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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

yuri

The Manga Review, 8/19/22

August 19, 2022 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

Attention manga shoppers! Kodansha is currently holding a blow-out sale on digital manga. And when I say “blow out,” I mean it: they’re offering deep discounts on over 3,000 titles, with first volumes priced as low as 99 cents, and later volumes discounted 50%. It’s a great opportunity to try a buzz-worthy series such as Blue Period, Boys Run the Riot, Knight of the Ice, PTSD Radio, or Witch Hat Atelier; to catch up on long-running favorites; or to check out classic titles such as Black Jack and Princess Knight. Don’t wait, though; the sale ends on Monday, August 22nd.

MANGA NEWS

The July NPD Bookscan Numbers are in, with My Hero Academia, Spy x Family, and Kaiju No. 8 topping the list. Also making a strong showing on this month’s bestseller list are Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Chainsaw Man. [ICv2]

Have you completed this month’s Seven Seas Reader Survey? If not, don’t miss your opportunity to make licensing requests and give feedback on new and upcoming releases. [Seven Seas]

Coming soon to the Azuki platform: Red Riding Hood’s Apprentice: Final Testament to the Moon (Glacier Bay Books) and Doomsday Cleaning (Star Fruit Books). [Azuki]

Job alert: VIZ Media is currently looking for a Copy Editor. [VIZ Media]

Help Erica Friedman celebrate the 20th anniversary of Okazu by participating in a treasure hunt! The winner will receive a t-shirt of their choice from the Yuricon store. [Okazu]

And speaking of Erica Friedman, she and Rica Takashima (Rica ‘tte Kanji?!) will both be guests at Flame Con this weekend. [Anime News Network]

Blood on the Tracks, Blue Period, and Cat + Gamer are among the titles competing for Best Manga at this year’s Harvey Awards. Also making the cut are Chainsaw Man, Red Flowers, and Spy x Family. [ICv2]

Cartoon Crossroad Columbus (CXC) announced that manga scholar Frederik L. Schodt will be the recipient of the second annual Tom Spurgeon Award, which “honors those who have made substantial contributions to the field of comics, but are not primarily cartoonists.” Schodt is author of three books: Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (1983), Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga (1996), and The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution (2007). In addition, he has translated a number of manga into English, including Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama’s The Four Immigrants Manga. [CXC 2022]

FEATURES, PODCASTS AND INTERVIEWS

If you’re a parent, teacher, or librarian in search of STEM-friendly comics, look no further than this helpful list compiled by the experts at No Flying No Tights. [No Flying No Tights]

Brigid Alverson posts a brief but thoughtful tribute to illustrator Sho Murase, who passed away earlier this month. [ICv2]

It’s Witch Week at Mangasplaining! Join the crew for lively discussions of Witch Hat Atelier, Witchcraft Works, and Witches, then stay for the bonus discussions of Fuyumi Soryo’s MARS and Yayoi Ogawa’s You’re My Pet (originally published in English as Tramps Like Us). [Mangasplaining]

The latest Manga Machinations podcast focuses on Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou as well as two manga/Marvel crossovers: Wolverine: SNIKT! and Secret Reverse. [Manga Machinations]

What did David and Jordan think of Monster Hunter Orage? Tune in to the latest Shonen Flop episode for their thoughts on Hiro Mashima’s other battle manga. [Shonen Flop]

ICYMI: Ashley and Loyola Rankin dissect the first eight volumes of Love*Com (Lovely Complex). [Shojo & Tell]

In honor of Sailor Moon‘s thirtieth anniversary, Christopher Chiu-Tabet revisits the first eight issues of Codename: Sailor V. [Multiversity Comics]

Jocelyne Allen flips through the pages of Keiko Takemiya’s Kokuhaku. “The takeaway for this volume… is pure vibes,” she notes. “The seven stories in the  collection technically have plots, but these tales are mostly about the feels. Because the stories themselves inspire questions like ‘how?’ and ‘why is this happening?’, and the smaller details of what is going on aren’t really relevant. Takemiya is using science fiction to dig deep into psyches and emotions and relationships because this is shojo before it’s SF, and shojo demands feels.” Someone license this, please! [Brain vs. Book]

Elias Rosner interviews Ryan Holmberg about translating Yamada Murasaki’s Talk to My Back. [Multiversity Comics]

Over at TCJ, John Holt and Chikuma Teppei  translate Natsume Fusanosuke’s essay “The Transgenerational Manga Sazae-san and Its Meaning.” In their preface, Holt and Teppei attribute the enduring cultural appeal of Hasegawa Machiko’s series to its long-running anime adaptation. “Like The Simpsons, the animated Sazae-san has been a fixture of Japanese television for decades,” they observe, “but unlike Matt Groening’s creation, Sazae-san has been a wholesome staple of family life, still operating by the terms of 1950s and 1960s culture in new episodes today. Therefore, although it lacks a Simpsons-level criticality, Sazae-san is still a mirror of society. As Natsume argues, the manga and anime create a kind of touchstone to what was good about Japan in the late 20th century. In this way, Sazae-san not only entertains, but also it curates a way of life that may be now remote or even alien to the lived experience of contemporary viewers in Japan.” [The Comics Journal]

REVIEWS

Scott Cederlund reflects on the radical empathy of Gengoroh Tagame’s Our Colors, while Eric Alex Cline explains why he won’t be picking up volume two of Rooster Fighter. “Whether one finds the series worth following will largely depend on if they share its ridiculous sense of humor, and if they’re willing to overlook incredibly blatant bigotry in character design,” Cline observes. “The major con is that some of the monster designs are lackluster, and the last one in particular tanks the fun vibes with a sudden veer into blatant transphobia.” You’ll also find new capsule reviews at Women Write About Comics, where Masha Zhdanova looks at three new VIZ titles, and right here at Manga Bookshelf, where Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, and I tackle Rooster Fighter, Shadow House, and Wandance.

New and Noteworthy

  • The Abandoned Empress, Vols. 1-2 (Noemi10, Anime UK News)
  • Bleach: 20th Anniversary Edition, Vol. 1 (Tony Yao, Drop-In to Manga)
  • Blue Lock, Vol. 1 (Renee Scott, Good Comics for Kids)
  • Box of Light, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • Dandadan, Vol. 1 (Brett Michael Orr, Honey’s Anime)
  • The Elusive Samurai, Vol. 1 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • GAME: Between the Suits, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • I Am a Cat Barista, Vol. 1 (Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading)
  • Kowloon Generic Romance, Vol. 1 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Lost Lad London, Vol. 1 (Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading)
  • New York, New York, Vol. 1 (Al, Al’s Manga Blog)
  • The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, Vol. 1 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Naoko Takeuchi Collection, Vol. 1 (SKJAM, SKJAM! Reviews)
  • Romantic Killer, Vol. 1 (Brett Michael Orr, Honey’s Anime)
  • Talk to My Back (Lindsay Pereira, Broken Frontier)
  • To Strip the Flesh (Seth Smith, Women Write About Comics]
  • The Town of Pigs (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Vampeerz, Vol. 1 (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion, Vol. 1 (Noemi10, Anime UK News)
  • The Wolf Never Sleeps, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

Ongoing and Complete Series

  • Beastars, Vols. 18-19 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Beauty and the Feast, Vols. 2-3 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • Can’t Stop Cursing You, Vols. 2-3 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Cheeky Brat, Vol. 3 (Krystallina and Justin, The OASG)
  • Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!, Vol. 3 (Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading)
  • Daytime Shooting Star, Vol. 11 (Jaime, Yuri Stargirl)
  • Deadpool: Samurai, Vol. 2 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Fly Me to the Moon, Vol. 12 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Magu-chan: God of Destruction, Vol. 4 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Minami Nanami Wants to Shine, Vol. 2 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 12 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • My Love Mix-Up!, Vol. 4 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • Rebel Sword (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)
  • Superwomen in Love: Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit, Vol. 4 (Erica Friedman, Okazu)
  • Whisper Me a Love Song, Vol. 5 (Erica Friedman, Okazu)
  • Witch Hat Atelier, Vols. 8-9 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 9 (Helen and Justin, The OASG)

Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: Azuki, Frederik L. Schodt, Gengoroh Tagame, Harvey Awards, Hiro Mashima, Kodansha Comics, Manga Industry Jobs, Okazu, Rica Takashima, sailor moon, Sazae-chan, Sho Murase, VIZ, yuri

The Manga Review, 7/1/22

July 1, 2022 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

Good news: The United Workers of Seven Seas (UW7S) achieved a major victory this week when the company agreed to recognize their union. Though management has not yet spoken to the press, the UW7S Twitter feed posted the following statement on June 24th: “This decision by Seven Seas eliminates the need for an NLRB conducted election and will pave the way for a more expedited path to bargaining a first contract. At a time when many employers continue to fight the unionization of their employees, we appreciate that Seven Seas decided to respect the voices of the majority of staff and recognize us. We look forward to developing a mutually beneficial relationship and reaching a collective bargaining agreement in the near future.” The path to a better contract and better working conditions, however, is a long one. As OASG contributor Krystallina notes, “Bloomberg Law estimates the average length of time for initial negotiations to be 409 days — in other words, 1 year, 1 month, and 2 weeks. One analyst says there’s only about a 50-50 chance of reaching an agreement in a year, with additional estimates calculating it will take about a year and a half.”

NEWS

After 247 chapters, Yuki Suegetsu will bring Chihayafuru to an end. The series, which has been running in Be Love since 2007, proved so popular with Japanese readers that it spawned three live-action films and three anime series. [Anime News Network]

Looking for a manga industry job? VIZ is currently advertising four positions in its publishing division: Copy Editor, Editor, Editor of Original Graphic Novels, and Publishing Production Assistant. [VIZ]

The American comics market is booming, according to industry experts Milton Griepp and John Jackson Miller. They report that “total comics and graphic novel sales to consumers in the U.S. and Canada were approximately $2.075 billion, a 62% increase over sales in 2020.” Comics performed well at many types of retail outlets as well. As Griepp observes, “Sales through comic stores were up 60% vs. last year and 34% vs. 2019; sales through the book channel, including book fairs (which were back in operation) grew at a blistering 81% pace. Digital growth, while slower, was coming off a gangbuster year in 2020 during the shutdowns.” [ICv2]

FEATURES, INTERVIEWS, AND PODCASTS

As Pride Month comes to a close, Okazu reader Meru explains how reading yuri manga played an important role in their decision to come out as transgender. “When I look at Yuri, I see myself: I see the soft butches that could, in another series, be they/them or even they/he,” they note. “I see bodies and ideals and identities that mirror myself. I feel less alone. I feel natural in a country that would rather me turn my back on playing at soft masculinity and gender ambivalence in exchange for kitten heels, a lack of body hair, and legs crossed at the ankle. When I crack open a volume of Yuri and see tomboys and boyish girls and girls straddling the lines of socially acceptable gender and being themselves.” [Okazu]

If you’re a fan of Daytime Shooting star, Deb Aoki thinks you might like Mika Yamamori’s latest series, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk. [Mangasplaining]

On the newest installment of Manga Mavericks, Colton and Lum check in with ongoing series Haikyu!! and Magu-Chan!, and look at new offerings from VIZ, Manga Plus, and Azuki. [Manga Mavericks]

The Manga Machinations crew discuss three series that explore different facets of the LBGTQ experience: New York, New York; Catch These Hands!; and I Want to Be a Wall. [Manga Machinations]

Kory, Helen, and Apryll dedicate the latest Manga In Your Ears podcast to My Solo Exchange Diary and Yuri Is My Job! [Taiiku Podcast]

Paul Semel and Anne Ishii interview Gengoroh Tagame about Our Colours, a coming-of-age story that centers on a queer teen artist. “It’s something I’d wanted to read as a middle and high schooler myself, so decided to write for my own self,” Tagame explains. As I’m now in my 50s, I think of it as a gift to myself 40 years ago.” [Paul Semel]

Also of interest: Cayla Coates talks to Okura about I Think Our Son Is Gay, a gentle comedy about a woman who begins questioning her son’s sexual orientation. “I’ve always felt that gay people in manga and drama are often portrayed as either comic relief or someone with struggles and hardship.,” Okura observes. “I wanted to draw what I consider to be natural, ordinary gay people.” [Crunchyroll]

REVIEWS

Erica Friedman delves into the latest installment of Even Though We’re Adults, singling out the translation and lettering for special praise. “Jocelyne Allen’s translation is outstanding, in providing the nuance and ‘adultness’ this series needs,” she notes, while the “lettering and retouch by Rina Mapa lets’ me feel in the story in exactly the same way as I do when I’m reading the Japanese.” Meanwhile, Megan D. explores the forgotten corners of Tokyopop’s BL catalog with a look at Innocent Bird, “a limp, shallow romance… illustrated with an indifferent and murky hand,” and Christopher Chiu-Tabet continues his retrospective on Sailor Moon with a look at issues 15-20.

  • Cat + Gamer, Vol. 1 (A.M. Ziebruh, Bloom Reviews)
  • Chainsaw Man, Vols. 10-11 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Death Note: Short Stories (Harry, Honey’s Anime)
  • The Elusive Samurai, Vol. 1 (Lesley Aeschliman, Lesley’s Anime and Manga Corner)
  • Fangirl, Vol. 2 (Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading)
  • Hikaru in the Light!, Vol. 1 (Bill Curtis, Yatta-Tachi)
  • Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 2 (Lesley Aeschliman, Lesley’s Anime and Manga Corner)
  • Love After World Domination, Vol. 4 (Justin, The OASG)
  • Magical Artisan Dahlia Wilts No More, Vol. 1 (A.M. Ziebruh, Bloom Reviews)
  • Our Colours (Ron, Game-News24)
  • Sensei’s Pious Lie, Vol. 1 (Joh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Sex Ed 120%, Vol. 3 (Justin, The OASG)
  • Shortcake Cake, Vol. 1 (Kaley Connell, Yatta-Tachi)
  • To Strip the Flesh (Brianna Lawrence, The Mary Sue)
  • To Strip the Flesh (Lesley Aeschliman, Lesley’s Anime and Manga Corner)
  • Uncle From Another World, Vols. 1-2 (Helen, The OASG)
  • Until I Meet My Husband (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Welcome Back, Alice, Vol. 1 (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Whisper Me a Love Song, Vols. 1-4 (Anson Leung, Broken Frontier)
  • With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day Is Fun, Vols. 3-4 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • With You and the Rain, Vols. 1-2 (Justin, The OASG)
  • Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, Vol. 1 (Renee Scott, Good Comics for Kids)
  • Yuri Espoir, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: Gengoroh Tagame, LGBTQ Manga, Manga Industry Jobs, Manga Sales Analysis, Mika Yamamori, Seven Seas, UW7S, VIZ, yuri

The Manga Review, 6/24/22

June 24, 2022 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

Hi, all! Its been a relatively slow news week manga-wise and a crazy week for me work-wise, so I’m going to dispense with the snappy introduction and get right to the links! As always, if there’s a great blog, podcast, or YouTube channel that you think should be featured in The Manga Review, leave a comment below or contact me through Twitter. Your suggestions have already helped me make this a more inclusive and representative space, so keep ’em coming!

NEWS AND FEATURES

The folks at J-List have posted a thoughtful article explaining the steps the United Workers of Seven Seas will need to take in order to unionize. If you don’t know much about the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and its role in “mediat[ing] between the employer, union, and other parties to iron out all the details,” start here. [J-List Blog]

Erica Friedman’s latest Yuri Studio episode is now live, and focuses on sports in yuri anime and manga. [Okazu]

After a brief hiatus from blogging, Allison Ziebruh has revived Bloom Reviews with a raft of new reviews, as well as a thoughtful reflection on the current isekai manga boom. [Bloom Reviews]

Kelli Ewings posts a sneak preview of new works by Gengoroh Tagame, explaining why she’s excited to see more of his ground-breaking work available in English. [Panel Patter]

Wondering what’s new at Seven Seas? Carrie McClain has you covered with licensing news, unionization updated, and brief reviews of The Muscle Girl Next Door, Until I Meet My Husband, and more. [Women Write About Comics]

Laura Grace continues working her way through the shojo manga alphabet with a look at her favorite titles that begin with the letter D. [Beneath the Tangles]

Buckle up, Ryuko fans: Andrew Osmond just sat down for an interview with creator Eldo Yoshimizu. When asked why all his manga feature tough, sexy women in leading roles, he responded, “I like the strong woman, maybe that’s the reason. Especially when I started writing Ryuko, I wanted a lot to have female readers. I had that idea in my head. Especially in Japan, the woman is treated as vulnerable, kawaii… For child readers, that’s fine, but I wanted to provide something more sophisticated, better for the adult readers. Asura [the protagonist in Hen Kai Pan] and Ryuko, they make mistakes and they suffer a lot, and they’re going to grow up… That’s the kind of story I wanted.” [Anime News Network]

REVIEWS

Over at The Guardian, Rachel Cooke posts a thoughtful review of Yamada Murasaki’s Talk to My Back, due out from Drawn & Quarterly this summer. “Murasaki captures her character’s every mood shift and internal contradiction, her guilt as well as her longing (more than once, other people tell Chiharu she should be “grateful” for her life – as if she didn’t know this herself),” Cooke observes. “But Murasaki leavens this by recalling, too, the quotidian pleasures and rituals of home: the jokes, the teasing, a delicious (“slurp”) bowl of noodles. The result is a cross-cultural book about female self-worth – about where it comes from and why it sometimes disappears – that stands the test of time in the most remarkable way.”

Also of note: The OASG’s Justin and Helen offer their perspectives on the latest volume of Witch Hat Atelier, while ANN’s Lynzee Loveridge gives Hideshi Hino’s The Town of Pigs a solid grade of B, and Solrad’s Helen Chazan posts capsule reviews of several new releases.

  • Black Clover, Vol. 29 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Call of the Night, Vols. 7-8 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Days (Krystallina, Daiyamanga)
  • Death Note: Short Stories (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
  • Ghost Reaper Girl, Vol. 1 (Brett Michael Orr, Honey’s Anime)
  • Golden Cain (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)
  • The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, Vol. 2 (Justin, The OASG)
  • Hikaru in the Light!, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman)
  • Housekeeping from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home, Vol. 1 (AM Ziebruh, Bloom Reviews)
  • Hyperventilation (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Island in a Puddle, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • Kenka Bancho Otome: Love’s Battle Royale, Vols. 1-2 (Kaley Connell, Yatta-Tachi)
  • The King’s Beast, Vol. 1 (Kaley Connell, Yatta-Tachi)
  • Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 1 (Harry, Honey’s Anime)
  • Kubo Wont’ Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 1 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Look Back (MrAJCosplay, Anime News Network)
  • Lost Lad London, Vol. 1 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Mizuno and Chayama (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Monologue Woven For You, Vol. 2 (Matt Marcus, Okazu)
  • My Brother’s Husband (Andy Oliver, Broken Frontier)
  • Only the Ring Finger Knows (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)
  • The Savior’s Book Café Story in Another World, Vol. 1 (AM Ziebruh, Bloom Reviews)
  • Sleepy Princess in the Demon King’s Castle, Vol. 17 (Justin, The OASG)
  • To Strip the Flesh (Eric Alex Cline, AiPT!)
  • Turns Out My Online Friend Is My Boss (Helen, The OASG)
  • Welcome Back, Alice, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)

 

Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: Eldo Yoshimizu, Gengoroh Tagame, Seven Seas, shojo, Sports Manga, UW7S, yuri

The Manga Review, 5/27/22

May 27, 2022 by Katherine Dacey 2 Comments

Everybody’s talking about Tokyopop this week, as the publisher that brought us Mixx, Sailor Moon, and Rising Stars of Manga celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. To mark the occasion, Brigid Alverson interviewed Tokyopop founder Stu Levy about the company’s history. “Not a single person believed it would work—and frankly many called us crazy,” Levy recalled. “Even internally, most of my team was against it—or at least wanted to test it. My view was we either had conviction and went all-in or we didn’t. Testing wouldn’t work because retailers would always favor the left-to-right reading books if they had a choice—so there would never be a true test of its potential. So, I bet the company on it.” Over at Drop-In to Manga, Tony reflects on how Tokyopop titles such as Chobits and GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka helped introduce him to the joy of reading manga. “I know there’s a lot of criticism towards its founder, Stu Levy, and a lot of it is warranted,” he observes. “But I still respect Tokyopop for showing Japanese manga publishers that America can be a hotspot for manga during a time when that wasn’t the case.”

NEWS

Moto Hagio has just published a new installment in her on-again, off-again vampire saga The Poe Clan. The newest storyline, Poe no Ichizoku: Ao no Pandora, takes place in present-day Munich. [Anime News Network]

Mari Yamazaki’s Olympia Kyklos will resume serialization in Grand Jump next month. The story follows the adventures of an ancient Greek potter who’s accidentally transported to the 1964 Tokyo games. C’mon, this needs to be licensed STAT! [Anime News Network]

Are new chapters of Hunter x Hunter on the horizon? [Variety]

Brace yourself for more H.P. Lovecraft: Dark Horse will be publishing Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth in a single omnibus edition. No word yet on a release date. [Anime News Network]

Earlier this week, the employees of Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they’d formed their own union, United Workers of Seven Seas. In a statement on their website, union organizers explain the rationale for their decision: “The company has grown exponentially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But with rapid growth comes growing pains, and we, the workers of Seven Seas, have been shouldering much of that pain. We find ourselves overworked, underpaid, and we do not currently receive the benefits otherwise typical of the publishing industry.” [ICv2]

FEATURES AND INTERVIEWS

Are you interested in learning more about the roots of contemporary Japanese culture? Kathryn Hemmann offers a great list of “popular-audience books that are smart and specific yet still accessible to a casual reader,” from Matt Alt’s Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World to Tara Devlin’s Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends. [Contemporary Japanese Literature]

Jocelyne Allen swoons over the gorgeous artwork and soapy plot lines of Ashita Niji ga Denakutemo. [Brain vs. Book]

Over at Women Write About Comics, Carrie McClain highlights some of Seven Seas’ best new releases. [Women Write About Comics]

The folks at Anime Feminist want to know which unfinished or cancelled Tokyopop series you’d like to see rescued. [Anime Feminist]

Bill Curtis wins the award for best headline of the week with How to Ease Your Big Burly, Hairy, Glistening, Beer Swillin’, Iron Pumpin’ DUDE Self Into the Wonderful World of Shojo & Josei Manga. Amen! [Yatta-Tachi]

Speaking of josei, the Mangasplainers dedicate their latest episode to an in-depth exploration of Fumi Yoshinaga’s All My Darling Daughters. [Mangasplaining]

Congratulations to the Manga Mavericks crew: they just celebrated their 200th episode with a roundtable discussion about Tatsuki Fujimoto’s one-shot Goodbye, Eri. [Manga Mavericks]

Lucas DeRuyter revisits Death Note, a series he “took super seriously” as a teen viewer. “When I watched Death Note as a teenager I definitely hadn’t lived enough to recognize it as camp; nor did I have as firm of an understanding of my own sexuality as I do today,” he observes. “I thought I’d be returning to a problematic fave, but was delighted to realize that Death Note is camp. Accidental, ostentatious camp that, in its attempts to create a dark and edgy power fantasy, stumbles so spectacularly that it tears down some of the worst kinds of people and beliefs around today.” [Anime Feminist]

REVIEWS

Reviewing volume five of Kageki Shojo!!, Yuri Stargirl raises a good question about the state of shojo and josei licensing in North America. “Has the industry just become dominated by trite, superficial storytelling and bland art that can’t decide if it’s moe or realistic?” she asks. “Or is what gets translated to the US market so limited, that they pick lowest common denominator titles to publish even though there are a lot of higher quality ones in Japan going untranslated?” Meanwhile, Megan D. takes a look at one of the weirder titles DMP ever licensed, Bambi and Her Pink Gun, while Rebecca Silverman reviews Erica Friedman’s new book By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga. “If you are a fan of yuri or simply want to understand what the deal is with any of the genre’s elements or major texts, I’d highly recommend reading this book,” Silverman argues. “It’s both an analysis of and a love letter to the genre, both academic and accessibly readable, and worth your time.”

  • Aoba-kun’s Confessions (Krystallina, Daiyamanga)
  • As the Gods Will: The Second Series (Krystallina, Daiyamanga)
  • Bootsleg (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Vol. 14 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • BTOOOM! (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)
  • Cat + Gamer, Vol. 1 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
  • Chikyu Misaki (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)
  • Days on Fes, Vol. 5 (Antonio Mireles, The Fandom Post)
  • Fly Me to the Moon, Vols. 10-11 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • A Galaxy Next Door, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Genju no Seiza (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)
  • I Cannot Reach You, Vol. 4 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • The King’s Beast, Vol. 6 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 1 (SKJAM, SKJAM! Reviews)
  • Let’s Go Karaoke! (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)
  • Let’s Go Karaoke! (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Lost Lad London, Vol. 1 (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Lost Lad London, Vol. 1 (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)
  • Love and Heart, Vol. 1 (Kaley Connell, Yatta-Tachi)
  • Mieruko-Chan, Vol. 5 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Mizuno and Chayama (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)
  • My Boy, Vol. 9 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • O Maidens in Your Savage Season, Vols. 6-7 (Helen, The OASG)
  • Ode to Kirihito (Ian Wolf, Anime UK News)
  • Our Fake Marriage, Vol. 8 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • Paradise Residence (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)
  • Prince Freya, Vol. 6 (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)
  • Rent-A-Girlfriend, Vol. 12 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Sasaki and Miyano, Vol. 5 (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)
  • semelparous, Vol. 2 (G-Man, Okazu)
  • Solo Leveling, Vol. 4 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Spy x Family, Vol. 7 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • St. Dragon Girl (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)
  • Strawberry Fields Once Again, Vol. 3 (Rai, The OASG)
  • Witch Watch, Vols. 1-2 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)

Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: death note, fumi yoshinaga, H.P. Lovecraft, Hunter X Hunter, Josei, Mari Yamazaki, moto hagio, Seven Seas, Tokyopop, yuri

The Manga Review, 5/20/22

May 20, 2022 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

This year’s Eisner nominations have just been announced. In the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia category, VIZ Media garnered five of the six nominations with crowd-pleasers such as Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family, while Seven Seas nabbed one for Robo Sapiens: Tales of Tomorrow. The only other manga nominated for an Eisner was Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, which is competing in the Best Humor Publication category. Also nominated for an Eisner is Eike Exner’s Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History, which was published by Rutgers University Press last year.

MANGA NEWS

Big news from Seven Seas! The company has just launched two imprints: Seven Seas BL, which will publish works in the BL/Boys’ Love genre, and Seven Seas GL, which will publish works in the GL/Girls’ Love (yuri) genre. [Seven Seas]

The final chapter in Wataru Hinekure’s My Love Mix-Up! will run in the June issue of Bessatsu Margaret. [Anime News Network]

Brigid Alverson previews three new shonen titles that debut in July. [ICv2]

Over at Book Riot, Carina Pereira highlights eight of the summer’s most anticipated graphic novels. [Book Riot]

How do librarians respond book challenges in their communities? Shawn, Megan, and Tayla offer a variety of helpful strategies for handling complaints about graphic novels, from setting clear policies about who can bring a formal complaint to using peer-reviewed sites to demonstrate that your collection is, in fact, age-appropriate. [No Flying, No Tights]

FEATURES AND INTERVIEWS

Looking for a good read? The crack team at ANN have just posted their Spring 2022 Manga Guide. Look for daily updates through the end of this week. [Anime News Network]

Tony explores the complex friendship between Kaguya Shinomiya and Ai Hayasaka in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. [Drop-In to Manga]

On the latest Manga Mavericks podcast, host Siddharth Gupta convenes a roundtable discussion about Yona of the Dawn with panelists from Anime Feminist, But Why Tho?!, and Good Friends Anime Club. [Manga Mavericks]

Geremy and Kevin round up the latest Shonen Jump chapters, then turn their attention to volume thirteen of Haikyu!! [Jump Start Weekly]

Why did Nobuhiro Watsuki’s Gun Blaze West get the axe after just three volumes? David and Jordan investigate. [Shonen Flop]

Did you know that Tokyopop’s Warriors fandom is still going strong after fifteen years? Patrick Kuklinksi shines a light on the fan-made comics that explore “parts of the books that weren’t detailed in canon,” re-write controversial storylines, and introduce original characters. [SOLRAD]

Megan D. jumps in the WABAC machine for a look at Rumiko Takashi’s Rumic Theater, a collection of short stories that VIZ published more than twenty-five years ago. “What caught my notice about this anthology is that they all feature something you don’t see a lot of in American manga releases: adult women,” she observes. “Every lead character is either a currently married woman (be they with or without children) or one who was married in the past.  A lot of their stories are small-scale, focused on their homes and their immediate community of friends and family. True to Takahashi fashion, though, they are also often comical”.” [The Manga Test Drive]

REVIEWS

Are you following Al’s Manga Blog? If not, you should: this review-focused website has been publishing insightful, crisply written essays since 2016. Al’s latest offerings include in-depth reviews of The Music of Marie, a new title by Usamaru Furuya (Short Cuts, Genkaku Picasso); Island in a Puddle, a thriller by Kei Sanabe (Erased); and Sakamoto Days, a new Shonen Jump series by Yutu Suzuki.

Also of note: ANN’s Caitlin Moore draws on her own experiences with ADHD in a thoughtful review of My Brain is Different: Stories of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders, while Masha Zhdanova posts capsule reviews of three new VIZ titles.

  • All-Out!! (Krystallina, Daiyamanga)
  • All-Rounder Meguru (Krystallina, Daiyamanga)
  • Awkward Silence (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)
  • Boys Run the Riot, Vol. 1 (Seth Smith, Women Write About Comics)
  • Devil Ecstasy, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Fly Me to the Moon, Vol. 11 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • A Galaxy Next Door, Vol. 1 (Brett Michael Orr, Honey’s Anime)
  • Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)
  • Golden Japanesque: A Splendid Yokohama Romance, Vol. 5 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • The Haunted Bookstore, Vol. 1 (SKJAM, SKJAM! Reviews)
  • Island in a Puddle, Vol. 1 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Jujutsu Kaisen, Vols. 14-15 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 1 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • The Music of Marie (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
  • My Androgynous Boyfriend (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)
  • The Poe Clan, Vol. 1 (Eric Alex Cline, AiPT!)
  • Record of Ragnarok, Vol. 1 (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Rent-A-(Really Shy!)-Girlfriend, Vol. 2 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Sakamoto Days, Vol. 1 (Renee Scott, Good Comics for Kids)
  • Seaside Stranger, Vol. 2: Harukaze no Étranger (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)
  • Sensei’s Pious Lie, Vol. 1 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Short Sunzen (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)
  • Stravaganza (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)
  • To Strip the Flesh (Quinn, But Why Tho?!)
  • Wind Breaker, Vol. 1 (Brett Michael Orr, Honey’s Anime)

Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: BL, censorship, Eisner Awards, Rumiko Takahashi, Seven Seas, Shonen Jump, Tokyopop, VIZ, yuri

The Manga Review, 5/6/22

May 6, 2022 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

When it comes to manga commentary, I freely admit that I’m more of a reader than a listener. Mangasplaining, however, is helping change my mind about manga podcasts. Every week, Deb Aoki, David Brothers, Christopher Butcher, and Chip Zdarsky analyze manga old and new, from classic titles such as AKIRA to fan favorites such as Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku. The Mangasplainers are frequently joined by industry professionals for interesting conversations about translating, publishing, and creating manga; among their most recent guests were Jamila Rowser, founder of Black Josei Press, and Ken Niimura, a Spanish-Japanese artist best known for his work on I Kill Giants. Complementing the podcast is MSX: Mangasplaining Extra, a weekly newsletter written by Deb, Christopher, and Andrew Woodrow-Butcher that focuses on their newest venture: translating and publishing manga for North American readers.

NEWS AND FEATURES

Deb Aoki offers an in-depth look at the North American manga market. Though global supply issues have made it more difficult to bring readers their favorite series in print, manga sales reached a record high in 2021. As VIZ Media’s Kevin Hamric observes, “Manga is no longer a niche category. It is now a mainstream/mass category.” [Publisher’s Weekly]

Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow! Several manga publishers will have kid- and teen-friendly titles, from VIZ’s Pokémon Journeys to Tokyopop’s Guardian of Fukushima, a graphic novel about Naoto Matsumura, a farmer who defied government orders by returning to Fukushima to save his animals. [Free Comic Book Day]

Cat lovers take note: Daisuke Igarashi just launched a new series called Kamakura Bakeneko Kurabu, which translates roughly to Kamakura Monster Cat Club. [Anime News Network]

On Wednesday, Seven Seas unveiled four new manga licenses: Gap Papa: Daddy at Work and at Home, The Knight Blooms Behind Castle Walls, My Sister The Cat, and No Longer Human… In Another World, “a dark comedy starring a famous historical writer who would honestly rather die than live out an isekai fantasy.” [Seven Seas]

Tezuka Productions recently launched an English-language Twitter feed. [Twitter]

Megan Thee Stallion has impeccable taste in anime. [Black Girl Nerds]

If you plan to be in Tokyo next March, why not check out the Spy x Family musical, which will have its premier at the Imperial Theater? [Otaku USA]

Wondering what’s new at your local comic book store? Bill Curtis just posted a complete list of May’s manga and light novel releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

In the latest episode of Shojo & Tell, Ashley and guest Olive St. Sauver discuss the first six volumes of Suu Morishita’s Shortcake Cake. [Shojo & Tell]

Good news for yuri manga fans: Erica Friedman’s By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga is now available for pre-order. Her book is the first of its kind in English, offering a thoughtful, wide-ranging exploration of “the key creators, tropes, concepts, symbols and titles of the first 100 years of the Yuri genre.” [Okazu]

Sam Sattin chats with Masha Zhdanova about his latest project: a reboot of Osamu Tezuka’s Unico. “Unico in particular I found to be a fascinating character who is often misunderstood,” Sattin observes. “Unico was created for children, but like many of Tezuka’s child-oriented fables, the character’s story is complex, emotional, and chock full of meaning… In it, I see an amazing story that could simultaneously serve a new generation of readers and honor Osamu Tezuka’s work.” [Women Write About Comics]

Jeff Trexler, the Interim Director of CBLDF, sounds a cautionary note about Free Comic Book Day, noting that retailers need to be vigilant about which books they give away, and to whom. “The new comic’s code is an algorithm,” Trexler observes. “What people are trying to do is not simply the fact that they’re trying to get retailers arrested or school teachers arrested or librarians arrested. They recognize in the age of Twitter, you don’t have to do that. All you have to do is get them shamed or banned. You can mass swarm a retailer and report them to Facebook or Twitter for selling pornography.” [ICv2]

REVIEWS

Congratulations to Megan D., who celebrates the tenth anniversary of The Manga Test Drive this week! You can help her mark this milestone by checking out her recent reviews of Dick Fight Island (NSFW, as you might imagine), Hinadori Girl, Wanted, and Peepo Choo. Over at Book Dragon, Terry Hong posts a review of Gengoroh Tagame’s Our Colors, “another poignant, empowering, gay-centered narrative… translated by queer manga expert Anne Ishii.”

  • Ace of the Diamond, Vols. 1-7 (Krystallina, Daiyamanga)
  • Anyway, I’m Falling in Love With You, Vols. 1-2 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • Blackguard, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Blue Period, Vol. 6 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Boys Run the Riot, Vol. 1 (James Hepplewhite, Bleeding Cool)
  • The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, Vol. 1 (Al, Al’s Manga Blog)
  • The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, Vols. 1-2 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • The Dragon Knight’s Beloved, Vol. 1 (Kaley Connell, Yatta-Tachi)
  • Goodbye, Eri (Ari Tantimedh, Bleeding Cool)
  • The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, Vol. 2 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • High School Prodigies Have It Easy, Even in Another World!, Vol. 1 (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)
  • How De We Relationship?, Vol. 5 (King Baby Duck, The Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School, Vol. 3 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • I Want to Be a Wall, Vol. 1 (Christian Markle, Honey’s Anime)
  • In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 5 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Karakuri Odette, Vol. 3 (Thomas Zoth, The Fandom Post)
  • Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible!, Vol. 1 (Eric Alex Cline, AiPT!)
  • Lady Snowblood, Vol. 1 (SKJAM, SKJAM! Reviews)
  • Love After World Domination, Vol. 2 (Justin, The OASG)
  • Lovesick Ellie, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • A Man and His Cat, Vol. 5 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • Mizuno and Chayama (Christian Markle, Honey’s Anime)
  • My Brain Is Different: Stories of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions, Vol. 2 (King Baby Duck, The Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • My Love Mix-Up!, Vols. 2-3 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • Nighttime for Just Us Two, Vol. 1 (King Baby Duck, The Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Orochi: The Perfect Edition (Renee Scott, Good Comics for Kids)
  • Our Kingdom, Vol. 1 (Library Girl, A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
  • Our Kingdom, Vol. 2 (Library Girl, A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
  • Phantom Tales of the Night, Vol. 1 (Helen, The OASG)
  • Queen’s Quality, Vol. 14 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Rent-a-Girlfriend, Vols. 10-11 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Rurouni Kenshin: Three-in-One Omnibus, Vol. 1 (Library Girl, A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
  • The Royal Tutor, Vol. 16 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, Vol. 15 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • Sasaki and Miyano, Vol. 5 (Eric Alex Cline, AiPT!)

Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: CBD, Daisuke Igarashi, Free Comic Book Day, Osamu Tezuka, Seven Seas, Tokyopop, yuri

Sweet Blue Flowers, Vol 1

March 25, 2018 by Anna N

Sweet Blue Flowers Volume 1 by Takako Shimura

The Viz signature line might not have quite as much hype as it did when it first launched, but it is nice to see it reserved for titles that deserve special treatment, like Sweet Blue Flowers. I had high expectations for this title based on Takako Shimura’s sensitivity and artistry in her other series Wandering Son, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Sweet Blue Flowers starts by showing old friends reconnecting. Akira Okudaira meets Fumi Manjome on her way to school, and the girls fend off train gropers together. They head off to different schools, where Fumi deals with her crippling shyness, and Akira has an easier time fitting in. Akira banters with her family about the possibility of bringing home a girlfriend from her all-girls high school. The girls’ mothers reconnect and they realize that they were kindergarten friend. Back then, Akira served as Fumi’s protector when dealing with all the trials and tribulations of childhood.

As the story unfolded in this manga, I was struck with the economy of Shimura’s storytelling, and how small moments or single panels are filled with significance. Fumi is upset about her cousin’s marriage to an extent that seems slightly beyond the norm, even for a girl who has retained some of her childhood tendency to burst into tears as an adolescent. Shimura captures the hazards of teen girls taking public transportation in a short panel sequence that focuses on a disembodied reaching hand and Akira’s shocked facial expression. Shimura is also wonderful at scattering plot points throughout the manga in a way that makes the narrative feel like it just evolves naturally from the daily lives of the characters. Fumi’s relationship with her cousin is mentioned more as the book unfolds, as Fumi becomes involved with the dashing Yasuko, who takes on the role of Heathcliff in a production of Wuthering Heights.

Akira is steadfastly supportive, and as the manga unfolds Sweet Blue Flowers’ slice of life approach to exploring friendship and romance draws the reader in. Shimura’s subtle storytelling and sensitivity towards character development makes reading this manga a pleasure. I’m disappointed with myself that I took so long to finally read this volume!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Sweet Blue Flowers, viz media, yuri

After Hours and My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness

September 22, 2017 by Katherine Dacey

After Hours and My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness epitomize a small but growing trend in yuri manga licensing: both focus on women in their twenties exploring their sexuality, rather than depicting middle- or high-school aged girls crushing on each other.

After Hours is the more upbeat of the two, a sympathetic portrait of twenty-three-year-old Emi, a recent college graduate who’s just quit her job and is struggling to figure out what comes next. A chance encounter with Kei, a twenty-nine-year-old deejay, is a turning point in Emi’s young adult life: not only is she drawn to Kei’s confidence, she’s also intrigued by Kei’s passion for spinning records. As their connection deepens, Emi takes a more active role in supporting Kei’s career, joining Kei’s circle of friends and trying her hand at “veejaying,” selecting videos to complement Kei’s set lists.

One of the most striking aspects of After Hours is Yuhta Nishio’s sensitive depiction of Emi and Kei’s sexual encounters. He uses a handful of discrete signifiers — a pile of clothing on the floor, a tender embrace, a flirtatious post-coital chat — rather than explicit or provocative imagery. That’s a wise choice, I think, as it allows Nishio to portray Emi and Kei as grown women with healthy sexual urges without reducing them to sexualized objects. Nishio’s restrained approach also emphasizes the aspects of Emi and Kei’s bodily intimacy that foster a mutual sense of trust, familiarity, and affection — a dimension of sexual experience that’s often missing from straight romance manga.

Though the first chapters are largely uneventful, future volumes promise dramatic complications. Emi has yet to disclose her relationship to her friends or her not-quite-ex-boyfriend, with whom she’s still sharing an apartment. More interestingly, Emi hasn’t really thought about what it means to be in a relationship with another woman; she’s initially surprised by her attraction to Kei, but resists labeling those feelings as lesbian, bisexual, or queer, choosing instead to savor the sense of purpose and joy that being with Kei brings to her life. The ease with which Emi embraces her new love is a refreshing development, a quiet rebuttal of the idea that sexual orientation is absolute or easily defined.

By contrast, Nagata Kabi’s My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is a more complex story, a confessional comic documenting the author’s sexual awakening in her late twenties. Nagata narrates her odyssey with candor, acknowledging the degree to which mental illness dictated her adult life. She describes the bodily ravages of disordered eating — she vacillated between anoxeria and bulimia — and the emotional toll of disordered thinking, noting the degree to which both depression and body dysmorphia prevented her from holding down a job, maintaining friendships, or thinking about herself as a sexual person. She also ruminates on her chilly relationship with her parents, and her profound sense of shame in disappointing them by not becoming a “real” adult with a conventional office job.

After hitting rock bottom, Nagata realizes the degree to which she’s suppressed her sexuality. In an effort to reassert control over her life, Nagata decides to hire a female escort for her first sexual experience. Nagata documents this encounter in an almost clinical fashion, contrasting her feverish anticipation with her stiff, detached response to being touched. For all of her progress towards mental health and self-acceptance, she realizes that she cannot yet surrender to the bodily sensations of desire — a tension that remains unresolved at the end of her narrative, even though Nagata’s final panels suggest her sense of relief and pride for taking such a bold step.

That Nagata’s journey is more inspiring than depressing is a testament to her writing skills (and, I might add, Jocelyne Allen’s artfully wry translation). Though Nagata never shies away from describing uncomfortable thoughts or self-destructive behavior, she finds moments of grace and humor in even the darkest situations, especially as she begins to contemplate what it means to be a sexual person. In three sharp, economical panels, for example, she explores her profound discomfort with binary gender labels, even as she begins to recognize her sexual attraction to women:

It feels churlish to criticize such a personal work, and yet I found myself wishing that Nagata’s art felt more essential to the story she was telling. Writing for The Comics Journal, critic Katie Skelly voiced similar concerns, arguing that Nagata’s tendency to mix big blocks of text with cute drawings keeps the reader at arm’s length when Nagata discloses intimate, sometimes disturbing, details of her eating disorders and self-mutilation. “Nagata can’t find a suitable bridge to mend the gap between the story of her experience and aesthetic,” Skelly notes. “[H]er style can read as generic and her tone never quite finds its mark.” I admit to feeling the same way about Nagata’s work: I admired her raw honesty, but felt that My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness could have been a book, a movie, or a Moth Radio Hour segment just as easily as a comic; nothing about the way Nagata related her experiences felt like it was uniquely suited to manga, as her drawings were more illustrative of what she felt than genuinely revelatory about why she felt such profound self-loathing.

For all the things that go unsaid in My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, however, there’s much wisdom in Nagata’s story, especially for people struggling with what it means to be healthy, whole, and sexual. Nagata’s recovery is a testament to the human capacity for resilience, and her willingness to share her most vulnerable moments with strangers an act of genuine courage. Here’s hoping that she continues to document her journey of self-discovery.

VIZ Media provided a complimentary review copy of After Hours.

AFTER HOURS • STORY AND ART BY YUHTA NISHIO • TRANSLATION BY ABBY LEHRKE • 160 pp. • RATED TEEN+ (for older teens)

MY LESBIAN EXPERIENCE WITH LONELINESS • STORY AND ART BY NAGATA KABI • TRANSLATED BY JOCELYNE ALLEN • SEVEN SEAS • 152 pp. • RATED OT (for older teens)

Filed Under: Manga, Manga Critic, REVIEWS Tagged With: LGBTQ, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, Nagata Kabi, Seven Seas, VIZ, yuri

Off the Shelf: Kisses & Crosses

June 8, 2013 by Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith 3 Comments

MICHELLE: Hey, Melinda! What did the water say to the boat?

MELINDA: Um. I got nothin’.

MICHELLE: Nothing. It just waved.

MELINDA: Okay, that actually made me giggle a little bit.

MICHELLE: Victory! While I wallow in this feeling, care to introduce our first selection? (I note this is another week in which Melinda and I have two mutual reads instead of just one.)

kissessighs_vol1_fullMELINDA: Sure! Hmmmm… now the question is, which one? I guess I’ll start with the book I read last, since it’s freshest in my mind, and that would be Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossom Pink, a double-sized volume of yuri short stories from Milk Morinaga, creator of Girl Friends, a five-volume series that we discussed in this column last year. Though Girl Friends was released here first, Kisses predates it, and it’s easy to see how one grew out of the other.

The volume’s opening chapter, “Not Friends Anymore,” begins the story of Nana and Hitomi, long-time best friends who are about to start high school together—or so Nana thinks. When Hitomi abruptly announces that she’s decided to attend a different school, Nana struggles with feelings of hurt and loss, until she finally realizes that it was her own rejection of Hitomi’s stronger feelings that drove her away. Eventually, Nana comes to terms with her own feelings and the two begin to explore a romantic relationship. Initially they are relieved to have ended up at different high schools, since they’d have a harder time concealing their romance as classmates, but over time they become dissatisfied with living in secrecy and find themselves longing for friends with whom they can share the truth about their relationship.

Though the book is a series of short stories, Morinaga uses Nana and Hitomi’s story to thread the collection together; each story is set at one of the two girls’ schools, utlimately bringing things back to their romance by the end. The stories are lovingly woven together, creating a feeling of real cohesion unusual in the short manga I’ve read. Since short stories aren’t my favorite format for manga, I found this quite gratifying.

MICHELLE: It was that sense of cohesion that kind of threw me, actually, since Sean’s comments about it for the last Pick of the Week column had led me to expect more couples, and more sad stories.

It’s not that I disliked Nana and Hitomi, though I did find them a little dull. More, I liked the stories with ambiguous or less cheery endings, like “Remember This Love Someday,” in which a girl confesses to her boyish friend, only to be kindly rejected by her, or “My True Feelings,” which ends with one girl declaring that she’ll make another like her. It doesn’t really seem likely, in my eyes, so I like it for that, even if it’s played a bit comedically.

MELINDA: I wouldn’t say that I found Nana and Hitomi dull, but the volume as a whole did really make me aware of just how much I crave more grown-up (or at least more complicated) romance. Like Girl Friends, Kisses is nothing if not sweet, but there’s a sameness to even the less overtly happy stories that makes me long for something more. Kisses‘ various romantic protagonists are all nice, pretty girls, carrying on relatively uncomplicated relationships in relatively comfortable environments. Even Hitomi and Nana’s brief stint as runaways is stunningly uncomplicated, as the two shack up in a hot springs resort before heading home to discover that all their problems have magically been resolved. The whole thing is, as I mentioned, unambiguously sweet, and though that’s often enough for me, I couldn’t help wishing for something just a bit meatier.

MICHELLE: “Sweet” is generally enough for me, too, but I think “sameness” aptly describes the aspect that left me feeling a bit blah. Nobody really stands out. None of the background characters is particularly significant. There’s nothing in these girls lives except other girls. It’s like they’re just drifting along, occasionally fancying each other, and not engaging with anything else.

MELINDA: Well said, Michelle. It’s a lovely little collection, don’t get me wrong, just… not much more than that.

So, shall we move on to our second selection?

MICHELLE: Okay!

CrossManage1Cross Manage is a relatively new Weekly Shonen Jump series in Japan, beginning in 2012, but we’ve already got a taste of it here, courtesy of VIZ’s digital manga site. (I have no idea whether there are plans for a print edition of the title.) Given that I generally adore sports manga, I really wanted to like this, and though I was kind of disappointed by its first half, it won me over in the end.

Tsunenori Sakurai used to be the star of the soccer team, but after a knee injury resulted in doctors telling him he’d never play again, Sakurai quit the team and has been adrift ever since, trying multiple clubs in the hopes of finding something that interests him. One day, he comes upon Misora Toyoguchi, who is enthusiastically practicing lacrosse by herself. Eventually, his innate sports sensibilities (or something) enable him to see where she is going wrong, and he is able to coach her through a breakthrough in her technique. When he accidentally touches her chest, Misora decides to exploit the situation and get him to manage the girls’ lacrosse team, of which she is captain, despite her lack of skills. At first, Sakurai resists, but can’t help responding to Misora’s passion for the sport, and ends up unashamedly giving it his all.

I just couldn’t get into Cross Manage at first, and kept seeing it ticking off items on, like, the Hikaru no Go checklist or something. Pro jock who has lost his own chance to play who is now mentoring someone else? Check? Underdog school club that has to undergo last-minute recruitment for a game? Check! First game against the most renowned school, with its super-refined, untouchable ace? Check! Gradually, though, I found myself won over. I like that Sakurai can tell Misora frankly how amazing he thinks she is, and of course the whole “I’ve finally found it” (regarding a place to belong) revelation pushes my buttons in a big way. And though Misora herself is somewhat of a cipher at this point, I like some of her teammates quite a lot, especially chubby, shy Noto, who is actually the most skilled player on the team.

MELINDA: In general, you’re a much bigger fan of sports manga than I, so I’m surprised to report that I had no problem whatsoever getting into Cross Manage from the beginning. Now, I’ve actually been following the series for a while, by way of Derek Bown’s Weekly Shonen Jump Recaps, so it may be that his increasingly positive impressions predisposed me to cut it some slack early on, but I liked both Sakurai and Misora right away and felt invested in their stories from the start. Also, I enjoyed the story’s examination of the difference between Misora’s initial raw enthusiasm for lacrosse and her growing seriousness, and how this progression affects her ability to play without caring about playing well.

Since you’ve brought up Noto, though (who is, indeed, awesome), I’ll take this opportunity to mention my one real issue with the series so far. I’ve complained before about overweight manga characters being portrayed as lacking normal facial features, and while this applies to Noto to a small extent (though even Misora’s facial features are pretty basic, Noto’s are disproportionally tiny in comparison to her over-round face), there is another heavy member of the girls’ lacrosse team whose physical features… well… I can only ask “WTF?”

IMG_0466

I mean… Yeah. I don’t know what to else say.

MICHELLE: I don’t either. I kept being reminded of Kurita and Komusubi from Eyeshield 21, who are also large and fat and small and fat, respectively. Both have very simple facial features compared to the other characters, but they’re male instead of female. (They’re my favorite characters in that series, actually.)

I guess we could look on the bright side and note that (in both cases) they’re portrayed positively, and their characterization is not based on weight at all.

MELINDA: I guess so? It really bothered me, though, I’ll admit. Not enough to keep me from continuing with the series, but enough to cause persistent discomfort, which is disappointing considering how much I enjoyed the volume otherwise.

MICHELLE: Possibly One Piece has inoculated me against being too distracted by strange body types, since that series is full of them. Granted, it feels much more out of place for just one character to look so weird. In One Piece, there’s a bevy of folks looking weird.

MELINDA: Yeah, I know that odd-looking manga characters are nothing unusual, but my discomfort in this instance is specifically related to the portrayal of fat people as having less complete or less “real” facial characteristics than other people, which implies that they are less complete or less real themselves. It’s a thing.

That said, Cross Manage has a lot going for it, and I’m likely to stick with it.

MICHELLE: Yeah, me too!

Filed Under: OFF THE SHELF Tagged With: Cross Manage, kisses sighs and cherry blossom pink, milk morinaga, yuri

Off the Shelf: BL GL Bookrack

April 28, 2012 by Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith 8 Comments

MELINDA: Welcome back to Off the Shelf! We’re doing something a bit different with the column this week. Usually, somewhere around this time, we’d be preparing our monthly BL Bookrack column, featuring reviews of a handful of new BL titles. This month, we decide to switch things up a bit, and take on a few Yuri titles—sort of a “GL Bookrack” if you will—inspired by the growing number of Yuri titles becoming available digitally from JManga. But as we talked more about it, we realized we both wanted to read all three of the titles currently available.

So, in the end, we bring you BL GL Bookrack, Off the Shelf style!

Michelle, would you like to introduce our first title?

MICHELLE: Hmm… where to start? I suppose the simplest title can go first, and that would have to be Hayako Goto’s Poor Poor Lips.

Told in a four-panel format, Poor Poor Lips is a comedy about Okashi Nako (whose name is a pun meaning “strange girl”), a deeply impoverished 21-year-old who answers an advertisement for a sales job at a store selling power stones. The manager, Otsuka Ren, is the daughter of a rich family who promptly tells all the applicants that she is a lesbian. When most of them flee, Nako is hired on the spot with the reassurance, “You’re DEFINITELY not my type, so don’t worry.”

Most of the manga involves gags about Nako’s extreme poverty—she eats a lot of bread crusts—and Ren’s growing fondness for her, coupled with her impulse to give Nako everything she lacks, which she is trying not to do because previous relationships have been spoiled by excess generosity. Ren also gets really jealous of Nako’s old classmate, pastry chef Furui, and does various silly things to get him to go away/keep tabs on him, including placing spy cameras in his shop.

All in all, I have to say that I didn’t find this funny at all. That’s not to say that it isn’t pleasant, but none of the gags struck me as funny. I kept thinking, “I wonder what this would be like if Nako was actually depicted as a scruffy young woman instead of looking like an eight-year-old.” I bet I would’ve liked it more then. Ultimately, I didn’t really feel much inclined to read the other two volumes available on JManga, figuring they’d simply be more of the same.

How about you?

MELINDA: I’d say my reaction was significantly different, at least once I’d gotten a ways into the story. What you describe is pretty much how I felt over the course of the first few chapters, but as the volume continued, I have to say it really grew on me. I began to like both of the main characters quite a bit, and I did actually find a lot of it to be quite funny, particularly the running (false) rivalry between Ren and Furui (whose family’s bakery “Furui Cake” could also be read as “old cake”).

Things like the over-the-top spying and even Nako’s young/cute appearance read as humorous to me, which I largely chalk up to its being a 4-koma. I think I would have found most of it unappealing as a regular story manga, but in comic strip format, it really worked for me.

MICHELLE: I was still envisioning it as 4-koma, but with an older-looking Nako. But, yeah, maybe a lot of over-the-top silliness wouldn’t be possible if she looked too realistic.

I will say that I think the story has surprising depth in terms of Ren’s conflicting impulses. She honestly doesn’t know how to make someone happy other than by bestowing money and gifts upon them, and it’s hard for her not to coddle someone or something she likes. Goto exemplifies this rather neatly in a few panels about a stray kitten Nako takes in, and Ren’s sad past with an overfed baby bird.

I guess I should clarify that me not finding something funny doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s worthwhile or, as I called it, “pleasant.” It is at least not outright unfunny.

MELINDA: I’ll point out, too, that this is one of the better localization efforts I’ve seen from JManga. It read really smoothly, the translation notes were genuinely helpful, and the fact that I found it funny at all says a lot. I think 4-koma is very difficult to bring across effectively in English.

MICHELLE: Definitely. I think I saw all of one typo. There are a few print publishers who wish they could make that claim!

So, how about you introduce the second title?

MELINDA: Sure! Let’s take a fairly drastic turn and look at the other single volume we each read, Ebine Yamaji’s Love My Life, originally serialized in josei magazine Feel Young, home of familiar titles like Bunny Drop (Yen Press), Happy Mania (Tokyopop), and Blue (Fanfare/Ponent Mon).

Love My Life tells the story of a young woman named Ichiko who, upon coming out to her father, discovers that he also is gay, as was her mother (who died when Ichiko was quite young). What’s especially interesting about this, is that though the story certainly centers around the relationship between Ichiko and her girlfriend, Ellie, that’s not the only thing Ichiko is dealing with by far. She’s also having to come to terms with the fact that her parents’ relationship wasn’t what she thought, and that even now, her father has been living a life completely separate from the one he has with her. And since we meet Ichiko after her relationship with Ellie has already been going on for some time, it’s neither a coming-out story nor a typical romance.

Ichiko meets her father’s boyfriend (who wants very little to do with her), helps Ellie survive her strained relationship with her own father, struggles with feelings of loneliness while Ellie studies for the bar exam, and poses as her gay (male) best friend’s girlfriend to help shield him from having to deal with his sexuality at school. It’s more of a slice-of-life manga than anything else, but emotionally resonant in a way I tend to expect from serious drama or well-written romance.

I have to say that this was probably my favorite of all the Yuri we read this week, mainly because it was by far the most relatable and true-to-life. I like genre romance a lot, but this contained some of the best aspects of romance manga (including a good amount of sexual content) without having to rely on fantasy at all, which I’ll admit is pretty refreshing. It’s also added to my yearning to see more josei in English, Yuri or otherwise.

MICHELLE: Yes, this was my favorite, as well. As you say, it’s neither a coming-out story nor a typical romance. To me, it reads simply as a growing-up story with a focus on being true to yourself. Ichiko comes out to her father, but learns a truth in return that flips her world on end. It’s a hard thing to learn that something you’d believed in was never real, and that your parents are individuals with thoughts, desires, and lives that may have nothing to do with you. As hard as that is to process, though, she achieves a better understanding of her father as a result, including the realization of how understanding he is.

And then there’s Ellie, who has been fueled by the desire to compete with her father and brother. It’s not that she particularly wants to be a lawyer, but wants to prove, “I can catch up to you. And be on equal footing with you.” Ichiko instinctively feels that this is wrong, but must learn not to meddle and let Ellie have her own journey, come to her own realizations.

I liked that there’s not a certain “happy ever after” feeling to Love My Life. Ichiko and Ellie may not last as a couple. But one definitely gets the sense that, even if that were to happen, they would still be okay.

MELINDA: That was all so eloquently put, Michelle! I’m not sure I could add anything of substance to what you just said. Yes. Exactly. You’re so right-on.

As I attempt to muster some kind of intelligence again, do you want to talk about our third selection?

MICHELLE: Thank you! And sure!

Our last title is Milk Morinaga’s Girl Friends, which is available on JManga in its five-volume entirety (and which will be coming to print courtesy of Seven Seas later this year). This seinen series was serialized in Futabasha’s Comic High! and takes place at an all-girls high school.

Mariko (Mari) Kumakura is somewhat shy and reserved, but accepts an invitation from a more outgoing classmate, Akiko (Akko) Oohashi, to take the train home together. This leads to Akko encouraging Mari to get a haircut, educating her about fashion, and introducing her to some friends, including glamorous Sugi and cosplay addict Tamamin. All of this helps Mari gain confidence and some independence, and as she and Akko get closer, she starts to realize that she not only doesn’t want their friendship to fade, but wants to be more than friends.

Various misunderstandings ensue. Mari despairs that hers is “a love that can never come true,” and decides to date a former classmate in an attempt to move on and be happy that she gets to be Akko’s friend. At one point she kisses Akko, but is later evasive and embarrassed and eventually plays it off as a joke. But soon, Akko is feeling jealous of the time that Mari spends with her boyfriend, and realizes that she too wants to be more than friends. Now if only she can convince Mari that she really means it, or has that ship already sailed?

Sorry, lapsed into a bit of “back cover blurb” style, there!

MELINDA: Well done! In some ways, the “back cover blurb” summary is very much the point. Girlfriends falls into what Erica Friedman refers to as “Story A” for the genre, which isn’t an inherently negative description, by any means, but it is an indication that this is going to be a formula romance on a basic level. It’s a very enjoyable formula romance, in my opinion, but it’s unquestionably romantic fantasy. I’d even say it’s unquestionably romantic fantasy for men, given the particular types of fanservice we see throughout, but even that isn’t really a negative. It’s just a point of fact.

As I’ve said, I absolutely enjoy genre romance, and that’s what Girlfriends is. It’s got all the sweetness and anticipation of most any high school romance you’d find in a typical shoujo magazine, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. It’s adorable. And if the way things work out so neatly and sweetly (after getting through a few typical hurdles) feels unbelievable, that’s part of what makes it fantasy.

MICHELLE: I concur. Reading it, though, I was struck by how little yuri I have really actually read. While I knew it was all going according to formula, reading about a burgeoning relationship between two girls still felt pretty new to me.

I’m glad you brought up the fanservice, because I definitely wanted to talk about that. First off, I should mention that it’s much less than I had anticipated, knowing that this series ran in a seinen magazine. There are a few superfluous bikinis, a few crotch shots, some boobies… but that’s about the extent of it. In contrast, Love My Life has much more sexual content, but because it feels more natural to the story (with no zooming in to specific body parts) it doesn’t come off as fanservice at all.

MELINDA: Yeah, I would never describe the sexual content in Love My Life as “fanservice” and looking at these two titles together really highlights the difference there. But as you say, the service in Girlfriends is definitely restrained. It almost feels like little more than a shift in perspective from shoujo romance, in which the girls are usually drawn just as prettily, short skirts and all, just not by way of the male gaze.

I, too, have read relatively little yuri, but I’m very glad to see more of it becoming available in English, including romantic fantasies like Girlfriends. I’m a big fan of romance, and I’ve pretty much discovered over the years that my tastes in that genre depend very little on the genders of the characters, outside of the fact that it offers more variety in the genre, and variety is always a good thing. Possibly that makes me pretty shallow, but really, I just like a good romance.

MICHELLE: Same here! So thanks, JManga, and more of the same, please!

Filed Under: OFF THE SHELF Tagged With: girlfriends, JManga, love my life, poor poor lips, yuri

The Best Manga You’re Not Reading: Rica ‘tte Kanji!?

June 1, 2011 by Katherine Dacey

The most basic yuri plotline — what publisher Erica Friedman calls “Story A” — traces its roots back to the pioneering Class S fiction of Nobuko Yoshiya (1896-1973). In works such as Hana monogatari (1916-24) and Yaneura no nishojo (1919), schoolgirls developed intense, often romantic, feelings for other schoolgirls. Given the period in which Yoshiya wrote, it’s not surprising that her characters’ relationships were never consummated; the girls might exchange passionate letters or meaningful glances, but marriage, graduation, or death prevented them from being together as a couple. Fifty years later, when manga artists such as Ryoko Yamagishi and Riyoko Ikeda began writing girls’ love stories, they, too, favored tragic endings; Yamagishi’s Shiroi Heya no Futari (1971), for example, culminates in a melodramatic death (suicide by ex-boyfriend, to be exact), as do Ikeda’s Oniisama e… (1975) and Claudine…! (1978).

Small wonder, then, that manga-ka Rica Takashima saw a vacuum that needed filling. “There were very few manga with lesbian stories,” Takashima explains in the afterword to Rica ‘tte Kanji!? “Only depressing, sad stories about ‘forbidden love’ and with a break-up in the end. For example, ‘If I were a man, I could marry you.’ That kind of thing, but I wanted to read a HAPPY story.”

And “happy” is the perfect adjective to describe Rica ‘tte Kanji!? Rica, the heroine, is a cheerful optimist who moves to Tokyo to attend junior college (she plans to major in early childhood development) and explore the Nichome district, home to the city’s gay community. At the beginning of the series, Rica is nervous about visiting Nichome for the first time, worrying about what to wear and how to handle pick-up lines:

Rica’s fears are quickly allayed when she’s introduced to Miho, a sardonic art student a few years Rica’s senior. The two meet cute on Rica’s first trip to Nichome’s Lily Bar, where Rica confesses that she’s never met “an actual lesbian.” “I grew up out in the country,” she explains to Miho. “It’s the same for everyone in the beginning,” Miho assures her, prompting Rica to declare Miho her first gay friend. Though Miho falls for Rica right away, Rica’s lack of experience and general ditziness makes her oblivious to Miho’s advances. Their relationship has another hurdle to clear as well: Rica is just as nervous about the idea of having sex as she was about making a good impression at the Lily Bar, and keeps Miho at arm’s length — figuratively and literally — as she tries to decide what she’s comfortable doing.

What Takashima does better than most is to find the comedy in these situations, not by creating artificial misunderstandings between the characters, or manufacturing romantic rivals, but by making us privy to Rica and Miho’s thoughts. The two women’s internal monologues are funny, peppered with cute and weird observations, but they’re also very truthful; who among us hasn’t worried about putting the moves on a friend or being naked with a new partner?

Though Takashima’s script is charming, what really makes Rica ‘tte Kanji!? work is the art. That may seem like a funny thing to say about a story in which the characters are little more than well-dressed stick figures with cute, round faces, but Takashima’s illustrations have a warm, handmade quality. Better still, the artwork never panders to male yuri fans; by rendering the characters as cute, paper-doll figures, Takashima directs the eye away from Rica and Miho’s bodies towards their faces, compelling the reader to see the women as two people fumbling through a relationship, not fantasy objects.

And speaking of fantasy, a few reviewers have pointed out the absence of real conflict in Rica ‘tte Kanji!?. Though Miho and Rica’s relationship hits a few minor snags, their romance takes place in a bubble untouched by homophobia or workaday concerns. It’s a fair criticism, I suppose, but one that misses the point; Rica ‘tte Kanji!? is a cheeky, cheerful rebuke to the Tragic Gay Story, substituting a happily-ever-after ending for death and separation.

Impatient readers can find copies of Rica ‘tte Kanji on Amazon for about $24.00. If you’re willing to wait a few months, however, ALC Publishing will be releasing a new omnibus edition that will include the original Rica ‘tte Kanji stories, as well as material written for ALC’s Yuri Monogatari anthologies.

RICA ‘TTE KANJI!? • BY RICA TAKASHIMA • ALC PUBLISHING • 96 pp.

Filed Under: Manga, Manga Critic, Recommended Reading, REVIEWS Tagged With: ALC Publishing, Rica 'tte Kanji Review, Rica Takashima, yuri

The Best Manga You’re Not Reading: Rica ‘tte Kanji!?

June 1, 2011 by Katherine Dacey 17 Comments

The most basic yuri plotline — what publisher Erica Friedman calls “Story A” — traces its roots back to the pioneering Class S fiction of Nobuko Yoshiya (1896-1973). In works such as Hana monogatari (1916-24) and Yaneura no nishojo (1919), schoolgirls developed intense, often romantic, feelings for other schoolgirls. Given the period in which Yoshiya wrote, it’s not surprising that her characters’ relationships were never consummated; the girls might exchange passionate letters or meaningful glances, but marriage, graduation, or death prevented them from being together as a couple. Fifty years later, when manga artists such as Ryoko Yamagishi and Riyoko Ikeda began writing girls’ love stories, they, too, favored tragic endings; Yamagishi’s Shiroi Heya no Futari (1971), for example, culminates in a melodramatic death (suicide by ex-boyfriend, to be exact), as do Ikeda’s Oniisama e… (1975) and Claudine…! (1978).

Small wonder, then, that manga-ka Rica Takashima saw a vacuum that needed filling. “There were very few manga with lesbian stories,” Takashima explains in the afterword to Rica ‘tte Kanji!? “Only depressing, sad stories about ‘forbidden love’ and with a break-up in the end. For example, ‘If I were a man, I could marry you.’ That kind of thing, but I wanted to read a HAPPY story.”

And “happy” is the perfect adjective to describe Rica ‘tte Kanji!? Rica, the heroine, is a cheerful optimist who moves to Tokyo to attend junior college (she plans to major in early childhood development) and explore the Nichome district, home to the city’s gay community. At the beginning of the series, Rica is nervous about visiting Nichome for the first time, worrying about what to wear and how to handle pick-up lines:

Rica’s fears are quickly allayed when she’s introduced to Miho, a sardonic art student a few years Rica’s senior. The two meet cute on Rica’s first trip to Nichome’s Lily Bar, where Rica confesses that she’s never met “an actual lesbian.” “I grew up out in the country,” she explains to Miho. “It’s the same for everyone in the beginning,” Miho assures her, prompting Rica to declare Miho her first gay friend. Though Miho falls for Rica right away, Rica’s lack of experience and general ditziness makes her oblivious to Miho’s advances. Their relationship has another hurdle to clear as well: Rica is just as nervous about the idea of having sex as she was about making a good impression at the Lily Bar, and keeps Miho at arm’s length — figuratively and literally — as she tries to decide what she’s comfortable doing.

What Takashima does better than most is to find the comedy in these situations, not by creating artificial misunderstandings between the characters, or manufacturing romantic rivals, but by making us privy to Rica and Miho’s thoughts. The two women’s internal monologues are funny, peppered with cute and weird observations, but they’re also very truthful; who among us hasn’t worried about putting the moves on a friend or being naked with a new partner?

Though Takashima’s script is charming, what really makes Rica ‘tte Kanji!? work is the art. That may seem like a funny thing to say about a story in which the characters are little more than well-dressed stick figures with cute, round faces, but Takashima’s illustrations have a warm, handmade quality. Better still, the artwork never panders to male yuri fans; by rendering the characters as cute, paper-doll figures, Takashima directs the eye away from Rica and Miho’s bodies towards their faces, compelling the reader to see the women as two people fumbling through a relationship, not fantasy objects.

And speaking of fantasy, a few reviewers have pointed out the absence of real conflict in Rica ‘tte Kanji!?. Though Miho and Rica’s relationship hits a few minor snags, their romance takes place in a bubble untouched by homophobia or workaday concerns. It’s a fair criticism, I suppose, but one that misses the point; Rica ‘tte Kanji!? is a cheeky, cheerful rebuke to the Tragic Gay Story, substituting a happily-ever-after ending for death and separation.

Impatient readers can find copies of Rica ‘tte Kanji on Amazon for about $24.00. If you’re willing to wait a few months, however, ALC Publishing will be releasing a new omnibus edition that will include the original Rica ‘tte Kanji stories, as well as material written for ALC’s Yuri Monogatari anthologies.

RICA ‘TTE KANJI!? • BY RICA TAKASHIMA • ALC PUBLISHING • 96 pp.

Filed Under: Manga Critic Tagged With: ALC Publishing, Rica 'tte Kanji Review, Rica Takashima, yuri

3 Things Thursday: Love in Disguise

October 21, 2010 by Melinda Beasi 33 Comments

Yesterday, Deb Aoki posted a transcript of a panel from this year’s New York Anime Festival, Gay for You? Yaoi and Yuri Manga for GBLTQ Readers, featuring Erica Friedman (Okazu/ALC Publishing), Leyla Aker (Viz Media), Alex Wooflson (Yaoi911), librarian Scott Robins, and Christopher Butcher (Comics212), moderated by author/super-librarian Robin Brenner. It was the most compelling and informative panel I attended all weekend, and the only negative thing I can say about it was that I wish it had been scheduled for two hours instead of one.

One of the things I found most surprising during the panel, was how willing its panelists were to recommend yaoi and yuri manga to GBLTQ readers here in the west. Though I can’t speak much to the yuri question (not too surprisingly, I guess, since Erica’s recommendations make it pretty clear that most of the best yuri has yet to be translated into English), I’ve been a guilt-ridden BL fan for several years now, enjoying more than a few books within the genre while cringing at its frequent elements of misogyny and a level of fetishization that sometimes even reads as homophobia. But while the panelists made it clear that they wouldn’t recommend every BL series (as Chris Butcher said, “I recommend comics, but i don’t recommend shitty comics.”), it was clear that they felt that representation, even representation without identity, was too important and too rare to scoff at.

At one point in the panel, Robin, who had conducted quite a bit of research for an upcoming publication, said, “One of my favorite responses that I got from the survey was from a young gay man who said he liked reading yaoi because it made him think that one day he’d get a cute boyfriend too.” It’s pretty hard to argue with that.

Panelists also made it clear that cultural differences could not be ignored, that there were reasons behind the way that BL and yuri are presented as they are in Japan, and that we can’t expect those things to change anytime soon. Still, as a reader, I found myself wishing–wishing that the kind of stories I’d like to see might one day come to be. I love romance, don’t get me wrong. I want romance. But my favorite kind of romance is also so much more. I want action, adventure, mystery, fantasy, or even just really good epic soap-opera. Thing is, these kinds of stories already exist, and some of them even appear to be same-sex love stories of one sort or another. They just don’t quite go there, at least not yet.

So finally, I get to my point. :)

For this week’s 3 Things, I’d like to talk about three same-sex love stories I wish would actually go and BE LOVE STORIES.


1. Banana Fish | Akimi Yoshida | Viz Media – Listed just last week as one of my three favorite “classic” shojo series, it’s too late for 1980s manga Banana Fish to become the love story it might have been, but that doesn’t stop me from indulging in the dream. Though the series doesn’t necessarily shy away from discussion of homosexuality, the close, tender relationship between its two male leads remains chaste and ambiguous to the end.

Yoshida attempts to clarify things a bit in her later side-story Garden of Light (“But they did love each other…maybe the way lovers do”) and her Angel Eyes art book is not terribly shy about it either. But what kind of story might she have written if she’d been comfortable enough (or allowed) to turn Banana Fish‘s generous subtext into actual text? I’d have liked to read that story. I’d have liked to read that a lot.

2. Wild Adapter | Kazuya Minekura | Tokyopop – “But wait!” you protest. “Wild Adapter is BL! It’s published in a BL magazine!” Sure, that’s true, I’d respond, and certainly there’s more overt sexuality in WA than in something like Banana Fish, but six volumes in, I still haven’t seen it. I’m not talking about sex, either. I’m talking about any kind of genuine acknowledgement of the apparently romantic relationship between its two leads.

Obviously this series is still running (and there may truths already revealed in the Japanese chapters that haven’t yet made it over), and its presence in a BL magazine does give one hope. But from what we’ve seen in English so far, Wild Adapter is still a love story that refuses to admit it’s a love story.

So bring it on, Minekura. I’m dying to see it.

3. NANA | Ai Yazawa | Viz Media – Now, most of us who love this series have long reconciled with the fact that we’re never going to see its two title characters finally shake off the screwed-up men in their lives and really shack up together (and at this point, frankly, we’re just hoping against hope we’ll see it finished at all). Still, there’s a corner of every NANA fan’s heart that wishes it might be so. Don’t get me wrong–I adore some of those screwed-up men. But Nana/Nana is the ultimate ‘ship that will never be, leaving us to subsist only on a few voiced fantasies and some super-romantic narration.

“The hand that I was holding then… was the only one I wanted to hold… that night… and forever.”

I mean, come on. *Sigh*


So, time to open up the floor! Readers, what are your favorite love stories in disguise? Respond in comments or in your own blog!

Filed Under: 3 Things Thursday Tagged With: banana fish, nana, wild adapter, yaoi/boys' love, yuri

Yuri Monogatari, Volume 6

June 28, 2009 by Melinda Beasi 2 Comments

Yuri Monogatari, Vol. 6
Published by ALC Publishing

yurimon
Buy This Book

Yuri Monogatari, now in its sixth volume, is an anthology of short comics featuring lesbian life and love, special in both its unity of theme and diversity of art. Written and drawn by artists from across the globe, the vast differences in style and storytelling could easily create a fractured feel over the length of the volume, but instead there is the sense that there is simply something for everyone. Though there were certainly stories that appealed to me less than others, no story was easily pigeonholed from the beginning and I found that I ended up really enjoying some stories much more than I would have expected based only on a first glance at the artwork.

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Filed Under: MANGA REVIEWS Tagged With: manga, yuri, yuri monogatari

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