Kuu has a childhood dream of a prince with red hair taking her away, so when a red-haired “prince” by the name of Ayanokoji Kyoshiro arrives she, like the other female students in the school, is thrilled. But when she mets him for the first time, the “Prince” rips Kuu’s shirt open, *then* asks her to come with him. Sensibly, she runs away crying. (I commented to Bruce at this point, “I think he got that the wrong way ’round.”)
And then all hell breaks lose as giant robot arms and legs fight in and around the school, reducing it to rubble and forcing Kuu and Kyoshiro to run away from….?
Ultimately, Kuu and we learn of the existence of “Absolute Angels,” creatures that look like girls, but actually contain within them tremendous power. They manifest as robots and fight for their masters – all of whom are members of the contentious and crazy Ayanokoji family.
Of course, relevant to our interests, there are a number of characters, because this *is* a Kaishaku series after all. Chikane and Himeko clones Kaon and Himiko have a tragic love affair, tragic only because Kaon is an Absolute Angel who’s master is the slightly Evil, Psychotic Lesbian Ayanokoji Mika. I watch the series for her.
Kyoshiro, aside from getting the greeting/sexually harrassing order wrong, is painfully and hysterically obsessed with his oldest brother, Kazuya. I loved Mika right away, when, after Kaon had kidnapped Kuu and brought her to Mika, Kyoshiro has his Angel, Setsuna, lead their other brother Sojiro’s Angel to Mika’s school. When confronted with Kyoshiro and his whining about “onii-san this,” and “onii-san that,” Mika just looks at him like he’s an idiot and says something to the effect of, “Oh for pity’s sake, are you still on about that?” It made me laugh out loud.
The bulk of Disk 1 is taken up with Kuu being kidnapped and/or attacked or just being fail at everything, and Setsuna having to save her and pick up in the kitchen after her. Kyoshiro is an idiot and Kaon and Himiko are a beautiful, but tragic, love story. Mika is insane, sadistic and lesbian. ♥
Episode 3 still wins “Best Use of Showers as an Expository Setting.”
I am so very, very, very disappointed in the “Super Amazing Value Edition”of this series I could cry. Not a single DVD extra! Not one! What on earth is the POINT of watching this series if we can’t get the Kaon and Himiko extras?!? Why, Funimation? Why?
Ratings:
Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7, except for Mika, Kaon and Himiko, who are all 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 7
Overall – 7
Many, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Amanda M. for her sponsorship of today’s review!
Becoming an Okazu Hero is as easy clicking any link on my Amazon Yuri Wishlist or Amazon JP Yuri Wishlist, purchasing that item and Hey! Presto! You are a Hero!
*sigh* The extras were better than the actual show…
Darn, $15~$20 for a 13-episode series and no extras! Why, Moribito at RightStuf (sale ending today) is $21 for a stackpack 26 episode series with a minimum of a promo film and three different versions of the trailer (I’m only to disk 3).
OTOH, maybe paying $21 for Moribito (OK, about $30 after the shipping and the 10disc flipbox to store it) is an outrageous bargain and I have been spoiled forever.
BTW, is there a flipside to the cover art that does not have the green SAVE down the side?
I hated Kannadzuki no Miko. But I loved this beyond any shred of decency – Kaishaku actually made some good crap as opposed to some utterly repulsive crap, something I am positive they will never replicate. Kind of like how Peach-Pit did a good manga once. I get the feeling that if either of these happened again, the Seven Seals would start cracking open.
I’ve come to think of this as the “Zia ul-Haq” syndrome. There’s apparently someone who can look at Kannazuki no Miko and say “The problem with this series is that it doesn’t have more stupid Yuri and pointless mecha in it! We need to add those until it’s coming out its ears!”
@Anonymous – In all ways, I much, much prefer this series to Kannazuki. It makes more “sense” in the sense that what little plot hit has actually stays consistent from beginning to end and at least the Yuri story has a happy end that isn’t a wank.
@BruceMcF “Darn, $15~$20 for a 13-episode series and no extras!”
It’s more likely due to the Sojitz deal with FUNi where extras cost more than they could profit. And not to mention, the whole S.A.V.E. label are pretty much relegated towards titles that sold like crap for FUNi so they pretty much dump this one.
Darkchibi07: “It’s more likely due to the Sojitz deal with FUNi where extras cost more than they could profit“
The slicing out of the extras happened when Funimation originally license-rescued the title. S.A.V.E. is not about re-mastering, its about re-issuing titles in the cheaper DVD case format.
$12+$3s&h is not at all bad for a 12-episode series. A budget of $20 would leave enough to add a copy of the original Volume 1 for $2+$3s&h, and at least get some of what would have been the extras on the ADV box set.