Archive for the Comic Yuri Hime Category


Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime S, Volume 3

January 13th, 2008

I was happy to pick up Yuri Hime S, Vol. 3 while I was in Tokyo and scan through it one evening at my hotel. Now, after a more thorough re-read, I have to say that it was a slightly mediocre issue. One of those issues between this one and that one, when plots are still developing and some of the stories are shortchanged as others get more page count – you know how it goes.

Iwami Shouko’s “Flower Flower” starts off the magazine with color pages and more of Princess Nina’s tsundere ways. Shuu continues to be sincere and lovable, and for a moment we think Nina’s thawing, but no, she’s just drunk. Hopefully this story will do something soon, because “I like you, no I don’t” doesn’t really count as a plot to me.

And *speaking* of twincest, “Himawari Saita,” by Kuromasa Shisei is a story drawn in that drippy-wet style, about twins. One twin, Himawari, is desired by an obnoxiously persistent sempai who will not take no for an answer. But Himawari does not want to be severed in any way from her beloved sister, Nasuna. Nasuna has a brain cell, however, and explains patiently to her older twin that its a good thing that she find someone else who loves her, differently than she can. Nasuna gives her blessing to Himawari to find love, and walks off thinking that she also ought to find a nice person for herself. This was quite possibly the first twincest story I’ve ever actually enjoyed, mostly because of Nasuna’s emotional maturity. The art all made them look wet, though.

Kurogane Kenn hit his stride with the completely characteristic “Konohana Link” which appears to be the first chapter of a series. Two stories parallel each other. In one, a student confesses to her sempai, in the other, new student Suzuki Chieri comes to the school. The two girls are kissing when Chieri sees them, as she walks around the school. But, as she watches them making out, she can’t help but notice that one of them is looking back at her! Kurogane does slick PWP work, but the salaciousness factor on his stuff is high. I wonder if he can manage to make his characters 3-D enough to satisfy a female audience….

“Cassiopeia Dolce” continues to be a typical Takagi Noboyuki story with lots of underwear, maid outfits, bathing, Yuri and doll-faced characters. His art has always left me cold and this chapter doesn’t move the story forward at all. In it, newbie Anna stresses about the many girl-girl kisses that are going on here at the store. Olga seems to be okay with all the kissing, but Elza seems to have selective memory – worse, Anna’s starting to fantasize a bit about Elza. And she does a day’s work, too.

Finally! A Hakamada Mera story I *liked*. It had to happen one day. “Kaichou and Fukukaichou” was cute. The Student Council President is gaga over her Vice President, but the feelings may or may not be returned. In the meantime, it’s up to the Fukukaichou to keep the flaky Kaichou on track. The characters almost looked their ages and for some reason, I just liked this story. ^_^

Koumei Keito’s “Hana no Yurina-gumi,” which is probably meant to spoof “Asuka no Hana-gumi,” I pretty much skipped. It’s one of those stories with a shrieking hysterical “cute” munchkin of a creature that dogs the steps of normal looking characters. I just couldn’t do it. I’ll never be able to.

“Tainai Kaiki” by Yoshitomi Akihito managed to be fetishy and still not suck. Two girls are in the school pool when it begins to rain. They end up in the curtains in the multipurpose room. Mayu had previously confessed to Akami, but had been rejected as a lover, although not as a friend. But for some reason, Akami is moved to kiss Mayu today as she sleeps. Mayu wakes up, asks if she was kissed and when she is told yes, takes control of the situation. They kiss until the heat inside the curtains is intolerable and when they go outside, the walk on the water in the schoolyard together.

“Nanami to Misuzu.” Another skip. Something about sleeping arrangements.

Kaori has fond memories of a girl she knew when she was younger – and she remembers the day she gave that girl a pair of earrings. Imagine her surprise when Ayabuki shows up at her school in Kurata Uso’s “Pierce.” On the night of the school festival, Ayabuki arrives at Kaori’s fortunetelling booth with a guy she likes and Kaori falls apart. But Ayabuki pursues her and at least they can be friends…and maybe more?

“Girls Love” by Morishima Akiko is a series of 4-panel comics about Hana-chan’s not at all secret crush on Kaori-chan. Every single person in her art class knows – including the very enabling teacher. Everyone except for the seemingly clueless Kaori. And of course Hana doesn’t have the guts to tell her.

There is nothing wrong with “Minus Literacy” per se. I just can’t figure out what the hell it’s about. But hey, I’m not alone, because Iinchou is still figuring it all out. If Matsudaira is the head of the household, why does it seem that her maid, Miharu runs the place? And what on earth is going on with the girl with mad miko skills? I’m kind of on Iinchou’s side on all of the madness.

“Gretel” by Sudou Kaoru opens with Yuu waking up to find herself sharing a bed with a provocatively clad Nagi and Mari and her brain full of memories of kissing them both deeply and fighting off monsters. Mari wakes to find Yuu in the middle of a puddle of nose blood, in front of Nagi’s prominent breasts. Then we shift scene to get some exposition about the Formika and magic use at the school. At which point our resident Goth-Loli girl shows up in cat paws and ears so thems as who likes that can squeal or whatever.

And finally, Tsubaki Asu’s “Honey Crush” is a few pages of reaffirming by Kyouko and the ghost that they think the girl they like is worth pursuing, even though she isn’t.

In retrospect, I’m not sure that the volume was really mediocre, just that I had hoped that “Gretel,” and Kurogane Kenn’s story would have been given more pages – I’m not loving “Flower Flower”. And I was disappointed that there was no “Otomeiro Stay Tune.” So let’s revise mediocre to vaguely dissatisfying. :-)

Ratings:

Overall – 6

The next post will be my 900th. Huh. How ’bout that. That’s a lot of anime and manga. And btw – 263 posts in 2007. That’s about two every three days.





Yuri Hime News and ALC Publishing News

January 12th, 2008

Two quick things of note:

I will be doing a book signing of 100% Yuri from ALC Publishing on Wednesday January 16th at 6:30 PM at Jim Hanley’s Universe in Manhattan, as part of a Prism Comics night. I’ll be joined by authors JD Glass and Abby Denson.

JHU is located at 4 West 33rd St. on 5th Avenue, just across from the Empire State Building.

If you are in the NYC area or can get there for the event, I’d love to see you there!

***

Ichijinsha has announced that Comic Yuri Hime is being made an independent entity from Ichijinsha’s popular comic magazine Zero Sum. Akiba blog reports that to celebrate, the 11th volume, on sale on Jan. 18th, will include the Petit Yuri Hime extra, which is a collaboration of artists from Yuri Hime, Yuri Hime S and Yuri Hime: Wildrose. (If you read the announcement on Comipress, they misreported YH as an add-on to Zero Sum – it wasn’t. It was financially dependent upon it and now it’s paying for itself. Also, since this isn’t their area, they didn’t realize that the “Petit” extra was the collaborative effort. FYI, in case you were going to write in ask why the discrepancies.)

This is excellent news, but I can’t help still being worried about the salaciousness of the magazine. More and more of the stories are moe/loli and the “Petit” extra has traditionally been pretty high on the service scale, based on the authors. (The first two volumes were offered as Comiket extras. I do not have either, but have seen Vol. 2.) I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and offer my congratulations to Ichijinsha for making “Yuri” a profitable category!





Yuri Drama CD: Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu: Gyakushuu no Akazukin-chan

January 10th, 2008

There is a difference between people who read manga or watch anime and “fans” of anime and manga. Fans want more than just to read or watch – we want to interact with the work, to spend more time with the characters, to be more *involved.* In part, this is why fans create parody art, fiction, comics, games, etc., of their favorite series and characters.

In fact, Umberto Eco defines literature as works that have escaped the bounds of their original text and have taken on new lives and iterations. Think of a few of your favorite series, not just anime, but books, movies, any media. Sherlock Holmes comes to mind for me – a character that has been reborn and re-envisioned every generation since his actual conception. Or how about Jane Austen, a writer who not only has spawned any number of reinterpretations of her own work, but has inspired legions of Regency romance writers as well, and who has now been reimagined as a detective.

As a fan, I know that when I encounter characters I find appealing, I want to spend more time with them. This is why I write fanfic and it is why I listen to Drama CDs. The Drama CDs I enjoy most are not only a chance to spend more time with the characters, they are a chance to get more information, enjoy new adventures, get more detail about those characters. My favorite Drama CDs contain original stories that are not in manga or anime, like the Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to and the El Cazador DCDs. There are also Drama CDs that add a layer of complexity and life to material that is already in the original text, like the second Hayate x Blade DCD. In the case of the Marimite DCDs, we get more of the text from the novels than is covered in either manga or anime and we get to enjoy the 3-dimensionalizing effect of the voice actors, giving actual life to mere words on a page.

All of this is to explain why I found the Drama CD of Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu: Gyakushuu no Akazukin-chan (Red Riding Hood’s Counterattack) to be a disappointment.

It’s true that the characters are brought to life by the seiyuu, but…. The mini-DCD that came with the manga covered the first chapters of the story in which Akiho and Haruka and Fuyuka and Natsuki meet and develop their relationships. As I have mentioned in my reviews of that mini DCD (which also lists the voice actresses involved) and the manga, these were the weakest and least pleasant chapters of the story, making the DCD of those chapters something I have no intention of listening to again.

I had hoped that the full DCD would include the “First Kiss” arc that dealt with the teachers Reiko and Ayano, but no luck. This DCD also does not include the final chapter where the four girls take an overnight trip to the beach. What we do get is a retelling of the chapters where the four meet, Fuyuka pursues Natsuki and is rebuffed, the crisis that Akiho engenders when she declares that she is in love with Fuyuka and Fuyuka and Natsuki’s reconciliation.

None of this is particularly awful, it’s just – we’ve been there already. It’s nothing new, no extra information, no extra detail. In fact, the DCD is pretty much word for word from the manga. Not even an extra non-manga scene to fill any of the characters out. Since I was not enamored of the story in the manga, I found it no more enchanting this time around. And I still maintain that, as much as I like her, Noto Mamiko was not the right choice for Fuyuka’s voice.

Given that the other Yuri Hime Drama CDs were different than the original texts (and especially as the MikoMajyo DCDs were *so* fabulous,) I had hoped for more than this. However. If you LOVED the original manga and can’t wait to hear it performed by well-known and talented actresses, then you will not be disappointed. In that aspect, it was very good.

There was one random thing that completely puzzled me. In the cast comments at the end, Kawakami Tomoko, who played Reiko-sensei, comments that this was her first time playing a Girls Love role. Really??? Has she looked at her credits recently? In case you don’t remember, like she apparently doesn’t, she played Utena in Shoujo Kakumei Utena and Kris Kristopher in Battle Athletes and Battle Athletes Victory. I know all the arguments for Utena not being a Yuri character, but you will never ever convince me that Kris is not. (Or Sayuri, from Kanon, or Satsuki from Uta-Kata, etc….) Or maybe I was half listening and it was someone else who said that, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.

Ratings:

Story – 5
Characters – 5, except for Akiho, who is a 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 7

Overall – 5

Better than the mini DCD, because we’ve left the heavy-duty sexual harrassment behind, but without the “First Kiss” arc and the final manga chapter, kind of weak. If you love the story and the seiyuu, then go for it. Otherwise stick to the manga and save your money for a better DCD.





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 1 (百合姫 Wildrose)

December 13th, 2007

Comic Yuri Hime: Wildrose, Volume 1 (百合姫 Wildrose) is an anthology from Ichijinsha, the folks who put out Yuri Hime magazine. Many of the artists are already contributors to YH, and some are known for outside series.

The stories in the collection are variations on the “two schoolgirls in love” theme, much like the ES ~ Eternal Sisters and Yuri Tengoku anthologies. Most of them involve sex, very few of them involve plot or characterization.

The entirety of the collection can be summed up by describing one story, drawn by Morishima Akiko, in which the two protagonists, having kissed, wonder out loud “What’s next?” And as they progress to “what’s next” we get a sort of shortened version of every lesbian’s internal coming out – without the lesbian identity, of course.

Which leads me to today’s digression. Recently, on the Yuricon Mailing List, we had a discussion about how few Yuri characters are “out and proud.” The majority of posters said that it was enough for a character to be “obvious” to be considered “out,” with me disagreeing, as usual. lol I feel that in order to be considered out, one has to actually be able to say, “I am a lesbian.” Otherwise, you’re just “obvious.” Not the same thing at all to me.

This all made me realize something I hadn’t ever put into words before, so here we go – “Yuri” is, almost by definition, a character with lesbian interest who is *not* lesbian-identified.

Even my beloved Queens of Yuri, Haruka and Michiru, never came out. They were obvious, but never once did they say “we’re a couple” or “we’re lesbian.” Yes, the creator later said that. And yes, they were characters in a shoujo manga in 1994. But the point is – they are not “out” in the context of the canon. In fact, when confronted directly in the anime, Haruka denies that they are a couple (I have a theory about that, but I’ll skip it for now) and in the manga asked in return if it really mattered whether she was a man or a woman? This was probably as close as Takeuchi could get to coming out at the time, but it was still ambiguous enough for many people to deny their “obvious” relationship.

If a character self-defines as a lesbian, then she’s out. But the LARGE majority of Yuri characters are not out – they are “just, in love” with this-person-who-happens-to-be-female. Much like the large proportion of BL characters who are amazingly not gay, although they only have sex and relationships with other men.

When pressed, obviously “lesbian” characters in manga will often say, “I like women” or “I don’t want to be labled” rather than say “I am a lesbian.”

I imagine that some of this can be chalked up to the Japanese preference for obfuscation and some to the fact that ambiguity sells better. And to add to this, the fact that long-term couples in real life don’t walk around saying “Hi, we’re lesbians,” so in actual *lesbian* manga (and real life,) you still don’t have overt “outness.” Rica and Miho going to Gay Pride, are rare indeed. There’s far more like Nene and Jun, who have sex, fall in love, and generally are a couple, without *ever* acknowledging that that is what they are. You know – “More than friends, less than lovers.” (A phrase that I later commented allows a person to have her cake and eat it too. Pun intended.)

So most of the stories in Wildrose are in this space – girls in love, having relationships – and sex – with other girls, but they’re not lesbians. Just, you know, in love.

Here is what I thought was the best story of the collection. It begins with Yumi and Sachiko clones. The Yumi clone, Mari, tells us – and all her classmates – that she and the Sachiko clone, Michika, are in love. And we see them sitting next to each other in class where Michika passes Mari an eraser, their eyes briefly meeting not particularly meaningfully. Then Mari tells us that they go out for a bite after school together, so we see them sitting next to one another at a snack counter – but apart as if there is no connection. In fact, it becomes apparent that the relationship is one-sided and our cheerful little Yumi clone is a stalker. Her friends freak out and try to stop her, but she gets away from them as she follows the subject of her desire. Her friends go one way, but we see behind the wall where the two girls are now together, embracing passionately. Mari and Michika make love, and Michika apologizes for not being more forthcoming recently. Of course she is forgiven. The next day at school, the classmates all demand to hear that they have a relationship directly from Michika’s mouth. “From my mouth” she says, and leans over to kiss Mari. The classmates all apologize for their doubt and we’re left smiling, because it was a stupid, but fun, almost-Marimite parody story. With no lesbians.

Ratings (variable, so everything is averaged):

Art – 6
Stories – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 9
Service – 7 (lots of undressing)

Overall – 6

If what you like best is young women finding love and sex with one another Wildrose is perfect. If you’re looking for something with more awareness of lesbian identity, go re-read Rica tte Kanji?! :-)

 





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime S, Volume 2

November 13th, 2007

I admit it – I’m reviewing in size order, largest to smallest. My parents are coming at the end of the week and I’m trying to get the piles down to a size my father can watch the TV over. No joke.

Today, I’m going to tackle the second largest object in the pile, Comic Yuri Hime S, Volume 2. ^_^

Just as a reminder, CYHS is the brother compilation to Yuri Hime, in which artists who are well known for drawing highly servicey, moe and/or fetishy Yuri for a male readers are drawing Yuri for a more mixed audience.

My opinion of this magazine remains the same – it’s not as bad as I feared, but it’s not as good as I hoped. The “moe” part of the fandom means that many of the characters seem waaaaaaaayyyyy ootsy-cutesy or baby faced and I just will never, ever find that appealing. Sorry. If you do, then you will like this magazine better than I do.

The magazine begins with a few color pages on the recent Blue Drop anime, once again mirroring our conversations on the Yuricon Mailing List.

The first story is “Cassiopeia Dolce,” by Takagi Nobuyuki, creator of Kokoro Library. Anna arrives at Dolce to be the new worker and is surprised, confused and alarmed by the fact that the dolls are people, the people are really strange, and the girls seem to be kissing one another, and her, with alarming frequency. The story was just sort of silly, until the saliva string length contest began and I checked out. Not sexy at all. Ecch.

Kurogane Ken’s story “Watashi no Kido” was kind of suspended between two things that weren’t fully developed. The end of the world is coming and a bunch of girls gather on the roof to greet their death. Just as the end begins, Misa spots Yuma, who she had never had a chance to tell how she feels. In trying to call out to her, Misa falls off the roof, but (no deus ex machina here) ends up floating as the multiple-kanji explanation is given over the world PA system that I didn’t fully comprehend. Yuma and Misa end up floating together in space and kissing as the world probably doesn’t end, but I can’t be sure. lol When I have more time, I’ll give this one a closer look. Despite myself, I like Kurogane’s work.

“Flower Flower” by Iwami Shouko pickes up after Princess Nina has established her seme role over poor Princess Shuu. Shuu struggles to find a way to make Nina be nicer to her, which succeeds, but only in private. Poor Shuu. Poisoning Nina seems like the easiest route. The art is cute, the story is sort of soppy and I can see it going on eternally like this. I don’t dislike this story, but I hope something happens. Passive-aggressiveness isn’t a plot.

“Yappari Idol” by Araki Kanao lost me right from the first page. You like loli/moe, it’s perfect. Grow these kids up so that they are not repulsively young and then maybe I’ll care. Young idol is a lesbian, so gropes and kisses another idol. Yes, young lesbians are known for this kind of behavior and not say, years of confusion and self-loathing. Reading this story made me feel ucky.

Still with the schoolgirls, but much less nasty was “Sketch,” by Yoshitomi Akihito (Blue Drop.) Rika asks Sae to do a portrait of her, so she can give it to the person she likes. Sae knows that Rika’s seeing a sempai. As she works on the picture, she starts to realize that she’s in love with Rika. As Rika goes off to go on a date with the sempai, she gives all the pictures to Sae who, after a moment of hesitation, kisses her. The story is given a little depth and humor by the addition of a great analogy about apples being eaten. This story was sweet without being sickly and I like Yoshitomi’s art.

“Otome-iro Stay Tune” by Fujieda Miyabi was hysterical. Back in the studio with Arise and Hina, Arise is voice-acting the very Yuri story of a shoujo manga series that takes place at St. Lotecia’s Academy. Hina’s surprised, she’s not really a shoujo manga fan. Arise segues into using the manga as a pretext for playing with Hina’s hair, but talking about it in a way that listeners would get totally the wrong idea about what was going on in the studio. ^_^ The program producer and director approve. The last issue was so short, we barely had time to see who was who, but this issue was much better. I can see that this story isn’t going to be deep or emotional, but as art, characters and story are all kind of fun, I’m okay with it. As “funny” teasing goes, this was WAY better than Nina heaving books across a room.

“Minus Literacy.” I just don’t know where it’s going. We pick up at the end of last chapter with Iinchou somehow having been involved in Takeyama’s family drama, in which her deceased family left her millions of dollars in debt with only a big house filled with priceless treasure and money – and a maid. I just don’t get it.

If you are fan of the Lucky Star art style, you will probably enjoy “Kokoya Riron.” I am not. Therefore this short story filled with adorable little SD creatures assumably doing incredibly cute, yet somehow Yuri things was completely lost on me. It started with a snake puppet hissing “suki” and just went downhill from there.

Madoka has a boyfriend. In any other world, this would be a good thing, but if you are the ghost protagonist of “Honey Crush” by Tsubaki Asu, is it not. You would be reduced to playing mean-spirited little tricks on your love and her boyfriend in hopes of breaking them up. Kyouko arrives in time to stop ghost girl from kissing Madoka after inhabiting her boyfriend’s body. Kyouko confesses to Madoka, who plainly says she’s not interested. In the end, neither ghost nor girl are willing to give up on Madoka. Why? I have no idea. :-)

“Nanami to Misuzu” remains exactly the same as it always is. Goofball situations with Bwa-wa-waaaah punchlines. A new character shows up, in lieu of a plotline, a cute ninja girl this time.

In “Kuroi Hitomi no Majou” a serious first-year confesses to Satomi, who reacts coldly, then tortures herself about it. In the fine tradition of shounen manga, her “no” is completely ignored, because you know, she really didn’t mean it. Or something. Two Hakamada Mera stories where the girls didn’t skeeve me. It’s a miracle. They still have huge cabbage patch heads, though.

And last of all, the one story I was most looking forward to, the second chapter of Sudou Kaoru’s “Otome Kikan Gretel.” We last left Yuu in a state of complete and utter confusion as she inexplicably defeated a gigantic monster with powers she is now informed are “Aube” – Appearance of Unlimited Bio Energy. In other words, Nagi explains cheerfully, we’re all witches here. Mariya and Nagi defeat the big-ass monster, but it’s not really dead yet, so Nagi commands angry Mariya to kiss Yuu – deeply. It turns out that Yuu’s power is to absorb the powers of anyone she kisses, so…. The kiss occurs, Mariya and Yuu combine to defeat the plug-ugly Formica and thus it is that Yuu’s all-girl school life begins. This story is so dumb, I love it.

While Comic Yuri Hime S isn’t as full of joy for me as Yuri Hime is, it’s not bad, either. I’d like to see a lot less of the moe/loli/cute, but there’s just nothing I can do about that.

Overall – 6

I forgot to mention this yesterday – for some reason, in both YH magazines, there’s a bunch of reviews of manga that in no way at all look Yuri. Now, to be fair, I didn’t actually read the descriptions, but it really looks like a rattlebag of manga with no rhyme or reason. I suppose I should read the reviews to find out why they were mentioned, but I’m not going to. ^_^