Archive for the Yuri Anime Category


Yuri Anime: Gokujou Seitokai

July 12th, 2005

The early summer season of anime has been lame in general, with only a few exceptions, and absolutely *abysmal* as far as Yuri goes.

As I see it, there are exactly two anime with anything approaching real Yuri, and of those I find one so repulsive I simply cannot bring myself to discuss it with any semblance of objectivity. (I will leave it for a later vitriolic rant.) Which leaves us with Gokujou Seitokai.

Thankfully, Gokujou Seitokai is a lot of fun, as well as having at least a little meat for the yuri fan to chew on.

The plot, to quote several wise people, is “about girls at a girls school with girls.” I think that sums it up nicely, myself. ^_^

Miyagami Gakuen is yet another exclusive all-girl elevator school – only there is nothing like 1920’s comportment here! Instead we have a special super highest power student council that runs the school, with a covert operations squad complete with ninja, an assault squad complete with serious heavy-duty nuclear weaponry…and of course, pretty girls.

In the beginning we meet space cadet Randou Rino, a young lady with a deficient frontal lobe and a bizarre, trash-talking puppet attached to her hand. Randou has been sent to this school by the mysterious Mr. Poppet, a penpal of some kind. Of course she ends up joining the Gokujou Seitokai, which is run by the head of the school, the lovely and gentle and a little cracked, Jinguuji Kanade. Kanade is the idol of the school, so there’s a lot of jealousy when she begins to favor Rino. (We eventually learn that there is some connection between Rinou and Kanade, but by episode 14, we have not learned the exact nature of this connection. All we know is that Kanade is definitely, consciously acting as surrogate mother/big sister for orphaned Rino.)

We also learn that the puppet, Pu-chan, is not at ALL what he seems. The obvious gag about Pu-chan being Rino’s alter ego is just…wrong. Let’s put it this way – in the big curry battle episode, we learn that in the past, Pu-chan had an affair with an Indian woman. Not your average puppet, trust me.

So…Yuri?

In the beginning there is a really funny episode about rumors of Rino and Kanade having some kind of affair. “Paya-paya” was not in any of the the slang onomotopeia books or lists that I could find before this episode, but I bet it’s in them now. ^_^

Look! I just found this on the Urban Dictionary:
payapaya
Japanese slang for some kind of interpersonal contact, possibly sex. Popularized (to north american anime fans) in Gokujou Seitokai episode 3.
“The president was seen in Rino’s room, they were doing payapaya!”

See?

For me the least likely, yet most interesting, Yuri couple would have to be the two Vice Presidents of the Gokujou Seitokai, Nanaho (Assault) and Kuon (Covert.) Really, there’s NO sign of anything between them. I’m making it up, pretty much. But they’d make a great couple and I have Kato/Inspector Clouseau-like scenes of bedroom assault in my head between the two of them that I simply cannot rid myself of. ^_^

We are introduced to an exceptionally strong shinyuu/intense friendship between Rein and Sayuri, which is easy enough to see as something more. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call them a couple.

And plenty of folks have interpreted Nanaho’s feverish devotion to Kanade as love, which it certainly is. I’m not sure it’s desire, but I’ll leave that question to the philosophers.

The one genuine full-blown babydyke character is Izumi Kaori. In the beginning we are led to believe that she is the typical obnoxious overachieving ojou-sama, but pretty quickly we learn that she’s nothing of the sort. In fact, she’s probably the most well-developed character so far and has turned out to be quite intelligent and admirable. Her overt crush on Kanade apparently stems from Kanade’s kindness and generosity in Kaori’s past, but when we get scenes of Kaori imagining herself and Kanade “doing things that she doesn’t know about because she’s a pure maiden” it kind of blows the purity bit right off. ;-) So she’s probably the only “real” lesbian in the bunch.

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

Overall – 7

Lots of fun, good as brain candy, Gokujou Seitokai is a pleasant, but seriously unserious addition to the yuri collection. It has been licensed by ADV and is being released as Best Student Council.





Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 2

July 5th, 2005

It has been pointed out to me in the notes below that this review was full of hot air. I stand corrected – the translation in the one case I illustrated was fine. ;-))

I am so irritated about this volume of Madlax, I’m not really even sure where to begin.

So to begin, I’ll touch on the good things. First and foremost, this volume is fun, with a capital “fu”. I mean, how many other places can you watch a gentle maid go totally postal on some entitled wannabe frat boy?  I particularly enjoy it when Elenore snaps the kid’s wrist, because he hurt Margaret’s wrist. And when Vanessa says, “How vicious,” she really doesn’t sound all that disapproving. ^_^

Other good things – the liner notes include highly amusing fan art drawn by some of the staff, complete with in-jokes that have to be explained. I really enjoyed these.

And that about covers it. The plot is dense, the bad guy is a joke, but those haven’t changed from my first viewing of the series. And the rest of the episodes are actually very interesting, as we finally start to draw a connection between Margaret, the book and Madlax.

(Remind me to engage in a light rant about the book next review…^_^)

The really stand-out not-good thing on this volume is the seriously awful translation. The first volume was pretty good, but again, its like they switched midstream and stopped actually listening to what was being said, and instead started guessing at something sort-of close to the meaning.

I can’t remember all the things that annoyed the living daylights out of me, but there were several. COME ON,  anime distributor companies! We are notstupid. We are not children. JUST TRANSLATE WHAT THEY SAY. Not something “close enough” to it. And leave the \expletive deleted\ honorifics alone, already! Stop the dubtitling.

It’s absolutely infuriating to pay money for something that is not done properly. It may be cheaper for you to dubtitle, but it stinks for those of us who want to watch the Japanese. Thanks for treating us like second-class citizens, when we are your fan base.

No ratings, I’m in a bad mood.





Yuri Anime: Air Master, Volume 1

June 30th, 2005

I managed to get a copy of Volume 1 of Air Master at last. This series has become a “comfort” series for me – I stick it on the TV when there’s nothing else on and I don’t want to have to pay *too* much attention. But, then I end up watching it anyway and not doing whatever it was that I was slacking off doing in the first place.

I won’t beat the plot, character of yuri components of this volume to death – I have repeatedly ranted about how wonderful this anime is in several of my previous posts: From the first recommendation back in August 2003 to Feb. 26, 2004, May 21, 2005, and May 23, 2005. And that doesn’t include all the rants about the manga, either.

So, yeah, I like this anime – a lot.

And I’ve already discussed the problems with the DVD release, some of which have been addressed in the second half of the thrid volume.

What did shock me about this first volume was how utterly, horribly *BAD* the translation was. Again, I felt like I was watching a bootlegged copy. Whole sentences were completely, totally, changed from what the characters were saying, as if the translators kept assuming what they “really” meant was….I imagine that this was a dubtitle issue, but even so, there were entire sentences that were just plain *wrong.*

Oddly, the language in the first volume subtitles is much ruder than in the second, and in that way, fits the story better.

But I’ll admit, if I had bought this volume first, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have bought 2 or 3. So I’m a little glad I bought them first.

Story-wise, Volume 1 is not particularly strong, either – again, by going backwards I can see how much more three-dimensional the characters are only a few episodes later.

I think it really sucks that this release was so bad – there are plenty of folks that might enjoy Air Master, but who, if not already turned off by the ugly art, will just give up in frustration with the unbelievably poor quality of this DVD.

What makes even this volume worth watching is, of course, the characters and the fighting.

And Sakiyama Kaori.

Ratings:
Art – 5
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Technical Details – 3

Despite the crappiness of this particular Volume, I recommend the series. If you’re going to buy it from Amazon, look for a used copy or a cheaper copy on the Amazon marketplace. This way you won’t feel quite so ripped. Also – do not be afraid to write the distributor and express your dissatisfaction – if you don’t tell them, they can’t know.





ROD The TV, Volume 6

June 28th, 2005

ROD The TV Volume 6 was a tough watch for me – the story is amazingly good, but it will, all too soon, draw to an end. So I actually put off watching this volume for several weeks after purchasing it. I know its a little infantile of me – after all, I can watch it as often as I want. But, still….

There are so many more positives than negatives with this volume, let’s start off with the good. First and foremost – the story, the plot, the dialogue, the characters are all “Wow.” This volume is an edge-of-your-seat type of anime. Not only do we get to see how everyone handles a crisis (with some serious surprises) but we get to see how a really decent set of writers bring a complex plot to fruition. Joker’s plan is no less insane than the I-jin’s in the ROD OVA, but the writers have handled it so much better that the “whoa, fuck” far outweighs the “for pity’s sake.”

In terms of characters in this volume, Nenene wins, hands down. If you didn’t love her before, in this volume she downright shines. More mature and aware, if somewhat less supernaturally powered than her companions, she is the physical embodiment of the adage “the pen is mightier than the sword.” (And it should not be lost on you, dear reader, that now that Yomiko is back in her life, Nenene is writing like a madwoman.)

But really, there’s no bad or weak characterization in Volume 6. Everyone really peaks as a character. And Nancy has some serious shiny moments which are totally kick-ass…even if they don’t really make sense in terms of the history we’ve given her. I mean, brain tissue doesn’t spontaneously regenerate when its been removed, does it? LOL Nonetheless, watching her kick into Miss Deep mode is another great “Whoah!” moment.

Animation-wise, this volume has had some obvious post-TV touchups done. It’s especially obvious in the hair. As with the previous volumes, it helps, so no complaints from me. I just wish the original art had been tighter.

Oh, and the question you all have is, I’m sure – what about the pencil board? Well, it’s not horrible! Whee! On the one side, the usual three paper sisters and Nenene (carrying her own book) and on the other – Wendy looking rather sexy, if we ignore that her body shape really says “feed me several steaks”. The usual double-sided cover (the inside significantly better than the outside) and liner notes.

Now for the not-so-positive. Three episodes. Please. This and the next volume should have been combined for one 6-ep disk and you bloody well know it, Geneon. And the incredibly lame gag of the American President peeing in his pants is done. Move on. It was only moderately amusing the first time, it seems slighhtly stupider every time thereafter and this time it was just boring. Let’s be real – if the guy had a problem, he’d wear diapers.

But to be fair, that’s about it for the less than positive. And the writing rocks in every other way, so we can afford to be magnanimous.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 9
Character – 9
Music – 8
Yuri – 6

Overall – 9, because the story and characters are both developing together, which makes this show a total win.

Let me please remind you that if you want to support yuri anime, please don’t bittorent this, or any other licensed series – buy it, rent it, borrow it, share it, but don’t steal it.

Oh – and thanks to everyone who let me know they liked the new format!





Yuri Anime: Noir, Volume 2

June 27th, 2005

I spent some time this weekend rewatching anime that I own, but haven’t yet reviewed here. It was edifying, let me tell you. There were some things that were great and some less so. I decided to start the week off with a reasonably strong entry. ^_^

Noir Volume 2, *feels* like a second volume. The art is significantly less good than the first volume, the plot sort of drops off a bit in favor of character development (sort of) and the use of repeated footage begins to grate. But otherwise it’s excellent. ^_^

On the positive side, the characters do become more than just ciphers. Despite myself, I was feeling a little for Mirielle and Kirika as they faced what, for them, were major life crises – Kirika’s lack of knowledge about herself and Mirielle’s past trauma coming back to haunt her.

We also get a glimpse of Mirielle in bed in the nude, which has carried Yuri fans for some time, as there is only one bed in the room. It would take a strong woman, so we rationalize, to sleep in the nude with someone with whom you are not sleeping. ;-) In fact, I think it’s a bit early for them, but hey, yuri goggles go a long way to building character development. ^_^

Geographically, we go from New York City to (the wildly improbable deep woods and high mountain passes) of New Jersey to sunny Sicily. For this alone, the “Intoccabile” arc is worth it. But this arc is worth watching, in general. I think Intoccabile would have made a much worthier opponent than Chloe and it was a damn shame we used her up so soon.

This volume also gives the viewer glimpses into a Kirika who is exactly as she appears – a young woman, apt to fall for a cute kitty or a good sob story. I liked that. It gives her more depth than most people assume she has. And Mirielle gets a chance to gently gloat about her superior knowledge of Russian literature. ^_^

So, yes, the second volume has problems – notably the art and repeated footage issue (and the no-wound thing, which plagues the whole production), but as far as giving the characters some three-dimensionality, this volume is fairly crucial – and actually not a bad watch.

Ratings:
Art – 5
Music – 7 (Salva Nos playing as they run through NJ’s bamboo forest is, to me, priceless)
Character – 8
Story – 7

Overall 7

Not as strong as the beginning, or the end, but a must for fanfic writers. ^_^