Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Anime: Sweet Blue Flowers / Aoi Hana Disk 2 (English)

May 24th, 2013

swb Where Disk 1 of Sweet Blue Flowers was full of nostalgia and longing, Disk 2 is a brutally beautiful look at all the different kinds of pain people can inflict upon one another without ever meaning to – or wanting to – do so.

With the backdrop of the school play (and Sugimoto being simply too cool as Heathcliff,) Fumi finds herself unsure of her sempai’s feelings. As the days pass, she is more and more sure that Sugimoto likes someone else. When she discovers the truth and confronts Sugimoto, she finds an uncomfortable truth waiting for her, as well.

If the entire series was just this one disk, it would still be one of my favorites. The life lessons in it are deep and abiding. It’s a love song to young love and to Kamakura and to the springtime of youth. Above all, it is a love song to young girls who find themselves in love with other girls. You are not alone, you are not wrong, you can love and lose and love again. That’s a hell of a chorus and I am glad this series is out there, singing those important words.

I’ll say this once again, because it cannot be said too many times – despite her own words to the contrary, Fumi is an incredibly strong character. As I watched this series over again, I felt honored to be allowed to share in Fumi’s story.

The world could use more Fumis.

Ratings:

Art – 8 (with some lapses toward the last two episodes)
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 8
Service – 8  Sugimoto as Heathcliff is pure service. ^_^

Overall – 9

I’m so on pins and needles about the end of the manga. I know what I want it to be, but what will it be? /worry worry/





Yuri Manga: Fu~Fu, Volume 2 (ふ~ふ)

May 9th, 2013

In Volume 1 of Minamoto Hisanari’s Yuri Manga series, we are introduced to a happy lesbian couple and their happy daily life. Sumi and Kinana are not without worries, but their lives are generally happy. They play house together, go shopping together, sleep in their pluffy bed together, as any couple might.

You might remember that this series was originally created for Yuri Hime S, a magazine that was overtly targeted towards a male moe-centric audience (the audience that now is catered to with Yuru Yuri.) Sumi and Kinana represented creatures rarely seen in that magazine – happy, adult lesbians.

You remember my Friedman Addendum to the Bechdel Test? One of the key points of the Addendum is the question “Does she have society?” So often in Yuri, we are reading a romance story, in which there are two, maybe three main characters. Everyone else fades into background furniture. But life is not like that for most people. Most people have coworkers, neighbors, relatives. And, so do Kinana and Sumi.

We are introduced to new neighbors (who just *happen* to also be a lesbian couple) and Kinana’s twin sister, Kanana, and her girlfriend, Shiroyuki. This world is not heavily populated, but there is society.

As the pages of Volume 2 of Fu~Fu  (ふ~ふ) open, Kina is approached by a strange woman who confesses to her. The resulting crisis is the product of a misunderstanding, but it adds yet another character to our cast, Arata. The rest of the story contains emotional turmoil, reconciliation, long talks, exciting shopping trips to the supermarket and other things that look exactly like a real life together. ^_^

The final chapters center around Sumi’s desire to have rings made for her and Kinana. As “wife and wife,” she thinks they ought to have that symbol of their bond. And so she does, but her friends – their society – want the full wedding ceremony and so they make one. It’s a grin-making climax and one that never fails to set my heart at ease and cause me to look goopily at my own wife, who invariably does the same back at me.

After all, we’re wife and wife. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Character – 10
Lesbian – 10
Service – 3

Overall – 10

If I had my way, I’d have a Drama CD for this series or a single-episode original anime as a deluxe edition of the manga.  A truly lovely series and very fun read.





Aoi Hana to End in July

May 8th, 2013

Aoi_Hana1ANN is reporting that Shimura Takako’s Yuri manga, Aoi Hana  will be coming to an end in the July issue of Manga Erotics F.

The Aoi Hana manga was picked up for translation by JManga in 2012 and the Sweet Blue Flowers anime was recently released by Nozomi/RightStuf.

8 volumes is a good solid run, so there’ll be no complaints from me. Thank you Shimura-sensei for such a wonderful series!

Thanks also to YNN Correspondent Orange Pekoe who wrote in to let us know the news.





Yuri Anime: Sweet Blue Flowers / Aoi Hana Disk 1 (English)

May 6th, 2013

swbWhen Manjoume Fumi returns home to Kamakura to go to high school, she’s pretty much forgotten her childhood best friend, Okudaira Akira. But circumstance has brought the two together again in what, for many Yuri fans, is the most-anticipated anime release of 2013.

Fumi is a Nadesico beauty, tall, with long black hair. She was – and still is – a crybaby, who as child often turned to energetic, assertive Akira, A-chan, for help. Their meeting is accidental, but they fall back into their old pattern without even realizing it. And, in a moment, the two of them are best friends once again, even though they go to different schools.

Fumi is caught up in cross-school event, the Drama Club’s play for the school festival – and even more caught up by the lead actress, Sugimoto Yasuko. Somewhat to her surprise, Fumi finds herself dating Sugimoto-sempai and liking it, despite having recently ended a disappointing affair with her cousin.

Everything in this series is classic Yuri, redolent with the smell of old school hallways and libraries filled with old books, until Fumi confesses to her new-old best friend that she’s in love with and dating another girl. A-chan does her best to support Fumi. When Fumi tells Sugimoto, she realizes instantly that Fumi is exceedingly strong. She’s right, but she doesn’t yet know how strong Fumi is. Aoi Hana may feel like it’s set in the Showa period, but Fumi is a Heisei girl – a contrast we’ll see again and again in this story.

However. It wasn’t Fumi’s achingly adorable personality that brought a tear to my increasingly sentimental eye this time. It was the title of the first episode. As the words Hana Monogatari (花物語り) appeared on the screen, I got something in my eye, or maybe it was my allergies. (;_;) Or, maybe, it was the reminder that I’m not the only person to think of Yoshiya Nobuko as a beloved ancestor to this genre.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Yuri – 9
Service – 2

Overall – 9

Disk 1 of Sweet Blue Flowers was incredibly beautiful, with the hyper-realistic backgrounds that are so popular in anime right now and the source of so much destination tourism for fans in Japan. Despite it being a “Lucky Penny” discount release, the DVD set comes with a booklet of promotional art, so we get a great extra even with the lower price.

You know how Fumi feels about the halls of Fujigaya? I feel that way about this anime. It’s recent chronologically, but it is a Yuri classic, nonetheless. I am so thankful to Shimura-sensei for writing this manga, and for JC Staff for animating it. And I am very, very thankful to Nozomi/RightStuf for releasing it in English!





The Softest, Fluffiest Yuri Contest EVER!

May 2nd, 2013

This past winter, Okazu Superhero Ana M braved the hordes of Winter Comiket, hunting and gathering for me like a champ. Among the many trophies she successfully acquired was this load of goods from one of our favorite Yuri mangaka, Fujieda Miyabi, creator of Iono-sama Fanatics and Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan.

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Lilyca is Fujieda-sensei’s original doujinshi – as you can see, Sarasa and Seriho’s story is not over, just because Yuri Hime is not publishing any more Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan. This year’s bag and the clear file include original bunny-eared characters from a series he calls 黒綾白和.  And, the fourth item is a soft, fluffy blanket with the same characters.

I have no energy to judge complex things for this contest, so just enter by putting your name, age and the country you live in in the comments and we’ll go from there. I have some doujinshi to give away, too, so there may be more than one winner, wink wink nudge nudge. ^_^

Contest will wrap up when I remember to wrap it up – let’s say May 20th or so. Get your name in early!