Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Manga: Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo

March 14th, 2006

Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo comes with the English translation Kiss, Sigh and Cherry Blossoms Pink. Just so you don’t have to work at it. ^_^

This is the second (only because I got it second) volume of Yuri manga from collected from Yuri Shimai and Yuri Hime magazines. This is the first collection of the stories by Morinaga Milk which, while not really a series, are related by virtue of them all taking place at a single girl’s school. From now on, to make things easy, I am going to call the series, such as it is, “Cherry Blossoms”. If a second volume comes out with a different title, I’ll work out something later. ^_^

So, my first thought upon cracking open Cherry Blossoms was that the stories had been reordered from the way they first appeared in the magazines. I have a sneaking suspicion that that had more to do with the printing process and placement of the color pages than with any textual redefinition. But as the stories are, at least in the beginning, stand-alones, it didn’t affect the series’ continuity one bit. The color pages that originally ran in the magazines are here reproduced – and very lovely all over again. There’s an additional color page in the beginning, depicting Nana and Hitomi, as they walk through a wood filled with cherry blossoms – Hitomi gesturing back to Abe and Tachibana who are also enjoying the petals. Appallingly cute,as you can imagine. :-)

As I did with the first volume of Strawberry Shake Sweet, let’s begin from the beginning as if we have never read these stories.

Cherry Blossoms is a series of connected stories about girls in love at what is a private girl’s school. In and of itself, this is not an original idea. But these are well executed, with a variety of personalities, character types and situations, so unless one objects strongly to the idea of high school girls in love, then it’s a pleasant enough example of same.

We begin with Nana and Hitomi, two girls who have been in school together since time immemorial but, for mysterious (to Nana, at least) reasons, Hitomi did not go to the same high school as she. The story starts off with her dreaming of the time she learned Hitomi would be going to another school. She wakes in tears. Nana is a pleasant girl, and has made some friends in the new school, but she’s lonely without Hitomi. One Sunday she runs into Hitomi who, having joined the basketball team at her new school has shorn her locks, and seems to be very friendly with her teammate. Nana tries not to be jealous and stricken. Hitomi jumps unmbrellas to return home with Nana, ostensibly to see her new school uniform. Once home, Nana breaks down in tears, telling Hitomi how unhappy she is. Hitomi reminds Nana that her feelings and Nana’s are not the same. In middle school she had kissed Nana, only to have Nana ignore it completely. Because she could not be just friends anymore, Hitomi thought it would be better to not be near the object of her desire. Nana throws herself into Hitomi’s arms, declaring that her feelings *are* the same, she was just scared and…and…she kisses Hitomi. It’s okay, Nana says, if we’re not friends. Rabu rabu.

The second story tells us of a ghost of a girl who attended the school in the past, and who now hangs around the school doctor. By accident, the ghost is absorbed into the body of a student who, all of a sudden wants to hang out with the doctor all the time. The ghost tells us of the time that she attended the school. She was very ill, and the girl who is now the doctor spent time with her every day. Ultimately the ghost grew to love her. Her friend went on to become the doctor to spend her days in the same office they had been in together. As they talk, the doctor realizes what has happened, and she addresses her friend by name. They kiss briefly, the ghost leaves the student’s body and all returns to normal…except that the student now has an inexplicable crush on the doctor. ^_^

The next chapter is probably my second favorite, and the couple I most hope we get to see more of – if only because they are perfectly unsuited for one another. Abe and Tachibana are practicing for the school play. Abe says that she can’t quite get into the head of the bound princess, so Tachibana removes the ribbon from her own hair, ties Abe’s hands behind her back, undoes her braids and says there! – now you’re a bound princess. As Abe recites her lines, Tachibana is moved to kiss her. When the rest of the theater club gets there, Tahibana has to explain that Abe burst into tears and ran off after she untied her. The club members are appalled. It turns out that Abe is in Nana’s class. Innocently, she asks Nana if she’s ever been kissed. Nana explodes, but Abe changes the subject before Nana is forced to prevaricate. In her mind, Abe says that she’d always imagined that her first kiss would be a prince – or at least a nice guy…but the image of the prince in her mind changes to Tachibana. The senior members of the club catch up to Abe to try and convince her to come back to the club. Tachibana overhears them – so when Abe bursts into tears, she grabs the younger girl and takes her away. Tachibana tries to apologize, but it seems to make Abe cry even harder, when she realizes and says out loud that she likes Abe. Tachibana asks what she can do to be forgiven. Abe tells her to say that she likes her once again. At the school play we see Nana and Hitomi in the audience and there’s just enough time for hijinks and goofiness before we cut.

The next story is probably the least comfortable or cute of the collection. Chisato had, when they first met, tried to help an outsider, Mizuki, but had been rudely rebuffed. Now in their third-year, Chisato still remembers that day, and can never quite take her eyes off of her classmate. Chisato falls ill with a cold; upon going to the doctor’s office, she thinks Mizuki is the doctor – apparently their voices are very similar. Chisato lays there, thinking about how her dream had been to be close friends with Mizuki….but that had never worked out. Chisato stays out of school for a few days, and is very surprised to have Mizuki drop by to see how she is. Mizuki apologizes for her behavior so long ago. She had just tested into the school and was being treated nastily by the insiders. She had kiss marks on her neck – when Chisato had offered a bandaid, she was just in bad mood and took it as more teasing. Chisato returns to school, but she’s still sick and ends up once again in the doctor’s office. There she talks to the doctor through the curtain about how she could never get Mizuki out of her mind. The doctor, who we can see is really Mizuki, tells her that some day she’ll have a wonderful love. Chisato thinks about that and wonders if, then, she’ll remember this – her first love.

Chiharu has always loved her friend Misato from a close distance. She loved the way Misato played the flute when they were younger, and now, after an injury has kept Misato from playing, Chiharu loves Misato’s home-made sweets. But really, more than anything – she just loves Misato. During a conversation at school, she’s lead to believe that the feelings are one way – and over the following days Chiharu can’t help but feel a little down. She is over Misato’s house to make sweets when Misato breaks out her flute and plays for the very first time in a long time. Chiharu is all starry eyed all over again. Misato says that she’s noticed that Chiharu was a bit blue and her music always seemed to cheer her up – but she’s gotten rusty since she stopped playing. Chiharu disagrees. Misato continues – she wanted to thank Chiharu for always keeping her spirits up when she was injured. Chiharu finds strength in this, “accidentally” downs a glass of wine (kids don’t try this at home!) and decides to bare her soul. As we cut out, Chiharu tells Misato that she has something important to talk about…

Nana and Hitomi kiss in full color! And, in the following pages, do more than that. But it’s all a naughty dream and Nana is appalled at herself – right in the middle of midterms, too. Sure enough, distracted as she is, she does badly and has to take a retest. This is all complicated by the fact that Hitomi has bluntly asked for them to do more than kiss. It’s not that Nana doesn’t want to…it’s that every time she gets a look at herself, she frankly cannot believe Hitomi wants a clod like her. She imposes a Hitomi ban upon herself, studies and takes the retest. It’s been a week – Nana hasn’t even answered her email. She calls Hitomi, only to hear the other girl’s phone ring under her window. Hahaha. Hitomi was in the bushes. Once safely in Nana’s room, Hitomi admits to being impatient – she couldn’t stand not being able to talk to Nana. Nana admits to feeling inadequate, which Hitomi forcefully denies. She thinks Nana is cute, and kind and beautiful, etc, etc. So, eventually, they do more than just kiss.

When Michiru, an underclassman, approaches and asks out Nosaka, an upperclassman, it throws Nosaka’s world into a tizzy. She wants to be friends, but Michiru insists that they are dating. After an attempted kiss is rebutted with a slap, Nosaka feels awful. She meets Michiru with new short haircut and thinks it’s her fault. But Michiru says it’s not. In the end, Michiru decides to be by Nosaka’s side, and plan her college encounters for her. Of all the stories, this one was the weakest, IMHO.

The postscript has a nice romantically sexy picture of Nana and Hitomi. ^_^

As with Strawberry Shake Sweet, the quality of reproduction is very good – no complaints there.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – Various, say 7 on average
Yuri – 9
Service – by virtue of being Morinaga Milk works, full of rosy-cheeked schoolgirls, 7

Overall – 8

Well worth your money, as long as you don’t mind schoolgirl Yuri.





Drama CD: Hayate x Blade Mini CD

February 24th, 2006

Would you like to hear a story about how utterly LFG I am? LOL

In the February issue of Dengeki Daioh, the Hayate x Blade chapter was a gag about the upcoming Drama CD.

In that issue, Amachi Hitsugi, the chairman of the school, president of the student council and all-around perfect rich girl, decided to write the script for a Drama CD. Hitusgi forces her shinyuu/partner to comandeer various characters to record the CD. Mayhem breaks out, as is typical for a HxB chapter. :-)

The March issue of Dengeki Daioh includes a mini Drama CD for HCB, which is meant to be the “mayhem breaks out” part of the previous comic that’s taking place inside the recording studio.

I picked up this month’s issue with what I am sure was an otaku creepy “ohmigodohmigod!” face on, even if the woman at Sanseido smiled at me and pretended not to notice.  ^_^’

As *soon* as we got in the car I slammed that baby into the CD player! The mini CD is 13 minutes or so long and it’s brilliant! Of course.

I won’t go on and on about how perfect the seiyuu are, or how funny the script was – except for this moment. When Hayate forces Ayana to read the title of the drama. “Hayate and Ayana’s sexy weekend” in English, I almost died laughing.

Oh, and this moment – when Momoka calls to Isuzu to say that they should leave (Momoka calls Isuzu “Wanko”) – “Come on Wanko.” Isuzu responds, “Wherever, forever.”

And I won’t go on about the BGM, which was hysterical in the extreme – and gets all romantic violins when Hitsugi is telling Shizuku that she wants to take her to a nice, romantic restaurant, just the two of them…

No. I won’t talk about any of those things. Or about the scene when Jun and Hayate are crawling on top of each other to try and find out which one of them Ayana wants more as a lover.

And I absolutely won’t rant about how the music changes and before she even spoke I KNEW Yukari had come “on screen”. Or how Ayana became a blushy, stuttering freak. LOL

All I’m gonna say is – there’s no doubt at ALL, that any real or implied Yuri in Hayate Cross Blade is amplified here to its fullest.

Ratings:

Story – 8
Characters – 9
Music – 8
Yuri – 7
Loser FanGirl – 9

Overall – 8

I cannot WAIT for the Drama CD next month! Ohmigod ohmigod! ^_^





Yuri Manga: Strawberry Shake Sweet Volume 1 (ストロベリーシェイクSweet)

January 30th, 2006

I cannot tell you how happy I am to be able to review the first volume of Strawberry Shake Sweet. Here are some of the reasons why I think that this manga is particularly important:

1) It’s the first time that Hayashiya Shizuru has professionally published a volume 100% Yuri story, for an audience of Yuri fans. It’s not like she hasn’t written tons of Yuri into her works, both professional and doujinshi, but this is the first time that a professional story by her has Yuri as the target genre.

2) This volume is explicitly *marketed* as a “Girls Love” comedy, with a cover obi that reads that “Girl falls in love with girl at first sight!!” Yuri has, of course, been marketed as Yuri in the past…but that was and is usually explicit Yuri for a primarily male audience – this is fun Yuri for a primarily female audience. (I got that info firsthand from the editor of Yuri Hime, so you’ll have to trust me on that.)

3) This is one of the first manga volumes put out by Yuri Hime Comics, collected from the body of Yuri Shimai and Comic Yuri Hime magazines. It’s a very decent showing. Large-size format makes it easy to read, the color pages that appeared in Yuri Hime are reproduced (instead of that yucky dark black look that many color pages turned B&W get.)

All in all – this volume marks a significant movement forward in establishing Yuri in Japan as being both *by* women and *for* women. Something that I feel fairly strongly about. :-)

Okay, so let’s move on to the actual manga. I’ll pretend that neither you nor I am familiar with the story, just as an exercise. Strawberry Shake Sweet is the story of young pop idol Tachibana Julia who, at 16, is both popular and busy in her entertainment career. She is asked by her agent (a dorky little guy) to take a new upcoming talent under her wing, show her the ropes, etc. Julia objects flat out. She’s no dummy – and this new kid would be her rival. There’s no *way* she’s going to train up the person who might end up stealing her career!

That is, until she opens the office door and finds herself face to face with Asakawa Ran, the tall, attractive upcoming new talent. Julia does a complete 180 and demands to be the new kid’s mentor.

The next few chapters cover the utterly psychotic way in which Julia, tormented by her desire to be near Ran, but also to keep herself distant, treats her poor junior. Ran, luckily, is a little doofus-y, and starts to assume Julia’s mania is really a form of tough love.

It’s not until their overstressed manager, Saeki Ryouko points out that Julia’s in love with Ran (after carefully pointing out that a girl/girl scandal would NOT be good for anyone). Julia, who had no idea that she was in love, is both relieved and energized. Now she has a name to put to this insane feeling! Saeki immediately regrets mentioning it at all.

Saeki is the series’ constant “straight man”. She fends Julia off of Ran, beauty parlor owner/operator, lesbian and former classmate Shinjou Kaoru off herself, and generally is the butt of many a gag. I quite like her – and the fact that she’s clearly a lesbian magnet. Not only is Kaoru openly desirous of her, Saeki’s junior in talent management is also wanting her pretty badly. Surrounded by lesbians as she is Saeki starts to wear down…eventually. But we’ll get there later.

Also contributing to the high lesbian quotient is Ryou, the lead singer from “hyper visual band Zlay.” Zlay has four members, all female, split into two couples. Ryou’s partner is Goth-Loli Reki, the creepy cute doll-like synth player. Ryou pops into the story suddenly and quite literally sniffs out Julia’s desire for another woman. But later, when she meets Ran, crushes Julia’s hopes by saying that Ran does not have the scent of onnadoushi. (Don’t worry – Ran later tells Julia that she is an important person to her. And let’s face it – it’s a girls love story. They’ll get together…*eventually.* lol)

Last, and kind of least, is babydyke Haruna, who is another idol, but a year younger than Julia. She is out and out in love with Kaoru, who doesn’t dislike the attention one bit. (In fact, in the most recent chapter from Yuri Hime, it’s fairly obvious that Kaoru and Haruna have a genuine thing going on, as Kaoru shows up drunk at Saeki’s door to complain about her relationship with Haruna.)

By the end of Volume 1, Ran has made Julia happy, sad, pychotic and elated about a thousand times, and the two of them are so inevitably growing closer, that you can just *see* Saeki wilting and her ability to keep the two of them apart starting to break down. But more importantly, Ran’s big debut has arrived at last and both Julia and Ran are left alone, desperately desiring to see one another – but holding back to try to be strong. And the maddening thing is – this takes us to the last chapter but one, and I don’t know what’s going to happen!!! Arrrrgghhh!!! (The last chapter was a New Year’s gag issue, so we’re still waiting to find out how Ran handles her debut for an art magazine.)

Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 3

Overall – 8

If you’re familiar with, and like Hayashiya’s art style, you’ll be familiar with, and like Strawberry Shake Sweet. It’s the same kind of physical humor, gags, bops on the head, nosebleeds and the like that you’ll find in her doujinshi as Jesus Drug, and her professional art in series like Hayate Cross Blade.

Oh, and gosh – a story of a lesbian pop idol…now where have I heard THAT before? Just for the record, Shoujoai ni Bouken came *first*. ^_^

If there’s one down side to this story it’s got to be that Yuri Hime is, at this point, quarterly. Which means we can’t expect a new volume for at least two years! Sob…





Yuri Anime: Madlax DVD Volume 4

December 1st, 2005

Every time I watch the fourth DVD of Madlax, I think, “This is probably the best work Bee Train will ever do.”

The story doesn’t yet make sense (and doesn’t ever make *complete* sense, but that’s okay) and the characters aren’t resolved (nor do they ever fully resolve) or even developed, but the sense of hanging tension and anticipation is what I think they are trying to do – the later development and resolution of characters and plot is almost anticlimactic. The questions are the point, not the answers. But, where in Noir the questions never get anything like real answers, in Madlax they do – even if they are a bit fantastic. Which is why I say that this volume is pretty much the pinnacle of Bee Train’s work, as I understand it.

What *does* happen in this volume? Well, the link between Margaret and Madlax is drummed into our head in three refrains: hot drinks; red shoes; pasta.

Madlax stares into the eye of Enfant and find her brain leaking out her ears from the mystical words of the book Firstari. Twice. And twice Vanessa saves her sorry possessed ass.

Vanessa and Madlax get all touchy-feely.

Carlossur Dawn realizes that he’s going to have to choose soon, between the truth and his job.

Vanessa gets to play the prince to Madlax’s lost princess, but is way glad when Madlax takes the role back.

Margaret doesn’t have enough brains left to be affected by her own book, Secondary.

Eleanor is still a really strange maid. ^_^

Rimelda is on the cusp of realizing that her life is meaningless without Madlax in it.

Vanessa and Madlax visit the place where it all began, and Margaret knows it, somehow.

Naharu walks around looking mysterious and cool, but adds nothing appreciably to plot or character.

Did I mention Vanessa and Madlax snuggling?

The music in this particular set of episodes is pretty much the same three songs you keep hearing over and over, but at this point they become symbolic, as well as decorative. In fact, Madlax’s own theme becomes so crucial to the plot, Japanese fans apparently joked that the word “Yamaani” which is the repeated opening word of her song, gave Madlax superhuman powers. ^_^

Sometimes a story takes too long to get to the point. To be honest, I don’t really care if there ever is a point in this anime – it’s a fun ride, full of gunfire and other people’s misery and deeply mystical, occult symbolism that means nothing to me. ^_^

My only complaints? Friday Monday is STILL the worst name EVER for a bad guy…and…Firstari? Oh, come *on*! Primary. The word is P-r-i-m-a-ry.

When they use Thirdari, I just start to cry.

There’s no overt Yuri. Vanessa and Madlax snuggle in a comfy, friendly way, but I’m not opposed to the idea that it went further somewhere along the line. Nonetheless, I hold in my heart Madlax x Rimelda and Vanessa x Eleanor.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Music – 8
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7.5

A strong action story, with a little light magic thrown in.





Drama CD: Hayate Cross Blade

November 29th, 2005

Did someone say Hayate Cross Blade Drama CD?

Yes indeed. Following in the footsteps of several other yuri-fied series from Dengeki Daioh, Hayate x Blade is being turned into a Drama CD. If you read Okazu regularly, you know that I adore those. More than the animation (which, let’s face it, ain’t so hot alot of the time) for me what makes a character come alive is a voice. And Drama CDs, being all voice, give the actors and actresses a chance to really push their skills. This particular Drama CD won’t be out until March, but I thought I’d whet your appetites with a rundown of the voice cast. To understand better who I’m talking about, and why I’m so excited, you can read my reviews in the Hayate x Blade category.

I posted this all previously on the Yuricon Mailing List, but here’s a list of some of the voice cast from the upcoming CD. This cast would be splendid for an anime, hint, hint. ;-)

The character name is on the left, seiyuu on the right, followed by notable credits from the ANN “People” database.

Kurogana Hayate – Mamiya Kurumi (Hamtaro in Hamtaro)

Mudoh Ayana – Yukino Satsuki (Yomi in Azumanga Daioh; Kagome in Inu Yasha; Nenene Sumiregawa in ROD the TV)

Amachi Hitsugi -Yajima Akiko (Anna in Battle Athletes; Tsubasa in Figure 17; Relena in Gundam Wing)

Miyamoto Shizuku – Nagazawa Miki (Judy in Cowboy Bebop; Sakura in Key the Metal Idol; Maya in Neon Genesis Evangelion; Miyu in Vampire Princess Miyu)

Kuga Jun – Tomoguchi Megumi (Sei in Maria-sama ga Miteru; Ayaka in Stellvia; Winry Rockbell in Full Metal Alchemist)

Yukari – Maeda Ai (Mimi in Digimon Adventure; Shion in Xenosaga)

Inugami Isuzu – Noto Mamiko (Shimako in Maria-sama ga Miteru; Enma Ai in Jigoku Shoujo; Yukino in Mai Hime/Mai Otome)

Kibi Momoka – Ohmoto Mamiko (Na-chan in Cutey Honey Flash; Miss Monday in One Piece; Miki in Tenshi na Konamaiki)

Note the preponderance of seiyuu that have previously voiced yuri-flavored characters… and note that the only openly lesbian character, Jun, is voiced by Sei’s VA. Amazing, isn’t it? Aren’t you shocked – I know I am. :-) Six degrees of yuri strikes again.

Although Jun is the gayest cast member, there’s yuri-service aplenty in other major pairings…Ayana and Yukari have a past that involves some kind of ugly breakup of their relationship; and Shizuku and Hitsugi are a cute couple. ^_^ Yukino Satsuki will *perfect* as grumpy Ayana.

One of my personal favorites is the choice of Noto Mamiko for Isuzu. She is a fantastically creepy character. Isuzu is really a nice girl, but creeps everyone out. Think female ghost that crawls out of the well in “The Ring”. She and Momoka eventually become shinyuu – sisters in arms/partners.

IMHO, this looks like a total win all around. You can be sure that I’ll be getting it as soon as it hits Amazon JP. And if this series does indeed follow the trend, we might be looking at a future anime series. Since Hayate Cross Blade is delightfully minimal in fanservice and funny as hell, it would be a refreshing change from the usual crap that’s turned into anime.