I really don’t have time to review anything today, since there’s only ten days to go to our “Yurisai” event. Days right now are long, with tasks for Yurisai, then updates on the Yuricon website (Yuri Hime S, Iono-sama Fanatics and Hayate x Blade Drama CD – all 2nd volumes – up on the Shop now!), then getting copies of Yuri Monogatari 5 out in the mail. So I busted my hump today to get everything done early, so I could sit down and relax with a “new” issue of Mist magazine. Then I thought, hey, why not tell you all about it?
Mist was a “Ladies Comics” manga magazine that ran in the mid-to-late 90s. “Ladies Comics” are often adult in nature, with a target audience of adult women. Mist was, basically, lesbian porn drawn by women, for an audience of (presumably straight) women.
The covers, as you can see above, almost inevitably featured Caucasian women who, to me at least, often look Russian. I’m guessing that these are just stock photos that were bought because they look exotic. And the “best friends” poses and early 80s clothing cracks me up.
The stories almost always star an apparently straight woman who is (even if she doesn’t realize it yet) not satisfied with her life. If she’s in a relationship or married to a man, she’s usually just unhappy. Not always, but often. A lesbian love affair usually makes her realize what she’s missing. Sometimes it ends in a happy threesome, but more often, she goes off to live a happy lesbian life.
The lesbian character is more ultrafemme than butch, but sometimes there’s a genuine butch lesbian. The lesbians are *usually* pretty normal and not pulp fiction melodramatic, but there’s a few classic exceptions. (But only one knife fight that I’ve ever read.)
Sometimes the lesbian couple marries a gay couple to shut the families up.
Sometimes, they fly off “to America.”
But sometimes, every once in a while, there’s a story that just about two women who love one another. And who have sex. (They all have sex. It’s a porn mag. Duh.) Not surprisingly, I like those stories best. Second best are the women who aren’t in relationships, but just are swept away by their new-found love.
In almost all cases, the story begins with a sex scene. Then we get the set-up for the story, or the flashback of how the couple met. Then the DRAMA, plus crisis dujour, then more sex. Then they make up and sex. It’s formulaic, but it works for me. ^_^
In an effort to let people enjoy this fine crap, my entire Mist collection, including the one I just got in the mail today, will be part of the Yuri Manga and Doujinshi Library at, you guessed it, our Yurisai event. This is pretty much the only time I plan on ever letting these books out of the house, so don’t miss your chance! (You’re only other option is to get a lunch invitation, and you know how picky I am about those.)
Some of the art in Mist is awesome, some of it is not. Most of the stories are silly, but you know, I like them anyway. They are silly in a sincere and appealing way. And let’s face it, bed talk is absurd, no matter what the language.
Now, I’m going to go read the story of the unhappy housewife and her completely unethical affair with her gynecologist (and her sudden discovery that she’s had a post-miscarriage memory loss, zOMG!)
Ratings:
Art – as bad as 4 and as good as 9, averaging at about 7 or 8, depending on the issue
Story – Silly, formulaic porn – 8
Characters – Naive straight women, worldly hypercompetent lesbians – 8
Yuri – 10, because most stories end with love.
Service – porn, duh – 10
Overall – 8
Other than the few really manipulative or unhappy stories, this is happy lesbian porn. I really like it.
