This Week in Yuri – December 27, 2008

December 27th, 2008

Yuri Anime

Funimation has announced that it has picked up the licenses for Ikkitousen and Vandread. Whether that is good news or bad will entirely depend on your feelings towards these series. lol Personally, I’m split 50/50 on them. I love Ikkitousen‘s craptastic-ness and find Vandread-ful. :-)

Eric writes in to let us know that episode 1 of anti-Yuri series Mariaholic is live and streaming for your viewing (dis)pleasure. The “romantic comedy” plot centers around a Yuri-obsessed girl who falls for a beautiful girl at her school only to learn that the “girl” is actually a cross-dressing guy who treats her like crap. The plot of this series cascaded into a discussion in my house about how in anime, any main character wearing the clothes of the opposite gender almost immediately becomes a paragon of that gender and object of desire.

Right Stuf announces a March 24, 2009 release date for ARIA The NATURAL – Part 2 DVD Collection.

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Yuri Manga

The issue of Morning 2 magazine on sale on January 22, 2009 will feature a front and back, full color cover of Gunjou by Nakamura Ching. It will be awesome.

Erin S. kindly points out that February will see the advent of Yuri Hime Wildrose 3 and that the Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan collection also coming out in spring will, like the MikoMajyo series by the same author, come as a deluxe set with Drama CD as well as manga volume alone. Something for me to look forward to, anyway. :-)

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Snatches of Yuri

Jacob S. wanted to share this snatch of Yuri: Vanillaware has made a game, Grim Grimoire, where you play a young witch who goes from timid schoolgirl to royal mage-consul. He points out that there is a very mild (the game is rated E), but most definitely Yuri-ful, end.

Speaking of snatches…for the three of us who care, Hakodate Youjin Buraijou Himegami, Volume 4 is on sale!

Something that’s all over the Japanese Yuri blogs, and yet is unlikely to be something I’ll ever read, is Wasabi ala Mode. It’s Kirara CR. It’s moe Yuri-ish maids. Whoo.

In Fura Furu, we follow Natsu and Hana who are exploring the latest Yuri fetish – poverty. It’s all the rage in Yuri manga these days…haven’t you noticed? I have. Anyway. Rabu-rabu, or so the J-blogs say.

And Yasashii Ira is a collection of shorts, many with Yuri, and with a mopey looking kid on the cover. Moe and bittersweet is my best guess.

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Other Yuri News

Maria-sama ga Miteru: Hello Goodbye went on sale on the 26th in Japan. Yes, I ordered a copy and am racing to the end of Scenes Before Graduation to be ready when it arrives. And, as I went to get the link to it just now, I notice that it is Number *3* on the book charts at Amazon.co.jp. Wow.

The new OP for Ichigo Mashimaro “Encore” is up on YouTube. It includes Chika going completely tsundere for Miu as they hold hands and Ana and Matsuri also touching, although I tend to think of that relationship more as a primary caregiver and her functional, yet mentally disabled patient. lol

Last up, Pizza Hut announced a new Maria-sama ga Miteru campaign in honor of the 4th season next week. This commemorative box will picture Sei and Yumi.

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So much excitement this week. See you next week for more fabulous Yuri news!

8 Responses

  1. DezoPenguin says:

    Wow, a GrimGrimoire reference! I admit, I bought it for the Yuri, but stayed around for the game, which was actually fun (and the entire cast is a delight). Hopefully people that are interested can still find a copy at this late date (it was released in June 2007).

    *sigh* There’s really nothing like a Miyabi Fujieda drama CD to make me envy the people who have spent the time and hard work to be able to understand spoken Japanese, though!

  2. Motormind says:

    That Ichigo Mashimaro OP looks intrigueing. I get the idea that the character designs are different–more cute, really. Especially Ana is in hyper-moe mode with those bright blue eyes. The song itself is also kawaii-overload. The girls holding hands is cute, but I like the very last shot best, with Chika tickling Miu to make her turn around. All in all, something to look forward to.

    I do wonder if the latest Marimite is indeed the last one. I would think though that Konno really stretched the formula for all it is worth.

  3. @Motormind – She has been writing the series for 11 years. That’s a darn long time to be working on one series.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Thanks for the updates! Believe it or not I’m most excited about the Pizza Hut announcement. Something about seeing the YamaYurikai on a pizza box sends me into fits of hysterical giggling.

    Will you write a sequel to your pizza-themed fan fiction?

    ::HUGS::

    Arca Jeth

  5. ajshepherd says:

    I wonder if the fourth season of Marimite is covered by the RightStuf/Nozomi license agreement – or whether they took out an option for the fourth season.

    If not, I hope sales of the first two seasons and pre-orders of the ‘3rd season’ (OVAs) have been good enough for them to pounce on it and snap it up for a mid/late 2009 issue.

  6. Anonymous says:

    hey erica, i’m just breaking into this thing so what do you think i should start out with?

  7. @Anonymous – That’s always a REALLY hard question to answer, because my tastes and yours may not be even remotely similar.

    I can *suggest* starting with the category on Okazu of “Top Ten” lists, which will give you my Top Yuri anime and manga over the past few years. Many of the series repeat as they continue to be excellent, or are translated into English. http://okazu.blogspot.com/search/label/Top Ten Lists

  8. deanbcurtis says:

    Drats. I was holding on to a sliver of hope that Maria+Holic would be decent. I guess it’s somewhat fitting for Shaft to have such a schizophrenic output in quality. Ah well, if they greenlight a third season of Hidamari Sketch, all will be forgiven.

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