I’m home, I’m jet lagged and I now have *three* piles of things to review, not including the doujinshi. And the toys. What is wrong with us? We have an entire bag just full of “stuff.” Omamori from shrines, character goods, gashapon, you know – stuff. I found all but four things on my “to get” list and of those one was older and more obscure, while the other three just managed to not be released before I left.

Some of the things I managed to get are: Maria’s Wink, the first volume of a Marimite anthology. I already had 2. I managed to find Rising Impact, a golf manga that was the subject of several Jesus Drug Yuri doujinshi. The downside was that I found *17* volumes of it. There was no way I was bringing all that home, so I settled on the first four and if I like it, I’ll look for the rest at Book-Off.

Got Girlfriends, and a pile of new Yuri Hime collections by Chi-Ran, Morishima Akiko, Takahashi Mako (bleah) and Hakamada Mera (bleah.) But I drew the line at Nanami to Misuzu and Apple Day Dream, because those two series are so very unfun. Amazingly, I found Yuri iro Rasen, an h-manga I never expected to see, and some weird-ass thing I’d never heard of before called, I swear, Pariah no Sono, which is yet another Marimite ripoff by a person with some serious problems. :-) I can’t wait to review it, because it is so seriously wrong in every direction. I also picked up a series Magie Paire, by an artist I don’t care for, Takagi Nobuyuki (Kokoro Library, Pure Marionation, Cassiopea Dolce) because like so much of his stuff, it is Yuri. But bleah.

After forgetting to look until like the last day, I managed to remember to get Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora Volume 3 and also found a used copy of Saber Twinkle Nova 3 with Drama CD! yay! And of course, Yuri Hime S Volume 3.

I also found both El Cazador Drama CDs, got Ogata Megumi’s latest CD and seem to have picked up something from Aria I don’t remember buying. lol

I bought as much series goods as I could find, but of them, my favorite is a “mail block” screen for the cell phone. It’s clear plastic that I can see through, red, with the Lillian logo (so, Rosa Chinensis) but from the side, it’s opaque and all you can see is the logo. So no one can read as you text. Not a problem here, but there, where everyone is emailing/texting all the time, it is.

Most fun of all, I got the newest Marimite novel – the 32nd book in the series – Kira Kira Mawaru – and so far, it’s been awesome. Some serious “whoa~!” stuff in there. :-)

Oh, and because in the last round of “Utter Nonsense” someone asked me if I read any non-Japanese stuff, I wrote down my reading list for the trip for you. :-)

Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George – this book dragged on for *ever.* I didn’t think it would ever end. Long past caring who killed Kenneth and why, the book just kept on going. And worst, I was supposed to care. I resent that.

Icebreaker by John Gardner – what a hoot. I haven’t read a Bond book in ages and ages. Gardner is a damn good writer and I’ve always liked him. He renders the Bond mythos into its most basic components, changes the color, setting and names and whacks out a perfectly hysterical, well-written parody of itself. I laughed through the entire book. As it’s supposed to be an action thriller, that maybe wasn’t what he wanted, but given Gardner’s penchant for the absurd, maybe it was.

Murder by the Book by Rex Stout – have you guessed that I’m a Stout fan? I admit it. I’m in love with Archie Goodwin. I can’t help it – he’s so charming, and he geniunely *likes* and enjoys women in a way that no other male character ever has. Stout books are easy on the brain and fun. This one was just as good as any other. I’m still reading the last book I brought, also by Stout, Over My Dead Body in which we learn that Nero Wolfe has a daughter. Huh, how ’bout that?

I braved Comiket for things like Fujieda Miyabi’s calendar, which I find I cannot live without – next year I’ll have to pull strings to get one – and UGO’s most awesome bag that depicts Touko face down on the ground, while Yumi holds her tate-rolls and says “Nice Drill” in English. I stood on an amazingly long line for Shoujo Kingdom’s doujinshi, but no line at all for Pen Pen Gusa Club (who said in English “thank you for your support,”) Raku-Gun or Crush, which just goes to show you that there’s no accounting for taste. I bought a really, exceptionally filthy doujinshi from Fancy Free (he of the Marimite characters licking penis-shaped “ice pops”) after I read it in front of him so he knew I knew what it was, just to watch him boggle. LOL I made a bunch of guys laugh, when I pounced from about ten feet away, after seeing that they did Miu x Chika non-hentai doujinshi a series called 15 Mashimaro. They have okay art, but the stories are good and they totally *get* the dynamic between Chika and Miu. I found Studio Canopus to be one very serious-looking woman, who is still putting out gorgeous Haruka x Michiru work. And it was a pleasure to revisit UKOZ and Sakuraike and see what they have this year, all of which was as awesome as ever.

The wife discovered yet *another* series about a tall, thin victorian dressed demon, which makes something like four series or so that she likes of the type. And she bought some Yu-Gi-Oh doujinshi by a circle she adores, and some guinea pig doujinshi for a friend. And post cards with fabulous Goth Loli girls with weapons. We have a frame by the kitchen sink and she rotates the pictures in it with stuff by this circle.

Of everything I got, the thing that stands out in my mind is the last page of a doujinshi by Pen Pen Gusa, in which Shizuma as Etoile of St. Miator, visits Lillian’s Yamayurikai. On the very last page, Yoshino asks Eriko if she met the Etoile, to which Eriko replies, “Oh, we’ve know each other for ages, after all, we share a seiyuu.” :-) That still makes me laugh. (Which makes for a fun fanfic idea that would actually make a bad story about how Eriko, Shizuma, Nobue and Letti all hang out.)

We spent some time with Rica Takashima, as always a blast to be around, and got to see Ivy for a little while. It was absolutely fabulous to see her again. :-)

More Tokyo stories as I get unwound- I took notes and everything. :-) I have a guest review by Sean Gaffney ready to go, so I hope to get that up later today and I’ll be back up and reviewing soon! (I have to – I’ve got huge piles to work on. Maybe I’ll take a picture for you, so you can see what madness looks like….)

Once again, I am stealth posting, just to wish you all a happy new year. We survived three brutal days of Comiket and today are heading off for a brutal day of making our shrine visits.

I’m reading the latest Marimite novel and so far Sachiko fails to capitalize on a chance for high sexiness. Poor Yumi.

You’ll get you details when I get back, promise. :-)

Have a healthy happy new year!

I’m back from vacation, and lightly toasted marshmallow in color. I learned that if you have to order a drink by color, it’s not so good. I dubbed my purple drink the “Robitussin Colada.” But all the other colors were good. Orange was my favorite – they made a mean Tequila Sunset.

I want to be perfectly clear about today’s review. I am reviewing the Claymore anime because while appreciate everyone suggesting I watch it, I’m kind of tired explaining to people why I didn’t think it was all that, much less a bag of chips.

I was told by *many* people how awesome and win Claymore was before I watched it, but since I never really listen to anyone, I had no great expectations for it. I was not disappointed. I can only conjecture that the reason that so many people thought it was brilliant is that I am 20 year older than all of you and I was around for the great Fantasy wave of the 70s and 80s. There was nothing at all unique about Claymore that I could see. The territory it covered has been done many many times over. And more gay-ly too – see Mercedes Lackey’s books. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t awful. It just wasn’t “teh awesome.” If you weren’t around when every single author in the world was churning out long series of Sword-and-Sorcery, D&D-ish, Lord of the Rings-esque quest style books, then you will probably think it’s pretty cool.

Claymore is a sword-and-demon quest story. The great warriors are all female, all half-demon themselves, called by the uncommonly expository and helpfully prejudiced and hateful villagers “Claymores.” Which described their swords well enough. There are 47 Claymores at any one time, and their own organization also helpfully exploits and neglects them, so we have two quests for vengeance. Our protagonist, Clare, has a tragic backstory in which her family is slaughtered, her village rejects her and she becomes the protege of the coolest, most powerful Claymore extent, Teresa.

There’s pretty much no question that the Teresa/Clare arc is the best bit of the story. Teresa is undoubtedly cool. Clare grows less annoying as the arc goes on. It has to end tragically, of course. Duh. ^_^

So now we are supposed to understand why Clare picks up Raki, a kid with the same tragic backstory as her own. Unfortunately for us, Raki is also a huge whiner. Pretty much any scene without Raki was good.

The main theme of the anime is Clare’s quest to grow stronger to avenge Teresa. It’s a decent enough plot, completely with lots of power-ups, team-building and traveling – all the usual elements of a good D&D story. The voice actresses are good to excellent, with four of my top five getting significant roles, so that made me happy. The end of the anime, while in no way the end of the story, was pretty much as expected, so it worked for me. The music was very good in places, as well.

Because after the first few episodes, Serge and I realized that what other people saw as “awesome” we were seeing as “okay,” we started watching crappy anime first, in order to increase Claymore’s awesomeness. We watched Hitohira which we both thought was painfully awful so it worked well. And we tried Touka Gettan but that was SO bad it was funny and it became distracting, so it failed as a opening act. Each week we were so glad to be done with Hitohira, it did indeed help any scene without Raki to become better. Unfortunately, whenever he was on the screen, the level of good dropped significantly. I can’t think of a more sniveling whiner in any anime I’ve ever watched.

There was no Yuri in Claymore. Teresa and Clare did indeed have a deep love for one another. I do not doubt that. Their relationship was the high point of the series for me, as well anyone else. But were they “in love”? Did they want to be lovers? Unequivocally no. Sisters, guardian-ward, even mother-daughter. Yes.

This is a series full of deep battlefield emotions. Blood sisters, sword sisters. If the characters had been John Wayne as Teresa and some young strapping lad as Clare, you wouldn’t pair them up. It’s a battlefield buddy sort of story. People who happen to be women facing life and death situations together, relying upon one another to watch each other’s backs. And I see a lot of deep bonding there. But not that thing that *I* see as Yuri – two women who are drawn together by love and wanting to be lovers. Jeanne, for instance. She owed her life to Clare and wanted to repay that. She certainly followed Clare, like a retainer follows a beloved lord, full of admiration, worship and yes, a kind of love. I didn’t see it as a desire for Clare or a desire to be with Clare in the sense of being girlfriends with Clare.

If you press me, I’d say that Helen and Deneve had the best, only, chance of becoming lovers of all the Claymores we saw. And only by the very end.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7 without Raki, 5 with
Characters – 8 except Raki who was a 4
Yuri – 1
Service – 5 +1 for the insistence on Yuri where it hath none

Overall – 6 +1 when watched after something that sucked massively

It’s a war story with swords instead of guns and Youma instead of Nazis. Not bad, but certainly not ground-breaking. Or Yuri.