Archive for the Series Category


Notes from the Fifth Maria-sama ga Miteru Novel

June 22nd, 2005

Valentinusu no Okurimono (Valentine’s Gift Part 1)
Part 1

Ta-da! The “Cliff Notes” for the fifth Maria-sama ga Miteru novel have arrived. :-) You can find all the notes I took on the first four books on past Okazu:

Notes on the First Novel: Maria-sama ga Miteru.

Notes on the Second Novel: Kibara Kakumei

Notes on the Third Novel(Part 1): Ibara no Mori.

Notes on the Third Novel(Part 2): Shiroki Hanabira.

Notes on the Fourth Novel (Part 1): Rosa Canina

Notes on the Fourth Novel (Part 2): Nakaniyo

These notes assume you are familiar with the story and has spoilers galore. If you haven’t watched it, then do – it will help to understand what I’m talking about. :-)

I want to start with the very, very end of the book � the author’s notes, in fact – because I really wanted to share this. Sean Gaffney once commented that “Saying Sei is your favorite character is like saying the sky is blue.” I was talking to my friend Masako-san, (who arrived at my hotel in Tokyo toting Soeur Audition, the latest Marimite novel, lol) and she said that she likes Sei best, too. Just for the record.

Well, in the author’s notes, Konno Oyuki mentions that she got a lot of letters asking if she had any intention of sending Sei off to school in Italy, assumably to follow Shizuka, with whom she “might have become good friends.” (So, that pretty much confirms my belief that Shizuka was coming on pretty darn strong!) In any case, Konno-sensei says, no way! She plans on Sei going to school at Lillian University because she loves her best and can’t let her go. LOL So there you go. Sei is *everyone’s* favorite character. (I can even tell you why…. She is not just a happy-go-lucky lesbian; she’s also the most complex character of the bunch, shifting from goofy dirty-old-man mode to insightful and deep thoughts in mere seconds. The most subtle thinker of all the characters. The second deepest thinker, btw, is Yoshino. I’ll talk about that later in part 2.)

Okay, and with that somewhat bloated intro � here we go with the Notes:

Because the fifth novel has not yet been made into a manga (except in small part) and I have not had time to rewatch the anime, there may be bits that I comment on that *are* in the anime. I’ve ceased to think of these write-ups as just “here’s the differences” but more of a “here’s the salient points” � just like cliff notes, in fact. You’ll have to excuse me, I was a Comparative Literature major in college and
I cannot help myself. ;-) That having been said, there *are* some differences � notably the entire end of the Yellow Rose family situation. I will elaborate on this as we get to it.

For the record � 10 pages of notes…again.

1) As she ponders the expense of Valentine’s Day chocolates, Yumi thinks how, even though she goes to a rich girl’s school, there’s a HUGE difference between herself and Sachiko’s world.

2) I don’t think anyone else has ever commented on this…in a school with uniforms right out of the turn of the 20th century, the students wear gym uniforms and play sports that are exceptionally unladylike. Just struck me as odd. :-)

3) In this novel, we see the third-year Rosas all manage their soeur all at once, for the first time. We’ve seen little of Eriko or Sei managing their soeur, but when they do, it’s a doozy! Each one of the Rosas has a completely different technique, which is entirely based on the personality of their little sisters. Youko, having been accused of meddling by Sachiko, invokes the one thing Sachiko is helpless in front of � Yumi’s happy, smiling face. Eriko simply overbears poor, henpecked Rei and *totally* disses Yoshino. Sei just tells Shimako to “gambatte” and Shimako caves. LOL Yumi thinks that Sei should have said that when Shimako was running for the Yamayurikai. Shimako caves in so quickly, obviously, because as an one-sama Sei doesn’t ever ask her to do anything, or ever get in her way of doing something. With such an onee-sama, how could Shimako resist a direct request?

4) When asked by Yumi for advice, Tsutako suggests that Yumi make chocolates but, if Sachiko is in a bad mood on Valentine’s Day, not giving them to her. Instead she can share with Tsutako, later. LOL

Yumi briefly considers asking Tsu to be there for mental support when she braves Sachiko’s wrath to give her the chocolates (remember, Yumi thinks Sachiko hates V-Day chocolates,) but decides she doesn’t want her rejection by Sachiko documented.

5) Rei gives Yumi the recipe for the chocolate by pretending that it is something she wants Yumi to deliver to Yoshino.

6) When Shimako sees the recipe, Yumi has a sudden realization that, although Shimako is an en bouton, she’s really only a first-year and still responsible for such things as serving the upperclassmen tea and cleaning. All of a sudden Yumi realizes how terribly busy Shimako must be, with the environmental committee and the Yamayurikai.

7) Yumi meets Shizuka in the music room. Shizuka comments that all of her, Shizuka’s, classmates are jealous of Yumi because she is close to Sachiko and should be able to find the red card easiest. But…the real prize, the half-day date, hadn’t been announced at that time, so everyone is just assuming that the prize is a card or chocolate from Sachiko.

Initially, Shizuka isn’t terribly interested in the treasure hunt. She jokes about setting up a crystal ball booth and selling potential hiding places. But she does suggest to Yumi that she, Yumi, should think about where *she* might hid the card, if it were her, which might lead to realizing where Sachiko would hide it.

While talking to Shizuka, Yumi comes up with the idea to give chocolates to the older girl and also has a brief thought of making chocolates for Sei.

8) Shizuka explains to Yumi that, even as a first-year, Sachiko received many presents of chocolate from her own age group and even some of the older students, which might explain why she doesn’t like them, Shizuka suggests that it was a very lonely experience for Sachiko.

Shizuka also tells Yumi that Sachiko is kind *because* she rejected all of the chocolates last year.

9) Sei finds Yumi in the Rose Mansion, and leads her out with a really odd discussion of how Yumi looked very self-satisfied and how she was like a kid who visits a lot of temples and shrines to pray for something. Yumi listens, but is pretty much confused by it all. Sei seems to ramble on about depending on one’s preferences, bathing in cold water and then eating a hot meal is nice. Sei is not rambling, of course � she’s trying to tell Yumi a few important things, in her own
way. One, that she had been seen going to everyone for advice (visiting shrines and temples) and two, that depending of the circumstances something that sounds bad, might be good (Sachiko’s dislike of Valentine’s Day chocolates.)

Shimako shows up and Yumi is much relieved to end the conversation which confused her.

10) We get to see that Shimako really *does* understand Sei. Sei turns to her soeur and says only, “Success” and Shimako understands immediately and congratulates her. Yumi follows up with an extended train of thought that gets her to the right conclusion � that RG has passed her university exam.

11) After the fight with Sachiko, Yumi goes to the greenhouse and tells the Rosa Chinensis plant how much she loves Sachiko and yearns to be with her, but she’s sure that Sachiko hates her now.

12)Sei finds Yumi in the greenhouse. (Interestingly, throughout the novel Sei keeps being described as a “shadow.”) She apologizes to Yumi for walking out, leaving Yumi and Sachiko in the middle of a fight. She says it seemed like the thing to do at the time, but afterwards, it left her with a nasty taste in her mouth.

RG goes on to say that the fight reminded her of “back then” and tells Yumi that, although she doesn’t realize it, she is very much like Sachiko. They both keep close counsel, unlike say, Yoshino, who doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind. Youko had had to actually train Sachiko to speak up…. Sei mentions, causally, how Sachiko has still left the Kashiwagi affair unsettled, because of her dislike of speaking up. Sei goes on to tell Yumi that Youko and Sachiko had almost the exact same fight last year, in October. Because she, Sei, was preoccupied with someone else, she wasn’t paying attention to them much and didn’t know what set it off, but she was an eyewitness to the fight.

Yumi realizes that what Sachiko had probably been most angry with, was the reflection of her past self in Yumi, unable to speak up.

Sei excuses herself with, “Well, I’m going back. I dislike this greenhouse.” Shadows of Shiori, assumably.

13) At this point, even Yumi realizes how much Sei is acting like her onee-sama and throws herself at Sei to get a hug. She mentally apologizes to Shimako for “borrowing an arm” and wraps Sei’s arm around herself.

Yumi asks Sei if she, Sei, and Shimako are anything alike. Sei responds with “a little”. She goes on to say that she was a real pain as a first-year, while Shimako is much her superior. But she understands Shimako, which is why she doesn’t want to be interfering.

14) As they leave the greenhouse, Sei sets herself up for the nasty chocolate joke, by going on and on about how handmade chocolates by Yumi would be really good. They get on the bus together and Sei goes off on a monologue about chocolates and coffee, how she likes chocolates where the sweetness has been curbed, especially with liquor centers. Then she asks Yumi to make her chocolates and starts to chant, “Chocolate, chocolate” in her “oyaji mode” voice until other people on the bus start to stare. LOL

End Part 1.





Battle Athletes Victory, Volume 3

June 10th, 2005

Okay, so I was going to do a review of something new-ish, or maybe some cool news, but last night I sat down to do some work to the dulcet tones of the third DVD of Battle Athletes Victory subtitled “Tragedy and Triumph.”

And by the end of the disk I was sitting there repeating, “Oh my god, this so *SO* gay” over and over and over. So I thought I’d share with you. ^_^

If you haven’t watched (or heard of) the Battle Athletes OVA and/or Battle Athletes Victory – you really should give them a try. Neither are as spectacularly wonderful as the still untranslated manga, which I reviewed previously, but still – both are about as Yuri as one can get without it being actually “lesbian.”

First the down side – the main character is more of the “idiot savant” type that I don’t care for. Of practically suicidal low-esteem, Kanzaki Akari waffles from hugely incompetent to impossibly brilliant in a way that bodies just cannot support. So forget realism. And she’s a whiner. The worst bit is, that with the beginning of each arc in the anime, we are subjected to the very same self-esteem issues and behaviors as we did in the previous one, rendering the first volume of every arc dull and irritating. But the ends, in this case, are totally worth the means. In fact I don’t own the first volume of this series and am not going to bother reviewing the second, because I have a low tolerance for whining. But from this point on, the anime gets better in many ways – and is abysmal in only a few, so it works out to be a series totally worth having.

Other than Akari, the characters in this series are mostly all strong women who are driven by the need to perfect themselves in their chosen endeavor, which happens to be sports. (In fact, I find it hard to watch this anime sitting on the couch. I have to get up and exercise while watching, or my brain explodes…).

So, where’s all the Yuri? All OVER the place. In the early volumes Akari follows her mother’s dream and enters into athletic training. She becomes friends with Ichino and, almost immediately, becomes dependent upon her. I won’t kill the plot entirely, but let’s just say this – this DVD is *filled* with Ichino and Akari longing for each other and striving to be together. The climax of the DVD, which is the climax of the this portion of the storyline, is one gigantic confession of love between the two of them – followed by a scene so romantic that Ichino’s kid brother even comments that they are acting like lovers. Trust me. No one could watch this and not see it.

There’s a side thing that will never happen between Ayla and Jessie as well, which has about 30 seconds total to spring to life, falter and fail, which I thought was brilliant. It will be echoed again later in the thing between Mylandah and Lahrri (which, amazingly, will not fail, but I get well ahead of myself.)

Because I know what’s coming up, I’m all gung-ho about watching the rest of this series again. At least Kris isn’t in the sort of denial that Ichino is – she knows Yuri when she sees it too. ^_^

Okay, so, the anime never quite will go as far as the manga, where Kris and Akari kiss in front of the whole world, but its still damn gay.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Music – 7

Overall – 8

It’s not the greatest series ever…but oh my god, it’s *so* gay. ^_^





Yuri:Anime Stellvia, Volume 4

June 8th, 2005

You know what really sucks about Stellvia?

Nothing.

By Volume 4 of Stellvia, the whole space opera plot seems to have disappeared completely, with only the vaguest twinges of something coming in the future. So the writers are at leisure to explore the relationships between people, rather than focusing on external (and, admittedly, somewhat silly and nonsensical) threats from space. As a result, this particular DVD feels much more like a shoujo series than the shounen one it is.

All of the cadets on Stellvia now have to switch to a completely new flight system. Shima, who, with a lot of time and practice, was a decent pilot with occasional flashes of real skill, now shoots to the top of her class as a prodigy. This causes Ayaka of the “Big 4” to peg her as a rival, and to try and stop her meteoric rise. In a pretty nastly little scene, Ayaka sets out to hurt Shima in a joust, and is only stopped because Kouta gets out into space in time to save Shima. We learn that this is not the first time Ayaka has done this – she was the reason Yayoi was injured and held back a year.

This “incident” is the major conflict that drives the entire volume. Shima stresses that Ayaka hates her, even as the episode brings her closer to Kouta. Yayoi is confronted by two wildly conflicting issues – one, she can’t ever forgive Ayaka for what she did to her – and worse, tried to do to Shima – but two, she wants desperately to be able to forgive Ayaka.

In the background of Shima and Kouta’s relationship (which is so utterly, completely NORMAL and not dysfunctional, that it’s a bit disturbing…) we see the development of something growing between taciturn Akira and goofy Jojo, a hint of the space station commander’s crush on the doctor and, of course, Ayaka and Yayoi.

All in all, a very satisfying volume, really.

But let me go back and obsess for a second on Kouta. When I watched this series originally, I really disliked him – and up until now, I have maintained that dislike, because I really find idiot savant characters distasteful. Well, on second viewing I now find that I have no characters in this show to dislike. They are all so damn normal. And real. And not at *all* stereotypical Japanese dysfunctional relationship dorky. I mean, sure the guys are dorky, but like real 16 year old guys – not like emotionally and sexually dysfunctional sociopaths, like so many male characters in anime. (If *I* were a guy, I’d really protest how utterly stupid and pathetic so many male characters are…but I’m not, so I don’t care. But I digress.)

In fact, when Kouta kissed Shima I was so relieved that I almost cried. It was just like real people who do actually touch their boy/girlfriends, hold hands and kiss them and stuff. Wow! Imagine that!

But that leaves me with no one to hate. How irritating. I’m really even having a hard time disliking Linna. Darn these incredibly likable and well-written characters!

Over on the Yuri side of things, Ayaka and Yayoi’s relationship begins here, in a sense. There’s always been *something* between them, but after we learn about the the “incident”, anyone with eyes can see that that’s not all. And the end of the volume is just the beginning for them, as well as everyone else in the series.

Even the art is, for this brief moment in time, very stable and decent…sometimes almost approaching *good.*

Ratings:
Art – 7
Story – 9
Character – 9
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8

So far, Volume 4 of Stellvia has been the best of the breed. I hope that it gets better from here!





Madlax, Volume 1

June 6th, 2005

I’m not sure if Madlax is better than I remembered it to be, but it is definitely damn good. In this series, I think Bee Train might well have hit their peak – animation, story, music, etc, all work together to make a really enjoyable whole.

I reviewed the early part of the series about a year ago in June 2004, so I won’t repeat the basic plot stuff since, obviously, that has not changed. ;-)

So let’s talk packaging. Like Noir, the packaging is minimal. No posters, no pencil boards, just a disk and some liner notes. The notes are interesting, but not Azumanga Daioh-level stellar. 4 episodes on the disk. I know it’s standard, but you know my rant – it shouldn’t be. 6 episodes on a disk *should* be standard, or why have we switched at all from VHS?

The music has a definitely similarity to that of Noir, without being a complete copycat. I did notice, this time around, that “The Book” (or individual pages from The Book) has a plinky, irrirtating theme, much as The Watch did. The book also comes with a pretentious quasi-militaristic, vaguely Teutonic male choir, which means that even if you’re only half paying attention, you’ll look up when it comes on-screen. :-)

I’m always fascinated by the phenomenon of watching an anime I enjoyed with that 20/20 hindsight that comes from knowing what will happen. It frees one to notice many more details – in this case I was able to appreciate just how really flaky Margaret is. lol

For the yuri fan, there is instant rapport between Elenore and Vanessa, who seem to be sharing some kind of obvious secret as they trade snarky comments. And Rimelda gives off gaydar vibes like crazy…but maybe that’s just me.

The whole war thing actually makes more sense this time around – I think we get alot of Madlax’s point of view in the beginning just to establish that pretty much everyone knows this war is meaningless – except for the guys fighting it. Hey, *that* sounds familiar…. I also like Madlax’s sensuality in the middle of everything. The first time watching it seemed frivolous – this time it feels somehow necessary.

The biggest downside to this series hasn’t really yet been established: Bee Train has a nasty tendency to severely overuse repeated footage, like some kind of animated nervous tic. In the case of Volume 1, we have yet to really see the repeated scenes, but we will, we will…established by Episode 4, they just keep coming back again and again and again, until we want to scream. Or maybe that’s just me.

Other than that – the violence is appropriate, people bleed (an issue I had with Noir) from their wounds and the only serious handwave is Madlax’s mad assasinatin’ skillz. Which is *the* handwave, really, so we’ll let it go. She can fight in a cocktail dress if she wants, so there.

Ratings:

Art – 8 (I think BT really hits a high here. It’s the best they’ve done so far.)
Characters – 8 (Intriguing rather than interesting)
Story – 7
Yuri – 4 with a hint of more to come
Music – 9

Overall – a strong 8. If you liked Noir, you’ll probably like Madlax. Get it at the Yuricon Shop and support yuri!





Transistor ni Venus, Volume 2

June 2nd, 2005

No, you didn’t miss a review Volume 1 of Transistor ni Venus. I just haven’t been able to find it yet.

First, once again, my deepest thanks go out to Touko_no_doriru-san for getting me started on this manga! I’d seen it on and off at the used manga store for years, but had never actually gotten it. Your gift of Volumes 3 and 6 were *just* the thing I needed to make me go out and get as much as I could find! (And extra thanks for the artbook – I’m a huge artbook fan.

This series is delightful. It follows the career of April Enus, aka Venus, a spy in the late 24th century. In classic James Bond-like fashion, she sleeps with nearly every woman she encounters, and has amazing adventures on land, in the water, in the sky and even out into space.

Enus’s world is populated by aliens, sentient animals and a wide variety of really adorable men and women, because the art style is very pin-up, rather than manga.

Enus definitely prefers women, but will certainly take a man at a pinch. Although we never actually see her stoop that low. She trades kisses with a few guys, but saves her real skills for the women.

In her off hours Enus is a teacher at an girl’s private school, where the students regularly ask her for “treats” of kisses when they do well in their schoolwork. She’s happy to oblige, but saves the “adult kisses” for the adult students, and again, sticks with taking the other female teachers to bed.

Volume 2 starts off in a blimp. Enus has hooked up with an attractive lounge singer who favors tuxedos…and jewels. Jara, the singer, has a unique jewelry box, and Enus spends most of the volume attempting to break into it. In between attempts, she sleeps with Jara, who develops a fetish for dressing her up in cosplay outfits. Enus likes Jara plenty, but wishes she could “take the lead” once in a while. Jara is pretty adamant that *she* wears the pants in this relationship, until circumstances force the crew to use the water in the singer’s bath to cool an overheating engine. Jara is livid, but Enus suggests that she use her bath – one one condition.

As the next scene begins, Jara enters the lounge wearing a fetching dress, while Enus is now clad in tux. Apparently you can only have one butch at a a time in this relationship. lol

Enus’ adventures are silly and frequently, downright funny. There’s rarely any sense of urgency, although there is action – and not just in bed. There’s also a nice selection of ray guns and bombs and counterespionage all drawn and written in a nicely fluffy, tension-free way.

The second scenario in the book involves Mariaanna, one of Enus’ lovers and Mariaanna’s brother Rashiko, who kisses his sister on the lips, which upsets Enus. (She gets hers though, the end of the story finds the Mariaanna in bed with Enus.)

The volume ends with a *very* goofy story about Enus being companion to an 8-year old girl, much to her distress. Forced to abandon several female lovers along the way, Enus and her charge switch from one space ship to another as they are attacked again and again. It’s all very silly and enjoyable.

I’m definitely on the hunt for the first volume now. I think I have all but 1 and 8 and every volume is sillier and more full of girl-girl kisses than the last. Although I don’t think we see Enus in bed with a lover nearly as much in the other volumes as we do in this one.

Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 8 (great fluff – who needs substance)
Characters – 9
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

Definitely keep an eye out for this one. It’s way out of print, but more fun than a barrel of lesbians.