#amaiiuwu

[historyhermann]

Webcomics Focus: Mira!

Mira! tells the story of Mira, a first-year student, who meets the three young women she is rooming with. Their lives become intertwined in this cute, wholesome webcomic.

Reprinted from The Geekiary, my History Hermann WordPress blog, and Wayback Machine. This was the fourteenth article I wrote for The Geekiary. This post was originally published on November 17, 2021. Also, this post has been slightly changed from the original.

Mira!, by illustrator Amaiiuwu, has women-centric friendships, with the four protagonists, Miranda "Mira" Glaze, Robbyn Stable, Alexandra "Alex" Rojas, and Sakura "Cherry" Kinoshita learning more about themselves and love along the way. This light-hearted slice-of-life girls love series, as it could be called, which will be about 30 chapters long, begins when Haruka's girlfriend breaks up with her, and her friend Robbyn tells her to start loving herself.

Five years later, Mira goes to a university and meets Alex. Mira is studying graphic design while Alex is studying game design. She goes to class and meets a cute girl in her design class.  She finds out that the girl is Robbyn, her childhood friend. Mira learns that Alex is also in the same dorm, as is Cherry. Mira leads their introductions, with Cherry surprised they are all wlw (women love women), with Mira and Robbyn forgetting this is a WLW dorm. It makes me think of the "Open Housing" option at my alma mater, which allows students to "choose their roommates independent of gender/sex/sexual orientation."

Mira and Alex begin talking

Mira! has a compelling storyline and characters, serving as form of entertainment and escapism as she put it. Mira is a 19-year-old woman interested in girls, while Robbyn is 19 years old and a lesbian. Alex is a 20-year-old lesbian sapphic woman and Cherry is a half-Japanese lesbian woman. In the first Q&A of the comic, all four of them named their preferences, and that they are all doing design majors of some kind. It was also noted that Alex is attracted to girls and non-binary people, specifically the latter who are female-presenting.

The webcomic, which has more than 30 episodes, is written and illustrated by Amaiiuwu, who has been drawing seriously for six years. It was recently noted in Q&A that Mira! would be a polyamorous webcomic, which was hinted at in an earlier comic, and an earlier Q&A. As such, this webcomic could be considered to be like the webcomic, Boyfriends, about four young men in a poly relationship, except this would be between four young women. However, in that same Q&A, Amaiiuwu said that her favorite ship is Mira and Robbyn, as they were the first two characters she created for the comic. I wish her the best in studying animation after she graduates high school as she said in that Q&A.

Mira! is one of the many recent stories to focus on girl's love stories. The comic's author, Amaiiuwu, recommends stories like A Bread Story, The End of Time, The Siren's Light, and I Seduced the Villainess. While I've reviewed other girl's love comics like Not So Shojo Love Story, and Ice Massacre, Brahidaliz Martinez, who has written many more articles reviewing webcomics than I have, has also reviewed similar comics. This includes Flowers for the Arsonist, Sesame But Different, Once Upon a Time, and Her Name Was Sunny, to name a few.

Mira and Robbyn in their dorm room

Mira! is available to read on WebToon.

You can find Amaiiuwu on Twitter (less active) and Instagram (more active)

[lunnylin]

attack

for @/Amaiiuwu - @/OreoClownish - @plaguezart - @/Kylelineart

[historyhermann]

Webcomics Focus: "Bring Me Love"

Bring Me Love tells the story of Brie who falls in love with another woman after her previous relationship comes to an end.

Reprinted from The Geekiary, my History Hermann WordPress blog, and Wayback Machine. This was the fifteenth article I wrote for The Geekiary. This post was originally published on November 24, 2021. Also, this post has been slightly changed from the original.

Bring Me Love, by Ariann, a Mexican illustrator, is a romantic story drawn in pastel colors. However, it has adult situations and themes, with a warning that it is only "recommended for mature audiences." That is probably in part because of topics like alcohol use, like drinking too much and passing out. Let me make clear that this review will have spoilers about the webcomic's plot and characters.

Brie Williams, the story's protagonist, declares to her friend that she will never date again after breaking up with her girlfriend, Gina. However, she is drawn to a brown-haired and brown-skinned woman named Lou, who flirts with her. She later meets Lou at a local bar, opening up to her about her troubled life, and she drinks too much, resulting in Lou bringing her home. The following day she breaks down crying after fighting with Gina and is surprised to see Lou at her door.

Bring Me Love has compelling characters and plot, even though it is primarily focused on two characters: Brie and Lou. At times, simplicity can work in the favor of a broader story. In this case it definitely does, just as with some parts of High Guardian Spice. It's not that the scenes have no design, but its rather that the most detail and focus is on the characters, making it clear what those reading the webcomic should pay attention to: the visuals, the characters, their expressions, their emotions, and what they are going through from panel to panel. That is the driving force of this webcomic above anything else.

And that makes it wonderful in its own way. Not every webcomic needs to be so detailed in everything or have a whole team working on it like some of the more popular webcomics. Some webcomics can be like this one, and still have a unique character to them, something which makes them different from any other webcomic and amazing in many ways. The colors of this webcomic are amazing and every panel pops out to the reader, making you interested in reading more and becoming more invested in the story and its characters, as it progresses forward.

Bring Me Love, which has eleven episodes currently, is written and illustrated by Ariann. She is also known for Odd Worlds, which is available on WebToon and Tapas. In a recent update, she stated that the story is based on her own experiences and she would make it more detailed by changing episodes from the very beginning and encouraged readers to leave comments to let her know if they liked the changes or what improvements they'd like in the story moving forward. Basing a webcomic on one's lived experiences makes sense, especially for a webcomic such as this one, which is based in a more real life setting than a magical fantasy like High Class Homos or Spellbound.

Bring Me Love is one of the many recent stories to focus on girls' love. In fact, one of the stories she recommended was Meli Apt's Saving You, another girls' love story! Other examples include Curryuku's Not So Shoujo Love Story, Madamka's Diamond Dive, Tiana Warner and April Weaver's Ice Massacre, Amaiiuwu's Mira!, to name a few.

Bring Me Love is available to read on WebToon.

You can find Ariann on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The webcomic can be supported on Patreon.