Many of you know Kakinouchi Narumi’s work, even if you don’t know you know it. Vampire Princess Miyu (both TV and OAV,) on DVD and Juline and Shaolin Sisters in manga, have made it to English. In Japanese she’s done a great number of series, including the obscure Utahime Fight!, which I reviewed back in 2005 and the art for the Case Files of Yakushiji Ryouko (薬師寺涼子の怪奇事件簿), which I am currently reading, having gotten more volumes at Book-Off in Tokyo (and my gosh, if there was the least little bit of Yuri in it, I would be reviewing it here so fast it would make your head spin!)

But what Kakinouchi-sensei is best known for is Vampire stories. Along with Miyu, you’ll find Vampire Princess Yui, and Dahlia the Vampire in her bibliography. And as much as vampires rarely do it for me, I love the hell out of Kakinouchi-sensei’s vampires. Which brings me to the subject of today’s review, Kakinouchi-sensei’s newest series, done in conjunction with her husband Hirano Toshiki, Vampire Princess. (吸血姫 – ヴァンパイア・プリンセス)

Have I ever told you about my Yuridar? I have ridiculous Yuridar. I can stand in front of packed shelves of books and reach out and pull a few off and pretty much guaranteed, they’ll have some Yuri in them. (This works for other things too, like always knowing when there’s  book by T.E. Lawrence in a store.) I saw this book all over Tokyo, but kept resisting it, until the pressure became too much and I caved. So very, very glad I did.

In a small town in the late Meiji period, in a girls’s school, a young girl named Sakura is drawn into the mystery and horror that is the life of her classmate Yuu. Yuu, it turns out, is a vampire and Sakura becomes her servant and partner in her complicated life.

Like all of Kakinouchi’s work, the setting is sparse, but clothing, hair and movements are dramatic, with great sweeping lines that fill panels and pages. Also in keeping with her style, all the females are well-put together, and the vampires are seductive and beautiful in their unworldiness, without being shiny or idealized. It would be very easy to read Yuu as simply a member of Japan’s nobility, using and discarding commoners as she needs. However, there’s something more than just base need in Yuu’s relationship to Sakura – and it is this “something more” that comes so close to being Yuri. Many of Kakinouchi’s Vampire Princesses seem to ride that line between feeding/seducing that Bram Stoker was trying to gross us out with, but only succeeded in making vampires cool and sexy, instead. ^_^ Yuu is both cool and sexy and Sakura is a (mostly) willing partner.

In a world that uses Twilight as a benchmark for vampires,  I’m all for Yuu’s classic inhuman gaze and the sweeping movements of her kimono.

Ratings –

Art – 9, but I’m a Kakinouchi fangirl, YMMV
Story – 7 It’s vampires, there’s really not much else you can do with that
Characters – 7 Same
Yuri – 5, it’s all vampire feeding stuff, but still, sexy is sexy
Loser FanBeing – 5

Overall – 8

I’ll definitely be getting more of this series, and hoping that one day she just jumps the fence and our Vampire Princess and her girl live happily *ever* after.

Morita-san ha Mukuchi (森田さんは無口) must be a work of genius. It must be, because after 4 volumes of the same sort of daily life-nothing much I’m still reading it, still enjoying it and still giggling at the silly gags. 4 volumes of nothing much and I still like this manga. It MUST be a work of genius, seriously.

In Volume 4, absolutely nothing has changed. Mayu is still a untalkative high school girl, Hana’s family issues are still bad, Miki’s still interested in boys, and the girl who is stalking Mayu is still stalking her. The only difference is that she’s now thinking about actually speaking to her, if only that would work out. That’s one half the Yuri.

The other half is in the form of Yamamoto Ritsuki, who is increasingly popular with the girls. So much so, that on Valentine’s Day, she staggers into class with an enormous bag of candy on her back, like a chapman setting off to sell his goods. The look of exhaustion on her face speaks volumes, and so does the expression of pain with which she offers a single candy to each girl who gave her chocolate, with an apology that they all accept with a nod. If she were to buy real candy for all of her admirers, she’d clearly be broke.

There was one small thing that changed this volume – a change that I, for one, welcomed. Yamamoto, as competent, intelligent and calm as she is, showed that she isn’t as cool as everyone thinks. In fact, while all the girls are watching her…she’s watching them back. Yuridar strikes again! As I suspected, Yamamoto is one of us. ^_^

Like all 4-koma, one should not read Morita-san ha Mukuchi expecting great plot shifts. This series makes great bedtime reading- a few pages at a time, sends you to sweet dreams of the look on Mayu’s face when Hana plays with her hair, and Yamamoto’s secret interest in girls. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 2

Overall – 8

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’m back from a trip to Japan in rather hotter and more humid weather than I had hoped and have returned to rather hotter and more humid weather than I had hoped.

Today is a real treat! Riffing off a comment I made, friend of Yuricon John B. has graciously let me print his email to me about The Problem of Writing “Serious Drama” for Female Casts in Anime. I have not edited this with the exception of the link in the beginning.

 Erica’s observation about the apparent discomfort with writing serious drama for female casts reminds me of something I noticed with female action roles in late-80s OVAs and shows.

Admittedly, I was looking at it through a very small lens: the particular selection of shows that were making it over here at the time, and the portion of that selection that I was able to see. The shows involved ranged from television series based on very popular manga to original OVAs with a much narrower audience in Japan, and I wasn’t always clear on the relative times between when they were written or produced and when they made it over to the States, so I was never certain if I was looking at a real pattern, or just an artifact of how they filtered over to me. With that disclaimer, here’s what struck me:

It seemed like they couldn’t really envision, or didn’t think their audiences could envision, a woman in a genuine action role, so they basically took standard male archetypes and grafted female characters onto those roles. Priss (BubbleGum Crisis) was the Street Tough With Heart. Noa Izumi (Patlabor) was the Earnest Neophyte With Talent. Leona Ozaki (Dominion) was the comedic twist on that, the Gonzo Rookie. The entire cast of Gall Force sprung from assorted “one of this type, one of that type, etc.” roles. Familiar-enough types that the mostly-male audience could empathize, but with varying levels of sex appeal thrown in. “Boys with boobs”, so to speak.

Even roles that didn’t fit the “bwb” characterization showed a lack of clear concept for a feminine action-oriented character: in City Hunter, Kaori was a sidekick pining for Ryo. The Dirty Pair couldn’t just be special agents, there had to be frequent breaks for Cheep Laffs. And at the tail end of this, how many times did Sailor Moon need to get bailed out by Tuxedo Mask? Eventually, though, we got Rally Vincent (GSC version), Motoko Kusanagi (Stand Alone Complex version), Utena, girls with guns on the run, and others, so it’s not necessarily a permanent state. The pattern can change once writers and producers (and audiences, for that matter) evolve a new familiarity that doesn’t rely on crudely-pasted-together bits of previous familiar types.

With drama it will take a breakout, or series of them, to make it more attractive than the timidity and retreat to familiar tropes that you were speaking of. Action roles had Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton, Buffy and Xena to help wrap peoples’ heads around the concept. For drama, I have no idea where they might come from. I tend to be a latecomer to things, so I’m the last person to prognosticate.

Thanks John, I think you’ve said concisely what we’ve all thought at some point or another. I defined “strong woman” recently as a woman in control of her circumstances. This differs significantly from woman in sexy leather body suit shooting big-ass gun. A woman shooting big-ass gun has already lost control and is fighting to regain what was hers. Of course she never can…she and her family have had their lives destroyed and you don’t ever come back unscathed from that. What I want so desperately to see is stories of women who have made it past the scarring, have learned to not lose control of the situation, even when things are falling apart around her. A leader. A calm in the storm. Not the storm itself. Perhaps writing that story is too complicated, too “boring,” too alien for most male writers or male audiences. It has been done – Utena took control over very weird circumstances indeed, Yumi did it with compassion and charm. It will be done again. In between, I’m afraid we’re just going to have to wade through a lot of panty shots and big-ass guns.

For our Italian readers, Ren Books discuss Yuri and the upcoming release of the Italian edition of “Rica ‘tte Kanji!?” by Rica Takashima.

La tragicità dello Yuri | renbooks