Archive for the Series Category


Revolutionary Girl Utena Anime Box Set – Volume 2, Disk 3 (English)

January 12th, 2012

Revolutionary Girl Utena, Volume 2, Disk 3 provides a whole lot of food for thought, doesn’t it?

So, first of all, let look at the final of the puppet duelists for the Black Rose, Nanami’s henchchick, Keiko. Like Wakaba, Keiko’s story hurts. It hurts, because she’s not one of the beautiful people and not one of the chosen. She’s a real person, with big gaping flaws, but we can’t quite hate her, or dismiss her, as we might Tsuwabuki, precisely because, like Wakaba, her dreams are so mundane. Anyone might wish for a moment alone with their idol. It’s a dream that is dull as dirt. As a result, when Nanami is horrible to Keiko, we feel it. When Yuuko and Aiko are horrible to her, it’s especially unforgivable.

And, at last, we reach the core of the Black Rose story, and the illusions with which Mikage has wrapped himself. The story, however one looks at it, is at best, creepy and self-serving. At worst, it’s possible the single most depressing illusion in the entirety of the series. There was a young, sickly boy, Mamiya and his sister Tokiko and Mikage became obsessed with their memory…but it’s not Mikage at the center of the manipulation, we learn incontrovertibly. It’s not just Akio, as we might have suspected. For whatever reason  – and at this point I’m inclined to think that Anthy’s line about lying to one’s self for love is the first honest thing she’s said in this series – Anthy is involved. In the first arc, we thought to ourselves, “She is merely being used.” But when Akio tells us that Anthy does not exists at the school, we have to wonder how much of everything is her doing. Akio has social engineering skills and he apparently wields the power, but then, we have to ask ourselves now…what is Anthy?

At the end of the arc, we get a completely different kind of clip episode, highlighting Nanami’s duplicity and ego. It’s very hard to like her at the end of this arc. It’s important to remember, yet again, that Nanami is about 13. She may pretend to be grownup, but…it’s clear now and will become even clearer later, that she’s basically clueless about people. This will also become very, very important towards the end.

Here at the end of the Black Rose Arc, we’re no closer to understanding any of what’s going on, or are we? We know several things; Akio is manipulating the situation, even as far as Utena and Anthy’s relationship. We know that he has all but abandoned the Student Council, except as tools, and we know that whatever is going on, Anthy is the center of it, in one way or another.

And we know, although she truly does not yet understand this, that Utena is the only sword that can cut through this Gordian knot.

The third and final arc is on our plate and I find myself tense about watching it. In fact, I’ve been kind of avoiding it for the last few years.

In the extras Ikuhara gives us some answers as to why there is an apparent strain of lesbianism in the series. His answer is cogent – for him, making Utena and Anthy “lesbians” is a visual symbol of otherness. But that only explains some of what’s going on, really, the stories of incest and male homosexuality that are either hinted at, or explicitly stated. I’ve said for years that Utena is a series that is exactly like any other high school, on steroids, and in this case the sexuality is stand-in for all the many things that make us different. For once I think Ikuhara did a good job of answering really crappy fanboy question. Dudes, there were *way* more than just lesbians in the series.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Character – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 3

Overall – 9





Princess Knight Manga, Volume 1 (English)

January 12th, 2012

In 1954, Tezuka Osamu began the first serialization of a series called Ribon no Kishi, Knight of the Ribbon. In the subsequent four serializations, the story was altered slightly and even had a sequel. But, throughout these iterations, the main story held true – in a country in which the position of ruler was entailed, so that only a boy could become King, a daughter is born. To hide her true nature, she is brought up as a boy, Prince Sapphire.

Sapphire is endowed with two hearts, that of a boy and that of a girl. The boy’s heart makes her athletic, honorable and strong. The girl’s heart makes her emotional and weak. Yes, yes, I know, it’s exhausting. Think of Tezuka like your grand (or great-grandfather if you’re young) who never did figure out what the 60s and 70s were about and didn’t understand why feminists didn’t like having the door opened for them.

Sapphire is, in any case, stuck in a bad situation. Although she’d like to be a “normal” girl, instead she’s forced to be a beautiful prince. She and her family are well aware of the consequences of being found out, so she does her best, manning up as much as she can. This is complicated by the schemes of Duke Duralamin, who is just positive that Sapphire is a girl, and wants his own son to rule the Kingdom in her place.

Now, at last, brought to us in English by Vertical Publishing, we have Princess Knight. These volumes are a translation of the 1977 Complete Works Edition of Ribon no Kishi. (Interestingly, the very same version I happen to own in Japanese.)

I won’t beat around the bush – this story is frustrating as hell. When she has her boy heart, Sapphire is commanding and decisive, but without it, she’s a mess. There’s no way we can forgive that, can we? But let’s look, not at the story itself, but what it spawned. Because, for Yuri fans, Sapphire is most important for her heirs….which is a really bizarre irony, when I say that out loud.

Lady Oscar of Rose of Versailles –  born a girl, raised as a boy, but never for one second less aware of her existence as a woman, with conflicting, simultaneous roles as a leader of the military, a noble, a servant of a spoiled queen and a person who believed deeply in the rights of her fellow humans.

Princess Ereminia of Paros no Ken, who struggles as a female warrior with the heart of a man, forced to marry in order to put her kingdom under the protection of a man, who ultimately chooses to abandon her country to be with the woman she loves.

Tenoh Haruka, Sailor Uranus of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, who, we are explicitly told, has the hearts of a man and a woman and, when asked what gender she is replies, “Does it matter?”

Also topically once more,

Tenjou Utena of Revolutionary Girl Utena, who wears the boy’s school uniform and wants to be the Prince Sapphire wishes she weren’t.

All of these – and many other favorite Yuri characters – owe their existence to Sapphire. Although she might not have been able to find the strength in her girl’s heart, one look at this list, and we can be comforted that her successors most certainly found their’s.

Vertical’s translation/reproduction is swell, but I do have to take issue with their extremely ugly covers. I have no idea what the thinking behind the cover design was. The pink, i.e. “Girl” cover  (ARGH!!!!) is a pale, washed out pink. Sapphire herself is all-but-colorless. Compared to, say, this:

it looks pretty blecch. Volume 2 isn’t really all that much better, with an equally bland blue “Boy” cover. (Not the super-saturated blue in the Amazon listing, a sort of pearly, light, greyish-blue.)

Princess Knight, Volume 1 is not as satisfying a read as you might expect, but don’t look at it that way. Sapphire *is* Snow White on a horse, with a sword and, as such, she’s actually pretty darn cool. And for those who came after, we all must bow in her general direction and honor her as the great ancestor she is.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Tezuka is an acquired taste, like fine wine
Story – 8 Not without problems, but overall, kind of fun, what with the pirates and witches and giant birds and other pop culture elements from literature of the ages.
Characters – 7 Both bad and good guys are stereotypes, but they aren’t entirely unlikable
Yuri – 0
Service – 1, on principle only

Overall – 8

Thanks Vertical for bringing this here and letting us all see the origin of our Girl Prince!

Note: Let me just put two afternotes here:

In some Native American traditions, mixed gender people are known as Two Hearts or Two-Spirits. I have no idea if Tezuka knew that or not.

Also, it’s well-known that Tezuka gew up in the town of Takarazuka, home of the Takarazuka Review, which strongly influenced Princess Knight.

This way you don’t have to feel obliged to write in and tell me these things. ^_^





Yuri Drama CD: Ame-iro Kouchkan Kandan (あめ色紅茶館歓談) Blue Christmas

December 23rd, 2011

Christmas is coming and the Ame-iro Kouchakan is filled to the brim with cheerful, energetic young women. Not that anyone is complaining, but…where did they all come from? Sarasa really wants to know what the deal is, but in the meantime, she and Seriho are doing everything they can to keep up with demand.

More important than the mystery of why their tea house is so popular all of a sudden, is the much greater problem of Christmas. They did a special for Tanabata, and another for Halloween, and Sarasa is torturing herself trying to come up with a super-special special for Christmas.

But first, before all of this, we have yet another thing that must be dealt with! Sarasa’s college roommate, Saiyuki, is visited by an old friend, Shuuri. There’s some tension between them and it seems awfully likely to blossom into something more, if they can just get a push. EVERYONE in the series gives them the push they need.

Which allows us all to deal with the issue of where the hell are all these girls coming from, anyway. Well…it turns out that word’s gotten around that Manaka-sensei (creator of the St. Lotecia series, surely you must be aware that Fujieda-sensei never ever throws away a character) hangs out here, and these girls – including Saiyuki and Shuuri – are fans. Mana-chan-sensei’s editor Shiko is “helping” by leaking the story that Mana-chan-sensei might, just, you know, be doing a signing here too.

And while all of this life-or-death stuff is going on, Sarasa’s exhausting herself trying to come up with the perfect Christmas special dessert. Which, she does. Did we ever, for even a second, doubt she would? For Christmas, the Ame-iro Kouchakan will be presenting a Cherries Jubilee, with flambe’, with their own special touch. The sakura scent fills the teahouse and the blue flower of flame delights everyone. Great, everything’s set, but…now they are really in a bind. With such a fantastic table-side show, they’ll need every hand on deck. Unfortunately, Hinoka is spending Christmas Eve with her girlfriend and Haru is getting together with some friends, leaving Sarasa and Seriho needing some backup staff. How about Letty and Tsumugi? They are going to visit Letty’s home in…wherever that was. Saiyuki and Shuuri offer to fill the gap and so, a fabulous Christmas event is had by all.

You remember what I said about a paragraph ago? About how Fujieda-sensei never throws away a character? He doesn’t. During two quiet, lovey-dovey scenes between Sarasa and Seriho, just when it’s getting really good…the phone rings. I felt this gag coming for a mile and even guessed who was on the other end of the phone both times. Can you guess?

Think about it for a bit.

The first time on the phone is one “Hachibe-sama” who is ordering cakes for the Queen and the second call is from “Aihara-sama” ordering cakes for the shop. Yep, there were your Iono-sama and Alice Quartet cameos. ^_^

Kotobuki Minako (Tsumugi in K-ON!) plays Saiyuki, so we’re bumping up that six degrees of Yuri even further than usual.

The bonus track was done in pairs and among the embarrassed giggling, they have a serious discussion of the next holiday they’ll have to do a Drama CD for. New Years? Nope, they all realize with a sense of fate, it’s gonna have to be Valentine’s Day. Dear Yuri gods, I so hope they are right.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Squee. This companion Drama CD to the second volume of the Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan manga was a perfect companion to a train ride into NYC. I kept laughing out loud, which kept the seats around me clear. ^_^

I only wish we could have heard from Letty and Tsumugi.





K-ON! Anime, Volume 4 (English)

December 23rd, 2011

My day started a little rough, so I thought that I more than deserved a moment to wallow in the pure fun of the K-ON! anime. Volume 4 was the perfect thing to put me in a good mood (although I think I’m a little tired of “Fuwa Fuwa Time” now…)

In Volume 4, the girls perform for the second time at the school festival, and we learn that Yui’s flakey-ness is a lifetime achievement. And we get two bonus episodes in which they spend some random winter days and perform their first show outside school.

I’ve said it before, if you don’t like K-ON!, there’s nothing I can say to change you to suddenly liking it. If you do like it, there’s nothing I can say that you haven’t already thought for yourself. “Gosh, Yui’s a flake,” “Azusa’s cute when she’s all blushy,” “Why has no one killed Ritsu yet?” “Why is Mugi not the Governor of Tokyo?”  I have no doubt that you’ve thought these things as well. Well…okay, maybe not the last thing. If you’ve thought anything about Mio and the word “waifu” you are not welcome over for lunch. Sorry, I have to draw the line somewhere, even on delusions. ^_^

Entertainment ought to be entertaining and this volume put me in a better mood than I had been in before I watched it. That’s a win in my book.

Oh, Yuri? Yui asks for a kiss when she’s reunited with Azusa, does that count? I don’t think so.

Ratings:

Art – Still  5
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 5

Overall – 8

Many, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for sponsoring today’s review, and improving my mood significantly!





K-ON! Manga, Volume 3 and 4 (English)

December 19th, 2011

Volume 3 and Volume 4 of K-ON! primarily deal with the girls’ second and final years in high school. They perform at the school festival, spend lazy days avoiding practicing and drinking tea, busting each other’s chops, and having fun together. They hug Azusa, they pick on Sawako-sensei, they sometimes even study a bit or practice a song.

I said of the Japanese volumes that they were, like Mugi’s tea and cakes, light afternoon refreshment, not meat and drink.

There is no substance here, no wisdom for the ages, except perhaps that high school days don’t really change much when you look back at them, no matter where you’re from. I mean, yes, I must have done a ton of homework – I remember having homework to do every day. I remember filling out college applications too. But when I think of high school, the things I remember are not homework, tests and papers, but things like memorizing Little Riding Hood’s dialogue with the Big Bad Wolf…in German. (“Aber Grossmutter, warum hast du so grosse Augen?”) I remember the smell of the pool at 6AM for Swim Team practice, and the junkie in homeroom asking me what I was “on” because I came in every day as a freshman late, with sleep deprivation and eyes red – and me, answering honestly, accurately and ironically, “I’m on Swim Team.”

I remember being locked out of the band room after returning home from a football game, so the Marching Band amused ourselves by playing our halftime show for no one but ourselves…and probably putting in the best performance we did all year. I remember making a Black Forest Cherry cake for the school festival. I remember that me and Shelly put a lot of schnapps in and it was the first cake to sell out. Also that we drank quite a bit of the schnapps as we made it.

I remember one of the club members being verbally attacked by some woman on 42nd street when I was president of the German club and we went to Yorkville for a field trip. I can still see the look on his face. Poor kid. I have no idea if he turned out gay or not, but that woman sure thought he was then.

Mostly I remember my time with the people, good, bad and indifferent in Marching Band. Most of my days and nights were filled with hanging and working and being with those people. Amazingly, I look back at that time and realize I still keep in touch with several of them. That’s kind of weird to me, really. I say this without irony – I lack nostalgia.

So, nothing deep or meaningful in K-ON!, no. Except a lot of memories and some good times with friends. Which, when you look back at it from 30 years later is really the most meaningful thing about your years in high school.

Yuri? Well no, but hey, I got together with my band sempai, so maybe your fantasy about Ui and Azusa can come true too. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters – 10
Yuri – 0
Loser FanBeing – Infinity. You are either besotted or you are wrong. ^_^

Overall – 9

Can I just say one thing before I wrap up here? Mugi is the greatest character ever. MugiMugiMugi!
Okay, I’m done now.

Wait, one more thing…I can’t wait to see the sequels.

Many, many thanks to the Okazu Heros Tricolor Cavy and an unknown sponsor. Thank you, your sponsorship of reviews here is very much appreciated by all of us!