Very many thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for sponsoring today’s review! Eric has been a huge supporter of Okazu since the early days and I am very thankful to him. Today, because of his generosity, we are looking at the newest work in the Legend Of Korra-verse, The Legend of Korra: Patterns in Time, out now from Dark Horse Books.

This collection of short stories set in and around The Legend of Korra timeline, are very entertaining. These are mostly short, character-driven stories, which add depth to the characters of Korra, Asami, and Tenzin and his family. The back cover says that Bolin and Mako are included, but they don’t appear at all. Meelo and Jinora do feature in stories. We also get a few cameos from some of our favorite Beifongs. ^_^

This anthology features some terrific art; each story interprets the characters differently, but in doing so, each finds something specific to bring out for that character. Most stories are done by separate writers, artists, colorists and letterers, except one. Blue Delquanti (creator of O Human Star,) handles all roles for their own story.

My favorite story was the opening gambit, “Friends For Life,” written by Korra co-creator, Michael Dante Di Martino, with art by Heather Campbell, colored by Killian Ng and lettered by Michael Heisler. The second story, “Skyscrapers,” written by Rachel Silverstein, illustrated and colored by Sam Beck, lettered by Richard Starkings and Comiccraft’s Jimmy Betancourt, was a close second. These two featured a young Korra and, separately, a young Asami, and both gave us a moment in their formative years, with some happy times. Also notable is Blambot’s Nate Piekos’ lettering in the Meelo and Korra adventure “Lost Pets.”

Ratings:

Overall – 8

If you enjoyed The Legend Of Korra and you wanted a few more moments in the company of these characters, I’d recommend this collection. There’s no grand world- or plot-building here, just one-offs that give us time to enjoy the idea of Meelo and Bumi bonding or Jinora getting her mojo back or young Avatar Korra getting a night off her studies.

In thanks to all of you who support our work here on Okazu, on Yuri Studio and on Yuricon with financial (and emotional) support , we will be having a relaxing and fun end-of-year party today, so no review. I hope I’ll see more of you in 2023 on the Okazu Patreon.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow, with one last review for 2022, followed by one of the most difficult Top Ten Yuri list I have ever had to writing in nearly 20 years of doing this. ^_^

Over the years there has been a lot of research into Boys Love and BL fandom and it seemed time to set up something to get a feel for what Yuri fandom is like in the 2020s, now that it has an established presence in most Japanese pop-culture media.

I would like you, readers of Okazu and members of Yuri fandom, to participate in  a 2022 Yuri Fandom Survey.

I’m sure I was not alone in my enthusiasm/skepticism when Taiwanese brand Ocean Bomb launched a collaboration of flavored sparkling water with the Sailor Moon franchise. Because I am an otaku, of course it was my duty to both acquire and consume these. I found the first several at my local Mitsuwa marketplace, but the remainder were obtained online from Yami. I found them to be a perfectly fine provider of random items from Japan. The prices were fine and everything came in good time and safely packaged. I am not an affiliate, but links will lead there.

In chatting about them on the Okazu Discord, it was decided that it was likewise my obligation to review them. And here we are. As I am spending my last day at Anime NYC doing panels and selling books,  here for your enjoyment is my review of the first 6 Sailor Moon sparkling water flavors from Ocean Bomb from worst to best.  This is – obviously – in my opinion. Your tastebuds may vary.

#6 Sailor Chibi-Moon / Lychee Flavor

Of course, you’re saying. You loathe Chibi-Usa, Erica. But no!  That’s not it! I like lychee.

This was not lychee. There was maybe a lychee flavoring used, but the overwhelming flavor and scent was rose. This was straight-up like trying to drink your great-aunt’s perfume in soda form. Rose water soda. Honestly, this was the only one that was wholly undrinkable.

I guess using a rose floral scent was, like, “look how clever we are,” as a concept, but bleeeaaaarrrgh as a flavor.  It didn’t even smell that nice.

0/10

#5 Sailor Venus / Mango Flavor

What a disappointment. We are huge Minako fans in this house. She’s a got great chaotic bisexual energy that we adore. And mango! How can you ruin mango?

Friends, they ruined mango. This one tasted like laundry detergent.

When I popped it open, it instantly smelled like a new age store…you know, that sweet incensey-perfumey thing that wafts into all the books and stuff you buy there, so months later, your new Tarot bag still smells like sandalwood and…something? Mango soda should not taste like a New Age store, is all I am saying.

This was my biggest disappointment. I had hopes for mango. But you’ll see that almost all of these were ruined by a floral overtone that choked the life out of the fruit.

When we were discussing the sodas, my wife joked that Minako should be cheese flavored. By the time I finished this can, I thought it probably would have been better cheese flavored.

4/10

#4 Sailor Mars / Strawberry Flavor

So…strawberry soda. Well kind of know where that’s going. It’s a “kiddie” flavor.

And, indeed, this tasted like the kind of Captain Crunch Crunch Berries I ate as a kid, which were all pink and stained the milk pink and tasted – as I know now – of “strawberry flavor.” By the end of the can, the taste was something between Crunch Berry and strawberry syrup that goes over a Japanese strawberry parfait, with a floral scent that lost out to the strawberry.

It wasn’t terrible, but I wouldn’t want more and it was terrible with a cheeseburger. ^_^

5/10

#3 Sailor Mercury / Pear Flavor

This was the second one I tried and while I would have liked it to be less floral and more fruity, I thought this one wasn’t bad.

Because it was pear, there was that weird flatness to the the flavor that pear flavoring has that real pears do not, unless they are a cider, and then you get that flatness, as well.

Again, this would have been better but for the floral overtone that made it hard to enjoy and the abundance of HCFS which made it too sweet, as well, something that they all shared.

This and the strawberry are pretty much tied in the middle. They could have been better, but they weren’t terrible. Except they were all kind of terrible. ^_^;

5/10

#2 Sailor Jupiter / Cucumber Flavor

Yep, you read that right. Cucumber. So, this is totally YMMV. I like cucumber water. I find it refreshing. I…well, I just really like cucumbers pretty much any way they are served to me. So I was game for this and…it might have been really good, only it wasn’t.

The floral scent and the high-fructose corn syrup were at odds with the cucumber flavor. It made for a weird, but not intolerable combo, like cream soda with a cucumber aftertaste. My wife described it as tasting like a “face mask.”

Overall, I’d say do this one again, not sweet and it might actually be pretty good.

Which brings us to the winner…

6/10

#1 Sailor Moon / Pomelo Flavor

All the things that worked against the others…the floral scent, the too-sweetness…actually worked okay for this. Pomelo is a ridiculous fruit, that is 45% pith and never worth the effort of eating it.

As a flavor, it’s a sharp, soury citrus that worked well for a sweetened sparkling water. Of all of them, I’d drink this one again…if I was required to. On the whole, I’d rather have something else.

7/10

Thank you for joining me for today’s review. There are, apparently, Sailor Uranus (pineapple) and Neptune (kiwi) sparkling waters that are available in Taiwan, so as soon as I get a hold of them, I’ll be glad to share my impressions. ^_^

Sometimes I com across a book that, while outside of my normal area of study, is so mind-blowing, I really just want people to know about it. Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History, by Eike Exner is just such a book.

As a reader of Okazu, you’re probably familiar with orthodox manga history, tracing today’s modern sequential narrative art from Japan from early scrolls, through sketches of the Ukiyo-e period to (time jump) modern manga. In fact, I recently found a brand new history of manga which told that exact tale. Exner’s book stops the story and asks us to look – really look – at that time jump, and at one of the factors that shaped Japanese comicking into what we know today as manga.

The specific factor Exner focuses on is the shift from extradiagetic narrative, i.e., blocks of text – often literally-  outside the story that explain the story, to transdiagetic narrative tools like dialogue in speech balloons and sounds that both we and the characters in the story experience . Exner takes time to link together the influences from incredibly popular Western comics being translated in Japanese newspapers and magazines in the 1920s and 30s that jumpstarted the use of such tools in Japanese comics. He also discusses at length the word manga and again, covers the area that most modern manga histories gloss over, among which I include my own. ^_^

Exner is at great pains to carefully construct his argument. Again, like my own book, several of these chapters were presented or published elsewhere first, which means many of the most salient points are repeated, then built upon, until we can see how solid the scaffolding is to uphold the argument.

I found this book quite honestly fun to read; Exner’s voice is readable and friendly, with a sense of genuine conviction, rather than an argument that was made to be made. The illustrations not only helped seal the points, but I had great fun looking at the way Japanese lettering has morphed and shifted through the years. It was also quite eye-opening to see the evolution of what pop culture has considered “modern”… and, although Exner never says it, I dare say, “exotic.”

Ratings:

Overall – 9

If you have read all the conventional manga histories and are looking for something new and quite exciting in terms of manga history, I can highly recommend Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History, from Rutgers University Press!