Archive for the Series Category


Yagate Kimi ni Naru Koushiki Comic Anthology, Volume 2 (やがて君になる 公式コミックアンソロジー)

July 15th, 2020

Bloom Into You has undeniably had a pretty big impact on the current Yuri audience, with the original manga, light novels, anime and an official comic anthology in the space of the last few years. Even with the series finished and everyone living happily-ever-after, there’s always room to play a little.

Yagate Kimi ni Naru Koushiki Comic Anthology, Volume 2 (やがて君になる 公式コミックアンソロジー) spends some extra time with characters fans have grown to love by a variety of creators, from folks you know well, like Canno and series creator Nakatani Nio as well as popular anthology contributors like Kumosuzume, Yodogawa and others.

It will come as no surprise whatsoever, that my favorite stories center Sayaka. Yodogawa’s” 6-nen Ato mo Anata no Tonari de” in which Miyako spends a little time teasing Sayaka and they have a heart to heart about what relationships mean. I’m always so happy when I see the two of them being given a little time to just..talk.

But I especially loved the opening story by Fuyu Yutaka, in which Sayaka has something in her eye and Yuu helps her find her way around the school, while rumors fly around them. ^_^ It’s just goofy fun.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

If you love the characters of this series, you won’t have to be convinced to spend more time with them, If you don’t, you won’t miss anything critical. But it’s always fun seeing an official anthology of a good series. I only wish Maria-sama ga Miteru had come out now….imagine what we might have seen! I mean, there were tons of unofficial anthologies for that series, but what an awesome thing an official series might have been. ^_^





Steven Universe the Movie and Steven Universe Future

June 28th, 2020

2013 seems a lifetime ago now, doesn’t it? Steven Universe was created in a whole different era, practically. The series’ message of hope and growth and love has resonated widely…possibly even more so, as our future turned less hopeful and more dystopic. I’ve reviewed all of the “seasons” as they came out on Amazon Prime, so the numbering is vastly different than the seasons on disk or by CN’s reckoning.

If you aren’t familiar with the show or why I think it’s worth watching, here are my previous reviews:
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 | Season 7

Steven Universe is ultimately a story about personal growth, and it includes arcs about love and acceptance, about parenting, about working through dysfunctional family dynamic and toxic and abusive relationships. It includes a queer wedding and some very catchy music.

In a year, we went from a government that finally accepted our relationship, and was working towards broader inclusivity, to a nightmare dystopia. In 2016, my wife and I started to watch an episode or two every night before bed, as a kind of anti-anxiety medicine. Not gonna lie…it worked. We still do “take” two episodes most nights. We reach the end, then start over.

Mild spoilers and major links to music videos to follow. ^_^

In Steven Universe the Movie, Steven and the Gems have a similar experience. The future looks very bright for them and the possibilities are endless…until yet another relic from Pink Diamond’s past pops up and takes revenge for how she was treated. It is, maybe, a little too on the money for those of us in 2020, thinking back with nostalgia, but it’s not nostalgia that saves them, it’s acknowledging the sins of the past, and repairing the hurt, so everyone can grow. Still, way too close for comfort, but critically important to remember.

The music in this movie is both incredibly catchy, ridiculously sticky and in several cases, deeply painful. What made this movie worth watching is that once again, we are reminded that Steven Universe was never a story about a magical boy fighting monsters, it was always a story about personal growth. Watching the Gems recalling who they had been and how they became who they are, was masterfully done. With a musical bonus. The fusion Opal was voiced by Aimee Mann (whose hit song as ‘Til Tuesday, Voices Carry I remember playing – and watching on MTV – on a loop as a teen). I was delighted that she and her musical partner, Ted Leo, get a powerful song during a climactic scene here.

One of the overall themes of Steven Universe as a series has been that choices have consequences…and if you’re not dealing with the consequences of your choices…then someone else is.

The end of the movie is the most spectacular Takarazuka reference. We literally screamed our lungs out when we saw it the first time. Just…..wowowowow, holy crow wow.

 

Steven Universe Future is about what happens when you keep pushing off the consequences of your decisions.

The entire season is focused on Steven coming to grips with a future that he helped build, but which may not actually include him. Like every hero returning from their journey to the underworld, he’s paid a price and like all the heroes before him, that price is normality. Or…is it? Sure Frodo couldn’t stay in Hobbiton, but…he was oozing out of that place long before he left. We all do. I liked the community I grew up in, but I’ve never wanted to return. Part of growing up in the USA has traditionally been leaving your home behind. And just because you’ve returned from the heroes journey doesn’t have to mean you’re done.  Maybe journeying is what you’ll always be doing, and maybe a hero could make an amazing psychopomp because they’ve been there and done that.

Future has one last Utena reference for us and it’s a doozy, so get your roses out and get ready to duel. ^_^ (Also a side-eye to Sailor Moon.)

We cannot fix the past by ignoring it. We can only admit the truth, be the best possible people we are now and allow people to find their own way forward. It’s not an idealist vision of the future, it’s a realist’s vision. The future may or may not look bright, but we’ve still got to put the work in, no matter what.

Once more I want to thank Rebecca Sugar and all the folks on the SU team, with my eternal gratitude for the amazing writing, animation, music and voice acting. I am endlessly surprised by this series, no matter how many times I watch it. And I’ve watched it a lot of times.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Steven Universe has given us a process by which we may move forward towards the future. It’s up to us to build the future we want.





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 16 (ムルシエラゴ)

June 18th, 2020

Well. I didn’t expect that. When I told the Square Enix folks that I enjoy MURCIÉLAGO because it has some of the ugliest lesbian sex I’ve ever seen, I did not expect them to take that as a compliment – which it was totally meant as, mind you. MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 16 (ムルシエラゴ) begins with an extended, explicit ugly lesbian sex scene between the former high school bomber and her sex slave. Well, okay then.

Then we drop back into the storyline of the “Comedy Writer” and the Elder God-inspired Bugg Shash Circus. BUT, far more importantly we finally see something we knew had to be there, but we’d never seen it before. For the first time ever, we see Hinako completely unhinged and murderous. It’s been implied a number of times that she is capable of extreme violence, the police have talked around it. We’d seen Hinako be reckless and unhinged from reality, but we’d never seen the combination of all three. And it’s as ugly as you might imagine.

I would, therefore, expect a Hinako storyline in this series’ future. But in our present, Hinako is once again returned to the loopy and only slightly (within normal parameters for this series) violent person we know. We have a little breathing room until late July when Volume 17 is on the market in Japan.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 10,000
Yuri – 10, but its ugly

Overall – 8

This series has it all…if by “all” you don’t mean literary value.

It does have, as I said, an explicit lesbian sex scene, some generic bathing scenes, and extraordinary violence and a creepy murderer. Oddly, not one of these things involve Kuroko. She spends the volume having a polite conversation before killing someone neatly and quietly.

Huh.





Shinyaku Ribon no Kishi, Volume 1 (新約・リボンの騎士)

June 11th, 2020

Today’s review is in part thanks to the constant evangelizing of Raybon No Kishi on Twitter, who alerted me to some interesting plot complications in this recent reworking of the story of Sapphire, the Girl Prince. Shinyaku Ribon no Kishi, Volume 1 (新約・リボンの騎士) is…well…it’s kind of interesting.  Written and drawn by Bureido (the pen-name for a three-person team of Miyamoto Loba,  Hamamura Toshiki, and Muramasa Mikado (many thanks to Hamamura-sensei for the correction_ whose work otherwise seems to be pedestrian and pornish – it’s a not-terrible homage to the iconic character created by Tezuka Osamu.

The story follows the outline of Princess Knight‘s origin, with some interesting changes. In Silverland, the rule of the Kingdom is entailed and can only be passed on to male heirs, so Sapphire reluctantly pretends to be the dashing Prince. It does not make Sapphire happy at all to do so. Upon saving a young woman, Sapphire takes the girl’s beribboned hat as a reward and wears it, gaining the moniker “The Ribbon Knight.” Really, Sapphire just liked the pretty hat.

Duke Lester wishes to dethrone Sapphire and doesn’t really care how he does it. He hires Willema, an assassin, to either prove Sapphire is a girl or to kill the Prince if he is a boy. Instead…Willema and Sapphire find themselves attracted to one another.  After she and Willema sleep together, Sapphire rides to confront Lester, while Willema rides off to talk to her mother, with tragic consequences.

Lester immediately begins working on a new plan…a weapon to destroy Silverland! And there will be pirates, as once might expect, if one has read the original.

As you can see, while basic plot idea is the same, pretty much everything else is different. Sapphire definitely does not like pretending to be a boy…and in this story she is pretending, there is no dual heart or a fairy who gave it to her. It is still Sapphire’s nature to be princely and she certainly is dashing, but she’d really rather not have to lie about her sex or gender.

This iteration has a fair amount of nipple-less nudity and the principal women are busty, which seems to be the style Bureido prefers. But even with that, it doesn’t feel too skanky. Honestly, this volume held up pretty well for a more modern retelling. What it loses in Disneyfied innocence, it gains in Yuri. ^_^ I’m not gonna lie, I wouldn’t mind watch this Sapphire wreck Lester’s stupid face.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 6
Yuri – 8

I mean, I get it, Willema’s doomed, and no Sapphire isn’t going to be living happily ever after as a boyish girl, but I’m actually still interested to see what happens in Volume 2, so that’s good. ^_^





Sailor Moon Stars Limited Edition, Part 2, Disk 3

May 18th, 2020

There is no chance that this is the last post I ever make about Sailor Moon, but it may be the last post I make about the original 1990s anime. For the last time, we are going to talk about Sailor Moon Stars Limited Edition, Part 2, Disk 3, in which no one listens to either of the Princesses they have sworn to defend, because 16 year olds make shitty decisions.

Because no one listens to Usagi and Kakyuu-hime, and no one else suggests they all work together, they are picked off by Galaxia, whose backstory isn’t as much of a surprise as she apparently felt it might be. No Sailor Cosmos here to clog up the works, just another Senshi blundering around with mostly no idea what to do.

Which makes me wonder how I would have ended it. Let’s do that at the end.

On the positive side, Seiya gets to say what needs to be said to Usagi. This time, I was really glad about that. Once Mamoru’s fate was revealed, it was a lot easier to forgive both of them for everything they didn’t do right.

Haruka and Michiru spend the last few episodes being really gay, in case you didn’t know they were a couple.  I felt and still feel that this was specifically directed at the corner of fandom who just would not admit that they were really together. Their final moments are both heart-wrenching and extended and good heavens there were still people who just would NOT believe they were together. (I bet those people are all gay now, if you know what I mean…)

And then the epilogue comes and everyone lives happily ever after. For real.

Until 1000 years in the future when Crystal Tokyo is destroyed. Because just as no one thinks “Hey, let’s listen to the Princess,” no one would say, “HEY, we know what happens, let’s not be defeated by the Black Moon.”  I’m looking at you, Ami. You’re supposed to be the smart one.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 9
LGBTQ – 5 Michiru and Haruka are very, very gay.
Service – 3 Does Galaxia’s hair count? It’s really great hair. Oh, right, and some nudity

Overall – 8

So, how would I have ended it? How about this…

Sailor Moon and Kakyuu-hime would have convinced the Senshi to work together. They would have combined their powers and healed Galaxia, reuniting her with Chibi-Chibi. Hell yes, I would have included Sailor Cosmos – that’s a great costume. SHE would have told the combined Senshi Galaxia’s backstory and would have accompanied Sailor Galaxia home, by way of healing the planets she destroyed.

We would have had two epilogues…the one we got and one in Crystal Tokyo in the future where everything was shiny and perfect and Princess Small Lady was a little older, playing with the Asteroid Senshi, Saturn and Pluto at the Doors of Time, while the rest of the Senshi attended Queen Serenity and King Endymion in Crystal Tokyo as other planetary Senshi visited.

But no one asked me.

Viz has done an exemplary job with this classic title. I want to once again thank every person who worked on this release. Your love and attention was greatly appreciated. This is the definitive Sailor Moon.