Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor Anime, Disk 2 (English)

May 4th, 2015

IKKIXXIn the small spaces between some of the stupidest, most mind-bogglingly absurd service, the second disk of Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor is awesome.

Mind you, if you cut out the service, you’d have about 15 minutes left, but it would be an amazing 15 minutes.

The fighters realize that Shibai is again striving for hegemony, but in reality this time it’s Kentei’s 1800 year old grudge of a spirit using her body. Whatevs, they defeat Kentei. And tucked away before the climax Kanu and Ryomou have a fantastic fight, if you can see past the tits and crotches. (Can we have a talk, guys? Is this really a turn-on for you? Really? I worry about you sometimes, I do.) But the fight is pretty fantastic, although my preference would be for them to go at it without an 1800-year old spirit calling the shots.

Hakufu saves the day, because she’s the hero, and defeats Kentei, who insists that nope, he’s not dead yet! He comes back once more in the body of Teni’i, but she’s no match for anyone.

And then I sit through the most excruciating extras ever, because although I am not a sex-starved boy I know that what teeny-weeny, itty-bitty bit of Yuri that exists in this series comes in the extra about Ryuubi’s birthday. Kanu still has it bad and still will do nothing about it.

Gosh this series is a piece of crap. And yet, in my head, stripped (haha) of the service and pandering, it’s amazing. Yay my head, I love you. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – Plot and fights are great. 9.
Characters – I like them. 8
Service – A lot. Way more than is actually sensible. I feel bad for folks who like the service, because it’s so…much.
Yuri – 3

Overall – Nothing about this series is any good, except the plot, the fighting, the animation and the characters. 8

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Rose of Versailles Karuta

May 3rd, 2015

KartacoverBack in October, I was trawling through Mandarake in Nakano, Tokyo, (as all good otaku must) and I found two amazing things. The first one was an artbook by Takahashi Makoto, Akogare, which I discussed back in November. At the time I mentioned that I had found one even more amazing thing. And today, at last, I will tell you about it. “It” is a Rose of Versailles Karuta box set.

To begin with, Karuta is a card-matching game. If you’ve watched the anime Chihayafuru, you’ll be familiar with it. Cards with verses written on them are laid out between two players. A reader reads half of a verse and two participants reach for the card with the second half of the verse. Hyakunin Isshu, a game played on New Years’s Day, is one form of karuta.

In this version of the game, the lines are taken from the Rose of Versailles manga. Under the hiragana for “he” へ, we see a functionary saing “Heimindomo ha uraguchi he mawatte morau” – “Commoners go around to the back entrance.” As we can see, this is not received well by Oscar who says the 17th century French nobleperson’s version of “What the hell?”

karuta4

The set box, card box and booklet are all adorned with art from Rose of Versailles, obviously.

The set box has this lovely illustration of Oscar and Marie Antoinette.

The box of cards contains two sets – one for the players with scenes depicted from the manga (as in the top picture) and another for the “reader.”

Karta1

Fierce Oscar will win this karuta game!

 

Karta2

This is the back of the card box, because of course it is.

The inside of the card box has an image of Oscar in classical armor, but I’d have to unfold the box to scan it in, so no picture for you.

The booklet includes a short discussion of key cards, with commentary by Riyoko Ikeda on them, and a CD.

I chose this page because I love you all.

I chose this page because I love you all.

 

This is the cover to the booklet

This is the cover to the booklet

The booklet includes a CD with the first half of the card’s verses read by Takariesienne Shion Yuu, top star of the Star Troupe in 1992-1994. She played Oscar a few times and Fersen once in various iterations of Takarazuka’s most beloved show.

So, if you’ve ever wanted to play karuta, but with lines from Rose of Versailles instead of famous poems*, cards illustrated by Riyoko Ikeda and have the reader be  a former Takarauka top star, come on over, I can actually do that for you! ^_^

Ratings:

Too sublime for mere numbers.

I note, with some satisfaction, that I didn’t even overpay for this, because the other thing about Mandarake is that you can get reamed on prices, if you don’t know what stuff is worth.

*In 2005, when Yuricon and Shoujocon teamed up to run Onna!, we created a modern English deck for karuta. We apparently vastly overestimated the poetic literacy of the attendees, who didn’t recognize even so much as nursery rhyme phrases (no kidding “Mary had a little lamb”), much less famous poems (“How do I love thee…”.) That was a bit disappointing.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 2, 2015

May 2nd, 2015

YNN_LissaYuri Manga

Now is a great time to start leaning Japanese. ^_^ There is a huge pile of new Yuri manga to tell you about, but above them all, tucked away in a little tweet I saw this week is something that made me realize that something critical and important is happening. First, the news…then I’ll tell you what I think about it.

Hayashiya Shizuru-sensei tweeted that May 19th Shuiesha’s Young Jump Comics imprint is publishing Strawberry Shake. (ストロベリーシェイク). I have no doubt that this is a re-publishing of her Yuri Hime series Strawberry Shake Sweet, which came out in two volumes (Volume 1 | Volume 2) in 2006 and 2009.

Fujieda Miyabi-sensei’s series Iono-sama Fanatics, originally published by Mediaworks in 2005-2007, is also getting a new edition, this time from Yuri Hime Comics in a 2 Volume-set; with Drama CD (Volume 1 | Volume 2) and manga only (Volume 1 | Volume 2) .

We already can see that Yuri Hime has re-released a number of volumes that originally ran in the defunct Yuri magazines Tsubomi and Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari and, we’ve seen a few other companies scrambling to pick up artists known for Yuri (such as Morinaga Milk-sensei at Hobunsha and Morishima Akiko-sensei at Gentosha,) I think we can do a little conjecturing on what we’re seeing right now.

Yuri was effectively born as a genre of its own in 2003. Yuri Hime magazine launched in 2005 with a roster of top names creating original Yuri manga they thought would sell. And they sort of sold. Because “Yuri” was still so new, a lot of people didn’t know or care. They knew these folks from doujinshi, but didn’t necessarily want to think of themselves as a “Yuri” fan.

In 2010-2013, Yuri had a growth spurt and since it now existed as a genre, a few new magazines joined the fray. Yuri sections started, tentatively, to exist in Japanese bookstores. Publishing priorities changed, and some magazines were closed up, but the audience and the existence of Yuri as a genre was firmed up. Now in 2015 when “Yuri” is a new, but established genre, we’re seeing an interesting retro wave – just over a decade into this evolution, current publishers are looking back at the top-notch stuff that sort of just slid under the radar in the mid-2000s.

There’s more of an audience now for original, non-trope-y Yuri than there was in the mid-2000s. There are more publishers who will publish Yuri and more artists who are creating Yuri series. It makes sense for publishers to look at their established, successful artists and revisit older, completed works that just need some tweaking. It makes sense for the artists, too.

Those of you who missed Strawberry Shake Sweet the first time around will get a chance to see it for the first time (and hopefully, Hayashiya-sensei will get a chance to fix the things she didn’t feel worked.) And for those of us who loved the series the first time around, we’ll be enticed by the new content that is sure to be included (and Drama CDs.)

Don’t hold your breath on either of these titles being licensed. Seven Seas has already flatly stated that they will not license Iono-sama, and they do not have a working relationship with Shueisha. By all means feel free to write them and ask them to change their minds, but don’t expect it to work. You know how emotional men are, they just get all sulky. ^_^

In other upcoming Yuri news…

Yuri Hime Comics is releasing Sukoyaka’s collection Yometori (よめとり), a collection of Morinaga Milk-sensei’s Tsubomi shorts, Ohime-sama no Himitsu (お姫さまのひみつ) and do not forget Kuzushiro’s Love Desu ~Short Story Collection~ (ラブデス。~短期集中連載集~).

Otsu Hiyori’s incredibly sweet and awkward tale of friendship and love Otomodachi kara Hajimemashou (お友達からはじめましょう。) is continuing in a second volume. I reviewed Volume 1 back in 2013.

One more for Hayashiya-sensei. The second volume of Hayate x Blade 2 (はやて×ブレード2 2 )  hits shelves this month. Whee!

Volume 3 of Akili’s Stretch (ストレッチ) also has a May release date.

No title as of yet, but according to this tweet, Hirao Auri-sensei is starting up a new Yuri series in Comic Ryuu magazine about an idol and a fan. The series will start in the August issue (which is released in June, for reasons that make sense only to magazine publishers.)

A new light novel series in the wake of Maria-sama ga Miteru, Yonin Seishimai Yurimonochou (四人制姉妹百合物帳) tells of an exclusive club in an exclusive school, “The Salon” where the girls are as close as sisters.

And Yuri-iro Coordinate Futari no Kiss Moyou (百合色コーディネート ふたりのキス模様) is a romance novel about a girl with a dream to become a fashion designer and model she meets at school. It’s so cute and “girl’s romance comics” sounding, I think I’m going to have to get it. Of course it also looks servicey as hell. ^_^;

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Event News

If you can’t make this week’s Queer & Comics, you can still be a part of this historic event. Help fund an artist so they can make the event themselves. The perks are great and you’ll help make history!

The next Comitia is being held on May 5th at Big Sight in Tokyo. Takemiya Jin-sensei will be selling a Chou Chou Nan Nan sequel. And Circle UKOZ has put some teasers up on Pixiv for their original releases. If anyone is going, can you pick me up a copy of these? ^_^

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Other News

Lauren Orsini has published a new book that might be of interest to some: Build Your Anime Blog: How to Get Started, Stand Out, and Make Money Writing About What You Love. I’m quoted in it, but in my standard “stream of consciousness” style of talking, since it was a phone interview. So expect me to sound breathless. ^_^

YNN Correspondent James W. thought the researchers  among us might be interested in a new Girls Novel Encyclopedia in Japanese, (少女小説事典) that traces the history of shoujo shousetsu and the various booms that they have undergone with encyclopedia entries for series of note.

Translator friend Jocelyne Allen is promoting her newest effort, Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas by Kazuki Sakuraba. It’s a scifi-fantasy about several generations of women in a family, with forays into the occult, girl gangs and more. It sounds like beach-reading to me and is now on my summer-book list.

Let’s end up on a squee note: Check out this fantastically creative Sailor Moon Battle armor cosplay!

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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 | 10 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Dear Brother Set 2, Disk 2 (English)

April 30th, 2015

DearBrother2With Disk 2 of  Dear Brother set 2, we finally encounter the full depths of madness that runs in between Miya-sama and Saint Just and, if we are completely honest, we find it pitiable.

Miya-sama who, we learn, was always an entitled jerk, was jilted by her first love at 12 years old, and has spent the last 6 years wallowing in her own bile and torturing her half-sister because she’s a sadistic jerk.

Now, on the brink of adulthood, her sadism and jerkishness are about to hit a wall…the common decency of a decent commoner.

Miya-sama takes the coincidence of Nanako’s relationship with Henmi personally, and in the twisted scales she uses to judge everyone but herself, finds Nanako to be a threat. She’s tried threatening her, controlling her through the sorority, and in the bottoming out of her sanity, even attempts to seduce her. Luckily for Miya-sama, Nanako is a kind and decent human being and is neither seducable or attracted by insanity. Unfortunately for Saint-Just, she is.

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Now we know everything there is to know about Miya-sama and not one iota of it is good.

Nanako is firming up as the drama deepens. Tears have been replaced by confidence and defiance and she’s such a good person that she’s successful in dragging Mariko back into the world. If Nanako were a real person, I would have no doubt at all that she would be the Sorority club president as a third-year and radically redefine both the school and the sisterhood as her legacy.

It’s not going to get any easier as we move forward, but at least we’ve lanced the wound fully and now we just have to let it drain.

Ratings;

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 9

Miya-sama is a terrible person. Hold onto that thought.

Now, remember, this anime ran on Japanese TV in 1991-1992. And 7 years later, Tenjou Utena ran into a haughty Student Council member who was cruel to her, who had a head of pre-Raphaelite curls and a name as upper-class as Ichinomiya. Imagine, then, what Arisugawa Juri was supposed to make us feel when we first saw her, as she is meant, quite specifically, to recall Miya-sama. When we first saw Juri, we felt…fear.

Posted in Dear Brother, English Anime, Riyoko Ikeda | 5 Comments »


Puella Magi Tart Magica Manga, Volume 2 (魔法少女たると☆マギカ The Legend of “Jeanne d’ Arc”)

April 29th, 2015

Jeanne2Last month, I took a look at the first volume of the new Puella Magica spin-off, which has now been released in English from Yen Press. I found it interesting for squeezing an almost unbelievable real story, the history of Jeanne d’Arc, into the Madoka framework of magical girls.

In Volume 2 of of Puella Magi Tart Magica, (魔法少女たると☆マギカ The Legend of “Jeanne d’ Arc”), the historical record is both more – and less – important to the story. Volume 2 is hip deep into the actual events of the war and Jeanne’s rise to fame., culminating in the climactic scene where she is brought before the Dauphin of France, only to proclaim him a fake, then to identify the true Dauphin from the surrounding courtiers.

A little inexplicably, Gilles de Rais is shoved into the plot  – we’re assured that he’s not into girls, only young boys, so the magical girls will be safe. Uh-huh, okay, thanks Bluebeard.

In the meanwhile, a third girl is added to their complement, Melissa, the inexplicable maid-costume-wearing daughter of a soldier. But Melissa seems like she’s a perfect magical girl candidate and Kyuubey agrees. Jeanne tries to keep her from making a contract, but she’s not to be stopped when it comes to saving her father, Lise and Jeanne.

Aside from these small additions, the story follows Jeanne’s triumphs and ends with her encountering  three girls who Jeanne believes are England’s magical girls. They are not.

The art is still strong and while there is no Yuri, there are strong emotional connections between the magical girls…and some real effort into turning Melissa into more of a person than either Lise or Jeanne. I’m looking forward to reading this in English.

This volume is most interesting when they leave the story free to run it’s own course without Bluebeards and evil witches.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 6
Yuri – 1
Service – 4 Vilence is still violence-y

Overall – 8

The book is still an interesting example of squeezing an actual existing legend into this series’ framework.

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