Kase-san and Yamada. Volume 3

April 29th, 2024

Two young women, a tall one one with short brown hair and a shorter one with collar length pale hair, dressed in white berets and red coats, surrounded by images of pastel christmas tree balls College life has become a little more normalized for both Kase-san and Yamada. Yamada’s got a job, and loves her classes. Kase-san is still struggling with her unregulated emotions about Yamada, and with her so focused on Yamada, she’s not really noticing what’s going on in her her own dorm room, where Kase-san’s roommate, Fukami, is going through some stuff on her own.

When the school festivals collide, Kase-san finds herself making bad choices – again – but this time it’s Yamada who stands up and talks Kase-san down. And it’s Yamada who asks Kase-san to move in together. It’s pretty clear that Kase-san’s imagination is still a problem, but Yamada…she’s grown. And in doing so, she’s going to help Kase-san do so as well.

It’s so interesting that we still have this manga, more than a decade after it began. As a result, we’re still watching Kase-san and Yamada mature in slower-than-real time. As a result, this manga retains the sweet, slow style we became familiar with originally and we’re just that much happier when these two find a moment of special joy.

Now we just need Kase-san to get over that issue with jealousy. She’s about to feel what it’s like on the other side of that equation.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8, Yamada is a 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

As always, the team at Seven Seas has done a bang-up join in bringing over a manga that I am still amazed continues! I kind of want to see them both graduate and move into the adult world together…and still keep growing together.

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The Lantern and the Night Moths: Five Modern and Contemporary Chinese Poets in Translation

April 28th, 2024

A lit lantern sits glows with a golden light on sandy soil under a dark night sky. An ephemeral moth flies towards it. The Lantern And The Night Moths / 灯与夜蛾 is written in English and Chinese.The Lantern and the Night Moths: Five Modern and Contemporary Chinese Poets in Translation is an outstanding read.

For reasons that are discussed in the book itself, translator Yilin Wang, found themselves the center of attention after the British Museum used her work without permission or pay, and when asked to please address that, they responded in the most British Museum-ish way ever, by pulling not only the translation, but the original words of feminist poet Qiu Jin from their exhibit, symbolically silencing both the women that had made them look foolish.

So, when Wang said that their translations were forthcoming in a new book, I hastened to pre-order it to show my support for both Wang and Qiu Jin. I am so glad I did. I’ve been reading this books slowly, savoring each poem, delving into the translator notes and realizing how much I have missed by not attending to Chinese poetry.

Qiu Jin is best known as a revolutionary in post-revolution China, but in her poems it is clear that she did not appreciate the gendered nature of clothes, or life choices. She was known for dressing in men’s clothes, learning to read, write, ride horses and doing activities that were (and, in some places, still are,) assumed to be “for men.”

“To always strip off hair ornaments to pay for books” – Qiu Jin was clearly one of us. ^_^

I loved her poems so much. Although her loneliness is not mine, I share her rage for the unjust treatment of women. But, perhaps, even more powerful than the poetry itself, is Wang’s essay about their connection to Qiu Jin through time and space. Wang’s insights into the poets she is translating are a form of poetry themselves. I described Wang’s work as “translating and enriching” the work, because we learn the how and why of their choices, when both Chinese as a language and poetry as a medium favor ambiguity and layers over clarity or specificity.

As much as I really enjoyed Qiu Jin’s poems, it is Dai Wangshu‘s single line, “I think, therefore I am a butterfly” that has changed my life. The way he so deftly combines two iconic globally recognizable philosophical statements actually made me gasp out loud. By combining Descartes and Zhuang Zi, Dai Wangshu is able to combine two of his own multitudes – as he was a translator of western work into Chinese.

Fei Ming’s work gave me the sense that the New Culture Movement was oddly akin to Dada, and then, suddenly, I am reading Xiao Xi, writing about a world I know and I have lived in.

Sometimes, one anticipates a book and finds it to be…satisfactory. The Lantern and the Night Moths: Five Modern and Contemporary Chinese Poets in Translation exceeded my every expectation.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

I’ll be watching Wang for more work and will be taking recommendations on Chinese feminist poetry now.

The links above are directly to the publisher’s site, but The Lantern and the Night Moths: Five Modern and Contemporary Chinese Poets in Translation is also available on Amazon and other online bookstores.

 
 

 

 

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Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – April 27, 2024

April 27th, 2024

A blue silhouette of a girl with a white flower in her hair, embracing the earth. Blue block letters read YNN Yuri Network News. Art by Lissa P. For Okazu.Yuri Event

A group art show for four Galette magazine artists is planned for July in Kichioji, Tokyo! July 17-22, at the Sabineko Gallery, art by 4 Yuri artists, Hakamada Mera, Morinaga Milk, Yatosaki Haru and Yorita Miyuki will be displayed for the Shoujo to Shoujo ~ Yuri Sakka Yonnin Ten (百合作家4人展). You can get news at the link above, or follow the show on X.

According to Morinaga-sensei, there will be online sales of goods, so if you cannot attend, definitely bookmark the show and stay up to date.


Yuri Manga

Top news this week is the official announcement that Yen Press has licensed Arai Sumiko’s hit webcomic, The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All.

Yen has also announced the manga for Lycoris Recoil.

Rose of Versailles Episodes Manga Volume 1 is headed our way and I’m gonna be real with you – you must get this collection of the 40th anniversary Rose of Versailles stories. Not only does it end the entire tale, it does something extraordinary while doing so.

I’m in Love with the Villainess, Vol. 6 is out now from Seven Seas. in which Rae and Claire visit Rae’s hometown, meet her family and hunt the Undead.

I Married My Female Friend, Volume 2 hit shelves this month – after Ruriko’s illness, things are shifting between her and Kurumi.

Kiyoko Iwami’s dark and erotic Yuri manga My Girlfriend’s Not Here Today , Volume 1 is slated for release next month.

Via Yuri Navi, the manga for Jellyfish Can’t Swim In the Night,  Yoru no Kuraga ha Oyogenai (夜のクラゲは泳げない) is being serialized on line at Pocket Shonen Magazine. Click the link for three free chapters in Japanese.

Via creator Takashima Hiromi on X (whol celebrated with new art), Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 4 (山田と加瀬さん) is out in Japan. In English, we have Kase-san and Yamada, Volume 3, the review of which is coming soon. ^_^ The June issue Special Issue of WINGS magazine (WINGS (ウィングス) 2024年 06 月号) features Yamada and Kase-san, as well.

 

She Loves To Cook and She Loves To Eat News Supplement

Also hitting shelves is  May is She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Volume 4! More food and more emotions. This is a terrific volume, as I said when I reviewed it in Japanese last year. ^_^

Via YNN Correspondent Pan on the Okazu Discord, Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna (作りたい女と食べたい女) is on sale at Bookwalker JP as well. And…

Via YNN Correspondent Manga’Albine, Éditions Akata has announced the release of L’amour east AU Menu, the French-language edition of Tsukurita Onna to Tabetai Onna. ^_^

 

 

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Yuri Anime

Discotek has released Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s. I am really hoping for StrikerS at long last.

The trailer and details for the anime film adaptation of Fujimoto Tatsuki’s Look Back is up on ANN. Anita Tai has the details. I couldn’t make it through the trailer without crying….this movie is going to be gorgeous and it will kill me. (T_T)

Christopher Farris and Steve Jones on ANN take a pretty balanced look at the discourse around So, Is Sound Euphonium Queerbaiting or Not?. My position is that this only looks like queerbaiting if one does not recognize that intimacy does not equate to romance and people can be intimate without being lovers or family. I don’t see anything like love or romantic interest between Kumiko and Reina, just intimate friendship. Drop by the Okazu Discord and let’s hear your take on it.

ANN’s Joanna Cayana has the teaser trailer for a new project called Momentary Lily that we might want to keep our eyes on.

 

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Yuri Light Novel

I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner, Volume 2 is out with the second volume of Claire’s perspective of the events she and Rae experienced. This volume is worth reading as there is an entire plotline that did not appear in the main story.

ANN’s Rafael Antonio Pineda has the scoop that Jellyfish Can’t Swim In The Night is also getting a novelization. This sounds very promising.

Melonbooks is doing a special promotion around inori-sensei‘s newest LN, Yuusha ni Naritai Shoujo To, Yuusha Narubeki Kanojo (勇者になりたい少女と、勇者になるべき彼女) with a reprint of the initial bonus standee and the chance to win a signed copy!

 

 

Other News

Pixiv is expanding their Literary Yuri Contest into a new category. The first Literary Yuri Manga Contest has been announced. The winner will get award money and publication in Comic Yuri Hime. The last story I read for the short story collection was SO good that I’m inclined to be really hopeful about this new iteration.

Via Manga Mogura on X, Bloom Into You creator Nakatani Nio did a special cover celebrating Dengeki Daioh‘s 30th anniversary. See how many characters you can recognize! I was surprised at how many I remembered from Yuri series through the years. ^_^

Also Via Manga Mogura, celebrating a 30th anniversary is Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, which we now have in English thanks to Seven Seas!

Egan Loo over at ANN  wants us to know about the Madoka Magica: Magia Exedra smartphone game which is slated to launch this year.

Bookshop.org is offering free shipping this weekend in honor of Indie Bookstore day!

 

 

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I Can’t Say No to the Lonely Girl, Volume 1

April 26th, 2024

A girl in a black blazer and gray school skirt with long dark hair look over with trepidation as a girl with collar-length pink-brown hair, cups her cheek and leans over her shoulder, the string of her tie in her teeth.

Ayaka is an excellent student, who has a hard time taking tests. In return for a recommendation from her teacher to any college she chooses, she finds herself responsible for bringing a truant classmate back to school. She doesn’t really know Honda, but how hard can that be? Well, when Honda demands a quid pro quo in the form of a “favor”- and the first favor turns out to be a kiss – it’s a bit complicated.

My memory of this series in Comic Yuri Hime was “This was a sweet series, I’m glad it was licensed.” But, I had completely forgotten that the premise is kinda trashy, kinda funny. That said, as we see even in this volume, the story moves away from that fairly quickly.

Almost immediately Ayaka can see that something is up with Honda and a few questions turn up a lonely family life. So Ayaka invites Honda into her circle of friends, on the supposition that if she is having fun at school, she’ll want to keep coming. This decision is what changes the tenor of the story from one of uncomfortable skinship to one of friendship.

Ratings:

Art – 8 This is conjecture, but Kashikaze’s art is so familiar, I think they must have been someone’s assistant.
Story – Errrrm…not a great start, let’s say 6
Characters – 7 with room to grow
Service – 5 It’s light as fanservice goes but non-consensual kissing is still salacious and not really cute, IMHO
Yuri – 5 De facto, but more emotional depth to come

Overall – 7

They original premise will pop up again from time to time, much like the teacher from the bushes, but Kashikaze’s story will – I promise you – develop into something worth reading.

Volume 2 is headed our way very soon, in English from Kodansha, with more stolen kisses, but also more of everything else.

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Comic Yuri Hime May 2024 (コミック百合姫2024年5月号)

April 25th, 2024

Framed by an elaborate gold frame on a deep blue background, two girls in old-fashioned Japanese school uniforms sit on stairs below a landing, reading a book and sharing confidences.We’re the beginning of of Q2, and Comic Yuri Hime May 2024 (コミック百合姫2024年5月号) has settled in for a lovely variety of Yuri manga – from the openly queer, to fantasy, to toxic relationships and a fair amount of goofy stuff in between.

This issue begins with a new story, featuring a well-worn trope that…I don’t hate for some reason.  “Saborinara Houkenshitsu de Douzo? Despite the fact that I don’t utterly hate the “hot, young school doctor and student” trope, I am always reminded of my own school nurse who was a horrible person, incompetent, hated kids and thought we were all lying all the time, as a wrinkled prune of a person. I wonder if our nurse was young and cool, what I might think about this trope. ^_^

On to “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Uta”! This time Yori-sempai is staying over Himari’s house, and yet again, they face the issue of consent and what Himari wants. I expect this will be resolved this time.

I’m pretty happy with the way “Gakeppuchi Reijou ha Kuro Kishi-sama o Horesasetai!” is shaping up, even though the premise is a bit violent in both emotional and physical ways. Clearly, we’re going for a Bakarina internal monologue stule here.

“Salvia no Bouquet” has shifted towards a more typical school story but, again, I’m quite enjoying it. It’s really hard to dislike Ellen or Stella and magic, school, Yuri romance…okay. Extra points, though for the denouement here, when the spell was a failure, but also very much a success.

“Kiraware Majoureijou to Dansou Ouji no Kon’yaku” s taking itself a little seriously before it has a right to, but we are assured that there *is* a plot on the way!

And “Gan no Hime” is likelwise developing a plot, and one that radically changes everything we knew about this world. I do not love the art, but the story is very good. It’s the only scifi we have in the magazine now and I have high hopes for it.

Shikabane Shoujo to Ai ga Omoi Sei-kishi no Toubatsu Gakuen Life is waffling between being a VERY SERIOUS STORY and a light magical school adventure and I’m not sure which I want it to be, honestly.

In the final comic essay, by Kobara Yuuko, which is a review of a “Yuri” film, this month the topic of discussion was Liz And The Blue Bird, which, I will remind, I thought fantastic. Highly recommended.

Overall a solid volume with a lot for people who have tastes vastly different than mine, as well as those who like the kinds of things I like. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The June issue is in JP bookstores and waiting for me at Kinokuniya. ^_^

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Magazines, Yuri Manga | No Comments »