My apologies for the radio silence over the past few days. I had a guest review lined up for you all, then got busy and distracted. Mea culpa. In the meantime, I did manage to attend the Librarian and Educator day of New York Comic Con, which is happening this weekend at Javits Convention Center in New York City.

NYCC has not historically been my favorite event, (AnimeNYC is a vastly superior event and I hope that all the anime and manga companies are going to be there. I’ll do a write-up before the event itself to give you an idea who is coming) as it gladly takes money from anime and manga-adjacent companies, but gives them little respect. This year it seems like the word got out and while Toei was there, with massive giveaways, and Bandai Namco with same, the only manga presence was the usual NYC based publishing companies. More on all of this in a sec.

I was part of the Manga in Libraries panel line-up on “Defending Manga,” with Jillian Rudes, founder of Manga in Libraries, Renee Scott, Rie Ishibashi, and Joe Sanchez. We had a lively panel, followed by manga industry folks talking about manga for libraries, and that was followed by a “Best and Worst” manga panel in which I got to be timer. ^_^ They were all fantastic panels. And – this is why I am telling you all of this – not only was there a lot of talk of queer representation in manga, but also disability, mental health and more. Every panel had some discussion of the importance of manga in giving voice to folks who have been marginalized. Obviously not every librarian, but many, are on the right side of this. Talk to your public and school libraries about getting good queer books on those shelves. Manga in Libraries has a ton of resources for all ages. AND let me assure you that the industry is also on our side. Here are some upcoming picks from representatives of Kodansha, Yen and Viz – Uta Isaki’s manga about being asexual and Mieri Hiranishi’s book about being a butch girl trying to find a gilfriend were positively gushed over. ^_^ (Photo by me.)

There was a panel today on manga, as well, This Manga Is Awesome, check out the tweets on that!

So, I didn’t walk the whole floor, because I wasn’t interested in the giveaways so much, or the Golden and Silver Age comics, as I’m out of collecting, or the booths selling crap, because I have so MUCH crap here. But I did walk along the publishing aisles…because books are not crap. ^_^ I stopped by the Yen Press booth and picked up a copy of She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat (review here on Okazu) and only later learned that there was a giveaway of a measuring spoon with a 1T and 1t measurement, for that. The guy I bought it from never even mentioned it. ^_^; Joe gave me his spoon, so I do have one. BUT, if you go to table 2837, tell Yen you want your spoon!

One last thing, Bandai Namco was there with a HUGE presence and multiple booths, so I wandered over to that and Crunchyroll in vain hope of a Birdie Wing thing sneaking through the cracks. No luck. I did check to see if Aerial from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury was available yet, because I am an otaku, but not yet. Maybe by AnimeNYC, and then I’ll have to face how *much* of an otaku am I, really. ^_^

My day at NYCC was nice and very super queer-friendly. ^_^ Next up, I am doing a talk at Hunter College and going to be at Women in Comics Con in the Bronx this month – next month, I’m a guest at AnimeNYC, where I’ll be signing my book, By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga all weekend long – buy a copy there, and get ANYC exclusive giveaways while they last! ^_^

Happy 20th Anniversary Okazu! As requested Okazu Patrons, I’ve created a 20th anniversary video for Okazu, talking about the changes in Yuri that I have seen over the last 20 years.

For early access to all video and research, become an Okazu Patron today! ^_^ Your support goes directly into supporting Yuri creators.

I know no one notices this, but I almost always take a new photo of the Lucky Boxes that are going out. ^_^ These are the actual Lucky Boxes that have been put together for this time.

This time we have 3 Lucky boxes! They are full of comics and manga and poetry and magazines and and other random things to marvel at.  All of these boxes include other flat fun things like stickers, bookmarks, comics, or postcards which are equally random and frequently bizarre (and often not at all Yuri.) And candy. I particularly like the hana kuchizuke  candy and hope you do too.

This time we have 2 Large boxes and 1 Medium Box.

As always, I assure you that this is all 100%, unadulterated stuff. Lucky Boxes are created by me shoving a bunch of things in boxes. I don’t remember what went in, so I can’t tell you what is in each box. I do try to put random things in there to make the unpacking process an adventure. ^_^ You’ll get random things in random things.

Here are today’s choices:

Large Box 1 – $40 – Claimed

Large Box 2 – $40 – Claimed

Large Box 3 – $25 – Claimed

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To be eligible to buy a Lucky Box, follow these instructions carefully. Please. Thank you. Failure to follow all of these instructions will disqualify you. It’s not personal, they are all claimed pretty quickly and I don’t have time to track you down for a piece of information.

1 – You must live in the Continental USA (contiguous 48) only, no APO/FPOs. This is disappointing for me too, so I apologize. Nothing in here is worth the amount of money it would cost to get it overseas.

2 – You must be over 18, I am not policing books or recipients.

3 – Email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject “Lucky Box”. Use an email you check regularly. Because I will reply asap. The first person who responds to my email gets the box.

4. *****Please include your name, age, mailing address. ***** Tell me which box you want. Even if you’ve given me your address previously, please include it, I am very lazy.

5- I will contact you at that point and give you details about payment by Paypal. Please be prepared to check your email and get payment out so this post doesn’t linger. Thanks in advance. These will be shipped out asap, as well; the whole point of this is to get these out of my house. ^_^

This whole process will be handled with utmost capriciousness, as usual. ^_^

Ready? Get your Lucky Boxes!

Last month on Yuri Studio, I made a video about Girl Gangs in Anime and Manga. I enjoyed making it quite a bit and it motivated me to pick up a series I mentioned in the video – Sukeban Deka Pretend, Volume 1 (スケバン刑事Pretend).

Asamiya Saki is dead and gone.  High schooler Yasaki Asami (see what they did there?) never knew her. Nonetheless, their lives will become intertwined, when Asami – whose one goal is to make 10,000 friends online – finds a mysterious yo-yo. Well, actually, the yo-yo finds her. It literally drops from the sky as she’s up on the school roof. When she sees a bunch of kids bullying another kid, Saki’s spirit appears and instructs her to fight evil, as Sukeban Deka Pretend!

…kind of like the world’s greatest delinquent is now a magical animal mascot.

In any case, Asami does transform and saves the guy…but he is not interested in being friends. In fact, he kind of loses his grip and turns out to be doing crime. He’s the guy responsible for the new “snake” marijuana in school. The snake tattoo on his forehead awakens and he completely goes off the rails. Asami has to transform and subdue him.

Then Asami helps a girl whose uniform has been stolen, the end result of which is that she turns up a whole ring of stolen school items. The girl whose uniform was stolen turns out to have a snake tattoo that possesses her, as well. She’s actually sold her uniform for money – but was that before or after the snake?

In each case, Asami sets out to help someone, only for them to turn on her, become possessed by something snake-themed, and turn out to be the actual bad guy. I appreciate that snake theme, honestly, calling back to the giant snakes at the end of the original series.

But this all gets really wonky in the final arc of the volume. Chisato is the Vice chair of the Morals committee, a powerful group in the school which rules with an iron hand. She and Asami work together in the stolen goods arc, and they learn that there is actually a blue yo-yo as well! Who has it, or why, neither of them know. When the Chair of the morals committee is possessed by the snake…whatever-it-is, Asami stands ready to fight, but before she can transform, the Morals Chair slaps her down. At which Chisato stands forward with that blue yo-yo and she becomes Sukeban Deka Principal!

Also…Saki’s handler (and lover) Jin seems to be a teacher at the school.

Okay. Yes. Thank you. This was perfect, in a mad as a porridge knife way. Saki being part of the story, while remaining dead is a total thumbs up, as is the whole snake theme. Another thumb for the second yo-yo and another for Jin being right there, and apparently knowing what’s going on, but not lifting a finger to do anything. Four thumbs up for this story. It’s…bonkers in a way that only a reworking of a 50 year old cultural phenomenon could be. A bit like the Brady Bunch Movie. You can’t take the original seriously, but you can’t just lampoon it, either…it was a formative part of the cultural landscape. So you have to hold it with love and make it sillier. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 0

At the end of this volume we have Asami and Chisato as paired Sukeban Deka, so maybe we’ll get some good partnership-relationship there. The evil snake theme is certainly a thing and now we just need to know how the Principal is involved, because, duh~~ she is clearly involved. Will I get the next volume to find out? You bet I will! Volume 1 only came out in April and this series appears to be still running in Princess magazine, so yeah, I’m all in on this. ^_^

Deliquent girls forever!