Archive for the Simoun Category


Yuri Manga: Simoun

December 12th, 2006

I spend a lot of time here at Okazu commenting on random slivers of Yuri lodged in the fingers of larger and un-yuri manga and anime series, so it’s nice, sometimes, to be able to review something that was actually created to appeal to the Yuri fandom, and yet not jam-packed with nothing but fanservice and lowest common denominator plot bunnies. Simoun, as it ran in Comic Yuri Hime is both those things. (In stark contrast to the evil twin Simoun manga, which runs in Megami magazine as a parody gag manga and deserves a review of its very own.)

Let me start with the biggest negative of this Simoun – it ended WAY too early, before the story even started, really. With this great, complex world, and all these characters to work with, the manga reads almost like a summary of the main relationship’s storyline from the anime. I can only imagine that there was a management decision involved in this. (And bizarrely, as I type these words, my iPod shuffle just started playing the Simoun anime opening song. The chances are 2:120 that I’d get a song related to Simoun. lol)

As the story begins, Aeru is a newcomer to the Chor, where she finds and confronts Chor Tempest’s Sibylla Aurea, Neviriru. Why aren’t you flying? she asks. And in doing so, she sets off a series of emotional confrontations. Her first confrontation is with Parietta, Neviriru’s close companion and self-proclaimed protector. Aeru then encounters Mamiina, Rodoreamon’s partner, who eventually challenges Aeru to a battle of will in the air, from which Aeru emerges triumphant.

We learn through flashbacks that at least in part, Neviriru is still grieving for her former partner and deceased lover, Amuria.

Also though narration and flashbacks we see that this is the same world as in the anime, a world in which all people are born female and must choose their gender. In the manga, they make their choice of gender at 15, not 17 as in the anime, but the choice is equally as fraught with…well, fraughtness. It’s THE choice they have to face. And Aeru quite openly shuns it. We also learn that the Chor are fighting a war, as they do in the anime, but the politics and pressures that affect them in the anime are absent here; as I said, the series was cruelly cut short before we could get into any of that.

Aeru’s success in breaking down Neviriru’s walls upsets Parietta, who now has to face her own feelings for Neviriru. On the cusp of forcing herself upon Neviriru – who may or may not welcome it – Parietta finds the strength in herself to give Neviriru up completely.

Free, Neviriru runs to find Aeru and vows to continue to fly with her. As priestesses, they pray together, and hear each other’s vow of loyalty and love. In a finale marred only by the fact that it comes too soon, they kiss.

A final chapter entitled “Intermission” follows devoted Rodreamon as she discusses her evil-eyebrowed, but good-hearted partner Mamiina with Aeru, then as she shows her devotion with a little emergency hair care and gentle words. Mamiina walks away, vexed that she cannot despise gentle Rodo’s affection. ^_^

The art throughout is solid, if not to my personal taste, with those little girl faces, a tendency to close-up in a decidely soap opera fashion, and clothes that quite frankly distress me in their design. LOL The color pages from Yuri Hime are reproduced, as they have been with all other Yuri Hime collections.

Honestly, the ONLY bad this about this story is that it’s over before it begins. I would have gladly read this for years and years to come. But oh well. There’s always fanfic.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 7
Story – 6
Yuri – 9
Service – 6 (Did I mention the distressing clothes?)

Overall – 7

Undoubtedly Yuri in every way, for a female audience, Simoun will probably make my “top ten” list for the year, but I just can’t stop thinking about what might have been….





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime 5, Part 2

July 30th, 2006

We pick up the thread of Yuri Hime 5 with a short post-“Hatsukoi Shimai” story set-up for the two cover girls, Mihiru (left) and Nachiru (right). They are the very bestest of friends and treaure each other but for some reason Mihiru did not join the same club as Nachiru at Tsunojo High…! The reason why is still a mystery – assumably we get their story in a future issu or maybe future covers will have other Tsunojo students until, like Lillian, and Astoria and whatever the school is in the Morinaga Milk stories, we can add Tsunojo to the unwritten list of “lesbian high schools.” ^_^

Sigh…”Nanami to Misuzu” still presents me with unpenetrable, not terribly amusing shorts. This issue they center around summer activities and much cutesy pouting.

Our fractured fairy tale is, oddly, a repeat from Yuri Hime 1. “Snow White” stays with her cute loli dwarves, and the Prince/ss is a failure.

This brings me to the biggest disappointment of this volume. The third chapter of “Simoun” is…the last. Without the least sign of the cool plot they could have built, or any hint of the actual war, the manga ends very lukewarmly. Not surprisingly, Neviriru and Aeru vow to fly together. Don’t get me wrong – the story didn’t end badly or anything, I was just hoping for *more* of it.

“Kawaii Anata” is yet another “school festival play at a girls’ school” story, where the boyish girl is glad to play the prince to the beautiful girl, but is really, really hating being pinholed by the rest of the girls. The “twist” at the end was pretty obvious, but cute nonetheless.

The last piece is an interview with three of the voice actresses for the Kotonoha Miko to Kotodama no Majou to Drama CD, which came with the manga of the same series. (A review of which will be forthcoming.) The three seiyuu are, not surprisingly, high on the “six degrees of yuri scale.” Nota Mamiko, Nabatame Hitomi and Watenabe Akeno, discuss their characters and the story of the Drama CD. My favorite moment was when Watanabe (who uses “boku” to refer to herself) was discussing her character’s (Isuzu) love for Nota’s (who is called “Notachi” by both of the others) character (Tsumugi, the Miko). Watanabe starts to talk in first person – “I love” rather than “she loves”. It was probably a calculated moment, but like the story above, sometimes you’re willing to accept it at face value anyway. lol

And that’s it for this volume….which brings me to the best thing about it. Yuri Hime 5 comes with a delightful little omake volume of a new comic by Fujieda Miyabi (of “Kotonoha no Miko to…” and Iono-sama Fanatics fame.) The new series is slated to begin next issue. This little story is called “Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan” which they translate as “Heartful-Talking in Ameiro-koucha Pavilion.” I’d probably translate is “A Pleasant Chat at the Ameiro Cafe.” In this story, we meet Seriho, the owner of Ameriro Cafe, her employee Sarasa (who has it really, really bad for Seriho) and two friends and customers, Haru and Hinoka. These characters, and the Ameiro Cafe were originally introduced in the anthology [es]Eternal Sisters 2 which I reviewed back in September 2005. (I knew I recognized the characters right away, it took me mere moments to locate the right anthology.) The story is, as with all Fujieda Miyabi stories, the kind of sweet, pleasant yuri that makes one smile and sometimes laugh out loud. This chapter revolved around a Tanabata special that Seriho would like to do at the cafe. I look forward to future chapters. :-)

So there you have it – some good, some okay and some little disappointment, but overall as usual, Yuri Hime 5 – a strong showing for good Yuri. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Simoun mid-season review

July 13th, 2006

Simoun first bleeped onto our Yuri-dar as the manga series running in Yuri Hime magazine, followed almost immediately by the anime which debuted in April 2006.

Now the Simoun franchise includes a great Original Soundtrack, an upcoming novels (Volume 1 and Volume 2), a PSP game and some news/rumor to the effect that Megami magazine will begin running the manga. There is some confusion as to whether it will be the *same* manga that currently runs in Yuri Hime or perhaps a manga created for the anime…or something else. Since the anime and the manga are telling related but not at all identical stories, and since the current crop of Japanese anime magazine overviews of Simoun are full of fanservice-y swimsuit pictures of various characters draped over one another, it’s apparent to me, at least, that they’ve discovered their audience hook. I think it’s a good bet that the manga to run in Megami will be less character and more fanservice than the one in YH – if it is not actually the same manga, simply moved to a new magazine.

But we are not here to discuss the manga…we are here to discuss the anime, which only recently passed the halfway point. For folks who are unfamiliar with Simoun or who just need a refresher course, here is a link to my Simoun category.

Before the anime began, the conversations within Yuri fandom were primarily, predictably, about the gender-choosing issue within the series, and how it might complicate any Yuri pairings. I consider it a win for the story that this topic has long ago been dropped in favor of discussion of the workings of the helical motors, the fate of Chor Tempest, and the various internal and external struggles of the Sybilla, the Simoun pilots, themselves. In fact, I’ve been really impressed by the depth of thought that Simoun fandom has displayed.

Simoun is not an easy watch. There is no doubt in my mind that if it and Strawberry Panic were licensed and sold here at the same time, that SP would be instantly popular, while Simoun would lag behind. Lowest Common Denominator *does* make a difference, and the average anime fan does still has the attention span of a gnat. The Simoun anime contains many technical terms, a large portion of which are drawn from Latin and French, and the world constructed within the series is multi-layered and not entirely filled in. The relationships between the characters are absolutely critical to the story, and complex enough that, at times, it’s not all that easy to gain a grasp of what’s going on the first time one watches an episode.

Simoun provokes many questions – a quality that *I* enjoy in an anime, but fans who want simpler entertainment might dislike. It’s a series that takes work to follow – but IMHO is worth twice every second of effort. I look forward to every episode and I am quite looking forward to the next installment of the manga in the upcoming issue of Yuri Hime.

There’s much here to admire – worldview, plot, character backstory and development. There is pandering, yes, and fetish hooks and fanservice but, because the series as a whole strikes me as intelligent, I’m willing to see them more as smart ways to keep a wide viewing audience and less as cheesy things. Call it a “handwave.” I’ll give the series the kisses and the ero-eyecatches, because it gives me more interesting things to think about.

Ratings:

Art – 7 (when its good, 9, when it’s bad 5, so it averages out)
Story – 9 (bottomed out in Episode 4 and has built steadily since.)
Music – 8 (I’ll be buying that soundtrack…)
Character – 8 (I can’t think of anyone I don’t like…seriously)
Yuri – 7 (I’m still ambivalent about this…which is good.)
Service – 5 (I mentioned the ero-eyecatches, but let’s not forget the uniforms….)

Overall – I think I’m going to have to say 8. I know that every Monday evening, I start slavering for a fix, so, yeah. 8.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime 4, Part 3

April 27th, 2006

Okay, okay, I have finally read “Nanami to Misuzu”. So, Misuzu is having weird dreams. In the first, she imagines herself in a field of flowers, making a cute little flower garland. But when she puts it on what is originally Nanami, it all of a sudden turns into Ichijou-sempai! Misuzu awakes in a sweat, and is asked by her maid if there is anything wrong. But…OMG! The maid is Ichijou-sempai! But, no, it’s not Ichijou Rina, Misuzu’s sempai, but her nearly identical younger sister Runa. To further confound and confuse Misuzu, at school Ichijou-sempai (the real one) gives Misuzu back her flower garland from the dream. Misuzu gives it to Nanami. The cat girl cheerfully relates that she has six sisters: Hitomi, Futami, Minami, Yoshimi, Itsumi, Mutsumi and, of course, she is the seventh sister – Nanami. (If you didn’t follow that, it’s a counting thing – 1-7.) When Runa arrives, Misuzu calls her Ichijou-san, which brings Rina out to join them. Utter nonsense occurs for the entirety of the last page.

“Simoun” – at last, we’ll have two whole chapters to work with. Before the new chapter we get a color page with pictures, captions, etc of the anime – pretty shiny ad basically. This is followed by the standard color pages of anime we are already talking about at the Yuricon Mailing List. You can find reviews of all of them here on Okazu, as well: Strawberry Panic, Loveless, and Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl. The last color page has random Yuri-flavored goods, CDs and manga that have largely also been covered here on Okazu. ^_^

The new issue of “Simoun” begins with Neviru dreaming of her former partner, Amuria. When she wakes, she wonders if she’ll ever be able to fly again with anyone. Looking over, she sees Aeru curled up n the floor uncovered, covers her gently with a blanket and sits with her for a while.

The next day Lodoreamon, one of the pilots of Call Tempest, is having a crisis of identity. She’s afraid to continue as a pilot, but hasn’t decided what to do about going to the sacred spring. When Aeru approaches, she finds Lodoreamon with another pilot whose name we don’t yet know. Both Aeru and the other pilot are firm in their desire to be pilots. Mamina, Lodoreamon’s partner, arrives and snidely suggets that eru doesn’t want to fight and fly so much as simply be Neviru, the Golden Pristess’ partner. Mamina snarks about Aeru’s sharing a room with Neviru, when there are perfectly good empty rooms available. Neviru shows up and says it’s not big thing to share the room, but mamina insists that as Neviru is a special person, it *is* a big thing. The unnamed pilot takes her leave, since “this conversation has nothing to do with me.” Aeru comments that she doesn’t know the girl’s name, and is told by mamina that she its not neccessary to have that information.

When challenged about her non-decision to go to the spring, Aeru says that she’s accepted her path in life and feels good about it. She’ll know when it’s time – right now, she has something else she wants to do. Her tranquility revives Neviru for a moment, but she subsides back into melancholy quickly. Lodoreamon worries that Mamina resents her staying with her in the same room. Mamina says that if she wants a partner to protect her, she should go find herself one that plans on becoming a man. Lodoreamon is devastated, and Mamina is obviously using tough love, which is hurting her a little as well.

Neviru and Aeru has a private little conversation about how much Aeru loves the sky and wants to fly. Neviru lightens up, going so far as to take Aeru’s hand, but once agin, her eyes drop and she pulls back as she thinks about Amuria. Aeru continues, though, commenting how in the sky, there are no borders or boundaries.

Mamina interrupts, harshly mentioning that that kind of thinking could get them killed, how they are focusing on a dream, rather than reality. Mamina challenges Aeru – if Aeru doesn’t fly with enough skill then Mamina would become Neviru’s partner. Aeru refuses – she says she wants to fly with Neviru, but has no interest in flying with Mamina. Neviru commands Aeru to fly with the other woman. Aeru agrees, since Neviru wishes it. Over to the side, Parieta and another pilot watch Lodoreamon during all this. They ask if she’s worried – she says she is.

Aeru and Mamina almost immediately run into a crisis, forcing Mamina to admit her own confusions and concerns. They recover and land, whereupon Lodoreamon runs up and calls Mamina an idiot for risking herself that way. Lodoreamon says that she wants to be with mamina, to be at her side – not to be protected by her, but to share life with her and fly with her. Mamina lightens up enough to tell her to do what she wants, which is about as good as Lodoreamon was every gonna get, so she’s happy. Pleased that they made up, Aeru turns to Neviru, only to be told that Neviru cannoy be her partner. End of long chapter – to be continued next volume.

“Voiceful” begins the final chapter with Hina about to do a live radio show. She hits a wall and can’t speak, much less sing, until Kaede comes to the rescue. They, after a mutual confession, presumably live happily ever after. ^_^

Mucchiri Muuni continues her story from last issue with “Song Song Roman”. Tsubaki and Umi are at school where Sa-chan, a younger student has developed a raging crush on Tsubaki. Umi finds herself obsessed and jealous – and freaked out by her own emotions. When Sa-chan confesses to Tsubaki, she is rejected bluntly – and to make matters worse – Tsubaki kisses Umi in front of her. Sa-chan cries uncle, and school life goes on happily.

And that, as they say, is that. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Simoun

April 12th, 2006

Next up in our New Spring 2006 Yuri Anime Season reviews, Simoun. I touched briefly on the Simoun manga that premiered in Yuri Hime 3 in February. There wasn’t too much to say about it, as the publication is quarterly and we’ve only seen one chapter. (T-minus one week to Chapter Two in Yuri Hime 4) So, I had no specific expectations going into the anime.

The premise of the Simoun anime appears to be the same as that of the manga. Our protagonists are Neviru and Aeru, two female warriors from an embattled society. Everyone in this world is born female, but at some point (it was originally stated on the website that the choice was at 15, but it has since been changed to 17) that everyone chooses whether to remain female (which they must do to continue to fight) or to become male. Most Yuri fans appear to be a bit hesitant to embrace a story in which a sudden gender change might render a lesbian couple suddenly straight, but I’m not that concerned.

The main objection appears to be that in the middle of a really wonderful yuri love affair one character might suddenly decide to change her gender. This is reasonably unlikely for several reasons, based on what I have read and seen so far:

1) This decision is a once-a-lifetime choice. At 17, you go to the sacred lake and chose. Then it’s done. You don’t choose again, and the choice isn’t reversable.

2) The main characters we are following are all going to be female because they are warrior-pilots. To fight you have to be female. I expect one or two to change gender as the story goes on, but the bulk of any main relationships you’ll see are going to be lesbian.

3) The manga is running in Yuri Hime, which is a Yuri manga publication for a Yuri audience. I think it unlikely that they’ll piss the audience off by changing too many of the couples mid-flight, as it were.

Interestingly, all the characters in this anime, male or female, are voiced by women, which I thinks puts a very unique spin on the masculinity of the male characters. I though it an original touch. In addition, several of the leading male roles are drawn with very feminine features.

Let’s go over the bad first, as I frequently do when there is more good than bad. The thing I like least has got to be the character designs. The clothing is less annoying than it is in the manga, but in general, I don’t care for the characters’ faces – especially their eyes and mouths. Most especially our heroine Neviru, looks, with that mouth, just like a sex toy blow up doll. I find that very unpleasant.

That about covers the bad. Now the neither good-nor-bad, but it makes for good conversation:

The opening episode has several Yuri kisses, which are clearly not plot drivers. On the one hand, they are, to my realistic eye, Yuri service to sell the anime to the widest audience possible. On the other hand, I think that they might also represent a tradition.

One – the pilot pairs kiss each other before departing.

Two – the pilots then kiss a green gem-like thing that must be understood to be the energy source for their ship.

I conjecture that Neviru’s original partner and she were (I think it’s fairly obvious, actually,) much closer than just partners. Neviru’s partner and she shared kisses because they were lovers, and the other pilots, seeing their princess sharing a kiss with her partner were moved to do the same – and from there it became a tradition. It’s not entirely unlikely that the partner-pilots grow exceptionally close, as they hold each others’ lives in their hands. Think of them as Spartans. But now it has become a tradition and regardless of partner one shares a kiss, to remember the fragility of life, to remember love and peace and good things, before one boards for battle.

Now let’s look at the second kiss, the one that, perhaps, activates the ship’s power source. We know pretty much nothing about it, and personally, I hope we never really do learn anything about it. It’ll make writing fanfic easier. ^_^

So – let me just take a flying leap here and say that the technology does not have to be activated by a kiss. It might be both pilots touching the gem that activates it – or their intent brought to bear upon the gem but, like the kiss shared between pilots, the kiss on the gem focuses the mind and intent *directly on* the technology, and makes it activate. So it becomes part of the tradition – a kiss for your partner, a kiss for your ship.

In a sense – a very feminine way to approach battle. In another sense, a fun, cheesy way to gain instant yuri street cred. Whichever you want. It matters not. ^_^

Serge then pointed out that the kisses may well be an older/religious tradition quite apart from Neviru and her partner, as they all refer to God quite a bit in reference to the whole thing. So there you go, justification for the conjecture. ^_^

Now for the fantastic:

On the definitely good side, we have to start off with the background art, and the CGI of the mecha. The designs for the mecha are unique and the computer animation is lovely. The backgrounds are, like the picture above, watercolor-esque and very appealing. The two combined work for me, absolutely.

Also, story-wise, I absolutely ADORED the point of view in the first epsiode. Nota Mamiko (Shimako in the Marimite anime) voices an “enemy” pilot. A large portion of the first episode is from the perspective of a pilot from what is (to us anyway) a miserable over-industrialized world, which has demonized the protagonists’ society, Simoun. Simoun is shown as a garden-like, beautiful world, without taint of smog or grime, in which the technology is as beautiful as the people. I really, really liked how we first see Simoun through the eyes of someone who seeks to destroy it. This kind of writing is more important to me than any kiss will ever be, in an anime, at least. :-)

Music was good very good, I’ll have to consider getting the soundtrack

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – hard to tell, let’s go with 6 and revise later
Story – 7, with some genuine hope for more/better if the writing keeps up
Music – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 3

Overall – 8

After two episodes, I think we can, perhaps, look forward to a decent anime with some unique characteristics, at least. Time will tell whether it is actually *good*, but at least it’s not starting out from the gutter. ^_^

Oh, and P.S. – Simoun was the name of French-made series of airplanes. Just thought you might like to know. ^_^