Shoujo Arts Society, the organization that backs Shoujocon, and Yurikon LLC, the company that brings you Yuricon and ALC Publishing, have teamed up to create a brand-new, all-in-one festival of women’s roles in animation and comics, Onna!.

Onna! is about women in all aspects of animation and comics; from behind the scenes work in producing, directing, publishing and editing to the more visible writers, artists, voice actors – and even fans! We’ll be showing anime for, by and about women and Onna! is planning storng yuri, yaoi, josei tracks, along with shoujo and shounen fare – but don’t expect Onna! to be anything like “the usual.” Even the anime you already know and love has a lot to tell us, and we’ll be exploring all the aspects of anime, manga, western animation and their fandoms that are of interest to, and about women.

We’ve got some really great guests, fun games and great anime already lined up. So, block off Columbus Day weekend, October 8-10, 2005 on your calendar, and visit the Onna! website for more information about registration to this special event. :-)

And so it is.

It has been an utterly brutal week here at Yuri Central, as we fight, erm, chat pleasantly, with the printers, in hopes that the second edition of Rica ‘tte Kanji!?, by Rica Takashima will be available soon. The special pre-order sale of 20% off the cover price is in effect until February 1, so get your orders in today at the Yuricon Shop.

In our effort to offer high-quality yuri manga to all yuri fandom, we’ve also added more untranslated manga from Amazon Japan through the Shop’s manga page, including the manga I voted number one most yuri manga of 2004 – Free Soul, by Yamaji Ebine. None of Yamaji Ebine’s work is available in English translation at the moment, although some of her books have been translated into Chinese, French and, I believe, German. But really, her simple, unique art style make translation almost unecessary at times.

So, please do give the Shop a visit, place those orders for Rica, and get yourself some fine yuri manga!

And have a nice weekend. :-)

Usually you can tell when an anime is going to suck, but in the case of Phantom Memory Kurau, they had me fooled right up to the very end.

Back in November when I first reviewed Kurau, I had two beliefs – that it was a brilliant series, and that it had very little Yuri. Well, I find my opinion now 100% reversed on both counts.

What was a finely crafted exploration of science and emotion, love and friendship and ethical ecological and humanitarian responsibility, in the end, became nothing more than a weak fairy tale. I maintain that the final episode was written by a 6 year-old who, when questioned about what should happen said, “They all got married and had babies and lived *happily* ever after! The End!”

In the beginning, there was alot of good material between tough-as-nails cop Ayaka and mystical-powered-agent Kurau, a lot of love and shared experience between Kurau and her Rynax “twin” Christmas…and in the end, there wasn’t anything. Just Ayaka going off with her child, and Kurau, having been stripped of her Rynax entities and the power they brought, has becomes stale, flat and unprofitable…and a mother although, apparently, not a wife. Only Christmas is left, alone with her Rynax energy, until, unexplained (and inexplicably) a new Kurau-Rynax clone appears to fulfill her dreams and bring her happiness. The end.

I spit nails for a long while after watching this last episode, I admit. I don’t understand why they chose such a shoddy, pat ending to what had been right up through the penultimate episode, so excellent.

However, in retrospect, my opinion of the Yuri potential of the series has changed. In the beginning, I stated that Kurau and Christmas seemed more like sisters to me than lovers – especially as Christmas had been formed from Kurau’s own Rynax energy. But it was a side story that changed my mind. In this side story, we encounter a young boy, also a Rynasapien, who is desperately looking for his “twin” (Rynax, apparently, function well only in pairs.) I had assumed that all Rynax pairs were like our idea of twins – two beings who are related, in this case, by the Rynax energy…in other words, a kind of sibling. So it was a bit incest-y for me to imagine Kurau and Christmas as lovers.

In the side arc, the boy (whose name is escaping me at the moment…) who is looking so intently for a twin finally finds one and finds some happiness for a short while. It’s a tragic arc, but there is no doubt that they have bonded deeply and permanantly by the end of the arc. So, clearly, Rynasapien do *not* have a pre-determined twin, but can find one as chance allows. Which means that they are not, a priori, related or bound to each other. Which means it can be a kind of love that brings them together, as opposed to a kind of energy-bond.

You see where I’m going with this? In short, Kurau *could* be in something that looks more like love with Christmas than, say, sisterly affection, and vice versa. Now…I’m going to hold on to the fact that the first Kurau and Christmas had that sisterly relationship. But the second Kurau, the one made up of only Rynax energy and Christmas’ hopes…*that* one could be, if we so desired, love. So, yeah, based on that, I’ll up the Yuri rating.

But the overall still goes down because the ending totally blew.

Ratings:
Story – 7
Character – 9
Art – 8
Music – 8
Yuri – 7

Overall it drops to a 7 because it was, *overall* a good series, but the final episode was a 1. Maybe a -1, because I felt like they owed me when it was all over.

Just watch the first 23 episodes, the go write your own ending – you’ll be a happier person for it.

2020 Update: I re-re-reviwed this series again in 2008 and had third (still not terribly positive) opinion about the ending.

Yuri Shimai 5 is in, and it was great! So great, in fact, that I’ve decided to make it easier for you to buy Yuri Shimai directly through the Yuricon Shop.

Yuri Shimai is – just to be clear – in Japanese. :-) And you would be purchasing through Amazon Japan. But, on every page on Amazon JP, there is a link (at about 2 o’clock on the page) that says “Display this page in English.” It will change all the buttons to English and it will make purchasing your copies a little easier. They do ship internationally and I think they have excellent overall service and prices.

I *will* be doing a thorough review of this volume – it really was quite excellent. I hope you all buy yourselves a copy and then drop by the Yuricon Mailing List and share your thoughts on it.

While you’re at the Shop, don’t forget to check out ALC’s 100% yuri manga (on sale right now) and our yuri-themed gifts as well. Get what you *want* for the holidays, for a change – get some yuri!

No review today, just some random yuri-ish comments and gloating. :-)

Firstly, loyal yuri fan Clarissa sent the Yuricon Mailing List this link to an interview of a Japanese fan of Maria-sama ga Miteru, in English. Not only is it fascinating in its own right, it has interesting links to many Marimite objet d’fandom.

The above interview also refers to a “realistic” manga series about student life at an all-girl school called Joshi Kousei, which, oddly, I just found last week at Book Off. I expect to be reviewing it some day soon. It looks, upon first glance to be terrifying and wacky. I’ve seen Joshi Kousei listed on more than a few Japanese site yuri manga lists, so it’ll be interesting to read, even thought the actual yuri content is low.

Also, when I get home, there are a few new items awaiting for me today, so look forward to some reviews in the future of:

Pure Marionation – a girl-meets-robot girl love story.

Sokyu no Megami – It looks space opera-y, y’know girls with weapons and/or mecha. It’ll probably be awful. :-)

Himitsu Anjerisu – I don’t even *know* what this was about, but it looked interesting and Yuri Kokoro gave it a reasonable rating, so…

Yuri Shimai 5 – Whee! More Strawberry Shake!

Carmilla – When Japanese lesbian magazine Anise stopped publishing, Carmilla filled the gap. I have one issue and its, erm…interesting. I thought that, since it’s been a few volumes, I’d see how it is now.

And the beginning of the next Marimite manga arc, the fourth novel, Rosa Canina. Let’s see how Shizuka fares in manga form, shall we?

So, that’ll keep me busy for a while, I guess. I’ll let you know how it goes! :-)