Yuri Anime: El Cazador, End of Season Review

October 24th, 2007

Reviews are going to be very anime-heavy for the next few weeks, as I have a huge backlog of anime that I haven’t had time to watch, while I’m busy watching new stuff that I will review eventually.

But today I wanted to do a long-overdue review of a series from the Spring season. I had watched it raw but, I wanted to refresh my memory on what happened before I reviewed it. I happily watched it all over again, and am now ready to go on the End of Season review for El Cazador de la Bruja. ^_^

You might want to read my initial review of El Cazador to compare and contrast (and also to see how, ironically, that review began in almost the exact same way that this one did. And I can assure you that it was not at *all* on purpose! I didn’t remember that I had written that until I just read it now.) Okay, so I just re-read it and, I have pretty much nothing to add, except, I think Bee Train came through for us Yuri fans on this pretty darn well.

There is a contingent of people who liked Noir best and therefore did not like El Cazador because it was too fluffy, too silly, not serious enough, not angsty enough. And there probably is a group of people who liked Madlax better, although I haven’t encountered any, yet. I just assume that there’s always someone who has a different opinion *somewhere.*

But I can’t say I liked any of them better than any of the others. They were three different takes on a theme – girls with guns on the run. I commented in my original review that El Cazador almost seemed a parody of itself and you know, I think that that was exactly what they were going for here. It’s much goofier than any of the previous Bee Train series. In-jokes abound, even within the context of the story. Tacos will never look the same to any of us again. :-) And the opening and closing theme animation had just about nothing at all to do with the story, which was nice and pointless. No guy in a mask, no sniper cat. Thank goodness. LOL

Ai Shimizu was fantastic as Ellis. Without ever once sounding less flaky or ethereal, she managed to mature her character in such a subtle, magnificent way that it almost came as an afterthought. Itou Shizuka was great as Nadie, remaining pretty clueless and not-subtle from beginning to end. :-) I found them quite charming and am glad to tell my past self that yes, I came to care about them, as I hoped I might.

Their relationship was total win for me. In the beginning, the idea of the two of them as a couple squicked me out the door. There was no one moment where it changed and became something else – it was a slow process. It was, in fact, the point of all that stuff that other people saw as fluff episodes – they were there entirely to allow the characters to develop a relationship naturally, leisurely. And it wasn’t an even process either. Ellis comes to like Nadie, later Nadie starts to care about Ellis as more than a job. Ellis starts to fall in love, Nadie starts to realize that Ellis mean more than just friend to her. And on and on. Ellis, surprisingly, becomes the seme, the agressor, here; making her case for them as a couple long before Nadie clues in. And it is Ellis who declares her love first, and last. She shoots straight from the hip, too, no implication or ambiguity.

None of the larger plot is particularly shocking or revelatory. The conspiracy is never developed as well as it might be – where in Noir we spend episode after episode poring over Soldats, in El Cazador we spend more time with the people who represent the witches and Project Leviathan, than with the details of the organizations themselves. Which is perfectly fine with me. Rosenberg, the bad guy, is loathsome and his death was way too late in the series. And he treated poor Melissa terribly, something I’m not prepared to forgive, since she was so nice. LA, this series’ crazy stalker character, was loathsome AND annoying and his death was also way too late in the series. But I will forever think of him in conjunction with Ellis setting his crotch on fire, so that sort of evens things out.

Jody “Blue Eyes” Heyward was awesomeness and not *just* cause she was voiced by Hisakawa Aya, who for once wasn’t the creepy stalker character. She was sort of a “good” stalker this time. lol Mitsuishi Kotono, who seems to be working more often these days, which makes me happy, was wonderful as the chief witch, even if she never got a name or a story. Echo and the Bunnymen were never explained, nor were Jody’s henchwomen. But that’s okay. Soldats and Enfant never really made any sense, either. :-) Just go with it.

Ricardo and Lilio. I’m still not at all sure what their roles were – acting as foils, I suppose. The four of them were a kind of oddly functional alternative family for a while there. Or would have been if Nadie had had a clue about Ellis’ feelings for her. Which she didn’t, yet.

And then there was the epilogue. It was pretty much as I expected, in fact, as I would have demanded, with two exceptions – the motivation for the confrontation that would catapult Ellis and Nadie back into their real personas was much stupider than I expected, so that was pretty funny.

In the end, as Ellis once again makes her declaration of love – with an audience this time – there is a HUGELY wooja-wooja beat-you-over-the-head love song playing in the background that is a *strong* indication that this is not meant to be seen as ambiguous or plausibly deniable. The fact that the last line of the song is “My immortal love” helps with that. And so does Pedro’s reaction. (Don’t worry if you don’t know who Pedro is – he’s there to be defeated by Ellis’ love. That’s all you need to know.)

Oh, wait – three exceptions. Jody’s ingenuous comment about her assistant being identical to Rosenberg by chance….yeah, sure. It was a off-beat note that I liked *because it has no explanation.* It just is. Go with it.

So, no, its not Noir with its intense film Noir-ness. And no, its not Madlax with its alternate existences and war-torn world. In the end, it is simply El Cazador, with Nadie and Ellis on the road. And for that, I liked it bunches.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Not good, no. But not “AAAHHH!” either
Story – 7 Sure it had huge holes. Who cares.
Characters – 9 They just grew on me
Yuri – 7 If you weren’t grinning at the end, love song and all, you fail.
Service – 5 – Almost as an afterthought – oh, yeah, we could do an ass shot here…

Overall – 8

Tacos, tacos tacos, oi-ishi-i tacosu. Iketeru tacos ha oi-i-shi ta-co-su. Tee Hee.

Posted in Bee Train, El Cazador | 19 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Simoun, Volume 1 (English)

October 22nd, 2007

So, last week, we were talking about managing expectations in order to enjoy anime more.

And there I was this weekend, staring at Volume 1 of Simoun and wondering – how on earth would I manage my expectations of *this*? ^_^

Here’s the dilemma – I loved Simoun. I named it the best Yuri series of 2006 and I meant it. It was one of the most interesting anime series I have ever watched, and full of so many wonderful points that we can mull over and over to endless annoyance/satisfaction, depending on who you are and what you like.

And I really, really love the folks at Media Blasters. I’m thrilled that they are so genuinely interested in Yuri and want to reach out to the Yuri audience.

But, traditionally, I have not loved MB adaptations. Not because they were bad, but because I thought they were okay, but could have been better. To set the stage, let me explain why it matters so much to me:

I watch an anime with no other expectations than my own, as I said previously. In most cases I can understand some, if not most or all, of what is being said when I watch a series raw. And by doing so, I establish my own understanding of the series. When/if I watch a series subbed, I use it to fill in holes I have, and also to compare my understanding to the subbers’ interpretation. When, after all that, I have loved a series, I want to be able to wholeheartedly suggest it to other people – not only other people who are also already fans, but to people who may not have ever seen the original. And for these last, I need the translations to be all that. Otherwise, what I see as awesome, may come off as being incomprehensible, or uninteresting. Most people who watch an anime are not me. I read fast, seeing the subtitles almost as a subliminal. If the words in the translation don’t match my understanding of what’s being said it jars me. But for a person who relies on that subtitle for the entire meaning of the story, if the words are lazily written, or difficult to follow – or plain wrong, then that person is getting a whole chunk of the story taken away from them. Like having a huge black line through the art – sure you can watch around it, but it’s hard to enjoy.

Okay, that all having been said, let me cut to the chase – overall, I think Media Blasters did a very good job with Simoun. Better than usual, and much better than I expected.

Phew.

It’s not perfect, by any stretch, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Okay, first things first. I need to thank the folks at Media Blasters with all my thanks. They didn’t just send me a copy of Simoun to review – they sent me the very first copy to be printed in the US. And the cover art is signed by everyone who worked on it. There aren’t any smilies that express the sort of thing I felt when I got that DVD. So, my thanks and hugs to everyone at MB. ^_^

I’m going to start with the nitpicky things, starting with the one thing that has GOT to be fixed, or I’ll go mad, and working my way down in urgency until we go into the good, so we can all have a happy end. :-)

The one thing that has GOT to be fixed, is Rodoreamon’s name. For some reason they’ve got it as Rotreamon, which is just wrong. I double-checked the Japanese official website and the Japanese credits – Rodoreamon. Definitely “do” there, not “to”. It looks wrong and everyone definitely says “Rodo”, so please fix that!!! It just looks bad and doesn’t match what they are saying.

Okay, that’s out of my system. So. The names. I appreciated the consistency in the way names were written. In every case, without exception, the final “u” was removed from names. So, Anubituf, Kaim, Aer. I have no trouble with the transliterations they chose, although I’d have been more literal with Alti, instead of Alty. But okay. However, for Aeru’s name, I’d have left the “u” in, because later on, this is going to be an issue. Her name is pronounced “Ah-eh-ru,” not “Ah-er.” However, as this is not a major thing and it matches well enough, as well as being consistent, I’ll drop it. All the long vowels are written with the somewhat old-fashioned symbols “ā” or “ō” so “Wapōrif” and “Māj”. This leads to one really unfortunate typo. The first time the characters discussed doing a Māj, the “a” is left out and what we see is M_j. Erk. (Later, in the extras, Rodoreamon’s name is misspelled, as “Rorteamon.” Two typos on one disk is really not so good. Guys – ask me to to a last disk check. I know the series, the names, the words. Seriously. I’ll be glad to look it over. I do editing on the side.)

The translation. Overall, I think this might be the best translation I’ve ever seen from MB. They left in the honorifics which, in this case, are primarily “-sama.” Can I just tell you how NICE it is to *see* Alty say “Para-sama” when she’s saying it? Later, in the extras, “-chan” is used as well. I’d have loved to see a screen still with an explanation of the honorifics for the potential viewers who don’t know what they mean, but I am so excited to have the honorifics at all, I can barely contain myself. lol

People’s titles are translated. High Priestess, Governor, Captain. No problem. Country names are not translated, but left as they sound. Personally – I liked that. Thumbs up.

Extra points for making everything they say totally comprehensible. If you were one of the people who saw the extremely incomprehensible fansubs of the first three episodes by a particular group, you’ll know why this is so important – the first three episodes are *crucial* to our understanding of WTF is going on. Making it all make sense is not easy and I think they did a really good job. In fact, until the last episode on the disk, I think the translation was very tight. At the end, there was a bit that I felt got lax and fell back into that “this is what they meant, so it’s close enough.” Or maybe it’s just something about the way Dominura speaks that made the Translator want to make her a bit more…casual. (She certainly comes off an an odd bird. If it was done on purpose, then fine. If it was laziness, then bzzt.)

Also, I’d really like to see a Romaji version of the opening and ending themes. It’s pretty usual for anime and fans like it, because we always end up trying to learn them anyway. Alternate bwtween English and Romaji, or run them at the same time as. Either way, I think it would add some value.

The technicals. Well, the usual thing from Media Blasters – no inserts, which made me sad, because I had asked to have inserts of the cover art that we lost as mini-posters or something. This disk contains episodes 1-6, which is *very* good, but since the Japanese DVDs were two-episode disks, we lost two pieces of cover art in the process. I love the cover art – it’s hugely service-y, provocative and sexy. I had really hoped we get them as inserts. But hey – 6 episodes to a disk is *nice*. The whole series in 5 disks would be awesome. Especially for the price – $20 at Amazon ($15 if you pre-order). That’s just over $3/episode. No complaints here. Especially as I’ll probably be buying some Simoun for holiday presents. ^_^ There’s no dub track (although I know that some people like the dubs, and some people felt that they wouldn’t watch it without a dub, the idea makes me shudder, personally) and only the one audio track. Again, I passed on the idea of a 5.1 audio track, so you can’t say they didn’t know fans wanted it. I wouldn’t mind it myself – makes the music, which is so wonderful, even better.

The disk itself is very pretty. Huh, how about that? It surprised me, because I don’t usually notice the disks. This has to be up there for one of the nicest looking DVDs I own. ^_^

And, the extras. As usual, MB has included the extras from the Japanese volumes, which I like a lot. The first is an excruciating interview with the VAs for Aer and Neviril. And the “MC”, who is a horrible lollipop with eyes stuck on and a computer-modulated voice makes it just that much more horrible. Seriously, just skip that extra. The second extra is much, much better. It’s a trivia and quiz game special, pairing up, well, Pairs. Hosted by Morinaga Rika, Mamina’s seiyuu (who is incredibly cute in a punk-y kind of way, with an unrealistically silly voice) each Pair vies for points on how well they match answers to questions, and know trivia from the anime. I was absolutely hysterical during this segment. I had already seen it raw, but I had missed a lot that went on in the background. It was darn funny. I hope we get more of this kind of thing. And bizarrely, when Toyoguchi Megumi is referred to as “Megu-‘nee” it was translated as that. (Well, “Meg-nee”, anyway.) So…erm, why was Alty’s “Kaim-‘neesan” translated as “Big Sister Kaim?” No clue.

Last up. The actual anime. I was so certain that I’d be disappointed watching Simoun this time around. Remember how we retrofit memories? I fully expected to find all sort of flaws with my memory that Simoun was teh awesome. You know what? I was wrong. God DAMN this is a good anime! Two minutes into it and I was glued to the TV and remained that way for all six episodes. Then I was sad that I didn’t have any more to watch. The music remains brilliant. The story remains fascinating. I love the art, the detailed CGI over not-at-all detailed watercolor. I love the ridiculous contrast between our beautiful peaceful sun-filled country and the enemy’s pollution-ridden world of darkness and filth. I love The Arcus Prima, the Simoun, the fact that Morinas is a tease and the fact that all the seiyuu are women. (The wife reminds me that I also still hate the character designs, especially Neviril’s sex-doll mouth. Which is true, but you can’t have everything.) After more than a year, I still love Simoun.

In terms of Yuri, there’s a lot of service. :-) Lots of kisses. And, while it was pretty subtle for an anime, girl-loving LFs of every gender got their RDA of panty and breast shots. But seriously, Yuri in this volume = Neviril x Amuria. The story revolves around what could have been, what happened and how Neviril can’t move on. She *must* be a lesbian, she’s unhealthily obsessing about her ex. :-) And surely we can’t ignore poor Kaim and her not at all unhealthy interest in Parietta. She gets points for trying *really* hard to make Parietta to look away from Neviril. And it’s not really her fault that she fails. And then there’s Morinas and her obvious, immediate, interest in Wapōrif. Can’t say that she’s just interested in him for his great personality…not yet, anyway. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 5
Service – 6

Overall – 8

Translation – 7
Adaptation – 7
Technicals – 7
Extras – 6

Should you get it? Hell yeah. Then email the folks at Media Blasters and let them know what they did right – and what they can improve. Let’s see if we can make Volume 2 even better.

Media Blasters responds: In regards to the artwork, we don’t always get the chance to use all of the artwork we receive, especially since we have a disproportionate number of release volumes to the Japanese version. It’s possible we can make an art gallery as an extra on one of the disks…. In terms of translations…the name translations were given to us by the licensor, so we didn’t have a lot of room for interpretation.

This is Erica again: I’m not surprised about the name thing. Thanks, Media Blaster representative, for commenting. It always helps to know what’s going on in the background, so we don’t feel like we’re out of the loop. ^_^

Posted in English Anime, Simoun, Yuri Anime | 8 Comments »


Yuri Anime: My Hime, Volume 6 (English)

October 18th, 2007

You wake up on the wrong side of the bed, stub your toe on the dresser and almost choke on your cereal. When you sit down to watch anime under circumstances like that, the *last* thing in the world you want is something happy and carefree. No, you want to wallow neck deep in someone’s life that sucks more than yours does.

Welcome to My HiME, Volume 6.

Despite the uptick on the misery quotient, this is my favorite of all of the volumes for this series. And my deepest thanks to Ted who provided it for review and the entertainment of all Yuri-kind.

Mai’s life isn’t getting any better and now, as Nagi predicted ever so snarkily, the HiME find themselves turning on one another. Nagi sort of misread the feminine mind there when he told them that the winner gets Highlander-esque powers. Because they didn’t really care about that. But once a whole bunch of manipulative assholes dig their fingers into a situation like this, and the natural inability of the human under pressure to think clearly, with the addition of hormones and outside stress levels, you just know someone is going down.

And down they go.

Despite the losses from our ranks in this volume, there are some really great moments.

One of the best has got to be when Mai and Mikoto accidentally witness Akira and Takumi in an embarrassingly tender moment. We know Akira is a girl, but they don’t, so it has a little gender-bendiness to add to the titillation and cringe-making cuteness.

Of course, for Yuri fans, this volume also offers the horribly over-used, abused and mused upon scenes where we learn, at last, what we already knew – that Shizuru is very gay for Natsuki. Really? We’re shocked. SHOCKED, I tell ya. We also get to see Shizuru jump all sorts of aquariums of sharks and go from competent and crushy to ragingly mad rapist and psychotic murderer. Hey, but she’s so cool – clearly Natsuki’s an idiot for passing that up.

(Which makes me wonder why there was never any hue, cry or outrage that Shizuru was the tedious psychotic lesbian stereotype? When Sharon Stone did it, everyone screamed in anger. Why did everyone continue to idolize Shizuru when she went batshit crazy? I know why *I* liked her. She has a polearm and I like psychotic women. But that’s me. Surely that can’t apply to every nutball in Yuri fandom? ^_^)

This is probably not a spoiler anymore (and all my posts are at least partial spoilers, and I will say some mildly spoilery stuff after this as well,) but I imagine that someone will get pissed at me for writing it (again). So if you do not want massive spoilers, stop reading here and pick up again after the second set of thre asterisks.

***

Some extra spoiler space for the weak of constitution

As much as Shizuru’s descent into madness is interestingly animated, with nice background music, lots of purple lighting and a cool polearm. It is Yukino’s defeat and Haruka’s reaction that makes this volume purest win.

Shizuru defeats Yukino heartlessly (and somewhat pointlessly, as well. Yukino was never a threat to Natsuki in any way. But try reasoning with a madwoman….)

As we all knew, Yukino’s most important person is Haruka and immediately, she begins to disappear. Of course, she has no idea at all what’s going on, but she gets all the points in the world from for forging ahead and punching Shizuru up the conk as she fades.

If that was not your favorite moment, well, then, you’re not coming over for lunch anytime soon. That’s all I’m saying. ^_^

That moment was so win, that clearly the writers realized that they had made the wrong person in that pair a HiME. They corrected the oversight for Mai Otome. ^_^

Extra spoiler space on this side for symmetry.

***

Other stuff happens too. We delve into mostly every HiME’s backstory and find that each one is essentially human, and therefore manipulable. And Miyu gets resurrected, because, we need Ayanami Rei clones in order for this to be a real anime. Also Mashiro turns out to be something other than what she seems.

The DVD extras are sort of interesting and sort of not. The first is a long, slow, lingering look at an inexplicably bound and hunkified Reito. No hollow-chested lad here – he’s so muscular he looks western. I imagine that this was service for the three gay guys who watched this series ’cause let’s face it, no one but me likes the hunky guys – everyone else seems to go gaga for the hollow-chested lads. Blecch. Next up is a retrospective by Natsuki about how much she treasures Shizuru’s friendship. She is clearly talking about friendship and nothing more, but that hasn’t stopped hordes of ShizNat fans from pointing out that she is also talking about Shizuru and not, say, her mother. The last extra is a bunch of words randomly spoken over pictures of Midori and Mai in bikinis.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 7

Overall – 7

So, sure, we all get beat over the head with the misery stick and sure our “best lesbian candidate goes nuts (along with mostly everyone else) and sure the rewards for lesbian love are death, destruction and despair.

But hey, it’s a great volume! ^_^;

Posted in English Anime, Mai Hime | 16 Comments »


Managing Expectations to Maximize Anime Enjoyment

October 17th, 2007

So. I’m watching Nanoha StrikerS and two of my chief minions, Serge and Sean, keep telling me how much the fandom hates it. Apparently it is not epic enough, or loli enough or Yuri enough or something else enough. Or too much of all of the above. Or something else.

One of the most laughable complaints was that it wasn’t as incredible as the first season. Apparently the folks who agreed with that had forgotten (or perhaps were unaware) that the first season was a blantant ripoff of Card Captor Sakura. Nanoha was conceived of quite specifically as a “magical girl” series for guys,  as opposed to the audience of girls towards which CCS was targeted. With the usual retrofitting that goes on in fans’ heads that the first thing, the last thing, the anything-other-than-what-I-am-watching-now, was SO MUCH better, fandom hated StrikerS. (Go ahead, ask any fan what their favorite con was, and I guarantee that most of them will tell you that it was the first con their were at, without realizing it. “This con was so much better then” they will say without irony, not recognizing that it is they who have raised their expectations, wanting every year to somehow be as amazing as that first time, when they were new and it was all exciting.)

I don’t read forums. I don’t care about fandom. I enjoyed the hell out of StrikerS and hope it comes to DVD soon, so I can marathon it on a big screen with extra speakers. ^_^

The new You’re Under Arrest Full Throttle premiered, and once again, forum fandom panned it, I was informed. Not Yuri enough (No, really? That’s because it isn’t a Yuri series, duh!) Not something something enough. Or too much. I thought it was *exactly* what one would expect from YUA. Ridiculous chases, strong bond between Miyuki and Natsumi, absurd plot holes and “you can do it” ending. Call me crazy, but it looked just like You’re Under Arrest to me.

And then I read Zyl’s post on YUAFT. And suddenly, it all made sense.

Before I go into my moment of satori, I want to tell you a true story. I have a friend who was a big anime fan. But slowly, his involvement in anime fandom wore him down. He is a very sensitive, smart guy and a deep thinker and the constant barrage of stupidity in forums and lists ate at him. And then anime itself betrayed him by being insipid and tedious. He kept looking for an anime that made him think and wasn’t for the lowest common denominator. After a few that had potential turned out to be crap, he gave it up entirely.

Here’s the moral of the story: He had ridiculous expectations. Of *course* he was going to be disappointed, because anime is entertainment for masses of fans, not high art. Sure, once in a while a show that is significantly better than the rest will appear – and usually the masses will hate it, or not understand it, or just go “buh?” “Lowest Common Denominator” means something – it’s not just a phrase.

So here is my moment of satori. When Zyl quoted Galadriel’s monologue at the beginning of his post, I realized why I can enjoy anime when my friend can no longer. And why I LOVED StrikerS when fandom generally hated it. Or why I thought Simoun was brilliant when most of the people who watched it gave up by episode 3 because they didn’t understand it. Or Mai Otome when it was a stupid fanfic of the angst-heavy original.

Because I have no, or low, expectations.

It’s cartoons. It’s comics. This is time-sink entertainment. For *fun*.

I don’t go into any series – especially sequels, which in every media have historically been ass as compared with the original anything – assuming it will be anything at all, much less as good or better than whatever has come before it. And as animation, tropes of the genre, character design and fan expectations change over time, when we’re talking something like YUA, or Bubblegum Crisis, it’s absurd to assume that the new version can even be compared with the original. They are, essentially, two completely different things and should be approached as two completely different things. If it turns out to be on par with the original, well good. If not…oh well. The question one should ask is – is it at least good for what it is?

IF an anime or manga rises above the muck to attain something special, great. But it seems totally silly to *assume* that any particular anime will. (Fans who came to Yuri through Utena are especially prone to this kind of cognitive dysfunction, because that anime was so unique, there’s darn little that will even approach that kind of surrealism. In a sense that was what happened to my friend. he kept looking for the next Utena and when every other anime turned out to be tripe, he felt burned.)

But Utena was an exception – Galaxy Angels is the norm. “Service” serves the socially/sexually/emotionally immature and/or dysfunctional who are – no matter how many times we deny it – still a large portion of the anime audience.

To preserve my enjoyment of anime, I avoid forums generally, and series-specific fandoms at all costs. People get really freaky about things and it does burn one out. But, I also weigh each anime I’m watching on the greater scale of “For what it is – how good is it?” So something like Strawberry Panic for a parody, was very successful and after I got the stick out of my ass, I was even able to enjoy it for what it was. Simoun was a unique look at a complex society, was also very good and I was able to enjoy it because of what it was. Ditto StrikerS (action-adventure magical girl for moe fans) and Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora (recycled crap from Kaishaku strung together by a series of fetishes and a thin plot.)

I’m not saying that you should lower your expectations. I’m just saying that I think that I’m still watching anime with pleasure after more than ten years because 1) I avoid fandom in general, and; 2) I manage *my* expectations. ^_^

And that was my moment of satori.

Before I end today’s ramble, I want to share with you one more thing. In a few months, I will be doing my Top Ten Yuri countdowns, but the best anime of the year won’t be on them, because it is not Yuri in any way at all. So while we’re talking about managing expectations, I just want to say that, the BEST, by far and away, anime of 2007 – and quite possibly the best anime I have *ever* watched in my entire life to date – is Seirei no Moribito. Art, story, characters, music, acting, EVERYTHING, surpasses pretty much ever other anime I have ever seen.

This series epitomizes what anime can be. But once you’ve watched it, don’t spend the next few years looking for the next Seirei, or you’re bound to be disappointed. ^_^ Enjoy it for what it is (action, adventure, mythological epic fable of an ancient kingdom that never was) and then turn away and watch the next thing with a clear mind and no expectations. And then, you’ll probably enjoy that too. ^_^

Posted in Now This Is Only My Opinion | 20 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Battle Athletes Victory, Volume 7

October 15th, 2007

Properly speaking, Volume 7 of Battle Athletes is the penultimate volume, but realistically, it’s the conclusion of the story. Everything that has been masquerading as the plot for this bundle of clichés is tied up neatly here. In other words, we finally learn who wins the title of Cosmos Beauty.

Did we, in fact, have any doubt who would win? All we needed to do was watch the first episode and note that our protagonist was not only the least talented, least deserving and least competent person in the show, but also the most annoying, to recognize that she would of course, be the winner. I’ve talked a lot about the idiot savant hero/ine here. Akari is pretty much the epitome of the type. Her mad skills only kick in when she’s boosted by an outside stimulus. Thankfully, there are many recent anime that go the other route and show us the hero/ines practicing until they drop. Because I am not naturally talented at anything, and everything I have ever become even mediocre at has been because of long hours of practice, it’s no surprise I prefer that latter stories to the former. :-)

But.

Battle Athletes was from way back in the stone age, about a decade ago. It is decidedly old school in its power-ups – as well as in animation, music, voice acting and, well pretty much everything. As it also is rife with Yuri, I’m inclined to be generous. Plus, if you’re watching Battle Athletes in the first place, you gotta know to manage expectations anyway – this is not and never will be high art. :-) (Remind me to share my recent moment of satori about expectations and anime with you all sometime.)

So, we have two decidedly Yuri-riffic couples facing off in the finals of the CB tournament. The two best athletes evar versus two newcomers. In their defeat, Lahrri and Mylandah find each other, and get a nice little backstory which ties them neatly together, leaving Akari and Kris to have last minute angst at/about one another. In the manga, this was fueled by Akari learning that her father chose Kris over her, for no other reason that that he is (apparently) a victory-obsessed psychopath. In the anime, we learn that Kris cannot run the day chosen for the race, due to religious observances. Hmm…which is punchier plot complication? Hard to decide. At least the manga father wasn’t “Mr. Miracle” the chocolate hound. (Which always reminds me of a very evil drawing in the Jesus Drug doujinshi for this series. It’s just not right that that image is burned into my head…)

In the end, of course Kris gains dispensation to run. At last, Akari and she face off in a final battle.

Because it’s so much better, let me talk about the manga here. (And before I do, let me just remind you that the manga is LONG out of print, so please don’t ask me where you can find it. I got my copy at Book-Off, the used manga store, and I have also seen it for sale at Mandarake used book store in Tokyo. If you have a buyer, you can try looking on Yahoo JP auctions or the Amazon JP marketplace. Good luck.)

In the manga, Akari and Kris tie for first. Then they kiss in front of everyone in the whole world. Having achieved her dream, Kris returns to the Beginners to become a priestess.

In the anime, Akari wins and Kris disappears to return to the Beginners to become a priestess. Akari, having just been crowned, runs after her, catches up to Kris and her cow. Kris gently kisses her goodbye.

Read those two paragraphs again. Can you *guess* which one I prefer? I think you can.

And that’s pretty much it. Akari is Cosmos Beauty and she beat her mother’s time. Wow. Amazing. :-)

Oh, wait, here come the aliens! We’re under attack!

End of volume.

There were so many ways this volume could have been *brilliant*. Instead it was all right. Although Mylandah x Lahrri = win. And they will continue to be win through the farce that will be Volume 8. There really was no Akari x Kris, except in the hearts and minds of fans. Bloody shame if you ask me. But that too will come back like the bad penny it is in Volume 8. Because we can never have enough of our old friend old-school UST, i.e., “unresolved sexual tension.” (Remember, this was a staple for all anime of the time – not just Yuri or Yaoi. It won’t make it less annoying, but it makes it seem less unfair.)

So, for a resolution, it kind of wasn’t. I’d REALLY like to see this anime remade, this time with the right ending. ;-) Kanon, pfft. I want to see an updated BAV.

Ratings:

Art – practice profiles please – 6
Story – clinging to cliches is cheesy – 6
Characters – alas and alack, a lack – 7
Yuri – opportunity and motive, but no crime – 5
Service – as you like it – 5

Overall – slightly better than the sum of its parts, minus one for the cow – 6

For what it is, which is incredibly silly old-school junkiness from Mediaworks, Battle Athletes is pleasantly entertaining, without being good. ;-)

Posted in Battle Athletes, English Anime, Yuri Anime | 3 Comments »