Yuri Manga：Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 1（推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ）

May 16th, 2016

BudokanorbustSo used am I to feeling frustration born of absolute disinterest in hideously boring characters in previous Hirao Auri manga series, that reading Hirao Auri’s new manga, Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 1（推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ）instilled in me a wholly new feeling – frustration because I actually care about the characters! It’s a completely different feeling, I assure you. ^_^

Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu (which is a really evocative title that one could have a lot of fun translating: Budokan or Bust; Give Me Budokan or Give Me Death; Push on to the Budokan or Die Trying…) follows an obsessive fan of a minor pop idol group, a woman named Eripyo, and the specific idol she likes, Maina.

Cham-Jam (pronounced “Charm Jam”) is a street pop idol group that is just starting to get some traction. Each of the members has her own set of otaku, of course, and we get to see some of the many unwritten rules involved in being a idol’s fan in this manga. It reminded me of Yumi’s line about a “fan’s pride.” These fans are allowed a certain amount of controlled exposure to their objects of admiration and anything else crosses a line for the idols – and the fans.

Eripyo is friends with two other Cham-Jam otaku, Kumasa and Motoi. Each has their favorite, but it’s easy for us to see that Eripyo’s feeling when she yells that she loves Maina are more complex than just admiration. And poor Eripyo….the mangaka hates her. We can see that Maina has sincere regard for her Number 1 fan, but plot complications force them further and further away from one another.  I have to admit to a few imagined comic “strangling the writer” panels in my head, as poor Eripyo, so deserving of real intimacy with Maina, is beaten bloody with failure. Argh.

The loveliest – and I mean this sincerely – moment of the volume, comes as the members of Cham Jam are participating as models for a “girls festival” fashion show. The audience, mostly fashionable young women, are put off by the idea of a street idol group, and Eripyo and Kumasa are uncomfortable and awkward out of their element. Despite the different social mores of the girls festival, there are Kumasa and Eripyo in the front row when it’s the members of Cham Jam’s turn. Reo, Kumasa’s favorite, even goes so far as to make her signature move towards him as she turns back up the runway. Maina and Eripyo lock eyes, and it becomes immediately apparent that their feelings – nascent and confused – are the same. Maina notices that Eripyo has dressed up for her, so as not to come to this fashion show in her usual UPS-style outfit.

Sadly for readers, this moment is followed by an excruciating Rube Golderbergian plot, that includes mice eating through a string that holds a tanabata tree, which crashes through a window so that Eripyo’s messages to be tied on it  fall outside and are missed in the mayhem. (cf, imagined comic “strangling the writer” panels in my head.)

The upshot is that, while I still imagine comic violence against Hirao-sensei, this time it’s because I really like the characters and want to see them together. So…progress, I guess.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Much improved since early days At least Manga no Tsukurikata had some use, then.

Story – Still frustrating, but there is hope for a decent payoff, unlike Manga no Tsukurikata, which was merely an nihilist exercise in manga-reading.

Character – 8 I really like the otaku group. They aren’t all one thing, but we really get to see the side of this relationship we don’t tend to see if we’re not part of it. And the Cham Jam girls are nice, as well. You don’t feel yucky liking them.

Service – Not really, except for it being a pop idol group, but even the costumes aren’t creepy.

Yuri – 4 Hovering at “I think I feel something for you, but can’t put a finger on it,” to “I can’t look you in the eyes, but don’t know why” with potential

Overall – Gods help me, 8.

I want to know what is going to happen. (Hirao-sensei, they better bloody well get together, you. (insert comic “strangling the writer” panels here.)

Hello redditors: I’ve reviewed 5 of the 6 current volumes here and yes, this is pretty much how it goes.

Posted in Hirao Auri, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Sailor Moon Musical – Un Noveau Voyage (ミュージカル「美少女戦士セーラームーン」-Un Nouveau Voyage-)

May 15th, 2016

Un_Nouveau_Voyage_Senshi_PosterIt is with great pleasure that I thank Tachibana Remi-san for sponsoring today’s review! Remi-san was kind enough to give me the DVD of Sailor Moon Musical – Un Noveau Voyage (ミュージカル「美少女戦士セーラームーン」-Un Nouveau Voyage-) so I can tell you all about it! Thank you Remi-san!

Right off the bat, this is pretty much the best cast I’ve ever seen in a Sailor Moon Musical.  While I really enjoyed the one I saw live in 2002, (before they changed it around that summer and put it on DVD as practically a different story), this one really stands out as one of the best I’ve ever watched. Generally speaking, I’ve enjoyed the three new musicals and the alternative versions of the first three seasons they’ve put together.

In Un Noveau Voyage, we begin with Haruka, a pop idol, and and Michiru as a very obvious couple. I say “obvious” because while Haruka is physically intimate with Michiru in “public”, if they weren’t a couple, there’d be no need for that in private and here, at the beginning, they start in private. I particularly like the opening number, as Haruka on “stage” sings her song, while we watch Michiru responding to her. Really, really nice opening.

The rest of the story slips back into recognizably third season key scenes and therefore I don’t feel obliged to summarize the plot at all. ^_^ Instead, I’ll talk about all the things I liked.^_^

First of all, the wigs were amazing. I know that’s a silly thing to think of as “first”, but really the hair looked so good. Particularly Makoto, Rei and Ami.

The cast now contains a number of former Takarisiennes, notably Yamato Yuga who plays Mamoru, Shiotsuki Shuu, who plays Haruka (and whose autograph adorns the booklet inside the DVD, thank you Remi-san!) Yuki Kaon, who plays Professor Tomoe, Fujioka Sayaka, who plays Michiru and Oogi Kei who plays Kaolinite.

The shift to all-female casting makes a lot of sense, even if it’s really pandery. But, as I said elsewhere recently, “when pandering is for us, it doesn’t suck after all.” ^_^

Kaolinite’s voice….swoon. You never get an alto in these things. She wasn’t a mezzo-soprano or a contralto, either, an actual alto. Oogi-san was a terrific Kaolinite.

Michiru’s voice is eerie. Even my wife noted that Fujioka-san sounded like…Michiru.

I’m sorry to see the cast for the Inners have to leave their roles. “Graduate” is the euphemism the idol world uses for this. The fans believe they were made to leave at this point, which is annoying. They were perfect in their roles. Best I’d ever seen.  But there’s an obvious fetish going on in the “graduation” process. Clearly nostalgic tears and sniffling has become a thing that is now part of the process of being in a musical role or idol group. Blecch.

The other thing of note was in a couple of the stage pieces. There were two scenes in which a triptych-set up allowed for duets and trios to be sung that I really liked. This culminated with a fantastic piece n which Hotaru in the center is sung about by Kaolinite, Chibi-Usa and the Professor, then the Outers and the Inners in a really intense and creepy song about this one girl’s fate, Light of Ruin, Hametsu no Hikari.

And my final thought is that I’ve really come to like the new final number, Ai no Starshine, although I kind of miss Ai no Senshi. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 9

I really enjoyed this musical. Thank you so much Remi-san!

Posted in Sailor Moon | No Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 14, 2016

May 14th, 2016

YNN_MariK Yuri Manga

YNN Senior Correspondent Grisznak writes in to let us know that Polish company Studio JG announced that they’ll be releasing Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo by Milk Morinaga this summer!

A new Card Captor Sakura manga is slated for June 2016, ANN has the report. (Yes, I reported this before I left for Japan, it’s worth a reminder.)

Bookwalker Global has opened up their Manga & Light Novel Request Form, so if there’s a series you want to see translated into English and made available on their platform (which I very much like) let them know! They are making every effort to get a pretty hefty (untranslated) library of Yuri manga from Hirari and Comic Yuri Hime anthologies and are starting to get rolling with translated titles, so do help them out and make suggestions of what you’d be willing to pay to read in English.

 

LGBTQ Comic Events

Save the date! The fabulous Queer & Comics event is back, this time in San Francisco, April 14-15, 2017 at the California College of the Arts. (The first event, in 2015, was amazing. Don’t miss this, if you can!)

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Yuri Anime

Sentai Filmworks has announced the dub cast for Bodacious Space Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace, so that’s moving forward. Check out details on ANN’s report.

 

Other News

YNN Correspondent zetsuboshi writes in to let us know that the Human Rights Watch has recently issued a report on bullying of LGBTQ+ students in Japan, which contained manga-esque testimonials from students. This is not happy reading, but it is a good reminder that the existence of BL and Yuri manga doesn’t magically translate into acceptance for LGBTQ people, something I’ve seen clearly in the western BL and Yuri communities – when a group is fetishized, the people are still not seen as “people’. This is exactly why I think comic essays by out LGBTQ people are critical. BL and Yuri are not representation, although sometimes individual titles get close.

ANN has a report on German retailer Otto celebrating Rose of Versailles‘ 40th anniversary by imagining the ladies of Versailles in “modern” outfits, and by modern I mean wow, they would have been fashionable in 1968. ^_^;

I can’t be the only one who has wondered how many people have attended the Sailor Moon exhibit in Roppongi. Komatsu-san over at Crunchyroll News, has the answer. In just under a month, more than 100K people have attended. I’m glad to have been among that number.

I’m going to wrap up on what I consider to be pretty amazing news – from Comic Natalie, via YNN Correspondent Simona S, Kishi Torajiro, best known here for MAKA-MAKA and Otome no Teikoku, is working on a BL manga called Ore to.

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 »


Futaribeya Manga, Volumes 1 and 2 (ふたりべや)

May 13th, 2016

FB1Q: When is a Yuri manga not a Yuri manga?

A: When it has no Yuri.

This may seem like a zen koan, but it is in fact, the subject of our attention today. Futaribeya (ふたりべや) frequently appears on Yuri manga lists, and yet, has no actually Yuri beyond a tense moment in a single panel once a volume.

<– This cover is wholly unrelated to the content of the volume. 

This is sort of existentialist Yuri. Can Yuri exist only in the minds of the readership and the manga still be seen as “Yuri”? I’m going to have to say yes, as so many of the series reviewed here over the years existed as Yuri only in the headcanon of dedicated readers – Aria and Lucky Star spring to mind immediately. Neither had the slightest hint of Yuri, but both were obsessively seen as “Yuri” series. And now, we have Futaribeya to add to that voluminous list.

Note to angry Twitterer Whoops who sent me art of the two characters snuggling to prove I am wrong:  That art, while by the creator, does not appear in or have anything to do with the actual printed content of Volume 1 and 2 of the manga. You can write whatever story you’d like in your head, you don’t need my validation.

Futaribeya, by Yukiko, is a 4-panel comic strip about two girls who share an off-campus apartment close to their school. Sakurako lives relatively far away and so her parents wanted her to room with someone else. Her roommate is Kasumi, a beautiful  girl, who always has a part-time job, does some light magazine modeling, is always hot and has narcolepsy. That’s pretty much all the jokes there are. Sakurako is the responsible one, Kasumi is a layabout at home, because she works so hard.

FB2This cover is likewise wholly unrelated to the content. —>

The Yuri is thin. Sakurako’s younger sister has a crush on Kasumi, and every once in a while Kasumi and Sakurako are too close and suddenly looking too deeply into each other’s eyes, before they pull away in embarrassment. Bwah~ bwah~waaaahhh~.

And yet, this series consistently comes up on Yuri manga lists. I’m not entirely sure why. So, we come back to the question I began with –  When is Yuri not really Yuri? When there is no Yuri between the covers, but entirely in between the readers’ ears.  Surely we’ve moved beyond headcanon as primary criterium? I mean, sure, once upon a time, making up stories between the two principals was the bulk of Yuri, but it’s already more than a decade since we needed that kind of filler in our Yuri repertoire.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Not particularly great
Story – 4 Not actually existent
Characters – 4 Not geuinuinely developed
Service – 1 Not seriously annoying
Yuri – 0 Not literally there

Overall – 5 Not really worth it

There is no Yuri here. This is a generic 4-koma school life comedy that is considered Yuri only by the kinds of people who cannot imagine two women sharing a room who are not in love.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 10 Comments »


Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki (English)

May 12th, 2016

SFLII know you know that I don’t really game all that much, but even living under a gaming rock as I do, I know Street Fighter. I remember seeing the first versions of this in arcades in my youth and I’ve seen, although never played, any number of the iterations since. ^_^

Well, when Okazu Superhero Louis P offered to sponsor today’s review, he made a very charming pitch. Warning me about the art, he suggested that the characters make up for the visual pandering. I find him to be pretty spot on about that kind of thing, so I took him up on his offer and here we are talking a look at Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki,  put out in full glossy color by our friends at Udon Press.

The premise is a bit similar to DC’s Super Hero Girls series, (which follow key DC female characters as teens at school. Never been done before, you know.) in which we see the private life of teenage ninja Ibuki. Ibuki is balancing ninja training and life as a “normal” teenage girl and that balancing act is, for the most part, the bulk of the story. We meet Sarai, her utterly non-powered friend, and transfer students Makoto, a martial artist with a chip on her shoulder, and Elena, a not-at-all African looking African princess. I found Elena’s portrayal endlessly fascinating as a foil to the issues around casting Scarlet Johansson as Major Kusanagi in the Hollywood remodel of Ghost in the Shell. It does not comfort me particularly to note that we are not alone in erasing ethnic identity and un-darking skin. If I had been drawing Elena she’d have looked more like a young Grace Jones, ala Red Sonja, sans bullshitty fur bikini. But no one asks me.

Ibuki is herself an admirable heroine, working hard at both school and fantasy ninja training, even with an entire rival ninja clan after her, tests of courage and will and college exams in front of her. The main point – one that I actually appreciated – wasn’t whether she won, but that she tried. The culture of “trying” is still seen as weak in many parts of the world, and while sincerity isn’t always a valid replacement for competence, we also have to learn how to deal with failure.

Of course our rivals become our allies and the cute guy ninja is at the college she is going to attend, so bonus!

The story reads very tween-aged audience, and even the pandery gallery art isn’t explicitly oversexualized, but it still is pretty pandery. Apparently Capcom thinks 12 year old boys and girls will both be able to enjoy this book. Girls can, but they have flip past some of the pics to be able to do it. As usual. Sigh.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7, +1 for lessons that make sense
Characters – 8 Definitely the strong point
Yuri – 0
Service – 2 Mild by the game’s standards

Overall – 8 More enjoyable than expected, you were right on the money Louis!

…sometimes I fantasize about a media and entertainment complex that didn’t compulsively sexualize women, an industry that cast black-skinned and Asian people in roles without controversy. It’s not just a fantasy. All we have to do is be a little less lazy and we could change this.

Posted in English Manga | 4 Comments »