Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime, Volume 19 (Part 1)

March 2nd, 2010

“Got your heart!” says the cover of Comic Yuri Hime, Volume 19. And so far, at least, it’s right. :-)

After some color illustrations that are less skanky than I’m used to, we jump right into a new series “Moso Honey” by the insanely prolific Mikuni Hadzime (of Gokujou Drops). Nonoka enters a new high school and is drafted into the high-end and rather bizarre Student Council by a “cool beauty,” Nozomi. What will this mean for the decidely average Nonoka? Hijinx and Wackiness, of course!

“Kuma-san ni Tsuite” is a slightly uncomfortable love story between a woman who obsesses about teddy bears and her long-suffering friend.

“Spike Girls” is really interesting to me, not because it’s a perfectly respectable sport romance, but also because Takemiya Jin is also doing a sports romance as Junk-Lab, so clearly he’s really into the whole idea right now. :-) Jun is recruited by by Ichi-sempai to play on the volleyball team, but unexpectedly finds herself falling for Ichi-sempai, who was in love with her own sempai. Jun confesses, thinking that Ichi-sempai will be disgusted, but oh, look! not so much.

Mitsue Aoki’s “Sweet Room” is the kind of story that works only if you’re reading an anthology of a lot of one type of short story and you are therefore inclined to be a bit generous about handwaves that are awkward, because how many different ways are there, really, to tell the same story. Nozomi find a stranded high school girl and takes her into her home, because 1) she thinks high school girls are cute and 2) the girl was stranded, duh. But after the girl makes herself comfortable, pretty much moving in, Nozomi begins to doubt her own motives. When Nana seduces Nozomi, she’s wracked with guilt, unti Nana admits to being 21 and having made up the whole high school thing to appeal to Nozomi, who she overheard talking about how cute high school girls are at the convenience store where she works. Heh.

Miura Shion’s Yuri essay touches on Sasamekikoto and “Para Yuri Hime” is Fujio’s love letter to a school crush named Waka.

At the the Black Cat Mansion, tutor Jun rues the fact that she rejected her student Chiasa, on their last day together.

“Mahou no Te” is another over-complicated love story about a girl who learns that someone who touches you on the back of the arm is sure to be your true love, or something like that. Nasu is passively-aggressively in love with Seri. They embrace.

“Renai Joshika” follows Fumi, who falls in love with the woman behind the makeup counter. It turns out that “love” is the best makeup of all.

And this section, we’ll end end with “A Knife Edge Girl” which was probably the most realistic “friend in love with friend” story we’ve seen in a while. There’s a lot of interior emotion and some very little interaction, but it rings true in that a real love story is not one story – but two. Each of the people involved has their own story going on in their head, apart from the other. While this story only so far follows one character, we can see that the other has a whole separate set of stuff going on.

Up to this point, the magazine’s been better than average and has a fairly high percentage of grown up characters, which I will never complain about. The level of high melodrama is lower, and so is the “afterschool special” feel as compared to some of the stories we’ve had in the past.

Also, I’d like to note that the tone of obsessive destruction that used to walk hand in hand with Yuri is pretty much out of the picture now. No knives, paper cutters or rooftops threaten our Yuri with the grim specter of suicide. These characters might be depressed a bit when they think their love isn’t returned, but Yuri and madness no longer are equivalent.

In fact, what I’m seeing is more of that tectonic shift to strong characters, characters with jobs, lives, friends, characters with hobbies and interests and – can you believe it took this long – female characters in sports! ‘Bout time too. Honestly, you’d think *someone* would have written an Olympic-like competition Yuri story for this issue. Duuuuuuhhhhh……. However, I am sufficiently glad for the absence of Valentine’s Day stories. Phew.

Tectonic shift it may be, but I’m liking it.

Part 2 next.

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 5 (百合姫 Wildrose)

February 28th, 2010

Girl A – /meets/is in love with/argues with/falls in love with/is going out with/drugs/ – Girl B.

They have sex.

The End.

That’s it. I’m totally done with this series. I don’t get why anyone likes this crap, it’s irredeemably dull and utterly unsexy.

I think I’ve been more than patient with this series, waiting for it to develop some character, some depth, some strength of conviction, and all it’s done is move further and further backwards into the most banal of “Story A” territory.

Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 5 (百合姫 Wildrose) is an entire collection of “Plot, What Plot?” stories that are well beyond uninspired, a veritable fanfiction.net of a Yuri anthology.

I have five volumes (1-5) of Yuri Hime Wildrose here and I’d like to get rid of them, because they stink. In the comments field, write me a Story A romance in two sentences, in Mad LibsTM form:

Girl A (verb) Girl B. They (verb). The End

Don’t be gross, vulgar or pornographic. I won’t approve comments like that. Be creative and funny (unlike the stories in this collection) and you win all 5 books.

Ratings:

UGH

“Body and Heart entwined Bathtime” reads the obi copy.

UGH

Headslap Update: If you plan on posting as “Anonymous” could you sign off with a nickname or initials or *something* so I can tell you that you won and not some other Anonymous? Duh…!

Second Headslap Update: I should probably point out the obvious and say that you need to be over 18 to be part of this. If you are under 18 and entered, wtf were you thinking?

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | 51 Comments »


Yuri Network News – February 27, 2010

February 27th, 2010

Stuck in the February doldrums? Let the light of Yuri bring you joy!

Yuri Anime

Right Stuf/Nozomi announces ARIA The ORIGINATION DVD Collection has a new street date of March 16.

In the footsteps of Lesbian sites like Afterellen, SheWired, OneMoreLesbian and CherryGrrl that have opened up their doors to Yuri anime, Brazilian Lesbian website Parada Lesbica has reviewed Kannazuki no Miko. Ton Ton, from the Yuricon Mailing List did us the favor of translating into English. English is not Ton Ton’s first language, but I’m sure you can understand this without too much difficulty. Disclaimer: This review has *nothing* to do with Okazu, so if you’d like to respond to it, please visit Parada Lesbica and tell them. Thanks!:

Today I bring to you the animated version of Kannazuki no Miko. Created by the Kaishaku group in 2004, the series started with a manga, very short, with only fourteen chapters published during eight months in a Japanese magazine.

In the same year, the Geneon released the series in anime version. Although this anime is not an so old anime, he won many fans, and today is a reference when it comes to yuri.

Recently, Kannazuki won a spin-off manga, which is already being translated and released by the group Moonlight Flowers in Brazil.

The story begins with a collegial atmosphere, very typical of the yuri series. One of the main characters, Chikane, is the perfect model of girl. Good student, pretty, stylish and admired by everyone. Chikane is always misterious and she is the desire of girls and boys from her school.
The other protagonist is Himeko, a girl who is extremely sweet, confused and muddled. Of course, Himeko is one of the Chikane fans in school.

Another important character is a boy named Souma Oogami, according to the students of the college where they study, this boy is the only one who has enough quality to be Chikane boyfriend, but as always, there are someone who suffer and he is in love with Himeko.
During the first episode, the two girls become friends, take tea in a hide place.

But all this pure, happy and high school mode ends soon. The city is taken by a curse, and chaos is installed. Chikane and Himeko discover that they are Mikos (a kind of priestess), and must fight together against the Orochi.

There’s a little drama here, because Souma, that loves Himeko, is an Orochi. Obviously he refuses to be a being of evil and fight your loved one. But he can not always dominate his nature, after all, he is cursed.

The narrative begins to develop from here. I find this anime very interesting because it mixes romance with mecha battles, and spells. It is an exciting anime, there are no points where the story stagnates, and the end is really incredible, in my opinion.

***

Yuri Manga

YNN Correspondent Bruce P. offers up glowing piece of praise for an upcoming addition to the Yuri Hime lineup: “the prolific and long established mangaka Ishida Atsuko
will have her first Yuri story published in the next Yuri Hime S. She has been drawing shoujo manga (among other genres) for many years; she also did the character design and animation direction for several older anime series, including Magic Knight Rayearth and Shamanic Princess. In her work she concentrates heavily on her female characters and obviously very much enjoys drawing them, in a lush, freehand kind of style. Both Rayearth 2 and Shamanic Princess had slight touches of Yuri, and she drew some cross-dressing fake Yuri in Jun-sui! Date Club back in 2004, and so I’ve been half expecting her to eventually try her hand at the real thing. It’s been a long wait. Unfortunately it appears from the advertising blurb that her contribution will be a fluffy akogare schoolgirl story (in Yuri Hime S? Imagine).

The first volume of GUNJO has hit the street this weekend! For those of you who would like to try your hand at reading the story in Japanese, YNN Correspondent and my respected colleague in the world of Yuri, Erin S, points out that some of the chapters that were published in Morning 2 magazine (1, 3, 11-13) are currently online on the IKKI magazine website. The current issue of IKKI is running chapter 14. I have not myself read Chapters 1 and 2 and I’m holding off until I get the whole collection next week.

Through the generosity of Okazu Superhero Ted V., we will have a copy of the first volume to give away. I will announce the giveaway rules officially next week. Thanks Ted!

I’m pretty excited about seeing GUNJO in print – I hope you are, too.

Rakuen Le Paradis, the first volume of which I have reviewed, now has a second volume on sale. (Thanks Erin and Sean for the reminder!)

***

Other Yuri News

Also from Erin, is a news item about a movie called Kakera: A Piece of Our Life, which is based on the Yuri manga, Love Vibes by Sakurazawa Erica. There is a trailer on the website, which makes it look interesting – definitely different than the source material, but interesting nonetheless.

***

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 | 1 Comment »


Hayate x Blade Manga, Volume 11

February 27th, 2010

In fighting manga, it always seems like it’s those few quiet moments in between the fights that move the plot along fastest.

This is absolutely *not* the case for Hayate x Blade, Volume 11. In fact, if anything, the plot moves forward most in the giant handwave moments, the sweeping, epic, moments, and any moments that rocks or trees are crashing down the mountain. Frequently, onto Ayana.

Seriously, so much goes on in this arc that I’ll be hard put to synopsize even the broadest strokes.

You may remember from previous volumes, that Hayate’s twin sister Nagi had arrived at Tenchi Academy. Her superiority at the sword and her few-minute edge as the older sister leads both Nagi and Hayate to the conclusion that Nagi will now take her place as Ayana’s sister-in-arms. Hayate, sure that this is a fated conclusion, leaves the school, goes out to mountain behind the school and is found and befriended by obviously crazy Yannagi Makoto. Because of Makoto’s exceptional sword skills, her Edo-period patois and the fact that her hair covers one eye all the time, Hayate calls her Yagyuu (for Yagyuu Jyuubei) and oyabin (“boss” in Edo lingo.)

It turns out that Makoto is the first ever student who graduated from Tenchi’s Sword-bearing student program. Somewhere between her years in middle school and her third year of high school, she broke completely and fled to the mountain behind Tenchi where she has lived and trained, since. We don’t yet know why, but we do get the briefest glimpse of her past in a flashback.

Hitsugi decides that it’s time to deal with Makoto, so she announces a whole-school event – a randori (a many-against-one melee.) All of the swordbearers are told to find Makoto, with no regard for rank, with the exceptions of the student council who are sent out to obstruct the other ranks. The winner will get a prize chosen by which gate they started from – money, food or a trip to Hawaii. All of the students happily head out to find this mysterious graduate.

Except one.

Ayana couldn’t care less about Makoto. She’s super extra pissed off that she’s here at all and she only has one goal – to find and put the beat down on Hayate for being the cause of this nonsense. And, of course, get her back as shinyuu.

There are a number of scenes of awesome in this volume. Asakura Mizuchi’s preemptive introduction, before Ayana can forget her name again. Sid, being booted out of the helicopter by Nancy. The source of Makoto’s sword skills. What actually goes on inside Ensuu’s head. And Jun fighting Sae has some extra awesome on the side.

The randori format means that we’ll get to see pairs fighting that we’d otherwise never see. As Hayashiya-sensei never lets a character drop after introducing her, that means we get some good fights with characters that you probably forgot about.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
LoseFanBoy – 1

Overall – 9

The arc isn’t anything like done, although in last month’s Ultra Jump it came to a climax. What the future will bring – and what past will be revealed – is still anyone’s guess!

Posted in Hayashiya Shizuru, Hayate x Blade | 7 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, Volume 2 (English)

February 24th, 2010

To fully enjoy Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, it might be useful to prepare yourself with a few simple steps:

1) Spend a few moments speaking with someone under the age of 17. Preferably female and preferably Goth and very weary of the world.

2) Read something insanely trashy.

3) Watch a 10-hour marathon of any sitcom that pairs a slobby guy with an attractive wife.

Or, failing that,

Take your brain out of your head for safekeeping.

Once you’ve done this simple – but crucial – bit of preparation, you’re almost ready to watch this series.

Let me give you one warning before you start to watch Volume 2: Do Not Try To Make Sense Of This Story

Sure, you can make sense of it, but the story is *so* much better if you don’t try. Just go with it.

There, now you’re ready to watch Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne.

Where in Volume 1 time moved slowly, it fairly flies in the second volume. We’re no longer moving a year or a few at a time. Now we are taking decade-long leaps into a futuristic landscape which may seem silly on the face of it (Aquarium floors and ceilings? Really?) but makes a lot of sense if you pay the slightest attention to human nature. (Yes, because we *can*.)

Maeno Kouki has passed out of Rin and Mimi’s timestream, but his descendants are still in their care. Kouki’s son Teruki starts off as an ass, but turns out to be a dependable guy in the end. It’s his daughter, Mishio, who caps off the series and in doing so, changes everything. Rin and Mimi saved Kouki, and saved and protected Teruki, but Mishio is in fact the one who saves and protects Rin and Mimi, repeatedly. When Rin, who has lost her memory as a result of a rather extreme death, is attacked by Laura, it’s Mishio that provides a distraction. Mimi leans on Mishio when she cannot control herself when in the vicinity of Angels.

As the climax approaches (a word that is eminently suitable for this series, don’t you think?) Apos finally reveals all the pieces of the puzzle we were missing and we learn that the puzzle is pretty stupid. ^_^  But that’s okay, because we know this: Rin is the good guy and will win.

And she does, of course.

In the end, we see Rin, Mimi and Mishio as an alternate family of three women bound by thousands of years of fate and who all care deeply for one another.

Yuri in this volume is mostly on Mimi, which annoyed the Rin fans, but I thought it made more sense, really. We’ve known since the first episode that Rin had a man in her life, and we knew that she saw lesbian sex only as a form of payment. Mimi’s relationships with her informers appear a bit more ambiguous. For a moment or two, she even seemed like she may have liked one of them – although since Kugamiya Rie played the role, her reaction was typically passive-aggressive.

Which brings us to the extra on this volume. The four main female voice actors were gathered together to discuss this series and they were surprisingly frank about how working in such an “adult” horror worked for them. This interview took place at the end of Episode 2, I would have dearly loved to see them interviewed again after the final episode. I have a feeling that their opinions might have been a little different. Or not. :-)

I guess the question has to be – was it good?

The story is silly, it panders to a dozen fetishes, it’s violent and gross and sometimes plain old dumb. The art was alright, but was not stellar, even the music was overwrought. But. I think it was entertaining and had characters that exceeded their surroundings. Rin was admirable, Mimi was likeable, Apos was unbearable, Laura was…persistent. Kouki and his descendants didn’t suck.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 4
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 23.8

Overall – 8

Yes, it was good.

It is once again my sincere pleasure to thank Okazu Superhero Eric P. for his sponsorship of today’s review (and the review of Volume 1, which I belatedly realize did not credit him. That has been corrected.)

If you would like to be added to the Okazu Hero’s Roll, just pop over to the Yuri Wish List and purchase something for review! The you too will be my Hero. :-)

Posted in English Anime, Hentai, Yuri Anime | 2 Comments »