Archive for the Yuri Anime Category


Okazu Top Yuri Anime of 2020

December 27th, 2020

Traditionally, this is the hardest list of the year for me to write. I do try to make time to at least sample whatever fandom thinks of as Yuri anime that has come out in a year, even if I don’t particularly think of it as Yuri. Some years are harder than others if there just hasn’t been much that came out. This was not one of those years. ^_^

This year it was a hard list because of the typical shifting and juggling of spots up at the top. I won’t take that for granted, because it’s a lovely problem to have. It still makes it a hard list to write! ^_^

I’ve included links to legal streaming sites and complete sets on disk, whichever are available at time of writing. Which brings me to an interesting point. With Retrocrush, Tubi.Yv, Funimation and Crunchyroll all  – at the moment – offering free streaming, Sentai’s HIDIVE stands out a bit, as the only non-free option streaming service. I wonder how that might change in 2021.

As usual, this is all *my opinion* and it reflects my priorities and interests. I invite you all to add your top anime of the year in the comments!

 

 
Assault Lily Bouquet

This isn’t Yuri, per se, so much as a derivative dolls-killing-giant monsters series, wrapped in a Yuri uniform. Which was interesting as an exercise: What if you stripped any human romance, love, from the modern moe-fied remnants of Class S relationships and used it as a series of markers without meaning? It becomes lion’s skin of Yuri draped over the shoulders of a moe Hercules. (How is that for an image? ^_^)

It wasn’t to my taste, in almost the exactly way Semelparous was not, though for opposite reasons. I wouldn’t mind a giant monster-killing story with a great Yuri plot, but neither this, nor Semelparous is it. Nonetheless, its gets a spot here for killing a wild Yuri and wearing it’s skin. ^_^

Streaming on Funimation

 

 

Tamayomi

You all know my endless plaintive cries for a good sports Yuri story. This was not what I’m looking for, but it was a pleasant little sports story with a light frisson of Yuri.

As a technically-minded sports anime I thought it pretty interesting. As a story about teamwork and friendship, it was a solid enough entry. Having any girl’s sport series that takes the sports aspect seriously is always a pleasure. And for that, we’ll give a spot in the line up to Tamayomi, (admittedly,  pretty far down the roster.^_^)

Streaming on Funimation

 

 

 

Battle Athletes

Again, this isn’t the sports Yuri I want, even though it is spectacularly Yuri and – theoretically – about sports. ^_^ As an idea, Battle Athletes is great! As a reality, it’s goofy and zOMG full of service. Long before it was the “Naruto run” Akari did that crane style run. As a relic of a period where anime liked its heroines to be clumsy, useless, until they are suddenly ridiculously overpowered, and full of the stupidest possible nonsense, its really hard to take seriously. As a lesbian love triangle it’s a little more worthy. Personally I’ll always be craning my head around Akari, Ichino and Kris (and her cow,) ignoring the service and the stereotypes which were always totally UGH, even back when this was made, to watch Mylandah and Lahrri’s steamy relationship melting the edge of the film. ^_^

Thanks to Diskotek for reminding me what was good and bad about this classic Yuri anime.

Available on Blu-ray from Diskotek

 

 

Kira Kira PreCure a la Mode

Like a few other series on this list, Kira Kira PreCure Ala Mode isn’t from 2020, but this year we got this as a release on Crunchyroll.

Pretty much every year I watch an episode or two of the new PreCureseries, then forget to keep watching. I’ve made it through about a half dozen of the seasons. This is one of a few I genuinely enjoyed all the way through, along with Heartcatch, Suite and, surprisingly Healin’ Good.

Kira Kira PreCure ala Mode had all the things that hook me into a season of PreCure – characters with agency, and personality, a lovely Yuri couple with a good chunk of Yuri voice acting cred, good bad guys who evolve, loads of references to other cultural relics. But, honestly, even if Akira and Yukari weren’t obviously a couple, the fact that Akira’s transformation into Cure Chocolat included the Takarazuka stairs at least deserves an Honorable Mention. ^_^

Streaming on Crunchyroll

 

 

Vlad Love

I really, truly, did not believe we’d be talking about this here on Okazu. In fact, I actively tried to avoid it. ^_^ But, here we are. Vlad Love has Oshii’s high-def backgrounds and a kind of a 90s vibe animation in the foreground.

In the end, Oshii’s girl-meets-girl vampire story made it on to this list. How? By being pretty fun, actually, with some overt acknowledgement that they are, kind of, and might be for real, later, a couple. In the meantime, this is a silly premise and we’ll have to wait to see where it leads us.

Episode 1 streaming on Youtube

 

 

My Next Life As a Villainess

I stand firm that this series is the sweetest, most lovable queer baiting I have ever seen. Yes, Mary is really into Katarina. That is not fake. And I think, honestly, the same could be said for Maria. As we know it is also, for every other character, because that’s the point. Furthermore, in the novels, Katarina’s feeling for Maria are interestingly complex. But the story is not about Katarina and her “waifu” Maria or her wannabee gf, Mary. So while I’m firm on “this is Yuri” I am also pretty darn firm on “this is Yuri-bait.”

The fact that the series is mega-delightfully loopy is just a big cherry on this cupcake of silly, yet adorable Yuri frippery. I loved watching, I’m still enjoying reading it and while I know Mary will never get a kiss, while Jeord does, it’s still a wonderfully wholesome Yuri series. ^_^

Streaming on Crunchyroll

 

 

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die

I’ve never pulled punches about this manga series – it makes me crazy, not in a good way. I frequently end a volume with an hour-long internal rant about the legal form of human trafficking that is the Japanese idol industry. I didn’t know if the anime would make it better or worse, honestly. But the anime fixed a few of the worst relics of the manga, cut out the absolute worst parts, switched some of the stuff around and did a pretty amazing job of turning what is a frustrating read into a hopeful watch.

The animation was very well done, and Ai Farouz was absolutely outstanding as Eri-pyo. This anime, regardless of my personal feelings about the story, deserves to be on this list.

Streaming on Funimation

 

 

Adachi and Shimamura

I honestly had no expectation of this series being good, either. The light novels when I read them back in the day, moved at a glacial pace, were filled with irrelevancies, and focused their energy on the wrong things.

Many things have changed and the writing has improved over time, I am told. Certainly both the animation and the voice acting added positive dimensions to this story. Despite the truckload of crotch and chest-staring which makes it really hard for me to just relax and enjoy this series, the fact that fandom loves it and the positives were enough to give the series a place on this year’s list.

Streaming on Funimation

 

 

 

Devilman Lady

I know have talked this series up a lot. In the early 2000s, it just slid under the radar, which was a damn shame as it was queerer than just about any other series at the time or for many years afterwards. Rewatching it now, I’m reminded how visually fascinating, musically oppressive and emotionally gut-wrenching it is.

This is not an easy watch. The horror here isn’t just violence and blood…it’s the endless existential horrors humans inflict on each other. The Yuri isn’t subtext. It is pervasive and a major plot point.

This is Go Nagai at his best, when you can’t just look away. The technology is a bit dated, but overall, this remains a strong – and relevant – story about humanity at its worst, and its best.

Streaming on Retrocrush

Available on Blu-Ray from Diskotek

 

 

Happy Go Lucky Days

Due to timing and circumstances, this anime movie flew under most people’s radar, but in my opinion it was absolutely the very best portrayal of lesbians we had in anime this year. Based on the manga Dounika Naru Hibi (どうにかなる日々)by Shimura Takako, this movie is a mix of vignettes about various characters that feel very much rooted in reality.  In the first scenario, Ecchan and Aya meet and find they share several things in common…including an ex-girlfriend.  We get to watch them as their relationship develops and becomes something more serious.

Brought to us by the team at Pony Canyon that created the Kase-san and Morning Glories OVA, the animation was smart and realistic, with enough of Shimura’s stylistic flourishes that you’d never doubt it was her work being animated. While the movie didn’t get the theatrical release planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was able to be shared to film festivals, and is available on HIDIVE. The trailer is free, and you can get a free week trial to watch the whole movie, but it does not stream legally for free.

It is my opinion, though, that this is worth getting that free trial, because Happy Go Lucky Days was the best Yuri anime of 2020.^_^

Streaming on HIDIVE





Go Nagai’s DevilMan Lady, Disk 1

December 13th, 2020

Fans of Go Nagai’s work are probably pretty familiar with his Devilman franchise, which has spawned a number of anime and manga series over the decades. More recently fans may have encountered his work in Devilman Crybaby, which streams on Netflix. I personally found that iteration to be one of the best anime I’d ever seen.  Yuasa Masaaki’s directorial touch meshed perfectly with Go Nagai’s conceptual framework for a truly epic series.

Devilman Lady has always been a less-known sideshow of the Devilman franchise, but it has also always been one of my absolute favorite anime, for many reasons – among them, top voice actors, Go Nagai’s vision, the soundtrack and that the story is profoundly and overtly Yuri. Now, almost 20 years after the anime was first released in the US by ADV, here we are thanks to Diskotek who has reissued the complete series in a 2-disk Blu-Ray set. Honestly…I still think it’s fantastic.

The story follow Fudou Jun, a professional model. It’s almost hard to understand what people see in her, as Jun is painfully awkward and nervous but, when she gets in front of the camera, something seems to come over her. One day she is kidnapped and forced into a warehouse with a beast-monster, and learns that she is, in actual fact, a Devil Beast. Unlike many of the transformations happening around town, she retains her humanity when she transforms, making it that much more awful when she has to kill beasts she knows were once- and maybe could still be – human.

The Yuri in this series is so constant that it’s almost diminishing to lay it out. Jun encounters an old classmate who was in love with her, and a new rival model who desires her on this disk, in two fantastically gay episodes. Asuka openly desires Jun when she is a Devil Beast. It is not subtext to say that the entire story is constantly reminding us that Jun is closeted about several things, not just being a Devil Beast.

Diskotek has done a stellar job with this anime. The animation screams 1990s, but the visuals look fresh and crisp and the sound is excellent. Diskotek used ADV’s English track which was good for its time, but very much has that feel of early voice acting when anime was just taking off here.

The soundtrack deserves a mention, too. The theme for this anime is fantastically gothic. I actually bought the soundtrack album for it, and it’s basically the same one theme remixed a couple of times. ^_^ The fight scenes though, have music that sound like the opening theme of a night-time crime-solving couple series from ’90’s American TV. Cracks me up every episode. Giant horrific Devil Beast monsters fighting over Tokyo and the BGM is like Hart & Hart. ^_^

I know horror is not for everyone. Go Nagai is not for everyone. This series is definitely Nagai’s specific brand of sexualized demonic monsters, with both physical and psychological horror elements and dustings of dread and misery and pathos as needed. It will occasionally make you very sad and possibly quite angry. It’s a shockingly good Yuri anime that has an ending that is good and bad, hopeful and miserable all at once.

Ratings:

Art – 9 for 1990s
Story –  9 Depressing, scary and creepy, sometimes emotionally crushing. But fascinating, even compelling.
Characters – 8 No one is what they initially seem, especially not Jun.
Service – 8 Yes, very. The is Go Nagai we are talking about.
Yuri – 8, but wait, there’s more!

Overall – 9

If you don’t want to commit to buying this set, you can watch DevilMan Lady as the dubbed version The Devil Lady free and legally on RetrocrushTV.

In my opinion DevilMan Lady is an absolute classic of Yuri and should not be ignored. I’m thrilled we can experience it once again.

Many, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P for his sponsorship of today’s review!





Happy Go Lucky Days

November 15th, 2020

“My first kiss was with a girl.

Her name was Yuri-chan. It sounds like a joke, but it’s not.”

These are the opening lines of Happy Go Lucky Days, the anime movie based on Shimura Takako’s manga Dounika Naru Hibi (どうにかなる日々). The movie was originally supposed to have had a spring 2020 release, but due to COVID-19 delays, it was pushed back to autumn. The Asian Pop-up Festival streamed it with English subtitles. The opening 8 minutes of the movie are still on Youtube on the Cinema Today channel for you to enjoy.

The story is a loose conglomeration of scenarios that revolve around love and sex and romance. The first scenario follows Ecchan, who dated the above-mentioned girl named Yuri in high school. Years later, she’s attending Yuri’s wedding and finding herself crying in the bathroom, where she encounters Aya, who also has dated Yuri, in college. Motivated by their common ground of annoyance with Yuri, they end up sleeping together, then just being together, in a way that feels comfortable and not forced at all. Yuri’s marriage has done something good for them, at least. ^_^

The second scenario follows Sawa-sensei, a man who feels very closeted to me, as he navigates a confession from a student and need for affection.

The third scenario is my least favorite. Sayoko was thrown out of her house for doing a porn video and is staying with neighbors. Her overtly sexualized behavior and speech fucks around with Shin-chan who is only in 5th grade. He and his best friend and ultimately girlfriend Mika, are made aware of sex because of Sayoko. We watch as they navigate puberty…something I’m not really all that interested in doing.

The team at Pony Canyon for this movie was the same as brought us Asagao to Kase-san, so the animation was very pretty, although the scenery and content was less well-served by the animation. Hotel bathrooms can only be lovingly animated to a very limited extent. ^_^; 

The content is in exactly the space that Takako-sensei really sits most comfortably, as characters become uncomfortably aware of their sexuality (or, in other of her works, gender.) It’s never a wholly pleasant journey, but it’s not unpleasant, either. It always feels a little like she’s trying to figure something out, or standing outside, looking in on people’s inner thoughts, trying to work out something in herself.

In this case, I found myself relieved that the initial scenario was not unpleasantly complicated and we’re left thinking that it could be a happily-at least for a normal course of time- after. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8,8,6
Characters – 8
Queer – 8 in the first vignette, and yes…but, for Sawa-sensei. He’s questioning more than queer. Let’s give him a 5.
Service – Yes. Sex and sex adjacent stuff. I’d give it a 6.

Overall – 8

Happy Go Lucky Days was pretty and the lesbians are okay. ^_^





Assault Lily Bouquet, Guest Review by Kristin

October 14th, 2020

Welcome to Guest Review Wednesday! It’s always such a pleasure to have a Guest Review and even more exciting, today we have a brand new Guest Reviewer. I’d like you to all give a warm welcome to Kristin, who is doing me a huge favor today by taking a look at Assault Lily Bouquet which is streaming on Funimation.com!

Well hello! I don’t think I’ve ever been here before! Years ago I used to be the manga and anime reviewer for ComicAttack.net, but these days I just shit talk on Twitter with my former peers. Anyway, I’m Kristin. You can find those old reviews here. Today I am lending Erica a hand and giving her eyeballs (and blood pressure) a break. She really didn’t need to watch this one.

Assault Lily: Bouquet is a new anime based on a mixed-media franchise, the primary mode being toy figurines. The doll line was created by Azone International and Acus in 2013. A light novel was published by Micro Magazine/GC Novels in 2015, and a manga is currently running in Monthly Bushiroad. Monthly Bushiroad’s parent company, Bushiroad Media, primarily concerns itself with trading card games and associated media. Azone International makes fashion dolls. Now, this mixture of media is very common. I don’t know why the Assault Lily series is particularly popular at present, but then America made a movie about the game Battleship in 2012, so time frames aren’t really an issue. To be honest, the dolls are kind of cute, and the “girls with guns” (or random weapons bigger than they are) genre is perennial. Not my style or interest, personally, but they look well made.

That’s the main thing that can also be said about the anime. It’s well made.

Assault Lily (and in conjunction Assault Lily: Bouquet, of course) tells the story of a group of teenage girls (the show specifically says 16-17) who attend a prestigious academy. Not just any academy, of course, but one that teaches these girls how to fight large, mechanical monsters called Huge. Yes, the Huge are huge. To fight these monsters, the girls sync up with their Charms through a ring they wear. Yes, their Charms are charms. Charms are the weapons the girls use to fight the monsters, and teenage girls have the greatest ability to synchronize with this technology. Hitotsuyanagi Riri is the newest Lily, arriving in episode one at the academy in order to follow her idol, Shirai Yuyu, who saved her from a Huge two years ago. Right away, Riri is thrust into combat as she joins Yuyu and another student, Kaede, in tracking down a Huge that escaped the school’s research facility. Unfortunately, while Riri’s combat experience and ability are fairly suspect, the main problem is that she has not yet synced up with her Charm. This is quickly remedied, and Riri and the snobbish, Yuyu-obsessed Kaede finish the Huge off. Riri saves Kaede from the explosive aftermath, making Kaede abandon Yuyu for her new savior. Since the girls do tend to pair up with combat partners (called “Schutzengel,” or “Guardian Angel”), it seems Riri may be on track to form such a relationship on day one.

Well. There’s a plot there, somewhere. In between all of the zettai ryouiki, the “absolute territory” of thigh skin revealed between a girl’s skirt and (usually over-the-knee, mid-thigh) socks. Because the series pays very close attention to this little patch of skin. You’ll note the, ah, generic lore. Which is probably fine for a collection of dolls, but isn’t very interesting or impacting in an anime series. Nothing is really unique here – girls with guns/large weapons, teenagers fighting monsters, large and nasty robots. There’s hardly anything to talk about. It’s just sort of…dull. There’s a couple quick fight scenes, and they’re pretty, but not much else. Really, the whole show is pretty. SHAFT is the animation studio, and they’ve done some beautiful work in the past. They’re also no stranger to “magical girl” series, which would be the closest genre Assault Lily: Bouquet could fit. Nor are they stranger to overly sexualized teen girls. They’ve even done strong friendships with girls. This, though, is some kind of…light Yuri fan service for middle-aged men. The show airs in a past-midnight time slot on a Thursday night/Friday morning, so it’s certainly not directed at young girls. Which really makes it sort of uncomfortable. There are just so many thigh shots and boob shots, and the uniforms are designed to make this extra effective.

Ratings:

Art – 9, it’s beautiful! SHAFT knows how to animate, no question.

Story – ….4? For the first episode. It’s just so generic, honestly. I’ve seen this many times, even if the technical aspects of the magic and technology are new. Look, it’s based on a toy line. Which is fine, but it’s designed to sell more dolls.

Characters – 6, I suppose. If the designs weren’t so…zettai ryouki focused, they might be cute. There’s also a lot of characters. Maybe too many, as far as who seems to be featured.

Service – Depends on what kind of service you want. Are you really into the thigh skin of 16-year-old girls?

Yuri – It’s a trap. If you’re drawn to the not-so-subtle Yuri undertones, it’s a trap, run away. They’re gonna lean into it for its audience, but I highly doubt it will be worth it unless you’re really into the skin and bouncing boobs of teenage girls.

Overall – Seven highly deliberate shots of the “absolute territory” on teenage girls.

Erica here:  Thank you so much Kristin. I did try, but as you say, it was not good for my blood pressure. In my opinion, Assault Lily Bouquet is a magical girl version of Ikkitousen with about as much respect for its female characters, only starring fetuses in frilly dresses. ^_^ Thank you again and we hope to have you back soon!





KIRA KIRA☆Pretty Cure A la Mode

October 8th, 2020

Ichika is a normal 2nd-year in middle school, who loves to make desserts, when she becomes a legendary pâtissier/guardian, Pretty Cure, Cure Whip. In the normal way of such things, Ichika gathers around her a number of other teammates and friends, science-minded Himari, rock singer Aoi, older girls cool, boyish Akira and stylish Yukari and, eventually a famous pâtissier from France, Ciel…and that’s not all, in KIRA KIRA☆Pretty Cure A la Mode, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

It’s my habit of many years to at least give the first few episodes of every PreCure series a watch. That’s fallen by the wayside in recent years, so KIRA KIRA☆PreCure is the last one I actually gave a few weeks to. I liked it well enough and was very pleased when Crunchyroll picked this series up. I’m still hoping we get Heartcatch, as so far, I consider it the best season to date. But Kira Kira is pretty solid.

This time the PreCure fight Noir-sama who steals the color and sparkle – the “kira kira” of the title – from sweets. As legendary pâtissiers, it is PreCure’s job to protect sweets from losing their kira kira and making sure everyone in the world gets to be happy through sweets. The co-branding possibilities with candy and pastries are endless and I’m sure dentists were happy, too.

There are a few narrative beats here that were actually interesting. Our first nemesis is Rio, a boy who obviously knows a lot about sweets, but won’t cook. His true identity was kind of fun and it set the tone for the various redemptions, back-stabbing, evolutions and other crisscrossing of the characters’ various stories. I also quite like evil little Bibli. I won’t spoil, because frankly, it’s a cartoon for little children with a good 10 minutes of repeated footage for every 20-minute episode and there’s little else to draw your attention, so you might as well wait for it. ^_^ This season the PreCure are both sweets and animal related, so you’re gonna have plenty of time to get up and get a drink while they transform, especially towards the end. ^_^

One other draw is the aforementioned cool, boyish Akira and stylish and elegant Yukari who make a nice couple. I think it goes a little far to say they are an established couple, but as far as they can carry that without overt expressions of mutual love, they get pretty far. Akira does have the chance to tell Yukari she likes her and they are partnered in attacks and other ways that makes it plain to those who want to see what they see.

Most telling to me is that Akira’s transformation to Cure Chocolat places her clearly on Takarazuka-like stairs as an otokoyaku. Later she will be Prince to Yukari’s Queen at the school festival. There are any number of moments when their voice actresses play the roles like its an obvious pairing. Akira’s voice actress, Mori Nanako played coffee-shop owner and adult lesbian in a stable relationship, Miyako in Bloom Into You, and Yukari’s VA, Fujita Saki has graced such Yuri anime as Sakura Trick and Yuri Yuri, and she’s Attack on Titan‘s Ymir, so we have solid Yuri cred from both, as well.

As PreCure goes, the music was not bad, although so far nothing has touched the end theme to Heartcatch PreCure in my completely biased opinion.

A pretty solid, if super sweet, season of PreCure.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Coloful, rather than good, but totally acceptable
Story – 6 It had some elements of interest.
Characters – 8
Service – well, I guess constant shots of potential toys are a kind of corporate service
Yuri – Hrmmm, well give Akira and Yukari a 7. You can see if you want to, and also kind of ignore it if you don’t

Overall – 7

Kudos to the translator who nailed Jaba’s “Nan ja to?” by translating it as “What the ja?” Outstanding.