Archive for the Loveless Category


Loveless Manga, Volumes 3 & 4 (English)

January 18th, 2008

Heartfelt thanks go out today to Zyl and Kabitzin for their sponsorship of today’s review!

I’m only reviewing the Yuri arc in this series since, for Yuri fans, Kouya and Yamato are the main attraction – although there are plenty of other intriguing relationships in the story.

We pick up Volume 3 as our young protagonist Ritsuka grapples with his relationship with Soubi and with what it means to be a Sacrifice, as well as with the residual mystery of what exactly happened to his brother. It seems apparent that Ritsuka is torn between really wanting to know the answer to all these things, and really not.

Soubi is attacked by a pair of Zeros, Fighter and Sacrifice who have been engineered to feel no pain, but manages to defeat them by using the time-honored method of age defeating youth by using brains instead of brawn. He takes in the defeated and abandoned Zeros, primarily, I think, to provide the recommended daily dose of bratty catboy and to provide much-needed exposition for Ritsuka later. Because, let’s face it, by making Soubi so reticent, the author had kind of tied the plot into a Gordian knot that *someone* had to cut. ^_^

At the very end of the volume, we encounter two high school girls who act as if they barely know one another, but then are later seen to be very close. Kouya and Yamato have arrived. Yay!

In Volume 4, Ritsuka gets his clue handed to him on a plate, while we learn about the creation of the second Zero pair. As Ritsuka comes to grips with his pairing with Soubi, Kouya and Yamato fight to stay together. This time, it’s Ritsuka’s insight that allows him and Soubi to win the battle.

In a lynchpin moment, Kouya and Yamato resolve to die to remain together – they do so by rejecting their former lives and their bondage to being “Zeros.” They leave the field of battle, dead as Sacrifice and Fighter, but reborn as two girls with the even stronger bond of love between them. A really terrific end to what might easily have been a tragic story.

The end of the volume includes a nice (and nicely placed) side story about Ritsuka, as seen through the eyes of current school friend Yuiko and an old school friend, Osamu. The comments at the end of the book by editor Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl did an exceptional job of tying it all up neatly. In fact, her insights probably contributed strongly to my ability to engage with the story.

I was surprised that I enjoyed the manga as much as I did. I wasn’t a huge fan of the anime, but there’s more layers here. I’m not able to put my finger on it exactly, maybe something about there being so many *different* ways of relating to other people illuminated by the manga characters. It might have just been because of the volumes I chose to read, or it may well be because the creator is a better writer than I inititially credited. Or I’m in a different mood, or something else. Who knows. Whatever it is, I saw more depth, more complexity, in the many relationships in this story, and less oppressiveness about the primary couple, than when I watched the anime. Maybe it was just because of that little story at the end of Volume 4, and the idea that Ritsuka is just a kid sometimes made me feel a bit better about everyone in the book. Plus, you just know that Kouya and Yamato are out there somewhere riding the train, holding hands and just being together. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 6

Overall – 7

I think I’d characterize the main emotion of the Loveless manga as Ero-emo. All the angsting is so erotically charged, even though Ritsuka can only pick up on some of the current himself (as Lillian cogently points out.) Since Kouya and Yamato are a little older, *they* understand. And Soubi is practically the epitome of ero-emo. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Loveless, Volume 2

April 4th, 2007

I know, I know, I reviewed Volume 3 of this ages ago, and it’s practically ancient at this point. But I’m making a concerted effort to get through my too-tall “pile of anime I need to watch” and review everything.

First and foremost, today’s review is once again due to the kindness and generosity of the guys at Media Blasters. They gave me this about 7 months ago and I’m just getting to it…good lord.

Secondly, watching Loveless, Volume 2 today was a good reminder that stories make more sense if you watch them in *order*. ^_^

I originally reviewed the Yuri arc of Loveless at the end of 2005, but even then I hadn’t really watched any of the story previous to when Yamato and Kouya appeared. This time, I sat down and watched the episodes – I even paid attention and everything. ;-) And yes, I feel like I have a stronger grasp on the story now. I also can say that this volume is way stronger than Volume 3, Yamato and Kouya aside.

This volume includes a lot of angsting by the hero Ritsuka, a lot of masochistic enduring by his partner-although-they-won’t-admit-it-yet, Soubi, and some darn solid advice by Ritsuka’s therapist. Who lied about her age, IMHO. ^_^ But for our purposes, this volume also has the appearance of the second Zero pair – high school girls, and lovers, Yamato and Kouya.

When they appear, they instantly have a backstory, which is kind of interesting. We don’t get the backstory in this volume, but it’s very obvious that it is there. Unlike, say, the first Zero pair, who remain two-dimensional to the end. Kouya and Yamato also manifest actual intelligence as compared with the twits in the first Zero pair. So right off the bat, they come off looking like a formidable couple. We learn a bunch more in the next two episodes, but they are in Volume 3, so read that review for related gushing praise.

The one thing I wanted to note about this volume was entirely unrelated to anything Yuri at all. After he and Soubi defeat an earlier pair, Kin and Gin (Gold and Silver, for those that like stuff like that,) Ritsuka receives a “strange memo” that somehow relates to his brother’s death – the event that was the catalyst for everything in the series. I had to laugh, because I recognized what that “strange memo” was immediately as a result of my job. I don’t know what age the audience for Loveless is (I thought the magazine it ran in, Comic Rex was for adults, but I have no idea, really) but I guess the average manga/anime fan isn’t going to recognize a….well, I won’t spoil it. It’s not very exciting anyway. Beats me how it could help Ritsuka. I could look it up, if it were real. ^_^

One last note – I was amazed at the excellence of the voice acting cast. This anime got star treatment. And it shows. I’m almost tempted to take a look at the manga and find out what happens now.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Character – 8
Music – 5
Yuri – 8
Loser FanGirl – 20

Overall – 7

Either I’m in a significantly better mood today than when I reviewed Volume 3, or the quality drops off massively for the next volume. I have no clue which it is.





Yuri Anime: Loveless, Volume 3

July 11th, 2006

There’s a couple of pieces of business I want to get out of the way before I commence with this review.

1) I am neck deep in the tedious grunt work stage of Yuri Monogatari 4, the newest yuri manga anthology from ALC Publishing. As a result, reviews *will* be more spaced out than usual. My arm is already falling off, and I’m just in the beginning stages. So please bear with my much slower-than-usual pace of reviewing.

2) I can tell that I am getting more popular – more of you are writing in to tell me how wrong I am. ^_^ I do read all your posts…not always all the way through, but I do give each the old college try. Don’t feel bad if I don’t respond. It just means I don’t have time, don’t have anything to say, don’t feel that strongly about it, or think you’re an idiot. You can decide which it is. ^_^

3) Today’s review is due entirely to the generosity of the folks at Media Blasters, who are very, totally, supportive of Yuri in general and Yuricon in particular. I am beginning with the third volume of Loveless because that is the one I was given. Should I obtain the second volume at some point in time, I will review it. If you would rather read a single cohesive review of the very Yuri, very lovely Yuri arc in Loveless, then you will want to read my initial review of this series.Since my opinion of the show as a whole hasn’t changed, you’ll probably want to read that anyway.

Volume 3 picks up after we have initially met Kouya and Yamato, and learned that they are a Sacrifice and Sentouki pair. They are also, we learn, Zeros. This appears to mean that they have been genetically created or altered (the anime is vagueish about this – the manga might shed more light on this, but please don’t think my lack of information denotes interest) to be nothing more than puppets in this game.

Kouya’s and Yamato’s arc, while short, is actually quite good. It also looks to be just about identical to the manga arc, so that’s something for Yuri fans to look forward to in the translated manga. The bottom line is that they find hope and light in what is a palpably hopeless and dark life of doomed combat. In other words, we can believe that they actually do live happily ever after.

My personal favorite moment was about 2/3 way through the arc when Yamato is facing Ristuka, the protagonist. I had just been saying to myself that Ritsuka’s deceased older brother must have been a total prick, when Yamato makes that exact comment. <3

Just for kicks, I watched the two episodes after their arc. I spent most of the time cringing at the icky shota and utterly soppy, faggy gayness of all the male characters. Thank GOD Kouya and Yamato weren’t treated with the same broad strokes, or they would have been wearing tool-belts and birkenstocks. I kept screaming at the TV “Not every gay guy dresses like that!” ^_^;

Because the DVD is a Media Blasters release, there is only a subtitled track , no American voice track. This is no loss for me, personally, but you might want to be aware before you buy. Additionally, I found the subtitles to be plain wrong in places – in that way I always complain about, where the translator takes liberties with what they say to make it more casual language. Again, not a problem for most people.

HOWEVER, I will never, *ever* understand the thing anime companies do when the character screams one thing – almost always a person’s name – and they substitute something else like the person’s title. If Ritsuka screams “Sensei!”, why on earth would you translate that as anything other than what it is? It happens several times where a person is called by one thing and the translators, for reasons of their own, have them say another thing. My final complaint about the DVD; the opening menu is nigh on impossible to read from 10 feet away – at least for my tired, old, eyes.

Ratings (for the Yuri arc only)

Art – 5 (grainy and hard to see at times)
Story – 8
Character – 8
Music – ugh, don’t get me started
Yuri – 8
Loser FanGirl – 20

Overall – 7

I seriously doubt that I’ll ever be able to watch anything but the yuri arc in this series…it just has too many fetishes that are not only not mine, but make me actively cringe.

But the Yuri arc, primo. Thumbs up. Excellent.





Yuri Anime: Loveless

December 26th, 2005

You may wonder why I’m reviewing Loveless so long after it aired on Japanese TV, and so long before it debuts as a DVD release here in America. Some of you may wonder why I’m reviewing it at all. The answer to the first is – I forgot about it. The answer to the second is – tune back in later this week.

Loveless is a mostly BL, mostly shota (the boy equivalent to lolicon, i.e., little boy suggestiveness and sexuality…something that squicks me even more than loli does, if that’s even possible) series that runs in Zero Sum magazine which is, incidentally, published by Ichijinsha, the same folks who put out Comic Yuri Hime. When I visited Ichijinsha’s office in April, they had gigantic Loveless cardboard cut-outs and posters. As they portrayed a shota catboy BL couple, I turned a blind eye and never paid it a bit of attention. Well hah on me! Because along with the BL catboys, there was a pair of Yuri girls…with cat ears, admittedly, but I can overlook that. (No, I do not think animal ears are cute. And I hate cats in any case. Bad lesbian! Bad!)

Animal ears notwithstanding, Kouya and Yamato make a strong arc for an otherwise okay series. The basic plot of Loveless as I understand it is that same-sex partners pair to engage in some kind of battle, in which one partner provides power and takes the hit and the other makes the attacks with the other’s power. Among one pair who were, I believe, lovers, the one who takes the hits died. His younger brother wants to know the truth about him, so he takes his dead brother’s place as the partner of an older bishounen who, needless to say, falls in love with his prepubescent catboy self. (The cat ears, btw, are an outward expression of virginity, as far as I can tell. They come off when the person loses the aforementioned. All very creepy and fetishy.)

Into this set-up comes a pair of women, Kouya and Yamato. They have been created(?) and trained to be each other’s partners. They are clearly in love, but terrified of the situation – and of their master. Their arc comprises about one volume’s worth of anime, about three or four episodes, but in those few episodes there’s plenty of soul-searching angst and yuri for any teen catgirl wannabee. And honestly, it’s a pretty decent coming-out/falling in love/starting a life together type story. Especially as their lesbian love is portrayed as what saves them from a miserable fate and sets them off on a free life of their own. A nice change from the more classic Yuri misery that we thought we’d never see the back of.

I’m not saying that this series is worth watching for this arc – but I do think this arc is worth watching for itself. Luckily I may be able to help with this. :-)

Ratings (for the Yuri arc only):

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 7 (see above lingerie…and don’t forget the ears/virginity thing)

Overall – 7 and worth a look, at least.

For those interested in the manga version of this arc, the series has been licensed by Viz and is being put out in 2-in-1 volumes. Here’s a link to Volume 1.