What a way to start off the new year, with the official JManga release of Fujieda Miyabi’s Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan! (飴色紅茶館歓談)
http://www.yuricon.com/2013/01/10/ameriro/
Starting off 2013 with this lovely manga, a cup of tea and some biscuits sounds like the perfect winter afternoon for me. ^_^
Just when I think I’ve seen every possible set up for a “Story A,” someone like Chisako comes along and comes up with a story like ”Yokubou Parade” in a collection like Wagamama Millefeuille (わがままミルフィーユ)
“Yokubou Parade” (Parade of Desires) begins with what is sure to be seen by stodgy old grumps like myself as a superficial young woman selling herself to men for new purses and fashionable clothes. When a rich classmate, Miki, stops her from doing that by offering to keep her in new goods, Minami thinks she’s hit the jackpot. She meets up with Miki – who asks for nothing, not even companionship – and is given nice things. It’s like heaven…for a little while. Minami grows dissatisfied with her end of the bargain – she wants to do *something* for Miki, even if it’s just hang out with her. Minami tries to get closer to the other girl a number of ways,but Miki roughly rejects Minami. Minami, rejected and lonely, finds her usual arranged dates more honest than the non-relationship she has with Miki. But what’s really bugging Minami is that she kind of likes Miki, and would really just be happy doing something, anything for her.
When Miki discovers that Minami has returned to dating men, she’s pissed. Hasn’t she given the other girl enough? That’s not it at all, Minami insists.
Because, ultimately, this is a “Story A” they end up together, of course. But props for a different set-up.
Ratings:
Art – 6, again not to my taste but competent
Characters – Variable, from 4-7
Story – Same as above
Yuri – 5 Stories end with a safe kiss
Service – 2 Some slight Yuricest (in the weakest story in the collection)
Overall – 7
Not all the stories in Wagamama Millefeuille were to my taste, some are much more typical than the opening story and the art is decidedly moe, but I’ve read worse. This is better than most, even if the “Group date gone bad leads to love” is still one of the most overplayed plots in Yuri. ^_^
Reading O-Shaka-sama mo Miteru: Cho Nankai Mondaishuu (お釈迦様もみてる超難解問題集) it suddenly dawned on me why I simply do not enjoy this series as much as I might. And with that, I formulated a new rule of writing for myself:
If you create a really great ensemble of characters and then spend a lot of time with a really irritating character instead, people will not like your story.
In the Oshaka series we have Yuuki, Arisu, Kobayashi and Takada all of whom are fun to follow. And no matter how many of these books there are, Andre-sempai will never, ever be a fun character. He’s a self-important jerk at the best of times. So when you keep taking the focus off your fun characters to spend time with the jerk, it’s going to make readers grumpy.
This book deals with the end-of-term exams and the four first-years’ issues with them. Yuuki is, predictably, a good if not outstanding student. Arisu is in the top ten of their year. Takada barely passed last semester and Kobayashi failed just about everything that wasn’t math. Andre-sempai spends much of the first two thirds of the book importuning the younger students to “Study, already” to the point of obsession. He’s not wrong – members of the Student Council do need to keep their grades up, but his constant nagging was merely that – nagging.
In the end, everyone’s grades jumped but Arisu, who remained #7. So yay, but what an annoying story.
The final third of the book is what happened on the day after New Year’s Day and why Yuuki was at Sachiko’s house when Yumi arrived. Once again I adore Sayoko, Sachiko’s mother more than anyone. And once again we spend a few moments in Yuuki’s head wondering if Kashiwagi is gay…or, not really wondering, just sort of mentioning it, just in case we forgot that he might be. The more Yuuki wonders about it, the less I’m convinced. It seems too much like service.
I don’t hate these novels – and we know that Andre-sempai isn’t in the Hanadera Council next year – so I’m sticking with the series to see what happens. I expect the next one deals with the Student Council elections and, maybe, Valentine’s Day.
Ratings:
Overall – 7
It was nice to see Sei again…. ^_^
First news report of the year! Always exciting. Let’s see what the Yuri Network has uncovered, shall we?
Other News
Totally random item from YNN Correspondent Mitsu_Manabe on Twitter, from the Japanese otaku culture show MAG Revolution, a screenshot of a list of Yuri Manga listed as “Yuri Manga.”
Interesting choices.
1) Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep by Mizutani Fuuka
2) Magarikado no Bokura – by Nakamura Asahimiko (which we know of thanks to Tomo K., but I haven’t seen the Yuri story yet.)
3) Hanjuku Joshi by Morishima Akiko
4) Yuri Danshi by Kurata Uso
5) GIRL FRIENDS by Morinaga Milk
I’m cool with all but one of those choices. Yuri Danshi?!? With so much amazing Yuri coming out, leave it to otaku to focus on some utterly un-Yuri thing. Oh well, the rest are good. ^_^
Anyway – what do you think of this, Yuri Manga on a show in Japan? Cool? Yes or no? Tell me in the comments!
You know those moments when you see something and you think, “Wait, how did I not know about this?” I don’t have them too often, sitting as I am in the middle of the vast YNN Network…. No, I’m kidding. I have them all the time, because I’m only one person and I cannot read every piece of news on every blog and sometimes I leave the house (at which point, inevitably, a major announcement is made. ^_^;;)
Anyway, my point is, I just had that moment this week, when I learned that Colleen Coover (she of Small Favors fame) has a comic series with Paul Tobin called Bandette. Not Yuri, but an utterly delightful YA female masked thief gig. It’s available for less than $1/issue on Comixology. (Those of you already reading comics on your tablets will love the Comixology app. It’s smooth.) How did I miss this? I don’t know, but I’m on track now and thrilled to have a YA female-lead comic to recommend to anyone who asks, (and random strangers who don’t.)
Go! Read Bandette! We need more non-sucky young female comic leads and clearly DC and Marvel are not to be relied upon for this. Yay Monkeybrain Comics!
Okay, one last utterly random thing. Through my gracious and talented friend Komatsu-san, I have met the cheerful and talented Ransui-san of Fantastic Yuri Rhythm. The two of them were vendors at this past Winter Comiket (and they sold pretty well, I’m told. ^_^)
Well, in reading Ransui-san’s Comiket report, I see that she shared a table with SEINE, who did a lovely Yuri photography book. Red Zoo is SEINE’s website, with some of the pictures available as a slide show (Click “Photography Works” on the Homepage, then the cover of “Kimi no Te” (きみの手) to enjoy the photos.) I hope I’ll be able to get a copy of that book one day, the photos are great and a few of them made me smile before I even realized it. ^_^
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Yuri Manga
Volume 3 of Hoshikawa Ginza Yon-Choume (星川銀座四丁目 ) hits shelves next month. Crisis after crisis. What will happen to our improbable couple? Read it and find out.
Ichigo Mashimaro Volume 7 (苺ましまろ)? Oh, right, that’s still ongoing. Huh.
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Yuri Anime
ANN reports that character designs for the Bodacious Space Pirates movie have been revealed on the official movie site. I’m really looking forward to this. ^_^
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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!
Books are dead. The last book has been printed, the presses shuttered. Everything has moved to electronic media.
But in a town of bibliophiles, the British Library has gathered a covert force of bibliomaniacs to gather and “kill” the remaining books in the world. Among them is Yomiko Readman, a girl who will go to any lengths to find, read and “kill” every last book in the world.
Welcome to R.O.D. Rehabilitation. As part of the lineup of Shueisha’s Super Dash & Go magazine, this seemed like it would be sure-fire win. After all, the previous incarnations of Yomiko made it into an 11-volume Light Novel series, two 4-volume manga series and three different anime versions.
This new iteration of Yomiko takes some getting used to. The creators have labeled her “dark” but you know, I always saw the old Yomiko as pretty much nuts, with a dark streak of delusion. Apparently what the creators meant is “she kills people for books.” Oh, okay then, she’s dark. It’s not the old Yomiko, in fact, her name is spelled with different kanji (the original was 読子and the new one is 読魅子,) so it’s probably a good idea to think of her as a completely different character, rather than the return of any Yomiko we know. The difference between the two names is interesting, but I’ll hold off on that for now.
Not surprisingly, I am not a fan of the new character design, which feels like they dug through Peach-Pit’s dumpsters for design ideas.
I’ve only read two chapters of the 3 chapters of the new series, so there isn’t a lot for me to work with in terms of character, plot etc. When the first volume comes out, I’ll have a better idea if I think it’s worth continuing. (Chapter 4 comes out next month, so we should see a late spring/early summer release for the volume.)
If you want a chance to taste the new series for yourself, SD&G magazine has the first chapter up online on the R.O.D. Rehabilitation Page. Click here to read the first chapter. (This is in Japanese. It seems obvious to me, but I thought I’d better say it just in case.)Ratings:
Art – 7 Moe girl in gritty Speed Grapher-esque world
Story – ? Don’t know yet
Character – Nuts
Yuri – N/A No Nenene, No Life and it looks like her partner for this series might be a guy.
Overall – Withholding score until I have a better grasp of the thing
At the moment, I’m not overwhelmed, but I’m going to give it a chance.
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