Archive for the Guest Review Category


Kakegurui Anime (English) Guest Review by Mariko S.

March 28th, 2018

Welcome once more to Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu! Today I have the pleasure of welcoming back Guest Reviewer Mariko S with a most entertaining review. I won’t take up her time here, so handing the mic over to you, Mariko …

Jabami Yumeko loves gambling. No, you don’t get it. I mean, she REALLY loves gambling. … I’m still not saying this right, I think. Jabami Yumeko REALLY. *LOVES.* GAMBLING.

There, that about sums up Kakegurui.

Wait, come back! There must be a reason why I’m talking about this odd, wonderful, terrible, exciting, formulaic, gorgeously ugly series for Okazu, right?

Sometime last year, Netflix decided to start throwing some money at the anime subculture (a departure from their previous haphazard acquisition of “whatever crappy dubs some bulk rightsholding company batches together with other throwaway filler content”), and began licensing or directly funding a couple of series per season. Whether this is a good thing is a topic best left to others to debate, but so far it seems they are aiming for projects with at least a little edge to them (or, in the case of “Devilman Crybaby,” a Ginsu knife of rococo craziness) that explicitly target a more mature audience and benefit from the less-restrictive content rules at the streaming giant. The kind of thing that, back in the earlier days of anime fandom, would be exactly what people would imagine when they found out you liked “those crazy Japanese cartoons.” Something to note is that the series Netflix sponsors get released all at once when Netflix decides to put them out, not based on the typical “season” schedule, so it’s harder to keep track of what they’re releasing and when. Anyway, fire up those login creds and let’s get started.

I may have mentioned once or twice that I’m a bit burned out on “Story A.” Particularly “Story A” where a moe-faced sugar blob enters a fairyland private school populated by other archetypal moe-faced sugar blobs, meets one extra-special blobface, and nothing much happens until they kiss (or not). So I’m always on the hunt for a bluebird that looks like it has Yuri potential from an unexpected angle. Thanks to Netflix’ “unusual” production and release philosophy, I found out about “Kakegurui” (“Compulsive/Crazy Gambling”) in sudden fashion. But the right words were being bandied about for my interest: “bold, crazy, original, queer.” There were rumblings that, although the outline sounded like a setup for some standard harem-show, it went right angle to that in ways that sounded fun and empowering and definitely kinda Yuri in a good way.

So, enough setup. After a nutty cold open that establishes the situation of our Bland Male Self-Insert Protagonist, Ryota, the OP theme already starts to portend good things for us as Yuri fans. It was done by Sayo Yamamoto, who has directed artistically-beloved openings for many shows, including “Yuri! On Ice.” It’s dripping with style and sexiness, as our yet-to-be-met heroine literally feasts on or toys with the many girls in her orbit. Cut to her unveiling in the show proper – of course she is a New Transfer Student. She seems to be a vision of the typical Nadeshiko beauty, with long black hair and sharp bangs, and a polite, kind way of speaking. We’re introduced in whirlwind fashion to the workings of the school: pretty much everyone there comes from wealthy and powerful families, and, as such, high-stakes gambling is the pastime of choice and determines all of your social worth at the school. The (of course all-powerful) student council posts regular ranking updates of each student’s gambling worth, and if you are unlucky enough to fall in the bottom 100 you are known as a “class pet” and are treated as basically a slave. This classroom’s top dog, Saotome Mary, immediately sets up to lure in the fresh meat for a kill and gets Yumeko to agree to gamble. Over the course of their match, the true layers beneath Yumeko’s proper exterior are revealed. She expertly dissects Mary’s game and her attempt to cheat for the win, and as the tides of power shift more and more into Yumeko’s favor she becomes slightly unhinged, working herself into a frothing, screaming display of gambling lust. When she leaves Mary utterly bankrupt just before the rankings come out, and cheerfully notes that now that they have gambled together they are friends, we definitely understand that Yumeko Is Not Normal.

Just how special Yumeko is, and in what way is the fascinating subject of the rest of the series, which did thankfully get renewed for a second season. The show is set up in classic sports anime style, with Yumeko continuing on to face more challengers of an ever-increasing level of surreal skill from the Student Council in bizarre gambling contests for massive stakes beyond just money. Of course it all culminates in a showdown with the student council president for all the marbles – in this case, expulsion from the gambling paradise of the school.

Some of the interesting things going on here:

1. This show is so refreshingly not-moe. In fact, it can be downright ugly, as the participants sweat, spit, snot, contort, and grimace in joy and agony. All emotions are writ large upon their faces. And although the female character designs are attractive, there are very few instances where they are drawn in an explicitly sexualized way (the ending theme being a forgivable exception). Everyone keeps their clothes on and the camera stays at respectful angles. The fanservice here is all about the gambling.

2. Yumeko’s power derives not from her prodigiously supernatural gambling talents. Those are useful (her ability to discern elaborate cheats, to mathematically dominate games of chance, to strategize in circles around her opponents), but her real power comes from the purity of her desires. She doesn’t care about winning money – money is just a means for her to gamble more easily. She’s not out to deliberately fight the unjust systems of the school, to help the downtrodden or defeat the student council or anything so noble. She just wants the chance to gamble – not to beat her opponent, mind you, which she can easily do. What she wants is more existential – to set the tables so that in the end, the fate of the participants is up to true chance. This is the real reason she takes down cheaters – for sullying the sanctity of the gamble. Similarly, it’s not a masochistic exercise – she doesn’t do it as a daredevil activity, to teeter to the brink of devastation. But rather, in her mind, to enjoy the moment of connection with the opponent as each side has maneuvered as best it can in preparation for the pure chance of the decisive draw, roll, or spin.

3. It’s frankly hilarious how irrelevant Ryota is. I read another review that smartly pointed out that, in most similar shows, despite having no special abilities he would be “The One” for Reasons, and he would be collecting fawning girls along the way as he racked up victories to take down the big bad student council. Instead, this is Yumeko’s show. In fact, you barely hear from Ryota outside of his narration most of the time. A running joke is the ways that other characters will just step into frame in front of him as he’s trying to say something and completely change the subject. This is Yumeko’s world, and he’s just along for the ride. And again, Yumeko’s goal isn’t exactly “winning,” which makes for a more interesting ride in a formulaic show than if that were the only stakes.

Which brings me to the question that of course you are asking, “What about the Yuri?”

First off, this isn’t a show with a lot of interest in romantic relationships. I saw elsewhere Yumeko described as “risk-sexual,” which is pretty apt. That said, while she doesn’t show any physical interest in Ryota or any of the male gambling opponents that she faces, it’s a different story for the girls. In the throes of her gambling ecstasies, Yumeko gets *very* up close and personal with her female opponents. As the gambling intensifies, she often plays a kind of Mephistopheles with them, surrounding and seducing and tempting her opponent into the path she wants them to take; it’s alluring, and you could read it as purely in service of her gamble or as something with more layers than that.  Afterward, she is quick to want to keep her conquests in her orbit as friends (or maybe more, especially in the case of Mary). But the biggest Yuri magnet is the student council president, whom the vice president is obviously in love with, Beautification Committee head and all-around lunatic Midari stabbed an eye out for, and Yumeko herself is clearly infatuated with. For now we must hope that the teases, innuendo-laced lines of dialogue, extremely Yuri opening theme, and reams upon reams of Yumeko x Mary fanart add up to something more concrete next season!

Kakeguruimashou!

Ratings:

Art – 10 I love, love, loved the style
Story – 6 Serviceable enough to get you to the good stuff
Characters – 9 I loved how weird and non-cute the characters were allowed to be. The sadly typical “girl who is like half the size of everyone else and acts and dresses like a child but is somehow in highschool” character knocks a point off for me.
Yuri – 3 I wanted to put this higher, but so far it’s all just innuendo, suggestion, and gambling-related seduction.
Service – 10 It has multiple (tastefully shot) gambling-related spontaneous female orgasms. If you’re *really* into gambling, this one might go to 11.

Overall – 8

Note: From a technical perspective, on the plus side most things are high quality: the subtitles are attractive and easy to read, sub and dub are available in multiple languages, and you even get the songs translated. However, for sub purists the scripts make some regressive translation mistakes, such as omitting honorifics and changing the names people are called. This leads to situations like this one in the third episode, where they translate some dialogue as: “Hey, Yumeko. Good morning!” “Oh, how disappointing. You and I are friends now, aren’t we? You may call me Yumeko.” C’mon, Netflix. Let’s at least get into the 2000’s on this.

Erica here: Fantastic review! I’m motivated to create a Netflix account now, and if I thought for a second I’d make the time to watch this, I might actually do that. ^_^ Thank you Mariko, for this most excellent review.





Yuri Visual Novel: Ne no Kami – The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto, Guest Review by Louis P

January 24th, 2018

Welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu! I am pleased as punch to welcome back our good friend, Okazu Superhero and Guest Reviewer Louis P. Take it away, Louis!

Ne no Kami – The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto, a visual novel by Kuro Irodoru Yomiji, starts of promisingly enough. Len Ese is a compelling and interesting protagonist, with the ability to sense the presence of living things. Before you can say ‘ordinary high school student’ she is dropped into a new life and a new home just outside of Kyoto. Reuniting with her childhood friend Shinonome Sarume she is whisked away to a secret village, the headquarters of Kunai a secret organization of sacred sword wielders who have promised to fight Ayakashi that threaten the human world. Len learns that Kunai wants her to help them fight these dangerous Youkai, she even gets a cool magic sword that only she can wield like her friend Shinonome who also works for Kunai. In fact everyone in the small village she used to visit growing up works for this secret monster fighting organisation.

Now if that last paragraph makes you think that Ne no Kami like some kind of fun supernatural version of Thunderbirds, it isn’t. In fact it is quite the trip to watch Ne no Kami systematically make its setting as pleasant to read as dry white toast. The writers were clearly fans of the urban fantasy visual novels that have long periods of exposition mixed with everyday life (Aoi Shiro) but they seem to have missed that what you then need to do is populate that everyday life with interesting characters and make that exposition meaningful to events we have already experienced early on in the story. No, instead Ne no Kami decides to front load its entire mythology right from the get go and when it is not doing that the characters’ daily lives feel truly banal. Quite an achievement when Len is moving into a new home, re-uniting with two childhood friends and learning about a secret youkai war but all these scenes are populated with characters that have such low energy it is hard to stay awake never mind care.

And that is a pity because…

Spoiler warning here but seriously you are not missing much and knowing this is probably the only reason to buy this visual novel. If you really do not want to know, skip to the second set of asterisks.

****

 

It turns out that the war the Ayakashi have been waging against humanity is not as simple as Kunai have been making out. Indeed it seems that Kunai is pretty much the illuminati and the war is not so much to save humanity but to expand their control over it. In the end Len, Shinonome and their remaining allies must find their own way to survive after being betrayed by the very people who taught them and us about the entire setting. This throws all that we learned in the first third of the story back into uncertainly for both the characters and the reader.

****

It is a nice twist even if the people that will betray Len are pretty obvious from the moment you meet them as well as those Ayakashi that will prove to be not blood thirsty monsters. However this twists power relies on how invested we are in the lie we are fed at the beginning which, as I said, was dull and boring and I did not care about. So while this sudden twist feels inspired it did not put the work in at the start to make us feel invested in the status quo. So I was far more relived to find out about all the deception and that one of the most annoying characters was evil enough to deserve what was coming to them.

‘But what about the Yuri?’ I hear you ask, now that is actually a bit more interesting although you have to pick it out of the gizzards of the poorly told story and the character designs that are ridiculously infantile. What is nice is that both Len and Shinonome have their own love interests. Uzume Sarume and Ruka Himemishi: both of whom are given serious significance in the story but are also lacking in nearly any kind of agency. It doesn’t help as well that Uzume is deliberately made up to be a shut in with a really creepy crush on Len that somehow blooms into romance while Ruka’s story is making you think that she is one kind of fetishised ill girl when she is in fact a fetishised traumatised girl and then one-upping how exploitatively traumatic they can make her back-story every two chapters.

Despite everything it does wrong I could imagine recommending Ne no Kami, five or seven years in the past. It is clearly trying and its heart is in the right place. I mean love between women is what saves people at the end and our heroes are two pairs of girlfriends but in this modern world with Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Butterfly Soup, Highway Blossoms and Ladykiller around there is just better stuff to spend your time and money on. If only this had been released ten years ago it could be something like Sapphism no Gensou. Yeah we read it despite all its glaring flaws but it was because there was so little else to read. Today however I have no such excuse.

Ratings:

Art – 3
Story – 5
Characters – 2 (I had to look up everyone’s name while writing this. That should tell you what you need to know)
Yuri – 8
Service – 8

Overall – 5

Erica here: I would like to thank Denpasoft for the review copy of Ne No Kami. It was much appreciated! And many thanks to Louis for another cogent review.





Attack on Titan Anthology Manga (English) Guest Review by Eric P.

January 10th, 2018
Happy first Guest Review Wednesday of 2018!  Thanks to Okazu Patrons, this is also the first paid Guest Review ever here, hopefully, the first of many. I cannot think of a better person to be our very first paid reviewer here than our longtime supporter and friend Eric P.! Please give him your attention and a few kind words and away we go!
 
You know a series is a huge popular hit when the manga remains bestselling to this day, when it inspires a big-budget (underrated) live-action movie adaptation, and when a devoted fanbase (im)patiently waits for the next anime season to adapt the next arc to the screen no matter how long the gap between. Another sign is when manga authors/artists get together and create a special anthology of original stories paying tribute to the series. But how often is it when western authors/artists do the same thing for the same purpose, and still under the original creator’s supervision? It does not get clearer than that in how successful Attack on Titan has been in achieving a cross-cultural impact.
 
The Attack on Titan Anthology is a collection of 12 personal takes by supposedly high-profile comics creators. I say “supposedly” because I confess I do not normally follow western comics and am unfamiliar with all the listed names, so I could really only judge this book by the content within once I open the cover. The results found are indeed diverse as well as widespread. 
 
Some titles are more lavishly illustrated than others, and some are more intriguing and poignant than others. All the dramatic stories are meant to take place in the manga’s universe. They may not be taken as “canon” per se, but their placement within the original continuity not only still feel like they make sense, but they also help expand on Hajime Isayama’s mythos. The first one, Under the Surface, provides a window to a world far more familiar to us right before the Titans begin their invasion. Another called Live and Let Die is about a Survey Corps member separated from her party outside the walls, before finding a group of other stranded Survey Corps members that chose to never return. Even though there is danger to be had dealing with the Titans, they ironically find more freedom outside the walls than they do within. One other standout is The Glorious Walled Cities, not a story but a field guide styled as blatant propaganda depicting the world within the walls as a paradise. The last entry, however, is disorganized and cuts off abruptly when the writer apparently ventured into confidential territory.
 
 
But the story relevant to Okazu would be Skies Above,written by Rhianna Pratchett and Ben Applegate, illustrated by Jorge Corona, colored by Jennifer Hickman, and lettered by Steve Wands. In a time before Eren, there was a female engineer named Lyla who also dreamed of breaching the world beyond the walls. This was when Erwin Smith was student-aged, long before the Survey Corps existed and when the Military Police was Law itself, and scientific bureaucracy prevented any and all technological innovation. Rene, a teacher acquainted with Erwin Smith’s father (both worked at the same school), on the other hand is content with the world they live in since they have everything they need. But Lyla recognizes everything as nothing but a cage to break free from, thus in secret she puts together a flying contraption to serve that purpose, seated for two. Rene, her confidante and lover, in the end resigns to Lyla’s wish as they make the attempt, and escape the Military Police’s clutches. Just from reading this, one could already assume this story about two people ahead of their time in an oppressive world does not have a happy ending. But depending on how one looks at it, especially with how beautifully drawn the final page is, one could still get a strange sense of alleviation that counters the usual Attack on Titan themes of cruelty and injustice.
 
But not all in this anthology is drama, it also balances itself out with parodies poking fun at the source material, some being far more amusing than others. In the original story, you know how the characters have a habit of consistently screaming out their dialogue? That gets spoofed here, and there was one other clever bit about how the title, Attack on Titan, actually does not make much sense when you think about it.
 
When this book came out last year, Kodansha had raised hype and excitement over it, yet in the end it seemed to garner a mixed reaction from its fanbase. Having read it just recently, I am surprised that it was not better received. Like with most anthologies, there are both hits and misses to be found, but it can really vary depending on the reader’s personal taste or expectation. Ask this reviewer, and there are a few stories I cared less than others, with maybe a couple I did not get at all, but there is too much more to like and appreciate. If you are an Attack on Titan fan, and are open to western interpretations—especially by artists that clearly did this out of passionate love for the original—you are bound to find at least a handful of titles to your liking, and even that still makes it worth the purchase for one’s collection.
 
Ratings: 
 
Overall-a rounded-out 8 (Solid without being completely perfect, once again due to personal tastes)
 
Erica here again: Thank you Eric for this look at something I would never have thought to take a look at. Which is exactly why I love Guest Reviews. Gail Simone, Faith Erin Hicks, Tomer Hanuka and Attack on Titan creator Hajime Isayama all have stories in this collection. Now I’ll keep an eye out for this. Thanks!
 




Akarui Kiokusoushitsu, Volume 1 (明るい記憶喪失) Guest Review by Bruce P

November 8th, 2017

 I’m headed for Massachusetts to eat and drink and talk queer manga at Harvard tomorrow, heavy-hearted with the fresh loss of my dear friend Bruce. I’d like you all to read this and lift a glass of something tasty to his memory.  Here is the final Guest Review by Bruce P.

So you bought a copy of Practical Problems in the Forbidden Art of Reanimation, only to find it has nothing to do with Sailor Moon Crystal – but you’re having fun with it anyway, following the step-by-step instructions. Your hand-stitched project is now lying shackled and inert on the slab; electrodes have been implanted; dynamos are screaming in anticipation; lightning is crackling in the midnight sky outside – when you reach step 37 and realize, shoot, you forgot to pick up a brain. Well, no biggie. You pack a light snack and head down to the local morgue.

It’s dark as you creep in, hacksaw in hand, and begin opening the frosty vaults. You work at peeling back the rubber sheets – they tend to stick – and look over the corpses, trying to identify just the right kind of brain to harvest for use in…Maxine. But can you really gauge the quality of what’s inside those craniums from their frozen faces alone? Fortunately, you’ve broken into the Yuri wing, and your years as a fan are your guide…

 

Vault #1. 1940’s hairstyle done up in Play-Doh. Obviously a blithe Takemoto Izumi character. Too whimsical. Next.

 

#2. That aquiline nose and cold-chisel chin – clearly from the Takamiya Jin family. Bitter chocolate, when you’re looking for Milk Duds. Next.

 

#3. Eyes like pitted olives in search of a Martini. Must be a Morishima Akiko character. Too Perky.

 

 

#4. A double, how romantic. But cauliflower ears from the boxing rings of Hell – Oku Hiroya’s spawn of course (remember Hen?). These two have been on ice a while. Too pendulous (oh, you do remember Hen).

You are about to despair, when the final vault reveals a truly gruesome sight:

#5. Mouth gaping like a dirigible hangar – the unmistakable trademark of an Oku Tamamushi character. Overwrought, and potentially clinically insane. But on the plus side, this brain fits in a sandwich bag.

Excellent.

The preceding bit of seasonal froth highlights a curious fact: Oku Tamamushi has clearly made wide gaping mouths his personal artistic trademark. His work is instantly identifiable. This clever branding was a true flash of inspiration, the kind of thing you just don’t pick up in art school (not if it’s accredited). And he really gets to practice his yawning orifices in the 4-koma series Akarui Kiokusoushitsu, Volume 1  aka Cheerful Amnesia, (明るい記憶喪失). The title is honest and accurate. The cover character is in fact a violently cheerful Yuri amnesiac, and that is pretty much all there is to the story. It’s a long a haul to the end of the volume.

Arisa and Mari have been living together for some years. But as the story begins Arisa is lying comatose in the hospital, suffering from a severe case of plot device. When she awakens, she has no memory of Mari or their life together. Mouth wide open she wonders who this lovely, unfamiliar, unsmiling woman is sitting by the bed. When Mari informs her she’s her lover, Arisa’s little brain short-circuits. She blushes, shrieks, squirms, squees, wriggles, and generally provides evidence as to why Mari never once smiles through the rest of the Manga. What Arisa doesn’t do is close her mouth. Not now, not when they head home, not when she sees their big fluffy bed. Not much of ever, actually. Oku Tamamushi has a brand, and Arisa is intent on getting that contract for Volume 2.

From this point on Arisa has to get reacquainted with the intimacies that go with living as a couple. She doesn’t manage it well. She actually doesn’t manage it at all. She’s just so embarrassed and excited and squirmy to know that her lover is this lovely, unfamiliar, unsmiling woman (wait, wasn’t that page 1? Yes, and many, many pages beyond). It’s heavy going for Mari as they work their way from holding hands to soapy bath-times to the frilly underwear.  It’s heavy going for us all.

There’s one bright spot in all this. Mari heads out of the house for work in a sharp suit; Arisa follows her to find what office she works in. She is shocked to discover that Mari is in fact a welder. All she can do is stand with (guesses?) her mouth open. But really, there are far too few Yuri stories that feature skilled metalworkers, just my opinion. Obviously, even fewer good ones.

Arisa blunderingly (she really is a pill) outs Mari to her fellow workers. But the old guy in the shop is cool with it, to Mari’s relief, and the creepy young guy is just sad because he had a crush on her.

The essential Arisa is revealed in a flashback of how the two met. Mari is working the counter in a fast food place. Schoolgirl Arisa takes one look and is rooted to the spot in an agony of open-mouthed love. She returns to stare again day after day. Then one time Mari is not there, and Arisa, bewildered, simply sits faithfully waiting, pining away, hour after hour, heedless that the trains have stopped running. Mari shows up late and lugs the poor passed-out thing home. So, there it is, she’s Hachiko. If she was fuzzy it might be cute.

Four-komas are essentially newspaper comic strips, which are of course meant to be read on a one-strip-a-day basis. The majority of 4-komas are best approached in this fashion. This one would benefit from much greater intervals.

Ratings:

Art – 5.  Fairly routine 4-koma material.
Story – 4.  Without the amnesia, this could be a low-budget parody of Minamoto Hisanari’s Fu-Fu – the two women living together in each are even similar ‘types’: the free-spirited flake passionately in love with her taller, serious partner. But it does have the amnesia. And so much less.
Characters – 5.  A welder and an Akita. Unique, possibly, for a Yuri series, but not entirely healthy.
Yuri – 9.  A 10 would be %100 good Yuri. This is just %100 Yuri.
Service – 8.  Less in what is actually depicted, than in servicey situations, such as Mari arriving home with injured hands, requiring Arisa to wash her in the tub (blush, squee, squirm).

Overall – 5. This actually got a bump up to 5, less on merit, really, than as an encouragement for more Yuri stories with professional metalworkers. Or electricians. That just came to mind. Must be these screaming dynamos.

And if you think disinterred body parts electrified to walk the night are grotesque, consider that Akarui Kiokusoushitsu Volume 2 is now out.





In Memoriam, Okazu Superhero Bruce P

November 7th, 2017

Hi folks. I have no idea what to say here. This is the second time I’ve lost someone important to me, someone who I met because of Yuri. Okazu Superhero, Guest Reviewer and my very dear friend Bruce Pregger has passed away.

If you’re a long time reader, you’ve read many of his hilarious reviews and his event reports (I’m putting them all, and this post, into a new category, so they can be found simply) here on Okazu. He’s traveled with me to several continents and I’m going to miss him so much, I can’t even express myself.

Ah, crap. I hate this. 

I had a guest review of his all scheduled to run on Wednesday, it will still run, but dammit, Bruce, you were supposed to go with us to Tokyo in 2 weeks. Dammit.

Goodbye Bruce, you will be missed.