Sunday Yuri Miscellany

July 24th, 2011

Here’s some items that didn’t make it into yesterday’s news report, but might be of interest to you:

There is one lesbian magazine in Tokyo right now – Tokyo Wrestling. They have a Facebook group and a Twitter account and they are bi-lingual in Japanese and English, so please feel free to talk to them! They’ve also just published a book on Bois in Japan, Tokyo Bois!, something that might interest a lot of our genderqueer readers, among others. It’s in my Cart, for sure. Tokyo Wrestling’s website is in Japanese and English, as I mentioned and they are currently looking for new translators to render some of the Japanese articles into English (and maybe other languages, if you ask.) If you’re looking for some translation experience to put on the resume that isn’t for illicit distribution groups, this is a fantastic alternative and the editor-in-chief, Yuki, would be very appreciative of your assistance.
My column on Manga Bookshelf now has an official name – Magazine no Mori. To celebrate actually coming up with a name that makes sense, I’ve posted a brand new magazine review, this time popular, but second ranker to Jump, Shounen Sunday. Gone are the tortured “eye” metaphors, now we’ll have tortured “forest” metaphors instead!
A week from now, my article on Hooded Utilitarian will post. It’s a refurbished article from 11 years ago. Still valid, though.
And last, but by no means least, we’ve finally announced our Yuricon 2011 Art Contest – Every Day is a Celebration at Yuricon!” winner! Please take a moment to check out all the entries and enjoy the winning submission by Catherine F!


Yuri Network News – July 23, 2011

July 23rd, 2011

Yuri Manga

Morinaga Milk-sensei’s popular Yuri series Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo will be re-serialized in Comic High starting with the September 22 (October) issue. She had intimated that there *might* be a continuation forthcoming, so we can keep our fingers crossed.

Good news for Sailor Moon fans, our friend Bill Flanagan was officially announced at SDCC as the translator of Kodansha’s release of Sailor Moon . We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the translation is in good hands.

Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 5 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) wll be hitting shelves at the end of August.

Cassiopeia Dolce, Volume 3 (カシオペア・ドルチェ 3) became available this week, for all your doll-makers who bathe Yuri needs.

Don’t forget to get yourself a copy of September’s Comic Yuri Hime, with obligatory swimsuit cover.

Tsubomi, Volume 13 joins us in August. There was a HUGE cliffhanger in Volume 12, so for once I’m really motivated to get this!

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Snatches of Yuri

You know what we need more of? Questionable Yuri 4-panel gag comics from MangaTime Kirara. Luckily, there’s Marshmallow Typhoon (ましゅまろ×タイフーンッ).

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Other News

The Japanese Digital Manga Association has announced the August launch of Jmanga.com, an initiative by Japanese manga publishers to make manga available online to a worldwide audience.

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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!



Yuri Manga: Sweet Little Devil

July 22nd, 2011

Manga artist Nanzaki Iku developed a fairly significant audience as a creator of doujinshi under the circle name Doropanda TOURS where she became best known for her stories about Shizuru and Natsuki from the Mai Hime/Mai Otome universes. These lovingly, and often explictly, rendered stories added the “after happily every after” chapters that fans craved in which their ShizNat were the item that they always knew they were.

In Sweet Little Devil, Iku takes her character types and crafts some original stories with them. This is her first full collection from Yuri Hime, but not the first time her work has appeared in a Yuri Hime anthology – her stories have been fixtures in all the Wildrose collections.

The first couple, Sayo and Ri-chan are most like ShizNat, but their personalities are not analogous. Ri-chan (the Natuski type) is older and Sayo (Shizuru type) is an admiring underclassman. They’ve been together for some time, so we’re spared the “girl A likes girl B” trope of Story A.

Their arc comes to a climax when, during summer on a night of fireworks, Sayo is forced to out herself and Ritsuko to an old school friend. Luckily, they both feel it was fine, before they have sex.

Have I mentioned the sex? This book is a series of well-endowed characters having sex, with some small plots woven between the sex scenes. Just so you’re not surprised.

The rest of the one-shots are either tiresome or pleasant depending on what you like. For me, the major positive of Iku’s work is that the characters really *like* one another. There’s no doubt that this is love, not just sex. It’s a small point, but an important one for me.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Variable, but all pretty decent, so 8
Characters – Same
Yuri – 9
Service – 8

Overall – 8

If you’re looking for, or don’t mind, explicit stories about women who really like one another, (and one Story A story), I can definitely recommend Sweet Little Devil.



Suite Precure Anime

July 21st, 2011

Suite Precure is the tragic story of Seiren, a singer. Betrayed by her homeland, Major Land, rejected as the Song Princess she is, she defects to Minor Land where, like so many defectors, she is forced to prove her loyalty over and over. Put in charge of incompetent and insubordinate subordinates, Seiren labors to resurrect a magical score so that she can at last sing as she was meant to… and who, of all people, must she contend with? Her own best friend and protégé, the very same creature for whom she was cast aside …Hummy.

Seiren is torn between her anger at being betrayed and cast aside, and her affection for the friend who was so important to her. Unfortunately for Seiren, the elite warriors of Major Land outgun her own Minor Land forces and her continued embarrassment at the hands of the Precure begins to eat at her.

Until, one day, Seiren snaps. She regrets her defection, she longs to repair her life and in a weak moment, becomes one of the elite Precure warriors herself. Now, full of loathing and self-doubt she wages war against herself, with no home to return to….

Well…okay, that’s not really what Suite PreCure is about, but it’s better than the real story, so I’m sticking to it.

Kanade and Hibiki, Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm, are best friends and have to be “in harmony” to transform, so the Japanese fans on Twitter are calling it Yuri. Seiren only transforms to save Hummy, so if you count Hummy as female and cats as eligible for Yuri, then there’s Yuri that way. And I’m counting Cure Muse because her costume screams Go Nagai designs.

I like Cure Beat best because 1) She is not wearing pink (which Toei pointed out that all girls like and so, *for the first time EVER* both main characters would have pink elements, how exciting!) and 2) Toyoguchi Megumi (Marimite‘s Sei) is voicing Seiren/Beat with everything she’s got, considering the character is a cat.  Purple Cures are always the coolest.

If you ignore all of this nonsense, Suite Precure is a completely predictable, music-themed magical girl cartoon for little kids.

Ratings:

Art – 7, it’s returned to type from the Heartcatch designs
Story – A little sillier than usual, I think – 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Series – 1

Overall – 7

I should also point out that the Fairy Tones, the cute little gem-like creatures that represent the notes of the scale, are excruciatingly cute and I adore them. That’s a major step up from previous Precure  cute, little mascots. Hummy can die a painful death, though.



Crunchyroll Adds Morita-san wa Mukuchi Anime

July 20th, 2011

According to Crunchyroll News’ feed on Twitter, the free, legal streaming site Crunchyroll has added Morita-san ha Mukuchi to its summer line-up to worldwide audiences with the exception of Japan.

This anime is based on the 4-koma manga of the same name, which has been reviewed here. (Volume 1, Volume 2) Light on the Yuri, but cute anyway. ^_^