Burst Angel Anime, Volume 6 (English)

May 7th, 2008

My biggest complaint about the previous volume of Burst Angel was that the winning formula – i.e., Jo and Meg being the point people – was sort of dropped and left behind as the plot flailed around in a Jo-focused sort-of-back- and sort-of-present- story.

Thankfully, Volume 6 recaptured what made the early episodes work, so we get to wade about in a pool of satisfyingly standard tropes of action team anime, with a decidely Western flair.

First, having resolved Jo’s personal arc, we must face the inevitable Storm before the Calm, as the team is dissolved for political reasons. As is typical in this particular plot complication, the characters, despite their personal bonds, shoot apart like shrapnel. I don’t know why that is, but it is a requirement that we all go bara-bara. Jo and Meg take to the road, Amy does Amy things and Sei-who-is-not-named-Beth does Sei-who-is-not-named-Beth things.

Jo and Meg face one more crisis, as Maria returns (another standard, which I mentally refer to as “Can’t keep a good bad guy down”) and in a lovely fit of Yuri, she kidnaps Meg, because she wants her for herself. There’s some lovely sexually suggestive stuff in there, before Jo shows up and beats the crap out of Maria in a nicely animated fight. (A trope my wife has just named “Get your hands off my Betty!”)

Meg has a chance to have her own moment of Yuri where she confesses her feelings to a sleeping Jo, kisses her and promises to protect her forever, thus notching up the Yuri without making any committment at all.

Akane returns, as the wildcard cowboy who rides in for the last battle; a nice touch, as it’s a classic tactic for Westerns.

And there’s the standard emotional parting scene where Jo leaves Meg behind before the final showdown. Also a classic Western moment, reflected beautifully by the music.

Last thing I noted was a convention of mecha/sci-fic/cyberpunk anime – the main brain to which all other brains are connected, is inexplicably wired to explode when something something something. Whose idea was that? Imagine if Google did that with their servers…. Seems to me to be a *really* bad idea.

So, the final volume returns to the classic Western roots it sort of vaguely nodded towards in the beginning. It really worked, I think. This wasn’t a deep look at anything particular, it’s not “slice of life,” or “drama,” or despite fans’ insistence “romance,” – Burst Angel is a pretty standard action anime, with strong ties to conventions of good, ole’ American Westerns. For a decent live-action analogy, I recommend Silverado which contained many of the same tropes and was about as satisfying to watch as any Western I’ve ever seen. Plus, the cast kicks. No giant weaponry though, unless you count Danny Glover’s shotgun. :-)

In the end, we get a teeny little brief glimpse of Meg’s future, which I really would have prefered to be her present, but oh well, it’s nice to know that Jo’s scarf bestows +10 competence on the wearer.

Extras as always – the American cast commentary, the Japanese radio dramas and a nifty book full of nifty facts and pictures. Extras aren’t crucial to me, and they won’t save a bad anime, but it feels nice to have such a *chunky* set of extras for this series. It’s the best of both worlds – something for the intellect and something tactile to enjoy.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Sevice – 4

Overall – 8

Overall, a fun series that would make really good background images on a big screen during a party. :-) My thanks to Ted the Awesome for sponsoring today’s review!

Posted in Bakuretsu Tenshi, English Anime | 9 Comments »


Free Comic Book Day Report

May 7th, 2008

Probably should have written this up Sunday, but was too tired from having fun on Saturday with the folks at Comic Fusion in Flemington, NJ. :-)

My deep and sincere thanks to Bill and Stacy, for being genuinely fabulous comic book store owners. In all seriousness, I’ve never been in a store that is so welcoming of men, women, kids and families. Everyone who walks through the door is treated like a friend – and there’s very little of the clubhouse atmosphere (I mean that figuratively and literally) one finds in many other stores.

There were three indie artists at the store, cheerfully drawing pictures of anything or anyone for anyone who asked. (Thanks Glenn for my spiffy picture of Yuriko!) Kids got figurines as extra gifts and there were free posters, so most people ended up with a pretty good pile of get. :-) I was pleased to note that the number of kids who came in and were polite and interested (and interesting) significantly outweighed the number who had issues and made me want to slap their parents. lol

The folks who helped out for the day, Dave, Beth and John, were also really nice and Beth and John were fetching in their costumes. The kids who came in in costume were adorable…of course. One little Wonder Woman gleefully told me that her father said that if she didn’t wear the costume, he would. We all giggled at how silly Daddy was. He would have looked *terrible* as Wonder Woman. Stacy told me that her favorite moment was when John’s two kids (all dressed up as various iterations of Iron Man) were asked by his wife ” Okay kids, blast Mommy!” so she could get a picture. lol

There was a lot of camraderie and fun, and Bill and Stacy were consummate hosts (as I know, because Stacy has been the consummate host in our Dealer’s Room for Yuricon events, as well) and really – it was a lovely day.

Comic Fusion is pretty much the nicest, friendliest comic and collectible store I have ever been in. Which is totally due to Bill and Stacy being two of the nicest, friendliest people around. (Stacy’s from California, she can’t help herself. lol)

Here’s what I always say – if you’re going to buy stuff anyway, why not do it from friends? Comic Fusion will order pretty much anything, and if you can’t find your fave manga, games or figurines at the book store, or you’d rather support a great local store than a monolithic corporation, visit Comic Fusion online or in person, and buy from friends.

Thanks again Stacy and Bill – I had a blast!

Posted in Events | No Comments »


Confidential Confessions Manga, Volume 4 (English)

May 6th, 2008

Back in the bad old days of Yuri, in between the frantic melodrama of the 70’s and this current decade, (and with the exception of Sailor Moon) it was fairly common in manga to find lesbian love paired with mental unbalance. Confidential Confessions, by Momochi Reiko is a series that allows us to wallow in the depravity of “true” stories and incidentally, see some crazy lesbians.

You know the television show that’s on WEtv (which as you know, I like to refer to as the “Violence Against Women Network,”) High School Confidential? This manga was written 10 years ago – and it’s the exact same stuff. Teenage pregnancy, abuse, drug use, etc. Freaky, huh? Guess good girls in bad trouble still appeals to some.

In Volume 4, we “deal” with a number of unpleasant issues; institutionalized abuse of female students; prostitution; bullying; and, in “Forbidden Kiss,” a lesbian love affair complete with insane jealousy, a knife and an ambiguously asexual ending.

The author’s notes dramatically explain that all these terrible things go on, and she feels that, by telling these stories, she’s bringing these issues to people’s attention, so the bullying and abuse and prostitution will stop. She doesn’t mention the lesbianism. If I was young and had read her story, I might have been tempted to stop being a lesbian. Those girls were *crazy*! ^_^; This is the same tone of slavering “concern” with which WEtv deals with the same issues in their show – oh, how awful, isn’t it just terrible what happened, did you hear, I know I was shocked too.

The art in Confidential is decidedly old-school, and in a way it made me nostalgic. If you like the dredging up of sleazy “true” stories, then you’ll be happy to note that the series is 6 volumes long and there’s a second series, Confidential Confessions: Deai, as well. So plenty of teenaged girl misery and abuse for you to bathe yourself in and either feel better about your own life, or get secretly turned on, or whatever floats your boat.

While I do love me my Evil Pycho Lesbians, I’m less moved by this kind of teenage pathos. But, if you love tabloid drama Confidential Confessions is certainly dramatic. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – N/A
Characters – N/A
Yuri – 6
Service – 5

Overall – 7

A tip of the hat today to Ted the Awesome for sponsoring today’s review! (You may have noticed that I haven’t added anything recently to the Yuri Wishlist. That’s because I’m positively *drowning* in things to review and want to make some of it all go away before encouraging you all to throw more on top of an already untenably large pile. When these piles are gravitationally stable again, I’ll add more stuff to the wishlist! Thanks, everyone, for your support!)

Posted in English Manga | 4 Comments »


Interview with Yuri Translator Anastasia Moreno

May 5th, 2008

Once more, we take a peek behind the scenes in the Manga Industry. Today we are talking with Yuri translator Anastasia Moreno! Welcome Anastasia, and let’s jump right in!

1) So let’s start with the most obvious question – tell us a little bit about yourself.

My full name is Anastasia Shimabuku Moreno. I’m half-Japanese, half-Filipino, and was born and grown in Okinawa, Japan for most of my life. I grew up watching a lot of Japanese TV, especially anime like Urusei Yatsura and Gundam, with my 8 older brothers. I went to University of Arizona for a few years, but never finished college, and enlisted in the Marine Corps instead. During my tour in Okinawa, I married a Japanese guy in JASDF (Japan Air Self Defense Force.) After I got out of the Marines, I stayed in Japan to work in US military bases as a US federal employee. Currently, I live and work at Yokota Air Base. Hobbies other than manga include playing soccer, lifting weights, and imitating Japanese comedians.

2) Are you a manga reader yourself? How did you get into manga? Did that lead you into working in the manga industry? Or do you just do it for the fame, glory and chicks? ;-)

– Yes, I always read Japanese manga, but compared to a bazillion manga I used to read back in high school and college, I only read a select few these days.

– I grew up watching anime, but I didn’t get into manga until my sophomore year in high school. My friend insisted that I read a volleyball parody manga (High School Kimengumi v3) when I happened to be on the school volleyball team. When I read it at home, I laughed so hard my stomach hurt! I never imagined that manga stories, drawn with only black ink, zip tones, and paper, could evoke such strong reactions in readers (in my case, laughter.) I was hooked. I not only became an avid manga reader, but began drawing my own manga also.

– I actually worked in the manga industry twice – first as an artist, and later as a translator. In the 1990s, I drew 4 panel comic strips in college, called “Campus Abalone” in The Daily Wildcat (U of Arizona campus newspaper), which was essentially a 4-koma gag manga about campus bike cops. Back then, anime and manga just began to make its mark into the US comics industry, so nobody recognized manga as readily as they do now, resulting in close to zero fans (except the college anime club members and a handful of comic fans.) Also, my manga was published in Slave Labor Graphic’s Action Girl comics (vol. 7, 10, and 14), and I also did some manga illustrations for a college anthropology textbook. Oh, I also dabbled in fansub translations, like Yawara!.

Then I joined the Marine Corps for 5 years (1999-2004), spending most of my time in Okinawa, so I had no idea how much the US manga industry evolved during those years. My main job was an NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) defense instructor (run the tear gas chamber, fix gas masks, etc.), but my secondary job was a Japanese translator/interpreter. I interpreted for American and Japanese generals in high- level meetings and translated a variety of military technical correspondence, documents, and manuals into Japanese and English.

After that, I became a government employee, doing military technical translations and political military analyses. Having a regular day job (vice a hectic military tour) freed up my nights and weekends to get back to my personal hobby – manga. I thought it would be easier to get back into the manga industry by translating vice drawing, so I was lucky to be picked up by a publishing agent who gave me a constant stream of manga and novel translation projects to work on.

– I just love manga, so it’s more of a personal satisfaction than a pursuit of fame and glory. Of course, seeing your own name in a published book is definitely a morale booster. (^_^) Instead of being a chick-magnet, I ended up being an anime otaku magnet in college, when I cosplayed in a sailor-style school uniform at anime cons, haha.

3) Tell us, in general terms, what you do – where does your job fall in the process of producing a translated manga?

Probably in the initial stages, after licensing, I think. I provide English translations of Japanese manga and novels. Some publishers only require a raw translation for their rewriter to work from, and others ask the translator to adapt/rewrite as well. Each publisher has their policies and translation preferences, such as retaining honorifics or not, translating or ignoring sound effects, and adhering to a specific text style guide or not.

I’m usually given 1-3 months to translate one manga or novel, depending on the publisher’s needs. The most I’ve worked on in a month were 3 mangas and 1 novel (plus a regular day job, moving homes, and buying a new puppy. It was a very rough month.) (T_T)

4) Are you a fan of Yuri manga? Did you know it existed before you started working on a title? What were your thoughts upon seeing your first Yuri job?

Yes, I knew about and liked yuri manga, but volume-wise, I tend to read more mainstream shonen and shoujo manga that may or may not have a minor element of yuri in it. The only yuri title I worked on so far is Strawberry Panic. This title was over-the-top in terms of melodramatic characters and perfectly timed misunderstandings. The more serious the characters spoke or thought, the funnier it seemed in my mind. So I decided to go all out and retain as much of the seriousness and melodrama as accurately as possible, which in effect enhanced the comedic elements.

5) Not every Yuri series is equal. Some are better than others. What, if any, thoughts do you have about the series you’ve worked on. Silly? Serious? Quality? Not?

Since I’ve only worked on Strawberry Panic so far, I can’t make any comparisons yet. I love the cute artwork, and it was a fun title to translate. I think a group of readers will take the story seriously at face value, while another group will see the parody in it, but I’m sure most will ultimately like the title. I really enjoyed both aspects of it.

6) Have you gotten any fan feedback? Anything you want to share?

No, translators usually do not get any direct fan feedback, unless they have their own website or go on a forum soliciting feedback. I usually read manga reviews online and see if they evaluated my translations, though. Getting good marks for translation in the review is another morale booster. (^_^)

I tend to notice this in military translating, too, but usually when a translation is good, the writer and publisher get most of the credit, but if anything goes wrong, the translator is the first to be blamed. Sigh. Please give translators some slack — they are trying their best to adapt a foreign language product into your language, so there will always be subjective differences in interpretations and awkwardness when crossing cultures. Please remember that even great translations cannot save crappy titles sometimes. (T_T)

7) Any Yuri titles you’d like to see make it over here? Anything you’d like to get to work on?

I would love for the original Hana no Asuka Gumi manga series make it out here. The whole underground world where junior high girls beat the living crap out of each other all over Tokyo is just too insane! You know, I was able to memorize the 23 Tokyo wards because of the area masters in the story, lol. And would I love to work on that title, for sure! Also, I would like to work on titles that tap into my unique bicultural background and military experience, like Magical Marine Pixel Maritan (I coached voice actresses on English pronunciations of vulgar Marine phrases — a unique, fun-filled job!) If there are any yuri titles involving military/police women, though, please let me know!

8) What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about your job?

My favorite part of the job is to find little in-jokes in a story (that are totally apparent to native Japanese people but often overlooked by Americans) and being able to explain it in the translation notes. Unfortunately for Strawberry Panic, the whole story was a big parody, so I had nothing to add…

My least favorite part of the job is the tight deadline I sometimes have to meet. I work 40-60 hours a week at my day job, and 50-70 hours a week translating manga on nights and weekends, which leaves little to no personal life or sleep. I feel really bad when I have to neglect my husband and puppy for weeks at a time to meet a project deadline.

9) Anything else you want to tell our audience?

Yes, a whole lot of shameless plugs, if it’s all right… (^_^)
Please buy Strawberry Panic manga and novels! You’ll surely find something that catches your fancy, whether it be the cute drawings, favorite characters and/or couples, or the parody elements. It is a really entertaining series!

Please buy the other titles I’ve worked on, too: Love Hina novels volume 1 and volume 2 (Tokyopop), Trinity Blood RAM 1 and ROM 1 novels (Tokyopop), Sugar Princess: Skating to Win volume 1 and volume 2 (Viz), Hard Rock (DMP), ALIVE The Final Evolution series (Del Rey), and Maid Machinegun novel (Del Rey)!

Oh, I plan to start drawing gag manga again and posting it on the web this year. Stay tuned!

Thank you for your time.

Thank you Anstasia! I’m glad to meet another Hana no Asuka-gumi fan! And for all our readers out there, allow me to plug your new blog, Manga Gunkan, which is written in both English and Japanese. Among other fun things, Manga Gunkan discusses some of the trials and tribulations of translation work.

Once again, a fabulous insight into the people behind the books – thanks again to all three ladies who participated in these interviews. We look forward to more great Yuri from all of you!

Posted in Interview, Yuri Manga, Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


This Week in Yuri – May 3, 2008

May 3rd, 2008

Lots of yummy Yuri news this week!

Top story today is that Japanese women’s magazine Malika is running a manga about Yoshiya Nobuko, a lesbian writer of the early twentieth century – and someone that many people, including myself, consider the grandmother of Yuri. Here’s a preview of the manga. Nobuko was, in her time, the wealthiest woman in Japan, as out a lesbian as one could be in the early and mid-20th century and a writer who not only created many of the tropes of “Yuri” but much of what we think of when we thinking of “Shoujo,” as well. Her Hana Monogatari series was as well known to every Japanese woman for decades as Laura Ingall Wilders’ Little House series was known in America. If you love Yuri, you’ll want to know who Yoshiya Nobuko is.

Thanks Erin for pointing me to this piece of info – Logo TV’s Alien Boot Camp has made Talking About Amy, the animated documentary short about Yuri artist Rica Takashima, available for free online viewing. I cannot reccomend this enough. It’s a beautiful short film about a beautiful person. Go watch it.

From Sean, I have learned that SS Astro has been licensed and I am assured that there is Yuri in it.

For those of you who were waiting for this moment, the Season 1 pre-order for Maria Watches Over Us, the licensed Maria-sama ga Miteru is up on the Yuricon Shop Anime Page!

Chiisaki wrote in to say that a new manga Kaprekar has Yuri, but since the Yuri is likened to that in Venus Versus Virus I assume that it’s ambiguously presented with mostly the readers doing all the work to make them a couple. I’ll take a look and let you know, as usual. :-)

Ans speaking of series that really don’t have Yuri, but we insist it is anyway, the Aria license by Nozomi/Right Stuff was announced this week.

Jaime tells me that the creatively named “Youporn” includes some hentai anime Yuri scenes. I’m not linking – if you’re over 18 and you go there, it’s your business. :-) Let me remind you that some of the uploads are probably from anime that is licensed, so if you like it, it behooves you to not steal it, but buy, rent or borrow it properly. Thank you. (This is why I almost never link to YouTube or Nicovideo or any of those “services” here, in case you wondered. They violate copyright in a way I do not condone. You want to see something and don’t want to buy it – rent it, borrow it from your library. But if you download licensed material that is for sale, you are stealing it, plain and simple, and I will never support that.)

A couple of folks have emailed to tell me about the new movement to establish an International Day of Femslash on July 19th, 2008. Hey, why not? If you’re a f/f or Yuri fanfic writer, I think it sounds like a nice way to create a community out of whole cloth. Add the banner, proclaim the word, join the fun!

And last, while not Yuri, but speaking of community, let me remind you that today is Free Comic Book Day. Comic Book stores all over will be handing out free comic books and doing raffles and prizes, etc. I’ll be going down to Comic Fusion, to help Yuricon Staffer Stacy hand out books and welcome guests. Got to your local comic book store and say hi!

That’s it for this week – I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »