Review: SWEET BLUE FLOWERS Volume 2

SWEET BLUE FLOWERS, VOL. 2
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

Leroy's Amazon Comics and Graphic Novels Page

MANGAKA: Takako Shimura
TRANSLATION/ENGLISH ADAPTATION: John Werry
LETTERS: Monalisa De Asis
EDITOR: Pancha Diaz
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9299-2; paperback (December 2017); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
360pp, B&W, $24.99 U.S., $33.99 CAN, £16.99 UK

Sweet Blue Flowers is a yuri manga from creator Takako Shimura.  “Yuri” is “girls' love” manga, a genre which depicts romantic situations between female characters.  Sweet Blue Flowers is a coming-of-age manga that depicts love and friendship between two girls, Akira Okudaira and Fumi Manjome, attending separate high schools.

As Sweet Blue Flowers, Vol. 2 (Part 3: Chapters 14 to 18; Part 4: Chapters 19 to 25) begins, Kyoko Ikumi invites a group of her friends to join them at the summer home of her fiance, Ko Sawanoi's family.  There is camping, ghost stories, and horseback riding, and there is time for Fumi to confirm her romantic feelings for Akira.

Later, Akira and her drama club prepare to perform a play at her high school, Fujigaya Women's Academy High School.  Now, a freshman girl, Haruka Ono, wants Fumi to play a part... because she is probably in love with Fumi.

[This volume includes an afterword and the following “Little Women” bonus stories:  “Kuri and Komako, Part 1,” “Orie and Hinako,” and Kuri and Komako, Part 2,” and Shinako and Kaoruki.”]

I have not read many yuri manga titles.  The Sweet Blue Flowers manga is the second yuri manga that I've read, following creator Yuhta Nishio's After Hours (also published in English by VIZ Media).

Sweet Blue Flowers Graphic Novel Volume 2 is, like the previous volume, filled with so many young female characters.  It can be hard to keep up with them, but creator Takako Shimura makes each one so vivacious and engaging.  Also, rather than be catty and completely melodramatic, the characters are full of budding romance and yearnings.  Yes, this can sometimes be teen-soapy, but mostly it is full of interesting characters.

A
8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: SWEET BLUE FLOWERS Volume 1

SWEET BLUE FLOWERS, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

MANGAKA: Takako Shimura
TRANSLATION/ENGLISH ADAPTATION: John Werry
LETTERS: Monalisa De Asis
EDITOR: Pancha Diaz
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9298-5; paperback (September 2017); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
384pp, B&W, $24.99 U.S., $33.99 CAN, £16.99 UK

Sweet Blue Flowers is a yuri manga from creator Takako Shimura, whose manga, Wandering Son, was published in English by Fantagraphic Books.  “Yuri” is “girls' love” manga, a genre which depicts romantic situations between female characters.  Sweet Blue Flowers is a coming-of-age manga that depicts love and friendship between girls from two high school.

Sweet Blue Flowers, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 7) introduces two girls.  Akira Okudaira attends Fujigaya Women's Academy High School.  Fumi Manjome attends Matsuoka Girls' High School.  Akira and Fumi were friends when they were in kindergarten; Akira comforted Fumi who was a crybaby.

Now, the girls are starting high school, and although they are attending different schools, they leave for school at the same train station, where they reunite on the first day of school.  Now, Fumi is glad to have Akira back in her life, but Fumi is coming off a failed romance.  Fumi will need Akira more than ever.

[This volume includes the two afterwords, “The Kamakura Quest” and “The Mansion Visit,” and the bonus story, “Little Women –Orie and Hanako–.”]

The Sweet Blue Flowers manga is the second yuri manga that I've read, following After Hours (from creator Yuhta Nishio).  VIZ Media provided me with review copies of the first volumes of both titles.

Sweet Blue Flowers Volume 1 can be confusing because there are so many girls and so many conflicting feelings, which is actually appropriate.  Takako Shimura can use all these characters and conflicting motivations and desires to create the sense of confusion these teen girls have about themselves and their feelings and emotions.  I find myself rooting for all of them, and this soapy teen melodrama is irresistibly readable.

A
8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Leroy Douresseaux on WANDERING SON Volume 1

WANDERING SON, VOL. 1
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

CARTOONIST: Shimura Takako
TRANSLATION: Matt Thorn
LETTERS: Paul Baresh, Ian Burns, and Priscilla Miller
ISBN: 978-1-60699-416-0; hardcover
208pp, B&W with some color, $19.99 U.S.

Fantagraphics Books is back in the manga-publishing game, but their new series does not feature boy heroes, aliens, monsters, robots, magic, super powers, or even love-starved teen girls.

Wandering Son is a manga from creator Shimura Takako that began serialization in 2002 in the manga magazine, Comic Beam. Fantagraphics Books recently began publishing English-language graphic novel editions of the series. Wandering Son follows fifth grader Shuichi Nitori, a boy who wants to be a girl, and his friend Yoshino Takatsuki, a girl who wants to be a boy.

Wandering Son Volume 1 introduces the two protagonists and their friends and family whose lives intersect with their own. Nitori is the new student in school and makes his first friend, Takatsuki. They bond over a dress that Takatsuki doesn’t want and gives to Nitori’s sister, Maho. Nitori wonders what he would look like in a dress, and soon his female classmates are encouraging him to wear them. Meanwhile, Takatsuki is exploring life as a boy by passing for a boy. When the fifth-graders put on a production of The Rose of Versailles for the farewell ceremony for the sixth graders, the play’s gender-bending brings gender issues out in the open.

Ostensibly a seinen manga (comic book for adult males), Wandering Son begins with characters that are preteens or preadolescents and is appropriate for readers of that demographic (although I say this as someone who isn’t a parent). I assume parents and guardians freaked out about any discussion or visual fiction depiction of issues relating to gender identity, puberty, and transsexuality would consider Wandering Son inappropriate for their preteens.

However, Shimura Takako tells this story in such a gentle, unobtrusive way, one might believe that this story flows naturally – as if it simply spun itself from nature and is the way it is supposed to be. I think Matt Thorn’s tidy translation, which goes down the mental gullet with such smoothness, is a big reason for how readable this is. Wandering Son is not flashy or aggressive, nor does it pander or try to be hip and stylish. Takako draws the reader in so quietly that some may be surprised to find themselves on a journey of discovery and exploration with these characters. It’s like seeing preadolescence for the first time or seeing it again through fresh eyes and a new perspective.

Takako’s simple approach to compositions and graphical storytelling entails sparse backgrounds and a cartoony method of figure drawing. The figures are striking in their simplicity, and their emotions and actions in the story are crystal clear. If only more comic books were so evocative and so clear in their storytelling like Wandering Son, an ideal comic book. Ages 8 to 80 will like Wandering Son.

A

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