Yuri Anime: Loveless, Volume 3

July 11th, 2006

There’s a couple of pieces of business I want to get out of the way before I commence with this review.

1) I am neck deep in the tedious grunt work stage of Yuri Monogatari 4, the newest yuri manga anthology from ALC Publishing. As a result, reviews *will* be more spaced out than usual. My arm is already falling off, and I’m just in the beginning stages. So please bear with my much slower-than-usual pace of reviewing.

2) I can tell that I am getting more popular – more of you are writing in to tell me how wrong I am. ^_^ I do read all your posts…not always all the way through, but I do give each the old college try. Don’t feel bad if I don’t respond. It just means I don’t have time, don’t have anything to say, don’t feel that strongly about it, or think you’re an idiot. You can decide which it is. ^_^

3) Today’s review is due entirely to the generosity of the folks at Media Blasters, who are very, totally, supportive of Yuri in general and Yuricon in particular. I am beginning with the third volume of Loveless because that is the one I was given. Should I obtain the second volume at some point in time, I will review it. If you would rather read a single cohesive review of the very Yuri, very lovely Yuri arc in Loveless, then you will want to read my initial review of this series.Since my opinion of the show as a whole hasn’t changed, you’ll probably want to read that anyway.

Volume 3 picks up after we have initially met Kouya and Yamato, and learned that they are a Sacrifice and Sentouki pair. They are also, we learn, Zeros. This appears to mean that they have been genetically created or altered (the anime is vagueish about this – the manga might shed more light on this, but please don’t think my lack of information denotes interest) to be nothing more than puppets in this game.

Kouya’s and Yamato’s arc, while short, is actually quite good. It also looks to be just about identical to the manga arc, so that’s something for Yuri fans to look forward to in the translated manga. The bottom line is that they find hope and light in what is a palpably hopeless and dark life of doomed combat. In other words, we can believe that they actually do live happily ever after.

My personal favorite moment was about 2/3 way through the arc when Yamato is facing Ristuka, the protagonist. I had just been saying to myself that Ritsuka’s deceased older brother must have been a total prick, when Yamato makes that exact comment. <3

Just for kicks, I watched the two episodes after their arc. I spent most of the time cringing at the icky shota and utterly soppy, faggy gayness of all the male characters. Thank GOD Kouya and Yamato weren’t treated with the same broad strokes, or they would have been wearing tool-belts and birkenstocks. I kept screaming at the TV “Not every gay guy dresses like that!” ^_^;

Because the DVD is a Media Blasters release, there is only a subtitled track , no American voice track. This is no loss for me, personally, but you might want to be aware before you buy. Additionally, I found the subtitles to be plain wrong in places – in that way I always complain about, where the translator takes liberties with what they say to make it more casual language. Again, not a problem for most people.

HOWEVER, I will never, *ever* understand the thing anime companies do when the character screams one thing – almost always a person’s name – and they substitute something else like the person’s title. If Ritsuka screams “Sensei!”, why on earth would you translate that as anything other than what it is? It happens several times where a person is called by one thing and the translators, for reasons of their own, have them say another thing. My final complaint about the DVD; the opening menu is nigh on impossible to read from 10 feet away – at least for my tired, old, eyes.

Ratings (for the Yuri arc only)

Art – 5 (grainy and hard to see at times)
Story – 8
Character – 8
Music – ugh, don’t get me started
Yuri – 8
Loser FanGirl – 20

Overall – 7

I seriously doubt that I’ll ever be able to watch anything but the yuri arc in this series…it just has too many fetishes that are not only not mine, but make me actively cringe.

But the Yuri arc, primo. Thumbs up. Excellent.

Posted in Loveless, Yuri Anime | 2 Comments »


Yuricon News: Big Update at Yuricon!

July 8th, 2006

Lots of new stuff on the Yuricon Website!

Yuri Studios: Seven new yuri-themed AMVs – the runner up entries from the Anime Music Video Contest are now available for download from Yuri Studios. Winning entries coming soon!

New Events on the Yuricon Event Page: More yuri panel listings from around the world – and two exciting ALC and Yuricon sponsored events. Check back regularly for updates on Yuri Events.

New items on the Yuricon Shop:

Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CD: Nakaniyono
Yokohama Shopping Log Drama CDs
Yuri Drama CDs.

Yuri Manga from Amazon Japan:
Aria 8
Yuri Hime 5

Yuri Manga from Amazon:
Strawberry Marshmallow 1

New Anime:
Loveless, Volumes 2 and 3:

Zeromus One gives us three wonderful new images of Yuriko and her
friends from SnB and SnR on the Gallery of Yuriko Fanart:

Enjoy!!

Yuricon – “For real women who like their women…animated.”
Yuricon.org

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »


Events: Yuri Panel at Connecticon (Saturday only)

July 7th, 2006

If you’re in the Hartford, CT area or you’re already planning on attending Connecticon this weekend, drop by “Con Row” to buy 100% yuri publications from ALC and great Yuricon items, like original Rica Takashima postcards and “I Love Yuri” pins and magnets on Saturday, July 8, 2006.

Sean Gaffney and I will be holding a Yuri Panel at (I think) 7:30 – check the program book for time and location.

We’ll only be there for Saturday, so don’t miss us! See you there!

Posted in Events | No Comments »


Yuri Anime: Strawberry Panic mid-season review

July 5th, 2006

It’s halfway through it’s run and I thought that the Strawberry Panic! anime warranted a second look.

When I was in high school, I took a creative writing class. I have long ago forgotten the teacher’s name, but I have retained two things from that class – the word “transmontaine” and an exercise that we were assigned. Our teacher told us to look through our record collections, take phrases from the songs and construct a poem. I remember this exercise very clearly, because in every case but one it was *instantly* apparent which song the writer had used. They hadn’t taken phrases – they had taken whole lines. The one exception was mine. I was the only one in the class who had understood that one could take a *phrase* someone else had created and make something unique and original from it. This is very possibly the beginning of my “career” as a fanfic writer – but that isn’t why I bring this up.

I bring this up, because in the course of writing my weekly snarky “stolen meme” report on the Yuricon Mailing List, pointing out the exceedingly obvious – and not so obvious – symbols and concepts taken from popular yuri anime and manga series, it dawned on me that Strawberry Panic is exactly the same thing as my now long-lost (and thank heavens for small favors for that!) poem.

Is Strawberry Panic derivative? Yes.

Is it laughable? Absolutely.

Is it pandering? Indubitably.

But is it fun? *Now* I say yes.

At half-way, the characters have taken on decided characteristics of their own, the story pretty much fixed one of my major issues with Kannazuki no Miko and with the exception of the lead, Nagisa, everyone has become sort of human. Sort of. I’m not saying this is high art, but as parody goes I’m beginning to like it.

I started liking this anime for something very stupid and small. When they changed to the summer uniforms, Shizuma took to wearing the single most unattractive cardigan EVER over her uniform (because heaven knows that it’s too chilly inside that old wooden building in the blazing summer heat.) That stupid sweater – so ugly, so old-ladyish, made me really begin to like Shizuma. Think about it – this is the schools’ star among stars. She is the height of cool and style…and here she is schlubbing around in a mucky gray cardigan with a yellow stripe. How…uncool. I love it.

Then, just as if the writers actully understood how to put a story together, they resolved one of the several love polygons in the series, smack dab at mid-way through. Just like you should. They ended it in a really funny and bizarre way, which has changed many geeks’appreciation of ineffective pickup lines forever.

And so, halfway through the season, I find myself in the camp of “It’s utter trash – but it’s *fun* utter trash.” And for the first time in ages, I find myself laughing at a parody. Thank you, writers of Strawberry Panic, thank you makers of ugly sweaters and thank you global warming. You’ve saved this anime for me.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 7
Story – 7 (the bits they didn’t steal from other series, that is)
Music – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 6

Overall – 7

Oh, but the new ending sequence! Truly WTF. I thought the first one was bad, but this one is positively nightmarish. Shudder.

Posted in Strawberry Panic, Yuri Anime | 9 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 7

July 3rd, 2006

Because I’m home for the holiday, I thought I’d try something new today – reviewing something as I watch it. So, I am watching Madlax, Volume 7 as I write.

The first thing that struck me was the cover of this DVD. If you haven’t yet gotten the connection between Madlax and Margaret, then you’re clearly running behind. This picture ought to make the point quite clearly.

It’s very hard to talk about this volume without massive spoilers, but I’m going to try to be vague and speculative about some key things. My apologies if I blow anything huge for you.

Right from the opening seconds there’s a great tension in this volume that doesn’t really dissipate until the end, where it’s supposed to. How amazing is that?

Episode 24

In the first episode, we finally see Madlax as she truly is – a phantasm. There’s a brilliant moment when a machine gun is shot at her and we can see the bullets ricochet against the rock behind her. Clearly, the shots passed right through her forehead. But there’s no reaction from her and no sign of the bullets. The shadow Madlax taking all the hits while the absurd dress-wearing Madlax shoots the enemy, was quite brilliant.

Then Rimelda arrives. She’s changed, one can see that immediately. There’s something like acceptance, and a little relief in her expression. She and Madlax have a moment that changes everything between them.

Meanwhile, we get to see just how much Eleanor truly loves Margaret, and what Margaret really is to her.

Episode 24 makes a really good case for there being many different ways that love can manifest. In day-to-day things, (what my wife and I refer to as “playing house”) and in remembering a person after they are gone.

We lose yet another friend and again, it’s a GREAT scene. In a war story, losing someone isn’t bizarre and can be used well. In anime, a main character remaining dead is almost unheard of. It makes the death more meaningful (in the sense of driving the story) when you know that they won’t pop back in a giant reset that renders everything pointless. The losses we suffer here are handled well and are definitely not pointless.

Episode 25

Where Episode 24 is about an apparent reality, 25 is about the magic that has driven the series from the beginning – some of which has only been hinted at. It’s a magic with no roots in our world, so we have to take everything we’re given at face value, which I like quite a bit.

Things we thought were resolved pop back up, still present. People we thought gone come back, but not for the reasons we might think. And Margaret is not saved, as it appeared last episode.

We get to see Friday Monday’s point of view on the events of twelve years ago, which adds the few last pieces to the puzzle – except why Friday Monday is such a crazy nerdbanger. That remains unexplained. Also I question the concept of the “Essence”, since it seems to always make people turn murderously violent against the person they love the most. It seems an obviously flaw to the FM’s insistence that that is the REAL truth, when it’s the same exact reaction in everyone who encounters the words. It’s like saying that datura is *really* an antacid, and the fact that people who take it die is sort of a side effect of the true disease within them. Except, as we see that FM is completely crazy, we can also see how, to him, this obviously evil magic spell is “The Truth (TM)”. Nonetheless, we do see the truth, finally, of what happened to Margaret, and who Madlax is.

When the calvary thunders down the hill – to kick ass music, mind you – it was so wonderful, if just to SHUT Friday Monday UP. Geez, his laugh is enough to make *me* shoot him.

Episode 26 – Final.

What can I really say about this episode that won’t be one great big spoiler? Let’s just say this – the story actually ends. And, to the best of the writers’ abilities, it makes sense. There are still tons of questions, but they are more about the hows than the whys or whats.

Watching Margaret making her decision this time, it all made more sense. Of course, if I tell you why, I’ll ruin the whole thing, so you’ll just have to watch it and get back to me.

And I guess there’s something to the bad guy who doesn’t die, because this way you can just keep killing the freak again and again…

Oh, and how happy was I when Margaret tells Friday Monday exactly what I pointed out in my review of Volume 6 – that there was no need to bring out the violence and hatred in people’s hearts, because we’re quite well aware that it exists, thanks awfully.

I still maintain that Madlax is the best writing that Bee Train has done. It has the mystery of the .hack series, without the endless meaningless chatter that goes nowhere, the Yuri and violence of Noir, the despair and love of Avenger and a story that resolves, unlike all of them. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Character – 9
Music – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 3 (random breasts, pretty much)

Overall – 8

And what a great epilogue. I love that epilogue. Luv, luv. This series ends with an unexpected bang. Perfect for fanfic. (Which yes, I have written. It’s up on “Worldshaking” Fanfic. Enjoy!)

Posted in Bee Train, Madlax, Yuri Anime | 5 Comments »