Thanks to everyone who entered the Revolutionary Girl Utena Black Rose Box Set contest.
The winner this time around is Jeri Mitchell. Congrats!
Yuri Webcomic: Girly, Volume 4 (English)
The last volume of Josh Lesnick’s Girly series, Girly Forever, is a testimony to passion. Passion for cartooning, first and foremost, but also the obvious, laudable, passion Otra and Winter have for one another.
Having established Winter and Otra as a couple in previous volumes, Josh felt comfortable splitting them up for a good chunk of this story. But, before we get there, in Volume 3, there’s a number of flashbacks and story building leads that we need to get through, then a few digressions and premature story starts and stops and then, suddenly, in Volume 4, the plot is a gigantic ball of story elements moving downhill and gathering complications like a webcomic version of Katamari Damacy.
When I was reading the chapters that would become the last volume as a webcomic, it was maddening. I would save up a few months of strips at a time, in order to feel like something was happening. Reading it as a volume, I found it worked much better than the previous volumes in terms of narrative. In effect, this was the closest Josh comes to a “graphic novel” rather than a comic strip collection.
The story as a whole has a pretty Yuri-riffic ending, in which Love saves the day – and is suitably rewarded with Sex, which is as it should be. And the things that made no sense still make no sense, which is also as it should be.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – 5
Overall – 8
I’m kind of sorry that Girly is over. Reading these volumes (or re-reading the strips, however you look at it,) has made me miss it. Girly was the only webcomic I ever really followed. Nothing else has been consistent enough, cohesive enough and wacky enough to hold my attention for any length of time. I seriously want to thank Josh for Girly, it cheered me up on many a day that I needed a smile (since shooting someone into space was not an option) and congratulate him on this complete collection. I’m proud to have helped contribute to the Kickstarter and hope he’ll do another series some day that I can follow at irregular intervals and still enjoy.
Yuri Network News – January 14, 2012
Happy first YNN report of the New Year! It looks like there’ll be a lot of shiny fun for Yuri fans of all persuasions this year. Today we’ll catch up on some anime trailers and the like.
Yuri Anime
Looking forward to Black Rock Shooter anime? Check out the trailers on the official website. (I’m really hoping that this series looks half as good as all the figurines for this series, which tempted me mightily over the New Year holiday in every single store.)
The Smile! PreCure commercial has aired, take a look here.(NicoNico Douga is iffy, so if you have an account there, try logging in to see it.) The “difference” this time is that they are going with a team right out of the box, rather than two to start, then adding in a new character at intervals. They are also going with extra super teeth-grittingly cute names. I think they are punishing the adults who watch the series. Cure Happy, Cure Smile. Ugh. ^_^
Of great interest to me, the first Jormungand anime trailer is up on ANN, with the pleasant bonus of Itou Shizuka as Koko (She was Nadie in El Cazador de la Bruja and Rei in Maria-sama ga Miteru.) She’s a perfect choice for the role, I couldn’t be happier. And, while I say this knowing I should be careful what I wish for, I hope they leave the Valmet-Koko service in, because I like it. ^_^
Probably no more Yuri than its predecessors, but by Yuri-friendly Nanzaki Iku, Queen’s Blade: Rebellion is slated for a spring release.
Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, A Channel and Yuru Yuri are all getting second seasons of anime.
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Yuri Manga
JManga is now offering Morita-san ha Mukuchi for your reading enjoyment! The Yuri is very light in this series, but the overall story is enjoyable enough that it’s worth a read.
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Other News
Manga Erotics F magazine announced a line of toys this year, including an Ah-chan figurine, for fans of Aoi Hana.
And for those who like to take their Yuri in game form, the trailer for the upcoming Madoka Online Browser game is streaming.
I was joking on Twitter a few days back, about which series has been the most over-merchandised series of 2011. The top three suggestions were One Piece (which has got to have hit some kind of saturation point in Japan by now…there are no stores of any kind without One Piece *somethings*) K-ON! and Madoka.
My three favorite random branded items seen for these are:
Axe has One Piece body spray available, I can’t imagine what Luffy or Chopper body spray could smell like and I never tried to find out…
K-ON! themed “Fuwa Fuwa Time” cotton candy in a bag at Lawson.
Madoka men’s trunk underwear.
So, yeah, these three win.
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That wraps it up 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.
Revolutionary Girl Utena Anime Box Set – Volume 2, Disk 3 (English)
Revolutionary Girl Utena, Volume 2, Disk 3 provides a whole lot of food for thought, doesn’t it?
So, first of all, let look at the final of the puppet duelists for the Black Rose, Nanami’s henchchick, Keiko. Like Wakaba, Keiko’s story hurts. It hurts, because she’s not one of the beautiful people and not one of the chosen. She’s a real person, with big gaping flaws, but we can’t quite hate her, or dismiss her, as we might Tsuwabuki, precisely because, like Wakaba, her dreams are so mundane. Anyone might wish for a moment alone with their idol. It’s a dream that is dull as dirt. As a result, when Nanami is horrible to Keiko, we feel it. When Yuuko and Aiko are horrible to her, it’s especially unforgivable.
And, at last, we reach the core of the Black Rose story, and the illusions with which Mikage has wrapped himself. The story, however one looks at it, is at best, creepy and self-serving. At worst, it’s possible the single most depressing illusion in the entirety of the series. There was a young, sickly boy, Mamiya and his sister Tokiko and Mikage became obsessed with their memory…but it’s not Mikage at the center of the manipulation, we learn incontrovertibly. It’s not just Akio, as we might have suspected. For whatever reason – and at this point I’m inclined to think that Anthy’s line about lying to one’s self for love is the first honest thing she’s said in this series – Anthy is involved. In the first arc, we thought to ourselves, “She is merely being used.” But when Akio tells us that Anthy does not exists at the school, we have to wonder how much of everything is her doing. Akio has social engineering skills and he apparently wields the power, but then, we have to ask ourselves now…what is Anthy?
At the end of the arc, we get a completely different kind of clip episode, highlighting Nanami’s duplicity and ego. It’s very hard to like her at the end of this arc. It’s important to remember, yet again, that Nanami is about 13. She may pretend to be grownup, but…it’s clear now and will become even clearer later, that she’s basically clueless about people. This will also become very, very important towards the end.
Here at the end of the Black Rose Arc, we’re no closer to understanding any of what’s going on, or are we? We know several things; Akio is manipulating the situation, even as far as Utena and Anthy’s relationship. We know that he has all but abandoned the Student Council, except as tools, and we know that whatever is going on, Anthy is the center of it, in one way or another.
And we know, although she truly does not yet understand this, that Utena is the only sword that can cut through this Gordian knot.
The third and final arc is on our plate and I find myself tense about watching it. In fact, I’ve been kind of avoiding it for the last few years.
In the extras Ikuhara gives us some answers as to why there is an apparent strain of lesbianism in the series. His answer is cogent – for him, making Utena and Anthy “lesbians” is a visual symbol of otherness. But that only explains some of what’s going on, really, the stories of incest and male homosexuality that are either hinted at, or explicitly stated. I’ve said for years that Utena is a series that is exactly like any other high school, on steroids, and in this case the sexuality is stand-in for all the many things that make us different. For once I think Ikuhara did a good job of answering really crappy fanboy question. Dudes, there were *way* more than just lesbians in the series.
Ratings:
Art – 9
Story – 10
Character – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 3
Overall – 9
Princess Knight Manga, Volume 1 (English)
In 1954, Tezuka Osamu began the first serialization of a series called Ribon no Kishi, Knight of the Ribbon. In the subsequent four serializations, the story was altered slightly and even had a sequel. But, throughout these iterations, the main story held true – in a country in which the position of ruler was entailed, so that only a boy could become King, a daughter is born. To hide her true nature, she is brought up as a boy, Prince Sapphire.
Sapphire is endowed with two hearts, that of a boy and that of a girl. The boy’s heart makes her athletic, honorable and strong. The girl’s heart makes her emotional and weak. Yes, yes, I know, it’s exhausting. Think of Tezuka like your grand (or great-grandfather if you’re young) who never did figure out what the 60s and 70s were about and didn’t understand why feminists didn’t like having the door opened for them.
Sapphire is, in any case, stuck in a bad situation. Although she’d like to be a “normal” girl, instead she’s forced to be a beautiful prince. She and her family are well aware of the consequences of being found out, so she does her best, manning up as much as she can. This is complicated by the schemes of Duke Duralamin, who is just positive that Sapphire is a girl, and wants his own son to rule the Kingdom in her place.
Now, at last, brought to us in English by Vertical Publishing, we have Princess Knight. These volumes are a translation of the 1977 Complete Works Edition of Ribon no Kishi. (Interestingly, the very same version I happen to own in Japanese.)
I won’t beat around the bush – this story is frustrating as hell. When she has her boy heart, Sapphire is commanding and decisive, but without it, she’s a mess. There’s no way we can forgive that, can we? But let’s look, not at the story itself, but what it spawned. Because, for Yuri fans, Sapphire is most important for her heirs….which is a really bizarre irony, when I say that out loud.
Lady Oscar of Rose of Versailles – born a girl, raised as a boy, but never for one second less aware of her existence as a woman, with conflicting, simultaneous roles as a leader of the military, a noble, a servant of a spoiled queen and a person who believed deeply in the rights of her fellow humans.
Princess Ereminia of Paros no Ken, who struggles as a female warrior with the heart of a man, forced to marry in order to put her kingdom under the protection of a man, who ultimately chooses to abandon her country to be with the woman she loves.
Tenoh Haruka, Sailor Uranus of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, who, we are explicitly told, has the hearts of a man and a woman and, when asked what gender she is replies, “Does it matter?”
Also topically once more,
Tenjou Utena of Revolutionary Girl Utena, who wears the boy’s school uniform and wants to be the Prince Sapphire wishes she weren’t.
All of these – and many other favorite Yuri characters – owe their existence to Sapphire. Although she might not have been able to find the strength in her girl’s heart, one look at this list, and we can be comforted that her successors most certainly found their’s.
Vertical’s translation/reproduction is swell, but I do have to take issue with their extremely ugly covers. I have no idea what the thinking behind the cover design was. The pink, i.e. “Girl” cover (ARGH!!!!) is a pale, washed out pink. Sapphire herself is all-but-colorless. Compared to, say, this:
it looks pretty blecch. Volume 2 isn’t really all that much better, with an equally bland blue “Boy” cover. (Not the super-saturated blue in the Amazon listing, a sort of pearly, light, greyish-blue.)
Princess Knight, Volume 1 is not as satisfying a read as you might expect, but don’t look at it that way. Sapphire *is* Snow White on a horse, with a sword and, as such, she’s actually pretty darn cool. And for those who came after, we all must bow in her general direction and honor her as the great ancestor she is.
Ratings:
Art – 8 Tezuka is an acquired taste, like fine wine
Story – 8 Not without problems, but overall, kind of fun, what with the pirates and witches and giant birds and other pop culture elements from literature of the ages.
Characters – 7 Both bad and good guys are stereotypes, but they aren’t entirely unlikable
Yuri – 0
Service – 1, on principle only
Overall – 8
Thanks Vertical for bringing this here and letting us all see the origin of our Girl Prince!
Note: Let me just put two afternotes here:
In some Native American traditions, mixed gender people are known as Two Hearts or Two-Spirits. I have no idea if Tezuka knew that or not.
Also, it’s well-known that Tezuka gew up in the town of Takarazuka, home of the Takarazuka Review, which strongly influenced Princess Knight.
This way you don’t have to feel obliged to write in and tell me these things. ^_^
