Kuchibiru ni Saketa Orange Contest Results!

August 15th, 2010

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the really fun little stories you sent in for the Kuchibiru ni Saketa Orange contest. You exceeded my expectations (which were very high, because of course I think you are all creative geniuses. lol)

As I suspected, there were so many good ones, I’m going to give all 9 of you a prize. (This is not nearly as generous as it sounds. I have 9 books sitting here I want to get rid of.)

However, because tradition dictates I give the promised prize to the winner, I declare Angela …B+C=P the winner of the contest! Yay! Whooo!

Please send me you addresses to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject line “Orange Contest” and I will send you…something. You may even like it! ^_^

Posted in Contests | 1 Comment »


Yuri Network News – August 14, 2010

August 14th, 2010


Yuri Anime

Eagle-eyed Nick noticed that Funimation has started streaming the first two episodes of Ga-Rei-Zero, with it’s ambiguously Yuri relationship, on Funi’s YouTube channel.

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Yuri Manga

The first combined Comic Yuri Hime is on sale, so don’t miss your chance to see the historical super-combined powers of Yuri Hime and Yuri Hime S! (Admit it, that’s a great image.)

Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 6, which hits shelves on the 18th of this month, is available for pre-order.

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Snatches of Yuri

Monthly Alive Comic Magazine has announced a new Kämpfer project. No guarantees that it’ll be any better than the last one. ^_^ (Not that the audience wants it to be good. First comment on the ANN forums says it better than I can.)

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Other News

You may not be aware of it, but there is an organization for women in the comics industry. Friends of Lulu was founded in 1994 to highlight the achievements and contributions of women in sequential art. It came very close to disappearing this year.

They have pulled back from the brink, and have now opened their 2010 awards nominations to the public. I hope you’ll take a moment to visit the site, consider the issues, nominate and vote for women in an industry which, no matter how many of us work in it, is still seen as a boy’s world for boys.

This is as yet unconfirmed, but a Japanese acquaintance of mine has told me that the Ichijinsha Iris Bunko will no longer be publishing Yuri Light Novels, as they have not been doing well in sales. (She is an author and inquired about submitting a story.) It’s a hard thing to parse, because they weren’t really very good novels, so would they have done better if they had been better? I can’t tell.

One last news item of note: The folks who worked hard to bring Ladies Comics to America under the imprint of Aurora Comics have started up a new venture. Manga Factory’s first project is a tour to Japan crafted especially for fujyoshi and their friends. The tour will include options for a Takarazuka show in Tokyo, a visit to a Butler Bar, and a drag show, so if you’re interested in cross-dressing/gender bending, this is probably the tour you’ve been waiting for. Of course there will be other otaku must-visits, including Otome Road in my beloved Ikebukuro, the Nakano Sunshine Arcade, Akihabara and a host club. Check out the link above for details.

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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 | 3 Comments »


Issho ni Kaero Manga

August 14th, 2010

When they were 9 years old, Haru and Shio met during the summer. They spent happy days bug hunting and hanging out, swimming, all normal summer things. Haru fell for Shio, and considered him her first love. When they parted, they promised to write to one another, which they did. Years passed and Haru was preparing for high school, she gets a postcard from Shio saying that he’ll be going to the same school!

Imagine Haru’s surprise when she sees Shio again for the first time in 6 years. Shio’s short hair is now long, straight and black. And his chest is decidedly un-boyish. Surprised, Haru asks when Shio became a girl?!? Shio says she always was…….

At which point, the entire love interest issue is dropped, except when it’s brought up in the beginning of every chapter as a recap. In every other way, the story stops being about Haru and Shio and becomes about Shio and the rest of the class.

Shio, it turns out, is not good with people. It’s surprising even to her that she became friends with Haru, as she’s a crybaby and can’t remember people’s names. One of the girls in the class is snarky to Shio, which bothers her less than the boy who makes fun of her big chest.

Towards the end of the book, Haru and Shio have a fight, over something. A misunderstanding, a difference of human interaction styles, whatever. They make up, obviously. And the book ends. And, um…that’s it. This is Volume 1, so there’ll probably be a volume 2.

Ratings:

Art – 6, Haru and her father did this weird lip-pursing thing, which was supposed to be funny, but was really just weird
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 6

Issho ni Kaero  (一緒にかえろう) is a 4-koma manga with an amusing premise that is reintroduced every chapter, then set aside for other, less amusing things.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »


Takarazuka: Hays Code

August 12th, 2010

You may have at least *heard* of the Motion Picture Production Code, commonly known as the Hays Code. Although I know what the Hays Code is, and know the usual kinds of stories around its implementation, I really had never paid much attention to it.

Having watched the Takarazuka version of a production called The Hays Code, I still couldn’t really tell you what the relation the Code had to the story or, really, what the story of this production was at all, but damn I enjoyed watching it! ^_^

Like Singing in the Rain, you’ve got a Hollywood set-up, a good actress (the real love interest) and a bad actress (the wife/girlfriend?) and a bunch of “guys” striding back and forth and something to do with movie-making. And some mafia types…and an insane priest.

Let me be very clear – the plot is not complex or obscure, Bruce and I were just paying half attention to it as we watched. But what we did see was absolutely delightful. There was tap dancing and Hollywood musical-esque group singing and dancing scenes and everyone lived happily ever after, with a totally non-typical ending, which is to say a big group musical number, rather than the love-love couple rising to heaven on the rising contraption.

This was great. It was light-hearted (except where it wasn’t) and Toono Asuka was cast as a woman with a slightly annoying voice which worked perfectly and the other lead female had a very nice voice and a really bizarre scene where she was hypnotized by the priest…seriously bizarre scene…and did I mention tap dancing? Oh, and it has Aran Kei in a Tux. Approved.

I enjoyed every second of this DVD and as soon as I have a few hours, I’ll watch it again and try to make heads or tails of the story. No blame to the writers, I just need to actually pay attention. ^_^

Rating:

Overall – 8

This DVD totally left Bruce and I grinning, although we basically had no idea why. ^_^

Posted in Takarazuka | 3 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Raubritter

August 10th, 2010

Raubritter, by Futada Nika, is a rare example of a Yuri Manga that would have been much better without the sex. Not only does some of the sex come off as skanky and non-consensual, it makes the relationships between the characters awkward and uncomfortable for this reader.

The story starts when Neneko comes to the interior design shop known as Raubritter on a quest to find her missing older sister. Immediately, and for no reason whatsoever, Neneko is being sexually harassed by the owners of Raubritter, Yokana and Shinobu. While Neneko is presented to us as an adult, the art frequently makes her look very childish. Which is really maddening, because about half-way through the book, it starts to not suck. After we get past the pointless, unsexy threesome scene, the story settles down.

If you’ve read the first volume of Hana no Asuka-gumi, or any Mist stories, then you know where Neneko’s sister is…she’s at a sex club. A BDSM club to be precise, where she is the star of the club and the owner’s lover. Nanako is very happy with her life, which is good enough for Neneko. She returns to be the housekeeper and dogsbody of Raubritter. Yokana and she seem to settle into to being a couple.

Which leaves Shinobu. As you know, everyone must be paired up in a story like this, so a new character is introduced – a tough bitch of a policewoman with Krieger Frau hair (and if you get that reference, you are clearly insane and I love you) named Takizawa Torako. That is, she’s a tough-as-nails cop until she sees Shinobu and melts into all sorts of puddles. She offers to “investigate” the troublemakers at the sex club (Yokana and Shinobu…of course) and instead falls head over heels for Shinobu. Luckily, Shinobu falls just as fast for Torako, in what was really the best panel of the book as they meet each other for the first time and go completely gaga over one another.

In the end, we all live happily every after, Neneko and Yokana, Nanako and her club owner and Shinobu and  Torako. And then the book ends, in a much better place than it began. And, in all honesty, if the first two chapters had been sex-free, it would have been a fine book. As it was, it was merely tolerable.

Ratings:

Art – No, sorry, I really don’t think it’s cute to infantilize adult women. Ick. 4
Story – Starts out nasty, turns out sweet  5
Characters – Predictable, only a little tiresome 6
Yuri – 7
Service – 8

Overall – A straight! I win 8 tickets!

Posted in Yuri Manga | 3 Comments »