Many of you know the name Anastasia Moreno. She’s been the translator for some of your favorite Yuri titles: GIRL FRIENDS, Strawberry Panic! and Kisses, Sighs and Cherry Blossoms Pink. It’s because of SP! that Ana I and became friends, in fact. We met up with her in Tokyo this month and we discussed her exciting new project.

Together with Nogami Takeshi-sensei of Strike Witches doujinshi fame, Ana  is writing a new comic Marine Corps Yumi (まりんこゆみ). This is a totally loopy, but completely truthy story about boot camp for the Marine Corps of the United States of Amerigo.

Young “Nipponian” Nagumo Yumi, upon graduating high school, finds herself with two criteria for adult life – she’d like to continue to wear her school uniform and she wants to become the President of the United States. Her friends argue that neither criteria will fly, but Yumi takes herself off to Amerigo anyway, where she runs into  a bunch of elderly veterans who convince her that she should become a Marine.

Joined by Linda Crawford, a milk-fed freckled, busty blonde who wants to get away from her white trash parents and her moldering town; African-American Donna King who turned down a job at “Boldman Sachs” (and who is a fujoshi); and fam-trad Marine and all around competent Rita Fernandez, whose dad is a decorated NCO, our Nipponian doofus Yumi introduces us and other military otaku to life at Marine Corps boot camp. From Birth Control Glasses (boot camp issued glasses that are as ugly as possible) to Box Nasties (the “high calorie, low motivation” meals provided) we get to experience the lingo and in-jokes, without having to do a 10 mile morning run.

Nogami-sensei’s art style suits the gags well. There is a fair bit of service, but it’s expected and acceptable. Gags about Linda’s build, and Donna’s underwear are a nice break from Yumi’s general doofusyness. ^_^

I want to draw your attention to the cast, for a moment. Generally speaking, manga does not do “diversity,” as we in the west see it (for what I think is obvious reasons.) In this case, the primary cast is indeed diverse. A Latina, an African-American woman, an Asian and a Caucasian make up the four boots we follow. Meyers, Joiner, Garza and Dillinger are the DIs. Notably, Rita Fernandez is the most competent of the recruits, and Donna King the most elite. Yumi is, of course, a doofus and a klutz, while Linda Crawford, who in any other manga might be seen as the princess type, is the lowest class and trying to better her options. Even in 4-koma goofball gags, every character gets a story and a personality.

There is basically no Yuri, except for a brief moment in which Yumi strips happily, presuming a bath is at hand, when everyone else is hesitant. Linda sees Yumi’s dreamy expression and wonders if she’s gay. I hold out hope that one of the characters is in fact gay – preferably Rita, since she’s competent and you know what we say about anime and manga lesbians. ^_^

Marine Corps Yumi strikes a deep personal note for me – when I was a child I wanted to be a Marine more than anything else in the whole while world. I  was too sickly, then I was too gay. ^_^ So while in my next life I’ll hope to come back as a Marine, for this one, I’ll stick to Marine Corps Yumi, which comes out online (in English, too) weekly.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8, if you’re into it, silly otherwise. ^_^
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 3 All the characters are adult women, which may be a downer for some

Overall – 8

Thanks to Ana’s generosity we have three copies of Marine Corps Yumi to give away!

Put your name, rank and serial number in the comments and I’ll pick three winners. (Consider logging in to post, so I have your email.)

I’m going to drag my jetlagged butt into New York Comic Con this afternoon, so if you see me, say hi! No giveaways this time, sorry, too tired to carry myself, much less a bag full of crap. But I’ll do more lucky boxes soonish, so you’ll be able to get random wonderfulness that way, promise. ^_^

I hope to see some of you there!

Yummy Random News

Watch this absolutely lovely animated short, Contre Temps,  because it is absolutely lovely.

More Sailor Moon goods. Some new bag designs that I’m actually considering trying to find and the S.H. Figuarts Sailor Mars is now up for pre-order.

One of the things that fascinated me about Madoka and One Piece is their existence as what I call a “saturation series.” There is an almost infinite amount of goods for these series – from designer accessories to common items. The fact that Sailor Moon is coming this season and there are goods out the wazoo makes me happy beyond belief. The only thing that would make me happier, would be news that we were getting the Outers as well as the Inners. ^_^

Dying for chestnut Rose of Versailles pudding? Thought so.

How about some amazing, over-the-top RoV latte art? Here’s some Sailor Moon designs by the same artist. I bet the coffee is cold by the time you get it, though.

Tokusatsu all-girl series set in a ridiculous private girl’s school with just enough Yuri service and CGI transformations? I’m in! Check out Komatsu-san’s write-up on Shiromajo Gakuen/ Innocent Lillies (seriously) on Crunchyroll. According to the official website, it will be streaming world-wide on Youtube. I can’t wait. ^_^

Oh and speaking of “yes, please,” check out these Disney Princesses dressed like their princes.

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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!

Seitokaichou ga Yuri Suki demo Mondai nashi!? (生徒会長が百合好きでも問題ナシ! ?) is a 4-panel gag comic by Uona Terepin for Kadokawa Comics. It is, marginally, Yuri.

Hanayashiki Kanon is the Student Council President; she’s smart, pretty, wears power well and has a Yuri fetish which she hides from everyone except her maid. Kurumi, her maid, likes Kanon and probably would “like” her if asked. Kanon is interested in Kurumi, but is hiding that from everyone, too, including Kurumi. By “hiding” I of course mean, being incredibly obvious in an awkward and pointless way.

Also on the Council is Nanami and her maid Rena (who is a ninja) and Aoi who sees right through Kanon and instigates as often as she can. Not on the council is Kanon’s self-styled rival Ami – her maid Riko only works for the money.

So, I started reading this manga resigned to one joke per character, which I got, but I didn’t expect to actually laugh out loud. The beginning is so outlandish and over the top, at some point you just either laugh…or throw the book out.

Kanon and Kurumi could be an item. There’s no reason why they aren’t, except that the only vestige of a plot is that Kanon like Yuri and maybe, sort of, possibly, likes Kurumi). Therefore we can expect nothing will happen and all the characters will have one joke each. I read one chapter each night so I didn’t throw the book out. I laughed out loud about once every other chapter. Not too bad for a gag manga.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – There is none, just typical school-life tropes
Character – 7 Better than I expected
Yuri – 2 One-sided, for no reason
Service – 7 The usual; bathing, swimsuits, Holiday/event dress up, random cosplay, random service.

Overall – 7

This book isn’t going to be on my Top Ten, but I haven’t thrown it out yet. ^_^

Every once in a while, a series comes along that completely floors me when I suddenly really it’s an ongoing series.

Ohsawa Yayoi’s Black Yagi to Gekiyaku Madeline (and the sequel, Strange Babies) took me a while to cotton on to. Junsui Adolescence by Kowo Kazuma did the same thing.

For some strange reason, it is only marginally surprising to me that Morita-san ha Mukuchi Manga (森田さんは無口) by Sano Tae has made it to Volume 6.

On the surface, this series is a typical one-joke-per-character 4-panel comic. However, it has no prickly inside jokes or characters pretending to tolerate one another to fuel tension, no wacky character with bwawawa~~~ punchlines. Unlike so many of the breed, Sano-sensei has made this series feel…comfortable.

I’m perfectly okay seeing how many gags can be built around Mayu’s silence, Miki’s hair, Hana’s tumultuous homelife, Yukino’s drinking, Mayu’s parents up-and-down relationship, Yamamoto’s coolness. I’m not sure why, but even the stalker girl who stalks Mayu doesn’t bother me. Probably because she’s clearly annoying Sano-sensei, who barely included her this volume.

Yamamoto is amazingly cool and all the girls like her. This and Mayu’s stalker are the only Yuri and the thinnest of all possible reasons for me to mention Volume 5 (which I never reviewed for no specific reason I can think of, I probably read it on JManga and simply forgot to) and Volume 6. Yuri is not why you’d be reading this story anyway. You’d read it for the pleasantly realistic, non-creepy, non-fetishy, totally touching friendships between Mayu and her friends, which should be handed out to illustrate “Friendships Between Women 101”.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 8

What I said about Volume 4 still holds true, “Mayu’s a good friend, and her friends are good friends. Watching the four of them together has not yet ceased to fill me with warmth.”

I’ll be reading Volume 7. And I won’t be a bit surprised if there’s a Volume 8.