Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 23, 2015

May 23rd, 2015

YNN_MariK

Short report this week, while I go out and have some fun.

Yuri Game News 

YNN Senior Correspondent Grisznak reports that the English language edition of the Love Live! game is set to mostly remove all implications of Yuri relationships between the characters from the script. I did a little checking and the company, KLab America, is the American office of the original Japanese company for the game, so if this is important to you,  write them and politely let them know how you feel.

24 May update: KLab America has responded to your comments on their Facebook page (click the link for the full response. They apologize, but don’t appear to plan to change anything:

“We would also like to address one specific concern raised by some gamers, namely that we were engaging in self-censorship by removing or softening some playful same-sex banter from the English version. This absolutely was not our intention. We localized the game based on our interpretation of the original anime contents, but at the same time, we also respect our gamers’ interpretations as well. We take to heart the comments from some of our gamers who felt we were dismissing them in some way by some of our translations. We truly regret any hard feelings that we may have caused. We love our games and our gamers and don’t want any of them to change!”

The creator of Starlight Vega wants thank everyone for their tremendous support of this Yuri-themed visual novel. You can still download the trial on Greenlight. If you’ve played this and have any thoughts and would like to write up something about first impressions, drop me a line!

Yuri Manga

YNN Correspondent Jackie S has amazing news -“per Takashima Hiromi’s twitter, the Kase-san series is getting a third volume sometime in August.” and she also points out that there is new chapter online (“Lemongrass and Kase-san“) to read for free.  I’m going to seriously give Shinsokan Publishing some props here. When they said they were going to keep publishing Hirari manga, I did not believe them. I was completely wrong and I’m glad about that. ^_^

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Citrus, Volume 4  which will hit streets in July in Japan, will also be available in a special edition bundled with a Drama CD, reports Comic Natalie. (Just as an aside,  Comic Natalie also calls this a “sister-love” title, so folks who think that incest is not the main selling point, that’s just denial talking. ^_^ )

I’m adding this one in because I find the description amusing. Comic Natalie calls Kuzushiro’s Love Desu (which hit streets this past week) a tale of expressing love through gun and knife. ^_^

 

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 | 5 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime, May 2015 (コミック百合姫 2015年 05 月号)

May 22nd, 2015

CYH052015I’m nervous. I’m really enjoying Comic Yuri Hime these days, but nothing lasts forever, right? As I read Comic Yuri Hime, May 2015 (コミック百合姫 2015年 05 月号) I couldn’t shake the feeling that the boot will drop and soon.

It appears to me, that the magazine has finally struck a balance between the – to me – unfathomable needs of Japanese fanboys and my own unfathomable needs as an American lesbian fangirl. ^_^ Sure, you guys can have your weirdly shaped breasts and bizarre crotch obsession and teary blobby-headed little girls, I’ll take the adults, the depth of emotion, the violent fighting and Iono-sama. ^_^ Deal?

If you don’t like what I do, then there’s “Netsuzou Trap – NTR”, a creeptastic story about two girls with boyfriends who get naked and do stuff on each other while their boyfriends are conveniently not in the room with them, “Citrus,” (on which I have officially given up completely, when a bad old trope that we’d already wallowed in and discarded comes back for a second appearance) and “To Lie-Anguru,” which I will never mention again. ^_^ “Yuru Yuri,”of course, and the “Yuri Danshi” narrative continues on in a slightly altered form with input from male and female Yuri fans in “Ore to Yuri.”

Almost everything in this volume continued on from last time, but there were a few highlights that stood out for me. Ohsawa Yayoi’s “2DK, G Pen, Mesamashi Tokei.” went exactly where I had hoped, and shifted from “competent woman hustles while slacker slacks”, to “two adult women figuring out their lives.”

Nakahara Tsubaki’s “12 Minute Etude” is still cute in a non-intrusive way, as is “Inugami-san to Neko-yama -san,” and the excruciatingly adorable and fun “Kanaete! Yuri Yosei-san” which I still believe may be Minamoto Hisanari’s masterwork effort, in that he can combine the silliest of Yuri tropes, an absurdly adorable moe fairy and still have a lot of fun telling a story. ^_^

To scratch my itch for a little light violence, there’s still “Love Desu” and “Shoujo Shikaku”  for horror and major violence fans.

Takemiya Jin provides “Sakasama Oni-gokko”, Kano makes a debut with two stories and…to my absolute joy, Fujieda Miyabi is back, with a spin off of “Iono-sama Fanatics” called “Kokono-sama Fascinates” which follows the entirely unobjectionable adventures in love and lady-in-waiting gathering of Kokono, the daughter of Iono-sama and Eto. Squee.

So, see? We can all be happy.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

If they can just keep this up forever, I’ll be satisfied.  ^_^

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


Stretch Manga, Volume 2 (ストレッチ)

May 21st, 2015

Stretch2There is no one more amazed than I am that I am still writing reviews of Akili’s weird little manga, Stretch. But here we are and the timing couldn’t be better.

Volume 2 of Stretch (ストレッチ) carries on almost exactly as did Volume 1. We first see Ran and Keiko in various setups for stretching, a little vague Yuri-ish vibe between them, a dollop of not-vague service, followed by seeing them at their worst, then ending with some insight into their past. The order all this plays out is exceptionally fascinating, as the book starts off light-hearted and forgettable, but ends with pathos and character depth so we feel sympathy…and enough interest that we’ll tune in next time.

But, the story, as it were, is mostly motivation for illustrations of various stretches, which just happen to allow the artist a chance to focus on various body parts of the women in a pretend-not-creepy way, while, in fact, being creepy. It’s just anatomy, you see.  The actual art is decent, and the illustrations of the stretches are helpful. I try most of them out as I’m reading, just to make sure he’s not making anything up. ^_^ Also because I’m trying to do a little more running and stretching is pretty high on the list of things I want to spend time doing instead of seeing a doctor. ^_^

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In the meantime, in between stretching, both Keiko and Ran are starting to fill out as people who are rather important in each other’s lives.  There is a vibe between them, but I feel strongly that that is as much service as the crotch-eye-view during the stretching…it sure ain’t for the characters’ benefit.

Ratings:

Art – 9 Very good with moments of excellent
Story – 7 When it bothers to have one also good
Characters – 7 You have to like them, or why read this manga?
Yuri – Depends entirely on your motivation to see Yuri. I see about a 2
Service – 6 A constant presence

Overall – 7 It is a decent enough read, especially if you want to learn to stretch.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »


Morita-san ha Mukuchi Manga, Volume 9 (森田さんは無口)

May 20th, 2015

moritasan9Morita-san ha Mukuchi, Volume 9 (森田さんは無口) is not a Yuri manga. It never has been. And yet, for a not-Yuri manga, it does everything it can to sort-of, kind-of, shoehorn little teeny drops of not-quite-Yuri into every corner. Like eking out the the last few bit of sugar glaze onto a crumb cake, the thing is plenty sweet enough, but if you just get a bit more on it…

This volume begins with the girl who is stalking Mayu stalking her. And then we drop that like the untenable plot point it is. Phew.

From that point on, we’re given the silliest possible set-ups, like the cover, group hugs, and Mayu’s cousin Yukino being weird to make our lizard brains think “girls touching!” If this manga was in any way mean-spirited, it would feel gross. But it never does. Mayu and her friends continue to genuinely like and care about one another, and so a group hug makes us smile.

The one (in)sincerely service-y bit was when Misaki nearly collapses in gym and finds her head resting on super-cool Yamamoto’s lap…at which she completely overheats. (The rest of the girls in lass also start feeling like they need some lap treatment, not surprisingly.) The how and why Yamamoto ended up there is vague, class president, blah, blah, but she doesn’t seem to mind either.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 3

Overall – 8

There’s no substance here. It’s cotton candy. It always tastes the same, it never tastes like anything but too much sugar, but you know, every once in a while, in the right circumstances…it’s a lot of fun. ^_^

Posted in Miscellaneous | 3 Comments »


Sailor Moon Season 1 Part 1, Disk 2 (English)

May 19th, 2015

SM1P1LEI have learned two very important lessons rewatching Sailor Moon from the very beginning:

Firstly, most fans of the original anime are fans of the edited versions of the characters they have cobbled together inside their heads, stuffed full of remnants of old fanfic and fanart and internalized identification, sewn together with nostalgia and softened by time.

I know this because Disk 2 primarily consists of Usagi whining, conniving, whining some more, bickering with Rei, whining and crying. She is not, at this point, a likeable character.

The second thing I realized is that, in it’s own way, Sailor Moon is a primeval tap on “girl” things, in the way that The Iliad (which I am re-reading again) is a primer on “boy” things. That is to say, it renders down an entire gender into the most superficial characteristics as if seen by an alien race, labels them essential, and obsesses over them, even if a real person might occasionally take a break from wanting a dress or a gemstone, or a fast racehorse or the most plunder.

However, there are two episodes of note here on Disk Two.

“I Want a Boyfriend: The Luxury Cruise Ship Is a Trap”, episode 12 which was the dub episode that got me interested in the series in the first place and “A New Enemy Appears: Nephrite’s Evil Crest”, episode 15, in which something important and something not important, but damned interesting, happened.

In episode 15,  which originally aired in Japan in 1992, Naru had to tell Usagi that her use of “onee-sama” did not indicate that the other girl was a blood sister, but that she was like a sister to her. The idea of onee-sama had fallen enough out of favor, that it had to be explained. This trend would reverse again  a few years later when Maria-sama ga Miteru made it not only nerdy cool, but also so much of standard anime trope that no one in, say, PreCure ever needs to have it explained to them. Not important, but kind of interesting.

The important thing, though happens in that same episode. For the very first time, Usagi helps someone out of actual empathy for them. She wants to help Naru, because she wants to help Naru. This one thing may not seem like a huge shift, but it is. It’s the first time we’ve seen Usagi do thing out of pure kindness, because helping her friend to be less sad is a good thing to do. It’s the first time she doesn’t really speak about herself when talking about a “girl’s dream”. It’s the first time we see Sailor Moon, and not Tsukino Usagi in a Senshi costume.

As I reach this part of the anime I brace myself for a number of changes to come. Soon, we and the Senshi will start to understand that there is more to this series than a monster of the day. Soon, but not yet.

For those of you still not convinced to get this series – these episodes will not be the ones to convince you. The original animation is hilariously, painfully, awful, as Toei learned that it was going to get a lot more episodes, but not more budget. The dialogue is execrable and the bickering between Rei and Usagi is enough to make you want to pluck Ami out, set her in a nice quiet library and read a good book together.

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 5
Characters – teetering on the cusp of 5
Yuri – 1
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 5, and I’m being kind.

Sincere and immense thanks to Viz Media for a review copy. Everytime Ami says all she can do is study, my heart breaks. In a just world, she gets to be Queen and Usagi runs cruises.

Posted in English Anime, Sailor Moon | 3 Comments »