Archive for the El Cazador Category


Yuri Anime: El Cazador, Volume 1 Part 1 (English)

December 19th, 2009

I wouldn’t call myself an obsessive collector. I don’t usually need the entire series of whatever toys. But gosh, I’m happy I have all three of Mashimo’s and Bee Train’s “Girls With Guns on the Run” series on my shelves now. There’s just something so satisfying about watching cute girls kill unnamed, faceless mooks by the bushelful. Ahhhh. ;-)

And here we are, able to relax at last, as the final installment of the trilogy is laid to rest near its older sister series, Madlax and Noir. Where Noir is serious and business-like, as many older sisters are, and Madlax is creative, but a little weird, as are so many middle sisters, El Cazador is flightly, breezy and a little bit spoiled. :-)

In Volume 1, we are introduced to this series’ pair of girls on the run; bounty hunter Nadie and bounty Ellis, both of whom have a somewhat shady past. We are also introduced to the conspiracy du jour, Project Leviathan, and it’s loathsome leader. And we meet the ambiguous, intriguing and expository Jody “Blue Eyes” Hayward.

In my original review of the series, I stated that I liked the series bunches and that has not changed at all. I’m enjoying the journey South and paying attention to little details I missed the first time around.

So when Ellis took Nadie’s hand in episode 7, I was pleased. Yes, she’s a flakeball and I’m still not sure how much of it is general loopiness from not being human and how much she puts on to be cute, but I really don’t care.

Funimation did a fine job with the subtitles. (I haven’t tried the dubs yet.) If I was required to bitch about something it’s that Funi makes us sit through their ads at the beginning. But why would I complain? Now I can take some time during the week between Christmas and New Year and have the three-series marathon I’ve always wanted. Noir, Madlax and finally, happily, El Cazador. Yay!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 9
Yuri – For Volume 1, let’s call it a 2
Service – 2

Overall – 8

My sincere gratitude today to Okazu Superhero Amanda M. for sponsoring today’s review. Amanda, thank you truly for all your kindness and generosity, thank you from the bottom of my heart. ^_^





Yuri Network News – September 27, 2009

September 27th, 2009

Yuri Anime

The big buzz on the Yuri Network is the existence of Himegami no Miko, a possible new, alternate-universe series by Kaishaku recyclying everyone’s favorite lesbian priestess couple….again. The links on the site imply some kind of animation production. If this all sounds vague it’s because it all sounds vague. I want to thank a number of YNN correspondents for this item, but especially Aesyl for poking me to check back until the site had some actual information.

Ashley wants to remind everyone that the entire run of El Cazador can be watched streaming on Funimation’s online channel.

Speaking of El Cazador, the DVD volume is on the Yuricon Store.

Blue Drop Complete Collection is also on the Shop.

And as I reported yesterday, Ikkitousen DD will be out for November. I have actually heard some fans wondering incredulously why so *many* titles are coming out in November and December. Let me gently remind you of the phrase “holiday shopping.” :-)

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Yuri Drama CD

Say what you will about how painful it is to sit through, there is *no* doubt that Maria-sama Ga Miteru: Rainy Blue is the story of a break up. And now you can sit through it once more, listening to Yumi’s heart break as Sachiko drives away in the newest Drama CD. The good news is…after this, it’s *all* downhill.

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Snatches of Yuri

Significantly, one of Tokyopop’s new licenses, Seikon no Qwaser, is something that has piqued my interest *every* time I’ve seen it. There is a cool, competent female lead, uniforms, violence, and the smell of Yuri.

Death Co-mu-ni-ka-shun is another spin on school girls at a school for /fill in the blank/ theme. The first volume is apparently strong nioi-ke, the second volume not much of anything, but in Volume 3, Valentine’s day hits and with it, girls giving chocolate to one another – and a kiss scene.

Mahou no Jumon follows girls in a school for magic. In Volume 3, there’s enough girls’ love that two of the characters are discussing how using magic allows women to have a child together. This title also is significant because you can read three chapters online through KR comic’s reader:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

For heaven’s sake, please don’t ask if these are in English. These are from a Japanese comic, from a Japanese magazine, on a Japanese reader for Japanese people…in Japanese.

Sugar ha Otoshigoro seems to have settled down to having a storyline by…Volume 3. Asami is ignoring Hatanaka and she’s getting desperate. In a dream sequence, Hatanaka sings a love song to Asami, who responds with interest….at the end of the volume we’re not sure what is real or not.

Last month’s Cobalt Shueisha had a Maria-sama ga Miteru story that starred Yumi, Tsutako, Shimako and Kagura, so it looks like she’s caving and writing more about “our” characters. lol

And I might as well put this down here too. There is an anthology movie, (i.e., made of shorts) called GL – Imp’s Seduction. The code phrase here for “this is for FanBoys” is “No Men Allowed.”  In fact, I was talking to James Welker about that in regards to Yuri Hime, because it’s so suspicious sounding. As soon as a publisher puts “No Boys Allowed” or something similar on a magazine or DVD, you know *instantly* this is for guys. It’s so dreadful – it’s that whole fake girls in their lingerie eating bonbons, pillow fights and light foreplay crap in softcore sorority movies.The worst part is, if it *is* a book or movie that might appeal to women, tagging it like that is a clear “keep away” sign. So, now, these stories might actually be okay…which I doubt because Japanese on-screen kisses are excruciating usually…but ugh. Do I get this and suffer through a bunch of servicey, icky vignettes for what might be a good story or two as seen through the eyes of a Fanboy or not? I don’t know. I’ll have to think about.

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That’s a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!





Yuri News this Week – July 4, 2009

July 4th, 2009

What a week for Yuri fans!

Yuri Anime

The top story this week is, of course, that the Aoi Hana anime is not only available on, but is “simulcasting” an hour after its Japan TV debut on, Crunchyroll.com. If your country is not blocked, you can watch it for free, but a small subscription fee will get you a better stream, higher definition and more options. The anime has received critical acclaim so far, from both fans and reviewers. Smart folks on the Yuricon Mailing List like Katherine, have identified preorders available for the DVDs on Amazon JP and like Sal, noticed that it looks to be running 11 episodes. Here’s hoping it does well enough to garner a second season.

I was chatting with @Funimation on Twitter and they let me know that the projected release date for El Cazador is autumn 2009 and Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne is sometime in spring 2010.

Speaking of 2010, Right Stuf/Nozomi (@AnimeToday on Twitter) has announced that the 4th season of Maria Watches Over Us is slated for a 2010 release. They also announced the licenses for Aria the Origination and the Arietta OVA to be released together in one set. Also Right Stuf is planning a line of Aria lithographs, which Gia Manry of Anime Vice explained as coming out one at a time until there’s no money left in our pockets. :-)

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Yuri Manga

Erin S mentions on her LJ that Fujieda Miyabi has nothing in this month’s issue of Yuri Hime, but that he’ll be back in October’s issue. To me, this says that we’ll finally get that Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan tankoubon. It’s pretty common for the mangaka to take a break the month of the collection release. I’m sure we all hope so! (This just in – Ichijinsha Mail Magazine has a release date for Ame-iro of July 25th, so there ya go.)

Bruce P wrote me to tell me about the summer Yuri-themed issue of a magazine called Kikan S (Esu). He says, “There are articles (principally author interviews and artwork examples) on a selection of Yuri manga: Aoi Hana, Sasame Kikoto, Manga no Tsukurikata, and Otome Keki. There is also an article about Anise magazine, in one sidebar of which I was pleased to see them show the cover and give publishing info on Rica’tte Kanji. Another sidebar describes the evolution of the word Yuri. The original illustrations in this issue are also mostly Yuri, though some of them are, in the unfortunate tradition of Kikan S, pretty skeevy. Artistic, but skeevy.”

Lastly, if you’ve been wondering where Gunjou went, since it hasn’t run in Morning 2 magazine in a while, I can assure that it is live and well! I haven’t reviewed it, because honestly, the climax chapter was so raw and beautiful that I haven’t been able to deal with it in words. I know that sounds melodramatic, but it’s totally true. It was 72 pages of some of the best manga I’ve ever read and when I was done, I was wiped. Then the series took a few months off, I assumed it was because of the Morning International Comic Contest. It turns out I was wrong about that, but Gunjou returned to the magazine for issue 23 – which is the important bit. If you do like Gunjou, I hope you’ll write Morning 2 and let them know. It’s important to communicate these things to the editors and publishers.

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Yuri Drama CD

And really quickly, links are now up for the 4th Special Maria-sama ga Miteru CD and the newest Drama CD (and the first in a long time) Tears of the Rosary!

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I was going to get caught up on “Snatches” this week, but with so much real news, I think I’ll leave it at that. It’s a really wallow-worthy week, don’t you think?

As always, if you’d like to share news with the world, please feel free to email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail. dot com and share!

 





El Cazador Anime: Volume 4 (Polish/German)

May 6th, 2009

I’m very excited to once again offer a review from the Okazu Europe bureau. Everyone, please welcome back Winterbraid! Yayyy~!

El Cazador Volume 4 has episodes 15 through 18. Starting with the mandatory swimsuit (and in one case, no swimsuit) episode, followed by L.A. losing the last bits of sympathy we have for him, some random cosplay and buttock prodding by Nadie and Ellis, and – in my opinion – a rather Noir-like episode, closed with the trickster god part – which, on the second run, is probably one of my favourites. Otherwise, it seems that everyone stalks everyone, all with a generous spurt of fluff and cuddly on top – perfect after a tough week. ^-^

As far as the localization is concerned… well, I’m not really in the mood for nagging right now. ^-^ Fortunately, there is no more translating whole sentences as a single word, although some awkwardness (and a few blatant mistakes) awaits. Overall, I’d say that compared to the previous volume, the translation hasn’t gained enough of a soul to allow for creative criticism, but there is an improvement – or maybe it’s just that my tolerance is increasing. Apparently, there’s something
weird about the disc that prevented me from playing it on Linux… not that anyone cares. ^-^. Now that I think about it, the fonts could perhaps do with some tweaks, i.e. less jaggedness – oh well… anyway, every possible defect of this release is – for me at least – overshadowed by the postcards, which are quite cool this time. ^-^

By the way, I took a quick glimpse of the manga; and… uh… how should I put it… NO. ^-^;

Short, bittersweet and to the point. Thank you Winterbraid for another look at a series we cannot *wait* to get over here!





News Brief: Funimation licenses El Cazador

February 19th, 2009

I’m absolutely beside myself with joy. There’s only three anime I want to see licensed right now and this was number one on the list. (Blue Drop and Mnemosyne are two and three. I know you’re gonna ask.)

Fans of Bee Train’s girls-with-guns-on-the-run trilogy, completion is around the corner at last, with Funimation’s licensing of El Cazador de la Bruja!

Finally, we’ll get to see Ellis loving Nadie best when her eyes are shining.