Archive for the LGBTQ Category


LGBTQ Manga: What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 2 (English)

September 11th, 2014

eat2When I reviewed Volume 1 of What Did You Eat Yesterday, I found myself mildly disappointed. I like Yoshinaga Fumi-sensei’s obsession with food, and the idea that she had done a realistic story of a gay couple who was together and then the story happened, thrilled me no end.  But as I read Volume 1, I found myself feeling intense dislike for the lead character, Kakei Shiro, who came off as vain, self-absorbed and pretty sour. When I commented to other people that he and his boyfriend never just talk, they show no affection for one another and might as well be roommates, they’d all stare at me like they’ve read some completely other book. It was, to say the least, disconcerting.

Thankfully, many of these issues go away in Volume 2. (I like to fantasize that a bunch of gay readers wrote in and complained that Shiro was kind of a jerk. ^_^)

In Volume 1, Kenji and Shiro are a couple because we’re told they are. In Volume 2, we get a look at how he and Kenji met and moved in together, although nothing about their actual relationship. Watching the two of them is like being a teen over a friend’s house. You know their parents are “married” but they don’t seem like anything other than Mr. and Mrs. Smith, if you know what I mean. ^_^;

More importantly, this time we get author asides assuring us that, although he’s stone-faced or sour-looking, Shiro has hidden emotions of joy, triumph and satisfaction and his parsimony is not a lack of funds or him being cheap, but a genuine enjoyment of the challenge of buying and using cheap, good ingredients to make economical, delicious food. Okay, I can buy that.

The final part of the volume is rather serious, as Shiro learns that his father has cancer. This chapter hit me hard for the conversation about his reaction to the news. That struck me strongly.

The bulk of the “story” is still the making of menus, cooking and eating of meals and enjoying the heck out of them. Anything plot-like is secondary. But with these little almost side-stories, we’re learning about the people who populate Shiro and Kenji’s world…a thing that still lacks in many of the schooliest of Yuri. Characters in those stories are rarely allowed the luxury of classmates or family. Shiro and Kenji have friends, not always mutual, separates casts of coworkers, customers and people they speak to.

I love Yoshinaga-sensei’s clean art style and the detail with which the food is presented. So detailed that I was able to recognize slices of bitter melon. That‘s detail.

At first, I wondered if the translator was not a cook, but then I decided they were, they just had an ever so slightly prissy style – and to give them credit, they have to balance the idea that not everyone has a market where they can buy miso or dashi, with the idea of making a readable book. It’s a tough balance to strike and they did it pretty well.

I’m much more kindly disposed to Volume 2 than I was Volume 1. We may even try some of the recipes.

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Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8 Shiro’s fleshed out and I found myself liking him a lot more
Characters – 6 Everyone was less wound up this volume
LGBTQ – 7 Kenji and Shiro act in ways that indicate they care for each other.
Service –9  Food, food, food

Overall – 8

I’d still like to see Shiro smile a bit more. But even without, it’s a readable series, and has some nice touches.  Volume 2 warmed my cool feelings for this series like a bowl of Shiro’s simple soup. (Terrible line, I know, I had to do it. ^_^)





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – August 30, 2014

August 30th, 2014

YNN_MariK

Okazu News

Our top news this week is the grand opening of subscriptions to Okazu.

If you love reading weekly news round-ups,  reviews of Yuri manga, anime and related media, special features such as Event Reports,  Interviews with Yuri Creators, Opinion pieces and Articles on the cultural and literary History of Yuri, then please support Okazu and help us maintain the quality and quantity of our content. For an overview of our our goals and rewards, and to subscribe, please visit Okazu on Patreon!

I’ll back off beating this drum now, but you’ll see links at the bottom of most posts going forward and I expect I’ll do awareness -raising again towards the end of the year. Don”t worry if you can’t doing anything now – this is not a race. Subscriptions links will remain live and I plan on doing Okazu for  long, long time. ^_^

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YNN Correspondent Roundup

From YNN Correspondent Ellen K, news that Takarazuka is working on another anime/manga -related character show, this time the infamous thief Lupin the Third.

YNN Senior European Correspondent Grisznak reports that Polish doujinshi company, The Cold Desire, is looking for a authors for the second edition of their Yuri fiction anthology. They have previously released a Yuri manga anthology with Polish authors and a volume of Yuri fiction. Great news that they’ve found enough creators and readers to go a second volume. Good luck to them. ^_^

YNN Correspondent Jin notes that ANN has reported amazing news – Yuri Kuma Arashi, a joint project with Utena and Penguindrun director Ikuhara Kunihiko, with character designs by Morishima Akiko is being made into an anime. This should be interesting, at the very least. ^_^

YNN Senior Correspondent Erin S has a massive pile of lovely queer webcomics that she wanted to share with you all:

Her Wings by Kat Leyh (available as a download for the incredibly low price of $2)

Once Upon A Time There Was A Prince from the Crispy Fish Tumblr

A  little love story about mermaids and tattoos – from the Charmingly Antiquated Tumblr

From The Great  Experiment: The Hand of a Princess. This was fantastic. ^_^

Bethany Parker’s  sobering Day In the Life of  Queer Black Woman and an equally sobering look at how bisexuals are not always welcome at LGBTQ events, from EmpathizeThis.com

Just a note on Tumblr – Tumblr has great mechanics for sharing within Tumblr, but exceedingly poor mechanics to rtain attribution and credit. If you have a Tumblr thing to share, if you can send me the link to the actual real original, that’d be great. Creators – put your damn name on your comics!

To this list of fantastic social commentary in comic form I want to add Karine Charlebois‘  Illustrated Guide to Issues of Harassment, Representation, And Media Criticism, written up on The Mary Sue. This was just a lovely little conversation with readers who still aren’t quite cluing in.  I suggest bookmarking it, it will probably come in handy at some point. ^_^

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That’s a wrap for this week! Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge. Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!





LGBTQ Manga: Girl’s Lily

August 8th, 2014

ScanThe June 204 issue of Margaret magazine has a “tribute” book to an ongoing manga Usotsuki Lily by Komura Ayumi, about which I know nothing and haven’t bothered looking up even so much as the plot. ^_^

This tribute book starts off with a short comic that is, however, absolutely relevant to us – Girl’s Lily, which is ominously labeled “Boys not allowed” on the cover so, as I picked it up I was already cringing.

It turned out to be an unexpected treasure.

The first page involves a guy, confronting two girls, (all presumably characters we would know from the main narrative), and the older girl commenting “Didn’t you see the “No Boys Allowed” tag?” I just love when the fourth wall crumbles underfoot, so I started to read in earnest. The boy explains that he needs their advice. His older sister wants to marry her lover, he says, but her lover is…a girl. Quelle shock, as you can imagine.

Just then his older sister, Keiko and her lover come into sight, having followed him to try and talk with him.

The lover, Kanae, is a pale, quiet, shy thing, but she follows him when he runs off, takes him to a coffee house and when he’s surprised that he likes what she chosen for him to drink, she smiles and said that, because his big sister likes sweet things too, she thought he’d like that. To his massive discomfort, it become really obvious that Kanae really loves Keiko and that they are  – and want to be – happy together. He inadvertently confesses his massive siscon, and faux-grumpily, to cover his embarrassment, wishes them well.

And so we will assume them, happy and well, for ever after.

I don’t know who these people are, but, wait, was that…? Yes! It was a manga about two adult women getting married to each other. In Margaret, a shoujo manga magazine for teens. Woot, woot, and double woot.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 0
LGBTQ -10

Overall – 8

Thank you Komura Ayumi-sensei! Congrats on the success of Usotsuki Lily. Here’s to many more.

YNN Correspondent Nikki S. writes in to let us know that Kanae’s and Keiko’s story fills Volumes 9-11 of this series.  Thanks Nikki! (Quick update: Looks like Volumes 10 and 11, but not 9. I have them sitting here, and 9 is all about the school festival.)

 





LGBTQ Manga: Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ), Volume 3

July 14th, 2014

A lot happens in Volume 3 of  Saito Chiho-sensei’s Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ).

Sarasojuu’s friend and peer, Tsuwabuki, has fallen for Sarasojuu’s wife, Shinohime. Alone and unable to understand why her husband does not make love to her, Shinohime falls willingly into his arms.

Both Tsuwabuki and Shinohime are overcome with shame and can’t face Sarasojuu, who is, obviously concerned and confused.

And then, Shinohime is found to be pregnant. Sarasojuu is shocked. Clearly, Shinohime is sleeping with another man, and who can blame her. Sarasojuu visits her father, proposing that Shinohime be told the truth, but he puts the cabosh on that, pointing out sensibly that, if the truth were spoken out loud, even in secret, it would spread fast.

In the meantime Toguu-sama is heading to the mountains taking Suiren with her. Suiren probably doesn’t realize it yet, but  we can see Suiren is falling for Toguu-sama, and it’s kind of cute, but of course there’s the whole gender thing complicating matters.

Toguu-sama allows Suiren to invite Sarasojuu to the mountains to accompany their party. In the mountains, the two siblings meet the master of the mountain, Yoshinomiya who instantly sees who they truly are. Returning home, Sarasojuu “forgives” Shinohime and eventually comes to believe that the father is Tsuwabuki.

In the capital, the Mikado learns of a city warehouse that is not releasing rice to the people and decides that what they need is the return of Yamato Takeru, a hero from the ancient epic Kojiki, to enact the Mikado’s will.  (As an aside, Yamato Takeru is known to have hidden by disguising himself as a woman. This indicates to me that Saito-sensei is having some fun with this story, about a boy who is a girl physically, who is playing a boy dressed as a girl.)

Sarasojuu and Tsuwabuki perform their roles and the warehouse is opened (shades of Mito Koumon there, honestly, with the officials overturning their sake bowls in shock at their appearance.) Afterwards, they are greeted by Shikibukyo-no-miya who blatantly claims Sarasojuu for his evening’s entertainment. To save his friend from this odious man, Tsuwabuki volunteers himself to be the priest’s sex toy. They return to the capital and finally, Sarasojuu is able to confront Tsuwabuki about being the child’s father. Now that the child is born, Sarasojuu offers to divorce Shinohime so Tsuwabuki can raise his daughter. They argue and, as the book comes to an end, Tsuwabuki may have discovered the truth about Sarasojuu’s body.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 3
LGBTQ – 5 This volume was very Victor/Victoria.

Overall – 9

A lot happened in this volume….and how it will turn out I have no idea. I’m on pins and needles here. I probably won’t get  to Volume 4 for months. Arrghh!

 





LGBTQ Comic: The Legend of Bold Riley, Continued (English)

July 7th, 2014

Bold-Riley-2-463x700If you, like me, have been impatiently waiting for the next installments of the wonderful series The Legend of Bold Riley, written by Leia Weathington and drawn by a number of artists, your wait is over! Three new issues have been released following our favorite dashing adventurer!

In Issue 1,  The Talking Bone, Riley encounters a bone that regales her with a tale of love lost. So, of course, she wants to reunite it with its love and, of course, it’s more complicated than it seems.

Issue 2, Warp and Weft, finds Riley sleeping on a moor alone. And, as everyone knows, when you sleep alone on a moor, strange things happen to you. In this case, Riley meets an old woman whose tapestries tell stories, of the past and maybe the future.  I was fortunate enough to receive a reviewer’s copy of this and Zack Giallongo’s art is perfect for the story. In many ways, it reminded me of the opening to the quite epic anime Erin, (which if you have not watched is absolutely worth a watching. It’s streaming on Crunchyroll.) And the cover (pictured here) makes Riley look so darn cool.

In Issue 3, The Lion Jawed, having left her grief behind her, Riley encounters more visions and a new purpose, as she heads off to find adventure (and beautiful women) in Kabumzala.

As sword and sorcery short stories go, I find Bold Riley to be just about perfect. Each artist gives me the sensation of listening to well-known stories told by different storytellers.  The only thing missing from the series at this point is a Pirate Queen to be Riley’s frenemy. ^_^

One of the million things I love about Northwest Press is the variety of formats their work is available in. Paper pamphlet comics, e-book, PDF, iPad ePub and CBZ…and each linked issue has a few pages up for you to take a look at before you buy. The collected volume should be out next holiday season, but throw a few bucks NWP’s way and get more amazing LGBTQ comics now.

Ratings:

Art –  is always dependent upon your taste
Story – 9 I love this stuff
Characters – 9 I love this stuff
Service – Variable

Overall – 9 for Lesbian Adventurer.

Seriously, I love this stuff.