Yuri Anime

RetroCrushTV is adding more new titles that were fundamental back in developing Yuri fandom a few decades ago. They have Key The Metal Idol, Vampire Princess Miyu, Devil Lady.

Alex Mateo reports on ANN, at the end of August, RetroCrushTV will be adding Riyoko Ikeda’s shoujo classic Dear Bother. This series is pure shoujo, no magical girls, no aliens, with high melodrama and it really holds up as some of the director Dezai Osamu’s, best work. If you have never had a chance to see Dear Brother this is a great opportunity to watch it legally, free, ad-supported.

RetroCrushTV has also launched an ad-supported linear streaming network available on Roku and other smart TV platforms.

Sentai Filmworks has pulled their entire catalog from Crunchyroll, doubling down on their investment in HIDIVE. Miles Thomas on Crunchyroll has the list of titles that are leaving. Sentai also announced a dub cast for Fragtime. Joseph Luster  has the report for Crunchyroll News.

Not Yuri that I know of, but I just wanted to make a rude noise about the title of the Cartoon Network/Crunchyroll collaboration anime title, Fena: Pirate Princess. Seriously? Xena: Warrior Princess might have something to say about that title. Adria Hazra at ANN has the details about the series.

Quinta Brunson on Twitter announced that she’s playing Alex on SYFY’s upcoming Magical Girl Friendship Squad, a magical adult women, no BS comedy. Click the link for the profanity-laden teaser. ^_^

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Yuri Manga

Via Senior Corespondent Louise P, Yuri manga creator mk has a lovely little series call Osananajimi no Yuri Fu~fu Seikatsu (おさななじみの百合夫婦生活) that you can purchase for digital download or physical copy with worldwide shipping on the creator’s Booth.pm page. The story is about two old friends who are now a couple. ^_^

ANN’s Alex Mateo once again has news, this time that Square Enix has licensed Otherside Picnic manga and Okura’s manga I Think Our Son Is Gay.

Yen Press on Twitter has revealed the cover to Éclair Rouge: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart, the fourth entry in the Éclair anthology series.

Other News

Yoshiya Nobuko’s story from Hana Monogatari, Tsuriganesou was made into a movie…twice. The 1935 original and a 1940 remake. Here’s a YouTube clip from the 1940 version of Tsuriganesou (釣鐘草).

Via Grace Ting, I want to share this beautiful short story, Patient. Written by Wong Yi, translated by Jennifer Feeley for Asymptote‘s “In This Together: Writers from Around The World Respond To The COVID-19 Outbreak” series. This story is part of Wong Yi’s “Ways to Love a Crowded City.”

In case you missed it, I did a review of the two sites bringing us legally licensed translated Yuri doujinshi, Lilyka and Irodori Sakura.

One last item from Alex Mateo on ANN is the news that Niantic has committed money from the last Pokemon GO event to organizations that support Black game developers, Black trans folks, and Black Lives Matter groups.

Which brings me to this week’s editorial. Comments on this will be heavily moderated.

In case I have not made it clear, the Okazu family and I believe Black Lives and Trans Lives Matter. I regularly donate to a local BLM group, support queers creators of color with our Okazu Microgoals on Patreon. There is nothing capricious about the way I choose the people we support.

When comics, and anime, and gaming keep saying “We have a problem,” and the problem never seems to go away, there is not just one problem. Comic and Gamer gates are groups dedicated to the harassment of women, queer folks and people of color. This is not “a problem.” They are *the* problem – that there really honestly are, at all levels of all industries, men who think their skin color and the fact that they have a penis makes them better at all the things.  This specific belief kills people every day.  This belief is destroying our planet.

Anyone arguing that “politics” needs to be kept out of art is a not arguing from a strong position. Art is political. Business is political. People’s lives are inherently political. You’re being political when you choose to back companies and individuals who rage against empathy and diversity or who pretend to support it, then make it somehow impossible for non white, non-male  employees to move up in the ranks. You’re being political when you choose to support marginalized creators. The Hugo Awards last night showed that the Worldcon membership was ready for and welcoming of a diverse future…and leadership chose a rambling old man whose derivative book series remains unfinished, who spent most of his time praising a fascist while host and presenters mispronounced people’s names *and* their winning titles. The problem is that no one in Worldcon leadership thought to make sure this didn’t happen….again. For the umpteenth year in a row. During segments that were pre-recorded, for fuck’s sake.

Be political. Give your money and time and attention to creators and companies who foster environments where everyone’s work is valued, where people are treated like people, not like replaceable resources. 

One last thing, for readers in the US, please make sure you are registered to vote and do vote. If we do not, this may be the last election we’ll see in our lifetime. Not hyperbole. We are on the very brink of not being a democracy. The President has told us that he will do everything to make sure this election is declared invalid. He has told us and shown us. This must be a landslide. Be political.

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an important part of the Okazu family. I couldn’t do it without you!

Ikemen Onna to Hakoiri Musume, Volume 1 (イケメン女と箱入り娘) is written by Mochi_Au_Lait, and drawn by majoccoid for REX Comics, one of Ichijinsha’s other imprints. Honestly, I think both art and story are not bad. I kind of like this story and also it kind of bugs me, so I talked it over with my wife and I know why it kind of bugs me and why I kind of like it, but I still don’t know whether I like it more or don’t like it more. ^_^ Get settled and we’ll see if we can’t work it out, together.

Satomi is a college student who has fallen for Kanda-kun, a classmate. She asks Kanda-kun to go out and is thrilled when she says yes. Kanda Misaki is an extremely handsome and cool woman. Satomi is fine with that, she’s actually just happy to have a partner.

Satomi is very sweet and she really likes Kanda-kun. Kanda-kun is likewise quite nice, showing a lot of consideration for Satomi. Satomi is, yes, naive, but so is Kanda-kun and they are missing each other’s cues, which is about half the humor. Ultimately, they really do like one another, that’s obvious.

There’s just…something wrong with the joke. Update: I could have sworn that Kangda-kun actually mentions that she’s a girl, but I am apparently mistaken, which makes the joke even less funny.

Kanda-kun is perfectly fine going out with another woman, and doesn’t mind being treated like a boyfriend, but always thinks, “but I am a girl” when Satomi does that. Which gets tired.

In the final chapter, the what-might-be-a-gender-mindfuck-in-some-other-story sort of comes to a head when, at an arcade, Kanda-kun wins Satomi an ugly zombie doll and they are hit on by some guys, who turn out to be friends with Kanda-kun. She grabs Satomi’s arm and tells them that Satomi is her girlfriend. Satomi squeals happily and she and Kanda-kun have a private side conversation about Kanda-kun being the zombie doll’s “papa,” and Kanda-kun gently reminds the zombie to keep it’s eyeball attached and they laugh and head off, while the guys all act confused. “Does she know Kanda-kun’s a woman?”

So, it was a sweet story and I certainly want them to be happy….but it was often very annoying as well. Not because the character or situation is problematic. Kanda-kun is not hiding that she’s a woman, but she’s also wearing a corset (like an industrial one, not a Victorian one) to ostensibly “protect” her chest, because she’s so ticklish, and she wants Satomi to be able to hold her arm, which is the thinnest excuse I have ever heard for wanting to be bound in my entire life. And she’s not just telling Satomi.

I really want to like this manga.  The art being by majoccoid helps so much, I won’t lie. Kanda-kun looks cool when she’s supposed to. Satomis is cute. Mochi_Au_Lait just does not have the style for this. The characters are likable, the situation is not problematic, but it is, nonetheless, a problem.

Ratings:

Art – 9 majoccoid’s work is definitely right in my wheelhouse
Story – 7 *So* close to being good
Characters – 9
Service – 2 Light, nothing horribly creepy, more situational
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

I especially enjoyed the fashion checks for the filler pages. There were no judgements about who was wearing what, just contrasting styles on display.

It was just so >close< to being really good. CW says that “as well as being serialized in Comic Rex, chapters go up on majoccoid’s pixiv and twitter. Chapter 11 is the most recent.”  Thank you very much!

In Volume 1, we met Okabe-san, a new manager for top model Yuria-san. Yuri appears cool and remotes but that may well be because she’s so beautiful no one will talk with her. Okabe-san genuinely likes Yuria and is absolutely also intimidated by her beauty, but slowly, Yuria asks, cajoles and need Okabe to be a friend to her.

In Volume 2 of Model-chan and Kimi Mane-san (モデルちゃんと地味マネさん) Okabe-san’s feeling are running ahead of her and Yuria-san isn’t helping by being in serious need of a kind and caring friend. Yuria-san takes her job very seriously, even to the point of not caring for herself. As Okabe-san gets to know her, she find she wants to take care of her charge.

Yuri-san asks Okabe to address her less formally. Okabe-san hesitates, not because she doesn’t like Yuria-chan, but but because she does. At a celebratory party for Yuria’s photograph book, Okabe is waned about becoming too close with her client. It all comes to a head on a winter night at a annual star-gazing event, where the lights go off so city dwellers can make out the night sky. Yuria is recognized and her poor manager is assumed by the Internets to be a boyfriend. Luckily, Yuria-chan is blithely unconcerned with the Internet and neither is their agency.

The omake is a short sweet story in which Okabe gives Yuria a present for her birthday. And that is where the story comes to an end, with Yuri and Okabe smiling and laughing with one another.

This whole story is making something from very little. For all of Okabe’s zOMG! reactions, little happened.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 5 Yuria’s trying
Service – 3 a bit of skin

Overall- a solid 7

In between that nothing, a story that might have been problematic – a manager and her client becoming an item – ends up sweet and harmless instead. Sure they might be a couple one day, but not today.

As you may remember, I’m a huge fan of Usui Shio’s series Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts. So when a collection of Usui-sensei’s work came out from Ichijinsha, I scooped it right up!

Today I’m looking at Kimi no tame ni Sekai ha Aru (きみのために世界はある). This single-volume collection contains six short stories that range in character age and setting. None of these are unique and, at first read, I felt like I had read all of them somewhere else, but…I probably had. A few of the setups are pretty well-used even now, like an ex-lover getting married in “Jewel of You,” or a boyish girl who actually likes girly things, in “Secret Closet.”

Scenario staleness notwithstanding, I genuinely enjoyed this collection. I like Usui-sensei’s art, the gentleness with which the characters are treated, even when they are processing hurt or anger. This is not emotional torture porn, it’s situations we are supposed to know, and have felt inside ourselves. And forgiven ourselves for.

The women in this collection learn to accept the parts of themselves they have been denying and I do not mean just their sexuality when I say this. In some cases, that’s not the issue at all.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Variable
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 mostly on principle, there’s nothing really

Overall – 8

Just learning to love one’s self is still a powerful story and Usui-sensei understands that.

In Volume 1 we met Nanoha and Chidori, two girls who have a secret – they are lovers. They aren’t lovers, but they are in love and they dating. In Volume 2 and Volume 3, they are still dating.

Together they do normal teen stuff. They go out with friends and hang out, they visit the beach and do school things. It’s all very pleasant, very noncommittal and very low-key. In fact, I was describing it to my wife as a series in which basically nothing happens. For a Shonen Sunday Comic, it was satisfactory. Only a little service, no weird manipulative characters, no gods-help-us-its-not-funny comedy. Just blandly pleasant schoolgirl Yuri.

And then we hit Hana ni Arashi, Volume 4 (はなにあらし) and something happened.  In comparison with the little happening in previous volumes it seems really big, but wait for it, because it is, kind of, really big.

It’s summer and Nanoha and Chidori go to the beach with friends and we spend a little more time looking at girls in bikinis than I care to do. Then we return home and the school festival is upon us. Chidori is representing the literature club when her old sempai shows up. We understand immediately that sempai is Chidori’s ex who took the time honored hoary route of seducing Chidori into a lesbian lifestyle, then chickening out on it herself.  Sempai dismisses Chidori’s feeling with a snide, “Are you really onna-doushi?” which proves that the folks at Shogakukan are stuck back in 2000 or so in terminology. Sempai uses the phrase the way you might expect an actual human to use “queer” or “lesbo” or something more pointed.

Chidori is fairly paralyzed by the reappearance of Igarashi-sempai and we are given a chapter to see that sempai was a fairly stereotypical Yuri villain, steamrolling over Chidori’s objections, time and time again. Like Sayaka, Chidori has learned to love herself. When Igarashi-sempai appears to be ready to tear Chidori down once more Nanoha steps up and does the thing. “Yes, we’re onna-doushi,” Nanoha takes Chidori’s hand and faces Igarashi…and here’s the thing that happens….Igarashi suddenly discovers that Chidori and Nanoha are not hiding from themselves at all. Her expression is one of shock. Up to this moment, she has bought into the idea that her feelings for Chidori had to be – must be – temporary. And here is Nanoha, without that illusion at all. Igarashi-sempai asks, her eyes wide with shock as her world crumbles…”Are you going out for real?” “Yes,” Chidori affirms.

To her credit, Igarashi-sempai covers her nervousness with a bit of normal teasing, but as she leaves, she realizes that she might well have made a terrible mistake with her life.

And, finally, later than night at the festival fireworks, Nanoha and Chidori kiss.

So, aside from the now-outdated terminology (which, to be fair I absolutely would expect nothing else from publishing behemoth Shogakukan,) this was a pretty meaty moment. Firstly, Nanoha rescues Chidori, then the two of them admit their relationship to anyone at all, and affirm that it’s real, and the result is that a girl who had been lying to herself is suddenly unable to do so anymore.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 6
Service – 4 Bathing suits and showers. So…ugh

Overall – 6

For a series which, until this moment, had climaxed with hand-holding, this was a big volume.