Tsuki to Suppin, Volume 2 (月とすっぴん)

May 21st, 2020

This past March I became enamored of Akegata Yuu’s Tsuki to Suppin, a Jousei Yuri manga from Feel Comics, about Akari and Shiho, an odd-couple who are nonetheless very happy together. We ended Volume 1 with Akari taking Shiho to her hometown to meet her parents, which went very well.

In Tsuki to Suppin, Volume 2 (月とすっぴん), we meet Shiho’s sister with whom Akari gets along famously…to Shiho’s vague concern. ^_^ You know how it is, if your lover and your relatives are laughing together, its a good bet that they are laughing about you. ^_^

We watch Akari and Shiho move through the year together, through holidays and birthdays and sick days. There’s no doubt that they love each other, although we rarely see them engaging in anything more intimate than hand-holding or a kiss – a choice I appreciate. In fact, there is a vignette in which Shiho is getting a solo photography show and she is asked if the show can use some of the photos she’s taken of Akari on vacation. She talks to Akari about it, but ultimately decides that her private life is private and chooses not to use them…even if they are great photos, they are great photos for her and Akari’s own enjoyment. Which is how this story plays out – we see that they love one another and are in love, but that is as far as we have access. I like the restraint of that access. I don’t need to see them having sex to know they are intimate. It feels very adult and very much like we are friends, rather than voyeurs.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 10
Service – .5 Cat ears for Halloween is about as racy as this series gets.

The story is ongoing, and you can read new chapters (in Japanese) on Manga Jam on Pixiv. I recommend it highly for relaxing Jousei Yuri manga.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Goodbye, My Rose Garden, Volume 1

May 19th, 2020

It is 1900, and Hanako, a Japanese woman, has traveled to England to find her favorite author, Victor Franks, whom she can’t meet. With no options, she is taken in by Lady Alice, a beautiful young noblewoman who carries a deep sadness. Alice offers a deal to Hanako – she will introduce Hanako to Victor Franks, but only if Hanako helps Alice die. Hanako accepts the offer, but is sure she can somehow convince Alice to live.

Hanako learns Alice doesn’t want to marry Edward, although doesn’t understand why since he seems nice enough. As her maid, Hanako can see that Alice lives in a darkness that she’d like to bring light to. Unbeknownst to Hanako, she’s actually caught up in a surprising coincidence, which turns out to be no coincidence at all.

Deciding that she wants to be by Alice’s side is Hanako’s choice, but what Alice wants is still a mystery to her.

Despite the mystery with which they are treated, the complications here are not all that complicated. In fact, by the end of Volume 1, you ought to know who Victor Franks is and why Hanako was sent to England. ^_^ Nonetheless, if you were looking for a less-realistic Yuri Emma, with an emphasis on underwear and books, you won’t be disappointed. Dr. Pepperco’s art is competent. This is not meant in a dismissive way – the Victoria Sponge looked, even in black & white, like a recognizable Victoria sponge. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Character – 8
Story – 7
Service – 4 Underwear because of course there is
Yuri – ACTUALLY, it’s LGBTQ. There is a discussion of same-sex relationships and Japan and England’s relative lack of feminism. So…7?

Overall – 7

Very recently, I have been reading a number of historical Yuri/lesbian romances and they all do exactly the same thing. But I will let Dr. Pepperco explain it themselves in the author’s note, as “Drawing all my proclivities!” ^_^ So not only do we have maids outfits lovingly detailed and teacups and corsets and stately home libraries and other Victoriana miscellany, but we enjoy pretense to upperclassishness in scene and language. This inconsistency in historical knowledge and desire to set tone has been rendered in English as well as can be hoped, so the occasional lapse into faux-Wildean (as faux-Sperian is not a valid term here,) is not on translator Amber Tamositis and adapter Cae Hawksmoor. They do a fine job. Katlyn Wiley’s lettering is surprisingly delicate. You might never notice it, which is exactly what one hopes for from lettering and retouch. As usual, Seven Seas does such a decent job, you may never even think about it. You should. That’s a lot of work by a lot of people to make this book work.

When I originally reviewed the Japanese volume just over a year ago, I never expected to be reviewing it in English. But here we are and I’m glad you to encourage you to look up Victoria Sponge on your own. ^_^

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy!

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »


Sailor Moon Stars Limited Edition, Part 2, Disk 3

May 18th, 2020

There is no chance that this is the last post I ever make about Sailor Moon, but it may be the last post I make about the original 1990s anime. For the last time, we are going to talk about Sailor Moon Stars Limited Edition, Part 2, Disk 3, in which no one listens to either of the Princesses they have sworn to defend, because 16 year olds make shitty decisions.

Because no one listens to Usagi and Kakyuu-hime, and no one else suggests they all work together, they are picked off by Galaxia, whose backstory isn’t as much of a surprise as she apparently felt it might be. No Sailor Cosmos here to clog up the works, just another Senshi blundering around with mostly no idea what to do.

Which makes me wonder how I would have ended it. Let’s do that at the end.

On the positive side, Seiya gets to say what needs to be said to Usagi. This time, I was really glad about that. Once Mamoru’s fate was revealed, it was a lot easier to forgive both of them for everything they didn’t do right.

Haruka and Michiru spend the last few episodes being really gay, in case you didn’t know they were a couple.  I felt and still feel that this was specifically directed at the corner of fandom who just would not admit that they were really together. Their final moments are both heart-wrenching and extended and good heavens there were still people who just would NOT believe they were together. (I bet those people are all gay now, if you know what I mean…)

And then the epilogue comes and everyone lives happily ever after. For real.

Until 1000 years in the future when Crystal Tokyo is destroyed. Because just as no one thinks “Hey, let’s listen to the Princess,” no one would say, “HEY, we know what happens, let’s not be defeated by the Black Moon.”  I’m looking at you, Ami. You’re supposed to be the smart one.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 9
LGBTQ – 5 Michiru and Haruka are very, very gay.
Service – 3 Does Galaxia’s hair count? It’s really great hair. Oh, right, and some nudity

Overall – 8

So, how would I have ended it? How about this…

Sailor Moon and Kakyuu-hime would have convinced the Senshi to work together. They would have combined their powers and healed Galaxia, reuniting her with Chibi-Chibi. Hell yes, I would have included Sailor Cosmos – that’s a great costume. SHE would have told the combined Senshi Galaxia’s backstory and would have accompanied Sailor Galaxia home, by way of healing the planets she destroyed.

We would have had two epilogues…the one we got and one in Crystal Tokyo in the future where everything was shiny and perfect and Princess Small Lady was a little older, playing with the Asteroid Senshi, Saturn and Pluto at the Doors of Time, while the rest of the Senshi attended Queen Serenity and King Endymion in Crystal Tokyo as other planetary Senshi visited.

But no one asked me.

Viz has done an exemplary job with this classic title. I want to once again thank every person who worked on this release. Your love and attention was greatly appreciated. This is the definitive Sailor Moon.

Posted in English Anime, Sailor Moon | 1 Comment »


Network Effect by Martha Wells

May 17th, 2020

Imagine, for a moment, a story in which an non-gendered lead character’s gender was never an issue, in which pansexuality and polyromantic relationships existed and none of that made any difference and had nothing to do whatsoever with the story. Imagine, instead, that the story was about a self-aware rogue bodyguard cyborg who was a raging pop culture geek and had severe social awkwardness in a variety of dangerous and complicated situations that involved alien contamination, space colonization and computer hacking. Just imagine that.

Well, you don’t have to, because Martha Wells has imagined it for you in the Murderbot series. I mentioned All Systems Red back in an overview of Queer Friendly Science Fiction I’d been reading in 2018, but have never reviewed one this series, specifically. There are a lot of reasons why I have not done more than mention it, but today I want to entice you all to read the series if you have not yet done so.

In All Systems Red, we meet an organic-tech construct, a contract bodyguard that calls itself Murderbot. Murderbot prefers watching media to being with its human clients, who treat it like a robot or its corporate owners who treat it like equipment.  I will spoil nothing, but Murderbot’s story continues in Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy at the end of which Murderbot’s circumstances are vastly different than they were in the first novel.

Which brings me to Network Effect, the newest entry. In Network Effect, Murderbot is kidnapped and asked to do the right, most dangerous thing, for the right reasons by an entity Murderbot has a complicated relationship with. It is a rollicking action tale and would be worth reading on its own, but as part of this specific continuum is breathtaking. What makes Network Effect worthy of an Okazu review are key characters around Murderbot. Dr. Mensah, a main player in earlier novels is in a polyromantic familial relationship. That’s it. That relationship exists. People in it show affection and caring to one another. Two of our main female supports are in a partnership. None of this has anything to do with the plot per se, although the relationships are relevant to what happens and why. Like any relationship might be. Murderbot is uninterested in being gendered and ultimately finds “it” more comfortable, presumably to keep a hold onto it’s not-humanity, in which it finds comfort.

If you had asked me, I would have assumed the series would end at the finale of the 4th book, but Wells has skillfully set up a scenario in which she can continue to plausibly write Murderbot for as long as she desires, and has provided room for spin-offs and sequels that would be wholly organic. Pun intended.

Since the first four books are novellas, they make quick reading and although this book is a full-length novel, I had to keep my reading paced or I would have blown through it quickly. More than ever, the action was very visually evocative. In places I felt that this book was being written for the movie it will hopefully one day become. (With flashbacks to fill in the earlier books). For once, that really worked.

This book is not “lesbians in space,” its “well, yes there are lesbians in space, but there’s an actual story that involve them and not just some YA coming out schtick in space or vague mentions of lesbian-ish relationships.”*

Ratings:

Overall – 9

For action filled action, a non-gendered dorktastic protagonist, and alien worlds with queers in space, Martha Wells’ Murderbot is among the best, along with Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series and Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series. We are in a renaissance of queer sci-fi and I, for one, am loving it.

*I’m still looking at you Melissa Scott.

Posted in Novel, Queer Fiction | 6 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 16, 2020

May 16th, 2020

Events

Normally around this time of year, this segment of the news report would be filled with Yuri panels and appearances. To be honest, I am not planning on attending a live event for the rest of 2020 at the absolutely minimum. (Honestly, I’m still iffy about 2021, because I know history and expect a second wave of COVID-19, as with the Spanish Flu. Not to be a downer, but I’d expect this to be ongoing well into 2022.) But this year events are going online and showing some success already. Air Comiket (which I was following closely on Twitter) was really quite wonderful. The Comiket twitter feed made the usual announcements, directing people to places and cautioning folks against running. They paged people and shared videos of previous years so we could applaud when the event opened and “walk up” the stairs to Big Sight. Artists set up tables in their homes and promoted their work online. Kim Morrissy over at ANN says that I was among the 440,000 people who enjoyed the AirComi experience together from their computer screens. I thought it absolutely delightful.

San Diego Comic Con has announced an online Comic-Con@Home event. ANN’s Crystalyn Hodgkins has the details.

The Cartoon Art Museum is holding the Queer Comics Expo this weekend on Discord!

I will be holding an Online Yuri Panel on May 31 on Youtube. (link will be forthcoming.) I’ll also be holding an Okazu Patron Backstage Event on May 27, where they can post questions I’ll answer at the panel and get to watch (and laugh) as I set up my “studio.” Support Yuri reviews, news and interviews – and get “backstage” access –  become an Okazu Patron today and help us support the Yuri ecosystem!

Yuri Manga

We have a bunch of new titles up on the Yuricon Store:

tMnR’s If I Could Reach You, Volume 4 is already available. This story is perfect if you like relationship angst and unresolved sexual tension.

Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Volume 8, in which the combined Senshi defeat Neherenia and free Helios.

Galette, No. 14 (ガレット) has been released in print through direct sale only in limited quantities, but is available for the JP Kjndle in Japan, and on Global Bookwalker next week for folks outside of Japan.

Speaking of Galette, they’ve released a bunch of free sample chapters, including Hakamada Mera’s Sekai ga Owaru Sono Mae ni (世界が終わるそのまえに), Hamano Ringo’s Sora-iro Melancholic (空色メランコリック) and Yatosaki Haru’s Ami-chan no Nikki (あみちゃんの日記).

Comic Walker offers a free sample chapter of Kyuuketsuki to Yobaretai (吸血鬼と呼ばれたい) by Pyaa, about vampire girls who attend Vlad Gakuen, and I mention this primarily because my wife immediately said, “What? Not Saint Vlad Gakuen? Missed opportunity.” and I want you to have that stuck in your head as it is in mine. ^_^

 

Yuri Light Novels

Hitomi Iruma’s Adachi to Shimamura, Volume 2 is slated for a September release in print, but will be getting an end-of-May release on Kindle!

 

Yuri Doujinshi

Also on Kindle is Ruri Hazuki’s REFACTORS 1: Nana  & Kanon, a workplace romance doujinshi we encountered at Girl Love Festival during the 100 Years of Yuri Tour.

If you like Hazuki’s work, Lilyka has just also added her -3.25 Hazy World Saturday – Lunch Menu – 2, a continuation of her office romance series named after days of the week.

Minamoto Hisanari, creator of the delightful Fu~Fu (ふ～ふ) manga, has released a Fu~Fu 10th anniversary doujinshi for Air Comiket that is available on Melonbooks. This is Act 1, and an Act 2 is supposed to follow later. There are sample pages on the Melonbooks site. 

Hayate x Blade creator Hayashiya Shizuru, has a new doujinshi series out that combines two of my favorite things: Yanki girls and food. Yan  Koi Shokudo (ヤン恋食堂) Set A (which offers some sample pages) and Set B look amazing. Hayashiya-sensei said on Twitter there will be a Set C and she apologizes, but she hasn’t gotten to the Yuri part yet…. ^_^

I’ll take this opportunity to tell you that, despite the fact that Japan Post has had to suspend shipments to the USA and other  countries, because of the slow-down of commercial flighst, proxy service Tenso has added DHL shipping as an option.  I’ve used Tenso before (and am using them now for these and a bunch of other doujinshi) and can recommend them as a buying service. Signing up is free, you just prove you identity. You are assigned a Japanese address, to which you can ship your items. Tenso will hold the items for a time, if you need to combine orders. And when you ship from Tenso to you, there are multiple shipping options. I was willing to let these go by sea, but since DHL is available, why wait? ^_^ (Tenso also has a proxy buying service, if you don’t read Japanese and don’t want to figure out their almost-always exhausting hoops to buy stuff. I don’t know why, but my goodness buying from a Japanese site has so many steps!

 

Lesbian Anthology

One more Kindle item of note! Silk & Steel: An adventure anthology of queer sf&f with high femmes & dashing women pre-order on Kindle is now available. And I gotta say that the lineup they’ve got is genuinely fantastic. Aliette de Bodard, Ellen Kushner, Yoon Ha Lee, Django Wexler and more. I have already pre-ordered this and cannot wait to read it. ^_^

 

Queer Cartoons

Via Dinah Frost on Twitter, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are now officially a couple in the Harley Quinn cartoon.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Season 5 has dropped on Netflix and it’s everything we could have hoped.

 

Other News

I was deeply honored and delighted to be asked to contribute to the British Film Institute‘s Sight and Sound magazine‘s Anime Special: 50 Essential Films summer issue. I can’t wait for you all to read it. It looks amazing!

 

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 essential part of the team!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »