Archive for June, 2014


Takarazuka Kagekidan Karei Naru 100 Nen (宝塚歌劇 華麗なる100年)

June 13th, 2014

Takarazuka Kagekidan Karei Naru 100 Nen (宝塚歌劇 華麗なる100年)  is a 100th anniversary book about the famed all-female Takarazuka musical revue.

The book is full of color and B&W images of early Takarazuka newspaper articles, photos, promotional pieces…even reproductions of early tickets. Starting from it’s physical location, and images from back to 1910, the book traces the official history of the school, the theaters and the earliest troupes that graduated and performed. The books has ton of images from productions and newspaper articles about historical Top Stars.

Sprinkled throughout the book are interviews with Top Stars, past and present, including a few Tops Star pairs. I was particularly charmed by the interviews with current or recent Top Stars shown in their street dress,  with no more makeup than one would would expect for a photo shoot. Looking so natural, we can really appreciate their appeal. I particularly liked this when they interviewed some of the older Top Stars,. (And my goodness, Aran Kei is a lovely woman; far away from her otokoyaku look, she just has a gorgeous poise and is quite feminine.)

The end of the book includes several montage pages of dozens of mid-20th century otokoyaku and musumeyaku.  All quite squee-worthy.

For a Takarazuka completist, or someone who is just fascinated by the longevity of the Revue, this book is a real treasure.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

I was glad to see so many names even I recognized, so I imagine that any Takarazuka fan would really enjoy checking this book out.





Yuri Manga: Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo, Volume 1 (あの娘にキスと白百合を)

June 12th, 2014

It was only a few weeks ago when I reported on Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo (あの娘にキスと白百合を), Volume 1 and I confessed that, almost despite myself, I was intrigued. Well, apparently, my intrigue was enough for the kind and generous Okazu Superhero Dan P. and here we are! Thanks Dan!

Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo (translated on the cover as “Kiss and white lily for my girl”) begins with a slightly irritating premise. At Shiroyuri Gakuen, one of the stars of the school is the beautiful, smart, talented and cultured Shiramine Ayaka. But, no matter how hard Ayaka tries, she cannot surpass the lazy, sluggard genius Kurozawa Yurine. It makes her crazy, especially as familial expectations for her performance come down to anything less than a perfect score and top ranking equals failure. And there’s Kurozawa, sleeping through class and acing the test. Ayaka is driven absolutely to distraction by her rival. I’m always frustrated with the “girl who works really hard just never wins against lazy genius” plot, but the story quickly moved away  from this.

As we all know from romantic fiction, rivalry leads to obsession, which leads to infatuation. Yurine is the one who leaps across the gap between them and brings them together, helped along by Ayaka’s cousin, Mizuki. Ayaka and Yurine are still obsessed about one another, in a good way.

Mizuki finds herself repaid for bringing Yurine onto the track and field team by finding herself in second place. She goes through a crisis, having lost her will to win, but Yurine fires her up and for the first time in a long time, Mizuki rediscovers her sense of competition. Mizuki’s partner in crime, Moe, is thrilled that she’s fired up once again, and they become closer than they were before. It’s not hard to imagine them as lovers.

Yurine had never managed to or cared to become friendly with her classmates, but now that she’s in love with Ayaka and on the track team, the sudden influx of other humans into her life has made her keenly aware of how lonely she is. On a day when she feels particularly not inclined to be alone –  but does not know how to approach others –  one of her classmates asks her to go shopping with her. Yurine spends a day doing incredibly normal things and find herself in tears of relief and joy at such simple pleasures. After Ai leaves her, Ayaka runs up to her, also in tears, mortified that she might have missed Yurine’s birthday. She give Yurine flowers, and they embrace, to Ayaka’s embarrassment. (A little side extra story, follows an adult female couple who sees them hugging in public and are motivated to take one another’s hand.) And, while Ayaka and Yurine are now an item, the final page lets us know that their rivalry is only going to get fiercer.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Very shoujo style art
Story – 8
Characters – 7 None of the characters are particularly realistic, but they fulfill their functions
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 on principle only

Overall – 8

For a “Story A” tale, it was pleasant reading, and we’ll see where it goes. This ran in Comic Alive, but it could have run in a girls’ magazine as is.

Thanks once again to Dan for the enjoyable read!





Yuri Manga: Inferno Girl (インフェルノガール)

June 11th, 2014

Kurokiri Misao’s Inferno Girl (インフェルノガール) is a collection of her Comic Yuri Hime shorts. It has no defining theme or factors, but has a few notable selections.

The first story, “Gateau Foret Noire” is a fanciful little story about love and desserts, in which a younger twin has to twist the arm of her older sister to get her to return another girl’s heartfelt feelings. I want you to understand that it took me longer to find the correct spelling of「 ガトー・ド・フェルノワール」 than it will to write the rest of this review. ^_^; I liked the sister forcing her twin to own her own feelings, although the rest of the story was a bit thin.

“G.G.P” was, erm..an awkward story about condoms, why sex education should probably not be left to classmates and another couple who is reluctant to admit what they feel. I was pretty much okay with it, until the final page, when I just felt that the condom imagery was taken one step too far into, “get the fuck out of this book.” ^_^

“Ningyo Plastic” almost felt like it was going to have strong impact, as it touches briefly on being outcast and outsider in school, but it never really gelled for me.

Two idols meet up professionally, but their relationship blossoms privately in “Prism Emotional.” This was probably the most solid story of the collection. Certainly the most entertaining.

The final story honestly made me cringe when I read it in Comic Yuri Hime.”Lobotomy to Kowareta  Kajitsu” is a ham-handed look at a rape survivor and the friend who means well, but would probably not really be very helpful.

The final story is an epilogue to “Gateau Foret Noire”.

As I type this, I suddenly realize that almost every story in this collection meant well, and tried to touch on a real, important topic; Abandonment, Rape, Being Ostracized, but the moe art, the short page count and a clear lack of conviction meant that they fell short of the intent.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Well executed, typical current style, but not to my taste
Stories – 7, which is to say they were really 6, plus 1 for trying
Characters – 5 Probably with some time, a few of them would have been great
Yuri – 8
Service – 4 Some partial undressing, rape implied not shown

Overall – 6

I wish one of the stronger stories had been better, or the one good story had been stronger. Instead, in the middle of all Kurokiri-sensei’s hard work, the dumb story about the idols is the best. orz





Yuri Manga: Aishi no Salome　

June 9th, 2014

aishinosalomeThe June issue of Bessatsu Hana to Yume includes a special edition collection of Takao Shigeru’s Yuri short “Aishi no Salome”.

I first read the news about this collection on Comic Natalie, but the short description did not particularly thrill me. Two “contrasting” girls in a boarding school meet and fall in love. Okay, great! Then what? Nothing, as far as I could tell, so I wasn’t rushing off to get this volume. But there I was in San Jose, CA in a Kinokuniya and there was the volume and I thought, “Oh, okay.” ^_^

Takao Shigeru doesn’t usually draw Yuri, she’s best known for Teruteru Shonen and has a historical drama series “Madame Petit” running now. I guess that’s the big draw of this story, that a manga artist that is relatively well-known drew it.

Aya and Sango are two girls living at a dorm who have something deep and intense between them…but for the life of me, I have no idea what. The 40-something pages of this story contain two screaming matches and at least one emotional breakdown per character, but we have to do a lot of work to imagine that their relationship is worthy of all this drama. But, let’s just presume it is and that when Sango and Aya run away at the end to live together, their kiss is a signal of “happily ever after.” Why not? There’s no reason to assume it is but equally, there’s no reason to assume it’s not.

Ratings:

Art – 9 a pleasant mix of classic and modern
Story – 6 Weaksauce but it was meant as a short
Characters – If only we knew ye
Yuri – 8
Service – 5 Wedding dresses

Overall – 6

It wasn’t bad, just a little confusing. How did this get a special edition?





Yuri Network News (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 7, 2014

June 7th, 2014

YNN_MariKYuri Events

Quick, there’s still time to catch me at AnimeNEXT, at 5:30 EST, in Somerset, NJ today doing the ‘Secret’ History of Yaoi and Yuri panel. By ‘secret’, of course, I mean, “secret until you crack open a book”. ^_^ I’ll be bringing stuff as prizes for good questions, including a copy of One Peace Books’ Whispered Words, the English edition of Sasamekikoto!

(I know a number of folks have asked about recording this, but I extemporize a lot of my paneling and lecturing. IMHO, it makes for bad outside watching, as I’m there for the people in the room with me. I make no promises, but if I have time and energy, I’ll put the presentation up on Slideshare for you afterwards.)

Anime Expo will be hosting Gen Urubochi, known in our circles for Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Go to his panel and bring good questions with you!

If you’re in Japan this summer, check out the event for Dezai Osamu’s and other’s “pretty girls” anime. This sounds like a lot of fun, but I’ll miss it by a bit, so do share photos if you go!

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Sailor Moon News

zOMGzOMG! It’s the first Sailor Moon Crystal trailer! I was totally squeeing when I realized that, even though my computer was dying and I had no sound, I could tell when she said “Tsuki ni kawatte oshioki yo!”

Also, the wife got her Proplica wand and couldn’t stop taking pictures of it. I can foresee us combing every store in Japan this October for Sailor Moon Crystal stuff.

Anime News Network is doing a gigantic Sailor Moon stuff giveaway called “What Does Sailor Moon mean to you?” Because we have so much stuff, and because we can get stuff, I will not be entering, but I’ll tell you this. Yuricon was created because of Sailor Moon. I wrote fanfic, which lead to Internet reknown, which lead to Yuricon and Okazu…because of Sailor Moon. It means a lot to me. ^_^

And for those of you hellbent on creating your own Sailor Moon shrine, Bandai would like to help. They are releasing the Cutie Moon Rod next.

Sailor Uranus and Neptune are getting lip balm and chopsticks…which, Lynzee Lamb of ANN rightfully notes will be sold “as a pair.” ^_^

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Yuri Anime

I’m almost amazed that I’m telling you this: Ikkitousen: Xtreme Xecutor is out on DVD. I was just listening to a Ikkitousen song this morning as I jogged and for a moment, actually wanted to see this again. ^_^

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Other News

Charity and Sylvia, by Rachel Hope Cleves, is a book about a same-sex marriage in 19th-century America.

Prism Comics is once again taking submissions for its Queer Comics Press Grant, Prism’s annual grant to LGBT comics self-publishers. The deadline for proposals is Monday, September 1, 2014. The Award is to be announced at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco October 4-5, 2014.

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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!