Bonus Podcast: 2022 February - Valentitles (Patreon)

In honor of Valentine's Day, this month's patron-exclusive podcast features Chiaki, Mercedez, and Vrai recommending favorite romance manga - including a couple titles you just may want to include on your next Seven Seas licensing survey.

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Episode Transcript:

VRAI: Hey, patrons. Welcome back to another one of our monthly bonus podcasts. Thank you so much for contributing and helping us keep the site going. This is Vrai here again. I am the managing content editor at AniFem. And this month I have with me Chiaki and Mercedez.

MERCEDEZ: Happy New Year!

VRAI: Yay!

CHIAKI: Happy New Year. [Chuckles airily]

VRAI: What is time anymore besides fake? So, in honor of the season, this month we are going to do a romance-themed episode. The prompt for this month that we decided on is to pick either an anime or a manga that is a favorite romance, or a romance series that you think does something particularly interesting with how it writes love stories.

Do either of you want to go first, or shall I?

MERCEDEZ: I mean, I’m gonna get very quickly impassioned about mine, so…

VRAI: Do the thing.

CHIAKI: Go for it.

MERCEDEZ: Hey there, y’all. I’m coming to kick in your door about Sweat and Soap. [Chuckles] Sweat and Soap, which just ended. Sweat and Soap, which is my everything. It is so good. I have to admit, Sweat and Soap by… is it Kintetsu Yamada? I think it is.

Yeah, I was really reluctant about this series because the first cover definitely looks a little uncomfortable. You’re like, “Oh, no. Is she all right? What’s he doing?” This series is so heartfelt about what it means to be an adult navigating relationships between different bodies, navigating relationships as a team. It doesn’t do the “I’m a man and I hate being in a relationship with a ball and chain.” It doesn’t do that. Instead, what happens is you have the main character Asako and her eventual true love interest… Lord, is his name Kintaro? Kotaro! I read this manga, I promise. It’s just January, y’all. You have them come together and really move through some pretty emotional stuff. It’s a really good series. It is complete at 11 volumes, so that’s not too many.

VRAI: [crosstalk] Which I think are almost out… Are they all out in English now? I know it—

MERCEDEZ: No, they’re all out in English. They’re all out.

VRAI: Nice.

MERCEDEZ: Yeah. So you can just go to your local independent bookstore or a Barnes & Noble and just scoop ‘em up and get yourself some romance. It’s very good. It’s a little spicy, too! [Chuckles] Ooh!

VRAI: Yeah, I know a lot of people were initially kind of… Like you, they look at the cover… And I’ve only read the first volume but I quite liked what I read. And my understanding is that the very first chapter was originally penned as a one-shot, so it’s kind of rushing through the beats; and then when it got picked up as a series, that’s when it got the space to kind of slow down and become this nice adult romance about consent and stuff.

MERCEDEZ: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you can definitely tell the first chapter is something that could have stood alone. But it just becomes this really, really thoughtful look at what a relationship should be, which is a lot of consent, a lot of thoughtfulness, a lot of enjoying being with each other.

And one thing I like is it doesn’t do the thing of relationships where we expect these milestones to hit at proper times. They fall for each other really hard and they just kind of lean into it and they kind of just really enjoy being with each other. And they take the steps when they’re ready, versus when we’re socially expected to. And I think that’s a really important thing to know, because there is no parameter on relationships. A relationship is what you and whomstever you’re involved with, however many people you’re involved with… it’s you navigating that with your partners or your partner—you know, however the relationship dynamic works. And it’s just really good. And it’s beautiful. It’s really good art. It’s really, really good art.

VRAI: Yeah, it’s a seinen series, right?

MERCEDEZ: Yes. Yes, it is seinen. And people often maybe think because it’s romance that it’s josei, but it’s definitely seinen. And it has a live-action coming out.

VRAI: Yeah, I saw that the— It really seems like that live-action cover does not capture the kind of sexiness of the manga one.

MERCEDEZ: I think it’s just mimicking the cover very much so. And I will say, credit to the actress, she was an idol but that was kind of her gateway to acting. She’s done a lot of acting. I don’t think she is, like a lot of criticism is saying, just an idol actress. She’s an actress in her own right.

VRAI: Good for her.

MERCEDEZ: So I’m feeling optimistic for this. I don’t know how they’re gonna handle the more sensual aspects, because that is a part of the story. But kudos to whoever is adapting it for the TV. Look forward to hopefully maybe one day seeing it.

VRAI: Yeah. We also have on the site a contributor article where somebody talked about specifically the elements of consent and communication in Sweat and Soap. So if folks are wanting to see a little bit more of what the series looks like and hear a little bit more discussion of it vis-à-vis specific plot points, go look there.

But yeah, definitely cosigned as far as I’ve read. It’s a nice series.

MERCEDEZ: It’s… [blows a kiss] chef’s kiss! It’s so good.

[Chuckling]

MERCEDEZ: Love it. So good. It’s the one het couple that I’m like, “Yeah!” The only one.

VRAI: You know, it’s warm and fuzzy when you can find a het manga that makes you give a shit. It’s a beautiful and rare feeling.

MERCEDEZ: Oh my God, yeah, it is! It’s like finding a diamond in a pile of dung. It’s just the one diamond out there, the only diamond.

VRAI: Beautiful.

MERCEDEZ: It is.

CHIAKI: So I have like no idea what this story is about. I mean, I’ve heard of it. I’ve heard of it, right? But…

VRAI: Oh, that’s right: you didn’t actually…

MERCEDEZ: Oh, did I just completely assume that every— Oh, okay.

CHIAKI: Oh, don’t worry. Don’t worry. Yeah.

MERCEDEZ: I mean, I can give a quick summary. It feels weird to stick it in right now, but I’ll toss that in if it helps for somebody.

CHIAKI: [Chuckles]

MERCEDEZ: What I just described is a series about a woman named Asako who sweats copiously due to a genetic predisposition to sweat, who was nicknamed Astinko as a child because children can be cruel. And she meets Kotaro, who is a perfume developer at the company she works at, who can’t get enough of Asako’s smell. And when I say that, he smells what just her natural body odor is. And he ends up just being captivated by her.

And this leads to that, leads to this, and they start to fall for each other because he kind of actually sees who she is and appreciates her body, inclusive of the things it does, which I think is really important in the overall summary because this is not a story of Asako getting her groove back and finding some really strong antiperspirant. This is a story of her accepting her body and also being with someone who accepts her body, too.

CHIAKI: Okay! Yeah! No, that sounds really good! That sounds amazingly good.

MERCEDEZ: Yeah, it’s really good. I mean, I feel like this manga is here for people with a scent kink. I fully respect that. Not mine but, you know, I don’t yuck anyone’s yum here.

CHIAKI: Fair.

VRAI: Yeah, it’s one of those things where, to me at least, it felt like “All right, we need a kink that can be our… a hook that can be our marketing gimmick.” But it treats it very sincerely.

MERCEDEZ: And it goes away pretty quickly. It comes back because it’s a throughline, because Asako’s body does what it does: she sweats a lot. And we see different scenes where she’s having to towel herself off to use wet wipes and things. But ultimately, the story really is about consent. It really is about adults navigating a relationship where they just genuinely love each other. It’s good.

VRAI: Yeah. And the first chapter has a little bit of that “I’m invading your personal space. Gosh, I just can’t get over how you smell.” But he apologizes and then that pretty much is done away with.

MERCEDEZ: And she takes him to task. She’s like, “Hey, this isn’t making me feel great. Don’t do that without my permission.” It’s good. It’s good.

VRAI: Yeah. And then it’s so nice when they get into the kinda sexy scenes where she’s like, “Hey, I wore this today.”

MERCEDEZ: Yeah. Yeah. It’s good stuff. It’s very good stuff. And it’s a shame because there is a doujinshi that’s exclusive only to Japan from the series that takes a lot of those scenes and ups ‘em. But what you get in the manga is really sweet and intimate. And I think it’s really important that it’s seinen because, hopefully, maybe men can do better.

VRAI: Hm. I feel like seinen’s just a catch-all genre for like “Uh, we don’t know where it fits in these other really strict marketing terms anymore.”

CHIAKI: It’s a little horny. It’s for people who are older but…

MERCEDEZ: Seinen’s like the gumbo of Japanese manga.

CHIAKI: Damn.

MERCEDEZ: A little bit of everything.

VRAI: You’re welcome for that, marketing industry.

MERCEDEZ: Yeah! Take that, Shueisha.

[Chuckling]

VRAI: You want to go next, Chiaki? I know you had a couple options, so I figure if you go and then we end up short, then you could do two.

CHIAKI: All right. Well, far as romance manga goes, I have been reading recently Zenbu Kimi no Sei. So here’s the thing about my recommendations: I never read anything that’s being translated into English, not for any snobby reason but just because I have weirdly niche tastes which are slowly becoming more accepted, and amazingly, things that I like are being translated. Woohoo. So, things that I would suggest to you aren’t being translated. So, hey, people from the industry listening to this podcast, please, please, please, please consider these titles.

VRAI: If you’re at home thinking, “Hey, what should I suggest on next month’s Seven Seas manga licensing survey?” Ehh?

CHIAKI: Yeah, yeah? Yeah.

MERCEDEZ: [crosstalk] Yeah. Yeah, mm-hm, mm-hm. Them surveys get read. Mm-hm.

CHIAKI: Yeah, yeah. So one thing is, you know, this season we’re having a lot of genderbending going on with anime, right? TSF stuff. And a lot of people have definitely been talking about Fantasy Knockout, which is good. I definitely read the manga and I think it’s good. But I think there is always better that you can do in terms of TSF stories, and one of them is Zenbu Kimi no Sei, which is—

MERCEDEZ: What is TSF?

CHIAKI: TSF is transsexual fantasy, which is…

MERCEDEZ: Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I see. Okay, okay.

CHIAKI: Generally, men turning into women and then hijinks ensue. So, yeah, Zenbu Kimi no Sei, translated into “All Because of You,” but also sei meaning “sex,” so it’s like “all because of your sex,” is about Ryou, who is just entering high school, and he abruptly comes down with this sex change condition where any time he gets excited, like his heart gets excited, he turns into the opposite sex. And this is partly a thing where it’s implied that the gods gave him this condition so that he can be with his crush, who also suffers from the same type of condition.

And so they’re enrolled together in high school, and he’s in love with his senpai Nagisa, who has had this condition since birth. So, Nagisa is totally androgynous, doesn’t feel attached to being male or female either way, because they’ve been switching back and forth since they were little. And then Ryou, coming at it as a born male but constantly changing into a woman sometimes because, hey, he’s right next to his crush.

And it’s really, really cute. They have moments and suddenly, oops, all girls! It’s a really cute story. There’s only three volumes out. It’s still ongoing. It’s considered a romantic comedy with a little bit of ecchi on the side. There’s cosplay. And I feel like it takes a nod— It doesn’t really take a nod, but it’s in the same line as what you saw in FukaBoku. I can’t remember what the English title was.

MERCEDEZ: Oh, Love Me as I Am [sic]?

[Editor's Correction: English title is Love Me For Who I Am]

CHIAKI: Love Me as I Am, yeah. It’s kind of similar to that, but there’s a little bit more magic into it and there’s some characters who are similarly questioning their gender and trying to deal with identity, as well as sexuality, as adolescents. So overall, I feel like it’s a fun story.

VRAI: Yeah, that sounds nice.

MERCEDEZ: I was just gonna say that has a very Chiaki-core vibe to it, and I’m here for it. I like it.

VRAI:  Yeah, no, that is definitely one that would be… It seems like the kind of title that Seven Seas would pick up. They’ve gotten a lot of, if not actively trans manga, then gender play manga that are in that kind of gray zone where DFS—TSF—lives. Wow, words.

[Chuckling]

VRAI: That’d be good.

MERCEDEZ: Yeah!

VRAI: All right, so…

MERCEDEZ: What you recommending, Vrai?

VRAI: Today I ended up going with one of my very favorite yuri manga, which is Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl.

MERCEDEZ: Ooh.

VRAI: It is a ten-volume manga, complete, by Canno, who also just finished writing a three-volume polyamory manga that I am just desperately hoping gets translated. God, I want it so much.

CHIAKI: [Hums imploringly]

VRAI: Please? Please! It looks really cute. It’s like, these three girls get together and one is a senpai, and they’re all studying together because it’s…

MERCEDEZ: [Gasps] Oh my God.

CHIAKI: Fair.

VRAI: Uh-huh.

MERCEDEZ: That sounds good. That sounds good.

CHIAKI: Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

VRAI: Yeah. But the one we do have out in English is Kiss and White Lily, which is such a cumbersome title. But… So it is kind of, sort of an anthology-type title.

There’s a main throughline where there’s this girl named Ayaka, who is very sort of serious and studious, and her mother has pushed her all of her life to be academically successful and she feels extremely pressured because that’s the only way she feels like she can get validation from her parents: this crushing pressure to be the best as a student.

And so, she gets into high school, where in middle school she was the best of the best. And then the first year of high school she gets second place in the school ranking next to this chill, laidback girl genius named Yurine, who does not give a fuck. And that makes Ayaka really, really mad, because how dare you outdo me and then not even care about it!

And so they develop this kind of rivalry where Ayaka has declared that she is going to crush her rival and Yurine is just kind of flirting with her a little bit and doesn’t really seem close to anybody else because she’s always been very talented at anything she tried since a young age and it’s made her feel kind of alienated from other people. And she doesn’t really connect with anything or get passionate about things because it just comes easily to her and she doesn’t really get invested like other people, and other people resent her.

So they have this really nice mutual slow-burn rivalry-to-romance where Ayaka is able to open up about how under-pressure she feels, as opposed to just hiding behind this constructed image of herself as a serious rule-follower, and Yurine is able to… She joins a club and she makes some friends, and it starts to consider her feelings for Ayaka beyond just trolling her a little bit.

And while that’s going on, every volume has a self-contained side story. This is a little bit of a yuritopia manga. There aren’t really any male characters. But I was surprised how little that bothered me. That’s normally a subgenre of yuri that I’m not really into, because reading stuff in the 2000s, that era of manga, it always felt a little bit like that Maria-sama, walled garden feeling where if you have a yuri series that’s only female characters, or a BL series that’s only male characters, it’s like, “All right, it’s as though you think that these relationships can only blossom because a heterosexual relationship isn’t an option.”

But I really like Kiss and White Lily, because using these side stories, it explores basically all the things that it almost feels like Canno couldn’t get greenlit for an original story or were kind of risky. She— I believe Canno is openly a woman. I’ll use “they” just in case. So Canno uses these one-shots to explore a lot of very different types of stories.

So one of them—I think it’s volume 7—is about a polyamorous triad, where two of them are a couple who are childhood friends. One of them is very open about the fact that she is non-monogamous and is flirting with her kohai. And then that kohai also starting to develop a distinct relationship with this other girl’s long-term girlfriend. And it’s really good at doing something that I think polyamory stories don’t always take into account, where each of these relationships are distinct and also the way that the three of them are together is distinct. And it was really, really good. That volume alone is worth picking up just to read that story. And that’s why I really want her latest manga out in English, because it was really touching to me.

And then it also does things like… The volume after that is a short story about a pair of sisters who are really close, and they’ve always had each other since birth. And they have this moment where the older sister kind of… because siscon is sort of prevalent and popular in yuri right now, she is kind of playing around with that, where the older sister is like, “Oh, God! Am I attracted to my sibling?” And then she has that moment of “Oh, no! No, I’m not. That’s horrifying. I just love her and she’s the most important person in my world. But this is absolutely not a matter of physical attraction.” And I think you can argue whether it succeeds on all fronts on that story, but it is really trying to do some delicate stuff where it’s probing into why this subgenre is so popular in yuri: of sisterly bonds that become this sexual, romantic fetish.

And it’s just a really good, satisfying manga. You know, because it has so many characters, sometimes I end up losing track a little bit. And if you read it over a long period of time… I think if you binged it, it would be better. And then there are more playful things like: oh, no, these two students are living together because one of them had… her parents left suddenly; and they’re rivals and they pretend like they don’t know each other at school. But actually, they’re becoming close at home and they’re both on the student council, and will this affect their public relationship or their reputation among the student body?

It’s just fun. And it’s nice that because there are these side stories, it doesn’t feel like the central slow burn is spinning its wheels. It’s just, we’re coming back to them whenever there’s an important development in how they’re growing as characters or their relationship is growing. And meanwhile, here’s all this other stuff that’s just like a bite-sized contained romance that’s unique every time. And it’s a little bit archetypal sometimes in order to fit in that condensed space, but all the characters feel unique and they’re written in a very lively way. The art is extremely detailed without looking cluttered. It’s just a really, really good series that I wish more people would read and that I wish they’d make an anime out of, frankly, because it would really suit the format.

MERCEDEZ: You know, this is a series I’ve actually been wanting to get into for a while, and honestly, you’ve got me like, ooh, I need to go get all of it now!

VRAI: It’s so good!

MERCEDEZ: It sounds real good. It sounds real, real good.

VRAI: Yeah, Canno just started, I think, literally this month, as we record, a series that I know nothing about except that it has zodiac theming, but it’s Canno, so I’m in.

[Chuckling]

VRAI: This is easily my favorite author working in yuri right now.

MERCEDEZ: Okay, see, that’s… All I’m hearing is like “Mercedez, go get it. Go get it now!”

VRAI: Go do the thing. It’s ten volumes; it’s done!

MERCEDEZ: Yeah, that’s not a lot. That’s like 10% of One Piece. It’s definitely shorter.

VRAI: It’s a long-runner as yuri goes, but for most people that’s a short series.

MERCEDEZ: Yeah.

VRAI: Nothin’!

MERCEDEZ: Yeah, that’s nothin’. That’s nothin’ at all. Oh! Oh, I like this series.

VRAI: Oh, it’s so many feelings. And I’m just… my heart… and that scene where Ayaka calls her mom and is able to be okay with the fact that she’s never going to be good enough for her mom, and then she and Yurine skip school and go to the beach… [Sniffles] And I’m full of feelings! [Chuckles]

MERCEDEZ: Oh my gosh. I love—

CHIAKI: And they hold hands. Please tell me they hold hands.

VRAI: They hold so many hands.

MERCEDEZ: Yes!

CHIAKI: Oh, God! Okay. I’m sold.

VRAI: [crosstalk] Oh, there is hand-holding.

CHIAKI: I’m sold.

MERCEDEZ: [crosstalk] I’m mega-sold.

VRAI: I think if you’ve got a short rec, Chiaki, we totally have time for one more.

CHIAKI: Okay, I’ll just slap on Kanojo ni Naru Hi and Kanojo ni Naru Hi: Another. This is actually a shoujo series, which is rare for me, especially since it is a TSF story. It takes place in an alternate Japan where people undergo pupation to maintain a balance of men and women. And so, the original story was sort of a one-shot. The first volume was planned to be just an extended one-shot and a couple more chapters, but then it got greenlit for three additional volumes plus an Another portion, which is a whole ‘nother four different volumes featuring different characters in the same setting.

And it’s fun because… It starts out in high school. You know, that’s the primary way these stories kinda go, given the age bracket of shoujo and all that. But the second volume on, it goes into college, so the characters are adults. The story is a little sexier there. And it’s about a former guy who is just totally okay with being a girl now and then her boyfriend who is wrestling and becoming the ultimate wife guy. It is a really cute series.

The second Another story takes place in middle school, and the good thing about it is they don’t go horny on that one. They smartly stayed away from adult situations there and just kept it to be more of a romantic triangle story.

VRAI: Is that the one where, right after you wrote your latest TSF piece, you got to the end of it and you were like, “Fuck, I should have talked about this one where it was talking more about gender and stuff outside of a horny context”?

CHIAKI: Yeah. I mean, I’ve been meaning to write about When He Becomes a Girl for quite a while. I initially pitched the story to AniFem before I became staff, and then I burnt out and never wrote about it. So, if you remember that piece, it was that one. [Chuckles]

VRAI: Someday. Listen, we all have the backlog. I’ll get around to actually writing about Higurashi someday. Really, for real.

CHIAKI: I mean, I gotta first write several other essays. [Laughs]

VRAI: [Chuckles]

MERCEDEZ: I gotta recover from talking about depression in Super Cub. Just give me a month, y’all. Give me a month. It was a raw piece. Give me a month. [Chuckles]

VRAI: Right, because you were gonna write about Wegg. But life is so much to write about Wegg.

MERCEDEZ: Look, no, that’s coming up. You think I’ve forgotten about Neiru, the one dark brown character getting treated the way she did? No, I didn’t. It’s a year later, y’all.

VRAI: [Chuckles]

MERCEDEZ: My pandemic memory is as sharp as a knife!

[Laughter]

MERCEDEZ: I have not forgotten all those feelings.

VRAI: Incredible.

MERCEDEZ: Especially now that we’re in this trash season? Ugh, yeah, okay. Ain’t got anything else to do but think about Wegg! [Chuckles]

VRAI: The curse. That is the curse of—

CHIAKI: [crosstalk] I got a lot to think about this season.

VRAI: It’s true. This is a Chiaki-core season. This season is “Gender?”

CHIAKI: And World’s End Harem!

MERCEDEZ: Oh!

VRAI: That— Yeah.

CHIAKI: [Laughs]

MERCEDEZ: Is that the one with the awkward censoring that looks like…?

CHIAKI: Yeah.

MERCEDEZ: Oh my god, I gotta see that show. [Chuckles]

CHIAKI: Oh man, it’s great. It’s great.

MERCEDEZ: Gotta watch that. That’s gonna be my jam.

VRAI: [Chuckles] Okay. I am going to call it to a close for this month’s bonus episode. Once again, thank you, patrons, for donating your $5. It really does a world of difference in helping us pay people, keep things running, and the fact that it’s… We love consistent donations. Consistent small donations are what make the site go round. So, thank you.

As always, tell us your thoughts about this episode. Comments are cool. We’d love feedback about what you’d like to see or what we could improve on.

Other than that, we will see you next time. Bye-bye, AniFam!