Yuri Network News – June 23, 2012

June 23rd, 2012

Happy Pride month to everyone! We have another week of fascinating news from all corners of the Yuri Network!


In honor of diversity and doing away with labels, today, you’re just getting the news as I slapped it down on this blog. ^_^

A beautiful essay on identity, pride and Sweet Blue Flowers – a very suitable start to this week’s News Report!

Alice Austen was an early female photography pioneer. Like her Japanese contemporary, Yoshiya Nobuko, Alice bucked society’s rules and lived together with her life partner Gertude. Their house, which is in Staten Island, NY is a museum. Learn more about her here: Alice Austen House. Since I have yet to manage to make it to Yoshiya’s house, I’ll have to at least visit Alice’s.

This week ALC proudly announced a new set of Yuri manga releases in partnership with JManga!

This week JManga announced my long-hoped for model of bookstore-like purchasing. From now on, you don’t have to have any subscription plan for JManga, you can just pay as you like. To encourage people to retain their subscriptions, JManga offers discounts for people who remain on subscription. I think that’s more than fair – and kind of a little excellent, with the subscription reward. JManga has now effectively “fixed” every single thing I wanted to see changed. I couldn’t be happier and of course, I’ll do everything in my power to see that you get more great Yuri!

Everyone tune into the Nozomi/RightStuf Panel at Anime Expo 2012  on Friday, June 29 6PM PST (it will probably will be live tweeted and live blogged on ANN) and get ready to cheer….!!

Aoi Hana, Volume 7 is slated for the end of July. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait!

Yuru Yuri 9 is also headed toward bookstores. Once again, it’s being sold as a special deluxe edition or a regular manga-only edition. The second trailer for the upcoming anime is available for your viewing pleasure.

Maidens Garden 7, the Yuri doujinshi market in Kyoto, finally announced dates. It will be held on November 11. Amazingly, I was planning on being in Osaka that weekend, so I should be able to make that show and Comitia the next weekend back in Tokyo. That sounds like double the fun! (I’m tired just thinking about it….)

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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 | 6 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu, Volume 1 (彼女とカメラと彼女の季節）

June 22nd, 2012

Even after all the many, many volumes of manga I have read, every once in a while, a manga really surprises me. Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu (彼女とカメラと彼女の季節）helpfully shortened to “Kano Came” on the cover, is one of those manga.

Akari is a very typical high school girl. She and her friends trade puricula (photo booth photos) and talk about bands and the like.

Akari notices that a classmate of theirs, an aloof girl named Yuki, wanders off by herself quite often. One day, Akari decides to follow her. As a result she discovers a whole new world….

Yuki is an avid photographer, and an enthusiast of old, dual lens cameras. Following Yuki around, Akari learns about photography and realizes early on that Yuki is very talented. The more she learns about photography, and Yuki, the more Akari wants to know.

While all of this is happening, the most popular guy in the class, good looking, smart, star of the baseball team, is showing an interest in Akari. She mostly puts him off, but can’t quite bring herself to outright refuse him. When she’s with Yuki, she feels as if she’s falling for Yuki. When she’s with Fukuyama, she can’t help but be interested in him.

One night, when she stays overnight at Yuki’s, Yuki manages to snap a picture of the two of them kissing while Akari is in the bath.

Her friends have noticed that they are being blown off. They become suspicious of Akari’s relationship with Yuki and jealous of Fukuyama’s interest in her. One day, they tape a picture of her and a picture of Yuki together and surround it with a heart, to tease her (not in a nice way.) Akari’s put out, but Yuki pulls out the developed picture of the two in the bath and that shuts the girls dead silent. It’s so forward, so revealing, their little attempt at light bullying seems childish. More importantly, they realize that Yuki has some skill, and want her to photograph them, but she stomps that down with a nasty comment.

Yuki runs off laughing, daring Akari to chase her, but Yuki quite suddenly collapses. Fukuyama appears out of nowhere and offers to carry Yuki home – after all, he is a childhood friend of hers. Cut out of the loop, Akari can only watch as the two lope off without her. And we can only watch as she watches, and wait impatiently for Volume 2.

Why did this manga surprise me? On the face of it, it’s a pretty bland love triangle. Well, the devil’s in the details. Fukuyama being a “nice guy” helps, but it’s the trend of stomping down the bullies that really surprised me. I’m seeing that here and there nowadays, and every time, I’m pleased by it. But what really stood out this time was what shut the bullies up was being audacious and forward. The lesson there is something completely different than it might have been even a few years ago. In the same vein, the mangaka profile had something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before…a photograph. It kind of blew me away. An actual photo of an actual person. Maybe this is the beginning of that changing a bit, too.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters  – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 3

Overall – 8

I look forward to the day when manga artists feel comfortable enough putting their photos on their books.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 3 Comments »


ALC Publishing and JManga announce a Yuri Summer with Three Comic Yuri Hime titles!

June 21st, 2012

ALC Publishing and JManga are proud to announce a hot new collaboration, with three new Yuri manga titles, all from Ichijinsha’s Comic Yuri Hime.

Look for Riakchi’s Sorairo Girl Friend and well-known BL-combo Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki’s first Yuri collaboration Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu and Namori’s super popular manga and anime hit Yuru Yuri to heat up your summer!

Details about release dates (and some exciting news about promotional extras) are forthcoming. (Quick note, I’ve been asked a number of times already if this is print…it is a digital release only. Jmanga is not, yet, working in print. If this changes, I’ll let you know.)

Check out the synopsis of all three series on our announcement on Yuricon!

Jmanga and ALC are very pleased to be working together to bring you, the world-wide audience, more Yuri manga!

Posted in English Manga | 7 Comments »


Yuri Manga: GUNJO, Volume 3 (羣青下)

June 20th, 2012

The third and final volume of GUNJO (羣青 下) is no easier to read than the previous two volumes. In fact, there are several moments that still manage to shock and appall, even with all we’ve been through.

“What would you kill for?” The brunette, Megane-san, asks the blonde’s, Sensei’s, sister-in-law, and she in turn asks her husband. It is a question that is buried deep in the heart of this volume.

Things we thought we knew, turn out to be not true, and the depth of the despair of Megane-san’s life only becomes truly apparent when she’s all but shed her last layer of emotional armor. Still, it is in moments where kindness manages to be felt for a mere moment, that brutality is the most harsh, and in the middle of the most intense violence when gentleness can be felt most clearly.

One of the questions asked back when I reviewed the first or second volume was – how much time has passed? I can answer that now – it’s been about a week, going on two.

As I read this story, probably about halfway through what would become the second volume, I conceived a wish – a hope. It was an insane hope, because there was nothing at all in the story that lead me to think it could ever come true. I desired, most of all, to see the two characters – the beaten, abused, unloved woman, and the woman who killed for her – smile. It was a ridiculous wish that could never happen.

The final half of this final book is the literary equivalent of lancing an infected wound to get the infection out. There’s really no other way to describe it. Page after page of confession, admission, digression, discussion finally brings the two characters through the last of their despair to the inevitable end of their story.

GUNJO is over and I have nothing left to say about it. It’s been wonderful, it’s been painful, it’s been sublime.

In the end, there’s only one question left for you to ask – Did they ever smile? You’ll have to read it and find out.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Once again, I want to thank Nakamura Ching-sensei for creating this extraordinary story. 

Without question, GUNJO is the best manga I have ever read, and it encroaches deeply on the “best book I have ever read” list.

Posted in Gunjo, Nakamura Ching, Yuri Manga | 9 Comments »


Magic Knight Rayearth Manga, Volume 2 (English)

June 18th, 2012

Unlike the second season of the anime, Volume 2 of the Magic Knight Rayearth manga does not have a Yuri subplot. For which I am eminently thankful. In fact, the lack of Nova and her annoying mother went a considerable distance to cleaning up the exceedingly messy plot. What’s left, then, is a far more straightforward, much less morality-play like story.

Umi, Fuu and Hikaru, having returned to Earth after fighting Zagato, are…unhappy. They want to go back to Cefiro. Fuu particularly, has reason to go, as Ferio is there. And one day, when they meet up at Tokyo Tower, they find themselves transported back, but not to any place they recognize as Cefiro!

It turns out that now that Emeraude is gone, Cefiro is collapsing. Clef and the others are gathered in a castle floating above the planet surface. The Magic Knights return to find what’s left of Cefiro under attack from three nearby planets – Autozam, Fahren and Cezita.

Joined by old allies, the Magic Knights have to find a way to protect Cefiro. This is complicated by the fact that their enemies all turn out to be decent people who are just trying to help their own worlds – and the knowledge that the Pillar system of Cefiro is innately, dangerously flawed.

The story is mostly taken up with relationship building, rather than fighting, and the conclusion, while predictable, was far more satisfactory than the scattered, messy ending of the anime.

A great deal of the story follows our enemies and, instead of giving us reason to hate them, we learn to like them. Eagle and Lantis are presented very much as a couple, but when Hikaru comes en scene, she could reasonably be paired with either of them – or both – in a way that makes sense. Moreover, their dynamic is subtle enough that a child could read this without any concern.  Growing Ascot up into a tall, handsome young man for Umi was a nice touch and even Ferio gets a power up. All in all, a satisfying ending.

Which is odd, when you consider that the end is a modified form of colonialism. Having destroyed the Pillar system, the Magic Knights replace it with a completely alien system. This would all be very uncomfortable if the worthies of Cefiro were not already ready to see the back end of the Pillar system. So, its okay then, phew.

Ratings:

Art – Less wonderful than Card Captor Sakura, but still very CLAMP-ian
Story – Less messy than the anime
Characters – Less annoying than most, until Mokona’s true identity is revealed
Yuri – Less than none
Service – Less than usual

Overall – I’m less enthusiastic about this series than CCS, but more than I expected.

Many, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Amanda M. for sponsoring today’s review!

Posted in CLAMP, English Manga | No Comments »