Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Manga: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 1

May 9th, 2005

Back in March, I reviewed a random set of chapters of this manga. Well, I’ve backtracked and bought the first volume of the manga to fill in my missing knowledge. I’m not 100% sure I know what’s going on, even after having read it all. ^_^

Okay, so the first volume begins with a picture of Hazumu being kissed by Yasuna in the classroom, as Tomari walks in on them.

The story immediately backtracks to some weeks previously. Hazumu is your basic “nice guy” type boy. We, the audience, never see his face, but when he manages the usual full-body fall onto classmate Yasuna, she comments with a giggle that his face looks like a girl’s. He smiles and says he’s always looked a little girly. Shortly thereafter, he confesses his like to Yasuna, who responds by bursting into tears and running away, saying that she’s sorry.

Depressed, Hazumu wanders off on his own into the mountains.

Where he is taken up by an alien ship and transformed into a girl.

Seriously, after reading this bit three times, I’m still no clearer on the motivation here, except to say that, it’s a “hand wave” that we must accept.

Since the alien ship approaching was very public, everyone in the world hears the alien’s broadcast, and everyone knows that Hazumu has become a girl. For the first several chapters of the volume, the media are parked outside Hazumu’s house.

Back at home after waking up as a girl, Hazumu seems remarkably complacent about his change. His mother admits to always wanting a daughter, and his father becomes a tiresome pervert who is supposed to be funny. Reading Dad’s “funny” attempts to sexually molest his “daughter” has led me to decide that I will start to carry around a rolled-up newspaper to hit boys who think that kind of thing is funny over the nose until they are better trained.

The next few chapters are taken up with crucial stories like Hazumu’s first bra and which bathroom to use. Bizarrely, we are supposed to believe that Mom, while out buying fourteen million dresses, has somehow managed to forget to buy underwear for her newly-forged daughter. Only a man would write that, I swear.

Hazumu’s best friend Tomari protects her from the media, just as she protected Hazumu the boy from bullies when they were young. It is *this* that makes Tomari realize that she is in love with or, at least, is beginning to fall in love with, Hazumu.

In the meantime, Yasuna admits that she likes Hazumu – who is confused at the news because, as a girl, she feels obliged to not fall in love with other girls…although she’s kind of unclear how to do that. Tomari starts to realize that Hazumu still has feelings for Yasuna, just as she realizes that she herself has feelings for Hazumu.

Hazumu couldn’t get one girl as a boy, but as a girl, has two. What’s the irony level there? Snort.

Yasuna also admits that, ever since she was a child, she has a hard time *seeing* the faces of males, although Hazumu’s was beginning to become clearer to her over time, and she was, genuinely developing feelings for him. But now that Hazumu is a girl – she can see her clearly and is very in love with her!

Yasuna comes to the classroom where Hazumu waits for Tomari and kisses her, just as Tomari walks in, thus bringing us full circle in a story so full of hand waves and plot holes that, if it weren’t kind of sweet and cute and harmless, it would really, really suck. ^_^

But it does not suck. It’s just sort of silly and stupid and yeah. ;-)

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 7
Story – 5
Yuri- 9

Overall – 7

Anyway, I guess I’ll *have* to get the next volume and see what happens, huh?





Yuri Manga: Kannazuki no Miko, Manga Vol. 1

May 2nd, 2005

I have read several comments about my earlier reviews of the Kannazuki no Miko anime stating that I was over-harsh, that it was a good story with lots of lovely yuri, etc, etc…. I remain unrepentant. I do not think it is harsh to require a story to make sense or at least to be internally consistent. The anime made no sense. The horrible eternal fates that Oogami, Chikane and Himeko fought against were, to be sure, horrible. But, and here’s the crux of my complaints, they lasted a few minutes, not millennia. The ridiculousness of the ending of the anime sucked whatever meaning the plot had managed to hold on to (which was damn little considering the bad guy in the series turned out to be not much more than a really loud voice.) No. I’m sorry – I was not harsh.

However…I am about to be harsh.

This manga is a piece of utter, plotless dreck, wrapped up in frisson of hormonal angst, senseless screaming and a rape scene that has no meaning or context, because the story simply stops. I imagine that a second volume was initially planned, but none has been printed, so there is pretty much no explanation at all of anything. Which is kind of a mercy, because if the explanations are anything like the ones from the anime, they will make no sense at all, and simply cease to have any meaning at some point.

Yes, I am perfectly aware of the meaning of the rape, and all the other stuff that goes on, and if a decent writer got a hold of it, it would all make a damn GOOD story. But no decent writer did, and the version we are forced to endure has SO many plot holes, assumptions and sections where common sense simply has to be abandoned, that I just can’t say that it all makes sense, and still look at myself in the mirror.  (I love you, so I will rape you so you hate me so you kill me, so I can protect you from a horrible fate. Only a schizoid personality can make that make sense.)

Kaishaku, the mangaka also known for Steel Angel Kurumi isn’t really known for strong plots. I sincerely hope that he didn’t write this as well, but was just hired to illustrate someone else’s story. It reads like a story idea that just sort of peters out mid-way, like a fanfic writer who burns out halfway through an epic Evangelion fic.

Okay – to be fair, the plot, such as it is, is pretty much the same as the anime, with a little more time for Miyako, the nun/1st Kubi. Also, Chikane is, IMHO, much more openly seductive and desirous (and not in the bizarro-world psychotic way of the anime, but in a genuine, gosh-I-want-you normal way) of Himeko. For her part, Himeko is less wishy-washy, but only because there’s less of the manga to be wishy-washy in.

The final score at the end of volume one is: Kisses from Himeko; Oogami 1, Chikane 1. Rape of Himeko; Chikane 1, Oogami 0. So depending on what kind of person you are, Chikane either has won or lost.

Doesn’t matter, though, because the story doesn’t end…heck, it barely even starts.





Yuri Manga: Uchyuu no Stellvia, Volume 2

April 30th, 2005

I spent *alot* of time and money buying new and used Dengeki Comics in Tokyo. I had a few older series to catch up on, and some new ones to pick up. I’d been looking for this one used for a while, and was able to finally get it in Nakano. Yay me.

The first volume of the manga is pretty much a straightfoward repeat of the anime. The art is even cuter-faced than the anime, but the story was pretty much exactly the same as the first two DVDs or so of the anime. Which means not so much Ayaka and Yayoi. Hence the lack of review.

Volume 2 starts with a very nice picture of our two Yuri poster girls, which I have scanned for your viewing pleasure:

You are welcome. ;-)

As Volume 2 is about as far as the manga seems to have gone, the story ends with the Great Mission, and the last few chapters speed through a lot of the plot complications. Sadly that means Jojo, Akira and the two teachers all get shafted of their lovely little love affairs. However, nearly a whole chapter is turned over to Yayoi and Ayaka, while Shima and Kouta get about three pages total…so I think it’s a good read all around. :-) And let’s face it – the Great Mission wasn’t that exciting anyway. Did we *really* think that the world was going to be destroyed when we have cherub-faced and pink cheeked heroes and heroines to save it? Nah.

We learn early on in the manga that Ayaka flies her Katie with a picture of Yayoi from before her accident…we are allowed to see that the picture was originally of the two of them arm embracing happily. Ayaka has cut herself out of the picture and taped Yayoi onto her dashboard.

In the manga while Yayoi’s accident (which was caused by Ayaka in both anime and manga) did stem from jealousy, it wasn’t the same level of homicidal pathology that characterized the anime Ayaka. And she didn’t repeat the murder attempt with Shima. In this case, as in the anime, Shima and Rina take stupid risks on the joust and happen to simulate a situation similar to Yayoi’s and Ayaka’s.

In an attempt to absolve herself of her sin, Ayaka had developed a program that she uploads to Shima, which allows her to save Rina. The event forces Ayaka and Yayoi to confront their past and their feelings for one another. While it wasn’t *quite* a cool as coming out in front of the whole world, their moment is very emotional, full of tears, and embraces and promises to never leave one another’s side.

But, at the end, when Ayaka unbends and joins the rest of the Big 4 for their ritual meal around a bubbling nabe, she looks *awfully* perky and happy all of a sudden. We have a name for that look around my house…”the freshly fucked look” is what we call it. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Character – 7
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

The biggest problem with the manga? It ends too soon.





Yuri Manga: Bakuretsu Tenshi, Volume 1

April 26th, 2005

If you like gonzo stories about two women who travel around from place to place, always on the wrong side of the law, never enough money, lives full of violence and non-paying jobs helping people out, but gosh, they have each other…then Bakaretsu Tenshi, Angels’ Adolescence is just the ticket.

And that about covers it. :-)

I didn’t review the anime for Bakuretsu Tenshi/Burst Angel, because the yuri was pretty thin. In fact, the anime worked pretty hard to wipe out any love-love between Meg and Jo, going so far as to spend nearly an entire episode dedicated to Meg pining for a guy in a way that was totally unconvincing.

However, the manga seems a little less coy. Not that we get Jo and Meg sucking face or anything, but still, it’s an improvement. In this incarnation, Meg fantasizes several times about getting closer to Jo, driving off in a sports car with her, having an intimate moment for two with her, etc. etc.

All this in between Jo blowing people away with her big-ass gun (TM) and looking cool, of course.

Even the “schlub boy” character isn’t really annoying or offensive and his fanservice quotient is very low, which is a welcome relief to this burnt-out and increasingly cynical fan girl.

Is it a *good* story? Depends on what you like. As sick as I am of loli and moe, I am ready to admit that I cling to this manga like a drowning woman to a life preserver. LOL

Ratings:
Art – 8
Character – 7
Story – 6
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7, but here’s hoping for an increase in story and Yuri ratings.

Girls x Guns x Gonzo = Sounds good to me.  ^_^





Yuri Anime: Ikkitousen, DVD Volume 4

April 5th, 2005

Ikkitousen is, despite trying *very* hard to be a piece of crap, a damn good story.

This short OVA wraps up in Volume 4, with some darn good pithy action and character development. Unfortunately, like a little sister who keep jumping into the scene when you’re trying to take a picture of your friends, the fanservice is really distracting – I mean, to the point of actually detracting from the storyline. Which is a bloody shame, because in these three episodes, what was on and off a decent story goes straight into a fairly intense plot. Except the visuals don’t support the story at *all.*

In a lot of ways, it might almost be better to watch this whole volume with the English soundtrack on, while doing something else entirely. This way you would be able to hear the story unfold, without having to crane around the panty and nipple shots, just to get to the action.

While the rest of the character interaction is good, the transformation of Ryofu into uber-lesbian is completed in this volume and really, she gets extra snaps for dying so damn well. Which brings me to the manga version of Ikkitousen, repulsively entitled, Battle Vixens. In Volume 6 of Battle Vixens, Ryofu meets a completely different death, but one no less hunky and yuri-filled.

In the anime, Chinkyuu, Ryofu’s vassal and lover, dies trying to bring the Great Seal to her mistress. Ryofu berates her, because she never wanted to rule, but Chinkyuu admits that it would have made her happy to see Ryofu at peace. At which point, Chinkyuu closes her eyes for the last time and what little zest for life Ryofu has, goes with her. Ryofu has a tearful and moving departure from Chinkyuu, with the hope that they’d be together soon. And off she goes to kill Toutaku, like the obnoxious little expletive deleted he is. Before her death, Ryofu gets one last jibe at Ryomou. “It’s a shame, because you really are my type.” lol You gotta hand it to Ryofu – she’s got one thing one her mind. We are left with no doubt that, as she sloughs her mortal coil, she joins Chinkyuu in whatever passes as heaven for this story.

In the manga, Ryofu’s final fight is against Unchou, and she is taking a brutal beating. Her one moment of victory is that she managed to make Unchou pee her pants. Obsessing about this, Ryofu goes down at the hands of the superior Fighter. Chinkyuu (who had not been in the story until this moment,) runs up and shields Ryofu’s body from the killing blow. In response to Unchou’s taunts, Chinkyuu explains that she serves Ryofu to the death, and scooping her beloved lord into her arms, self-destructs so that they die together.

Regardless of the rest of the utter shittiness of the manga and much of the crapiness of the anime, these two rock. They have great deaths in both versions.

Our little Ryomou, in the meantime, has thrown herself into the role of vassal to Hakufu with vigor, but we get more than a few glimpses of her real interest – Hakufu’s mother, Goei. I love the way she blushes everytime Goei thanks her or smiles at her.

Again I say, despite working hard to end dumbly, the anime actually has a decent and fun ending. Good enough that it made me want to read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which I did. And for the record, Lu Bu (Ryofu) and Lu Meng (Ryomou) kick butt in the novel, too. :-)But it’s not always easy to recognize the characters’ Chinese names, so I was never able to figure out just who Chinkyuu was – and the research I’ve turned up has that name associated with several different possible characters from the novel.

In any case, as I finished this volume I couldn’t help but think what a truly GREAT anime this would have been if they backed off on the fanservice a notch or three.

If you like panty and nipple fanservice, then you might find the story distracting – its rather complex and may be beyond your ability to concentrate past your fetish.

In conclusion? Good anime despite itself, lots of women who kick ass, at least one serious heavy-duty Yuri couple and the implication of one other crush-y May-December thing going on.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

Ryofu and Chinkyuu were even cooler this time around than the first time I watched. And Ryomou is just brilliant. If she were real, I’d want to adopt her. ^_^