Archive for the Hatsukoi Shimai Category


Yuri News This Week – July 5, 2008

July 5th, 2008

This news report is 100% complete as of the time I typed it, but there are still plenty of Industry panels to come at Anime Expo, so expect more updates later on.

Yuri Anime

A second Ichigo Mashimaro OVA has been announced, so members of the “Cult of Miu” rejoice! (And look – I made us a badge. lol It’s crappy. I don’t care and I don’t see you making one, so shush, you.)

Funimation announced that they have picked up distribution rights for many Geneon and ADV anime properties including Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Murder Princess, and Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora, which was licensed (and already suspended) by ADV as Shattered Angels. Kyoshiro first volume was technically released and Volume 2 suspended, but I haven’t actually seen Volume 1 anywhere, so basically, we’re waiting for it from the beginning.

Nozomi/Right Stuf announced Gakuen Alice at their Expo Panel last night.

***

Yuri Manga

Big news this week is that Kodansha is launching a Kodansha US office to release manga on their own. While everyone else is musing over how this will effect their Del Rey and other licenses, I have a completely different take on it. I think that Kodansha is about to run into the the uncomfortable truth that is the reality of the manga market here in the US. From various dealings in the industry, I think that a lot of the Japanese companies are under the impression that they can *sell* a lot more manga than they actually can. Here’s why.

In Japan, manga and anime are easily accessible by a large portion of the population on a weekly/monthly basis. Along with free TV release and weekly cheap manga mags, they are bombarded by a never-ending stream of advertising for product. When the tankoubon, the collections, come out, there is little advertising in them, because the stream of distribution *ends* at the tankoubon. In America, the distribution begins and ends at the tankoubon. There are very few anime that are easily accessible on free TV. Most of them are Shounen Jump titles, and not coincidentally, SJ is one of the few magazines that comes out regularly here. So those titles do really well in sales. But most of the other titles are printed, stuck on a shelf and have exactly zero advertising, promotion (other than licensing announcements) or recognition. Without an anime to beat the title into people’s heads, the actual number of people who will ever care about a non-anime title is going to remain low. And without weekly or monthly chapter of a manga to keep interest high, all you have is tankoboun on the shelves.

Here’s what I imagine happens. J Company thinks – we sell 30K tankoubon here of x title. If we assume a 2% audience in the US, we can assume 6000 books will sell. Which seems fair. Only…the amount they will actually sell might be 1500 – 2000. Because the American audience doesn’t have the constant stream of promotion and availability, so Joe Blow finds it easier – and cheaper – to grab a scan, or read a book in the bookstore. And another 25% of the potential audience has no clue about the title’s existence or availability at all.

I think that when Kodansha realizes that without a lot more advertising and a TV anime, their books really won’t do well no matter how popular they are, they will be surprised – and sad. In the meantime, let’s bombard them with letters asking for a translated version of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. We’ll only get two volumes before they pull it for lack of sales, but hey – that’s two volumes we didn’t have, right?

Which leads me to the next thing I wanted to mention – Seven Seas has put several of their Yuri series on hold, First Love Sisters among them. The stated reason is that sales were well below expectations and they didn’t break even. I could have told them that if they had asked. The Yuri audience is small, cheap and sales of 2000 are exceptional, not average or low. Personally, I can see Hayate x Blade failing in the exact same way because the ONLY promotion that title will get is me talking about it. Neither Seven Seas nor Tor is going to spend a cent telling people it exists, and it has no anime. Which is a damn shame, because it’s an awesome series which *could* be popular. But if your marketing plan is to print too many copies, send them anonymously to chain bookstores to disappear them among crowded, unlabeled shelves of manga…expect it to fail. You want people to buy it? You have to invest in promotion. Contests, ads, bookstore displays, more ads, ads in things other than your own books, like gaming magazines, and Giant Robot (an awesome Asian pop culture mag) and on websites. Did I mention promoting the effing hell out of it? Because otherwise, it’ll sell 1000 copies and once again you’ll wonder why. Jason, Adam – I mean you.

And as for you, Yuri audience. Buy the books, buy the anime. These companies spend $$$$ on *you*. Stop being a bunch of cheap bastards – and *still* complaining that there is no Yuri out there. Buy Yuri. From Infinity, from Seven Seas, from Tokyopop, from Yen Press, from Media Blasters, from ADV, from ALC Publishing. Stop complaining that there is none. There are many series at this point and you aren’t buying them. For god’s sake – stop whining and put your money where your whinging is. Please. Thank you.

(And if you *do* buy the anime and manga – thank you. Very, very much. Not just for myself, but for the artists and writers, directors, voice actors and publishers. Thank you.)

I found this news item to be kind of interesting in a “huh?” way – Aurora, the US imprint for Oozora Publishing, will be putting out a manga version of Hitohira. Since Aurora’s stuff is usually Ladies Comics and more adult stories, Hitohira seems an odd series for them. Guess we’ll see, huh?

And DMP has announced the license for the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS manga. I reviewed the first volume a while back. It was fun. Not particularly Yuri, but fun.

***

Other Yuri News

I’ve been very good about not talking about this, since I was told about it. lol

Nozomi/RightStuf is going to be launching the full Maria-sama ga Miteru website soon and when they do, it will include a submission form to *ask Konno Oyuki-sensei questions*! How cool is that? You’ll have a chance to ask her good questions like “Will we see Yumi as Rosa Chinensis?” and fandumb questions like “Will Sachiko and Yumi ever kiss?” and thank her for providing us with hours of entertainment. I am so going to be putting questions up for her.

bystrouka tells us that both Blue Drop and Mnemosyne will be shown at the Paris Japan Expo this weekend. This is tantalizing, because we haven’t heard any licensing for these titles, but what is being shown is supposedly already licensed. Interesting, huh? bystrouka promises to report back!

And Polish anime/manga portal Tanuki now sports a Polish-language interview with Erica Friedman, thanks to Grisznak! Some of the questions were the usual, but some were pretty funny, so in case you are not a Polish reader, here is a link to the English-language version.

***

That’s it so far for the weekend, but expect more as more industry panel feeds come in. Media Blasters has said they they are holding their big announcements for Otakon, so I’ll see if I can get a preview of those to see of there’s anything relevant to our interests. :-)





Yuri Manga: Hatsukoi Shimai, Volume 3

June 12th, 2008

Hatsukoi Shimai is your basic “Yuri Manga.” Almost all the stereotypes are covered; Chika is energetic and emotional, Haruna is initially cool and distant but warms up, ultimately becoming warm and affectionate. Touko is cool (different cool) and boyish and has a motorcycle, Akiho is classic passive-aggressive. And Kirika is our resident non-verbal chick with weapon princely type, while her Princess, Miyu, would be happy to be with her forever if only she’d say something.

In Volume 3, we follow each couple in a not-terribly dramatic crisis. Chika is invited over to Haruna’s house, where she asks to see a photo album. Haruna is freakish about it, and in a moment of totally confusing DRAMA, Akiho begs Haruna not to tell Chika about their past. The moment passes and we see Chika and Haruna later in their secret spot, sharing their likes and dislikes, and getting in a good snog.

The mystery of Akiho’s reluctance to have Chika know about her childhood is revealed to Touko-sensei when she admits to not being a blood sister to Haruna. Which explains her sis-con, but not really why she doesn’t want Chika knowing (unless she doesn’t want her best friend thinking that she’s a rival.) Akiho’s crisis comes in the form of a rumor that Touko-sensei’s time at their school is coming to an end. Touko quashes the rumor – but not before she finally gets that kiss she’s been angling for from Akiho.

Haruna faces her mean old sempai from her flashback in Volume 2, and it turns out that sempai probably did have feelings for her after all, but was cruel to be kind.

And finally, Kirika and Miyu face a teeny weeny little crisis because Miyu is skipping drama club. And because Kirika falls off the platform at Kyuudo club running after Miyu. Miyu’s concern was that she was pegged to play the lead role of Princess and was given no choice in the matter because she looks like a Princess. I’m sorry that this story wasn’t given some time to develop, because in the original short story in which these two appeared (on the inside cover of Yuri Shimai 3,) Kirika was having issues about being the Prince to Miyu’s Princess. It would have been nice for an extended storyline for them to deal with it. Ah well, fanfic fodder, I guess.

The story wraps up with Teshigawara and the strange girl who appears at the school for basically no reason except to befriend Teshigawara, in which the strange girl who has now befriended poor Teshigawara, has to move away. They promise to write to each other.

The epilogue assures us that Teshigawara Chiyori and Rie are indeed writing one another; Miyu likes playing with Kirika’s hair – and Kirika likes when she plays with her hair; Touko and Akiho go to the beach and Touko gets a really good kiss in; and Chika and Haruna share a bed -pointing out those rings they exchanged, so we really, really, truly, positively know they are together. (But not lesbian.)

The End.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 2

Overall – 8

Please don’t ask me if this volume will be translated. I don’t know. If sales of Volume 1 and Volume 2 are good, and the stars are aligned and Seven Seas stays in business that long – maybe.





Yuri Manga: First Love Sisters, Volume 1 (English)

January 30th, 2008

Thanks and gratitude go out to Eric P. who sponsored today’s review!

My first encounter with the character and story that would eventually become First Love Sisters, was about 4 years ago, when Yuri Shimai magazine put out the first Koi Shimai Drama CD. At the time, a “Yuri Drama CD” was a pretty rare get and for that alone, I was happy to have it. The story of that first Drama CD – which predates the manga – was, as I put it, “melodramatic and predictable.” But don’t get me wrong – it’s not at all bad. As I mentioned in my review (and history of the series, which had a slightly cubist origin) of the Japanese edition, Hatsukoi Shimai Volume 1, the story is a tad tame, but was still better than a lot of junk out there. :-)

First Love Sisters Volume 1 is pretty much Marimite with the romance made slightly more explicit and characters who are not nearly as 3-dimensional. But you know – it’s still a sweet enough story for what it is. The winner of the series in every version is Chika, for coming right out and saying that she loves Haruna, forcing Haruna’s whole worldview to change. As Yumi clones go, Chika’s a pretty good one. ^_^

Which brings us to the Seven Seas edition of First Love Sisters. As always, they do a fabulous job on translation and adaptation. Little things please me, like Akiko’s usage of “onee-sama” at school and “onee-chan” at home, and the fact that the school’s nickname, Tsunojyo, isn’t lost. (Because, let’s face it, Tsunokamizaka Jyoshikou is a mouthful. ^_^)

Color pages are reproduced in color – always a nice touch. The color is a little anemic and there’s some moire patterns in the background, but it still looks nice. Comparatively to the original Japanese edition, the background tones reproduce a little roughly – in particular, Akiho’s hair looks a little weird. But if you aren’t comparing with Hatsukoi Shimai, then you won’t have to worry. It looks plenty good.

The story is still another “schoolgirls in love” story, but there’s no doubt about the intensity or sincerity of the emotion. And going forward into the next volume, we’ll see that chaste embraces are not the end-all-be-all of this relationship, which is a tremendous relief. (The future volumes of this manga make my fanfic for the series obsolete, but I don’t care at all. ^_^)

The final pages of the book include some 4-panel comics, that were originally under the dustcover, a preview of volume 2 (Touko-sensei!) and a nice little preview of the English-language edition of Voiceful, another Yuri Hime collection.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8
Series – 0

Overall – 7

As the first of Seven Seas’ adaptations of a Yuri Hime collection for their Strawberry imprint, and with their continued quality in translation and reproduction, I definitely recommend First Love Sisters for folks looking for decent Yuri.





Seven Seas licenses Yuri Manga "Hatsukoi Shimai" and "Voiceful"

June 30th, 2007

Anime Expo opened this weekend and Seven Seas was right out of the gate with a bunch of new announcements, including Yuri manga titles Voiceful and First Love Sisters (known here as Hatuskoi Shimai) from Ichijinsha.

I’m very pleased that 7S picked up these titles, I feel confident that they will do the very best job that can be done on the translation and adaptation.

For those who are interested in these titles, here are my reviews of the collected series:

Hatsukoi Shimai 1 and Hatsukoi Shimai 2


Voiceful

Now that they’ve picked up Ichijinsha titles, hopefully we can look forward to Strawberry Shake Sweet, Simoun and “Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to in the future, along with the rest of the Yuri Shimai/Yuri Hime line up. :-)

Congrats Seven Seas – Yuri fandom is looking forward to the translations. :-)





Yuri Manga: Hatsukoi Shimai 2

May 2nd, 2007

I sincerely doubt that I’d like this series half as much as I do, if it hadn’t been a Drama CD first. (Read my review here.) But it was, and Paku Romi played Touko-sensei with a sexy voice and that, as they say, was that. :-)

Volume 2 of Hatsukoi Shimai is a collection of chapters that ran in Yuri Hime magazine. The story picks up shortly after the end of Volume 1. Cute, cheerful Mastusato Chika is pleased as punch to have built a relationship with the object of her admiration and desire, Kizaki Haruna, and a friendship with Haruna’s little sister, Akiho.

Chika and Akiho are walking to school one day, when they come across a hullaballoo over a young, attractive woman who has apparently just pulled up on a motorcycle. The visitor asks for directions to the staff room, but the crowd around her threatens to knock over her bike and Akiho jumps to help her keep it upright. In the most inappropriately intimate way possible, the visitor asks Akiho to lead the way. Akiho, annoyed at the woman’s carefree attitude, huffs along, but after some gentle teasing of her and Chika, leaves the woman to make her own way.

Both Chika and Akiho are shocked, therefore, when the head teacher introduces the visitor as their subsitute teacher for a while, Hiiragi Touko.

Chika takes herself off to find Haruna in their private little spot behind the school, where they share a few moments of quiet happiness with each other. But as they talk, Chika becomes painfully aware that she really doesn’t know much about Haruna who, despite being so pleasant, is still somewhat reserved and hard to get to know. On the way back from lunch, Chika trips down some stairs. As Haruna runs to her aid, Touko-sensei scoops her up in her arms and carries her to the doctor’s office. Later, when Haruna stops by to walk Chika home, she learns that Touko-sensei is giving Chika a ride home on her bike. And thus begins Touko’s apparent plot to break Haruna and Chika up.

As often as she can, Touko inserts herself next to Chika, offering assistance with everything, including private supplemental lessons. She’s never *quite* actionably inappropriate, but her behavior drives Akiho insane with protective anger, to the point of her volunteering for the school festival committee to keep Chika from Touko’s grasp. In contrast, as Touko and Chika become closer, Haruna withdraws into herself. She starts to have nightmares about her relationship with her former sempai. She even goes so far as to overreact when Chika tries to take a heavy bag from her – she slaps Chika’s hand away with some force.

Akiho, as she does in the Drama CD, confronts Touko, who accuses her of being jealous of Chika – and Haruna. The charge is accurate, but it doesn’t daunt Akiho who warns Touko away from her friend. (In the background, we also get a little more of a glimpse of Teshigawara’s crush on Akiho, and her jealousy of Touko and Akiho’s time together.)

In preparation for the school festival, it is decided that first year classes will pair with second-year classes and do things together. Their class decides to do a cafe in which they will also sell beaded items. Chika turns out to be really talented at beading (shades of the Hatsukoi Shimai Drama CD there. My review here.) While working with Haruna, Chika teaches her how to make beaded rings, and they give each other their first attempts.

We also get a chance to meet Miyu and Kirika, also from the third drama CD, which gives us a chance to see the third of our couples in the series. Miyu comments to Chika that since she, Chika, has come to school, Haruna has become much more cheerful and easygoing.

Separated from Haruna because the older girl has been avoiding her, Chika is really distressed but, when, on the day of the school festival, she loses the ring Haruna gave her, she becomes frantic and runs out into the rain to find it. Akiho runs to find Haruna and send her after Chika, and Touko-sensei after both of them.

In the pouring rain, Haruna finds Chika and they reunite happily. Haruna tells Chika about her past relationship with her sempai. She was in love with the older girl, who was always warm to her in private, but in public, became cold and repudiated her. She realizes that, without meaning to, she was doing the same to Chika, but won’t do it any more. Touko-sensei shows up with the lost ring. She slips it to Haruna and tells them both to get back to the classroom so they don’t catch cold.

On the way back, Touko runs into Akiho, who dissolves into tears in her arms, admitting her jealousy, but also that she really, truly is happy for her best friend and her sister. Touko in turn admits that she was in love with a girl when she was in school, but had never confessed to her and although she thought it would be okay to be by her side forever, time and distance took them apart from each other. She saw Haruna and Chika and thought that they were like her and that girl and didn’t want them to lose each other because they didn’t admit their feelings. Akiho goes back to her tsundere ways, pushing herself away from Touko (or vice versa) and I await them getting together, still. (Seriously…I am suffering here, guys. I need some Akiho x Touko time in the next couple of chapters or I will start to whine.)

Later, back in the woods by the pond, Chika and Haruna have a long talk about how they feel. Haruna slips the ring she made onto Chika’s ring finger and Chika returns the favor. They kiss, very aware that the whole thing is imbued with the force of a vow to love one another and be together forever.

And on that happy note Volume 2 ends.

The art has smoothed out a bit as the manga has gone on. It’s nothing special or revolutionary, but it’s pleasant enough. The story differs from the original Drama CDs, which I like, and Chika and Haruna’s relationship has, at last, progressed beyond hand holding. That and some other things have made my two-part Hatsukoi Shimai fanfic completely obsolete, but I don’t care. I enjoy the idea of Touko and Akiho as a couple and any time with Touko is fine with me. So I stand by it, despite the fact that I’m blatantly wrong in some places. LOL As far as I know, it’s the *only* Hatsukoi Shimai fanfic, so if you don’t like it, :-p.

We get the usual color page reproduction, some very cute 4-panel gag comics on the inside cover and a nice postcard inside. There’s also a really cute little pic on the back cover of Akiho flanked by Touko and Teshigawara, which I found incredibly charming.

Ratings:

Art – 6 nothing to rave over, but clean and neat
Story – 7
Characters – 7 Touko’s behavior is so very, very wrong…
Yuri – 8
Service – 3

Overall – 7

I wonder why I never noticed Teshigawara’s crush was on Akiho the first time around. I just sort of assumed that this was a harem style thing and it was Chika. SO glad to be wrong. (Not a harem story? Does that even exist?