Archive for the Yuri Anime Category


Yuri Anime: Winter 2006 – Kagihime Monogatari Eikyuu Alice Rondo

January 27th, 2006

I actually considered starting today’s review of Kagihime Monogatari Eikyuu Alice Rondo with a symbolic fit of hysterical laughter, but decided that it would be more trouble than the anime is worth.

Instead I will start this review with a note that today is Lewis Carroll’s birthday. So it is somehow completely suitable, and yet somehow also an abomination that I am reviewing this anime today. ^_^;

I have been following the manga in monthly Dengeki Daioh for over a year now and frankly, I can make neither heads nor tails of what is going on. I long ago ceased to care, flipping through the pages mostly for the plentiful hot bunny-girl on bunny-girl action, and barely even glancing at the words. Yes, I’m kidding. I don’t even like bunny girls.

So, basically, the manga is the kind of thing I’ve come to expect from Kaishaku – a nonsensical story with gratuitous Yuri servce thrown in to ensure that the fanboys won’t care. Which is why you have not seen a review of the manga here.

So now we have an anime. Let’s look at some of Kaishaku’s other work, shall we? Just to get a basis from which to compare:

1. Kannazuki no Miko, which was meaningless, self-contradictory, had giant mecha andYuri

2. Steel Angel Kurumi, which was silly, had androids, no resolution, shota and loli, and Yuri

3. UFO Princess Walkure, which is meaningless, unresolvable, has aliens from another planet, heavy-duty loli, with a light frisson of Yuri, if you’re inclined to see it. (Also Ogata Megumi, but despite that one plus I still can’t watch this.)

And now we have Alice, which has bunny girls, incest, loli and Yuri. The manga has non-consensual lesbian sex, but I don’t know if the anime will. From what I *can* tell, the anime is not exactly like the manga, which seems to revolve around a female character, not the male character of the anime. (Or, probably more correctly, the art is so bad, I simply can’t tell the difference. But all the characters I’ve noticed in the manga have breasts, which is *usually* a good indication. But of course there are obvious exceptions.

Alice has a transformation scene reminiscent of Walkure, where the girl’s breasts grow larger and their butts get perkier, and a plot reminiscent of Kannazuki no Miko, by which I mean it makes basically no sense at all.

To sum up, in a bitter and sarcastic manner:

Those people who have “Alice Power” (who are primarily female) fight to capture each other’s “books” (aka, heart crystals, souls, Rosa Mystica, you know the drill). Somehow, if all the books are obtained, the “Endless Alice” will be written. In some way this is supposed to be connected with the third Alice book that Lewis Carroll never wrote, but is purported to be in existence, partially completed. (My wife, who is an obsessive Lewis Carroll fan, has never heard a rumor about any such third book – and some basic research brought up nothing on it. It is, in fact, made up for this story.)

The hero of the story, whose name completely escapes me because I don’t care (and because he is repeatedly and irritatingly referred to as “oniiiiiii-chaaaaan!!!!” by his obsessed little sister, something that makes my brain go off-line,) is a fan of the Alice books, and wants to write his own Alice book. He somehow has the ability to get into the magic space where all the Alice Users fight, and copy down the girls’ books. So – he decides to copy down all their stories, and that will be the “Endless Alice” – which is the third book Lewis Carroll didn’t complete.

Did you follow that? No? Good. You are sane.

Anyway, in the anime, the Yuri comes in the form of a unhealthily obsessed friend of the little sister (whose name is the unfortunate Kirihara Kiraha). Friend becomes a fighter to erm, protect, erm, something something something.

I don’t know if we can expect the mass Yuri that the manga offers or just this pale shadow of Yuri. And frankly, more Yuri won’t make this a better story. But perhaps there may be some points of interest later on.

…

Or not.

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 3
Characters – 3
Music – 3
Yuri – 4
Service – 8

Overall – 4, but I’m being generous





Yuri Anime: Winter 2006 – Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl

January 26th, 2006

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? Kasimashi Girl Meets Girl is about a boy named Hazumu. He’s, shall we say, a “sensitive” kind of guy, who loves gardening. He’s also in love with beautiful, but distant Yasuna. He confesses his feeling to Yasuna, is rejected and goes off for a walk into the hills to burn off his misery. As he stands on the mountain trying to let go, he is hit by a crashing alien ship and killed. BUT! The aliens feel bad, so they revive him – except inexplicably, they can only bring him back as a girl.

The aliens helpfully broadcast the announcement over the entire earth, so Hazumu is instantly the source of interest to press. But his friends and family seem to be mostly okay with the whole thing. His mother even helpfully mentions that she’d always wanted a girl, yay for her!

There is a period of adjustment: For Hazumu, as he has to learn not to show his underwear in a hundred and fifty different ways; For his friend Asuta who is much less interested in Hazumu’s well-being as he is in staring at Hazumu’s boobs; And mostly for Hazumu’s best friend Tomari, who seems to be the ONLY person freaked out about the whole thing. It’s not until Hazumu has a meltdown and she has to protect him (as she has their whole lives) that she really gets that this is still the same Hazumu she’s always cared for.

Hazumu’s opinion of the whole thing? Well, I guess this is just the way it is, so…

Can I express a small measure of doubt that too many people would be that blase’ as a result of an sudden, unwanted gender switch? Oh, but, it’s okay – Hazumu has always been kind of girly, so it’s no big deal. Uh-huh.

The anime is pretty much following the manga, with a little softening of the slightly more annoying perviness – no scene in which Hazumu’s mother has bought her clothes but no underwear. We do get a bra-shopping scene, but it wasn’t *quite* as annoying as in the manga.

Since the story is the same as the manga, let’s talk voices. I think they are pretty good, actually. Kana Ueda’s “boy voice” for Hazumu sounds like Yumi from Maria-sama ga Miteru, and her “girl voice” is moderately girlier, more Mikan from Gakuen Alice. Not unpleasant – and different enough to account for Tomari’s discombobulation. I was desperately afraid that Horie Yui as Yasuna was going to be dog-whistle high, but she isn’t. (Iwao Junko could do that for Tomoyo and get away with it….anyone else fails.) Nor is Tamura Yukari’s Tomari annoyingly boyish. I was especially pleased with Ayuki’s voice as done by Asano Mayumi – which sounded exactly like it did in my head. lol

The animation looks like the manga animated, so nothing remarkable there. In fact, there’s nothing remarkable about Kasimashi Girl Meets Girl except that is quite pleasant. The love triangle will heat up shortly and then we’ll get all sorts of Yuri-ness.

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

Overall – 7

To sum up, the good things about the story are still good, the bad things are marginally less bad, and the only thing we need to wait and see is where the story actually goes.





Yuri Anime: Loveless

December 26th, 2005

You may wonder why I’m reviewing Loveless so long after it aired on Japanese TV, and so long before it debuts as a DVD release here in America. Some of you may wonder why I’m reviewing it at all. The answer to the first is – I forgot about it. The answer to the second is – tune back in later this week.

Loveless is a mostly BL, mostly shota (the boy equivalent to lolicon, i.e., little boy suggestiveness and sexuality…something that squicks me even more than loli does, if that’s even possible) series that runs in Zero Sum magazine which is, incidentally, published by Ichijinsha, the same folks who put out Comic Yuri Hime. When I visited Ichijinsha’s office in April, they had gigantic Loveless cardboard cut-outs and posters. As they portrayed a shota catboy BL couple, I turned a blind eye and never paid it a bit of attention. Well hah on me! Because along with the BL catboys, there was a pair of Yuri girls…with cat ears, admittedly, but I can overlook that. (No, I do not think animal ears are cute. And I hate cats in any case. Bad lesbian! Bad!)

Animal ears notwithstanding, Kouya and Yamato make a strong arc for an otherwise okay series. The basic plot of Loveless as I understand it is that same-sex partners pair to engage in some kind of battle, in which one partner provides power and takes the hit and the other makes the attacks with the other’s power. Among one pair who were, I believe, lovers, the one who takes the hits died. His younger brother wants to know the truth about him, so he takes his dead brother’s place as the partner of an older bishounen who, needless to say, falls in love with his prepubescent catboy self. (The cat ears, btw, are an outward expression of virginity, as far as I can tell. They come off when the person loses the aforementioned. All very creepy and fetishy.)

Into this set-up comes a pair of women, Kouya and Yamato. They have been created(?) and trained to be each other’s partners. They are clearly in love, but terrified of the situation – and of their master. Their arc comprises about one volume’s worth of anime, about three or four episodes, but in those few episodes there’s plenty of soul-searching angst and yuri for any teen catgirl wannabee. And honestly, it’s a pretty decent coming-out/falling in love/starting a life together type story. Especially as their lesbian love is portrayed as what saves them from a miserable fate and sets them off on a free life of their own. A nice change from the more classic Yuri misery that we thought we’d never see the back of.

I’m not saying that this series is worth watching for this arc – but I do think this arc is worth watching for itself. Luckily I may be able to help with this. :-)

Ratings (for the Yuri arc only):

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 7 (see above lingerie…and don’t forget the ears/virginity thing)

Overall – 7 and worth a look, at least.

For those interested in the manga version of this arc, the series has been licensed by Viz and is being put out in 2-in-1 volumes. Here’s a link to Volume 1.





Yuri Anime: Madlax DVD Volume 4

December 1st, 2005

Every time I watch the fourth DVD of Madlax, I think, “This is probably the best work Bee Train will ever do.”

The story doesn’t yet make sense (and doesn’t ever make *complete* sense, but that’s okay) and the characters aren’t resolved (nor do they ever fully resolve) or even developed, but the sense of hanging tension and anticipation is what I think they are trying to do – the later development and resolution of characters and plot is almost anticlimactic. The questions are the point, not the answers. But, where in Noir the questions never get anything like real answers, in Madlax they do – even if they are a bit fantastic. Which is why I say that this volume is pretty much the pinnacle of Bee Train’s work, as I understand it.

What *does* happen in this volume? Well, the link between Margaret and Madlax is drummed into our head in three refrains: hot drinks; red shoes; pasta.

Madlax stares into the eye of Enfant and find her brain leaking out her ears from the mystical words of the book Firstari. Twice. And twice Vanessa saves her sorry possessed ass.

Vanessa and Madlax get all touchy-feely.

Carlossur Dawn realizes that he’s going to have to choose soon, between the truth and his job.

Vanessa gets to play the prince to Madlax’s lost princess, but is way glad when Madlax takes the role back.

Margaret doesn’t have enough brains left to be affected by her own book, Secondary.

Eleanor is still a really strange maid. ^_^

Rimelda is on the cusp of realizing that her life is meaningless without Madlax in it.

Vanessa and Madlax visit the place where it all began, and Margaret knows it, somehow.

Naharu walks around looking mysterious and cool, but adds nothing appreciably to plot or character.

Did I mention Vanessa and Madlax snuggling?

The music in this particular set of episodes is pretty much the same three songs you keep hearing over and over, but at this point they become symbolic, as well as decorative. In fact, Madlax’s own theme becomes so crucial to the plot, Japanese fans apparently joked that the word “Yamaani” which is the repeated opening word of her song, gave Madlax superhuman powers. ^_^

Sometimes a story takes too long to get to the point. To be honest, I don’t really care if there ever is a point in this anime – it’s a fun ride, full of gunfire and other people’s misery and deeply mystical, occult symbolism that means nothing to me. ^_^

My only complaints? Friday Monday is STILL the worst name EVER for a bad guy…and…Firstari? Oh, come *on*! Primary. The word is P-r-i-m-a-ry.

When they use Thirdari, I just start to cry.

There’s no overt Yuri. Vanessa and Madlax snuggle in a comfy, friendly way, but I’m not opposed to the idea that it went further somewhere along the line. Nonetheless, I hold in my heart Madlax x Rimelda and Vanessa x Eleanor.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Music – 8
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7.5

A strong action story, with a little light magic thrown in.





Yuri: Anime: Mai Otome

November 24th, 2005

Mai Otome is not so much a sequel to Mai Hime as it is a fanfic written by the folks who originated the thing in the first place.

Right off the top, Mai Otome is pleasantly free of the “tears and misery” theme of the original. Instead it’s a fantasy world alternate universe, in which all the same characters show up, more or less, but in some cases, completely altered in personality and almost always altered in role.

The story focuses primarily on three girls:

Arika, a familyless, countryless girl who only knows that her mother was an “Otome” (this world’s Valkyrie-esque female warrior-types) and that the blue stone around her neck is from her mother. Arika, by not having any country or family allegiance is refreshingly free of formal manners, without being a bumpkin.

Nina, The adopted, over-achieving, emotionally crippled star of the school who is Arika’s immediate rival.

Mashiro, the spoiled and willful Queen of Windbloom. In Mai Hime, Mashiro was a gentle, kind and tortured girl who ran the school. In this series she’s a raving brat who runs a country. Nice, huh?

Arika is accepted to Garderobe, an exclusive academy in which Otome hopefuls train. Countries send their fair youth in hopes that they will become Otome, and give the country parity in military might to those who do have Otome. (Otome are super-powerful and excessively cool, despite having silly costumes.)

There’s lots of hints about the past and about connections of all three girls to big secrets and yadda yadda, but I don’t care much. (Partially because Mai Hime‘s ending sucked so badly that I refuse to care about this until it proves that it doesn’t suck.) But I do care about the Yuri. So let’s talk about that. ^_^

Right off, Natsuki tells Arika that Otome can’t have sex with men, because PSA and testosterone destroy the nanowhatever that gives a girl her Otome powers. Oh, really? So…hmmm…guess they have to learn to love the women they serve. And speaking of serving…

Shizuru is still cool. Certainly more mysterious, and definitely kick-ass. She is the Otome for Shinzo, the heart of Gaderobe Academy, one Kuga Natsuki. As one of the Five Pillars Shizuru has to stay close to her Master. This means she has to stick pretty close to Natsuki. How close we aren’t yet sure, but they certainly seem comfortable in each other’s company this time around.

Chie’s yuri playboy cool rating was upped by about 2000x. And her one wink at Aoi is enough hint for most fanfic authors. Aoi is Mashiro’s maidservant this time around.

Haruka and Yukino both did well in transition to the new series. Haruka is a quite excellent Otome serving the President of whatever country…yup, you guessed it. Yukino’s organizational skills and detante finally aren’t played for laughs. Haruka’s no less nutsy than she was originally, but in a fun, powerful, and really competent way. (A very sexy quality in a woman, I always think.)

Yuri fanservice is plentiful – the older “Pearl Class” Otome in training are assigned younger “Coral Class” students as attendants. Chie isn’t above making them blush cutely. Nor is Shizuru avoiding physical contact with the girls either. She must grab one often enough to cause Natsuki to roll her eyes when she does it to Arika.

When an invisible tentacle eel-monster-thing invades the pool, she thinks (bizarrely) that Nina is copping a feel. (Nina’s reaction is, btw, perfect – she tests Erstin’s head for a fever…) Erstin tells Nina, quite unnecessarily, that they are both girls – but she qualifies this by saying that if it’s Nina, it’s okay. Later she gives Nina a form of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation that is definitely NOT approved by the Red Cross.

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

Overall – 7

In short, pretty, shiny fun with a 40% chance of “good.”