After my Ghost in the Shell lecture at the Brooklyn Museum, myself, Sean and the wife went over to the shiny new Kinokuniya bookstore on 6th Avenue in Manhattan. It was indeed quite shiny and had goodies like that month’s Cobalt Shueisha and a few other things of interest. Including Hanayashiki no Junin-tachi, the subject of today’s review.

Yet again, based solely on the cover art and my knowledge of Japanese manga, I was prepared to hate this story. lol I can’t say I hated it, but it’s not going in my top ten either. The art looked vaguely familiar to me, and I now find that the artist also did Blood +, so that explains that.

I knew that the story would have to be a threesome that included – and starred – a guy, since there are two girls on the cover, touching and this is a Kadokawa book. It could not *possibly* be a Yuri manga about two girls. And indeed, it was not.

The story follows a poor bastard named Aki, whose father is a drunken loser who beats Aki all the time, because he has the nerve to be a good cook – and that’s *women’s* work. His grandfather also obsesses unnaturally about gender roles so, to teach Aki a lesson, he forces Aki to live in one of the dorms for the girls’ school he runs. The dorm is called the Hanayashiki, the Flower Residence.

Normally, in a series like this, we would expect “accidental” walking in on half-dressed girls and other tedious unfunny scenes, but no. Aki is a very decent person and only once accidentally walks in on someone and it really was completely accidental and totally forgivable. And, just to hammer home the point, he does what a normal person might actually do, hastily apologizes and leaves. No nose bleeds, no falling on the girl, nothing else that makes one’s eyes roll.

So, while staying at the dorm, Aki is befriended by Renge, who is a nice girl who helps Aki out when she can, which is right away, as the first thing that happens is that the dorm leader demands that Aki survive some kind of crazed cooking challenge. Which of course, he does. But she didn’t do it out of malice or anything – she just thought it would be fun. ^_^

While living in the dorm, Aki also runs into mysterious and maturely beautiful Ayame. She seems to be very uninterested in classes and is always polite, but cool, to Aki. He starts to become interested in Ayame, especially when he learns that she and Renge are close friends.

Bizarrely, for all her lack of interest in classes, Ayame seems to be a good student. But that turns out to be because Ayame has a twin brother who also lives in the dorm and pretends to be Ayame when tests come around. Her brother actually passes as a girl because he wants to, but is glad to have a male friend around. Aki’s more and more interested in Ayame, when an incident with a school peeper brings out that she really dislikes men.

However, Aki is confused when Ayame admits to a bunch of students that she has someone she likes. Aki, who has completely decided that he likes Ayame, suddenly realizes that the person Ayame likes is Renge, as the book comes to a close. zOMG!

So, on the good side, Aki’s not a wimp, not a dork, not balless and not perverted. He’s the kind of guy you might actually like if you met and wouldn’t mind being if you were a guy. Renge is cute, but not a ditz. On the down side, Ayame is another man-hating psycho lesbian. Well…okay, that can be the good side too, if you want. ^_^

In any case, the Yuri, such as it is, will never be the point of the story and I don’t see Ayame and Renge ever getting together. But Hanayashiki no Junin-tachi not the worst book I’ve ever read and is much, much better than the cover led me to believe.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 7

I’m torn between wanting to know what happens and not really caring all that much. ^_^;

After having seen an essay on the manga Goshujin ni Amai Ringo no Okashi in Yuri Hime, I kind of expected something more than there was. -_-; I mean, for the little enough in there – it was awfully long essay.

The title story follows a girl who takes the position of maid for a wealthy household and who, through force of will and positive disposition, changes the outlook of the sulky master of the house. This is followed by a Yaoi/BL story of a prisoner and warden, that was the best, certainly the most engaging, story in the book.

Last up is the one Yuri story, “Greenhouse Dancing Club,” which is so mildly Yuri that I’m still not sure that it was worth reading, unless what you like to read most is endless variations of barely crushes among two-dimensional high school girls at, you guessed it, an all-girls school. Honestly, it was so nothing that it’s not worth summing up.

Nothing in any of the stories was particularly stand out. Every story went over well-traveled territory, with nothing particularly new to offer a reader. This is the first volume in a two-volume series. I definitely won’t be getting the second one.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 4
Characters – 4
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 4

I can definitely think of better books to write an essay on….

So, due to circumstances that I’m too tired to explain, Yuricon & ALC are not in Con Row, bust instead in the Dealer’s Room, which is much better all around. :-)

Still Yuri paneling at 3PM on Saturday – don’t miss it!

In March, I took a chance on a new manga on the off chance that it might not suck, and lo and behold! it totally was wonderful manga crack! Women with giant haunches and breasts fighting supernatural creepy things in provocative clothes to save the poor peasants of Hakodate against evil foreign influences in the early days after Perry forced Japan open to the west. I enjoyed the heck out of it.

And so we crack open the covers of Hakodate Youjin Buraijou Himegami Volume 2. The bad guys this time are a bunch of Civil War rejects that have become Youjin, who are seeking to encourage the assistance of a particular man by killing his son and threatening the rest of his family. His one child escapes and goes running straight into the arms of Cabaret dancer Himeka. Hime of course grabs Hyou and they head out to fight the evil foreigners.

Of course Hyou gets in a little trouble and of *course* Himeka transforms into Himegami and this time we get to watch. Whoo. So Himegami and Hyou fight the evil civil war soldier-monsters and just as things are getting a little hairy three more women who are dressed just like Himegami, but with different totem animals show up – the calvary has arrived. Hyou is a little “buh?” and so are we, but we just go with it and enjoy the action and the fishnet nijna costumes.

After the bad guys have been dealt with, Himeka comforts Hyou as she goes through the pangs of the leaf marks on her back disappearing. They have some genuinely tender moments together and Himeka hopes that maybe Hyou will lighten up, but, no. That’s about all the Yuri we get this volume, but it works for me. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 3
Service – 6

Overall – 7

I’m actually looking forward to the next volume – I want to know who those chicks are and what the deal is with Himegami. Plus I keep hoping that she will get a kiss in soon. ^_^

I know, I know, you’ve been wondering how you can learn to curse like a Marine. And because you are also a creepy otaku, you would really like to be taught this by a series of characters that are that style of art so hideously moe-fied that I have come to call it “fetuses in frilly dresses.” (In this case, fetuses in frilly uniforms.) Well thank heavens for Maritan Focused Drills Marine 3rd Grade Edition! Thank heavens that Anastasia Moreno sent me this copy. I absolutely could not have lived another day without it. Thank you Ana, for making my life worth living! (If you’re reading her blog, Manga Gunkan, you know that Ana was the pronunciation consultant for the cursing. That has got to be the most awesome job in the entire known universe. That’s like, instant geek cred in three different ways.)

In this 3rd Grade Edition, we get the story of “Tinkle Alice,” a girl who wished to have magical powers and military might, followed immediately about the differences in the meanings of “tinkle” and “twinkle,” so you know *exactly* what level of sophistication and humor you’re getting into.

This chapter is followed by many others as we join Tinkle Alice, Maritan (short for Marine-tan), Navy-san, Jiei-tan and Army-kun as they blow each other up, train, drill, sing and curse in extremely unique ways, presented to you in glossy high color. And then…you can hear it all on the attached CD voiced by Japanese seiyuu!

…

There is no way to explain to you the sheer crackheadedness of this…thing. You must experience it, so you can hear Maritan say, “You climb mountain like old people fuck!” and Army-kun shout “Suck my Balls!” then laugh maniacally. Friday Monday needs to take laughing maniacally lessons from Army-kun.

Today I began to listen to the extra Drama CD and got to hear Maritan say, “Okay, which one of you communists just signed your death sentence” and Navy-chan say, “You’re not even fucking human beings.” and then go on to explain that the target of her wrath were merely “amphibian shit,” which made me laugh so hard I started to cry.

I cried a lot listening to the “Lessons”. “Goddamn! She went flying off with her ass on fire!” I was laughing so hard at one point that I had to stop at a stop sign, turn the CD off, wipe my eyes, breathe a few times, and then get back on the road. This series is – quite literally – breathtaking. It helps too that, while the actresses do a decent enough job with the pronunciation, they are speaking like four year olds and they get the emphasis on the words wrong, which makes for something that sounds practically Neptunian at times. With every lesson I asked the CD, “who on *earth* is this series for?” The answer is, of course, me. Which is really worrisome when you think about it. ^_^;

If you’re in or near Akiba tomorrow, some fans of Pixel Maritan are running a “Sergant Cafe.” Finally what I’ve been waiting for – a women in uniform cafe! How I wish I could be there…. Sigh.

Despite the fact that some of the lines are seriously anti-gay (well, DUH, this is Marine cursing, we’re talking here…) Navy-san is a blonde beauty of a type similar to Fate Testarossa of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. And, like Fate, I immediately pegged her as that cool, reserved, but underneath passionate and steel-cored type, with the even more inner core of girlyness (which explains that magic wand.) And, within seconds, I could totally see that she has a crush on Maritan.  Of course I made that part up in my head, but hey – it was *obvious*! All you had to do was overanalyze her body language and expressions and position in the room in relation to Maritan and it was totally obvious. ^_^So, when I popped in the first CD and found that Navy-chan is voiced by none other than Kawasumi Ayako, best known among Yuri fans as Chikane in Kannazuki no Miko I was like “SCORE!”

Boo-yah.

Ratings:

Art – High Moe. If you like that, then 7, for me….3
Story – 8, by which I mean 2, of course, but the sheer insane brilliance…!
Characters – 8 I find I like Army-kun the best, even though I can’t understand a thing she says, and Navy-san, obviously
Yuri – 0, but who needs reality when you have the 6 degrees of Yuri!
Service – I don’t think there’s a number high enough. Googleplex, Maybe?

Overall – 8 for pure entertainment that make your brain crash and burn painfully, but you say “Sir! Thank you Sir!” anyway

In case this sounds as wonderful to you as it was to me, here is the number for your local mental health clin…joking, joking. Here’s links the the 1st volume and 2nd volume too. Tell ’em Ana sent you!