Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Gunjou, Chapters 3 and 6

May 9th, 2008

Back in March, I reviewed a new non-moe Yuri manga series by Nakamura Ching, Gunjou. After I posted my review, Nakamura-san offered to send me a back issue of Morning 2 – the magazine in which Gunjou runs – which I of course accepted with great joy. And just yesterday, I received my copy of the current issue of Morning 2, to get the next chapter.

I love this manga with all my love.

It is not cute. It is not adorable. It it not moe. It *is* stunning. So, with my apologies to Nakamura-san for the hideous nicknames, I’d like to tell you all about the new bits.

Chapter 3 covers a tale from BL and BN’s high school days. The brunette, BN, is a champion runner, but wears a crappy pair of beat up cleats. The blonde, BL, is hanging around, and the track club is creeped out by her because she’s, you know, *lesbian,* but BN tells them that she’s just a nice person and to stfu, thanks awfully. When the team captain tells BN to get new cleats or else, BN and BL go to a store where BN attempts to steal a nice shiny new pair. To stop her from being arrested, BL offers to pay for them (she’s a rich ojou-sama,) but BN tells her to take the cleats and shove them.

BL visits BN’s house and learns that she lives in a crappy shack with a drunken and abusive father. At the end of the chapter, BL offers to *lend* BN the money, so she’ll stay in school and keep running. We see them 5 years later, as BN – now sleek, happy enough (we think) and married – pays back every yen. BL leaves, putting down exactly half the bill for their coffee – a beautiful and subtle touch. We go back to the present, with the two of them on the run, and we learn that BN still has that 550 yen in her wallet.

In stark contrast to Chapter 3’s happy ending, chapter 6 is BRUTAL. They take a hotel for the night, but BN gets weird about sleeping in the same bed as BL, so they get separate rooms. We learn from the news that the police know BL did the murder and that the two fugitives are being sought. BL can’t sleep, so she goes out. We see BN looking in the mirror at her body, which is covered in bruises. Since they have been on the run for a month – at least some of those bruises are probably not from the dead husband…. BL grabs a taxi to go back to the hotel. The taxi driver solicts a hand job, which BL does, flashing back and forth the whole time to the murder. She leaves the cab and when a fortune teller approaches her and tells her that she’ll get married, she goes postal on the lady, who asks for forgiveness as she reaches for a stone to bash the crazy, violent woman on top of her.

BN notices BL’s not back and eventually finds her, trying to kill herself by hanging herself from the bathroom door. BN takes her back to her bed, while BL flashes back to the murder and to their school days where she first met BN and they became friends . BL has a complete emotional breakdown to match her physical beating. As the chapter comes to a close, BL tells BN that instead of killing her husband, it would have been better if she had killed BN. BN goes out into the hall and cries.

There is just nothing about this series that is Akihabara. But, in between the severe mental unbalance, the extreme violence and the raw, unsexy sex, there are moments of such intense tenderness that they quite take one’s breath away.

The Yuri actually identifies as lesbian, so perhaps this is a lesbian manga, rather than a Yuri one. BL is quite obviously hopelessly, dangerously in love with BN…and BN is suffering from all kind of mixed emotions, compounded by the fact that they are both just so very broken that a normal relationship seems impossible for either of them. And, despite the fact that this manga perpetuates the murderous lesbian trope, I think it completely transcends the stereotype.

Gunjou is not a “good” manga – it is a “brilliant” manga.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 2

Overall – 10

I recently learned that gunjou, which translates to the color Ultramarine, is considered to be the most highly revered blue hue in the Japanese artist’s palette.

Once again, thank you Nakamura-san, for the issue of Morning 2 and for creating such a magnficient manga.

 





Interview with Yuri Translator Anastasia Moreno

May 5th, 2008

Once more, we take a peek behind the scenes in the Manga Industry. Today we are talking with Yuri translator Anastasia Moreno! Welcome Anastasia, and let’s jump right in!

1) So let’s start with the most obvious question – tell us a little bit about yourself.

My full name is Anastasia Shimabuku Moreno. I’m half-Japanese, half-Filipino, and was born and grown in Okinawa, Japan for most of my life. I grew up watching a lot of Japanese TV, especially anime like Urusei Yatsura and Gundam, with my 8 older brothers. I went to University of Arizona for a few years, but never finished college, and enlisted in the Marine Corps instead. During my tour in Okinawa, I married a Japanese guy in JASDF (Japan Air Self Defense Force.) After I got out of the Marines, I stayed in Japan to work in US military bases as a US federal employee. Currently, I live and work at Yokota Air Base. Hobbies other than manga include playing soccer, lifting weights, and imitating Japanese comedians.

2) Are you a manga reader yourself? How did you get into manga? Did that lead you into working in the manga industry? Or do you just do it for the fame, glory and chicks? ;-)

– Yes, I always read Japanese manga, but compared to a bazillion manga I used to read back in high school and college, I only read a select few these days.

– I grew up watching anime, but I didn’t get into manga until my sophomore year in high school. My friend insisted that I read a volleyball parody manga (High School Kimengumi v3) when I happened to be on the school volleyball team. When I read it at home, I laughed so hard my stomach hurt! I never imagined that manga stories, drawn with only black ink, zip tones, and paper, could evoke such strong reactions in readers (in my case, laughter.) I was hooked. I not only became an avid manga reader, but began drawing my own manga also.

– I actually worked in the manga industry twice – first as an artist, and later as a translator. In the 1990s, I drew 4 panel comic strips in college, called “Campus Abalone” in The Daily Wildcat (U of Arizona campus newspaper), which was essentially a 4-koma gag manga about campus bike cops. Back then, anime and manga just began to make its mark into the US comics industry, so nobody recognized manga as readily as they do now, resulting in close to zero fans (except the college anime club members and a handful of comic fans.) Also, my manga was published in Slave Labor Graphic’s Action Girl comics (vol. 7, 10, and 14), and I also did some manga illustrations for a college anthropology textbook. Oh, I also dabbled in fansub translations, like Yawara!.

Then I joined the Marine Corps for 5 years (1999-2004), spending most of my time in Okinawa, so I had no idea how much the US manga industry evolved during those years. My main job was an NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) defense instructor (run the tear gas chamber, fix gas masks, etc.), but my secondary job was a Japanese translator/interpreter. I interpreted for American and Japanese generals in high- level meetings and translated a variety of military technical correspondence, documents, and manuals into Japanese and English.

After that, I became a government employee, doing military technical translations and political military analyses. Having a regular day job (vice a hectic military tour) freed up my nights and weekends to get back to my personal hobby – manga. I thought it would be easier to get back into the manga industry by translating vice drawing, so I was lucky to be picked up by a publishing agent who gave me a constant stream of manga and novel translation projects to work on.

– I just love manga, so it’s more of a personal satisfaction than a pursuit of fame and glory. Of course, seeing your own name in a published book is definitely a morale booster. (^_^) Instead of being a chick-magnet, I ended up being an anime otaku magnet in college, when I cosplayed in a sailor-style school uniform at anime cons, haha.

3) Tell us, in general terms, what you do – where does your job fall in the process of producing a translated manga?

Probably in the initial stages, after licensing, I think. I provide English translations of Japanese manga and novels. Some publishers only require a raw translation for their rewriter to work from, and others ask the translator to adapt/rewrite as well. Each publisher has their policies and translation preferences, such as retaining honorifics or not, translating or ignoring sound effects, and adhering to a specific text style guide or not.

I’m usually given 1-3 months to translate one manga or novel, depending on the publisher’s needs. The most I’ve worked on in a month were 3 mangas and 1 novel (plus a regular day job, moving homes, and buying a new puppy. It was a very rough month.) (T_T)

4) Are you a fan of Yuri manga? Did you know it existed before you started working on a title? What were your thoughts upon seeing your first Yuri job?

Yes, I knew about and liked yuri manga, but volume-wise, I tend to read more mainstream shonen and shoujo manga that may or may not have a minor element of yuri in it. The only yuri title I worked on so far is Strawberry Panic. This title was over-the-top in terms of melodramatic characters and perfectly timed misunderstandings. The more serious the characters spoke or thought, the funnier it seemed in my mind. So I decided to go all out and retain as much of the seriousness and melodrama as accurately as possible, which in effect enhanced the comedic elements.

5) Not every Yuri series is equal. Some are better than others. What, if any, thoughts do you have about the series you’ve worked on. Silly? Serious? Quality? Not?

Since I’ve only worked on Strawberry Panic so far, I can’t make any comparisons yet. I love the cute artwork, and it was a fun title to translate. I think a group of readers will take the story seriously at face value, while another group will see the parody in it, but I’m sure most will ultimately like the title. I really enjoyed both aspects of it.

6) Have you gotten any fan feedback? Anything you want to share?

No, translators usually do not get any direct fan feedback, unless they have their own website or go on a forum soliciting feedback. I usually read manga reviews online and see if they evaluated my translations, though. Getting good marks for translation in the review is another morale booster. (^_^)

I tend to notice this in military translating, too, but usually when a translation is good, the writer and publisher get most of the credit, but if anything goes wrong, the translator is the first to be blamed. Sigh. Please give translators some slack — they are trying their best to adapt a foreign language product into your language, so there will always be subjective differences in interpretations and awkwardness when crossing cultures. Please remember that even great translations cannot save crappy titles sometimes. (T_T)

7) Any Yuri titles you’d like to see make it over here? Anything you’d like to get to work on?

I would love for the original Hana no Asuka Gumi manga series make it out here. The whole underground world where junior high girls beat the living crap out of each other all over Tokyo is just too insane! You know, I was able to memorize the 23 Tokyo wards because of the area masters in the story, lol. And would I love to work on that title, for sure! Also, I would like to work on titles that tap into my unique bicultural background and military experience, like Magical Marine Pixel Maritan (I coached voice actresses on English pronunciations of vulgar Marine phrases — a unique, fun-filled job!) If there are any yuri titles involving military/police women, though, please let me know!

8) What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about your job?

My favorite part of the job is to find little in-jokes in a story (that are totally apparent to native Japanese people but often overlooked by Americans) and being able to explain it in the translation notes. Unfortunately for Strawberry Panic, the whole story was a big parody, so I had nothing to add…

My least favorite part of the job is the tight deadline I sometimes have to meet. I work 40-60 hours a week at my day job, and 50-70 hours a week translating manga on nights and weekends, which leaves little to no personal life or sleep. I feel really bad when I have to neglect my husband and puppy for weeks at a time to meet a project deadline.

9) Anything else you want to tell our audience?

Yes, a whole lot of shameless plugs, if it’s all right… (^_^)
Please buy Strawberry Panic manga and novels! You’ll surely find something that catches your fancy, whether it be the cute drawings, favorite characters and/or couples, or the parody elements. It is a really entertaining series!

Please buy the other titles I’ve worked on, too: Love Hina novels volume 1 and volume 2 (Tokyopop), Trinity Blood RAM 1 and ROM 1 novels (Tokyopop), Sugar Princess: Skating to Win volume 1 and volume 2 (Viz), Hard Rock (DMP), ALIVE The Final Evolution series (Del Rey), and Maid Machinegun novel (Del Rey)!

Oh, I plan to start drawing gag manga again and posting it on the web this year. Stay tuned!

Thank you for your time.

Thank you Anstasia! I’m glad to meet another Hana no Asuka-gumi fan! And for all our readers out there, allow me to plug your new blog, Manga Gunkan, which is written in both English and Japanese. Among other fun things, Manga Gunkan discusses some of the trials and tribulations of translation work.

Once again, a fabulous insight into the people behind the books – thanks again to all three ladies who participated in these interviews. We look forward to more great Yuri from all of you!





Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, Volume 1 (ささめきこと)

April 29th, 2008

What’s a girl to do when her best friend forever loves cute girls, and she’s just not cute at all? Suffer in silence, mostly, if we learn anything from Sasamekikoto, Volume 1. (ささめきこと)  ^_^

Murasame Sumika has a real problem. She’s in love with her BFF, Kazama Ushio. Ushio is always looking for a girlfriend but, unfortunately, she’s fond of the extra-cute girly type…and Sumi’s just not that. Not at all. Good in athletics, a little rough around the edges, Sumi would make the perfect Prince to Ushio’s Princess, but Ushio just can’t see the obvious.

When Sumi and Ushio spy a couple of girls kissing in their classroom, nothing gets any easier. Miyako and Tomoe see Ushio and Sumi “practicing” kissing, while Ushio wears a plastic mask…it’s a long story…and blackmails Sumi into joining their new “Girl Club” for women who love women. Brilliance, except Sumi explains it was all a misunderstanding, and…. But Ushio jumps at the chance to join and Sumi is dragged along, dragging along another member (because remember, you need five people to start a club) who is a cute boy who likes Sumi who dresses like a girl and does modeling work.

It’s all very convoluted, and amusing.

When the Girl Club starts hanging out, Sumi bumps right up against the thing she’d really like to say to Ushio, but somehow, just can’t bring herself to do it. In the end of the volume Sumi’s forced to watch Ushio hit on another girl, again, who isn’t her.

This manga is a comedy and, while it’s basically one or two jokes repeated endlessly, it is pretty amusing. Not “zOMG bwahahahah!” but more like “heheh” amusing. And, even though it *was* only one or two jokes endlessly rehashed, I didn’t hate it by the end, which has to count for something. ^_^

The art reminds me of something else, which I am so far unable to identify – someone help me out here and tell me what it makes me think of?

Cute kisses, haha funnies, and not-fanservice filled high school Yuri drama. Lesbian approved.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 3

Overall – 8

Sasamekikoto is *perfect* for Yuri fans who like the “best friend who loves her friend in very loud silence” trope. If you were ever a Tomoyo fan, this is probably the book you’ve been looking for.





Yuri Manga: Kiseki Goten

April 20th, 2008

Imagine if there was a place for women to go, where there were beautiful women to cater to their needs, to help them relax, cast off their world-weariness and find themselves in an aura of refined luxury and sensuality.

Welcome to the Miracle Palace. ^_^

Kiseki Goten by Wako was, like Reijin na Hito, a collection made of stories by a Mist magazine artist, the lesbian-themed Ladies Comic magazine of the late 1990s.

Our first miracle involves Wakana, who is unable to face her unfulfilling relationship with her boyfriend. She meets Mari at the station and together they arrive by taxi at the Kiseki Goten. Once there, Mari throws herself into the pleasures that the Palace has waiting for them, but Wakana is uneasy with the open sexuality of the women there. It’s not until the Palace’s owner, Ryouko, assigns her top Servant Girl (SG for short), Shizuya, that Wakana will even talk to anyone. Shizuya takes Wakana to bed, shows her ecstasy for the night and gives her advice about her relationship. When Mari meets Wakana again on the way back to the town, she comments that Wakana seems like a new person. Wakana realizes that the world is a beautiful place as long as you can face it head on and, she heads home, looking forward to a bright future.

Miracle two begins with the appearance of an old man at the entrance to the Kiseki Goten. When he’s told that men are not allowed there, he takes off his hat, wig and whiskers to reveal that he’s really famous model Saikawa Mizuki, returning after a year to visit her old girlfriend Reika, an employee at the Kiseki Goten. Although Mizuki has been paired in the press with a popular male singer, she longs to be reuinted with Reika, who is now the Goten’s most popular performer. They reunite, but in the middle of making love, Reika starts to cry – she’s seen the news reports of Mizuki’s entanglement with the singer…and a year is a long time to be apart. Reika runs back to her room. Sitting by herself, Mizuki is visited by the owner, who explains that Reika’s heart is breaking at the reports of Mizuki’s success, even though she, Ryouko, knows that the male singer is gay. Mizuki apologizes to Reika and promises to never leave her again. They are seen off with flowers by the staff, as they head off to a life together, forever. The note in the flowers promises dire retribution from Ryouko, if Mizuki ever makes Reika sad again.

In Miracle three, we meet Haruka and Mutsumi, both single mothers, who take a night off together and end up at the club at Kiseki Goten, dancing. Mutsumi is outed by the recognition of owner Ryouko. Haruka can’t help but notice Mutsumi’s interest in her, and eventually admits that she’s interested too and has been since they first met. The two spend the night together and find love and caring for years to come in each other’s arms.

In the final Miracle, Kobato meets the owner of the Goten at an art exhibit. With no particular plans for the future, she joins the staff as an SG, but finds it hard on her emotions, when she comes to care for her clients more than they do for her. Ryouko takes Kobato to bed, and explains that love, and sex, come in many forms, and that she can find happiness in her own life. Kobato regains her balance and continues her career at the Kiseki Goten with enthusiasm.

The last page of the manga finds us being welcomed with open arms by the staff of Kiseki Goten.

This is followed by an art gallery of some of Wako’s splash art for her Mist stories, and finally by paper dolls of the Kiseki Goten staff.

All in all, a wonderful woman-loving-woman interlude, and sweet stories of lesbian sex saving the day. And really, isn’t that we all are looking for in Yuri manga? Well, I know *I* am, anyway. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Stories – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 10
Service – 5 (yes, lots of naked women, but all adult, all consenting and no peeping or other creeper qualities.)

Overall – 9

Why *isn’t* there a Kiseki Goten? It sounds like a great vacation to me. ^_^

Thanks to everyone for your congratulations, your support and your enthusiasm – this 1000th post is dedicated to everyone who makes Okazu a success; readers, reviewers and Yuri fans everywhere!

(And no, I haven’t forgotten the contests. I’ll be announcing winners this week!)





Yuri Manga: Hayate x Blade, Volume 8

April 19th, 2008

Lots of *amazing* stuff happens in Volume 8 of Hayate x Blade, so let’s deal with the most important thing first….the “Best Shinyuu Poll” that ran in Dengeki Daioh! ^_^

Number one by a hefty margin: Jun and Yuho. Yes, the lesbian tops the list. But of course.

Number two is: Akira and Sae. So, erm, the butchy boi comes in second…

Number three is, let’s see: Hitsugi and Shizuku…I think I see a pattern here.

Hayate and Ayana come in 4th, Michi and Kiji in 5th. In case you care.

Okay, so on to the story which, despite the fact that this volume mostly takes place over winter holiday, is chock full of action and surprise.

The big exhibition fight between Sid and Nancy and Akira and Sae ends in drama. Akira has won, but she’s taken a beating. When she challenges Hitsugi to a duel, the President declines, but Sae ends the conversation by poking Akira in her broken rib and bringing her to the ground in pain.

A bunch of the first-years are staying at the school over the holidays, so to have a little fun with them, Hitsugi decides that they will clean up in the catacombs below the school. (There are tunnels below the school? Just go with it.) They encounter all sorts of amusing obstacles – ghosts, skeletons, a rampaging bull…and someone who looks awfully like Hayate, only it’s not. Yes, Hayate’s twin sister Nagi has arrived, and she looks like trouble.

Meanwhile, Jun checks in with Yukari, Akira tries to recover from her broken rib and, Ayana learns the truth about what happened that fateful day when she went beserk against Ensuu and injured Yukari. And it’s not at all what she thought.

Both Ayana and Hayate find renewed energy and determination to be the best at Hoshitori and start training like lunatics. When Akira offers to one-on-one with Ayana, Hitsugi smells some fun and makes it a battle for a hot steamy sweet potato. (This is a LOT funnier than I’m making it sound. It was actually freaking hysterical.)

The final chapter is the “behind the scenes” look at the making of the second Hayate x Blade Drama CD, full of the usual chaos.

I think that the best thing about this book is Hitsugi cracking herself up. Every time she’s face down into a pillow trying to not laugh out loud, or seeing the sweet potato fire and telling Shizuku that “it’s a signal fire, calling for me'” it completely slays me. ^_^

With the English release of Hayate x Blade just around the corner this summer, it’s good to know that more silly violence than ever before awaits us.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 3

Overall – 9

As I said last volume – the art is really getting better and better, and the story is still going at full steam. Without a doubt, one of my favorite manga of all time.

So – tomorrow will be post 1000. I wonder what I’ll post about? ^_^