Yuri Network News – May 14, 2011

May 14th, 2011

Yuri Anime

The Subaru-sponsored short animation, Houkago no Pleiades, will be coming to movie theaters across Japan…as a series of “Mind your manners” shorts, before the movie plays.

YNN Correspondent George R submits this report on Yuri in the novel Moshidora, on which the anime is based:

Following up on an item from the April 9 YNN, I found the Yuri in Moshidora. It’s not quite as imagined as I thought. It happens in chapter 3, page 77 (which is animated in episode 2). Yuki, the baseball manager who’s currently sick in the hospital asks Ayano, the shy manager, why she joined the baseball team. Ayano’s response is to tearfully admit that she wants to make friends with everyone and be useful to them, then adds “Watashi, Yuki-san ga suki datta’n desu!” [I do like you, Yuki-san], explaining that she’s always looked up to Yuki, wanted to be like her, be useful to everyone like she is, make friends with everyone like she does.

 So, with Yuri goggles on, I can interpret that as Ayano having a romantic crush on Yuki. On the other hand, when I read the novel, I left off my goggles and interpreted this as Ayano wanting to break out of her shell and not be the “expressionless android of a model student” that she was accused of in junior high. Sure, Yuki was someone she admired and wanted to emulate, but I didn’t see it as romantic or Yuri. Given that interpretation, and a bit of fuzzy memory explains why I was shocked other folks saw Yuri in Moshidora. Welcome to the wonderful world of “the ambiguities of ‘suki’.” However I think this qualifies as Yuri just as much as a lot of MariMite does. Goggles-yay!

Yeah, it’s about as Yuri as K-ON! Yuri Goggles help. ^_^

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Yuri Ero-game

There is nothing about the new Yuri ero-game that I could say that is not already captured by the title. The new game is called – and no, I am not kidding – Yukkuri Panic! Escalation. Yes, this is the story of Cream Escalation, with a new title. Yay.

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Yuri Snack News

Convenience store chain Lawson is promoting a series of K-ON! inspired snacks and goods through the end of May. I want that stapler.

But hands down, the best snack-related item on today’s report is the Tohato Caramel Corn with eyes drawn by Ryoko Ikeda. ^_^

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Other News

Manga translator Dan Kanemitsu has worked with artist Nogami Takeshi to develop a bi-lingual Strike Witches doujinshi, Witches of Africa. Nogami also worked on the Bill 156 doujinshi, which Dan translated and Nogami-sensei’s a friend of another translator I know, so he’s kind of immersed in the idea of cross-cultural expression. I am very excited about the idea of bi-lingual doujinshi, as it seems like a natural progression. You can get this collection from Amazon JP, among other sales outlets in Japan. (And, if you run a sales outlet here, Dan and Nogami-sensei are looking for sellers here in the west, too.)

Also in bilingual news, Japanese art site Pixiv is creating an English-language encyclopedia.

Last up for today, YNN correspondent Jenna M. reports that Japanese seiyuu Ogata Megumi, who many Yuri fans remember fondly as Tenoh Haruka/Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon, is on Twitter for a limited time, to promote a charity event and birthday concert.

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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 | 7 Comments »


CANAAN Light Novel, Volume 2 (下)

May 13th, 2011

Volume 2 of the Light Novels based on the anime CANAAN is, like the first volume, an exact rendition of the anime to text form. Where that worked well for the first volume, the emphasis on action scenes – specifically one-on-one confrontations – made for some really slow reading in this volume.

It’s not that the author is bad, it’s just that the action scenes are literally descriptions of the action portrayed in the anime. So literal that, after a while, it begins to feel like one is reading an RPG which, if you think about it, you kinda are. ^_^

So, after 350+ pages of “Person A does a thing. Then Person B does a thing. ‘Blah, blah,” Person A said,” I found myself replaying the scenes from the anime in my head to remember the energy and passion contained within them. Painful or awkward scenes were especially slow. Hakko’s final hours and Liang Qi’s fate were rather more excruciating than they were in the anime. To be fair, this is probably because it took *me* so long to make my way through them, and not any particular fault of the scenes themselves.

The few good Yuri scenes we had in the anime remained good in the novel. The night before they enter the destroyed village on the Silk Road, in which Canaan and Maria realize just how much they mean to each other, was quite wonderful. And, in the same way, the moment when Canaan sort of belies that by naming their relationship “friends” is just as disappointing to us. However, I’m more convinced than ever that it was not the death knell for Yuri, but the beginning of Maria and Canaan being able to see each other as equals and from that…who knows. It still seems to me that what they had was far more intimate (in an emotional sense) than a friendship.

At the beginning of the series, Canaan is more like Superdog than anything else. Super-powered, cute, a little alien, a little exotic, a lot “what do you do with this?” Maria is naive and helpless. They have to move past those things to be people who can look each other in the eyes squarely. Now, as the story comes to a close, I can see the two of them learning to love one another in a not-childish way.

But, the pages of the story do come to a close and so must this review.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – In my hopeful delusion, I’m going to say 6
Series – 4

Overall – 8

As with the first volume, if you very much enjoyed the anime and wish to level up your reading skills (there is a lot of scientific and military terminology, as well as just adults having adult conversations) you will probably enjoy CANAAN.

Posted in Light Novel, Type-Moon | 3 Comments »


K-ON! Anime, Volume 1 (English)

May 12th, 2011

K-On! Vol. 1My original review for K-ON!, Volume 1 has been disappeared by a Blogger meltdown. I am no longer the same person who wrote that review, so any points I made, valid or not, are now no longer relevant. ^_^

Rather than trying to recreate the content – and failing – I’m just going to write a new review.

K-ON! follows the story of spazzy, doofus-y Hirasawa Yui, in her attempt to wring every last drop of joy out of high school life by joining a club. She finds just about the perfect club for a spazzy, doofus-y, idiot savant – the Keionbu, the “Light Music” club. Volume 1 covers Yui’s discovery of the club and the three other members and her adventures in buying and learning to play a guitar. It’s all good, clean, spazzy, doofus-y fun. With a goofy, bubblegummy soundtrack.

In my opinion, it’s the music that really represents the anime. Rocking pop music you can bounce gracelessly to, incredibly weird lyrics and an overall feeling of massive gobs of fun. This music isn’t just bubble gum  – it’s long-lasting Bubble Yum(TM) music.

The characters are cleverly designed to adhere to types popular with moe fandom but, nonetheless, seem to exceed their rather limited origins. As an ensemble I find them, for personal reasons, to strike a pleasant chord for me. (Yes, yes, pun intended.)

I was lucky to receive a DVD of this volume. I have been informed that the Blu-Ray disks for Volume 1 suffer from soundtrack problems. The sound on the songs are, according to a random Twitter correspondent, only DVD quality and one of the tracks is off. I have never been an audiophile myself and, as I have had an ear infection for about a month now, I’m pretty sure there is no way I’d notice the difference in sound quality, but I know that this kind of thing is very important to people. Bandai has a history of handling sound badly…surely I am not the only one who remembers the Ghost In the Shell sound issues? And I am informed by this same Twitter source that fans were unhappy with Haruhi sound as well, thus guaranteeing that the segment of the fandom least likely to buy in the US anyway, has yet another reason with which to justify piracy. Well done there, Bandai.

But, as I say, I have a DVD and I found it to be – in all but one way – fantastic. The translation was very good. (At least Bandai brought their A game to the translation.) The anime is for people who like goofy, moe, slice-of-school-life, all-female ensemble casts. The only thing I really wanted but did not get is a Music Video extra. I feel like that would have been the cherry on top of this Red Velvet cupcake with it’s yummy cream cheese music topping. (Too sweet, but man, can’t get enough….) I am also informed by Filo from a comment on the previous, disappeared post, that the dub is quite good.

There is no Yuri. There will never be Yuri in this series. If you see Yuri, you are either extrapolating from the Mugi-vision scenes in the manga or are the kind of person who sees Yuri whenever two girls touch, regardless of context. Take it from someone who is female, and has friends she touches, but does not sleep with – they’re just friends.

Ratings:

Art – Lovingly detailed backgrounds, moe blob characters – 7
Story – Goofy slice of life – 8
Characters – How many times in a review can I use the word “goofy?” Well, here’s one more. – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 4

Overall – 8

Overall, there’s plenty to like about this series, unless any or all of the above annoy you. Then it’s annoying as hell. But I like it anyway. ^_^

Many thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for making today’s review possible!

Posted in English Anime | 1 Comment »


Home Sick

May 10th, 2011

I didn’t want you all to think I’d forgotten you, but I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired this week, and worked all weekend, besides. I’m hoping to finish reading a few things in my down time and will be back asap with some reviews.

Now’s a good time to offer a guest review, hint, hint. ^_^

Posted in Miscellaneous | 6 Comments »


New Yuricon Art Contest – Every Day is a Celebration at Yuricon!

May 8th, 2011

There are so many things to celebrate these days at Yuricon. We passed our first 10th anniversary, Yuri is more popular than ever, we’ve got a great new website, spring is here….etc., etc..

But what really means most to us is that we take every day and celebrate the small things, like being together with the ones we love. So, Yuricon Mascots Yuriko and Midori have asked for the first Yuricon Contest theme to be – Every Day is a Celebration!

Contest entries will portray Yuriko and Midori doing every day things like washing dishes, eating dinner, shopping (trying on clothes!), packing to move, whatever you think best reflects their (and by extension *our*) daily life together with the people we love.

There are no limits on image size or format, but be mindful of the fact that images will be viewed on a computer screen, so your 4′ mosaic masterpiece may not be worth the effort. ^_^ (On the other hand, if you really do a 4′ mosaic of Yuriko and Midori, it’ll be a shoo-in for a prize!)

Please read and follow the Submission Rules. Including the bit we put in to make sure you read and are following the rules. ^_^;

To inspire you, Yuriko and Midori have chosen a few of their favorite images from over the years. Check them out doing every day things together!

Yuriko, Midori and the rest of the judges look forward to seeing how you celebrate every day with Yuricon!

Posted in Yuricon | 1 Comment »