The Spring 2020 Manga Guide

Éclair Blanche

What's It About? 

In this follow-up to Éclair, girls and young women fall in and out of love, find loves requited and unrequited, and explore romance both platonic and romantic. Creators include Canna, Nio Nakatani, Fly, Hiroichi, and many others not previously available in English.

Éclair Blanche is a multi-creator anthology. Yen Press published it in May, and it is available both in print ($13) and digitally ($6.99).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Yuri anthologies (or any anthology, really) have a spotty history, and neither Éclair Blanche's direct predecessor Éclair nor Whenever Our Eyes Meet are quite as good as this book. On the plus side, that means that if you only moderately liked those books, there's a good chance that you'll find more to enjoy in this one, even if many of the same creators are present across the volumes.

By far the strongest piece in this book is the first one, “Flowers in a Storm” by Fly, who also provided the cover art. One of several bittersweet tales, “Flowers in a Storm” accomplishes a lot in only ten pages with very few words as it follows the final encounter between two childhood friends who separate for college. While it isn't certain that their love for each other was unrequited in the romantic sense, there's a true feeling of loss that comes with their parting, and that's not an easy emotion to capture in fifty pages, much less ten. That Fly's art is beautiful certainly helps, but its less the beauty of the art and more the way that both it and the words are used that makes an impact.

Interestingly enough, the most powerful stories in the volume are all of the bittersweet variety, and since that's not my preferred flavor of romance (happily ever after all the way for me), this is saying something. Izumi Kawanai's “Graduation Piercing” examines the idea of pain as two friends, one of whom knows the other has a crush on her that she doesn't return, get ready to move on after high school and use their ritual of ear piercing after heartbreak to make up for emotional pain with physical. Again, it's the way the story is told that's so powerful; in this case the fact that we remain solely in the head of the girl who can't return her friend's romantic love, leaving us to wonder if the other can fully understand what's going on. Slightly less charming but still well done is “Azalea Corner” by Kazuno Yuikawa. This piece has the youngest cast of any in the volume, following a group of elementary school girls and mostly looking at the girl with perfect parent manners who is secretly a troublemaker. The narrator adores her from afar but is fully aware of her true nature, which adds a moderately disturbing element to the story, although it is well-written and drawn.

On the weaker side of things Canno's contribution, which follows two pretty unlikable characters in their unhealthy relationship, and Fumiko Tada's “My Mom,” which has some themes that won't work for all readers, although it should be noted that it's absolutely not a mother/daughter romance. “The Cutest Girl in the Universe” is also on the weaker side, but that's mostly because it just doesn't do anything particularly special in a book where there are a fair amount of good stories.

Since several of the creators in here do have other work available in English translation, Éclair Blanche is a nice way to sample them, although not always a great indication of their other series in the cases of Canno and Nio Nakatani. But it's still a good anthology for yuri fans, if only for that first story.

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Faye Hopper

Rating:

Éclair Blanche is a collaborative yuri anthology across multiple artists, which means a lot of what the book contains is expected. Some of the installments are chaste, some a little more risqué, some do not have any kind of romantic fulfillment, and some portray relationship dynamics I am uncomfortable with. In my opinion, however, Éclair Blanche has more hits than misses. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a cute, gay ol' time.

There are only a couple stories in Éclair Blanche that gave me real pause. One is the story of an embittered woman in her late 20s who almost begins a tryst with a high school girl, and the other is a confusing comedy aside involving magical girl cosplay, accidental nudity and a romance between a teacher and her student. Thankfully, in the case of the former story, the older woman stops herself before anything can happen (although her desire for the underage girl is uncomfortably noted). But in the case of the latter story it is the one that closes the book. Its conflicting, disparate elements (I'm really not sure how the covert magical girl cosplay and the secret relationship between an adult and a high schooler are supposed to connect) and presentation of an unacceptable, exploitative relationship dynamic as something to be protected makes me reconsider a lot of my enthusiasm for these stories.

That said, the book is generally very charming. A personal favorite installment was ‘The Evolution of Bed-Sharing’, where two co-workers move in together, begin to share a bed and struggle to confess their burgeoning affection. It is a very sweet, pleasant story about the necessity of being honest with your partner, and communicating what you want sexually, romantically, and even in terms of personal space. I also really liked the story involving two girls, Rena and Hiyori, who spend time together in a club room (Hiyori is a straight A student; Rena is the sister of a straight A student who has been living in her shadow all her life) and their difficulties in forming a relationship (as Hiyori used to pine after Rena's sister, and Rena's feelings of inadequacy leave her feeling like she can't be loved). It is an emotionally affecting portrait of low self-esteem, and has a beautiful, wonderful ending. Even when the stories veer into more emotionally difficult territory (like the many stories depicting unfulfilled love due to someone moving away), these values of articulating a truth about human relationships are almost always maintained. It is lovely.

Éclair Blanche might be conventional yuri, but for the most part it is very good conventional yuri. As someone who, like a lot of people, has been on my own and longing for human connection, I found it a charming, effective reminder of just what it is to like someone and want to be with them. If you are looking for the same in a nice, queer package, you could do a lot worse.