Yuri Manga: MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 6 (English)

June 1st, 2018

Volume 6 of MURCIÉLAGO, by Yoshimurakana, is a particularly nasty volume. Oddly, I found it easier to take in English than in Japanese. I do not know whether that is a function of the translation or simply because I read through the nastiest bits more quickly in my native tongue. 

A bomber is threatening a school and Kuroko and the team have been called in to investigate. What she finds is that a ring of kids have been bullying a girl practically to the point of a psychotic break. The keyword is “practically”. Although Minako is sure that her lover is responsible for her abuse, she’s not all that angry because she’s a “get even” kind of gal. By the end of the series, Kuroko has left Minako with a penchant for domination, a slave and a desire to commit controlled violence. 

The bomber, it turns out, is also looking for revenge for a one-sided same-sex crush gone toxic. All in all, a school full of terrible people. 

Kuroko gets to kill a few inconsequential children, Hinako gets her kunoichi on, and everyone lives happily ever after, except for the people dead, beaten, abused, raped, and otherwise emotionally and physically traumatized. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6 
Story – 5 I still prefer adults beating the crap out of one another
Characters – 8 Violently insane, so thumbs up from me
Service – 10 
Yuri – 8  Extra Psycho Lesbians for your money! ^_^

Overall – 8

My review yesterday of Cutie Honey Universe seems to have surprised some new readers. Let me assure you that while I find tiresome service tiresome, I am wholly fine with horrific violence and psychotic lesbians. ^_^

Posted in English Manga, MURCIÉLAGO, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Cutie Honey Universe Anime (English)

May 31st, 2018

Cutie Honey Universe is the most perfect version of the original Cutie Honey manga ever made and it is a treasure that should be instantly enshrined in whatever Halls of Fame anime may have.

In 2005, I reviewed the 1985 collection of the original 1970s Cutie Honey manga, which I described as “…one of the grimmest, most violent and depressing stories I’ve ever read!” and “On the whole, I really liked it, except when…oh, hell, I’ll admit it. I thought it was brilliant. Brilliant, disturbing, weirder than anything I could come up with on acid, Cutey Honey was, and is, a lesbian manga icon.” 

Ans since then, there have been dozens of anime, manga and live-action (both movie and TV) reinterpretations, some of which have been good, like Cutie Honey-a-gogo and the live-action TV series, and others which have been brutally awful, like Cutie Honey Seed. 

But we’ve never before see anything like the story in the original manga in anime format. And so I tuned into to the newest iteration of this series, Cutie Honey Universe, currently streaming on the HiDive platform, with no particular expectations. Imagine my delight, then, when we meet Kisaragi Honey, a student at St. Chapel girl’s school, with the most horrific, ugly, sadistic teachers.

…

No, wait, forget I ever wrote that sentence.

Imagine my delight when we meet Jill-sama, a sadistic, lesbian psychotic and her alter ego, Inspector Genet who is everything awful and wonderful about 1980s anime, from her blue eye shadow to her seductive creepiness. 

  … 

Okay, forget everything I just said. Once more from the top.

Cutie Honey is pervy in a wholly tiresome way, with dissolving clothes and T&A and creepy gropey guys as “comedy” and an evil psycho lesbian bad guy and a very likely love affair between Honey and Na-chan and horrible lesbian teachers and extraordinary violence. It’s awful in a dozen ways , as we must surely expect from Go Nagai’s vision. 

I love it so much I can barely express it.

This is the Cutie Honey the world has been waiting for. Well, it’s the Cutie Honey I’ve been waiting for and clearly my love and admiration is more important than anyone else’s.  

Ratings:

Art – 10 
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – 10
Yuri  – ? TBD, but I have my eyes on 10

Overall – 10

It’s perfect. 

Posted in Cutie Honey, English Anime | 4 Comments »


Yuri Anthology: Yuri + Kanojo Suki ni Nattemoii? (百合+カノジョ 好きになってもいい?)

May 30th, 2018

Recently, we took a look at the new Yuri anthology,Yuri + Kanojo (百合＋カノジョ). It was fun, with some unique design and story elements. Well, the folks at Be Comics must have hit on a successful formula, because on the tail of that anthology, they put out Yuri + Kanojo Suki ni Nattemoii? (百合+カノジョ 好きになってもいい?).

Like the first anthology, the stories are told from a first-person point of view in which “we” are the protagonist. Each story is short, and is more often a set-up, rather than a fully formed narrative. 

The stories here begin with high school, then move backwards to middle school, on to college, working adult society, finishing with a largish section for “After Forty” stories. Needless to say, I was delighted to see stories imagining individuals and couples who were no longer young. Even better, the final story ended exactly the way I would have liked to have seen the entire collection come to an end. I’ll leave you to guess what that might be. ^_^

Because most of these stories are 6 pages, there’s little room to do much more than setup a scene, but still some of the scenes were fun. A later story set in a bar was so dependent upon MIST magazine-like character design for the bartender, I can only imagine that that person has never actually been to a bar, just read about them in Ladies Comics. ^_^

“We” see a bit more of ourselves than in the first anthology and quite often “our” perspective is so far off reality “we” must be hovering boom microphone-like over ourselves or “we” have unnaturally long necks. On the other hand, all of the art is much better than anything I can do, so I’m won’t complain too much. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 9 with the additional point for being so heavily weighted towards stories about grown-ups.

Another fun Yuri anthology in this series. I’d be glad to read more.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 3 Comments »


Yuricon at AnimeNEXT in Atlantic City, NJ!

May 28th, 2018

Please join me at AnimeNEXT, June 8-10 in Atlantic City, NJ where I am a Guest Panelist. I will be bringing Yuri content and prizes for great questions all weekend long!

Thursday, June 7, 2018:

Sailor Moon Musical – Le Mouvement Final Screening
Join me and other Sailor Moon fans 8:30P at the Bourbon Room, inside the Showboat Atlantic City Hotel for a screening of the live-action Sailor Moon musical! I’ll be presenting a short intro, explaining the musicals, Takarazuka and things to note!

Friday, June 8, 2018:

Yuri Court  -12:45pm – 1:45pm
Join me for a game where you defend or accuse a Yuri series of being bad (guilty) or good (innocent)! This panel is full audience-participation and prizes for convincing arguments will be lavishly awarded!

Must Read/Must Watch Yuri – 6:15pm – 7:15pm
We’re talking classic and new series and stuff to watch and read! ^_^

Saturday, June 8, 2018: 

!? vs ?! – The Great Debate!!! – 11:00am – 12:00pm
Two passionate duelists on the field of battle….which one will convince you that they are right? Watch me take on another Guest for a mystery debate that will shock you!

The “Secret” History of Yaoi and Yuri – 12:15pm – 1:15pm
Have you ever wondered where the tropes all come from? You should! Boy’s Love and Yuri have a rich literary and artistic history in Japan. Learn about it all here.

Sunday, June 10, 2018:

An American Otaku in Japan -11:15am – 12:15pm
If you have ever wondered how to get to Japan, how to get around once you’re there, what to eat, where to eat and how to find anime and manga goods, you’ve come to the right panel

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Drama CD: Kara no Shoujo Tenni Musubuyume (虚ノ少女-天に結ぶ夢-)

May 27th, 2018

You may be familiar with the Flowers Yuri Visual Novel franchise, with it’s classic girl’s school setting. We’ve had several reviews here on Okazu of the VNs, Jye’s discussion of the VN in Japanese and mine in English.

Last year, as I was perusing one thing or another, I encountered a suggestion for something a little different – an Original Drama CD from Innocent Grey. Kara no Shoujo Tenni Musubuyume  (虚ノ少女-天に結ぶ夢-) is a two-disk Drama CD set from the same team that brought you Flowers. The first disk immediately recalls the tone of Flowers – gothic depression meets ‘S’-informed school.

Yukiko is a girl with a dark past. People she cared about have died, several of her friends among them. But these have all been classified as “accidents.” She is surprised and pleased when Mie wants to be her friend. The two of them become close and then very close. Yukiko feels a bit bad this time, one hopes, when she kills Mie. But at least it allows the police to finally arrest her.

The second drama CD is obscure and vaguely Dante-ish. A wooden doll finds herself in the afterlife with no memory of her life. She is first met by an angel who brings her to Purgatory, where she is handed over to a goat-man who acts as a guide. He pushes her to remember her sins in life and, when at last she does, she recalls that she had been a rabbit. 

The vocal tones of the series are grim and gothic, the music tends towards atmospheric and angelic.  The voice acting was done well enough. I’m not entirely sure if I enjoyed either story, but I am deeply disappointed that Mie did not kill Yukiko first, and that the goat-man’s name was not Baphomet. These were missed opportunities in the story-telling and the whole gets points off for blowing both. 

Ratings:

Overall – 6

Like the VN authored by this team, the intentions were good, but they needed some help in execution. I think I would make a fine Drama CD and/or VN editor, if overly an overly critical one. ^_^

Posted in Drama CDs & Audiobooks | 1 Comment »