Top Yuri Anime of 2018

December 29th, 2018

No YNN report this week, we have bigger fish to fry. This year’s top Yuri anime list is a tribute to both the past and to the future of Yuri. ^_^

In the early ’00s when I began Okazu, there was very little of what we would now think of as “Yuri anime.” Yuri in anime was primarily one fetish among many; maybe a side character or plot sprinkled within a larger storyline. This is still alive and well in Yuri in 2018 and is likely to stay that way as long as someones somewheres in positions of editorial power think that it’s sexy to portray lesbian affection as a “funny” or, gods helps us “romantic,” obsessive disorder.

So, to set the stage for moving forward, we’ll begin with those regressive looks at love between girls in 2018.

 

Umamusume/Kakegurui/ Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen

Tied for 9th are three anime that all hit the same score for Yuri in their respective reviews here on Okazu. Yuri in these series was not a plot, it was a stand-in for characterization. Don’t know how to write a character with a personality? No worries, make her an obsessive lesbian! There, done and dusted. 

Yuri in these anime were a fetish, plain and simple. If this is the kind of anime you like, it works well enough.  Never quite good, but not intolerably bad, old-school Yuri makes a return in 2018. ^_^;

 

Magical Girl Ore

Take magical girls, add music idols, sprinkle every fetish we can cram into a parody of all of the above and hit “blend” and see if it’s palatable. 

It was, actually, palatable. The Yuri wasn’t going anywhere, it was always meant to be another piece of lace trim on the maid’s costume of a plot, but Mikage’s love is not questioned, or questionable. Its’s just that everything else in the series is. ^_^

 

Love To-LIE-Angle

If this series got out of it’s own way, it might be good. Unfortunately, the entire thing centers on the fetishizing of girls’ dorms, girl’s crotches and girl’s affection, turning it all into “humorous” and “sexy” sexual assault. Which makes it hard to sometimes remember that it is actually based on a Yuri manga from Comic Yuri Hime. Buried in the middle of a sexual harassment sandwich, with lot of creepy stuff for creepy folks as flavor-enhancers, there is a romance story, can you believe it?

 

Cutey Honey Universe

There is literally nothing older-school this year than Cutey Honey Universe. From lesbian shenanigans at Saint Jogakuen to Genet’s seduction of Natsuko, to Natsuko and Honey’s love for one another, this anime covered the whole gamut of Yuri. In keeping with the retro feel of 2018,  sweet  romance was paired with a massive dose of creepy fanservice and violence as one ought to expect with anything touched by my hero role model Go Nagai.

As an animated version of the original Cutey Honey manga, Cutey Honey Universe is, honestly, quite excellent. Even if it is eye-rollingly regressive.

 

Citrus

Speaking of of someone somewhere in positions of editorial power, there is nothing that says “happily-ever-after” like a vaguely incestuous relationship, filled with emotional abuse and sexual harassment. The melodramatic highway pileup that was Citrus was massively popular as both a manga and an anime. I won’t lie and tell you I liked it, but lots of other people did, and for that, this anime makes this year’s list. ^_^

 

Sailor Moon Crystal, Season 3

To round out this year’s look backwards, let’s stop and once again admire the wonderfulness that is Haruka and Michiru  – this time the manga version, animated in Sailor Moon Crystal, Season 3. 

This iteration of Haruka is way more manipulative of Usagi, using the younger woman’s infatuation against her, but her tender moment with Michiru is lovely – it will always be the first time so, so, so many young women saw affection like that represented in media. I am fascinated by how I just cannot like the Outers in this season…and really hope we’ll get the future seasons which will go a long way towards fixing that.

Happy 25th anniversary to a series that I’d never defend as “good,” but which changed my life forever. ^_^
 

Enjoying the Okazu End of Year Lists?

And now, we’re going to step away from the past with no regrets, and a final nod of thanks for the fun. Now it’s time to look to the future and see what we need to strive for.

 

Steven Universe

Yes, this is not anime, but it is so anime-inspired I feel it has a welcome place here on Okazu any day. This year Steven Universe premiered an episode that Rebcecca Sugar said had been in her sights since the very beginning…an episode about love. Sapphire and Ruby’s wedding was everything we’d hoped it could be. This cartoon has literally carried me through some of the darkest moments of the year. I am pleased as punch to name Steven Universe my #3 Yuri anime of 2018.

 

Bloom Into You

What can I actually say about this anime that I haven’t already said? (I’m not sure, but I better figure it out for my end of anime review! ^_^)

I have a complicated relationship with this series as a manga; no one was more surprised than I how far the anime went to alleviate some of my concerns.  Nicely animated, exceedingly well-voice acted, the characters worked so much better as an anime than I could have expected, it was quite remarkable. It’s not the best Yuri anime of the year, but in any other year, it absolutely would have been.

This year, however, we had….

 

Asagao to Kase-san OVA

The theatrical release of Asagao to Kase-san was a miracle. A small, relatively unknown series from an out-of-print magazine was transformed into the most beautiful little animated music video that grew into an astoundingly lovely movie. This movie, which could easily have been in and out of theaters in a week, just took up space for the entire summer in Japanese theaters, confident, and cool like Kase-san, while  we all bit our nails and watched, like Yamada.

And…there I was at AnimeNYC, while the male director and producer gently demanded we all understand this as a story about two people; a story of the development of a relationship, how these two girls in love learn to communicate, and deepen their bonds. This isn’t a “Story A,” it’s not melodramatic. It has less service and less drama than one could possibly have expected. Its lovingly made by people who clearly love the characters.

The Japanese Blu-Ray and DVD releases have English subtitles so you, too,  can enjoy this lovely story.

Asagao to Kase-san/ Kase-san and Morning Glories is…beautiful. It is touching. It is real.

Asagao to Kase-san OVA is the best Yuri anime of 2018. 

 

Posted in Miscellaneous | 9 Comments »


Top Ten Yuri Manga of 2018

December 28th, 2018

Well, my friends, that time of year has come upon us once again. 2018 is coming to a close and I have never before had so many riches to work with. This has been the most remarkable year for Yuri I have ever seen in 20 years of obsessing about it. ^_^

I say almost every year, “may our tribe increase” and this year our tribe has surely increased by many fold. My Top Ten list will be as personal, capricious and enraging as always – I will forget things and not mention stuff you liked, some of which will have been there and been taken away multiple times  and some of which wouldn’t have been put there at all – so I welcome you all to add your thoughts in the comments! Which Yuri manga do you consider your top Yuri manga of the year? 

Note on titles: If a series has been released in English, the English title is being used. If not, the Japanese title is the one you see.

 

Sweet Blue Flowers/ Kiss & White Lily For My Dearest Girl

Sweet Blue Flowers, this new classic of Yuri, wrapped up in 2018 and was already kind of dated a mere 14 years after it premiered in Japan. ^_^;  But this year we saw the completion of a definitive edition by Viz Media. This edition had solid translation and well-researched notes that enriched readers’ understanding of the context; which is just exceptionally important in this series, with its many literary homages and references. Now that we have this in one lovely, complete and exceedingly well-done collection, we can set it firmly on the  “Yuri Classic” shelf where it belongs and move forward into a new age of Yuri.

Kiss & White Lily For My Dearest Girl is the exact opposite story – taking all the classic tropes, creating a few new ones and carefully crafting a story about people we care about out of them. It will end shortly in Japan, but we’ll have it here in the west for some time to come, so settle in and wait to see how it all pans out for Ayaka, Yurine and their friends and peers .

 

Yuri Anthologies (Éclair, Yuri +Kanojo, OL Yuri)

I’ve talked a lot this year about the important place Yuri anthologies had in the development of the genre. I quite like anthologies for the same reason most people dislike them: Anthologies give you a small taste of many different stories, art styles and concepts. The downside is when you really like a creator and the story ends, but the upside is you have someone new to follow! And these, days, with social media, you can literally follow them and see what they are working on right now.

I want to especially call out the new trend of grown-up Yuri anthologies; collections focusing on relationships between adult women. Yes, please!

 

After Hours

I adored this story when I read it in Japanese and am just that happy with it now that it is in English. It’s not something we see much – a whimsical and fun romance story about two women who live on the fringes of normal life without being outcast, or broken or weird. They just live their own lives. This story is overtly about building something together – a life, a rave, it’s all the same when you think of it, and you know I believe that with my whole heart.

 

My Solo Exchange Diary

I’ve never cared so much about a complete stranger as I do Nagata Kabi. I want to support her in her ongoing struggle to live a life with the very real problems she has has freed so many people, both in Japan and in the west, to speak more openly about. Graphic Medicine is, in actual fact, one of the fastest-growing genres in comics and manga. I think it’s important for a lot of reasons, the most important of which is (like coming out of any kind) to let people know they are not alone. Narratives like this remind me how lucky I am every day that I can wake up, work, play online, and write for Okazu. I’m literally one myelin sheath away from having all of that taken from me every day. 

For being one of the manga that has helped define a space where we can be more than one thing at once and still be seen as human, and also for making me hope that Nagata-sensei gets to live her life, My Solo Exchange Diary makes this list easily. 

 

2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei (2DK、Gペン、目覚まし時計。) 

By now, you’ve probably realized that this list is going to have more adults on it than it ever has since I began doing this in 2004. 

2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei told a slow-developing romance story, abut two adult women living realistic adult lives in a real world. We saw Nanami pull long hours at the office and Kaede burning herself out building a career in manga, as well as quiet moments of eating food and seeing friends. There was enough fiction to make the real stuff work and enough real stuff to make the fiction fun. I am so happy that we have 8 volumes of this manga, making it the longest-running manga about adult women from Comic Yuri Hime. There was never any doubt in my mind that it would be on this year’s list. ^_^ 

 

Terano-sensei to Hayama-sensei  ha Tsukiatteiru (羽山先生と寺野先生は付き合っている)/ Goodbye Dystopia (グッバイ・ディストピア)

I’m gonna keep talking about these two titles in the coming year, so get used to hearing about them. ^_^

Goodbye Dystopia is an apparently aimless wander through somewhere by two people for some reasons, very little of which has been explicated after two volumes. I love the art, the timelessness and placelessness of the story and would like it to never end. Imagine Thelma and Louise at walking pace, without any end in sight. Awesome.

Terano and Hayama are just the absolutely cutest things in the world. Two teachers at a girls school are dating and the girls think it’s cute, the administrator thinks it cute and I think it’s cute! I want them to be happy together forever.

 

Galette (ガレット)

If you’re a regular reader of Okazu, this cannot possibly be too much of a surprise. This crowdfunded, creator-owned collaborative effort by so may excellent Yuri artists is always exciting to read, to see what has been done and by whom. As it wraps up its second year of existence, it’s giving space to great established artists and finding space for new pros and I cannot wait to see what it will do in the future.

 

Enjoy the Okazu Top Ten Lists?

I always pause here, because as capricious as I am for my likes and dislikes, the top three always are put here for a reason – they are special. This year’s top three positively encapsulate Yuri for 2018 with their breadth of storytelling, style and intent.

 

Bloom Into You

Sometimes a series just hits the right note. For better or worse, this is Bloom Into You‘s time. With an anime that has done the spirit of the manga a good turn, a novel (which I am reading and it is nailing Sayaka’s inner tone, so that’s good) and an ongoing manga which is shaping up to be much better than I could have ever expected, really, it deserves our attention.

It’s time for me to give Nakatani Nio the credit she deserves. Bloom Into You is my #3 manga for 2018.

 

 

 

 

Kase-san Series

I always refer to this series as the “little series that could” because of it’s irregular past, but it has become something much bigger than itself with the jump to animation. The manga continues, and it continues to grow, to change, to lead by example. It’s done so many important things including moving people to see it as more than a “love story between girls.”

This series has and is still dealing with things like body issues and self-esteem and friendship. Kase and Yamada are facing the adult world together which is both terrifying and remarkable in a Yuri manga.

Reading the Kase-san series has very much been like watching real people grow up. Yamada’s journey from being someone who did not believe in her own future and whom the people round her thought of as plain old Yamada, has been so much like watching a flower bloom that the analogy becomes a “duh” moment. The series is called “Kase-san” but we – and Kase-san – are always watching Yamada. And it’s been very rewarding watching her grow.

In other years, the Kase-san series has been number 1, but this year comes in second to…

 

Shimanami Tasogare (しまなみ誰そ彼 ))

So, yeah, I’m spoiling the heck out of this series for you, but I want you to understand just what we’re in for. ^_^

This is not a Yuri manga. It is an LGBTQ manga. It is fully, wholly, 100% grounded in the real world in which kids who even slightly kind of think they (or, who other people think) are not cisgender and heterosexual, deal with very real consequences. This is a manga in which people spew harmful stereotypes and have to be educated over and over and over again, until they, maybe, get it, a little. It is a manga of confrontation, of accepting one’s self even when others don’t. It’s a manga with adult role models, some of whom will never be able to get a happy ending – and how important it is, for those of us that do get that, to share it and let the seeds of it grow.

I am so excited that you’ll all be able to read this in English next year, which is why Kamatani Yuhki’s Shimanami Tasogare is my top Yuri manga of 2018!

 

Posted in LGBTQ, Top Yuri Lists, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Galette, No. 8 (ガレット)

December 27th, 2018

Galette No. 8 (ガレット) is here, full of Yuri goodies, as always, and some interesting treasures buried inside! Yay! ^_^

There are a lot more color pages than previous issues, which keep surprising me, no matter how many times I read through the volume. (I usually give it at least two read-throughs before a review.) The volume is also somewhat smaller than previous issues, and the Petite Galette is incorporated into the larger magazine. This is not as surprising as it might be…one of the remarkable things about Galette is that in it’s mere two years a number of the artists have been picked up elsewhere by magazines, worked on  (the increasing number of) Yuri anthologies, are working on collected volumes with Galette and/or other publishers. In other words,  Galette‘s been good for the Yuri business. 

There are always a few series that stand out to me.

“Liberty” has moved past it’s first main crisis to a relationship that might, possibly work, except that we know that stories run on conflict. ^_^ Nonetheless, Liz has decided to wear those guitar earrings after all.

In “Motto Hanjuku Joshi” Morishima-sensei gets to give Yae something very few people get in real life, closure. Yae is able to close the book on her first love with a much better ending for all concerned than we might expect.

 The centerfold is a bit of an easter egg – it’s by Akiyama Haru, featuring the characters from Octave!  A nice blast from the past. ^_^

Amano Shuninta’s “Toma-kun” has yet another outside perspective. This time a little sister tries to understand what her older sister sees in this strange girl.

Many of the stories are ongoing, and this issue has ads for a couple of collected volumes coming out, oh, today, at Comiket and one at Comitia in February (which means they will have a table there, which means I will be buying extra copies for Lucky Boxes…!) 

I’m always torn between reading Galette first when a new order comes in, or saving it for last. This time, it was first. It’s a relaxing place to visit, with some of my favorite artists. 

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Reading an issue of Galette is like a day ticket to the Yuriland theme park. ^_^

Posted in Galette, Magazines, Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »


Yuri Manga: After Hours, Volume 3 (English)

December 26th, 2018

I was genuinely delighted that Viz picked up this lovely short series about two women who meet each other by chance at a live show. Now that the series is completed, I want to reiterate that I really enjoyed the heck out of it. I state that plainly, because there is a rant I need indulge in. But we’ll get there. Be patient.^_^

But first, let us recall where we left off in Volume 2. The rave created by Kei, Emi and their crew is on. In After Hours Volume 3….that rave is fantastic. Despite setbacks, including Kei’s record collection being stolen and broken, their rave is wonderful. Their crew, After Hours, comes together and the event is a success.

And then everything falls apart. Emi goes home to spend some time with her folks and comes back to find Kei gone, with nary a word. Kei’s not responding to texts or calls. Emi gets the team together once more to talk this over and they decide to track Kei down. 

Kei, it turns out, has gone home, as well. Home as in a small fishing village in the middle of nowhere, where she is cleaning up some family business. Emi decides she has to follow Kei and find out what the hell just happened…so she does. 

Emi takes an overnight bus to Kei’s location, where she learns Kei’s reasons for not coming home.  Kei’s explanation for her disappearance is pretty banal, honestly.  Emi tells Kei she has a year to clean up her family mess, then she has to come back. They agree on a year and part. The end. 

This is where my rant kicks in. This entire end makes no fucking sense.

Emi took an overnight bus to where Kei is, and the train back. Kei is not that far away. All they had to do was agree to get together every once in a while. It’s not like Kei is across the globe…she’s a bus ride away.  An inconvenient bus ride, but still.

This is compounded in its utter ridiculousness by the ending in which neither just says, “we can text or call any time.” I mean, really. WHAT? It’s just total nonsense that lovers would part in the 2010s, with phones that can communicate just about anywhere in the world (and be used to track one another down, mind you) and act like they’d be on different planets. If a woman wrote this, at least one of them would have been sobbing over their phone, “I’ll call you every day…!” But..no.^_^

In any case, this was a great little story about two women who were not office workers or school girls, who lived lived on the fringes of society. I really liked it…

Ratings: 

Art – 7 
Story – 8 
Characters – 9 
Service – 2 
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

…but kids, we have to acknowledge that “can’t speak to you for a year” does not work anymore. Phones, y’see, taken all the finality out of separation. Let’s come up with a new plot, please.^_^;

 

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 8 Comments »


Live Action: Rose of Versailles Digital Remaster Blu-ray (ベルサイユのばら デジタルリマスター版)

December 24th, 2018

What better way is there to celebrate a holiday, than to watch Lady Oscar, the French live action movie with English cast and audio, Japanese subtitles, based on a Japanese manga about the French Revolution that is being translated into English?

Rose of Versailles Digital Remaster (ベルサイユのばら デジタルリマスター版) is Schrodinger’s movie – not bad, not good, not inaccurate, not accurate. I think I like it but I cannot be sure. ^_^

On second thought, I think I like it.

As a live-action version of the manga classic, it’s really not bad. It follows the key pieces of the story in a condensed fashion. The Affair of the Necklace has a chunk of the story and the end rush to tragedy plays out at increasing speed. 

The major changes are in the characterizations. 

Andre is a freedom fighter and tends to chide Oscar, demanding she be one, too. He’s not lovelorn, he’s vexed that his woman is so gosh-darn delusional. He’s kind of a mix of Bernard and Andre.

Girodel is another changed character, but at least he is in purple, which I thought was funny. Instead of being a self-proclaimed rival, Girodel is a jerk, but his marriage offer provides us with a scene in which Oscar strides into Versailles in white and silver and cape and dances with one of the court ladies, then kisses her, so I am not complaining. ^_^

General de Jarjayes is not nice to either Oscar nor Andre, which is a shame. I much preferred the General of the anime.

Jeanne and Rosalie are exactly as we remember them, although we don’t get to spend too much time with them. (I also feel that the actresses were too old for the roles by about 25 years, but that might be me.)

Marie Antoinette is overblown and likewise delusional right to the very end. They do a fine job of making her unrepentant through the final moments. 

And finally, there’s Oscar. Catriona MacColl plays the role exactly as it is written and does a fine job of it. 

I also want to shout out Granny, who is the only sane character in the movie. When Fersen is praising Oscar as a fine young man, Granny looks at him like he’s an idiot and says, “How could anyone see Oscar and not realize she’s a woman?” Thank you Granny. Oscar could not have passed for a man if she were trying.  In fact, the issue of her sex and gender presentation is a running thread throughout the story and is one of the reasons General de Jarjayes comes off as such an asshole. For a man who called Oscar his son for two decades, he marries his daughter off pretty quickly. It was a vexing moment.

The movie ends with a nice little scene of Oscar and Andre shouting each other’s names, but fades on Oscar unable to find Andre, who has been killed. She does not die at the storming as she did in the manga and anime. It kills some of the epic feel of the story.

Ratings:

Overall – Not bad

I wouldn’t probably recommend this movie to someone who isn’t already a fan of the story, but if you are, how could you pass up this chance to see this classic manga as a live-action movie?

 

Posted in Live Action, Riyoko Ikeda, Rose of Versailles | No Comments »