Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 5

March 16th, 2006

Madlax 5 is absolutely, positively worth the wait.

I know that most anime fans have the attention spans of a gnat, so I wanted to say that quickly, before you stopped reading – or if you, perchance, have stopped watching Madlax because you saw Noir and think that it’s the same thing. It is the same thing – but better. Think of Noir as practice.

This volume is entitled “Convergence” and for once, the title actually fits. In this volume all the playing pieces gather together on one board.

Madlax and Vanessa have been framed so that the entire country believes that they have murdered a member of the royal family – which they have not. Rimelda (the official translation is Limelda, but I prefer the R to the L, so I’m sticking with my version, even though it is wrong) has been assigned Madlax as a target, but when she confronts Madlax and Vanessa, they give her the data they stole from Enfant.

This entire volume is the death and rebirth of Rimelda and it utterly, totally, completely rocks.

Rimelda dies as an elite sniper of the Royalist army and is reborn as an insane, obsessed killer. Think about that sentence for a while…eventually you’ll realize that there is, of course, no difference at all. Rimelda hasn’t *quite* gotten there by the end of the volume, but she’s on her way.

Vanessa learns to shoot so she can take care of herself, which ups her cool factor a few notches. When Margaret and Eleanor (another name for which I refuse to use the official version) show up, she’s not unhappy at all to have them join her.

They all *converge* upon Quanzitta’s village, where Naharu (a third name I use my own version of) wonders why she can’t get Madlax out of her head. Carlossea Doon shows up too, but he’s such a non-entity in this series, even if he is one of the main three characters. (I’m being generous here… his name is pronounced Carlossur Dawn. But because I don’t care about him, I’ll use his official spelling. Which the dub actors pronounce “Dune.” argh)

So we’re all together and the three mystical books are gathered. Finally Quanzitta has something to do other than take baths.The plot is pulling together and they are all getting closer, as Laetitia points out. The tension runs high, and the end, while not far away, is not really at all in sight. Something else, I like – when it’s carried off decently. Plotwise, this is the beginning of the end.

But the strength of this volume is in Hisakawa Aya’s portrayal of Rimelda, as she loses her life, her dreams, her status and her mind and replaces them all with an obsession. She falls in love with her idea of Madlax – and that supremely unhealthy love is only strengthened by every encounter with her prey. Rimelda nails their relationship after an aborted hand to hand fight with Madlax – if only Vanessa hadn’t interfered, they could have continued the dance.

I love Rimelda and Madlax together, so I was a little peeved at Vanessa too. And in myYyuri goggles, now that Eleanor is there, she and Vanessa can play family with Margaret, leaving the fightin’ chicks to each other. ^_^

My first thought – and one that resounded over and over as I watched this volume – Rimelda is Chloe, but done *right.* Not just because she has the same voice actress – but because they are the same lost little girl characters who are living a lie. Only where Chloe always seemed like a refugee from a different story in Noir, Rimelda is a crucial part of Gazth-Sonika. In many ways, she is more part of the world than Madlax herself – both as a character and as part of the larger mystical plot.

The song “I’m here,” which plays before every scene in which Madlax gets all bad-ass, becomes, in this volume an actual, active part of the plot. The final use of it in the volume – it is as much part of the story as the action going on around it. If you haven’t read the lyrics, do. It’s absolutely the story talking to the audience. I was left quite breathless by it. Good song, too.

The liner notes are, as always, worth the read. There’s a wacky little note about Rimelda written by Hisakawa Aya, which is very funny as it censures Rimmy about sleeping with Doon, but never even mentions falling in love with Madlax.  And I don’t know why I missed these, but the extras on the DVD include “Conversations with SSS,” which are completely insane dubbed scenes that are totally stupid, go on too long and are really funny. I’ll have to go back and watch the back volumes now. ^_^

Ratings:
Art – 7 (good, until it gets wonky)
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Music – 9
Yuri – 7
Service – 2

Overall – 9

This was *such* a good watch. I was really into it. I’ve heard from alot of people that they couldn’t get into Madlax, or they felt it was just a Noir clone. I love Noir, but of the two, I really have to say that Madlax is the far superior story. As I said in the beginning, this volume is absolutely worth the wait.





Drama CD: Hatsukoi Shimai, Volume 1

March 13th, 2006

Whee! I am so happy to be able to review the first Hatsukoi Shimai Drama CD, Tenshi no Present!

There’s more positives than negatives, so let me get the negatives out of the way quickly. For one thing, it’s too short. I don’t know how long it is, exactly, because there’s no total on the disk, liner notes or product info, and I never bothered totaling up the tracks, but even it had been three hours long, it would have been too short. There wasn’t enough Touko/Akiho and Haruna *still* hasn’t said she loves Chika – at least to her face.

04/14/06 Note – upon relistening to the earlier Koi Shimai Drama CDs, I realize I have been a bit harsh on Haruna. She’s more expressive than I originally gave her credit for, calling Chika her “important person” in the first CD. And, in the second CD when Chika said it would be nice to be Haruna’s sister and be with her always, Haruna replied that she cared for Chika alot, but NOT like a sister – more than that. Chalk it up to my insufficient Japanese comprehension the first time. That having been said…Haruna still does not say she loves Chika directly to her face.)

That about covers the negatives.

Right from the beginning, the language used on this particular CD, like that of the original Koi Shimai CDs, is basic. If I were fluent, this would be a negative. As I am not – and am thrilled to be able to follow much more of the story than usual – this is a definite positive. If you’re learning Japanese and want a fun and Yuri-ful way to practice your listening skills – this is just what you are looking for!

Let’s start with the cast:

Matstusato Chika: Nakahara Mai (Mai from Mai Hime/Mai Otome)
Kanzaki Haruna: Chiba Saeko (Natsuki from Mai Hime/Mai Otome)

Hiiragi Touko: Park Romi (Maki from Air Master)
Kanzaki Akiho: Nonaka Ai (Konoka from Negima!)

Kirika: Satou Rina (Tsutako from Maria-sama ga Miteru)
Miyu: Ohara Sayaka (Alicia from Aria/Layla Hamilton from Kaleido Star/Ezra from Vandread)

Not too shoddy, huh?

Okay, so let me back up two steps. If you recall from my four million times explaining this, the characters all originated as character designs from the covers of Yuri Shimai, Volumes 1,2 and 3. The couples above are listed in order of their appearance. The character designs are by Hibiki Reine, the artist for the Maria-sama ga Miteru novels.

The stories of how Chika met Haruna and Akiho, and how Touko-sensei interfered with them and ultimately ended up with Akiho, are all told in the Koi Shimai Drama CDs, and the first bit will be Volume 1 of the upcoming Hatsukoi Shimai manga.

(I always feel a little breathless discussing this series, because of its fractured history.)

Miyu and Kirika, the third couple have only appeared on the cover of Yuri Shimai 3, and in the little story inside the cover. Until now.

So, here’s the story of this CD:

Haruna and Chika are living in blissful oblivion. We get a whole scene of them enjoying cookies together. Whee! We also get a really nice scene between Akiho and Touko, where they meet at a cafe, ostensibly so Touko can check Akiho’s English homework. Touko spends a little time flirting with the waitress, and getting Akiho jealous – and she is quite surprised when Akiho really *does* want her to check her homework!

Miyu asks Kirika to please, please come to her birthday party. Kirika agrees, but is mortified that she has no present for Miyu. Miyu insists that Kirika coming is all the present she wants.

One day, Chika, on her way to meet Haruna, accidentally runs into another student, who drops the doll she is holding. It’s a glass (probably porcelain?) angel and it smashes as it hits the ground. The student, Kirika, tells Chika to fix it – to put it back the way it was. This is, of course, impossible. So Chika decides to make a beaded kimono as a replacement. Haruna helps her – more bliss. But Kirika rejects that as well – Chika was the one to break the doll, she has to replace it by herself. Kirika insists that Chika find an actual replacement – and do it herself. And as a penalty, she can’t spend time with Haruna until she does.

After Chika says she’ll do it and leaves, Haruna asks Kirika if the angel had been a present. Kirika says yes, for the person she loves. And she asks Haruna if she loves Chika. Haruna says she does, totally.

Miyu finds Chika and asks what’s up. Chika has no clue who she is, but Miyu tells her about the birthday party, and how she and Kirika have been together forever – and she goes off more than a little annoyed at her lover’s behavior.

Chika heads out to the shops, but has no luck – which is not surprising, since Kirika bought it off the TV. As she wanders looking for the angel, Touko roars up on her bike and offers Chika a lift. Touko also says she has an idea where to find the angel.

Haruna comes home, depressed and missing Chika, and wanders into Akiho’s room, where she finds her little sister online. Akiho has hunted down the glass angel and sent Touko off to find Chika and get her to it.

Chika and Haruna go off to locate Kirika to give her the angel, and finds Miyu giving Kirika what for, because she (quite rightfully) feels that Kirika was a jackass about the whole thing. Chika is totally honest and tells her that Touko helped. Kirika accepts the doll – shocked that Chika was able to find it at all. Haruna prompts Kirika to give it to Miyu, who is quite overwhelmed. And to boot, Chika gives her the beaded thing she and Haruna made too.

Epilogue:

Haruna and Chika, are making beaded phone straps for each other. (Haruna, btw, is a total maroon about this, and keeps dropping beads). Little by little, Chika tells us, like beads being added on to the strap, she and Haruna grow closer.

Akiho is on the phone with Touko, who tells her several times how much she likes Akiho. Akiho plays, to my dismay, hard to get, but does ask if they can talk a little more.

And we all live happily ever after.

There is a bonus track, in which the seiyuu all discuss gift failures, which was funny, as was to be expected.

Along with the original voice cast and art by Hibiki Reine, the other thing that migrated whole from the original CDs is the musical theme. It’s so silly a thing, but I was kind of glad when I turned on the new CD to hear the same piano theme in the background.

The cover of the CD is reversible – a new picture of Haruna and Chika, and the cover of Yuri Hime 2 with Chika and Miyu. And a postcard.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 7

The *best* thing (other than Touko’s sexy voice) was how NOT stick-up-the-butt Haruna is in this new incarnation. I totally approve, even if it has made my fanfic for the series obsolete.  ^_^

 





Ichigo Mashimaro Manga, Volume 4

March 7th, 2006

What’s left to say about Ichigo Mashimaro that I haven’t said already? It’s still loli, it’s still funny, Miu is still psychotic, I still enjoy it. This volume is not overwhelmingly, or really even underwhelmingly, Yuri, but it is pretty gay.

Several of the vignettes from this volume were in the anime, so I’ll skip those. Of the ones that weren’t, the first is by far and away the funniest. A salesman comes to Miu’s door. She scams him and steals his goods, then complains that he’s a pervert thief. He goes off to try another house and accidentally wanders over to Chika and Nobue’s, where Miu has joined the Itou sisters. She tells them that he’s a perv, they believe him. The gag goes on as he meets them again and again at Ana’s house, and Matsuri’s, the back at the Itou’s. By the end, Nobue punches him up the conk and he’s left a defeated, miserable and yes, hysterical, wreck.

Also notable in this volume is the episode where Nobue gets a love letter, ostensibly from a classmate. (Miu asks if the letter is from a human.) The girls all take Nobue out shopping for a dress, then play act what she will say to and how she will act in front of her potential boyfriend. Matsuri takes the role of the boy, as unlikely as that sounds. Miu, dressed as a sleazeball guy, attempts to strongarm Matsuri away (having forgotten than she was playing a guy, but says she doesn’t care if Matsuri is a guy, she swings both ways. Nobue reminds Matsuri that she is supposed to be the guy, so poor Matsuri attempts to punch Miu, which fails utterly. In the end, it was Miu who sent the letter in the first place. Hahaha.

In between chapters, there’s a Q&A with the characters, which I found amusing, as I also do periodic Q&A’s with Yuriko. (You can read them on the Yuricon website.) The question – and answer – I liked best was “If the world was about to be destroyed, what would you do?” Most of the girls answer sweetly that they’d want to be with their friends. Nobue would want one last smoke. Miu’s answer? “It’s okay, I’ll be the only one rescued.” And there you have it.

I thought about writing this review and decided that Miu is pretty much a politician or religious leader in training. I can see her running for student council president, on a platform of lies, then cheerfully denying all of it, and being popular *anyway*. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 5

Overall – 7

Stupid, nose-snortin’ fun.





Yuri Manga: Shoujo Sect, Volume 1

February 28th, 2006

I don’t have a lot of time today, so I thought I’d review something superficial. Shoujo Sect is about as superficial as they come.

The basic premise is…well, there really isn’t a premise. It’s a series of near-plotless sexual encounters between young women who attend a private school and in most cases, room together in a dorm. The common denominator is Naitou, a blond who moves through the other girls’ stories as a kind of ghost – and so is clearly the real protagonist.

In the first chapter Naitou bets Benio an iPod over which one can get the better kiss from Ayame. Benio gets full-blown sex but forgets to get a picture as proof. When, the next morning, Ayame gives her a big ole good morning kiss in front of Naitou, Benio wins.

Enjyoji Maya steals a kiss from Honda Shinobu – unbeknowst to Maya, Shinobu has a cult of personality at this school, a veritable Hugh Hefner. In not too much time, Shinobu has Maya naked and in thrall. Naitou interrupts.

Chizuru convinced her sempai Shigure that she really REALLY likes her. Naitou plays the voyeur

Tomoe runs into Suu-sempai one day as the older girl lays outside with another girl asleep in her lap. The next time they run into each other, Suu takes Tomoe into the art supply room for a little personal attention. Naitou and Shinobu have a little unrelated conversation about the school uniform and hamburgers.

Asafuki is crushing badly on housemate Naitou, who hasn’t noticed. Setsuka has, but she really has it bad for Asafuki. Setsuka takes things into her own hands and has her way with Asafuki, who screams Naitou’s name at the key moment. At dinner that night, Setsuka asks Naitou what her type is…a conversation which opens Asafuki’s eyes to the fact that Setsuka is a better option all around.

In what has to be the oddest chapter, we start with color pages of lovers Chikae and Utano. Utano does not speak, apparently. At school two of their classmates call them lesbians and insult them. They defend each other – but don’t deny they are lovers. One girl who was slapped runs off to get a teacher. Utano makes love to Chikae right there in the classroom, not stopping when students arrive. The girls leave, and after they finish, Utano thanks Chikae…and disappears because of a magic spell. When Naitou arrives, Chikae is on the floor huddled up, crying. Utano is gone. I pretty much liked these two the best, so it was a little depressing…

Naitou arrives at the clubroom, aka Shinobu’s personal playroom, with some copies. She finds a wide assortment of Shinobu’s girls, all dressed up in a variety of fetish outfits. (Naitou, on seeing Maya in low-cut leotard, stockings, heels and dog ears: “That’s some outfit, Enjyoji-san.”) In a small room on the side Kirin and Matsuri have sex, quietly, so Shinobu doesn’t hear them. Shinobu and Naitou go outside for a chat, and Shinobu confesses that she likes Naitou.

Omake chapter – a bunch of the girls have sex for spurious reasons.

Drawn by by Kurogane Kenn, the art is cute, but a little too moe/loli for me to really like. The sex is most definitely sex-like. Like Maka-Maka, this is pretty much Yuri porn by a guy. Decent porn. Not ugly, not gross, just “Plot, what plot?” porn.

Ratings:
Art – 7
Character – 4 (we don’t really get to know any of them)
Story – 2 (there isn’t any)
Yuri – 9
Service – 7
Overall – 6

Depending on your mood and tastes, this could be just the ticket. It’s definitely good, filthy Yuri fun.





Drama CD: Hayate x Blade Mini CD

February 24th, 2006

Would you like to hear a story about how utterly LFG I am? LOL

In the February issue of Dengeki Daioh, the Hayate x Blade chapter was a gag about the upcoming Drama CD.

In that issue, Amachi Hitsugi, the chairman of the school, president of the student council and all-around perfect rich girl, decided to write the script for a Drama CD. Hitusgi forces her shinyuu/partner to comandeer various characters to record the CD. Mayhem breaks out, as is typical for a HxB chapter. :-)

The March issue of Dengeki Daioh includes a mini Drama CD for HCB, which is meant to be the “mayhem breaks out” part of the previous comic that’s taking place inside the recording studio.

I picked up this month’s issue with what I am sure was an otaku creepy “ohmigodohmigod!” face on, even if the woman at Sanseido smiled at me and pretended not to notice.  ^_^’

As *soon* as we got in the car I slammed that baby into the CD player! The mini CD is 13 minutes or so long and it’s brilliant! Of course.

I won’t go on and on about how perfect the seiyuu are, or how funny the script was – except for this moment. When Hayate forces Ayana to read the title of the drama. “Hayate and Ayana’s sexy weekend” in English, I almost died laughing.

Oh, and this moment – when Momoka calls to Isuzu to say that they should leave (Momoka calls Isuzu “Wanko”) – “Come on Wanko.” Isuzu responds, “Wherever, forever.”

And I won’t go on about the BGM, which was hysterical in the extreme – and gets all romantic violins when Hitsugi is telling Shizuku that she wants to take her to a nice, romantic restaurant, just the two of them…

No. I won’t talk about any of those things. Or about the scene when Jun and Hayate are crawling on top of each other to try and find out which one of them Ayana wants more as a lover.

And I absolutely won’t rant about how the music changes and before she even spoke I KNEW Yukari had come “on screen”. Or how Ayana became a blushy, stuttering freak. LOL

All I’m gonna say is – there’s no doubt at ALL, that any real or implied Yuri in Hayate Cross Blade is amplified here to its fullest.

Ratings:

Story – 8
Characters – 9
Music – 8
Yuri – 7
Loser FanGirl – 9

Overall – 8

I cannot WAIT for the Drama CD next month! Ohmigod ohmigod! ^_^