Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Anime/Manga: Sailor Moon

January 29th, 2004


Things I’m Not Going To Write About
Part 3

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon)

What is there to say about the series that launched a thousand yuri fans, that hasn’t already been said? Well, lots really. But I won’t say it all here – I’ll just focus on the yuri. :-)

In Season 3, Sailor Moon S, the adorable Inner Senshi (and let’s face, they’re yuri subtext-y enough for any fan!) are joined by Sailors Uranus and Neptune, arguably one of the greatest lesbian couples in anime, manga and related media, ever. Directed by Ikuhara Kunihiko, (director of and creative genius behind Utena,) Sailor Moon gave the world the first anime lesbian couple to ever be portrayed *as such* on Japanese television. In doing so, Ikuhara set the bar pretty high with Haruka and Michiru, instructing the voice actresses to act as if they were married.* In fact, the next time the bar was raised was by this very same man almost ten years later, with Anthy, Utena and Juri in Utena.

It’s more than five years later and we’re *still* using these five characters as poster children for yuri anime and manga, which says a lot, IMHO.

Bottom line, Haruka and Michiru are one of the most romantic, funny, and fun yuri couples, ever. Every year sees new fanfic and doujinshi and even official Sailormoon World art about these two, and now, with the advent of the Live Action Sailor Moon, a whole new generation of kids might one day get to scream “Kakko-ii!” in the general direction of yuri fandom’s reigning queens. :-)

This anime is horrifically magical girl-y, so if repeated transformation footage, girly attack names and goofy monsters bore you, then yeah, it’ll be hard to get into the story. However, if that kind of thing doesn’t put you off, and you want to see where it so much of western yuri fandom began, you might want to get a hold of this season, which is available on DVD. The Sailor Moon manga is available on the Yuricon Shop. A new edition is available in Japan, in honor of the new Live Action series, with spiffy new cover art.

(The SM manga was one of the first titles Tokyo Pop ever translated, and boy was it a learning curve for them! Originally, they changed the names of all the Senshi, only to be met with huge fan resistance. It was too late for the Inner Senshi, but ultimately, the Outers’ Japanese names were retained. I actually have the old Mixx magazine issues with the Outers’ westernized names, before Tokyo Pop got inundated with fan mail begging them not to change Haruka’s name!)

Ratings: Yuri – 8, Art – 8, Story – 7, Music – 9, Characters – 10, Overall – 9

*It’s fairly well-known that it was was Ogata Megumi’s portrayal of Haruka that catapulted me into anime fandom in the beginning, and to be honest, she’s still my favorite. While it will be very cool to see a Live-Action Sailor Uranus, it won’t be MO, boo hoo. :-(

***

This week’s brainstorm

After much thought on the subject, I have now developed a working definition for “porn” versus “erotica” that I’d like to share with you all. There’s quite a few people who think that there is no difference, but I believe there is:

Porn is any representation of sexual conduct with the implicit acknowledgement of a third party who is watching – and for whose pleasure the sexual act is being conducted.

Erotica is an honest representation of sexual conduct between people for their own pleasure.

I came to this conclusion while reading several yuri doujinshi I own. If you agree with it, please feel free to use it. If you disagree, feel free to come up with one of your own. :-)





Yuri Manga/Anime: Rose of Versailles

January 27th, 2004

Things I’m Not Going To Write About
Part 1

This week, I’m going to give voice to my opinions about alot of anime and manga series that are so well-known and/or so popular, that it’s hardly worth it for me to even mention them…only they are pretty cool and you might *not* have heard of them before, so here they are.

These are really short review/opinions about the yuri content and overall worthiness of these series – feel free to agree or disagree on the Yuricon Mailing List. After this, we’ll go back to our regularly scheduled reviews of stuff you’ve never heard about. ;-)

All ratings are done on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.

Berusayu no Bara (Rose of Versailles) –

This is *still* one of the great classics of shoujoai manga. Rose of Versailles tells the gorgeous, but ultimately tragic, story of Lady Oscar Francois De Jarjeyes, a woman of the French nobility who was raised as a man. She becomes the Captain of the Guard at Versailles serving Maria Antionette. The story covers the rise and fall of Antionette and the causes and repercussions of the French Revolution, using many well-known historical figures and occurrences. It’s a really human look at the Revolution and a rattlin’ good yarn to boot. (And a decent bit of historical research – almost all the characters with the exception of Oscar and her family, are real.)

Despite its age or, perhaps, because of it, RoV still stands out as a ground-breaking work in shoujo. The anime, sadly, has lost all but the barest vestiges of love between poor, but kind and beautiful Rosalie, and scion of the noble class, Oscar, but in the manga (released last year in a new Japanese edition for its 25th anniversary) there is more than enough Yuri for even me. Both anime and manga are so soap-opera and melodramatic that they are more enjoyable taken in small chunks.

In the manga, Rosalie and Oscar both acknowledge what they feel for each other in a very touching scene. In another time, if Oscar had been a man, if, if, if, they might have become lovers. But they don’t. Nonetheless, if you can get past the uniforms with bell-bottom pants, the art and drama of this soapy story is timeless.

The anime is digitally fansubbed, and frankly, I cannot imagine why it’s never been picked up by any distro company here. The manga has not been scanlated or released her and possibly never will be, so you’ll just have to learn Japanese to enjoy it. :-)

In my opinion, RoV also makes a great introduction to one of the great Japanese cultural icons – Takarazuka – as well. Imagine watching a woman who plays male roles, playing a woman who acts like a man, but falls in love with a man (also played by a women)…all with spiffariffic uniforms and over-the-top acting. It really just doesn’t get any more gender-bendy than this. And Aran Kei as Fersen is unbelievably hot…! LOL

Ratings: Yuri – 3 for the anime, 5 for the manga. Art – very 70s, give it a 8, since it set alot of standards for shoujo that came after it. Overall – 7





Yuri Manga: Yuri Shimai, Issue 1 and 2

January 26th, 2004


What’s really, really hot right now? Well, with the advent of Yuri-filled schoolgirl romance in Maria-sama ga Miteru , schoolgirls are hot, hot, hot. So hot that manga and anime are popping up left and right with a bazillion versions of the same old sempai/kohai romance, over and over.

Do I sound jaded? I admit, I kind of feel it. A steady diet of mediocre high school lesbian drama has worn me down a little and I’m a little less enthused by the new yuri than I had expected to be. It’s great to see more Yuri and all, but does it ALL have to be high school confessions that lead nowhere? (To be fair, it’s not Marimite‘s fault – it’s all the knock-offs and me-toos that have me cringing. And the subject of today’s review is *not* to blame, since it came out last summer, well before the Great Schoolgirl Rush of ’04.

Yuri Shimai is definitely the front runner in the Yuri manga category at the moment. Published quarterly by SunSun Magazine (the folks who bring you June magazine) Yuri Shimai is now on its second issue. While the second issue of YS suffers a very little from “second album” syndrome, there’s much more good here than bad…although, as I say, I’d had my fill of schoolgirls by the end. Since girls in school uniform…indeed women under the age of 25 or so…do nothing for me, I get bored pretty quickly of one teen romance after another. You know, lesbians *do* survive to adulthood…

That having been said, there is much to recommend Yuri Shimai to any Yuri fan. For one thing, it’s very slick. Nice color covers, about a dozen color pages and inserted color posters make both issues of Yuri Shimai worth the purchase price. Sun Sun has got the money to drop into this book – and it shows. Production-wise, we couldn’t ask for anything better.

The stories are variable in art and content, but most are sweet and charming. A few transcend the usual Yuri conventions to create interesting characters and motivations. One of my complaints about the second issue was the overuse of breast-grabbing as a plot point. I don’t know, maybe Japanese girls do go around doing that, bit it always seems forced and unreal to me.

There’s at least one continuing story, “Strawberry Shake”. So, get together with a few friends, open an account with Amazon Japan and *buy* the magazine, or this one too, will go the way of Mist, Anise, Phryne and all other lesbian-oriented Japanese publications, which have become defunct. Because, in the end, the only thing that talks is money.)

Another useful and fun part of YS is the “Vox Populi” section, which outlines manga, anime, novels, movies and games with Yuri content – I steal freely from this section to fill my shelves at home. ^_^ Additionally, the second issue has an encouraging fan art section – one hopes that they received so much mail that a switch to monthly may one day be in the making. And the second issue provides a form for yuri doujinshi/manga artists to send in their work to be reviewed. One day you might see Rica ‘tte Kanji!? or Yuri Monogatari covered in those pages! (Now, wouldn’t that be cool?)

Ultimately, time will tell whether YS has any staying power, but even despite my eventual longing for a story about a lesbian chain gang, I know that I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. ^-^





Yuri Manga: Indigo Blue

January 23rd, 2004

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Part 4

Once again, I present for your inspection a truly excellent piece of unknown yuri manga – Indigo Blue, by the young, out lesbian mangaka, Yamaji Ebine. This is not to be confused with Blue, by Nananan Kiriko, which was originally published in 1996. Indigo Blue is a more recent book by several years – and one can tell instantly that it’s not bound by early shoujoai conventions and assumptions.

As I remarked in my earlier review of Free Soul, Yamaji-sensei’s work is very clean and minimalist, with rich textures being provided by solid characterization and a background of jazz music, rather than the typical shoujo manga use of screentones. Indigo Blue is an exploration of human sexuality, and is also a step closer to the mature solidity of Free Soul from her earlier works, one more of which I will review later on.

Indigo Blue tells the story of Retsu, a young novelist. She is currently dating her editor, Ryuuji, and seems very happy with him, although she knows she is not in love with him. A friend of hers introduces her to Tamaki, a bohemian young woman who is aware of Retsu’s work, but seems to be uninterested in Retsu as a person. Nonetheless, Retsu can’t get Tamaki out of her head. After various attempts at meeting once again, Retsu finally manages to meet up with her, only to be told that Tamaki is uninterested in pursuing a relationship – even a friendship – because she is a lesbian and Retsu is not. Tamaki simply has no time for women who are straight who fall in love with lesbians….

Retsu is horribly confused by this – she can’t get this woman out of her mind, but she doesn’t think she is attracted to her. Only when Tamaki kisses her suddenly and walks away, does Retsu realize that yes, in fact, she is very attracted to her .

Ultimately they become lovers, but still, Retsu can’t find it in herself to break up with Ryuuji, who is clearly in love with her, even asking her to marry him. The complicated life and network of lies that Retsu has to maintain is eventually and accidentally destroyed by a well-meaning friend, with far-ranging consequences.

In a move that signals her rejection of older shoujoai conventions, Yamaji-sensei has not only a happy ending, but one that will satisfy yuri fans everywhere, i.e., the girl gets the girl. But in more than one sense, the ending is really not important – Indigo Blue is more about the journey than the destination. The story could have very well ended the other way and I think I would have been just as satisfied, since it was Retsu’s growth that was the issue…not the gender of her lover. Okay, maybe not *as* satisfied. ^_^

To be fair, this is not a perfect story. As a protagonist, Retsu herself is really the story’s biggest weakness. Her self-examination at times becomes a little tiresome, especially when compared to Free Soul’s Keito or Love My Life’s Ichiko. Her constant questioning about sexuality in general and sexual preference in particular almost takes on a nagging tone by halfway through the book. The other major weakness is Ryuuji’s ultra-mature response to learning that he has been deceived. It might be the most desirable response, but it didn’t seem quite realistic…on the other hand, it made for a pleasant lack of screaming and throwing things-type drama.

Once again, I highly recommend this book, along with all of Yamaji Ebine’s other work, as an example of an excellent modern Yuri story.

Ratings:
Art – 9
Characters – 7
Character Design – 8
Story – 8

Overall – 8





Yuri Manga: Yuri Tengoku (and Strawberry Panic)

January 22nd, 2004

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Part 3

When one person has a good idea, it is inevitable that there will be a rush of copycats, trying to get their two cents in, too. Anime and manga are no different. It appears that the yaoi market has matured, so many manga publishers are rushing to get new yuri products to market as fast as they can. The second half of 2003 gave us more anime and manga with yuri elements than I’d ever seen before at one time, and 2004 is shaping up to be even more chock-full of lilies.

Today, I’ll briefly cover two publications that have been released that are *clearly* something borrowed. This past August, the first yuri manga magazine since Mist* went out of print, was released (not counting lesbian publications, Phryne, Anise and Carmilla, which aren’t specifically manga magazines – they cater(ed) to a more general lesbian population.) I’ll talk about Yuri Shimai later, in more detail. But almost immediately upon Yuri Shimai’s tail feathers came yet *another* Yuri magazine, this one cleverly and subtlely called Yuri Tengoku(Lily Heaven).

This is more of a slick, widely distributed doujinshi than a true magazine. It may be a one-shot, certainly there’s no advertisement inside for a second volume. The cover and the first few pages are nicely done color art of schoolgirl couples, but nothing suggestive in sight. The stories inside range from (IMHO) utterly mediocre fairly decent – but I am very not into moe art, of which there was a preponderance. Of the dozen or so stories, there were only about three or four where the characters actually looked to be the age they were supposed to be, and of those, only one that went beyond a confession followed by nothing much.

Call me unreasonable, but by the end, I *longed* for a story about a bored housewife and lesbian trucker. And I *am* being unreasonable, since Yuri Tengoku says right on the cover that it’s an anthology of stories of love connections between girls. So one shouldn’t expect more than a few kisses here and there. And that’s about what one gets. The stories are very sweet, I can’t fault that – and most of them end with at least the possibility of some further developments between the girls in the future (at least one hopes so!)

I will say this in favor of YT, it did not suffer from an overabundance of fanservice – just erred on the ootsey-cutesy side. Only one story really wandered into that particular field and, as it was played for laughs, it was actually pretty funny.

Interestingly, Yuri Tengoku suffers from a layout issue that plagued ALC Publishing’s first Yuri Monogatari. There’s no spacer art or splash pages between stories, so the transition from one to another is abrupt. Hopefully, if Daito Comics does another issue, they’ll be able to resolve that issue.

Is it Yuri? Indubitably. Is it worth it? That depends on whether you like sweet stories about girls in school uniforms. If that’s your thing, then it’s worth it.

I can’t really rate it, since, as an anthology it has a wide array of art style and story.

***

Another brand new “me-too” entry into the Yuri manga market is another loli-art-style entry,
Strawberry Panic, brought to us by Dengeki Comics, who also brought us the manga for Battle Athletes, Stellvia of the Universe (which I will review later on) and Azumanga Daioh…as you can see, Dengeki is our friend. ^_^

(Please look at the Strawberry Panic category for all my later reviews of the anime, the light novels and manga.)

Strawberry Panic is not only *another* Yuri story, but is strongly “me-too”ing the schoolgirl theme Marimite; i.e., girls’ relationships forming at private schools, only this time with a slightly more sexual twist. From what I can tell, the story revolves around three schools, all of whom draw their “little sisters” from among the younger students (ala the soeur system of Lillian.) When a girl is chosen, she is initiated into her school by an older student who “lilys” her. (I swear they used the word “lily” as a verb.) The relationship is defined in the write-up as being more than friendship and the word lily is sprinkled liberally throughout. As I haven’t seen any more than this website, I can only imagine what it all means. B

*Mist magazine was the coolest Yuri manga magazine ever. It was Yuri from beginning to end; mostly manga, some short stories and usually a “photo” story, which was really silly The stories were for a mature female audience, so they were essentially Yuri porn. I have two copies gifted to me by a friend and they are my prize possessions. If I ever find any more, you can be sure I’ll scoff those babies up!

If you’re looking for good Yuri manga and doujinshi, don’t forget to stop by the English and Japanese-language manga and doujinshi at the Yuricon Shop, where the girl always gets the girl and the Yuri is really decent stuff written by lesbians for a adult audience.