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Maria-sama ga Miteru Seventh Novel Itoshiki Toshitsuki First Half , Part 2

October 3rd, 2005

Itoshiki Saigestu (The Loving Times) First Part
Part 2

Itosewashi Hibi (Busy Days)

This part is written in first person from Yumi’s point of view once again. It begins with an overview of how, after being Sachiko’s soeur for 6 months, she still feels inadequate.

1) Until Yumi absent-mindedly mentions something, the en bouton had completely forgotten to arrange a party for the departing Roses. They have been completely absorbed in the arrangements for the school-wide event for the graduating third-years.

2) Once they decide upon a date, Yumi offers to confirm with the Roses. To us, in her head, she confides that she’s not much in looks or brains department, but she has footwork covered.

3) As Yumi gets up to make the phone calls, Sachiko says for her to wait, but she also feels something strike her in the middle of her back. She sees an eraser roll away and hears Yoshino say, “Even if I do say so myself, nice control.” LOL Yumi thinks that Yoshino thinks she’s Zenigata Heiji. (This cracked me up – I used to watch a show about ZH on TV on Sunday mornings. Zenigata Heiji was a famous Edo-period constable, police detective type. In any case, on the TV show at least, ZH would throw a coin to stop people in their tracks.)

4) Yumi takes on the job of calling the Roses to confirm the date of their party. She makes a note of their real names and rehearses quickly what she’s going to say. Yumi thinks that she’s really gotten more confident in the last 6 months, compared to how nervous she was when she first called Sachiko and got all flustered.

5) Youko says, “So, you guys forgot, huh?” Yumi denies it, and is sure to make sure she doesn’t run off at the mouth, like she would if she was lying. Youko and she laugh, but they’ve been nailed.

6) Eriko answers the phone panting, she’s just run in to make her curfew (7PM). She’s willing to break a date following Yamanobe-sensei around to make the party.

7) Sei, quite seriously, asks what they will do for the talent show. She says that it is an established practice and that Rei crushed apples in her hands, while Sachiko danced and sung Swan Lake.

Sei asks that they do it because her dream is to have one really good laugh before she goes. (Youko’s dream was to see the Rose Mansion full of people…. Eriko’s is to get married.)

8) The next morning the three first-years have a conference in the library. Yoshino takes over as president immediately and decides that Shimako should dance. Shimako is concerned, because she doesn’t really do comedy, but Yoshino says it’s okay if Shimako dances, she and Yumi will provide the comedy. Yoshino informs Yumi that she, Yoshino, will do magic, and that Yumi should do a party performance. Yumi panics, she has no idea what to do, so Yoshino hands her a book on the topic.

9) On the way to the Rose Mansion, Yumi is approached by Saeko, a classmate of Yoshino’s who is the soeur of the president of the flower-arranging club. Saeko want to know when they will need to bring the vases and flowers over, and how long will they need the vases for. Yumi says she’ll look into it. (The Yamayurikai has to pick the color and arrange for the corsages for the graduating class). Yumi feels like she’s at last able to help her onee-sama in some concrete way. And we can see that she’s stepping into her future en bouton duties. Then Yumi is asked by the Fine Arts club about the signboard for the party, Yumi says she’ll handle that as well.

10) At home, Mom helps Yumi look for a box of props. They find a box wrapped so tightly that Yumi thinks it like breaking into an Egyptian tomb (the curse of the pyramid) – or perhaps there’s pictures of naked women. Inside is cassette tapes, 5-yen coin and a something other crap. Mom and Yumi are totally confused as to why this was hidden and wrapped so tightly.

11) Just as an interesting note, Lillian has a wide variety of clubs, which include a comedy club, and a general athletic club, as well as all the others we’ve seen mentioned over the books.

12) People are coming and going like crazy in and out of the Rose Mansion, very much like the school festival, only this time the en bouton are running the event. Yumi is extremely busy helping out.

13) Yumi runs into Shizuka who has come to the Rose Mansion. Shizuka has come to discuss the borrowing of a pianica. Yoshino wants to borrow one and Shizuka wants to know which one. Yumi had no idea there were different kinds. (You may remember the pianica from the anime – it’s a recorder with piano keys.)

14) Yumi goes to pick up the sign from the Fine Arts club, but Yoshino never shows, so she carries the sign, which is heavy and taller than herself to the Rose Mansion, by herself.

15) At home, Yumi asks Yuki to rub her shoulders. She promises to give him a caramel if he does and he tells her that that is very childish – but he does rub her shoulders. She spies the package from the other day in his room and interrogates him about it. Yuki says that it’s a hazing tradition in his school – one first –year is forced to do this performance and keep the bag of stuff. Yumi asks him to show her the dance.

16) Yumi runs out of the house without eating and is on the bus late with a lot of drunken salarymen (returning late from all-night after parties, assumably) which makes her ill. Between that, overwork and not enough sleep for practicing her performance, she passes out. She vaguely remembers hearing Sachiko’s voice. When she wakes up, she starts to cry, because she wanted to be a big help to Sachiko, and instead is only a burden.

17) Sei comes to get her and escort her home. Sei tells her that they all care about her and she shouldn’t try and do everything alone.

When Sei has left, Yumi’s father says, “You go to an all-girls’ school, right?” then goes on to say that Sei seems awfully oyaji. :-)

18) Ultimately Yumi chooses the color for the roses – salmon pink, because it’s a mixture of red, white and yellow. And she says that she thinks it’s become her favorite color.

***

19) The day of the talent show and party is told from Youko’s point of view and her POV begins, “What on EARTH?” lol

It’s unbelievable – like a dream – there’s Yoshino doing magic…Youko comments that she’d notice that, unlike Rei, Yoshino had no talent for handicrafts, but she’s impressed with her sleight-of-hand.

Youko overhears Sachiko blame Sei for the talent show and Sei confesses. “I told them that it was a tradition, and they believed me.” Youko thinks that Sei is pathologically selfish.

When Yoshino finishes, Rei claps loudly and longly and Youko is a little embarrassed.

20) Shimako begins to dance, but the music Yoshino chose is “Maria-sama no Kokoro” which doesn’t fit Shimako’s traditional Japanese dance. (But, then, Youko thinks, Yoshino in a top hat and school uniform was weird too.) Shimako falters in her dance, because the music doesn’t match but, then, keeps dancing.

At which point Youko begins to laugh. She decides to stop analyzing and just enjoy it all. The third time the chorus starts, Youko begins to sing along, and so does everyone else. (We learn that Youko did not attend Lillian from nursery school, but Sachiko taught her the words to the song.)

21) When the music switches for Yumi’s dance, Youko is simply blown away. She knows instantly what the music is and has plates for eyes when Yumi does indeed begin this comedic dance from one of the islands. Out of the corner of her eye, Youko can see Sachiko laughing so hard that she’s crying.

With this, Youko thinks to herself that the future Yamayurikai will be strange, but fun. And she can leave Lillian with no regrets or worries.

***

Part 3

“A Short Interlude”

This is from Eriko’s point of view and recounts her meeting with Yamanobe-sensei.

The one thing of note was when, after Yamanobe offers her some of his yakiimo (roasted sweet potatos which are easily enough for two people) she offers to buy him some tea and she thinks to herself that this is the first time in her eighteen years of life that she’s ever made that offer to a guy. (Would you like to drink some tea?” is a common pick up line.)

The End

 





Maria-sama ga Miteru Seventh Novel, Itoshiki Toshitsuki, First Half (Part 1)

September 30th, 2005

Itoshiki Saigestu (The Loving Times) First Half
Part 1

As Onna! is right around the corner(!) and for the next week I’ll be pretty erratic at updating, here’s something nice and chewy for you from the Yuricon Mailing List. Feel free to join the list and read the notes from the 8th novel, as well!

There was a fair amount cut out of this book for the anime, but also a lot of stuff that was done straight. The stuff that was cut out was mostly insightful chitchat that, while fascinating, I can totally understand why it was cut.

***

The opening scene has Eriko and Sei running into each other in the hall (not literally) and Eriko mistaking the lyrics of a song for something else. When they part, she’s left with lingering thoughts of love.

Rosa Foetida – Full Speed Ahead

1) Minako, newspaper club president and tabloid editor-in-training, does not want to just report news – she wants to make it. As in make it up. Currently, she’s frustrated because she’s trying to discover where the Rosas are planning to go to college. The en bouton aren’t saying and the en bouton petite soeur are clueless. Minako gives us her opinions on the latter: Yoshino is suspicious by nature and doesn’t care about anything other than “Rei-chan.” Yumi is a terrible liar, so she really doesn’t know anything.

Minako overhears three of the newspaper club members wondering why the Roses took exams at all. (And within this scene is, ironically, annoyed at Mami for questioning them like she, Mami, is researching an article.)

The three first-years discuss the main criteria for going to a school other than Lillian – the desire to be in a coeducational institution. Minako thinks that this doesn’t apply to Rosa Gigantea or Rosa Chinensis – neither of them would particularly care whether their school had guys or not – but Rosa Foetida would definitely be going somewhere else, because going to school with guys would be “an interesting experience”.

Minako, it turns out, is also marginally jealous of Mami’s knowledge and comprehension – she’s constantly calling Mami her “not cute” soeur. Minako also remembers being much quieter and cuter as a first-year. She’s sure that Mami is after a big scoop to surpass her; Minako sees the soeur relationship like that of a teacher and student that are locked in an eternal rivalry. Minako burns with a competitive fury.

2) Club member A says that she saw Rosa Foetida at an amusement park on Saturday.

(The first years are labeled by the narrator, “Club Member A”, “B” and “C”, respectively, with a little note that they did have names and Minako certainly knew them, but for our purposes A, B, and C would suffice. ^_^)

Minako assumes that Eriko was there with the rest of the Yellow Rose family, because as she’s graduating soon, it was natural to spend time with your soeur.

(In this scene we get some foreshadowing that Mami will be significantly worse than Minako as a newspaper club president…she’s a tough character with a steel-trap mind, and she rules Minako with an iron fist.)

“A” says that Eriko was with a guy. Scandal! Never before has a Rose, especially, allowed the taint of having a lover before graduation. And Eriko and the guy, who looks 25-26 had their arms around each other! (Eriko’s 18 in this novel.)

Club members B and C had seen her holding hands at a museum and a high-end restaurant with 2 other older men. B had been at the museum with her mother – they had received free tickets because her father had done work for an art client; C was at the restaurant for a family party.

3) The second scene of the body of the novel is our Tsutako scene, as always. Tsutako tells Yumi all of the above in a dead-on impression of the girls’ voice. She had been in the Photography clubroom and as the Newspaper club had talked they had become more animated – and loud – so she heard them clearly. Yumi thinks Tsu ought to be in the drama club with her talent for voices.

Tsutako gives Yumi the photos she took, pretty much to pass the burden on to Yumi.

4) On the way up the Rose Mansion stairs, Yumi worries that if she steps on a weak spot in the stairs, she’ll fall and get hurt or die, and someone might find the photos in her pocket…only, she’d be dead, so it won’t matter what they think – to her, at least.

5) Yumi meets Yoshino in the Rose Mansion and mentions offhandedly that she would like to talk to Eriko. Yoshino suggests calling her, something Yumi never even considered. Yoshino suggests doing it *now* and Yumi thinks that a desperate attraction to anything interesting must be a Yellow Rose trait. (Yet another hint that Eriko and Yoshino are more alike than anyone realizes.) Yumi is surprised that Yoshino knows Eriko’s home phone number by heart. (And why don’t any of these girls have cell phones? I can see them being not allowed on campus, but at home? EVERY Japanese girl has a cell phone!)

Eriko’s mother says that she doesn’t know when Eriko is coming home. Yumi thinks that its odd for a mother to not know, especially on a school night. Yumi posits that maybe Eriko’s grandmother is terminally ill and Eriko is out visiting her. After Yoshino shoots that theory down, Yumi reminds herself mentally to not kill off other people’s grandmothers so easily. ^_^

6) The next scene is one gigantic set-up and is done completely straight in the anime: We see Eriko at a hotel, pouring over a filled social calendar, meeting an older man, thanking him for the clothes. In the novel, we get the added detail that he had the clothes sent to the hotel, where she picked them up and changed into them. Eriko muses that he likes fur (the sweater has a fur collar) and that he has spent a months’ wages on her so far. And, sigh, another night away from home…

7) Yumi tells Yoshino hypothetically about “a girl” who is seen with many men, and Yoshino suggests that its “assisted dating”. To be sure she’s getting the words right, Yumi writes down the kanji. Sachiko walks in, sees the paper and grimaces, stating that she really hates the term Enjyou Kousai, because its just a gilded term for prostitution. Yumi is, quite naturally, utterly shocked to hear Sachiko use the word “prostitution.”

8) A scene you never expect in a Marimite novel: The second-years then begin discussing adultery. Sachiko, again naturally, hates it and likens it to prostitution as well. The first-years, including Shimako, are gobsmacked by this conversation, and can only sit and listen with big eyes as Sachiko and Rei have such an “adult” conversation.

9) Yumi, when questioned as to why she had that word written down at all, lies about it, and Sachiko reaches out and taps her gently on the head with a “you goofball” -type comment. She then comments that Sei is right, Yumi’s face really does change all the time at which Yumi thinks that her face is reflecting her thoughts that this is more sexual harassment by that dirty old man (oyaji – remember this term… It comes back later) of a student.

10) Yumi (who has been trying to find someone to consult about the matter of the photos,) thinks of speaking to Sei. She sees Sei in her mind as someone who is bright from having thrown off the darkness of a murky mist.

11) When Yumi greets Sei, Sei comments that her “gokigenyou” sounds like Yumi needs a favor. Yumi says that Sachiko sent her home early, because everyone was busy with other things today.

Sei throws her arms around Yumi. She understands, she says, Yumi’s lonely. Well, she’ll stand in for Sachiko, and hold Yumi’s soft body, she doesn’t mind…

Yumi starts to think that she is a little lonely because they Yamayurikai didn’t get together, but…!

12) Sei asks Yumi if she called her name a few moments ago. Yumi says no, but Sei thought she heard Yumi’s voice. Yumi realizes that Sei was talking about the very moment Yumi *thought* about consulting Sei.

13) The first-years call the cat “Lunch”, the second-years call it “Meri-chan” and the third years call it “Goronta”. Yumi had never seen any one be able to get within a meter of the cat without it running away, but Sei picks it up and pets it. (Goronta means something like “Purr-y”. Yumi thinks it a rude name for the cat.)

14) This section is long and was almost completely cut up in the anime.

Sei tells Yumi that humans have violated the natural order of the wild, and created an inferior ecosystem as a result. She explains that Goronta, as a kitten, was being attacked by crows in the back of the school when she found him. She saved the cat, sneaking food to him and “believed in him” which is why he lets her close. Sei says that Shimako told her that it was cruel thing to do, that it has made the cat dependent upon her.

Sei had considered taking the cat home, but felt that the school was its home now.

Throughout this conversation, there is the sense that Sei is talking about the cat and Yumi at the same time as she speaks. At the conclusion of this speech, she turns to Yumi and offers her cat food. So, yeah.

Sei ends with the thought that Shimako is wrong, that Goronta (or, indeed, Yumi) would be fine – that he is a wolf that has found his “pack.”

15) Sei then segues into a discussion of Shimako as a wolf that has not found her pack. (Foreshaaaaaaadoooowiiinnnggg!) Sei tells Yumi that she, Yumi, had a fairly easy time of it at Lillian and found her pack relatively easily, so she wouldn’t understand Shimako’s feelings. (Yumi thinks that it’s not that easy being the dull, clumsy little sister of a beautiful, intelligent princess onee-sama, and that’s
she’s pretty much a failure.)

Sei asks Yumi if Yumi worries constantly about what it is to be a human and a woman.

Yumi says, no, I’m Japanese because I was born here, I’m a girl and this is a girls’ school.

But, Sei says, what if you were thrown into an English boys’ school.

Yumi panics, because her English is bad.

Canada, then, or France, Sei attempts to focus Yumi on the point…

Yumi says that she’d be uncomfortable around the other students, and her heart would pound. And Sei says, “Right. That’s what its like for Shimako right now.”

Then Yumi begins to understand that Sei is protecting Shimako the same way she did the cat and is worried about leaving for that reason too.

Sei says that Lillian hurt her, but also saved her and that she has come to love Lillian. That friends have the power to heal. (Konno- sensei! Please put down that foreshadowing club! We get it! We get it!!!)

16) Eriko is thinking to herself that, in a field of chestnut horses, a white horse stands out. Or in a plate of sweets a rice cracker stands out. So it stands to reason that, in a life full of wealthy men, in her mind, a poor one stands out.

When Yumi and Eriko meet up (which was slightly altered in the anime to make Eriko a bit flakier, but was otherwise accurate) Eriko might as well have been speaking Greek for all Yumi can understand her. ^_^

(This is a little joke on my part, since “Hypsilodon” – the dinosaur Eriko mentions – is obviously a Greek word.)

17) Tsutako gives Yumi two more pictures of Eriko with men – one old enough to be her father, and one scruffy-looking guy at the zoo. Tsu is doing two things by doing this – she’s passing the responsibility to Yumi, but she’s also protecting Eriko. Her assignment had been to collect pictures as proof for the newspaper article. And, although, she *has* gotten the proof, she doesn’t want to give the pictures to
Minako.

They head to the Rose Mansion, where Yumi is going to figure out what to do about the photos, when Rosa Chinensis catches up with them. Tsutako tries to escape, but Youko grabs her by the collar and pulls her back. Tsutako immediately responds with, “How radiantly lovely you look today, Rosa Chinensis…”

Youko controls Yumi and Tsutako so well, that even Yumi feels that she’s just been given a glimpse of the Youko that can control Sachiko.

18) Youko looks at the pictures and tells Tsutako and Yumi that now she understands what’s been bothering Eriko the last few days – she’s lovesick.

19) We see Minako, who has overheard Yumi and Eriko’s conversation, in the newspaper office typing. She had, it turns out, wanted to be a novelist before she became a journalist, and this is a great opportunity. She writes a short story called “The Yellow Rose” about Shimai Rieko, a girl who is working part-time at an escort club.

“Shimai” is a brutal pun. The character for “shima” looks not entirely unlike that for “tori”. So “Shimai” would read “Torii” for people reading quickly and who were used to Eriko’s family name. “Rieko” is, of course, the characters for “e” “ri” and “ko” slightly rearranged. Hence Shimai Rieko would be the thinnest possible veil on the true protagonist…even without the “Yellow Rose” of the title.

In the Rose Mansion, everyone is admiring Minako’s photoshopping skills for the cover. Sachiko asks what all this is about and Sei and Yoshino explain the technique behind the picture – not at all what Sachiko was talking about. Sachiko’s temper starts to rise and Youko begins to pull her leg to see how long it will take before she explodes.

This was hysterical, btw…as she carefully gives Sachiko just enough info to make her nuts, Youko is also talking to Sei over her shoulder, and Yumi is “tick-tocking” the time bomb in her head as she watches Sachiko approaching breaking point.

Sachiko demands to know what’s going on and Youko explains that Eriko been going on dates with various older men every night. She them summarizes the plot of the story:

Right before graduation, Shimai Rieko, “The Yellow Rose” is suffering from ennui and an empty heart, where “a cold wind blows.” She takes a part time job at a dating club, and goes out with Mr. A, a baseball player, on an all night drive. Then Mr. B, a surgeon, takes her to an art museum and Mr. C, a gourmet, takes her to a fine restaurant. But Shimai Rieko realizes that changing men like they are clothes is futile. Her heart is still empty. She is discovered on a date by Mr. D, a teacher at her school, who takes her home and scolds her gently. She returns to normal student life, but looks for Mr. D. On the day to her graduation, she decides to propose to him.

Yumi was, ultimately, the catalyst to Sachiko’s explosion, figuring that it ought to be her who bears the brunt. Sachiko explodes (Yumi’s mind: tick, tick, tick…boom!) because she thinks everyone else knew but her. When she finds out that no one else did, she is immediately fine.

They hear Eriko being called to the principal’s office (not really, but you know what I mean, the “Student Counseling Room” or whatever) and they decide to all go.

20) In the hallway outside the Counselor’s Office, Minako is eavesdropping. She had seen four men and Eriko walk by into the Counselor’s Office, and three of them match the characters in her story. She thinks out loud, “There’s A, B and C – why no D?” To which Youko, who has come up immediately behind her, answers, “Because you
made him up.”

Minako is trapped. She goes in with the Yamayurikai members. The nun says they can all come in on one condition – only one spokesperson can talk. Youko is clearly that person.

21) Yes, one of the guys IS in a football uniform (and yes – it is specifically American football). The point is that all of Eriko’s brothers were interrupted mid-activity by their father. (And, obviously, it is meant to be ironic that Minako’s made-up characters were so amazingly close to the actuality. Including, eventually, the assumably made up Teacher D.)

22) Cut out of the anime and what a shame: When Yamanobe-sensei is brought in by Tsutako, Minako sees him and blurts out, “Does he make umbrellas?” That totally made me laugh.

23) When Eriko proposes, Sei (who has already broken the “don’t speak” rule several times) immediately offers a bet to Youko that Yamanobe loses. Youko won’t take the bet – she says that he’ll suffer a crushing defeat.

24) Yamanobe-sensei is, among all the other reasons to not marry Eriko, still grieving over a wife who died about a year ago.

25) This entire scene is played as a sitcom, with Yumi helpfully supplying background noises and music in her mind for us. When Yamanobe-sensei declines the marriage offer, she thinks that, if it *were* a comedy, everyone would face-fault now.

26) Eriko’s father accuses Yamanobe of hitting on a young girl nearly half his age. Eriko replies that Yamanobe was too busy watching the elephant to be paying attention to her. Dad immediately yells at Yamanobe – “You were ignoring my beautiful daughter to watch an elephant? What’s wrong with you?” ^_^

27) When everyone decides for Yamanobe that he’d better date Eriko, Sei says that is he doesn’t she’ll just cling harder. “Snapping Turtle Eriko, we call her.”

Yumi thinks that they’d call Sei “Full of Lies Sei”.

28) Sei walks over to the desk, writes out Eriko’s phone number and hands it to Yamanobe when it’s been settled that he *will* date her.

End of Part 1 of Part One





Yuri Manga: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 2

September 20th, 2005

Well, I know you were all waiting with bated breath to read my opinion on this final installment of the Kannzuki no Miko series.

As you may remember, I found the anime to be superficial, devoid of meaning and tedious, but marginally distracting. I reviewed it several times with increasing incredulousness – primarily because, while the series made absolutely NO sense at all, many people, mostly male, seem to feel that Kannzuki represents the height of yuri. This story was indubitably colorful, had lots of action and noise and sound and light, but it simply made no sense. That a senseless 13 episode miniseries that had no plausibility, not internal consistancy and utterly pointless rape should be seen by any minority of viewers as the *epitome* of the genre I have labored to promote is simply…exhausting.

Folks – there is good Yuri out there. With plots, and character development, etc. Drawn by women for women. This is real Yuri, not the parody of several genres tossed with a light dressing of Yuri so it sells.

Yamaji Ebine
Takashima Rica
Tadeno Eriko
Morishima Akiko
Hayahiya Shizuru

These women draw and write Yuri – with plots, characters, genuine expression of lesbian love and desire. Look for them – read them – learn what good Yuri is.

Okay, that rant having been concluded, let’s turn our eyes towards the work in question.

We left Himeko having just been raped by Chikane. This was used in the anime as well, where the explanation for the act was to make Himeko hate Chikane, as she’s becoming an orochi.

In the manga the act is complicated by the fact that it seeems to be tied into Chikane and Himeko’s existence as Miko of Moon and Sun, respectively.

In reality, it is fairly obvious that the people who comprise Kaishaku, like most people, have absolutely no understanding at all of the emotional damage rape does. In this expert text, Himeko wonders if it really happend, gets a twinge of pain in her abdomen, is horrified, but when Chikane seems like her usual self, is fine. Fine? Oooookkkkkkkaaaaaay…..

Then follows pretty much exactly the same nonsense that occurred in the anime. Lots of mecha fights, which *still* make no sense, since we are never really given any motivation for the Orochi respresentatives. In my mind, there should at least have been one flashback to explain the how/why of becomming a homicidal kubi, but that’s just me, always looking for, you know, plausibility, in a story.

BTW, kubi mean “neck” and the scanlators translate it that way, but in our language we’d probably call them a “hand” rather than a neck, as in hired hand, or ranch hand. After watching the anime and reading the manga, I am still entirely puzzled as to the kubi’s exstence at all. Why were they there? What were they hoping to do? Shoot things, okay…but why? I like the idea of shooting things too, but I can, at least, tell you *why* I’d like to pop you. Sister Miyako is hot, but the rest, *especially* Tsubasa, are a complete yawn. Tsubasa’s only reason to exist seems to be to pander to fans of long-silver-haired boys. Hmmm – I guess if we see the kubi as pandering to random fetishes, they make more sense. Okay. That works for me.

The climax of the manga and anime are similar, but not *quite* the same. Chikane explains that her behavior (violent rape, emotional torture and criminal passive-agressiveness) was meant to save Himeko from a fate worse than fate. In the anime, Chikane accepts an eternity that consists of a rather shorter period of time than eternities are wont to be, alone on the moon.

In the manga, Himeko comes with Chikane, rendering all of Chikane’s violence and abuse pointless, because apparently it would take MORE than that to make Himeko hate Chikane. One can only boggle.

In an epilogue which does not exist in the anime, Chikane and Himeko are born as incestuous twins who apparently live happily ever after.

Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 2
Characters – 6
Yuri – 9 (I cut off a point for the complete and utter lack of understanding of the dynamics of women in love/lust.)

Overall – 6

Honestly – this could, really, have been an excellent story. Given time, back story, character development and a modicum of internal consistency, it could have been decent. But it wasn’t. Not really.





Yuri Anime: Stellvia. Volume 5

September 16th, 2005

The reason this review took so long to get to was simply that I had a really hard time finding this volume! Amazon had it on backorder and at Otakon, not a single vendor had a copy by the time I got to go shopping. It was really irksome. (Amusingly, at the Geneon booth, the sales guy tried to sell me Vol.6, but I kept saying I wouldn’t get it until after I had Volume 5. He was like, “But you’ll need it eventually.” ^_^)

Let’s get right to it, shall we? This volume has a lot of good things, but I’m about to start with the bad.

The art. Where do noses go when they aren’t on faces? Is there a graveyard of lost anime noses? The art is *so* inconsistant in this volume. The older characters are fairly treated, but the main characters…ecch. It definitely looks like we had more than one group doing the art – and one of them sucked. Specifically the group handling Shima and Arisa.

There’s a scene in the second episode (which otherwise has better art than the first) on the volume where the girls are teasing Shima about Kouta. Shima and Arisa are all over the room, while the background characters are all stock still for nearly the entire scene, with fixed faces. Obviously, they didn’t bother animating anyone who wasn’t absolutely necessary. And it looks it. Awful, awful, awful.

The other major bad thing is Kouta. He’s heading into major idiot savant mode and from this point on, I really don’t like him. He’s so…removed…about people, and about Shima in particular. So while she’s growing, and trying harder and harder to reach him, he’s just being a nothing. But he’s a main character, so we have to watch him being a nothing all the freakin’ time! It’s downright distressing.

But that’s about it for really, really bad.

On the good side, all the little relationships are starting to mature – there’s a fair amount of time given over to taciturn Akira and runty Jojo. The volume starts them off on a rough foot, but they really get to spend some quality time onscreen. And along the way, they have a couple of short, but quite meaningful and interesting, scenes. With really good dialogue and everything.

There are some moments in this volume that approach excellent – particularly the political fragmenting of the humans involved in the different aspects of this “war.” People who feel its necessary vs people who feel its a plot by the military, vs people who think its a hoax, vs people who think war would be fun. With our current situation here in the US, it reads as quite realistic.

The most well-executed scene is towards the very end, when the war becomes a reality for our young characters. Seeing a battle, in which “our” forces take a thorough and fatal beating, through Shima’s eyes is quite painful, even as it is exceptionally well-executed.

For our Yuri couple, Yayoi and Ayaka, there is only one scene towards the beginning – but it’s a good one. ;-) With a short, fanservicey, flashback to when they originally met, we get a tearful and emotional reunion between them. Otherwise they are never seen together…but later when Arisa teases Yayoi about Pierre (who has a openly-acknowledged crush on her) Yayoi basically says that he has no chance. Everyone laughs and moves on. They know he has no chance – they just think it’s cause he’s a doofus and Yayoi is a lady.

Ratings:
Art – yucky to not too bad
Story – fun, interesting, emo
Characters – real
Music – doo-doo-doo

Overall – just watch it

In general, this volume is good, solid space opera fare. The aliens are bugs, humans are torn over what to do, and the kids…are kids. All in all, a good story that stays good with ocassional moments of excellent and awful.





Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 3

September 12th, 2005

Madlax, Volume 3 Sometimes you get a craving and nothing but sociopathic women with guns can fill it.

Volume 3 of Madlax is both wonderful…and frustrating. Wonderful, because all the connections start coming together, leading you forward towards who knows what. It’s also frustrating for the exact same reasons – you keep feeling like everything is going *somewhere* but you’re just not getting quite enough info to piece it all together.

For me, the volume is very satisfying, as it focuses primarily on the character of Vanessa Rene, whose efforts to find out exactly what’s going on bring her into contact with Madlax, and with Enfan, thus knitting together the three great variables in the story: Who is Madlax, and how did she get those mad assassinatin’ skillz; what on earth is Enfan’s relationship to the civil war in Gazth-Sonika; what does Margaret have to do with any of this?

None of these questions is answered, of course – but Vanessa actually articulates the first two – and the third is implicit in the storyline. Bee Train isn’t giving anything away in this anime, we’re going to have to work for our payoff here. When I watched this part the first time around, I was skeptical that we would get *any* payoff, but now I know we will, and I’m content to let the story play itself out.

In writing the above, I just realized that watching Madlax is a bit like watching a play by Chekhov – you have to let the characters repeat their particular bete noir over and over until the threads all ravel and it begins to make sense. You can’t rush it, or guess what will happened/has happened. You just have to wait.

On the yuri side, I love this volume for what it doesn’t say. There’s still the weird vibe between Vanessa and Eleanor, which makes me think that they slept together, but don’t have a “relationship” per se. Eleanor would be hard work – her focus is so single-minded, that to make her notice her existence, Vanessa would have to do something irrevocable and awful. Vanessa ain’t no dummmy – she lets whatever is between them stay as whatever Eleanor makes it.

When she meets Madlax, its obvious that Vanessa is resonating to something within her – there’s an obvious desire to connect with this mysterious girl, and maybe protect (or perhaps treasure) her a little. There’s a very, very slight yuri feel there, but I think that’s because they are strangers and Vanessa doesn’t yet know who/what Madlax is or how to approach her. I don’t have any difficulty in believing that Vanessa would sleep with Madlax, if she thought that would be a good idea for them both. We know, with 20/20 hindsight, what the thing she feels in Madlax is, but as she doesn’t know herself – and never does learn – it leaves an interesting edginess between them.

As for Madlax, she clearly sees the relationship between her and Vanessa as a mirror image of Vanessa’s interpretaton: she’s the prince protecting Vanessa, the princess. We’ve already seen that Madlax isn’t afraid of sex and, once again, I think Madlax could well sleep with Vanessa, if she felt that it was the thing to do.

Will they, do they? I don’t think so. But that edge between them is fascinating and titilating.

And there’s Rimelda. This volume could be entitled “The birth of an obsession” and I think it’s a beautiful thing. ^_^ I’m not usually fond of obsessive relationships, but again, I know what’s coming and this one works for me.

Ratings:
Art – 5. It’s very inconsistent, with that BT tendency to have really bad people on top of really lovely backgrounds
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Music – 8
Yuri – 6, with loads of possibility

Overall – 8.

Madlax is a story that remains intriguing and fun, as long as you don’t need it to “make sense.”