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Yuri Anime: Saki, Mid-season review
2009-09-21 23:22:00
Saki, we need to talk. It's nothing bad, really, it's just ... I'll be honest. I wasn't sure that we'd get along at first. You seemed to be too fake-cutesy, with those ridiculous ever-blushing cheeks, but always flashing your legs at me. It was a creepy mixed signal thing that got on my nerves. And Nodoka, always bouncing her big chest like that....I thought, can you both really be so innocent as you're gazing into each other's eyes longingly? But fine, I set that aside. Then you really started taking off. You let your innate abilities show, like you were finally free to be yourself. Sure, I noticed a few things, like the way you suddenly throw your ass into my face, dress up to please the guys in bathing suits, yukata and maid costumes all while you're looking at Nodoka so intensely. It kind of freaks me out. Like, pick one, okay? Can you not be the G-rated version of Girls Gone Wild? But I know that's not really your fault. You just want to get ahead in the world and t...
More About: Anime , Review , Season

Hayate x Blade Manga, Volume 10
2009-09-20 21:00:00
If you have been following Hayate x Blade  (???×????) from the beginning, you are vaguely aware that there is an itch in this series that is not being scratched.  But first, as Volume 10 opens,  there's the persistent and dangerous Ensuu and Mei to deal with. With incredible effort, and the stupidest technique ever (one used in previous volumes but no less silly this time) Ayana and Hayate *finally* bring the bad girls of Tenchi to their knees. Yay Team Us! Woo hoo! From almost the very first volume, we know that Hayate is one of a pair of twins. In fact, her older sister Nagi was the one originally accepted into Tenchi Gakuen, but wasn't able to attend because she was in the hospital. Only a few volumes ago, we were given a glimpse of the elusive Nagi, but that wasn't enough! Nagi needs to be in the story, and soon, I felt. Well, so did Hayashiya, apparently, because Nagi finally arrives to take her place among the sword-bearing student body at Tenchi G...
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Yuri Network News - September 19, 2009
2009-09-19 15:13:00
Yuri Games One of the biggest news items this week is the Sasamekikoto kissing game application for iPhone and iPod touch. It's available with English subtitles and apparently Ushio and you get to practice kissing until her mask dissappears. As you might remember, a Sasamekikoto anime is due out soon, so this is an interesting way to promote it. The game is free to download. Ted the Awesome shared his experience with the app on the Yuricon Mailing List: "Just put two fingers together, put it where you think the lips are behind the mask and gently move the fingers away from each other and than move the away from the screen. The moment your fingers no longer touch the screen is when the 'kiss' is counted for. I scored 100 at least four times and got some bonuses. The more you kiss her, the more her mask becomes transparent. If you're a good kisser throughout, she'll even take the mask off. The more points you score, the more character profiles shots you unlock. It also comes...
More About: News , Network , September , September 19

Yuri Light Novel: Amagami Emmenthal
2009-09-16 23:10:00
Upon reading the back cover of the Light Novel Amagami Emmenthal (??????????), I commented to the wife, "You gotta figure that any story in which the clothing gets credit as a cast member is definitely gonna be *great.*" (I was being sarcastic, in case that doesn't come across well in text.) In the end, the clothes actually *were* a member of the cast, and I could sort of see it being justifiable. But I'm starting with the end, so let me move backwards to the beginning. At Seiran Private Girls School, Kokone and Riko are classmates, roommates and, apparently, soulmates. But their relationship is far darker than that. Riko is a vampire and Kokone is her source of blood. On the other side, the continued pain and scars from Riko's feeding over the years has turned Koko-chan into a masochist, who fetishizes the wounds Riko causes. The story begins with them in middle school then, much like this review, backs up into their first meeting in first grade, then follows them through the ...
More About: Light Novel , Yuri

Needless, Anime and Manga
2009-09-15 23:35:00
A little over a year ago, I began getting Ultra Jump magazine, when Hayate Cross Blade moved to there from its former home. One of the other series in the magazine was the manga Needless and, being the manga omnivore I am, I gave it a try. I picked it up in the middle of a fight between a bunch of girls, whose underwear the reader was shown repeatedly and a buxom woman with evil eyebrows, whose cleavage the reader spent a lot of time looking down. There were two older guys with silly facial hair, a bunch of people in the background and a lot of screaming. Now, about 14 months later, Needless is still in the middle of the very same battle, with the very same characters in the same locations and lots of screaming. So, when the anime was announced, you can bet I had no expectations. And so far, I've been right on with that. :-) In a post-apocalyptic setting, Needless is the name given to people with special powers who spend most of the series yelling and fighting. The story is su...
More About: Manga , Anime , Anime and Manga

Ichiroh Manga, Volume 1 (English)
2009-09-14 21:00:00
When Yuri Network Correspondent Sean G. drew my attention to this manga, he did it in the least appealing way, much as he might have introduced me to a creepy relative. "This is Aunt Claudia. We have to invite her." lol So, while it wasn't high on my list of manga to read, it went onto the list and eventually, onto the pile of things to review. Ichiroh, Volume 1, follows the life of Nanako, a girl who fails to get into college, her friend Akane who shares her fate and friend Shiino who makes it in. These three are surrounded by other one or two joke characters that fill out the cast of this completely typical wackiness-filled 4-koma manga. As with most 4-panel strips, the comedy relies on goofy, abnormally extreme behaviors, puns, and exasperation on the part of the non-comic characters. If you've read any other 4-panel, you've read this one. In fact, other than the translation being in actual fluent English , it's not that different from Lucky Star. There was one thing that ...
More About: Manga

Yuri Network News - September 12, 2009
2009-09-12 20:27:00
Lots of Yuri News this week! Yuri Anime Animevice reported that He is My Master is going to be showing on Anime Network Online and out on DVD, and Ultraviolet 044 (yes, *that* Ultraviolet - based on the crap movie, and wasting starring the voice talents of Paku Romi) will be getting a US DVD release. If you aren't following Animevice on Facebook or Twitter or on the site directly, you're missing some extremely otaku-tastic news, btw. Highly recommended. Aoi Hana on Crunchyroll has ended for those of us who purchased subscriptions, and will end next week for the remainder of viewers. I cannot express how much I liked it. Yes, there were a few changes from the manga - in every case for the better, I thought. From beginning to end it is one of the best anime I've seen in the last few years and an exceptional example of schoolgirl romance Yuri. The 11 episodes covered three volumes of manga and, as of yet, there are only 4 volumes out so it may be some time before we learn if ther...
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Yuri Manga: Hakodate Youjin Buraijou Himegami, Volume 5
2009-09-12 18:22:00
Demons, women, women demons and women who fight demons. It's a much of a muchness in Hakodate Youjin Buraijou Himegami, Volume 5 (???????????). Having defeated the evil, demony, well-endowed, cross-dressing French proprietor of the Black Widow brothel, Himeka has been indulging in some well-deserved snuggling with Hyou, despite Hyou's reluctance. Once the marks of her curse recede, Hyou uses that as an excuse to escape from Himeka's clutches. (What a maroon, as Bugs would say. Himeka's also well-endowed with full lips and soft skin. DUH, Hyou.) Himeka is making no bones about her interest in Hyou. We'll just have to imagine that she wears the girl down eventually. In a long, drawn out bathing scene (where we see Hyou, Himeka and her Himegami sisters Ranka and Aika - but not Kirika - naked, without seeing anything at all, which is kind of an art in itself, I think) we learn that Hyou's "miburo," the marks on her back that indicate the presence of the Youjin, the power that fo...
More About: Manga , Yuri

"Lesbian" Comic: Peanut Butter, Volume 3 (English)
2009-09-11 02:37:00
Let's talk porn. It's not at all true that everyone knows porn when they see it. That's part of the meaning of the "L" in LFB. There are a lot of people who don't see any difference in say, true romance, and stalking or rape. Not just in straight porn, either. These themes are very very common in, oh, say, Yaoi/BL and "lesbian" porn for guys. Peanut Butter is American porn. It reads like a cross between a "true" letters to one of those porn mags that were kept under the counter of the Somerset Farms and only sold to cops and really sad looking guys, and one of those adult novels sold by Coles, when that chain inhabited all the malls of America. (If you don't remember either of these things, you are 1) too young to read Peanut Butter and 2) have missed *nothing,* except a few laughs at the bad writing in both.) It ostensibly is the diary of a severely out-of-proportion girl named Molly in her first semester at college surrounded by severely out-of-proportion other women and...
More About: Comic , Lesbian , English

Yuri Manga: Linkage
2009-09-09 18:00:00
"Do you remember, the moment your love first began?" Thus begins Linkage , the collection of Yuri Hime stories by Kurata Uso. These stories are linked only by their exploration of that one moment, when two people realize that they share the same feelings as one another. Two office workers who misunderstand their importance to one another, a young flutist and the woman who loves her, a rebellious schoolgirl who falls for a blind girl, two sisters who have always been close, and an AI researcher and her creation. None of these really has any 'link' to one another. The links are forged between the women in the relationships, and between them and us as we watch their love blossom into something real. There's little here that stands above and beyond the Typical "Story A," really, except that that characters are well drawn and well conceived. Despite the fact that only one of them even acknowledges the difficulty of the admission of loving another woman, these stories are pretty dar...
More About: Manga

Click Manhwa, Volume 3 (English)
2009-09-07 23:17:00
It's a full-on "stress about your gender" a-thon in Click , Volume 3. Joonha, now trapped permanently in a woman's body, is not one whit less gynophobic than she was a a guy. Men's bodies, she says, "sure are strong and beautiful," while women's bodies are "impossible to move around in and annoying as hell." Yep, you sure gotta like Joonha, especially if you're into whining and self-loathing. And then there's Heewon Jun who, in frustration at her unresolved love for Joonha, has taken to being the meanest, most violent, crude girl she can be. She smokes, she uses physical violence and she curses up a storm. And she's brought to a screeching halt when her friend from her former school points out the obvious and tells her that the guy she's in love with...is a woman. Obviously. Duh. I mean, no guy would wear a skirt, right? It could be fun and Yuri-ish if she decides she doesn't care. I foresee "funny" sexual embarrassment. Then there's Joonha's actual real love of her liv...
More About: English , Volume 3

Yuri Manga: Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, Volume 6 (English)
2009-09-06 22:39:00
In Volume 6 of Tetragrammaton Labyrinth , what was always implicit becomes finally explicit. As Angela, Meg and their allies face the evil, insane and powerful Gilles de Rais, and find that their own power comes up short against his, he raises the issue that has been the leitmotif of this entire series. Killing the living, raising the dead and stealing souls, he attests, is not for personal power. No, he commits heinous acts of brutality for *love.* It will come as no suprise that this fails to convince Angela to sympathize, but it brings up the obvious. De Rais asks Angela if she has anyone to love - truly love - give up her life for love. Well duh, dude. The final acts play out exactly as one expects. The good guys peel off one at a time to fight the bad guys, so we can be sad at our losses and the final confrontation has reversals and lots of screaming and blood and severed limbs. And, the ultimate sacrifice, as Angela gives up everything to keep Meg at her side. In the fina...
More About: Manga , English , Yuri

Yuri Network News - September 5, 2009
2009-09-05 19:46:00
So much great Yuri news this week!Yuri AnimeNovember is going to be a bang-up month for Yuri fans, with Sasamekikoto in Japan and El Cazador here, and now we have yet another thing to look forward to: Arca Jeth (and many other people!) want you to know that Sentai Filmworks announces that they'll be releasing Blue Drop in November as well. It'll be coming out as a season box set, for a reasonable price. Can't ask for better. :-)***Yuri MangaYNN correspondent Sean G. is pleased to note that the new Udon Press editions of the Silent Mobius manga has begun. Volume 1 is out, and full of Rally Cheyenne goodness.And in case you hadn't heard the news, Dark Horse will be putting out a Cardcaptor Sakura and Magic Knight Rayearth in omnibus editions.Also in November, Sylwia says that the Comix Grrrlz website is publishing their first Polish lesbian comic book anthology. Their project is not concentrated on manga style arts. "We want to publish a book contains different art styles and diff...
More About: News , Network , September , September 5

Aoi Shiro Manga, Volume 2
2009-09-04 02:01:00
In the Jive edition of Aoi Shiro , the focus is squarely on the game characters, as opposed to Ichinjisha's Yuri Hime edition of the story, in which the focus was on two almost irrelevant characters and was so tepidly Yuri that it failed to capture my interest. In Volume 2 of the Jive version of Aoi Shiro, Yuri takes a back seat to Action and Mystery and other capitalized selling points.Shouko, captain of the kendo club, is drawn into an ever-deepening mystery regarding Nami, the child she found on the beach. Her own childhood memories, Nami's unusual dress, and a giant Bull-Demon all collide in what probably makes a pretty good game and makes a reasonably good manga. This is all made even more interesting by a suit-wearing Onee-san type from Shouko's past and a guardian with one good eye-type from I have no idea whose past. And Nami transforms into someone older and less whiny.It's all full of shiny action and stuff. I'd go so far as to say it wouldn't make a bad anime, probab...
More About: Manga

Hidamari Sketch Manga, Volume 4
2009-09-02 21:00:00
It's Guest Review Wednesday once again on Okazu and once again, it is my sincere pleasure to welcome George R. for this week's guest review!The fourth volume of Aoki Ume's Hidamari Sketch manga (????????) came out in Japan this past January. I was a bit slow in picking it up, but am glad that I did. It doesn't have a deep involved plot or more than hints of Yuri, but then again Hidamari Sketch never has. If you've likedthe previous manga, light novels, or anime, you'll probably enjoy this as well.Ume-sensei has a strong cast of characters already and we can again enjoy the amusement in their daily lives. But she doesn't make them carry the entire load in this character-driven manga. The first extra we meet is Yuzawa Arisa, a senior art major, who is the only one left in the art room to answer Yuno's phone which she forgot there. She can't resist Yuno's cuteness and has her pose for a sketch.The end of the school year brings exams and Yuno does poorly enough to need to take...
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Yuri Manga: Tenbin ha Hana to Asobu, Volume 1
2009-09-01 22:03:00
In Volume 1 of Tenbin ha Hana to Asobu (???????), Yohko is a transfer student into the elite Lotus Girls High School. She's tremendously energetic and, it turns out, athletic, but she's not clueless or clumsy. She's just not elegant. Certainly, not as elegant as Shuu, the lavender-haired beauty who takes Yohko on a tour of the school. Upon meeting Shuu, Yohko's reaction is rather unusual - she claims to smell blood and asks Shuu if she's hurt. No, Shuu answers, but looks like there's something more to behind it. Shuu shows Yohko around, but after hours Yohko realizes she's forgotten something, and runs off to the the infirmary where she comes in on Shuu apparently drinking the blood from the school doctor's neck. The school doctor confirms what Yohko thinks she just saw - Shuu is a vampire. Not only is she a vampire, but at the moment she is genderless. Depending on whether she drinks more male or female blood, when she turns 18 she will become male or female.Yohko promises ...
More About: Manga , Yuri

Yuri Manga: Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan, Volume 1
2009-08-31 21:25:00
At last.In a small, friendly town, down at the end of the main street, in a spot just by the edge of the park, is a shop where you can sit and relax and have a cup of excellent tea. It's called the Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan, The Amber Teahouse. This volume tells the story of this store and the people who make it so wonderful.The store owner is Seriho, a sweet, somewhat helpless woman. Luckily for her, she is assisted in the day-to-day operations of the shop by one very intelligent young lady, Sarasa. Sarasa, it is soon apparent, has a second agenda. It is not just the tea shop she loves, but the tea shop's owner.This first collected volume follows Sarasa and Seriho as they wrangle with the complexities of running the tea shop and with their feelings for each other. The story of how they met, originally told in the second [es] Eternal Sisters anthology is gathered here, as is the fateful story in which Sarasa and her friends forever change the destiny of the Amber Teahouse with a Ta...
More About: Manga , Yuri Hime , Volume , Yuri

Yuri Network News - August 29, 2009
2009-08-29 21:01:00
As the endlessy rainy days of summer (here, at least) draw to a close, we look at bright sunny days of Yuri !Yuri Magazine News Based on the number of magazines that are covering Yuri and GL, I think we can say that Yuri is just about the new Black. There was Davinci last week and this week:YNN Correspondent Katherine reports that the September 2009 issue of Manga Erotics F is going to be a "special edition" Aoi Hana issue with some bonus Aoi Hana content by Shimura-sensei! Plus, according to the Aoi Hana website Goods Page, an Aoi Hana official guidebook will be coming out in September. The street date is September 4, but I don't see an entry on Amazon JP for it yet.George R. also wants you to know that the September issue of Newtype has an 8-page article on "Girls x Girls!" about how relationships between girls are now the rage in anime. (Now!?!) He says "They start with K-On! pointing out that it led the "Girls Anime Movement" in '09, but that this century has seen an unpredicted...
More About: Network , August

Lucky Star Manga, Volume 1 (English)
2009-08-28 18:58:00
Very Important Disclaimer: Because of the popularity of this anime series and the level of Fandelusion engaged in by Fans of the series, I want to make this very clear up front. I do not hate Lucky Star . I have watched a total of about 30 seconds of one episode. I have nothing to compare this manga to - I may in fact be the only person to review this manga who has never seen the anime. Today's review is *only* about the manga, with no bias at all in relation to the anime. Please do not accuse me of anything other than what I am doing - reading this manga and taking it at face value as itself. Thank you for your understanding. ;-)Lucky Star , Volume 1 is a 4-koma comic about a bunch of simplistically rendered high school girls. There is, approximately, one joke for every two characters, none of which get that much funnier as the book goes one.The main character, Konata, is a hardcore otaku. And...that's about it. She lives with her Dad, who is also otaku and the two of them live a b...
More About: Manga , English

Yuri Light Novel: Otome ha Hana ni Koi wo Suru
2009-08-28 03:37:00
If Strawberry Panic didn't exist we'd have to invent it. More importantly, now that it does, Ichijinsha had to re-invent it. And so they do in Shiritsu Katorea Gakuen: Otome ha Hana ni Koi wo Suru ( ???????? ?????????) in which cute, energetic outsider Hina meets, falls in love with and ultimately gets together with the Prince of the school.In the typical LFB version of "Story A," the cute, clueless, clumsy, energetic outsider comes into a old, tradition-steeped private school for girls and bumbles around like a moron. For some reason this behavior is considered cute, and the star of the school is captivated by this. In a series of service-y almost-kisses, the characters torture themselves by not actually getting together and in the end share a chaste kiss - if we're lucky.In this version Hina, the cute, energetic outsider makes it into the elite St. Cattelya school. (Catellya is a kind of orchid.) Hina does run around the school lost in the first scene, but after that, she cease...
More About: Light , Light Novel , Yuri

New Anime Season Summer 2009: Canaan
2009-08-26 21:00:00
TYPE-MOON and I are not mortal enemies or anything. It's not like I hate their work, nor do I seek it out. I read Gunslinger Girl when I was reading Dengeki Daioh, but was never really grabbed by it. Nor was Fate/Stay Night created for me. I'm not a gamer at all and the anime was based on a game I will never play. They aren't staying up night worrying what I think and I'm not staying up nights thinking about them. :-)But as you know, I *do* like hypercompetent women with guns, so when I heard about Canaan , it immediately went onto my "to-watch" list. And I have not been disappointed at all.In short, Canaan is a live action series done as an anime. War has carved a swath of destruction through multiple lives in this series. Loss of lives, of self, of their past, of their future, friends, family, whole villages have been destroyed. At the center of the battle is a virulent virus, and two women with inhuman skills that share a name... Canaan.The linchpin of this series is a Japanes...
More About: Summer , Anime , Season

Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 17 (Part 2)
2009-08-24 21:00:00
The second half of Volume 17 of Yuri Hime (???????) starts off with another very doujinshi-style story. Which makes me wonder...why do I think of them this way? Probably because i first encountered them when I began collecting original Yuri doujinshi. These stories that I think of as doujinshi stories are almost always high school settings, almost always kind of imperfect, good-but-amateur-ish art and almost always about those first steps to admitting that the characters are in love. They end with the moment that both characters acknowledge that they feel the same way about one another. Rarely do they go much further than that, but I do tend to like it when the stories do. Kimochi no Katachi (originally published as the Tact series) by Sakuraike was one of those series, Volume 1 and Volume 2, but then spent more time looking back before Satsuki met Kino than forward.In any case, in "Watashi no Kawaii Hito" Ika met and Sempai a while ago and, after Sempai confessed to her, they've b...
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Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 17 (Part 1)
2009-08-23 23:29:00
Welcome to Volume 17 of Yuri Hime (???????), which was both very good and very bad - sometimes at the same time.The cover story, and new series by Eiki Eiki and Zaou Taisho is...really frustrating. It's the 22nd century, all the men are dead and women have, for some reason, reinvented hesterosexist society for themselves. Women are either "Adam"s who play the male role in a relationship or "Eve"s who are the female role. In effect, the entirety of human society has become Takarazuka. The protagonist of this story, Aoi, is an "Adam," attending an "Adam's" private school. The number one rule of this school is that Adams MAY NOT have relationships with one another - only with Eves. Not only is this ridiculous, it does something I am simply unhappy with - it turns this story into a BL/Yaoi story since it is *painfully* obvious that Sakura and Aoi will be the main couple here. I find this vexing. Severely vexing. Frankly, it just pisses me right off. I have nothing against BL. I unders...
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Yuri Network News - August 22, 2009
2009-08-23 14:29:00
Well, the results of the YNN logo contest are in and yes, I was going to let you vote but when it came time, I decided I wanted to make sure the one I liked best won. lol And then, I couldn't decide between two of them! So...it's a tie. I'll be switching randomly back and forth between the two.So, officially announcing the winners of the YNN logo contest - congratulations to Lissa Patillo and Mari Kurisato! Lissa's logo captures the soft feminine side of our Yuri Network :Mari's logo nails our hard-boiled side. (Yes, double entendre intended, Duh.)I'm having "correspondent" badges created for all of *you* who write in - you're the Yuri Network. Proudly display your badges on websites, in emails, on your social media profiles, etc.As for our winners, they will each receive their very own Women Make Comics t-shirt, in a style, size and color of their own choosing. The proceeds go to charity, so it's a win-win all around! Many, many thanks to all the folks who sent in an a logo...
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Manken Manga, Volume 2
2009-08-21 21:00:00
In Volume 1 of Manken (???) we learned that the B-team manga club doesn't so much draw manga, as hang out, make first-year member Saki play dress up and, well...fuck around.In Volume 2, there's even more of that. Also, more of the A-team manga club and their goth and loli club president, Kumiko. And...uh, that's pretty much it.Less Yuri. In fact, barely any Yuri. Shiina stops fantasizing about Saki, except as a live model for her fave fetish clothing.If anything, it's more Shiina and Reiko and kind of Shiina and Kumiko, in that Kumiko is very tsundere about her. But it's also kind of hard to tell, because she's tsundere about everything.Ratings:Art - 7Story - 7 Characters - 7Yuri - 1Loser Fan Boy - 3Overall - 7Different volume, same Comiket gags.Tags: Manken
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New Anime Season Summer 2009: Taisho Yakyuu Musume
2009-08-20 21:00:00
You know what the Japanese national sport is, right? Oh, sure, Sumo is usually given the place of honor, but really, Japan is absolutely, passionately crazy in love with...baseball.There are a ton of baseball manga in Japan and Major, a baseball anime/manga franchise, has not one but two anime series on Japanese TV. (One follows the older brother and one follows the younger brother.)It's true that few of the loads of sports anime and manga ever make it over here. There's all sorts of theories why, but I wager it's a pretty simple thing - soccer is not as exotic as ninjas. If American otaku are interested in soccer, they'd play or watch soccer. One of things that appeals about being an otaku is the exotic-ness of the "other." Ninjas are exotic, service is titillating and lacking from teen literature here and Japan is...Japanese. It is ostensibly not America, or Europe or wherever you are from. Soccer is normal. It's right out the window. Baseball is what your /insert baseball-o...
More About: Summer , Anime , Season

Light Novel Maria-sama ga Miteru: Bara no Mille-Feuille, Intro & Part 4, Fi
2009-08-19 21:00:00
Part 4Chapter 4 Yumi felt a bit refreshed after she screamed through the roller coaster, and returned to find Sachiko-sama and Yuuki happily talking to each other. They were a boy-girl pair, but looked nothing like two lovers, and instead looked precisely like a princess and her retainer. The image was a bit demeaning, so she wouldn't mention it to Yuuki.(TL SUKOSHI: In Japanese, the word "kawaisou" is used when describing the image, which is a sort of marginality or demeaning attribute due to "cuteness", or "softness". Editor Erica: I like to think of it as a "poor you" kind of feeling.)After they finished the roller coaster event, it seemed as if the "no connection" and the "on purpose" groups had made up, and somehow the four decided to have lunch together. Most of the restaurants in the park had already passed peak hours for an hour-and-a-half, and two tables which looked as if they could seat two were empty. Even though it was called a restaurant, it was actually like a fast f...
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Light Novel Maria-sama ga Miteru: Bara no Mille-Feuille, Part 3
2009-08-17 21:00:00
Part 3High Tension and Roller CoastersThe morning of the amusement park date was a cloudy one."But you know, there's a zero percent chance of rain."The final examinations, which for so long had been a towering cloud of gray, had finally gone somewhere not to be found, and so her mood had cleared. If she were to think of something as gray again, she would think of the school closing ceremony. She hadn't returned the questionnaire, but because of that she had received a notice today."I've heard that the amusement park is fairly empty during the winter."Her younger brother Yuuki said from behind, as he looked over the weather predictions for the day in the newspaper from the living room."Really?"Both of them were on post-exam vacation, but seeing him up at 7 AM was rare. And seeing that he wasn't in pajamas, she knew he wasn't taking a bathroom break before going back to bed again.In the kitchen, on top of the gas stove, the sounds of a moving frying pan could be heard. Because sh...
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Light Novel Maria-sama ga Miteru: Bara no Mille-Feuille, Part 2
2009-08-16 21:00:00
Part 2Chapter 4To say this was not an adventure story might be understating it. In order to return the princess (Rei-chan) who was swept away by an evil demon safely to this world, you must go, brave Yoshino, with attendant Nana.In order to pull herself together, and bring the story to a climax: at the gates of hell (the front desk), she asked the guardsman (information lady) for the route to Beelzebub's lair (the garden). The guardsman kindly spread out the leaflet and drew on the hotel guide map. With a red pen "this area" or "around here" were marked as being important locations.Of course, with a beaming smile for the two of them, "The garden is beautiful?you might want to take a stroll through it. But? did someone recommend it?" she put the question to them. The truth iTL Sukoshi: they were chasing an Omiai. Though even if their mouths had burst open, there was no way they could have said such a thing.Following the route that had been laid out for them, they had climbed d...
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Light Novel Maria-sama ga Miteru: Bara no Mille-Feuille, Intro & Part 1
2009-08-16 18:47:00
IntroductionRei: I realize parts of this translation will sound stilted or exist only as frozen language, and I apologize. On at least one occasion I have been called, "too rigid" and this is due to the method I use to translate. Having studied translation to some extent in college, I tend to approach my work much as a linguist might: by diagramming and rearranging sentence components again and again until the square peg of Japanese can reasonably fit into the round hole of English (this analogy is something an understatement). That being said, I am not afraid to adapt or interpret the original's content in translation as long as I feel I have done as much as I can to be true to the intent of the piece. Japanese writing, since its inception, has manifested itself on a multiplicity of interlocking layers of form and meaning?the most notorious of which is poetry. Some of those layers cannot be expressed in English, while others can only be explained through translation notes. I...
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