Yuri Manga: Houkago, or After School

May 26th, 2004

It’ll be a quick one today…

Houkago is a new serialized manga running in Cookie monthly magazine. It just started this month, so it’s hard to tell if the potential for Yuri has got any staying power. In fact, I’m not even sure it wasn’t a one-shot story. (The monthlies are getting very lax about telling you when/if another chapter will run on some of the series. And many of the mangaka end a chapter with “The End” so you don’t know if it’s the chapter that’s ended, or the series. Drives me nuts.

Anyway, Cookie is the same magazine running Nana which has some serious crushiness bordering on Yuri, but sadly, nothing will actually happen. Nonetheless, a lot of Yuri fans like Nana.

Houkago is a short chapter, about a girl who is being picked on by classmates at school. As the story continues, the teasing predictably gets more vicious. The girl is befriended by the cool class loner and they two of them start spending alot of time together and being happy in each other’s company.

There’s much hand-holding, and an embrace or two, but no declarations of love or kisses in this chapter, so it’s nothing ground-breaking or notable. It’s just another high-school Yuri potential romance. ^_^

I’ll keep you posted if anything good happens in it.



Yuri Anime: Spring 2004 season

May 24th, 2004

Yesterday, the new season of Maria-sama ga Miteru anime was announced. The good news is that it’s starting as soon as July 4th, the bad news is that they’ve buried it on Sunday morning at 7:30 AM. Apparently they feel that insomniac six-year-olds are the target audience.

Most importantly, now we, the western audience will get to officially meet Yumi’s potential souer candidates, affectionately known as “drill-hair” and “stalker.” Makes you really wanna meet ’em, doesn’t it?

Now, onto other business.

This season of anime is sort of only vaguely yuri-ish. There’s the usual Bee Train yuri implications in Madlax and some fanservice-y kind of stuff in Bakaretsu Tenshi, but nothing that set the yuri-o-meter off at a high level. However, if goofy, silly yuri that will never go anywhere is good for you, then I recommend you catch the fansubs of Sensei Ojikan: After School Doki Doki Hours.

Sensei Ojikan is reminiscent of Azumanga Daioh, but really, only in the sense that they are both very silly comedies set at a school. There is a little overlap in character type, but only a little. If I remember correctly, Sensei Ojikan came first as a manga, so it isn’t really any kind of rip-off at all. Speaking of which – you all know that Azumanga Daioh has been released on DVD here, right? Run out and get it, if you haven’t, because this is a *very* funny series.

Sensei Ojikan is nominally the story of a teacher, Mika-sensei, who looks like a 10-year old. She’s only marginally effective as a teacher, but her class feels very affectionately towards her. There’s a goofy selection of kids in the class: the hyper genki underachiever, the over achiever, the class leader who is a boy idol otaku, the mangaka otaku, the gay girl, the gay boy, the crossdresser, the old guy and the slacker. All together, they make a fun combination and some of the episodes had me laughing out loud.

The gay boy is very obviously in love with the slacker kid and everyone in class knows it but the slacker. The gay girl is Kitagawa Rio and she is even more openly in love with the teacher. She’s very open about her liking girls in general, cute girls more specifically and Mika-sensei in particular…and she plays that card a lot, especially when she’s trying to get a reaction out of poor Mika-sensei.

Again, this is all played for laughs, so don’t expect Kitagawa and Mika-sensei to ride off onto the sunset or anything, but it’s cute. And, in accordance with the Rules of Supporting Yuri Characters, Kitagawa is especially good-looking and smarter than nearly anyone else in class. ^_^ So, if you want a few laughs and aren’t looking for a permanent relationship, check out Sensei Ojikan.



Maria-sama ga Miteru Manga Update

May 21st, 2004

It’s been about a month since the Marimite anime ended, and of course, we’re all waiting with baited breath to hear any news of a second season. In the meantime, however, I’m filling the void with the manga, running in Margaret monthly.

And since I have to kill about forty minutes here at work before the week ends, I figured an update of the manga story was in order. ^_^

As I’ve mentioned about a thousand times since this series exploded onto the Yuri scene, the manga is more detailed than the anime, and in some cases, more exact to the novels. Although for purists, any cut is a bad cut.

The first volume of the manga has been out since the end of February and we can probably expect a second volume pretty soon, even though the installments are coming monthly now and not biweekly. I’ve covered some of the differences between the anime and the manga of the first arc in my February 6th entry.

Well, now the manga is firmly into the second arc, aka “The Yellow Rose Revolution” and I wanted to share a few of the fun bits either changed in or left out of the anime with you, because I can. ^_^

Just to remind you (or introduce you to the story) the second arc deals with the repercussions when Yoshino (Rosa Foetida en Bouton Petite Soeur) returns her rosary to her oneesama, Rei (Rosa Foetida En Bouton.) This happens shortly after Yumi has become Sachiko’s soeur and she is still very new and uunsure of herself in her role. It absolutely shocks her when Yoshino returns Rei’s rosary, undoing their relationship…and poor Yumi is even more apalled when other girls do the same thing. In the meantime, Rei is training for a kendo match, at the same time that Yoshino is preparing to have heart surgery.

Here are a few of the more romantic/funny moments so far…

So, Yumi and Sei (Rosa Gigantea) are in the Rose mansion and Sei is coughing up the fact that Eriko (Rosa Foetida) is basically good at anything she tries to do, but is seriously unmotivated.

Sei throws her arms around Yumi, once again completely taken by Yumi’s cuteness. Yumi grimaces and says, “Why don’t you get yourself someone as a boyfriend?” and Sei laughs and says, “I couldn’t be faithful to some guy. Only Yumi-chan.” and kisses Yumi…just as Sachiko walks in.

The rest of that conversation is in the anime as well, with Sachiko telling Sei to play with her own petite soeur. Sei says, “Gee, I never thought of that…” and Sachiko yells at Yumi for not struggling to get away, and not to do anything that would make Rosa Gigantea happy. ^_^

While tying ribbons into Yumi’s hair, Sachiko calls Yumi Rei and Yoshino’s “carrier pigeon.”

Yumi is immediately distracted as Sachiko takes her hand, quite forcefully, and begins walking towards the bus stop. As they walk hand in hand, Yumi’s head explodes and her heart begins to pound and she desperately wonders if the other petite soeur have this problem of so wanting to be close to their onee-sama that they can’t quite cope. Her face becomes so red and distracted that, despite Yumi’s fervent wish that they stay connected a while longer, Sachiko lets go – she thinks she’s bothering Yumi. When they approach the bus stop holding hands – a few of the other girls see them and go all girly-squealy, but sotto voce, about how sweet it is that they Rosa Chinensis en bouton and her petite soeur are holding hands.

Later, at Rei’s shiai Sei wanders over with lots of snacks for Yumi, reassuring Yumi that she doesn’t need to be paid back, but Sachiko insists on paying for her. Yumi feels awfully contrite, because she didn’t think to bring her purse. Sachiko smiles gently at her and tells her that she, Yumi, should let her, Sachiko, act like an onee-sama every once in a while. Yumi sits, once again overwhelmed by Sachiko’s coolness. ^_^

One other difference is that Eriko’s absence is more notable – people at school have commented that she’s missing, and Yumi thinks she sees her, but each time, Eriko is gone when she looks again. At the hospital while visiting Yoshino, Yumi thinks she sees Eriko’s “ghost” because she looks so pale and is in all white – with further reflection Yumi might have realized that Eriko was wearing a hospital gown, but at the moment, she strikes her as ghost-like. It is from these things that the weird rumors will presumably begin about Eriko. ^_^

In any case, the manga is more satisfying than the anime, if what you crave is more interaction, more story, more personal details, etc. I imagine that I’ll write another update at the end of this arc and by then, we ought to have some news of the new anime season! ^_^



Yuri Manga: Blue

May 20th, 2004

Before I write today’s review, I just want to let you know that I’ve changed the “Comments” field below so anyone can comment – you no longer have to be registered.

Now, today’s review:

Blue, by Nananan Kiriko, was published by MAG Comics in 1997. Stuck as it was in the limbo space between the tough girl epics of the 1980’s and the new wave of yuri in the early twenty first century (that would be now…), this manga reads like a tentative probe into a sensitive spot.

Blue has a simple storyline – Kayako is a recent transfer student to a seaside school, still tentatively making friends. She becomes interested in the girl who sits in front of her and never really interacts with anyone. One day, on a whim, Kayako invites the girl, Masami, to join her and her classmates for lunch and a new friendship is born. Masami seems nice enough and she and Kayako start spending more and more time together.

One night, Kayako goes out with a few friends to an arranged drinking party with some guys. She ends up at a hotel with one of the guys, but afterwards, she realizes that it was pretty pathetic of her, because she’s fallen in love with Masami. Shortly therafter, she and Masami share their first kiss.

Their relationship becomes a little more exclusive, so when Kayako’s friend who had set up the drinking party comes in screaming at Kayako, she’s really taken aback. The friend is appalled at Kayako for sleeping with the guy *she* liked…for sleeping with him at all, really. In the following days, Kayako is quietly shunned by her circle of friends, but she and Masami become closer than ever – they decide to move to Tokyo together when they graduate, etc, etc.

But summer vacation comes and Masami disappears with no word to either her mother or Kayako. As Kayako’s happiness collapses around her, she’s forced to learn more about the Masami she didn’t know, and face her own fears and jealousies…and be more honest with her other friends.

In the end, Masami and Kayako do not stay together – there really is never any reason to believe they might, to be honest. If either one of them were male, this entire story would simply be a “first love” story and disappear into oblivion. The entire manga seems to be balanced on a pinhead of tension. There just isn’t much there, except the usual day-to-day stuff of adolescence. From my lofty perspective (adolescence was a *long* time ago now) it’s sweet, but not compelling, stuff.

In 2002, a live-action version of Blue was made. I haven’t managed to see it, yet, but I would like to, despite the fact that the movie seems like a slightly blander version of an already bland story. Despite the fact that I strongly believe that the movie-viewing audience is more than ready for a more robust story than this one. Nonetheless…Blue is not a hateful story, just sort of a nondescript, bittersweet “first love” story.

The one thing the does stand out about this manga is the art. To call it stark would be an understatement. There are no screentones, almost no shading and the characters are drawn realistically – not manga realistically, but actually realistically. This makes the story feel more real, but it makes it damn hard to tell some of the characters apart, if they have similar hair styles. Let’s face it, most mangaka can only draw one face and they stick different color hair and eyes on everyone, so we can see who is who. Take away weird hairstyles or distinct physical attributes, and all colors and most of the shading and all you have left is a bunch of nearly identical shapes. This makes Blue a little tougher than usual to follow, unless you can actually read the conversations. I was able to follow it alot better this time than I was the last time I attempted it. Assumably, one day I will actually be able to read every word with ease and it’ll all make sense. ;-)

So, Blue is only okay, but if you’re a completist and are trying to build a collection of all the Yuri manga ever, you’ll want this one too. ^_^



Yuri Manga: Futtemo Harettemo (降っても晴れっても)

May 19th, 2004

futtemoharetemoWay back, when I was writing about things I didn’t want to write about, I wrote about Futtemo Harettemo. (降っても晴れっても)

Well, recently I revisted this old, “miserable classic” of Yuri by Fujimura Mari, which was published by Margaret Comics back in 1993. And I decided that it deserved a review of its own, not because it’s happy or unique, but because it’s neither. Unlike Pieta, Futtemo Harettemo, does not end with the girl getting the girl, but these two stories have more in common that you’d think at first glance.

Futtemo Harettemo is the story of Nagi and Hiro, two classmates who have instant and almost obsessively deep feelings for one another. This five-volume manga details their encounter, friendship, and the painful things that they do to each other to try and convince themselves that they don’t, in fact, love one another, or wait, maybe they do. This is a really ugly story at times, as Nagi and Hiro are hurtful, sometimes destructive and even homicidal at each other. Hiro ends up being cast as the more emotionally unstable of the two, while Nagi gets the award for being the more selfish. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, there are some genuinely tender moments between the two girls. The internalized homophobia is all too real at times.

Since one of the storylines is Nagi’s conflict at being torn between Hiro (who is admittedly not a very dependable person) and a guy who is clearly and committedly in love with her, you can expect that these two will not get together any time soon. Hiro does get some credit for calling it love first and kissing Nagi several times, trying with increasing desperation to hold onto a girl with whom she is “more than friends, but less than lovers.” (This quote is from a short Japanese movie about lesbian romance entitled 3 Second Melancholy, and a very common Japanese phrase about intense relationships without commitment.)

So, given the fact that Nagi and Hiro do *not* end up together, unlike Rio and Sahako, and the fact that their relation is tumultuous and sometimes violent, why do I say that it has anything to do with Pieta? Because both of these manga, and many of the shorts that are currently being published in Yuri Shimai pair lesbianism with mental illness.

It wasn’t until I re-read Pieta and Futtemo Harettemo in the same week that I realized that both include characters that inflict violence on themselves and, in the case of Futtemo Harettemo, others as well. Which led me to notice that there are several stories in the three volumes of Yuri Shimai that pair lesbian love with a suicidal desire…and it dawned on me that we’re *still* reading the same damn stories from the early twentieth century, when lesbianism itself was considered pathological, and frequently paired with other mental diseases, especially depression. (Although Hiro acts more like a person who is bipolar, IMHO.)

And while I’m marginally annoyed, Pieta at least offers very reasonable and believable explanations for Rio’s behavior, while Futtemo Harettemo simply expects us to care about Hiro and Nagi while they duke it out on the battlefield of unhealthy attraction. If I were one of these girls’ mother, even I’d call this relationship unhealthy and try to put an end to it.

Nonetheless, Futtemo Harettemo was, in the end, a kind of a bittersweet story (as so many Japanese manga were until recently, when the audience began to demand this thing called a “happy ending”). In the last chapter, Hiro and Nagi meet up at a class reunion years later. Both are married and happy, and now, at last, able to be happy for each other. Hiro introduces Nagi to her husband as her “first love,” which was kind of sweet and, at the same time, massively irritating.

Would this story be any different if it were written in 2004, as opposed to in 1993? I think not that much. Nagi, at least would still be married in the end. Maybe, maybe, Hiro might be with another woman, or perhaps she might have been portrayed as less emotionally unstable, but I think that these two could never have gotten together and lived happily ever after. Perhaps it was better that they just moved on. ^_^

In any case, Futtemo Harettemo turned out to be a lot more provocative this time, than when I read it the last time and if you’re the kind of person who is interested in historical Yuri manga, you might want to look for this series in a used manga bookstore.

Ratings:

Overall – It’s complicated to rate something like this, since it is so much a product of its time, but…

Art – 7
Characters – 5
Story – 6
Yuri – 7
Service – 0

Overall – 6