Events: Onna Announces Guests

February 1st, 2005

Onna! is pleased to announce the first ouf our confirmed guests!

Paige Braddock, creator of “Jane’s World”, is one of the few women to have a comic strip syndicated in major metropolitan daily newspaper, and the only artist with a gay/lesbian main character to ever do so. Paige and “Jane” will bring years of experience and success in the demanding business of syndicated comic strips to share with Onna! attendees.

Sin Comix is a New York-area circle of artists who publish both online
and print works. Their unabashedly mature comics, (which cover everything across the spectrum,: straight, yuri, yaoi, etc.,) experience in self-publishing, and great sense of humor make this group of women special.

Onna! also welcomes fan circle Lililicious, the shoujo and shoujoai-themed scanlating and fansubbing group.

For more on Onna! guests, check out the Events section at the Onna! website.

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I’ll be out of state the next few days, so you’ll just have to amuse yourselves by reading some of my older entries. ;-)

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Yuri Doujinshi Circle: Office Mono

January 31st, 2005

Those of you familiar with ALC Publishing will no doubt be rolling your eyes at the choice of this circle for review. But, the reason ALC chose to translated and print Works was that it was really quite good. :-)

Tadeno Eriko is the primary artist of Office Mono, and I think her art style is clean and easy to enjoy – a nice example of the josei genre of manga. (Josei is manga targeted towards older girls and women.) Like my other favorite authors, Yamaji Ebine and Rica Takashima, Tadeno-sensei does solid artistic work and had a nice depth to her stories.

Office Mono’s series Lavender of Romance tells a series of stories, some one-shots, some with second and third chapters, about a variety of women in lesbian relationships. There are reasonably few schoolgirls in Tadeno’s work – she favors characters that are in the workforce, something that appeals strongly to me. Which is not to say that there are *no* schoolgirls or college-age women in her stories. Another strength of Tadeno’s works are the wide variety of ages she covers – everything from the usual high school crushes to older couples who have been together for decades.

In a nutshell, that’s the real reason I like her work so much – the variety. (That and a single panel in Lavender of Romance 6 where a woman is looking at her half-dressed lover (who is short and stubby, much like yours truly) and sees in her mind an adorable stuffed teddy bear. This is the kind of image that anyone in any releationship can totally identify with, even grumpy ole me. :-) It’s another idiotic grin moment, definitely.)

So if you want to enjoy this wonderful anthology pictured above, you can find it available at the Yuricon Shop!

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Yuri Doujinshi Circle: Pasterage

January 29th, 2005

Pasterage is one of those circles that is comprised of a really nice guy who gently obsesses on sweet yuri love. Pasterage characters invariably wear frilly dresses (when not in school uniforms) and the stories are invariably adorable and harmless, with a soft edge of goofy to them. I find myself grinning like an idiot when I read them.

The two characters seen in the above picture meet, not surprisingly, in school. Sayuka, on the right, and Shino, left, have a rocky start to their relationship, as Shino is momentarily infatuated by an Utena-like sempai. And after they become a couple, their hand-holding happiness is likewise interrupted by an infatuated kouhai, but frilly dresses and yuri googly-ness prevail. Shino and Sayuki live forever in frilly yuri bliss.

And really, what more can we ask from a doujinshi? :-)

Again, no ground-breaking efforts (and no sex in the school library…sorry Jen!) from Pasterage, but here is their lovely gallery for you to enjoy. :-)

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Yuri Doujinshi Circle: Sakuraike

January 27th, 2005

I’ve been wanting to talk about some of my favorite doujinshi circles for a while and this seemed as good a time as any…

Sakuraike is right up there in my top ten of yuri doujinshi circles. My first introduction to them was throught their “Tact” series, which told the stories of Satsuki and Kana – two typical high school girls who fall in love, are thwarted from getting together…and finally, finally, manage to have sex in the school library. :-) The “Tact” books include a another series about boyish Mako and her best friend who’s name escapes me at the moment. Best friend has to pretty much beat it into Mako’s head that she really is attracted to her, because Mako is convinced that her boyishness is off-putting. Silly Mako.

Nothing Sakuraike does is deep or ground-breaking, but I really like the two different styles that their books always include and the characters, even when they angst, seem to get together (and have sex in the school library…), which always makes it a pleasure to read. :-)

The newest doujinshi by Sakuraike includes a story about a straight girl who is a yuri doujinshi artists, and her very gay, very besotted with her girlfriend partner. It’s a goofy meta-look at the world of a doujinshi artist, with some in-jokes and insanely cute yuri thrown. And the best part is…we’ll have a few copies to sell at Yuricon’s Yuri Revolution event in Tokyo! So if you’re planning on joining us in April, you too can enjoy all this yuri goofiness! If we have any copies left at the end of the event, I’ll bring them home and put them up for sale on the Yuricon Shop manga page and give the rest of you a chance at it. It’s a really fun little doujinshi.

In any case, visit the Sakuraike gallery for a few pictures of Satuski, Kana and all their other characters. Enjoy!

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Plastic Little Anime and Manga (English)

January 25th, 2005

Plastic Little, The Adventures of Captain Tita and her “friend” Elise is a great American comic book of a manga and a great Cartoon Network cartoon of an anime.

Tita is a scavenger, like her father before her. She scavenges the seas of her world in her ship with a loyal group of pirate-y types. Into this pleasantly amoral lifestyle pops Elise, an irrestibly adorable blonde, whose personal problems embroil Tita and her crew in a larger and more volatile political/legal situation. In other words, the bad guys begin shooting. This is not a bad thing, because it gives Tita a chance to look extrememly butchy as she rescues Elise over and over from various nefarious henchmen.

Because this is a Urushihara Satoshi story, all the women take their clothes off frequently, and show us their breasts constantly. For women on the run, they spend alot of time in the bathtub, but hey, whatever. And of course – everyone looks like their clothes and skin are made out of latex. ^_^

While this story has good action, and fun characters, I call it an “American comic” because it also lacks depth – and conviction. While Tita is cool as hell and has Elise hanging off her and cuddling up to her in many a popular screencap, and there’s an unmistakable “heroine and her rescuer fall in love” vibe about them, we never really learn anything about either of the characters beyond the superficial comic-book characteristics…and we never see that thing between them develop.

So, while Plastic Little is fun, and Yuri-implicit…it’s not really much more.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 7
Plot – 7
Music – 6
Yuri – 3

Overall – 7

What I would give for Elise to give Tita a big ole’ smack on the lips somewhere in this anime….sigh….

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