A Few Yuri Reviews

Today i convinced myself to start making some reviews of my more obscure books, starting with my yuri manga collection. I wrote them for LibraryThing but then copied them into Amazon and Amazon.co.jp. Here are some of the highlights, in no particular order because I am too tired to think (note: Castle of Dreams is not yuri, i don't know why i did that one). Oh and just so you know, the stars are ratings out of five stars.

Gokujo Drops - A light yuri story that centers around dorm life at a prestigious, debutant-esque girl's school. The protagonist is not the main character, who exists as an unassuming common place type girl in a sea of eccentric, aloof rich and beautiful girls. Not bad, but not necessarily one of my top ten favorites. Contains sexual content but i wouldn't call it explicit.

The story: a new transfer student Komari is inducted into the prestigious Ootori all girl's school. She is somewhat awkward but seemingly strong-willed. After a period of stress over where to live, she is offered a place in the most exclusive dorm on campus, provided that she become the personal attendant of a bijin ojousama. Romantic entanglements ensues as this girl sees Komari as more of a sexual slave/toy than a true friend.

Characters: Komari is so typical that it puts you to sleep. I'm not sure if she has will of her own but whatever there is of it is quickly subverted. She obviously has feelings for Yukio (? can't find a pronunciation for her name) but other than that she's content to be bullied or abused as her betters see fit. Yukio is controlling though simultaneously protecting/nurturing soul. She loves Komari but refuses to demonstrate it, preferring instead to use Komari sexually and adorn herself with Komari as the latest fad/a fashionable accessory. Other characters: interesting and somewhat vibrant. They seem to be lacking in development so far, beyond one sordid sexual encounter. Many of the characters are gay or bi, and do not hesitate to come on to Komari.

The art: under-par. Does contain one colored page. Mikuni-sensei chose to adorn his/her characters with large, empty, manhwa like eyes... but their bodies look like they belong in CLAMP. Seriously I can't find anything unique about it, or even that much bad about. It is thoroughly generic.

Overall: 2 1/2 stars

Hayate X Blade 2 (English translation) - The second installment in Hayashiya Shizuru's fun and engrossing not-yuri-but-should-have-been/could-easily-be-taken-to-be-yuri manga. Unlike Sister Red or Strawberry Shake Sweet, HxB is actually very funny.

The story: our heroine is one of a pair of twins from orphanage who enters a private elite girl's school to raise money for the orphanage. The student body at this school are encouraged to fight each with bouken in order to determine.... (okay yeah, i seriously have no idea, fill in the blank). Oh and, did I mention it's pseudo-yuri? Oh the angst. It is a thing of beauty.

Characters: Brilliant, if a little trying at times. The antagonists are a little two-dimensional but Hayashiya-sensei manages to their respective arcs with them all learning something. My favorite character? Nagi. She is 100% absent but still manages to be a character in the story.

Art: a joy to read. There is always the detractor of its size (smaller than standard but still quite readable), and desaturated pages, but those would really only be icing on the cake. I'm just happy it hasn't been dropped yet, an unfortunate conclusion to most Seven Seas purchases. This project was a joint Tor/Seven Seas so we're hopeful it'll be continued for a while.

Translation: I own volumes 3-6 in Japanese and I must say the translation works well in most cases. As it's billed as a comedy there are some culturally specific jokes that Adrienne Beck has done an adequate job of reworking into English and made notes in the appropriate (but thankfully few).

Overall: 4 stars

Castle of Dreams - Brilliant insightful work, a must have for any fan of Kare Kano (彼氏彼女の事情）.

Through a handful of short standalone stories that feature exotic locales and time periods, Tsuda eloquently connects all of human history in a web of suffering. Though her intentions were definitely not Buddhist in nature, most of these stories do focus on struggling to survive (or die trying) and making a name for oneself. Of course, they all share the patented Masami Tsuda shoujo romance (though not all the stories feature women) ethic.

The art is breathtaking; it's obvious to me that Tsuda-sensei really did her homework with on the locale and history that each story takes place in. The characters may be fictional, but the stories are history and folk lore.

My only regret is a lack of color, but that's typical (and sad) for TokyoPop. Trans was good (amazingly), but it's always hard to tell how they've managed to corrupt it if I don't have the original tankoubon in my hand.

Overall: 4 1/2 stars

Maka Maka 2 - Exceptional yuri art. Fantastic characterization. Wonderful slice of life story. No logical reasonable plot or story. Basically the artist is only interested in drawing the emotionally intense moments in a lesbian's life... and lesbian sex scenes. Far more of the latter than the former."

Overall: 2 stars

Clover - A fun read. The characters actually resemble high school girls, unlike other josei manga. No real adult themes but the story is still engrossing. Very much a yuri manga.

The story: a multi-generational story of a sort. The main characters are in high school but the story also includes their older sisters. No serious drama but the pacing is good.

Characters: Fun and believable, though sometimes suffering from the author's imposed Butch/Femme dissonance. Sorry, I don't have a favorite.

Art: One watercolor image, the rest is desaturated. I tend to enjoy the way Otsu-sensei draws faces, but... she has this extremely odd tendency to switch between shoujo and SD to express different emotional states/humorous events.

I was impressed with the binding of this book: not your typical plasticy-construction tankoubon that Yuri Hime uses for its other books.

Overall: 3 1/2 stars

Octave - An engrossing yuri manga. I particularly enjoyed the art and the characater tensions. Does contain adult themes and explicit sexual content.

The story: an ex-idol pop singer has just moved to Tokyo from the country. She distrusts herself and others and is loath to let anyone get too close. Enter the mature girl next door who, in extremely short order, puts the moves on the heroine (if you can call her that). So full of angst.

Characters: maintain a spark of life in an otherwise gray world. I'm not too fond of the male character they have as the love-interest's brother but I guess he's harmless. The "protagonist" and i use the term loosely, Yukino, is about as depressing and angsty as you can get. She basically lives in her memories and develops a complex for her girlfriend, Setsuko. In contrast, the love-interest, Setsuko, is very comfortable in her own skin. She sees the person Yukino is capable of being and wants to draw her out. She is provocative, but doesn't get her own section in this book so it's difficult to see who she really is.

Art: Contains some color pages! At last! Several explicit sex scenes, but they're not necessarily hard on the eyes. I am particularly fond of the cover art.

Overall: 3 1/2 stars

Hanjuku Joshi - First plot-like device: The story involves two sweet high school girls who are best friends and their emotional involvement that leads to sexual partnership (note: this is not necessarily an indicator of an actual lesbian relationship... but it is yuri). Second plot-like device: A third character eventually and inappropriately inserts herself into the story who seems to be bisexual (but it's never confirmed) and who enjoys taking advantage of older women.

Overall: 3 stars

Girl Friends 2 - Volume 2 specific comments: slightly more nudity, with the adult theme of premarital sex

First of all, as evidenced by the lack of any furigana and any content that could or would be misconstrued as adult, I think this book is being mis-marketed as seinen when it should be shounen or shoujo. If for no better reason than because there's no nudity and damnit, it's annoying that i can read everything but the kanji. Props to Youko for correcting me, I had originally thought it was josei, but I geuss everything from Comic High is marketed to men.

Now that that is out of the way, I liked this volume. Unlike other mangaka I can think of , Morinaga Milk has a keen sense of characterization. Mariko ungoes a transformation throughout the story, and this volume in particular highlights that quite nicely. Sadly... Akko's character is barely sketched out in this book (it's until when the audience gets a chapter or two from her perspective that we start to rationalize who she is).

In addition, the art is quite nice and would have been fabulous if they had printed in B4 size and left the colored pages colorized. As it is, they desaturated them, and if I thought that was annoying when seen in Tokyopop or Viz, it's doubly so as seen in a real tankoubon. But still, there are some panels that are attractive enough to be passable.

The story is... probably its biggest drawback. In addition to the almost outlandish use of product advertising (I know for a fact there are a plethora of Real Simple-wannabe mags in Japan where they'd be more appropriate), and the truly sad way in which Mari is incapable of thinking for herself, the pacing is also quite trying. It seems that for every step forward the protagonist makes toward independence and emotional maturity, there are between 2 and 4 steps back in self-esteem. Also, as it's introduced in this book, the audience is incapable of understanding what Akko sees in Mari, besides being a My-Size Barbie. I do like Sugi and Tamami and I think they bring a much needed comic relief to the story, but of course they don't get their own stories.

Overall: 3 1/2 stars