Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Network News – January 30, 2010

January 30th, 2010

This week was the last week of having 4 jobs; as of next week, I’ll be back to my usual 3 at a time. Thank you all for your patience with gaps in reviews. I’m *still* open to guest reviews, so if you have something you’d really like to review here, email me and we can talk!

Before we start, I have a Mystery to Solve. Someone sent me an absolutely *beautiful* doujinshi from Romania. There was no name, no note, no nothing. Can someone claim credit and let me know who to thank?

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Yuri Manga

The pre-order for the first volume of Gunjo is up on Amazon JP. It’s got a February 25 release date.

Ordering from Amazon JP isn’t as hard as it appears, since all the buttons are the same size, color and shape on every Amazon, and the check-out can be displayed in English. However, I know that not everyone is comfortable with the idea of ordering from there. So, to make things easier, I’ll be coordinating a bulk order. I’ll let you know when it’s all set up, but here’s the plan: I’ll set up a link to take orders through Paypal. You’ll have to pay shipping from Japan, the cost of the book, the fees on Paypal and shipping to you. However, you’ll be paying a smaller shipping cost than if you placed the order on your own. You don’t *have* to order this way, I just want to make it easier for you if you want it. :-)

YNN correspondent Sean G. did some great investigative reporting this week, when he contacted Digital Manga Publishing and asked whether they had abandoned the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS manga. Their response was ‘We still have it. Lyrical Nanoha Strikers will come out this year. Vol. 1 is in September.’ As Sean said, “there you go.”

Octave Voume 4 is up for preorder, and the latest Comic Yuri Hime magazine has already hit the shelves.

The big news is that Morinaga Milk will be doing a color illustration for Yuri Hime. This has excited some hope that she – and therefore Nana and Hitomi’s story – will be returning to the magazine. File that under conjecture and rumor. All it really means is that she’s doing a color illustration.

CANAAN Volume 1 is now available. So far, it pretty closely mirrors the anime, which is both good, and bad.

It’s the Year of Nanoha! The movie is out, with a Number #1 song for Mizuki Nana, and the first volume of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid has hit the stands. The story is excellent, the execution gives me nightmares.

For those of us who prefer the adult characters, the first volume of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Force is also available.

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Yuri Artist Interview

Speaking of Yuri manga artist Morinaga Milk (Girl Friends), she answers 10 questions on the Comic High website. These cover important issues like her unusual pen name and what items she keeps around when she’s writing, etc.

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Other News

It’s my pleasure to announce the winner of “Get this thing out of my house! Contest” from last week – Satoshi Miwa. Miwa, can you DM me on Twitter or email me with your address and I’ll get this fine example of unrestrained crap out to you as fast as I can manage? :-)

It’s all the rage to give away manga these days among the manga bloggers – I may make this a regular feature!

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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!





Yuri Anime: El Cazador de la Bruja, Volume 2 Disk 4 (English)

January 29th, 2010

El Cazador de la Bruja, Volume 1El Cazador de la Bruja is magic.

In the final few episodes, we learn the significance behind the name and the agenda of Project Leviathan, come to understand and perhaps sympathize with LA more than we could have expected. We learn to like “Blue Eyes” and feel affection for Ricardo and his foster daughter, Lirio.

We watch Ellis change and watch her change Nadie.

Above all things, we watch them come to understand that they are far more than traveling companions to one another.

The climax of the show is ridiculously trite and overdone and sappy, and we don’t care. Why don’t we care? “When you have that sparkle in your eyes, that’s the Nadie I love.”

Ellis FTW.(I mean that in the old-school biker usage, not the new fan usage.)

El Cazador de la Bruja FTW. (This time I mean it in the fan way.)

What a great series. Now I finally have all three of Bee Train’s “Girls with guns on the run” series. Time for a mega-marathon. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 9

One more time with feeling – thanks to Okazu Superhero Amanda M. for sponsoring today’s review!





Yuri Manga: Kimochi no Katachi, Volume 2

January 28th, 2010

Kimochi no Katachi, Volume 2 (きもちのかたち), continues to follow the stories of Satsuki’s relationship with Kano, and Mako’s relationship with Rina. In both cases, the relationship become closer and matures past that “Story A” space.

Satsuki’s story really takes off in what is probably my favorite of all the chapters, which centers around a most common object – a cell phone.

Satsuki’s father is rather strict and old-fashioned and he doesn’t see a business case for his children getting cell phones. So Satsuki has to rely on the family phone, which makes talking to Kano awkward. Kano lends Satsuki her cell phone, but Satsuki’s father hears her talking in her room and throws a hissy fit, assuming she’s talking to a boy who’s up to no good. Scared half out of her mind, Satsuki decides to approach her father directly and ask for a phone. Unfortunately, he’s a shouter, and starts to overwhelm his daughter before she can get started. Like some kind of miracle, Kano shows up, apologizes to Dad for the fuss and woos him into being quiet long enough for Satsuki to make her request. He agrees that she can have one, which becomes their next Sunday date. But that isn’t the point. The point of the scene, as both Satsuki and Kano later comment on, is that Kano sits in seiza, with one hand lightly on Satsuki’s back as she petitions Dad to allow his daughter to have a phone. It’s a beautiful moment. That small gesture claims Satsuki as *hers* in a way that’s unmistakable, without saying a word. Later on, Kano admits that she was terrifyingly close to asking Dad for Satsuki’s hand in marriage. ^_^

Meanwhile, Mako is making herself ill because she really, really, really wants to kiss, touch and do other things with Rina. Unfortunately she’s still horribly gun shy and, even though no one is stopping her, Mako is just not ready to accept her own desire. (As I once wrote in a story, desire is a terrible thing, because you can never go back after giving in.)

Mako’s previous crush doesn’t make it easier by telling Mako that *she’s* ready to accept Mako’s feelings. Mako’s making herself and Rina miserable, but the only one who can release her from her prison is her. Eventually Rina helps Mako see the light, and Mako and she finally are able to move their relationship forward.

For a series titled, “Shape of Feelings,” both arcs really fit the bill. There’s a genuine and heartfelt exploration of feelings and situations that a young woman who finds herself in love (and lust) with another woman might be dealing with. More importantly, the stories deal with the fallout of these feelings into other, completely normal everyday experiences. Mako’s inability to cope with her fantasies about Rina, or even her enjoyment of looking at Rina’s body; Satsuki’s fear that Kano will be stolen from her, or that her feelings for Kano will be discovered by her family are not unusual to anyone who has ever fallen in love with the “wrong” person.

I can’t recommend this series enough. It’s got strong characters and completely real, completely accurate feelings. Something that I’m glad to say there’s more and more of these days. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 2

Overall – 9

Congratulations to Sakuraike and many thanks for their fantastic work over the years!





Aoi Hana Official Book

January 26th, 2010

If you’ve fallen for Fumi and her friends; if you’re a collector; if you’re a completist – you want the Aoi Hana Official Tokubon. If you love the series for the art, are interested in the points of view of the writers, the artists, or the voice actresses – you should get this book.

Photos of Kamakura lined up against their animated counterparts and staff picks for their favorite moments of animation give you a warm fuzzy feeling. The interview with Ikuhara Kunihiko about the opening sequence provided was more information than I expected. He’s either gotten way better at expressing himself in words or they guessed. lol

For me, the very best thing were the discussions between mangaka Shimura Takako and Ono Natsume (Ristorante Paradiso) and Umino Chika (Honey and Clover) and Matsunae Akemi (Junjou Crazy Fruits).

And for dessert, there’s a short manga about Pon-chan, which was very cute.

However, if you are looking for any discussion of the Yuri, aside from a few platitudes, you won’t be finding any of that here. In fact, the only one of the cast even asked about the onna-doushi storyline is Horie Yui, the voice of Kyoko. Presumably because she’s the most established and has the least to lose if she says something scandalous.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Content – 9
Yuri – 2

Overall – 9





Lesbian Novel: Futari no Hitori Asobi

January 25th, 2010

It’s always a pleasure to read a collection by Mori Natsuko, and today’s short story collection Futari no Hitori Asobi (二人のひとりあそび) is no less stimulating than any other.

The primary differences between this collection and the previous two of Mori-sensei’s work that I’ve reviewed, Sempai to Watashi and Himeyuri-tachi no Houkago are twofold: In this volume there is more straight sex than in the previous two and there’s less outrageously funny behavior. In fact, more than once, I thought to myself, “I think she’s getting old, because everyone in this book is all love-dovey and warm-hearted.” There’s less sadism in her BDSM in most of the stories, except the very first.

The first story was about a young woman who is cruelly tortured in class and falls in love with the sadist (female) who rescues her. This ends with a three-way relationship between the sadist, the protagonist and a guy who is everyone’s bitch.

This was followed by a number of straight stories that involves some light B&D and cross-dressing by the guys, including a strange story from the perspective of a crazy woman who has fantasy sex with her dead (male) lover. And a few group sex stories.

Probably the most disturbing stories follows the love/sex triangle of two men and a woman and the plant-boy that they find on a park bench and one of them takes home and raises. I can’t properly communicate how odd this story was and how awkward, as it started as porn, then sort of became sci-fi then bounced unhappily between horror, sci-fi and romance, sorta. And then there was the very yucky father/daughter incest one which I had wiped out of my head until I flipped back for this review.

As always with Mori, you have to expect at least one incest story. In this case, there was the one above and a lesbian sister with a little non-consensual sister loving. Since the older sister was named Reina, I couldn’t stop myself from imagining Elina and Reina from Queen’s Blade, which probably made the story more interesting for me than it might otherwise have been. ^_^

My favorite stories – other than the first one, which started pretty harshly, but I began to like the sadist when she responded to “I like you” by slapping the protagonist across the face – were the last two.

In the next to last story, a woman starts to recognize that she may be a lesbian, and is approached by a classmate who confesses that she is, in fact, gay. Kanae then offers to help Noriko learn what women do in bed. As their relationship develops, Noriko realizes that Kanae actually is in love with her and she sheds her childish crush on another classmate. Their relationship deepens a bit and threatens to become an actual thing, as the curtain is drawn on them.

The final story is the title story. If you know any Japanese (or indeed anything about Mori-sensei’s work) you’ll know exactly what the story is about. Nao meets Isako on a chat board and they play with themselves, together.

So, as I said, it was an entertaining read, but it definitely lacked the crazy humor and hard edge to the BDSM that I expect from Mori-sensei. All the warm, soft feelings for people in the throes of bound ecstasy was sort of cute and fuzzy, but I think I like her better when she’s making me shriek with appalled laughter.

Ratings:

Story – Variable, from 3-8
Characters – Same
Lesbian – 10 when it’s a 10

Overall – 7

The last two stories might be something I’d hand to another lesbian, particularly the next to last one. It actually dealt with some of those “what does it mean to be a lesbian” questions that Yuri rarely deals with.