Archive for the Artists Category


Twinkle Saber Nova Manga, Volume 1

March 13th, 2007

I picked up Twinkle Saber Nova while I was in Tokyo, for two reasons.

1) I am a huge Fujieda Miyabi fangirl

and

2) I am a shameless otaku for Drama CDs.

Volume two of this series came with a Drama CD, and along with it being a Fujieda Miyabi story and all, there was no way I was going to be able to pass it up.

The story of Twinkle Saber Nova takes place in the future at a school where our heroine Hayana seems to spend a large proportion of her day eating. Her best friend Aoi and she make the rounds of the many restaurants in their school, which is located in Tokyo Bay.

One day, while in one of Hayana’s favorite lunch places the owner, Yuzuru, is attacked by the “World School Uniform Club”. Hayana and Aoi are approached by crazy Fujishiro-sensei (female) who offers Hayana an “Active Dress” armor uniform thing which she names “Twinkle Saber”. There and then, Hayana starts the “Ally of Justice Club” and continues to battle for her right to eat lunch peacefully, against the “World School Uniform Club” whose aims remain obscure to me, for several reasons. ^_^

As the new school superheroine, Hayana develops a fan club. One of the members, Satsuki, brings Hayana a really big lunch, thus guaranteeing Hayana’s eternal devotion. Satsuki expresses some interest in being a “Ally of Justice Club” member, and is quickly outfitted with her own active dress, which she names Arc Saber.

They battle against the weirdness of the Sekai Seifukubu, and at the end of the volume are joined temporarily by one of Fujishiro-sensei’s old classmates, who has an active dress of her own – in fact, the prototype active dress – and goes by the name, Crymson.

They fight against other characters that look an awful lot like those from other recognizable Fujieda series. And, in the end, they defeat the World School Uniform Club yet again. Lunch is safe for another day. More happy fighting and fashionable armor to come in Volume 2!

Let me comment on the fashionable armor, for a second. Fujieda does *really* nice armor/uniform design. Nothing obscene, in fact, where most shounen armor/uniforms for females tend to highlight secondary sexual characteristics in ways that are entirely service-y, Fujieda’s outfits are really quite stylish and lack pointless service. Thumbs up from me, particularly for Crymson’s design, which is adult, simple and cool. Also Arc Saber, which ups Satsuki’s cool factor several notches.

Yuri in this series is light. In fact, I remember reading (and no, I don’t know where and there’s no way I’m tracking this down, so you’re out of luck) a post on a Japanese BBS by Fujieda-sensei, commenting that this series has *implied* Yuri, but nothing overt.

It is fairly obvious that Satsuki has an akogare crush on Hayana and Fujishiro-sensei pings my gaydar…and twice as much when Crymson arrives on the scene. In my head they were obviously (may still be?) a couple, but yes, I *am* reading into it. A lot. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Fujieda Miyabi.
Story – mmm, ramen
Characters – cute!
Yuri – squint and look at it from a bent angle
Service – Yes.

Overall – 7

This isn’t a Yuri manga, but it is a cute chicks in armor with weapons manga, so if the one doesn’t work for you, the other might. ;-)





Live Action: Love My Life

January 24th, 2007

While I was in Tokyo, I had the chance to see the movie based on the terrific, Yuri manga by Yamaji Ebine, Love My Life. I won’t be going over the characters or plot of the story in detail, because if you haven’t read the manga, there’s just about no way you’d see the movie, so if you’re unfamiliar with this manga, please take a second to read my original review of LML. (For folks coming to this blog from Afterellen.com, most of the next paragraph is relevant to earlier posts about my trip to the world’s largest comic market, Comiket. If you want to know the story of the manga – and movie – read the link above.)

Looking at it now, I realize that we were *incredibly* lucky, because the theater we saw it at, N Theater Shibuya was a very few blocks from Bruce’s hotel. I only today learned that it played at like *two* theaters. What were the chances that one would be in walking distance from where Bruce was staying? Oh, and btw, it was immediately above the Shibuya Animate, which meant that the next day, we knew where we were going for that, too. Did I mention “lucky?”

The movie version of Love My Life was very sweet. There were some number of changes from the manga, which I’ll detail below, but in general, it was a really cute movie with an undoubtedly happy end where the girl got the girl. Totally worth having seen for that alone. I sincerely hope that there’s a US release.

The biggest weakness of the movie was something I have encountered over and over and over in Japanese live-action films: the pacing. This movie was almost 90 minutes long and when I saw the running time,I was skeptical as to how they’d stretch the story…especially as the first few chapters of the manga/movie zip by in rapid succession. So it starts off light and fast and happy, and then, suddenly, stops dead. At just about the time any American movie would start wrapping up, Japanese movies insert 20-30 minutes of absolutely nothing. It kills the energy, sucks the life out of the movie and makes my wife get fidgety. ^_^

In this case, after having established how sad Ichiko is, we are treated to 20 more minutes of her being sad. Sad, sad, sad. She’s so sad. And when the end comes, there’s another pacing issue, but if I complain about that I’m just being a hard ass.

Well, I’m a hard ass. Here goes. Eri has called Ichiko after their long separation and instead of calling back, Ichiko starts running. And running. And running. Eri, waits and waits and waits, while Ichiko appears to run across the freakin’ country. *Just* as Eri begins to turn away unhappily, Ichiko comes running up. Uh…wouldn’t a phone call back saying “I’m coming!” have been a good idea right then?

The actress who plays Ichiko is…well…okay. Where the Ichiko of the manga is pleasant, hard working, smart and cute, this Ichiko is dreamy and over-smiley happy. She plays the role like a baby seal you’re waiting to watch be clubbed.

On the completely other hand, Eri is played perfectly. It’s immediately apparent that she, while not being a gabber, has a deep and rich inner dialogue – and you want to be part of it. I think that she was just about perfect.

And the rest of the cast is pretty great, too. The actor who played Ichiko’s father hit the nail right on the crumpet with his portrayal – and Ichiko’s gay friend Take was immediately likeable and real.

There were a few things changed for the movie. For one thing – the hair. In the manga, Ichiko, and later, her mother’s former lover, have dyke-y short hair. In the movie, both have shortish normal cuts. And the bald skinhead girl who piques Ichiko’s fancy is turned into a mohawk-wearing punk. No clue why.

Another thing that was changed, which I thought really odd, was the soundtrack. The manga has a distinctly classic jazz background. You can’t miss it, as jazz music and musicians are mentioned nearly every chapter. The movie was given a peppy, pop music soundtrack by noodles, that was, nonetheless, exceptionally appealing. The opening theme, particularly, was darn cute.

The final thing that I could not help but notice was that Take merely announced that he had nabbed himself a boyfriend. In the manga we meet Joe, an African-American student. I was sort of sad to see that they didn’t show Joe. I was wondering how they were going to handle that – the fact that that they didn’t bother bugged me a tad.

The story is reasonably close to the manga, until the extra inserted bit at the end, as Ichiko kills her Eri-less time by trying to become a translator like Papa. The beginning, particularly, is very, very good. Their relationship is sweet (I know that I wasn’t the only one in the theater holding my girl’s hand during a few of the lovey-dovier scenes) and quite realistic.

Ratings:

Cinematography – A little precious, 6
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 10
Service – 3

If only someone would edit that slow bit, the whole movie would be a real keeper. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Aoi Hana, Volume 2

January 23rd, 2007

I’m a pragmatist. When I was a little kid, I had to get three allergy shots twice a week. Other kids would scream and cry and carry on, but I just went in and got them. They started using me as an example to the other children. If they left me alone for a second with the other kid, I’d always say, “Look, you might as well stop crying – they’re going to give you the shots anyway, and the longer you cry, the longer you’re going to be here.” And that’s pretty much my attitude today. Things happen, and sometimes there’s just nothing you can do to stop them. Sometimes you can see those things coming. It doesn’t make them any easier to deal with, but it makes it easier to get past them.

I think that this is an important lesson – and it’s the thing I took away from Aoi Hana, Volume 2. Fumi, for all that she is a crybaby, appears to be a pragmatist. I deeply respect that.

(For a quick overview of the characters in this series and the events of the first volume, take a look at my review of Aoi Hana, Volume 1.)

Volume 2 of Aoi Hana covers the big event, when both schools get together for their stage version of Wuthering Heights. Yasuko-sempai is extra super cool as Heathcliffe, as expected. And, unexpectedly, she seems to really be making an effort to reach Fumi as a person, not just as a girlfriend. Then the other boot drops. I saw it coming (and so, I think, did Fumi) but when it came, it came in a way that completely lacked melodrama. And that, in a nutshell, is why I like this series so much. The characters are just as unsure of themselves as any teens, but there’s a distinct lack of shrieking and threats of suicide.  In all honesty, when I read any book, part of what goes on in my mind is “Would I want to hang out with any of these people? Would I let anyone in this story come over for lunch? No one, not one character in Life would be allowed in my house – while just about everyone in Aoi Hana would.

Other stuff happens, of course. Akira remains cheerful and understanding, without ever being a sop. I don’t trust or like Kyouko, even if she seems to be a good person, for a few reasons. We meet Yasuko’s extremely interesting family, and learn Yasuko’s big secret, which isn’t one really, if you have more than one brain cell to rub together.

At the end of the volume, when everyone’s crying into their tea, I couldn’t find it in myself to be upset, or even annoyed. I felt a little lonely, maybe, but hopeful that much of what happened will be resolved in the next volume.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

It’s drama, not melodrama.





Yuri Drama CD: Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to "Madrigal Halloween"

November 15th, 2006

I had the weirdest sensation upon opening this Drama CD. Staring down at the cover I suddenly thought, “What am I doing? I can’t understand Japanese!”  (o_O) Thankfully, the moment passed and I had no particular trouble understanding this story. ^_^

Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to: “Madrigal Halloween” is a double dose of adorable Yuri goodness from Fujieda Miyabi, creator of Iono-sama Fanatics, Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan and, obviously, Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to.

Because this story has a complex history, let me give you enough detail to get by:

Letty is an European witch (the Majyo of the title) who inadvertently rescues Tsumugi (the Miko of the title) from imprisonment at a mountain shrine.

In their journeys, they visit a tea shop known as the Ame-iro Kouchakan, where they meet the owner Seriho, her assistant Sarasa (who has an enormous crush on Seriho) and two regular customers Haru and Hinoko who seem awfully chummy.

This Drama CD follows the events of the first MikoMajyo Drama CD (the one that came in the deluxe manga set), and the Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan extra comic that came with Yuri Hime 5, in which they do a special menu and performance for Tanabata. This last sentence is relevant, I promise.

(Why is is that, with Yuri Hime-related stories, I’m always running around gathering pieces to put the stories together??? This is as bad as the fractured history of what is now Hatsukoi Shimai!)

The Drama CD begins, not with Letty or Tsumugi, but with Seriho introducing the story in her breathy, little girl voice.

The season is autumn and Halloween is right around the corner. Seriho wants to do a Halloween Special, like they did for Tanabata. (See, I told you it was relevant!) Sarasa suggests that they do a performance and special menu again. Sarasa and she share a moment of extreme breathless adorable closeness, which got *so* breathy I was hard put to understand the words. ^_^

Letty and Tsumugi arrive with the news that they have just moved into this particular neighborhood. Seriho notes that it’s so wonderful that they’re living together in love-love bliss – I think just to make Letty sputter her objections…not to the sentiment itself, but to the way it was put, you know.

Seriho brings up Halloween.  Letty says she doesn’t know anything about it because they don’t celebrate it in her country.  Apparently Fujieda Miyabi does not know that European witches are likely to be pretty well-informed on Halloween. Luckily, Sarasa knows all about it and explains the basics: it’s a holiday associated with monsters and kids in costumes walk around begging for candy. She frightens Seriho with her enthusiastic “Trick or Treat!” and explanation thereof.

The Miko and Witch are asked if they want to help for the Halloween special. Letty passes, but because Tsumugi wants to, she acquiesces. Letty fears, rightfully, that she’ll be a clutz. Thanks fully, Tsumugi is a natural at carrying a tray with glasses. Phew.

Later that day, when they arrive home, Letty apologizes for being such a stick-in-the-mud, but she was, embarrassingly enough, afraid of being uncool in Tsumugi’s eyes. Tsumugi reaffirms for the upmteenth time that Letty will always be cool – and cute – to her. They embrace, Letty takes the stick out of her ass, we smile.

Hinoko and Haru decide that they should all wear costumes for the big day. Tsumugi shows up in her Miko’s clothing, which prompts a way-personal exchange between Tsumugi and Letty, which Hinoko interrupts by sticking wolf ears on Tsumgi. Tsumugi’s cuteness (coupled with her hyper-adorable “growrr! designed to fail utterly at being scary) makes Letty bail before she explodes in public. When Seriho, who is dressing up as a wolfman puts on the ears and growls even more adorably, Sarasa runs after Letty. (Now there’s an image – the two of them outside dunking their heads in a fountain or something, trying to cool off…! ^_^) Haru says she’ll be Frankenstein, Hinoko wants to be a jack-o-lantern. Letty will, of course, be a witch. (When Haru later compliments her on her costume, Letty thinks that it’s just her everyday wear….)

While handing out flyers, Letty runs into shrine guardian Isuzu who is INCENSED that Tsumugi-sama is being put to work. Letty assures her that it was Tsumugi’s choice. Isuzu says that Kinu-sama, the mountain god Tsumugi used to serve, has been whining for three months solid about wanting to go back to the tea shop. She grudgingly agrees to come by tomorrow.

The next day is Halloween – we’re all ready to go. Flyers have been distributed, Haru has advertised the event on her website, Hinoko has invited everyone who would listen only…

…a typhoon is coming.

Seriho insists that they be ready to go anyway, even though it’s supposed to be record-breaking rain and winds.

The next day as Isuzu and Kinu walk to the shop in a torrential downpour, Isuzu asks why, as a god, Kinu-sama doesn’t just stop the storm. Kinu says that there’s an agreement between gods that means she can’t interfere in matters not covered under her bailiwick.

BUT, Letty has no compunction about such things. After an emotional scene with a worried Tsumugi, she says that this is “her work” and flies off into the storm to clear it up and save Halloween.

Which, accompanied by cool sound effects and nice heroic background music, she does. The end is a pun – she turns the rain (ame) into candy (ame)  – and, now that I think about it, it’s a triple pun, since the cafe is “ame-iro”, amber – so Haru and Hinoko find themselves pelted with chocolate-covered marshmallows. ^_^

Tsumugi and Letty have, for them, a romantic reunion. Seriho suddenly thanks Letty – not knowing that it was indeed she who saved the day. When asked why she thanked her, Seriho comments that Letty’s cape makes her look like a black teruterubouzu. (A little ghostie charm that supposedly brings good weather.)

Seriho once again makes Sarasa speechless, Letty and Tsumugi continue to be rabu-rabu and Hinoko asks, coyly, if Haru loves her. When Haru blows a gasket, she says she’s only kidding – and she probably is.  ^_^

Isuzu and mountain god Kinu-sama arrive, all dolled up and ready to help out at the cafe for the day. To Letty’s intense distress, Seriho puts the wolf ears on her (Letty.) “Now say “growr,” says Seriho, just before Letty screams.

Sarasa ties the story up with some affectionate discussion of this happy little cafe and the wonderful friendship and love inside it. The end. ^_^

The final track is a quickie by the voice actresses with intros and brief discussions of how much fun it was to make this CD.

The one extra with this CD is a short comic in the credits booklet, by creator Fujieda Miyabi-sensei.

Like most Fujieda stories, the Yuri here is of the cute, snuggly variety. But Sarasa overheating in front of Seriho, and Letty and Tsumugi’s obvious affection is sweet and…well, sweet. :-) Ame-iro, indeed.

Ratings:

Characters – 8
Story – 7
Music/Foley – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 8

I’ve had this CD a week and already listened to it twice. ^_^

2013 Note: Without question, this is the one Drama CD I have listened to the most often of all of them I own. It never fails to make my smile. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Hayate x Blade, Volume 5

October 2nd, 2006

For those readers with short attention spans, or whose reading comprehension has been affected by too many hours on irc here is a short review of Hayate x Blade (aka Hayate Cross Blade) Volume 5:

Hitsugi x Shizuku = win.

Now, for the rest of you, here’s the long version. ^_^

We left off in Volume 4 just at the beginning of the ultimate hoshitori battle – Student Council members Minori and Kureha have challenged School Chairman Hitsugi and her partner Shizuku. The winners to become (or remain) the President of the Student Council and the losers to drop an entire rank and lose their place on the council altogether. Minori and Kureha have been working on what they believe are the keys to defeating Hitsugi.

What they don’t count on is that for every measure of insane cool Hitsugi brings to any situation, she brings three measures of cheesy and effed up. Shizuku and Hitsugi stolidly defend against the oncoming attacks until they have the measure of their opponents, and Hitsugi cues up some cheeseball BGM – the boy band Hikari GENJI (光GENJI) singing Glass no Juudai (ガラスの十代) while on rollerskates – and they’re off! Hitsugi dances with her opponent; not because she can’t defeat her instantly, but because she’s a FREAK and wants to wait to the climax of the music. ^_^ At the right moment, Hitsugi and Shizuku make their moves.

Kureha and Minori are surprised to note that their stars didn’t make any noise when hit, and are even more surprised to find that their white uniforms have now turned black, signalling their defeat and loss of rank. (Hitsugi fan and hanger-on Tatewaki explains that material in their uniforms were made by the Amachi Corp., Histugi’s family’s company. They are made with built-in nanotechnology that responds to the loss with this significant and symbolic change of color.)

They take their loss gracefully, but not so the penalty game Hitsugi enforces – running 30 laps of a four kilometer course. Kureha, as the challenger, is ready to do it alone, but Minori insists on sharing the pain. As shinyuu they draw closer together, everyone says “awwww”, but they still have to finish the laps. 

Meanwhile Hayate continues to train extra hard so as to be able to rank up with Ayana. They discuss how, eventually, they’re going to have to fight Yukari, Ayana’s former shinyuu. In a rare moment of emotional vulnerability, Ayana confesses that she feels alot of guilt about that relationship. In her last fight with Yukari as her partner, she went berserk. Although she doesn’t remember doing it, she injured Yukari quite badly. The reason, we learn, that Yukari wears her hair over her left eye is to conceal a scar that runs down from the forehead to cheek, assumably caused by Ayana’s sword. Hayate tells Ayana that she doesn’t want to know about the things that make Ayana sad – she wants to know about the things that makes Ayana happy.

The school festival approaches, Hitsugi tells the student body – although she herself had forgotten until just yesterday. She arbitrarily decides that all events must be done in maid costumes. Jun has been tasked with making the costumes for her class, so you can bet that Ayana’s costume is wildly inappropriate for anyone to wear in public. ^_^ Jun gets a lot of mileage and physical abuse this volume, because the whole maid costume thing is entirely too appealing for her to behave.

The book ends with two omake stories – one, the backstory for the Hayate x Blade Drama CD. That is, Hitsugi was bored one day and came up with the idea. Wackiness ensues as Jun tries her best to encourage Ayana’s innate sexiness with wildly inappropriate script suggestions.

…thinking about it, Jun loses a lot of blood this volume. ^_^

The second backstory is a gag about the school suggestion box. Since so many of the complaints are regarding Jun’s perviness, Ayana’s loud and violent expressions of anger and Hayate’s habit of talking while she eats and spewing food around, the next day finds *four* suggestion boxes, three of them labeled “Kuga” (Jun), “Mudou” (Ayana) and “Kurogane eating” (Hayate.)

Next volume the school festival begins and chaos ensues!! With maid costumes!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 7 (Jun’s a lousy role model, but undeniably lesbian. Hitsugi x Shizuku as I said, equals win. They get winner with each volume.)
Service – 3

Overall – 9