Archive for the Series Category


Maria-sama ga Miteru News, Yuricon News

December 2nd, 2007

Many of you will have already read this, but for those of you who have not, Pizza Hut and the makers of Maria-sama ga Miteru have announced a co-promotional campaign. Fans can get Marimite themed pizza boxes with series-related goods, and enter a contest to win other items. For more details, you can read the Anime News Network article here.

Marimite is hardly the first to do a Pizza Hut campaign in Japan – the product was notably placed in Code Geass, but it does seem a really unlikely one at first thought, doesn’t it? It’s difficult to imagine the ladies of Lillian eating Pizza Hut, although not at all hard to imagine their hordes of fanboys doing so. lol

I also note that there will be a Winterket special DJCD which I’ll be darn sure to try and nab for myself while I’m there!

***

This is sort of anti-news, but I want to let everyone know that I’m pulling the RSS newsfeed from the Yuricon website. I haven’t had the time to keep it up to date at all, and I’m more likely to post here. So, as of today, Okazu is the official outlet for Yuri news for Yuricon.

While I’m on the topic of the Yuricon site, I also want to mention that we have a project that we’ve just started to translate chunks of the Yuricon site into Japanese. It’s in the very first stages now, but going forward into 2008, you can look for “Nihingo” links to the Japanese-language versions of the home page and inwards from there. :-)

I promise, an actual review will be forthcoming today as well. :-)





Yuri Manga: Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 4

November 28th, 2007

Hi Hi! Miu Matsuoka here, the most adorable of all girls in the entire world! Yay!

I’m supposed to thank some guy named Ted for something. Beats me why, and what kind of name is “Ted” anyway? Let’s call him…Greenie, no, wait, Bellboy! Thanks, Bellboy, for whatever it was that I was supposed to thank you for!

I’m here to tell you what Strawberry Marsmallow, Volume 4, is about, and since it’s obviously about *me*, you ought to appreciate my personal appearance.

First, some weirdo pervy saleman harrasses me and the others, and I had to teach him a lesson about being a freak near cute, innocent girls like me. And I managed to score a really nice case of makeup, too.

Then I explored my creative side with some awesome manga that I drew. (Aside from being cute and athletic, I am also incredibly talented as an artist. It’s hard to find such a rare genius as I.) Of course, because I’m way ahead of the curve artistically, no one was mature enough to appreciate my work. Pfft.

Matsuri had a really disturbed dream about me as a dog. I really worry about that girl. And then Chika thought she was getting fat. I helped her work it off with some sage advice about exercise. Nobue ruined it all by pointing out that Chika had gotten taller. Really, she’s a total joykill.

Chika totally needs to be a little more vain, because every time I write on her face, hours go by before she notices. ^_^

Nobue worries me too. Seriously. She’s always hanging out with me and the younger kids and she never seems to go out. I came up with a genius plan to get her to dress all girly and get ready for a date, just in case a guy should ever, one day, want to. Like that will ever happen.

Oh, this was a good one! Matsuri, Ana and Nobue went back to school to get Mats’ recorder. Chika and I tried to scare them, but Nobue totally got us back. It was awesome.

Then there’s some school life stuff. I slept through most of it, so it’s kind of boring.

And then we were all stuck inside and I tried to come up with some excellent amusement for Nobue and myself. Chika didn’t appreciate it. Man, that girl can deliver a beatdown when’s she’s mad.

In between all the great stuff I did, there were these questions and answers that we had to do. I was brilliant as usual. And you know what, Ana’s a super bore. Nobue really needs to look for a domestic beauty, such as myself.

Ratings:

Art – This is *me* we’re talking about! 10, at least. 11, since, me.
Story – Not bad, although there was a little too much Matsuri – 8
Characters – Me – 10, Nobue – 10, Chika – 9, Matsuri – 3, Ana – 2
Yuri – mmmm….I like Nobue, and Chika’s sort of my soulmate, but I swing both ways, so – 4
Service – like that pervy salesman guy? Ewww. – 5

Overall – The bits with me, 8, definitely

I think you should get this book and send me fanmail. But there’s no way I’m giving you my email or anything. Just contact my agent and don’t bother me with your drivel. I’m much too important to deal with the likes of you.





Yuri Anime: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 3 (English)

November 15th, 2007

Today’s review was brought to you by the kindness of the good folks at Media Blasters, who also inform me that the street date for the second volume of Simoun is February 26, 2008. Something to look forward to in the depths of the winter blues. ^_^

I need to warn you all before you continue reading – today’s review is going to be chock full of GIGANTIC spoilers. I want to be able to talk about the anime without having to be clever or coy or anything else. If you have somehow managed to avoid all the spoilers for this anime and don’t want to know, read the next paragraph and then skip down to the ratings so you get my overall impression, without details. Otherwise, I’m gonna blab like an intoxicated sailor on leave. (No offense to sailors, it’s just a stereotype…for pity’s sake – you *know* what I mean!)

Kashimashi~ Girl Meets Girl, Volume 3 was a challenge. I had to remind myself over and over to not take it seriously in the least, and as that simple mantra sank in, I began to enjoy it more and more. I don’t for a second think it was *good,* but you know, it was very entertaining – and that’s pretty much why I watch anime. Entertainment that is entertaining – what is this world coming to?

Here’s the super fast recap of the plot, with links to my previous reviews:

Volume 1: An alien spaceship slams into a heartbroken and rather effeminate (but not gay…yet) boy who stands alone on a mountain. The aliens are mortified by the subsequent death of the boy, so they bring him back, but they can only do so by changing his gender. Since he was so girly, no one really seems to care much. And since she still likes girls – in fact still likes the girls he liked as a boy, she is now quite gay.

Volume 2: Both the girls, who had feelings for him as a boy now realize that they have even stronger feelings for her as a girl. Yasuna, the feminine stereotype, admits to having started liking Hazumu when he was a boy, but since she suffers from Yuri-itis and cannot see men, now that Hazumu is a girl she is free to love her wholely. Tomari, the tomboy stereotype, acknowledges that she has always loved Hazumu and despite the fact that he is now a girl, she’s prepared to love her anyway since Hazumu is still Hazumu. Maybe moreso now. We also learn that Hazumu suffers from the SPCD decideritis and cannot make a decision, to the point of it being pathological. Yasuna and Tomari agree to keep it like this between the three of them – them loving Hazumu and being friends with one another, so Hazumu can remain uncommitted and they can all relax for a little bit.

Volume 3 begins with that falling to pieces almost immediately. Shocking, I know. Instead of the group date Hazumu had planned, only she and Yasuna manage to go to the new aquarium. Tomari ends up shipping out to track-and-field camp with the team, where the other girls have a little fun teasing her gently about her relationship with Hazumu so she can be all tsundere, for thems as like that sort of thing.

Yasuna and Hazumu decide to bring Tomari’s souvenir to her directly. This takes them to the station near the training camp, where the first big crisis occurs. A conductor, trying to be nice to Yasuna terrifies her instead, so Hazumu runs over to hold her until she calms down. It is of course at that moment that Tomari sees them. And her world, which was pretty comfy ’til right about then, shatters – not because of Hazumu, but because she thinks can’t trust Yasuna anymore. I found this sort of interesting – Hazumu was essentially absolved of any culpability in this. As if she, not being able to make a decision, is also therefore completely susceptible to external manipulation. (Shoganai – it can’t be helped, being Hazumu’s basic response when anyone asks her about anything.) Which is actually quite true. Hazumu comes off here as naive, a little bit feckless and ragingly selfish, as Ayuki will point out later.

In retaliation, Tomari takes Hazumu out for a walk, takes her hair down (which Hazumu had previously said made her look more feminine and mature) and kisses her. Of course Yasuna sees this and now she feels betrayed – again, not by Hazumu, but by Tomari.

Their house of cards having quickly crumpled, things fall apart completely. Yasuna’s SPCD gets worse, so that she can no longer see anyone at all. Not even in pictures. She is alone in a world full of ghosts. Hazumu, Tomari and Yasuna, having been drawn together now are as far apart as they can be. Frustrated by Hazumu’s inability to *do* anything, even the aliens start to pack up and leave.

There is no doubt that this crisis was handled with significantly less subtlety here in the anime than in the manga. But, in keeping with my determination to not take the whole thing seriously, let’s call it a handwave and move on.

It’s at this point that Ayuki steps in. With a cold, hard dose of reality, she is the only one who blames *Hazumu* for all this. And thank goodness for that. She unerringly puts her finger on the problem with Hazumu’s nature – that in her selfishness in wanting to have her cake and eat it too, she remains passive and lets other people be hurt, rather than taking any responsibility at all.

Spurred by Ayuki’s scolding, Hazumu talks to Tomari about her decision, then finds Yasuna, who is about to leave town, and says that she wants to be together with Yasuna. Magically, her faith in humanity and Hazumu restored, Yasuna recovers.

Now, up until this watching, I have always said that this choice was the right choice for the wrong reason. I hereby completely contradict that and say it was the wrong choice for the wrong reason. Hazumu’s reason boils down to a form of extortion by Yasuna. “If I don’t go to Yasuna, she’ll be sick forever. She needs me.” And boy oh boy, plenty of women really DO use that line of reasoning to stay in dead-end relationships. “Who else will take care of him/her? S/he needs me.” (This is where I reminded myself, yet again – aliens, Erica. Talking spaceship. Church in the sky. Let it go.) Incidentally, if we are paying attention, we realize by now that it wasn’t Hazumu at all that Ayuki likes, but Tomari. I still think that originally, the mangaka was planning on it being a harem thing and decided to not go there by the time the series ended.

Which brings us to the end of Episode 12 in which Yasuna pops over to Hazumu one day with an enigmatic, “You know what?” which is then passed onto Tomari.

As I mentioned the first time I reviewed this series, I know I’m not the only person who hoped that it was a request for a threesome. I still think that they could have made it work. IF I was taking this seriously, which as you know, I am not. ^_^

Episode 13, the DVD extra episode, takes place several months after episode 12. They say 6 months, but that can’t be right. Training camps are usually during summer vacation, in August and Ep. 13 takes place at Christmas, which makes it four months later. Not that I’m taking this seriously, or anything.

We learn through flashback that what Yasuna had to say to Hazumu at the end of Ep. 12 was that she was breaking up with her. For all the right reasons. Yasuna has decided to walk on her own, as she puts it. The right decision – for the right reason. Hazumu, however, fails. Instead of walking away and learning to deal with this, she hares off and asks Tomari to be her girl. Tomari does the only sensible thing possible, she ignores Hazumu and walks away, because otherwise she’d have to slap her upside the head and say, “What the hell kind of idiot thing are you thinking?” Which also would have been in character, but also would have made Episode 13 impossible.

Unwilling to confront Hazumu about this insulting and untrustworthy request, Tomari simply freezes Hazumu out. It seems inexplicable behavior until Tomari coherently explains that how on earth was she supposed to trust Hazumu, when she was still waffling back and forth like this? Unsaid, but no less obvious – that Hazumu was willing to use Tomari as a rebound to dull the pain of a breakup. I don’t think Hazumu ever quite grasped that that was what she did. I know *I* wanted to smack her upside the head and say, “What the hell kind of idiot thing are you thinking?” but since I wasn’t taking this seriously, I didn’t. Well, maybe I muttered it a bit.

Then the stupidest thing in the world happened – the aliens came back and on Christmas Eve (which you know in Japan is for lovers, right?) they make a giant Cathedral appear in the sky where Hazumu and Tomari “get married.” This was well beyond idiotic, just like a boy being killed by a spaceship and being turned into a girl is. In other words, if we’re watching this and taking it seriously, we’re the idiot here, right? I realized at some point I was grinning like a dope. Why? I think because it was *entertaining* and I felt *entertained.* That and because I’m a big dope. :-)

People HATED Episode 13. Yasuna fans, for the obvious reasons – even though she came off as the best character in the series because of it. Tomari fans because…well, beats me, Tomari fans all seem sort of pointless angry all the time. And anyone with a lick of sense because it was *stupid.* Giant floating cathedral, sleigh ride across the sky, etc, etc. ^_^

But seriously – aliens, remember? This was NEVER supposed to be taken seriously. It was a silly plot, with a silly set-up and a silly love triangle with a silly ending.

The extras with the volume are some interviews with the seiyuu, in which they have nothing really to say, but I enjoy listening to them say it anyway. In the final interview with the three lead voice actresses, I found it very amusing that they all decided that it would have been better if Hazumu turned back into a boy, because as it ended, things might become difficult when they got older. They were all pretty concerned by this. Both Tomari’s seiyuu and I originally though that Hazumu would be returned to boy form and the story would just keep going as the love triangle. Surprise on us, huh? I can’t say I’m sad to be have been totally wrong about that.

Last thing of note – in this volume the translator has everyone in the series refers to Hazumu as “she” – except Tomari, who still is tranlated as using “he.” Since in Japanese they tended to use the genderless “aitsu,” I have to assume that was done on purpose.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 6 It had calmed down from the beginning, but suddenly towards the end, someone developed an obsession with Tomari’s ass.

Overall – 7

It was stupid. I liked it. That’s entertainment.





Cutey Honey a GoGo Manga, Perfect Volume (Japanese)

November 14th, 2007

I hereby nominate Go Nagai as a candidate for having his head put into one of those head tubs from Futurama. I don’t think we can afford to lose this kind of genius.

In April of this year I found and fell in love with Cutey Honey a Gogo. My biggest complaint was the volume ended abruptly, right in the middle of the story. And no Volume 2 ever appeared. It was criminal, when you consider how awesome CHaGG was. Then, one innocent day, Amazon Japan emailed me with one of its automated suggestions and lo and behold! It was for Cutey Honey a Gogo, Perfect Edition. Oh, how I rejoiced.

It is perfect (and totally not coincidental) timing for this volume’s release, as a new Cutey Honey Live-Action TV series is running even as we speak. Review will be forthcoming…of course.

Historically, Cutey Honey is rather important to us, the Yuri audience, and especially those of use who are female. Honey was the first, ever, magical heroine who succeeded all on her own, without a man in her life. It’s true that the Hayami family existed in the anime (Seiji, his kid brother and repulsive grandfather,) but they were there to primarily serve as victims, hindrances, perverts and other forms of comedic relief. Honey didn’t need them – in fact, she probably would have done a lot better if they had gotten out of her way. The fact that there has been some light to moderate lesbianism in pretty much every version (excepting Seed, which really isn’t about Honey at all) just keeps it on the list of series we should keep an eye on.

Cutey Honey a GoGo originally came out about the same time as the Live Action movie and Re Cutie Honey. And like those two, it was pretty great. Honey in these versions was much more like the original Honey; smart, fun-loving and mischievous. She’s also self-reliant and strong, with a clear emotional bond with Aki Natsuko.

In the original manga Na-chan was Honey’s classmate, another student at St. Chapel Jogakuen. In all three of the 2004 versions, Na-chan was a police detective. MAJOR powerup for Na-chan. I approve. She’s awesome as the tough-as-nails cop. Much better than as Honey’s beloved, but ineffectual, school friend.

So this perfect volume includes CHaGG Volume 1 and the never-before printed Volume 2. (For which artist Itoh Shimpei apologizes in the back, but I have no doubt that it is not his fault.)

Volume 2 picks up the story after Honey has been staying with Na-chan for some time. Na-chan is not falling for Honey, or anything, but as Seiji picks on her about it, Na-chan just says, “all the flowers are blooming.” When she had lived alone, she had tried to take care of all sorts of plants, but no matter what she did, they just died. As soon as Honey arrived, the flowers all blossomed. I (and Seiji) think that’s an apt metaphor for Chief Aki Natsuko’s life as well. ^_^

The plot picks up with more Panther Claw baddies doing the usual bad stuff and Honey doing the usual to stop them, with Na-chan bringing up the rear carrying the heavy artillery.

But they learn that bizarre things are occurring at – can you guess? – St. Chapel Jogakuen! So Na-chan signs up as a teacher and Honey as a student and they head off to this mysterious and strict private girl’s school.

They are met by the obviously sadistic Miharu-sensei, who was not a Panther Claw operative as I suspected, but another nod backwards to Honey’s history and the odious Histler. And here’s where the story gets wacky. ^_^

Honey’s roommate, Ayumu, is a nice kid. But Miharu-sensei, when she can’t catch Honey during her nightly transgressions, and frustrated with her inability to punish Na-chan who drives her nuts, targets Ayumu. Honey appears to be stalked by a dark, large and very gloomy upperclassman, who ultimately (I’m skipping a lot here) turns out to be in love with Ayumu. She blames Honey for Ayumu’s troubles, and attacks her, but when the Panther Claw attacks the school and lots of random, unnecessary and unpleasant deaths occur, she backs off and let’s Honey stop Spider Claw. The horrible deaths are yet again a nod back to the original work in which *everyone* died. Horribly.

At the end of this volume, Sister Jill-sama names four new top Claws – Black, Gold, Cobalt, and Scarlet and if you watched Re CH or the live action movie, you’ll be familiar with the names. At the end of the book, Na-chan vows to protect Honey (not the first time she has done this, and we all know where that leads) and Honey vows to fight to the bitter end to stop Sister Jill.

Bar none, this is my *favorite* version of Honey. I can only hope and pray and the manga gods are smiling favorably upon this lone fan and wait to see if we ever get more. It worked once, I’m not going to stop now. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 7

Overall – 8

How much do you think it would cost me to pay Nagai and Itoh to continue this series for me? ^_^





My Zhime (Mai Otome) Anime, Volume 2 (English)

November 11th, 2007

My Otome, Volume 2 is as close to a pile of service with a plot attached as is just about possible. In fact, if you only care about the story, you could easily skip the first three episodes of the volume and lose nothing at all.

Once again, my thanks to Ted for his generosity and sponsorship of this review!

The volume starts off with a slightly different spin on the typical “bullying the newcomer” plot complication. Someone has stolen Arika’s uniform and sold it to that bastion of fan perversion, Backstage. After lots of chasing and stuff, Irina comes up with a clever, plausible and all-together incorrect explanation for the missing uniform. This is followed by a “mysterious” sponsor who offers to pay Arika school expenses, as long as she keeps her grades up and writes regularly. I honestly can’t imagine anyone watching this series have the slightest doubt at all who the sponsor is. It’s one of the least mysterious mysteries ever.

Next up, a clever (this is me rolling my eyes) reason for a tentacle monster to appear in the pool, thus giving the writers a chance to use tentacles, bathing suits, bouncing breasts and Yuri in one fetish- and stupidity-filled episode. I’m torn between imagining that the writers hate themselves or their audience more. Can’t quite decide.

In the last episode the plot makes a cameo appearance. We learn that there’s a big church organ in the basement of the castle, that Arika and Mashiro and Nina all seem to know different bits of the same song (was that ever explained? I can’t recall if it was….) and in a surprise move, Arika and Mashiro against all rules, including those of common sense, become bonded as Master and Otome. The ancient Harmonium sounds, surprising everyone on the planet and foretelling some serious shit that is about to happen.

The extra has, wait for it, *more* slimy service. Juliet/Nao gets the girls to wear ridiculous lingerie and crawl all over one another and films it for a quick buck online, one assumes. I like that she has no morals and isn’t burdened by any personal sense of right and wrong. I could even take the random – here, wear this underwear. But the filming. Makes me want to take that knife and hot tar out of the closet and start doing a little service of my own.

Yuri in this volume is primarily Erstin’s feelings for Mopey Nina. I wish that that had been given some depth, but basically it will remain a gag plot complication. However, I still feel that Nina’s reaction to Erstin’s bizarre assumption that Nina was feeling her up in the pool was the single best thing she did in the entire series. Coulda killed her right after that and it would have been fine with me.

Art – 7
Characters – 6
Story – 6
Music – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 7

Overall – 6

This is probably the low point for the series for me. It felt like they were wasting my time, when they could have been telling a story.