Manga review – HEN – it’s about…erm…hens.
Posted on | February 4, 2008 | 12 Comments |
| Nade nade nade~
Yep, this weeks installment is a manga review – since I spent most of friday evening reading the first 5 volumes of this instead of working I thought that there should at least be a point to my procrastination. But why need an excuse to read a yuri manga? Why indeed…
HEN is something I picked up from yurizuki.net manga archives (which are full of nice one shots and cute mini-series). It is still rare to find a completely yuri manga, so I was extremely interested to find out what this particular title was like. After all, the art was tolerable, the characters looked memorable and there’s yuri in it, so what could possibly be bad? It’s almost refreshing after reading so many “yuri” mangas that are really normal mangas with a yuri relationship tacked on to the side as token fanservice that I had almost forgotten that yuri existed out of subtext.
The manga focuses on the school and home life of a particular girl, Chizuru who is a quarter (born to half Japanese/American parents), which means that it gives the artist an excuse to draw a girl with all the “Caucasian characteristics” (blue eyes, tall stature and huge bazongas) and have a reason for it. And yes, those bazongas are world class. As we meet her in the first chapter, we learn fairly soon off the bat that to go with that sleek exterior she is cold-hearted, cares for little and enjoys living off sleeping with other men (nice work if you can get it). That is, until she meets the new transfer student, Azuma…
Azuma is your typical little sweet country girl from the sticks, complete with clumsy pratfalls and “trying to make everyone happy” demeanour. It goes without saying that Chizuru falls in love with her at first sight. Then spends the best part of half a volume fighting with her straight self about the possibility that she might be a lesbian.
Obviously, she decides that she can’t deny these feelings, and so goes after Azuma with all the womanly charm she can muster, paving the way for a hilarious slice-of-life romantic comedy drama where the heroine finds herself by trying to convince the girl of her dreams that she is in love with her and in the end stops being such a bitter and twisted person.
Or so you would think…
To its credit, HEN surprised me with the way it tackled the relationship. Chizuru spends the best part of 5 volumes as Azuma’s best friend, trying to wriggle her way between her heartstrings, finally ending up in a heartfelt confession in front of the entire class while still being her regular old cold heartless bitch-self to everyone else. In fact, by the end of volume 5 its probably safe to say that her character hasn’t really changed one iota.
Azuma also stays pretty much the same, gently fending off the tentative and not-so-tentative advances of the sex-crazed Chizuru while making it fairly clear that she would always consider her a friend and nothing more, while slowly falling in teenage love with film-geek-boy. However, by the beginning of volume 6 it looks like Azuma might be coming round to accepting Chizuru’s feelings, though I can only guess what happens next from the raws – my kanji reading is inferior, I fear.
To be perfectly honest, I’m still not entirely convinced by HEN. I do feel like I am itching to know what happens to the two girls in the end and whether they get their happy ever after monkey sex in some love hotel in Gion where Azuma turns out all seme and handcuffs Chizuru to the bed so she can have her way with her. However, I do feel that it is only the yuri that is keeping me hooked on this story. All in all, there are only really 4 characters – Chizuru, Azuma, Hiroyuki and Kobayashi, the film-geek-boy. All the other named characters only show up briefly and have no real bearing on the story.
Over the course of 5 volumes they have been through a total of 2 significant situations and their relationship has progressed around 5 micrometres. However, on the other hand, the unchanging characters and daily sub-to-almost-text is probably more realistic than most yuri mangas who paint the idea, rose and lily coloured world where girls always reciprocate each others’ feelings. I mean, in reality, peoples’ personalities don’t change. No matter how hard we try, bad habits stick fast like glue so it would be frivolous to think that a little love-at-first-sight would be enough to change someone from slopy-eyebrows-misery-guts to shining-bright-happy-happy in one go. And no. In reality, straight girls don’t turn gay just because someone wants them to. Well, not when I’ve wanted them to anyway ^_-;
I think it’s simply the static-ness of the storyline that throws me off. Instead of developing the relationship between the two girls and trying to make Chizuru less 1 dimensional, the author insists instead in investing valuable page space in silly side stories and badly drawn male characters. What frustrates me even more is the potential that this kind of manga has to depict a truly interesting relationship which in my opinion is currently on its way from urethra to toilet bowl. At the very least there needed to be some kind of yuri rivalry between one of the female extras and Azuma.
I mean come on – that’s what’s customary, isn’t it?
Perhaps that’s what’s wrong with this review. HEN judged on the merits of its peers is “It’s Yuri, Jim, but not as we know it”. If you keep waiting for it to take a relationship turn because one of the characters “Accidental Perverted Falls” on the other or “Reverse Breast Grabs” her in the changing rooms, then you’ll be sorely mistaken. And waiting for a fairly long time.
HEN is an interesting read. But perhaps I would prefer it to be more satisfying instead…
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February 5th, 2008 @ 2:59 am
Nice Review Yuribou, this sounds really interesting I am going to have to check this out I have been wanting some new manga too read I will most likely read this manga just for the accidental perverted falls and the reverse breast grabs ^_^. My favorite. Thanks again for the review I just recently this past weekend got caught up on all of the awesome last season’s anime, since there is really nothing of interest this season except for SZS 2 and a few others some of the most recent stuff is good but not all of it. See you later.
YuribouFan
February 5th, 2008 @ 4:28 am
I have the anime “Strange Love” which is… interesting. First part of her is her manipulating a make teacher, episode two is the yuri bit. Not bad, not great.
February 5th, 2008 @ 4:55 am
I’ve heard the anime is an interesting thing too.
Good review!
February 5th, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
変! But I only see the first 2 volumes on that site. Where did you get the rest of it?
February 5th, 2008 @ 7:28 pm
Try here http://crazytje.be/index.php?r=58
February 5th, 2008 @ 8:47 pm
“After all, the art was tolerable,”
I guess I’m too shallow, because judging by the pics you’ve posted (especially the bikini one), I don’t think I’d be able to bear the art. No amount of yuri could make me look at that style of drawing :(
February 6th, 2008 @ 4:04 pm
有難ã†ç™¾åˆå¸½ã•ã‚“ï¼ I found it to be quite enjoyable, as well as a refreshing change of style. Too much of that cotton candy type stuff can really mess you up.
February 6th, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
The drawing style seems quite odd from those pictures, the faces in particular seem either oddly styled or poorly done. I’m wondering if the writing is what makes looking at the art tolerable, though it doesn’t sound like it from your reveiw.
February 13th, 2008 @ 11:19 pm
If your able to find scanlations for this title it might be something with a bit more yuri titled Haitoku DNA (Immoral DNA) by tenma comics
Animenation has a pic of it on their site.
February 16th, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
I definitely remember reading this manga not too long ago. It frankly was my first exposure to hardcore yuri, and truthfully, it was pretty disappointing. The art, I agree, is tolerable. The story is bland and the characters themselves are also incredibly shallow and insipid.
It almost reminded me of drinking cold tea. Not much flavor, but full of promise that never delivered. Leaves you wanting more, and wanting something more satisfying…
February 16th, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
I don’t like it… o_o
I mean her boobs are LIKE HUGE and her body is like a stick, no, a twig!
February 17th, 2008 @ 9:09 pm
“I don’t like it… o_o
I mean her boobs are LIKE HUGE and her body is like a stick, no, a twig!”
She can’t have it all lol. This is good enough for most people ^_^.