Archive for May, 2010


Ohana Hololo, Volume 1 (オハナホロホロ)

May 7th, 2010

Some years ago, Maya and Michiru were lovers. They lived together for about 5 years until one day, Maya woke up to a note from Michiru saying that she was leaving.

Years passed and the next time they met, Michiru was pregnant. After the baby’s father died, Maya moved in with Michiru to take care of Yuuta – under the strict rule that there would be nothing between them except friendship. Michiru, her son Yuuta who appears to be about 2 or 3, and Maya live in apartment together. It’s probably not terribly surprising that Maya is the more responsible of the two. Almost right away, when Michiru is feeling sulky and lonely, she asks for a kiss, violating her own rule.

Acting as a surrogate father figure is the guy who lives below them, Niko. He’s a goof, but he truly adores Yuuta and the two women trust him. At one point he’s heading off on a trip and encounters Maya and Yuuta on the street. He takes Yuuta, puts him on top of his luggage and starts to wheel him away. After about three steps, he whirls on Maya yelling at her to stop him already! He’s cute.

And then there’s Yuuta. let’s say 2 1/2, he’s a kid. That means sniveling, snotty noses, tears when a favorite cup breaks, etc. But he’s a good kid, smart for his age and he tries hard to be strong for his mother. He loves pudding, and he likes shiny stones which he collects and keeps in a box.

This is Ohana Holoholo（オハナホロホロ）.

In the most touching and best-written chapter, Niko and Yuuta are out shopping. Niko tells Yuuta to never let go of his hand. But when Yuuta sees a shiny gold-paper filled box of candy, it’s Niko that lets go to pay for it. Yuuta and he are separated. Niko is devastated. He calls Maya and they talk to the department store staff. When they can’t find Yuuta, Niko breaks down in tears. Maya knew that Niko and Yuuta’s father had been friends – he tells her that, in fact, they had been lovers. He’s treasured the memory of his dead lover through his son. At which an announcement over the PA tells them that Yuuta’s been found – asleep in a bed in the bedding department. They all go home, where Maya asks if Michiru knew that Niko and Yuuta’s father had been together.Michiru replies that she knew he had a lover, and when she met Niko she wondered if he might be the one. At home Yuuta recived the shiny candy box with joy, then hands out all the candy in it to the three adults, and carefully displays his rock collection in the pretty gold paper, his face glowing with utter contentment. (^_^)

After that, you’d be a right bastard if you didn’t like the kid.

The real problem in the series is Michiru. She’s childish, selfish, and annoying. She left Maya once and really hurt her. We can see that Maya still has abandonment issues.

When Maya encounters an old school friend who does a kindness for Yuuta, Michiru sees them hugging, gets jealous and runs back to her mother’s house with Yuuta. Yes, she does it *again*. Maya is devastated.

When Niko arrives home that night, there’s Yuuta and Michiru in his apartment. Michiru admits that when she arrived at her mother’s place, she finally realized it was probably a hug between friends, but now she’s frightened of going back upstairs, because Maya will be angry. The problem is solved when Maya comes down with pudding to share with Niko and Yuuta tackles her. Maya mildly welcomes Michiru home. In the next chapter, they have it out. Michiru admits she was afraid she’d be thrown away for the guy and Maya sensibly points out that leaving people is Michiru’s behavior, not hers. Michiru apologizes and is forgiven.

The last chapter is about pudding.

This series ran in Feel Comics and I wish I had known about it when it was running. (Update: It’s still running – I just got the most recent issue of Feel Young and there it is!) Shodensha is quietly pretty LGBT friendly. They run Yamaji Ebine works and although those are less and less LGBT-themed, any lesbian or gay characters tend to be very sympathetic, competent and likable. I find I’m a big fan of alternative family stories, although I have no idea why. It’s just nice to see that it can all work.

Maya’s serious, but not a prig, Niko’s a goof, but not an ass, Michiru’s a jerk, but not to the point of endangering Yuuta and Yuuta’s a good kid. The story is touching in places, but not soppy.

It all works.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Yuri – Nothing in the story proper, but it is part of the history – let’s call it a 4
Service – A resounding 0

Overall – 8

I am so in the mood for pudding now….





Click Manhwa, Volume 5 (English)

May 5th, 2010

At the end of my review of Volume 4 of this series I wrote:

I can’t *quite* stop reading this series until Heewon gives up Joonha for good and then everyone will be tucked neatly in proper little heterosexual boxes, except for the Jinhoo x Joonha thing, which will be strung along as a fake BL story as long as the author can manage.

I cannot even begin to express to you how vexed I am that Volume 5 of Click! was not when everyone was tucked neatly into proper heterosexual boxes. Joke, joke! It’s pretty apparent that this series *will* have neatly arranged heterosexual pairings at the end, just not yet.

We’ve got all the ingredients we’re going to get now, in this Rice Krispie Treat of a gender switch manhwa. We’re just in the phase where it’s all mixed up and slowly we’ll watch it pour out into the pan to become an enjoyable snack. This is not as random an analogy as you might think, btw. Rice cereal – marshmallow treats are harder to mix together than you’d expect and not all that pliable. And the characters in Click are much the same.

In the not-quite-really Yuri dept, Heewon is still stomping around, pissed because Joonha is a girl. She’s pissed about it, because she’s still obsessed with Joonha and when asked flat out, says she still likes her. For her part Joonha actually shows a moment of humanity when she tells Jinhoo that Heewon can’t be blamed for her erratic and hurtful behavior, because she, Joonha, was the one at fault. And she admits to still liking Heewon. So, two halves make about three-quarters of a whole. I like how Joonha is starting to just accept being female, so while it remains *the* plot complication, it’s being used less for cheap laughs and more as a dramatic point.

Heewon has a heterosexual escape valve, Taehyun’s lackey Jihan, so I’ll be shocked if she doesn’t end up having a satisfyingly contentious relationship with him by the end.

In the fakey-BL love story between Jinhoo and Joonha, there’s a interestingly complicating factor of Taehyun looking less and less like a raging asshole and more and more like a ridiculously appealing, adventurous guy with smarts, money and balls. I’m actually really pulling for a love triangle with Joonha torn between Jinhoo and Taehyun. It could add a fun extra layer of uneeded complexity to the series. I vote for Joonha and Taehyun, because they’d actually work as a couple, where Jinhoo would just disappear into Joonha or vice versa.

The only character I actually feel bad for is Jinhoo’s girlfriend, Hyejin, who is getting trampled on from every direction and really, really doesn’t deserve it.

The amazing thing about all this is, for all that it’s a story with so many layers of relationships, if Joonha ever told Jinhoo the truth, the entire story would come to a screeching halt. The End. Like so many other gender-switch manga and manhwa, this particular plot complication appears to be maintainable over a longish story line in a way that works.

I still don’t *like* any of the characters, but I’m disliking most of them less. And at this point, as long as most of the relationships resolve one way or another, I’m fine with whoever ends up with whoever.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 2
Service- 1

Overall – 6

Thanks very much to the sponsor of today’s review, Okazu Superhero Dan P!





Yuri Anime: Heartcatch PreCure

May 3rd, 2010

Okay, okay, calling Heartcatch PreCure “Yuri” is just wishful thinking at this point, but 13 weeks into it, this classic magical girl anime leads the pack for this season.

First of all, I must give a shout out to Komatsu-san, who has been gently trying to get me to love PreCure as much as he does for some time now. I watched the original PreCure (free on Crunchyroll!) which was fine, and liked what I read of Splash Star, but Max Heart and GoGo 5! were unwatchable in my opinion, and Fresh PreCure was…okay. Nothing really hooked me. Because of Komatsu-san, I checked out the website for the new series, but wasn’t very impressed with the art. But when he gave me a few of the episodes to watch, I found myself humming the opening theme for about a week. That’s *usually* a good sign that I enjoy an anime series.

And then Yuri popped on the screen and I was officially hooked. I mean that literally and figuratively, by the way. One half of the Yuri couple is cleverly named Yuri. The naming sense in this series is a nailbat of obviousness, as you will see.

The stars of Heartcatch are Hanasaki Tsubomi, whose parents run a flower shop and who becomes Cure Blossom. (Ow!) Her next door neighbor, best friend and partner in Precure, is Kurumi Erika, whose mother designs clothes and whose father is a famous photographer and whose sister, Momoka, is a famous fashion model. Erika becomes Cure Marine.

They are opposed by monkey-like mooks, tools of the Desert something-somethings. No one watches PreCure for the bad guys. They are totally forgettable…until Dark Cure, with her gothy one tattered batwing and one laser-beam eye and angst enough for a gaggle o’preteens shows up.

By herself Dark Cure is moderately amusing. So end-of-the-world and all that. But the screen heats up when, while facing down Cure Blossom and Cure Marine, Dark catches sight of…a girl. This girl is slightly older than the current PreCure, totally untransformed – and the two of them stare fixedly over PreCure’s head for a long time. The girl is Tsukikage Yuri (Ow! Watch that name bat, will you?!) voiced by Hisakawa Aya, which I think is a knowing nod to the adult portion of the audience for this series. (Dark is voiced by Takayama Minami, who you might remember as the former Rosa Gigantea, Sei’s onee-sama, in Marimite.)

So, okay, I was watching this scene thinking, “yeah, I can get into this.” But it was really icing on the cake.

There were a number of things that set this series apart from other PreCure and from other magical girl series. Firstly, Tsubomi’s grandmother had formerly been a Cure, which I think is a great touch. It gives Tsubomi a mentor and a source of info that isn’t passing for a stuffed animal during school hours. And both Erika and Tsubomi have dreams of the epic battle between Dark and a previous guardian, Cure Moonlight. Because I am not 4, it was instantly obvious that Yuri is/was Moonlight and that there’s a whole arc in whatever lay between her and Dark. I am tempted to write a fanfic of what *I* think that story is, before the series goes and ruins it for all of us. lol

Did I mention that Dark carries around half of Moonlight’s gem that broke during their epic battle? Well she does. Yuri carries the other half, of course, which means we’ll get a double redemption at some point.

Oh, and I completely forgot, the Student Council President is a cross-dressing girl. This is covered early on and it was pretty obvious that she was a girl (well, obvious to me, but I am not 4).

Yuri is also, just to make sure the doujinshi artists have a multitude of choices, best friends with Momoka, Erika’s sister.

Taken as a whole, I’m still making up about 97% of the Yuri in my head, but for a kiddy show, there’s enough to keep me watching for the rest of the season.

Ratings:

Art – 7 It took me a while to get used to it, but when you get into the right headspace, Yuri is attractive enough.
Story – Monster of the Day, blah blah.
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5 as long as there’s ambiguity
Service – 1

Overall – 7

I’ll never love PreCure as much as I do Sailor Moon, but Heartcatch is at least in the same folder in my head now.





Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Force and Vivid Manga

May 2nd, 2010

Despite the failure of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha to be profitable here in the west, in Japan it’s a thriving franchise. With the first full-length feature film Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The First out this past winter and not one but two new manga series, Nanoha is starting to show some serious staying power as a franchise. And it’s generating some of the seriously hottest figurines I’ve ever seen. If you recall, I had a crisis of conscience over a Signum figurine at Hobby Japan in Akihabara last month.

In both manga series Fate and Nanoha have reached the venerable old age of 25 and have, therefore, moved completely out of the fandom’s interest. And right into mine. The fact that this *still* makes me a creepy old lady is not lost on me. ^_^

In Magical War Chronicle Lyrical Nanoha Force, Kidou Rouka has been disbanded and Fate, Nanoha and Hayate have moved on with their careers. As we saw in the epilogue to StrikerS, all of Hayate’s Knights still serve in the niches they have carved within Michilda’s forces, and Teana, Subaru, Erio and Caro have also moved up in their chosen fields. Everyone is a productive member of adult society. So, clearly, it’s time to introduce new characters. Therefore we meet Thomas, an independent soul on walkabout for his own reasons, the naked magical girl he rescues, Lili, and seamstress and comedic relief, Isis. The three are each searching for something and are already misunderstood by a trail of people. Alongside of their story, all the major players from StrikerS have been reintroduced in their new capacities. We can anticipate that they will all encounter one another as the story progresses.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vivid follows Vivio, Fate and Nanoha’s adopted daughter, in her quest to become a powerful mage like her mothers. We are reacquainted with several of the Number clones from StrikerS (the ones that went “good” on us), as well as the rest of the cast in a series of unlikely cameos. Vivio has become rather good friends with Nove, Wendy, Duici and the others, and has a few school friends to drag along. The complicating factor (i.e., new character) in her story is an unwilling clone of the ancient Emperor Ingvald, a girl with the awkward name of Einhart Stratos. It doesn’t make any sense to me either – just go with it. Einhart’s existence gives Vivio a chance to transform into her more grown-up fightin’ form as often as possible. There’s no real “conflict” here yet, but there will be. And, no doubt, there’ll be a chance to watch Vivio take after Nanoha-mama and “befriend” more than just Einhart.

In Force, Fate and Nanoha are presented at top of their form. Experienced veterans, leaders, commanders. We have yet to see them having an quality time together, but to be fair the series has a lot of stuff going on and there really isn’t room for it.

In Vivid, we see Fate and Nanoha as devoted partners and mothers to Vivio, but again, the story doesn’t quite have room for Fate and Nanoha to have time together. So, in both cases, the Yuri is there only insofar as you feel like making it up in your head.

Sadly this is not true for other fetishes. But aside from the apparently unavoidable (and in Japan, at least, profitable) fetishes favored by Nanoha fandom, both manga have good stories and are festooned with good characters.

Force Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 6

Overall – 7

Vivid Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 7

Overall – 7

Like Ikkitousen, I know what I’m getting into with Nanoha, so I am not complaining, just a little wistful for what might have been if the stories were written more for me. ^_^





Sunday Morning Miscellany

May 2nd, 2010

No promises on a review today, but I’m going to try. Instead, I’m starting your morning off with some random clean-up. :-)

First up, announcing the winner of the Jormungand, Volume 2, manga giveaway: Milz, a winner is you!

And the “winner” of the El Cazador manga contest: Emma! I promise to send along something that doesn’t suck as well as the manga that does, so you can have something for you to chew on, along with your dog!

Please email me here at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com and *please* use the subject line: Okazu contest. Send me your shipping address and things will arrive as if by magic, eventually.

I also have a DVD giveaway going on at the Yuricon Mailing List that has a few days to go, do drop by and take a look!

Secondly and rather significantly for me, today I start a gig at Noah Berlatsky’s Hooded Utilitarian, a blog associated with The Comics Journal. (which, along with Journalista, you should read regularly because they are smart, entertaining, and about the comics and manga industries.) I’ll be doing a column on the first Sunday of every month – amazingly, I have my posts planned through October. I hope you drop by and post some positive feedback to “comment offset” the inevitable negativity. My column is called Overthinking Things and my obligatory wankerish self-introductory post is up.

“Comment Offset” – lol

I like it.

I don’t really have time in my life for another writing gig, but Noah’s argument was very compelling – write whatever you want, I really don’t care. Oh, well, who could refuse that?

Thank you all for all your support – emotional, monetary, humor, everything – and for your cheerful participation in my ass contests! I adore all of you, I really do. You make it all so worth every minute of every day to do this.