Archive for the Artists Category


Hayate x Blade 2 Manga, Volume 1 (はやてxブレード 2)

October 30th, 2014

hxb2-1In Volume 1 of Hayate x Blade Nyan, the new semester is beginning at Tenchi Gakuen and everything is different. Students have split into two dorms – Tenkuu and Daichi, aligning with our favorite scion of the Amachi family, Hitsugi  or her “Black Group”-leading cousin, Hajime.

The Hoshitori has been revamped, as well, with more one-on-one battles ahead, and much, much more intense fighting. The first battle nearly mangles Ayana’s poor roommate Kei and introduces us to our first enemy of the new series,  a sadistic sociopath named Terma.

But before we can truly understand what drives Terma, we are turned towards Nagi. Nagi, Hayate’s older, more talented twin, who expected to take her place at the top of the Tenchi hierarchy only to find her goofy little sister firmly entrenched there. Instead of fighting for her place, Nagi has been overwhelmed by ennui. Even the passionate enthusiasm of her shinyuu, Kanai, has been  unable to motivate her. In fact, she’s gone so far as to join the Daichi dorm, but even Hajime doesn’t trust her. Hajime challenges Nagi to a duel and with the help of her shadowy shinyuu Shingetsu, defeats Nagi handily.

Kanai is terribly worried about her brusied and beaten partner, but Nagi insists she feels nothing. Hayate supports this, and calls in their mother to explain. Nagi, it turns out, doesn’t feel pain. At all. Which leads to another worry, because as part of the new Hoshitori rules, individual fighters can be called out for a duel – and Nagi has been challenged by Terma.

As everyone waits on pins and needles for Hitsugi’s opening salvo, the “Ultimate Hoshidori”, they watch as already wounded Nagi and Terma face off in a potentially 5-round fight. Nagi pulls out all the stops and wins the bout in a spectacular display of raw guts and skill. Hayate is so moved that she starts to mimic Nagi’s finishing technique.

Around the corner is Hitsugi’s “Summer Festival”, which they all dread, just because Hitsugi’s looking like she’s relishing the idea.

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Missing from this volume are the linking chapters that ran in the magazine, in which students were forced to slide across greased pipes to get to the new campus, but is otherwise full of the same kind of low gags and awesome fight scenes that we’ve come to expect from Hayashiya-sensei!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Character – 9
Yuri – 1 Hayate gropes Ayana, and reminds herself to tell Jun. ^_^;
Service – 4 Hayate gropes Ayana, and reminds herself to tell Jun. ^_^;

Overall – 9

And, then, Nagi went BAM! and it was like “whoahhhhh….”





Dear Brother Anime, Box Set 1 (English)

October 7th, 2014

DB1I never actually thought I’d ever write a review like this, but here I am today, reviewing Osamu Dezaki’s masterful anime based on Riyoko Ikeda’s manga, Oniisama E, translated for an English-speaking audience on physical media. It’s nothing short of a miracle.

Today we speak of the first ever release of Dear Brother on DVD in English.

The story, about “average” girl Nanako, who is caught up in the affairs of her school’s brightest and most influential, is fraught with emotional highs and lows I’ve never seen in any other school life drama.  Nanako finds herself surrounded by people so powerful and so eccentric, it makes the Yamayurikai look pretty much like the normal girls they are.

This first box set covers the intense and often depressing or shocking first thirteen episodes. Issues are dealt with that modern-day dramas merely handwave. Depression, obsession, suicide, drug use…and that’s just Rei. The casual, institutional and individual emotional sadism we see in the first third of the story is breathtaking and heart breaking. The plot offers up unhealthy helpings of manipulation and bullying, but it’s tempered with some pointed socio-political commentary as well.

Like Dezaki’s other masterwork, Rose of Versailles, I can only take Dear Brother in small doses and need a lot of One Piece to wash it down with, or it’s too bitter a pill to swallow. This is Drama with a capital D. And it hurts. Much like GUNJO, you’re walking a knife bridge with Dear Brother and the tension never really lets up. I’m tense when watching any and every episode. I know, I make it sound so appealing, right? But it’s worth it.

The translation is good enough to completely ignore – which is exactly what I want out of a  translation. It should be there to facilitate my understanding, not clash with it.

But what really stands out to me is the animation. Yes, the characters styles are dated (and yes, I far far prefer them to the current character design trends) but the backgrounds, wow. Remember, when you looks at Miya-sama’s hair, or the smears on a chalkboard, or the way cloth is rendered – all that was done by hand. Every shadow, every seam was inked by someone without help of software. Every once in a while, I’m standing at Mandarake in Nakano and a cel from this series is for sale, and I stare at knowing I will never pay the price to own it, but wanting to oh so badly. (I’ve already got a Drama CD fetish, I’m not going near cels.)

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Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Yuri – 3
Service – 4 Of a different sort, with the Beautiful Ones far, far more beautiful than high school students are in the real world.

Overall – 9

With a combination of tightly wound story-telling, unforgettable characters and timeless art, Dear Brother is, IMHO, a pinnacle of shoujo anime, a classic that I’m very proud to have helped bring to DVD.





LGBTQ Manga: Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ), Volume 4

October 5th, 2014

torikaebaya4

Volume 3 of Saito Chiho’s manga adaptation of the Heian classic, Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ) ended with Tsuwabuki discovering – we think – Sarasojuu’s secret.  Volume 4 begins with the meddling and slimy homosexual Shikibukyou no Miya, slimily inviting them both to an evening of poetry reading and song singing. Sarasojuu collapses and, mindful of the secret he thinks he knows about Sarasojuu, Tsuwabuki jumps to protect his friend, carrying Sarasojuu away to his room. Unable to help himself, he looks under Sarasojuu’s clothes and his suspicion is confirmed. Tsuwabuki tells Sarasojuu that he’s glad she’s a woman, he’s had feelings for her all along and they make love.

After leaving Tsuwabuki’s apartment, Sarasojuu falls into a funk that lasts for days. Sarasojuu can’t tell anyone what happened and is feeling very alone and sick about gender, sex and life.

A call to appear before the Emperor changes Sarasojuu’s attitude. Once again determined to live the life of a man, Sarasojuu appears before the Mikado and they discuss a massive engineering project  – rerouting a river. The Mikado assigns Sarasojuu as project lead, and calls to Sarasojuu, asking about  Suiren. The Mikado confirms that he’d like Suiren to be one of his women.  Sarasojuu visits Suiren, who truthfully claims a distaste for men, but the Mikado makes it moot by appearing. Suiren runs away and Sarasojuu pretends to be Suiren, but the Mikado appears to see through the trick. Suiren’s case is taken up by the Onna Touguu, for whom Suiren serves as handmaiden, who pleads with the Mikado to not have to lose Suiren from her side.

Things are super awkward between Tsuwabuki and Sarasojuu, until Sarasojuu invites him to visit what they both know is his child. Sarasojuu concocts a plan to give Tsuwabuki and Shinohime alone time, and spends that time again tortured over what life there is for someone neither truly man or woman.

We turn away from this self-reflection and for one brief moment, see Sarasojuu rising to heights of skill as chief engineer of the river project. We see Sarasojuu’s leadership qualities, and the easy way Sarasojuu  interacts with the men. For one moment, we see a happy Sarasojuu.  But, upon visiting family, Sarasojuu is called to visit Shinohime, who is pregnant again and has morning sickness. Sarasojuu also becomes nauseous and is suddenly, horribly, shocked to think that she may be pregnant with Tsuwabuki’s child, as well.

At the end of volume 3, I wasn’t yet sure whether this would be a comedy or a tragedy. Now, it looks like it’ll be a tragedy.I’m not surprised, but a girl can hope, can’t she?

We haven’t spent much time with Suiren, as a court woman’s life was much more sedate than a man’s in the Heian-kyo, but I imagine that Suiren often has similar doubts to Sarasojuu’s. There is a very sincere, very stark difference in men’s and women’s lives in this story. That both siblings have lived as their chosen gender this long is a good thing, but one just can’t see it ending well.

As always, the art is gorgeous.  And Saito-sensei is not ignoring the issues of gender and sex conflicting, even with the confines of the story setting. Sarasojuu’s internal conflict reads very realistically to me. I constantly have to remind myself to breathe as I read this manga.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 3
LGBTQ – 6

Overall – 9

I’m really hoping there’s a happy ending out there, even if I can’t see how that would possibly happen. Breathe.

Volume 5 is already available! I must read it asap.





Yuri Manga: Couleur de bijoux d’amour (宝石色の恋 西UKO作品集)

September 25th, 2014

housekiIt’s always a good day here at Okazu when we can read and review a new collection by Nishi UKO-sensei of Circle UKOZ. Today is a good day. ^_^

Couleur de bijoux d’amour (宝石の恋) is a collection of non-Collectors stories from Rakuen Le Paradis magazine, augmented by 2 online comics for Rakuen Le Paradis and an original doujinshi story.

Nishi UKO-sensei’s art is sophisticated and tight, her characters look like…well, people. Incredibly attractive people, but more like people than manga characters. They eat doughnuts, they get into fights, they go to bars, they touch, they laugh, they smile, they have lives with coworkers, neighbors, relatives and friends. They wear fashionable clothing, live in apartments, have jobs, face rejection, attraction. They have lives.

These stories are, in short, exactly the kind of thing I’m always looking for in Yuri – stories of women who love women, and then the story happens. It would be equally as valid to call this a LGBTQ manga.

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This collections includes 18 shorts – don’t miss the one under the cover! Of these, my two favorites are the story “Up and Down” and it’s sequel “helter-skelter.”  the first part, a woman meets and is instantly attracted to a new neighbor. Her emotional roller coaster as she learns about her neighbor (and her school-age child) is both sweet and amusing. In “helter skelter” she has befriended the neighbor and her daughter. The daughter decides they should all go to a public bath – the two women suffer from extreme embarrassment as we can see that they are both thinking much the same thing about each other.

Sweet, human, poignant, these stories are written with adult sensibilities in mind. From cover to cover, Couleur de bijoux d’amour is stylish and elegant.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – Variable, of course, but screw that. 10
Characters – 10 We get little time with anyone, but it’d be hard to not like them
Yuri/Lesbian – 10
Service – 4 These women wear fine lingerie.

Overall – 10

This collection is a shoo-in for my Top Ten List this year. I really hope there’s something even better, not because I don’t want this to win this year, but think of how amazing it would be to be better! ^_^





Gakuen Polizi Manga, Volume 1 (English)

September 18th, 2014

GP1In April 2013, I was pleased as punch to be able to review Morinaga Milk-sensei’s most recent series, Gakuen Polizi. At the time, I pronounced it “good” and commented that I chose “Polizi” as a transliteration for ポリーチェ because it looked stylish. I’ll take it as a compliment that Seven Seas went with my transliteration. ^_^

Gakuen Polizi, Volume 1 (Amazon/RightStuf) is, as Morinaga-sensei mentions in the author’s note, a conflation of her two favorite things – high school girls and TV cop series. I’m down with that. The first few chapters are a little unsteady as we meet over-enthusiastic new undercover school cop, aka “Polizi”, Sasami Aoba and, eventually her truculent, cynical partner, Sakuraba Midori. They flail around the school a bit, which provides plenty of space for exposition and the setup for Midori’s backstory. Here’s hoping it will be heart-wrenching.

The story really begins to take off in the second half of the book, as Aoba deals with rather serious issues high school girls face. Here in Volume 1, Aoba’s determined to solve a series of gropings on the train and the final, rather poignant, arc deals with a stalker.

I originally described this volume as Morinaga-sensei using her powers for good, and reading this translation, I’m convinced that I was right. Yes, Aoba and Midori could have solved missing cat crimes (and may still) but what we spend time on was a girl traumatized by an ex-boyfriend stalker, a very real, very serious problem. While the end is a touch convenient, if she had taken the darker route, this would have been an entirely different series. Cops shows and high school girls, there’s definitely potential here.

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If there is one thing you can absolutely count on from Seven Seas, it’s good technical work. The translation is solid; it starts to get a bit harsh in the middle then is reined in, so there is a consistent feel of “yeah, it’s a girl’s school” and the reproduction looks good.

Volume 2 is up for pre-order on Amazon in English, and is available in Japanese. It’s definitely on my to-read list and I’m looking forward to seeing the story develop.

Ratings:

Art – 9 Morinaga’s style is fully developed and her lines are more confident now than they have ever been
Story – I’m giving it a solid 9. 8 for being a good story, +1 for not being a straightup romance
Characters – 7, but we’ve barely begun to get to know them
Service – 2 -Psychological only, with talk of gropers and stalkers
Yuri – 1 A teeny weeny bit of fakey-service, but possible implication of more to come

Overall – 8

It’s a solid beginning to something completely different from Morinaga Milk-sensei and I’m really interested to see where she goes with it!

This book came in as a sponsorship from some lovely, generous Okazu Hero, but with no name. Please email me at yuricon at gmail so I can thank you properly!