A batch o' Christmas-themed yuri fan art...

...and some that's generally winter-themed. Here's the batch from two years ago.

Enjoy!

Yes...I'm still shipping these two. lol (Dat suit.)

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Awwww.

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I don't see any yuri in K-ON aside from Mugi, but here's something cute for the Mio x Ritsu shippers.

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Not sure which of these I like more. The first one's more sweet, but the second one is incredibly pretty.

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Some Christmas cheer from the series that became 2011's juggernaut for yuri fans (and everyone else).

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A White Rose-heavy batch from Marimite. I especially like the last one.

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Squee! Nanoha x Fate! The third one is my favorite.

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Kyaaa! Haruka x Michiru! ^_^ Plus, the Inner Senshi.

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Yumi and Momo = still my favorite pairing in Saki.

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D'awww, Sumi and Ushio.

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Last but not least, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou's Kokone and Alpha.

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Bet you can't tell what this is about: Girl x Girl x Boy

Fuuka likes Riri, Riri likes Itta, and Itta likes Fuuka.

In grade school, Riri protected Fuuka from bullies, including Itta, and Fuuka's gratitude turned into a crush. Now in high school, Itta's a decent guy- decent enough to not be homophobic after he finds out about Fuuka's feelings for Riri. (Even if he is stupid enough to be like, "So will you give me a chance?" after he sees Riri break off her and Fuuka's more-than-friends-but-less-than-lovers relationship.) They all agree to spend time together as a group until two of them pair off. After Riri takes the three of them to a love hotel to scare Fuuka away, she admits to Itta that she always loved Fuuka, but is scared of what their future as a couple would be like. After seeing a special on TV showing a lesbian couple that gave up their families' support to be together, Riri pretended to like Itta because she thought it would make Fuuka give up on her, which she thought would be better for both of them.

After the love hotel incident, the three of them stop speaking to each other. Fuuka cuts her hair short and forces herself to date an obnoxious male sempai. Itta evolves from decent to awesome by trying to bring Fuuka and Riri together, so that Fuuka can be happy.

Fuuka breaks up with the obnoxious sempai, who overhears Fuuka and Itta talking about Fuuka's feelings for Riri. He barges into Fuuka, Riri, and Itta's classroom to out Fuuka and Riri, but Fuuka stops him and talks him out of it, proving that she isn't as weak as Riri thought. Fuuka, Riri, and Itta all make up, and Riri and Fuuka end up as a happy couple with Itta as a supportive friend. The author points out that Fuuka and Riri will always be together and friends with Itta, and Itta will get a cute girlfriend in college.

I like this story quite a bit. There's a certain sincerity...or something, that makes it a heart-squeezing read. I like how all of the characters grow (Riri's love winning over her fear, Fuuka's gratitude for protection changing into real love and a willingness to protect Riri herself, and Itta's selfishness changing to selflessness) and how believable they feel as high schoolers caught in a wonky love situation. And, of course, I think the ending's great. lol GirlxGirlxBoy isn't ambitious, but it's a sweet little romantic drama that treats all of its characters- even the losers- well.

Story: Fuuka likes Riri. Riri likes Fuuka. Itta evolves from a roadblock to a supportive friend. The end. B+
Art: Expressive, but kind of sketchy. B-
Overall: A-

A couple of yuri shorts by Shimura Takako: Dounika Naru Hibi volume 2

Dounika Naru Hibi is a two volume collection of one-shots focusing on relationships. Most of the stories are het, but there's also some yaoi in volume 1 and, in two chapters of volume 2, yuri.

In chapter 5, a woman named "Ecchan" attends the wedding of Yuri, the woman she dated in high school. She slips out of the reception to cry and runs into Aya, who loved Yuri in college. They hook up and start dating, and realize that even though Yuri was a jerk to both of them, it's a good thing they met her because they wouldn't know each other otherwise.

Chapter 9 is about a woman named Shino who is in love with her roommate Tamiko. Tamiko catches Shino trying to kiss her when she's asleep, and sleeps with Shino. Shino thinks that it's too good to be true- a whim that Tamiko will regret or change her mind about- so she moves out. Tamiko shows up at Shino's new place and convinces Shino to let her move in.

Shimura Takako is at her best in her longer stories, but her Dounika Naru Hibi one-shots are still great. (Most of them, at least.) I like their general focus on adults and their refreshingly mature, matter-of-fact approach to sexuality. The yuri chapters also make some nods to yuri conventions that make them feel, like Moonlight Flowers and Morishima Akiko's one-shot "Princess of the Stars" in Ruri-iro no Yume, like sequels to the girls' school stories that yuri is most famous for. Ecchan, Shino, and Yuri all attended girls' schools and Yuri was the classic mega-popular girls' school "Prince."

The themes in Dounika Naru Hibi's yuri chapters provide an interesting compliment to some of the themes Shimura has been exploring in in Aoi Hana (besides the love-at-a-girls'-school motif, you have: what it's like to recover from a love that went down in flames, and not being sure if your feelings and the feelings of the person you're in love with are on the same level), but they're great on their own as glimpses of idealistic relationship drama between realistic adults.

Story: B+
Art: A-
Overall: A-

Yay, yuri Ladies Comics!: Works

I love the stories from Mist, a yuri Ladies Comics magazine that's out of print. By virtue of being Ladies Comics, Mist's stories aren't high art, but I love their... classic josei-ness, if you will. In addition to that and Mist's focus on older women, I like how its couples are always in love, at least by the end of each story. Tangent: Someone I met in Tokyo this past summer raved about how a Ladies Comics magazine that's still being published, Comic Aurora, has some good lesbian content. She showed off the shelf of Comic Aurora issues she'd collected as proof that it's worth reading. When I bought and skimmed an issue, there was no yuri... just, like, rape and creepy old businessmen. The woman who raved about it seemed earnest, but I can only rationalize her recommendation as a bad practical joke. The point of this rambling is that I enjoyed Mist before that, but after the "What the hell was that?" of Comic Aurora, Mist feels like the warm, fuzzy hug of Ladies Comics. And that's what most of Tadeno Eriko's Works features- romantic stories from Mist- along with an excellent story from Phryne, a lesbian magazine that's also out of print.

"My Sister's Wedding" ("Imouto no Kekkonshiki"), the Phryne story, is about Emi, who attends her younger sister Yuka's wedding. Her girlfriend Takako isn't able to come along for obvious reasons, and her mom and other relatives are predictably bugging her about getting married herself, since she's 30. When she calls Takako after the ceremony, Takako proposes. Emi comes out to her mom, who...well, is coming around by the the end. Yuka already knows, and is cool with it. This is my favorite story in this collection.

"I Like You the Way You Are" ("Sugao no Mama de") is about Suzu, a university student whose kouhai in the drama club, Misato, fell in love with her in high school. Suzu dated another girl in high school, her sempai Yasuko, but Yasuko left her to get married after they graduated. Now Suzu has a beard boyfriend. Misato confesses her feelings to Suzu, but Suzu rejects her. Thankfully, Suzu realizes that she's being stupid, breaks up with her boyfriend, and admits that she likes Misato. Happily-Ever-After for them. ^_^

The next two chapters, "My Sweet One" ("Watashi no Kawaii Hito") and "Gentle Loving" ("Yasashiku Aishite"), focus on one couple. Mizuho is the business development section chief for her company. She divorced her husband after falling for a superior...who got married and left the company. Still, she doesn't regret it. ("I owe the freedom I live in today to it.") She falls for her new kouhai at the company, Yuka, but puts distance between them after gossip that Mizuho's a lesbian starts floating around. She and Yuka get together anyway. "Gentle Loving" is about Mizuho and Yuka working out their problems caused by the different priorities they put on work (Mizuho's priority) vs relationship time (Yuka's). As in all Mist stories, there is sex- but it's a bonus in this book's case, not the focus. (Not that there can't be good examples of PWP.) I love how this chapter shows that Mizuho has other queer friends, who she gets relationship advice from. Happily-Ever-After, of course. ^_^

There are also some 4-koma following the characters from "My Sweet One" and "Gentle Loving," a few pages of gag comics focusing on different characters, a nice commentary by Tadeno Eriko addressed to the people reading the American-published version of her work, including commentary on how the yuri genre has evolved since she started drawing yuri, and a "Note on the Cover Picture" that made me go "Awww." If you like happy yuri stories about adults, you should really check out Tadeno Eriko's work.

Story: "My Sister's Wedding" = A, "Gentle Loving" & "My Sweet One" = A-, "I Like You the Way You Are" = B+
Art: B+
Overall: A-

Tadeno Eriko now goes by the name Mizuki Monica (Twitter account here) and publishes manga as part of a circle online (link nsfw). Tadeno/Mizuki's circle also uploaded some manga onto YouTube. She used to make print doujinshi under the circle name "Office Mono."

Some good yuri-ish horror: Red Garden episodes 1-12

This is my first time watching Red Garden.

So far, it's a fun mix of supernatural horror and mystery, with a little yuri thrown in.

It takes place in New York City, where the corpse of a girl named Lise is found one morning in a park. Was it a suicide? A murder? The police aren't sure.

Four girls who were friends with Lise- but not with each other, by virtue of being in different cliques- wake up not remembering what happened the night before. You have: Rose, the timid one who looks after her two younger siblings since her mom is in the hospital and her dad left them; Rachel, the party girl; Claire, the tomboyish one from a hardscrabble background who lives by herself; and soft-spoken Kate, the honor student who's on the All-Powerful Student Council called Grace and, by virtue of being the closest to Lise, is the closest thing to a main character that this story has. They sound like complete stereotypes, but this series does a very good job of humanizing them beyond that- largely through their reactions to Lise's death and what happens next.

That night, they each follow butterflies that only they can see to a place where two people in black suits, a woman named Lula and a man named JC, are waiting for them. Lula tells the girls that they died last night, like Lise, but they have new bodies. (Their original bodies are being stored elsewhere.) And that man with the blank eyes and fangs who's hurtling toward them on all fours? He needs to die if they want to live. Every night, they have to wait for Lula to call them if she needs them to kill more beast men.

Of course, Claire eventually has a crisis of conscience when one of their targets is someone she saw when he was normal. Kate's older sister's fiancee Emilio has a crisis of conscience because he's part of the family that caused the girls' deaths (as well as those of numerous other girls), and wants their new bodies as a...sort of solution to whatever causes members of his family to become insane and beast-like. But Kate, Claire, Rachel, and Rose don't know most of that yet. They spend most of this stretch of episodes adjusting to everything that changed after they died. Even with its Gantz-like premise and abundance of bad science, this series is grounded by its protagonists, who gel together surprisingly well as a group. And refreshingly, there's zero fan service.

Yuri? The Student Council President Paula is quietly but obviously in love with Kate. She repeatedly goes out of her way to keep Kate from being stripped of her student council position (and its incredible perks) when Kate starts slipping in her duties because of... you know, finding out she's dead and having to kill beast men at night. I'm looking forward to seeing Paula's confession to Kate later, which sounds like it's handled really well.

The first half of Red Garden is build-up, but it's entertaining so far. There are a lot of unanswered questions, but this series seems intelligent enough to resolve them well in the next half.

No ratings until my final review.

Hiatus this week

I won't be posting anything this weekend, because I'm home for an all-too-brief vacation and don't want to cut into what time I have here more than necessary. (e.g. For school work.) I'm sorry about the abruptness. Thanks for your patience!

Unrelated, but here's some cute fan art.

Yes, I am looking forward to Seven Seas' release of Girl Friends. ^_^ I'm really happy to see something A) yuri-centric (Cardcaptor Sakura is excellent for what it's supposed to be- a magical girl series- but it will never satisfy me as a yuri fan) and B) really honest-to-goodness good (I really enjoy Strawberry Panic! for its fun, knowingly deep-as-a-teaspoon trashiness, but can't honestly call it good) being published in English. Definitely getting it when it comes out.

More Shimura Takako Goodness: the Hourou Musuko anime

This series was a joy to watch... and re-watch. Even though I was initially surprised by its not opening with the beginning of the Hourou Musuko manga's storyline, I think that change was a good move. Like the Aoi Hana anime, the Hourou Musuko anime feels like it was made by people who really respect the source material they're adapting, and that's all that any fan could hope for.

Nitori Shuuichi and Takatsuki Yoshino (who became close friends after each found out that the other is transgender) are entering their first year of middle school with their friendship on the rocks because of a love triangle involving their friend Chiba Saori (the first person who recognized that Nitori prefers girls' clothing). Chiba likes Nitori who likes Takatsuki who doesn't like anyone.

Nitori and Takatsuki quickly repair their friendship, and Nitori gets over Takatsuki and starts dating a model named Anna. While Nitori's preference for girls' clothes doesn't bother Anna, it evokes hostility from Nitori's older sister Maho, the only member of Nitori's family who knows. Thankfully, Maho's bark is worse than her bite. She's much more supportive than she likes to think she is. Conversely, Anna breaks up with Nitori after Nitori shows that she really wants to live life as a girl (as opposed to being a boy who dresses in girls' clothes as a hobby he'll eventually tire of) by going to school one day in the girls' uniform.

Predictably, even though no one kicked up a fuss about Takatsuki and the flamboyantly eccentric Chizuru wearing the boys' uniform to school previously, Nitori couldn't reach the school gate without being sent to the principal's office- and then sent home. Nitori's mom doesn't freak out as badly as she might have (Yuki, the transsexual woman who acts as a friend and role model for Nitori and Takatsuki, got disowned by her family), but Nitori's dad deserves the Parent of the Year award for his reaction.

The biggest theme in this show is coming of age, as Nitori and Takatsuki have to deal with (and becoming more capable of dealing with) their bodies changing in ways that they really don't want for obvious reasons. Ironically, Chiba becomes closer to Takatsuki than Nitori because her still-unrequited feelings (compounding her general awkwardness in dealing with people) make it harder for her to comfortably interact with Nitori. By the end, Nitori, Takatsuki, and Chiba are friends as a group again, and the bullying reaction to Nitori wearing girls' clothes to school dies down. (I'm really glad that the bullying Nitori goes through isn't as bad as it would be in real life, although I'm also glad this series acknowledges that worse can happen via Yuki's school background.)

So yeah, great series. Great character interaction and development, freaking gorgeous art, and perfectly cast seiyuu. I thought it was a nice touch that Hatakeyama Kousuke, the seiyuu who plays Nitori, was more or less the same age as Nitori when the series was made. And regarding how yuri-relevant this series is...

This is the hardest part of writing this review- not helped by the fact that there's no way not to directly address it on this blog and my chronic over-thinking of things. Nitori = girl. Nitori likes girls, e.g. Anna. I would say that Nitori's bisexual, since the idea of liking Takatsuki as a boy didn't put a damper on her feelings for him at all. (Being rejected did.) Anna might be also. I will be shocked if she and Nitori don't wind up together in the manga, considering how long she has been set up as The Love Interest. At one point in the manga Nitori even brings Anna to Yuki and her boyfriend Shi-chan's apartment, which feels a lot like a Meet the Parents visit. (Despite my speculation above, whatever they are- bi, gay, straight, queer, pan, unlabeled, etc- doesn't affect my opinion that they're cute together.) She basically dumped Nitori at the end of the anime for being too much of a girl, but later in the manga, she seems to be gradually, gradually gravitating back towards the idea of them having a relationship. At this point, I don't feel like I can label Anna's feelings "yuri" (I don't think she would either), but I can confidently do so for Nitori, just as I wouldn't label Yuki's feelings for Shi-chan "yaoi." And to be completely honest, even though Nitori is a girl and her feelings for other girls are lesbian, I do agree with the idea that as long as she's in a male body, any relationship she has with, say, Anna, isn't straight, but isn't really lesbian either; the queer label makes the most sense to me. I'm convinced that Momo has a crush on Chi-chan also, although I'm much less confident that that will work out. (Or that Momo's even aware of it.) And there you have it. Like the rest of Shimura's work featuring GSM characters, Hourou Musuko has an unambivalent "There is nothing wrong with liking whoever you like" message, which we can all agree on.

Massive over-thinking on my part as a reviewer aside... this series is poignant and brilliant and lovely and you should at least try it.

Story: A
Art: A
Overall: A

This will be my only post this weekend.