Yuri Manga: Red Garden, Volume 2

December 2nd, 2007

In every way but one, Red Garden, Volume 2 is the perfect (for me) Yuri manga. The one way it is less than perfect is that it doesn’t really have any Yuri. But aside from that, it’s pretty perfect! ^_^

Volume 2 picks up right after Volume 1, in the middle of a battle between our four protagonists and a beast man. It becomes immediately apparent that 1) Kate is the leader and linchpin of the four and that; 2) Rachel tastes the best, because she’s *always* the one with fangs dug into her shoulder.

Volume 2 follows Kate as she discovers that there are other girls who are also fighting the good fight, and that Lise was once one of them – even when she was innocently sharing an exchange diary with Kate. This of course means that she was already dead, which naturally upsets Kate a bit.

Clare and Kate bond in a way that would totally make them a couple if either of them had the slightest interest in the other. But it does open up the story for several people asking right out if Kate is Clare’s girfriend – in fact so many people ask, that that Kate begins to find it funny. So did I. They were totally gay together.

Rose cries a lot. And Lula gets a few moments of extra crazy Hellsing-esque faces in.

Kate meets Herve’s sister Anna, and he has to pretend to not want to kill Kate while they spend the day together.

And in the end, we see preserved bodies of the Animus’ past, with lots of worms going in and out, for extra creepy.

Oh, and yes, Paula has another chance to stroke Kate lovingly so that Jessica has another chance to have an apoplectic fit.

…and all’s right with the world. ^_^

I was glad to see that we do spend a bit of time in Kate and Clare’s lives, so we get a bit of depth about both of them. I hope that future volumes will cover Rose and Rachel, as well.

Red Garden remains extra violent, half about the clothes, half about the blood, creepy, disturbing and fabulous. If only Clare would just give it up and be the lesbian she obviously is – I mean, random guys on the street, her boss, me, we all think so. So duh already!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 3

Overall – 7 and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

Who can resist four cute girls brutally beating a slavering man-beast to death while wearing charming frocks? Not me, at any rate.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Maria-sama ga Miteru News, Yuricon News

December 2nd, 2007

Many of you will have already read this, but for those of you who have not, Pizza Hut and the makers of Maria-sama ga Miteru have announced a co-promotional campaign. Fans can get Marimite themed pizza boxes with series-related goods, and enter a contest to win other items. For more details, you can read the Anime News Network article here.

Marimite is hardly the first to do a Pizza Hut campaign in Japan – the product was notably placed in Code Geass, but it does seem a really unlikely one at first thought, doesn’t it? It’s difficult to imagine the ladies of Lillian eating Pizza Hut, although not at all hard to imagine their hordes of fanboys doing so. lol

I also note that there will be a Winterket special DJCD which I’ll be darn sure to try and nab for myself while I’m there!

***

This is sort of anti-news, but I want to let everyone know that I’m pulling the RSS newsfeed from the Yuricon website. I haven’t had the time to keep it up to date at all, and I’m more likely to post here. So, as of today, Okazu is the official outlet for Yuri news for Yuricon.

While I’m on the topic of the Yuricon site, I also want to mention that we have a project that we’ve just started to translate chunks of the Yuricon site into Japanese. It’s in the very first stages now, but going forward into 2008, you can look for “Nihingo” links to the Japanese-language versions of the home page and inwards from there. :-)

I promise, an actual review will be forthcoming today as well. :-)

Posted in Maria-sama ga Miteru, Yuri Network News, Yuricon | 5 Comments »


Holiday Sale on 100% Yuri from ALC Publishing!

December 1st, 2007

Trying to find that perfect gift for the Yuri lover (or soon to be fan) in your life? ALC Publishing to the rescue with discounts on all of the Yuri Monogatari series on the Yuricon Shop!

We’ve sliced prices so you can get just the right gift for just the right person including up to 50% off selected copies of our best-seller Rica ‘tte Kanji!?. Don’t forget to get yourself a copy of our newest anthology, Yuri Monogatari 5 while you’re at it! Happy Yuri-days from everyone at ALC!

ALC Publishing – Where the girl always gets the girl.

Posted in ALC Publishing | 3 Comments »


Lesbian Novel: The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories

November 30th, 2007

I know I’m not the only person to have marathoned a gazillion pulp novels and thought, “I gotta write me one of those.” But Alisa Surkis and Monica Nolan had an even better idea. They thought “I gotta write me ALL of those.” And so they did.

The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories is a completely unsubtle, totally over the top parody of every lesbian pulp plotline ever. From wartime barracks hijinks, to freckle-faced girls on the farm to the sleazy criminal underworld, with side trips into the depression dust bowl, the shtetl of the Lower East Side in New York and a new age womyn’s commune. And horses. Oh yes, every story includes a horse, sometimes under preposterous circumstances. All of the horses are beautiful in a nearly sexual way, except for Herschel the Wonder Horse who was definitely the best – and smartest – character in the book.

If you’re new to lesbian pulp novels, this book might not make a huge impression on you, but after reading some of the best of the breed (Women’s Barracks) and some of the silliest (Intimate Story of a Lesbian) you just know *exactly* what these authors are parodying.

I really can’t express how funny this book is, so I’m not going to try. I’m going to let it speak for itself. Here are a few choice quotes from some of the stories:

“Yes, I can be useful, woman though I am! Even because of the woman I am – a woman not like other women. But how not like other women – what kind of a woman am I? Will I meet other women like me, who can tell me what kind of a woman I am? Or will it be a woman unlike myself, who will show me what kind of woman I can be?”

“The whole car was stuffed so full of their belongings, the clothing, farm-tools and the bits of furniture they’d been able to take from the farm in Oklahoma after the bank foreclosed, that there was hardly any room for Ma, Pa, Uncle Jo-Jo, the five Budd children and Grandma Jennie.”

This story had the added charm of things like, “You won’t really understand dialectic materialism until you’ve heard it explained by Jack Rosenblum, who you may know as Pedro the Singing Bandit.”

And here’s Herschel the Wonder Horse, known as “Johhny Apple”: “…they had been selling fruit outside the yeshiva on 14th Street. Some of the young scholars were arguing over the Talmud, and one of them had quoted a passage incorrectly. He had paid no attention to Johnny Apple’s indignant snorts, and not until an overripe peach knocked his yarmulke off did he realize his error.”

Perhaps these don’t seem funny to you (especially the bits in, say, Yiddish) but I was laughing like a howler monkey. I read these, and many other lines out loud as we sat and stared at the Caribbean eat the spit of sand we were sitting on.

Book funny. Go read. And for heaven’s sake, please don’t take it seriously, like the first reviewer on the Amazon webpage did! It’s BROAD satire. Pun intended.

Ratings:

Overall – perfect beach reading.

Posted in LGBTQ, Novel, Queer Fiction | 3 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 4

November 28th, 2007

Hi Hi! Miu Matsuoka here, the most adorable of all girls in the entire world! Yay!

I’m supposed to thank some guy named Ted for something. Beats me why, and what kind of name is “Ted” anyway? Let’s call him…Greenie, no, wait, Bellboy! Thanks, Bellboy, for whatever it was that I was supposed to thank you for!

I’m here to tell you what Strawberry Marsmallow, Volume 4, is about, and since it’s obviously about *me*, you ought to appreciate my personal appearance.

First, some weirdo pervy saleman harrasses me and the others, and I had to teach him a lesson about being a freak near cute, innocent girls like me. And I managed to score a really nice case of makeup, too.

Then I explored my creative side with some awesome manga that I drew. (Aside from being cute and athletic, I am also incredibly talented as an artist. It’s hard to find such a rare genius as I.) Of course, because I’m way ahead of the curve artistically, no one was mature enough to appreciate my work. Pfft.

Matsuri had a really disturbed dream about me as a dog. I really worry about that girl. And then Chika thought she was getting fat. I helped her work it off with some sage advice about exercise. Nobue ruined it all by pointing out that Chika had gotten taller. Really, she’s a total joykill.

Chika totally needs to be a little more vain, because every time I write on her face, hours go by before she notices. ^_^

Nobue worries me too. Seriously. She’s always hanging out with me and the younger kids and she never seems to go out. I came up with a genius plan to get her to dress all girly and get ready for a date, just in case a guy should ever, one day, want to. Like that will ever happen.

Oh, this was a good one! Matsuri, Ana and Nobue went back to school to get Mats’ recorder. Chika and I tried to scare them, but Nobue totally got us back. It was awesome.

Then there’s some school life stuff. I slept through most of it, so it’s kind of boring.

And then we were all stuck inside and I tried to come up with some excellent amusement for Nobue and myself. Chika didn’t appreciate it. Man, that girl can deliver a beatdown when’s she’s mad.

In between all the great stuff I did, there were these questions and answers that we had to do. I was brilliant as usual. And you know what, Ana’s a super bore. Nobue really needs to look for a domestic beauty, such as myself.

Ratings:

Art – This is *me* we’re talking about! 10, at least. 11, since, me.
Story – Not bad, although there was a little too much Matsuri – 8
Characters – Me – 10, Nobue – 10, Chika – 9, Matsuri – 3, Ana – 2
Yuri – mmmm….I like Nobue, and Chika’s sort of my soulmate, but I swing both ways, so – 4
Service – like that pervy salesman guy? Ewww. – 5

Overall – The bits with me, 8, definitely

I think you should get this book and send me fanmail. But there’s no way I’m giving you my email or anything. Just contact my agent and don’t bother me with your drivel. I’m much too important to deal with the likes of you.

Posted in English Manga, Ichigo Mashimaro | 5 Comments »