So, I really should review something today, but I’m not going to. Instead, here is my non-Yuri news report:

I am pleased, proud and amused to announce that I was able to write a Guest Review for Ain’t It Cool News for the beautiful graphic novel, My Mommy is in America (and she met Buffalo Bill). I hope you will take a moment and read the review. Also, do take a moment to read the comments. They are so incoherently hilarious that I have come to a new appreciation of the haters here, for at least being *on topic* in their rants. :-) My sincere thanks to AICN for giving me to the opportunity to confuse a whole new audience with literary references in my comic review.

Secondly, tonight I am doing my second and final talk on Graphic Novels at the Morris County Free Library. The talk on Saturday was honestly a lot of fun. I hope tonight’s talk will be equally as interesting. The talk will start at 7PM, and I’d love to see you there!

I might as well add in item three. I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook these days so, if you are on either, do consider following me on Twitter and/or becoming a fan of Yuricon & ALC on Facebook! You’re just about guaranteed to get the Yuri news hot and fresh that way! Or check the right hand sidebar for other social media site links, like Yuricon on Livejournal, My Space, etc. It’s all about number creating a artificially inflated sense of importance, you know. (That was a joke, in case my sarcasm didn’t carry over text.)

That’s it for today. I’ll probably not get anything out tomorrow, either, but I’ll be back asap with more Yuri anime and manga reviews!

Volume 6 of Vampire Princess Miyu answers a lot of questions. But it answers those questions in the bizarrest and least logical way, for which I give it a lot of credit.

Miyu’s past is revealed to be tragic, of course, and we are suitably saddened. If, that is, we can follow the fact that it’s presented as a Taisho-period play.

Back in the modern world, Reiha and Miyu have it out at last, but nothing really resolves. The situation begins to spiral down quickly, forcing Miyu to reveal her true nature to her school friends. Which is where it all gets very weird.

Chisato has always had a special friendship with Miyu. Implicitly trusting, full of belief and encouragement, Chisato’s friendship has always seemed to be tinged with a bit of crushiness or idealism. And now we learn why. Not, as we Yuri fans had hoped, because Chisato was in love with Miyu, no. It was because Chisato is the daughter of Miyu’s ancient enemy, the Chickens. ^_^; Okay, okay, I’m being a bit flippant, but if you’ve seen this anime, you know what I’m saying is true!

The entire mess resolves in the least satisfying way ever, as Miyu “protects” her beloved friends by wrapping them up in a bubble of their own happy school life and keeping them there eternally.

Not, I admit, what I hoped, but completely in keeping with the weirdness that is this series. And it certainly offers us a nice conversation piece about Yuri and its deep relationship to Chickens.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 5
Characters – 7
Chickens – 10
Yuri – 4
Service – 2

Overall – 7

This volume was exactly as “WTF!?!” as I remembered it. Sure it ends, but still, “WTF!?! ^_^

Yesterday I mentioned two types of kitsch. So bad it’s good and so good it’s bad. But there is actually a third category of good crap. It’s “We really don’t care what you think or if you like it or not.” In many ways, this is the most excellent form of good crap, because it creates an instant us/them cult effect. Either you like The Cramps, or you don’t. You like Murakami, or you don’t. But frankly, they don’t really care which side of that fence you fall on. And in the case of manga, Tamaki Nozomu *clearly* doesn’t much care what you think of his story.

As it happens, I love Hakodate Youjin Buraijou Himegami (箱館妖人無頼帖ヒメガミ) Volume 4 with all my love. (Not that Tamaki cares.)

In Volume 4, the arc which involved a large-busted cross-dressing (ftm) French politician/whorehouse madam, the cases of missing men who turn out to be turning into youjin, the cross-dressing police captain (ftm), the colobockle, 4 magical animal-powered, fishnet-stocking-wearing ninja women and our heroine, the cursed, yet powerful young girl Hyou all comes to a climax of awesome proportions.

As Hyou is forced to endure the pain of the unending growth of marks on her body that represent the creation of youjin, Himeka realizes that the source of the youjin is the madame of the Black Widow saloon. She puts the mark of the spider on the women who work for her and any men they sleep with turn into youjin by her spell.

Himeka and the police captain – now revealed as a woman – take on the youjin and try to save as many of the women as possible. They are joined by the samurai who turned out to be allies in the last volume – friends of Hyou’s father.

More importantly – the pain and madness that Hyou is undergoing turns her into a ravening monster who kills indiscriminately. Himeka, joined by her sisters, manages to make Hyou remember her past, and recognize that the fairy spirit who protected her after her father’s death was, in fact, Himeka after all. Hyou returns to herself, and joins the Himegami on a full-out assault against the now kaijuu-sized sorceress.

Of course, they win. And no one we cared about was hurt. The police captain, her henchcops, the ronin, the guy with the cat mask who showed up suddenly but everyone knows him, the prostitutes – and especially not Melanie, Hyou’s friend from the cabaret.

The book – and, I thought, the series – draws to a close with Himeka carrying Hyou off in her arms, promising to keep protecting and loving her, while Hyou commands Himeka to not touch her anywhere weird.

Yuri is basically Himeka and Hyou’s tender, but one-sided relationship. Hyou wanted to be like Himegami, while all Himegami every wanted was to protect Hyou and love her as Himeka. It’s probably a cycle that won’t change, but it’s good enough for me.

The four-koma comics at the end have a great little schtick about the cops not being able to look their captain in the eye anymore. She thinks it’s because she’s a woman, but it’s actually ’cause they all think she’s so cute. ^_^

And I turned the last page, thinkkng, “well, that was pretty fun” only to find that there’s a Volume 5 planned! Really? Why?!

So, despite the fact that Tamaki doesn’t care about what I think, I am absolutely looking forward to more huge breasts, and mostly naked women with hefty haunches and more women crossdressing and more random magic and slaying random monsters. Woot!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 8

Overall – 8

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3

Seriously, if you were drawing this manga, you wouldn’t care what other people thought, either. ^_^

I have been so crazy busy recently working on Yuri Monogatari 6 that, after hours of staring at the computer, the thought of reviewing something for you makes me want to cry. Which is why it is once again my absolute, sincere pleasure to welcome Winterbraid as a guest reviewer! Yay!

I`ve finally bled up enough coin to get the new (well, not really, ’cause it was some time ago) and shiny release of Murder Princess, which got, uh, released – by a company aptly calling themselves “Anime Video” – in Poland. And in Germany too, I guess, since it comes with both Polish and German subtitles; and even two different versions of the latter, according to my video player. I know this series has already been taken apart, like, three times on Okazu; but I`m still gonna write about it excessively.
^-^

I must say, while Murder Princess doesn`t seem to have magically gained more Yuri value (or more innovative value, when we`re at it ^-^;) on the second run, it is still – all the same – an enjoyable anime to watch. I think it`s because it is basically a handful of entirely unoriginal themes blended together in an entirely original manner, serviceliciously free of intellectual baggage, and amply seasoned with awesome (like in “Hey, she just thrashed a monster ten times her size!!!” awesome). ^-^ Yes, I just like this series, somehow – perhaps not the title, though. ^-^;

The release consists of two DVDs in a single box (the summary on the back cover has a rather serious mistake, by the way); the first thing I noticed (or should I say, didn`t notice) upon opening the box was lack of postcard. =_= On the other hand, there was a booklet with several pictures of Faris and Alita, and translated liner notes from Tomoyuki Kurokawa of Bee-Train; quite a nice touch, yeah, but still not a postcard… okay, okay. ^-^; Each DVD contains three episodes, and the remaining space is conveniently filled with trailers; nothing Yuri-esque there, so I skipped that part (the company has also released both seasons of Black Lagoon, by the way).

Now for the translation, which is… rather unusual, I`d say. The translators obviously went the creative way; that in itself is more than commendable, as long as it is a result of actual creativity rather than lack of knowledge. I`d like to believe the former is the case here, although this belief`s been put to trial a few times. In other words, there are moments when the text not only doesn`t make sense when compared with original speech, but it also doesn`t make any sense at all. ^-^; Oh well. Still, there is a number of actual “wow!” moments, and these – at least in my opinion – more than make up for the occasional not-so-wow moment, and the more blatant differences from the original are an extra source of fun. ^-^ The characters are, for once, literate (actually, even more literate sometimes than in the original; that`s okay, seeing that while short sentences might sound cool in Japanese, in Polish they just sound dumb ^-^;), use more than 2000 basic words, and – most of the time – use wording you`d expect from the genre. In fact, the result might be a bit too… theatrical at times, but this anime isn`t one to be taken seriously either, so it`s all right, I guess. ^-^; I believe in beautiful translations rather than strictly true translations, so I wholeheartedly support the turn towards creativity (as long as some improvement is on the way) and I can only wish the editors even more imagination in the future, to cover up any gaps in actual knowledge. And more postcards, perhaps. ^-^

And these were my thoughts on “Murder Princess.”

Erica here – thank you Winterbraid for that insightful and entirely laugh-out-loud review. Consider your thoughts and rambles welcome here any time.

Kitsune to Atori is a freaky little collection of three multi-part stories that have absolutely nothing in common except the creator, Takeda Hinata.

The first half of the book, “Kitsune and Atori,” follows the lives, deaths and lives (and deaths, etc, etc,) of sisters Kitsune and Atori. Atori loves her big sister, but hates the foxes that haunt the shrine they live in. It’s kind of sadly apparent that they *are* the foxes, but when Atori kills her sister, there’s nothing we can do about it. Nor can we do anything when we see them alive once again, only this time it’s Atori who has to die. The story is a little weird, a little depressing, a little violent and a little touching, with a measure of “Wait, wasn’t that…? But I thought she…? HUH?”

The second half of the book, “The Doll’s Girl,” follows an introverted and lonely girl, Minori, who has been hospitalized for a long time, following her father’s death. Minori assuages her loneliness by making clothes for her only companion, a doll. When Kanae, a girl slightly older than Minori and exactly opposite in personality, arrives to share her room for a little while, she throws Minori’s life into complete chaos. Kanae is clothes obsessed, extroverted and brand-conscious. But she’s good-hearted and when she sees Hana, Minori’s doll, she decides that she needs a little bling in her life, pulls out a pair of scissors and slices her camisole up for lace for Hana’s hat. Kanae moves to her own room, but she and Minori come to see each other over and over. Minori asks if she can use one of the shiny buttons Kanae wears on her purse, but is told that those, and those alone, she can’t have.

When Kanae’s surgery day comes close Minori makes her a protective charm. Minori cuts out ivy leaves which, in the language of flowers, means “eternal friendship.” Kanae wants to see what’s inside, but Minori won’t let her, embarrassed by her moment of emotionality. Minori thinks Kanae doesn’t appreciate her, so she demands the o-mamori back. As she’s wheeled to surgery, Kanae asks the nurse to give the charm back to Minori, after learning what was in it. Minori receives the charm and opens it to find the buttons that Kanae treasured inside. Minori goes running through the halls to tell Kanae not to die.

The story comes to an end with Minori, dressed quite nattily, visiting a recovering Kanae in the hospital, with an epilogue in which Kanae and Minori are reunited in the outside world, hopefully never to be parted again.

The third story, “Yaeka’s Airmail,” involves a nursing school and some characters that look like infants, a lot of animals, and cool adult characters who look all of mid-teens. It was very dramatic, with fun interiors that didn’t match the story at all.

So, not the Yuriest manga ever published, but for incesty crushes and hospital crushes and impossible age-difference and geographically separate crushes, it was a fun romp through the interesting variety of stuff in the creator’s brain. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – variable, but averaging at 7
Story – ditto
Characters – same here
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 7

Today’s review was sponsored by the peerless Komatsu-san, whose blog makes me laugh, as well as educates me about my own industry from the Japanese perspective.