Archive for the Artists Category


Angelic Layer Manga, Volume 1 (English)

February 25th, 2013

Are you a CLAMP fan? Were you watching anime around 2001? Are you a reader of Shounen Ace magazine? If you answered “no” to any or all of these, you may never have seen or read CLAMP’s Angelic Layer when it first made its appearance in anime or manga.

Don’t despair, because Dark Horse is re-releasing this turn-of-the-century manga title in omnibus form. In Volume 1 of Angelic Layer, we are introduced to Misaki, a recent transfer to the big city to live with her aunt Shoko. Misaki discovers a popular virtual reality fighting game, ‘Angelic Layer’ and immediately displays an unusual talent for the thing.

Misaki’s talent, it is implied, is not accidental at all. Just where she gets her aptitude from is, by the end of Volume 1 unstated. Unstated, but if you’re older than 12, you should have no trouble seeing the giant foreshadowing bat as it is slammed down upon your head repeatedly as you read. ^_^

Anyone familiar with CLAMP’s better-known epic, Card Captor Sakura, might be forgiven for making a comparison between these two series, but they are less similar than they might appear. Angelic Layer is more of a boy’s battle game series than a magical girl series. Sadly, technology was not yet up to the vision of ‘Angelic Layer’ when it was first published. There’s no doubt in my mind that, had there been the ability to create a virtual fighting game like Angelic Layer, CLAMP would already be living on their castle on the Moon with the wealth they would have made from it. Because, as manga, go, the main attraction of Angelic Layer is not the characters, who are all pretty stock, even for CLAMP, but the game itself.  It’s a cool game idea and one I am still waiting for someone to manifest properly. ^_^

Okay, so, why am I reviewing this manga here on Okazu?

Misaki’s new best friend Tamayo (! – Okay, I take it back, go ahead, compare it to CCS) makes declarations of love and proposals to Misaki, but this is played for yucks and isn’t meant seriously. However, at the very end of the volume, Misaki will face the uber-cool, butchy Sai, after defeating the graceful but strong Kaede, Sai’s teammate. It is noted that “Sai-sama’s” fans are mostly girls. But even that isn’t why I’m reviewing Volume 1. I’m reviewing Volume 1, so you will read it and be ready for what happens in Volume 2. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – CLAMP in CCS mode – 8
Story – Not terribly innovative and there’s some tiresome stuff, so let’s say – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Service – Emotional more than physical – 3

Overall – 7





Yuri Manga: Collectors, Volume 1 (コレクターズ）

February 14th, 2013

In honor of Valentine’s Day I can think of no better candidate for review than Nishi UKO’s Collectors, from the pages of Rakuen Le Paradis magazine.

Nito Shinobu collects books. Kanzaki Takako is interested in fashion and collects clothes. The two of them love each other very much but, as they both consider their future together, their competing use of space could make living together awkward. ^_^;

With their friend Naomi and “the other one,” the unnamed friend who makes up the fourth in their group, Shinobu and Takako’s life together is detailed in amusingly realistic 4-koma strips or chapter-long stories.

From how they met, to Shinobu hiding from her students at a book store, to going away with friends, to bickering and moments of intimacy, their lives look remarkably like a real life that a real couple might have, rather than the melodramatic extremes of so much manga. For me, Collectors is a refreshing, realistic, fun look at a relationship between women who love each other. Weird huh? I mean really weird. Because there is hardly any manga like this.

Here’s my favorite scene – Shinobu, standing with Naomi and the other one (Okay, let’s just pick a name for her. Put your suggestions in the comments section and I’ll pick one, and send it to Nishi UKO-sensei as a suggestion. ^_^) waiting for Takako to arrive, when  Shinobu says Takako is heading towards them. Naomi asks where, as a woman walks up to them. Takako’s changed her hair color, but Shinobu knows it’s her from meters away. ^_^

They snipe at one another about each other’s collection habits, they have tender moments with hands entwined in each other’s hair, they live and they love. Just like me and my wife, just like you and your girlfriend, just like lesbians whose relationship does not end with a kiss or graduation. This is what after the happily-ever-after really looks like.

Whether you collect glasses, boyfriends, books or clothes, Happy Valentine’s Day from myself and everyone at Yuricon & ALC Publishing!

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 10 Life. What could be funnier, more poignant or more interesting?
Characters – 10
Yuri – 10
Service – 1

Overall – 10

As I read this book before bed, I look fondly over the multiple piles of books-to-read next to my bed and smile. I’m on Team Shinobu. ^_^

Go ahead and put your suggestions for Takako’s friend’s name in the comments. ^_^





Golondrina Manga, Volume 2 (ゴロンドリナ)

February 8th, 2013

In Volume 2 of est em’s Golondrina (ゴロンドリナ), Chika comes face to face with the several possible outcomes of bullfighting. Yes, the bull might die (and the odds are that it will) but equally the matador might die or be wounded or maimed.

She learns that a matador is not unyielding, he must in fact work with the bull, to lead it. And yet there is a moment, when it is either the matador or the bull. One must lose. In the end, bullfighting is just another game of chicken.

In an internal monologue, Chika tells us in more detail about her childhood, about the losses and neglect she suffered, the life she built for herself and the life she was led into by a woman admirably suited to be matador to her bull. And then loss again, and despair. And now she is the matador, and the bull is both a bull and a symbol for the forces that have buffeted her.

Chika also learns that the only woman welcome in the bullfighter’s space is Maria-sama. We learn that Chika’s real name is Maria and are left to ponder the irony.

The book takes its stance at the end when Chika faces down her first bull, makes her first kill and is given her matador’s name – Golondrina. This story cannot be (and really, should not have been from the beginning) for the faint of heart.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Quick reminder – pictures of bullfighting are not bullfighting any more than pictures of sex are actual sex.





Penguindrum Anime Collection 1, Disk 2 (English)

February 6th, 2013

As Disk One of Penguindrum ended, we focus on the not-entirely-overlapping realities currently experienced by Shoma and Kanba, and which to increasingly involve Oginome Ringo and her dead sister’s notebook.

As Disk Two opens Kanba is puzzling out the issue of a number of exes who have suddenly, weirdly lost their memories. We, the viewers can see who is doing it and how but it will be some time yet before we know why.

Shoma is left to deal with an increasingly irrational Ringo, as the reality she believes in slips away from her. She watches as the object of her desire, Tabuki, is dating, engaged to and, evetually, living with “Sunshine-y Troupe” star Yuri. (The scenes of Yuri’s show and retirement party would put a smile on any Takarazuka fan’s face, as they neatly parody a number of fun tropes from the famous female musical revue. Not least of which is Yuri’s partner who looks suspiciously like Oscar from the Rose of Versailles anime.

The bulk of the this disk is caught up in Ringo’s unreality, where her destiny with Tabuki appears ever further from her, even as she strives to achieve it. Shoma, Kanba (and we who watch) learn that the notebook she treasures is the “penguin drum” the Princess of the Crystal commanded them to obtain. What this means is still unknown…and may well remain so.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

There are loads of things that makes one uncomfortable on this disk. Welcome back to Ikuhara world.

And once again, thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for his generous sponsorship of today’s review!





Yuri Manga: Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika (私の世界を構成する塵のような何か)

February 5th, 2013

In trying to come up with a short summary of Amano Shuninta’s Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika  (私の世界を構成する塵のような何か) I find that the closest thing I can describe it as is a Yuri Manga “The ‘L’ Word.”

Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika  (translated by the author as “What is like the dust that constitutes my world?”) is a mostly realistic soap opera set among a group of women attending a women’s college. The protagonist is Ruki, a realist with an edge of naivete’, Sachi, whose boyfriend is controlling, Remia who takes the opportunities she can get to sleep with the women around her, Asuna, her girlfriend, narcoleptic Fueko, Meru and slightly older, ever so slightly-too-cool-and-worldy-Maasa.

When they are assigned to do a project (for what has to be a sociology class) together, Ruki finds her life suddenly full of these people. WE can see that Ruki is interested in Sachi, but that boyfriend is so omnipresent, Sachi won’t even discuss how controlling he is. “I’m the girlfriend, that’s why,” she tells a puzzled Ruki who can’t imagine why she puts up with it. They fight about it.

When Maasa and Remia set up a sleepover for the group to work on this project they all go, despite some obvious tensions. Asuna and Fueko have broken up – and I am absolutely positive I remember the chapter when Fueko splits due to physical intimacy issues, but that chapter is not included here. And then there’s Ruki and Sachi.

One of the biggest issues I have had in the past with “Yuri Manga” – and depictions of women in manga in general – is that they rarely are given society. There’s the love interest, and that’s it. In a largish ensemble cast like the one here, that is a non-issue. Yes, there’s still the tendency to pair the women up, but that isn’t the same thing as them being couples. Ultimately they are all acquaintances and schoolmates first, then friends and there is the occasional ‘relationship.’

But what about Ruki and Sachi you may ask? Well, the boyfriend issue will come to a head, and the two of them patch it up before then (as a side product of getting lost and having nothing else to do for hours but hash things out) but we can hardly say things are settled between them…as it is painfully obvious to us that Ruki likes Sachi. Whether it will ever be obvious to them is an issue for future volumes.

The story is ongoing – and, as much as I do not generally care for soap operas and night time TV serial dramas, I think this series may be exactly what Yuri needs right now. I’m glad it’s in the capable hands of Amano-sensei. The art is strongly character-focused, but along with society, these women have physical space, as well. Apartments, classrooms, cars, beds, scenery, all combine to flesh this series as far more 3-dimensional than just about anything else running right now in Comic Yuri Hime.

***

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Ratings:

Art – 9 This is my kind of art. If you prefer moe, take off a point or two.
Characters – 9 We’ve barely scratched the surface. I want to know more about them all
Story – 8 Soapy to begin, but not painful or superficial
Yuri – None of them identify as Lesbian, although they do discuss female couples. I’m going to say 9 on Yuri, 3 on Lesbian and see if it shifts at all in future volumes
Service – A shockingly low 2 for all the naked women

Overall – 9

My wish is that this series last for longer than the meager two volumes the magazine has been allotting to popular series. If something as nothing as Manga no Tsukurikata can get 6 volumes (which is the manga crime of the century, IMHO) this series deserves at least 3, if not more.