Archive for the Series Category


I’m In Love With The Villainess Manga, Volume 5

November 20th, 2023

Two girls in red jackets and blue skirt uniforms. One with short, pale hair looks smug, the other with medium-length brown hair looks angry. In the aftermath of the Commoner’s Movement and her loss of someone important to her, Claire has been listless and resistant to any attempt by Rae to lighten her mood. When her childhood friend – and first love – arrives at the Academy, Claire perks right up. But now Rae has a serious problem…now she has a rival.

Manaria Sousse, the Crown Princess of the Sousse kingdom, is a shockingly complex character. Her looks are the the boyish blond butch we are familiar with, flirtatious and charming. But underneath that is an apparently cruel person. And underneath that(!) is something like the truth. Manaria jokes easily about her complicated position in the family, and her desire to win Claire back. She pushes Rae very hard and despite knowing exactly where it will lead, Rae allows herself to be provoked.

I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 5 covers the “Scales of Love” arc which is one of the major turning points in this series.

There are two things happening simultaneously in this series. One is a shift from a goofy isekai series to serious criticism of income equality and unequal governmental representation. The Commoner Movement was the first major tone change in that theme, and more is to come.

The second shift in the story I have begun to describe this way: The story starts off gay and becomes queer. We’ve gotten a little of this as the narrative has made room for Rae to discuss her feelings and concerns about her previous  life as a lesbian. Now the story is doing something extraordinary – using it’s own tropes to make the story just a little bit queerer.  Both these two shifts will continue through the entire series and neither of them will back off. Narratively, it’s one of the best things about the whole series.

Visually speaking, this arc is the bomb. And, as it’s likely to be where the anime ends, we’ll get both the climactic battle and that extraordinary resolution to Rae and Manaria’s conflict. I commented in my review of this volume in Japanese that the art here is outstanding, and I thought that again as I re-read it. There is a panel where the princes and Misha are tensely watching events which has them leaning forward, concern etched into their faces, the rush of what is going on indicated by motion lines…it is absolutely perfect. Aonoshimo-sensei just kills it in this volume. I truly think Aonoshimo-sensei’s art elevates the heck out of the story, making this manga absolutely worth reading, even if you’ve have already read the light novels.

A fine job on translation by Joshua Hardy, and excellent work by letterer Courtney Williams. I hope Seven Seas gives her the time and money to go complete retouch, because on panels where it is full retouch, it just looks so good! Cover by Nicky Lim and George Panella is fantastic….every time I get a English-language manga with a great adaption of the JP manga cover I am made happy. I remember the olden days when getting cover art from JP rights holders was the equivalent of a publishing tough mudder. ^_^ Thank you all to the folks at Seven Seas for taking good care of this series.

Ratings:

Art โ€“ 9
Story โ€“ 9
Characters โ€“ 9
Yuri โ€“ 7
Service โ€“ Manaria is a whole tropeload of service, on her own. ^_^

Overall – 9

Things are about to get serious again…then silly…then very serious, but from this point on, the series will always be queer. And I really appreciate that. Thank you inori.-sensei!





Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity, Volume 7 (่Šฑใฎใ‚ใ™ใ‹็ต„ โˆžใ‚คใƒณใƒ•ใ‚ฃใƒ‹ใƒ†ใ‚ฃ)

October 27th, 2023

Young girl in middle school Japanese sailor-collared school uniform holds a 500 yen coin on a chain in a defensive posture, surrounded by half an Infinity symbol in hot pink.Buckle in, folks, today’s review is going to be a lot of expository commentary for a payoff that may seem small to you, but is hella powerful to me.

Our story begins in 1985, with the creation of the Hana no Asuka-gumi! (่Šฑใฎใ‚ใ™ใ‹็ต„!) manga series by Takaguchi Satosumi. It ran for 10 years and, in that decade, told the story of a suicidal girl Kuraku Asuka, who was saved by a manipulative and sociopathic two-bit criminal, Kijima Yohko, who happens to be the half-sister of Asuka’s best friend Doumoto Miko. Yohko was a horrible person and Asuka and she fell passionately into a toxic and unstable relationship. Neither of them had the emotional wherewithal to confront what we can see were intense feelings for one another, so like the street gang kids they were, they just kept beating the crap out of one another. Yohko functionally sold Asuka to the leader of all the girls gangs in Tokyo, where Asuka became Hibari-sama’s favorite toy and Minister of the Left. When Asuka left Hibari-sama, she never forgave Asuka and has spent the last nearly 30+ years trying to get her back. Yohko ends up dying in a fire to save Asuka from…well from the next shitty thing she’d do to Asuka, really.  

In 2003, in Shin Hana no Asuka-gumi! (ๆ–ฐใƒป่Šฑใฎใ‚ใ™ใ‹็ต„!) Asuka returns from America, and is immediately dragged into another war with Hibari’s organization, the Zenchuu Ura, (which is pattered after the Imperial Court, with area masters from the 23 wards of Tokyo, unaffiliated “outside” groups and absolute HORDES of special teams, which I will not list, because we could be here for ever.) Suffice it to say, typically Asuka “saves” the life of a young girl, who was dragged into shit over her head, fights off the Zenchuu Ura and shrugs. This  series ended in 2009, but in Volume 5 something unbelievable happened. I reviewed that volume in 2007, but let me quote a passage. I assure you it is salient:

In Volume 5, something I wrote in a Hana no Asuka-gumi Fanfic actually happens. Now, thatโ€™s really no big deal. I make it a point to try and stay in character when I write fanficโ€ฆor at least write the characters in a way thatโ€™s plausible, unless itโ€™s total crackfic. But in this case, I did something sort of odd, even though I thought it completely plausible. I had the dead Yohko talk to Asuka in her head. Imagine my complete surprise, nay, shock, when I started reading the chapter in Feel Young magazine and dead Yohko started talking in Asukaโ€™s head! I think my reaction was something like this:

โ€œOh. My. God.โ€

/still pause/

โ€œOh. My. &^$!ing good god.โ€

/Me holds the book up and suddenly breaks out into a spastic dance of hysterical fangirly joy./

P.S., I wrote the story years before the new series ever began.

To make it all better, Mikoโ€™s reaction to Asukaโ€™s confession that dead Yohko is talking to her practically came out exactly the same as in my story too.

So since the ’00s, my weird little conceit has been canon – dead Yohko talks to Asuka inside her head. Exactly the way I imagined she might, even the same sentences, in the same way, for the same reason. A+ for plausibility, Erica.

In 2018, 9 years after Shin Hana No Asuka-gumi! ended, Hana no Asuka-gumi! BS Hen (่Šฑใฎใ‚ใ™ใ‹็ต„! BS็ทจ) ran for two volumes. This was mostly focused on cyberbullying and expanding Hibari-sama’s influence. NOW she has groups outside Tokyo though the Honeybees, a kind of fan club that also runs underground contests and other miscellaneous money- and victim-making prospects. I think this story was mostly to see if this series still had selling power. Welp, yes it does, because the next year, Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity (่Šฑใฎใ‚ใ™ใ‹็ต„ โˆžใ‚คใƒณใƒ•ใ‚ฃใƒ‹ใƒ†ใ‚ฃ) launched. It is now finished at 9 volumes. And let me tell you….a LOT has gone on.

But you don’t care about the School Wars or all the new groups that have popped up, or that Tenshi has now ascended from pretending to be a boy in a boy band to running her own special forces, along with other godly-named fighters. Or that Asuka LOST this battle and was unable to save the girl and – for the very first time – she completely lost her cool and had a major meltdown.

Here is why I am telling you about Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity, Volume 7. Of course…it’s Yohko. Dead Yohko whose voice can still be heard by Asuka, as clearly as if she were standing there.   The thing is no one but Miko and the rest of the Western Outside Group knows about Yohko. Well, Hibari-sama and her aide-de-camp, Kasuga, but they don’t care.

So, as the School Wars are about to start – once again it’ll be Asuka vs everyone – former Area Master (head of a Tokyo Ward gang) Akae comes back, with her hair shorn to look like Yohko. She knows Yohko is Asuka’s only weak spot – and she seems to know the whole story. She tells the others that Yohko is the only person Asuka cared about, that she was everything to Asuka.

In the final page, Akae, looking like Yohko, walks out to face Asuka who is in the middle of a battle.

Friends, I screamed.

It’s been almost 40 years since Asuka met Yohko, while nursing a broken hand after a fight she lost in Shinjuku, it’s been 30 years since Yohko died in fire. Asuka is one year older and Yohko is still the most important thing in the world to her. I love this series so much. ^_^

My reviews here about this series have been sporadic and mostly incoherent as I try to explain the complicated structure of the Zenchuu Ura and the whole series, but there is a category for it: Hana no Asuka-gumi. Of these reviews, let me suggest these two for fun.

2006 – Drama CD: Hana no Asuka-gumi Gaiden (่Šฑใฎใ‚ใ™ใ‹็ต„ๅค–ไผ) – this was one of two Drama CDs for the series. I still haven’t found time to listen to the other, but this one is one of my prize possessions for reasons that will become obvious if you read the review.

2011 – Yuri Artbook: Kuraku Asuka Mairu! (ไนๆฅฝใ‚ใ™ใ‹ๅ‚ใ‚‹!). This was another item that absolutely centered my obsession with Yohko and Asuka’s relationship, in a literal sense. As well as giving space for Hibari-sama to be a complete freak.

So, look, I know none of you are running out and reading 52 volumes of an untranslated 40 year old gang girl series  – except Ashley, love you! – but IF you want to read a 40 year old gang girl series with 52 volumes of manga, two movies, a live-action TV show, 2 anime OVAs, 2 Drama CDs and 2 novels, make it Hana no Asuka-gumi!.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Seriously, I screamed.

 

 
 

 

 





She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat, Volume 3

October 23rd, 2023

Last winter I reviewed Yuzaki Sakaomi’s Volume 3 of Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna (ไฝœใ‚ŠใŸใ„ๅฅณใจ้ฃŸในใŸใ„ๅฅณ), expressing my delight over the entire volume – even squeeing throughout. Today I was able to revisit those moments of joy with the release of She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat, Volume 3 out now from Yen Press.

In Volume 1 we met Nomoto Yuki and her neighbor Kasuga, two women who bond over their use food as a form of escape from stress and entertainment. In Volume 2, Nomoto realizes that her feelings for Kasuga are more than friendship.  Here in Volume 3, Nomoto finds another friend and confidant with her online pal Yako, a woman who loves food, but doesn’t care about cooking.  And Kasuga befriends the neighbor who lives in between then, Nagumo, a young woman with a very fraught relationship with food. The four women build a family together, a space in which every one of them is accepted for who they are and their needs are accommodated. This volume is moving and funny and adorable in equal measure.

Yako gives Nomoto a primer in sexual diversity, freeing Nomoto up to stop comparing herself to other people and find her own story. Yako’s light-heartd acceptance and casual speech really blasts barriers away, so it’s an especial delight to have Caleb Cook’s outstanding translation here. In this volume we also get to see the core issue between Kasuga and her family, which is, simply, lack of respect. This is echoed by Nagumo, so they become close over the shared experiences of dealing with family that blames them for not being compliant. I don’t think I have to tell Okazu readers how powerful a message that is. When Kasuga comes to understand how she feels about Nomoto, there are layers and layers being addressed.

In this month, where we have I’m In Love With The Villainess in anime, with heartfelt discussion of queer experience, this manga is the perfect pairing for even more discussions of diversity within sexual and gender minorities. ILTV is a great ice-breaker for folks unused to these conversations in their entertainment, but She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat, Volume 3 is rooted in real experiences and reflects the kind of community that we as queer fans create for ourselves.

An outstanding volume of one of the best LGBTQ manga of the last few years.

Ratings:

Art – 9 Yako and Nagumo give Yuzaki-sensei a chance to ramp up expressions to 11
Story – 10
Characters – 9 (only to give them room to be even more wonderful)
Service – 0  Unless, like Nomoto, you consider watching Kasuga eat “service.”
LGBTQ+ – 10

Overall – 10

I was also pleased that letterer Phil Christie get to retouch S/Fx, at least on some pages, where it wouldn’t affect the art. More of that, please!

There is one more volume available right now in Japanese, but since Chapter 40 of the manga, the series has been on hiatus due to the manga artist’s health. Were’ all wishing Sakaomi-sensei a safe recovery.





Iโ€™m in Love with the Villainess: Advocating Equality for Gender and Sexual Minorities Among Indonesian Audiences, Guest Review by Lena Tama

October 18th, 2023

We continue Reality in Anime Week with a fantastic guest review by Lena Tama, who takes a look at I’m In Love With The Villainess from a different cultural lens than I bring to the topic. Today’s review is an adaptation of an Indonesian-language review for Sukarita, Iโ€™m in Love with the Villainess: Mendorong Topik Kesetaraan Minoritas Gender dan Seksual Bagi Penggemar Anime Indonesia.

I hope you’ll read Lena’s review and offer her kind comments and thanks – and feel free to share this and the original review in your fandom spaces! I promise tomorrow to talk about a different series… ^_^

 

Source: Crunchyroll

Anime is a popular entertainment medium among Indonesian audiences who donโ€™t necessarily watch them for a thorough discussion of gender and sexual orientation diversity, in spite of yuri and yaoi being some of the more popular genres.

However, with the advent of gender and sexual minorities acceptance within the anime industry, there are an ever increasing amount of titles that advocate said topics in a way that is treated with respect, including Iโ€™m in Love with the Villainess ใ€Œ็งใฎๆŽจใ—ใฏๆ‚ชๅฝนไปคๅฌขใ€‚ใ€or ILTV for short.

Born from a novel series by Japanese author Inori-sensei which then received manga adaptation as well as anime adaptation in early October, ILTV quickly rises to popularity across the world thanks to its topics of social issues and queer advocacy which reflect the progress Japanese people has made in accepting minority rights, which is something Indonesian audiences should also begin to accept, moreso among the average anime fans.

 

How the story of Iโ€™m in Love with the Villainess begins

ILTV adopts the isekai fantasy theme that may be a bit oversaturated among anime fans at this point. However, it adopts an interesting spin to the format which not only makes it fresh for existing fans but also the common audiences who arenโ€™t necessarily into anime.

The story begins with an office lady worker Oohashi Rei, an avid otome gamer whoโ€™s also a victim of Japanโ€™s overwork culture. During one night she plays her favorite otome game, โ€œRevolution,โ€ Rei collapses only to wake up in another world which happens to be the world of Revolution, the game she just played last night, complete with the story and characters intact.

Oohashi Rei, whoโ€™s now called Rae Taylor in this world, must live her life in accordance to the world settings and rules dictated by the game: Date one of the three male love interests and overthrow the gameโ€™s protagonist whoโ€™s a stereotypical noble villainess named Claire Franรงois. 

However, right off the bat, Rae makes her point clear by ignoring the worldโ€™s three male love interests and instead sets her eyes on the worldโ€™s villainess. Her passion and love towards Claire isnโ€™t even subtle since the first episode, more often than not with comedy undertone much to the villainessโ€™ dismay.

Apart from its romcom element, ILTV also provides the classic Renaissance world building with hierarchy and social status disparity between the nobles and commoners as one of its core themes. But with Rae driving the story, ILTV manages to present its heavy storytelling in a lighthearted way which helps the audiences to ingest the themes and world building. Naturally, this also helps pave the way to the discussion of its other core theme which is social acceptance of gender and sexual identity.

As early as the third episode, which is in itself a strong achievement in the anime industry, Misha Jur and Lene Aurousseau have a conversation with Rae and Claire about whether Raeโ€™s gay due to her affection to Claire despite both of them being female. No cap, no censorship.

 

And to make the discussion even more open, Rae indeed says that sheโ€™s lesbian with no  interest in men at all. Although Misha and Lene accept Rae, Claire immediately distances herself from Rae due to her prejudice and association of gay people as predators, something which Misha and Lene criticize and she reflects upon.

 

A huge step for anime industry

For a lot of people, excluding Indonesians unfortunately, this deep conversation between those four characters is nothing extraordinary. However, what makes it special among anime fans is that it doesnโ€™t hold back via a more subtle message or downplay it with comedy. Itโ€™s an open, honest discussion about Raeโ€™s sexuality.

Indeed, itโ€™s all thanks to the way ILTV portrays the characters, both the major and minor ones, by bringing new perspectives to the table and subverting peopleโ€™s expectations towards female characters in anime.

For a start, Rae Taylor openly says sheโ€™s lesbian to her friends but not to anyone else, and more often than not she would fool around for comedic purposes and to hide her fears and insecurity towards the people around her. Based on her previous life as Oohashi Rei, the prejudices and fears she experienced developed a particular defense mechanism by downplaying herself through her antics.

 

This poignant character portrayal is realistic to a fault, especially for people living in a hostile environment or a country like Indonesia where being queer is subject to discrimination by the people and authorities, and that developing a defense mechanism is mandatory to survive in the society. This makes every safe space and good friends, which allow us to express ourselves more freely in the same way that Rae does, all the more precious.

The same also goes for Claire Franรงois, the storyโ€™s supposed antagonist who openly mocks commoners and initially sees Rae as a predator for being openly gay. However, Claire manages to become humble, admit to her own faults and insecurity, and even willing to slowly open up about things previously unknown to her. This leads to her slowly acknowledging her bisexuality as she develops feelings for Rae and her antics throughout the story.

This way of presenting such a deep conversation in a respectful yet casual manner is something that I consider a success by Inori-sensei and the team production, among other social issues ILTV is about to deliver in future episodes. And as mentioned before, an open discussion about gender and sexual minorities in anime is still a rare thing to savor amid a sea of anime titles who typically pander to the cisgender heterosexual maleโ€™s fantasy along with their female characters portrayal that, more often than not, undermine gender equality in the cheapest ways possible.

That said, Inori-senseiโ€™s portrayal of gender and sexual minorities is an early indication of her experiments in discussing many heavy social issues and political intricacies. This can be a good and bad thing depending on the theme and how the team delivers them, as I notice that fans of ILTV on the internet frequently mention a particularly taboo social issue which the story is going to unfold in the future (but not here because spoiler).

While Iโ€™m personally looking forward to ILTV as someone who only has access to the anime, Iโ€™m holding my breath towards any discussion of a universally taboo social issue in this series that might ruin its reputation among casual audiences and anime fans.

 

Acknowledging Indonesian anime fansโ€™ perception towards gender and sexual minorities

Admittedly, anime as a medium is still perceived as nothing more than a childish show among Indonesian people in general, especially knowing that there hasnโ€™t been any thought-provoking  anime being broadcasted on local television channels since Indonesia first broadcasted anime on TVRI TV station in 1970 with the title Wanpaku Omukashi Kum Kum.

Adding to that is the broadcast of anime with elements of gender and sexual minorities, or the lack thereof. For decades, the nationโ€™s most frequent anime on local television have been simply a repeat of Doraemon, Dragon Ball, Naruto, and the likes without adding anything new to the table.

The closest thing to an anime with gender and sexual minorities theme broadcasted in the country was Sailor Moon which aired on Indosiar TV station in the 90s. However, the Indonesian localization team downplayed the sapphic relationship  between Sailor Uranus (Haruka Tenou) and Sailor Neptunus (Michiru Kaiou) in the same way the Western localization altered their relationship into one of familial between cousins.

This leads to the discovery of anime through the internet with peopleโ€™s knowledge toward anime and its vast genre spreading wide via international TV stations, official DVD releases, and illegal streaming sites. And yet, yuri and yaoi anime retain a negative perception among Indonesian people who are openly hostile toward gender and sexual minorities, all while also perceiving a general consensus that the aforementioned genres are nothing more than a form of fanservice in its full hypocrisy.

In spite of this, the anime industry continues to evolve. Amid the hoard of fantasy harem anime that pander to the male audiences, there are also plenty of new anime titles that bring a thorough discussion of gender and sexual minorities to the table with respect such as Gundam – Witch from Mercury (but curses be upon Bandai), Adachi & Shimamura, Bloom Into You, MagiRevo, and Iโ€™m in Love with the Villainess. Even the more popular anime such as One Piece begins to portray a diverse gender expression that is neither a satire nor a parody in the form of Yamato, a trans man who quickly gets along with the Straw Hat crew.

Iโ€™m in Love with the Villainess and other similar titles mark a new step in advocating gender and sexual minorities rights within the anime industry. Not only does it make for an entertaining and relatable show which I extremely recommend  for my fellow Indonesian queer friends, but it also helps showcase the medium which the average anime audiences consume arenโ€™t letting up. 

With this, I hope Indonesian anime fans begin to accept the advocate for  gender  and sexual minorities as well as other social issues that Rae and Claire are about to tackle in the future.

 

*About author

Lena Tama is an Indonesian trans woman, as well as a translator and freelance writer since 2016. Lena began indulging in the world of journalism in 2020 by joining The Jakarta Post. Aside from writing articles, Lena is also involved in advocating LGBTIQ+ rights and other groups of minorities in Indonesia





I’m In Love With the Villainess and ‘The Talk’

October 17th, 2023

Welcome back to Reality in Anime Week. ^_^

We’ve already discussed The Power of Hope ~ Precure in Full Bloom~‘s honest look at adult life. Today we turn once again back to I’m In Love With the Villainess, for an episode that many people hope will change anime for the better. (And some people threw tantrums about, but that’s a different conversation.)

In Episode 3, Misha turns to Rae and says, “Are you what they call ‘gay’?” In Japanese, the word used is douseiai (ๅŒๆ€งๆ„›), homosexual. Rae then answers this with honesty. At which Lene mentions that gender isn’t really the issue and Rae explains that gender does matter for her. The English dub is radiant here, with a line about “love is love” is not wrong, but gender does matter for those people for whom it matters. Ironically, we had had this very conversation the night before on the Okazu Discord. ^_^

I’m going to take a second to digress here and say that the English dub for this series is absolutely outstanding and I recommend watching either or both. Hannah Alyea as Rae is brilliant and Lindsay Shepphard is incandescent as Claire.

I spent most of yesterday reading the comments for the sub and dub (which turn out to be different! Why, Crunchyroll?) and people were positively glowing with praise for the frankness of the conversation. A few people were moved, many were surprised (I guess they haven’t been reading my reviews. ^_^;). Some folks inevitably mentioned that this has never been done before in anime – that is not 100% true, but this scene definitely broke some walls and of course anime fandom memory doesn’t go very far back as new fans never know what they missed.) I want to assure people that these walls were broken with intention – this series is not done providing realistic commentary about both queer lives and social and financial inequality. This is a show that I expected to knock people’s socks off and so far it has not disappointed.

Given that King Records thinks this series Blu-ray will sell well enough that they already have opened pre-orders, I think this may be a real moment of changing tides in an industry that has regularly utilized queer content, without accepting the people whose stories it tells. Media companies in general are conservative, and otaku are often, weirdly, also very conservative.

In a year where Kadokawa (a company that regularly profits from fannish pairings of same-sex characters and manga that portrays queer stories) backtracked on the relationship between Suletta and Miorine …a relationship witnessed by viewers worldwide, no less… this is a story that Ichijinsha is giving room to be exactly as queer as it wants and needs to be.

That’s worth celebrating.