Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Manga: Air Master, Volume 26

January 13th, 2006

Sorry about being away so long, but I needed a break from doing mostly everything – and a long holiday weekend celebrating the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King and the people who believed in his dreams and made them real, was a perfect fit for my much-needed R&R.

So, well-rested and relaxed I come back to the topic of Yuri. I haven’t mentioned Air Master in a very long time. The manga and anime both have Yuri in the form of Mina and her overt love and desire for our heroine, streetfighter Maki. I suppose some people could argue that Maki doesn’t return the feeling, but I really would have to disagree – there are several scenes in the manga, especially, which convince me that she does. She’s just a doofus and not the kind of person to even admit it to herself. I trust Mina to wear that down eventually.

In any case, the anime ended some time ago, and while it was licensed, will not be released here in the US past Volume 3. Geneon is not shipping Volume 4…although I am not sure they have officially announced that. I know through back channels.

It may surprise some of you to know that long after the anime finished, the “Fukamichi Ranking” arc of the manga is not *yet* complete. In fact, Maki, who lost her battle with the ranking number one fighter, Byoubou, has been all but absent from the manga for the last several volumes. Sometimes we would see her nearly unconscious body in the distance. Last volume she moaned. In this one, she manages to ask Miori to massage her limbs so she can try to move again. In the meantime, we are focusing on one of the most agonizingly dull fights ever – five of the fighters trying to take down Byoubou. Of them, only Kai is marginally interesting to me.

I guess I’m not the only person who complained that the manga is called Air Master and why are we watching five fighters who are not Maki endlessly?, because in Volume 26, we are given an omake story with not only Maki, but her four goofball school friends. In a game of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” not too many of them have a clue what they could actually become. Maki is at a complete loss beyond her immediate occupation. But Mina joyfully proclaims that she wants to be Maki’s wife, complete with fantasy image of blushing Maki in tux and Mina in bridal dress. Michiru and Yuu both proclaim that impossible and they move on.

There you go – the longest time we’ve spent with Maki in oh, about three/four volumes has a nice little Yuri moment inside Mina’s head. :-)

Ratings:
Art – 3 (I think it’s getting worse, if that’s possible)
Story – 2
Characters – Omake only? 8, Rest of volume 4)
Yuri – (Omake only 8, rest 0)
Service – 8

Overall – 5

I’m totally ready for Byobou to go away now….





Yuri Anime: Loveless

December 26th, 2005

You may wonder why I’m reviewing Loveless so long after it aired on Japanese TV, and so long before it debuts as a DVD release here in America. Some of you may wonder why I’m reviewing it at all. The answer to the first is – I forgot about it. The answer to the second is – tune back in later this week.

Loveless is a mostly BL, mostly shota (the boy equivalent to lolicon, i.e., little boy suggestiveness and sexuality…something that squicks me even more than loli does, if that’s even possible) series that runs in Zero Sum magazine which is, incidentally, published by Ichijinsha, the same folks who put out Comic Yuri Hime. When I visited Ichijinsha’s office in April, they had gigantic Loveless cardboard cut-outs and posters. As they portrayed a shota catboy BL couple, I turned a blind eye and never paid it a bit of attention. Well hah on me! Because along with the BL catboys, there was a pair of Yuri girls…with cat ears, admittedly, but I can overlook that. (No, I do not think animal ears are cute. And I hate cats in any case. Bad lesbian! Bad!)

Animal ears notwithstanding, Kouya and Yamato make a strong arc for an otherwise okay series. The basic plot of Loveless as I understand it is that same-sex partners pair to engage in some kind of battle, in which one partner provides power and takes the hit and the other makes the attacks with the other’s power. Among one pair who were, I believe, lovers, the one who takes the hits died. His younger brother wants to know the truth about him, so he takes his dead brother’s place as the partner of an older bishounen who, needless to say, falls in love with his prepubescent catboy self. (The cat ears, btw, are an outward expression of virginity, as far as I can tell. They come off when the person loses the aforementioned. All very creepy and fetishy.)

Into this set-up comes a pair of women, Kouya and Yamato. They have been created(?) and trained to be each other’s partners. They are clearly in love, but terrified of the situation – and of their master. Their arc comprises about one volume’s worth of anime, about three or four episodes, but in those few episodes there’s plenty of soul-searching angst and yuri for any teen catgirl wannabee. And honestly, it’s a pretty decent coming-out/falling in love/starting a life together type story. Especially as their lesbian love is portrayed as what saves them from a miserable fate and sets them off on a free life of their own. A nice change from the more classic Yuri misery that we thought we’d never see the back of.

I’m not saying that this series is worth watching for this arc – but I do think this arc is worth watching for itself. Luckily I may be able to help with this. :-)

Ratings (for the Yuri arc only):

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 7 (see above lingerie…and don’t forget the ears/virginity thing)

Overall – 7 and worth a look, at least.

For those interested in the manga version of this arc, the series has been licensed by Viz and is being put out in 2-in-1 volumes. Here’s a link to Volume 1.





Yuri Manga: YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki, Volume 27

December 22nd, 2005

Some things can just never go on long enough. YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki is one of them. If it never ends I’ll be a happy fangirl.

So let’s see, where did we leave off? Who can tell?!?

Seriously – let’s see, Yukiya has been rescued, and reunited with his retinue, and Sagiri is still in the middle of the woods whining…and trying to not be too obvious about his crush on Hardy (who pins him with his hawk-like gaze and asks him about it, making Sagiri go all goopy, which is even *worse* than him whiny), and the folks at the school go running around beating each other up and the tourists comb the caves looking for buried treasure, while Julian walks around mysteriously, and whatshisface, the one who idolizes Hardy and follows Ruriko around, eh – Tamahiko, that’s it – mostly follows Ruriko around.

There’s the usual insane fighting among the apparent 7 million occupants of and visitors to this school and mostly Junko (Yaji) and Reiko (Kita) spend the volume running around like lunatics, with the occasional face-slamming interlude for fun.

Reading this manga is a bit “sound and fury signifying nothing”, but I don’t care. It’s brain candy. :-)

Let’s move away from the plot for a second – especially as it is so insanely complex that I’m not always sure I can figure out what’s going on, much less explain it simply – and move onto the service, shall we? :-)

Ruriko has been trying to get Kita back into that tux for some oh 13 years now. And in Volume 27, she succeeds! For exactly 15 panels. LOL

Here’s Ruriko’s brilliant scheme this time: She notes that Kita is being shadowed (pun intended) by the school’s female ninja (kunoichi) club. Ruriko has the club president, an adorable little blonde, kidnapped. She tells Reiko that unless she gets back in that tux, bends her knee and swears fealty to Ruriko, dire and dreadful things will occur to doll-like Kaede. Kita, not wanting to see the girl hurt, dons the garb in question – which sends Kaede into fits of love, btw – and proceeds to bend that knee. But before she can swear to anything, chaos is unleashed. Kita-san rescues Kaede, and knocks Ruriko into unconsciousness, then they bail taking Ruriko with them. Which was a relief to Kaede, as Ruriko was about to make Kita swear she’d do anything Ruriko said to do. A somewhat disturbing thought, even to me. Ruriko’s a nutter.

Kita’s back in boring old school uniform before they even leave the house. It was brief, but DAMN that tux looked good.

Kaede’s mishap only serves to strengthen her interest in “Shinokita-sama”, and Ruriko is, of course, too stupid and rich to understand “no.” I’m not a fan of sociopaths in general, but this series is filled with nothing but – including our two leads – so I’m not going to get myself worked up over it.

This is a great shoujo manga series, but not something for the faint of heart. It’s just too long, too complex and has too many characters to be an easy read. Fifteen *lead* characters at casual count.

So is tux-wearing and ninja adoration all there is for poor Kita’s ongoing girl troubles? Not *quite.* On the last page we reintroduce an exceptionally bizarre character, Himegose – an impossibly rich Empress-wannabe with a obsession with…Yaji-san. Seriously. Himegose was all OVER Junko in the original series – wanted her as her girl toy. But her two little henchchicks had a raging crush on Kita. So with Himegose’s return we can expect massive Yuri sexual harrassment for both our lovely leading ladies.

Ratings:

Art – 6 A little weak, even for this series which is wildly inconsistent
Story – 7 But it takes some work on your part
Characters – 7 The good ones are great and the rest are legion
Yuri – 7 Sociopathic service, but harmless for a change
Loser FanGirl – 10 Pretty boys, gorgeous girls, squeal!

Love it or hate it, YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki is a cultural treasure.





Yuri Manga: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 2

December 21st, 2005

You’ll excuse me for being confused by what is really a simple storyline. When I first discovered Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, I started at the end, then read the beginning and totally missed all the middle bits. Now I’m caught up and it all makes more sense.

Hazumu was a girly boy until an accident in which a alien space ship crashed into him ended up with him turning into a girly girl. Then the girl he liked fell in love with her, and the girl he didn’t know he liked, and who didn’t realize she liked him, realizes that she loves her.

So we have your basic love triangle in which both girls – ultra-femme Yasuna and boyish Tomari – vie for the attention and affection of now-female Hazumu. Really, quite simple.

Volume 2 of the manga establishes the backstory between Hazumu and Tomari, which I was totally missing. Now I can declare Tomari’s interest legit, where before I thought it a mere annoying plot complication.

The rest of the volume is taken up with the three of them having very romantic days during summer vacation, at the beach, at the usual summer festival, etc., while Tomari and Yasuna develop a kind of détente. A date between Yasuna and Hazumu gets a little intense, as they spend a day alone and Yasuna marks her territory again with a kiss, but Hazumu responds by running off to reaffirm her need for Tomari, too.

Will anything be resolved between them? *Can* anything be resolved between them? To be honest I doubt it. But no one is really unlikeable here, so we’ll just watch them revolve around one another in an unending gavotte until the center ceases to hold and things fall apart.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Character – 8
Story – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 5

The story is not going to get better I fear (for good reason – the most recent chapter in Dengeki Daioh was mind-numbingly trite) but I’ll tag along until it gets unbearable or Hazumu turns back into a guy, whichever comes first.





Live Action: Hana no Asuka-gumi Movie

December 12th, 2005

Hana no Asuka-gumi is a very bad live-action movie based on manga I like.

When faced with an extremely complex story, with many characters and a multi-tiered socio-political set-up, some directors simplify and some rewrite. And some throw the whole story out and create something completely different from the original so that what’s left is something so awful that the original creator would probably not want to be associated it. The original Casino Royale springs immediately to mind…and so does the live-action Hana no Asuka-gumi. This movie is *so* bad, it’s good.

The manga of Hana no Asuka-gumi takes place in modern Tokyo, among the many and varied members of the Zenchuu Ura, the umbrella organization that runs all the female gangs of Tokyo (among other things) and the people who are involved with the principles of this organization. Kuraku Asuka was once a high-ranking member, but is no longer.

I’ve mentioned the original manga on and off across Okazu, reviewed the first OVA and second OVA, and done an overview of the new manga series. All of these are, in one way or another, excellent.

Not so this movie. ^_^

In the live-action version of this wonderful girl-gang story, we are transported to a dystopian future, in which all gangs look like stereotpyes of gangs, from big Happy Days 1950’s gang hair to double-breasted yakuza gang suits, to Mad Max ripoff faux-punk gang leather armor. All of the Omoteban look like Michael Jackson music video runaways, and they tend to yell alot and fight not nearly so much. Asuka’s (in the red jacket on the cover above – click the picture to get a bigger version) and Miko’s relationship is pretty much exactly the same as it is in the manga, and so is both of their relationships to Yohko (chick on the left side of the cover with big hair, which is a bloody shame). Other than that, nearly everything is different.

The worst change is what they did to Hibari-sama. Instead of being a proto-GothLoli freak with a doll and uniform fetish, she’s made into a middle-aged woman who cannot speak and needs misting periodically. This causes the movie to crawl to a stop every time she comes on screen – it sucks any energy the movie has away, just like the horrible mono-tonal Sister Jill did for the Cutey Honey Live-action movie.

But none of these is really enough to kill this movie completely – nor is the fact that the soundtrack consists entirely of the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction repeated over and over endlessly until you want to rip your ears off.

Despite all this, there are *still* scenes worth watching.

Chief among these is the scene where Asuka manages to grab Yohko, ties her to a bed and yell at her for a while, with a little light kicking to the ribs. Asuka has what is a genuinely unresolved-sexual-tension filled scene with the woman she loves. This relationship isn’t going to go anywhere…and neither does this movie. It ends in an anticlimactic free-for-all that resolves exactly nothing.

Ratings:
Cinematography – 2
Characters – 6
Story – 4
Yuri – 1
Service – 0

Overall – 2

Like the live action movie based on Blue, one should only bother watching this if one is a total hardcore Hana no Asuka-gumi fan. I am a hardcore fan, and have *two* copies of it. ^_^