Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Animation: Asagao to Kase-san Clip on Youtube

May 8th, 2017

Via YNN Special Correspondent Verso S., the animation clip being developed for Takashima Hiromi’s Asagao to Kase-san series has gone up on Youtube. Check out this “Kimi ni Hikari” starring Yamada-san and Kase-san, accompanied by, “Kimi no Egao” sung by Oku Hanako.

If you like the clip, please consider giving it a “like” and a comment on Youtube.

And then we all sit back and wonder, is this a teaser for something more? Is this testing the waters? Whiat, we have to wonder, is this clip for?

Well…

We didn’t have to wonder long, though because on Sunday the Asagao_Anime official twitter account sent out a post asking people what they thought of the clip…and asked for feed back….And commented that maybe full series might be in the works if they got enough response.

 

The official account has shown themselves fluent in English so, if you’re on Twitter, feel free to let them know what you think there, as well.

In all honesty, I thought this to be a genuinely beautiful animation of Takashima-sensei’s art. I’ll admit to grinning through the whole clip. ^_^

Here’s hoping that we’ll get a Kase-san anime!





ROD The TV Anime Rewatch (English)

May 5th, 2017

12 years have gone by since I last cracked open ROD The TV. Wow.

I had so much fun with the Girls with Guns Trilogy rewatch and wanted something else epic (but not tear jerking) to revisit, so the 7-volume box set of the Aniplex anime based in, around and on the READ OR DIE light novels and manga and READ OR DREAM manga series seemed like a perfect fit.  And it was. (For all the anime, manga and book reviews check out the R.O.D Category here.)

Three Chinese Paper Users are hired to protect Japanese author Sumiregawa Nenene. They save her from an attempt on her life, and come to Japan to stay with her. Nenene has been in a slump since her friend and inspiration, Paper Master Yomiko Readman, has disappeared.   Nenene, Maggie, Michelle and Anita are drawn into a plot that is meant to literally reshape the world, lead by Yomiko’s former boss at the British Library, Joker.  

The story turned out to be atrociously timed. As the United States is slipping more quickly than we could have imagined into a not-Democracy, with the assistance of Putin who would love to recreate the Soviet Union as the world leader, watching a story about Joker remaking the world in a former age’s image was hitting way too close to home. I was not series-angry with Joker’s stupid pretension of world peace, I was actually really angry. So that wasn’t so good.

But the story hangs together in ways that I could not have expected and the lessons I came out of the whole thing clutching at were these: In the penultimate episode Yomiko says of Joker “I have to make him give up or he’ll just keep trying again.” This is a lesson for the resistance to any repressive regime. We need to make them give up. And so we will.  It took 12 years and entire world to overthrow Hitler. My calendar is clear through 2028. We’ll get rid of these fascists, too.

Also, there is an important life lesson in the arc in which Joker “reveals” to the three Paper Sisters what the “truth” of their existence is. I use quotes because 1) ultimately it doesn’t matter, as they discover, that they were created and their memories seeded. Their feelings are real, even if the events are not and 2) why would anyone ever believe Joker in the first place? People who gaslight aren’t trustworthy. We’ll trust in our bonds, no matter what they say about us, that our marriages aren’t real, or our lives aren’t worthy. We’re going to tell our stories every day and not let the gaslighters get the final word. 

So plot and character wise, this series hold up really well. But animation-wise? Peee-yeeww. I remember vividly  when this ran on TV, fan complaints about the shitty animation and Aniplex promising that they’d do clean up for the DVD release. Well, they did, but not much and not really well. The first half is still really shitty, up to, including and past the linchpin moment when Nenene finds Yomiko in the stacks at the Diet. The animation is distractingly awful in many places. So awful that when it’s good, it’s distractingly good. “Oh! Look it’s not bad!” you exclaim and then “Oh, it’s bad again.” Over and over. This is not good for an anime series that is otherwise deep and complex and nuanced and needs your full attention to follow it all.

That said, the story is so good that, craptastic animation and all, it’s still worth watching for a definitive “history” of all the Read or Die timelines and a plot that ties them all up in a way that not only works, but provides satisfactory ends for everyone…even the bad guys, but especially the good guys.

Ratings:

Art – 3 Godfuckingawful
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – There’s a whole lot or none, depending on how you want to see it. I say 9
Service – 5 Boob mechanics are just the most pathetic thing ever,

Overall – 10, possibly 100

It’s still an amazing story. I just wish it had gotten the animation it deserved.

 





Rose of Versailles Manga, Volume 13 (ベルサイユのばら)

May 4th, 2017

Rose of Versailles, Volume 13 (ベルサイユのばら) is both a touching story and a really ridiculous, overblown melodramatic piece of nonsense. ^_^

In the first half, Oscar’s feelings towards Fersen become complicated by a melodramatic overblown psychological examination of her fears and desired around being raised as a man, complete with fantasy self dooming her to misery. This part of the book was a missed opportunity to really have Oscar delve into gender politics, but no, it’s all about one-sided love for a man she hardly knows.

The second half of the book was far more interesting, focusing on a watch that was beloved by Marie Antoinette, the circumstances around which it came into her possession and the tale of how General de Jarjayes recovers it for her, to give her comfort in her final hours in prison. It also tells the story of the watchmaker and France at the same time. The bits in prison with Marie were the best parts, showing her, not as a clueless Kardashian-like creature, but as a woman who loved what she knew of France as much as anyone. That her experience of France was vastly different to common people’s is plain. And we get to see Marie standing before the guillotine with a thought for France to prosper, which were in fact not her last words at all. (She is purported to have apologized to the executioner for stepping on his foot.)

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 2
Yuri – 0 This is a very straight book.

Overall – 8

Frustrating and touching, melodramatic and epic, Volume 13 is perfect example of the breed. Although, in retrospect, I cannot imagine General de Jarjayes would have survived the guillotine for long enough to be around when Marie was killed. Really, we can only imagine Bernard and Rosalie (who makes an appearance as Marie’s attendant in prison) to be the sole survivors of the story.





Yuri Manga: Kiss & White Lily For My Dearest Girl, Volume 1 (English)

April 24th, 2017

Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo broke into the Yuri marketplace in 2014. Although it recycled well-worn Yuri tropes, it found a willing audience with the (primarily male) readership of Comic Alive. Subsequent volumes ran with the “Yuritopia” idea and used it to tell increasingly complex and interesting stories centered around relationships at a fantasy all-girl school. I find that, as the stories move away from the first volumes, they have become more interesting – even the relationship of the main couple has moved past it’s initial boundaries.

And here we are, able to enjoy those volumes in English, with Yen Press’ release of the series as Kiss & White Lily for my Dearest Girl. In Volume 1  we meet pathologically hardworking  Shiramine Ayaka and slacker genius Kurozawa Yurine. 

As I’ve said several times recently, this particular set up is somewhat teeth grinding for me. ^_^ I’m not saying it’s unrealistic or anything, au contraire, I know several of those geniuses and let me tell you how *vexing* it is to work one’s ass off only to never be as good. ^_^ So, despite her melodrama, I’m on team Ayaka, all the way. And, if it weren’t for the fact that Yurine was also on team Ayaka, I would have chucked this series away a long time ago. ^_^

But there we are, Yurine has that even more vexing quality of being sincerely lovely as a person. Ayaka is wholly unprepared for liking her rival and even less prepared to be liked in return. Nonetheless, as their like slips causally into “like” like, Ayaka becomes somewhat less unprepared for everything.

A side story starring Ayaka’s cousin Mizuki and her closest friend and track team manager Moe, adds a little typicality to the story and gives the volume another well-worn path to walk through the lilies.

On the negative side, this series inhabits that all-female fantasy world in which adults and men exist only as shadows and barriers to happiness. It’s all a little tiresome. But, ultimately, despite the fact that this series is a “pair-’em-up” it works because none of the characters are unlikable. No matter how well-trod the paths might be, when we can sympathize with the characters, we’ll want them to be happy. We want them to give hope to all the girls who might read this series and imagine that kind of happiness for themselves and hope that some of the guys reading might just get that this is a valid way to be that doesn’t actually involve them and is still okay.

Overall, this series translated well to English. again thanks to the deft touch of Jocelyne Allen (who apparently is the current queen of Yuri translation!) I wasn’t sure if the screaming and melodrama might work, but I’m well-satisfied with the results. Technicals are otherwise well done and once again, I feel that this volume offers the kind of authentic reading experience that fans crave. 

Ratings:

Art – 8 
Story – 8
Characters – 7 
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 on principle only

Overall – 8

This ran in Comic Alive, but it could have run in a girls’ magazine as art and story are firmly rooted in shoujo stereotypes. Volume 2 will be out at the end of May!

Many thanks to Yen Press and Brgid Alverson for the review copy for this volume. ^_^

 





Yuri Manga: Kase-san and Morning Glories (English)

April 21st, 2017

In 2012, I was pleased to say about Asagao to Kase-san “the emotions ring true and the story left me smiling” and that “I wish we got to see them after this volume ends, when their relationship begins taking off.”

Three, soon-to-be-four* volumes later, I’m now triply pleased. Not only did this series leave me smiling – again – and we will get to see this couple’s relationship develop, we also have the almost-unreal thrill of being able to read the series in English!

Kase-san and Morning Glories is the English-language edition of the first volume of Takashima Hiromi’s adorable, uncomfortable and delightful Yuri series.

Yamada is an average girl, with some self-esteem issues. Issues that were not holding her back, but become more pronounced the closer she becomes with school track star, Kase. In a story that makes me twitch with discomfort because it feels so realistic, we watch Kase and Yamada become friendly, then friends, then something more. Nothing here is rushed, nothing is forced. It’s all so normal that I can’t help feel we’re being creepy voyeurs into someone’s actual life.

It remains true that this is a very “Story A” -like story, but it also remains true that we will continue to watch (too closely?) as their relationship grows and becomes more intimate, both emotionally and physically. This is a series that feels like life. And for that reason, it made my end-of-year lists for all three volumes, even making my best of the year manga for the third. 

I like Yamada, although not her best friend, and I like Kase-san, who seems very kind and decent. As I read, I want them to find one another and be happy together – a sentiment that I know I share with Yuri fandom. These two are not for us, they are for each other.

Takashima-sensei’s story is well-told and Jocelyne Allen handles the language with a deft touch. Ever characters sounds like themselves; the translation and adaptation never throws one out of the story. This volume is the “authentic reading experience” I believe manga fans are looking for. I’m so pleased that you all can join me in reading this volume, officially licensed in English and enjoy the story as I have!

Ratings:

Art – 7 A little messy, but I liked it
Story – 8
Character – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 8

*Thanks to YNN Correspondent Verso S for letting us know that a fourth volume of the Kase-san series will be out in June in Japan! Stay tuned for a title and link for pre-order. ^_^