Ah, the dramatic love triangle. What would we do without you for tired, retread, yet eternally fascinating drama. I love you, but you love him and he loves me. It’s been done so many times it’s almost not funny. But, add in a drenching cold rain, a deathly fever and a psychotic cross-dressing brother and you have…well, pretty much the same thing as always.

Hanayashiki no Junin-tachi, Volume 2 starts dead on in the middle of a melodramatic love triangle, composed of Renge, who likes Aki who likes Ayame who likes Renge. At the end of Volume 1 Aki confesses his feelings for Ayame, which seemed to set her off on a course of hysteria and increased mental instability. Worse, because Aki’s figured out that Ayame likes Renge, she feels that he can wield that over her. Renge admits that she likes Aki, which only makes Ayame feel even more out in left field. But it all comes to a head when Renge overhears rumors to the effect that Ayame likes Aki – she runs off to confront Ayame, only to be told the absolute truth…that Ayame is actually in love with Renge. Renge runs off, shocked.

We get a bacgkrounder on Ayame’s family – it will come as no surprise to most of us that her mother was cold and distant, her father was unpredictable and violent and we already know that her brother is a slightly psychotic cross-dresser. I hope this part of the story wasn’t meant to be super shocking and revealing, because it’s been done similarly about a million times.

We then fast backward to middle school days when Ayame and Renge first met and became friends. It’s interesting to note that before Renge, Ayame was, despite her appalling parents, a popular and fun person. The boys liked her, the girls liked her, she wasn’t phobic about schoolwork. Another lesson here – not only are lesbians mentally unstable, even so much as falling in love with another girl is enough to completely destroy your emotional stability and functionality! Oh no! But back to the after-school special…after Ayame learns that her mother doesn’t give a shit about her children, she cuts all her hair off, which makes her stand out in school, which cascades into a cycle of being ostracized and rejected. She reacts violently, but when that is brought to a halt by her accidentally hurting Renge, she starts to take it out on herself. As so many will attest, cutting brings relief, because she can feel the pain and know that she’s still alive. (I will suggest that, if you are tempted to cut yourself because you desire to know that you are alive, that is proof that you are alive. Next time you’re tempted to cut, think about that. Please.)

In a climactic moment, Ayame appears to be throwing herself off the roof, although to her own mind, she is really just trying to reach up to be in contact with a bird. As she climbs the fence on the roof, Renge pulls her back to earth and to sanity. Ayame and Renge dance on the roof, enjoying the movement for its own sake and the company of the other.

Back in the now, in the Hanayashiki, Ayame’s brother Kakitsubata asks Aki to leave the dorm, so his sister can be happy again.

Aki is looking through school photos, finding picture after picture of Renge and Ayame together, until he notices that once he arrived at the dorm, Ayame’s smile disappeared in all the photos. He decides that in order to let Ayame and Renge be happy again, he does have to leave.

Just as with the first volume, I’m torn between wanting to find out what happens and not caring all that much. I’m inclined to think that, as the unspoken lessons about liking other girls are so negative and the set up is so stereotypical, that the next volume will reveal the utterly unshocking, totally predictable revelation that Ayame’s affections are now focused on Aki. This will never really be a Yuri manga, despite Ayame liking Renge, because it’s clearly a flawed affection, based on pain and immaturity that has to change to a “real” love for her to be healed. I’d love to be wrong about that, but I’m not putting any money down on it!

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 2

Overall – 7

Once again, my sincere thanks go out today to Komatsu-san for sending me this book and sponsoring today’s review! And also to thank him for his patience, because he sent it a really long time ago and I just got around to it. (And worse…I still have one more of the bunch to review….)

My brain is doing its weekly explosion and so it is with relief pleasure that I turn to our Guest correspondent, Winterbraid, for another fun-filled review of a Polish anime release. Once again, everyone please welcome Winterbraid!

The company which released Haibane Renmei also did Ray the Animation recently. I picked it up on impulse as a gift for a Black Jack fan – at that time I didn’t even know that the manga had been previously reviewed on Okazu, but also rated 5 in Yuri! Well, I can’t speak of the manga, but… Although the anime Ray now officially uses the full name and image of Black Jack, everyone`s favourite rogue surgeon gets a cameo only in the beginning and towards the end of the series; Akaribon totally fails as a Pinoko substitute; plus, once again we are reminded of the ancient truth that sekuhara=love.

The plot is in fact a lot of massively overused cliches blended together into an only occasionally edible meal. The bad guy is the spitting image of Ano Hito from Excel Saga (no, seriously), and the (loser) boy gets the girl in the end – which we all knew was going to happen anyway…; I only hoped he’d make an heroic sacrifice, and in fact he was close to that at one point; his survival was probably the second “Graaah!” moment in my history of anime watching. (The first was when Kazumi decided to go after Jun in ep. 22 of Devilman Lady.)
^-^;

Ratings:

I give the Story a rating of 4 points; +2 for the action, +2 for Ray`s cases (which were only good because they were made similar to Black Jack`s cases), +1 for the fact that it has an ending and -1 because the ending sucks.

Director Sawa gets 2 points for Characters.

Art gets a 7 because characters look their age, could be more if it wasn`t for the abuse of nurse fetish, dramatic stills and other visual cliches.

Music: doesn’t ring a bell.

Service: 8 points (+5 for the romance, +5 for nurses, -2 for the art).

As far as Yuri is concerned, I’d issue a generous rating of 0 points (+1 if you count economical bedsharing as Yuri, +1 if you think that Ray is a badass dyke; I think she’s just a spoiled tsundere brat).

Localization: OK, I guess.

I’m too lazy to calculate the overall score, but I guess it’s around 3. So the overall rating is: better grab some Black Jack books, then some action anime with actual Yuri in it, and then any tsundere romance if you`re into that. ^-^

(What is economical bedsharing? It’s “there is only one bed and we`re both girls anyway so it’s all right” bedsharing.)

Erica here: LOL! I haven’t seen the anime, although I’ve read all the manga and all I can say is – that seems pretty spot on to me. Winterbraid, you made me snort with laughter twice. Write more reviews.

The Manga Kenkyuukakai (Manga Research Society, “Manken” for short) is composed of three people. The president, Shiina, the vice president, Reiko, and the lone member, Saki. Unlike the Manga Club, they do not create doujinshi, nor do they have an awesome output of academic research to their name. Mostly, in fact, what the Manken does, in Volume 1 of Manken (まん研) is sit around and make Saki try on cosplay outfits. Ostensibly for research, but mostly because Shiina’s got a thing for Saki in cosplay.

Oh, sure, sometimes they think really hard about doing a thing. Like, maybe one day actually drawing something. But it always seems to get subsumed into Saki putting on a full-body stocking and doing extreme poses (for research on life drawing, naturally) or wearing cat ears or something else that caught Shiina’s fancy.

When they run into the school’s “other” manga club at a comic event, the atmosphere is tense. The manga club has drawn many a doujinshi, and is there to see what’s hot, while the man-ken is mostly there to buy porn and show Saki’s character costume off.

The format is 4-koma, the four-panel strips which rely so heavily on manzai-style comedy. (Like my friend Kelli and I yesterday. She’s the boke and I’m the tsukkomi. She acts dumb and I slap her.) So in most situations funny faces and raised voices accompany the punchline. Which often involves either Reiko or Saki in cosplay.

There is some Yuri. Shiina convinces herself that her interest in Saki is all in the name of research but, as the book goes on, her interest in Saki shifts. She finds herself thinking about her more more, and less and less as a club member. Does Shiina like Saki? Like, “like” her? I think she does. As this is a comedy 4-koma series, I’m not convinced that anything will come of it. But Shiina does have a pretty interesting imagination, I’ll give her that. And at the end, Saki is darn surprised to find Reiko and Shiina “researching” some heavy kissing, mostly to shock the the Manga Club’s president.

Like most 4-koma, reading this is more “heh” than “bwahahahah,” and the basic premise is a little beaten to death by the end of the first volume but it’s not bad at all. Certainly better than some paper-thin 4-koma I’ve read. In general, this would do better as a weekly/monthly installment, rather than reading it all at once. But in pieces, it’s amusing enough to justify buying it. Here’s hoping that the Yuri becomes a little more developed in the next volume. However, I wouldn’t count on it. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 3
Series – 3

Overall – 7

Another 4-koma with some Yuri from Manga Time KR Comics? Who’d’ve thunk it?

The earth is, to all intents and purposes, the buxom blue-eyed blonde, the Suzanne Somers if you will, of the universe. Alien races cannot stop themselves from harassing us, stealing clandestine gropes from our human inhabitants and raping our natural resources.

And, in Manatsu Labyrinth (まなつラビリンス) this lack of control will bring about just about the *stupidest* consequence ever since any episode of Charmed.

Manatsu is a totally average girls high school girl who, one day for no good reason, finds herself sexually attacking a classmate. Her behavior is not the strangest thing to happen that day, because as Manatsu and Ah-chan try to leave school, they find themselves – back at school. West, East gates, front door or back, as soon as they step out of the school grounds, they are right back in them.

Ultimately they find themselves joined by savvy Midoriko, creepy Kaouin and loli Riri in their imprisonment in the school. For whatever reason, none of them can leave. They have plenty of food and water and electricity, but no communications out or in.

Days pass and in between swimming in the pool and taking showers for our benefit, the girls recognize a basic fact – the day resets at about 3AM. Every day they have exactly the same amount of clean clothes and food they had the day before. Unbeknownst to the others, Manatsu has learned that this is all caused by the aliens. In fact, an alien helpfully plops down to talk to her – and only her, of course – during the waking hours and begs her – of course – to not mention its existence to anyone. The alien – of course – helpfully mentions that it is up to Manatsu to release this time loop, but less helpfully can’t tell her how to do so.

Manatsu is a little overwhelmed. On the one side, she’s having some seriously suggestive thoughts about Ah-chan (not helped by the tentacle-tongue alien thing that plays with her at night when she’s asleep) and being glomped in the most naked possible way by Riri who really, really likes her.

So yes, there is Yuri, of the servicey kind. It’s not stabby-making, just kind of meh. The kind of things that guys don’t understand why I don’t like, ’cause I’m gay and we both like women, right? Yeah – only, no.

I was not loving Manatasu Labyrinth and then I read Gokujouu and suddenly Manatsu Labyrinth was *so* much better, it was like magic. The moral of the story is – aliens want you to have their babies.

Ratings:

Art – 5 Very reminiscent of Real Drive
Story – 5
Characters – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 7

Overall – 5

As the curtain opens for Red Garden, Volume 6, the four girls finally find some equilibrium in their shattered lives. One at a time, we watch Clare, Rose, Rachel and Kate come to the belated realization that they have never truly been alone. Armed with the knowledge that their existence meant *something* to *someone,* they head off for what they know will be a final battle.

The battle is itself, inconsequential. The two sides that needlessly fought, now needlessly die at each others’ hands. While Edgar loses everything he thought he had, Lise is returned to the four, and together they all face their final rest…in peace.

Is it some years later, or in an alternate universe that we find the same four reborn into a future city that is completely different and exactly the same. Metempsychosis brings them into contact with people they have known well in their former lives – but there is no recognition of that acquaintance. They’ve lived so long, they’ve had to be seventeen so many times, that they have completely changed personalities, in the same way people change clothes. As the Dead Girls, they terrorize and titillate the city. For money, for thrills, for something to give their life meaning, they fight once again. And again. And again.

At the end of the disk we are left with one of two things – a vague sense of unease and loss, or a vague sense of “gawd, that was awesome’ and the Dead Girls’ theme song stuck in our head for a week. ^_^

This was a disk well worth waiting for and my sincere thanks to Funimation for caving to our fan whines and releasing it on it’s own. It was so very, very worth your time and effort for our enjoyment!

The Yuri in this series is, as it always has been, Paula. Unlike the Paula of the manga, this Paula is supportive and empathetic, loyal and in the end, honorable. Kate receives Paula’s emotions with thanks and a sense of appreciation rather than rejection. It is a one-sided love, but it is a real love that is accepted without question. For this one thing alone, I would adore this series. But the series is far more than just this one thing.

Red Garden is a series I go back to, from time to time, just to enjoy spending time with characters that, despite their outrageous situation, come off as completely real and approachable. And that, in the end, is why I watch anime.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Sadly, the cover copy wasn’t nearly as amusing this time as with previous volumes. “A suspenseful thriller with a keen sense of style.” I assume that’s a reference to clothing. They are teenage girls, after all.

Today my deep and abiding thanks goes to Eric P., one of my first Okazu superheroes, and a person whose support of Yuricon and Okazu goes way beyond mere financial. I want to take this opportunity to just say, thank you Eric, for everything. I absolutely can never thank you enough. (And I’m really only thanking you profusely because I know it will annoy you, ^_^) So, hey, thanks for sticking with this series and sponsoring today’s review!