Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Manga:Yokohama Shopping Log Volume 14

September 21st, 2006

It is not without some melancholy that I write this entry. By doing so I am writing the obituary of one of the finest manga series I’ve ever read – in a sense, acknowledging the passing of an old friend.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Yokohama Shopping Log to English-speaking fans) is over. I know quite a few people who got all teary-eyed as they read the final chapter. I have no intention of telling you whether I am one of them or not. ^_^

For those of you unfamiliar with Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (you poor, bereft creatures you), here is the basic idea of the story. In a near future, global weather patterns have shifted slightly, and time and tide have altered the shape of the map. In a far off-section of Musashino, an android named Alpha is left behind by her owner, to make her own life. She runs a small coffee shop off the beaten track to nowhere. In the course of the next 14 volumes, Alpha meets and befriends all sorts of people, and a few other androids, as she experiences life’s many moments of joy and sadness.

As I mentioned in my overview of the series, and in my review of Volume 12, this is not a story with loads of action or loads of…well, anything really. It’s a quiet, simple, sweet, slice-of-life series about a gun totin’ lesbian android. ^_^

Of the people and androids Alpha meets, two are rather key to this above statement. In the very beginning of the series, we and Alpha meet Kokone, who works for a messenger service. Alpha and Kokone become very close and it becomes quite obvious to everyone – even Kokone’s human coworkers – that Kokone has fallen for Alpha. It is also apparent to Maruko, another android who has a thing for Kokone. Maruko loses, because Kokone’s heart is Alpha’s.

This final volume of the manga is full of good-byes. Time is spent with old friends; Maki and Takahiro are adults and out in the world, but not gone from Alpha’s life. Relaxing days are filled with doing nothing particular, and a few key special moments. Time is the only pressure we feel, as the world keeps slowing down, the shifting sands continue to obscure the roads, fewer people populate the towns, and more and more the only “people” to enjoy the world are the androids humans created to keep them company.

It is a twilight world, a world growing increasing silent and slow, but no less beautiful.

Alpha moves through life with joy, doing the things she has done since the very beginning of the series – visiting Yokohama to buy supplies for the shop, swimming, riding on her scooter. Although she cannot age, there is no doubt at all that she has changed from the first few volumes, when her owner was still a presence in her life, and a person for whose return she waited. She may not have aged, but she has most definitely matured.

Which brings me to what I think was the hardest chapter of the entire series to read. Alpha meets up with the doctor, an older woman who had originally met Alpha after she had been hit by lightning. Alpha and the sensei had become quite close through the series. In this volume they meet for what may well be the last time. The chapter, to me, expresses everything beautiful and sorrowful about the series as a whole. No matter how much we may wish to, we simply can’t stay in the same place forever.

The last chapter was, for most of the yuri fans of this series, crucial. We waited, quite breathlessly (apart from the sobs and sniffs) to see if it would end as we hoped, as we dreamed. It is my pleasure to report that…it does.

Do not expect high drama. Expect a quiet, soft moment that says everything.

And expect Kokone and Alpha to move forward into the future, together.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 9





Yuri Anime: Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 1

September 19th, 2006

Boy oh boy, had I forgotten how sticky the opening theme of this anime is…now I’ll have it in my head for a week.

So here we are, looking down the barrel of Strawberry Marshmallow, aka Ichigo Mashimaro. And it’s still cute.

I cannot tell you how *annoying* I find it, that’s it’s so damn cute. And girly cute, no less. And giggly. God, if anyone ever saw me giggling at this, I’d never be able to show my face in public again…

…and this isn’t even my favorite volume.

So, I realize that I never really covered any of the episodes specifically in any of my earlier reviews, but I did capture the essence of the series: cute girls doing things cutely.

The first volume is primarily an introduction to our five principals. Itou Nobue, 20 for the anime, so they can leave in all the smoking and drinking gags, her younger sister Chika, 12, annoying next-door neighbor Miu, who is undoubtedly the star of the series, adorable English girl Ana 11, who has forgotten how to speak English and Matsuri, 11, crybaby and everyone’s punching bag.

There is no plot in this series, just a series of goofy gags strung along through the mostly-normal lives of the five girls. School, work, playing games like “let’s pretend” that kind of thing. Or, it would all be normal, except Evil Psychotic Lesbian(TM)-in training Miu always seems to make everything turn out strangely.

And that’s why we watch. Because Miu is crazy. And we love it. ;-)

This US release includes some extras, but nothing exciting. 4 episodes on the first volume, a mini-poster, a reversible case cover and oh boy! a non-credit opening! But I’ve got all the Ichigo Mashimaro dollies I can stand from Dengeki Daioh (and a few I can’t stand,) and US releases never have anything really good anway, except the occasional pencil board (and even those are terrifying at times, like the ROD The TV pencil boards.) More importantly, Geneon has included the clever and rewarding $3 coupon for one of the next two volumes, which I heartily approve of. In fact, let me once again offer up for free, my advice on how to get us fans to buy more DVDs.

1) Include a pre-order form or URL for the next volume in the series. Offer a discount for pre-ordering.

2) Include the same coupon, which provides another discount, thus bringing the cost down to what appears to be a really reasonable price.

3) Offer deeper discounts to people who pre-order the whole series, box sets or thinpaks. Send us whole sets, not one disk in a box and make us buy each other disk separately.

In other words, give us *incentive* and we will buy. Otherwise, get used to selling lots of Volume 1s. This coupon is a baby step in the right direction.

Ratings:

Art – 5 Looks like the manga. Yup.
Story – 7 – If you get past the hump that there is none.
Characters – 7 -This is a completely character-driven series. More specifically Miu drives it.
Yuri – 2- If you can call Miu’s crush on Nobue, and Nobue’s thing for Ana and Matsuri “yuri.” Which is entirely in the eye of the beholder.
Service – 7 – Just because of the essential loli-ness of series and author.

Overall – 7

Don’t drink soda while you watch this series, though. You’re liable to suddenly spurt it out your nose.





Yuri Manga:Ameriro Koucha Kandan stories

September 5th, 2006

I’m cheating today. This is not a collection of manga I’m writing about, it’s two different stories in four different places, and two are cameos, which all happen to star the same characters. Because it *will* be a new series starting in the next Comic Yuri Hime magazine  I thought it would be fun to tell you the story as it exists currently.

The story in question tells of the women of the Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan (飴色紅茶館歓談). It begins in the book pictured above, [es] Eternal Sisters 2 anthology. On the cover are the two principles of the story, Seriho (left) and Sarasa (right.) In the ES collection, we meet Seriho who is the owner of the Ameiro Kouchakan, (loosely, the Amber Tea Pavilion.) Sarasa is a local high school student who spends an inordinate amount of time at the cafe, and asks, quite cutely if she can just work there. But Sarasa’s motive is not money – she’s in love with Seriho. Seriho reciprocates the emotion, and Sarasa comes to work at the cafe. In this story we also meet regular customers Haru – who runs some kind of freaky fortune website, and her friend/partner in mischief Hinoko. Hinoko is the obligatory goth-loli girl that one always finds in Fujieda Miyabi’s work.

The second “chapter” of this story takes was published in the extra comic inserted in the August 2006 volume of Yuri Hime. In this little omake, we are given character profiles in which we learn that Seriho, despite her youthful looks is 25, and Sarasa is 17. Huh. How ’bout that.

Tanabata is fast approaching and Seriho wants to something extra special for the cafe. They come up with a special blend of tea that they pour in a long stream (evocative of the milky way, which features in the Tanabata story.) Haru and Hinoko join the staff for the day and the four women have a successful and lively day full of customers. To thank them for their assistance Seriho offer to treate everyone for dinner. Haru and Hinoko leave first, while the others remain. Seriho tells Sarasa that, long before today, she had planned to close the cafe. Sarasa reacts strongly, protesting that people – she – loves the cafe. Seriho and Sarasa have an emotional scene, but Sarasa is successful and the cafe remains open. Phew.

The third appearance of the ladies of the Ameiro Kouchakan is Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodma no Majyo to manga. In this volume, Letty, having newly freed Tsumugi from her confinement in the shrine, takes the miko to her favorite watering hole. The big scandal here was when Tsumugi – assumably unfamiliar with ways of the outside world – expresses her love for Letty firmly and loudly. Poor Seriho almost dies of embarrassment…

And the fourth, but not at all final, appearance of the Ameriro Kouchakan is the MikoMajyo Drama CD (the one packaged with the manga in the deluxe set), in which Letty and Tsumugi once again visit, this time accompanied by the errant mountain god who has run away. Shrine guardian Isuzu is forced to drag the wayward deity back to her shrine bodily. Tsumugi’s request for Letty to open up and say “ahhh” forces Letty to confront her inner femme, and inspires Hinoko to fluster cool Haru by doing the same.

Now, to be honest – these four appearances are the ones I have, or have noticed. I have no doubt that somewhere along the line there’s some crossover with Fujieda’s other series, especially the ones I’m less familar with.

But what does exist is cute enough that I though it warranted a mention. And I bet that, once the story begins running in Yuri Hime we’ll get a collection that includes both of the first two chapters.

Here’s hoping, anyway.

No ratings, since it’s not *yet* a collection, but overall – even more adorable Yuri from Fujieda Miyabi!

BTW – Happy Birthday me. Older, as my mother says, but not at all wiser. If you’re moved to send a present, buy a book from ALC Publishing or t-shirt or mug or something from the Yuricon Shop. That’s all the present I need. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Stellvia, Volume 8

August 17th, 2006

Twice, I thought over how I would approach reviewing this, the final volume of Stellvia. Twice I thought about the plot, the characters, the Yuri, and twice I had the same thought: Battle Atheletes.

These two series have quite a lot in common. Both are series that ran in Dengeki Daioh magazine, both have lead females whose extraordinary talents save the world, and both have a cast of supporting characters that are more interesting than the lead herself.

So let’s do a compare/contrast for fun. To start let’s compare the Yuri:

Battle Athletes clearly wins here. There are so many potential couples – many of whom make *sense* and are not just random pairings of two women who stand next to each other on the screen. And there are at minimum, two canon couples – especially if we count the manga. Mylandah and Lahrri and Kris and Akari are couples. No ifs, and or buts. In contrast Stellvia has only one Yuri couple, but a very decent one it is. I once again enjoyed the heck out of Yayoi’s and Ayaka’s public acknowledgment of their feelings. Not as good as Kris’ and Akari’s manga kiss, but just as public. ^_^

Comparing them as space stories:

Stellvia wins, no question. While both series have invading aliens, threats to the planet and the like, the Battle Athletes anime has so many other, incredibly stupid add-ons to the basic formula that even thinking about it makes me squirm. Stellvia sticks with bug-eyed monsters and a gigantic threatening alien energy menace.  I think, perhaps, the aliens in BA might have not been so bad if they hadn’t chosen the stupidest plot complication EVER as their means of attack.

But, as I thought it over, the real point of comparison has to be their lead characters. And this is why, both times, my mind connected the two. Because once again, Stellvia is vastly superior. Akari from Battle Athletes is the typical idiot savant character. She can do NOTHING right, ever, no matter how hard she tries. But she never really tries, until a crisis occurs and her innate skills mystically pop into overdrive. (This is far more prominent a theme in the anime than the manga, which was mostly free of this.) At every step up the ladder Akari starts back at the lowest level until a miracle catapults her to the top.

This happens to be something that generally bugs me about anime – one of the main themes of nearly every anime is “hard work” – and especially “teamwork” – will get us to the top. There’s a lot of cultural reasons why this is so that I won’t get into but what bugs me is that, in anime it is so rarely either that really gets anyone to the top. Sailor Moon never really works hard at anything, she just *is*. The same is true for most heroes and heroines of manga and anime. Of course fighting series are full of work, but the heroes follow a similar pattern – they are defeated, then come back and defeat the person who just beat them – usually by having miraculously, sometimes magically, sometimes just from sheer “guts”, powered up a gazillion orders of skill/power.

In stark contrast, Shima works her ass off through the whole series. Volume 8 of Stellvia has scene after scene of her working hard enough to make herself puke. There is the teeniest deus ex machina at the end of the series, at zero hour, when the clock has counted down to one second, etc, etc; but as Shima has spent the entire series actually striving to do this *one* thing, I can forgive it without prejudice.

And her moment of lucidity arrives just as infuriatingly cool – or is that, clueless – Kouta melts down completely. That was worth watching the volume for because that boy was annoying the living daylights out of me.

So, yes, Battle Atheletes has more Yuri, but I genuinely think that Stellvia is the better series. It makes sense. No cows. No transgender psychotic murderous twins, no resurrected dead parents. Just one teeny little handwave and a lot of good solid human moments.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Consistent, mostly, throughout, but never great. The CGI stuff is quite good.
Story – 9 I kept nodding over and over as key “space opera” points were handled, competentely
Characters – 9
Yuri – 7
Service – 3 The uniforms. Ugh.

Overall – 8.5

Stellvia was one of my best anime of 2004. Over here in 2006, it’s still in my top twenty of things I’ll reach for to rewatch. My only regret was that the sequel was never, and will never, be made.





Drama CD: Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to

August 11th, 2006

When you purchase the deluxe edition of Fujieda Miyabi’s Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to, it comes with a Drama CD. As I promised in my review of the MikoMajyo manga, today I will be reviewing the Drama CD. Let me begin by summing up with “Squeeee!” ^_^

The CD begins with Letty the witch (Nabatame Hitomi/ Hanazono Shizuma from Strawberry Panic) and Tsumugi the miko (Noto Mamiko/Toudo Shimako from Maria-sama ga Miteru) walking along. Tsumugi’s outside world skills are still a little rough, so when Letty asks her to stay put for a second, Tsumugi finds herself swept up in the waves of people walking by, becoming separated from Letty. Letty comes running to the rescue, thanks to their red string of fate. Tsumugi asks to get a drink of something, so Letty gives her some money and *she* promises to stay put until Tsumugi comes back.

Unbeknowst to her, Letty is being watched…this time the mysterious watcher is not Isuzu, as in the manga, but the god of the shrine herself! And she’s still wearing Tsumugi’s body and voice. (Since now Isuzu is her main squeeze, everyone’s happy with the choice. Except Letty…). Kami-sama jumps Letty and pretends to be a *very* daring Tsumugi when she openly propositions her to spend some time getting to know each other better – at a hotel. Letty’s about to cave when the real Tsumugi returns. She’s pleased as punch to see the god she served for so long, and naive – or confident- enouigh to not be bothered by the fact that she and Letty seem to be awfully close. Kami-sama takes being busted with good grace and decides to accompany her former miko and her girlfriend for some refreshments.

Which takes them to the Ameiro Koucha Kandan…again. (I *told* you that you’d be hearing alot about this place!) The god introduces herself as Tsumugi’s twin older sister, Kinu. Letty splutters adorably through this brazen lie. The proprietor of the the cafe, Seriho (Nogami Yukana/Yukishiro Honoko from Futari ha PreCure, Nakanotani Mina from Air Master) and her employee Sarasa (Mizuki Nana/ Fate Testarossa from Lyrical Nanoha, Shinobu from Shinobuden/Ninja Nonsense) are immediately charmed by Kinu-oneesama, while Letty is clearly trying to keep herself from leaping across the table and strangling the mountain god. Just as their cake arrives, however, Isuzu (Watanabe Akeno/Fuho from I Me My Strawberry Egg) crashes in and drags the god back to the shrine.

This leaves Letty and Tsumugi with an extra piece of cake to share. Letty tells Tsumugi to say “ah” and feeds her. When Tsumugi attempts to return the favor, Letty falls apart. She explains that it’s not really her nature to be the one fed – or pursued – and um, she tends to do the feeding, and the pursuing, you know. Tsumugi thinks that Letty’s butchiness is adorable, but proceeds to feed her anyway. ^_^ Isuzu pops back in to remind Letty to take care of Tsumugi, then runs off after her own, infinitely more difficult, girl.

Impressed by Tsumugi and Letty feeding each other, the two friends and regular customers of the Ameiro Koucha, computer whiz Haru (Asakawa Yuu/Sakaki-san from Azumanga Daioh) and goth-loli loli Hinoka (Koyama Kimiko) decide to feed each other too, thuse giving the cafe that special yuri love-love feeling all-around. (Wait until I get a chance to discuss the women of the Ameiro Koucha Kandan in detail….)

The last track is once again Letty and Tsumugi walking together. Tsumugi is, as always, glad to be with Letty anywhere, doing anything. Letty manages to pull her butchy self together, mentioning that the god, that is, Kinu, had sort of propositioned her…and wouldn’t it be nice, really, if the two of them went somewhere to become a little closer. Tsumugi agrees happily. The conversation devloves into excruciatingly sweet nothings, and Letty ends it all by saying that she is looking forward to being together with Tsumugi, wherever, forever.

Ratings:

Story – 7
Characters – 8
Voice Acting – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 on principle

This is yet another goofy grin-inducing thing from Fujieda Miyabi. Totally worth getting the deluxe version on MikoMajyo for…and yet another terrific way to practice those Japanese listening skills!

I’m told the bundled manga and Drama CD are sold out. BUT, when I’ve had that happen, I just keep the order around in my Amazon JP inbox, because it often comes back in a second shipment. Don’t give up, just yet. :-)

It looks like there’ll be an upcoming full-length Drama CD for this series. Here’s a link to buy the CD “Magrigal Halloween”: MikoMajyo Drama CD You can be sure that I’ll be getting it.