Liberty, Volume 2 (リバティ)

August 19th, 2022

In Volume 1  Liz, the emotionally fragile singer for a band Liberty. And we met Maki, who is  is managing  the Liberty account for her company. Liz is a real handful, too, as she tends to use sex as a weapon.  Despite that, Maki has fallen for Liz. And sometimes, she thinks Liz returns the feeling. However, every time they get a little closer, something sets Liz off again, leaving Maki unsure of what she is to the singer.

Liberty, Volume 2 (リバティ) begins with another of the things that sets Liz off. Only this time it wasn’t a thing, it was a person. The very fashionable and sexy Sumire who works for Liberty’s newest sponsor. It’s immediately obvious to us, the reader, that there is some history between Liz and Sumire.  Unable to say no to Sumire, Liz finds herself seduced, possibly coerced…and more possibly that this is how they always have been since they met in school. Liz is ashamed of herself and unwilling to talk to Maki, who is feeling left out. All of this brings up an unwelcome memory for Maki as well.

We have hit pure Jondalar Syndrome* here, my friends. One honest conversation would end this manga. So, of course, that ain’t gonna happen.

*Jondalar Syndrome is named after one of the characters from The Mammoth Hunters (one of the Clan of the Cave Bear series.) Had he and Ayla ever just discussed anything at all, the book would have ended instantly. It was a nightmare for me, a Virgo (which has a lot of mythological tie-ins to communication), with a fetish for good communication practices between people. Made me so angry I named a bad plot device after it, for when two people just do not have the conversation they need to have as a plot driver.

Since this manga is about the drama – and about giving Liz makeovers – and it is drawn by queen of manipulative drama and mopey leads Momono Moto, I’m cool with it. But, I follow the author, Kitta Izumi on Twitter and she’s vehement about being one’s authentic self in public, so I’m hoping that we’ll get to a better place for both Maki and Liz.

I love the art in this manga, I think this is Momono-sensei’s best work to date. It’s super stylish, which suits the world in which it is set. And I love that Maki has a good friend who will realtalk her when everyone else around is either ignoring her or…what? I’m sure Maki doesn’t yet know what her role is in this story, but by the end of the volume, she may be getting there. I’ll wait on tenterhooks to see how things develops.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7 we’re in a bit of a holding pattern in this volume
Characters – In the real world, we’d all gently suggest Liz speak to a therapist. For the story, she’s a walking plot complication
Service – Not really. Both the sex appeal and the sex are adult and mature.
Yuri – 10 Yuri all the way down

Overall – 8

While I wait, I have Volume 22 of Galette magazine to read, and Volume 23 will be debuting at Comitia next month!

Posted in Momono Moto, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Project A-ko **Perfect Edition** Blu-ray, Guest Review by Matt Marcus

August 17th, 2022

Welcome back to another Okazu Guest Review Wednesday! Today we welcome back Matt Marcus once again. Matt is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, such as the JRPG games club podcast Lightning Strikes Thrice that is currently covering Final Fantasy VIII.

Back in March 2021, Discotek Media’s official Twitter account posted that they were canceling their planned digital restoration of the first Project A-ko film for their upcoming Blu-ray release. In its place, they announced that the Blu-ray would instead be based on an upscaling of an original 35mm master, all copies of which were once thought to be lost to time. It was both a stroke of good luck for classic anime fans and a cautionary tale about proper filing procedures (said copy of the film had been filed under the wrong name and had been hiding for years). Project A-ko **Perfect Edition** released in December of 2021.

It is hard to feel the need to introduce this film, given its historical significance and how Erica has previously covered it on the site, but here is a brief overview: Project A-ko is a 1986 theatrical film produced by APPP, the creators of the Cream Lemon series of adult OVAs. It is a wacky screwball action comedy that is lavishly animated and stuffed to the gills with parody and references to other media (including but not limited to Fist of the North Star, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, Creamy Mami, Harmadeggon, Captain Harlock, Starship Troopers, Megazone 23, The Flying Phantom Ship, Wheels on Meals, The Long Goodbye, and a couple of famous American comic book characters).

The premise is simple: head–and body–strong teenager A-ko and her childhood friend C-ko start their first year of high school in a posh girls school and run afoul of B-ko, the resident queen bee, who falls head-over-heels for C-ko. Oh and there is a crew of female aliens who are looking for their lost princess. Also B-ko is a mecha engineering genius? Look, the film opens with a “meteor” decimating a major city and then immediately cuts to sixteen years in the future where the city has been rebuilt inside the impact crater. Wild stuff all around.

Watching this film for the first time in 2022, I found a lot to like and a few things to side-eye. The mecha and spaceship design is gorgeous. The music is the perfectly aged flavor of ‘80s cheese. The detail put into the destruction of many, many bits of the environment is something to behold. Nevertheless, this is the Cream Lemon team, so even though the content is not R18 there are still a couple scenes of teen nudity and countless panty shots. A few other gripes: B-ko is a psycho lesbian trope (even though I love her); there is a surprising amount of murder happening being treated as slapstick; and I have no idea who finds C-ko’s wailing anything other than incredibly grating. I try to imagine an ‘80s salaryman watching this film in theaters, chuckling to himself as he thinks, “Oh ho ho, that C-ko is crying again! What mirth this bestows upon me!”

What really interested me the most with this release is the plethora of extra features, the standout being the 30 minute mini-documentary aptly titled The Music of Project A-ko. It is centered around interviews with the writing and composing duo of Richie Zito and Joey Carbone, as well as singers Annie Livingstone and Samantha Newark. (Sadly, Valerie Stevenson, who sang lead on C-ko’s theme song “Follow Your Dreams”, passed away in 2015.) As a music production nerd, it was very fun to hear the history of how the music made it to the film. I would also highlight the small featurette on the scrapped CD-ROM game, which is especially entertaining if you experienced PC gaming in the ‘90s.

It’s clear that Discotek had a lot of love for this film. As a newcomer to it, I appreciate it more than I like it. If you love Project A-ko, you’ve already bought this. For those who have yet to check it out, there is fun to be had if you allow it some grace for its vintage.

Art – 9 This is what you are here for, seeing lots of things crumble, shatter, tear, and explode
Story – 6 The story is just an excuse for gags and action, which it does well enough
Characters – 5 There’s some fun rapport but this is not a character-focused vehicle
Service – 7 Yes, definitely
Yuri – 5 / LGBTQ – 0 To quote one of the extra features, “B-ko’s obsession with C-ko seems to border on the homosexual”

Overall – 8 The currently best way to enjoy a classic

I would like to give a shoutout to my podcast cohost Sibyl (you can find her projects here). She and I covered this film in detail on a bonus episode of Boku No Stop, available only for Pitch Drop Patrons.

Erica here: Thanks for a great review Matt and a couple of guffaws! The key news about this release of Project A-ko was when Diskotek found the original 35mm masters literally in someone’s closet. The animation for this has never looked so good. Not even when it was originally animated. ^_^

 

Posted in Classic Yuri, Guest Review, Matt Marcus, Yuri Anime | 3 Comments »


Lycoris Recoil, Streaming on Crunchyroll

August 15th, 2022

In a near future, the world is peaceful because, in part, of an elite group of teenaged girls who are trained in the art of defense and assassination. Called Lycoris, they are highly skilled, obsessively competitive and dangerous.

When Takina comes close to putting one of her Lycoris peers in danger, she’s shunted away from the headquarters to a branch office/cafe. Here she meets an infamous Lycoris, Chisato, who only uses non-lethal bullets. Despite the obscurity of their office, and the absurdity of their situation, Chisato and Takina are drawn into a series of terrorist attacks that could shake the foundation of their peaceful world. This is Lycoris Recoil, Streaming on Crunchyroll

Okay, that’s the basic setup. And, I have to be honest…it’s really stupid for a reason I will get to in a second. I wouldn’t have watched it at all, except I saw someone on Twitter describe it as “John Wick with cute girls” and after redefining in my head it as “John Wick with moe blob-faced girls for imagination-impaired adult men” I started to watch it. I really like it, despite a list of flaws longer than the cast and staff. ^_^

So if I like it, why do I call it stupid?  Let’s start with the idea of 16 year-olds being better at assassination than anyone else. For one. Then you take the two absolute best agents you’ve ever had…and exile them. For reasons.This is SO fishy that it reminds me of why Magical Girls have to be so young. No one with an ounce of emotional maturity could possible not see that some shit is up. I’m not sure I would have been that naive at 16, even.  On top of this, we have a series of character types, not characters. Including an absurdly young-looking hacker, thank you Serial Experiments Lain for giving us that forever. And let’s not forget drunken adult lady. Our one bright light is the office head, who is black, gay, smart and a decent guy, who just happens to have an obviously tragic backstory and was an assassin and all sort of other bad things. Also, a bunch of reveals that are super obvious. 

And a gloaty bad guy. I fucking hate gloaty bad guys. Get your thing done right, then gloat. UGH.

Despite these flaws, I’m really enjoying the heck out of Lycoris Recoil, because really, it’s John Wick with moe-faced girls and that is Perfectly Okay. ^_^

The Yuri is very much by implication. Since Lycoris (pronounced licorice with a soft ‘c’, not ‘sh’) work in pairs, and rely on each other in life and death situations, we’ve got a totally Spartan dynamic between couples. Chisato is, apparently flakey and maybe not super insightful, but she’s cheerful and absurdly good at what she does, while Takina is brooding and dark, making them the traditional Yuri trope pair, only make them assassins. In a recent episode, Chisato went for a femme fatale look and Takina took the butch route and we all nodded in approval. (Of course most of the art seems to be more obsessed with Takina’s head briefly hitting Chisato’s butt, thus a Beavis and Butthead rating. )

Specific episodes are underwear-level humor, with a very unfortunate tendency by the translators to rely on utterly outdated and lazy translation choices. Insisting on using “panties” for underwear, and saying an admired character “swings that way” when discussing that he is gay. I commented on Twitter that translators don’t have to do that – they are not obliged to make characters sound like 80 year old homophobes. They can and should make better choices in 2022. We can’t tell the writers to stop pandering, but we can expect the translators to grow the fuck up.

And still, I am very much enjoying this story. Watching two children beat the crap out of supposedly professional hitmen is amusing.  I’m good with amusing crap.

Ratings:

Art – Pretty bad, honestly, but whatever
Story – Cute girls shoot guns, men drop like flies
Characters – Surely Chisato will both help Takina find meaning in life and redeeem herself then convince Takina to reject the things she thought she wanted, probably by fake-dying.
Service – Heh heh, Takina’s head touched Chisato’s butt
Yuri – Takina’s head touched Chisato’s butt/ Butch x femme dynamic / Sisters-in-arms/ Two girls on the screen together

Overall – A fun 7

This ain’t no Birdie Wing, and fandom has even odds on Chisato fake-dying by the end of the season, but if you like mindless violence perpetrated by anatomically inaccurate teens, this may be your jam.

Posted in English Anime | 5 Comments »


Celebrate 20 Years of Okazu with the By Your Side Yuri Treasure Hunt!

August 14th, 2022

Hello and happy 20th Anniversary Okazu! Wow. 20 years of this blog, this community and this passion for Yuri. ^_^

At 15 years, I wrote a post that traced the first 15 years here on Okazu. Since then, our most major accomplishment has been the publication of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga! ^_^

To celebrate 20 years and BYS, I would like invite all of you to a celebratory Yuri Treasure Hunt!

Here’s how to play:

1) Grab your copy of By Your Side (which is now available on 10 online platforms or at a bookstore near you) and head over to this page, where there is a 10-question Yuri History Trivia Contest. Fill out the answers!

2) Send in the form and get a “Yuri Master” badge for participating.

3) All participants will be entered into a drawing. Winners will receive t-shirt  – design of your choice – from the Yuricon Store. The only limitations are the countries Rebubble can’t ship to.

I hope you’ll all enjoy this game for fun and prizes, as we celebrate 20 years of Okazu. Thank you all for reading and commenting and writing.

Here’s to 20 more years of Okazu and Yuri. ^_^

Posted in Okazu News | 2 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – August 13, 2022

August 13th, 2022

Yuri Event

In an unusual turn of events, both Rica Takashima and I will be at Flame Con, a fantastic LGBTQ+ comic event in New York City on Saturday, August 20.  This means if you come by to pick up a copy of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga, you will get it signed by the author and cover artist!

Rica also will have a lot of prints and comics for sale all weekend. I am not sure if I’ll be there on Sunday, but I’m doing a panel on Saturday on the History of Yuri and will be there to sell and sign after! My panel is at 12:45, I’ll see you there. ^_^

Thanks everyone who has picked up the book so far! If you haven’t yet gotten your copy, By Your Side is now available on iBooks as well.  Get your copy on pretty much every online platform possible and at bookstores near you. I hope you’ll all consider recommending it, dropping a review on Amazon or Goodreads, your local library and letting folks know about it. ^_^

 

Yuri Manga

We have Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Volume 3 up on the Yuricon Store.

Whisper Me a Love Song, Volume 5 (which I reviewed this week) has also hit shelves in English.

 

 

Support Yuri Journalism & Yuri Creators
Become an Okazu Patron Today!

 

Yuri Anime

Rafael Antonio Pineda has the news that the Yuri Light Novel series The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess will be getting an anime in 2023! Check the ANN article for details.

Crunchyroll has added dubs for Lycoris Recoil. Rafael has news on that on ANN, as well.

My Master Has no Tail is slated for a September 30 debut in Japan. ANN’s Alex Mateo has the details on this fun period fantasy about a tanuki who wants to learn rakugo.

From YNN Correspondent Ashley, we have news that the Birdie Wing Box Set Limited Edition in Japan will come with a short story by series writer Kuroda Yousuke. Called “Blaze Rose,” it follow Rose Aleon.

 

Tip Okazu Writers a Coffee on Ko-fi

 

Yuri Doujinshi

Lilyka has released a new work by Hoshizoranoshita, Like An Early Blue Flower 1, for fans of the classic private school Yuri. ^_^

Also out now on Lilyka is the Oshima’s After School, Volumes 1- 3.

 

If you’d like to support Yuri journalism and research, Patreon and Ko-Fi are the ways we currently have  \active to accept subscriptions and tips. Your support goes straight to paying for Guest Reviews, folks helping with videos, site maintenance, managing the Yuricon Store and directly supporting other Yuri creators. Just $5/month makes a huge impact! Become part of the Okazu family!

 

Thanks to our Okazu Patrons and Supporters who make the YNN weekly report possible! Support us on Patreon to help us give Guest Reviewers a raise and to help us support Yuri creators!

Become a YNN Correspondent: Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share and be part of the Yuri Network. ^_^

Posted in Yuri Network News | 2 Comments »