Archive for the English Anime Category


Battle Athletes OVA/TV Anime Complete Blu-Ray set, Guest Review by Eric P.

February 3rd, 2021

Happy Wednesday and welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu! Today we welcome back our long-time friend and Guest Reviewer, Eric P. It’s always a pleasure to have him here and today he’s going to take a look at the new release of Battle Athletes Complete TV Series & OVA Blu-Ray! As always, please give him a warm welcome back. Take it away Eric!

Set in the far-off future of 4999, Battle Athletes centers on young Akari Kanzaki who follows in her legendary mother’s footsteps.To do this, she attends University Satellite to compete in various sports tournaments for the top title of Cosmic Beauty, meeting different people along the way and growing up as both an athlete and person. That is the basic story  for the 6-episode OVA, while the TV version, Battle Athletes Victory, included far more elements in order to fill out its 26-episode length. In the TV-length series, Akari’s journey starts with her training to be a contender for University Satellite, followed by the actual Cosmic Beauty competition.  Everything culminates with—Akari and the other athletes fighting to protect Earth from an alien invasion. Turns out Cosmic Beauty was a front in searching for the best athletes to help decide Earth’s fate by tournaments, like a bloodless version of Mortal Kombat.

If that last part sounded goofy, it is, but it still works in its strange way. The TV version is sillier in nature than the OVA, with the humor driving much of the plot (the big revelation of Akari’s mother in the third act still makes me chuckle—it is something neither the characters or the viewers could ever see coming). Some viewers may better appreciate the more focused storytelling of the OVA with its minimal episode count, along with its more solid characterization. Akari herself develops at the right pace for the protagonist she is supposed to be, whereas in the TV version she is more likely to test viewers’ patience. As a consequence of having multiple episodes to pad the time out with, Akari struggles that much longer to come into her own. The real reason she is deemed special by everyone around her is due to her mother’s blood, and it takes quite a lot in drawing out that greatness like she is some kind of prophesied hero—which, she actually is by the end.

At the beginning of Victory, the one most responsible in driving Akari to be her best is her tomboy friend/fellow athlete from Osaka named Ichino. There are indications of something stirring between them as we follow them, but it never fully blooms due to their mutual denial. By act two they are forced to part ways, and the University Satellite is where Akari meets her new teammate in both the OVA and TV, Lunar-Priestess-in-training Kris Christopher. In the OVA, Akari gradually develops feelings for her that she later finds impossible to deny. Kris however remains a sexually ambiguous enigma since everything she does, including her kiss with Akari in the end, all get explained away by her religious customs.Victory is different in that regard, for there is no subtext in Kris’s love-at-first-sight attraction toward Akari. Her relentlessly obsessive pursuit drives Akari to maintain a distance much of the time for comedic purposes, although later on Akari does come around to embracing her teammate; if not so far as reciprocate her feelings quite yet. Once all the athletes gather to fight for Earth, as you might guess, we get the Yuri love triangle/rivalry that seems inevitable—the inhibited Ichino and uninhibited Kris have it out, with Akari helplessly stuck in between. Just as inevitable, the triangle ends unresolved, since leaving it up to the viewers to decide who Akari would choose was apparently meant to be part of the appeal.

This Sci-Fi Sports Yuri Comedy series was one of my gateway titles into Anime while growing up in the 1990’s. Like most Anime fans, I have watched several others as the years went by with only so much time to revisit old favorites now and then—then Discotek came along to license-rescue and re-release the complete collection in one Blu-ray set to be discovered anew. Originally standard-format, this is not an HD transfer so the picture quality remains the same as the original Pioneer DVD’s. Regardless, we get to have everything on one single disc including the special features. There is one other highlight that Discotek deserves kudos on—always missing from the Pioneer release but now restored, is the epilogue montage through the final TV closing credits, showing where all the characters wind up after the story’s end.

Having watched this series for the first time in so long, much of it still holds up well enough entertainment-wise—while some of the elements did not hold up as much as I would have liked. When I was younger, I thought it was neat how Victory was made up of a diverse cast of multicultural characters, with one athlete representing a major nation. Now I can finally recognize the outdated culturally ignorant stereotypes attributed to these characters. Some stick out like sore thumbs more so than others, especially with the conniving Chinese athlete Ling-Pha and African athlete Tanya, whose hyper-animalist nature will no doubt rub plenty of viewers the wrong way (she is more sensitively depicted in the OVA). Also, even though this series takes place in the far future when humanity is at its most advanced, a clear sign of the 1990’s is when the surrounding characters still react to homosexuality like it is something strange and stunning (and use dated language like “swing that way”), although Kris never views her feelings as such.

Despite the warts that mark it as a product of its time, my appreciation for Battle Athletes has not lessened, now that we have a new version. It is still a classic with charm one can only find from the 1990’s—one has to take it for the light, fun entertainment it was meant to be without taking it too seriously. Especially for those wishing for a newer sports-themed Yuri story to happen in the near future, there exists the original such title as an option until then.

 

Ratings:

 

Art—OVA:7, TV: 6 (The OVA being Original Video Anime, of course the animation would have more to it than the more limited TV series with the latter’s still/recycled shots. Either one is very ‘90’s, but not in a bad way)

Story—OVA:6, TV: 7 (The OVA and TV versions both have their strengths and weaknesses the other does not have, making it a matter of preference. I just happen to get more out of Victory, with the additional character stories and its inclusion of Ichino)

Characters—7 (The characterization may be more solid in the OVA, but we get far more characters and get more time well spent with them in the TV version, so it rounds out either way)

Service—OVA:7, TV: 3 (Both versions have it, yet the OVA is comparably more voyeuristic. Even without the scenes of nskedness, the camera takes plenty of convenient shots of the female athletes in their uniforms and body positions—it helps even less that the OVA version’s headmaster character is depicted as a stereotypical “loveable”[??] lech toward the athletes)

Yuri—7 (I would be remiss not to give a quick mention to two other athletes, Lahrri and Mylandah, in which at least one of them closely fulfills the traditional EPL role. Victory reveals tidbits of their complicated rivalry/friendship, but you will not find the same thing in the OVA)

Discotek’s Release—9 (If I had just one complaint—both inside and outside the slipcase the cover features almost each major character, yet it somehow misses Kris everywhere, while Ling-Pha somehow always appears twice. What’s the dealio, Discotek?)

Overall—lucky number 7

 

Erica here: Thank you very much Eric for taking a look at this now-classic Yuri series for us! I’m glad you didn’t forget Mylandah and Lahrri. They will always be the reason I love this series. ^_^

 





Assault Lily: Bouquet, Guest Review By Day

January 27th, 2021

It’s my favorite day of the week – Guest Review Wednesday! And today we welcome back Day – it’s always a pleasure to have Day’s insight, so I hope you’ll give them a warm welcome back and settle in for today’s review. Take it away, Day!

In a world in which monsters known as Huge (yes, really) present an existential threat to humanity, teen girls known as “Lilies” are what stands between these monsters and the rest of humanity. Riri Hitotsuyanagi, a newly-minted Lily, is beginning her new life at an academy dedicated to training and housing Lilies. Riri has dreamt of being a Lily herself ever since she was saved by one, and has especially looked forward to academy life since it’s a chance to reunite with that very Lily, Yuyu Shirai. Riri is particularly interested in being able to form a “Schutzengel” pair with Yuyu, a big sister-little sister style relationship that allows for mentoring both on and off the battlefield. But Yuyu dashes her optimism somewhat, as she’s grown cold and stand-offish sometime in the interim.  

And so begins Assault Lily: Bouquet, a series that is attempting to adapt a line of Azone International dolls with weaponry and short biographies into a cohesive single cour anime series. And that I phrased it that way may give the key hint to how that plays out ultimately, as while I strongly enjoyed the first few episodes as being exactly my kind of garbage (albeit with entirely too much thigh-gazing), alas, it cannot maintain that garbage truck pace. Instead the garbage truck stalls, it catches fire, and the structure ultimately dissolves into goo that really wants to kick some tears loose from the audience. And it even lacks the grace to do so using the story the shows launches on! Sure, pink-haired genki girl tries to melt the icy exterior of an aloof dark-haired girl is old hat, but it’s at least something, and that Yuyu is haunted by either a ghost or a hallucination of the partner she may’ve killed should make for plenty of fodder. I did wonder what the show would be about after they neaten up this problem in the early going and the answer is – not much, although it does give us plenty of time watching the characters bathe. The show does manage to remember that Yuyu has some trauma issues toward the end, but by then it is simply too late; I am bored senseless.  
 
Not helping matters, the entire cast is a set of cookie-cutters. Some are certainly even more distinctly lacking in life than others, but even with the ones I like, I can’t deny that they’re well-worn variations on well-worn types. That the show sees fit to print the names of every character on-screen every time they first appear in an episode, no matter how regular a member of the cast the person is, leads me to think even the production crew knew no one was going to remember who half of them were.  
 
The visuals are a bit more interesting than the story or the cast, but not in a positive way – there’s just some rather odd choices made with the visual presentation. Shaft is the studio, but outside of a few shots (including some in the primary ED), one would never guess so from how generic everything looks. The animation does kick into a higher-gear from time to time, but rather than doing so during battle scenes, its most often for moments where there is little reason to bother splashing out. Bafflingly, the show also insists on using CG for a tea-set the cast uses throughout the show, a distractingly bizarre move when it appears in scenes that are otherwise wholly 2D.  
 
People weren’t precisely wrong to smell Yuri fumes whiffing off of this one, but anyone searching for something substantive is going to come away disappointed; outside of suggestive shots in the ED, Yuri cred mostly hangs on the thin thread of intense gazes and intense friendships… and Kaede Johan Nouvel, who in a different show would be the evil psycho lesbian, but here is mostly played for jokes for her obsessive focus on Riri.  
 
Ratings:
 
Art – 5  
Story – 4
Character – 6  
Service – 5 (no full nudity but plenty of thighs, baths in crotch-emphasizing towels, and characters who enter scenes boobs-first)  
Yuri – 1
 
Overall – 4
 

I might actually be more upset over this not being good garbage than I end up feeling upset with shows that start out as Good before swerving off the road into crapsville! Good trash is hard to find! 

Erica here: Just a reminder to commenters – I know at least one of you has strong feelings about AL:B and so I remind you that if you liked this anime, you may feel free to express what you liked about it. We would be delighted to learn what you though made it good. But you may not be rude about this review or other comments, unless you are able to be very, very funny and rude. ^_^

Thank you Day for another insightful review. I agree, it is hard to find good garbage…and that this was not it. ^_^

 




Go Nagai’s DevilMan Lady, Disk 2

January 17th, 2021

Things fall apart rapidly in the second half of Go Nagai’s DevilMan Lady.The center was never meant to hold.

Jun advocates for the humanity of those people who show signs of the Devilbeast Progress, while the humans that are creating the afflicted – then dehumanizing them and hurting them – become less and less human themselves.

Having saved and lost Kazumi several times and only for one brief night allowed to acknowledge their love – Jun becomes despondent, then ultimately enraged, as society crumbles. As Asuka pushes Jun to her limits, Jun finds some strength at last.

In a deeply dark and violent ending, Asuka, who is intersex, rapes Jun, then forces her into a hell of Asuka’s making. There Kazumi is able to speak with Jun one last time and Jun sheds the very last of her inhibitions to become the Devilman Lady that defeats Asuka’s distorted form of godhead, saving what is left of humanity.

Through the final arc, as Asuka’s past comes to light, I was reminded so very much of Apos in Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne. Also portrayed as a evil “hermaphrodite” (a word that has had a long road, from tragic Greek figure to slur,) Apos and Asuka also share megalomania and disinterest in humanity other than as tool for their own ambitions. I now wonder how much Apos was influenced by Asuka…and how much Rin: Daughters of Menmosyne was influenced by Go Nagai Devilman franchise. The Devilman himself, Akira, makes a cameo appearance here, and where the rest of this series is very 1990’s, he is purest 1980s.

This series remains a dark, violent and often depressing look at humanity’s inability to treat others well, very similar to Devilman Crybaby. Sure the monsters are scary, but armed men with guns threatening innocent children is far more terrifying  because it is something we all actually see on a daily basis. But. Unlike Devilman Crybaby, it has hope. It is true that Jun does not have a happy ending with Kazumi, but because of her, Jun is finally able to accept herself. The world is not destroyed. Children play, humans evolve after all, despite themselves. There is hope for the future, for Jun…and for us.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9 Horror in every form.
Characters – 9
Service – 8 Yes, very. This is Go Nagai we are talking about.
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

As I have said elsewhere, “All of the Devilman franchise seem to be about humanity’s complicity in its own destruction. By that standards, Devilman Lady has a happy ending as Jun only loses everyone she’s ever met, and both arms, but Tokyo/Earth survives.”





Okazu Top Yuri Anime of 2020

December 27th, 2020

Traditionally, this is the hardest list of the year for me to write. I do try to make time to at least sample whatever fandom thinks of as Yuri anime that has come out in a year, even if I don’t particularly think of it as Yuri. Some years are harder than others if there just hasn’t been much that came out. This was not one of those years. ^_^

This year it was a hard list because of the typical shifting and juggling of spots up at the top. I won’t take that for granted, because it’s a lovely problem to have. It still makes it a hard list to write! ^_^

I’ve included links to legal streaming sites and complete sets on disk, whichever are available at time of writing. Which brings me to an interesting point. With Retrocrush, Tubi.Yv, Funimation and Crunchyroll all  – at the moment – offering free streaming, Sentai’s HIDIVE stands out a bit, as the only non-free option streaming service. I wonder how that might change in 2021.

As usual, this is all *my opinion* and it reflects my priorities and interests. I invite you all to add your top anime of the year in the comments!

 

 
Assault Lily Bouquet

This isn’t Yuri, per se, so much as a derivative dolls-killing-giant monsters series, wrapped in a Yuri uniform. Which was interesting as an exercise: What if you stripped any human romance, love, from the modern moe-fied remnants of Class S relationships and used it as a series of markers without meaning? It becomes lion’s skin of Yuri draped over the shoulders of a moe Hercules. (How is that for an image? ^_^)

It wasn’t to my taste, in almost the exactly way Semelparous was not, though for opposite reasons. I wouldn’t mind a giant monster-killing story with a great Yuri plot, but neither this, nor Semelparous is it. Nonetheless, its gets a spot here for killing a wild Yuri and wearing it’s skin. ^_^

Streaming on Funimation

 

 

Tamayomi

You all know my endless plaintive cries for a good sports Yuri story. This was not what I’m looking for, but it was a pleasant little sports story with a light frisson of Yuri.

As a technically-minded sports anime I thought it pretty interesting. As a story about teamwork and friendship, it was a solid enough entry. Having any girl’s sport series that takes the sports aspect seriously is always a pleasure. And for that, we’ll give a spot in the line up to Tamayomi, (admittedly,  pretty far down the roster.^_^)

Streaming on Funimation

 

 

 

Battle Athletes

Again, this isn’t the sports Yuri I want, even though it is spectacularly Yuri and – theoretically – about sports. ^_^ As an idea, Battle Athletes is great! As a reality, it’s goofy and zOMG full of service. Long before it was the “Naruto run” Akari did that crane style run. As a relic of a period where anime liked its heroines to be clumsy, useless, until they are suddenly ridiculously overpowered, and full of the stupidest possible nonsense, its really hard to take seriously. As a lesbian love triangle it’s a little more worthy. Personally I’ll always be craning my head around Akari, Ichino and Kris (and her cow,) ignoring the service and the stereotypes which were always totally UGH, even back when this was made, to watch Mylandah and Lahrri’s steamy relationship melting the edge of the film. ^_^

Thanks to Diskotek for reminding me what was good and bad about this classic Yuri anime.

Available on Blu-ray from Diskotek

 

 

Kira Kira PreCure a la Mode

Like a few other series on this list, Kira Kira PreCure Ala Mode isn’t from 2020, but this year we got this as a release on Crunchyroll.

Pretty much every year I watch an episode or two of the new PreCureseries, then forget to keep watching. I’ve made it through about a half dozen of the seasons. This is one of a few I genuinely enjoyed all the way through, along with Heartcatch, Suite and, surprisingly Healin’ Good.

Kira Kira PreCure ala Mode had all the things that hook me into a season of PreCure – characters with agency, and personality, a lovely Yuri couple with a good chunk of Yuri voice acting cred, good bad guys who evolve, loads of references to other cultural relics. But, honestly, even if Akira and Yukari weren’t obviously a couple, the fact that Akira’s transformation into Cure Chocolat included the Takarazuka stairs at least deserves an Honorable Mention. ^_^

Streaming on Crunchyroll

 

 

Vlad Love

I really, truly, did not believe we’d be talking about this here on Okazu. In fact, I actively tried to avoid it. ^_^ But, here we are. Vlad Love has Oshii’s high-def backgrounds and a kind of a 90s vibe animation in the foreground.

In the end, Oshii’s girl-meets-girl vampire story made it on to this list. How? By being pretty fun, actually, with some overt acknowledgement that they are, kind of, and might be for real, later, a couple. In the meantime, this is a silly premise and we’ll have to wait to see where it leads us.

Episode 1 streaming on Youtube

 

 

My Next Life As a Villainess

I stand firm that this series is the sweetest, most lovable queer baiting I have ever seen. Yes, Mary is really into Katarina. That is not fake. And I think, honestly, the same could be said for Maria. As we know it is also, for every other character, because that’s the point. Furthermore, in the novels, Katarina’s feeling for Maria are interestingly complex. But the story is not about Katarina and her “waifu” Maria or her wannabee gf, Mary. So while I’m firm on “this is Yuri” I am also pretty darn firm on “this is Yuri-bait.”

The fact that the series is mega-delightfully loopy is just a big cherry on this cupcake of silly, yet adorable Yuri frippery. I loved watching, I’m still enjoying reading it and while I know Mary will never get a kiss, while Jeord does, it’s still a wonderfully wholesome Yuri series. ^_^

Streaming on Crunchyroll

 

 

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die

I’ve never pulled punches about this manga series – it makes me crazy, not in a good way. I frequently end a volume with an hour-long internal rant about the legal form of human trafficking that is the Japanese idol industry. I didn’t know if the anime would make it better or worse, honestly. But the anime fixed a few of the worst relics of the manga, cut out the absolute worst parts, switched some of the stuff around and did a pretty amazing job of turning what is a frustrating read into a hopeful watch.

The animation was very well done, and Ai Farouz was absolutely outstanding as Eri-pyo. This anime, regardless of my personal feelings about the story, deserves to be on this list.

Streaming on Funimation

 

 

Adachi and Shimamura

I honestly had no expectation of this series being good, either. The light novels when I read them back in the day, moved at a glacial pace, were filled with irrelevancies, and focused their energy on the wrong things.

Many things have changed and the writing has improved over time, I am told. Certainly both the animation and the voice acting added positive dimensions to this story. Despite the truckload of crotch and chest-staring which makes it really hard for me to just relax and enjoy this series, the fact that fandom loves it and the positives were enough to give the series a place on this year’s list.

Streaming on Funimation

 

 

 

Devilman Lady

I know have talked this series up a lot. In the early 2000s, it just slid under the radar, which was a damn shame as it was queerer than just about any other series at the time or for many years afterwards. Rewatching it now, I’m reminded how visually fascinating, musically oppressive and emotionally gut-wrenching it is.

This is not an easy watch. The horror here isn’t just violence and blood…it’s the endless existential horrors humans inflict on each other. The Yuri isn’t subtext. It is pervasive and a major plot point.

This is Go Nagai at his best, when you can’t just look away. The technology is a bit dated, but overall, this remains a strong – and relevant – story about humanity at its worst, and its best.

Streaming on Retrocrush

Available on Blu-Ray from Diskotek

 

 

Happy Go Lucky Days

Due to timing and circumstances, this anime movie flew under most people’s radar, but in my opinion it was absolutely the very best portrayal of lesbians we had in anime this year. Based on the manga Dounika Naru Hibi (どうにかなる日々)by Shimura Takako, this movie is a mix of vignettes about various characters that feel very much rooted in reality.  In the first scenario, Ecchan and Aya meet and find they share several things in common…including an ex-girlfriend.  We get to watch them as their relationship develops and becomes something more serious.

Brought to us by the team at Pony Canyon that created the Kase-san and Morning Glories OVA, the animation was smart and realistic, with enough of Shimura’s stylistic flourishes that you’d never doubt it was her work being animated. While the movie didn’t get the theatrical release planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was able to be shared to film festivals, and is available on HIDIVE. The trailer is free, and you can get a free week trial to watch the whole movie, but it does not stream legally for free.

It is my opinion, though, that this is worth getting that free trial, because Happy Go Lucky Days was the best Yuri anime of 2020.^_^

Streaming on HIDIVE





Vlad Love (ぶらどらぶ) Guest Review by Megan

December 23rd, 2020

Today is my favorite kind of day – we have a brand new Guest Reviewer here on Okazu! Many of you will have noticed that Megan has been a strong advocate for the newest “girl-meets-girl” vampire series on the block. Her persistence was impressive and I finally watched the first episode – and I didn’t dislike it. But it seemed like there was someone else who deserved to do this review more than me. ^_^ So, please give Megan a warn Okazu welcome!

Okazu readers – welcome to my guest review series for Vlad Love (ぶらどらぶ)! My name is Megan, and I share my thoughts on Yuri and Japanese LGBT+ media on my twitter (@AnimeSocMegan). Let’s get on with the review because there’s a lot to talk about!

You can watch the first episode on Vlad Love’s official Youtube with English subtitles worldwide.

Oshii Mamoru is back with a slapstick Yuri vampire anime. That’s not a sentence anyone, including Oshii, quite expected a few years ago. But here we are, with Vlad Love’s premiere ending on an unmistakable mission statement: “And that’s how I became an unstoppable phlebotomist for Mai, my slightly peculiar girlfriend’s, sake”. 

Vlad Love’s premise is fairly simple. Mai, a vampire girl from Transylvania, runs away from home and washes up in Japan. In her search for blood she runs into Mitsugu, a girl crazy about donating blood but held back by her rare blood type. Mitsugu brings Mai back home, and the two form an arrangement of sorts – Mai gets Mitsugu’s blood, Mitsugu gets a live-in girlfriend. Mitsugu later sets up a school blood donation club with the help of school nurse Chihiro, which is how we’ll probably meet the supporting cast. 

Most reviews of anime wouldn’t include an overview of the show’s funding and production, but for Vlad Love it is worth mentioning. Instead of the “Production Committee” model used for a vast majority of anime, Vlad Love as a project has only a single investor: Ichigo Animation, a subsidiary of real estate and energy firm Ichigo Inc. This arrangement has given Oshii a great deal of creative freedom. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine Vlad Love in its’ current form making it past a more standard anime production process. For better or for worse, Vlad Love is no more and no less than what Oshii and his handpicked team want it to be, and this alone lends it a uniqueness amid recent anime. 

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. This premiere, for all the zany slapstick trailers promise for the rest of the season, is relatively straightforward. (Vampire) girl meets (blood-donating maniac) girl, girl moves in with girl, girl sets up a blood donation club. It’s nothing remarkable, but the storytelling is efficient.  No scene takes longer than it needs to, no line of dialogue is out of place (other than the Oshii lore we’ll get to shortly, but that’s just part of the package deal). Without feeling weighed down by exposition, this first episode equips us with most of the information we need – about Mai’s backstory, both girls’ family situations, Mitsugu’s rare blood type, and more – before the introduction of the rest of the cast probably starts in the next episode. 

The episode and staff interviews establish Mitsugu and Mai’s relationship as the anime’s focal point. Mitsugu’s attraction to Mai is portrayed at this point as based on her beautiful appearance. As Mai’s voice actor commented, Mai flirts with Mitsugu to get access to her blood, but Mai’s feelings probably don’t go deeper than that yet. The task for the next episodes is to develop their bond beyond blood-sucker and blood-donor. 

Vlad Love probably won’t win awards anytime soon for pushing forward lesbian representation in anime, but there’s still some things worth praising here. Mitsugu seems more confident than many Yuri protagonists in her attraction, especially physical attraction, to women. An awkward nude scene is such an old trope Evangelion parodied it, but Mitsugu is completely into it. Another refreshing moment is Chihiro’s line about Mitsugu’s “first girlfriend”. This line isn’t a punchline, or really met with any reaction at all. 

On that note, one question going forward is the influences on the Yuri. The premise of a strange, magical or alien girl moving in with a run-of-the-mill protagonist is almost as old as anime in its’ modern form, and the series that arguably did more than any other to popularise this trope is Urusei Yatsura (1981)… the first 106 episodes of which were directed by none other than Oshii Mamoru himself. From the premiere, this sort of perennially popular shounen romance represented by Urusei seems to be a more obvious source of inspiration than tropes the Yuri genre has developed in the decades since. Oshii has said he doesn’t watch modern anime, so I’ll be keeping an eye on whether the show overtly draws from other Yuri works, or continues to tread its own path going forward. 

A slapstick show could be said to live and die on its animation, and even if the show’s slapstick side hasn’t completely taken off yet, Vlad Love is delivering pretty well on this front. The art looks a bit rough around the edges by modern standards, though this may be an intentional retro choice, but this is made up by the great work on expressions – I was never left wondering what any character was thinking – and the pleasing sense of physicality. The show hasn’t exactly shown off its sakuga chops just yet, but with reports of a solid lineup of animators to come, it looks like we’ve got more to look forward to. 

Before we wrap up, let’s go over the Oshii references in the premiere. The opening scene gestures heavily towards the likes of Jin-Roh. This scene and the OP feature a blond-haired doll tied to a girl back in Transylvania, possibly Mai’s sister or childhood friend, and the visuals imply a tragedy in Mai’s past greater than she’s currently letting on. One of the more inexplicable lines, about Fallout 4, is also an Oshii reference – he’s a big fan of the game. Another strange tangent, about Social Democratic Lower House speaker “Otaka-san”, was the nickname of Japan’s highest ever ranking female politician, Doi Takako. 

Vlad Love‘s first episode didn’t show its full hand yet. The show’s apparently signature slapstick is only getting off the ground, we haven’t met most of the cast, and our two female leads’ romance has just started. Still, the early signs are pointing in a positive direction. For fans of Yuri as well as oldschool slapstick or Oshii’s other anime, I invite you to join the ride with what is shaping up to be 2021’s most unique Yuri anime. 

Ratings:

Story – 8, unremarkable yet but well told

Art – 7, expressive and fun if a little rough 

Yuri – 5, early days but the intent is there 

Service – 7 by TV anime standards, Chihiro when she strips off doesn’t leave a huge amount to the imagination. 

Overall – 8 

Thank you for reading the review! I would also like to thank all my twitter mutuals and followers who’ve given me their support, and of course Erica, for giving me a spot to share my enthusiasm here on Okazu. This guest review series will continue after the show’s airing begins at a currently unconfirmed date. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to reading your comments! 

Erica here: Thank you, Megan. Your enthusiasm motivated me to watch episode 1. The highly detailed backgrounds, the fanservice and the comedy felt so much like Oshii’s Urusei Yatsura, with that pervasive “what fever dream am I watching?” sense that I associate with UY Beautiful Dreamer. (Which admittedly, I saw at 2AM while working 7 days a week at 3 different jobs, one of them a Renaiassance Faire., so life was actually pretty surreal. ^_^) We look forward to watching this along with you!