Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 8 (百合姫 Wildrose)

September 4th, 2014

YWH8The one thing that can incontrovertibly be said about the Yuri Hime Wildrose anthology series is that they embody my definition of Yuri as “lesbian content without lesbian identity.” They are filled to the brim with “plot, what plot?” type stories that are constructed with minimal character development and maximum sexual activity. These volumes are Yuri porn and not much more.

What is sort of vaguely interesting about them, has been the contributors included in the collections. Some, like Saburota (Citrus) would be surprising to not see included. Others, like Amano Shuninta, (Phlosophia) ae a welcome sight. And non-Comic Yuri Hime contributor, Nanzaki Iku (Queen’s Blade), returns once again.

I had no particular expectations about Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 8 (百合姫 Wildrose) Of the various stories, I found the two most notable to be by relative “newcomer” Kuzushiro, who provides a multi-part series that opens the book. The story itself isn’t notable, but seeing a Kuzushiro story that had an actual sex scene was. I would like to commend him for having some sense of what sex between two women might be like, and the delicacy with which he portrays it. Not once did I want to cringe.

Ohzawa Yayoi’s story was also reasonable and about young adults, which is always a pleasure. Amano Shuninta pulled out the stops on her story, “Milky” for full-sexy time hijinks.

I actually enjoy Chisako’s work in Comic Yuri Hime, but her story,  which obsesses about underwear, did not push any of my buttons in a positive way.

I genuinely enjoyed “Singin’ in the Rain”, Nanzaki Iku’s contribution. She’s left her Shizuku/Natsuki clones behind and is given a little time to actually develop her characters here, which she does, deftly. It was good to see her work again, it’s been too long.

Art in this volume  is better than usual with a YHW. Even Kuzushiro puts his best foot forward.

I can never say I love the Yuri Hime Wildrose series, but I didn’t hate this volume either. The couples are mostly in mutual affection with one another, the sex is not icky making, and the artists seem to be having fun – and let me tell you how important that is.

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Ratings:

Variable, of course

Overall – 8

For once I think I’m actually keeping a volume of Yuri Hime Wildrose.

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Kill La Kill Manga (キルラキル)

September 2nd, 2014

klkm1In advance of the UDON Entertainment release of the Kill La Kill Manga in English, (and since everything in the bookstore was on sale,) I thought I’d grab a copy in Japanese and give it a look.

Kill La Kill manga (キルラキル) (this link goes to the Kindle version,) as one might expect, is pretty much word for word, scene for scene, from the anime.

If you haven’t seen the anime, then let me set up the story. In a multitopian future, where the haves have a lot and the have-nots have even less than they do now, there is a school that is ruled by those with the power of the Goku uniforms – uniforms that enhance their natural skills. Into this school rides an outsider, a girl names Matoi Ryuuko, who bears half of an outsized scissor and a massive grudge against the person who killed her father. This set up is classic martial arts movie, right down to it’s basic weave. Ryuuko will have to fight her way up the hierarchy to be worth to fight the head of the school, Kiryuuin Satsuki.

If you have watched the anime, you know that none of this is the real story. ^_^ (Please do not spoil it though.)

For you, I want to note a few things – the initial scene with Sengetsu is much less stressful in the manga than it was in the anime. It’s not as prolonged, obviously we have no sound, and the narrative softens the edginess that lead it to inevitably be rape scene-like. Perhaps my familiarity with what would happen helped, as well. All told, it was not nearly as bad.

Mako-chan is completely Mako-chan-ish. If you feel that there is a closeness beyond friendship between Ryuuko and Mako, I’m pretty sure you’ll get that same vibe from the manga. In fact, because the words are near identical to the anime, you can practically hear each seiyuu say their lines. I’ll be interested to see how UDON handles the quirks of accent and speech in this manga, but my gut sense is they’ll just ignore most of it and present it all in “generic translation voice.”

Akizuki Ryo’s art is pretty much perfect for the narrative and there’s less service than the anime. Although there is service, but it is neither generic, nor excessive, considering the narrative with 20/20 hindsight.

Overall, it’s still an over the top story line, with great action and an interesting discussion of the nature of power, privilege and other important things wrapped in an incredibly silly story. A fun read and I look forward to the English release!

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Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7  It barely gets started here, but for action alone, it’s good
Characters – 7 We’ve only just gotten to know them as of yet. This score will go up
Yuri – 0
Service – 5

Overall – 7 A sold start, I look forward to more

If you have either seen the entire story, or do not mind spoilers, I recommend this food for thought: Is Kill La Kill a Warning About Wearable Technology?

 

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – August 30, 2014

August 30th, 2014

YNN_MariK

Okazu News

Our top news this week is the grand opening of subscriptions to Okazu.

If you love reading weekly news round-ups,  reviews of Yuri manga, anime and related media, special features such as Event Reports,  Interviews with Yuri Creators, Opinion pieces and Articles on the cultural and literary History of Yuri, then please support Okazu and help us maintain the quality and quantity of our content. For an overview of our our goals and rewards, and to subscribe, please visit Okazu on Patreon!

I’ll back off beating this drum now, but you’ll see links at the bottom of most posts going forward and I expect I’ll do awareness -raising again towards the end of the year. Don”t worry if you can’t doing anything now – this is not a race. Subscriptions links will remain live and I plan on doing Okazu for  long, long time. ^_^

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YNN Correspondent Roundup

From YNN Correspondent Ellen K, news that Takarazuka is working on another anime/manga -related character show, this time the infamous thief Lupin the Third.

YNN Senior European Correspondent Grisznak reports that Polish doujinshi company, The Cold Desire, is looking for a authors for the second edition of their Yuri fiction anthology. They have previously released a Yuri manga anthology with Polish authors and a volume of Yuri fiction. Great news that they’ve found enough creators and readers to go a second volume. Good luck to them. ^_^

YNN Correspondent Jin notes that ANN has reported amazing news – Yuri Kuma Arashi, a joint project with Utena and Penguindrun director Ikuhara Kunihiko, with character designs by Morishima Akiko is being made into an anime. This should be interesting, at the very least. ^_^

YNN Senior Correspondent Erin S has a massive pile of lovely queer webcomics that she wanted to share with you all:

Her Wings by Kat Leyh (available as a download for the incredibly low price of $2)

Once Upon A Time There Was A Prince from the Crispy Fish Tumblr

A  little love story about mermaids and tattoos – from the Charmingly Antiquated Tumblr

From The Great  Experiment: The Hand of a Princess. This was fantastic. ^_^

Bethany Parker’s  sobering Day In the Life of  Queer Black Woman and an equally sobering look at how bisexuals are not always welcome at LGBTQ events, from EmpathizeThis.com

Just a note on Tumblr – Tumblr has great mechanics for sharing within Tumblr, but exceedingly poor mechanics to rtain attribution and credit. If you have a Tumblr thing to share, if you can send me the link to the actual real original, that’d be great. Creators – put your damn name on your comics!

To this list of fantastic social commentary in comic form I want to add Karine Charlebois‘  Illustrated Guide to Issues of Harassment, Representation, And Media Criticism, written up on The Mary Sue. This was just a lovely little conversation with readers who still aren’t quite cluing in.  I suggest bookmarking it, it will probably come in handy at some point. ^_^

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That’s a wrap for this week! 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 LGBTQ, Okazu News, Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Game

August 29th, 2014

gametjI’ve been saving this review for a really good day. The weather today is perfect. We took a long walk, enjoyed fresh vegetables from local farms for our meals and it seemed awfully like today was pretty perfect. And so, it seems the right time to review game by Takemiya Jin-sensei, a lovely collection of her stories from Comic Yuri Hime. (Also available on Kindle in Japan.)

In the first half of this volume, we return to Mayu and Saki’s school from Omoi no Kakera. (Saki even makes a brief, uncredited cameo.) Moriko is facinated by the foreign student in class, Becky. Becky’s smart, attractive…she’s shiny. And when she really gets a good long look at Moriko, she sees a strong resemblance to a character she really likes in a series of h-games. Becky adapts some pretty underhanded tactics, moves past Moriko’s boundaries and seduces her.

But Moriko can’t shake the idea that it’s not Moriko, Becky sees, but Mako-nyan. Making things worse, Becky seems awfully close – and similar to- Moriko’s gay older sister. Moriko feels like any sincere relationship isn’t possible with Becky not being truthful about her real interest. As Moriko realizes that she herself is interested in Becky, it all becomes intolerable.

Thankfully, some honest discussion solves matters and the two end up as a happy otaku couple. This story plays with the idea of fandom, using doujinshi games, novels, manga and cosplay as tools in Becky’s seduction of Moriko, as well as insight to her/our inner lives. There’s a bit of service of very fannish variety. More implication of things happening than actual explicit scenes.

The second half of the volume ties up Satomi and Nana’s story. Satomi, you may remember, came to understand herself in the “Mekakushi no Koi” story arc in steps. We originally met Nana back in Kila Kila, when she had a crush on her best friend Youko’s sister, Tsukiko.  Now, finally, circumstances forces  Nana to be honest about her feelings for Satomi and to see that Satomi has always been honest with her. I very much like how Satomi, who was reserved and frightened when we fist met her, has really become completely comfortable with herself and is now a bit of a tease. ^_^

It’s a wonderful wrap up to stories set in this increasingly populated world that Takemiya-sensei has created for us!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Yuri – 9 / Lesbian – 9
Service  –  6

Overall – 10

I’m always insanely happy to read and review another collection from one of my favorite authors. This was a perfect way to end a perfect day. ^_^

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Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Takemiya Jin, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Rose of Versailles Anime, Part 2, Disk 4 (English)

August 28th, 2014

Rose-of-Versailles2Rose of Versailles, Part 2 continues to be pointedly relevant and prescient right to the very last disk.

On the eve of the French Revolution, Oscar and Andre’ finally break past the barriers that have been keeping them apart. They “become husband and wife” as the series delicately puts it, while showing us an artistic rendering of them naked.

The events of the the storming of the Bastille and the subsequent days of bloodletting play out after our principles have all been taken off the board, to be relayed by the Greek chorus of Alain, Bernard and Rosalie.

In my ongoing research as I watched this final disk, I learned that the French Guards did indeed side with the people over the royal household and they were a key element at the storming of the Bastille. That was interesting.

The thing that will haunt me, however, is the scene when the Army faces an angry mob and fires into it, killing a child. The scene was chilling in the light of the recent events in Missouri, where a belligerent police department punished protesters and left me feeling quite hollow.

The story draws to a close, but I’m not going to lie, it’s a bitter ending to a story that was too realistic to ever have a happy end.

TRSI did a bangup job on this series, and this was really hammered home on this final volume when I ran into one bit of translation that could have been better. It was such a rare occurrence that it really highlighted the overall quality of the translation. And, the visuals looked damn good for an old anime. I’m impressed and after a rest to recharge my ability to handle emotionally wrecking anime, I’ll get started on Dear Brother! ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters 9
Yuri – 0
Service – 1 (on principle)

Overall – 8

There is no doubt in my mind that this series is a classic. There is also no doubt in my mind that it will be another 20 years before I watch it again….phew.

Posted in English Anime, Rose of Versailles | 3 Comments »