Yuri Manga: Octave, Volume 1

October 29th, 2008

One more for the file of stories with adult female leads, Octave, Volume 1, (オクターヴ) has many admirable qualities that make it a series to keep an eye on.

Miyashita Yukino wanted, more than anything else, to become an idol. In defiance of the odds, she actually did manage to accomplish her dream only to find that being an idol is not enough to make one a celebrity. The idol group Yukino was part of failed to sell. Yukino went back to school, spending the remainder of her time there wading through jealousy and curiosity from the girls and a mix of sexual interest and disrespect from the guys.

Now 20, Yukino lives in Tokyo, far from her remaining friends and family, trying to forge a new life on her own as a talent manager. But she’s not really having any fun at it. Her life lacks purpose and rhythm and, even now, she has a nagging sensation that she should be that girl on the pedestal.

Yukino finds herself befriended by Setsuko, the sister of the guy who runs the laundromat she uses. Suddenly, Yukino feels that maybe Tokyo isn’t such a lonely place. She’s finally found someone she can relate to – Setsuko was a member of a small musical group that, like her own, only released one album. Setsuko now barely makes a living writing songs for singers who don’t even know who she is.

One night, as they eat mabutofu, Yukino finds herself telling Setsuko about her encounter with failure, and about her desire for a boyfriend, maybe marriage – a normal life. Setsuko responds by sitting much too close and forcing Yukino to face some of her own fears. That night they end up making love.

Yukino’s found what she thinks is a little happiness, but of course nothing stays the same forever. As she tries to find a place for her feelings for Setsuko, Yukino will encounter situations that wrap her in jealousy over Setsuko (who is bisexual,) over the paths her former partners in the idol group have taken, over everything everyone thinks of as a normal life.

Octave is not melodramatic, it’s not overwrought, it’s not full of love affairs going horribly tragic, or violent, or a life in crisis. It’s not WEtv. Thank *heavens.* It’s a grown up manga for grown ups, who like to read grown up stories about grown up women who like grown up women.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

I definitely recommend it for realistic, non-ridiculous Yuri narrative and sincerely hope that someone will consider picking it up for translation here.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 11 Comments »


Red Garden Anime, Volume 5 (English)

October 28th, 2008

Since we’ve been talking about it, I just had to drag out Red Garden, Volume 5 to enjoy the blood and angst once again. ^_^

The amazing thing about Volume 5 is that a ton of stuff goes on, and there’s pretty much no way to talk about it without spoiling it rotten. Well, okay, I could be irritatingly vague instead. I’ll try to thread the needle here and say that a lot of things that have been slowly building to a crisis point finally come to a head and the girls find themselves deeply involved with not only the usual battles, but the reason for the battles…and residual complications of family, friends and lovers and the like.

Our four protagonists reevaluate their relationship to Lise, only to find – once again – that everything they thought they knew to be true is a lie.

And the chase is on. We move quickly, almost frenetically, towards a climax that will resolve nothing and everything.

In the middle of all of this, Paula’s love for Kate is neither perverted, nor selfish. Her love is real and beautiful and while Kate cannot return it, she does not reject it.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 8

The cover copy continues to amuse and befuddle. The quote on the front cover is quite good, but the back cover reads “LOVE will break your HEART. & LOVERS will bleed you dry.”

Asside from the questionable punctuation, I have to ask…whuh? This volume is inexplicably subtitled “Love Lies Bleeding.” Sounds like the copywriter was desperately hanging on to that whole Buffy the Vampire thing, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Posted in English Anime | 4 Comments »


Bijine! Beat Punk Generation Manga

October 26th, 2008

I hope today’s review will be a bit of a surprise. I know you’ve all heard of Hayashiya Shizuru. She’s the creator of Hayate x Blade, which has been one of my favorite manga series for the past few years and Yuri fans know her as both the creator of Yuri Hime series Strawberry Shake Sweet and as (frequently Yuri) doujinshi circle Jesus Drug.

What you may not realize is that, along with her monthly chapter of Hayate x Blade, and a quarterly chapter of SSS, she was *also* working on a second quarterly series called Bijine! Beat Punk Generation . Hayashiya has always been a fan of sports manga (as those of us who collect old Jesus Drug doujinshi know.) And in BPG she tries her hand at a boxing story. But, since we are talking Hayashiya Shizuru-sensei, you can be sure there’s a couple of goofy twists to the plot.

Natsuki is bored. Bored with school, with her neighbor Mina who thinks she’s a friend, with the people around her, with life. Everything is such a waste. When Mina drags her to a street-boxing match called the Beat Fight Summer Knuckle, Natsuki opines loudly that this is the most boring thing ever.

Former Beat Fight female champion Shou overhears Natsuki and challenges her to a fight to see how “boring” it is. As she knocks Natsuki out with her first punch, she declares that Natsuki is the one who is the most boring in the world. Natsuki decides that she has to take up boxing to get her reputation back.

While the beginning of this manga is a little on the dark side, Hayashiya’s physical comedy gags begin as Natsuki begins to train. Since she’s always blown off gym, along with everything else, she’s in terrible shape. Beyond terrible. And so she has to climb from the very bottom to reclaim her own self-esteem and, ultimately, her pride.

There is no Yuri in this series. There *is* a classic rivalry in which Natsuki takes on a person with skills that far surpass her own. She will gain respect for her rival and admiration as she gains skills. In return, Shou will inevitably give her grudging respect at first, and ultimately see her as a true rival. You know the deal. ;-)

This is a one-volume series. As much as I’d love to see it continue, I think this is all we’re going to get. (Remember, she changed publishers recently. I imagine that affected everything she was doing.)

For a little blood, sweat and guts with your fighting women, take a look at Beat Punk Generation!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 1

Overall – 8

What fabulous motivation to do anything – not wanting to be boring. I think that’s awesome. More people should use that as a motivator. “Don’t be boring.” ^_^

Posted in Miscellaneous | 3 Comments »


This Week in Yuri – October 25, 2008

October 25th, 2008

It’s been very exciting this week – let’s get right to the good stuff!

Yuri Manga

Kodansha has announced that they are releasing three issues of their Morning 2 magazine online for free. You’ll need to download their online reader, but it is also free. You’ll see all sorts of news how this gets you Saint Oniisan and Peepo choo but, who cares about those absolutely brilliant, quirky, manga series when this means you can finally read the equally quirky, brilliant and Yuri Gunjou!!!! And you *need* to read it. Dark, brutal, dysfunctional Yuri that transcends anything else the genre has ever offered. (And for once, the lesbian character is actually a lesbian.) Issues 14, 15 and 16 of Morning 2 will each be released as the next print issue hits the shelves. Gunjou is a shoo-in for my number one spot at the end of this year. It’s absolutely breathtaking. (Morning 2 is a Japanese magazine, written in Japanese. “Gunjou” has not yet come out in a collection, nor is it licensed. Please, I beg you, do NOT ask me if it’s available in English or when the tankoubon is coming out. No, and I don’t know.)

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Yuri Games

Keep forgetting to mention this, there’s a new Yuri game for PS2 in Japan called ‘ppoi. Now, let me be honest here – I know nothing about this game, and am skeptical as to its actual Yuri content. It’s about a couple of high school girls and you and I both know that means that if two touch, or perhaps look into each others’ eyes, the hordes will call it Yuri. OTOH, who knows. It might actually have some snatches of Yuri. Guess someone’ll have to play it and tell us! ^_^

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Yuri Events

Kyouka wrote in to let us know that there will be a new Yuri event in Japan this coming February (so you have plenty of time to plan a trip!) The event is called the Girls Love Festival. The event is held in Tokyo on February 1, from 2:30PM – 4:30 in Itabashi-ku, Tokyo. 100 circles will participate. If you missed Maiden’s Garden, can’t make it to Comiket, and don’t want to wait and see if there’ll be another Yuriket, this is your big chance to score a pile of Yuri doujinshi!

And, while not specifically Yuri, I think it’s worth mentioning that tomorrow is “Wonder Woman Day III” – held in Portland, Oregon and Flemington, NJ, with proceeds going to benefit domestic violence shelters. I’d cut and paste the press release, but it’s like a mile long, so here’s the basics:

Wonder Woman Day III (Portland)
Sunday, October 26, 2008 – 12noon-6pm, FREE
Excalibur Comics, 2444 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, Oregon

Wonder Woman Day III (New Jersey)
Sunday, October 26, 2007 – 12noon-5pm, FREE
Comic Fusion, 42 Main St., Flemington, New Jersey

Additionally, I’d like to point out that Comic Fusion is co-owned by Yuricon staffer and a very good friend of mine, Stacy. So, yes, I’m totally biased when I say you should absolutely go down there – it’ll be a blast!

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Yuri Anime

Eric blows the horn on the good news – Funimation has announced that fan request has trumped strategic business model and they *will* be releasing the final volumes of Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK and some other anime that I can’t remember off the top of my head and am too lazy to go look up. lol So if you, like me, have collected 5 of the 6 DVDs, you will not be forced to buy a 3-disk box just to complete the collection. Now it’s up to us to actually go *buy* those Volume 6s and make it worth their time, or next time they aren’t going to bother listening to us.

(This news item came in a few days later:) Eric promises that this is the last time he’ll mention it, but that Funimation has put up a limited pre-order for Red Garden 6. (Which, oddly, was what I suggested they do. I have no doubt that they came up with it on their own, it would be bizarre if they took my suggestion. lol) Anyway, he points out that if we don’t want to seem like a bunch of morons, NOW would be the right time to run out and pre-order that disk. lol Thanks for the heads up, Eric!

And thanks to everyone (whose numbers are too great to count) who wrote in with the the answer to the question – yes, Right Stuf is blessing us with more goo-gaws for pre-orders of the second season of Maria Watches Over Us. This time, we are being gifted with a White Rose phone strap. Naturally, we will now all expect and demand the Yellow Rose phone strap for the Third set, the OAV season. :-) I wonder if our phones will hold all these? Incidentally, I found a picture of the Japanese versions of the phone straps. I expect that they were more expensive and down’t ship flat and neatly as the ones we get. I’m not complaining, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that we get anything!

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Yuri Novels

Thanks to Kasuga for letting me know that there is a Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou novel. I can’t wait to add it to the pile of Japanese novels I have sitting here, mocking me, taunting me, while I don’t read them.

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I think all that’s enough to hold us a week, don’t you? :-)

Posted in Maria-sama ga Miteru, Yuri Network News | 7 Comments »


Lady Snowblood Manga, Volume 2 (English)

October 23rd, 2008

Since we’ve been discussing adult female protagonists, I though I would keep the trend going today and take a look at Lady Snowblood, Volume 2. First, let’s say grace and thank Kelly G for sponsoring today’s review – thanks Kelly!

You’ve seen Lady Snowblood, haven’t you? This classic Japanese film series follows the violent life of revenge by a woman named Snowblood, in retribution for all the evils that have befallen her and her family. Bwahahahah. It’s a great set of films that Tarantino ripped for his own film doujinshi, Kill Bill. (Lucy Liu has *nothing* on Kaji Meiko.)

The Lady Snowblood manga’s old, old school art and the period story instantly transports us to a Tezuka-style world, where revenge is the only option for those destroyed by greed, lust and pride.

Snowblood’s whole life has been a hunt for revenge and, as a result, she’s become very, very good at it. Like the Count of Monte Cristo she uses sex appeal, her honed fighting skills and her extremely sharp business acumen to do whatever it takes to ruin those people who ruin others.

In Volume 2, it takes Snowblood passing herself off as a Buddhist nun and seducing the daughter of a powerful businessman. Aya is dying from some wasting disease and the continued sexual activity dissipates what little life force she has left. She dies, but at least she dies happily. ^_^

There’s a grim kind of pleasure we get as we watch Snowblood take on the privileged and corrupt with her own brand of vigilante revenge. While she receives little satisfaction as her reward, we can wallow in her ability to lie, to cheat, to kill and ruin those whose reckless disregard for life and their fellow humans has led them to take everything they can get at the expense of everyone around them. Hmm…seems kind of timely doesn’t it? It would be kind of darkly amusing to create a Snowblood 2 set in the modern world of stock trading, wouldn’t it? ;-)

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 5

Overall – 7

Just another nod to Kelly – welcome to the ranks of Okazu heroes!

Posted in English Manga | 6 Comments »