Stroking My Ego, Among Other Things

January 8th, 2008

Quick semi-news post. If, like, me you enjoy the occasional bout of literary criticsm on comics and manga, I suggest you visit Newsarama’s blog for a list of their commentator’s top critical posts on manga and comics. I hope you’ll read all the way down the list, to where Mangablog‘s Brigid Alverson gives Okazu a shout-out. ;-) That was awfully nice of her. I can return the favor. She’s a great writer – go read her blog.

Also, Active Anime has resurrected the old AnimeFringe Top 25 anime/manga site poll. Way back when it was just a baby site, Yuricon was in the Top 25. I’d love to make it again – of course, it would be even *better* if I made it twice with Okazu on the list, too. Feel free to stuff the ballot box vote for your Top Anime Site. Don’t forget to make two of your three choices Yuricon and Okazu. LOL

Posted in Okazu News, Yuri Network News | No Comments »


The Last Uniform, Volume 2 (English)

January 7th, 2008

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is jet-lagged. Today’s review, which was sponsored by Daniel P., is going to be short.

The Last Uniform Volume 2, is a continuation of the love polygons that were set up in Volume 1. With pretty much no change from the first volume, Ai and Fuuko and Beniko and Tsumugi all court one another semi-secretly; their emotions are visible, but their intentions remain hidden. In an ironic twist, because of the various conflicts and complications, they become closer as friends, as roommates and as people – but not as lovers. Until the end.

It is, of all things, a boy that prompts the final conflict and the first “outing.” A guy, Arita, finds Fuuko’s student ID and brings it to her. They become friendly. Fuuko isn’t really looking at this from any deep perspective. He’s nice, she enjoys his company. Ai, on the other had, begins to boil over with a nice case of jealousy. When Arita asks a slightly overwhelmed Fuuko out, she says yes. Ai-chan appears – she’s overheard the whole thing. She confronts Fuuko about going out with Arita, and confesses that *she* is in love with Fuuko. Then she runs away. End of book. What will become of them? Will their love affair topple the whole precarious domino setup-up of love relationships at the school? We can only wait and see.

In other stories, Tsumugi is still the subject of akogare from Anzu’s direction and Asagi remains a pervert who pretty much ignores the girl at her elbow, while macking on an uninterested Beniko.

Once again, the translation is solid – the text is pretty basic, though, so Seven Seas don’t really get to show their mad skills here. For some reason, the tones in this volume reproduced strangely, so all the blacks and dark tones look spotty. Not the worst thing, but it made everything a bit hard to see. Since Hakamada Mera’s art is neither detailed nor deep there’s no real loss, except for the feeling that your glasses need to be cleaned.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 3 (nude modeling, bathing and, of course, school uniforms)

Overall – 6

I’ll never really like The Last Uniform. But I don’t hate it, either. I just wish the characters were appealing to me in any way at all. And there’s only so much “overheating because the girl I like is close to me” that I can take before it gets wearing. Tsumugi exhausts me.

Posted in English Manga, Hakamada Mera | No Comments »


Tokyo Tales and Random Utterings on Comiket

January 7th, 2008

“Man hath better thing to do than to eat drink and be merry.”

This was the quote on the menu of the “Rose and Crown Victorian Pub” in Akihabara. Look at it carefully. Notice the small, two-letter word missing that *completely* changes the meaning? It was on the basis of this misquote that we decided to not eat at the pub, since we had better things to do than eat, drink and be merry. Ultimately, we ended up at a Mos Burger, because I hadn’t ever had a chance to eat at one before.

This was the second day we were in Tokyo. (“We” being myself, my beloved wife, our friend and one of my best lackeys, Bruce. and the wife’s friend Barbara and her mother Linda.)

The first day, as I reported, we spent the day looking for the Comike catalog, and diving into 105 yen doujinshi bins.

The second day, we went back to Akihabara to shop and to see if we could find Bruce a catalog. We failed at the latter (as I suspected) but we shopped until we were exhausted. This is easier than it sounds because they keep the stores at a toasty 78 degrees. It exhausts one quickly.

After our Mos Burgers (I had the amusingly named “Spicy Mos Burger” knowing full well it wouldn’t really be anything like spicy, since I had just been in Mexico and Japan really doesn’t know what “spicy” means) we crawled home, too tired to appreciate the maid costumes and Goth-Loli walking by.

I have to say. I’ve come to a new appreciation of Gothic Lolita. While it really isn’t my taste, all those frills and fripperies, I think the people who wear it are on to something. It’s *like* cosplay, but isn’t. They can walk around the streets in it, carefree in their sense of self-worth and be different, while managing to be fashionable and not freakish all at once. It’s pretty much the win look for the young Japanese rebel. You don’t even need a gang to make you look less dumb and anyone walking next to you gets powerup points off your charm. I approve.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took and some things I jotted down that pretty much have nothing to do with the pictures. By the way – click on the pictures for larger versions. These are really small and hard to see.

On New Year’s Day, the first shrine we went to was the Toyokawa Inari Shrine. This was the wife’s request. She has collected a nice skulk of kitsune which are arranged decoratively around the house. I have no objection to them, being a dog person myself, and since she includes Gyuubimon when she feeds them, I think it’s swell.

The first two days we were there, Beat Takeshi was not on TV and we started to worry, but then after that, he was on every night. It’s just not TV in Tokyo if Beat Takeshi is not on. BTW, he sponsored an arts show that came on right before or after the Nodame Cantabile special, about real young musicians.

At Toyokawa, I saw this statue and was just moved to take a picture. After I caught up with everyone, we walked back a bit to it, where the wife pointed and said “that was my offering.” It was kind of interesting that of all of them, that was the one I took a picture of. I also put a yen piece in between the ears of one earless kitsune, who I had the whimsical notion of stealing, taking home and feeding.

This is Bruce, drinking sweet sake because it’s traditional. (If he reads that, he’ll laugh.) Afterwards, we headed for the Tokyo Tower area, as I reported previously, so I could make my hatsumode and we could have yakisoba at the Zojouji. We’ve done that three times, now – it’s a tradition. :-) Also, at Tokyo Tower, we shopped for souvenirs, had a pee and decided to try the much-advertised-on-the-subway McPork sandwich, because we could not imagine it being good. It wasn’t. :-)

I know you all think you know what Comiket is like, but really…you don’t unless you’ve been there. The first day nearly killed the wife, Bruce and I. We were there for less than four hours and we felt like we had dug ditches for 36. It wasn’t just that we were carrying alot. I was, but that wasn’t it. It was just brutal. There are a lot of people and your brain just isn’t used to the navigation necessary. It’s hard to watch where you’re going, look for stuff that interests you and keep an eye out for a particular table you’ve marked down. I came with a list, and because we had the Catalog a couple days early, we were able to add a few things to look for, but the sheer numbers of things to look at and the distances one has to walk nearly broke us. We bought what we wanted and fled. Seriously.

The day after New Year, we went to Asakusa, so I could make my offering to Kannon. I have never seen the Sensouji this crowded. They had moved the bronze incense brazier from the middle of the path – it’s this enormous thing that I didn’t think could be moved. People were getting to the top of the stairs, looking back and saying “sugoi” then taking pictures. I said “wow” and took a picture. Here it is. The path is crowded with people for about another half mile back.

On the second day of Comiket, Bruce and I went one way, while the wife and her friends went another. They left about halfway through the day, Bruce and I plugged our way around lines and took a beating for the team. We held up a lot better, but I had bought so much that my bag weighted about 35-40 pounds.

I literally could feel the moment when my arches fell. lol It was in the middle of the Marimite section. After we stood on line for this bag from UGO (and the stuff inside, of course, but really all I wanted was the bag….)

After we had consumed, we met up with Rica Takashima and Ivy, who was stunning as one of our translators at Yuricon 2005 in Tokyo. We jabbered for a while, Ivy left us, and we collected the wife. Bruce, wifey, Rica and I went out to dinner where we had okinomiyaki and monja. My favorite was the mentaiko and cheese monja, with the tuna and cheese okonomiyaki coming in a close second. The beef and scallion monja and the pork okonomiyaki were both good too, but the mentaiko and cheese one was my fave.

We could see Fuji-san from our room. Here is a day view. It was really a lot clearer than this picture makes it look. But all but the first day or so, we had “Kyou no Fuji-san.”

The third day of Comiket, the line to get in the place was about an hour long. Then we headed right for Atelier Miyabi, Fujieda Miyabi’s circle, expecting another hour long line. But we got through in about 20 minutes. The line for Russian Blue later in the day was longer. We probably went to fewer circles on day three, but had to range more widely to find them, so we crossed all of the east halls, twice and went around the west halls as well. After we were done, we decided to go back to Atelier Miyabi again and get a few more copies of the calendar for gifts. Amazingly, they had some left. Oh, and Iono-sama was selling them! It was so awesome, she had on “Blue” and was flanked by two maids. lol I really wish I was good at stealth photography. Where’s Tsutako when you need her? :-)

I cannot even begin to tell you how crowded the third day was. There was one intersection that was just a solid logjam of people. Bruce and I kept looking at each other and laughing, because we were so jammed in, that the only thing that got us through was the pressure of people from behind. The guy next to me got his hand jammed up uncomfortably against the guy in front of him, but I shifted a bit so he could extract it. He was all right, but looked a little pale. Probably because a foreign female asked if he was okay.

Twice I was bumped so hard I lost my balance. Once, the guy who I slammed into and I turned and apologized seriously at one another, because we hit each other *hard.* The second time I completely lost my footing and started to fall backwards, but was laughing about it. Bruce went to catch me, but I regained my footing just then, so my pride remained intact. We were so battered that day, I was surprised we didn’t come home with bruises. Thank heavens for winter clothing. There is NO way I’m doing a summer Comiket.

Here’s a sunset view. The sun set right behind the mountain every night, which made for breathtaking scenes that photo’ed poorly. Everytime I took a crappy shot, I could feel Tsutako glaring at me in spirit – again. :-)

We had gotten the special Toranoana ceramic cup for buying the catalog there, but we learned Bruce has a thing for cups (he picked up an adorable sake cup at Comiket, as we slogged through the east halls 4-6) so we gave it to him. He and I shared a Big Sight canned coffee set that depicted two girls arriving at BS looking normal, then one going all weird and freaky over a catgirl cosplay while the other looks disconcerted. I liked how they depicted girls doing that, and not otaku. (The cans now live in my work cubicle where they can make me laugh.) Speaking of which, there were way more women at all three days of Comiket than there were five years ago when I first went. Sure, they tend to stay in the BL sections, but almost every line I was on, there were at least some women….except, oddly Russian Blue. You’d think that more women would be in line for Hibiki Reine’s work.

Here’s my random “subway advertisement” photo. It’s for a temp agency, but for some reason, they thought the best representation of the skilled employees they could provide was a cute flan with strawberry sauce, a cherry and whipped cream. I spent the entire trip trying to figure out what went through the ad agency’s mind when they came up with it. Sorry it’s blurry – the train was moving when I took it.

On the last day full day we had in town, Bruce, the wife and I hit up Shibuya for Animate and Mandarake, then went out to Nakano where we had kaitenzushi, which included the best crab legs I’d ever eaten ever, and of course, we bought stuff. :-)

The last day they were in Tokyo, we took Barbara and Linda out for ramen, because that was pretty much the only Japanese food they wanted to try. We ended up at a Korean place, for various reasons, that served delicious, but blisteringly hot, ramen. I liked it, but wow.

Oh, oh – so, *finally* I saw Ayumi Hamasaki perform. And by god, she was one of the worst singers I have ever heard. She didn’t hit a single note of what was a really awful song. I hope she was just having an off night, because she was truly terrible. Her nails had horns. …??

And the last note I have here is this: on the way home from Comiket on day 3, Bruce and I were sitting next to a girl who was crushing on her sempai hugely and obviously. Sempai was a punky little blond number with lots of facial piercings, sunglasses and art school cool. The girl looked at sempai with huge eyes that devoured her, and touched her or something on her belt, her phone, etc, anytime she could. I was trying to not laugh out loud, when sempai was showing her how rough a callous on her hand was, asked kouhai to touch it – and then as kouhai stroked it for about two solid minutes, commenting the entire time how…rough…yes…very…rough.. it was. For pity’s sake, sempai, I hope you sleep with the girl.

There’s my disjointed account of stuff and some pictures. Sorry my internet access was down, so no day-by-day, but you know, mostly we just shopped. ^_^

I’ll start up reviewing again tomorrow, unless work flattens me. :-)

Posted in Events, Tokyo Journal | 7 Comments »


Lucky Star Anime Guest Review by Sean G.

January 5th, 2008

Once again, I am pleased to present a guest review by Sean Gaffney, who bravely undertakes to watch and review stuff I simply can’t hack. The subject of today’s review is one of those series. The art put me so far off this, that even though I am as much the target audience as any other otaku, I just couldn’t bring myself to watch it for more than mere seconds. So thank you again, Sean, for saving my brain. ^_^

This sort of anime has been a long time coming. There have been various anime over the years that tried to glory in being a fan. Otaku no Video comes to mind. Yet with otaku getting a bad name in Japan for years, it became harder to be a fan without needing to hide it or cover it up.

Thanks to the culture widening, as well as the success of Densha Otoko, it’s OK to be a completely obsessed geek in Japan again.

I mention this because it is the reason for Lucky Star‘s existence. The entire show, as well as its lead character Konata, is made up of references to other media. The show is so tied up in its own self-referencing that it can have Yuko Goto appear, as herself, in Episode 23 and not even call attention to it. (The characters call her ‘Goto-zo-sama’, which is the closest it gets to even identifying the gag of Mikuru’s seiyuu as a yanki.)

Lucky Star also became popular among the fansub culture over here, mostly because we now have the ability to look online and find that obscure 1970s song the girls karaoke in the end credits, and we all know by now what Comiket is like. (The show is aware of us as well, of course, via the character of Patty, herself a parody of Western fans).

Genshiken did this as well, of course, but I think Genshiken was trying to hold up a mirror to the more unpleasant aspects of the culture, while still supporting it. Lucky Star doesn’t bother. Geeks rule.

As for the show itself, it’s a schoolgirl anime with few male characters, a teacher with almost as many bad habits as her kids, a diminutive lead character, the characters tend to get into discussions of tiny minutiae, and it’s based on a 4-koma. You really can’t get away with not mentioning Azumanga Daioh at least a LITTLE bit. The humor has a different feel, though, with the aforementioned anime and game references pervading not just the details but the character’s personalities. Konata will actually treat much of her life as if she is gaming.

The pacing is variable, and probably the show’s weak point. I gave up on it after the first episode, which was frankly awful, and only starting watching again after much nagging. They replaced the director after 4 episodes, so I was apparently not the only one that thought this. The new director sped things up and re-paced it, so that it kept the odd cadences but didn’t make you want to switch it off. Even so, there are times where you desperately wish something would happen.

Oh yes, I should mention the Yuri. Konata’s cousin, Yutaka, is tiny, cute, and adorable. Their friend Minami is tall, ‘cool’, and emotionally stunted. They give off a big Takarazuka vibe (something not lost on the show, which puts them in costumes a la ‘Zuka for the Culture Festival). And they have a good friend, Hiyori, who draws ecchi doujinshi and cannot help but see them in Yuri situations. She’s ashamed of herself, but draws it anyway. It’s sort of Yuri-lite, played for laughs, but is cute, and given the lack of men on the show it wouldn’t be hard to extrapolate something between them when they get older.

Anyway, that’s all the Yuri we get in the show.

Hm? Konata and Kagami? 90% of all Lucky Star fanfics in English are about them? All the Japanese fanart pairs them together? Kagami is tsundere and therefore clearly hiding her love-love feelings?

That’s nice. But there’s none of that in the anime at all. Sometimes a friendship is just a friendship.

Ratings:

Art: 6. It’s loli-moe-Dengeki style, with Konata deliberately looking like an 11-year-old despite being 18. If that’s your thing, bump it up a couple of
numbers.
Story: 6. There really isn’t a story in half these episodes, but the half that do
have one have very amusing ones.
Characters: 8. If you aren’t watching this to play spot-the-reference, you’re watching for the characters. The four lead girls are balanced perfectly, and everyone has a nicely defined role. Plus Konata’s a heroine whose type we’ve rarely seen before (at least not as a lead).
Yuri: 5. It’s there if you want it. Except where it isn’t.
Service: 10. Actually, no, this needs a Spinal Tap dial twist. 11. Without otaku obsession, this show would not exist.

Overall: 7. I do enjoy the show a great deal, to be fair. I just know that I happen to like a lot of stuff that’s not particularly good or original, shamelessly. :) It got bumped up from a 6 because of Lucky Channel, the hysterical parody of voice actors and pressurized Japanese recording industries that ends each episode, with Akira and Minoru stealing every single scene they’re in. Effortlessly.

–SG

Erica here again. Sean, seriously, when you review things, they sound so much better than they actually are….

Posted in Guest Review, Miscellaneous | 27 Comments »


Open for Business: Okazu

January 5th, 2008

I’m home, I’m jet lagged and I now have *three* piles of things to review, not including the doujinshi. And the toys. What is wrong with us? We have an entire bag just full of “stuff.” Omamori from shrines, character goods, gashapon, you know – stuff. I found all but four things on my “to get” list and of those one was older and more obscure, while the other three just managed to not be released before I left.

Some of the things I managed to get are: Maria’s Wink, the first volume of a Marimite anthology. I already had 2. I managed to find Rising Impact, a golf manga that was the subject of several Jesus Drug Yuri doujinshi. The downside was that I found *17* volumes of it. There was no way I was bringing all that home, so I settled on the first four and if I like it, I’ll look for the rest at Book-Off.

Got Girlfriends, and a pile of new Yuri Hime collections by Chi-Ran, Morishima Akiko, Takahashi Mako (bleah) and Hakamada Mera (bleah.) But I drew the line at Nanami to Misuzu and Apple Day Dream, because those two series are so very unfun. Amazingly, I found Yuri iro Rasen, an h-manga I never expected to see, and some weird-ass thing I’d never heard of before called, I swear, Pariah no Sono, which is yet another Marimite ripoff by a person with some serious problems. :-) I can’t wait to review it, because it is so seriously wrong in every direction. I also picked up a series Magie Paire, by an artist I don’t care for, Takagi Nobuyuki (Kokoro Library, Pure Marionation, Cassiopea Dolce) because like so much of his stuff, it is Yuri. But bleah.

After forgetting to look until like the last day, I managed to remember to get Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora Volume 3 and also found a used copy of Saber Twinkle Nova 3 with Drama CD! yay! And of course, Yuri Hime S Volume 3.

I also found both El Cazador Drama CDs, got Ogata Megumi’s latest CD and seem to have picked up something from Aria I don’t remember buying. lol

I bought as much series goods as I could find, but of them, my favorite is a “mail block” screen for the cell phone. It’s clear plastic that I can see through, red, with the Lillian logo (so, Rosa Chinensis) but from the side, it’s opaque and all you can see is the logo. So no one can read as you text. Not a problem here, but there, where everyone is emailing/texting all the time, it is.

Most fun of all, I got the newest Marimite novel – the 32nd book in the series – Kira Kira Mawaru – and so far, it’s been awesome. Some serious “whoa~!” stuff in there. :-)

Oh, and because in the last round of “Utter Nonsense” someone asked me if I read any non-Japanese stuff, I wrote down my reading list for the trip for you. :-)

Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George – this book dragged on for *ever.* I didn’t think it would ever end. Long past caring who killed Kenneth and why, the book just kept on going. And worst, I was supposed to care. I resent that.

Icebreaker by John Gardner – what a hoot. I haven’t read a Bond book in ages and ages. Gardner is a damn good writer and I’ve always liked him. He renders the Bond mythos into its most basic components, changes the color, setting and names and whacks out a perfectly hysterical, well-written parody of itself. I laughed through the entire book. As it’s supposed to be an action thriller, that maybe wasn’t what he wanted, but given Gardner’s penchant for the absurd, maybe it was.

Murder by the Book by Rex Stout – have you guessed that I’m a Stout fan? I admit it. I’m in love with Archie Goodwin. I can’t help it – he’s so charming, and he geniunely *likes* and enjoys women in a way that no other male character ever has. Stout books are easy on the brain and fun. This one was just as good as any other. I’m still reading the last book I brought, also by Stout, Over My Dead Body in which we learn that Nero Wolfe has a daughter. Huh, how ’bout that?

I braved Comiket for things like Fujieda Miyabi’s calendar, which I find I cannot live without – next year I’ll have to pull strings to get one – and UGO’s most awesome bag that depicts Touko face down on the ground, while Yumi holds her tate-rolls and says “Nice Drill” in English. I stood on an amazingly long line for Shoujo Kingdom’s doujinshi, but no line at all for Pen Pen Gusa Club (who said in English “thank you for your support,”) Raku-Gun or Crush, which just goes to show you that there’s no accounting for taste. I bought a really, exceptionally filthy doujinshi from Fancy Free (he of the Marimite characters licking penis-shaped “ice pops”) after I read it in front of him so he knew I knew what it was, just to watch him boggle. LOL I made a bunch of guys laugh, when I pounced from about ten feet away, after seeing that they did Miu x Chika non-hentai doujinshi a series called 15 Mashimaro. They have okay art, but the stories are good and they totally *get* the dynamic between Chika and Miu. I found Studio Canopus to be one very serious-looking woman, who is still putting out gorgeous Haruka x Michiru work. And it was a pleasure to revisit UKOZ and Sakuraike and see what they have this year, all of which was as awesome as ever.

The wife discovered yet *another* series about a tall, thin victorian dressed demon, which makes something like four series or so that she likes of the type. And she bought some Yu-Gi-Oh doujinshi by a circle she adores, and some guinea pig doujinshi for a friend. And post cards with fabulous Goth Loli girls with weapons. We have a frame by the kitchen sink and she rotates the pictures in it with stuff by this circle.

Of everything I got, the thing that stands out in my mind is the last page of a doujinshi by Pen Pen Gusa, in which Shizuma as Etoile of St. Miator, visits Lillian’s Yamayurikai. On the very last page, Yoshino asks Eriko if she met the Etoile, to which Eriko replies, “Oh, we’ve know each other for ages, after all, we share a seiyuu.” :-) That still makes me laugh. (Which makes for a fun fanfic idea that would actually make a bad story about how Eriko, Shizuma, Nobue and Letti all hang out.)

We spent some time with Rica Takashima, as always a blast to be around, and got to see Ivy for a little while. It was absolutely fabulous to see her again. :-)

More Tokyo stories as I get unwound- I took notes and everything. :-) I have a guest review by Sean Gaffney ready to go, so I hope to get that up later today and I’ll be back up and reviewing soon! (I have to – I’ve got huge piles to work on. Maybe I’ll take a picture for you, so you can see what madness looks like….)

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »