Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Manga: Iono The Fanatics, Special Edition Volume 1 (新装版 いおの様ファナティクス 特装版 1)

August 24th, 2015

specialiono1-e1435708804900Ten years after she premiered, Iono-sama is back and in a shiny new edition from Ichijinsha!

The story is the same adorable little ditty about a Queen of a small, unnamed western country with a fondness for women with black hair and Japan, generally, that we fell for the first time. Her adventures as she meets and recruits heartbroken and slightly forgetful Hachibe Eto as a lady-in-waiting makes up the first part of the book. The second half is filled with her efforts to recruit more ladies-in-waiting, with some amusing results, one excruciating running gag and one assassination attempt. This story is ten parts comedy to one part awesome cool.

In my 2007 review of the English-language edition, I got something wrong. My major complaint was the translations of names. I was particularly incensed at the translation for Iono-sama’s driver and special police captain. I felt that the choice of “Fletch” was, well, ugly and out of tone for the story. And I stand by that. Freshi, as I first translated it, wasn’t correct, and “Frechet,” which was my second choice, isn’t right either, however. Her name should have been Flèche, which is French for “fletch” and would have been a correct transliteration for her katakana name. So, I was wrong and I apologize, but I still think Infinity did a generally half-assed job on the translation. (Does this matter, you may ask? Obviously, it does to me. Names are important. I am reading a translated manga right now set in medieval France and a name that has an obvious French version has been transliterated in the ugliest way possible. It makes me unhappy every time I see it. )

You would think there was nothing left for me to learn in the older chapters, but you’d be wrong! One of the candidates in the lady-in-waiting contest is fortune-teller Shishio Teru. I hadn’t noticed this before but her bio mentions that her little sister is into jinxes. At which I screamed “A-HA!” and bounded out of the chair, at which my wife looked up and said “Crossover?” since she knew I was reading a book by Fujieda-sensei who does love his crossovers. ^_^ I reached for Ame-iro Kouchkan Kandan and found that Shishio Haru is the full name of Sarasa’s friend who runs a jinx website. How did I miss that crossover the last 18 times?

New for this volume are a few extra pages at the end, including strips on each of the characters and an afterword by Fujieda-sensei on the tense negotiations for this new edition. (I’m joking. Ichijinsha said, “How about we do a Drama CD?” and Fujieda-sensei was all “Yipee!”)

This edition is packaged with an original drama CD, which I’ll take a look at tomorrow. ^_^ Overall, it was *so* nice to be able to revisit Iono-sama and her staff. Especially as there are new chapters following Iono-sama and Eto’s daughter running in recent Comic Yuri Hime issues. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 10
Service – 1 Just some implication of making out

Overall – 9

Don’t bother commenting that you hope this will be picked up for license. Seven Seas has already flat out said they won’t. If you want details on that decision, take that up with them. In the meantime, learning to read Japanese is still an option. ^_^





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

August 19th, 2015

615EVWBRbLLI gotta be honest with you. Every time I finish reading a volume of Hayate x Blade, I award myself a little mental achievement badge. Partially because for a goofball comedy, this is some of the most difficult Japanese I read on a regular basis, but also because it’s such a tremendously excellent series that I feel I have gained something critical with each volume. ^_^

In Volume 1 of the new series, Amachi Hitsugi rolled out the new dorms and the new Hoshitori rules. In Volume 2 of Hayate x Blade Nyan (はやてxブレード 2), she commences the Summer Festival, in which she turns the Tench Academy students’ lives into an unending extreme obstacle course.

First, there’s the entrance to the resort island where the festival will take place. The ladder game used for decision making, Amidakuji, is reproduced as a thin scaffolding crossing the ocean. The bars are coated in oil, so students may slip off into the water. Only those students who make it across will be part of the Summer Festival.

Those who make the crossing successfully find themselves assigned to cottages which include members of both the Tenkuu and Daichi dorms. Right away, cottage members are assigned as teams to run the multi-part obstacle race to gather food and utensils in order to make their evening’s dinner, which is of course, curry. They collect seafood from the ocean, carry heavy portions of rice through the jungle, spelunk to find equipment to cook with and are, if they gain the required items in the time allotted, awarded with the curry powder they need.

To celebrate achieving their first goal – and eating dinner – the Tenchi students annoy the shit out of the Black Group by having fun and lighting fireworks.

Character development-wise, we finally start to crack open the safe that is Nagi. Nagi’s mask slips a bit when she’s paired with Ayana who already knows her weakness for the dark from Hayate. And she is further challenged when Hitsugi basically rips the emotional mask off her in the blunt, but decent manner she has. “Do you love the sword?” she asks…and Nagi doesn’t really have an answer.

While Hitsugi challenges Nagi’s worldview, Hajime does the same to Hayate. You are weak, the Black Group leader tells Hayate, you are dogs who come at Hitsugi’s call. Hayate fights back with – we’re not dogs, we’re having fun, duh.

Hayate thinks she’s weaker than Nagi, but in this volume, it becomes ever more clear that it’s probably the other way around.

A bonus chapter has Visual Band ZLAY (Strawberry Shake crossover!!!) visiting the island and performing in all their Yuri glory, which confuses the heck out of some of the students. Ayana’s all in when they start to play a series end theme she really likes. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Character – 9
Yuri – 0
Service – 1 We get a little Hitsugi dress-up.

Overall – 9

As always, the action is top notch, the characters are complex, multi-facted, complicated and interesting and the comedy is low and broad. What a great read. More please! Never stop! Achievement unlocked!





Yuri Anime: Dear Brother, Set 3, Disk 2

July 30th, 2015

DearBrother3-275x390“The tears, they will not stop.”

We hear this sentence at the end of of every preview, but do we listen? The tears, all the tears which have not been shed by Rei, by Kaoru, by Fukiko, and by Nanako are going to come gushing out in the most horrible lancing of a wound possible. It takes a pointless, awful, stupid, tragic death for healing to begin.

Saint Just is dead. It’s not a suicide, and that helps, but it doesn’t change that she’s gone.

All along, we were thinking that Nanako was the mascot of this series, that the story was always about the beautiful people. But in the end, it turns out that Nanako, like Yumi many years later, is truly the protagonist and that she functions as a catalyst for the lives around her, is not entirely accident.

Misonoh Nanako, who can see the symbolic moments in her life, the rain, the wind, and the doves, has always been the center around which this tale orbits and Saint-Just was just everyone’s mascot after all.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 6 Bathing suits, nakedness

Overall – 9

It’s been a long time since this series ran on Japanese TV. Divorcing parents are no longer a scandal, breast cancer is no longer a death certificate. But, some things are timeless. Dear Brother is timeless.





Yuri Manga: Love Desu. ~Short Story Collection~ (ラブデス　ラブデス。~短期集中連載集~)

July 27th, 2015

lovedesuAt last, a Yuri manga that was written for me! I do not care if nobody else on the whole planet enjoyed this book, because I loved it.

Love Desu. ~Short Story Collection ~ (ラブデス　ラブデス。~短期集中連載集~) by Kuzushiro follows the bad kids in school. Bad girls, who are passionately in love with each other and beat the crap out of each other to prove it. This is not a manga about abusive relationships; in this manga, the violence is a form of affection.

We’ve talked about this before, but I’ll remind readers that I am not opposed to violence between equals. And, in “Love Desu,” – which　I would translate it as “It’s Love (Death).” –  Shouko and A-ki are equals, alright. Each with murderous intent and a fondness for violence, they hash out the details of their relationship through such heart-warming tactics as a needle in the eye, or a knife through a hand. But it’s only because they both want to be the neko in bed. ^_^

In “Nikochuu,” Mai-sempai smokes and Aika has picked up her bad habit. Ultimately, what she really wants is to capture what Mai tastes like when they kiss. Yanki girls smoking on school property and being rude to the classmates around them, but  ridiculously cute in private is utter squee for me. I adore nasty women.

So, yeah, I know that this book isn’t going to appeal to everyone (maybe, anyone). But I love this manga with all my love.

Thank you, thank you Kuzushiro-sensei for this manga! It’s just about perfect. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 8
Service – For me, 10. YMMV

Overall – 10

Yuri needs more yankis.





Yuri Anime: Dear Brother, Set 3, Disk 1

July 3rd, 2015

DearBrother3-275x390It’s so fascinating, isn’t it, when something that was life-crushing 40 years ago is pretty normal now.

There is a movie, Stella Dallas. It is about a poor mother who has a child out of wedlock. She raises the child while working, but when a rich sophisticate falls in love with her daughter, the mother all but disowns her, driving her daughter into her fiancee’s arms and keeping herself out of the picture. She sees the wedding through the church windows from outside, in the rain, because of course. In 1937, this movie was a tearjerker. In 1990, when it was remade as Stella, it kind of didn’t really make any sense. Single, unwed mothers were no longer a life-ruining thing or something to be ashamed of.

In 1975, divorces were just starting to become common. I remember when, for the first time, I was in a class where more students had divorced parents than not. It was just about then that the stigma of a divorce was starting to fade.

Now, in 2015, it has no stigma at all. Like, say, being gay, having divorced parents will not completely trash most young lives. It’s not to say that the actual action of coming out or going through a divorce is not difficult, but…

So watching Mariko in the beginning of Dear Brother, Set 3, Disk 1, crying her heart out over – and worse, suffering bullying because of – her parents divorce is a Stella moment. It doesn’t have the impact it would have in the 1970s…it wouldn’t even all that much in the early 1990s when the anime was made. Times change.

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As Miya-sama will learn, as Kaoru-no-kimi proposes the dissolution of the sorority. Watching Miya-sama’s delusions being eroded, while she sits in denial, was fascinating.

The school drama is far more interesting than poor Mariko’s personal drama, until we learn that Mariko and Aya had once been friendly rivals and in the end, save each other just enough to face another day.

And finally, we come to the most amazing, heartbreaking scene, as Fukiko asks Rei flat out if she hates her and Saint Juste breaks down completely over her feelings of love and hate for her half-sister.

This volume is a rough ride. I think I ended every episode by saying, “Wow, this is a depressing series.” But for all that, it’s one of the most deep, complex and in many ways human, dramas I’ve ever watched. The characters by now are all so fully fleshed out that you can see them as humans, rather than ciphers. These were the days before one-issue/joke per character was the rule. Everyone has flaws, everyone has strengths.

My personal favorite scene is when Nanako notices that drama-signifying doves have all left and no one else notices that there were ever any doves at all.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2
Service – 4 Naked Rei.

Overall – 9

To the end, Miya-sama remains selfish and mean. And in our hearts we can never even imagine her as anything but.