Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Bakuretsu Tenshi, Vol. 3

October 16th, 2005

Why couldn’t the Bakuretsu Tenshi anime have been this decent? That’s what I want to know.

In Volume 2, Jo suddenly has to face her past, of which she remembers nothing. People attack her for the very skills she treasures, and Sei and Emi seem to know more about her than she does. Only Meg loves Jo for who she is, but Jo rejects Meg in a fit of grand self-loathing. Her only objective is to learn what she is, and what she was.

If you’re at all familiar with anime and manga in general, you can, of course *guess* what Jo is…a bioengineered killing machine. One of many, and the one that got away. Duh. Does this make her not human? She fights against this concept like many a Boomer before her, but unlike most of the biomechanical killing machines that have gone before, this one has something special. Jo has Meg.

Meg runs off to find Jo and indeed, does find her, in the middle of a battle for her life. Meg (quite unlike the more tedious Meg of the anime) throws herself into the battle and changes the outcome – on several levels. She not only makes it possible for Jo to win, but after seeing the gentle look in Jo’s eyes as she reclaims her partner, her opponent realizes that Jo is, after all, not a killing machine but a human.

But…too bad the evil conglomerate doesn’t think so! They kidnap Meg and, in a sense rape Jo, (rough surgery to reclaim some part that had alot of kanji that I didn’t feel like translating.) Essentially they ripped her spine out.

But Sei comes on the scene and saves Jo, then accompanies her to Evil Conglomerate Inc. HQ where they save Meg, destroy *this* particular weirdo and live happily ever after.

The volume ends with a note that the story continues in the animation Burst Angel – both note and title are in English. I swear to god, I want to be an English consultant to Japanese anime companies, hired to suggest less dorky translations, and to work on the r/l confusion….

In any case, Meg’s love is what saves Jo from a short life of violence and catapults her into a much, much longer life filled with violence.

The biggest problem with the anime, especially after the manga, is how Jo and Meg really *don’t* connect. We see Jo save a suddenly incompetent Meg frequently, and we see Meg snuggle an unresponsive Jo a few times. What a damn shame we don’t get to see the Jo and Meg of the manga appear in the anime – how much better a series might it have been?

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

Better than mediocre, the Bakuretsu Tenshi manga series is far superior to the anime.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Monogatari 3 Available for Pre-order!

September 29th, 2005


It’s official! Yuri Monogatari 3 is now available for pre-order on the Yuricon Shop!

ALC Publishing’s newest all yuri anthology will be shipping out at the end of October. Pre-order directly through the Yuricon shop and you’ll save 30% off the retail price.

YM3 is also ALC’s first to be available not only through the hobby market (y’know, comic book stores…) but also the major book store chains in the US, UK, Canada and Australia!

Feel free to pester your local Borders, Barnes and Noble, Dillons, etc for the newest 100% yuri anthology on the market.

For a brief synopsis of the wonderful stories in the third “Lily Tales” anthology, check out my September 2 post. I’m really very excited about this publication and I think you will be too!





Yuri Manga: Eve no Ringo/Eve’s Apple, Volume 3

September 22nd, 2005

You remember Kirika, don’t you? She was the high school student who wanted, above all else, to be a professional manga artist, in the goofball sex manga series Eve no Ringo, aka Eve’s Apple.. After several rejections, she was hired by the grumpiest, most miserable bastard of an editor ever, to draw S&M comics for a Lady’s Comic publication.

To understand the world she was drawing Kirika tried being a dominatrix, a man, tied up, spanked and learned about car sex and fetishes galore. All to become a better mangaka. Grudgingly, the editor from hell allowed a page or three of Kirika’s work into the magazine – but at the end of Volume 2, she had a long way to go before she could really consider herself a professional.

I found the first two volumes of this series in a used manga store, so I was pretty convinced I’d never ever see the rest of it. I am thrilled to report that I was wrong again. Bizarrely, this series has been *reprinted* and is available through Amazon JP. You can click the picture above to reach this particular volume.

So…what adventures will befall our delightfully, no longer naive young artist, you may ask?

Well…

In Volume 3, Kirika experiences a little remote control vibrator research, thanks to Yurika and the school doctor. During a test, of course. :-)

Kirika’s self-proclaimed beautiful rival Mio, in between sex with her editor and some “assisted studying” with Kirika’s friend and assistant Matsuda-kun, learns a little bit about the appeal of S&M comics. (Matsuda, btw, is filled with remorse immediately afterwards, which I personally find quite irritating – especially as he appears to be an excellent lover. How obnoxious would that be – the best sex of your life and then the guy runs off crying….)

We meet one of Mio’s sempai, another manga artist who is a cool, sexy, stylish woman named Kaoru. Kaoru meets and wows Kirika, (who is a bit swept off her feet by the older woman) but it’s Matsuda who really floats her boat. Matsuda is perfectly okay with this, until midway in the act he discovers that Kaoru is a sexy, stylish and incredibly beautiful *guy*. One more guilt-filled night for Matsuda, I guess….

Kirika decides to visit a fetish shop to play dress up. Of course she drags Matsuda along to get his opinion on her dressed as a dominatrix and a maid. The shop owner turns out to be the sexy sadist from a few volumes ago, who promptly ties her up and proceeds to make her learn a bit more about her needs – in front of Matsuda. Kirika is fascinated by the whole idea of being watched and runs home to incorporate her new knowledge into her art.

While Yurika and Kirika work on Yuri’s new soon-to-be published piece, Matsuda and Miyamae-sensei (the older mangaka who was seriously hardcore from the first few volumes) engage in some “study” for her work. He tries to draw some S&M and it rapidly becomes a Disney-esque fantasy with him and prince and Kikira as princess – as all his work is wont to.

Another kouhai is added to Kirika’s stable, as provincial gang girl Yano appears, with a thick accent and wackified antics, which involve her taking hers and the other girls’ shirt off alot.

Kirika gets yet another assistant when first year student Mai joins the chado club at school and asks if she can, you know, help Kirika in any way. She and Kirika get an intense session in and Kirika is motivated to draw, while Mai is motivated to get Kirika alone in a dark room again.

The final few chapters tell of a big party that the publishing house holds for all the mangaka and editors at an onsen, so we have the usual nudity and sex play – but because these are all people who draw and live S&M, it lack coyness or fanservice, really, and is refreshingly uncloying.

In a freak accident, the editor from hell is hurt and Kirika finds that she’s ALOT more upset about it than she would have thought. She overhears the editor and Miyamae talking about her. When she hears him say that she doesn’t need him, Kirika finds herself unexpectedly hysterical. Matsuda comforts her, but there’s definitely a sense that something deeper than just her need to succeed is going on.

Regardless of the trashiness of the subject, I *really* like this series. because the sex is part of the plot, there’s so little ingenuousness, or immaturity about it. And as Kirika and the others become more mature about human sexuality, so does the series.

It’s still goofy and fun, but if you’re not afraid of it, Eve’s Apple has the least objectification of women I’ve ever seen in any sex-heavy manga.

Ratings:
Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

This isn’t a Yuri story, not really, but its pleasantly omnisexual and has some Yuri service, no goggles needed.





Yuri Manga: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 2

September 20th, 2005

Well, I know you were all waiting with bated breath to read my opinion on this final installment of the Kannzuki no Miko series.

As you may remember, I found the anime to be superficial, devoid of meaning and tedious, but marginally distracting. I reviewed it several times with increasing incredulousness – primarily because, while the series made absolutely NO sense at all, many people, mostly male, seem to feel that Kannzuki represents the height of yuri. This story was indubitably colorful, had lots of action and noise and sound and light, but it simply made no sense. That a senseless 13 episode miniseries that had no plausibility, not internal consistancy and utterly pointless rape should be seen by any minority of viewers as the *epitome* of the genre I have labored to promote is simply…exhausting.

Folks – there is good Yuri out there. With plots, and character development, etc. Drawn by women for women. This is real Yuri, not the parody of several genres tossed with a light dressing of Yuri so it sells.

Yamaji Ebine
Takashima Rica
Tadeno Eriko
Morishima Akiko
Hayahiya Shizuru

These women draw and write Yuri – with plots, characters, genuine expression of lesbian love and desire. Look for them – read them – learn what good Yuri is.

Okay, that rant having been concluded, let’s turn our eyes towards the work in question.

We left Himeko having just been raped by Chikane. This was used in the anime as well, where the explanation for the act was to make Himeko hate Chikane, as she’s becoming an orochi.

In the manga the act is complicated by the fact that it seeems to be tied into Chikane and Himeko’s existence as Miko of Moon and Sun, respectively.

In reality, it is fairly obvious that the people who comprise Kaishaku, like most people, have absolutely no understanding at all of the emotional damage rape does. In this expert text, Himeko wonders if it really happend, gets a twinge of pain in her abdomen, is horrified, but when Chikane seems like her usual self, is fine. Fine? Oooookkkkkkkaaaaaay…..

Then follows pretty much exactly the same nonsense that occurred in the anime. Lots of mecha fights, which *still* make no sense, since we are never really given any motivation for the Orochi respresentatives. In my mind, there should at least have been one flashback to explain the how/why of becomming a homicidal kubi, but that’s just me, always looking for, you know, plausibility, in a story.

BTW, kubi mean “neck” and the scanlators translate it that way, but in our language we’d probably call them a “hand” rather than a neck, as in hired hand, or ranch hand. After watching the anime and reading the manga, I am still entirely puzzled as to the kubi’s exstence at all. Why were they there? What were they hoping to do? Shoot things, okay…but why? I like the idea of shooting things too, but I can, at least, tell you *why* I’d like to pop you. Sister Miyako is hot, but the rest, *especially* Tsubasa, are a complete yawn. Tsubasa’s only reason to exist seems to be to pander to fans of long-silver-haired boys. Hmmm – I guess if we see the kubi as pandering to random fetishes, they make more sense. Okay. That works for me.

The climax of the manga and anime are similar, but not *quite* the same. Chikane explains that her behavior (violent rape, emotional torture and criminal passive-agressiveness) was meant to save Himeko from a fate worse than fate. In the anime, Chikane accepts an eternity that consists of a rather shorter period of time than eternities are wont to be, alone on the moon.

In the manga, Himeko comes with Chikane, rendering all of Chikane’s violence and abuse pointless, because apparently it would take MORE than that to make Himeko hate Chikane. One can only boggle.

In an epilogue which does not exist in the anime, Chikane and Himeko are born as incestuous twins who apparently live happily ever after.

Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 2
Characters – 6
Yuri – 9 (I cut off a point for the complete and utter lack of understanding of the dynamics of women in love/lust.)

Overall – 6

Honestly – this could, really, have been an excellent story. Given time, back story, character development and a modicum of internal consistency, it could have been decent. But it wasn’t. Not really.





Yuri Manga: Sneak Peek – Yuri Monogatari 3

September 2nd, 2005

Because this is a long weekend, and I’m not going to be able to post until next week, I thought I’d leave you with a little teaser. ^_^

ALC Publishing is hard at work on our next 100% Yuri manga anthology, Yuri Monogatari 3 – and I think it is absolutely amazing! These are some of the best Yuri stories and art by some of the best Yuri artists in the world and I can’t wait for you to see them all. There’s alot to be proud of in this volume and I just *had* to share some of what you can look forward to.

Our first story is by a young lady named Hiromi Nishizaka. Hiromi is the winner of the Waki Yamato prize in the Manga Koshien contest for young manga artists. Her story, “Hydrangea” is her premiere as a Yuri artist.

“It Takes All Kinds” is a wacky look at long-term relationships and the life of a sexy space pirate, by Beth Malone. Beth has contributed to all three Yuri Monogatari volumes, but this is the first time she’s included a tentacle monster. ^_^

Sergio Aviles has provided a funny, eclectic and creative look at life on the run. How often are you ever going to be able to read a romantic yuri story told, in part, in imabic pentameter?

Rica Takashima was so busy running Yuricon 2005 in Tokyo, that she couldn’t find time to give us a new story, but she did send us a darling picture of Yuricon mascot Yuriko and her author girlfriend Midori.

Another exciting addition to this volume is an English-language version of the Yuricon 2005 in Tokyo report drawn (and written) by Akiko Morishima. Morishima-san is a well-known manga artist in Japan, who works on shoujo manga by day, and draws for yuri doujinshi circle Girlish in her spare time. And yes, you read that right – Morishima-san wrote the English for her story, as well. It’s a damn sight better than my Japanese, I can tell you. ^_^

Another three-time contributor to the Yuri Monogatari series, Kristina K., offers us a dream-like look at love across cultures (and an impression of tourism that we can all identify with!).

Finishing up our book is another veteran of the series, Althea Keaton, with a poignant, emotional and brilliant take on girl gangs and tenderness.

And, of course, there’s the usual great cover and incidental art by Yuricon Staff Artist, Kelli Nicely. ^_^