Archive for the Artists Category


LGBTQ Manga: Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ), Volume 3

July 14th, 2014

A lot happens in Volume 3 of  Saito Chiho-sensei’s Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ).

Sarasojuu’s friend and peer, Tsuwabuki, has fallen for Sarasojuu’s wife, Shinohime. Alone and unable to understand why her husband does not make love to her, Shinohime falls willingly into his arms.

Both Tsuwabuki and Shinohime are overcome with shame and can’t face Sarasojuu, who is, obviously concerned and confused.

And then, Shinohime is found to be pregnant. Sarasojuu is shocked. Clearly, Shinohime is sleeping with another man, and who can blame her. Sarasojuu visits her father, proposing that Shinohime be told the truth, but he puts the cabosh on that, pointing out sensibly that, if the truth were spoken out loud, even in secret, it would spread fast.

In the meantime Toguu-sama is heading to the mountains taking Suiren with her. Suiren probably doesn’t realize it yet, but  we can see Suiren is falling for Toguu-sama, and it’s kind of cute, but of course there’s the whole gender thing complicating matters.

Toguu-sama allows Suiren to invite Sarasojuu to the mountains to accompany their party. In the mountains, the two siblings meet the master of the mountain, Yoshinomiya who instantly sees who they truly are. Returning home, Sarasojuu “forgives” Shinohime and eventually comes to believe that the father is Tsuwabuki.

In the capital, the Mikado learns of a city warehouse that is not releasing rice to the people and decides that what they need is the return of Yamato Takeru, a hero from the ancient epic Kojiki, to enact the Mikado’s will.  (As an aside, Yamato Takeru is known to have hidden by disguising himself as a woman. This indicates to me that Saito-sensei is having some fun with this story, about a boy who is a girl physically, who is playing a boy dressed as a girl.)

Sarasojuu and Tsuwabuki perform their roles and the warehouse is opened (shades of Mito Koumon there, honestly, with the officials overturning their sake bowls in shock at their appearance.) Afterwards, they are greeted by Shikibukyo-no-miya who blatantly claims Sarasojuu for his evening’s entertainment. To save his friend from this odious man, Tsuwabuki volunteers himself to be the priest’s sex toy. They return to the capital and finally, Sarasojuu is able to confront Tsuwabuki about being the child’s father. Now that the child is born, Sarasojuu offers to divorce Shinohime so Tsuwabuki can raise his daughter. They argue and, as the book comes to an end, Tsuwabuki may have discovered the truth about Sarasojuu’s body.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 3
LGBTQ – 5 This volume was very Victor/Victoria.

Overall – 9

A lot happened in this volume….and how it will turn out I have no idea. I’m on pins and needles here. I probably won’t get  to Volume 4 for months. Arrghh!

 





Manga no Tsukurikata, Volume 8 (まんがの作り方)

July 10th, 2014

In Volume 8 of Manga no Tsukirikata (まんがの作り方) something happens, but it’s too late to salvage this series.

First Masato suddenly develops a cute sempai, although he never seemed to belong to a club or anything. There’s a lot of talking about making manga and deadlines, but not that much doing of it. We stop all the talking and not doing that much to play some ping pong…then suddenly we learn that Morishita, surrounded as she is by a guy hopelessly in like with her, his talentless and graceless sister with whom she is hopelessly in like and Takeda who hates her, and both Kawaguchis, but admires her professional alter ego, admits to being in a professional slump. Imagine that.

Having admitted that, the manga artists all decide to reapply themselves to their work, no one pays any attention to Masato and Kawaguchi asks Morishita to go out with her, probably for real this time. Maybe. We hope.

Just in case we enjoyed any of this even a little, the extra story is about a girl who becomes famous showing off her underwear, but is surplanted in popularity by a girl who shows her bra to make us hate ourselves all over again.

8 Volumes of this “Yuri” manga without so much as the scrapings of actual emotional connection. It’s not even worth excoriating.

Ratings:

Art – Mostly competent
Story – Nonexistent
Characters – Hesitant
Service – Extant
Yuri – Irrelevant

Overall – Thank the gods that’s over.

But still, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Dan P. for making it possible for me to finish this thing. How does a series so boring get 8 volumes?





Rose of Versailles Anime, Part 2, Disk 3 (English)

July 2nd, 2014

Rose-of-Versailles2 The third disk of Rose of Versailles, Part 2 is brought to you by the word “clusterfuck.”

The slope towards the Revolution has become decidedly slippery. The strongest leadership is on the side of change, and the status quo just crumbles in the face of it. Perhaps, it is hard for us to understand how significant this was. Kings were not just rulers, like Presidents and Prime Ministers, who are expected to be human and flawed – they were practically gods on earth. The idea that the King of France was not a good leader seems almost obvious from our perspective. For commoners and landed classes to fight back against the established order was fairly significant.

As France descends into chaos, we’re watching Oscar, tortured by the old order and yet, not part of the new. Her life is in a tailspin, as she realizes, for the very first time,, that she has feelings for Andre’, and cares more about the health of France than about following orders. “Watashi no Andre’!”

Rosalie is back for a brief moment, so we know that she is, finally, happy.

In addition to the suffering on the macro scale, we’re getting little dollops of personal suffering on top, just to add a piquant taste to the general misery.

On the positive side, I spend a lot of time, while watching this anime doing historical research. I’m a bit more grounded now in bits of the history of the French Revolution than I was when I started.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters 9
Yuri – 0
Service – 1 (on principle)

Overall – 8

Dear gods, this series is just about all I can take in terms of drama and human suffering. No wonder I avoid watching the evening news. If I had to watch current stories like this, I’d be a wreck.

Before I finish up for today, I just want to do a piece of Okazu News. Amazon has taken a stance that is decidedly anti-publisher, anti-competition and frankly is plain assholish. So, where I can do so, I’m moving my affiliate links to RightStuf. For our purposes, this means mostly English-language anime box sets and manga. RightStuf has competitive pricing and, so far, good customer service. Japanese manga and other items will probably still have Amazon links, but where I can, I’m moving us over to TRSI. If you want your purchase to be on my affiliate code, use this link when you’re shopping and this link when you’re searching. If you’re looking for a direct link to an item, please feel free to write me and ask!





Yuri Anime: Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san End Of Season (English)

July 1st, 2014

InutoNekoThe Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san anime has come to an end, which brings this season’s Yuri anime to a close. I gave this series a first look at the beginning of the month, and I find that there are few things left I want to say about it.

First, the quality of the animation dropped off pretty sharply toward the end, but the style really never looked anything like the manga art. I expect Kuzushiro-sensei’s scratchy, loose style would actually be too difficult to animate as is.

The Yuri is actually upped a notch for the anime, in that what gets stretched out over 3+ volumes of manga is condensed for the anime. So we’re getting selected moments where Nejoyama-san is forced to recognize her actual feelings, and she and Inugami-san argue about how much they love each other.

The very last episode hints at the later plot complication of Ushiwaka’s continued attempts at seducing Inugami – something that’s easy to overlook, since Ushiwaka is presented at first as a bit of a doofus, but as the story goes on, it is becoming increasingly obvious that she’s not at all unaware of her looks or how she uses them. As the anime ends, I’m finding myself wanting to revisit the manga and watch more closely Ushiwaka and Nezu’s relationship. It initially appeared that Nezu was the more worldly of the two, but I’m rethinking that now. ^_^ In fact, they may well be the best couple in the series.

My last thought was that I actually really liked the hyper-peppy, goofy, catchy little end theme.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Character – 8
FanService – 6
Yuri – 8 I’m going to call this an 8, despite there being so little overt love-love, for the two implied couples made more obvious.

Overall – 8

I genuinely found the Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san anime to be non-taxing and quite entertaining, with more Yuri, both actual and service, than Riddle Story of a Devil. And, after the trials I went through dealing with Funimation’s maze, Crunchyroll has become a veritable haven for just clicking and being able to watch anime. Thumbs up, Crunchyroll.





LGBTQ Manga: Wandering Son, Volume 5 (English)

June 27th, 2014

wson5One of the most maddening things about human relationships is our frequent inability to escape from previously established patterns of interaction with people. We return home to visit parents to find them – and ourselves – slipping into well-worn and often dysfunctional habits of communication and behavior.

As Nitori Shuichi begins 7th grade in Wandering Son, Volume 5 (Amazon | RightStuf), I couldn’t but help feel as if I was reading a return to old habits and relationships. Chiba’s still angry, Mako’s still perceptive in an awkwardly adult way, Sasa’s still energetic and Nitori and Takatsuki are still fighting battles on multiple fronts. A few relationships have changed, but many have not and the tensions they create fill the book with chapters that look eerily like the shadows of earlier chapters. But, even as I say that, I realize I’m being ungenerous. Everyone – especially Nitori and Takatsuki – have indeed changed.

Which is why I almost found it frustrating that the plot complication of the gender-switch play was introduced…again. Yes, it works for this class and yes it allows the characters to work some stuff out, but don’t you wonder if the rest of the kids in the class thought, “Really? Again?!”

And the super awkward obsession of the teacher is, well, just straight up freaky. Now I’m wondering if any of my teachers looked at me and thought of some past person they knew instead. (-_-);

The issue of the gendered uniforms is subsumed in Chizuru’s wearing of the boy’s uniform because she feels like it, while Takatsuki, who desperately desire to do so, does not. And Nitori is almost reflexively denying the desire to wear girl’s clothes, but Mako rightfully points out that they may not be able to get away with it for much longer. Puberty creeps ever closer.

In all sincerity, I am reviewing this volume for the last scene in which Chiba, in an unusually lucid moment, asks Nitori if he likes Takatsuki as a boy who likes a girl, or as the girl he wants to be liking Takatsuki as a girl. I’d also add the possibility that Nitori as a girl could like Takastuki as a boy. Not surprisingly, Nitori cannot answer that question. It’s a tough one and the answer to it is the primary reason I’ll read the next volumes.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
LGBTQ – 8

Overall – 9

I find this series deeply uncomfortable reading, but I keep coming back. I want to see how this plays out.