Mawaru Penguindrum Manga, Volume 1 (輪るピングドラム)

November 3rd, 2017

A few weeks ago, I posted a rather long, detailed retrospective of Revolutionary Girl Utena, which is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year, helped along by a new deluxe manga release from Viz and and Blu-Ray anime box set from Nozomi/RightStuf. It got me thinking about his other works, and their visual and thematic commonalities. I was considering re-watching Mawaru Penguindrum, released in English by Section 23 Films as Penguindrum (Set 1 and Set 2,) but a trip to Book-Off provided me with an alternate.

The Mawaru Penguindrum manga is drawn by Shibata Isuzu, a manga artist with whose work I was previously unfamiliar. With character designs by Hoshino Lily, the anime character designer, anyone familiar with the anime would find themselves instantly familiar with the manga. Volume 1 covers the introduction of the primary cast, sickly Himari, her brothers Kanba and Shoma and Ringo, the classmate with a little stalking problem. This first volume embraces, rather than rejects, the repeated footage of the Princess of the Crystal demanding the “Penguindrum” and dropping someone through the floor. 

The rest of the story is present almost completely intact from the anime. The penguins show up and are as awful as they are in the anime. We get Ringo’s back story, and Kan-chan’s own stalker, Natsuki is introduced at the end, but there is something missing….something important, Nothing is mentioned of Himari, Shoma and Kanba’s own backstory, except for a brief reference in the phone call from their uncle who plans on turning them out of their home. Their parents are a barely seen presence in no more than a single image and nothing is said of their non-appearance.

Where the manga in Utena and Yurikuma Arashi redistribute the basic elements of the plot and create something new, the manga for Mawaru Penguindrum seems more of a distillation of the story…with the use of repeated footage.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6 If I didn’t already know where it was going, I might not keep reading. Or I might.
Characters – 7 Ringo’s still unhinged, but there’s no obvious sign of anyone else being broken. Presumably, that will change.
Yuri – 0 in this volume. Fingers crossed it keeps that piece of the story intact.
Service – A little compulsory service with the Princess’ outfit

I look forward to future volumes to see if/when it diverges from the already multi-layered anime narrative.

Posted in Ikuhara Kunihiko, Miscellaneous | No Comments »


Yuri Drama CD: Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo – Seiran School Festival (あの娘にキスと白百合を ドラマCD)

October 31st, 2017

Since yesterday we had a piece of Canno news, with Yen’s license announcement, I thought that made a nice lead-in to today’s review of one of the Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo Drama CDs (あの娘にキスと白百合を) . Specifically, the Drama CD that covers the goings on during the Seiran School Festival.

The school festival is a great scenario for highlighting all the couples we’ve seen so far in the Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl manga series. Of course we focus on the main couple, Kurozawa Yurine and Shiramine Ayaka. And they hit a small snag caused – as usual – by Ayaka’s inability to see their relationship for what it really is. She promises to watch Yurine in the track races, but then says she’ll be unable to, Yurine falls into a funk and is saved  – as usual – by Ayaka showing up to cheer her on after all.

Ultimately Ayaka and Yurine decide to have a one-on-one race to see who wins today. If you know the series, you know who wins. ^_^

Later in the rose garden, Yurine is able to explain to Ayaka that their relationship, which Ayaka still views as rivalry, she views as more like lovers. Then punctuates her point with a kiss.

Other scenarios include favorites like Mizuki ( who gets to be extra cool here, even winning her track race ) and Moe, Chiharu, Ai and of course Yurina and Towako. The voice actresses do such a good job of bringing the characters to life that I thought, “Well, obviously they sound just like that.”

It’s a long, crowded Drama CD, with a staggering 79 minutes of content. This “regular edition” of the drama CD includes a insert which has cast and staff info and messages, bonus art by fellow Yuri artists and a short comic by creator Canno.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

If you love the girls of Seiran and want to spend a more than an hour in their company – and work on your Japanese listening skills – this is a really good Drama CD with which to start.

There is also a deluxe edition which I was unable to have shipped to me. It includes a second disk with “to be announced” audio tracks. If you get it, let me know what they are!

Posted in Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo, Drama CDs & Audiobooks | 2 Comments »


Yen Press Announces Éclair: Ananta ni Hibiku Yuri Anthology License

October 30th, 2017

Some absolutely fabulous news from the folks at Yen Press today – they’ve licensed Éclair: Ananta ni Hibiku Yuri Anthology! 

Beating hearts and fluttering feelings. An anthology of girls’ love stories to leave you breathless. With contributors like Canno (Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl), Sakuya Amano (GoSick), and Nio Nakatani (Bloom Into You), this collection is sure to satisfy the desire for a sweet love story (or sixteen!).

This anthology is the first of several (read my review on this first volume) and is slated for a Spring 2018 release! 

You can read the press release on the Yen Press blog.

Thanks Yen Press for licensing more Yuri! Looking forward to seeing this in English.

 

 

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga, Yuri Network News | 5 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – October 28, 2017

October 28th, 2017

Yuri Manga

Strawberry Fields wo Mou Ichido (ストロベリー・フィールズをもう一度) is a new series about a first love starring a girl who loves otome games and another girl “with a secret.” (Bets that the secret is that she voice acts in otome games? ^_^)

Eureka magazine is continuing it’s look at Yuri pioneers. After the Ikuhara Kunihiko retrospective issue in September, they are rolling out an issue looking at Aoi Hana/Sweet Blue Flowers creator Shimura Takako’s work in the November issue. (ユリイカ 2017年11月).

 

Support Yuri News and Reviews!

 

Events 

The Asagao to Kase-san team will be present at the Pony Canyon booth at the Animate Girl’s Festival on November 3rd in Ikebukuro, with original clear files and other goods. AFAIK, this is the first Yuri series highlighted at the AGF, which tends to focus on pretty boy series.  I’ve got fingers crossed they’ll have some of those clear files left when I get there a few weeks later!

I’ll be presenting a lecture on Queer Manga at Harvard on November 9th. 

The first AnimeNYC will be held November 17-19 at Javits Center in New York City. I’ll be there on Friday and Saturday as press. I have to bail on Sunday because I’m immediately heading out to….

Comitia 121 and the Kaigai Festa for international comics is going to be held at Tokyo Big Sight on November 23rd! I can’t wait! Comitia is the awesome all-original doujinshi event and I’ll be able to see a bunch of old friends at the TCAF-supported International pavilion for the Kaiga Festival.

I logged into Facebook the other day and found myself invited to a whole new comic show in Tokyo – Comic Art Tokyo 2, at Temple University’s Tokyo campus.  Well sure, why not! I’ll be there. 

If you’re interested in having me talk at your school or event, please contact me. I think we’re going to call 2017 full, but I still have room in 2018 although the spring is already filling up.

 

LGBTQ Comics

Geeks Out has a high-level look at queer comix by Devin Whitlock which is worth reading. Out of the Closet and Into the Costume: A History of Queer Comix.

Marvel’s new TV series Runaways will include Karolina Dean, a lesbian character. Pink News has this article and a roundup of other queer Marvel characters, like Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarock and America Chavez, who has her own series.

 

LGBTQ Japan 

Here’s a nice step forward: 700 students attended a LGBT career fair in Tokyo. Companies who are trying to take steps to increase diversity actually reaching out to queers students. Awesome.

Women’s Stories Site has a series of translated interviews with LGBTQ folks from Japan to talk about life there as a LGBTQ person, accompanied by some very lovely art.

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find.Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


Yuri Manga: Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 1 (私の百合はお仕事です! 1)

October 27th, 2017

Hime is cute. And she knows it. Not only does she know that she’s cute and sweet-looking, she counts on it. Over the years, she’s cultivated her “outside face” in order to make sure that the people around her just love her to pieces. In Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 1 (私の百合はお仕事です! 1) Hime’s “outside face” is a character of it’s own.

When she accidentally bumps into a girl as she’s heading home and ends up being the cause of a broken arm, the stranger tells Hime she’ll have to standing for her at work. “Work” turns out to be a weird concept cafe, “Liebe Jogakuen,” in which the staff all act like students at an elite, prim and proper girl’s school. Hime is completely confused by the concept and steps all over other staffer’s toes, but the customers love her. Of course they do. Everyone loves her.

Except her “sempai” at the “school.” Ayanokouji-san who, as much as she fusses over Hime in front of the customers, has some very serious issues with her in private. Hime pushes the boundaries, asking to be Ayanokouji’s little sister, against cafe rules.

When Hime confides it all to her best friend, Kanako, Kanako also ends up working at the cafe. Hime turns all her charm on Ayanokouji. She works hard at being lovable because, as Kanako knows, she once betrayed a dear friend and is not, she recognizes, a very lovable person in the real world.

How Hime struggles with her role at the Liebe Jogakuen and with the nice-to-everyone-but her Ayanokouji-san, makes for a very fun and silly series by Miman. The art is good without being amazing, and the story, which at first appears to be all over the place, ends up on point. And the concept cafe is amusing for this Yuri fan, obviously, although in real life, I’d probably find it excruciating. ^_^

The one criticism I had for the first volume was that the cafe customers primarily looked male. As the story develops, more of the customers look female, when they look like fully drawn people at all since, in many cases, they are just line drawings. Nonetheless I felt it important for a comic running in Comic Yuri Hime, to recognize that the Yuri audience is split more evenly. And it has, a little.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7 but gets better as it goes on
Characters – 7 I’m withholding judgment on Hime until I see this arc fully resolved.
Yuri – 4 The cafe concept is Yuri, the story is not, until it is.
Service – 2 Goofy Yuri fan moments

Overall – 7 And I’m really hoping that <spoiler> happens in the future!

Volume 2 went on sale this month, so we can all hope that our own personal spoiler thing happens. ^_^

Posted in Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »