of have a relationship that’s gone sour because they haven’t discussed something important. So, bwah~wah~waah.

They end up going to the zoo, where Kuromizu is wowed by the exotic animals, like penguins, and buys her (tall) self a cute penguin plushy. But (also tall) Hokuryuu runs into a kouhai from school who had a crush on her, which brings up her past. This unearths a very fraught relationship with her younger sister, with whom Hokuryuu has not spoken in years. They decide to visit Hokuryuu’s home, which turns out to be horse stables.

At which point, this book takes off on another track. Because I genuinely think it’s not super likely to be licensed, I’m gonna spoil, but trust me, I have a reason for my prediction and I will get to it. ^_^

So Aya tells Suzuka why she doesn’t speak to her sister. Their mother is a queen of an all-woman harem and, when it became kind of obvious that Aya was also interested in women, the sister told Aya that she wasn’t like that, but loved and respected her sister. In response to which intimacy, Aya kissed her in a not-sisterly way. Appalled at herself, Aya ran away. Now that’s she’s back, she finds her sister has also gone, That leaves mom, who is taller than both of them. Hokuryuu Jun has not forgiven Aya for driving her favorite daughter off. Jun, who still has a harem of employee/lovers, and Aya get into a huge fight. Jun wins and Aya grabs her favorite horse, running off into the snow. Jun follows, they have a screaming match out in the snowy fields. Jun admits that her sister has left Aya a letter for her that, ultimately, expressed forgiveness, admiration and absolution. 

Aya returns to the stables, watches races with Kuromizu and as the volume ends, they get back in the car to head north once more.

The reason I am skeptical that this one-shot will be licensed is simply that the art is neither cute, nor explicit, nor good enough to be a strong seller. The art is heavily hatched in black and is not sophisticated. It’s very much the kind of art I’d expect from a young artist. (And it reminds me of comments from a recent Mangasplaining podcast about Tsutomu Nihei‘s art, that the artist said he’d advise younger him not to use so much black, because it was a pain. ^_^) To be clear, I don’t think the art is terrible, but it lacks the prurience that audiences require to overlook hard-to-follow art. The audience who favors bouncing boobs and panty shots seems to forgive issues of perspective and lighting in order to see an exciting new view of underwear. Of course, I may be wrong and I would not in any way object to someone licensing this. ^_^

For a road trip story with a surprisingly emotional undertone, I find myself thinking about this series periodically, and wondering if Aya and Suzuka ever get to hook up with northern beauties.

One last thing of note – it may seem that I am being snarky about the characters being tall. I assure, I am not. This is a thing that is mentioned in every chapter. And Jun, upon meeting Suzuka, doesn’t fail to point out that she is taller than Aya. This is a *thing* in this book.

Ratings:

Art – 5 Way better than I can do, but
Story – 7 For a story about hooking up with chicks, it lacks hooking up, but is instead, kind of strange and fun and has horses, so that’s okay.
Characters – 8 Likable
Service – 4 Some non-detailed nudity
Yuri – Well, yes, as background radiation of the story’s universe. It’s everywhere, but this isn’t a romance.

Overall – 7

I’m pretty sure I like it, and wouldn’t have minded a second volume. I’ll be interested to see what Minoda-sensei does next.

2023 Update: A sequel exists! Check out the first chapter on Yuri Navi.

 





Yoru To Umi, Volume 1 French Edition, Guest Review by Laurent Lignon

October 6th, 2021

We welcome a new guest reviewer, Journaliste/Chroniqueur Lauren Lignon, who will be looking at the French translation of Yuri manga Yoru to Umi by Goumoto. I’m very happy to have Laurent here to talk about this series…and what a great review this is. Laurent, the floor is yours…

This review is based on the French translation of the Plongée dans la nuit, Volume 1.

“In a flash… I went under”

Tsukiko Yano is a half-Japanese/half-European transfer student. A withdrawn and solitary girl, she spends her time between home and classroom, rebuking potential boyfriends and never trying to get along with the other schoolgirls. Until the day she sees by chance a fellow student, the extrovert Utsumi Aka, swimming in the pool. Struck by the grace of Utsumi’s movements in the water, Tsukiko will try to get closer to her… Not knowing that herself has also been noticed by Utsumi, who is fascinated by Tsukiko’s cold and distant attitude.

Thus starts the first volume of Yoru To Umi (夜と海) (The Night and The Sea, translated as the delightfully poetic title “Dive Into The Night” in French), a very interesting take on the classic love story between schoolgirls. Each of the five chapters is told from a different point of view : Tsukiko, Utsumi, the Theatre Club (most notably would-be actress Maihara), then once again Tsukiko and Utsumi. Through each point of view, we see how each character sees her surroundings and what their relationships with others mean to them.

Tsukiko, when retreating inside her thoughts, sees the world as the bottom of the ocean, calm and without sound, full of fishes and sea creatures. A vision linked to her memories of a trip to a seaquarium she undertook with her father as a child. This is what attracts her to Utsumi, as she see the swimming girl as a graceful sea creature whose form and movements in the water fascinates her to the point of wanting to keep looking at her swimming all day long.

Until meeting Tsukiko, Utsumi’s only pleasure was to spend hours swimming and diving in the school pool, feeling only at home in the water. Utsumi sees Tsukiko as a cold and otherworldly creature of the Night, a beautiful vampire from a movie she saw as a child, an inaccessible nightflower, out of her reach, but whose nocturnal beauty enthralls her. Both girls, very different in mindsets, manage to reach a sort of friendship that seems to bloom into something else… Except that each one of them struggles in her own way to understand the other one and express her feelings.

This is a slow story, going at a rather dreamy pace. The talent of Goumoto-sensei resides in the way she manages to picture some rather casual actions as having a deep impact on the the characters. This is not a story of blushing and cherry trees, but of the slow discovery of what brings two different people together. You can find in it as much a strong romantic friendship (in the Class S style) as blooming love, and it is up to you, the reader, to fill the blanks. However, this is not without some humour, most notably when Tsukiko imagines Utsumi as a suffocating out-of-water fish when the swimming pool is closed for the holidays.

But it is in the landscapes and the surroundings that Goumoto-sensei’s drawing talent shines the most. Every time Tsukiko retreats into herself, or looks at Utsumi, we see fishes and waves. And her mood impacts the way she envisions her environment (whales skeletons swimming near her when she feels down, an nocturnal abyss when she sleeps and dreams, a crashing wave materializing Utsumi’s difficult speech to her at the end of the volume, and so on). When Utsumi looks at Tsukiko, she sees castles, stars, the night and even a few bats. It is a very poetic way to represent the emotions and feelings that animate each of the two heroines, and it is beautifully translated into the drawings.

As the volume ends, Utsumi, although being quite a loquacious girl, gets to ask Tsukiko something that she’s never been able to say to anyone else before, leaving Tsukiko speechless, and the story to be continued in the next volume. (Volume 2 is available in Japanese or French.)

Ratings:

ART – 9 : this is brilliant from start to finish, and one can get lost in the amount of details on some pages

STORY – 8 : slow pacing, dream-like sequences, a few gags but still the story moves on correctly. The Sundays or The Cocteau Twins were my soundtrack for this reading session.

CHARACTERS – 7 : Outside of Tsukiko and Utsumi, the rest of the cast is rather non-existent for now.

SERVICE – 1 : a single pantie shot that could have been avoided, despite being logical in the context. Then there is Utsumi always swimming in a one piece swimsuit, but nothing is made to sexualize her.

YURI – 6 : this is so far a well done Class S story. The note reflect the fact that, to some, this may still not be Yuri enough.

OVERALL – 8

It is an unusual Yuri : although not said clearly, there are hints that at least one of the main character can be defined as asexual/aromantic, a rare representation within the genre. The story fills you with a soothing feeling, and the main protagonists are lovable enough to make you want to see more from them.

POST SCRIPTUM : On my first draft of this review, I had assumed that the character of Tsukiko Yano was an Asexual/Aromantinc lesbian, a rare representation in Yuri manga. However, confessing my own ignorance towards the Aro/Ace spectrum (as noted by A/A online contact Bee : “ Confusing a lack of romantic feels as just a general lack of feelings is a very common misconception so its honestly really understandable”) , I’ve asked some A/A people I was in contact with to read the manga and give me their own opinions. I was graced with the following interesting answer from Bee :

“Just the opening monologue makes me wonder if she’s a little bit on the autism spectrum […] Disinterest or disconnect from common things but random fixation on others […]  Yano has very questionable social skills – like she clearly enjoys the company of people she wants to spend time with, just doesn’t really pick up on social cues, seems to prefer personal space snd physical distance so I would learn more towards Autism or Aspergers than A/A”

This would make for an even rarer representation in Yuri. I’ll leave up to you, the reader, to make your own opinion about this very unusual character in a very unusual manga.

Erica here: Thank you Laurent for such an evocative review! I hope we can ask you to return for Volume 2.





Failed Princesses, Volume 3 & Volume 4

October 4th, 2021

In Volume 1, we met Fujishiro and Kurokawa, girls from completely difference circles in school. In Volume 2, they have started, slowly to figure out who they are to one another. Today we’re playing catch up with two more volumes of Failed Princesses, by Ajichi.

In Volume 3, Fujishiro faces pushback from the cool group, who has taken a huge hit to their prestige, and a school trip in which important things may not get said. The cool girls turn mean girls to punish Nanaki but…when their leader pushes it too far, she finds herself in hotseat. Nanaki has it out with her former friends and throws in with the nerdy girls, who are more than happy to have a fourth for the school trip. Hijinks and refusal to say what must be said means Nanaki and Kaede are split for rooms on this trip.

As Volume 4 opens, Nanaki and Kurokawa aren’t actually spending much time together, but they are on each other’s minds. Unbeknownst to them, this sows more unhappiness, as Izumi harbors feeling for Nanaki and Iroha thinks of Kurokawa as her savior.

As I said in my review of volume two, this story feels so much like what it is, a short story that has been extended. Every character has pent-up emotions about every other character in a way I find more than a little artificial.

BUT, Volume 4 does some things that redeem that. When Izumi confesses her feelings to Nanaki, they have something close to a conversation about gay people as I’ve seen in school life Yuri manga. Nanaki, of course, plays the part of the clueless straight girl. I actually laughed the translation of her speech as “The LGBTs, right?” Well-played, translator Angela Liu!

Service is pretty high here, as bathing suits and changing rooms and baths all take up too much space in the narrative. I will forever believe that these things add nothing of value to a manga like this.

While I feel no particular urgency about Nanaki and Kaede getting together, I do like that the nerdy girls are positioned as welcoming and friendly, as opposed to just another clique. In my personal experience this has been very true of nerdy girls, even back in school, when we all lined up together for Star Wars and Star Trek and went out for Heavy Metal and Rocky Horror midnight showings.

Ajiichi’s art has definitely improved in the last four volumes, expressions level up, really, in Volume 4 overall. The story is definitely being strung out…but, really, where’s the rush? We might as well just let the story play out as it  will.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 5
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

Many thanks to Seven Seas for the review copy of Volume 4! Another fine job. This is definitely a series for lovers of emotional school Yuri drama. ^_^

Volume 5 is slated for a late March 2022 release, so you have time to catch up!





Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, Volume 2

October 1st, 2021

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, Volume 2 continues to be one of my favorite Yuri manga series. It has almost everything I like in it, it’s thoughtfully fraught, fully adult, and packed with unpacking all the baggage we carry in an adult life. Most importantly, it contains powerful lessons for shedding that baggage and learning to relate to people as they, and we, are.

Here in Volume 2, Hinako is absolutely sure she has some kind of feeling when she’s with Asahi, but has no way to identify that feeling…because her entire life has been lying to herself about how she feels about things.

Asahi is on the cusp of letting go of the one thing she’s been clinging to instead of living her life and it terrifies her so much that she’s in almost complete denial.

These two are women like so many women I have met, who were trained to diminish themselves to the point of barely existing. Now that they are being given room to expand, they fear it. To Hinako’s credit, we can see that she’s pushing back a lifetime of normalization of a single, narrow path to happiness. One piece at a time, she’s throwing a stepping stone down, and tentatively letting her weight rest on it. It’s absolutely beautiful when she tells her woks friends for the first time what she’s thinking and they respond in pretty much the best possible way.

Asahi’s going to be a tougher nut to crack and it will take some external pressure that Hinako cannot provide. Two other characters will be the arms of that nutcracker, Asahi’s old friend Fuuka and, much more critically, her sister, Subaru. Subaru is a fantastic character…a very aware, very smart and very sensitive young woman, surrounded by what can only be seen as adults who are incapacitated emotionally. Subaru can see that Hinako is the fulcrum of the cracker and Asahi can only be squeezed just enough, before she shatters. Watch this space, is all I’ll say about that.

I love this story, I love the art, I love the characters and the writing ….and I love the care and attention Seven Seas is giving this story! Jenny McKeon’s translation is fantastic. There were a few turns of phrase that had me clapping my hands. Adaptation and editing kept it a tight and easy read. I continue to love the logo design by George Panella and lettering and retouch by Rina Mapa. This is the kind of book where all the details of localization fade into the back, but that’s exactly the point of good localization – it reads naturally, authentically. This team brings us another authentic manga reading experience.

This book is a guaranteed top 5 on my end of year lists and I hope Usui-sensei continues for many years. This is my moe – adults finding out who they are and what is important to them.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6 and climbing slowly
Service – 0

Overall – 10

I want to thank Seven Seas especially this time for offering me a review copy because this book has been particularly difficult to get a copy of in print. It was never really available at any book store or online, and is now so unavailable, Amazon isn’t even really saying “unavailable”, it’s saying “Give it up kid, you might want to just get it on Kindle.” I expect you all have heard about the supply line issues publishers are having. Well, this is affecting pretty much everything, from manga to appliances to food to clothes. My HVAC guy says he can’t get parts for air conditioning repairs. If you’re in the US, it’s not going to get better any time soon, but do consider calling your state and federal representatives to ask them what they plan on doing about it. ^_^;

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon is an outstanding and beautiful adult Yuri drama. Get it today from Seven Seas!