Archive for the Series Category


Hana no Asuka-gumi, Anime OVA

April 4th, 2005

How do you translate a 33-volume manga about girl gangs in Tokyo into a 48-minute OVA? Not that badly, actually. Hana no Asuka-gumi OVA is short, its silly, but it gets the point across in a way that quite true to the original.

Bad Points:

Right off the bat, the animation is *awful*. I mean, like, “what on earth is going on with her neck?” awful.

Good Points:

Everything else. Not only are we introduced to Asuka and her friends of the Omoteban; Hime, Miko, Mizu, et al.

But that’s not all – we meet Helolin, the local bully; The Kichuku Ladies, the local motorcycle gang and….

Hibari, leader of the Zenchuu Ura and her whipping boy Kazuga.

Along with about eight hundred other characters that are all lots of fun, but…I wonder if any of you watched this for the first time without assistance, would you be able to make heads or tails of the story? lol

The plot is simple – a girl is being bullied by Helolin and is saved by Asuka…only to find that her friends have abandoned her and are starting to bully her. She finds herself more and more involved with Asuka’s violent antics, ending up by joining Asuka as she confronts the Kichuku Ladies.

The moments of the OVA are classic – Asuka beats the crap out of the girl she’s saving; the Zenchuu Ura’s Punishment Group beats the crap out of the Omoteban; Asuka beats the crap out of Helolin’s group, and on and on and on… I love this series.

It’s a short OVA and feels like a bowl of mixed snacks – moments of interaction between Asuka and the zillion characters of the story, just enough to get the flavor of the thing.

If only the animation wasn’t so damn awful.

If you’re looking for a great but short retro moment, the Hana no Asuka-gumi OVA is perfect.

Ratings:
Art – 4
Character – 9
Story – 7
Yuri – 0

Overall – 7

Lots of nihilistic girl gang fun for the whole family.





Yuri Manga: Ichigo Mashimaro

April 1st, 2005

Ichigo Mashimaro is yet *another* one of Dengeki’s too-cute for words series with some Yuri in it.

By the time I got around to reading the current chapter of this manga in April’s Dengeki Daioh, my teeth fairly ached with sweet and cute overload. So I put on my grumpiest face and prepared to HATE this manga with all my heart.

I failed.

It was a horrible failure, too – half a dozen pages into it, I was giggling like a moron. Giggling. Me. It was embarrassing.

Basically, Ichigo Mashimaro is the story of a bunch of cute girls, being really cute and doing really cute things cutely. By all rights it should be abysmal. Only, it’s not. But as far as I can see, it’s not like there’s a plot, either.

Itoh Nobue is a young woman who lives with her much younger sister, Chika. I was *shocked* to find out that Nobue is supposed to be 20 years old. The art style is moe, with no real reference to real body types. But still…20? And a chain smoker.

Chika, who is 11 or so, has a bunch of friends who come over a lot and play, including Matsuoka Miu – a born troublemaker who is in love with Nobue. So there’s your Yuri.

An anime for this series is slated to start shortly – early next month – so we’ll get to see if that particular relationship is carried over, but it’s not like it could go anywhere anyway. We’re basically talking schoolgirl crush on Miu’s part.

I have not read any more than one single chapter of this particular series, but I have seen it bandied about on every single Japanese “Yuri manga” list ever. So I can’t tell you what happens – except for the synopsis of the one chapter I did read.

We come into the story to find that Sakuragi Matsuri (one of Chika’s friends) is wearing a cute little bear or something outfit. Nobue comments how cute she looks, so Miu runs off and comes back with bunny ears to try and get praise from Nobue. Nobue says that the ears don’t suit her, takes them off Miu and gives them to Coppola Ana, another of Chika’s friends. At which *everyone* exclaims how adorable Ana looks.

Miu runs off and returns dressed as Dracula, bites Matsuri on the neck (which is just about where I gave up trying to hate the manga) and tries to scare the other girls. Chika, our hero, draws a cross to defeat Dracula, but Dracula seems unimpressed. Chika tries again – she goes to the kitchen and returns with garlic – only to find Miu sitting quietly, sans costume, playing a video game.

The end.

It would take a hardier person than me to actively hate this harmless piece of fluff.

I’m not really sure how to rate this one – the art is basic, the story is almost non-existent and the cute characters just do cute stuff cutely.

We’ll give it an overall 7 and see where it goes.





Yuri Manga: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 1

March 31st, 2005

Since we’re on the topic of Dengeki, let’s talk Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl. Again, adorable, not-quite-girl yuri that’s a lot of fun to read.

Hazumu is a guy. Through a freak accident, in which he is killed by an alien spaceship, he is restored to life as a girl.

Hazumu is an endearing character…in fact she endears herself repeatedly to Tomari and Yasuna, two female classmates who are undeniably in love with Hazumu.

Tomari is a blonde, and tends towards the ever-so-slightly butch, while Yasuna, a brunette, is a total femme. The two have a friendly rivalry about Hazumu which, because of their completely different personalities, hasn’t really erupted in any kind of conflict.

Hazumu is also desired by a male classmate Asuta who has, typical of men in these kinds of manga, no balls. He simply fantasizes from a close distance and tries to convince himself he doesn’t care. He’s your basic nosebleed boy. Bwahahaha! Gosh, we just can’t ever get enough of that joke…ha.

There’s a host of other regulars including Ayuki, a very introspective and attractive schoomate who I like on account of her not being any kind of comedic relief and “Sora”-sensei, a guy who is an alien (his name is spelled with the kanji for “alien”) who is watching over Hazumu.

To be frank, I have read only two chapters of this series, and despite my initial reservations, it is kinda sweet and cute, in an unhurried and pleasant way. I expect no resolution of the love triangle, but one can hope. I’ll probably go back and get the early volumes to see what I missed – eventually.

On the down side, Hazumu’s reactions swing from completely human to, “Gee, these girls are strange, I don’t understand why they wish to do this thing.” It jars a bit – but it serves to remind us that Hazumu is not quite, a girl.

The art is typical of the genre and…hoorah!…there is little sign of fetishization. The girls are teens, but at least they vaguely look like the manga-standard approximation of the high school age. I weep with gladness.

Ratings:
Art – 6
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Yuri – 9

Overall – 7

Low rating for such a totally Yuri story? Let me see a real kiss and it’ll go up. ^_^

11/30/06 note: See later reviews for what I thought after I read the whole thing and saw a kiss or two.





Yuri Anime: ROD The TV, Volume 5

March 29th, 2005

I will never get tired of writing about ROD The TV – are you tired of hearing about it? Too bad! In fact, I may have to rewatch it in about 6 months, just to write about it again. lol

In a nutshell, ROD The TV is, by Volume 5, full on into the second “season” and neck deep in complicated plot. This is not an anime for people who like to do something else while watching TV. You really need to *pay attention.*

Amazing action, wonderful storytelling, the plot deepens without becoming mired in tediousness, even when it’s all backstory and confession. Wendy and Joker are consummate baddies, if only because they otherwise seem perfectly normal, and our gang of heroes turn out to be some of the coolest, most admirable and bitchin’est women in anime. All of them. While the backstory definitely fills in some blanks, it actually serves to make the plot more complicated – and the characters as well. Did I mention good storytelling? For once, I feel that the writers really did an excellent job in crafting a plot and carrying it through to the very end. Every episode ends on a damn decent cliffhanger – something that is not easy to do at all.

But what really stands out in this volume for me is the poignant and apparently unresolvable love triangle of Yomiko, Nancy and Nenene. And they make no bones about it – it’s shown for what it is, two women who want nothing more than to be the emotional prop for a third, who doesn’t have the fortitude to decide between them. And oh my *god* is it good! I’m not a big fan of unresolvable sexual tension, but…oh yeah baby, this volume rocks, for that one thing alone.

The art is pretty consistent, which was a nice change, but the translation was *terrible*. Very dubtitled. There were quite a few scenes I found myself correcting the subtitles mentally, which I think does a terrible disservice to the fans. “I didn’t want to get you involved” and “I didn’t want to get you in trouble” are NOT the same thing at all. They are the same syllable count for the dub – why didn’t you translate it the right way, Geneon? Lazy, lazy, lazy. Points off for that.

The packaging is, as always, good, with double-sided cover and mini-poster. The pencil board is, once again, highly distressing. Not criminal so much as awful, awful, awful art. What exactly is Nancy’s left breast doing? And why is Junior’s torso so horribly elongated? These are questions which will likely never be answered…

If you haven’t watched any of ROD The TV don’t start in the middle. You can do that with, say, Sailor Moon, but not this series. Wait for the final volume to come out and get the box set, then turn off the phone and computer, invite intelligent friends over and marathon as much as you can watch. (We’ve done all of the Sailor Moon S season in one day and all of Marmalade Boy in two, so a mere 26 episodes should be easy!)

Ratings? 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10.





Yuri Anime: Ikkitousen DVD Volume 3

March 24th, 2005

Gods help me, I *really* enjoyed Ikkitousen Vol. 3. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I’m seriously thinking about going home and rewatching it again. Today.

In a nutshell, this volume of the anime version of Wani Comics’ offensively fanservicey, trashy, faux-historical/martial arts epic, details the transformations of Housen Ryofu from psychotic lackey into honorable uber-warrior and Shimei Ryomou from psychotic loner into super-vassal. And despite myself, I really enjoyed the hell out of it.

Ryofu wakes up with the realization that she is dying, and decides to go out with a bang. She’s determined to take Toutaku out before she goes – a fine goal, in my opinion. She heads off to a mountain hot spring to train with *the* master and gain an undefeatable technique and the strength to go with it. Before she leaves, she explains to Chinkyuu why she has to do this, and Chinkyuu responds by explaining why she will stay with Ryofu until the very end. In a single volume, Ryofu goes from being a superficial baddie, to a surprisingly deep heroine.

In the meantime, Goei has brought Hakufu and Koukin (who remains the most annoying character in the series) to the same hot spring, in order to train. Well – they are there to train, she’s there to “take the water” as they say in Jane Austen. Hakufu almost immediately runs into Ryomou who has been drawn there for reasons that remain obscure and convenient.

At the hot spring Ryomou has an epiphany. Well, one epiphany and the beginning of a second. Firstly, she meets and is wowed by Goei, whose casual sensuality simply blows her away enough to remove the stick from her ass for a second.

Then, when she and Hakufu meet Ryofu on a mountain path, Ryomou realizes that her true fate is, was and always will be to serve Hakufu and protect her. In a single defiant gesture, she stands before Ryofu to protect Hakufu with her life. Ryofu laughs, says she doesn’t have the time and runs off.

In the meantime, Chinkyuu makes a bad decision which ends up getting her raped and tortured at the command of Toutaku’s lackey, Kaku Bunwa. Bunwa is one of those second-in-commands that you enjoy watching being taken down, because she thinks she’s so clever, but she ain’t. I’m sure you know the type. When Bunwa tells Ryofu about Chinkyuu, Ryofu goes off to save her lover/vassal in a stunningly impressive display of coolness and ki. Ryofu notches up several ranks of wow as she blows the life out of Bunwa’s enforcers without hardly moving. Waaaahhhhh….coooollll…. I just love a woman who can blow a man’s heart out of his chest.

Ryomou, having determined to serve Hakufu to the death, runs off to see “her” again. Not Hakufu…Goei. Bing Bing! We got a winner here! Ryomou discovers Goei falling to her knees in the street, as she has just met the Fighter that, historically, killed Hakufu. Goei begs Ryomou to protect her daughter and, Ryomou, in her second epiphany, swears to make sure that Goei is never sad. From vassal of the daughter, to serving the mother in one smooth move. Yay Ryomou!

Some other stuff happens – we learn why Toutaku always has bandages on his body, but you know…who cares? And we’re supposed to care about the dragon that is awakening within Hakufu, too. But we don’t, do we? Because *we’re* watching the Yuri-fest going on in the background. ^_^ In any case, Koukin will do all our worrying for us, so we’re free to watch the cool chicks.

The Yuri goggles are getting dusty on the shelf while we watch this volume, I can tell you. The Yuri is so blatant, starting with Ryofu’s waking up naked next to Chinkyuu right down to Ryomou vowing to keep Goei from ever being sad.

Yes, there’s fanservice, but I simply tune it out now. And for once, there’s actual nipples instead of that wretched convention of clothes that have exploded but conveniently hang down *just* to cover the nipples and groin, which I find absolutely tedious. In some ways, the fanservice was *less* stupid because it was more overt. At least it was more honest and less coy.

One final rave about this particular volume – the pencil board did not actually suck! Can you believe it? On the one side is Ukitsu (the Fighter who is supposed to destroy Hakufu) looking seductive and sweet as opposed to kick-ass, which I always find to be a disservice. But! On the other side is *my* favorite character, Goei. Yes, Hakufu’s mother. ^_^ What can I say? I adore her. Anyway, there she is mostly dressed, while her kimono falls sexily around her. She looks just as sensual and aware as she does in the actual show – no frontal lobotomy here. So this pencil board wins. I may actually use it, instead of locking it away with the ROD The TV boards in the “please don’t think I like these” collection.

I’ll be honest, Ikkitousen is not a *good* anime. But given this series’ general suckiness, this DVD is a good volume. (And, for the record, the anime is significantly superior to the manga, which you’ll notice I have not reviewed. Be patient.)

The Yuri rating for Ikkitousen, Vol. 3 is an easy 9. All the other ratings remain as before.