Archive for the Series Category


Mai Otome Zwei OAV Anime

January 10th, 2007

As we begin I never did an overview of the Autumn 2006 Anime season because, frankly, there was (and is) damn little yuri to be found anywhere. The few series that have anything are mostly minor characters in minor roles.

There was, of course, the Maria-sama ga Miteru OAV, Kohitsuji no Kyuuka, which I have reviewed previously. And there are a few series I’ll be covering in the upcoming days, as well. And also of note to fans was another continuing anime going direct to DVD, Mai Otome Zwei.

Like most other OAVs, Zwei is pretty much for the established fanbase. There’s no introduction, no set-up – you’re just thrown into the story, such as it is.

(Let me back up for a sec, because I know I get new readers all the time. If you have no idea what fanbase I’m talking about, you’ll want to take a moment to read my comments on Mai HiME .)

If you are already familiar with Mai Otome, then slipping into the OAV will present little difficulty. It picks up a year after the TV series ends. Like most action stories, it begins with a short vignette that sets our protagonist up as a powerful superheroine. It then follows that up with a quick change of place and tone, to show that she’s also still a young girl and comedic relief… a technique used in many, many James Bond movies, without the “girl” part. ^_^

The plot, which is the predictable “fight an unknown opponent who/which is massively more powerful than us good guys” has some good elements. That is, right off the bat the opponent removes the most powerful forces we have (almost in order of power, in fact) so that by the end of the first episode our resources are significantly weaker than we should be able to expect. The problem here is that this plot complication is incredibly overplayed in anime, so while it’s well done – it’s also kind of “uh-huh.” It’s not like we’d really expect that the new mysterious enemy would be easy to handle…where’s the drama/angst/power-ups/new transformation in *that*?

Secondly, the relationships. As I mentioned, this OAV is strictly for the previous fanbase. All relationships are assumed. You simply need to know before you start who everyone is, and all the in-jokes of their relationships and personalities. Which works fine for me. In fact, I saw that as a strength, that no time was wasted restablishing prior relationships, except through interactions that read as quite natural. So, if you don’t know the couples, you wouldn’t see anything that even remotely resembled Yuri (with one notable exception, also pointed out by Zyl.) If you *do* know the history, it’s easy to see Shizuru’s and Natsuki’s interaction as that of a long-term couple.

The notable exception is a single line voiced by the eccentric Professor, a former Schwarz rebel now working with Garderobe. As she puts it in her eccentric mix of Japanese and English “[Shizuru]’s definitely getting a pretty girl now” – followed by a typical jealous/denial reaction from Natsuki and accompanying titters from the gathered cast and crew. The teasing feels like a group of old friends having a little fun at their friend’s expense…which is exactly what it is supposed to feel like.

The fact that the relationships are understood makes the OAV feel more comfortable and less strident than the Otome TV series. The weakness here is that if you were a first-time viewer, you wouldn’t be getting any of the in-jokes.

All that having been said, if I had not already watched both Mai HiMe and Mai Otome, I probably wouldn’t have given the time of day to this OAV. Because in and of itself, it has no depth. It is a fanfic of a fanfic. Mai HiME created the characters, personalities, powers and backstories. Mai Otome played with those in an alt-universe setting, altering some of the relationships, adding others. (Moving Tate away from Mai and sticking mopey Nina with him, for instance. Changing Chie and Aoi from a fanon couple to a canon couple, that kind of thing.) This OAV doesn’t have time (or to be fair, the need) to do anything else other than write a new battle story with the same pieces as before.

But it’s hardly over. Like the Marimite OAVs Zwei will be released piecemeal over a series of months. I believe the total is 4 episodes, so who knows what they may add in terms of character development. My guess is that we’ll get to see Nina’s new relationship with Serge/Tate, but probably not much more.

Whether the plot will hold up, or turn into another Sunrise reset is also a matter of some speculation. Check back after Episode 4. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 3
Service – 4 (inappropriately worn thong bathing suits, unnecessary jutting breasts w/nipples during transformation)

Overall – 6

As the first installment of an Otome fanfic, Zwei is a decent enough way to kill an hour. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 2

January 9th, 2007

I was torn today. Do I review some of the backlogged stuff I have to review, or review new stuff I have to review, or finally get around to a roundup of the anime season this winter?

After agonizing over it for a while (like twenty minutes on and off throughout the day) I’ve decided to get something old out of the way, because I’m sick of looking it on my list. :-) And because it makes a nice lead-in to a new anime.

So, here I am, at last reviewing the second volume of the Kannazuki no Miko anime. It practically seems like ancient history at this point, a thought which is funnier to me than it ought to be, but I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that my body thinks it’s 4AM right now. ^_^

So, in Volume 2 of Kannazuki no Miko, we are treated to the back histories of the two who are competing for Himeko’s love: Souma and Chikane. We learn, mostly through flashbacks, of Souma’s tragic and difficult past; and why the Orochi’s first neck, Tsubasa, has issues about Souma particularly. Chikane’s past and personality are fleshed out a bit through the admittedly biased eyes of her adoring maid Otoha. In both cases, we are meant to admire the strength and kindness of the character. Which works.

What each story also reveals is the true nature of the Orochi – obsession turned to mania, obsessions that use flawed logic to further the plot. And here is where the story simply is not good. I know no one cares. But I really watched this volume carefully to try and pinpoint the things that make this such a train wreck of a story. It had to be in *this* volume and no other, because the anime is so short.

Here is the first flawed logic that leads up to an inexplicable decision. Tsubasa: “I killed our abusive father to protect you, my brother. I then let you be taken from me to give you a chance at a happy life, while I resigned myself to a life of hardship. Now that I have the power of the Orochi, I want you to give up your happy life that I strived for, in order to be evil with me…or failing that I will kill you, or force you to kill me. If you kill me, you will still be taken over by the evil blood within us.”

I will grant that KnM is A) a fantasy; B) a short anime; C) crap, but even so, this simply makes no sense. And that is not even taking into consideration that no one we defeat stays defeated (or that the end of the story will negate any power the threat of “Orochi” has.)

That’s just the one story. The other is this: Sister Miyako forces Chikane to see her own feelings for Himeko for what they actually are – physical attraction, desire. It is sensible to me, having been in a similar situation, to see Chikane leap through hoops to deny this. It is also sensible that she will not just accept her feelings. It’s damned hard when you have no models or mores that make it “okay.” (One of the many reasons I live my life in the open and why being out is genuinely so important here in the real world. If Chikane had a pair of happy, openly gay aunts or cousins or something, then she’d have no cause to angst over her feelings half as much.)

I can make it work that Orochi infiltrates Chikane’s brain through this crack. I can do that, because I’m an imaginative, creative person. If I had written the story, I would have done that visibly, so the viewers could actually see it happening. Instead, we suddenly go from a Chikane who desires Himeko but denies it, to a Chikane apparently mad with Orochi and obsession. Sure – we can make it work. But I resent being asked to do so. You wrote the damn story – you make it work.

Here’s my understanding of Chikane’s logic: I desire you, but that’s disgusting. Therefore I am disgusting. Therefore I am evil. Therefore I am Orochi, since Orochi is the embodiment of evil and perversion of all that is good and light, i.e. you. I have remembered our true history, and can see that you do not. Under the pretext of trying to bring back your memory, I will do something horrible to you so that you will hate me (and the Orochi I claim to be part of) and will want to defeat it (and me) thus saving yourself. If I save you in that way, the ends justify the means, and I condemn myself to the eternal punishment I deserve anyway for being so vile.

If you follow that, you are probably certifiable. Or 15.

When Chikane’s resolve to be punished fails, her logic, which is already flawed, gets more complex and inexplicable, but I’ll save that for next volume.

So, in my attempt to understand Volume 2 as a real story, I come up with these two conclusions: 1) Obsessions are bad and 2) Obsessed people make bad decisions.

Now, if you ignore the fact that much of the story makes no sense, it’s a pretty good volume. LOL Lots of giant robot fighting, bickering among the female Orochi which is marginally amusing, and lots of Himeko service. We pretty much get to see Himeko in every possible kind of dishabille, for both good and ill. Souma takes the lead in the “Get Himeko” contest, but if it weren’t for Chikane’s insanity, she might have pulled even. Instead, she forces the issue in the infamous lesbian rape scene, making yet another bad rap for us Yurizoku.

More interesting to me was the scene involving Sister Miyako’s mental rape of Chikane, using a mirror image of Himeko. It’s pretty much the key moment in Chikane’s snapping. I liked the mindfuck going on – and Sister Miyako, who doesn’t look like any nun, anywhere, ever, was worth it. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 5 (Let’s face it, without the lesbian element, hardly anyone would have watched this)
Characters – 6
Yuri – A very nasty 7
Service – 7

Overall – 6

Remember evil Chikane. You’ll be meeting her again soon.





Yuri Manga: Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 2

December 20th, 2006

So, you see why I wanted Sean to get me that darn review already. ;-)

I’m an old Comparative Literature major (just like Satou Sei, lol) and I can’t help myself, so – for compare and contrast, here’s my review of the Japanese Ichigo Marshmallow Volume 2.

Because the content of Volume 2 remains the same, I don’t feel the need to go over the “what so much, but I do want to say a few things about the “how.”

The translation is…well, I’m not really sure what it is. There are moments of sheer brilliance, moments of complete incompetence, and in between I keep finding myself asking, “who is this translation for?” Let me attempt to explain:

None of the sound effects are translated, nor are there notes next to them. I don’t care personally – as I’ve said many times, I don’t see them, myself. And I can read them in Japanese, so it’s no loss to me. But I’ve been told that people *do* read them, and the standard these days is to either translate and replace them (which is a lot of work!) or to write translations next to or near them. Sometimes translated s/fx are put into a detailed glossary in the back. Doing none of the above assumes that *I* am the reading audience – people who can either read them, or who don’t care.

Second – Ana’s name. Her family name is the source of a large body of the gags in this volume. And nowhere is it explained *why* her name is such an issue. That seems really bizarre to me. (Ana Coppola in Japanese sounds really weird – something like ‘hole bone cave’. It’s not dirty, it’s just giggle-making strange.)

Third – about once a chapter Nobue turns British. Everytime it happens I do a double-take. “Dirty pool”? Who says that other than Gomez Adams?

And of course, nothing else is explained, either. Which, I like. Miu says Randolph instead of Rudolph, her Jinglish version of Randy Travis is transliterated, so it reads like Jinglish, and Ana, when she accidentally writes her name in Japanese on the blackboard reacts with a large Japanese hiragana “Da!”

But then, Sasazuka is told to stand in the corner, instead of the hall. Go figure.

In one sense, it’s maddeningly inconsistent. In another sense it fits right in with the sheer randomness of the story as a whole. I’d like to think they thought about it beforehand…but it seems unlikely.

As Sean said yesterday about Strawberry Marshmallow Volume 1, for us (that is, he and I) this series is really all about Miu and Nobue. I think the two scenes that encapsulate them – and their relationship are these: Miu, attempting to impress Nobue, does extreme stretching, then asks Nobue if that was amazing. Nobue responds, “Well, yeah…in a freak show kinda way.” Nobue hears how Miu told Ana’s class about her weird name. When questioned, Miu says, quite seriously that even *she* knows the difference between good and evil…and, she says happily, did it on purpose.

Ratings:

Art – Up from last volume – 6
Story – Crazed like a loon – 7
Characters – Ditto – 8
Yuri – Ditto – 4
Service – 6

Overall – 7

Ah, Evil Psychotic Lesbian-in-training Miu. You are the wind beneath my wings. ^_^

 





Yuri Manga: Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 1

December 19th, 2006

It’s my great pleasure to offer you a review of the English translation of Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 1 today by guest reviewer Sean Gaffney. And it only took me two solid weeks of nagging to get it!

For comparison’s sake, here is a link to my original review of the Japanese-language version of Ichigo Mashimaro, Volume 1.

In any case, take it away Sean!

The problem with the first volume of Ichigo Mashimaro is obvious right from the start; it kept its pilot episodes.

Basically, the artist had no idea this would be a continuing series, and the first three or four chapters have different designs (except for Chika) and different personalities (except for Chika). They’re almost proto-IM, and very odd indeed.

However, once the series proper gets started, you’ll know. You’ll know because there’s Miu. She was technically in the first few chapters, but not really. That was someone else with Miu’s name. True Miu…EVIL, INSANE Miu… arrives about the same time that Nobue stops being a bottle blonde and becomes the chain-smoking grump we know and love.

There are, technically, other characters. There’s Chika, who is the normal one. There’s Matsuri, who is the doormat by which all other anime doormats are measured. In a contest between Matsuri and Shinji, Matsuri would win hands down as being the most spineless.

But I honestly don’t gush over them at all. They add to the manga, but you don’t say ‘wow, was that Chika fun in that part!’. And why? Because Miu is insane, and Nobue’s reactions are wonderful. That’s why you read IM. Miu and Nobue. By the end of the volume, things are fully formed, and you realize how much of Miu’s life is devoted to making Nobue NOTICE HER, DAMMIT.

Yuri? Not anything explicit (not yet), and the design tends to make everyone look 5 rather than 12, but I think Miu has a crush on Nobue even this early, and one that grows larger as the manga wears on.

This is a funny, cute manga, and if you’d been avoiding it as it looked too loli, then grab a copy. Just be prepared for a slow, rocky start before you hit the paydirt.

Did I mention Miu? Cause, Miu.

Erica here: I say, amen to that, brother! And my thanks once again to Sean Gaffney, “guest reviewer of the gods.”

My own quick comments – in order to do get this review up, I had to reformat two older reviews and, as a result, I had a good chance to look at the new English-edition vs the Japanese edition side by side. For once, I actually like the translated edition cover better. The stark white background of the original is too unfluffy and uncute for this bastion of cuteness. The light red-an-white-plaid background on the Tokyopop edition hits just the right note of cute.

The translation wanders in and out of good to meh to excellent. It gets better as it goes on. Of course, no honorifics which, in this series, really fails, since the younger girls all call Nobue “Nobue-nee-san,” “Nobu-‘nee” just “‘nee-san”, or any number of other manipulations, depending on the character and the mood, something that is lost entirely. Matsuri-chan becomes, inexplicably, “Mats.” I will forever disapprove.

Ratings:

Art – this is totally personal, but for me – 5
Story – starts out weak, then gets going, as Sean said – 6
Characters – same as above – 7
Yuri – “Haruka-san, look at me!” – 2
Service – sigh…6

Overall – 6

When the ball gets rolling, it gets “wtf” funny. I still laugh out loud at it, which annoys me no end. ^_^

 





Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CD 10: Nakakiyono/Answer

December 18th, 2006

For the 10th Maria-sama ga Miteru CD, Nakakiyono, we move backwards in time, away from the just-graduated Youko, Sei and Eriko, to midwinter and the long first night of the year.

Like most of the Marimite Drama CDs, Nakakiyono follows the novel more closely than either the anime or the manga.

We follow Yumi as she goes on her hatsumode, her first shrine visit of the year, with Sei and as Sei tricks her into coming to Sachiko’s home for a stayover. Yumi does have a line remonstrating with Sei for flirting with the miko at the shrine, btw. ^_^

We also manage a little extra Sayako-obasama time in the CD, completely with adorable pout. ^_^

The story is a shortened version of the events in Rosa Canina, so for more detail, please feel free to check out the relevant notes from the fourth novel. ^_^

A second story, Answer, is included on this disk. Answer is the delightful tale of how the former Rosa Chinensis, Foetida and Gigantea teamed up to manipulate Youko into choosing Sachiko for her souer. I cannot recommend this track enough. It’s freakin’ hysterical.

As in the anime, the former Rosa Gigantea is played by Takayama Minami. Rosa Chinensis is voiced by Katsuki Masako (who is most notable among the Yuri crowd for playing Sailor Neptune/Kaioh Michiru) and to add to the old girl feel of the story, the one and only Mitsuishi Kotono, (Tsukino Usagi/Sailor Moon and many other roles) plays the former Rosa Foetida. Let me remind you at this point, that Shinohara Emi, who voices Youko, was Makoto/Sailor Jupiter in Sailor Moon.You can actually FEEL the atmosphere of “we’ve been doing this a loooooong time, let’s have a little fun here” as they do their roles. At one point, the former Rosas are cracking jokes at Youko’s expense and the seiyuu are laughing so hard and so honestly, you can just about see Mitsuishi Kotono leaning on Takayama Minami for support.

Simply brilliant.

The Yuri quotient was a little low on this one, but there’s always Yumi lovingly looking at kimono-clad Sachiko, and the line about Sei not flirting. The moments might be small, but they are precious. ^_^

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

So, once again, listening to a Marimite Drama CD is completely worth time and money – and this time doubly worth it for the stroll down memory lane with some truly excellent VAs.