Yuri Manga: Strawberry Fields wo Mou Ichido, Volume 3 ( ストロベリー・フィールズをもう一度)

November 26th, 2019

In Volume 1, we met Akira, a high school student who tended to avoid other people and Pure the transfer student who calmly informs Akira that in 7 years, they will be lovers. In Volume 2, we watch Akira warm up to the other girl. The book ends as Pure confesses her feeling (once again) in front of the whole school. Akira, finally ready to reciprocate Pure’s  feelings, runs after her, only to find her…gone.

In Strawberry Fields wo Mou Ichido, Volume 3 ( ストロベリー・フィールズをもう一度), we find out that we’ve been reading a book about time-travel all along. Pure wasn’t making it up – she came from a future in which they had been lovers. So, why was she traveling backwards at all? Because Akira’s brother Ruri had caused the timeline to diverge from its original path.

Ruri meets a woman, Sumire, with the ability to reverse time and hopes that, by using her power, he can save his mother from dying in an accident and keep his family together. But the more they meddle, the further away they get from his desired outcome. And, Sumire realizes that if he brings his mother back, he and Akira will never be born. So they decide to try to re-establish the right timeline. Pure discovers their time machine and reverses time to find Akira again.

We see alternate timelines with Pure and Akira missing each other over and over, then further alternate timelines where one or the other of them is hurt in an accident, but they stick together and eventually they manage to find their original timeline…or one that is functionally the same. They do indeed become lovers and while Mom remains deceased. Ruri and Akira are never going to be friends with their Dad’s new wife, but they do like their younger half-sister. Pure and Akira are married and they live happily every after, as we see in a short epilogue.

Because I hadn’t really taken the time-travel thing seriously at the beginning, this book took me three readthroughs to make it make sense. And then I double checked myself against the author’s note, where the correct order is laid out. The alternate timelines in the middle of volume three confused me the first time around and I almost gave it up as a series that was just messy…until it all clicked. Then I re-read it to make sure I caught everything that was said. I don’t think I’ve given too many books that kind of time, honestly. And I’m not entirely sure this series was worth it.  The plot felt like it had been run through a blender a bit with a lot of exposition at the end. The author’s note felt exactly like a waiter “explaining” food that was pointlessly overcomplicated. ^_^;

But the girls get each other and it does end with a big old wedding (which makes no sense, but why would we insist on sense now?) which was kind of nice so I let it go and just enjoyed the whole mess for what it was. The art was nice enough.

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 7
Character – 7
Service – 2
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

Not super memorable except for the whole time-travel thing, but it was a pleasant diversion.

 

Posted in Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime December 2019 (コミック百合姫2019年12月号)

November 25th, 2019

The end of the cover story of Comic Yuri Hime December 2019 (コミック百合姫2019年12月号) is a little melancholy, surprisingly. But this issue, which marks the third year of being a monthly magazine was, as it has been all year, quite strong.

The opening story is a new gambit, “Lonely Girl Sakaraenai,” a high school story about a great student who is a shitty test-taker and the girl who changes her life.

“Tada no ichinichi” was one of three stories I read in one day that featured bubble tea, and almost immediately after that I read an angry treatise by a Japanese columnist about how bubble tea had become the new “get off my lawn” moment in Japan. Every generation just cannot stop being angry at whatever the next one enjoys. ^_^

“Yuri is My Job” comes to a shocking climax. Well, shocking for Hime, anyway. Mitsuki seems pretty surprised at herself, as well. I’m rooting for her, because I always root for people who tell the truth, no matter how bluntly. ^_^

Yuri about women in bands is picking up speed with two entries in this issue: “Omae ni Kikasetai Uta gaAaru” about beginnings and endings, and “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau” in which Himari and Yori both find somewhere to be. Volume 1 of Hello, Melancholic! came out in October, so there was no chapter this issue. (I like to pretend when the artists get a month off its to give the creators a bit of rest, but it’s actually so they have time to do signings and colors /cover work and extras for the collected volumes. No rest for the weary.)

“Umineko Bessou Days” turns dark, with the appearance of Mayumi’s toxic “friend.”

Thankfully for us, “Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru” and “Itoshi Koishi” remain heart-warming. Phew!

As always there are way more series in the issue that I’m reading than those mentioned here and several I am not. In general, I really like that the magazine has a nice mix of things I’m enjoying and some stories I completely don’t care about with a bunch in between. In my opinion, that means they are doing it right. ^_^ 2019 was another year of doing it right.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The January 2020 issue has hit shelves already and the cover color palette has changed considerable for the new story. I’ll be getting my copy this week and will let you know what I think!

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Magazines, Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »


Novel: JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World

November 24th, 2019

Last night I had to call 911 because a man was beating a woman outside my house. It was not a good evening to finish JK Haru. But I did finish it. I have many thoughts about this book, some good, some bad. There will be sleep lost for a few days while I deal with it. Much like Psycho-Pass, my brain has to work through the trauma of experiencing someone else’s trauma third-hand. So let me provide some context for my perspective.

In the 1980s, there was an anthology series called Sword and Sorceress. It began in 1984 and ran for 30 volumes through 2015. The first volume began with an introduction, The Heroic Image of Women: Woman as Wizard and Warrior by editor Marion Zimmer Bradley.* She was and remains a big name in 1980s fantasy literature. I was never a fan of her work at the time, although I ended up reading a great deal of it. I felt her work as a editor was vastly superior to her writing. It was her introduction to a later volume that changed my life. She talked about how the first volume contained stories about women proving themselves in sexist fantasy worlds, of women earning the right to be a warrior or wizard. In her introduction, Bradley paraphrased an earlier science fiction editor who spoke to prospective writers. Those writers were often at great pains to spend their time with the technical details of their technologies, at the expense of the story. Bradley noted that the early volumes had been at pains to establish women’s right to be a warrior or wizard and that future volumes would run stories that assumed that right. No more “why can’t women do x?” stories. Women can, women do, and then, you can just tell the story.**

That was in the late 1980s, more than 30 years ago. And yet, here we are still reminding everyone that women can and women already do everything they do. Over and over.

JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World by Ko Hiratori was a very rough read for me. Highschooler Koyama Haru is killed by a truck, along with her classmate, Chiba and they awaken in another world. This other world is structured like a RPG game and characters are given abilities at random. Only men get to be adventurers or soldiers and the world is overtly misogynist. Haru becomes a prostitute.

The bulk of the book is scenes of sex work, some consensual, some rape. You know I do not shy from violence, as long as it is between equals. This is not that. The book’s climax is a worse-for-being-entirely-predictable gang rape of Haru and another prostitute and the other’s death. At which point, Haru decides she’s had enough. The book had made a point, but failed to develop the point it had made. Instead, it retreated into a fantasy revenge narrative, dropping the one potentially excellent plot point into a literal single line of conclusion. “It was raining.”

Yes, Haru does create change by the end of the book. That was a positive note. We are left at the end of the book with the belief that things can change for the better.

But I’m still left having read page upon page of sexual and psychological violence against women.  I’m pissed that once again, the humiliation of women is a plot point. It confused me that the author*** said this book is “for women.” What are women supposed to gain from it? “Life is unfair, but the most exceptional of you can take revenge for those who can’t,” isn’t really a lesson we had to be told, surely. Sex workers are always at high risk of violence. (From:17 Facts About Sexual Violence and Sex Work.) Sex work is work. Sex workers deserve to live without stigma. Sexual harassment is disease. Sexual assault is a plague.


In the end, the most crushing thing about the entire story is that not one man in the entire story had learned anything at all. ****
 

Ratings:

I am unable to rate this.  It wasn’t written poorly, but it wasn’t something I’d recommend for entertainment. Perhaps as a reading for a class on social justice. The ending is all right, but I really did not enjoy the ride.*****

 

Kudos to translator Emily Balistrieri and editor Aimee Zink for not just making this book make sense but for giving characters unique “voice.” That takes a lot of skill.

 

*Yes, I am aware that she is a child abuser. If you thought it might be some incredibly relevant point to make, please rest assured, it isn’t.

**I adopted this policy for the Yuri Monogatari project. Stories about coming out were done in V1 and from there contributors were expect to move forward and tell a story.

*** I do not know, nor do I care, if the author is male or female. It’s not really relevant to my reaction to the interview. The interviewer really needed to ask a follow up, like, “In what way is this ‘for women?’ Can you explain what you mean by that?” If I were asked for to suggest a book that outlined “female power fantasy” I would not recommend this book. Not only was more space in Sexiled taken up by women working together, it had a much less violent outcome.

**** Arguably Sumo is the exception. He was never a threat and in the end became an ally. Whether that would be enough, we’ll never know, but we do know the sweet kids Haru played Kickin’-the-Can with did not grow up to be allies, which I would have hoped.

*****Yes, there will be a sequel. I am reviewing this book and how well this book handles its own material in this review.

If you are about to comment with *any* version, of “well….” or “but…” or “actually…” stop. It won’t be approved. In fact, I am going to be very strict about comments on this post.

Posted in Novel | 6 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – November 23, 2019

November 23rd, 2019

Yuri Manga

We’ve added a couple of new titles to the Yuricon Store!

Galette No. 12 (ガレット) is hitting shelves this week and the cover, illustrated by pen, is just lovely.

The fifth anthology in the Éclair series, Éclair orange – Anata ni Hibiku Yuri Anthology (エクレア orange あなたに響く百合アンソロジー) also makes it to Japanese bookstores this week.  This one features a new story by Bloom Into You creator Nakatani Nio.

Speaking of Nakatani Nio…the final volume of Yagate Kimi ni Naru is being released this week in Japan. Yagate Kimi ni Naru, Volume 8  (やがて君になる). Now I’m just killing time until that third Sayaka novel. ^_^

I’m currently reading Yuri to Koe to Kaze Matoi (百合と声と風纏い) about a girl who has no real idea what love means…until she falls for a mysterious woman with a motorcycle who helps her out on a rainy day.

Now that I’m done with events and traveling for a little while, I’ll play catch up on the Store and get some more stuff up!

I’ve just gotten a glimpse of the Udon edition of The Rose of Versailles, Volume 1 and …it’s breathtaking. I expect to have it in my hands this week and I will stop everything and review it immediately. In the meantime, pre-order it, you will not be disappointed.

Lilies Anthology Volume 8: Nodding Lily is now available in print and digital on a number of formats!

 

I know everyone asks this all the time, but we really do need your help to  continue to cover as much as we do here on Okazu. Please consider making an Okazu subscription part of your 2020 budget. $5/month and you’ll be eligible for all our perqs, including a personalized Yuri panel!

LGBTQ News

Via Cartoon Network’s Twitter account, Steven Universe Future has a premier date! I’ll keep saying this – this cartoon is the only thing standing between me and a complete breakdown since November 2016. Around my house every night we take two episodes before bed. ^_^

Be Gay, Do Comics is a queer comics anthology; 250 pages of queer history, memoir and satire from amazing political cartoon website, The Nib.

Avery Kaplan takes a look at Queerness in Naoko Kodama’s manga I Married My Best Friend To Shut My Parents Up.

Now You Know, an animated history of 200 years of LGBTQ history and rights is narrated by Wanda Sykes.

This Renault car ad is the best lesbian movie of 2019. ^_^

 

Yuri Podcast

I was a guest this week on Anime News Network’s ANNCast. Zac Bertschy and I talk Yuri and queer representation in Revolutionary Girl Erica (and the comments drop down to Queen’s Blade as a good Yuri in under two pages, so you can see exactly what Zac is talking about very clearly. I was trying to be kind, but guys..seriously…Queen’s Blade is not good representation. )

 

Yuri Events

Folks in the Shinjuku area on March 1, should plan on attending the 20OL Expo, a doujinshi market focusing on Yuri romances in the workplace.

I’m very pleased (and proud!) to announce that our panel: Transporting Yuri Across Borders has been accepted to the Mechademia conference in Kyoto in May 30-June 1, 2020. Myself, James Welker and Verena Maser will be presenting papers about “challenges and opportunities in the evolution and transformation of yuri as it has been transported across chronological, geographic and linguistic borders.” Sounds cool, right? Now we have to, y’know, write the papers! I’ve been using the Nanowrimo energy of the month to push myself and have gotten a third of the way through the thing.

Interestingly, a whole new section of my paper opened up with my desire to create a new word for Yuri fans. We’ve gotten first-hand testimony from Rica Takashima that Itoh Bungaku-sensei meant to specifically coin a phrase for lesbians when he chose Yurizoku and I’ve done some primary research this week of currently used terms. Yuri is a common genre term now, but there is no clear pre-eminent word for Yuri fan. Yurizuki has been suggested, but it’s no more common than anything else, having been primarily promoted on Twitter through the efforts of two bots who RTed it an average of 5 times a day in 2013-2015.  So a bunch of us are now working with 百合人-Yurijin…although predictably there’s already valid discussion about pronunciation and calling it Yuribito…but as I was typing this I realized why I don’t care for that. Yuribito describes a single person’s identity or role within a society. I’m thinking of us all as “the Yuri people,”so Yurijin it is for me.  (Leaving Yurizoku still for lesbians, as opposed to anyone who likes Yuri the genre.) I’ve been among those who shape how we talk about this genre for 20 years now and I love how we’ve pushed and prodded it towards a broader vision of inclusivity. ^_^ This conversation will evolve, undoubtedly. Who knows what we’ll call it in another 20 years! Isn’t language fascinating? 

 

Other News

Here’s a fun interview with Laurie Halse Anderson, creator of Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed on rebooting Diana’s origin story through a real world lens.

Here’s a funny story to wrap up. Reed Pop, having whiffed twice at creating an anime festival at NYCC is trying again over at Emerald City Comic Con with Pop Asia. Why. Seriously.

 

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! Write me with any questions you have, and I’ll do my best to answer them on my YNN podcast, when I revive it this winter!

Special thanks to all of our Okazu Patrons on Patreon, who make this report possible!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 8 Comments »


The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire, Part Two

November 22nd, 2019

Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire, Part Two was fantastic.

As Guan ramps up efforts to take over the Earth Kingdom, it becomes obvious that he’s outright brainwashing people. Korra heads in one direction looking for a solution and the rest of the gang heads in another trying to get a bead on what’s going on. In the process, they get captured. Now Korra has to face down her own friends and her lover as well as an implacable enemy. She needs an ally and the only one available is…Kuvira.

Kuvira was one of the best characters in the Korra anime. Nuanced, human and both sympathetic and unsympathetic simultaneously. Here in Ruins of the Empire, we’re getting another look at Kuvira, as a leader, as an enemy, as a resource and as a human.

I wasn’t sure in Part One if this story was going to grab my attention, but by about halfway through this book, I was well and truly grabbed.

Even aside from the strong (and timely, as persistent election interference is our current reality in the USA) plot, there’s something I want to note. As Korra is taking her leave, she and Asami kiss each other goodbye. Does that sound boring and every day? It is! Isn’t that exciting! Korra and Asami kiss goodbye just like couples do and it’s not a thing. It’s so absolutely delightful that they are just…together. Happy sigh.

Michelle Wong’s art is solid and Killian Ng’s color palette is excellent. The cover of this volume makes my heart pound a little faster. Kuvira, Toph, Su and Korra, wow. 4 generations of strong, interesting, three-dimensional women in a comic for tweens. And it’s #2 on Amazon in LGBTQ Graphic Novels, which makes me so happy.

I’m really looking forward to Part Three which hit shelves in February 2020, and here’s hoping for more time with the depth Kuvira brings to the story.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 10 Once again because Asami and Korra just are, together, not because of any grand coming out.

Overall – A very solid 9

Thanks to Okazu Patron and Superhero Eric P for today’s review copy!

Posted in Legend of Korra, Western Comic/Comix | 3 Comments »