Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, (ささめきこと) Volume 9

April 16th, 2012

Just about a year ago, I reviewed Octave, Volume 6. It was the final volume and of it I said, “Octave is the story I have always wanted to read.”

I say this once again, this time about Sasamekikoto, Volume 9 (ささめきこと).

The series began as a comedy, a ramshackle combination of Yuri tropes, all played for laughs and a little bittersweet drama. Slowly, but surely, it became a real story, a story that hits right in the heart of what lesbian Yuri readers want to see. What we want to see is not always about “coming out,” it’s about “becoming whole.”

And here, in the final volume, Sumi and Ushio become whole. It was a remarkable, fantastic, magnificent ending. I did not expect an ending of this caliber – I never even hoped for it. I would have been content with a “happily ever after” where we see Ushio and Sumika walk off, without having yet faced their community, their friends and their family, and we all pretend it will be all right.

I didn’t get that ending at all. Instead, miraculously, I got an ending where Ushio and Sumi face their community, their friends and their family head on and tell them that they are lovers. Good heavens, really? And still – it was funny. It was still a comedy, less bittersweet than we ever could have imagined. This is the decade Yuri has changed, irrevocably. This is the decade where Yuri becomes “any manga, anime (or related media) that shows intense emotional connection, romantic love or physical desire between women.” Just like we wanted.

I am flabbergasted. I rejoice. I celebrate.

Congratulations Sumi and Ushio – we love you.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

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Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 10
Service – 1

Overall – 10

I can already see that 2012’s #1 slot for Yuri Manga is going to be a tough race. Awesome. ^_^

What a great ending.





Win a Copy of the Revolutionary Girl Utena Apocalypse Saga Box Set!

April 8th, 2012

Once more, thanks to the continuing generosity and support from Nozomi/RightStuf, Yuricon is pleased to offer a chance to win a copy of the  Revolutionary Girl Utena, Apocalypse Saga Box Set!

Please email us with your answer to this questions:

What would you consider your personal “holy grail” series or film for Right Stuf to license, via either its anime (Nozomi) or live-action (5 Points) labels?

For sanity’s sake, please limit your answer to no more than two anime and two live-action movies. Do not feel obliged to include both anime and movie choices…only send what you really, really want more than anything.^_^

Because Nozomi/RightStuf loves their fans, and because they love the Yuri audience, they have even made sure that the contest prize include that extra of extras – a Duelists’ Ring.

To be eligible you need to email us at [email protected] with your answer. The contest will be over when Erica has completed her review of the Apocalyspe Saga on Okazu. You must be over 13 to enter. Winner will be informed by email, so make sure you use an email that you check regularly!





Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie Anime Dub Review (English)

March 23rd, 2012

Happy Guest Review Day! I know I have not yet reviewed the third box set of Revolutionary Girl Utena, much less the movie, but I will. I’ve just been a tad busy. In the meantime, here is a special Guest Review from Okazu Superhero Eric P. on, specifically, the dub of the Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie, since as you know, I do not watch dubs.

I hope you’ll all extend a welcoming hand to Eric, as always. Enjoy the review!

In my review for the Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series’ dub, I pretty much summed it up as a dated mixed bag at best. I would so far as say that Nozomi/RightStuf should’ve made the 5.1 Japanese the DVD’s default language, as they’ve done with most of their bilingual releases, rather than having to go to ‘Setup’ to make it so. However, and most fortunately, the same would not be said for the movie’s dub. Even though it is the exact same cast as the TV series, the Revolutionary Girl Utena The Moviedub production is a considerably vast improvement.

A variety of reasons comes into play here. It may have had to do with the animation having more vibrant life to it, and thus there’s more vibrant life to the acting since there was more to play off of. They had an ADR director for the movie who was not the same as the guy who did the TV series, so no doubt that was a huge help. Perhaps it  helped even more that Kunihiko Ikuhara himself came to the studio and offered his feedback and personal direction on some key scenes.

One of the key reasons was that all the weak-link actors trimmed either to just a brief few lines or just brief mute appearances. For instance, the flat-voiced English Nanami just cameos as a short-lived moo-ing cow, so nothing grating there. But for those with high expectations, there can still be some nitpicks. Saionji’s voice can be considered the least good performance. And Miki still sounds older for his age for anyone who finds that bothersome, but the acting itself still isn’t bad and, since he’s supposed to be mature for his age it still works in its own way.

In the end, for all the TV series dub’s weaknesses, by comparison the dub for the movie is a much more solid effort. The overall cast complements and adds to the surrealistic atmosphere of the story, and the actors convey all the necessary feelings through their characters as much as they should. One of the best examples is the scene where Utena and Anthy are in bed together—I thought the mood was really right for that moment, and it’s consistently reflected in all their scenes together. All things considered, it still stands well today, and I would so far as believe it’s interchangeable with the Japanese track; I can watch this amazing and excellent movie in either language and still appreciate it on the same level. So, if you’re a dub fan or are at least open to dubs but shied away from watching the movie in English due to the TV dub’s mediocrity, there’s nothing to be afraid of here. Give it a try if you’re inclined.

Ratings:

Overall – Well done if not so far as being totally perfect. To heck with it, I give it a 9.5

Thank you Eric for the review. Well folks who’ve seen both -what do you think? Does the dub hold up as well as the original track? All opinions welcome in the comments.





Oniisama E…Licensed.

March 20th, 2012

I cannot believe I am about to type this.

This is not rumor and I have done some due diligence, and this appears to be actually legit: Oniisama E, (Dear Brother) Ryoko Ikeda’s classic high school drama…has been licensed by streaming site ViKi. You can find it here: http://www.viki.com/channels/5849-dear-brother The license is global except Italy and Japan. Rose of Versailles has not been licensed by ViKi and they were told it is not available.

I will say four words about this: Sainte Juste. At last.

The ViKi CEO has added a few words about their licenses to their blog. If you, like me, had some questions, check it out.
 





Yuri Network News – March 17, 2012

March 17th, 2012

What a good day to talk about Yuri. It would surely have given St. Patrick apoplexy, along with the carousing and misbehavior now commonly attached to his name day. ^_^

Other News

This week had a lot of important news, some of which I wanted to share, and a few rants I really need to get off my chest.

First, the CBLDF announced that the criminal charges were dropped in the “Brandon X” case. The case was ultimately settled on non-criminal charges. CBLDF director Charles Brownstein talks at length about this case and the fact that, ultimately, it did not go to trial and therefore did not create a legal precedent. He makes a lot of excellent points and I hope you’ll read this fantastic interview Tom Spurgeon did with him on Comics Reporter. (And I am so excited to be able to link to Tom’s site. He’s been kind enough to link to me many times over, so back atcha Tom!) The CBLDF is still paying off more than half the legal fees so any help you can give them, even donations as little as $5, are greatly appreciated.

Also of great importance has been the saga of content sellers vs content publishers in regards to Digital Manga Publishing. Although I have very little motivation to read their stuff (and have some issues with their Digital Manga Guild, as I consider it to be a race to the bottom for quality work for fair cost,) I like the folks there personally. Recently, both Apple and Amazon have delisted DMP’s BL titles. Apple demanded DMP pull Yaoi from its Apple app and Amazon told DMP that they couldn’t sell through Kindle. As you can imagine, I was livid at this. I wrote the Apple and Amazon CEOs. Clearly I was not the only one, as 24 hours later, Amazon rescinded. Apple has not.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter have seen my rage at Apple and their randomly enforced, bizarrely Victorian business practices that seem to somehow always be against LGBTQ-themed content. I started my computer days on an Apple, but now you could not pay me to buy any of their products. I am so strongly opposed to their obscure and cloaked content policies, their anti-LGBTQ focus and even more opposed to the willful blindness of Apple users who keep insisting I must be mistaken. I am not mistaken – Apple was, once, a very progressive company. Now they are just another large company who does not hire full-timers, they farm everything out to contractors, who are clearly given too much room to be repressive, and they treat foreign workers like animals. Come ON folks. Apple is “The Man.” Their culture and their policies are totalitarian. I get it – they were cool when you were in school. They aren’t cool anymore. You should say something about that to them.

While I’m ranting, I would like to repeat myself once more about the Yuri market. Now that Poor Poor Lips is doing well at JManga, there is some cognitive dissonance about it being released in print. This is abstracted from a comment I made on Facebook about the matter:

Fans assume there are tens of thousands of people out there reading Yuri. Sales in the west run at about 1% of audience. It’s just a really freaking small niche. There are not enough fans to support a load of Yuri titles…that is why there are not a load of Yuri titles in print in English. Best Yuri titles do somewhere between 2500-3000 in sales, which is still short of the 4000 copies or so to make enough money to keep going. Even top selling mainstream titles like Naruto barely reach 15,000 copies sold here in the US and that’s barely enough to make Japanese sales lists.

To all Yuri fans who somehow think that there are a legion of fans being under-served here….there aren’t. There are a few of you. And of that few, only a fewer few actually buy Yuri. That is why there is so little Yuri here. There are not enough people to make it profitable. Yet. Give it more years, more promotion and more support from the fanbase.

Think about this. How many copies of Poor Poor Lips do you *really* think would sell? Now, multiply that by three volumes. Be honest – how likely do you think selling 12,000 print copies of a cute, but not particularly world-shaking series, is there? 

There is no relationship between sales on JManga and success of a print volume. Print needs WAY more sales to cover costs and make it worth printing, shipping and distributing. That is *exactly* why JManga is a great idea – it’s a place to get out all the niche titles we want to see that really don’t have a decent chance at making a profit in print.

I don’t meant to be harsh, but…stop. Please stop living in a fantasy where there are a million Yuri fans and 10% of them want to buy books. This is not true. WHEN it is, there will be more Yuri than you can handle. Right now, there are a few hundred people who will buy anything and a few hundred more who will buy when it’s cheap enough and convenient enough and simple enough. And the rest simply do not count at all, since they have no intention of buying anything, from anyone, ever.

Okay…rants over now. ^_^

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Snatches of Yuri

A collection from Hana to Yume comics called Kanoujo no Namida ga Yuki Datoshitara (彼女の涙が雪だとしたら) includes at least one short in which there is Yuri.

Idol Pretender ( アイドルプリテンダー ) seems to think it has BL and Yuri, at least based on the obi copy. While there’s definitely some Yuri-like behavior, the jury appears to still be out. It’s a Champion Red title, so even if there is Yuri, don’t expect it to make you happy.

I honestly have no idea if this is good or not, but if you like Transgender Yuri, take a look at Hero no Himitsu (ヒーローの秘密), Feel free to write up a review for us!

And Smile Style (スマイル・スタイル) has been all over the Yuri lists in Japan. It’s moe school life Yuri. Just the way so many like it.

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Random Stuff

There will be a Yuri Danshi Drama CD…with character songs, in June. As much as I adore Drama CDs, I’m giving this one a pass. ^_^;

Bruce made me promise to tell you that Wandering Son, Volume 3 is available for Pre-order on Amazon.

To end this report on a really, really positive note, April will be bringing a new Maria-sama ga Miteru Light Novel, Maria-sama ga Miteru ~ Farewell Bouquet (マリア様がみてる フェアウェル ブーケ) –  in which we will be seeing, for the first time, Yumi as Rosa Chinensis! Yay! Okay, now the series can end if it has to. ^_^

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That wraps it up 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.