New Anime Season Summer 2009: Taisho Yakyuu Musume

August 20th, 2009

You know what the Japanese national sport is, right? Oh, sure, Sumo is usually given the place of honor, but really, Japan is absolutely, passionately crazy in love with…baseball.

There are a ton of baseball manga in Japan and Major, a baseball anime/manga franchise, has not one but two anime series on Japanese TV. (One follows the older brother and one follows the younger brother.)

It’s true that few of the loads of sports anime and manga ever make it over here. There’s all sorts of theories why, but I wager it’s a pretty simple thing – soccer is not as exotic as ninjas. If American otaku are interested in soccer, they’d play or watch soccer. One of things that appeals about being an otaku is the exotic-ness of the “other.” Ninjas are exotic, service is titillating and lacking from teen literature here and Japan is…Japanese. It is ostensibly not America, or Europe or wherever you are from. Soccer is normal. It’s right out the window. Baseball is what your /insert baseball-obsessed relative or friend here/ endlessly obsesses over online and on TV.

When I heard that there was going to be a baseball anime about girls, set in the Taisho period (1912-1926) I cringed. I thought, great. It’ll be a moe-filled, demeaning “aren’t they cute” series full of typical diminutized and diminished female accomplishment. Well gosh, I was SOOOOO wrong I could not have been wronger. Except for the moe part. It is indeed moe.

The story follows Koume, a school girl during the Taisho (the word is properly pronounced “Tai-shou” but is more commonly spelled Taisho in English) period. The year is 1925. Japan is rushing to modernize and westernize. It is the “S” movement’s heyday, when early feminist sentiment was starting to filter through Japan on the wings of magazines for girls and women.

Koume’s dear friend Akiko asks her to form a baseball team in response to a sexist sentiment from Akiko’s baseball-playing fiancée. Girls, he says confidently, really don’t even need to go to school, because they will just stay home and raise children and run the household. Akiko decides to form a baseball team and challenge his worldview. And so, Koume and Akiko start looking for more players.

The feminism is portrayed in a genuine, real and totally intelligent way in this anime. Nothing cringe-making about it at all. And the sentiment isn’t lost in the moe. It comes back again and again to remind us that it’s just ridiculous to see woman as inherently inferior.

I don’t mind sports manga and anime, although the typical patterns sometimes get up my nostrils. The tropes work *really* well here, so the trials they have in learning the game, working together as a team, finding an opponent and dealing with each new obstacle is, simply, good entertainment.

There is exceedingly mild Yuri akogare (admiration/desire, crushiness) because it is a girls school. Hunky, sis-con Tomoe has a pair of uber-dedicated fans, one of whom stays on the team when Tomoe (coached by Koume) embraces her and tells her she can’t do it without her. Kyouko never had a chance. ^_^

At the beginning of the series, Koume clearly akogares Akiko and, as catcher and pitcher they are told to become like husband and wife. I couldn’t call it closer than shinyuu, best friends, but they are fun to play with. ^_^

The voice cast has some notable “Six Degrees of Yuri” names, including a passel o’ Marimite voices.

But beyond all that, what makes this story work is the story. It’s a *good* story. Yes, I can see some of the issues coming from a mile off, but each episode makes me smile, makes me laugh out loud, makes me sniffle a bit sometimes, and is a rattlin’ good yarn. It makes me remember why I used to love baseball, when it was a sport and not an industry full of over-paid whiny brats. I would not hesitate for a second to show this anime thus far, at least, to anyone of any age.

If you haven’t yet given Taisho Yakyuu Musume a try because you’re hesitant to see moe-ified girls playing baseball, do try it. If you hate sports and sports anime, avoid it. It’s *about* baseball. In my opinion, it is an enjoyable combination of girls, baseball and Japanese history…all at once.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Still too moe for my taste, how I would love a live-action of this series
Story – 8
Characters – 9 My favorite is Kawashima, the de facto team manager
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Like A League of Their Own, the ensemble is half the fun and the story the other half, for a total good time.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 14 Comments »


Yuri Network News – August 15, 2009

August 15th, 2009

There’s just under a week left in the YNN logo contest, so if you have a logo you’d like to send in, get it in by August 20th! I’ll run entries next Saturday and you can pick the one you like best.

Now – on to the news!

Yuri Manga

Yuri Monogatari 6 has finally made it on to Amazon Japan, so if your Japanese penpals are looking for a copy, they can now order it locally!

Some titles that you ought to keep your heads up for are:

Octave 3 – We’ll finally get to see what happens after Yukino makes her decision at the concert.

Tsubomi 3 – There’s been some excitement about this volume, as artist Ohishi Masaru has been added to the lineup.

Choir 2 – No one really cares about this, but the first volume wasn’t that sucky and the girl got the girl, so Vol. 2. Let’s see if that develops at all.

And Girlfriends 3 – So, now we can wallow as Acchan tortures herself. ;-)

***

Yuri Anime

Komatsu-san of Ultimo Spalpeen tells me that in the UK there is some noise about a reissue of Sailor Moon on DVD. He’s wondering if/when the US will follow suit – well, we’re wondering too! Funimation had thrown Sailor Moon onto a wish list poll and had an overwhelming response to it. They have said that they cannot get it yet, but are looking into the possibility. I say we keep up the pressure and remind them every other month on Twitter. ^_^

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Yuri Drama CD

Anonymous says that a “Rakka Ryuusui Variety CD is coming out this weekend for Comiket 76 (14-16 August). Details can be found here.

Those who can’t get it at C76 (most of us) can probably get it on 26 August from the Animate Shop.

From the little that I know, there is at least a new drama track as well as a duet between Akiho and Minatsu. My suspicion is that there’s going to be some light Yuri between Akiho and Minatsu, and Yuu and Akatsuki.

The voicing cast are the same as the previous Drama CDs:
Nakahara Mai as Hayama Akiho
Endou Aya as Hokaze Minatsu
Matsuoka Yuki as Kusaba Haruka
Kaneda Tomoko as Shimotsuki Mafuyu
Sawashiro Miyuki as Gojyou Yuu
Nabatame Hitomi as Ayase Akatsuki”

Thanks, Anonymous for the tip!

***

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent and let me know what Yuri-f’avored news you come across. Send emails to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. If you send your news tip in as a comment, I might forget. Email is a better way to remind me to post your news. :-)

Thanks again to everyone who contributes and makes this a great Yuri Network!

 

Posted in Sailor Moon, Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


Response to Requests for Recommendations

August 13th, 2009

I am now up to about 20 emails/posts/comments a week requesting recommendations for other Yuri titles that people would like me to guess that they would want to read (usually scanlations, because very very rarely do people ask what they can buy.)

I do not do recommendations.

I’m not really comfortable suggesting series for people, because I don’t really know if your taste and mine coincide. And even if they do, I’m still not comfortable making series suggestions.

I will suggest that you join the Yuricon Mailing List and ask there, since a lot of people do not have the same issues suggesting things to other people that I do.

Also, I suggest going to Lililicious, I believe they have their scanlations arranged in different ways and you may be able to find series you like there.

Of course the “Yuri Manga” category at Okazu has hundreds of Yuri manga reviews, but you’ll need to decide for yourself what you are looking for in a manga.

And if you are looking for something to buy, of course I recommend visiting the Yuricon Shop where you will find hundreds of Yuri Anime and Manga to choose from, with synopses and reviews to help you choose.

In any case, I wish you the very best of luck with your quest!

***

Posted in Miscellaneous | 9 Comments »


Lesbian Comic: Detective Comics

August 12th, 2009

What a week here at Okazu! Not only did we get to read that breathtaking interview with Nakamura Ching-sensei, but today I have a guest review written by none other than David Welsh of Precocious Curmudgeon. I’m all a-quiver with excitement at today’s review.

Some weeks ago on Twitter, David mentioned that he had gotten the Detective Comics series with the new Batwoman (zOMG a lipstick lesbian who never has a steady relationship! That’s NEVER been done!) and I asked if he’d like to review it for us here at Okazu. This may well be the first mainstream American comic ever reviewed here. History in the making. Anyway, not to delay a moment longer, David, they are all yours…)

When I consider comics, the binary that comes most readily to mind is what drives the book. Is it plot, or is it character? I tend to favor character-driven stories, where the events spring from who the characters are, and they couldn’t happen in quite the same way to anyone else. The binary is too limiting, obviously, but it generally suits my interests and priorities.

So if nothing else, Detective Comics 854 and 855 (DC) served as well-executed reminders of another category: the art-driven comic. Written by Greg Rucka, the comics serve as a proper introduction to DC’s much-ballyhooed lesbian Batwoman revamp. I think the character debuted in one of DC’s big weekly crossover series, but I haven’t picked up a DC comic since they set Sue Dibny on fire and all the heroes started crying and snapping at each other because they were all amoral failures.

Still, I’ve enjoyed many comics written by Rucka, and it’s rare that you have a GLBTQ character helming one of DC or Marvel’s flagship titles. (They generally tend to die in Marvel and DC’s flagship titles, actually.) For added interest, there’s the art of J.H. Williams III, with colors by Dave Stewart and lettering by Todd Klein. My first encounter with Williams’ art was DC’s short-lived, much-loved Chase, about an agent for the DC universe’s super-human monitoring agency. It was a neat series with a well-developed woman protagonist (look, a unicorn!), and Williams contributed a great deal to its appeal. He’s pretty much the whole show with the first two issues of Batwoman’s Detective run.

This brings me back to the concept of the art-driven comic, where the writer provides just enough of a framework to give the illustrator reign to go wild, metaphorically speaking. A fine example is Paris (SLG), barely written by Andi Watson and magnificently drawn by Simon Gane. (For added Ozaku interest, it’s about young women in love… with each other!) If a cartoonist is more illustrator than writer, he or she can give him or herself license to slack on story and character and concentrate efforts on images. That’s what I tell myself when I read manga by Arina Tanemura.

That’s what Rucka has done here, or at least that’s what it feels like he’s done. I knew very little about the character prior to picking up either issue of Detective; the New York Times told me she was a lesbian (pardon me… a “lipstick lesbian”) socialite named Kate Kane who fights crime. That’s still pretty much all I know about her, with the added details that she has difficulty maintaining relationships and some kind of troubled past that’s unfolding in drug-induced flashback.

Since everyone in Batman’s orbit has trouble maintaining relationships and a traumatic childhood experience or two, there’s nothing really left to distinguish Batwoman except for the visual iconography Williams brings to the book. Her sexual orientation is entirely equivalent in terms of relationship failure; the fact that she’s a lesbian has no more to do with it than the fact that Batman is ostensibly straight. After a rough night of beating up lowlifes in alleys, they’re too tired to commit.

It’s a gorgeous book, and instead of clumsily trying to explain why, I’ll just point you to Jog’s review of Detective 854. Unfortunately, I found it a strangely empty book as well. Nothing damaging or unpleasant happens to compromise Batwoman’s future as a character, but nothing really meaty happens either. The character is secondary to her rendering.

I had many of the same problems with the back-up strip featuring DC’s other high-profile lesbian heroine, The Question. I went in knowing a lot more about her, or at least her alter-ego, Renee Montoya. Renee did a long tour of duty as a detective with the Gotham City Police Department and played a central role in the generally excellent Gotham Central (DC). She even got a well-liked arc, written by Rucka, where she was outed to her hyper-masculine co-workers. I always found her an interesting, assertive character.

Something has happened since I last saw her, as she’s adopted the nom de guerre and most of the costume of an interesting c-list DC sleuth who wore a featureless mask and was obsessed with conspiracy theories. The featureless mask is still in place, updated with a crop top for no particularly good reason. (Crop tops seem so impractical for people who anger gun-toting thugs.) Renee seems to have left Gotham behind to wade through one of those TV-series premises where she finds people to help through a web site. At least I think that’s what’s happening, as Rucka doesn’t spend any more time on Renee’s back story or motivation than he does with Kate.

It’s competent enough, but artist Cully Hammer is no J.H. Williams. The back-up strip is welcome in the sense that it makes the comic’s $3.99 price tag seem slightly less like highway robbery.

Thank you David for what may well be the most cogent look at Batwoman ever written. And thank you for being our newest Okazu Guest Reviewer!

Posted in LGBTQ, Western Comic/Comix | 18 Comments »


Alice on Deadlines Manga, Volume 4 (English)

August 10th, 2009

After yesterday’s amazing interview this will immediately pale into the obscurity it deserves, but it has to be done. ^_^

We have, through much hardship and effort, made our way through to the final, climactic volume of Alice on Deadlines and still, the title remains the best part of the story.

The final showdown is less of a showdown than a melee and characters are being stabbed through the gut left and right (with scythes. Seriously? Who uses a scythe to *stab*?!? I mean, yes – you can do it, but what a miserable misuse of a lovely weapon. My long-handled, edged-weapons-loving self protests.)

But in no way is this really anything to do with the story. The story, such as it is, is really about Alice and Lapan, each stuck in a body that is not theirs and only one of them happy about it.

So the final showdown with Regina comes and, instead of it being Lapan vs Regina, it’s everyone vs everyone, with really hard to follow art, but we’re able to parse a few key concepts. The big takeaway – personal loyalty trumps silly plot complication.

As we always suspected – everyone in the Tsurukame family, the heads of the company for which Lapan works, is a cross-dresser. Unlike the sex-obsessed male members of the family, the President and eldest sister seems to actually have business in mind. The severely competent, cross-dressing female business leader stereotype strikes again. Thankfully, she puts an end to the nonsense of destroying lots of lives just to let Lapan and Regina destroy each other.

Somuria remains completely Yuri for Alice, even after she regains her body…in fact, I’m never really sure Somuria realized that it was Lapan in there for most of the series. Because she was competent and hunky, I will also insist that President Tsurukame is gay. ;-) That’s about it for Yuri.

Way, way, waaaaaayyyyy down in what teeny, weeny little soul this manga had, it was a love story. And although we have been told many times that Shinigami and humans cannot be together, Lapan somehow manages to live happily ever after with Alice. No explanations will be given, so just move along, thank you, nothing to see here.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 4

Many, many sincere thanks to today’s Sponsor, Okazu Hero Ed S! All this needed was popcorn and it would have made a perfect rainy Sunday afternoon snark-a-thon. ^_^

Posted in English Manga | No Comments »