Archive for the Yuri Anime Category


Yuri Anime: Stellvia, Volume 6

February 14th, 2006

Let’s jump right into Stellvia, Volume 6, shall we? In this volume, we get one of the best bit of character interaction I’ve ever seen in any anime. All the girls argue. At once. And with a level of snarky bitchiness that I’d actually expect from a group of four women arguing.

For that, and that alone, this volume is worth watching. As I do go on endlessly, the strength of this series is the humanity. The plot is really pretty meh. The aliens are bugs, literally, and they are horrible and violent and we can feel righteous about destroying them in the classic space opera fashion. The time spent with clueless Kouta (and his inability to ASK what is bothering Shima when she spends six hours crying in his presence….I mean really, could he be anymore of an annoying clod?) is just marking time in between the great moments as all the four main female characters crash and burn in their own ways.

Ayaka seems to have gotten herself together, but Yayoi starts to lose it. Akira, who is suffering a completely normal crisis of identity and confidence – and a bout of plain old jealousy – turns out to be quite perceptive. She not only pins Arisu to the wall on running away from being a pilot, but implies that Arisu’s crush on Shima isn’t as secret as she might think. AND she gets the snarky award for telling Yayoi that her subtlety is no beard for her real interest.

Arisu tries to be the good guy and gets stabbed in the back by an entirely self-absorbed and petty Shima, who is so entirely caught up in herself that she can’t even see that she’s being a jerk. I bet none of us have ever been there, huh? ^_^

The girls all make up in the time-honored anime fashion of having a good cry, which I object to, but the fight *was* stellar.

The art wasn’t as bad as usual for some reason. I can’t imagine why. Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.

For the rest of this series, the plot is fairly inconsequential, even tiresome, but the characters reign supreme. This anime, like Patlabor, is about the people. The rest is just window dressing.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 4
Characters – 8
Music – 8
Yuri – 5 (mostly from Akira’s bitchy implications, but still there’s shades of Ayaka and Yayoi on their own)
Service – 6 (any spacesuits that have separate colors for the secondary sexual characteristics are *entirely* servicey seriously)

Overall – 7

If you don’t like it, you don’t like. I like it. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Kaleido Star Legend of Phoenix

February 10th, 2006

I mentioned Kaleido Star: Legend of Phoenix (aka Layla Hamilton Monogatari) on my Top Ten Yuri Anime of 2005. And despite the fact that it’s just an OVA for the longer series, it definitely deserved a spot in the top ten.

One of my problems with the TV series for Kaleido Star was that the growth and challenge plot was mostly confined to Sora. And I saw Carlos’ nonverbal tactics as being enraging and abusive. But really, when I stood back from the series, and thought about it again, I was really very wrong. Yes, the male characters are still fairly loathsome for most of the series (of course Sora wins them all over to her ideas, but…).

…I can’t explain it exactly, but it felt like I was watching a show that might be aired on the “Violence Against Women Network”, aka Lifetime. You know – one hour and forty-five minutes of outrageous physical and emotional violence against women, follwed by fifteen minutes of inadequate legal retribution.) But I digress.

But, because of a post on Gin Sweater, I realize that I have been horribly misinterpreting the entire series. I felt enlightened after reading that post. And now I know why Kaleido Star: Legend of Phoenix was the episode I was waiting for. This series is a classic challenge myth; Hercules’ Labors translated to a fanciful acrobatic circus venue.

Yes, Sora has to endure pain and suffering on both emotional and physical levels, but no pain, no gain, as the masochistic say. The thing is – it’s not just Sora who has to change and grow and what I was seeing, but not noticing, is how *much* we see the surrounding characters change and grow into themselves, as well. In fact, this show shares many of the qualities that I enjoy about Stellvia, but I was unable to see it. Now I do.

Legend of Phoenix is an OVA filled entirely with Layla Hamilton having the same revelation. How nice is that? ;-)

Layla and Sora are about to launch different interpretations of the same show “Legend of Phoenix” on opposite coasts. Layla wants to find her Phoenix in a way unique to her, but also to the audience. In a desperate attempt to be reborn, she runs off on a solo bicycle trip to upstate New York. Meanwhile, Sora is also attempting to find her own Phoenix, but when she learns of Layla’s disappearance she, Ken and May run off to New York to find Layla.

Layla’s trip hooked me on a few points. For one thing, as I mentioned in my end-of-year review, her trip takes her to Rt. 17 in New York – a road upon which I had many surreal experiences myself. So it hit the “nostalgia” button solidly for me there. And Layla, for all that she’s trying to find herself, spends her entire time alone obsessing about Sora. Until she, and we, come to realize just how MUCH Sora has been a muse to her, Sora fills her thoughts. And once she accepts that, she is reborn.

Could I have asked for a better OVA than one filled with Layla thinking about Sora and her importance in her life? Nope.

During the end credits, we get to see the two different Phoenixes – really lovely, as all the Kaleido staging consistently is throughout series and OVAs.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Music – 7
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 4, some obligatory Fool perviness and, for this series, subtle fanservice

Overall – 8

This was, as I said, the Kaleido Star I’d been waiting for all along. I’ll take a dozen of the same, please!  ^_^





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.