Archive for December, 2004


Yuri Manga: Eve no Ringo/ Eve’s Apple Manga Volume 1

December 22nd, 2004

It’s utter crap, but it’s fun crap.

Kawai Kirika wants, more than anything else in the whole wide world, to be a manga artist. Her dream consumes her, drives her – she is *determined* to become a pro. So, when every shoujo manga company she visits rejects her work for being too adult, she takes a risk and goes to a shounen company. To her shock, they accept her…but on one condition. The magazine she’s working for is an S&M manga magazine. The editor, an evil tick of a guy (who will probably end up being good, because you know, he pushed her to be the best she could be) requires her to study up on BDSM and submit a story.

Okay…let me repeat – Eve no Ringo: Evasapfel (Eve’s Apple in English) is utter crap. ^_^

The next few chapters follow Kirika as she studies up on, and participates in, BDSM in ways that are actually quite sweet and silly. In one chapter, she explores what being a typical S&M Oujou-sama might be like, by tying up her best friend in the manga club – Matsuda-kun, who also happens to have a crush on her. She proceeds to whip the daylights out of him, then complain to him that her feet hurt from wearing stiletto-heeled boots. Jokingly, she orders him to lick her feet…but they both learn pretty quickly that they kind of like that.

There’s some more mutual discovery, and ultimately Kirika is drawn deeper and deeper (but with no lessening of her naivete and shock) into the world of S&M comics. A rival author, Miyamae, turns out to be pretty hardcore (she walks around naked and bound to be able to “experience the feeling”) and manages to finagle Kirika into a little light “research,” with some small Yuri-esque service.

Although she’s barely had a page or two published by Editor Evil, Kirika is put in charge of an even newer talent, Yumiko, who promptly blows the last of Kirika’s personal boundaries away, by asking her to play the part of a man and have sex with her (for research, of course.) This is followed by a remarkably silly chapter dealing with vibrators.

It’s all so goofy and cute that it’s not offensive, even while it’s all fanservice. I like it enough that if I encounter another volume, I’ll get it.

Ratings:
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Art – 7
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

If you’re easily offended, probably not the best choice. But if you can read a chapter about a boy dressed like a nun paddling a girl in school uniform in front of a crazy older manga artist who is laughing like a hyena and demanding that her assistants capture the feeling in ink and laugh, then you’ll probably enjoy Eve’s Apple. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Himitsu no Anjerisu, Secret Angelis

December 21st, 2004

Himitsu no Anjiriesu, i.e., Secret Angelis (ひみつのアンジェリス) is a perfect example of a story with akogare that works. A cute, funny and fresh totally derivative manga that takes the basic rich-girl’s-school with heavy crushiness formula and manages to be fun and delightful at the same time.

Himitsu no Anjiriesu is the story of Sumire, who has transferred into a monstrously elite and restrictive Catholic girl’s school. Sumire is a free spirit, who finds herself butting heads with the uber-disciplinarian Sister Agnes over and over again. So, she goes about her day being yelled at for infractions like running, or speaking too loudly, or laughing, or breathing, and its wearing on her. In the meantime, Sumire is developing a serious crush on one of the school stars, who everyone calls “Hime.”

A tapestry of “Angelis,” an angel that will, if you whisper a prayer to him, help maidens in distress hangs in the hall in front of the auditorium. But the evil Sister Agnes (who spends the entire volume armed with a bokken and tortures the girls by closing off the TV room or the copy machine without warning or reason, and indulges in light corporal punishment for fun) tells all the girls that Angelis is an angel of Darkness and forbids them to pray to him.

One night, after specifically being warned by Sister Agnes not to be on the school grounds after 8PM, Sumire has to sneak back into the school to retrieve a notebook and is immediately caught. Sister Agnes starts to take a stick to her, when down from the trees swoops a hunky young musketeer-type person, who saves Sumire. But in the meantime, Sumire’s rescuer is put in harm’s way, so Sumire returns to rescue *her*. They escape with the help of two more musketeer-types and a widly implausible vehicle, and the four run off.

The next day, Sumire is called into the Executive Council’s room, only to discover that: 1) the Executive Council, including her beloved “Hime” are actually barking mad, and 2) They are also part of a secret organization that helps the downtrodden students knows as the “Musketeers”… No, I’m kidding – thay are known as …”Angelis”. Ta-da. And, of course, the “Angelis” Sumire saved was her Hime. Her crush goes through the roof.

Sumire and Hime continue to grow very close and save each other’s ass in incredibly daring and dashing and dare I say it, romantic, ways. In the end Sumire even tells the others in the group that they’ve confessed their love to one another. It was meant as a joke, of course…but it’s very close to the truth. I don’t hold much hope that it will go anywhere, but as we know, Yuri fandom’s hope springs eternal. :-)

Ratings:
Art – 7
Story – 8
Character -9
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

Anyway, think Maria-sama ga Miteru meets Three Musketeers and you’ve got Himitsu no Anjiriesu. It’s absolutely hysterical, full of akogare fun and generally the most delightful Marimite clone yet.





Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Yokohama Shopping Log) Volume 12

December 20th, 2004

Reading a volume of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is like watching a breathtakingly beautiful sunset – gorgeous, and unsharable with anyone who wasn’t there.

I previously did an overview of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, aka Yokohama Shopping Log. In it, I sang paeans of praise about the breathless beauty and quiet pleasure of this series, and I hoped fervently that it might continue.

Well, it has.

Volume 12 takes place a few years after the first 11 volumes. Time has passed, Takahiro is grown and moved away to find work, and little Makki is now 15 or so. In this volume, as is all the others, nothing happens. We simply see snippets of life in Alpha’s corner of the world.

Oji-san talks with his old sempai, the doctor, and they sit in quiet companionship. (Although for those of us who like to pair people up might just see something happening betwqeen these two. They have a prolonged conversation about living alone and how it’s kind of nice to have someone else around.) I adore stories that have late-life relationships…so I kind of want them to get together. Plus, the doctor is really a cool old lady! ^_^

Makki asks Alpha if she can get a job at the shop, but Alpha has nothing for her to do. While watching Makki, Alpha finally feels exactly what the passage of time *means.* I think she gets a little more human, too, because of it. Although her appearance hasn’t changed, this is a different Alpha than we met at the beginning of the series. She is most definitely more mature. A flashback to when her owner left really heightens the change in our lovely protagonist.

Meanwhile, back in the big city, Kokone has also grown up a little. She’s made friends with a human and she has begun to develop her own quirks. We spend a chapter watching her watch a sea of grass from an abandoned building. (Again, sunset stuff – you have to see it to appreciate it.)

No friends are left out of this volume – Alpha meets Maruko (the third female android in the series,) suddenly, and learns – to Maruko’s mortifcation – that the artist is, by day, a waitress. Maruko and Alpha have a conversation about Kokone which makes it clear that Alpha knows perfectly well what Kokone feels for her…and Maruko knows too. (I like to think that Maruko gives up on Kokone right about this point. ^_^)

This volume definitely feels more mature, more stately, than the first 11. There’s even *more* of a twilight feel to the stories and a little of that beautiful melancholy that the Japanese treasure so much. It brought tears to my eyes several times, to be honest, and I think we can safely say that the series is winding down slowly. But I admit to harboring a secret desire that the artist never, ever stop writing this. It is the *best* series, bar none, ever made. For my money, YKK completely transcends the medium and is art at its purest.

While Alpha and Kokone never meet in this volume the conversation with Maruko, IMHO, places the period on their relationship. It is apparent to *everybody* that Kokone is in love with Alpha. And for her part, Alpha cares deeply for Kokone. I think that’s as far as we’ll ever see it go…but, you never know!. Anyway, it’s not our imagination. Either that, or Maruko is imagining it, too. ^_^

Ratings:
Art – 10
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 7

Overall – 10

If you’re not in love with Alpha, you’re not paying attention….





Yuricon Announces "Yuri-Only" Event in Japan!

December 15th, 2004

Yuricon, a celebration of shoujoai and yuri in anime and manga, is pleased to announce a special yuri-only event on April 16th, 2005 in the heart of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district!

Meet Japanese fans of yuri, enjoy conversations and panels with popular yuri artists and buy yuri manga and doujinshi at our all-yuri comic market, in an informal and fun setting in the Shinjuku Nichoume on Saturday, April 16th, at Advocates, from 12-5! Cosplay your favorite yuri characters, display your yuri art, and then come karaoke with us until dawn. Rica Takashima, creator of ALC Publishing’s Rica ‘tte Kanji!?, will be our special guest at this historical all-yuri event!

Join Yuricon for the Yuri Revolution tour in Tokyo, April 12-17, as we visit popular tourist, shopping and anime/manga sites around Tokyo. To “register” simply join our Yuri Revolution Mailing List.

For more information about the Yuri Revolution event and tour, please visit the Yuricon Calendar of Events or email us at [email protected].

***

What do we mean by yuri-only?

Many anime and manga events in japan are organized around a single series or genre. These are known as “whatever-only” events. For instance, if an event was only for fans of Maria-sama ga Miteru, the event would be advertised as “Marimite-only.”





Carmilla, Issue 5

December 14th, 2004

It’s lesbian, its Yuri, but I still don’t get it.

Carmilla magazine took up the slack in Japan’s lesbian community, even as Anise was failing.

Where Anise was a sort of light-hearted look at the lesbian and bisexual community in Japan, there’s an edge to Carmilla that I just don’t really “get.” In my opinion, it reads like a parody of a lesbian magazine written by gay men.

Like its predecessor (and the lesbian mag before that, Phryne,) Carmilla runs reviews of lesbian/gay/bi/trans hotspots, parties, movies, books, etc. There’s some short manga series – all of which seem to be BDSM-heavy, with lots of bondage, rape and animals – and a few short stories, which I’ve never had the fortitude to try and read. And there’s always, as seems inevitable in Japanese lesbian magazines, interviews with various couples. I cannot, for the life of me understand why people give a rat’s ass about two other people who are not them, but it’s a thing. I get over it.

Overall, there’s an, I don’t know exactly, hardcore drag queen-type sensibility to the magazine that kind of puts me off.

Now, to be fair, I do not regularly read *any* lesbian/gay/bi/trans magazines, not since my free subscriptions at my last job dried up. But while I may be bored by one of the major English-language lesbian mags, Carmilla leaves me feeling…icky. I had read Issue 2 way back when Rica Takashima had brought me an issue as a present, and it hasn’t changed much by Issue 5, which I read last week. So clearly, this is what the mag is, and any problems I have with it are my own. Deep in my heart, I wish for a magazine that reviews art/music/books/films without the usual “Oh look! It has a lesbian in it! We must all rush and support it, even though it bites!” attitude. Interviews with people are usually, tedious. Skip ’em. Give me stuff to watch and read and drop the rest. You know…like this blog! ^_^;

I can’t really rate this, as everything in the mag is variable, but overall, I don’t care for it too much. It makes me long for Anise.