Yuri Manga: Kiseki Goten

April 20th, 2008

Imagine if there was a place for women to go, where there were beautiful women to cater to their needs, to help them relax, cast off their world-weariness and find themselves in an aura of refined luxury and sensuality.

Welcome to the Miracle Palace. ^_^

Kiseki Goten by Wako was, like Reijin na Hito, a collection made of stories by a Mist magazine artist, the lesbian-themed Ladies Comic magazine of the late 1990s.

Our first miracle involves Wakana, who is unable to face her unfulfilling relationship with her boyfriend. She meets Mari at the station and together they arrive by taxi at the Kiseki Goten. Once there, Mari throws herself into the pleasures that the Palace has waiting for them, but Wakana is uneasy with the open sexuality of the women there. It’s not until the Palace’s owner, Ryouko, assigns her top Servant Girl (SG for short), Shizuya, that Wakana will even talk to anyone. Shizuya takes Wakana to bed, shows her ecstasy for the night and gives her advice about her relationship. When Mari meets Wakana again on the way back to the town, she comments that Wakana seems like a new person. Wakana realizes that the world is a beautiful place as long as you can face it head on and, she heads home, looking forward to a bright future.

Miracle two begins with the appearance of an old man at the entrance to the Kiseki Goten. When he’s told that men are not allowed there, he takes off his hat, wig and whiskers to reveal that he’s really famous model Saikawa Mizuki, returning after a year to visit her old girlfriend Reika, an employee at the Kiseki Goten. Although Mizuki has been paired in the press with a popular male singer, she longs to be reuinted with Reika, who is now the Goten’s most popular performer. They reunite, but in the middle of making love, Reika starts to cry – she’s seen the news reports of Mizuki’s entanglement with the singer…and a year is a long time to be apart. Reika runs back to her room. Sitting by herself, Mizuki is visited by the owner, who explains that Reika’s heart is breaking at the reports of Mizuki’s success, even though she, Ryouko, knows that the male singer is gay. Mizuki apologizes to Reika and promises to never leave her again. They are seen off with flowers by the staff, as they head off to a life together, forever. The note in the flowers promises dire retribution from Ryouko, if Mizuki ever makes Reika sad again.

In Miracle three, we meet Haruka and Mutsumi, both single mothers, who take a night off together and end up at the club at Kiseki Goten, dancing. Mutsumi is outed by the recognition of owner Ryouko. Haruka can’t help but notice Mutsumi’s interest in her, and eventually admits that she’s interested too and has been since they first met. The two spend the night together and find love and caring for years to come in each other’s arms.

In the final Miracle, Kobato meets the owner of the Goten at an art exhibit. With no particular plans for the future, she joins the staff as an SG, but finds it hard on her emotions, when she comes to care for her clients more than they do for her. Ryouko takes Kobato to bed, and explains that love, and sex, come in many forms, and that she can find happiness in her own life. Kobato regains her balance and continues her career at the Kiseki Goten with enthusiasm.

The last page of the manga finds us being welcomed with open arms by the staff of Kiseki Goten.

This is followed by an art gallery of some of Wako’s splash art for her Mist stories, and finally by paper dolls of the Kiseki Goten staff.

All in all, a wonderful woman-loving-woman interlude, and sweet stories of lesbian sex saving the day. And really, isn’t that we all are looking for in Yuri manga? Well, I know *I* am, anyway. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Stories – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 10
Service – 5 (yes, lots of naked women, but all adult, all consenting and no peeping or other creeper qualities.)

Overall – 9

Why *isn’t* there a Kiseki Goten? It sounds like a great vacation to me. ^_^

Thanks to everyone for your congratulations, your support and your enthusiasm – this 1000th post is dedicated to everyone who makes Okazu a success; readers, reviewers and Yuri fans everywhere!

(And no, I haven’t forgotten the contests. I’ll be announcing winners this week!)

Posted in Classic Yuri, Yuri Manga | 9 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Hayate x Blade, Volume 8

April 19th, 2008

Lots of *amazing* stuff happens in Volume 8 of Hayate x Blade, so let’s deal with the most important thing first….the “Best Shinyuu Poll” that ran in Dengeki Daioh! ^_^

Number one by a hefty margin: Jun and Yuho. Yes, the lesbian tops the list. But of course.

Number two is: Akira and Sae. So, erm, the butchy boi comes in second…

Number three is, let’s see: Hitsugi and Shizuku…I think I see a pattern here.

Hayate and Ayana come in 4th, Michi and Kiji in 5th. In case you care.

Okay, so on to the story which, despite the fact that this volume mostly takes place over winter holiday, is chock full of action and surprise.

The big exhibition fight between Sid and Nancy and Akira and Sae ends in drama. Akira has won, but she’s taken a beating. When she challenges Hitsugi to a duel, the President declines, but Sae ends the conversation by poking Akira in her broken rib and bringing her to the ground in pain.

A bunch of the first-years are staying at the school over the holidays, so to have a little fun with them, Hitsugi decides that they will clean up in the catacombs below the school. (There are tunnels below the school? Just go with it.) They encounter all sorts of amusing obstacles – ghosts, skeletons, a rampaging bull…and someone who looks awfully like Hayate, only it’s not. Yes, Hayate’s twin sister Nagi has arrived, and she looks like trouble.

Meanwhile, Jun checks in with Yukari, Akira tries to recover from her broken rib and, Ayana learns the truth about what happened that fateful day when she went beserk against Ensuu and injured Yukari. And it’s not at all what she thought.

Both Ayana and Hayate find renewed energy and determination to be the best at Hoshitori and start training like lunatics. When Akira offers to one-on-one with Ayana, Hitsugi smells some fun and makes it a battle for a hot steamy sweet potato. (This is a LOT funnier than I’m making it sound. It was actually freaking hysterical.)

The final chapter is the “behind the scenes” look at the making of the second Hayate x Blade Drama CD, full of the usual chaos.

I think that the best thing about this book is Hitsugi cracking herself up. Every time she’s face down into a pillow trying to not laugh out loud, or seeing the sweet potato fire and telling Shizuku that “it’s a signal fire, calling for me'” it completely slays me. ^_^

With the English release of Hayate x Blade just around the corner this summer, it’s good to know that more silly violence than ever before awaits us.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 3

Overall – 9

As I said last volume – the art is really getting better and better, and the story is still going at full steam. Without a doubt, one of my favorite manga of all time.

So – tomorrow will be post 1000. I wonder what I’ll post about? ^_^

 

Posted in Hayashiya Shizuru, Hayate x Blade, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Yuri News This Week

April 19th, 2008

A few people have sent in the news that J-Drama Last Friends has a Yuri couple, but I think I’m the first to comment that they are named Michiru and Ruka – and that Ruka rides motocross. Hmm….sounds so familiar somehow…

Seriously, I was watching the first episode and started to laugh. We never got the Outer Senshi in the Live-Action Sailor Moon, but if you don’t mind a totally fanfic-y setup where Michiru is in an abusive relationship and Haruka’s lost part of her name, then you ought to be happy with this show. The opening credits make it plain that this will not be a happy story for anyone – but so far there has been one straight kiss that looked like the people actually enjoyed touching each other – never seen that before! – and at the end Ruka kisses a sleeping Michiru. Two firsts for Japanese TV, surely.

While we’re talking live-action, the ironically named Water Lilies was nominated for an award at Cannes. This story is perfect for the live-action moe fan, a coming-of-age and hopping-into-one-another’s-bed story about three girls. (The original title Naissance des pieuvres means “Birth of Octopuses”, but somehow I think the English title is more…fitting. Wonder why that is? lol)

And Lightnovel.org has announced the first few of Ichinjinsha’s “Girls’ Novels” line. Just to be clear – I do not believe that these are “girls love” novels, just that these are the first in their imprint “for girls.” Of these Loveless is the only one I’m familiar with and we can only hope that it will include Kouya and Yamato’s arc. If anyone knows any of these titles are specifically GL, do let us know! (I’ll take a look at the report in Yuri Hime when I get a chance to order it and report back, otherwise.)

Every week I think “what on earth am I going to write about this week…” and every week, somehow, we have a bunch of news. Cool, huh?

Posted in Yuri Network News | 5 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Mermaid Line

April 18th, 2008

In the face of the continuing moe-fication of the manga world in general, and the Yuri world in particular, it’s nice to know that there are a few men who can buck the trend. Like Kishi Torajirou’s Mars no Kiss, Kindaichi Renjurou’s Mermaid Line is a Josei-style book by a male author.

Mermaid Line is a collection of stories that ran in Yuri Hime magazine. They are collected together as short mini-series, done in an episodic, almost soap-opera-y way.

In “Megumi and Aoi ” Megumi confesses to her friend Aoi that, despite her ungainly swimming, she feels as if she is a mermaid. Aoi finds herself fantasizing about being the prince to Megumi’s mermaid, but Megumi runs to the arms of a boy, trying to put a beard on her feelings. Aoi is turned into the class target, but Megumi realizes that she’s made a bad decision and once more approaches Aoi. Eventually, they go out and, over cake, come to agreement that it’s not male or female that’s important, but that you like someone.

Ayumi, in “Ayumi and Aika,” wants to get married to her boyfriend so naturally, she’s shocked when he tells her that he wants to become a woman. She learns to cope with this and reconnect to him as a friend, but when he comes back into her life, as gay bar hostess Aika, friendless and homeless, Ayumi rethinks everything. It’s not marriage, but Ayumi’s pretty confident she can love Aika as a woman.

“Yukari and Mayuko” are both OLs. Mayuko’s between boyfriends and bored, so she asks Yukari to pretend to be her girlfriend. It works out well, until Yukari realizes that her feelings for Mayuko are more than just pretend. When Mayuko gets a new boyfriend, Yukari lets her go, but there’s no happy end for her.

And finally, in “Miura-san and Me” Okabe loves Miura’s beautiful hair. When Miura-san cuts it all off, Okabe learns to love her for herself.

Overall, the stories deal with feelings that are more complex than just “I like her.” There’s a sense of the characters being realer and deeper than the normal “Story A”types. There is angst and there’s bullying, and being outcast, but there’s also acceptance and growth and of course, love.

While none of these narratives are breath-taking, “Ayumi and Aika” stands out as the best of the bunch. By far and away, the strongest of the series in this book. I liked this series the first time around and it’s just as nice this time. Where something like Kashimashi plays the gender change card as a handwave you just need to go with, this miniseries looks at it with a light hand, a humorous touch and a sensitive heart.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 1

Overall – 7

The tagline on the obi says, “Love doesn’t come in only one form” which I think it a fitting, and pretty, summation for this book.

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Karakuri Odette Manga, Volume 4

April 17th, 2008

It’s always a pleasure to find a new series to read. It’s especially a pleasure when both my wife and I find something in common to enjoy. So, when it turned out that the author of one of her pretty demon boy series turned out to also be doing a series about a robot girl, we agreed to try it.

Karakuri Odette by Suzuki Julietta, is indeed about a robot girl, Odette. (That’s Odette looking decidedly Utena-esque on the left of the cover.) Her guardian and inventor, Professor Yoshizawa, created her in the image of a high school girl and Odette is taking her role very seriously. In the beginning of the series, when she realizes that there are differences between her and the girls she saw going to school, she tells the Professor that she would also like to go to school. So, she does. And little by little, she closes the gap between her and the human girls around her.

Odette’s a good kid. She’s thoughtful and kind and wants to be a good human, so she throws herself into things like school and making friends and learning to eat with zeal, surprising, but not displeasing, the Professor. When a second robot, Chris, shows up to kill the Professor, Odette befriends him and ultimately, he’s adopted into the Yoshizawa household.

Crises in Odette can be just about *anything.* From wanting to understand “flavor,” to android assassins, to staying over a friend’s house for the night – the chapters run the gamut from sweet to freakish with nary a breath between.

In Volume 4, Odette is sent to the house of spoiled, creepy Ringosaka Shirayuki. And true to her name, Odette plays the prince to this Snow White, waking her from a lifetime sleep of loneliness and unhappiness. The entire volume follows Shirayuki as she is awakened by her prince (sadly not with a kiss) and as she changes her whole life to be closer to Odette. It’s not quite Yuri, but it’s sort of on the edgier side of akogare and friendship. Shirayuki has to learn to share Odette and play well with others. The end of the volume sees the two of them hand in hand as they walk off to face tomorrow.

There’s really nothing to dislike in Karakuri Odette. The character is charming in her sincerity; her relationship to the Professor never fails to make me smile. “Professor! I want to go to school.” “Whah? Okay.” “Professor! I want to be able to eat.” “Why? All right.” “Professor! I want a cell phone.” “No.” His reactions are very much those of a parent of a teenaged girl. ^_^

The human drama is spliced into silly android drama, so that any chapter might be about “what is love” or escaping from people trying to kidnap Chris, by shopping for sneakers. Because it is a “high-school romance” shoujo story, there are several rivals for Odette’s affection. Yukimura, the first-year boy who has no idea she’s a robot, Chris the other robot, who does, and Shirayuki, who also does. And then there’s Odette’s sempai Asao. He’s a “bad,” but sensitive type, who is blunt with her about important things, but is very protective of her. One of the best things about the story is that there isn’t that “He’s mean to me because he loves me” dynamic that rules so much of shoujo manga.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 7

So, while mild on the Yuri side, I have to say that I’m quite enjoying having a new shoujo manga series to follow (the first one since Marimite!) and, as an added bonus, I can share it with the wife. ^_^

Posted in English Manga | 2 Comments »