There’s a lot of Yuri-service this year in anime. A girl and a female-shaped death god randomly kissing in Jigoku Shoujo, or two girls rolling on bedding together in Kannagi. Most of Yuri fandom is satisfied with that. They don’t really care if a series is about two girls in love with one another – they only care if someone gets groped, or there’s a kiss. zOMG! Yuri!

I’m not that easily satisfied. I’m looking for stories about two female-shaped characters that *love* one another. Who might, if they are left alone to do it, kiss, hug, make love and even move in too soon after barely dating so that after 6 months when the passion is gone they live in a bittersweet platonic marriage. ^_^

For me, there is very little Yuri this season.

Mouryou no Hako is the best we have right now. The story starts off with Yoriko firmly telling us that she loves Kanako. Yoriko, a rather plain, timid girl is taken by elegant Kanako’s beauty.

But since this series begins with a girl’s head in a box, we really ought not to expect too too much happiness for this series. 6-6; Mouryou no Hako is a dark, psychological thriller based on a novel of the same name. (There’s a live-action series of the story as well, should you be interested.)

However, despite the fact that this series is dark and we can expect some weird unpleasantness to come, I have been assured by a Japanese member of the Yuricon Mailing List that Yoriko and Kanako’s feeling continue on after this series of events…which for them places it firmly in the world of “Yuri.”

For myself, I’m witholding judgement until the series develops. Yoriko’s feelings I can absolutely stand behind as Yuri. Her akogare and desire are palpable. Kanako’s feelings right now, on the other hand, read far more like narcisssism to me than love. But I look forward to seeing how it plays out.

The art is rich, with more photo-realism in the backgrounds and less stylized character designs by CLAMP than usual. The story will, eventually, revolve around four pretty men, but for the moment, I’m enjoying the focus on these two girls. Here’s hoping for a happy ending for them.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 6
Yuri – 4
Service – 2, with a forecast of severe bishies

Overall – 7, with potential

While there hasn’t been much in the way of Yuri, there’s actually quite a bit of anime with adult women acting like adults, recently. So outside Yuri, there’s a load of stuff for fans of women (as opposed to girls) to watch. I might just do a quick write up of some of these, just to give you all a run down.

When we last left Hyou and her never-ending battle against the youjin in Hakodate Youjin Buraijou Himegami, her bacon had been saved by a pack of totem-animal dressed ninja women whose fishnet ninja clothes look exactly like that worn by Hyou’s protector Himegami.

Volume 3 begins back at the Butterfly Caberet, Hyou is telling everyone about the women who saved her. She says that its not the first time a mysterious woman has protected her – when she was young, as her father lay dead at her feet, a mysterious creature known as the Colobockle took her hand and comforted her. One of the cabaret girls laughs and Hyou flounces off, annoyed, to lay flowers at her father’s grave.

Himeka offers to go with her, but is sidetracked by a piercing whistle. She’s called to the side of her compatriots – the ninja spirit warriors of the night before. Ranka, whose totem is a bear, Kirika, the hawk and later we learn that the little girl having a snowball fight with Hyou is Aika, with her two ferrets, Black and White. We also learn that the Colobockle Hyou met as a child was none other than Himeka, who has been watching over her since then.

The Butterfly is facing a crisis – all their customers are going to the new cabaret in town, the Black Widow, where they are not just getting lap dances, they are getting sex with bosomy foreigners. Run by the cross-dressing French woman, the Black Widow appears to be bewitching the entire town.

When Hyou and Himeka are attacked by newly born youjin, they are saved by some random wandering rounin, who appears to know (or at least know of) Hyou. The youjin turn out to be two of the Butterfly’s customers, not youjin at all, and Hyou and Himeka realize that something very evil is going on. Himeka and Hyou head over to the Black Widow to find out what *is* going on – and to protect Melanie, one of their own dancers, who has gone there.

The police too are on to the trail of the youjin. On all the murdered men (the ones cut down by Hyou and her friends) they find a handkerchief with a spider logo. One of the policemen admits to having one of those handkerchiefs, which he got by “doing it” at the Black Widow, and the police chief puts two and two together. He decides to go undercover to the cabaret – as a woman. (He is very pretty, so this is not as unlikely as it seems.)

He and Himeka meet while waiting to be seen by the owner of the Black Widow, as Hyou is caught and thrown out by Melanie. Hyou sneeks back in with the help of Aika and they spy Melanie and the rounin having some adult fun. (Melanie later says that he’s a really nice guy….). The rounin meets with another samurai and it turns out that they are not only friends, but friends of Hyou’s father.

Himeka puts a charm on the police chief’s hand, saying that she’s drawn the character for “person” on there and if she gets nervous to squeeze her hand shut. Himeka disappears into the room with the owner of the house. When she later hears Kirika’s whistle, she finds herself tattooed with a black spider, just as we learn that Melanie also bears the mark.

When it is at last his turn, the owner asks the police chief to strip; he hesitates. But when he does, we learn that he is actually a woman after all.

As the owner realizes that her house has been infiltrated, she commands the men with the handkerchiefs to become youjin. Hyou and her new allies face the human/youjin hybrids, Himeka runs to save the police chief, screaming that she should squeeze her hand – the charm works and the owner of the cabaret is blasted backwards, giving the chief and Himeka time to run. But they are not in time to save Hyou, who is now mad with the pain of the youjin being born and the blood of the ones she is killing. To be continued….argh!

Yuri is the usual here – when Hyou is suffering from the pain of the miburo, she relies on Himeka for comfort. When the hybrid youjin first appear, Himeka thinks that Hyou is coming on to her and she glad gives in, until the real cause makes itself known. Kirika, who has some jealousy issues about Himeka, points out that Ranka likes girls, in general. I’m thinking it’s a Himegami trait, myself. Nothing explicit, but I keep hoping that Himeka will at least get that kiss from Hyou she wants. ^_^

Still a very violent and service-y series. And as a woman, the French owner of Black Widow has such *enormous* breasts that its absolutely laugahble that she could pass for a man but, heck, she is a magic user, so it could be a glamour for all we know. And now we know why the police chief understood immediately that she was a woman passing as a man, since she is as well.

So, let’s see, that makes 4 Himegami, a samurai, a rounin, and Hyou on the one side and like 14 million Youjin on the other. Seems like a fair fight to me. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 6

Overall – 7

I’m either getting used to the art or it’s getting better…. I’m betting it’s the former. ^_^

As I’ve discussed in my reviews of the Red Garden manga, Volume 1 and Volume 2, the story in the manga is mostly similar to that in the anime, with a slight emphasis on the grotesque and gothic. This trend continues in Volume 3.

Herve’ woos Kate while hating her, and Kate struggles with her position in “Grace” at the school, while Rachel fights a battle on all fronts. We watch Herve’ flail against his sister’s fate and we watch Kate, Clare, Rachel and Rose try to understand the truth without giving in to it.

As in the anime, all of this is punctuated by moments of complete normality, and moments of violent battle again men who have turned into slavering beasts.

On the Yuri side, Paula is stepping up her campaign of touchiness in regards to Kate. Unlike the anime, where her love comes across as genuine, touching and admirable, her behavior here is inappropriate and makes Kate very uncomfortable. When it appears that Paula is stalking Kate, Kate flat-out tells her to leave her alone.

So, when the four are walking through the woods where Lise’s body was found, in order to maybe learn *something* about what is going on, they are all horrified at finding yet another body – even more so to realize that the corpse is Paula’s. The implications hit hard and we leave the volume with the four of them in complete shock.

It looks like the Yuri is headed towards the unbalanced, pervy side, but now that we know that Paula is “one of us,” i.e. dead, I wonder if Kate will find patience with the perpetrator. :-)

I’m too tired to really give this manga the praise it deserves. This story is compelling, the characters and their wardrobes are charming, the craziness is utterly appealing and the violence is…violent.

And my goodness, Clare is so hot on the cover.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 3

Overall – 7

EPL Paula works for me, too. ^_^

The first day of Otakon was a hoot, saw lots of old friends, made some new ones, and Rinu – if you want to catch a flight today, there’s still a chair behind the Yuricon table for you if you want it. ;-)

No news so far from Otakon, but bear in mind that I’m the last to know, stuck down in the DR without a computer. lol

Yuri Anime

An anime has been announced in Japan for Maria Holic, a story about a girl who obsesses about Yuri and the girl she falls for, who is really a crossdressing guy who is an asshole. Perfect for people who like their Yuri unfulfilling on several levels. lol Thanks to Eric for pointing this out.

Alexandra tells us that El Cazador is also coming out in France, the first boxset is due out on August 20. There’s no French dub, just subtitles. She wonders though, why it was licensed before Madlax….

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Other Yuri News

Suzanna wants me to share the news that along with German and Japanese, the Maria-sama ga Miteru novels are out in Korean.

One of the questions we received yesterday at the Yuri Panel was whether we thought the novels would ever be licensed here. We agreed that yes, we do think that *eventually* they will, because as recently as last year, we were sure we’d never see the anime here – surer of that than of the novels. And here we are with the anime officially licensed and not sliced to shreds. So, there you go. ;-)

While I’m on it let me thank all the people who came to the panel – you were a great crowd, with great questions and we had a blast talking to you!

I’m off to spend the day destroying what’s left of my voice in the DR today – catch you there!