Since we’ve been talking about it, I just had to drag out Red Garden, Volume 5 to enjoy the blood and angst once again. ^_^

The amazing thing about Volume 5 is that a ton of stuff goes on, and there’s pretty much no way to talk about it without spoiling it rotten. Well, okay, I could be irritatingly vague instead. I’ll try to thread the needle here and say that a lot of things that have been slowly building to a crisis point finally come to a head and the girls find themselves deeply involved with not only the usual battles, but the reason for the battles…and residual complications of family, friends and lovers and the like.

Our four protagonists reevaluate their relationship to Lise, only to find – once again – that everything they thought they knew to be true is a lie.

And the chase is on. We move quickly, almost frenetically, towards a climax that will resolve nothing and everything.

In the middle of all of this, Paula’s love for Kate is neither perverted, nor selfish. Her love is real and beautiful and while Kate cannot return it, she does not reject it.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 8

The cover copy continues to amuse and befuddle. The quote on the front cover is quite good, but the back cover reads “LOVE will break your HEART. & LOVERS will bleed you dry.”

Asside from the questionable punctuation, I have to ask…whuh? This volume is inexplicably subtitled “Love Lies Bleeding.” Sounds like the copywriter was desperately hanging on to that whole Buffy the Vampire thing, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Finally, what you’ve all been waiting for. A creepy doll and lesbian episode!

Volume 5 of Vampire Princess Miyu starts off with the surprising implication that Reiha was once human and that her dislike for Miyu is more than just whim. The first few episodes explore the uncomfortable tension between human and Shinma, and drop hints about the grim relationship between Reiha and Miyu.

Midway through the volume we hit the episode that launched a thousand creepy lesbian doll stories. Well, okay, maybe not a thousand, but it certainly launched one of mine, Nina. In this episode we meet expert doll-maker Kimihara Kasumi, whose dolls appear to be alive. This woman makes boy dolls of such beauty that she has becomes obsessed with one, fancying that they are lovers. (Not entirely impossible if you take a moment to think about it.)

The gallery owner, who has a thing for Kasumi but has a thing for the money she brings in more, hires a caretaker for her, a young woman by the name of Fujiwara Yuki. Kasumi begins to suspect Yuki of trying to steal her lover, and ultimately finds Yuki expressing her love to the doll. In a fit of jealousy, Kasumi destroys the doll only to find that it actually has been inhabited by a Shinma. Miyu destroys the Shinma, and Yuki consoles Kasumi in her decidely not doll-like embrace.

The next glimpse of Kasumi and Yuki is at new doll-designer Fujiwara Yuki’s show – in which all the dolls are now beautiful girls. Miyu’s classmates whisper the scandalous information that Yuki and Kasumi are lovers, it’s said – and we can see that they are. They are touching, after all.

The girls express shock and disbelief, and Miyu mutters about the unhealthy illusion that this human has now bought into – that horrible illusion they call love. And the episode ends with us supposed to be thinking how awful and unhappy they will be in this hateful situation, with dolls that are clearly raring to be possessed.

Only, Yuki and Kasumi look really happy in each other’s arms. There’s nothing in their expressions or body language that can really be mapped to “this is bad.” So we, the Yuri audience, have to think that Miyu is not condemning lesbian love particularly, but love generally as a miserable affectation of humanity. Well, okay then. ^_^

The rest of the volume goes back to the usual formula of Miyu kicking Shinma butt, sometimes with the help of, and sometimes despite, Reiha’s presence.

For the typical Miyu episode, which usually ends ambiguously at best and miserably most of the time, the creepy doll and lesbian episode actually comes off as practically cheerful. I can’t think of another episode off the top of my head where the characters end up with more of a healthy non-Shinma infested relationship than they started with.

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Irony – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 2

Overall – 7

It was with immense satisfaction that I rewatched this volume. It was sufficiently disturbing, pleasantly lesbian, mostly creepy and surprisingly happy all at once. Everything one could ever want from Vampire Princess Miyu.

Otoboku, originally known as Otome ha oneesama(boku) ni koishiteru, is the story of a boy, Mizuho, who ends up attending a girls private school at the behest of his grandfather’s will. Although the will does not stipulate it, Mizuho will cross-dress and attempt to pass as a girl. Of course, not only does he pass, he becomes the idol of the school for his exceptional beauty and athleticism.

Media Blasters licensed it as a Yuri anime. There is a case for it being Yuri in the same way I My Me Strawberry Egg is Yuri. The girls who fall for Mizuho believe he is a girl (except where they know he is not.)

While it may be considered a Yuri anime in that sense, I have never reviewed it here for many reasons. Media Blasters asked me to watch and review it now, so I am. Only because I love you, Chet.

Fans who enjoy harem series, male cross-dressing, Newhalf and/or gender-bending and bishoujo games will enjoy this series very much. It is based on a bishoujo game, and has all the qualities that appeal to those audiences.

If you have watched Otoboku and enjoyed it, or are interested in any of the above kinds of anime, you’ll be pleased to know that Media Blasters did a nice job on the technical side.

And, if you have watched and enjoyed this series, or plan on watching and enjoying it, I strongly recommend you do not read the rest of this review…

***

…because the rest of this review will be a discussion of some of the things I hated about Otoboku.

The Uniforms. The uniforms are demure (except when they are not) tight-waisted, puffy-sleeved pale bluish white for summer, dark blue for winter, with a bib of a different white to set off the chest that somehow miraculously clings to the contour of even the smallest girl’s chest, without providing any actual support, so there’s plenty of jiggling going on. Since the uniforms are designed to draw the eye inexorably to this area…there had better be *something* to keep your attention.

The Premise. Mizuho’s grandfather’s will stipulated that he had to attend the school – nowhere did it say that he had to pass – or even dress – as a girl. Why they didn’t just give him a room somewhere and explain the situation? Because then we wouldn’t have had the “funny” situation of a guy cross-dressing in a girls’ dorm!

The Guy in a Dress (is a better woman than thou.) Otoboku is not a trans story. It has the same relationship to transgender issues as it does to lesbianism…which is to say, not much, unless you’re really desperate for a reflection of something sort of similar in anime. It is a harem story. Mizuho is not a crossdresser, nor is he, like Kashimashi‘s Hazumu, a woman in a man’s body – Mizuho is a man who, through the use of a thin plot driver, is “forced” to wear girl’s clothes. This is, at best, Newhalf fantasy, where he is a perfect (i.e., straight/normal) man *and* a perfect woman, at the same time. There is an actual belief among many men that the perfect woman really is a man. RuPaul was so perfect a woman, he became a women’s makeup spokesperson. And likewise, Mizuho, after the application of makeup is suddenly transformed, not into a pancake covered guy, but into a magnificent specimen of femininity. He’s more beautiful than the real women…and by simply being male, he is of course a better athlete than anyone in the school. (God, how I wished the star forward of the school’s basketball team would have stepped up and stuffed Mizuho into that basket…) Don’t get me started on the antiquated, rigid and utterly absurd issue of gender roles. Girls don’t run, girl’s don’t drop their bags as they rush to the toilet… Gah.

Fake Breasts. Mizuho’s breasts are fake. Not real. And yet, somehow not only are they warm, and feel just like the real thing, they magically have *nerves* so when he’s being groped by dormmates, he is all squirmy and turned on. No. Nonononono. No. NO.

Girls Dorms. Girls dorms are not full of negligees and pillow fights. They just aren’t.

This isn’t everything I hated about the anime, just the main things. I was watching it on my iPod on the train and about 2/3 of the way through the first episode, I started to cry. I was half laughing, but mostly sobbing as I said out loud – “I can’t do it. I can’t watch any more of this.”

But I did watch more. I watched this whole volume. The one thing I enjoyed was the eyecatch where Mizuho needs a shave. Other than that, it was scrunchy-face-making torture.

Chet, man, I love you. But I will not watch more of this anime. Ever.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 3
Characters – 4
Yuri – 1
Service – 7

Overall – 3

My sincere and heartfelt sympathy to the translator for this volume. It must have been like stabbing yourself in the eyes with a fork, Midori. I owe you a hug for your pain when I see you at MangaNEXT.