Yuri News This Week – October 11, 2008

October 11th, 2008

Not my best week ever, that’s for sure. Yesterday, on my first day not working, I decided to catch up on yard work that had gone undone for 4 months. (Getting a lawn service in around here is like pulling teeth. My backyard is teeny and unruly and not worth their time, apparently.) Just as I finished the first thing I had to do, I landed wrong on my leg and fell with a dislocated knee. Yep. So now, instead of spending this week cleaning up the yard and house and generally setting my life in order, I’m sitting here on the sofa with my leg in a brace. Sigh. But on to better things!

Yuri Anime

Eric P writes in to let you all know that Media Blasters is releasing a Kashimashi ~ Girl Meets Girl box set. I’m glad that they are. It makes sense for short-run anime. The folks at MB tell me that other box sets are not out of the question. No promises or hints, just that it’s not out of the question for other Yuri series.

The Pre-order for the 2nd season of Maria Watches Over Us (originally titled Maria-sama ga Miteru ~ Haru) is now up on the Yuricon Shop! The second season is coming out next month. (Wonder if they’ll give us a fun freebie this time, too?)

ashi reminds us that Lyrical Nanoha Season 1 boxes are slated to come out in November. Keep your eyes open for that – and for news of the new Nanoha movie, the character designs for which have already caused controversy among people with very little else to do. lol

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Other Yuri News

Interviews are flying thick and fast these days. Catch a completely different sort of interview with me at Comics Structuralist, where I was asked questions that focused more on the sociological ramifications of Yuri than on the usual “so, how did you get into Yuri?” type things I usually get.

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Yuri Events

Once more plugging MangaNEXT where Rica Takashima will be doing an Aozora Art Project that you – yes *you* – can participate in.

Feeling Much Better Through Manga Art

There are times when we are too busy or too shy to say “thank you” or “I’m sorry” to the people who deserve to hear how we really feel. Once the moment is lost, it is usually gone forever. In “Feeling Much　Better Through Manga Art,” members of the public get a chance to turn those lost moments and unexpressed sentiments into works of art. Participants write their apologies or appreciations on life-sized dialogue balloons, and then posed for portraits by Aozora Art staff. These pictures are incorporated by Rica Takashima into unique, one-page manga book stories, thus transforming the participant into the protagonist in his or her own visual storyline, and their message into a therapeutic fusion of personal expression and contemporary art. People of all ages can use this opportunity to express a whole range of thoughts and feelings, from the poignant to the profound. So please visit Rica in the Artist Alley and make your own manga story!

Join Rica, Yuri artist Jess B, myself and the usual cast of Yuricon characters in the Artist Alley at MangaNEXT from 10/31 – 11/2 in Somerset, NJ. It’s going to be a blast. :-)

Posted in Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Nanoha, Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »


Utter Nonsense

October 10th, 2008

As of today I am once again unemployed. I won’t burden you with details except to say that it was the second most diffcult decision in my entire life to date. It’s been a horrible four months, and I’m really hoping to move forward with all of the things I had to set aside in that time. Like, my life.

In the meantime, I wanted to share these hideously bad photos with you. They were taken on a moving train, so sorry, really blurry. But more excellent examples of wtf train advertising.

This advertisiement is supposed to be extolling the virtues of Pennsylvania. Could there be anything less appealing than some guy stading in front of a raggedy pup tent in his skivvies with an elk (elk, are you kidding me?) staring him down. Gosh Penna, I’m like, right there!

This is the ad I mentioned before. It’s for Pom’s chocolate coffee drink. The tagline is something like “for real wakey-wakey-upedness” or something equally as awful. The eggs have eyes and are *jittering* from too much caffeine. I want to point out that, although you probably can’t see it in this picture, the flame under the pan is on. On! Those egg eyes are frying right in front on us! Blecch.

I will never, ever again say that Tokyo train advertising is weird, having now seen NJ Transit advertising.

Posted in Now This Is Only My Opinion | 7 Comments »


Day of the Revolution Manga, Volume 1 (English)

October 8th, 2008

How fitting that today, the Day of the Revolution, we start with a hero. Today’s review was sponsored by Martin S from Austria – thank you very much Martin. You are today’s hero! ^_^

Day of the Revolution tells the story of Yoshikawa Kei, a little punk-ass boy who is respected by his punk-ass friends and kind of idolized by them as well, since he’s kind of cute and girly. Kei learns that he is actually Intersexed. Because of a complicated family situation, he chooses to become a girl, rather than continue on as a boy. Hilarity ensues. Kei, now known as Megumi, finds it just about impossible to hide her identity from her former pals, which was a relief, since an extended series of gags while she attempted to do so would have been dire. ^_^

Tsuda Mikiyo, who also draws under the name Zaou Taishi, has a number of strongly gender-bendy and fakey Yaoi and Yuri titles under this name. Previously, I reviewed Family Complex, another series picked up by DMP. Originally, DMP announced Day as a Yuri title, but I and other folks wrote in to explain why it really isn’t. Nor is it truly a transgender story, but so few manga really are, when you think of it. So, once again, if you’re interested in MTF gender switching, this story could be of interest to you. In a way it is a sort of Intersexed story although, as with so many gender and sexuality stories, the larger issues of identity are subsumbed by inane details of gender roles. I cannot believe that the *most* important issue of someone transitioning from one sex to another is sitting with their legs closed. I just cannot.

Nonetheless, this is a reasonably amusing story. Much like Family Complex the fake BL and fake Yuri actually work in terms of the comedy. I don’t feel like the author is dissing or minimizing the issues, just that she’s writing a comedy and we should stay light hearted about it all.

The other feature of this book is the author’s extended author’s note. Tsuda is the only author I’ve ever read that draws herself as a human as well as some avatar character. And her author’s notes are detailed pieces of autobiography that give some actual insight into the woman behind the art. It’s refreshing and entertaining, a stark contrast to most of the other author’s notes I’ve read. (The worst two so far, “Recently I’ve developed an interest in hand lotion,” and “…who has started developing feeling for organutans.” I mean, really.)

At the end of the volume, Megumi, stressed out about the possibility of having to one day have sexual relations with a man after an aborted attempt at rape, chooses her friend and mentor as a woman, Makoto, to be her partner. This is what DMP assumed made it a Yuri story. It isn’t. Obviously they hadn’t read the second volume. But I had. ^_^

More gender-bendy goodness to come in Volume 2!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7, 9 if you’re looking for Intersex stories that aren’t porn
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2ish, if you squint
Service – 5, a little for the BL fans, a little for the rest.

Overall – 7

I think I actually like Tsuda on her own more than with her BL manga partner Eiki Eiki. Sacrilege!

 

Posted in English Manga, LGBTQ | 3 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Shoujo Sect, OAV 2

October 7th, 2008

So, Volume 2 of Shoujo Sect came out and I watched it dutifully. I’m pretty certain that porn is not meant to be this boring. ^_^;

Volume 2 of the anime picks up the “story” somewhere towards the end of Volume 1 of the manga and tracks it into Volume 2. We are treated to several sex scenes in this episode: Kirin and Matsuri, who yowled like a cat, and Nori and Aki, the unpleasant twins who shared a sempai snack. And Momoko’s short love affair with her teacher. The climax of the plot comes when Shinobu (suddenly and without preamble) confesses her feelings to Momoko.

Here’s where it actually offered a little entertainment. In the manga, Shinobu asks Momoko to jam with her – Momoko on bass, Shinobu on harmonica. She wants them to play Paul Anka’s “Diana,” a choice I still find highly amusing.

In the anime, we see Momoko play harmonica in music class, instead of recorders, I guess. It’s a flash-by scene, not meant to be anything. But as the episode ends, we hear the sounds of “When The Saints Go Marching In” played awkwardly on harmonicas. It was so random that it absolutely slayed me. Best bit of the anime so far.

Hopefully the last episode won’t be too clogged with other random couples and we’ll be able to focus on Kirin and Maya having a Shinobu appetizer before Momoko gets the main course.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 4
Characters – 6
Yuri – 9
Service – 8

I did a sanity check and re-read the manga after watching this episode. It wasn’t winning any Pulitzer Prizes, either. ^_^

Posted in Hentai, Shoujo Sect, Yuri Anime | 4 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime S, Volume 6 Part 2

October 6th, 2008

We left Yuri Hime S, Volume 6 midway yesterday. We pick it up at at a recap of the winning entries in Ichijinsha’s most recent manga contest. Each magazine has a few winners, and we get to see all of the recent crop.

Speaking of new artists, the next story is a violent and vaguely disturbing piece by newcomer Marimo Naoe called “The Nightmare After School,” (which is not related to The Afterschool Nightmare, a different manga series that has some Yuri characters.) Akira is having some seriously violent nightmares. Like – beheading someone and having their decapitated body come after her. She relies on her sister for emotional support and for protection at school. When she sees Suzuki-sempai macking on her sister, it doesn’t make her at all happy. But Suzuki gets all the girls, as we see her receive yet another love letter. Akira’s jealousy doesn’t make her nightmares any less horrible – if anything they are getting worse. Akira and her sister are caught up in a waking nightmare when their friend Rika is possessed, but it’s Suzuki-sempai who rescues them – and talls Akira that she’ll be Suzuki’s apprentice for now, since her powers are obeious, but need to be trained. I’m interested to see where this story goes, defintely.

“Yuru Yuri” follows, with three chapters that I feel no compunction about skipping.

The summer event for dollmakers has arrived and the staff of “Cassiopeia Dolce” are gearing up for the half-networking, half-cosplay event. Most of the story is taken up with cosplay bishoujo-style non-situations (gotta love Takagi, he’s very consistent) and random kissing. Olga names Anna her apprentice in public (shock and jealousy follows) and Anna finally gets a really good kiss with Olga in at the afterparty. In the way of all things, Olga was so drunk the entire night is a blank and Anna (ah ha ha ha) has to start from scratch next chapter. hah.

Kuromasa Shisei turns our eye to yet another Shinigami and human pairing in “Kanojou to Shinigami.”

In “Honey Crush” Madoka rethinks her position on liking girls, and Kyouko and the ghost are all fired up all over again. Kyouko intervenes for the ghost and let’s Madoka know she cares so much she stalked her and died for her efforts. Ghostgirl confesses. Madoka admits to finding the idea of loving someone she really can’t see problematic. (My wife says, “Wimp.” ^_^)

“Nanami to Misuzu” is followed by “Kanojou ha Imouto” in which two girls who had decided that they would go out, are now catapulted through marriage into being sisters. The younger sister has no trouble with it…the older does. Despite this being a lot of things I don’t care much for, it wasn’t heinous.

The end.

The advertisement for the upcoming issue of Yuri Hime looks interesting. Since “Strawberry Shake Sweet” will be ending, I’m betting we’ll see some contenders for strong story leaders this month. Looks like it’s gonna be good!

So, okay. Sisters, and the peeing fetish do not appeal to me. I like the attempt at a non-kiddie story and don’t mind the horror stuff, as long as it’s not just fake-Yuri. So two fetishes I don’t like, two I do and I can tolerate the moe if it’s not tedious.

Overall – 7

As a kid brother, Yuri Hime S is kind of cute and kind of annoying, with one friend I kinda like. ^_^

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »