Archive for the Series Category


Uta-Kata, Lyrical Nanoha Anime: Now You See Yuri, Now You Don’t

January 6th, 2005

A little fan enthusiasm goes a long way towards making a mediocre anime slightly less mediocre. Sadly, even implied yuri could not save Uta-Kata or Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha from endings that will ensure that they disappear into the oblivion they so richly deserve.

These two series were so unininspiring that for Uta-Kata I’m just quoting my comments from the Yuricon Mailing List, rather than even come up with new ones:

Uta-Kata ended with a soft thud. To no one’s surprise, the whole thing turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy that will perpetuate eternally. My biggest complaint was that the so-called “rules” of the engagement seemed to be violated completely by the last chapter. Saya goes on and on about “the rules” but Ichika has no options on absorbing and using her jin power. It was a set-up and an obvious one at that.

The faux-yuri kiss at the end was designed entirely for screencaps – it had no other meaning. I felt nothing about Manatsu’s departure… how sad is that?

Oh, and my last whinge about it, the big secret that Ichika was keeping, (which wasn’t that she was absorbing the powers of god-like beings, oh, no…)just…disappeared. All of a sudden, she wasn’t moving away, which sucked the little meaning there was out of the previous episode. Once again, it may have been explained in the
dialogue while my attention wandered, but as “system reset” endings go, it seemed exceptionally lame.

And Keiko and Satsuki’s relationship disappeared into the same chasm Ichika’s secret did, so there goes any canon yari.

***

As for Lyrical Nanoha, the ending was predictable, stereotypical and stock. Fate and Nanoha finally team up to fight Fate’s crazy evil Mom, who, predictably, loses. Fate ends up under arrest for her crimes against humanity – regardless of the fact that she was a construct created by crazy evil mom and was tortured on a regular basis. Nanoha feels guilty, wants to see Fate, etc. Tearful ending, lots of hugging and crying and “there, there” and sure, if you want to, you can easily see a proto-yuri relationship there. If you want to to.

Let’s say we do want to – where does that leave us? Nanoha growing up with her lover in space jail, getting rare conjugal visits, maybe a letter or two a year from Fate, asking for more money for the appeal…try explaining *that* to the rest of the gang at school.

No…I think we’re going to have to say that this series was a wash for yuri fans.

Ratings? Surely you jest. Well, 5’s all around, if you insist.





Live Action: PGSM/ Beginnings and Endings

January 4th, 2005

A very Happy New Year to all you yuri and shoujoai fans!

I thought I’d start the new year off by posting some wrap-up comments on last years’s anime, mostly to kill some time while the new season takes shape. ;-) But also, there were very many good thing and bad from last year that deserve final wrap-up comments.

Let’s start with one of the most fun things that 2004 brought us, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the live-action Sailor Moon television series.

As you may remember from my July entries on this fabulous show, there was tons of yuri potential and implicit yuri – enough to start a wave of fan-created works for another ten years.

But to wrap up I really wanted to focus on one relationship…the one that subsumed all others by the end. Rei and Minako. The screen started to curl at the edges when they starred into each other’s eyes, and by 2/3 of the way through the series, I was not the only one screaming “Get a room!” everytme they interacted. But it was in the ridiculously predictable, completely implausible and really silly finale of this series that drove home the Rei x Minako thing.

Because, you see…Minako died. Our beloved pop idol and hearthrob to everyone in my household, succumbs to whatever mysterious disease she had, and dies. They did an entire epsiode where the Senshi deal with nothing else but this single fact. And boy did Rei grieve, just exactly like a woman who has lost her lover grieves. Not like a good friend (Ami and Makoto did that), but definitely as a lover.

And in the end, Rei goes postal. And damn she did it well. But when she returns to herself, and fights one last time to save the earth (and dies…of course, because the Senshi dying comes as regularly as Old Faithful) when she calls her weapon into her hand…there in her other hand, is Minako’s weapon.

(A quick aside – all of the Senshi get weapons in PGSM. Sailor Jupiter gets the long-handled weapon, so that fits nicely with her planet really being an Outer planet, not one of the little wimpy Inner ones….)

So, in the end, there’s Rei, fighting not only with her own power, but with Minako’s too, and there we are, two 40 year old women crying like babies because we’re complete losers. LOL Waaaah!!!!

Oh, of course everyone comes back to life, but you knew that. And we’re all reunited and live happily ever after, because this is Sailor Moon and that’s what we do.

But let me tell you – Rei and Minako were SO the item. It really made alot of the stupider parts of the end worth it. And I was really glad to see that the folks who brought us PGSM didn’t leave the yuri fans out in the cold. :-)

So, if you’ve been putting off watching PGSM because it looks cheesy and predictable, well…it is, but it’s also yuri-riffic, which is always a good reason to get recommended daily supply of Senshi. :-)

Final Ratings for PGSM:

Story – 8
Character – 10
S/fx – Hahaha
Costumes – 8
Yuri – 8

Overall – 9

If you didn’t watch PGSM before, really….do. It’s quite wonderful. Then put your hands together and repeat after me, “Please gods, let us get to the Outers”.





Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Yokohama Shopping Log) Volume 12

December 20th, 2004

Reading a volume of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is like watching a breathtakingly beautiful sunset – gorgeous, and unsharable with anyone who wasn’t there.

I previously did an overview of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, aka Yokohama Shopping Log. In it, I sang paeans of praise about the breathless beauty and quiet pleasure of this series, and I hoped fervently that it might continue.

Well, it has.

Volume 12 takes place a few years after the first 11 volumes. Time has passed, Takahiro is grown and moved away to find work, and little Makki is now 15 or so. In this volume, as is all the others, nothing happens. We simply see snippets of life in Alpha’s corner of the world.

Oji-san talks with his old sempai, the doctor, and they sit in quiet companionship. (Although for those of us who like to pair people up might just see something happening betwqeen these two. They have a prolonged conversation about living alone and how it’s kind of nice to have someone else around.) I adore stories that have late-life relationships…so I kind of want them to get together. Plus, the doctor is really a cool old lady! ^_^

Makki asks Alpha if she can get a job at the shop, but Alpha has nothing for her to do. While watching Makki, Alpha finally feels exactly what the passage of time *means.* I think she gets a little more human, too, because of it. Although her appearance hasn’t changed, this is a different Alpha than we met at the beginning of the series. She is most definitely more mature. A flashback to when her owner left really heightens the change in our lovely protagonist.

Meanwhile, back in the big city, Kokone has also grown up a little. She’s made friends with a human and she has begun to develop her own quirks. We spend a chapter watching her watch a sea of grass from an abandoned building. (Again, sunset stuff – you have to see it to appreciate it.)

No friends are left out of this volume – Alpha meets Maruko (the third female android in the series,) suddenly, and learns – to Maruko’s mortifcation – that the artist is, by day, a waitress. Maruko and Alpha have a conversation about Kokone which makes it clear that Alpha knows perfectly well what Kokone feels for her…and Maruko knows too. (I like to think that Maruko gives up on Kokone right about this point. ^_^)

This volume definitely feels more mature, more stately, than the first 11. There’s even *more* of a twilight feel to the stories and a little of that beautiful melancholy that the Japanese treasure so much. It brought tears to my eyes several times, to be honest, and I think we can safely say that the series is winding down slowly. But I admit to harboring a secret desire that the artist never, ever stop writing this. It is the *best* series, bar none, ever made. For my money, YKK completely transcends the medium and is art at its purest.

While Alpha and Kokone never meet in this volume the conversation with Maruko, IMHO, places the period on their relationship. It is apparent to *everybody* that Kokone is in love with Alpha. And for her part, Alpha cares deeply for Kokone. I think that’s as far as we’ll ever see it go…but, you never know!. Anyway, it’s not our imagination. Either that, or Maruko is imagining it, too. ^_^

Ratings:
Art – 10
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 7

Overall – 10

If you’re not in love with Alpha, you’re not paying attention….





Ikkitousen, DVD Vol. 2

December 13th, 2004

I’m getting used to the panties – what does that say about me?

Last night, about 2/3 way through Volume 2 of Ikkitousen I started to laugh uncontrollably at the complete and utter trashiness of this story. I blame my Dad, because he has such crap-tastic taste in porn. I guess some of it rubbed off – lucky me.

Like the first volume, Volume 2, comes with a lovely reversible cover – Ryofu on one side (above), Kanu on the other, and a two-sided pencil board which depict these two fantastically competent and combative women after they have had frontal lobotomies and are now completely submissive. It’s probably just me, but I think that they are *way* sexier when they look like they could kick my ass. The mini-poster inside the case is nice, but not exceptional.

I was all ready to bitch about the 3-episode volume, but you know, the Japanese version has 2 episodes per volume, so it’s a much worse deal. Do I care? No! Dammit – this series is 13 crappy episodes! Sell it as a 2-DVD set, with a box and all the pencil boards, for pity’s sake. It’ll cost you less to print, you can gouge us for the box and boards and we’ll all be happy. Plus we won’t have to wait obscene amounts of time for all the volumes to come out. Duh.

The translation was a little tighter this time, which was good. No honorifics at all, except for, get this…Mou-chan. I was so happy that they translated that the right way. And Oba-san was turned into “Aunt Goei” so I guess that was reasonably close. Interestingly, they did not bother to translated the Chinese title “Sho Haou” that is given to Hakufu. It means, roughtly, “Little King of Fighters” or something roughly equivalent. The fansubbers had called her the “Junior Lord of Lords”.

As for content, I wasn’t kidding when I said that this anime is trash. I mean, really – it’s trash. The Fighter’s Grand Tournament has begun, by Imperial Order from Enjutsu, who remains icognito (for good reason…). Hakufu, who is clearly unprepared wants to fight anyway, while Koukin annoyed the living daylights out of me by trying to micromanage Hakufu’s every action and word. By the end of the DVD, more than anything else, I wanted someone, preferably Ryomou, to pound the daylights out of Koukin – what a jerk that boy is. And a hypocritical prude. Get *over* it already – the girls have breasts and asses, yes. Now move on.

Speaking of Ryomou – we learn that she did indeed have a life previous to this DVD and was, indeed, wearing the eyepatch before then as well. Her sempai was paralyzed and blinded in a previous Tournament. So much for Ryomou’s rich backstory. She then toddles off to a dark wood where she meets, fights and is defeated by Ryofu. Ryomou is further humiliated as Ryfou, having paralyzed her, then rapes her. But it’s all in good fun, you see, because Ryofu is really just a dedicated and omnisexual follower of Toutou. Ryofu is also impossibly stacked. She must have those things crazy-glued into that jacket.

Anyway, up from the beating she’s given Ryoumou, Ryofu goes off to have sex with Saji – and for a change we get to see him give her a good time. ‘Bout time, too.

In the meantime Hakufu destroys an entire school’s Fighters because she goes all dragon-postal.

After finding her determination (mostly to get back at Ryofu), Ryomou beats a team of Fighters on her own, then goes on to have a serious kick-ass fight with Kanu Unchou, who complete outclasses my poor Mou-chan. Even after Ryomou breaks her arm (I’m pretty sure that the arm would have been dislocated at the shoulder before it broke, but I’m just being picky,) she’s outfought. Kanu could and does, kick her ass with, literally, one arm behind her back. Hakufu give Kanu a bit of a whooping, but Kanu retires, covered in sweat and glory, leaving Hakufu’s school up one in the ranking.

Which brings us to the leaast interesting character in the series – the guy in charge. We are supposed to see Toutou as some incredibly powerful, seriously heavy juju kinda guy? I don’t see it. He’s a bore. I support Ryofu’s determination to oust his lazy-ass ass. And his favorite pillow, Bunwa? Is she a threat? Why>? All she does is suck up to him – in several different ways. Wow – getting service, scary.

In the end, Ryofu confides in her loyal lackey Chinkyuu that she’s going to be the top dog and, as is always appropriate with Ryofu, they celebrate by having sex. Whee! Much better!

So, yuri-wise, this volume is about as good as it gets. Ryofu does Ryomou (and damn I wish they would have gotten together for real…) and then Chinkyuu. Go Ryofu!

Ratings:

Story – 6

Character – 8, except Koukin and Toutou, who are 1’s

Art – 6

Yuri – 9

Music – 2 (Let’s talk about the utter suckiness of the opening theme, shall we?)

Fanservice – 10

Overall – this is a 6 at best, but I kind of like it anyway.

Ultimately, this series is about three things: fanservice, fighting, and fanservice. If you’re not into these, don’t bother.





Yuri Manga: ROD – Read or Dream, Manga Volume 3

December 8th, 2004

Goofy, sexy, weird and fun, all in turn. Who’s your Paper Master, baby?

Read or Dream, Volume 3 continues with something for everyone (except, perhaps obsesseive Yomiko and/or Nenene fans….)

The inside cover has a fun surprise. Instead of the usual two-sided color poster, we get a color picture on the front of the three sisters and on the back, three book covers drawn by the artist for this manga. What makes these book covers interesting is that the author is Nishizono Haruhi.

I’ll wait while you try to remember who that is. (The sound you hear is my foot tapping)

I’ll give you a clue. The first title is Hatsukoi Hajimatta, in English – First Love Has Begun.

I’ll give you a second clue. In the TV series, the presence that fills the empty spaces is Yomiko. In the manga series, it’s Nenene whose presence hovers in the background, just beyond reach….

If you really can’t remember, look at the end of this review…* ^_^

Onto the actual stories:

The first chapter hits weird, fun and sexy at the same time – Maggie visits a strange bookstore and is given a book called, (loosely) “The 24 Faces of Maggie Mui.” (You all know the famous story, “The Three Faces of Eve,**” right? I don’t have to explain Dissociative Identity Disorder, do I?) Anyway, Michelle and Anita come home to find Maggie in a maid outfit, which then switches to a gang member’s gakuran, then a Vampire S&M ensemble and ending with a goofy fairy tale prince get-up. The story is silly and strictly a vehicle for the fanservice. It all ends with Michelle being given a book called “The 7600 Faces of Michelle Chan.” And we all laugh and shudder, since Michelle is already pretty schizoid. ^_^

The next chapter begins (as at least one story each volume does!) with the three sisters having had no income for some time. Michelle and Maggie fantasize about running a high-class restaurant, but for books instead of food. Instead, the three of them end up doing a comedy routine. Oooooookkkkaaaayy. Goofy and weird.

In the third story, they are all doing really well and, as a result of so much work, are eating regularly. Michelle has therefore gained a lot of weight. Ahahahah, we laugh as she tries and fails miserably to lose the extra pounds. Goofy and I guess someone will think its fun.

The volume gets a little more interesting and weird beginning with the next chapter, in which Anita gets a fever. She has a dream which ties into her memory from ROD The TV of the church in which she met Maggie and Michelle for the first time. (The subsequent refutal of this memory by Joker is ignored, or perhaps is merely irrelevant…) She wakes to find that Maggie has returned to be with her, and she discovers that not only is she *not* alone in the world, she has her sisters, but also that friends have sent get-well gifts and cards…including one from Lilth and Orion, from Vol.2. Although Anita has not told her sisters about Lilith, this is about to change. Echoes of the TV series start to build more and more with each chapter.

The next story is another Anita dream which is weird, goofy and fun. The inevitable cross-over to Alice in Wonderland, with a hefty dose of Wizard of Oz (Tin Man and Scarecrow played, respectively, by Maggie and Michelle) and Journey to the West (The Monkey King, Sun Wu Kung, part played by Chi-Hon, the boy Anita has befriended in previous volumes) ends with the Queen of Hearts being played by Hisa-chan!

Now, let’s back up…in this continuity, Anita has never *met* Hisa-chan. Even stranger, when, at the end of the dream, Anita wakes up and we see the pile of novels that the dream referenced, one of them is Anne of Green Gables. You may remember from ROD The TV that that novel is the one that Anita and Hisami read together and bonded over, identifying themselves with Anne and Diana. But, in this continuity they have never met, so, why would that book be there, and why would Hisa-chan appear as the Queen? Well, it gets more confusing in the next and final, several-part story, which is fun, sexy, weird and goofy all at once. ^_^

Hold onto your hat, it’s going to be a bumpy manga.**

The three sisters are contacted by a publishing company. They are asked to be the bodyguards to a Japanese writer who is coming over to do a book signing in Hong Kong. The author has received threatening letters and the publishing company is concerned with her well-being. The Three Paper Sisters Detective Agency takes on the job and heads to the airport to meet the author.

Sound familiar? Hmmm….gee, this is exactly the same way ROD The TV began, isn’t it? You think you know what’s coming, right? Well, hah on you.

The three sisters are greeted by a snazzy young blonde, who turns out to be the author’s manager. The author steps forward and she is…Hishiishi Hisami, 13, from Japan. Hisa-chan promptly throws up all over Anita, and thus a friendship is born. ^_^

At the book signing, the culprit shows and lo and behold! it’s Hisa-chan’s manager! Only it’s not, it’s Lilith in disguise and this time she doesn’t want a book – she wants the author! (It is during this section that we can be convinced that the lovely Lilith has a full-blown loli fetish, by the way.) She and her pet panther Orion take on the Paper Sisters. Anita has, of course, already encountered Lilith, so she isn’t tricked by the thief-turned-kidnapper’s wily ways. In the middle of the battle Anita has a revelation – she may loathe books herself, but she resolves to be the protector of authors who bring joy to so many *other* people. Of course, she rescues Hisa-chan and they become instant best friends. Is there implication of more? There’s  plenty of room for believing that in this series that seems to be very Yuri-friendly.

In the end, the publishing company and Hisa-chan are so pleased with the sisters’ performance, that they are asked to come to Japan to do more bodyguard work. Michelle turns to us and tells us that their Japan arc is beginning and we should make sure to come back for the next chapter…! Well, duh. *Now* I’m hooked.

Where before it was mostly fluff, the story has actually evolved to a parallel universe to the ROD The TV and now I wanna know where it will go!

Ratings:
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Art – 8
Yuri – 4

Overall – 8

If the manga series is crafted *half* as well as the TV series, it’ll be great. If not, it’s goofy fun, weird, sometimes sexy fluff with some Yuri implication and space for plenty o’fanfic. ^_^

* – Nishizono Haruhi is the older sister of Anita and Hisa’s classmate, and the author that debuted after Nenene, that we meet several times in the TV series. Remember?

** – I wonder if it means anything that I have *two* Betty Davis references in this review….