I am home, Otakon was *amazing* and I have many things to share.
But not now.
I’ll catch up with you tomorrow or the day after. Whenever.
The Most Ideal Day
(This is the same post I sent to the Yuricon Mailing List because I’m exhausted – my apologies for no creativity)
Hi everyone! Sorry I’m not posting much – days are looooong at conventions.
The yuri panel had about 200 people, if you add in all the people who came in. We had a bitchin’ time, thanks to BJ, Katie, Sean and everyone who came and asked fun questions.
The Yuricon table (#408 in the Dealer’s Room!) has been so busy, its been surreal. I was interviewed three times this AM. lol And I want to thank each and every person who has come by to say hi – you guys have all been GREAT. It’s a blast to talk yuri with all of you.
So, in Maria-sama ga Miteru, in Novel 6, Youko, Rosa Chinesis, has the “most ideal” day of her life. Honestly, today may well be the most ideal day of mine. I’ve met so many yuri fans who are so cool, and loving the work we’re doing at ALC, that it has TOTALLY energized me to get the next book out asap. :-)
In the meantime, and pardon the use of my #[email protected] name, today was the most ideal of Rosa Foetida’s life. lol
More later – in greater detail and clarity. Promise.
And that was just Day 1….
Well, so far, Otakon has been great. Along with running the Yuricon/ALC/Onna! table in the Dealer’s Room, I and my beloved team of fighters for justice are on Spec. Ops, and the Yuri Panel rocked.
Our day began early with a meeting at breakfast, then a quick orientation at the DR before it opened. When the people started coming in, the just never stopped. It was *dizzying*. Today is going to be so…yeah. Fun, cool, surreal…
The Yuri Panel didn’t start 11:30, so I had to be all caffeinated to be coherent, so my reward was two hours sleep. But we had, at the max point, almost 200 people at the panel. Seriously. It was fun, everyone enjoyed the “screensaver o’yuri” and I hope I’ll get lots of visits tomorrow at the table.
Time for breakfast – I’ll be more coherent later!
Events: Yuricon at Otakon!
Hello Baltimore! I’m typing from my hotel room across from the Baltimore Conventionj Center where, for the next three days 25,000 people will be wandering around in pursuit of anime- and manga- related activities and stuff.
Yuricon/ALC Publishing has a table in the Otakon Dealer’s Room, table #408, next to Nekocon and behind Anime Pavilion. We’re offering great deals on 100% yuri from ALC Publishing, and you can even get your copy of Shoujoai no Bouken: The Adventures of Yuriko autographed by the author and the illustrator!
Onna! is also offering a deal to all Otakon-goers. Our three-day festival of women’s roles in animation and comics is offering a $15 discount off the full three-day registration – that’s only $35 for three days of Onna!!
And don’t forget to join us on Friday, August 19th at 11:30 PM in Panel Room 1 for Otakon’s first-EVER yuri panel. How cool is that? :-)
So I’ll expect to see you all sometime this weekend, right? :-)
Yuri Anime: Battle Athletes Victory, Volume 6
What the heck are you doing, Erica? I can hear you scream. You have a house full of BRAND-NEW interesting Yuri from Japan, and yet, here you are, reviewing some ancient, hoary old series, which has been available for *ever.*
Well…yes, you are correct. Because I felt like it. ^_^ Let me point you to my review for Volume 3, from back in June. I refer you to that post because, for the most part, if you replace the word “Ichino” with “Kris”, this would basically be the same *exact* review. Which says a lot general crappiness of the writing for this series. Only every third volume is worth watching, but hot DAMN! its worth watching!
So, in Volume 4 and 5 Akari arrives at the Satellite and finds that she is, once again completely, utterly outclassed. And this time the opposition really thinks she’s a bug. On the positive side, she has met her roommates: Anna, whose story is genuinely tedious, but only half of the unpleasant backstory Anna has in the manga, and; Kris. Yay! Kris Kristopher is really the best thing about this series. Voiced by a woman who would one day shake the Yuri world as Tenjou Utena, Kris is hot in every direction, The cow she brings is an unwelcome “funny” addition to the anime, (as is the candy bar-obsessed “Mister Miracle”, Kris’ coach) but really, in every other way, any moment Kris is on the screen is a good moment.
So, we reach Volume 6, and Kris has become as important to Akari as Ichino was (and, I think, more so.) By the time we’ve reached this volume of the anime, Akari is finally in her “striving to succeed mode”, but she can’t quite get it together, because she’s freakin’ obsessing about Kris all the time. And of course, Kris is mooning about, doing the same.
While Kris and Akari dance around each other, we get to see another Yuri obsession in full bloom – the magnificent Mylandah and her object of desire, Lahrri. Mylandah never even *looks* at her opponents, she’s so intent on Lahrri. We’re not supposed to know that this is a love affair gone bad, yet, so I’ll move on. Suffice to say that Mylandah is delightfully violent and psychotic (and we all know how I feel about that…!) while Lahrri is so focused that she can’t see the forest for the trees. They will develop into the only interesting thing about the final arc of the anime, but at the moment, its all just unresolved tension, that hasn’t yet been revealed as sexual. ^_^
Back on the field, Kris breaks her coach’s rule and approaches Akari, kissing her in front of the entire world. It is a very nice kiss, but still pales in comparison to the manga kiss, if only because in the manga both Akari and Kris throw themselves into it. This kiss is just as public, but it is one-sided and they had to go ruin it with a stupid justification. But there ya go. They kiss.
Oh, and Akari gets better and wins. Bleah.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – everyone other than Akari and “Mr. Miracle” – 8. Akari – 5, Mr. Miracle – 2
Yuri – 8
Overall – 7
So, wait, let me summarize all this: It’s really, really gay. Just go watch it already.
