Archive for the Simoun Category


"Simoun" Anime US Premiere at Yuricon’s 2007 "Yurisai" Event

September 18th, 2007

Newark, NJ – Yuricon, a celebration of yuri in anime and manga, is pleased to announce the US Premiere of the Simoun anime at their 2007 “Yurisai” event!

Simoun, licensed by Media Blasters, media publisher of products targeted to fan-oriented specialty markets, tells the story of a world torn by war, and the trials of a squadron of warrior-priestesses, the Sibylla of Chor Tempest. “Simoun” was voted “Best Yuri Series” of 2006 by Okazu.

Yuricon’s 2007 “Yurisai” event, will be held Sept. 29th at the Newark, NJ Gateway Hilton! Join Yuricon and Media Blasters for the only 100% Yuri day of the year!

For more information on Yuricon, please visit our website.

For more information on Media Blasters please visit their website.

Yuricon – “For real women who like their women…animated.”
http://www.yuricon.org





Yuri Anime: Simoun

May 8th, 2007

Only about 6 months after the anime actually ended, I am *finally* getting around to doing an end-of-season review for the series that won my “Best Yuri of 2006” award, Simoun. Don’t want to rush these things, y’know.

I liked nearly everything about Simoun: the characters, the plot, the art, the music (oh god, so good…,) the ending, the epilogue. There was in fact, only one thing I did not like. The character designs…in particular, Neviriru’s design. It really distressed me. Other than that, there was just about nothing I did not like.

In particular I thought episodes 23-end were breathtaking, stunning, and wow. Yun’s choice was really powerful, and the way the story is tied up – loose ends and all – was to me completely satisfactory. In fact, IMHO, the loose ends are what made the anime work.

Let’s talk Yuri for a moment. There *is* a legitimate case for saying that there is no Yuri, as the Sibylla are meant to be understood to *not* be women, but to be maidens, as a kind of pre-pubescent state, despite their age and figure. Nonetheless, for the two girl x girl couples at the end (or three depending on how you see the one pair) I’m calling it Yuri. Because the choices were not made regardless of gender. These choices were made to some degree because of their gender. Being Sibylla made their love possible. And damn, it’s hard to explain what I mean unless you’ve seen the series. lol And I really don’t want to spoil too much. ^_^ Here’s just a small spoiler – Three Yuri, one Yaoi and one Straight couple at final count. lol (And almost everyone likes the boys best.) I liked them all.

But I wonder if it’s not just a series about love in general. Prayer in this series is inextricably linked to love, and love to the intent behind all their actions. In the end, that’s what I think Parietta’s final message is about.

“We were here – and we loved one another…and you.”

Ratings:

Art – other than the chara designs – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 6

Overall – 9

I know that I cannot be the only one to have noticed that Neviruru and Aeru did not work as a pair until they switched seme/uke roles, can I? ^_^





Yuri Anime News: Simoun Licensed

May 7th, 2007

My secret, insider, Deep Throat informant tells me that Yuri anime Simoun has been licensed by our good friends at Media Blasters. No street date yet, but I’m doing my damndest to get a Yuricon 07 exclusive. :-)

Tune in for more news as it becomes available!





Yuri Drama CD: Simoun Uruwashii no Haken OL

March 7th, 2007

I’m trying something new today…the picture on the left is linked to the Amazon.JP entry for this Drama CD, the title below is linked to the Amazon.com entry. (Yes, you can get Drama CDs from Japan through Amazon.com. Shipping from Japan is included in the price, which is why they seem so expensive. No, they have not been translated.)

If the Simoun manga that ran in Megami magazine felt like a fourth-rate cross-over rip-off fanfic, then the Simoun Drama CD: Ah, Lovely Temp Office Ladies (why are we doing this?) Simoun, Inc. feels like a not-too-bad post-series fanfic, with some funny moments.

Let’s talk about the title for second. It really is that long, with the first part being spoken (loudly) by everyone, the part in parentheses said (despairingly) by Parietta, and the last (matter-of-factly) by Neviriru.

The war is over, Aeru says at the beginning. What will we all do now? And in the flurry of discussion, Limone comments that she wants to go to Tokyo. So, go to Tokyo they do. Neviriru decides that they should form a company, which they also do. They decide to be a temp agency for “office ladies” (OLs).) The girls (everyone but Alti and Floe, that is – those actresses appear to be missing) all argue about where to live because, of course, they have no money. Neviriru wants to stay in Roppongi Hills and when everyone disagrees, she locks herself in a room and sulks. Rodreamon and Mamina (with a really scary cheerful voice) try to coax her out. Parietta does the same, but fails utterly to her chagrin.

(Somewhere in the middle of this, Rodo calls Neviriru “Nevi-chan”, and by the end just about all of them are using the nickname.)

When Aeru calls out to Neviriru, she comes right out, and when Aeru gets her to put her face out a bit more, so she can kiss Neviriru, Parietta starts on a series of depressed glosses of “I’m useless” which gains Kaimu’s sympathy, but not much more. To everyone’s discomfort Aeru and Neviriru continue to be exceedingly lovey-dovey, until Limone comments that they should take a company trip.

Company trip? Company trip! Neviriru agrees, and commands that they will leave…in the morning!

As second-in-command Parietta had taken upon herself to assign roles for everyone in the company. Aeru and Limone are the bottom rungs, so they are sent off to gather supplies. The second track consists of them bicycling to town to get stuff.

At the onsen, in the third track, the bulk of our time is spent in making Parietta look foolish. Aeru slams a door onto her accidentally pushing her into the water – that kind of thing. Parietta begins to yell, when the music changes and bizarrely from behind her, Onashia appears coming out of the onsen. It’s a walk-off cameo which I thought was simply brilliant. There’s some fanservice-y discussion of how beautiful various members’ skin is and the almost inevitable breast size conversation. They jump into the water to do “remersion practice” and follow it up with incredibly silly remersion names. When Aeur attempts to do a Suigyoku remersion, however, everyone screams “stop!” and yells at her.

This is followed by food, which they all think is disgusting, except Mamina, who thinks its wonderful. Her enjoyment helps the rest get over themselves, except Rodo, who passes.

They talk about getting entertainment, but as they have no money, they opt for a talent contest. This ends up with some marathon drinking by Parietta, who asks Neviriru to dance, only to find that Nevi-chan has fallen asleep against her. (Note the spiffy piece of fanart I found for this scene last night.)

The fourth track follows Mamina and Rodoreamon as they hit Harajuku. It’s a typical rich girl/poor girl scenario. Rodo is freaked by all the people, the idea of shopping in a 100-yen store and tries to buy a crepe with a credit card. Mamina, in turn, is utterly put off by Rodo’s choice of lunch – a ramen shop. She had hoped to eat somewhere elegant and expensive. They make up over little gifts and live happily ever after.

Track 5 includes the most inappropriate use *ever* of the Emerald remersion, as Aeru uses it to pop 30 minutes into the future so she can eat some flan.

The final track has Neviriru coming out and announcing, with many words – something that does not pass without comment – that she’s dissolving the company. Everyone is shocked, but as they come around to the idea, and discuss possible futures for themselves, Rodo mentions that she’s always wanted to be in Takarazuka. lol

After Neviriru complains that she’s running out of patience waiting for Aeru to make the first move already, the two of them finish the CD with another discomfiting bout of kissing, hugging and personal talk, this time of the slightly TMI variety.

Once again, I found the bonus track hysterical, as the actresses all discuss their enjoyment as they made the CD. The best line is right at the beginning when they are talking about Onashia’s bizarro cameo when, from the back comes Onashia’s voice saying, “don’t touch me” totally deadpan, which flattens everyone. Including me.

I have to mention the music. I’m not the only one who has mentioned how exceptional the music for this series is. Look around online, you’ll find others. It *is* exceptional. And all of the best bits are used, quite incongruously, for the Drama CD. So music that was used for battles and flying Simoun are here used for…eating flan and shopping. It adds a measure of complete wtf-ness to what is already a silly story.

Okay, so, this is NOT a serious look at the characters from Simoun. It’s also not entirely out of character, although Parietta gets beat on pretty badly throughout. But in return you get actual kissing noises done very poorly by the actresses for Aeru and Neviriru, which indicate that they are now actually a couple. (So badly its almost worth a soundbite…but I’m not gonna bother – just kiss the back of your hand once or twice loudly. Make it sound stupid. That should do it.)

Ratings:

Art – N/A
Story – 5
Characters – 6
Yuri – 7
Service – 7 (anyone pokes my breast in an onsen, they’re going to get their fingers broken…)

Overall – 6

If what you liked about Simoun was the depth, the complexity – avoid this DCD at all costs. If you can get the stick out of your butt long enough to see this as the goofball fanfic it is, you might enjoy it.





Yuri Manga: Simoun, Megami magazine version

February 5th, 2007

I must have been prophetic last week. I said, “no more reviews for a while,” went home and promptly became incredibly ill. I did make it to Jennifer’s great lecture, and I’ll talk about the book sometime in the future, but basically, I’ve been in bed since Saturday afternoon.

I’m doing a review today so you don’t all forget me, but because I’m exhausted, it’s going to be quick. So. I thought I’d review a manga that is *so* thin that I ought to be able to review it in a single sentence:

“What if the characters from Simoun were in a world that looked and functioned suspiciously like Garderobe from Mai Otome?”

And that’s the entire “story.” It’s much more like a parody doujinshi than any kind of “real” version of Simoun.

The Simoun Sybillae are in training at Arcus Prima Academy, in bouts that look suspiciously like those held at Garderobe Academy for potential Otome. They win fame, fortune, money and status, meow, meow, in these battles.

As you can see in the cover picture from chapter 2, the kisses remain, and so do the remersions, although these become attacks used in the 2-on-2 hand-to-hand battles. And Amuria is not dead, she’s just punch-drunk on remersions.

The big on-going gag (and I use that term liberally) is Aeru’s negative reaction to the whole “kissing another girl” thing, as you can see in the above picture. She is so put off by the kiss, that she kisses one of Lodreamon’s ugly dolls instead. The resulting remersion surprises the heck out of the rest of the Sybillae.

I find that I don’t have the first chapter of the five that comprised this story…I’m not sure I care.  ^_^

This is a goofy, service-laden, Lowest Common Denominator parody of Simoun. Like the Drama CD (review of which is forthcoming) if you actually *liked* the depth of the anime, you should ignore this version of the manga with all your might and stick to the Yuri Hime edition of the Simoun manga.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 2
Characters – 5 (What’s left when you take deep characters and render them into their one or two most superficial traits?)
Yuri – 5
Service – 7

Overall – 5.

It’s crap. But it still made me laugh once or twice. If it had been a doujinshi, instead of an official story, I wouldn’t have had a problem with it. As it is, it reads like a ritual diminutizing of the Simoun Sybillae. “Well, we can’t have you gals thinking you’re all that. So, some mostly naked posters and a crappy story’ll put you in yer place. Ay-yup.”