The Fall 2020 Manga Guide

Éclair Orange

What's It About? 

Éclair Orange is a girls' love anthology that features stories from authors like Nio Nakatani, Kumiko Takeba, Miyako Miyahara and more. Yen Press will release both the print and digital versions of the anthology on November 17 for $13.00 and $6.99 respectively.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Éclair Orange may not be the first Éclair anthology we've read for one of these Guides, but each one really is its own distinct book. While I wouldn't necessarily say that Éclair Orange is the strongest of the batch, it does open with two very different, very good stories, which not only are enjoyable on their own, but complement each other nicely. The first, Nio Nakatani's “Double Bed,” is about an established couple who are considering whether or not to move to a new apartment. The idea is frightening to a degree, because even though they've been together for a while now, a new, bigger apartment seems like more of a step towards making their relationship permanent – something one of the women has been resisting since they moved into this one. Ultimately she realizes that she wants something more lasting, no matter how scary, because she's come to resent the sliver of bare floor between their futons, which makes her think about the initial suggestion made when they moved in together that they buy a double bed. When she says to her partner now that she wants a double bed, it's understood between them that this is her statement of intent, that she's ready to close any metaphoric gaps still between them. It's quietly and sweetly affirming.

Conversely, the second story, “Song of a Heat Haze” by Kumiko Takeba, is about a gap that can never be bridged. Kozue and Yui were best friends from childhood who began to move into girlfriend territory in high school only for Yui to die before Kozue could verbally answer her feelings. Now Kozue is haunted by Yui's ghost, although whether that's from her own guilt and sorrow or Yui not being able to leave her is unclear. It's quiet and sorrowful and Kozue's vow to herself to always be alone because she can no longer be with Yui is the sort of depressing romantic that a lot of people go through at some point, and the knowledge that maybe she won't stick to her vow is also a little bit sad. The girls wanted something permanent that they can't have anymore, and that juxtaposes well with the peaceful happiness of Nakatani's story, offering two very different pictures of what the future could be for two couples.

While those two stand out as the strongest in the book, others do manage to come close, such as Kabocha's “Our Point of Intersection,” about two girls who really only meet up when they're working together at the school library and the fun “Unbreakable Distance” by Miyako Miyahara, where two high school girls' feelings can't be said aloud and are instead expressed when they braid their hair together and find themselves attached. Canno's piece and the closing story by Auri Hirano are two of the weakest, although Izumi Kawanami's “The Bitch Came Back” isn't particularly wonderful either, although it does have a nice theme of maturation. On the whole this is a solid collection for yuri fans of most stripes (there's no Class S, for example) and the only way to experience some of these creators' work in English. Whether you've read an Éclair anthology before or not, this definitely has appeal.

Caitlin Moore

Rating:

It's tricky giving a rating to an anthology where every story is written by a different person. Everything about it is variable, from the art to the storytelling to the character writing. To discuss it as a whole work, instead of a group of smaller parts, feels nearly impossible. What is there to say other than that some works are good, some less so? Some offer a compelling snapshot of two women's lives together, while others fail to enthrall. I don't have space to go into each one by one.

Short stories are an art form entirely of their own, with different demands from longer form media. I imagine romance in particular offers a challenge, because the story's impact depends on how invested the reader is in the characters' relationship.

For me, a lot of how much I enjoyed each story was proportionate to how well I related to the characters. The first story in the collection, Double Bed by Nio Nakatani, is about a couple who have been living together for two years and are considering moving when their lease ends, and the main character reflects on how she's starting to be more willing to invest in permanent fixtures, like a double bed in place of two futons placed next to each other. The most unique of the collection is New Star by Kazuno Yuikawa, a science-fiction story about a princess and her servant.

At the same time, if a story has a trope I dislike, there's no time for it to win me over. Multiple stories feature high school students with adult women, with at least one having an age gap of over a decade. I'm sensitive to such age/power gaps, so I just couldn't accept those.

At the very least, none of the stories had the kind of alien, fetishistic sexualization of yuri aimed at men. None of them are what I'd call “sexy” in general, though quite a few aren't exactly chaste either. The ones about grown women usually have a whiff of sex to them – nothing steamy, but an awareness that these are two adults for whom sex is a natural part of romance to them.

Most of the stories in Éclair Orange I didn't feel strongly about either way. Some I enjoyed, and some made me frown, though I don't think there are any I truly detested. Overall, they averaged out to a, well, pretty average volume of manga.