Archive for March, 2018


Western Cartoon: Mysticons

March 25th, 2018

The second half of the 2010’s has given us animation fans an absolute renaissance in American cartooning. I’m watching Steven Universe, Star vs The Forces of Evil and now, Mysticons. I encountered Mysticons while looking for something entertaining to work to. I looked up, saw a blonde Gorgon and was hooked. ^_^ Today’s review is one of those utterly delightful moments in which a thing I did for myself turn out to be a thing we can all share. 

The story is rather typical for a magical color-coded fighting force in a magical kingdom. Four girls from disparate backgrounds are brought together by a “Dragon Disk” and their powers are revealed. They regularly encounter dragons and magical items, while fighting an evil baddie named Necrafa (who wears a fetchingly skeleton-themed outfit) to protect their kingdom and the Princess, who is herself one of the Mysticons.

Like Japanese anime, the strength is in the team, and their friendship, The story  is well-written and narrative, so you want to watch it in order. This may be complicated by broadcast schedules which still do not recognize this simple fact. I have the series on DVR and have yet to have two broadcast in order. (Broadcast the episodes in order for fuck’s sake!)

Many of the characters, both good and bad, are well-developed. The series safely and thoroughly passes the Bechdel-Wallace Test, although there are also conversations about guys, which is perfectly reasonable. My first episode told the story of a male pop idol gnome who has stolen a Banshee’s magic and voice to make himself famous. Happy end when she rightfully gets the gig he stole. 

I jokingly commented on Twitter that my only complaint was the heteronormativity and I was pointed to this article on Overly Animated. Turns out that Mysticon Ranger, former thief Zarya Moonwolf, has a girlfriend. Before she was a thief, she was a pirate. Her friend Kitty Boon and she are a canon couple. The Overly Animated article goes into detail about the manufactured “controversy” of their story and a kiss between then that was cut from the broadcast.  So there’s a good reason to go catch up on Season 1!

Ratings:

Art – erm, well, not great. Maybe 5, 6 at best
Story – 8 So far as I’ve seen, very good. 
Characters – 8 I like what I’ve seen
Service  – I mean, Mysticon Knight is pretty nice to look at, so…
Yuri – Yes

Overall – 8

I leave you with an image of Serena Snakecharmer, whose snakes sometimes speak.

Approved.





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – March 24, 2018

March 24th, 2018

Yuri Events

Please join me at AnimeNEXT 2018, on June 8-10, 2018 in Atlantic City, NJ where I am a guest for the event! I’ll be doing a pile of panels and hanging out with friends (including you, I hope!) at my favorite local convention. I will also be bring many things to give away as prizes for good questions. So. Many. Things. ^_^ Please come to my panels, armed with thoughtful questions and your love of Yuri!

I’ll be doing another lecture at Hunter College, NYC in April, and of course, the Yuriten Yuri Fair is in Tokyo from April 29 – May 4. I am then taking the next several months to travel, eat too much and then recover. If your school, organization or event would like me to speak on LGBTQ manga and anime for the autumn, please contact me!

Yuri Anime

Gunsmith Cats anime is getting a reboot short and it’ll be premiering at Anime Central May 8-10, in Rosemont, IL. I’m holding out for a classic Goldy moment. In a pinch, I’ll accept a Misty moment.

ANN reports on a promotional video for Yuri “ecchi comedy” Tachibanakan To Lie Angle.

ANN also has news that Yuri-ish horror series Happy Sugar Life (which I have not yet read), is getting an anime this summer. As it’s a Gangan Joker series, I expect more horror than Yuri.

 

Yuri to Watch Out For

A few folks have weighs in with suggestions of series with some kind of Yuri (mostly subtext) and while I’m no longer running back and forth trying to parse what might be there, I thought I’d start a new category so we don’t miss these tidbits. 

Nicky from Twitter suggests that Farewell My Dear Cramer, a manga available over on Comixology has some Yuri rivalry subtext.

Super mentions “Princess Principal portrays a highly “romantic” relationship between the main girls, but never says that this is something more than just friendship.”

 

Kickstarter Watch 

Gabi Mendez and team are putting out a much-needed all-ages novel about queer folks, called Lemonade Summer that is well worth our support! 

If you are watching or reading something you think deserves a mention, let us know!

 

Other News

My friend Mandisa’s thesis documentary video, Who Are you Wearing? “about how geeks use alternate social identity to build a society across lines of social/cultural division” is once again on Youtube. I hope you’ll go over and give it a like!

Autostraddle has an insightful article: Lena Waithe’s “Vanity Fair” Cover Is a Watershed Moment for Black Lesbian Visibility.

 

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your name and an email I can reply to!

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!





LGBTQ: Dousei Seikatsu ~Watashi o Sukittekoto Desho (同棲生活 わたしを好きってことでしょ

March 23rd, 2018

Miyuki and Yuuko are a couple. They live together. They love each other.  Yuu-chan likes cute things, Miyu-san likes bugs. Dousei Seikatsu ~ Watashi o Sukittekoto Desho (同棲生活 ~ わたしを好きってことでしょ  is a full-color manga about their life together, based on Pixiv comics by the creator, Satsumaage.

As you might be able to imagine (or have experienced if you have ever been in a long-term relationship) this book is filled with those ridiculous moments between couples: squeeing over how cute the other is when they are asleep, or finding their weird obsessions and habits adorable. Sharing food and playtime and shopping for one another, cold feet, snuggling, having disagreements and apologizing, and all the silly ways we relate to someone we love. This book is about the small day-to-day moments that make up a life.

There is no plot here. We are literally watching the shared life of a couple, with little to no interaction with their lives outside. As a result it is silly and cute and sexy and stupid and annoying and boring, just like life. It’s also so refreshing. The daily life of two women in love living together presented as perfectly normal and without crisis. It made me happy every time I read a few pages. ^_^

The final chapter details the circumstances under which Miyuki and Yuuko meet, can’t stop thinking about one another, run into one another again and begin dating. Like the rest of the book it’s all so normal and without melodrama I became a little weepy reading it.  It’s just all so…nice.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Pleasant, rather than good, and sometimes goofy 
Story – 8 Life
Characters – 9 I’d have them over for lunch
Service  – 3 A little, because they are a couple and do touch and like to look at each other in states of undress and the like
LGBTQ – 9 No discussion of them as lesbian, but it’s really aside the point here. They are a couple.

Overall – 9

It’s true that I wouldn’t want to read nothing but this kind of pleasant slice-of-life all the time, but an appealing story about two adult women being happy together is still rare enough in manga that you’ll excuse me for kvelling a bit. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Roku + Ichi Gurashi (ロク+イチ暮らし)

March 21st, 2018

We remember Hidamari Sketch (licensed in English as Sunshine Sketch), don’t we? Aoki Ume’s series about a bunch of women at a trade school apartment building was nice. It was cute and silly and extremely, bizarrely repetitive. In 8 volumes of manga covering the 2 years they’d be at the school, they must have celebrated Christmas 7 times, maybe more. It also had a serious problem. Hiro and Sae were obviously a couple only Sae refused to admit it. Hiro was painfully aware that Sae was pretending that they weren’t a couple and it became painful to me to watch the shenanigans of plausible deniability that no one wanted. I cannot have been alone in thinking that it would have been nice if Hiro and Sae just were a couple.

Apparently, no, I was not alone. The suspiciously-pseudonymous Umehara Ume (eyeroll) agrees, and so here we are talking about Roku + Ichi Gurashi (ロク+イチ暮らし) which is pretty much Hidamari Sketch with Yuri. ^_^

Suzume has arrived at a trade school to study early child development in order to work in daycare for little kids. In her apartment she meets several other students, among them Nanao, with whom she promptly falls in love.  Her taciturn neighbor, Kie is in love with Sae look-alike Ai, who is love with Kouko.  Sachi is not in love with anyone until she sees the landlady’s daughter, and Ai’s fellow business student, Shiori. 

Unlike, Hidamari Sketch, this is not a gag comic, so we get little vignettes that have dramatic, rather than comedic punchlines. Kie and Ai compete in a Mr/Miss contest in the school and, although Kie ends up finding strength to confess to Ai, she’s gently rejected, which gives Ai the impetus to confess to Kouko. They are a nice couple, so we’re happy for them, as we are for the others. The story ends with Suzume making us a promise that she’ll become a terrific daycare provider. 

It’s all quite sweet and cute. A little too tidy, but so was Cirque Arachne, which “fixed” a similar “problem” with Kaleido Star. When you’re fixing someone else’s mess, you can skip all the details and just get to the meat of the story and pair the girls up already. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8 Fixed that right up
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 4 That Mr/Miss contest was for no other reason but to dress Sae, erm, Ai and Kie up in wedding clothes.

Overall – 7

I’ll be very interested to see if “Umehara Ume” ever publishes anything else. ^_^





Yuri Manga: MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 5 (English)

March 20th, 2018

In Yoshimurakana’s MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 5, little girls wearing yellow boots and carrying blue umbrellas are turning up strangled and the police are stumped.

Kuroko works on the case…and one of the bereaved mothers. She also finds time to meet with her erstwhile opponent at Virginal Rose, Teresa, now going by her real name, Narumi, who has gathered the Virginal Rose survivors and is trying to make a safe space for abused girls. Kuroko offers to underwrite the shelter/school if they work as informants, an idea that has been used in some of my favorite literature for centuries, so I approve.

In the meantime, we are subjected to the trials of Sora, who was kidnapped by the killer, so that we can be creeped out by the storyline. It is successfully creepy.

 Kuroko wraps this storyline up swiftly, for which I am now twice thankful. Even more thankfully, the end of the book see the return of weird-eyed Reiko the sniper in a new, exceptionally violent chapter. 

Final chapters are both silly and awful in equal part. Hinako is coming across as ever more unhinged. 

Reading this manga has taught me a lot about myself. I’ve known since Ikkitousen days that I do not mind violence as long as it is between two equally matched people. Exploitative or abusive violence enrages and disgusts me (probably much as the kind of violence I don’t mind makes other people feel, I imagine.)  I like weapons expertly handled. There is no form of hand-to-hand combat that I find dull, but man, do I really dislike the idea of people being beaten to death by skillless jerks with bats. Pisses me off no end to see people beaten by cowards who have to gang up or sucker punch victims. Huh. So, this too, goes into the folder of “no” when it comes to tolerable violence. On the other hand, I have a mental folder for tolerable violence. Huh. 

Yuri? Yes. Kuroko’s amassed quite a harem by Volume 5. Chiyo is her steady, of course, and we see her with Nanami and Matoi and of course Yuria, the medical examiner (who I had completely forgotten by Volume 10 in Japanese, which I was reading along side of this. Good thing she was here to remind me who she was. ) 

Ratings:

Art – 6 No less ugly than usual
Story – 5 Violence against little girls is in the no folder.
Characters – 8 Manipulative and vile, but I like ’em.
Service – 10 Nothin’ but
Yuri – 8  Having a lesbian psychopath as a protagonist definitely keeps this rating high. ^_^

Overall – 9

I love the next arc and any and all time spent with Reiko. Spider ahoy!