Author Archive


Interview with Yuri Manga Artist Takemiya Jin

June 2nd, 2013

日本語で

Takemiya JinI’ve been fangirling over Takemiya-sensei’s work for years. I first began reading her doujinshi,, and rejoiced when she made the leap into the professional sphere. You can find her work currently running in Comic Yuri Hime and in my favorite manga magazine, Rakuen Le Paradis.

I declared three of her books the Top Yuri Manga of 2011: Seasons, Kila Kila and Omoi no Kakera. In particular, I like the sense that her Yuri work is grounded in the reality of lesbian life. Mika, the protagonist in Omoi no Kakera is out to herself and to her close friends as a lesbian. This is something we have not seen all that often in Yuri Manga. This, and Takemiya’s use of actual lesbian slang in her stories shifts “Yuri” as a genre closer to an intersection with lesbian literature.  IMHO, Takemiya-sensei is one of the leaders of the new Yuri movement.

It is my very sincere pleasure today to have a chance to talk with Takemiya-sensei and share it with you all!

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Q1: Please tell us about yourself
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My name is Takemiya Jin, I’m a Yuri Manga artist. My sex is female. I am a lesbian.

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Q2: How did you become a mangaka? Was it something you wanted to do as a child?

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It was my childhood dream to become a manga artist. Because various people opposed my dream to become a manga artist I stopped drawing manga. When one of my submissions for a contest won an award, I started to think that I would draw manga as a job.

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Q3: Which artists have influenced you?
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Manga artists Takahashi Rumiko (creator of Inu Yasha, Ranma 1/2) and Togashi Yasuhiro (creator of Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter) and Obata Takeshi (part of the creative team for Death Note, Hikaru no Go) influenced me.

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Q4: If you were not a mangaka, what kind of work would you be doing?
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I think I’d probably be a clerk in a bookstore with a hobby of creating doujinshi.

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Q5: What motivated you to create Yuri Manga?
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I began by drawing stories that took shape from my own experiences, things I was thinking about and the messages I wanted to convey.

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Q6.1: Please tell us a little bit about your process.
How long does it take to draw a chapter?
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If we’re talking drawing a 24-page manga, it takes me about 2 weeks to completely finish the job.

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Q6.2: How many assistants work with you? What is the first step in your process? What is the last step?
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I have no assistants. But, when I’m in trouble, my partner helps me with the relatively simple tasks.

The first thing I do is to construct the “Plot” (which means planning and composing the dialogue). The last thing I do is “Revision”.
(Plot/Storyboard/Sketch/Inking/Shading/Revision/Tone/Finishing Touches and Final Revision…in that order.)

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Q7: You began as a doujinshi artist. Other than deadlines what are the differences between being an amateur and a professional?

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In my case, doujinshi was a hobby; being in a commercial magazine has that feeling called “work” so, although I draw manga as a job, I still would like to put out doujinshi.

The differences I see between being amateur and a pro: I really don’t know. From the beginning a pro has committed to the requirement of completing a manuscript by deadline, but whether amateur or pro, the work of communicating something is interesting.

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Q8:  Do you read any Yuri manga? If so, what series?
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In the magazines that publish my Yuri manga – Rakuen Le: Paradis and Comic Yuri Hime – I read the Yuri manga my friends have created.

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Q9: Do you have anything you want to ask overseas fans?
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When you read manga, do you think “I want to go to Japan?”

E: はい!「私は日本へ行きたい」と6か月ごとに思います。 ^_^;

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Q10: Do you have any message for your overseas fans?
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When I began drawing Yuri manga, I never considered that there would be a day when my manga was read by people overseas. Now I can receive messages from overseas on Twitter or my blog, it makes me very happy. No matter what country you’re from, people’s thoughts and feelings aren’t different. Therefore, from here on, I will continue to draw the feelings of love and other very important things between two women in love with one another.

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Thank you, thank you Takemiya-sensei for taking time out to talk to us. I look forward to continue supporting your work !

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私は何年間もずっと、竹宮先生の作品のファンとして応援を続けています。読み始めた時には同人誌作家だった先生が、プロ作家としての活動を始めた時には、大喜びしたものです。現在先生の作品は、コミック百合姫や、私のお気に入り漫画雑誌でもある楽園 Le Paradisで読むことが出来ます。

私は竹宮先生の「Seasons」「キラキラ」「想いの欠片」の三作品を、2011年度のトップ百合漫画リストに選出させていただきました。特に私が気に入っているのは、先生の作品がレズビアンとしての生き方のリアリティに基づいている点ですね。「想いの欠片」の主人公であるミカはレズビアンであることを自覚していますし、親しい友達に対してもカミングアウトしています。こういう描写は、百合漫画作品の中でそう多く描かれるものではありません。こういった点や、作品の中での実際のレズビアン隠語の用いられ方によって、「百合」というジャンルを、レズビアン文学としての地位に近づけつつあると思います。私のつたない考えでは、竹宮先生こそは、新たな百合ムーブメントの主導者のお一人だと思っています。

今回、竹宮先生とお話できたこと、そしてその内容を皆さんにもお伝えできることは、この上ない喜びです。

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Q1: 自分に関して私たちに話してください。
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百合漫画家の竹宮ジンです。性別は女性。レズビアンです。

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Q2: 先生はどのように漫画家になりましたか? 漫画家になるのは、子供時代の夢でしたか?

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漫画家になるのは子供の頃からの夢でした。 いろんな人から漫画家になる夢を反対されましたが、漫画を描く事はやめませんでした。 投稿作品で賞をいただいて、お仕事として漫画を描くようになりました。

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Q3: どの芸術家が先生に最も影響を及ぼしましたか?
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漫画家の高橋留美子先生、冨樫義博先生、小畑健先生の影響を受けました。

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Q4: 漫画家でなければ、どんな仕事をしているでしょうか?
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書店等で店員をしながら、趣味で同人活動をしていたと思います。

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Q5: 漫画家でなければ、どんな仕事をしているでしょうか?
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自分が経験してきた事、考えた事、伝えたいメッセージを形にしたいと思って漫画を描き始めました。その想いは今も同じで

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Q6.1: 先生の創造プロセスに関して私たちにほんの少し話してください。章を描くにはどのくらいの時間がかかりますか?
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24ページの漫画を描く場合、完成までの作業日数は約2週間です。

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Q6.2: 何人のアシスタントが先生と共に働いていますか? 最初のタスクは何ですか? 最後のタスクは何ですか?
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アシスタントはいません。 でも困った時にパートナーが簡単な作業を手伝ってくれています。 漫画の最初の作業は「プロット(お話の構成を考える作業)」です。最後の作業は「修正」です。 (プロット/ネーム/下書き/ペン入れ/ベタ/修正/トーン/仕上げの修正…の順です)

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Q7: 同人誌家として始めました、デッドライン以外に、アマチュアであること,プロであることの違いは何ですか?

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私の場合は同人誌は趣味で、商業誌はお仕事と言う感覚です。だからお仕事として漫画を描いていますが時間があれば同人誌も出したいです。

アマチュアとプロの違いは見た目ではわからないと思います。プロへの最初の条件は「原稿を完成させる事が出来るか」と「締め切りが守れるか」。アマチュアでもプロでも伝えたい事をしっかり描いている作品は面白いです。

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Q8:  百合漫画を読みますか?どのシリーズを読みますか?
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百合漫画は自分の漫画の掲載誌(「コミック百合姫」「楽園LeParadis」)と、友人の百合作品を読んでます。

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Q9: 海外ファンに何を尋ねたいですか?
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漫画を読んで「日本に行ってみたい」と思った事はありますか?

E: はい!「私は日本へ行きたい」と6か月ごとに思います。 ^_^;

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Q10: 何か海外のファンへのメッセージがありますか?
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百合漫画を書き始めた頃は海外の人達に私の漫画を読んでもらえる日がくるなんて夢にも思いませんでした。現在では、twitterやブログで海外の方から日本語や英語でメッセージをいただく事もあり、とても嬉しく思っています。どこの国の人も、人を想う気持ちは変わらないと思います。だから私はこれからも女の子同士の恋愛の愛しさや切なさを大事に大事に描いていこうと思います。

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あらためて竹宮先生に、貴重な時間を私達のために割いてくれたことを深く感謝したいと思います。これからも先生の作品の応援を続けていくことを楽しみにしています!

(小松さんによる翻訳. Thank you, Komatsu-san for translation of my intro and sign-off! ^_^)





Yuri Network News (百合ネットワークニュース) – June 1, 2013

June 1st, 2013

YNN_MariKI receive many emails and comments to the effect of “I can’t read Japanese so…” But you know, I couldn’t read Japanese either, at first. I learned – so can you. Here’s a free online tool to get you started, RealKana. Start by memorizing the syllables now and by the end of 2013, you’ll be able to read simple sentences. にほんごをべんきょうしましょう。Start now. There’s nothing at all stopping you from trying. ^_^ I’ll add other tools to the list, but this seems like a really good place to start.

Yuri Anime

Nozomi RightStuf has announced the extra that will come with pre-orders  for Rose of Versailles, Part 2.

The second round of voting at Daisuki is up, and this packet includes some titles of interest, including Devilman Lady (which was SO gay) and Heartcatch PreCure (which was SO gay). So get those votes in and get some Yuri up on Daisuki!

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Yuri Manga

Comic Natalie reports that Takemiya Jin’s Omoi no Kakera, Volume 2 went on sale today with variant extras, depending on the bookstore at which it was purchased.  Speaking of Takemiya-sensei…tomorrow’s Okazu will feature an interview with her! So please make sure you drop by tomorrow for another look at a prime mover in the Yuri genre! (I can’t wait!)

15 -sai (15才) is one of those manga you just know is going to be filled to the brim with redeeming social value. (-_-)

Yuikan, Volume 5 (ゆりキャン) exists.

Because I’m perfectly comfortable judging a book by it’s cover, I think Bloody Lily (ブラッディ・リリィ) looks worth the time it will take me to read it. ^_^

Yuru Yuri, Volume 10 (ゆるゆり) streets today in Japan, with 2 different special editions.

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Other News

maeydaygeist mentioned on Twitter yesterday that Monica Nolan, writer of Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher (which I reviewed) and Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary (which I forgot to review last summer) has a new book, Mamie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante. That is so on my summer reading list. Nolan has a way of portraying the innocence of another time in a way that is sweet and utterly excruciating at the same time.

Our own Bruce McF has a lovely article up, Experiments in a new media economy on crowdfunding for anime. It’s well worth your time to read it, as it is so rare to get an economist’s take on anything in this industry, much less an economist who knows something about the industry, as Bruce does.

For those of you in Tokyo on June 6th, Nakamura Ching-sensei will be participating in a retrospective of Taniguchi Natsuko’s art in Shibuya. Read the report on Comic Natalie for details.

ANN has this to hurt your brain: Former Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth murders Sailor Moon’s iconic line “In the name of the Moon, I will punish you,” before murdering people in this preview for his short film Tokyo Story, in which he plays a stoic assassin in Japan.  Couldn’t be more typical if it tried. Just go watch. ^_^

The industry fights back in Japan, with various associations making their voices heard as new, more restrictive, legislation to fight child pornography is proposed that threatens people who draw and animate not-remotely-real characters.

I am finally sitting down with Yurist (百合人), a “magazine for people who love Yuri”. The contents start off with some statistics about Yuri fans. Of the self-identified Yuri fans questioned, 52% are female, 35% male, 11% other, 4% didn’t answer. This not far off my experience, I’ve been saying Yuri is relatively close to an even split in the West, as well. 62% of respondents are in their 20s. Only 2% in their 40s! But more importantly, 19% said they were teens, which means the audience is skewing younger. This is a good thing. Less hang-ups. 37% are “out” about their interest in Yuri, 43% partially so, or at least don’t hide it.

So the typical Japanese Yuri fan is a woman in her 20s who is comfortable with her interest and at least partially open about it. (In other words, probably not ranting at work about going to Comiket, but totally telling her friends.) So far, entirely consistent with my own findings here.

If anything else surfaces from this issue of Yurist, I’ll let you know!

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Event News

AnimeNEXT is next weekend. I’ll be running a Yuri panel on Friday, June 7 at 6PM. I’ll be giving away loads of stuff! I hope to see you there. ^_^ Bring questions!

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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!





Summer Reading: Strong Female Protagonist and Khutulun, the Wrestler Princess

May 31st, 2013

I’m cleaning up around the house (again) and I find I have piles and piles of books I picked up at MoCCA, TCAF and various doujinshi from last year and I haven’t really had a chance to tell you about much of it. Not all of it has a place here, like Lance Tooks’ The Student  (Or, Nude Descending a Staircase…Head First), but at least some of it does.

Last summer I read and reviewed classic literature that I had somehow missed reading in my youth. This summer I’m going to look at the future and review some of the stuff that you should know about.

Today we’re starting off with a major contender for someone you should know about.

Molly Ostertag is a name I’m seeing more and more in the comics news. She’s another graduate of the SVA, and another smart, talented young woman doing stuff of interest to me. ^_^

sfp-coverIn Strong Female Protagonist, created with Brennan Lee Mulligan, we are introduced to Alison, a typical NY college student…only she’s not. She’s a former super-hero, now retired, facing pressure to be what she was from her former allies, to be what she can be from her former enemy and a desire to be who she is now, from herself.

Mulligan and Ostertag deftly lay down Alison’s life in the middle of contemporary socio-political  issues, and layers it with superheroes and villains, then neatly twists it into a conundrum with a nasty stick in the spokes. Like Alex Woolfson’s Young Protectors, relationship and sex are a part of the labyrinth Alison has to navigate, but moral compass and being in and of the world take precedence.

Alison is not alone in this. She has friends (who don’t *quite* seem to understand her,) an older woman who is her government-appointed doctor and, when Alison is ready, friend and confidante – and there is another. But no spoilers. You’ll just have to read it for yourself. which you can do, as it is a webcomic and also available on her shop.

Strong Female Protagonist and The Young Protectors are the next wave of superheroes, dealing with life without the hyper-angsty constipation of their Big Two ancestors.

khutulun cover smallWhile at MoCCA, I also picked up Ostertag’s Khutulun, the Wrestler Princess, a short biography of a real -life 13th century Mongolian Princess who was eventually respected for her abilities as a soldier and an athlete.  If you’ve read Paros no Ken, you’ll recognize the narrative, but the ending here is more conventionally acceptable. Where Erminia wanted to shed her duties completely for a different life, Khutulun wasn’t seeking to topple a gender paradigm or her societal responsibilities, she merely wanted to be herself. (Interestingly, SVA alum Marguerite Dabaie is working along the Silk Road into China, for a graphic novel about life in 7th century Pajikant. So clearly the steppes and the plains are calling to the comic artists of NYC. ^_^)

If you’re staring at your comics/manga collection, wishing there was something fresh to look at, click the links in this review. Ostertag (with and without Mulligan), Woolfson,  and Dabaie are all writing the stories they – and I – wanted/needed to read…and hopefully you will as well. ^_^





Space Pirates of the Minusuka Manga (ミニースカ宇宙海賊)

May 30th, 2013

msspmangaSpace Pirates of the Minusuka Manga (ミニースカ宇宙海賊) is the manga adaptation of the Bodacious Space Pirates anime. As such, it looks, feels and sounds like the work by committee it is.

Adapted from the second novel (or the second arc of the anime), the manga rushes through Marika’s ascendance to captain of a space pirate vessel, instead focusing on the appearance of Princess Gruier Serenity and the search for the  Golden Ghost Ship. Of course a few things are different than the novel and anime.

The story is rushed, and feels cramped as every character is squeezed in, in a way that neither the novel nor the anime had to deal with. Character designs are slightly different – IMHO, slightly blander – than the anime. Misa seems to have taken the brunt of the blow – she’s no longer sexy, slightly camp and up for anything. In the manga, she’s scolding and kind of a downer. Marika has escaped simplification to some extent and maintains her leadership skills, her down-to-earth personality and her ability to make decisions.

When Jenny and Lynn appear, they are draped unnaturally across one another (not really, but they are embracing in an awkward way in public) and Lynn maintains her hold on Jenny throughout. If you didn’t know they were a couple, you’d have to guess that Lynn had some possession issues. ^_^;

Marika throws herself at Chiaki a lot more often than she did in the anime. Which isn’t a bad thing, in and of itself, but it does render Chiaki down from being complex foil for Marika to merely there to being merely tsundere and not much else.

Service is almost non-existent until they get into spacesuits. NOTHING is that skintight. Not even skin. There’s at least one panel that made me shout in imagined agony at the idea of full asscrack-fitting spacesuits. Ow. Ow. Ow.

So, while not as fun as the novel or compelling as the anime, if you desperately want more time with the characters, this is as good a way as any.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7 (pulled up a point by being an echo of the more fleshed-out story we know)
Characters – 6 Everyone is a shadow of themselves, except Misa, who is completely different
Yuri – On it’s own = 3 Remembered from the anime – 5
Service – Those spacesuits. Ow.

Overall – 6

Sometimes translation isn’t your friend. For the title, they probably should have gone with “Miniskirt Space Pirates” rather than the “Space Pirates of the Minsuka” which they chose. I still prefer “Mouretsu Space Pirates”, or “Fierce Space Pirates”, or they could have stuck with the official English title, “Bodacious Space Pirates.” Gotta give ’em points for creative incomprehensibility, though. ^_^





Kira Kira no Natsu Manga (きらきらのなつ)

May 28th, 2013

I knew going into Asuka Sasada Presents Kira Kira no Natsu (きらきらのなつ) that it would be questionably “Yuri.” Half of the book is taken up with a story that ran in Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari and the other half with a story that ran in LalaDx. And, while I don’t consider the “Yuri” story to really be Yuri, I found it interesting anyway.

Suzu and her mother move in with her grandmother out in the boonies. Suzu isn’t really sad about it because she never really had any friends at her last school. She’s hesitant to speak, and the other girls just never really let her in to their circle. Almost immediately, Suzu meets and is befriended by Hinata, an outgoing, talkative and irrepressibly cheerful girl her age.

“Kira Kira no Natsu” follows Suzu and Hinata’s friendship and the doubt Suzu feels when she has to deal with the fact that once they go to middle school, Hinata will meet up with other friends and not be her friend exclusively.

At which point it occurred to me that the intense selfishness of wanting to be with another person exclusively is sort of the line where “feelings” build. So, while “Kira Kira no Natsu” isn’t Yuri in and of itsef – Suzu’s feelings never quite cross that line and Hinata is playing the roll of the “my pace” girl who doesn’t think that deeply on things, it’s a set-up to the next three years of their lives in which Suzu is likely to cling to Hinata until she drops her. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if this story continued, just to see how Sasada envisions Suzu and Hinata at 14. Is Suzu afraid of her feelings, looking for a beard, or is she watching Hinata from the sidelines as she dates boys, wondering what she would do, if…?

The Lala Dx story struck me oddly, only because it’s a not dissimilar story, but set in high school so, 4 years later. I immediately wondered if their ages are dictated merely by the audience of the magazine, or was it just that this story had to be later because it was straight romance (since 11 year old boys are usually less tuned into “relationships” than 11 year old girls.)

This collection covered no new ground, and was not “Yuri” per se, but the art and storytelling show solid skills. This is not at all surprising as Sasada-sensei has been a shoujo manga artist since the mid-90s. It appears that she’s only recently branched out into Yuri with Hirari. I look forward to more.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story- 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 6
I look forward to more… by which I mean a story that explores the feelings that develop after mere selfish possession becomes something more.