Princess Knight Anime, Part 1 – Disk 4 (English) and a Contest!

October 21st, 2013

Disk 4 of Princess Knight continues to be more difficult for me to watch than I expected. While Knight’s adventures remain exciting, the constant – and to my mind, creepy – obsession with her sex absolutely kills any enjoyment I eke out of the story.

On the one hand, Knight is praised as being the very epitome of a fine Prince – handsome, brave, honest, kind. Glossed over that is the emphatic reminder that she is not, never will be, a Prince at all. Her mother feels terrible about “forcing” her to act as a boy, but it’s pretty obvious that she prefers to do so. And yet, when Knight is wrestled into a dress, she longs for that, as well. Destined to never be allowed to be comfortable in her own body no matter what she chooses. Poor Knight.

While watching this anime and thinking of the constant pressure Knight faces, I was looking back through my own youth and feel the need to thank my parents for making it possible for me to get boy’s clothes in my early teen years, rather than forcing me to wear girls’ clothes. That was pretty important to me, especially in retrospect.  ^_^

So, we head into the final Disk of Set 1, and thanks to the generosity of TRSI, we have two copies of Set 1 to give away!

In the comments, please put your name age and country and if you’d be so kind to register with WP, so there’s an email I can contact you at, I will announce the winners when I review Disk 5. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 4
Characters – 7
Story – 6 It just sort of starts grinding here

Overall – 6

I still like it best when Knight can just be knightly, without other people’s issues. ^_^

Posted in English Anime, Ribon no Kishi / Princess Knight | 16 Comments »


Summer Reading: Chocolates for Breakfast (English)

October 20th, 2013

cfbWell into autumn as we are, I had one last Summer Reading choice on my plate.  Back in August, I mentioned the republishing of Pamela Moore’s mid-century novel about dissipated youth, Chocolates for Breakfast. AfterEllen.com discusses the author’s life and death and reprints the censored passages in which the main character thinks about her feelings for the  English teacher on which she has a crush. These passages are still not included in the text of the book as published, but Moore’s son discusses them in the afterword.

Despite those passages, perhaps because of them, I would not call this book a “lesbian” novel in any meaningful way. The crush is exactly that – a crush. It’s ephemeral, a fantasy of time and place, and lack of other stimulus.

However, in every way this book is something that should be read. In the same way we are asked to read The Great Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye, Chocolates for Breakfast stands as a piece of classic American literature, with insight to a time and place that was never quite real even when it was. For those of you still in school, being asked to read either of toese books, I’d suggest reading Chocolates for a unique subject for compare and contrast.

Trying to tell you what Chocolates is about is more challenging than you might expect. It’s a tale of dissipated privilege; the sex, drinking, and hopeless ennui than comes with having too much of everything and too little of anything with meaning. But don’t let that get in your way of enjoying it. ^_^ In fact, despite the fact that my childhood was nothing at all like Courtney’s, I was able to deeply sympathize with her disassociation and feelings of frustration at 15 that the adults around her were less mature than she. In many ways, we are all Courtney at some point, whether we were kids in the 00s or the 60s.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

My next “Summer reading” book will be Hild by Nicola Griffith. Feel free to read it as well and give your opinion in the comments! No deadline, I probably won’t get to it for a bit. ^_^

Posted in Queer Fiction | No Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – October 19, 2013

October 19th, 2013

YNN_MariKIt’s been a while since the last YNN, what with me being in Japan and at NYCC. Well here we are once again. Let’s take a look what’s happened in the last few weeks! We’re going with “Random data dump format” as I play catch up.

YNN Correspondent Joel K wanted to bring this fact to your attention: Disney has announced that the character of Mulan in their Once Upon A Time series is bisexual. Yes, that Mulan and that Disney. The article and clip contained within are worth your time.

Prism Comics announces their Queer Press Grant recipient for 2013 – Hazel Newlevant‘s Dance the Blues, and If This Be Sin, which look at queer women expressing themselves through blues music.

This video is not comics, manga or publishing related, but this spoken word piece Shrinking Women by Lily Myers probably best expresses the one thing I want to teach girls  – every girl should take up all the space in the world that she needs to thrive and never once apologize for that.

There was one LGBTQ-themed panel at NYCC, hosted by GeeksOut. Here’s Bleeding Cool’s report on the panel.

There are 3 weeks remaining to fund Dear Brother on AnimeSols. Let’s make this happen, shall we?

Dallas Middaugh of Kodansha USA confirmed that the new Sailor Moon anime will be streaming the winter on Nico Nico Douga (registration is required) and will appear subtitled in 10 languages. Now that we know we can all see it…all we have to worry about is everything else. ^_^

I can’t be sure, but I think I saw this – Bandai has a grown-up (i.e. expensive) version of Sailor Moon’s 1992 moon stick, the Proplica, with Mitsuishi Kotono’s voice as Sailor Moon. Okay, here’s my thought on her voicing Usagi. She’s now done this and the commercial for the S.H. Figuarts figure. If you were her and they asked you to voice the toys, but not the actual character, you’d say “stuff it.” wouldn’t you? I think she’s in. ^_^

Get out the tissues…Media Blasters has delayed Rio Rainbow Gate until 2014. And it looks like Funimation has picked up Ikkitousen: Great Guardians in their place. I quite liked GG, especially when I ignored the entire story and rewrote everything I was watching to suit my own needs. Otherwise it was pretty terrible. ^_^

Go Nagai’s Cutey Honey vs Devilman manga is wrapping up and I totally, completely, forgot to look for it while in Japan. OTOH, I’ve retained what’s left of my soul by not buying a Champion magazine, so phew.

Bandai is selling Sailor Moon and Madoka Magica chocolates for the otaku in your life.

***

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 Yuri Network News | 3 Comments »


Marine Corp Yumi Manga (まりんこゆみ)

October 18th, 2013

Many of you know the name Anastasia Moreno. She’s been the translator for some of your favorite Yuri titles: GIRL FRIENDS, Strawberry Panic! and Kisses, Sighs and Cherry Blossoms Pink. It’s because of SP! that Ana I and became friends, in fact. We met up with her in Tokyo this month and we discussed her exciting new project.

Together with Nogami Takeshi-sensei of Strike Witches doujinshi fame, Ana  is writing a new comic Marine Corps Yumi (まりんこゆみ). This is a totally loopy, but completely truthy story about boot camp for the Marine Corps of the United States of Amerigo.

Young “Nipponian” Nagumo Yumi, upon graduating high school, finds herself with two criteria for adult life – she’d like to continue to wear her school uniform and she wants to become the President of the United States. Her friends argue that neither criteria will fly, but Yumi takes herself off to Amerigo anyway, where she runs into  a bunch of elderly veterans who convince her that she should become a Marine.

Joined by Linda Crawford, a milk-fed freckled, busty blonde who wants to get away from her white trash parents and her moldering town; African-American Donna King who turned down a job at “Boldman Sachs” (and who is a fujoshi); and fam-trad Marine and all around competent Rita Fernandez, whose dad is a decorated NCO, our Nipponian doofus Yumi introduces us and other military otaku to life at Marine Corps boot camp. From Birth Control Glasses (boot camp issued glasses that are as ugly as possible) to Box Nasties (the “high calorie, low motivation” meals provided) we get to experience the lingo and in-jokes, without having to do a 10 mile morning run.

Nogami-sensei’s art style suits the gags well. There is a fair bit of service, but it’s expected and acceptable. Gags about Linda’s build, and Donna’s underwear are a nice break from Yumi’s general doofusyness. ^_^

I want to draw your attention to the cast, for a moment. Generally speaking, manga does not do “diversity,” as we in the west see it (for what I think is obvious reasons.) In this case, the primary cast is indeed diverse. A Latina, an African-American woman, an Asian and a Caucasian make up the four boots we follow. Meyers, Joiner, Garza and Dillinger are the DIs. Notably, Rita Fernandez is the most competent of the recruits, and Donna King the most elite. Yumi is, of course, a doofus and a klutz, while Linda Crawford, who in any other manga might be seen as the princess type, is the lowest class and trying to better her options. Even in 4-koma goofball gags, every character gets a story and a personality.

There is basically no Yuri, except for a brief moment in which Yumi strips happily, presuming a bath is at hand, when everyone else is hesitant. Linda sees Yumi’s dreamy expression and wonders if she’s gay. I hold out hope that one of the characters is in fact gay – preferably Rita, since she’s competent and you know what we say about anime and manga lesbians. ^_^

Marine Corps Yumi strikes a deep personal note for me – when I was a child I wanted to be a Marine more than anything else in the whole while world. I  was too sickly, then I was too gay. ^_^ So while in my next life I’ll hope to come back as a Marine, for this one, I’ll stick to Marine Corps Yumi, which comes out online (in English, too) weekly.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8, if you’re into it, silly otherwise. ^_^
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 3 All the characters are adult women, which may be a downer for some

Overall – 8

Thanks to Ana’s generosity we have three copies of Marine Corps Yumi to give away!

Put your name, rank and serial number in the comments and I’ll pick three winners. (Consider logging in to post, so I have your email.)

Posted in Miscellaneous | 16 Comments »


A Very Important Thing About Licensing Manga Fans Don’t Really Understand

October 17th, 2013

In response to the news about Whispered Words, being licensed, a fan expressed a wish that One Peace Books also rescue Poor Poor Lips.  This gives me a good opening to discuss something I’ve been meaning to talk about for a while here. There is one very important component to licensing manga that most fans don’t understand.

Sasamekikoto, as I explain in my NYCC report, is owned by Media Factory (who also owns Strawberry Panic!). Poor Poor Lips is owned by Takeshobo. One Peace Books has a relationship with Media Factory, which is how they got this title. Unless they have a relationship with Takeshobo, it is not likely they can get Poor Poor Lips.

All Japanese manga licensing is done based on prior relationship. (This goes for almost every other kind of licensing, as well, but we’ll confine ourselves to discussing manga.) Companies cannot just email Japanese publishers and ask for what individual series they want. It takes time and effort to build personal relationships with the publishers. So do not be surprised if One Peace Books never, ever gets Poor Poor Lips no matter how often you ask them. Seven Seas cannot license a Kodansha title, and Viz gets first dibs on Hakusensha titles (and can block other publishers from getting them, even if they don’t want to publish it themselves.)

This is why, even though Strawberry Panic! might have been popular, it had exactly zero impact on whether we’d ever see Maria-sama ga Miteru in English. In fans’ minds, the titles are similar. In reality, the Media Factory title has no connection at all to the Shueisha title.

In the same way that the demographic target of a book may appear irrelevant to you as a reader, but it informs the way the book was written; it may not seem important to you to understand that one story you read was published by Hobunsha and another by Futabasha. Indeed, to you the “publisher” may be Lililicious or Dynasty Scans. But in the actual business of manga, these distinctions have real meaning. You do not need to know who publishes what book, but be aware that when you send a letter to a western publisher and they reply, “We won’t be getting that book” that is, really, the final word on the matter. Bags of mail can’t change that.

Arguing that you have lack of expertise (or, perhaps, disinterest) in the nitty-gritty of manga genre and publishing is not a strong defense. There is nothing wrong at all with wishing for a thing, of course, but letting fan delusion get in the way of understanding reality, makes it harder to comprehend the why things are the way they are. ^_^

The 600-lb. gorilla in the room is the fundamental fact that western fans often ignore – Japanese manga is published for a Japanese audience. They buy far more of it than we do, by orders of zeroes. Japanese publishers don’t much care if we aren’t happy with panty shots, or can’t tell the difference between a shounen or a seinen title. And it really doesn’t affect them if we ask random publishers to get books they have no access to. But it does, honestly, effect the western publishers. Imagine being the poor schlub who answers emails at Viz, if we all sent them emails begging them to license Collectors. (Which they have first dibs on, since it is a Hakusensha title.) You’d have feel bad for them, wouldn’t you? ^_^; And how much worse, when a publisher gets a license request for something they can’t even ask for, because they don’t speak to that publisher. There’s only so many times they can answer a question like that before it becomes soul-crushing.

It’s perfectly fine to hope that you’ll get to see your favorite manga licensed. It is less fine to respond to news of one license with misguided, randomly targeted desire for something else. Imagine, if you gave your best friend a gift and their response was, “Cool! I really hope I’ll also get this other thing I want, too.”

I encourage Yuri fans to rise above the general level of cluelessness of fandom. The more we know, the better we, as fans, can leverage our buying power and focus it intelligently.

Posted in Now This Is Only My Opinion, Publishing Manga | 9 Comments »