Archive for the Series Category


Maria-sama ga Miteru Licensed by Nozomi/Right Stuf

March 6th, 2008

Nozomi and Right Stuf have an adorable announcement “Nozomi, Right Stuff and the Students and Faculty of Lillian Girls’ Academy are pleased to announce the North American debut of Maria Watches Over Us.” On Lillian stationery.

How cute is that? :-)

So – Good heavens, Marimite is licensed for the US!!!!

We’re getting subtitles only, season box sets for VERY reasonable prices. I am about to go pre-order my copies right now.

…A sign of the end times, surely. Hope I get my DVDs before it all comes crashing down. :-)





Yuri Manga: Gunjou

March 6th, 2008

A few months ago, I mentioned that I created a page on the Japanese social networking site Mixi. It’s been a very good exercise so far. For one thing, I have to be semi-coherent in Japanese when I post there, so I’m forced to practice my appalling communication skills. Because I am a shameless American, I’ve been wandering around the Mixi communities, introducing myself and pimping Yuricon & ALC Publishing where it seems to fit.

Well, one day I got a message – always an occasion of entertainment, (I’m not afraid of rare hunters who just want me for my strangeness.) This message, however was a very polite comment from someone named Nakamura who thought that since I seem to like Yuri manga, I might be interested in their new manga series. The post they linked me to starts “A non-moe Yuri manga.” My cute little ears pricked up because, of course, I *long* for non-moe Yuri stories.

Let me side-step a second. The day before I received this message I was trawling the Yuri board at 2chan and saw a picture which interested me greatly. I didn’t read the post, because I was in a rush. But the art really stuck out because it was two adult women, looking decidedly grim and I liked it instantly.

So, when I popped onto Nakamura-san’s page and find myself staring at the same exact picture, I think my heart rate increased a little. Probably got a little color in my sallow cheeks as well. After reading the description of the series, I fearlessly added Morning 2 magazine to my last order from Amazon JP.

Friends, I just want to say this, Gunjou is awesome and Nakamura Ching is da BOMB. Thank you, thank you, Nakamura-san for pointing out your new series to me!

As I reported in my Yuri News report a few weeks ago, Gunjou by Nakamura Ching is the story of a woman who asks the lesbian who is in love with her to kill her husband, and their life on the road after the deed is done.

The woman, whom I will refer to as “BN” for “brunette,” because she as yet has no name, is not a nice person. If I was her husband, I’d probably be abusive too. She’s manipulative, self-absorbed and nasty. Her friend, who is also nameless, so will be referred to as “BL” for “blonde,” is a lesbian who has been in love with BN for some time. She identifies as a lesbian and she’s prone to fits of violence. Needless to say, as I read Gunjou I practically shuddered with ecstasy. A nasty woman and the EPL who loves her. Sounds like my household. LOL

In chapter 4, which is where I picked the story up, they are casually discussing how they would want to kill themselves. BL suggest self-immolation with gasoline – and buys some just in case they want to try it. They return to BN’s childhood home, since her parents are safely dead. She tells BL how much they and her husband trapped her for her entire life. She heads off to have a cigarette and take a walk – we later see her at the public phone. BL finds some ero-magazines and picks one up, only to find that the girl in the story being schtupped looks scarily like BN. They find a game of LIFE and start to play, but in a fit of nasty, BN trash talks BL, then tells BL that she called the police on her. BL beats the bejeebus out of BN, then threatens her life with a broken bottle. BN begs for her life, they drink, they eat some sushi and go outside for a walk. Whereupon BL douses herself in the gasoline. But then worries when BN takes out a cigarette. The chapter ends with them both sitting on the ground outside the car, BN’s hand on BL’s thigh and BL carefully holding BN’s lighter.

Chapter 5 starts with some color pages, and BL with wounds that look like knife marks on her chest. No hospital, she says, in her near dementia. BN has no clue what to do, but she remembers BL talking about an older cousin she used to visit in the area where they went to school, so BN heads there. They park, BL saying she doesn’t want to go to a hospital, and BN saying that she isn’t – they are at her cousin’s place. “I don’t have a cousin,” BL says, just as her (obviously) ex-lover walks up. Woops. LOL

BN is laying on a futon on the floor when BL starts to gag and vomit. The lover comes in and comforts her, and in case we were very stupid, she holds her close, they have a lover’s reunion right there, while BN eats her own liver out. The whole thing is massively awkward. As BL recovers, the lover takes BN out to dinner, blames her for the failure of their (BL x lover’s) relationship, and the current state of things. After gently tipping her dinner over BN’s head, the lover proceeds to try to strangle her to death, saying she won’t give BL back now that she has her again.

BN drops the car keys into the car and starts to walk away, but BL leaves her lover with an apology. As the chapter ends, the two of them walk off arm in arm.

The art is a bit unusual, josei meets action drama – but don’t get me wrong, this is NOT a josei manga. Morning is a guy’s magazine and this is a manga for an adult, male, audience. The characters aren’t attractive, but that’s more because their expressions are often distorted by rage, frustration and bile, than anything else. Every once in a while they soften and you instantly begin to like them.

While I’ve focused on the major drama in the synopsis, there’s actually quite a bit of softer character development going on. And despite the dysfunction and manipulation, the relationship between BN and BL has some moments that are really quite tender. Since Nakamura-san describes this series as a Yuri series, I’m very interested to see how their relationship develops. I don’t see a *happy* end in the future, but I bet it’s interesting. I’ll definitely be following the series as it comes out in Morning – hopefully a tankoubon will be out soon.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 6 for anyone sane, 9 for me
Yuri – 4
Loser FanErica – 10

I cannot *wait* until the next chapter. I might just die from anticipation!





Yuri Manga Anthology: Maria’s Wink

March 4th, 2008

Long day today – short review. One of the more charming gray areas of Japanese copyright law is the existence of parody doujinshi anthologies. These are found in the same stores where manga and anime are sold. They usually have an anthology section, sometimes two, one for gag comics and the other for “adult.”

When I was in Japan last year, I picked up a pile of Maria-sama ga Miteru anthologies, some of which I have already reviewed. Feel free to read my reviews of Soeur Sengen and Gokigenyou anytime. At the time, I also picked up the second book in a series called Maria’s Wink. This past trip I found Maria’s Wink, Volume 1.

Maria’s Wink is primarily a gag anthology, but there’s plenty of Yuri love-love for readers, mostly of the major pairings. Lots of Sei-ism, of course. Two circles included in this collection are Bebe, who did the Creole series, and Raku-Gun, one of my current favorite circles.

I enjoy doujinshi anthologies. They are a fun, easy way to get a bead on the kind of stories that you, as a fan of a series, like. You get such a wide variety of circles, art, story, feel and tone, that you’re likely to find *something* that appeals to you. I always recommend these books as a great way to dip a toe into the vast and intimidating world of doujinshi. Once you have a few circles you know you like, you can start looking for their work, and slowly, slowly find yourself drowning in thousands of doujinshi which threaten to overrun your house.

…Maybe that’s just me.

In any case, if you like Maria-sama ga Miteru, and you want to read doujinshi that is *not* full of gouting bodily fluids, Maria’s Wink is a good place to start.

Ratings:

Art – Averaging at about 6
Characters – 8
Story – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 2

Overall – 7





New Anime Season Winter 2008: Mai Otome 0 ~ s.ifr OVA 1

February 29th, 2008

How many of the Mai series have you followed? I slogged through some of the HiME and Otome manga before calling it quits and I avoided Arashi completely. (For some reason, the manga is so much more vile than the anime and light novels, it’s genuinely intolerable to me.) I’ve watched all the anime, read the light novel and listened to two of the Drama CDs. Much of which I have reviewed here at Okazu. :-)

Which brings us to today’s topic, the newest of the anime releases, Mai Otome 0~S.ifr, OVA 1. (Available in English from Funimation.) This series clearly looks like a step back in time, an origin myth if you will. And like all epic beginnings, it starts off with good epic CGI, epic action and epic background music.

Sifr Fran, our heroine, starts the episode off having been kidnapped by our old friends, the Schwarz. She is saved by a Windbloom combo of Bruce Windbloom and his Meister Rena, with an assist from Sister Shion and her Meister Raquel and one of the Five Pillars of Garderobe, Elliot Chandler.

Once Sifr is safe and sound, we introduce everyone, including Arika’s eventual mother Rena Yumemiya, who pretty much doesn’t look at all like what we would expect. And if you have been keeping up on all of the different iterations, you may recognize Shion and Raquel as Shion and Mayo from the Mai HiME: Destiny light novel. For sanity’s sake, I refuse to even think of that at the moment – it’s just easier to take S.ifr as a whole new ball of wax and learn everyone the way they are presented to us.

Rena is greeted with much Yuri loving by Elliot. Apparently Elliot and Rena were in school together and Elliot misses Rena *a lot*. This is followed by some teasing of Shion, that in a lot of ways was very annoying, because even as they were implying that Yuri relationships exist in both Garderobe and Church, they explicitly state that its forbidden in the Church, and it’s a dirty little Otome secret. UGH.

We’re also treated to some bath service and nudity, because apparently we like that kind of thing.

Sifr is still the target of Schwarz, and while Elliot appears to be on our side, she receives an order from the Garderobe headmistress to kill Sifr if Schwarz gets a hold of her. Schwarz helpfully attacks, there’s some good action that Sunrise animates quite well, much better than the “peacetime” scenes, all of which precipitates two things. Peace-loving, violence-hating Rena is forced to materialize fully and fight off a Miyu unit, M-9, and Elliot is forced to show her hand. Rena wins the first battle, and ties on the second and the world explodes as Schwarz flies off with Sifr.

Personally, I’m betting no one died.

Lots of stuff to come in the second OVA, including Rena getting her sapphire robe, and erm… stuff.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Music – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 5
Service – 5

Overall – 7.5

For a first episode, I think S.ifr had pretty much every bang we can expect for our buck. I particularly liked the fact that there were less panty shots than usual, (replaced with the slightly less scuzzy obsession with adult breasts) and there were definitely more adult characters per square inch than in all the other Mai series. I’m looking forward to getting to know Garderobe’s new Headmistress, especially. She has EPL written all over her. ^_^





Yuri Drama CD: El Cazador de la Bruja, Volume 2

February 28th, 2008

My goodness,the El Cazador Drama CD, Volume 2 is a cute Drama CD. Set somewhere just past halfway into the series, after Ellis has started to realize that Nadie is more than a friend, but well before Nadie clues in, this Christmas story finds our two adventurers on the run with Santa Claus.

Not *the* Santa Claus, of course. In this case, the story begins with Nadie telling Ellis that she remembers a Christmas in New York City. Ellis presses her for details, which Nadie is loathe to share. When she – reluctantly – begins the story, it goes something like this. “Santa Claus was running away.”

At which Santa Claus comes running out of a store and into their car, importuning them to floor it. After some banter, they take off. Nadie is amazed at the irony when Clive, the Santa in question, turns out to be the *same* Santa as that in her New York story.

The opening credits are an opportunity for Ellis to keep changing the title of the story, inserting “New York” in every version, until Nadie puts a stop to it.

Eventually Ellis learns the New York story, and why Clive is (still) on the run. There’s gunfights and poignant moments, and Ellis using her newfound powers, and LA being a freak, and Ricardo being whipped by Lilio into dressing as Santa (red poncho) and walking around with a llama with a red nose. And each scene narrated dryly, as usual, by Jody “Blue Eyes” Hayward.

In the end, Clive was wearing a red shirt for a good reason, and Ellis and Nadie are forced to confront Clive’s mother, now a nun, with the gift he had made for her. Ellis’ innate honesty and goodness force Clive’s mother to forgive her son and they move on, having once again changed the world one person at a time.

The story is a little thin, but there were a few excellent scenes and one very un-excellent scene. ^_^

The best scene, IMHO, is Blue Eyes asking one of her henchwomen to stay for a drink, since it’s Christmas Eve and all. She begins interrogating the woman – likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc. None, comes the answer. Blue Eyes makes fun of the woman a little, but when the questions are turned on her and she doesn’t have any better answers, the henchwoman notes that they are the same. Scene fades out. My imagination doesn’t. ^_^

The most horriblest scene involves LA singing the Amigos tacos song. Try imagining it. That’s not nearly half as bad as it actually was. 0_0

And the funniest scene comes right at the very end in a 12-second track, when Ricardo, Liliio, and the llama, drive by Nadie and Ellis. ^_^

The bonus track was very long, with quite a lot of conversation from the main cast. Miyano Mamoru, LA’s actor, is quick to point out that LA is not, in fact, a pervert or hentai – his feelings are genuine love for Ellis. I agree, but it doesn’t make him any less horrible.

Hisakawa Aya is bemoaning the fact that Rosenberg’s voice actor, Miyake Kenta, isn’t with them this time and wouldn’t you know it – he walks in at that very moment! “Uso!” Hisakwa says, and a conversation that has nothing at all to do with us listeners erupts. ^_^

No physical extras, but the cover art is just about exactly as cute as the story inside.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 3
Service  – 4

Overall – 7

While not as love-love as the first El Cazador DCD, the second is still fun.