Top Yuri Anime of 2015

December 28th, 2015

Of everything I do here on Okazu, this list is always the hardest. Even when there is so much amazing stuff I can barely contain myself, it’s hard. On years where there was very little of note, it’s almost impossible.

I’ve commented over the years that Yuri anime is cyclical. We get a lot….then we get none. Then we get a lot….then we get none. This was one of those “none” years. And like most “none” years, we still got some. ^_^

As always, these are my opinions, you’re never obliged to agree and you are most welcome to tell us your Top Yuri Anime in the comments!

YRYRSH5 – Yuru Yuri

I know you know I’m not a fan. For one thing, there’s very little Yuri in this series, mostly in the form of set-ups for fans to pair characters, not any actual mutual feelings between two characters.  But this series is appealing to some number of fans, and clearly to the folks at Ichijinsha, so they keep throwing money at it.

2015 included OVAs that received theater releases in Japan and a third season of anime. I think it deserves a little recognition for that, don’t you? Here’s a little recognition.

Yuru Yuri is streaming on Crunchyroll.

sound4 – Sound Euphonium, Sabagebu and anything else you watched, not explicitly named here, that had a little bit of Yuri.

Yuri as a character trait, or a fetish or an add-on is still plenty common in anime. As anime, specifically, becomes more and more a media for easily influenced lonely guys, there is never a real lack of characters with vastly overstated crushes. Some of these are very good, others are bad, but it’s worth noting them and thanking them for dribbling little crumbs of Yuri on our plates. ^_^

Sound! Euphonium and Sabagebu are streaming on Crunchyroll.

pp3 – Psycho-Pass 2

The lesbians got to have sex and not die…again. Achievement unlocked!

You can watch Psycho-Pass on Hulu, or buy it on BD/DVD from Funimation in 2016.

 

hqdefault2 – Dear Brother and Sailor Moon ‘S’

I watched every last, miserable fucking second of Dear Brother with a HUGE grin on my face (except for when I was sobbing into a handkerchief.) It was, it is and it always will be an awesome story, with amazing characters, a pile of Yuri and one of the most tragic loves ever.

Sailor Moon S is currently streaming and I’m avoiding it like the plague until the BD/DVD disks come out, because I don’t want to touch anything and ruin it. But the episodes sit there, in their oh-so-very gay glory and taunt me. So very, very gay. Squee. Next year this goes up to Number 1 unless we get something amazing. Gosh I hope we get something amazing!

Dear Brother is still available streaming on Viki.com and Sailor Moon can be watched on Viz’s Neon Alley, with BD/DVDs coming for the third season in 2016.

232b78a7e4e10c28f9fcd2bb74b8b22a1420158390_full1 – Yuri Kuma Arashi

To be honest, this series had no competition at all this year. It was the only actually Yuri anime made.

Yes, it exploited that with a surreal glee, slapping the word “Yuri” on everything until it made no sense, and it was pandery and kinda creepy and did I mention it made no sense, but who are we to complain? Not me certainly, because above all other things, we got an awesome Evil Psycho Lesbian, we got to watch Ikuhara Kunihiko publicly flail with an obvious love/hate thing for Yuri and we got to see Morishima Akiko’s character designs animated and streaming on Hulu.com. There really was never a question about the number one on this list this year.

The Top Yuri Anime for 2015 is Yuri Kuma Arashi.

Posted in Top Yuri Lists, Yuri Anime | 28 Comments »


Danshi Kinsei! Yuri no Hanazono Manual (男子禁制! 百合の花園マニュアル)

December 27th, 2015

manualIn years past, for no particular reason, it has become the habit here at Okazu to end the year with an amazingly good book and start the year with a truly terrible one. I am switching it up this year for a reason. This will be the last truly terrible book I review here on Okazu. ^_^

As we close the year, I’m making a change. I’ve almost completely stopped reviewing hentai anthologies because while they have female characters having sex, they rarely are anything other than emotionless porn. I’ve also stopped getting, reviewing or often even mentioning series I find revolting. Is this censorship? No. It’s curation. I’m not stopping anyone from reading about, buying or enjoying these things. In some cases I solicit guest reviews for them. It’s just that having to page through stuff that makes me unhappy makes me unhappy. I love Yuri and don’t want to be unhappy reading it. I obviously cannot change the fact that there will always be people who think it a fetish to fulfill their wanking needs. I don’t feel any compulsion to encourage that.

Which leads me to Danshi Kinsei! Yuri no Hanazono Manual (男子禁制! 百合の花園マニュアル ). On the assumption that anything labeled “Guys forbidden” would be a cesspool of fetishes created for those very guys who prefer to imagine they are seeing something forbidden, I threw this book in my last order from Amazon JP.

My assumption was correct.

This book is a “manual” in the sense that, if you are utterly bereft of imagination and cannot for the life of you come up with a single scenario in which two girls might have sex for your shitty porn fic, this book will give you ideas. ^_^ Cesspool of fetishes it is.

I didn’t even bother reading the text, the premise was so absurd and the scenarios so awful.

Ratings:

Overall – 0

This is the last 0 I will ever give here. There is so much good Yuri in the world. I will continue to celebrate it and promote it with pleasure and positivity.

With this promise, I wrap up all my reviews for 2015. Next up – Top 10 Lists and on to 2016 for some great Yuri!

Posted in Miscellaneous, Now This Is Only My Opinion | 7 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – December 26, 2015

December 26th, 2015

YNN_MariK

Yuri Anime

Komatsu-san has the scoop on the new Precure series on Crunchyroll News and – for a Precure series – it sounds like a bit of a departure from the usual plot, which is rather cool, I think. I’m looking forward to seeing it. (Also I have the Heartcatch Precure light novel to read. I expected it to be for little kids, but its written in 8pt type with no furigana! What was I thinking?)

Also from Crunchyroll News, Patrick Macias announces that Zombie Loan has been added to the CR catalog. There was a vaguely lesbianish character in that series named Yomi, in case you don’t remember.

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Yuri(?) Manga

Comic Natalie reports on a new series called Yurizuki-kun to Yurizukizuki-kun, (百合好きくんと百合好き好きくん) which apparently follows the adventures of two male Yuri fans. The visual reads “Yuri? BL?” and I think we can safely say it will be neither, but hopefully it will be amusing. ^_^

 

Other News

Yuru Yuri themed t-shirts that proudly proclaim you are an idiot will be sold at Comiket to people for whom getting Yuru Yuri-themed items is more important than self-esteem. Scott Green has the visuals over at Crunchyroll News. And, I’m pleased to note that the t-shirt not only says you’re an idiot, but also has a shitty design so people who don’t know what “aho” means, can still see you have terrible taste. ^_^

For those of us with style, ahem, Crunchyroll News’ Paul Chapman points us to Super Groupies, a design tie-in division of Animate, with a spiffy series of Sailor Moon-themed travel goods. Super Groupies uses the international buying/shipping service Tenso, so you can buy these from outside Japan.

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 | No Comments »


Yuri Wishlist for 2016

December 25th, 2015

I have been remiss with my gift guide, letters to Santas and pretty much everything else (haven’t even started my Top Ten lists, don’t want to rush that, orz). I was thinking a little bit about what I wanted for 2016 for Yuri and I find that there’s surprising little I really want. Most of the series I never expected to see released, have been. We’ve got more Yuri than ever before, but trying to see what I’d like to see in the middle of all the stuff that focuses on things I find creepy is exceptionally hard this year.  So I’m going to keep this list very short. Three things, in fact. There are two things I would like more of and one I would like less of. And these three things will be my simple Wish List for Yuri for 2016.

 

1. In 2016 I would like to see more Yuri sports series. I would like to see any Yuri sports series.

I have asked for this pretty much every year since I first became a Yuri fan. ^_^;

Sports are the perfect scenario for love, for hate, for rivalry. Yuri needs a Attack No. 1 or a Ace wo Nerae! of it’s own. Softball, folks, SOFTBALL. It’s the standard lesbian sport, it could be a Ace of Diamond-like guts and will and teamwork series with a lesbian character who finds that teamwork and being a good athlete and player is not incompatible with a love affair off the field with another player. (Yes, all possible sports plots are acceptable. Please stop suggesting possible plot variations, this was not a mandate for one particular plot.)

I’m not saying it has to be softball. Pro wrestling, tennis, horseback riding, diving, track and field, soccer, basketball…I don’t care which sport. It’s just long, long, long past time that we get a really strong Yuri sports series.

2. In 2016 I would like to see more lesbians in Yuri.

We’ve been really patient about this, waiting for every character ever to get through the “I’m in love with you” phase, and grow up a bit and realize that they are actually gay. Takemiya Jin-sensei can’t write every story ever. We need a few more manga artists to think past high school and have the occasional character who is gay. We’ve read enough confessions for 264,844- lifetimes.

And, here is the one thing I’d really like to say goodbye to….

3.In 2016 I would like to see less thigh- and crotch-staring in anime and manga.

 I’m done with this. It’s creepy.

 

With this, I will wish you all a very pleasant holiday season and I’ll see you back here for some end-of-year reviews, lists and news!

Posted in Now This Is Only My Opinion | 15 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Batu Batu Shitaikurai Kawaii Kimi ga (×××したいくらい可愛い君が)

December 23rd, 2015

51C5AZH-B6LKasuga Sunao’s Batu Batu Shitaikurai Kawaii Kimi ga (×××したいくらい可愛い君が) is too cute for me too read.

By which I mean that the characters are all drawn  simply, the stories barely progress beyond expression of like and the giant featureless faces are all the same.

This was the perfect book to read before bed, because it was so nothing that I found myself “resting my eyes” and setting it aside after a page or two. Having attempted to read it twice, I can tell you that one story was about an umbrella, another about a girl liking another girl but having seen her with a third girl deciding she had been two-timed? or something similar, and a story with a computer fairy maybe? Not really sure, I kept falling asleep.

It dawns on me as I write this, that this is one of the authors who work I regularly skip in Comic Yuri Hime. It’s Yuri, in a blandish kind of way, without emotion (except tears) or depth.

Ratings:

Art – Competent, but not appealing
Story – Scenarios, not stories
Characters – Interchangeable
Yuri – There are a few sincere kisses
Service – Moe

Overall – Eh

This book is about as interesting as taking two baby dolls and making them pretend kiss.

Posted in Yuri Manga | No Comments »