…another sick week is upon us. I even have a Guest Review lined up, but no energy. I promise to get well and be back soon.
Archive for the Miscellaneous Category
Suite Precure Anime
Suite Precure is the tragic story of Seiren, a singer. Betrayed by her homeland, Major Land, rejected as the Song Princess she is, she defects to Minor Land where, like so many defectors, she is forced to prove her loyalty over and over. Put in charge of incompetent and insubordinate subordinates, Seiren labors to resurrect a magical score so that she can at last sing as she was meant to… and who, of all people, must she contend with? Her own best friend and protégé, the very same creature for whom she was cast aside …Hummy.
Seiren is torn between her anger at being betrayed and cast aside, and her affection for the friend who was so important to her. Unfortunately for Seiren, the elite warriors of Major Land outgun her own Minor Land forces and her continued embarrassment at the hands of the Precure begins to eat at her.
Until, one day, Seiren snaps. She regrets her defection, she longs to repair her life and in a weak moment, becomes one of the elite Precure warriors herself. Now, full of loathing and self-doubt she wages war against herself, with no home to return to….
Well…okay, that’s not really what Suite PreCure is about, but it’s better than the real story, so I’m sticking to it.
Kanade and Hibiki, Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm, are best friends and have to be “in harmony” to transform, so the Japanese fans on Twitter are calling it Yuri. Seiren only transforms to save Hummy, so if you count Hummy as female and cats as eligible for Yuri, then there’s Yuri that way. And I’m counting Cure Muse because her costume screams Go Nagai designs.
I like Cure Beat best because 1) She is not wearing pink (which Toei pointed out that all girls like and so, *for the first time EVER* both main characters would have pink elements, how exciting!) and 2) Toyoguchi Megumi (Marimite‘s Sei) is voicing Seiren/Beat with everything she’s got, considering the character is a cat. Purple Cures are always the coolest.
If you ignore all of this nonsense, Suite Precure is a completely predictable, music-themed magical girl cartoon for little kids.
Ratings:
Art – 7, it’s returned to type from the Heartcatch designs
Story – A little sillier than usual, I think – 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Series – 1
Overall – 7
I should also point out that the Fairy Tones, the cute little gem-like creatures that represent the notes of the scale, are excruciatingly cute and I adore them. That’s a major step up from previous Precure cute, little mascots. Hummy can die a painful death, though.
Manga no Tsukurikata (まんがの作り方) Manga, Volume 5
Before you even ask, yes, I’m just torturing myself by continuing to read this series. ^_^;;
In the first four volumes of Manga no Tsukurikata (まんがの作り方), we were introduced to Kawaguchi, a former mangaka who decides to take up the pen again, Morishita, a famous manga artist in her own right, and who is in love with Kawaguchi, and Takeda, who is a great admirer of Kawaguchi and of Sachi, Morishita’s professional penname.
In addition, we encounter Kawaguchi’s younger brother and her editor who seems to be seduced by the same glamour that Morishita is affected by. I call it a glamour because the Kawaguchi we’re seeing has…well…nothing going for her. She’s not too smart, not terribly creative, kind of lazy and yet, everyone loves her.
In response to importuning from her editor, Morishita decides to move to Tokyo and somewhat inexplicably Takeda decides to go with her. In the beginning of Volume 5 Kawaguchi visits them. In the early pages of the volume this panel appears:
For any number of reasons I think it a perfect analogy for the entire series.
In any case, Kawaguchi visits Morishita and Takeda, and we get to watch her reaffirm that she likes having Morishita around, but still doesn’t actually love her.
The rest of this volume is taken up with Takeda’s crisis of identity as she finally, painfully comes to terms with the fact that Morishita is her favorite manga artist, Sachi and while she adores Sachi and is thrilled to be able to help Sachi by doing housework and cooking for her, she really cannot stand Morishita.
And, erm…that’s about it for this Volume.
So, hey, more happened than in previous volumes, so I guess that’s good.
Ratings:
Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 1
Overall – 6
It always feels like this series is going to do something…and then…it never does.
This volume comes packaged with a short original doujinshi, “Ryuuna to Ichiko” in which a house fire brings a “cool” girl closer to the “nerdy” girl in class.
A Channel (Aチャンネル) Anime
Ah well. I gave it the old college try, but this “girl’s life as seen through the filter of unimaginative otaku marketing” series just didn’t do anything for me.
A Channel (Aチャンネル) is yet another four girls – high school life manga. Created according to the Gospel of Moe, each character is a “type,” not one of which is “character with a personality.” Run-chan is the protagonist and like all good moe heroines she falls asleep in class and is barely competent at anything, how adorable. Her sidekicks are well-endowed, Nadesico-type, Osaka-accent-sp……..zzzzz….oh sorry, Osaka-accent-sporting Yuuko and smart, glasses-girl Nagi. The fourth for this gaggle is First-year, extra adorably small, overprotective, yandere Tooru.
There is nothing *wrong* with the series, except that when Fanboys write stories about girls for other Fanboys they focus on all the wrong things and after a while, it just wears on one. The first big hit my interest level took was when I was supposed to believe that a 15-year-old girl wearing a skirt forgot to put underwear on. Forget to shave her legs, yes. Forget to wear underwear….I can’t do it. I cannot be that stupid. Sorry.
Then, of course, we needed a bath scene. The fact that the first extended bath scenes were in episode 2 to me very much was a calling card for a paucity of imagination.
And then came the the scene where they bemoan the fact that they wear bloomers, long after no one does any more and gosh, mostly everyone else where shorts, but you know they have to wear bloomers and which are just like underwear over the underwear and why bloomers, because you know no one wears those anymore….
And I threw up my hands and said “Done.”
Yuri comes in the form of Tooru, who has a possessive crush on Run.
Ratings:
Art – 4
Story – 3
Characters – cookie cutter
Yuri – 3
Service – It’s for you, fanboys. Hope you like it
Overall – 3
I think I’m done on girl’s school life as told in the Gospel of Moe. So. Very. Dull.
New house rule – when a series mentions the word underwear more than 4 times in the first 4 episodes, I’m done.
Found: Good Home for Manga Magazine Reviews
Today there is sad news and there is good news.
On the sad side, industry insider and all-around interesting guy Ed Chavez closed his Mangacast blog. /sad face/ Mangacast was covering the Japanese side of the industry when much of the western press were all but in denial that there was a Japanese industry and only reported what was happening in English. Mangacast also covered things like doujinshi and other sub-manga culture things.
As a result, my manga magazine reviews at MangaCast have been cast aside like an unwanted kitten in a box. (Not really – Ed gave me plenty of warning and I have them all backed up. I just thought it was a good, forlorn image. ^_^ ) But don’t worry!
The good news is that a hero has fished my reviews out of the water and adopted them! As a result, I will be reposting all my old magazine reviews – and any new ones – as a part of the Manga Bookshelf family alongside many of the fine folks I mentioned in yesterday’s note.
We’re going to start with reposting the old stuff, but now I’m motivated to review the next magazine for you all.
I also really want to thank Sean for offering to host the reviews, as well. The show of support from everyone for reviews I was convinced about 6 people read is gratifying. ^_^
Look for the reviews to go up shortly and new reviews to come soon.
Thanks, Melinda and the whole MangaBookshelf gang!
