Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution

November 20th, 2020

Tenjou Utena was a girl who wanted to become a prince. She actually did rescue a princess…and became the power to revolutionize the world. But at what cost?

20 years have gone by and the members of the student council are still trapped in their own drama. The girl who gained the power to change everything had left them behind to find their own way out. Being mere humans, not princes, they had failed to do take the steps they needed to be free. If this sounds like a fanfic, well, it pretty much is. Like so many fanfic it begins with Touga, Saionji, Juri and Miki still caught up in the same dysfunctional relationships that bound them at Ohtori. 

In Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution, co-creator of Revolutionary Girl Utena Chiho Saito, revisits the Student Council members. Touga and Saionji are finally allowed to cast off the lingering ghost of  the Chairman of Ohtori, and find the camaraderie with each other that had been twisted into a toxic rivalry. Juri discovers in herself a more honest reason to keep fighting and is able to let go of of regret and failure. Miki is finally able to have an honest discussion with Kozue about their relationship.

Viz Media’s reproduction of this 20th anniversary manga is so excellent, I’m almost sorry that they didn’t give it a hardcover edition to match the box set of the original manga. Adrienne Beck’s translation kept the voices we already knew so well. Sara Linsley went out of her way to do an award-worthy lettering job. She’s detailed how she hand-drew the sound effects to match the Japanese volume on Twitter. Designer Alice Lewis did a terrific job and I know that Nancy Thistlethwaite as editor gave it the most loving treatment possible. It looks terrific. Great job folks.

Like so many fanfic, this manga is excellent, right up to the point where it fails to do the last thing it needed to do. Because, as she says in the afterword, Saito-sensei was unwilling to allow Utena to grow up…indeed, she youthens her for this story, Utena and Anthy’s reunion is not of this world, but very much in a world that only the two of them occupy. I had read the chapters as they came out in Flowers hoping desperately that we’d get to see Utena and Anthy together in the “real” world. It’s wholly understandable why this was the path chosen…it’s just not the one I wanted. ^_^ OTOH, Juri is still with Shiori and Utena and Anthy do find each other again, so that’s something. Depending on what your fandom of Utena is rooted in, your mileage will vary. For me, this was a beautiful, but ever-so-slightly unsatisfying story.

Ratings:

Art – 9 I have repeatedly mentioned that Saitou-sensei’s art is amazing.
Story – 8 One point off for not giving Utena and Anthy the time and page count lavished on the student council
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 3 Naked Anthy is still a thing.

Overall – 9

I guess I’ll just have to stick with my own Utena fanfic for now, since Saito-sensei and I don’t share a vision. If it were up to me Kozue and Shiori* would not have been given so much real estate. ^_^

* I don’t dislike Shiori….I just don’t like Juri and Shiori together. Juri deserves someone better.





Amongst Us, by Shilin

November 18th, 2020

Shilin is an artist I have been following for many years. I began reading her epic fantasy Carciphona a decade ago. I was delighted to have picked up a couple of her art books at TCAF; I have reviewed Toccata II here on Okazu.

Last year, Shilin ran a Kickstarter for a collected volume of the alt-universe versions of her Carciphona protagonist Veloce, and antagonist, Blackbird.. I jumped right on that, because the story is fun, but what keeps me coming back is Shilin’s gorgeous artwork.

In Carciphona, Veloce is a deeply emotionally wounded sorceress, a woman who has been used and abandoned by her society and family. Pulling the strings to get Veloce to join her is Blackbird, who is a spirit who does not much care for humankind and thinks Veloce ought not to either…and she has a legitimate case. But Veloce has been befriended by some humans who believe in her and she’s fighting with them to protect humanity, even if the humans don’t appear to appreciate that music at all. The magic in this world revolves around music, which makes for some really lovely “battles.”

Amongst Us is a fun fanfic of an intense series and makes a physically beautiful “real-world” counterpart to the dramatic Carciphona. It’s also a lot of fun to see a creator playing around with her characters in a completely different oeuvre. You don’t need to have read Carciphona to appreciate this alt-version, which is an added bonus. In this alternate reality Veloce is a cellist with a tendency towards the melancholy (appropriate for cellists, I always think) and Blackbird is her flightier conductor girlfriend. It’s presented as a goofy slice-of life comic with very little real conflict, however Veloce and Blackbird are at each others’ throats constantly, which is perfectly natural for them. ^_^ 

You can enjoy the Amongst Us on Webtoons. The comic has been adapted for reading in book format, which is always more work, but gives the pages an appealing look.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – A goofy 8
Characters – 8 Divorced from their origins, they still seem pretty intense. ^_^
Service – 0 That postcard of Veloce in an evening dress was smokin’. But no, not really.
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

Another simply gorgeous work by Shilin. This is now available on Shilin’s shop, thanks Sylvie for the link!





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17 (ムルシエラゴ)

November 17th, 2020

As a series, Yoshimuraka’s MURCIÉLAGO has had, shall we say, a plethora of service for fans who like their pleasures low. Obscenely well-endowed women occasionally engaged in unrealistic lesbian sex and extreme violence with an eye to the grotesque and horrible. This is not a series I ever “recommend.” I simply acknowledge that I find it entertaining, and everything else is left up to individual tastes.

We’ve sat through any number of totally not-at-all-okay versions of violence, most of which has been directed at totally not-okay victims with some mostly unnamed collateral damage. Children and adults in this world are all likely to be broken and mangled emotionally. And there is a lot of sexual implication, and sometimes actual sex, all of it between consenting partners…which is pretty much the only thing that is not creeptastic here.

Now here we are, at MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17 (ムルシエラゴ) and we’ve been given a new way to be made wholly uncomfortable. Because now we have a killer who is visibly sexually excited when he commits acts of violence with a fencing saber. Whee. Just what I definitely really never needed. ^_^ To counter this new craven service, we have a new hero…a member of Chiyo’s family organization, Senpachi, who decides that its his goal to keep Chiyoko safe by getting rid of this dude.

While we’re focusing on Chiyo-chan, our bonus chapter this volume is some less-terrible lesbian sex, in which Chiyo gets to see heaven in between Kuroko’s legs. So there’s a thing I can leave you to think about. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Because it’s gotten better, it’s actually messier than usual. More detail, means more gore.
Story – Yeah…no
Characters – Senpachi’s cool, emotionless old Yakyuza guys are boring.
Service – We are literally staring at this guy’s crotch constantly and it’s not serving me, I’ll tell you that.  (-_ -)
Yuri – Not-ugly lesbian sex, so that’s a win.

Overall – ?

I don’t even know how I could possibly score this. It is a thing I am reading. ^_^





Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau, Volume 3 (ささやくように恋を唄う)

November 16th, 2020

It’s not like Takeshima Eku’s high school love story is groundbreaking. It’s not that it’s game-changing. It’s just that this story is so pleasant and full of such pleasant characters, that it’s a joy to read.

Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau, Volume 3 (ささやくように恋を唄う) finds us (pleasantly) back at the beginning of the story where we started. Yori is helping out the SSGirls band for a performance once again and, this time, she’s even gone so far as to write a song – a love song, no less.

Himari, who was moved deeply by seeing Yori-sempai on stage that day, is ready now to give her an answer.

When the music starts, any lingering doubts are dispelled by the notes of the guitar and the beat of the drums. Himari wants to call what she feels “love.” So she answers Yori, at last -yes, she “likes” her and yes, she would really like to go out with her. The situation may be similar as the opening of the story, but neither Yori nor Himari are the same person they were when they met. Now they really have a chance to be happy together, because they are happy with their selves.

In the final pages, a rival band pops up, so we may actually have a bit of a story after the story and wouldn’t that be even more pleasant!

I really like Takeshima Eku’s art, and the writing and, honestly, all the characters. Even when we’re playing dress-up with Yori and Himari, there’s a noticable absence of creeper gaze. We never have to look around whatever has been shoved into our face to see the story, the emotions or the characters.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8 There isn’t really a “story.” It’s pleasant.
Characters – 9
Service – 10000 where the “service” is two girls who are having a great time as they learn to love one another
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

I’m delighted that you all can read this series and enjoy it with me. Whisper Me a Love Song, Volume 1 is out now from Kodansha!





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 14

November 13th, 2020

In Volume 14 of MURCIÉLAGO, we find ourselves revisiting a cast of characters that, perhaps, we had assumed we’d left far behind. Sensibly so, since the last time we saw Rose Marie was hanging from a basement ceiling with a meat hook through her chest. But when Narumi turns up and so do corpses with bites taken out of their necks, we get to see what became of the leader of the Virginal Rose and she’s not looking any better. Grafted literally onto her demonic sibling Rose Marie, they are reduced to haunting the sewers and finding victims to feed their lust for blood.

Of course Kuroko and Urara handle the problem with not much more than the usual difficulty. Narumi recognizes another Virginal Rose alumna, Carina, who is pivotal in the final battle. Narumi, formerly Teresa, is able to thank Gold Marie for having saved her, before she dies.

While this is happening, Hinako and Chiyo-chan are visiting the pool, beating up random folks and For our purposes, Chiyo spends a moment fantasizing about marrying  Kuroko, as unrealistic as that seems. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 On repeat: In so far as it is conveying horrific violence, I think it’s getting better.
Story – 8 Creepier than usual, which is saying a lot
Characters – 8
Service – 5 less than usual, skimpy bathing costumes
Yuri – 4 Chiyo is the Yuri carrier drug here, and I’m okay with it

Overall – 8

There’s not much one can say about a series that is basically thin plots wrapped around creative ways to kill people.