Archive for 2011


Something Completely Different

July 7th, 2011

I was going to post a review tonight, but this morning I got clever and wrote a post on Quora about stating opinions clearly and without apology, or conditionals.

In my many years of posting here, I have received any number of personal insults, accusations of not “doing the research” (which I consider ridiculous on the face of it, an opinion on a comic, no matter how ill-informed, does not need “research,”) and the most typical of all, I have been called a “bitch,” more times than I can count. Yesterday I began a review with an apology and for that, I was scolded by my wife. I thought about it last night and in the morning, I wrote this post on Quora:

Why I am no longer “Thinking,” “Feeling” or “Believing” on Quora

I hope you will all read it and please feel free to let me know what you think!





Yuri Anime: Yuru Yuri (English)

July 6th, 2011

I would like to begin this review with a sincere apology to the fine people at Ichijinsha. I know that a lot of work and energy went into the making of Yuru Yuri and I wish, I truly do, that I could have liked it. But, I did not. If you habitually like the kinds of anime and manga I dislike, If you love series like Lucky Star and A Channel, then do not read this review, just hurry over to Crunchyroll and watch Yuru Yuri – you’ll love it.

I have spent more than a decade promoting Yuri, highlighting series that focus on women in love with one another, pointing out over and over that “Yuri” is not, really, anything like the fantasies creepy loser guys have about girls. Yet with Yuru Yuri, the creators go right to Fanboy territory, then crawl slowly steadily down to wallow in the most banal, most creepy possible tropes. I’m genuinely frustrated by the choices made here.

Yuri Yuri is the story of four girls who hang around and do nothing. These four are all very typical moe types, so forget having any kind of personality. Less than 5 minutes into the anime, there were already 4 underwear gags, the main character had forgotten that school started that day (which is totally likely if you have no family or friends, live in a box and have no media access, I suppose.)Ā  The entirety of the second half of the episode is a systematic destruction of the protagonist’s ego. As a *joke*. Because making fun of a friend until they cry is absolutely hilarious, as we all know.

At 8 minutes in, I had a crisis and almost gave up watching altogether. It was so horrible, so tedious, so completely un-fun. My number one criteria for entertainment is that it ought to, you know, entertain me. Watching Yuru Yuri was the anime equivalent of a dentist’s appointment.

There is “Yuri” of course. Of the most excruciating kind. Kyoko likes to look at panties and wants to possess the cute loli. Chinatsu, the loli, crushes onĀ Yui, the moe equivalent of the cool princely character. And let’s not forget the implication of a deep, pathological, stalking sister complex Akari’s sister appears to have for her. That’s always good for a laugh.

The one thing that really wasn’t terrible was Crunchyroll’s subtitling. It’s not perfect, but it was definitely one of the least objectionable jobs I’ve ever seen from them. So that, at least, is something positive to note.

I’m sorry, Namori-sensei. I’m sorry, editors of Comic Yuri Hime. I’m sure that Yuru Yuri will be very successful, but I won’t be watching. As much as I want it to succeed, I actually like the anime less than I do the manga. And I don’t like the manga very much at all. I came into the anime with very, very low expectations and this managed to not meet any of them.

In the end, Kyoko described this series best when she described the protagonist Akari with “A lack of outstanding qualities is your most outstanding quality.”

Ratings:

Art – 5 If you like moe you will probably think it a 6 or 7
Characters – 4 See above
Story – 3 See above
Yuri – There is no real affection, love or desire here. Just gags.
Service – 10

Overall – 4

Pain upon realizing that Comic Yuri Hime‘s first “Yuri” anime ever is everything I have fought to get rid of, in order to be able to tell stories of women in love with one another – 100





R.I.P. Wada Shinji

July 5th, 2011

We at Yuricon are very saddened to learn of the death of Wada Shinji, creator of Sukeban Deka, CrownĀ  and many other series.

Dan Kanemitsu reported on Twitter that Wada-sensei’s death was confirmed by a number of sources. Dan mentions, and I agree, that Wada-sensei’s contributions toward female leads in manga is immeasurable.

As you know, if you are a regular reader here, Sukeban Deka is one of my favorite series, and one of the three classic girl-gang series I love so much. Wada’s genius will be missed.

To paraphrase the last page of the Sukeban Deka manga, “Goodbye Wada-sensei, forever.”





Yuri Manga: Aido (ę„›ć„å„“)

July 4th, 2011

Aido (ę„›ć„å„“) by Onazuka Kahori, follows the life and loves of Ureha, a young woman who had some years earlier had an affair with another woman, but is now seeing a young man who is quite serious about Ureha – he’s even proposed, but she has yet to answer him. She’s sure she loves him, but something is holding her back. And then she meets Saori, a woman who lights Ureha’s passion in a way that Ichiru, her boyfriend, never has.

When Okazu Superhero Katherine H. sent me Aido, Ā she suggested that it very much seemed to her a more modern version of Moonlight Flowers and I can totally see that. Both are about finding one’s true self and rejecting expected roles, so one can become the person one truly wants to be. Unfortunately, where Moonlight Flowers does this with elegance, Aido wallows in vulgarity.

Ureha, as a high school senior had already had a passionate love affair with another girl, and had set it aside as one does with childish things. Ichiru is clearly in love with her, but he starts off dissatisfied at Ureha’s lack of commitment and spends a great deal of the story acting suspicious, mean and churlish. He eventually falls into the time-honored pattern of “if I can’t get what I want, I’ll just take it.” A classic scoiopathy. Here’s a relationship tip – if you go on and on about how you’re *sure* the other person’s going to leave you – they will.

I don’t want to say I object to Ureha and Saori’s relationship, but I can’t say I see a lot of positives in it. Saori’s first act is to humiliate Ureha and that pretty much is their dynamic throughout. It makes it hard for me to like Ureha when she’s put herself in the position of choosing one jerk or another. Unlike Sahoko in Moonlight Flowers, she’s not escaping one demeaning relationship for a relationship between equals – she’s escaping a perfectly acceptable relationship for a demeaning one. Where Kaoru in Moonlight Flowers is cultured, elegant, successful, Saori is a name in the gay bar scene; big fish, small, desperate pond.

The difference between the classic Yuri of Moonlight Flowers and Aido is also reflected in the art. Flowers is, as I said, elegant, classic, clean, where Aido is messy and hard to follow.

Ultimately, Ureha’s choice could seem like a great middle ground to many, but in the end I was unable to find any real enthusiasm for Ureha raising a child whom at a young age, already seemed pouty, cynical and selfish, just like her mother.

There are some positive messages to be gleaned from Aido, though. The main clear and present message that is directed at all straight women is that they really had better never have lesbian sex, because it is just so much more amazing than anything they will ever have with a guy. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 5
Characters – 4
Yuri – 9
Service – 4, unless you’re into scat, then 9

Overall – 5

Where I found Moonlight Flowers romantic, elegant and beautiful, I found Aido‘s treatment of the same theme to be merely crude.





Mahou Shoujo Madoka ā˜† Magika Anime (é­”ę³•å°‘å„³ć¾ć©ć‹ā˜†ćƒžć‚®ć‚«)

July 3rd, 2011

Any wish bound by logic can be twisted….

A few months ago, I wrote a preliminary discussion of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (é­”ę³•å°‘å„³ć¾ć©ć‹ā˜†ćƒžć‚®ć‚«) and I noted that, at the time, almost no one seemed to understand my point. ^_^ I’m going to try again, this time without being clever about it.

The reason for magical girls is very simple. Teenagers desperately want to be grown-ups – to have people rely on them and to be mature and reliable. Unfortunately for most teenagers, they have neither the critical decision-making skills nor the life experience to make mature decisions. Young adults often mistake the trappings of adulthood (drinking, driving, sex) for real maturity (the strength to say “no,” for instance.) Magical girls are needed, Kyuubey understands, because magical middle-aged women would look at him and say, “You know, I have no reason to believe that you’re telling me all or even part of the truth. It’s in your best interests to keep this cycle going by your own admission, so why on earth would I take your advice?”

Kyuubey, like all good Lucifers, speaks mostly truth, and in some cases, the exact truth. Innocents are too innocent to parse the one from the other, or what the significance of that truth really is to them.

Any wish bound by logic can be twisted….

Well, duh, then…right? The answer is obvious.

So, Madoka Magica was very interesting to me. I very much loved the art used in the witch’s realities, and very much didn’t like the design of the people. If this series had character designs as beautifully done as the witches art and the buildings, most of the fans who loved it wouldn’t have given it the time of day, but, oh how gorgeous it might have been!

The ending was…what was the ending? Was it the expected ambiguity or was it writers that don’t know how to write a or are uncomfortable with a happy ending? Was it, in fact, a happy ending?

Here’s what I think – I think “end of the world” scenarios, like “Good” and “Evil,” are too much for human brains to really grasp. We assign funky art to represent Evil, because it’s easier than really establishing a new normality. We make terrible things the purview of Evil, because we can’t grasp that the selfishness of self-preservation is really what creates terrible things that other people have to live with.

Any wish bound by logic can be twisted….

The answer to that is, obviously, that one has to make a wish not bound by logic. Madoka did that.

In the world of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, it is established that this Good/Evil, Hope/Despair dichotomy runs the universe. Girls sacrifice themselves to stop this cycle, but only end up repeating it over and over. Until one girl wishes to stop the cycle before it ever begins. And you know…her wish comes true. But, it doesn’t stop the fact that the tension between Hope and Despair still powers the universe. So…did it work? Is Madoka a God, or is she still fairly limited in her ability to think outside the box?

What would you have wished? I know what I would have wished, but I’m not going to tell you. Wishes should be made in secret and not in front of Incubators. ^_^

And Yuri. Yes, Homura is clearly in love with her ideal of Madoka. An ideal, I can’t help but point out, who fails to live up to her expectations eternally. And yet she goes back again and again. Sounds like a lesbian to me. Madoka loves Homura like the Virgin Mary is supposed to love you. Ā An utterly unsatisfying situation to me, but I was never the target audience for this anime. The target audience for this anime are boys who think magical girls are a good idea.

Ratings:

Art – 5/9 for character designs and “witches” worlds respectively
Story – 8 It’s not standing ovation-worthy, but it’s good for a conversation
Characters – 7 pretty much types, rather than fully-fleshed out personalities, but in 12 episodes of angst, there’s not that much time to bother
Yuri – 5
Service – This series is, by default, created for otaku. For the amount of time we stare at the girl’s legs – the zettai ryouki, specifically – 10

Overall – 8

I had initially wanted to watch the final episodes on Walpurgisnacht (April 30,) Ā but life kept me from doing so. I’m almost glad I didn’t because, for an utter destruction of everything, this was a little disappointing, honestly.