Archive for the Nanoha Category


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. :-)





Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Manga, Volume 1

November 5th, 2007

Perhaps it was a bit of a shock to some to watch the first episode of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS only to learn that their favorite lolicon fodder were now adults. Ten years had magically passed in the real-world year or so between the second season and the third. During those ten years, Nanoha had grown up not only to become the incredibly powerful mage we all knew she would be but also, along with Hayate and Fate, had moved rather quickly up the ranks of the Time Space Administration Bureau.

What happened in those ten years? A lot, obviously, duh. A few key items were mentioned during the StrikerS anime. Things like, Hayate and her knights’ punishment for the crimes they committed during the Book of Darkness episode, or Fate and Naoha both having serious self-preservation issues when they completely release their limiters and, of course, the infamous moment when Nanoha was severely injured. Also Fate suddenly developing an adoptive brother she takes care of and adopting a daughter of her own came as a bit of a surprise, I have to say. Most 19-year olds are still working out car payments. But there were Erio and Caro, and so we accepted them. Now that I think about it – we were told quite a lot about those ten years.

But let’s face it, there’s a lot more that must have happened. What Fate wore for her sixtenth birthday party, for instance? Fanboys want to know! And they want to see Nanoha and Hayate and the Knights in maid uniforms serving her cake!

Sorry, sorry, I have trouble taking the fandom of Nanoha seriously. But that’s okay – they take themselves WAY seriously enough that they don’t need me.

Some of the events that lead up to StrikerS are detailed in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS The Comics, Volume 1. This volume includes the transitional A’s to StrikerS chapters. Nanoha, Fate and Hayate have moved up the TSAB chain of command and are looking to develop a new team. This first volume is an early look at the new characters that will inhabit the StrikerS universe: Subaru, Teana, Erio and Caro.

Because the manga focuses on the new characters, with mostly expository discussion between the older ones, Fate gets a few moments here and there fussing over Nanoha, but not much more. Much like the anime – if you took out the big pluffy bed – there’s plenty of plausible deniability. OTOH, you can also easily look at them and see a well-established couple. The lack of PDAs is pretty normal for couples no longer attached at the hip. And the affection between them is obvious.

Erio and Caro are both so nice and cute and earnest that they bore me a bit. Everyone in the Nanoha world seems to come with a tragic backstory, and theirs were, yes, tragic. It’s believable that Fate would be moved to take care of them both. They are introduced a little in this volume. But most of our time is spent with Subaru and Teana.

We establish early on that they are suited to work with each other and that Subaru drives Teana crazy but she can’t get her out of her mind, which sets up Teana as the ever-popular passive-agressive tsundere. Whee. Teana’s redeeming factor is her genuine desire to excel, her competence, and her ability to think creatively. She has some serious leadership potential, as well. Subaru is the kind of character that in any other series would excel on guts alone, but we know that she’ll be practicing until she drops, too.

The level of fanservice for both Subaru and Teana is high, assumably because at 19, Fate, Hayate and Nanoha are too old for the average fanboy. It also gives us the opportunity to see them set up in a variety of completely non-lesbian Yuri situations; since Teana’s obssessive and they touch, that’s enough for most fans to consider it a done deal. I have no opinion either way. If it’s important to you to see them as a couple, go for it. I weigh in on the “not really” side. In fact, if you pressed me hard, I’d tell you that, at the end of StrikerS all of the characters look married to their careers more than anything else.

The story, as I mentioned, has lots of exposition, setting up the development of Section Six and following the future forwards initial training. The next volume will begin StrikerS proper.

I hadn’t ever been moved to follow the Nanoha series’ manga. Now that I’m getting more adult women in uniform, it somehow became far more interesting to me. Amazing, isn’t it? (I also learned that my brain goes absolutely white-noise at three or more panels of military terminology. Like, you can *hear* the flatline, “beeeeeeeeeeep.”) I do enjoy the 4-panels that go along with the manga, that put a lighter spin on, particularly, Nanoha. We spend a little more time that I’d like with Rein. There’s only so much “awww” I have in me every day and my wife takes up most of that in the morning before I go to work. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7 (there really wasn’t one, yet, but the exposition was fine.)
Characters – 9 (I would like to have more Signum and Shamal, please….)
Yuri – 1
Service – 4

Overall – 7

If you are a Nanoha completist, obsessive and/or fanatic, you absolutely need this manga. If you liked StrikerS alot, you would do well to take a look at this. I enjoyed it. But then, the greatest strength of Nanoha has always been the characters, and this gives them some extra depth and breadth. So there you go.





Yuri Anime: Nanoha StrikerS – End of Season Report

September 17th, 2007

Yahoo! Whoo-ee! Yeeha!

Those are bascially my reactions to the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS anime, as the season draws to a close.

I’m so happy to have a totally formulaic, predictable magical/fighting/fantasy/scifi series with every single freakin’ cliche’ possible, that doesn’t suck.

With the understanding that I am usually in the minority about Nanoha, since the things I like are not the things everyone else likes, I’m going to say that this anime was pure win, from beginning to end.

I love that Nanoha, Fate and Hayate are now grownups (well, almost, from my perspective,) that they all have totally alternative families that are, nonetheless, very loving and caring, and that they all kick royal ass in every direction. Let’s take a moment to point out that, for all the cliches, Fate, Nanoha, Hayate, Subaru, Teana, or any of the leads are definitely not the typical idiot savant hero/ine that I have come to loathe in anime. All of them are competent because – as we see – they practice until they collapse. Every day. This is refreshing, no matter how many times it’s used.

I appreciate that the gloating freak Scaglietti was doing his duty as the “gloating crazy bad guy” and I even approved of the giant red herring in uniform, General Regius. But I wanted there to be more stabbings and a few kickings of the corpses…oh well. I like my revenge hot, what can I say?

The Numbers were good “bad guy’s forces” and Zest was an excellent tragic noble knight (and allowed Signum to dramatically let her hair down.) Quattro was absolutely teeth-grindingly annoying and her long-anticipated “befriending” was worth the long anticipation.

Nanoha and Fate are a couple. There is nothing that will convince me that they are not, despite the utter caginess of the writers. Because ambiguity sells, I know. But my gaydar is exceptional and I trust it. And I have the advantage of actually living with another woman for almost a quarter of a century and you know – it looks a lot like that. Without the magical kid or the uniforms.

Giant doomsday weapon? Check? Massive “zOMG!” powerups? Check. Final confrontations with loved ones? Check. Tears and sacrifice and epic music? Check.

This has all the bells and whistles and the *only* thing that could possibly make it better – and no, I don’t expect, or even hope we’d ever get it – would be a kissful reunion between Fate and Nanoha at the end. Because that would make it perfect – and you just know how the anime industry hates the thought of that.

There was one negative thing and it did make me a bit stabby. When Quattro revealed the reason the Numbers were all female, yes, it pissed me off. Because you know women are really only good for service and babies. Obviously.

Here’s my response:

Dear Men of Japan,

Every year for like 30 years you have been voted the worst lovers in the world. Have you ever wondered why?

No one else has.

Sincerely,

***

I’m just saying…

Anyway, other than that one thing, StrikerS for the win.

Oh, and Tea should get some serious promotion for taking on 4 Numbers at once and prevailing.

In fact, the writers did do a good job of giving everyone screen time. Even Erio and let’s face it, how many of the pervs fans of this series are shota fans? Like 2? But there was something for everyone, really. Varying degrees of moe from the young to the old (19…old…cough).

This is me sobbing from relief. Adult females, in uniform. Who are competent and kick ass. It’s heaven, I tell you. One episode from the end of the season and I wish StrikerS never ends. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – sometimes better than others, but overall – 7
Story – nary a cliche missed – 8
Characters – there were a LOT of them, surely there was *something* you liked – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 8 in the earlier episodes, settling to 5 in the later

Overall – 9

MVP for the series has to be Eisen, Vita’s device. He’s like “Yay! Let’s go smash and kill things!” He’s a German warhammer, what else would you expect?





Yuri Anime Licensing News – Anime Expo 2007

July 5th, 2007

Well, Anime Expo is over and there are a few series licenses that were announced that will be of interest to the Yuri community. Since I already discussed Seven Seas Yuri manga licenses here, I thought I’d summarize the Yuri anime licenses, too:

ADV – ADV announced that they have licensed Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora, Kaishaku’s most recent series. Although I do not hesitate to say that this series was laughably bad, I absolutely maintain that it was better than everything other Kaishaku anime in terms of internal consistency and sensibleness. AND the Yuri storyline was pretty good! If you liked Chikane and Himeko in Kannazuki no Miko you ought to like Kaon and Himiko here.

Geneon – No Maria-sama ga Miteru announcement as of yet, but based on the Q&A at the panel, they haven’t killed the idea or anything. Instead, Geneon licensed Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and the second and infinitely better season Nanoha As. Third season (and even better than the former two) StrikerS wasn’t included in this particular announcement. But now that we’ve seen Nanoha and Fate as lesbian moms, we might as well look back fondly on their early relationship. :-) To be honest, I’ll probably like this series better this time around, knowing that it does go somewhere and does get better.

Funimation – Although this will not be something I will purchase, Funimation announced the license to the Negima! anime. Konoka and Setsuna fans will surely be happy. (I’ve never reviewed the anime for this – nor do I plan to. If you’re interested in doing a Guest Review for Negima! contact me.)

Media Blasters – Our buddies at Media Blasters took my suggestions to heart, I see. :-) They had an awesomely Yuri-ful announcements list starting with Strawberry Panic! and including the ever more service-y Otome ha Boku (Onee-sama) ni Koishiteru (another series I’m not planning on reviewing, so feel free to send in a Guest review), and Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny. While Otoboku is not something I’ll be reviewing, as it’s based on a game where the main character is a boy dressing like a girl to fulfill the plot complication, the “Yuri” in the series comes in the form of the girls who fall in love with what they think is a girl. It’s real, if stoopid. And of course Ikkitousen is a thin plot connected by breasts, underwear and unresolved Yuri longing on the part of Kanu Unchou. Most popularly, we can once again enjoy the open theft of concepts, characters and whole storylines from earlier Yuri anime and manga series in Strawberry Panic!. :-)

So – some stuff to look forward too, albeit all quite servicey, where Yuri is one more fetish in the long list of fetishes catered to. ^_^





Spring 2007 Anime Season: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

April 16th, 2007

I was going to wait for a few more episodes before I wrote about Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, but heck, I’ve speculated on less than two episodes, so… (three, now, which made me rewrite a bit in the middle. ^_^)

I was not the biggest fan of the original Nanoha series, but I didn’t hate it, either. It was a perfectly fine, completely derivative magical girl series, without the captivating characters or seiyuu of Card Captor Sakura from whence it came. It also had the unfortunate addition of an extremely distasteful nude transformation scene, which appealed to a particular sector of the anime viewing audience which is not me.

The second series, Nanoha As, had a much stronger story, great characters and even better character development…and that unnecessary henshin. In fact, aside from that one thing, the series was pretty darn good. ^_^

And now Nanoha, Fate and Hayate are all adults (yay!) and in uniform (yahoo!) and all working as commanders in the Time-Space Administration Bureau. I have already joked that after my bitching about the last two series catering to a fetish that is not mine, they sort of lumped a bunch of mine together into one anime, just to shut me up. ^_^

The anime starts with Fate, Nanoha and Hayate working as commanders of three separate divisions of the Time-Space Administration Bureau. After a particularly grueling and difficult rescue operation, Hayate asks the other two to collaborate with her on a new division that would handle all the “other” issues that come up, like Lost Logia retrieval and special rescue coordination. Of course Fate and Nanoha want to be a part of this. And so Nanoha StrikerS begins with the recruitment of several new team members for the new division.

Yuri in Nanoha has always been speculative, and mostly about Fate’s pretty much one-sided feelings for Nanoha. I cannot beat Zyl’s brilliant post on Fate’s feelings, so I won’t try. Episode 3 (which I *just* watched) lets us know that Fate and Nanoha are at least sharing a bed, so I’m rewriting my initial speculation that Fate’s feelings are one-sided, and have now decided to assume that they are an established couple. I’m glad to see that, honestly. It makes me happy to think that. (And really, as commanders, they should easily be able to afford their own places, so if they are not only living together, but sharing a big, pluffy bed, I think we have to assume it’s not just “roommates.”)

There’s the easily pairable new recruits Subaru and Tiana. Time will tell if they have something more than just a strong partnership. Personally, I see no yuri there, but they touch each other, so fandumb will undoubtedly pair them up. ^_^

Let me suggest, just for fun, an unreasonable, yet amusing, alternative. Not a pair, but a troika. Hayate does not pop as a Yuri candidate, (unless one looks back and considers her history of forming a household with her female knights Signum, Shamal and Vita, and makes a few illogical leaps.) Instead, let me offer this unreasonable piece of “proof” as all we in Yuri fandom call it:

Why, I ask you, does Hayate own a bed big enough for the three of them? (Four if you count Reinforce, which I don’t.)

I invite you to think about it at your leisure. ^_^

Send the fanfic links to the Yuricon Mailing List. ;-)

And there’s always Signum who, with her lack of social skills and intrinsic butchiness always pings my gaydar.

Other random thoughts about this anime: The second law of thermodynamics need not apply for this series, thanks. And I really like all the sentient weapons. They have consistently been one of my favorite things in the series.

Ratings:

Art – I quite like it – 7
Story – Remains to be seen, but I have high hopes – 6
Characters – The More the Yurier – 8
Yuri – 6 (upped after the “incontrovertible proof” in Ep. 3 that Fate and Nanoha sleep together.)
Service – 5

Overall – 7 with potential for better.

Adult women in uniforms…me so happy…