Yuri News this Week – June 13, 2009

June 13th, 2009

Yuri Events

Yuricon and ALC Publishing is, even as you read this, selling Grab Bags and Yuri Manga in Con Row at AnimeNEXT! Drop by tonight for the Yuri Panel at 6PM, in which we will talk about many things – almost all good. :-)

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Yuri Anime

Katherine was pleased as punch to be able to share the news with the Yuricon Mailing List that “Aoi Hana is premiering [in Japan] on July 1, according to the website which has been newly revamped, complete with new anime art, a wallpaper section (an adorable relationship chart, and a ton of other material.”

Yuri Light Novel

And again, top Yuri reporter Katherine would like you to know that Tiara Bunko has released a Yuri Light Novel, complete with illustrations by Chi-Ran called Ai Yuri Gakuin Youkoso E. The plot seems more of the same, but, hey, *more* of the same!

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Yuri Manga

The second volume of Creo the Crimson Crisis arriving on shelves next week is excellent testimony to the fact that my opinion is hardly the only one. :-)

And don’t forget your copy of Yuri Hime S, also on sale on the 18th.

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Other Yuri-ish News

Eric P. wants you to know that he found that “someone named Daniel Cronquist wrote a book called Set Apart that came out back in February. It’s a book that offers the Christian interpretation of all the religious themes and story elements in the Haibane Renmei series, while admitting the series isn’t directly a Christian story.” Apparently he interprates the characters as representations of the Seven Deadly Sins. I don’t think this is as crazy as it sounds – I saw Haibane Renmei as taking place in a kind of Purgatory, and I’m coming from a decidedly non-Christian point of view.

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Snatches of Yuri

Ashita Hareru Ya! is about 4-koma hijinks and Yuri sempai love at a nursing school. Volume 2 seems to be more Yuri than Volume 1.

For more girls’ school roomate love, check out Butterfly Kiss which does indeed look very Yuri love-love.

And one more for the fans of series that contain references about fandom, Transistor Tea Set~ Denkigai Chizu is another Mangatime KR 4-koma, with a Yuri character. This time, the series is set in and about the inhabitants of Electric Town, Akihabara, the otaku center of Tokyo.

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As always, email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with any Yuri news you’d like to share!

Posted in Aoi Hana/ Sweet Blue Flowers, Light Novel, Shimura Takako, Yuri Network News | 7 Comments »


Finding Yuricon & ALC at AnimeNEXT

June 13th, 2009

Con Row at AnimeNEXT is past registration and around the corner, in from of the back door to the Expo Center – where the shuttle bus lets off. the Yuricon table is on the left as you walk in.

Yuri Panel is at 6PM on Saturday, June 13 – see you there!

Posted in Yuricon | 4 Comments »


Maria-sama ga Miteru Special CD, Volume 2

June 12th, 2009

Tsutako is in the house! Yes, in the second Maria-sama ga Miteru Special CD, Satou Rina is the guest of honor and conversations about soeur and sweets abound. Satou Rina has the most amusing habit of calling Ueda Kana “Yumi-san,” which she just canNOT shake.

They discuss the usual things – the kind of junk food they are eating, who Satou Rina would have as a friend, souer, wife, etc. (Is there any surprise to find that she wants to be Yumi’s friend and have Shouko as souer? No, no there isn’t.)

But the great big super important reason you will get the CD is not the guest of honor, as cool as she is.

The reason you will get this CD is the drama.

The nearly one-hour long drama.

The nearly one-hour long drama voiced by Nazuka Kaori (Yun in Simoun, Subaru in .Hack/Sign) “Kareruki ni Mebuki,” (“From Withered Tree to Bud”) that tells the end, if you will, of the Tsutako x Shouko story from the perspective of her older sister, Kasumi.

The story that not only puts all the pieces in place for the Shouko x Tsutako story, but also makes plain what was up to that point obvious, yet implicit – Kasumi’s obsession, what in Japanese is called kataomoi, with the former Rosa Foetida, Torii Eriko.

Oh my *God* is this a good drama. Tears, laughter, it has everything. It has *everything*. It was so good I needed a smoke afterward.

The fact that so many of these side stories are being told in the CD dramas indicates to me that they are not intending on animating them, but I hope to be proven wrong. Tsutako, Shouko and Kasumi definitely deserve an OVA of their own!

Ratings:

Overall – 9.5

These Special CDs have been so amazing, I’m a little scared to get the next one, in case it fails to be as magnificent as the previous ones. But that won’t stop me for a second, really. ^_^

Posted in Drama CD, Drama CDs & Audiobooks, Maria-sama ga Miteru | 2 Comments »


Alice on Deadlines Manga: Volume 2 (English)

June 11th, 2009

Lapan is the worst Shinigami ever. He’s a slacker, a layabout and a perv. Alice was the most beautiful and popular girl in her elite girls’ school, but since Lapan arrived, poor Alice is forced to watch as day after day Lapan abuses her own body after accidentally being incarnated in it, leaving her stuck as an animated skeleton. To make things worse, another Shinigami, Ume, is spending his days trying to seduce Lapan, while trying to get rid of Alice behind Lappan’s back.

And that is not all that Alice has to deal with in Volume 2 of Alice on Deadlines. She learns a bit about Lapan’s and Ume’s past, takes on an underwear-stealing Shibito and is captured by Mad-sama, the crazy lord of Shibito, who takes a liking to her new skeletal form. On top of all that, she may be falling for Lapan…which is to say that she’s kind of falling for herself.

Yuri in Volume 2 is Ume’s attempts to gain access to Lapan’s body, Lapan cultivating Alice’s hordes of admirers for more “personal: relationships and, I guess, Alice falling for Lapan/herself. So, if a boy pretending to be a girl and a girl vying for the attention of a guy in a girl’s body = Yuri to you, go to town.

There’s lots of wackiness and screaming and scythe-slinging and internal politics among the Shinigami, since the Japanese tend to think of the gods of death as working for a beauracratic organization.

And, uh…that’s about all there is to say about this volume.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 3
Characters – 4
Yuri – 4
Service – 7

Overall – 4

Okazu Superhero Daniel P superheroically sponsored today’s review! Thanks from all of us. ^_^

Posted in English Manga | 4 Comments »


My-HiME Manga, Volume 5 (English)

June 10th, 2009

My absolute favorite panel of My-HiME Volume 5 is the first page. We see TWO gaudily dressed women, arrogantly posed, smiling condescendingly and clearly labeled “Three Cosmic Beauties.”

Eventually we learn why the third of the three Cosmic Beauties is not present in this panel, and I agree that a label stating “Two of the Three Cosmic Beauties” would not have been as dramatic, but…still. Totally typical of the whole My-HiME experience. ^_^

In case there hasn’t been enough screaming in the previous four volumes, the decibels are upped a few extra notches for this one. Pretty much everything is said in REALLY BIG LETTERS!!! so we know they really mean it. Nagi returns from the dead only to be killed again, which is pretty darn satisfying and, since there’s only one person in the whole world Mai loves more than anything, of course she has to fight that person. Tate gets both girls, sort of, and they beat the bad guy and save the world. Yay us.

Haruka and Yukino have a shiny hero moment which ends with Haruka’s apparent death, but that is of course reversed in a totally Haruka moment at the end of the volume. Second best line of this volume – Shizuru, at Haruka’s reappearance, “Waste of a good funeral.” Youko and Midori get a snuggly moment which pleased me, since they always seemed a more likely pairing to me than Midori and some random old guy.

In conclusion, ShizNat fans should avoid this series like the plague, as should anyone with a shred of dignity. Haruka x Yukino fans will find some sparkly bits hidden among the muck.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 5
Yuri – 1
Service – 5

Overall – 5

I shout out, well mumble anyway, thanks to Okazu Superhero Bruce McF for sponsoring today’s review!

Oh, best line of the volume? In the author’s note at the very end, Kimura-sensei recalls, “Ken-etsu-sensei kept saying disheartening things like ‘Let’s try not to get cancelled!’ when we rode on the train together.” Says everything you need to know about this series, IMHO. ^_^;

Posted in English Manga, Mai Hime | 7 Comments »