Yuri Manga: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 3
I've been following the manga of
Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl with great interest, because the
anime ended in a way I had not anticipated. So I am twice as curious now to see where the manga is heading.
In a nutshell,
Volume 3 of
Kashimashi adds two major plot points. One good, one hopelessly dumb,
The scenes that ended the
last volume and begin this one, were where the anime and manga parted ways. In some ways I prefer the anime - in others the manga. Both have distinct strengths and weaknesses.
This volume begins as Tomari and Hazumu head off together on a date, something which causes Yasuna to collapse with anxiety. (I'm only half exaggerating when I say this.) Hazumu rushes off to be at Yasuna's side, with Tomari in tow. Tomari and Yasuna make the hardest decision of their young lives and manage to make it a real triangle of a relationship. I know I'm not alone in hoping that the three of them just manage to work it out, because the alternative options are bleak for at least one of them and probably two.
That was the good plot complication. The bad one was that Hazumu, having been brought back from the dead to destroy her friends' lives with uncontrollable desire for her is now burning through her life energy. In a month's time, she'll be gone. Dead. For*ever*.
Are we worried? Speaking for myself...no. Not really.
It's a bit exhausting watching everyone go through all this grief and misery, knowing that it will likely be wasted (cough
MaiHimecough) but on the other hand, it might make everyone more willing to take life by the horns and have some massive fun *now*, because there may not be a tomorrow. I say this, knowing full well that many chapters have gone by and nothing has actually happened, but I hold out hope that Yasuna and Tomari realize that if Hazumu is going to die soon then they'd better get her in bed *now.* But, then, I also fantasize that Yasuna and Tomari lose Hazumu and hook up with each other. I doubt my wishes are seriously in consideration over at the plot planning committee meetings.
The one thing I really don't like about this volume is a chapter with the lonely birthday gambit. You know, suddenly no one will hang out with the main character and she thinks they all hate her. She follows them around as they shop and have fun without her, leaving her miserable. At last she schleps home only to find that Surprise! it's been a secret party thing and they were shopping for her! Yay. I REALLY dislike that particular plot and it doesn't get any better the more times I see it.
On the back cover of this volume is an odd picture of Ayuki and Asuta looking awfully cuddly. Odd, because Ayuki appears to be in love with Hazumu through most of the first several volumes, and odder because she's actually in love with...oh, heh, that'd be spoiling. :-) You'll just have to wait until Volume 4, won't you?
Ratings:
Art - 8
Characters - 7
Story - 7
Yuri - 9
Loser FanBoy - 3 (So far of the volumes, this has the least service by a fair amount)
Overall - 8
A good read, less nasty service, and the possibiltiy of a not entrely implausible or squicky threesome. Probably some of the strongest chapters so far - and a few of the very very very weakest.
Tags: Manga, Yuri Manga, Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl
Yuri Manga: Maya's Funeral Procession / Maya no Souretsu
Oh, the humanity!
This collected volume of works by Ichijou Yukari, titled after one of the stories,
Maya no Souretsu, (translated by
lililicious as
Maya's Funeral Procession,) is the most wonderful collection of over-the-top obsession and melodrama. I don't know why I like it, as I tend to shy away from "tales of dark obsession" (as novels are almost inevitably described on their inside covers) but I'll chalk it up to the fact that these stories are SOOOOOOOO melodramatic that it would take a harder person than even me to hate them. (Thinking about it now,
Maya would make a brilliant skit at some Yuricon event. I will now pop off and shoot myself for even *considering* anything that involves that four-letter word...skit.)
All three of the stories in this collection were originally published in the bad old days of 1972 - a particlarly loathsome year for me. I was forced into consciousness of an outside world by several traumatic personal and world events, and have never really forgiven that year for it all. But unbeknowst to my seven-year-old self, a mangaka named Ichijou Yukari was writing about people for whom my personal issues would have been laughable - I can just about hear the hysterical, mentally unhinged laughter now. And it makes me smile.
The first story of the collection, "Little Brother" ("Otouto") is the story of an unhealthy obsessive love by an older sister for her little brother. Need I mention that tragedy awaits them both? Actually, it doesn't. Sylvia and Bjorn (yes, really) sort of wander off into the sunset together. I have no idea if they are happy, though.
Secondly, we follow the poignant trials and tribulations of two lovers in war-torn Spain of the 30s in "Christina's blue sky" ("Kurisuchiina no aoi sora".) I imagine that no one will be surprised to fnd that I have not managed to actually *read* this story yet. My brain absolutely refuses to process anything at all that includes the Spanish Civil War. I blame Hemingway.
At last, we find ourselves facing the pulp gothic horror yuri romance mystery soap opera that is "Maya's Funeral Procession" (Maya no Souretsu"). More adjectives welcome, feel free to suggest some.
We meet, blonde, petite Resine, erm, no, I mean, Himeko, wait, no, uh, this time it's Reina, that's it. Yeah, Reina. Spoiled, yet neglected, daughter of a rich jeweler. Her family visits their summer house where she meets and is instantly wowed by Sachiko, no, it's Simone...no Chikane... Yes, Maya, like Simone before her and so many stately brunettes after her, falls for the cute, ditzy blonde girl who practically falls into her arms.
(Let me remind you all that this average blonde and stately brunette is not a recent stereotype for yuri couples. It began right at the beginning in 1971, with Simone and Resine in
Shiroi Heya no Futari and we haven't been able to shake it since. lol)
Aside from the fact that their love is forbidden on the grounds of it being, you know, lesbian and all, it would be fine if there weren't also about 72,000 secrets getting in the way. Reina's family history is filled with murder and corruption, while Maya's life is consumed with revenge for same. So of course, Reina and Maya fall madly and passionately in love, cocking up both Maya's revenge o'matic scheme and Reina's conveniently advantageous pre-arranged marriage to Generic Nice Guy (TM).
Happy ending? Imagine me laughing in a mentally unbalanced, yet slightly infectious way, in response. This manga ends in horrible tragedy, and Reina unhappily marries the poor bastard who will never ever be able to make her happy because he is not Maya.
And yet, I love it.
Maybe because it's short, maybe because it's early, OTT miserable yuri, with so 70's art, or maybe because it's in a foreign language and I'm an absolute sucker for pop music and tragedy in foreign languages. Whatever it is, I adore this story for the hand-to-the-forehead drama. Percy Bysshe, eat your heart out.
Ratings:
Art - classic, yet not terribly good. 6
Characters - Crazy older sister, creepy stepmom - this manga won the lottery on gothic horror stereotypes. 8
Story - Page-turning soap opera trash. 8
Yuri - Tragic, but more kisses than the 80's not-quite-tragic-but-not-quite-happy yuri ever got. 8
Loser FanBoy - Can't think of any service. How nice. 0
Ultimately, I probably like it because it reads very similarly to the lesbian pulp novels that I adore so much - high drama, sex and tragedy, all rolled up into a big ball o'pulpy goodness. If you can't stand a story without a happy ending, avoid this manga. If you can handle a large spoonful of overdone gothic horror with yuri romance, it's a must have. If you have already read lililicious' scanlation and enjoy it, I strongly suggest you
buy the actual book itself, so you can show the world outside your head that you do, in fact, support yuri.
Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Maya no Souretsu, Maya's Funeral Procession
Yuri Anime:My Hime, Volume 1
Two things I must start with:
One - you are all
WRONG. I am watching the first volume right now, even as I type, with two other people and we all agree that the animation for
My Hime is teh suck. The first episode, which is always the best in terms of animation, is nasty bad, and it goes downhill massively for the rest of the volume. All your
comments to the contrary are wishful thinking and bad 20/20 memory.
Secondly, the subtitles on this volume didn't work for me, and apparently I'm
not alone. I will, when I have time/care to, I'll run the disk on my computer and see if they work. I am informed (just this minute, by an unconfirmed source) that one needs a new DVD player to get them to work.
In any case, I am reminded of many things while I watch this volume. Fanservice, primarily. And angst. Did I mention service? Oh, and how much I really, really dislike Nagi's voice. But, on the whole, in the first few eps, Mikoto, Mai and Natsuki all get to be really quite cool for a little. Poor Natsuki - she starts out so cool and just goes down hill from episode 4 on. (As Serge says, she becomes the butt of all their jokes - no pun intended, of course...)
So...we had heard that Shizuru's American VA was painful, so when she got on screen, we changed audio track and it lasted exactly 4 words. We all screamed and I switched back - fast. lol
Okay, so let's back up. The story at the moment appears to be about Tokiha Mai, a "typical" large-breasted high school girl with a "typical" terminally ill younger brother who is traveling to a "typical" private academy, where she finds she has "typical" magical fighting skills and a "typical" large dragon-like monster partner.
Of course it's not that simple - there will be much personal and mythological angst that will explain many things, except of course why no one kills Nagi.
On the yuri side, there was really very little, but with the addition of the DVD extras, they've totally changed the yuri dynamic. There's Shizuru teasing Natsuki, but nothing really significantly yuri - except in the shared lizard brain of the fandom - until the fourth DVD extra, which ups the yuri quite a bit. I should also point out that
Yuricon Mailing List Ashley was so adamant about the (completely invisible in the original broadcast, but with the highly suggestive DVD extra, their yuri score changes completely, too) pairing of Aoi and Chie, that the concept spread TO Japan, where it was incorporated into the
Mai Otome storyline. That's got to count for something. :-)
Ratings:
Art - 6 at best, but it really does go down in episode 2 to a 3 or so.
Character - 6
Story - 6
Yuri - 4 but only because of the DVD extras, otherwise it would be a 2
Loser Fanboy - 9
Overall - 6
My Hime (and don't think it kills me that they changed the name)is, as Serge originally said, fun trash. IMHO, underneath the plot, it's really just an ero-game.
Tags: Anime, Yuri Anime, Mai Hime, My Hime
Yuri Manga: Saigo no Seifuku
Sometimes, I wish I wasn't so much of a hard ass. Not often, but sometimes. In this particular case, I'm torn. Some part of me would like to like
Saigo no Seifukfu, and the rest of me just can't get past thinking, "bleah."
Saigo no Seifuku,
The Last School Uniform, is about a bunch of young women at a...gasp!...girl's school. The story focuses on several of the girls who share a dorm and, in the case of the one of the stories, a room. It's all small crushes and small dramas and small jealousies. If the girls were older, I'd probably care more. There's nothing here squicky or icky, and the crushes *are* crushes, not just friendship or admiration.
But for me the killer problem is the art. I simply can't find anything appealing about it. Hanakada Mera certainly draws better than I ever will, but the huge heads and lack of depth in character design just puts me off.
For a different point of view on this manga, visit
Yurizuki.net, and get both synopsis and enthusiasm from lililicious' Rosa Chinensis. I want to say that she likes cute more than I do, but that's not the problem here. I just don't really think the art in
Saigo no Seifuku is cute at all. The story really isn't that different from
Aoi Hana, but the art just puts me off.
Ratings:
Art - 2
Characters - 5
Story - 5
Yuri - 5
Overall - 5
I'm at an offsite meeting this weekend, so expect slow response time on comments and no updates for a few days.
Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Saigo no Seifuku
Events: Anime Next 2006 Report
Back from
Anime Next and not too backlogged at work, so I thought I’d do a quick report.
First of all, yay ANext staff, you are da bomb. With the exception of a few complete blights on humanity, the entire staff of ANext is a great group of people.
And yay my wonderful Yuricon staff. I would absolutely NOT be able to do this without you all.
Thursday night all the Yuricon staffers arrived at my home. We all went out for some late-night Indian food. Friday I had to work a half-day, but I told everyone to be ready by noon to leave - and they were.
I am on the staff of Anime Next as a teeny-weeny little piece of the Publicity pie (thank you Shelly for letting me help out)...I was coordinating "Con Row", which is a thing that has come about largely because of a mailing list where con chairs gather to talk, share ideas and advice, and vent. The ACML, as it’s called, has really helped with cons developing mutual rapport, and as a result, they often offer other cons free tables for promotion. Not all cons do, but it’s an easy way to fill a hole in a DR for smaller cons, or have a row of tables somewhere at larger ones. In this case, we had 5 cons who wanted tables. (7 really, but two never got back to me.) Because I was "in charge" I had arranged ahead of time where and when to get the badges - so the badges thing went easily, and we set up.
Let me digress here for a sec. People who have never done it, seem to think volunteering or staffing cons is simple - and that they'd do it better, but you know...it's not. It's hard. I'm a pretty experienced person with volunteering and I've helped out at cons doing a gazillion things - and I *still* managed to screw up. LOL When I left for the evening Friday, I took the unclaimed badges with me. Two of the cons showed after I'd left and there was no one to check them in. Obviously, the intelligent thing would have been to leave the badges at Con Ops...but it just slipped my mind. Now, okay, not a big screw-up, but I should have known better. Con Ops just issued badges and when I got in, seven people verbally slapped my wrist, and I took it with good grace, because it was my screw-up, totally. :-) Let this be a lesson to you - even the most experienced person can slip up. That's why all cons need a little leeway from the attendees. It'll never be perfect, not as long as humans run things. Next time you go to a con and you're whining about why things aren't smoother - now you know why. Because we humans are horribly, painfully fallible. :-)
In any case, in Con Row, Yuricon sat between
Connecticon, who are a lovely bunch of people - I even shared my homemade, made with love by my wife, rice balls with them - and I-Con, who seem nice, but we didn't talk much. Also taking part was Dexcon and Ubercon. Ubercon is a local gaming con which had three lovely young ladies to represent the con, so you know I approved. :-)
Because Con Row at ANext is not in the Dealer's Room, but outside it, I had to pack and unpack every day, which was a drag, but I lived. :-)
Anime Next is a very general, very young crowd. We never do really well there, so this year we tried something new for ANext - yuri-themed grab bags. I had made a bunch at $1, $2, $5 and $10. By *Friday* at 8PM, they were all gone. Next year I’ll see if I can do more. Basically I was cleaning out my office, which had accumulated an inordinate amount of cool yuri-type stuff I had no use for. The $10 bags were especially good deals, as they had perhaps $30 worth of manga and comics, plus other random stuff. I don’t really get the appeal of grab bags - I want to know what I’m spending my money on, but everyone seemed really happy with what they got.
Because of a snafu, my panels were not listed in the program schedule (not a snafu on my side - I had applied for them months ago, was assured repeatedly that they were happening and sent in descriptions which *did* make it into the program book. I wasn’t the only person this happened to. That panels person will not be returning next year...). So we did tell folks where and when the panel was but not surprisingly, there was a small turnout. However, it was a fine and dandy crowd. Bruce and Serge assisted me with opinions and thoughts about current yuri series, and we morphed at the end of the discussion to talking about Takarazuka, which was fun. (Both Bruce and Serge were with me in Tokyo and both were there to see
Elizabeth. So they know how cool it can be.) There’s going to be a TK panel at Otakon this year. I’m going to try and attend.
Before you ask - yes, there’s a Yuri Panel at Otakon. It’s been on the
Yuricon Events Page for weeks. lol Friday, August, 4 at 9PM. But really, get in the habit of checking that Events page! I add stuff there *first*. Long before I think to mention it elsewhere.
Saturday went along as Saturdays do. It was alternately fun and annoying, part sales, part promotion and part anger therapy. I had an extremely large number of people ask me about Yaoi-con, or if we sold yaoi, which I found bizarre. The funniest thing to me was the girl dressed as Sailor Neptune who saw our sign, turned quickly and sharply away as if we might bite her and ignored us while I kept calling after her that Neptune was gay and she has a girlfriend. It’s *always* women cosplaying Neptune who react that way - never any of the other Senshi. Ever. Just Neptunes. Why is that, I wonder?
Saturday night I had a Fanfiction writing workshop to do. I told the staff to go, but they stayed anyway, so were forced to hear me wax opinionated and pompous on the fine (coughcough) art of writing Fanfic. Considering it hadn’t made it onto the schedule and wasn’t on the sign, we had a lovely crowd - about 10 people who got there early and stayed for every last second. Freaks. LOL
Sunday’s always a short day. Thank the gods. Because when you’re selling, the day goes like this:
“How much is this?”
“We’re doing a special sale today! It’s only x dollars.”
“Oh, I have no money.”
Repeat for 5 hours. And then have those same people have friends run up and say, “I found a xx character purse!” and they all run off to not buy that too and annoy the vendor. Many of the dealers in the DR are my friends at this point and I always make a point, if I can find anything to get, to buy *something* on Sunday, because that’s the day when I know I want to throttle the masses myself.
I spend a fairly significant amount of time at cons teaching people really basic social skills and telling people to stop blocking doors (I don’t know why people constantly need to stand in front of doors. I know I do it too, so it must be something really lizard brain.. LOL) Let me stress several things to you all:
1) When someone says “Hello”, you respond with “Hello.”
2) When someone says “How are you?” the ONLY proper response in a general social setting is “Fine, thank you. How are you?” Sighing, groaning, making faces or complaining about your ankle, knee, back, head, stomach, exhaustion, colostomy, whatever, is NOT appropriate. Ever.
And here is my bonus lesson taken from years and years of working freak-show retail at anime cons and RenFaires and the like:
1) The person behind the table is NOT your friend. They are only your friend when you give them money. They do not care why you don’t like Shiori. Really. They will listen with a smile because they hope you might buy something. If you have no intention of buying something, don’t require them to care about your theories, or your gender issues or your difficult upbringing. Most other vendors will keep smiling and nodding because they do this for a living and can’t afford to offend. I will tell you to shut up and go away because I have a day job and you are not paying me $250/hour to listen. (If you WANT to give me $250/hour to listen, I will. I still won’t care, but I can fake it beautifully.)
So take pity on the other vendors and just don’t. Ask the price, ask about other items, etc...don’t opine.
But for a Sunday the day went well, I think. We made a few sales, nothing world shaking (yes, yes, pun intended), but a few folks seemed very happy to buy what they got. My favorite sale of the day was one girl who wanted to get something so badly that she dug the change out of her purse to buy a postcard. That dollar in change was the best dollar I got all weekend. :-)
But the best part, not surprisingly, was my staff. Serge, Donna, Kelli and Bruce - with a surprise appearance by the First Lady – really helped out alot and improved both my mood and my snappy comebacks. :-) So many thanks to them. And special kudos to Donna for all the fun craptastic movies from the Donna collection.
Next up is
Connecticon - Sean and I will be up there on Saturday July 8th - in Con Row! Yuri panel is slated for 7:30 PM Saturday. (It should be on the schedule this time. lol)
WTF: Moetan
No, I have not all of a sudden lost my mind and decided I like moe, or loli.
I do, however, like language. And
Moetan is, at least partially, about language. This particular edition of
Moetan came as a furoku with one of the issues of monthly
Dengeki Daioh and the "language lessons" are drawn from well-known and largely yuri-ful Dengeki series. Which is why I want to share this with you.
Each chapter has a theme and a series from which all the sentences are pulled: Abuse (Shakugan no Shana), Recovery (Gunslinger Girl), Asssertion (Ichigo Mashimaro), Surprise (Yotsubato), Drawing Back (Tsukihime), Setting Up a Flag (Onegai Twins), Asking (Sokyuu no Fafnir), Invitations (Uchuu no Stellvia), Repudiation (Azumanga Daioh), Commands (Eikyuu Alice), Praise (BLOOD ALONE), Contradictions (Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl), Negation (Hayate x Blade) and violent anger (Ninin ga Shinobuden).
Really, just the chapter themes are weird enough, but the sentences they "teach" are barking mad. LOL
Just a few notable examples for your reading pleasure:
Asssertion (Ichigo Mashimaro) - "You think little of doctors, don't you?"
Surprise (Yotsubato) - "Have milk - no matter when or where!"
Setting Up a Flag (Onegai Twins) - "I tend to faint if I get too surprised."
Invitations (Uchuu no Stellvia) - "Thrown out of the game after 30 seconds! That's a new record!"
Repudiation (Azumanga Daioh) - "Of course we aren't allowed to, but let's have a good time anyway!"
Contradictions (Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl) - "A plague of aliens? What a silly idea!"
And the winner and still champeen, best line of the book. From the chapter Negation, this quote from Hayate x Blade:
"None of my students would wear a shopping bag."
I love that line. :-)
No ratings, because it's just stupid. But if you get a chance, and I'm around, ask me if you can see it. It's pure crack. :-)
(Note to the person who commented with a link to some site with repulsive "moe" pictures...don't bother. I won't be approving those.)
Events: Yuricon at Anime Next 2006!
It's once again time for Yuricon to play with our buddies at
Anime Next!
We'll be at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, NJ from Friday, June 16 - Sunday, June 18.
Yuricon and ALC Publishing will have a table just inside the MEC on the left of the main entrance in
Con Row.
In honor of ANext, ALC Publishing is holding a
$10/book sale on all 100% yuri publications, and we have a fun new special just for ANext -
Yuri-themed grab bags! For $1, $2, $5 or $10 you can get at *least* that amount's worth of yuri-related random fun things. Very limited quantities, so get 'em fast!
And don't miss our panels for this con, either:
Yuri Panel: 6pm Friday
Fanfiction Writing Workshop: 8pm Saturday
I and a bunch of the Yuricon staff will be there, so be sure to stop by!
Yuri Anime: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 1
Sorry, I couldn't resist. :-D
There's a reason why fairy tales take place in places far, far away and a long, long time ago. It puts them in a space-time that isn't real. In this not-real space, we can be free to enjoy not-real happenings without having to justify anything.
In a place called "Magic Place", a beautiful place, with a little bit of everything - sea, mountains, plains, this fairy tale about two girls and their involvement with the gods takes place over and over, repated through time - a destiny that can't be avoided - takes place.
In this particular version of the story, the protagonists are blonde Himeko and the black-haired star of their exclusive school, Sachiko, erm, Chikane. (A pair-type that is quite common in yuri, as many people have pointed out.)
Chikane is hyper-competent, of course, because she is a brunette. Himeko is sweet and naive and slightly doofus-y, as befits a stereotypical blonde. :-)
As one expects with a destiny-laden anime tale, the story starts on the day of Himeko's and Chikane's shared 16th birthday. The sky is dark, the mountains move, and from out of nowhere, the "Orochi" speaks. Orochi, by the way, is the Japanese version of the Hydra - an eight-headed serpent. In this case, the heads or, necks (
kubi) are represented by eight people with darkness in their hearts. Whether they are also dealing with a destiny, or they have chosen their roles, is never made clear.
One of the Orochi's kubi is the other star of the school - Oogami Souma - whose name speaks of a huge, horrible destiny. So, we'll call it destiny, then,nature, not nurture makes a kubi. :-) Souma, despite his fate to be one of the bad guys, manages to overwrite his programming and when Himeko is threatened by the Orochi, fights to protect her.
Chikane, who clearly has a thing for Himeko, tries to protect her, but pretty much doesn't have the stuff. Souma does the fighting, while Chikane is busy getting the girl. She starts right in with kisses and a few well-placed gropes.
Chikane and Himeko learn that they share a fate to be the priestesses of Ame-no-Murakumo, a god of swordsman. (Incidentally, and not at all related to anime, Ame no Murakumo was one of the personal deities of the founder of Aikido.) Together they are supposed to re-seal the Orochi in the prison that t/he/y have escaped.
In the first attack, Himeko's dorm is trashed, so Chikane takes her home to live with her - something that makes Chikane obviously very, very happy. But not the other kids in the school. Which brings me to a question I keep asking as I watch this volume: the two absolute massive, super-popular stars of the school constantly obsess over Himeko, and are there constantly to protect her. So...how is that no one in the entire school other than her ex-roommate has a clue who Himeko is? Okay, forget it. Fairy tale, right.
Himeko is worried that she is a burden and a trouble to Chikane and Souma - which she is, but you can't fight fate like this, can you? Souma and Chikane both vow to protect her and at least one of them is successful in this. One at a time, the Orochi's kubi attack and are defeated by Souma in his spiffy new giant mecha. This causes Chikane to desire more power, because she can't actually protect Himeko as a miko. (Remember this, because it's one of the things that sets her off on the wrong thinking path.)
The volume ends on a darkish note: Himeko is troubled that her abilities as a miko are falling short of the mark, she isn't sure of her feelings for either Souma or Chikane and she has some nasty bad memories to work past. Chikane is fighting off serious jealousy of Himeko's feelings for Souma, and Souma is torn between his desire to protect Himeko and his destiny as an Orochi. It's a typical love triangle and, despite Chikane having gotten the kisses, at this point in the anime Souma takes the lead, slightly because of Himeko's persistent blondeness.
In terms of packaging the DVD offers 4 epsiodes (assumably with three on the following three DVDs); a coupon for $3 off Volume 2 or 3, a mini-poster of art by the manga artist, Kaishaku, and a double sided mini-pencil board. So it's pretty fair value for the money. No extras to speak of, just the usual clean opening/ending and Geneon credits.
One last thing - lots o'fanservice. I'd forgotten how much. It really makes the
Strawberry Panic anime seem very staid in comparison. LOL
Ratings:
Art - 7
Characters - 6
Story - 6
Yuri - 9
Loser FanBoy - 7
Overall - 7
It's a fairy tale with a *lot* of fanservice, giant robots and a dark undertow. I do wish we'd get to know anything about the kubi - who they are, why they are kubi, etc. It's a big hand-wave to just accept a little girl who dresses like a nurse and carries a giant hypodermic having enough evil in her to qualify for a god of evil's hench-neck. :-) Or the driven mangaka. The rest of them, I could make up decent enough backstories for. lol But I quite like Miyako, the evil nun. Just because. :-)
I also wish Himeko was less of a non-entity. It would so be like being in love with a person that had had a frontal lobotomy...oh well, not everyone finds intelligence and competence attractive. Obviously, not Souma or Chikane, anyway. ;-)
Tags: Anime, Yuri Anime, Kannazuki no Miko
Yuri Manga: Strawberry Panic, Volume 1
I admit it. I've been stalling.
Strawberry Panic, Volume 1 is yet another
Maria-sama ga Miteru derivative, only this time, (unlike, say,
Himitsu no Anjerisu,) there's an edge of Loser FanBoy-ness that has set my teeth on edge. Hence my stalling.
Let's start with the single redeeming value of the
Strawberry Panic manga - it's better than the anime, which is very little more than a series of stolen memes from other, significantly better, yuri series. (At minimal count, folks on the
Yuricon Mailing List have identified concepts ripped from
Marimite,
Utena,
Himitsu no Kaidan and
Hatsukoi Shimai. We have no doubt that there are many others we haven't caught.) The memes from
Marimite are handled particularly odiously, IMHO. But I digress.
The manga is more generally a tyical girl's Catholic school hothouse setting. It can claim as much
Cream Lemon as
Marimite as an antecedent.
Our heroine, Aoi Nagisa, is a typical cute loli-ish Dengeki heroine with the "cute" habit of referring to herself in third person. (I know it's perfectly normal in Japanese. It still irks me.) On her first day at the unecessarily complicated Astoria school, she meets playgirl Hanazono Shizuma, whose name basically screams "I'm a lesbian!". Shizuma is, amazingly, the star of not only the school she and Nagisa attend, St. Miator, but also the titulary head of the neighboring Lulim and Spica schools, as well. (Transliterations taken from the manga itself. Don't whine if you don't like them.)
I'd like to say that nothing happens, but in fact, quite alot does - mostly small seductions and harmless swooning over upperclassman. The relationships are complex enough that I really don't feel like explicating. But the over-arching plot is that the annual competition for Etoile - the schools' "star" (figuratively and literally) is about to be held. Shizuma wants to compete with newly arrived, and therefor horribly uninformed and completely unsuitable, Nagisa. LuLim is holding off this year, leaving only the athletic star of Spica, Ootori Amane and her chosen partner, Konohana Hikari - ironcially the only completely harmless and sweet love story amongst the lot.
In other words, we have a sort of Heaven vs Hell battle going on. (Look at the names again...) Miator's uniform is black - Spica's is white. Seriously, it's about as subtle as a pair of lesbian elephants.
I can't really put my finger on what bugs me about this series, except that the "almost kisses" make me nuts. And Nagisa is vile and whiny, yet everyone hasn't stabbed her to death yet. That's probably what annoys me most. (Go Amane and Hikari!)
In any case,
Strawberry Panic will undoubtedly appeal to the same group of people who think
Kannazuki no Miko was good. For those yuri fans who *can* tell the difference between good yuri and bad, this series will remain, like KnM, a fun train wreck of a story - and something to snark about on the YCML. LOL
Ratings:
Art - 6
Characters - 5
Story - 5
Yuri - 8
Loser FanBoy - 7
Overall - 5
It's not *awful*. It's just not *good.*
Tags: Manga, Yuri Manga, Strawberry Panic
Yuricon News: Site Update
A *lot* of new things on Yuricon!
We've added a few new events to the
Yuricon Events page. Check it out regularly for yuri-related events around the world!
A few new items on the
Yuricon Shop, and old items on sale - look for summer combo specials on 100% from ALC Publishing, and "I Love Yuri" Messenger Bags are on sale, for almost a third off! We've added a few
new yuri manga from Amazon and Amazon Japan, including these brand new
items:
-
Moonlight Flowers (reviewed on Okazu just this week, in fact.)
-
Strawberry Panic Manga, Volume 1New items are added all the time and
Yuri Hime 6 is coming soon!
New names on
"The List" of anime and manga lesbians, lesbian wannabees and oughtabes. Still more names to be added, so more updates on this soon.
And don't forget, there is ONE WEEK left in the
2006 Yuricon AMV Contest. Get those yuri and shoujoai themed AMVs in before June 15 in order to be eligible for great prizes!
New link added to the
Links page.
And add the
Yuri News RSS Feed to your newsreader for news of interest to yuri fans.
Lastly and somewhat beleatedly, this (and the last dozen or so) update
has been brought to you by
AnimaRo,the only Ragnarok Online server that supports lesbian marriage.
Yuricon - "For real women who like their women...animated"
http://www.yuricon.org
Yuri Manga: Hayate x Blade, Volume 4
I know, it's been absolutely AGES since I reviewed
Hayate x Blade, Volume 3. (If you haven't read that review you should, because the contest I held for the volume was very funny.) Now, at last, I have the leisure to review
Hayate x Blade, Volme 4. I hope it was worth the wait.
We left off in Volume 4 with a one-on-one battle between Ayana and Jun. On the final page of the last volume we were left with that moment just after the fateful blow, but before we learn who lost and who won. This volume opens up with that same same moment. And the winner is...!
Ayana, who takes Jun's star with her mad
Hoshitori Skillz.
Without missing a beat, Jun springs up to interfere in Hayate and Yuho's battle. Ayana calls after her to stop, but Jun uses language quite unbecoming a young lady and runs off. Yuho, after a life of weakness and dependence, digs way deep and defeats Hayate, taking the "Heaven" star decisively - only to learn that because Jun, as the "Earth" part of the pair lost first, it renders her victory null. Mudou-Kurogane team gets the win.
Jun and Yuho have a wonderful moment, as Yuho awaits an ambulance to the hospital, which renders nearly every character in the book teary (and in some case nose-drippy and drooly as well.)
The next few chapters is taken up by us meeting and becoming familar with a whole host of new characters, mostly high school students, members of the student council, as they sharpen their skills for their own upcoming
hoshitori fights. Only there's clearly something else going on her...we're not stupid. Not only are Kureha and Minori and the others practicing, they are working on special weapons. Why? You'll have to wait until volume 5 to find out! (But trust me, it's way cool...)
Isuzu and Momoko are still getting used to one another. Momoko is freaked by Isuzu's reliance on a crystal ball, and the way she pronounces curses on their opponents during
hoshitori. This awkwardness is exacerbated by the appearance of Otoha, a woman with that look that says "I have a clever plan". And she does - she's got a plan to separate Momoko and Isuzu and steal Isuzu for herself.
The rest of the volume follows Otoha as she widens the distance between Isuzu and Momoko, eventually challenging Momoko to a duel for Isuzu! (da-da-da-daahhh)
Momoko accepts the challenge - but not the terms. She has NO intention of giving Isuzu up and says so plainly. Isuzu is, in the meantime, overwhelmed that two women are dueling over her - and who wouldn't be? - and deeply touched that Momoko cares about her that much.
In the end, Momoko (remember when she fought for her Rio-'neeesan?) remains uber-cool, and wins. And Otoha is forced to deal with her own
shinyuu, Michi. It turns out that they were, yes, lovers, and there was a horrible misunderstanding between them and gee, they like each other after all and it was all a mistake, heh heh. LOL
It was actually quite amusing, my snarky synopsis notwithstanding. The picture of Otoha and Michi running off hand in hand, looking slightly embarrassed and very relieved at the end of the chapter was priceless.
So let's sum up:
Shizuku and Hitsugi + Momoko and Isuzu + Otoha and Michi = Good Yuri.
Ratings -
Art - 9 I've really come to love Hayashiya-sensei's art
Story - 9
Characters - 9
Yuri - 7
Loser FanBoy - 2
Overall - 9
This is a GREAT series. Another must-have, IMHO. As far from
Moonlight Flowers as you can get, but just as good (if not better) in its own, unique way.
Tags: Manga, Yuri Manga, Hayashiya Shizuru, Chicks with Swords, Hayate Cross Blade, Hayate x Blade
Yuri Manga: Moonlight Flowers
Today's review would never have happened without James Welker, who introduced me to this manga. He was surprised I didn't know it - after I read it, so was I. How has this manga slipped under the radar of so many yuri fans for so long? It deserves fame and recognition, at least. So thanks James, for turning me on to
Moonlight Flowers, by Tsugumo Mutsumi.
So, let me just say that this is an *very* good yuri manga. You should click the link above and buy it right away. Don't wait.
The first half of the volume follows Sahoko, a bride-to-be as she meets Kaoru, a old high school friend. Kaoru has become a floral designer and she offers to design Sahoko's wedding boquet.
Sahoko spends more and more time with Kaoru, which starts Sahoko doubting her feelings for her fiance'. We learn that in high school, Kaoru and Sahoko starred in the school play - and Kaoru fell in love with Sahoko. But, when Kaoru kissed her, Sahoko ran away. Kaoru, after drinking too much, admits that she truly loved Sahoko - and because of her difficult family life is pretty much reconciled to living alone forever.
Sahoko marries (what a GREAT scene that was, honestly) and immediately regrets it. She hates sex with her husband - they trot out the "she was raped in college" complication, which was horribly overused in MIST magazine - and he almost immediately takes a lover. But Sahoko is spending more and more time with Kaoru until finally, one night after discovering her husband out with his lover, followed by a heinous confrontation, Kaoru and Sahoko become lovers.
Sahoko's husband retaliates by telling her parents, but Sahoko has found strength in her new love and she tells them - and her husband - that she won't be coming back. He tries to confine her in their apartment when she comes home to get her things, but after she begs him for forgiveness and explains quite rationally that she will never be his wife again, he realizes that its a lost cause. Kaoru comes to save her and together they leave him behind.
What James liked best about this manga was that they do NOT go to America, they stay in Japan and defy public opinion and pressure to make a life together. What I liked best was that Japanese style quotes are used in every single scene where quotes are warranted except when Kaoru is explaining how hard life is going to be. She say this isn't California, and then she says in WESTERN quotes that saying "I am a Lesbian" is a hard road.
The next story is a flashback to Kaoru's youth, when she was in college and in denial. The adult Kaoru had confided to Sahoko that all the people she'd ever fallen for from childhood were women. But at this time in her life, she had yet to see that. (It's easier than it sounds to not realize things like that. I only JUST realized I had a crush on my babysitter when I was ten. I mean, like, this week. LOL)
Kaoru arrives at a beach house with her boyfriend and another couple. The guy's parents own the house, and he's so excited to be there at the romantic seaside with the girl he desires. Only Kaoru keeps putting him off and she really doesn't know why. She finds the relationship between the parents disturbing - the wife seems pale and unsatisfied, while the husband treats her like furniture, or a maid. A friend of the wife's, Kyouko, arrives and the uncle is glad to have Kayoko out of his hair as he does his art.
That night, Kaoru goes outside for a midnight walk to settle her nerves when she comes across Aunt Kayoko on the beach, her face alight with anticipation and her arms open. Into those arms runs Kyouko and the two fall to the sand kissing. Kaoru is shocked to her core. This was an *amazingly* sexy and romantic scene - the winner of the book, IMHO.
Back in town, Kaoru breaks up with her boyfriend and sets out to find Kyouko, who turns out to be a successful businesswoman. Kaoru admits that she too loves women. Kyouko takes pity on her and invites her back home to talk. When Kaoru arrives at Kyouko's apartment, she finds Aunt Kayoko there waiting to kiss Kyouko hello.
The boyfriend finds out about Kaoru, then vindictively learns about Kyouko and his aunt Kayoko. Enraged, he calls his uncle, who comes rushing into town threatening to kill Kyouko. As he attacks Kyouko with a knife, Kayoko steps in between them and takes the blow meant for her lover. Although the wound was not fatal, in the ambulance, Kayoko suffers a heart failure and dies.
Years later Kaoru is looking at an art exhibit by the uncle and in front of a painting of Kayoko runs into her old boyfriend. Kaoru is a different person now - they are able to be civil, even friendly. Kaoru walks away thinking about her own love of her life, now lost, but never forgotten. (And, ultimately regained, but she doesn't know that yet!)
The last story in the volume is a horror thing about a possessed woman I have never really read. LOL
So the bad things are the outdated ideas about men and women: all men are evil, violent, possesive and rapists and are the natural enemies of lesbians. And all lesbians are stylish and successful. Hah. That's all I'm gonna say to that.
Good things are everything else, really. The melodrama was very melodramatic, the romance very romantic, the sex reasonably sexy. Lots and lots of lily-filled backgrounds. Positively reeking of lilies, it was. lol The art is very classic, in everything from the character designs to the backgrounds. This is "josei manga" at its most typical. LOL But the art is very clean and doesn't feel trite, even though it really is. And no school uniforms to be seen. Thank GOD.
Ratings:
Art - 8
Characters - 7
Story - 6
Yuri - 10
Loser FanBoy - 6 (a fair amount of rape here and there)
Overall - 8
Okay, it's still a story about how a lesbian turns a "straight" woman, which is "meh", but OTOH, its a story about a successful businesswoman and so NOT about schoolgirls.
Oh, I forgot to mention - Sahoko is blonde and petite and Kaoru is tall and brunette. This looks so familiar somehow... LOL
Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Moonlight Flowers, Not Schoolgirl Lesbians
Negima Manga Volume 10
Once again, today's review is courtesy of Guest Reviewer Sean Gaffney!
Negima!, Volume 10 continues right where the previous volume left off, with the Festival opening. (It's a 3-day festival. To date, we're up to stories for Volume 15 and haven't even gotten past Day 2. Suffice to say, it's a big arc.)
It's a very good volume. Early on Negi and Setsuna discover what Chao's present of a fancy pocketwatch does - it's a time machine, and by reading the instructions they can go back and forth across the day. This solves Negi's main problem of how to pack about 40 events into 3 days, so he sets about visiting the various festival events.
Among other things, Negi visits his class doing their Haunted House, has a 'date' with Nodoka, patrols the World Tree with Mana, goes on an unofficial date with Yue, and begins the preliminaries for the Fighting Tournament that will be the focus of Volumes 11-13.
Nodoka fans should be happy with this one, as she gets a lot to do and shows that despite being the shyest of the class, she's got the most bravery when it comes to admitting her feelings. On the opposite spectrum, we have Yue, who is trying to put things off with Negi and Nodoka because she loves him herself, and the unfamiliar feelings are eating her alive with guilt.
As for yuri fans, our canon couple are pretty much separated in this volume. That does not, however, mean there's no yuri. At one point, Setsuna makes a pledge to help Negi with his troubles no matter what. Kamo suggests that this sounds like a love confession, and notes that Setsuna said if she fell for a guy it would be Negi.
Setsuna gets very flustered, and says "Look, the one I've got in *my* heart is Konoka-ojousama!" After which Negi promptly starts to tease her about this. Setsuna is just adorable.
In the end, we get the preliminaries for the Fighting Tournament, which turns out to be run by Chao, with a prize of ten million yen (about 90 thousand dollars). After the dust settles, Negi, Kotarou, Kaede, Mana, Ku Fei, Evangeline, Asuna, Setsuna, and
Takamichi are the main characters we know in it. And there's also a mysterious hooded gentleman who calls himself "Colonel Sanders". Remember him; he'll be very important.
I remain impressed with Negima, which is much better than Love Hina. It balances comedy, action, and mild romance, and avoids too much squick with Negi being ten, mostly as it reminds us of this constantly. No one is getting any anytime soon in his manga. And Setsuna remains a kickass manga lesbian. With a sword and big fluffy wings, no less.
If only this series was as charming and enjoyable as you make it sound, Sean... ;-)
Yuri Live Action Movie: The Girl
Sometimes you're just in the mood for a bit of French lesbian film noir. And then
The Girl is exactly what you're looking for. (At the moment, I'm looking for it too - my copy seems to have walked off after Onna! and I'm really quite irked...maybe I'll set up a wishlist on Amazon and all my fans - that would be you - can replace all the DVDs I've lost running events. lol)
But I digress.
The Girl is a lovely piece of lesbian pulp film that manages to be fun and goofy and still remain sexy and slick.
Butchy Agathe De La Boulaye (who is just lovely in her clothes) falls for cabaret singer Claire Keim. (I know - could it get ANY more stereotypical!?) Keim's male lover is not about to take this kind of insult sitting down, so sexy sulky stalking escalates into violence and a typically Gallic ending. Because
The Girl plays out like a smoky, liquor-scented pulp novel, you can relax and watch the pretty, pretty people with low mental committment, but high pleasure.
Even the director's comments are interesting - this is just about the only DVD I've ever bothered watching the movie with the commentary, and I enjoyed it. It wasn't a lesson in directing or anything, but the stories that make up the filming of this low-budget, tight-deadline lesbian noir are, in their own way, as good a yarn as the movie itself.
Ratings:
Cinematography: 8 (espcially considering the budget and deadlines)
Characters - 7
Story - 7
Yuri - 10
Loser FanBoy - 3 (Its much too arty for boy porn)
Overall - 8 and a bowl of popcorn.
Wish I could find my damn copy.
Tags: Live Action Movie, The Girl" , Agathe De La Boulaye, Lesbian Film Noir
Taking Tonight Off
I'm taking the night off, to eat some strawberries, listen to the
Dresden Dolls and read a
Rex Stout mystery - a little new school/old school contrast there...how oh-so-hip am I?
Go do something non-anime or manga related, too. It's good for you.
Don't forget the whipped cream for the strawberries.
If I'm lucky it'll thunderstorm. :-)
