Archive for the Series Category


Aria the Natural, Part 1 Anime Boxset (English)

April 26th, 2009

I need to say this first, because I am sick and tired of getting nasty emails, comments and blogposts from people who have no grip on reality. I do NOT think that Aria is Yuri. Many other people who are not me do. I review Aria as Yuri because the *other* fans  insist on seeing all sorts of couples in the mostly all-female cast, since so often they talk to each other, or are in the same frame. They even touch once in a while, so clearly there’s sex involved, in the eyes of this group.

I *do* enjoy imagining a relationship between Alicia and Akira. That is the only Yuri I have ever seen in this series and I am completely honest about the fact that I have wholly made it up in my head, encouraged only by Raku-Gun and Crush doujinshi. So please, stfu about me ruining Aria for you because I had the nerve to call it a Yuri series. If me calling a series Yuri pisses you off, then its probably a bad idea to read this blog since it is a *Yuri* blog and covers many things that other people who are not you think of as Yuri.

Moving on….

Unless you have your Yuri goggles on very, very high, you’re not going to see much Yuri in Aria the Natural, Part 1 boxset. What you will find is a story about a young woman who finds joy in the smallest things of everyday life. And by moving so slowly that she has time to see and enjoy these things, she brings the people around her into her world full of wonder and beauty – whether they want to or not. I believe that that is, in part, the reason why so many of the fans of this series are otherwise absurdly cynical people, with nothing specific to be angry at, so they rail at me, or The Man, or whatever, without actually doing anything about anything. Akari’s “my pace” attitude and appreciation for everything – bugs, bread, hats, weather – forces us to slow down and at least take a look at what she’s looking at, even if we don’t appreciate it as much as she does.

As with the previous Aria boxset, Right Stuf does a nice job on reproduction and translation, managing to communicate Al’s old man puns and Akari’s wide-eyed perspective uniquely. And although I did not order the set from them directly, I’m told that the extras for direct pre-order are way fun – in this case, an Aria-shachou squeeze toy. (Thanks to Sean for ruining it forever reporting on it with this line, “Hollowed out, it’s the most amusing condom ever!”) Unlike the first season box set, the extras for these disk live on a separate disk of their own and are entirely worth watching, if you care about such things as staff and VA interviews, trailer videos and the like – which I enjoy, no matter how insipid the comments. An Episode Guide Booklet is included as a physical extra for the set, as well.

Nevertheless, there are some scenes that will be imagined as Yuri. Alice’s shadow-hopping episode was very popular with Alice x Athena ‘shippers, for one. In my opinion, the hottest romance in the series is Aika and Al. ^_^

Of course, the number one reason I watch Aria is not Yuri, real or imagined, it’s the scenery porn; the love in our eyes with which we gaze at the shadow in St. Mark’s Plaza, a meteor shower, a street vendor making dolls dance or the evening sun shining on Venetian glass. It’s this that makes Aria worth watching and rewatching. And if your love of the series is affected by anyone’s opinion then you’ve missed the entire point of wearing Akari-colored glasses.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1
Service – 3

Overall – 8

Many many thanks to new Okazu Hero Tricolor Cavy for sponsoring today’s review! I have enjoyed not only the hours it has taken me to rewatch this anime, but also the renewed appreciation it gives me every time for the simple joys of my real life. Thank you.





Ichigo Mashimaro Manga, Volume 6

April 24th, 2009

Once more it is my genuine pleasure to welcome Sean Gaffney back as Guest Reviewer!

The sixth volume of Ichigo Mashimaro (苺ましまろ) is finally out in Japan (it’s been running since 2001, but is only up to Volume 6 due to the author’s frequent breaks and the sometimes short chapters). There’s no earth-shattering changes, except that if anything Nobue gets even less to do. As Chika has gotten more tsundere and taken over much of the beatings of Miu, Nobue has sadly faded into the background a bit.

In any case, we get 10 new chapters here, interspersed with ‘a day in the life’ interstitials. My favorites of the interstitials are a) Miu responding to her teacher’s request to solve a difficult fraction problem by getting out her giant protractor, and b) Miu’s amusing giant geek glasses she wears during chemistry, complete with spiral effect.

The girls battle a cockroach, have fun drawing on each other’s faces (in 2 separate chapters, one with a ‘third eye’ and the other with Japanese characters), and practice cooking (in a hilarious Miu and Chika 2-hander that barely has the others at all).

Some of this volume is also being animated in the Encore OAVs, such as Matsuri’s utter inability to help herself not be kidnapped. Oh yes, and Miu dies and goes to hell, in easily the best chapter in the entire volume. You can see it animated in the first Encore OAV. Note once more Chika’s inability to stop laughing when Miu does insane stupid things, even when she’s a demon of Hell.

The final chapter, where Miu complains that the only playing they do anymore is gaming, and that they should go outside and be more physical, was only in Dengeki Daioh last month. So don’t expect a new volume anytime soon. Still, it’s 160 pages of cuteness and Miu insanity, which is always worth your time.

Ratings:

Art – 7 (I do like the attention paid to the different outfits)
Story – 6 (loose collection of gags, really)
Characters: 7 (9 for Miu and Chika, 6 for Matsuri, 5 for Nobue).
Yuri – 3 (Not as much here as the last volume, though Miu and Chika are
so going to be a couple in a few years)
Service – 9 (It’s Barasui. What else needs to be said? It only loses a point for lacking catgirls.)

Overall – 7. A good, solid volume.

Oh yes, and Ana is in it too.

–SG





My-Hime Manga, Volume 4 (English) Guest Review, by Jason T.

April 20th, 2009

So I was bitching rather genially about My-Hime, Volume 4 on Facebook and Twitter and got an email in reply from writer/editor/manga expert and all-around fun guy Jason Thompson.

He agreed vehemently that this was a dreadful example of manga and went so far as to graciously allow me to use his description of this series from as yet unpublished, Manga: The Complete Guide materials. I therefore offer up to you as our latest guest reviewer, the pithy thoughts of Mr. Jason Thompson:

MY-HIME (Mai-HiME, “Dancing Girl/My Princess”) （舞-HiME) • Noboru Kimura (story), Sato Ken-etsu (art) • TokyoPop (2006-2008) • Akita Shoten (Weekly Shônen Champion, 2004-2005) • Shônen Sci-Fi Battle • 18+ (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations)

Adaptation of the anime series. Yuuichi transfers to a special school where certain girls possess an awesome power: the ability to summon a “child,” a big mechanical monster, when in the presence of the right boy, called the “key.” Yuuichi turns out to be the “key” of not one but two hime girls, Mai and Natsuki, who bicker over him in endless superpowered catfights. Sloppily drawn and crammed with too many female characters to keep track of, My-Hime—hime is Japanese for “princess” but here stands for “Highly Advanced Materializing Equipment”—is a tedious manga adaptation of a cynical “high-concept” anime, mixing “harem” romantic comedies and battle manga about people who team up with mecha or monsters. Characters we don’t care about fight one another, make passes at Yuuichi and tear up the landscape, leading up to an incoherent climactic fight with the aliens from the “Princess Star” which is the origin of the himes. The books are padded out with interviews with the anime staff, one of whom tells the reader “Reading My-Hime isn’t enough, so go for the anime, the figures, and radio and become a My-Hime Ph.D!” The worst feature of the art is the slack-jawed inexpressive faces.

.5 (HALF A STAR! -_- )

Thank you Jason for stabbing taking a stab at this series. Your brevity should have been matched by the series itself. Despite the craptasticness of the manga, I would like to thank Okazu Hero Elaine B. for bravely wading in and sponsoring today’s review!





Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, Volume 4 (ささめきこと)

April 13th, 2009

Sasamekikoto (ささめきこと) Volume 4 is the story of a misunderstanding. In fact, it is the anatomy of a misunderstanding, built up from the bare bones of misapprehension, attached by ligaments and tendons of high-school drama, and filled in with the muscle of self-doubt, covered in the thin skin of self-awareness.

(I’m not sure if the above paragraph is accurate, but it is impressively disgusting, isn’t it? ^_^)

The days immediately following Ushio’s and Sumi’s confrontation in Volume 3 are awkward and increasingly painful for both of them. We learn that Ushio was seen to have kissed Sumi, but she vehemently denies this, claiming that Sumi is – obviously – a “normal” girl, as opposed to her own publicly, repeatedly, stated perversion.

Sumi is, of course, not “normal” at all, but beset by fear and indecision, she makes no attempt to breach the gap between her, Ushio and their true feelings for each other.

The book them takes a look back once again, continuing the story of Ushio’s arrival in middle school and the fallout after her proclamation that she likes cute girls. It comes as no surprise that the girls around her mock her, call her “Lez-ko” and are generally unkind. Sumi makes an awesome Prince, standing by Ushio, befriending her and eventually making it possible for Ushio to become part of the crowd once again.

It is on a class ski trip that Sumi is suddenly faced with the disturbing fact that her feelings for Ushio are not merely friendship.

Back in “real” time, Ushio and Sumi are >this< close to saying something, to touching, to breaking through the wall, but when the book comes to an end, nothing has been said or done. The volume begins more lightly, with a side story about the president of the Joshibu, Tomoe, who turns out to be from an extremely wealthy family. Her lover, Miyako, is seen as an affront to the family dignity as much because she is the daughter of the chauffeur as because they are both girls. But Tomoe doesn’t care – she lives openly and happily – the complete opposite to the veil of lies that have trapped both Ushio and Sumi. Volume 4 is more serious than the previous three, but that is not a bad thing. The overall impression I had is that we’re now allowed to take Ushio and Sumi a little more seriously, and the accept that this is not “just a phase” or a whim or a crush.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 4

Overall – 8

Will it turn out okay in the end? I don’t know, but I feel a few more plot complications coming on before we find out.





Yuri Manga: PreCure Splash Star: Chikuwaku Kiki Ippatsu!

April 6th, 2009

It’s been a long time since I first watched Sailor Moon and found my heart stolen away by fictitious, 2-dimensional magical girls. Over a decade, in fact. And in that time, I have become far more cynical about anime and manga. It’s impossible to not become cynical when you’re watching wave after wave of fetishism come and go and the same three plots used over and over. But. Every once in a while, I like to reexamine my “roots” if you will, and take a look once again at some mahou shoujo that is actually made for girls.

PreCure Splash Star: Chikuwaku Kiki Ippatsu! feels very much like a “movie” manga. It’s a single volume, self-contained story, with a superficial bad guy, a passel o’creatures and a simple plot. Rocket science it is not. :-) If you remember the Sailor Moon movies, the Card Captor Sakura movies, or pretty much any magical girl series movies, you know the drill.

Saki and Mai have a big date coming up. They are supposed to be meeting early but Saki, as usual, is running late. Mai wonders if her watch is broken, so she checks at a creepy clock shop. (All clock shops are creepy, really. All that ticking…) When Saki arrives, there’s no Mai, and in the way of such things, they fight about whose responsibility it is that they are now very late.

Out of sorts and out of synch with each other, they arrive very late to the big singing contest they’ve been practicing for. They are allowed in but, as they are in the process of – quite literally – falling on their faces, time stops. The bad guy whisks them into a world where a giant clock has ceased to function, throwing the inhabitants (mostly cute abstract shapes and creatures) into disarray. Our plucky victims who have come to get help are, in fact, the long and short hands of the clock. They are cleverly named Hour and Minutes. ^_^

Saki and Mai transform, but they are still peeved at each other, so their powers are insufficient. They are defeated and separated. Each wanders alone through Dali- and Escher-esque landscapes, worried about the other and rethinking their fight of earlier in the day. They also realize that their hearts have to be open or their powers will not be at maximum. With this revelation, they are reunited to their mutual delight, they defeat the bad guy, restore the clock and are returned to our world where, holding hands and in perfect synch, they sing their hearts out at the contest.

As I say – not rocket science. But there are some genuine positives in this manga. For one thing, Hour and Minutes are more likable than you’d expect. :-) The irritating little fluffballs that are Saki and Mai’s sidekicks are joined by more irritating little fluffballs, but as this is a manga I don’t have to actually *hear* them say “Floppy~!” and “Choppy~!” over and over.

And, most of all, this story is about how much Saki and Mai need each other – not just to be PreCure, but because they, well, *need* each other. They can handle anything, they say confidently, as long as they are together. Right after Mai swears to be together with Saki, forever. Oh, yes. Mai is totally besotted and Saki will be so very surprised the day she kisses her….ok, that’s just in my imagination. lol

Negatives – the utterly stock bad guy turning a raging horse demon thing. I blame Hottie Shinz for the images stuck in my head in reference to anthropomorphic horses. Anyway – that was kinda icky, but PreCure wins with the power of girl’s love, so yay! ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 7

It is once again my sincere pleasure to thank Okazu Hero Komatsu-san for his sponsorship of today’s review and for this chance to once again remember that for magical girls, their love for each other always saves the day. ^_^