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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Girls Jump Magazine
2011-01-16 20:54:00
/singing/ You know Shounen and Business and Super and Weekly, and V and Young and Monthly and Ultra....but do you recall, the newest Jump magazine of alllllll........? Announced at the end of 2010, Shueisha added the seasonal Girls Jump to the lineup. The premise was to approach popular and off-beat female manga artists to draw manga for a young adult male audience. The inaugural issue is a combination of talent, creativity, flavored with a dash of wtf that makes for a truly compelling read. Anyone who is reading current popular manga will recognize at least a few of the names in this collection. For our purposes here at Okazu, the three names that will draw our attention are Suekane Kumiko (Afterschool Charisma,) Nakamura Ching (GUNJO) and Torino Shino (Ohana Holoholo,) but there are any number of excellent storytellers in this volume. The manga I liked best was a Furuya-esque piece called "Uki Mieru" by Tomii Masako, in which everything - by which I mean every random thought th...
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Yuri Network News - January 15, 2011
2011-01-15 18:07:00
Yuri Manga From the Yuricon Mailing List, BlackSkaven shares the news that Haru, Natsu, Aki, Fuyu (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) by Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki has been released in Germany by EMA as Frühling, Sommer, Herbst und Winter this week. However, German readers should be warned that the release comes with no color pages or undercover artwork. There's a pile o'releases from Ichijinsha this week: Wildrose Remix: Disk-B; Ibara no Namida; Musou Honey; Yuru Yuri, Volume 4; Futarism; Himawari-san; and the newly renamed Girl's Love (nee' Yuri Hime Wildrose.) Choir, Volume 3 is slated to hit the shelves this month, too. If you're looking for something more grown up, the 2nd Volume of Ohana Holoholo might be just the ticket. And it looks like Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi, which apparently wrapped up at the end of the last chapter (happily every after, of course,) will be continued for at least a few more chapters. So, one couple's all nice and resolved...will the other kis...
More About: News , Network , January

Okazu around the Web
2011-01-14 20:42:00
Because I am quite literally too tired to write a coherent review today, here's some other places you can read my thoughts, if you haven't already. Take a moment to read my essay in praise of Drama CDs over on Hooded Utilitarian. I take a look at Japanese manga magazine Comic Beam over at Mangacast. If you're really a hardcore fan of me and that just isn't enough, there's also my recent post at SocialOptimized on Guest blogging. Speaking of which - if you have an idea for something I haven't covered here or a different perspective on something I have and you'd like to share it with the Okazu readership, feel free to send me an email with a suggestion for a Guest Post! I'll be glad to consider it. ^_^ I'll be back tomorrow with the YNN report!

Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime Rebirth, Volume 1
2011-01-12 22:46:00
And thus, the fourth era of Yuri has begun. Ichijinsha has re-launched Comic Yuri Hime (???????), with an entirely new look, a slightly new feel and a new bimonthly publishing schedule. Gone is the sweet snuggliness of Fujieda Miyabi or Hibiki Reine, gone is the stoic Eiki/Taishi look, gone is the moe-moe of Tsubaki Asu. Comic Yuri Hime Rebirth is heralded with violence and darkness... ...there is something so very, very wrong about this that I immediately loved it. ^_^ The whole experience begins immediately on the cover where, buried in the art, begins a short story by Fukami Makoto (writer of Vertigo, which I reviewed a few months ago), illustrated with slightly more blood than, maybe, strictly necessary, by Kazuaki - a tale of girls shooting each other with guns in sexy and pointless ways. It was great, but then, you know I love stories about homicidally violent women. I laughed like a loon at the first page after the color art page, in which we are trained in the proper a...
More About: Manga

Taisho Baseball Girls Anime, Disk 2 (English)
2011-01-12 01:43:00
Taisho Baseball Girls is a story about girls playing baseball. Not just "playing baseball," playing hardball with the boys - and forcing them to take them seriously because they can play the game. This a great anime that makes me smile for any number of reasons. I smiled with admiration at the effort they put in to training in a sport they've come to live and love. I smiled gently when Koume thought she was going to be a movie star, I smiled with nostalgia when they had a pillow fight and I smiled like a wolf when Akiko pitched a mean sinker. I've spoken to a lot of folks recently about the Nanoha franchise and most of us feel that it's a fantastic series wrapped in a layer of pandering. The Nanoha series is, in a nutshell, about a bunch of girls working *really* hard to become the very best at what they do, not holding anything back and indeed becoming some of the best in the world. In Taisho Baseball Girls, the girls will not be among the best, but they still are shown workin...
More About: Anime , Disk , English

Manga no Tsukurikata Manga, Volume 4
2011-01-11 00:26:00
I believe it was during my review of the third volume of Manga no Tsukurikata I kept asking myself "why am I reading this?" Now I've reached the fourth volume and the question has become "what is this manga even about?" This not a rhetorical question, either. Originally, the series was about the successful-despite-her obvious-mediocrity Kawaguchi, a mangaka with no original ideas who decides to use a young woman's affection for her to provide fodder for her Yuri manga - a theme chosen entirely because "it's popular now."  I have never found Kawaguchi even slightly sympathetic. Morishita, the young woman in question, was slightly more sympathetic, but is also kind of clueless and annoying. After you go out with someone for a year and they never want to touch, much less kiss, getting a clue ought to be high priority. Then a third artist enters the ring - Takeda. Takeda is a jerk. She resents and dislikes Morishita and admires Kawaguchi. She steps in as an assistant, but it c...

Licensing Manga - the Miracle, the Message, the Moral of the Story
2011-01-10 15:42:00
???? From time to time, I receive emails asking me how I got started in licensing and publishing manga. Recently, a regular reader here sent me a lovely email asking me, in a nutshell: "How difficult and involved was it? Would you recommend it to others?" Which I wanted to answer as a "Sunday Post" here on Okazu, because we are in an unprecedented age of freedom of communication and publishing is undergoing significant change at a rapid pace. With that in mind, let me tell you a story: A little more than ten years ago, I was becoming very interested in what is now referred to by mostly everyone as "Yuri." There were some groups on UseNET that discussed the Yuri of various series, and a few places where conversation on Yuri in general were being held, but they mostly fell into two kinds: Lesbian Porn and Unlikely Pairings (you know what I mean, right? Totally straight girls draped over one another in one piece of splash art and suddenly they were a couple!) And some of the group...
More About: Story , Miracle , Manga , Licensing , Message

Yuri Network News - January 8, 2011
2011-01-08 19:43:00
Yuri Manga Today's top news comes from YNN correspondent Ushio in France. Another French company, Clair de lune, has licensed Sasamekikoto. Publishing will begin in May. For those of us reading the Japanese-language version, Sasamekikoto, Volume 8 is being released in Japan at the end of February. The second volume of the new Comic Yuri Hime will be available on January 18, so Ichijinsha is sticking with the same publishing schedule as before the merger. ALC Publishing has announced that we are finally moving forward with an omnibus version of Rica 'tte Kanji!? - with our apologies that it's taken so long. It will include the original chapters of Rica 'tte Kanji!?, chapters and original stories from Yuri Monogatari, unpublished work by Rica Takashima and some new material. We're planning a number of different ways to read and purchase the new book, and we don't have a specific timeline yet (Rica and I are also busy with, y'know, life.,) but I'll keep you updated, I promi...
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Yuri Manga: Sayonara Folklore
2011-01-07 00:25:00
You know how it is - you join a club, start a new hobby or take lessons in something, and find that there's a whole freaking mythology attached to it. Rituals, jargon of course, and all these unwritten rules that no one tells you, but you gotta know. In Sayonara Folklore , (??????????) Hayase has gone to this school for years, so she knows that you do *not* touch anyone on Monday, and if you do, there's a little incantation that must be recited. But Mashiro has just transfered in, and does not know these things. Hayase explains that we do not touch on Monday, because not too long ago two girls did - and they fell in love, became lovers and tried to die together. Therefore, if you don't recite the charm, you might fall in love with whomever touched you...and that would be bad. Of course Hayase explains this after Mashiro has touched her...on a Monday. At first Mashiro is amused, then annoyed and finally, frightened by this stupid ritual that forces Hayase to continually reject he...
More About: Manga , Yuri Hime

Yuri Manga: Kono Kutsu Shirimasenka?
2011-01-06 17:32:00
Story A: There is a girl, she likes another girl who likes her. They like each other. The end. As you might expect, there are a *lot* of iterations of Story A in the Yuri Manga world. These stories come in all shapes and sizes...and varying degrees of quality. Kono Kutsu Shirimaskenka? (??????????) is a collection of Story As created by Mizutani Fuka, that ran in Tsubomi magazine. Some are stronger than others, of course, but the collection as a whole stands up as an entertaining read. The title story is one of the few "before Story A even happens" that I feel works. Mismatched shoes lead two women to discover each other. The story ends as they meet for the first time, but in both cases, the characters charm the socks right off you. The poster Chishina creates to get her missing shoe back is worth the price of admission. The next story is an unlikely pairing of a tall, cool elevator woman and a goth loli who rides the elevator. Is there a more perfect story for a young gay pers...

Live Action: Hana no Asuka-gumi NEO
2011-01-04 03:45:00
As we ended, so shall we begin. We ended the year on a Live -action adaptation of a Yuri manga. Sadly for us, Kakera, was not a particularly good adaptation. Happily for us, Hana no Asuka-gumi NEO was an *excellent* adaptation of my favorite obscure manga series ever. A quick synopsis: Kuraku Asuka is a girl who had been bullied in middle school. Brought right to the edge of suicide, she finds purpose in fighting for her life - both literally and figuratively. Through an acquaintance with Onishima Yohko, a sociopath who involves Asuka with the girl-gang underworld of Tokyo, Asuka is reborn as the best fighter in the city. Asuka becomes involved with the underground organization that runs the girl gangs, the Zenchuu Ura, and the leader of that organization, Hibara-sama. After being the second-most powerful person in the Zenchuu Ura, Asuka leaves Hibari and becomes friendly with the "outside Group" in Shinjuku. That "Omoteban" is run by the lovely Hime, and has members with the elem...
More About: Action , Live Action , Gumi

Happy New Year from Yuricon & ALC Publishing
2011-01-03 01:55:00
  Many thanks to Artists ARThomas and Mari Kurisato for their contributions!
More About: New Year , Publishing , Yuricon , Happy , Happy New Year

What Women Want From Comics
2011-01-02 15:24:00
You may have noticed that Marvel, DC and their various imprints have been expressing confusion for some years as to "what women want" from comics. Call it ingenuous or clueless, I know I am not alone in being confused as to why it is just so freaking *hard* for the men in charge of these companies to figure out what women want. So, I thought I would help them. I set up a (completely non-scientific) poll and asked woman who read comics to answer the questions. I had no particular agenda, but there will be inevitable bias, as I am human, with thoughts and experiences of my own. I received 424 completed responses. Here are the questions I asked and the responses I received: 1. When you were young, did you read comic books you bought for yourself? (As opposed to reading your brothers' comics or getting them from a parent or relative.) 1. Yes 286 67.77% 2. No 136 32.23% 2. What kind of comic books did you buy most (Choose One)? 1. Superhero 249  59.86% 2. Romance 7...
More About: Women , Comics

Live-Action Movie: Kakera, A Piece of Our Lives
2011-01-01 16:50:00
Well I just finished watching Kakera, a live-action adaptation of Sakurazawa Erika's Love Vibes manga. In a word, it was abysmal. The original was a short romance between two women, each who have other attachments they need to clear up before they can get together comfortably. The main conflict comes from Mako's discomfort with "being gay," when she is still in a "I'm not gay, I just love you" mindset...and the issue of her boyfriend who feels that he's allowed to leave her, but when she leaves him for another woman, gets angry. You know, pretty normal stuff. If you are interested, you can read my review of the Love Vibes manga from back in 2004. The original ended on a high point, maybe a little idealistically, as Mika and Mako go running off together hand in hand. The movie pretty much squeezes the life out of the original story, and fills the gaps with the movie equivalent of formaldehyde, giving it body without making it look truly alive, and leaving behind an unpleasant ...
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Taisho Baseball Girls Anime, Disk One (English)
2010-12-31 16:26:00
"If you're amused by our lack of experience, that's one thing and I can't do anything about that, but if it's that fact that we're women that amuses you, that I will not sit still for!" If you have ever wanted Japanese women to speak up for themselves, then you really must watch Taisho Baseball Girls . The plot is a simple one. In the beginning of the 20th century, Japan was embracing Western culture with some fervor. Western clothes, sports, vehicles, cuisine took on more than just a new and exotic flavor - they became emblematic of Japan's appearance on the international stage. A young woman, totally dissed by her fiancée', and not at all pleased with his antiquated notion of what a woman's role was supposed to be, decides to fight him on his own turf - the baseball diamond. Akiko decides that she will form and field a baseball team of...shock!...girls!...to combat this grotesque display of sexism. And, slowly, piece by piece, she does. In this, she is joined by her frie...
More About: Anime , Disk , English

Idiots Guide to Bill 156 doujinshi
2010-12-30 17:51:00
Sorry for being absent the last few days, just busy with work and friends. I intend on doing a review later today, but just wanted to do a quick update on Bill 156 and the fallout from this legislation. Anime News Network has an article written and translated into English by Dan Kanemitsu on how the Bill 156 Got Passed. I strongly recommend you read it. It's long, but interesting (and for those of you who are under 25, probably important for you to learn how politics works in the real world.) The article is part of a doujinshi that was being sold this year at Winter Comiket. Dan teamed up with a number of manga artists, including Nogami Takeshi to create An Idiot's Guide to Tokyo's Harmful Books Regulation. The doujinshi is available on Amazon JP . It's a parody of the lawmakers involved, turning them into Fist of the North Star-like hyper heavies, moe girls and BL bishies, all while telling you the scoop in Japanese and English. Which brings me to the point of this post. If ...
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Yuri Manga: Tsubomi, Volume 8
2010-12-28 02:09:00
Since we just did Volume 7, let's jump right into Tsubomi, Volume 8, (???) shall we? "Hoshikawa Ginza Yon-choume" begins with an anniversary. Minato and Otome apparently met two years ago (and I wonder why I thought it was six from the collected volume, but am too lazy to go find it wherever it ended up in secondary storage and figure out what I mis-read.) No surprise to anyone, Otome was, at the time, a badly behaved kid, acting out her frustration with adults in a variety of typical ways. This flashback gives us a chance to see just how far she's come since then. Morinaga Milk's "Himitsu no Recipe" starts off with Wakatsuki's romantic club time with the club president squashed as the previous president shows up. Now studying to be a pasty chef, the former President is clearly admired by Yuuko, and Wakatsuki is not happy about it *at all.* After a fight and making up, Wakatsuki's plans are totally foiled by the President's successful plan to make the club popular. Bwah~wah~...
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Top Ten Yuri of 2010
2010-12-27 15:31:00
My Top Ten Yuri of 2010 is always an odd list. I don't hesitate to include people, series, companies and random things that look shiny. But there is a reason for this. Unlike the  Top Ten Manga and the Top Ten Anime Lists, this list is a look back at the year as a whole. Not just the *whats* that stood out, but the *who* and where. So, here we go, here's my List of Top Shiny Yuri Things of 2010! 10) The editors and publishers of Yuri Hime, Comic High, Tsubomi, Mangatime Kirara (and all of its derivative titles), Nakayoshi, Ciao, Ribon, IKKI, Rakuen Le Paradise, Afternoon, Feel Young, and all the many other magazines that dared run Yuri stories. I know how unglamorous being an editor is. The artists get all the chicks, but the editors labor to make sure that that manuscript makes sense, looks good and gets in on time. And publishers...well no one cares about them, except for when it's time to write a check. But. Look at the list - it's long. It's not one magazine, or a ha...

Yuri Network News - December 25, 2010
2010-12-25 16:37:00
Yuri Doujinshi It's that time of year again! Winter Comiket is just around the corner. This year the hordes will gather at Tokyo Big Sight on December 29-31. For those of you planning on going, (or planning on buying doujinshi from Toranoana, Yahoo JP Auctions or through a buying service afterwards,) here is the Small Call List of Comiket 79 Yuri Doujinshi Circles. Also for folks who plan on attending Fuyu-Comi, I recommend a very silly tool called Twitcomike. It's a Twitter extension that maps circles to their locations, based on their profiles on Twitter. (Many, perhaps most, artists on Twitter add their table at the next event they will attend to their profiles.) You can search by Day, Hall, Table Number, Circle Name, mark circles of interest, follow circles. Click on a table and the circle's profile from the catalog pops up, including their Twitter address. You can download your map as a PDF. Frankly, I'm absolutely in love with this tool. Now I need never feel sad that I...
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Top Ten Yuri Manga of 2010
2010-12-24 05:03:00
As always, writing this list is a struggle. Am I telling you the 10 I liked the most? Including lesser titles because I know you can get a copy? Am I merging English and Japanese titles to fill spaces, or separating them so I can include more? There was a nice pile of manga on my possibles list when all was said and done, so I am going to separate out the English titles, otherwise they'd never appear on the list at all. Which means you're getting a Top 5 in each language. Let me remind you, as I always do, that these lists are *in my opinion* and therefore may not be your opinion. You are most welcome to add items you feel were noteworthy in the comments. Without further ado, here are my Top Yuri Manga Lists for 2010 Top Five Yuri Manga in English 10) Jormungand - Right, the Yuri is barely there, but what there is is openly portrayed for the one-sided (but not rejected or mocked) crush it is. Otherwise, it's a ridiculous story full of guns and chases and people dying - i.e, a...

Maria-sama ga Miteru Manga: Cherry Blossom
2010-12-24 01:22:00
Spring at Lillian brings change. The beloved older classmen leave, moving out of the soft embrace of their Alma Mater to join the real world. New underclassmen arrive, changing everything. In Maria-sama ga Miteru : Cherry Blossom , Nijou Noriko, the unlikely mutt among the purbreds walks into Lillian Academy and fills the hole in Shimako's heart caused by Sei's graduation. Shimako, who once thought she'd leave the Yamayurikai when Sei graduated, is now Rosa Gigantea, but the distance between her and the others has - if anything - increased. Yumi's noticed this and when she consults with the others, learns two surprising -things - Shimako's got secrets that she's hiding and one of them is a first-year student who can make her smile. Yumi also meets and has to cope with the manipulative, selfish and supremely entitled new student Matsudaira Touko, who turns out to have a prior relationship with Sachiko. "Cherry Blossom" follows the tale from Noriko's perspective, as she enters...
More About: Manga

Yuri Manga: Tsubomi, Volume7
2010-12-23 21:48:00
Here we are at Tsubomi, Volume 7, (???) an anthology with 20 stories, many of which are continuing series. I purchased this volume at the same time I bought Volume 8 and, as a result found it much easier to remember/follow several of the stories. And, while the previous volumes of Tsubomi have filled me less than full of glee, I overall was surprised at the quality of what I read. Of note was the silly, but charming "Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep" about two women with the same name, born a day apart from one another, visit the same phone fortune site and, with, in a masterful overuse of handwaves, have the same injury for which they need to same therapy. One version of Kakimoto Imari is a butchy landscaper's assistant (complete with motorcycle) and the other is a very feminine and cute woman. The two are drawn together, first as friends and by the end, maybe more. I'm just charmed by Mizutani Fuuka's work, although I can't put my finger on why. The characters are likable, in a "so ...
More About: Manga

Gatch Gatcha Manga, Volume 8 (English)
2010-12-21 22:41:00
I know it's only Tuesday, but I've been sick the past few days, and so asked Sean to hustle and write me a guest review for today. And he did! So, once again, let's welcome back Guest Reviewer, Sean Gaffney! I've already reviewed Gatcha Gatcha, Volume 8 on my own blog, but since I had  previously done an overview of the series here in September 2008, I  thought that I would come back and dwell a bit on the more Yuri-friendly  aspects of the series as a whole. First, a small digression. A lot of manga have sidebar comments  interspersed throughout the volumes. In the magazine, this is a place where the page was thinner so that an advertisement could be placed. For the volume, the publisher asks the artist to fills those spaces with original material to draw in a reader who may not want to buy something they already read in the pages of, say, Melody magazine. As readers of shoujo manga know, 90% of the time the material is the artist talking about what they ...
More About: Manga , English

Yuri Manga: Blue Friend, Volume1
2010-12-21 02:07:00
Man, was Blue Friend (???????) depressing. Where Nakayoshi's Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi is melodramatic in a Strawberry Panic! kind of way, and Ciao's Waza-ari Kiwami-chan is energetic and positive, Ribon Magazine's contribution to the growth spurt of Yuri in shoujo manga trots out every nasty, tawdry, icky-feeling, angst-making trope it can find. And does it quite well. ^_^; Ayumu is athletic, popular, smart. Misuzu is ostracized, unlovable, broken. Through circumstance, Ayumu find herself defending Misuzu against just about every jerky way school kids have to be mean to each other. And for her troubles, she is rewarded by a kiss from Misuzu. Misuzu, who hates boys, eventually admits that Ayumu - and only Ayumu - can be close to her. But this immediately turns possessive, when Misuzu runs off a boy who wants to become close to Ayumu. Even though it ultimately turns out that Misuzu was right and the boy was a jerk, the two cannot get their act together as friends or...whatev...
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Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, Volume 7
2010-10-26 22:46:00
Years ago, when Ranma 1/2 dominated the world of anime/manga - related fanfic, authors quickly discovered something critical about writing comedy. Writing farce was impossibly difficult, as it relied heavily on visual gags. And, if authors took the other road and went all serious with the characters, they instantly encountered roadblocks like sustainable characterization and the drama of emotions. Everyone knows that tragedy is easy, comedy is hard. It is especially hard when the comedy morphs into a drama, and things that were funny when it was a comedy now have to be integrated into a serious plotline. Someone switching genders as a comedy might be a hoot and a half...as a serious character point...do you go all maudlin and self-retrospective with them? Or do you deal with everyone else's reactions? Or do you delve into the emotional life of not knowing who or what you are? All of which brings us to Sasamekikoto, Volume 7. As I mentioned in my review of Strawberry Panic!, there...
More About: Manga

Yuri Manga: Hirari, Volume 2
2010-10-24 21:17:00
Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 2 has some good qualities and some less good ones. Many of the stories don't actually seem to be "Yuri" at all. Two girls meet and, um...they meet. But there are others that are less preliminary and a few even go so far as to lightly touch upon some semblance of emotion. The best of the bunch, in that regard, was "Yubisaki no Koe," by Maeda Tomo. Not because it was a good story, per se, but unlike many of the other stories in the collection, where we have to just assume that the two girls are interested in one another *because* this is a Yuri anthology, there was a palpable feeling of tension between the two characters. Also, "Nanami-sempai to Arisa-chan," while I didn't like the art at all, did a shift halfway along that created some unresolved (and kind of unresolvable) sexual tension. When Arisa learns that her interest in one upperclassman is hopelessly unrequited, she simultaneously learns that what she thought was a rivalry with another uppe...
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Yuri Network News - October 23, 2010
2010-10-24 02:03:00
 Quick note, there will be no report next weekend (MangaNEXT) or the weekend after (I'll be standing in line to see the Marimite movie.) All other things being equal, I'll probably be tweeting my experiences, rather than blogging. You can find me at Yuricon on Twitter and here's to me figuring out how to do that on a Japanese cell-phone. No news report possibly even the weekend after that, as I'll be massively jet-lagged. Just FYI. If any major news breaks, I'll be sure to report it. *** Yuri Manga YNN Correspondent Sean Gaffney shares with us the news that Girls High creator Oshima Towa has a new series coming up. It's got the clever title Joshikou Girls Love and is running in Comic Sumomo magazine from Futabasha. (Sorry it took me so long to post this, Sean.) YNN Correspondent Rachel gleefully announces that France is reissuing the Rose of Versailles manga in three volumes, starting in January 2011. I've linked to the entry on Amazon.FR for our French-speaking fan...
More About: News , Network , Maria-sama ga Miteru

Yuri Manga: Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi
2010-10-24 01:15:00
I remember the moment I first discovered desire in shoujo manga. I was reading Sailor Moon, raw, with very little Japanese comprehension, accompanied by a script translation created by a dedicated fan. There was Usagi, our charmingly naive and sweet heroine, in bed, wearing Mamoru's shirt...and nothing else. It wasn't explicit, but the art clearly indicated "nothing else." And it was the morning after. Mamoru was likewise at least partially unclothed. It was obvious to anyone who could see, that they had spent the evening together and had slept together. Usagi was, at that point in the story, about 16. Objectively speaking this is not an inappropriate age for sex. But Sailor Moon ran in Nakayoshi, which was for girls 11-14. It kind of made my head explode a little. Desire, as I once wrote in a story, is a terrible thing. It is *the* thing that irrevocably destroys innocence. Kissing, hand holding, riding off into the sunset - these are totally innocent expressions of love and m...
More About: Manga , Mori

Erica's MangaNEXT Schedule of Goodness
2010-10-22 01:41:00
MangaNEXT, the only all-manga convention will be held on October 29-31 in East Brunswick, NJ. (Visit the website for location, registration, etc.) Sean Gaffney and I will be doing a Yuri Panel on Saturday, Oct. 30 at 7PM. I will be giving some stuff away, because I have stuff and would like to give it away. :-) I'll also be running panels How to Become a Manga Expert on Friday at 3:30 and How (Not) to Talk to a Publisher on Sunday at 11:30 AM. The "Manga Expert" Panel will include a discussion of critical reading of manga (something we've discussed here before) and how to do research. I'm a professional researcher. I know what I'm talking about in regards to this one thing. ^_^ If you are interested in being part of "The Industry" and want to know what it takes to be an illustrator, graphic novelist, how to make it in Japan or the US, DO come to MangaNEXT! It's got great guests, and lots of "how to" stuff going on. Lea Hernandez will be teaching a Manga Boot Camp and dishin...
More About: Events , Schedule

Light Novel: R.O.D., Volume 5
2010-10-20 19:00:00
Read or Die, Volume 5 continues the story from Volume 4. Indeed, it begins the very next day after a giant paper dragon has swum up the Thames river only to be defeated by British Library Agent Yomiko Readman. Dokusensha has upped the ante for the Guttenberg Paper - they have kidnapped the Queen and are demanding the Paper in return. And they demand that Yomiko be the one to make the exchange. Joker decides that Ziggy Stardust, British Library boffin and Faust should create a fake to make the exchange with. Faust disagrees strongly and is put under house arrest as a result. Ziggy also disagrees, but the fake is made. Just before Yomiko leaves to make the exchange, Faust goes out on a "date" with her in the British Museum, where he says that he is troubled, but doesn't say why. In the meantime, author Sumiregawa Nenene is also under house arrest in Yomiko's apartment. Because Yomiko cannot explain what is going on, she simply confines Nenene to her room, sets Wendy to watch her...
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