Archive for the Yuri Anime Category


Yuri:Anime ROD The TV, DVD Volume 4 (English)

January 25th, 2005

What can I say about ROD The TV, Volume 4 other than, “Omigodomigodomigodomigod!!”

Watching *this* volume of *this* anime is as close to having sex as you can get without doing anything even remotely like having sex.

Episode 13 of ROD the TV is quite possibly one of the best episodes of anime *ever.* Certainly right up in the top three for me. This whole volume had me on the edge of my seat, and I already know what’s going to happen – I mean really, how amazing is that? In fact, although I just watched these epsiodes, I kind of want to watch them all over again right now.

In the original TV broadcast, episodes 15 and 16 had serious art degradation, but Geneon announced that this would be corrected in the DVD release – and it was. The art seems a bit over-kill on the shading department now, but it is a big improvement over the original…and damn straight too, because this is THE volume, kids, THE one! Nenene’s big scene was, in the original version scarred by seriously crappy art. Scarred no more, we can sniffle along with Nenene, as she learns just exactly what’s been going on for the last five years. (And boy is this volume creepy as hell, as we realize just how nuts Joker and Wendy are.)

The translation seemed a little inconsistent, as the translators occasionally slip into telling us something like what the characters said, as opposed to what they actually said; but there are also a few spots where this translation was significantly better than the fansubbers’ – especially in Wendy’s exposition of what the real deal is. This mix of science, history, medicine and fantasy is not easy material to be translating. Clearly. And I, for one, applaud the translators for their fine effort.

Best scene ever in any anime ever, for my money, is when Nenene hauls off and belts Joker. I watched it three times, just because it feels so damn good. ^_^

The only downside to Volume 4? The pencil board. This one isn’t just yucky or offensive – it’s downright getting towards illegal. I was NOT happy with this pencil board. If I haven’t made it clear, then let me be plain. Lolicon grosses me out the door. And folks who find it sexy gross me out too. I’m sorry, but…you’re wrong in the head if you think kids are sex material. I include the folks who decided that this pencil board was a good idea. Hey guys – you were wrong. It wasn’t. This was in plain-old bad taste.

Ratings? 10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10 ad infinitum ad nauseum





Yuri Anime:Azumanga Daioh, DVD Vol. 6

January 11th, 2005

Short review, today, on a short volume of short vignettes about a short period in one’s life.

Well, here we are at the final volume of Azumanga Daioh, and as with my first viewing, I’m kind of bummed. Only this time, I know why.

This entire series, which up to now has focused on goofball comedy, all of a sudden gets entirely too maudlin for me at the end.

Well, that, and there’s only three episodes on the DVD.

BUT, we do get those excellent liner notes, another pin (Of a cat! How unexpected!) This time the pin is Maya, the Iriomote cat which adopts Sakaki-san. – something that, while I won’t wear, at least *liked*. And we get the Azumanga Daioh mini-movie as an extra on the DVD, which was nice, but still not nearly as funny as the TV series was.

Lastly, in the final few moments of the story, we get one last shot of yuri obsession, as Kaorin spends a tense moment trying to explain, rather urgently, just how *important* it was that she get a copy of that picture Tomo took of her and Sakaki-san. ^_^

It’s nice to know that I can visit this crowd whenever I’m in need of a laugh, and overall, ADV did a reasonable job with it. Thumbs up for this last volume in this excellent series.

Final Ratings for Azumanga Daioh on DVD from ADV:

Story – 9
Characters – 9
Art – 7
Music – 8
Translation – 8
Extras – 9
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8.5

A very worthwile addition to any anime (and Yuri) fan’s collection.





Yuri Anime: Stellvia of the Universe, Volume 2

January 10th, 2005


Remarkably, Stellvia, Volume 2 really *is* the good, the bad and the ugly all at once.

What with the utter dearth of anything interesting at all this new anime season, it’s a good thing that so many of last year’s best series are now available on DVD for decent viewing for the western yuri fan.

Before move into today’s review, let me just plug two things:

To purchase this DVD and other fine yuri anime series, please visit the Yuricon Shop where the new Yuri Anime page has opened! We’ve included some of the best yuri-related series available and more will be coming in the near future, including Stellvia. (In fact, I’ll make sure to add Stellvia tonight, in case this review makes you want to run out and buy the DVD! LOL)

Secondly, if you’ll notice in below this article, there is a single Google advertisment. Yuricon and ALC take a tremendous amount of time and money to run, and so, I am doing every possible thing I can to make a few cents to help get Yuri manga, events and community out there to you. If each one on you clicks the link in the ad, and futzes around at that site for a second or two, I’ll get a few cents that I can put into new Yuri manga or events. It will only take a second or two and trust me – I *really* appreciate it! So, if you enjoy this blog, click the Google Ad and help me out. To those who do, I give my heartfelt thanks.

All that having been said, let me get back to the good, the bad and the ugly of the second volume of Stellvia.

Let’s start with the good.

I had forgotten how much I actually enjoyed this series the first time around. As cynical as I am, I found myself getting into it all over again. Yes, I know the story, yes, I know all the (few) twists coming in the plot, but you know – the characters are really quite interesting and I found myself getting really into what was going on, despite myself. :-)

I realized that, at least here back at the beginning of the story, the lead character, Shima, is really more interesting than I remembered. Even though Shima is another idiot savant-type character who fails utterly every first time she tries a thing, but then, inexplicably, excels beyong everyone else, she’s still someone you can care about.

The Yayoi/Ayaka story is more compelling than I remembered, as well. I’m a sucker for a rich backstory – and of all the cast members, really, only these two have a life prior to Shima’s arrival. The fact that they are a Yuri couple notch them up in interest level for me. The fact that they are voiced by Orikasa Fumiko (Meia in Vandread, Ruki in Digimon Tamers) and Toyoguchi Megumi (Layla Ashley in Avenger, Satou Sei/Rosa Gigantea in Marimite, Meg in Bakuretsu Tenshi,) puts them right there up on the top ten for me.. The fact that their backstory isn’t a happy one makes it that much more interesting to me.

However, the absolute best thing was *exactly* as I remembered – the dialogue. For all that the characters do not look their ages – they definitely, definitely *sound* their ages. It was really refreshing…even though this was a re-watch.

Now for the bad – this DVD has three episodes, no extras and boring packaging. It looks like we’re getting the same exact nothing they got in Japan…and given the full price of the DVD, it hurts a little.

And the ugly – The CG art is way better than I remembered, but oh my god, is the regular animation…inconsistent. No, wait, it’s just plain terrible. I mean, the characters start out looking five years younger than they are, which I find annoying, but…but in episode 6, the art simply collapses into appallingly shoddy, unforgivably awful work. This was particularly distressing as the plot is really thickening just about then too. Shima’s neck was disturbingly long, the faces were frequently askew, Arisa almost never had a whole face at all and Yayoi looked like she spent the episode wearing a wig that kept sliding. Awful, awful, awful. The bad art was genuinely distracting, which is not a good thing.

Yuri-wise, this series is definitely still worth a look. In this volume, we are getting serious tension building between Yayoi and Ayaka, and I even have to admit that Arisa’s reactions to Shima and Kouta’s growing closenesss look awfully like resigned jealousy, something I missed completely the first time around.

Like I said way back when I reviewed it the first time, Stellvia is still a space opera, but still a really, genuinely enjoyable one.






Yuri Anime: Kannazuki no Miko, or The Girl Got The Girl, But….

January 8th, 2005

Well, Kannazuki no Miko ended, and Chikane and Himeko ended up together, but, really, it made NO sense at all.

Do we care?

Not really.

It doesn’t matter that “eternity” seemed to last no more than about 3 minutes, and that raping a person so that they will kill you is a stupid idea, and that the whole mecha thing was a giant waste, and the bad guy was a complete nothing….it doesn’t matter because Chikane confessed her love and her physical desire for Himeko, who basically told her that she wouldn’t kick her out of bed and kisses Chikane in a nice visual parallel to the kiss at the end of the first episode (which, by the way, proved me wrong, because in my first review of Kannazuki no Miko, I was pretty sure they would *not* get together. Wrong again. ^_^)

Because pictures are sometimes actually worth a thousand words, I will eschew a description of the insensible ending and simply offer a picture which not only succinctly summarizes the end of the series, but is also highly amusing. This magnificently succinct picture was drawn by Juji and is now used here with permission of the artist, for which I am immensely grateful! This was meant to summarize the first episode, but it seems to work for the last – and many of the middle episodes, as well. ^_^ Thanks Juji!

And there you have it. The end of Kannazuki no Miko, as interpreted by a genius among fans. We await sequels with bated breath. ^_^





Ikkitousen, DVD Vol. 2

December 13th, 2004

I’m getting used to the panties – what does that say about me?

Last night, about 2/3 way through Volume 2 of Ikkitousen I started to laugh uncontrollably at the complete and utter trashiness of this story. I blame my Dad, because he has such crap-tastic taste in porn. I guess some of it rubbed off – lucky me.

Like the first volume, Volume 2, comes with a lovely reversible cover – Ryofu on one side (above), Kanu on the other, and a two-sided pencil board which depict these two fantastically competent and combative women after they have had frontal lobotomies and are now completely submissive. It’s probably just me, but I think that they are *way* sexier when they look like they could kick my ass. The mini-poster inside the case is nice, but not exceptional.

I was all ready to bitch about the 3-episode volume, but you know, the Japanese version has 2 episodes per volume, so it’s a much worse deal. Do I care? No! Dammit – this series is 13 crappy episodes! Sell it as a 2-DVD set, with a box and all the pencil boards, for pity’s sake. It’ll cost you less to print, you can gouge us for the box and boards and we’ll all be happy. Plus we won’t have to wait obscene amounts of time for all the volumes to come out. Duh.

The translation was a little tighter this time, which was good. No honorifics at all, except for, get this…Mou-chan. I was so happy that they translated that the right way. And Oba-san was turned into “Aunt Goei” so I guess that was reasonably close. Interestingly, they did not bother to translated the Chinese title “Sho Haou” that is given to Hakufu. It means, roughtly, “Little King of Fighters” or something roughly equivalent. The fansubbers had called her the “Junior Lord of Lords”.

As for content, I wasn’t kidding when I said that this anime is trash. I mean, really – it’s trash. The Fighter’s Grand Tournament has begun, by Imperial Order from Enjutsu, who remains icognito (for good reason…). Hakufu, who is clearly unprepared wants to fight anyway, while Koukin annoyed the living daylights out of me by trying to micromanage Hakufu’s every action and word. By the end of the DVD, more than anything else, I wanted someone, preferably Ryomou, to pound the daylights out of Koukin – what a jerk that boy is. And a hypocritical prude. Get *over* it already – the girls have breasts and asses, yes. Now move on.

Speaking of Ryomou – we learn that she did indeed have a life previous to this DVD and was, indeed, wearing the eyepatch before then as well. Her sempai was paralyzed and blinded in a previous Tournament. So much for Ryomou’s rich backstory. She then toddles off to a dark wood where she meets, fights and is defeated by Ryofu. Ryomou is further humiliated as Ryfou, having paralyzed her, then rapes her. But it’s all in good fun, you see, because Ryofu is really just a dedicated and omnisexual follower of Toutou. Ryofu is also impossibly stacked. She must have those things crazy-glued into that jacket.

Anyway, up from the beating she’s given Ryoumou, Ryofu goes off to have sex with Saji – and for a change we get to see him give her a good time. ‘Bout time, too.

In the meantime Hakufu destroys an entire school’s Fighters because she goes all dragon-postal.

After finding her determination (mostly to get back at Ryofu), Ryomou beats a team of Fighters on her own, then goes on to have a serious kick-ass fight with Kanu Unchou, who complete outclasses my poor Mou-chan. Even after Ryomou breaks her arm (I’m pretty sure that the arm would have been dislocated at the shoulder before it broke, but I’m just being picky,) she’s outfought. Kanu could and does, kick her ass with, literally, one arm behind her back. Hakufu give Kanu a bit of a whooping, but Kanu retires, covered in sweat and glory, leaving Hakufu’s school up one in the ranking.

Which brings us to the leaast interesting character in the series – the guy in charge. We are supposed to see Toutou as some incredibly powerful, seriously heavy juju kinda guy? I don’t see it. He’s a bore. I support Ryofu’s determination to oust his lazy-ass ass. And his favorite pillow, Bunwa? Is she a threat? Why>? All she does is suck up to him – in several different ways. Wow – getting service, scary.

In the end, Ryofu confides in her loyal lackey Chinkyuu that she’s going to be the top dog and, as is always appropriate with Ryofu, they celebrate by having sex. Whee! Much better!

So, yuri-wise, this volume is about as good as it gets. Ryofu does Ryomou (and damn I wish they would have gotten together for real…) and then Chinkyuu. Go Ryofu!

Ratings:

Story – 6

Character – 8, except Koukin and Toutou, who are 1’s

Art – 6

Yuri – 9

Music – 2 (Let’s talk about the utter suckiness of the opening theme, shall we?)

Fanservice – 10

Overall – this is a 6 at best, but I kind of like it anyway.

Ultimately, this series is about three things: fanservice, fighting, and fanservice. If you’re not into these, don’t bother.