Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


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 A withdrawn and solitary girl, she spends her time between home and classroom, rebuking potential boyfriends and never trying to get along with the other schoolgirls.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!





Comic Yuri Hime October 2021 (コミック百合姫2021年10月号)

September 30th, 2021

Comic Yuri Hime October 2021 (コミック百合姫2021年10月号) brings us to the arc of I’m in Love With the Villainess that I was looking forward to most , but first…the crisis of  Hanna Ren’s cover story. And what a crisis it is! History has been changed. What will happen?

In “I’m in Love With the Villainess”- we are on the cusp of the school festival and the Academy Knights’ gender switch cafe and I’m really looking forward to seeing how everyone is drawn. In the meantime, Relaire gets to play the part of a scary monster. ^_^ His lisstle smiley face is ridiculously cute.

“Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!” finally digs into Sumika’s story and starts lobbing fastballs at her. Again, I look forward to where that leads us!

A kind of conflict has settled into “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau” that Himari can’t cute her way out of.

“Odoriba ni Skirt ga Naru” also finds our leads in a bit of crisis as they face their first competition, but they pull it together and perform, which was the point. I’m still rooting for them.

Kabocha’s got a short story, which was really nice to see.

Comic Yuri Hime is now back over 650 pages a few months in a row and looking healthier than ever, with returning series that have some longevity, new and proven creators, a bunch of series I like, some I don’t and serialized novels (I just really wish the type was larger. It is so exhausting to try and read them.)

Speaking of prose, the magazine has announced the 4th short story contest in conjunction with Pixiv and Hayakawa Publishing, so that’s pretty awesome, even if I haven’t had a free moment to read  the winners of the last two years. You can still find them all on Pixiv if you want to read them. They are – of course – in Japanese. The 2rd and 3rd contest winners are all full-text, if you want to give them a try. They are also collected into a print volume that can be purchased through Booth.pm for the 2nd and 3rd collections.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The November issue of Comic Yuri Hime is currently available on Japanese shelves. I can’t wait! For one thing, I want to know what happens when history changes on the cover story.





School Zone Girls, Volume 2, Guest Review by Christian LeBlanc

September 29th, 2021

Welcome to Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu! This makes a third guest review in a row and we have at least two more on the way! If you enjoy our guest reviews, I hope you will support the Okazu Patreon. Thanks to our Patrons, who make reviews like Luce’s review of Volume 1 of this series and Christian’s review of Volume 2 possible! Welcome back, Christian LeBlanc for today’s review. ^_^

So, let me admit something to you: Ningiyau’s second volume of School Zone Girls from Seven Seas has proven to be a very hard book for me to review, as I would often find myself re-reading the stories instead of trawling its pages for beats to describe and funny lines to quote. Flipping back and forth through its short, episodic chapters is like a ludic loop of dopamine hits.

With its ensemble cast of misfit high school girls and their cool-as-hell uniforms of black dress shirts and white ties, this manga feels a bit like if Azumanga Daioh went through an emo phase (at least stylistically), abandoned the 4-koma style, and leaned more towards slacker than absurdist humor. Chapters are three to eight pages long on average, and this brevity perfectly suits the lighter tones of this book full of lovable, surly idiots.

Tall, breezy, beautiful Yokoe Rei (as seen on the cover) is still disastrously crushing on her best friend since middle school, the short, perpetually-perturbed Sugiura Kei (last volume’s cover star). Their friend and classmate Negoro Yatsude is the connective tissue between most of the cast, since she’s also friends and classmates with Matsuri Fuji, and club senpai to Hinase Tsubaki, both of whom we’ll get to. Yatsude’s withering reactions of concern and/or annoyance over everyone and their bull$#!t make her the perfect foil for her friends’ eccentricities, bouts of despair, etc.

Hinase Tsubaki is a bit of a wallflower (a friend of a friend describes her as “a gloomy li’l reject loner girl”), although bright and cheerful Kaname Yamashiro keeps taking the initiative of being friends with her. Tsubaki’s twin, Hiragi, is a surly loner, and also has a bright, cheerful classmate (Utsugi Ren) she’s getting closer with. To be honest with you, it wasn’t until I got towards the end of this book that I realized these were four different people, instead of two (Volume 2, due to reasons, was my first time reading School Zone Girls). We do see some flashbacks in this volume, so I expect we’ll soon learn why Hiragi hates her twin Hinase so much (which may or may not be related to Hinase’s let’s-hope-the-author-just-drops-it sister complex, ugh).

Matsuri Fuji is new to the cast, and is first depicted playing a crane game with increasing fury; the prize (which she thinks looks stupid anyway) has twisted itself in her mind into some form of character growth, like a next stage of enlightenment she needs to attain. You’d be right to assume from this that she takes herself way too seriously; she speaks with a heightened dialect that only makes her look more awkward to the arcade employees, and tortures herself with inner dialogue spirals about honor, respect, doing good deeds for selfish reasons, etc.

Once arcade employee Kishiya admits to feeling embarrassed over something, she becomes an inadvertent mentor to Fuji, helping her realize that even adults can be imperfect – and that’s ok. It’s almost like the relationship between Miyako and Sayaka at the coffee shop in Bloom Into You, except, well, Miyako would never laugh her ass off if Sayaka freaked out and gave herself a nosebleed. (Or keep replaying the moment in her mind, laughing a little harder each time.) Incidentally, I hate to admit how much Fuji reminds me of myself at that age, and I have to wonder why I’m being called out in this manner.

Most of the time, our cast is just $#!tting around: hanging out at school, riding each other over who can’t wink with their eyes, watching TV during homework dates, falling down 3 flights of stairs into a bloody mess before admitting they need someone to walk them home because the ad for a scary movie messed them up, etc. Stakes are fairly low all around, in spite of how hard Rei freaks out whenever she interprets Kei’s gruffness as affection, or Fuji’s obsession with winning that stupid stuffed toy at the arcade.

As I said earlier, School Zone Girls eschews the 4-koma style, so the comedy has more room to breathe naturally. Chapters are exactly as long (or short) as they need to be, contributing to the natural rhythms and quick pacing. I think this makes the poignant 18-page It Was a Joke stand out that much more, increasing its dramatic impact. This tale sees present-day Rei narrating some flashback scenes from middle school that shed light on why her crush on Kei hasn’t gone any further than it has. I’ll admit, the slapstick and spit-takes up to this point had my guard down, so I wasn’t expecting to see such an affecting portrayal of why two girls would still be stuck in a “will they or won’t they?!” stasis required by the plot. And, I know I can be a bit of a soft touch for scenes like this, but I dare you to flip back to the first page of this chapter again after you’ve read it and not feel something for poor Rei.

This section actually struck me as realistic (as opposed to contrived for the plot), but I got hung up on whether or not that was for me to judge. I asked Erica for her opinion, and she reminded me that authenticity is individual, but to go with my gut; my gut simply told me not to speak for others on what is or isn’t authentic to them. And then I wondered if I wasn’t overthinking a book where someone got punched in the tit last issue. Such is the genius of School Zone Girls!

Ratings:

Art – 9 A good comedy needs expressive, inventive body language and exaggerated expressions, and this one has it. Clean lines, screen tones that expertly give depth to the page and guide the eye, and engaging character designs all contribute to this rating. Ningiyau is particularly skilled at rendering affectations of disdain.

Story – 7 There’s a lot of fun nothing happening, except when Ningiyau decides to hit us in the feels with some of those bittersweet drama times. And that’s fun too.

Characters – 7 The twins still confuse me, but there’s hints that we’re about to see their history soon. Rei is best girl and I want everything to work out for her.

Service – 2 One panel stands out as a little cheeky, but otherwise there’s a welcome lack of gaze.

Yuri – 6 The audience is meant to root for Rei and Kei to get together. I can see some relationships forming among other cast members, and others staying platonic, but everyone else is just friends at this point.

Overall – 9 There’s a fair bit of substance here, in spite of its plain title and covers. The humor is dumb but in a smart way, and it feels like there are hints of relationships and future story arcs sprinkled throughout.

Special commendations should be given to the translation/adaptation team of Avery Hutley and Jamal Joseph Jr. for translating a comedy that reads briskly, naturally, and lands all the jokes and interactions, along with slang that sounds fresh, natural and unforced. Aidan Clarke’s lettering helps convey all the different beats as well – font types and sizes change when they need to, and sound effects do a great job matching the varying ways the original kana are written.

Erica here: Thank you so much, Christian! You and Luce have convinced me to read this comic! As we mentioned last time, Volume 3 is on the way in November, as well.