I’m sorry I don’t have the strength for uploading pictures, my legs are shaking too hard…

Fushimi shrine is incredibly interesting and beautiful and has lots of shops where my wife threw money at the Japanese economy. We did not make it to the very top. My wife has a broken foot and we still managed about 2/3rds up the hill, so no shame here.

It slayed us.

So much so, that I have blown off social things for tonight and am now back in my room, enjoying the throbbing of every muscle in my body.

Really, even if I did show you the pictures I took, you’d be like – what the hell is wrong with you? I don’t take normal pictures.

We stopped by the Tezuka World gift shop with statues of characters right at the foot of our hotel. The wife got a picture of me and Safire from Ribon no Kishi. I’ll show you later.

Today’s random junk food report: Calbee Jagariko Carbonara flavor. Potato sticks that taste like bacon tomato sauce. Inexplicable, kinda good, also not good at all.

Tomorrow – well…I’ll tell you tomorrow. :-)

Let it never be said that manga doesn’t play fair. It’s not just Chinese epic history that gets all the heroes turned into large-breasted women. Oh, no. It’s also the great heroes of Japanese history that find themselves turned into large-breasted women with a penchant for silly/exploding/very little clothing. In this case, it’s the Sengoku, or Warring States period of Japanese history that is made silly.

My knowledge of Japanese history during the Sengoku period is weak. But even I am familiar with the name Nobunaga Oda. The period would end with the unification of Japan and the consolidation of power in the Tokugawa Shogunate in what we all know as the Edo period. My own studies have given me a semi-reasonable grasp of Heian and Edo periods, and I find my understanding of Sengoku is rather poor. Something to do next time I have an afternoon off.

But, seriously, history is not the main point of Sengoku Otome. The main point is to watch Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu be rendered inappropriately into buxom (or in the case of Tokugawa, loli-fied) women as they approach the eve of the Battle of Okehazama. And take baths. Lots of baths. There’s some fighting too. In between the baths.

I have to admit, this manga’s Nobunaga is pretty cool. Any woman who smiles while she fights just melts my heart. And I like Akechi Mitsuhide lots, despite knowing what she’s going to eventually do.

There was, as far as I can see, no real Yuri in this manga. There’s some sense that Tokugawa Ieyasu admires/crushes on Nobunaga, because she was saved by her, but…c’mon.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Backgrounds are surprisingly detailed and the battle scenes aren’t bad
Story – 8 Yeah, yeah, history, whatever, blah blah. ^_^No, I’m totally stoked to read up on this period of Japanese history now and make the story work better in my head.
Characters – 8 Seriously, despite everything, they are pretty cool.
Yuri – .5
Series – 6 Lots of baths

Overall – 7

I think I would have really enjoyed this manga more if I was even vaguely familiar with the history, but as soon as I read up on the history, I’m sure this manga’s gonna be a joke. ;-)

I’m sorry I didn’t get this done yesterday. It wasn’t lack of time, I just forgot. ^_^

We had so many great entries for the 2nd “Get This Out of My House” contest, that I’ve decided we’re going to have a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner this time. :)

3rd Place: Girl B

Girl A is Girl B. Narcissistic moaning ensues.

2nd Place: JHB

Girl A koi Girl B. They carp at each other, then go fishing. oy!
The end.

And our grand /cough/ prize winner is: Kriegsaffe No. 9!

Girl A is made of matter. Girl B is made of antimatter. They hug, unwisely.

Folks, please email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your age, name and address to receive prizes which surely were not worth the time it took you to create your story, but which will nonetheless get crap out of my house! Yay! :-)

We all have had some good teachers, and some bad, some teachers that made all the difference and teachers that probably should have chosen a different career. In Gakkou no Sensei, we meet three teachers who are all of the above at once.

Sakura, Akane and Yuriko are three freshly minted teachers, who are all terribly excited to be able to help the students under their care and guidance and they absolutely cannot wait to shape young lives and minds. Assuming that they can all get to school on time.

Sakura, our protagonist, has nothing but good intentions. unfortunately she does not have the best of roommates. Akane is addicted to playing games, and Yuriko suffers from extreme sloth and is impossible to wake up. The adventures of these three are meant to be a kind of screwball comedy, but are basically similar to 4-koma or TV sitcoms, in depth and humor. Which is to say, there’s only so many times half a chapter can be given over to Yuriko’s quasi-sexual harassment of Sakura, or Akane’s obsession with gaming, before any of the marginal humor value fades into shadow. The further plot complication of a tsundere child who insinuates herself into their lives was really not all that amusing.

This sort of story works much better as a serial than as a collection. Once a month, logging into GanGan’s Online comics and reading a chapter might be entertaining. All together, it kind of fails to be more than a cute idea.

Ratings:

Art – moeblob
Story – thin, but palatable
Characters – 2-dimensional in every way
Yuri – Fake
Service – lots of “humorous” undressing-type harassment

Overall – 6

I found this manga a little disappointing. It almost immediately dissipated into stock caricatures and situations, with vague humor. Gakkou no Sensei is an excellent lesson on why having a story idea isn’t enough, you have to actually have a story to tell – all the way through – or you’re going to lose your audience.