Yuri Manga: Maka-Maka
One word - wow.
Maka-Maka is a very shounen, adult, and reasonably mature take on the development of a relationship between two friends, Jun and Nene. The subtitle of the manga is "Love Sex Communication" - this is a major theme right from the first chapter.
Maka-Maka is published monthly by
Jive, and is available as a Flash issue on the Maka-Maka homepage every month. The first seven or eight issues have been bound into a
print volume which is really quite slick. The volume is all-color pages, with character information and an insert of a "psychedelic" poster - one side is Jun, one Nene. There's a bonus cover on the inside of the jacket as well. All in all, and excellent design, totally worth the money. There are even Jun and Nene dolls available as a premium for people who return the insert card. I sent it in - we'll see if they bother to send me a doll. :-)
The story begins as Jun and Nene both find themselves frustrated and dissatisfied by sex and the lack of connection that exists between themselves and their lovers. In the course of schoolwork, they find themselves playing around and the playing takes a sexual turn. As the subtitle promises, they actually *communicate* and as a result, find themselves more and more interested in each other.
As stated, this is a shounen manga, so expect alot of sexual situations, nudity, fanservice, etc. But for all that, it's never presented in a cheesy manner - in fact, I found myself getting a little nostalgic at some of Jun's and Nene's antics. LOL There's a sense of reality about
Maka-Maka that's quite surprising.
Of course, nothing is perfect, so there are conflicts..Jun seems to be more needy than Nene, while Nene tends to be a little more inconsiderate than Jun. This only serves to heighten the versimilitude, not to lessen it. It does mean that there are times when you don't *like* the characters, but that's not, IMHO, a weakness here.
By the end of the first volume, if you have a soul, you are hooked. :-) I read the monthly issues with interest and am looking forward to the second collection - maybe I'll be able to snag that second doll. LOL
Ratings:
Characters - 9
Story - 9
Art - 8
Overall - 9
Maka-Maka is, IMHO, the shounen equivalent of Yamaji Ebine's work - it's about as realistic, about as well-done, and about as well-produced as you're going to find out there.
Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Nene and Jun, Maka Maka
Yuri Kokoro Weblog
I've been meaning to write this review for almost a year now...I guess it's well past time to let you all in on one of my little yuri secrets.
There is no way on earth any one person has time to find all the yuri manga and anime out there, even if you comb news sites, mailing lists, etc, 24/7. And I miss stuff from time to time, like anyone else. But to try and keep on top of titles of potential interest, I often trawl Japanese yuri-related weblogs and fan sites.
Before Yuricon 2003, I used to hit about three weblogs on a regular basis, including one cleverly titled
Yomiyuri Shimbun ( a pun on the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun,) quite a bit. Sadly, it went out of production. Now my first choice for yuri news and reviews is a web blog called
Yuri Kokoro.
Yuri Kokoro has been around since December 2003, and I read it almost daily, just to see what the author has found of interest to yuri fans.
Last week,
Yuri Kokoro ran a short review of
Okazu, and apparently, I've been writing the oldest yuri web log in existence. Neat, huh? In return, I thought I'd be fair and review
Yuri Kokoro.
Let me begin by stating the obvious -
Yuri Kokoro is written in Japanese only.
The author, much like myself, purchases many items of interest, manga, anime, toys, magazines, etc, and reviews them based on his own criteria, pretty much the same as I do. :-) I tend to agree with the author quite often, so I try to keep an eye out for the things he's liked.
On the
Yuri Kokoro site, you can also find links to other yuri websites and blogs, which are useful for keeping up on new stuff coming out. On the whole, though, I find
Yuri Kokoro the easiest to read, the most interesting and the easiest to comment on. (I have sent in comments a few times and the author always responds...something I appreciate.) All in all, I think
Yuri Kokoro to be one of the most useful sites I've found.
If you can read any Japanese at all - even if you can't, because there are several excellent translation programs online which will help you get the gist, I recommend a visit to
Yuri Kokoro.
Eventually, I'll get around to telling you about a few of the other useful yuri sites I've found. :-)
Live Action: Naked Killer
I thought I'd end "live-action" week with one of my all-time favorite cheesy movies. Note the two different covers above. The one on the left is the original, the one on the right must be new packaging...but it doesn't change the fact that this movie is cheeseball heaven. Here's the original tagline for the movie: "There Are Two Things On Their Minds... One's Killing!" :-)
Naked Killer is the story of Kitty, a young woman whose father is brutally and quite stupdily killed, when his new, young, sexy wife is caught having an affair with a local studly, powerful businessman. Kitty walks into the guy's office and shoots his henchmen up, but is caught and is about to be raped when mysterious "Sister Cindy" saves her, with some hysterically funny mad martial skillz.
It turns out that Sister Cindy is actually a professional assasin - she offers to teach Kitty everything she knows, but Kitty must follow her instructions without question. Thus Kitty embarks upon a very luxurious and successful life as a high-end assassin.
In the meantime, two people are trying to track Kitty down: A hunky detective, Tinam, with post-traumatic stress disorder that makes him unable to shoot a gun (he vomits every time he tries, which is actually alot funnier than it sounds) and Princess, Sister Cindy's former protege'. Tinam, played by Simon Yam, is really wonderful and funny (intentionally.) He and Kitty actually make a cute couple.
But the real prize for yuri fans here is Princess, the psychotic lesbian ex-student. She is absolutely *brilliant*. Played by Carrie Ng with an over-the-top swaggering, cigar-smoking, dominatrix attitude, she comes complete with love-slave, "Baby." They never have any real sex on screen, but there's a lot of groping, which is okay too. Despite all of the above, Princess is as femmy as all get out, with a sort of faux-butch thing in her attire which actually is pretty hot. :-)
It comes to a showdown, of course, between Kitty and Princess, and I won't give away the end, but it's spectacular. And here's why:
One of the absolute finest thing about this movie is the horrendous subtitling job. In fact, this movie is famous for insanely bad subtitles, which add serious points to the amusing cheesy value. Lines like, "You almost shot one of my balls off!" and the greatest line ever to be written into any movie - "I still have time to take the gastric lavage." These lines really catapult this movie from funny cheesy into briliant, timeless kitsch.
The lesbian scenes between Sister Cindy and *everything* about Princess really helps, too. :-)
Ratings - Story - Please, you have got to be kidding. Characters - 9. Cinematography - ??. Martial Arts - hee hee. Yuri - 9. Overall, this movie gets a 9, because it is so wonderfully awful.
This movie is an kitsch/yuri/Hong Kong fan flick must-see.
Important Note: Avoid the not-really sequel, "Naked Weapon" like the plague it is. There's a *teeny* bit of yuri subtext, but the "hero" is the biggest nebbish ever and it's insulting that the lead heroine sleaps with him...even drugged as she was.)
Live Action: Sennen no Koi
Sennen no Koi: Hikaru Genji Monogatari, (
A Thousand Years of Love: The Tale of Genji,) pretty much came and went without anyone noticing it much. Which is a real shame, because as far as gender-bending and yuri go, this movie kind of rolls it all into one neat silly little fun package.
The novel,
The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu, is the oldest written tale in the world of a pretty boy and his clothes. The novel portrays his romantic pursuits over the course of his life in amazing, and to my mind, excruciating, detail. lol (There's just something overwhelming about page after page that describe individal layers of robes, and scents from incense-smelling games.) Not only is it the first novel to be written, period, and by a woman at that, but it's also the first shoujo novel, which means you can bet that Murasaki is to blame for the flowers and bubble-filled backgrounds of so many shoujo stories throughout the years.
The movie
Sennen no Koi is in no way a literal interpretation of the
Tale of Genji. It's liberally sprinkled with the addition of action, plot, special effects, and, uh, ghosts. And gender-bending. Because, you see, the original novel is the story of a pretty boy pursuing women. But
Sennen no Koi is a movie of a pretty boy, played by a lovely young woman, pursuing women. :-)
Aside from the cosmetic change of Amami Yuki's (very pleasant to look at) portrayal of Genji, a second story is interwoven into
Sennen no Koi. This is the (also freely interpreted) life of the author Murasaki Shikibu, and her adventures at court. These seem to be drawn almost whole from the novel
Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby, so it was pretty easy for me to follow. From my perspective, the movie includes an awful lot of affection between Murasaki and her royal charge, the Princess to whom she is telling Genji's story. So, if you *really* wanted to, you could make a whole subtexty thing between them, as well. The role of Murasaki is abolutely *nailed* by Yoshinaga Sayuri - she might have been drawn directly from some painting of Murasaki...everything about her was exactly as I'd imagine it to be.
As I mentioned, there is alot more action and s/fx than Murasaki ever dreamed Genji would have to deal with, but as loose interpratations of great classics go, this one was pretty fun. And Yuki could write me morning poems any day... ;-)
One amusing yuri manga tie-in here. One of the supporting cast of
Sennen no Koi is Minamoto Youko, who, waaaay back in 1987, played Asamiya Saki, the heroine of Shinji Wada's girl-gang epic
Sukeban Deka on TV. (I reviewed the anime and manga back on
March 3, for those of you who are interested.)
Ratings: Story - 8, it's fun and easy to follow even raw. Characters - 10. I mean, these characters are timeless.... Cinematography - 8. Overall - 8.
It's not as slow as the real
Genji and not as real as Murasaki's life, but the movie, and Yuki as Genji, was cute. :-)
Live Action: Peony Pavilion
This movie is not new...in fact, I remember showing it at the Yuricon party at Anime Expo 2002. So, it's been around for some time. But as I've never reviewed it here before, I thought it might be of interest. Before I even begin to talk about the movie, let me tell you the story of how we found it:
I, the wife, and friend and Yuricon staffer, Kun, were walking along the street in New York's Chinatown one winter night. We were passing all sorts of video places, not really paying attention, when we all came to a crashing halt at the same time. We took five paces back and stared with open desire at the color poster of some really hot chick in a tux looking very ready to kiss another woman. So, we popped into the video store and asked for a copy of whatever that poster was for - not really even caring what it was. LOL The owner told us that it was sold out. Sold out? We wandered to another store - same deal. At store number three we learned that it was like the number one import at the moment, so no wonder! And we *finally* got our own copy of
Peony Pavilion.
Let me honest here - we had NO expectations for this movie. We didn't think it would be really yuri at all, in fact, we were content with the postcards that came inside of Joey Wang looking hunky in a tux. But when we finally got the disk in the player, we were totally wowed.
Of course, nothing ever happens between the women in this movie - it's all long glances and open, yet unfulfilled, desire, etc. etc. But it doesn't matter. Joey Wong (who came out of retirement to play this role) and Rie Miyazawa absolutely curl the edges of the film with their heat in the first half of the film.
Now - onto the story. The first half sets the scene in an affluent Chinese household of the 1930s. While the master of the house loses himself in bad business deals and opium, his wives are left to fend for themselves. Joey Wong plays a singer who tends towards cross-dressing in men's clothes (and does it *very* well indeed!) Rie Miyazawa is the youngest wife, for whom Wong has an open passion. The two of them play around the edges of their desire for one another, while life seems glorious and carefree. But underneath the play, there's a dark undertone of rot, which sets in quickly enough after Miyazawa's character sleeps with a young traveling performer.
The second half of the movie begins with such an abrupt change of setting, tone and sensibility, we actually questioned whether it was the same movie at all.
Wong turns out to be a lonely spinster teacher. Into her life comes an (admittedly attractive) inspector, played by Daniel Wu. With her longing for her friend unfulfillable, she turns to Wu as a replacement and again, the heat between them is very intense. In the meantime, her cousin's household is starting to crash - as if she were a piece of furniture, Miyazawa and the daughter she has conceived with the entertainer, are thrown out as unneeded, unwanted and unsupportable.
She comes to live with Wong, where they settle into a life of domesticated bliss. The child is remarkably not irritating - which is a wonder, since film children are always too cute and clever for thweir own good.
Because this is a Chinese movie, there's really no way for it to have a happy happy ending. BUT...as it's not 100% positive that Miyazawa's character is dead at the end, and Wong is still alive, this wins as the happiest Chinese movie I've ever seen. :-)
So - in one sense the girl gets the girl, but in several other ways, she does not. Balance that against Joey Wang in a tux, and this movie still wins points with me as a must-see.
Ratings: Story - 7, it's a little inconsistent. Cinematography - 10. Absolutely breathtaking. Characters - 9. Yuri - 8. Overall - 8
Peony Pavilion is definitely a "chick movie". Boys will be bored out of their skulls, but girls will sigh with longing...a GREAT date movie. :-)
Live Action: So Close
You'll all be glad to note that I am recovering from whatever it was that I had, and am currently convalescing on my new patio furniture, on my new patio. I love wireless.
I thought I'd detour away from anime and manga for a sec, because there's a couple of live-action movies that are seriously worthy of note for the yuri fan. Today's offering is called in English,
So Close. This is pretty much one of the best HK action flicks I've ever see. Period.
The story is pretty simple, hard-boiled uber-smart cop, played by Karen Mok, is on the trail of two cyber-criminal sisters, played by Shu Qi and Zhao Wei (Vicky Zhao.) The sisters are as strong in kung-fu and fashion as they are in hacking, and they have an ace up their sleeve - they can use any closed-circuit tv anywhere to see what's going on. With this, and their own skills, they can pretty much take on anything. Until they come up against a mega-conglomerate and the evil Japan-obssessed leader.
I liked the action and the special effects in the movie - very John Woo and silly, but what made the movie sizzle for me was the heat between Vicky Zhao's portrayal of Sue, the younger sister, and Karen Mok's hard-assed cop, Kung. Right from the start there's something in the way Sue looks at Kung that made me shiver - in a good way. :-)
When Kung and Sue team up during the second half of the movie, there's so much tension between them that Sue even comments on it, asking Kung, if things were different, would she be interested. Kung doesn't answer, but there's no doubt that she's seriously thinking it over.
In the end, the good guys win, the bad guys die, and Sue gives Kung a farewell peck. It's not the hot sex scene epilogue I would have written, but it was damn good. LOL
The script is as good as any action flick's, and a damn sight better than many. The Special/fx were all pretty well done, with one exception, and the acting is really top-notch. The Region 1 release of this has about a zillion language and subtitle options, but I opted to watch it in the origianl language with English subtitles...how dull. I probably could have had the Zambionese dub with Esperanto subtitles.
Ratings: Story - 8. Characters - 9. Plot - 8. Yuri - 8. Overall a solid 8.
If you like HK action and yuri, really, this is a must-have.
Home sick
Sorry folks, I'm home sick. I'll update when I get a chance. In the meantime, please feel free to read the archives and comment. Enjoy!
Maria-sama ga Miteru: Drama CD 3 - Kibara Kakumei
Finally! I have a chance to review this really spectacular example of what the combination of a decent budget, talent, popularity and some marketing savvy can do.
When I placed the order for this Drama CD, I noticed that the price was higher than the two previous Marimite Drama CDs. I wasn't thrilled about that, but I wanted the thing, so I ordered it. Well, am I glad I did!
The first two
Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CDs came in DVD-style packaging, with inserts and a pair of stand-up plastic dolls (Yumi and Sachiko in Vol. 1 and Yoshino and Shimako in Vol. 2). Volume 3 includes all of the above - and *2* CDs - the entire
Kibara Kakumei/Yellow Rose Revolution storyline. Hence the slightly higher price tag. But the price was only about $8 more, and it was a complete arc, so, along with the dolls (Rei and Eriko this time) and the inserts, I was pretty pleased all the way around. Even the packaging is an improvement - the plastic case is translucent, and the back/inside of the cover is a very cute picture of Yumi, Yoshino and Shimako, with, of course, the
Kibara Kakumei novel cover on the front. (In fact, looking at the packaging from the first two volumes, I notice that while Vol. 1 has the first novel cover, Vol. 2 has a new piece of art by Hibiki Reine, the artist for the serialization of the story in Cobalt Shueisha.)
So, right off the top - kudos for good value and improved packaging!
All the way around, a vast improvement over pretty much any CD or DVD I've ever bought, ever. I hope that they continue this trend for all the Drama CD arcs. I'd be ever so happy if I didn't have to buy every CD separately. And speaking of future CDs, Vol. 3 includes, not one, but *two* advertisements for the next arc, available in October. (And we all know what *that* will be, right? If you answered
Ibara no Mori/Forest of Thorns and/or "Sei's lesbian angst arc" you are right! Not just one, but *two* increasingly strident ads - "It's coming in October, okay? Please stop writing us and asking! AAAAGGGGHH!!!!" With pre-order and everything. I bet it blows records for Drama CD sales through the roof. :-) You can be sure that I'll be waiting for my copy with bated breath. And we'll get Sei and Youko toys, which weill only make it all even cooler and completing our Yamayurikai set.)
Now - onto the story.
Kibara Kakumei, aka
Yellow Rose Revolution, is the story of Rei (Rosa Foetida en bouton) and her petite souer, Yoshino. (I'm going to recap quickly for those who may be less familiar with the series...):
While the head of the Yellow Rose hierarchy, Rosa Foetida, Eriko, is apparently AWOL, Yoshino sets the whole school in an uproar by returning Rei's rosary and nullifying their souer relationship. This all after she and Rei have just been voted as "Best Souer Couple" by the students. Yoshino's actions cause a backlash of annulled souer relationships.
Yumi is taken into Yoshino's confidence and learns the reasons *why* Yoshino gave Rei her rosary back. Yumi is also there as Rei's confidence crumbles and she wanders around half out of her mind with grief. Ultimately, Yoshino opts to have heart surgery on the same day that Rei has an important kendo match, forcing Rei to become more self-reliant. Of course, everything ends well.
The anime for this arc was a fast two episodes, and several conversations, explanations and occurences were cut out, or moved to a different episode. The drama CD restores them to their rightful place and gives us insight to all of the characters that was missing from the anime and even the manga.
Sei teasing Yumi (and through her, Sachiko) is funnier with the original conversations restored, especially Sachiko's warning to Yumi, "Don't do anything to make Rosa Gigantea happy."
We also get to see much more of Rei and her inner thoughts, including a really touching scene when she breaks down in a teacher's arms at the thought of losing Yoshino forever.
In the end, everyone lives happily ever after, Rosa Foetida returns and, interestly, pumps Yumi for information on her "cute little sisters." (Why doesn't she just ask Youko and Sei? Probably because Yumi is easier to get information from.)
For Yoshino x Rei fans, we get the satisfaction of actually *hearing* both of them tell each other that they love each other more than anyone one else in the world. :-)
The Drama CD ends with a really strange bonus track of all the seiyuu speaking as their characters - starting with wishing us a good morning, they tell us a few lines about their day and end with wishing us a good night. It's not as cool as the free talk from the seiyuu of
Koi Shimai, but considering that the entire set is excellent, I'll be generous about this one slack off from perfect. :-)
Ratings: 9 across the board for character, story, yuri, design etc.
This is a Drama CD that is *totally* worth having, whether you're a Marimite fan, or just a fan of damn good yuri. :-)
Yuri Anime: The Return of Kekko Kamen?
In a report from
Chibicon,
ADV has said that they are planning a release of
Kekko Kamen (aka
Kekkou Kamen) on DVD, with a new dub. Finally, a modern audience will be able to experience the truly wonderful wackiness that is Kekkou Kamen! Let us all rejoice!
Of course, yuri fans know not to watch the dub, right? Because if you watch the dub, you'll miss the dulcet tones of
Shinohara Emi, seiyuu of reknown, who voiced yuri fave Sailor Jupiter/Kino Makoto in
Sailor Moon, and is now captivating audiences as Mizuno Youko/Rosa Chinensis in
Maria-sama ga Miteru. Shinohara Emi plays the heroine in
Kekko Kamen with panache and even sings the fantastic theme,
Kekkou Kamen no Uta.
I reviewed
Kekko Kamen back on
April 8. Please check out that review, then, when ADV releases it on DVD, you'll be all primed and ready for the nude escapades of this particular fighter for love and justice. :-) And remember - buy your yuri anime legitimately and be a real human. Annoy Bill at
Anime Castle by sending him messages that you want to pre-order a copy - he loves getting email from yuri fans begging him to sell them stuff. :-)
And speaking of Go Nagai, dubs and nude escapades, here's a review of the dub of Go Nagai's
Devilman Lady. Again, yuri fans may want to skip the dub altogether and instead enjoy the voice talent of
Iwao Junko, who also voiced Daidouji Tomoyo from
Card Captor Sakura.
All this Go Nagai goodness has made me want to go listen to the
Devilman Lady soundtrack. I'll catch you tomorrow!
Yuri Manga: Love Yuri-Gumi
Along with yesterday's winner, I picked up
Love Yuri-gumi (
gumi means gang, or group), another yuri anthology. What this anthology lacked in dickchicks and bodily fluids, it made up for in seriously ugly art.
This was kind of annoying, because on the whole, the stories are pretty straightforward - girl and girl have meaningless, empty sex, accompanied by meaningless, empty conversation. Okay, that's not fair - the conversations may be riveting, but I'm never going to know, because the art is SO unattractive in nearly every story, that I can barely stand to look at the thing. Only one story was bearable art-wise, and it was a typical school-girl thing. There's a few loli stories - one with girls so young and bug-eyed that they look like premies and another with kids that look like, oh, I don't know, chubby Japanese dolls, I guess. But in general, even if the stories themselves were much less yucky than the
Premium anthology, they were so *ugly* that I just didn't want to look.
This anthology is, perhaps, the least good yuri anything I've encountered since
Susaku Replay, which is so utterly repulsive and without merit that it stands in a class by itself.
Ratings: Art - 1. Story - who can tell? Characters - Horrible, simply horrible. Yuri - 10, but it's just not worth it.
Despite the wonderful title, and the cover that says, "Even Women Want To Fall In Love With Each Other"
Love Yuri-gumi is a big zero.
Yuri Manga: Onna x Onna Premium
Last time I placed an order with Amazon Japan, I decided to use the "People who bought that, also bought this" feature. It's a pretty useless feature in English, (except to point out that people's buying habits make pretty much no sense to me...), but when one is shopping in a foreign language, it's darn useful! Or so I thought, but I forgot that there are way more bottom-feeding pervs than lesbian readers with discriminating tastes, so....
I got a few cool things, like Yuri Shimai 4 and the Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CD 3 & 4 collection - which I have yet to review, but will - and I clicked on a few utterly random books bought by the same bottom feeders who read Yuri Shimai. :-)
First up, I bought, after long consideration, an utter piece of crap called
Onna x Onna Premium (Girl/Girl Premium). I knew it was going to be iffy when I bought it, just based on the cover. It's a yuri hentai anthology, where the definition of
yuri is much looser than my own. The book cover features two exceptionally over-endowed women stuffed into ill-fitting Chinese dresses, looking like they had fevers that had just broken. Neither of them look very much like they are enjoying themseleves. The cover clarifies for us, "'Lesbian' is a female homosexual." So you *know* we're talking an intelligent and refined audience here.
The ensuing stories range from "Bleah" to "Yuck" with a few, "Well, comparatively this doesn't utterly suck" thrown in. My biggest complaint is the excessive amount of bodily fluids, but the loli, the over-busy art and the general sense of crappy hentai for pathetic pervs didn't endear any of the contributors to me. What *was* amusing was that I recognized several of the artists from doujinshi I own.
Let me just rant for a moment. What *is* it with the huge amounts of bodily fluids gouting from these girls? I mean, even on a really hot day, with exceptionally hot sex, I'm betting that most women do not spew fluids like that. Sure, a few might, fine...but come *on*!
Anyway, I found about two stories in the anthlogy that didn't make me go, "ewwww" for one reason or another. The number of dickchick stories make me question whether the anthology as a whole can really be called "yuri," but since it basically sucked, it hardly matters. :-)
Onna x Onna Premium Ratings: Art - inferior to excrable. Story - Ha! Characters - Snort. Yuri - Shrug.
If you like wet, loli dickgirls having unpleasant sex, this is JUST what you're looking for! LOL
Yuri Manga: Yuri Shimai 4, Part 2
BTW - if you look at the cover picture below, the characters on the cover are Chika on the left and Akiho on the right, both from
Koi Shimai. Chika and Haruna were the characters on the first volume of
Yuri Shimai. Issue two sported Akiho (left) and Touko-sensei (right), while the third volume featured the next couple whose story will become a Drama CD. Their names escape me.
Errata - Yesterday, I mistakenly identified the artist for
Koi Shimai and the cover art as Nagasawa Satoru, the artist for the
Maria-sama ga Miteru manga. I was being brain dead. The character designs for
Koi Shimai and all the
Yuri Shimai covers are done by Hibiki Reine - the illustrator for the *novelisation* of
Marimite, from Cobalt Shueisha. The manga adaptation of
Koi Shimai is being done by committee, apparently. :-)
Okay, onwards - more about
Yuri Shimai 4. After the new
Koi Shimai manga, and the most recent issue of
Strawberry Shake, comes a short fiction and then a longer, heinously illustrated fiction about mermaids, which made my face go all scrunchy, called "Mermaid Princess." Ugh. Followed by an essay and a lolicon art short that has something to do with one girl's sandals. It was dire, so I kind of skipped it.
Then comes a ("lyrical, magical") story wih a few color pages about a witch and shrine priestess. More cute than anything else, but it's kind of sweet (the witch frees the shrine maiden from her duty and rescuses her from being bound to the shrine forever. It definitely involves a few kisses - and the characters don't look like little kids. It will take me sometime to translate the title on this one, so, my apologies - it's "the story about the witch and the miko," for now. Upon re-read, this story was really cute and likeable.
Next up - Morinaga Milk's next entry. If you remember back, the first stories in this saga were the wonderful "Even If We're Not Friends" and "A Kiss, Love and A Prince," which set the scene for this high school where a significant portion of the population appears to be lesbian. The third entry was a little less strong, mostly because, to me, it had some serious cliche' problems. This issue brings us "The Summer Closest to Heaven", which I really, really enjoyed.
"Summer" is the story of a ghost of a girl who attended this high school a while back. She was in love with a classmate, but before she could graduate, she died. The classmate (who did manage to graduate) has become the school's doctor, so the ghost hangs around to stay near her beloved. One day, one of the girls on the basketball team sprains her ankle and heads to the doctor's office to get it taped. The ghost ends up inside her and now the girl wants to spend all her time with the doctor. Eventually, they end up on the roof, talking, and the doctor figures out that the girl is inhabited by the ghost of her dead friend. They talk, and kiss, and the ghost moves on. When the girl wakes up, all she knows is that she's got a thing for the doctor now. :-) Trust me - it's cute. And the couple from "Even If We're Not Friends" makes a cameo, as they have in every story in the saga. Check for them in the beginning at the basketball game. :-)
Then next story is...different. "Female Wolf" is a little disturbing, for the discussion of physical and emotional abuse, and for the creepy behavior of the eponymous lead. It has some nudity, which makes it stand out in this oh-so-cute magazine. But the characters look and act their age, and for that, I am pleased. (Now if only the stories featured 20- and 30-something women who looked their age.... lol)
Another short color story, with a creepy ghostly quality and a title I can't translate without work, followed by a short color manga for
Saphizm Cruise, a yuri hentai game that's making the rounds. To me the characters read very loli, but it's an h-game and they always seem to emphasize that. In this issue, we see the backstory of, presumably,the first officer, as she grows up to be worthy of the captain. (The captain appears to sleep with all the characters in the game, if I'm not entirely mistaken.) I'm betting we see more of this story in future issues.
A third short story called "Swear", which made no impact on me, but was a kind of "I'll protect you forver" pseudo-wedding kind of thing, and last, but definitely not least, "Wish on A Star" which was an utterly depressing story about two friends coping (or not) with the loss of a third friend, with whom one of them was in love. It was an interesting take on the classic love triangle. I actually thought that it had some serious merit, and I liked the art quite a bit.
And, of course, there were the usual film, novel, manga, anime and doujinshi reviews, which are very helpful when I'm planning future purchases. :-) I'll also be sending them a copy of
Yuri Monogatarai to review, hopefully.
So - overall, this was a really strong issue. The art looked tighter, there was a minimal amount of lolicon, the stories are getting better and I noticed a few yuri-flavored ads creeping into the advertising, as opposed to all the yaoi-centric ones that were in previous issues. The survey in the editorials were still more "Huh, what is that?" than "Yay! Yuri!", but from the quality of this issue, I'm hoping that we can look forward to even more and better yuri from the next
Yuri Shimai!
Yuri Manga: Yuri Shimai 4
Woo...images. Now you can *see* what I'm talking about.
So, it's that time again -
Yuri Shimai has just released the fourth issue and at first glance, it may be the best one so far. In fact, there are so many things worth noting, I'll probably do this is two entries. Right off the top, there is much less lolicon than usual - in general there is a *slighty* older feel to the stories. It isn't much, but I'll take it!
(Let me just stop here and recommend that, if you are purchasing
Yuri Shimai, take the time to fill out the opinion card that comes inside. It's not a bad thing for them to know that they have a western audience, and our opinions are at least as interesting as anyone else's.)
So, the new issue begins with a 32-page, with color, manga adaptation of
Koi Shimai, a name which might ring a bell or two if you read this blog regularly.
Koi Shimai is the name of the original CD Drama put out by the publisher of
Yuri Shimai. If you remember from my past reviews,
Koi Shimai is the story of Chika and Haruna - how they meet and fall in love, face trials and tribulations (which consist of lots of twisted ankles, scraped knees and one seductive teacher.) In this manga adaptation, the same story is retold, but there's some significant rewriting from the Drama CD, which gives both the characters and story a little more depth. I'm looking forward to seeing how things turn out - in the manga version Haruna is not at *all* the same person she is in the drama CD. Instead of being insipid and passive, she has become aloof and cold, so Chika will have a much harder time getting through her barriers.
Another interesting thing to note about
Koi Shimai is that the artist and writer are the same ones who are doing the manga adaptation of
Maria-sama ga Miteru - so the style of the story and art are very familiar.
Following closely upon the heels of
Koi Shimai is the most recent chapter of that wacky love comedy,
Strawberry Shake. Teen idol Julia is no closer to admitting her feelings for Ran-chan, and now the story has expanded into a love polygon - only it's not shy and sexy Ran-chan that everyone is fighting over, it's the uptight manager, Sawaki. This issue was, as usual, quite silly, but as long as Julia has no competition for Ran everyone is, IMHO, welcome to fight over the manager. :-) And it's kind of a funny complication, because it is the manger who is effectively keeping Julia and Ran apart.
One of the more amusing things about
Strawberry Shake is the "all the girls are in love with each other" quality of the story. Julia loves Ran, who loves her back, and the hair stylist and assistant manager are both in love with the manager, while the other girl idol is in love with the hair stylist...and the random visual girl-band members are two couples. The story is very reminiscent of
Kat William's work, partially from the wackiness, and partially from the complex of intertwining relationships. The same could be said, of course, about
Koi Shimai, where all the characters have some relationship with or impact upon the primary relations...and even more so about Morinaga Milk's ongoing lesbian high school saga.
And, on that note, I'm going to cover the next entry into that saga next time. Tune back in to hear more on the new
Yuri Shimai!
Yuri Manga: Yuri Monogatari 2
Well, Otakon is over for another year. It's amazingly fun spending all day in the Dealer's Room, watching the con walk by. I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that
ALC Publishing nearly sold out of what manga we brought in three wild, wild days. LOL
I want to thank all the folks who stopped by - old friends and new - who supported us by buying our manga, getting hugs, stickers, autographs, etc. and generally being the best part of the con. Next year should be even more fun and I promise that I'll try and get a yuri panel set up for once. :-)
Since ALC's newest yuri manga premiered last weekend at the East Coast's largest anime con, I think it's ony fair to review it first, before I move onto all the other great swag I have to talk about, including a huge shipment from Japan of tons of new yuri. But first things first.
Yuri Monogatari 2 is ALC Publishing's second all-yuri original English-language anthology. In other words - not a translation. The seven stories in this wonderful manga were created especially for this publication, including a wonderfully funny new story by Rica Takashima, author of
Rica 'tte Kanji, our first Japanese translation.
While
Yuri Monogatari is by no means perfect, it is still a pretty darn excellent book and well worth your time and money, even if I do say it myself. And I do. Where else are you going to find original yuri manga in English? Huh? :-)
This new volume contains seven stories, written and drawn by people from five different countries: Belgium, Canada, Finland, Japan, and the USA. This gives every story a unique characteristic and completely different look and feel. While one story may not appeal to you, there is sure to be something for nearly everyone...
Here's a quicky synopsis of the stories:
"Joe's Haircut" - Funny stuff happens when gay girl Joe gets her long locks lopped. When four different girls hit on Joe after the haircut, she's definitely thinking that too much of a good thing is too much, period. Big, grinny, happy ending for this one
"Toast" - A quirky scifi parody of being sucked into an alternate universe. You never knew what kind of stuff went on in your kitchen appliances...cool girl-gets-girl ending.
"Obenkyo Shinasai" - College student Grace spends more time fantasizing about her lover Miki than studying for her chem exam. This story is hysterical...and pretty hardcore, as Grace fantasizes some *interesting* things happening to Miki. Happy ending, but bad grades on the exam. :-)
"Passing" - A sort of coming out story. I won't blow the secret, but the art is really lovely and the girl gets the girl. :-)
"Short Wish List" - Another parody, this time of action/fantasy stories. The magic genie of the toasters will grant wishes and the wishes aren't what you think. Happy ending with lots of chocolate.
"Flora" - Angsty, poetic, reflective look at love versus lust. No happy ending, but some seriously beautiful sex.
"Night Out" - Girl meets girl, girl does girl and then the real story begins. A sweet and funny look at relationships. Girl has girl all along.
So there you go. Seven really fun stories, each one with a different focus and art style, characterization and story. And all yuri, all the time.
Here's the big question - where can you get
Yuri Monogatari 2? Right now, our preferred vendor is
Anime Castle. You can email them to order. You can also find it at
Planet Anime, the folks who premiered it for us at Otakon.
**At this second, neither of these places have the book on their website.** Don't look for it - it ain't there. It just came out this weekend, so just email the store you choose and ask to order.
You can find all our books at
Anime Castle, or ask your favorite anime/manga store to order some from us - they can reach ALC by
email to place the order.
And last, but not least, the Ratings:
Art, Character, Story, Plot - all variable depeding on the story, as with any anthology. Yuri - 10.
This book is 100% yuri, through and through. I hope you'll pick up a copy and see for yourself!
Now that I've reviewed the newest yuri manga from here in the West, I'll start reviewing some of the fantastic new yuri coming from Japan!
Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Yuri Monogatari
