Great Yuri Anime Gift Guide

November 19th, 2010

It’s one week until it’s *that* time again.

What time is *that* time, you ask? Well, for those of us who believe in the true meaning of the winter holidays – rampant consumerism and rapacious consumption – next week marks the apex of being a member of the society in which we live. Next week we must buy things. Many things. For many people.

And here I am, ready to help you with this, by steering you towards a nice compact list of Yuri-flavored goodies in time for Black Friday and it’s creepy kid brother Cyber Monday.

A Manga Gift Guide is forthcoming. But first – Anime for all you good Yuri girls and boys. If these are not yet on your list for Santa, add them posthaste, or he might not have time to get them on the next reindeer express truck.

***

Canaan – For the action fan or the Type-Moon fan in your life, a Hong-Kong action flick-style anime set in Shanghai with great visuals, a plot that mostly hangs together, some great girl-on-girl fight action and some Yuri. There’s a Blu-Ray version, too, which actually would be worth it for something as visually rich as this.

Taisho Baseball Girls – Sports fans rejoice! One of the few sports anime to make it over and not be utterly stupid. This series is just about the most feminist series I’ve ever seen, and it has all the guts and glory, the blood, sweat and tears of any other sports story. I would love nothing better than to have this anime do ridiculously well in sales.

Blue Drop – If you somehow managed to miss this last holiday season, don’t miss it this time. This is schoolgirl romance with a sci-fi twist. Based on a manga of the same name, this anime is infinitely more interesting in about 70 ways. And it has lesbian aliens. How can you not want that?

Maria-sama ga Miteru/Maria Watches Over Us, Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4 – Even as I typed the name of this series out I commented to the wife, “I *still* can’t believe that all of this was licensed.” It’s an amazing quirk of fate and smart marketing. I will forever love RightStuf just because of this series (but will love them all over again when they re-release Utena.)

If for some reason you haven’t gotten these, please consider adding them to your holiday wishlist. Not because they are romantic (which they are) or Yuri (which they are not.) Not because anything happens (it doesn’t.) But because Yumi, Sachiko and the members of the Yamayurkai are perhaps the best-written characters I have encountered in my adult life. They are my friends, won’t you be friends with them too? ;-)

Strawberry Panic – How about less than $2/episode. How about so chock-full of Yuri memes and tropes you’re guaranteed to miss a bunch. How about a happy ending where the girl gets the girl? And how about the other girl gets the other girl too? Just get yourself this litebox and get all the girls at Miator, Spica and Lu Lim for yourself.

Ikkitousen DD – Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 – Yeah, I know, a season boxset woulda been good for the holidays but I think it’s not coming out ’til 2011. In the meantime, you can still have this series’ closest attempt to sticking with the actual Romance of the Three Kingdoms and still get all the breast- and panty-shots you need. And Kanu and Ryuubi sittin’ in a tree…

El Cazador – Volume 1, Volume 2 – Girls with Guns On the Run. Need I say more? I do? Well then, Girls With Guns On the Run from Witches and Psychotic Killers and Transvestites and Faceless Mooks and Evil Scientists. This is another one that, if somehow it isn’t in your collection yet it *really* ought to be and it makes a great gift for friends who aren’t really Yuri fans but want to see a whimsical action series.

Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne – Not for the faint of heart, but if you have a friend or family member who likes it a little hardcore and slightly psychotic, then you and they can have a party watching this together. There’s a Blu-Ray for this, too.

Bonus Suggestions: Japanese DVDs

Kakera: Piece of Our Lives – I know I mentioned this, but have you bought it yet? No? Well why not? This is a live-action movie based on the manga Love Vibes by Erica Sakurazawa.  It won’t be out for Cyber Monday, but you could still get it for Christmas!

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Movie the 1st BD – Right, I know, Japanese DVDs cost a fricking fortune and then they are raw and you can’t understand them, so why bother? Well HAH! I say, because this year the fine folks who created Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Movie the 1st thought it out and decided that if you buy the Blu-Ray then they’ll go ahead and add in English subtitles for you. You know you’d get this in Blu-Ray anyway, go ahead and admit it. If you get the deluxe edition you get an extra pamphlet and stuff. Go ahead and get it – you’re worth it.

So there’s my gift ideas on the Anime side of the aisle. Next week I’ll put together a Manga version of same, and these, like last year, will be part of the Great Manga Gift Guide being posted across the blogosphere. This link will lead you to the home post for that (this year hosted by the lovely and gracious Daniella Orihuela-Gruber of All About Manga) and you can check out all the gift suggestions by manga bloggers of multiple interests and foci.) If you have any other must-gets Yuri anime for the list, feel free to plop them in the comments and I’ll add links up here at the head of the class for the A-listers.

Posted in Now This Is Only My Opinion, Top Yuri Lists | 9 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Sore ga Kimi ni Naru (それが君になる)

November 18th, 2010

Sore ga Kimi ni Naru (それが君になる), by Hakamada Mera, works.

The story opens with two school girls. Amane, reading under a tree and the other, Yuki, taking her glasses off and kissing her. We learn in a short flashback and that Amane and Yuki were lovers during school, until….

Years have passed and we see Amane standing on a train platform, now an adult. When the train empties, a bunch of schoolgirls get off. The wind pulls Amane’s ticket from her hand and it settles to the ground in front of a girl that looks *exactly* like Yuki. Amane, struck dumb, begins to cry. The girl reaches out to touch Amane’s face asking her, “All you all right?”

Thus begins the story of Amane and Yoh (spelling taken from the cover of the book,) and the ghost of a past lost love in an awkward, sweet threesome. Yoh is a pretty sharp girl and not at all weird about her attraction to Amane – or this total stranger’s reaction to her. She’s confiding in her friends at school, even to the point of them discussing why Amane is pushing her away.

And Amane is pushing Yoh away. Overcome by their reaction to one another and so maybe not sensibly, Amane and Yoh are hanging out, until a sudden rainstorm means that Yoh is staying over Amane’s place for the night. Amane tells Yoh about Yuki, and about how Yuki ran off with a tutor by whom she had become pregnant, breaking Amane’s heart, Yoh offers herself in place of the lost Yuki. Before she can stop herself, Amane finds herself kissing the girl, but then realizes what she’s doing and tells Yoh to stay the night, then never come near her again.

The next few chapters are the stereotypical “each moping about the other” and they miss each other by seconds. When they are finally tearfully reunited, they both admit at last what was obvious to us from the beginning.

In a slightly annoying epilogue, Amane and Yoh run into Yuki and set that ghost to rest. A second omake tells a completely separate story about Satomi-sempai being seduced by another girl’s big, (beautiful,) dark eyes.

I think the thing that really worked for me about this story was Yoh’s lack of coyness. I found it refreshing and a relief to know that she was talking about her relationship with Amane with her school friends and they were giving it serious consideration, not just teasing her. When her friends mention to her that when Amane looks at her, it must hurt, the revelation makes Yoh think about the relationship more seriously. If she’s going to pursue this woman, then she’d better mean it, because otherwise, she’s screwing around with Amane and hurting her for no good reason.

It’s hard not to sympathize with Amane. She’s got this great big needy old hole in her heart and when Yoh sort of plops herself in it, it’s difficult to condemn her.

I wasn’t thrilled that Yuki kind of appears at the end, because I always feel that that sort of convenient story-telling weakens the characters dealing with the issues on their own, but that’s more an editorial quibble than anything else.

Ultimately, the title of the book becomes the effective punchline to the story.  On the whole, I liked this book. I liked Yoh, I liked Amane, and I like them together.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 8

And there you have it. Mera wins by TKO. Enough rounds fighting it just wore me out. This “simple love story of Yoh & Amane” took all the fight out of me. ^_^

Posted in Hakamada Mera, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


K-ON! Manga, Volume 1 (English)

November 16th, 2010

After two soul-scouring days, I couldn’t think of anything better for my mental well-being than reaching for Yen Press’ translation of K-ON, Volume 1.

There are so many things to like about K-ON! and really, only a few things not to like, so let’s get those out of the way first.

If you like your manga to have *meaning* and significance and plot and other IMPORTANT things, then K-ON! will be a disappointment to you. It’s a 4-koma, which means it’s a comic strip, meant to be superficial amusement. Like the cake Mugi serves, it’s refreshment, not nutrition.

And there is service. Of course there is service. For the same reason that western female action stars wear service-y clothes or pose provocatively, there are maid costumes and panty shots because that is what is expected by the largely male Japanese audience. For those of us not so sad as to require glimpses of underwear to make a series good, there is, at least, not very much service. This series mostly confines service in later volumes to pin-up chapter splash page art and a few silly dress-up scenes.

That’s it for the downside. On the upside is a biggie – this is a 4-koma comic strip that is actually *funny.* It made me laugh out loud a number of times. More importantly than humor though, it’s fun, entertaining, it makes me smile. In fact, that would be a good summation of the series – it makes me smile.

For the three of you who aren’t familiar with K-ON!, the story follows the daily life and club activities of the keionbu, the Light Music Club, (here translated as the Pop Music Club, a choice that is ably justified in the Translation notes) and the members thereof – flaky club president and drummer Ritsu, bubble-headed lead guitarist Yui, rich girl Tsumugi on keyboards, and bassist, lyricist and dysfunctionally shy Mio. The fact that they are all reasonably talented and Yui approaches idiot-savant levels of skill is the handwave we accept to make the story work. Added to the mix is the incredibly funny all by herself club advisor and homeroom teacher, Sawa-chan-sensei, whose secret makes me laugh every time they drag it out.

What made the anime stand out is the extra-super-duper bubblegum-pop stickyness of the music. There’s just no way to get Fuwa Fuwa Time out of one’s head once one has heard it. in fact, the only CD I bought this time in Japan was the double CD Studio Mix/Cassette Mix of K-ON! songs、Houkago Tea Time II. I just adore how loopy the songs are.

What makes the manga a fun read is – everything. Ritsu’s flakiness, Mio’s teasable personality, Mugi’s play-along mentality and Yui’s bubble-headedness. But I admit to a special fondness for Mugi – not just because her fantasies are the sole Yuri in the first volume, but because she’s she so ready to do whatever the silliest, most-fun, least-responsible thing suggested is. She’s always game for…whatever. Mugi is my favorite character.

I suppose I should spend a moment reviewing Yen’s production. It’s very good. The only visible difference is the paper. Glossy color vs matte color pages just isn’t an issue to me. In every way this presentation holds up to the original. The *only* thing Yen does that sort of jars has nothing to do with the production value at all. They present translation notes in a left-to-right format, but put the pages in a schizoid order, so that they are neither really right-to-left or left-to-right. Reading from the Left, they are Page 3-4-1-2 and reading from the Right they are laid out 2-1-4-3, neither of which works. I understand that when the book is held open it’s 1-2, then turn the page to 3-4, but it’s really schizoid when you consider it from a larger perspective. Again, not a complaint, just something of note.

Detractors insist that the characters don’t seem real, or that there’s nothing to the story or that they just don’t see the appeal. All of these are completely valid, but I have to say that I have rarely watched or read a series that reminded me of my days in band in high school. K-ON! reminds me quite a bit of the best of those days.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 10
Story – 9
Yuri – 3 for “Mugi-vision”
Service – 3 for the whole underwear thing, but other than that, it’s probably more like a 1

Overall – 9

I LOVED the Music Theory 101 on the last pages. A nice, friendly touch to end a nice, friendly volume with the ladies of Afterschool Tea Time.

Thanks very much to Yen Press for allowing me an advance look at this volume. It was the best thing I’ve read in days by far and away. ^_^

Posted in English Manga, K-ON | 2 Comments »


Baba Yaga Manga, Volumes 1 & 2

November 15th, 2010

Today’s review goes out to all of you out there who like Shitsurakuen and other “excessive violence against submissive women”-type manga. (I want to apologize to all the rest of you today. It’s going to be a second day in a row of skankiness and misery. I just want to get these books off my pile before I move on to anything else. So, sorry in advance.)

Many of you are familiar with the creative team Kizuki Akira and Satou Nanki from their work Ebisu-san to Hotei-san. If you like the aforementioned work, I strongly suggest you avoid the Baba Yaga (バーバ・ヤガー) series with all your might. While I felt that “Shrimp Mayo” could have been a stronger story, I very much feel that Baba Yaga, Volume 1 and Volume 2 could not be worse. This series is, in a word, repulsive.

The story is not terribly important, as it’s primarily a vehicle for the continued emotional, physical and quasi-sexual battering of a girl (well, two really,) by a guy who is deeply deranged…and yet, not stopped by anyone, even when they know it’s him. Individual beatings and attempted rapes are sometimes aborted, but the man himself is left to go free and, shocker, does it again. And again. And again. The best bits are when people watch this guy beat a girl near to unconsciousness and blame her for it. As you can imagine, I had to put the book down, breathe and convince myself not to mail bomb the authors, the publishers and every last one of the readers of this misbegotten series.

Yuri comes in the person of the one good, decent character, a woman who does her best to stand between the punching bag protagonist and every other character in the story. In a story less filled with filth, she would simply be a friend, but in this kind of story, the main character’s feeling for her are out of proportion…so, fake Yuri.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Characters – 2
Story – 1
Yuri – 0
Service – 10

Overall – 1

This series was, in a word, vile.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 4 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Sukoyaka Paradigm Shift

November 14th, 2010

You know what the Doppler Effect is, right?

Sukoyaka Paradigm Shift (すこやかパラダイムシフト) is, to me, the low, lingering fanboy hum of Yuri moving away from an old perspective to a new one.

No matter how many decent love stories we get, no matter how we turn our eyes towards stories of women who are genuinely in love with other women, crappily drawn and written stories full of meaningless interaction that has to be supposed to be Yuri, full of fake bodily fluids and fake bukkake and fake plot and fake characterization will always be there. Like cosmic background microwave radiation, it will never quite go away.

Dear gentlemen, one girl looking at (unbelievably because of a contrived hose accident) wet underwear with shock! eyes is NOT an indication of love for another girl. Hope that helps.

Ratings:

Art – 5 at best
Characters – 0
Story – 4 at best
Yuri – 7
Service – 8

Overall – Bleah

I made a choice in Toranoana, to either buy this or Zettai Shoujo Astoria (which I knew I would not care much about.) I believe I made the wrong decision. However, it did provide me with a chance to use not one, but two Physics references in this review, so it all balances out.

Posted in Yuri Manga | No Comments »