Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri News This Week – November 1, 2008

January 1st, 2008

Yuri Events

As you read this, I am at MangaNEXT along with a bunch of the Yuricon staff, Rica Takashima and a host of awesome con guests!

Here is my Panel schedule for MangaNEXT:

Friday – 7PM – Writing for Manga

Saturday – 2PM – Yuri Panel
6PM – 10 Steps to Impressing a Publisher

There’s loads of other great stuff, too. Mari Morimoto will be discussing Gay Manga 101 on Friday, and the Manga Library will be hosting a Book Club discussion of Rica’s works on Sunday. In between there’s tons of stuff for fans of every genre, so I really hope you’ll pop by to say hi and stay for the great panels and people.

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Yuri Manga

Okay, the news is out, at last. Sometime last spring I learned that Tokyopop licensed Yamaji Ebine’s Love My Life, but was asked to not say anything. Well thanks to Amazon’s advance listings, I no longer have to take the rap for being the leak. Hah.

Probably no one cares about this but Amuria in Star Ocean, which had tons of almost-but-not-really-Yuri ends its run in the December issue of Dengeki Daioh.

Nakamura Ching, creator of Gunjou, wrote me to say that she’s getting a lot of overseas requests on how to purchase copies of Morning 2 magazine. Because she’s a really lovely person, she’s gone and created a guide to purchasing back issues from Kodansha’s website. It’s a step-by-step process, with key things translated into English for your benefit! She’s asked me to pass on the information that back issues that contain chapters 1-3 of Gunjou are no longer available, but chapter 4~ are. I seriously think we need to thank her for that effort – it’s completely above and beyond the call of duty, don’t you?

Sean writes in to tell us that Gunsmith Cats Burst is coming to an end in Japan. And the most recent chapter includes a kiss between Misty and Rally. A kiss that is lovingly detailed over *3* pages. It’s a damn good kiss, I have to say. lol Sadly for Misty x Rally fans, it’s a good-bye kiss. But all I have to say is “I knew it!” (That’s sort of a joke, based off my recent GSC fanfic. Just saying. lol)

For Aria and Aqua fans, Amano Kozue has announced a new manga series to begin in March, called Amanchu. The art has two girls, so undoubtedly there will be fans who see it as Yuri. :-)

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Yuri Anime

Once more Crunchyroll offer free, legal streaming Yuri-ish suff. This time Toei announces, among other things, streaming piles of PreCure. :-)

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Other News

I just wanted to take a moment to thank three gentlemen for their kindness and friendship. 828-san, Yuki-san and Komatsu-san. Komatsu-san, particularly, sent me a huge pile of books, all of which I will review here (including the surprisingly Yuri PreCure manga.)

All three have sent me beautful art and/or books and all three offer support to both myself and to Yuri-dom at large. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

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Another Yuri-ful week. How cool is that?





Yuri Anime: Miyuki-chan in Wonderland

December 7th, 2007

Today’s review was brought to you by Katie, who lent me this DVD as a case for something else she was giving me.

It’s been 7 years since I watched Fushigi no Kuni no Miyuki-chan and Kagami no Kuni no Miyuki-chan, released collectively in the US as Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. I still remember when and where I first saw it, and the look of triumph in the person’s eyes who was showing it to me as if they had discovered a great well-spring of Yuri. My reaction was more along the lines of “gosh, what annoying music.” I remember it well. ^_^

Miyuki-chan in Wonderland is a two-part reimaging of Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories by all-female studio CLAMP, starring the happless Miyuki-chan, a schoolgirl far less capable and quite a bit older than Alice. To be fair, Miyuki-chan is not just facing strange creatures loosely based on Cambridge professors of Carroll’s acquaintance, she’s facing sexual harrassment by the all-female anthropomorphic cast of apparent nymphomaniacs that inhabit this Wonderland and Looking Glass world.

The “Yuri” is the above sexual harrassment. Miyuki is more interested in getting home that in the attractive, well-built, adult semi-humans who want to play with her, so the humor is of the “kyaaaahhhh!” variety. Sure, the Mad Hatter *seems* to be gay, but it’s sort of a moot point, really. And it’s a one-trick pony. Practically every meeting involves a sexually suggestive component, flavored with some panty shots. I got tired of it quickly. Many people find it to be brilliant. Your mileage may vary.

The voice cast deserves a mention – it’s fairly all-star, especially the first vignette, the one in Wonderland. There’s some pretty level up names there for what is mostly a soft porn drabble of an anime. :-)

While CLAMP is extremely famous for stunning art, Miyuki-chan the anime, did not do much to expand their reputation. The artbook is significantly less ragged. And it doesn’t have that annoying soundtrack. If you like CLAMP for the art, stick with the book. If you like the idea of all of Caroll’s creatures animated as buxom scantily-clad women sexually harassing a girl, with famous voices, you’ll love the anime. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 5
Characters – 5
Music – 2
Yuri – 5
Service – 8

Overall – 5

Lewis Carroll’s works are the third most-quoted body of literary work in the world, following the Bible and Shakespeare. CLAMP’s contribution to the canon is memorable, without actually being good.





Yuri Anime: El Cazador, End of Season Review

October 24th, 2007

Reviews are going to be very anime-heavy for the next few weeks, as I have a huge backlog of anime that I haven’t had time to watch, while I’m busy watching new stuff that I will review eventually.

But today I wanted to do a long-overdue review of a series from the Spring season. I had watched it raw but, I wanted to refresh my memory on what happened before I reviewed it. I happily watched it all over again, and am now ready to go on the End of Season review for El Cazador de la Bruja. ^_^

You might want to read my initial review of El Cazador to compare and contrast (and also to see how, ironically, that review began in almost the exact same way that this one did. And I can assure you that it was not at *all* on purpose! I didn’t remember that I had written that until I just read it now.) Okay, so I just re-read it and, I have pretty much nothing to add, except, I think Bee Train came through for us Yuri fans on this pretty darn well.

There is a contingent of people who liked Noir best and therefore did not like El Cazador because it was too fluffy, too silly, not serious enough, not angsty enough. And there probably is a group of people who liked Madlax better, although I haven’t encountered any, yet. I just assume that there’s always someone who has a different opinion *somewhere.*

But I can’t say I liked any of them better than any of the others. They were three different takes on a theme – girls with guns on the run. I commented in my original review that El Cazador almost seemed a parody of itself and you know, I think that that was exactly what they were going for here. It’s much goofier than any of the previous Bee Train series. In-jokes abound, even within the context of the story. Tacos will never look the same to any of us again. :-) And the opening and closing theme animation had just about nothing at all to do with the story, which was nice and pointless. No guy in a mask, no sniper cat. Thank goodness. LOL

Ai Shimizu was fantastic as Ellis. Without ever once sounding less flaky or ethereal, she managed to mature her character in such a subtle, magnificent way that it almost came as an afterthought. Itou Shizuka was great as Nadie, remaining pretty clueless and not-subtle from beginning to end. :-) I found them quite charming and am glad to tell my past self that yes, I came to care about them, as I hoped I might.

Their relationship was total win for me. In the beginning, the idea of the two of them as a couple squicked me out the door. There was no one moment where it changed and became something else – it was a slow process. It was, in fact, the point of all that stuff that other people saw as fluff episodes – they were there entirely to allow the characters to develop a relationship naturally, leisurely. And it wasn’t an even process either. Ellis comes to like Nadie, later Nadie starts to care about Ellis as more than a job. Ellis starts to fall in love, Nadie starts to realize that Ellis mean more than just friend to her. And on and on. Ellis, surprisingly, becomes the seme, the agressor, here; making her case for them as a couple long before Nadie clues in. And it is Ellis who declares her love first, and last. She shoots straight from the hip, too, no implication or ambiguity.

None of the larger plot is particularly shocking or revelatory. The conspiracy is never developed as well as it might be – where in Noir we spend episode after episode poring over Soldats, in El Cazador we spend more time with the people who represent the witches and Project Leviathan, than with the details of the organizations themselves. Which is perfectly fine with me. Rosenberg, the bad guy, is loathsome and his death was way too late in the series. And he treated poor Melissa terribly, something I’m not prepared to forgive, since she was so nice. LA, this series’ crazy stalker character, was loathsome AND annoying and his death was also way too late in the series. But I will forever think of him in conjunction with Ellis setting his crotch on fire, so that sort of evens things out.

Jody “Blue Eyes” Heyward was awesomeness and not *just* cause she was voiced by Hisakawa Aya, who for once wasn’t the creepy stalker character. She was sort of a “good” stalker this time. lol Mitsuishi Kotono, who seems to be working more often these days, which makes me happy, was wonderful as the chief witch, even if she never got a name or a story. Echo and the Bunnymen were never explained, nor were Jody’s henchwomen. But that’s okay. Soldats and Enfant never really made any sense, either. :-) Just go with it.

Ricardo and Lilio. I’m still not at all sure what their roles were – acting as foils, I suppose. The four of them were a kind of oddly functional alternative family for a while there. Or would have been if Nadie had had a clue about Ellis’ feelings for her. Which she didn’t, yet.

And then there was the epilogue. It was pretty much as I expected, in fact, as I would have demanded, with two exceptions – the motivation for the confrontation that would catapult Ellis and Nadie back into their real personas was much stupider than I expected, so that was pretty funny.

In the end, as Ellis once again makes her declaration of love – with an audience this time – there is a HUGELY wooja-wooja beat-you-over-the-head love song playing in the background that is a *strong* indication that this is not meant to be seen as ambiguous or plausibly deniable. The fact that the last line of the song is “My immortal love” helps with that. And so does Pedro’s reaction. (Don’t worry if you don’t know who Pedro is – he’s there to be defeated by Ellis’ love. That’s all you need to know.)

Oh, wait – three exceptions. Jody’s ingenuous comment about her assistant being identical to Rosenberg by chance….yeah, sure. It was a off-beat note that I liked *because it has no explanation.* It just is. Go with it.

So, no, its not Noir with its intense film Noir-ness. And no, its not Madlax with its alternate existences and war-torn world. In the end, it is simply El Cazador, with Nadie and Ellis on the road. And for that, I liked it bunches.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Not good, no. But not “AAAHHH!” either
Story – 7 Sure it had huge holes. Who cares.
Characters – 9 They just grew on me
Yuri – 7 If you weren’t grinning at the end, love song and all, you fail.
Service – 5 – Almost as an afterthought – oh, yeah, we could do an ass shot here…

Overall – 8

Tacos, tacos tacos, oi-ishi-i tacosu. Iketeru tacos ha oi-i-shi ta-co-su. Tee Hee.





Yuri Manga: The Last Uniform, Volume 1 (English)

August 13th, 2007

My sincere thanks to the folks at Seven Seas for providing me a copy of The Last Uniform for today’s review. Your generosity is sincerely and greatly appreciated!

As you may know, if you have been reading my reviews of the Yuri Hime magazines for the past few months, I do not like Hakamada Mera’s art. And the recent entries by Hakamada in those magazines have outright repulsed me. Nonetheless, I am going to say that The Last Uniform is, in every other way other than the art, an enjoyable manga. (My original review of Saigo no Seifuku says pretty much the same thing – if the art was better and the characters looked their age, I most likely would love this manga. But they don’t. So I don’t.)

The manga takes place at the ubiquitous girl’s school in one of the dorms, where the rule is that everyone must share a room. There can be no single-person rooms. So, when a new student transfers in, she is placed with roommates Ai and Fuuko. Ai is exceptionally upset about this – more than she can even deal with. By the time she realizes why, so has her new roommate, who goes out of her way to stay out of their way and even encourages Ai.

In addition to Ai and Fuuko, an older pair of students, Tsumugi and Beniko, are also involved in a gavotte around their feelings for one another. Their relationship is complicated by an upperclassman who openly courts Beniko, but to no avail.

These two relationships are the main focus of the manga, with some side stories and a key flashback.

The plot, such as it is, revolves around normal school life, with the trials and tribulations twisted only slightly to reflect the student’s feelings for one another. There are some kisses, but no outright confessions in this volume. By the end of Volume 1 the couples are neither together, nor are they apart. It’s a story of beginning more than endings though, so the reader can remain hopeful that things might progress.

As with all of the Seven Seas books I’ve reviewed so far, the translation and adaptation are nearly seamless, which makes for a pleasant and smooth read. If only the art wasn’t so darn unappealing…oh well. (And remember that this is *my* opinion. You might not be bothered by it as much as I am. I am bothered by it a great deal. I don’t like the oversize, misshapen heads and the little-girl bodies.)

Of all of the so-far released books in 7S’s Yuri imprint, remembering that Kashimashi is NOT part of their Strawberry line, Last Uniform is pretty much the only one with actual Yuri. The others have “Yuri-service,” where the two female protagonists are shown in a variety of posed positions in still art or screencaps as if they are potentially lovers, but there’s no actual emotional connection. Like the Newtype effect, many people cannot discern the difference between two women in love with one another or two women who are merely posed to look as if they desire one another. (Thinking about it, this explains the popularity of lesbian porn for men – the viewers can’t differentiate/don’t care about the fact that they are just two women being paid to have sex on one another. But I digress.)

In any case, the strength of this book is the characters’ feelings for one another, which reads pretty convincingly and not at all unpleasantly.

Ratings:

Art – 3
Story – 5 (nothing new or earth-shaking, but nothing taxing or horrible)
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 (but only on the basis that someone, somewhere will always get off on something, as the author clearly does on school uniforms.)

Overall – 6

As the only manga with actual Yuri in the Strawberry imprint, I think it does a fair job. I’ll never sing paeans of praise to this series, but you could do worse….





Yuri Manga: Claudine

July 30th, 2007

In the late 1960’s, women began entering the manga industry in Japan with a vengeance. Until then manga – even manga for girls – was drawn by men. The women best known for making a splash in the manga market are known collectively as the Magnificent 49ers, because they were all born in the year 1949. The 49ers made a huge impact, and they are frequently credited with the creation of shoujo manga, that is, comics by women for girls.

In the early 1970’s many women experimented within this new genre – it is at this time that the first manga that would later be seen as the origins of today’s Boy’s Love (Tomas no Shinzou) and Yuri (Shiroi Heya no Futari) were drawn. Following these were many manga in which gender roles, crossdressing and same-sex love were dealt with. We now look at many of these stories as early examples of the Yuri genre.

Ikeda Riyoko, the author of two of those manga, Oniisama E and Rose of Versailles, was clearly fascinated with gender. In both of the above there is a main character who is a woman, but dresses and acts like a man. In both cases this character is seen as physically attractive to the women around her. Both Sainte-Juste and Oscar have tragic endings, but both die free from regret and in love – Oscar with her long time friend and lover Andre’ and Rei, known as Sainte-Juste, with the young girl Nanako, who had freed her from the bonds of an abusive relationship with her half-sister.

Ikeda wrote another series dealing with a women who dresses like a man, Claudine. It is quite possible to call this a manga about a transgender character, as much as it is a Yuri manga. There’s no way to know whether Claudine’s desire was to be able to love women freely and dress in the clothes of and have the prerogatives of a man – like many butch women of her time – or whether she truly wanted to become a man. Either way, this classic Yuri manga is a pretty amazing, but painful, character piece.

The manga begins as a doctor of psychiatry discusses the case of Claudine, a patient of his for many years. She was brought to him as a young child, when her proclivities for dressing and acting like a boy were already well established. The doctor is very sympathetic – he never really tries to “fix” her, instead providing her with a non-judgmental ear for her to vent to.

Claudine’s first love is a servant, Maya, who returns her love unconditionally. But they are discovered and Maya is sent away, leaving Claudine to begin to loathe herself and her attraction to women. As a young woman, Claudine heads to the city where she once again falls in love with a woman and is once again betrayed – this time by the girl herself. Claudine, who comes from a family of power and wealth longs only for love. But she will not find it and in the end, she can only see one way out. The doctor learns of her suicide on the phone and mourns the passing of the tormented girl.

It’s a very Well of Loneliness type story, in which the “moral” of the story appears to be that women who love women will die horrible deaths. An ending that was stock in the world of lesbian romance until … erm … okay, it’s still pretty stock. But for any women who were loving women in the middle of the sexual revolution of the 70’s, reading Claudine must have come as a “whoo-hoo!” moment. Think about it – what’s the one thing everyone wants from the universe? Everyone wants to see themselves reflected in some form of media. Whether it be TV, movies, song, manga, what have you – the one thing we all want is to see some sign that we *exist.* That’s why gays and lesbians trawl through media pointing out even the “are they or aren’t they?” characters. Because the more examples of our selves we can find, the more validated we feel.

And in the 70’s, in the middle of a burgeoning wave of manga for girls, to those women who had loved or did love another woman, something like Claudine would be a life-line of external validation.

No, it didn’t have a happy ending – manga rarely had happy endings in the 1970’s, regardless of the romance. Or at all until the 90’s really. And even now, the majority of anime and manga favor ambiguity and resets over actual happy endings with resolutions. (There’s all sorts of cultural reasons for this that I won’t get into here. Ask me about them some day when we meet.) The bottom line is, Claudine probably made a bunch of early otaku lesbian and transgender (or those who wished they could transition) folks very excited.

So, whether you perceive Claudine as a lesbian narrative or a transgender one, it’s a pretty significant manga. Personally, I like it. Like Well, with which it has so much in common, it holds a special place in my heart.

Ratings

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 7

I like to think that, when young Satou Sei was combing literature for reflections of her own feelings and she came across Well, she might have also come across Claudine and, like myself, rejected the tragedy, even as she acknowledged its place in her personal history…. Us Comp. Lit. majors must stick together after all. ^_^