Archive for May, 2014


Yuri Network News (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 31, 2014

May 31st, 2014

YNN_LissaQuickie data dump while I’m on the road today.

YNN Correspondent Emily C. writes in with the coolest news! “Drama CD maker éterire recently announced a new series called Grand Stage which I thought might be of interest.

“It has clear roots in Takarazuka; the story revolves around the main character having to join a revue and picking one of five otokoyaku to partner with. The cast is stellar, with the main characters being voiced by Ogata Megumi, Toyoguchi Megumi, Inoue Marina, Kitamura Eri, and of course, Saiga Mitsuki. éterire is specifically marketing it as a story containing an all-female cast that is made for females, quite an unusual move, especially since the majority of yuri seems to be made for a male demographic. A quick look at Twitter suggests that the ones interested in it are mainly female, too…”

A quick look at the site is pretty squee-worthy and we can look for it in Autumn of 2014. Thanks Emily! ANN also has an article about the CD, you might want to check out.

Ynn Correspondent Jin H. wants you to know that Crunchyroll announced that they also will be streaming the new Sailor Moon Crystal anime season. I’m glad because NicoNico Douga is just clunky IMHO. I’m glad to have the option. ^_^

On to another awesome goods-producing anime – Revolutionary Girl Utena iPhone 5 cases and Eternal Utena figurine.

Finally for today, please enjoy the Anime News Network podcast on which I participate in a discussion of Kill La Kill.

The horror-thriller series Psycho-Pass will get an Xbox One game, based on the anime.

Everyone’s best friend with a Yuri crush, Tomoyo from Card Captor Sakura is getting an Nendroid figure.

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





Western Comic: Namesake, Volume 1 (English)

May 30th, 2014

namesakevol1cover_largeSummers seem to me to be the perfect time for breaking out all the cool-female-character comics I’m reading, and fun lesbian novels, along with other things of interest. So, along with Katherine’s Guest Review Wednesday, I want to take a moment to tell you about the last of the comics I picked up at TCAF this year.

 Namesake, by Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton is about a young woman named Emma, who finds herself literally dragged into a story where she’ll need all her wits to survive. Emma is a Namesake, one of a groups of people with the ability to jump in an out of narratives. Without training, or seemingly, reason, Emma is dragged away from her world after a terrible event at the local library, where she was picking up her little sister, and dumped in a place no one in their right mind would ever expect to land. Emma finds herself in Oz.

Because the main portion of this volume of Namesake takes place in Oz, there is a great deal of exposition in which we are quickly caught up on the Oz cannon and filled in on current events in Oz. Almost immediately we meet old friends and new enemies, while Emma tries to figure out what the hell is going on.

For completely sensible reasons,  the second half of the first volume necessarily becomes an Oz fanfic, which might become tiresome if you are not a fan of Baum’s world. Nonetheless, there are some extremely interesting elements in this volume that kept me reading. Emma’s not a super strong protagonist out of the gate, but the librarian we meet in the beginning is. For various reasons I’m hanging on to see if she’ll be back. Also far stronger than Emma is her younger sister Elaine and in the final extra chapter of the volume, something occurs which dragged me right back into the story and has motivated me to get Volume 2.

And, aside from the individual characters, the world of the Namesakes is fascinating. We get the barest glimpse of the larger story in Volume 1. I hope that Volume 2 will gives us more of an idea of what is going on outside Oz. The opening of the first volume leads me to believe we will..and that there’s a lot to learn.

The art is very strong with a mostly black & white feel, with strategic use of color. At times, the color leaves one wondering what the significance is, which I quite like, as I do not believe anything we’re seeing is arbitrary.

Namesake is a webcomic that has been collected into several ebook and printt volumes, so you can read it from the beginning and decide if you too want to know the secret of the Namesakes.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7

Overall – 7 with tons of potential





LGTQ Comic: Lumberjanes (English) Guest Review by Katherine H.

May 28th, 2014

ljanes1It’s my favorite day of the week – Guest Review Wednesday! And today, we welcome back the stunning, the fabulous, the one and only Katherine H. of Yuri no Boke to speak on one of the most anticipated and popular new western comics of the year, The Lumberjanes. (Which I am also reading and I assure you, it’s fantastic.) So let’s give Katherine a warm welcome back and settle in for the ride. The podium is yours, Katherine!

Right now, I am following two ongoing non-manga comic book series- the new Ms. Marvel, which is great, and Lumberjanes, which is super-weird and a lot of fun.

Lumberjanes being awesome is no surprise given its pedigree. It’s co-written by Noelle Stevenson, the creator of one of my favorite webcomics, Nimona. If you read Autostraddle like I do, you may have noticed that one of their writers, Grace Ellis, is Lumberjanes’ other writer.

Brooke A. Allen is this series’ illustrator and Maarta Lairo is its colorist. I’m not familiar with Allen and Lairo’s other work, but they do a great job here. Allen’s art is expressive and doesn’t skimp on details without being too busy, and the composition is well done. Allen and Lairo’s linework and coloring pop with the energy this story requires, also.

Lumberjanes is basically about a group of awesome Girl Scouts punching their way out of strange and dangerous situations at sleep away camp. Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are spending the summer in the same cabin at the Lumberjanes sleep-away camp.

The first issue opens the story with their fighting demonic foxes after following an old woman they saw turn into a bear into the woods. Their cabin chaperone Jen is exasperated when she catches them returning, but their den mother Rosie not only doesn’t punish them, she seems to have a bead on how preternatural the forest around their camp is when they tell her what they saw.

ljanes2In issue 2, Jen takes the girls canoeing, and its becomes weird again and more awesome. Amidst all the action, two of the girls become a couple and it’s pretty adorable. I expect this series to keep handling them well given Grace’s Autostraddle-ness and how well Noelle has handled the queer characters in Nimona. Issue 2 of Lumberjanes ends with the characters underground, pretty much accepting that they’re not going to have a normal summer.

This series doesn’t take itself too seriously- there’s a lot of banter and visual gags and even potentially grim scenes have goofy moments and punchlines, like the message the foxes spell, April’s response to the dragon, and pretty much everything Ripley does. The pacing is brisk and the characters are all likable so far.

In short, you should at least try Lumberjanes if you like stories featuring featuring well-written female leads doing cool stuff- basically if you’re Okazu’s target audience. The cute lesbian couple is the cherry on top. This was originally meant to be an eight issue mini-series, but it has sold well enough to be promoted to ongoing, and I’m glad for it.

Art: 9
Story: It’s just intro so far, but for entertainment, it’s a 9
Characters: 9
Yuri/Lesbian: 7
Service: 0

Overall: 9

Erica here: I agree with every word of this review. This is a terrific comic book, one of four western comics I am currently following (along with Ms. Marvel, My Little Pony ~ Friendship is Magic, and Rocket Girl.) By far and away, Lumberjanes is the the most creative of this creative bunch.





Enter All the Contests!

May 26th, 2014
Yuriko-MidoribyAnaMoreno

Yuricon Mascots Yuriko and Midori by Ana Moreno

Over here at Okazu HQ, we have piles of stuff to give away and although we have contests regularly, sometimes people don’t reply to emails or stuff gets returned unclaimed and we end up with more stuff. So, I find myself with a pile of stuff that is meant to go to you, my dear readers, but it’s sitting here on my floor instead.  So, because I love you all and want you to have stuff, I am doing a contest for…stuff! That’s right, it’s time for another “Get this stuff outta here contest!”

We have a Rose of Versailles Part 2 box set, and a signed copy of Denise Schroeder’s Yuri mini-comic Before You Go and a couple of copies of Marine Corps Yumi, Volume 2 and a pile of odd Yuri manga and other items that will be given away at my whim.

To enter, please follow these instructions carefully:

Email me at yuricon at gmail with the following subject line: Outtahere Contest

Your name
Your shipping address
An email you actually read on a regular basis
Your age (You must be over 13 to enter.)

Winners will be contacted by email only, so don’t check back here for any kind of winners list. This is spring cleaning, pure and simple.

Prizes will be distributed with arbitrary intent and lack of accountability. ^_^ If you win, I’ll let you know something’s coming. Since this is about getting stuff to good homes, if you’ve won recently, sure go ahead and enter. Next contest we’ll be back to recent winners, don’t enter. But for now, sure. ^_^

Thanks for entering and thanks for being such a terrific audience!





Yuri Manga: Rainy Song (レイニーソング)

May 25th, 2014

We start today’s review with a “well, I never expected that” moment. ^_^ In 2010, I was exasperated beyond tolerance by Momono Moto’s Kimi Koi Limit. The protagonist was, I felt, unlikable and selfish and the most interesting character was treated poorly. I never expected to see poor Hiroko again. Well, here we are 4 years later and there’s Hiroko again!

We begin the first story in Momono-sensei’s current collection Rainy Song (レイニーソング). with “Aru Shoujo no Gunjo”, a bittersweet story about a girl who shares in the relationship highs and lows of fellow train commuters, and her attempts to cheer up Eri, a woman who loses her female lover to marriage. It’s not  happy story, but I quite liked it – and it’s the strongest story of the collection

Following this, we turn to “Kurayami no Asterisk,” the story of underachiever Tendou Nozomi, known as ‘Ten’. She’s gone through school and just hasn’t found her purpose in life. Right now she is unmotivated by a job at a cafe and sees no particular goal for herself. So when she meets, and falls for attractive, polite and slightly sad Hiroko, she find herself in turmoil. I found myself amazed that 4 years later we were finally learning what happened to Hiroko after Sono left her.

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Hiroko has an office job where she does her work competently, but doesn’t connect with anyone, and she works nights at a friend’s “ladies” bar. She, like Ten, is moving through life on automatic. When the two of them meet, it will throw them both into confusion. But ultimately they find each other and, we hope, happiness.

In “Snow Frakes” a long-delayed confession is finally conveyed, to the delight and sadness of a best friend.

And in the title story, “Rainy Song” a persistent fan in school becomes a friend to an aloof musician.

What a change in personality-types from Kimi Koi Limit! For one thing, there are none of Sono’s hideously selfish behaviors here, and while Hiroko starts of sad, there’s only a little moping to be dealt with. This collection has surprising depth, despite the reliance on shorts, especially given how superficial the story in Kimi Koi Limit was with all that length. Momono-sensei has a much more mature feel in this volume and her ability to convey complex emotions is touching and entertaining.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri/Lesbian – 8
Service – 1

Overall – 8

A much, much better sequel than I could have ever expected. And, it was an unexpected pleasure to see Hiroko happy.