Archive for the English Anime Category


Yuri Anime: Ninja Nonsense, Volume 4 (English)

July 12th, 2007

Because I failed at this a few days ago, let me start off by thanking Serge for his sponsorship of today’s review! Thanks Serge!

Sponsoring a review is easy! Just buy something off my Yuri Wishlist and I’ll review it – with thanks to the generous donor. There’s SO much coming out these days, that its hard, even with my good job, to keep up with everything. So many thanks to the wonderful folks who help me do these reviews!

Today’s review, Ninja Nonsense, Volume 4 is the final volume of this anime series, also known as 2 x 2 Shinobuden. But you wouldn’t actually know it until the very, very end. Instead, the series starts on the usual wacky note. This time the Ninjas are going to “learn” how to celebrate Christmas. This segues into a sudden tidal wave of cursed objects infecting the Ninja Academy, Ninja class president Sasuke’s adolescent fantasies, and Ninjas trying to put on a play. All brilliant, if unsubtle, send-ups of typical school age life.

This is followed by a torpid episode in which Onsokomaru reveals his “secret” (which we all knew anyway and which Shinobu doesn’t get.)

Which brings us to the final episode,. Shinobu, if she passes the final exam, will graduate from Ninja Academy and go to a school in England. Hold onto that – I’ll get back to it.

As Yuri goes for this series, Yuri quotient on this volume is pretty high. It begins with, as I mentioned, the Christmas episode. At the end of this episode, Kaede instructs Shinobu in the “true” meaning of Christmas which is, obviously, that it’s the night to spend with the person you love. Kaede asks if Shinobu likes someone; Shinobu happily responds yes. After an awkward moment or two, Kaede clues in to the fact that she is, in fact, that person. While she does not melt happily into Shinobu’s arms, she doesn’t leave, either.

More importantly, the last episode. When Shinobu hears that she would, upon graduation, be transferred to a school in England, her mind immediately conjures up an image of a all-girl private school, in which other girls happily laugh and call her name…and she drools. lol So, that basically says that. She’s not just “in love with” Kaede. The girl’s gay.

When Kaede learns Shinobu may be leaving, she gets very depressed and moony. She berates herself for being down, but can’t shake it – even though she grits her teeth and says she’s happy for Shinobu.

Shinobu completes the test and graduates. She leaves Japan for England. We follow mopey Kaede, still missing her even months later. One day, Kaede is walking home from school when lo and behold! There’s Shinobu! She got lonely and came back, end of explanation. Kaede leaps into Shinobu’s arms as the series ends. Yuri fans nod, our work here is done. :-)

DVD extras consist of a reversible, but printed the same on both sides (?) cover, and “character gallery” with stills and no real information that couldn’t be gleaned from episode 1-4. It’s thin on the extras, let’s just say that.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 6

Overall – 7

As with all the other volumes, Ninja Nonsense is a brutal, but funny parody of the very fanboys that watch it. Fun party fare and good for a needed laugh.





Yuri Anime: Mai HiME, Volume 4 (English)

July 9th, 2007

Woops! I forgot to thank Ted for his sponsorship of today’s review. Sorry ted – I promise I’ll try to not slack off next time.

Visit my Yuri Wish List and pick something for me to review! Your contribution will be received with thanks…(even if it’s a teeny bit belated) and you can join the ranks of people who, by sponsoring a review have been imbued with magic lesbian powers. Yes, even the guys. ^_^

Where the heck was Volume 4 of My HiME when I was watching Volume 3? I wanted other people’s misery and all I got from Volume 3 was goofy evil creatures that ate cake. And here I was ready for some more goofy and Volume 4 had to go and be self-important and serious. How vexing.

After all the happy-go-luckiness of Volume 3, Volume 4 wallows deep in Mai’s various emotional conflicts, seasoned with a little light portentous (and pretentious) apocalyptic plot for flavor. But we’re just past halfway on the series, so even when the entire world blows up, we’re just not as tense about it as we should be, I think.

So, the story picks up on the night of the Tamayura festival which, among many other things, comes along with a traditional love tradition, in which lovers traditionally tie ribbons to traditionally express their desire for an eternal love. More importantly – and probably even more traditionally – lovers sneak into the woods for a quick snog. Mai *almost* gets a good first kiss, but then the schlub has to go and ruin it. Then the world blows up.

After the world blows up, we learn of the Searrs Foundation’s unreasonable plan to bring world peace by something something the something, until we all fall in line like the cattle we are. ‘Cause that’s worked before.

Lots of fights, and Mai nobly sacrifices herself for the first time in the series. Don’t worry – she’ll get to do it again later. And Miyu and Alyssa (who I still like better as a bird) get to have a melodramatic end. Don’t worry…they’ll get to do it again later, too.

Let’s see…for Yuri, we have Yukino’s hidden desire for eternal togetherness with Haruka, Chie and Aoi are eternally together, despite their occasional vageuish mention of wanting a guy and lots of Miyu x Alyssa snuggles. And Shizuru’s continued leering after Natsuki, which in this volume is pretty laid back. Almost as if they didn’t want us to know…oh, wait, that’d be a spoiler. ;-)

The “Character Featurettes” (seriously, that’s what it says on the DVD!) are the usual powerpoint slides accompanied by insightful monologue. This time we get to hear the deep feelings of Tate – whose deep feelings seem to be “Mai has large breasts” – Miyu and Alyssa – who ruins it all by mentioning her father, what a jerk – and a “funny” discussion of Orphans by Nagi and Natsuki. The actually funny thing about these was that I had completely forgotten them all until I went to write this review, so I had to throw the DVD in to see what they were. I forgot to change the language track to Japanese. Honestly, I jumped when Tate began to talk in English! It was so stupid.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Character – 7
Story – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 6

Overall – 7

The volume ends with Nagi pretentiously (and portentously) telling the HiME that the “fun” is just beginning and now they have to fight one another. In my reality, I’d have nodded, and suggested to my fellow HiME that, before we fight one another, we should kick the snarky little bastard’s ass. But hey, that’s just me.





Best Student Council Anime, Volume 3 (English)

June 29th, 2007

While Best Student Council, Volume 3 isn’t the Yuriest volume of this series, it has some notable moments where Yuri fans, depending on their level of desperation, can project some. ^_^

The volume begins with one of the stupidest plots I’ve ever encountered in an anime, for which it has to get some credit. The school futsal team has all come down sick and they can’t play against the (of course) rival school. So, it (of course) falls to the Supreme Student Council to protect their president’s reputation. Because you wouldn’t want to, say, ask the *outdoor* soccer team to be replacements. No, of course you wouldn’t. The episode explores every possible cliche it can – ojousama laughing rival president, absurdly corrupt referee, incredibly stupid physical gags, absurd ringer for the rival team, etc. etc. The few good moments are watching Kaori continue her level of extreme competence, and the utterly absurd gag that wins the game. As a self-aware parody of “one for the gipper” type episodes, it was splendid.

The second episode is where more desperate fans may wish to linger, as we look back upon the origin of Nanaho’s and Kanade’s friendship – and the larger nature of their relationship. Personally, I don’t see it as “Yuri” but as a really excellent story of close friendship/shinyuu. But then, I’m not desperate. ^_^

This is followed by a brutal two-episode arc where they beat us over the head with the least funny situation ever – the bratty kid who runs around and destroys things because she can. This is followed by the episode where we learn who the bratty kid is and why we shouldn’t kill her; although I was never convinced, myself. I adore Seina, I do. She’s my favorite character. But regardless, Minamo needs to be punished thoroughly. Perhaps permanently.

The one amusing thing about the arc is the lame play the Council puts on to raise funds to rebuild their dorm. It was so awful I can only imagine that they asked a real child to write it. ^_^

(True story. Last Thanksgiving my nephew, who is 12, asked me if I published comic books. I said I did. He asked me about what, and I told him that they were stories of women who loved each other. He then went on to tell me what they *ought* to be about. The story he suggested was a pretty standard fantasy quest-type plot, but rather intensely dull, because he RPGS and those usually have pretty basic plots – since the main focus isn’t in the complexity of story, but complexity of the challenges/opponents. When he was finished – and of course his plot included a male hero and no women – I said, quite honestly, that comics like that was already being published by about a million people, so my books were about things that *weren’t* that. He didn’t really get it, and then we got into a slapping contest, which sort of killed that conversation. The point of the story is, you want an excruciating plot, ask a 12-year old.)

Ratings:

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

Overall – 6

So, no, this volume is not super high on the Yuri-o-meter, and you need Yuri goggles for what little there is, AND it has an annoying little sister plot, but for all that, I’ve seen worse.





Burst Angel Anime, Volume 1 (English)

June 23rd, 2007

Let’s all show our appreciation to Daniel today for his kindness and generosity and for sponsoring today’s review! Thanks Daniel!!

Watching Volume 1 of Burst Angel reminded me of a lot of things. It reminded me why I never reviewed the anime in the first place, primarily. ^_^;

Okay, so, after a really silly rap theme that does not benefit much from being translated we are introduced to a dystopian future Tokyo in which nearly everyone is allowed to carry a gun. This has only served to heighten the chaos and violence in an already chaotic and violent city. The government has created a paramilitary force, RAPT, to assist cleaning up, but they seem to be as much the problem as the cure.

In the middle of this we meet the schlub du jour, Kyouhei, who is trying to make enough money to go to Europe to train as a chef. He’s a nice kid and a good cook and through no fault of his own, he gets embroiled with four freelance agents; three of whom are mysteriously named after sisters from Little Women. Jo, the fighter of the group, clearly has superhuman powers, Meg, her caretaker and chief kidnapping target is mostly there to be saved. Emi (Amy) is a hardcore tech otaku and loli fodder. Sei, who is not named Beth for some reason, is the money and assumably, but not apparently, the brains behind the team.

It drives me crazy – why three of the four??? The wife says I need to let it go, but…

Thankfully for all Yuri fans, the focus of the series is not Kyouhei, as first seems. Rather quickly, the focus shifts to the place where it will stay through most of the series – Meg and Jo.

The four women take on jobs from Sei’s contacts which usually lead to several things: Meg being kidnapped, Jo having to blow lots of things up with and without her giant robot Django, and involvement with any number of stereotypical bad guys and shady conspiracy figures. By episode three hints of the larger plot have reared their ugly head (and yes, that’s a pun of sorts). Despite my lack of interest in the actual plot, I have to give them snaps for doing something with it, even if it’s all pretty predictable.

Here’s things I thought were bad: the opening theme is laughable, the plot is rather dull, the use of the giant robot is a hand wave we must simply accept, and for all that Jo’s dedication to Meg is *very* obvious, there’s not much reciprocity, at least in this first volume (Don’t write and tell me about later bits – I know about them, but I’m not reviewing those volumes yet.)

In fact, compared with the Bakuretsu Tenshi manga (click this link, the top three are the English manga reviews,) the Yuri in this series is seriously leveled down. (The manga came second, so really it leveled up the Yuri.) Meg comes off as being nothing more than a victim for Jo to save. More deadly, during an episode commentary in the extras section, the voice actors for Jo and Meg and the director are all going on and on about how they are so best friends, that Meg and Jo – best friends for-evar, etc, etc. I was like, “they aren’t best friends…”

Which brings me to the best thing about the DVD – the extras. Each disc will have commentary on one episode – of course this is commentary with the English staff and actors. It wasn’t very interesting, but it was kind of fun to listen to – and it made me listen to Monica Rial as Jo. She absolutely did a good job of sounding nothing like her speaking voice, I’ll give her that. She wasn’t as deep, or monotonal as Watanabe Akeno, but she definitely did a decent job. Also included in the extras are three radio dramas and two bonus tracks with the original voices actresses – subtitled. You just *know* I liked that. Opening and ending credits without text, and outtakes which I’m watching are right now and really aren’t very funny – mostly stumbling over lines – and trailers. The DVD box has a reversible cover and the liner notes include character sketches and info on characters, the art, comments from Watanabe and info on the opening and ending themes. All very cool indeed – too bad the actual anime isn’t that interesting. ^_^; Okay, The Japanese seiyuu commentary isn’t any better, either. (Bug bites, dreams about whales…pollen season…seriously….)

I do have to mention something Toyoguchi Megumi says during the first bonus track – that she wasn’t used to doing radio shows with other women, she’s usually with older men. Remember, this was pre-Marimite days for her. I bet she’s way used to it now. Also, ironically, just as Jo was the first butchy character Monica Rial ever played, the same was true for Watanabe Akeno. Ironic, huh.

Ratings:

Art – 7 with a strong favoritism paid to the CG over the conventional art
Characters – 5
Story – 5
Yuri – 1
Service – 6

Overall – 5

The extras are stellar. Best part of the series so far.





Yuri Anime: Doki Doki School Hours, Volume 3, English

June 22nd, 2007

Many thanks to Ted for sponsoring today’s review! (Want to sponsor a review, too? Check out my Yuri Wish List!)

Volume 3 of Doki Doki School Hours, aka Sensei no Ojikan, is as time-wastingly amusing as the previous volumes. :-)

We watch Mika-sensei struggle with her task as the MC for graduation ceremonies, the completely ridiculous field trip to Kyoto where someone gets lost, the excitment when a new student teacher arrives and the usual mid-summer supplemental class thing. None of the situations are especially original, but most are handled well enough that it doesn’t bore.

The characters’ personalities are all well-established by now, so our resident gay boy and girl are given free rein to be as openly gay as possible. In particular, Rio’s attention to Mika-sensei starts to change a bit in this volume. No longer satisfied with just teasing Mika-sensei, she starts to affect changes in her life to influence her mood and expressions. And this is what I want to chat about today.

In real life, you know you’re besotted when the person you love is doing something really ordinary, or stupid or annoying – and you think it’s cute anyway. Like enjoying the way they chew, or how their hair is all messy in the morning, that kind of thing. In this volume Rio spends large amounts of time doing just that. She messes Mika-sensei’s hair up, just to squee from the cuteness. ^_^ In other words – stupid anime it may be, but I’m calling Rio’s crush “real.” She definitely gets lots of touching Mika time in this volume – the first two episodes she has Mika in her arms a large portion of the time.

Ratings –

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 5
Service – 3

Doki Doki remains a fun Sunday afternoon silly time thing to watch. Or something to stick on when a few friends are over and ignore. ^_^