Archive for the English Manga Category


Yuri Manga: WORKS

April 23rd, 2004

100% Yuri Manga for Yuri Fans

Now that you know what it takes to publish a doujinshi, I want to introduce you to ALC Publishing’snewest translated Yuri manga, WORKS, by Eriko Tadeno. Tadeno-san was one of the Guests of Honor at Yuricon 2003, and has already told us that she is planning on being there for Yuricon 2005 in Tokyo, so we’re very glad to be able to introduce her book to Yuri manga fans around the world!

Ever since I first saw it, I felt that WORKS exemplified the kind of Yuri manga I wanted people to be able to read in English. Yes, it can easily be seen as Yuri hentai, or lesbian erotica, or what have you, but to my mind, it’s simply top-notch Yuri manga.

WORKS is an anthology of four stories and three short gag comics that were published in Phryne, Anise and MIST magazines over a period of several years. All of these magazines are now defunct, and the Japanese-language version of WORKS is sold out – so right now the only place you can find these stories are in ALC’s translated version.

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I define “pure” Yuri as manga with a lesbian storylne, written by a lesbian, for an audience of women. By this definition, WORKS is “pure” Yuri. As Tadeno-san says in her “Freetalk” (written especially for the English-language edition) when she began drawing these types of stories, there wasn’t even any kind of name for what she was doing, and she was one of very few women doing it. And, along wth Rica Takashima and Yamaji Ebine, I think that Tadeno-san is *still* one of the few women out there drawing “pure” Yuri manga.

The stories in WORKS range from the usual sempai-kohai romance, to coming out, to my personal favorite – a two-part office romance, which I particularly like because one of the characters is middle-aged. Look, Ma, lesbians DO live to be older than 25!  (And, in fact, Tadeno-san has drawn many stories with older couples, middle-aged characters, and the usual, younger ages…one more thing I like about her work. It’s *not* all schoolgirls, all the time.)

The art is clean, the stories are fun, the sex is nice – the positives in WORKS are very positive. There are few negatives, however. One of the big problems with anthologies is the feeling that the story stops as soon as it gets started, so the characters can have sex. Well, depending on who you are, that might be seen as a positive. :-) In this case, I began to like some of the characters and would have liked to see more – particularly Takako-san from the “My Sister’s Wedding” and Yuka-san from “I Love You The Way You Are” and “My Sweet One”.

The only other real negative, IMHO, is that the gag comics are really not very funny. But that happens. The guest comic, on the other hand, *is* very funny, but you have to have really read the last two stories closely to get the jokes. No skimming through to the sexy bits. ^_^

My obvious bias aside, I genuinely think that this, along with Yamaji Ebine and Rica Takashima’s works, can be seen as genuinely lesbian Yuri – a rare and precious thing that should be spread through Yuri fandom. ;-)





Ray Manga (English)

March 2nd, 2004

RAY – Yoshitomi Akihito (the creator of Blue Drop)

Think Black Jack as a girl.

A young woman is almost killed in a violent attack on the street. She wakes up in an operating room, just before a mysterious man with a scar on his face (and strangely muti-colored hair, nudge, nudge) perfoms an emergency transplant and saves her life. (Cue mysterious music…)

Ten years pass and Ray is now a rogue surgeon herself, performing impossible transplants in illegal, unethical and wildly unrealistic situations. Her involvement is mostly with street kids, and her skills seems to be focused on the cute women caught up in the gang life. Obviously, I approve.

This story is silly with a captial ‘S’. But there’s insto-bonding with all the non-terminally wounded cute girls, and at least two kisses, lots of guns and girls and kidney transplantations on the fly. And no, I’m not kidding.

The art’s pretty decent, the story is not, and the characters are strictly two-dimensional strong/silent/deep types. Don’t hope for any intense emotional relationships here, but maybe there’ll be some sex. ^_^

Ratings:

Art- 8
Story – 4 (or 8, depending what you like)
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5

Overall – 7





Yuri Anime/Manga: Revolutionary Girl Utena

January 30th, 2004


Things I’m Not Going to Write About
Part 4

Shoujo Kaukumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena

Created by Ikuhara Kunihiko and Be-Papas, this surreal series is really four slightly different stories, each of which explores a different facet of the characters.

– The manga is the most straightforwardly “magical girl” entity. The only yuri in it is Anthy and Utena’s ambiguous, but intense relationship.

– For the TV series, this was upped a notch, with the addition of sexuality as a whole as a separate subplot. The TV series explores yuri, yaoi, intergenerational, incestuous and yes, even straight, sexuality, casting few judgements about any of it. In addition, Juri is added to the yuri mix, giving yuri fans yet another uber-cool competent character to admire.

– The movie manga is a step sideways, drawing back to the initial Anthy/Utena relatonship, but nodding to proto-yuri novelist Yoshiya Nobuko, and evoking a more intimate feel, since the story is really about the two girls – and their personal quest.

– The Utena movie is a step in the opposite direction, opening the world up to a kind of meta-surreality. Again, it’s all about Anthy and Utena, but for once, the subtext is made overt in the infamous, but really very cool, lesbian street luge scene.

Artistically, Utena takes a little getting used to, with its constant nods backwards to early Yuri pioneers Yoshiya Nobuko and Ikeda Riyoko.

(The Marimite anime is doing the same thing to Utena, with eyecatch visuals and music that are strongly reminiscent of the Utena eyecatches, not to mention the striking detail of the birdcage-shaped greenhouse.)

The television series also spins all the conventions of “magical girl” anime out of proportion, forcing the viewer to create their own meanings for the symbols that inhabit Ohtori.. But for all that, it definitely holds the current #2 place as poster-child Yurii.

The movie is a whole ‘nother thing altogether. Hyper-real, with both art and story completely out of proportion to any other genre or style, it reads as, either a bizarre acid trip, or to us literature majors, a simple allegory. (Here’s the literal sentence people seem to completely fail to understand: “Utena is the vehicle by which Anthy escapes Ohtori.” Got it *now*?)

Amazingly, there are people who have seen the movie and *still* don’t think that Anthy and Utena are a couple! LOL Don’t you wonder what they saw?

Ratings:

Yuri – 9
Art – 8
Story – 8
Music – 9
Characters – 10
Overall – 9





Yuri Anime/Manga: Sailor Moon

January 29th, 2004


Things I’m Not Going To Write About
Part 3

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon)

What is there to say about the series that launched a thousand yuri fans, that hasn’t already been said? Well, lots really. But I won’t say it all here – I’ll just focus on the yuri. :-)

In Season 3, Sailor Moon S, the adorable Inner Senshi (and let’s face, they’re yuri subtext-y enough for any fan!) are joined by Sailors Uranus and Neptune, arguably one of the greatest lesbian couples in anime, manga and related media, ever. Directed by Ikuhara Kunihiko, (director of and creative genius behind Utena,) Sailor Moon gave the world the first anime lesbian couple to ever be portrayed *as such* on Japanese television. In doing so, Ikuhara set the bar pretty high with Haruka and Michiru, instructing the voice actresses to act as if they were married.* In fact, the next time the bar was raised was by this very same man almost ten years later, with Anthy, Utena and Juri in Utena.

It’s more than five years later and we’re *still* using these five characters as poster children for yuri anime and manga, which says a lot, IMHO.

Bottom line, Haruka and Michiru are one of the most romantic, funny, and fun yuri couples, ever. Every year sees new fanfic and doujinshi and even official Sailormoon World art about these two, and now, with the advent of the Live Action Sailor Moon, a whole new generation of kids might one day get to scream “Kakko-ii!” in the general direction of yuri fandom’s reigning queens. :-)

This anime is horrifically magical girl-y, so if repeated transformation footage, girly attack names and goofy monsters bore you, then yeah, it’ll be hard to get into the story. However, if that kind of thing doesn’t put you off, and you want to see where it so much of western yuri fandom began, you might want to get a hold of this season, which is available on DVD. The Sailor Moon manga is available on the Yuricon Shop. A new edition is available in Japan, in honor of the new Live Action series, with spiffy new cover art.

(The SM manga was one of the first titles Tokyo Pop ever translated, and boy was it a learning curve for them! Originally, they changed the names of all the Senshi, only to be met with huge fan resistance. It was too late for the Inner Senshi, but ultimately, the Outers’ Japanese names were retained. I actually have the old Mixx magazine issues with the Outers’ westernized names, before Tokyo Pop got inundated with fan mail begging them not to change Haruka’s name!)

Ratings: Yuri – 8, Art – 8, Story – 7, Music – 9, Characters – 10, Overall – 9

*It’s fairly well-known that it was was Ogata Megumi’s portrayal of Haruka that catapulted me into anime fandom in the beginning, and to be honest, she’s still my favorite. While it will be very cool to see a Live-Action Sailor Uranus, it won’t be MO, boo hoo. :-(

***

This week’s brainstorm

After much thought on the subject, I have now developed a working definition for “porn” versus “erotica” that I’d like to share with you all. There’s quite a few people who think that there is no difference, but I believe there is:

Porn is any representation of sexual conduct with the implicit acknowledgement of a third party who is watching – and for whose pleasure the sexual act is being conducted.

Erotica is an honest representation of sexual conduct between people for their own pleasure.

I came to this conclusion while reading several yuri doujinshi I own. If you agree with it, please feel free to use it. If you disagree, feel free to come up with one of your own. :-)