Yuri Manga: Hayate x Blade, Volume 6

April 23rd, 2007

What do you get when you cross independent, strong female characters who tend towards violence and are more than a little cracked, a school festival, maid costumes, a kidnapped kindergartner, 80 eyeglass-wearing fangirls and a whole lot of sword fighting? Why, you get Hayate x Blade, Volume 6.

We left off in Volume 5 at the start of Tenchi Gakuen’s school festival. And right away, something is wrong. One of the kids visiting from Hayate’s orphanage has gone missing – Miki, the very same one we saw in trouble in the very first chapter. Hayate’s frantic rush to find Miki gets completely sidetracked when a ransom note informs her that the child is not lost – she was kidnapped! (Every scene we see from this point on of Miki, involves her stuffing her face with candy and demanding to be spoiled or she’ll make a scene. We’re never worried about her.) The ransom note demands Hayate show up on the north field, where she is confronted by the Mikado Akira Fan Club, who call themselves the A-team. To “protect” their beloved Akira-sama, they demand that Hayate leave the school, or they will be forced to hurt Miki.

But Hayate is not alone for long – first Ayana, then the Kiji-Michi and Momoka-Isuzu teams come running up (complete with Momo-chan and Kiji arguing about which one of them gets to stand in a high spot and declaim “wait right there!”)

The six are soon joined by two more, as Suzuki, haunting Ayana’s steps as always, joins the group with her partner Sou. And, all of a sudden, the 80 bespectacled fans of Student Council member Mikado Akira suddenly realize that they are horribly outnumbered by the 8 that face them.

It is one of the school rules that fighting cannot take place except when the bell rings – otherwise disgruntled kentousei would be fighting constantly. So, Hitsugi and Shizuku go running over to the north field to make sure that the fight is not held illegally. Hitsugi, being Hitsugi, decides that, rather than stopping the fight which would be dull, she’ll rearrange things a bit to her liking. The A-Team are given wooden practice swords to fight with – and Hayate and her friends, who are mostly in maid costumes (except for Hayate who is dressed as a chick and Momoka who is dressed as a cartoon wolf) get ladles as their weapons. Hitsugi tells them that if even *one* of them gets their star taken, the entire team loses. Or they have to defeat all 80 of the A-team. Before the bout is over, Hitsugi makes sure that Jun gets a bit of the spotlight, by pointing out that the battle is being projected over the whole school. Jun, who had been content to watch up to that point, jumps into the fray.

It’s no contest.

When Akira herself shows up to take on the last of her fan club, they merely collapse in exhaustion. But not before Akira pulls off her studly Student Council long overcoat to reveal…a maid costume. She’s pretty pissed at the point loss on cool.

Following this melee, the second day of the festival begins quietly. Hayate, Jun and Ayana have a frank, but no less violent than usual, conversation about Ayana’s feelings for her ex partner, Yukari. And over on Yukari’s side, she’s wondering why her current partner, Maki, chose her in the first place. Maki’s own thoughts on the subject are rather sweet – she wants Yukari to look at her the way she used to at Ayana. And we see happier moments from before Yukari and Ayana broke up.

Maki and Yukari face an incredibly difficult match. The gong will sound today, and in the enclosure for A-rank fighters, they will be taking on the formidable “Special A’ ranked pair – En Suu and Mei. This is a particularly poignant bout for Yukari – it was this pair that she and Ayana were fighting when she was wounded and scarred.

Back at Ayana’s class’s cafe, Ayana is asked to leave when her reminiscences about that past battle gives off an evil aura that is scaring away the customers. Ayana thinks that she and En Suu share a darkness within them – and that darkness scares her. When she hears the bell, Ayana, then Hayate and the others go running off the to “A” enclosure, but are stopped at the gate by Sae, Akira’s partner.

Inside the enclosure, the battle is fierce. Techniques are fast, and advanced. Maki is hurt in her right arm, while Yukari is pinned to the ground by a ruthless Mei. After a moment, Yukari and Maki both find something important in themselves – and in their relationship – and stand up to fight again.

Who will win…?

You’ll have to tune in next volume! (Uunless you read the monthly chapters, like I do, because I can’t go that long without an episode of this manga. )

Action, love, friendship, violence, deep emotion, incredibly dumb physical gags. Hayate x Blade is the *best* manga on the market and it’s criminal that it’s not an anime yet.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5 (Ayana x Yukari for the win here)
Service – 4
Overall – 9

No, really, I don’t think it gets better than this.

Posted in Hayashiya Shizuru, Hayate x Blade | 10 Comments »


Ninin ga Shinobuden Manga, Volume 2 (English)

April 22nd, 2007

Ninin ga Shinobuden Volume 2 wins, hands down, as the manga with the most use of the words “boobs” and “boobies” that I have ever read. And given the number of shounen manga I read, that’s pretty much a feat.

There’s very little ninja-ing going on in Ninja Academy in this volume (something the author comments on in one of the author’s notes, in fact.) And the wackiness has sort of solidified into “Onsokomaru and the ninjas try to be pervs, but fail at everything.”

At one point, after Onsokomaru’s language was a little rough, I checked the age rating on this manga. It’s rated at 13+. I thought about that for a bit and decided that, yeah, that was about right, since the guys all exhibit 15-year old behavior. (It’s a standard of mine that all written works, magazines, manga, books, etc, are designed for people two to three years younger than the protagonists of the work or the stated audience. No seventeen year old, for instance, would be caught dead reading Seventeen magazine. But you’ll see plenty of 14-15 year olds with copies.)

So, bad points – the misbehaving wackiness gets a little tiring after a while – something that Kaede notes first, and Miyabi soon after. Mostly because I’d like to see more of Shinobu and Kaede, and less running around screaming.

Good points – the best point had to be when all the ninjas voted Kaede as the best ninja in the group. ^_^ Also, there’s notably less actual service with the girls than in the anime, for all the underwear flying through the air.

There’s a teeny weeny bit of Yuri in the love potion chapter where, despite not having taken the love potion, Shinobu “falls in love” with Kaede and a few moments with the dream monster where Shinobu is unable to say the right thing to support Kaede, because she likes the monster’s taste in maid costumes. All other moments are similar one-panel gags. Yup, Shinobu’s got a crush. Nope, nothing comes of it.

Ratings:

Art – 7 pretty good, actually, for what it is
Story – 5 there’s only one story, with different set-ups
Characters – 5
Yuri – 3
Service – 3 yes, there is some service, but there’s more lambasting the fanboy than there is catering to him.

Overall – 6 and I am being generous

Also, for no reason at all except that it just occurred to me – do manga artists take classes on writing incredibly dull author’s notes? ‘Cause, wow…I really needed to know about the stray cats wandering around the creator’s new home…

Posted in English Manga, Shinobuden | 2 Comments »


Doki Doki School Hours Anime, Volume 2

April 21st, 2007

Today’s review was, once again, brought to you by Ted. Thanks Ted!

(I am starting with Volume 2 because while someone kindly purchased Volume 1 for me from my Wish List, it has not yet arrived. I will be sure to review it when it does come, promise!)

So, Doki Doki School Hours, Volume 2, aka Sensei no Ojikan, is the story of a class in high school taught by Mika-sensei, who looks to be about 10, although she is actually 27. The characters in the class are a charming bunch of running gags, and the series is mostly one set piece after another where those gags can play off one another.

This volume starts after summer vacation, as we compare skin tones and talk about “what we did on our summer vacation.” One of the guys, who looks, dresses and talks like an old guy, so they call him “Oyaji” is assumed to have gotten a part time job in construction. Everyone is so convinced of this “fact” that no one even asks him what he did. So, he decides not to tell them that he was in Hawaii on vacation.

That’s about the tenor of the jokes here – mild, cute, but not laugh-out-loud hysterical. A Ziggy sort of anime.

For all that it is pretty mild, Doki Doki is also surprisingly gay. One of the boys, Kudo, has an open crush on another, Suetake – which everyone but Suetake knows about. Probably the best bit of this volume is when Kudo is chosen to play Snow White and Suetake the Prince in their class production of Snow White for the school festival. As the two boys practice their lines, the windows are crowded with girls oohing and ahhing at this BL team. A furiously blushing Kobayashi comments to a furiously blushing Mika-sensei that they should probably let them stay in their school uniforms, as the audience seems to like it better that way. lol

Another guy in class, Seki, is a cross-dresser. He’s not gay, he just thinks he looks even more beautiful than usual in women’s clothing. He *is* a narcissist.

And for the Yuri team, there’s Kitagawa Rio, the tall, attractive, smart blonde who has a loli complex focusing solely on Mika-sensei, and who is a sadist. Her greatest joy is teasing Mika-sensei in any number of ways. I don’t doubt that she would take advantage of Mika-sensei, if she could.

Notably, there’s some name-brand voice actors in this cast, including a load of “6 degrees of yuri” players. As a result, the voice acting is a lot better than what you’d expect for an anime of this caliber. It definitely helps the gags work.

Ratings:

Art – 5, but not meant to be “good”
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 4
Service – 3

Overall – 6

I can’t really call this a “Yuri” anime, because it’s not. It is a comedy anime with some Yuri for laughs. Another fun detox after a hard day type anime. Don’t expect to snort soda out your nose, but it’s good fun.

Posted in English Anime | No Comments »


Lesbian Novel: Himeyuri-tachi no Houkago

April 20th, 2007

This is me reading Himeyuri-tachi no Houkago:

^_^

o_o

o_O

O_O

I had absolutely no expectations of this book when I got it. Never read a single review, never even read the description. I bought it entirely based on the fact that Mori Natsuko is a famous lesbian author and I liked the title. ^_^ I was totally, completely unprepared for the kind of stories the book contains. It turned out to be a collection of “erotic fiction.” In other words, Himeyuri-tachi no Houkago was unremittingly filthy. It was also brilliant. This is *exactly* the kind of thing that makes spending all those hours learning to read Japanese worthwhile. ^_^

All the stories are short tales of emotional S&M and light B&D sometimes in a school setting, other times not. The way each story is constructed lets the reader know that the author is completely aware of how silly each premise is (and they get REALLY silly at times) and that she just doesn’t care, thanks. This is the kind of cheesy titillation that Strawberry Panic attempted, but came nowhere near the level of intelligence and artistry (and wtf-ness) that Mori-sensei attains here.

The first story was mostly a tale of emotional sadism in high school, but that was followed quickly by revenge against a school counselor who calls two girls’ relationship a “pseudo” love. Extra kudos to the protagonist, Miu, who pegs the teacher’s comment as a beard for her own gay leanings.

There’s the story that takes place in the future, when masturbation is an Olympic sport (I’m laughing as I type that, because the story is just…indescribably funny) and the hysterical story about the day when the aliens show up and demand to see a lesbian threesome in order to save the world. ^_^

My favorite story was the penultimate one in which an old-school sukeban gang girl type shows up at a rich girl’s school to challenge “the chief” – only to be tied up and tamed by the Student Council. Oh my god…so brilliant. I read this traveling home on the train – I hope my fellow passengers weren’t too freaked out by my fits of shrieking laughter. The last story is an homage to Mori’s horror roots, with a creepy sisters-by-marriage story with an unpleasantly ambiguous end.

And despite the absurd premises, this book was pretty hot. So bonus points for Mori, because that takes actual skill.

Ratings:

Story – 8 on average, with moments of 12
Characters – 8 on average
Yuri – 127
Service – 10

This book was so “stimulating” that I’ve already come up with two stories in homage to the sheer evil genius here. ^_^ I *must* read more by her…

Posted in Hentai, LGBTQ, Mori Natsuko, Novel, Queer Fiction | 4 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Red Garden, Volume 1

April 19th, 2007

I liked the anime for Red Garden enough that, when a manga became available I jumped right on it. The combination of likeable characters, solid horror/action plot and Yuri worked just fine for me. The fact that the one actual lesbian character wasn’t diminished in any way, did not die or become psychotic or any other predictable negative outcome, just added to my overall enjoyment. (My prediction in my review was, therefore, completely wrong. And I’m thrilled.) In fact, I thought the whole situation was handled beautifully.

So, I was really interested to see what Gonzo was going to do with the manga for Red Garden. And while it is definitely different from the anime, I’m still liking it pretty much.

The artist for the manga, Ayamura Kirihito, doesn’t appear to have done any other manga, although he does have some art collections, and a really creepy doll photo book. And dolls really seem to be his interest. So the art for Red Garden is very lush with a strong preference for GothLoli, and a tendency towards the grotesque…while being really violent and horrific at the same time. There’s some scenes where Lula, in particular, would have fit in neatly on any page from Hellsing.

The basic plot is the same: four young women attending a school on Roosevelt Island in New York City, bound only by separate friendships with a dead girl, learn that they too have died but are not yet allowed to rest in peace. Instead, under the guidance of mysterious Lula, they are forced to fight off beast-men for what reason they don’t yet know. (Not, at least, at the end of Volume 1.)

The characters are the same, still likeable; with a little less character development than went on the anime. I think that if one read the manga first, Kate, Rose, Rachel and Clare would be a little less approachable than they were in the anime, where a lot of time was spent with each on their personality and backstories.

The art *is* different from the anime – Herve’ is evil right off the top, and Kate in particular has a tendency to have hyperdramatic glowing 70’s shoujo “shock!” eyes (if you know what I mean, you know what I mean) which gets a little tired by halfway through the volume.

Rose gets a GothLoli makeover which suits her, and both Lize and Kate tend that way too, which doesn’t. I have NO idea what Rachel is supposed to look like. Not a New York rich girl, certainly. lol Clare gets hit with the butch stick – apparently right out of the Mod closet. Her slightly flared-pants men’s suit for Lize’s funeral was really hot. It’s too bad about Clare, really – she would make such a good lesbian. ^_^

In terms of Yuri, for this volume at least, it’s the same as in the anime – Paula is very gay for Kate and doesn’t bother hiding it. I just hope that, like the anime, she remains cool and graceful to the end. But Jessica’s little thing gets a steroid injection to a bout of insane jealous rage, which has her giving Kate openly evil “Die, I hate you” looks throughout the volume. So we have at least *one* psychotic lesbian. Phew.

Otherwise – lots and lots of blood and violence, evil, horror, mystery, underlit grinning faces, etc, etc. Just the kind of thing you want to read while eating a rare steak. LOL

Ratings:

Art – wildly inconsistent, ranging from “eww” 3 to “wah” 8
Story – 6 intruguing, but a little weak
Characters – 7 we’ll hope to learn more as we go along
Yuri – 5 ahh, psychotic schoolgirls and their crushes, how sweet
Service – 3, unless violence gets you off, I guess, then 7

Overall – 7

I’m really hoping that future volumes go deeper into the characters, but as this is Gonzo, I suspect it won’t get that chance. The color pictures the author has done are really pretty though. Check out his website for some examples.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »