Archive for the Series Category


Vertical Announces Princess Knight

January 27th, 2011

Princess Knight, by Tezuka Osamu, is being published by Vertical.

To say that this is a “long-awaited” announcement is sort of an understatement. Start saving your money now, seriously, because I expect everyone who calls themselves a Yuri fan to run out and get this. No exceptions, no excuses. If you can afford a pizza, you can afford this book. (If you really can’t afford this book, ask your library, nicely.)

Princess Knight, aka Ribon no Kishi （リボンの騎士）is one of the seminal works of Yuri fandom. Tezuka’s visible influences include Disney’s Snow White and Takarazuka, and this series set the bar for notable later girl-princes such as Lady Oscar in Rose of Versailles and Tenjou Utena in Revolutionary Girl Utena.

If you have been paying the least bit of attention to the manga and Japanese lit worlds, Vertical’s other two announcements will be pretty big news, as well. So this was a great off-season announcement for all of us.





Yuri Network News – January 15, 2011

January 15th, 2011

Yuri Manga

From the Yuricon Mailing List, BlackSkaven shares the news that Haru, Natsu, Aki, Fuyu (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) by Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki has been released in Germany by EMA as Frühling, Sommer, Herbst und Winter this week. However, German readers should be warned that the release comes with no color pages or undercover artwork.

There’s a pile o’releases from Ichijinsha this week: Wildrose Remix: Disk-B; Ibara no Namida; Musou Honey; Yuru Yuri, Volume 4; Futarism; Himawari-san; and the newly renamed Girl’s Love (nee’ Yuri Hime Wildrose.)

Choir, Volume 3 is slated to hit the shelves this month, too.

If you’re looking for something more grown up, the 2nd Volume of Ohana Holoholo might be just the ticket.

And it looks like Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi, which apparently wrapped up at the end of the last chapter (happily every after, of course,) will be continued for at least a few more chapters. So, one couple’s all nice and resolved…will the other kiss and make up…do ya think? ~_^

Also hitting the streets in the next few weeks are a couple of Tsubomi collections: Tandem Lover; and Kuroyome.

And in case you were left on pins and needles, as I was, the second volume of Blue Friend comes out next month.

Shitsurakuen, Volume 5 is also on sale next month.

The final chapter of Octave will run in the February issue of Afternoon magazine.

And some interesting news about Nakamura Ching-sensei. According to her blog, she’s created a GL story for Davinci magazine (the same magazine that ran Honey and Honey by Takeuchi Sachiko.) Nakamura-sensei also has a story in the Februrary issue of Elegance Eve, from Kadokawa Shoten.

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Yuri Anime

Okay, so, Heartcatch PreCure was a big hit for me. Next up will be the all-pink, all the time, Suite PreCure. I’m already prepared to hate it, after an exec said that they went with all pink for the first time, because girls like pink. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

All the Japanese Yuri lists are telling me that Mahou Magica Madoka has Yuri in it.

They also insist that Rio Rainbow Gate has some Yuri in it. I’m not holding my breath.

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Other News

As you all know, I’m following the Bill 156 situation in Japan closely. The anime/manga community has already expressed concern and planned a boycott and a competing event to the Tokyo Anime Fair. This week, a Twitter post by BL scholar Mizoguchi Akiko pointed me to an event being held this very weekend in Japan – a LGBTQ community protest of Ishihara’s public homophobic comments. I sent them an email expressing that I and many others stand in solidarity with them. They accept English emails, so go ahead and send your support.

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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!





Live Action: Hana no Asuka-gumi NEO

January 4th, 2011

As we ended, so shall we begin. We ended the year on a Live-action adaptation of a Yuri manga. Sadly for us, Kakera, was not a particularly good adaptation.

Happily for us, Hana no Asuka-gumi NEO was an *excellent* adaptation of my favorite obscure manga series ever.

A quick synopsis: Kuraku Asuka is a girl who had been bullied in middle school. Brought right to the edge of suicide, she finds purpose in fighting for her life – both literally and figuratively. Through an acquaintance with Kijiima Yohko, a sociopath who involves Asuka with the girl-gang underworld of Tokyo, Asuka is reborn as the best fighter in the city. Asuka becomes involved with the underground organization that runs the girl gangs, the Zenchuu Ura, and the leader of that organization, Hibara-sama. After being the second-most powerful person in the Zenchuu Ura, Asuka leaves Hibari and becomes friendly with the “outside Group” in Shinjuku. That “Omoteban” is run by the lovely Hime, and has members with the elemental names of Kai, Mizu, Hi, etc… Also involved with the Omoteban is Asuka’s best friend, Doumoto Miko…the half sister of Yohko.

You got all that? Well that’s not half of it, and I’m grinning as I type, because no matter how long I spend explaining this series, no matter how many times I explain it, it will never be clear unless you read the whole thing. ^_^

The series was super popular in the 80s, with both manga and TV series. The manga came back for an extended epilogue a few years ago. An absolutely dreadful movie was made in the 90s, which had one awesome scene but was otherwise excruciating. In the meantime, the creator had gone on to become best known for her BL series.

In 2009, the manga was undergoing a renaissance and some genius decided to make a Live-action movie – the movie that hadn’t been made the first time but really, really needed to be made. And so, we now have the opportunity to enjoy Hana no Asuka-gumi NEO! (花のあすか組 NEO!). And thank heavens for that!

This movie is so close to being exactly right that the few kvetches I have are ridiculous. Asuka is played by none other than the daughter of Takaguchi Satosumi, the series creator. She’s too tall (Asuka is a shrimp,) but otherwise, she’s great.

The plot is taken from the manga itself, so if you’ve read the the thing, you’ll know the plot the instant it begins.

Mizu is the first to show up, and Miko is…perfect. Hime was sort of off, and Yohko is all crazy all the time, and not quite perfect – her hair was all wrong – but she was a total sociopath and nice and violent, so that was fun. What had me dancing around was the appearance of Kurenai, scar and all. No Hibari-sama, but I could forgive that, as it would have been deeply confusing if you weren’t a fan. Why you would be watching this movie if you weren’t a fan, I can’t for the life of me guess, but it could happen. The fights were *excellent.* Everything I could have hoped in a totally serious adaptation of one of the silliest series I’ve ever loved.

Ratings:

For casual viewers of cheesy Japanese live-action movies – 7

For me – 9

So to start off the new year, run and buy Hana no Asuka-gumi NEO! for a taste of the good ole days when girl gangs ruled the streets and school of Tokyo.





Maria-sama ga Miteru Manga, Volume 9

December 24th, 2010

Spring at Lillian brings change. The beloved older classmen leave, moving out of the soft embrace of their Alma Mater to join the real world. New underclassmen arrive, changing everything.

In Maria-sama ga Miteru, Volume 9: Cherry Blossom, Nijou Noriko, the unlikely mutt among the purebreds walks into Lillian Academy and fills the hole in Shimako’s heart caused by Sei’s graduation. Shimako, who once thought she’d leave the Yamayurikai when Sei graduated, is now Rosa Gigantea, but the distance between her and the others has – if anything – increased.

Yumi’s noticed this and when she consults with the others, learns two surprising things – Shimako’s got secrets that she’s hiding and one of them is a first-year student who can make her smile. Yumi also meets and has to cope with the manipulative, selfish and supremely entitled new student Matsudaira Touko, who turns out to have a prior relationship with Sachiko.

“Cherry Blossom” follows the tale from Noriko’s perspective, as she enters this retro school and is confronted with Maria-sama herself beneath the cherry tree. The tale of how Noriko and Shimako meet, become close and how their friendship forces Shimako to “out” herself as the daughter of a Buddhist Temple, is awkward and sweet.

The same story is told once more in “BGN” (Background Noise) from Yumi’s perspective. Once again we’re made to squirm as Sachiko and Rei overplay their roles and as Touko is an immature jerk at Yumi. But I’ve read the rest of the novels, and it touches me less harshly than it did knowing that, however mortifying all this was, everything and everyone turned out okay. Better than okay. And I think if you asked Shimako a year later what she thought of all this, she’d tell you that it was probably the right thing to do, considering.

This Volume 9 of the Maria-sama ga Miteru manga originally ran in The Margaret magazine, and was not-at-all-coincidentally timed with the release of the live-action movie. It appears that the manga, having served its promotional purpose, is once again on hold. Which is both good (not sitting through “Rainy Blue”…again….) and bad (not getting past “Rainy Blue”…again….) Also, I’d have liked them to at least get through “Drops of the Rosary,” but that’s the romantic in me talking.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 9

Wow, it’s been a year and a half since the last volume of manga. I’m glad they brought it back, especially as this story focuses on Shimako and Noriko, who are such a great souer couple.





Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st Blu-Ray (English) Guest Review by Richard B.

December 8th, 2010

 Today is Wednesday and you know what that means – a special guest review treat! Richard B. has been a commenter here several times and, as I will not get to see this BD until the new year, I thought I’d let him give us his two Canadian cents before I have a go at it. Take it away, Miwa!

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st is a retelling of the events of the first Nanoha TV series. While this may not seem like a good thing, it does pay to remember that back in 2004 the first Nanoha TV season was a scattered mess. As a spinoff from the Triangle Hearts adult game series the first few episodes were nothing more than a bad Card Captor Sakura clone. With a few unsavoury elements left over from its source material.

It wasn’t until later on in the series when Fate was introduced, that the things became interesting. She was a dark, mysterious magical girl with a troubled past, fighting our main character. So the first thing fandom did was pair them together as a couple. Add in the fact the battles in the final few episodes were done in more of a shounen giant robot style (complete with giant beam attacks) and the series took a complete 180-degree turn.

With all that and seeing how the later series were more popular and sold better in Japan, you could see why the makers wanted to redo the original material. And, for the most part, Nanoha the Movie is a superior retelling of the 1st chapter in the Nanoha universe.

The movie creators know what the fans in the series want – action and Nanoha/Fate. Luckily we get both fairly quickly into the movie. Fate is introduced much sooner in this version, and set up as the central conflict of the movie (with the Jewel seeds relegated to being a plot McGuffin). The movie handles the two becoming friends through fighting better than the TV series, both with better action scenes and better introspection. The pacing is tighter than original season, which dragged on at the beginning until pace picked up in the last 4 episodes.

The action is more like the later episode of the series, and here is where the movie shows off its big animation budget. The final battle between Fate and Nanoha in particular is well done and I had a big smile on my face while watching it.

There are some new original scenes, including some nice bits showing Fate’s past and training. But the character most benefiting from the new material is Precia, whose motivations are  given more detail as is the accident she had her in past. It fleshes her out greatly and makes for a much better character over all.

Most of the more unsavoury stuff from the original is gone, too. Except for the transformation scenes which were pretty ick. Thankfully, they only appear once for each of the leads.

The Blu-Ray version of the movie comes with an English subtitle track that is fairly well done. Except for a few nits (Arf is called Alf and the TSAB is called the DAB) it’s well written and easy to understand. The subtitle font is middle of the road, readable but I would have rather had either a bigger black outline or a non-white font color. The picture and sound quality is amazing though, as colors stand out and the animation quality never dips for the battle scenes, showing what BluRay can do for animation.

Nanoha the Movie fixes a lot of the problems I had with the first season, keeps the elements I liked and adds even more of what I wanted. It reminded me why Nanoha/Fate became the first Yuri couple I really liked. I hope we see the same budget and care given to StrikerS when it gets a movie. Highly recommended to Nanoha fans.

Art – 8
Story – 7 (Better than the TV but still the weaker of the 3 series)
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7 (Alot more than the first TV series)
Service – 8 –

Overall – 8

I’m told that the 2nd movie has been greenlit (presumably because this movie is doing well in DVD/BD sales, so good!) Next up is As, where we’ll be treated to the reimagined Knights and Hayate. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it’s as good a reboot as this appears to be!