Hayate x Blade Manga, Volume 16 (はやてｘブレード)

August 13th, 2012

A new school term has begun and things are changing at Tenchi Gakuen as Hayate x Blade, Volume 16 (はやてｘブレード) opens.

Superficially, the uniforms are different, and the rules of the Hoshitori are going to change. New students have arrived and new pair of shinyuu are arrayed for combat. Even the Student Council is different, as members who were seen as unmovable have fallen from the S-rank. Ayana and Jun have moved up into the high school at Tenchi, and Hayate and Momoka and their friends are now no longer first-years. Everyone is on pins and needles waiting for that first Hoshitori bell, signalling the new era.

In the middle of the chaos, we turn towards Momoka. Hayate’s stalwart friend and supporter, whose trials and travails in finding and keeping a partner, some of the very first arcs we were able to enjoy in English, is once again center stage. In a cast as big as this manga now has, it’s refreshing and nostalgic to remember where we started. Hayate relies on Momoka, as does Isuzu, her adoring and adorable partner. But who can Momoka rely on? Ultimately, her desire to be reliable undermines her confidence every time, and once again, she has to face the toughest enemy she has…herself.

She has seen Hayate, someone who is appreciably smaller and stupider than herself, rise through the ranks. Hayate and Ayana are poised on the brink of Special A-rank, with only Yukari and Maki in their way.

Let me digress for a moment here – in any other series, the battle with Maki and Yukari would have been epic. Yukari and Ayana, former shinyuu, with years of hard feelings and miscommunication between them…youch. But, you know…that’s all unimportant now. Ayana purged her demons when she fought Ensuu and Meiko. And Yukari purged hers *before* she and Maki did the same. They have nothing between them now – nothing except the desire to face one another and see who wins. This fight, when it comes, will be several steps beyond epic. Maki vs Ayana, Yukari vs Hayate. Think about it. It’s going to be nuts.

But back on planet Earth with the rest of the mortals, there’s Momoka, staring at Hayate who works too hard, plays too hard, eats too freaking much, sleeps like the dead and starts all over again at the beginning. Every day. Momoka knows she’s outclassed by Hayate, but can’t figure out why. And that pisses her off. She can see Hayate only has the settings 0 and 10. Why can’t she get to her 10? The only way she’s ever going to know is when she stands toe-to-toe with Hayate. And Isuzu, ever by her side, agrees to take on this suicidal task.

Ayana and Hayate vs Isuzu and Momoka. In a straight up, full-out, no tricks, no goofball moves, honest to goodness Hoshitori battle.

What’s lies beyond epic? This.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 10

What a fucking fabulous series this is.

Posted in Hayashiya Shizuru, Hayate x Blade | 4 Comments »


Yuri Network News – August 11, 2012

August 11th, 2012

One more week of random news dumping. ^_^ (There’s a reason why I’ve been doing this – I’ll let you know as soon as I can, promise!)

Random Yuri News Items

ANN mentions the Rose of Versailles Beauty Drink that’s debuting in Japan. Don’t be terribly surprised – there’s been a line of RoV beauty and skin care products for years. I have all the RoV face masks, for the packaging: Oscar and Andre, Oscar and Marie and my favorite, Oscar embracing Rosalie. ^_^

Prism Comics is once again announcing it’s annual Queer Comics Grant The submission is open to anyone who is creating a comic that is of interest to the LGBTQ community. Go! Apply!

Barnacle Press has a website featuring an early 20th century comic called Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye. In the middle of chaos, these two passionate friends say goodbye – sometimes quite passionately. This is a wonderful little comic you really need to see. Thanks to YNN Correspondent Sean G for the tip!

Here’s a fun little item for our friends in Tokyo – Shibuya cafe gossip cafe bills itself as a gay culture space, with a collection of LGBTQ books to read and buy. I’ll try to get over there when I’m next in town. It looks very pleasant.

The Comiket Market Catalog is being put online starting with Winter Comiket 2012. It’s been offered on CD for some years so this is a very natural progression. When you go to Comiket, the catalog acts as your map. (It also acts as hours of entertainment as you page through it, for the days preceding the event.) Nowadays, it’s easy enough to keep track of your favorite circles through their websites, Twitter (where many circles list their location and day for upcoming events in their bios or descriptions) and through applications like Twitcmap, which automatically updates circles who add their info to the Twitter info. (For instance, here is a link to the location and info for Circle UKOZ, via Twicmap.) The online version is unlikely to be free, since sales of the catalogs are Comiket’s main income, along with selling tables, but I’ll probably be getting it, just for the entertainment value. ^_^

YNN Correspondent Anon-kun wants you to know that Sanada Ikki, creator of Rakka Ryuusui, has a new series – Inpro (インプロ). Here’s what Anon-kun says about it: It’s “about a popular girl who intends on living her youth to its fullest, joins high school drama club that her good friend belongs in…. It’s a Yuri work as usual for Sanada Ikki; possibly on par or close to that of Rakka Ryuusui (which has been becoming more and more Yuri-riffic as the volumes progress). The Yuri content started out higher than Rakka Ryuusui did initially, though – with multiple characters being paired up in the first volume alone (main character Yuuki and the drama club veteran Tobari, club president Saya and Yuuki’s friend Nao), compared to the initial single pair in Rakka Ryuusui for its first 2 volumes.”

And from new YNN Correspondent, vero in Paris, this is a neat piece of news – French gay magazine Tetu has an article on Yuri manga and lesbian comics, featuring some of the titles that were licensed for French-language release this year. Thanks, vero, for the lead! The article and comments are in French, but “woohoo!” doesn’t look that different in French than it does in English. ^_^

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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 Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


Light Novel: Miniskirt Space Pirates, Volume 1 (ミニスカ宇宙海賊(パイレーツ))

August 8th, 2012

When I was in Tokyo last December, I found, picked up and put down the same one novel over and over. I’d see the cover and think “Oooh!” pick it up, see that the title was Miniskirt Space Pirates and put it down again. I must have done that half a dozen times.  Well, I sure felt like I had dropped the ball on that when I started to watch the Bodacious Space Pirates anime. ^_^;; So, later that winter I added the first volume of  Sasamoto Yuuichi’s novel series, Miniskirt Space Pirates (ミニスカ宇宙海賊(パイレーツ) to my Amazon JP order.

It’s taken me a few months to get through this book, but right off the top, I have to say that it was totally worth it. I am glad I had seen the anime first, because a great deal of the kanji in this novel is above my reading level. Having context for what was going on meant that I missed less than if I had been reading this cold.

The story is pretty much the same as it is in the anime. The first novel is covered by the first 5 episodes of the anime and there is strikingly little changed or cut out. I expected long, lingering obsessive descriptions of ships or technology (as one gets in military and gun-fetish manga and novels) but…no. This is classic Space Opera – the technology takes second place to the people. The only semi-major fact that was changed for the anime (and I have no idea at all why it was…) is that Marika’s mother, Ririka, in the anime was a Bentenmaru crew member who was nicknamed Blaster Ririka. In the novel she was a captain in her own right and was known as Captain Ririka (a name she puts quickly aside when it’s brought up in the story.) The scene where she teaches Marika how to shoot in a combat situation actually is a rather touching mother-daughter bonding moment. ^_^

Other than that, I felt no major changes were made. Which was all to the good. One of the key things I liked about the anime was that the girls of the Hakuoh Jogakuin yacht club were left to find their way through various situations on their own. Neither Misa nor Kane, Bentenmaru crewmembers acting as faculty advisors, stepped in as the Odette was being tracked or hacked into. Jenny, Lynn, Chiaki, Marika and the members of the yacht club are allowed to make their own choices. They are given the opportunity to be as brave and competent as they can be  – and they rise to the challenge.

As usual when I complete a novel, my wife asked me “Did you like it?” Unreservedly, the answer this time is…yes. I will have to up my reading game for the next one.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

I have one small complaint. It comes at the very end of the book when Marika’s captain’s costume is described. We are told that Marika’s costume include a miniskirt for ease of movement. Dear men – miniskirts are not easier to move in. They are considerably *less* easy to move in than longer, looser and more flowy skirts or pants. Please stop using that as a reason to put the girl in a miniskirt, it just makes you look pervy *and* dumb.

Oh…the title? Editors decided to name the series that. So…yeah.

Posted in Bodacious Space Pirates, Light Novel | 7 Comments »


‘Aoi Hana Meets the Enoshima Electric Railway’ Special Event Report by Bruce P

August 5th, 2012
Advertising Poster, Fujisawa

OMGOMGOMG! We have a very special Special Report today! Yuricon Staffer and Okazu Superhero Bruce P. took a little summer trip to Japan and wanted to tell us all about it. Here’s his report of the Aoi Hana x Enoshima Electric Railway Special Event!

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I recently had the opportunity to attend ‘Aoi Hana Meets the Enoshima Electric Railway’, an event held in Enoshima in connection with the publication of Volume 7 of Shimura Takako’s beautiful manga series. Actually, I made the opportunity. As a fan of Yuri, and Japan, and railways, and with Aoi Hana being my favorite series, nothing could keep me from attending this event (although a ride to the airport that never showed up came close).

The Enoden (i.e. Enoshima Electric Railway) runs from Kamakura along Sagami Bay to Enoshima and on to Fujisawa. This area is the setting for Aoi Hana, and the Enoden is the little train Fumi and A-chan take to school. In real life this is a seashore vacation area with a lot of young out-of-town summer visitors, and the Enoden is happy to promote itself to them with different events. An event for anime and manga fans is a perfect fit. Put on in association with Manga Erotics F, publisher of the series, ‘Aoi Hana Meets Enoden’ was as close to perfect as you can get without coffee mugs.

So on a hot Saturday morning I took the train called ‘Romance Car’ from Shinjuku to Fujisawa. Filled as it was with excited shore-bound families, and with scenery consisting mostly of trackside apartment blocks, there was little romance involved. It did stop briefly at the town of Shin-Yurigaoka (‘New Hill of Lilies’), which I took as a good sign. Five stops on the Enoden brought me to Enoshima, and after a short walk I found Enoden House, the principal site of the event. It was an hour after opening on the first day, and there was quite a crowd. Enoden House consists of a single large room; it was devoted half to toy train items for sale, and half to the event. There was a goods counter, the line for which extended out the door when I arrived (admittedly it wasn’t very far to the door). Items for sale included Aoi Hana lunch bags, tote bags, a variety of clear files, very nice post cards, pins, and copies of the manga and anime (but no coffee mugs). Background music from the anime was helping to put people in a festive mood. Festivities at the cash register were intense.

Enoden House

On the walls there was an art exhibit, consisting of original B&W ink drawings used in production of the manga, and framed copies of the manga’s color illustrations. To each of these color illustrations Shimura-sensei had added character sketches and an autograph. They were being raffled to folks who made purchases. You were allowed to turn the red drum, the number of turns depending on how much you had purchased; you cranked away, hoping for the lucky token to fall out. If it did, you could select any of the autographed illustrations on the wall for your own. I ended up with 27 turns. And zero framed illustrations. Good exercise though.

It was very hot, and Enoshima, being the shore, had sea breezes and stuff shops and food and drink and ice cream places and was really very pleasant. So I spent the day in the area, visiting the island with the tower you can see in some scenes, and late that afternoon stopped back at Enoden House to see how things were going. It was relatively uncrowded at that point, allowing for better viewing of the artwork, and of the adventures of ‘chibi A-chan’ and one of Enoden’s mascot figures, which looked like a fluffy throat lozenge. They had been photographed ‘posing’ at different spots along the railway. Some people were still buying, and by that time the DVDs had sold out.

Vol. 2, p. 150, trackside entrance to sweets shop.

Tokyo was so hot and Enoshima was such a delight that I went back again the next day. I walked around finding some locations used in the series.

Vol. 2, P. 149

Stopped one last time at Enoden House; it was not as crowded as on Saturday, most of the illustrations had been claimed, and the manga had sold out. Two more turns of the drum. More exercise. Zero framed illustrations.

The Enoden House exhibit was fun, but there was something that impressed me much more. As part of the event special posters with illustrations and quotations from the manga were put up in all the stations on the Enoden line. These were in addition to the quite nice general advertising poster for the event.

There are 15 stations, and there were 15 different one-of-a-kind special posters. Each one was incredibly elegant and beautiful. Apparently fans had been involved in the selection of the scenes and quotations.

To see them, and even more to see them hanging there in the wider world – and not, say, just in the back of a manga shop – was actually breathtaking. As a fan I was deeply impressed and grateful for the effort that had been taken to produce these posters, and with the elegance of the result. They were hard to photograph because they had a shiny, reflective surface, but I wasn’t the only one buying tickets to ride to all the stations just to take photos of them. The Enoden line didn’t mind a bit.

Was it worth the trip? You bet it was.

Erica here: Bruce, thank you for the report and the pictures! As a fan, I completely understand what you mean about seeing these up in the wide world. I’m so excited that this series has – and will for a few more days – brought tourists to Kamakura and Enoshima. And those posters. Wow. Thank you again and I can’t wait to see your swag!

Posted in Events, Tokyo Journal | 10 Comments »


Yuri Network News – August 4, 2012

August 4th, 2012

All*sorts* of random news this week!

Random Yuri-ish Sorts of Things

A Japanese blog conjectures about possible Yuri in the game Dragon’s Dogma. Via Anonymous in the comments section: it does sorta have Yuri, in that it: (A) Has sidequests that are romance-flavored much like how Yuru Yuri is Yuri-flavored (although to be fair you DO actually get to sleep with the Duchess), and (B) Makes no distinction between male and female player characters, which is 100% due to the programmers being too busy to make multiple versions of cutscenes or dialogue. The effect is both sorta weird and sorta progressive, since basically all characters are treated as if they’re actively bisexual. 


Regardless, this is basically Monster Hunter meets Skyrim: fun, but you’re not going to be playing it for silly things like “story,” “dialogue,” or “characters.” 

 Japanese artist Raita announces a doujinshi anime Blu-Ray to be released at this month’s Summer Comiket with the following “6 degress of Yuri” voice cast:

Mamiko Noto as Kotone Sasaki
Rie Tanaka as Misae Suzuhara
Ayako Kawasumi as Erika Kuramoto
Ai Kayano as Yui Niita

I don’t think it’s going out on a limb to say this will sell out quickly, so get on line early!

Tickets for the October Smile! PreCure movie have already started to go on sale. Here’s a trailer for your viewing pleasure.

In Vietnam, two women went through with a wedding ceremony. “Concerned members of the community” called the cops on them, but the police arrived too late and the whole thing was over. Here’s an article in Japanese about the events, and a video of the happy couple.

Black Rock Shooter and Wandering Son anime both won awards from the Motion Picture and Television Engineering Society of Japan for technical achievement.

Here’s something of interest – the Women in Comics Wiki. Join, add, participate!

This week I said good bye to the folks at Hooded Utilitarian. Bye HU folks, it was fun!

And I waxed rhapsodic about Japanese manga magazine Young King Ours at Magazine no Mori.

The second volume of Kuzushiro’s Heian Period Yuri gag comic, Kimino Tamenara Shineru is this week’s best seller at JManga.com! (In fact, 5 of the 8 on the best seller list are Yuri.) Thank you all for your support and keep up the pressure, so we get more Yuri! More is on the way, I promise. ^_^

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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 Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »