LGBTQ Cartoon: Steven Universe, Season 7

August 26th, 2018

Steven Universe, the blockbuster cartoon about a magical boy is groundbreaking in a dozen ways. In previous seasons, it has dealt with complicated feelings about family, shown us both abusive and functional relationships, discussed war trauma, and repeatedly discusses betrayal, trust, loyalty, friendship and love in its many forms. In a cartoon. For children.

In Season 7 (by Amazon’s reckoning,) Steven Universe delves deeply into those concepts of betrayal and trust. Very deeply. Very, very deeply. This season also complete the process of humanizing the Crystal Gems. In the first few seasons, it is very clear that human relationships are genuinely not a strong point for them. We see this even more starkly in flashbacks to their lives before Steven. In this season, we see the Gems resolve and move through a number of lingering issues by taking part in that humanest of excuses to party – a wedding.

The season begins with secrets, chaos and confusion and geas.
The season resolves with love.
The season ends in chaos and confusion and we have no idea what’s to come.

This season was amazing.

There was not one iota of rebuke or snark in Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding. This is not an episode – heck, it’s not a series – that ever thinks to say, “in your face, haters!” As Steven sings clearly for all of us, caught in the middle of interesting times, for just one day, let’s only think about love…

…and Nell Brinkley. And cowboys. And when the next soundtrack album will be coming out. And holy shit that ending! And all the other stuff. What a season. What a series.

I have repeatedly said in public – often on forums for which this is wildly inappropriate – I want a Peridot/Lapis fusion. I want them to become Azurite. And I want to talk about why. So buckle in.^_^

Someonesomewhere commented that they didn’t want a Peridot/Lapis fusion because they felt that fusions were always about “love.” But I want to talk about fusion, because while Sapphire and Ruby’s fusion is absolutely about love, we’ve seen so many kinds of fusion, from Rubies fusing to make a larger Ruby, to Amethyst and Pearl, whose Opal fusion is not once driven by love – but is instead driven by desire to protect Steven. And we’ve seen non-consensual fusion.

For me, fusion is about trust. Garnet’s words bear that out when she tells Greg that to fuse one must have a gem of light at the core of one’s being and a person who can be trusted with that light.

Lapis has been horribly emotionally scarred, from long before we met her and repeatedly after we do. She can’t trust. She’s never seen trust. Peridot keeps trying to trust Lapis, and getting hurt when she betrays that trust. The moment they fuse will be a profound change for a gem who has been our PTSD poster child. And, selfishly, I really want to see that moment. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 I love, love, love, the capsule-shaped fog on the Beach City Boardwalk
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – Sapphire in a tux counts for 4
Yuri – 9

Overall – 10

Gahh! January is so far away!

Posted in English Anime, LGBTQ, Steven Universe, Western Cartoons, Yuri Anime | 4 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – August 25, 2018

August 25th, 2018

Yuri Manga

Got a bunch of new Yuri manga up on the Yuricon Store!

Nishio Yuhta’s adult life drama After Hours, Volume 2 is now available and now After Hours, Volume 3 is up for pre-order. What will happen to Kei and Emi? tune in to find out!

Because there are never enough Vampire Yuri stories (thanks, Sheridan Le Fanu), Killing Me! (キリング・ミー!) is a Vampire Hunter x Vampire school life romance. Comedy.

YNN Correspondent Shez pointed out that there are a couple of new Yuri anthologies on the way, Yuri + Kanojo Tomodachi ha Kinou Made (百合+カノジョ-友達は昨日まで-) and Eclair rouge Anata no Hibiku Yuri Anthology (エクレア rouge あなたに響く百合アンソロジー).

I might be alone in being excited about this, but “violence Yuri” manga MURCIÉLAGO is getting a spin-off about sniper Reiko with the crazy eyes. ^_^ MURCIÉLAGO BYPRODUCT – Arania –  (ムルシエラゴ- BYPRODUCT -アラーニァ-).

And I may well be equally alone in not being excited about this, but ANN reports that Saburouta’s Citrus, which ended this month in the October issue of Comic Yuri Hime, will get a spin-off manga, Citrus Plus, this winter. ^_^

Comic Natalie reports on online Yuri comic Tsukiatte Agettemo Iikana (付き合ってあげてもいいかな) by sittori-oblaat.

YuriNatsu-Minshuku Kagaya- Volume 2 (ゆりなつ -民宿かがや-) exist. I was deeply disappointed with Volume 1, so I won’t be reading this. If you do, let us know how it is!

 

Yuri Anime/Cartoons

Senior YNN Correspondent Verso S writes to report on the Asagao to Kase-san (あさがおと加瀬さん) anime OVA one last time, “Thursday August 23, 2018 – Looks like the last day of theatrical screening has arrived for Kase-san OVA inside Japan. The short-film is not on tomorrow’s schedule for the three remaining theatres and no additional cinemas have been added, as far as I know.” 75 days is an extraordinary run for an anime OVA  roadshow  in Japanese theaters.  Cheers to the folks at Pony Canyon and here’s hoping they’ll release it here in the west as well.

Nick Romano’s From Steven Universe to Voltron: The fight to bring LGBTQ characters to kids’ shows on Entertainment Weekly is a great overview of where we are in American cartoons.

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your name and an email I can reply to! Our YNN podcast is now available, in which I take a look at some key news items this week..

Got questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast!

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

Posted in Yuri Network News | 2 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Mushroom Girls In Love (English)

August 24th, 2018

Well, I’m not gonna say that this wasn’t a really original book. In Mushroom Girls in Love, Murayama Kei creates a multi-layered society and an entire planet ruled by sentient mushroom beings. There is a royal ruling class, a military, scribes, herders and traders. According to the “Shroompedia,” the world was once inhabited by “gods” but now only the simple fungus folk live here.

On this world, all the beings are female-bodied, but in a blatant rejection of biology, some mushroom people still are “husbands” and others “wives” who are meant reproduce. If two fungi marry but are not compatible they might die from rot. Arriala and Erriela get married and are not compatible. Arriala almost dies, but surgery is performed to remove her spores (which I’m gonna be honest, gagged me a bit.) Because of this inability to reproduce  which grants her an immunity to the royal curse, a Princess desires Arriala and kidnaps her. Erriela defies family, tribe, custom, law and the royal family to get Arriala back.

They are reunited, and leave both scribe and herder tribes behind them to join the traders and make a new life for themselves together.

I’m not gonna say that this wasn’t a really original book.

I’m probably also not gonna say it was an enjoyable book. Between the fungus-infected spiders and the extreme grotesquery of political infighting in the royal family, I kind wished both Arriala and Erriela got to be plopped down in another story completely. 

But it sure was original. 

Ratings:

Art – Both pretty good and pretty ick at the same time
Character – The leads were epic, everyone else was a total fungus
Story – Again epic
Yuri – Arriala and Erriela are very much in love
Service – 10 if you are a mushroom fetishist

Overall – I really wish Bruce were alive so he could have argued the pro side on this for me. Here is his review of the Japanese original as a stand-in. 

I wonder if it hadn’t been mushrooms, how I would have felt about some other plant form. “Dandelion Girls in Love”? I have no idea. I’m probably gonna think twice before eating mushrooms for a few days.

 

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 8 Comments »


Yuri Manga: MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 7 (English)

August 23rd, 2018

Another day, another set of grizzly murders in MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 7. And, the best person to get on the case is, obviously not the police, but psychopath Kumori Kuroko and her sidekick Tozakura Hinako. This time, they are bringing back some old friends and bringing in some new ones to build their team.

Due to a slight misunderstanding by Hinako, Kuroko believes Chiyo no longer cares about her, so she’s more than ready to take it out on someone else. Hinako develops two exciting new obsessions, we get a bunch of bombs from Minako, the high-school bomb maker, Narumi (formerly Teresa) drops off a few helping items and we meet Urara, a former cage fighter, now bartender, who will be providing us with some extra large muscles.

I want to be ever so slightly critical of this volume. The “Sakura pruning” group’s name in Japanese begins with “Tozakura” which is also Hinako’s family name. She is not, as the localizers chose, seeing “Hinako” painted around town. She is seeing “Tozakura” which is both extremely creepy and a lot more mysterious. It would not make sense for the “Sakura Pruning Group” to be painting “Hinako” around the the town. “Tozakura” does make sense.

Other than that one comment, this volume is spot on from what I want from a volume of MURCIÉLAGO – grotesque deaths, grotesque lesbian sex and Hinako’s weird obsessions, now including beetles and banchou capes.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 10
Yuri – 9 

Overall – 8

And Kuroko gets to have lesbian sex with a prostitute. That’s always fun.

Posted in English Manga, MURCIÉLAGO, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Yuri Manga: Bloom Into You, Volume 5 (English)

August 22nd, 2018

Bloom Into You, Volume 5 is a fairly major turning point in this story – characters are starting to be more honest with themselves and about themselves and, as a result, running into far more complicated questions about who they really are.

Touko and Yuu spend some time together during summer vacation. For a little while they get to be just two teens having a nice day together. It feels good. But once back at school the school festival is getting close and Yuu has become even more convinced that ending of the play must be changed – for Touko’s sake and for the sake of the play.

Which brings about an unusual shuffling of allegiances in the student council. Sayaka, who likes Touko and has always been by her side, betrays her for her own good. As they wait for their time on the stage to begin, Touko finds Yuu demanding she leave the idea of her sister’s unrealized legacy behind and be who she is. Forced by the play, and her best and closest friends, to give up everything she though she was, Touko has nothing but belief in Yuu left.

This volume feels different in a lot of ways. We and Yuu have been watching Touko define their relationship, but in this volume this changes. Now it’s on Yuu and she’s never seemed more confident. I’ve said from the beginning that I want to believe in the creator and hope that she will carry this story through. In this volume I think I can see where she’s going. Touko had no idea who she was, and neither did Yuu. Once Touko finds herself, if Yuu finds that she does have feelings for Touko it won’t feel like nearly so much of a punt. Ultimately, I really kind of hope that this isn’t a manga that ends with Yuu and Touko together, but I expect to be in a minority of one on that. ^_^

There’s also a side story about playwright Koyomi learning that her favorite writer is a woman and being surprisied by that. She’s forced to rethink her own expectations about meeting the author. I wonder, every time I have read that scene, just who it was for. I feel so strongly that there’s a semi-private conversation gaining on between Nakatani-sensei and someone specific there. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8 As they become more complicated, I like them more
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Quoting from my review of the Japanese volume, “This is the first volume we’ve seen Yuu push back at Touko and my interest in this series grew three times as a result. I guess I’d been waiting for Yuu to be an active participant in the narrative; 5 volumes into it, she finally has become one. I now look forward to seeing what becomes of her.“

Posted in Bloom Into You / Yagate Kimi ni Naru, English Manga, Nakatani Nio, Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »