Beginning of the MAL backlog destruction
Finished: Days of Love at Seagull Villa
I actually own the first volume of it, and was mildly interested in the plot but not enough to buy the rest at the time... I re-read the first volume then finished the rest of it.
I like the core of it unlike some reviews I've seen - I don't mind illicit relationships in my yuri where it's appropriate, the main couple has a cute dynamic (a woman lost in life and thinking she can run away to fix her problems is relatable), and a psycho past friend is also relatable (unfortunately). The art won't win any awards but it has a cute simplicity to it. However the writing is extremely rushed and confusing at points, it feels like there's too much going on and none of the plots are satisfactorily concluded.
The main couple gets a rushed conclusion, I particularly would have loved to see more of how the small rural community reacted to a lesbian couple, how their "family" was able to grow to be a full fledged family, all that sorts of stuff.
Then the two side plots - Touko seemed like she just got with Mayumi's husband for some sort of revenge / attention seeking, so why is her having a baby with him a happy conclusion for her? And the sister-couple, there could have been so much done with their dynamic, but instead it's totally brushed over as if it's just as strange as any other lesbian couple...
Honestly that's the main problem I have with siscon yuri. The "lesbian" and "siscon" parts are treated like they're equally shocking - which feels more homophobic than anything. And throwing them into what's otherwise a cute adult yuri... I can see why a lot of people were turned off by that. They could have been their own series where the ideas could have been fully fleshed out and read by people who actually want to read that, and not just be shoved in the face of people who want some regular adult-focused yuri. And it could have been done with a lot more tact... Overall highly disappointing.
Basically, a compilation of good ideas with poor execution.
Dropped: Omamori Shimasu, Dokomademo
Apparently I had one chapter of this started on MAL. I tried re-reading the chapter and couldn't even finish it. Typical early 2010s yaoi stuff. I don't mind reading fujo content, but this stereotypical stuff with even the stereotypical yaoi art is too much for me to get into nowadays.
Dropped: Otome to Meteor
Another one that I had 1 chapter started on MAL, so I figured I'd try picking it up again. I think I picked it up originally because I was looking for lighthearted alien series...? But reading one chapter, it just reminds me of old shoujo series I'd force myself to read as a kid because they were the only manga available at the library. Not my type anymore, pass.
Dropped: Ion
I just cannot get into old school shoujo like I used to... I love Tanemura's artwork a lot to this day (her manga were how I got into manga for people over the age of like, eight) but the stories just don't hold me anymore.
Dropped: Shimeji Simulation
I really like the art style, but a pessimistic "realistic" high school story is depressing and I don't really get parts of it, so I don't really have any interest in continuing...
Finished: Mai, the Psychic Girl
I believe I picked this up originally because I was starting to get into old school manga, and this is one of the first ever localized manga, and was well-liked at the time. It's pretty easy read, though it starts getting a bit off the rails about halfway through... This junior high girl fell for a college guy in like a week, to the degree she hates a woman for flirting with him? And that grown woman was purposefully trying to make a young girl jealous? And Mai'd run off in the middle of a storm while people are trying to kill her over her feelings for this man? Holy shit.
And then the east German girl... killed an entire plane full of people over bitterness of a piano competition and lit little girls hair on fire for bumping into her. Of course the little girl from a commie country is a psycho bitch who wants to kill the pure innocent Japanese girl for simply being a bit stronger than her. And the other three psychic boys were weird stereotypes as well...
Besides that, the amount of panty shots in fights... I can ignore them fine in action schlock, but are they really necessary in serious, more "realistic" stories? Well I guess I can say that it's definitely a product of its time, and I can look past that to a degree, but the story itself just becomes so confusing and unsatisfying at the same time all this stuff pops up, making the last 20 chapters feel more like "I have to finish this because I got this far in already" more than being actually enjoyable. I will say though, the art overall is gorgeous.