2014 Okazu Gift Guide

December 14th, 2014

I know this is really kind of late this year. Chanukah, Solstice, Christmas and Kwanzaa are all piling up quickly. I’ve done my best to provide links to items on Amazon and RightStuf where I can, to make your online shopping easy! This is not a Top Ten List, so there’s no rhyme or reason or order, just some great gift ideas for yourself or the Yuri lover in your life.  So sorry again for the delay but here is the official 2002 Okazu Gift Guide! Haha, just kidding, but on this list everything old is new again, and we’re revisiting a lot of past faves. ^_^

Let’s start with Anime.

Can I express how much I like that we have moved to Box and Season sets? This kind of thing used to be impossible when we had to do this a 2 episodes at a time. How did we even manage to stay fans?

 

Rose of Versailles 

The entire series is now available on DVD! All 40 Episodes of this timeless historical drama, with one of the most exceptional Girl Prince leads ever created.

Who will like it: Fans of historical fiction, French Revolution, soap opera, Takarazuka fans and, of course, fans of the Girl Prince type heroine.

Part 1 – Amazon/RightStuf |Part 2 – Amazon /RightStuf |  Complete Set on RightStuf

While you’re indulging in that oh-so-shoujo wallow of feels and melodrama, you might as well keep your finger on the Riyoko Ikeda button.

 

Dear Brother

If you haven’t had a chance to see this, you really should. It’s a surprising not-at-all easy thing to watch, but it’s really good. Everyone involved was at the top of their form for this dark, yet completely not paranormal YA school classic.

Who will like it: People who love to have feels when watching media, fans of the classic shoujo genre, fans of Dezaki Osamu’s animation.

DVD Set 1 – Amazon /RightStuf

 

smdvdbd1Sailor Moon

Making our way forward in time, we’re still looking backward at another foundational series for Yuri fans everywhere. The first half of the first season of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon is now available from Viz Media, with the second half coming out in February. While we’re waiting for Sailor Moon Crystal to come out on DVD/BD, have fun watching the Monsters of the Day, the terrible moralizing and messy plots of the original.

Who will like it: More shoujo, more! Magical girl fans, 90s anime fans, die-hard Sailor Moon fans and anyone who you think would be happy shouting “Moon Healing Escalation!”

Season 1 Part 1 DVD/BD Combo – Amazon  | Season Part 2 DVD/BD Combo – Amazon  (I am limiting options here, but there are about 700000 editions, with varying levels of extras.)

 

Ikktouxx

Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor & Shugaku Toshi Keppu-roku OVA (Season 4)

Too shoujo-y, you say? Too many tears? I think I hear you asking for something with a little oomph. Well, amazingly, we got something for you. How about chicks with big boobs that beat the leaving crap out of each other?

This season 4 collection has all the exploding clothes, and upskirt shots you’ve never wanted, combined with a fairly not-suckass story and even slight hints of Yuri. Look, Ikkitousen is not for anyone who wants their anime to have dignity. But if you’re laying in the gutter anyway, you might as well have something to look at.

Who will like it: Me, Serge and a few other people who have given up on having a soul, as long as the girls can punch the lights out of their opponents.

Season 4 DVD Box Set – Amazon / RightStuf

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Let’s move on to some Manga suggestions. It wasn’t a terrible year for Yuri. ^_^

 

Whispered Words

ww1Volume 1, contains the first 3 volumes of Ikeda Takashi’s Yuri manga series Sasmekikoto. Volume 2, which hit shelves in October, has the next 3 volumes, which of course leaves us at the lowest point of the series. We all have to buy a lot of Volume 1 and 2, so we make sure we get Volume 3 in Spring 2015, which is awesome! ^_^

Here’s hoping this title is successful enough for OnePeace to consider licensing more Yuri.

Who will like it: Any long-time Yuri fans, especially those who can recognize the parody aspect of the many Yuri tropes in early chapters.

Volume 1 – Amazon / RightStuf | Volume 2 – Amazon / RightStuf | Volume 3 – Amazon

 

GP1Gakuen Polizi

Morinaga Milk is one of the best-selling Yuri authors in English, for a variety of factors. Coming off her incredibly successful Girfriends series, Gakuen Polizi is more focused on action, some real -life drama and comedy that her romances typically are. It’s a nice change of pace for her and for us.

This two-part series will make a terrific “now and later” gift for a Yuri loving friend, with Volume 1 available now and V2 coming out in April.

Who will like it: Morinaga Milk fans, people who are on the fence about all-romance Yuri, people who like school life drama-comedy and police drama fans.

Volume 1 –  Amazon/RightStuf | Volume 2 –  Amazon/RightStuf

 

citrusCitrus

Also coming soon from Seven Seas is Citrus, a popular Yuri manga currently running in Comic Yuri Hime magazine. The story follows two step-sisters who find themselves bound by a deep, yet uncomfortable, attraction to each other, in the middle of family drama, while trying to balance their lives at school and home.

Who will like it: People who like their forbidden love to be extra forbidden, this story is hot to fans of Yuri incest, and lukewarm to those who don’t find it as attractive.

Volume 1 – Amazon /RightStuf | Volume 2 – Amazon / RightStuf

 

Can’t decide what you want? Try one of these suggestions!

 

downloadCrunchyroll Subscription

Don’t know what get or what to ask for? This gift is good for anyone, any age, any interest in anime or manga. There’s bound to be something there for any fan. For as little as the cost of a sandwich per month, you and/or someone you love can access tons of anime, and watch as the selection of manga grows! There’s no real down-side to this gift. ^_^ Check out the slowly expanding Yuri anime selection and the new 2014 titles, like Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san and Sakura Trick, and Sailor Moon Crystal, as well as old favorites.

 

Right Stuff Gift Certificategiftcertificate

TRSI has piles of rock bottom deals and unique goods, as well as reasonably priced anime and English-language manga.

They do tons of sales and have an Anime Club to increase savings.  There’s a fair bet that you or the person who receives this gift will be able to scratch some anime or manga or other itch thoroughly. ^_^

 

 

 transparent-pixel._V192551059_ a_generic_white_10_us_noto_email_us-mainAmazon Gift Certificate

I’m pretty sure this is self-explanatory. ^_^ Choose from a e-certificate or a physical one and customize it with your own images.  They go over pretty well.

 

Posted in Gift Guides | 15 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – December 13, 2014

December 13th, 2014

YNN_Lissa

Yuri Anime

The big news in Yuri anime is the upcoming series Yuri Kuma Arashi, visioneered by Ikuhara Kunihiko with character designs and manga drawn by a favorite Yuri manga artist, Morishima Akiko. Slated for an early January release, we’re getting tantalizing glimpses of characters and setting as we get closer.

A second Promo Video has been released – watch it on ANN, they’ve provided a text translation of the words, as well. Everything looks adorable as expected. But, I feel some trepidation. While the manga and the anime do not appear to be the exact same story, this is typical for Ikuhara’s work and doesn’t bother me. But when I open the pages of Birz magazine where the manga is running and see the characters presented like this (click to enlarge):

kumashots

 

I can’t but help feel I’m being made fun of. Is the problem merely that the audience for Birz is presumed to be bottom-feeders? I don’t know. ^_^;

Interestingly, the manga for Mawaru Penguindrum runs in Birz as well and Ikuhara is using two different aliases for the two manga projects. O_o

Moving on – if you, like me, haven’t had the heart to watch the second season of Psycho-Pass, YNN Correspondent Katherine H. has written in to assure us that Shion and Yayoi’s relationship is, thus far, intact. “Mika, the new Inspector who started her job at the end of season 1 and you might remember as the ponytailed girl from the girls’ school arc who Yayoi comforted, loathes latent criminals but has a thing for Yayoi. Yayoi seems to like her, but in a “you’re like a little sister to me” way (like when she pats Mika’s head when giving her some advice), and is still with Shion. The most recent episode compelled me to report on this season because it shows Yayoi and Shion discussing work in their bedroom after having obviously had sex again. Here’s hoping they continue not to die. lol” ^_^ Katherine has promised us a full series review when it is over.

Komatsu-san over at Crunchyroll News reports that the first six Pretty Cure movies are getting a Blu-Ray release for the first time in Japan. PreCure fandom has certainly proven their long-term loyalty!

Komatsu-san also has a report about the Maria-sama ga Miteru anime 10th anniversary event being held this month through the new year in Asagaya Anime Street in Tokyo. The complete series Blu-Ray box set is being released on December 19th. If you’re going to be around Tokyo in the next few weeks, do consider writing up a report for us!

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Other News

Turning to ANN once more, Bamboo Dong helps us express our inner magical girl with  Card Captor Sakura makeup kit and “magical girl” costume patterns from McCalls. (For the folks who don’t know McCalls, they make patterns for people who sew their own clothes or costumes. When I was growing up, practically every house had a few random McCalls patterns strewn around the sewing machine.)

The Prism Queer Comics Press Grant is open to applications. Every year, Prism awards the Grant to assist in the publication and promotion of LGBT comics. Applications are open until March 2015

Three LGBT Gamers Talk About Queering Geek Culture, including the fabulous Zan Christensen of LBGTQ Comics Publisher Northwest Press on Bitch Magazine.

Autostraddle has put together an amazing list of 25 Queer and Trans Women Comic Creators to Support – we’ve featured a bunch of them here on YNN!

And a new focus for us here, Priya’s Shakti is a “augmented reality” comic from India that teams up a human woman and a goddess to fight back on behalf of rape survivors. Scroll down and watch the trailer. This looks really interesting!

 

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Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondentby 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 | 12 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Philosophia

December 11th, 2014

philosophiaAmano Shuninta’s Philosophia began its life as a series of doujinshi. I was fortunate enough to get some, but not all, of them, when I attended the 2011 Girls Love Fest event. I was never able to get the entire run so of course was thrilled that Yuri Hime Comics had collected the whole set for me and published it as a single volume.

The story is told from the perspective of a young college student, Ai-chan, who meets and bonds with college sempai  Shi over smoking and coffee. Shi is hard to understand or get to know, and Ai resistant to the idea that she might be “interested” in her. But after Shi falls ill, and it’s Ai who gets her to the hospital, it’s impossible for Ai to ignore her feelings, as confused and confounded by Shi as she is.

Shi, who has been very aware of Ai’s interest has made it all but impossible for Ai to get to know anything about her life. In the middle of the series, we learn why. In part it has to do with a complicated love-hate relationship with her family and especially her young stepmother, with whom her relationship is exceptionally complicated.

We also look back at Ai’s relationships and her inability to really understand like or love. She’s mortified at herself for liking, perhaps, loving Shi, when the other woman clearly prefers to remain at an emotional distance.

Shi contacts Ai once more to let her know that she’s going out of the country. Ai finds out when her plane leaves and meets her at the airport. Shi kisses Ai, but it’s clearly because this is “Goodbye.” Shi will never return home.

Ai goes on to become a teacher, but in a new epilogue, she meets a half-sister Shi does not know she has who is a dead ringer for Shi.

To say that this is a series for adults is not an understatement. The feelings here are complex, nuanced, complicated and fundamentally not “happy” or “sad.” Barring the epilogue, this is a story that might very well take place in the real world and, as such, does not have an impetus to end, much less happily ever after. As I say, it’s a book for adult tastes.

The epilogue, which was drawn especially for this volume, posed a unique problem for me. I, not having a twin, but being a common “type” am frequently mistaken for other people. Nonetheless, I’d like to think that I, as a human, have an individual “me”-ness that precludes someone who found me interesting being able to simply transfer those feelings to a simulacrum, which is kind of the set up here. Ai will now have a “new” Shi to get to know, hopefully one unburdened by the complicated life of the other. But…really? Because although this person looks like Shi, what is the likelihood that she is like Shi, but without the baggage? And worse, they meet because they are teacher and student, which ideally puts another layer of  emotional distance between them. So, while the meeting is presented as a reboot of a sort, I feel that if Ai and Shi were real people, then it would not make Ai happy to have this Shi-alike in her class, particularly. ^_^;

Shuninta-sensei’s art is already pretty strong in this series, with her characteristic style almost fully developed. And to my recollection, I hadn’t seen any recent Yuri manga in which cigarettes and coffee were such important plot devices, so it was both nostalgic and modern at the same time.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – Complex, real, not tidy at all 10
Story – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 2

Overall – 8

I very much liked that the characters’ names were incorporated into the title. Ai (Love) + Shi (Wisdom) = Philo + Sophia

An adult read, which went down smoothly and left a strong aftertaste. A refreshing change of pace from featureless characters in Yuri pantomimes.

Posted in Amano Shuninta, Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Manga | 6 Comments »


LGBTQ: Coming Out Letters (カミングアウト・レターズ)

December 10th, 2014

COLComing Out Letters (カミングアウト・レターズ)、edited by Sunagawa Hideki and RYOJI, is a collection of correspondences between gays/lesbians and their parents or teachers and the responses. Chapters begin with the lesbian or gay person writing about the circumstances in which they came out to their parent or teacher – about aborted attempts, fears, and consequences

In the first 2/3 of the book,we encounter a variety of emotions on both sides – confusion, fear, acceptance and love. In almost all cases, mothers were quicker to accept their children, and while a few fathers were initially not accepting, in every case, the family found their way back to each other. Especially touching are the correspondences between a performance artist and her awesome mom, a young man whose mother accompanied him to Pride parades and cooked for his friends and a story relayed by one of the editors of a young man, initially rejected by his father, but who eventually was able to accept his son, and be there when he married his husband.

The final third of the book are letters by former students telling former teachers about moments which were, for the students, a coming out, even if the teacher missed it. Of these, the most interesting is a teacher who expresses understanding of a student because he is a Christian, which is a small minority in Japan. Being a member of a misunderstood minority has made him completely accepting of her choices.

This is followed by a lovely group talk between parents about their experiences and a final note to people considering coming out. (Summary – whether you do, or not, the choice you make right now is the right choice for you right now.)

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Letters are footnoted with explanations of LGBTQ terminology and media mentioned, which strongly reminded me how honestly important to non-gay people decent media representation of gay people is. We fear most what we are unfamiliar with. You may or may not care that Ellen Degeneres or Anderson Cooper is gay, but when people who do not know they know gay people learn about famous, successful people who are gay, it familiarizes them with the idea that it’s not an invitation to a miserable, lonely life of self-loathing.

My number one takeaway from this book is, honestly, if you remove the fear of rejection associated with coming out, gay people are pretty damn boring. ^_^ We’re forced to make a crisis out of what for straight people is just growing up and falling in lust and love. (Not that that isn’t a crisis for some straight folks, too…) But when parents get over their fears and confusions, they find their children are still their children and children learn their parents are way more amazing than they expected.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

This isn’t a riveting read for a casual reader, but if you wanted a overview of Gay and Lesbian life in Japan right now, or were studying LGBTQ Japanese culture I’d recommend this book completely.

Posted in LGBTQ | 4 Comments »


LGBTQ Manga: Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ), Volume 5

December 8th, 2014

TKB5 Waaaaauuuuuughhhh!!!!!

Arrrgh!!!

UGH

UGh

Ugh.

Okay… I think I can talk about Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ) now. Deep breath.

Volume 5 of Chiho Saito’s stunningly gorgeous, emotionally crushing version of this Heian classic begins with the worst thing possible, Sarasoju, this fine, upstanding young courtier…is pregnant. Sarasoju is, not at all surprisingly, devastated at the thought. Having decided to live as a man, Sarasoju’s life is about to come crashing down. Running away will not, cannot help, but what else can Sarasoju do?

With Sarasoju’s absence, other cracks in the life of the capital begin to expand. Shinohime’s affair with Tsuwabuki is discovered and she is cast out of her home. Tsuwabuki takes her in.

And meanwhile, in the depths of Toguu-sama’s quarters, Suiren is forced to confront feelings for Toguu-sama that cannot, will not, bring anyone happiness. When Toguu-sama seeks respite in Suiren’s arms, Suiren’s feelings cannot be restrained. As the book comes to a close, they kiss.

Auuugggh. Reading this story is like getting hot sauce in a paper cut. It isn’t gonna kill me, but it’s not making me happy, either. And yet, I can’t shake the thought that Saito-sensei isn’t going to just drop the mic and leave us unhappy. She draws shoujo manga after all. And her work is damnably beautiful. I don’t want to watch…but I can’t look away.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 3
LGBTQ – 6

Overall – 9

Deep, calming breaths.

Posted in LGBTQ, Saitou Chiho | 1 Comment »