Archive for April, 2009


Ichigo Mashimaro Manga, Volume 6

April 24th, 2009

Once more it is my genuine pleasure to welcome Sean Gaffney back as Guest Reviewer!

The sixth volume of Ichigo Mashimaro (苺ましまろ) is finally out in Japan (it’s been running since 2001, but is only up to Volume 6 due to the author’s frequent breaks and the sometimes short chapters). There’s no earth-shattering changes, except that if anything Nobue gets even less to do. As Chika has gotten more tsundere and taken over much of the beatings of Miu, Nobue has sadly faded into the background a bit.

In any case, we get 10 new chapters here, interspersed with ‘a day in the life’ interstitials. My favorites of the interstitials are a) Miu responding to her teacher’s request to solve a difficult fraction problem by getting out her giant protractor, and b) Miu’s amusing giant geek glasses she wears during chemistry, complete with spiral effect.

The girls battle a cockroach, have fun drawing on each other’s faces (in 2 separate chapters, one with a ‘third eye’ and the other with Japanese characters), and practice cooking (in a hilarious Miu and Chika 2-hander that barely has the others at all).

Some of this volume is also being animated in the Encore OAVs, such as Matsuri’s utter inability to help herself not be kidnapped. Oh yes, and Miu dies and goes to hell, in easily the best chapter in the entire volume. You can see it animated in the first Encore OAV. Note once more Chika’s inability to stop laughing when Miu does insane stupid things, even when she’s a demon of Hell.

The final chapter, where Miu complains that the only playing they do anymore is gaming, and that they should go outside and be more physical, was only in Dengeki Daioh last month. So don’t expect a new volume anytime soon. Still, it’s 160 pages of cuteness and Miu insanity, which is always worth your time.

Ratings:

Art – 7 (I do like the attention paid to the different outfits)
Story – 6 (loose collection of gags, really)
Characters: 7 (9 for Miu and Chika, 6 for Matsuri, 5 for Nobue).
Yuri – 3 (Not as much here as the last volume, though Miu and Chika are
so going to be a couple in a few years)
Service – 9 (It’s Barasui. What else needs to be said? It only loses a point for lacking catgirls.)

Overall – 7. A good, solid volume.

Oh yes, and Ana is in it too.

–SG





Yuri Manga: Octave, Volume 2

April 23rd, 2009

In Volume 2 of Octave (オクターヴ) Yukino continues to deal with the hole in her life left by the absence of everything she thinks she wants. In doing so, she really pissed me off. ^_^;

On the one hand, Yukino is an ex-pop idol, studying to be a manager, living a life that is a poor reflection of what she strived for. She longs for adulation, for recognition, for hordes of fans to tell her how wonderful she is so she can see herself in the reflection of their adoration.

On the other hand, she is a hard-working young woman, trying to build a career for herself, living on her own in the big city, with an older lover and a decent life.

Unfortunately for Yukino the former weighs much more heavily on her than the latter. And her expectations of herself and her life weigh even more heavily. Her weaknesses far outweigh her strengths in her own mind.

In this volume, Yukino visits her hometown, bringing Setsuko along, but is not strong enough to acknowledge her. She meets her old friend, who is getting a second chance as an idol, but her envy makes her vulerable. Above all, her desperate need for recognition and “normality” (as she defines it) leads Yukino to do something that will stick in the craw of every reader who likes Setsuko.

This volume was a little rough on me. I wanted to like Yukino, to sympathize with her, to support her. But…I couldn’t. By the end of the book I was ready to slap her and then she does something that really pissed me off. The thing she does doesn’t bother me at all – it was *why* she does it that gagged me. There is nothing I respect less than people who only feel validated when it comes from an external source.

Whether Octave has a Yuri ending – or even any kind of happy ending – is of no concern to me. Right now, I really don’t care much what happens to Yukino. I’m more concerned about Setsuko, because she seems like a pretty decent person and I don’t want her to be hurt by Yukino’s selfishness.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 4

Overall – 8

Because of my strong feelings against Yukino and for Setsuko I have to admit that this is a good book. It’s got me giving a crap what happens.





New Anime Season Spring 2009: Queen’s Blade

April 22nd, 2009

Watching Queen’s Blade is like trying to have a conversation with someone who won’t stop staring at your tits. Or like trying to converse with a really nice girl, who seems to be pretty interesting, but we keep staring at her tits instead of listening to her.

I would really, really like to notch the service back three steps on this anime. As it stands, I roll my eyes so much I keep losing track of what’s happening. What’s happening is a quest series that stars a bunch of strong women who have been rendered down to the bare minimum of personality and near-identical bodies, all of which have the same nipples.

Oh, yes. Women’s nipples do *not* all look the same. This may come as a shock to a large portion of the Queen’s Blade viewing audience. If this surprised you, I think you need to read more Hustler.

The plot, such as it is, is about a quest by a number of women for the Queen’s Blade – the awarding of which will give them the power and rank they need to do whatever it is that drives them to seek it. Each story is completely worthy, so we are likely supposed to feel remorse that not all of them can fulfill their quests. Since we so fixedly stare at their secondary sexual characteristics, I barely notice they exist as characters. “Blah blah blah,” they say, and I’m sure it means something, but we’re staring in between their legs obsessively and I’m finding it hard to care, because all I can think is, “Metal underwear and no leggings. I bet that chafes something fierce. I wonder if they carry talcum powder in their packs.”

When the characters are attacked by creatures that are stand-ins for tentacles, like snakes and giant frogs’ tongues, I also find myself wandering off thinking that this series is like the Caligula of Six Degrees of Yuri voice actresses. The voice cast is instantly recognizable. Some of them I feel a little bad for, but mostly I assume that they thought, “Hey, it’s a paycheck. As long as there are no live events, I can do this.”

I am not the audience for Queen’s Blade. I would LOVE to see a version of this without all the service. It would be a cool series. But instead, I watch this and wonder if I’ll ever get to watch something this spring that doesn’t have us staring unblinkingly at women’s thighs and breasts.

Yuri in this series is implict – lots of f/f pairs that fanboys will immediately slash because service is the same thing as affection for most. And then there’s the explicit siscon relationship that Reina’s sister has for her. I can’t help but assume that Reina and Listy are already paired in half a dozen doujinshi, as well.

In *my* fan delusion, Queen’s Blade is a classic quest story starring pairs of strong women who bond together as friends and who compete for the Queen’s Blade. In reality, it’s an exhaustingly bad series of nothing but service, held together with a plot thinner than the g-strings they all wear.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 4
Characters – 6
Yuri – 5
Service – 9

Overall – 5

If you watched Xena: Warrior Princess staring fixedly at Callisto’s crotch, you will probably enjoy Queen’s Blade.





My-Hime Manga, Volume 4 (English) Guest Review, by Jason T.

April 20th, 2009

So I was bitching rather genially about My-Hime, Volume 4 on Facebook and Twitter and got an email in reply from writer/editor/manga expert and all-around fun guy Jason Thompson.

He agreed vehemently that this was a dreadful example of manga and went so far as to graciously allow me to use his description of this series from as yet unpublished, Manga: The Complete Guide materials. I therefore offer up to you as our latest guest reviewer, the pithy thoughts of Mr. Jason Thompson:

MY-HIME (Mai-HiME, “Dancing Girl/My Princess”) （舞-HiME) • Noboru Kimura (story), Sato Ken-etsu (art) • TokyoPop (2006-2008) • Akita Shoten (Weekly Shônen Champion, 2004-2005) • Shônen Sci-Fi Battle • 18+ (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations)

Adaptation of the anime series. Yuuichi transfers to a special school where certain girls possess an awesome power: the ability to summon a “child,” a big mechanical monster, when in the presence of the right boy, called the “key.” Yuuichi turns out to be the “key” of not one but two hime girls, Mai and Natsuki, who bicker over him in endless superpowered catfights. Sloppily drawn and crammed with too many female characters to keep track of, My-Hime—hime is Japanese for “princess” but here stands for “Highly Advanced Materializing Equipment”—is a tedious manga adaptation of a cynical “high-concept” anime, mixing “harem” romantic comedies and battle manga about people who team up with mecha or monsters. Characters we don’t care about fight one another, make passes at Yuuichi and tear up the landscape, leading up to an incoherent climactic fight with the aliens from the “Princess Star” which is the origin of the himes. The books are padded out with interviews with the anime staff, one of whom tells the reader “Reading My-Hime isn’t enough, so go for the anime, the figures, and radio and become a My-Hime Ph.D!” The worst feature of the art is the slack-jawed inexpressive faces.

.5 (HALF A STAR! -_- )

Thank you Jason for stabbing taking a stab at this series. Your brevity should have been matched by the series itself. Despite the craptasticness of the manga, I would like to thank Okazu Hero Elaine B. for bravely wading in and sponsoring today’s review!





Yuri Monogatari Launch Party Report

April 19th, 2009

I only took a few pictures, and these aren’t all of them. But at least I remembered to take pictures, so you have to give me some credit!

First of all, as always I want to thank Bruce, Serge, Donna, Sean and Kelli. You guys are truly the best. And of course, I want to thank my wife, because. And *of course* I want to thank Rica, JD, Jess and Althea for coming and making the night a total blast!

So we arrived early, and Donna immediately began to shop. The Rare Flix store doesn’t just have anime, they have a really amazingly diverse selection of live-action, horror, porn, sci-fi, cult movies, anime, with nice Yaoi and Yuri sections, and the occasional totally random item like Pride and Prejudice.

(Click on the pictures for larger versions.)

Bruce, always ready to do whatever, doing whatever.

Serge, who was piling candy on plates with determination, as if he was playing tetris or something. The man was possessed.

This sign in the bathroom warmed the cockles of my heart. I had to take a picture.

We eventually corralled all four guests and made them pretend to be having fun. :-) From the left to right they are: Jessie, Rica Takashima, Althea and JD.

I stepped outside for some air, and got this picture.

And here are a chunk of people watching the YM6 trailer. They look a little creepily engrossed here, I think. lol

We gave away a few prize bags, we marveled at the $600 velvet box set of the entire Cream Lemon anime series, people bought a ton of stuff. (Honestly, I don’t think anyone walked out there empty handed. Even I bought the complete Dangermouse box set – oh, yes, there is one and they had it. That’s what I mean by they have an amazingly diverse selection.) We all had a nice time hanging out, forcing asking the guests to sign books and chit-chatting with everyone. A very laid back and fun night for all.

I hope to do this again for the next book – it was really a great party. Thanks to our guests and to everyone who came, thanks everyone who wished us well and thanks, as always to all the heroes who support ALC by buying Yuri Monogatari 6!