Archive for the Series Category


The Legend of Korra Cartoon (English)

February 10th, 2013

Let me tell you something true and important.

Aang was wrong.

It’s not the moment you’re most down when you unlock your potential. It’s the moment after that. When you look at where you are and think, “Well fuck this, I’m going to live anyway.” *That’s* the moment you connect with your “spiritual” self.

This weekend, during snowstorm Nemo, I took the opportunity to sit and watch all of The Legend of Korra on Amazon Instant Video.

It was excellent.

Super quicky synopsis for those of you who have never seen it: In a world where some people, known as “benders.” have power over one of the four elements, the “Avatar” can manipulate all four. Avatar-in-training, Korra, has mastered all but Air, but when she comes to Republic City to learn the fourth element she find herself caught up in a veritable war.

I never did watch Avatar – The Last Airbender, beyond catching a random episode here or there. It looked good, plenty of people I know liked it, but we just never connected. So when I heard about Korra, I was glad, but not compelled to watch it. It was on my radar, I just needed to make some time for it.

Now I have and I’m pretty pleased at the result. Every character was written incredibly well. I mean that. As a person 100% driven by connection to character, there wasn’t one of the “good guys” that I thought, “oh come on…!” Especially Korra who is that invisible-unknowable to writers in almost every media – a competent adolescent girl. Korra knows from a young age she is the Avatar and has both self-confidence and self-doubt born from that knowledge. She’s not too fragile nor is she too arrogant. She’s welcome over for lunch anytime. ^_^

The story really takes off when she deifies her teacher Tenzen’s order to stay away from sport bending. Korra meets Bolin and his brother Mako…and it’s her illicit professional bending that sets much of the story in motion.

Mako picks up a girlfriend along the way, Asami, who turns out to be a key in the larger plot. Of all the characters, she was the one I was most afraid would be written poorly, but nope. The plot screws her a bit, but the writers never do.

Bei-Fong, the police chief, is a rare middle-aged female character with both bending and secular power. She also gets moment of “waaaah” during the series usually given over to male characters.

Even Tenzen’s family are not afterthoughts. There’s a moment early on when Tenzen and Korra are arguing. Miffed, Tenzen forbids his eldest daughter from being like that, which she wisely refuses to guarantee.

The plot is jam-packed and, as a result moves a teeny bit too fast at the end, but that’s honestly one of only three quibbles I have.

Quibble the first: City Council Members who are clueless sheep. Politicians might follow the money, but darn few of them are clueless sheep. They might be delusional, insane or incompetent, but not too many people are going to make a City Council without *some* presence.  At least make Tarrlok an amazing speaker or something to convince me they were convinced that the worst ideas ever were good. (“Why yes, let’s pass a law that does the very thing the enemy is accusing us of doing! That’s a great idea!”)

Quibble the second: Nothing personal to Mako, and he didn’t have to stay with Asami, but I can think of several ways in which he and Korra did not have to end up together and the story would have ended better. Also, how vexing that Asami, who is a very decent character, is basically brought in just to end up being Korra’s rival. Snooze. I want Asami to be avenged by being a major character next time.

Quibble the third: Aang’s BS about Korra connecting with her spiritual self. Yes, I realize time was running out, but really, 5 more seconds (hey, cut out the Mako scene and you’d have had plenty of time) for the right kind of epiphany and it would have been awesome.

Other than those small things, I genuinely enjoyed the heck out of this series. Korra was definitely my definition of a “strong female lead”. (You can read a discussion of my definition in my review of Bandette.) If I had a girl child, she’d get this series and kung-fu lessons for her birthday. (With a teacher that understands why Aang was wrong!) Highly recommended.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 8

Overall – 9

Bolin was my fave character, he just said what needed to be said.





Yuri Manga: GIRL FRIENDS, The Complete Collection Volume 1 (English)

February 3rd, 2013

Five years ago, I had the pleasure of reading GIRL FRIENDS by Morinaga Milk for the first time. This cutely drawn story of an introvert girl and her extrovert best friend struck home for me (as it did, I have no doubt, for many readers.)

My reviews for Volume 1 and Volume 2 cover the evolution of the story from a “shoujo manga for men” to a realistic exploration of two young women who are totally different becoming friends…and ultimately finding themselves with much more complex feelings for each other.

Volume 1 of Seven Seas’ GIRL FRIENDS, The Complete Collection, primarily deal with the relationship from Mari’s perspective. A natural introvert, Mari has never had a best friend before. This adds an extra level of complexity – and stress – to her changing feelings and increases her desire to prove to herself that she is “normal.” (Which is *exactly why I and other people are out – to show young people that we are perfectly normal. The more people who are out, the less young people will have to go through that.)

Volume 1 ends at a difficult point and many new readers have expressed concern about the ending. Be patient readers of Yuri, this is a 5-volume manga presented in 2 omnibuses. Volume 1 of this edition ends in the middle of the story. Give the plot time to play out and enjoy the whole thing, crises and all instead of wanting to rush to the end. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 5

Overall – 7

Seven Seas did a very nice job of localization, as usual.  Extra thanks to translator Ana M. (who is also an Okazu superhero!)  for the donation of a set of both volumes of GIRL FRIENDS, the Complete Collection as a prize.

To enter to win this complete set of this delightful Yuri romance by Morinaga Milk, in the comments write a message of encouragement and hope to a young LGBT person who isn’t sure about their self or feelings right now – or even a message to your younger self. Please include your name,  – if you plan on being Anon, please give yourself a nickname so I can let the winner know they’ve won.

If you’ve won a contest recently, please feel free to enter, but you’ll understand if I pick someone else. ^_^

I’ll announce winners when I review Volume 2!

My message – There is nothing wrong with you. Society might have some catching up to do, but you are perfectly fine. Find people you can talk to, a local LBGT-friendly church or group at a university. You are perfectly fine – and you are not alone. We’re all here with you. ^_^





Bodacious Space Pirates Anime, Disk 1 (English)

January 22nd, 2013

“In a world where pirates are hired by collateral insurance companies….”

High school student Katou Marika learns that she is the only child of a Space Pirate Captain and, additionally, learns her mother was a famous pirate. Simultaneously showing natural talent at leadership and decision-making and working her ass off to learn how to be a space pirate, Marika makes it look like any of us might be able to do it, if we just apply ourselves. And who among us hasn’t wanted to be a space pirate?*

Joined by the experienced crew of her Father’s ship, the Bentenmaru,  and assisted by the members of the “Yacht Club” of her elite high school, Marika takes on any number of surprisingly fun adventures.

For anyone who has not yet watched this series, let me address the title issues: The word bodacious was probably a 19th century neologism formed from “bold” and “audacious.” Linguistic drift has added the usage of voluptuous, or even more crudely, large-breasted. The original definition certainly applies, but the latter definition is rather more inapplicable. Marika is indeed bold and audacious. This series has some, but not very much, and relatively mild fanservice. With a name like that you’d be sensible to think it was far worse than it is.

In short, this is a fun space opera that stars high school girls taking control of their circumstances, learning to make decisions, carrying out plans and building a future. All things that guarantee I will enjoy a series.

Several people have pointed out Sentai Filmworks’ salacious and irrelevant marketing copy in their reviews, but as this is the company that has always insisted on translating “Yuri” as “girl-on-girl” despite many protests, I feel that complaining that the copywriters and translators are Fanboys is redundant. Yes, they are, and that will not change because we find it annoying. As I said recently, being critical about translation choices is the least clever thing you be on the Internet. It’s Sentai, it’ll be skanky. If their ad copy makes you sad,  write them – again – and give them guidance on how to be better at their jobs. ^_^

I purchased the Blu-Ray for the series because it was a mere $4 more than the DVD. Clearly I am broken, because I genuinely do not see the difference. Well, occasionally the CGI looks worse than I remember it being when I watched it at lower resolution. ^_^

For fans of space opera, I strongly recommend this series. It’s just a whole lot of fun. ^_^ Available on DVD, Blu-Ray or legal online stream for free (region-blocking may apply.)

Ratings:

Art – 7
Character – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 1…for now
Service – Despite every effort, a mere 3

Overall – 8

*Well, okay, actually I haven’t ever wanted to be a space pirate, because I’m pretty sure I’d get sick in zero-gravity. ^_^;





Light Novel: Oshaka-sama mo Miteru: Cho Nankai Mondaishuu (お釈迦様もみてる 超難解問題集)

January 6th, 2013

Reading O-Shaka-sama mo Miteru: Cho Nankai Mondaishuu (お釈迦様もみてる超難解問題集) it suddenly dawned on me why I simply do not enjoy this series as much as I might. And with that, I formulated a new rule of writing for myself:

If you create a really great ensemble of characters and then spend a lot of time with a really irritating character instead, people will not like your story.

In the Oshaka series we have Yuuki, Arisu, Kobayashi and Takada all of whom are fun to follow. And no matter how many of these books there are, Andre-sempai will never, ever be a fun character. He’s a self-important jerk at the best of times. So when you keep taking the focus off your fun characters to spend time with the jerk, it’s going to make readers grumpy.

This book deals with the end-of-term exams and the four first-years’ issues with them. Yuuki is, predictably, a good if not outstanding student. Arisu is in the top ten of their year. Takada barely passed last semester and Kobayashi failed just about everything that wasn’t math. Andre-sempai spends much of the first two thirds of the book importuning the younger students to “Study, already” to the point of obsession. He’s not wrong – members of the Student Council do need to keep their grades up, but his constant nagging was merely that – nagging.

In the end, everyone’s grades jumped but Arisu, who remained #7. So yay, but what an annoying story.

The final third of the book is what happened on the day after New Year’s Day and why Yuuki was at Sachiko’s house when Yumi arrived. Once again I adore Sayoko, Sachiko’s mother more than anyone. And once again we spend a few moments in Yuuki’s head wondering if Kashiwagi is gay…or, not really wondering, just sort of mentioning it, just in case we forgot that he might be. The more Yuuki wonders about it, the less I’m convinced. It seems too much like service.

I don’t hate these novels – and we know that Andre-sempai isn’t in the Hanadera Council next year – so I’m sticking with the series to see what happens. I expect the next one deals with the Student Council elections and, maybe, Valentine’s Day.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

It was nice to see Sei again…. ^_^





R.O.D Rehabilitation Manga

January 4th, 2013

Books are dead. The last book has been printed, the presses shuttered. Everything has moved to electronic media.

But in a town of bibliophiles, the British Library has gathered a covert force of bibliomaniacs to gather and “kill” the remaining books in the world. Among them is Yomiko Readman, a girl who will go to any lengths to find, read and “kill” every last book in the world.

Welcome to R.O.D. Rehabilitation. As part of the lineup of Shueisha’s Super Dash & Go magazine, this seemed like it would be sure-fire win. After all, the previous incarnations of Yomiko made it into an 11-volume Light Novel series, two 4-volume manga series and three different anime versions.

This new iteration of Yomiko takes some getting used to. The creators have labeled her “dark” but you know, I always saw the old Yomiko as pretty much nuts, with a dark streak of delusion. Apparently what the creators meant is “she kills people for books.” Oh, okay then, she’s dark. It’s not the old Yomiko, in fact, her name is spelled with different kanji (the original was 読子and the new one is 読魅子,) so it’s probably a good idea to think of her as a completely different character, rather than the return of any Yomiko we know. The difference between the two names is interesting, but I’ll hold off on that for now.

Not surprisingly, I am not a fan of the new character design, which feels like they dug through Peach-Pit’s dumpsters for design ideas.

I’ve only read two chapters of the 3 chapters of the new series, so there isn’t a lot for me to work with in terms of character, plot etc. When the first volume comes out, I’ll have a better idea if I think it’s worth continuing. (Chapter 4 comes out next month, so we should see a late spring/early summer release for the volume.)

If you want a chance to taste the new series for yourself, SD&G magazine has the first chapter up online on the R.O.D. Rehabilitation Page. Click here to read the first chapter. (This is in Japanese. It seems obvious to me, but I thought I’d better say it just in case.)Ratings:

Art – 7 Moe girl in gritty Speed Grapher-esque world
Story – ? Don’t know yet
Character – Nuts
Yuri – N/A No Nenene, No Life and it looks like her partner for this series might be a guy.

Overall – Withholding score until I have a better grasp of the thing

At the moment, I’m not overwhelmed, but I’m going to give it a chance.