Of course, since I took a week off big news hit. Isn’t that always the way? Here we go!
Yuri Anime
Top story of the week is something that I alluded to some time ago – ANN reports that Yuri Hime series Yuri Yuri has been greenlighted for an anime series. I’m happy that we’re finally getting a Yuri anime from one of the Yuri Hime magazines, I personally wish it were a series I liked. Yuru Yuri will appeal to the Lucky Star-type fandom and, so, it’s a wise choice in that way. I suppose I should feel lucky that they didn’t choose Love Cubic, but I admit to being a tad disappointed in the choice when there are other, so much better IMHO, series to have chosen from.
Clarification: Japanese YNN correspondent Y_Y points out that the ANN article is not entirely correct – the obi says that it would be nice *if* Yuru Yuri has an anime – and the Yuri Hime editorial staff blog also said they think it would make a nice anime…but there is no anime greenlit as of yet.
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Yuri Manga
Top story here is still Gunjo, which will be re-serialized in Ikki magazine in Japan – starting in the April issue which, for reasons known only to some publisher in the depths of time, will go on sale February 25.
The first 13 chapters (the ones that ran in Morning 2 magazine) will be re-serialized and the first volume will come out this spring. Once the series is caught up, it will continue in Ikki with, Nakamura-sensei tells me, volumes 2 and 3 slated for 2011 and 2012.
Now, before you you go running around screaming, wondering when you might see it in Viz’s SigIkki online magazine, and start a letter campaign to Viz to ask them to license it…let me ask you to take a deep breath – and wait. Just wait. I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as I can but, for the moment, just hold off on blasting Viz with emails. I promise to let you know if that’s going to be necessary. ^_^ If you do want the latest on the situation, and don’t mind getting it in Japanese, I strongly recommend reading Nakamura-sensei’s blog directly. She’s very open and upfront with her information.
Today, as a special manga feature we have a mini-review from YNN correspondent Mara on another Viz title, Jormungand:
I grabbed the first volume of Jormungand off the shelf because it stood out from the others as it was published by the Viz subsidiary Sig, the same publisher Dogs, Bullets and Carnage has. I quickly read the back and discovered that it was about Koko Hekmatyar: a highly active weapons dealer who is into making a lot of money off appropriately vague wars over the world. She shares the spotlight in this with Jonah, a child soldier, who is recruited by Koko to join the other mercenaries she has as part of her entourage.
So upon reading that blurb I immediately bought it, read it and found it to be most entertaining. Koko for one is a fun, kooky yet incredibly sharp protagonist who makes the sale and then gets out of doge before anyone can aim a gun at her.
Should anyone manage to get Koko in trouble aside from Jonah there is Valmet to help as well and here is where the possible Yuri comes in. Valmet is shown to find Koko cute to the point of ‘comical’ nosebleeds and an extra at the end of the volume shows that Valmet is indeed very focused on Koko and even likes her bad points, like how she complains a lot.
I feel the Yuri is set more to what we connote from what we are shown rather than stated at the moment. There needs to be more character development for Valmet before I can say anything for certain and considering this genre of manga it is highly likely the kinds of scenes that I read in the manga could never happen again or it could be explained in a different manner.
While there is very little to go on in the first volume I wished to highlight this series to you as even if the Yuri does turn out to be false this is still a fine series in the style of Black Lagoon or Dogs. Great fun and has a female protagonist who is for once given the appropriate ‘rights of the protagonist’ for this kind of series.
Thanks, Mara! Sound really interesting – I’ll be sure to add it to my cart. :-)
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Other News
I don’t know if you all saw this a few weeks back, but Brazilian artist, Mauricio de Sousa had planned a joint venture with Osamu Tezuka, but Tezuka died before their dream could be realized. Now, de Sousa’s work, which will include character-of-interest Safire from Ribon no Kishi is going forward. There’s been a lot of renewed interest in this series, from the not-great remake recently in Nakayosi magazine to the constant requests directed (by me and others) at Vertical. It will be a great day when this first Princess-Prince series finally manages to make it over here.
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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!
Wow, I did not expect you to put my whole e-mail in there. Thank you ever so much, that is very flattering. ^^
Of all the YH titles, Yuru Yuri…?
*sighs*
Oh well, maybe this will be the initiative to get the better titles animated as well.
Ahh Jormungand- I cannot wait for the next volume to come out!
Sounds like fun. :)