Archive for the English Anime Category


New Anime Season Summer 2009: Yuri Anime: Kanamemo (English)

July 13th, 2009

We’ve talked about how similar 4-koma comics are to each other many times. They are usually slice of life, perhaps at a school, in a club, a bunch of friends, all hangingoutandbeingsilly. Life, you know.

Well, Kanamemo isn’t like that. It has a rather depressing set up, as it happens. Kana’s parents had passed away when she was young and she was living with her grandmother until she also passed away, leaving Kana alone. So alone, in fact, that not a single adult, government agency or busybody neighbor even notices that she’s got to go somewhere. As the movers begin to take her grandmother’s items, it struck me as odd that whoever was in charge of the funeral thought to get the old lady’s personal items cleaned up, but somehow forgot to find somewhere to put her *granddaughter.*

When Kana panics and runs off with only a rucksack, she finds, after much travail, a live-in position with a newspaper delivery office populated by 4 adults, an elementary school girl for an office chief and I started to realize that this was going to be a problematic series for me. Specifically – there are too many handwaves.

At the Fanfic Revolution, we had a few rules for writers. One of them, coined by Adam Jones, was the “one handwave” rule. Every author gets one “handwave” – one thing that can just be passed off ’cause. If you are writing a story in which aliens land in your house, then that is the handwave. Everything after that ought to be internally consistent with that and everyone’s actions ought to make sense given their personalities. If people can fly – fine. But if people can fly, then suddenly some of them also have telepathy and, oh, didn’t I mention the Morlocks? Well, there are Morlocks. ….No.

Kana’s grandmother dying and her being completely, utterly forgotten and forlorn was the one handwave. Then she finds a live-in position at Fuushin Newspaper. Okay. Not *quite* a handwave. Acceptable.

The other staff members are a lesbian couple, a drunken pervert, a 3rd year ronin. Acceptable. Stupid, but acceptable. Not a handwave as such.

The office chief is an elementary school girl. No.

But then, above and beyond all that, I am being asked to believe that Kana, who I must remind myself is only 13, is also an idiot. And that was it. When she failed to ride a bicycle – failed to even let go when she repeatedly fell(!) – I developed a deep dislike for her. She’s hopeless, I thought, throw her in the river in a box and have done with it.

And then there’s the pervert. She is the Japanese male audience, wrapped in a sexy woman suit. She behaves the way the viewers would want to, if they were dressed in a sexy woman suit and had any cojones at all. Which is the final handwave. When I am reading a manga, I can skip over things that bore, irritate or annoy me – I can make distasteful scenes last microseconds. To have to sit and linger lasciviously on every violation perpetrated by Haruka on the underage characters makes me stabby.

By the second episode the depressing premise is pushed into the position of “tool used to provide Kana with a means of narration,” we can move on. Setting aside the issue of Haruka, let’s turn to Yume and Yuuki, the resident lesbians.

They are, in fact, a lesbian couple. No one will say that – no one will even imply it in conversation, but they are. The first time we see them, they are giving each other a goodbye kiss and while it is not lasciviously lingered upon, it cannot be denied or passed off as anything else. They continue on in this vein, as the provider of silly, eminently undeniable “they are a couple” humor. Yume is cheerful, energetic and studying to be a pastry chef, Yuuki is clingy and passive-aggressive, so clearly, she’s a lesbian. They are quite cute together.

Saki, the aforementioned elementary school office chief is wise and competent beyond her years. Basically she’s a 40 year old woman in a loli-bait body. I don’t pretend to get why the hell that is, but she’s hardly the first such and will hardly be the last.

And Hinata is the only character that seems in any way realistic. A student who has failed the university exam three times, she is working and, one hopes, studying. She is the other cipher for the viewing audience – the Dr. Jekyll to Haruka’s Hyde.

It’s not a godawful tear-my-eyes-out series, but it makes me depressed. It’s not a fun 4-koma, it’s a miserable drudgery of a 4-koma inside a decent 4-koma suit. I’d like to watch the suit, without the creature inside it, plskthx.

Ratings:

Art – 4 to me, but rather typical for 4-koma, so 6
Story – 4 to me, 7 to people who like that kind of thing or can not see the obvious
Characters – same as above
Yuri – 8
Service – 7

Overall – 5 to me, maybe to climb higher if it gets rid of that thing inside it.

I think there are some cute elements. They just happen to not be the things that the Japanese audience thinks are cute elements.





Yuri News: Aoi Hana on Afterellen.com

July 10th, 2009

The largest online lesbian media source, Afterellen.com will be premiering this summer’s Yuri anime hit, Aoi Hana: Sweet Blue Flowers via Crunchyroll.

Afterellen covers lesbian media and entertainment of all forms, and they stream a number of live-action drama and news series on their site. This is their first anime stream.

Both the anime stream and an article I wrote about the series goes live tonight at 11PM EST. Check it out and don’t forget to rant about how much you love my articles in the comments! :-)





New Anime Season Summer 2009: Yuri Anime: Aoi Hana

July 2nd, 2009

If you are not familiar with Aoi Hana check out my review of Volume 1 of the Aoi Hana manga (or if you want the story through Volume 3, check the Aoi Hana category on the sidebar. Today we’re just going to talk anime.

Crunchyroll launched this anime with no fanfare – in fact, with barely even a blip on the radar. No press release, no time to build anticipation. But, there it was, with 6 hours to go before it launched on Japanese TV at some gawdforsaken hour, a simulcast in CR was announced to be shown one hour later. You can still catch that first episode, of course.

Rumors about this production were pretty rampant. The voice cast is newcomers to the field, maybe Ikuhara Kunihiko (of Revolutionary Girl Utena fame) might be animating the opening sequence. In fact, he did and it’s quite lovely and although they are relatively new names to the seiyuu world, the skill and professionalism of the voice actresses was top notch.

So, the clock ran down and there we were watching what was certainly the most anticipated Yuri anime of 2009 to date.

Right off the bat, the opening sequence was lovely. Spoilery, maybe, but lovely. The ending sequence uses some of the watercolor art from the manga as a background and was, in its own way, just as nice. The songs were totally suitable.

As I said, the voice cast was excellent. Some people have complained that Fumi’s voice is too high, but as usual, they are forgetting that by Japanese standards, a high-pitched girly voice is *more* attractive, not less. And despite the delusion we as fans have, there really is no sign that Japanese anime companies give a rat’s ass about what we want. Especially as it is still Japanese fans who shell out the yen for what they want, while foreign fans are much more reluctant to do so.

I found the art appealing, and felt that the tone of the manga was captured perfectly. I have no complaints about the anime itself.

There were a number of issues with the subtitles. Although I had no problems, many people have written in here and other places to note that subtitles did not always work. At least one person commented that it’s a known bug. This is unacceptable, really, for a company trying to rethink their business model and be *the* portal for anime to the western audience. In some cases, simply right-clicking and “enabling” subtitles worked to fix this. In other cases, refreshing the page did. In yet others nothing seemed to work.

On the positive side, it appears that there was no subscription embargo for the simulcast, although there were IP limitations. CR has posted a list of the countries in which the series can be legally viewed in their Aoi Hana forums – consider posting intelligently there to counter the “eww Yuri” posts. For my part, less than $7/month is less than one sandwich and chips and I think it’s a ridiculously low price to pay for legal streaming anime, subbed, that I want to see, right after it was on Japanese TV. I’m more than happy to pay the price.

My main thought about all this is that we finally have a “Yuri” anime we can show people as a stereotypical Yuri series, in the same way that Gravitation has stood as a gateway “Yaoi” anime for so many years. This story has many of the most typical Yuri tropes, but is not a parody or a melodrama. It is a good story, but undeniably about a young woman who likes women. The characters are strong, are likable and are the kind of people you’d want over for lunch.

Yesterday I was able to watch a simulcast of Aoi Hana, eat ice cream and watch fireworks. It was just about the most perfect day ever. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Yuri – 7 (Ultimately, not in episode 1, however)
Service – 1

Overall – 9

This is a great way to continue the odd-numbered year Yuri effect. We can look forward to this, then autumn will bring even more good things for us with El Cazador and Sasameikoto.





My-Zhime (My Otome) Zwei Anime

June 26th, 2009

It is just after the end of the My Otome TV series, and Arika is a hero, but things aren’t any easier for her. School is still tough, she and Mashiro have a fight and are separated and, just to make sure that nothing is easy, a new, powerful bad guy appears. Welcome to My Zhime Zwei.

Sensibly, the bad guy takes out all the powerful, cool Otome first, leaving all the smaller fry (and not coincidentally, our heroines Arika and Nina) to take them on and win the day for all. Really, there’s never even the remotest concern that Good and Right won’t win. If you’re hoping for something like that, you’re totally watching the wrong franchise. ^_^

Because of the relative intelligence of the baddy, Shizuru and Natsuki are apart for the bulk of this series. Aoi and Chie have little time together, hardly sharing a panel. So for Yuri, we have to turn our attentions to the far more amusing comedy couple Brigadier Haruka Armitage and her President, Yukino Chrysant of Aries. In episode two they bring it, with fireworks and ticker tape and a really big megaphone. For the second episode alone, this volume is worth the cost. It’s full of big grinny Haruka awesomeness. If – and I mean that with a sense of complete certainty that it will not happen – IF, I were to ever feel compelled to write a Mai-anything fanfic, it would be Haruka, Yukino, some things that go ka-boom and awesome. Just like episode two of this volume.

Nina and Arika beat the bad guys, no one kills Nagi and everyone lives happily ever after. The end, until they come out with S.ifr here, or manage to come up with another anime addition to the set.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 8 Haruka for the win. Even as a block of stone she rocks.
Story – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 5

Overall – 7

I want to express a sincere disappointment and frustration for the execrable quality of doujinshi for Mai Otome. I have a number of them, and they are all so very bad. I have developed a theory based on this, but don’t have energy to expound right now. Someone remind me next week to discuss it. I’ll call it “six degrees of service” as a mental reminder.

Many, many thanks to the sponsor of today’s feast, Okazu Superhero Ana M, for her kindness, generosity, and all around subarashii-ness. Ana, you’re da bomb! Or whatever tanks shoot. Shells, I guess, right? You’re an absolute shell. ^_^





Maria Watches Over Us Anime: Season 3, Volume 3 (English)

June 18th, 2009

There I was, surveying my domain, which is to say I was staring at my pile of things to review, and I saw the Season 3 boxset of Maria Watches Over Us. It came into my mind to review “Ciao, Sorella”…and, I smiled. Because this particular OAV makes me smile. Every time. Smiled when I watched it raw, right after it was on Japanese TV, and again when I bought the Japanese collector’s edition (complete with marble-pattered photo album) and again when I saw it subbed and yes, again when I watched it – twice – from my shiny happy boxset from Right Stuf/Nozomi.

This is the last of the third season, the last OAV for the series to date. To write the novel, this was the first time Konno Oyuki had ever gone a overseas trip for reference – and it shows. This book reads like a tour of Italy in the company of Yumi, Yoshino and Shimako. Which is exactly what it is. Many fans were disappointed with the OAV, as nothing happened. Since Lillian is the Talking Heads “Heaven” and nothing ever happens, this seemed spot on for me.

Yumi, Yoshino and Shimako are off on their second-year class trip and, as befits a private school for rich girls, they don’t go to Okinawa, they go to Italy. On tour they see exactly the same things anyone sees while on a group tour of Italy. Relax, when you watch this. Have some gelato because one does while on tour of Italy, and smile at the goofy pictures of the girls pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa because, as Tsutako says, just because something is typical doesn’t mean it can’t be good.

There is a little drama in this story – Yoshino’s dark secret, Shimako’s angelic tears, but there is *way* more comedy than drama. Most of the drama is turned into comedy.

Here’s my three favorite scenes:

Yumi, Yoshino, Tsutako and Mami on a gondola ride, listening to the gondolier talking in broken English, which none of them are really fluent in, about the Bridge of Sighs. He tells them about the legend of kissing the one you love as they pass under. They look at each other like – what on earth are we supposed to do with that information? In the book, Yumi actually thinks that out loud and they talk about coming back when they have someone. Yumi thinks it might be fun to return with Sachiko.

Shimako, in tears at the sublime “Last Judgement,” standing there with Yumi, when Yoshino walks up and says, “Don’t you think Jesus is a little fat?” Awesome Yoshino moment.

And in Florence, a budgie that says, “Firenze senbei,” which was not what I adored about this scene, but that the OTHER thing the parakeet says was, “Stop it already, Satou-san.” ^_^ The win scene of the book.

There is little Yuri in this series, as there has ever been. This series is about relationships that are labeled “sister” for a good reason. There is love, of course, and I’d even go so far to say that some of that has been romantic, but forever platonic, or nearer to it. Sachiko’s admission of having missed Yumi may not make much of an impression on you, but it warms the cockles of my heart, as my late grandmother used to say.

One more thing before I forget….

Shizuka! Squee!

Even a Shizuka drive-by is wonderful (there was one late in the novel series, in which we saw her in passing at a train station. And of course there’s the wonderful story “The Little Match Girl” in Variety Gift.) How much more wonderful to have some full-blown Shizuka time. Always a pleasure to see our old friends.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 2 (there was actually a little service in this one. Did you blink and miss it?)

Overall – 8

Now the Third Season is behind us, and we have nothing to do but await the Fourth and start collecting Special CDs and Drama CDs again! And pray to the Pizza Hut gods that they are willing to finance a final series of OVAs.