Still cleaning out the backlog of anime reviews. Today’s review was written by long-time “friend of Yuri” Eric P.!(And many thanks to Adam for his assist on this.) Yuricon 2003 was the American Premiere of the Alien 9 anime, which was very cool, so thanks again to CPM for that. :-) The reason I never reviewed this series is probably self-evident…I didn’t much care for it. lol Extra thanks to Eric and to Adam, and to you for reading!

Here’s my attempt in covering the basics of the Alien Nine saga, a title from back in 2003, including the anime, the three-volume manga, and the one-shot manga sequel Emulators, created by Hitoshi Tomizawa.

In the not-too-distant future, alien invasions are an everyday occurrence. The story of Alien Nine takes place in a school where three 6th-grade girls are elected as the school’s protectors, and have to defend the campus from these occasional intrusions.

One of the three is a girl named Yuri (kinda obvious name, isn’t it?), elected very much against her will. She is teamed with two other Alien Fighters, Kumi and Kasumi. Their fighting gear includes helmets that are in fact living, symbiotic aliens, which can unfurl wings and extend tentacles shaped like screws. The Alien Fighters’ uniforms and weapons make them look like rollerblading lacrosse-players. They face off against creatures of all shapes and sizes; it is amazing what Hitoshi Tomizawa’s imagination came up with at times.

During the course of the story, Kumi and Kasumi experience encounters which cause them to slowly become half-aliens, and in the end they try to protect the still-human Yuri so as to retain what’s left of their humanity.

The artwork of Alien Nine is decidedly paradoxical. If you were to judge this title based upon its cover (DVD or manga), you would be surprised and stunned if you actually looked inside. While the characters designs are cutesy, their situations and the monstrous aliens they face are anything but; some of the imagery can get downright brutal and grotesque. In my opinion it isn’t overdone, but it may not appeal to anyone who’s particularly squeamish or who doesn’t appreciate a little shock.

And now to the differences between the anime and the manga: While the animation is great, I personally hate the anime. As a standalone story from the manga version, Yuri, the appointed protagonist, remains whiny and pitiful from start to finish without any kind of development. She is far worse than Shinji from Evangelion, if you can believe that. She ends up making the viewers, like myself, depressed for having followed a heroine who never accomplishes anything. Also, the anime picks *the* most *awkward* spot in the manga as its conclusion. The very last shot, right before it blacks out to the closing credits, is a scene where Yuri just looks at the camera and then breaks down in tears. Honestly, I felt scarred and empty after having watched it.

At first I thought it was very unfortunate that I watched the anime before reading the manga version. On second thought, however, it turned out to be rather fortunate – because of it, I was better able to appreciate the superiority of the manga version, which continues the story where the anime left off. Although still pitiful, the Yuri of the manga is just slightly less annoying. At least in the manga’s conclusion (before Emulators) she makes choices which affect the outcome of the story. Whether or not you’d consider her heroic, it’s still a vast improvement in my book.

Now down to the Yuri itself. It is much clearer in the anime version, especially in Episode 3, where Kumi expresses her fondness toward Yuri. Yuri seems uncertain, but then later shows hints of being interested in Kumi as well. Then something weird happens in the fourth and final episode: they’re alone, wearing their helmets to block out some alien emanation that’s causing headaches. Then Kumi takes a look at Yuri, dons a wicked smile, and Yuri starts to panic. The camera cuts to the ceiling, we hear some whining, and Yuri’s clothes fly up. You tell me what happened there…

The Yuri is still there in the manga version, at least on Kumi’s part. Yuri (the character) is not remotely aware of Kumi’s feelings, even though it was said feelings which helped bring about the manga’s conclusion.

When the story continues in Emulators, a whole new alien invasion takes place. Of course. Kasumi, being far less human this time around, tries to set up everything for Kumi to be alone with Yuri, but in the end Kumi’s feelings turn out to be unreciprocated. You might well wonder why Kumi would be attracted to Yuri to begin with. Maybe Kumi’s attracted to the really vulnerable types, in contrast to her own independent nature? Anyway, the ending of Emulators is bittersweet, but everyone turns out more or less okay.

I should also mention that there’s a bonus chapter about a boy who had a crush on Kumi, but he becomes an alien villain targeting Yuri upon discovering the true object of Kumi’s affections.

Aside from the Yuri, Alien Nine is made up of very imaginative science-fiction. One of my favorite elements is from Emulators, where a new half-alien girl, Monami, is introduced, and her long strands of hair seem to have a mind of their own. The storytelling style of Alien Nine is vague; it doesn’t delve into the background to explain everything or everyone. Instead things mostly
just happen, and readers are simply along for the ride. Some people may differ, but I tend to find that sort of style appealing. It entails a lot of shocking revelations – certainly enough to make you want to know what happens next. You’re better off skipping the anime version, but if you feel like checking out something that is very weird and unique, but with a humorous tinge, definitely consider the Alien Nine and Alien Nine: Emulators manga.

Ratings:

Art – 8 (fluctuates between cute and grotesque)
Story – Anime, 4; Manga, 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – Anime, 6; Manga, 5
Service – Anime, 7; Manga, 5 (a couple of bath scenes, involving the alien helmets’ tentacle-like tongues)

Overall – Anime, 3; Manga,  7

Eric, you completely captured my feelings about the anime. ^_^ Thanks again for this review!

Seriously, do you think I ought to create categories for Anime or Manga “With Yuri In It?” Anyway, today’s review was written by guest reviewer Hafl about yet another anime I have never watched. Take it away Hafl!

Myself;Yourself is a quite unsurprising series about a highschooler, who returns to town where he spent his childhood, reunites with his old friends, makes new ones and begins traditional romance with misunderstandings and so on. Then the drama starts to happen. (There are some spoilers ahead, mostly concerning exact nature of the drama.)

The characters in Myself;Yourself are all quite normal human beings, with normal reactions to all that’s happening around them. Main character, Sana, is a kind guy, who suffers from hemophobia and that’s all. Then there are twins Shuusuke and Shuri who have their own storyline, showing that a romance series does not have to revolve only around the main character. Then there is Nanaka, who is Sana’s love interest and hides a trauma from the past. Hinako is the show’s obligatory loli, who provides filler for two episodes and later becomes unimportant. Aoi is a clumsy bookworm with glasses and big breasts, who is also mostly unimportant.

Then, finally, there is Asami, who is the character to provide all the Yuri in the series. Asami is a nice, sympathetic and nobody would ever suspect her of doing anything wrong. Which is the reason why she later does.

The Yuri in Myself;Yourself begins in episode nine with some meaningful looks and is fully revealed in episode eleven. Before the beginning of the series, quiet and reserved Asami became friends with lively Shuri. Later she fell in love with her, confessed and was rejected. They were still friends, but Asami started to hate Shuri and wanted her to suffer as much as possible. Her monologue where she explains all of this also reveals that she is not the mentally stablest member of the cast. After this, Asami disappears from the story except for a short glimpse during the end of the last episode, where she seems like a completely normal, well-adjusted person.

That’s all for the Yuri except for Hinako calling Aoi “Onee-sama” which is sure to be misinterpreted by someone. Also, in one of the episodes Aoi said that in love, gender doesn’t matter, but that almost doesn’t count. However, in the last episode Aoi and Asami are seen sitting next to each other, which can also be misinterpreted.

The story in Myself;Yourself is not much. For the first half it seems just like any other romance series, though without most of their annoyances. In the second half, there’s the aforementioned drama, which is more interesting, but also overblown. There is arson, childhood trauma, attempted murder, attempted suicide, domestic violence, animal sacrifice, psychotic old lady, evil stepmother, false accusation, plausibly deniable incest and dying violin teacher all in space of seven episodes. By the end, I was so weary of all the drama that I was laughing whenever the series heaped yet another trauma on its protagonists. I was actually surprised that there was a happy ending.

As a series Myself;Yourself is decent. Despite the drama, the story isn’t really deep and the characters aren’t all that interesting. It is not worth watching for the yuri, as there is too little. I liked the series because the characters were acting like normal people, but overally it isn’t anything special.

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 3
Service – 2

Overall – 6

That was fabulous, Hafl- I almost want to watch it for the Psycho Lesbian and unlikely happy ending. ^_^ Thanks for such an amusing review!

I may not like everything I read or watch, and there are times were I am likely to be less satisified than others at the portrayal of Yuri in my chosen media, but that’s not because I don’t like Yuri. It’s because I *love* it. This is the classic disease of fans everywhere – we love a thing so much we become intolerant of its tropes and conventions, while we compare it unfavorably to the things we’ve retconned in our heads to be nearly perfect – usually the first thing we ever saw. ^_^

It’s part of my passion for Yuri that I gleefully watch and read loads of crap to comment on the Yuri in it. Folks, I’m here to remind you that we’re watching cartoons and reading comic books. A *lot* of it is crap.

Which brings me to the subject of today’s review, Touka Gettan. ^_^

When Touka Gettan was announced, the majority reaction was, “Ooh, this is by the same people involved with Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito, so it ought to be good.” Cognitive dissonance is built right into the sentence. Here’s how cognitive dissonance works in this case – “This series has Yuri.” “I like Yuri.” “I like this series.” “I can’t possibly like something that isn’t good, because I have good taste, so… Yamibou is good.” Yamibou was certainly Yuri, but how *anyone* could say it was good, is beyond me. ^_^

Needless to say, when Touka Gettan was not good (there really was no reason to think it might be) people were disappointed. And it confused them, which made them angry. Personally, I thought it was howlingly funny. This was a series so bad that I couldn’t even watch it before Claymore to make that better, because Touka Gettan was so bad that it was funny, which didn’t help at all. ^_^

While Touka Gettan definitely had Yuri, I can’t call it a Yuri anime. It seemed like there was some kind of Yuri complication involving just about every female character, but the main relationship is heterosexual, if not “straight.”

The story, which was actually a little more complex than one might expect, involved the meeting of the lead characters in a magical world, in which a mythical past event and a magical current event are connected. Many of the characters are also shaped by a much more recent and “realistic” series of tragedies. The story is told in reverse chronological order (with some plots within specific episodes that couldn’t have been added without the reverse order.) In all honesty, I don’t think I would have been able to sit through this series if it hadn’t been in reverse order. It bothered many viewers, but I thought that it was this series’ one saving grace.

Touka, the anti-hero, is a male version of tsundere – by which I mean he’s a sulky, uncommunicative ass. Momoka, the heroine, is magical, and therefore does inexplicable things. Like fall in love with Touka.

But other than that relationship, the series wades around in a pool of Yuri of all kinds. There’s crushes that will go nowhere (Shouko’s feelings for Makoto) there’s akogare (Makoto’s feeling for Momoka), sisterly “affection,” (Nene and her cat-girl sister) and a threesome between Toukka, his mother and Momoka in which Momoka pretends that it is Touka touching her, not his mother. There’s even one or two relationships that aren’t eye-rollingly awful. I vaguely remember a kiss between two of the magical beings, Juna and Kikyou I think, that looked like it had actual affection behind it. But that was back at the beginning of the series (and therefore at the end of the story) where it is easily forgotten. Also, to ensure that Yamibou fans watched this series, Hatsumi, Hazuki and Lilith appear in one cross-over episode.

So, if you liked Yamibou and go into this open-minded about continuity and quality, it might offer some  entertainment. Given the lack of Yuri in this season, it will at least give you something to stare at until spring. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 5 (The art would make CLAMP sad)
Characters – 5
Story – 2
Yuri – 6
Service – 8

Overall – 4, but I only gave it an extra point because it made me laugh until I hurt

The absolute best thing about Touka Gettan was the woman who did the voiceovers for the title, eyecatch and “to be continued” She spoke the words as if the few things she had to say for this utter tripe might infect her somehow and she wished she could spit it out. Every single episode, when she said “Tsuzuku,” like she wanted to die, I laughed.

A new anime season has opened and Yuri fans are looking high and low for anything with…anything. Yuri just isn’t a popular fetish this season. I’m not sure whether we should be sad or not.

I’m going to take a break from reviewing decent Yuri to comment on things about which I know next to nothing. (For some of you, this seems like S.O.P. here at Okazu, I know. ^_^) And to make it worse, I’m going to pepper what little I do know with spoilers, because I don’t care. :-)

Age before beauty, so we’ll start with Dragonaut – The Resonance, which isn’t a Winter series at all. It started quite a while ago. I just never got around to mentioning it before. This anime appears to be a speculative fantasy that combines the two eternally popular themes of dragons and the possible end of all life as we know it. It is not a comedy. I was informed that there was at least one Yuri-ish couple or, as the sage Katie put it, “ambiguously Yuri couple is ambiguous.” There’s plenty of screencaps that place Akira and Machina within touching distance of one another – and you know what that means. In later developments, I’m also informed that a character named Nanami exhibits trace elements of Yuri. These tendencies are removed from infecting any other characters by the usual standard procedure of killing the lesbians.

I haven’t watched Dragonaut and don’t intend to, so if someone wants to write a coherent review of this series, I’ll be glad to consider posting it.

Next up is These Are My Noble Masters which started out on the wacky side, then slid quickly into Love Hina-esque endless scenes of the lead male “accidentally” seeing the lead females in states of undress. God how hysterical that was. Especially the 500th time. I mean, it just gets funnier and funnier. Masters follows the comedic adventures of a brother and sister who are running from a tragic backstory and find themselves employed by three immensely rich and completely self-indulgent young women, each of which represents a couple of currently popular fetishes. This series *is* a comedy – in case you can’t tell.

Beni, the head maid, is unhealthily obsessed with her mistress. In an early scene, we have Beni giving her mistress Shinra a tongue bath in the bath, with extra leg fondling. I tried to watch this series, but not even an eye-patch wearing woman in vest, tie and pants couldn’t make me continuing watching it. She even wore it on the right eye. :(

And lastly, Shigofumi.The plot of Shigofumi is interestingly similar to that of the manga series Epitaph, which is running right now in Yuri Hime. Fumika and her adorably petulant wand Kanaka deliver letters from the dead to the living. Tragedy and misery abound. (Also not a comedy. In case you didn’t get that.)

Looks like we have a Yuri flashback, with an unspoken promise to be tragic. I was expecting a Jigoku Shoujo-like series, with mostly episodic morality plays, but after three episodes, this series is showing signs of being vaguely interesting. Ueda Kana as Fumika helps. Ueda Kana involved a tragic lesbian backstory helps more. I’ll watch this tonight and see what happens. I expect it to be a one-shot. (Post-watching comment. One-shot yes, tragic no. Not a flashback. So that’s kind of nice.)

Yuri fans can look forward to horror-series Mnemosyne, and we can always make soup from stones with Aria, but this season is weak indeed.

I’ll try and do a few more anime wrap-ups from the distant past soonish, and we can all move on. :-)