Archive for the English Anime Category


Magical Witch Punie-chan Anime (English)

November 12th, 2008

“Lyrical Tokarev, Kill them all!”

With this incantation, you know that Magical Witch Punie-chan is not your usual magical girl anime.

After the appearance of vegetables who come to life, sing and dance, begging to be made into curry and submission holds called “Princess arm lock” and “Princess guillotine choke sleeper,” you start to realize that there is nothing good and right with this anime. It’s all sorts of wrongness combined into one lovely little package of wtf.

This craptastic little story scratches almost all my itches. Except one. There’s no Yuri. I tried, too. I thought that maybe Punie and the gang leader Anego, might, possibly…but, no go. Anego goes off and falls in love with a guy in a very cute episode about a doomed romance. (There is, however, some serious “6 degrees of Yuri” in the choice of voice actors, which appeased me slightly. Not only are there a host of Marimite VAs, both Chikane and Himeko’s VAs appear in this anime.)

If you ever wanted your magical girls to lose the wand and drop someone with an choke hold, fight to death with their magical creature sidekick, animate vegetables that create their own tragic stories of heroism, and take down the evil punk girl gang that inhabits every average school with love and superior fighting skills, then you need to watch this.

Once again, my love and thanks to Media Blasters for making/allowing me watch this delightful piece of utter crap. You’ve made me so very, very happy. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – a surprising 7
Story – an amusing 7
Characters – a ridiculous 8
Yuri – a disappointing 0
Service – a remarkably low 2

Overall – a completely satisfying 7

God, this anime hurts, but it hurts so good.





Aria Anime, Volume 1 (English)

November 4th, 2008

Welcome to the world of Aqua. As the Earth (now know as Manhome) becomes overrun with technology, and barran of life, humankind has spread out onto a terraformed Mars, transforming it into a preserve of culture and life from Earth’s past.

Venice is no longer, but Neo-Venezia stands ready, with beautiful girls taking the place of burly male gondoliers. For one journeyman gondoliera, life is a slow, gentle passage through days of wonder, beauty and friends.

This is the plot, such as it is, of Aria.

Nothing happens, as every reviewer ever has noticed, but it doesn’t happen so lightly, so gently and with such lovely scenery that it’s not like we feel the need to rush. A cup of coffee, maybe an almond pastry and a volume of Aria will do for the afternoon.

In Volume 1, we meet our protagonist Akari of Aria Company and watch as she befriends (in a totally non-Nanoha way) her peer and rival, Himeya’s heir Aika, their mentors, two of the most famed undine of Neo-Venezia, Alicia and Akira, and a young, genius apprentice, Alice. Along with this crowd we meet some of the other people in Akari’s neighborhood, the people she meets each day. And while I am being slightly silly likening this cast to the puppets of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood the feeling of gentle fantasy isn’t all that ridiculously different.

As with all their work, this English subtitled edition from Right Stuf is top notch. The video extra follows the crew around Venice as they tour the world they are recreating. I have never been to Venice, so it was nice to see that some of the more whimsical locations are, in fact, completely real. But this volume does not stay still in one place. We follow Akari as she learns about some of the history of the Aqua planet, and we see that although Venice maybe recreated here, it is not without its own stories of love and loss apart from those of the city that we’re familiar with.

Yuri in Volume 1 is largely in the form of Aika’s crush on Alicia, and my own completely-made-up-with-the-help-of-Yuri-goggles relationship between Akira and Alicia. Yes, I know it’s not real. I don’t care. lol I said it before and I’ll say it again, definitely worth watching. No mecha, no rape, no “Story A,” just nice.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

My deep, abiding thanks today goes out to Dan P. (We’ll call him “Super Dan” from now on) for sponsoring today’s and so many other day’s reviews. For your support, your kindness, your generosity and your emails that make me laugh, thank you Dan for being an Okazu superhero! To become an Okazu superhero just visit my Yuri Wishlist and purchase anything on it. You’ll gain instant recognition as a hero and the eternal appreciation of the Okazu audience.





Red Garden Anime, Volume 5 (English)

October 28th, 2008

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.





My Zhime (My Otome) Anime, Volume 7 (English)

October 17th, 2008

As we begin Mai Otome, Volume 7, the world is poised for war; Meister vs Meister, Otome vs Otome, Garderobe and its allies lined up to do battle against Nagi and his forces of Chaos. What do we want most in a situation like this? We want *heroes*! We want the damn cavalry to come thundering down the damn hill and we want it to be shiny, and colorful and we want the horns of Rohan to blow wildly and we want it now.

Boy oh boy do we get that in Volume 7. ^_^

One scene after another, we think we (“we” being the good guys, of course,) have turned the tide in our favor and Nagi pulls yet *another* trick out of his ear, even going so far as to manipulate his own Meister by shooting Sergay and using Nina’s desire to save him to wreak havoc. (His manipulation-fu was a little weak and if Nina hadn’t been such a mopey sop, she might have noticed, but we needed her to just go with it to set up the final confrontation anyway.) Each time calling for yet another triumphant entry of the next wave of the good guys, accompanied by epic background music.

One after another, the Meisters arrive and add their strength to our forces, and time after time, our strength is neutralized until, in a gigantic display of Miyu ex machina all the contracts are cancelled, the Meisters set free and they can *all* take on Nagi’s last-ditch efforts to break toys and pull the wings off of flies.

Of course the world is saved by Arika. Were you worried?

And everyone lives happily ever after, even Tomoe who really should have died horribly. Several times.

Volume 7 also offers a mixed bag of Yuri for our various pleasures. While the volume attains utter fail for Shizuru’s and Natsuki’s completely unromantic and untouchy reunion, we can’t blame them too much, they were both a bit distracted by being in the middle of a war zone. We get a quick retrospective of Shizuru’s playtime with Tomoe (who assumably was a good girl) and for Ers x Nina fans, there’s Erstin’s moving letter to Nina upon which I am sure many a fanfic is based. ^_^ Of course there’s the climax of the whole series where an embrace by Arika brings Nina back from the brink of destruction, and although I am not an Arika x Nina ‘shipper, I know they are out there. Haruka and Yukino continue to be the best manzai government ever. Lastly, but not at all least, there’s Chie’s moving reunion with Aoi. (That’s everyone *I* can think of. I’m sure there are others, so feel free to add in whatever ones you’ve made up in your head to the list of those I’ve made up in mine.)

Mai Otome was never intended to be high art. It was, and remains, a very silly, action comedy-drama with loads of service frosting. A great time for the whole family…assuming your family is like mine. ^_^ (D’oh! I should have watched this with my Dad last time he was here – he would have loved it! Oh well, next time.)

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 8 (We love you Miss Maria, oh yes we do…)
Story – 8
Yuri – 3, but with nuts and candy filling
Service – 5

Overall – 8

And *speaking* of heroes, all my thanks today goes out to the hero of the day, Bruce M, for his sponsorship of this fabulous volume of a lots o’fun anime. (My Dad thanks you too, although he doesn’t know it yet.)





Yuri Anime: Kaleido Star, Volume 5 (English)

October 12th, 2008

My relationship with Kaleido Star has always been one of love-hate. One moment I’m ready to put my fist through the screen, the next I’m sobbing because of the intense emotionality, and the inexpressible, if impossible, beauty of the performances.

Volume 5 (Volume 6 as a standalone, Volume 5 in the box set) of the series focuses almost exclusively on Sora and Layla. Having realized that her perfect and only true partner is Sora, Layla puts everything she is on the line to perfect the Legendary Manuever with her. Yuri’s continued attempts at being an asshole alienate everyone around him. In his final attempt at making fools of Layla and Sora, he provides them with an intensity they might not otherwise have been able to muster.

Of course, the Legendary Maneuver is perfect, magical and filled with all the unspoken things Layla and Sora can never say to one another.

No, this is not Yuri in the sense that they are in love or lovers or anything like that, but this is Yuri in the sense that the two of them have eyes only for one another. In fans’ minds and hearts, we can fill in the rest of the relationship as desired. :-)

As much as my relationship with this series is totally love-hate, I would not hesitate for a second to recommend it to another person. While there are many things in the series that I do not like, there are many moments that make this series absolutely magnificent.

Rating:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1
Service – 2

Overall – 8

Once more I find myself thanking Ted the Awesome for sponsoring today’s review and being an Okazu superhero!