Archive for the Series Category


Sailor Moon Anime, Season 2 Part 1 Disk 2 (English)

November 27th, 2015

In SMR21Disk 2 of Sailor Moon Season 2 (known as Sailor Moon R), the interminable intro arc with Ail and Ann wraps up and a new, more critical, interminable arc begins.

Before I get into that arc and just what it means, I need to point an unfortunate bit of quality control failure. So far, Viz’s Sailor Moon release has been pretty top notch, especially given the age and quality of the original. The single episode that defines the second season is episode 54, during which Usagi and Mamoru are kissing romantically and a small child falls out of the sky onto their heads. For whatever reason(s) episode 54’s subtitles are riddled with errors including, but not limited to, spelling Tokyo as Tokio. If this kind of thing had happened in just about any previous episode, it wouldn’t have been as a big a deal, but in the single most iconic episode of the series? I spent the rest of the disk scanning the subtitles obsessively for errors, instead of just watching the story. Not really good, considering the story was finally actually happening.

At last Chibi-Usa has arrived and we can’t stand her. Of course, we are not meant to. She is violent, she lies, she is manipulative, and worst of all, she’s mean to Usagi. And yet, we might forgive her some of this but she becomes intolerable not because of her own behavior but because Mamoru plays along with her. Could he be an bigger asshole to Usagi than he is in “R”? I do not think so. While I’ve never liked him all that much, he basically spends all of R being a jerk after that one romantic moment.

As I’ve said several times, Sailor Moon Crystal was kind to Chibi-Usa, removing almost all of the endless monsters of the day that will wear us down to our last nerve, and emphasizing her emotional trauma, her fear and hopelessness. Here, we’re just going to have to buckle down and wait it all out while she and Usagi become increasingly strident and Mamoru is an asshat. Whee.

So, that having been said, the first thing we do, in the time-honored tradition of new arcs, is run through a series of “Senshi go through a crisis, then power up” episodes! First up, Ami, in she which gets one of her two best attacks, Shine Aqua Illusion.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 5
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 6

Disk 2 is infuriating in a dozen different ways, both in regards to content and technical quality, but we’ve still got many disks to go before we see the end. Onward!





MURCIÉLAGO Manga, Volume 5 (ムルシエラゴ)

November 12th, 2015

81iKv39r5MLIn MURCIÉLAGO, Volume  5 (ムルシエラゴ), we return to the tried and true formula of Team Kuroko helping out little girls who are inexplicably being stalked and murdered by a big creepy old guy. It’s not a particularly exciting formula, but it works for this series.

Somewhat more interestingly, Kuroko takes the opportunity to seduce the mother of one of the missing girls, giving us the opportunity to see that she’s still not a good guy.

Team Kuroko is in fine form and takes out the creepy dude quickly and we turn our attention to the return of the assassin from the deadly maze arc. I’m hoping the next arc wallows a bit in beating the crap out of gang guys, with some light assassination on the side.

I find this manga relaxing in a horrible way. Nothing will be less than vile, I don’t have to worry that it might not be the worst possible thing ever. It will be. ^_^ And it will also be ridiculously silly. Not at the same time, though.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 10
Yuri – 9 Kuroko is very gay

Overall – 8

Hey, did you know that there is a Lamborghini Murciélago? I didn’t know that until a week or two ago. I have no idea if it has any relationship to the manga title but Murciélago is also Spanish for “bat.” In case you were wondering.





Sailor Moon Anime, Season 2 Part 1 Disk 1 (English)

November 3rd, 2015

SMR21When Sailor Moon was originally renewed after a successful first season, the change in art quality was immediately apparent. Toei, for once, was actually spending a little money on the animation. And so, the newly remastered version of Sailor Moon, Season 2, aka Sailor Moon R, looks fully drawn in a way that the first season never did.

Viz sent me  Part 1 and Part 2 of this set on Blu-Ray/DVD combo, so I’m watching the first half on Blu-Ray. I’m gonna have to say that as much as the art has improved from Season 1, I don’t think Blu-ray is the right way to watch this series. The art doesn’t hold up to being seen in high resolution is on a large screen. It looks much better on my laptop, with it’s smaller 15″ screen.

The sound, however, works the other way around, coming out of my reasonably new laptop speakers as a tinny almost monotone track, and coming out of my TV much more balanced. So I have to decide if I want it to sound good or look good, but both is not an option, which is not Viz’s fault per se, but is a little strange.

As Sailor Moon R begins, we recall that Princess Serenity removed everyone’s memories of being Senshi and we all returned to our normal lives. But a new threat arrives as aliens Ail and An (ailu-an=alien, get it?) chose “transfer student” as their cliche of choice. What follows, plot-wise, is relatively uninteresting, with the monsters of the day, this time called Cardians, being neither people introduced for the purpose of possessing them nor everyday objects that turned into monsters in order to be defeated. The aliens might be sympathetic if they just asked for help, so the entire plot of this arc revolves on them not having a conversation. It’s not good writing, nor need it be, as it’s not about them. The entire arc is a holding pattern while the Senshi get their memories back, then a longer holding pattern until we deal with Mamoru, who seems to have become a split personality, in which all possible versions of Chiba Mamoru are cheesy. ^_^

The high point of this arc is the episode when Usagi, heading to see what a mysterious thing is, sees Ami, Rei, Makoto and Minako in the crowd and understands that, while they don’t remember who they are, they seem to have somehow gravitated there anyway.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 5
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 2

Overall – 7

One of the best things about Sailor Moon Crystal was the compression of the R series. Without the massive amounts of filler, the story was relatively tight and, IMHO, more interesting. Back here with the original anime, we’ve got a *lot* of filler to wade through before we get to the meat of the season, and then more filler before anything is done with it. Of all five seasons, R may well be the hardest to rewatch in the original.

 

Sailor Moon R: Season 2, Part 1 (Blu-ray/DVD Hybrid)





Yuri Manga: MURCIÉLAGO 4 (ムルシエラゴ)

October 26th, 2015

What betteMurcielago4r way to rest up and relax after an event than a little light massive amounts of violence and sex? None, obviously, so upon returning home from Nijicon, I cracked open MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 4 (ムルシエラゴ), by Yoshimura Kana.

We ended Volume 3 with Kuroko entering a girl’s only school/organization/enclave/something known as “Virginal Rose.” Unsurprisingly, psychopath and predatory lesbian Koumori Kuroko is captivated by the inhabitants, all cute girls with a tragic story of violence at the hand of a man, and the school’s chairwoman, the extremely well-endowed Gold Marie.

Kuroko and I were both delighted when Gold Marie chose to welcome Kuroko in her room with some consensual, adult sex. As Gold Marie comments, in an environment like this, same-sex relationships are bound to happen, so they accept both sexual release and pair bonding when it occurs. Oh, well okay then.

Kuroko is given a new name when she is accepted into the school – Halfeti, which turns out to be a very dark, as close to black-colored rose as exists. As Halfeti finds herself intoxicated by the school and it’s inhabitants, we turn to Polina, a resident who is about to “graduate.” We, the readers, see that the graduation ceremony is nothing of the sort, but that Polina is slaughtered, her organs and blood consumed and her body chipped into the fertilizer used for the roses that Virginal Rose is known for.

Although Kuroko was asked by Chiyo’s friend, Nanami to investigate, she doesn’t, until Chiyo and Hinako, wondering what the hell has happened to Kuroko, arrive to take her home. Kuroko rejects Chiyo’s demand that she return, refuses to answer to any name but Halfeti and returns to the school. Chiyo snaps.

While Chiyo is fighting the students, Hinako is ninja-ing around. She discovers the secret underground room with one of the students and learns that this is where “graduation” is held, and that there is a beautiful creature living in the pool in the center of the room, who calls Gold Marie her oneesama. As they investigate, Anna realizes what has happened to Polina.

Chiyo fights the school’s champion, Teresa, but is knocked unconscious by Kuroko.

Gold Marie asks Halfeti to bring the intruder to the underground room. It is there that we learn that “Rose Marie,” the apparently female being that lives in the basement and desires blood, is in fact Gold Marie’s brother, who sacrificed his body to save her and who now needs blood to survive. Hinako, who is hanging on to a rope at ceiling level, feels it start to move, so she swings off it, so that it’s trajectory is altered and instead of Kuroko, Gold Marie is killed. Snapping out of her hypnotized state Kuroko is like, “Let’s go and get something to eat.”

Having rescued Nanami, Kuroko, Chiyo and Hinako go visit Ringo, the recovering loli serial killer from the previous arc, and insist that they’ll take care of her. Kuroko gets to be creepy and pervy, and I get to ignore it.

The bonus chapter covers a game Hinako is designing that stars herself, at various levels of skill.

I very much liked this volume, especially as compared with last volume. Consensual adult lesbian sex with two psychopath leads totally works for me. And I’ve discovered while I don’t enjoy violence not associated with fighting, it’s tolerable when completely decoupled from sexualization or victimization. Polina’s death was distressing, as she is an innocent, but Gold Marie dying the same way is acceptable, if a little predictable.

The best part of the manga was Teresa and Chiyo’s fight, which had the advantage of being between-well matched rivals and gives Teresa a chance to uncover for us whether Chiyo really likes Kuroko or not. “Are you a lesbian?” Teresa asks. “No, I’m not like that. It’s just her.” Chiyo responds petulantly. “That’s the kind of thing lesbians say,” Teresa laughs, which pisses Chiyo off. This leads to her beating Teresa, with a rather clever sword vs naginata move.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Even when it’s supposed to be “pretty” it’s really ugly
Story – 7  Several kinds of violence and lesbian sex
Characters – 8 More Evil Psycho Lesbians per page than anything else I read
Service – 10 Nothin’ but
Yuri – 9 This one is definitely a Yuri manga

Overall – 9

I’m not going to lie, this manga is ugly and gross in many ways, but I really like it. I’m not recommending it. I just like it.





Light Novel: Miniskirt Pirates, Volume 5 Shirogane Kyuunansen (ミニスカ宇宙海賊 5 白銀の救難船)

October 12th, 2015

MSPSR6When we left off the narrative in Volume 4, the Bentenmaru, Odette 2nd (formerly one of the “original 7” pirate ships of the galactic war, the Whitebird) and the Barbarossa*, captained by Marika, her mother Ririka and Kenjo Kurihara (Chiaki’s Dad) respectively, have teamed up to take on the irritating Jackie Fahrenheit and his plan to takeover the Odette by using the lost “original 7” ship the Blackbird as bait.

In Volume 5 of Miniskirt Pirates, Shirogane Kyuunansen (ミニスカ宇宙海賊 5 白銀の救難船), we learn why. But not for a really long time. The first several hundred pages are what can only be termed “a submarine battle in space.” Yes, the boot finally dropped and this was a novel chock full of military and scifi geekiness, throughout which I missed a good of 53% of what was being said, because I am way too lazy to look up every kanji combination. (This is the reason I want ebooks digitally. It would be so much easier to translate on the fly with digital ebooks.)

So for about 300 of 400+ pages, they maneuver slowly around a red supergiant (coincidentally, a kanji combination I could read, although I have no idea how it’s pronounced) on the verge of going supernova (same), while they shifted positions in 3-dimensional space and put me to sleep every night with brilliant dialogue like “Turning 3 degrees to starboard.”

When we finally learn why Jackie wants the Odette, it’s kind of horrible, really. He has the code for a legendary weapon, the Stellar Slayer, and we don’t have to guess too hard what that does. But it can’t be used without a single piece of critical equipment….that happens to be part of the Odette’s bowsprit. (Bowsprit is the actually word used. I found that interesting.) Jackie’s “client” wants this weapon…and wants to be able to use it.

In order to protect himself, Jackie calls in the Galactic Imperial Navy and the final 100 pages or so are a slow battle with three Galactic warchips, with more turning of three degrees, then two degrees. The final climax comes as, rather unexpectedly, they find that tucked away in an old unused relay station, the Blackbird, a grand heap of junk, with a working transponder, about to be disintegrated in the approaching supernova.

And in the end…it doesn’t end! Argh! I am very ready to see the back end of Jackie, and also find out what’s going to happen, presuming anything does. When (I mean, obviously when) they get the Blackbird, who will captain it? Does Ririka take it over? I hope so.

Back with the crew members, we had a couple of good scenes; Lynn’s computer skills impressed Ririka, and Nora, the Barbarossa’s navigator and Hyakume, the Bentenmaru’s radar and sensor specialist, bond rather cutely on the Silent Whisper.

Volume 6 takes me halfway in the series, but I’m going to have to say that if this arc doesn’t end, I might not read the volume after that. Jackie’s very annoying and I don’t read books about submarine battles for a reason. ^_^; Oh, who am I kidding, I probably will anyway.

Ratings:

Overall – 6

Much more for military and scifi fetistry fanatics than people who follow the characters. I expected it much earlier on, so we’re pretty lucky. There’s almost no service in the book, other than this skanky cover and a bit about Misa’s clothes. The next most servicey thing in the whole book was a detailed comparison of which ship was bigger than the others. Barbarossa wins.

The title translates to “Silver white rescue ship”. As opposed to the black shipwreck of Volume 4. Volume 6 has a red ship in the title.

*Yes, I know they call it the Barabalusa. It still should be the Barbarossa.