Yuri Live Action: Renai Shindan: Seifuku no Eve

January 25th, 2008

Renai Shindan was a J-drama that dealt with themes of “forbidden love” so you just know nothing really happened in any of the arcs, don’t you? ^_^; Have you watched any Japanese romance dramas? They tend to be full of people running around after each other, lots of crying, angst, moving moments and the *worst*, least romantic scenes ever. I can clearly remember a J-Drama I watched for weeks and weeks and when the lead male and female *finally* got together, they stood there like cardboard cutouts, almost actually touching with their lips. The kiss actually sucked the romance right out of my house.  And that was a “normal” heterosexual romance story. There’s just no way a “forbidden” love story’s going to have better kisses than that.

Because I am feeling immensely lazy due to a really exhausting week, I won’t sum up the plot of Seifuku no Eve here, but I *will* give you a link to an excellent, screenshot filled, detailed synopsis. And my compliments to the blogger for doing such an excellent job. Please go read that first, then come back and we can continue.

Back? Okay. So, I went into Seifuku no Eve with pretty low expectations. I expected to see a story that included at least one instance each of: 1) one-sided crush; 2) “confession” of “like”; 3) bittersweet memories; 4) a kiss so romance-less I wouldn’t bestow it on a creepy great-aunt; and 5) a love polygon. I cheerfully shouted “Bingo!” when I completed the set. (Oh my god. Yuri tropes bingo. Why haven’t I thought of that before??? “I must do it! It will do it. It will be done.”)

I expected, going into it, that this would be a story, not about “lesbian” love, but about akogare/affection that perhaps borders desire, but is really just “immature love.” In other words – a schoolgirl crush story. Hardly “forbidden” in my book. but my book is written in pencil and is easily modified. If Seiru’s crush had included the school hamster or something, I probably would agree with the qualifier.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not dissing crushes. I think they are splendid. You’re never too young or old to have a crush. A crush can, perhaps, lead to love. However, in the world of Yuri/GL crushes are more often shown to be dead-end, first, unrequited, failed love sorts of love. Nothing that blossoms into a love between two women. Just something that remains a school memory. (Here’s one of *my* most vivid high school memories: I and a classmate were watching several of the newest marching band recruits hanging on a fence and screaming at each other, looking awfully like monkeys. Simultaneously, we turned to an upperclassman and asked, “Were we like that as freshmen?” The upperclassman quickly reassured us that we were not.)

So here I am, once again noting that little gap in the world of Yuri. There’s schoolgirl crush stories aplenty, then there’s “more than friends, less than lovers” stories and there’s full blown-hentai. Hmmm, what’s missing? Oh wait – stories of *lesbians.* Amazing how, with all those women in love, there aren’t any lesbians. -_-; (Once again, *this* is pretty much why ALC Publishing exists. The world needs more lesbians in its Yuri.)

Anyway, Seifuku no Eve is another one of those schoolgirl crush stories. It might have been kind of ground-breaking by being a live-action TV series. If you *like* schoolgirl crush stories, don’t miss it, it’s got one of everything on the list!

Ratings:

Story – 5
Characters – 5
Cinematography – 5
Originality – 2
Loser FanBeing – 2 (seifuku…)

Overall – a solid 5

Golly, I seem to have used a lot of quotes in today’s review. ^_^ Many thanks to Erin who told me about this series.

4 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    Well, I don’t care what they are, as long as they’re in love and the story’s good, and they don’t end up dead or with some random guy.

  2. That’s the point – they *aren’t* in love. They are in like. They are vaguely infatuated, slightly intrigued. It’s over before it begins.

    They will “end up” with husbands. Because they aren’t gay and they aren’t in love.

  3. Anonymous says:

    So would this story pass for “YURI”?

    Hey Erica have you seen the movie Imagine mM and You?

  4. anonymous – I haven’t seen that, so I can’t tell you. But if it is an honest representation of two women’s feelings for one another, then yes, it’s Yuri.

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