Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 12 Part 1

May 21st, 2008

Like a bag of mixed candy, Yuri Hime Volume 12 provides some tasty treats and some flavors that maybe one doesn’t like quite so much. lol

We begin with Goth-Loli story “Epitaph.” When it first began, I was witholding my judgement. Now a whole volume into it, I’m finally comfortable saying that I find it to be flavorless. It reminds me of Venus Versus Virus in the way it wraps an episodic and not particularly engaging plot around a not-particularly engaging not-quite couple. Towa and Ash are, well…boring. This chapter introduces the traditional rival couple, who are, as tradition demands just slightly more of a couple than our primary couple. There is a threat, which is dealt with by the also slightly more competent other couple and all of it makes Ash question her not-quite relationship with Towa.

Set in the Meiji period, and told through a series of letters, a girl’s rival is also her not very secret admirer, in the short “Sakura Buntsu.”

“Clover” follows the uncomfortable triangle of Student Council president Tachibana, and her VP, Hashimoto, as Tachibana discovers that Hashimoto unexpectedly has a girlfriend, Katou. Tachibana pushes Hashimoto to acknowledge and pursue the relationship, even as she realizes that she’s pretty heartbroken over it. Tachibana goes home and cries on her sister’s chest, but complains that it would have been nicer if she was bustier. Words of wisdom, I think. :-)

“Ichigo Ichigo Ichigo” is a school doctor-student love story that has the most unpleasant use of strawberries I’ve seen so far. (Whatever you’re thinking right now – it wasn’t that. It was just that I kept thinking, “who’s gonna clean that up?”

“Hatsukoi Kanon” surprised me. I keep forgetting that this school doctor-student relationship story is a series. lol Matsumoto-sensei and Nanao are interrupted in an embrace by Ruko-sensei, who tells Nanao that a student once fell for her. Matsumoto tells Nanao that their relationship will be over when Nanao graduates, and we learn (as if we couldn’t have guessed!) that Ruko’s admirer was Matsumoto.

Which brings me to my not-really new rule about being gay in manga. For a while, I’ve thought that falling for another girl once is basically nothing. Could be a crush, a phase, a first love, convenient, whatever. Twice is a trend. Three times, gay. lol

Moving on, in “Apple Day Dream” a new character is introduced, we dress her up and marvel at how many different ways the same three jokes can be rehashed.

“Sweet Olive Flowers” is another pretty dsyfunctional non-relationship triangle between a girl who likes another girl and the guy who likes her.

Creo has decided to attend school with Suou in “Creo the Crimson Crises.” Wackiness and DRAMA ensue.

Exam time has come, and graduation is something everyone is thinking about in “Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan.” What she’ll do when she graduates is obviously on Sarasa’s mind, and no less on Seriho’s. Seriho gets a call from someone named Sumire and, as she’s making plans uncovers a school guidebook Sarasa had left lying there. Crisis? Probaby not, but the mild tension is good for us. :-)

Takeuchi Sachiko’s Honey & Honey books (which have been reviewed here, use the search bar, I’m too lazy to link today) are reviewed as we end today’s overview of the first half of Yuri Hime 12.

I know what you want to know. You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out, won’t you? ^_^





Yuri Manga: Aoi Hana, Volume 3

May 19th, 2008

A-chan, her older brother, Fumi, Kyouko and two school friends are headed out to the country for a vacation at Kyouko’s family’s summer house in Aoi Hana, Volume 3.

We meet Kyouko’s cousin, who is also her fiancee’, and her aunt who is very nice and her mother who is not. Kyouko’s cousin and A-chan’s brother have a chat over golf, where he admits to actually liking Kyouko, but knows that it’s pretty useless. The girls all walk through the woods. When Akira slips, Fumi’s *right there* to catch her – Pon-chan complains that when she slips, no one saves her. :-)

The girls all camp out for the night in a cabin after making curry. Fumi and A-chan find themselves up late at night looking at the stars, and suffering from summer colds the next morning. :-) When the rest of the girls go out for the day, Akira accidentally overhears a private argument between Kyouko’s cousin and mother about Kyouko, with some serious bile on the mother’s part. She is clearly not accepting at all of her daughter’s sexuality. Mom’s got some issues of her own.

The next day, all the girls except Fumi are attending Yasuko’s sister’s wedding. We switch points of view to Yasuko’s family, where Yasuko, dressed in suit and tie, is in a foul mood. She’s happy for her sister, but miserable because of her feelings for about to be brother-in-law. The wedding is beautiful, of course.

A-chan and Fumi decide to go to Enoshima after the wedding. When Yasuko overhears A-chan making plans, she wants to see Fumi, so she invites herself along. Fumi’s not terribly happy about it. Yasuko says she wanted to see her, but Fumi tells her flat out it’s no good. She walks off with Akira, leaving Akira’s brother and Yasuko to follow behind.

Yasuko starts to think about how she became the butch she is now, by trying to become the man she admired so much.

While sightseeing in a cavern, Yasuko and Fumi have a moment, in which Fumi says that she gave up on Yasuko, and Yasuko apologizes.

Later that night, Fumi admits to Akira that her first love was A-chan, then apologizes for saying something strange. A-chan’s a little surprised, but handles it with good grace.

Later, we hear that Yasuko’s moved out – and is, in fact, living with the girl who played Catherine to her Heathcliff. Kyouko tells Yasuko that she really does love her, while Yasuko, who seems happy about shedding her former life like a shell, is not as concerned with it as she might have been previously.

A-chan begins dating Kyouko’s cousin and Fumi finds herself jealous enough to feel pain.

To Be Continued.

There are also some side stories about other couples as omake. These are not people we know, just shorts of love and loss.

This volume was, like the previous volumes, emotional without being histrionic. More and more, I find myself liking Fumi, pulling for her, hoping that she’ll find someone even better, even cooler. A-chan is Fumi’s past and now, so is Yasuko, but we can’t help but think that there’s someone (possibly even Yasuko, once she’s gotten past her own issues, but I almost hope not) out there for her who can treasure her and make her happy. Kyouko too – we *know* she can do better than to waste her love on Yasuko.

Yasuko in suit and tie was pretty nice, even if she had a face on for the entire scene. :-)

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 8

I can’t wait to see where this series goes, and with every volume I pray that it doesn’t get canceled before it finds some place of resolution. As we won’t see the next volume until 2009 at least, that’s a whole lotta prayin’. ;-)





Yuri Manga: Strawberry Panic, Volume 2 (English)

May 13th, 2008

Have you visited translator Anastasia Moreno’s fabulously wonderful blog, Manga Gunkan yet? Go. It’s not often you’re going to get such a unique mix of fun tidbits about translating, manga, military adventures and cute dachsund pictures – all written up in both Japanese and English, for your reading pleasure. Check it every day.

And speaking of Ana’s mad translation skills, today we’re talking about Strawberry Panic, Volume 2, translated skillfully by mad Ana. (For a summation of both my frustration with the SP fandom and the plot, please check my review of the Japanese edition from December 2006.)

Today, I’m just talking about the reproduction into English. I’ll never get tired of telling you that Seven Seas does a very, very good job. Ana’s translation captures the soap opera-like, over the top-ness, and the adaptation, by Lorelei Laird, allows the dialogue to speak for itself. Considering how absurdly melodramatic everything is, I think it would make a pretty great J-drama. In fact, I’m already giggling at the idea. (And, OMG, since Marimite spawned a parody porn movie, why hasn’t anyone made a SP parody porn? It’s just *begging* for one. ^_^ And with that thought, there goes the last shred of soul I had….)

The technical reproduction seems very clean, with some moire in the backgrounds that, to be honest, I had to go looking for, because it never seems like a problem to me. Some sound effects have been translated and replaced, others have had a English equivalent placed nearby and in at least one case, it was left untranslated. As I always say, it’s not an issue for me. But, surely you can figure out that the crowd is saying “Waaahhh” at the apearrance of the newly crowned Hikari and Amane.

I only have one complaint. It’s not totally Sevens Seas’ fault, but I object strongly. On the back, someone at the now-defunct Newtype, apparently decided that he was clever by describing this series as “Girl-Crushes Gone Wild!” which is not only insulting, but inaccurate. The characters – repteadedly – express feelings of love and devotion towards one another. These are not crushes. (Duh) The implication that this is a manga equivalent to straight girls with no pride who do lesbian-looking things for straight guys to get off on is actually pretty correct, but I found it annoying anyway.

On the last page of the story, as Nagisa and Shizuma kiss, there is a puzzling allusion to a third volume of the manga. Let me assure that there is no third volume to the manga in Japanese. The puzzling allusion to the third volume is there in the Japanese edition too. It never happened for a number of reasons.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 6, +1 for Kaname
Yuri – 9
Service – 6

Overall – 7

You may notice that my scores are different this time than when I read it originally. That happens. ^_^

And, my deepest, sincerest (and somewhat belated) thanks to Daniel P. for being the sponsor of today’s review!





Yuri Manga: Gunjou, Chapters 3 and 6

May 9th, 2008

Back in March, I reviewed a new non-moe Yuri manga series by Nakamura Ching, Gunjou. After I posted my review, Nakamura-san offered to send me a back issue of Morning 2 – the magazine in which Gunjou runs – which I of course accepted with great joy. And just yesterday, I received my copy of the current issue of Morning 2, to get the next chapter.

I love this manga with all my love.

It is not cute. It is not adorable. It it not moe. It *is* stunning. So, with my apologies to Nakamura-san for the hideous nicknames, I’d like to tell you all about the new bits.

Chapter 3 covers a tale from BL and BN’s high school days. The brunette, BN, is a champion runner, but wears a crappy pair of beat up cleats. The blonde, BL, is hanging around, and the track club is creeped out by her because she’s, you know, *lesbian,* but BN tells them that she’s just a nice person and to stfu, thanks awfully. When the team captain tells BN to get new cleats or else, BN and BL go to a store where BN attempts to steal a nice shiny new pair. To stop her from being arrested, BL offers to pay for them (she’s a rich ojou-sama,) but BN tells her to take the cleats and shove them.

BL visits BN’s house and learns that she lives in a crappy shack with a drunken and abusive father. At the end of the chapter, BL offers to *lend* BN the money, so she’ll stay in school and keep running. We see them 5 years later, as BN – now sleek, happy enough (we think) and married – pays back every yen. BL leaves, putting down exactly half the bill for their coffee – a beautiful and subtle touch. We go back to the present, with the two of them on the run, and we learn that BN still has that 550 yen in her wallet.

In stark contrast to Chapter 3’s happy ending, chapter 6 is BRUTAL. They take a hotel for the night, but BN gets weird about sleeping in the same bed as BL, so they get separate rooms. We learn from the news that the police know BL did the murder and that the two fugitives are being sought. BL can’t sleep, so she goes out. We see BN looking in the mirror at her body, which is covered in bruises. Since they have been on the run for a month – at least some of those bruises are probably not from the dead husband…. BL grabs a taxi to go back to the hotel. The taxi driver solicts a hand job, which BL does, flashing back and forth the whole time to the murder. She leaves the cab and when a fortune teller approaches her and tells her that she’ll get married, she goes postal on the lady, who asks for forgiveness as she reaches for a stone to bash the crazy, violent woman on top of her.

BN notices BL’s not back and eventually finds her, trying to kill herself by hanging herself from the bathroom door. BN takes her back to her bed, while BL flashes back to the murder and to their school days where she first met BN and they became friends . BL has a complete emotional breakdown to match her physical beating. As the chapter comes to a close, BL tells BN that instead of killing her husband, it would have been better if she had killed BN. BN goes out into the hall and cries.

There is just nothing about this series that is Akihabara. But, in between the severe mental unbalance, the extreme violence and the raw, unsexy sex, there are moments of such intense tenderness that they quite take one’s breath away.

The Yuri actually identifies as lesbian, so perhaps this is a lesbian manga, rather than a Yuri one. BL is quite obviously hopelessly, dangerously in love with BN…and BN is suffering from all kind of mixed emotions, compounded by the fact that they are both just so very broken that a normal relationship seems impossible for either of them. And, despite the fact that this manga perpetuates the murderous lesbian trope, I think it completely transcends the stereotype.

Gunjou is not a “good” manga – it is a “brilliant” manga.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 2

Overall – 10

I recently learned that gunjou, which translates to the color Ultramarine, is considered to be the most highly revered blue hue in the Japanese artist’s palette.

Once again, thank you Nakamura-san, for the issue of Morning 2 and for creating such a magnficient manga.

 





Interview with Yuri Translator Anastasia Moreno

May 5th, 2008

Once more, we take a peek behind the scenes in the Manga Industry. Today we are talking with Yuri translator Anastasia Moreno! Welcome Anastasia, and let’s jump right in!

1) So let’s start with the most obvious question – tell us a little bit about yourself.

My full name is Anastasia Shimabuku Moreno. I’m half-Japanese, half-Filipino, and was born and grown in Okinawa, Japan for most of my life. I grew up watching a lot of Japanese TV, especially anime like Urusei Yatsura and Gundam, with my 8 older brothers. I went to University of Arizona for a few years, but never finished college, and enlisted in the Marine Corps instead. During my tour in Okinawa, I married a Japanese guy in JASDF (Japan Air Self Defense Force.) After I got out of the Marines, I stayed in Japan to work in US military bases as a US federal employee. Currently, I live and work at Yokota Air Base. Hobbies other than manga include playing soccer, lifting weights, and imitating Japanese comedians.

2) Are you a manga reader yourself? How did you get into manga? Did that lead you into working in the manga industry? Or do you just do it for the fame, glory and chicks? ;-)

– Yes, I always read Japanese manga, but compared to a bazillion manga I used to read back in high school and college, I only read a select few these days.

– I grew up watching anime, but I didn’t get into manga until my sophomore year in high school. My friend insisted that I read a volleyball parody manga (High School Kimengumi v3) when I happened to be on the school volleyball team. When I read it at home, I laughed so hard my stomach hurt! I never imagined that manga stories, drawn with only black ink, zip tones, and paper, could evoke such strong reactions in readers (in my case, laughter.) I was hooked. I not only became an avid manga reader, but began drawing my own manga also.

– I actually worked in the manga industry twice – first as an artist, and later as a translator. In the 1990s, I drew 4 panel comic strips in college, called “Campus Abalone” in The Daily Wildcat (U of Arizona campus newspaper), which was essentially a 4-koma gag manga about campus bike cops. Back then, anime and manga just began to make its mark into the US comics industry, so nobody recognized manga as readily as they do now, resulting in close to zero fans (except the college anime club members and a handful of comic fans.) Also, my manga was published in Slave Labor Graphic’s Action Girl comics (vol. 7, 10, and 14), and I also did some manga illustrations for a college anthropology textbook. Oh, I also dabbled in fansub translations, like Yawara!.

Then I joined the Marine Corps for 5 years (1999-2004), spending most of my time in Okinawa, so I had no idea how much the US manga industry evolved during those years. My main job was an NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) defense instructor (run the tear gas chamber, fix gas masks, etc.), but my secondary job was a Japanese translator/interpreter. I interpreted for American and Japanese generals in high- level meetings and translated a variety of military technical correspondence, documents, and manuals into Japanese and English.

After that, I became a government employee, doing military technical translations and political military analyses. Having a regular day job (vice a hectic military tour) freed up my nights and weekends to get back to my personal hobby – manga. I thought it would be easier to get back into the manga industry by translating vice drawing, so I was lucky to be picked up by a publishing agent who gave me a constant stream of manga and novel translation projects to work on.

– I just love manga, so it’s more of a personal satisfaction than a pursuit of fame and glory. Of course, seeing your own name in a published book is definitely a morale booster. (^_^) Instead of being a chick-magnet, I ended up being an anime otaku magnet in college, when I cosplayed in a sailor-style school uniform at anime cons, haha.

3) Tell us, in general terms, what you do – where does your job fall in the process of producing a translated manga?

Probably in the initial stages, after licensing, I think. I provide English translations of Japanese manga and novels. Some publishers only require a raw translation for their rewriter to work from, and others ask the translator to adapt/rewrite as well. Each publisher has their policies and translation preferences, such as retaining honorifics or not, translating or ignoring sound effects, and adhering to a specific text style guide or not.

I’m usually given 1-3 months to translate one manga or novel, depending on the publisher’s needs. The most I’ve worked on in a month were 3 mangas and 1 novel (plus a regular day job, moving homes, and buying a new puppy. It was a very rough month.) (T_T)

4) Are you a fan of Yuri manga? Did you know it existed before you started working on a title? What were your thoughts upon seeing your first Yuri job?

Yes, I knew about and liked yuri manga, but volume-wise, I tend to read more mainstream shonen and shoujo manga that may or may not have a minor element of yuri in it. The only yuri title I worked on so far is Strawberry Panic. This title was over-the-top in terms of melodramatic characters and perfectly timed misunderstandings. The more serious the characters spoke or thought, the funnier it seemed in my mind. So I decided to go all out and retain as much of the seriousness and melodrama as accurately as possible, which in effect enhanced the comedic elements.

5) Not every Yuri series is equal. Some are better than others. What, if any, thoughts do you have about the series you’ve worked on. Silly? Serious? Quality? Not?

Since I’ve only worked on Strawberry Panic so far, I can’t make any comparisons yet. I love the cute artwork, and it was a fun title to translate. I think a group of readers will take the story seriously at face value, while another group will see the parody in it, but I’m sure most will ultimately like the title. I really enjoyed both aspects of it.

6) Have you gotten any fan feedback? Anything you want to share?

No, translators usually do not get any direct fan feedback, unless they have their own website or go on a forum soliciting feedback. I usually read manga reviews online and see if they evaluated my translations, though. Getting good marks for translation in the review is another morale booster. (^_^)

I tend to notice this in military translating, too, but usually when a translation is good, the writer and publisher get most of the credit, but if anything goes wrong, the translator is the first to be blamed. Sigh. Please give translators some slack — they are trying their best to adapt a foreign language product into your language, so there will always be subjective differences in interpretations and awkwardness when crossing cultures. Please remember that even great translations cannot save crappy titles sometimes. (T_T)

7) Any Yuri titles you’d like to see make it over here? Anything you’d like to get to work on?

I would love for the original Hana no Asuka Gumi manga series make it out here. The whole underground world where junior high girls beat the living crap out of each other all over Tokyo is just too insane! You know, I was able to memorize the 23 Tokyo wards because of the area masters in the story, lol. And would I love to work on that title, for sure! Also, I would like to work on titles that tap into my unique bicultural background and military experience, like Magical Marine Pixel Maritan (I coached voice actresses on English pronunciations of vulgar Marine phrases — a unique, fun-filled job!) If there are any yuri titles involving military/police women, though, please let me know!

8) What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about your job?

My favorite part of the job is to find little in-jokes in a story (that are totally apparent to native Japanese people but often overlooked by Americans) and being able to explain it in the translation notes. Unfortunately for Strawberry Panic, the whole story was a big parody, so I had nothing to add…

My least favorite part of the job is the tight deadline I sometimes have to meet. I work 40-60 hours a week at my day job, and 50-70 hours a week translating manga on nights and weekends, which leaves little to no personal life or sleep. I feel really bad when I have to neglect my husband and puppy for weeks at a time to meet a project deadline.

9) Anything else you want to tell our audience?

Yes, a whole lot of shameless plugs, if it’s all right… (^_^)
Please buy Strawberry Panic manga and novels! You’ll surely find something that catches your fancy, whether it be the cute drawings, favorite characters and/or couples, or the parody elements. It is a really entertaining series!

Please buy the other titles I’ve worked on, too: Love Hina novels volume 1 and volume 2 (Tokyopop), Trinity Blood RAM 1 and ROM 1 novels (Tokyopop), Sugar Princess: Skating to Win volume 1 and volume 2 (Viz), Hard Rock (DMP), ALIVE The Final Evolution series (Del Rey), and Maid Machinegun novel (Del Rey)!

Oh, I plan to start drawing gag manga again and posting it on the web this year. Stay tuned!

Thank you for your time.

Thank you Anstasia! I’m glad to meet another Hana no Asuka-gumi fan! And for all our readers out there, allow me to plug your new blog, Manga Gunkan, which is written in both English and Japanese. Among other fun things, Manga Gunkan discusses some of the trials and tribulations of translation work.

Once again, a fabulous insight into the people behind the books – thanks again to all three ladies who participated in these interviews. We look forward to more great Yuri from all of you!