Archive for the Series Category


The Rose of Versailles, Volume 2

December 6th, 2020

Unrest is starting to build among commoners as royal spending, bankrupts the country. while Oscar is struggling to balance unrest at home, in Paris and at Versailles. Rosalie is being pressured by her birth mother to come live with her, and her sister, the grifter Jeanne Valois, is at the center of one of the greatest scandals of the Queen’s life.

This volume is full of so many tears, it almost becomes comic….almost. It never is, because the cost of human suffering is as immeasurable in the 18th century as it is now, only we’re far more likely to have a bigger-picture understanding of it.

Nonetheless, Ikeda-sensei’s work makes understanding suffering almost unavoidable in fact, as she pinpoints individual stories in the middle of the greater situation. We’re more aware of the plight of Parisians in general because we spend time with Rosalie and Bernard.  We’re meant to understand them in a way we and Oscar will never understand the lack of empathy of the noble class.

Volume 2 of The Rose of Versailles is also one of the “Yuriest” volumes of this classic series in one sense and in another, not really. Jeanne implicates the Queen in the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace and, while testifying before the court, insists that she and the Queen were lesbian lovers. In addition, she accuses Oscar of being Marie Antoinette’s lover, as well. Oscar is not amused.

Her sentiment, a sneered “I Lord Oscar, lesbian? I’m breaking out in hives! To hell with you! What a joke!” is hard for us in 2020 to take at face value, when mere pages separate that and her repeated vow that had she been a man, she would have married Rosalie herself.

Volume 2 is about structural change. When the foundations of a building begin to crack, the people on the highest floors can feel the instability, even if they are initially insulated from the immediate damage. Once again, I’m reading this volume thinking it is just a little too on the money, as our society is shaking the foundations once again for all the very same reasons.

I want to shout out here to Jeannie Lee, whose lettering is so exceptional and to both Mari Morimoto and Jocelyne Allen for doing painstaking work on the translation. I’m still blown away by this gorgeous edition of a long-awaited classic manga. It was a privilege to have worked on it with them.

Ratings:

Art – 8 As Oscar matures, so does the art
Story – 8 Dense and melodramatic
Characters – 9 Everyone is flawed and human
Service – 5 Oscar in a uniform and in a dress.
Yuri – 1 No, but…kinda?

Overall – 8

 





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 15

December 3rd, 2020

Today’s review is a mostly-word for word quote from my review of this volume in Japanese. The plot hasn’t changed. ^_^

In MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 15 , we wrap up the Gold Marie redux arc with a somewhat unexpected reward for Kuroko. Narumi asks for physical contact. Kuroko is glad to oblige. When Narumi backs off, we see that Kuroko requires consent, which makes her a better person than most love interests in romantic comedies. ^_^

Kuroko and the gang are then launched into a creepy Elder God-inspired circus, (like circuses need to be any creepier than they already are.) A criminal from the past known as the Comedy Writer is back, and with the cover of the Bugg Shash circus, is manipulating people’s consciousness. It seems like more of the same – almost-supernatural hijinks and murder, except…

…what it actually becomes is kind of a cold case police procedural, in which questioning suspects is more than just a motivation for expository commentary.  What are the nature of the drug Francis and its relationship to Ceasare? Are they how the Comedy Writer manipulates people into deeply creepy actions or is it something else? Tsuru and Chacha are on the case! And, compared, with some of the previous arcs, this case might actually take their specific skills to crack.

My thanks to the folks at Yen Press for making what is kind of mush of a plot with three too-many things that really aren’t all that sensible, into something coherent and still pleasantly creepy. I do not envy translator Christine Dashiell’s job here. ^_^ Alexis Eckerman’s lettering gets a little chance to shine, with GIANT VOICEOVER shots. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 Horrific and freakish more than violent this time
Story – 8 Inexplicably weird
Characters – 8
Service – 4 Other than straight up nakedness, surprisingly not
Yuri – 4 In a different timeline Narumi and Kuroko would make a decent pair

Overall – 8

Many thanks to Yen Press for the review copy!





Rose of Versailles Anime Full Analysis Mook (ベルサイユのばら アニメ 大解剖)

November 22nd, 2020

One of the best things about shopping in a bookstore is the serendipity of finding a completely unexpected, marvelous, find. Over the years I’ve found all sorts of unexpectedly wonderful Yuri shopping in used bookstores like Mandarake and bookstores all over the world. This month I had the pleasure of coming around a corner at my localish Kinokuniya and finding a reprint of an older anime guidebook book of the Rose of Versailles anime. This is a “complete preserved edition” according to the cover. Actually, the cover has a lot to say! “A historical romance that continues to fascinate women all over Japan!” and “The fate of the Splendid Rose”.

The title of this publication is Berusaiyu no Bara Dai Kaibou (ベルサイユのばら アニメ 大解剖) which I’m translating as a “full” analysis rather than”big” but hopefully you get the point. This is one of those mooks with art from the series, character profiles, interviews, key scenes summarized with accompanying stills, a timeline, a full 40-episode synopsis, historical timeline of events and related art, character designs, scenery, and pages of series goods that are available. This volume includes title card gallery, still shot scene gallery, a color illustration gallery by Himeno Michi, interviews with Oscar’s voice actor, Tajima Reiko, Andre’s voice actor Shigaki Taro, and “Berubara Fan” and SKE48 member, Hata Sawako.

Well, that means this isn’t just an archival reproduction, but also has new content. The goods shown go at least as far current as the face masks, which I have bought for Oscar and Rosalie embracing on the packaging. ^_^

I’ve been so consumed with looking at the pretty pictures, I haven’t had a moment to read the interviews….but I’ll get there. In the meantime there’s a lot of shiny to look through.

So if the UDON edition of The Rose of Versailles manga has whetted your appetite for more, take a look at this lovely book in your spare time, while waiting for some company to re-license the anime for streaming.

Ratings:

Overall –  10

If you, like Hata-san, are a Berubara fan, this mook is a treasure chest of shiny melodrama and fun.





Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution

November 20th, 2020

Tenjou Utena was a girl who wanted to become a prince. She actually did rescue a princess…and became the power to revolutionize the world. But at what cost?

20 years have gone by and the members of the student council are still trapped in their own drama. The girl who gained the power to change everything had left them behind to find their own way out. Being mere humans, not princes, they had failed to do take the steps they needed to be free. If this sounds like a fanfic, well, it pretty much is. Like so many fanfic it begins with Touga, Saionji, Juri and Miki still caught up in the same dysfunctional relationships that bound them at Ohtori. 

In Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution, co-creator of Revolutionary Girl Utena Chiho Saito, revisits the Student Council members. Touga and Saionji are finally allowed to cast off the lingering ghost of  the Chairman of Ohtori, and find the camaraderie with each other that had been twisted into a toxic rivalry. Juri discovers in herself a more honest reason to keep fighting and is able to let go of of regret and failure. Miki is finally able to have an honest discussion with Kozue about their relationship.

Viz Media’s reproduction of this 20th anniversary manga is so excellent, I’m almost sorry that they didn’t give it a hardcover edition to match the box set of the original manga. Adrienne Beck’s translation kept the voices we already knew so well. Sara Linsley went out of her way to do an award-worthy lettering job. She’s detailed how she hand-drew the sound effects to match the Japanese volume on Twitter. Designer Alice Lewis did a terrific job and I know that Nancy Thistlethwaite as editor gave it the most loving treatment possible. It looks terrific. Great job folks.

Like so many fanfic, this manga is excellent, right up to the point where it fails to do the last thing it needed to do. Because, as she says in the afterword, Saito-sensei was unwilling to allow Utena to grow up…indeed, she youthens her for this story, Utena and Anthy’s reunion is not of this world, but very much in a world that only the two of them occupy. I had read the chapters as they came out in Flowers hoping desperately that we’d get to see Utena and Anthy together in the “real” world. It’s wholly understandable why this was the path chosen…it’s just not the one I wanted. ^_^ OTOH, Juri is still with Shiori and Utena and Anthy do find each other again, so that’s something. Depending on what your fandom of Utena is rooted in, your mileage will vary. For me, this was a beautiful, but ever-so-slightly unsatisfying story.

Ratings:

Art – 9 I have repeatedly mentioned that Saitou-sensei’s art is amazing.
Story – 8 One point off for not giving Utena and Anthy the time and page count lavished on the student council
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 3 Naked Anthy is still a thing.

Overall – 9

I guess I’ll just have to stick with my own Utena fanfic for now, since Saito-sensei and I don’t share a vision. If it were up to me Kozue and Shiori* would not have been given so much real estate. ^_^

* I don’t dislike Shiori….I just don’t like Juri and Shiori together. Juri deserves someone better.





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17 (ムルシエラゴ)

November 17th, 2020

As a series, Yoshimuraka’s MURCIÉLAGO has had, shall we say, a plethora of service for fans who like their pleasures low. Obscenely well-endowed women occasionally engaged in unrealistic lesbian sex and extreme violence with an eye to the grotesque and horrible. This is not a series I ever “recommend.” I simply acknowledge that I find it entertaining, and everything else is left up to individual tastes.

We’ve sat through any number of totally not-at-all-okay versions of violence, most of which has been directed at totally not-okay victims with some mostly unnamed collateral damage. Children and adults in this world are all likely to be broken and mangled emotionally. And there is a lot of sexual implication, and sometimes actual sex, all of it between consenting partners…which is pretty much the only thing that is not creeptastic here.

Now here we are, at MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17 (ムルシエラゴ) and we’ve been given a new way to be made wholly uncomfortable. Because now we have a killer who is visibly sexually excited when he commits acts of violence with a fencing saber. Whee. Just what I definitely really never needed. ^_^ To counter this new craven service, we have a new hero…a member of Chiyo’s family organization, Senpachi, who decides that its his goal to keep Chiyoko safe by getting rid of this dude.

While we’re focusing on Chiyo-chan, our bonus chapter this volume is some less-terrible lesbian sex, in which Chiyo gets to see heaven in between Kuroko’s legs. So there’s a thing I can leave you to think about. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Because it’s gotten better, it’s actually messier than usual. More detail, means more gore.
Story – Yeah…no
Characters – Senpachi’s cool, emotionless old Yakyuza guys are boring.
Service – We are literally staring at this guy’s crotch constantly and it’s not serving me, I’ll tell you that.  (-_ -)
Yuri – Not-ugly lesbian sex, so that’s a win.

Overall – ?

I don’t even know how I could possibly score this. It is a thing I am reading. ^_^