Archive for the Artists Category


Hayate x Blade 2 (Nyan), Volume 3 Manga (はやて×ブレード2 3)

December 16th, 2015

HxB23-275x394Since 2004, I have been raving about this series and since about 2007 or so, I have taken to commenting that, statistically speaking, we are overdue for a less awesome volume. So far, statistics have been on our side, as Hayate x Blade 2 (Nyan), Volume 3 (はやて×ブレード2 3) is just as ridiculous and magnificent as every other volume of this series to date.

Histugi’s Summer Festival is in full swing, and her unique ideas for an obstacle course are…unique. Regular students take up the sword to defeat Heaven fighters, all interestingly restrained, while their Earth partners make their way through the sports clubs as obstacles to find the buzzers that release the restraints.

In the middle of the chaos Hayate and Nagi face off. But this, we can see, is not the final chapter in this tale. Nagi is the stronger…but she shouldn’t be.  What is really eating at Nagi and why Hayate can no longer stand toe to toe with her twin remains to be explored. And we have to wonder if it’s tied into the reason that their adoptive mother Nagare takes off after their adoptive father, Taiyou, with a knife when she sees him. ^_^

School is back in session and we all know what that means! The Hoshitori is about to commence. New rules, new matchups and more sword-fighting madness is on the horizon. I can’t wait!

The extra chapter was so funny that my wife commented that even not being able to read the Japanese, she laughed at it. You remember back at the winter semester break, Otoha found herself joining a Native American tribe on a buffalo hunt, and meeting a doppelganger for Hitsugi? No? How on earth could you forget that? I mean, it was a buffalo hunt. Anyway, the doppelganger’s name was Sanba, she told Kiji to call her “Sunny.” In the extra chapter here in Volume 3, Sunny and Hitsugi meet and, as you might expect, something amazing happens. In this case, they take off like a rocket ship and fly away together, returning three days later after having raided Tokyo Disneyland, Otome Road and Skytree.

Ratings:

Art – 10 There are more then 40 main characters and I can tell them apart.
Story – 10 Sublime, especially when Hitsugi and Shizuku are going to be shot out of barrels.
Characters – 10 Did I mention that Hitsugi and Shizuku are going to be shot out of barrels?
Yuri – 1 for Jun on principle
Service – 1 for Jun on principle

Overall – 10

Always, always, always Hayate x Blade is a ridiculously silly, ridiculously violent, and ridiculously satisfying read.

 





Yuri Manga: Cider to Nakimushi (サイダーと泣き虫)

November 17th, 2015

CtNm-275x401Canno burst onto the Yuri scene in 2014 with her delightful school series Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo. It gained enough popularity that, when Yuri Hime Comics started buying up the back lists of Yuri creators, putting together their previously un-published or doujinshi works, it seemed a natural fit. The resulting collection is Canno’s Cider to Nakimushi (サイダーと泣き虫).

The two main series in the book are completely unalike, which is both good and disconcerting. The first mini-series follows Mifuyu and Natsuko, childhood friends whose relationship has become complicated over time. The series draws in several of their acquaintances, as well, as they all try to parse various relationships (and non-relationships) between them. Mifuyu is the crybaby of the title, her tear-stained face is a common site through the series.

We then turn to a much sillier 4-panel comic strip series about an occult club at school. It is, as most strips are, “heh” funny, not laugh out loud funny.

The collection wraps up with a couple of one-shots and a return to the first series for a gag comic.

If you like Canno’s work, you’ll like this book. If you are not a fan, you’ll find it less compelling, but it’s still a solid, if not necessarily inspiring, Yuri collection.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 7

Not a must-have, but it’s a pleasant bedtime read.





Yuri Manga: Kimi no Tame Nara Shineru, Volume 5 (姫のためなら死ねる)

October 21st, 2015

KnTnS5In Volume 5 of Kimi no Tame Nara Shineru (姫のためなら死ねる) Sei Shonagon of The Pillow Book fame has hit a slump. Not just a slump, but a debilitating, crushing and potentially career-damaging slump. And near-constant harassment from the onmyouji “Abe no Hito” isn’t helping.

Not only is Shonagon suffering because of this slump, but Teishi-sama is starting to think that Shonagon doesn’t care for her any more, as her requests to read new entries in the diary are met with vague promises, and excuses. Shonagon, it turns out, is fearful of showing her mistress the uncensored delight she has in the Princess. Too embarrassed and too scared to let anyone know what she’s feeling, she is unable to write anything at all.

Koshikibu and Benkan are alternately worried about and annoyed by Shonagon, but it’s Murasaki who shakes her out of her slump and encourages her to pen openly adoring verses about Teishi-sama. Teishi-sama is likewise embarrassed at the near-worship of Shonagon’s Diary, but they reconcile at last.

As the book comes to a close, Murasaki Shikibu is confronted the disorder known as “reading fanfic about your characters.” And, as it usually is in the real world, it’s not a good thing.

The gags are, if anything, becoming denser. There’s a lot of research that goes into this book and it shows. It’s also getting harder to follow for this reader, as my knowledge of the Heian-kyo is superficial to say the least. ^_^; But what is funny is funny and even when there are hints of somber things to come, it’s all jokes all the way down.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 4

Overall – 7

Luckily for me, in between the otaku humor, there’s more “Shonagon is gaga over Teishi-sama again.”





Yuri Drama CD: Iono The Fanatics, Ah, Michisuji ni Hikari ari 「ああ道筋に光あり」

October 1st, 2015

IsDCD2Just as Volume 1 of Iono The Fanatics Special Edition was packaged with a Drama CD, so was Volume 2, this time titled Iono The Fanatics, Ah, Michisuji ni Hikari ari 「ああ道筋に光あり」

The cast is the same as in the first CD, with three additional voices:

クラウソラス ：内山夕実 さん
Klausoraus : Uchiyama Yumi (Davi in Dokidoki! Precure)

ヤマ・ノヴェラ・ヴァランティアノズ : 高森奈津美
Yama Noveira Varantianos : Takamori Natsumi (Subaru from Houkago no Pleiades)

ここの・ミト・アルシュライン : 小倉唯
Kokono Mito Arceline : Ogura Yui (Sumika from Yuri Kuma Arashi)

The first 8 tracks are all very short, each establishing a fact, more than telling a story. Iono-sama returns home at last and Eto is suddenly face to face with the fact that her lover is truly a Queen…and she is overwhelmed.

We see Klausoraus as part of Iono-sama’s Special Police, under Argent’s command.

Argent and Yama are established as a couple, and I’m gonna say that I was surprised at how cute they were together. ^_^

Iono-sama, now home and settled in, asks Eto to have a child with her. Eto doesn’t take much time to say yes. This is followed by an introduction to Kokono-hime-sama, the star of the new manga chapters in Comic Yuri Hime. Another quick jump forward in time to the set up of the new manga chapters, as Kokono-hime asks to go to school in Japan and some of the staff volunteers to join her as protection.

Ratings:

Characters – 8
Story – 5
Yuri – 5
Service – 0

Overall – 5

While it was all very cute and breathless, it seemed like a long commercial for the new series, rather than a story on it’s own. You couldn’t hand this to anyone who was not already a Iono-sama fan and expect them to make heads or tails of it, the way you could with any of the Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan Drama CDs.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Kuma Arashi, Volume 2 (ユリ熊嵐)

September 27th, 2015

YKAMA2In my review of Volume 1, I finished up with this line: By the time Volume 2 comes out, if indeed it does, the anime will likely be over and I’m sure we’ll have concocted meanings for all the things that don’t mean anything at all. ^_^.

And here I am at Yuri Kuma Arashi, Volume 2 (ユリ熊嵐) and I have a completely different perspective. An Ikuhara series is more like a set of writing prompts than a 3-d perspective. He hands you a set of cards; “Yuri”, “Bears”, “A Promise Kiss”, “Bears eat Humans”, “A Love Story,” and pushes you out of the room with a “Go, write something. Make it look pretty and feel profound.”

And y’know, I’m 100% okay with this. ^_^

Kureha and Ginko like each other. Kureha has kissed Ginko, and said she feels that she wants to be more than friends, which makes Ginko pull away. Kureha is befriended by Sumika who is rumoured to be a “kumajyo,” a witch, and this makes Ginko miserable. Something is coming between her and Kureha, but no one can tell what it is.

Lulu visits Sumika and learns that her house is indeed imbued with magic. Lulu sees a vision of her dead younger brother. In the anime, this story felt like it went on forever, but here it is more banal and therefore more touching. Lulu loved her brother Mirun, but when watching him one day, she left to go to the convenience store to get them food, and he, not wanting to be left behind, ran after her, out into the street and was killed by a car. This was much improved on the long, confusing and inexplicable story Lulu told in the anime.

It’s Lulu who uncovers the truth about Ginko’s mood, when she and Ginko share a memory of Yurika and her boyish girlfriend from high school. They go to visit Yurika and Lulu discovers her in bed with that woman, now beautiful and feminine, and is shocked to learn that the boyish girl she remembers from her youth is none other than Ginko’s mother, Kale (pronounced Kah-re, as in “kareshi”, i.e., boyfriend, but also linked to Kali, we’re told. While Yurika’s name is, more properly, Eureka.)

In the anime, Ginko’s mother was not a character. Here, we learn that Kale wrote the picture book that Kureha’s mother read to her all the time, about the lost bear princess.

The upshot of all this is that Yurika, Kale and Leila (Kureha’s mother) were all close. And in the manga, it is Ginko’s mother, Kale, who ate Leila.

Phew.  I spent all night trying to figure out how to explain that. ^_^

As the book comes to an end, Kureha runs after Ginko to tell she knows the truth now and she doesn’t care. “Ginko is not alone! I’m here!” Kureha yells, embracing Ginko. Will the bear princess forgive herself? How will Sumika die (oh, let’s be honest, she has to go.) Tune in to Volume 3 to find out!

The final few pages are the three boy bears complaining that they didn’t get much time in the manga for which I can only say…good. They were so utterly meaningless in the anime, repeated footage that was never connected to any of the rest of the story. Morishima-sensei makes a good point, though, about how they could easily be a BL spinoff.

I’ve spent the last few days trying to piece this review together and in the end, I have to say that I’m much preferring the manga to the anime. Once you took away the repeated footage and meaningless visual statements, there was exceptionally little world-building or storytelling going on in the anime. Without long, lingering flashbacks and explanations and “Wall of Severance” scenes, this story is starting to make some sense.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – 5

Overall – 8

Let me editorialize – Once upon a time, there were 2 bears and a human girl and they were all friends. But the bears wanted to eat the girl, because that’s what bears do. When one bear fell in love with the girl, the other bear decided to eat the girl, because she was jealous. Now, that bear’s daughter, and the girl’s daughter are falling in love. That’s what I’ve got so far. We’ll see if I’m right or not. ^_^