Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

Here's a meme with no instructions. I've just put down what comes to mind and ignored the rest.

1. Where is your cell? Breast pocket
2. Your significant other? Inconceivable!
3. Your hair? Sloppy
4. Your skin? Mottled
5. Your mother? Unlucky
6. Your favorite thing? Hate
7. Your dream last night? Forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? Strawberry shake, sweet
9. Your dream/goal? Become being
10. The room you're in? Study
11. Your ex? N/A
12. Your fear? Which?
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Alone
14. Where were you last night? Work
15. What you're not? Honorable
16. Muffins? Depends
17. One of your wish list items? Locked
18. Where you grew up? Here
19. The last thing you did? Surf
20. What are you wearing? The usual
21. Your TV? N/A
22. Your pets? N/A
23. Your computer? Wrongfully mine
24. Your life? Pathetic
25. Your mood? Bored
26. Missing someone? N/A
27. Your car? Hated
28. Something you're not wearing? Necktie
29. Favorite Store? Undecided
30. Your summer? Indiana
31. Like someone? God†
32. Your favorite color? Black
33. When is the last time you laughed? Forgotten
34. Last time you cried? Work
35. Who will respond to this? Probably no one
36. Whose answers are you anxious to see? Ms. mizuno_youko‡

†This one will be easily misconstrued by those who don't know me. Remember my name.
‡Just because she's the only one here with whom I have anything in common

As if I weren't busy enough with my application and more equipment training, apparently the stress caused my mind to wander, because I suddenly stumbled upon another really stupid coincidence (or Freudian slip?) that I should have noticed long ago. As you know, I have two projects that are set in a setting closely based upon the real world. You may not notice because of the omissions, but there are exactly three native Japanese characters among the many dozens of characters I'm currently developing for those two projects. And all three are lesbians.

「今さら何ほざいてんだてめえ」とは言われそうだから言っておくが・・・*

As noted in the first paragraph of the previous link, I don't write lesbian stories. I write yuri. Judging by the notes I'm keeping in my head, of those many dozens of characters, those are the only three lesbian-identified individuals I have planned. So how the hell did this happen? To tell the truth, in all three cases, I just made them Japanese because of the names I thought up for them. (It's not as much of a coincidence as it might have been, as the two from Project AnthraXX are connected in terms of their background.) As noted in the disclaimers, I don't have any intentions of perpetuating stupid stereotypes (even ones I accidentally made up myself), and I certainly didn't do this on purpose. It just goes to show that I don't pay much of any attention to how my projects end up looking, which means I'm just going to get even more flak as I release any of this stuff. I really need to look more carefully at these things before they are (hypothetically) published.

Meanwhile, as with the other night, I'm putting myself on a slippery slope trying to bring up half-remembered lines off the top of my head and using them as post subtitles. I've read both of those at least half a dozen times, but they're really dipping into the archives; I'm not sure if I've even opened either volume in several months, much less read those chapters. At least one of them I plan to check at some point to corroborate something else I vaguely remembered, so hopefully I'll use that opportunity to correct myself. Being obsessive-compulsive is rather dumb sometimes.

*Yeah, another line that I'm too lazy to try and figure out how to say in English. It's not terribly important to the so-called flow of my blabbing, so those of you who can't read it don't need to feel left out.

Edit (2008.05.03): Fixed vowel length and punctuation in the quote

My readership appears to be at an all-time high (apparently at least two regulars!), but I've accumulated quite a lot of stuff during its absence, to say nothing of my sloth and the fact that I've built up a lot of new things due to year's-end-and-beginning splurging. So, I'd like to see if you have any requests or suggestions. What I've got in the works is as follows:

( Ridiculously long notes )

I was lucky enough to receive something Japanese from Ms. mizuno_youko, but somehow it turned out to be a crude scanslation.

This was undoubtedly brought on by this and the rare gem here. I've been thinking about stopping sharing bootlegs of published material (although I can't resist using such sources myself), but I'm less worried about such limited edition things, a system that I never liked. Comic Yuri-Hime and its predecessor have had free giveaways since the beginning, but I never bothered reading through the rules because I assumed I was ineligible for being overseas; just as I hear things to suggest differently, I've gotten a mailing address in Japan. Oh well. At least this quarter I'm getting my issues reasonably promptly, so I may check those out.

It occurred to me recently that if I'm going to boycott Bakuretsu Hunter, Trigun, and Uru-sei Yatsu-ra for their lionizing of misogynistic bastards, I should add the James Bond series to the list, too. I don't really care about that. However, it is a significant part of American pop culture, so that does reduce my parody material significantly.

Meanwhile, I know that it's hypocritical that I'm still willing to support series that joke about rape. I wouldn't miss SNL or Whose Line, but I'd have a hell of a time purging all the Slayers files from my hard drive, or the HELLSING parodies from my projects. And I'm certainly not giving up Strawberry Shake, particularly considering that it would require that I not get my favorite magazine and instead wait for each individual serial to be available in compilation. The only excuse I have is that these are all single cases, rather than major parts of the series.

Comic YuriHime has been successful enough to try some interesting things lately. I haven't yet posted on the last three mooks I've received, so here we go:

Comic YuriHime VOL.8: Following from the first one to have characters not from Hatsu-Koi Shimai and the first one to not have two characters, this cover is not even by Ms. Hibiki! To tell the truth, I'm not a big fan of her style or that of Ms. Zaō, but they don't bother me for the most part. In any case, everything seems to be going as usual. (They even brought back Ms. Sudō (who hasn't been seen since the previous series's VOL.5), along with her hormones (which haven't been seen since VOL.4), if only for one page.) Coincidentally, this is the first time I've heard the term "se(x)frie(nd)," and in two stories in the same issue. . . . Strawberry Shake Sweet continues to up the story, introducing a mysterious villain who looks like she might be related to Ms. Asakawa (whose origins are still unknown)—but, then again, so does one of ZLAY's members. There's also some information on Aoi Shiro, and the new serials look really pretty (including yet another series where the main character's best friend addresses her with "-chan"-zuke ". . . desu wa"). Meanwhile, the cover story is interviews with the cast of the Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu drama CDs, including our beloved Ms. Kawakami: 「GLは初体験・・・」? Perhaps the big one doesn't count because it's not "only."

YuriHime Selection: The first half of this is a compilation of many one-shots that weren't big enough to warrant their own compilations, so you can get them now even though their original mooks are out of print. This is of course less useful to someone who has the entire set, like myself. Fortunately, the other half is other one-shots and bangaihen of stuff serialized in the main mook. We also see the cover debut of Ms. Eiki, who stated way back in her first appearance that she was collaborating with Ms. Zaō because she hadn't yet achieved "the power to draw cute girls." Her partner's influence is rather evident in the illustration style. Speaking of covers, a one-shot mook is apparently cheap enough to produce that they didn't need a CM on the back, instead covering it with the reversed names of the author/illustrators.

Comic YuriHime S VOL.1: According to a guide way back when, "S" (short for "Sisters") was something of a prototype for yuri (which still has strong sisterly overtones in many cases). It bills itself as a 「PURE★コミック誌」, but it still has a fair amount of sex and violence (including a series with combat elements, which is something that hasn't been seen before in this family of mooks), so I'm not sure what is supposed to differentiate this from the other serial and justify making another one in parallel instead of just releasing issues of the main one more often. (I never was clear about target audiences. In one of Ms. Morishima's one-shots, the heroine's "non-ke" friends were mooning over guys in Shōnen Chump.) In fact, it appears that Nanami to Misuzu is serialized in both. (Fortunately, it's rather episodic anyway, so continuity shouldn't be too big of a deal.) I like a lot of the new serials, of course, including two in particular. The first one is drawn with incredible technical proficiency—and who can resist a diminutive purple-haired aristocrat who uses the copula verb "ja" (no "warawa" this time, though)?

The second one is by Ms. Iwami, whom I know from Suzunari! I had a bit of a problem with the character designs in that (not sure why—something about looking a bit flat, perhaps), but her serial here looks flawless. It's set in another of those small fictional states that are never named (see Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Roman Holiday, Iono the fanatics, etc.). Unlike the others this one is apparently in East Asia (judging by the names of their royalty, which are based on the four guardian gods of ancient China and written in Chinese characters), yet very liberal—there appears to be no problem with the fact that the crown prince is a cross-dresser, or that (not much of a spoiler, given where it's serialized) the second princess (apparently she has an elder sister around here somewhere) gets married to another princess. It also appears to be ruled by dark-skinned people with funny-shaped marks on their foreheads*, despite the fact that the commoners are white. The more boyish of the two princesses also has a bit of a 「フェミニスト」／「王子様」 thing going on.

*Does anyone know what the thing in Hinduism is called? In Japanese media, I often see it replaced by birthmarks on the foreheads of (often dark-skinned) people of both sexes.

The aforementioned combat series is somewhat unpolished in its illustration style and has a lot of "service," but looks fairly entertaining. It looks like, as often seems to happen, the main tough young lady is going to be relegated to comic relief status. There are at least two obvious couplings visible even from the introduction—and a dark-skinned, pale-haired sub-chara with a birthmark on her forehead.

Fujieda and Takagi, two of the luminaries of shōnen yuri, only have four- to five-page introductions to their serials so far (the latter continuing his usual trend of maid uniforms and three-syllable names), but I'm sure they'll be entertaining.

Excerpts from two of the mook's unrelated serials include . . .
「松平さー・・・　んっ！？」
「ナギ・・・さ　んん！！」 (can't figure out how to type a small "n")

Addendum to the voice-actor comments earlier: Ms. Mamiya is back as another young lady who talks funny. Also, the heroine has quite a feminine name, but that appears to be a holdover from a previous life, where she had a very different personality.

As usual, I'm getting caught up in planning all sorts of things without actually following through with much of any of them. This can be easily illustrated by my notes on future LJ posts:

[A 計劃]
Differences (AI, Soldier; humans: everyman or individual?; neutral or chaotic?)
Lanky
RAGNAROCK CITY (reproduction)
Zodiac (Srutt 13th, doesn't like rat and water, does like Third Trine, dodecagram; too many?)

[Élitism（仮）]
Able Learner, Diverse Background, Educated/Well Read, Skill Focus, other skill-bonus feats
Scouts (expert, warrior if not elf or gnoll but wants bows; Guerrilla Scout, Guerrilla Warrior)
Mix-and-match (expert for ninja/ranger/rogue/scout, warrior for barbarian/fighter/ranger/samurai)
Equipment packages

[Incest（仮）]
...

[Index Astartes: Storm-Daemons]
Mk1 for Scouts
Mk2 loincloths
Belief of not showing face similar to Redemption, but not belief of recruits, as original homeworld lost
Rearming priorities
Segmentum Tempestus

[感想（仮）]
BLEACH 10–17, 19–20 (100; ____-Fung; bomb)
Comic YuriHime VOL.8 (different cover; sefrie; Aoi Shiro; Sudō fight!; nice new serials (Suō-chan desu wa); first yuri?; S and Selection? (Eiki cover!))
Diamond9! (Fourth batter?; doping; odd premise; fickle Yuzuriha)
Gakuen Like Love life (white uniforms and colored pants)
GUNSMITH CATS BURST 3 (to Hollywood, or not to Hollywood; Kyōto dialect)
Hatsukoi no Kyōyū (oops)
Irregular Webcomic (T. rex; ridiculous variety of LEGO; brown hair?; have some minis; http://irregularwebcomic.net/1246.html; goofy expressions; http://irregularwebcomic.net/1502.html)
Legostar Galactica (couldn't wade through bad punctuation, etc.)
Machi-Kado Hana-Dayori (...)
MY OTOME Zwei 2 (Ishigami(n); Ms. Marguerite ↓; Ms. Himeno very changed; Ms. Wang back; Ms. Hallard)
PILGRIM JA:GER 2–6 (ridiculous numbers of characters; famous historical personages; reason for cross-dressing?; Buonarotti and Pufau)
Saint October 1 (more tarot, Arcna City; nothing special; comics better)
Sakura no Kiwa 3 (laid-back)
SCAPE-GOD (weird but oddly meaningful?; secrets of Bush admin; gozu/mezu)

[こいつに教えてもらった]
...

[南斗の拳]
Ambidexterity
Chinese ("Auntie")
Dexterity
Gluttony
Hate hate hate hate
Hayashiya, Nanase, Sakura, Morinaga, Reynolds, Akamatsu
Impulse buy/can't resist a deal
Make JEOPARDY!, not WHEEL OF FORTUNE
Michael Corleone, Alfredo Pacino
Not metrosexual—can't stand housework
Wisdom

[Second Son of Soong]
Camera
Corporal punishment
Quest limit
Tauren ranged weapons
The trouble with travels

[Soft Town]
History: Chosen for metaphysical, not geographical features; If you want it done right, get a dwarf to do it—thus now their home in exile (Barzak, Glorgyth, Nuradann)
Demographics: Humans (mostly Imperial), orcs (mostly half-), halflings (mostly lightfoot), dwarves (mostly hill), gnomes (mostly rock), elves (mostly half-), planetouched (apparently mostly aasimars)
Religions: Ambi?theos, Pantheos Dexter, Pantheos Sinister, Bolero, Ured (agreement with Pantheos church not to convert living citizens), halfling pantheon, gnome pantheon; other Demiurge-associated deities and Atheos persecuted by Pantheos Dexter; Hezrack and orc pantheon in Scarborough; dwarf and elf pantheons outside city limits
The Market: Biggest neighborhood, home to most business, halflings, Wakers, gnomes; Maester Munster
The Old City: Mausolea, run by dwarves of Ured (rumored Barakkh too), could substitute for duergar mummy crypt; ironically, mostly human construction, but dwarves rebuild collapses in their own style, clan graves in most heavily rebuilt area (from disaster?); poor all in one mound
Scarborough: Half-orcs can get pre-confirmed passage from courts; otherwise, often harassed by gate guards; most buildings connected; sewer entrances to Old City bricked up; gangs replace tribes; wererats
The Triangle Palace: Embassies (dwarven king now living there)
The Guild of the Black Hand: Based in Scarborough, but has other locations, particularly in Old City; Orcs & Humans (some halflings, but few dwarves/elves/gnomes/goblinoids); leader unknown, but enforcers Maim and Rend legendary; assassins form highest tier; rumored to also have labyrinthine training/execution area with minotaurs; devotees to Pantheos Sinister, Ambi?theos, Bolero, Hezrack
Albert's Locks: Heavy garrison
The Emerald Crown: Structures not tolerated; also royal hunting grounds
The Killing Field: Orcs not near here due to low ground

["Strange" Is a Relative Term（仮）]
Multimedia
Text editing/capitalization
Noses!
Sound effects

Any requests?

Even after I've had specific requests, I still don't get any responses when I post them. Nonetheless, I don't have much else to do, so I'll keep practicing my typing. . . . These are the comics I received in my last two orders (one from amazon and one from jpqueen).

「1年777組」/1-Nen 777-Gumi/1st Year Class 777 (Shu Kazuki) 1 of (continuing?): Yet another four-panel comic serialized in Manga Time Kirara and recommended by Yuri Shimai. This one is actually set in a co-ed high school, and consequently the yuri-do is rather low. Nonetheless, there is some, and the pictures are pretty, so I plan to continue with this one.

「えとせとら」/ET CETERA (Nakazaki Tō) 2~6 of 9: For the first time in quite a while, I bought a comic not for yuri, but for nostalgia. I first encountered Episode 11 of this one in a copy of Gekkan Shōnen Magazine that the Japanese teacher at high school had lying around the classroom. There were plenty of obscure comics serialized in it at the time, but for some reason ET CETERA was the one that jumped out at me. Of course, at the time I had no way of getting my hands on more of it, so nothing came of it. Then, some time later, Ms. space_coyote posted the first few chapters on The Nameless Manga Translation Site. As the name of the site suggests, it was in English, but nonetheless I was happy to finally see the beginning. I had encountered jpqueen by that time, but they never seemed to have the set in. By the time I got to amazon.co.jp, I was fully enthralled by the yuri "my boom," so I pretty much forgot about ET CETERA. I didn't think much back to it until a couple of months ago when the above-stated volumes showed up in jpqueen's discount section. (Unfortunately, they for some reason didn't have the rest of the series.)

I have of course watched a few "space Westerns" (and read a rather nifty Western-themed fantasy yomi-kiri in one of the volumes of TOKYO-UNDER GROUND), but this is the only Japanese series I've encountered that's set in the actual Old West. (I've also heard of GUN BLAZE WEST, of course.) Oddly enough, the heroine is a young Chinese lady. Although there are some serious themes, the drawing style is particularly exaggerated (in characters' physiques and expressions, for instance), and there is a fantasy element in the core objective of two mystical guns.

I remember thinking when I first saw TRIGUN that the "hero who refuses to kill" thing was a takeoff of RuroKen, but here they have much the same thing going on. Further, ET CETERA also beat TRIGUN to the punch with the "deadly preacher as a traveling companion" idea. The parallel goes further than that, but I won't spoil that (except to say that he doesn't speak Kansai dialect).

Another thing that particularly surprised me when I read through the volumes I got was the character of Ms. Fino. Whereas the heroine only cares about killing humans and doesn't think twice about slaughtering animals for food, Ms. Fino is actually an ethical vegetarian. I have never encountered this in any aspect of Japanese culture—even in Chikyū Shōjo Arjuna, they only had problems with eating meat if it was processed. Ms. Fino doesn't determine who does and does not deserve to die depending on species, but depending on guilt. As if she weren't perfect enough already, she's also really cute and uses my favorite speech patterns. . . .

「俺フェチ」/Ore Feti/Me Feti (Kuwahara Hihihi) 1 of (continuing?): I haven't the slightest idea what's with the "ore" in the title, as all of the main characters are female, and there isn't even a "bokukko," much less an "orekko." The "feti(sh)," on the other hand, is quite evident in the heroine. I don't know why, but both here and in Nanami & Misuzu (serialized in Comic YuriHime), human ladies' cat ears are depicted as sloping downward from the sides of the head. Yes, it is a very "o-taku"-type comic, but it seems worth reading more.

「豪放ライラック」/Gōhō Lilac/Frank Lilac (Kuwata Noriko) 1 of (continuing?): Another one recommended by Yuri Shimai. This one's set at a girls' school, but the yuri-do is quite low. I don't think I'll be continuing with this one.

「コミックHi-t―ジョシコーセーアンソロジー」/Comic Hi-t—Joshikōsei Anthology/Comic Hi-t—High School Girl Anthology (anthology): Another one that amazon forgot to shelve in the "adult" section. Avoid at all costs.

「コミック百合姫」/Comic YuriHime/Comic Lily Princess(es) (anthology) 4~5 of (continuing): This continues to be great stuff, although Strawberry Shake Sweet is running out of space to showcase all the characters.

「ごめんね、マリア様」/Gomen ne, Maria-sama/Sorry, Maria-sama (?): Not as bad as the one mentioned above, but still precious few saving graces.

「ストロベリー・パニック!」/Strawberry Panic! (Kōno Sakurako?/Takumi Namuchi) 1 of (continuing): The animated version of this (which I mentioned earlier) is the chief reason that I regret having lost contact with lokodraucarn. Anyway, the comic is different in many ways (particularly characterizations—oddly enough, in this version, the main heroine of each school uses her name in place of a first-person pronoun), but still one of the highest yuri-densities I've ever seen, and the anatomy looks better too.

「天然女子高物語」/Tennen Joshikō Monogatari/Natural Girls' High School Story (Kadoi Aya) 1 of (continuing?): Quite cute, but no yuri.

「トランジスタにヴィーナス」/Transistor ni Venus/Venus in the Transistor (Takemoto Izumi) 1 of 8?: This is ostensibly a space-age spy story. It wasn't until the second or third chapter that the author decided to have the heroine go around kissing people all the time. Unfortunately, amazon doesn't have Volume 2 available anymore.

「爆裂天使Angels' Adolescence」/Bakuretsu Tenshi: Angels' Adolescence/Burst Angel: Angels' Adolescence (Murao Minoru) 1~3 of 3: This is a prequel to a series that seemed great from what I saw, excepting the silly-looking costumes. There is one notable yuri mōsō.

「はやて×ブレード」/HAYATE CROSS BLADE (Hayashiya Shizuru) 5 of (continuing): This is one to remember, as it (finally) shows the first match among the top class of kentaisei. As it happens, Ms. Hayashiya hasn't shown any in the A or toku-A ranks either, so this is the first time we see modified swords, and even those who use regular ones still keep showing interesting new styles. As more of the upper-ranking characters move into the spotlight (all three of the foul-mouthed young ladies in the school are now S-rank!), it's clear that this series has a lot ahead of it. Ms. Someya's "secret" (which I guessed from the very start and confirmed after looking closely at a certain page of Volume 3) is also revealed, and apparently she's going to be in the next big fight. This is serialized in a monthly magazine, so it's surprising the author can go so long without showing the heroines in action. Meanwhile, Ms. Kuga's sex-hara is becoming more and more prominent, particularly in the two bangai-hen.

「春よ、来い」/Haru yo, Koi/Spring, Come (Saki Kaori) 1 of (continuing?): I heard about this one from daily_yuri (although I didn't read any there because it was all scanslations), so I decided to grab the first volume when I found it on discount at jpqueen. The story centers on two young ladies' relationship, but there are some male characters that provide some ugliness. It gets somewhat graphic, but not enough to put me off from buying the rest.

「ヤミと帽子と本の旅人―ロマンス」/Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito—Romance/Yami, the Hat, and Travelers in Books—Romance (Sakurai Aya): This one was quite iffy, as in the animated series it was quite obvious that it was based on a pornographic game. As it turns out, the unpleasant bits are somewhat turned down in this case, but the main character is some random man who didn't even appear in the show (at least not as a humanoid). Consequently, the yuri is requisitioned to passing references.

「落花流水」/Ryakka Ryūsui (Sanada Ikki) 1 of (continuing): I know it's just like a male human of me to prefer the relationships with an obvious physical attraction, but, in my defense, that is one of the best ways to ascertain that it's a romantic relationship rather than the characters seeing each other as sisters or friends. In this case, you can see it in a whole lot of nosebleeds.

「レンズのむこう」/Lens no Mukō/Beyond the Lenses/Through Eyeglasses Darkly (?): This is a set of short stories about people in adult relationships, but it has a pretty laid-back mood. I believe there were three couples depicted, and two of them include men.

Well, I tried to write this earlier, but I accidentally closed the window when I had barely begun. It's just as well, as the login server was down at that point so I couldn't use my own profile which has the Japanese IME installed. (I don't know why it allows me to keep that when any application I install is deleted every time I log out; I guess it's installed on my drive or something. Maybe I can try doing that with Azureus as well. . . .) Anyway, here is:

STUFF BOUGHT LATELY FROM AMAZON.CO.JP (Mark II)

I can't seem to remember whether Uma Thurman had a broom in Volume 1. I haven't seen Volume 2, but I'm pretty sure Hayashiya Shiduru hadn't by then either.

Well, according to the plan I was supposed to be done with my semester today. But thanks to my legendary procrastination ability, I only have 20 pages translated of the 64 I promised, and they're in a pretty rough state too. I do hope I'm going to be able to pass Japanese this term. . . .

So anyway, if you want to read it, read the previous chapter first (available at Lililicious). As you can guess from the site where it is, it's not exactly my usual fare, but at least there isn't any real mature content or anything. Go to "Projects" on the left sidebar and scroll down the alphabetical listings until you get to "Yuri Shimai 1." Strawberry Shake chapter 1 is one of the contents of that magazine.

Once you're done with that, you can go to my site and download chapter 2, which is in the three files named "SS2*.zip" (because Geocities only lets me upload 5MB at a time). Comments and constructive criticism are welcome, as I probably can't give the public (?) translations of this quality. I was hoping to get the final version hosted on Lililicious, but I haven't been able to contact anyone there. I'm at 91% capacity on my Webpage, so I won't be able to host any more chapters for you myself.

Sooner or later, I'll post an actual journal entry. . . .