Archive for the Yuri Anime Category


Yuri Anime: Card Captor Sakura (English)

September 16th, 2014

ccsSo, the last month or so I have been mainlining all 70 episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura on Crunchyroll.  And y’know…I like it all over again. ^_^

You have to remember, we were coming off a Sailor Moon high the first time. All those amazing voice actresses, and there they were scooped up the immensely talented all-woman studio, CLAMP, no less. It was a perfect set up for Yuri fans.

And then…it started going all bent and alt-sexuality right away. The BL fans went gaga (rightfully so) over Touya and Yukito, fans of intergenerational relationships had Terada-sensei and Rika, and Kaho and Touya, and Fujitaka and Nadesico. Yuri fans had Sonomi’s feelings for her cousin Nadesico, mirrored by Tomoyo’s feelings for Sakura. So, basically everyone had something to be weird about. Boy with wings and long silver hair? Here’s Yue. Androgynous cute being? Have Ruby Moon. There was something for everyone, wrapped in a pretty CLAMP animation with ribbon and cake.

NIS did a really decent job with the translation, until they didn’t. And when they didn’t, it  became one of those moments that you just suck it up and do the best you can and hopefully realize that you can’t just ignore the honorifics and hope they go away. (Only companies keep making the same mistake over and over. How about we learn to translate names as they are presented, already and stop fighting it, huh?) So instead of Li-kun becoming Xialoang (a transliteration I 100% approve of, btw. It is correct), they struggle with Xiolang to…um, “bestie.” Yeah, no.

The film quality is great, and when/if I get this, I think getting Blu-Ray will be worth it. NIS has a Hybrid Blu-Ray (Amazon/ RightStuf) version available.

It actually felt more Yuri to me this time around – Tomoyo is well and truly besotted, much more so than her mother. (Bonus for us seiyuu otaku, Sonomi is is played by Itou Miki, who played Sachiko in Marimite.)

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Ratings:

Art – 8 One of CLAMP’s most colorful and swoopy
Story – 8 Weird, but fun
Characters – 10 Enduring in a lot of ways. There never would have been a Tamao in Strawberry Panic, if there hadn’t been a Tomoyo in CCS.
Yuri – A steady, underlaid 3
Service- 6 Not physical, but psychological hoo-whee!

Overall – 9

It’s been a long time since I watched this series and I think I enjoyed it more this time around. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san End Of Season (English)

July 1st, 2014

InutoNekoThe Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san anime has come to an end, which brings this season’s Yuri anime to a close. I gave this series a first look at the beginning of the month, and I find that there are few things left I want to say about it.

First, the quality of the animation dropped off pretty sharply toward the end, but the style really never looked anything like the manga art. I expect Kuzushiro-sensei’s scratchy, loose style would actually be too difficult to animate as is.

The Yuri is actually upped a notch for the anime, in that what gets stretched out over 3+ volumes of manga is condensed for the anime. So we’re getting selected moments where Nejoyama-san is forced to recognize her actual feelings, and she and Inugami-san argue about how much they love each other.

The very last episode hints at the later plot complication of Ushiwaka’s continued attempts at seducing Inugami – something that’s easy to overlook, since Ushiwaka is presented at first as a bit of a doofus, but as the story goes on, it is becoming increasingly obvious that she’s not at all unaware of her looks or how she uses them. As the anime ends, I’m finding myself wanting to revisit the manga and watch more closely Ushiwaka and Nezu’s relationship. It initially appeared that Nezu was the more worldly of the two, but I’m rethinking that now. ^_^ In fact, they may well be the best couple in the series.

My last thought was that I actually really liked the hyper-peppy, goofy, catchy little end theme.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Character – 8
FanService – 6
Yuri – 8 I’m going to call this an 8, despite there being so little overt love-love, for the two implied couples made more obvious.

Overall – 8

I genuinely found the Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san anime to be non-taxing and quite entertaining, with more Yuri, both actual and service, than Riddle Story of a Devil. And, after the trials I went through dealing with Funimation’s maze, Crunchyroll has become a veritable haven for just clicking and being able to watch anime. Thumbs up, Crunchyroll.





Yuri Anime: Riddle Story of a Devil (English) End of Season Review

June 29th, 2014

akumaRiddle Story of a Devil, the anime based on Kouga Yun’s Akuma no Riddle manga has come to an end, and I think it’s worth a follow-up review to Eric P’s first look at it.

I watched Riddle Story of a Devil streaming on the Funimation site, which is always fraught with unnecessary frustration. (And I attempted their app, which was laughably, horribly, terrible and deserves a post of its own eviscerating its design  and lack of utility.) For non-North Americans in the audience, you can watch it streaming on Crunchyroll.

We are introduced to the mysterious “Class Black” at a very elite school, and told that 12 of the 13 class members are assassins, all of whom are targeting the 13th member, an apparently ditzy girl named Haru, in return for a reward.  Unexpectedly, one of the class members, the top star no less, chooses to defend Haru rather than buy into the game.

The engagement we’re forced to have with each character – and a few exceptionally well-written scenes early on – kept me interested in the outcome. The main reason I was interested in this story was that it was created by Kouga Yun and, like her other works, it is heavily dependent on the charactersto drive us forward, rather than the plot itself. In fact, it was strongly reminiscent of old Japanese game series, in which the characters were given their own CD singles, with short stories and songs that fleshes out the character without actually impinging upon the gameplay.

The heaviest service is laid out early on while the characters’ stories are building. The service is pretty significant, with not-very-veiled hints of horrible things throughout and a fair dollop of guro, without committing to being deeply emotionally scarring. Whether it will bother or entice you  is entirely personal. I was able to watch around it. ^_^

On the positive side, Haru is not what she appears to be at the beginning and neither is Tokaku. On the negative, neither of them ever really get a chance to embrace who they really are. We’re told flat out what their stories are, but they never really gel meaningfully and Haru – who could be a powerful and cool character – ends the series with the same lack of agency with which she began it.

As for Yuri…well, yay for the anime being marketed as such, but there’s damn little actually in it. Tokaku has feels for Haru, but they are tucked well away and Haru “daisuki”s Tokaku, but that could mean – especially in the context of the story – just about anything.  There is one other couple and they also are sort of presented to us as such, without any real feeling behind it. Here’s your Yuri couple, “kay? Enjoy. The Yuri equivalent of a small scoop of ice cream in a cup, presented without cherries, sprinkles or enthusiasm. ^_^ Had this series been not marketed as Yuri, the little bit that is there would have been a nice addition. As it was, I ended up feeling like an opportunity to develop at least one, and possible as many as three relationships, were wasted.

Ultimately, Riddle was a watchable 12 episodes, but lacked the depth of storytelling I’d hoped it would have. In effect, it felt exactly like what it is; a short, action- and empty emotion-filled formulaic Kadokawa series that was fine while it lasted, but is easily forgettable when it’s gone.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Fairly boilerplate
Story – 6 There are many holes, many things left unexplained, whole characters and scenes that served no purpose, but it’s not all that bothersome.
Characters – 7 The single strength of the series, everyone is appropriately sympathetic
Service – 7
Yuri – 5 Implied more than anything

Overall – 7

The riddles are not the only things that had no meaning. ^_^ I really hoped that Haru would embrace her unique qualities and she and Tokaku would take their rightful places at the head of the established hierarchy. Still, not a bad watch. I’ll see if I can pick up the manga used and give it a try.





Blade and Soul Anime, Guest Review by Grisznak (English)

June 25th, 2014

Blade and soulIt’s Guest Review Wednesday (yaaay!) and we once again have returning Guest Reviewer Grisznak with a heads-up on a series that may be of interest to you. Welcome back and take it away Grisznak!

If I said “fantasy series with female cast” you might think of  Queen’s Blade or Claymore. Well, when I saw trailers for Blade and Soul, (streaming on Crunchyroll) I had a feeling that it was gonna be another Queen’s Blade. When I saw first episode, I get a feeling that it actually might be quite good, maybe not as good as Claymore, but still… I’ve watched eight episodes now and my feelings are very, very mixed. I’d like to share them with you in this mini review.

The protagonist of the series is Alka. She has long, white hair and she is a very skilled assassin. There’s actually a prize for her head, because she’s accused of some serious crimes. Surprisingly, she is innocent, but who cares? There’s a generic very evil empire and a group of very, very evil (more evil than the empire itself) group of local SS, called “Flower Monks”, lead by the very, very, very evil (oh yeah, the evilness grows!) Jin Varrel. She is a one-man (or rather, one-woman) army and can use the very, very, very, very evil power known as Impurity. As you may probably guess, our Alka and Jin aren’t best friends at all… There’s also gang of good ruffians (in fantasy worlds all ruffians are good, aren’t they?) known as the “Pleasure Gang” – name that better suits a hentai anime. Their leader is a busty chick, too, and she has bad blood with Jin, like everyone else.

Alka travels over the world, helping people (although this sometimes ends totally wrong) and saying almost nothing. Like all female warriors in the generic fantasy worlds, her outfit is rather scanty – remember, girls, if you’ll ever have to go at war, a bikini or thong are your best friends. During her travels she meets some other girls who have some business with her. Hazuki is a head hunter with bouncing boobs and cool guns – her fights with Alka reminds me a bit those cool “knife versus gun” duels from “Noir” or “Madlax” a bit. Karen, owner of a well known inn, is a surprisingly conservatively dressed woman. She knows everything and appears wherever she should be. She’s probably most intriguing character in whole series.

“But hey, this a Yuri site!” someone may shout. Yeah, when I started watching Blade and Soul I had a feeling there should be some Yuri. Some episodes passed, nothing Yuri-like happened and I thought that I was wrong. Luckily, we have our lovely evildoers. As I mentioned, Jin Varrel uses some kind of dark something or other. She has her female sidekick and there’s definitely some kind of closeness between those two that moves further than simple friendship. We can see them naked, caressing each other in one of the episodes. Nothing more so far…

I have always said that it’s impossible or very hard at least to make good anime based upon video game. Blade and Soul is based upon MMORPG. And it’s not THAT bad. Graphics are surprisingly good, especially faces and animations. Also important, you don’t need to know that game itself to understand what’s going on. Plot… yeah, it’s somewhere there, but it has problems with some totally useless filler episodes in the middle of the series. Yes, 12 episodes series and it has fillers.  So, we have series that is not bad, but it’s not good either. What does that mean? Yes, just another, mediocre anime. We have lot of them every season.

If’ you’re looking for fantasy series with female cast, you’re better off with Claymore. If you’re looking for service based series, Queen’s Blade is your choice. If you want good Yuri anime, Akuma no Riddle might be good. What about Blade and Soul then? It’s just mediocre, with no highlights anywhere. I’m disappointed, because I really hoped it would be good fantasy anime. Well, maybe next time.

Ratings:
Art – 7 (nice design and animations, nothing stunning, but not disappointing)
Story –4 (generic + some fillers)
Characters – 5 (nothing new, nothing great, nothing terrible)
Yuri/Lesbian – 3 (Jin and her pal, no more)
Service – 6 (Hazuki’s bouncing boobs + some scanty clad warrior girls)
Overall – 4 (mediocre, just mediocre)

Christopher “Grisznak” Wojdyło is a Polish journalist and Sailor Mercury fanboy, he writes for “Otaku” magazine and Polish biggest and oldest manga and anime review site Tanuki.pl

Erica here: Thanks Grisznak. The art looks vaguely familiar. Mediocre anime with evil Yuri, I think I might even give this a try! ^_^





Yuri Anime: Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san (English)

June 3rd, 2014

InutoNekoInugami-san to Nekoyama-san by Kuzushiro-sensei is an entertaining, not very emotionally taxing manga series that runs in Comic Yuri Hime. I’ve reviewed the first two volumes of the manga here on Okazu: Volume 1 | Volume 2.

When the anime for Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san was announced, I had no compelling drive to run to see it, but since it is streaming on Crunchyroll (regional restrictions may apply), I had a chance to check it out while I was on the road this weekend – and I was pleasantly surprised. ^_^

The story,  such as it is, is the non-adventures of girls at a school who have animal names, and appear to have the temperamental characteristics of the animals they are named for. The leads are Inugami Yachiyo (a name which is mostly likely a pun on the famous faithful dog statue at Shibuya, Hachiko. 八千代 – Yachiyo ハチ公- Hachiko) and Nekoyama Suzu (whose given name implies to the small bells on a cat’s collar.) True to their names Inugami-san is dog-like, while Nekoyama-san is cat-like. Ushiwaka, (cow) Nezu, (mouse) Sarutobi (monkey) and Torikai (bird) have all joined the cast in the episodes so far.

The voice cast gives the characters a cuteness that I was not reading into their voices in the manga, a quality that lightens the mood and makes the anime more enjoyable than it might be. The gags in this series are low –  sexual innuendo, bad puns, and snort-ful cheap laughs, so I’m perfectly happy to have the tone lightened throughout. The one thing that really stands out in the first half of anime episodes is that Inugami-san and Nekoyama-san actually have an interest in one another. There’s a cheap laugh bit at the end of the 6th episode in which they find themselves clearly talking about themselves as a couple.

Episodes are 3 minutes long, and focus on some of the most suggestive scenes in the manga and you know, I’m not really going to bitch about that. ^_^ It’s being sold as “Yuri”, and the anime audience in Japan is a subtle as a brick to the forehead, so whatever works. As I said in the Kill La Kill ANNcast, it’s easier for me to deal with grossly overplayed service than coy pretend-innocent BS, of the kind one finds in Sakura Trick.

Ratings:

Art – 8 More consistent than the manga, sorry Kuzushiro-sensei
Story – 6 There isn’t one, but that’s okay
Character – 7 Whittled down to ther essence as they are here, I find I quite like them.
FanService – 6 Mostly lustful fantasies
Yuri – 7 Still mostly lustful fantasies, with the addition of the Inu/Neko and Ushi/Nezumi couples

Overall – 8

More entertaining than I expected and kind of cute in places; the anime captures Kuzushiro-sensei’s narrative style well.