Archive for the Classic Yuri Category


Yuri Manga/Anime: Rose of Versailles

January 27th, 2004

Things I’m Not Going To Write About
Part 1

This week, I’m going to give voice to my opinions about alot of anime and manga series that are so well-known and/or so popular, that it’s hardly worth it for me to even mention them…only they are pretty cool and you might *not* have heard of them before, so here they are.

These are really short review/opinions about the yuri content and overall worthiness of these series – feel free to agree or disagree on the Yuricon Mailing List. After this, we’ll go back to our regularly scheduled reviews of stuff you’ve never heard about. ;-)

All ratings are done on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.

Berusayu no Bara (Rose of Versailles) –

This is *still* one of the great classics of shoujoai manga. Rose of Versailles tells the gorgeous, but ultimately tragic, story of Lady Oscar Francois De Jarjeyes, a woman of the French nobility who was raised as a man. She becomes the Captain of the Guard at Versailles serving Maria Antionette. The story covers the rise and fall of Antionette and the causes and repercussions of the French Revolution, using many well-known historical figures and occurences. It’s a really human look at the Revolution and a rattlin’ good yarn to boot. (And a decent bit of historical research – almost all the characters with the exception of Oscar and her family, are real.)

Despite its age or, perhaps, because of it, RoV still stands out as a ground-breaking work in shoujoai. The anime, sadly, has lost all but the barest vestiges of love between poor, but kind and beautiful Rosalie, and scion of the noble class, Oscar, but in the manga (released last year in a new Japanese edition for its 25th anniversary) there is more than enough yuri for even me. Both anime and manga are so soap-opera and melodramatic that they are more enjoyable taken in small chunks.

In the manga, Rosalie and Oscar both acknowledge what they feel for each other in a very touching scene. In another time, if Oscar had been a man, if, if, if, they might have become lovers. But they don’t. Nonetheless, if you can get past the uniforms with bell-bottom pants, the art and drama of this soapy story is timeless.

The anime is digitally fansubbed, and frankly,�I cannot imagine why it’s never been picked up by any distro company here. The manga has not been scanlated or released her and possibly never will be, so you’ll just have to learn Japanese to enjoy it. :-)

In my opinion, RoV also makes a great introduction to one of the great Japanese cultural icons – Takarazuka – as well. Imagine watching a woman who plays male roles, playing a woman who acts like a man, but falls in love with a man (also played by a women)…all with spiffariffic uniforms and over-the-top acting. It really just doesn’t get any more gender-bendy than this. And Aran Kei as Fersen is unbelievably hot…! LOL

Ratings: Yuri – 3 for the anime, 5 for the manga. Art – very 70s, give it a 8, since it set alot of standards for shoujo that came after it. Overall – 7





Yuri Anime: Aim for the Ace! / Ace wo Nerae!

January 20th, 2004

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Part 1

This week, I’ll be running over a few Yuri titles which are, as I say above, old, new, borrowed and blue. Call it a “theme week.”

First up, today, something old. And now I’m torn, which of the many, many old series that I’ve grown to love, do I review?

Let’s start with this one:
Ace wo Nerae!, (Aim for the Ace!), from 1973. This is probably one of the oldest truly *shoujo* anime out there.

Ace wo Nerae, adapted from the popular manga of the same name (another Margaret magazine Yuri classic!) is the story of Oka Hiromi, a first year student at Nishi High School. Hiromi, like many other girls in the school, deeply admires Ryuzaki Reika, known as “Ochoufujin,” the shining star of the girl’s tennis team. Ochoufujin, along wth the other upperclassmen, make up an unbeatable women’s tennis team which has attracted over 100 first-year newbies – including Hiromi and her friend Maki. Hiromi is happy as a clam to be near to her idol, Ochoufujin, and even get the occasional kind word from her, but everything changes the day the new coach shows up.

For some reason the new coach sees potential in Hiromi that no one, not even Hiromi herself, can fathom. He singles Hiromi out and begins working her mercilessly, even replacing one of the ace upperclassmen with a terrified and, subsequently, harrassed, Hiromi.

Ace wo Nerae will immediately remind viewers of another Margaret manga classic Oniisama E (Brother, Dear Brother) since the character designs and direction for the anime were done by the same people; and the plot is the usual shoujo fare of the seemingly average girl being catapulted into the rarified world of the great ones in her school. The biggest difference is that in Ace, Hiromi finds herself not only capable of handling the stress, but grows to be a very strong person and a very strong tennis player, as opposed to just growing up a little as a result of her experiences. We actually get to see her game improve over time and, as she matures and becomes the player the coach knew she could be, she steps into a position as one of the team aces.

In terms of Yuri, Ace definitely straddles the line between adoration and romance Because this manga and anime are from 1973, the Yuri is encoded in small, subtle things. You won’t see tearful confessions of love, much less a kiss or anything, but watch Hiromi carefully, as she dresses to bring flowers to Ochoufujin…or if you can find it, there’s a wonderful screencap from the Ace wo Nerae movie, as Hiromi and Ochoufujin head off to America together (a code in itself, really, as America is always seen in lesbian fiction as the place to escape to to be together.) Hiromi is wearing a three-piece white suit and tie, her hair has gone completely masculine. She looks about as butchy as someone could possibly have drawn a girl in the early 70’s.

As a representative of early Yuri, Ace wo Nerae is a spectacular example, but expect a fair dollop of cheesy-ness, as the character designs, music, art, etc are all over 30 years old. The op art graphics and laughable opening theme are delightfully retro now.The most important thing is that the characters are genuinely likeable and their motivations fathomable. I give this one a strong recommendation, if you want to see where many of the conventions of Yuri come from.

Ratings:

Art – tough to call, because it’s so dated. For its time, 7
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Character Design – 8
Music – Makes me giggle every time I hear it, 6
Yuri – 2 Negligible, but not not there.

Overall – 8

As always, for updates on Ace wo Nerae and other classic anime and manga, join us at the Yuricon Mailing List.





Yuri Manga: YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki

January 13th, 2004

Everything old is new again!
Part 1

Yes, now that all the otaku of my generation have grown into curmudgeonly old farts who now edit the magazines they once read as kids, you’ll be seeing more and more “revivals” of series from the 70’s and 80’s. Face it, when they remade Beverly Hillbillies into a movie, you just *knew* we were doomed, right? Well, in the case of anime and manga, this isn’t such an evil trend. Here’s a title that you should keep on the lookout for, with great characters, Yuri sub- (and sometimes, overt-) text and action-filled plots:

YajiKita Gakuen Dochuuki, (Yaji and Kita’s School Diary) is a manga series from Bonita magazine from the early 80’s. This was one of Bonita Magazine’s most popular series ever, with Kita consistently topping the “most popular character” category in the annual poll.

I can believe it.

Yaji and Kita and their adventures parody two comedic figures from Japanese literature who wandered from town to town, encountering bad guys and generally making fools of themselves. In this iteration, they are two schoolgirls who wander from school to school, fighting the bad guys and generally saving the day. Shinokita Rei (Kita-san) is a butchy, serious blonde girl, with a penchant for rescuing (and becoming the object of affection for) lovely young ladies and Yajima Junko (Yaji-san) is a tall, lovely brunette girl with a impetuous nature and a habit of rescuing (and becoming the object of affection for) beautiful boys.

In practically every arc of YajiKita, you can be sure of a few things –  the Yakuza will be involved, there will be much fighting, Yaji and Kita will be inutterably cool, the girl will fall in love with Kita and the boy with Yaji. The girls are all doll-like and beautiful and the boys are all *so* pretty. And Kita looks incredibly hunky on her motorcycle….sigh. YajiKita is running once again in Mystery Bonita magazine, so keep your eyes peeled for the collected volumes! I promise to report as soon as I’ve managed to take a look.

Ratings:

Art – 8 out of 10. It’s very realistic and clean.
Story – 6 out 0f 10 for realism, but 10 out of 10 for fun.
Character design – 10 out of 10 for Kita alone. ;-)
Yuri – 6 out of 10 – lots of fun service, little substance.

Overall – 8 out of 10