Archive for the English Anime Category


Maria Watches Us, Volume 3 (English)

September 15th, 2008

How ironic that the Valentine’s Day episodes of Maria Watches Us Season 1, are some of the *least* romantic in the series. Not that they lack romance mind you, it’s just that in comparison to the rest of this season, Yumi and Sachiko’s crisis and Sachiko being stalked, sort of pale.

Once again, I am looking back on this arc from the perspective of having read the many novels afterward. In fact, I’m currently reading the novel that follows the Valentine’s Day dates a year later. (And they are totally cracktastic, let me tell you…) So it fascinates me even more that in Volume 3 we get to see the beginning of what will obviously become a long tradition at Lillian. I can see it now, fifty years later, when the tradition is so long-established that everyone just assumes it’s always been done….

And yet…here we are, when crazy yellow journalist Newspaper club President Tsukiyama Minako sits down and sets the scene for the first ever Valentine’s Day treasure hunt. Kinda cool, huh? Kinda ironic too, that a woman without an ounce of romance in her is the source of this heart-pounding event. One of the best scenes in the arc is watching the Rosas defeat their soeurs and “encourage” them to participate. ^_^

In the middle of all this, Yumi and Sachiko have to deal with a significant crisis spawned by their differing styles of communication. This will continue to plague them for some time, ultimately complicating issues through “Rainy Blue” but, for now it’s no more than a few days of unhappiness for them to get through.

My biggest complaint with this arc is that the story of Yumi’s trick chocolates for Sei kind of suffer from neglect and confusion. Let me summarize – Yumi made two sets of chocolates, one with yummy centers and one with weird centers like tuna and wasabi. When she and Sachiko struggle with the box, the chocolates all get mixed up and its possible that the chocolate Sachiko ate and said was tasty is one of the weird ones. We’ll never know. ^_^

Sachiko’s stalker episode is notable for two things – when Mafuyu comes back into the story briefly a year later, Sachiko still has no clue who she is, and the fact that kindergarten Sachiko is hideously adorable.

In the end, Yumi proves that she is indeed suited to be Rosa Chinensis en bouton.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 0

Marimite Fan – 100

Overall – 8

Now I must run and finish the next year’s date stories, because really, *so* freakishly weird, I must know what happens!!!





Red Garden Anime, Volume 4 (English)

September 12th, 2008

I just finished reading a manga that I won’t be reviewing here, but found myself immediately composing a review in my head anyway. In that review, I was quibbling about a single phrase that really annoyed the heck out of me. It showed not only insensitivity but also complete lack of cultural knowledge by the company that translated the book. It’s not important, really, except for the fact that I find myself doing that quite a bit here – quibbling about a small thing that’s quite irrelevant to a series that I see as some kind of “wtf” committed by the American production company. And I will do it again today.

But, let’s set this quibble aside for a moment and discuss the meat, if you will allow me to be so crude, of Red Garden, Volume 4.

Kate, Clare, Rachel and Rose realize that there is no escape from their fate as members of one side of an ages-long battle. What that actually means to them is still unclear, but they are as determined – more so than before, even – to retain what little of their “real” lives they have left to them. Each reacts in a different way. Rachel sheds her superficial skin going so far as to shed even her genuinely concerned and caring boyfriend, someone she needs but understands will not be able to handle the truth. Rose embarks upon a quest to find her father and bring him back into the fold of her family. Kate tries to date, with tragic consequences, and Clare is forced to confront her (perhaps unfair) anger and feelings of betrayal she has for her father.

Paula remains the epitome of “Grace,” even in the face of Jessica’s flaring jealousy and accusations that her interest in Kate has changed her. In return, Paula forces Jessica to become a partner to Kate. From watching her so closely, Jessica begins to develop a kind of bond with Kate – and ultimately begins to sympathize with her, even if its for the wrong reasons. To Kate’s shock, Jessica confesses her sympathy and offers her help – again, even though it’s for the all the wrong reasons, Jessica is no longer an enemy. And Paula has once again protected Kate.

As the entire series edges closer to climax and everyone deals with betrayal – Rachel as the betrayer, Rose as the reconciler, Claire as the confronter and Kate as the betrayed, they all find some strength within themselves to fight the fight they must fight.

And in a surprising moment, the first instance of loss on our side is from an entirely unexpected source.

Yuri? Not very. Paula’s interest has not waned, but has not become a burden as it does in the manga. Fabulous? Definitely.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1
Service – 1; Violence – 8

Overall – 8

So, here’s my quibble. On the DVD case for the last volume the reviewer’s quote said that this series was like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This time the synopsis of the episode includes a line that describes this series as “sexy.” *Sexy*?? What part of this is sexy – the beast men ripping Rachel’s shoulder open or JC taking one for the team? Did they just add that in for spice or do they automatically describe anything with female leads as “sexy?” American companies – WTF?





Kurau Phantom Memory Anime, Volume 6 (English)

September 11th, 2008

Hey, look at that! The Large Hadron Collider started spinning particles around and, inexplicably, mini black holes did not suddenly split time and space open and destroy the world. I’m sure you’re as shocked as I am that the world refused to be destroyed yet *again*. It’s so irritating of the world, isn’t it? We get all our cans of food and ammunition and whatever else we think we need to survive the end of the world and, dammit, the world is still here. Gets on my nerves, and now what am I gonna do with all that bottled water and batteries?

In honor of the world not being destroyed once more, today’s review is of Kurau Phantom Memory 6, the final volume. Watching this volume of anime was a bit like waiting for the world to end….

Not really of course. It was more like waiting for the dentist to start drilling. Only this time, I guess I had a good dose of NovacaineTM in the form of the director’s liner notes for the series. Apparently I had it all wrong.

*I* thought this was a series about a powerful, competent woman, being chased by another competent woman. Instead, I was informed by the director that all that was just an aside to the real story, which was about utter and complete normality. Apparently the real moral of Kurau was that not being different is way better than being different.

…

So, let me get this straight – being able to fly, to leap across the Alps, to open a portal to a new world, to have incredible strength and to love deeply and permanently because a being is out there who complements you perfectly is *not* as good as marrying some guy or other (who never gets a name or a face, so you know he’s special) and having his kid? I’m just checking, ’cause nothing personal, that really doesn’t fly with a sci-fi/fantasy audience. It’s almost as irking as the crap at the end of Labyrinth with whatsherface “putting away all her childish things” and me hurting from gritting my teeth, until the sappy ending sort of belied the point. Ptooey. Surely flying and phasing through walls would be a small price to pay for having nebulous government organizations hounding you day and night?

While it didn’t make me want to chew nails this time, I still found the end of Kurau frustrating. I’m glad that Christmas finally finds her pair again, because otherwise this entire series would have been rendered into a tragedy.

Thankfully, it was not a tragedy, and Kurau was able to pass into the obscurity her non-Rynax self deserved, while Christmas was able to once again discover the finest thing about the human condition – love.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Music – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 7

The second best thing about the human condition is that no matter what the change in society or technological advance, *some* group of people will start screaming about the world ending. It’s nice to know that some things, other than particles, are universal.





Kaleido Star Anime, Volume 4 (English)

September 7th, 2008

It hasn’t taken me as long to review this series as it did, say, Noir, but I feel like it’s taken a darn long time. But, finally, we’re getting to the best bits of Kaleido Star, in Volume 4. And it’s all thanks to Ted the Awesome for his sponsorship of today’s review! Thanks Ted!

So, all of a sudden Yuri, who up until now has seemed to be pretty much a nobody and leading man to Layla’s leading lady, suddenly becomes a raging asshole. He joins Carlos in a head to head race to see who is more of an asshole. This race will remain tied until next volume.

Thankfully, the parts of the story that do not involve Yuri or Carlos are awesome. Sora and her friends band together to save their vision of the Kaleido Stage, but as usual we don’t really care because we’ve watched a lot of these anime things and are pretty used to the whole idea of our heroine overcoming great odds to do whatever it was she wanted. We’re not really worried.

No, what *we* care about is the website that Mia builds called “Mia’s Room” and how she mostly populates it with sexy pictures of Anna. LOL That was so awesome I watched it twice over. lol

So, as Yuri continues to be a jerk, and the storm before the calm brews, the gang gets together to put on a show (just like a Mickey Rooney movie!) and in a moment of wonderful, Layla Hamilton realizes that what is most important to her is having Sora as her partner. Yahoo!

Rating:

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 7

The best part of Volume 4 is that it sets up Volume 5 which is so utterly totally awesome that I will never be able to stop thanking Ted the Awesome for sponsoring today’s review!





Yuri Anime: Strawberry Panic, Volume 3 (English)

August 25th, 2008

If the Strawberry Panic anime had begin with what is now Volume 3, I think that I just might, maybe, have liked it a lot more than I originally did.

It’s true that if the series began at the beginning of Volume 3, we wouldn’t have been treated to 11 episodes of *absolutely nothing* in which Nagisa is ever so cute as she remains confused and out-of-place, and we probably wouldn’t have seen Hikari cry a couple of times. Certainly we wouldn’t have been treated to Amane riding up on her horse, saying practically nothing, then riding away. And of course, we would have missed all those almost-kisses that so delighted us through the first half of the series, as Shizuma teased Nagisa.

Episode 12 picks up with as significant an episode as we’re likely to find in this series, as Tamao symbolically ties a ribbon onto Nagisa’s arm “for protection.” Like Chekov’s gun on the wall, you just know that this has to play a part and so it does when, after Shizuma and Nagisa have admitted feeling lonely when the other isn’t around, they “fall” into the pool and kiss while the ribbon symbolically unties and floats free. Afterward, in Shizuma’s room, Shizuma begins to have her way with Nagisa, but a memory of Kaori brings her up short, allowing Nagisa to escape back to her own room.

Meanwhile, Kaname and Momomi step up their “seduce Hikari to break her up with Amane, and make Amane depressed so she won’t run for Etoile” campaign. This is the source of the infamous and utterly hilarious “Global Warming” scene, which is no less fabulously stupid than the first time I watched it. The entire series peaks at that moment, I think. Everything afterward is simply denouement. LOL (If you can stop laughing long enough to listen to the rest of Kaname’s monologue, it carries on, no less amusing than the beginning.)

From this point on, the entire series takes a turn. Amane and Hikari go on a romantic date, only to have Hikari return home to find Yaya crazed with desire, the result of which is that she is the object of a sexual attack for the second time in one day. Rough day for Hikari. This is followed by an episode in which Hikari and Yaya make up. Good thing for Yaya that Hikari is another Himeko.

And then suddenly, it’s time for the school festival and the play, a time-honored subject of pretty much every anime ever. And yet, these final episodes of the volume are probably the best in the entire series. They have a good plot – actual grasp of and use of character and a pretty good climax, if you ignore the utter absurdity of our resident EPL duo’s “plot” to take Amane down. Since absurdity is practically the raison d’etre of this series, by now we’d better be sucking this series down with handfuls of salt – preferably adorning the rim of colorful glasses holding margaritas. :)

And just in case we don’t yet really get that this is a Yuri series, with Yuri, we are treated to several bath scenes involving nekkid Kaname and Momomi doing Yuri things.

Last note – I was warned by the folks at Media Blasters (who I once again have to thank for this review copy) that this volume was full of typos but, if there were any, I missed them. In fact, the quality of the DVD was so consistent and decent, that I just barely remembered to even mention it – which for this kind of thing is the highest praise. In a nutshell, the technical aspects of this DVD were so good that I never noticed them. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 7 (towards the end, 8)
Yuri – 9
Service – 7

Overall – 9

I’m going to pretend that I used the above French terms in honor of the “Nagisa studies French” episode, but in reality, it was just coincidence. ;-)