ALC Publishing and JManga are pleased to offer Volume 2 of Kimino Tamenara Shineru, a bonus essay on Heian Imperial life to kick off JManga’s new blog, JManga Poi Poi AND a contest! Check out the details on Yuricon.
Yuri Manga: Hatsukoi Kouzoushiki (初恋構造式)
Hatsukoi Kouzoushiki (初恋構造式), the collection of shorts by Syuninta Amano, is a bit like bag of shiny tumbled stones – the point isn’t whether any of them are precious, just that they are enjoyable and shiny. ^_^
Of the stories in this collection, my favorite was the very first, “Otona no Onna ha Muri o Shinasai” in which a young (well to me she’s still young) woman in her mid-twenties, starts to feel the inevitable creep of time on her youth. She wonders how she became so risk-averse, so *boring.* Drinking with a co-worker, the two women talk about young love and how wonderful it was back then. She decides that she absolutely has to break out of this rut no matter what so, the very next time she and her coworker go out, she orders the extra-super-hot ramen…and eats it. It tastes terrible, it’s too hot to enjoy, but she eats it, dammit! And with swollen lips and drippy eyes, confesses her feelings to her coworker, who kisses her confidently, making her lips hurt even more. It’s a great story about small triumphs and the importance of pushing our boundaries. I just loved this story, honestly. This is the lesson I try to communicate to young (25 is young!) people all the time. Don’t let the world become too much – just do a thing. If it frightens you, all the better. Try new things if you don’t want to become a “get off my lawn” person. ^_^ I’m calling this story the bloodstone of the bunch – dark jasper with flecks of bright red-orange.
“Yume Mieru Yoake” is a story about sexual harassment, sort of, that turns into sex. It’s sexy as long as you don’t think too hard about the moral of the story. O_o This one is snowflake obsidian – flashy, and a little dark, but overall pretty.
“Cell Frame no Mukougawa” takes the old chestnut of the woman who wears glasses who, with a few strokes of makeup can turn heads, and has a little fun with it. Blue lace agate, surely? Bright, cheerful, colorful and fun.
I don’t know what to make of “Backshot.” Let’s just call this one the polished plain agate of the pile. It’s got character, but I don’t know if it appeals to me.
“Sanmanen de wa Kaemasen” is a morality play, a sort of a Yuri version of the old “true love redeems a prostitute” story beloved of operas, without the death by disease part. This is classic melodrama. This story is a big chunk of smoky topaz, set in a fancy costume jewelry ring.
And finally, the title story, “Hatskoi Kouzoushiki” tells the story of an adult who, eventually, finds love with the daughter of the woman she used to love. It’s a story that could have been quite uncomfortable-making that wasn’t. The ending totally works for me. This story is a nice untumbled piece of rutilated quartz, left raw in matrix. Lots of potential, no particular shape.
Ratings:
Art – 9 – I admit it – this is pretty much exactly my favorite kind of art
Story – Variable, let’s say 8
Characters – Same as above
Yuri – 10
Service – 5
Overall – 9
The best part about a bag of stones is that you can take them out time after time and enjoy the colors, shapes and textures. That is exactly what I’ll be doing with Hatukoi Kouzoushiki. Taking it out from time to time and enjoying each story over again.
Why Yuri Cannot be Financially Successful…The Gospel According To Fandom
Sorry to start the week off with such heavy-duty overthinking, but something’s on my mind and I want to get it down before I lose it.
Ever since ALC announced that we’re partnering with JManga to get some Yuri titles out in English, I keep seeing the same (so *much* the same, that I have to think it’s one or two people over and over) accusations against me and the folks at ALC. A handful of people angry that they can’t get free scanlations of a title that is now legitimately available for sale isn’t something I need to address, really. I know that. But I wanted to have a response to point to in case this comes up again in the future.
Here are the key points of these repeated accusations, as I understand them:
Making fans pay for Yuri is “selling out”
Translating and editing for money is “selling out”
I, personally, am rolling in your $ as a result of this deal
Because fandom at large is used to Yuri being a underserved audience, they are also used to turning almost exclusively to scanlations. As a result, a rather large portion of Yuri fandom expects that Yuri remain free forever and that by wanting people to pay for it, Yuri is being betrayed.
In reality, it’s the other way around. I and many other people love Yuri so very much, that our goal is to bring more of it over in a way that provides jobs and livelihood to more people, so it can sustain itself as a genre. To be blunt – if a person relies on scanlations when a legitimate version is available to them, then they are the one selling out Yuri. It’s really quite simple. Your purchase of an item goes to pay for the work that has already been done by compensating the company that paid for it, supports the current work and provides royalties to the creator. Ideally, it also creates money for investment into new projects in the form of profit.
In effect, these fans say that, if Yuri were to ever become a financially viable genre, it can only ever have done so by “selling out.” Just as any band or artist that becomes successful must, by the nature of entertainment, have “sold out.”
There’s something terribly sad to me, that some of the people who read Yuri find it impossible to cough up a few $ to support it. JManga is charging $5/volume of manga for most of what they are selling. It’s not really asking a lot for you to pay $5, is it? If it is, then I’m sorry, because when you don’t have the money, then it is hard, but for some fans, I think entitlement has attained the point that homophobia has attained in the anti-gay movement…it’s become so deeply ingrained and so inflexible a position that the only thing left to do is keep defending the position with increasing desperation. If someone out there is that unreasonably angry at being charged $5 for a few hours worth of entertainment, then I really only feel sympathy for them. It’s hard to justify that kind of position to someone who isn’t already a believer. In that sense, I guess the forums where I’m seeing this anger have become the echo chamber of this refrain.
In effect, these “fans” have decided that Yuri being financially successful is a crime against fans of Yuri and against Yuri itself.
I will not tell you what our contract with JManga says, even if I could. I can tell you this – most of the money goes to the translator on a project. I wonder, truly, how much some of these people think we make from translating and editing a book? Whatever that amount is that those people think, I’d like half of it. ^_^; If I offered them the ability to read a book for free, would these people still find something to be angry about? I honestly believe they would. For some fans, being dissatisfied seems to be the real entertainment value. (Don’t believe me? Read a few forum threads about how *angry* these people are at various scanlation circles for not being fast enough or for stopping work on a series that is now for sale, or for some other thing.)
I know that this post is unlikely to change any minds out there. People who are convinced that their right to free scanlations is inviolable are not going to suddenly stop and think, “What am I saying? Of COURSE the people who work on this stuff have a right to make a living!” Nonetheless, on the off chance that one person does think that, I’m saying this plainly: The people who work on Yuri have a right to make a living doing so. “Selling” Yuri is not “selling out” at all. There is nothing at all immoral in a person getting paid to draw, write, translate, edit, letter, proofread or sell Yuri to an audience willing to buy it.
Yuri is not yet sustaining itself in the west. Not in the way BL or shounen is. Shoujo and josei are largely in a similar bind – everyone wants it, but when it’s made available just not enough people actually pay for it. I know that the Okazu/Yuricon audience is the exception – I know you pay for what you want, I know you “support” Yuri in every way possible.
On behalf of the creators, translators, editors, letterers, publishers, printers, marketers, graphic designers and project managers in the industry, I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. When the Yuri audience as a whole understands that what you do and what we do is not a crime against the genre, when “selling” is not synonymous with “selling out,” then – and only then – will Yuri be successful. I await that day with anticipation. ^_^
Summer Reading: A Lady of Quality
I am sincerely sorry – I can’t for the life remember who suggested I read this. If it was you, please step up and tell me! (And then I probably should apologize for this review, too… ^_^;)
Okay, so, next up in my summer reading is Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Lady of Quality. Anything by Burnett comes with a lot of baggage in this household, as her work is deeply beloved by the one of us who is not me. ^_^
But someone here, or on Twitter, or somewhere suggested this book, and I decided I’d give it a try. It’s left me feeling rather less than more happy, but not for the reasons you might presume. What will follow contains spoilers, so if you plan on reading this story, please do that first, then come back to read this review. Thanks.
The book is supposed to take place in the 1700s, following Clorinda Wildairs (note the cleverly allegorical name,) a child to a drunken lout of the lower nobility, who has been given every single possible blessing except money and good breeding. Raised by a wolf as she is, she still manages to be perfect. As you can imagine, that gets cloying after a while.
Clorinda begins life as a willful, unprincipled, yet beautiful and smart, child, who learns how to manipulate the household servants and, eventually, her father who on principle dislikes all of his children, because they are daughters. She grows up as one of the boys, and then manages to become one of the men of the household, going so far as to wear boy’s clothing. She is, of course, a better man than any man around her.
When Clorinda turns 15, she miraculously, suddenly, understands how also to be a better woman than any woman alive, despite having no role models or any guidance. She puts aside her boy’s clothes and turns to bettering herself as a woman. She is, of course, perfect. Ultimately she marries up….and when he dies, marries up again, and eventually has the perfect husband, and perfect children. There is only one imperfection in her life.
Her sisters were equally as unbeloved by their father, but of the two of them, Clorinda finds use for, then affection for, then love for, her sister Anne. (The other sister is ignored and eventually brushed off in a suitable, not terrible marriage.) About halfway through the novel, Anne starts to take up more space in the story.
And, about this time, we realize that there are, in fact, two imperfections in Clorinda’s life. One, we’re laboring under some misinformation. There was, early on, a rake and scoundrel introduced with the uncomfortable name John Oxon. For most of the story, we’re lead to believe that Clorinda had pretty much nothing but scorn for the guy and that his obsession with her is just sociopathic. Turns out, they were indeed lovers and that his obsession with her is indeed sociopathic. He’s a creep and I felt absolutely nothing at his death. Which is the other imperfection in Clorinda’s life. She was the hand of god that smote Oxon down for his sin of being a creep and getting in the way of Clorinda’s perfection.
As the pages of the novel come to a close, we suddenly realize that the title character was never Clorinda at all. It was always Anne. Oh, but don’t worry, Clorinda’s life remains perfect, except for that little manslaughter thing she did that no one ever needs to know.
Okay, so there were a lot of things that made this novel “not for me.” Burnett’s 19th-century version of 16th century English was convoluted and un-fun to read. It wasn’t nearly as constipated as Le Fanu’s sentence structure, just more RenFaire-ish. The ending was abrupt, the moral was…moral-like and the lesson I’m supposed to learn is what again? That the beautiful and willful get to have everything go their way always? For pity’s sake, would there be *anyone* reading this book who would rather be “shot sparrow”-eyed Anne who just dies at the end for no good reason rather than tall, strong, graceful, healthy, outspoken, lucky, powerful, beautiful and perfect Clorinda? Maybe there might be one or two people, but not more.
I have now read three of Burnett’s books and that’s it for me. Her fantasies are not my fantasies, her morals are not my morals. The beginning of this story is completely eyebrow-raising, but the end was very snoozy-making. Note to self, no odorless, tasteless poisons, no cousins that return from South America and no more perfect people not held accountable for their actions. This book left me with the exact same feeling that Fire of the Vanities left me with – a burning desire to go read a good book. As cross-dressing girls go, I enjoyed Ellen Kushner’s Privilege of the Sword more.
Ratings:
Overall – 5
Next up, I’ll be tackling the Count of Monte Cristo, so expect there to be a delay, while I make my way through its bulkiness. ^_^
Speaking of The Privilege of the Sword, it’s now available in audio starring, among other laudables, the author herself and Barbara Rosenblat who, if she recorded a reading of the phone book, I’d listen to it. (True story: I once called up Recorded Books on Tape and told them that I’d listen to her read the phone book and the woman on the phone just laughed and said, “We get that a lot.”)
No YNN Report This Week
I’m utterly fried and I need a weekend off.
Go read a book or watch something and we can catch up again later. ^_^
