Archive for the Sasamekikoto Category


Yuri Kisses and Free Membership from Crunchyroll

December 16th, 2009

Crunchyroll online video service and community invites you to share some Yuri kisses and enter to win a 6 month membership on Crunchyroll!

To celebrate the end of the autumn anime season, from December 16th at 12PM PST until December 28th at 12PM PST, users are encouraged to watch the hit Yuri anime, Sasamekikoto.

Members will be shown five different “kiss” scenes that appear in various episodes. Send in the episode # and the exact time that the kiss appears. If you get all five correct, you will automatically be entered to win a SIX-month premium membership at Crunchyroll! Crunchyrollwill be giving away two memberships. Visit Crunchyroll for more information.

Share your love of Yuri and win!

About Sasamekikoto:

Sumika is in love with her best friend Ushio who only likes cute girls. Tall, athletic smart Sumi is anything but cute. Sasamekikoto (“The thing that is whispered”) is a Yuri love comedy of errors about girls who love girls….even the ones that don’t love them back.





Yuri Anime: Sasamekikoto (English)

October 23rd, 2009

What an amazing year. Not only have we had a ton of Yuri in anime in general, we had the delightful and lovely Aoi Hana and now…unbelievably, in English, for free, legally streamed to our computers, the Yuri comedy-drama Sasamekikoto. It’s like a dream state. ^_^

In short, Sasamekikoto, the “thing that is whispered,” is a story about Murasame Sumika who is in love with her best friend, Kazama Ushio. It’s a hopeless love because, despite the fact that Ushio loudly proclaims that she likes girls, she only likes cute, petite girls. Tall, athletic, hypercompetent Sumi just isn’t cute and frilly, the way Ushio likes them. May I just editorialize for a moment and say Ushio’s an *idiot.* Sumi is perfect.

The first few episodes start off on a dour note, with Sumika pining away for an oblivious Ushio, who appears to fall for a new girl each week. The first few episodes follow the manga pretty closely, so I don’t expect too much change as the story goes on.

Sasamekikoto is surprisingly richly animated, well voiced by a mostly-new cast and is an interesting take on a variety of Yuri tropes. Best friend, one-sided love, cross-dressing, and more to come. (For all full breakdown of all the tropes, check out my review of Volume 2 of the manga.) Although the story is decidedly melodramatic, it has pretty steep ups and downs of comedy and drama to manage, which it does pretty well.

The only real negative I can muster for Sasamekikoto is that I suddenly realized – I don’t like Ushio. Yet. Sumi beating the crap out of the bag in karate made me realize that I really *like* Sumi and want to slap Ushio. It’s a sign of a good story that I’m feeling anything at all about any of the characters, so bravo for the anime producers.

And bravo for Crunchyroll, who continue to invest in Yuri! They’ve told me that they have a genuine interest in building up the Yaoi and Yuri audiences, and I’m very excited to see that they are putting their money where their mouth is. Now we, the Yuri-viewing audience, needs to do the same.

I know, I know, the licensing doesn’t cover huge swatches of the planet. Trust me – if they could get those covered, they would. But for those of us in the US and Oceania – here it is, Yuri. For Free. In English. One hour after it airs in Japan. Support this please, because the better their numbers are – the more they will get. It’s really *that* simple.

For the price of a sandwich a month, you get good Yuri like Sasamekikoto and Aoi Hana and really stupid Yuri like Koihime Musou and not Yuri, but really, like it needs to be any more weird than it is, like Book of Bantorra. (What? You’re not watching it? Oh, you should be…it’s absolutely dreadful. Laughably, hilariously so. And Paku Romi as Hamutz Meseta. There are no other reasons needed to watch this.)

Watch Sasamekikoto and collect the whole set of Yuri Tropes!

Ratings:

Art – 8, with a few obvious cost-saving measures
Story – 7
Characters – 7, but they will get better
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 7.5

Teenaged girls with wildly roller-coastering emotions? Ridiculous.

Joshibu ahoy!

…

I like Tomoe and Miyako best, if anyone cares.





Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, Volume 5 (ささめきこと)

October 6th, 2009

In Volume 4, we left Ushio and Sumika not actually saying anything important to one another. Now, in Volume 5 of Sasamekikoto (ささめきこと), the walls between them are not getting any easier to get past.

In fact, it’s safe to say that this entire volume follows two young women who have something *incredibly* important to say to one another, who both find a myriad of ways to not say anything at all.

They smile at one another, and pretend that there’s nothing wrong, but they both hate it. They hate what it’s doing to them. Even more – they hate what it is doing to the other. They can *see* that the other one is suffering, but they are completely paralyzed and unable to say anything that needs to be said. They each hate the fake smiles and brave face the other wears. Most importantly, they each blame themselves for the other’s unhappiness.

Most fans will find this volume frustrating, but it serves two distinct purposes. The first, and most reality-based, is that it indicates that the series is in for a longer haul. No longer is this the goofy love-comedy of two girls in love but who can’t figure it out. Now it is a longer series, full of do-ra-ma, about two girls who are in love but can’t figure it out. Since we’ve made it to 5 volumes, I’d expect at least a few more tear-soaked volumes before it all gets settled.

The second purpose is that the story has, in effect, to be rewritten. The first three volumes were silly. They set up a bunch of untenable Yuri tropes that, one at a time, have been set aside for the more realistic, more dramatic “real” story line. In this volume “Akemi”s modeling career comes to an end, and all the characters but a few – including the actual lesbian couple, who can see the problem easily enough – seem to shift back slightly to allow room for the full-on misery of Ushio and Sumi simply not talking about what’s on their mind.

In the middle of throngs of people, even standing right next to one another, Ushio and Sumi are lonely. Right now they are struggling to find who they themselves are and if they can do that, then they might be able to find one another. Or, well, that’s what I’d do if I were writing this manga.

This series is becoming better on the one side, because it’s dealing with the real gap between knowing what you want and being able to accept that that is what you want, in a world that does not approve of such things. On the other, it’s really annoying because I hate mopey characters. ^_^;

However, I’m more than willing to give Ushio and Sumi some time to get over themselves. I eagerly look forward to the next volume in which I think a *terrible crisis* will rear it’s ugly head. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 8

More volumes means more teenaged moping.





Sasamekikoto Anime on Crunchyroll

October 6th, 2009

I’m pleased to report that Crunchyroll has obtained the license (limited to US and Oceania this time… don’t blame them, blame stupid country licensing issues) to Yuri anime Sasamekikoto. Here’s hoping that the anime captures the book’s zaniness without losing the solid emotional story in the back and vice versa, that it doesn’t wallow without the comedy to temper it.

In honor of the news, I’ll review Volume 5 later today. :-)

I just love their press release that says this series is “one of the most famed yuri manga of all time in Japan.” LOL I’m thinking not so much, really. But, yay for Yuri fans anyway. :-)

So, what do you think is the “most famed Yuri manga of all time”?





Yuri Network News – September 19, 2009

September 19th, 2009

Yuri Games

One of the biggest news items this week is the Sasamekikoto kissing game application for iPhone and iPod touch. It’s available with English subtitles and apparently Ushio and you get to practice kissing until her mask dissappears. As you might remember, a Sasamekikoto anime is due out soon, so this is an interesting way to promote it. The game is free to download. Ted the Awesome shared his experience with the app on the Yuricon Mailing List: “Just put two fingers together, put it where you think the lips are behind the mask and gently move the fingers away from each other and than move the away from the screen. The moment your fingers no longer touch the screen is when the ‘kiss’ is counted for. I scored 100 at least four times and got some bonuses.

The more you kiss her, the more her mask becomes transparent. If you’re a good kisser throughout, she’ll even take the mask off. The more points you score, the more character profiles shots you unlock.

It also comes with a Manga preview. Not too bad for a free little app.”

Also rocking the Japanese games world right now is Love Plus, a DS Game in which you court and date any one of three girls. I first read about this game in a blog written by a Japanese lesbian who confirmed what seemed obvious to me – by its nature, if you’re a woman playing this, it’s an insto Yuri game. :-)

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Yuri Anime

Crunchyroll has announced that they are streaming Koi Hime Musou. The description was so cute, pretending it had anything really to do with Romance of Three Kingdoms. :-)

On the Japan side, a series called Working!, which has been on a number of Yuri lists there, is getting an anime. Take a look at the (so far, sparse) website for yourself.

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Yuri Live Action

Here was my crazy news find for the week! I was doing something I have not done in about a year – surfing the internet. (I know, wild, huh?) and I came across this – a NEW Hana no Asuka-gumi Live Action Movie! It’s real and it looks totally legit. What Hana no Asuka-gumi NEO! does not look, is good. :-) It also looks like it couldn’t be less like the Asuka I know, but hey, the first Asuka live action movie….that was no masterwork, let me tell you. (And I always hear the Rolling Stone’s “Satisfaction” when I think of it. lol) Miko seems to be a major character in this new version and Hime makes an appearance, but no Yohko. OTOH, the bad guy looks psycho enough for fun.

I’ll see about getting a copy and reviewing it for you.

And, amazingly, while we’re on the topic of series that will not die, there’s new news about the Live Action Bubblegum Crisis movie. Apparently the project is alive and using the weirdest way possible to recruit staff. :-)

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Snatches of Yuri

Tamatamato follows the romance of a diminutive miko and a school girl and zOMG they kiss!

Beni! Aina Jogakuen is a Japanese “Plot What Plot” taking place at a school, at which sex occurs. The school name is…sexually suggestive. There is bondage and highly unrealistic body proportions.

In Yuki no Saku ni ha – Suddenly Chihiro’s life is disrupted by the appearance of a Yuki-Onna (a snow spirit) who moves in with her and starts to act like her wife. Clearly this is all that is needed for love to bloom between Yuki and Chihiro.

And to end on a pleasant note, there’s Nagisa no HaiQ-bu a 4-panel series about a girl, Nagisa, who joins the Beach Volleyball club and who falls for fellow team member, Akira.

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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.)

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!