Shitsurakuen Manga, Volume 1

October 15th, 2009

If you really, really like Shitsurakuen (失楽園) Volume 1, let me caution you about reading this review. I did not like it at all. I will be critical and, if you’re a typical fan, you’ll take that as me criticizing you, your tastes and your family – despite the fact that there is no intent to do any such thing. My intent is only to explain why *I* do not like it. So if you do like it and you are that kind of remarkably fragile that fans so often are when it comes to other people not loving what they love, then maybe you’d better skip the rest of this review. Your other option is to lecture me in the comments about how I *clearly* don’t understand what I read. Feel free to do that, of course, but be aware that my friends and I are laughing at your need to “educate” me. I did understand what I read – I simply understand it differently than you.

Shitsurakuen takes place at the oxymoronically named Utopia academy. We join the school along with transfer student Sora, and once again find that she has somehow – like so *many* heroines – managed to be accepted and transfer in without an inkling of what the school is actually like. Her expository friend Tsuki helpfully explains that she’s pretty much just transferred into hell.

Male students battle for supremacy, while female students are forced into subservient, near-slave positions, where they are dominated and abused by the males students and used to produce weapons with which the boys fight.

Fans of Revolutionary Girl Utena will immediately recognize many of the qualities of the duels, and will understand that every girl has been turned into Anthy. It comes down to our not-even-remotely androgynous, but nonetheless determined-to-protect-a-princess Sora. Sora’s name made me smile, btw. Utena’s family name was “Tenjou” – ceiling. “Sora” has broken free of the confines of that limitation and is the entire sky.

As far as the duels go, despite the guys’ screaming, Sora mostly keeps winning, except when she’s sucker-punched or ganged up on, thus accumulating a harem of 2.5 girls by the end of the volume. (.5, because one girl is currently questionable, for various reasons. No doubt she will join our our team – wink, wink, nudge, nudge – by the end of Volume 2.) Plus Tsuki, whose job it is to provide exposition.

As I said initially, I did not like this manga at all.

For one thing, the humiliation and abuse of the girls at the school made me ill. The near gang rape of a middle school student was pretty much the icing on that shitcake. And the premise that, if left unchecked, all men become abusive, rapist animals makes me angry on behalf of the men I know. I really didn’t enjoy spending time at Utopia. I want all the women to pick up cast-iron frying pans and swing. Knees break easily, as I always say.

I’m sure that Sora will continue to save the day and will eventually save all the women at Utopia.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8 if you can make it work in your head, 2 for me
Characters – same
Yuri – 1
Service – 6

Violence against women as entertainment for women deeply disturbs and puzzles me. Violence against women as entertainment for men enrages me. And that is why I did not like Shitsurakuen – because being enraged does not make me feel happy. Give me a manga where equals kick the crap out of each other and I’m there. Something like this? Pass.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 32 Comments »


Drama CD: Maria-sama ga Miteru Rosario no Shizuku/Kibara Chuuihou

October 14th, 2009

I gotta admit, when I received my package from Amazon JP and it included the Drama CD Maria-sama ga Miteru Rosario no Shizuku/Kibara Chuuihou ( マリア様がみてる ロザリオの滴/黄薔薇注意報) and Rainy Blue, I thought, “Well geez guys, this is unfair. I have the misery all bundled together and, yet, Parosol o Sashite remains yet unrealized.” But I bravely waded into the rain to listen the stories of White and Yellow Rose sisters.

Shimako is unduly torturing herself because she does not want to burden Noriko with a weight of responsibility by giving her her rosary. Luckily, Noriko is stronger than that and ultimately makes the decision easier for her beloved Shimako-san. This Drama is about 35 minutes long – nothing major is left out. It is told from Shimako’s point of view.

The second disk is also about 35 minutes long. It follows Yoshino and Rei as they fight to carve out new territory between them, now that Yoshino is hale and hearty. In the first Yellow Rose Revolution, Yoshino has our whole-hearted support, as she pushes the envelope for Rei’s sake. This time, we (and she) are blaming her more and rightfully so. In a real sign that she *does* accept that Yoshino is healthy, Rei fights back. I feel like the end of this DCD version of the story was rewritten and not, IMHO, for the better. I felt a little unsatisfied with the way it was handled, but that could be me retconning. One day when I have time, I’ll check the novel and see if I’m just imagining things. In any case, they too reconcile and until nearly a year later will have no more disagreements. Phew.

Which leaves us with just one more rainy season story for me to deal with…and every time I have to face it, I feel less and less happy about it. How I very much wish that Parasol o Sashite was already out! T_T

Ratings:

Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 0

Overall – 7

I’ll be better once we get past this arc. I promise. /sniff/

Posted in Drama CD, Drama CDs & Audiobooks, Maria-sama ga Miteru | 7 Comments »


Yuri Manga; Hanjuku Joshi, Volume 2

October 14th, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen – we have a winner.

I never doubted for a second that Morishima Akiko-sensei would be the one. I had faith in her, in her ability to gently nudge the boundaries of “Yuri” until they started to blur the lines into “lesbian.” I’ve commented that several of her stories have started to shift in that direction. Notably, her story about the two office workers with a crush on the grease truck chef, and the unprecedented use of the phrase “Kocchi no ke.”

In Hanjuku Joshi, Volume 2 (半熟女子), Morishima has actually written a story that covers that last little piece – the gap between lesbian content and lesbian identity. Let me be very clear here – I do not meant that the characters identify as “lesbians.” I do mean that they acknowledge the challenge that loving another woman brings, and they struggle with the idea of loving that other woman in public. THIS is what I mean when I give Morishima the “Golden Lily” prize.

It’s not like Hanjuku Joshi is the first book ever to cover this area. It’s the first “mainstream Yuri” (if you will allow that) to do so in many years.

Because other reviewers will focus on the sex, let me sum that up in a line: there is sex in Hanjuku Joshi. It’s not actually the point of the story. It’s the icing on the cake.

The point of the story is acceptance – of one’s self, of one’s love, of one’s desire to live a normal, happy life with the person one loves…who just happens to also be female. And the point of the story is that it takes a LOT to get to the point where you can accept that, much less be fearless about expressing it in public. *That* is the point of this book. If you didn’t notice, because you were obsessing about the fuzzy handcuffs, that’s okay. The other point is that Morishima has integrated the main point seamlessly into a smut-filled story, for people just like you. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 7

Overall – 9

Hanjuku Joshi turned out to be a pretty interesting series. I prefer Mari x Ran to Chitose x Yae, but some really critical conversations happen in this book and those were definitely worth the price of admission.

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Morishima Akiko, Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »


Watashi no Taisetsuna Tomodachi Manga, Volume 1

October 13th, 2009

You all know the phrase “my important friend,” right? It’s an indicator that the relationship is more than friends, even if it’s less than lovers.

So when I heard about Watashi no Taisetsuna Tomodachi (わたしの大切なともだち), by Hakamada Mera, I thought, *at last!* we’re finally going to get something with some meat. Well..yes, and no. More than anything, we get an entirely new riff on the same-old, tired “best friend” plot.

Ebisawa Shouko (Ebi-chan) has failed to get into the art college of her choice. On her way home, she consoles herself by buying some doujinshi. She runs into an old friend, Tachibana, who’s hanging with cool-girl friends from high school. When Ebi-chan’s otaku hobby is revealed, Tachibana lies and says they barely know each other. In tears, Ebi-chan sits alone in a local park, as a shining light passes across the sky. We see that – whatever it was – has hit Tachibana on the head and knocked her unconscious.

Ebi-chan decides to go to a trade school for design while waiting to retake the exam. She is utterly freaked out when one of her classmates turns out to be none other than Tachibana…who has completely lost her memory. So much so, that she keeps a dictionary around to look up words she doesn’t remember.

Ebi-chan lies and says that they were best friends – which is a lie, but also not, as they were very close in elementary and middle school. It’s just that as an otaku, she didn’t run anywhwere near Tachibana’s cool-girl circle in high school.

Now that she’s said they were best friends, Ebi-chan feels responsible for Tachibana. But Tachibana’s not invalid, just has no memory. If anything, her physical skills are unbelievable and it is she who saves Ebi-chan when they are on their class orienteering trip. (The idea that the design school does an orienteering trip hurts my head, I don’t know about you. ^_^)

When Tachibana collapses from overexertion, Ebi-chan has an epiphany. Up until now, she’s been trying to help Tachibana get her memories back. But – what if she hates Ebi-chan for lying about their relationship? Now Ebi-chan is full of doubt, but Tachibana’s new food-obssessed personality is really too cute to resist and she decides to just live in denial about everything.

I don’t even know what to say about this book. It was odd, and kind of cute, but also kind of annoying, but not so much.

It’s obvious that Ebi-chan feels that she wants Tachibana to be her “important friend,” but what Tachibana feels is utterly obscure, except where it related to food. She really, really, really likes food. Whatever one may think of the story, it absolutely, positively is a totally different riff on the mopey best friend story.

Ratings:

Art – 6 It’s Hakamada Mera, darlings.
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Yuri – 1
Service – 0

Overall – 7

The characters are a lot older than the typical Hakamada manga, too, but pretty much look the same, just taller.

Posted in Hakamada Mera, Yuri Manga | 7 Comments »


Kanon 2006 Anime (English)

October 11th, 2009

How rich the irony. I did watch the 2002 Kanon anime, but I have forgotten all but a very few things about it. I remembered that Yuuichi was a “nice guy” (a term used around my house to describe a particular type of man that is in no way pejorative. A “nice guy” is nice.) I remembered that I didn’t remember a thing about any of what passed for a plotline, but that it didn’t matter because the whole series was not meant to be enjoyed as an stand-alone anime, but as homeopathic porn.

And, I remembered Saiyuri and Mai.

Saiyuri was the cute, talkative one. Mai was the taciturn one, a quality that reads “butch” in a hyperfemme show like this. And I remembered that Yuuichi’s existence did not separate the two in any way. (In the anime, at least. I have no doubt that in the original game/Visual Novel, he had sex with at least one, probably both. No need to educate me on this, I really, honestly, don’t care.)

There was nothing openly Yuri about Saiyuri and Mai, just the sense that they were, *obviously* meant to be together. Mai, being the butchier of the two was “clearly” (when Yuri Goggles were turned up sufficiently) in love with Saiyuri. Turn those Goggles up another notch or two and Saiyuri “obviously” returned her feelings.

I did watch the whole 2002 series and this was basically all I retained from it. Not having been captivated by the original porn version, I failed to retain the sense of profound joy the anime apparently brought to those fans – as a result I was boggled that such an utterly dull series warranted an even longer, even duller remake. Nonetheless, I braved Kanon, 2006.

All of the storylines are given depth in this new version. This newer, longer version explains almost everything – including *why* the bulk of the cast has no memories. And yet, I found my time with these characters to be akin to sitting in a Doctor’s waiting room. Not really unpleasant, but not really pleasant, either.

I was watching it solely for Mai and Saiyuri. And in the end, I was most disappointed by their storyline. Try as I might, no matter how high I turned the Yuri Goggles, they remained friends. Plain old best friends without the vaguest hint of unreasonable affection or secret desire. Meh.

If I had loved the original game, and eagerly watched the 2002 series and waited breathlessly for this series, I’d have to say that this anime was pretty good, if ridiculously sentimental. But because all I wanted was Mai and Saiyuri to be more of a couple, not less of one, it was an epic failure. lol No, not really. For everything else, it was really okay. Except one thing. Which was so horrific I have to comment.

When I saw the girls’ character designs I actually screamed. Good god! You moe fans – does this REALLY look good to you? They look like their are wearing plastic heads over their real heads! It’s absolutely horrific! In a stunning display of personal retconning, I convinced myself that the original designs must have been better, because aaaaugh! Of course, after I took a second to check, I had to laugh at how utterly wrong I was. LOL The best things about those hideously huge-eyed, giganto heads is that they are *way* better than the original art. Which says something profound, I’m sure, but I couldn’t tell you what. lol

For the record, my lack of memories also has an explanation. You’ll just have to read all my posts here to find out why. :-)

Ratings:

Art – 3 I’m just not getting it, guys. They look stupid.
Story – 7 Sentimental, syrup-y romance
Characters – 6 One signature sound does not a great character make
Yuri – 0
Service – In one sense, Infinity. In another – 5

Overall – It was a 5 most of the way through, but the end was *so* goopy, I’ll give it a 7.

I bet this series is why Love Plus is selling so well – all those guys played Kanon when it was a VN and are disappointed that women are more complex than that, now that they are grownups.

Everlasting thanks to Okazu Superhero Dan P. for his contribution to my inner Fanboy, which has rejected this and is willing to send it back. ^_^

Posted in English Anime | 13 Comments »