Maria-sama ga Miteru Seventh Novel, Itoshiki Toshitsuki, First Half (Part 1)
Itoshiki Toshitsuki (
The Loving Times) First Half
Part 1As
Onna is right around the corner(!) and for the next week I'll be pretty erratic at updating, here's something nice and chewy for you from the
Yuricon Mailing List. Feel free to join the list and read the notes from the 8th novel, as well!
There was a fair amount cut out of this book for the anime, but also a lot of stuff that was done straight. The stuff that was cut out was mostly insightful chitchat that, while fascinating, I can totally understand why it was cut.
***
The opening scene has Eriko and Sei running into each other in the hall (not literally) and Eriko mistaking the lyrics of a song for something else. When they part, she's left with lingering thoughts of love.
Rosa Foetida – Full Speed Ahead
1) Minako, newspaper club president and tabloid editor-in-training, does not want to just report news – she wants to make it. As in make it up. Currently, she's frustrated because she's trying to discover where the Rosas are planning to go to college. The en bouton aren't saying and the en bouton petite soeur are clueless. Minako gives us her opinions on the latter: Yoshino is suspicious by nature and doesn't care about anything other than "Rei-chan." Yumi is a terrible liar, so she really doesn't know anything.
Minako overhears three of the newspaper club members wondering why the Roses took exams at all. (And within this scene is, ironically, annoyed at Mami for questioning them like she, Mami, is researching an article.)
The three first-years discuss the main criteria for going to a school other than Lillian – the desire to be in a coeducational institution. Minako thinks that this doesn't apply to Rosa Gigantea or Rosa Chinensis – neither of them would particularly care whether their school had guys or not - but Rosa Foetida would definitely be going somewhere else, because going to school with guys would be "an interesting experience".
Minako, it turns out, is also marginally jealous of Mami's knowledge and comprehension – she's constantly calling Mami her "not cute" soeur. Minako also remembers being much quieter and cuter as a first-year. She's sure that Mami is after a big scoop to surpass her; Minako sees the soeur relationship like that of a teacher and student that are locked in an eternal rivalry. Minako burns with a competitive fury.
2) Club member A says that she saw Rosa Foetida at an amusement park on Saturday.
(The first years are labeled by the narrator, "Club Member A", "B" and "C", respectively, with a little note that they did have names and Minako certainly knew them, but for our purposes A, B, and C would suffice. LOL)
Minako assumes that Eriko was there with the rest of the Yellow Rose family, because as she's graduating soon, it was natural to spend time with your soeur.
(In this scene we get some foreshadowing that Mami will be significantly worse than Minako as a newspaper club president...she's a tough character with a steel-trap mind, and she rules Minako with an iron fist.)
"A" says that Eriko was with a guy. Scandal! Never before has a Rose, especially, allowed the taint of having a lover before graduation. And Eriko and the guy, who looks 25-26 had their arms around each other! (Eriko's 18 in this novel.)
Club members B and C had seen her holding hands at a museum and a high-end restaurant with 2 other older men. B had been at the museum with her mother – they had received free tickets because her father had done work for an art client; C was at the restaurant for a family party.
3) The second scene of the body of the novel is our Tsutako scene, as always. Tsutako tells Yumi all of the above in a dead-on impression of the girls' voice. She had been in the Photography clubroom and as the Newspaper club had talked they had become more animated – and loud – so she heard them clearly. Yumi thinks Tsu ought to be in the drama club with her talent for voices.
Tsutako gives Yumi the photos she took, pretty much to pass the burden on to Yumi.
4) On the way up the Rose Mansion stairs, Yumi worries that if she steps on a weak spot in the stairs, she'll fall and get hurt or die, and someone might find the photos in her pocket...only, she'd be dead, so it won't matter what they think – to her, at least.
5) Yumi meets Yoshino in the Rose Mansion and mentions offhandedly that she would like to talk to Eriko. Yoshino suggests calling her, something Yumi never even considered. Yoshino suggests doing it *now* and Yumi thinks that a desperate attraction to anything interesting must be a Yellow Rose trait. (Yet another hint that Eriko and Yoshino are more alike than anyone realizes.) Yumi is surprised that Yoshino knows Eriko's home phone number by heart. (And why don't any of these girls have cell phones? I can see them being not allowed on campus, but at home? EVERY Japanese girl has a cell phone!)
Eriko's mother says that she doesn't know when Eriko is coming home. Yumi thinks that its odd for a mother to not know, especially on a school night. Yumi posits that maybe Eriko's grandmother is terminally ill and Eriko is out visiting her. After Yoshino shoots that theory down, Yumi reminds herself mentally to not kill off other people's grandmothers so easily. LOL
6) The next scene is one gigantic set-up and is done completely straight in the anime: We see Eriko at a hotel, pouring over a filled social calendar, meeting an older man, thanking him for the clothes. In the novel, we get the added detail that he had the clothes sent to the hotel, where she picked them up and changed into them. Eriko muses that he likes fur (the sweater has a fur collar) and that he has spent a months' wages on her so far. And, sigh, another night away from home...
7) Yumi tells Yoshino hypothetically about "a girl" who is seen with many men, and Yoshino suggests that its "assisted dating". To be sure she's getting the words right, Yumi writes down the kanji. Sachiko walks in, sees the paper and grimaces, stating that she really hates the term
Enjyou Kousai, because its just a gilded term for prostitution. Yumi is, quite naturally, utterly shocked to hear Sachiko use the word "prostitution."
8) A scene you never expect in a Marimite novel: The second-years then begin discussing adultery. Sachiko, again naturally, hates it and likens it to prostitution as well. The first-years, including Shimako, are gobsmacked by this conversation, and can only sit and listen with big eyes as Sachiko and Rei have such an "adult" conversation.
9) Yumi, when questioned as to why she had that word written down at all, lies about it, and Sachiko reaches out and taps her gently on the head with a "you goofball" -type comment. She then comments that Sei is right, Yumi's face really does change all the time at which Yumi thinks that her face is reflecting her thoughts that this is more sexual harassment by that dirty old man (
oyaji – remember this term... It comes back later) of a student.
10) Yumi (who has been trying to find someone to consult about the matter of the photos,) thinks of speaking to Sei. She sees Sei in her mind as someone who is bright from having thrown off the darkness of a murky mist.
11) When Yumi greets Sei, Sei comments that her "gokigenyou" sounds like Yumi needs a favor. Yumi says that Sachiko sent her home early, because everyone was busy with other things today.
Sei throws her arms around Yumi. She understands, she says, Yumi's lonely. Well, she'll stand in for Sachiko, and hold Yumi's soft body, she doesn't mind...
Yumi starts to think that she is a little lonely because they Yamayurikai didn't get together, but...!
12) Sei asks Yumi if she called her name a few moments ago. Yumi says no, but Sei thought she heard Yumi's voice. Yumi realizes that Sei was talking about the very moment Yumi *thought* about consulting Sei.
13) The first-years call the cat "Lunch", the second-years call it "Meri-chan" and the third years call it "Goronta". Yumi had never seen any one be able to get within a meter of the cat without it running away, but Sei picks it up and pets it. (Goronta means something like "Purr-y". Yumi thinks it a rude name for the cat.)
14) This section is long and was almost completely cut up in the anime.
Sei tells Yumi that humans have violated the natural order of the wild, and created an inferior ecosystem as a result. She explains that Goronta, as a kitten, was being attacked by crows in the back of the school when she found him. She saved the cat, sneaking food to him and "believed in him" which is why he lets her close. Sei says that Shimako told her that it was cruel thing to do, that it has made the cat dependent upon her.
Sei had considered taking the cat home, but felt that the school was its home now.
Throughout this conversation, there is the sense that Sei is talking about the cat and Yumi at the same time as she speaks. At the conclusion of this speech, she turns to Yumi and offers her cat food. So, yeah.
Sei ends with the thought that Shimako is wrong, that Goronta (or, indeed, Yumi) would be fine – that he is a wolf that has found his "pack."
15) Sei then segues into a discussion of Shimako as a wolf that has not found her pack. (Foreshaaaaaaadoooowiiinnnggg!) Sei tells Yumi that she, Yumi, had a fairly easy time of it at Lillian and found her pack relatively easily, so she wouldn't understand Shimako's feelings. (Yumi thinks that it's not that easy being the dull, clumsy little sister of a beautiful, intelligent princess onee-sama, and that's
she's pretty much a failure.)
Sei asks Yumi if Yumi worries constantly about what it is to be a human and a woman.
Yumi says, no, I'm Japanese because I was born here, I'm a girl and this is a girls' school.
But, Sei says, what if you were thrown into an English boys' school.
Yumi panics, because her English is bad.
Canada, then, or France, Sei attempts to focus Yumi on the point...
Yumi says that she'd be uncomfortable around the other students, and her heart would pound. And Sei says, "Right. That's what its like for Shimako right now."
Then Yumi begins to understand that Sei is protecting Shimako the same way she did the cat and is worried about leaving for that reason too.
Sei says that Lillian hurt her, but also saved her and that she has come to love Lillian. That friends have the power to heal. (Konno- sensei! Please put down that foreshadowing club! We get it! We get it!!!)
16) Eriko is thinking to herself that, in a field of chestnut horses, a white horse stands out. Or in a plate of sweets a rice cracker stands out. So it stands to reason that, in a life full of wealthy men, in her mind, a poor one stands out.
When Yumi and Eriko meet up (which was slightly altered in the anime to make Eriko a bit flakier, but was otherwise accurate) Eriko might as well have been speaking Greek for all Yumi can understand her. LOL
(This is a little joke on my part, since "Hypsilodon" – the dinosaur Eriko mentions - is obviously a Greek word.)
17) Tsutako gives Yumi two more pictures of Eriko with men – one old enough to be her father, and one scruffy-looking guy at the zoo. Tsu is doing two things by doing this – she's passing the responsibility to Yumi, but she's also protecting Eriko. Her assignment had been to collect pictures as proof for the newspaper article. And, although, she *has* gotten the proof, she doesn't want to give the pictures to
Minako.
They head to the Rose Mansion, where Yumi is going to figure out what to do about the photos, when Rosa Chinensis catches up with them. Tsutako tries to escape, but Youko grabs her by the collar and pulls her back. Tsutako immediately responds with, "How radiantly lovely you look today, Rosa Chinensis..."
Youko controls Yumi and Tsutako so well, that even Yumi feels that she's just been given a glimpse of the Youko that can control Sachiko.
18) Youko looks at the pictures and tells Tsutako and Yumi that now she understands what's been bothering Eriko the last few days – she's lovesick.
19) We see Minako, who has overheard Yumi and Eriko's conversation, in the newspaper office typing. She had, it turns out, wanted to be a novelist before she became a journalist, and this is a great opportunity. She writes a short story called "The Yellow Rose" about Shimai Rieko, a girl who is working part-time at an escort club.
"Shimai" is a brutal pun. The character for "shima" looks not entirely unlike that for "tori". So "Shimai" would read "Torii" for people reading quickly and who were used to Eriko's family name. "Rieko" is, of course, the characters for "e" "ri" and "ko" slightly rearranged. Hence Shimai Rieko would be the thinnest possible veil on the true protagonist...even without the "Yellow Rose" of the title.
In the Rose Mansion, everyone is admiring Minako's photoshopping skills for the cover. Sachiko asks what all this is about and Sei and Yoshino explain the technique behind the picture – not at all what Sachiko was talking about. Sachiko's temper starts to rise and Youko begins to pull her leg to see how long it will take before she explodes.
This was hysterical, btw...as she carefully gives Sachiko just enough info to make her nuts, Youko is also talking to Sei over her shoulder, and Yumi is "tick-tocking" the time bomb in her head as she watches Sachiko approaching breaking point.
Sachiko demands to know what's going on and Youko explains that Eriko been going on dates with various older men every night. She them summarizes the plot of the story:
Right before graduation, Shimai Rieko, "The Yellow Rose" is suffering from ennui and an empty heart, where "a cold wind blows." She takes a part time job at a dating club, and goes out with Mr. A, a baseball player, on an all night drive. Then Mr. B, a surgeon, takes her to an art museum and Mr. C, a gourmet, takes her to a fine restaurant. But Shimai Rieko realizes that changing men like they are clothes is
futile. Her heart is still empty. She is discovered on a date by Mr. D, a teacher at her school, who takes her home and scolds her gently. She returns to normal student life, but looks for Mr. D. On the day to her graduation, she decides to propose to him.
Yumi was, ultimately, the catalyst to Sachiko's explosion, figuring that it ought to be her who bears the brunt. Sachiko explodes (Yumi's mind: tick, tick, tick...boom!) because she thinks everyone else knew but her. When she finds out that no one else did, she is immediately fine.
They hear Eriko being called to the principal's office (not really, but you know what I mean, the "Student Counseling Room" or whatever) and they decide to all go.
20) In the hallway outside the Counselor's Office, Minako is eavesdropping. She had seen four men and Eriko walk by into the Counselor's Office, and three of them match the characters in her story. She thinks out loud, "There's A, B and C – why no D?" To which Youko, who has come up immediately behind her, answers, "Because you
made him up."
Minako is trapped. She goes in with the Yamayurikai members. The nun says they can all come in on one condition – only one spokesperson can talk. Youko is clearly that person.
21) Yes, one of the guys IS in a football uniform (and yes – it is specifically American football). The point is that all of Eriko's brothers were interrupted mid-activity by their father. (And, obviously, it is meant to be ironic that Minako's made-up characters were so amazingly close to the actuality. Including, eventually, the assumably made up Teacher D.)
22) Cut out of the anime and what a shame: When Yamanobe-sensei is brought in by Tsutako, Minako sees him and blurts out, "Does he make umbrellas?" That totally made me laugh.
23) When Eriko proposes, Sei (who has already broken the "don't speak" rule several times) immediately offers a bet to Youko that Yamanobe loses. Youko won't take the bet – she says that he'll suffer a crushing defeat.
24) Yamanobe-sensei is, among all the other reasons to not marry Eriko, still grieving over a wife who died about a year ago.
25) This entire scene is played as a sitcom, with Yumi helpfully supplying background noises and music in her mind for us. When Yamanobe-sensei declines the marriage offer, she thinks that, if it *were* a comedy, everyone would face-fault now.
26) Eriko's father accuses Yamanobe of hitting on a young girl nearly half his age. Eriko replies that Yamanobe was too busy watching the elephant to be paying attention to her. Dad immediately yells at Yamanobe – "You were ignoring my beautiful daughter to watch an elephant? What's wrong with you?" lol
27) When everyone decides for Yamanobe that he'd better date Eriko, Sei says that is he doesn't she'll just cling harder. "Snapping Turtle Eriko, we call her."
Yumi thinks that they'd call Sei "Full of Lies Sei".
28) Sei walks over to the desk, writes out Eriko's phone number and hands it to Yamanobe when it's been settled that he *will* date her.
End of Part 1 of Part One
Tags: Maria-sama ga Miteru, Marimite, Itsohiki Toshitsuki, Loving Times
Yuri Manga: Yuri Monogatari 3 Available for Pre-order!
It's official!
Yuri Monogatari 3 is now available for pre-order on the
Yuricon Shop!
ALC Publishing's newest all yuri anthology will be shipping out at the end of October. Pre-order directly through the Yuricon shop and you'll save 30% off the retail price.
YM3 is also ALC's first to be available not only through the hobby market (y'know, comic book stores...) but also the major book store chains in the US, UK, Canada and Australia!
Feel free to pester your local Borders, Barnes and Noble, Dillons, etc for the newest 100% yuri anthology on the market.
For a brief synopsis of the wonderful stories in the third "Lily Tales" anthology, check out my
September 2 post. I'm really very excited about this publication and I think you will be too!
Ghost in the Shell Manga Volume 1, 2nd Ed.
Blah, blah, blah.
No seriously - does anyone on a military mission talk this much!? LOL
So, waaaay back in the dawn of time, I had a copy of
Ghost in the Shell in Japanese - you know, the version with the gratuitous lesbian sex scene left in. I sold it for a fair amount of $ because, at the time, the version put out by Dark Horse had removed those pages and you know how crucial to the plot they were - people freaked.
Time has moved on and I was killing an afternoon over at
Anime Castle, torturing Bill, the owner (who is a seriously decent dude and we at
Yuricon and
Onna! owe him a great deal of thanks. In fact, I nabbed a fun toy prize for some lucky contest winner while I was there,) I saw the *2nd* editions for volume 1 and 2 and thought, "why not?" So here I was faced with actually reading the thing.
It's four days later and I'm still not finished. Let me put this into perspective - I can complete a 200-page novel in about an hour and a half of uninterrupted reading. Four days of reading this thing and I'm going slower, and slower, and.....
It's not even that they talk too much - it's the typeface. It's killing me. I *know* that the convention on lettering comics is ALL CAPS. I *know* that the convention is to fill the word balloons as full as one can (and with Masamune Shirow, it's kind of inevitable anyway,) but seriously - this lettering is KILLING my eyes. I read two pages and have to stop.
I saw the original
GiTS movie way back, when everyone else as old as I am did, and I wasn't impressed. I loved the idea, but the movie was really dull, IMHO. And I feel much the same with the original manga. It's such a cool idea, I wish someone had *done* something with it.
I wasn't really interested in
GitS until the first TV series, "Stand Alone Complex: 1st Gig", and even then I found the end kind of a cop-out. The movie "Innocence" was, like the first movie, nothing more than a series of quotes strung together with visually rich, but essentially meaningless, imagery. I liked it, but not as a movie. It read like an attempt at playing Umberto Eco, without his ability at tying the links together to make a coherent whole. It was gorgeous, but left no real impression.
Of all of the
GitS franchise, the one I liked the best was "Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig", entirely because at the end, we're left with a Major that one can actually *see* taking the route we were shown in the "Innocence" movie. For that, and that alone, I think the 2nd Gig was worth watching.
I'm also quite besotted with the Tachikoma. :-) When they pull that prank (if you've seen it, you know which one I mean...) on Batou, it made the entire franchise worth its existence. LOL
But we don't care about this! We want to know if the sex was worth the book! you scream.
No, don't be stupid. It's pointless fanservice, you twit. Mostly it's the springboard for a goofy gag with Batou. But if you're the kind of person who thinks that 3 pages of shiny unrealistic women having porn sex is worth shelling out $30 - then get thee over to the
Yuricon Shop and buy thee copies of
Yuri Monogatari 2 and 3. Two books for the same price...and twice the meaningless sex. LOL
By the way - in case you're wondering, I love the Major and I actually do like
GitS for what it is. Great art? I don't know. Groundbreaking? Let's wait another 40 years and decide. A powerful idea and a popular franchise? Yes, 100 times yes.
Ratings:
Art - The hair! The HAIR!!! 6
Characters - 7
Story - 7
Yuri - 4 It's all of three pages out of 300.
Overall - I rate it a 7. It's not going to be my "go back to" book, but I like the whole group enough to keep trying.
One last thing - Dark Horse, with a book this thick, the binding is REALLY crappy. You needed to vent it or make it stronger. I'm not even through with reading it once and it's starting to crack.
Tags: Manga, Ghost in the Shell, GitS
Events: Last chance to pre-register for Onna!
Onna!, a three-day festival of women's roles in animation, comics and games, is coming to Newark, NJ. A joint venture between two NY/NJ area organizations dedicated to the promotion of women in comics and animation,
Shoujo Arts Society and Yuricon, Onna! will be held in the Newark Gateway Hilton on October 8-10, 2005.
Onna! welcomes guests from the comics, animation and gaming industries:
- Paige Braddock creator of Jane's World
- Tania Del Rio artist for "Sabrina, the Teenaged Witch
- Euralis Weekes, animator and artist
- Game designer Naomi Clark
- Independent comic artists Sin Comix
- Musical guest Gelatine
- Scanlation/fansub group Lililicious
And guests from the anime, manga, comics, game and live action film industries will be joining us over the Columbus Day weekend.
Men, women and children of all ages are welcome to attend Onna!, enjoy video programming, panels, workshops and even games that celebrate the expanding role of women in these increasingly popular industries.
For information about Onna!,including costs, directions and programming, please visit our website at
http://www.onnafest.com. Don't miss your last chance to pre-register for this unique event!
For infomation about Shoujo Arts Society, please visit their website at:
http://www.shoujoarts.orgFor information on Yuricon, please visit their home page at:
http://www.yuricon.org
Yuri Manga: Eve no Ringo/Eve's Apple, Volume 3
You remember Kirika, don't you? She was the high school student who wanted, above all else, to be a professional manga artist, in the goofball sex manga series
Eve no Ringo, aka
Eve's Apple.. After several rejections, she was hired by the grumpiest, most miserable bastard of an editor ever, to draw S&M comics for a Lady's Comic publication.
To understand the world she was drawing Kirika tried being a dominatrix, a man, tied up, spanked and learned about car sex and fetishes galore. All to become a better
mangaka. Grudgingly, the editor from hell allowed a page or three of Kirika's work into the magazine - but at the end of Volume 2, she had a long way to go before she could really consider herself a professional.
I found the first two volumes of this series in a used manga store, so I was pretty convinced I'd never ever see the rest of it. I am thrilled to report that I was wrong again. Bizarrely, this series has been *reprinted* and is available through Amazon JP. You can click the picture above to reach this particular volume.
So...what adventures will befall our delightfully, no longer naive young artist, you may ask?
Well...
Kirika experiences a little remote control vibrator research, thanks to Yurika and the school doctor. During a test, of course. :-)
Kirika's self-proclaimed beautiful rival Mio, in between sex with her editor and some "assisted studying" with Kirika's friend and assistant Matsuda-kun, learns a little bit about the appeal of S&M comics. (Matsuda, btw, is filled with remorse immediately afterwards, which I personally find quite irritating - especially as he appears to be an excellent lover. How obnoxious would that be - the best sex of your life and then the guy runs off crying....)
We meet one of Mio's sempai, another manga artist who is a cool, sexy, stylish woman named Kaoru. Kaoru meets and wows Kirika, (who is a bit swept off her feet by the older woman) but it's Matsuda who really floats her boat. Matsuda is perfectly okay with this, until midway in the act he discovers that Kaoru is a sexy, stylish and incredibly beautiful *guy*. One more guilt-filled night for Matsuda, I guess....
Kirika decides to visit a fetish shop to play dress up. Of course she drags Matsuda along to get his opinion on her dressed as a dominatrix and a maid. The shop owner turns out to be the sexy sadist from a few volumes ago, who promptly ties her up and proceeds to make her learn a bit more about her needs - in front of Matsuda. Kirika is fascinated by the whole idea of being watched and runs home to incorporate her new knowledge into her art.
While Yurika and Kirika work on Yuri's new soon-to-be published piece, Matsuda and Miyamae-sensei (the older mangaka who was seriously hardcore from the first few volumes) engage in some "study" for her work. He tries to draw some S&M and it rapidly becomes a Disney-esque fantasy with him and prince and Kikira as princess - as all his work is wont to.
Another kouhai is added to Kirika's stable, as provincial gang girl Yano appears, with a thick accent and wackified antics, which involve her taking hers and the other girls' shirt off alot.
Kirika gets yet another assistant when first year student Mai joins the chado club at school and asks if she can, you know, help Kirika in any way. She and Kirika get an intense session in and Kirika is motivated to draw, while Mai is motivated to get Kirika alone in a dark room again.
The final few chapters tell of a big party that the publishing house holds for all the mangaka and editors at an onsen, so we have the usual nudity and sex play - but because these are all people who draw and live S&M, it lack coyness or fanservice, really, and is refreshingly uncloying.
In a freak accident, the editor from hell is hurt and Kirika finds that she's ALOT more upset about it than she would have thought. She overhears the editor and Miyamae talking about her. When she hears him say that she doesn't need him, Kirika finds herself unexpectedly hysterical. Matsuda comforts her, but there's definitely a sense that something deeper than just her need to succeed is going on.
Regardless of the trashiness of the subject, I *really* like this series. because the sex is part of the plot, there's so little ingenuousness, or immaturity about it. And as Kirika and the others become more mature about human sexuality, so does the series.
It's still goofy and fun, but if you're not afraid of it,
Eve's Apple has the least objectification of women I've ever seen in any sex-heavy manga.
Ratings:
Art - 7
Characters - 8
Story - 8
Yuri - 6
Overall - 7
This isn't a yuri story, not really, but its pleasantly omnisexual and has some fun yuri service, no goggles needed.
Tags: Manga, S&M Anime, Eve's Apple, Eve no Rongo
Yuri Manga: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 2
Well, I know you were all waiting with bated breath to read my opinion on this final installment of the
Kannzuki no Miko series.
As you may remember, I found the anime to be superficial, devoid of meaning and tedious, but marginally distracting. I reviewed it several times with increasing incredulousness - primarily because, while the series made absolutely NO sense at all, many people, mostly male, seem to feel that
Kannzuki represents the height of yuri. This story was indubitably colorful, had lots of action and noise and sound and light, but it simply made no sense. That a senseless 13 episode miniseries that had no plausibility, not internal consistancy and utterly pointless rape should be seen by any minority of viewers as the *epitome* of the genre I have labored to promote is simply...exhausting.
Folks - there is good yuri out there. With plots, and character development, etc. Drawn by women for women. This is real yuri, not the parody of several genres tossed with a light dressing of yuri so it sells.
Yamaji Ebine
Takashima Rica
Tadeno Eriko
Morishima Akiko
Hayahiya Shizuru
These women draw and write yuri - with plots, characters, genuine expression of lesbian love and desire. Look for them - read them - learn what good yuri is.
Okay, that rant having been concluded, let's turn our eyes towards the work in question.
We left Himeko having just been raped by Chikane. This was used in the anime as well, where the explanation for the act was to make Himeko hate Chikane, as she's becoming an
orochi.
In the manga the act is complicated by the fact that it seeems to be tied into Chikane and Himeko's existence as Miko of Moon and Sun, respectively.
In reality, it is fairly obvious that the people who comprise Kaishaku, like most people, have absolutely no understanding at all of the emotional damage rape does. In this expert text, Himeko wonders if it really happend, gets a twinge of pain in her abdomen, is horrified, but when Chikane seems like her usual self, is fine. Fine? Oooookkkkkkkaaaaaay.....
Then follows pretty much exactly the same nonsense that occurred in the anime. Lots of mecha fights, which *still* make no sense, since we are never really given any motivation for the Orochi respresentatives. In my mind, there should at least have been one flashback to explain the how/why of becomming a homicidal
kubi, but that's just me, always looking for, you know, plausibility, in a story.
BTW, kubi mean "neck" and the scanlators translate it that way, but in our language we'd probably call them a "hand" rather than a neck, as in hired hand, or ranch hand. After watching the anime and reading the manga, I am still entirely puzzled as to the kubi's exstence at all. Why were they there? What were they hoping to do? Shoot things, okay...but why? I like the idea of shooting things too, but I can, at least, tell you *why* I'd like to pop you. Sister Miyako is hot, but the rest, *especially* Tsubasa, are a complete yawn. Tsubasa's only reason to exist seems to be to pander to fans of long-silver-haired boys. Hmmm - I guess if we see the kubi as pandering to random fetishes, they make more sense. Okay. That works for me.
The climax of the manga and anime are similar, but not *quite* the same. Chikane explains that her behavior (violent rape, emotional torture and criminal passive-agressiveness) was meant to save Himeko from a fate worse than fate. In the anime, Chikane accepts an eternity that consists of a rather shorter period of time than eternities are wont to be, alone on the moon.
In the manga, Himeko comes with Chikane, rendering all of Chikane's violence and abuse pointless, because apparently it would take MORE than that to make Himeko hate Chikane. One can only boggle.
In an epilogue which does not exist in the anime, Chikane and Himeko are born as incestuous twins who apparently live happily ever after.
Ratings:
Art - 8
Story - 2
Characters - 6
Yuri - 9 (I cut off a point for the complete and utter lack of understanding of the dynamics of women in love/lust.)
Overall - 6
Honestly - this could, really, have been an excellent story. Given time, back story, character development and a modicum of internal consistency, it could have been decent. But it wasn't. Not really.
Tags: Manga, Yuri Manga, Kannazuki no Miko, Himeko and Chikane
Yuri Anime: Stellvia. Volume 5
The reason this review took so long to get to was simply that I had a really hard time finding this volume! Amazon had it on backorder and at Otakon, not a single vendor had a copy by the time I got to go shopping. It was really irksome. (Amusingly, at the Geneon booth, the sales guy tried to sell me Vol.6, but I kept saying I wouldn't get it until after I had 5. He was like, "But you'll need it eventually." lol)
Let's get right to it, shall we? This volume has a lot of good things, but I'm about to start with the bad.
The art. Where do noses go when they aren't on faces? Is there a graveyard of lost anime noses? The art is *so* inconsistant in this volume. The older characters are fairly treated, but the main characters...ecch. It definitely looks like we had more than one group doing the art - and one of them sucked. Specifically the group handling Shima and Arisa.
There's a scene in the second episode (which otherwise has better art than the first) on the volume where the girls are teasing Shima about Kouta. Shima and Arisa are all over the room, while the background characters are all stock still for nearly the entire scene, with fixed faces. Obviously, they didn't bother animating anyone who wasn't absolutely necessary. And it looks it. Awful, awful, awful.
The other major bad thing is Kouta. He's heading into major idiot savant mode and from this point on, I really don't like him. He's so...autistic...about people, and about Shima in particular. So while she's growing, and trying harder and harder to reach him, he's just being a nothing. But he's a main character, so we have to watch him being a nothing all the freakin' time! It's downright distressing.
But that's about it for really, really bad.
On the good side, all the little relationships are starting to mature - there's a fair amount of time given over to taciturn Akira and runty Jojo. The volume starts them off on a rough foot, but they really get to spend some quality time onscreen. And along the way, they have a couple of short, but quite meaningful and interesting, scenes. With really good dialogue and everything.
There are some moments in this volume that approach excellent - particularly the political fragmenting of the humans involved in the different aspects of this "war." People who feel its necessary vs people who feel its a plot by the military, vs people who think its a hoax, vs people who think war would be fun. With our current situation here in the US, it reads as quite realistic.
The most well-executed scene is towards the very end, when the war becomes a reality for our young characters. Seeing a battle, in which "our" forces take a thorough and fatal beating, through Shima's eyes is quite painful, even as it is exceptionally well-executed.
For our yuri couple, Yayoi and Ayaka, there is only one scene towards the beginning - but it's a good one. ;-) With a short, fanservicey, flashback to when they originally met, we get a tearful and emotional reunion between them. Otherwise they are never seen together...but later when Arisa teases Yayoi about Pierre (who has a openly-acknowledged crush on her) Yayoi basically says that he has no chance. Everyone laughs and moves on. They know he has no chance - they just think it's cause he's a doofus and Yayoi is a lady.
Ratings:
Art - yucky to not too bad
Story - fun, interesting, emo
Characters - real
Music - doo-doo-doo
Overall - just watch it
In general, this volume is good, solid space opera fare. The aliens are bugs, humans are torn over what to do, and the kids...are kids. All in all, a good story that stays good with ocassional moments of excellent and awful.
Tags: Anime, Yuri Anime, Stellvia
Events: Cartoonist Alliance Meeting Notes
All I can say is - wow. The people at the Cartoonist Alliance and MoCCA were just lovely. Thanks to Denise Ozker, Chari Peres and Angela Entzminger for setting up my talk and being so welcoming - and talented! I had so very much fun. (So much so that I was supposed to leave at 8, but we all got pried out at 10:30. lol)
I am not unaware of the irony of me, a person who cannot draw a straight line with a ruler, addressing a meeting of artists. But I did get to tell them a bit about publishing and call upon my store of knowledge of random artistic influences. It was so great - all the folks at CA have real talent and passion. I look forward to a future of cartoon artists with that sort of drive.
I hope one day to come back for another meeting. In the meantime, I feel like I'd better get back into doing some writing! LOL I feel like I ought at least work at my chosen oeuvre a little harder, after seeing how much effort they put into their work.
If you are in the NYC area and interested in comics, cartooning, manga or animation art:
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art - MoCCA is a work in progress, but it's got lots of great events, speakers, exhibitions, etc.
Cartoonist Alliance - This is a special interest group of the
Guild of Graphic Artists. They meet monthly and are a really cool group of people. Tell them I say "hi!"
Events: Cartoonist Alliance Meeting in NYC on Wednesday
[This is a press release for a speaking engagement I'll be doing tomorrow at the meeting of the Cartoonist Alliance]
Erica Friedman, president of
Yuricon and
ALC Publishing and co-founder of
Onna!, the only anime convention showcasing women's roles in anime and manga,will be speaking at the September 14th meeting of the Cartoonist Alliance. The meeting will take place at the
Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art at 594 Broadway, Suite 401 in New York City.
Friedman has been involved in the anime world for a long time, founding Yuricon, a celebration of yuri in anime and manga and ALC Publishing, North America's only publisher of 100% yuri publications. In 2005, she ran Yuricon in Tokyo, and is co-chairing Onna!, a festival of women's roles in animation in comics, which will take place October 8-10 in Newark, New Jersey.
In 2004, ALC Publishing printed the first volume of
Shoujoai ni Bouken: The Adventures of Yuriko, an illustrated novel, penned by Friedman and illustrated by Kelli Nicely. At the meeting of the Cartoonist Alliance, she will speaking on her new novel, ALC Publishing's efforts to bring yuri manga to the west and the upcoming Onna! event.
The Cartoonist Alliance is open to cartoonists, comics artists, animators, illustrators. Their meetings are round table, and organized around a special Featured Guest. Everyone is welcome, but membership in the Graphic Artists Guild provides discounts and access to the Squib, the Guild's newsletter.
To learn more about Yuricon, please visit http://www.yuricon.org or email yuricon@hotmail.com
For more information on the New York Chapter of the Graphic Artists Guild, go to: http://newyork.gag.org/.
***
I hope some of you will join me there tomorrow night!
Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 3
Sometimes you get a craving and nothing but sociopathic women with guns can fill it.
Volume 3 of
Madlax is both wonderful...and frustrating. Wonderful, because all the connections start coming together, leading you forward towards who knows what. It's also frustrating for the exact same reasons - you keep feeling like everything is going *somewhere* but you're just not getting quite enough info to piece it all together.
For me, the volume is very satisfying, as it focuses primarily on the character of Vanessa Rene, whose efforts to find out exactly what's going on bring her into contact with Madlax, and with Enfan, thus knitting together the three great variables in the story: Who is Madlax, and how did she get those mad assassinatin' skillz; what on earth is Enfan's relationship to the civil war in Gazth-Sonika; what does Margaret have to do with any of this?
None of these questions is answered, of course - but Vanessa actually articulates the first two - and the third is implicit in the storyline. Bee Train isn't giving anything away in this anime, we're going to have to work for our payoff here. When I watched this part the first time around, I was skeptical that we would get *any* payoff, but now I know we will, and I'm content to let the story play itself out.
In writing the above, I just realized that watching Madlax is a bit like watching a play by Chekhov - you have to let the characters repeat their particular bete noir over and over until the threads all ravel and it begins to make sense. You can't rush it, or guess what will happened/has happened. You just have to wait.
On the yuri side, I love this volume for what it doesn't say. There's still the weird vibe between Vanessa and Eleanor, which makes me think that they slept together, but don't have a "relationship" per se. Eleanor would be hard work - her focus is so single-minded, that to make her notice her existence, Vanessa would have to do something irrevocable and awful. Vanessa ain't no dummmy - she lets whatever is between them stay as whatever Eleanor makes it.
When she meets Madlax, its obvious that Vanessa is resonating to something within her - there's an obvious desire to connect with this mysterious girl, and maybe protect (or perhaps treasure) her a little. There's a very, very slight yuri feel there, but I think that's because they are strangers and Vanessa doesn't yet know who/what Madlax is or how to approach her. I don't have any difficulty in believing that Vanessa would sleep with Madlax, if she thought that would be a good idea for them both. We know, with 20/20 hindsight, what the thing she feels in Madlax is, but as she doesn't know herself - and never does learn - it leaves an interesting edginess between them.
As for Madlax, she clearly sees the relationship between her and Vanessa as a mirror image of Vanessa's interpretaton: she's the prince protecting Vanessa, the princess. We've already seen that Madlax isn't afraid of sex and, once again, I think Madlax could well sleep with Vanessa, if she felt that it was the thing to do.
Will they, do they? I don't think so. But that edge between them is fascinating and titilating.
And there's Rimelda. This volume could be entitled "The birth of an obsession" and I think it's a beautiful thing. :-) I'm not usually fond of obsessive relationships, but again, I know what's coming and this one works for me.
Ratings:
Art - 5. It's very inconsistent, with that BT tendency to have really bad people on top of really lovely backgrounds
Story - 8
Characters - 8
Music - 8
Yuri - 6, with loads of possibility
Overall - 8.
Madlax is a story that remains intriguing and fun, as long as you don't need it to "make sense."
Tags: Anime, Yuri Anime, Madlax
Totally Random Tidbits
Hi everyone - life is blowing up at the moment. I'm not so self-absorbed that I think that you all care what's going on. :-)
I will say this - there are so many exciting things happening at
Onna!, that it will definitely be *the* place to be this October. We've got new guests joining us daily - they are emailing us and *asking* if they can come! These women work in comics, in gaming design, and film. It's not an all-star cast - but these are the women who make it all happen.
Pre-registration is going to stay open until just about a week or so before, but don't wait until the last second to join us for this fantastic 3-day festival of women's roles in animation and comics!
So, instead of a yuri review, I've decided to empty my phone and digital cameras and share the pictures with you - I think it'll be fun. Here goes:
This is a picture of Alice Wu from the NYC premier of Saving Face. I reviewed that back in in May.
This is a scene you probably don't see too often. This is the day before Otakon in the Dealer's room.
It's so empty and bright and full of bland, brown boxes. (And a huge multicolored bus...I'm not sure if you can see that in this picture. It's in the next one, but kind of far away)
Isn't it kind of cool and weird? In less than 24 hours after I took this picture, this room was filled with people, and noise and colorful, weird *stuff.* Like the psychedelic bus, which you can just make out.
This is a random picture I took before the Yuri panel at Otakon of one half the room.
And here's the other half. Shifty-looking folks, aren't they? But in reality, I think this was a very decent audience. The questions are always impossible to answer - but no weirdos who monopolized the Q&A, or hostility, or extreme stupidity. Mostly just folks who were really interested in yuri.
This is Sean Gaffney, yuri panelist extraordinaire. And he owes me a review, but since we're working him weary for Onna!, I'll cut him some slack. This picture was taken as he pontificated over dinner after Otakon.
Imagine these shelves with three-foot high piles of manga and anime, filled with DVDs and manga shoved into every corner, overflowing from every nook.. That was the situation.
You felt this coming, right? Here they are! My new shelves. (lovelovelove) Aren't they wonderful? LOL
That's it for today. If things don't become more complicated than they already are, I'll update this weekend with a real review. :-)
Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CD 5 - Rosa Canina
Apologies for the long delay! Lots of things happened, including me growing another year older, and not a day wiser. :-)
I actually listened to the
Maria-sama ga Miteru, Rosa Canina Drama CD ages ago, but am just getting around to telling you how wonderful it is. And this time, it's very easy to tell you why - Noto Mamiko, the voice actress for Shimako, really gets to shine in this version of the story.
Chalk it up to the fact that the anime aired out of order and that the
Rosa Canina arc was moved up slightly in the episodes, but Shimako's character seems particularly watery in the anime version of this arc. Maybe because the actresses were only just getting warmed up by the time the anime was over. In any case, in this Drama CD, Shizuka (now much more blatantly hitting on Sei, now that we know that *everyone* knows about her) is even more mysterious and cool, and Shimako has a hell of alot more backbone.
I bought this Drama CD as a "special box set" and got two little dolls as extras - little SDs of Yumi and Sachiko. They now stand, with quiet grace and charm in front of my Maria-sama ga Miteru collection on my new shelves! (I know, I should let go of the shelf thing...but they are SO great! I am going to put this in writing - thank you Charlie Lawler for the fabulous shelves. I love them!!! Now I will move on, but I make no promises that I won't mention them again. LOL)
There's little else I can say about this story that wasn't in either anime or manga (except that the manga has some internal monologuing by Shimako that exists nowhere else). If you like Noto Mamiko's voice - and how could you not? - this is a great way to spend a few more hours having it tickle the inside of your ear. :-)
The only down side - we *still* didn't get the scene of Shizuka's classmates cheering her on.
Tags: Yuri Drama CD, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CD, Rosa Canina Drama CD
Yuri Manga: Sneak Peek - Yuri Monogatari 3
Because this is a long weekend, and I'm not going to be able to post until next week, I thought I'd leave you with a little teaser. :-)
ALC Publishing is hard at work on our next 100% yuri manga anthology,
Yuri Monogatari 3 - and I think it is absolutely amazing! These are some of the best yuri stories and art by some of the best yuri artists in the world and I can't wait for you to see them all. There's alot to be proud of in this volume and I just *had* to share some of what you can look forward to.
Our first story is by a young lady named Hiromi Nishizaka. Hiromi is the winner of the Waki Yamato prize in the Manga Koshien contest for young manga artists. Her story, "Hydrangea" is her premiere as a yuri artist.
"It Takes All Kinds" is a wacky look at long-term relationships and the life of a sexy space pirate, by Beth Malone. Beth has contributed to all three
Yuri Monogatari volumes, but this is the first time she's included a tentacle monster. :-)
Sergio Aviles has provided a funny, eclectic and creative look at life on the run. How often are you ever going to be able to read a romantic yuri story told, in part, in imabic pentameter?
Rica Takashima was so busy running Yuricon 2005 in Tokyo, that she couldn't find time to give us a new story, but she did send us a darling picture of Yuricon mascot Yuriko and her author girlfriend Midori.
Another exciting addition to this volume is an English-language version of the Yuricon 2005 in Tokyo report drawn (and written) by Akiko Morishima. Morishima-san is a well-known manga artist in Japan, who works on shoujo manga by day, and draws for yuri doujinshi circle Girlish in her spare time. And yes, you read that right - Morishima-san wrote the English for her story, as well. It's a damn sight better than my Japanese, I can tell you. :-)
Another three-time contributor to the
Yuri Monogatari series, Kristina K., offers us a dream-like look at love across cultures (and an impression of tourism that we can all identify with!).
Finishing up our book is another veteran of the series, Althea Keaton, with a poignant, emotional and brilliant take on girl gangs and tenderness.
And, of course, there's the usual great cover and incidental art by Yuricon Staff Artist, Kelli Nicely.
Yuri Monogatari 3 will be available for pre-order any day on the
Yuricon Shop. While you're there, don't forget to buy one of our other 100% yuri publications and support our efforts at bringing yuri to the worldwide-English speaking audience!
Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga Anthology, Yuri Monogatari
Yuri Manga: [es] ~ Eternal Sisters, Volume 2
Anyone notice the advertisement in the Google Ad block on the right of Okazu this week? "Kissing Techniques" - assumably because of the post on
Transistor ni Venus :-) You gotta read the site - it's a *scream*. And I'm not just saying that to make you click the ad - it's really, unintentionally, funny in its sexism.
So, here's a little known fact about
[es]. It was bought by Ichijinsha, the same folks that bring you
Yuri Hime. I assume it was an independent yuri anthology before that.
I wasn't blown away by the
first volume of
[es], but I didn't hate it. This, the second volume, is pretty much more of the same, but slightly blander.
I'm sitting here going over the stories and there's barely anything to hang on to. Some marginal confessions, a little embracing, lots of the usual high school tropes and fetishes. Sweet, cute, etc, etc.
There is one interesting point - the story "Pops" which ran for two parts in
Yuri Shimai is continued here as "Someday the Sun Shines".
But otherwise, like the first collection, this volume of
[es] is the same harmless, sweet, stereotypical stories over and over. There's the clingy younger girl, or the admired/desired older girl, the sick best friend, the slacker best friend, the genki best friend, the bathing suits and uniforms and lunchtimes and gym clothes. Nothing we haven't seen a thousand times by now.
Perfect for moe-yuri fanboys and those who hate the thought of adult women in love. Also not a bad birthday present for your favorite babydyke otaku-in-training. :-)
Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Eternal Sisters
