Archive for the English Anime Category


Stellvia Anime, Foundation 1 (English)

September 28th, 2004

I reviewed Stellvia almost a year ago. Well, now it has been released by Geneon, and so, I thought it deserved another look.

Geneon had a big-ass booth at Otakon this past year, and even sponsored a mini-concert by Angela, the singer for the opening and Ending themes for this anime. I hadn’t watched Stellvia since the very first time I saw it, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the music. It’s a strange OP, sort of yodel-y and it was appealing in an unusual way. When I watched the DVD, I found myself turning the volume way up on the opening credits.

So, Stellvia of the Universe, or Uchyuu no Stellvia, is, as I mentioned in my previous review, a space opera. Katase Shima has always wanted to see space “head on,” so she applies to “Foundation Stellvia,” a space station academy, to learn to become a pilot. The plot hasn’t changed much since my last review, so I’ll focus only on the actual DVD release.

Right off, I decided to purchase the plain DVD in a case version, eschewing the DVD in series box. I cannot imagine that whatever extras you get with the box is worth the $15 more in price. That’s practically a whole ‘nother DVD, for pity’s sake! And pencil boards go for around $3…, so…. You get 4 eps for your $20, which isn’t jump for joy great, but it’s not like I feel like I’m being taken to the cleaners, either.

The no-frills DVD is definitely that. You get nada with it. No liner notes, no anything. Just a notice of future release dates and a market research card. (Dear Geneon, Please license Maria-sama ga Miteru, I have lots of money to spend. Thanks so much. Love, Erica.). The cover of the DVD is the same as the Japanese version – a sort of lurid green with Shima-chan floating uncomfortably alone. The DVD itself is really lovely…the green sky theme repeated as a green DVD with cut-outs where the prismatic DVD is visible, like stars glowing in a green sky. Cle-ver…

The soundtrack was fubared on my DVD and I’m not really sure why. It would only play in monotrack on my TV, but worked fine on my computer. Other DVDs worked fine on the TV, so it had to be the disc. No clue what was going on there…and I didn’t lose much, just a few background noises.

The translation was, for the first episode, stunning. Absolutely fan-tastic. Shima-chan was appropriately translated as Shima-chan, the twice it was used. Honorifics in place, all’s well. And then the episode ended and aliens took over the translation for the next three episodes. Can we say, “wtf”?

Episodes 2-4 were dreadful. Translation was bland & colorless, and the honorifics were disappeared and carted off, never to be seen again – I cried when I realized that they were never coming back. I don’t know WHAT on earth happened to the translation, but clearly they need to find the folks who did the first episode and apologize for offending them and get them back on the job!

One last note – I had originally commented that the characters looked too young for my taste. I guess I had never noticed before, but the art looked about the same level as Digimon. The same faces and bodies on the characters, the same high-end CGI, but low-end character design…all very weird when put together.

I had also forgotten how GOOD the script was. For all my bitchin’, the story is still solid, the voice actors are still decent and Machida Ayaka, the hyper-competent, bitchy (and ultimately psycho lesbian, so you KNOW I like her) in the big 4 is voiced by Toyoguchi Megumi, who also voices Satou Sei in Maria-sama ga Miteru! (For the record, Kuzuhara Yayoi is voiced by Orikasa Fumiko.)

The DVD release is only a 6, but the story still gets an 8, for an overall 7.

This series is definitely worth a rent and, if you’re willing to wait for the payoff, a buy. I know I’ll look forward to the next volume, just because the story is really damn decent.





Yuri Anime: Digimon Tamers (English)

September 14th, 2004

You are probably sitting there, at your computer, boggling. “Digimon?” You are asking incredulously. “Did I read that right?”

Let me begin with the beginning. The first season of Digimon is really the story of a little girl, called Hikari in the Japanese original and Kari in the English language version. There are some older girls in the series, Mimi and Sora, but they don’t interact as much as one would hope. But in the second season, Hikari and Sora have a kind of relationship, partially through themselves, partially through their Digimon. I personally did not see what they has as a “relationship” if you know what I mean, but many, many people did. There is a fair amount of Kari/Sora stuff out there, if you care to look for it.

But what I really wanted to talk about was the third season. Known here in America as Digmon Tamers this season came on TV and went and barely left a trace. In every way, this Digimon series was the *best.*

Right off the bat, the main female lead, Rika in English, Ruki in Japanese, pinged every gaydar alarm I have. She’s tough, she’s intolerant, she’s an ice queen, she wears utterly butchy clothes. She’s better at the Digimon game than anyone else (they call her the “Digimon Queen”…uh-huh…) in the story. Inside that icy exterior, of course there is a fragile and lonely (read: codependent) girl. Her mother is a top model and only wants Ruki to be cute and doll-like, ignoring the obvious signs of babydykeness in her daughter.

Ruki’s Digimon is “Renamon,” a fox-creature. If you know anything about female fox spirits, this will make you smirk, since foxes are reputedly very sexual. At first Ruki only thinks of Renamon as a fighting animal – Renamon lives to serve, like all good butches – so fight she does.

As the series goes on, Ruki is worn down by Renamon’s loyalty, friendship and ultimately, love. From about 1/4 into this long season, Renamon and Ruki are *so* a couple, it’s rather frightening at times. Their conversations sound like actual conversations lesbian couples have…it’s a little creepy really. ^_^

Renamon digi-volves into progressively cooler forms. From Renamon, she becomes the nine-tailed fox-spirit Gyuubimon, the short-lived Viximon, and the way very cool and mystic Taomon. But it is in her final form that she and Ruki really, quite literally, merge. Together they become Sakuyamon, a priest-warrior female fox-humanoid thing. Trust me, it’s pretty cool. :-)

In order to leave to fight the final battle, Ruki is forced to “come out” to her mother, about herself, about Renamon…and her mother accepts her for who she is (and buys her a great big clunky belt buckle for her dykey belt, a sort of ritual acceptance of her daughter’s inevitable butchiness. ^_^)

The end of the series is, IMHO, tragic. Ruki and Renamon do not live happily ever after. I was really bummed at the end, as Renamon and the other Digimon are forcibly devolved and sucked back to the Digi-world, leaving their human friends alone and crying hysterically, but determined to get back to the D-World to find them again. Sob…

So, yeah, the ending sucked, but overall this was a really good series. By far and away the best of the whole bunch. Ruki and Renamon are an incredibly well-played couple…and I have to hand it to the American voice actors – they didn’t even suck. Mari Devon’s gruff Renamon was as close to on par with Orikasa Fumiko’s Renamon as I could hope to expect from a dub and Melissa Fahn was pretty spot on an angry babydyke Rika.

Now, if only they would release it on DVD – I’d so buy this series….

Ratings:

Character – 9
Story – 9 (Really…this was a decent story with a real plot…and the kids’ parent weren’t totally clueless, etc. etc.)
Animation – 7
Music – who can tell? The American version uses some heinous made-up theme. Bleah)
Yuri – 8
Overall – 8

Seriously. It may be a kid’s show and all about dumb monsters…but Ruki and Renamon rock and the story’s not bad. ^_^

2013 Update: You can now get the entire season of Digimon Tamers on DVD! (Dub only.)





Yuri Anime: Azumanga Daioh Vols. 1,2, 3 (English)

September 13th, 2004

It’s always touch and go when an anime series that relies as heavily on puns and humor as Azumanga Daioh does is translated into English. ADV Manga tried to be too clever when they translated the manga, and as a result the first volume really lost some of the funnier bits…but I’ve been told that the problems were rectified in the later volumes.

Nonetheless, it was with some trepidation that I purchased the first volume of the DVD. In general I was pleasantly surprised.

Let me start off with the good – the liner notes. I have never seen such excellent liner notes *ever,* in any release. Not only do they explain the puns (and how they developed the English-language equivalents) they have fun comments from the designers and directors and other Japanese staff. Because a lot of these comments are silly and irrelevant, they fit with the general tone of the anime well. The liner notes also include character sketches, which I personally don’t care for much, but I’m sure some people would be thrilled with. (The killer for me on these was that for Sakaki-san’s character sketches, they completely don’t show her in the uber-cool gakuran she wears at the second Physical Fitness Festival. I mean – if we can’t see that, who *cares*? ^_^)

There wasn’t any “get” until the third volume – a pretty decently made cloisonne’ pin of nekokoneko. I wouldn’t mind a few more pins. (I’m betting the Otousan cat wil be one of them, though…sigh.) The DVDs come with reversible covers, which seems to be the norm now – I quite like that.

Of course, I wasn’t happy with the use of honorifics, or lack thereof, but at least they are consistent and explicable. Essentially, they left “-chan” the way it was, since they couldn’t translate it in any meaningful way, but translated “-san” as “Miss” or “Mr.” and “-sensei” the same way…mostly. It gets a bit uncomfortable when Tomo calls Yukari-sensei “Yukari-chan” and they don’t really translate that….

Again, I remain a purist on honorifics, because there is no English equivalent to the hierarchies implied by their use. PLEASE translators, leave them alone!

Because so much of Osaka’s dialogue is horrible puns, I have to admit they really went out of their way to figure out reasonable English equivalents, which was good, but…I was disappointed that they use the English-language script as the subtitle script. So we don’t get those complex puns as she says them – we get the made-up equivalents. The liner notes cover the puns, so you can learn what Osaka really says…but they could have just translated them directly for the subtitles. Oh well.

Lastly, in terms of number of episodes, this series is wildly inconsistent, running from 6 episodes to 4, depending on the volume. Which isn’t heinous. And getting 5 or 6 eps. on a DVD always makes me feel pretty good about the purchase.

In terms of story: this series still cracks me up every time I watch it. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, all while being pretty mild and goofy. I smile a lot at the characters involuntarily.

Kaorin is *still* hugely and openly gay. Her crush on Sakaki goes well beyond akogare/admiration. You can tell because of the rainbow colored jets and church bells and lily imagery that they shove down your throat whenever she has a Sakaki moment. ^_^ This is a comedy – she’ll graduate never having told Sakaki a thing, but you can be sure that Kaori will be wearing rainbow accessories in her future. ^_^

Ratings:
Art – 6
Story – 8
Character – 9
Yuri – 7, since Kaorin is just a side character.
Music – 7
Service – 3
Overall – 8

This is laugh out loud funny and a nice change of pace from angsty Yuri. A definite must-have. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Ikkitousen DVD, Vol. 1 (English)

September 9th, 2004

The most amazing thing about this DVD is that it was a birthday present from my parents. It marks the first time *ever* that I got exactly what I wanted for my birthday – and it only took 39 years. ^_^

Despite the original threat to title this series “Battle Vixens” (and after Tokyopop actually released the manga of said series with this name) the name seem to have survived semi-intact. A step forward for fans everywhere. ^_^ Amazon lists the titles as Ikki Tosen but the DVD itself appears to be spelled correctly, sans space and with “u” – i.e, Ikkitousen

In any case, the packaging is really quite decent. No changes from the Japanese packaging – same reversible cover, Hakufu on one side,  Ryomou on the other. Inserts included a 2-sided mini pencil board, again Hakufu on one side, Ryomou on the other, both artistically naked – *and* a mini-poster of Hakufu and Ryomou. So, honestly, can’t complain there…it was all pretty good get. Four episodes always seems like a bit of a rip-off to me, but given the price and the decent freebies, it’s not *that* bad a deal – I still remember the days when the same price would have netted me two dubbed episodes on a VHS tape, with nothing inside but a market-research card. ^_^

I felt that the translators were a little prudish for this series – after all, its a pretty pervy series and there’s a fair bit of semi-explicit or downright explicit language, cursing, etc. For instance, when we first see Ryomou fight, she shouts, “I’m climaxing!” which is a bit silly. No one says that… And once or twice they miss a really good line by translating it a bit conservatively. I was all ready to trash the use of honorifics again, but by the end of the DVD I realize that basically no one in the beginning really *uses* honorifics much, so they just dropped them altogether for the few uses here and there, which worked fine. It’s sort of a shame, IMHO, because the few uses of honorifics are really quite wonderful, especially Hakufu calling Ryomou, “Mou-chan.” That name alone is worth using the damn honorifics, but…whatever.

Story wise, Ikkitousen remains one of the lamest-ass anime series ever. ^_^ The basic plot is that ancient Chinese fighters from the famous Chinese epic The Romance of the Three Kingdoms have been reborn as Japanese high school students. Go figure. The episodes are filled with such excessive fanservice that only pervs would really enjoy that part. But at the end of every episode, they give you a crumb of a plot, that makes you actually *care* for a second, until the waves of tedious and awkward panty shots wears you down again.

The fights are brutal, but not well choreographed. It’s a lot of “ki” use – so we don’t see much technique, but lots of coughing up blood. Only Ryomou appears to have *any* technique of any kind. (She does what it called “submission fighting,” i.e., she relies on joint locks and choke holds. I’ve done a fair bit of that myself – although in a *completely* different style than hers! No maid outfits. ^_^ I can honestly say that I sympathize with Ryomou quite a bit. Take that as you will.)

There’s no Yuri in the first volume – but I know that we’ll get some later, from the most unlikely character in the series. mind you….

Ratings:
Art – 6
Story – 2, with flashes of 7
Character – 8. They are the only reason to watch this piece of crap. ^_^
Yuri – 0 here, but later volumes it’ll shoot up to 10
Service – 9
Overall – 5

This is a pervy shounen series with little to no redeeming value, but I like it anyway, mostly for Ryomou and later, Ryofu and Chinkyuu. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Read or Dream The TV, Vol. 1

July 12th, 2004

Part 2

So, Upon rewatching the saga of the three paper sisters and erstwhile writing prodigy, I find that my initial reactions to the storyline and characters are little changed from my initial viewing.

The main thing about the first four episodes is the omnipresence of Yomiko Readman made plain through her absence. From the locket around Nenene’s neck, to the paper-using skills of Michelle, Maggie and Anita, the picture on Nenene’s desk, her search for information, etc., etc., Yomiko’s presence fills every second of this series. It almost seems as if she’s a kind of guardian spirit – which, of course, she isn’t. Future episodes will reveal how very human she is, but at this point, we don’t really know that yet.

I am also impressed with how much of a curmudgeon Nenene has become at 20. It’s taken me nearly twice that long to become so grumpy. My hat’s off to her.

As for the Paper Sisters…they are both more and less annoying that the first time. It strikes me much more this time how innocent and…unfinished…they all seem. It may be 20/20 hindsight, but they really aren’t quite human at this point. Like Maggie throwing out furniture to “clean” the apartment. No one would really do that, unless they had no experience of human interaction.

On the other hand, Anita, who I initially loathed, I find myself watching with more interest. Her annoying qualities seem less pronouced to me, this time around.

However, I still maintain that the second episode of this series is vile. Unfunny, irritating and in many ways pointless, it sets the characters on the board, true, but also annoyed the living daylights out of me. Both times.

For a first volume of an anime seires, however, it’s a pretty damn good beginning. A strong beginning, the weaknesses of the second episode pretty much made up for by good third and excellent fourth episodes. By the time you finish the first volume, there’s more than enough to work with in terms of character and the plot has, at least in part, appeared. Compare this with something like Bakuretsu Tenshi, which took something like 13 episodes to develop any kind of plot.

Fanservice comes in many flavors in ROD The TV. Whether you’re into Gainax bounces, loli, yuri, shota, androgyny, evil psychotics, it’s all pretty much in there, somewhere.

All in all, as anime series go, ROD The TV is still one of the best I’ve ever seen, and Volume 1 is a pretty strong start to an amazing series.

Overall – 9 out of 10 for character, plot, design, writing.