Steven Universe ~ The Answer (English)

September 6th, 2016

AnswerSUWell, how fortuitous! Just this morning, I was reading and sharing an article on PBS.org, Rebecca Sugar, Cartoon Network’s first female creator, on writing LGBTQ stories for kids, and lo and behold! my copy of The Answer, arrived. ^_^

The Answer is a hardcover children’s storybook, based on episode 22 of the second season of the Cartoon Network breakout hit, Steven Universe. The episode deals with the origin of Garnet, in which a powerful Sapphire and a common Ruby change fate to be together.

In the episode and the book, we are introduced to the Gems of Homeworld who are bent upon taking over Earth, opposed only by the Crystal Gems led by Rose Quartz. A Sapphire with foresight knows everything that will happen, including her own fate, but the rash behavior of one of her Ruby guards changes…everything.

The cartoon episode is absolutely grin-making, with a catchy little ditty sung by the two gems as they ponder their combined fate. I wondered how they would adapt that into a book?

They did a teriffic job. The illustations by Tiffany Ford and Elle Michalka, are swell, without trying to be the same as in the cartoon. But what really makes the book work is the border in which Ruby and Sapphire carry on a meta-textual conversation.

Artwork from "The Answer" by Rebecca Sugar, author, Tiffany Ford, illustrator, and Elle Michalka, illustrator. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Sugar

The story, written by and adapted for this book by Rebecca Sugar, is everything good and right with Steven Universe. Ruby and Sapphire confront being different, acknowledge what and who they are and learn to accept it with Rose Quartz’s help. This is an epic, colorful coming out story about two queer characters in brightly colored pictures with loving and accepting language, drawn and written especially for queer kids.

I hope I don’t have to tell you what to do now, do I? Get this book for yourself and a second copy for your local library. Tell the library this is a children’s book from a very popular TV cartoon. Tell friends with kids about it and lend your copy to them. Give it as gifts to child relatives and friends. Suggest this thing until people roll their eyes, because this book is a game-changer.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters 10
LGBTQ – 10

Overall – 10

I cannot imagine what my life might have been like if Steven Universe was in existence when I was young, but I like to think it wouldn’t be all that much different than it is now.  The important thing is for the next geeky, queer kid who comes down the pike will have a book like this to read. How awesome for them. ^_^

Also, I think I want a poster of the cover. (*_*)

Posted in Steven Universe, Western Cartoons, Western Comic/Comix | No Comments »


SYNCANDI Multimedia Comic

September 4th, 2016

issue01-jp-COVERSYNCANDI is a sci-fi multimedia web/digital comic. Subtitled “real love in a synthetic world,” it portrays a moment of existence for Sync, an augmented human who has, over time, become 90% synthetic and Ikkyu the synthetic human healer Sync has kidnapped in order to extend her own life.

Sync takes Ikkyu into an “abandoned experimental zone”, Genies Res, to await her death as freely as she can manage. They are, of course being hunted by the corporate overlords. Ikkyu meets a shaman who may be the key to healing Sync.

The art is better than average, but not great. I’d call it a talented amateur level. Characters sit upon the backgrounds, rather than within them. The story synopsis having been established on the website, is then sort of ignored for what is supposed to be a romantic interlude between these two synthetic humans…without any effort made at building the relationship.

Let me overthink this for a moment. Ikkyu is a healer. It stands to reason that she’s naturally empathetic. It’s well known that patients develop profound emotional attachment with the medical professionals who treat them. It would, therefore, seem like a little effort needs to be made for this “relationship” to not seem kind of..icky? But Sync is supposed to be the tough, but fragile, non-verbal type, ala Xena, while Ikkyu is clearly meant to be the obvious femme to Sync’s butch. With their relationship established when we reach Genies Res right at the beginning of the comic, there’s nothing to tell us how they got to this place where they are both okay sleeping with each other. In a print comic I might allow this. There’s no excuse for not taking some time to walk us up to this point in a digital offering. 2 pages, and we’d be in sympatico. 4 pages and we’d feel the characters at a much deeper level than we do.

The story is told through digital comics and multimedia. And it has some interesting features. The website includes a story trailer and a music video which, if watched alone is a mere curiosity, but watching it after issue 4 of the comic, where I left off, could very well be the next “issue” itself. The site also contains a blog which contains Ikkyu’s Journal, which gives readers insight to the story from another perspective.

The story has updates monthly.

Highly influenced by cyberpunk and Japanese culture, the story itself is available in English- and Japanese-language versions

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Character – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 6

Overall – 7

Syncandi is a decent enough idea and with a few small refinements in future issues, could become compelling. All it needs is a little depth and a little polish.

Thanks to Roberto of STUDIO SYNCANDI for the review copy!

Posted in Western Comic/Comix | No Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 3, 2016

September 3rd, 2016

YNN_MariK

Yuri Manga

It’s an online Yuri manga bonanza this week!

For those of you reading Shimura Takako’s Awajima Hyakkei (淡島百景) series online, the final issue will be posted in October, according to Ohta Publishing’s twitter account. Presumably this means that the series, about a group of young ladies who have entered an academy for a famous all-female musical performance troupe, will get a second print volume this winter.

Via Godley Malabanan, the creator of  World Canvas, we have news of Spring Roll, by spring, that follows “The daily life of two girls who somehow fell in love with each other” on LINE’s webtoons.

Thanks to YNN Correspondent and creator Ari North, who wrote in to tell us about their comic, Always Human, “a manga-influenced webcomic about nanobots, genetic engineering and two women falling in love.” Also on LINE’s webtoons, this sounds like an amazing series. Science fiction author David Brin described it as “a reflection on genetic engineering, body image, beauty, and gender identity, as well as what it means to be human”. Well, cool!

And YNN Correspondent Bing C has written in with more news from online comic platform Lezhin. “Lezhin has recently announced the winners of the 1st Lezhin US Comic Contest.  Two new Yuri webcomics won second and third place:

Never Knew I Wanted won 2nd place.
How Juliet Lied won 3rd place
Bing suggests “to check out the growing number of Yuri/GL webcomics in English on Lezhin, scroll down to the webcomics under the heading “Girls Love”. Some of the Yuri/GL webcomics currently there were previous Lezhin Comic Contest winners.”

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Yuri Anime

Crunchyroll News has the report that Glitter Force, the localized version of Smile PreCure is getting a second season on Netflix.

Live-Action

I don’t really know what to make of this….there are plans for a live-action adaptation of Saki, the mahjong, moe and Yuri epic manga that I keep assuming will be finished any day and keeps chugging along.

The Grand Stage Live website has been updated with an image of the flyer for the show and I thought I’d tell you about the flyers. ^_^

When you go to a Japanese anime/manga store, there are racks for flyers for new releases, shows, anime movie premiers, doujinshi events and in-person events. The flyers interest me a great deal, because we always hear about how technologically advanced Japan is and never really think about that. In fact, every event I have ever been to there, comes with a half ton of printed matter. So check the link and imagine picking this up at Animate in Ikebukuro. (Actually, if anyone sees this somewhere, can you grab me one? I’d love to have a copy.)

The amazing, fabulous, wonderful Lumberjanes comic has been greenlit for a live-action movie. And now it has a director, Emily Carmichael. Woot!

Other News

The Yayoi Museum in Tokyo is holding a retrospective exhibition of artwork by Yamagishi Ryouko. She was a member of the genre-defining 24 year group (which includes Moto Hagio and Riyoko Ikeda and other influential and extraordinary artists.) Here on Okazu, Yamagishi is primarily known for her creation Shiroi Heya no Futari, which I credit as being the first “Yuri” manga. The exhibit will run from September 30-December 25. If you get a chance to visit, do let us know how it is!

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 | 2 Comments »


Light Novel: Miniskirt Pirates, Volume 6 Crimson Pirate Ship ( ミニスカ宇宙海賊6　真紅の海賊船)

September 1st, 2016

MPCPR7Volume 5 of Miniskirt Pirates added a level of complexity to the “Three Ships” arc without resolving it. Jackie Kelvin, aka Jackie Celsius, aka Jackie Fahrenheight, who had been trying to obtain Hakuoh High School Yacht Club’s training ship, the Odette 2 (which has originally been known as the Whitebird and was, in fact, one of the original seven pirate ships from the Galactic war) turns out to have been hired by the Pirate Guild.

In Miniskirt Pirates, Crimson Pirate Ship, Volume 6 ( ミニスカ宇宙海賊6　真紅の海賊船) having fought Jackie to a standstill, the Pirate Guild’s representative, the cuthroat Captain Miura Grant of the Chimera of Scylla, appears and the fight continues. Grant grabs control of the Odette (and it’s star-killing weapon) and runs into hyperspace. The Bentenmaru and Barbarossa give chase, and are joined by several other ships.

The key point of this entire novel is this scene, in which Marika finds herself in command of not only her own two crews (the Bentenmaru’s professional crew and the Odette’s (now under Ririka’s direct command) amateurs, but also being encouraged to lead by Kenjo Kurihara (Chiaki’s father and captain of the Barbarossa) and in indirect control of several other ships, who have joined to help her. Kenjo cheerfully points out to her that Captain Kato Marika is now in control of her own fleet.

Bam.

At that moment, you can feel the shadow of her father, Gozaemon, looming up behind her.

Something else happens at that moment. Gozaemon starts to be mentioned. By name. Not as Marika’s father, or the former captain, but just here and there by name. If you’ve watched the anime, you’ve seen the utterly unsubtle foreshadowing that this echoes.

With the help of the Koukuchou, the Glamorous Ridis, the Death Shadow, and other ships, the Bentenmaru and Barbarossa free the Odette from the clutches of the Pirate Guild. Jackie bails, and Grant retreats.

Back in Volume 5, I said that if this arc doesn’t end in Volume 6, I might not read the next one. But realistically, there’s no chance now that I won’t. I can guess some of what is going to happen and I want to see where it goes.

As I did with Volume 5, I read this novel on Bookwalker Global. Now that I’ve adjusted the type on my Surface to suit my tired eyes, I find reading a page or two digitally every night not insurmountable. As a result, I think I’m moving more quickly though the book than I did in print.

I’m into Volume 7 now and the arc is still ongoing. I already know the climax, but the arc isn’t what’s driving me forward, it is and always has been, the characters. And I really want to know what’s going to happen to them.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

Still a lot of technobabble and space fighting, with a soupçon of electronic warfare and good ole’ reconnaissance and subterfuge. It’s a damn good military/pirate adventure and I can feel the end already.

Ahoy, Volume 7, here I come!

Posted in Bodacious Space Pirates, Light Novel | No Comments »


Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime September 2016 (コミック百合姫2016年7月号)

August 31st, 2016

CYH916Comic Yuri Hime September 2016 (コミック百合姫2016年7月号) continues shifting back to fully “sweet, pure love” of the school-life and fantasy variety away from the more realistic, adulter place it inhabited when Kazuaki was doing the cover art. I’ll continue to mope about this until it shifts back, or the artists I like get fed up and start a new magazine for themselves. (Don’t think I haven’t thought about doing this, but publishing has even thinner margins than ever before. If the magazine was online, there’d be so little opportunity to make enough money to pay people, it’s depressing even considering it. Don’t get me started.)

You know by now the stories I follow. Whatever Takemiya Jin, Ohsawa Yayoi, Minamoto Hisanari write, I enjoy. That and “Last Waltz” is about all I read this issue, as the percentage of animal ears is growing, the characters style slips back into blobs, the creepy crotch gazing increases and originality runs down the drain.

Ratings:

Overall – 5

I’ll get over it. I always do.

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Magazines, Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »