A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 4

October 19th, 2020

In my review of Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 4 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる ), I lightly commented that “this series has moved slowly, and almost haphazardly, like the tropical fish of the title, lazily moving between plot points.” But Konatsu chooses another form of symbolism completely, befuddling both Koyuki and us, in A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 4 – the symbolism of a childhood tale of a shy salamander and it’s frog friend.

The festival has arrived and the day Konatsu and Koyuki have practiced for is here. Only, Koyuki is home sick. Worried for her friend and worried about the show, Koyuki tries to sneak out, but is stymied. She’s thrilled to find that Konatsu has done the fish show, but worried that her outgoing new friend will leave her behind.

At this point it has to be obvious to us, that Koyuki’s problems are deeper than just being treated like she’s perfect. She’s developed some seriously deep wounds. Her concerns are not alleviated by the fact that she’s barely gotten better when the second-year’s class trip pops up, separating them again. Koyuki starts to finally realize how important Konatsu has become to her.

Once again faced with her emotions, Koyuki snaps, and yet again, Konatsu is there to pick up the pieces and accept her. And we learn who the salamander and the frog are to one another.

This is not a romance in the more usual sense. Koyuki is far too fragile to be in love or like. In that sense, it’s a bit more like Konatsu building a ladder, one rung at a time, to help Koyuki climb out of a hole she’s dug for herself. Because this story is positioned as a Yuri romance, we can kind of expect what the end will be, but I sincerely hope we see Koyuki coming out of that hole before it happens. Otherwise, she’ll just be adding new baggage before the old stuff is dealt with.

The team at Viz is handling this story well. John Werry’s translation and Eve Grandt’s lettering is light-handed, so we’re left to feel for Koyuki on our own, without heavy-handed tactics. The design work by Yukiko Whitely and editing by Pancha Diaz, contribute to another authentic manga reading experience.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 1 on principle only, there really isn’t any
Yuri – 4

Overall – 7

As I said in my review of the Japanese volume, “This series has always been, in large part, about Koyuki’s journey to find herself. It would be nice if she finds some self-confidence and we can see their relationship develop from here.”

Volume 5 in English will hit shelves here in November, and Volume 7 has been out since summer in Japan, we should probably expect Volume 8 before the end of the year.

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Olivia, Directed by Jacqueline Audry

October 18th, 2020

Seventeen years before Radley Metzger directed the French school girl lesbian romance movie Therese and Isabelle, in 1951 Jacqueline Audry directed a wholly different movie about a lesbian affair in a girls’ school. Set in France, Olivia, which has been beautifully restored and is streaming on The Criterion Channel  or is available as  a BD with English subtitles.

IMDb sums up the story as “Olivia, an English teenager, arrives at a finishing school in France. The majority of the pupils in the school are divided into two camps: those that are devoted to the headmistress, Mlle Julie and those who follow Mlle Cara, an emotionally manipulative invalid who is obsessed with Mlle Julie.”

The drama is understated and subtle, but the emotions are apparent…to almost everyone in the school. Criterion themselves synopsize it this way, “Neglected for nearly seventy years, a singular landmark of lesbian cinema by one of France’s trailblazing women directors reemerges. Plunging the viewer—and the main character—into a lion’s den, Jacqueline Audry depicts a nineteenth-century boarding school for young girls, a house divided between its rival mistresses, Miss Julie (Edwige Feuillère) and Miss Cara (Simone Simon). As the two women compete for the affections of their students, they rouse passion, hatred, and unexpected reversals of fortune. Awash in spellbinding gothic atmosphere and a hothouse air of unspoken desire, OLIVIA is a daring feminist statement decades ahead of its time.”

I can’t really do better than that to set the scene, although I don’t think it’s gothic so much as wholly Belle Époque, fully idealized romanticism and richly festooned with superficial beauty and underlying decay; a movie version of a Renoir painting.

We learn almost nothing about Olivia’s circumstances, except that English schools are dire compared to French schools, but she is immediately liked by all the girls. It is the cook, Victoire who acts as Greek chorus for us, pointing out the factions of affection at the school.

The melodramatically unwell Mlle Cara welcomes Olivia, but the new girl is absolutely captivated by the cosmopolitan and elegant Mlle Julie. Mlle Cara sees this as a betrayal, and when Mlle Julie’s former favorite, Laura returns to the school it drives Cara into a hysterical fit.

Olivia has a single joyous day with the subject of her desire in Paris.  On the night of the holiday fête, Olivia lays in her room waiting for Mlle Julie to come to her as she said she would, but the headmistress is late and leaves almost immediately. A scream resounds and Mlle Julie finds Mlle Cara dead in her room. Whether her death is suicide or murder is never truly determined. Mlle Julie has lost everything, the woman she loves, all her money, her position and the love of the students and now, she must leave the school, as well.

Okay, so it’s not a happy ending, but wow what a lovely movie! It never once feels low-budget and sparse as There and Isabelle does. The girls’ school always is warm and welcoming, full of beauty and life. No echoing stone halls here, no miserly rations. Victoire serves up delicious food and prime commentary. The acting isn’t awkward at all. Everyone is very convincing and our feelings for the manipulative Cara are probably about the same as Mlle Julie’s, swinging rapidly from pity to exhaustion.

There are no sex scenes, but the few kisses and embraces are intimate and intense. Desire is not at all unspoken. It’s easy for us to understand the girls’ feelings and equally as difficult to sympathize with the adults. Mlle Julie for being inconstant to the only women, she says, she loved, Mlle Cara for being hysterical, Mlle Dubois for being clueless. Only Victoire and Frau Riesener, rise above this and it is Frau Riesener who inherits Cara’s estate and, presumably, Julie’s position.

I had no real expectation before watchingthis movie and I’m very glad I saw it after Therese and Isabelle.  Olivia was made ten years before The Children’s Hour and deserves at least as much a place in our history of lesbian media, as it has the double honor of being one of the first French films to show lesbian love, directed by an acclaimed female director. The end result is a take in which desire is made rawly visible without ever being made tawdry.

Ratings:

Cinematography – 8 
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 3
Lesbian – 5

Overall- 8

Olivia is movie about the consequence of desire and its effect on the community, rather than one girl’s experience. It was worth a watch.

Posted in LGBTQ, Live Action | 3 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – October 17, 2020

October 17th, 2020

Yuri Manga

We have some new items on the Yuricon Store!

December is going to see loads of Yuri riches, beginning with Tamifull’s How Do We Relationship, Volume 2 from Viz.  Volume 5 of the same series is just out in Japan, with Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 5 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな ), but if you’re reading the EN edition, do not read the summary of V5! Huge spoilers. ^_^;

Inui Ayu’s office romance Teiji ni Ageretara, Volume 4 ( 定時にあがれたら) continues as Kaori and Kayoko celebrate their 1st anniversary together.

Hero-san to Moto Onna Kanbu-san, Volume 3 (ヒーローさんと元女幹部さん) continues the tale of hero Rapid Rabbit’s love affair with a former middle manager for the bad guys.

Naoko Kodama’s Days of Love at Seagull Villa, Volume 1 has a November release in English, while the series has wrapped up in Japan with Umineko Bessou days, (海猫荘 days) Volume 3.

Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts creator, Usui Shio, will be starting up a new series in monthly Yuri magazine Comic Yuri Hime, Onna Tomodachi to Kekkon Shitemita, according to ANN’s Crystalynn Hodgkins. This should not be confused Tanaka Yuuki’s Shonen Jump Plus one-shot webcomic, Tomodachi Kekkon. Usui’s series Donuts Under a Crescent Moon,is slated for a 2021 release from Seven Seas.

 

We’re only a few patrons away from hitting our 2020 goal. We’ll Guest Reviewers a raise,
do more videos, and support more queer creators directly. Become an Okazu Patron today!

 

Anime News

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Eric P., Diskotek’s new releases for Devilman Lady and Battle Athletes (TV series *and* OVA on Blu-Ray!) are up for pre-order. Justin Sevakis has been tweeting about these and it’s interesting to read about the process from the inside. I’m really looking forward to seeing Devilman Lady. These will be getting December releases as well.

Kim Morrisey at ANN lets us know that Shiraishi Jougi, creator of Wandering Witch: The Journeys of Elaina has asked the animation staff to not upskirt the character. I hope more creators request this, because as an industry, animation is far too comfortable with what is – at absolute minimum – a pervasive form of sexual harassment. I’d really like to see it shamed out of existence because it is fucking creepy to upskirt. The anime is streaming on Hulu. Yen Press publishes the Light Novels, Square Enix is publishing the manga.

ANN’s Alex Mateo want us to know that a new extended trailer for Sailor Moon Eternal is now out. This is the first of two movies that will cover the “Dream” arc. of the manga. It’s not my favorite arc, but there’s still some good stuff to look forward to. For one thing, it looks honestly really well animated. This will also be the first time the Inners’ power up includes the spirits of their planetary castles, which I’m actually really excited about. (Nerd!) Naomi Watanabe as Zirconia is a great choice, but I feel like we’re all owed a redo of the first two seasons of Crystal with Kon Chikai in the director’s seat, because she is absolutely killing it.

Can we declare a “curse” on the first two seasons, since they’ve kind of been screwed over twice now? ^_^;

RetroCrushTV is streaming – free and legally – Dear Brother (Oniisama e) based on the manga by Riyoko Ikeda, directed by Osamu Dezaki. I’m going to keep reminding you of this until you have all watched it. This should be assigned homework for any Yuri 101 course. In fact, one could do an entire class on it. Monique Thomas and Steve Jones cover some of this vast territory in their review on ANN, Does Dear Brother Still Hold Up?

 

Yuri Light Novels

Via Senior YNN Correspondent, Sean G. J-Novel Club has announced the license – and new translation – of GL Bunko’s Girls Kingdom 1 written by Nayo with art by Shio Sakura. Part 1 is available on the J-Novel website as a preview. I reviewed this novel back in 2018, when GL Bunko did their own translation. I’m really liking Shio-san’s revised art on this current crop of webnovels-turned-LNs.

J-Novel Club has also announced a December release date for Otherside Picnic, Volume 4. This link leads to the Kindle edition. It will also be available on Global Bookwalker.

 

Yuri Games

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Louise P, we have Thirsty Sword Lesbians Tabletop RPG by April Kit Walsh. This Kickstarter has one of the most compelling video pitches I’ve ever seen and if I played games, they’d definitely have my money! With 26 days to go in their campaign, they blown past their initial goal almost 4x over.

 

Other News

My brain got five times bigger, listening to Third Impact Anime Podcast’s Interview with Anime Scholar Helen McCarthy. Helen is my idol and anytime I have a chance to learn from her, I take it. I hope you will, too.

 

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an important part of the Okazu family. I couldn’t do it without you!

 
Posted in Yuri Network News | 10 Comments »


Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 2 (ハロー、メランコリック!)

October 16th, 2020

Volume 1 introduced us to Minato, a girl who loves playing music, but has been hurt by schoolmates. She is discovered by Hibiki, a sempai who runs a casual band/club who encourages Minato to have confidence in her skills.

In Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 2 (ハロー、メランコリック!), the band is about to perform live for the first time, but there are no ends of problems and setbacks. For one, Hibiki’s wrist is injured and she’s had to refrain from playing drums. Secondly, Minato is near paralyzed at the idea of performing in front of people. But both these things are resolved by Minato. She suggests making plastic bottle maracas to get the crowd to be part of the show…and even though she spots classmates from her previous school in the audience, Minato find some strength in herself, leading the audience and rocking out on trombone. It is a massive success.

As she looks around after the performance, Minato spies Chika and Sakiko kissing, which throws her into a tizzy. Chika drags the hapless trombone player off to a family restaurant and regales her with the tale of how she and Sakiko met, fell in love and became a couple. More importantly, though, Chika makes Minato confront the idea that she might be falling for Hibiki. A “date” with Hibiki does not help clear that off the table.

I cannot tell you why, exactly, I want Minato to be happy – although there are a lot of superficially obvious reasons that I might feel that way – but I really want Minato to be happy. If Hibiki can make her happy, I’m all in for them. But I also know that there’s a lot standing between them before they get there…among them Minato herself. She’s a walking bundle of insecurity and hesitation. Ohsawa Yayoi’s come so far in the last few years – Minato’s expressions are really something. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9 Humanizing Chika is surprisingly effective
Service – 2
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8.5 we’re climbing, slowly

Nonetheless, we’ll watch and wait, and listen to pleasant ensemble music featuring flute, drum, piano, and trombone as we do. (Couldn’t also find one with a guitar, but this was close…)

Posted in Ohsawa Yayoi, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Girls Love of the Dead, Shi ga Futari wo Waka..tanai?, Volume 1 (ガールズラブ・オブ・ザ・デッド〈死がふたりを分か……たない？〉)

October 15th, 2020

It’s October, which means all my friends are finding virtual ways to celebrate Halloween. I’ve decided to join in with Ooooohhhh~~~kazu on Twitter. Every day I’m sharing a spoooooky review from the last 20 years of Okazu, starring witches and vampires and ghouls of all kinds. It’s not in order, because hashtags and threads are smart and I am not. Here’s a link to a Twitter search. ^_^

While I was collecting up 31 days of creepy reviews, I came across a news item I had bookmarked. Because of Ameko Kaeruda’s work we’ve talked a lot about Syosetsuka ni Narou, the free website for web novelists that has spawned a couple of new faves. But there’s also Yomuco, a by-the-chapter service where a number of novelists have paired up with well-known artists to created serialized-for-pay webnovels. Yomuco webnovels are also available on Global Bookwalker and Amazon JP Kindle. There are a ton of Yuri stories on Yomuco and I’ve been meaning to get to reading some for a long time.

Well, here I am reviewing a jaunty seasonal little story called Girls Love of the Dead, Shi ga Futari wo Waka..tanai?, (ガールズラブ・オブ・ザ・デッド <死がふたりを分か……たない？>) written by  Hoshii Nanao, with illustrations by Morishima Akiko.

The story begins on a dark and moonlit night, as Mitsuki decides she must leave her life behind…her beloved Rin is gone from this world and there’s nothing to live for. So she has come to this secluded old school building to die. Only, for a secluded place, it’s awfully full of…zombies!

Chased by zombies, Mitsuki finds herself in the art room, where she paints herself to look like a zombie. And so, Mitsuki finds herself in zombie school…sitting next to none other than her late lover Rin! Rin doesn’t remember Mitsuki, but that’s okay…Mitsuki says we have all the time in the world (since Rin is dead) but no, Rin only has 6 months of undead existence before her life force will dissipate! Mitsuki has to find out what Rin wanted to say to her before that or she will never know.

There’s a mystery in the middle of all the screamers. Rin was on swim team, so how was it even possible that she drowned and was never found? And who is the girl whose eye keeps rolling out? And why is there a school for zombies at all?!?

Tune in to Volume 2 to find out, because as of now, I have no idea. ^_^

This novel is very much formatted to be read on a phone screen, so is much like a VN, with about 3-4 of text lines per screen. Morsihima-sensei’s art is both fabulous and hilarious. For some reason all the zombies are blonde with golden eyes, which provide a splash of color in an otherwise gloom- and death- filled story. A cute death- and gloom- filled story, with adorable dismemberment and moe eyeballs rolling across the room. What more could you ask?

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7 Goofy, might still be great
Characters – 7 Rin’s a bit deadpan, (hah)
Service – I don’t even know how to score this….
Yuri – 7 Well, yes, dammit. Even if they are a inter-biological couple.

Overall – 8

If you’re into horror Yuri, as befits the season, and want a little something that isn’t too challenging, is good for practicing reading, I think there’s a good case for webnovels generally, and Girls Love of the Dead, ‘Til Death Do Us Part…Not?, one specifically. ^_^

Posted in Light Novel | 3 Comments »