Archive for the Series Category


Viz on the Sailor Moon License

May 17th, 2014

I’m sure that you have wondered how Viz would be approaching the Sailor Moon license. Of all the anime distributors in the US, Viz probably has the least experience with Yuri. Was this going to be another DiC hack job or “girl on girl”-type translation the way ADV used to handle Yuri?

Well…let me quote to you from the press release Viz just sent out:

Neon Alley will be streaming Sailor Moon starting on Monday. This newly remastered version will be uncut.  This version will revert back to the original Japanese names, genders and relationships. So Zoisite and Fish Eye are totally dudes, and Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune are not cousins. You can do the math from there. 

The announcement trailer makes their point very clearly.

uncut





Yuri Network News (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 17, 2014

May 17th, 2014

YNN_LissaWhat a week for Yuri fans!

Yuri Anime

Whatever the new Sailor Moon brings us, we’ll always have the original Sailor Moon anime…which Viz has just licensed! For the first time, we’ll be getting all 200 episodes/ 5 seasons of the original anime (so all you Starlights fans will finally get your darlings!) all the movies (of which 2 aren’t bad) an at last, the Super S Specials will get an official release here in the US,  so you’ll all get to experience Michiru saying “A world without Haruka is not a world worth saving.” ^_^ The new release will have new subtitles and dub, so no more cousins. ^_^

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Yuri Manga

The English-language edition of Sasamekikoto, Whispered Words,  hit the shelves this week, with the first omnibus volume containing Volumes 1-3 of the Japanese edition. Volume 2, which is slated for an autumn 2014 release, is already up for pre-order.

If the cover of Manga no Tsukurikata, Volume 8 (まんがの作り方) is not lying (and I am betting it is), a thing might happen. … Nah…

I love the cover design for Takemiya Jin’s game, which hits shelves today. Totally unlike her previous works.

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Other News

Speaking of Sailor Moon, S.H. Figuarts has released the Sailors Uranus and Neptune figurine prototypes.

All-female musical theater troupe Takarazuka has apparently been pretty successful with their game and anime cross-overs and are planning a version of Monkey Punch’s epic Lupin III.

On a much more serious note, the Tokyo Metropolitan government has flexed its legal muscled and demanded the removal of a manga from Amazon’s Kindle platform. Here’s your slippery slope…regardless of your feelings about the content, we have to support its right to exist.  This is exactly what freedom of expression must mean, now and forever.

On the business side, Kadokawa and Dwango, the company that operates NicoNico Douga, are merging operations. IF anything could be said to be an anime media domination move, this is pretty much it.

Filing this under “When you chose not to decide, you still have made a choice” Nintendo dropped the ball when they announced that their new sim-style game Tomodachi Life would not include same-sex relationships. They didn’t mean to make a statement, they said, but ended up making a statement by not doing so. Ultimately they apologized. They can’t change the game that is shipping now, but the option will be considered for the next build.

One of my favorite “5th column” manga magazines, Manga Erotics F (home of Aoi Hana) is closing up shop this summer for good. I’ll hope that they will transition the content style to a new home for wtf  manga and stories that fit nowhere in particular.

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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!





Yuri Manga Whispered Words (Sasamekikoto) is On Sale Now in English

May 16th, 2014

Sumi is in love with her best friend, Ushio. Ushio likes girls but has publicly declared her interest is in “cute girls”. Unfortunately for Sumi, she’s not small and cute – she’s tall, athletic, and forthright by nature.  In Whispered Words, all the tropes of Yuri gather together in a solid dramedy that provides readers  the darkest depths and the highest heights of each trop possible

Whispered Words  is the English language release of popular Yuri manga series Sasamekikoto, by Takashi Ikeda, put out by One Peace Books.  Volume 1 contains the first three volumes of the Japanese series and will be followed by Volume 2 (JP volumes 4-6, which is now up for pre-order) in Autumn 2014 and Volume 3 (JP Volume 7-9). Here is the link on RightStuf.

We’ll be doing a full review here – and we’ll have a contest giveaway in a bit, but for all you Yuri manga fans who have said many time that if something good got licensed you’d buy it – here’s you big chance to step up.  Scanlations may have left you frustrated, but I guarantee that if you get all 3 volumes of Whispered Words, you will not be disappointed. The story is solid. ^_^

For my reviews of this story in Japanese, check out Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3.

Fly Yuri fans and support good Yuri in English! ^_^





Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica Homura Revenge! Manga, Volume 2 (魔法少女まどか☆マギカ ほむらリベンジ!)

May 4th, 2014

Back in January 2014, I reviewed the first volume of Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica Homura Revenge!, in which we meet Akemi Homura, cycling once again through another version of the story in which she meets Madoka, and desperately tries to keep her from becoming a magical girl. In Volume 2, we pick up as Sayaka and Kyouko face off about which one of them will protect the town.

After Mami’s death, things spiral quickly downward, with Kyouko, Sayaka and Homura in direct competition with one another, despite Madoka’s repeated pleas for them to work together. Sayaka falls first, the victim of over-reaching her limits, Kyouko falls on Walpurgisnacht, leaving Homura alone again to fight…only she finds herself not alone, as Madoka breaks her promise to not become a magical girl.

Madoka and Homura face Walpurgisnacht together (and for once, my timing worked out as I finished this book on Walpurgisnacht, in between dancing with the devil and flying about on my broom) and embrace, as Homura says farewell to Madoka and resets time one more time, to try again and keep Madoka from her fate.

The title is a bit misleading, Homura neither takes revenge, nor has revenge taken on her. This is, more or less, her story, one she has lived over and over again in hopes that she can stop it completely.  And, like so many other iterations of her story, it has no resolution. But for a moment, she and Madoka were able to be together and their hearts were as one.

Ratings:

Art –  6
Story – 7 I was hoping for a stronger ending, but the climax was good.
Characters – Is it just me, or Kyouko gaining prominence with every version?
Yuri – 1 It’s love because the two of them have such strong akashic ties by this point, but I would not say they are “in love”
Service – 1 Almost non-existent, which was kind of nice, especially as I saw some bits of the movie this week at a Japanese bookstore and in less than 5 minutes watched all their breasts bounce at least once and saw a lot of thighs.

Overall – Melancholy, but not bad. 7





Cardcaptor Sakura Anime on Blu-Ray

May 1st, 2014

ccs2 Waaayy back, right after Sailor Moon took the west by storm, almost all of the voice cast were in high demand. A few of them landed in an adorable magical girl anime created by the all-female studio that goes by the name CLAMP…and another blockbuster series was born.

Tokyopop licensed Cardcaptor Sakura, and did a very decent job with it, but it came out just slightly too soon for the big shoujo popularity wave. CCS was infamously licensed for TV as Card Captors, and hacked into pieces, to make the Li Syaoran the lead, instead of the titular character Sakura. I know people who are still angry about that. ^_^

More importantly, this series just had the worst timing ever in terms of the US market. It just sort of disappeared into the gap after Sailor Moon and before Fruits Basket. Then Tokyopop went under and CCS faded away.

But, having hit a major anniversary in Japan, a new premium box set was released there. I’ve had it on my personal wish list of licenses since it was announced and yesterday the news hit – NIS America is releasing a Blu-Ray Premium box set of the Cardcaptor Sakura TV anime, with a dub (that I will never ever listen to. ^_^) I will totally be getting this for a number of reasons:

CLAMP series on Blu-Ray

Yue

Voice actors who win the universe

Gender and age bent relationships up the wazoo

Fabulous story

Did I mention Yue? Really…he’s worth the entire series.

Stolen directly from ANN: The Premium Edition, will be US$249.99, will include all 70 episodes on nine Blu-ray Discs, a 76-page hardcover art book, clean openings and endings, and a collectable slip case. The Standard edition will include three 4-DVD volumes for US$59.99 each. This is slated for an August release.

I know what I’m getting myself as a birthday present.