Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Manga: Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan, Volume 1

August 31st, 2009

At last.

In a small, friendly town, down at the end of the main street, in a spot just by the edge of the park, is a shop where you can sit and relax and have a cup of excellent tea. It’s called the Ame-iro Kouchakan, The Amber Teahouse, and the series is Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan (飴色紅茶館歓談). This volume tells the story of this store and the people who make it so wonderful.

The store owner is Seriho, a sweet, somewhat helpless woman. Luckily for her, she is assisted in the day-to-day operations of the shop by one very intelligent young lady, Sarasa. Sarasa, it is soon apparent, has a second agenda. It is not just the tea shop she loves, but the tea shop’s owner.

This first collected volume follows Sarasa and Seriho as they wrangle with the complexities of running the tea shop and with their feelings for each other. The story of how Sarasa became an employee, originally told in the second [es] Eternal Sisters anthology is gathered here, as is the fateful story in which Sarasa and her friends forever change the destiny of the Amber Teahouse with a Tanabata special, that originally ran as a Yuri Hime extra comic.

Seriho seems to be a natural doofus, and one is never *quite* sure if she is aware of Sarasa’s feelings for her but, then, one is never *quite* sure what her feelings for Sarasa are, either. She likes her, that much is obvious. When Seriho comes right out and asks Sarasa to be by her side for 50 years, it’s really hard to know if she means it the way we think she does.

Sarasa is besotted, full stop. She changes her college plans to be by Seriho’s side for those 50 years. I think if they were to actually kiss, she might pass out. In fact, I really try hard to not think about that inevitable moment. I leave it in the future where it belongs. I did very much enjoy the part where Haru physically holds her back from using her free time on the school trip to run back to town, just to see Seriho. Also kudos to her parents for suggesting she stay out all night with her friend – Go Mom and Dad!

Sarasa’s classmates Haru, who runs the website Jinx, and Hinoka, are a not-quite couple. Hinoka seems to be sure that Haru has a thing for her, and Haru is just as sure that she does not. ;-)

The final chapter of this volume is the inevitable cross-over with Alice Quartet, so Fujieda can play dress up with his characters. A harmless little obsession of his that I forgive because he’s got good design sense.

This is quite possibly the most moe thing I like, and I chalk it up to Fujieda’s great characters because, let’s face it, the story goes like this – Seriho is cutely helpless and Sarasa helps her out. ^_^ However, the tension between them is undeniable (so much so that characters from other Fujieda series point it out all the time!) and while they are unlikely to share more than that damnable chaste kiss, I do not care one whit. (From the Anglo-Saxon wiht, for “amount.” Let it never be said that Okazu is not educational.)

Yuri in this series is a pervasive atmosphere, rather than a single event or couple. The teahouse may be called “Amber” but it is the scent of lilies that flows through the door onto the street. Despite their age difference, Sarasa and Seriho make a good couple and I look forward to seeing them getting together body, mind and soul, since they already have two out of the three covered. :-)

What was left undone in my review of these stories uncollected can now be done:

Ratings:

Art – At its nadir 5, at its zenith 8, but forever and always very moe.
Story – There is no story, but it’s an 8 anyway. ;-)
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 8 with a hope that future volumes push up to 9.

“At last” I said, and I meant it. It’s nice to have the whole story in one handful now, and not running about all over the place in pieces. ^_^





Yuri Network News – August 15, 2009

August 15th, 2009

There’s just under a week left in the YNN logo contest, so if you have a logo you’d like to send in, get it in by August 20th! I’ll run entries next Saturday and you can pick the one you like best.

Now – on to the news!

Yuri Manga

Yuri Monogatari 6 has finally made it on to Amazon Japan, so if your Japanese penpals are looking for a copy, they can now order it locally!

Some titles that you ought to keep your heads up for are:

Octave 3 – We’ll finally get to see what happens after Yukino makes her decision at the concert.

Tsubomi 3 – There’s been some excitement about this volume, as artist Ohishi Masaru has been added to the lineup.

Choir 2 – No one really cares about this, but the first volume wasn’t that sucky and the girl got the girl, so Vol. 2. Let’s see if that develops at all.

And Girlfriends 3 – So, now we can wallow as Acchan tortures herself. ;-)

***

Yuri Anime

Komatsu-san of Ultimo Spalpeen tells me that in the UK there is some noise about a reissue of Sailor Moon on DVD. He’s wondering if/when the US will follow suit – well, we’re wondering too! Funimation had thrown Sailor Moon onto a wish list poll and had an overwhelming response to it. They have said that they cannot get it yet, but are looking into the possibility. I say we keep up the pressure and remind them every other month on Twitter. ^_^

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Yuri Drama CD

Anonymous says that a “Rakka Ryuusui Variety CD is coming out this weekend for Comiket 76 (14-16 August). Details can be found here.

Those who can’t get it at C76 (most of us) can probably get it on 26 August from the Animate Shop.

From the little that I know, there is at least a new drama track as well as a duet between Akiho and Minatsu. My suspicion is that there’s going to be some light Yuri between Akiho and Minatsu, and Yuu and Akatsuki.

The voicing cast are the same as the previous Drama CDs:
Nakahara Mai as Hayama Akiho
Endou Aya as Hokaze Minatsu
Matsuoka Yuki as Kusaba Haruka
Kaneda Tomoko as Shimotsuki Mafuyu
Sawashiro Miyuki as Gojyou Yuu
Nabatame Hitomi as Ayase Akatsuki”

Thanks, Anonymous for the tip!

***

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent and let me know what Yuri-f’avored news you come across. Send emails to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. If you send your news tip in as a comment, I might forget. Email is a better way to remind me to post your news. :-)

Thanks again to everyone who contributes and makes this a great Yuri Network!

 





Interview with Gunjo’s Nakamura Ching

August 9th, 2009

You may or may not remember that my love affair with Gunjo began when I received a message on Mixi from a young manga artist, asking if I’d be interested in a non-moe Yuri manga.

Obviously, I was.

A few weeks ago I asked Nakamura-sensei if she didn’t mind, could she answer a few questions for us here at Okazu. Although she is very busy, she graciously took some time out to answer a few questions – I hope you will enjoy this interview as much as I did!

 

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——————————————————-
Q1: Please Tell Us About Yourself
——————————————————-

I was born in June, 1985. I am 24 years old.
When I was 18 I drew my first manga, I made my debut at 20.
My favorite foods are Indian and Mexican. I like Japanese food, too.
My hobby is travel but, because I’m busy, I haven’t been able to go anywhere.
My favorite movies are The Namesake, KILL BILL, Roman Holiday, Bella Martha.
I love dogs, I have 2.
I have begun to study English, because it has become troublesome that I do not speak any English.
Recently, I have been corresponding with an older woman from America.
We discuss the joy of old age. And about things like dreams for the future, and living peacefully.

 

——————————————————-
Q2: How did you become a mangaka? Was it a childhood dream?
——————————————————-

I did not attend college, because I had no money to go to school.
When I was seventeen, I left school before graduation and took a part time job.
I wanted to obtain a job in a respectable company but, because I did not have the educational background (Japan is still a society where one’s educational record counts. I have had hardly any formal schooling) I thought I would look for a job where education didn’t matter, work that anyone might be able to get.
At first, I thought I might become an illustrator.
A friend said, “You should become a mangaka,” so I enrolled in a manga trade school for a year. (From the end of my 18th year into my 19th year.)
My childhood dream was to become a high school teacher, or be staff at a children’s home.

 

——————————————————-
Q3: Which artists are your role models?
——————————————————-

The artists who influence me most when I draw manga and write stories are neither mangaka, nor artists; they are those who write songs, are poets, novelists, and photographers.
Nakajima Miyuki, Yoshioka Osamu, Kumi (LOVE PSYCHEDELICO)…Song writers.
Mishima Yukio, Kajii Motojiro, Watanabe Junichi, Tendo Arata…Novelists.
Horiguchi Daigaku, Yoshiwara Sachiko, Taneda Santoka…Poets
Kuwabara Kineo, Hosoe Eiko…Photographers.

The artists that I think are really the most wonderful are my assistants who draw the backgrounds for Gunjo. I hold the pictures they draw in higher esteem than those by any painter. I am very proud to be working together with these ladies.

My favorite overseas artists are Eugene Delacroix, John William Waterhouse, Gustave Moreau.
My favorite Japanese artists are Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Nagaswa Rosetsu, Ito Jakuchu, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
My favorite manga artists are Ikeda Riyoko, Miuchi Suzue, Yamamoto Sumika, Yoshinaga Fumi.

 

——————————————————-
Q4: If you were not a mangaka, what kind of work would you be doing?
——————————————————-

Child welfare work or international welfare work.
Or, I wanted to become a teacher.
I think there’s nothing more important than raising a child with love (sooner or later, that child becomes an adult who bears the burden of society.)

 

——————————————————-
Q5: What were your motivations for creating Gunjo?
——————————————————-

I wanted to draw the keen loneliness of a lonely person.
I wanted to turn our kindness and cruelty (the kinds of emotions that we can’t control with our own wills) into a manga.
And also, because I am gay.
Living a life of hiding I was gay was unpleasant, so I wanted to give myself the chance to admit I was gay.

 

——————————————————-
Q6.1: Please tell us a little bit about your process.
How long does a chapter take to draw? What is the first step, what is the final step?
——————————————————-

The time it takes to draw a chapter depends on the content and the number of pages.

First of all, the script, story and any other ideas I have are written down on paper. (I use B4 size paper and a mechanical pencil to draw.)
I don’t write neatly. Whenever I think of something, I write single-mindedly.

After that, when the idea has been organized, it is called “Name” and the storyboard of the manga is drawn.
(The panel arrangement, script, people’s movements, 90% – 100% of these are decided at the “Name” step.)
Name is first drawn small on a big piece of paper, like a thumbnail.
This is revised many times and when I think “This can’t be fixed anymore,” Name is drawn neatly on a large piece of paper. (I draw on a piece of B4 copy paper folded into 2.
When Name is completely drawn on the large paper, it is sent to the Editor in charge of the Editorial department.
When this has been checked, I start work on the manuscript.
First, the paper is divided into the panels、and I draw the frames of the panels with a felt-tip pen.
From there I use a mechanical pencil to draw the rough sketch.
The rough sketch is inked, then screentone is applied and it’s done.
After that, the script is added, then it is passed to the editor. Afterwards it is printed and it becomes a book.

——————————————-

This ↑ Name
In the magazine becomes this ↓.

——————————————-

This ↑ Name
In the magazine becomes this ↓.

——————————————-

This ↑ Name
In the magazine becomes this ↓.

——————————————-

The last thing I do is check the work in the printed manga.
The kind of things that are checked are that the screentone was applied properly, or that the art is drawn well. Or any mistakes in the script.
Any inconvenient points or faults will be corrected when it is made into a tankoubon.

 

——————————————————-
Q6.2: (Please tell us a little bit about your process.)
How many assistants work with you?
——————————————————-

Currently, I have 3 main assistants.
(Up until now I had 5 people, but recently 2 retired.)
Nakayama Aya, Wakayama Yoshiko, Kumazawa Sayuri.
The Gunjo title page in the magazine will always list their names.
And from time to time, Nakazawa Tomoko comes to help.
Therefore, 3-4 people total.
They are women, ranging from 22～30 years old.
Without my main assistants (Regulars*), it would not be possible to finish up a manuscript.
When I’m very busy, I employ a number of freelance assistants to help out.

 

The number of assistants depends on the number of pages and the number of days until the deadline. A 32-page chapter and a 72-page chapter will need a different number of people to work on it.

* Assistants who always help out are called “Regulars” 「レギュラー」 in the Japanese Manga Industry. People you call only when you’re very busy are called “Help”「ヘルプ」.

 

by CHIEF ASSISTANT/ NAKAYAMA Aya (outline)

 

by WAKAYAMA Yoshiko (outline), NAKAZAWA Tomoko (screentone)

 

by KUMAZAWA Sayuri (outline and screentone)

 

I trust their skill and natures.
Therefore, I don’t give them much direction.
I rely on their sense.

That way, they can achieve the picture I want to see.

If reference material is needed, I do the research, take a picture with a camera, buy a book or search on the Internet.

This is a reference picture I took in Tokyo.
(東京浅草・吾妻橋／Asakusa, TOKYO, AZUMABASHI bridge)

This is the line drawing drawn by my assistant.

It’s completed with the addition of screentones.
(On this scene of a rainy day, after the tone was added, the rain was drawn in.)

 

——————————————————-
Q7: How has Gunjo been received by the Japanese audience? Is it popular? What kind of reactions have Japanese readers had to it?
——————————————————-

People who like Gunjo, love it, people who do not like Gunjo, hate it.

(Note from Erica: Ironically, the day before I received these responses from Nakamura-sensei, I had said the *exact* same thing to someone.)

 

——————————————————-
Q8: What was your reaction upon seeing the Gunjo cover of Morning 2 magazine? What did you feel when you saw it?
——————————————————-

Happy.
The readers thought there were pros and cons.
However, I also thought there were pros and cons.
When the cover went to print, the editorial office made a regrettable error in the spelling of the title.
When I saw that it had been spelled GUNJ”Y”O, I was surprised.
The correct version is GUNJO.

 

——————————————————-
Q9: Why don’t the protagonists have names?
——————————————————-

For the moment, the names of all the characters is a secret known only to me.
It will be revealed to the public in the final section of the tankoubon (probably.) However, this will be an omake.
Within the story of Gunjo, I didn’t feel that there was a necessity for the characters to have names; to the very end, they are not called by name.

When I am drawing the manuscript with the assistants, or meeting with the editors, them having no names is inconvenient so, we call BL “Les-san” and BN “Megane-san.” Because BL is a Lesbian and in chapters 1-7, BN wore glasses.

There are two reasons they don’t have names.
My Editor-in-chief said, “The characters names are an important element of manga.”
“If the character names stand out, or they aren’t good names, the manga will not become popular.”
I thought, how ridiculous, what a foolish idea. Therefore no names are used in this manga.

Also, BL’s feelings, BN’s feelings, are not only theirs.
Their feelings resemble the feelings of many people in the world.
BL’s or BN’s feelings might resemble the way you feel,
Gunjo is not only a story for BL and BN, but it is a story for you.
Therefore, BL and BN (and also BL’s former lover) in the manga don’t really need to be called by a specific name.
You only have to read to think that you are them.
When BN calls “Hey” looking for a reply, it’s not to BL, it’s you.
If BN uses BL’s name, then you won’t be able to respond.
When BL calls out “Hey,” the reply isn’t from BN, it’s from you.
If BL uses BN’s name, then you won’t be able to respond.

 

——————————————————-
Q10: What question do you have for overseas fans of Gunjo?
——————————————————-

When you read Japanese manga, how do you read it?
Can you read Japanese from the start? Or do you use a dictionary? Or do you just look at the pictures?

 

——————————————————-
Q11: What message do you have for overseas fans?
——————————————————-

If you have any impressions or opinions, absolutely please let me know.
Or, please tell me about yourself.
Where do you live, how old are you, where you work, what kind of person is reading my manga, I always want to know that kind of thing.
In Japanese, English, there is no problem with either.
If you want to use email, please send it using the mail form on my website. (http://ching.tv)
Handwritten letters are also welcome.
Kodansha Ltd. “MORNING 2”
(GUNJO Nakamura Ching)
2-12-21, Otowa, Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo 112-8001 JAPAN
I will personally read the letters and emails you send myself.

 

***

Thank you so very, very much, Nakamura-sensei for taking time out of your tight schedule to answer these questions and share so much of yourself with us! We all look forward to the tankoubon of Gunjo. And thank you for all the wonderful pictures, that allow us a glimpse into your work.

I hope you, my dear readers, will all send letters to Nakamura-sensei and tell her about yourselves. :-)

(And some extra super sparkly thanks to Erin S who helped me out with a bit of the translation.)

 





Yuri Network News – August 8, 2009

August 8th, 2009

It’s a lazy summer day, let’s start off with news for the lazy!

Yuri Anime

The Anime Network has announced that in celebration of National Lazy Day on August 10, they are offering all of its online content, including “premium” content, for free. There a number of Yuri offerings in their catalog – they are an ADV company after all.

YNN Chief correspondent Sean G also wants to add that ADV has added Revolutionary Girl Utena to their Anime Network Cable VOD, Satellite VOD
Also from Sean “per Right Stuf’s site, a My-Otome Complete Collection box is out 10/20 as part of the ‘Anime Legends’ series. Run time seems to suggest this is just the TV series, not including the OAVs.”

***

Snatches of Yuri

You probably dont even remember this manga, but almost exactly a year ago, I reviewed a title called Kaprekar, about two girls who are so close that when they kiss they become a magical being and defeat the bad guys. It’s up to Volume 3 now. The girls really love one another. They kiss and defeat magical beings. And they are still in debt. The end.

For those of you who just can’t get enough of that good ole’ not quite ambiguous Yuri in Light Novel form here’s another series for you – Otome Unmei Ayameno, which appears to be about school girls. No, really.

Don’t think the moe crowd is being forgotten yet. Your love of toddler-esque art is still the meme du jour. Enjoy yourself with >Sekai Seifuku Kirara Jogakukan, a series about Yuri among schoolgirls…etc, etc.

Another Ryuu magazine comic series (Ryuu is right up there with Mangatime KR for having loads of Yuri or Yuri-ish stories) Hinagiku Junshin Jogakuen is more of the same but different. It’s also getting a *lot* of play on the Yuri blogs, so I’m guessing it might be closer to having some actual relationship.

If I’m reading this right, Deragui is about a high school girl who falls for a girl who likes to eat a lot.

As an aside, some years ago I stopped reading mysteries when I noticed that all the detectives now needed a “hook.” This one was “ex-cop with a dark past” and that one was a “cookbook writer who just falls into trouble” and I gave it all up as a bad job. Yuri is sort of heading in that direction now. There’s *so* many schoolgirl Yuri stories that it’s in that “vampire schoolgirl Yuri” and “girls with names that are colors Yuri” phase. :-)

Just to change the pace, Fura Furu, while the series seems to be about girls, not women, does not appear to be a typical Yuri schoolgirl story. In fact, it looks kind of intriguing. The first volume appears to be hard to find, so I’m linking to the second volume, which is available. It’s a Mangtime CR 4-koma, so you know basically what it’ll be like.

***

That seems like enough for today. The sun is shining, the air is clear, I don’t want to spend all morning writing this report. :-)

Remember, send in a news item to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com and become a YNN correspondent. We couldn’t do it without you!





Gunjo, Chapters 10-13

August 6th, 2009

I haven’t talked about Gunjo (new spelling courtesy of the editors of Morning 2 magazine) in a while. It’s not because it stopped running, although there was a hiatus for a bit of the spring.

It was because, simply, I couldn’t. I could not write about what is arguably the most amazing story I have ever read, bar none.

I tried to verbalize why this was yesterday to the wife and began to cry, because I just couldn’t talk about it.

I last left you after the two protagonists spend a night of loss, love, passion and pain, after we get a glimpse into the lives they’ve put behind them, and watch as the blonde’s former lover is forced by her sheer misery to come out to her parents – who kinda knew and, really kind of liked the blonde.

That’s when this story went from really amazing to sublime. And that’s when I became incapable of writing about it.

The morning after, the protagonists, whom I have given the horrible nicknames BL (Blonde) and BN (Brunette), walk away. I mean that literally. They take a look at the blood they’ve left on the sheets and the towels, and the destruction they’ve caused in the room during their various tantrums, and they drop their purses, and every yen they have on the bed…then they walk away. And almost immediately, a policeman sees them and calls out after them.

They run. They run hard, suddenly realizing that they want freedom…and, when a train nearly hits BL and BN leaves even her shoes behind to run fast enough to save her, they realize that they want to live.

They spend the night wandering in the cold rain. BN is shoeless, and getting a cold as the night wears on. Almost immediately, before they’ve even been able to taste it, their freedom swirls away down the sewer. This was a 72 page chapter – it was indescribable. I felt utterly exhausted and breathless after reading it. They are clearly at their end of their very short ropes, when BL finds a coin and uses it to make a phone call.

She calls her brother. He’s amazed to hear from her and comes to get the two of them. As it happens, it’s her nephew’s birthday so, while BN huddles miserably in the car, BL spends a few happy hours with her brother’s family, coming out to him and his wife. “What’s it like, being a lesbo?” he asks, then apologizes.

BN, filled with misery and self-loathing and a head cold wants out. But BL is driving them both – somewhere.

And here we are, waiting on what will probably be the penultimate or ultimate chapter. I still don’t know how this will end, but I have no doubt that it will be epic. And beyond that, I await – as I hope you do – the collected volume with bated breath.

This really is not Top 10 for 2009 material – this is Top Ten for my entire life material. I’ve never loved such loathsome people so much.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 10
Characters – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 1

Overall – 10