Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 3

September 12th, 2005

Madlax, Volume 3 Sometimes you get a craving and nothing but sociopathic women with guns can fill it.

Volume 3 of Madlax is both wonderful…and frustrating. Wonderful, because all the connections start coming together, leading you forward towards who knows what. It’s also frustrating for the exact same reasons – you keep feeling like everything is going *somewhere* but you’re just not getting quite enough info to piece it all together.

For me, the volume is very satisfying, as it focuses primarily on the character of Vanessa Rene, whose efforts to find out exactly what’s going on bring her into contact with Madlax, and with Enfan, thus knitting together the three great variables in the story: Who is Madlax, and how did she get those mad assassinatin’ skillz; what on earth is Enfan’s relationship to the civil war in Gazth-Sonika; what does Margaret have to do with any of this?

None of these questions is answered, of course – but Vanessa actually articulates the first two – and the third is implicit in the storyline. Bee Train isn’t giving anything away in this anime, we’re going to have to work for our payoff here. When I watched this part the first time around, I was skeptical that we would get *any* payoff, but now I know we will, and I’m content to let the story play itself out.

In writing the above, I just realized that watching Madlax is a bit like watching a play by Chekhov – you have to let the characters repeat their particular bete noir over and over until the threads all ravel and it begins to make sense. You can’t rush it, or guess what will happened/has happened. You just have to wait.

On the yuri side, I love this volume for what it doesn’t say. There’s still the weird vibe between Vanessa and Eleanor, which makes me think that they slept together, but don’t have a “relationship” per se. Eleanor would be hard work – her focus is so single-minded, that to make her notice her existence, Vanessa would have to do something irrevocable and awful. Vanessa ain’t no dummmy – she lets whatever is between them stay as whatever Eleanor makes it.

When she meets Madlax, its obvious that Vanessa is resonating to something within her – there’s an obvious desire to connect with this mysterious girl, and maybe protect (or perhaps treasure) her a little. There’s a very, very slight yuri feel there, but I think that’s because they are strangers and Vanessa doesn’t yet know who/what Madlax is or how to approach her. I don’t have any difficulty in believing that Vanessa would sleep with Madlax, if she thought that would be a good idea for them both. We know, with 20/20 hindsight, what the thing she feels in Madlax is, but as she doesn’t know herself – and never does learn – it leaves an interesting edginess between them.

As for Madlax, she clearly sees the relationship between her and Vanessa as a mirror image of Vanessa’s interpretaton: she’s the prince protecting Vanessa, the princess. We’ve already seen that Madlax isn’t afraid of sex and, once again, I think Madlax could well sleep with Vanessa, if she felt that it was the thing to do.

Will they, do they? I don’t think so. But that edge between them is fascinating and titilating.

And there’s Rimelda. This volume could be entitled “The birth of an obsession” and I think it’s a beautiful thing. ^_^ I’m not usually fond of obsessive relationships, but again, I know what’s coming and this one works for me.

Ratings:
Art – 5. It’s very inconsistent, with that BT tendency to have really bad people on top of really lovely backgrounds
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Music – 8
Yuri – 6, with loads of possibility

Overall – 8.

Madlax is a story that remains intriguing and fun, as long as you don’t need it to “make sense.”





Yuri Anime: Noir, Volume 3

August 15th, 2005

Just as a reminder, it’ll be a short week for Okazu, since Otakon is coming up on Thursday. I’ll have my computer, and there’s a small chance that I’ll be updating, but no promises! ^_^

Okay, so despite the fact that my life is nearly 100% Maria-sama ga Miteru right now, I thought I’d move off it for a sec, and harken back to the golden days of yesteryear, when yuri anime existed, and women who carried guns ruled the small screen. That’s right, its time for Noir. (You can use the search feature up on the top of the page to find my reviews of Volumes 1 and 2, because I’m too lazy to look them up for you. Just stick in the word “Noir” and the links’ll be the top ones.)

In this third volume several significant things happen. For one thing, the gradual character development of the second volume is left behind, and the sense that something important is looming just ahead is notched up several, erm, notches. The character Chloe is introduced in this volume and, most importantly, in Episode 10, one of the faceless henchmen actually gets *wounds* when he is shot! And here I have been saying that that never happens. Wrong again, Erica.

Before I comment on Chloe, let me first mention Altena. Altena was a completely wasted character. For someone who got so much build-up through the series, they really never *did* anything with her. She was supposed to have been the other Soldats branch, supporting the “pure,” ritualistic Noir, as opposed to the crime syndicate assassin-for-hire Noir, but they really never managed it. Bee Train has improved at stroy writing since this anime, so I won’t beat it to death, but really, Altena was a waste. Which is a shame, ’cause she might have been cool. (Not as cool as Inccontabile, who I still think would have made a better adversary.)

And then there is Chloe and her spork. (Damn you Dreiser, for destroying my brain with that image!)

Chloe is meant to be creepy and cool and scarily ubercompetent. And fandom seems to agree, overwhelmingly. But I think she’s pretty boring, myself. In the Volume 3 liner notes, we learn that of the four major characters Mirielle and Kirika were created by one woman, Chloe by another and Altena by a third. The three characters designs were integrated for the story. I don’t think it worked, sorry. Chloe would be great in say, ./hack‘s The World, but in France, she seems utterly ridiculous. I realize that I am in a minority of one when I say that Chloe and Kirika together as a couple would not only be horribly unsexy, but utterly, mind-numbingly boring. And don’t get me started on that cape. LOL And it’s a damn shame, because as everyone knows, Chloe’s voice is done by the utterly fabulous Hisakawa Aya, for whom I have nothing but the most immense respect. She does her best to bring some depth to this role, but its a doomed effort, since Chloe really just doesn’t have any. I will say for Chloe that in this volume, at least, she gets some modicum of personality – and we get the glimmer of Chloe’s genuine desire to be paired wth Kirika. So that works whether I like it or not. ^_^

Be that as it may, Volume 3 starts to pick up the action a bit from the slightly slower and more melancholic Volume 2. In general, it’s a great set of episodes, with a hint of the “40 versus 1” that will come in the future, in which Kirika can stand in a open space and not be shot by the several dozen men shooting at her, while she takes them down with a bullet each. Totally realistic. ;-)

Ratings:

Art – 7 (Chloe’s face is often uneven and the people stand out as really bad in front of lovely detailed backgrounds.)
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Music – 9
Yuri – 6

Overall – 8

Watching Noir is like the old potato chip tagline – you can’t watch only one. It simply *begs* for a 26-episode all night carbohydrate and alcohol-laden marathon. Great, goofy, henchmen-slaughtering fun.





Live Action: Kekkou Kamen Movie

July 7th, 2005

I was so happy to find a copy of the new Kekkou Kamen live-action movie, even though I was pretty sure that there was going to be no yuri in it.

I have reviewed the Kekkou Kamen anime, manga, and three truly horrible live-action movies, previously.

I had high hopes for the new live-action KK, if only because the new movie version of Cutie Honey had been so decent. Oh well. I guess it was too much to ask that this really trashy series ever be “decent.” ^_^

It wasn’t just that the scenes of Kekkou Kamen on a motorcycle were obviously filmed in front of a bluescreen – or that the “lascivious” behavior of the teachers and their henchmen were of the boring “slavering over a bra” kind. It was more like, it just got gross instead of tacky. Let’s put it this way – this movie actually *stole* the laxative schtick from Weather Woman. Does it really get lower than that?

The plot, such as it was, was not really enough for a real movie, so the middle bit gets kind of unfocused. I thought it was just me, but about 2/3 of the way though the movie, Mayumi breaks the fourth wall and actually speaks to Go Nagai, who pops up in a little bubble on the screen and answers. Clearly they’d lost all momentum by then. I didn’t feel too bad about only half paying attention.

Now – here was the one good thing – the actress playing Mayumi. She was *perfect.* In this version, Mayumi is a transfer student from New Zealand – not too bright, but not stupid; really bad at kanji – but with excellent English, which surprised the hell out of me. She’s not particularly cute, either, but really grows on you. Honestly, she was totally wasted in this movie, which wasn’t even particularly creative with its sort-of-sadistic, quasi-sexual tortures. Nothing even remotely as good as Gestapoko from the anime.

I was definitely bummed at the lack of yuri. There’s plenty of room for it – and its just about the one fetish the movie manages to miss – which, if you think about it could either be good, or bad. lol

The one last major bummer was the crappiness of the theme. In the anime Kekkou Kamen’s theme is sung by Shinohara Emi and is really great. The remake of the Cutie Honey theme for the movie was SO good that I was really hoping for a cool remake for KK’s theme. No dice. The new version is scratchy and whiny and generally suckariffic. Boo hooooo.

Ratings:
Cinematography – hahaha
Music – eh
Characters – Mayumi – wow; Everyone else – shrug
Story – bleh
Yuri – snort

Overall, a resounding noseblow of a movie. If you want to see it, you can borrow my copy.





Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 2

July 5th, 2005

It has been pointed out to me in the notes below that this review was full of hot air. I stand corrected – the translation in the one case I illustrated was fine. ;-))

I am so irritated about this volume of Madlax, I’m not really even sure where to begin.

So to begin, I’ll touch on the good things. First and foremost, this volume is fun, with a capital “fu”. I mean, how many other places can you watch a gentle maid go totally postal on some entitled wannabe frat boy?  I particularly enjoy it when Elenore snaps the kid’s wrist, because he hurt Margaret’s wrist. And when Vanessa says, “How vicious,” she really doesn’t sound all that disapproving. ^_^

Other good things – the liner notes include highly amusing fan art drawn by some of the staff, complete with in-jokes that have to be explained. I really enjoyed these.

And that about covers it. The plot is dense, the bad guy is a joke, but those haven’t changed from my first viewing of the series. And the rest of the episodes are actually very interesting, as we finally start to draw a connection between Margaret, the book and Madlax.

(Remind me to engage in a light rant about the book next review…^_^)

The really stand-out not-good thing on this volume is the seriously awful translation. The first volume was pretty good, but again, its like they switched midstream and stopped actually listening to what was being said, and instead started guessing at something sort-of close to the meaning.

I can’t remember all the things that annoyed the living daylights out of me, but there were several. COME ON,  anime distributor companies! We are notstupid. We are not children. JUST TRANSLATE WHAT THEY SAY. Not something “close enough” to it. And leave the \expletive deleted\ honorifics alone, already! Stop the dubtitling.

It’s absolutely infuriating to pay money for something that is not done properly. It may be cheaper for you to dubtitle, but it stinks for those of us who want to watch the Japanese. Thanks for treating us like second-class citizens, when we are your fan base.

No ratings, I’m in a bad mood.





Yuri Anime: Noir, Volume 2

June 27th, 2005

I spent some time this weekend rewatching anime that I own, but haven’t yet reviewed here. It was edifying, let me tell you. There were some things that were great and some less so. I decided to start the week off with a reasonably strong entry. ^_^

Noir Volume 2, *feels* like a second volume. The art is significantly less good than the first volume, the plot sort of drops off a bit in favor of character development (sort of) and the use of repeated footage begins to grate. But otherwise it’s excellent. ^_^

On the positive side, the characters do become more than just ciphers. Despite myself, I was feeling a little for Mirielle and Kirika as they faced what, for them, were major life crises – Kirika’s lack of knowledge about herself and Mirielle’s past trauma coming back to haunt her.

We also get a glimpse of Mirielle in bed in the nude, which has carried Yuri fans for some time, as there is only one bed in the room. It would take a strong woman, so we rationalize, to sleep in the nude with someone with whom you are not sleeping. ;-) In fact, I think it’s a bit early for them, but hey, yuri goggles go a long way to building character development. ^_^

Geographically, we go from New York City to (the wildly improbable deep woods and high mountain passes) of New Jersey to sunny Sicily. For this alone, the “Intoccabile” arc is worth it. But this arc is worth watching, in general. I think Intoccabile would have made a much worthier opponent than Chloe and it was a damn shame we used her up so soon.

This volume also gives the viewer glimpses into a Kirika who is exactly as she appears – a young woman, apt to fall for a cute kitty or a good sob story. I liked that. It gives her more depth than most people assume she has. And Mirielle gets a chance to gently gloat about her superior knowledge of Russian literature. ^_^

So, yes, the second volume has problems – notably the art and repeated footage issue (and the no-wound thing, which plagues the whole production), but as far as giving the characters some three-dimensionality, this volume is fairly crucial – and actually not a bad watch.

Ratings:
Art – 5
Music – 7 (Salva Nos playing as they run through NJ’s bamboo forest is, to me, priceless)
Character – 8
Story – 7

Overall 7

Not as strong as the beginning, or the end, but a must for fanfic writers. ^_^