New York Anime Festival Report Plus…

September 28th, 2008

Even though I was only able to make it to the New York Anime Festival for a few hours, I can honestly say I had a good time.

I had the pleasure of being accompanied by the incomparable Sean Gaffney, who has apparently become my sidekick. He tells me that as he walked around the Dealer’s Room, all the vendors asked him where I was. LOL

Of course, I was at the Morris County Library for the opening of their Morris County Author’s Collection. It was very interesting, as I and the other authors walked around, chatted about each other’s books and shared things like cookies and stories. I really want to thank the wonderful staff of the Library for setting up the event and making us all feel so welcome. I was surprised at the quality of the books being sold and the variety of topics. History, fiction, cookbooks, reference, and more.

I know I have mentioned this before, but let me say once again, that your local library is – or can be – an excellent resource for *free manga*. And the Morris County Library’s Graphic Novel collection is exceptional. If you are ever in the area, please stop by and enjoy the wide variety of audience and genres they have to choose from.

So, back to NYAF.

I spent a few hours wandering the DR, saying hi to friends and networking with some of the other companies. Had a nice chat with Ali at Del Rey, and Tanya at Yen Press and of course, the folks at Media Blasters. I picked up a copy of Girl Boss Revenge, which I am watching right now and I have to say it’s *brilliant.* If you like crappy pink films, run out and get it right away.

Sean and I stopped in at the AnimeNEXT Manga Library, which was lively as always. The Manga Library travels to cons all around the country. Check with your local con about bringing it in – it’s another way to get a chance at reading manga for *free* wthout downloading things illegally.

We also dropped in to the Fanfic Panel so Sean could find a friend, who told us that it was a pretty good panel. From the little I heard, it certainly seemed that the panelists were very sensible. :-)

The Yuri Panel was up against the Masquerade, so we had a small crowd. And we were up against the perception that Yuri=porn, so we lost those people who cannot imagine that a Yuri panel isn’t them watching Yuri hentai. (Of which there is very little, btw.)

And, once again, we were blessed with the presence of someone who did not only not know the very basic rudiments of social intercourse, but also had no experience being out of the institution. It always makes for a good show.

The two dozen or so people who were engaged and who asked questions were great. Sean and I had a lot of fun with you all, so thank you for another good panel. I’ll look forward to seeing you all again at MangaNEXT!

Posted in Events | 3 Comments »


Yuri News This Week – September 27, 2008

September 27th, 2008

Yuri Events

I hope you can join me today for Morris County Author’s Day at the Morris County Library, and/or the Yuri Panel tonight at the New York Anime Festival!

Don’t miss the upcoming MangaNEXT Event, on Oct 31- Nov 2. Rica Takashima, creator of Rica ‘tte Kanji!? will be a guest at the event and will be at the Yuricon Table in the Artist’s Alley. Please don’t hesitate to drop by and ask her unanswerable difficult questions about lesbian life in Japan. She loves those. :-D

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Snatches of Yuri

Just *had* to tell you about a new manga called Escalation: Girls Inside the Walls which takes place in a girl’s reform school. Unlike the original Escalation series, it is not sweet, cute, or Yuri. There’s some marginal sexual harassment by the crazy butch character, so if that works for you, get it. :-) (Before you ask – yes, I got it. lol)

Soutenzen-iro Otome-gumi is a story of love among school girls, one of whom is “boyish.” With such an original plot, I know you’ll all want to run right out and read it!

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Maria-sama ga Miteru

Sarcastic weasel reminds us that a new Maria-sama ga Miteru web radio is up. This is the post-Lillian Festival issue, so hopefully, they’ll mention the anime. :-)

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Yuri in the News

I forgot to tell you this earlier. I was contacted by the LA Blade and The Advocate for interviews about Yuri. In a brilliant display of synchronicity, they contacted me the very same day, asked me all the same impossible to answer questions and then asked me for a pictures, contacts and lists for the next three weeks. It was actually pretty funny. The Advocate article is up online now and printed in the October 12 issue, no clue for the Blade.) The Advocate article is a pretty decent (if not 100% accurate in all things) article about the complexities that make it impossible to map the term “Yuri” to “lesbian” in any socio-politically meaningful way. More importantly, the illustration they chose for the article is a lovely picture of Yuricon mascot Yuriko kissing one of her pre-Midori paramours drawn by our own Kelli Nicely for Shoujoai ni Bouken: The Adventures of Yuriko, Volume 1.

We’re getting closer to my goal of total media domination. First Curve, then the Advocate, then …who knows? People magazine? Inquirer? Sky’s the limit. LOL

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That’s the Yuri News for September 27, 2008 – see you next week!

Posted in Events, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Yuri Network News | No Comments »


Utter Nonsense

September 26th, 2008

No review today.Instead I want to do something unusual and post about a non-Yuri related thing that happened on the train this week, because it was *hilarious.*

On Tuesday morning, I was sitting on the train during my morning commute. A little girl got on with a backpack on her back and a pink plastic handbag on one arm. Very seriously, she started to rummage around the handbag, looking for something – obviously something important. After a moment, she pulled out…a pair of Groucho Marx glasses. Still totally serious she put them on.

I asked her if I could take her picture and she agreed. Here it is.

I hope it makes you giggle. I’ve been laughing about it all week.

Now that I ride the train all the time, I’ve begun to notice that NJ train advertising is no less bizarre than Tokyo train advertising. I’ll see what I can do about getting some pictures of the weirder ones and posting them for you from time to time. Like the Pom Chocolate Iced Coffee ad with the two eggs in a frying pan that are eyes…totally freakish.

Posted in Now This Is Only My Opinion | No Comments »


Yuri Manga: Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen, Volume 1

September 25th, 2008

There’s not too many series that make me shriek with outraged sensibilities and hysterical laughter at the same time, and even less that are also very good. Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen is tops on that list. This collection of Yuri Hime chapters about a “normal” rain fairy, and her soujourn at an all-girl, all-youkai high school, is absolutely a must read for anyone who doesn’t mind having their brain hurt slightly.

Arare knows she’s a rain fairy – her mother is clearly not entirely human but on her first day of high school she definitely does not expect to enter the Otherworld. Nor does she expect her teacher to have a ridiculously long neck, or her classmates to be a variety of ogres, snow demons, cyclops, ghosts, mist, or the twin-tailed cat, Kiri, and long-tongued girl, Pero, who befriend her. Nor does she expect the veil between the worlds to close behind her, leaving her stranded in this school for girl monsters.

Arare decides to make the best of it. Her adventures range from meeting the cow-girl whose magic breast milk makes other girls’ breast large, to trying to beat the heat by sucking up to the snow demon, all while hiding her identity as a *human*. You see – she’s got a navel and a true youkai don’t.

More importantly, Arare has to deal with the decidedly inhuman way the other girls deal with sexuality. Not being human, they really don’t see the big deal with a little onna-doushi. It becomes even more of a crisis when Arare realizes that not only does she enjoy kissing Kiri, she’s fallen for her and gets jealous at the very thought of Kiri kissing – or worse, doing something more – with another girl.

Arare finally comes around to Kiri’s way of thinking and decides that she’s ready to go further, but Kiri reminds her of the warning she had given Arare when they met – if Arare makes love to a youkai….she’ll become a youkai! Oh Noes!

Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen is played for laughs, so even if you’re a scaredy cat, the ghosties and ghouls should not be a problem. However. If you like your vegetables to not have faces and are squicked at the idea of milking cow-girl demons…stay away. Things like Rokurokubi-sensei’s neck cramping are funny enough, but the double-mouthed girl and her kappa girl lover might flip you out. If that doesn’t faze you – hurry, go read it! This is a really funny book. And it’s Yuri.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen one of the stories from Yuri Hime I look forward to most every quarter. I’m very happy to have it as a collected volume. Can’t wait to see how Arare resolves her love for Kiri. ^_^

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Manga | 8 Comments »


My Zhime (My Otome) Anime, Volume 6 (English)

September 24th, 2008

It is entirely thanks to the kindness and generosity of Eric P that I am able to bring you today’s review, so everyone say “Thanks, Eric!”

Volume 6 of My Otome does something completely unheard of in the
Mai series to date…it begins to *answer* some of the questions asked in the earlier episodes.

Who is the true Queen of Windbloom?

What is the Harmonium’s power?

What really happened to Mai?

And more of your favorite hits in this volume of…

There’s a lot going on in Volume 6. The story is moving rapidly towards a climax that feels, at this point, as if it might *actually* climax, unlike other Mai series we could name.

The action comes fast and furious. Arika and Mashiro, having found themselves a haven, are ripped untimely from it and deposited safely in the bosom of the legendary
Black Valley, where they encounter a bunch of ridiculous legends which are all true.

Nina becomes the possessor of the Harmonium’s power through a gambit that I actually thought was incredibly clever and deserves the writers a pat on the kepi.

The Valkyrie squad is deployed. Tomoe jumps at the opportunity to crush people
she thinks are beneath her like a bug, which is to say, everyone. Chie plays it more cautiously, and finds herself in a lose-lose situation. But we trust that she’ll come out on the right side of it because, after all, she has 1000x lesbian power. The forces of evil seem to have the upper hand, but the forces of good are beginning to set their playbook up in the background. Meister we don’t care
about die, while ones we do care about seem to be hanging in there, biding their time.

Yuri comes mostly in the form of Tomoe’s fixation on Shizuru. And her…interests. We also briefly get a glimpse of Chie reunited with a presumed-dead Aoi. She was only mostly dead, apparently.

But Yuri isn’t the point here. The point is war. That’s what we’re gearing up for and that’s what we have to be ready to deal with next volume. We’re ready, I say.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 6

Overall – 8

And let us not forget the hallucenogenic effects of Maki-maki-ing.

 

Posted in English Anime, Mai Otome | 1 Comment »