Archive for 2011


Yuri Manga: Sweet Little Devil

July 22nd, 2011

Manga artist Nanzaki Iku developed a fairly significant audience as a creator of doujinshi under the circle name Doropanda TOURS where she became best known for her stories about Shizuru and Natsuki from the Mai Hime/Mai Otome universes. These lovingly, and often explictly, rendered stories added the “after happily every after” chapters that fans craved in which their ShizNat were the item that they always knew they were.

In Sweet Little Devil, Iku takes her character types and crafts some original stories with them. This is her first full collection from Yuri Hime, but not the first time her work has appeared in a Yuri Hime anthology – her stories have been fixtures in all the Wildrose collections.

The first couple, Sayo and Ri-chan are most like ShizNat, but their personalities are not analogous. Ri-chan (the Natuski type) is older and Sayo (Shizuru type) is an admiring underclassman. They’ve been together for some time, so we’re spared the “girl A likes girl B” trope of Story A.

Their arc comes to a climax when, during summer on a night of fireworks, Sayo is forced to out herself and Ritsuko to an old school friend. Luckily, they both feel it was fine, before they have sex.

Have I mentioned the sex? This book is a series of well-endowed characters having sex, with some small plots woven between the sex scenes. Just so you’re not surprised.

The rest of the one-shots are either tiresome or pleasant depending on what you like. For me, the major positive of Iku’s work is that the characters really *like* one another. There’s no doubt that this is love, not just sex. It’s a small point, but an important one for me.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Variable, but all pretty decent, so 8
Characters – Same
Yuri – 9
Service – 8

Overall – 8

If you’re looking for, or don’t mind, explicit stories about women who really like one another, (and one Story A story), I can definitely recommend Sweet Little Devil.





Suite Precure Anime

July 21st, 2011

Suite Precure is the tragic story of Seiren, a singer. Betrayed by her homeland, Major Land, rejected as the Song Princess she is, she defects to Minor Land where, like so many defectors, she is forced to prove her loyalty over and over. Put in charge of incompetent and insubordinate subordinates, Seiren labors to resurrect a magical score so that she can at last sing as she was meant to… and who, of all people, must she contend with? Her own best friend and protégé, the very same creature for whom she was cast aside …Hummy.

Seiren is torn between her anger at being betrayed and cast aside, and her affection for the friend who was so important to her. Unfortunately for Seiren, the elite warriors of Major Land outgun her own Minor Land forces and her continued embarrassment at the hands of the Precure begins to eat at her.

Until, one day, Seiren snaps. She regrets her defection, she longs to repair her life and in a weak moment, becomes one of the elite Precure warriors herself. Now, full of loathing and self-doubt she wages war against herself, with no home to return to….

Well…okay, that’s not really what Suite PreCure is about, but it’s better than the real story, so I’m sticking to it.

Kanade and Hibiki, Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm, are best friends and have to be “in harmony” to transform, so the Japanese fans on Twitter are calling it Yuri. Seiren only transforms to save Hummy, so if you count Hummy as female and cats as eligible for Yuri, then there’s Yuri that way. And I’m counting Cure Muse because her costume screams Go Nagai designs.

I like Cure Beat best because 1) She is not wearing pink (which Toei pointed out that all girls like and so, *for the first time EVER* both main characters would have pink elements, how exciting!) and 2) Toyoguchi Megumi (Marimite‘s Sei) is voicing Seiren/Beat with everything she’s got, considering the character is a cat.  Purple Cures are always the coolest.

If you ignore all of this nonsense, Suite Precure is a completely predictable, music-themed magical girl cartoon for little kids.

Ratings:

Art – 7, it’s returned to type from the Heartcatch designs
Story – A little sillier than usual, I think – 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Series – 1

Overall – 7

I should also point out that the Fairy Tones, the cute little gem-like creatures that represent the notes of the scale, are excruciatingly cute and I adore them. That’s a major step up from previous Precure  cute, little mascots. Hummy can die a painful death, though.





Crunchyroll Adds Morita-san wa Mukuchi Anime

July 20th, 2011

According to Crunchyroll News’ feed on Twitter, the free, legal streaming site Crunchyroll has added Morita-san ha Mukuchi to its summer line-up to worldwide audiences with the exception of Japan.

This anime is based on the 4-koma manga of the same name, which has been reviewed here. (Volume 1, Volume 2) Light on the Yuri, but cute anyway. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Kimi no Tame Nara Shineru (姫のためなら死ねる)

July 20th, 2011

When you think of Heian period literature, two names come instantly to mind, Murasaki Shikibu, creator of the Tale of Genji and Sei Shonagon, writer of the Pillow Book.

What may not come to mind is the image of Shonagon as a 27-year old NEET, blogger, Twitterer and…well, perv.

That is, it may not come to mind, until after you’ve finished reading Kimi no Tame Nara Shineru (姫のためなら死ねる). After that, you’re just about guaranteed to think of her that way. ^_^

This book is a series of exceptionally silly 4-koma gags set in the Chuugushiki, the residence of 13-year old Empress Teishi. A mutual friend, sick of Shonagon’s shut-in, slacking ways, suggests she apply for the position of Teishi-sama’s lady-in-waiting. Teishi is moved by Shonagon’s handwriting and Shonagon, in turn, falls head over heels for the Empress.

Nothing happens in this volume, really. Yuri is limited to heavily overplayed service, in which nearly every woman is nearly in some Yuri-ish position with nearly every other, but it’s all gags, no substance. Nonetheless, Shonagon is pervy about Teishi-sama, and Teishi-sama seems to return the feeling, in her own, immature way.

Of course Murasaki Shikibu is a character, as is her charge, the Second Empress Shoushi.

Honestly, I should probably have hated this book. It’s got all the annoying qualities of 4-koma gag comics. But, I didn’t. The story turns historical luminaries into jokes, and relates behaviors of the past to unlikely, but accurate analogies of the present with historically inaccurate, but nevertheless amusing, conviction. Shonagon as a blogger rings pretty true to me, anyway.

I’m reminded by my wife of a passage by Sei Shonagon, about the annoyance she felt when the snow slipped from the roofs of the buildings and covered the paths, making it difficult to walk. The Shonagon of this book is not that woman, but I think I might prefer this silly Shonagon to the real one. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 4, for the gags about Murasaki’s breasts and all the almost-Yuri

Overall – 8

Remember how I always say that no research is necessary to form an opinion of a manga? Well, in this case, I’m wrong. I actually had to do a fair bit of research. ^_^





Light Novel: R.O.D., Volume 7

July 19th, 2011

R.O.D. Volume 6 ended with Yomiko in a precarious position. Quite literally, in fact, as she had been captured and put in a giant birdcage in Dokusensha’s Headquarters.

So of course, it’s no surprise at all for Read or Die,Volume 7 to open with Yomiko in her apartment in Jimbochou, rolling around in a pile of books; specifically the series that she she has been reading steadily for four days.

Wait, what?

After about 10 pages of detailed explanation about the “Zoolander Saga,” the scifi series in which Yomiko has immersed herself, I suddenly thought, “Am I reading the right book?” For some reason I expected Volume 7 to pick up at the end of Volume 6. But, no. Volume 7 is a gaiden, a side-story, as we would call it, that has nothing at all to do with the main plot.

Volume 7 continues on its merry way with a convoluted and utterly unfunny scenario in which Yomiko bathes in a large barrel on the roof of her building and is likely seen in her birthday suit by a neighbor who has nothing else to do during business hours.

Thankfully this ends and we’re left with Nenene and Yomiko taking a walk to the most secret store in all of Jimboucho, and thence to a bookstore where, through complications of plot, they end up running the store for an afternoon.

It is Nenene who gets to be cool this volume, taking out a disruptive creepy dude in the store, and garnering applause from the bookstore patrons.

This is followed by a short coincidence that ties the book up neatly and is notable for including the October 1972 volume of Shounen Jump, the significance of which I don’t know, but I bet the author does.

The final pages cover the tragic story of Dokusensha’s paper user Ou-En and his doomed little sister, the death of their parents and how he ended up at Dokusensha.

And so, this volume comes to a close after having been alternatively cute and frustrating  for a little over 200 pages and still, somewhere, Yomiko sits on a perch in a cage in Dokusensha’s HQ, faced with the choice of marrying Faust or being killed by him.

As a  side story, it was cute, but I felt like it was a whole-carbohydrate meal and I was craving protein. IMHO, any volume of R.O.D. without Yomiko going all paper master and kicking ass, is not the greatest use of a volume of R.O.D.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – Silly, but it had room to be awesome and just wasn’t – 5
Characters – Nenene – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 7

Overall – 6

Next volume, we return to our original programming.