Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 2nd A’s Anime (魔法少女リリカルなのは The MOVIE 2nd A’s)

April 24th, 2013

It’s Guest Post Wednesday! Today we are very pleased to have a new Guest Poster, so please welcome Jst for this review of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 2nd A’s (魔法少女リリカルなのは The MOVIE 2nd A’s)! /applause/ 

I have to begin here by publicly thanking Erica not for this opportunity, but rather for introducing me (and I must assume so many others) to stories like Nanoha’s. Until I read about Nanoha on Okazu, I had no idea such a series existed and in fairly short order it became one of my favorites. If that were the only occasion that this blog has steered me so well it would be worthy of thanks but given just how many of my favorites I’ve been introduced to directly thanks to Erica and Okazu, I cannot even fathom how to properly express my thanks. So I will simply continue to thank her in every opportunity I see. Thank you, Erica.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha movie the 2nd A’s as the title indicates is a sequel to 2010’s similarly titled Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st. Despite the odd phrasing these titles are actually quite informative. As is specified this is the second movie and it covers the “A’s” storyline of the second season of the MGLN TV series.

As with the original version, the movie picks up with Nanoha Takamachi looking forward to the return of the friends she’d made on her first magical adventure – only to find herself conveniently caught up in a new one shortly after we rejoin her. This time Nanoha and the girl with the beautiful, sad eyes from the first movie, Fate Testarossa, join forces to solve the mystery of a series of attacks which leave their victims drained of almost all of their magic.

As you might imagine, as a remake of a sequel, this story isn’t exactly an ideal place to jump in to the MGLN series. A fan that had seen the first series but not the first movie would likely be able to pick up right at the 2nd without too much trouble. However, since the movie and series continuity are considered to be completely separate with different permutations, for both the brevity and effect of cinematic experience.

Overall, the decisions which differentiate the A’s movie from the A’s series are smart and well executed. The fact that some of my favorite scenes from the series are removed outright should have been much more noticeable but the cuts and streamlining are smart enough to capture the essence of the original story without dragging out the story. Which is something I wouldn’t necessarily have accused the 13 episode series of doing without having seen it done such justice within the space of a movie.

The A’s storyline is as much about the antagonists as Nanoha and her friends from the first movie. The old axiom that the best villain is the hero of his or her own story is played out so well that we may find ourselves not only sympathizing with their plight but, also perhaps, hoping that something would be done to snap these “villains” out of their single-minded pursuit and that reason might be able to find another way. Fortunately the antagonists have Nanoha Takamachi as a foil, whose fan-perpetuated philosophy is “Befriending by maximum firepower”. The clashes continue even after we, the audience, know just what is at stake and those stakes continue to rise until a suitably explosive climax.

The movie disc contains one alternate audio commentary voiced in character by Subaru Nakajima and Teana Lanster, as was the case with the first movie, although neither characters has been introduced in either the series or film continuity by the end of A’s. This track does not contain any subtitles. The feature’s English subtitles remain quite serviceable. The names remain a bit all over the place with standard spelling for some but a few very noticeable departures. Particularly glaring was what was done to poor Amy’s name, similarly the TSAB remains DAB in these subs and Arf has gone from Alf to Alph in the course of two movies. However the video and audio quality are as excellent as should be expected of an animated movie Blu-ray.

While a Japanese import is a significant investment due to different media costs in Japan, the fact that both Nanoha series seem to be out of print it appears likely that an import will be the only chance to own either of the two existing movies any time soon in NA. Fortunately with the inclusion of competent English subtitles and an excellent BD product overall we do at least have the option.

(Please note that English subtitles are on the feature only so the various special editions with extra discs and booklets would be of limited value to non-Japanese speakers.)

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5

Extras Yuri – 10 As Okazu reader B pointed out one of the extras has Fate’s Voice Actress (and huge Nano/Fate fan) Nana Mizuki in a character swapping game going off-script as Nanoha by asking Fate to marry her.

Service – 8 Transformation scenes are limited but just as disappointing as the first movie, and likely a reason for the film’s financial success in Japan. *Sigh*.

Overall – 8

Thank you again, Jst, for your comments over the years and for this great review! My copy of Blu-Ray arrived yesterday morning and you can bet I’m dying to watching it now! ^_^

Posted in Nanoha | 7 Comments »


Bodacious Space Pirates 2 Anime, Disk 2 (English)

April 23rd, 2013

BDSP2BDHere we are, at the final Disk of Bodacious Space Pirates (available on Blu-Ray and DVD) and the only emotion I feel is…total excitement for a fantasic ending with spaceships battling, Marika and her crew kicking ass in a dozen ways – and still being likable the whole time, really predictable plot complications and a hot mess of an ending that made no sense but I didn’t care one bit. ^_^

THIS WAS A FANTASTIC ANIME.

Random things I liked – I love the patchwork look of all the pirate ships. I also loved the creakiness of the Bentenmaru sailing in cosmic storms. It’s a detail that made me happy every time they used it.

I loved the smartness of the plot. The battle plan was clever in a real way, rather than in a “look how clever we are” way.

Above all, what I loved best were the characters. There wasn’t one of the Bentenmaru or Hakuoh crowd I didn’t like and with a cast that big, it’s not that easy to do. Bad guys were bad, but not absurdly bizarre or tiresome.

In the middle of the hot mess of the ending, for no reason at all, except to make us happy, we get a moment of Jenny and Lynn. It was ridiculous, meaningless, had no relationship to the story and I don’t care. And Chiaki gets a Yuri powerup, presumably because fans wanted it.

Ratings:

Art – 7, the CGI looks much better on this disk. Have I gotten used to it? Maybe, I don’t know.
Character – 10
Story – 10
Yuri – 7
Service- 8 Up significantly for the final arc. We had such a nice run there, though

Overall – 10

I’m left wanting to read the rest of the books very badly. And that, above all things, is the sign of a very good anime.

Posted in Bodacious Space Pirates, English Anime | 8 Comments »


Angelic Layer Manga, Volume 2 (English)

April 22nd, 2013

layer2I’ve uncovered a trend in my reading. For most of the manga I’ve read, that have an associated anime, I prefer the anime. If you asked me if I’m a manga reader or an anime watcher, I’d tell you I read way more manga than I watch anime. And that’s true. But for the small subset of anime that is also manga, scanning my shelves, I realize I much prefer the anime.

This certainly holds true for Angelic Layer. The reason I reviewed Volume 1, I said, would be revealed in Volume 2. Only, it isn’t. Huh?

Volume 2 follows Misaki as she defeats stronger and more skilled opponents with pluck and determination and the willingness to have Hikaru beaten badly. But hey, she wins, so rawr! And at last she meets the plot complication of the creepy woman who has been stalking her throughout – who, to no one’s surprise turns out to be her mother. The book comes to an end with a jump for joy at how wonderful life is. Nothing bad about it, if not inspired. The art is rather more thick lines and obscure motion than later CLAMP and the tropes are laid on heavily, so three pages are spent on obsessing about Misaki’s underwear and Kotaro’s obvious (but unexpressed) feelings. At the same time. So yeah, a tad ham-handed.

Ultimately the reasons I was left feeling a bit disappointed with the manga came down to two things. In the anime, Misaki’s mother is confined to a wheelchair and is, therefore, painfully embarrassed to be seen by her daughter. In 1999, this was a plot complication that made some sense. Japan was not at all handicap-accessible. Now I’d rank their subway as a million times better than, say, New York or London. (I can’t for the life of me figure out what wheelchair users do in London. There were no ramps, no escalators, no elevators in most of the stations I was in last December.) It was already a little tired, but manga is always behind on social trends. So, fine. In the manga, Mom is just painfully embarrassed around people she loves. Eye-rollingly dumb, but there we go.

The thing that really irked me was that the one relationship I was looking forward to was completely and utterly missing from the manga – and it surprised the heck out of me, as CLAMP is usually all over a little Yuri-service. I’m sure you all understood that “Lady Sai”‘s fangirls were all screaming “Sai-sama!” in the original.  In the anime and some of the incidental art I have seen, (at least one image of which I believe is a CLAMP original) pairs her and Kaede.  I had never read the Tokyopop edition of the manga and just presumed it would be in the story. Bummer. Sorry.

Ratings:

Art  – 7 Not CLAMP’s best work, not their worst
Story – 7 Same, except when the foreshadowing stick is being applied too heavily
Characters – Another thing the anime did was give secondary characters more time. This manga might have benefited from that, as well
Yuri – Screw it, I’m counting Sai and Kaede anyway, and there’s still Tamayo’s shrill, but empty statements. So ugh, 5
Service – 7 Three pages of underwear obsession had me reaching for a knife…

Overall – 7

If this series could be bowlderized properly, and all the incredibly tedious bits taken out, I’d give it to a child I like.  As it is, it’s better than X, but not as good as Card Captor Sakura on the CLAMP-o-meter. ^_^

Many, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Amanda M for sponsporing today’s review!!

Posted in CLAMP | 2 Comments »


Venus With Biceps

April 21st, 2013

venusSo, speaking of “strong women.” ^_^

Venus With Biceps is the product of an overtly acknowledged lifelong fetish  for muscular woman. David L. Chapman has collected memorabilia, advertising, erotica, and other ephemera portraying women with muscles, often nude. I’m not going to tell you it’s not fetish-y as heck. It is. But it’s still kind of interesting. My favorite pictures in the book are advertisements showing women lifting weights and the like.

While I like muscular women, I have only one story about me and bodybuilding:

In 1993, I volunteered for Gay Games in New York City as security. This mostly meant sitting around and BSing with folks at the Martial Arts competitions, because the Games were full of really nice people and went off without a hitch the entire time. My last event was the Bodybuilding event, being held in Paramount Theater in Madison Square Garden. The guy running the event was, well, a drama queen, and spent most of the day having screaming fits about the parade of contestants, or locking himself in the office sulking. I ended up directing contestants to the warm-up area which was: down the hall, take the elevator to the top floor, across the hall, in the back, through the door…behind Barbra Streisand’s tour equipment. ^_^

I wandered up there when all the contestants had checked in, hung out with a young woman who was also security whose girlfriend was a Judge for the competition. I met a woman who eventually went on to get the silver medal – she let me feel her bicep. That was special, let me tell you.

The MC was a comedienne whose shtick was extremely abrasive humor. She called the audience “tampons” and was angry, because at the last second, they added a second MC. He was, if anything, even more abrasive than she was. The crowd disliked them separately, but when they started trading sexist insults at each other, we all squirmed in embarrassment.

Finally – 3 hours late – the bodybuilding competition began. At 2AM it was finally done. And so was I. I’ve never watched another bodybuilding competition in my life.

Fun book, though. ^_^

Posted in Miscellaneous | 5 Comments »


Yuri Network News (百合ネットワークニュース) – April 20, 2013

April 20th, 2013

YNN_LissaYuri Manga

Kita Konno’s Onna no ko no Sekkeizu came out last month from Hirari comics. I apparently forgot to tell you. ^_^;

Comic Yuri Hime July 2013 issue (コミック百合姫) is up for preorder. Also from Comic Yuri Hime,  “Yuri novel” is Amai Yubisaki (あまいゆびさき), by Takagi Ayako, with illustrations by Rokuichi.

“Homosexual love is a demerit!” begins the teaser for a new series, Loveliest Treasoner. (ラブリストリズナー). (Many, many thanks to YNN correspondant Jamie Lynn for going to a bookstore and uncloaking the English title for me. I was totally stumped! That’s above and beyond, Jaimie!) Anyway, it’s running in Mangatime Kirara Miracle, another of the 7835 Mangatime Kirara books. It takes place  in a girls’ school where there is a written policy against same-sex relationships, so of course, Yuri.

Leia Weathington gives us a sneek peak at some of the roughs for her Bold Riley Volume 2 cover.

***

Other News

As reported earlier this week:

RicaTakashima‘s new art project is on Twitter. Follow AliensNewYork for updates. Donate here to make art happen! http://is.gd/V53iyB Even 5 or 10 dollars can make a tremendous difference.

“Your Hair” by Niki Smith, originally published in Yuri Monogatari 5  is now available on Comixology. Get this lovely Yuri comic for a mere 99 cents!

In my continuing quest to uncover magazines that you don’t know you know,  I took a look at Lala DX for Magazine no Mori on Manga Bookshelf.

Bandai has premiered its first new Sailor Moon figurine in many years. Not surprisingly, it’s Sailor Moon herself, with Luna and a variety of poses and expressions.

From Comic Natalie, an upcoming issue of Margaret magazine will have a new, original, Rose of Versailles manga supplement. It will follow Andre .

Also from Comic Natalie, news of something you have to see to believe (or indeed, comprehend) – A Yuno – from Hidmari Sketch – ring.

YNN reporter Ivan V thinks we’d like to know about JL Bell’s look at the Bechdel Test applied to Frank L. Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz.

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Yuri Anime

Brand new YNN correspondant Michaelangelo H. wants you to know that Shin Sekai Yori – From the New World (available for free, legal streaming on Crunchyroll, with region restrictions), has Yuri. It’s not the main focus, but it’s there, he says. ^_^

RightStuff has announced pre-orders for the anime of Tezuka’s classic  Princess Knight, Part 2, available in August 2013. Also in August, the value-priced re-release of  Dirty Pair, for them as wants. ^_^

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That’s a wrap for this week!

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge. Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »