Archive for the Artists Category


Drama CD: Hayate x Blade, Volume 3

July 11th, 2008

At last, we have another chance to wallow in the company of the competely dysfunctional students of Tenchi Academy, in Hayate x Blade Drama CD, Volume 3.

And wallow we do, as amusing dysfunctions are paraded past our bemused ears, in this collection of 6 unrelated, original stories that showcase a remarkably large cast.

In the first track, Ayana’s room is filled to breaking point when pretty much every character ever mentioned in the manga shows up and crowds in….including all 80 of Akira’s fan club, the A-team.

We follow Mizuchi and Sou on a shopping trip to town, so Mizuchi can shed her old lady image – an objective that seems to be working until someone calls them mother and child.

Jun visits Yuho for the usual touching moments, then – wait for it – the Amachi conglomerate’s helicopter comes to pick her up. Yes! Tenchi Gakuen *also* has a private helicopter! Isn’t that wonderful? Now I have three helicopters in my Yuri army air division! LOL In return for the visit, Yuho sends Jun inedible cookies to give to everyone. Listening to Ayana trying to bite into the cookies was funny enough to make me laugh out loud.

Momoko has a weakness and in track 4 we learn what it is – she really, really, really, hates bamboo shoots. Kiji hypnotizes her into pretending that they are shiitake mushrooms, which she loves, but of course there are unintended consequences. And Kiji and Moka are renewed in their mutal hatred…and the awesome otokoyaku slash affair that doujinshi artists love so much gets new fodder.

The last track spends time with the remaining white-uniformed council members as they end up torturing Kureha, because they can. ^_^

For the cast credits, the theme picked by Tatewaki is ditched in favor for the theme chosen by the fans – who would you pick for your shinyuu? It will comes as no surprise that many of the actresses picked the character that is their character’s shinyuu, but notably, several other actresses pick Akira – not just Sae’s seiyuu, Itou Shizuka (Rei, from Marimite, Nadie from El Cazador.)

Despite this, there is little Yuri in this volume, which is really okay, because all the couples are well-established in our heads now and it almost seems silly to beat the concept to death. Kiji and Momoka’s hate/love thing was clearly fanservice of Yuri proportions.

This drama CD was significantly longer than most of the others I have – closer to an hour, than the usual 45 minutes. And it was all original stories, which was extra nice. You know how I love having more time to spend with the characters. And for physical extras, the insert booklet has an original short manga by Hayashiya-sensei, special for this Drama CD.

The *only* downside to the whole thing is something that you simply can’t really get past – the cast is now so HUGE, that there’s not enough time to spend with everyone, and although pretty much every character makes an appearance, that’s about all they do – make an appearance. The vignettes worked well to counteract this, because they each followed 2-8 characters (except the first, which quite literally shoved everyone in) so we got to spend at least that much time with those characters, semi-exclusively. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 9

A great addition to what is the most unique and interesting manga series, (while of course actually being completely generic and derivative ^_^) currently running.

Oh, and I would definitely pick Ayana as my shinyuu – she’s competent, nasty *and* violent. She’s practically perfect. ^_^How about you?





Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, Volume 2 (ささめきこと)

June 23rd, 2008

Yuri, as I have mentioned, is not the same thing as lesbian. There’s some overlap, of course, but Yuri as a genre has an awful lot of not-really-lesbian-at-all tropes, with which we’re all familiar.

Sasamekikoto, Volume 2 (ささめきこと)  does something quite interesting with some of our more familiar rehashed conventions – in a sort of meta-Yuri manga, we get several layers of Yuri convention running on top of one another, each at a different angle to the others.

Sumika, a girl in love with her best friend Ushio – who loves cute girls, but not Sumi – has been blackmailed to join a club that consists of women who love women (and their friend Kyori who is just a member to make the requisite number.)

But first! A “funny” chapter about Sumi on a date with the guy, Masaki, who likes her, who has a side career cross-dressing as internet idol and model Akemi-chan, and whose little sister is extremely creepy.

After that, the story settles down a bit into something that looks like this:
Classmates ask Sumi whether Tomoe and Miyako are lesbian, but Sumi avoids answering. The two come back and tell the classmates that they shouldn’t be asking other people about their identity. The classmates get all riled, calling them “rezu” and “hentai” when quiet Aoi-san stands up and tells them all to be quiet – that one, the classroom is for studying, not this, and two, real love between women looks like these novels that she obsesses about. lol The novel covers look *awfully* familiar. (And, btw, the novels are penned by Ushio’s brother, something that both Ushio and Sumi don’t want Aoi-san learning. lol)

When Aoi-san runs out after having been emotionally brutalized, Sumi goes after her to see of she’s okay. Aoi-san instantly forms a crush on Sumi and assumes that she too is a fan of the novels. Ushio walks in on them at a touchy moment, which sends her into tears, not so much because Sumi might like the other girl – she’s more worried that Sumi isn’t a fan of those damn novels!

Tomoe, as club president of the jyoshibu, decides that the club should go on a club overnight. However, a misunderstanding forces Sumi into helping Aoi-san with her doujinshi for “Yuri Fest,” a summer doujinshi event. So instead of going with Ushio to the beach, Sumika finds herself helping her new friend making a doujinshi and selling it at this Yuri otaku event. Sumi’s day is made when Ushio ditches her summer vacation, and comes to the event to visit her.

Then, everyone goes to the pool, tickets courtesy of Aoi-san’s thankful parents. Kyori, in a moment of epic genius, separates Aoi-san, Miyako and herself into the “kids” team – basing this on relative size – and leaves Tomoe, Ushio and Sumika to be together. Tomoe gets the drift immediately and goes off on her own, so Sumi and Ushio finally get some alone time. Aoi-san spends the entire time trying to escape to be together with Sumi, but finally sees what we have seen since the beginning, that Sumika and Ushio are in love with one another. And sad as she is, she backs off. On the train, Tomoe talks about how beautiful their love is – especially because they can’t see each other’s feelings. She calls it “delicious.”

The final chapter follows Sumi and Ushio just missing one another at a local festival but, when they finally do connect, the relief and joy on their respective faces speak volumes.

So the trick here is that were have a 1) girl who loves another girl 2) who loves her, 3) but they don’t recognize it yet, and who is the 4) object of a crush of a girl 5) who likes Yuri light novels, and they are in a 5) club for girls who love girls, and hang with a 6) lesbian couple. You see what they did there – the creator layered several “Yuri” tropes on top of one another for a reasonably effective comedy.

And it is quite funny. My favorite moments are when Sumi and Ushio fall into a visually wacky private language that’s basically not describable, but is lol funny.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

I wasn’t sure if the whole “best friend who loves her best friend from a distance thing” was going to work for me, but in Sasamekikoto, it absolutely does work.





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.