Archive for the English Anime Category


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. ^_^





Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 3 (English)

June 18th, 2007

Sorry to be away so long. Life exploded again.

In a desperate attempt to find some balm for my harried soul, I watched the third and final volume of the Strawberry Marshmallow series. For the time it lasted, it was just the thing. ^_^ (And somewhat belatedly, and sheepishly for forgetting initially, my deepest thanks to Ted for once again making a review possible. Thank you Ted!)

In this volume, we continue to watch Itou Nobue, her sister Chika, Chika’s sociopath friend Miu and two younger girls, Matsuri and Ana do basically nothing. But they do nothing very amusingly. They sit around watching a hypnotist, play soccer, go to a public bath and talk about Santa Claus. Amusingly.

Miu is, as always, the highlight of the show. Having decided to “hypnotize” Chika, Miu says that she will turn Chika into her dog, Satake. When Chika leaves the room, Miu runs off, and returns accompanied by the pup. Matsuri, always the perfect straight man, believes that Miu has succeeded until Chika shows up in person. Miu comments that she’s a little worried about Matsuri’s future to which Chika rebuts, “I’m worried about yours.”

There is less Yuri tension in this volume than in the others. Miu continues to vie for Nobue’s attention, but that’s about it. What this volume does have is Miu actively seeking out situations to screw the rest of them up, and even better, signs that despite her protests, Miu absolutely cracks Chika up. Chika is also not above some retaliation. I approve. ^_^

The extras with this volume are nice. There’s a reversible DVD case cover that has more than one picture.  (See my review of Shinobuden for context.) Also a pencil board of the girls, with Miu featured on the other side. There’s a really nice video feature, as well – music videos of the characters accompanied by their image songs sung, of course, by their voice actresses. That was awfully pleasant.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2
Service – 4 (bath, cosplay….)

Overall – 8

In fact, for her efforts in this volume, I think I’ll bump Miu up from Evil Psycho Lesbian-in-training to full EPL status. ^_^ For the gag at the bathhouse as they all drink milk, she deserves the promotion.





Ninja Nonsense Anime, Volume 3

June 6th, 2007

Wacky hijinks continue at Ninja Academy, news at six. ^_^

Thanks to our sponsor for today’s review, the mighty Serge. (If you’d like to sponsor a review, please feel free to purchase something from my Yuri Wishlist and become the hero of the day! Don’t want to buy something for me? Buy something for yourself through the Yuricon Shop and still be able to claim that you support Yuri with some level of accuracy!)

In Ninja Nonsense, Volume 3, we get to spend a little bit more time exploring the nature of  fanboyishness and its affect on innocent ninja girls. The resulting case of fangirlishness isn’t that surprising.

The anime begins with something that any Yuri fan will recognize – a clear parody of Maria-sama ga Miteru, the explanation of which, by the way, the liner notes got correct. So yay, no letter campaign needed. ^_^ And from there, we’re treated to not only wacky hijinks that involve Onsokamaru pretty much ruining everything, we also get bits of Shinobu playing dress up, the female Ninja Academy’s hypercompetence and continued, but mercifully brief, appearances by Shinobu’s otaku tendencies.

Which leads me to this thought – there has been some discussion on why, exactly, Shinobu does not attend the female Ninja Academy. She’d received better training and not have to live with a bunch of nose-bleeding pervy boys. But I think this volume answers that question, in a way. I’m fairly certain after having watched this that Shinobu is a natural fangirl. Sure, she’s picked up extra bad habits from living with the fanboy ninjas, but her cosplay obsession isn’t something she got from them – not *that* level of obsession, anyway. As stupid as this idea is – I think she belongs with the fanboys, as much *because* she’s a lesbian fangirl as for any other reason. Also, her natural incompetence at ninja skills would make her stand out in a bad way in the girls’ school. ^_^

What else does this volume contain? Onsokomaru inexplicably gets stuck in/on Shinobu’s little sister, Miyabi. A wacky baseball game, a visit to a hot springs (didn’t we do this one already?) and a suggestive moment as Kaede gets one of those “colds” that involves a fever and everyone “helping” her to get better. Which leads us to another gag – the “Shinobu tries to seduce Kaede, but it a totally fail way” gag which is kind of funny and also immensely pathetic. ^_^ Clearly one of the offshoots of her living with all the boys is that she has developed zero skills at picking up girls. I can’t help but wonder if she might at least have mastered *that* at the Girl’s Academy. ^_^

The anime, in other words, is more of the amusing same.

This volume comes with some very decent translation/liner notes, which I enjoyed reading. It also had a terrific extra – a group interview with some of the seiyuu. I love those. So that was nice. But there’s one totally “huh?” thing: One of the “extras” with this volume is supposed to be a “reversible” DVD case cover. I took a look, and well, sure, it’s reversible…but it’s the same picture on both sides. I still can’t quite figure that one out. It’s like a reversible coat that looks the same either way. Sure it’s reversible, but short of a ketchup stain on one side, why would you ever turn it to the other?

But anyway, this volume is silly, random and has short bursts of all sorts of fetishes, among them, Yuri. Another great Sunday afternoon, god-my-hand-hurts-from-being-on-the-computer-for-a-week-straight-I-need-a break anime.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 6

Overall – 7

Hey look! This blank white sheet of paper is *reversible!*





Yuri Anime: Best Student Council, Volume 2 (English)

June 1st, 2007

I, for one, am very, very glad that there is anime in the world like Best Student Council, Volume 2. It’s not particularly well-drawn, or well-written. The main themes aren’t deep and the plot ranges from silly to ridiculous. But the characters are cute and it never once takes itself too seriously. Which makes it just the thing to watch when one wants to take one’s brain off-line for a while. Many thanks to Ted for providing me with this few hours of low-toxicity relaxation! Our hero, Ted!

In this volume we get to enjoy various crises:

As final exams draw near it becomes apparent that several members of the Gokujou Seitokai are complete dunces

Council treasurer Mayura gets a (gasp!) boyfriend

An accusation against Rino for being an evil ventriloquist becomes a tale of Pucchan’s revenge against members of the council that doubt his puppet power

Sayuri’s past as a young master of her family sword style comes back to kick her ass

And, of course, the inevitable bathing suit episode, as the Student Council tries to keep the lovely women of Miyagami out of camera range of the boys from the surrounding areas.

It’s all amusing, fun to watch and entertaining, as Rein might say.

Yuri in this volume is about as Yuri as this series gets. By which I mean, it’s mostly in the eye of the beholder. Early on, we have scenes of Rino and Kanade spending happy time together, when a spot of fortune telling reveals the word “love” to the pair. There’s also the usual Kaori scenes of admiration/desire for Kanade.

But the most Yurified episode is Sayuri’s backstory episode in which Rein touches her – embraces her even – so gosh they must be together. And the girl who comes to take her revenge against Sayuri has massive Yuri vibes coming off her in waves. Must be the motorcycle.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 3

Overall – 7

Nothing revolutionary here, but if you like girls, character pieces, absurdly rich school gags, self-willed puppets and some Yuri-ish sorts of things, take a look at Best Student Council, Volume 2.