Archive for the Kannazuki no Miko Category


Yuri Anime: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 3

April 24th, 2007

All the things I liked about Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 3 are things that no one else cares about…and ditto the things that I don’t like. ^_^

But before I start on any of these, let me begin by thanking Daniel for his sponsorship of today’s review! Yay, Daniel! Thank you kindly. ^_^

There is basically nothing I can say about Kannazuki no Miko that will change anyone’s opinion – and no matter how many people tell me that it’s a great series, it will never really change my opinion, so I guess I’ll just comment randomly. ^_^

Volume 3 covers everything that happens after Chikane embraces the evil of Orochi, Souma determines that he will fight to his death to protect Himeko and Himeko decides that whatever happens, she has to know the truth about Chikane, and why she has made the choices that she has.

The scene that is supposed to give us insight into the Orochi’s obsessions is very weak. The glimpse into their issues in the Drama CD was significantly better. I still believe that a more detailed look at these would have been interesting. “Betrayed by…” we are told, each Orochi with a supposed cause for them turning to the dark side. And yet, all of the things that made sense (like war) happen all the time. If that was enough, there’d be way more than 8 Orochi wandering around. And how, I wonder, was Miyako “betrayed by God”??

In contrast, Chikane’s obsession is explored in great detail. And I did like the way she, under cover of arrogant competence, destroys the other Orochi. That was cool – too bad nothing stays dead long in anime. Evil Chikane has poise that good Chikane completely lacks.

I will never be convinced of the logic of Chikane’s plot to make Himeko kill her. It really doesn’t make any sense, but what do I know – I’m only a writer, editor and publisher.  I remain unrepentant.

There is no doubt that the end is a decidedly Yuri ending. What I’m not convinced of is that the girl gets the girl. We see the two of them reincarnated (as Chikane predicted) in our world, far from the magic land of Mahoraba, but if what we’ve seen is a repeating cycle, there’s no reason to think that it won’t just happen again.

The thing I liked the absolute best has to be the idea that the classical gods of Japan are actually giant robots. There’s something so karmic and cosmic and…satisfying…about that. At any rate, it *would* explain the ubiquity, wouldn’t it? ^_^

Oh, and here’s a final bit of curmudgeonliness:

Himeko and Chikane’s final confessions of love are pretty sweet. Good thing Chikane was dying from a stomach wound and had so much time for them to talk and resolve their issues, huh?

It was also a good thing that Souma’s eternal curse turned out to be a latex suit that his deceased brother was able to cut him out of with a single cut. That was kind of a relief.

This DVD is a pretty nice package, with spiffy cover a mini-pencil board of hawt yuri secks by the manga artist and a inside cover of same. 4 episodes and the “extras” of non-credit OP/EP and Geneon advertising. (It is not unreasonable to think of a company’s advertising as NOT being an extra.)

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 7 (apparently the most sexy thing about underage cat girl nurses is their butt sticking up. I had no idea.)

Overall – 7

It’s really not bad. I enjoyed the whole series – more this time than the first time, probably. Chikane and Himeko are a cute couple, when they finally get there. But I will go to the grave saying that it simply makes no sense. ^_^





Yuri Drama CD: Kannazuki no Miko: Kimi no Mau Butai

April 5th, 2007

Are you sitting down? I hope so, because I’m going to say something that might shock you. Kannazuki no Miko Drama CD: Kimi no Mau Butai is…good, maybe even excellent. Seriously, it is. In fact, I can’t actually think of anything about this Drama CD that was bad, and parts of it are laugh out loud funny.

Since this DCD is actually made up of several interconnecting plots. I’ll do my best to summarize here:

It all begins with a bizarre gag with Souma and his brother Tsubasa, where they appear to be fighting but are actually playing baseball. Or maybe it’s the other way around. In any case – this gag with varying alternates on the gag part is repeated endlessly throughout the CD. Keep this in the back of your mind. It’ll be back.

It is school festival time. Both Souma and Chikane are starring in an original play as Prince and Princess. They are, of course, princely and princessly and everyone is squealing with delight as they swear their love, etc, etc. Himeko is also moved, even from her place as the person who cleans up backstage.

One night, after a meal (full of shitake mushrooms, thanks to Otoha’s loving care) Chikane asks Himeko to help her practice her lines. At first Himeko plays the prince, but Chikane asks her to play the princess, her role, so she can get a feel for Ohgami’s role. Himeko assents, and Chikane gets to swear eternal love to Himeko via her lines. There are several very amusing interruptions (complete with romantic violins screeching to a halt) by Otoha as Chikane attempts to get into the part. Himeko is freaked out by her reaction to Chikane’s embrace and muses out loud that it’s as if she’s in love with Chikane. Which freaks Chikane out.

Later, as the festival approaches, Souma asks Himeko if she’d help him practice his lines. Same scene, minus Otoha’s interruptions, but this time the tension is broken when Chikane appears and interrupts them at the crucial scene.

The play is a great success, but Chikane blows off her hordes of admirers to accompany Himeko around the festival grounds – to their great annoyance.

At this point, we get scattered scenes to let us know that the Orochi are all here at the festival and wreaking havoc wherever they go, some of which are rather amusing. In fact, throughout this CD, we get little vignettes which give us a pretty good idea of how and why these particular people became Orochi and what their major malfunctions are. Like the opening gag, put this concept on a back burner, but don’t lose it.

Chikane presents Himeko with a volume of manga by her favorite mangaka, and my third favorite Orochi, Reiko-sensei. Chikane has things to do, so she leaves Himeko on line for an autograph. During the signing, Reiko is really rude in response to Himeko’s fangirlishness, which puts Himeko in a sad mood. This is followed up by a cruel scene in which her former roommate, Mako-chan’s, sempai on the track team lays into her. Mako-chan pulls sempai away, but doesn’t have a word to say to Himeko. It is this moment that the Orochi choose to attack.

The Orochi who is a pop idol wannabe, Korona, calls this her ultimate performance. Korona throws herself at Souma, trying to seduce him to the dark side of the force and a little Orochi-doushi. Himeko’s screams breaks the spell and he rejects her forcibly, which pisses her off. Reiko-sensei who had her buttons pushed earlier joins in and of course, the rest of the Orochi jump on the chance.

Chikane runs away with Himeko, leaving Souma to fend for himself. Which he does, but pfft, who cares, Chikane got the girl – again.

After the carnage is over and the destruction is being cleared away, we get a framework of Reiko-sensei working on her next manga chapter. Chikane, in a separate but related scene, asks Himeko what she likes so much about Reiko-sensei’s manga. Himeko tries to explain but fails, until she tells Chikane all about the scene in which Asuka, the heroine, confesses her love for the princess. Chikane is all of a sudden much more interested in the manga, who’d have thunk it? Himeko acts out the part of Asuka’s confession of love to her dear friend. After she’s done, she asks why Chikane has that expression on her face and Chikane, in a moment of incredible genius says that she was thinking about something else and didn’t hear Himeko – could she go over that all again. Guileless Himeko complies happily, so excited that Chikane is interested in her manga now. ^_^ The framework ends with a bizarre scene of Reiko being extra super-duper rude to her editor. I really have to listen to this bit again, because I know there was important stuff I missed.

The final track is pure genius. Sister Miyako is holding confession for your sins. Each one of the “confessions” is funnier than the last and with each one, Sister Miyako loses patience sooner with the confessor and punches them out. The best one, by far, is when Himeko comes in to “confess”. Her hemming and hawing makes Miyako more and more impatient. When Himeko digresses into a long discussion of what Chikane is wearing, Miyako finally punches her out with a curt “Shut up already.” It’s hysterical, trust me. This track is where we really get a detailed glimpse of the Orochi and their issues. The whole track is really unique and interesting for that alone…but Sister Miyako whacking everyone just cracks me up.

After the end of this final track, we get a two minute long silence, and one last repeat of that weird gag with Tsubasa and Souma. Souma’s confused screams end the Drama CD.

Okay, so can anyone guess why I don’t dislike this CD? It’s not that it doesn’t have angst. It’s that it doesn’t have inexplicable behaviors. Everyone’s behavior and choices are entirely consistent with the personalities given to us in the anime. (And it is based on the anime, not the manga, for what it’s worth.) Internal consistency=win. The fact that my three favorite Orochi (Sister Miyako, Korona and Reiko, in that order) and Chikane and Himeko Yuri-service all get big spotlights helps, too.

The fact that it’s damn funny is icing on the cake. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – not entirely applicable, but I like what’s on the cover and in the booklet – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 3

Overall – 8

If only the anime or manga had been more like this.





Yuri Anime: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 2

January 9th, 2007

I was torn today. Do I review some of the backlogged stuff I have to review, or review new stuff I have to review, or finally get around to a roundup of the anime season this winter?

After agonizing over it for a while (like twenty minutes on and off throughout the day) I’ve decided to get something old out of the way, because I’m sick of looking it on my list. :-) And because it makes a nice lead-in to a new anime.

So, here I am, at last reviewing the second volume of the Kannazuki no Miko anime. It practically seems like ancient history at this point, a thought which is funnier to me than it ought to be, but I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that my body thinks it’s 4AM right now. ^_^

So, in Volume 2 of Kannazuki no Miko, we are treated to the back histories of the two who are competing for Himeko’s love: Souma and Chikane. We learn, mostly through flashbacks, of Souma’s tragic and difficult past; and why the Orochi’s first neck, Tsubasa, has issues about Souma particularly. Chikane’s past and personality are fleshed out a bit through the admittedly biased eyes of her adoring maid Otoha. In both cases, we are meant to admire the strength and kindness of the character. Which works.

What each story also reveals is the true nature of the Orochi – obsession turned to mania, obsessions that use flawed logic to further the plot. And here is where the story simply is not good. I know no one cares. But I really watched this volume carefully to try and pinpoint the things that make this such a train wreck of a story. It had to be in *this* volume and no other, because the anime is so short.

Here is the first flawed logic that leads up to an inexplicable decision. Tsubasa: “I killed our abusive father to protect you, my brother. I then let you be taken from me to give you a chance at a happy life, while I resigned myself to a life of hardship. Now that I have the power of the Orochi, I want you to give up your happy life that I strived for, in order to be evil with me…or failing that I will kill you, or force you to kill me. If you kill me, you will still be taken over by the evil blood within us.”

I will grant that KnM is A) a fantasy; B) a short anime; C) crap, but even so, this simply makes no sense. And that is not even taking into consideration that no one we defeat stays defeated (or that the end of the story will negate any power the threat of “Orochi” has.)

That’s just the one story. The other is this: Sister Miyako forces Chikane to see her own feelings for Himeko for what they actually are – physical attraction, desire. It is sensible to me, having been in a similar situation, to see Chikane leap through hoops to deny this. It is also sensible that she will not just accept her feelings. It’s damned hard when you have no models or mores that make it “okay.” (One of the many reasons I live my life in the open and why being out is genuinely so important here in the real world. If Chikane had a pair of happy, openly gay aunts or cousins or something, then she’d have no cause to angst over her feelings half as much.)

I can make it work that Orochi infiltrates Chikane’s brain through this crack. I can do that, because I’m an imaginative, creative person. If I had written the story, I would have done that visibly, so the viewers could actually see it happening. Instead, we suddenly go from a Chikane who desires Himeko but denies it, to a Chikane apparently mad with Orochi and obsession. Sure – we can make it work. But I resent being asked to do so. You wrote the damn story – you make it work.

Here’s my understanding of Chikane’s logic: I desire you, but that’s disgusting. Therefore I am disgusting. Therefore I am evil. Therefore I am Orochi, since Orochi is the embodiment of evil and perversion of all that is good and light, i.e. you. I have remembered our true history, and can see that you do not. Under the pretext of trying to bring back your memory, I will do something horrible to you so that you will hate me (and the Orochi I claim to be part of) and will want to defeat it (and me) thus saving yourself. If I save you in that way, the ends justify the means, and I condemn myself to the eternal punishment I deserve anyway for being so vile.

If you follow that, you are probably certifiable. Or 15.

When Chikane’s resolve to be punished fails, her logic, which is already flawed, gets more complex and inexplicable, but I’ll save that for next volume.

So, in my attempt to understand Volume 2 as a real story, I come up with these two conclusions: 1) Obsessions are bad and 2) Obsessed people make bad decisions.

Now, if you ignore the fact that much of the story makes no sense, it’s a pretty good volume. LOL Lots of giant robot fighting, bickering among the female Orochi which is marginally amusing, and lots of Himeko service. We pretty much get to see Himeko in every possible kind of dishabille, for both good and ill. Souma takes the lead in the “Get Himeko” contest, but if it weren’t for Chikane’s insanity, she might have pulled even. Instead, she forces the issue in the infamous lesbian rape scene, making yet another bad rap for us Yurizoku.

More interesting to me was the scene involving Sister Miyako’s mental rape of Chikane, using a mirror image of Himeko. It’s pretty much the key moment in Chikane’s snapping. I liked the mindfuck going on – and Sister Miyako, who doesn’t look like any nun, anywhere, ever, was worth it. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 5 (Let’s face it, without the lesbian element, hardly anyone would have watched this)
Characters – 6
Yuri – A very nasty 7
Service – 7

Overall – 6

Remember evil Chikane. You’ll be meeting her again soon.





Yuri Anime: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 1

June 13th, 2006

There’s a reason why fairy tales take place in places far, far away and a long, long time ago. It puts them in a space-time that isn’t real. In this not-real space, we can be free to enjoy not-real happenings without having to justify anything.

In a place called “Magic Place”, a beautiful place, with a little bit of everything – sea, mountains, plains, this fairy tale about two girls and their involvement with the gods  over and over, repeated through time – a destiny that can’t be avoided – takes place.

In this particular version of the story, the protagonists are blonde Himeko and the black-haired star of their exclusive school, Chikane. (A pair-type that is quite common in Yuri, as many people have pointed out.)

Chikane is hyper-competent, of course, because she is a brunette. Himeko is sweet and naive and slightly doofus-y, as befits a stereotypical blonde. ^_^

As one expects with a destiny-laden anime tale, the story starts on the day of Himeko’s and Chikane’s shared 16th birthday. The sky is dark, the mountains move, and from out of nowhere, the “Orochi” speaks. Orochi is the Japanese version of the Hydra – an eight-headed serpent. In this case, the heads or, necks (kubi) are represented by eight people with darkness in their hearts. Whether they are also dealing with a destiny, or they have chosen their roles, is never made clear.

One of the Orochi’s kubi is the other star of the school – Oogami Souma – whose name speaks of a huge, horrible destiny. So, we’ll call it destiny, then; nature, not nurture makes one a kubi. Souma, despite his fate to be one of the bad guys, manages to overwrite his programming and when Himeko is threatened by the Orochi, fights to protect her.

Chikane, who clearly has a thing for Himeko, tries to protect her, but pretty much doesn’t have the stuff. Souma does the fighting, while Chikane is busy getting the girl. She starts right in with kisses and a few well-placed gropes.

Chikane and Himeko learn that they share a fate to be the priestesses of Ame-no-Murakumo, a god of swordsman. (Incidentally, and not at all related to anime, Ame no Murakumo was one of the personal deities of the founder of Aikido.) Together they are supposed to re-seal the Orochi in the prison that t/he/y have escaped.

In the first attack, Himeko’s dorm is trashed, so Chikane takes her home to live with her – something that makes Chikane obviously very, very happy. But not the other kids in the school. Which brings me to a question I keep asking as I watch this volume: the two absolute massive, super-popular stars of the school constantly obsess over Himeko, and are there constantly to protect her. So…how is that no one in the entire school other than her ex-roommate has a clue who Himeko is? Okay, forget it. Fairy tale, right.

Himeko is worried that she is a burden and a trouble to Chikane and Souma – which she is, but you can’t fight fate like this, can you? Souma and Chikane both vow to protect her and at least one of them is successful in this. One at a time, the Orochi’s kubi attack and are defeated by Souma in his spiffy new giant mecha. This causes Chikane to desire more power, because she can’t actually protect Himeko as a miko. (Remember this, because it’s one of the things that sets her off on the wrong thinking path.)

The volume ends on a darkish note: Himeko is troubled that her abilities as a miko are falling short of the mark, she isn’t sure of her feelings for either Souma or Chikane and she has some nasty bad memories to work past. Chikane is fighting off serious jealousy of Himeko’s feelings for Souma, and Souma is torn between his desire to protect Himeko and his destiny as an Orochi. It’s a typical love triangle and, despite Chikane having gotten the kisses, at this point in the anime Souma takes the lead, slightly because of Himeko’s persistent blondeness.

In terms of packaging the DVD offers 4 episodes (presumably with three on the following three DVDs); a coupon for $3 off Volume 2 or 3, a mini-poster of art by the manga artist, Kaishaku, and a double sided mini-pencil board. So it’s pretty fair value for the money. No extras to speak of, just the usual clean opening/ending and Geneon credits.

One last thing – lots o’ fanservice. I’d forgotten how much. It really makes the Strawberry Panic anime seem very staid in comparison.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 6
Story – 6
Yuri – 9
Service – 7

Overall – 7

It’s a fairy tale with a *lot* of fanservice, giant robots and a dark undertow. I do wish we’d get to know anything about the kubi – who they are, why they are kubi, etc. It’s a big hand-wave to just accept a little girl who dresses like a nurse and carries a giant hypodermic having enough evil in her to qualify for a god of evil’s hench-neck. ^_^ Or the driven mangaka. The rest of them, I could make up decent enough backstories for. 6-6 But I quite like Miyako, the evil nun. Just because.

I also wish Himeko was less of a non-entity. It would so be like being in love with a person that had had a frontal lobotomy…oh well, not everyone finds intelligence and competence attractive. Obviously, not Souma or Chikane, anyway. ;-)

 





Yuri Manga: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 2

September 20th, 2005

Well, I know you were all waiting with bated breath to read my opinion on this final installment of the Kannzuki no Miko series.

As you may remember, I found the anime to be superficial, devoid of meaning and tedious, but marginally distracting. I reviewed it several times with increasing incredulousness – primarily because, while the series made absolutely NO sense at all, many people, mostly male, seem to feel that Kannzuki represents the height of yuri. This story was indubitably colorful, had lots of action and noise and sound and light, but it simply made no sense. That a senseless 13 episode miniseries that had no plausibility, not internal consistancy and utterly pointless rape should be seen by any minority of viewers as the *epitome* of the genre I have labored to promote is simply…exhausting.

Folks – there is good Yuri out there. With plots, and character development, etc. Drawn by women for women. This is real Yuri, not the parody of several genres tossed with a light dressing of Yuri so it sells.

Yamaji Ebine
Takashima Rica
Tadeno Eriko
Morishima Akiko
Hayahiya Shizuru

These women draw and write Yuri – with plots, characters, genuine expression of lesbian love and desire. Look for them – read them – learn what good Yuri is.

Okay, that rant having been concluded, let’s turn our eyes towards the work in question.

We left Himeko having just been raped by Chikane. This was used in the anime as well, where the explanation for the act was to make Himeko hate Chikane, as she’s becoming an orochi.

In the manga the act is complicated by the fact that it seeems to be tied into Chikane and Himeko’s existence as Miko of Moon and Sun, respectively.

In reality, it is fairly obvious that the people who comprise Kaishaku, like most people, have absolutely no understanding at all of the emotional damage rape does. In this expert text, Himeko wonders if it really happend, gets a twinge of pain in her abdomen, is horrified, but when Chikane seems like her usual self, is fine. Fine? Oooookkkkkkkaaaaaay…..

Then follows pretty much exactly the same nonsense that occurred in the anime. Lots of mecha fights, which *still* make no sense, since we are never really given any motivation for the Orochi respresentatives. In my mind, there should at least have been one flashback to explain the how/why of becomming a homicidal kubi, but that’s just me, always looking for, you know, plausibility, in a story.

BTW, kubi mean “neck” and the scanlators translate it that way, but in our language we’d probably call them a “hand” rather than a neck, as in hired hand, or ranch hand. After watching the anime and reading the manga, I am still entirely puzzled as to the kubi’s exstence at all. Why were they there? What were they hoping to do? Shoot things, okay…but why? I like the idea of shooting things too, but I can, at least, tell you *why* I’d like to pop you. Sister Miyako is hot, but the rest, *especially* Tsubasa, are a complete yawn. Tsubasa’s only reason to exist seems to be to pander to fans of long-silver-haired boys. Hmmm – I guess if we see the kubi as pandering to random fetishes, they make more sense. Okay. That works for me.

The climax of the manga and anime are similar, but not *quite* the same. Chikane explains that her behavior (violent rape, emotional torture and criminal passive-agressiveness) was meant to save Himeko from a fate worse than fate. In the anime, Chikane accepts an eternity that consists of a rather shorter period of time than eternities are wont to be, alone on the moon.

In the manga, Himeko comes with Chikane, rendering all of Chikane’s violence and abuse pointless, because apparently it would take MORE than that to make Himeko hate Chikane. One can only boggle.

In an epilogue which does not exist in the anime, Chikane and Himeko are born as incestuous twins who apparently live happily ever after.

Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 2
Characters – 6
Yuri – 9 (I cut off a point for the complete and utter lack of understanding of the dynamics of women in love/lust.)

Overall – 6

Honestly – this could, really, have been an excellent story. Given time, back story, character development and a modicum of internal consistency, it could have been decent. But it wasn’t. Not really.