SUCH a cute story. :D

Poor Akagi. And poor Akagi's girlfriend. T_T

I don't think it's girlfriend as much as "fuck buddy". It's obvious that she's aware Akagi has feelings for Shirai and Akagi doesn't even try to deny it. Oh well sympathy sex I guess? Unfortunately, Jin doesn't take it anywhere further though so...

Many others aren't quite so clear: Namori, Ritz, Kuroda and so on.

i never see a boy in a namori story, but draws girls like no one,
the covers of yuri hime are all great, but namori's are really somethings

Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. Manara draws extremely beautiful girls, seems incapable of drawing handsome guys, and is totally a male.

I don't think it's girlfriend as much as "fuck buddy". It's obvious that she's aware Akagi has feelings for Shirai and Akagi doesn't even try to deny it. Oh well sympathy sex I guess? Unfortunately, Jin doesn't take it anywhere further though so...

Yeah you're right, but it seems to me that the woman has feelings for Akagi.

Morishima Akiko is not only female but sayd multiple times that she frequents Nichijou. So she's probably lesbian too.

It's interesting how few yuri creators set their stories in Nichijou. Akiko and Takemija both have (Happy Picture
Diary and Fragments of Love respectively), and seem to be rather outliers in that sense.

And the best known males would be like; Fujieda Miyabi, Kurogane Ken, whoever did Sisterism, and Takahashi (Sasameki Koto).

whoa. so the author of Sasameki Koto is a guy. hands down to him. he really made great piece of work.

i thought "all" (which only covered those i've read :P) yuri authors were women. thanks for the info

Morishima Akiko is not only female but said multiple times that she frequents Nichijou. So she's probably lesbian too.

It's interesting how few yuri creators set their stories in Nichijou. Akiko and Takemija both have (Happy Picture
Diary and Fragments of Love respectively), and seem to be rather outliers in that sense.

If you want realistic (and awesome) yuri in Nichoume, try the autobiographic Honey x Honey.

last edited at Apr 17, 2013 2:23PM

It's more acceptable to say he/she, because they/them is improper. That's plural form. Otherwise, neutral would be "the author" or "the artist".

While "they/them" is a plural form, it has history as use as a singular non-gender specific word and, in fact, is quite common. Consider the sentence: "A person fell off their chair. They were quite upset." Even though "their" and "they" are both words that are used to denote a plural entity, it is very natural to see statements such as those two. While "the author" or "the artist" is neutral in a sense, it's very jarring to see statements that utilizing titles like that too often.

@Akagi, I dunno, I figured it was something like a love triangle. Akagi's girl --> Akagi --> Shirai. Or you know, it's possible to have feelings for multiple people at the same time. Like she just hadn't completely gotten over Shirai yet.

@Namori, I used to believe they were a guy undoubtedly. Read something not too long ago that really swung me the other way, but I can't remember what it was!

Well, the name is a give-away, she openly identifies as female, is engaged in the lgbt community and there are pictures of her.

Yeah...you can count "I believe" as my way of saying "I'm 99% sure but what the heck." I actually didn't know the last two parts though, that's pretty cool.

It comes down to factors like lacking the straight-up life experience, and idealization being part of the original appeal for yuri in the first place. But I figure a lot of male yuri mangaka are simply not equipped or mentally comfortable enough to step into telling real, grounded stories. I mean, you've got things like the casual way Takemiya Jin threw in the fact that Kurosawa had a 'physical'/exploitative relationship with a guy in this story.

I can think of one example like that. The guy who wrote Virgins' Empire did a short serialization a decent while ago in a Josei mag. The main character is in a sexual/exploitative relationship with a guy, and then develops "real" feelings for a girl. It has the kind of melancholic, slice-of-life(ish) feel that Takako or Asano Inio are known for. I felt like it was probably one of the more realistic yuri manga I had read, period.
But that is my only example.

I would chalk it up mostly to the two rules of writing original material. Write what you like, or write what you know. The Seinen/Shounen audience in general apparently prefers escapism, so it would follow that writers from those audiences would also enjoy that kind of material. And then the experience thing would come into play as well. Same thing goes for the art - lots of guys draw cute girls because they like cute girls, and vice-versa.

last edited at Apr 17, 2013 11:55AM

Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. Manara draws extremely beautiful girls, seems incapable of drawing handsome guys, and is totally a male.

you know milo manara ? i'm italian, i have a lot of books of him, the drawing is perfect, but i find the storytelling boring.
same story for guido crepax, but he can draw man too, and beautiful androginus girls

is it true fujieda miyabi is male? i were sure of the opposite, not that i had proof...
i know mikuni hajime is female, and also eiki eiki and zaou taishi, but i can say anything about their sexual preferences.
i think amano shuninta is male.
have someone a clue about personal color? (touhou dj circle)

Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. Manara draws extremely beautiful girls, seems incapable of drawing handsome guys, and is totally a male.

you know milo manara ? i'm italian, i have a lot of books of him, the drawing is perfect, but i find the storytelling boring.

I totally agree with you here, his stories are shitty as hell. But god, his art is great.

Morishima Akiko is not only female but said multiple times that she frequents Nichijou. So she's probably lesbian too.

I actually knew that one. Like Phyis said, Akiko isn't all that gender neutral, it's obviously feminine.

And do you mean Nichoume? Nichijou is a manga and a word that means "regular life"

Morishima Akiko is not only female but said multiple times that she frequents Nichijou. So she's probably lesbian too.

I actually knew that one. Like Phyis said, Akiko isn't all that gender neutral, it's obviously feminine.

And do you mean Nichoume? Nichijou is a manga and a word that means "regular life"

Yeap, I totally meant Nichoume. Being sleep-deprived appears to affects me more than I tought.

Meh.

You know everyone around here seems to be depraved. That's like the sixth time in the last few days someone has made a reference to lacking sleep.

is it true fujieda miyabi is male? i were sure of the opposite, not that i had proof...

Hmm. Fujieda's personal site;

http://www.moonphase.jp/miyabi/

He's that...thing, in the top left corner. What do you think, ever seen a girl who looked like that? Hehe...He appears like that in all his afterwords/forewords, and I do believe he joked about being a guy once, so...

have someone a clue about personal color? (touhou dj circle)

Sorry, don't know them by name, so I really couldn't say.

is it true fujieda miyabi is male? i were sure of the opposite, not that i had proof...
i know mikuni hajime is female, and also eiki eiki and zaou taishi, but i can say anything about their sexual preferences.
i think amano shuninta is male.
have someone a clue about personal color? (touhou dj circle)

Yes, Fujieda Miyabi is male. On his site:
「藤枝　雅 （ふじえだ　みやび）
藤色（薄青紫）が好きで、みやびやかな世界が好きだからの名前です。直球。
女の子という存在に憧れての名前でもあります（藤枝は男ですゆえ）」
"Fujieda Miyabi
He likes Wisteria (a light blue violet) [Fujiiro] and the world of elegance [Miyabi] so that's his name. Frankly,
he also admires "women" so that's part of the reason for the name too. (Fujieda is a guy after all.)"

I don't know if he still does so, but he did stream in the past so hearing him talk confirmed that he was probably a guy.

And really? I had a feeling that Amano Shuninta was female.

(On another aside, the Tweet regarding Namori does seem to indicate that Namori is female as well as taking a look at Namori's Japanese wikipedia page [if it is to be trusted])

everyone around here seems to be depraved

That's a given.

Morishima Akiko is not only female but said multiple times that she frequents Nichijou. So she's probably lesbian too.

I actually knew that one. Like Phyis said, Akiko isn't all that gender neutral, it's obviously feminine.

Trouble with using that as a rule is a lot of artists use pen names. So that further muddies the water.

Not Akiko obviously. Also in reference to her as a lesbian, I took it as a given that Happy Picture Diary is at least partly autobiographical.

Haven't read all the comments yet, but here are my comments. :P

The art looked a little rushed at first, but it kind of grew on me. The story was awesome though. :-)

I adore this woman's work. Takemiya Jin for president! :D

And for the person wondering about Shuninta's gender: female.