Yuri Anime: Bloom Into You Premium Box Set, Disk 2 (English)

December 16th, 2019

Bloom Into You Premium Box Set ends as it began, with shockingly good visuals and voice acting that elevates the story beyond the original manga.

Disk 2 might appear anti-climactic for those of us watching for Sayaka, but it is in these final episodes that the seeds of the rest of the story are sown. We are there to witness, you might say, the moment when Yuu’s promise turns into a lie. She might not know it yet, but we can see the moment she falls in love.

The DVD “extras” are basic. Clean beginning and endings for your Anime Music Videos (seriously, that’s why those are there, it’s a relic from “back in the day”) and promo material for other Sentai properties are the only content extras.

BUT, in order to do a complete review, (and to do a test run for the family get-together next week,) I made Rei’s cheesecake recipe. I wasn’t sure we had a springform pan and ultimately, we ended up throwing the one we had out, because it was degrading and made the cake taste weird. It might well have come with this house for all we know. ^_^;

The recipe was straightforward enough. It calls for cake flour, which gave the cake a lighter profile than the thicker cheesecakes I’m used to, which I actually liked. It wasn’t very sweet, which I also liked and the lemon functioned the same way sour cream does on Hungarian cheesecake, to cut the sweetness…and give it flavor.

Even packed down, the crust was really loose and crumbly. We’ll have to compact it a lot more next time, since we did not use cookies, we used graham crumb and it was super crumbly and dry. (Although, overnight in the fridge firmed it up considerably.)

The instructions say to leave the cake in the oven until completely cool, but this really overcooked it. Next time, we’ll take it out at half an hour. It’s going to crack no matter what. You could use a bain-marie to keep it moist but does *anyone* really care if the cheesecake cracks? Seriously. Eat the damn cake.

The flavor was very good. As I said, it had a slightly cakier texture, which meant it wasn’t as cloying or rich. It’s a really pretty good recipe as cheesecakes go. I gave half to cake to neighbors with a cautionary “It’s a 6.5/7 on a scale of 10.”  I don’t bake, so for my first cheesecake ever, it was pretty successful. I’ll try again next week with some small changes. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 1
Yuri – 3

Overall – 9

Bloom Into You Premium Blu-Ray Box Set, is a feast for any Yuri fan. With dessert.

Posted in Bloom Into You / Yagate Kimi ni Naru, English Anime, Nakatani Nio, Yuri Anime | 2 Comments »


Winter Reading: Gideon the Ninth

December 15th, 2019

The hardest thing about reading Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth is that it’s going to be a long wait until next summer when the next book comes out.

Gideon Nav has spent her life as the servant of the cult of death known as the Ninth House; locked in battle of body and mind with the daughter of that house, Harrowhark. Despised, outcast, her entire existence is an affront to the Ninth. When circumstances wind her up in a complicated plot to elevate Harrow to God’s side as one of his personal necromancers, Gideon finds herself in the awkward position as Harrow’s protector.

In the depths of a laboratory filled with existential horror (and not-at-all-existential horrors,) Gideon learns the truth about…everything. Gideon and Harrow’s story unfolds in multiple surprising labyrinthine twists and turns for a dark, death-filled story that was a damn funny read.

This book marched forward inexorably, full of violence and death but also full of strength and, ultimately, hope. Muir’s Gideon is a vulgar, straight-talking jerk and I loved her with all my heart. She would have settled in nicely among my friends.

You may see reviews by multiple reviewers saying that this is a story about “lesbian necromancers” or “lesbians in space” but that is like calling Milton’s Paradise Lost about “demons.” It’s not wrong, but it’s so very much aside from any of the points that you kind of had to ignore the entire story to find that description. What it *is* about is a wholly unique set of world-building, new and exciting forms of necromantic magic, (far beyond anything I had ever conceived, for sure,) and a likable asshole of a protagonist whose interest in women is relevant to the plot but not to a review of the plot, for fuck’s sake.

To reiterate, this book is full of violence and death. It is about necromancers. And some of that death is full of gobs.

But above all, amidst the rot and dust of the dead and the blood and phlegm of the living, I want to stress that this was one of the funniest things I have read in a very long time. It is read-out-loud quotable and I repeatedly read chunks out loud to my wife, because it was just that good.

Ratings:

Cover art – 10 Tommy Arnold’s cover is perfect. Muir even wrote a blog post for Tor dissecting it (hurh, hurh) so you can appreciate how good it is
Book design – 10 The font, the color of the pages, the book edged in black, where the color is allowed to bleed onto the page. It’s gorgeous
Story – 10 This is not hyperbole. Well, maybe a little, but only about 4/100ths hyperbole
Characters – 10 This is definitely not hyperbole. They were fanfuckingtastic
Lesbians – Yes, but stfu about it, christ, what a bunch of assholes reviewers are

Overall – 10

This is a really good book. A book so good that I insisted I read only one chapter a day because I didn’t want to blow through it too fast.

If you like scathing vulgarity by angry lesbians, violence and death, you should definitely read Gideon the Ninth. If you don’t like those things, then wtf are you doing reading Okazu, seriously.

(Thanks to Okazu god Ivan for the poke that motivated me to read this!)

Posted in Queer Fiction | 16 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – December 14, 2019

December 14th, 2019

Yuri Manga

We have some new items on the Yuricon Store! (One of my stretch goals for Okazu in the future is to hire someone to help me keep up on this. There is *so* much Yuri coming out now, I can barely manage it. ^_^)

Tsurezure Biyori, Volume 3 (徒然日和), the final volume of this pleasant series of 4 girls living their lives.

Mizuno to Chayama, Volume 1 ( 水野と茶山)  by Nishio Yuhta, creator of After Hours, which is a small-town Yuri Romeo and Juliet of a sort.

In Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 3,  (付き合ってあげてもいいかな), Miwa and Saeko continue to work on building a relationship with opposing personalities.

Just yesterday Seven Seas announced the license of Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru as The Gym Teacher and the School Nurse Are Dating! which is slated for a September 2020 release.

In honor of the second volume of Mikanuji’s Fuzoroi no Renri manga ( here’s my review of Volume 1) being released, Fuchigami Mai and Aiba Aina have recorded a voiced promotional video. Check out Comic Natalie to see it. It’s quite nice.

Creator of Sasamekikoto/Whispered Words, Ikeda Takashi will be starting a new Yuri manga on Comic Boost online in January. Yuri Navi has the report on Futari ha Daitai Konna Kanji (ふたりはだいたいこんなかんじ).

Mai Okafuji announced the launch of her new Yuri series on Shodensha’s online Manga Jam, Forget Me Not (フォーゲット・ミー・ノット).

Comic Walker has launched SQ Kimi no Namae kara Hajimaru (SQ 君の名前から始まる). What makes this very interesting is that it is a Japanese digital release of a Chinese Yuri comic that ran on Weibo from creator 壇九 (TANJIU). I think this is very interesting.
 

The Yuri Network News report is made possible by Okazu Patrons. Your support funds reviews, interviews, news and helps pay writers. As little as $5/month can make a huge difference!

 

 

Yuri Doujinshi

Lilyka has the official English release of Yuunagi Marbled, a doujinshi put out by Momono Moto, which I reviewed in 2017. This was one of the very first Galette Works publications, which gives me hope that we’ll see more in the future. Lilyka is Digital Manga Publishing’s Yuri doujinshi imprint. When you purchase with them, you are given multiple formats to choose from for your download of the file.

 

Yuri Anime

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Eric P, Sentai Filmworks has picked up the Maria Watches Over Us Complete Collection  on Blu-ray which includes all 4 seasons of the anime and all the shorts. The set is up for pre-order! If you missed getting this series from RightStuf, this is a great chance to have it all in one streamlined set.

 

Yuri Game

Via translator Meru on Twitter, SukeraSomero, the English-language arm of SukeraSparo announced a new Yuri Game – OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos. As you might expect, I will not be playing this, so if you do and would like to do a review for Okazu, please feel free to contact us!

 

Other News

@animaltextures on Twitter posted a really interesting thread about Rune Naitō, one of the pioneers of “kawaii” art and animal mascots in Japan who was also an artist for the gay magazine Barazoku.

Mary Borsellino took on the topic of happy endingd in queer lit and why they are so important for Writers Victoria. In Defence of Happy Endings is 60% introspection and 40% extrapolation and worth a gander.

On Anime Feminist, Kris Avila writes about something I have attempted to address here multiple times. Predictably, the comments about my comment make the wrong point. The author prefaces this very excellent article with a supposition that is – only the face of it – incorrect. They then ignore that supposition. When I pointed it out, people tell me that that is not relevant, which is absolutely true, only, I’m not the one who said it. Avila did. Sheesh.  ^_^ Anyway, aside from that one phrase,“Queering” Heteronormativity: Biological essentialism in genderbending manga is a very good read.

 

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.

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

 

 

Posted in Yuri Network News | 2 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Yagate Kimi ni Naru, Volume 8 (やがて君になる)

December 12th, 2019

Since I cracked open the fantastic Bloom Into You Premium Box Set earlier this week, and plan on finishing it up tomorrow (except for the cheesecake, which will have to wait a few weeks) I figured I had better just bite the bullet and wrap it all up in one go. So here we are with Yagate Kimi ni Naru, Volume 8 (やがて君になる) in our hands, ready to say farewell to this series in Japanese.

Volume 7 (which will be available in English in April 2020) left us on the cusp of a major change for Yuu and Touko. A major change that had been telegraphed for many volumes, so surely no one will be surprised. After this massive change in their relationship, the narrative shifts entirely from a story about young people struggling with who they might be to one about learning to be comfortable with who they are. To do this, some of you will have to let go of who you thought they were. This bring us to the creation of a relationship in which both Yuu and Touko had to figure out what they wanted for themselves.

Time marches on and the story skips two years into the future to end in what is an extended final chapter. Yuu visits her school once again, this time to watch her successors in the Student Council perform their play. And to catch up with everyone for a brief moment. Sayaka, Yuu and Touko have one last moment together in which the punchline of the yet-to-be-released third Sayaka novel is spoiled…and I’m perfectly okay with it. ^_^ It’s not like that was any less obvious than the end of this series. In a Yuri story, it doesn’t matter how many obstacles exist, we kind of have to realize that we’re headed to an inevitable conclusion.

The conclusion to this story may have been inevitable and, if we’re honest, a bit predictable, but it is nonetheless a nice ending and one that gives fans of the series plenty of room into which they can write their own desires. What conversations did Yuu and Touko have about identity and gender and sexuality and sex in those two years? We’ll never know, so feel free to tell the story you need to tell to make it work for you.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters  – 10
Service – There is a sex scene. Whether you consider that service or not is entirely up to you.
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

In the end, I am once again staring at the title, wondering if we’ve all been played for fools. Maybe  every single character had someone they thought they had to become in order for things to work. Or, maybe Yuu was never the protagonist and we’ve been watching her in a supporting role all along to Touko’s journey to become, then surpass, then let go of her, sister. Or maybe the title had no specific connection at all and we were left, like the characters themselves, to struggle to find meaning.

We already know there will be a few “curtain call” projects for this series. Artbook, stage play reprise, the third Sayaka novel, and a series of LINE stamps have been planned. The first novel, Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka is available for pre-order from Seven Seas, so we’ll be  talking about this series still for some time to come. But, in the meantime, we’ll tip our hat in thanks to Nakatani-sensei and wait to see if there’s something next.

Posted in Bloom Into You / Yagate Kimi ni Naru, Nakatani Nio, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Yuri Comic: ROADQUEEN: Eternal Roadtrip to Love, Guest Review by Meru C

December 11th, 2019

It is my very great pleasure today to welcome back guest reviewer Meru C, with a look at a book that I think a lot of you will really like! Guest reviews like this are made possible by our Okazu Patrons! Thank you for your support of Yuri reviews, news and interviews!

Mira Ong Chua’s Roadqueens first debuted as a one-shot comic in 2016. Two years later in late 2018, it became a full-fledged story and was released in a physical edition thanks to a successful Kickstarter that won the hearts of thousands of eager fans. Unfortunately, at the time, I was unable to back Mira’s campaign, and was left desperately wanting to indulge in what seemed like a really stellar story. Thankfully, Seven Seas Entertainment picked up the rights for graphic novel, re-releasing ROADQUEEN: Eternal Roadtrip to Love on October 8, 2019 in a definitive, quite lovely Complete edition. 

I’m reviewing this re-released edition, which includes a full-color, glossy version of the originally one shot “ROADQUEEN: Girlfriend of the World” and the saucy short story “Passion Marathon” which fills in what happened between the climax of the story and the epilogue.

Roadqueens follows Leo, the hottest heartbreaker at Princess Andromeda Academy with hordes of adoring fangirls focused on one single goal: beating Leo in a road race to their school so they can ask her out on a date. Little do they know, Leo only loves her motorcycle, Bethany, and doesn’t want to ruin her Cool Girl/Lone Wolf persona. She also absolutely doesn’t care about the hearts of her fans at all. In comes mysterious cool girl Vega, who steals Bethany away and challenges Leo to step up her game and prove that she can be a half-way decent lesbian-slash-girlfriend at least once in her life in order to win Bethany back. Fail, and Bethany will be gone forever.

So I’ll admit up front, the plot is pretty straightforward, leaning on tried and true tropes of Yuri: we’ve got a very butch Bifauxnen, fake dating, a Ferris wheel date, and biker babes to name a few. One of my favorite tropes -”childhood friends”-appears as a crucial plot element, though I’ll admit that this kind of caught me off guard because it felt like it was dropped into the story without any prior foreshadowing.

Mira’s art also makes the plot shine: their retro style harkens back to 1990s manga, and is clearly a love letter to dozens of series that Yuri fans worldwide hold near and dear to their hearts. Naturally, this extends to our two main characters, Leo and Vega, who had really nice designs that I quite liked, and that definitely made me dozens of sapphic couples with similar dynamics. I particularly liked Mira’s use of light and shadow throughout the volume: both were quite well done, lending a lot of atmosphere when the plot slowed down for a transitions or pivotal moments.

Speaking of our main characters, Leo is very… unlikable. I genuinely don’t think I started to like her until a good way into the first third of the story, and even then, I still found myself preferring Vega over Leo. I left the story ultimately liking Leo, but did feel a bit of whiplash: she starts off incredibly callous and quite rude, and at times, is quite frankly just mean. If I’m honest, Vega isn’t much better at the beginning either: she barges in to Leo’s life, quite cruelly -and without explanation- takes her bike and is quite brusque, though I think that by the end of the story, Vega’s actions are much easier to justify than Leo’s are. 

Truthfully, I think that anyone well versed in Yuri will see the climax as pretty obvious: Leo and Vega will fall for each other, and Bethany the Motorcycle will become their motorcycle. Roadqueen isn’t doing a lot of new things, but honestly, it’s like having cake: enjoyable and satisfying. While not the revolutionary work that I saw a lot of fans praising it as, it’s by no means a bad work: in fact, I’ll probably reread Roadqueen this week.

With snappy writing and hilarious, laugh-out-loud comedy beats and a plot that feels like treading familiar ground, it’s easy enough to overlook the fact that you know how Roadqueen will end and just enjoy the wild ride. I can’t wait to see what Mira Ong Chua creates next!

Ratings: 

Art – 8 especially for the color pages, which look really good and make you wish the entire comic was in color
Story – 7
Characters – 6 
Service – 6
Yuri – 10 This is a series all about girls loving girls and girls love girls who also love motorcycles and is very clearly queer and sapphic
Motorcycles – 10

Overall – 8

I think that Roadqueens offers something for everyone, though veterans of the Yuri genre -notably, fans of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sailor Moon or even Kill la Kill– might find this fast paced road race leaving them wanting. Still, give it a read and see what you think: this one-volume story might surprise you. 

You can find more of Mira Ong Chua’s content on her website miraongchua.com.

Erica here: Thank you so much Meru! I know that there’s a lot to like in this book for fans of classic Yuri manga and anime series. Hopefully we’ll see new original work from Mira Ong Chua in the future.

Posted in Guest Review, Western Comic/Comix | No Comments »