Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Anime: Hayate Cross Blade, Volume 2

March 18th, 2005

Could Hayate Cross Blade get any better? I can’t imagine how. Unless Hayate grows up suddenly and she and Ayana kiss passionately…but even without that, this manga still rocks. (And you know, thinking about it…I’m not sure they really work as a couple…)

At the end of Volume 1, we leave Ayana and Hayate, our newly paired shinyuu having just fought off 18 other teams to move up an entire rank in one huge, embarrasingly amusing randori. Hayate is speaking to her friend, fellow first year Momoka, one of the very few unpaired swordswomen in school, about just why she remains without soeur…woops, I mean shinyuu. ;-)

Momoka tells Hayate that she has a person with whom she wants be paired – her old sempai from her kendo dojo, Riona. Rio-‘nee is a year older and entered the school first. When Momoka entered, she relates in a heart-rending tale, she found Riona paired with an abusive older classman. At that *very* instant, the two appear and we see Riona’s partner haul off and belt her across the face! Shock! Momoka challenges the upperclassman to a duel, to rescue her beloved Rio-‘nee. Hayate is moved to tears…

In the meantime, since Hayate is helping Momoka train, Ayana is left in peaceful bliss to fend off her randy roommate Jun. Jun is our resident openly desirous best friend type, who makes no bones about wanting to jump this particular sempai, but Ayana isn’t interested. (Of course, she’s still pining away a little for Yukari, her former shinyuu. You can tell by her reactions everytime she runs into Yukari.)

Does Momoka win the challenge? What do you think…of course she does! But the outcome is nothing like Momoka expects, as Riona opts to stay with her current partner, since she’s really not as abusive as she seems and in fact, being slapped upside the head every once in a while refreshes her. Erm, yeah. (And man, Momoka was so kewl and princely as she fights for the woman she loves…sigh…stupid Riona.)

Which is where the fun *really* begins, because the only other unpaired girl in the school (not every student is a fighter, but if you are, you can’t fight without a partner) has been haunting Momoka trying to get her to team up. I use the word “haunting” quite literally. Inugami Isuzu is the CREEPIEST girl ever. The art for her is brilliantly funny, drawing on alot of current horror movies and standard traditional horror tropes that you will recognize immediately. She’s got an evil black aura around her head and even the way she moves and talks are creepy. To top it all off, Isuzu is clearly a witch. I adore Isuzu…she’s so skin-twitchingly awful. ^_^

After resigning herself to losing Riona, Momoka makes Isuzu’s physical appearance a little more friendly looking, which actually on serves to make her *more* creepy. Hayate dubs Isuzu “Wanko” (puppy girl, a play on her family name.) At last, Momoka and her new shinyuu can join the battle.

I cannot *wait* for Volume 3.

I mean, chicks with weapons, tons of yuri fun, almost no fanservice….no, really, I can’t think of any! Can you believe it? Hayate Cross Blade is a strong favorite so far for best manga of 2005. It’ll be damned hard to beat, anyway….





Yuri Manga: Hayate Cross Blade, Volume 1

March 14th, 2005

From Hayashiya Shizuru, the author of Strawberry Shake, Yuri Shimai‘s Yuri love comedy, comes Hayate Cross Blade, a delightful mixture of whimsy, action and lots of lovely Yuri.

(07/28/07: If you have come to this review after reading that Seven Seas has licensed the manga, please feel free to click Hayate x Blade for all my reviews of this series!)

*Special thanks to Touko_no_doriru-san, who told me about this terrific series! Thank you so much for the heads up!*

I probably shouldn’t even be writing this review yet, as I haven’t had a proper read-through of this manga – but it really is so wonderful, I wanted to rave a little. I promise to read it more thoroughly before I review Volume 2. ^_^

To put it simply, Hayate (the redhead on the left of the above cover) is a heroine of the uber-genki, out-of-control sort. (Readers familiar with Strawberry Shake can easily liken her to Julia.) Hayate’s sister was supposed to have attended a special elite school, but is unable to attend, so Hayate decides to masquerade as her. Of course, this ruse is quickly uncovered, but she is allowed to stay…on a few conditions.

The school is the sort that, had it ever truly existed, I would have moved heaven and earth to attend. ^_^ The girls all carry swords and rank at the school is attained by joining the “Star Taking” Hoshitori which basically means sword-fighting with the other girls to move up in rank. There appears to be compensation for high ranks – with a large prize at the very top.

Hayate lives with a young woman Chiharu, who runs an orphanage and who continually insists, quite forcefully at times, that she will marry Hayate. Hayate doesn’t seem to think there’s anything wrong with this – she acts very father-like to the orphans. As it turns out, Hayate and her sister were raised there.

When she attends school, she immediately she runs into several problems. She falls foul of intemperate upperclassmen, of course. And the house she lives in is trashed by a greedy real estate agent. Along with the special circumstances of her being allowed to stay at the school, she now *needs* money and rank, so she joins the Hoshitori to attain both. In order to participate in the Way of the Sword, one needs a partner, so Hayate picks the most aloof, least attainable and easily the most skilled girl at school…a girl who was once the highest ranked ever who, for reasons that have many rumors attached to them, but no hard facts, has stopped being an active fighter.

Through sheer insanity, Hayate convinces this girl, Mudoh Ayana, to be her partner – but the Council makes one condition. Since Hayate is a beginner, they must both start from the very bottom of the ranks.

We learn very quickly that Hayate has some genuine innate hand-to-hand skills, even though her sword technique is rough, and that Ayana’s past history includes a deeply painful break-up with her former partner, now the highest ranked sword fighter in the middle school.

As you can imagine, this manga is filled with all *sorts* of hints about the relationships between the various partners, and there is overt akogare on Hayate’s part for her new uber-cool partner (which makes for a cute rivalry with Chiharu.)

Basically, you got the whole soeur thing going, with the addition of swords and fighting. This is very good thing, IMHO.  ^_^ In this case, the relationship is referred to as “shinyuu” which can be translated as both, “close friends” and “sisters-in-arms”.

The art is, again, familiar to anyone who has read Strawberry Shake, and the characters are all instantly likable. I definitely give this series a whopping big thumbs up.

Ratings

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Overall – 8

A solid entry to the Yuri lists, and one that I will follow with great enjoyment!





Sweet Valerian

December 9th, 2004

Sweet Valerian is suspended somewhere between “how adorable!” and “wtf?”. :-)

I can see the scene clearly:

The ladies of CLAMP are sitting around after work one night, drinking, maybe sharing a few hallucenogenics between friends, relaxing and having a few laughs.

Tsubaki asks, “What haven’t we done yet?”

And Mokona answers, “Well, we haven’t done a magical girl series in a while.”

Everyone boos Mokona down, but about then the acid kicks in and they start to brainstorm.

Satsuki has another sake and posits, “Hey, let’s do it! But instead of a magical girl thing, we’ll make them turn into bunnies.”

“Yeah!” agrees Ageha, who is now leaning at an alarming angle. “And when the papers report that the bunnies have saved the world, the girls can be all annoyed.”

At which point in the conversation Tsubaki wakes up and adds, “Yes, and the art can be all Peter Max on bad mushrooms…”

There’s a pause in the conversation as they all ponder adding mushrooms to their happy-time menu….

Interrupting the silence, Mokona stands up and says, “I got it! We’ll make it a short, like, 3 or 4 minute thing, so there doesn’t really have to be a plot – in fact it doesn’t even have to make sense!”

Tsubaki joins Mokona on her feet and raises a glass to the merchandisable, yet inexplicable, new series from CLAMP. “Now all we need is a title,” Tsubaki says.

She looks at her fellow CLAMPers, but Satsuki is looking sick, “My head is pounding. Anyone got aspirin?” she asks miserably.

Ageha shuffles in her purse. “No – but I have some valerian pills. They’re pretty good for relieving stress…” And they all stare at each other, as the chill of the inevitable settles over them and a new series is born.

(The above is, of course, fiction and completely NOT meant to imply that the members of CLAMP in any way indulge in illicit drugs. Really…)

So, anyway, we meet rich-girl Kanoko, game company representative Pop and model Kate, as they go to apply for a scooter license, but instead are tricked into becoming a team of magical girl bunnies,”Relaxation Squad Valerian,” that save the world from the evils of the Stress Boys, in 3-minute chunks of surreal weirdness.

I love this anime, but I’m glad it’s short. If it went on too long, like Super Milk-chan it would begin to grate on my nerves. And like Kogepan, the super-short format adds considerable surrealism to the otherwise bare storyline.

Let’s cut to the chase – is there yuri?

If you turn your yuri goggles up and remember that fanon goes a *long* way to filling the holes, then…yes. ;-)

Take a look at this picture from their origin episode.

Note how cute Kate and Kanoko look together. Remember that there is virtually no character development in this goofy thing. Now close your eyes and write a little story…. There! There’s your yuri! LOL

Just to up the yuri potential through the “6 degrees of yuri” game, Pop’s voice is done by Asakawa Yu, who we know and love for doing Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh and Jura from Vandread.

As an added bonus, Kate, the monotonal model, also has a yuri voice credit to her name. Her seiyuu played Subaru from .hack/sign. Feel free to write fanfic, draw fan art, connect the dots, fill in the blanks and otherwise make this series a yuri-fest. :)

Ratings:

Story – What there is, is a silly 7

Characters – 8

Art – Intentionally simplistic and surreal, 8

Yuri – 4

Overall – 7

I mean, come *on!* Magical *bunnies*! And, erm, some yuri fanon potential. Just watch it already.

P.S. – A visit to CLAMP’s official website has just netted me the info that Sweet Valerian manga will be begin running in February’s Nakayoshi magazine. I’ll definitely be looking for it!





Yuri Manga: Free Soul

October 14th, 2004

Back in June, I reviewed Free Soul, by Yamaji Ebine.

Last week, I received the collected edition of this series and let me just say that it is a definite must-have, all the way around.

The story hasn’t changed since June, but my reading of it has, so please forgive me as I go over it once more. The first time around, I began reading it in Feel Young magazine at the sixth chapter, and so was unaware of several issues. Most importantly, Angie, the black, skinhead, lesbian, jazz singer (very like Me’shell NdegeOcello) whose story fills the book, is not real, but a construct of the heroine’s imagination. Keito is a mangaka who spends much of the book writing and drawing Angie, speaking to her – and learning from her – as she deals with her own real-life problems.

Keito’s story begins shortly after she has run away from home at the age of 22. Her mother, a bitter woman, was extremely unhappy to learn that her daughter is a lesbian, so she has left. Keito meets Rui, an unconventional 80-something author, and is taken in by her. Keito does go back to talk to her mother, but her mother is never fully reconciled to her daughter’s “lifestyle.” Keito’s father, divorced from her mother some time earlier, seems a pale and shadowy man – he appears primarily to be told by Keito that it is not his fault that she is gay.

Keito, despite her less than happy family life, is a pretty cool kid. She gets a job at a jazz music record store and fits in quite happily among the primarily black male clientele.

At the record store Keito meets Niki, a bisexual trumpet player for a funk band. She loses her heart, but Niki explains that she’s not at *all* interested in having a relationship – but is perfectly willing to have sex. Keito’s pain as she fails to win Niki is touching, but not traumatic, and her quiet triumph as she regains Niki is enjoyable, but not ecstatic. As always, Yamaji Ebine’s work slides by comfortably, with a realistic and mature atmosphere – without hysterics or melodrama.

Yamaji Ebine’s art is stellar – everyone who sees it is moved by the simplicity, starkness and fine line work. I have, to this day, never seen anything else like it. As is also usual with a Yamaji story, the background music is jazz and blues.

What can I even say about the “Yuri quotient”? It’s a 100% Yuri story – written by a lesbian mangaka for an audience of adult women, about a young lesbian who falls in love with another woman. Period. With a sub-story about a lesbian jazz singer and her philosophies on life and love.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 10

Overall – a very strong 9.

If you aren’t reading Yamaji Ebine’s work…you are seriously missing out on the best yuri being published in Japanese right now. Run, don’t walk, to Amazon Japan and buy Yamaji Ebine’s work. You won’t regret it.





Yuri Anime: The Return of Kekko Kamen?

August 11th, 2004

In a report from Chibicon, ADV has said that they are planning a release of Kekko Kamen (aka Kekkou Kamen) on DVD, with a new dub. Finally, a modern audience will be able to experience the truly wonderful wackiness that is Kekkou Kamen! Let us all rejoice!

Of course, yuri fans know not to watch the dub, right? Because if you watch the dub, you’ll miss the dulcet tones of Shinohara Emi, seiyuu of reknown, who voiced yuri fave Sailor Jupiter/Kino Makoto in Sailor Moon, and is now captivating audiences as Mizuno Youko/Rosa Chinensis in Maria-sama ga Miteru. Shinohara Emi plays the heroine in Kekko Kamen with panache and even sings the fantastic theme, Kekkou Kamen no Uta.

I reviewed Kekko Kamen back on April 8. Please check out that review, then, when ADV releases it on DVD, you’ll be all primed and ready for the nude escapades of this particular fighter for love and justice. :-) And remember – buy your yuri anime legitimately and be a real human. Annoy Bill at Anime Castle by sending him messages that you want to pre-order a copy – he loves getting email from yuri fans begging him to sell them stuff. :-)

And speaking of Go Nagai, dubs and nude escapades, here’s a review of the dub of Go Nagai’s Devilman Lady. Again, yuri fans may want to skip the dub altogether and instead enjoy the voice talent of Iwao Junko, who also voiced Daidouji Tomoyo from Card Captor Sakura.

All this Go Nagai goodness has made me want to go listen to the Devilman Lady soundtrack. I’ll catch you tomorrow!