Today I’m out of the office doing some shopping for my niece and nephew who are, not surprisingly, extremely cool people. True story: Sometime last year I was buying a birthday card for my nephew and decided all the cards in the store made me feel stabby. I sent him a check and a card…and a letter. In the letter I proposed a deal. I could send him some crappy card that insulted his intelligence and a check for birthday/holidays and that would be that. OR he could give me carte blanche to get him whatever *I* feel like getting him – and I promised that it would be strange, potentially hazardous and probably distressing. To my great relief he took the offer of distressing. Later that year, my niece also asked to be in on the deal. And so, for the first time in my entire life shopping for a relative is fun for me too!

In any case, while I am wandering the cold city streets today, I thought I’d give you some random items that have either crossed my desk or originated from it.

Let’s start with – shopping! It’s only fitting. Right Stuf is having a holiday sale until December 13th and the newest special on tap is an unbelievable bargain – all 4 seasons of Maria Watches Over Us for $84.99.  That’s like $100 off the retail value. So if you’ve been waiting or have thought that there’s someone you’d love to get this for, go for it. Remember, Jesus’s Birthday was an important day for Mary too – celebrate it by buying an anime in which she appears as a statue and a vague concept!

Next up, on Hooded Utilitarian this past weekend, I waxed poetic about Hana no Asuka-gumi: Fighting, Fashion and Literature. The comments go into a totally other direction that is both fascinating and totally “wtf?” at the same time. As happens so often at HU. I’m just glad I got to talk about Hibari-sama and the Zenchuu Ura on a blog with TCJ.com in the URL. :-D

Lastly, I want to talk about the O-Shaka-sama mo Miteru series of books by Konno Oyuki.  Unlike the Maria-sama ga Miteru series, OSsmM begins on the first day of school, as Yuuki stands at the gate, trying to decide which path to take into school. If you recall, at Hanadera, one path is reserved for the “Heishi” clubs, the sports and physical clubs and the other for the “Genji,” the culture clubs. Yuuki, who is not planning on joining any club also does not want to make a statement about which side he favors. At which point Kashiwagi comes up and signs his name in Yuuki’s student ID notebook, changing Yuuki’s life forever. Yuuki has become Kashiwagi’s eboshigo, his protege, his particular kouhai. Which means Yuuki is now involved with the Student Council.

In the course of the first book, Yuuki meets and befriends his posse – Kobayashi, his best friend just sort of goes where Yuuki goes. Yuuki saves Arisu from being teased just slightly too much and becomes Arisu’s hero. Takada and Yuuki will eventually bond over sports, but it’s actually Arisu and Takada who become close. (Very close. Slashably close – and Takada knows it. He even wonders a bit about it himself.)

Already on the Student Council are Nikkou- and Gakkou-sempai and a non-entity called Rampo-sempai (a pun on his family name of Edogawa) and our asshole, erm antagonist, Andre-sempai (so named because of his hair, which makes him look like Rose of Versaille‘s Andre.) And here is where the book’s one real flaw appears.

In MsgM, *all* the characters are likable. Okay, fans got their knickers all bunched up about Sachiko or Yoshino or Touko or whoever, but if you think about it a bit, you’ll see that really, all the characters are likable. Especially since they all come to like Yumi, and we like Yumi. It’s easy to be friends with people who like our friends, so unless you’re a petty, jealous friend, you learn to like your friend’s friends too.

Andre is not likable. He’s an asshole. Remember when we learn that Yuuki had to learn the Island dance for “a sempai?” We all just assumed that was Kashiwagi, hazing the new kid. Actually, it was Andre and he put a massive condition on it and was an asshole about Yuuki sucking it up and doing it. He’s being an asshole in the fourth book again, and the worst part is that Yuuki, Kobayashi, Takada and Arisu are really, really likable and I want to read about them – not about the one unlikable guy in the series.

In the second and third books, we spend a lot of time in Arisu and Takada’s heads. Arisu is, particularly, handled with delicacy that I found appealing. He’s got a massive issue with swimming, because he hates boy’s swimsuits. He feels topless – more so now since a kid in middle school teased him about “seeing his titties.” Takada finds himself enraged at this nameless kid. Takada also goes through a crisis precipitated by, of all things, Yuuki. Apparently Yuuki is good at baseball. REALLY good – like could go all the way good. But he over pitched and screwed up his shoulder and can’t play anymore. When the basketball team tries to recruit Takada and the baseball team asks Yuuki to fill in so they don’t have to default, Takada goes through a crisis of identity.

Arisu gets to sneak into Lillian in one of the novels. Dressed casually, during summer club meetings, with girls walking around the campus, he just sort of blends in and gets to pretend, for a little while, that he’s where he wants to really be. He discovers from Yuuki that at Lillian they have strawberry flavored milk and begins to obsess about it. When Yuuki gets Yumi to bring some home for Arisu, Arisu goes so far as to kiss him (not quite on the lips) in thanks. But…that’s not the first kiss in the series. Kashiwagi has also kissed Arisu…and Yuuki. Oh yes, he has.

And while all this is going on, Yuuki is at the forefront of a teeny little rebellion that is quietly taking place. Because *everyone* at Hanadera *has* to pick either Genji or Heishi…and Yuuki will not. He steadfastly refuses to choose either a White cover to his student ID or a Red cover. Kashiwagi gets around it by being on both kinds of clubs. But Yuuki refuses to decide – he walks around campus with a Black, uncovered notebook in his pocket. This act is a testament to his strength. And it does not go unnoticed. He waits for a friend in either Heishi or Genji clubs to be able to enter school, but he is already famous in the student body – and a hero among the 1st years. As Book 4 of the series opens, Kobayashi has joined Yuuki in wearing his black notebook openly in his uniform pocket.

Unlike Yumi, Yuuki is a natural leader. Like Yumi, Yuuki is a master manipulator simply by being honest and straightforward. As we suspected, his being President of the Student Council as a 2nd year will be no fluke.

And there we are. I’m about halfway into the 4th book and they do not suck. Really. I’m still reading them. Will I be glad to leave Hanadera to return to Lillian – you betcha. But the Fukuzawa siblings aren’t done, yet and I for one think they still have some surprises up their respective sleeves.

Ratings:

Overall – I’d give the series as a whole a 7, but Book 3 (Wet or Dry?) was an 8 and Book 4 (Jibun no Ouendan) is sort of 5-ish so far because we spend too much time with Andre.

I’m always going on about lesbian this and lesbian that here at Okazu. This week I shifted perspective to talk about one of my favorite cross-dressing characters in all of manga as part of this month’s Manga Movable Feast.

If you can’t stand to go a day without me, check out my MMF post over at Manga Curmudgeon: Un, Deux, Trois; the Friend’s Waltz in One Piece. With many thanks to David Welsh for hosting both my post and this month’s MMF.

With luck, I’ll have another post up there sometime soonish. That post was why you get nuthin’ tonight. You’ll understand when you read it. ^_^

Here in the US, today is a holiday called Thanksgiving. A few years ago my grandmother asked us to start saying out loud what we were thankful for at the dinner table. It’s not as easy a thing as you think. It’s often hard to do without crying.

But I believe that it is very good for us to stop doing and getting and talking and thinking and just take a moment to be thankful. Most importantly, it’s really important to say it *out loud,* where the other person can hear you.

Of course I want to thank you all, the readers of Okazu. You are all interesting people, who make me laugh and often, think. You give me hours of conversation here on the blog and behind the scenes. I love your comments – even when I need to tell you to “stop now,” and I especially love when you talk amongst yourselves in the comments. Without you, the fans, this would be just another manga and anime blog – you make it great. I would love to name you by name, but there are honestly too many of you to do so. If you have ever commented here – I mean you.

I would particularly like to thank Komatsu-san and A-san, for making a dream trip possible for me this year. It was nothing I expected, nothing I wished for, nothing I could have possibly have thought would happen. But you both made it happen and for that, I am eternally thankful. You are both special people who I am immensely thankful to have met.

I would also like to say thanks to my favorite alien Rica, because without her the world would be a much, much less interesting place!

I would like to thank Twitter. Because of Twitter I have become closer not only to so many of you, but so many amazing thinkers, writers, artists, editors…it’s definitely pulled the anime and manga world closer. So close that last night I was discussing Wilhelm Reich’s orgone box with a manga artist I know in Japan. Now *that’s* a small world. ^_^

I want to thank my staff and friends at Yuricon, particularly Sean, Bruce and Serge for being the best lackeys in the world. You can’t buy that kind of dedication, but I will try, with small, meaningless plastic items from Japan. ^_^

Last, I want to thank my wife for…everything.

Thank you all.

I wish you all a happy day, and if you’d like to add in any thanks in the comments, I’d love to hear them!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Today’s review is two quick mini-reviews on things that I’ve already reviewed and just want to follow up. Today’s review was the reason I lugged a pile of books back to my hotel from Nakano Sun Arcade without even stopping for sushi, so you’d better appreciate it.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun Manga – has been licensed by Seven Seas (to be put out here as A Certain Scientific Railgun) and in preparation I thought I’d read whatever is already out in Japanese. As a few commenters mentioned when I reviewed the first volume of this manga, the first four volumes follow the same Level Upper Arc covered by the anime. In Volume 5, the story takes an even darker turn and we spend time following primarily Misaka, as she confronts a problem of her own making…in a sense. I won’t be more specific so as to not give it all away. 5 seconds of research will net you the spoilers, I have no doubt.

Yuri in this series remains exactly the same as it does in the anime, toned down in the second arc mostly because Misaka is off on her own through most of it, with little to not interaction with Kuroko. From my perspective, Kuroko’s feelings are quite real, just a little immature. Maybe a tad maturer after the interim story when she feels that Misaka is nice to everyone but her (also in the anime.)

Ratings:

Yuri – 3
Overall – 8

I like it and am looking forward to the English release.

Saki was, as an anime, unintentionally funny to me. The overblown fighting drama associated with the game of mah jong was just…silly. The relationship between Saki and Nodoka was that they like one another, but with all those shots of Nodoka’s breasts, it *had* to be Yuri, right? No, but try and convince a Yuri Fanboy of that.

The real Yuri, in my opinion, was Yumi and Momo. In Volume 5, Momo even got to embrace Yumi and say “Daisuki” but that’s about it. The rest of Volume 5 was taken up with Saki’s battle against Koromo – which interested me pretty much not at all. Of all the things in Saki I like, the actual details of mah jong are not among them.

Ratings:

Yuri – 2
Overall – 6

No one is licensing the Saki manga, and I don’t blame them. What Hikaru no Go had was BL potential and a female audience and women buy what they want to fantasize over. Guys…just…don’t. License Saki, and you’ll find it’ll just sit on the shelves while “fans” download fanart of Nodoka’s breasts and Saki’s thighs to keep them warm at night.

Both manga worth a look if you’re a fan of the anime, not if you’re not.

Today’s review goes out to all of you out there who like Shitsurakuen and other “excessive violence against submissive women”-type manga. (I want to apologize to all the rest of you today. It’s going to be a second day in a row of skankiness and misery. I just want to get these books off my pile before I move on to anything else. So, sorry in advance.)

Many of you are familiar with the creative team Kizuki Akira and Satou Nanki from their work Ebisu-san to Hotei-san. If you like the aforementioned work, I strongly suggest you avoid the Baba Yaga (バーバ・ヤガー) series with all your might. While I felt that “Shrimp Mayo” could have been a stronger story, I very much feel that Baba Yaga, Volume 1 and Volume 2 could not be worse. This series is, in a word, repulsive.

The story is not terribly important, as it’s primarily a vehicle for the continued emotional, physical and quasi-sexual battering of a girl (well, two really,) by a guy who is deeply deranged…and yet, not stopped by anyone, even when they know it’s him. Individual beatings and attempted rapes are sometimes aborted, but the man himself is left to go free and, shocker, does it again. And again. And again. The best bits are when people watch this guy beat a girl near to unconsciousness and blame her for it. As you can imagine, I had to put the book down, breathe and convince myself not to mail bomb the authors, the publishers and every last one of the readers of this misbegotten series.

Yuri comes in the person of the one good, decent character, a woman who does her best to stand between the punching bag protagonist and every other character in the story. In a story less filled with filth, she would simply be a friend, but in this kind of story, the main character’s feeling for her are out of proportion…so, fake Yuri.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Characters – 2
Story – 1
Yuri – 0
Service – 10

Overall – 1

This series was, in a word, vile.