Taking the weekend to do nothing and rest. See you next week!
Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 13 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり)
The cover of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 13 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) is a bit of a tease, as it shows the characters from Amakure Gido’s Shuden ni ha Kaeshimasu, which is over and done with. :-( But it’s still a cute picture.
The lead story by Itou Hachi, “Haru no Minuet” is a lovely story about a girl who becomes close with a hearing-impaired classmate. I’d love to see more Yuri stories that include issues of ability (and, gosh, folks, if you’re drawing/writing Yuri or lesbian-themed work, let’s get some diversity in there!)
In “Taiyou to Kaze-san,” Yamada and Kaze get to spend the day together in the pool. This series is so sweet it hurts.
I adored Shimano Yae’s “Makoto Gohan” for many reasons, none of which will be surprising. An adult woman, in a long term relationship with another women who communicates her love through food. This is my life and it made me extra happy to see it in manga form.
In Morishima Akiko’s “Shoujo Paradigm” Masami and Midori need to work out just exactly what their relationship is, really.
Morinaga Milk’s “Ohime-sama no Himitsu” takes a turn. As Miu and Fujiwara-sempai decide to give their relationship a real go, Fujiwara’s fans desert her for another cool sempai-type, Hirozawa, since Miu has Fujiwara wrapped up. Fujiwara is clearly happy with their new course, but Miu is starting to think she’s holding everyone back from being happy….This series started out a s bit of fluff, but I think we’ll get at least one solid volume from it, and with the new chapter, I’m really hoping for two and a decent story. It definitely has potential.
What do you do if the person you didn’t know you liked tells you she has a girlfriend? This is is what Akuta Fumie asks in “watashi no sukina anokonokoto.”
“Under One Roof” continues to roll around in the same scene over and over as Miho comes home to her landlady’s gay friends over for dinner and innuendo once more, but it works for me. ^_^
As always there are many other stories and artists of note in this issue and surely there will be something that will appeal in this solid Yuri anthology magazine.
Ratings:
Overall – 8
LGBTQ Manga: Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ), Volume 3
A lot happens in Volume 3 of Saito Chiho-sensei’s Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ).
Sarasojuu’s friend and peer, Tsuwabuki, has fallen for Sarasojuu’s wife, Shinohime. Alone and unable to understand why her husband does not make love to her, Shinohime falls willingly into his arms.
Both Tsuwabuki and Shinohime are overcome with shame and can’t face Sarasojuu, who is, obviously concerned and confused.
And then, Shinohime is found to be pregnant. Sarasojuu is shocked. Clearly, Shinohime is sleeping with another man, and who can blame her. Sarasojuu visits her father, proposing that Shinohime be told the truth, but he puts the cabosh on that, pointing out sensibly that, if the truth were spoken out loud, even in secret, it would spread fast.
In the meantime Toguu-sama is heading to the mountains taking Suiren with her. Suiren probably doesn’t realize it yet, but we can see Suiren is falling for Toguu-sama, and it’s kind of cute, but of course there’s the whole gender thing complicating matters.
Toguu-sama allows Suiren to invite Sarasojuu to the mountains to accompany their party. In the mountains, the two siblings meet the master of the mountain, Yoshinomiya who instantly sees who they truly are. Returning home, Sarasojuu “forgives” Shinohime and eventually comes to believe that the father is Tsuwabuki.
In the capital, the Mikado learns of a city warehouse that is not releasing rice to the people and decides that what they need is the return of Yamato Takeru, a hero from the ancient epic Kojiki, to enact the Mikado’s will. (As an aside, Yamato Takeru is known to have hidden by disguising himself as a woman. This indicates to me that Saito-sensei is having some fun with this story, about a boy who is a girl physically, who is playing a boy dressed as a girl.)
Sarasojuu and Tsuwabuki perform their roles and the warehouse is opened (shades of Mito Koumon there, honestly, with the officials overturning their sake bowls in shock at their appearance.) Afterwards, they are greeted by Shikibukyo-no-miya who blatantly claims Sarasojuu for his evening’s entertainment. To save his friend from this odious man, Tsuwabuki volunteers himself to be the priest’s sex toy. They return to the capital and finally, Sarasojuu is able to confront Tsuwabuki about being the child’s father. Now that the child is born, Sarasojuu offers to divorce Shinohime so Tsuwabuki can raise his daughter. They argue and, as the book comes to an end, Tsuwabuki may have discovered the truth about Sarasojuu’s body.
Ratings:
Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 3
LGBTQ – 5 This volume was very Victor/Victoria.
Overall – 9
A lot happened in this volume….and how it will turn out I have no idea. I’m on pins and needles here. I probably won’t get to Volume 4 for months. Arrghh!
Yuri Network News (百合ネットワークニュース) – July 12, 2014
Yuri Anime
Sabagebu! anime is upon us and Crunchyroll News has the previews and some cast updates and is streaming the anime for your viewing pleasure. The anime is only remotely like the shoujo manga I read, so I assume it’s closer to the spinoff version running in Morning magazine. It’s still fun and Sentai Filmworks announced the license for the series at Anime Expo.
We’ve got some of the staff information on Psycho-Pass 2, now, but I still say that we really shouldn’t expect a lot on the Yuri side without Fukami Makoto on board.
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Sailor Moon News
Viz announced the dub cast for the original Sailor Moon anime series at Anime Expo.
Friends in the Los Angeles area, if you can, make it over to Meltdown Comics for a multi-artist Sailor Moon art exhibit the week of August 16th. Send us pictures!
If you deeply cared about the hack job DiC made of the original Sailor Moon dub, check out the dub director’s tell-all book.
The Sailor Moon Musical: La Reconquista DVD trailer is now a thing you can watch! The second musical, Petite Étrangère is so far scheduled for an August premiere.
And, honestly I wanted to know this, so I thought maybe a few of you did, too. The simulcast in 10 languages on NicoNicoDouga had 1 million views in the first two days.
The next high-end accessory from the Sailor Moon money-raking-in team are some lovely Senshi-themed rings.
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Yuri Manga and Comics
Sparkler Monthly is making Denise Schroeder’s adorable little Girl-Meets-Girl comic, Before You Go, available on Kindle, as well as still having some paper copies left. Let’s sell this baby out, so we get more Yuri.
Kawai Roh’s new Yuri manga collection Mikansei Girl (未完成ガール), hits shelves next week.
Solomon Fletcher introduces his new comic, The Forest, about “two queer witches who perform a spell together to save a forest”.
The team that brought you Princeless has page from a new title – Princeless: The Pirate Princess up on their Tumblr.
Comic Flapper is starting up a Yuricest series that reads in Japanese Saiyuri no Imouto ha Tenshi-san, and in English, An Angel Who Has Swooped Down Was My Little Sister.
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LGBTQ Event
If you’re in the San Francisco area this weekend, check out GaymerX, the queer gaming convention. And don’t miss our friend and friend of Yuriko, Regina Buenaobra who is going to be on several panels!
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Other News
Jamie Lynn Lano, who is an absolute doll, has officially published her memoir, Princess of Tennis, which tells of her time assisting the mangaka who creates Prince of Tennis, on her way to becoming a successful manga artist. It’s great stuff, especially if you’re hoping to get work in the Japanese industry.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Silent Mobius, creator Asamiya Kia is debuting new manga series Silent Mobius QD, which will run in Monthly Young Magazine.
Hentai website Fakku has contracted with Wani Publishing (who is responsible for Ikkitousen, among other series) for h-manga online publishing. Whether we actually ever get Onegai Suzune-chan or other actually Yuri manga, remains to be seen.
Oh, look, there’ll be a sequel to that amusingly awful live-action series, Innocent Lilies.
Take a look at this cute comic on Sailor Moon/Thor/Brave hair issues.
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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!
Manga no Tsukurikata, Volume 8 (まんがの作り方)
In Volume 8 of Manga no Tsukirikata (まんがの作り方) something happens, but it’s too late to salvage this series.
First Masato suddenly develops a cute sempai, although he never seemed to belong to a club or anything. There’s a lot of talking about making manga and deadlines, but not that much doing of it. We stop all the talking and not doing that much to play some ping pong…then suddenly we learn that Morishita, surrounded as she is by a guy hopelessly in like with her, his talentless and graceless sister with whom she is hopelessly in like and Takeda who hates her, and both Kawaguchis, but admires her professional alter ego, admits to being in a professional slump. Imagine that.
Having admitted that, the manga artists all decide to reapply themselves to their work, no one pays any attention to Masato and Kawaguchi asks Morishita to go out with her, probably for real this time. Maybe. We hope.
Just in case we enjoyed any of this even a little, the extra story is about a girl who becomes famous showing off her underwear, but is surplanted in popularity by a girl who shows her bra to make us hate ourselves all over again.
8 Volumes of this “Yuri” manga without so much as the scrapings of actual emotional connection. It’s not even worth excoriating.
Ratings:
Art – Mostly competent
Story – Nonexistent
Characters – Hesitant
Service – Extant
Yuri – Irrelevant
Overall – Thank the gods that’s over.
But still, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Dan P. for making it possible for me to finish this thing. How does a series so boring get 8 volumes?
