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Archive for 2011


Aria Manga, Volume 6 (English)

February 17th, 2011

Aria Volume 6 (Aria (Tokyopop))Among the many lessons in the Aria manga, there is one that is quiet, softly tucked in among the all the others. But of all the lessons within Aria, it is quite possibly at the very core of this manga’s value system.

In Volume 6, we learn what kind of adult Alicia wants to become, what a Master means to a student, what kind of person Athena is, what Alice doesn’t want anyone else knowing about her and what the secret behind the late night train whistle that runs through town is.

But more importantly – most importantly – we learn once again that everyone is good at…something. And in that simple fact, we’re reminded to appreciate the people around us for that thing, and by extension, appreciate our time with them, and our time in the world. In fact, if we learn anything from Aria, it should be to *appreciate* the life we have, because for each of us, it is unique and wonderful.

You could, of course, be reading Aria for whatever Yuri you may have made up in your head. And that too will be valid – as long as you appreciate it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 1

Overall – 8

I am absolutely thrilled to say “Thank you, I appreciate it!” to brand-new Okazu Hero, Kayden L! Thank you for the sponsorship of today’s post – and for the lovely note that came with the book. I truly appreciate the kind words. Please email me  to receive your Okazu Hero badge, suitable for use on websites, social media profiles and other flat surfaces!

I would also like to express sincere appreciation to Tokyopop for continuing to put this series out, despite the fact that it will never have the hordes of fans it deserves.

I very much appreciate Amano-sensei for writing this series. I’m able to appreciate it anew with every volume.

And while I’m at it, I just want to say once more how much I appreciate you for reading this review.





Yuri Manga: GIRL FRIENDS, Volume 5

February 16th, 2011

After a rollercoaster ride of emotional growth, we have at last arrived at Volume 5 of Morinaga Milk-sensei’s definitive work, GIRL FRIENDS. And it is good.

Mari and Akiko have only a few more things left to deal with before they can face the world as a couple. One of these things is the physical component of their relationship, which is played for both laughs and “aww”s and is a sweet, rather than salacious, moment in their journey.

Of course their high school life is another thing they must deal with, and the hurdle of what will they do after they graduate takes up a large portion of this volume. It’s resolved satisfactorily on all sides. Akiko and Mari graduate without problem and in a giant handwave get to live happily ever after – at least as far as into the next stage of their lives.

And, despite the big stick o’happily ever after being applied liberally to the end of this series, I find myself not as satisfied with it as I had hoped to be. Bear with me as I explain why.

There are, IMHO, three obvious and perfectly legitimate reasons why the ending was given to us in an amorphous ball of “and they lived happily ever after,” rather than in any detail. Please allow me to indulge in a bit of overthinking here. These reasons might have been:

1) The author herself is clearly a specialist in the space between realizing “I like you” and getting together as a couple. It may be she has no interest in portraying anything after that.

2) The editor may have suggested that the audience isn’t terribly interested in the non-high school hurdles a gay couple has to face, or that the frisson of first love/first lust is sexier and more appealing to them than the domestic minutiae of buying furniture

3) Since all romances are, in some key ways, fantasies, the author may have wanted to portray a perfect world in which a couple of women, having decided to build a life together actually can, without pressure or difficulty from family or discrimination in housing or employment.

As I said, all three of these reasons are absolutely perfectly acceptable. And yet I remain unsatisfied. Why? Because for 4 volumes, Morinaga-sensei had constructed what I consider to be an incredibly realistic look at two young women in love. No, I absolutely did not need to see Mari and Akiko stressing over coming out to their families, but one handwave to wipe away all the many, many obstacles a young lesbian or gay couple faces was slightly irksome in the face of spending 4 volumes delving deeply into that very thing.

When you are part of a young gay or lesbian couple, your life is never truly private. Every act you do as a couple is a political statement, demanding recognition. As David Welsh of MangaCurmudgeon so brilliantly put it, every time he goes food shopping with his husband it is a subversive act. Constance McMillan never set out to make a political statement – she just wanted to take her girlfriend as her date to their senior prom. But the adults around her immediately turned that perfectly average desire into a divisive political declaration. For those of us who are LGBTQI, this happens every day.

So, when all of that is simply skipped or ignored, after 4 volumes of dealing with every single possible emotional hurdle between two girls and a life together as a couple, I found it to be disappointing. Had Mari at least thought, “Well, we still have a lot to deal with,” as she considered their life together in the epilogue, I would have been 100% satisfied. As it is, Morinaga-sensei gives away a little of the issue with the wrap-up in which we are told that Mari and Akiko still remained friends with Sugi-san and Tamamin and the others. This was never really a story about Mari and Akiko as Girlfriends. For Morinaga-sensei and her readers it was a story about Girls and their Friends. And in that story was a very sweet romance between two of those girls.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 10
Service – 4

Overall – 8

This series, at a comfortable 5 volumes, would be an excellent candidate for a American manga company who wanted to take a chance on a “Yuri” manga.





Hayate x Blade Mini-Drama CD

February 15th, 2011

If you bought the deluxe version of Volume 13 of Hayate x Blade, you received a Mini-Drama CD. As with most of the other HxB Mini Drama CDs, this one has a pervasive feel of fourth wall destruction and chaos.

Hitsugi has once again decided to record a Drama CD and to that end, she has gathered together the main characters of the story so she can inform them of her decision. This gives an opportunity to become reacquainted with the character’s voices – and to acclimate to the new voices in the cast, most notably Ensuu, Mei, Sid and Nancy. In all honesty, this CD could have ended after Sid and Nancy are introduced and I would have been happy, but no…Hitsugi has a much, much more diabolical plan, erm, planned.

For it is Tatewaki Hikaru who is called upon to step to the front and upon whose broad shoulders Hitsugi-sama places the important task of writing the script for the next Drama CD! Which is to say, she leaves Tatewaki alone in a room with some crackers and tea and a computer and tells her to clean up when she’s done.

And this, my friends, is the most amazing thing ever. Asano Mayumi has forever changed my impression of both Tatewaki and voice acting in general. The next scene, as Tatewaki bemoans her fate, mutters crazily to herself and chortles – not just chortles, but does the BEST CHORTLE EVER – alongside of dialogue recitation as she types, I considered myself schooled in the ways of voice acting by a Master.

The next scenes are a series of odd couple pairings, presumably in the scenes Tatewaki was composing. The wrap-up allows Hitsugi to be mean to her once more.

Then came the Bonus Track. Apparently I was not the only one impressed by Asano-san. The theme was “what character would you like to be,” and without hesitation several of the actresses stated that they wanted to be Asano Mayumi – to which I replied, “Agreed!” This despite the refrain from everyone else pointing out that Asano-san was not, in fact a character, but a real person.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

All I know is that the star of this Mini Drama CD was Asano Mayumi-san. The manga is totally worth getting – this CD is worth moving both heaven and earth to get.





Jormungand Manga, Volume 6 (English)

February 14th, 2011

There are days, like today, when the idea of being a professional killer holds great appeal. On days like this, I never read manga like Jormungand, for the same reason I won’t have a drink on days I’m depressed. It would be a very, very bad habit to get into.

Jormungand continues along its merry way, leaving piles of corpses in its wake, while the main characters become even more sympathetic and human so that we root for them to kill even more *really* bad guys. Our guys aren’t bad, you see…they are really honorable, decent professional soldiers who were screwed over by their dishonorable leaders. Hey! we say. We’re really honorable people who have been screwed over by THE MAN. We would love to take revenge in a visceral way. But we’re also not entirely delusional and, in my case at least, a pretty bad shot, so we watch Koko and her team do it for us.

In Volume 6, Valmet finds that her former life as Major Sophia Valmer has some unfinished business that needs to be wrapped up and she sets off to finish it. She is joined in this by Jonah, who is clearly the other piece of Koko’s soul. They wrap it up neatly while Koko and the rest of the team deal with baddies who try to pay with drugs rather than good, clean, dirty money and piss Koko off. The body count rises.

Of note, Koko discusses how she feels about Valmet, admitting she sees her as an important part of her life. The actual description is left open-ended, so we can fill in what blanks we feel are appropriate.

Valmet’s feelings for Koko are, as ever, on the surface for all to see. In this book, emboldened by affectionate kindness from Koko and proximity to her, Valmet sneaks in a quick peck on the cheek. Happy Valentine’s Day, Valmet. That’s probably all you’re ever going to get, but if you’re happy, then I’m happy.

Jormungand remains a cheerful little ditty about cheerful professional killers killing cheerfully. I feel better already.

Ratings:

Art – 5 (It’s steadied up a bit from last volume)
Story – 5
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service –  2

Overall – 8

For a manga equivalent of a shooter game, you really just can’t beat Jormungand. It’s morally reprehensible, but extremely enjoyable.





Yuri Manga: Himitsu

February 13th, 2011

Otomo Megane’s Himitsu (ひみつ) is a series of good ideas that don’t live up to their potential for two very specific reasons.

The plot follows a series of girls falling in love with other girls, at least one of these is meant to closely parallel a second story from the past – in which one of the main players is an adult in the present.

This shouldn’t be particularly complicated, except that Otomo has exactly three character types – blonde glasses girl, short-haired girl and long-haired girl. Each story follows possibly the same three, or three so similar that it’s impossible to tell the difference – other than names, which were never presented in full, so we aren’t *really* sure who we’re looking at without working at it.  Yes, it was absolutely true that, after I figured out which story I was following, I knew who was who. But overall, I’d rather not have to work that hard at it.

None of this would have been problematic if the stories were standalones, each telling a slightly different variation of three similar young women. Unfortunately, several of the chapters were continuations, not always in linear order. And the parallel stories were meant to be similar, which further blurs the lines. None of the stories were particularly memorable, which doesn’t help.

Individually, the stories are a variation on the theme of young love. There’s one of everything, from love triangles, to unrequited crushes, to crushing on an older girl and that old chestnut “she left to get married.” None of the stories themselves were bad, and the art is pleasant in a minimalist way.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Stories – 6
Characters – 3 They felt like the same characters over and over – even when they weren’t meant to be
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 5

The bottom line is that the artist’s lack of variety forced me to work harder at following the stories than the work itself warranted.