Archive for 2017


LGBTQ Comic: Honor Girl (English)

January 15th, 2017

I love that the phrase, “This one time at camp” has entered American cultural consciousness, whether because of or despite the origin of the line. Because, for most people of my generation, camp was a place where we developed our sense of self, worked through puberty and became who we actually were. I have many camp memories, and of them, most are really strange. ^_^

So for me, reading Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash was a bit like a view through a curtain of an alternate version of my own youth. Maggie’s experience at a Christian sleepaway camp is the alternative-universe version  of my own Girl Scout camp experience where none of these things happened and no one was weird (which is weird itself) and we all came and went and no one ever tried to stay in touch. I don’t think.

In Honor Girl, Maggie begins the story with an awkward meeting with a girl whom she had met and fallen in like with as a camper, when Erin had been a counselor. The bulk of the book focuses on Maggie’s life, her experiences at the camp, her falling in like with Erin, beginning to get a clearer picture of her own desires and leaving without ever having gotten a chance to address what she and Erin felt.

In between that, we watch Maggie wade the deep, dark, and treacherous waters of young adulthood and friendships and rivalries with other girls. Individual moments stirred long-dormant memories in me, none of which had much emotional baggage. I remember camp…I don’t remember a single person at camp, only the horses. ^_^;

Honor Girl is plainly told, with a very adult-looking-back-at-her-youth tone, as if Maggie is struggling to find meaning in it, when both we and she know that there isn’t any, not really.

The art is clean and easy to follow, no sketchy line work clogging up the panels. Backgrounds are simple with just enough detail to establish the mise-en-scène fully.

The relationships between Maggie and the other girls are exactly as fraught as I remember relationships being at that age. One wants so much to have someone to confide in, but there’s always the understanding that betrayal could come for the most absurd of reasons. Maggie’s relationship with Erin exists only in outline, but Maggie knows the moment that the moment has passed and it’s over before it’s begun. I appreciated her self-awareness.

Ratings

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 1 Nostalgia can be a form of “service”
Yuri – 3

Overall – 8

If you enjoy autobiographical comics like Liz Prince’s Tomboy or Mari Naomi’s I Thought You Hated Me, then you will also enjoy Honor Girl. I certainly did. ^_^

For today’s review, I must thank Okazu Superhero Clearesta T – thank you very much for picking something off the Yuri Wishlist! It’s greatly appreciated. Please contact me,so I can send you your Superhero badge!





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – January 14, 2017

January 14th, 2017

Yuri Manga

ANN has the report that a banner at a sumo tournament has announced the 13th Volume of Rose of Versailles (ベルサイユのばら,), which will be out at the end of this month in Japan. Check out the article for images and a discussion of sumo banners. ^_^

Seven Seas has another pile of licensing announcements, one of which I was absolutely gobsmacked by. According to ANN, they’ve licensed Cutey Honey-a-Go Go!, my favorite iteration of the Cutey Honey franchise. I reviewed it in 2007 and said, “Bar none, this is my *favorite* version of Honey.”

The OASG has an article on 20 manga you should keep an eye out for this year. A number of Yuri titles are on it, but there’s *so* much Yuri coming out this year, they barely scratched the surface. Bookmark the Yuricon Store because we’ll make sure it’s all there!

Teku Mahiru has a new Yuri manga series beginning in Comic Heaven, Kimi to 6 jikan no Koi wo shita (君と6時間の恋をした」).

 

Yuri Anime

Crunchyroll News has the report that the new Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection movie is confirmed for July 2017.

The cast for NTR: Netsuzou Trap has been announced, according to ANN. 

Via YNN correspondent Jst, ANN has the news that Nozomi has announced the Revolutionary Girl Utena anime set on Blu-Ray. 

 

Live Action

Silent Mobius, the sci-fi paranormal adventure series by Asamiya Kia is getting a live-Action stage play adaptation. Initial staff and cast members have been named, but roles are not yet assigned, according to ANN.

Crunchyroll reports that the live-action Saki adaptation has taken an ad out in a sports paper, with cast in costume. 

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Yuri Webcomic

Hanna-Pirita Lehkonen has created a lovely little Rapunzel-inspired comic. 

Nakamura Kiyo (aka Ching) is lunching a new, tongue-in-cheek action webcomic on Note.mu, Miboujin Sentai Ranger (未亡人戦隊 喪レンジャー)

 

Other News

Teen Vogue weighs in on Sailor Moon with 15 Times Sailor Moon was the Feminist Icon We All Needed.  The article contains some inaccuracies, but I give them kudos for the effort.

And, on the other side of the aisle, via Matt Thorn on Twitter,  an article on whether gay men read BL in Japanese, has been translated to English. This spawned a conversation between myself, Matt and Jason Thompson in which we vehemently, virulently, mostly agree with each other. ^_^ 

And also of interest in BL,  Kamome Hamada is launching a BL comic based on a real person’s real life story. So, more LGBTQ than BL. ANN has the report. 

 Via YNN Correspondent Elizabeth F, the next season of the Young Justice cartoon might be acknowledging it’s LGBTQ characters, according to James Whitbrook on i09.

Crunchyroll has a report about a class at the University of South Carolina on Reading and Writing About Magical Girls. 

Amazon.com (US) is launching a paid anime streaming service. One more entry in a crowded field. Whether another paid service can succeed where so a number of free services (Crunchyroll, Daisuki, Viewster) and paid services (Neon Alley, Anime Network) already exist remains to be seen. I assume they expect Amazon users to go to them first.

 

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? 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!





Yuri Drama CD – Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Kyuusei Radio (English)

January 13th, 2017

The fourth Drama CD for Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Kyuusei Radio, (屋上の百合霊さんドラマCD「九星ラジオ」) is both charming and vexing in turn, which only serves to highlight the feeling of visiting with old friends that one inevitably gets with post-series media.

It’s been a few years since Yuna met and spoke with two ghosts on the school roof. She and her classmates have all graduated and moved on with their lives. Most of them attend college, including Umi, Sasa and Nena, the broadcasting trio. The three are still friends and, one autumn weekend, team up with the local shopping area to do a special Kyuusei Radio broadcast, highlighting local shops, sales and events. 

In between segments, we learn that Umi, Sasa and Nena are planning a trip to Hawaii and that Nena’s kouhai wants to come. It’s pretty clear that they all think her admiration for Nena crosses a line, but Sasa reminds Umi and, more importantly, us, they just may never become a couple.

The bulk of the drama CD is banter between the three, much of in just as annoying as you might expect with old friends whose jokes you’re not in on. ^_^; But the broadcast is rather sweet and I could easily imagine strolling down a local shotengai visiting the tea store and bakery at their suggestion.

We do get a quick visit with Yuna, at the end, and Ano, Aki and Youka are mentioned, but do not appear. However, someone else does….and, at last, I am vindicated.

This download includes a second disk’s worth of content. Not only do you get an enjoyable hour-long Drama CD, you get the soundtrack  for the series, narrated by none other than…Sachi and Megumi, the ghosts of Shirojo. You may remember that, at the end of my review of the Kindred Spirits VN, I said, “There is a final thing that surprised the heck out of me, but as it’s a huge spoiler, I’ll skip it. Let’s just say that I was surprised again by the end – not what it did, but what it didn’t. Ask me in 6 months when everyone’s had a chance to get through this.” As it’s been a year now, I can spoil this without too much concern.

The final climax (har-har) of the game is Sachi and Megumi finally leaving this mortal plane. I was convinced that, by the end of the game, they would return. I was actually surprised that they didn’t. But here, at the veryyyyyyy final piece of the series, they return. Hah. I knew it. ^_^

Ratings:

Characters – 9 Above all things, extremely realistic.
Story – 8 Pleasant.
Yuri – 5 If you didn’t know Sasa and  Umi were a couple, you might be forgiven for not realizing until they mention it.

Overall – 8

As with all the other CDs, the story is cute, the time spent with characters is entertaining and Nena’s snark is still extremely high-level.

 





Sailor Moon S Anime , Part 1, Disk 3 (English)

January 11th, 2017

Today’s review begins with my very heartfelt gratitude to Okazu Superhero Ivan L. Upon reading in an earlier review that my computer had crashed and taken my Blu-ray player with it, Ivan generously donated one to Okazu. And so, because of Ivan’s kindness, I am able to report on Sailor Moon S, Part 1, Disk 3 on BD.

Sailor Moon S looks and sounds fantastic on Blu-ray. ^_^ As a quick test, I rewatched an episode in DVD. It looks great, but damn, that Blu-ray is smokin’. There’s no going back now. ^_^

The episodes of Disk 2 and 3 are arguably the reasons that so many fans love this series. These episodes are where we spend so much time with each individual Senshi, learning about their hopes and dreams and the self-doubts that hold them back. It gives them time to be people, rather than just archetypes.

On Disk 3, we also have the second-best episode* of the entire season, Uranus’ origin episode, Episode 106. By this point, the animation has really settled in. 20 years ago, Michiru’s drawing of Uranus was pretty and a little sexy. 20 years later it looks as good as – perhaps better than – new, as our screen resolution can finally really capture the movement and light in it.

For this episode, I also watched the dub. You may not appreciate the leap of faith that took for me, but trust me – this is my second-favorite episode of  all 200.* I had to believe that Erica Mendez and Lauren Landa were going to voice Haruka and Michiru in a way that wouldn’t make me cringe. So when I tell you that I thought they did a fantastic job, it has meaning and weight. My sincere thanks to both of them. It meant a lot to me to see Uranus and Neptune voiced “right.” The script isn’t exact to the Japanese, but it works beautifully and I have no major complaints. (Of course I have minor ones…I’m an otaku. ^_^)  The rest of the cast is also excellent – it was an actual pleasure to watch a dub. I don’t think I have ever said that before in my life. 

20 years later, I’m watching Haruka being mean to Michiru on a ship that inexplicably has a painting of the entire city being destroyed by a giant tidal wave and the painting is so vivid and so extraordinary a thing that I had to comment, “What a thing to have on a ship!” And then be sucked back into a story I have watched dozens, perhaps, hundreds of times.  Haruka, Michiru, two 15 year olds torn between their own dreams of the future and the past, and between desire for each other and to save the world. It’s a pretty intense episode, in a series that is about to take a turn into intensity.

However, before we do that, we have Eudial and her terrible driving, the ongoing gag of her parking tickets and her terrible Daimons, and a discussion of a rosy future. There’s one last gasp of humor to come, before this all goes dark, but we’ll have to wait for it in the second set. I cannot wait for the second set!

Ratings:

Art – 8 
Story – 9 Haruka and Michiru
Characters – 10 Haruka and Michiru
Yuri- 7 Haruka and Michiru 
Service – 4 

Overall – 9 Did I mention Haruka and Michiru?

I’ve written about this before, but the line “I won’t let you go home tonight” was a well-known pickup line in the 90s, when Sailor Moon S came out. It is suggestive to a Japanese audience in a way that an American audience might miss. And by “suggestive” I mean it wasn’t suggestive of driving all night long, it was a blatant come-on. Which is why Michiru says “ara” in that pleased/slightly scandalized tone. I’m sorry they changed it in English, but I’ll give them a bye on it. I can’t expect too many folks at Viz to know ancient pickup lines….although they could just ask me. ^_^ 

Thanks once again to Viz Media for the review copy, special thanks to Erica Mendez and Lauren Landa for their excellent jobs voicing roles that are so foundational to so many of us. And many, many thanks to Ivan. You all made me cry, in a good way. (T_T)

* If you can’t guess which episode is the favorite, then you’ll just have to wait. There’s really only one possible candidate. ^_^





LGBTQ: Biankon~Watashi ga Josei to, Kekkonshiki wo Agerumade~ (ビアン婚。 ~私が女性と、結婚式を挙げるまで~)

January 9th, 2017

In 2009, gravure model, TV talent and entertainer Ichinose Ayaka came out as a lesbian in an interview in FLASH magazine. In Biankon ~Watashi ga Josei to, Kekkonshiki wo Agerumade~ (ビアン婚 ~私が女性と、結婚式を挙げるまで~)  Ichinose tells us about her life and how she got to a place where she, a reasonably well-known entertainer, was holding a wedding ceremony with her girlfriend, professional dancer Sugimori Akane.

Ichinose-san did not have an easy life. Suffering from undiagnosed ADHD, her school life was stressful and her mother was a shut-in with some other issues. That she has become as successful as she has is due, in large part,  to her own will and drive to make her career happen. 

This autobiography is bluntly told, without linguistic flourish, much as it might be if you were sitting with Ichinose-san over a drink. The book takes us from her first love through subsequent relationships, to meeting Akane and deciding that they would have a marriage ceremony in public in Japan, where such things are still not legal.

There’s no particular skill in writing, or storytelling on display, this book feel more like Ichinose-san is compelled to get her story out there in print, so no one can deny it of her…much the same way she created her own career.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I was especially interested to note that the publisher of this book is Futabasha.  They are also the publisher of Morinaga Milk’s work and Tagame Gengoroh’s Otouto no Otto. I’m convinced that there is a LGBTQ ally, or family, at high levels there. ^_^