YajiKita Gakuen Dochuuki Anime OVA Part 1 and 2

February 8th, 2005

The way I figure it is, if I can watch or read something ten years after I watched or read it the first time and it doesn’t make me squirm, it’s quality. Based on its renewed popularity, YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki is quality.

Way back in 1989, and again in 1991, Akita Shoten video put out two one-episode OVAs of YajiKita, which featured the top voice actresses of the day as our intrepid pair. Sadly, I don’t think the casting was as great as they did, but, I can’t blame them for their choices.

The two episodes are unrelated, which gives one a good feel for how random the typical YajiKita arcs are. The two eps are filled with random ninjas, lots of fighting, mysterious beautiful women and other chestnuts of the genre. My personal favorite, Kotestsu the shadow, is *far* manlier than he is in manga form. Yukiya was perfect – he looked utterly girly, and made all his hench-gang blush with muted desire, but was actually quite the dashing boy with a male voice. This pleased me no end.

But what about Yaji and Kita, you ask? (You had better ask….)

Yajima Junko’s seiyuu, Yamamoto Yuriko (also the voice of Yuri-licicious Iczer-1,)is, in my completely personal opinion, a little too flightly and goofy. We do see a more serious side of Yaji, but because there’s so little time in the two stand-alone episodes, its not very developed.

Shinokita Reiko, played by Yamada Eiko (Anne in Anne of Green Gables and the righteous Midorikawa Ranko in Ace wo nerae!) is nearly perfect as Kita. The body language for Kita is pretty special too. Watching her stand and sit is like bird-watching – she’s got distinctive body language that communicates her emotions very effectively, and the animation really captures that.

But you guys don’t care about that. You only care about Yuri. I know you. So…is there Yuri?

Duh, this is Kita-san we’re talking about! Of *course* there is!

In the first episode, Yaji and Kita arrive at school and have just about enough time to be fed a pack of lies by the Principal and the Student Council President, when Reiko is served with papers. A love letter, that is. We get to smile at her usual reaction, because the only people watching this obscure video are clearly obsessive fans….

Now, this is pretty mild Yuri, I admit that.

What makes it a tad more amusing and a notch higher on the Yuri goggles scale is this:

The student who gives Kita the love letter is voiced by none other than that Yuri darling, Mitsuishi Kotono in what has *got* to be one of her earliest roles. (A quick survey of her resume on Anime News Network turns up nothing older, but that’s hardly definitive.)

It’s a small thing, but I love that the “6 Degrees of Yuri” hold true for no less than three of the voice actresses in this series – two of them the leads. ^_^

So, no hot steamy sex here, but for a quickie, this OVA neatly encapsulates the silliness of YajiKita perfectly.

And, sadly, no Kita in a tux either, but we do get her to see her casual boyish after-school look! ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – Nostalgia-gasm

Posted in Classic Yuri, YajiKita | No Comments »


Yuri: Manga: YajiKita Gakuen Dochuuki, Vol. 25

February 4th, 2005

It always gives me great pleasure to be able to discuss one of my favorite series, but in this case, not only does YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki (YajiKita’s School Diary) have Yuri, this time its not just classic…it’s now.

I have reviewed this series before, once on January 13, 2004 and it even made my 2004 Top 10 of Yuri manga, and yet, hardly anyone knows about it, which is a crying shame, since it is truly a wonderful, wacky and Yuri-filled, girl-gang shoujo manga.

YajiKita originally went for 22 volumes, from 1984 to 1992. The plot was, basically, that two second-year high school students – blonde, cool Shinokita Reiko (Kita) and fiery tempered brunette Yajima Junko (Yaji) – move from school to school fighting corruption, Yakuza, bad gangs (as opposed to the good gangs which, yes, do exist in the story) and running into more ninjas and black-suited, sunglass-wearing men than you could ever have imagined.

Both Yaji and Kita have extraordinary hand-to-hand fighting skills, which they actually work on improving. Yaji’s family runs a dojo, so no surprise there, and Kita’s father is a police captain. They nominally work for the head of the eastern area gang association (Kantou Banchou Rengo no Souchou, for those of you who care) an exceptionally pretty rich boy named Yukiya, who looks like – but does not act or talk like – a girl. (One of the things you can absolutely guarantee in YajiKita is that the boys will often be as pretty as the girls.) Yuikya is served by an even prettier ninja boy named Kotetsu, who is always running around saving an even *prettier* ninja named Sagiri, whom I loathe. (Sagiri whines. Alot.)

In the beginning Yaji and Kita can’t stand each other, but after a dozen or so volumes that disappears. Sometime around the time Kita gets shot, Yaji realizes that she quite likes her partner…and Kita begins to act a little more possessive of Yaji, as well, often acting like her boyfriend. (Kita out of school uniform and without her glasses is seriously bishounen. People constantly think she’s a guy at first.)

There are about 877,636,345 other characters who linger in this series, so it would be hopeless to enumerate them all.

However, on to the Yuri. I’ve already pointed out in my earlier review that Kita is a girl magnet. Sometime towards the end of the original series, the mangaka threw caution to the wind and had Kita get a part-time job at a host bar. As “Rei” she danced with many a woman, and looked damn fine in a tux. Yaji even brought Misuzu, a girl that had honest-to-god fallen in love with Kita earlier in the series, just to watch her drool. Poor Misuzu was *dying* as “Rei” danced with the other women…and when one of them, a rich girl named Ruriko, goes so far as to *kiss* Kita, Misuzu is out of her seat and punching Ruriko faster than you can say “Hey! Get your hand off my Reiko!” :-)

Anyway, that was back in Volume 21 or so. About 12 years ago.

Last year YajiKita picked where they had left off 13 years before. With no interruption, no aging – no change at all, the next collected volume came out…as Vol. 23. In which not a single moment of time had passed. It was really charming and wacky. Not a single change had been made – unlike the New Hana no Asuka-gumi whioch had at least updated to include cell phones.

In Vol. 24, Ruriko, having had her desire for “Rei” thwarted for a decade and a half, (metaphorically speaking,) seemed even more determined to possess poor Kita. She concocted a variety of methods by which she tries to maneuver Kita out of her clothes and into a tux. Of course, I approve.

Which brings us to Vol. 25. Yaji and Kita are rushing around looking for a kidnapped (and escaped, yet still missing) Yukiya, and come across Ruriko and Tamehiko (another one of the many resurrected characters) at a pleasant little cottage in the country. Ruriko locks Kita in a room with her and slinks up to her “Rei” asking her to stay. Kita draws back and apologizes, telling Ruriko that she can’t work for her. At which Ruruiko is appalled. “Employee?” she keeps asking. “What are you saying? I want you to be my lover!”

I have to admit – I applaud Ruriko’s frankness.

Kita excuses herself…she’s not interested in women, at which Ruriko trots out the old chestnut that she doesn’t like girls either…she just likes “Rei.” Kita bails, but Ruriko is unfazed. I’m looking forward to the next plan she comes up with – all the others have been so wonderfully stupid. :-) And maybe we might just get Reiko back in that tuxedo!

In the meantime, however, Kita has been noticeably *there* every time Yaji faces unwanted attentions from men. Maybe Kita isn’t interested in women, but she might just be interested in Yaji. :-)

Okay, not. But I like thinking about it. ^_^

Anyway, despite the fact that you actually *do* have to read this series from the beginning to get what’s going on – Volume 25 offers yet *more* women who desire Kita-san, which keeps it in my top ten, even after 20 years.

Posted in Classic Yuri, YajiKita, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Events: Onna Announces Guests

February 1st, 2005

Onna! is pleased to announce the first ouf our confirmed guests!

Paige Braddock, creator of “Jane’s World”, is one of the few women to have a comic strip syndicated in major metropolitan daily newspaper, and the only artist with a gay/lesbian main character to ever do so. Paige and “Jane” will bring years of experience and success in the demanding business of syndicated comic strips to share with Onna! attendees.

Sin Comix is a New York-area circle of artists who publish both online
and print works. Their unabashedly mature comics, (which cover everything across the spectrum,: straight, yuri, yaoi, etc.,) experience in self-publishing, and great sense of humor make this group of women special.

Onna! also welcomes fan circle Lililicious, the shoujo and shoujoai-themed scanlating and fansubbing group.

For more on Onna! guests, check out the Events section at the Onna! website.

***

I’ll be out of state the next few days, so you’ll just have to amuse yourselves by reading some of my older entries. ;-)

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Yuri Doujinshi Circle: Office Mono

January 31st, 2005

Those of you familiar with ALC Publishing will no doubt be rolling your eyes at the choice of this circle for review. But, the reason ALC chose to translated and print Works was that it was really quite good. :-)

Tadeno Eriko is the primary artist of Office Mono, and I think her art style is clean and easy to enjoy – a nice example of the josei genre of manga. (Josei is manga targeted towards older girls and women.) Like my other favorite authors, Yamaji Ebine and Rica Takashima, Tadeno-sensei does solid artistic work and had a nice depth to her stories.

Office Mono’s series Lavender of Romance tells a series of stories, some one-shots, some with second and third chapters, about a variety of women in lesbian relationships. There are reasonably few schoolgirls in Tadeno’s work – she favors characters that are in the workforce, something that appeals strongly to me. Which is not to say that there are *no* schoolgirls or college-age women in her stories. Another strength of Tadeno’s works are the wide variety of ages she covers – everything from the usual high school crushes to older couples who have been together for decades.

In a nutshell, that’s the real reason I like her work so much – the variety. (That and a single panel in Lavender of Romance 6 where a woman is looking at her half-dressed lover (who is short and stubby, much like yours truly) and sees in her mind an adorable stuffed teddy bear. This is the kind of image that anyone in any releationship can totally identify with, even grumpy ole me. :-) It’s another idiotic grin moment, definitely.)

So if you want to enjoy this wonderful anthology pictured above, you can find it available at the Yuricon Shop!

Posted in ALC Publishing, Yuri Doujinshi | No Comments »


Yuri Doujinshi Circle: Pasterage

January 29th, 2005

Pasterage is one of those circles that is comprised of a really nice guy who gently obsesses on sweet yuri love. Pasterage characters invariably wear frilly dresses (when not in school uniforms) and the stories are invariably adorable and harmless, with a soft edge of goofy to them. I find myself grinning like an idiot when I read them.

The two characters seen in the above picture meet, not surprisingly, in school. Sayuka, on the right, and Shino, left, have a rocky start to their relationship, as Shino is momentarily infatuated by an Utena-like sempai. And after they become a couple, their hand-holding happiness is likewise interrupted by an infatuated kouhai, but frilly dresses and yuri googly-ness prevail. Shino and Sayuki live forever in frilly yuri bliss.

And really, what more can we ask from a doujinshi? :-)

Again, no ground-breaking efforts (and no sex in the school library…sorry Jen!) from Pasterage, but here is their lovely gallery for you to enjoy. :-)

Posted in Yuri Doujinshi | 1 Comment »