Strap yourselves in, we have a *lot* of news this week.
Yuri Live Action
I have been forgetting to tell you about this for *ever, so I’m putting it first so I can’t forget this time.lol Yoshida Akemi, mangaka of Lover’s Kiss and many other classic manga, also wrote a story called Sakura no Sono (The Cherry Orchard.) It was made into a movie a long while back, but earlier this year, a remake of the movie was made. There are two trailers, one from the original version and the second from the new version – you can see how the tone changed. Here is the original trailer, here is the new trailer. The basic plot is that a new girl transfers to a private girls school and runs up against the usual stereotypes (bullying ojousoama and henchicks, girl who falls for her, etc…), and then learns it used to be traditional to perform Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard every year until tragedy put an end to it. She decides to revive the tradition – melodrama happens. Aside from the fact that it once again allows me to mention Chekhov on this blog, this story is an eary Yuri classic. Keep an eye out for this movie.
While I’m on live-action, I discovered an incredibly good way to waste chunks of time with Afterellen.com’s short lesbian detective web series BJ Fletcher, Private Eye. It’s hammily written and hammily overacted and the protagonist is not the hero, but it’s a great way to blow a half hour here and there watching a couple of episodes. (Episodes are about 15 minutes long.) :-)
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Yuri Anime
It’s busty women in battle bikinis! The Queens’ Blade trailer is up for your viewing…erm, pleasure.
AND the 4th season trailer for Maria-sama ga Miteru is up on Animate TV, along with a list of the cast (which gives us on the irc channel #marimite_spoilers@rizon.com a good idea of how far this season is going to go through the novels. Join us if you want the low down.) Here are the narrowband and the broadband trailers. Extra points if you can tell what story all that comes from. :-)
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Yuri Manga
Erin wants us to not be sad, but the second volume of Strawberry Shake Sweet will be delayed until January.
In the meantime, the next Yuri Hime S is out in 5 days, so no crying. :-)
And please don’t forget that Yuri Monogatari 6 is in the December Previews and that pre-ordering really *does* make a difference!
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Yuri Light Novels
On December 26th, the next Maria-sama ga Miteru novel, Hello Goodbye hits the streets. In case the title is too subtle, this is likely to be the *last* novel in the series. Fans all over the world are smiling through their tears.
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Yuri Drama CDs
Through the kindness of Okazu superhero Ana, I just recently received a copy of the fifth Ichigo Mashimaro Drama CD. It’s crazy, and just slightly beyond my ability to follow, but as it’s the typical IM setup you have Nobue perving over Anna and Matsuri, and Miu fighting for Nobue’s attention. I’m kind of sympathetic to Chika when she says, “Are you really my sister?” lol
Katherine wants you to know about the Maria-sama ga Miteru Christmas CD, and I want you to know about the Maria-sama ga MiteruSpecial DCD, which comes out on Christmas.
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Yuricon News
Members of Facebook, you can now ‘Become a Fan’ of Yuricon & ALC Publishing! Just visit the Yuricon & ALC page on Facebook and become a fan!
Not on Facebook? You can friend Yuricon & ALC publishing on LiveJournal, MySpace or follow us on Twitter, too!
Also – Yuricon is looking for, well…a new look. The website is four years old now and it’s time for a new design. This is a paid contract job, I’m looking for someone with good design skills, excellent communication skills and a strong sense of deadline and responsibility. You will be responsible for creating the design and assisting with the migration of the site. Students of design are welcome to apply.
If you would like to apply for this position, please email me at yuricon at hotmail dotcom with an introductory email and if possible a link to your portfolio or an example of your work.
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Yuri Doujinshi
Winter Comiket is right around the corner. If you are going to be in Japan for New Year’s Eve, drop by Tokyo Big Sight on 12/30 and stock up on Yuri doujinshi! Use Small Call’s List of Yuri Circles to plan your purchases. (The List is in Japanese, but if you can’t even read the list, then there’s basically no way you’ll be able to make it around Comiket without a guide, lol.) Visit the West Hall, Row Mi (in hiragana), Table 36a for Office Mono, our own Eriko Tadeno’s newest Yuri doujinshi! (yay!!)
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Yuri 3-D Worlds
Lastly. You may remember that I mentioned a Rose Mansion event on Second Life this week. Well, due to other resposibilities I did not make it (I’m still hoping to make the event on 12/19 11PM Japan time…) but someone did! (And, after only a little verbal abuse from me, wrote up a nice little report for us) Let me turn this over to Rei:
This morning I visited the Rose Mansion open house on Second Life. I have to say I was impressed. The entire SIM is really quite amazing – it’s apparent that someone spent a lot of time painstakingly recreating the setting of Maria-sama ga Miteru. As you approach the gate you’re given a free change of clothes for your avatar into a Lillian uniform (or Hanadera uniform for the guys) and from there on it only gets cuter. If you explore far enough you’ll discover there are Photography Club and Newspaper Club branch offices in the Rose Mansion. Here you’ll find free armbands for your avatar. I chose to adorn myself with the Photography Club arm band. There’s also a church on the premises that features pictures from past MARIASAMA group events, and of course, the ever-serene Maria-sama’s garden, replete with statue.
The visitors are also very charming: chatting away in Japanese about everything under the sun, but mostly fashion. I met two locals who were very encouraging and helpful. MAO Amaterasu seems to be a Linden Millionaire who has various gorgeous avatar costumes to change into, hair that never stops flowing and walks like she’s on imported air (thank you Blondie). Her cute rosary-toting soeur, Sakurako Ceriano, gave me some toast to carry around in my avatar’s mouth and told me all about Hatsumoude at her local shrine. I think there were games and stuff but I arrived too late to for the party-favors. Anyway, it was a blast.
For anyone interested, the SIM is located in Sonima, but just so you know, you can’t fly within school grounds: walking slowly so as not to disturb the pleats in your skirts is the preferred mode of travel here. Have fun exploring and be sure to bring your parasol. ~Rei (Known on Second Life as Kohime Matsuri)
Thanks Rei, that was fabulous and now I really want to make it to the next event…!
Oh, btw, Rei also told me that when you arrive at the Rose Mansion, the light shines through the stained glass above the stairs and rains three colors of light down upon you. LF heaven.
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That’s all there is for this week, except for the stuff I forgot. Oh well, there’s always next week!
The Queens’ Blade trailer is… silly, but it’s sweet that they give so much attention to the voice actresses, even if they act like morons.
The Marimite trailer looks interesting. It seems like Yumi is getting herself in a lot of hot water. I am especially curious about what the heck is going between her and Touko.
Besides the raging case of Tsunderitis Touko has for “Yumi-sama”? (Random guess going by the recent, impressive, translations here: would that one be the Drama Club, uh, drama thingy?)
Queen’s Blade looks like it gleefully turns “silly” up to eleven. With some luck it ends over-the-top enough to make like Ikki Tousen and end up hilarious and awesome, in the good old “check brains at door” fashion…
Both of the Sakura no Sono trailers make it look like another Marimite clone (even though I know that the Sakura no Sono manga is older), but the first one looks infinitely creepier. (With hideous uniforms and weird, old-fashioned hairstyles. And what was with the two women just…smiling eerily next to each other for several seconds?? o_o) If the movie is like the second trailer, I’m willing to check it out, although honestly, I’m getting really sick of the gajillion all-girl’s school Yuri series that keep coming out. It feels about as trite for me now as the “bevy of hot women fall for spineless everyman” set up. Sorry for the rant, I just wish that more Yuri anime/manga creators would come up with a plot that doesn’t fall back on the girl’s school set up. ^^;; I still love Maria-sama ga Miteru and I like Strawberry Panic (probably because those two series were my first exposure to the “all girl’s school” story, so it doesn’t bother me with them, plus Marimite is exceptional and StoPani doesn’t take itself too seriously), but otherwise people need to come up with new ideas for Yuri. Otherwise, I think I’ll pass from now on.
On a brighter note, the Maria-sama trailer looks great! ^^ I really wish I could have gone to the 3-D event.
The Queen’s Blade trailer looks… like it’s not a girl’s school story. ^^ It looks craptastic, but I’ll at least check out an episode.
Sakura no Sono has Ueto Aya in it <3
btw the first trailer seems to be from the 90’s version
Ah… that explains a lot, thanks jintai. :) The first trailer actually reminded me of a movie from the early 90s that the gym class I was in in Japan (while studying abroad in high school) had to watch. ^^;; (It was really creepy too.) Probably explains my visceral reaction to the first trailer.
And sorry, I must have come across as a spoilsport yesterday. I did a poor job articulating my thoughts about the girl’s school subgenre. As long as the story is executed well and does something to distinguish itself, it can still be good.
http://books.shueisha.co.jp/tameshiyomi/978-4-08-601244-7.html
It’s out now. Possibly the final book in the saga. The best darned ride ever. :)