Go Nagai’s DevilMan Lady, Disk 1

December 13th, 2020

Fans of Go Nagai’s work are probably pretty familiar with his Devilman franchise, which has spawned a number of anime and manga series over the decades. More recently fans may have encountered his work in Devilman Crybaby, which streams on Netflix. I personally found that iteration to be one of the best anime I’d ever seen.  Yuasa Masaaki’s directorial touch meshed perfectly with Go Nagai’s conceptual framework for a truly epic series.

Devilman Lady has always been a less-known sideshow of the Devilman franchise, but it has also always been one of my absolute favorite anime, for many reasons – among them, top voice actors, Go Nagai’s vision, the soundtrack and that the story is profoundly and overtly Yuri. Now, almost 20 years after the anime was first released in the US by ADV, here we are thanks to Diskotek who has reissued the complete series in a 2-disk Blu-Ray set. Honestly…I still think it’s fantastic.

The story follow Fudou Jun, a professional model. It’s almost hard to understand what people see in her, as Jun is painfully awkward and nervous but, when she gets in front of the camera, something seems to come over her. One day she is kidnapped and forced into a warehouse with a beast-monster, and learns that she is, in actual fact, a Devil Beast. Unlike many of the transformations happening around town, she retains her humanity when she transforms, making it that much more awful when she has to kill beasts she knows were once- and maybe could still be – human.

The Yuri in this series is so constant that it’s almost diminishing to lay it out. Jun encounters an old classmate who was in love with her, and a new rival model who desires her on this disk, in two fantastically gay episodes. Asuka openly desires Jun when she is a Devil Beast. It is not subtext to say that the entire story is constantly reminding us that Jun is closeted about several things, not just being a Devil Beast.

Diskotek has done a stellar job with this anime. The animation screams 1990s, but the visuals look fresh and crisp and the sound is excellent. Diskotek used ADV’s English track which was good for its time, but very much has that feel of early voice acting when anime was just taking off here.

The soundtrack deserves a mention, too. The theme for this anime is fantastically gothic. I actually bought the soundtrack album for it, and it’s basically the same one theme remixed a couple of times. ^_^ The fight scenes though, have music that sound like the opening theme of a night-time crime-solving couple series from ’90’s American TV. Cracks me up every episode. Giant horrific Devil Beast monsters fighting over Tokyo and the BGM is like Hart & Hart. ^_^

I know horror is not for everyone. Go Nagai is not for everyone. This series is definitely Nagai’s specific brand of sexualized demonic monsters, with both physical and psychological horror elements and dustings of dread and misery and pathos as needed. It will occasionally make you very sad and possibly quite angry. It’s a shockingly good Yuri anime that has an ending that is good and bad, hopeful and miserable all at once.

Ratings:

Art – 9 for 1990s
Story –  9 Depressing, scary and creepy, sometimes emotionally crushing. But fascinating, even compelling.
Characters – 8 No one is what they initially seem, especially not Jun.
Service – 8 Yes, very. The is Go Nagai we are talking about.
Yuri – 8, but wait, there’s more!

Overall – 9

If you don’t want to commit to buying this set, you can watch DevilMan Lady as the dubbed version The Devil Lady free and legally on RetrocrushTV.

In my opinion DevilMan Lady is an absolute classic of Yuri and should not be ignored. I’m thrilled we can experience it once again.

Many, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P for his sponsorship of today’s review!

Posted in English Anime, Go Nagai, Yuri Anime | 3 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – December 12, 2020

December 12th, 2020

Yuri Manga

We’ve added the upcoming and much-looked forward to Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon, Volume 1 by Shio Usui to the Yuricon Store. It didn’t make the Okazu Gift Guide this year because it won’t be out until 2021, but I’m just saying if you’re a betting person, you’ve got a sure bet on this making my Top 10 Yuri Manga of the Year. ^_^ And, if you’re looking for last minute holidays gifts for yourself or the Yuri fan in your life take a look at the Okazu 2020 Gift Guide! This gives you some current faves to enjoy and share!

Our Teachers Are Dating, Volume 2 is also heading our way in the New Year. Volume 1 is already available. This series by Pikachi Ohi, is an adorably sweet and sexy story about two adults who find love for the first time.

ANN’s Rafael Antonio Pineda has news that Sukeban Deka is getting not one, but two new manga series. They kind of sound fun and are at least not reboots of the original, which would probably piss off Wada Shinji’s spirit.

 

Yuri Web Comics

Opium is an 18+ historical Korean Yuri webcomic on Tapas.io that I am finding very intriguing.

Yuri Navi reports on Oshi ga Tonari de Jugyou ni Shuuchuu Dekinai!; a three-way love story about a girls’ beloved idol going to school  in her class.  You can read a sample chapter or two on Comic Days, in Japanese.

 

Get inside access to Yuri Studio videos, and an invite to our 2020 Online Holiday Party
Become an Okazu Patron Today

 

Interviews

Lilyka has an interview with Yuri creator mintaro!

For those of you interested in Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!, Mikan-sensei and Mikami Teren-sensei, creator of Moshi, Koi ga Mietenara,  chat a bit on Yuri Navi! (In Japanese, but what a great way to practice your Japanese, or failing that, you have Google translate and that ought to give you the main sense of it.)

 

Yuri Light Novels

J-Novel Club has gathered Volume 1 and Volume 2 for the Otherside Picnic Omnibus, Volume 1. I really like this series, and am certainly considering getting this in print.

 

Yuri Anime News

Crystalynn Hodkins has the details of the new Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight movie, which has a spring 2021 release date.

Via YNN Correspondent NaraMoore, Otherside Picnic anime is being streamed by Funimation in January 2021!

You’ve probably all heard the news that Funimation has bought Crunchyroll. I am not and never have been a fan of Funimation’s efforts in streaming and I hope to high heaven they use CR’s platform, rather than shutting it down, and forcing us to use theirs.

 

Live-Action News

Hirao Auri’s Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu is getting a live-action adaptation, reports Rafael Antonio Pineda on ANN. As much as the series (like all of that creator’s series,) makes me feel a little crazy, I think this is a very good candidate for a live-action. And, legitimately, I though Ai Farouz did a stellar job as Eripyo in the anime version.

 

Sailor Moon News

Every year Sailor Moon fandom is asked who their favorite Senshi is and for the first time ever, Sailor Uranus gets top billing as favorite. Lynzee Loveridge takes a look at this expression of obvious fact (^_^) on ANN. Excuse us while all all of us long-time fans gloat a bit.

 

Other News

Absolutely worth taking a look at is Lynzee Loveridge & Matthieu Pinon’s article on ANN, A Profile of the Sparkling Life of Shojo Manga Pioneer Eiko Hanamura.

 

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 helping us reach our 2020 goal of giving guest writers a raise and helping us support queer creators!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 8 Comments »


MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 16

December 11th, 2020

This volume of Yoshimurakana’s series begins with a wholly gratuitous lesbian sex scene. Later in the volume there is another. Just in case you wondered if there was any reason to read Volume 16 of MURCIÉLAGO.
There are, of course, other reasons to read this volume, but they are much less lesbian in nature. ^_^ There’s also a surprising number of baths for a series that is about serial killers.

The “Comedy Writer” arc proceeds and both of the obvious culprits are obvious, so the story isn’t nearly as much about who as about why and what. One of the things I genuinely love about the series is that the creepy weirdness always has a why, but you’d be hard pressed to explain it to anyone.

Hinako is an endless source of contemplation, as well. She comes extremely close to beserkering her way to killing someone, and it’s only the timely interference of Chacha who keeps her from becoming someone she’s always far, far too close to becoming.

Once again, I find myself reminded that this series is not “good” in the sense of being likely to survive ages of literary criticism, but I will argue that it it timeless and, as an homage to Lovecraft’s oeuvre, as good as any.

We are just about caught up now to the Japanese volumes. I only just reviewed Volume 17 in Japanese last month. Volume 17 in English doesn’t yet have a pre-order up. We’re all just about as current as we can be. So the pace of creative murders and ugly sex is going to be a little slower. I don’t honestly know whether that’s good…or bad! ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 10,000
Yuri – 10, but its ugly

Overall – 8

This series has, as I said in my review of the Japanese volume, an explicit not-quite consensual lesbian sex scene, some generic bathing scenes, and extraordinary violence and a creepy murderer. Oddly, not one of these things involve Kuroko. She spends the volume having a polite conversation before killing someone neatly and quietly. And then she has some consensual sex.

 

Posted in English Manga, MURCIÉLAGO | 3 Comments »


Comic Yuri Hime December 2020 ( コミック百合姫2020年12月号)

December 8th, 2020

The final issue cover for this year by Rolua, is beautiful and poignant….and sadly relevant in this year of the plague, as the characters are released at last from the confines of this life, with a prominent “Memento Mori: And Two Borders Disappeared” across the cover, in case we didn’t get the point. ^_^;  Beautifully drawn, thoughtfully conceived and touching, this is still one of my very favorite cover art-novellas this magazine has ever had. What an amazing way to begin at the end, for Comic Yuri Hime December 2020 ( コミック百合姫2020年12月号)

The major series ending in this issue is tMnR’s series “Tatoe to Todokanukeda Toshitemo,” which…ended. After all the angst, it wraps up with a big old handwave. I’ll allow it. ^_^

I’m still impressed by the adaption of SukeraSparo’s VN “Kudan Folklore” and I’m sorry that Ohsawa Yayoi’s “Hello Melancholic!” looks to be heading for a climax next month, but I’ve really enjoyed the ride. ^_^

Some of my favorite ongoing series are Takashima Eku’s “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau” which just continues to be sweet as can be, even as we are getting a set-up for some kind of conflict, Hanagata’s “Watashi no Oshi ha Akujaku Reijou” and I like “Odoriba ni sukaato ga aNru” by Utatane Yu. A couple of the one-shots this volume are also interesting, at least visually.

A decent end of year volume. 2020 definitely was a great year for Yuri overall, and for Comic Yuri Hime, in general.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The January 2021 volume is already and out and content wise, it’s starting the new year with a bang!

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Magazines, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


The Rose of Versailles, Volume 2

December 6th, 2020

Unrest is starting to build among commoners as royal spending, bankrupts the country. while Oscar is struggling to balance unrest at home, in Paris and at Versailles. Rosalie is being pressured by her birth mother to come live with her, and her sister, the grifter Jeanne Valois, is at the center of one of the greatest scandals of the Queen’s life.

This volume is full of so many tears, it almost becomes comic….almost. It never is, because the cost of human suffering is as immeasurable in the 18th century as it is now, only we’re far more likely to have a bigger-picture understanding of it.

Nonetheless, Ikeda-sensei’s work makes understanding suffering almost unavoidable in fact, as she pinpoints individual stories in the middle of the greater situation. We’re more aware of the plight of Parisians in general because we spend time with Rosalie and Bernard.  We’re meant to understand them in a way we and Oscar will never understand the lack of empathy of the noble class.

Volume 2 of The Rose of Versailles is also one of the “Yuriest” volumes of this classic series in one sense and in another, not really. Jeanne implicates the Queen in the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace and, while testifying before the court, insists that she and the Queen were lesbian lovers. In addition, she accuses Oscar of being Marie Antoinette’s lover, as well. Oscar is not amused.

Her sentiment, a sneered “I Lord Oscar, lesbian? I’m breaking out in hives! To hell with you! What a joke!” is hard for us in 2020 to take at face value, when mere pages separate that and her repeated vow that had she been a man, she would have married Rosalie herself.

Volume 2 is about structural change. When the foundations of a building begin to crack, the people on the highest floors can feel the instability, even if they are initially insulated from the immediate damage. Once again, I’m reading this volume thinking it is just a little too on the money, as our society is shaking the foundations once again for all the very same reasons.

I want to shout out here to Jeannie Lee, whose lettering is so exceptional and to both Mari Morimoto and Jocelyne Allen for doing painstaking work on the translation. I’m still blown away by this gorgeous edition of a long-awaited classic manga. It was a privilege to have worked on it with them.

Ratings:

Art – 8 As Oscar matures, so does the art
Story – 8 Dense and melodramatic
Characters – 9 Everyone is flawed and human
Service – 5 Oscar in a uniform and in a dress.
Yuri – 1 No, but…kinda?

Overall – 8

 

Posted in English Manga, Riyoko Ikeda, Rose of Versailles | 1 Comment »