Archive for the Series Category


Maria-sama ga Miteru Manga, Volume 8 (マリア様がみてる)

April 8th, 2008

If you’re a serious (read: obsessed) fan of Maria-sama ga Miteru, you know what the biggest question torturing fans right now is – will the series end with Sachiko’s graduation…or with Yumi’s? I think it’s safe to say that there’s not a single rabid fan on this planet who would rather the series ended sooner than later. (Perhaps one or two, but clearly they aren’t *true* fans. ^_^)

Sachiko’s graduation is so traumatic and problematic, that there have been about a dozen novels between “New Year” and March – and still the third-years haven’t graduated. Time is slowing down, lots of short stories are being written. The newest novel, Margaret ni Ribon, even goes so far as to tell stories from the past of the former Rosas; Eriko, Youko and Sei. Anything to keep Sachiko from graduating!

And so, what better time is there to take a look at the latest – and I believe, last – of the manga volumes, Maria-sama ga Miteru: Itsushika Toshimo (マリア様がみてる), in which Eriko, Sei and Youko graduate and retire from the field at Lillian High School.

In the first story, “Will,” Youko ambushes a confused Yumi to ask her to please take of her uncute, hysterical, little sister that she loves very much. Yumi wonders if Rosa Gigantea has asked Shimako for a last favor, but as always, their relationship is not the same as other soeurs. Shimako takes advantage of the moment to thank Yumi for being willing to put up with Sei’s abuse, and Yumi, in turn begs Shimako to not leave the school – because suddenly, she’s overcome with fear that Shimako might. Yoshino relates her final meeting with Eriko as if it were Musashi’s epic duel at Ganryu Island. ^_^

Yumi’s moving farewell with Sei is handled beautifully, although I thought that the slow-motion imagery of the anime, and the internal dialogue of the novel, both lent themselves to making the scene richer than here in the manga. Nonetheless, it’s still a lovely scene, ruined beautifully by Sei’s joke on Yumi. Also, in the manga, Yumi kisses Sei firmly in the middle of the cheek – not just at the very corner of the mouth, as she does in the novel. This echoed the kiss Sei gave Shizuka, and I think it’s done very consciously to be the closest possible kiss to a kiss on the lips without actually being one. I’m sorry that was lost.

The following chapter covers the three Rosa’s’ memories of their meeting one another, and looking back at their past dealings before they became friends: Youko’s impact on Eriko’s drive for excellence, Sei and Eriko’s fight in kindergarten, Sei trying to freeze out Youko, only to find her standing right there when the cold wind finishes blowing.

Last, the graduation itself, with Sachiko’s unexpected breakdown, its unintended consequences, and Rei’s superb save. A fabulous scene, which I have to admit, I like best on the Drama CD of the same name.

Yuri here is slight: Sei x Yumi ‘shippers might be satisfied with the kiss scene. Otherwise, it’s mostly a long, overdue look into the women who were the stars of the school for the series to date – the graduating Rosas. Frankly, I can’t get enough of them. Obviously, neither can Konno-sensei – after all, she keeps bringing them back again and again into the series. She said flat out that Sei’s her favorite character. Well, duh. That’s ’cause the sky is blue. ^_^

The one downside is that the manga appears to have come to an end. Never a comfortable fit in the sex-riddled Margaret and The Margaret magazines, the end of this volume very much reads like the *end.* Imagine if the series *had* ended here. We’d have no Noriko x Shimako, no Yumi x Touko, no Sei x Kei, not Tsutako x Shouko…good heavens, three of those four are in my personal “favorite couples” list. Horrible to contemplate.

Speaking as a rabid fan – Konno-sensei, please let the series end when *Yumi* graduates! Even if you’re sick to death of the series, we don’t care…keep writing! ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Oh, and total fanboy Sean tells me that next month marks the 10th anniversary of Maria-sama ga Miteru. Happy 10th, Yumi.





Yuri Anime: Strawberry Panic, Volume 1 (English)

April 4th, 2008

Strawberry Panic is a series with a fairly consistent pedigree. It began as a series of one-shot stories in Dengeki G’s magazine where the short, almost non-existent action in each vignette served to caption a exceedingly moe picture, about girls in “Yuri couplings.” It proceeded from there to be made into an anime, a manga (that also ran in G’s I believe) and a series of light novels, which were probably serialized somewhere that is also a typical fanservicey publication.

It’s nice that lots of girls, as well as guys, love this series, but that doesn’t actually change the fact that it was meant to be pandering, service and, ultimately, parody for a Yuri Fanboy audience. I expect someone will inform me exactly where the LN was serialized in the comments because this series’ fandom seems to need to express “facts” about the series to give it a frisson of legitimacy. Frankly, I don’t see why it can’t just be crap you like. As Bruce Pregger says, “Just because it’s bad, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it.” My corollary to which is, “Just because you enjoy it, doesn’t mean it’s good, either.” ^_^

In any case, in Strawberry Panic, new student Aoi Nagisa arrives at Astrea Hill to attend the notable and superior St. Miator Academy. Immediately, she’s thrown into intrigue when the star of the school, the Etoile, Hanazono Shizuma, takes a fancy to her in front of the entire student body. Nagisa is overwhelmed by Shizuma, and is further thrown into confusion by her roommate Tamao’s behavior, which can only be described as “pervy.” We also meet simple, sweet Hikari who has fallen for the Prince of her school, and is further thrown into confusion by her roommate Yaya’s behavior, which can only be described as “pervy.”

The first volume of the anime, (for which I must thank the gentlemen at Media Blasters) covers the first six episodes of the series, in which Nagisa is confused about everything related to the school from meals, to the Etoile, to her uniform and curfews. Pretty much everything she needs to make a complete and total ass of herself in every possible situation. We are told several times that her transfer was rushed, an “emergency,” but it does beg the question – does no one think to just sit her down with a copy of the school handbook? The conversation the day after we watched this, went something like this:

“Wow, A-ko-san, you’ve really got the hang of the school in such a short time. I’m impressed.”

“Thanks, B-ko-san. I made sure I read the school handbook when I transferred in. It’s so embarrassing to not know the important details.”

Just so.

In any case, I watched the anime with a critical eye for two things – one, if I was totally mistaken originally, and the whole series was an obvious parody which I simply missed while I was busy being pompous, and; two, the translation.

The first is answered easily – no, I was not mistaken, although I was undoubtedly pompous. lol The first quarter of the series is played “straight,” if you will allow the use of that phrase. Other than the obvious rip-offs of Catholic School, Onee-sama-ing, midnight tea parties, and other pretty well-known memes taken from previous Yuri series (most of which would be familiar to Japanese viewers more than western ones,) there is no obvious humor in the series. It’s played for moe cute, precious and pervy….not in that order. I forgot to count the number of *almost* kisses, but there’s at least one in every episode, which made me gnash my teeth originally and wasn’t much less irritating this time around.

Secondly, the translation. Up until right towards the very end, it was very good. Most of the usual honorifics were kept, right until the very end where strangely “-oneesama” was not, so we get that jarring turn of phrase “Big Sister Shizuma.” No one says that in English. Why “-oneesama” wasn’t kept as an honorific befuddles me – especially when I warned them ahead of time that I planned on being picky about that, as a fan and a reviewer. Also towards the end, in perhaps the fifth or six episode, there suddenly was a tendency to translate in that dubtitle way – you know, what they meant, not what they said. It left me with the impression that either they changed translators halfway through or by the last two episodes, the translator was simply getting tired.

And then there’s the QC…or more properly, lack thereof. In the last episode, there’s multiple typos in the subtitles. MB folks, I love you. But you NEED to QC this stuff. You can’t send it out the door looking like this. Seriously. It doesn’t look professional. Seven Seas is doing such exceptional work on the manga and Light Novels. The anime really needs to be able to stand up to the print series.

But don’t let my nitpicking detract from the genuine, laudable efforts by MB to keep the honorifics in place. “Shizuma-sama,” “Tamao-chan” and everyone “-san” is really a lovely change of pace in official releases.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 9

Overall – 7

It’s not fabulous. It’s very good. It’s definitely a good deal for the money. It’s very official – fans of Strawberry Panic *should* buy it and support bringing more Yuri anime over here. But. It could still be better.





Yuri Manga: Battle Club, Volume 1 (English)

March 25th, 2008

Women’s crotches are endlessly fascinating. Or so I assume from the variety and sheer number of crotch shots in Battle Club, Volume 1.

Interestingly, while women’s crotches are absolutely riveting, men’s are apparently unworthy of scrutiny and are therefore pixelated or avoided at all costs.

Even more interestingly, while it is perfectly acceptable to look at women’s crotches, it is unacceptable to become aroused by doing so. If you are aroused, you are labeled as a pervert.

The conundrum appears obvious to me – why torture yourself with something that you can’t enjoy? Sounds like some kind of self-flagellating, mortifying of the flesh thing. In a way, it sort of does explain alot about why prostitution is illegal and why you guys seem to like your fun on the down low. I’ll leave it to others to delve into how sad that is.

Instead, I’ll cover the plot of Battle Club: This manga is about two members of a high school wrestling club, one male and one female, both of whom believe they are the protagonist of the story. The female protagonist, Tamako, is a clumsy, zealous and kind-hearted girl who is impossibly strong and getting stronger, by taking regular beatings from her even more impossibly stronger sempai. The male, Mokichi, is a mealy-mouthed asshole who gets beaten up a lot because he’s an asshole. And, we are assured repeatedly, (although we never see it, see above) he has a teeny dick.

Each chapter follows one or the other in their completely absurd, panty and crotch-shot filled shenanigans which include…not really all that much. Fighting, mostly. Including fighting with a “confused” shark. Lots of service, obviously.

Yuri comes in two flavors in Volume 1. The first is the Vice-Captain of the wrestling team, Higuchi, who is (totally incorrectly) labeled a lipstick lesbian when she first appears, and who openly gropes Tamako at every opportunity while they wrestle. (Like a lipstick lesbian would *ever* wrestle. Pfft. Another manga company that is fail when it comes to properly translating something lesbian-related. ALC is still the only company who can identify a lipstick lesbian and tell the difference between one and a Yuri character.)

The second flavor of Yuri is Shiba, a member of the Karate club whose impossibly strong attacks have no effect on Tamako. She finds herself sexually fantasizing about Tamako (which immediately makes her a pervert, by the rules set out in fanboy-land,) and even making lunch for her. Shiba’s thrown off the Karate team for failing and when they ruin the love-love lunch she made, she’s completely unable to cope with Tamako’s kindness towards her. She runs away, “unable to face her first crush.”

This series is by Shozaki Yuji, the creator of Ikkitousen/Battle Vixens – the story here is thinner than Tamako’s panties. This is absolute 100% crap. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the 15 minutes it took me to read it, because it is such *utter* crap that I found it amusing. I think it makes a fitting beginning to “crappy crap” week here at Okazu.

Ratings:

Art – 7 creative, in its own pervtastic way
Story – 1
Characters – 3
Yuri – 6
Service – Infinity

Overall – 5

Don’t have high expectations. Don’t have *any* expectations. Then lower that a little and you’ll probably find Battle Club not so bad. ^_^





Yuri Light Novel: Strawberry Panic!, Volume 1 (English)

March 16th, 2008

…A pure world within the walls that was reserved only for young ladies. A world of classes, sports, friendship and love, as well as mental and emotional bonds and passionate physical aches.

All of it existing only between girls.

Or, as that last line might be reinterpreted by the fandom:

“All of it existing only between ******girls*******!!!!!!!!111111111111one”

LOL

First, many, many thanks to the fabulous folks at Seven Seas for the opportunity to review the first volume of the Strawberry Panic! Light Novel series in advance. I previously reviewed the Japanese edition of this novel, and Volumes 2 and 3, as well and, by the time I was done with them, I was *dying* to get my hands on a copy of the translation. And now that I have, I can say that Seven Seas has not let me down one single bit. This translation was just about perfect. Not a single moment of eye-popping absurdity has been altered.

It was the uniform of the venerable St. Miator Girls’ Academy, which every single girl desperately wanted to attend.

(Was that every single girl in the world – or every *single* girl? I think the interpretation’s up for grabs. lol)

The overall tone of voice – that pretentious, overformal, precious tone, favored by moe fans everywhere, was captured perfectly. My kudos to the translator and adaptor.

Hikari came off as fragile, Amane as admirable, Miyuki as snarky, Shion as raging against the machine, Shizuma as a playgirl, and Nagisa as…Nagisa. Tamao isn’t as pervy as she is in the anime, Chikaru seems to be written by two different people – the one who acts like she’s pulling the strings and the one who thinks she’s barely interested, and Kaname…is nuts.

Kaname drew a red rose seemingly out of nowhere and offered it to Amane.

“Please give up; this is our fate. It’s all right. It only hurts in the beginning….”

And the Etoile competition is, to quote Tamao, a “festering pile of trickery.” She’s right, too. ^_^

I enjoyed every second of this novel, for the amusingly over-the-top tone, the heavy beating with the Yuri stick, and the fact that while I thought it hysterical, I am sure to get many emails and comments on how “beautiful” a story it is. My answer in advance, is to once again quote from the book:

Of course, most of the young ladies used their judgment when they heard those legends. But there were some who really believed them. …And yet those same young ladies grew into fine women.

Ratings:

Art – 6 (I’ve revised this down, because it’s too cute for some of the characters, who are supposed to be seen as sexy, or sensual, or masculine.)
Story – 6 (I’ve revised this up, because I’m no longer weighing this series against anything I take seriously)
Characters – 7 (Ditto)
Yuri – 9
Service – 8

Overall – 7

Translation – 9
Adaptation – 9

Strawberry Panic! is stellar as a comedy. Fans who don’t see that will find it to be stellar as a Yuri novel, because it is indubitably Yuri and therefore must be excellent. ^_^





Burst Angel Anime, Volume 5 (English)

March 9th, 2008

This review was made possible by the generosity of Daniel P., and I offer many thanks in his general direction. :-)

Today’s lesson is how you can take a moderately entertaining action series and ruin it, part 37. We’ve talked previously about things like doing reset endings so everything that happened up to that point is rendered meaningless, and getting sidetracked in long, drawn-out and irrelevant back or side story. Today’s lesson is “establish a primary couple as the focus of the story then ignore it completely.”

The early volumes of Burst Angel establish Jo and Meg as the primary couple and set Meg up as the *reason* Jo fights with such gusto. In Burst Angel Volume 5, Meg just about drops off the face of the series.

So we start off with the second half of Jo’s battle with a samurai in an alternate dimension against a monster, which is coincidentally similar to Django and piloted by a girl who is clearly the same as whatever Jo is. She says that Jo has to come back with her, but, no, that’s not happening. Jo fights, wins, we leave the alternate dimension and move on.

We move on to…a filler episode about a cyborg who used to be a classmate of Kyouhei’s. Very tragic.

Then Akane from Osaka drops in and police cybots go beserk and – can you guess? Jo has to fight them! Only, Akane seems to be victim du jour.

And where is Meg in all this? Jo’s boon companion, her Boston Marriage, her raison d’etre? Sitting in the trailer eating pizza and not much more than that.

Once again, I found my attention slipping off every episode, because the thing that made Jo interesting was her dedication to Meg and her passion in saving her. The Jo of this volume appears to get fired up over any old thing donuts, ants, and uses any old excuse for a fight. So…what was the point of Meg in the first place? We don’t even get a nice reunion after Jo and Meg are together again after Jo’s been missing for a while.

Lots of extras, as usual, interviews, radio dramas, American voice cast BSing while an episode plays in the background, and a two-sided DVD cover, which made me think how creatively they manage the costumes for maximum perviness.

Ratings;

Art – 7
Story – 5
Characters – There’s more than one? Seems like Jo’s the only one in the story now. 5
Yuri – 0
Service – 6

Overall – 5

Today’s lesson – don’t forget the winning formula.