Archive for the Maria-sama ga Miteru Category


Yuri News This Week – November 15, 2008

November 15th, 2008

Away we go!

Yuri Anime

Mediaworks has announced a Strawberry Panic anime box set in Japan. It’s not out of the pale to think that we might see one for the English release as well one day.

Right Stuff has announced a slightly delayed release date for the second season box set of Maria Watches over Us. Now it’s slated to hit the streets on December 9, 2008. And they’ve given us an initial release date of February 24, 2009 for the third season, the OAV box set!

Katherine shares news about an upcoming anime called Queen’s Blade, which will include women fighting in bikini-like battle armor for the approval of the Queen. (I’m kind of loosely summarizing there, lol). In any case, she thinks we’ll find it relevant to our interests and there’s plenty of Yuri-service for those as who find that good enough. :-)

Winterbraid has weighed in to let folks know that the third volume of El Cazador de la Bruja hit the European market without fanfare – or indeed, without promotion of any kind. I want to take a moment to include some of Winterbraid’s review here, because no only do I sympathize, I think it’s worth reading:

Unfortunately, the release leaves much to be desired. The translation
goes down the toilet right from the start of this volume, and doesn`t
get much better towards the end; I have caught a typo in the polsub that
would for sure give any of my former language teachers a heart attack,
and the characters mostly use language you`d expect from a
half-illiterate person.

[nag]
I don’t get it; Polish is in my opinion one of the most beautiful and
poetry-friendly languages in the world (not that I know that many
languages, mind you ^-^;), yet most translators write as if they`d
stopped their education at elementary school level. (Although I remember
being able to write way better than that in the elementary school.) It
makes me recall a very wise sentence, which says that a person doing
translations doesn`t need to know the language of the original work
perfectly; however, they must excel at the language they are translating
into. Sadly, the majority of translations indicate that the reverse is
more often the case. :/
[/nag]

Gerdub doesn`t fail at life any less than it did previously;
unfortunately, I listened to quite a bit of it, `cause Mplayer went on
strike and VLC switched to gerdub by default on every new track. >_Maybe it`s just me, but even the postcards in this volume seem a bit
weird. The cover is Ellis and Nadie with cat ears, the inside is the bad
guys on one page and Lilio on the other, and the DVD label is E/N in
waitress uniforms;

LOL, we sympathize on those dub issues, Winterbraid!

Winterbraid also wants us to know that the Murder Princess OAV is available in a single box set in Europe. A bit pricey, we’re warned, but hey – it’s all in one.

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Yuri Manga

Silapa is proud to announce that the CoYuHi forums have launched their original Spanish-language Yuri Project manga. Good luck to them!

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Yuri Contests

Just as a reminder, Okazu is holding a special Hayate x Blade contest. Entries will be accepted until November 30, so entertain me and get a copy of HxB for yourself or for a library near you!

Johann writes in to let us know that not only is there a spiffy Maria Watches Over Us poster in this issue of OtakUSA magazine, but they are holding a contest as well! The current giveaway, Johann says, includes two Marimite S1 DVD box sets. Nice.

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Yuri Artbook

Johann also pointed out Flamboyant artbook by Ugestu Hakua, the artist for Burst Angel, (aka Bakuretsu Tenshi,) has been translated and released by DMP. He tells us that the first half of the book is all BA pictures, so if you ever wanted Meg, Jo, Amy and Sei-who–is-not-named-Beth in full color, here’s your chance! Great catch, Johann!

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I think that’s everything for today. My continued thanks to the folks who write in with tidbits (or, perhaps I should use the British alternative for that?) and news items for us all! Please feel free to send any news you come across of Yuri interest and I’ll share it with everyone. :-)





This Week in Yuri – October 25, 2008

October 25th, 2008

It’s been very exciting this week – let’s get right to the good stuff!

Yuri Manga

Kodansha has announced that they are releasing three issues of their Morning 2 magazine online for free. You’ll need to download their online reader, but it is also free. You’ll see all sorts of news how this gets you Saint Oniisan and Peepo choo but, who cares about those absolutely brilliant, quirky, manga series when this means you can finally read the equally quirky, brilliant and Yuri Gunjou!!!! And you *need* to read it. Dark, brutal, dysfunctional Yuri that transcends anything else the genre has ever offered. (And for once, the lesbian character is actually a lesbian.) Issues 14, 15 and 16 of Morning 2 will each be released as the next print issue hits the shelves. Gunjou is a shoo-in for my number one spot at the end of this year. It’s absolutely breathtaking. (Morning 2 is a Japanese magazine, written in Japanese. “Gunjou” has not yet come out in a collection, nor is it licensed. Please, I beg you, do NOT ask me if it’s available in English or when the tankoubon is coming out. No, and I don’t know.)

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Yuri Games

Keep forgetting to mention this, there’s a new Yuri game for PS2 in Japan called ‘ppoi. Now, let me be honest here – I know nothing about this game, and am skeptical as to its actual Yuri content. It’s about a couple of high school girls and you and I both know that means that if two touch, or perhaps look into each others’ eyes, the hordes will call it Yuri. OTOH, who knows. It might actually have some snatches of Yuri. Guess someone’ll have to play it and tell us! ^_^

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Yuri Events

Kyouka wrote in to let us know that there will be a new Yuri event in Japan this coming February (so you have plenty of time to plan a trip!) The event is called the Girls Love Festival. The event is held in Tokyo on February 1, from 2:30PM – 4:30 in Itabashi-ku, Tokyo. 100 circles will participate. If you missed Maiden’s Garden, can’t make it to Comiket, and don’t want to wait and see if there’ll be another Yuriket, this is your big chance to score a pile of Yuri doujinshi!

And, while not specifically Yuri, I think it’s worth mentioning that tomorrow is “Wonder Woman Day III” – held in Portland, Oregon and Flemington, NJ, with proceeds going to benefit domestic violence shelters. I’d cut and paste the press release, but it’s like a mile long, so here’s the basics:

Wonder Woman Day III (Portland)
Sunday, October 26, 2008 – 12noon-6pm, FREE
Excalibur Comics, 2444 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, Oregon

Wonder Woman Day III (New Jersey)
Sunday, October 26, 2007 – 12noon-5pm, FREE
Comic Fusion, 42 Main St., Flemington, New Jersey

Additionally, I’d like to point out that Comic Fusion is co-owned by Yuricon staffer and a very good friend of mine, Stacy. So, yes, I’m totally biased when I say you should absolutely go down there – it’ll be a blast!

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Yuri Anime

Eric blows the horn on the good news – Funimation has announced that fan request has trumped strategic business model and they *will* be releasing the final volumes of Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK and some other anime that I can’t remember off the top of my head and am too lazy to go look up. lol So if you, like me, have collected 5 of the 6 DVDs, you will not be forced to buy a 3-disk box just to complete the collection. Now it’s up to us to actually go *buy* those Volume 6s and make it worth their time, or next time they aren’t going to bother listening to us.

(This news item came in a few days later:) Eric promises that this is the last time he’ll mention it, but that Funimation has put up a limited pre-order for Red Garden 6. (Which, oddly, was what I suggested they do. I have no doubt that they came up with it on their own, it would be bizarre if they took my suggestion. lol) Anyway, he points out that if we don’t want to seem like a bunch of morons, NOW would be the right time to run out and pre-order that disk. lol Thanks for the heads up, Eric!

And thanks to everyone (whose numbers are too great to count) who wrote in with the the answer to the question – yes, Right Stuf is blessing us with more goo-gaws for pre-orders of the second season of Maria Watches Over Us. This time, we are being gifted with a White Rose phone strap. Naturally, we will now all expect and demand the Yellow Rose phone strap for the Third set, the OAV season. :-) I wonder if our phones will hold all these? Incidentally, I found a picture of the Japanese versions of the phone straps. I expect that they were more expensive and down’t ship flat and neatly as the ones we get. I’m not complaining, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that we get anything!

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Yuri Novels

Thanks to Kasuga for letting me know that there is a Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou novel. I can’t wait to add it to the pile of Japanese novels I have sitting here, mocking me, taunting me, while I don’t read them.

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I think all that’s enough to hold us a week, don’t you? :-)





Yuri News This Week – October 11, 2008

October 11th, 2008

Not my best week ever, that’s for sure. Yesterday, on my first day not working, I decided to catch up on yard work that had gone undone for 4 months. (Getting a lawn service in around here is like pulling teeth. My backyard is teeny and unruly and not worth their time, apparently.) Just as I finished the first thing I had to do, I landed wrong on my leg and fell with a dislocated knee. Yep. So now, instead of spending this week cleaning up the yard and house and generally setting my life in order, I’m sitting here on the sofa with my leg in a brace. Sigh. But on to better things!

Yuri Anime

Eric P writes in to let you all know that Media Blasters is releasing a Kashimashi ~ Girl Meets Girl box set. I’m glad that they are. It makes sense for short-run anime. The folks at MB tell me that other box sets are not out of the question. No promises or hints, just that it’s not out of the question for other Yuri series.

The Pre-order for the 2nd season of Maria Watches Over Us (originally titled Maria-sama ga Miteru ~ Haru) is now up on the Yuricon Shop! The second season is coming out next month. (Wonder if they’ll give us a fun freebie this time, too?)

ashi reminds us that Lyrical Nanoha Season 1 boxes are slated to come out in November. Keep your eyes open for that – and for news of the new Nanoha movie, the character designs for which have already caused controversy among people with very little else to do. lol

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Other Yuri News

Interviews are flying thick and fast these days. Catch a completely different sort of interview with me at Comics Structuralist, where I was asked questions that focused more on the sociological ramifications of Yuri than on the usual “so, how did you get into Yuri?” type things I usually get.

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Yuri Events

Once more plugging MangaNEXT where Rica Takashima will be doing an Aozora Art Project that you – yes *you* – can participate in.

Feeling Much Better Through Manga Art

There are times when we are too busy or too shy to say “thank you” or “I’m sorry” to the people who deserve to hear how we really feel. Once the moment is lost, it is usually gone forever. In “Feeling Much　Better Through Manga Art,” members of the public get a chance to turn those lost moments and unexpressed sentiments into works of art. Participants write their apologies or appreciations on life-sized dialogue balloons, and then posed for portraits by Aozora Art staff. These pictures are incorporated by Rica Takashima into unique, one-page manga book stories, thus transforming the participant into the protagonist in his or her own visual storyline, and their message into a therapeutic fusion of personal expression and contemporary art. People of all ages can use this opportunity to express a whole range of thoughts and feelings, from the poignant to the profound. So please visit Rica in the Artist Alley and make your own manga story!

Join Rica, Yuri artist Jess B, myself and the usual cast of Yuricon characters in the Artist Alley at MangaNEXT from 10/31 – 11/2 in Somerset, NJ. It’s going to be a blast. :-)





Yuri Anime: Maria Watches Us, Volume 4 (English)

September 28th, 2008

If you were among the many that ran out the first second you heard that Maria Watches Us was available in box set, it’s likely that you did so more for this one volume than for the rest of the series. Because saying you like Sei is, as we all know, like saying the sky is blue. :-) (Which, by the way, was part of one of the questions I sent in to Konno Oyuki-sensei last month when Right Stuff opened that form for us. I thought she ought to know that we say that.)

And here we are, arrived at *last* at the zOMG! official release of “Forest of Briars” (as Right Stuf translated it) in the US. Surely I am not the only person who thought that we would never, ever see that.

In the winter of her 17th year, Sei suffered a parting that was very painful, she relates to us in the opening.

Yumi overhears classmates talking about Rosa Gigantea, and then rumors of a book begin to filter though the school. A book, she later reads and finds to be about two students at Lillian who attempted suicide to be together. Yumi finds out that Sei’s past includes some kind of situation that makes it a likelihood that she is the author of the book!

Sei’s honesty is pretty stark, and she admits to having been in a situation that’s pretty similar to the one in the book. Neither Yumi nor Yoshino seem particularly surprised to learn that Sei fell in love with another student. Yoshino’s biggest concern is that Sei might have been hurt, so she decides to find out who wrote the book, only to learn that it was a memory of a distant past and nothing, except by coincidence, to do with Sei.

It’s hard to imagine, having seen only the teasing, openly grope-y Satou Sei, that there was a time when she was withdrawn from everyone and cold. And that the reason she changed was not, as one might expect, because she had fallen in love. In fact, it was quite the opposite – her heart had been broken, forcing her to lean on other people and see how many people genuinely cared about her. In “White Petals,” we watch Sei meet, fall in love with, be rejected by, reconcile with and lose Kubo Shiori. A lot of the novel had to be cut out for the anime, which really is a shame, because it’s an excellent novel. (Including at least a *little* recognition of the issue of lesbian identity.) But what is left is still a very moving story…and the source of 90% of Youko x Sei slash, as well. lol

The last two episodes are the Valentine’s Day date episodes, in which Yumi losing sight of Sachiko for a moment is turned into a laughably absurd cliffhanger and which also had a great scene truncated, so all we get of Yumi listening to Sachiko changing in the jeans shop is a little clothing noise and Yumi blushing – but it’s enough. ^_^

Shizuka and Shimako continue to confuse fans, because both are so difficult to read. But, watching their date now, with all those novels between this episode and me, I find them an utterly fascinating pair. There’s a line towards the end of their date that characterizes them perfectly. If Rosa Gigantea hadn’t existed, then we might have been soeur, Shizuka says. But she does exist, Shimako says. And so, Shizuka concludes, taking Shimako’s hand, we are both happy. It’s a great line.

Yoshino has her moment of satori about why stalking is bad and ends up having an armful of crying Chisato, then turns around and gets mad at Rei for not being more considerate of the girl’s feelings and getting an apologetic embrace from Rei in return.

And so, with the addition of the Don’t Tell Maria-sama extras, we come to the end of the first season of Maria Watches Over Us.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 0

Marimite Fan – 100

Overall – 10

Now I have to go and watch it all over again in a marathon. And memorize the novels. Perhaps start camping outside a Japanese bookstore in anticipation of Before Graduation which is due out next month. (I’d add “stalk Konno Oyuki-sensei” but I learned my lesson from Yoshino. ^_^)





Yuri News This Week – September 27, 2008

September 27th, 2008

Yuri Events

I hope you can join me today for Morris County Author’s Day at the Morris County Library, and/or the Yuri Panel tonight at the New York Anime Festival!

Don’t miss the upcoming MangaNEXT Event, on Oct 31- Nov 2. Rica Takashima, creator of Rica ‘tte Kanji!? will be a guest at the event and will be at the Yuricon Table in the Artist’s Alley. Please don’t hesitate to drop by and ask her unanswerable difficult questions about lesbian life in Japan. She loves those. :-D

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Snatches of Yuri

Just *had* to tell you about a new manga called Escalation: Girls Inside the Walls which takes place in a girl’s reform school. Unlike the original Escalation series, it is not sweet, cute, or Yuri. There’s some marginal sexual harassment by the crazy butch character, so if that works for you, get it. :-) (Before you ask – yes, I got it. lol)

Soutenzen-iro Otome-gumi is a story of love among school girls, one of whom is “boyish.” With such an original plot, I know you’ll all want to run right out and read it!

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Maria-sama ga Miteru

Sarcastic weasel reminds us that a new Maria-sama ga Miteru web radio is up. This is the post-Lillian Festival issue, so hopefully, they’ll mention the anime. :-)

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Yuri in the News

I forgot to tell you this earlier. I was contacted by the LA Blade and The Advocate for interviews about Yuri. In a brilliant display of synchronicity, they contacted me the very same day, asked me all the same impossible to answer questions and then asked me for a pictures, contacts and lists for the next three weeks. It was actually pretty funny. The Advocate article is up online now and printed in the October 12 issue, no clue for the Blade.) The Advocate article is a pretty decent (if not 100% accurate in all things) article about the complexities that make it impossible to map the term “Yuri” to “lesbian” in any socio-politically meaningful way. More importantly, the illustration they chose for the article is a lovely picture of Yuricon mascot Yuriko kissing one of her pre-Midori paramours drawn by our own Kelli Nicely for Shoujoai ni Bouken: The Adventures of Yuriko, Volume 1.

We’re getting closer to my goal of total media domination. First Curve, then the Advocate, then …who knows? People magazine? Inquirer? Sky’s the limit. LOL

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That’s the Yuri News for September 27, 2008 – see you next week!