Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Manga: Aoi Hana (青い花), Volume 6

August 25th, 2011

In Volume 5 of Aoi Hana (青い花), I commented that Fumi had made it past the third stage of coming out, saying something to a complete stranger. In Volume 6, she makes it to 3.5, telling close friends.

During summer vacation, the girls all head to a hot spring, accompanied by freshman Haru and, more notably, the teacher that Haru says is her sister’s lover. Fumi overstays her time in the outside onsen because she’s embarrassed and subsequently passes out. When she wakes in her room, the teacher comes in to see if she’s okay, and Fumi ends up asking her a question about liking another woman. This is not unconnected, as Fumi’s embarrassment is, in part, at catching herself looking at Akira’s naked body in the bath.

Later that night, Fumi also inadvertently says out loud that she’s in love with A-chan, and Akira says, also out loud, that she knows. There is a tension now between Fumi and Akira; but whether it’s anticipatory or not, they aren’t quite sure and neither are we.

Once home, Akira visits Fumi and asks if maybe they should just try dating and see how that works out. Body and mind exploding with fear/joy/freaking right out, Fumi has completely lost whatever cool she usually has. But, at some point, Fumi pulls herself together and, when they are out on their first date, she kisses Akira with no second thoughts.

Fumi is speaking with her friends, Pon-chan and Mugi, when Pon-chan asks if Fumi is “that way,” (and Mugi flips out at Pon-chan because you don’t *ask* that kind of thing!) we see that Fumi has once again adapted to her new, stronger self and replies quite calmly and honestly that yes, she is “that way,” then lets her friends work it out for themselves. Which they do, very quickly, because after all Fumi is their friend and they love her. (In a nutshell, the number one reason for coming out, IMHO.)

But, wait, there’s more! Fumi’s parents leave on a romantic trip over Christmas, leaving Fumi and Akira to stay home. They buy cake, crack open the bottle of champagne Fumi’s Dad had received and Fumi proceeds to get just tipsy enough to say things she wants to say to A-chan. And so she does. About how she wants to have physical intimacy with her friend. Knowing that the excuse of the alcohol is the best lead-in she’s ever going to get, Fumi drags Akira about three steps forward in the relationship, the same ways she has since the very beginning – by being honest.

Fumi ends by saying that it’s really probable that A-chan’s “like” and her “like” are different, but she really likes A-chan…who responds by embracing her.

And I smiled. I smiled through just about every single page of this book. My god what I would have given for Fumi to have existed when I was 15.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 10
Service – 1

Overall – 10

If this book is ever translated into English, I will endeavor to make this story the light at the end of the tunnel for every gay teen in America. There are a lot of young women out there who need Fumi in their life.





Hayate x Blade Manga, Volume 14 (はやてｘブレード)

August 22nd, 2011

When it comes to Hayate x Blade, Volume 14,  (はやてｘブレード) there are no adequate words to describe what it made me feel. So…I’m not going to try. I will tell you this – I screamed. A lot. But that’s hardly a good description.

As I read the chapters that comprised this volume in Ultra Jump magazine, I decided what this review would be.

 

 

 

 

I’m going to let this volume speak for itself. So, here is my review of Hayate x Blade, Volume 14:

Ratings:

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

Overall – 10





Hayate x Blade Ultra Drama CD Sanban Hoshi! Hyuuryuu Tsumeawase (はやて×ブレード ウルトラドラマCD さんばん星！ 漂流つめあわせ)

August 12th, 2011

Hayate x Blade Ultra Drama CD Sanban Hoshi! Hyuuryuu Tsumeawase (はやて×ブレード ウルトラドラマCD さんばん星！ 漂流つめあわせ) broke my head. Just seconds ago, I could feel it go “pop.” I’m pretty sure steam came out of my ears, too.

As with the first two of these Drama CDs, the 3rd of the series follows three shinyuu couples as they do utterly ridiculous things in the utterly ridiculous, mutually exclusive ecosystems that surround Tenchi Gakuen. We already know from the manga that there is a mountain behind the school (from Volume 11 and Volume 12.) We also know from the first of this Drama CD series, that that there is a jungle wilderness, and so, it should really come as no surprise that there is a beach as well. As the title translates to something like “An Assortment of Drifting” it should also not be too surprising that this CD follows our principles as they wander around these ecosystems aimlessly.

Hitsugi and Shizuku (and Tatewaki) go to the beach, where Hitsugi tortures Shizuku by crafting nefearious plans and tortures Tatewaki by torturing Tatewaki.

We are then allowed to enjoy an extended visit with Sid and Nancy that begins propitiously with Sid composing a little ditty about being hungry and ends up with her unpropitiously being eaten by a giant snake. (Clearly our Yuri military force needs Giant Snakes. We’ve had them in many of our best series!) Sid worries that Nancy will leave her, but when Nancy rescues her from being eaten, she realizes that she will never get that kind of fun with anyone else.

Next up, Akira and Sae. Is there a more typical couple in all of Tenchi? Akira’s butchy grumpiness, Sae’s complete unconcern for anything except having a little fun at Akira’s expense and her ineffable cheerfulness in the face of hardship, like being stranded on a desert island….and even a very little Yuri-service for the Akira x Sae fans out there. Very little.

And in the end it was all one of Hitsugi’s nefarious plots. ^_^ But that wasn’t what broke my brain.

What broke my brain was the very final seconds of the CD as Tatewaki does her rendition of being the phone clock. You remember that, don’t you? From the days before cell phones? You’d call the number and a woman’s voice would say, “When the tone sounds it will be Eleven-thirty and 45 seconds in the morning,” then the tone sounds. Then she’d say, “When the tone sounds it will be Eleven-thirty and 50 seconds in the morning,” and it would repeat endlessly all day. Well, you haven’t heard it done right until you’ve heard it done by Tatewaki. /pop!/ ~(^_^)~

There is a mini-comic that, if I were to live in Japan I could get by order from from this CD, but since my chances of getting here are small, so I won’t be able to review it. If anyone does nab a copy, let me know how it is!

Ratings:

Overall – 9 just for Sid singing about how hungry she is. And Giant Snakes.

Not too long ago I said on Twitter than I consider Hayashiya-sensei to be the best story teller in manga. I stand by that. She loves her characters, that’s obvious. And as a result, I love them too. ^_^

Hayate x Blade, Volume 14 should hit the shelves any day now…I cannot wait to review it. I have been planning this review for *months!* (^_^)v





Yuri Network News – July 23, 2011

July 23rd, 2011

Yuri Manga

Morinaga Milk-sensei’s popular Yuri series Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo will be re-serialized in Comic High starting with the September 22 (October) issue. She had intimated that there *might* be a continuation forthcoming, so we can keep our fingers crossed.

Good news for Sailor Moon fans, our friend Bill Flanagan was officially announced at SDCC as the translator of Kodansha’s release of Sailor Moon . We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the translation is in good hands.

Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 5 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) wll be hitting shelves at the end of August.

Cassiopeia Dolce, Volume 3 (カシオペア・ドルチェ 3) became available this week, for all your doll-makers who bathe Yuri needs.

Don’t forget to get yourself a copy of September’s Comic Yuri Hime, with obligatory swimsuit cover.

Tsubomi, Volume 13 joins us in August. There was a HUGE cliffhanger in Volume 12, so for once I’m really motivated to get this!

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Snatches of Yuri

You know what we need more of? Questionable Yuri 4-panel gag comics from MangaTime Kirara. Luckily, there’s Marshmallow Typhoon (ましゅまろ×タイフーンッ).

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Other News

The Japanese Digital Manga Association has announced the August launch of Jmanga.com, an initiative by Japanese manga publishers to make manga available online to a worldwide audience.

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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!





Suite Precure Anime

July 21st, 2011

Suite Precure is the tragic story of Seiren, a singer. Betrayed by her homeland, Major Land, rejected as the Song Princess she is, she defects to Minor Land where, like so many defectors, she is forced to prove her loyalty over and over. Put in charge of incompetent and insubordinate subordinates, Seiren labors to resurrect a magical score so that she can at last sing as she was meant to… and who, of all people, must she contend with? Her own best friend and protégé, the very same creature for whom she was cast aside …Hummy.

Seiren is torn between her anger at being betrayed and cast aside, and her affection for the friend who was so important to her. Unfortunately for Seiren, the elite warriors of Major Land outgun her own Minor Land forces and her continued embarrassment at the hands of the Precure begins to eat at her.

Until, one day, Seiren snaps. She regrets her defection, she longs to repair her life and in a weak moment, becomes one of the elite Precure warriors herself. Now, full of loathing and self-doubt she wages war against herself, with no home to return to….

Well…okay, that’s not really what Suite PreCure is about, but it’s better than the real story, so I’m sticking to it.

Kanade and Hibiki, Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm, are best friends and have to be “in harmony” to transform, so the Japanese fans on Twitter are calling it Yuri. Seiren only transforms to save Hummy, so if you count Hummy as female and cats as eligible for Yuri, then there’s Yuri that way. And I’m counting Cure Muse because her costume screams Go Nagai designs.

I like Cure Beat best because 1) She is not wearing pink (which Toei pointed out that all girls like and so, *for the first time EVER* both main characters would have pink elements, how exciting!) and 2) Toyoguchi Megumi (Marimite‘s Sei) is voicing Seiren/Beat with everything she’s got, considering the character is a cat.  Purple Cures are always the coolest.

If you ignore all of this nonsense, Suite Precure is a completely predictable, music-themed magical girl cartoon for little kids.

Ratings:

Art – 7, it’s returned to type from the Heartcatch designs
Story – A little sillier than usual, I think – 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Series – 1

Overall – 7

I should also point out that the Fairy Tones, the cute little gem-like creatures that represent the notes of the scale, are excruciatingly cute and I adore them. That’s a major step up from previous Precure  cute, little mascots. Hummy can die a painful death, though.