Archive for the English Anime Category


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.





Yuri Anime: El Hazard – Magnificent World (English)

June 8th, 2009

I know I’ve told the tale many times, about how Sailor Moon was my gateway into Yuri. But it was not my gateway into anime. My first anime was back when I was watching Star Blazers after school and instinctively understanding that anime was a black hole into which all my time and money would go, so I avoided it like the plague. A decade later, I was teaching martial arts and hanging with a group of other MA teachers. We’d get together and watch crappy movies and stuff and one day one of them brought along Tenchi Muyo, the TV series, and for some reason, we all got hooked on it. We watched that and the movies…I’ll never forget how filthy the third movie made us all feel. ^_^;

Because, or perhaps despite the fact that Tenchi was one of my gateway anime, I somehow managed to skip El Hazard…until now. Of course I had *heard* of El Hazard. I knew of Fatora and Alielle. But I had never actually watched the anime.

When I announced on Twitter that I was about to embark upon watching Magnificent World, I was inundated with “OMG, that was SO AMAZING! Best EVAR!” responses. I asked those folks when the last time they actually watched this anime was, knowing full well the answer would be, for most, several years ago – or never since they first watched it, when it was their gateway. I knew, based on my many years of experience with anime fans, that these folks loved their *memory* of El Hazard, not necessarily the reality of it.

Let me say this. I enjoyed Tenchi Muyo. It was my first experience with harem anime, a genre I dubbed “dorky boy and beautiful babes.” But I am fully aware that it wasn’t high art, either, and if I sat down to watch it now, I’d probably give myself a headache from rolling my eyes. ^_^

Sean, who really understands my opinions on this kind of thing, got it right. El Hazard is good for what it is – a Tenchi-like harem anime in a fantasy, rather than scifi, setting. He understood how I manage my expectations of anime. He explained what I could reasonably expect to enjoy. He was pretty much right on, so cookies for him, when I see him on Saturday. ^_^

So, all that having been said as preface – El Hazard – Magnificent World was not bad. It had some elements that were interesting and some that were not as much to me as to others.

The basic plot is self-fulfilling. Average (but not below average) Makoto is sent to an alternate universe by the goddess Ifurita in order to save her from something that hasn’t happened yet. Along with Makoto, his self-proclaimed rival Jinnai, a childhood friend Nanami and a hapless teacher Fujisawa also find themselves in the Magnificent World. Makoto learns that he is the dead ringer for the missing princess, Fatora, and is thus requested to take her place until she can be found.

The bad guy is hopelessly obvious, the plot is a lot of sound and fury and really very little happens, but entertainingly enough. There’s enough silliness to appeal to the physical comedy crowd, a little bit of falling on naked women for the harem crowd and Jinnai laughs maniacally a lot, which seemed to be appealing to many who professed love for the series.

I was told that I would like the three priestesses, as they are “strong” female characters. And it made me wonder that they are considered strong, when they are obviously the weakest characters in the series. They scream and fight quite a bit – but they are weak in the sense that they lose more than they win and they go completely mushy for Makoto or other potential romantic partners. That is not how I define “strength.” I liked Diva and her bugs, and above all I liked Jinnai’s relationship with the Bugrom, which was surprisingly sincere.

Which brings us to Fatora and Alielle, who are both more interesting for what they are not, than for what they are. We are introduced to Alielle as the missing Fatora’s lover – it’s instantly apparent that no one really takes her seriously in this regard. It’s only after she then expresses interest in other women, that we are forced to reevaluate her. Yes, we have to admit, guess she’s actually “that way.” But because she is so diminutive, we’re never really going to take her seriously…ever. I believe this is quite intentional. If she were drawn as an adult, say like Shayla-Shayla, we’d be forced to see her and Fatora as an *actual couple*. And that is not done, so by drawing her (and voicing her) so childishly, we can nod, amused and certain that they are cute together, but not much more. Fatora, when she finally shows up is not the blueblood princesss we expect, but a total jerk, which pleased me no end. I think she and Alielle make a fine couple. ^_^

The main romance does not suck. And in this OVA at least, at the very end, in the still art that accompanies the credits, we are able to see something that utterly, completely lacks in today’s harem anime – some representation of Makoto and Ifurita as a totally normal, functional couple. They touch, they put their arms around one another and, we presume with the final panel, they kiss. It would have been even nicer to see them do so in the anime itself, but I’m glad to see it at *all* so I won’t quibble. :-) The fact that in a bad mood Ifurita can destroy the world is sort of passed over, but we’ll pretend that being a high school boy’s girlfriend is all a goddess could ever wish for and they live happily ever after. The End, until the next OVA.

This box set is not bad, considering it’s old. Old enough to be from Pioneer, not even Geneon. The packaging is nice, there’s a bit of artsyness to it and unlike the old cardboard box with 6 DVDs model, it doesn’t take up too much space on the shelf.

Compared with Tenchi, Makoto is less of a loser, the service is mild by today’s standards. The most eye-rolling handwave is that no one can see Makoto is a guy until his long wig comes off and then suddenly it’s instantly apparent he’s male! The romances are not icky, there’s less haremization of all the females. And Fujisawa, who today would be a creepy perv is just a plain old respectable drunk, who really gives a shit about his students.

I’m probably not running back to The Magnificent World as a comfort anime, but it had some good elements and was reasonably entertaining – as anime should be.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 4

Overall – 7

Sincere thanks for the generosity and kindness of Okazu Superhero Eric P. for sponsoring today’s review and letting me catch up on this classic Yuri anime!