Blogs Bloggar
RSS Subjects
Submit Blog Edit Blog How it Works
RSS Subjects — Blogs about "Manga"

Manga

Yuri Manga: Green
2012-02-01 03:07:00
In my review of Otomo Megane's Himitsu, I commented that the artist has about three characters types. In Otomo Megane's Green, the three character types are solidified into three characters, who sort of retell a lot of the Himitsu vignettes, only they are all connected in a more intrinsic way. Tsugumi is a rather serious young lady, who falls in love with straightfoward Megumi. Megumi falls in love back back but, at first only because Tsugumi looks like her older sister, Megu's teacher from Middle school. The story here is a love triangle, because Tsumugi's sister did indeed have an affair with Megumi, and Megu's not really over it, yet. There's a bit where Megu and Tsugumi are having some communications issues, but they work it out. The epilogue shows the two of them older, more comfortable with themselves, living together in Tokyo as a couple. Nothing here is new or unique. The vignettes from Green feel very much like corresponding vignettes from Himitsu, which gave me a...
Yuri Manga: Houkago Kanon (??????) and a Contest!
2012-01-31 02:47:00
Houkago Kanon (??????) is a collection of stories by Mikuni Hachime, drawn in her signature Ribon magazine-gone-bad style. Several of the stories have been captured from the Yuri Hime Wildrose and Girls Love collections in which they ran and I believe at least one from Yuri Hime S, but I could be totally wrong about all but the first. The stories follow a relatively predictable pattern set up by the opening salvo in "Onshitsu no Majou" in which there is a girl, and another girl, they have sex and then realize they like each other. Because I like the order to be slightly different, I'm not a huge fan of this format, but it's Mikuni's niche and she totally dominates it. Ratings: Art - 7 Story - 6 Characters - 5 Yuri - 9 Loser FanPersons - 7 Overall - 5 For service fans, there is groping and underwear and other spicy magazine-type things which also do not interest me, but may perhaps interest you!  Yes, it's time for another "Get this book out of my house" Contest! I ha...
Yuri Manga: Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan, Volume 2 (????????)
2012-01-28 03:17:00
In Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan, Volume 2 (????????) Sarasa and Seriho have been working together for a while now, and have settled into a routine. They kind of know that they really like one another and they are kinda sure the other feels the same way, but neither has actually broached the topic with the other. When Seriho's old friend Sumire arrives, this changes. Sumire likes to tease Seriho, and does not like women who are meant to be together to be kept apart by their own obtuseness, so she sets them up on a date. They have a wonderful date. Sarasa has shown up a little early (2 hours or so) and has scoped out the best places to eat and shop. But it's Seriho that finally does what has never been done - she buys herself a ring and a matching ring for Sarasa and says, "I mean it 'that way.'" (Sumire-san - good job!) Having been asked - well as much as one can expect from this delicately-spoken serie - Sarasa now has to decide if she will accept that ring. She asks Seriho to sit...
Yuri Manga: Yurikan Feuille (??? Feuille)
2012-01-26 13:56:00
Every few years or so, someone comes up with the idea of creating a Yuri stand-alone anthology. [ES]~ Eternal Sisters, Shoujo Yuri, Yuri Monogatari, Yuri Tengoku and many others have graced my shelves. Some of them have borne great fruit. The characters of Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan, for instance, were first seen in [ES]. Some artists are more comfortable in these doujinshi anthologies than they are in the pages of a magazine. Morinaga Milk-sensei, for instance, spent many years drawing for exactly these kinds of anthologies, before she found a home at Comic High. And now, a new Yuri Anthology series has arrived. The first of these, Yurikan Feuille (??? Feuille) reads pretty much like any of these, with few stories that stand out and a lot of the same kind of Story A. Tears, a few kisses, a few gropes, more tears, protestations of like, sometimes love, the story ends with a sense of relief that both girls are on the same page, romantically speaking. The first of this series fe...
Hayate x Blade Manga, Volume 15 (????????)
2012-01-23 23:51:00
So, Volume 14 came and with it, the greatest fight ever seen at Tenchi Academy. Sae and Shizuku, out of the fight and only Hitsugi and Akira left to battle it out. Students and guests were on the edge of their seats and so were readers, I can assure you.Well, at least this reader was. The battle ended as it had to. Bloodied, on one knee, but unbowed and unwilling to give up, Hitsugi defeated Akira. Phew, because if Akira won, Tenchi would have been disbanded. And here, in Hayate x Blade, Volume 15, (????????) we finally learn why. We know that Akira's father is a bastard - we've known that for a long time. We know he favors that prig Ryouichi and treats Akira like dirt, merely because she is a girl. And we learn why, exactly he let her come to Tenchi Gakuen - to destroy the Amachi family and the school. Having won the battle, Hitsugi cheerfully pronounces Akira's punishment - to take over the school as chair. Akira now holds in her hands exactly what she was sent to get, and sh...
Wandering Son Manga, Volume 2 (English) Guest Review by Kayden L
2012-01-19 15:22:00
Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed yesterday's blackout. As you may have guessed from my many years of writing about it here, freedom of expression is pretty much the one issue I consider to be the single *most* important issue there is. Obviously, as I discuss copyrighted materials here, and post covers and the like, it's critical to me that no one decides that my blog or any of its content must be blocked. Framing SOPA and PIPA as saving American jobs is especially nasty, as it is those very same corporations that supported these bills who have systematically undervalued, underpaid and outsourced the creative efforts of the people who make the material they lay claim to. Of course I support creators' rights and their copyright, but SOPA and PIPA have no stronger provisions for creators. As with LGBTQ content and purges to supposedly "save the children," I feel as if we must be extra vigilant with any designs to block Internet access. Thus, the blackout. Thank you for bearing wi...
Yuri Manga Tsubomi, Volume 15 (???)
2012-01-17 02:33:00
Volume 15 of Tsubomi (???) begins with illustrations by Hayashiya Shizuru that, when I saw them the first time, motivated me to tell her on Twitter that they were "stimulating." A female bodyguard and her charge are seen surrounded by a crowd (opening, awards event, something like it, there are floodlights and photographers and a crowd) on one color page and on the other, black-and-white page, sharing an intimate moment in bed. Really, truly great. Hayashiya-sensei said that she'd love to draw their story one day and I said that I'd love to read it. ^_^ "Hoshikawa Ginza Yon-choume" continues with Minato coming down with a cold...again. Now that I've read the whole second volume, I'm kind of cooling on this series, unless it actually goes somewhere that doesn't make me dislike everyone more. "Walk Wit Me" [sic] comes to a crisis, and probably a close, as Mallory and Wendy leave their moribund town and the dead souls that live there. In this chapter, it becomes more plain that ...
Princess Knight Manga, Volume 1 (English)
2012-01-12 03:42:00
In 1954, Tezuka Osamu began the first serialization of a series called Ribon no Kishi, Knight of the Ribbon. In the subsequent four serializations, the story was altered slightly and even had a sequel. But, throughout these iterations, the main story held true - in a country in which the position of ruler was entailed, so that only a boy could become King, a daughter is born. To hide her true nature, she is brought up as a boy, Prince Sapphire. In the 1977 reworking, Sapphire is endowed with two hearts, that of a boy and that of a girl. The boy's heart makes her athletic, honorable and strong. The girl's heart makes her emotional and weak. Yes, yes, I know, it's exhausting. Think of Tezuka like your grand (or great-grandfather if you're young) who never did figure out what the 60s and 70s were about and didn't understand why feminists didn't like having the door opened for them. Sapphire is, in any case, stuck in a bad situation. Although she'd like to be a "normal" girl, i...
Himawari-san Manga, Volume 2 (??????)
2012-01-11 14:09:00
In Himawari-san, Volume 1, Matsuri discovers that a nearby bookstore is run by a quiet, pleasant woman. Matsuri falls for the woman, and starts hanging around the book store. Matsuri begins to help out around the store, even though she doesn't really seem to enjoy reading, at all. Himawari-san, Volume 2 (??????) begins with a reaffirmation by Matsuri that her affection is rather for the bookstore's owner than the store itself.  Among other things, we learn that Matsuri is not the only person who has had her life altered by Himawari-san. Her somewhat stand-offish classmate, has as well. We also learn that Himawari-san is so well regarded by the town that she can't really just go out for a chore or two without being loaded up with a few kind extras. But the real star of this volume of Himawari-san is Himawari-san's origin story. Who knew that a quiet, bookish store owner would need an origin story?!? But indeed, Himawari-san does. It turns out that she was a taciturn young ...
Yuri Manga: Tsubomi, Volume 14 (???)
2012-01-10 02:36:00
Tsubomi, Volume 14 (???) starts off with a very interesting story. "Walk Wit Me" [Sic] takes place in the Dust Bowl of America during the post-WWI area. This is not entirely apparent in this first chapter, but the abandoned oil rigs and clothing are a big hint in that direction. I'm not sure what Wendy's mother's issue is, but nonetheless Mallory and Wendy face issues of class, and of course acceptance. In "Hana to Hoshi" Hanaii is made aware of Hoshino's relationship with her sempai and this shock is compounded when a male classmate confesses he likes her. Kiku-chan is drawn into the Manga Research Club in Hakamada Mera's "Higashitotsuka of Eden." This seems like it's a good thing, but Kiku-chan certainly doesn't appear all that happy with it. That may be more because she just doesn't know what to do with her rich, attractive, neighborly next-door neightbor, Hiyoshi-san's outgoing personality. Another one of those series that I took a long time to getting around to...
Yuri Manga: Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep (???????????????)
2012-01-09 00:49:00
Have I added Mizutani Fuuka to my "squee" list yet? No? Oh well, consider her officially added. Squee! It's true that my favorite work by her is the entirely straight 14-sai no Koi, but Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep comes really close. Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep (???????????????) is predicated upon a coincidence. Kakimoto Imari, is sitting in a physical rehab office waiting room, waiting to have treatment on her left hand. That is, two people, improbably named Kakimoto Imari are waiting. When their names are called, it further turns out that they both have left hand injuries and that they are born only one day apart. Thus begins an awkward and sweet friendship that becomes something more. "Big" Imari is indeed a tall, boyish woman, who works for a landscaping company and is not used to the company of women. "Little" Imari is short, cute and, suffering from depression. As we learn, she is an artist, but suffering from a complete block and has been doing herself harm as a result. B...
Prunus Girl Manga (????????) Guest Review by Tomo K.
2012-01-07 01:19:00
Today is an extra specially lucky day for all of us - we have a new Guest Reviewer! Tomo K. has graciously offered to write up a review of Matsumoto Tomoki's Prunus Girl. You may remember that Tomo told us about this manga, which runs in Square Enix's Monthly GanGan Joker last month. I hope you'll all extend a warm Okazu welcome to Tomo! Kind words in the comments fields will be appreciated. Prunus Girl (????????) begins on the day when the result of Maki's senior high entrance exam is posted. He meets a cute girl and it looks like a fated encounter, but the girl, Aikawa, later turns out to be his classmate and an ??? (otoko-no-ko: a male who looks/dresses/acts completely female). I found it amusing how quick the other students adapt to Aikawa, with the girls treating him like a female friend, and the guys accepting him because he's cute. Even the teachers let him wear a girl's uniform at school, because what he is wearing is a school uniform after all. Aikawa seems to li...
Warratte! Sotomura-san (????????) Manga, Volume 1
2012-01-05 16:09:00
I jokingly refer to a certain set of magazines as "Manga Time Kirara (and all its little wizards)" around my house. When, mere hours ago, I stood in a store and faced down the many, many Manga Time magazines, I was reminded why. There are a truckload of these, ever so slightly dissimilar magazines that, when looked at as a whole are all pretty much identical. And because Yuri is on the list of acceptable fetishes for this particular set of just-slightly-dissimilar 4-koma manga, many of the series found in the pages of these many magazines have some Yuri. For instance, Morita-san ha Mukuchi, which effectively has one joke (Mayu doesn't talk) and two possible Yuri characters. I picked up Warratte! Sotomura-san (????????) by Minamori Minamo, expecting one joke and no Yuri, and was right about one of those things. Sotomura Natsuki is a very nice girl, who likes typical girly things but, has a very unfortunate smile. Unfortunate in the sense that when she "smiles," she's l...
Top Ten Yuri Manga of 2011
2011-12-25 23:43:00
In stark contrast to last week's top ten anime list, I liked doing this one...and never before have I liked doing it as much as I have this year. The ONLY downside was having to whittle this list down to ten entries (and, as you'll see, I didn't really.) Of course as always, you may all feel free to add your additions or subtractions in the comments. ^_^ It is with great pleasure that I present Okazu's Top Ten Yuri Manga of 2011... Honorable Mention) Collectors  - Nishi UKO's delightful series about Shinobu and Takako, two women who share passion for collecting completely different, mutually exclusive, things. This is the after happily-ever-after story I'm always looking for and I just adore it. Shinobu and Takako do not have a perfect relationship, but they have a good relationship. They and their friends are very real, and people I would totally have over for lunch. When it gets collected into a volume, it's Number 1. Right now, it's just disparate chapters in Rak...
Yuri Manga: Rakuen Le Paradis (?? Le Paradis), Volume 7
2011-12-22 01:26:00
Hrm. So, if anyone asked me how to build a Josei magazine that men might also read, I'd say, get lots of top names to draw stories that are refreshingly different in that they are pretty much the same as everywhere else, except that the women are slightly more in control of their lives. Add in some Yuri, in the form of already-proven artists, and then mix in some stories about guys. I'm not saying that's what Rakuen Le Paradis (?? Le Paradis) had in mind, but that's what it's doing. Volume 7 hits the Yuri fandom hard right at the front of the magazine, with Nishi UKO's "Collectors," which begins with a backstory about Takako in high school. The bridge between these two chapters made me extremely happy, with frames of Shinobu and Takako playing with each other's hair in a beautifully intimate scene as they talk. This is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for - adult intimacy, without it being porn. This series is pretty much the series I keep talking about wanting to read...
Yuri Manga: Poor Poor Lips (????LIPS), Volume 3
2011-12-20 23:27:00
At the end of Poor Poor Lips, Volume 2, we left Nako and Ren living in poverty. At the beginning of Poor Poor Lips (????LIPS), Volume 3, nothing has changed. Except that with summer being so terribly hot, and them not owning a refrigerator or even a fan, much less an air conditioner, life is becoming intolerable. When they get a bonus from Fukui-san, they are at least able to buy a second futon for Ren...but immediately realize that they've grown comfortable sleeping together. The year passes with small victories and small losses, but that's not what's bothering Ren. Yes, Ren is physically uncomfortable, but what's really gnawing at her is the debt Nako seems to be eternally paying off. What could possibly be the reason? When she can't take it any more, she finally asks...and is told a truly terrible story. When Nako was a teen, her parents died, leaving her with nothing. A man approached her after their funeral to let her know that he paid for the funeral. When she got olde...
K-ON! Manga, Volume 3 and 4 (English)
2011-12-19 21:47:00
Volume 3 and Volume 4 of K-ON! primarily deal with the girls' second and final years in high school. They perform at the school festival, spend lazy days avoiding practicing and drinking tea, busting each other's chops, and having fun together. They hug Azusa, they pick on Sawako-sensei, they sometimes even study a bit or practice a song. I said of the Japanese volumes that they were, like Mugi's tea and cakes, light afternoon refreshment, not meat and drink. There is no substance here, no wisdom for the ages, except perhaps that high school days don't really change much when you look back at them, no matter where you're from. I mean, yes, I must have done a ton of homework - I remember having homework to do every day. I remember filling out college applications too. But when I think of high school, the things I remember are not homework, tests and papers, but things like memorizing Little Riding Hood's dialogue with the Big Bad Wolf...in German. ("Aber Grossmutter, warum ha...
Yuri Manga: Renai Joshika (???????), Volume 2
2011-12-12 00:25:00
In Volume 1 of Renai Joshika (???? ???) we were introduced to Arisu and Saki, two women who work at a bridal services company. Arisu and Saki fall in love, as one of the two major plots in the first volume. In Volume 2, they are still going out, and things are looking very rosy for them both. Until Saki's former girlfriend comes back into her life. Kimiko is a manga artist and, so overwhelmed was she by deadlines, she simply stopped communicating. Now that her project is done, she's ready to pick up where she and Saki left off. Only Saki, after hearing nothing from Kimiko for so long, has moved on. In the middle of the book, we turn to a side story about two other staff members - Ai and Sae. I really liked Ai, because she was the most genuinely grumpy, ill-tempered character I'd ever read in a manga. But then she falls in love with Hato-chan and got less grumpy and less interesting. We then turn back to Saki and Arisu. Arisu offers Saki the option of seeing both of them, but S...
Kaname no Etoile Manga
2011-12-06 22:09:00
Kaname saw Miki-sama perform ballet and immediately decided that she would try to enter that refined, beautiful world. So, with only a few years of ballet classes under her belt, she transfers into the elite school at which Miki-sama trains. This is the setup for the title story of Kaname no Etoile (????????) Inexplicably, Miki-sama encourages Kaname, which causes her to be bullied by the second-best student Sugiura-san and her fans. To make matters worse, when Kaname is suddenly (and also quite inexplicably) assigned to dance in the competition with Miki-sama, Sugiura is (rightfully, I think) enraged. But Miki-sama continues to encourage Kaname, despite the other girl's lack of confidence. They are assigned to dance a pas-de-deux from Swan Lake, Kaname as Odile, with Miki-sama taking the role of Odette. (Which is an interesting idea.) Everyone, even Kaname, is shocked at this choice. Sugiura-san challenges Kaname to a danceoff, which Kaname wins. Sugiura backs off, but the worst...
Yuri Manga: Fu~Fu (?~?), Volume 1
2011-12-02 17:18:00
If Yuri Danshi was written to give Yuri Fanboys a taste of what it feels like to have one's emotions parsed uncomfortably closely, then Minamoto Hisanari's Fu~Fu (?~?) was clearly written to explain important things about lesbian relationships to those same Fanboys in the cutest possible manner. We are introduced to Kinana and Sumi, who have just begun living together after having been a couple for some time. Now that they are living together, they talk about what to call each other, since "lover" no longer is enough. Kinana asks if she can be Sumi's bride, but that doesn't feel right either (although Sumi does use "hanayome" ?? later in the chapter.) Eventually Kina suggests a homonym for the word fuufu, which represents husband and wife, ??. Since they are both wives, they should be called fufu, ??. (So, technically a neologism and not really a homonym, since fuu and fu aren't pronounced the same, but I don't suppose that anyone but me cares about that.) The seco...
Yuri Danshi Manga (????) Volume 1
2011-12-01 01:14:00
Yuri Danshi, Volume 1 (????) is...unsettling. The premise for those of you not reading it, is the life of a Yuri Fanboy. Hanadera-kun is sincere, but creepy. In fact, that's kind of the point - he's sincere in his love for Yuri and his desire to see and nurture true Yuri love in the girls around him. Which is just creepy when you're one of those girls. Each chapter begins with a challenge - buying Yuri at a bookstore, uncovering what he considers to be a pure Yuri love in his classroom, visiting a Yuri doujinshi event...and each chapter ends with a realization that his love for Yuri, as passionate as it is, is completely hopeless and empty, because where there is a "Yuri couple" someone like him would be no more than an annoyance at best. It's a funny series, overall, but I still can't quite get a hold of who it's supposed to be for. As a portrait of Yuri fanboy life, it's a little distressing. I asked a friend in Japan his opinion of it and he said that he also finds it u...
Great (Retro) Anime/Manga Gift Guide 2011 (English)
2011-11-25 16:00:00
I'm staring at my pile of to-watch and to-read anime and manga and I can't but help notice that there are a lot of familiar titles among the mix. And, as it's that time of year again, at which Americans decide what matching pen and pencil set to get their relatives, and otaku Americans decide what anime or manga they should buy to indoctrinate their younger family members, I had a thought. This year, I'm specifically suggesting anime and manga that were awesome and wonderful a decade or more ago and are just as wonderful, now that they are available again. These will all make perfect family watching/reading to brainwash educate your young family members in the ways of anime and manga fandom. And, possibly create a new Okazu reader or two. ^_^ Princess Knight - This is as close to a kernel as we have in America for the concept of "shoujo manga." And, not at all coincidentally, Sapphire is the inspiration for many of our favorite cross-dressing, sword-wielding heroines, La...
Yuri Manga, Comic Yuri Hime (???????) November 2011
2011-11-22 02:20:00
The The November issue of Comic Yuri Hime (???????) starts off, as it has for the past issues since its rebirth, with a chapter of "Girls Uprising" by Fukami Makoto. In this chapter, the (relatively) happy couple of Sayaka and Chisato are split so Chisato can go play prince to Hyoko's Rapunzel...even though she's not in the tower anymore. Oh, and of course she and Tatsuki were a couple previously, because this entire world only has 6 people in it. /facepalm/ This chapter thoroughly ve-xed me. I would very much like to see one of the many guns mentioned in the story take Chisato out. Unfortunately, this appears to be the last chapter of this story. Both cover art and layout change with the next volume. Meh. In "Fu~Fu," Kinana and Su-chan are about to celebrate their first anniversary together. Kina and Hayase head out to buy some food, when inexplicably (and I mean that sincerely) a strange woman approaches Kinana and tells her that she's fallen in love with her. Kina r...
The Book of Human Insects Manga (English)
2011-11-14 22:48:00
The title Book of Human Insects is an insult to insects. Insects are rarely as harmful to their own species as the humans in this book. If one thinks of insects as grotesque and unlovely, then it's a fitting title, perhaps, as the humans contained within are unlovely at best. There is a real downside to reading too much of Tezuka Osamu's manga for adults. He sees very clearly the kind of corruption power,and the drive for power, leads to. He understands too well how the powerful destroy the innocent without even noticing they exist. Read too much of his manga for grownups, and you might be ready to just pack it all in. In Book of Human Insects we follow a psychopath who has nothing of her own. Instead, she learns from those around her, then steals their identities, their work, their reputation and everything they care about. She wreaks havoc as she moves up in the world, as a world-famous author (with a stolen manuscript) and a award-winning designer (with a stolen des...
Wuthering Manga in Italian
2011-11-14 00:52:00
Via Manga Forever, we have discovered that the Wuthering Heights manga adaptation drawn by Hiromi Iwashita will be translated and published in Italy next year by Ronin Manga. On the publisher's Facebook some pictures of the original Japanese comic can be seen:La Letteratura Coi MangaAnnunciata una settimana fa nel corso di Lucca Comics 2011, la nostra nuova linea editoriale prenderà il via all'inizio del 2012.Tra i primi titoli, il grande classico di Emily Brontë Cime Tempestose, di cui potete vedere in questa sede alcune tavole splendidamente disegnate da Hiromi Iwashita.
Yuri Manga: Private Lesson (???????????)
2011-11-11 01:46:00
 You may remember a volume of manga licensed and released by Seven Seas called Voiceful by nawoko, a collection of stories that ran in Yuri Shimai and Yuri Hime magazines. This was a collection that skirted lightly on the side of Yuri, but was deeply embedded in the idea of music. Private Lesson (???????????), the new Tsubomi collection also by nawoko is slighly more Yuri and just as much about music as ever. The main story follows Tamago and her older cousin, Toriko, who teaches her how to play the piano. Tamago is suffering with a crush for Tori-neechan, but doesn't really have any idea what it is she's feeling. Quite accidentally, Tamago is made aware of another person with a crush on Tori-neechan. As a result, Tamago is introduced to the complex world of adult relationships, which always seem cool when you're a kid, until you learn that adults don't have a clue. The story about Tamago and Toriko is all right as a first crush story, but there's an easter egg in this ...
Yuri Manga: Himitsu no Recipe (????????
2011-11-10 02:59:00
Underclassman Wakatsuki is reasonably sure she's gay, but not entirely, so she convinces her sempai, the president of the cooking club, to y'know, kiss her, just to see. And so, Morinaga Milk's Himitsu no Recipe, (????????begins with a very cheap, servicey opening, and then desperately tries to make a story out of it. Now that she's convinced she likes girls, Wakatsuki is also convinced that she likes Buchou. A lot. A lot a lot. And, um, she really wants Buchou to like her back. So Wakatsuki joins the Cooking Club and plots to be closer to the club president, almost completely oblivious of her not-all-that-mixed signals. For her part, Buchou really wants the Cooking Club to be successful and she's putting her heart and soul into recruitment and training, pretty oblivious of Wakatsuki's ulterior motives. Unfortunately for readers, the heart aching sincerity of GIRL FRIENDS is pretty much completely absent in this series. The first chapter very much reads...
Yuri Manga: Yurikam (?????)
2011-11-07 22:57:00
Yurikam is exactly why I consider most of the Japanese Yuri blogs to be almost-completely useless in regards to finding good Yuri manga to read. I had no expectations going into this manga and still managed to be disappointed. Yurikam (?????), short for "Yuri Campus" (thank you kind person whose comment I cannot find, who corrected me on this) is an atrocious little story about a rich girl at a rich girl's school whose rich father goes bust. Yurika is commanded by said father to become a sexual plaything so she can stay at the school. So, for money, food (mostly for food) and room, Yurika sexxors up the entire campus. Including the inexplicable "Ladies" (female biker gang) that show up. Yurika stays with her dear friend Saori, who is in contention for the most passive-aggressive annoying friend ever. It's obvious (but not interesting) that Saori has a thing for Yurika, but for some reason that is no reason denies it...and yet, is continually annoyed when Yurika is with some othe...
Yuri Manga: marriage black (and a Contest!)
2011-11-06 20:10:00
Once upon a time, there were two girls. They were princesses of a sort, each coming from a large, powerful crime syndicate. The two girls, despite everything, grew up and fell in love.When the one girl was engaged to the other's brother to unite to two families, she instead killed him, setting her and the princess she loved at war with one another. Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, meet marriage black, by Hashiba Hayase. The story opens as Lilicia kills her betrothed and sest her and her beloved Lu-Chie at odds. Despite this, Lilicia visits Lu-Chie at night, pleading her love and on occasion, her lust. The story is mostly Lu-Chie's as we learn of the disdain with which she is treated by the head of her family, the loyalty her bodyguard feels for her and the hopelessness of her position as the daughter of the house that has been dishonored. Now, because of what happened, she kind of has to kill Lilicia for revenge. That doesn't happen. Among the many large problems in this s...
Yuri Manga: Koigokoro (?????)
2011-11-04 01:43:00
A few weeks ago, I reviewed, Daisuki: Hikaru and Sakura, by Tsukiishi, one of the two books I discovered in the Yuri section at Mandarake in Shibuya. Today, we're looking at the second of these, Koigokoro (?????), also by Tsukiishi. Initially I remembered this book as a less-good Yuri romp than the other, and upon re-reading I see why. The first story, told in glossy color pages is practically Erica repellent. ^_^ However, the subsequent stories - which are all tales of love/lust between two girls with the ever-so-sexy addition of bodily fluids - were not quite as bad than I remembered. I did strongly object to the one story where non-conconsensual sex leads to a realization of love...that was too BL trope-y for me, and the story that hinged on the color and length of a long-lost love's hair was very ugh. (I can't love you! Your hair is not the same color as I remember from 7 years ago! Um..what? Whatever.) On the good side, there's the story about the star runner and he...
Yuri Manga: Hatsukoi Tectonics (????????)
2011-11-02 22:27:00
First Love Tectonics (????????) by Camotang, is another Yuri manga collection of one- or two-shot stories that ran in Comic Yuri Hime. The second story was the most interesting to me: Shion is a good student, a bit tactiturn, but when her classmates ask her to join them on a group date, she flat out says she's not interested in meeting someone if they aren't a woman. No surprise, this causes tons of gossip in the classroom. She's basically ostracized until one day a rambunctious schoolmate walks in, shakes her hand and introduces herself as Maria - and, she confides, she is also gay. Come on out to the roof, Maria suggests, where we can eat lunch and talk. Shion hesitates, but eventually does join her. They become friends and, kind of unsurprisingly, Shion starts to have feelings for Maria. Perhaps a bit pat, but the happily-ever-after is not unwelcome. The third story also skirts serious territory, when a girl is engaged to a guy by her father and given no choice in the matter...
Yuri Manga: Otome no Teikoku (??????)
2011-11-01 20:13:00
Otome no Teikoku (??????) is based on the premise that all women are bisexual and if left alone in an all-female world will naturally,  uncontrollably, star-t playing with each other sexually. It's drawn with the idea that women look at other women with the same kind of "gaze" as men do. So walking around the school, girls are looking up each other's skirts, and down their shirts...and noticing, commenting on and having (mostly lascivious) c-onversations and thoughts about each other's secondary sexual characteristics. Since this is not true and the assumption is tiresome in the extreme, this manga pretty much left me feeling utterly vexed at the creator and anyone who might enjoy it. Ratings: Art - 7 Story - 3 Characters - 3 Yuri - 2 Loser FanBoy - 4 million Overall - 3 Folks waiting for a great Yuri manga from creator of MAKA-MAKA, Torajiro Kishi, you're still waiting. Once again, thanks to Okazu superhero Dan P. who sponsored today's review ...
Yuri Manga: Otome Ranbu (??×??)
2011-10-31 21:30:00
Tsubomi has never been popular. In fact, she's always been alone, slightly set apart from others. She really doesn't know why, but no one seems to ever want to be her friend. Except for handsome Kurozawa, one of the class stars. He and Tsubomi are childhood friends and he doesn't care that the girls who cling to him see Tsubomi as a nuisance. Then one day, silver-haired aristocrat Yuuji transfers into class, kisses Tsubomi and pronounced her her servant. And Tsubomi's life changes forever. How many times have we seen this story, huh? But here in Otome Ranbu (??×??), by Imamura Youko, there's a few sticks in the spokes. Tsubomi, it turns out, is the head of a family that did indeed serve Yuuji's family, and together they fought and sealed Shikigami, beings that possess things and people. Now that Tsubomi has had her power unsealed, she begins to remember her childhood, and why she feels such a closeness with Yuuji. Kurozawa turns out to be a magical creature and a servant ...
Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime (???????) September 2011
2011-10-27 01:01:00
The September 2011 issue of Comic Yuri Hime (???????) is filled with many interesting things. And I've read about 5/6ths of them, so I'm going to punt on some of the stories, particularly the novels...it's just been crazy and I really haven't had time to read them. In terms of the manga, I'm actally going to begin at the back of the book with a chapter of Uso Kurata's Yuri Danshi. Hanadera-kun is in ecstasy - he's going to a Yuri-only doujinshi event! Surely there he will see the Yuri behavior he so desires to see, the beautiful and pure love between girls that is Yuri! (Quick digression: I have NO IDEA AT ALL what you guys mean when you write me and tell me you love the "pure love" between girls. I never have and frankly, I don't delve into it too deeply. Love between girls is pretty much just as messy and complicated as love between a girl and a boy or two boys. No clue what you're thinking it's like...) So, imagine his shock when Hanadera-kun realizes that the girls ...
Yuri Manga: GUNJO (??), continued
2011-10-25 02:23:00
It's been a while since I talked about GUNJO (??), hasn't it? The first volume was brutal and awful and wonderful and the second volume was, as I keep saying, like eating the most delicious razor blades ever. And now, as the story approaches an end, I want to talk about it once more. Now, while it's still in that Schoedinger's Cat phase of not being over, but already ended. (It has to be ended, or nearly so, just because of the publishing schedule of magazines.) As I read each new chapter, I find myself scanning the faces of the woman who was abused and despised by everyone ever who was supposed to have loved and cared for her and the only person who ever actually did,  wondering how this series could end without them both dead, wondering if they will ever be free, wondering if they will ever smile again, wondering if I'm as or more pathetic than they to even think that they might. Look at the scan above. (I left in all the ghost images from the pages in front...
Yuri Manga: Girls Love - strawberry milkshake
2011-10-22 04:52:00
In the beginning there was Yuri Hime and from Yuri Hime came Yuri Hime Wildrose, a series of "ecchi" (by which we mean "porn") Yuri manga by artists that contributed to Yuri Hime or their cell-phone manga. Yuri Hime Wildrose was rendered into two "best of" collection called Remix disk A and disk B. (My review of the remix issues has links to all the original Wildrose volumes,as well.) Now the series has been rebranded, again, as Girls Love. (Volume 1 review from March) For readers, there isn't a really significant difference between the Wildrose volumes and Girls Love - creators and content remain roughly the same. In this volume, Girls Love -strawberry milkshake- , we're getting some of the best of the creators, including Nanzaki Iku's ShizNat clones, (here called Youko and Hitomi), Amano Syuninta, Mikuni Hachime and others, each with a relatively "Plot, What Plot" one-shot that starts with attraction, moves to sex and ends with love. It is this last that sets these...
Yuri Manga: Mizu-Iro Ether (??????)
2011-10-21 19:14:00
Mizu-Iro Ether (??????), by Kurokiri Misao, is a rather typical set of Story A-type Yuri stories that trace schoolgirls' loves. There are two stories that have some unique qualities, although one, in which a girl falls in love with a mermaid, was a tad too Disney princess for my taste. The second story in the collection, "Kono Mune no Hana" starts with the story of Yuka and her friend Sayo who are (obviously, to our eyes) in a relationship. We're not the only ones to whom it is obvious; Yuka's grandmother also can see what's going on and, in a very unsubtle way, is trying to explain to the girls that this is not forever. We learn that Grandma once has a school love of her own, Yukue and, although they genuinely loved one another, when they graduated, they went their separate ways, married, had children and even now have not spoken to one another again since. Reading this story, I was strongly tempted to scream at Grandma, and tell her things were different now, but alas I rema...
Kill Me Baby/ Baby, please kill me (????????) Manga, Volume 1
2011-10-20 00:35:00
Volume 1 of Kill Me Baby/ Baby, please kill me (????????) is a 4-koma comic with an exceeding simple premise: School student Sonia is a professional assassin, and her classmate Yasuna wants to be her friend. This leads to 14 million ways in which Yasuna almost gets killed by Sonia. For instance, Yasuna touches Sonia on the shoulder, and has her arm broken by Sonia. Or Yasuna throws an eraser at Sonia, and has knives thrown back at her. They are joined periodically, and for no particular reason, by Agiri, who is a ninja. She is frequently drawn appearing handing from the ceiling, also for no reason. Anyone who is a fan of Noir will probably instantly liken Yasuna's basic character design to Kirika and therefore Sonia's to Mirielle, but personality-wise, they couldn't be more different. Sonia is taciturn and humorless, Yasuna is goofy and endlessly incompetent. Kill Me Baby is about to become an anime. I hope they consider doing the super-short Morita-san ha Mukuchi tr...
Yuri Manga: Oshioki! (?????!)
2011-10-13 19:48:00
Oshioki! (?????!) is a 4-koma manga that starts somewhere and ends up somewhere and in between goes totally off track three or four times. Minato is an utterly average person. She gets average grades, comes up right in the middle of the pack in footraces and has not a single distinguishing characteristic. So when she sees smart, athletically inclined Student Council President Shion, she's impressed, kinda crushy and a little jealous. Circumstances bring her into Shion's acquaintance where she learns that Shion, when she wears her glasses, is a studious and polite young lady, but when she takes them off, becomes a schoolmarm sadist. To "punish" Minato for some small, meaningless infraction, Shion commands that Minato will be her dog. At which point Minato learns a life-changing lesson about herself...she is a masochist. Oh, they never use that word, but we get it. ^_^ So Minato hangs around the Student Council, trying to stay close to Shion and trying, from time to time, to be p...
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's Massive Manga Giveaway!
2011-10-12 23:09:00
Manga is not a crime! Right now an American citizen is facing a minimum sentence of one year in a Canadian prison because customs authorities wrongly allege that horror and fantasy manga on his computer are child pornography. The CBLDF is helping him by assisting in legal strategy and by raising money to offset his legal fees, which are expected to reach $150,000. Join the effort to defend this case by visiting the CBLDF?s table in Manga Artists Alley and signing up for membership! When you do, we?ll enter you into our Massive Manga Giveaway!  Raffle tickets will also be available for purchase at the CBLDF table in the Exhibitor's Hall. The top publishers in the manga industry, including Viz, Seven Seas, Vertical, Yen, Dark Horse, DMP, Kodansha, and ALC Publishing have contributed prize packages for teen and adult readers for each day of the show. Come learn about the CBLDF?s efforts to protect your freedom to read manga, and take home amazing books! Titles include: Tenjo ...
Yuri Manga: KuroYome (????)
2011-10-10 22:56:00
It is said that behind every successful man is a woman. The saying represents the sacrifices women have made to support their husbands in their work - sometimes curtailing their own careers, or putting in long hours of caretaking, for no money and no credit. Kuroyome (????) by Kazuto Izumi proposes the idea that for women to truly be successful, they too need a helpmeet and caretaker...in other words, a wife. On the one hand this idea makes my teeth grind, and on the other it makes my teeth grind. The stories in this volume are mean to be cute and sweet, about a high-powered business woman who finds comfort and care in the capable hands of an adorable and adoring wife for rent...and then treats them like crap and drives them out until they realize that they are helpless when it comes to doing the least little thing to take care of themselves and run back to their "wife," beg forgiveness and ask to be taken back.  *If* these high-powered women were high-powered men, there's ...
Ichiroh! Manga, Volume 5 (English) Guest Review by Ayra
2011-10-05 23:51:00
Welcome back to Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu! Today I am delighted to welcome back Ayra for a review of the last volume of this series. Thank you Ayra, thank, thank you! As always, it's a genuine pleasure to have you here. The decisive moment is here! In this final chapter of Ichiroh!, Nanako, Akane and company finally take the series of exams that will determine their fate. Will they pass and become proud university students, or will they fail again and become niroh? Upon reading long-running stories, it's not uncommon to feel as if the author ran out of ideas regarding the setup of the story and its characters. This is, unfortunately, the case for Ichiroh!, Volume 5. Even the author mentions that Nanako's year as an ichiroh (nickname for someone who failed the university exams in their first year of studying to retake them) could not be dragged out further. This lack of ideas unfortunately shows quite clearly within the first few pages. All volumes of Ichiroh! h...
Yuri Manga: Daisuki: Hikaru & Sakura (?????- ????????
2011-10-05 16:24:00
We've gotten very efficient about shopping in Tokyo these days. We arrive with a "to-buy list" and hit the stores closest to our hotel and most likely to have the things we're looking for. Once we've acquired all the items on our list, we're free to start browsing. One of the best browsing places in Tokyo is in Shibuya. In the basement of the Shibuya BEAM store, Mandarake is like digging through someone's attic, or a never-ending flea market of...stuff. (There are a number of Mandarake stores in Japan, and several in Tokyo. The Mandarake stores in the Nakano Sun Mall are probably the best known by most otaku. I suggest you hit up at least the stores in Shibuya and Nakano. Give yourself plenty of time to just wander and stare. It's quite overwhelming at first.) The negatives of browsing shelves this way is that you will think "Oooh!" and start to reach for something about 1752 times. They have used manga, soundtrack CDs, Drama CDs, figurines, doujinshi, books and random goods y...
Vampire Princess ???(????????????) Manga
2011-10-03 23:46:00
Many of you know Kakinouchi Narumi's work, even if you don't know you know it. Vampire Princess Miyu (both TV and OAV,) on DVD and Juline and Shaolin Sisters in manga, have made it to English. In Japanese she's done a great number of series, including the obscure Utahime Fight!, which I reviewed back in 2005 and the art for the Case Files of Yakushiji Ryouko (???????????), which I am currently reading, having gotten more volumes at Book-Off in Tokyo (and my gosh, if there was the least little bit of Yuri in it, I would be reviewing it here so fast it would make your head spin!) But what Kakinouchi-sensei is best known for is Vampire stories. Along with Miyu, you'll find Vampire Princess Yui, and Dahlia the Vampire in her bibliography. And as much as vampires rarely do it for me, I love the hell out of Kakinouchi-sensei's vampires. Which brings me to the subject of today's review, Kakinouchi-sensei'-s newest series, done in conjunction with her husband...
Yuri Manga: Concerto (??????)
2011-10-01 16:50:00
I read Concerto under advisement from Yuricon Chief Lackey Bruce. I had no expectations and found myself pleasantly surprised. Each chapter is a "Plot, what plot?" type story; i.e.. a very thin frame of a story wrapped around a sex scene. And while each and every story had the opportunity to become gross, exploitative or annoying...none of them did. I found myself slow to relax at first, all ready to be grossed out by bodily fluids and no real emotional commitment, but eventually it dawned on me that that wasn't going to happen. By the final story, I was more or less in a "well, this was kinda nice" headspace. In each chapter two girls are brought together by pretty typical tropes - mutual love of music/art, a sempai/kouhai story, a student/teacher thing, and the final story, which was worth a synopsis. Two girls are staying together while the one's parents are away. The are in love and are lovers, and playing at living together. When the parents come home and find them kissin...
Morita-san ha Mukuchi (???????) Manga, Volume 4
2011-09-29 03:36:00
Morita-san ha Mukuchi (???????) must be a work of genius. It must be, because after 4 volumes of the same sort of daily life-nothing much I'm still reading it, still enjoying it and still giggling at the silly gags. 4 volumes of nothing much and I still like this manga. It MUST be a work of genius, seriously. In Volume 4, absolutely nothing has changed. Mayu is still a untalkative high school girl, Hana's family issues are still bad, Miki's still interested in boys, and the girl who is stalking Mayu is still stalking her. The only difference is that she's now thinking about actually speaking to her, if only that would work out. That's one half the Yuri. The other half is in the form of Yamamoto Ritsuki, who is increasingly popular with the girls. So much so, that on Valentine's Day, she staggers into class with an enormous bag of candy on her back, like a chapman setting off to sell his goods. The look of exhaustion on her face speaks volumes, and so does the expression of p...
Yuri Manga: Tsubomi, Volume 13 (???)
2011-09-22 13:26:00
Tsubomi (???), Volume 13 opens with a cover sure to please Morinaga Milk fans. From there, it's right into "Himitsu no Recipe" in which Wakatsuki is still having no luck getting a moment alone with the club president...until she does. Of the many stories in this volume, here are some notables: From there, we jump into my favorite story, "Lonely Sheep, Lonely Wolf" in which Imari-chan finds the strength given to her by big Imari to stand up to big Imari's ex and get her girl back, dammit! I award a standing ovation to Imari-chan. "Hoshikawa Ginza Yon-choume" starts to re-ravel after Minato and Otome's relationship had come completely unraveled. "Candy' continues, somewhat surprisingly, with the intrusion of one of Kana's admirers. A new story, "Sogo Tovoarisch" begins and I can make neither heads nor tail of it yet, but that's par for the course these days. Get back to me in three chapters. "Prism" ends in a unexpectedly sweet way, then launches into a side story of ...
Yuri Manga: Flower Festa
2011-01-17 21:24:00
You remember Thieve's World, don't you? It was a multi-author fantasy fiction series. Each author would write stories in their own style, using their own character(s) and those of the other authors, all set in a single world. It felt like a good table-top RPG that people other than the players could follow. It was, depending on your opinion of author, character and story, variably successful. Flower Festa is a very similar concept. Set in a generic girl's school, each one of 20 creators was given the opportunity to create a character page, with character info and a single page comic showing us the character's personality and/or interaction with other characters. After all 20 characters have been introduced, each artist then draws a short story with their and/or any of the characters in the story. The characters are all named after a flower, which might get cloying fast except that most names used are not unknown as girl's names. Imagine a story where Lily is friends with Rose ...
Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime Rebirth, Volume 1
2011-01-12 22:46:00
And thus, the fourth era of Yuri has begun. Ichijinsha has re-launched Comic Yuri Hime (???????), with an entirely new look, a slightly new feel and a new bimonthly publishing schedule. Gone is the sweet snuggliness of Fujieda Miyabi or Hibiki Reine, gone is the stoic Eiki/Taishi look, gone is the moe-moe of Tsubaki Asu. Comic Yuri Hime Rebirth is heralded with violence and darkness... ...there is something so very, very wrong about this that I immediately loved it. ^_^ The whole experience begins immediately on the cover where, buried in the art, begins a short story by Fukami Makoto (writer of Vertigo, which I reviewed a few months ago), illustrated with slightly more blood than, maybe, strictly necessary, by Kazuaki - a tale of girls shooting each other with guns in sexy and pointless ways. It was great, but then, you know I love stories about homicidally violent women. I laughed like a loon at the first page after the color art page, in which we are trained in the proper a...
Manga no Tsukurikata Manga, Volume 4
2011-01-11 00:26:00
I believe it was during my review of the third volume of Manga no Tsukurikata I kept asking myself "why am I reading this?" Now I've reached the fourth volume and the question has become "what is this manga even about?" This not a rhetorical question, either. Originally, the series was about the successful-despite-her obvious-mediocrity Kawaguchi, a mangaka with no original ideas who decides to use a young woman's affection for her to provide fodder for her Yuri manga - a theme chosen entirely because "it's popular now."  I have never found Kawaguchi even slightly sympathetic. Morishita, the young woman in question, was slightly more sympathetic, but is also kind of clueless and annoying. After you go out with someone for a year and they never want to touch, much less kiss, getting a clue ought to be high priority. Then a third artist enters the ring - Takeda. Takeda is a jerk. She resents and dislikes Morishita and admires Kawaguchi. She steps in as an assistant, but it c...
111582 blogs in the directory.
Statistics resets every week.


Contact | About
© Blog Toplist 2012 - Supported by Web Catalog - SEO by FeWorks
eXTReMe Tracker