Yuri News This Week – November 1, 2008

November 3rd, 2008

The title really should read “Yuri News Last Week.” lol

Yuri Anime

More free anime streaming directly from the land of Yuri to you.

Toei has announced a deal with Crunchyroll to stream, among other things, PreCure, (aka Futari ha PrettyCure.) This series is so reminiscent of Sailor Moon, you might be tempted to think the same people worked on it – and you’d be right. It’s never been my favorite show, but it’s not hard to see Honoka’s feelings for Nagisa, or Kaoru and Natsuki’s thing for each other in Splash Star. Just sayin’.

Not to be outdone, Funimation is offering the first episodes of some of their series for free online as well, including the reasonably Yuri-ish Burst Angel.

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Yuri Manga

Well, my top two pieces of news have to be:

Finally, at long last, Hayate x Blade is available in English. It’s unbelievable, really. Marimite and HxB in one year. I still can’t get over it.

And woot, Media Blasters has released both Volume 1 AND Volume 2 of Maka-Maka. It looks splendid in terms of reproduction. Maybe, even, slightly better than the Japanese version. Seriously.

Not that anyone cares at all, but the faux Yuri-filled Amuria in Star Ocean ends its run in the December Dengeki Daioh.

Fans of Aria and Aqua, will be pleased to know that Amano Kozue has a new series starting this month in Comic Blade called Amanchu!. The initial art features two girls near each other. You know the drill. ;-)

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I have a backlog of Snatches of Yuri to tell you about, but I’m wiped. I’ll do my best to add at least a few in next week. :-)

And no promises, but I’ll *try* to get a review in today.

Posted in Maka-Maka, Yuri Network News | 7 Comments »


MangaNEXT quickie report

November 2nd, 2008

Hi all – Sorry for no Saturday Yuri News report this week. In fact I had typed it all up and set it to print yesterday…and it disappeared. I didn’t have time to do it all again before I left and the internet access in this hotel is sketchy at best.

So MangaNEXT has been an extremely pleasant con, with some of the best panel audiences I’ve ever had. It’s not a huge con, so you can spend time with people and talk in a way that you just cannot at a big con.

None of my panels had dozens, but I’m absolutely convinced that every person who came was like 90% engaged with the topic, which was great.

Rica Takashima and Mari Morimoto came to my room last night and I showed them Saint Oniisan and Gunjou and they really liked them. Rica tells me that she knows a former editor at Morning 2 and reinforced what I heard from Yukari Shiina, that Gunjou is being widely critically acclaimed in Japan. I know Rica and Mari are having fun, but Mari is working too hard, as usual. :-)

Anyway, the staff here at MangaNEXT have been superlative, the atmosphere is friendly and comfortable and fun. I’m in the Artist Alley, not the DR, and the feeling there is pretty different, it’s a nice room with lots of windows, so we get natural light….very lovely. Yesterday we had a load of YC staffers arrive for the day, so we had a party at the table all day. It was fabulous. (Of course they came just in time for the pizza that had just arrived,. lol)

Today I’ll visit my peeps in the DR, see how their weekend is going, but I really want to say that for my last con of 2008, MangaNEXT has been perfect.I really hope you’ll join me here in 2009!

Posted in Events | 7 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Ikkitousen GG OAV 2

October 31st, 2008

Ikkitousen Great Guardians OAV 2 is five minutes of absolutely nothing. But in those five minutes, thousands of LFs of every gender get to watch Ryoufu Housen play doctor with Ryomou Shimei.

So, really, what do I have to complain about?

Nothing, except “doctor” doesn’t do it for me and I really, really want to see them beat the crap out of each other. Sadly, thousands of otaku prefer dress up to beat down. Oh well. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 0
Yuri – 5
Service – 10

Overall – 5

It’s probably going to take you longer to read this review than to watch the whole OAV. It might make more sense, too. ^_^

Posted in Ikkitousen, Yuri Anime | 5 Comments »


Event: MangaNEXT Yuri Panel Schedule

October 31st, 2008

Just as a reminder, I will be in Somerset, NJ for MangaNEXT from today through Sunday, Nov. 22.

Here is my panel schedule;

Friday – 7PM – Writing for Manga

Saturday – 2PM – Yuri Panel
6PM – 10 Steps to Impressing a Publisher

Sunday – 12:30 – Manga Recomendations Show and Tell (I’m just facilitating this one.)

There’s going to be *plenty* of great Yuri and Yaoi flavored panels at the con – guest Mari Morimoto will be presenting “Gay Manga 101” Friday night, in which she will discuss the differences between “Gay” and “Lesbian” manga and “Yaoi” and “Yuri” manga.

Guest Rica Takashima will be participating with Mari and guest Misako Rocks! in a panel called “My Life in Manga” on Saturday and on Sunday, you can join a book club discussion on Rica’s works.

Don’t forget to visit Rica in the Artist Alley and the ALC “Circle of Yuri” where we’ll have some of our Yuri artists and writers hanging out to talk Yuri to you!

I’ll see you there. :-)

Posted in Events | 1 Comment »


Yuri Manga: Hayate Cross Blade, Volume 1 (English)

October 30th, 2008

It has been almost three and a half years since I first reviewed Hayate x Blade and in all that time, never once has my delight in this series lessened one iota. So you can imagine how thrilled I am to tell you now about the English-language edition of Hayate x Blade, Volume 1. (In case you somehow missed my raving about this manga, please feel free to check out my reviews of the volumes already out in Japanese.)

The story of Hayate x Blade is an entertaining mix of comedy, action, drama, chicks with weapons, and a a Yuri-ish setup that grows ever more Yuri as the plot develops. Pairs of girls, sword sisters, competing in battles for supremacy, power and money….and mostly for the amusement of the chairwoman of Tenchi Gakuen, the wholly whimsical Amachi Hitsugi. This is awesome stuff.

In terms of the reproduction there’s something I really need to tell you. It was my pleasure to be able to be the copy editor on this book. No, seriously. Remember way back last spring when I told you that I had gotten a side job? Well, that side job was to be able to edit manga for Tor. I love working on the Seven Seas manga, not just because it gives me the opportunity to see the books early (because, frankly, I don’t really feel any need to see Inukami ever, much less early) but because they do such good work. It’s very enjoyable to be part of the process.

So, before I tell you that the English edition is damn good, you need to understand that it’s pretty much a conflict of interest. ^_^; Nonetheless, I honestly think they did a pretty damn good job with this book!

The volume is not entirely without problems, but those that exist are so small – slightly too thin paper, slightly too dark print, I don’t really love the design for the logo – are so incredibly small and tedious that they bear mentioning only in the interest of fairness. The important stuff – the reproduction, the translation, the adaptation, the lettering, the sound f/x, etc. are all top-notch.

Yuri in Volume 1 is mostly confined to the existence of openly lesbian (i.e., shounen-style pervy girl) Kuga Jun, roomate to one of our leads, Mudou Ayana. But don’t be disheartened, the Yuri quotient rises as the series goes on. And I just finished reading the most recent chapter and can swear to you that the series has never let me down in any way. Yuri, comedy, drama, action – it’s all there in spades.

I am so very, very glad that Hayate x Blade made it out in 2008, so I can happily name it the best English-language Yuri manga of the year.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 2
Overall – 8

Run! Run! Buy this for yourself and two copies for friends. Yes, it’s that good.

Posted in English Manga, Hayashiya Shizuru, Hayate x Blade | 25 Comments »