Archive for the Series Category


Bloom Into You Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 2

August 17th, 2020

Saeki Sayaka would probably not, if you asked, consider herself nostalgic. Nor would she likely think of herself as capricious, I don’t think she’d go far as to say that she was any more logical than anyone else. I am confident, however, that she would agree that she is a thoughtful young lady, who considers her choices carefully…and considers the consequences of those choices very deeply.

In Bloom Into You Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 2, we meet Sayaka after she has experienced love and loss in middle school and after she has fallen in love once again in high school. It’s a love that isn’t going to be realized, we know, but she’s in the middle of it. While she might have an inkling that she’s put herself in an untenable position, she’s allowing herself a kernel of something like hope, a promise to herself that if she should want to reach out and bridge the distance between her and Touko, she could…she just doesn’t want to.  It’s a pleasant little story, that becomes a lie in the beginning pages of the book and Sayaka knows it.

We can relax into this book because, of course, we already know happened, but we really should take a moment to appreciate how much work the writer, Hitoma Iruma, put into it. They could not relax at all, as the readers already know what happened. ^_^

There are number of nice touches in this volume too. Classmates Manaka and Midori are a lot of fun. I read an early passage in which Manaka said that joining a club would be useful, because “…if you exercise enough, you’ll be ready if something happens and you need to make a quick getaway.” I hope we all had a laugh remembering the friend in high school who said stuff like that. (Honestly, in my crowd, any one of us was likely to be “that guy.” ^_^)

Physically, this book was lovely, with extra flourishes by interior designer Clay Gardener – the original Japanese volume had undecorated pages. I thought this was a very nice touch. All the other technicals were likewise excellent. Translation and adaptation were spot on for the serious Sayaka we see in the anime.

I enjoyed this volume immensely – again. As I said in my review of the Japanese edition, “I am pleasantly surprised to have fully enjoyed a novel by Iruma Hitoma, in which the tone and feel of the character as we know her is captured well.” I look forward so much to the third volume in December, in which we see Sayaka exist apart from Touko, as she becomes the Sayaka she will bloom into.

Ratings:

Art – 10 Art by the series creator
Story – 8 A stronger sense of Sayaka’s feelings for and about Touko
Character – 10
Service – 1 Not really this time
Yuri – 7 This book is chock-full of Sayaka’s thoughts about being attracted to Touko for all the reasons.

Overall – 9

My impression of the third volume in Japanese, was that I grinned throughout. I hope you do too!

Thank you to Seven Seas for the review copy. As a result of their generosity, I have an extra copy to give away!  Enter by putting a funny story about a friend in high school saying something goofy and you’ll be entered. Use an email you check regularly. I’ll pick a winner by Sunday, August 23. (The winner has been contacted!) Here’s my story:

In high school I was sitting with some friends in the cafeteria and one of them had decided that she was head over heel in love with some senior boy. She asked us all to say what liked best about him and my future sister-in-law said, “His absence.” I absolutely lost it and haven’t stopped laughing about it since. ^_^





Bloom Into You, Volume 8

August 11th, 2020

As we pick up Bloom Into You, Volume 8 by Nakatani Nio, out now from Seven Seas, it’s almost inevitable that the unctious strains of “My Way” come floating into our minds. ^_^

Yuu and Touko at last find each other and, more importantly, find themselves. They let go of the bonds they had imposed upon themselves, and in that, find freedom to be themselves, together. It is a fitting ending to a series that had such a tenuous beginning that I could not see them together without them losing parts of what made them, them. I wasn’t wrong, but Nakatani-sensei did it all her way…and, it worked.

When you’ve waited 7 volumes for a narrative climax, it’s often easy to feel vaguely let down by the end. For Bloom Into You, it’s very much the opposite. I originally expected a train wreck at the end, but the story and characters were given the time they needed to develop. I’m confident that Yuu and Touko can be happy together, maybe even moreso because they took the long way around.

An epilogue is always appealing to me. This volume’s epilogue is filled to the brim with catching us up on everyone and everything. If there is a flaw to this volume, its that everyone has done too well, and is too happy. ^_^ But I’m not complaining, as that is still rare and precious enough to just be enjoyed.

More importantly, we have a tantalizing glimpse into Sayaka’s future….a story that is currently playing out in Bloom Into You Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 1, Volume 2 which is out now in paperback and digital and Volume 3, which will be available later this year. I happily recommend all 3 volumes.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – There is a sex scene. Whether you consider that service or not is entirely up to you.
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

Several of the after-series publications mentioned in the afterword have come to pass already. I’m currently reading the short story collection of Nakatani-sensei’s work from the Éclair anthology series, Sayonara Alter (仲谷鳰短編集 さよならオルタ). I have not yet obtained the artbook, Astrolabe, (アストロラーベ). If someone has it and would like to review it, drop me an email!





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.