Yuri Manga: Yuri Monogatari 4 Available for Pre-Order (and some sneek peaks!)

October 14th, 2006

At last! The newest 100% Yuri manga anthology from ALC Publishing, Yuri Monogatari 4, is available for pre-order on the Yuricon Shop!

I cannot begin to tell you how great this book is, really. And I am *not* just saying that because of the time and effort I put into it.

To begin, we have three artists returning for the fourth time, so you can expect great art and stories from Althea Keaton and Kristina Kolhi, and a really hysterical look at lesbian pulp novel tropes by Beth Malone in “Tales of Destruction.”.

 

 

 

Althea’s story “Cog” takes a look at a possible future, while Kristina’s “Happiness” (a page of which is is on the left) is another fantastic slice-of-life piece with a twist.

We’ve got a bunch of exciting stories by newcomers to our anthology as well. Lilyshield may be a first-time contributor, but after enjoying the art in “Model” I think you’ll agree that we’d like to see more of her work. And new for us, but a veteran in the Polish yuri community, Agatha Laguniak’s “Bittersweet Melody” is our very first gothic horror story in the collection.

 

We have three Japanese artists who have contributed to the collection – each one more fablous than the last. Tomomi Nakazora’s “Kissing the Petals” is a sharp look at modern life in Tokyo, while Akiko Morishima’s “Ichigo-Hime” (left) is a legend of old Edo – the contrast between the story and the art of these two talented women couldn’t be better, and we’re thrilled to have them both.

I’m thrilled to be able to have contributed a story myself, one that is near and dear to my heart – a story I wrote specifically to dedicate to Rica Takashima. “Playing House” is delightfully drawn by Kelli Nicely, who has also supplied cover art and some lovely incidental pieces throughout.

 

But most of all, beyond all of these great stories – and really, I’m not lying, they are great – I am pleased to announce the return of Rica Takashima’s Rica and Miho in “More Rica ‘tte Kanji!?” These four-panel comic strips were created by Rica for the Bilingual edition of Rica ‘tte Kanji!? (which is *still* one of our best selling books at ALC!) and we are absolutely thrilled to be able to include them in YM4. Get to spend some more time in the company of Rica and Miho after they move in together – and also et a glimpse of their life before they met. As always with Rica Takashima’s work, its fun and sweet and heartwarmingly realistic all at once.

 

I sincerely hope Yuri fans all over the world will get to read YM4. Get 176 pages of 100% Yuri by artists and writers from Japan, Europe and the US, support Yuri manga, (and Yuri manga artists!). It’s always a great time to give the Yuri fans in your life a copy of one of our 100% Yuri publications from ALC Publishing!

Posted in ALC Publishing, Yuri Manga, Yuri Monogatari | No Comments »


Yuri Manga: Aria , Volume 9

October 12th, 2006

Aria is one of those series that, despite logic and the evidence of our eyes, there’s a general sense of “Yuri” about it. Of course the fact that the main characters are all women helps, and the fact that Yuri fans often wear finely honed Yuri goggles set on high adds something to the mix. The inability of the average fan to see two or more women together and not assume a lesbian pile-up pretty much guarantees this series is a fixture on Yuri lists…even when there’s no actual “proof.” (By which I mean Alicia never reaches over and say, kisses Akira, much as I’d like to see that.)

Nevertheless, I, like so many other loser fans, read this series as totally Yuri. ^_^ Volume 9 kicks that teeny little niggling sense of Yuri-ness into what, for this series, is high gear.

For readers unfamiliar with Aria, the story follows three gondoliers-in-training on a terraformed Mars, now known as Aqua, in a recreated New Venice. (Unlike the real Venice in which only men can become gondoliers, in this Neo Venezia, the large majority are women.) Aria follows, in particular, Mizunashi Akari who is an immigrant from Earth, as she trains to become a skilled “undine.” If you dig around here on Okazu, you’ll turn up reviews of both seasons of the Aria anime, and several reviews of earlier volumes of the manga.

Volume 9 has had several chapters turned into anime for the second series, Aria the Natural. They are as cute, delightful, fun, etc, etc, as the manga, only I always prefer the manga. Why is that, I wonder?

Because the chapters in Volume 9 are one-shot stories, not part of a continuous narrative, I’ll focus on the two that are more Yuri.

The second chapter features popular couple Alice and her doofy sempai Athena (Pronounced Ah-teh-na). Alice, who is still in middle school and therefore quite young to be a undine-in-training, is walking home from school in a manner popular with children throughout history- she’s keeping to shadows only. ^_^  She almost blows it, only to be saved timely from falling out of the safety of a shadow by Athena-sempai. Alice reacts with her natural cute tsundere grumpiness, but when faced with an extremely long stretch of sun, gives in and uses Athena’s shadow to continue the game. This brings their faces very close. Alice reacts to this, and Athena’s affirmation that she is Alice’s ally with embarrassment.

Now, this may not seem like much, but the desperate Alice x Athena fans will point to this scene and with shrill voice say, “See? See?” Others, less obsessed with the need to pair them up will simply shrug and say “cute.” You decide which it is for yourself.

More interesting to me was the revelation that Akira *does* have an inner butch, something we Yuri fans (particularly those of us who are butches) knew right off. In the very next chapter we (and Akari) learn that Akira, Alicia, Al, Akatsuki and Woody have known each other since childhood. In the course of a flashback that shows us that none of them have changed much at all since then, we get to see little Akira in shorts, boy’s shirt and the obligatory sideways baseball cap, accompanied by uber-femme Alicia. Encouraged by Alicia, Akira out-boys the boys, but is a gracious victor. Do they look like a typical little kid babydyke couple? Yes, yes they do. And we know that Akira’s still a favorite with the ladies, so apparently, you can’t take the butch out of the girl, no matter how long she grows her hair.

While we’re dealing with sempai/kouhai relationships, there’s also a really nice chapter where Aika has to deal with the fact that someone in their company is trash-talking about Akira. As one of the three most popular and famous undine, Akira explains, it’s something that she just has to deal with. But it was awfully sweet of Aika to get so upset – and a nice view of Aika and Akari’s relationship when they aren’t banging heads.

Also notable, although not at all Yuri, we learn how Alicia met the cat that became Aria-shachou and how she joined Aria.

As is usual in Aria, the stories are slice-of-life moments, no earth-shattering drama, but quiet sweet moments to be savored slowly and in a relaxed manner…much like the espresso on San Marco plaza. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Character – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Despite the fact that Alicia will never lean over and kiss Akira, Aria remains a genuine pleasure. ^_^

Posted in Aria, Yuri Manga | 6 Comments »


Events: MangaNEXT Report

October 10th, 2006

Hello! I am returned from MangaNEXT, the only convention in American focusing on American “manga culture”.

MangaNEXT marked the first convention where ALC Publishing had both a table and an industry presence, but I was not actually in attendance at the table, on account of being on con staff. So first off, my sincere thanks to Donna, Serge, Bruce who were not only there at the table but in charge of our guest, four-time Yuri Monogatari artist, Althea Keaton. And thanks to Althea too. She was a delight to be around.

Also, my thanks to Sean Gaffney who assisted me as MangaNEXT staff all weekend long. I absolutely could not have done anything without you Sean. Thank you for all your hard work.

My thanks, too, to my staff who did everything and anything I asked with a smile: Tania, Leaa and Paulette, and to Casey, Mandisa and Mari who were not my staff specifically, but who stepped up to do a lot of at-con work. All of you were fabulous. I mean that. You all were so *cheerful* I wasn’t even able to get grumpy, much less maintain it. :-)

Of course, Panels and Workshops can’t happen without a bunch of other things like Registration, Tech, Con Safety, etc, etc. Everyone on staff did a great job – no kidding. One of the best comments I received was an email noting how pleasant and good-natured everyone was all weekend – no mean feat at any event.

Personally, I had a great time. My two favorite panels were Manga for Parents, at which I had the pleasure of co-panelling with Manga4Kids blogger Brigid Alverson, and the Light Novels Panel, which I thought would be Sean and I chatting over coffee, but which turned out to be a lively discussion of both Japanese light novels and American translations thereof with a small, but intelligent and knowledgable crowd.

For the ALC Industry panel we had a teeny turnout, but I can’t thank the folks who came enough. They weren’t at all awful, lol, and had some good comments. We talked with our two Yuri Monogatari artists, Althea and Sergio, discussing the nature of the Yuri Monogatari Project, our annual recruitment of up and coming yuri manga artists from around the world and the Project that guides them through the process of making a comic that is publishable. Serge was asked a few questions by the press about being a guy who draws yuri for YM. (It doesn’t sound it, but the whole conversation above was hysterical, as we kept generating fake headlines for the article like “ALC Publishers doesn’t like what she publishes” and other silly parodies of our conversations.

We also announced the licensing of several stories from Japan for next year’s Yuri Monogatari 5!

Way back, ALC Publishing was created because we wanted to bring high quality yuri manga over from Japan. In the last few years, we’ve been playing catch up with our own success. This year we decided to return to our roots and talk to some popular and very excellent yuri manga doujinshi circles, who have graciously agreed to be part of Yuri Monogatari. We welcome back Tadeno Eriko-san, whose collected volume WORKS is on sale now on the Yuricon Shop and through chain bookstores near you! Tadeno-san’s story will be a delight to read, trust me. We’ve also gotten two of my very favorite doujinshi circles UKOZ and Sakuraike to contribute stories that are absolutely fantastic. These stories will be out in our 2007 volume, in time for Yuricon 2007.

As you can imagine, we’re very, very excited about next year’s anthology already. :-)

(And then there’s this year’s anthology – Yuri Monogatari 4, which is up for pre-order on the Yuricon Shop, even as we speak! Support ALC, save some money and get some great yuri all at the same time! YM4 should be out in Early November. We’ll be putting out a press release about it soon.)

One thing that I have to comment on, because it was extraordinary, was the social dysfunction we encountered at MangaNEXT. Very low in quantity, but exceptionally high in quality. I won’t make any specific references, except to say that a young man who attended Althea’s “Drawing Yuri” workshop had a unnatural obsession with ROD the TV and wouldn’t let it go no matter how many times we told him that this was an original art workshop. It was the kind of surreal I expect when encountering fandumb in person.

Overall, MangaNEXT was a very worthy event. Should there be another next year, I strongly recommend that you all attend. Its manga culture focus was unique in America, and the opportunity to talk with artists, publishers, translators, writers other folks in the industry and press was not to be missed!

I will soon return to actually reviewing things. I have a huge backlog, which is good, because frankly, this season’s anime is teh suck for yuri fans. But worry not, soon the Marimite OVAs will be here and there’s much, much more in manga and Drama CD world for us to talk about!

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Events: ALC Publishing at MangaNEXT

October 4th, 2006

ALC Publishing, the only all-Yuri publisher in North America, is proud to be a participant in this weekend’s first ever celebration of American “manga culture”, MangaNEXT, in Secaucus, NJ.

ALC will have a booth in the Dealer’s Room, where you can get your copy of our 100% yuri anthology Yuri Monogatari signed by artists Althea Keaton and Sergio Aviles, or a copy of Shoujoai ni Bouken: The Adventures of Yuriko autographed by yours truly!

Here is the panel/ workshop schedule where ALC staff and guests can be found:

Friday

4PM – Sailor Moon (Erica) We’ll gab about whatever strikes our fancy, like, oh, who our favorite Senshi is… ;-)

10PM – Yuri (Erica, Bruce, Sean and whoever else joins us) We’re going down memeory lane as we talk about our first yuri loves – manga series, that is.

Saturday

4PM – ALC Publishing (Erica, Sergio, Althea) Win prizes with our ALC trivia contest and be there for our special announcement! :-)

10PM – Drawing Yuri Workshop (Althea) Get great tips on “drawing lesbians” from a four-time contributor to Yuri Monogatari.

Sunday

10 AM – Light Novels (Erica, Sean) At last! A place to talk about the Marimite Novels, as well as the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, and many more popular light novel series.

2 PM – Dengeki Daioh (Erica) I’ll lead a discussion about the magazine that launched a zillion yuri series…and a whole lot of non-yuri ones too. :-)

Also of interest:

Sin Comix – a circle of women who draw hentai, because they feel like it. Includes a gal who does yuri. (Friday)

Sean Gaffney will be facilitating the general Hentai discussion (Saturday)

and loads and loads of how-to workshops and in depth discussions on everything about manga from specific genres to the difference between American and Japanese narrative.

Industry: Marvel, ALC, Dark Horse, Media Blasters, Drama Queen, Vertical and more!

Don’t miss a chance to take part in this exciting next generation of event!

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Yuri Manga: Hayate x Blade, Volume 5

October 2nd, 2006

For those readers with short attention spans, or whose reading comprehension has been affected by too many hours on irc here is a short review of Hayate x Blade (aka Hayate Cross Blade) Volume 5:

Hitsugi x Shizuku = win.

Now, for the rest of you, here’s the long version. ^_^

We left off in Volume 4 just at the beginning of the ultimate hoshitori battle – Student Council members Minori and Kureha have challenged School Chairman Hitsugi and her partner Shizuku. The winners to become (or remain) the President of the Student Council and the losers to drop an entire rank and lose their place on the council altogether. Minori and Kureha have been working on what they believe are the keys to defeating Hitsugi.

What they don’t count on is that for every measure of insane cool Hitsugi brings to any situation, she brings three measures of cheesy and effed up. Shizuku and Hitsugi stolidly defend against the oncoming attacks until they have the measure of their opponents, and Hitsugi cues up some cheeseball BGM – the boy band Hikari GENJI (光GENJI) singing Glass no Juudai (ガラスの十代) while on rollerskates – and they’re off! Hitsugi dances with her opponent; not because she can’t defeat her instantly, but because she’s a FREAK and wants to wait to the climax of the music. ^_^ At the right moment, Hitsugi and Shizuku make their moves.

Kureha and Minori are surprised to note that their stars didn’t make any noise when hit, and are even more surprised to find that their white uniforms have now turned black, signalling their defeat and loss of rank. (Hitsugi fan and hanger-on Tatewaki explains that material in their uniforms were made by the Amachi Corp., Histugi’s family’s company. They are made with built-in nanotechnology that responds to the loss with this significant and symbolic change of color.)

They take their loss gracefully, but not so the penalty game Hitsugi enforces – running 30 laps of a four kilometer course. Kureha, as the challenger, is ready to do it alone, but Minori insists on sharing the pain. As shinyuu they draw closer together, everyone says “awwww”, but they still have to finish the laps. 

Meanwhile Hayate continues to train extra hard so as to be able to rank up with Ayana. They discuss how, eventually, they’re going to have to fight Yukari, Ayana’s former shinyuu. In a rare moment of emotional vulnerability, Ayana confesses that she feels alot of guilt about that relationship. In her last fight with Yukari as her partner, she went berserk. Although she doesn’t remember doing it, she injured Yukari quite badly. The reason, we learn, that Yukari wears her hair over her left eye is to conceal a scar that runs down from the forehead to cheek, assumably caused by Ayana’s sword. Hayate tells Ayana that she doesn’t want to know about the things that make Ayana sad – she wants to know about the things that makes Ayana happy.

The school festival approaches, Hitsugi tells the student body – although she herself had forgotten until just yesterday. She arbitrarily decides that all events must be done in maid costumes. Jun has been tasked with making the costumes for her class, so you can bet that Ayana’s costume is wildly inappropriate for anyone to wear in public. ^_^ Jun gets a lot of mileage and physical abuse this volume, because the whole maid costume thing is entirely too appealing for her to behave.

The book ends with two omake stories – one, the backstory for the Hayate x Blade Drama CD. That is, Hitsugi was bored one day and came up with the idea. Wackiness ensues as Jun tries her best to encourage Ayana’s innate sexiness with wildly inappropriate script suggestions.

…thinking about it, Jun loses a lot of blood this volume. ^_^

The second backstory is a gag about the school suggestion box. Since so many of the complaints are regarding Jun’s perviness, Ayana’s loud and violent expressions of anger and Hayate’s habit of talking while she eats and spewing food around, the next day finds *four* suggestion boxes, three of them labeled “Kuga” (Jun), “Mudou” (Ayana) and “Kurogane eating” (Hayate.)

Next volume the school festival begins and chaos ensues!! With maid costumes!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 7 (Jun’s a lousy role model, but undeniably lesbian. Hitsugi x Shizuku as I said, equals win. They get winner with each volume.)
Service – 3

Overall – 9

 

Posted in Hayashiya Shizuru, Hayate x Blade, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »