Back in February of last year, guest reviewer Sean Gaffney had brought to our attention a series called Broken Angels. I read Volume 1, but did not follow the series closely. A few weeks ago, I ran into an unguarded copy of Broken Angels, Volume 3, picked it up and began to read. Bear in mind as you read today’s review, I have not read any other volumes but 1 and 3. But, based on those two volumes, I definitely can’t call this a Yuri series. In fact, it’s almost anti-Yuri in the sense that with every single chapter I’ve read a female character *seems* to be in love with or to desire another woman (who usually is a crossdresser) but is, in every case, really in love with a guy with whom she is incapable of communicating. In a sense, her apparent desire for the girl is a beard for her real desire. All much too confusing for me, honestly. The fact that all the women who apparently want our crossdressing heroine Sunao are broken, while being true to the title, puts me off no end.

In this particular volume, Sunao is jumped by crazy beeatch Saya who, after Sunao lives up to her name and doesn’t resist when Saya attempts to molest her, (Sunao in Japanese translates to something like meekly obedient) comes to realize that she doesn’t want Sunao, she wants the guy who treats her like a goddess, and whom she treats very badly.

The second story arc I found uneccesarily confusing and random, as Sunao, joined by her guardian and the crazy Student Council President, travels to some town for NO REASON to help fix the next Broken Angel, a girl who, in a brilliantly unique storyline, appears to be in love with a crossdressing girl but is really in love with a guy.

After two volumes (because of course I have not read Volume 2) I know exactly these things about Sunao: she wears boy’s clothing “for her own reasons” and she has a supernatural control over water. Oh, and she has the personality of a dishrag. None of the above have been explained in the two volumes I have read. Perhaps in a future volume they might be – OTOH, as the other crossdressing female character is said to wear boy’s clothes “for her own reasons” (and no, I’m not exaggerating – the sentence was exactly the same both times, which actually made me laugh out loud) I’m not too hopeful that any details will ever be filled in.

So, in this case the crossdressing, like any Yuri, is played entirely for titillation/service. The girls wear boy’s clothing “for their own reasons” none of which are ever explained and their gender identity is never really established, or even considered. It’s basically just “chicks in suits look cool.” Which is absolutely fine, but not enough to make me keep reading the series. The broken angels’ stories are far too much like a broken record for my taste.

Ratings:

Art – 6 It’s pretty, but the panels layout is a train wreck (to quote someone’s comment on Chi-Ran’s book here.)
Characters – 6 There are three character types who just keep appearing over and over with different names
Story – 6 Same as above
Yuri – 5, all service
Service – 5

Overall – 6 (Which, to clarify for my wife, means “I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like it”)

I think I’m just too old for this series. The angst of “I like this person, but ‘fill in some absurd reason’ so I can’t be with/tell him” is just too exhausting for me.

Last day of Chicagoing. Wifey, Donna and Serge and I decided to hit Chinatown, which was about 11 blocks square. We started with snacks and drinks at Saint’s Alps, which was really pleasant, then proceeded to shop for crap we didn’t need in all the stores. Serge and I amused ourselves by shopping for Guan Gong figures.(Guan Gong is the deified Guan Yu, who is the source character for Kanu Unchou in Ikkitousen.)

That pretty much killed most of the day. We were dropped off at our hotel, said a tearful goodbye (not really) and have been sitting here listening to the multiude of noises that these hotel walls allow in since. (When I saw that the hotel was supposed to have sound-proofed rooms I lost it and wrote customer service on the website. They’ve groveled a bit, but the bill is wrong and I am SO ready to get out of here…definitely NEVER stay at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare.)

So now I’ve been in Illinois twice. It’s time to take on another state. I’m looking for academic programs to fly me in for a lecture. Some other day, I’ll list all the states I haven’t been to, and see about getting there. lol

Since this is my last Chicago post, let me once again thank all the folks at ACen for their kindness!

I’ll see you back in beautiful New Jersey. ;-)

Day Three of Chicago. We decided to trade in sitting on public transportation for sitting in traffic, which was a pale imitation of the unspeakable horror that is the traffic going into NYC on any given moment. In other words, it was fine.

We found the Art Institute and it was, as my wife had said, wonderful. I’m only sorry I won’t be able to go back and see the rest. I did see Wood’s American Gothic and was suitably impressed. If I have learned anything at all, it’s that reproductions simply do not ever capture the true qualities of a painting.

But that was not what really made the day. What really made the day was that, when we parked, there was an elevator to go up to street level – which was visible through the elevator. The stairs to street level numbered exactly four. I can’t really begin to describe how funny this looked. (Obviously, it was for wheelchairs, and the elevator did go down to the other floors, but from where we were, it just looked hilarious.) On the way back, Bruce and wifey took the elevator down, all two and a half feet, and left us all gasping for breath, because, as I said, it just looked funny.

We saw Nabeshin at the museum. We didn’t bother him. Donna smiled a little like, “Oh, I know you” and that was it. She still felt that she might have creeped him out a bit.

After walking ourselves ragged looking at some really exceptional art, we went to a Tapas restaurant in Lincoln Park (an inutterably yuppie area.) The food was stellar and our waitress totally GOT our humor and did a great job.

It doesn’t sound like we did much, really, but it took all day to do it and we were really tired when we finished!

Today we do Chinatown and then, when I come back, maybe you’ll get a review – after I finish the book I’m reading. :-)

In the last two days, I have been on plane, train, automobile and foot, all for too long. :-)

Honestly, I never thought that any place could surpass my own beloved NJ for having miserable, unreliable public transportation, or New York, for having uncomfortable, filthy trains. Chicago now wins.

But we did manage to get to the Oriental Insititute (and were only accosted by three annoying people on the way. One crazy, one panhandler and one proselytizer.) The train lurched along at the slowest rate I’ve ever seen a form of transportation move in my life. Took us three hours to make what should have been a one hour trip…

And when Donna and Serge arrived, we dropped by the local Mitsuwa which was nice enough. Bought some manga (I know, how retarded is that?) and some food and then came back to get badges.

Anime Centeral is 6 for 1 on asistance. The first *4* people we asked where to go (staffers with walkie-talkies) said something that sounded like this. “I don’t know, but I think you should go halfway across the world and try there.” 3 staffers started to “take” me, by walking off – even though they had no clue where to go. One said he’d find out and come get us. We watched him him get sidetracked by people saying hi to him, and then as he wandered off, completely forgetting about us. It was a stunning display of short term memory issues. :-)

Now, for my part, from the first time I asked for directions, when a person started to walk to “take” us somewhere I stopped them, and commented that the appropriate thing to do is to use the walkie-talkie and find out *where* were were going – a simple point in the right direction would have been fine.

Does it strike you as odd that NONE of these people knew where exhibitors had to go to check in? And only one, after checking with the voice on the other side of the walkie-talkie had a place for Panelists to check in. (He got the name of the room wrong, but that really wasn’t his fault, it was hard to hear with all the noise.)

So we eventually get checked in as Exhibitors and I really want to thank the folks a ACen for making that possible. (The Exhibitor’s Hall is opening even as I type, but I’m barely awake. I’ll get there in a bit…must have coffee…..)

Then we trek back to my hotel to find Panelist check in. So we followed the signs. Oh wait, no we didn’t because there are NO Signs! Anywhere. Not a single to indicate panel rooms, panel programming ops. nothing. But we found the right room and met Justin and Lynn (I think) and they were very very gracious.

So, as I suspected, the level of organization here is next to nil, but the folks are really lovely. (And the wife says, “and very helpful, even if they don’t know what they are doing.”) Now it’s time for coffee and brekkie and I’ll waddle over to set the booth up. If I have a chance to, I’ll post and tell you all about ACen. :-)

Let’s con! Yay! @_@

Along with all the Yuri-friendly OVAs like Maria-sama ga Miteru, Ichigo Mashimaro, Mai Otome Zwei and the “keeping our fingers crossed” Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny, and the “Yuri, but who cares” (lol) Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora, and the “not really Yuri, but with a lesbian character” (one excellent, one pathetic) Red Garden and Code Geass, all of which I have reviewed here, there are a few other anime that came out this winter with sort of dribbles of Yuri that aren’t really “Yuri anime.” So I’ve lumped them together for today’s review.

First up is a anime whose manga I have been following since its inception in Dengeki Daioh magazine, Manabi Straight. I did not peg this as an anime of Yuri interest, since the manga, while incredibly charming and cute and appallingly loli (the characters are meant to be in *high school*…I mean really…) has just about as no Yuri as it can have. The girls are all very huggy, and there’s lots of friendship…but no Yuri. The anime has upped the fanservice level considerably…in ways that frankly make me uncomfortable at times in some episodes…and has *strongly* upped the Yuri implications between nearly every main character. It is possible to pair up both Mikan and Mei with nearly any other main character, if one was so inclined to do so. So, while I personally don’t consider this a “Yuri” anime, there’s no doubt many will.

The story is fairly straightforward: Manabi is a transfer student into Seioh High, and brings with her an enormous amount of energy and passion for experiencing a fun school life. Sadly, students in this future time have had most of their joie de vivre sucked right out of them and Manabi and her friends, who become the school student council, have an uphill battle to bring their vision to the students of the school.

If you can ignore the service – and it’s much less prominent as the series goes on – it’s got some great qualities. Although it lacks the Yuri, the manga also lacks the service, so I’m sticking with that.

Secondly, let’s take a look at Saint October – an anime made by Konami, and which reeks of really being a game in a thin disguise. Our heroine, Kotono, pitches in part time at a detective agency in a fictitious city. There have been a rash of kidnappings, all targeting young boys – so, of course, Kotono walks right into the middle of one. As she strives to protect the boy, he gives Kotono mysterious magical powers as “Loli Black” (and in this case, it’s *supposed* to be indicative of the Goth-Loli outfit she wears as a costume.) The boy was, in fact, the target of the evil baddie…for what reason, we don’t learn by the time I stopped watching this anime. It’s pretty basic Monster of the Day vs Magical Girl fare. I did like the evil baddie, who is played entirely for laughs and the Tarot imagery on both sides…but other than that, snooze.

Yuri comes in the form of Natsuki, Kotono’s very best friend ever, and her future partner as “Loli White” (they will later be joined by “Loli Red”, as well) who idolizes Kotono and uses her family’s impossible wealth to make Kotono “goods” – wall scrolls, figurines, body pillows, etc. Natsuki’s obsession/desire for Kotono puts her at odds with Ewan, Kotono’s pet boy victim. After we establish that Nastuki is hopelessly in love with Kotono, we drop the issue, probably forever. I sincerely doubt we’ll ever hear of it again outside fan art or fiction.

Lastly, let’s take a look at Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou. Completely unlike the previous series (which are both bishoujo series) Tokyo Majin is a grim fighting series that is also a game. A bunch of high school kids (who, for once, look their age, especially compared with the two previous series) find themselves fighting demons and monsters in their area of town. This is a grim, dark and depressing Monster of the Day series. The fight scenes are largely metaphorical energy-type fighting, but that doesn’t stop lots of blood from gouting. It also doesn’t ever kill anyone.

Yuri in the series can be summed up in a sentence. Komaki likes Aoi and they fight monsters together. Komaki’s skill is in archery, so I kind of liked the scenes where she got to do her thing, but she’s not the lead female, so it was Aoi’s mysterious mystical energy and desire to protect her companions that saves the day. (Must drive all the others crazy, because of all of them Aoi has the least fighting skills, while the rest are mostly highly trained weapons and hand-to-hand combat specialists. On the other hand, she’s cuter than the rest of them, so there you go.) I stopped watching this one, not because it was particularly awful, but it was a tad boring. Every other episode was decent, which isn’t enough to keep my attention when I’m trying to keep up with a dozen series at once.

Ratings:

Manabi Straight

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 5
Service – 8

Overall – 6

Saint October

Art – 3 (For Goth-Loli costumes made with love, watch Rozen Maiden instead)
Story – 4
Characters – 3
Yuri – 2
Service – 3

Overall – 4

Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou

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

Overall – 6

Nothing here that’s brilliant but, depending on what you like, you may find something to watch.

(Oh and I just realized I should have covered Pretty Cure 5 here too, but I didn’t. Oh well. ^_^