Yuri Manga: Atashi no Senpai (アタシのセンパイ)

February 7th, 2019

Back in the day, I used to use Yuri lists and sites to find random Yuri manga I had missed. That switched for a while to blogs and Amazon recommendations as all the old Yuri lists died. Now I’m back to using Yuri lists and sites, enhanced by Twitter feeds and digital comics news sites and I gotta say…it’s kind of awesome. ^_^ The glut of digital Yuri work coming out is impossible to keep up with, but what a great problem to have!

So I was flipping around on, I think, Comic Natalie, and saw a write-up for Atashi no Senpai (アタシのセンパイ) by Shioya Teruko. It sounded a litle old school but threw it into my Amazon JP box anyway. Well, “old school” doesn’t quite cut it. I felt instantly transported back to the early 2000s, when Yuri was so much more a fetish, not a genre. At which point I finally took a look at the actual book, which, it turns out is a YK Comic from Shonen Gahosha. Oh~~~~~~! The obi clearly states, “That Yuri is a little perilous.” That explains that.

Zukamoto is an average girl who, for no particular reason, is drawn to Okazaki-sempai  – a girl who might as well have a sign over her head that say “I am in an abusive relationship.” Zukamoto sees Okazaki with another girl in a storage closet and it’s instantly apparent that the relationship is not an equitable one. Why Yoshida is torturing Okazaki is something Zukamoto does not know, but she is torn between wanting to save Okazaki and being turned on by the sight of her being taunted.

The story, to its credit, is about the redemption of Okazaki, as Zukamoto convinces her that there’s more to love than feelings of self-loathing. When Yoshida tries to warn Zukamoto off, the younger woman bravely stands up to the school’s star, and her bravery gives Okazaki the fuel she needs to walk away from the kind-of-consensual-but-not-healthy-at-all relationship. The final chapter sees both Okazaki and Zukamoto on a date before Okazaki graduates and being, for the first time in the volume, truly happy.

Whether you consider this a happy or good Yuri story will entirely depend on your individual reaction to the premise. I was mildly put out by the abusive situation as I read, but upon flipping back at the end, I had actually made it worse in my head when I remembered it. It wasn’t okay, but the situation might have been worse, and wasn’t as exploitative as I remembered, I guess. So, is that good or not? It’ll have to be up to you to decide. Depending on how you read the story, it could well be seen as a story of triumph over self-hatred. From my perspective there is a lot left undealt with that would need to be unpacked to make it a “good” story and it wasn’t given that time or handled with the nuance it needed. 

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Service – 6 Sexual situations, partial nudity, some light BDSM
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

I will, as I so often do, imagine the characters working out some of that shit in future relationships. I sure hope they do, anyway. ^_^

Posted in Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Yagate Kimi ni Naru Koushiki Comic Anthology (やがて君になる 公式コミックアンソロジー)

February 6th, 2019

Looking back on my old Okazu posts, this is the first series-specific anthology I have reviewed here since Maria’s Wink in 2008, and that was not an official work, but a doujinshi anthology. Which makes Yagate Kimi ni Naru Koushiki Comic Anthology (やがて君になる 公式コミックアンソロジー) the first series anthology on Okazu in 11 years and the first official comic anthology…ever. We’ve come a long way in those 11 years. For one thing, let’s think about the fact that this is an official comic collection! With stories by some professional names,with a message by the original creator of the series. That’s pretty damn cool.

A number of the stories stood out for me, but when I tell you about which one, you’ll laugh, because I’m completely predictable. ^_^

I very much enjoyed Canno’s story, which followed Sayaka and Touko on a “date.” Cue lot of good Sayaka internal monologue and insight. Fukuyama Akira’s look at Yuu and Koyomi’s relationship was also absolutely delightful. No one at all would be surprised that I like Fumio Fumi’s story, which gave me a chance to admire Touko in tux, while Sayaka played musumeyaku in frilly dress.

But you have got to know that the entire time I was reading it I was thinking “There had better be a story about Riko and MIyako,” the adult lesbian couple. Ultimately there was, and I genuinely enjoyed Hiroichi’s look at their relationship. It felt completely honest and as that’s the quality I look to them most for in the series, it was nice to see it reflected here, as well. 

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Everything is variable, because it’s an anthology, obviously, but the stories are consistent with the characters we know and like which is refreshing, and the art was all good, even if there are specific styles one doesn’t care for. 

If you are a fan of Yagate Kimi ni Naru, I definitely think this official comic anthology is worth your time and money.

Posted in Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »


Revue Starlight Anime (English)

February 4th, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the moment it began, Revue Starlight (which is streaming on HIDIVE) reminded me of something.

Centered on a group of young women at a Takarazuka-like performing arts school, in which they vie to be cast in one of three successive performances of a muscial called “Starlight,” they find themselves called upon to literally fight for the Top Star position in battles set in the surreal landscapes of their own desires and fears.

And wow, did it remind me of something.

Duels, surreal landscapes, hrm. Uniforms created by impossible machinery…

Now what did that remind me of…?

Oh, yes, I got it! It reminded me, almost immediately, of…Melody of Oblivion. 

Yes, of course, it also reminded me of Revolutionary Girl Utena, but there was something specific about the tone that pinged Melody of Oblivion in my head in a very immediate way, which shared some staff and a lot of theatrical elements with Utena. As it turns out, Revue Starlight shares some staff with Melody, so I’m probably not that far off.

In any case, there was a similar sense of grimness that pervaded the plot of Revue Starlight so, despite the apparent desire to excel, the play the young women are working on is depressing as fuck. We watch them shine, in order to star in a play in which they must fail. And yet, despite that, Revue Starlight was a pretty good anime with a lot of emotion and a soupçon of WTF, in between shiny fight scenes and earworm music, capped off by utterly likable characters.

Yuri here lies primarily in intensely emotional relationships between various pairs of the girls. Futaba and her charge, imperious Kauruko, Mahiru’s overt crush on Karen, the late breaking, but immensely satisfying relationship between Nana and Junna and the even more satisfying rivalry of Maya and Claudine. If the story had been about Maya and Claudine, I would have loved it even more. Maya gets very close to making the series about them a few times and even goes so far as to refer to her rival as “my Claudine.” ^_^ 

By now, if you’ve seen this anime, you’re wondering if I’m going to mention the giraffe in the room. If the role had been an adult man, everything he said would be bizarre and creepy. So it’s a giraffe instead, and comes off as inexplicable and surreal instead of a creeptastic old dude in a series about young women in a school that has no men. So, giraffe.

Of course music plays an important role. The duels are soundtracked by image songs for the character whose arc it is, sung by the voice actress. These are themed to fit both character and the tension that rules the duel. I’ve got the opening theme stuck firmly in my head, but what I ended up liking best was the repetition of the end theme, by the pairs whose story was highlighted in that particular episode. Again, I like Maya and Claudine’s iteration best, but they were all good. And damned earmwormy. I fear I’ll be singing this stuff for days unless I do something to stop it. 

Did I enjoy Revue Starlight? Yeah, I think I did. It was shiniy and singy and fighty and asked for very little commitment from me as a viewer. I mean, I never cared about the main plot tension between the leads, which is not all that surprising, I often find my self preferring supporting characters. But it was definitely worth a watch.

Ratings:

Service – Knees, not thighs. Is that an improvement, when it’s so clearly meant to be a stand-in?

Couple Ranking:

1. Maya and Claudine 
2. Banana and Junna
3. Futaba with someone who appreciates her, not Kaoruko
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282726. Mahiru and Karen
282727. Karen and Hikari

Posted in English Anime | 19 Comments »


SF Magazine, February 2019, Featuring Yuri (SFマガジン2019年2月号 百合特集)

February 3rd, 2019

Last December the Yuri world thrilled at the announcement that for the first time SF Magazine was going to be publishing an issue featuring Yuri stories. SF Magazine, Featuring Yuri (SFマガジン2019年2月号 百合特集) sold out pretty quickly and had to be reprinted, which is very gratifying.

Before I get into the review, I have to tell you something about myself. When I was very young, I read a lot of science fiction. I mean, massive, metric tons, because I read whatever my Dad read and he was a member of the Science Fiction Book Club (remember that?). So my reading was 98% stuff I absolutely positively should not be reading at that age. ^_^

When I was like 9 or 10 my father told me a version of the story Knock by Frederic Brown. I have a standing bet with myself that all scifi collections I read will begin with some iteration of this story. I have never lost that bet. ^_^

When I hit 13 or 14, I remember my enthusiasm for scifi being ground down by, specifically, short story collections. The Best Science Fiction of /year/ collections were full of so much UGH, that after a couple of years of clones killing their originals and lots of rape and dystopia, all by men and mostly white men, I just got bored. I remember vividly the two stories that were the last straws for me. Of them, the one I blame most was an excruciating story by Stanislaw Lem, the punchline of which was “What do you take me for, a Phool?” at which point I walked away from science fiction for approximately a decade, until I found cyberpunk. Last time I read a scifi short story collection, it was likewise full of ugh, although this time by women. ^_^; My experiences with science fiction short stories have not be overwhelmingly positive. ( SF Novels, otoh, have been better than ever in the last few years!)

I am telling you this so you understand some of my ambivalence about this issue of SF Magazine. The rest of my ambivalence is because imagining stories by science fiction fans that were specifically written to be Yuri, caused me to imagine all sorts of new ugh to be experienced. As you may imagine. 

Well, I won the standing bet, but otherwise, the Yuri in this issue of SF Magazine has been interesting and not ugh at all. Your mileage may, of course, vary, but I found the stories mostly to be sweet and a little sad, rather than creepy or gross.

Following  the first few stories and a manga, is an interview with Comic Yuri Hime Editors in Chief Nakamura and Umezawa. I’m very pleased at their discussion of the heterogeneity of the Yuri genre and was delighted that Umezawa also begins the history of Yuri with Yoshiya Nobuko.

This interview is followed by an interview with Tsukimura Ryoue, with whose work I am wholly unfamiliar, so I look forward to learning something about him when I read the interview. (Edit: It turns out he is the screenplay writer for the anime Noir, among others, so it turns out that I am familiar with some of his work, just not his novels.) I was kind of surprised they didn’t do an interview with Fukami Makoto, since his science fiction often includes lesbians. ^_^

Following this is a series of suggested titles for fans of science fiction and Yuri and, whether we consider a series in this list “Yuri” or not fills many of the posts here on Okazu. 

The magazine continues from there with what seems to be more general non-Yuri science fiction. What I have read so far has been quite decent.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Overall a surprisingly pleasant experience with little that I would call exploitative,. and a lot that I would consider explorative. The February issue of SF magazine has been a fine experience with science fiction short stories featuring Yuri.  ^_^

Posted in Magazines, Miscellaneous | 14 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – February 2, 2019

February 2nd, 2019

100th Anniversary of Yuri

This week we unveiled our 100th Anniversary event! In conjunction with PacSet travel, Yuricon and Okazu will be holding a Yuri-themed tour of  Tokyo and the surrounding area. Read about the 100 Years of Yuri Tour and we hope you’ll join us for this once-in-a-lifetime event and take a list to this week’s podcast about why we call 2019 the 200th anniversary of Yuri!

 

Yuri Manga

Watashi no Kobushi wo Uketomete, Volume 2 (私の拳をうけとめて) continues the yanki x yanki love(?) story by murata. 

Bloom Into You, Volume 6 will be hitting bookstores in English at the end of March.

MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 13 (ムルシエラゴ) is available in Japanese. Whee!

The sequel to Kabi Nagata’s Hitori Koukan Nikki (一人交換日記) is out in Japa and the the English edition, My Solo Exchange Diary, Volume 2, hit she;eves here this month!

And while we’re on the topic, don’t miss Mikan Uji’s one-shot about love at a game development company, Now Loading…! which is out now.

And Yuri Hime is releasing a collection of digital Comics by ED, as Lillium Terarium (リリウム・テラリウム)

 

Other News

ANN reports on the first-ever male PreCure’s voice actor’s feelings about becoming Cure Infini and I gotta say, it’s lovely. ^_^

Boo, Bandai Namco is dropping Sailor Moon Drops game on March 28. Doodyheads. Check out ANN for the details.

Via YNN Correspondent Michelangelo H., here’s a short video on the History of Homosexuality in Film from 2015.

Another ANN report today, as anime voice actors are enjoying the Strong Woman Maker app. That was a few minutes of fun. ^_^

 

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast! 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!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 9 Comments »