New Yuri
I have read all of the small trove from my Saskatoon trip now and didn't dislike any of it! A brief write-up of them:
---How Do We Relationship: this was the other one on my wish list and it was a lot of fun. One reviewer said the two college women would really be far better as friends than lovers and I think that's probably true, but since this is fiction it might work out anyway. One of them is deeply introspective and thoughtful about her relationship-related decisions and the other...is not. This is a pretty hilarious dynamic at times. Also, as Miriam noted, it's great to see a lesbian relationship in media where one of the people involved is a real horn dog!
---Failed Princesses: This was probably my least favorite yuri I've read. I guess I'd give it a C? The high-school girl characters are a super popular girl and an otaku. The popular girl and her friends make fun of the otaku, but then she gets cheated on and dumped by her boyfriend and the otaku girl accidentally, by happenstance, comforts her. Popular girl starts wanting to spend time with Otaku girl, and by the end of the volume they're both kind of alienated from their friends because of it. I'd read more, but I'm not strongly attached to the characters and wouldn't go out of my way for it.
---Even Though We're Adults: I was not expecting to like this one. In fact, it was the only one I thought I might not read because it has themes of infidelity and that's pretty hard for me sometimes. But then I realized that it was by the mangaka who created Sweet Blue Flowers, which is really close to my heart. So I started reading it with an open mind.
Two women in their 30s meet at a bar and hook up. They both get pretty attached to each other. Akari has been with women who cheated on her in the past, and was even dumped for a man. Ayano is married to a man, has never been with a woman, and is only now realizing that she's probably a lesbian. Just like Sweet Blue Flowers, there is a lot of relationship drama between characters who are doing their best to communicate and who care about each other, but who can't help doing things that hurt each other sometimes. (Part of why this kind of story really gets to me is because of distorted echoes of my relationship with my ex-wife.)
The lack of drama based on dishonesty and lack of communication in yuri (at least the yuri I've read) is a deep breath of fresh air compared to Western romance, and is the only reason I can manage reading stories like this. Within the first volume, Ayano has already started talking to her husband about her feelings for Akari, and they're trying to to figure out what to do but are kind of lost. Meanwhile, Akari is trying to deal with her fear of being a fling, her anger at being misled, and her grief and frustration that she keeps ending up in relationships with women for whom she becomes an afterthought. The manga has made me feel sympathy for every one of these characters, and Takako Shimura's artwork is expressive and emotional. This one might just tear my heart out, and I very much want to read the rest. In measured doses.
---Still Sick: Like Failed Princesses, this one is kind of on my third tier list. Two businesswomen work in the same office. One is a girls' love otaku who secretly draws yuri doujinshi (amateur manga) that she sells at conventions. The other, we find out later, was a professional manga artist who give up on her art for complicated personal reasons. The plot is driven by introspective angst mixed with humor that often stems from in-jokes about manga creation and yuri fandom. I like it and would read more: there were moments that had me laughing out loud, and I feel sympathy, though not empathy, for each woman in the dyad. But it's not high on my buy list.
---A side-note: because I loved what I've seen of Sweet Blue Flowers so much, and because I think I'm going to love Even Though We're Adults, I looked to see what else Takako Shimura has done. The work she's best known for is something called Wandering Son. The title didn't sound like my kind of thing, but I looked up a description.
Oh. Oh wow. It's about a trans girl. It's about a trans girl, and it's by someone who has already created other characters I connected with and felt strong feelings for. It's about a trans girl, and I want so *very* much to read this.
And it turns out that the English publication by Fantagraphics stopped halfway through the run, so the rest isn't available in a professional English translation. Also, the first English volumes are out of print and about $100 a piece, because of course they are *sighs*
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I'm toying with the idea of creating a spreadsheet for all the yuri I've read or watched, with info about their setting, the genre, the plot, whether they're comedy or drama or both, how fluffy they are, and, of course, whether they visit the aquarium! Could be fun.
In the meantime, further evidence that I'm in the teenage girl phase of my transition: here's my wall of yuri. I have a few more things I want to find art of to put up there. It started when I decided to print out all of Sheep Princess in Wolf's Clothing to put in a binder and I misprinted a couple sheets so I put them on the wall. But then they looked kind of lonely by themselves...
