In Volume 1 of Hanayashiki no Junin-tachi (花やしきの住人たち,) we met Aki, a boy who excels at “women’s” tasks like cooking, sewing and being functional. As punishment he is sent to live at a girl’s dorm, which just goes to show that his father and grandfather are idiots.

In the Hanayashiki dorm, Aki meets energetic, cute and hungry Renge who falls for him, and creepy loner Ayame, who has an extra creepy twin brother who is really damaged. Aki falls for Ayame and, of course Ayame is interested in Renge, in standard fashion.

In Volume 2, we learned that Ayame is a lesbian because she’s only met broken and disturbed men and that her mother was distant and cold, just like Freud said.

Now we are at Volume 3, and any chance that Ayame and Renge will get together is receeding quickly. Renge comes to grips that Aki isn’t going to be hers anytime soon, and somehow Aki finds himself protecting Ayame more and more from Kakitsubata, her brother. When Kakitsubata starts to sexually assault Ayame, Aki’s had enough and takes Ayame to his room to give her somewhere safe to stay. And it is safe, as we had previously established that Aki is a good guyTM. He’s not going to do anything to Ayame and he may keep her from hurting herself.

Aki’s Dad shows up to free him, so of course everything comes to a crisis. Ayame, having met the first non-violently insane man of her entire life is cured of her lesbian desire, Kakitsubata does not kill himself, which is a shame and in the end everyone lives happily every after. Oh, yes, they do.

I never really expected this series to go my way, so I can’t say I was disappointed on that score, but the pat ending really makes all the DRAMA sort of meaningless. Much like the ending of Mai HiME, I feel as if we were cheated on an actual ending that dealt with the consequences of everything that happened in the story. Also, the lessons we learn, that cross-dressers are violently insane and lesbians are also damaged until they are fixed by a heterosexual attraction, are massively uncool.

On the other hand, if you like DRAMA, then this series does have some decent qualities. Aki being a very decent human being and Renge also not being a freak go a long way to helping the book not suck.

Also, I should probably point out that they do all live happily ever after – as friends. For which I was very grateful. Because frankly, there is no way any of the possible pairings would feel right.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 5
Yuri – 1
Service – 2

Overall – 6

As a whole, the series is like watching a Tornado. Aki shows up, and through no fault of his own, pulls the house down. But in the end, the skies are blue and there’s always tomorrow to rebuild.

Man, have I read a lot of weird stuff recently. First it was Kiryuuin Saeko, Private Detective Agency (which I did not review because there is no Yuri in it) and then there was Assistant Denki Keika (which I did, because there was.)

In Mikarun Cross, Volume 1 (ミカるんX) Runa is a normal child who finds herself somewhere between here and there and is given a magical bracelet that grants her wishes. Her first wish is that her battling parents make up, which appears to work. Mika is the daughter of an archaeologist who is killed in a Hamas attack and is adopted by a powerful politician. (Are you with me so far? my wife asks)

Runa and Mika meet at an elite girl’s school in Shibuya. You can tell it is elite because it incorporates the famous Shibuya 109 building into itself and because the buildings make the shape of the Qabalistic Tree of Life.

Mika immediately starts to mack on Runa, but when a giant alien monster slices Mika’s head off, Runa loses it and asks her magic bracelet to not allow her to be left alone. At which Mika and Runa merge, so that a giant, naked Mika with Runa’s head in her chest takes on the giant alien monster over Shibuya. (Still with me?)

Turns out the giant alien monster is actually one of the girls in their class. And so is the leader of the army that later ties a giant, naked Mika up and helicopters her over Tokyo for “study” which appears to involve spreader bars and cow-patterned BDSM gear. About this time my brain crawled out of my head and I was reduced to the mental competence of the typical Champion Red reader and it all started to make sense. So, when Mika and Runa transform in order to defeat the giant soccer ball monster and Runa insists on being the giant one, it was completely sensible that she transform into a magical girl and defeats the soccer ball with her magical Mika wand.

In any case, there’s loads of nudity, bathing, giant aliens and giant naked Mika and a Yuri storyline that is quickly subsumed in all the other crap that passes for a plot. As Champion Red stories go, this was actually decent. There’s no specific “violence against women,” just a sort of overall skankiness that one quickly grows used to or one stops reading.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 3
Characters – 3, with flashes of 7
Yuri – Starts at 6, then tanks
Service – 9

Overall – 5

I’ve recently discovered Comic Ryuu and, unlike most of the manga mags I read, it does not make me feel filthy. (Comp Ace always makes me want to scour my brain immediately after reading.) I plan on reading more series without giant, naked women and alien monsters. It’ll be good for me.

Every week, I save To Aru Kagaku no Railgun for last. Yes, I am definitely the kind of person who saves the best for last. (Sasamekikoto isn’t on the same queue as Railgun, in case you wondered that doesn’t have the position of honor. It does, on an alternate viewing day.)

I know that Railgun is a side story from To Aru Majutsu no Index, a series about which I know nothing and care not at all. (This does not mean I don’t like it, or I am implying in *any* way that liking it is bad. Please don’t read meaning into this statement in a tiresome way. Thank you in advance.)

As with most anime, I had no expectations for Railgun. In this case it all worked out and I think that it is really good goofball fun.

In Academia City, where the major industry is education, students are ranked from 1-5 according to their “abilities.” These abilities are of the extranormal kind and, in keeping with Arthur C. Clarke’s third law, we’ll just call it magic and get it over with. ^_^

Railgun follows the unlikely friendship of the least powerful and the most powerful in the city. The least powerful is represented by Uiharu Kazari (who is rated at a 1) and her friend Saten Ruiko (rated 0). Uiharu is with Judgement, the city’s self-police force with Shirai Kuroko, (who is rated at a 4) and her in/famous, incredibly powerful roommate and object of desire, Misaka Mikoto, one of the city’s few Level 5s.

When Uiharu and Saten are introduced to Mikoto, they – and we – are surprised to find that she’s a really nice, down-to-earth person. And this simple fact, and the fact that being Level 1 and 0
in abilities does not mean that Uiharu or Saten is in any other way ineffective, makes this series totally watchable.

Uiharu’s special abilities might be low, but her computer skills are aces. Saten is a Level 0, but she has guts and sense. Misaka’s only real flaw is her desire to test her incredibly dangerous electrical power against someone in power-to-power combat. Which brings us to Shirai Kuroko, who is indubitably the real star of this series.

Kuroko is an annoying-voiced ojou-sama with a heart of gold and a sincere, if hyperactive, desire for Mikoto. She’s a scream. Again, what makes it all work is that for all that she’s powerful and rich and all that, she’s a nice person. She’s friends with Uiharu and there’s no “buts” at the end of that sentence. Levels of power, money, status, none of that matters to Kuroko. She’s a nutball, but in a good way.

So far the anime has been fun. There’s a plot developing, with a crazy, amoral, over-stressed, no one understands me-they all have to die bad guy, and I’m content to let it take me wherever it goes. I’m cool with watching Uiharu and her companions keep Academia city safe for students of all levels.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – A lopsided 9
Service – 2 One of the bits I love best – the self-satisfied smirk the anime wears when viewers *don’t* get panty shots.

Overall – Sold at 8. Don’t bother wrapping it up, I’ll watch it on the way out.

Got a couple of housekeeping/promotional things I want to bring to your attention today. I’ll try and get a review in later, since you haven’t had one in a few days.

First, ALC Publishing is holding a Pre-Holiday sale on all 100% Yuri publications. Visit the ALC page on the Yuricon Shop for 30% to 50% off all books. This is for a limited time, so get your holiday orders in today!

Secondly, I’ve heard from a few people that there’s some confusion about the double-underlined words in the body of my blog posts. Like the interstitial ads, these are the omnipresent evil of advertising. Those links and the Google ads aren’t Blogger having their way with me. I put them there in order to attempt to monetize this blog. Feel free to enjoy the sponsored content as you roll over them…or not. :-)

Thirdly, there is a new addition to the right-hand sidebar here to which I’d like to draw your attention. Under the header “Be a Hero” you’ll see that I’ve added a Amazon JP Wishlist to the Amazon.com one. This was quite specifically at the request of devoted readers. Shipping from Japan to the US is pretty ridiculous, which is why I didn’t have one before now. Amazon JP is in Japanese, but all the buttons are the same shape and size as they are on Amazon.com, so it’s not that hard to navigate. When you get to checkout. Then you can switch to English. There’ll be a link that asks if you want to see the page in English. You are never obliged or pressured to buy anything ever for Okazu. But, there. At your request, I caved. :-)

Once again, I want to thank all my many Heros and Superheros, my Guest Reviewers, and every single one of my fabulous readers. Your support makes this possible – and I meant that both literally and figuratively. Thank you for the comments, the Diggs, the RTs and the friendship. As we head into a season of holidays, friends and family, I want to let you know, you are more than just my Yuri Network, you’re a family to me. Thank you.

Kämpfer is either an incredibly silly anime with no redeeming value whatsoever or a surprisingly intelligent critical look at “magical girl” tropes in seinen anime.

As a silly anime, it’s the story of Senou Natsuru, a stereotypically nice but sort of dorky guy who, for plot purposes, suddenly changes into a girl in order to fight for her life. Natsuru is one of those characters who asks the wrong questions badly, so gets useless information in return. Several episodes into the series he still has basically no clue why he’s fighting. Natsuru as a boy is nice, ineffective and stutter-y. As a girl, Natsuru is *exactly* the same, except she now has magic powers. Natsuru’s neighbor and friend, Sakura, is uninterested in Natsuru as a guy, but when she is saved by female Natsuru, she falls head over heels. (“And the moral of that story,” said the Duchess, “is that women will always fall for magic competence over ineffectual niceness.” To which Alice replied, “Nonsense! The moral of the story is that Sakura is a lesbian.”)

As a surprisingly intelligent critical look at tropes of the guy’s version of magical girl anime, we are introduced to a man who is a better woman than he is a man, but really not that great of a woman. He transforms into a magical fighter then given *no* reason to fight; he is pursued by the women around him as both a man and a woman, but is incapable of following through with any of them in any form. There are “cute” magical mascots in the form of eviscerated and mangled stuffed animals – I’ll come back to them later – and, in what I consider a piece d’resistance – he is subjected to all the stereotypical service dress-up scenes after which he sighs, “I feel as I’ve just had my humanity stripped from me.” Yes, Natsuru, you have. Just as all the other girl characters who’ve been put through that nonsense have.

The real reason any sane person would watch this anime is the “Entrails Animals.” These evil and unpleasant little mascot creatures are voiced by popular voice actresses – with a 4th wall crushing recognition of each other’s voices. Not *just* popular voice actresses, but VAs that have themselves built up a following voicing characters in exactly the kind of anime of which this series is a meta-comment.

I’d like to give Kämpfer the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is consciously written as a poke at the genre. I’d like to, but I can’t. It’s probably just a really silly series. (“And the moral of that story, said the Duchess, “is that you can’t compare gender-switching comedy anime to a critical reading of societal norms.” Alice nodded solemnly. “I think that’s the only sense I’ve ever heard from you.”)

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 4
Characters – 5
Yuri – 7
Service – 36

Overall – 7