Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Manga: MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 1 (English)

April 4th, 2017

Today in the “so awful it’s good” category, we have MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 1 by Yoshimurakana in English. It was every bit as violent and gross (and crass and vulgar) in English as it was in Japanese. And for that, I am very thankful.

Creepy Murderer Koumori Kuroko is recruited by the police to handle cases they can’t deal with through legal channels. She gets to kill the killers, which suits her just fine. My summation of the plot can be found here in my review of the original Japanese volume.

It’s not that I don’t like sweet love stories, or happily-ever-afters or all the many variations of a girl and another girl love each other, but I cannot properly express my delight at Kuroko and Hinako’s reaction to having their dinner at a family restaurant disturbed by a couple of low-rent criminals. They were lucky to die so quickly. 

The technical details are tops. Print and layout was completely solid, I never felt pulled out of the moment by any reproduction issues. Translation was excellent – Christine Dashiell gets my “good soldier” vote on this. 

A little light unrealistic lesbian sex, absurd car driving, extreme violence and psychopathic killers always helps me sleep well. (No, obviously not really.) But it does warm the cockles of my heart to see horrible people coming to a horrible end. And for that MURCIÉLAGO provides the goods. 

Ratings:

Art – 6 Nothing really “good” about it, but it suits the story well
Story – 7 Also not “good” but in no way is it coy. Violence Yuri, indeed.
Characters – 8 Kuroko is an evil, psychotic, pervy lesbian with a big tit lolicon fetish.
Service – 10 Nothing but
Yuri – 9 Unrealistic, but they are definitely having fun.

Overall – 9

Thank you so very much to Yen Press for the review copy and for the actual enthusiasm folks are showing for this manga. I’m certainly happy to have it, although I already know not all of it will make feel good.

If you’ve had a chance to read Volume 1, please jump into the comments with your thoughts. I’ve been going on about this series for a few years now, knowing full well that the MURCIÉLAGO fan club isn’t going to fill a small room (and we wouldn’t like or trust each other, probably) but I’m interested in what you think!





Yuri Manga: Kindred Spirits on the Roof -The Complete Collection (English)

March 30th, 2017

If you had been paying attention to Yuri manga in Japan between 2012-14 or so, you’d have been hard pressed to not hear of Okujou no Yurirei-san, a wildly popular Visual Novel that spawned Drama CDs, any number of doujinshi and even a two-part manga series.  Okujou no Yurirei-san Side A: Mou Hitotsu Yuritopia (屋上の百合霊さんSIDE A もうひとつのユリトピア) (reviewed here on Okazu) and Okujou no Yurirei-san Side B: Nakayoshi Quiz (reviewed here on Okazu) both released in Japan by Ichijinsha in 2015.

In 2016, MangaGamers put out the Kindred Spirits on the Roof  Visual Novel with English subtitles and, if you recall, I enjoyed it quite a bit (to my surprise. It almost goes without saying that I enjoyed the heck out of the Drama CDs, as well!)

And now in 2017, Seven Seas has collected both those 2015 manga volumes into one omnibus, Kindred Spirits on the Roof – The Complete Collection. Which was, for the same reasons they were very pleasant to read in Japanese, were still very pleasant to read in English.

In “Another Yuritopia” we meet Shiori and Mako, a couple who is only not a couple because Shiori is, frankly, scared of her feelings. Mako has confessed to her, but she just can’t bring herself to give a reply. VN character Hina is able to help her classmate out with good advice (as she does in the game, as well. And, of course the story contains cameos from other VN characters.

In the second story, “Friendly Quiz”, Chiharu is a Yuri enthusiast and loves the “friendliness” amongst the student body, but when she see hows in sympatico Trivia Club President and Vice President Natsuki and Rika, Chiharu knows just what to do. While training to win at the Trivia finals, Chiharu is able to use her skills to bridge a gap between her sempai and become friendlier with Tokino, her fellow new club member. What this story lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in pure joy of being happy about lesbian couples being happy. Ain’t nothing wrong with a little happy couples. ^_^

What makes these stories a little unusual and a lot pleasant, is the complete absence of the kind of male gaze we’re forced to endure usually with these tales. No obsessive, skirt hem, chest or ass-staring at all. The girls are allowed to appear as more than just body parts throughout the whole thing.

After the small gaffes with the translation in Bloom Into You, I was very pleased to see that Seven Seas had once again attained it’s usual standard of quality in translation and technicals.

These were very nice stories to read in Japanese, even if one hadn’t gone through the VN, as I hadn’t and now that I have, they were still just as pleasant – which is really quite an achievement, when you think about it.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Nice
Story – 7 Cute 
Characters – 8 Likeable
Yuri – 8 Teen Romance
Service – 1 Really not. A kiss or two. 

Overall – 8

Kindred Spirits on the Roof – The Complete Collection is a readable and very likable off-shoot of the popular Kindred Spirits Visual Novel that can be enjoyed by anyone whether they are familiar with the VN or not.

I was also very pleased to see an ad for the VN in the back of the book. This kind of cross-promotion is very important. Saturation is what makes a franchise successful.





Card Captor Sakura, Clear Card Arc Manga, Volume 1 (カードキャプターさくら クリアカード編)

March 14th, 2017

In the middle of series getting reboots and homages,and re-mastering, Card Captor Sakura is back with a honest-to-goodness sequel.

Card Captor Sakura, Clear Card Arc, Volume 1 (カードキャプターさくら クリアカード編) begins a year or so after the original series ends, as Sakura is about to begin middle school. 

The arc begins with a dream, as the other arcs have. A cloaked and masked figure appears. Sakura’s cards are all lost to a storm and a new key appears.  She wakes to find the new key in her hand and all her cards gone. Clearly, she will be tasked with gathering cards once again. 

Almost immediately, she encounters her first card. She and Kero-chan are old hands at this now, there’s no confusion about what to do and she nabs “Gale.” The card has a front and back design, but the background is transparent, and the other side is invisible. Cool. I know there’s a set for sale, I wonder if it works!

Not much has changed in this year that has passed. One major difference is that Yukito and Yue seem comfortable now sharing a body. When she needs to speak with Yue, Sakura asks Yukito if it’s all right. And it is always all right. 

Another is the lack of confusion about how to handle the Clow Cards. It’s all very business-like. Tomoyo, of course (!) is thrilled beyond belief that she can design new costumes for the Card Captor.

And finally, Li Syaoran has returned. The year has been good to him. He’s taller and calmer and clearly more mature. When he and Sakura reunite, they embrace like they really mean it. He’s still carrying the bear Sakura made for him and, although Sakura does not know this, is in touch with Eriol.

The backup cast is the same as well, although class assignments have shuffled them around. Yamazaki and Naoko are in Syaoran’s class, so the stories are even weirder and less pleasant than ever before, to Chiharu’s chagrin. Yukito and Touya are still inseparable.

As the final chapter wraps up with Sakura capturing the Siege card, we and she have no idea at all who the cloaked figure is or what the story is this time. More importantly, neither Yue no Kero-chan know either. (I’ve read the magazine chapters, so I have a little better idea what’s going on, but I’m not telling. ^_^)

If you like the original series for exactly what it was, (as I did), you’ll enjoy this new series. If you’re hoping for something more “adult” you’re not getting it. One year went by, not a decade. But if you did like it, you can also look forward to the new anime, which will premiere in 2018!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1 Tomoyo is the same as ever
Story – 7
Service – 2 Inevitable slashing of Touya and Yukito.

Overall – 9

Oh, wait…there was one other difference. When Sakura said good-bye to her mother as she does every morning, Fujitaka did not see Nadesico, as he usually does. Hrmmm….





Yuri Manga: MURCIÉLAGO 9 ( ムルシエラゴ 9)

March 2nd, 2017

By Volume 9 of MURCIÉLAGO (ムルシエラゴ), one might expect the schtick to be getting a little tired. I mean, murderous bad guy, extreme violence, blah blah blah. But..nope. ^_^

The arc with the war-era group of crazy nationalists comes to an end with a strange connection to Hinako. But it comes to an end. And, as the final battle is occurring in the sewers below the city, a new/old character is handing herself over to the police. Aiko returns to us from an earlier arc and with her -at last – there is someone who is not Kuroko to care for former serial killer Ringo. In fact, Ringo and Aiko make a great team, as we see later in the volume.

To celebrate wrapping up the case, Hinako demands a beach vacation, where she and Ringo fish and swim and *finally*, moved to action by the return of another character from a former arc, Chiyo admits she desires Kuroko. While the gang fishes with the-woman-formerly-known-as-Teresa, Narumi, Chiyo gets to enjoy Kuroko’s freakishly long forked tongue.

And then the robot lands in a ball of fire.

Mad scientist Saki is being tailed by another mad scientist and Hinako gets to be a pilot in a giant robot fight! It was awesome.

The whole volume was pretty great. Entire buildings are destroyed, but only a few people we didn’t like anyway die and Hinako gets to pilot a giant robot.

Ratings:

Art – Um…
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Service – 9
Yuri – 9, but really more for Chiyo cluing in than the sex which was um….

Overall – 9 Probably my favorite volume since the Virginal Rose arc and much less gruesome.

It wraps up with a oh-so-ironic story about incestuous sisters that I will now forget completely.





Yuri Anime: R.O.D. – Read or Die

February 19th, 2017

How surprised am I to find I have never reviewed R.O.D. – Read or Die here? Very surprised. Although, in retrospect, I guess it’s not all that surprising, as it was released on DVD here in the US in 2003 (by Manga Entertainment! Wow, that was a long time ago) and we were talking more about anime on the Yuricon Mailing List than here on Okazu back then. When I pulled the DVD off the shelf, I found it had a little blue sticker on it, which denoted the fact that we had shown it at Yuricon in June 2003. ^_^ 

Friday I had a visit from one of our Superheroes, Alice D, and, while we were chatting, playing phone games, eating cookies and watching stuff, I decided to start my next epic rewatch, this time of the R.O.D. series (plural.)

And so I am watching R.O.D. – Read or Die for the first time in more than a decade.  And in that decade, I read all the novels, both the R.O.D. and Read or Dream manga series and watched the R.O.D. The TV series, so my perspective is somewhat different than it was back in those heady days of the early 2000s. Check out my reviews here on Okazu, from 2003-to 2014 when I finished the last novel that existed at the time. We’re supposed to get the final novel in the next year. If I were Kurata, I know exactly how I’d end it, too.

R.O.D – Read or Die, introduces us to bibliomaniac Yomiko Readman, AKA “The Paper” a secret agent for the British Library. While cloned geniuses from the past are engaged in an effort to destroy everyone in the world, special agents from British Library, The Paper and Miss Deep are hard at work, protecting humanity from a plan to make us all listen to Beethoven’s “Suicide Symphony.”

This 3- episode OVA is action-packed. From the first moment we see Yomiko use her paper powers to the last, we have to marvel at the creativity of the animators. This is especially true for the fight scenes, in which Yomiko’s obsessive bibliomania and skill with paper each serve an important place in the narrative.

The most interesting quality of the animation is the color palette, in which green and purple feature significantly in and around a London background. The animation itself does not hold up all that well to be watched at higher-res than existed when Studio Deen first did the work. If I have a specific criticism of Studio Deen it is that – their animation rarely seems to wear well with the passage of time.

Of course I asked myself as I hit the play button, “Are Nancy and Yomiko actually into each other?” I mean, it’s been 15 years since we first watched it. Maybe we made that up in our heads!

As we wrapped up, Alice and I agreed that no, we really didn’t make that up. There was a very definite chemistry between Nancy and Yomiko and no amount of rationalization was making that disappear. Yomiko makes Nancy question her affection for the leader of the I-jin, Nancy makes Yomiko see another person the same way she had only ever looked at books. Or so we thought.

Because of course, Yomiko already has a lover, although we in the OVA audience don’t know that. And that lover is already gone from her life, although we don’t know that, either. And soon she will be asked to guard a young novelist and her feelings will be unguarded once again. (Correction: This series is post- Nenene, as I missed the content of the notes in Yomiko’s apartment, thanks Sean, Matt and Shannon for the correction. I was chatting with Alice and the notes were subtitled in black so I missed them completely.) And then the world will explode and everything we thought we knew about Yomiko Readman will be rewritten. 

Ratings:

Art – 5 /cough/Not so good/cough/
Story – 9 Really everything you could ask for from a fantasy-action series, although I could do with less boob movement. Bras work, guys.
Characters – 9 This was the Yomiko we all fell for, not the creepy obsessive of the novels
Yuri – 6 Yup. Definitely. Not our imagination.
Service – 4 Breasts that act as if bras and gravity do not exist.

Overall – 8

It was great fun to re-watch this after so long. More well-written than I remembered, less well-animated than I remembered, and definitely Yuri. ^_^

Special thanks to Okazu Superheroes Alice and Louis, who were both loads of fun for me this weekend!