Archive for the Now This Is Only My Opinion Category


The Difference Between Things

January 3rd, 2010

Much of what goes on here at Okazu is me distilling long hours of thoughts about various things into semi-coherent posts. Today’s post is some more of that.

The Difference Between:

Service and Sexy

Service is, plain and simple, flashes of cheescake or beefcake that appeal to the Lowest Common Denominator in the audience. When the boys are ripped and the girls are busty, the majority of people who watch things for the images are “served” these to keep their attention.

Sexy is more complex. It may be as simple as secondary sexual characteristics prominently displayed, but it can be as sophisticated as personality, interests, pheromones and other less quantifiable qualities.

Let’s put it this way – if you’re talking about bust size of a fictional character then it’s service. Also kind of sad. :-)

Porn and Erotica

I’ve talked about this before. I have a working definition for the distinction. Porn is when there is an implicit recognition that there is a third party acting as voyeur. When the character in the doujinshi looks at you when s/he climaxes, it’s porn.

Erotica is when the characters are engaged in one another fully. The reader/watcher isn’t part of the story, either explicitly or implicitly. In this sense, erotica is more creepy than porn. lol

Engagement and Entitlement

Engagement is when a fan wants to be part of the series they love. They engage in the series enough to want to create work related to it, or cosplay the character, or even, yes, translate the story if it’s not licensed.

However, when that engagement turns negative, it turns into entitlement. Entitled fans would prefer legit companies go broke, so they can get their entertainment for “free,” since they aren’t the ones losing money. Entitlement often begins with the words, “There ought to be….” or “Why can’t they just…?”

Pretty Boys (Bishounen) and Pretty Girls (Bishoujo)

Pretty boys are cool and show it by being mean and uncaring. Pretty girls want to help and show it by putting up with pretty boys. Pretty boys are ambiguous, tortured and inconsistent to the point of having split personalities. Pretty girls are submissive and will never tell pretty boys to fuck off already.

Japanese Fans and American Fans

Japanese fans are used to being part of groups. They want to show their loyalty to the seiyuu, the studio, the writer, the series they love. They will stand in line for hours to get rare items, they will spend money to get stamps to get the limited edition giveaway. Japanese fans are more disciplined and polite, but since they keep quiet, they are kind of “creepy” creepy.

American fans are younger than Japanese fans, not particularly interested in showing loyalty, or caring about the larger group. They will cheerfully buy or download bootlegs if they don’t have money to buy the items legitimately – and will argue that because they wouldn’t have bought it anyway, then it’s not really stealing. American fans are loud, obnoxious, run around waving weapons in crowded hallways and are obviously having lots of fun buying junk.

Audience and Market

Audience is the number of people who say they like a thing. Market is the number of people who will buy that thing to actually support it.

In terms of Yuri, the audience may be thousands and thousands of people – but the market is a tiny percentage of that. If a company spends 10K to get a book out and makes 6K in sales, that’s just not sustainable. Publisher margins are *small* even in mass market publishing. In manga, they are ridiculously small. In Yuri, there’s still just not that many people buying the books. Sure, 10,000 people might be willing to download a scan – i.e., the audience, but maybe only 1500 of those will be the market and buy the book they say they like.

Objective and Subjective

There is no difference. Unless there are agreed upon universal measurements (say, temperature or weight) there is nothing truly objective.

Everyone’s perception is subjective. Objective is a word that is used by people who disagree with you to convince themselves that you are wrong. ;-)

***

What other differences between things can you think of?





Top Ten Yuri of 2009

December 31st, 2009

We’ve had plenty of build-up, let’s jump right in to

The Okazu Top Ten Yuri of 2009

10) Hayate x Blade & Maria-sama ga Miteru

Neither series is heavy on Yuri, but they are heavy on everything else that makes a story compelling. The Yuri is merely the spicy mentaiko on the top for flavor. ;-)

Hayate shows that manga can be dorky good fun without losing anything in translation and Marimite shows that shoujo can be profitable even in anime, now can we *please* just accept that and move on? Both Seven Seas and RightStuf have shown us repeatedly that there *is* a successful way to balance fandom needs and market forces.

There’s still more of both on the way for 2010, so we can look forward to a few more hours in the company of what I consider to be some of the best characters in anime and manga today.

9) Morishima Akiko

Morishima-sensei is not on this list for her art, really. She’s here because she is pushing hard to bring stories of adult women who love women into the Yuri world. In her most recent collection, Rui-iro Yume, she says specifically that she asked the editors at Ichijinsha if she could drawn more stories about adults. The fact that that is still revolutionary is both annoying and enthralling. lol (“You got your lesbians in my Yuri!” “Well you got your Yuri in my lesbian manga!”)

I look forward to a 2010 filled with Yuri – with actual lesbians – because of Morishima-sensei.

8. Octave

I’ve already said everything I had to say about this series in the Top Ten Yuri Manga list. It’s about adult women, it’s real and realistic, it hurts when it’s supposed to and feels good when it’s supposed to. More great characters…another great Yuri title.

7. Twitter/Okazu Readers

Twitter was the rising star on the manga/anime stage this year. It got off to a bang with great manga journalists leading the way and hasn’t slowed down since. It is *the* place to be for intelligent manga and anime conversation. Even more importantly, it’s blurred the boundaries between the Japanese Yuri community and the American one. A space that is egalitarian, open for global communication and on 24/7 – Twitter may be the field of gold for us Yuri fans. ;-)

I mention my Okazu Readers nearly every year and every year it bears repeating – YOU make my Top Ten List once again. You challenge me, you support me, you are my heroes (sometimes, my villians,) you make me laugh, you are the reason I bother. For everything you have do, are doing and will do, you make my Top Ten Yuri of the year.

6. Crunchyroll

I know that Crunchyroll is not universally loved. I know that European Yuri fans, particularly, often feel left out by them. However, in 2009, Crunchyroll made a concerted effort to promote, support and provide Yuri anime to an English-speaking audience. They didn’t hide it, or pretend it was something else than it was; they put it out there as Yuri and promoted it to the Yuri – and lesbian – audience.

I should probably note that it this is the second conflict of interest on the list for me, but I don’t care – even without me, Crunchyroll is promoting Yuri. That should be worth *something* and in this case, it’s worth 6 on my Top Ten. :-)

5. Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan

This series had an obscure beginning in a not-well-known Yuri doujinshi anthology, and appeared more as an element in other series than as its own entity for years.

Then, all of a sudden, it was a thing! There was a whole story, with a beginning, a middle and a (somewhat inevitable) end. It has its own spin-off, “Pink Princess” and Drama CDs and finally, a whole collected volume of work, with more to come. I’m an unrepentant Fujieda fangirl, with a fetish for his calendar art. :-) I was so happy to get this volume and all the Drama CDs (whee!) that it made number 5 on this year’s list!

4. Yuri Hime/ Yuri Hime S

I don’t love everything Ichijinsha does. In fact, I’m pretty critical of a lot of it. Beyond the service and the moe there is, all too often, stuff that makes me feel downright icky. But there is no doubt that the money and effort Ichijinsha has put behind it’s two Yuri publications, the book signings, the advertising in their other magazines and their promotions at Comiket, are working. They are slowly, surely increasing the size of what will always be a niche of a niche.

For all their efforts, for all that they have done and for the pleasure 8 times a year of reading Yuri Hime and Yuri Hime S, Ichijinsha and their Yuri magazines are Number 4 this year.

3. Sasamekikoto

I wrote a while back that Umberto Eco defined anything as “literature” that escaped the confines of its original media. In a sense, any successful manga series is forced to do that, as the company seeks to expand the franchise. Drama CDs, toys, anime, all push the manga further along into the realm of literature, as long as the audience buys in.

I really wasn’t sure the audience would buy in with this series. It was a bit too self-consciously “for the fans.” It was a bit annoying, a bit hopeless. But with the advent of an anime, in which the comedy (especially the physical comedy) translated well, and the following expansion into anything the company could expand it into, Sasamekikoto has moved a little closer to “literature” than it was at the beginning of the year. Will it stand the test of time – I rather think not. But it certainly made a splash this year, and so it’s #3 on this year’s list.

2. Aoi Hana

Let’s be honest, shall we? I’m biased. Where Sasamekikoto is a parody and a comedy, Aoi Hana is a romantic drama that is serious, without taking itself seriously. It can lighten up and laugh, too. Where Sasamekikoto is written by a man for an audience of men, Aoi Hana is written by a woman for an audience of…whoever. I’m biased, yes.

I enjoy Sasamekikoto, but I think Aoi Hana is “Art.” Quietly drawn, beautifully rendered into anime, even the music is appealing to me. For me, Aoi Hana was “literature” when it was born, before anime and Drama CD pushed it into new media. Once again, I’m moved by a character-driven manga. Shocker. :-) Moved enough to call Aoi Hana the second best Yuri of the year.

Which leaves us with only one thing left that could be better.

My Number 1 Yuri of 2009 is….

1. Gunjo

It didn’t make the Manga list only because it wasn’t collected. I still believe that one day you too will be able to read this story. You might not like it as much as I did, probably not, because my “like” for it is inexpressible.

This intense story of a woman escaping an abusive life accompanied by a woman who threw *everything* away to be with her, is…indescribable. I have never, ever read anything like it.

It’s dark, it’s ugly, it’s violent and dysfunctional. It’s beautiful, sublime and magnificent. In the middle of ridiculous unreality, it’s totally real. Surrounded by pain and suffering is tenderness. It’s about love and not about love, all at the same time.

Gunjo blasted into my world with the manga equivalent of a serious beatdown. I never quite recovered and I keep coming back for more. :-)

Gunjo is my absolute Best Yuri of 2009…and possibly, Ever.

***

And with that, we bring this amazing year of Yuri to a close.

I wish you all a happy, healthy New Year!





Top Ten Yuri Anime of 2009

December 27th, 2009

I probably should have put this disclaimer on the Top Ten Manga of 2009 too, but I always assume that my readers understand that this list is *my opinion*. If you see a series you disagree with, or don’t see one you like, then the answer to your question is, “Because I have a different opinion than you do.”

Also, for various reasons I’ve just combined the list into one again, like I did with Manga. I’ll note whether something is available in English, Japanese or both.

And with those restatement of the obvious disclaimers, here’s MY Top Ten Yuri Anime of 2009!

10. To Aru no Kagaku no Railgun (Japanese)

The Yuri in this series is meant as a joke. It’s played as perverted, as over-the-top-uncontrollable, as laughably embarrassing and pointless. Pretty much everything Yuri was in most anime for the last 30 years – a veritable step back into the “blackface” era of Yuri.

But.

Kuroko was in all ways a wonderful person; reliable, intelligent, loyal and friendly. Her feelings for Misaka were, wayyyyyy deep down past the layers of hopeless pervy-ness, probably real.

And frankly, who cares? Railgun was a fun anime with some crappy characteristics and some good ones. It was entertaining, which is why I watch entertainment. So, step back into hopeless, psycho lesbian urges, yes, but it still makes the list at Number 10.

9. Maria Watches Over Us, Season 3 (Japanese & English)

Sachiko would recognize Yumi, even in a panda suit.

8. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha/ Nanoha As (Japanese & English)

I’m really sorry that these series didn’t do better here. There’s some issues with the fandom that I wish we could resolve with fire and pain but, below the icky service and tiresome loli, there was an awesome series with the beginnings of a wonderful couple.

For those moments of off-stage quiet, when you can imagine Fate and Nanoha flying together for the sheer fun of it, and for a future Pluffy BedTM that we didn’t get to see licensed, but we know is there, this is my Number 8 anime series for the year.

7. Candy Boy (Japanese)

I stopped watching it after 5 episodes, so I have no idea if it got to a place where I would have actually thought it “good,” but that’s not why Candy Boy is on the list. Clearly, Yuri fandom liked it. That’s a truism. But what was most interesting and important about it is that it showed that an ONA – Original Online Animation has a future in Japan, where fans will pay. Will it ever be a realistic model in the west is still a bit up in the air. But, for changing the way Japanese anime companies think about things – and maybe paving the way for a new wave of short, original works – it makes Number Seven.

6. Kanamemo (Japanese & English)

Good heavens, there were some really crappy things in this series. lol But setting aside an elementary school age manager and a mopey protagonist and everything about Haruka, Kanamemo presented us with quite possibly the single most realistic established lesbian couple in anime this year – maybe ever – Yume and Yuuki. They are presented with a surprising amount of empathy, romance and love. They kiss. We don’t see, but we know, that they they sleep together. Above all, they are treated as an established couple by the people around them.

I couldn’t say it was a “good” anime, but Yuuki and Yume are definitely a great couple.

5. Saki (Japanese & English)

I’d seen this manga on the Japanese Yuri lists forever when the anime began – and my first impression was, “uh, yeah, okay.” Sure Saki and Nodoka, sitting in a tree….but, once we got the other schools into the mix, the Yuri rating took off. I know that I’m in a minority, but I still think Momo and Yumi were the best couple of the series. :-)

4. Blue Drop (Japanese & English)

This may well be the last thing I’ll ever like by Yoshitomi Akihito. It’s true that the anime tromps all over the same tropes he’s beaten to death over the last few years, but aside from the Dead Lesbian and the Psycho Lesbian, and the school girls and hopeless romances, this prequel to the Blue Drop manga stands strong as a fascinating “clash of cultures romance.” Still holds the record for the best pickup line ever too.

Are you getting excited? This is where I always get a little doki-doki….

3. El Cazador (Japanese & English)

I love Bee Train’s Girls With Guns On The Run trilogy. I’ve loved all of the series for themselves and love them all together as a series. I’m still a bit over the moon that we actually have all *three* series on DVD in English. It’s kind of amazing – like an alternate universe in which stuff I like actually gets licensed in the US. Catch me, I’m feeling woozy….

There’s no question that this series, as it’s sister series in the past did, would make my Top Ten list but, because I love Ellis’ “Yes, sir!” and Nadie’s “Yuigon attara, dozo” and above all I love Ellis who loves Nadie when her eyes are shining, this series makes Number Three.

2. Sasamekikoto (Japanese & English)

I didn’t expect this series to translate as well as it did to anime, but…wow, it did! And I didn’t expect people to like it, especially folks who weren’t familiar with Yuri tropes, like Aoi’s Loser Fangirlyness or Sumika’s hopless love for her best friend but, amazingly, it transcended tropes and communicated directly with viewers’ hearts.

Sasamekikoto marks the first time an anime has been seen on several high-profile lesbian entertainment sites, and the second time Afterellen.com has carried a Yuri anime. It also marks the truly significant fact that Crunchyroll has made a conscious and conspicuous effort to support and promote Yuri Anime. Heck – they even have a Yuri kisses contest. lol

For all these many reasons, and for others I haven’t thought of, but you probably have, Sasamekikoto is my Number Two anime of the Year.

And finally, probably no surprises here…

Aoi Hana (Japanese & English)

It was…beautiful. It was quiet and gentle and real. It was lovingly animated, it was extremely well-adapted from the manga – perhaps slightly better than the manga in places.

It had characters I could wish over for lunch, and a storyline that resonated as one of the absolutely most realistic portrayals of a young woman in love with another woman ever seen in an anime.

It had an Opening sequence that made us smile.

It simulcast in many English-speaking countries an hour after it ran on Japanese TV.

It is, finally, what we have never before had – a gateway Yuri anime.

There was never any question in my mind as I watched this all-too-short season that Aoi Hana was the absolute best Yuri Anime of 2009.

***

I only hope that I can wish 2010 be as good, because besting this is going to be hard. :-) And crichey – look at how much of it came out in English!

One more list to go – check back on New Year’s Eve for my Top Ten Overall.

And once more I end with the question – what was YOUR Top Yuri Anime of the year? Tell me in the comments!





Top Ten Yuri Manga of 2009

December 22nd, 2009

Here we are once more, looking back at a year that is never going to end fast enough. lol

This year has been pretty special in a lot of ways both good and bad but, in terms of Yuri – it’s been pretty darn good. The odd-year Yuri phenomenon hit once more and this time we were practically *inundated* with good, bad and indifferent Yuri series. Yay us!

One of the striking differences for me, as I started to work on my Top Ten Lists, was that for the very first time since I began this (somewhat tedious) round-up of the year, the Top Ten Anime list was easier to build than the Top Ten Manga. Not because there wasn’t good manga, mind you – there was actually too much manga – but for once we had more than enough anime to choose from.

I can see another striking difference, but I’m going to wait until the very end to explain. See if you can see it too, as you read the list.

Because the English-language picks in manga this year were, with only a few exceptions, utterly lame, I’ve combined my Japanese and English picks into one consolidated list.

Let’s all take a deep breath – here we go!

10. Gunsmith Cats Burst Volumes 4 & 5 (Japanese & English)

We knew it, didn’t we? Despite the disclaimer in Misty’s bio, we always knew she had the hots for Rally. And sheesh, how obvious was Goldie’s obsession? But mostly, we knew all along that Rally’s gay and just more in love with her car and her guns than with any other human. Sonoda finally, finally got around to showing the world what we always knew – Rally Vincent is a lesbian magnet – and what we guessed – she’s a damn good kisser, too. lol

9. Hayate x Blade (Japanese & English)

I’m besotted with this series for any number of reasons. I’m well aware that it’s actually pretty low on the Yuri scale, with only Jun playing overtly for our team, and everyone else stuck in akogare or shinyuu space. But hell, it’s about sisters-in-arms fighting for their pride, their lives and their loved ones. It’s about guts and glory and reaching for the stars. It’s basically the one manga that makes me laugh, cry, laugh and snort in like, 4 panels. And it makes me want to hit the lottery so I can start a high school just like Tenchi Academy and become Hitsugi. lol

It’s really my favorite series in English or Japanese. It’s number 9 on this year’s list.

8. Linkage/Butterfly 69 (Japanese)

One of the things I look for in collected volumes is variety. I want shiny stories, and silly stories, and moving stories, and passionate stories. I want a creator to show off their art skills and their writing skills. Both of these collections have exactly those qualities I look for. There’s depth even though the stories are short, there’s variety of personality and voice. These collections have young women dealing with their first love and older women dealing with their true love.There’s passion in the story telling, and sometimes in the story itself. They are a delightful mix of everything – just the way I like it.

7. Tsubomi/Comic Lily/Shoujo Yuri/Yuri Hime/Yuri Hime S/Yuri Monogatari (Japanese & English)

Good heavens – 6 Yuri anthologies in one year. I’m…flabbergasted. It’s a landslide of Yuri, from brand new artists, from established artists, from well-known doujinshi artists that have never been seen by the “mainstream” audience before. I don’t know what the next 5 years will bring, but 2009 brought as close to an explosion of Yuri as we’re likely to see for a while. Wow. Let’s wallow in all the companies that see Yuri as an area for expansion – and let’s let them know that there’s an overseas market by buying their books!

6. Papaya Gundan (Japanese)

This manga was a sleeper hit for me. It came out of nowhere, told a story I hadn’t read seventy-five thousand times already, the girl got the girl – even asked her to marry her – and the alternative family built from the affection the hostess bar workers have for each other wins. There’s no way you’re likely to see this any time soon in English, but if you can read Japanese, it’s a surprising, fun read.

5. Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan (Japanese)

Squee. Seriously. Only Fujieda has the magic to make me squee over something so moe. Another story about an adult and the young woman who loves her, with a slow, slow, slow relaxed pace that make me feel at ease – just like a good cup of tea. I’m in no rush at all for Sarasa and Seriho to get together because I’m enjoying them being clueless. lol All I ask is that when they do get together, I want a massive cross-over with all of Fujieda’s characters, darnit. (Like there’s a chance that that won’t happen…! lol)

4. Sasamekikoto (Japanese)

Where Maria+ Holic took the typical tropes of Yuri and stomped all over them with jackboots, Sasamekikoto presents them with humor – not afraid to poke and tease, but subtle enough to know when to stop. It’s a comedy, it’s a drama, and it’s nowhere near resolved. I’m interested to see where this series takes Ushio and Sumi. It transfered much better than I expected to anime, as a bonus. :-)

3. Hanjuku Joshi/Girl Friends (Japanese)

For most fans of “Yuri” right now, there are two indomitable names – creators who have forged their own path in the genre when there was barely a genre to create in. Morinaga Milk and Morishima Akiko both have transformed the Yuri landscape over the years. These two series are gently, but irrevocably, shifting the boundaries of Yuri into realistic story-telling about women in love with women. Like a Yuri glacier, they’ve told our stories – our real stories – about fear, and loss, and hope and love.

It’s my sincere pleasure to put these two series at Number Three and I hope that one or both will one day make it over the ocean to these shores soon.

2. Aoi Hana (Japanese)

Like the above names, Shimura Takako’s name would have to be added to the Yuri Hall of Fame. The anime sort of overtook the manga in the news and in the discussions, but this manga series is still magnificent. There’s a real story in here, told beautifully, sensitively, about a girl you can imagine you know and about her dealing with her feelings for other girls. It’s about the friends and people around her that care about her and support her, and the people whose lives she affects. It’s a gentle story that doesn’t shy away from harsh reality and bad decisions, but always comes back to a place of simple pleasure in friendship. Like the old school buildings Fumi falls in love with, I’ve fallen a bit for Fumi and her friends and I’m glad to return over and over to what I consider to be the second best series of the year.

IMHO, the Number One best Yuri Manga of the year was…

1. Octave (Japanese)

I don’t know where to begin with this series. It’s…spectacular. I get angry, I laugh, I cry, I wait patiently for Yukino to become her own person.

It’s about sex and love and attraction and affection. Both of the leads are adult women, arguably both of them are bisexual, which is remarkable in a serious manga. The relationship between them is real and lovely. This would make a stellar live-action drama.

I can’t think of a better series to offer up as consideration to any company that might want to bring a really excellent Yuri series over here. Targeted towards adults, who are the ones who actually *buy* manga these days, Octave would rock the josei manga world if someone let it.

For all these things Octave is my Top Yuri manga series of 2009.

***

So, did you see the striking difference? In seven spots out of ten at least part of the story included an adult woman in love with another woman. Think about it….think about how amazing that is compared to past years which were all schoolgirls, all the time. Sure, there’s still plenty of school girls and you know, that’s okay. It’s just cool to note that slowly, Yuri is starting to look a little like stories about and by lesbian and bi women.

Feel free to join the Top Ten fun and add your nominations for #1 manga series of the year in the comments – I look forward to reading your thoughts!





New Round of "Utter Nonense!"

December 10th, 2009

It’s that time again! Yes! Time for you to send in your questions about whatever and put up with my answers of “whatever.” :-)

For this next round of Utter Nonsense we’re going to have a few simple rules:

1) I will not answer questions about “what is your favorite….” anymore. They distress me, because I don’t *have* favorites, usually.

2) No “ham or cheese” or “Coke or Pepsi” questions. Please. They provide no entertainment to either you or me.

3) If you want to ask me what I see as the future of Yuri or why I like Yuri, I beg you to read all the previous iterations of my answers to these questions. If you have a real question about Yuri that I have not previously addressed, bring it on!

4) Please, please, no questions that can be answered by 30 seconds of actually READING one of my reviews here. (Sorry first question person – I’ve answered that three volumes worth. Search for the title here, or click the “Morinaga Milk” category on the righthand sidebar.)

5) And no “define the term” questions. Go here: http://okazu.blogspot.com/2008/03/okazu-glossary-of-terms.html. I did that already.

As always, I’ll do my best to answer most or all of the questions. I may combine similar questions, or decline altogether if it’s just something mean-spirited or weird.

Above all, funny questions tend to allow for funny answers, so be creative!

You can email me questions or put them in the comments here. I look forward to seeing what you have for me this time!