Live Action: Summer Vacation 1999

July 6th, 2005

Based loosely on Hagio Moto’s Boys’ Love classic, Touma no Shinzo (Heart of Thomas), Summer Vacation has just about something for everyone, except perhaps the hard-core action fan.

The story takes place at an all-boy’s private school during summer vacation. Almost everyone has gone for the summer, with the exception of three boys who are friends and are now living together. Not to long ago a fourth friend of theirs committed suicide, leaving behind a letter to his roommate. In this stereotypical “hothouse” setting several things are driving the boys apart. For one thing, there is more than a little sexual tension between them, as there was between their dead friend and at least one of them.

Into this tense mix comes a new boy, who looks unsettingly like their dead friend. He seems to know all about the likes and dislikes of the dead boy – and to share them – but insists that he knows nothing about him or his history.

Tempers flare, as does sexual attraction and violence, in this unusual and pretty creepy movie.

All the roles in this movie are played by girls. So you get kind of a double-whammy gender bendy thing going, as girls dressed like boys, start to find themselves attracted to each other. They really aren’t good as boys, but they really don’t look like girls either – which *really* works for this movie, let me tell you. The entire story balanced on the edge of life and death, vacation and school, community and isolation, madness and health, and sexual identity and gender. There’s at least one kiss I can remember, maybe more. Nothing explicit, which would have killed the whole story.

I highly recommend this movie for the zOMGWTFBBQ factor – because you really have no idea what’s going to happen through most of it. The end was a little weak, but I have to give it a little credit for not *at all* going where I expected.

Ratings:
Cinematography – 7
Story – 6 (Slow, but creepy and sexy enough to work)
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0 or 8, depending on how you look at it.

Overall – 7

A unique movie and one well worth watching for fans of this classic manga.

Posted in Live Action | 2 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Madlax, Volume 2

July 5th, 2005

It has been pointed out to me in the notes below that this review was full of hot air. I stand corrected – the translation in the one case I illustrated was fine. ;-))

I am so irritated about this volume of Madlax, I’m not really even sure where to begin.

So to begin, I’ll touch on the good things. First and foremost, this volume is fun, with a capital “fu”. I mean, how many other places can you watch a gentle maid go totally postal on some entitled wannabe frat boy?  I particularly enjoy it when Elenore snaps the kid’s wrist, because he hurt Margaret’s wrist. And when Vanessa says, “How vicious,” she really doesn’t sound all that disapproving. ^_^

Other good things – the liner notes include highly amusing fan art drawn by some of the staff, complete with in-jokes that have to be explained. I really enjoyed these.

And that about covers it. The plot is dense, the bad guy is a joke, but those haven’t changed from my first viewing of the series. And the rest of the episodes are actually very interesting, as we finally start to draw a connection between Margaret, the book and Madlax.

(Remind me to engage in a light rant about the book next review…^_^)

The really stand-out not-good thing on this volume is the seriously awful translation. The first volume was pretty good, but again, its like they switched midstream and stopped actually listening to what was being said, and instead started guessing at something sort-of close to the meaning.

I can’t remember all the things that annoyed the living daylights out of me, but there were several. COME ON,  anime distributor companies! We are notstupid. We are not children. JUST TRANSLATE WHAT THEY SAY. Not something “close enough” to it. And leave the \expletive deleted\ honorifics alone, already! Stop the dubtitling.

It’s absolutely infuriating to pay money for something that is not done properly. It may be cheaper for you to dubtitle, but it stinks for those of us who want to watch the Japanese. Thanks for treating us like second-class citizens, when we are your fan base.

No ratings, I’m in a bad mood.

Posted in Bee Train, Madlax, Yuri Anime | 4 Comments »


Summer Sale on 100% Yuri from ALC Publishing!

July 1st, 2005

To celebrate the release of ALC’s original yuri novel, Shoujoai ni Bouken, we’re discounting all ALC Publications in stock. Now you can get 100% yuri from ALC for from 30% to more than 50% off!

Rica ‘tte Kanji – Curve magazine calls this light-hearted tale of love and life in Tokyo their “favorite new bedside read”. Get 30% of all copies of Rica and enjoy Rica Takashima’s original art and take on life.

Yuri Monogatari 2 – This original all-yuri anthology has stories from yuri artsits and writers around the world. Don’t forget to keep a place on your bookshelf for Yuri Monogatari 3, coming this fall from ALC!

Shoujoai ni Bouken: The Adventures of Yuriko, Volume 1 – Join Yuricon mascot, Yuriko as she tries to balance life as a pop idol, the pursuit of love and liberty from math tests. This brand-new ALC publication includes more than 2 dosez illustrations by Kelli Nicely; a great way to get to know Yuriko, or to spend more time with her!

You can get all ALC publications on the Yuricon Shop, along with yuri anime, manga and gifts. This offer is for a limited time only, so don;t miss your chance to get 30% to 50% off of 100% yuri from ALC Publishing!

Posted in ALC Publishing, Yuri Manga, Yuri Monogatari | No Comments »


Yuri Anime: Air Master, Volume 1

June 30th, 2005

I managed to get a copy of Volume 1 of Air Master at last. This series has become a “comfort” series for me – I stick it on the TV when there’s nothing else on and I don’t want to have to pay *too* much attention. But, then I end up watching it anyway and not doing whatever it was that I was slacking off doing in the first place.

I won’t beat the plot, character of yuri components of this volume to death – I have repeatedly ranted about how wonderful this anime is in several of my previous posts: From the first recommendation back in August 2003 to Feb. 26, 2004, May 21, 2005, and May 23, 2005. And that doesn’t include all the rants about the manga, either.

So, yeah, I like this anime – a lot.

And I’ve already discussed the problems with the DVD release, some of which have been addressed in the second half of the thrid volume.

What did shock me about this first volume was how utterly, horribly *BAD* the translation was. Again, I felt like I was watching a bootlegged copy. Whole sentences were completely, totally, changed from what the characters were saying, as if the translators kept assuming what they “really” meant was….I imagine that this was a dubtitle issue, but even so, there were entire sentences that were just plain *wrong.*

Oddly, the language in the first volume subtitles is much ruder than in the second, and in that way, fits the story better.

But I’ll admit, if I had bought this volume first, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have bought 2 or 3. So I’m a little glad I bought them first.

Story-wise, Volume 1 is not particularly strong, either – again, by going backwards I can see how much more three-dimensional the characters are only a few episodes later.

I think it really sucks that this release was so bad – there are plenty of folks that might enjoy Air Master, but who, if not already turned off by the ugly art, will just give up in frustration with the unbelievably poor quality of this DVD.

What makes even this volume worth watching is, of course, the characters and the fighting.

And Sakiyama Kaori.

Ratings:
Art – 5
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Technical Details – 3

Despite the crappiness of this particular Volume, I recommend the series. If you’re going to buy it from Amazon, look for a used copy or a cheaper copy on the Amazon marketplace. This way you won’t feel quite so ripped. Also – do not be afraid to write the distributor and express your dissatisfaction – if you don’t tell them, they can’t know.

Posted in Air Master, English Anime, Yuri Anime | 1 Comment »


Transistor Ni Venus, Volume 3

June 29th, 2005


Once again, my thanks to Touko_no_doriru-san, for giving me this volume of Transistor ni Venus, so I can share this fine manga with everyone. :-)

In Volume 3, we find April Enus starting off on another harrowing – yet somehow not really stressful or even moderately tense – adventure that involves her and another attractive female removing most of their clothes. LOL Enus is escorting a bag filled with some top secret materials on a plane when a botched theft not only leaves Enus and the thief handcuffed together, but stranded on a desert island. In the end they kiss and make up. :-)

The next story focuses on Winslow, Enus’ sentient cat, as he heads out on assignment – for the next few months, he is going into deep cover as…a cat. He pretends to be a stray to be picked up by a family who has something he needs to retrieve. While he lets them take care of him, we see Enus off on a variety of exciting and dangerous adventures. Winslow gets regular meals and is petted while Enus is bombed, shot at, crashes, etc. Of course, Winslow gets the goods and returns to HQ a hero.

The rest of the book takes place at the private all-girls school where “Miss April” has a position as teacher. The school is pleased as punch that the students sem to be doing *much* better at their studies, so they don’t inquire too deeply at Enus’ methods. In fact, she rewards the students with kisses for their academic excellence.

We are introduced to two creepy incestuous twin girls who are in love with their teacher – and who see Miss April as a rival. As Gyauza-sensei isn’t really interested in Enus or the twins, it’s kind of a pointless rivalry, but when Miss April fights off the girls in a fencing match, she claims a kiss as her reward anyway. :-) (Enus is most certainly interested in Gyauza…even if the feeling isn’t entirely returned.)

Eventually we learn that Enus is at the school to find a girl with important marks upon her back – we get a variety of bath, swimsuit and nude posing for art class scenes in order to do provide us the opportunity to “subtely” check the girls’ backs. Mixed in to this high-octane plot is a variety of kisses, from pecks for the young to “adult kisses” for the of-age.

Eventually, Enus accomplishes her objective and learns that the twins are actually years older than they look (and act!) and they all end up in bed together. The end.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6
Character – 8
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

If this weren’t so funny and sweet a comic – it’d be pretty trashy, huh? But it never *feels* trashy. It’s all in good fun and it always puts a smile on my face to read a volume of Transistor ni Venus.

Posted in Transistor ni Venus, Yuri Manga | No Comments »