Archive for the Series Category


Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor Anime, Disk 1 (English)

April 21st, 2015

IKKIXXI want to talk today about violence in comics. In particular, my love of violence in comics. Over the years, I’ve been really upfront about how I love fighting comics and animation and characters that beat the crap out of each other. Not surprisingly, I’ve received a lot of shit for it and I understand why, so I want to talk about what I mean when I say, “I like violence.”

To me there is a clear and important line between a fight between equals and an abusive situation  – and that line is the balance of power. Horror as a genre has never appealed to me, because there is always a presupposition of a power imbalance. The stalker, murderer, evil thing has the power and the rest of the cast are victims running away from or forced to fight against the character(s) with power. I suppose that a lot of people enjoy horror because at least one victim wins, usually by gruesomely destroying the bad guy. It’s not my cup of tea. Neither are portrayals of abusive situations. These are not entertainment for me.

I prefer a consenting human, who has chosen their situation, to step into a battle with a fairly matched other consenting person. Even if the fighting itself is not “fair”, the presupposition is that both fighters know what they are getting in to. (This is all relevant this week, by the way, I’ll be referring back to this conversation later, so keep it somewhere you’ll remember to find it. ^_^)

In the meantime, today, we’re going to talk about Ikkitousen, one of the honestly crappiest series I’ve ever enjoyed. My review of XX back in 2010 said this, “In Ikkitousen: Xtreme Xecutor, we pretend that Ikitousen:GG never happened and go crawling back to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms with our heads down, asking humbly for it to take us back.”

And that’s pretty much exactly what happens. Where I was wrong was on the lack of service. The TV release may have had less service, but as this is the “home theater” version, we are forced to to do the tits and crotch dance repeatedly, endlessly, pathologically. I will never have anything but utter pity for folks that actually find this stuff titillating as it’s so boring and pedestrian. You have the whole Internet to be pervy on. Go find something interesting.

So, post the Battle of Red Cliffs that was sort of recreated in Ikkitousen: DD, in the Romance of the Three Schools, a tournament of fighters is announced (again). Someone claiming to be Kentei (again) is setting Fighters up (again) this time to get at the leaders of the three schools – all of whom do not attend for separate reasons. Sousou can’t fight or Cao Cao will take over his body again, Ryuubi can’t fight or her Dragon will go out of control and Hakufu misses the boat because she’s an idiot. This leaves their champions to duke it out with the new crazy fake-Kentei and the not-quite-as-crazy sisters from Nanban. Mouyuu is notable (to me) for being voiced by Toyoguchi Megumi (Sei’s voice actress from Maria-sama ga Miteru) and for having an fetching eyepatch. Put her in some decent clothes and she’d be perfect. ^_^

I’m not going to get into the plot particularly, but I very much like that the characters are extremely aware of their histories and that when Bachou Mouki arrives, they are all instantly convinced that a new recreation of an ancient battle is on the table. Kanu and Ryomou seem to be the most tied into historical awareness – another thing that makes the two of them awesome characters.

There’s a lot of talking in this volume as we set up the fights, but I’m gonna give the story its props, the final episode on this disk ends with a fantastic scene as Hakufu and Gakushu save Ryuubi and company’s asses. I really like Gakushu. He gets the second most “aww”s from me after Ryomou. ^_^

In conclusion, Ikkitousen XX is a hideous perversion of the Chinese epic with gross amounts of service and every once in a blue moon, a terrific fight sequence that makes it all worth watching, if you like watching people beat the shit out of one another. Which I do*.

Ratings:

Art – I guess it’s okay, but why bother? 7
Story – Weirdly 9. The story is actually why I watch it.
Characters – Also weirdly 9.
Service – 10 I can’t complain, because it is what it is, but snooze.
Yuri – 2 It’s there, but all pushed to the background.

Overall – Let’s say 8 if you’re me and 2 if you’re sensible.

*After watching fantasy fighting in Ikkitousen last night, I tuned into UFC to watch a really excellent real-life MMA fight between Paige Vanzant and Felice Herrig at the end of which both I and the live audience were on our feet for Vanzant’s efforts. Two equally matched fighters, both of whom go into it knowing what they are doing, makes for an amazing bout.





Yuri Anime: Dear Brother Set 2, Disk 1 (English)

April 20th, 2015

DearBrother2When people referred to the anime based on Riyoko Ikeda’s Dear Brother manga as Yuri, it was primarily this section of the series they were talking about. Disk 1 of the second Dear Brother set is pretty much the pinnacle of Yuri in the series – it’s also a brief moment of life and joy and happiness in what is otherwise an extraordinarily dark series.

In this disk we start to realize that the drama – all of the drama – is centered upon a single person. Ichinomiya Fukiko, known as Miya-sama, is not just a terrible person, she is a pathologically controlling and sadistic person. As Saint Just starts to recover herself, rediscovering a small joy in the physical activity of basketball, Miya-sama reels her back in repeatedly, like a fisherman tiring out his prey.

But even on the darkest days, the sunlight can sometimes shine through the clouds and Saint Just finds enough of herself left to enjoy – fully and totally – basketball again. Mariko, Nanako and Tomoko are friends and can laugh and joke together without the jealousy we saw in the first set. Through Nanoko’s eyes, we discover that Mariko has fallen in love with Kaoru no Kimi. Not content to be a fan or admirer, Mariko has taken a kind of small possession of Kaoru’s well-being and not been rebuffed. This triggers thoughts in Nanako’s mind that she’s never had before and she considers the idea that she is in love with Saint-Just. Saint-Just does her best to prove to Nanako that she is not lovable at all.

But it’s when Miya-sama “teases” Nanako with veiled threats and unfunny jokes that we realize there is something much, much larger than the obvious going on. In the end, it his Ichinomiya Takashi, Miya-sama’s older brother who gives us the first clue to what it might be. We are left wondering why, when she has Saint Just on such a short leash, Miya-sama cares so much about Nanako?

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 9

Enjoy the laughter and the respite from the dark…in Disk 2 the clouds will thicken again.





Puella Magi Tart Magica Manga, Volume 1 (魔法少女たると☆マギカ The Legend of “Jeanne d’ Arc”)

March 30th, 2015

91RxF+0Ue0LYen Press is releasing the Puella Magi Tart Magica manga in April and, as I am wont to, I wanted to get a good look at the Japanese version in order to compare and contrast. So today, let’s take a brief look at the Puella Magi Tart Magica (魔法少女たると☆マギカ The Legend of “Jeanne d’ Arc”) manga.

For anyone already familiar with the Madoka Magica universe, Tart is an intriguing idea. We know from historical records that Joan of Arc testified to talking to angels and saints, that she was charismatic, passionate about France, driven, and used by every one in power at the time for their own purposes. It’s almost a no-brainer to see her in the context of a “magical girl” focused on her wish, not needing to distinguish between Witches and England in order to fulfill her contract with Kyuubey, and ultimately overwhelmed by her desire.

The story begins with Jeanne and her team of “pucelle” fighting a Witch (and the English) and freeing  a castle. We then look back to Jeanne and her sister Katrine attacked in the woods and saved by Lise, a Homura-like girl who is accompanied by Kyuubey. Instantly, Kyuubey pegs Jeanne as having magical girl potential, but it’s not until Katrine is killed that Jeanne makes her contract with Kyuubey. She and Lise set off to fight Witches…and the English.

The story is layered with actual historical events, and chilling narration, such as this line, after Jeanne meets Kyuubey, ” 1425 – A young Jeanne first hears an angel’s voice.”

Masugitsune, the artis,s has a clean, utterly typical moe style. It’s not quite rough enough to handle the horrors of the world Jeanne inhabited and not stylish enough to give us the amazing Witches the medieval mind would have imagined. I was genuinely disappointed that we weren’t getting illumination-style medieval horrors.

Yuri is little to none, but Lise’s attention to Jeanne, despite Katrine’s open admiration (and better sword handling) can be cheerfully misinterpretated any number of ways. ^_^

The thing that is vastly different in this Magica spin off series is that we already know the ending. And it is not a good one. Even if we the reader in Japan, did not know the ending of Jeanne’s story, the manga opens with it in color, so there is no way to avoid the inevitable knowledge of the brutal ending to Jeanne d’Arc’s short, but incandescent life.

Jeanne d’ Arc was 19 years old when she was burned at the stake.

The idea that Jeanne d’Arc, the Maid of Orleans, was a “magical girl” is not only appealing, but intriguing.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 5 Neither as obsessively Christian as they should have been nor as ignorant, they read like any character in any manga.
Yuri – 1 *Someone* will see something between Jeanne and Lise, because.
Service – Shockingly little, except some moderate, almost coy violence, with the exception of Katrine’s death, which was not subtle.

Overall – 8

I’m looking forward (well, no, but yeah) to reading Volume 2 and the English release of Volume 1 next month.





New Edition of Iono-sama Fanatics to be Released in Japan

March 23rd, 2015

Ionothumb According to Comic Natalie, Fujieda Miyabi’s Iono-sama Fanatics has been picked up by Ichijinsha for a new edition release, slated for June 2015.

Additionally, a spin-off story will run in  Comic Yuri Hime. A Special Edition of the manga will also include a Drama CD.

Before you get too excited, Seven Seas made it very plain on Twitter that they do not intend to license this. The conversation was interesting, because it was made plain that when they say they “orders” they do not mean sales of individual copies to people like you, they mean bulk pre-orders from chain stores. So, despite the absurdity of relying on the old comics model for sales viability, it’s clear that the industry is still hoist by that particular petard.

But, for those of you who have taken the opportunity to learn a little Japanese, this will be a wonderful reason to restart that practice, to help support one of our favorite creators and encourage Ichijinsha to continue the series. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Whispered Words, Volume 3 (English)

March 10th, 2015

ww31Yay!! Woo!! Other terms of exuberance! We have reached Whispered Words, Volume 3, out in English from One Peace Books! Whee!!

But before we celebrate, let us take a look back at how far we’ve come.

In Volume 1, we met Sumika, who is tall, athletic and hopelessly in love with her best friend, Ushio who never even considers Sumika as a possibility. Ushio isn’t trying to be cruel, but she is sure that Sumi is “normal” as she terms it and doesn’t want her to get roped into the negative treatment she’s come to expect from the other students.

In Volume 2, it becomes increasingly obvious to everyone even, eventually, them, that Sumika and Ushio are in love with each other. Even as they start taking tentative steps to be together, life gets in the way.

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In Volume 3 as Sumi, Ushio and their friends all start thinking about graduation, Ushio’s grandmother is injured and asks for Ushio to come and take care of her, potentially splitting her and Sumi apart just as they are starting to have something to stay together for. Ushio’s brother reunites with an old flame and their grandmother puts pressure on them to marry.

While all that is going on, Sumi runs for Student Council President. When rivals for Student Council President use dirty tactics, and a member of the Karate Club gets in a fight, Sumi feels her best action is to remove herself from the contest. To everyone’s surprise, Ushio steps up and takes her place in the election. There can be no underhanded tactics, after all, Ushio’s been out since middle school.

The end of this volume is everything we could really have hoped for. Recognition that life is not easy – it even has some real-life homophobia, so when love wins the day it’s just that much sweeter. It’s a story we’ve been told a million times since we were kids, but it’s rare that we get to see it in a Yuri manga – sure, the real world can be awful, but love makes us strong. And so it does. Also weak. And stupid. But sometimes it works out  and when it does, it’s totally worth it. Just like this manga series.

The third volume goes on sale officially on March 17th. Pre-orders have already shipped.

I promised you – I swore to you – that this manga was worth it. Trust me, the ending is just as much fun in English as it was in Japanese. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 10
Service – 1

Overall – 10

Thanks very much to Robert of One Peace books for the review copy, it was even better than I had hoped. ^_^ If you’re still waiting to get a copy of this series, take this opportunity to check the offerings out on the new Yuricon Store, where Volume 1 and Volume 2 are currently listed with multiple vendors and Kindle Editions are also available!