Yuri Manga: Shoujo Bigaku

March 12th, 2007

Sometimes, when I type “Yuri Anime” or “Yuri Manga” in the title of a review, I know I’m being disingenuous. It may be there there is a little Yuri in the series or, that there is none but Yuri fandom insists on seeing some anyway, as we are wont to do. But in the case of Shoujo Bigaku by Chi-Ran, I have no guilt, as it is another 100% yuri collection of stories that ran in Yuri Shimai and Comic Yuri Hime.

Unlike some of the earlier collections, Shoujo Bigaku (which would translate to something like Girls Aesthetic) is a series of mostly unconnected one-shot stories. In each story, the aesthetic, as the title points out, is that of a girls’ world. Most of the stories take place in, or involve, girls at all-girl’s schools. The bulk of the stories involve akogare/idolization that becomes something more, and in two of the stories, one of the principal characters is an actual idol. The aesthetics of being a woman’s woman is actually touched upon in some of these stories, so the title is not out of place. (Also of note, many of the main characters in these stories are women-identified…they do not “hate men” or even dislike them, they are simply much more interested in women.)

The stories are not particularly deep, they all involve bed scenes and some slightly explicit sex. (Can explicit be qualified by “slightly?” I think so, yes. There’s explicit…and then there’s *explicit.* This is the former, not the latter.) Included in this volume are the color pages that ran in the both Yuri magazines – including the adult supplement (what fanfic writers call a “PWP”, a “Plot? What plot?” where the two characters fall into having sex without any context or buildup) which ran in Yuri Shimai.

The stories in this volume are primarily girl-has-already-met-girl-and-has-fallen-in-love, with complicating emotions because of their shared gender. As teen idol Matsuri puts it though, what’s the difference – if you love someone, you love someone. This is the same message we are given when, in a later story, Natsuki is revealed to be a girl after having deceived her girlfriend as to her gender. Only one of the stories contains characters that are a priori self-identified as “lesbian.”

The “mostly” in the “mostly unconnected” above comes from the final few pages, which contain an original piece for the collection. This story involves a girl who embarks upon “Lily’s” bus tour, after having broken up with her girlfriend. To her horror, she is surrounded by nothing by happy girl x girl couples…in fact, they are all the couples from the stories in the book. They cheer her up and cheer her on and in the end, she gets her girl back. Thus making a sort-of connection between the stories…but not really. ^_^

And then we all live happily ever after in this girls’ world, with shoujo bubbles and flowers and candy and stuffed toys and lots of Yuri sex. The End.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 6
Story – Variable, from 5-7
Yuri – 10
Service – 5 (the aesthetic may be for girls, but this is kind of unavoidable when you’re talking about naked chicks in bed…)

Overall – Not world shaking, but enjoyable at 7

There’s nothing challenging here – the art is pleasant, the characters not much more than names, the endings happy.

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Manga, Yuri Shimai | 4 Comments »


Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny Anime

March 10th, 2007

I know that you’ll all be pleased to know that Ryomou Shimei, Kanu Unchou and Kaku Bunwa are all still wearing underwear. It’s an unavoidable conclusion that one has to come to in mere seconds of watching Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny.

You may recall from my reviews of Ikkitousen that I am fully aware that this is utter crap of the lowest sort. Nonetheless I enjoy it, not because I am ignoring the utter crappiness, but because I am enjoying some individual parts of the utter crappiness. ^_^ The panty shots are not among these parts. I like the fights and I like women who have mad fightin’ skillz. And I like The Romance of the Three Kingdoms bits, so I put up with the boring stuff to eke out some pleasure from the rest. ;-)

(As an aside, I was at Anime Castle today, where there was a 3′ tall figurine of Kanu Unchou for sale. I could only boggle. What on *earth* would one do with such a thing?

…

Now that I think about it, don’t tell me. Forget I mentioned it.)

Anyway, Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny begins with my beloved Ryomou attempting to steal a dragon seal, and almost, but not quite, being thwarted by Kakuen Myousai.

You *may* recall from the previous series (but probably not) that the new leader of the Toushi, the Fighters, is Sousou Moutoku. He’s going to be calling for a new throwdown soon, and the various schools are tense as the Fighters all brush up their skills and jockey for power.

Many of the characters are returning from the first series. Ryomou and Hakufu from Nanyou Gakuin, the aforementioned Sousou and Kaku Bunwa, now from Kyoshou Gakuin.

And from Seito Gakuen we get a lot more face time …you *know* what I mean… with Kanu Unchou who, in the first series came by only to fight Ryomou. Kanu is joined by pushy Chouhi Ekitoku and Ryuubi Gentoku. Ryuubi is clearly a lover, not a Fighter, and even tough Kanu softens a bit when she’s around her.

I can safely predict there will be much fighting, and panty shots and exploding clothes but whether there is any Yuri, only time will tell. So far Kanu blushing at Ryuubi’s clueless niceness is our only hit so far as episode 2. But we haven’t seen Ryomou and Goei together yet, and they are the couple I love best. ^_^

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I can re-visit this series at a later date with assurance that while it is still utter and complete crap, it is at least utter and complete crap with *Yuri*. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 4
Characters – 6
Yuri – 1
Service – 12

Overall – 5

I like Ryomou, because I like joint submissions. I like Kanu because I like women with polearms…and she uses a guando, which just about makes me drool with desire. I can’t help myself. I like Ikkitousen ^_^

Posted in Ikkitousen | 3 Comments »


Lesbian Graphic Novels: Fun Home and 12 Days

March 8th, 2007

I read both of these graphic novels this week and, as soon as I put down the second of the two, I knew that I absolutely had to review them together as a compare/contrast. So, I’m shaking out my old Comparative Literature Major for today’s review. It’s a bit dusty, let’s see how I do.

Both Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel and 12 Days, by June Kim are stories written by lesbians about lesbians that are not lesbian narratives, really, at all. Both stories are more properly seen as narratives of grief, of relationships and of missed opportunities for communication and closeness.

Alison Bechdel subtitled Fun Home a “Family Tragicomic” which suits it very well. It is indeed a graphic rendering of a family locked in tragedy, caught in moments from her life – and more importantly, from the life and death of her father. Alison tells her story through snatches of literature, photography, art, even her own diary from her childhood, in a series of repeated, but not repetitive looks at the relationships in her family and the relationship she had with her father, in particular.

12 Days is a story of a woman’s attempt to get over her grief for an ex-lover who has died. This process is complicated – and assisted – by the presence of her lover’s cousin, who brings her some of her her ex’s ashes, and stays around to escape his own issues with his family. Through Jackie and Nick’s reflections, we come to know a little bit, but not too much, about Noah, her life and her death.

Both books are executed exceptionally well. In Alison’s case, the limited use of color allows us to see the world almost as told through faded photos, while June’s black and white setting broken up only by the occasional use of gray, sets the whole thing off sharply, to good effect. In both cases, the art compliments the story exceedingly well. I’m almost tempted to say something tedious like, “one can’t imagine it being done any different” but you know really, one really can’t. ;-) Like Alison’s detailed art, her dialogue is rich, textured and flavored with quotes from many sources. June’s dialogue, like her art, is stark and limited.

Both of these stories center around a death. In both cases, the death itself is seen from several different angles through the course of non-linear narratives, and in both cases there is a surprising lack of anything like passion in the telling. Alison discusses *why* this is, the curious lack of affection and emotional connection in her family. In fact, the why of the lack of passion takes up a whole section within the book. In June’s case, I could *see* the emotion Jackie was feeling, but I found it hard to feel it myself. At the end of the book, I learned (because I really do read *everything* in a book, like the credits, the forewords, the introductions and, in this case, the dedications) that this was not June’s own story, but a story told to her by someone else. In her rendering of this story, it *feels* like it is someone else’s, someone over there. Not us. Them. Where Alison engaged me in her lack of passion, June failed to do so.

Fun Home is a book that is, from beginning to end, unremittingly intelligent. It is cloaked and festooned with references to literature and art and makes no allowances for those who have not read and/or seen – or at least heard of – these things. She compares her father to Oscar Wilde, to Proust, to Leopold Bloom and herself to Collette and Sylvia Beach and Stephen Daedalus. I cannot express how much this kind of intellectual burden makes me love a story. The hooks into myth, into early 20th century homosexual history and the art and literature it spawned practically gives me bookgasm. If Alison had asked, she couldn’t have found a better way to engage me in her story. I wonder how many people it put right off. ^_^

For 12 Days the hook is more heuristic, with the background told later, as an afterword. Jackie, deprived of her lover by miscommunication, by family pressure, by fate, perhaps, has decided to drink Noah’s ashes and thus “become a living urn” in order to put this behind her. We learn a lot about the circumstances of Noah and Jackie getting together, some of their life together, and much about Noah’s leaving to get married and her subsequent death – but we never really get to know either Noah, or Jackie, all that well. The only one we really manage to touch (and, I’m betting, the one character really created out of whole cloth by June) is Nick, the odd man out, the psychopomp for Jackie’s journey. Because I have not had an experience of my own to tie into Jackie’s feelings and give them depth, they simply lacked depth for me.

I didn’t not *enjoy* either book. But that is totally beside the point. They are both excellent and well worth reading. I feel enriched by having read them, an important benchmark for me and any literature.

To sum up:

June’s 12 Days was incredibly good, but I did not like it.

Alison’s Fun Home was incredibly good, and it simply doesn’t matter whether I liked it, or not.

Overall Ratings:

Fun Home – 10

12 Days – 9

I guess I can admit it now, I really don’t like Dykes to Watch Out For. Every single character failed my “would I have them over for lunch?” test, but Alison Bechdel and June Kim are welcome anytime.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Western Comic/Comix | 8 Comments »


Yuri Drama CD: Simoun Uruwashii no Haken OL

March 7th, 2007

I’m trying something new today…the picture on the left is linked to the Amazon.JP entry for this Drama CD, the title below is linked to the Amazon.com entry. (Yes, you can get Drama CDs from Japan through Amazon.com. Shipping from Japan is included in the price, which is why they seem so expensive. No, they have not been translated.)

If the Simoun manga that ran in Megami magazine felt like a fourth-rate cross-over rip-off fanfic, then the Simoun Drama CD: Ah, Lovely Temp Office Ladies (why are we doing this?) Simoun, Inc. feels like a not-too-bad post-series fanfic, with some funny moments.

Let’s talk about the title for second. It really is that long, with the first part being spoken (loudly) by everyone, the part in parentheses said (despairingly) by Parietta, and the last (matter-of-factly) by Neviriru.

The war is over, Aeru says at the beginning. What will we all do now? And in the flurry of discussion, Limone comments that she wants to go to Tokyo. So, go to Tokyo they do. Neviriru decides that they should form a company, which they also do. They decide to be a temp agency for “office ladies” (OLs).) The girls (everyone but Alti and Floe, that is – those actresses appear to be missing) all argue about where to live because, of course, they have no money. Neviriru wants to stay in Roppongi Hills and when everyone disagrees, she locks herself in a room and sulks. Rodreamon and Mamina (with a really scary cheerful voice) try to coax her out. Parietta does the same, but fails utterly to her chagrin.

(Somewhere in the middle of this, Rodo calls Neviriru “Nevi-chan”, and by the end just about all of them are using the nickname.)

When Aeru calls out to Neviriru, she comes right out, and when Aeru gets her to put her face out a bit more, so she can kiss Neviriru, Parietta starts on a series of depressed glosses of “I’m useless” which gains Kaimu’s sympathy, but not much more. To everyone’s discomfort Aeru and Neviriru continue to be exceedingly lovey-dovey, until Limone comments that they should take a company trip.

Company trip? Company trip! Neviriru agrees, and commands that they will leave…in the morning!

As second-in-command Parietta had taken upon herself to assign roles for everyone in the company. Aeru and Limone are the bottom rungs, so they are sent off to gather supplies. The second track consists of them bicycling to town to get stuff.

At the onsen, in the third track, the bulk of our time is spent in making Parietta look foolish. Aeru slams a door onto her accidentally pushing her into the water – that kind of thing. Parietta begins to yell, when the music changes and bizarrely from behind her, Onashia appears coming out of the onsen. It’s a walk-off cameo which I thought was simply brilliant. There’s some fanservice-y discussion of how beautiful various members’ skin is and the almost inevitable breast size conversation. They jump into the water to do “remersion practice” and follow it up with incredibly silly remersion names. When Aeur attempts to do a Suigyoku remersion, however, everyone screams “stop!” and yells at her.

This is followed by food, which they all think is disgusting, except Mamina, who thinks its wonderful. Her enjoyment helps the rest get over themselves, except Rodo, who passes.

They talk about getting entertainment, but as they have no money, they opt for a talent contest. This ends up with some marathon drinking by Parietta, who asks Neviriru to dance, only to find that Nevi-chan has fallen asleep against her. (Note the spiffy piece of fanart I found for this scene last night.)

The fourth track follows Mamina and Rodoreamon as they hit Harajuku. It’s a typical rich girl/poor girl scenario. Rodo is freaked by all the people, the idea of shopping in a 100-yen store and tries to buy a crepe with a credit card. Mamina, in turn, is utterly put off by Rodo’s choice of lunch – a ramen shop. She had hoped to eat somewhere elegant and expensive. They make up over little gifts and live happily ever after.

Track 5 includes the most inappropriate use *ever* of the Emerald remersion, as Aeru uses it to pop 30 minutes into the future so she can eat some flan.

The final track has Neviriru coming out and announcing, with many words – something that does not pass without comment – that she’s dissolving the company. Everyone is shocked, but as they come around to the idea, and discuss possible futures for themselves, Rodo mentions that she’s always wanted to be in Takarazuka. lol

After Neviriru complains that she’s running out of patience waiting for Aeru to make the first move already, the two of them finish the CD with another discomfiting bout of kissing, hugging and personal talk, this time of the slightly TMI variety.

Once again, I found the bonus track hysterical, as the actresses all discuss their enjoyment as they made the CD. The best line is right at the beginning when they are talking about Onashia’s bizarro cameo when, from the back comes Onashia’s voice saying, “don’t touch me” totally deadpan, which flattens everyone. Including me.

I have to mention the music. I’m not the only one who has mentioned how exceptional the music for this series is. Look around online, you’ll find others. It *is* exceptional. And all of the best bits are used, quite incongruously, for the Drama CD. So music that was used for battles and flying Simoun are here used for…eating flan and shopping. It adds a measure of complete wtf-ness to what is already a silly story.

Okay, so, this is NOT a serious look at the characters from Simoun. It’s also not entirely out of character, although Parietta gets beat on pretty badly throughout. But in return you get actual kissing noises done very poorly by the actresses for Aeru and Neviriru, which indicate that they are now actually a couple. (So badly its almost worth a soundbite…but I’m not gonna bother – just kiss the back of your hand once or twice loudly. Make it sound stupid. That should do it.)

Ratings:

Art – N/A
Story – 5
Characters – 6
Yuri – 7
Service – 7 (anyone pokes my breast in an onsen, they’re going to get their fingers broken…)

Overall – 6

If what you liked about Simoun was the depth, the complexity – avoid this DCD at all costs. If you can get the stick out of your butt long enough to see this as the goofball fanfic it is, you might enjoy it.

Posted in Drama CDs & Audiobooks, Simoun | 1 Comment »


Yuricon News, Yuri Manga News

March 6th, 2007

I was so ready to be clever and funny today, but it’s just not happening. Instead, here’s two pieces of important news:

The Yuricon/ALC Publishing website is currently down. This is not a crisis (yet.) Due to Philip Mak’s sudden death, we’re moving servers. There’s a lot I have to do and I’m not entirely sure how to do it all, since Philip setup the whole thing for me originally. I hope to be up and running *soon*.

This does not affect Okazu, of course, except as it sucks away my will to live and leaves me with no energy to write… ;-)

It also does not effect Registration for Yuricon 2007, which is open. Register today for the only 100% yuri of 2007!

***

Also in today’s news, Infinity Studios now has a page up for their translation of Iono-sama Fanatics. It looks like they are reproducing the dust jacket, the 4-panel comics on the inner jacket and full-color pages. Happy day!

We heard about this months ago, but how nice to see that they’ll be reproducing the actual thing, instead of a close imitation.

***

That’s it for today folks. Tomorrow, if all goes just lovely, I will write a lovely review of the lovely Simoun Drama CD “Ah, Lovely Office Lady Temps”. (No, seriously…that’s the title.)

Posted in Yuri Manga, Yuri Network News, Yuricon | No Comments »