Archive for the Yuri Anime Category


Yuri Anime: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 3 (English)

November 15th, 2007

Today’s review was brought to you by the kindness of the good folks at Media Blasters, who also inform me that the street date for the second volume of Simoun is February 26, 2008. Something to look forward to in the depths of the winter blues. ^_^

I need to warn you all before you continue reading – today’s review is going to be chock full of GIGANTIC spoilers. I want to be able to talk about the anime without having to be clever or coy or anything else. If you have somehow managed to avoid all the spoilers for this anime and don’t want to know, read the next paragraph and then skip down to the ratings so you get my overall impression, without details. Otherwise, I’m gonna blab like an intoxicated sailor on leave. (No offense to sailors, it’s just a stereotype…for pity’s sake – you *know* what I mean!)

Kashimashi~ Girl Meets Girl, Volume 3 was a challenge. I had to remind myself over and over to not take it seriously in the least, and as that simple mantra sank in, I began to enjoy it more and more. I don’t for a second think it was *good,* but you know, it was very entertaining – and that’s pretty much why I watch anime. Entertainment that is entertaining – what is this world coming to?

Here’s the super fast recap of the plot, with links to my previous reviews:

Volume 1: An alien spaceship slams into a heartbroken and rather effeminate (but not gay…yet) boy who stands alone on a mountain. The aliens are mortified by the subsequent death of the boy, so they bring him back, but they can only do so by changing his gender. Since he was so girly, no one really seems to care much. And since she still likes girls – in fact still likes the girls he liked as a boy, she is now quite gay.

Volume 2: Both the girls, who had feelings for him as a boy now realize that they have even stronger feelings for her as a girl. Yasuna, the feminine stereotype, admits to having started liking Hazumu when he was a boy, but since she suffers from Yuri-itis and cannot see men, now that Hazumu is a girl she is free to love her wholely. Tomari, the tomboy stereotype, acknowledges that she has always loved Hazumu and despite the fact that he is now a girl, she’s prepared to love her anyway since Hazumu is still Hazumu. Maybe moreso now. We also learn that Hazumu suffers from the SPCD decideritis and cannot make a decision, to the point of it being pathological. Yasuna and Tomari agree to keep it like this between the three of them – them loving Hazumu and being friends with one another, so Hazumu can remain uncommitted and they can all relax for a little bit.

Volume 3 begins with that falling to pieces almost immediately. Shocking, I know. Instead of the group date Hazumu had planned, only she and Yasuna manage to go to the new aquarium. Tomari ends up shipping out to track-and-field camp with the team, where the other girls have a little fun teasing her gently about her relationship with Hazumu so she can be all tsundere, for thems as like that sort of thing.

Yasuna and Hazumu decide to bring Tomari’s souvenir to her directly. This takes them to the station near the training camp, where the first big crisis occurs. A conductor, trying to be nice to Yasuna terrifies her instead, so Hazumu runs over to hold her until she calms down. It is of course at that moment that Tomari sees them. And her world, which was pretty comfy ’til right about then, shatters – not because of Hazumu, but because she thinks can’t trust Yasuna anymore. I found this sort of interesting – Hazumu was essentially absolved of any culpability in this. As if she, not being able to make a decision, is also therefore completely susceptible to external manipulation. (Shoganai – it can’t be helped, being Hazumu’s basic response when anyone asks her about anything.) Which is actually quite true. Hazumu comes off here as naive, a little bit feckless and ragingly selfish, as Ayuki will point out later.

In retaliation, Tomari takes Hazumu out for a walk, takes her hair down (which Hazumu had previously said made her look more feminine and mature) and kisses her. Of course Yasuna sees this and now she feels betrayed – again, not by Hazumu, but by Tomari.

Their house of cards having quickly crumpled, things fall apart completely. Yasuna’s SPCD gets worse, so that she can no longer see anyone at all. Not even in pictures. She is alone in a world full of ghosts. Hazumu, Tomari and Yasuna, having been drawn together now are as far apart as they can be. Frustrated by Hazumu’s inability to *do* anything, even the aliens start to pack up and leave.

There is no doubt that this crisis was handled with significantly less subtlety here in the anime than in the manga. But, in keeping with my determination to not take the whole thing seriously, let’s call it a handwave and move on.

It’s at this point that Ayuki steps in. With a cold, hard dose of reality, she is the only one who blames *Hazumu* for all this. And thank goodness for that. She unerringly puts her finger on the problem with Hazumu’s nature – that in her selfishness in wanting to have her cake and eat it too, she remains passive and lets other people be hurt, rather than taking any responsibility at all.

Spurred by Ayuki’s scolding, Hazumu talks to Tomari about her decision, then finds Yasuna, who is about to leave town, and says that she wants to be together with Yasuna. Magically, her faith in humanity and Hazumu restored, Yasuna recovers.

Now, up until this watching, I have always said that this choice was the right choice for the wrong reason. I hereby completely contradict that and say it was the wrong choice for the wrong reason. Hazumu’s reason boils down to a form of extortion by Yasuna. “If I don’t go to Yasuna, she’ll be sick forever. She needs me.” And boy oh boy, plenty of women really DO use that line of reasoning to stay in dead-end relationships. “Who else will take care of him/her? S/he needs me.” (This is where I reminded myself, yet again – aliens, Erica. Talking spaceship. Church in the sky. Let it go.) Incidentally, if we are paying attention, we realize by now that it wasn’t Hazumu at all that Ayuki likes, but Tomari. I still think that originally, the mangaka was planning on it being a harem thing and decided to not go there by the time the series ended.

Which brings us to the end of Episode 12 in which Yasuna pops over to Hazumu one day with an enigmatic, “You know what?” which is then passed onto Tomari.

As I mentioned the first time I reviewed this series, I know I’m not the only person who hoped that it was a request for a threesome. I still think that they could have made it work. IF I was taking this seriously, which as you know, I am not. ^_^

Episode 13, the DVD extra episode, takes place several months after episode 12. They say 6 months, but that can’t be right. Training camps are usually during summer vacation, in August and Ep. 13 takes place at Christmas, which makes it four months later. Not that I’m taking this seriously, or anything.

We learn through flashback that what Yasuna had to say to Hazumu at the end of Ep. 12 was that she was breaking up with her. For all the right reasons. Yasuna has decided to walk on her own, as she puts it. The right decision – for the right reason. Hazumu, however, fails. Instead of walking away and learning to deal with this, she hares off and asks Tomari to be her girl. Tomari does the only sensible thing possible, she ignores Hazumu and walks away, because otherwise she’d have to slap her upside the head and say, “What the hell kind of idiot thing are you thinking?” Which also would have been in character, but also would have made Episode 13 impossible.

Unwilling to confront Hazumu about this insulting and untrustworthy request, Tomari simply freezes Hazumu out. It seems inexplicable behavior until Tomari coherently explains that how on earth was she supposed to trust Hazumu, when she was still waffling back and forth like this? Unsaid, but no less obvious – that Hazumu was willing to use Tomari as a rebound to dull the pain of a breakup. I don’t think Hazumu ever quite grasped that that was what she did. I know *I* wanted to smack her upside the head and say, “What the hell kind of idiot thing are you thinking?” but since I wasn’t taking this seriously, I didn’t. Well, maybe I muttered it a bit.

Then the stupidest thing in the world happened – the aliens came back and on Christmas Eve (which you know in Japan is for lovers, right?) they make a giant Cathedral appear in the sky where Hazumu and Tomari “get married.” This was well beyond idiotic, just like a boy being killed by a spaceship and being turned into a girl is. In other words, if we’re watching this and taking it seriously, we’re the idiot here, right? I realized at some point I was grinning like a dope. Why? I think because it was *entertaining* and I felt *entertained.* That and because I’m a big dope. :-)

People HATED Episode 13. Yasuna fans, for the obvious reasons – even though she came off as the best character in the series because of it. Tomari fans because…well, beats me, Tomari fans all seem sort of pointless angry all the time. And anyone with a lick of sense because it was *stupid.* Giant floating cathedral, sleigh ride across the sky, etc, etc. ^_^

But seriously – aliens, remember? This was NEVER supposed to be taken seriously. It was a silly plot, with a silly set-up and a silly love triangle with a silly ending.

The extras with the volume are some interviews with the seiyuu, in which they have nothing really to say, but I enjoy listening to them say it anyway. In the final interview with the three lead voice actresses, I found it very amusing that they all decided that it would have been better if Hazumu turned back into a boy, because as it ended, things might become difficult when they got older. They were all pretty concerned by this. Both Tomari’s seiyuu and I originally though that Hazumu would be returned to boy form and the story would just keep going as the love triangle. Surprise on us, huh? I can’t say I’m sad to be have been totally wrong about that.

Last thing of note – in this volume the translator has everyone in the series refers to Hazumu as “she” – except Tomari, who still is tranlated as using “he.” Since in Japanese they tended to use the genderless “aitsu,” I have to assume that was done on purpose.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 6 It had calmed down from the beginning, but suddenly towards the end, someone developed an obsession with Tomari’s ass.

Overall – 7

It was stupid. I liked it. That’s entertainment.





New Season Autumn 2007 Yuri Anime: Blue Drop

October 29th, 2007

I am typing today from the airport, where from time to time the PA erupts in loud screams and ominous music. I can’t help but wonder if someone thought that was a funny idea for Halloween. Call me crazy, but I think it’s in extremely bad taste.

Yuri anime this season is very thin. There are several series with touching that can be willfully misinterpreted (Minami-ke, Shion-no-Ou) and there’s conjecture in both English-language and Japanese forums that two of the women in Dragonaut are a couple. I haven’t watched that, so I have no impression either way.

Of all the anime that I am watching this season, only one can really be thought of as being “Yuri.” I reviewed the first volume of the Blue Drop manga a while back. I never reviewed the second volume because it was fairly unpleasant. Yes, it was Yuri, in the sense that most of the relationships were between females, but since most of the relationships were non-consensual underage sex, I declined to review it…or even to own it.

Blue Drop: Tenshi-tachi no Gikyoku takes place a thousand years before the events of the Blue Drop manga.

New transfer student Mari, is introduced to class president, honor student and classic Japanese beauty Hagino, and all hell begins to break loose. Hagino strokes Mari’s face tenderly, then tries to strangle the life out of the newcomer. Clearly, something is up.

In subsequent brief touches, both Mari and Hagino are blasted with confused memories and images…that is, these are confused and disordered to Mari, but Hagino, who is not what she appears, seems to know exactly what they mean.

Hagino, as it turns out, is an alien commander of a big assTM spaceship. She appears to be content to have her ship hidden in the bay outside the school, until a bigger boss in a bigger ship pretty much demands her to appear front and center. Hagino leaves school to take her place at the helm of her ship and the plot begins.

Yuri for this series is of the infatuation/obsession sort between Hagino and Mari, an a priori tragic love, and Micchi, who is clearly writing a Mari x Hagino slashfic in her spare time. :-)

Since the moment of their initial encounter, both Hagino and Mari are obsessed by one another. Mari is, understandably, confused (and a little turned on, if you ask some fans) by Hagino’s murderous response to her handshake. The fact that she can see Hagino talking to a girl who is glowing, translucent and alien (and who calls her commander,) and giant ships is not clarifying matters much. In fine tsundere fashion, Mari claims to loathe Hagino, while always watching her. Hagino, obviously, at least knows *of* Mari and has some clue to her lost past. But she is no less obsessed by Mari, even going so far to transfer so she can be roommates with the new girl. Is it Yuri? Let’s see, a relationship built on guilt and denial? Sounds like lesbians to me. ^_^

In other news, we meet Azanael on the Major Commander’s ship, a woman who flashes back to her lover saying goodbye some time ago, assumably before the “event” of some years previous. Azanael’s lover never returns, we have already gleaned from Hagino’s guilt-ridden imagination. So, when she sees Hagino, Azanael leaps into her expected role as Psycho Lesbian. I like that we’ve skipped the relationship part of this relationship right to one lesbian dead, one psycho. Saves time in the long run, since we know that’s where we’d go anyway.

Hagino has already defied orders to save Mari, and they have touched once more – this time without complication, so most Yuri fans see this one as a done deal. I’m a bit more skeptical, as TV anime does tend to live in the realm of plausible deniability. Even with some mostly obvious Yuri in the original manga, I’m not sure how much we’re likely to get in this series. (I tend to begin watching anime with some skepticism, so that I can be pleasantly surprised, rather that beginning with expectations and being disappointed.)

I have no doubt that Hagino will go above and beyond (and probably against) her duty to be Mari’s savior. And I have no doubt that in the ensuing events, the two of them will bond and grow close. Will there be something like love? Probably. Will there be something like a lover’s relationship? That remains to be seen.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7, except for Micchi who is clearly us – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – a mercifully low 1

Overall – 7, with hope that it will get better.

Oh, and for special for me there’s Yanki girl Nakajima Akane, with classic banchou-style ever-present stick in her mouth. I so hope that that character type gets popular once more. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Simoun, Volume 1 (English)

October 22nd, 2007

So, last week, we were talking about managing expectations in order to enjoy anime more.

And there I was this weekend, staring at Volume 1 of Simoun and wondering – how on earth would I manage my expectations of *this*? ^_^

Here’s the dilemma – I loved Simoun. I named it the best Yuri series of 2006 and I meant it. It was one of the most interesting anime series I have ever watched, and full of so many wonderful points that we can mull over and over to endless annoyance/satisfaction, depending on who you are and what you like.

And I really, really love the folks at Media Blasters. I’m thrilled that they are so genuinely interested in Yuri and want to reach out to the Yuri audience.

But, traditionally, I have not loved MB adaptations. Not because they were bad, but because I thought they were okay, but could have been better. To set the stage, let me explain why it matters so much to me:

I watch an anime with no other expectations than my own, as I said previously. In most cases I can understand some, if not most or all, of what is being said when I watch a series raw. And by doing so, I establish my own understanding of the series. When/if I watch a series subbed, I use it to fill in holes I have, and also to compare my understanding to the subbers’ interpretation. When, after all that, I have loved a series, I want to be able to wholeheartedly suggest it to other people – not only other people who are also already fans, but to people who may not have ever seen the original. And for these last, I need the translations to be all that. Otherwise, what I see as awesome, may come off as being incomprehensible, or uninteresting. Most people who watch an anime are not me. I read fast, seeing the subtitles almost as a subliminal. If the words in the translation don’t match my understanding of what’s being said it jars me. But for a person who relies on that subtitle for the entire meaning of the story, if the words are lazily written, or difficult to follow – or plain wrong, then that person is getting a whole chunk of the story taken away from them. Like having a huge black line through the art – sure you can watch around it, but it’s hard to enjoy.

Okay, that all having been said, let me cut to the chase – overall, I think Media Blasters did a very good job with Simoun. Better than usual, and much better than I expected.

Phew.

It’s not perfect, by any stretch, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Okay, first things first. I need to thank the folks at Media Blasters with all my thanks. They didn’t just send me a copy of Simoun to review – they sent me the very first copy to be printed in the US. And the cover art is signed by everyone who worked on it. There aren’t any smilies that express the sort of thing I felt when I got that DVD. So, my thanks and hugs to everyone at MB. ^_^

I’m going to start with the nitpicky things, starting with the one thing that has GOT to be fixed, or I’ll go mad, and working my way down in urgency until we go into the good, so we can all have a happy end. :-)

The one thing that has GOT to be fixed, is Rodoreamon’s name. For some reason they’ve got it as Rotreamon, which is just wrong. I double-checked the Japanese official website and the Japanese credits – Rodoreamon. Definitely “do” there, not “to”. It looks wrong and everyone definitely says “Rodo”, so please fix that!!! It just looks bad and doesn’t match what they are saying.

Okay, that’s out of my system. So. The names. I appreciated the consistency in the way names were written. In every case, without exception, the final “u” was removed from names. So, Anubituf, Kaim, Aer. I have no trouble with the transliterations they chose, although I’d have been more literal with Alti, instead of Alty. But okay. However, for Aeru’s name, I’d have left the “u” in, because later on, this is going to be an issue. Her name is pronounced “Ah-eh-ru,” not “Ah-er.” However, as this is not a major thing and it matches well enough, as well as being consistent, I’ll drop it. All the long vowels are written with the somewhat old-fashioned symbols “ā” or “ō” so “Wapōrif” and “Māj”. This leads to one really unfortunate typo. The first time the characters discussed doing a Māj, the “a” is left out and what we see is M_j. Erk. (Later, in the extras, Rodoreamon’s name is misspelled, as “Rorteamon.” Two typos on one disk is really not so good. Guys – ask me to to a last disk check. I know the series, the names, the words. Seriously. I’ll be glad to look it over. I do editing on the side.)

The translation. Overall, I think this might be the best translation I’ve ever seen from MB. They left in the honorifics which, in this case, are primarily “-sama.” Can I just tell you how NICE it is to *see* Alty say “Para-sama” when she’s saying it? Later, in the extras, “-chan” is used as well. I’d have loved to see a screen still with an explanation of the honorifics for the potential viewers who don’t know what they mean, but I am so excited to have the honorifics at all, I can barely contain myself. lol

People’s titles are translated. High Priestess, Governor, Captain. No problem. Country names are not translated, but left as they sound. Personally – I liked that. Thumbs up.

Extra points for making everything they say totally comprehensible. If you were one of the people who saw the extremely incomprehensible fansubs of the first three episodes by a particular group, you’ll know why this is so important – the first three episodes are *crucial* to our understanding of WTF is going on. Making it all make sense is not easy and I think they did a really good job. In fact, until the last episode on the disk, I think the translation was very tight. At the end, there was a bit that I felt got lax and fell back into that “this is what they meant, so it’s close enough.” Or maybe it’s just something about the way Dominura speaks that made the Translator want to make her a bit more…casual. (She certainly comes off an an odd bird. If it was done on purpose, then fine. If it was laziness, then bzzt.)

Also, I’d really like to see a Romaji version of the opening and ending themes. It’s pretty usual for anime and fans like it, because we always end up trying to learn them anyway. Alternate bwtween English and Romaji, or run them at the same time as. Either way, I think it would add some value.

The technicals. Well, the usual thing from Media Blasters – no inserts, which made me sad, because I had asked to have inserts of the cover art that we lost as mini-posters or something. This disk contains episodes 1-6, which is *very* good, but since the Japanese DVDs were two-episode disks, we lost two pieces of cover art in the process. I love the cover art – it’s hugely service-y, provocative and sexy. I had really hoped we get them as inserts. But hey – 6 episodes to a disk is *nice*. The whole series in 5 disks would be awesome. Especially for the price – $20 at Amazon ($15 if you pre-order). That’s just over $3/episode. No complaints here. Especially as I’ll probably be buying some Simoun for holiday presents. ^_^ There’s no dub track (although I know that some people like the dubs, and some people felt that they wouldn’t watch it without a dub, the idea makes me shudder, personally) and only the one audio track. Again, I passed on the idea of a 5.1 audio track, so you can’t say they didn’t know fans wanted it. I wouldn’t mind it myself – makes the music, which is so wonderful, even better.

The disk itself is very pretty. Huh, how about that? It surprised me, because I don’t usually notice the disks. This has to be up there for one of the nicest looking DVDs I own. ^_^

And, the extras. As usual, MB has included the extras from the Japanese volumes, which I like a lot. The first is an excruciating interview with the VAs for Aer and Neviril. And the “MC”, who is a horrible lollipop with eyes stuck on and a computer-modulated voice makes it just that much more horrible. Seriously, just skip that extra. The second extra is much, much better. It’s a trivia and quiz game special, pairing up, well, Pairs. Hosted by Morinaga Rika, Mamina’s seiyuu (who is incredibly cute in a punk-y kind of way, with an unrealistically silly voice) each Pair vies for points on how well they match answers to questions, and know trivia from the anime. I was absolutely hysterical during this segment. I had already seen it raw, but I had missed a lot that went on in the background. It was darn funny. I hope we get more of this kind of thing. And bizarrely, when Toyoguchi Megumi is referred to as “Megu-‘nee” it was translated as that. (Well, “Meg-nee”, anyway.) So…erm, why was Alty’s “Kaim-‘neesan” translated as “Big Sister Kaim?” No clue.

Last up. The actual anime. I was so certain that I’d be disappointed watching Simoun this time around. Remember how we retrofit memories? I fully expected to find all sort of flaws with my memory that Simoun was teh awesome. You know what? I was wrong. God DAMN this is a good anime! Two minutes into it and I was glued to the TV and remained that way for all six episodes. Then I was sad that I didn’t have any more to watch. The music remains brilliant. The story remains fascinating. I love the art, the detailed CGI over not-at-all detailed watercolor. I love the ridiculous contrast between our beautiful peaceful sun-filled country and the enemy’s pollution-ridden world of darkness and filth. I love The Arcus Prima, the Simoun, the fact that Morinas is a tease and the fact that all the seiyuu are women. (The wife reminds me that I also still hate the character designs, especially Neviril’s sex-doll mouth. Which is true, but you can’t have everything.) After more than a year, I still love Simoun.

In terms of Yuri, there’s a lot of service. :-) Lots of kisses. And, while it was pretty subtle for an anime, girl-loving LFs of every gender got their RDA of panty and breast shots. But seriously, Yuri in this volume = Neviril x Amuria. The story revolves around what could have been, what happened and how Neviril can’t move on. She *must* be a lesbian, she’s unhealthily obsessing about her ex. :-) And surely we can’t ignore poor Kaim and her not at all unhealthy interest in Parietta. She gets points for trying *really* hard to make Parietta to look away from Neviril. And it’s not really her fault that she fails. And then there’s Morinas and her obvious, immediate, interest in Wapōrif. Can’t say that she’s just interested in him for his great personality…not yet, anyway. ^_^

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

Translation – 7
Adaptation – 7
Technicals – 7
Extras – 6

Should you get it? Hell yeah. Then email the folks at Media Blasters and let them know what they did right – and what they can improve. Let’s see if we can make Volume 2 even better.

Media Blasters responds: In regards to the artwork, we don’t always get the chance to use all of the artwork we receive, especially since we have a disproportionate number of release volumes to the Japanese version. It’s possible we can make an art gallery as an extra on one of the disks…. In terms of translations…the name translations were given to us by the licensor, so we didn’t have a lot of room for interpretation.

This is Erica again: I’m not surprised about the name thing. Thanks, Media Blaster representative, for commenting. It always helps to know what’s going on in the background, so we don’t feel like we’re out of the loop. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Battle Athletes Victory, Volume 7

October 15th, 2007

Properly speaking, Volume 7 of Battle Athletes is the penultimate volume, but realistically, it’s the conclusion of the story. Everything that has been masquerading as the plot for this bundle of clichés is tied up neatly here. In other words, we finally learn who wins the title of Cosmos Beauty.

Did we, in fact, have any doubt who would win? All we needed to do was watch the first episode and note that our protagonist was not only the least talented, least deserving and least competent person in the show, but also the most annoying, to recognize that she would of course, be the winner. I’ve talked a lot about the idiot savant hero/ine here. Akari is pretty much the epitome of the type. Her mad skills only kick in when she’s boosted by an outside stimulus. Thankfully, there are many recent anime that go the other route and show us the hero/ines practicing until they drop. Because I am not naturally talented at anything, and everything I have ever become even mediocre at has been because of long hours of practice, it’s no surprise I prefer that latter stories to the former. :-)

But.

Battle Athletes was from way back in the stone age, about a decade ago. It is decidedly old school in its power-ups – as well as in animation, music, voice acting and, well pretty much everything. As it also is rife with Yuri, I’m inclined to be generous. Plus, if you’re watching Battle Athletes in the first place, you gotta know to manage expectations anyway – this is not and never will be high art. :-) (Remind me to share my recent moment of satori about expectations and anime with you all sometime.)

So, we have two decidedly Yuri-riffic couples facing off in the finals of the CB tournament. The two best athletes evar versus two newcomers. In their defeat, Lahrri and Mylandah find each other, and get a nice little backstory which ties them neatly together, leaving Akari and Kris to have last minute angst at/about one another. In the manga, this was fueled by Akari learning that her father chose Kris over her, for no other reason that that he is (apparently) a victory-obsessed psychopath. In the anime, we learn that Kris cannot run the day chosen for the race, due to religious observances. Hmm…which is punchier plot complication? Hard to decide. At least the manga father wasn’t “Mr. Miracle” the chocolate hound. (Which always reminds me of a very evil drawing in the Jesus Drug doujinshi for this series. It’s just not right that that image is burned into my head…)

In the end, of course Kris gains dispensation to run. At last, Akari and she face off in a final battle.

Because it’s so much better, let me talk about the manga here. (And before I do, let me just remind you that the manga is LONG out of print, so please don’t ask me where you can find it. I got my copy at Book-Off, the used manga store, and I have also seen it for sale at Mandarake used book store in Tokyo. If you have a buyer, you can try looking on Yahoo JP auctions or the Amazon JP marketplace. Good luck.)

In the manga, Akari and Kris tie for first. Then they kiss in front of everyone in the whole world. Having achieved her dream, Kris returns to the Beginners to become a priestess.

In the anime, Akari wins and Kris disappears to return to the Beginners to become a priestess. Akari, having just been crowned, runs after her, catches up to Kris and her cow. Kris gently kisses her goodbye.

Read those two paragraphs again. Can you *guess* which one I prefer? I think you can.

And that’s pretty much it. Akari is Cosmos Beauty and she beat her mother’s time. Wow. Amazing. :-)

Oh, wait, here come the aliens! We’re under attack!

End of volume.

There were so many ways this volume could have been *brilliant*. Instead it was all right. Although Mylandah x Lahrri = win. And they will continue to be win through the farce that will be Volume 8. There really was no Akari x Kris, except in the hearts and minds of fans. Bloody shame if you ask me. But that too will come back like the bad penny it is in Volume 8. Because we can never have enough of our old friend old-school UST, i.e., “unresolved sexual tension.” (Remember, this was a staple for all anime of the time – not just Yuri or Yaoi. It won’t make it less annoying, but it makes it seem less unfair.)

So, for a resolution, it kind of wasn’t. I’d REALLY like to see this anime remade, this time with the right ending. ;-) Kanon, pfft. I want to see an updated BAV.

Ratings:

Art – practice profiles please – 6
Story – clinging to cliches is cheesy – 6
Characters – alas and alack, a lack – 7
Yuri – opportunity and motive, but no crime – 5
Service – as you like it – 5

Overall – slightly better than the sum of its parts, minus one for the cow – 6

For what it is, which is incredibly silly old-school junkiness from Mediaworks, Battle Athletes is pleasantly entertaining, without being good. ;-)





Yuri Anime: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 2 (English)

September 24th, 2007

The subtitle of Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 2 is “Triangles Hurt” but what it really ought to be is “Tomari lies to herself, then stops.”

Because that’s what this volume is about, mostly. Tomari, having seen Hazumu and Yasuna kissing, jumps to the obvious conclusion that that kiss was sealing a deal between them. Hazumu liked Yasuna and now, for whatever reason, Yasuna returns the emotion. Except….

Tomari berates herself for dragging up old memories of lil’ Hazumu and she talking about getting married, and berates herself more for being jealous of Yasuna. She pretends to be happy for Hazumu, but is obviously being eaten up inside.

After a day at the beach, in which Yasuna does everything she can to include Tomari as a friend, Tomari has to finally be honest. As much for herself, she tells Yasuna that she likes Hazumu, too. And in a moment of gracious acceptance, Yasuna acknowledges her as a rival. I liked that quite a bit – so different from the usual snarky girl “you’re not worth me being worried” kind of thing. Also, completely unrealistic, but hey – aliens, spaceship in humanoid form, duh. If we’re going to look for realism in our Yuri, *this* is not the place to start. ^_^

Having admitted her feelings to herself, it’s a short step across a wide chasm for Tomari to admit her feelings to Hazumu. Surprisingly, it’s Hazumu herself who creates the opening, by bringing up the same memory that Tomari had been mulling over in the beginning.

We step aside from the main story a little to learn that Ayuki has no intention of ever telling the person she likes about how she feels. This will be the third time I have watched this episode and I’ve read it twice (once in each language) and I still think it looks like she likes Hazumu. I wonder if the mangaka started off with the harem idea, then changed courses for some reason.

This digression leads into our final episode of the volume in which we learn that Hazumu has a terminal case of the SPCD decideritis. She can not and has never been able to make up her mind. And there is still some small part of my soul that thinks that the fact that this is a plot complication is sad. (Aliens, Erica. Spaceship. Right, right….)

So at the end of the volume we’ve all moved forward into square one. Or should that be “triangle” one? Now, at least, all are clear on the landscape – Yasuna and Tomari both like Hazumu and Hazumu likes both of them and cannot decide between them. An admittedly difficult choice. Almost epic – the musician versus the athlete, the arts versus sport. Culture vs Activity. The result of this decision could change the world!

Or not.

The point is, the stage is set.

Technically this DVD was a mixed bag. It starts off really strong, with everyone referring to Hazumu as “she” then suddenly, for no reason, they all revert back to “he”. I watched the bits a few times when it first happened, because when they are referring back to Hazumu the child, it seems natural to use “he” but everyone somehow forgets to switch back when speaking of the current Hazumu. I wasn’t sure if that was an editing oversight, a translation decision, or no one noticed. But I did.

Aside from that the translation was pretty smooth, with the exception of the usual honorific thing that makes me unhappy. And the DVD comes with nifty interviews with the Japanese voice actors, which I always enjoy. They have nothing to say, but that’s okay – I like hearing them say it. ^_^

Ratings:
Art – 7
Story – 7
Music – 6
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 6

Overall – 8

Thanks once again to the generosity and kindness of Media Blasters for giving me this DVD to review – and for allowing us to show Kashimashi and Strawberry Panic!, and most of all to premiere Simoun at Yuricon’s Yurisai event!