Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Manga: Koi no Kaori (恋のカオリ)

October 26th, 2012

Koi no Kaori  is a short story collection of Yuri romances by Takemiya Jin from Comic Yuri Hime; all but the first tied together with the common thread of “scent.”

In “Tsuushin Omachishite Orimasu” Mayumi learns that her confidant on a Lesbian BBS and her rival at school are one and the same. Luckily for her, “Kuro-san” turns out to be a kind upperclassman…and a good friend, which becomes even more important when Mayumi realizes that she’s fallen for the girl in “Ki ni Nacchatte Gomen Nasai.”

In “Sweet Temptation,” the scent of vanilla may be sweet, but the smile on Chika’s face says she knows that her words of confession, like her scent, will fill Risa’s mind with extraordinary thoughts. In “Sweet Desire” – she turns out to be right about that. ^_^

“Love Aroma” is an experiment in aromatherapy and feelings for a teacher new to the school.

In “love * preparation,” Riko manages, eventually, to communicate to her next door neighbor, that she really means it when she say she likes her.

And finally, “Love Aroma 2” continues the double lesson of aromatherapy and love. I’m a big fan of ylang ylang myself. ^_^

This book exactly hits Takemiya-sensei’s sweet spot – stories just long enough to get to like and care about the characters, but not long enough to overblow the drama. I love when she draws “zOMG, what did I just do!?!” expressions. ^_^ And I still love that Takemiya-sensei is one of the few Yuri manga artists out there with characters who are actually lesbians.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 10
Service – 2

Overall – 8

For a perfect manga sampler of Yuri sweets, you couldn’t do better than Koi no Kaori.





Yuri Manga: Salomelic (さろめりっく)

October 23rd, 2012

Like most transfer students, Salome is trailed by rumor, innuendo and scandal. In conjunction with her dark, gothic image and her lonely expression, this makes her a target. In  Salomelic, from Hirari Comics, Salome is indeed a melancholic character.

The rumors say that Salome is a witch, that she uses magic to cheat on her grades and that *something* – what exactly, no one is sure – caused her to move from her former school. As with most lives, the reality is a bit tamer…Salome moves around a lot because her mother is a fortune-teller who leaves town after her love affairs fall apart. Oh, but Salome is a witch.

Salome is befriended by the allegorically named Hikari, who brings light into her dark life. As they grow closer, Hikari is rejected by her old friends, but it all gets patched up after a bit. Salome is happy using her magic making chocolates for Hikari and her friends, but nothing stays the same for long. Salome’s feelings for Hikari are not just “friendship” and she appears to be losing her magic…and to add insult to injury, her mother wants to move again!

Even typing all this out, it is a tad exhausting. Hakamada Mera has squeezed in all of her pet plot complications, making Salomelic into a bit of a rushed mess. But of course, in the end, everyone lives happily ever after – and kind of nicely, even after happily ever after. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Character – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 1

Overall – 7

I’m never honestly sure if I’m being extra hard on Hakamada-sensei or if I really think she has something special in her that we just haven’t seen. I’m going to presume its the latter and hold out for a story by her written with some real conviction and passion. ^_^





Dear Brother Anime (English)

October 22nd, 2012

It was 2004. Fansubs were already phasing out of the elegantly clunky VHS tape-exchanges by snail mail and were shifting towards the passionless and infinitely faster transmission of IP people had no right to share by digital means.

Oniisama E was already a relic of a former age even then. Fansubbed by a bastion of Victorian worldviews, each volume of the anime came with notes on culture, references and a full set of what we ought to be feeling and understanding. It wasn’t enough for us to know that the rain, the wind, the trains and the flocks of birds were symbolic, we were to be told exactly how to interpret them. ^_^ As the end of this series heralded the end of anime fandom as I had entered it, I finally wrote a review, if only to say goodbye to it.

Now we have a chance that I could never ever have expected – a free, legal, multi-language option for people to watch this oh-so-shoujo series, streaming on Viki.com. I hope every single one of you who loves Maria-sama ga Miteru will watch Oniisama E/Dear Brother based on the manga by Riyoko Ikeda.

This is a series fraught with fraughtness. In the poisonous hothouse of an elite girls’ school, a nice girl named Nanako will encounter insanity, obsession, emotional manipulation, friendship and love.

Kaoru-no-Kimi, the athletic masculine type, Miya-sama without whom we would never have had Juri in Utena and the beautifully tragic Sainte-Juste, who makes homicidal depression and drug use look…sexy. You cannot tell me that kids books today are too dark. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Character 9
Yuri – More than you expect (and more than Technogirls would admit)
Service – 4 for girls in suits, but nothing more salacious than that

Overall – 9

This stuff is made of awesome. Give me until Episode 7, and if you hate it, you can stop. But then, we can never be friends. ^_^





Ask Rose of Versailles’ Riyoko Ikeda Questions on RightStuf.com

October 19th, 2012

Nozomi Entertainment Wants Fans’ Questions for The Rose of Versailles Creator Riyoko Ikeda

Submit questions at rov.rightstuf.com by 4 p.m. CDT on Nov. 1, 2012.

GRIMES, Iowa, Oct. 18, 2012 – Anime producer and distributor Right Stuf, Inc. and Nozomi Entertainment want fans’ questions for Riyoko Ikeda, the legendary creator of The Rose of Versailles . Please submit questions, via the form located at the official series site (rov.rightstuf.com), by 4 p.m. CDT on Thurs., Nov. 1, 2012.

Right Stuf’s Nozomi Entertainment division will be releasing the anime adaptation of The Rose of Versailles, also known as “Berusaiyu no BaraThe Rose of Versailles and “Lady Oscar,” both digitally, via Viki.com in December 2012 (U.S. and Canada), and as two limited-edition DVD box sets in 2013. This will be the first time the entire anime series will be available to English-speaking audiences in North America. Right Stuf, Inc. licensed the series from TMS Entertainment, Ltd.

Set during the years preceding the French Revolution, The Rose of Versailles is a tale of romance and political intrigue that centers around Oscar François de Jarjayes, a young woman whose father has raised her as a man – and trained her to be an elite and skilled soldier – so she can succeed him as the commander of the palace guards.

The Rose of Versailles is based upon the best-selling manga (comic) by Riyoko Ikeda (Dear Brother, a.k.a. Oniisama e…), which was originally serialized in Shueisha’s shoujo (girls’) anthology magazine Margaret, from 1972 through 1973, and later collected into 10 volumes. In addition to its anime adaptation, it inspired a short story collection (also written by Ikeda), a French-Japanese live-action film, and multiple musicals staged by Japan’s famed Takarazuka Revue.

This 40-episode anime adaptation of The Rose of Versailles originally aired on Japanese television from October 1979 through September 1980. It features animation by TMS Entertainment, Ltd., as well as direction by Tadao Nagahama (Romance Robot Trilogy) and Osamu Dezaki (Nobody’s Boy – Remi, Dear Brother, Aim for the Ace!).

For more information about the series and to submit questions for the Q&A with Ms. Ikeda, visit rov.rightstuf.com.





Golondrina Manga, Volume 1 (ゴロンドリナイ)

October 8th, 2012

est em is an artist well-known for creating unconventional manga with a tinge of BL. How exciting for me, then, when I encountered Golondrina (ゴロンドリーナ ), an unconventional manga with a touch of Yuri.

The story begins as Chica, sobbing miserably in a bathroom, contemplates suicide. Blade to wrist, she just cannot bring herself to do it but, despite that, she still wants to die. We learn why in a flashback – Chica’s lover Maria has left her. Worse, she’s left only because Chica’s a woman. Yes, they were happy, but Maria wants a marriage, a child…a “normal” life. Chica is devastated.

She tries again to die, this time by stepping in front of traffic in the pouring rain. A car screeches to halt in front of her and the driver, an old man, yells at her – what does she think she’s doing? She tells him she’s trying to die, at which he throws her in the car and takes her back to his place to dry off.

Disconcerted, crying in her sleep, Chica wakes in the old man’s house. When he sees that she’s a girl, he realizes he’s made a mistake. He was going to make her into a Matador, but since she’s a girl…

The last straw snaps, and Chica demands that he take her seriously and teach her, because she wants to die in the ring.

Thus begins Golondrina, a manga about a young woman training to become a matadaor.

The art is classic est em – everyone is thin and less gangly than they have any right to be. Chica comes off as consistently hot-headed, but hard-working. Her friend Sechu, who is dead set against this, is still a good friend. We hardly had time to learn to hate Maria, but we are given plenty of time to learn about Antonio, Chica’s teacher. Is he a murderer, as Sechu says, or is he a man left behind in this life by a student, maybe lover? We learn a tantalizing bit about Antonio, but by the end of Volume 1, we don’t know much about him, really.

We do know that, despite being grossed out by bullfighting, Chica still says wants to die by the bull – in front of Maria if she can. Then we can see that her hard training is having some effect on her – even Sechu tells her she looks cool as she practices with the pink muleta.

Bullfighting is the ultimate in macho sports – will Chica make it into the ring at all? We’ll have to tune in to find out

Ratings:

Art – 8 The art is pleasantly realistic, without any attempt at photorealism
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 1, which is to say there is some nudity, but really not at all of the Fanboy type. Everyone looks their age. This is a Josei manga, but even the guys aren’t particularly pretty. (See Art rating)

Overall – 8

Ultimately, as with any est em story – indeed, with most manga – it’s the characters that are the strength here. And, as my wife points out, pretty much anyone looks good in a suit of lights. If the cover is any indication, Chica will not be the exception to this.