I finally had a chance to open up the bag of manga I bought at Yurisai to sit down and read it, and lo and behold, I find I had bought Najica Blitz Tactics from Bill at Anime Castle. Why? I have no idea. And so today I sat down to read what is clearly a plotless piece of junk.
You know how some people have good gaydar? I actually do, but that’s not the point here. The point is that I also, inexplicably, have exceptionally good Yuridar. I can pick a book quite randomly off the shelf at Book-Off and find that, magically, there is some Yuri in it. And not just Yuri in which two women are near each other a lot and they seem to like one another, no I mean – Yuri as in a raging lesbian who sleeps her way through the book. Yet another magic lesbian power for Erica. Woot.
Let’s face it – no one in their right mind cares about Najica. It’s so junk that it makes other junk look good. (On the other hand, last night I watched the end of ICE, which was so bad that it made Najica look good, so everything’s relative.)
The plot is thin and silly – Najica and her non-human sidekick Lila are agents for CRI, a top-secret perfume company.
…
Should I continue?
Okay, then. Together they wear short skirts and fight against corporate espionage, random baddies doing who knows what and occasionally save a small European kingdom along the way.
In one of the chapters, Najica is sent to assasinate a competitor who is flooding the market with cheap off-brand copies of a high-end perfume her company makes. (Noooooo! the wife says) She tracks him to a casino, where’s she’s hit on by some young jerk. The competitor disappears, but Najica finds him trussed up, because he had the young jerk’s parents killed back in the day. Najica sympathizes, but won’t get paid if she doesn’t do the work, so she’s the one who shoots him. As it turns out (I know you’re waiting for it) the jerk is actually a woman. As Najica and Lila drive away, young, female, but no less jerky than before, jerk runs after Najica trying to get her name, her number, her body…bwa-wa-waaaah.
In other news, Najica and Lila have that typical fanboy-Yuri relationship which implies that they might have some feelings for one another if, say, Lila was human. But she isn’t, so any emotions you see are entirely you projecting. Najica is clearly fond of Lila. Any other emotions you see are entirely you projecting.
Ratings:
Art – 6
Story – 2
Characters – 4
Yuri – 3
Service – 8
Overall – 4
It’s crap. It’s not even so bad it’s good. But it’s still better than ICE.
I got the complete anime series from the library and watched it, and it was quite funny, but in a MST3K way. Everything between episodes 1 and 12 seemed like an excuse for a girls-with-guns show with an excessive amount of generic pantie-shots, while the last two episodes tried to salvage whatever it was the show was pretending to be about. Also, I think I saw two pairs of pants worn the entire series, and they were on two of the very few male characters.
Najica and its ilk (Aika) have the same Yuri-ish thing going on, but as anyone who watched the anime probably knows its just fanservice.
No, really. I swear they hired gnomes to film the anime, the poor little things had to point the camera up from so low in the floor.. now we must see all the series from a 30 cm point of view (yes, that means only one thing: PANTSU!).
Despite the fanservice it has.. um.. good music and retro style I suppose >.> and lots of blood and action and shots and willing girl-slaves.. and fanservice, lots of it.
And on a side note, I haven’t watched the Ed of ICE yet, I’ll be careful
scareknee – Yay on your library for having such crap! The Najica anime eally was meant for MST3King…and for theos epeople who really are obsessive about panty shots.
neo – haha, gnomes. In the manga, that wouldn’t work – too many flying kick angles they would have missed.
Well, now you’ve made me really look forward to your review of ICE (assuming you’ll be reviewing it). I found the last episode to be so confusing I’m still not sure whether I liked it or hated it.
It’s easy to mock Najica, let me explain why I like it. (I’m talking about the anime, haven’t looked at the manga).
What the show is “about”, is the evolution of Najica’s perception of humaritts and how that changes her relationship with Lila. Initially her attitude one of low-level hostility. As the series progresses and she meets more humaritts, she sees them used as tools, weapons, lieutenants, lovers, she becomes convinced that the idea of humaritts as property is wrong. (At one point Lila expresses the fear that Najica might think her unsatisfactory and trade her in). The fact that Lila seems even less independent than other humaritts starts to bother her. She encourages her to think for herself and make decisions. Sadly this just confuses Lila. Although this confusion is often used for comedy, there is, I think, a hint that she misunderstands Najica’s encouragement as a kind of rejection. Eventually they do come to understand each other and Lila achieves her independence. I don’t see any sexual tension between them at all. It comes over much more as a parent – child relationship to me. One where true love means letting go.
In conclusion.
Do I think it is masterpiece of introspection with something profound to say about the human condition? No.
Does it go too far in terms of bad taste?
There are moments.
Is it complete crap?
I don’t think so.
So, do I earn a loser fanboy medal?