Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Manga: Aoi Hana, Volume 3

May 19th, 2008

A-chan, her older brother, Fumi, Kyouko and two school friends are headed out to the country for a vacation at Kyouko’s family’s summer house in Aoi Hana, Volume 3.

We meet Kyouko’s cousin, who is also her fiancee’, and her aunt who is very nice and her mother who is not. Kyouko’s cousin and A-chan’s brother have a chat over golf, where he admits to actually liking Kyouko, but knows that it’s pretty useless. The girls all walk through the woods. When Akira slips, Fumi’s *right there* to catch her – Pon-chan complains that when she slips, no one saves her. :-)

The girls all camp out for the night in a cabin after making curry. Fumi and A-chan find themselves up late at night looking at the stars, and suffering from summer colds the next morning. :-) When the rest of the girls go out for the day, Akira accidentally overhears a private argument between Kyouko’s cousin and mother about Kyouko, with some serious bile on the mother’s part. She is clearly not accepting at all of her daughter’s sexuality. Mom’s got some issues of her own.

The next day, all the girls except Fumi are attending Yasuko’s sister’s wedding. We switch points of view to Yasuko’s family, where Yasuko, dressed in suit and tie, is in a foul mood. She’s happy for her sister, but miserable because of her feelings for about to be brother-in-law. The wedding is beautiful, of course.

A-chan and Fumi decide to go to Enoshima after the wedding. When Yasuko overhears A-chan making plans, she wants to see Fumi, so she invites herself along. Fumi’s not terribly happy about it. Yasuko says she wanted to see her, but Fumi tells her flat out it’s no good. She walks off with Akira, leaving Akira’s brother and Yasuko to follow behind.

Yasuko starts to think about how she became the butch she is now, by trying to become the man she admired so much.

While sightseeing in a cavern, Yasuko and Fumi have a moment, in which Fumi says that she gave up on Yasuko, and Yasuko apologizes.

Later that night, Fumi admits to Akira that her first love was A-chan, then apologizes for saying something strange. A-chan’s a little surprised, but handles it with good grace.

Later, we hear that Yasuko’s moved out – and is, in fact, living with the girl who played Catherine to her Heathcliff. Kyouko tells Yasuko that she really does love her, while Yasuko, who seems happy about shedding her former life like a shell, is not as concerned with it as she might have been previously.

A-chan begins dating Kyouko’s cousin and Fumi finds herself jealous enough to feel pain.

To Be Continued.

There are also some side stories about other couples as omake. These are not people we know, just shorts of love and loss.

This volume was, like the previous volumes, emotional without being histrionic. More and more, I find myself liking Fumi, pulling for her, hoping that she’ll find someone even better, even cooler. A-chan is Fumi’s past and now, so is Yasuko, but we can’t help but think that there’s someone (possibly even Yasuko, once she’s gotten past her own issues, but I almost hope not) out there for her who can treasure her and make her happy. Kyouko too – we *know* she can do better than to waste her love on Yasuko.

Yasuko in suit and tie was pretty nice, even if she had a face on for the entire scene. :-)

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 8

I can’t wait to see where this series goes, and with every volume I pray that it doesn’t get canceled before it finds some place of resolution. As we won’t see the next volume until 2009 at least, that’s a whole lotta prayin’. ;-)





Yuri Anime: Noir, Volume 7 (English)

May 14th, 2008

What a really fabulous series Noir is. It’s been years – practically lifetimes in fandom years – since I first watched this series as it came out on Japanese TV. I enjoyed it just as much, maybe even a little more, this time as I did lo those many years ago when I first set eyes on Kirika and Mirielle.

In Volume 7 of Noir, everything comes to a head. Kirika has left Mirielle behind and given herself over to the dark side of the Force. She’s entered the alternative universe of Altena’s Manor and, to Chloe’s genuine joy and delight, has dedicated herself to being Noir.

Chloe really blossoms in this volume and it still creeps me out.  ^_^

When Mirielle arrives, the sense that she’s come to free Kirika from a spell is not as strong as the sense that she’s arrived to allow Kirika to free herself. And then the battle become two on one and there’s no question, really, who the true Noir is. It’s the “End of the Matter” as the volume title states.

In the final episodes, as Mirielle takes on the members of Altena’s household, hearing Shinohara Emi as one of them was like a little easter egg for me.

There’s a lot of wonderful moments in the final volume of Noir, most of which would be spoilers, so I don’t want to point them out. If you have never watched Noir to completion, do – there’s gold in them there hills. If you have and can’t remember Altena’s final scene, then watch it again. It confirms what I have been saying since the beginning – she was a refugee from a completely different anime series. ^_^

We were treated to a bump up in Yuri for the final episodes, with Chloe fawning over Kirika, but for me, not being a huge Chloe fan, it was Mirielle’s decisions that spoke volumes about her feelings for Kirika.

The final production notes read more like a discussion guide than anything else. They propose questions for us, the audience, to answer, and end them all with “What was Noir to you?” I’ll tell you what it was to me – a story of love and redemption, a story of action and violence, a story of growth and diminishing, a story of two women whose lives change are irrevocably changed when they meet after many years. And the beginning of a fantastic triptych of girls with guns on the run.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Character – 9
Story – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 4 Hawt ritual bathing action

Overall – 9

Still want to do a Noir, Madlax, El Cazador marathon. If they are each good by themselves, how much better will they be when we run them together until our eyes bleed? Everything’s better in excess! ^_^





Yuri Manga: Gunjou, Chapters 3 and 6

May 9th, 2008

Back in March, I reviewed a new non-moe Yuri manga series by Nakamura Ching, Gunjou. After I posted my review, Nakamura-san offered to send me a back issue of Morning 2 – the magazine in which Gunjou runs – which I of course accepted with great joy. And just yesterday, I received my copy of the current issue of Morning 2, to get the next chapter.

I love this manga with all my love.

It is not cute. It is not adorable. It it not moe. It *is* stunning. So, with my apologies to Nakamura-san for the hideous nicknames, I’d like to tell you all about the new bits.

Chapter 3 covers a tale from BL and BN’s high school days. The brunette, BN, is a champion runner, but wears a crappy pair of beat up cleats. The blonde, BL, is hanging around, and the track club is creeped out by her because she’s, you know, *lesbian,* but BN tells them that she’s just a nice person and to stfu, thanks awfully. When the team captain tells BN to get new cleats or else, BN and BL go to a store where BN attempts to steal a nice shiny new pair. To stop her from being arrested, BL offers to pay for them (she’s a rich ojou-sama,) but BN tells her to take the cleats and shove them.

BL visits BN’s house and learns that she lives in a crappy shack with a drunken and abusive father. At the end of the chapter, BL offers to *lend* BN the money, so she’ll stay in school and keep running. We see them 5 years later, as BN – now sleek, happy enough (we think) and married – pays back every yen. BL leaves, putting down exactly half the bill for their coffee – a beautiful and subtle touch. We go back to the present, with the two of them on the run, and we learn that BN still has that 550 yen in her wallet.

In stark contrast to Chapter 3’s happy ending, chapter 6 is BRUTAL. They take a hotel for the night, but BN gets weird about sleeping in the same bed as BL, so they get separate rooms. We learn from the news that the police know BL did the murder and that the two fugitives are being sought. BL can’t sleep, so she goes out. We see BN looking in the mirror at her body, which is covered in bruises. Since they have been on the run for a month – at least some of those bruises are probably not from the dead husband…. BL grabs a taxi to go back to the hotel. The taxi driver solicts a hand job, which BL does, flashing back and forth the whole time to the murder. She leaves the cab and when a fortune teller approaches her and tells her that she’ll get married, she goes postal on the lady, who asks for forgiveness as she reaches for a stone to bash the crazy, violent woman on top of her.

BN notices BL’s not back and eventually finds her, trying to kill herself by hanging herself from the bathroom door. BN takes her back to her bed, while BL flashes back to the murder and to their school days where she first met BN and they became friends . BL has a complete emotional breakdown to match her physical beating. As the chapter comes to a close, BL tells BN that instead of killing her husband, it would have been better if she had killed BN. BN goes out into the hall and cries.

There is just nothing about this series that is Akihabara. But, in between the severe mental unbalance, the extreme violence and the raw, unsexy sex, there are moments of such intense tenderness that they quite take one’s breath away.

The Yuri actually identifies as lesbian, so perhaps this is a lesbian manga, rather than a Yuri one. BL is quite obviously hopelessly, dangerously in love with BN…and BN is suffering from all kind of mixed emotions, compounded by the fact that they are both just so very broken that a normal relationship seems impossible for either of them. And, despite the fact that this manga perpetuates the murderous lesbian trope, I think it completely transcends the stereotype.

Gunjou is not a “good” manga – it is a “brilliant” manga.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 2

Overall – 10

I recently learned that gunjou, which translates to the color Ultramarine, is considered to be the most highly revered blue hue in the Japanese artist’s palette.

Once again, thank you Nakamura-san, for the issue of Morning 2 and for creating such a magnficient manga.

 





Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, Volume 1 (ささめきこと)

April 29th, 2008

What’s a girl to do when her best friend forever loves cute girls, and she’s just not cute at all? Suffer in silence, mostly, if we learn anything from Sasamekikoto, Volume 1. (ささめきこと)  ^_^

Murasame Sumika has a real problem. She’s in love with her BFF, Kazama Ushio. Ushio is always looking for a girlfriend but, unfortunately, she’s fond of the extra-cute girly type…and Sumi’s just not that. Not at all. Good in athletics, a little rough around the edges, Sumi would make the perfect Prince to Ushio’s Princess, but Ushio just can’t see the obvious.

When Sumi and Ushio spy a couple of girls kissing in their classroom, nothing gets any easier. Miyako and Tomoe see Ushio and Sumi “practicing” kissing, while Ushio wears a plastic mask…it’s a long story…and blackmails Sumi into joining their new “Girl Club” for women who love women. Brilliance, except Sumi explains it was all a misunderstanding, and…. But Ushio jumps at the chance to join and Sumi is dragged along, dragging along another member (because remember, you need five people to start a club) who is a cute boy who likes Sumi who dresses like a girl and does modeling work.

It’s all very convoluted, and amusing.

When the Girl Club starts hanging out, Sumi bumps right up against the thing she’d really like to say to Ushio, but somehow, just can’t bring herself to do it. In the end of the volume Sumi’s forced to watch Ushio hit on another girl, again, who isn’t her.

This manga is a comedy and, while it’s basically one or two jokes repeated endlessly, it is pretty amusing. Not “zOMG bwahahahah!” but more like “heheh” amusing. And, even though it *was* only one or two jokes endlessly rehashed, I didn’t hate it by the end, which has to count for something. ^_^

The art reminds me of something else, which I am so far unable to identify – someone help me out here and tell me what it makes me think of?

Cute kisses, haha funnies, and not-fanservice filled high school Yuri drama. Lesbian approved.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

Sasamekikoto is *perfect* for Yuri fans who like the “best friend who loves her friend in very loud silence” trope. If you were ever a Tomoyo fan, this is probably the book you’ve been looking for.





Yuri Manga: Hayate x Blade, Volume 8

April 19th, 2008

Lots of *amazing* stuff happens in Volume 8 of Hayate x Blade, so let’s deal with the most important thing first….the “Best Shinyuu Poll” that ran in Dengeki Daioh! ^_^

Number one by a hefty margin: Jun and Yuho. Yes, the lesbian tops the list. But of course.

Number two is: Akira and Sae. So, erm, the butchy boi comes in second…

Number three is, let’s see: Hitsugi and Shizuku…I think I see a pattern here.

Hayate and Ayana come in 4th, Michi and Kiji in 5th. In case you care.

Okay, so on to the story which, despite the fact that this volume mostly takes place over winter holiday, is chock full of action and surprise.

The big exhibition fight between Sid and Nancy and Akira and Sae ends in drama. Akira has won, but she’s taken a beating. When she challenges Hitsugi to a duel, the President declines, but Sae ends the conversation by poking Akira in her broken rib and bringing her to the ground in pain.

A bunch of the first-years are staying at the school over the holidays, so to have a little fun with them, Hitsugi decides that they will clean up in the catacombs below the school. (There are tunnels below the school? Just go with it.) They encounter all sorts of amusing obstacles – ghosts, skeletons, a rampaging bull…and someone who looks awfully like Hayate, only it’s not. Yes, Hayate’s twin sister Nagi has arrived, and she looks like trouble.

Meanwhile, Jun checks in with Yukari, Akira tries to recover from her broken rib and, Ayana learns the truth about what happened that fateful day when she went beserk against Ensuu and injured Yukari. And it’s not at all what she thought.

Both Ayana and Hayate find renewed energy and determination to be the best at Hoshitori and start training like lunatics. When Akira offers to one-on-one with Ayana, Hitsugi smells some fun and makes it a battle for a hot steamy sweet potato. (This is a LOT funnier than I’m making it sound. It was actually freaking hysterical.)

The final chapter is the “behind the scenes” look at the making of the second Hayate x Blade Drama CD, full of the usual chaos.

I think that the best thing about this book is Hitsugi cracking herself up. Every time she’s face down into a pillow trying to not laugh out loud, or seeing the sweet potato fire and telling Shizuku that “it’s a signal fire, calling for me'” it completely slays me. ^_^

With the English release of Hayate x Blade just around the corner this summer, it’s good to know that more silly violence than ever before awaits us.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 3

Overall – 9

As I said last volume – the art is really getting better and better, and the story is still going at full steam. Without a doubt, one of my favorite manga of all time.

So – tomorrow will be post 1000. I wonder what I’ll post about? ^_^