^ Maybe this is a bad place to continue this conversation, I've redirected my response to the anime season thread.

Continuing a conversation from here

...I really have to question that one. They do a lot of comedies, but they tend towards the cynical side, and the serious works tend to be pretty dark

The statement is based on the nuance I place on "gratuity", I guess? A "gratuitous" thing is something capable of rotting your mind... positive or negative gratuity, either way it's gonna detach you from reality. So, many of SHAFT's comedies are cynical, yes, but that doesn't stop them from being funny -- it's not the presence of sad/absurd/self-deprecating things which is positive gratuity, it's making me laugh at (actually, with) it.
(The other thing SHAFT is great at doing aside from absurd comedy is smothering things under a distracting layer of sexuality. It's hard to feel down when you're turned on, lol. Rebellion is kinda a hilarious example of this; I'm being a bit facetious in saying this, but I can't really care about any of the bad shit Homura did if it got her a step closer to gettin' it down with Madoka.)

I can't think of many SHAFT 'serious' works to be honest, Madoka S1 aside. It's actually kind of an anomaly in that regard. (Although I did skip out on this year's Nisekoi and Mekakucity Actors?)

Madoka's ending is really fairly bittersweet, even before Rebellion. Witches don't happen anymore, but people still die just as often and Homura kind of got screwed

The point of Madoka's ending was not about making the world 'ideal' per se, but rather restating + reestablishing the importance of hope (and man, how brilliantly). The real inescapable reality that the world can't be perfect was the origin of the story's conflict in the first place. I couldn't really care about how heavy/brutal a burden Homura was left with because of the strength and power of Madoka's message. (That's positive gratuity for you, lol.) The exact same superbness of staging and craftmanship which made me not give a damn at all about the universe as Homura became a Devil.

Uh, I don't think we have enough Madoka clones to make a blanket statement like that. Particular when the other one made it's form of systemic cruelty clear in the second episode

lol, I recognize it's still a big stretch at this point to draw any of these conclusions. But Genei was such a turd, I wasn't actually talking about the part you're referring to. We found out in episode 2 how shit their magical girl system was for victims. It wasn't until episode 8? or something that they started picking off the magical girls themselves. Incidentally, I dropped the show around that point, but it was actually the victim shit which left me sick, I just stuck with the show for a while to see if they'd fix it.

last edited at Dec 7, 2014 7:32AM

Kinda a weird compilation. Love Koge Masaki's art though, it's just brilliant. Also it was neat to see something from Happy Flame Time again.

Yuuki Yuna strikes me as more grim than Madoka just because with Madoka, I knew from the start (on account of SHAFT and Ume) that whatever Urobochi's reputation said about him, it was impossible for the show to end badly. The fundamental nature of anime is to be an entertainment medium, and the fundamental nature of entertainment is gratuity. When you speak of gratuity, there are two kinds (positive i.e. sex, good feelings + negative i.e. gore, despair, etc.). Urobochi, just like Takahiro (the guy behind Yuuki Yuna) had a reputation for negative gratuity but SHAFT itself has an inescapably positive one.

With Yuuki Yuna, there's nothing actually stopping Takahiro from going as full-despair/gratuitously cruel as he wants except himself and maybe his expectations for sales (contrary to popular misconception, no series in the mahou shoujo genre has ever succeeded by selling despair, Madoka Magica included). It's for the latter reason that I actually predict Yuuki Yuna won't have a grimdark conclusion though.

Personally, I'm okay with calling series like this or Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou Madoka clones because they develop/play on the audience's expectation of a bad ending. The thing is that these later series are so inelegant though. Although Madoka had a brief early period where it played at being a 'normal' magical series, because Urobochi's reputation was so widespread, everybody practically knew from the beginning that things would get depressing (and if they didn't, the early reveal fixed that anyway). Ironically, instead, Madoka's actual writing was carefully balanced to develop a basis/anticipation for a happy/triumphant conclusion, taking the imperfect nature of the world for granted; a deliberate choice by Urobochi searching for a breakthrough in his writing, likely helped by a mindset of adjusting himself out of respect for Ume/SHAFT. So the anticipation in the story was actually directed towards a positive payoff, which was very solidly delivered and thus everybody celebrated (aside from the fact that most SHAFT fans are fans of positive gratuity).

Conversely, what these copycat series have done is over-fixate on Madoka's initial gimmick that "A magical girls' fate is much more terrible than than people conventionally imagine". By delaying/drawing out the revelation of whatever sick cruelty they've invented for their particular mahou shoujo story, they've directed the anticipation of their stories towards "when/how will we see these characters suffer", instead of "when/how will we see these characters survive/self-realize". After wasting screentime/development on stupid/tasteless shit like this, by the time they pull out the 'surprise' happy ending, it has no chance of being as solid/consistent/powerful as Madoka's at all. Predictable result: they're doomed to fade away into obscure mediocrity.

lol, sorry for the :opinions: rant, I guess. As for the series and this 4koma spinoff manga as a whole, I do still like it well enough to enjoy watching it thanks to the Yuuki/Tougo subtext (and Itsuki/Fu I guess). I would actually recommend even the anime to yuri fans, but it is frankly not as good as Madoka (or stuff like Saki/Strike Witches).

Really, that's too bad. Makes me wonder how big the 3DS scene will actually manage to become/how long it will survive considering it seems obvious that Wii U will be the superior option. (Although, 3DS does have the install base advantage, I guess.)

I probably do need to practice a bit, considering I haven't even seen some of the new characters in use. My bro and I used to be really into Melee though (and Brawl, and 64...) so I'm kinda confident in my base ability; I don't really mind losing for a while at the start to be playing against people I actually (somewhat?) know.

Speaking of Smash, if you guys are still playing -- I got up the Wii U version when it came out a couple weeks ago but it will probably sit unplayed for months if I leave it alone (got in a few decent hours in last week 'cause my brother was back in town, but I pretty much can't find the motivation anymore to play console games singleplayer).

When do you guys usually play? I'm assuming the Wii U and 3DS version should be able to hook up if I've got some sort of Wii U friend code so I guess I'll look that up pretty soon... are you guys' codes earlier on in this thread?

Typo in the title of this one (Hakurei Kouma Rally 2010).

Had my ReiMari goggles on for this one. I kinda love these totally random game/competition/tournament-based Touhou doujins with all of the characters together 'cause they often make such great goggling material, even without any focus on romance. One of the benefits of being a yuri Touhou fan, I guess.

last edited at Dec 6, 2014 1:27AM

Kinda... sexy? lol, I'm into that sorta bondage stuff, too bad the story turned into snuff right after. At least they did it too quickly for me to get emotionally attached to the characters which makes it easier not to take the story too seriously.

I like the art, both the understated lewd fanservicey bits and also the sense of the characters' poise/expressions. On that intro spread near the beginning, the way the MC looks so cool but while wearing pigtails was quite interesting. Consider me safely intrigued; I can't really say I approve of the artist's storytelling but I definitely would be interested in reading more of it.

Had me grinning like an idiot. NicoMaki too potent; thanks for more Ooshima Tomo.

As yuri goes, I don't believe the premise/setup necessarily has to be an obstacle considering we've already got the MC as an impersonator. If the girl who was originally supposed to be the 'father' returns at some point, and the family manages to persist/stay in one piece after that ordeal, then I think that would speak to the strengths of their relationships in reality (particularly with the mother).

I will say that I'm rooting for the Mother x Father pair myself. Additionally, I'm pretty fond of the whackiness of the art, which reminds me of Comprehensive Tovarisch. I'm with Nezchan in that the ending of ch. 3 was a downer, but everything else considered feel like the series is doing pretty fine as a whole (for now anyway. It's still early days yet.).

Future chapter spoilers from /u/. I guess I can't say I don't understand people for taking a cautious approach to the material, but I do think the paranaoia/"won't even read it" approach is overblown.

The conversation plus context:

It's going to end het, right?

I doubt so.
Even in later chapters, Hua never shows any kind of romantic interest to the male MC, only to her Queen.
Moreover, the teacher doesn't end up with the brother but got herself a badass girlfriend who saved her from that fatass pervert. They even kissed each other on the lips.

This was kinda just, awesome. Loved Nozomi's perspective on confessions in girls' schools.

Maybe a taaad bit short considering Eli didn't explicitly reciprocate. I don't mind if Jin sticks with original work, but it'd be really interesting to see further doujinshi/derivative stuff.

^ This story is not so dramatic as all of that... although it's true that the characters are struggling against an oppressive system/social injustices (mainly Hua and Ling), one of the key points developed is that they're still human, with weaknesses, personal motivations, and limitations. Although in a lot of ways Hua can indeed be said to be a remarkable character, she is not so exaggerated as for the story to be like a chronicle of her 'destiny' to change the world.

(Recall that the manhua is set in 1996. This means, at the very least, that the story has no intention of disrupting/denying the political system of China up until the present point which we know today.)

Ultimately, if you ask what is the 'point' of the story, up to now I would say it's about kids trying to do the right thing. The Empress is an Empress for refusing to bend to the injustices which she sees before her face. The kids follow her in the limited context of a classroom because they like her and it serves their self interests regarding both benefits and costs. The question of if the arrangement could survive any other environment outside of the classroom is very much up in the air, so the manhua should probably not be looked at as the story of some sort of radical new nation state. Instead, I would suggest looking at it in terms of the individual lives and passions of the characters - the question of what will ultimately come of Hua's fierce vision of her current world.

Congrats on the new assignments. So, it ended up only being two new helpers after all?

Miyuki x Hikari is freakin' hot, lol. For some reason I wasn't really feeling Miyuki x Yuri from the start anyway, maybe you could say Yuri's behaviour is too composed in response to Miyuki's advances. I'm definitely more than happy with how the series is turning out right now.

I'd say put het on the AU/non-canon specials which feature it, but leave it off the main story until/unless confirmation otherwise. Going off of the tags on Batoto, the series is yuri but not romance (which you'd usually see on het series), as endorsed by the scanlator themselves in the comments.

Hehe, Maki on top. This was too damn good.

By the sounds of it, there were some non-Ooshima Tomo stories in the initial anthology? I've yet to import any manga outside of tankoubons, but this just might be a good opportunity.

^ What kind of proxy services might you recommend? I heard that Tora no Ana changed their policy on overseas forwarding only recently, but have up to this point only stuck to services which can deliver directly.

^ Thanks for getting this on here, lol.

Regarding the language, I'd say that's part of this particular release's charm. As for the doujin artist themself, however, it doesn't appear they produce much yuri, in spite of the circle name.

Also can someone explain the sword joke?

Together with Mikan's costume, it's a reference to the terms neko and tachi.

Check out the glossary from Honey & Honey for more info about lesbian and gay terminology in Japan.

That hair-sniffing segment was hot

^ Thanks for the link. I think this answers the question if there will be any yuri or not, lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AisRuxQMGi4 (link to the trailer available from that page)

I particularly loved this because of the intro, and how it is actually kinda sorta almost-but-not-really verifiably based on Japanese anthropology. It's kinda like (or rather, I pretty much assume it is) the private fantasy of the author, generated by taking the starting point of Japan's legends and mythology (about Oni), traced back realistically into recorded human history, and then from there converted back into fantasy.

I don't think the yuri portion itself was poorly executed in any way, either. Basically, what it comes down to: I'm cheering this author on and hope they can turn this into a nice and long series.

The comments on that ANN article seem to be unusually (er? At least, I hope so) daft. The SonoHana series is still going strong, and the products announced by Mikajyo (short for Sei Michael Joshi Gakuen i.e. St. Michael Girls' School) are indeed part of it.

Basically, in terms of the status of the SonoHana series:
- It started as an experiment by the doujin circle Fuguriya, which released the first 9 games
- After the success of the series was established, the creators formed the official brand Yurin Yurin (under the commercial company Carnival), through which they released 6 games
- At present, Yurin Yurin appears to have been set aside to establish the new brand (under the same company) St. Michael Girls' School, whose website and twitter account opened this past Wednesday and who currently have two games announced.

Of the two new games announced, one of them is indeed set to focus on a new cast of characters (3 couples unrelated to the existing SonoHana couples), called "New Generation", but the other is backstory for one of the existing pairs from the Yurin Yurin releases. Both are Sonohana games, with existing staff from the past releases.

As for the schlock posted in the ANN forums about the final milestone (construction of an actual, physical St. Michaels Girls' School, in exchange for becoming the most popular/followed account on the entirety of Twitter) being some sort of symbolic/spiritual development, that's just dumb. On the one hand it is obviously a joke offer, but on the other I think they might very well be able to afford construction of a physical academy if they managed to become the number one account on all of Twitter.

It's linked at the end all their tweets, but check out this http://mikajyo.pink/ page for all their other milestones. Seems like the followers are rising so fast they're actually a bit behind.

Aside from the wallpapers and illustrations already available. For the 1500 milestone, they announced an original voice sample/collection/*something* called "Yuri no Susume", and for the 5000 milestone, an original clock application. Pretty neat, lol.

lol. Funny thing is, they only had ~1000 as of the time I signed up yesterday night (the fact that I barely look at my twitter account might be cheating).

I find it highly likely this was a joke proposal not meant to be taken seriously (otherwise, I hope the western fans who sign up take responsibility and import the OVA, :P). Nonetheless, it would be neat if the response they get is in fact non-trivial. Doubling their followers already isn't bad.