Archive for the Maria-sama ga Miteru Category


Yuri Network News – October 23, 2010

October 23rd, 2010

 Quick note, there will be no report next weekend (MangaNEXT) or the weekend after (I’ll be standing in line to see the Marimite movie.) All other things being equal, I’ll probably be tweeting my experiences, rather than blogging. You can find me at Yuricon on Twitter and here’s to me figuring out how to do that on a Japanese cell-phone. No news report possibly even the weekend after that, as I’ll be massively jet-lagged. Just FYI. If any major news breaks, I’ll be sure to report it.

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Yuri Manga

YNN Correspondent Sean Gaffney shares with us the news that Girls High creator Oshima Towa has a new series coming up. It’s got the clever title Joshikou Girls Love and is running in Comic Sumomo magazine from Futabasha. (Sorry it took me so long to post this, Sean.)

YNN Correspondent Rachel gleefully announces that France is reissuing the Rose of Versailles manga in three volumes, starting in January 2011. I’ve linked to the entry on Amazon.FR for our French-speaking fans. Thanks Rachel for news and link!

Out this week from Ichijinsha, of note was the bittersweet but compelling Sore ga Kimi ni Naru by Hakamada Mera and Sukoyaka Paradigm Shift (I’m way too lazy to lift a finger to research this right now, but the art looks very Gokujou Seitokai) by Sukoyaka.

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Other News

YNN Correspondent Jenna M has written in to inform us of a Yuri-focused academic paper she found on the Internet. “The Sexual and Textual Politics of Japanese Lesbian Comics: Reading Romantic and Erotic Yuri Narratives” by Kazumi Nagaike of Oita University. I haven’t had a chance to read it, but you can be sure I will. :-)

YNN Correspondent Socchan think you might be interested in Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories. Information on pre-ordering and a preview can be found at the link provided.

Kakera: A Piece of Our Lives, the live-action movie based on Erica Sakurazawa’s Love Vibes manga is out on DVD.

A Japanese lesbian ponders my comments at the Gay For You? Yaoi and Yuri for GLBTQ Readers panel at NYCC/NYAF.. She has some great thoughts about her experience with lesbian identity (or lack thereof) in Yuri manga. Well worth reading.

Sasamekikoto, Volume 7 is shipping even as we speak. As is Tsubomi, Volume 8, with Volume 9 hitting shelves in December. Guess that’s gone from quarterly to bi-monthly too.

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Yuri Anime

ANN reports that Section 23 has picked up licenses for the series Koi Hime Musou and Kampfer.

And a second anime season for Mariaholic has been announced.

Media Blasters announced that Magic Knight Rayearth Season 2; Ikki Tosen Volume 3 and Re-orders of Queen’s Blade, Volume 1 are shipping now. You may have noticed that Media Blasters is now on Twitter. Can you guess why?

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Maria-sama ga Miteru News

Once more in honor of the upcoming movie, Cobalt Shueisha is putting out a new set of the Maria-sama ga Miteru Novels, this time an 8-pack set that comprise Yumi’s first year at Lillian Girls’ High School.

Volume 9 of the now-continued manga series will be out this week. Guess I’m going to have to make room on that shelf for Cherry Blossom, huh?

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Snatches of Yuri 

From one of Ichijinsha’s “other” magazines, Kings Kings, Sakura Link is presumed to have Yuri. Volume 2 is out this week.

And from Managtime Kirara come two manga I know nothing about but have been on every Japanese Yuri blog: Mikazuki no Mitsu and  Senobishite de Jounetsu.

We’ll end up on an “really?” note with the announcement of Hitohira Encore. Yes, the dramatic tale of people who cannot talk and have nothing to say in any case is continued. Unless it has Nono, I don’t care. ^_^

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That’s a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!





Yuri Network News – October 16, 2010

October 16th, 2010

Yuri Manga

From YNN Correspondent Komatsu-san, French Yuri imprint Taifu Comics plans to release Morinaga Milk’s GIRL FRIENDS in 2011 (in French, obviously). France continues to be a very girl-friendly space for manga. The final volume of GIRL FRIENDS hits Japanese store shelves in November…just after I leave the country….

Fans of questions never answered and running around and angsting alot are sure to want to pick up the first volume of Zettai Shoujo Astoria by the artist that did First Love Sisters, Shinonome Mizuo.

FINALLY, the first volume of Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi will be out in early November – unlike everything else I want, which comes out after I leave Japan. I really think you ought to buy this one and read it. Really. Just do it.

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Maria-sama ga Miteru News

YNN Correspondent Soul Assassin was kind enough to point us towards this Cobalt Shueisha special with photos from the filming of the Maria-sama ga Miteru movie. It made me all kvell-y and happy. ^_^

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Other News

A new Hayate x Blade Drama CD – the first since the shift to Ultra Jump – is listed on Amazon. It’s cleverly titled, Hayate x Blade Ultra Drama CD! Ichiban Hoshi! Zekkyoutsumeawase!.

Not Yuri, but classic sistercest, here’s a a Graphic Novel of Christina Rosetti’s juicy poem Goblin Market.

Also not quite Yuri, but very Yuri-friendly, I took a long, lingering look at women’s manga magazine Feel Young at Mangacast.

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That’s a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!





YNN Breaking News: Maria Watches Us/Maria-sama ga Miteru News

September 9th, 2010

Today’s post is an early bit of linkblogging, a pre-Saturday mini YNN report, if you will.
 

Yesterday we had some breaking news from Right/Stuf Nozomi. From their press release:

RightStuf/Nozomi Entertainment Streams Maria Watches Over Us  Season 1 at http://www.YouTube.com/NozomiEnt

They also present Q&A with creator Oyuki Konno at http://www.mariasama.rightstuf.com

Also, from the world of Maria-sama ga Miteru, here’s a whip with which to flagellate ourselves: Those folks who are seeing the Maria-sama ga Miteru Movie in Japan will receive a pile of commemorative items, including a clearfile and a “Secret Episode” book! I’ve already checked the flight costs and man, if it weren’t highway robbery, I’d so be there to see the movie. Thanks to Komatsu-san for the tip on this.

Appropo to nothing, here is a incendiary post by David Welsh, in which he calls out those folks culpable in the lack of critical respect given to Moto Hagio and other female writers (including the crime committed by A Drunken Dream and Other Stories‘ own publisher of saying “this isn’t like other shoujo manga – it’s not crappy.”) I contributed a confrontational comment and am waiting to be called sexist for it. 
 





Shoujo Manga MagazineYuri Watch: Maria-sama ga Miteru

September 5th, 2010

Calling The Margaret (ザ マーガレット)”shoujo” is not correct, I know. I’m just too lazy to come up with another title for this series of “I’m reading magazines for teen and tween girls that have Yuri stories.” Technically, The Margaret is actually josei, as it’s marketed to older teen girls, but since Sean and I are the only ones who care, I won’t belabor the point.(Wait,. yes I will – here’s a fool-proof method to know if a magazine is shoujo or not – does it come with awesome giveaways of bags and jewelry and stationary and stuff? If  you said, “Yes!” – it’s shoujo. If the answer is, “uh, no, all there is is an insert of a mini comic,” it’s josei. Got it? good.)

The real point of today’s review is not to talk about The Margaret, but the newly re-started serialization of the Maria-sama Ga Miteru manga which had ceased publication after Volume 8. The original serialization ended with the graduation of Youko, Sei and Eriko.

The story picks up in what will become Volume 9, in the new term. Yumi, Yoshino and Shimako are all second-years. Sachiko, Rei and Shimako are now the Rosas…and there’s something up with Shimako. She’s been “strange” recently, they all notice. And they have to assume that it is at least in part because of the first-year she’s been hanging around with, Nijou Noriko.

The first thing, Sachiko and Rei decide, is that Shimako needs to cough up her one last secret, because it’s bothering her. And so they concoct an annoying plan to “out” Shimako as the daughter of a Buddhist Priest.

The plan they create is still ham-handed after all this time. But I’m reminded of something as I read it. A “year” later in story time, Shimako will be sitting with Yumi and Yoshino, cheerfully telling her friends the very, very last piece of her incredibly complicated family situation. She’ll be smiling and laughing – and enjoying the carpish gaping of the other two as she spills the beans. So heavy-handed, yes, and obnoxious, yes, but now looking back, I think Rei and Sachiko may have been *right.*

The manga shifts from Noriko’s point of view right to Yumi’s and we get to relive the whole irritating thing over again, this time knowing full well that Yumi, at least, thought they were sandblasting a cracker.

Also in The Margaret magazine is “Bushido Sixteen,” a girls’ kendo sports drama, which has all the requisite sweat and tears and guts and rivalries and good stuff. And there’s way less non-con than there was the last time I picked up an issue. So, while not as Yuri-fied as Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi – which has gotten very Yuri indeed, there in Nakayoshi – The Margaret has some lovely platonic romance and rivalry between girls. All good.

Overall – 9

I think that’s it for girls’s manga and Yuri. For now. Here’s hoping that there’s more on the horizon. For one thing, the girl’s magazines have the best furoku!





Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CD: Parasol wo Sashite

September 3rd, 2010

The good news is that, phew, that’s behind us now. No more Rainy Blue ever again…until the manga catches up. D’oh!

Well, for the moment, we can wallow in the comfort of the 14th Drama CD of the Maria-sama ga Miteru series, Parasol wo Sashite, in which Yumi gets back both her favorite umbrella and her beloved onee-sama.

This Drama CD is a 2-disk set, each disk has about 45-60 minutes of material.

The first disk has the half of the book in which Yumi meets Katou Kei and her older relative, the entirely adorable Yumiko. The second has the appearance of Youko and the revelation of what Sachiko has been going through for the past few months.

Two scenes in this story were critical to my understanding of the characters. When Touko snaps at Yumi outside the cafeteria, it occurred to me that, at that point, Touko has no idea that Yumi does not know what’s up with Sachiko. So, to see Yumi having fun with classmates is upsetting. Of course, yes, Touko’s a absolute jerk about it, which adds to the drama of the scene. But in the second half of the book, Touko knows that Yumi doesn’t know, which is probably one of the very first bricks in the wall she builds between Yumi and herself.

The second scene that really blew me away, was the scene with Kei’s older relative, Yumiko. Kei imagines her to be a taciturn old lady and Touko later points out that she was clearly used to frowning alot. But something about Yumi’s unexpected kindness opens up Yumiko in a way that I think she could never have expected. Yumiko tells Yumi something so important that I missed it the first 30 times I read/watched/read/listened to this scene. She says, simply, that if Yumi loves her onee-sama, she should tell her. Verbalizing this changes Yumi’s whole perspective…and Yumiko’s own life.

Of course it was nice to encounter Sei and Youko again, and “meet” Kei.

And the whole bit at the end that had gotten cut out of the anime, about Youko being too competent to forget an umbrella, then not having one, proving that she was totally discombobulated and Sachiko’s mother obsessing over convenience store food were told in full, to my immense pleasure.

The second disk also includes a bonus track, in which the actresses point out that it had been almost a year since they recorded Rainy Blue and how they were all kinda tense about that not being resolved.(Most of them have now read the novels, something I find fascinating.) But the thing that makes the bonus track priceless is right in the very beginning, when they are all talking about how emotional this CD is and Itou Miki says that saying “I love you Yumi,” was really emotional for her. When Itou-san says the words, “I love you, Yumi,” Ueda Kana immediately replies, “I love you too, Onee-sama!” And I, and the entire cast of Maria-sama ga Miteru screamed of “Ow! That hurt!” as our hearts exploded from the cuteness. (^_^) Toyoguchi Megumi says something like, “Aw, c’mon, I don’t want to see that!”

So, although it took a really long time to get…Parasol wo Sashite was totally worth it.

Ratings:

Overall – 9.5

Now that I think about it, this novel had *three* adorable adult characters – Sachiko’s mom Sayako, Kei’s relative Yumiko and “Miffy-chan,” the middle-school teacher who returned Yumi’s umbrella.