Coyote Ragtime Show, Manga and Anime

October 24th, 2006

I liked the anime for Coyote Ragtime Show immediately. Right from the first moments…the energy, the devil-may-care pirates in space, the absurd levels of violence, and Angelica’s obsession with eating, totally did it for me.

If only, I thought, there was an evil, psychotic older woman with a uniform fixation and twelve goth-loli assassin android “daughters.” ^_^

(Seriously, I was watching an episode with some Yuricon staffers and my only comment was, “I like this series quite a bit. When you see Madame Marciano, you’ll instantly know why.” And so they did.)

Let’s back up. CRS was a short 12-episode series about space pirates, aka “coyotes.” Coyotes are assumed to have a serious code of honor and an inner nobility, which puts this story strongly in the realm of fiction. ^_^ Our pirate ships are spaceships; Han Solo would be impressed with the mean piloting skills we see. And the government is, if not entirely corrupt, then just plain dumb. Typical SF space pirate fare.

Our main players are:

Angelica – good, smart, attractive female cop who has a crush on

Mister – smart, noble, attractive older guy coyote

Madame Marciano – smart, evil, psychotic underworld leader who’s in it for the violence, power and money

The rest of the cast are the people arrayed around these three. Mister is the protagonist, so in a sense everyone is arrayed around him, but these three represent the three warring forces of the series – the coyotes, the authorities, the criminals (who are different from coyotes in that they appear to have become *successful* at crime and are living lives of luxury, instead of living hand to mouth in filth and poverty.)

The main plot is full of action and fun and goofy – all very enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed when Madame Marciano and her 12 assassin android daughters (each named after a month of the year) destroyed the Guild of Underworld Baddies, because they weren’t being evil enough. I think I fell in love with her right then.

But the one thing that was lacking from the anime (which has been licensed for US release, I”m glad to say) was the “L” part of Madame Marciano’s EPL(Evil Psychotic Lesbian) character – in other words, there was not too much Yuri in the anime.

There was a “thing” building between May’s disembodied android head and Angelica, which many Japanese fans saw as Yuri. I think it was probably just respect, but there’s a definite vibe, yes, on May’s part which can be read as pinging the old Yuri-dar. Even if she does spend a large portion of the series as a disembodied head…

But more importantly for us, in the manga we get a glimpse of Madame’s other use for her beloved androids…other than slaughtering people violently, that is. Clearly Madame favors the Goth-Loli look…and she likes her women as violent as I do. April, the leader of the 12 “sisters”, is also Mommy’s personal favorite, if you get my drift. (It’s the manga to which I’ve linked the picture and title above for that reason. When the licensed version of the anime is available in the US, you can be sure I’ll link to that as well.)

Is it meaningful that it’s April and May who are the Yuriest? I have no idea. All I know is that just about the time I was whining that Madame Marciano would be my perfect women if only she had a taste for women, I learned that she does.

Madame Marciano is my perfect woman. ^_^

And Coyote Ragtime Show is a great, goofy comic book of an anime, fun for the whole family…assuming your family is like mine.  (You know, thinking about it, my Dad would love this show…)

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Character – 9
Yuri – 2 anime, 4 manga
Service – Considering the possibilities, the service rating is a surprisingly low 2.
Erica – 9 – Madame hits just about every major fetish I have, except one.

Overall – 8

It’s got all the qualities of a classic adventure series. Unless you’re a strictly shoujo fan, definitely worth a look!

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »


Yuri Fanfic: New Look For the "Fanfic Revolution"!

October 23rd, 2006

The Fanfic Revolution is the writer’s circle of which I have been a proud member for many, many, MANY years. I created the FR a zillion years ago for anime fanfic writers who did “adult” stories that were, oh, anatomically credible. LOL We began life as the Hentai Author’s Mailing List, then became the Fanfic Revolution when I had another one of my 2AM inspirations. :-) We expanded our mission to include non-hentai, and non-anime as time went on. Now I just call the folks at the FR my editors – and my friends. I consider their scraps and dribbles of writing to be far superior to most people’s – even to most published authors’ works.

Last week, quite spontaneously, Adam Jones decided that our old Fanfic Revolution site needed a new look. We’d been rather slow on updating the old site, and a new blog-like format would allow people a chance to provide feedback, we could have tagging and categories – and the ability for readers to get it an RSS feed of our updates. After extensive research of about 30 minutes or so, we decided to go with Blogger’s new system, because.

So, I am pleased to announce the brand, new, shiny Fanfic Revolution website is open for business!

We’re (re)posting stories as we get around to it, which means if you get the updates as RSS, you’ll be seeing alot of our early stories popping up, and some new ones here and there as well. It’s been a lot of fun re-reading works I haven’t looked at in forever, both by myself and by the other folks of the FR.

I’m going to try and re-post there on the order of about one story a week, since I have alot of other claims on my time. It should take me about 3 1/2 years to catch up with myself at that rate. :-) So for current stuff, stick with “World Shaking” Fanfic, where I upload a new story about once a month or so.

So if you’re in the mood to read some fantastic yuri (and non-yuri) anime and manga fanfiction, visit the New Fanfic Revolution. And do let us know what you think!

Posted in Yuri Fanfic | 2 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Kaleido Star Good dayo! Gooood!

October 20th, 2006

They are few, brief and far between, but those moments of Sora x Layla love in Kaleido Star make watching this often indifferent, frequently irritating anime worthwhile.

This OVA…well, frankly I have no idea who this OVA was targeted to or what they were thinking when they made it. It’s done entirely in CG, with super-deformed art that makes all the characters look like DDR icons or something. It’s 2 parts disturbing to 1 part cute. (On second thought, what “they” were thinking was probably “How can we do a KS brand extension without spending too much money?”)

In any case, this OVA is split into three parts. The first is a “cooking lesson” by May with students Layla and Sora. The second part is Ken being a nebbish as he tries to learn the Diablo from Rosa and the third is an absolutely excruciating gag as Marion and Jonathan the Seal attemtpt to teach Sora to speak seal.

Only the first of these is of interest to Yuri fans.

To be more precise, only the first of these was of interest to *this* Yuri fan.

There are several cute moments as May teaches enthusiastic Sora and pampered Layla how to cook a particularly spicy tofu dish. I actually took a screencap of the lava-like end product, because it was a particularly amusing bit of animation.

But much more importantly, Sora and Layla have a brief moment of Yuri wooja-wooja which, if May hadn’t interrupted it…

Anyway, the OVA as a whole was okay, but the first segment was amusing. Not the logical sequel to the magnificent Legend of Phoenix: Layla Hamilton Monogatari OVA, but if you’re already a fan of the series, its not the worst waste of your time. Not like, say, episodes 27-40 were.

One thing I did very much like, the OP is the original theme from the first season of the TV series, sung by the voice actresses as their characters. And, although they have pretty much no lines in the OVA itself, that included Anna and Mia.

Ratings:

Art – CG/SD. Meh. 4
Characters – 6
Story – 6/4/2 for each section respectively
Yuri – for one brief flash, 7.
Service – surprisingly for this series, no Fool, and no noticeable service. 1, on principal.

Overall – The first segment 6, the second a 4, and the third a 2, for an average of 4.

Posted in Kaleido Star, Yuri Anime | No Comments »


Yuri Fanfic: New Look for "World Shaking" Fanfic!

October 19th, 2006

“World Shaking” Fanfic is pleased and thrilled to announce a nice spiffy new look, courtesy of Kyanite!

The header pages have all been changed over and seem to be working fine on every browser we have around the house…so no Safari, but the rest of the lot seem to be looking good (thanks to a fix by several loyal and terrific readers!)

So take a moment and check out the shiny new image for WSF – and enjoy a new Maria-sama ga Miteru fanfic, Until We Meet Again:1. The new story is based on a scene from Parasol o Sashite, and is the first in a short series.

Enjoy the new story and the new look and my thanks to Kyanite!

Posted in Yuri Fanfic | 7 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Blue Drop

October 16th, 2006

As soon as I saw the cover of Blue Drop, I felt a little happy. Because ever since I reviewed Ray, I have been looking forward to a Yoshitomi Akihito series with some actual yuri content. From some of the situations and supporting characters in Ray, I knew he had it in him. :-) Since his forte appears to be bad science coupled with gouts of violence, (I base this assumption on all two of the series I’ve seen, so you *know* you can trust me on this) I was especially looking forward to reading Blue Drop. I quite enjoy a little bad science coupled with violence from time to time, and as Kaguyahime has finished, I’m in need of fix.

In any case, Blue Drop is a loose collection of stories set appropriately in a post-apocalyptic world where aliens basically landed on Earth and after a war, won. They are using humans, most especially human kids to something something, and the kids are shunned because they are something something, but mostly because they have white hair while they are infected.

The “resistance” has decided that, since they can’t fight the aliens, they’ll kill the kids. I did like the fact that the resistance for once wasn’t a noble cause, but a bunch of angry obsessives, who have obviously lost sight of the objective.

The first story is about a boy who is carrying the whateveritis, and the girl that likes him. She sleeps with him, watches him die and a year later has a baby to remember him by and forget any of the crappy stuff that went on.

Then we meet Yui. She’s got some mean fightin’ skills and proceeds to save infected Ami from the mean old resistance. There’s plenty of tension between the two of them, and Ami even offers to sleep with Yui, but Yui gets all noble and leaves. Yui takes on the resistance and appears to die. Time passes, we see Ami has recovered and Yui, somberly reflects from a distance that it’s better that way for everyone. Ami can be normal again.

Kyomi and Rumi are the same age – Rumi’s like a sister to Kyomi. Until they both turn 13 and somehow, Kyomi realizes that Rumi’s taken everything that was dear to her – her friends and even more importantly, the guy she likes. They argue, until Kyomi gets hurt and Rumi learns that the person Kyomi likes…is her. too late, she runs off, in time to find that Kyomi has been infected by the alien and to see her become one with them. Another opportunity lost.

We see Shouko in the doctor’s office at school, where she asks the school’s female doctor out. Misato-sensei begs off politely, but Shouko’s friends have at her unmercilessly, in the way that only really good friends will. Shouko goes home to work in her family’s inn. Her mother tells her to take some beer to a room where a guest is staying. Shouko comes in to the room and sees Yui stripping another female employee, exhorting her to not worry, etc, etc. Yui and Shouko are excited to see one another – Yui shows her affection by pulling Shouko’s kimono down and snuggling her breasts, until Shouko punches her across the room. Shouko tells Yui about her feelings for the teacher, but Yui warns her off.

Yui and Misato discuss Shouko, and Yui’s existence, as well. Misato tries to convince Yui that she is a human, but Yui does not accept that. (We’ve learned previously that she’s half human half alien). The resistance grabs Shouko to get to Yui, and Misato turns out to be part of the resistance. Yui kisses Misato and apologizes, saying that she wants to protect Shouko more than keep the promise that they have between them. Yui gives Misato a handkerchief to wipe her face as she and Shouko run off. Misato promises to give it back one day – a promise that Yui accepts.

Yui and Shouko are watching the news, (in between a little light sexual harrassment by Yui) when Yui gets a call. They go out to find Misato-sensei on the ground – clearly after a rape and assault. She apologize to Yui, saying that she got her handkerchief dirty again. The hostile crowd demands Misato’s death on account of the fact that she’s been given the alien vaccine to kids.

They go back to Yui’s place where Misato cleans up and we get lots of expository discusssion. Just as we’re all relaxed, the resistance shows up to kill Misato. Shouko is dragged off to safety, but Yui obviously and visibly draws a gun on Misato. The room explodes.

The last scene shows us Yui talking to Misato, whom she has saved, about Ami from the earlier chapter. Misato correctly identifies Ami as Yui’s “type.” Yui leaves with a jaunty “I’ll be back!” to which Misato responds “I’ll see you!”.

The volume ends, but assumably, the adventure goes on in that space where stories we have created live.

Blue Drop is hardly great literature, but as violent lesbian leads go, Yui shows compassion, nobility, and mostly healthy sexual behavior…and has a sense of humor about it, which make it all readable.

Ratings:

Art – 8 (I especially like the immense frozen tortured faces that dot the landscape)
Story – 7
Characters – 5
Yuri – 6
Service – 5

Overall – 6

Please remember, downloading scans doesn’t pay the artist’s rent. If you enjoy the scanlation, think about picking up a copy of the real thing. You can click the picture above for the link to it on Amazon JP.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 12 Comments »