Secret Of The Princess (2013 – 2015)

Another short (6 chapters) manga by Morinaga Milk.

It can be found here.

It’s a Morinaga Milk review spree! I read two short Morinaga Milk ones, so I thought I might as well do two reviews since both are fairly short.

Secret of the princess is about two girls in an all girls high school. Fujiwara, a cool, volleyball star, and Miu, a shy girl who’s main focus in life is to marry her prince. One day, she witnesses Fujiwara knocking over the Principle’s expensive vase. Fujiwara begs Miu that in exchange for not telling on her, she will do anything Miu asks. Miu has always wanted to date but never had the chance, and asks Fujiwara to simulate being her boyfriend.

The rest of the story goes through their antics of what a boyfriend is, as well as working through their feelings.

For the art, I had no complaints this time. Despite Miu being cute, she thankfully was drawn to not look that young in this. No points deducted here. Both girls are very cute, even fujiwara the “tomboy” is very pretty.

The setting takes place in an all girls school, so no deductions on Yuri here.

As for story, it was definitely a cute story, but there’s just enough conflict and love to make your heart beat faster which I actually adored. Despite it being very short, it was very enjoyable.I do wish it was longer, and for that A POINT DEDUCTION. Also it is short, so ANOTHER POINT DEDUCTION.

Art: 10/10

Yuri: 10/10

Overall: 8/10

Hana and Hina After School (2015 – 2017)

A Japanese manga by the one and only, Morinaga Milk.

Link can be found here for chapters 1-15 here, and the rest of the chapters (that are unfortunately not on dynasty-scans yet) Chapters 15-19 here.

Hina (left) and Hana (right)

The story is about two high school girls. Hana, a small, quiet and cute girl. And Hina, a tall, cool part-time model. They fatefully meet when Hina enters a cute little shop that Hana works out, and then turns out to transfer to Hana’s school. The two girls slowly become friends, and eventually…something more.

The art is fairly nice. It looks the same as Morinaga’s other work. The only thing that bugged me was that Hana looked a bit TOO young that it sometimes took me out of the romance, otherwise the art was pretty solid.

There’s no appearance from any men whatsoever so it deserves full points on the Yuri scale.

It is short, as its only 19 chapters, I fully trust Morinaga Milk when it comes to my Shoujo-ai, I just wish it were longer.

So the style was fairly consistent with being a slow pace in realizing each others love, in addition to it being fairly light. It was an enjoyable read, I would almost put it in the “fluff” section but can’t due to it not quite being that either. I explain more in detail below, but there are spoilers.

So take a read, see if my rating is justified.

Art: 9/10

Yuri: 10/10

Overall: 6/10

SPOILERS BELOW. KIND OF. YEAH. DEFINITELY THERE IS

My Joy (2013)

A Korean Manhwa taking place in an all girls high school.

I know I said I probably wouldn’t review anything other than Japanese Manga, but I haven’t written in a year, I’m running out, and this is close enough.

They are available to download as images here:

Link 1: My Joy – Chapters Seperated (100 MB)

Link 2: My Joy – Continuous (100 MB)

Or, the PDF I’ve made so  you can continuously read it:

PDF Link: My Joy – PDF (114 MB)

NOTE: All my links keep getting DMCA’d, but I think it’s spread enough that someone else (who suspiciously enough, has the same structure and vocab I use in THEIR review…..hmmm……) uploaded it on a Google Drive. Let me know if that gets taken down too….

The story is about a girl named “Joy” in a Korean all girl’s high school who suddenly has two girls after her. Namsu, the popular high school track star, and Hyeyeon, her childhood friend who has returned from studying abroad. The story goes through Joy’s relationship with both and the struggles of balancing love and friendship.

In terms of Yuri content, no male/female relationships exist, and any mention of its existence doesn’t last longer than a panel. This is heavily shoujo-ai/yuri.

The overall journey of the story is not bad, but it could be better. Much, much, much MUCH MUCH better.

The art is nice though. Background detail minimal, not that it matters. Story line can be funny, but overall quality I have to dock major points as the plot is not great.

Art: 7/10

Yuri: 10/10

Overall: 4/10

YOU KNOW THE DRILL. MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW

Mondlicht: Tsuki No Tsubasa (2009-2012)

It’s hard to guess the exact date as this was dropped by translators a couple of times, however it should have completed 2012.

Available on mangafox here

The story is about a family of Vampires (called Mondlicht in this series – German for Moonlight) who are trying to survive secretly in society. In order to survive though, they kill tourists visiting a “haunted” hotel, passing it off as the supernatural. However, they are suddenly hunted by something called homonculi. They are humans who have been revived and modified, whose soul purpose is to destroy homonculi. All except one, code named F11 (real name Princess Marie) who was previously turned into a Mondlicht, and is suddenly awakened to protect her fellow Mondlicht.

In terms of Yuri content,  Some have very clear Yuri pairings. Most, dont. Most Homonculi are based off of historical figures, such ass Marie Antoinette, and the two legendary pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read.  Only a couple confess their feelings fully. Any kisses between them are limited to side pairings (sex as well, although it attempts to get sexual with the main pairings. It’s the ecchi talking though)

Art however, is quite beautiful. It’s extremely detailed and all the F women are super duper pretty. Their appearances….easily forgettable though, but at least it was pretty to look at.

Overall, this is in fact an action storyline with sprinkles of ecchi/fan service (and nekkidness) in chapters. The storyling is quite fast paced and short for an action manga. Again, the characters and story line, it is fairly forgettable.

Art: 10/10

Yuri: 5/10

Overall: 6/10

Voiceful (2004 – 2006)

Very short manga about 2 people. I was going over the list and thought “wait…I HAVEN’T reviewed Voiceful???”

OOPS.

Can be read on mangafox Here

The story is about an extremely shy and introverted girl Kanae Chan, who idolizes an upcoming singer, Hina. One day after getting her hair cut similar to Hina’s, she actually runs into Hina on the street and blurts out “I love you!” to Hina! She gives Hina whatever she just bought and embarrassingly runs away back home before she can embarrass herself further (like we all would do). Hina, surprisingly, who has never been told this before is intrigued, and successfully finds Kanae-Chan AND THEY HANG OUT WITH EACH OTHER (this would never happen in real life…)

Overall, despite the um, unrealistic aspect of the story (but it’s good to dream) and it’s shortness, I really enjoyed this manga. The chapters are about 40 pages long, so it’s not that short, but it still is much shorter than a series. It is still one of my favorites, and I highly recommend it.

As for Yuri, unfortunately its almost purely subtext. I was debating even writing a review on it entirely. There is one part, but it could be easily misconstrued as something else. I do still think that as long as you pay attention to subtle details, you may walk away from it thinking its a beautiful story (much like I do).

Major points still have to be docked for Yuri content though.

The art itself is tolerable. I can tell Hina is pretty. It is also kind of simple at the same time (the eyes are quite simple) the hair and clothes are more detailed, but there are many frames that are close ups, or dont have a background. But it’s not terrible art with weird faces. So I can say they did not do a bad job.

Art Rating: 6/10

Yuri Rating: 3/10

Overall Rating: 5/10

SPOILERS BELOW. YKNOW WHA IM SAYINNN

Love My Life (2006) (Japanese)

Link to watch here for mirrors

IMPORTANT: Make sure you have adblock or adblock plus installed before venturing or else pop-ups and viruses galore!

Ah yes, you’ve all seen this poster haven’t you?

The story “love my life” follows Ichiko Izumaya (the slightly more feminine one on the right) and her girlfriend Eri Joujima (the boyish one on the left) who are in a relationship together. Ichiko decides to come out to her father, who also turns out to be gay, who informs her that her mother who had passed, was also gay. Ichiko decides to meet her mothers lover, as well as work out both her and eri’s relationship with exams coming up.

Overall, yes, very heavy gay content. Almost no straight pairings exist. The acting is….quite terrible but then again, it IS japanese (not that I’m saying necessarily all japanese acting is bad….just….a lot of them……..) and storyline really is about ichiko and eri’s relationship at the end of it as well as partially how they will continue to live throughout society as a pair. It’s honestly quite boring

So I rated it on the Yuri scale quite high which impacted most of the “overall” rating, however quality of it itself was just simply cringe-worthy and incredibly boring. Although highly rated through out the lesbian community, it’s most definitely not a “must watch”, and definitely NOT worth a re-watch either.

Yuri rating: 10/10

Overall rating: 3/10

SPOILERS BELOW. YOU KNOW THE DRILL.

Akuma No Riddle (2014)

AKA Riddle Story of Devil (that english)

The manga is currently on-going, however I do assume that the series has ended (at least this Arc). This review will only be covering the anime.

The story takes place at Myōjō Academy, a boarding school for girls only. thirteen girls are transferred into the academy’s “10th Year Class Black” who are all actually assassins. Except for one.

They must all try and kill one girl, Haru Ichinose, who is completely oblivious to what is going on. They all want to kill her as they have been told if they do,  any wish requested will be granted to the killer. However, one of the legendary assassins, Tokaku Azuma is drawn to Haru and instead ends up protecting her.

Overall thoughts, it was a pretty good anime. unfortunately there seems to be lots of subtext though. Except for one scene..which really…was still sbutext. It is quite short as it’s typically 1 episode per assassination attempt, so, as you can guess there’s actually only 12 episodes. It’s an interesting concept, although, not very memorable to be honest (had to rewatch. Twice.)

I’d also like to point out that although it has a very dark premise, I don’t think it ended up being very dark at all. The ending actually left me unsure if there would be continuation, but with out spoiling anything, I will assume it won’t be…

Due to the lack of actual Yuri, I did have to dock major points for the overall.

Yuri Rating: 4/10

Overall: 6/10

YOU KNOW THE DRILL. SPOILERS BELOW

Some Like It Hot/Hellcats (2008) (Korean)

Korean movie focusing mainly on comedy, coming of age, and drama.

Due to the severe lack of new Shoujo-ai/Yuri Anime’s, we won’t be seeing an Anime review (*sigh*…at least a recent one…) for quite some time. I hate dry spells…

Link Here

This movie centers around a family of three. One mother, her daughter, and her sister, all going through a romantic crisis. The single mother Kim Young Mi (Lee MiSook), is going through a mid-life crisis where she worries she’s too old to attract men anymore. Until she meets Kyoung-soo, who is an aspiring actor in the same theater who find her 40-some self sexy. Her Sister, 27 year old screenplay writer, Kim Ah-mi (Kim MinHee), also going through a crisis of love. Having just broken up with her deadbeat boyfriend, meets a man she typically would not date. The daughter of Young Mi, Kim Kang-ae (Ahn SoHee from the Wonder Girls), finds herself in her own teenage crisis of being in love with her best friend and dealing with her sexuality and that she just might be a lesbian. Together, all 3 work through their struggles and come to terms with their selves.

I like this movie A LOT. Despite that 2/3 couple story lines are straight, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie as well as the lesbian pairing. Granted, it is a KOREAN movie so understandably they can’t take it too far, but still very well enjoyed. I would say its more drama/coming to terms with yourself kind of movie rather than a comedy, but I still enjoyed it non the less.

Yuri Rating: 4/10

Overall Rating: 6/10

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING ARE SPOILERS

Twin Cake (2012 – 2013)

Written and Drawn by Aoi Hana

Link

Yes, I know I’ve been doing A LOT of manga reviews lately

 

Twin cake is about a girl named Kaede (shorter haired one) who idolizes a famous model, Susuran so much that she decided to pursue modelling herself. She even joins Susuran’s modelling agency in order to get closer to her, but has never actually met Susuran despite this. However, she has failed to become popular and instead works much more like an assistant and secretary for her agency. After Susuran fires ANOTHER one of her managers, the agency is in a desperate need to replace them in order to look more legit. As a last minute desperation, she decides to hire Kaede as Susuran’s new manager.

Kaede is first very excited to become Susuran’s new manager. However her image of Susuran is immediate shattered upon walking in on Susuran having sex with another female model. (No spoiler, second chapter lol). Kaede, embarrassed begins to see Susuran in a different light and falls even deeper in love. Susuran however, is still in love with someone else.

This was a pretty good manga, although short (7 chapters). It IS pretty angsty (prepare yourself) but still enjoyable.

THERE IS NUDITY. It’s not a main element (so it’s not hentai) but it does exist, as well as sex.

Art: 6.5/10

Yuri Rating: 10/10

Overall Rating: 8/10

EXPLANATION WITH SPOILERS BELOWWWWWW

Octave (2008 – 2011)

Written and Drawn by Akiyama Haru

Link

This is actually one of my favorite manga’s.

The story revolves around a former idol of a not-so-popular group when she was a teenager, Miyashita Yukino. Not willing to endure the bullying of high school after her failure, she decided to work in the industry as an assistant manager. Through her struggles, she meets a fairly successful song writer, Iwai Setsuko.  Seduced by Iwai’s beauty, she explores her sexuality and eventually falls in love. However she struggles with her relationship as she is not only confused by her sexuality, but has taken on the toll of being a manager and coming to terms with her past.

I really enjoyed this manga. You go through Yukino as she has to come to terms with many things in her life, with love being one of them. It’s a great coming of age story I think and perfect for our generation. The story is very deep though and very….angsty to say the least. Not VERY angsty where you want to cry, but the kind of angst where you’re kind of irritated.

I enjoyed the artwork. It’s simple yet detailed enough. I do encourage anyone to give it a shot!

Art: 6/10

Yuri Rating: 8/10

Overall: 7/10

WARNING THERE ARE SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED