Archive for January, 2006


Maria-sama ga Miteru: Drama CD 7 – First Date Triangle

January 11th, 2006

This is going to be a short review, because the seventh Maria-sama ga Miteru: First Date Triangle is, simply, wonderful.

It’s full of so many good moments, that it’s kind of hard to really nail down one special one thing. But the best part of it is that it is much more based on the novel than the anime, which shredded so many of the scenes.

If I had to pick one thing that stood out, though, it was every single second we heard Yoshino, ably and enjoyably voiced by Ikezawa Haruna, torturing herself about following Rei and Chisato and, those moments later, as she listened to, hated and ultimately sympathized with Chisato. This was great theater.

Also wonderful was Shizuka’s bewitching and dulcet tones spoken and sung by rino. She was a total wow as she confused Shimako enough to make her, for once, respond spontaneously. Of all of the three dates, their’s was still cut the most.

Then there was Sachiko and Yumi. Frankly, I don’t think I can ever get enough of the two of them in the jeans shop, as Yumi fantasizes about Sachiko…then is annoyed as heck that onee-sama looks so bloody good in jeans. lol

Like all of the Drama CDs, we can spend slightly more time with the story, so there are thoughts and scenes that were cut from the anime. If you like the ladies of Lillian and you know even a little Japanese, Drama CDs are a brilliant way to enjoy practicing your listening skills. You can watch the anime, get up to date on the scenes, then listen to the Drama CD and have fun feeling happy when you recognize a scene and who was saying what. Cheaper than a language tape and a lot more fun. ;-)

As we’ve got the whole Yamayurikai in silly plastic little dolls, we’ve now moved on to magnets, did I mention that? Yes, we have two Yamayurikai members per CD, who now all live on my refrigerator along with a bizarrely large number of odd magnets. Where the heck did I get all these? But I digress.

Good CD. Me like. Try for yourself.





Yuri Manga: Negima! Volume 8

January 6th, 2006

Once again, I am pleased to present a guest review by Sean Gaffney, in order to save myself any but the most minimal effort today. It’s been a loooong week. :-)

This is a fairly sedate, but good, volume of Negima!. We get a mix of plot, sex comedy (mostly nudity…) and fighting. In fact, the one drawback is that the fight takes up the entire second half of the book. Good if you like seeing fights drawn out, I guess.

Every volume we seem to examine one or two new girls in the class of 31. This time it’s Chizuru Naba, who’s similar to Mutsumi from Love Hina but less airheaded. She’s very motherly (and yes, has the biggest breasts in the class – 94 cm), and takes to Kotarou (the dog boy who makes a return here and is pretty much a semi-regular after this arc) like a duck to water.

For fans of Mai-HiME CG art, she, like Shizuru, likes to practice the art of sticking leeks up people’s butts to cure what ails them. And, like Shizuru, she gets a bit carried away doing this.

The other student we meet is Chizuru and Ayaka’s roomie, Natsumi Murakami. She’s rather plain and has freckles, and thus feels inadequate most of the time, especially since she’s rooming with two big-busted beauties. She mostly exists as a straight woman in this volume… hopefully she’ll get more to do later.

Meanwhile, Negi is training with Evangeline in a special time-controlled environment… which Asuna and a bunch of others promptly break into. But that’s OK, as it leads into Negi finally telling Asuna about his tragic past. It is indeed rather sad, epecially the guilt he’s carrying around from it. We also see the entourage starting to try to learn magic, though they’re all bad at it with the exception of the experienced Setsuna.

After this we get the meat of the plot, as the demon from Negi’s past (gosh, he shows up right after Negi revealed it) shows up, kidnaps the girls, and challenges Negi to a duel. Kotarou joins in, and the duel is, as I said, about 65 pages long. Negi loses and everyone dies. Wait, no. Negi wins. Sorry, got confused.

There’s no yuri (OK, a villain zaps Setsuna by disguising herself as a naked Konoka, but frankly, Setsuna doesn’t have much time to get aroused before she’s knocked out). Nevertheless, I’d say it’s a solid volume. Still more interesting than Love Hina.

Thank you Sean for another review! While there is no “new” Yuri, it does look like the resident cute Yuri couple have some staying power. We can all hope for one decent fanfic and a few cute pictures repeatedly endlessly on the Yuri picture boards. :-)

 





Yuri Reviews: Yuri Card Games?

January 5th, 2006

Really? Yuri card games? Well…sort of. ^_^ Today’s card game review was brought to you primarily through the generosity of Touko_no_doriru-san, whose gifts still make me happy, every time I take them out and read/look at/listen to them. So, let’s see…9 months later, I still thank you!

There are many and various fan made games based on parody and original series. H-games, dating sims, fighting games, etc. These two card games are also fan/artist created and you’ve probably seen some of the art without knowing where it came from.

First, let me introduce you to Seeraa Fuku o Anata ni…:

What makes this card deck so notable is that the art is by the same artist who does Transistor ni Venus and a bunch of other Yuri stories. Each card is a drawing of a different school uniform, with each school identified for ease of “fuku spotting.” For instance, I randomly pulled the “Seisshin Shoujo Gakuin” uniform, which looks to be a natty light blue and a striped blue and white summer blouse.

No actual *Yuri* except on the cover there, but it’s got that “six degrees of Yuri” thing going, since the artist is so very much a Yuri mangaka. Yuri by inference, shall we say. And lots of goofy uniform fun if you’re into that kind of thing.

Next up we have the reasonably well-known Mari-un-Zero:

Now THIS is a notable deck. The game is, like the one above, basically UnoTM-like. But the art is all done by artists you know and many pictures you’ve seen on Yuri picture boards live here in bright color. The four suits are the three rose families and a “brown” suit with other non-rose characters. Shizuka, Mami, Tsutako, etc. Many of these pictures are Yuri, or Yuri-esque and most of them are brilliant. For fun, I’m including two here, so you can see what I mean:

The first is probably a picture you’ve seen around. The artist is Shoutarou Tanaka and I’m sure some wonderful reader will jump right in with his website URL, since I don’t have it to hand. I included the second because this particular large-eyed picture of Kanako is drawn by Miyabi Fujieda, author and artist of Iono-sama Fanatics. Cute, huh? ^_^

Mari-un-Zero is a popular fan work and has lots and lots of lovely pictures. I always feel guilty about opening the box and taking the cards out to look at them though! ^_^

Lastly, I wanted to share with you something that is really not Yuri at all, but it is timely. One of the popular diversions for many centuries at New Years in Japan was a game called Hyakunin Isshu. In short, each card has one half of the first line of a Heian period poem. The second halves of the lines are laid out on the floor between two people and when the first line is read all hell breaks loose as the contestants try to obtain the second half. The one with the most cards and least brusies wins, presumably. We actually did a modernized, westernized version of this game for Onna! and we expect to the next time, as well. It was fun and popular – even if the verses were too hard for most of the contestants. (Which is a rant for another time, because I picked verses which are very famous…sigh…)

Anyway, as New Year’s Day has just passed, and as every time I saw anyone playing this game on TV in Japan it was women, AND as we know how much sexual tension competition breeds (coughBattleAthletescough,) I thought it might be fun to show you what a deck of Hyakunin Isshu cards looks like. This is my deck, btw – not a picture I found online. Last time I was at Sanseido bookstore in Edgewater, NJ, they had decks and decks for sale – even deluxe models with CDs with someone reading the verses. Lots of kimonoed fun, trust me. The women who played this on TV when we watched were *vicious.* It was a scream.

At any rate, whether or not “Yuri” per se, lots of beautiful girls and women, some great art and fun card games for all. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Eve’s Apple/Eve no Ringo, Volume 4

January 4th, 2006

We ended the year with a discussion of the best, so it seems fitting and balanced somehow to start the year off with, if not exactly the worst, then certainly one of the lowest. Eve’s Apple is waaaay down there.

If you haven’t already, you might want to catch up to us by reading my reviews of Eve Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3. Okay, now you’re ready to jump into Volume 4 of Eve no Ringo.

The manga begins with a very typical color-page type layout of Kirika in leather embracing a naked Mio. The next page is the two of them leaping out of the position and yelling at Miyamae sensei for getting them into that position in the first place. It’s actually quite funny. ^_^

The first chapter consists of the antics of one of Kirika’s school friends, who first makes a few quick bucks by flashing the boys in class, then drags Matsuda-kun to “help” her shop for a bathing suit. She encourages him to pursue his dream of being a mangaka, to be honest with Kirika, then kisses him to let him know that she has feeling for him. She runs off with a happy wave.

Kirika is sitting with Yurika, when the grumpy editor walks by. Kirika blushes and excuses herself, but once in the ladies’ room, she finds herself confronted by Miyamae-sensei. Miyamae tells her that what the editor meant by she doesn’t need him, is that she’s got a good story sense. Kirika admits that after the mad dash to get the new magazine off the ground, she’s hit a slump. To get Kirika back in touch with her S&M sense, Miyamae takes her to the landing of the fire stairs. There, she proceeds to defrock Kirika, stressing that the shock and embarassment that she’s feeling is part of the excitement. Kirika denies this, but the older woman uses her own body as evidence against her. This round goes to Miyamae, as she puts them in the path of any of the Blue Velvet editors who might happen to slip out for a smoke. Kirika admits that the fear contributes to the thrill, as well. As a “reward” Miyamae tells her that *this* is what he meant by her not needing him. Kirika, left once again all hot and bothered, is not amused.

Mio is still not *quite* getting the whole S&M thing, so she wanders around for a chapter trying to figure it all out. She ends up with Matsuda-kun, and gee, what a surprise they end up doing a little B&D play. Matsuda is quite surprised at how much fun being the top is and wonders if he’s got natural S&M talent. Mio corrects that assumption with a quick role reversal.

The beach episode! Bathing suits and other service. Mio almost drowns, Matsuda-kun rescues her, they have sex. It would be very boring, but when Yurika, Kirika and Miyamae find them, they basically sit around and watch and comment on Mio’s and Matsuda’s technique critically. ^_^ When Shimazu-san (Kirika’s friend from the first chapter) shows up, she’s all interested too, but they are spotted and Mio is not at all happy about it.

And in case we didn’t have enough sex and nudity, we head over to the hot spring resort after the beach. Miyamae gets in a little torture Matsuda time, and the girls all get naked and join gang girl Yano in the water for lots of breast grabbing. Then we all sit around and watch Miyamae become an angry and violent drunk. Kirika ends up outside with her evil editor, Mitsugu. He asks her for a personal favor, and gets very close, something only she can help him with. They end up in his room working on the magazine. Insert funny sound effect.

Kirika is asked to write a story that takes place in a soapland. She brings Matsuda with her to take reference sketches of the whole experience. We get walked through the bath and massage and hand job, which leads to blow job and, as Matsuda realizes he’s getting a little too close, Kirika expresses her desire to see him come – for the manga, of course. Embarrassed and feeling used, Matsuda run away. She apologizes to him, for not realizing how it made him feel, but frankly I don’t sympathize with him at all…

Kirika’s friend Mizuki calls her and asks if she’ll join her for a double date. Mizuki’s boyfriend has a friend, etc…Kirika says okay, and they go out for the day, ending in a karaoke box. When Mizuki and her boyfriend start getting it on, the friend plays up to Kirika, who’s not opposed to a little recreational fondling. Mizuki’s boyfriend starts to turn it all into an exhibition, and Kirika jumps up enraged. “THAT’S not how you do it!’ She yells and proceeds to explain what positions are the most vulnerable and appealing. By the end, she has the three of them hogtied by microphone wires and runs off home to incorporate her new ideas into a story. ^_^

The final chapter is a western, with Miyamae playing the part of the bad guy and Kirika the good guy, with a little Miyamae x Mio action in the middle.

Finally Mai, Kirika’s kouhai in the chado club, arrives for club activities. Kirika is not looking so hot (long night drawing, we’re led to believe) and she complains about Mai’s “sempai!” “sempai!” all the time. Mai thinks about it and apologizes to “Kirika-oneesama!” Next page is Mai all tied up and partially dressed and begging mercy, but rather happily. She says Kirika’s a great onee-sama and suggested they created a “sado club” instead of chado club.

Like all the other volumes of this series, this is trash. But it’s funny, light-hearted and amazingly emotionally unburdened trash. Kirika still gets off less than the rest of them, which is sort of sad, but there’s a sort of a indirect group sex thing going on among all the artists, where they all end up with one another at some point, which is kind of, I dunno…nice. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 8
Service – 9
Yuri – 6

Overall – If you’re bent that way, 7. Otherwise….





Yuricon News: ALC Starts the New Year with a Sale on Shoujoai!

January 3rd, 2006

ALC Publishing is starting the New Year off with a sale on shoujoai – as in Shoujoai ni Bouken: The Adventures of Yuriko, Volume 1! Or read it all online!

Along with our heavily discounted sale price, all purchases of our unique shoujo manga-style yuri serial SnB, with fantastic illustrations by Kelli Nicely, come with a free gift. So support Yuri, yuri and Shoujoai today by buying your own copy of the illustrated adventures of Yuricon’s hunky out lesbian pop idol mascot, Yuriko!