Archive for the Series Category


Hayate x Blade Manga, Volume 6 (English)

June 28th, 2010

In most gag manga, the moments of seriousness are brief and are quickly broken up before they can build to anything threatening the general hilarity.

In dramatic manga, the moments of comedy are brief, breaking up the tension with a soft smile from time to time.

In most action manga, the emotions are brief, building up in a fireworks climax during a battle, driven by the need to win.

In most romantic manga, the action is brief, confined to bursts of energy in order to move the characters from one situation into another.

In Hayate x Blade, Volume 6, none of these are brief. We are sated on action, comedy, emotion and drama and by the end of the volume…we want more. Or, well, I want more!

First, there’s the climax of the A-Team’s nefarious plot to blackmail Hayate into leaving the school, culminating in a 80 vs 8 randori. Maid costumes, ladles, cheesy lines and Michi suddenly being awesome! And finally, the entire A-team slayed where they stand by the appearance of their belove Akira. In a maid costume.

Then, we start to get some insight into the relationship between Ayana and Yukari and even as we are told what we are told…we’re given some hints that nothing in this relationship is what it seems.

And finally, in the middle of a school festival that is full insanity, the Hoshitori bell rings and a very, very serious fight begins.

Speaking as a reader, this is one of my favorite volumes in any language. Artistically, Hayashiya-sensei’s art has really coalesced by now and you can practically feel the impact as sword hits sword.  As a copy editor, this volume was *brutal*. The editor and adapter had a lot of work to do – this is a volume full of really obscure references. But damn, what a volume!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4 (Ayana x Yukari and Maki x Yukari for the win here)
Service – 4
Overall – 9

I can’t tell you at this point whether we’ll see a Volume 7, but I know that I, at least, hope and pray that we will. If there was ever a fight that we deserve to see the end of, it’s this one.





Maria Watches Over Us Anime, Season 4, Disk 1 (English)

June 25th, 2010

In Maria-sama ga Miteru, Season 4, it’s time for the Lillian school festival and once again, the Student Council, known as the Yamayurikai, is putting on a performance. This year, because of the unusual resemblance Fukuazawa Yumi has to her younger brother Yuuki, the play that is chosen is the Torikaebaya Monogatari, a play that deals the with two siblings who switch gender roles in the Heian court.

But Yumi is only half worried about the play, because it comes to her attention that Touko has had some trouble with the Drama Club. In typical Yumi fashion, she resolves the issues by being irresistibly sincere. And to top it all off, Yumi and Sachiko finally learn the truth of Kanako’s issues with her father. The story is both much, much more horrible and much, much less horrible than we could have imagined.

Yumi and Sachiko don’t celebrate their one-year anniversary, for perfectly good reasons, but I still think Sachiko ought to do *something* nice for Yumi.

And Sei and Youko make an appearance that reminded us of just how wonderful they are. I’m glad to have been able to read the novels to enjoy all of their future appearances. I also admit to having been fascinated with the way Youko’s blouse was drawn. There was a lot more attention to detail in the way that buttoned shirt lay against her than probably was warranted. :-)

At the end of the disk, Yumi, having been commanded by Sachiko to find a soeur and Yoshino, pressured by a rash promise made to Eriko, set out to hold an “audition” for the open positions. This is, possibly, the novel most chock-a-block filled with zOMG amazing plot points, that the anime couldn’t hope to do more than scrape the surface, but damn that surface is awfully busy. :-)

The one striking this about this 4th season to me was that there was no way you could start with the first disk of this season, and start to watch. Quite often with anime series that continue for a few seasons, the first episode summarizes what has gone before, at least enough for a relative newbie to sit down and watch it. Not so for this. If you had no idea who these people were or why they were doing the things they were doing, it would be a slightly befuddling story. And, of course, the real in-jokes would be lost. There would be no way to appreciate just *how* much Sachiko had changed when she proposes the double gender switch for the play if you did not know what kind of person she had been. As a staunch obsessive fan, it kind of felt good. This anime is not for the off-the-street, “who is this? what’s going on?” person. It’s for *us.* :-)

The DVD includes the “Maria-sama ni ha Naisho” and liner notes as extras. The physical extra for those pre-orderers among us is a fetching writing pad.

Art – 8 for Youko’s button-down shirt
Characters – 10
Story – 10
Yuri – 1
Loser Marimite Fan – slightly less than a million

Overall – 9

In this life that I have created that focuses so much around anime and manga, this series, Maria-sama ga Miteru, along with Sailor Moon, has profoundly affected my life. I really just want to say thank you to Nozomi/RightStuf for allowing me the pleasure of seeing this series in English.





Maria-sama ga Miteru Special CD, Volume 4

June 20th, 2010

The Maria-sama ga Miteru Special CD, Volume 4 begins with what was a most obvious and silly gag as Nabatome Hitomi introduces herself as Torii Eriko’s VA, followed by Itou Shizuka as Rei, Ikezawa Haruna as Yoshino and then Nabatome-san starts to introduce herself again as the voice actress for Arima Nana to complete the Yellow Rose family roster, but starts to laugh and completely blows the gag. ^_^

This was followed by….sweets! The crackling of plastic and the various “yum” noises will be familiar to anyone who has listened to any of the previous CDs. Also the random conversation about nothing much.

This is followed by the drama Frame of Mind, which really struck home just how *much* Tsutako and Shouko there is in and around the series. Because, we’re *still* not done with them. I keep saying we’ve got all the pieces, but we’re nowhere near the end. ^_^

Frame of Mind covers the mystery of a handful of film cartridges that Yumi received from a 1st-year that say “Takeshima Tsutako” in katakana on them and that Tsutako herself says are not hers. Yumi, Great Detective Yoshino and Tsutako investigate the mystery and find out the criminal was….! We learn that the 3rd-years of the Photography Club are not above hazing the new kid on the block, which will lead into another trick they play in a later story, on the new club president-elect. Man, that Photo Club is tough. ^_^ This story has the added attraction of Yumi’s realization that the Photography Club is not just made up of Tsutako and Shouko.

This drama is followed up by “Souer no Kizuna” where the entire Kibara Family is eerily in synch and they all laugh alot.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Once more, a hour of fun and another drama to add to the ole mp3 player. When I get the whole series on there, no doubt it will break and I’ll have to start from scratch….. And can you believe that I am *still* not done with the pile of stuff I brought home from Japan three months ago? There’s still a pile of Light Novels and at least two CDs left. Phew.





Aria the Origination Anime + Arietta OVA (English)

June 6th, 2010

Aria The Origination Dvd Collection (Tv Season 3 With The Ova Arietta)It’s not often that the final season of a series is better than the first. In the case of Aria The Origination (Season 3 + Arietta OVA) this is undoubtedly the case.

The animation hits level of sublime, rivaling Venice itself for breathtaking light effects. The colors are deep, vibrant, practically alive in their own right, and the little details are so lovingly depicted that, in some cases, they actually surpass the original.

And while such loving detail is paid to every brick, stone and tree, the story itself moves away from lingering glances at Neo-Venezia’s beauty and looks – for the first and last time – firmly at the Undines who roam it.

Aria has always been a story about people – about their dreams and fears, their motivations and joys. It’s always been a story that revels in the absolutely smallest things it can find to have fun with – the anime equivalent of the taste of chocolate melting on your tongue, the smile of a beautiful woman, the sound of music across a deserted plaza.

In this final season, we get to focus a bit, not where the Undines are looking, but on the Undines themselves and their friendship and love for one another. Each mentor is cast an in entirely new light, as we learn just how *much* they care for their protégés. At the same time, we watch each of the trainees struggling with the transition from student to peer.

This is simply a beautiful series, animated and voiced with the abject love of every single member of the team. If you weren’t absolutely sure that every single person who worked on it is in love with it, after you are done watching the extras, you will have no doubts whatsoever. Aria was a group effort, by the mangaka, the voice actresses, the animators and musicians. And, also by the folks at Right Stuf, who cared enough about Aria to bring all of it to us with the care it deserved. With lithographs and toys and papercraft and every other thing they could throw at us.

There is no Yuri, of course, there never has been. We’ve made it up in our heads since the beginning and nothing anyone is going to say is going to stop us now. :-)

Aria has always been beautiful and relaxing and gentle. With this final volume, it becomes timeless, as well.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 0
Service – 1

Overall – 9

I do have one criticism, but don’t want to ruin the mood. Let’s just drop it for now. ^_^

Many, many, many thanks go Okazu Superhero Dan P, who sponsored today’s review!





Canaan Radio CD and Aoi Hana Sweet Blue Radio CD

May 29th, 2010

I’m still making my way through the last of the items I bought while in Tokyo. Not surprisingly, the Light Novels take the longest. And since I’m now working from home, I no longer have a commute during which to listen to my Drama CDs. (I know, I know, poor me….) Today I happened to be driving down the office, so I had a chance to listen to the Aoi Hana: Sweet Blue Radio CD. It has very little Yuri. I had listened to the first Canaan DJCD a while back, but as it also has only the vaguest hint of Yuri, I decided to not review it.

Well, while it’s true that both of them have very little Yuri, they both have something much more important in common – the content is primarily the voice actors and actresses screwing around and cracking themselves up. I figure that’s worth mentioning.

To start with, the Canaan Drama Cd was backwards. That is, although Maria and YunYun are on the cover, the content actually features Tanaka Rie (Liang Qi) and Ohkawa Toru (Cummings.) The two of them really don’t need us during this CD, because they are perfectly capable of amusing themselves without us. There were times during the conversations where they had themselves laughing so hard I couldn’t for the life of me understand a word.

They also both slip in and out of their roles freely so, when Ohkawa-san makes a bad joke, Qiang Li suddenly threatens him with punishment. I recall (it was a few months ago that I listened to it) that there were at least a few scenarios in which Tanaka-san, as Qiang Li, moaned with desire over Alphard. That was pretty much what Yuri there was.

Likewise, in Sweet Blue Radio, Gibu Yuuko (nicknamed “Gibuling”) and Takabe Ai (“Rabuling”) really didn’t need us so much. :-) The bulk of the radio CD was the two of them doing their best impressions of other kinds of voice jobs – AM and FM radio announcers, the person in a department store that calls for lost people, the women on all those ubiquitous food shows who ooh and ah over mundane items like the sandwich she gushes over. Of these scenarios, the one in which Takabe-san does her impression of an AM radio DJ actually made Gibu-san snort out loud. That was worth hearing.

Also amusing was the next to last track in which Okudaira Akira was a special guest and when she “leaves” the studio and “forgets’ her handkerchief, Gibu-san “runs after her” and “misses” guest Manjoume Fumi when she comes to visit the studio. It was idiotic, but they were having fun with it.

In this CD, there is a ‘memory’ of Fumi telling Akira that she likes her and Akira responding that she didn’t mind, no…she was happy about it. That’s about it. But it was a sweet moment.

Both CDs are more silly than special. If you love the series and/or the voice actors and actresses, its worth it for the giggling, the puns, the utter goofiness when people who get along screw around in front of the mic.

Ratings:

Canaan DJCD – 7

Sweet Blue Radio CD – 8