Archive for the Series Category


Maria-sama ga Miteru DJCD 1 and 2

February 16th, 2007

While we waited breathlessly for the anime 3rd season OAVs to be released, the cast and staff of Maria-sama ga Miteru were working hard to keep fandom stimulated.

There were, of course, the Marimite Drama CDs that I love so much, and live events were held in which fanboys were able to write haiku as if they were one of the characters, among other things. Also filling in the gaps were web radio programs, which were released on a semi-regular basis at the Animate TV site. The web radio program host is Ueda Kana, the voice of protagonist Fukuzawa Yumi.

In each “episode” Ueda Kana chats with one of the other voice actresses, they eat cake and tea, and giggle a lot. ^_^ Fan mail is read and responded to, and for many of the episodes an original radio drama completes the set. The web radio shows were originally distributed as streaming audio.

The “DJCD”s are collections of the web radio shows, which is especially nice as I know I missed three or four in the middle there.

The segments of the DJCDs are split into the chat with one of the other seiyuu, a segment called “Tell me, onee-sama” in which each VA is asked which character she would pick as the best sister, bride, teacher, high-class woman, friend, etc. And, of course the radio dramas which are often insane and frequently laugh out loud hysterical. If you have seen fanart over the last several months of “Magical Girl Shimako” – the radio dramas are where that comes from.

Along with “Mahou Shoujo Shimako” segments (always sponsored by Satou Sei-sama), there are many and varied Yumi x Sachiko stories that considerably up the Yuri factor between them, and also provide a chance for Yumi to be heard giggling in a terrifying way, and Sachiko to sound scared for her life. ^_^ But the winner has got to be the very wrong story in which Rei dresses in a bear costume in order to appeal to Yoshino. I KNOW I was chortling in a way that made my work neighbors worried as I listened to that one.

You can of course get these CDs through Amazon JP: DJCD 1 and DJCD 2, but in this case, they were part of my questionably large purchase of CDs from Animate in Ikebukuro.

The voice actresses talk very fast (and giggle alot, did I mention that?) but the radio dramas and the “tell me onee-sama” segments are easy enough to follow.

One thing I want to mention, just because I found it fascinating, was that several of the VAs do impressions of other VAs as their characters – and by and large they are very good at it. It’s kind of funny, and definitely fun.

Ratings:

Art – Original covers, to make them more appealing to hardcore fans – 6
Story – Casual, giggly chat, and crazy, yurified dramas – 9
Characters – Did I mention that the Yuri quotient was upped? – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – We have seen fandom and they are us – 7

Overall – 8

Oh, and “roll cake.” That’s all I’m saying about that. If you want to know what I mean, you’ll have to listen to the CDs. ^_^





Live Action: Sukeban Deka Codename=Asamiya Saki

February 13th, 2007

Some series are simply too good to let die. Not just franchises like Gundam, but the actual series themselves. I don’t think it’s any accident that all three of the insanely popular girl-gang series that I love, Yaji Kita Gakuen Douchuuki, Sukeban Deka and Hana no Asuka-gumi keep coming back like Asuka’s gold coin.

Sukeban Deka began life as a manga, which was then made into an anime OAV and, in the 80’s, a popular three-season live-action TV show, all of which I have reviewed previously. For the basic plotline, general Yuri-ness and links to manga and anime on Amazon JP and Amazon respectively, click the link to the past review.

Last year, Sukeban Deka came back once again as a new live-action movie. And I was *dying* to see it, let me tell you. :-) It took a while, but I finally did manage to watch it and it was probably the best 90 minutes I’d spent in a long time that involved me doing nothing more than staring at a screen.

The movie starts with a young woman chained and gagged in a cage. Her rage at her condition is apparent, and she does everything she can to escape, eventually dislocating her own shoulder to escape the strait jacket she’s been put in. She does escape, but a momentary fit of humanity as she stops to comfort a lost child puts her back in the hands of the coppers.

We never learn the girl’s real name, but the cops offer her an ugly deal – her mother is in New York illegally and will be deported back to Japan, where all sorts of warrants are out for her, unless the girl helps them out. She’s given a yo-yo with the police’s chrysanthemum seal as a weapon and a new name…Asamiya Saki. Armed and decidedly dangerous, Saki heads back to Japan to infiltrate a high school at which several mysterious deaths have occurred. She’s also warned that there is another undercover operative – but they haven’t heard from that other operative in months.

Saki runs into institutionalized bullying almost immediately and, also immediately, saves the damsel in distress from same. The leader of the bullies is Reika, a girl with classic shoujo evil girl ringleader hair. I completely approved.

So, Saki takes on the entire school, from teachers, to pathetic manipulated geeks to evil henchmen and women, all the way up until she faces Reika once again in a battle of the yo-yos. This scene was SO awesome, I cannot express it in mere words. Where Saki is wearing full body armor leathers, Reika is kitted out in studded pleather miniskirt. I said to the screen, as she pulled out her own evil yo-yo, “Please let it have blades…” and you know, it did! I was so happy, I stood up and cheered.

Of course the final battle is meant to be poignant, as Saki faces a guy who kind of sort of was her love interest, and it was an okay fight until he, quite inexplicably, pulled off his nice hair to reveal and incredibly stupid looking wig underneath. I guess he wanted to die blond. I don’t know.

In the end, Saki and the damsel in distress actually had a sweet moment, where said damsel admitted that she liked Saki, although I really think it was in a “friend” way. But it was still sweet and more heartfelt than the bad guy’s quasi-sexual schmoozing.

Amazingly, this movie almost completely lacked any of the usual Japanese live-action pacing problems. I was quite impressed.

Throughout, the cop who becomes Saki’s keeper keeps saying things that implies that Saki is the daughter of the “real” Asamiya Saki. So it was a pleasure that Saito Yuki, who played the first Saki in the TV series, appears as this Saki’s mother. Total “fanboy casting” but it worked.

This movie did such a great job of capturing all the qualities of the original (manga) series, while still having a personality of its own. And even as it updated the myth, it never once lost sight of its roots. An outstanding adaptation of a classic story.

Ratings:

Cinematography – 7
Story – 9 for the sheer faithfulness to the original concept
Characters – 9, ditto
Yuri – 3, but just right
Service – 6

Overall – 9

This movie is da bomb. A great way to resurrect what was the grandmother of all girl-gang series. (Now if I could only get a picture of Matsuura Aya with a lowball and a cigarette. ^_^)





Yuri Anthology: Maria’s Wink, Volume 2

February 7th, 2007

One of the more unique things about Japanese copyright laws is the ability for “parody” works to be made with little to no legal consequence. (Of course, that may change in the future, and a recent article about an exceedingly popular Doreamon doujinshi has an interesting example of what can easily be cited as an abuse of the privilege.)

Maria’s Wink 2, is one of a seemingly endless supply of Yuri doujinshi anthologies in existence for Maria-sama ga Miteru. It is available through Amazon JP (click the cover picture or the title link) and/or various manga and used manga stores.

The advantage to a doujinshi anthology is obvious – it’s a collection of many different stories by many different circles. Like ALC’s Yuri Monogatari series, that means that you’ll get a wide variety of art, story and tone. The other advantage is that an anthology will cost a lot less in time and effort than trying to track down all of the original doujinshi individually.

There are some adult anthologies, but most of the ones I picked up in Tokyo this time were “gag” anthologies. Maria’s Wink has a definite Yuri strain running through the stories, but little more than a kiss here and there. Nonetheless, no Yuri goggles are needed to see that the couples are, indeed, couples.

This particular anthology has selections by some circles I quite like including K-Do, and about three whose names are too long and difficult for me to translate, but whose work I have in doujinshi form and really like. (Nice and specific, there, I know. Very helpful….)

What makes Maria’s Wink a good place to start in terms of Marimite anthologies is that there is really something for everyone. Pretty much every popular pairing has at least one story. The obvious soeur couples, and the most popular non-soeur, like Youko x Sei, Sei x Yumi, Yumi x Touko, all are represented. There’s even a Kanako x Touko story. Kei makes an appearance in a few stories (that’s for you, Sean), as does Yuuki, and even Kashiwagi gets a naked cameo. So, really, there’s something for everyone.

In particular Rei x Yoshino fans will like a few of the stories, which really focus on the explodingly cute aspect of their relationship. There’s also a fairly well-known Rei x Yoshino story called “Treasure” that portrays them both as pirates. It’s based on a single line from one of the novels where Rei thinks that Yoshino’s surgery scar makes her look like a pirate. :-) (I find this story appealing because I too wrote [an incredibly silly] story in which the Yamayurikai and friends are pirates.  ^_^) So, as anthologies go, there’s quite a bit to like about Maria’s Wink.

Ratings are variable, but I don’t think there was a story I disliked or art that skeeved me.

Overall – 8

If you’ve always wanted to dip a toe into the vast pool of Marimite doujinshi, an anthology is a nice way to start in general, and this volume of Maria’s Wink in particular. :-)





Yuri Manga: Simoun, Megami magazine version

February 5th, 2007

I must have been prophetic last week. I said, “no more reviews for a while,” went home and promptly became incredibly ill. I did make it to Jennifer’s great lecture, and I’ll talk about the book sometime in the future, but basically, I’ve been in bed since Saturday afternoon.

I’m doing a review today so you don’t all forget me, but because I’m exhausted, it’s going to be quick. So. I thought I’d review a manga that is *so* thin that I ought to be able to review it in a single sentence:

“What if the characters from Simoun were in a world that looked and functioned suspiciously like Garderobe from Mai Otome?”

And that’s the entire “story.” It’s much more like a parody doujinshi than any kind of “real” version of Simoun.

The Simoun Sybillae are in training at Arcus Prima Academy, in bouts that look suspiciously like those held at Garderobe Academy for potential Otome. They win fame, fortune, money and status, meow, meow, in these battles.

As you can see in the cover picture from chapter 2, the kisses remain, and so do the remersions, although these become attacks used in the 2-on-2 hand-to-hand battles. And Amuria is not dead, she’s just punch-drunk on remersions.

The big on-going gag (and I use that term liberally) is Aeru’s negative reaction to the whole “kissing another girl” thing, as you can see in the above picture. She is so put off by the kiss, that she kisses one of Lodreamon’s ugly dolls instead. The resulting remersion surprises the heck out of the rest of the Sybillae.

I find that I don’t have the first chapter of the five that comprised this story…I’m not sure I care.  ^_^

This is a goofy, service-laden, Lowest Common Denominator parody of Simoun. Like the Drama CD (review of which is forthcoming) if you actually *liked* the depth of the anime, you should ignore this version of the manga with all your might and stick to the Yuri Hime edition of the Simoun manga.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 2
Characters – 5 (What’s left when you take deep characters and render them into their one or two most superficial traits?)
Yuri – 5
Service – 7

Overall – 5.

It’s crap. But it still made me laugh once or twice. If it had been a doujinshi, instead of an official story, I wouldn’t have had a problem with it. As it is, it reads like a ritual diminutizing of the Simoun Sybillae. “Well, we can’t have you gals thinking you’re all that. So, some mostly naked posters and a crappy story’ll put you in yer place. Ay-yup.”





Yuri Drama CD: Yokohama Shopping Log, Volume 2

January 31st, 2007

When I first mentioned Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, known here as Yokohama Shopping Log in the beginning of 2004, I briefly touched upon the existence of several Drama CDs that were based on the series. In the intervening three years I have managed to get all three CDs, but I find I have never reviewed them. All three are available from Amazon JP through the Yuricon Shop, along with many other fun yuri-flavored Drama CDs.

Drama CD 1 ends with the appearance of Kokone at Cafe Alpha. The second Drama CD picks up with the messenger android’s arrival and delivery of her message in the cutest faux kiss ever. ^_^

The rest of the Drama CD follows the progression of the manga, just as the first CD did, with light jazz musical interludes. It’s all wonderful, just as the manga is.

The real payoff is the chapter when Kokone asks Alpha about the Moon Lute. In my head, when they shared a musical moment, it was a slow, soft, lyrical piece. But the music for the chapter (called “Orders” here) was peppy, jazzy and absolutely gorgeous. When both Konone and Alpha vocalize along with the music it was simply stellar. A real “moment” in the truest YKK sense.

If you are a fan of Alpha and Kokone already, then even if you don’t understand a word of Japanese, I think you can understand and enjoy this CD, if only for the moment when they come together in music. ^_^ If you are not a YKK fan; first read the manga, instantly become a fan of our two favorite lesbian androids, and *then* buy the Drama CD! ^_^