Archive for the Bee Train Category


Yuri Anime: El Cazador, End of Season Review

October 24th, 2007

Reviews are going to be very anime-heavy for the next few weeks, as I have a huge backlog of anime that I haven’t had time to watch, while I’m busy watching new stuff that I will review eventually.

But today I wanted to do a long-overdue review of a series from the Spring season. I had watched it raw but, I wanted to refresh my memory on what happened before I reviewed it. I happily watched it all over again, and am now ready to go on the End of Season review for El Cazador de la Bruja. ^_^

You might want to read my initial review of El Cazador to compare and contrast (and also to see how, ironically, that review began in almost the exact same way that this one did. And I can assure you that it was not at *all* on purpose! I didn’t remember that I had written that until I just read it now.) Okay, so I just re-read it and, I have pretty much nothing to add, except, I think Bee Train came through for us Yuri fans on this pretty darn well.

There is a contingent of people who liked Noir best and therefore did not like El Cazador because it was too fluffy, too silly, not serious enough, not angsty enough. And there probably is a group of people who liked Madlax better, although I haven’t encountered any, yet. I just assume that there’s always someone who has a different opinion *somewhere.*

But I can’t say I liked any of them better than any of the others. They were three different takes on a theme – girls with guns on the run. I commented in my original review that El Cazador almost seemed a parody of itself and you know, I think that that was exactly what they were going for here. It’s much goofier than any of the previous Bee Train series. In-jokes abound, even within the context of the story. Tacos will never look the same to any of us again. :-) And the opening and closing theme animation had just about nothing at all to do with the story, which was nice and pointless. No guy in a mask, no sniper cat. Thank goodness. LOL

Ai Shimizu was fantastic as Ellis. Without ever once sounding less flaky or ethereal, she managed to mature her character in such a subtle, magnificent way that it almost came as an afterthought. Itou Shizuka was great as Nadie, remaining pretty clueless and not-subtle from beginning to end. :-) I found them quite charming and am glad to tell my past self that yes, I came to care about them, as I hoped I might.

Their relationship was total win for me. In the beginning, the idea of the two of them as a couple squicked me out the door. There was no one moment where it changed and became something else – it was a slow process. It was, in fact, the point of all that stuff that other people saw as fluff episodes – they were there entirely to allow the characters to develop a relationship naturally, leisurely. And it wasn’t an even process either. Ellis comes to like Nadie, later Nadie starts to care about Ellis as more than a job. Ellis starts to fall in love, Nadie starts to realize that Ellis mean more than just friend to her. And on and on. Ellis, surprisingly, becomes the seme, the agressor, here; making her case for them as a couple long before Nadie clues in. And it is Ellis who declares her love first, and last. She shoots straight from the hip, too, no implication or ambiguity.

None of the larger plot is particularly shocking or revelatory. The conspiracy is never developed as well as it might be – where in Noir we spend episode after episode poring over Soldats, in El Cazador we spend more time with the people who represent the witches and Project Leviathan, than with the details of the organizations themselves. Which is perfectly fine with me. Rosenberg, the bad guy, is loathsome and his death was way too late in the series. And he treated poor Melissa terribly, something I’m not prepared to forgive, since she was so nice. LA, this series’ crazy stalker character, was loathsome AND annoying and his death was also way too late in the series. But I will forever think of him in conjunction with Ellis setting his crotch on fire, so that sort of evens things out.

Jody “Blue Eyes” Heyward was awesomeness and not *just* cause she was voiced by Hisakawa Aya, who for once wasn’t the creepy stalker character. She was sort of a “good” stalker this time. lol Mitsuishi Kotono, who seems to be working more often these days, which makes me happy, was wonderful as the chief witch, even if she never got a name or a story. Echo and the Bunnymen were never explained, nor were Jody’s henchwomen. But that’s okay. Soldats and Enfant never really made any sense, either. :-) Just go with it.

Ricardo and Lilio. I’m still not at all sure what their roles were – acting as foils, I suppose. The four of them were a kind of oddly functional alternative family for a while there. Or would have been if Nadie had had a clue about Ellis’ feelings for her. Which she didn’t, yet.

And then there was the epilogue. It was pretty much as I expected, in fact, as I would have demanded, with two exceptions – the motivation for the confrontation that would catapult Ellis and Nadie back into their real personas was much stupider than I expected, so that was pretty funny.

In the end, as Ellis once again makes her declaration of love – with an audience this time – there is a HUGELY wooja-wooja beat-you-over-the-head love song playing in the background that is a *strong* indication that this is not meant to be seen as ambiguous or plausibly deniable. The fact that the last line of the song is “My immortal love” helps with that. And so does Pedro’s reaction. (Don’t worry if you don’t know who Pedro is – he’s there to be defeated by Ellis’ love. That’s all you need to know.)

Oh, wait – three exceptions. Jody’s ingenuous comment about her assistant being identical to Rosenberg by chance….yeah, sure. It was a off-beat note that I liked *because it has no explanation.* It just is. Go with it.

So, no, its not Noir with its intense film Noir-ness. And no, its not Madlax with its alternate existences and war-torn world. In the end, it is simply El Cazador, with Nadie and Ellis on the road. And for that, I liked it bunches.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Not good, no. But not “AAAHHH!” either
Story – 7 Sure it had huge holes. Who cares.
Characters – 9 They just grew on me
Yuri – 7 If you weren’t grinning at the end, love song and all, you fail.
Service – 5 – Almost as an afterthought – oh, yeah, we could do an ass shot here…

Overall – 8

Tacos, tacos tacos, oi-ishi-i tacosu. Iketeru tacos ha oi-i-shi ta-co-su. Tee Hee.





Yuri Anime: Noir, Volume 5

April 17th, 2007

Wow, there’s nothing like taking a step back a few years to really appreciate both what went before and what we have now. I recently sat and rewatched the volume with the most awesome episodes of Sailor Moon (106-109, in case you care) and on the train on the way to a professional conference, I rewatched Noir Volume 5 for the first time in many moons.

Volume 5 of Noir is not high art. It makes the art of Madlax look stunning by comparison, but story-wise, it’s pretty much the lynchpin moment, the moment at which the entire story alters.

It begins with one more foray into Mirielle’s past where she learns the horrible truth about herself – that she is a child of the organization who now hunts her. Turning away from her own past, she now decides to focus on Kirika’s. Kirika, in the meantime, when faced with a choice of knowledge about herself, Noir and Soldats, or saving Mirielle’s life doesn’t hesitate to chose her friend over herself. I say “friend” here, because it seems that that alone is enough of a revelation for both of them, that they might, perhaps, be becoming friends.

When Mirielle reminds Kirika of the promise that they made – that when they both understand who Kirika is and what, exactly Soldats wants, she will kill the younger woman, there is a edginess to it – we can see that that promise is now a lie, even if they can not.

Just as they start to deal with this change in their relationship, it all comes to a crashing halt. Chloe, who has been stalking Kirika from the beginning, shows Mirielle, in an impressive and incontrovertible display of skill, that she and Kirika are the True Noir. Her explanation of what Noir is, and why Noir is, only serves to highlight the gulf between Mirielle and her partner. When Kirika begins to respond to words that Chloe utters, it becomes obvious that Mirielle has lost the battle, if not the war.

This is a very “having loved and lost” kind of volume. We watch Mirielle gain knowledge of her past, but lose some of her understanding of what her childhood meant to her. She gains Kirika as a friend, but loses her as a partner. And she gains understanding of Soldats and Noir, but loses herself in the process.

I found the Noir/Soldats manuscript lines just as silly this time as the last, but somehow – and really, I don’t know how – it all sort of seemed to make perfect sense. Above all, the sense of loss that Mirielle was experiencing at the very end was very poignant and very powerful. And because El Cazador de la Bruja has already begun, I found myself hoping that I care half this much about Nadie and Ellis by the end, as I do about Kirika and Mirielle.

What makes the story here so interesting, is watching Chloe take everything that Mirielle has fought so hard to gain. What makes the rest of the series so interesting is watching Mirielle fight even harder to get it back.

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 2

Overall – 7

I still think Chloe’s character design looks weird and out of place, but I guess that kind of works…





Spring 2007 Anime Season: El Cazador

April 11th, 2007

It’s going to be very anime-heavy in the upcoming days, as the new 2007 Spring season has begun, and there are several series worthy of attention from the Yuri fan. And, thanks to the continued generosity of my readers, I have an even larger pile of anime to watch now. There’s also a greatly belated end-of-season review I really must do sometime soon. So, manga, live-action and Drama CD fans, I’ll try to get at least one thing in a week for you. But anime is where we’re at for the foreseeable future.

So, here we are just barely into the spring anime season. Which of the several series of interest do we with start with? Well, as the large bulk of attention is being paid to Nanoha StrikerS, let’s buck the trend and start with El Cazador instead.

El Cazador is the third of the “chicks with guns” trilogy by Machimo Koichi and Bee Train – the trilogy that began with Noir and continued with Madlax. (And, I’m of the belief that the latter will be hard to beat, given Bee Train’s preference for ambiguously yuri relationships.)

This series has all the “6 degrees of yuri” signposts: the aforementioned director and production company, Fiction Junction Yuuka and savage genius for EP and OP artists, Ai Shimizu (Mikoto in Mai HiMe/Otome, Hatsumi and Fuji-hime in Yamibou among others) and Itou Shizuka (Rei in Maria-sama ga Miteru, among others) voicing the lead roles. Also joining the cast are Hisakawa Aya (who was Chloe in Noir and Rimelda in Madlax making this a hat trick for her) and Toyoguchi Megumi (Sei in Maria-sama ga Miteru). So, cast, crew and music all scream “Yuri.” The big question now has to be – what about the plot?

We don’t yet know, of course. ^_^ Bee Train stories usually take a good 8 episodes to get going. I’m always willing to give any series about that to gain, keep or lose my attention. And we’re only two episodes in at this point. But I expect it to be in the same realm of ambiguously Yuri relationships as the first two entries in the trilogy – that is to say, I’ll bet there’ll be enough Yuri somewhere in here to make us happy. (I sincerely hope we don’t revert to the Avenger model, which was not at *all* the kind of thing I’m looking for.

Let me be lazy for a second and abstract some of my initial response to El Cazador from the Yuricon Mailing List :

El Cazador has so many of the elements we have come to expect from Bee Train that it almost seems a parody of itself. ^_^ The credits have all the same elements as the Noir and Madlax sequences did. It felt a bit like watching a James Bond flick when Cubby Broccoli was doing all the opening sequences. There was a…uniformity…even though they are all different. Same here.

The setting is different from both Madlax and Noir – this time the American southwest or perhaps a Mexico-ish place. The characters look different but again, they are similar – tough, competent, but slightly flaky gunwoman; cute, flaky younger woman with no memory of the past. Repeated murder in the past footage (without plinky musical theme, though…). Weird object with no meaning as of yet, and grand conspiracy in the background. This time, instead of Soldats or Enfant, we have Project Leviathan.

Last, but hardly least, the end credits give us annoying guy in a mask. Oh, and NOW we know where Friday Monday’s little brother got to. He’s the bad guy in this one. ^_^

I was a tad disappointed by the animation for the first episode. The people all look thin and featureless. But it does set off the highly detailed backgrounds of sand and office doors nicely…

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – I’m deferring this until the story gets going
Characters – 7 (By episode two I kind of like both Nadi and Ellis…)
Yuri – 0 as of yet, unless you count the fact that Hisakawa Aya’s character is clearly an Evil Psychotic Librarian type.
Service – 3 (Crotch shots, maid costumes, I’m sure there’ll be bathing scenes.)

Overall – 7

Nadi’s the goofy, tough gal with a heart of gold type, Ellis is flaky with a distinctly sexual thing going on with her mysterious power. So, there is definite potential and a good track record backing it up. But only time will tell whether Bee Train comes through for us on El Cazador, or not.





Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 7

July 3rd, 2006

Because I’m home for the holiday, I thought I’d try something new today – reviewing something as I watch it. So, I am watching Madlax, Volume 7 as I write.

The first thing that struck me was the cover of this DVD. If you haven’t yet gotten the connection between Madlax and Margaret, then you’re clearly running behind. This picture ought to make the point quite clearly.

It’s very hard to talk about this volume without massive spoilers, but I’m going to try to be vague and speculative about some key things. My apologies if I blow anything huge for you.

Right from the opening seconds there’s a great tension in this volume that doesn’t really dissipate until the end, where it’s supposed to. How amazing is that?

Episode 24

In the first episode, we finally see Madlax as she truly is – a phantasm. There’s a brilliant moment when a machine gun is shot at her and we can see the bullets ricochet against the rock behind her. Clearly, the shots passed right through her forehead. But there’s no reaction from her and no sign of the bullets. The shadow Madlax taking all the hits while the absurd dress-wearing Madlax shoots the enemy, was quite brilliant.

Then Rimelda arrives. She’s changed, one can see that immediately. There’s something like acceptance, and a little relief in her expression. She and Madlax have a moment that changes everything between them.

Meanwhile, we get to see just how much Eleanor truly loves Margaret, and what Margaret really is to her.

Episode 24 makes a really good case for there being many different ways that love can manifest. In day-to-day things, (what my wife and I refer to as “playing house”) and in remembering a person after they are gone.

We lose yet another friend and again, it’s a GREAT scene. In a war story, losing someone isn’t bizarre and can be used well. In anime, a main character remaining dead is almost unheard of. It makes the death more meaningful (in the sense of driving the story) when you know that they won’t pop back in a giant reset that renders everything pointless. The losses we suffer here are handled well and are definitely not pointless.

Episode 25

Where Episode 24 is about an apparent reality, 25 is about the magic that has driven the series from the beginning – some of which has only been hinted at. It’s a magic with no roots in our world, so we have to take everything we’re given at face value, which I like quite a bit.

Things we thought were resolved pop back up, still present. People we thought gone come back, but not for the reasons we might think. And Margaret is not saved, as it appeared last episode.

We get to see Friday Monday’s point of view on the events of twelve years ago, which adds the few last pieces to the puzzle – except why Friday Monday is such a crazy nerdbanger. That remains unexplained. Also I question the concept of the “Essence”, since it seems to always make people turn murderously violent against the person they love the most. It seems an obviously flaw to the FM’s insistence that that is the REAL truth, when it’s the same exact reaction in everyone who encounters the words. It’s like saying that datura is *really* an antacid, and the fact that people who take it die is sort of a side effect of the true disease within them. Except, as we see that FM is completely crazy, we can also see how, to him, this obviously evil magic spell is “The Truth (TM)”. Nonetheless, we do see the truth, finally, of what happened to Margaret, and who Madlax is.

When the calvary thunders down the hill – to kick ass music, mind you – it was so wonderful, if just to SHUT Friday Monday UP. Geez, his laugh is enough to make *me* shoot him.

Episode 26 – Final.

What can I really say about this episode that won’t be one great big spoiler? Let’s just say this – the story actually ends. And, to the best of the writers’ abilities, it makes sense. There are still tons of questions, but they are more about the hows than the whys or whats.

Watching Margaret making her decision this time, it all made more sense. Of course, if I tell you why, I’ll ruin the whole thing, so you’ll just have to watch it and get back to me.

And I guess there’s something to the bad guy who doesn’t die, because this way you can just keep killing the freak again and again…

Oh, and how happy was I when Margaret tells Friday Monday exactly what I pointed out in my review of Volume 6 – that there was no need to bring out the violence and hatred in people’s hearts, because we’re quite well aware that it exists, thanks awfully.

I still maintain that Madlax is the best writing that Bee Train has done. It has the mystery of the .hack series, without the endless meaningless chatter that goes nowhere, the Yuri and violence of Noir, the despair and love of Avenger and a story that resolves, unlike all of them. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Character – 9
Music – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 3 (random breasts, pretty much)

Overall – 8

And what a great epilogue. I love that epilogue. Luv, luv. This series ends with an unexpected bang. Perfect for fanfic. (Which yes, I have written. It’s up on “Worldshaking” Fanfic. Enjoy!)





Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 6

May 30th, 2006

So much happens in Madlax, Volume 6 that I’m not sure where to start. So, as usual, I’ll start with the absurd. ^_^

Imagine if you will, two women running through a hot war zone. One is a hardened warrior, her skills bolstered by magic, the other…a maid. We can tell, because she wears the  ubiquitous ruffled apron over a dark dress. Now, I know Eleanor is a dedicated servant, attached by more than just duty to her mistress Margaret, but come *on*! Give the girl a pair of boots and pants at least – her legs are going to be a mess out there in the jungle.

The other absurdity in this series remains the same – Friday Monday is such a nerdbanger, I can barely credit his getting this far at all, except by dumb luck. And then there’s his exhaustingly over-used dream of a “pure” humanity , driven by hatred. Oh yes, that would be different, because? Has he LOOKED at the world recently? Enfant is wasting their energy – they could have let this particular civil war die, because sure as there’s tomatoes in my salad, another would have popped up. And Rimelda becomes horribly boring, but don’t worry, she’ll be back, better, than ever

Now, for the good side – we get actual, semi-contextual info on what went on 12 years ago! Yay! Of course, it’s not entirely correct, but at least we have a clue – a bunch more clues, in fact. What happened to Vanessa Rene’s family that has driven her to look for information? Who, exactly, is Callosur Dawn and what was his role 12 years ago? What actually *happened* that night? We have most – but not all – of it now.

Good – Madlax accepts what she is, and as a result gets a power up.

Good – we lose a friend and it’s permanent and powerful. If you don’t want spoilers for this, DON’T look at the “Extras” menu until after you’ve watched the volume.

Good – Margaret losing it. Finally, she has a personality. Even if it’s an evil, stupid one.

Good – We know know the reasoning behind the obsessive reptition of the red shoes, the “it’s going to rain,” the doll…but not pasta.

Good – Naharu actually *does* something. Yay her.

In general, a complex and fascinating volume, and a bit maddening, as we still need a few more pieces to figure out what the flying %^$! is going on. ^_^ Nice job for the penultimate volume. Thumbs up from me on that.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Music – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 3

Overall – 8

It’s getting better and better, but I want to know what the deal is with pasta. (And if you know, don’t tell me – I mean within the context of the anime, duh.)