Archive for the English Anime Category


My Zhime (My Otome) Anime, Volume 5 (English)

August 17th, 2008

Volume 5 of My Otome brings us to the beginning of the fall into dread. Where up until now the series has been primarily a schoolgirl fantasy with a backdrop of bigger issues in the political sphere, Volume 5 shatters our and the characters’ innocent point of view with cruelty.

Windbloom is invaded, Garderobe is taken over by Nagi “for protection”, and the girls of the school find their loyalties tested. As the plot catches up to us, there’s less and less room for the kind of happy-go-lucky scenes that filled the first half of the anime. This volume is about loss and war.

However, because a Mai series is not really a Mai series without service, the extras jump in to fill the gap. In “Erstin’s Last Smile,” we get some heavy duty bath service starring Arika, Nina and of course, Erstin and her breasts. It’s a win for Nina x Erstin ‘shippers, of which I am sure there are many. Certainly, the Erstin goes lesbian scenario of the Mai Otome Miss Maria was Watching: Garderobe Secret Diary, Vol. 1 Drama CD implies that that is where Ers-chan’s feelings lie. The other extra presents us with a rather unlikely, and somewhat disturbing, Yuri pairing in Mikoto the cat and Aswald’s Midori.

Volume 5 is not happy, but it is crucial, if we are to have an actual story to care about. Another good volume of My Otome.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 7
Story – 8
Yuri – 1
Service – 5

Overall – 7

And my thanks once again to Ted the Awesome for being a hero and sponsoring today’s review!





Maria Watches Over Us Anime, Volume 2 (English)

August 14th, 2008

From the perspective of having read so far into the novels that I have already “met” Nana, Yoshino’s prospective soeur, it was a huge step back to watch Volume 2 of Maria Watches Over Us, “meet” Yoshino once again, and watch her transform in front of Yumi from an apparently meek, mild and submissive soeur into the banshee we know and love.

There were so many things that interested me about the “Yellow Rose Revolution” arc the first time around and twice as many this time. But the one thing I want to point out is that where later, in Rainy Blue, Rei complains that Yoshino wields herself as a weapon against her, in Kibara Kakumei, Yoshino calmly points out that Rei uses herself as a shield. I was once again blown away by the detail and continuity in Konno’s writing.

One of the big complaints western fans have about about Marimite as a series is that is starts off very Yuri, but never has payoff – i.e., there’s no melodramatic protestations of love and/or snogging. But for my dollar, the end of “Rosa Canina” is about as sexy as hell. More so, when you remember that in the novels, that arc came after Ibara no Mori and we know that Sei is potentially gay. I say “potentially”, because after reading Ibara no Mori I allowed for some wiggle room, but after Rosa Canina was convinced that Sei is gay and knows it.

The translation for these episodes was generally good, with one notable gaffe, in which the “Lillian Kawaraban” is translated as the “Lillian Ledger” in dialogue, but the “Lillian Gazette” in text. Woops. ^_^

The extra with the recap of Yoshino returning Rei’s rosary still makes both myself and the wife giggle until we hurt. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4 (Rei and Yoshino love each other more than anyone else in the world, and Sei kisses Shizuka. Nice.)
Service – 0

Marimite Fan – 100

Overall – 9

I know Sean disagrees with me on this but for me Shizuka x Sei is the hottest pairing in the series. ^_^





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.