Archive for the Ichigo Mashimaro Category


Ichigo Mashimaro Drama CD, Volume 5

January 6th, 2009

What does it say about my grasp of Japanese that I understand *more* when the characters get weirder? In the fifth Ichigo Mashimaro (苺ましまろ) Drama CD (available from both Amazon.co.jp and Amazon.com), our characters spend a great deal of time being weird.

Early on Chika creates a kind of mental TV channel out of their sitting around playing make-believe on which shows are played out during the rest of the DCD. These range from Nobue’s creation of a drama to an epic samurai story, in which Ana plays the female samurai who protects a miserable Matsuri, to at least two bathhouse scenes that I can think of, to randomly abusing Matsuri, because she’s very easy to abuse.

Chika spends most of the CD wondering how the hell she got here, although she plays along just fine with whatever ridiculous scenario Miu or Nobue has concocted, Nobue alternately attempts to be kind of cool and pervs after Ana and sort of half abuses, half protects Matsuri and, of course, the ringmaster of 80% of the madness is Miu. Matsuri spends the entire CD whining with occasional bonus sniveling.

As I said in the opening line, the weirder it all got, the more I followed it. When they all sit around just goofing, the language was mostly beyond my ability to follow. When they suddenly decide to do a Taiga drama, oh, *then* I have no trouble following – and heaven help me, when they are in the bath it’s all plain as day. Time to stab myself in the ears.

Ratings:

Story – There was a story?
Characters – 8 for everyone, especially Ana who really stood up to Nobue as gang boss and Miu as Miu, 2 for Matsuri who was wayyyy more annoying that usual.
Yuri – 5
Service- let’s see, 4 for each bath scene, 4 for Nobue perving, and an extra 4 for anything I missed, for a total of 20

Overall – 8

Today’s review was sponsored by the always fabulous Ana M., and my sincere thanks to her and all the Okazu heros out there!





Yuri News This Week – July 5, 2008

July 5th, 2008

This news report is 100% complete as of the time I typed it, but there are still plenty of Industry panels to come at Anime Expo, so expect more updates later on.

Yuri Anime

A second Ichigo Mashimaro OVA has been announced, so members of the “Cult of Miu” rejoice! (And look – I made us a badge. lol It’s crappy. I don’t care and I don’t see you making one, so shush, you.)

Funimation announced that they have picked up distribution rights for many Geneon and ADV anime properties including Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Murder Princess, and Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora, which was licensed (and already suspended) by ADV as Shattered Angels. Kyoshiro first volume was technically released and Volume 2 suspended, but I haven’t actually seen Volume 1 anywhere, so basically, we’re waiting for it from the beginning.

Nozomi/Right Stuf announced Gakuen Alice at their Expo Panel last night.

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Yuri Manga

Big news this week is that Kodansha is launching a Kodansha US office to release manga on their own. While everyone else is musing over how this will effect their Del Rey and other licenses, I have a completely different take on it. I think that Kodansha is about to run into the the uncomfortable truth that is the reality of the manga market here in the US. From various dealings in the industry, I think that a lot of the Japanese companies are under the impression that they can *sell* a lot more manga than they actually can. Here’s why.

In Japan, manga and anime are easily accessible by a large portion of the population on a weekly/monthly basis. Along with free TV release and weekly cheap manga mags, they are bombarded by a never-ending stream of advertising for product. When the tankoubon, the collections, come out, there is little advertising in them, because the stream of distribution *ends* at the tankoubon. In America, the distribution begins and ends at the tankoubon. There are very few anime that are easily accessible on free TV. Most of them are Shounen Jump titles, and not coincidentally, SJ is one of the few magazines that comes out regularly here. So those titles do really well in sales. But most of the other titles are printed, stuck on a shelf and have exactly zero advertising, promotion (other than licensing announcements) or recognition. Without an anime to beat the title into people’s heads, the actual number of people who will ever care about a non-anime title is going to remain low. And without weekly or monthly chapter of a manga to keep interest high, all you have is tankoboun on the shelves.

Here’s what I imagine happens. J Company thinks – we sell 30K tankoubon here of x title. If we assume a 2% audience in the US, we can assume 6000 books will sell. Which seems fair. Only…the amount they will actually sell might be 1500 – 2000. Because the American audience doesn’t have the constant stream of promotion and availability, so Joe Blow finds it easier – and cheaper – to grab a scan, or read a book in the bookstore. And another 25% of the potential audience has no clue about the title’s existence or availability at all.

I think that when Kodansha realizes that without a lot more advertising and a TV anime, their books really won’t do well no matter how popular they are, they will be surprised – and sad. In the meantime, let’s bombard them with letters asking for a translated version of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. We’ll only get two volumes before they pull it for lack of sales, but hey – that’s two volumes we didn’t have, right?

Which leads me to the next thing I wanted to mention – Seven Seas has put several of their Yuri series on hold, First Love Sisters among them. The stated reason is that sales were well below expectations and they didn’t break even. I could have told them that if they had asked. The Yuri audience is small, cheap and sales of 2000 are exceptional, not average or low. Personally, I can see Hayate x Blade failing in the exact same way because the ONLY promotion that title will get is me talking about it. Neither Seven Seas nor Tor is going to spend a cent telling people it exists, and it has no anime. Which is a damn shame, because it’s an awesome series which *could* be popular. But if your marketing plan is to print too many copies, send them anonymously to chain bookstores to disappear them among crowded, unlabeled shelves of manga…expect it to fail. You want people to buy it? You have to invest in promotion. Contests, ads, bookstore displays, more ads, ads in things other than your own books, like gaming magazines, and Giant Robot (an awesome Asian pop culture mag) and on websites. Did I mention promoting the effing hell out of it? Because otherwise, it’ll sell 1000 copies and once again you’ll wonder why. Jason, Adam – I mean you.

And as for you, Yuri audience. Buy the books, buy the anime. These companies spend $$$$ on *you*. Stop being a bunch of cheap bastards – and *still* complaining that there is no Yuri out there. Buy Yuri. From Infinity, from Seven Seas, from Tokyopop, from Yen Press, from Media Blasters, from ADV, from ALC Publishing. Stop complaining that there is none. There are many series at this point and you aren’t buying them. For god’s sake – stop whining and put your money where your whinging is. Please. Thank you.

(And if you *do* buy the anime and manga – thank you. Very, very much. Not just for myself, but for the artists and writers, directors, voice actors and publishers. Thank you.)

I found this news item to be kind of interesting in a “huh?” way – Aurora, the US imprint for Oozora Publishing, will be putting out a manga version of Hitohira. Since Aurora’s stuff is usually Ladies Comics and more adult stories, Hitohira seems an odd series for them. Guess we’ll see, huh?

And DMP has announced the license for the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS manga. I reviewed the first volume a while back. It was fun. Not particularly Yuri, but fun.

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Other Yuri News

I’ve been very good about not talking about this, since I was told about it. lol

Nozomi/RightStuf is going to be launching the full Maria-sama ga Miteru website soon and when they do, it will include a submission form to *ask Konno Oyuki-sensei questions*! How cool is that? You’ll have a chance to ask her good questions like “Will we see Yumi as Rosa Chinensis?” and fandumb questions like “Will Sachiko and Yumi ever kiss?” and thank her for providing us with hours of entertainment. I am so going to be putting questions up for her.

bystrouka tells us that both Blue Drop and Mnemosyne will be shown at the Paris Japan Expo this weekend. This is tantalizing, because we haven’t heard any licensing for these titles, but what is being shown is supposedly already licensed. Interesting, huh? bystrouka promises to report back!

And Polish anime/manga portal Tanuki now sports a Polish-language interview with Erica Friedman, thanks to Grisznak! Some of the questions were the usual, but some were pretty funny, so in case you are not a Polish reader, here is a link to the English-language version.

***

That’s it so far for the weekend, but expect more as more industry panel feeds come in. Media Blasters has said they they are holding their big announcements for Otakon, so I’ll see if I can get a preview of those to see of there’s anything relevant to our interests. :-)





Yuri Manga: Strawberry Marshmallow Volume 5 (English)

June 13th, 2008

I have a new personal rating system for “funny” books. Because really, and I know it’s me, most “comedy” leaves me staring blankly wondering what was so funny about that. My new rating is based on the number of times – preferably in public – that the funny thing makes me snort.

Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 5 is a three-snort book.

I was reading the English edition on the train yesterday and I have no doubt that the guy next to me was not made happy by the snorting and occasional fits of giggling. Too bad dude. Next time sit next to the lady with too much perfume.

Volume 5 is a “Best of Miu” book. If you are a member of the Cult of Miu (anyone want to make a graphic for us? I’ve got no time, and am in any case totally not a creative designer when it comes to fannish web graphics) you will need to get this volume.

In fact, it is my opinion that Volume 5 of Strawberry Marshmallow was single-handedly responsible for making this week not suck for me. Therefore it is with extra special appreciation that I thank Ted the Awesome for his sponsorship of today’s review.

So, in my original review of the Japanese edition of this volume, I focused primarily on the chapter that everyone is all zOMG! about, because Miu uses the word lesbian – but that is not why I focused on it. I focused on it because the emails between Chika and Miu made me snort with laughter. In English it is still the best chapter and the most snort-making. (It also has a weird translation thing that’s happened in every other volume. In this case it’s *Chika* who suddenly becomes British.)

What works best in this volume is those moments when the dynamic is between Miu and Chika. Matsuri is supposed to be cute, I guess, but comes off as nothing more than pathetic. Ana has somehow become Matsuri’s lady-in-waiting. And Miu points it out, too. Nobue is there for a few gags, but is not the focus of Miu’s obsession nearly as much as previously (although the one chapter where she is, is the first chapter I ever read of this series and, as a result, I am rather fond of it.)

But where previous volumes were all about Miu, this one has subtlely shifted to be about Miu and Chika. I approve. So much so that I wrote a fanfic about them. It will one day go up on “Worldshaking” Fanfic, where I keep all those little expressions of my otaku disease.

In the meantime, read Volume 5 right away and join the Cult of Miu – you know you want to…join us, join us~~!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 4 (Bunny ears, cat ears, playing dress up…in a magazine for adult men. So, yesh.)

Overall – 8

I originally scored it an overall 7, but I’m adding on the extra point for the third snort. I cannot wait until Ichigo Mashimaro 6 comes out – it has the greatest arc EVAR.





Yuri Manga: Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 4

November 28th, 2007

Hi Hi! Miu Matsuoka here, the most adorable of all girls in the entire world! Yay!

I’m supposed to thank some guy named Ted for something. Beats me why, and what kind of name is “Ted” anyway? Let’s call him…Greenie, no, wait, Bellboy! Thanks, Bellboy, for whatever it was that I was supposed to thank you for!

I’m here to tell you what Strawberry Marsmallow, Volume 4, is about, and since it’s obviously about *me*, you ought to appreciate my personal appearance.

First, some weirdo pervy saleman harrasses me and the others, and I had to teach him a lesson about being a freak near cute, innocent girls like me. And I managed to score a really nice case of makeup, too.

Then I explored my creative side with some awesome manga that I drew. (Aside from being cute and athletic, I am also incredibly talented as an artist. It’s hard to find such a rare genius as I.) Of course, because I’m way ahead of the curve artistically, no one was mature enough to appreciate my work. Pfft.

Matsuri had a really disturbed dream about me as a dog. I really worry about that girl. And then Chika thought she was getting fat. I helped her work it off with some sage advice about exercise. Nobue ruined it all by pointing out that Chika had gotten taller. Really, she’s a total joykill.

Chika totally needs to be a little more vain, because every time I write on her face, hours go by before she notices. ^_^

Nobue worries me too. Seriously. She’s always hanging out with me and the younger kids and she never seems to go out. I came up with a genius plan to get her to dress all girly and get ready for a date, just in case a guy should ever, one day, want to. Like that will ever happen.

Oh, this was a good one! Matsuri, Ana and Nobue went back to school to get Mats’ recorder. Chika and I tried to scare them, but Nobue totally got us back. It was awesome.

Then there’s some school life stuff. I slept through most of it, so it’s kind of boring.

And then we were all stuck inside and I tried to come up with some excellent amusement for Nobue and myself. Chika didn’t appreciate it. Man, that girl can deliver a beatdown when’s she’s mad.

In between all the great stuff I did, there were these questions and answers that we had to do. I was brilliant as usual. And you know what, Ana’s a super bore. Nobue really needs to look for a domestic beauty, such as myself.

Ratings:

Art – This is *me* we’re talking about! 10, at least. 11, since, me.
Story – Not bad, although there was a little too much Matsuri – 8
Characters – Me – 10, Nobue – 10, Chika – 9, Matsuri – 3, Ana – 2
Yuri – mmmm….I like Nobue, and Chika’s sort of my soulmate, but I swing both ways, so – 4
Service – like that pervy salesman guy? Ewww. – 5

Overall – The bits with me, 8, definitely

I think you should get this book and send me fanmail. But there’s no way I’m giving you my email or anything. Just contact my agent and don’t bother me with your drivel. I’m much too important to deal with the likes of you.





Ichigo Mashimaro Anime OVA 3

September 3rd, 2007

See, here’s the thing.

We all know that, in Ichigo Mashimaro. Miu has a crush on Nobue. It’s also obvious that it’ll never happen. (And not just ’cause Nobue is more interested in Ana and Matsuri. It just isn’t ever going to happen. Nobue and Miu are way too similar to work as a couple, even if everything else managed to work out.)

But recently, I have become convinced that – should everything else work out – Miu and Chika might, possibly work as a couple. But that really has nothing at all to do with Ichigo Mashmaro OVA 3. I just thought I’d mention it.

It’s spring. It’s an extended holiday and Chika really, really wants to go somewhere or do something special. Despite her protests, Nobue has just the thing – a free trip to a B&B in Izu. She’s not willing to help Chika or Miu, but when Ana and Matsuri say that they would go, off they go.

Of course, it’s not that easy. They get lost, they arrive, they take a bath, Nobue pervs, they forget ingredients with which to make dinner, they pillow fight and they stave off Miu’s particular brand of insanity throughout. The above picture takes place when, in the middle of the night, in a fight over Nobue’s favoritism towards Matsuri, Miu steals a kiss from Chika and attempts to take one from Ana to prove some kind of point to Nobue that no one really cares about.

In the end, the five girls have a nice holiday in Izu, and in a moment of unusual sensitivity, Nobue waxes nostalgic and a little poetic; which sends little sister Chika into hysterics, of course.

Then they get lost on the way home.

And we would watch this kind of nothing for hours if they let us.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 4 (bath, kissing….)

Overall – 8

Sean, you owe me a Miu x Chika story. I am fully prepared to follow you in the afterlife whining about it for all eternity if you do not finish it.