Archive for the English Anime Category


Maria Watches Over Us Anime, Volume 1 (English)

August 5th, 2008

If you’ve been reading this blog since anytime after 2004, you’ll notice that I have completely, hopelessly, irrevocably fallen in love with the series Maria-sama ga Miteru. Like many fans, I had never heard of it prior to the anime being released, but almost immediately was captivated by the characters. Propelled by a desire to know more, I followed the manga, the Drama CDs and, eventually, the novels.

Like many hardcore Marimite fans, I never truly believed the anime would be licensed – and feared that it might be and then eviscerated by a company that didn’t understand shoujo, or who only saw it through fanboy eyes.

When RightStuf licensed it, I was ambiguous – hopeful, yet cautious. When they added in the subtitle track with honorifics, I let my guard down just a very little bit because, after all, they could still …well, we’ve all been burned before by changed names, rewritten scripts, etc.

Then RightStuf opened a dialogue up with me, and we had a nice conversation about Marimite fandom and our obsessive need to spend time in the company of these characters – and our love of *stuff* related to them. At that point, I was convinced that, even if their release was not perfect by my definition, they were trying harder than any other company I had ever seen. As a result I was inclined to be generous. ^_^

After some little delay, resolved by the RightStuf representative with humor and grace – thank you very much, Alison – I received my box set of Maria Watches Over Us Season 1, slapped the phone charm on my cel phone and a DVD into the player to sit back and see what Nozomi/RightStuf had wrought.

It is not perfect. Even if *I* thought it was, no doubt other people would have different nits to pick! ^_^ It is however, a very good, very enjoyable English-language edition of what I never expected we would ever see legally licensed.

I am glad that they have the honorifics track. There’s still a few things that jar, but overall, there are fewer moments than I expected where I went “Huh? Oh.” And I do really find it less intrusive to have the honorifics than the always slightly awkward attempts at translating them. When watching the extras, “Maria-sama ni ha Naisho” shorts, the versions are the original subtitle track and even knowing that, I still find it a little odd to read “Mother Maria” and “Lady Sachiko.”

The plot is still hours of the most delightful nothing I have ever enjoyed. The non-adventures of average girl Yumi, as she is drawn into the rarified air of the school student council, is still by turns touching, funny, sad, funny, snarky and funny.

I just finished reading the 24th novel, and taking this huge step back was a chance for me to see just how much both Sachiko and Yumi have matured into the women they have become a year later. It makes me want the fourth season of the anime so much more, so everyone can get to know Touko the way I now know her. (She’s not the same girl as in Rainy Blue, I can tell you that. Neither is Kashiwagi what he seems to be.)

The *only* thing I really want to complain about is this – attached to the box itself was a sheet of paper with a synopsis for Season One that, when I attemtped to remove it, got stuck and pulled a bit of the cover picture off, thus ruinng the look of the box. Now I have to keep the stupid paper on. I really was annoyed by this – there was no reason to glue it to the box cover! I don’t even like boxes, but come on – if you’re going to ship me a paper box, please don’t glue stuff to it.

In every other way, I was delighted beyond measure to step back and once again be introduced to and fall in love with the lovely ladies of Lillian.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3 (with an extra point for Sei’s “birds of a feather” comment in regards to why she was sure that Kashiwagi wouldn’t make a pass at Sachiko.)
Service – 0

Obsessive Marimite Fan – 100

Overall – 8

I think this box set would make a really good gift idea for a young lady in your life that is just getting into anime. A nice change of pace from the Death Note kind of thing. ^_^





Vampire Princess Miyu TV Anime, Volumes 3 and 4 (English)

July 30th, 2008

Fandom is so clever that when there isn’t a word for a thing, we make it up. In the case of anime fandom, we often borrow or adapt words from Japanese, just as Japanese fans borrow and adapt from English – and for the same reason, too, because it sounds cooler and creates more of an us/them dynamic, which is crucial for community.

However, I find myself lacking a word for what I want to talk about. Perhaps we can come up with one by the end of this post. lol

Here’s the sitch. In Volume 3 and Volume 4 of Vampire Princess Miyu, nothing remotely “Yuri” occurs but, we can’t help but notice, that for a snow spirit that professes to not care about anything or anyone, Reiha sure seems to have an idée fixe about Miyu. In fact, her gaze never wavers from Miyu. Reiha *says* that she’s concerned that Miyu performs her duty as Guardian properly (and why she cares, we don’t know yet…well, I do, but if you are only just watching this anime for the first time, then you don’t, yet,) but her interest in Miyu has long ago crossed the border of obsession.

Which made me think of how many stories – especially Asian stories – in which two warring generals, or lifelong enemies think about nothing other than each other. Ah! I have the term I need – devoted enemies. See? That was easy. I just needed to talk it out and I knew I’d come up with it. Thanks for listening. LOL

In any case, after a tiff over how much Miyu has the right to decide the fate of Shinma, Reiha once again declares herself Miyu’s enemy, hops on her broom and flys off with an oujou-sama cackle as she goes, after making her doll utter vague threats. And back with the humans, Chisato continues to circle on the periphery of Miyu’s orbit, soon to be drawn in for a collision.

Miyu continues to wade through semi-miserable and often dementedly ironic stories and we get a glimpse of Larva’s entirely Yaoi-licious backstory. Which I had competely forgotten. lol For which I thank the sponsors of today’s review – Ana M. and whoever bought me Volume 3. (Again, I apologize…I *swear* I keep all these papers together, but sometimes I’m overzealous and throw one out before everything on it has been accounted for. Stand up and make yourself known!) Anyway – thank you my fabulous sponsors!

Ratings for Volume 3 and 4:

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

Overall – 7

I can’t *wait* to get to the creepy lesbian doll episode…!





Yuri Anime: Shattered Angels, Volume 1 (English)

July 23rd, 2008

Shattered Angels (originally known as Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora) is a story that takes place in the land of Academia – a small country with an abundance of schools, and therefore students (but no teachers, I can’t help but notice.)

In this world there is a girl, Kuu, whose name means “empty” and indeed, she appears to lack mostly everything except incredulity and a childhood dream of a Prince. When Ayanokoji Kyoshiro arrives at the school, dressed in the school uniform of the one school that has been destroyed completely Kuu, like everyone else, is wowed by his princely-ness. So when he grabs her shirt and rips it open, she’s pretty aghast. Of course this being a Kaishaku story, she forgets to stay upset – and all the other girls in the school likewise have no frontal lobes – so when Kyoshiro asks Kuu to come with him, she does.

Immediately she finds herself the center of a battle for…herself. Why, Kuu has no idea and no one really tells her, but that’s not really important because of every character in this series, Kuu is the least interesting. lol And the only characters we want to see are Kaon and Himiko.

So in episode two, Kuu is kidnapped by Kaon, who turns out to be an Absolute Angel, like Tarlotte, the cat girl who was after Kuu, and Setsuna who fights for Kyoshiro. The meeting with Kaon and Himiko is mostly so we can witness them kissing, and they can deny that they are in love, and Kuu can, in her own brainless way, tell us that they are lying and even she knows it.

Then we meet Mika, the evil ojou-sama who “owns” Kaon and Himiko and watch her torture them both a bit in an ill-conceived plan of domination.

Episode three was hysterical, as nearly every character spends time in either bath or shower – even the boys. If the idea of anime beef- and/or cheesecake appeals, this episode is great. For me, it was plain hysterical – especially watching Soujiro, Kyoshiro and Mika in a split frame showing them all in showers as they provide exposition about the end of the world and their Absolute Angels. Episode three also includes many gratuitous random kiss scenes.

The final episode provides us with insight into Kyoshiro’s obsession about his older brother Kazuya, and a lot of crazy talk.

Video extras include the first and second DVD specials. The first shows us just how much of a raw deal Setsuna has signed up for. (Is there anyone watching this who does not feel bad for Setsuna? I know I do. She’s loads better than Kuu.) And the second is a romantic vignette called “Lovers Reunion” that shows us, in no uncertain terms, what Kaon and Himiko feel for one another. No subtext here at all. It’s a sweet and touching extra. Their interactions with each other will continue to be tender and touching through the series, whatever amount of service is layered over them. And I still prefer them to Chikane and Himeko, regardless of the fact that they are not the main couple.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7, except for Mika, Kaon and Himiko, who are all 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 7

Overall – 7

I know I’m in a minority when I say this but, I still think that Shattered Angels is a better Yuri story than Kannazuki, primarily because the Yuri relationship does not have violence or insanity built into it. This time the crazy and abusive is confined to the Ayanokojis, so Himiko and Kaon are left alone to have a deep, mostly functional love.





Yuri Anime: Simoun, Volume 4 (English)

July 15th, 2008

It’s not uncommon to run across this comment in anime forums in any language, referring to any anime – “It gets better in later episodes.” Whether it’s correct or not is entirely dependent upon whether you *like* whatever literary theme that particular anime is abusing, of course. lol

If you have been reading my reviews of Simoun here, you will know that I thought it was pretty breathtaking right out of the gate, but indeed, it also gets better in later episodes. I know that there are many fans of the series who consider Volume 4 to be the pinnacle of achievement.

However…I have a dilemma. In order to talk to you about this particular volume coherently, I will need to spoil it. I don’t want to do that, but there’s no way to get around it. I’ll do it as gently as I can.

In Volume 4, several major themes are coming together and landing directly on the heads of the priestesses of Chor Tempest:

One – their theocracy and the government based on it is weak, corrupt and foolish.

Secondly, the lies that government is seeking to hide might well have saved them all, if they had chosen to investigate rather than avoid it for fear of proving themselves wrong.

Thirdly, the ultimate sacrifice of one of the Tempest members not only is one of the most beautiful things about the series, but serves to highlight much of what is wrong with their society.

The result is that as a team, Chor Tempest slowly pulls together – not to fight the war for their country, but to survive – and transcend – it for themselves.

In the middle of everything going on, Aeru and Neviril start to bond in a natural and real way for the first time. It looks good on them.

And last, we see the result of an Emerald Rimaajon. Despite the fact that we are told what to expect – it’s still nothing we could *ever* have expected. lol

Oh, wait, no, this is last – if you haven’t yet started to think there’s a thing between Anubituf and Guragief, you will in this volume. :-)

Once again, I’m pleased to say that the Media Blasters team did a great job, so no technical issues marred my enjoyment of the volume. And the video extra, this time with the voice actresses for Roatreamon, Mamina and Yun was, by far and away, the most natural and enjoyable of the series to date. And thanks too, to the good folks at MB for this review copy of awesome.

A fabulous volume of a fabulous series.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 7 (a point off, because several of them are still wallowing in issues that we thought were, and should have been, previously resolved.)
Yuri – 4
Service – 5 (we spend an awful lot of time in the showers, don’t we?)

Overall – 8

I pretty much held my breath through this entire volume. It’s simply magnificent.





My Zhime (My Otome) Anime, Volume 4 (English)

July 10th, 2008

Welcome to Volume 4 of My Otome, the straightest volume of this otherwise quite gay series. (Don’t worry, it gets gay again later.)

Before I forget (which I am often wont to do,) thanks go out to Eric P. for his kindness in sponsoring today’s review!

So, in Volume 4, we spend most of the volume following Arika, who is suffering from a nasty (and I mean that both ways) case of lovesick. In other scenes, the Federation begins to crack and several of the countries start to gear up for war. The worst possible thing occurs and two Meisters are ordered to fight.

Also in this volume we finally see that Tomoe has been the viper in the nest all along, as she sets Arika up to be attacked and throws Miya under the bus for it. We also get the first, brief, glimpse of her evil gayness, but it’s only a hint at the moment.

Speaking of gay, Shizuru leaves and we don’t get a tearful scene between her and Natsuki, just a quiet moment of regret which speaks volumes about the trust and intimacy between the two of them, but is just not gay enough to make us happy.

And, just as Mashiro is unveiling her new castle on graduation day at Garderobe, the entire story is turned on its head and war breaks out. Windbloom is invaded.

As usual, we’re really not paying attention to that plot stuff. We’re watching things like Nina’s obsession with hot sauce, Erstin’s snuggle deficiency, and Akane and Kazu’s deep abiding love for one another that practically brings their countries to the brink of conflict – off scene, because no one cares about their countries anyway. However, their story, with its fabulous Graduate-style climax continues in the most amusing extra to date, in which the two lovebirds are interruptus pre-coitus, to preserve both Kazu’s country and Akane’s Meister-dom. I couldn’t stop laughing when I noticed that the motel sign read:

Villa Motel

In Room Coffee
Cable-HQQ-Phone

*Someone’s* been driving the roads of America. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 7
Story – 8
Yuri – 1
Service – 4

Overall – 7

If, for some reason, you *are* following the plot, this is an excellent volume.