No News Report This Week

Just wanted to let you know that there will be no News Report this week. I'm beat.

I'll be back tomorrow with a review. I just need a day or two off to recharge and work on other projects. Instead, I'll leave you this:

This week, we submitted Yuri Monogatari 6 to the Lambda Literary Awards.

YM6 Video Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yli_kPSVkFs



Yuri Monogatari 6 on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/bgnvut

Yuri Monogatari 6 on Yuricon Shop: http://tinyurl.com/alcpub - Holiday Sale is still ongoing, so get yourself copy of what is sure to be the winner of the Lammy for Best LGBT Anthology!

New Anime Season Autumn 2009: Shin Koihime Musou

Quick, name an all-female anime/manga version of the Chinese Epic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. No, wait - quick, name three.

Last year we were 'treated' to Koihime Musou, one of several gender switch versions of the historical epic Romance. This year we have the debatable pleasure of a sequel, Shin Koihime Musou, currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

The sequel begins with the appearance of the real Ryuubi since, as you may remember from last season the guy we thought was Ryuubi was not. The real Ryuubi is a bit of a ditz, but is, of the entire cast, probably the most sane.

Having thus met the third of their triad, Kanu and Chohi renew their vow of sisterhood, just in case we forget the whole vow under the peach tree thing.

The three, and a few of the others head off to something something which in this case is get Ryuubi's sword back, have adventures and eat - a lot. An inordinate amount of time is spent watching the travelers eat. In the meantime, the story veers off to follow three sisters who turn themselves into pop idols through magic.

There's also a mad dash to squeeze in a bunch of new characters, to round out the cast.

Sei's Yuri quotient has dropped significantly along with her screen time - one of the side effects of too many characters, so older ones are used less effectively.

For Yuri we've got Kakuka who is obsessed with Sousou and frequently has explicit fantasies about her. (Please note: "Perverted" does not apply. Sexual fantasies are not "perverted." They are completely normal. I'm freaking sick and tired of seeing the word "pervert" misused to describe a person having a fantasy. Not having sexual fantasies is far weirder than having them.) I'm really rooting for Kakuka in this. I think she and Sousou would make a fun couple, much better than Sousou and Kanu.

This season is no better or worse than the first season. It's all much of the same - silly things that have nothing to do with the Romance take center stage, while important political things are pushed to the background. Breasts still bounce, clothes are still silly, the writers are clearly hungry and stuff happens.

For what it is, it's fine. I turn my brain off and watch the pretty colors move around the screen. :-)

Ratings:

Art - Meh, but what can you do
Story - It's in there somewhere I'm sure
Characters - There's alot of them
Yuri - Go! Go! Ka-ku-ka!
Loser FanBoys - Are watching this

Overall - 7

I *really* don't remember Guan Yu falling for Liu Bei in the original. But it's such a prevalent theme in these anime/manga/game bastardizations that I'm now beginning to wonder if I was just blind to the obvious. I'm going to have to re-read that and see if I can read between the lines more. :-)

Yuri Manga: Girl Friends, Volume 3

In Girl Friends, Volume 1 and Volume 2, we followed Mari as she struggles with her increasing interest in and desire for her best friend Akiko.

Mari's conflict largely arises from the fact that she is fairly introverted, and has therefore not had the experience of close friendship with girls her age. She spends a lot of time sure that she's not normal, and A-ko is. She's doing her best to put her feelings aside, if not behind her, and at least recapture the friendship that she and A-ko shared.

In Volume 3, we turn our gaze towards A-ko. She's been Mari's object of desire, but we've never really gotten into her head - until now.

A-ko finds herself thinking way more about Mari than about anything. So much so, that she starts to see a pattern in her obsessing. After Mari's confession and their kiss, it seems almost obvious for Akiko to realize that she has fallen for Mari. But it's a long way from point A to Point B.

But...and this is a big "but"....A-ko still isn't really considering how Mari must be feeling. Now that she's come to realize that she wants to be with Mari, she's not seeing the distance Mari is carefully putting between them. By pressing the issue, A-ko is now causing Mari as much, if not more, stress than before.

I'm not usually a big fan of the "obsessive internal monologue" style of romance writing, but the writing in Girl Friends has consistently rung true. Where introverted Mari is rolling in quiet misery, extroverted Akiko is doing her best to not explode in public, but can't stop herself from leaking around the edges.

There are still about a gazillion hurdles for Mari and A-ko to leap before they can be together. The 100-yard dash to the finish line isn't really even out of the starting blocks, yet. There's no telling how this race will end! Here's hoping that Mari and A-ko are the winning team. :-)

Ratings:

Art - 8
Story - 7
Characters - 8
Yuri - 8
Loser FanBoy - 5

Overall - 8

This is the territory that Milk does best. Just after the confession, before the consummation. I'm very interested to see if we get more than just "happily ever after" - or not.

Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 18 (Part 2)

Volume 18 of Comic Yuri HimeThe second half of Volume 18 of Comic Yuri Hime is what you've all been waiting for - Sarasa and Seriho's first official date, in this chapter of "Ame-iro Kouchakan Kanadan!" Fujieda does what he he does best - he shows them wandering around, shopping, eating and generally doing the kind of stuff my wife and I call "Playing House." You know - the stuff you almost never see female couples doing in Yuri series. Sarasa is wholly unaware that Seriho has an agenda, trying to suss out Sarasa's feelings for her. So used to hiding what she feels, Sarasa has no idea that Seriho thinks that she, Sarasa is, "normal" and the only one in love is Seriho.

Ayumi likes Miki in "Yuri Yuri," but Miki tells her it's gross. They play passive-agressive for a while, until Miki's homophobia turns out to really be sublimated love for Ayumi. Bwah-bwah-bwahhhh.

In "Apple Day Dream" Yuma is marginally less passive-aggressive to Kaoru than usual. And I swear her name has been Mayu this whole time, until now, so either I've been dyslexic this whole time, or it suddenly switched for some reason. Either explanation is probable. :-)

In this chapter of the Nekodome Mansion saga, a younger girl finally gains the courage to tell the older girl she's loved since she was a child know how she feels - just in time to see her married off by her father. But don't worry, they can have their little something on the side, after all, it's a marriage of convenience and they really love each other. Stories like this make me wonder about that age-old double standard for men who are, in most cultures, encouraged to have women on the side, but women aren't supposed to ever cheat. Once again, I really don't get you straight women, putting up with that crap.

Kagura makes cookies and Sukune-'neesan eats them, but still has no idea who Kagura is in "Soulphage," which is failing to appeal to me on any level.

Creo's breasts are suddenly three times larger than ever before in "Creo the Crimson Crises" and frankly, I was so distracted by and distressed by this I have no idea at all what happened. It involved Suoh crying a lot.

There's a little series of reviews about Yuri series that make you cry. I can honestly say that none of the series I'd read in the section made me even a little weepy. :-)

In a surprising turn of events, Hakamada Mera's "Sore ga Kimi ni Naru" pairs unlikely couple Kyou and Amane, the older woman who burst into tears ar seeing Kyou last chapter, over a meal. Kyou is smart enough to see that *something* is up, but Amane really surprises her by coming right out and saying that she was once in love with a girl who looks just like Kyou.

Tae is having an even harder time than before finding her place in Yui's life, now that they've returned to Tokyo in "Mizu-iro Cinema." Yui's busy on shoots and Tae's flailing a bit trying to figure out where to be and what to do. When rooting aimlessly around Yui's apartment, Tae finds a discarded photo of Yui and another girl. She keeps it in order to have a photo of Yui, but perhaps missing the larger implication. Coming home from a day out together, they are both - for different reasons - surprised to find the girl in the photo standing at the door of Yui's apartment building. Here's my new rule for series like this - it can do anything it wants right now, but it *may not* make Tae cry. Or I will be very unhappy with it.

"Himekoi" has a lot of screaming and pages of breast obsession. I note that "Nanako to Misuzu" has left the building. I guess it found a better reception over at Yuri Hime S. "Himekoi" seems to be the replacement "crrrraaazzzyyyy, wacky things and lots of screaming" series.

Adrienne is a cameraman on a shoot for an ero-photo book and finds herself improbably involved with one of the models in "Aka-me Adrienne."

Definitely more good than bad and some interesting things going on in the pages of Yuri Hime these days!

Overall - 9

Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 18 (Part 1)

Volume 18 of Comic Yuri Hime once again has cover art from Eiki Eiki and Zaou Taishi's "Love DNA Double X," series and wow, have they laid the lilies on thick. Literally. The lily flowers practically crowd Sakura and Aoi off the page. In case you love the picture a lot, the extra for this volume is a postcard of the cover image.

The first story begins with a girl recounting her many, all female, loves.

We then break for some advertising and a chat with the Sasamekikoto voice actresses, in which they say the typical things about a Girl's Love story.

Back to Shiroishi explaining to her friend that, yet again, she has fallen for a female classmate - this time the stylish, popular and apparently cold-hearted Midori. Tsubaki is incensed - she confronts Midori only to have the obvious pointed out to her - Tsubaki likes Shiroishi. I'm thinking of calling this plot complication "Crisis in Infinite Schools." What do you think?

Mistue Aoki's "Bankara Otome Gakuen" details the relationship between Yanki girl Shio and her ditzy friend Makiko. Smart, rich Yuka wants Makiko in the worst way - and is willing to kidnap and tie her up to get her. But Shiho saves the day and Makiko gets the girl. I so so so wish this would continue. It's a perfect setup for Shiho to be cool and keep re-winning Makiko over and over. But it was so goofy and condensed, I'm thinking one-shot.

"Love DNA Double XX" does three things. It establishes Aoi and Sakura as friends, introduces Sakura's posse, and gives us a glimpse of the backstory that sets Sakura up as Aoi's enemy and reason she's here at the school - to gain revenge.

Takase-sempai is the object of Mashiro's interest and desire, but is having a hard time wrapping her brain around it in "Sayonara Folklore."

"Delicious Time" was a great "Story A." A girl stops by the bakery every day to get a single mini-croissant. The baker's daughter, finds "mini-cro" fascinating. It's obvious that the girl attends the same school she recently graduated from so, when an opportunity to attend the school festival presents itself, she takes it. Of course they meet up and share their darkest secrets - as the daughter of a baker, the protagonist prefers rice and, Sakura, who is the daughter of a rice dealer, prefers that morning mini-croissant...and, the woman who sells it to her. As a way of expressing her own feelings, the baker creates a rice-bread to celebrate their meeting. Brava! Encore!

The essay and "Para Yuri Hime" remains unread. I have had several weeks of hard labor and simply haven't had time.

The next story is kind of odd and interesting. "Roku Tatami-han Shukai Osore" follows the relationship between a very outgoing, extroverted high school girl and the older shut-in she's seeing. Ito-chan, the shut in, finds herself inevitably pulled outside by Hatoko.

Arare and Kiri have a fight in "Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen" and as Arare runs after the creature she loves, she finds herself - and Pero - unexpectedly back in our world.

In "Chinchin Puipui" bar Mama Michiko appears to magically transform into a cute, young woman and whisk miserable Kana away on a series of dates. Only, it wasn't that kind of magic at all.

Morishima Akiko continues her new series about adults with "Renai Joshika." It initially appears to be one of "those" series, where everyone in the series is going to be paired up. But, the first story belies that. Hirano falls for Shirohane, but finds out that she's already got a lover. Hirano realizes that her choices are not limited to one gender and that Shirohane is really a good person that she would, potentially, like to be with. She decides that her love battle has just begun.

This is a good place to stop for the day, I think.

I'll do my best to finish this up tomorrow!

Yuri Network News - November 14, 2009

With the remnants of Ida beating at my house, it's a curl up and read a book kinda day....



Yuri Manga

Let's see...we already mentioned Comic Lily (which mostly has artists that specialize in moe loli Yuri, so my expectations are low to non-existent) and Yuri Shoujo. Have I mentioned yet *another* Yuri anthology, called Shoujo Yuri? Not sure. Well, now I have. As I mention in the comments, I saw a cover, but forgot to save the reference and now can't find it. Oh well. More info when I find it again.

Also not sure if I pointed out that Tsubomi 4 is out. I've been a little disappointed with Tsubomi so far. It's been pretty lackluster, but Yuri Hime took a while to really get going and it's only now shifting into territory I really like, so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for a few more volumes. It's just kind of...okay. I finish each volume *really* tired of school girls kind of liking each other a bit.

On a positive note, a series that has a character who actually says out loud that she's a lesbian, and that I *never* expected to see a second volume of, Poor Poor Lips, Volume 2 is a-comin'. I thoroughly enjoyed Volume 1. While I don't expect "progress" to be made in the relationship and the one-joke character of the lead was a tad wearing, overall, it had more depth and was a better series than most 4-koma comics.

***

Snatches of Yuri

Juji wrote in to let you all know that in addition to the Light Novel Dorobo no Meijin, there are a number of other novels by the same author, all with high likelihood of Yuri.

Dorobo no Meijin ~ Side Story: Itaikena Goshujin

Kimi ga Boku wo ~ Doushite Sora ha Aoi nano? and a second volume slated for a release this coming week.

Another novel with likelihood of something that passes for Yuri is Murasaki-iro Qualia, a story about a humanoid robot with pretty purple eyes and a charmingly doofusy personality that makes her the mascot and object of skinship in her middle school class.

Rousoku-hime has been *all* over the Yuri lists these days. I guess the inside must be better than the cover.... In any case, it's about the beautiful daughter of a nobleman, Squa, who is sent to a nunnery with her handmaid, "swarthy" Fleure.

Action Comics, which has brought us both Hakamada Mera's and Morinaga Milk's work, also offers up Pheromone No.5, which looks like it hits a number of popular tropes - private girls school (check), transfer student (check), glasses (check), pervy female Student Council President (check), "funny" sexual harassment (check.) The Amazon reviews were 5 stars and 1 stars. :-)

And Kate Dacey of Mangacritic informed me that translated manga Dragon Sister has a "predatory lesbian." It's on my to-read pile now, thanks to Okazu Hero Martin S. I'll let you know if she is sufficiently predatory for our tastes. :-)

***
And, that's a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There's a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage - stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent's badge.

Thanks to all of you - you make this a great Yuri Network!

Gunsmith Cats Burst, Volume 4 (English)

What were you doing in 1996?

I was working in an ad agency, studying Martial Arts, and was just about a year away from diving head first over a cliff into the chasm of anime and manga that would ultimately take over my life.

Rally Vincent was already neck-deep in crazy cases as a bounty hunter with her partner May and their researcher Becky. And, in 1996 or so, she met the Evil, Psycho Lesbian mafia donna, Goldie Musso.

13 years later, in Gunsmith Cats Burst Volume 4, Rally is not older, although she is much wiser. And she is doing the same thing she was then - bounty hunting.

In the course of a case, even though she is certain that Goldie is dead, Rally sees her. And in a sense, Goldie's henchman later assures her, Goldie is dead. She has no memory. Dennis begs Rally to help Goldie regain her memory and, after much shooting and many deaths, she does just that. In a close one-on-one fight, Rally breaks through the barriers Goldie's own mind had
erected to awaken her memories.

In the chaos, Rally loses contact with Misty. Although Becky is really concerned about that, for some reason, Rally is less so, sure of the thief's ability to land on her own two feet.

This will all set up the final, fabulous end to Gunsmith Cats Burst.

It was not quite two years ago that I first got my hands on this volume in Japanese. I'm even more thrilled to read it in English, if only because I long for excruciating details of guns and cars. (No, not really. It's just easier than reading kanji, duh.)

And once again I'm thrilled to the point of squealing that you get to watch heads blown off all so Rally can be the most important person in Goldie's life - again. Poor Misty. Hell, poor Dennis.

In any case, this penultimate volume is *exactly* what one looks for from Gunsmith Cats. And the end, when it comes, will be just right this time around. See you once more, in Volume 5. :-)

Ratings:

Art - 8
Characters - 8
Story - 8
Yuri - 3
Loser FanBoy - 5

Overall - 8

These good times brought to you by Okazu Superhero Bruce McF! Thanks for sponsoring today's review and letting us relive the madness all over again.