Archive for the Yuri Anime Category


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.”

 





Yuri Anime: Blood+

November 21st, 2005

I never reviewed the original Blood manga? What was I thinking? I’ll add it to the list…

In any case, the fall ’05 anime season offers us yet another version of this chick with sword vampire series. I could be wrong about this, because I’m not checking or anything, but I believe the original Blood was a game, that spawned a much-too short animated movie, followed by an exceptionally grim manga, which I will review at some point. Now there’s a new manga and a shiny new anime…which the subject of today’s review.

The Saya of the new Blood is a really likeabale gal, quite the opposite of cold, heartless Saya from the movie and the first manga. This Saya has a father and two brothers, all adopted, but very normal and affectionate in an entirely appropriate way. She also comes with a best friend, Kaori, to snuggle with, pictured above. Unfortunately Kaori’s participation in this series is short lived, as Saya has to become the semi-vampiric killer of giant mutant bats.

I pretty much assumed that this was the end of Yuri goggle goodness in this series, but previews of episode seven offer us glimpses of Min, Saya’s new roommate who will be completely gaga blushy over her. So, yay for yuri fans – a reason to keep watching. Which is good, because the plot kind of stalled out over the last few episodes while we killed Saya’s father a few times.

I don’t even want to conjecture about whether this is a good anime, because damned little has actually happened, but I’m still watching, for what that’s worth to ya. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Studio IG
Characters – Schoolgirl with Sword, Vampires, Mutant Bats and Ordinary People Wearing Red Shirts
Story – Not So Far
Music – Pretty
Yuri – Goggles

Overall – Catch me again at the end and I’ll let you know.





Yuri Anime: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s

November 17th, 2005

Every time I watch an anime like Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s, I’m torn.

On the one hand, it is a reasonably enjoyable boy’s version of a magical girl anime, but on the other hand it’s the kind of things that loli fetishists like. It’s not really cute or sweet – in fact it’s a bit grim and dark, which I quite like – and the fight scenes are okay. But if I were a bottom feeder who couldn’t admit that I’d never sleep with an actual adult female…I’d probably say the same things.

Which is why I’m torn. I feel dirty even enjoying this series marginally. The yuckiest thing is the girls’ new henshin. While I don’t mind nude transformation scenes, I *do* mind these. They are not as utterly repusive as the Ultimate Girl henshin, but they are definitely squicky.

Other than that, A’s is actually better than the original Lyrical Nanoha series. For one thing, there’s a plot.

In a nutshell:

An evil book, which creates fake guardian soldiers to protect it and gather power for it, tries to find a new master who will supply it with power, so it can destroy things. Once it has destroyed everything, it moves through space and time and does it all over again. The guardians this time are a tough chick, a smart chick and a goth kid….and the new master-to-be is a likeable disabled girl Hayate, who happens to befriend Nanoha’s friend Suzuka. So you *know* we’re going to have to “believe in” all of them at the end, so the book can either be destroyed or turned good, or something. Let’s face it – we’ll have to all be friends at the end. I’ve got money down that the fake guardians don’t totally disappear, even, because you just *know* Hayate will use the book’s power to give them real life.

Yuri fans will like the fact that Fate and Nanoha are not only reunited in this series, but get to live together – they even have some touching huggy scenes. Personally, I’m watching Signum, because I find practically non-verbal fightin’ adult women with swords more appealing than kids. ^_^

There’s alot more weapons and fighters in this series. Less monsters, more people = good story, in this case.

Ratings –

Art – 8
Character – 7
Story – 6
Yuri – 3
Music – 5

Overall – 6

The best characters this time around, IMHO, are Fate’s and Nanoha’s weapons themselves. Bardiche and Raising Heart have developed strong personalities – and I quite like them. They seem so eager to beat the crap out of the bad guys. ^_^