Archive for the English Anime Category


Yuri Anime: Kashimashi Girl meets Girl, Volume 1

May 21st, 2007

Let me start with the important bit – many thanks to the folks at Media Blasters for sending me a review copy of this DVD! It was really nice of them. :-)

The anime for Kashimashi ~ Girl meets Girl may differ from the manga in some details (especially in the pacing – for the better) but the main plot remains the same: Hazumu the boy, after being rejected by Yasuna, the girl he loves, is accidentally killed when an alien space ship crashes into the earth atmosphere. He is revived, but because of the limitations of alien technology, he has now become a she. As with my review of the translated Volume 2 of the manga, it was suitable, I thought, to review this DVD as we continue “gender identity” week. (Got a couple more to go yet.)

As I have also mentioned several times already in this review series, while Hazumu’s gender is changed, one of the main points of this first volume is that he, now she, is essentially the same person. When his best friend Tomari finally comes to realize that, she also comes to realize that she has been in love with Hazumu for years. At the same time, Yasuna confesses that she has a stupid plot complication disorder (SPCD) – she cannot see men, only women, aka “yurivision”. (No, not really. It’s just a joke – I saw it called that on an image board and it made me laugh.) Now she has come to terms with the fact that alone of all men, she could *see* Hazumu and she loves, has always loved, him. In order to not regret anything, Yasuna kisses Hazumu, upon which scene Tomari enters, and a love rivalry is born.

Let me start, as I mostly do, with the negatives. This DVD volume had the same subtitle problem that I encounter with My HiME. I can’t run it on any of the many and various DVD players in the house, only on my laptop using the new DVD drive and the new software. I find this irksome, since of all the DVD playing software, while the most flexible, it is also the least easy to control and pausing for longer than a few moments means I have to close it down and start it back up. Since I watched this volume over a few days…let’s just say that it didn’t make me happy. There was one typo in the subtitles (one very small one) and in one case the translation did that thing which sends me into apoplectic fits: A character yells out “Kurusu-sempai!” and the translation reads, for reasons completely unknown to me, “Tomari!” Whah?

In general the translation is – okay. It has a tendency to make things smooth and seamless…and voiceless. Everyone sounds exactly the same. The honorifics are removed completely, which will never fail to annoy me. (Back to my, “who do you think watches this?” rant. No random off-the-street twelve year old is likely to pick this anime up. You got to figure it’ll mostly be fans and I swear, Media Blaster folks, fans *want* the honorifics! That’s why fansubbers use them! I promise. Beat the leading edge people on this – go for broke, be a trendsetter, leave in the honorifics!) And, most damning, “Onee-nii-sama” which nets a nice translator’s note in the manga is translated here as “Sister Brother,” which just made me sad. (In retrospect I absolutely should have watched the anime before reading the manga since, by comparison, the translation for the anime comes off as lackluster. But let me say that it is not a BAD translation – it just lacks voice. And honorifics. And pizazz. And I am hugely more picky about these three things than most people.)

On the positive side, the translation made sense through the whole volume and I found myself caught up, again, in both Yasuna’s and Tomari’s internal conflict.

The first volume has 5 episodes, something I highly approve of. I assume the next two will have 4 each, completing the series plus bonus episode in 3 DVDs, which is completely acceptable, should that actually be the case.

And the DVD actually has some extras, not just ads and creditless OP/EP animation! This volume contains interviews by Kana Ueda (Hzumu’s voice actress) with the VAs for both Yasuna (Horie Yui) and Tomari (Tamura Yukari.) As I’m a huge seiyuu otaku, these made me tail-wagglingly happy. For these alone, the DVD is worth getting. IMHO, of course.

Lastly, let’s talk about the gender issue. I couldn’t help but notice two major things while watching this anime. One – while Tomari herself is the perfect tomboy, she determines that she’ll be the one to teach Hazumu “how to be a girl.” Her focus is on completely stereotypical gender role issues and ironically, goes exactly against everything she herself does. “No jumping down the stairs” she remonstrates a Hazumu who has never been seen to do so, while that was Tomari’s first appearance in the anime. Hmmm. Cleverly ironic? I really can’t quite tell. I’d like to think so, though. In the anime Hazumu has clearly been provided with lingerie by her mother – going shopping with Tomari is more a way to affirm Hazumu’s femaleness (and by extension femininity?) than a necessity. Which just works better than the manga “woops, Mom somehow forget to buy me underwear when she was buying me 800 dresses.” – even if the “how to put on a bra” scene is still just pandering service.

Second, the translator continues to translate the Japanese gender non-specific pronouns as “he” or “his” in regards to Hazumu throughout this volume, long after he is now, clearly, a she. I felt that that was completely appropriate for Tomari, but it seemed wrong for the others and especially for Yasuna. I *really* hope (despite making myself a complete hypocrite, since I also tended to refer to Hazumu as “him” throughout the anime and as the manga continued) that the translator will consider transitioning the “him” to “her” in the upcoming volumes.

So, thumbs up overall, but there’s definitely room for improvement. And please fix the subtitles. Thanks!

Today’s question: How do you you think Hazumu should be referred to? (Especially if you have seen the end of the anime or read the end of the manga.)

Ratings:
Art – 7
Story – 7
Music – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 6

Overall – 7

 





Front Innocent Anime

May 16th, 2007

If you didn’t know better, just from the screencaps you might be tempted to think that Front Innocent, also known as Another Lady Innocent, is a Yuri hentai anime. Well, I’m here to let you know better.

Front Innocent is, in fact, one of the most plotless “Plot, What Plot” type of hentai I’ve ever seen. ^_^; In fact, thinking back on it, I’m hard pressed to remember what sheer veil of a plot it wore, except that it was “rich girls wait at home for Onii-sama to make women of them” or something similar. It was like a Harlequin romance, with all attempts at mood, tone, dialogue and character development removed.

So, why am I reviewing this anime at all? For three reasons. 1) The art has the distinct touch of Urushihara Satoshi (so you know there’ll be lesbians *somewhere* in it), 2) it does have a Yuri scene and 3) It’s been on my to-review list for almost a year and I’m sick of looking at it. ^_^;

So, yes, the art was done by Urushihara Satoshi, so everyone’s skin is shiny and sleek and the faces look like all his other faces. The Yuri sex scene is so much his art that it’s unmistakable. More notably, the lesbian sex in this anime is *not* okazu, that is, it is not the appetizer before the main course…it is the dessert afterwards. Having had Onii-sama make a woman out of her, the main character is visited by her maid, who convinces her that she is the one person who will always love her. And then she goes about proving it in time-honored fashion. The main part of the scene is an extended session of tribadism, complete with Urushihara-esque pubic hair, with close-ups. All very exciting, I assure you.

There was something else I wanted to point out, too…oh, right, this was it. Have you ever considered the irony that there is so *little* Yuri hentai anime at all, when so many people still assume that Yuri=lesbian porn? No one, to my knowledge has ever made an anime that was, in its entirety, woman x woman (that is, no androids, futanari, okazu, other tedious plot complications) hentai anime. Most Yuri hentai is no more than one or three scenes in what is essentially a straight hentai anime – or has one of the aforementioned plot complications. I have to admit, if I had the money, I’d change that. The world is ready for straight (as it were) Yuri hentai, I think. Heaven knows *I* am. 

2012 update: Someone finally did…and it wasn’t that good. Shoujo Sect anime was laughable. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 0
Characters – 0
Yuri – 8
Service – 146

Overall – 4

Hardly stellar, but that’s not what we watch porn for. Nonetheless, not to my taste much, either. I had to fast forward through most of it, because I was having trouble staying awake.





My HiME Anime, Volume 3

May 4th, 2007

Thanks awfully to Ted for his sponsorship of today’s review! As always, it is greatly appreciated!

So there I was, all ready to wallow in what I felt was a well-deserved bout of Schadenfreude, so I popped Mai HiME, Volume 3 into the player. Well, pfft on me, because this volume was primarily fluff with an emphasis on comedy. Oh, sure, there was a little bit of plot and character development…and the kernel of what will later become a bigger crisis of conscience for Mikoto. But mostly it’s just stupid. ^_^;

The first episode is a a suspect “everyone is at the beach” episode. Mai is lifeguarding as one of her many jobs, when every single other character in the series just happens to drop by. This episode is notable for Shizuru’s harem who compete to put lotion on “Shizuru-oneesama.” Natsuki becomes the butt (pun intended) of yet another joke for basically no reason except that no one slaps writers when they add stuff like that in. We really need to retrain them a bit.

This was followed by an Iron Chef parody with more than its fair share of “girl trips and knocks cake over” gags. In fact, I think the episode used up every anime ever’s share of that particular joke. For ever. The only genuinely funny thing about the episode were the cakes at the end. They were just…funny. The “funny” Orphen eating the cakes…not so much. The punchline is that it is Mai’s birthday. The surprise party waiting for her at the end of the day keeps the episode from having to end wallowly and maudlin.

The last two episodes revolve around several things: there appears to be a vampire attacking girls on campus, (or perhaps a pervert – in any case, the girls are found stripped, with holes in their neck) and Miyu’s relationship with Alyssa (is it bad of my to like her better as a bird?) Haruka mobilizes the student council to try to catch the vampire and the HiMe mobilize themselves to fight the Orphen it clearly is. Natuski helpfully gives us incomplete information about the “1st District” which is also involved, and the “1st District” folks helpfully ramble on about a new Golden Age that will, of course, require a massive downsizing effort in the number of people on the planet. This never makes any sense to me anyway, but when Miyu tells us that the Searss Foundation already runs the planet, my thought was, “well what the hell do they want then – they’ve already got the world.” I’m sure the Golden Age will be ever so much better/different than what we have now. @_@

The volume climaxes with a big throwdown between Miyu, whose name is really a silly acronym that rivals HiME for “huh?” points and Mikoto, Natsuki and Mai. This is what, episode 12? And there’s 26 in the series. So…you can guess that it’s a draw.

Notable in this last episode is Yukino’s discussion of “like” with a fairly clueless Mikoto. Yukino realizes that her “like” of Haruka is in fact the kind *we* like, while Mikoto will now begin to obsess about her own understanding of “like” for the rest of the series.

Oh, and we get another HiME. She might have been more of a surprise, except that she was getting an awful lot of screentime all of a sudden.

The DVD extras were marginally interesting. They are basically, as Serge describes most ero-games, “Powerpoint” presentations. And the voiceovers frequently have nothing to do with the underwear or bathing suit shots on the screen. But Youko-sensei’s verbalization of our opinions of Midori (she’s cracked, but kind of fun) and Yukino’s discussion of what Haruka means to her were very decent.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Character – 7
Story – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 6

Overall – 7

I know it’s not fair, but the more I watch of Mai HiME, the more I really like Mai Otome. Yukariko is so much better as a teacher than a nun.





Doki Doki School Hours Anime, Volume 1

April 30th, 2007

First things first – today’s review was brought to you by the generosity of Audrey! Much gratitude to her not only for the DVD, but for any inconvenience it caused her getting it to me. Thank you thank you. :-)

Doki Doki School Hours, Volume 1 (Sensei no Ojikan) introduces us to the members of Class 2-A of Okitsu High School, a generic Japanese High School. As we meet the main players, we are also introduced to their teacher Suzuki Mika, a 27-year old who is baby-faced, about 4’10” and, most importantly, pretty childish. Mika-sensei is joined by the following students with their respective obsessions and quirks:

Iinchou – the class representative seems pretty normal, until you hit her obsession with boy-band member “Koro-chan.”

Tominaga – rich, smart girl with a sharp tongue. She seems pretty normal to me…

Kobayashi – not so smart girl, obsessed with money, brand goods and losing weight (a bit of the Tomo from Azumanga Daioh about her in character design and function.)

Kitagawa – tall, smart, pretty lesbian (how ’bout that…) with a self-proclaimed preference for petite, childish women. She likes girls in general, but Mika-sensei is exactly her type. The translation later says that she “likes little girls” but that’s sort of wrong sounding, since she likes “little” in the sense of small or short, not young.

Nakamura, called “Oyaji” – he’s a nice normal guy, who just happens to look, sound and act just like an old guy.

Kudo – as queer for boys as Kitagawa is for girls, Kudo’s also smart and attractive. Sadly he’s in love with…

Suetake – the good-natured, but boneheaded athlete. He’s clueless about mostly everything, especially Kudo’s feelings.

Seki – attractive, intelligent, completely, utterly self-absorbed, with a tendency to cross-dress.

Watabe – hardcore otaku, draws doujinshi. Constantly.

The plot basically runs through the school calendar year, covering all the things that typically happen in a Japanese school, with gags focused around the personalities of the characters.

Which brings me to the one episode that just makes me grit my teeth – the physical examination episode. Despite the fact that it had some genuinely funny moments, and Kitagawa gets to show that she *actually* likes girls in general and is not just gay for Mika-sensei, I just can’t stand the 15+ minutes of Kobayashi whining about how fat she is and the whole breast size thing. I can’t stop wondering why no one ever a) watches the guys obsess over their body images and 2) why no one ever suggests that guys’ penises be measured. Because surely that’s as relevant to their health as breast size is to the girls’. And, btw, 50kg…not fat. At 5’2″ (which is average height for Japanese teen girls, actually a little short these days), not even pudgy. That’s just barely flesh on the bones, so, please, dear Japanese schoolgirls and everyone who writes/draws them everywhere, shut UP already about the weight thing. Gawd.

The personality quirk gags are just that; Mika-sensei is short, she looks and acts like a child, Iinchou is obsessed with Koro-chan, Watabe obsesses about his doujinshi, Kudo obssesses about Suetake, etc, etc, nothing ever changes and it’s all in good fun. This is broad comedy, so the farce factor works. You couldn’t do something serious with these characters and keep them intact, but this kind of light, “around the year with class 2-A” is just fine.

The DVD subtitles are clearly dubtitles – there are a number of times where words or concepts were changed, usually for no real reason that I can see. Watabe’s doujinshi/manga gags are the ones that take the biggest hit. The word “doujinshi” is replaced by “manga” and “Comiket” is replaced by something generic like “event”. When he absent-mindedly draws a page of doujinshi on the back of an exam sheet, Mika-sensei’s warning to not put on the screentone is changed to “Don’t take the carbon out” which I found to be a hysterical choice of change simply because how many young people today would have the VAGUEST clue what that meant? Sure, I remember carbon paper. Obviously the translators and editors do too. What’s the chance that some 15-25 year old anime enthusiast will? Slim? None? They’re more likely to know “screentone” than “carbon paper.” Which takes me back to my “who are you translating for, anyway?” question.

Dear anime distro companies – THINK harder about your audience. Aside from the stuff that’s on TV, WHO do you think watches a direct-to-DVD release of a little known comedy anime? *Not* folks off the streets in Blockbuster. Please translate for us, not for Ma and Pa Kettle, please?

Let’s get back to Watabe for a second. In a scene where they are discussing girl’s swimsuits, Oyaji and Watabe back the school suits as being fine. Watabe goes on to say that bikinis and high-cuts don’t have that “moe” factor. Moe remains untranslated. The rest of the class stares at him like he has six heads – Suetake even goes so far to say, “is that Japanese?” which I thought was very funny. Living as I do in otaku-world it’s nice to be reminded that “normal” people in Japan do not use that word or, probably, many (most!) of the words we’re familiar with. :-)

Honorifics – Mika-sensei and Miyamoto-sensei get their titles, and SYNYAP’s “Koro-chan” gets his, and pretty much everyone else has none. As most of them refer to each other casually by family name, it’s no harm, no foul.

Packaging – well, you get a cover picture on the DVD, it isn’t plain white. :-)

Ratings –

Art – 5, but has its own charm
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 6
Service – 3

Overall – 7

Gee, the lesbian character is smarter, more attractive and cooler than everyone else around her. How (not at all) unusual! ^_^





Yuri Anime: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 3

April 24th, 2007

All the things I liked about Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 3 are things that no one else cares about…and ditto the things that I don’t like. ^_^

But before I start on any of these, let me begin by thanking Daniel for his sponsorship of today’s review! Yay, Daniel! Thank you kindly. ^_^

There is basically nothing I can say about Kannazuki no Miko that will change anyone’s opinion – and no matter how many people tell me that it’s a great series, it will never really change my opinion, so I guess I’ll just comment randomly. ^_^

Volume 3 covers everything that happens after Chikane embraces the evil of Orochi, Souma determines that he will fight to his death to protect Himeko and Himeko decides that whatever happens, she has to know the truth about Chikane, and why she has made the choices that she has.

The scene that is supposed to give us insight into the Orochi’s obsessions is very weak. The glimpse into their issues in the Drama CD was significantly better. I still believe that a more detailed look at these would have been interesting. “Betrayed by…” we are told, each Orochi with a supposed cause for them turning to the dark side. And yet, all of the things that made sense (like war) happen all the time. If that was enough, there’d be way more than 8 Orochi wandering around. And how, I wonder, was Miyako “betrayed by God”??

In contrast, Chikane’s obsession is explored in great detail. And I did like the way she, under cover of arrogant competence, destroys the other Orochi. That was cool – too bad nothing stays dead long in anime. Evil Chikane has poise that good Chikane completely lacks.

I will never be convinced of the logic of Chikane’s plot to make Himeko kill her. It really doesn’t make any sense, but what do I know – I’m only a writer, editor and publisher.  I remain unrepentant.

There is no doubt that the end is a decidedly Yuri ending. What I’m not convinced of is that the girl gets the girl. We see the two of them reincarnated (as Chikane predicted) in our world, far from the magic land of Mahoraba, but if what we’ve seen is a repeating cycle, there’s no reason to think that it won’t just happen again.

The thing I liked the absolute best has to be the idea that the classical gods of Japan are actually giant robots. There’s something so karmic and cosmic and…satisfying…about that. At any rate, it *would* explain the ubiquity, wouldn’t it? ^_^

Oh, and here’s a final bit of curmudgeonliness:

Himeko and Chikane’s final confessions of love are pretty sweet. Good thing Chikane was dying from a stomach wound and had so much time for them to talk and resolve their issues, huh?

It was also a good thing that Souma’s eternal curse turned out to be a latex suit that his deceased brother was able to cut him out of with a single cut. That was kind of a relief.

This DVD is a pretty nice package, with spiffy cover a mini-pencil board of hawt yuri secks by the manga artist and a inside cover of same. 4 episodes and the “extras” of non-credit OP/EP and Geneon advertising. (It is not unreasonable to think of a company’s advertising as NOT being an extra.)

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 7 (apparently the most sexy thing about underage cat girl nurses is their butt sticking up. I had no idea.)

Overall – 7

It’s really not bad. I enjoyed the whole series – more this time than the first time, probably. Chikane and Himeko are a cute couple, when they finally get there. But I will go to the grave saying that it simply makes no sense. ^_^