Archive for the Series Category


Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CD 5 – Rosa Canina

September 8th, 2005

Apologies for the long delay! Lots of things happened, including me growing another year older, and not a day wiser. ^_^

I actually listened to the Maria-sama ga Miteru, Rosa Canina Drama CD ages ago, but am just getting around to telling you how wonderful it is. And this time, it’s very easy to tell you why – Noto Mamiko, the voice actress for Shimako, really gets to shine in this version of the story.

Chalk it up to the fact that the anime aired out of order and that the Rosa Canina arc was moved up slightly in the episodes, but Shimako’s character seems particularly watery in the anime version of this arc. Maybe because the actresses were only just getting warmed up by the time the anime was over. In any case, in this Drama CD, Shizuka (now much more blatantly hitting on Sei, now that we know that *everyone* knows about her) is even more mysterious and cool, and Shimako has a hell of alot more backbone.

I bought this Drama CD as a “special box set” and got two little dolls as extras – little SDs of Yumi and Sachiko. They now stand, with quiet grace and charm in front of my Maria-sama ga Miteru collection on my new shelves! (I know, I should let go of the shelf thing…but they are SO great! I am going to put this in writing – thank you Charlie Lawler for the fabulous shelves. I love them!!! Now I will move on, but I make no promises that I won’t mention them again. )

There’s little else I can say about this story that wasn’t in either anime or manga (except that the manga has some internal monologuing by Shimako that exists nowhere else). If you like Noto Mamiko’s voice – and how could you not? – this is a great way to spend a few more hours having it tickle the inside of your ear. ^_^

The only down side – we *still* didn’t get the scene of Shizuka’s classmates cheering her on.





Yuri Manga: Cutey Honey 1984

August 29th, 2005

I really wasn’t kidding when I said that the new shelves have allowed me to find stuff I haven’t seen in forever.

A few years ago Rica Takashima, the magnificent author of Rica ‘tte Kanji!?, was cleaning out her apartment and she gave me a bunch of cool early yuri magazines and manga. Her foundational works. One of these was a collected volume of the original Cutey Honey manga, by Go Nagai. When she gave me the book, she commented that, as a little lesbian, she was really into Honey, who was the first heroine who really didn’t need a man around at all. I never had a chance to read it thoroughly and then, as my manga collection grew out of control, I wasn’t able to find it. I knew it had to be *somewhere*, but couldn’t pin it down, until I got these new shelves. ^_^

Anyway, last night I sat down and really read the story and wow! was this one of the grimmest, most violent and depressing stories I’ve ever read! It was quite amazing.

The spoilage on this story is so huge that I won’t put it in the main review – I’ll add it in as the first comment, so no one who doesn’t really want to know has to suffer.

In any case, like the first iteration of Cutey Honey in anime, Kisaragi Honey is awakened as an android, the Black Claw attacks her father, she swears revenge. She attends a girl’s school and befriends Na-chan, who immediately falls for her more than a little. The two main teachers are, as in the anime, the openly lesbian and thoroughly repulsive Alphonse-sensei and the pinchy-faced and sadistic sensei who the girls all call “Histler.” (This is not a typo. Histler, *not* Hitler, nuh-uh.) The Prinicpal of the school is a no-name doughball who, before the final traumatic ending finds love (and hot, yet horrible to contemplate, lesbo sex) with Alphonse-sensei.

Honey sneaks off every night, naked transformation scenes abound and she always beats the Claw henchmen. Lalalala.

Oh, and btw, Seiji in the original manga is a total doofus. He mostly gets captured and tortured and Honey has to rescue him. I think Nagai-sensei really let his character get out of control and become too important in subsequent versions. Bad insane genius, bad!

Because this is Go Nagai, there is a ton of nakedness, male and female, lots of torture, some seriously hideous lesbians, and general horribleness of all kinds, including a topless gang leader with exceptionally hairy…erm, everything. Shudder. She was horrible.

The end of the main part of the story is violent with a capital “Oh my god!” Which was made truly appalling by the light-hearted romp that was the final chapter in which Honey destroys Sister Jill and sings her own musical theme.

Ratings:

Art – 6 (Early Go Nagai….bad anatomy….)
Characters – 3 (each more horrible than the last)
Story – 5 (c’mon! she has a CLAW coming out of her head!)
Yuri – 8

Overall – 5 for normal people.

On the whole, I really liked it, except when…oh, hell, I’ll admit it. I thought it was brilliant. Brilliant, disturbing, weirder than anything I could come up with on acid, Cutey Honey was, and is, a lesbian manga icon.





Yuri Manga: Transistor Ni Venus, Volume 5

August 27th, 2005

Transistor ni Venus 5I know you were all wondering, as was I, where agent April Enus gained her obvious skill in kissing, as chronicled in Transistor Ni Venus. Well, your wait is ovah! In Volume 5 of this delightful action/pin-up fusion we, at long last, learn Enus’ secret.

We could have never guessed the truth in a million years.

The year is 2264, April Enus is only 16, a young, but highly promising agent-in-training for whatever planet she agents for. (I haven’t really bothered to translate the name, because, really, who cares? Call it the People’s Republic of Zod, or whatever you wish.)

Her skills are rapidly increasing…but, to her shame, she’s a loser at kissing. All the other agents say so, and one by one, all the pretty girls leave her and kiss other agents, ’cause she sucks at it.

Luckily for Enus, she is given the task of minding a powerful seer, Atakui. Atakui steals a bit from one of my friend Sparkle’s Sailor Moon fanfics, and gets a jolt upon meeting Enus. I’m sure you can see what’s coming a mile away. Atakui certainly could.

There’s some adventure and spies and attacks and stuff, but really, we all want to know what’s going to happen with Enus’ sucky kissing, right? Which is good, because that’s really the plot. Oh, and Enus gets blown up a few times, too. But really, the important bit is when she begs Atakui to help her become a better kisser. Which the seer does. The two women hold a ritual to ask the Goddess for her blessing. (Don’t be a dork and ask which goddess, okay? Venus, obviously….) And lo and behold! The Goddess bestows this precious blessing on Enus! Yay! Now she is not only a good kisser – she is the BEST kisser in the universe!

There was some spy stuff happening too, but no one was paying attention. ;-)

Ratings:
Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

Transistor ni Venus is a ridiculous, silly piece of fluff, but it never fails to make me smile.





Yuri Anime: Battle Athletes Victory, Volume 6

August 18th, 2005

What the heck are you doing, Erica? I can hear you scream. You have a house full of BRAND-NEW interesting Yuri from Japan, and yet, here you are, reviewing some ancient, hoary old series, which has been available for *ever.*

Well…yes, you are correct. Because I felt like it. ^_^ Let me point you to my review for Volume 3, from back in June. I refer you to that post because, for the most part, if you replace the word “Ichino” with “Kris”, this would basically be the same *exact* review. Which says a lot general crappiness of the writing for this series. Only every third volume is worth watching, but hot DAMN! its worth watching!

So, in Volume 4 and 5 Akari arrives at the Satellite and finds that she is, once again completely, utterly outclassed. And this time the opposition really thinks she’s a bug. On the positive side, she has met her roommates: Anna, whose story is genuinely tedious, but only half of the unpleasant backstory Anna has in the manga, and; Kris. Yay! Kris Kristopher is really the best thing about this series. Voiced by a woman who would one day shake the Yuri world as Tenjou Utena, Kris is hot in every direction, The cow she brings is an unwelcome “funny” addition to the anime, (as is the candy bar-obsessed “Mister Miracle”, Kris’ coach) but really, in every other way, any moment Kris is on the screen is a good moment.

So, we reach Volume 6, and Kris has become as important to Akari as Ichino was (and, I think, more so.) By the time we’ve reached this volume of the anime, Akari is finally in her “striving to succeed mode”, but she can’t quite get it together, because she’s freakin’ obsessing about Kris all the time. And of course, Kris is mooning about, doing the same.

While Kris and Akari dance around each other, we get to see another Yuri obsession in full bloom – the magnificent Mylandah and her object of desire, Lahrri. Mylandah never even *looks* at her opponents, she’s so intent on Lahrri. We’re not supposed to know that this is a love affair gone bad, yet, so I’ll move on. Suffice to say that Mylandah is delightfully violent and psychotic (and we all know how I feel about that…!) while Lahrri is so focused that she can’t see the forest for the trees. They will develop into the only interesting thing about the final arc of the anime, but at the moment, its all just unresolved tension, that hasn’t yet been revealed as sexual. ^_^

Back on the field, Kris breaks her coach’s rule and approaches Akari, kissing her in front of the entire world. It is a very nice kiss, but still pales in comparison to the manga kiss, if only because in the manga both Akari and Kris throw themselves into it. This kiss is just as public, but it is one-sided and they had to go ruin it with a stupid justification. But there ya go. They kiss.

Oh, and Akari gets better and wins. Bleah.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – everyone other than Akari and “Mr. Miracle” – 8. Akari – 5, Mr. Miracle – 2
Yuri – 8

Overall – 7

So, wait, let me summarize all this: It’s really, really gay. Just go watch it already.





Yuri Anime: Noir, Volume 3

August 15th, 2005

Just as a reminder, it’ll be a short week for Okazu, since Otakon is coming up on Thursday. I’ll have my computer, and there’s a small chance that I’ll be updating, but no promises! ^_^

Okay, so despite the fact that my life is nearly 100% Maria-sama ga Miteru right now, I thought I’d move off it for a sec, and harken back to the golden days of yesteryear, when yuri anime existed, and women who carried guns ruled the small screen. That’s right, its time for Noir. (You can use the search feature up on the top of the page to find my reviews of Volumes 1 and 2, because I’m too lazy to look them up for you. Just stick in the word “Noir” and the links’ll be the top ones.)

In this third volume several significant things happen. For one thing, the gradual character development of the second volume is left behind, and the sense that something important is looming just ahead is notched up several, erm, notches. The character Chloe is introduced in this volume and, most importantly, in Episode 10, one of the faceless henchmen actually gets *wounds* when he is shot! And here I have been saying that that never happens. Wrong again, Erica.

Before I comment on Chloe, let me first mention Altena. Altena was a completely wasted character. For someone who got so much build-up through the series, they really never *did* anything with her. She was supposed to have been the other Soldats branch, supporting the “pure,” ritualistic Noir, as opposed to the crime syndicate assassin-for-hire Noir, but they really never managed it. Bee Train has improved at stroy writing since this anime, so I won’t beat it to death, but really, Altena was a waste. Which is a shame, ’cause she might have been cool. (Not as cool as Inccontabile, who I still think would have made a better adversary.)

And then there is Chloe and her spork. (Damn you Dreiser, for destroying my brain with that image!)

Chloe is meant to be creepy and cool and scarily ubercompetent. And fandom seems to agree, overwhelmingly. But I think she’s pretty boring, myself. In the Volume 3 liner notes, we learn that of the four major characters Mirielle and Kirika were created by one woman, Chloe by another and Altena by a third. The three characters designs were integrated for the story. I don’t think it worked, sorry. Chloe would be great in say, ./hack‘s The World, but in France, she seems utterly ridiculous. I realize that I am in a minority of one when I say that Chloe and Kirika together as a couple would not only be horribly unsexy, but utterly, mind-numbingly boring. And don’t get me started on that cape. LOL And it’s a damn shame, because as everyone knows, Chloe’s voice is done by the utterly fabulous Hisakawa Aya, for whom I have nothing but the most immense respect. She does her best to bring some depth to this role, but its a doomed effort, since Chloe really just doesn’t have any. I will say for Chloe that in this volume, at least, she gets some modicum of personality – and we get the glimmer of Chloe’s genuine desire to be paired wth Kirika. So that works whether I like it or not. ^_^

Be that as it may, Volume 3 starts to pick up the action a bit from the slightly slower and more melancholic Volume 2. In general, it’s a great set of episodes, with a hint of the “40 versus 1” that will come in the future, in which Kirika can stand in a open space and not be shot by the several dozen men shooting at her, while she takes them down with a bullet each. Totally realistic. ;-)

Ratings:

Art – 7 (Chloe’s face is often uneven and the people stand out as really bad in front of lovely detailed backgrounds.)
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Music – 9
Yuri – 6

Overall – 8

Watching Noir is like the old potato chip tagline – you can’t watch only one. It simply *begs* for a 26-episode all night carbohydrate and alcohol-laden marathon. Great, goofy, henchmen-slaughtering fun.