Archive for the Morishima Akiko Category


Yuri Anime: Yurikuma Arashi The Complete Series, Disk 2 (English)

August 25th, 2017

While watching Disk 1 of Yurikuma Arashi, the collaborative effort between Ikuhara Kunihiko and Morishima Akiko, I spent most of the time searching for meaning. While watching Disk 2, I gave up on that and just let the story play out while I stared at it.

For once, the confusion wasn’t a surfeit of plot, but an excess of same. Kureha, Ginko and Lulu all had their own fairytales, all of which overlapped at moments that they met, but were otherwise wholly different and unmanageably massive. The Severance Court adds to to confusion by adding restrictions on all of the characters that served no purpose other than creating plot complications so that the several fairy tales can’t possibly all have happy endings…until they do.

The happy endings were the surprising twist at the end, since we’d all have a reasonable expectation of at least one of them ending alone and miserable but, no, this fairy tale was going to end with the two princesses living happily-ever-after, goddamn it. Even if we had to kill a few other people to make it happen.

Unfortunately, the translation on this disk was distractingly bad, with at least one gaffe that my wife protested. “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” was a thing that was said a number of times this disk, which makes me think the team they assigned here got confused and just gave up and no one checked their work.

Equally annoying was the technical side, which I suppose must have been the same for the first disk, but for some reason didn’t affect me as problematic. The controls on the menu were beige, and would light up light pink when clicked. I had to get up and lean over the TV to see the color change. I’m old and my eyes are crap, but the one thing I am very sensitive to is color and this was brutally bad. Please run title screens by someone over 40, Funimation. Thanks.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Weirdly happy, but still weird.
Story – 7 …and they lived happily ever after, somehow.
Characters – 7 Bears all the way down
Yuri – 14 million
Service – 7

Overall – 7

It wasn’t bad, but it was so service-y and creepy in places that I can’t call it “good,” either. It was certainly a thing we watched, wasn’t it?

Thank you Yuricon Superhero Dan P for giving me a chance to relive my adoration of a wonderful evil psychotic lesbian in Yurika.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Kuma Arashi, Volume 3 (ユリ熊嵐)

January 2nd, 2017

Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the Yuri Kuma Arashi manga tell a slightly different story than the anime.  The main premise remains the same – human girl Tsubaki Kureha meets and falls in love with bear girl Yurishiro Ginko, who has some connection to her past and her late mother. 

In the anime the fairytale about the bear princess and human princess ends up overlapping with reality and Ginko and Kureha end up happily-ever-after, but much of the detail gets lost in the obsession with a “promise kiss,” an overabundance of lilies and a lot of plotline mad libs.

In Yuri Kuma Arashi, Volume 3 (ユリ熊嵐), the story is brought to a conclusion that, in one way, makes a lot more sense, but in order to get there, needs a few key magical handwaves.

In Volume 2, we learned that Yurika, Kale and Leila, Kureha’s mother, were all close. In Volume 3, we learn the truth, that all three were lovers. Kale was betrothed to Yurika’s brother, but fell in love with Yurika instead. Independently they both fell in love Leila. The three lived a lovely, romantic twilight world of joy until Leila broke their bonds and left. It almost killed Kale. When Leila returned she was pregnant so Kale (who had been betrothed to Yurika’s brother, remember) also became pregnant. Their children were fated to be together because they said so.

But, tragedy struck. When Ginko and Kureha were small, Leila was late returning to the house one day Ginko, not knowing who she was, shot her. The real question is how does a small bear shoot a rifle, but just, don’t…

Between Kale, Yurika and Ginko, the full story comes out and Kureha forgives Ginko, as she was only a little bear and couldn’t possibly be held responsible for her actions. In the meantime, Ginko, suffering from a guilt-induced fever is staying at Sumika’s house with Kureha and Lulu. Lulu is finding herself really falling in like with Sumika, but is still worried that she’s a “kumajyo,” a witch  who uses magic against the bears. The three bear-boy judges  finally get their screentime and judge Sumika, who is their sister, for being a kumajyo. She’s found innocent, and Lulu decides that she could do worse. 

Kureha forgives Ginko. To be able to stay together, Kureha becomes a bear, as well.

Yurika and Kale reunite, and all would be perfect if ONLY Leila were still alive. 

…

…

As Ginko and Kureha play one day, Kureha finds a picture of woman who looks exactly like her mother in an Estonian bear preserve! As magic fills the end of the book, Yurika and Kale head off to find their lost love, Lulu and Sumika head into a new relationship, Lulu runs into her late brother, suddenly resurrected, Ginko and  Kureha kiss as they board the Yurikuma Arashi “flight to the unknown.”

The End.

I’m not sure that it made any more sense than the anime, but it sure didn’t make any less. And what sex and romance we encountered was far less service-y than the anime. The main difference is in Yurika. In the anime, she was very much the Evil Psycho Lesbian Bear. In the manga, she was the stabilizing force for Leila and Kale. I liked Yurika best in both versions of the story.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – 5

Overall – 8

Leila means “light” in Estonian…as one might expect.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Kuma Arashi, Volume 2 (ユリ熊嵐)

September 27th, 2015

YKAMA2In my review of Volume 1, I finished up with this line: By the time Volume 2 comes out, if indeed it does, the anime will likely be over and I’m sure we’ll have concocted meanings for all the things that don’t mean anything at all. ^_^.

And here I am at Yuri Kuma Arashi, Volume 2 (ユリ熊嵐) and I have a completely different perspective. An Ikuhara series is more like a set of writing prompts than a 3-d perspective. He hands you a set of cards; “Yuri”, “Bears”, “A Promise Kiss”, “Bears eat Humans”, “A Love Story,” and pushes you out of the room with a “Go, write something. Make it look pretty and feel profound.”

And y’know, I’m 100% okay with this. ^_^

Kureha and Ginko like each other. Kureha has kissed Ginko, and said she feels that she wants to be more than friends, which makes Ginko pull away. Kureha is befriended by Sumika who is rumoured to be a “kumajyo,” a witch, and this makes Ginko miserable. Something is coming between her and Kureha, but no one can tell what it is.

Lulu visits Sumika and learns that her house is indeed imbued with magic. Lulu sees a vision of her dead younger brother. In the anime, this story felt like it went on forever, but here it is more banal and therefore more touching. Lulu loved her brother Mirun, but when watching him one day, she left to go to the convenience store to get them food, and he, not wanting to be left behind, ran after her, out into the street and was killed by a car. This was much improved on the long, confusing and inexplicable story Lulu told in the anime.

It’s Lulu who uncovers the truth about Ginko’s mood, when she and Ginko share a memory of Yurika and her boyish girlfriend from high school. They go to visit Yurika and Lulu discovers her in bed with that woman, now beautiful and feminine, and is shocked to learn that the boyish girl she remembers from her youth is none other than Ginko’s mother, Kale (pronounced Kah-re, as in “kareshi”, i.e., boyfriend, but also linked to Kali, we’re told. While Yurika’s name is, more properly, Eureka.)

In the anime, Ginko’s mother was not a character. Here, we learn that Kale wrote the picture book that Kureha’s mother read to her all the time, about the lost bear princess.

The upshot of all this is that Yurika, Kale and Leila (Kureha’s mother) were all close. And in the manga, it is Ginko’s mother, Kale, who ate Leila.

Phew.  I spent all night trying to figure out how to explain that. ^_^

As the book comes to an end, Kureha runs after Ginko to tell she knows the truth now and she doesn’t care. “Ginko is not alone! I’m here!” Kureha yells, embracing Ginko. Will the bear princess forgive herself? How will Sumika die (oh, let’s be honest, she has to go.) Tune in to Volume 3 to find out!

The final few pages are the three boy bears complaining that they didn’t get much time in the manga for which I can only say…good. They were so utterly meaningless in the anime, repeated footage that was never connected to any of the rest of the story. Morishima-sensei makes a good point, though, about how they could easily be a BL spinoff.

I’ve spent the last few days trying to piece this review together and in the end, I have to say that I’m much preferring the manga to the anime. Once you took away the repeated footage and meaningless visual statements, there was exceptionally little world-building or storytelling going on in the anime. Without long, lingering flashbacks and explanations and “Wall of Severance” scenes, this story is starting to make some sense.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – 5

Overall – 8

Let me editorialize – Once upon a time, there were 2 bears and a human girl and they were all friends. But the bears wanted to eat the girl, because that’s what bears do. When one bear fell in love with the girl, the other bear decided to eat the girl, because she was jealous. Now, that bear’s daughter, and the girl’s daughter are falling in love. That’s what I’ve got so far. We’ll see if I’m right or not. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Seijun Shoujo Paradigm (聖純少女パラダイム)

June 16th, 2015

downloadIn Seijun Shoujo Paradigm (聖純少女パラダイム), Morishima Akiko gave Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari readers her take on the most common private Catholic girl’s school tropes. And typically, she has a lot of fun with it. ^_^

At Saint Paradigm Girl’s School (one of a long line of nonsense Saint names in Yuri literature, but sometimes it’s hard to tell, I’m looking at you Saint Scholastica,) Aoi is all excited to get her elite high school experience started. Even the sight of a girl confessing to an upperclassman (and being rejected) makes her feel like she’s in the middle of a novel. And when the teacher leaves the room and the girls all drop their proper facades to pick up their phones and play games, or text their boyfriends, it depresses her.

Depressed as she is, she’s still more cheerful than Lily, the girl who had been rejected.  Lily actually likes girls, but is rejected regularly. Aoi, who has no interest in a boyfriend, agrees to be Lily’s best friend. Until Lily gets a girlfriend, she and Lily will love each other best.

The story splits off a bit to deal with some other couples among the student body – the president of the literature club and a member who have been lovers for years, but still have some issues. and the President and Vice President of the Student Council who are a perfect Takarazuka couple and, despite the fact that they live together and know they love each other, have not gone beyond a kiss on the cheek. Lily’s lack of tact is the key development that allows them to close that final gap between them.

After the school festival, Lily confesses seriously once more…to Aoi. Aoi knows they’ve agreed to love each other best, but this seemed different. As their second term begins, Aoi comes to realize she has deeper feelings for Lily, and the book and the story draw to a close with an “awww.”

Ratings:

Art – 8 Morishima’s usual cute faces and cheerful style
Story – 8 A sweet series for a Yuri-themed magazine
Characters – I liked them all, but sympathized with the literature club’s Midori most, who just wanted to hear “I love you” more often
Yuri – 9
Service – 3 Some underwear scenes, Morishima does underwear nicely

Overall – 8

Morishima-sensei says that this is her first Yuri set “among the sakura” and I immediately thought of a tagline for this kind of Yuri. Not “strawberry” at all – they had the wrong fruit. This is Yuri with “The scent of lilies and the flavor of cherries.”





Yuri Manga: Onna no ko Awase (女の子合わせ)

September 10th, 2013

This summer saw two manga collections  by Morishima Akiko-sensei released at once. The first one I reviewed,  Hajimeta, Kanojou to. was a look back at the beginnings of couples that had been established in later stories. This collection, Onna no ko Awase (女の子合わせ) are one-shots she drew for Comic Yuri Hime and the Yuri Hime Wildrose and Girls Love anthologies.

The first half of the book is stand-alones, and because many of them are anthology stories, they are more sex-focused than her serial works. The first story can be summed up with  “we’re in love, what do we do now?” A graduating senior and her underclassman lover spend a morning reliving their good times in school. Two girls in a private Catholic girls school indulge in questionable taste as they enjoy a bit of non-consensual BDSM in the chapel in front of Mary. A college student teaches her tutor how to have fun on a vacation.

The second half of the book is a mini-series about “Nega”, a girl with negative vibes, who desires a fellow clubmember whom she sees as a perfect angel that she wants to dirty. Nega has a lot of issues to get past and her image is just one of them. For her part, the object of Nega’s desire, Tsukimiya, is totally on board. They learn to trust themselves and each other. Kei, a idol of the school who helps Nega rework her image,  and Nana, Nega’s friend, have a parallel relationship that goes from friends with benefits to something more. No surprise, I liked this series best, since we took time to get to know the characters, rather than just rushing them to bed.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Stories – Variable – 4-8
Characters – Same
Yuri – 9
Service – 8

Overall – 7

I definitely prefer Morishima-sensei’s series. ^_^