Here are the winners of the Marine Corps Yumi contest.

None of the winners have contacted me as of yet. If I don’t hear from any of you in the next 48 hours, I’ll pick new winners. (I *did* ask you to make sure you were logged in with an email so I could write you.)

These people, write me at yuricon at gmail dot com

Chris Driggers

Elizabeth

Miakoda Wolfsen

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. ^_^