Archive for the Series Category


Hayate x Blade 2 Manga, Volume 2 (はやてxブレード 2)

August 19th, 2015

615EVWBRbLLI gotta be honest with you. Every time I finish reading a volume of Hayate x Blade, I award myself a little mental achievement badge. Partially because for a goofball comedy, this is some of the most difficult Japanese I read on a regular basis, but also because it’s such a tremendously excellent series that I feel I have gained something critical with each volume. ^_^

In Volume 1 of the new series, Amachi Hitsugi rolled out the new dorms and the new Hoshitori rules. In Volume 2 of Hayate x Blade Nyan (はやてxブレード 2), she commences the Summer Festival, in which she turns the Tench Academy students’ lives into an unending extreme obstacle course.

First, there’s the entrance to the resort island where the festival will take place. The ladder game used for decision making, Amidakuji, is reproduced as a thin scaffolding crossing the ocean. The bars are coated in oil, so students may slip off into the water. Only those students who make it across will be part of the Summer Festival.

Those who make the crossing successfully find themselves assigned to cottages which include members of both the Tenkuu and Daichi dorms. Right away, cottage members are assigned as teams to run the multi-part obstacle race to gather food and utensils in order to make their evening’s dinner, which is of course, curry. They collect seafood from the ocean, carry heavy portions of rice through the jungle, spelunk to find equipment to cook with and are, if they gain the required items in the time allotted, awarded with the curry powder they need.

To celebrate achieving their first goal – and eating dinner – the Tenchi students annoy the shit out of the Black Group by having fun and lighting fireworks.

Character development-wise, we finally start to crack open the safe that is Nagi. Nagi’s mask slips a bit when she’s paired with Ayana who already knows her weakness for the dark from Hayate. And she is further challenged when Hitsugi basically rips the emotional mask off her in the blunt, but decent manner she has. “Do you love the sword?” she asks…and Nagi doesn’t really have an answer.

While Hitsugi challenges Nagi’s worldview, Hajime does the same to Hayate. You are weak, the Black Group leader tells Hayate, you are dogs who come at Hitsugi’s call. Hayate fights back with – we’re not dogs, we’re having fun, duh.

Hayate thinks she’s weaker than Nagi, but in this volume, it becomes ever more clear that it’s probably the other way around.

A bonus chapter has Visual Band ZLAY (Strawberry Shake crossover!!!) visiting the island and performing in all their Yuri glory, which confuses the heck out of some of the students. Ayana’s all in when they start to play a series end theme she really likes. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Character – 9
Yuri – 0
Service – 1 We get a little Hitsugi dress-up.

Overall – 9

As always, the action is top notch, the characters are complex, multi-facted, complicated and interesting and the comedy is low and broad. What a great read. More please! Never stop! Achievement unlocked!





MURCIÉLAGO Manga, Volume 3 (ムルシエラゴ)

August 7th, 2015

Murcielago3The problem with liking violent manga is that one day you hit a moment where the fighting stops being the point and the gross becomes the point and you either think, “nope, crossed the line” or you hold your breath and become a guro fetishist.  While I am absolutely capable of watching an adult yakuza’s hand be cut off without feeling the slightest bit of a twinge, once you throw victimization into the mix, I’m outta there.

MURCIÉLAGO manga, Volume 3 (ムルシエラゴ) starts with a big ole leap from creepy violence into super gross.

We start off with a twin-tailed story. In the first we have a serial killer who skins the faces of his victims. Resident psychopath Koumori Kuroko is sent out by the police to catch the killer. As a counterpoint, we return to the story of the lost waif, Ringo-chan, who had been rescued by Hinako and Kuroko…and who turns out to be a serial killer herself. As the two plots develop, by which I mean the deaths pile up, we learn that Ringo’s father is the mask killer, and he’s responsible for torturing Ringo to break her into serial killing. Throughout this entire arc, I was  wholly unentertained, as the background images of Ringo’s “training” were unpleasant in any number of ways.

Thankfully the arc wrapped up and we set aside serial killer and tortured lolicon. The final arc takes the story back to a more light-hearted form of perversion and violence, as Kuroko and Hinako meet up with one of Hinako’s old classmates…and she needs their help. While Kuroko fantasizes about Chiyo, we get the set up of the next arc which takes place at a mysterious all-female mansion full of stereotypes.

Bonus content is set in an all girls school where Kuroko makes love to Chiyo, until Chiyo shakes her out of her reverie and we see that it was all just a phone game. It’s a popular game, in this house, though, because Hinako is also playing it, as well. bwah-bwah-wahhhhhh~

Ratings:

Art – No, really not.
Story – Also pretty no.
Characters – I think I’m starting to like Hinako best, frankly. She’s not a murderer like Kuroko, but she’s strange in a way I can’t pin down, competent and smarter than everyone gives her credit for. She’s no shrinking violet, either and is up to violence when she needs to be.
Yuri – Just to remind you that Kuroko is a predatory lesbian, the bonus chapter is a 10
Service – Yes, it has all the service.

Overall – Started at a 3, ended at a 7

Less victims, more ridiculous, less torture, more fighting please.





Yuri Anime: Dear Brother, Set 3, Disk 2

July 30th, 2015

DearBrother3-275x390“The tears, they will not stop.”

We hear this sentence at the end of of every preview, but do we listen? The tears, all the tears which have not been shed by Rei, by Kaoru, by Fukiko, and by Nanako are going to come gushing out in the most horrible lancing of a wound possible. It takes a pointless, awful, stupid, tragic death for healing to begin.

Saint Just is dead. It’s not a suicide, and that helps, but it doesn’t change that she’s gone.

All along, we were thinking that Nanako was the mascot of this series, that the story was always about the beautiful people. But in the end, it turns out that Nanako, like Yumi many years later, is truly the protagonist and that she functions as a catalyst for the lives around her, is not entirely accident.

Misonoh Nanako, who can see the symbolic moments in her life, the rain, the wind, and the doves, has always been the center around which this tale orbits and Saint-Just was just everyone’s mascot after all.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 6 Bathing suits, nakedness

Overall – 9

It’s been a long time since this series ran on Japanese TV. Divorcing parents are no longer a scandal, breast cancer is no longer a death certificate. But, some things are timeless. Dear Brother is timeless.





Yuri Manga: Okujou no Yurirei-san SIDE B Nakayoshi Quiz (屋上の百合幽霊さん SIDE B 仲良しクイズ)

July 21st, 2015

In May, I oknyyssbnqreviewed the first of two Okujou no Yuri Yurei-san manga, based on characters from the popular Visual Novel series. In Okujou no Yurirei-san Side B – Nakayoshi Quiz, we stay in the same school, but meet new characters.

We follow Hasechi Haru, who is absolutely massively wowed by the co-presidents of the Quiz Show Research Club, Rika and Natsuki. Not only are they awesome perfomers and full of knowledge, they make a great couple…she thinks. And so does the other newbie in the club, Chiharu. Haru and Chiharu are different types, but it turns out that they share a little Yurijin fetish.

In between training absurdly hard for quiz shows  – by jogging, because exercise stimulates your brain –  (unlike, apparently, writing manga) Haru and Chiharu bond over their mutual desire to be awesome at trivia and see Rika and Natsuki happy together. So, when the co-presidents do not seem happy together, the newbies conspire to make them talk it out…and they all live happily ever after.

As a little cookie for their hard work Haru and Chiharu also live happily ever after.

No, this is not going to be the Yuri manga that changes the world, but it’s cute, it completely, utterly, totally lacks creepy service of any kind and all the characters act like high school girls. Wow, weird, huh? ^_^

The dynamic between Rika and Natsuki is adorable, and I sympathize with the resident Yuri goggle wearers. It would be impossible to not see a vibe between them, and it was comfortable, rather than forced that they felt that way about each other.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Utterly pleasant.
Story – 7 Cute and harmless
Characters – 8 Likable, a little thin in development as one might expect from such a series
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 Really not. A kiss or two. Nothing creeper-gaze. What a relief,

Overall – 8

You go Hirari, giving us service-free, unoffensive, bland schoolgirl Yuri that doesn’t make me want to scratch my eyes out with boredom. This was *just* what I needed this week, as I tried to work to the sound of tile saws.





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

July 15th, 2015

SMS1P2At the end of a long day of tile cutters and sanding and drilling and sawing in my home,  I really want to chill with a relaxing TV show. Sailor Moon, Season 1, Part 2, Disk 1 is not that show. ^_^

Usagi is, as the intro of the show now states, “figuring it out.” But this disk starts in a brutal place, as Nephrite, who is showing signs of being a decent being, is killed. Killed, horribly and pointlessly, although not quite *as* pointlessly as Jadeite.  This means that Naru becomes the focus for a little while, as Usagi does her best to be a good friend. Remember, it is this friendship that gives Usagi the first real taste of what being a “soldier for love and justice” means, so Usagi hanging on and being there for Naru while she works through everything, is critical to us being able to like her.

At last, we add Sailor Jupiter. It’s always hard for me to pick an Inner Senshi I like best, but Makoto is usually my first choice, then I say, “well, Ami’s adorable and I like Rei, and Minako’s a goof” in that order. So, yeah, she’s  my fave. ^_^ Her appearance is steeped in the tropes of the gang-girl yanki she was originally meant to be. All that was shed in favor of the uber-girly flower shop, or perhaps bakery, owner she turned out to be. But still I love Makoto’s first few minutes on screen. ^_^

Now we’re up to four Senshi, but it’s not getting any easier…and Zoisite seems to be slightly more intelligent than his predecessors. We also get a hint of his and Kunzite’s relationship. We’ll never see it without kid’s anime filters off, but it’s obvious to all of us even the bad guys know some kind of love.

We’re about to head into what I think the slowest bits of the season, but when Usagi and Rei aren’t bickering, she doesn’t whine quite as much. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 5  I didn’t say “god, look at that art” as often this disk
Story – 7 Nephrite ftw
Characters – 7 They are starting to seem more like “friends”
Yuri – 1  Makoto is a girl magnet, even if they never show that. ^_^
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 7

The monsters of the day designs are so 1990s.

Many thanks to Viz Media for the review copy. Despite my first sentence, it is a pleasure being able to rewatch this series.