Archive for the Series Category


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.”





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.