Archive for the Series Category


Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Manga, Perfect Edition, Volume 6 (美少女戦士セーラームーン)

June 2nd, 2014

In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Manga, Perfect Edition, Volume 6 (美少女戦士セーラームーン), the Death Busters Arc comes to a climax with all of the things happening all at once.

Mistress 9 appears and finds herself locked in a battle for Hotaru’s body with Sailor Saturn…which is really super creepy and could have carried the story by itself if it had had to.

Sailor Moon finds herself powering up yet again, and so much so that she drags all the Senshi with her to “Super” form. Sailor Saturn destroys everything and Sailor Moon saves it and Michiru, Haruka and Setsuna take Hotaru away to raise her as the most awesome alternative family in all of manga. But I’m not biased or anything. ^_^

The story ends with the Outers helicoptering off to their Yuri paradise in the sky. This is still the best arc of the manga, hands down. ^_^

Following all of this is the lead-in to SuperS season, which is my least favorite, so expect me to review it in one fell swoop. But. I find, for some reason unknown to me, Chibi-Usa is not annoying me as much this time around. We’ll see how I feel after re-watching the old anime and being reminded of Araki Kai’s epic whine, if that remains true. ^_^

The extras are another of Chibi-Usa’s diary, this one a little ditty about Sailor Moon souvenir watches and evil energy suckers, and the poignantly sweet story about when Luna falls in love that was turned into the Super S Movie which was really pretty good, actually. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9 (When Saturn swings her Silence Glaive, I get chills)
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2 In Luna’s story, there’s an ever-so-small moment between Haruka and Michiru.
Service – 3 On principle for long legs and short skirts.

Overall – 9

Best cover, some of my favorite artbook images, and generally speaking, the strongest story – Volume 6 is great in reality, not just in memory. ^_^ Many thanks to Okazu Superhero Jye N. for his sponsorship of today’s review!





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