Events: Yuri/Yaoi lecture in Tampa, Florida on 10/9

October 6th, 2004

AnimeNation is hosting a lecture on Saturday, October 9 at 2PM.

I’ll be speaking about the current state of yaoi and yuri in Japan and America, specifically focusing on publishing ventures here in America, like Be Beautiful, ALC Publishing and Drag Queen Manga.

AnimeNation’s retail store is located in Tampa, Florida – here’s the map and directions.

I hope that you’ll all come, visit with me, and pick up some Yuri and BL manga and anime (I’ll be glad to make recommendations!) from the folks at Animenation. I’ll see you there!

Posted in Events | No Comments »


Events: Yuricon announces 2005 event in Tokyo!

October 4th, 2004

Yuricon, a celebration of Yuri in anime and manga, is bringing Yuri back home with the Yuri Revolution event in Tokyo Japan!

On April 12-17, 2005, Yuricon will be sponsoring mini-tours and shopping trips around Tokyo, followed by the first all-Yuri event to ever be held in Japan! Join us as we meet Japanese Yuri fans, and well-known Yuri artists in the Shinjuku Nichoume. Bring art to display in our exhibition space, all the Japanese you can manage to make new friends and your singing voice, as we karaoke the night away.

For more information on the Yuri Revolution event, or Yuricon, visit our web site at http://www.yuricon.org

Be sure to join us, if you can!

Posted in Events | No Comments »


Yuri Anime: Azumanga Daioh Vol. 4

October 1st, 2004

The short version: It’s a story about a bunch of loopy girls in school with a few loopy teachers. It’s funny as hell.

If you have heard of Azumanga Daioh but don’t know why Yuri fans should care, read my original review of the Yuri content first.

If you know about Azumanga Daioh and are just considering buying the US released DVDs, you might want to read my initial reviews of Azumanga Daioh Vols. 1,2, 3.

Which brings us, at last, to Volume 4. I picked this up in time to keep me company on the train back from a work-related conference in Washington, DC. It was the perfect anime to watch on the ride home, since it appears to be the funniest volume so far…or so I inferred from my continuing hysterics for well over an hour. In fact, I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.

To start, this is a 5-episode volume. I think that that should be the standard for a DVD, personally, with 6 from time to time as a bonus. Reversible cover seems to be the standard now – I approve. (Especially when one has gone and bought a box for the set – the reversible covers end up like little mini-posters that have some actual “keep and enjoy” value.)

Story-wise, Vol. 4 has alot to recommend it. It is, for one thing, insanely funny, and full of abundant cuteness provided by Chiyo-chan. On the down side, there’s a lot of Yomi-bashing, for some reason, which bothered me the first time around and isn’t any less irritating this time. I don’t really understand why fate keeps crapping on her, when Tomo is so wretched, but there you go, another mystery of life unsolved. But overall, this has been the best of all the volumes, with, perhaps (depending on who your favorite character is…) the very best yet to come.

The animation remains the same as the first volumes, of course. The DVD includes those amazingly detailed liner notes, but no toy surprise which was a bit of a bummer.

The sound quality kept fading in and out for me, but might have been any number of problems, including the earphones I was using, so I won’t hold that against the DVD itself.

And the translation is, at least, consistent. The honorific “-chan” is left as is, the others are ignored or translated according to some arcane alchemical formula which, assumably, is understood by the translators, (who feel that “Miss Yukari” can be an appropriate translation for “Yukari-chan”, “Yukari”, “Yukari-sensei” and “Sensei.” Do not ask me to explain – I do not know.)

So, I’m looking forward to the next DVD, as always, and have found that embarrassing one’s self by busting a gut in public is totally worth it when you are watching something as truly hysterical and wacky as Azumanga Daioh. ^_^

Ratings: Remain the same as previously. Overall 8, a must-have.

Oh, since *this* is the disk where Kaorin gets the rainbow jets and wedding bells (when she is recruited to do a 3-legged race with Sakaki-san,) maybe we’ll jump the Yuri rating to ‘8’ too. ^_^

Erratum: One of the liner notes in the first disk has a comment by a staffer that, after Chihiro’s first scene (she’s the classmate being helped by Chiyo-chan in the beginning,) she becomes background noise and kind of disappears into the story, never to be seen again, except maybe for one line. I am glad to report that he was wrong. I have been rooting for Chihiro since then, looking to see if she comes back and she does – repeatedly. She and Kaorin made the penguin costume Chiyo-chan wears, and she is also supposed to have been Kaorin’s 3-legged race partner. So, gambare Chihiro! Don’t disappear! ^_^

Posted in Azumanga Daioh, Yuri Anime | No Comments »


Yuri Notes and News

September 30th, 2004

A few quick notes and snippets of Yuri and shoujoai interest today!

Okazu is now syndicated. You can pick it up on a Newsfeed reader near you! Just click the “syndicated” link above, or on the side bar on the right, or the XML button. If you do not know what XML, RSS, syndication or a newsfeed reader is, please feel free to read this article on What’s the difference between blogs and RSS?. (And a nod of thanks to Tara Calishain of ResearchBuzz, who inspired me to just get it done already.)

Madlax, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Bakaretsu Tenshi, are all finshed for the season. What’s next on the yuri plate? Take a look at this! Kannazuki no Miko is already (according to contributing editor Sean Gaffney) being referred to in some fan circles as “Kannazuki no Lesbian”! I don’t know much about it yet, but let’s just say that every *single* picture I’ve seen for this series has the main characters embracing. It’s GAINAX, it’s Geneon…it’s Kadokawa manga, need I say more? How about mikos (Japanese shrine priestesses) and mecha? I’m withholding any opinion-forming until I see it, but I have high (and low) hopes.

Animaxis and Sony Enterntainment are considering starting a new cable anime channel for US viewers. Why is this important? Because one of the first anime series they would be showing is the gender-bending classic Berusaiyuu no Bara aka, Rose of Versailles. Finally, American audiences will get a chance to meet Lady Oscar Francois de Jarjeye in all her butchy glory. Yay! Something to look forward to for all fans of early shoujoai, girl-prince anime.

Some of the Yuricon Essays and the old polls (2001-2003), along with some other articles of Yuri interest have been translated into Japanese. You can find them at Moonlight Fantasia.

That’s it for this time – another review coming up soon!

Posted in Yuri Network News | No Comments »


Stellvia Anime, Foundation 1 (English)

September 28th, 2004

I reviewed Stellvia almost a year ago. Well, now it has been released by Geneon, and so, I thought it deserved another look.

Geneon had a big-ass booth at Otakon this past year, and even sponsored a mini-concert by Angela, the singer for the opening and Ending themes for this anime. I hadn’t watched Stellvia since the very first time I saw it, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the music. It’s a strange OP, sort of yodel-y and it was appealing in an unusual way. When I watched the DVD, I found myself turning the volume way up on the opening credits.

So, Stellvia of the Universe, or Uchyuu no Stellvia, is, as I mentioned in my previous review, a space opera. Katase Shima has always wanted to see space “head on,” so she applies to “Foundation Stellvia,” a space station academy, to learn to become a pilot. The plot hasn’t changed much since my last review, so I’ll focus only on the actual DVD release.

Right off, I decided to purchase the plain DVD in a case version, eschewing the DVD in series box. I cannot imagine that whatever extras you get with the box is worth the $15 more in price. That’s practically a whole ‘nother DVD, for pity’s sake! And pencil boards go for around $3…, so…. You get 4 eps for your $20, which isn’t jump for joy great, but it’s not like I feel like I’m being taken to the cleaners, either.

The no-frills DVD is definitely that. You get nada with it. No liner notes, no anything. Just a notice of future release dates and a market research card. (Dear Geneon, Please license Maria-sama ga Miteru, I have lots of money to spend. Thanks so much. Love, Erica.). The cover of the DVD is the same as the Japanese version – a sort of lurid green with Shima-chan floating uncomfortably alone. The DVD itself is really lovely…the green sky theme repeated as a green DVD with cut-outs where the prismatic DVD is visible, like stars glowing in a green sky. Cle-ver…

The soundtrack was fubared on my DVD and I’m not really sure why. It would only play in monotrack on my TV, but worked fine on my computer. Other DVDs worked fine on the TV, so it had to be the disc. No clue what was going on there…and I didn’t lose much, just a few background noises.

The translation was, for the first episode, stunning. Absolutely fan-tastic. Shima-chan was appropriately translated as Shima-chan, the twice it was used. Honorifics in place, all’s well. And then the episode ended and aliens took over the translation for the next three episodes. Can we say, “wtf”?

Episodes 2-4 were dreadful. Translation was bland & colorless, and the honorifics were disappeared and carted off, never to be seen again – I cried when I realized that they were never coming back. I don’t know WHAT on earth happened to the translation, but clearly they need to find the folks who did the first episode and apologize for offending them and get them back on the job!

One last note – I had originally commented that the characters looked too young for my taste. I guess I had never noticed before, but the art looked about the same level as Digimon. The same faces and bodies on the characters, the same high-end CGI, but low-end character design…all very weird when put together.

I had also forgotten how GOOD the script was. For all my bitchin’, the story is still solid, the voice actors are still decent and Machida Ayaka, the hyper-competent, bitchy (and ultimately psycho lesbian, so you KNOW I like her) in the big 4 is voiced by Toyoguchi Megumi, who also voices Satou Sei in Maria-sama ga Miteru! (For the record, Kuzuhara Yayoi is voiced by Orikasa Fumiko.)

The DVD release is only a 6, but the story still gets an 8, for an overall 7.

This series is definitely worth a rent and, if you’re willing to wait for the payoff, a buy. I know I’ll look forward to the next volume, just because the story is really damn decent.

Posted in English Anime, Stellvia, Yuri Anime | No Comments »