Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Watashi no Oshi ha Akujyaku Reijou., Volume 2 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

July 21st, 2021

Watashi no Oshi ha Akujyaku Reijou., Volume 2 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) gets into the first of my two favorite arcs in the first WataOshi novel – Rae and Claire are recruited to the Academy Knights.  One-on-one magic battles! Whee! I absolutely love this arc and the school festival (for obvious reasons when we get there.)

The tryouts for the Academy Knights are pretty much a forgone conclusion – at least two of the three Princes are a shoo-in, Claire, Misha and Rae are competing for the other positions with, sorry to be cold, but clearly its Thane.

But first Rae finds herself examining her own sexuality for real, out loud, at lunch with Claire, Misha and Lene. And when I say “for the first time,” I mean for the first time in both lives. By her own admission, Rae had fallen in love with women, but also mostly unobtainable women, women who did not return her feelings. Rae can see that her interest in Claire is true to her usual pattern, then. Of course we know that that will change, but at the moment, Rae has no idea.

When the students help with taking out magical monsters, Thane and Claire team up to beat a massive slime, but it doesn’t boost Thane’s confidence. It does bring Relaire into our household, so we have a brand new adorable slime monster of our very own.

Then, at last, we get the beginning of the Academy Knights battles! And…the volume comes to a close. Argh! So much good stuff, but we’re still a few chapters off from Rae and Claire facing off. /pouty face/

The art in this volume has settled in nicely and Aonoshita-sesnei’s art is super on point. We already know we love the story…and this volume has the eye-opening discussion about being a sexual minority that sets a tone for the rest of the series. Rae is openly lesbian, and she will stand at the top of a veritable army of queer characters by the time this story is done.

On a different topic, I bought this book from Melonbooks online, for the single reason that if I did, I got a color insert and a bonus comic. Here’s the insert I chose, tell me if you can guess why I picked it. ^_^

Overall, a very strong volume of a series that I fully expect to have nothing but very strong volumes for the forseeable future.

I believe I did not review the Japanese edition of Volume 1 as (due to the delay of material in the Suez Canal,) my volume arrived almost simultaneously with Volume 1 in English.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Service –  1Very little for this series
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

I cannot wait to see the battle between Rae and Claire – and their cafe at the festival. ^_^





Comic Yuri Hime July 2021 (コミック百合姫2021年7月号)

July 18th, 2021

And here we are at Comic Yuri Hime July 2021 (コミック百合姫2021年7月号). ^_^ Let’s start with the fantastic stuff I definitely want to mention.

Usui Shio’s “Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts” comes to key moment – and so does “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkonshitemita.” Both are ongoing and I find both stories absolutely delightful for different reasons. I would take a magazine full of this kind of story – adult women with more than one layer of existence or relationship. Usui-sensei’s art and story telling gets a 100% from me.

“Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!” by Miman, is doing something I both wanted and kind of feared! Sumika is starting to find herself interested in Kanako…who only has eyes for Hime. Hrm…I’m super interested in where this goes.

Takashima Eku’s “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Uta” continues to be a pleasant read, even if the new characters feel a little tsun for the sake of having a tsun character. I hope she’s actually driven by desire to succeed and not just a type.

And, in very exciting news, Comic Yuri Hime announces that Inui Ayu’s autobiographical comic column about her life with her girlfriend is returning with more pages and will be collected into volumes! I’m absolutely thrilled at that news.

Now, if only we can get some decent sports and action series in this magazine. Which beings me to…

 

Last month I promised to ridicule semelparous, so let’s get that over with. The premise of this manga appears to be “Attack on Titan, but less fun, less coherent and make all the women’s bodies as insulting as possible.” Ogino Jun has absolutely complied with this: This art is bad.

These poses are infantile and absurd. Tits are not balloons, they don’t just flap about with no reason, even out of a bra.

Of course, when the guy shows up…he’s hardbodied and bizarrely, his dick isn’t wangling around in a loose sheath, it’s packed neatly and invisibly away behind what any sensible human might presume to be protection.

Of course he is. What man would draw a penis sock, leaving that specific body part unprotected? None. Even Dick Fight Island give the penises big masculine energy. (If you haven’t seen Dick Fight Island, you should really, it’s quite amazing for a lot of reasons. As a pure act of sexualizing men’s bodies for a female audience, it’s fantastic. I mean, it’s hilarious and wack, but so gleefully over the top that it’s not insulting, just amazing. I wish we could get something that’s fun and wack and amazing here.

 

Instead, for women, we get camel toe and…this…thing…which actually made me laugh out loud. I won’t even bother explaining why. Either you understand how impossible this is or you have never once met an actual human woman.

 

It’s not just that these pictures are terrible art, with no grasp at all of anatomy, it’s that they are illustrations for a story which has no plot other than the torture and dismemberment of women…in a Yuri manga magazine, which one might believe to be at least nominally for and about women. This story could have been a fantastic science fiction action story about women. Instead, it is quite literally the most boring thing I have seen in years. There’s no joy, no humor, no delight even in the badness – which I absolutely could have gotten behind. I LOVE things that glory in their crappiness. Give me Tit Fight Island, sure, but – and this is important – make sure that it’s fun. This isn’t fun. It’s just…ridiculous.

This is the last time I’ll be mentioning this series here. It’s been licensed by Seven Seas, and it won’t be going on the Yuricon Store, but if you like it, bless. This seems obvious to me, but I’ll say it anyway, the comments are open to cogent, intelligent disagreement, but grunting-of-animals-type comments need not apply. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

 

With only a few exceptions, an excellent volume and now I’m going to go over to the Comic Yuri Hime questionnaire and tell them to give us manga that celebrates women’s lives, achievements, emotions and bodies. And sports. ^_^





Luminous= Blue, Volume 2 (ルミナス=ブルー )

July 15th, 2021

In Volume 1, we met Tarumizu Kou, a young lady with a talent for photography and her muses, best friends Amane and Nene.Kou’s photography brings out the best in all three young women.

In Volume 2 of Luminous= Blue, Volume 2 (ルミナス=ブルー ), emotions are running high. Kou is trying to take a photo that will win her a photography competition. The club president is competing with her, but seems less-than motivated.

Nene having confided in the previous volume that her sideline as an amateur model has brought her fame, is still holding something back. Finally, having shared her pain with Kou, Nene asks Kou to go out with her. This leaves Amane behind, and she’s hurting at having her two best friend leaving her alone. The president of the photography club uses Amane’s  loneliness to try to recapture her own passion for photgraphy…but the only art she finds is in Amane’s sadness.

But it’s Kou, who is always gazing through a  camera lens who can see the truth. She finally confronts Nene about her true feelings. Nene shares the whole story with Kou, about how Amane broke her heart by wanting to become a model…even when she knew Nene hated it so much. Kou refuses to back down – she can see what Nene will not say, that Nene is in love with Amane.

Kou chooses her photo for the upcoming competition carefully. And when it wins, she is able to make Nene and Amane see their truest selves. As Kou prepares to leave them together, Nene insists she’s also in love with Kou.  Amane suggests the three of them date and, as the volume and the story, ends, I found myself thinking that this might actually work…for a little while, at least. ^_^

This volume was published in 2019, but you may remember that the first volume had sold out…and the second volume ended up stuck in the Suez Canal. Here I am,  a few months shy of two years later, finally getting a chance to review this even as a new series by this creator begins this month in Comic Yuri Hime.

Iwaki Kyouko’s art is very lovely, but has a fair amount of fan service, which I find somewhat disconcerting. It’s hard for me to relax into the story, as I am endlessly looking at clothing and bodies with a gaze I do not choose. At the same time, there’s a beauty to it, which makes it hard to look away. In that sense, Iwami-sensei’s art is quite compelling, which is the point of art. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Character – 8
Story – 8
Service – 4 Much of the art is meant to be erotic, some of it is clearly salacious.
Yuri – 6

Overall – 8

So, was it worth the wait? Yes, it totally was. The story held up…and so did the ending. I found myself rooting that the three of them got to spend at least some of their youthful years together. ^_^





A Witch’s Love at the End of the World, Volume 3

July 9th, 2021

At the end of Volume 2, Mari and Alice found themselves in the “real world” only something has gone wrong with the timeline and nothing Mari remembers is true.

Here in A Witch’s Love at the End of the World, Volume 3, the real mover of the story is revealed. This, it turns out, is a story that transcends time. Of course, Mari isn’t particularly interested in the whys and wherefores…she’s only concerned with Alice. Alice, who is suffering from loss of power, due to her feelings  for Mari.

We learn the whole story at last. And then we turn to watch Mari rewrite the entirety of history – which was worth it. Mari changes the world so that she and Alice might live in a timeline together without the hatred between humans and witches and, frankly, everyone can go hang.

KUJIRA’s art is solid throughout, and the story, while not earth-shakingly unique, was honestly pretty well put together. If it has a fault at all, its a bit of oversentimentality, but I wouldn’t not recommend it on that account.

If you’re looking for a little magic in your school girl Yuri, this series is available now from Yen Press!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 5

Overall – 7





Mi-chan to Airi, Volumes 1 & 2 (みーちゃんとアイリ）

July 8th, 2021

Midori is a taciturn woman, a loner. She’s got a job that she doesn’t mind much and a place to live. But, if she were honest, she doesn’t have much of a life.She’s not in the habit of taking risks. So, when one night she’s heading home and comes across a girl sleeping in a garbage bag pile, she has no idea what possesses her. Midori ends up taking the girl – Airi – home.

As Mii-chan to Airi, Volumes 1 & Volume 2 (みーちゃんとアイリcontinue, it becomes obvious that what possessed her was, in actual fact, magic. Airi is a girl from a magical dimension. Her magic brings color and sparkle into Midori’s life and before she knows it, she likes having the other woman around.

And that’s all well and fine, but Airi isn’t able to stay, she says. Her family situation is complicated and she has to go. Only now Midori knows what she wants out of life…and that something is Airi.  She follows Airi to her family’s dimension and puts her life on the line for what is important to her.

Even after Airi’s grandmother puts a condition on them, threatening to take Airi’s magic, Midori doesn’t back down.  Midori and Airi promise to take care of each other and a kiss seals their promise…and returns Airi’s magic! They return to Midori’s apartment where Midori realizes that now she has something she’s never had before…friends and family and love. Airi’s magic has changed her world.

I didn’t review volume 1 of this series, because I was genuinely unsure if it would actually be a Yuri manga in the end, but as unfocused and goofy as Volume 1 was, Volume 2 found its footing and moved story and characters to an enjoyable end.

The art is messy at best and the story gets lost in it’s own silliness sometimes, but for a light fluffy cotton-candy Yuri, you could do far worse.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 2 A bit here and there.
Yuri – 9

Overall – 7

You can also grab a copy of Volume 1 and Volume 2 on Bookwalker if you don’t feel like shipping paper across the planet. ^_^