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Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – October 19, 2013

October 19th, 2013

YNN_MariKIt’s been a while since the last YNN, what with me being in Japan and at NYCC. Well here we are once again. Let’s take a look what’s happened in the last few weeks! We’re going with “Random data dump format” as I play catch up.

YNN Correspondent Joel K wanted to bring this fact to your attention: Disney has announced that the character of Mulan in their Once Upon A Time series is bisexual. Yes, that Mulan and that Disney. The article and clip contained within are worth your time.

Prism Comics announces their Queer Press Grant recipient for 2013 – Hazel Newlevant‘s Dance the Blues, and If This Be Sin, which look at queer women expressing themselves through blues music.

This video is not comics, manga or publishing related, but this spoken word piece Shrinking Women by Lily Myers probably best expresses the one thing I want to teach girls  – every girl should take up all the space in the world that she needs to thrive and never once apologize for that.

There was one LGBTQ-themed panel at NYCC, hosted by GeeksOut. Here’s Bleeding Cool’s report on the panel.

There are 3 weeks remaining to fund Dear Brother on AnimeSols. Let’s make this happen, shall we?

Dallas Middaugh of Kodansha USA confirmed that the new Sailor Moon anime will be streaming the winter on Nico Nico Douga (registration is required) and will appear subtitled in 10 languages. Now that we know we can all see it…all we have to worry about is everything else. ^_^

I can’t be sure, but I think I saw this – Bandai has a grown-up (i.e. expensive) version of Sailor Moon’s 1992 moon stick, the Proplica, with Mitsuishi Kotono’s voice as Sailor Moon. Okay, here’s my thought on her voicing Usagi. She’s now done this and the commercial for the S.H. Figuarts figure. If you were her and they asked you to voice the toys, but not the actual character, you’d say “stuff it.” wouldn’t you? I think she’s in. ^_^

Get out the tissues…Media Blasters has delayed Rio Rainbow Gate until 2014. And it looks like Funimation has picked up Ikkitousen: Great Guardians in their place. I quite liked GG, especially when I ignored the entire story and rewrote everything I was watching to suit my own needs. Otherwise it was pretty terrible. ^_^

Go Nagai’s Cutey Honey vs Devilman manga is wrapping up and I totally, completely, forgot to look for it while in Japan. OTOH, I’ve retained what’s left of my soul by not buying a Champion magazine, so phew.

Bandai is selling Sailor Moon and Madoka Magica chocolates for the otaku in your life.

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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!

 





Marine Corp Yumi Manga (まりんこゆみ)

October 18th, 2013

Many of you know the name Anastasia Moreno. She’s been the translator for some of your favorite Yuri titles: GIRL FRIENDS, Strawberry Panic! and Kisses, Sighs and Cherry Blossoms Pink. It’s because of SP! that Ana I and became friends, in fact. We met up with her in Tokyo this month and we discussed her exciting new project.

Together with Nogami Takeshi-sensei of Strike Witches doujinshi fame, Ana  is writing a new comic Marine Corps Yumi (まりんこゆみ). This is a totally loopy, but completely truthy story about boot camp for the Marine Corps of the United States of Amerigo.

Young “Nipponian” Nagumo Yumi, upon graduating high school, finds herself with two criteria for adult life – she’d like to continue to wear her school uniform and she wants to become the President of the United States. Her friends argue that neither criteria will fly, but Yumi takes herself off to Amerigo anyway, where she runs into  a bunch of elderly veterans who convince her that she should become a Marine.

Joined by Linda Crawford, a milk-fed freckled, busty blonde who wants to get away from her white trash parents and her moldering town; African-American Donna King who turned down a job at “Boldman Sachs” (and who is a fujoshi); and fam-trad Marine and all around competent Rita Fernandez, whose dad is a decorated NCO, our Nipponian doofus Yumi introduces us and other military otaku to life at Marine Corps boot camp. From Birth Control Glasses (boot camp issued glasses that are as ugly as possible) to Box Nasties (the “high calorie, low motivation” meals provided) we get to experience the lingo and in-jokes, without having to do a 10 mile morning run.

Nogami-sensei’s art style suits the gags well. There is a fair bit of service, but it’s expected and acceptable. Gags about Linda’s build, and Donna’s underwear are a nice break from Yumi’s general doofusyness. ^_^

I want to draw your attention to the cast, for a moment. Generally speaking, manga does not do “diversity,” as we in the west see it (for what I think is obvious reasons.) In this case, the primary cast is indeed diverse. A Latina, an African-American woman, an Asian and a Caucasian make up the four boots we follow. Meyers, Joiner, Garza and Dillinger are the DIs. Notably, Rita Fernandez is the most competent of the recruits, and Donna King the most elite. Yumi is, of course, a doofus and a klutz, while Linda Crawford, who in any other manga might be seen as the princess type, is the lowest class and trying to better her options. Even in 4-koma goofball gags, every character gets a story and a personality.

There is basically no Yuri, except for a brief moment in which Yumi strips happily, presuming a bath is at hand, when everyone else is hesitant. Linda sees Yumi’s dreamy expression and wonders if she’s gay. I hold out hope that one of the characters is in fact gay – preferably Rita, since she’s competent and you know what we say about anime and manga lesbians. ^_^

Marine Corps Yumi strikes a deep personal note for me – when I was a child I wanted to be a Marine more than anything else in the whole while world. I  was too sickly, then I was too gay. ^_^ So while in my next life I’ll hope to come back as a Marine, for this one, I’ll stick to Marine Corps Yumi, which comes out online (in English, too) weekly.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8, if you’re into it, silly otherwise. ^_^
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 3 All the characters are adult women, which may be a downer for some

Overall – 8

Thanks to Ana’s generosity we have three copies of Marine Corps Yumi to give away!

Put your name, rank and serial number in the comments and I’ll pick three winners. (Consider logging in to post, so I have your email.)





A Very Important Thing About Licensing Manga Fans Don’t Really Understand

October 17th, 2013

In response to the news about Whispered Words, being licensed, a fan expressed a wish that One Peace Books also rescue Poor Poor Lips.  This gives me a good opening to discuss something I’ve been meaning to talk about for a while here. There is one very important component to licensing manga that most fans don’t understand.

Sasamekikoto, as I explain in my NYCC report, is owned by Media Factory (who also owns Strawberry Panic!). Poor Poor Lips is owned by Takeshobo. One Peace Books has a relationship with Media Factory, which is how they got this title. Unless they have a relationship with Takeshobo, it is not likely they can get Poor Poor Lips.

All Japanese manga licensing is done based on prior relationship. (This goes for almost every other kind of licensing, as well, but we’ll confine ourselves to discussing manga.) Companies cannot just email Japanese publishers and ask for what individual series they want. It takes time and effort to build personal relationships with the publishers. So do not be surprised if One Peace Books never, ever gets Poor Poor Lips no matter how often you ask them. Seven Seas cannot license a Kodansha title, and Viz gets first dibs on Hakusensha titles (and can block other publishers from getting them, even if they don’t want to publish it themselves.)

This is why, even though Strawberry Panic! might have been popular, it had exactly zero impact on whether we’d ever see Maria-sama ga Miteru in English. In fans’ minds, the titles are similar. In reality, the Media Factory title has no connection at all to the Shueisha title.

In the same way that the demographic target of a book may appear irrelevant to you as a reader, but it informs the way the book was written; it may not seem important to you to understand that one story you read was published by Hobunsha and another by Futabasha. Indeed, to you the “publisher” may be Lililicious or Dynasty Scans. But in the actual business of manga, these distinctions have real meaning. You do not need to know who publishes what book, but be aware that when you send a letter to a western publisher and they reply, “We won’t be getting that book” that is, really, the final word on the matter. Bags of mail can’t change that.

Arguing that you have lack of expertise (or, perhaps, disinterest) in the nitty-gritty of manga genre and publishing is not a strong defense. There is nothing wrong at all with wishing for a thing, of course, but letting fan delusion get in the way of understanding reality, makes it harder to comprehend the why things are the way they are. ^_^

The 600-lb. gorilla in the room is the fundamental fact that western fans often ignore – Japanese manga is published for a Japanese audience. They buy far more of it than we do, by orders of zeroes. Japanese publishers don’t much care if we aren’t happy with panty shots, or can’t tell the difference between a shounen or a seinen title. And it really doesn’t affect them if we ask random publishers to get books they have no access to. But it does, honestly, effect the western publishers. Imagine being the poor schlub who answers emails at Viz, if we all sent them emails begging them to license Collectors. (Which they have first dibs on, since it is a Hakusensha title.) You’d have feel bad for them, wouldn’t you? ^_^; And how much worse, when a publisher gets a license request for something they can’t even ask for, because they don’t speak to that publisher. There’s only so many times they can answer a question like that before it becomes soul-crushing.

It’s perfectly fine to hope that you’ll get to see your favorite manga licensed. It is less fine to respond to news of one license with misguided, randomly targeted desire for something else. Imagine, if you gave your best friend a gift and their response was, “Cool! I really hope I’ll also get this other thing I want, too.”

I encourage Yuri fans to rise above the general level of cluelessness of fandom. The more we know, the better we, as fans, can leverage our buying power and focus it intelligently.





Yuri Manga: Himitsu no Recipe, Volume 2 (ひみつのレシピ)

October 15th, 2013

In Volume 1 of Morinaga Milk’s Himitsu no Recipe (ひみつのレシピ), we met Wakatsuki and the President of the Cooking Club, on whom she has a raging crush. The feelings appear to be almost entirely one-sided, however and, as we head into Volume 2, Wakatsuki’s delusion about the two of them is clearly headed for a fall.

The problem is two-fold. One, the previous president of the club has taken to returning from time to time and it is quite obvious that the current president has deep admiration for her sempai. Wakatsuki sees the older woman as a rival.

More importantly, Wakatsuki is not a member of the cooking club because she enjoys cooking or wants to learn to do it. In fact, she’s a hot mess in the kitchen  and manages to sabotage nearly every meal with stereotypical “bad cook” tropes such as replacing sugar with salt. Sigh.

There are other only moderately funny scenes on top of this, culminating in the cooking club reluctantly eating crickets for a meal.

But Valentine’s Day saves the story, as Buchou offers to help Wakatsuki make chocolate and they exchange feelings and sweets. As the book closes, Wakatsuki tells the club in the most transparent way that her lover’s identity is a secret. I imagine no one was fooled.

As I said in my review of the first volume, this is not Morinaga-sensei’s strongest work. It’s not terrible, but there’s no self-awareness, no honesty, no real connection between the two. And as I worked on my lecture for Kanagawa U., I realized that that’s what I’m looking for in my Yuri – honesty.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 4
Characters – 5
Yuri – 6
Service – 5

Overall – 5

It won’t kill you to read this, but I’m glad Seven Seas went with Gakuen Polizi for their next Morinaga title instead.





Whispered Words, NYCC Friday Report

October 14th, 2013

nycc-logo-2013-loWith Herculean effort, I managed to spend Friday at New York Comic Con. This is the second year in a row life has thrown spectacularly bad timing my way in regards to NYCC. Last year you may remember I was in the hospital, and this year I flew in from Japan the day it began. As a result everyone I spoke to was doing a slow spin as we stood there. ^_^

My main reason for being there was to discuss the upcoming release of Sasamekikoto in English as Whispered Words. To that end, I sat down with Robert McGuire of One Peace Books and GEN Manga.

One Peace was created in 2006. They distribute globally. Recently they brought over the long-running manga Crayon Shin-chan and have the title Black Bard coming soon (which thrills my wife no end.)  Robert says that they were actively looking for a Yuri title and Media Factory, publisher of Black Bard, made it possible for them to get Sasamekikoto. (For those of you not familiar with the series, I have an entire category on the topic, but be warned the anime is no longer available on Crunchyroll and the manga reviews will contain some spoilers.)

Robert confirmed that they’d be publishing the book in three 3-in-1 omnibus volumes. The first omnibus is scheduled for Spring 2014, the next is scheduled for Fall 2014 and the final one for Spring 2015. Editorializing a tad here, I think omnibus format is a great choice for the release. The price point for the pre-order on Amazon is a mere $12.43, and if the last two follow suit, you’ll have all 9 volumes for about $30 over a period of only a year.

When asked about e-formats, Robert replied, “One Peace plans to convert it and distribute to all major digital stores, kindle, nook, apple, etc.” I know I’m really pleased about that. I genuinely like reading comics on my tablet. In many ways, it’s the perfect device for them.

So, good price point, good value, good schedule and multiple formats. If the quality of reproduction is good – and I have every expectation that it and the translation will be – this could set a benchmark for Yuri manga in the west.

Robert and I spent a lot of time talking about being small press publishers and we discussed GEN’s plans a bit. Like ALC, GEN deals directly with the manga artists and does some really interesting doujinshi anthologies and individual volumes. Robert gave me and I read VS Aliens on the way home, which starts off as a kind of creepy story, but ends up as a utterly grin-making cheezeball romance. ^_^  GEN is broadening their focus a bit, as well, with an upcoming BL release, and they are continuing with their anthology, GEN Manga.

Robert assured me that One Peace is interested in other Yuri titles, so we’ll be talking again. (Additionally, we floated the possibility of a promotion here on Okazu, so keep your eyes peeled for that. ^_^) Robert assured me that One Peace intends to publish the whole series, of course, but it’s really up to the readers to make it successful enough to continue. Pre-orders go a long way to making bigger print runs possible, better longevity and more availability. (And let me take the opportunity to thank all of you who ran out and pre-ordered the first volume when I announced it! You are awesome super-fans. ^_^)

Thanks to Robert for taking time out to speak with me about Whispered Words. We’re all looking forward to it. ^_^

Moving on, in their pre-con industry conference, ICV2 reported that, generally speaking, comics sales are stable to good in America and that manga is filling up a good chunk of slots in the best selling comics lists. I urge you to look at the September best seller list. The mix of manga, superhero comics, indie and even comic strips looks…dare I say it?…healthy. Notably, Alison Bechdel’s stunningly fabulous autobiographical comic, Fun Home, is on the list, no doubt driven by news of the musical based on the book.

Walking around NYCC, the top cosplayed anime/manga series was definitely Attack on Titan. Which brings me to…

I had a chance  to speak with Ben Applegate at the Kodansha booth for a very long time. We discussed the good timing of both anime and manga for Attack on Titan being simultaneously available – something that rarely happens in the west –  and how that’s helped the series popularity. But, Ben made the point that the real reason the series is popular is that it is full of great characters – including, he feels, a strong lineup of female characters and androgynous /gender ambivalent character Hanji. I promised him I’d read it and let him know what I think.

I then attended one panel – CBLDF presented Carol Tilley’s discussion of the infighting, rivalries, misrepresentation and general bitchiness that led to Frederic Wertham’s infamous anti-comics screed, Seduction of the Innocents, and the Senate subcommittee hearings that led to the gutting of the American comic industry and the creation of the Comic Code.This panel was fantastic. You can read Carol’s article about her research on BoingBoing and I urge you to do so. Although the Comic Code is history and the CBLDF owns the rights to the name and images, the reputation comics acquired has lingered. In the 50s, the Senate went after publishers. In the 70s and 80s, lawmakers went after comics retailers and now, readers can find themselves targeted. Just in case you think that we’re done with that nonsense, I remind you of the September House hearings on videogame violence and the (non-existent) link to mass shootings.

The rest of my day was taken up with people. I was able to meet briefly with A Case Suitable For Treatment’s Sean Gaffney, Comic Fusion Owner Stacy, and an old friend of mine from high school whom I have not seen for 30 years. That was kind of amazing. ^_^

Had a lovely, dishy discussion about comics with  First Comics publisher Ken Levin, who was responsible for bringing manga classic Lone Wolf and Cub to the USA.

And I met up with and had many discussions with vociferous campaigner for diversity and equality in American superhero comics and in the comics industry, rabid Stephanie Brown fan – and my dear friend –  KyraX2, the infamous Batgirl of San Diego Comic Con. Time with her is always well spent. We debated much about our roles as women with opinions on the Internet and cognitive authorities. She is a much, much nicer person than I am, and wants people to communicate better. I suggest matches to the death. ^_^

My day finished off with an unspeakably good dinner and conversation with Manga Bookshelf‘s Melinda Beasi and Mangablog‘s Brigid Alverson.

For any one of these conversations, it would have been a great day – for all of them, it was a brilliant blur of mad genius. Short as it was, my attendance was highly productive both personally and professionally. I sincerely hope that next year I can make it there for more than one day and hopefully get a few more interviews for you!