Archive for the English Anime Category


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!





Yuri Anime: Vampire Princess Miyu, Volume 5 (English)

October 3rd, 2008

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 Anime, Volume 1 (English)

September 29th, 2008

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.





Yuri Anime: Maria Watches Us, Volume 4 (English)

September 28th, 2008

If you were among the many that ran out the first second you heard that Maria Watches Us was available in box set, it’s likely that you did so more for this one volume than for the rest of the series. Because saying you like Sei is, as we all know, like saying the sky is blue. :-) (Which, by the way, was part of one of the questions I sent in to Konno Oyuki-sensei last month when Right Stuff opened that form for us. I thought she ought to know that we say that.)

And here we are, arrived at *last* at the zOMG! official release of “Forest of Briars” (as Right Stuf translated it) in the US. Surely I am not the only person who thought that we would never, ever see that.

In the winter of her 17th year, Sei suffered a parting that was very painful, she relates to us in the opening.

Yumi overhears classmates talking about Rosa Gigantea, and then rumors of a book begin to filter though the school. A book, she later reads and finds to be about two students at Lillian who attempted suicide to be together. Yumi finds out that Sei’s past includes some kind of situation that makes it a likelihood that she is the author of the book!

Sei’s honesty is pretty stark, and she admits to having been in a situation that’s pretty similar to the one in the book. Neither Yumi nor Yoshino seem particularly surprised to learn that Sei fell in love with another student. Yoshino’s biggest concern is that Sei might have been hurt, so she decides to find out who wrote the book, only to learn that it was a memory of a distant past and nothing, except by coincidence, to do with Sei.

It’s hard to imagine, having seen only the teasing, openly grope-y Satou Sei, that there was a time when she was withdrawn from everyone and cold. And that the reason she changed was not, as one might expect, because she had fallen in love. In fact, it was quite the opposite – her heart had been broken, forcing her to lean on other people and see how many people genuinely cared about her. In “White Petals,” we watch Sei meet, fall in love with, be rejected by, reconcile with and lose Kubo Shiori. A lot of the novel had to be cut out for the anime, which really is a shame, because it’s an excellent novel. (Including at least a *little* recognition of the issue of lesbian identity.) But what is left is still a very moving story…and the source of 90% of Youko x Sei slash, as well. lol

The last two episodes are the Valentine’s Day date episodes, in which Yumi losing sight of Sachiko for a moment is turned into a laughably absurd cliffhanger and which also had a great scene truncated, so all we get of Yumi listening to Sachiko changing in the jeans shop is a little clothing noise and Yumi blushing – but it’s enough. ^_^

Shizuka and Shimako continue to confuse fans, because both are so difficult to read. But, watching their date now, with all those novels between this episode and me, I find them an utterly fascinating pair. There’s a line towards the end of their date that characterizes them perfectly. If Rosa Gigantea hadn’t existed, then we might have been soeur, Shizuka says. But she does exist, Shimako says. And so, Shizuka concludes, taking Shimako’s hand, we are both happy. It’s a great line.

Yoshino has her moment of satori about why stalking is bad and ends up having an armful of crying Chisato, then turns around and gets mad at Rei for not being more considerate of the girl’s feelings and getting an apologetic embrace from Rei in return.

And so, with the addition of the Don’t Tell Maria-sama extras, we come to the end of the first season of Maria Watches Over Us.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 0

Marimite Fan – 100

Overall – 10

Now I have to go and watch it all over again in a marathon. And memorize the novels. Perhaps start camping outside a Japanese bookstore in anticipation of Before Graduation which is due out next month. (I’d add “stalk Konno Oyuki-sensei” but I learned my lesson from Yoshino. ^_^)