Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Upcoming LGBTQ Comic/Yuri Manga Events

September 21st, 2014

DSCN5321For folks on the East and West Coasts of the USA or in and around Tokyo, Japan, there are a number of events of interest coming up and I *hate* reports that start “Oh, hey, I did the coolest thing this year and forgot to mention it was happening in time for you to plan to be there!” So, in order for some of you to make plans to be at these events, here are several upcoming events that I think you might want to make an effort to attend!

 

GLFes 

October 19, 2014, Yokohama, Japan, Yokohama Minato Mirai, Hall Marineria (横浜みなとみらい・横浜産貿ホールマリネリア)

This is the 12th Girls Love Festival event and it looks fantastic this year.  I think this is their first time in Yokohama, and next year it appears to be back in the Tokyo area. I actually changed my plans this year to attend, because under the GLFes umbrella, one of the events is “Onaji Hoshi ni Umareta Futari” an all-Yuri Sailor Moon doujinshi event. Amano Shuninta-sensei (Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na) did the cover art and I felt almost obliged to be there for the first-ever all-Yuri Sailor Moon event, y’know?  ^_^

The way GLFes works is that there are a bunch of thematically-organized sections. There will be a KanColle “event”, the above-mentioned Sailor Moon section, Sakura Trick, Yuru Yuri, PreCure and whatever other series are popular will get their own sections. Tucked in between are original works which, as you may be aware, is what I like best. ^_^

There are no panels, but I will be with a few folks with coherent Japanese and hope that I can speak to a few of the folks there interviewy-like. Fingers crossed.

 

Geek Girl Con

October 11-12, 2014, Seattle WA, Washington Convention Center

The reason I will not be at NYCC this year is because I am going to Geek Girl Con. This year is the 4th GGC and I wanted to at least experience it once.  Pretty much the entire Panel Schedule is of interest to and focused on Women in fandom, gaming, media, comics, etc. What I’m not seeing a whole lot of is LGBTQ-themed stuff, which sort of surprises me.

Queerbaiting in Genre Television: Representation or Exploitation?

Gaylaxy Quest: Exploring Queer Fantasy and Science Fiction

are the only things I see on the schedule. There is a BL-focused panel. No Yuri, but I wasn’t applying to run one, and there are, as I always say, way more straight girls than gay ones.  There are some “Female Gaze” panels, but from experience I know that those tend to be very straight (and usually pretty objectifying men-focused) and not my cup of tea.

I know The Legend of Bold Riley‘s creator Leia Weathington is supposed to be there and I hope to hang with her and a couple of Friends of Yuri. If you’re gonna be there, do let me know and we’ll make time to catch up and say hi!

 

New York Comic Con 

October 9-12, 2014, Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY

New York Comic Con has gone back and forth on Queer presence and equity of representation, but this year they seem to be making a special effort to have a number of panels on Women in Comics and Geek Media. Here are few you probably don’t want to miss:

Prism Comics Presents: Women in Queer Comics

Women of Color in Comics: Race, Gender and the Comic Book Medium

The Mary Sue Presents – Strong Female Characters: The Women Shining in Geek Media

Because I will be on the other side of the country for the weekend, if you do attend NYCC, (especially any of these panels) and would like to do a write-up of your impressions, please let me know and I’ll give you a quick tutorial on how to write something up! Industry panels are written up by every blogger in the universe, but far fewer people cover the meaty topic-oriented ones. I’d love to have eyes and ears at NYCC. You’ll get a colorful YNN Correspondent badge to display on your webpage or social profile in thanks. ^_^

 

International Manga Festival

November 23, 2014,Ariake, Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Big Sight

The International Manga Festival, aka the Kaigai Fes, is held as a part of Comitia, the biannual all-original doujinshi event. Begun just a few years ago, the Kaigai event is getting larger and more exciting every year. A bit like the opposite side of the TCAF card, the Kaigai Fes has comic artists from outside Japan, and it’s a lot of fun, seeing folks who are bridging the oceans to communicate about comics and comicking.

Comitia itself is a very cool event. Because it focuses on all-original doujinshi, I’ve found some good LGBTQ narratives and some straight-up Yuri as well. Next year I plan on revisiting the Kaigai and Comitia and seeing how far they’ve come. ^_^ If you can’t make it, rest assured, a number of manga bloggers will be covering this event. Keep your eyes especially on Deb Aoki’s Manga Comics Manga site for news and reporting.

 

Winter Comiket

December 28,29,30, Ariake, Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Big Sight

World’s biggest small press and self-published comic show. Makes SDCC look like a baby event. It’s huge, intimidating and electrifying. Everyone who loves comics should do this once. ^_^ There are Yuri parody and original circles, but you have to work at it a bit to find them all.

 

And while this is 6 months out, I want to give you all a heads up for these 2015 events:

Queers & Comics – LGBT Cartoonists’ Conference

May 7-8, 2015, New York, NYC, Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS)
The Graduate Center, CUNY – 365 Fifth Avenue, NYC

The Keynote speakers will be Howard Cruse and Alison Bechdel.  More information can be found on their website or their Facebook page. I’m hoping to be there, although it means I will probably miss TCAF, because the world is like that, but I don’t want to miss it!

 

Toronto Comic Arts Festival

TBA, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I can’t rave enough about TCAF. It’s got a strong manga presence, a strong LGBTQ presence and it’s generally the most fun I have at a North American event. The 2015 dates and location(s) have not yet been announced, but if you can make it, do!

 

So there’s a few vacation ideas for you coming up in the next half year or so. If you’re going to be at Geek Girl Con or GLFes, let me know so I can say hi!

 

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Yuri Manga: Hoshi wo Futari de (星をふたりで)

September 17th, 2014

hwfdKazama Ayami’s Hoshi wo Futari de (星をふたりで) is her first collection of Comic Yuri Hime shorts, although her work has appeared in Volume 9 of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, as well.

To be very honest, I almost stopped reading with the first story, an excruciating tale of a girl who finds it hard to say three words strung together and the girl who gives her a voice, but I’m actually rather glad I kept going. Ria is a transfer student, she and Natsumi bond over the book The Little Prince. Although Natsumi’s reticence is not presented as a condition, I chose to approach her speaking difficulties as if it were a stutter or other speech pathology.  But quickly, my handwave became meaningless, as Natsumi finds her voice, her confdence and her strength – not in Ria, but because of her.

The second story also had roots in a literary reference, as free-spirited Mimori and Sena bond over Miyazawa Kenji’s Night on the Galactic Railroad.

Despite Satsuki’s personality, Airi and she have been friends since childhood. But recently Satsuki’s been even more prickly than usual. Satsuki faces rejection and confesses her feelings, only to find them returned after all.

A popular fashionable girl shakes Chihana’s world, when they end up missing their physicals and having to change together, but it turn out that Hosaka thinks Chihana is cute, too.

Riho is happy for her dear friend Nako, now that she has a boyfriend and is trying really hard to be willing to include him in their together time. Nako finds it all uncomfortable and finally admits that she wants their together time to be for them alone.

The final story returns us to Ria and Natsumi as they spend a lovely day together celebrating Natsumi’s birthday.

The art in this collection is moe, and yet, completely tolerable, once I got used to it. The Yuri is firmly Story A territory, a few embraces, a few kisses, one shirtless scene, but no more, which was a good thing. In fact, in the one shirtless scene, the art style is radically different, so Hosoka looks her age, a touch that worked both for the story and for my mental well-being.

Ratings:

Art – YMMV, but I’ll go so far as to give it a 7
Characters – 7 Better than I imagined
Story -Variable, oh let’s say 7 for these as well
Yuri – 5
Service – 7 for the one scene, 1 for the rest

Overall – 7

While this book won’t make a Top Ten List for me, as a series of shorts, it was pretty enjoyable.





Yuri Manga: Sakura Trick, Volume 2 (桜 Trick)

September 9th, 2014

Sakura Trick 2In Sakura Trick, Volume 2, (桜 Trick) Yuu and Haruka continue to like each other very much. They spend days in school together, holidays, special events, sneaking a kiss in here and there. School play, Christmas, etc.

The other girls know they are a couple, and few of them have even caught the two of the kissing, but there’s no tension. The relationship is hidden more out of expectation that it must be, than for any real reason.

The only plot complication of any kind is the wholly delusional love triangle imagined by Yuu’s older sister Mitsuki. And even that doesn’t really add any dimension to anyone’s life but Mitsuki’s.

Of actual interest, towards the end of the volume Haruka invites Yuu along to a wedding. Not surprisingly, they both float the idea that one day they might want to be have a wedding ceremony.

There’s no real depth here, this series is set firmly in the fantasy-world of a girls’ school in that time between childhood and adulthood. There’s no guys in this world, aside from the occasional brother or father who only show up to provide stereotypical reactions or stimulus for a scene. No one in school is making them unhappy for being together, but no one outside school knows. They speak of a “wedding”, but not of marriage.

Shizuku and Kotone are established as a second couple in their school group, so when we need a break from Yuu and Haruka’s enthusiasm, we can enjoy Shizuku’s reserved nature and Kotone’s maturity.

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Ratings:

Art – 7 It is what it is. If you like, you’ll like it
Characters 7 – Two and half dimensional
Story – 6 I don’t know that it can be better given the setup, but I’d like to see it try a bit
Yuri – 9
Service – 2 Much, much less pervasive than the anime and really, other than the kissing, not hardly there.

Overall – 7

Sakura Trick is a meringue series – sweet, whipped foam, light on the palate, but if you have too much of it at once it leaves you with a heavy feeling.





Yuri Manga: Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 14 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり)

September 8th, 2014

pyah14It was a complete surprise to me that Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 14 was the final issue. Reading this volume, I had the distinct feeling that it came as a surprise to the artists, too.

And it’s a shame, as this volume, the last we’ll ever get, may well have been the overall strongest volume they ever had. But, with the example of Tsubomi already establishing that the Yuri audience, while demanding, is just not really all that big and self-supporting and not willing to support an online commercial venture, I guess Hirari just had nowhere to go.

Especially excellent was Amakure Gido’s opening story, “Watashi Baka”, about a post-high school meeting, and pretty much the entire first half of the volume (with one notable exception of Kurogane Kenn’s really creepy no-context sex scene story) were lovely.

I will look forward to the final wrap-up volumes of a few of these series, and hope that someone develops a valid online alternative for Yuri, as paper is just too damn expensive to be supported by this small audience.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

I admit to being concerned at the contraction of the Yuri market. A number of pro Yuri artists are having their gigs pulled out from under them and are returning to doujinshi. I desperately hope new opportunities open up for them soon, but I’m realistic enough to know my hopes aren’t meaningful in any real sense.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 8 (百合姫 Wildrose)

September 4th, 2014

YWH8The one thing that can incontrovertibly be said about the Yuri Hime Wildrose anthology series is that they embody my definition of Yuri as “lesbian content without lesbian identity.” They are filled to the brim with “plot, what plot?” type stories that are constructed with minimal character development and maximum sexual activity. These volumes are Yuri porn and not much more.

What is sort of vaguely interesting about them, has been the contributors included in the collections. Some, like Saburota (Citrus) would be surprising to not see included. Others, like Amano Shuninta, (Phlosophia) ae a welcome sight. And non-Comic Yuri Hime contributor, Nanzaki Iku (Queen’s Blade), returns once again.

I had no particular expectations about Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 8 (百合姫 Wildrose) Of the various stories, I found the two most notable to be by relative “newcomer” Kuzushiro, who provides a multi-part series that opens the book. The story itself isn’t notable, but seeing a Kuzushiro story that had an actual sex scene was. I would like to commend him for having some sense of what sex between two women might be like, and the delicacy with which he portrays it. Not once did I want to cringe.

Ohzawa Yayoi’s story was also reasonable and about young adults, which is always a pleasure. Amano Shuninta pulled out the stops on her story, “Milky” for full-sexy time hijinks.

I actually enjoy Chisako’s work in Comic Yuri Hime, but her story,  which obsesses about underwear, did not push any of my buttons in a positive way.

I genuinely enjoyed “Singin’ in the Rain”, Nanzaki Iku’s contribution. She’s left her Shizuku/Natsuki clones behind and is given a little time to actually develop her characters here, which she does, deftly. It was good to see her work again, it’s been too long.

Art in this volume  is better than usual with a YHW. Even Kuzushiro puts his best foot forward.

I can never say I love the Yuri Hime Wildrose series, but I didn’t hate this volume either. The couples are mostly in mutual affection with one another, the sex is not icky making, and the artists seem to be having fun – and let me tell you how important that is.

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Ratings:

Variable, of course

Overall – 8

For once I think I’m actually keeping a volume of Yuri Hime Wildrose.