All of a sudden this anime developed both a personality and a yuri storyline, practically overnight. How interesting is that?

Let me begin from the beginning. In Episode 1 of Uta-Kata, we are introduced to average girl Ichika, who, in the course of cleaning a spooky mirror, sees a reflection that is not her own. In the mirror is magical girl-creature Manatsu who comes into the world to be Ichika’s companion through a little misinformation and alot of personal charm.

I reviewed Uta-Kata back on October 25, when it first came out and I was mightily unimpressed. And with good reason, I might add. I have, until this week, been watching the series raw. Well it turned out that I really was, despite my disclaimer last month, really missing *alot* of what was going on, at least in part because I was only half paying attention. But two things happened this week that makes it worth going back and re-reviewing this series.

First, the good news. In Episode 9, the slow crawl into grim that this series has been undergoing becomes a headlong dive into dark and creepy. Initially, I was annoyed by the lack of anything – character development, plot, action. The entire series seemed determined to bore me with triviality. But, during this week’s episode I realized that I had been watching the wrong things entirely. With that revelation came a realization that this series had actually become quite interesting. Because while I was waiting for the inevitable magical girl power up/action/crises escalation, I completely missed the slow deterioration of Ichika, and the plot, into one seriously bleak – and interesting – little tale.

Secondly, due to my lack of attention, I had only half-noticed Ichika’s friends, most especially, Satsuki, played sharply by Kawakami Tomoko, the voice actress for Utena. It seemed to me that we beat on her friends and acquaintances a bit, but while I was looking for the usual magical-girl stuff and trying to ignore the fanservice, I missed that the emotional beating they were all taking *was* the plot. So, when (to me) all of a sudden, the story took a yuri turn, I decided to rewatch the first epsiodes, this time subbed, and see what I had missed.

The bad news – the first seven episodes of this series are cleverly designed to suck, so only hard-core or pig-headed fans will remain to see the good stuff. In rewatching the first three episodes, I was reminded that the fanservice was yawn-a-riffic and the plot really WAS boring as hell. I wasn’t wrong about that when I wrote the first review.

Seriously, the first episodes are dire. No wonder I couldn’t see what was going on – the plot was completely cloaked by several layers of awfulness. Episode 2 is, especially incomprehensible – even with subtitles. I still have no bloody idea what the writers were getting at.

And I can’t say that it gets better, because it basically gets worse until Episode 8 or so, when they lose the fanservice and add in a plot. Basically, while I was waiting for marketable items to manifest and Ichika to use her powers to save the world (when in fact, she’s been using them to find lost watches and turn the lights off…) Ichika has really been overloading on these useless powers. As a result, they are making her very sick. It’s different, at least, watching a magical girl barf into a toilet. Not cute at *all*, which is kind of cool.

So, there I am, watching Episode 9, in which Satsuki (who has apparently been abused by her father as a small child) is acting the prince to Keiko, who is suffering from a broken heart (that being this episode’s “plot”,) when it dawns on me that Satsuki is also suffering from a broken heart – over Keiko. Apparently it dawns on Keiko at the same moment, and she stands up and kisses Satsuki. We later see them hand in hand on the ride home – and we fervently hope that this is not a fluke. Don’t we?

As a yuri bonus, Manatsu and Ichika are all touchy-feely this episode, too. It’s not lesbian, but I think we can make a clearer case for a fanon relationship there. Expect mediocre yuri fanfic art to flood the ‘net any day now. :-)

Episode 10 looks like a literal nail in the coffin as it appears to be about death. So there you go. NOT cute magical girl at all, but grim and unpleasant magical girl, and I for one am mightily relieved.

If you plan on watching this in subs, be prepared – the first seven episodes just suck. (At the time I am writing this, only the first three episodes have been subbed at all. Don’t be surprised when they are god-awful.) But if you can stand it, it looks like some interesting things are right on the horizon.

We’ll keep watching and keep our fingers crossed. :)

Revised Ratings:

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

Overall – A hopeful 7 (at least for Epsiode 9.)

If it goes the way it looks like it’s going, Uta-Kata might even be worth watching.

Think Kodomo no Omocha meets Psychic Academy, with a little yuri thrown in for seasoning and you have Gakuen Alice.

I wasn’t originally interested in watching this series because I’ve had enough of cute for a while (hence my recent huddling on the couch with not-cute series like Otogizoushi and Phantom Memory Kurau,) but after a strong recommendation from a regular on the Yuricon Mailing List, this simply sounded to good to pass up. (And, see *this* is why you need to join the Mailing List – because there really is some excellent stuff out there, and no one, not even the dedicated seeker of yuri can find it all themselves!)

Gakuen Alice starts with a distinctly Sana-like main character, Sakura Mikan, energetically voiced by Maria-sama ga Miteru’s Ueda Kana, the voice actress for Yumi – proving once again that, like tatoos and piercings, once you’ve voiced a yuri character, you’ll be doing another and another… ;-)

Mikan is one of those hyper-energetic, loopy, yet irrationally likeable characters. In stark contrast stands Mikan’s genius best friend, irascabile and grumpy already at 10, Imai Hotaru, aptly named after the proto-goth Hotaru from Sailor Moon. Hotaru is delightfully mercenary and manipulative and, despite her obvious distate for displays of affection, she clearly cares deeply for Mikan. Which is why she doesn’t tell Mikan that she’s leaving for an “Alice” school in Tokyo.

“Alice” schools appear to be extremely elite private academies that take in only children with extraordinary abilities. In return, their families are given large sums of money, but the trade-off is that the students are cut of from friends and family completely. Mikan, devastated by the news, waits a few seasons, then heads off to find her friend, if only to see her for a moment, because life without Hotaru is simply intolerable.

For her part, Hotaru showed her affection for Mikan (and let me tell you I have a REALLY hard time stopping myself from calling her “Sana” every time) by giving her share of the “Alice” money to their school to keep it open…simply because it was important to Mikan. If *that’s* not love…

So, Mikan arrives in the big city, is immediately almost kidnapped and saved in the nick of time by a pretty young man from the Alice school Hotaru attends. Inexplicably, his powers do not seem to affect Mikan, something which intrigues him enough that he invites Mikan to attend the school. Not having a clue what’s going on at the school, but determined to be with Hotaru, Mikan agrees.

Future episodes look like they will be intermittently funny and painful, but I have to say that, even without the relationship between Hotaru and Mikan, this would probably be something I’d watch. In answer to the question “is it really yuri?” I’d have to say yes. Yes, they are young, and yes, it’s a relationship that lacks desire (and thank heavens for *that*!) but the love between the two girls is quite obvious and profound.

Ratings:
Story – 8
Character – 9
Art – 8
Music – 8
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8.

The comment around my house after the first episode was, “Is there more?” Barring incredible suckitude in future episodes, I think this one will be a keeper.

Thought-provoking and slightly disturbing, I My Me Strawberry Egg deserves careful consideration from the discriminating yuri fan.

I gotta tell you – it’s been a really long time since I sat down and watched IMMSE and I *still* don’t know whether I like it or not.

The basic plot is not that different from the movie Tootsie: that is, nice young up-and-coming teacher Amawa Hibiki is having a really hard time finding a job. He’s perfect for this one gig, but…it’s an all-girl school and the principal won’t even consider a man for the position. So Hibiki dresses like a woman and lands the job.

Hibiki is an exceptional teacher, and he really connects with his students, in particular Kuzuha Fuko, a shy, clumsy girl that Hibiki really draws out of her shell. Not surprisingly Fuko develops a crush on her beautiful, sweet and kind teacher. The problem is that Hibiki falls for Fuko too. Aside from the issue of teacher-student relation taboos, there’s the whole gender thing to contend with. Fuko is terrified of men (and Hibiki when he is a man,) but is in love with Hibiki the woman.

Rather than discuss the plot, let me outline *why* this is such a challenging anime to watch:

1) Hibiki is a better woman than the women. Not only is “she” unreasonably gorgeous and shapely, the school’s principal and other teachers are harpy-esque man-haters who are mean and nasty and ugly, internally, and sometimes, externally as well.

2) Hibiki is honestly a decent person, the plot-driving deceit notwithstanding. He’s a good teacher, but the essential lie about who and what he is colors all his actions – and worse, he *knows* it. It tears him up inside that he couldn’t have just gotten the job as himself. He questions not only his own emotions for Fuko, but hers for him, wondering if her had been himself, would either of them felt even a glimmer of atttraction, or is it only because he is something else that he’s let the situation get to this point.

3) The use of miserable pervert peeping toms as “comedic relief.” It simply does not get more dreadful than this. There is and never has been *anything* remotely funny about peeping toms. (Socio-Political Rant Mode On: Peeping is a form of stalking, and we really need to get past thinking it’s a “boys will be boys” thing, when in reality it is a “boys will be sociopaths” thing. Being a creep is NOT socially acceptable behavior…: Rant Mode Off)

4) Fuko’s emotions. The absolutely hardest thing to watch in this anime is Fuko’s love being turned into a side-show so that a jealous colleague can ruin Hibiki. It was painful in the extreme.

5) The pat ending. The problem is, Hibiki *is* a really nice guy, you just cannot hate him. He obviously can’t stay at the school, but he really can’t just up and leave, either, leaving Fuko to face it all alone – but that’s what he does. And Hibiki’s landlord turns out to be the ex-husband of the Principal of the school, who had a sex change (apparently to become a horrid crone, go figure) which is why Principal Harpy hates men. It was not only really obvious, but cloying and tedious. What lessons are we supposed to be learning here? That it’s okay to fuck with a child’s heartfelt emotions in order to teach someone else a lesson, and that having good intentions means it’s okay to be selfish? I don’t know, really, I just don’t know.

In the end, the only truly sympathetic and honest character is Fuko. Her emotions are so real and so raw that they just make this anime that much harder to watch. Fuko really falls in love with Hibiki, but with the female Hibiki who is no more than a sham. So, who does she really fall in love with? We can’t say with any conviction that she fell in love with another woman, nor can we say that she didn’t. It all ends up kind of messy and up to personal opinion. Obviously, my opinion is that she fell in love with a woman, since she had no reason at all to believe Hibiki to be anything other than what she appeared to be.

In the end, in my opinion it’s Yuri. It’s not a nice, clean story, but it is an interesting and difficult one. And for that reason, well worth watching.

I know that IMMSE has been released on DVD for the US, so do make sure you buy or rent it legitimately. You’ll can buy it through the Yuricon Shop, of course. In the meantime, let us know what *you* think of this story!

Ratings:
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Art – 6
Music – 6
Yuri – 9

Overall – 7

It’s not happy, it’s not satisfactory and it’s not fun. But it *is* smart and it is well-done. Which is why it hurt so damn much.