Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Manga: Air Master

February 26th, 2004

Okay, I’m a little tired of talking about shoujo Yuri titles, so I thought I’d cover a few shounen Yuri series of note.

Air Master

I’ve talked about this one before, I know, but it bears repeating. The basic plot is…well, there isn’t really a plot. It’s about an ex-gymnastics champion turned street fighter. Her gymnastics skill manifest as a distinctly unique fighting style which involves seriously BIG air. Hence the name, “Air Master.”

Aikawa Maki is a great heroine. Competent and cool in her millieu, sort of dorky and insecure outside it, she’s surprisingly human and likable. Her friends are quirky and funny, and her enemies even quirkier and, in many cases, funnier. Of these, the best, by far and away is Sakiyama Kaori, who may possibly be the funniest, most imaginative and most likeable psychotic to ever grace a manga or anime.

The Yuri comes in right at the start, as Maki’s new friend Mina develops a raging crush on Maki, which quickly develops into a raging lust for her. In the anime, this is seriously minimalized, but in the manga, there’s some terrific scenes as we get to see what Mina’s actually thinking (hoping/wishing/fantasizing ) about in regards to Maki.

There’s a few downsides to this series – for one thing, the manga art is *seriously,* distractingly ugly.  There’s some intense fighting violence (which I quite like) and some serious sexual violence, as well (which I don’t.) Episode 24 of the anime is one of the single most violent 20 minutes I’ve ever seen animated that didn’t involve guns or mutating things. The little old lady who sat next to me on the plane while I watched it on my computer, almost had a heart attack, poor thing. And there is unneeded and egregious, yet expected service.

On the good side, you have great characters – I mean REALLY great. With the exception of one or two characters, even Maki’s opponents are engaging and fun. In the tradition of shounen fighting anime, most defeated opponents become allies, so it’s nice to have them stick and around and keep coming back. Rematches with defeated opponents are actually better than the original fights, as Maki’s skills keep improving over the series.

Ratings

(Manga) Art – 2
(Anime) Art – 6
Characters – 9
Story – 7
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8





Events: BFI Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

February 15th, 2004

The Utena Movie at the BFI Lesbian & Gay Film Festival in London, UK, on March 30 & 31, 2004

In one of those utter coincidences that rules my life, I happened to be planning a trip for entirely personal reasons to the UK in March. So, I will be once again presenting the Utena movie to a bewildered audience in London, England, on Tuesday, March 30 as part of the British Film Institute’s 18th Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

I have no details yet, about time or place, but you can be sure I will let you know as soon as I have any. Tentatively, there is a Q&A session planned for after the movie, for those of you interested in discussion the state of gay, lesbian, yaoi and yuri anime and manga. (One of your questions can be to ask me why I think those are not the same thing. LOL)

My presentation is short, but I really hope I’ll get to meet alot of you British yuri enthusiasts on March 30!





Yuri Anime and Manga: Battle Athletes/ Battle Atheletes Victory

February 9th, 2004

A little while ago I managed a few minutes in that magical land of used Japanese manga, Book-Off, and managed to find the entire run of the Battle Athletes Daiundokai manga, which is very, very, VERY out of print. (I occasionally get requests on how to find the manga – read the line before this one about where I got my copy. That’s basically all the advice I can offer you on finding it.) I immediately went home and read them with great interest – now I want to tell you all about it. ^_^

More people are probably familiar with the OVA and the television series, distributed under the titles Battle Athletes and Battle Athletes Victory, than the manga. The television series is based on the manga more closely than the OVA, so it’s basically the same story as the manga, with Ichino given a stronger role to play, both in the story as a whole and in Akari’s life. The manga is more about Kris and Akari and less about the back stories for all the other characters…. But there are few things that *all* of these have in common

Mylandah is psychotic in every series. I like that. I find psychosis to be an extremely attractive quality in a strong female character – the fewer morals, the more I like them. In the manga, like the anime, her psychosis stems from a once-healthy obsession turned ugly – her feelings *for* Lahrri changed into competition *with* Lahrri. In the TV series, they end up acting like a married couple, to the confusion and consternation of the other girls – their conversations approach near-silent communication. It’s a cute, subtle touch, in what is otherwise a really dumb story arc. In the manga, just as in the TV series, Mylandah is forced to realize that what she really feels about Lahrri is *not* hate, but love. In the Epilogue of the manga, we see them cuddling in a thatched roof hut on a beach somewhere, completely alone. So that ends that story – and it’s a really sweet picture. :-)

Anna’s story is also in the manga – in fact, it is the same story as both the OVA and the television series, which makes Anna a much more bizarre character than either of the two animated versions. Jessie, Ayla, and the others all exist in the manga, but their stories are reduced to mere traces, which didn’t make me cry, really. What the manga really focuses on is Kris and Akari.

The relationship between Kris and Akari, in almost every version is made explicit, but I like the manga best. Sure, they kiss in the anime, and sure, even naive little Anna can see what’s between them, and sure, Kris comments to Ichino that they are rivals for Akari (even if Ichino is in denial). But, in the manga, the entire end of the Cosmo Beauty competition is between the two of them and the final race is Chris versus Akari. A personal conflict comes between them and threatens their friendship on the eve of the final race. It’s very tense, emotional and well done.

Ultimately they do race and, after the race is over, in front of all the spectators and, presumably, the entire world watching on TV, they kiss. I mean they *kiss*. It’s pretty fabulous. :-) I wish there were more anime and manga with such kisses.

The manga has so many of the good things about the anime and almost none of the really bad things – no cow, no aliens, no resurrected Tomoe Midori, none of that. The Principal of University Satellite is still a pervert, but that seems to be about as bad as it gets. The manga also loses Akari’s crybaby tendencies, and her inability to learn from her experiences…a very good thing, IMHO. And the Yuri is 100% real, no substitutes accepted. So, honestly, if you like the anime, then it’s really worth it to get the manga for the *real* story…and that kiss. ;-)

Ratings:

Yuri – Anime (7) Manga – (9)

Art – 6, it’s nothing special in either manga or anime.

Characters – Manga (8) Anime (6)

Story – 7

Overall -Manga (8) Anime (7)

 





Maria-sama ga Miteru: Thoughts on the first story arc

February 6th, 2004

Well, the first arc of Marimite is complete, in both anime and manga, so I thought I’d write a quicky note on this series (you had to expect occasional Marimite updates, since it is kind of *the* yuri anime right now.)

Japanese fans of the novel series (which is still running monthly in Shuiesha Cobalt and now that there’s an anime and manga to stimulate interest, probably will continue until the author gets utterly sick of all the characters and stops) are not exaclty thrilled with either the anime or the manga. As a fan of many novels that have been poorly to adequately treated in film and TV, I completely sympathize. (I may well be one of the only people on the planet who did not like the film adaptation of the Lord Of the Rings. Sure, it looked pretty, but the movies managed to miss the *point* of nearly each and every scene in the book.)

In the Marimite novels, there are many and various conversations which, for time and censorship issues, needed to be cut from manga, anime, or both. Of course, many of these speeches are the relationship-defining words between two soeur. The Yuri Kokoro web log actually listed scene by scene, “significant” speeches which were cut from the anime and manga arc of the first novel.

The manga suffers slightly less from this problem. On the whole manga is a freer art form than anything made for television, and the pacing of the manga is significantly slower and more dignified than the anime. What in the manga takes 7 chapters to cover, is handled in three episodes. So the anime, instead of being stately and graceful (which would be in keeping with the atmosphere of Lillian Academy) seem rushed and a little harried.

Then there’s the issue of detail. Because of the pace of the anime, details have been left out that affect the audience’s perception of the story. For instance – in the first arc, we learn that Sachiko is Kashiwagi’s cousin, they are engaged and, more importantly that Sachiko actually has feelings for him. So, then, why does she seems so angry with him?

Well, in the manga (and the novels) we learn that Kashiwagi is gay. So, look at the situation from Sachiko’s point of view – her father and grandfather don’t respect their wives (it’s well-known that they have mistresses). And because Kashiwagi is *really* not interested in Sachiko, she knows that she, too, will be in a loveless marriage of convenience. Yet, when we see Kashiwagi and Sachiko together, he pretends that he likes her, even going so far as to try and kiss her. Since she actually does like him (which, let’s face it, will turn to bitter contempt in time…indeed has already begun to do so) she, rightfully, thinks he’s a hypocrite.

Here’s what we don’t learn in the anime or manga – Kashiwagi recognizes that Sachiko has a genuine affection for Yumi, and he himself is interested in Yumi’s brother, Yuki. (Yuki doesn’t return the interest.) Kashiwagi actually suggests, at some point, that Sachiko become pregnant by Yuki, since he is unwilling to actually sleep with her himself. He implies that this way, they will have done their duty by the family and Sachiko can have Yumi’s baby, in a twisted way.

NOW you understand why she is so angry, yes?

So, in conclusion, we’re missing a *lot* of information from the novels in the anime and, to a slightly lesser extent, the manga. Nonetheless, the anime is very pretty, the manga is very lovely and I’m enjoying the heck out of watching these girls and their courting ritual. :-)

Check back for a quick overview of the second arc in a few weeks. This time it’s all about Rei and Yoshino, the only *real* couple among the Bara-tachi.

And don’t forget to join us on the Yuricon Mailing List to talk about Marimite to your heart’s content!





Yuri Manga: Read or Dream, Volume 1

February 4th, 2004

I have actually already covered the anime addition to the ROD series this past December in an earlier entry, but that was a while ago now and I want to cover the series as a whole continuity – and review the new manga.

As mostly everyone knows, the original ROD was a 3-episode OVA, and a 4-volume manga. Read or Die is the full title of this earlier series.

Read or Dream is a new manga, of which one volume is out, so we don’t quite know where it will end. And ROD The TV is the (so far) 26-episode anime currently running on Japanese television. What some of you may not know is that there are also several ROD novels, at least one of which may contribute to the current timeline in a meaningful fashion. (I have not seen, much less read, the novels, and everything I’ve heard about them are unsubstantiated rumor, so I’m including them only as a point of interest.)

I’m not going to explain the basic plot here – I’ll assume that you know the story at least a little. If not- click the links above and read up.

In terms of yuri, Read or Die the OVA has luscious subtext. Not a few folks, including the artists at Newtype and Megami magazines, had a field day with Nancy and Yomiko. As a story, it was a neat, enjoyable 3-episode action story with good music, and great characters.

Not so the original RODmanga. Read or Die the manga was a frankly mediocre exploration of fanservice, tedious plots and uninteresting characters. I tried and failed to be interested in the ROD manga several times. If you were *very* clever and ignored all the evidence to the contrary, you could *try* and make a case for Nenene and Yomiko…but you’d be stretching the bounds of plausability. As an action story it was…okay. (The worst of it was that Yomiko, who in the OVA was almost unconsciously competent, was rendered clumsy and goofy in the manga.)

Then came ROD the TV. In practically one fell swoop, it not only gave us Nenene and Yomiko as a viable relationship, it also gave us butchy Maggie (a yuri fan’s dream in terms of possibilities) and Anita’s relationship with Hisa. Then it threw in five years of something between Nancy and Yomiko, just to keep things interesting. Whether one sees it all as overt text, or subtext, the complex relationships between all the women in this anime keep me on the edge of my seat – not to mention the incredibly decent (if really goofy) plot, which has been crafted to even *my* standards. This TV series isn’t over yet, but so far, it’s been stellar. While it helps to know enough of the manga to know who Donny is, or how
Nenene and Yomiko met, it isn’t absolutely necessary. You can always catch up on the conversation at the Yuricon Mailing List, where we’ve dissected this baby within an inch of its life. ^_^

Which brings me to the new ROD manga. I didn’t, honestly, have much hope for the Read or Dream manga, given the crappiness of the Read Or Die quadrilogy. Well, once again, I’m wrong, because while it isn’t high art, the first volume (for all I know, it’s the only volume) of Read or Dream is a lot of fun and full of yuri. Of the six chapters, two deal with a blind girl who falls in love with Maggie. It’s an incredibly sweet story, right to the very end, with one amusingly mortifying scene for poor Maggie:

Faye asks her to read a story she has written out loud. Maggie begins to read the story, and realizes that it is a self-insert love scene between her and Faye. What’s worse is that Faye, being blind, had to have had her mother write it for her…but Maggie reads the story right through to the final kiss. So I’m raising the Yuri flag over the Read or Dream manga, too.

So far, with the exception of the initial manga, this entire continuity has Yuri all over it, and I recommend it strongly to all but the hardest-core shoujo fans. If you can’t stand a story that doesn’t have shoujo bubbles and flower-laden backgrounds, avoid the ROD series, but otherwise, learning Japanese is worth it, just for series like this. ^_^

Ratings:

Yuri – 8
Art – 8
Story – 10
Music – 9
Characters – 10
Overall – 9