My-Hime Manga, Volume 4 (English) Guest Review, by Jason T.

April 20th, 2009

So I was bitching rather genially about My-Hime, Volume 4 on Facebook and Twitter and got an email in reply from writer/editor/manga expert and all-around fun guy Jason Thompson.

He agreed vehemently that this was a dreadful example of manga and went so far as to graciously allow me to use his description of this series from as yet unpublished, Manga: The Complete Guide materials. I therefore offer up to you as our latest guest reviewer, the pithy thoughts of Mr. Jason Thompson:

MY-HIME (Mai-HiME, “Dancing Girl/My Princess”) （舞-HiME) • Noboru Kimura (story), Sato Ken-etsu (art) • TokyoPop (2006-2008) • Akita Shoten (Weekly Shônen Champion, 2004-2005) • Shônen Sci-Fi Battle • 18+ (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations)

Adaptation of the anime series. Yuuichi transfers to a special school where certain girls possess an awesome power: the ability to summon a “child,” a big mechanical monster, when in the presence of the right boy, called the “key.” Yuuichi turns out to be the “key” of not one but two hime girls, Mai and Natsuki, who bicker over him in endless superpowered catfights. Sloppily drawn and crammed with too many female characters to keep track of, My-Hime—hime is Japanese for “princess” but here stands for “Highly Advanced Materializing Equipment”—is a tedious manga adaptation of a cynical “high-concept” anime, mixing “harem” romantic comedies and battle manga about people who team up with mecha or monsters. Characters we don’t care about fight one another, make passes at Yuuichi and tear up the landscape, leading up to an incoherent climactic fight with the aliens from the “Princess Star” which is the origin of the himes. The books are padded out with interviews with the anime staff, one of whom tells the reader “Reading My-Hime isn’t enough, so go for the anime, the figures, and radio and become a My-Hime Ph.D!” The worst feature of the art is the slack-jawed inexpressive faces.

.5 (HALF A STAR! -_- )

Thank you Jason for stabbing taking a stab at this series. Your brevity should have been matched by the series itself. Despite the craptasticness of the manga, I would like to thank Okazu Hero Elaine B. for bravely wading in and sponsoring today’s review!

Posted in English Manga, Guest Review, Mai Hime | 6 Comments »


Yuri Monogatari Launch Party Report

April 19th, 2009

I only took a few pictures, and these aren’t all of them. But at least I remembered to take pictures, so you have to give me some credit!

First of all, as always I want to thank Bruce, Serge, Donna, Sean and Kelli. You guys are truly the best. And of course, I want to thank my wife, because. And *of course* I want to thank Rica, JD, Jess and Althea for coming and making the night a total blast!

So we arrived early, and Donna immediately began to shop. The Rare Flix store doesn’t just have anime, they have a really amazingly diverse selection of live-action, horror, porn, sci-fi, cult movies, anime, with nice Yaoi and Yuri sections, and the occasional totally random item like Pride and Prejudice.

(Click on the pictures for larger versions.)

Bruce, always ready to do whatever, doing whatever.

Serge, who was piling candy on plates with determination, as if he was playing tetris or something. The man was possessed.

This sign in the bathroom warmed the cockles of my heart. I had to take a picture.

We eventually corralled all four guests and made them pretend to be having fun. :-) From the left to right they are: Jessie, Rica Takashima, Althea and JD.

I stepped outside for some air, and got this picture.

And here are a chunk of people watching the YM6 trailer. They look a little creepily engrossed here, I think. lol

We gave away a few prize bags, we marveled at the $600 velvet box set of the entire Cream Lemon anime series, people bought a ton of stuff. (Honestly, I don’t think anyone walked out there empty handed. Even I bought the complete Dangermouse box set – oh, yes, there is one and they had it. That’s what I mean by they have an amazingly diverse selection.) We all had a nice time hanging out, forcing asking the guests to sign books and chit-chatting with everyone. A very laid back and fun night for all.

I hope to do this again for the next book – it was really a great party. Thanks to our guests and to everyone who came, thanks everyone who wished us well and thanks, as always to all the heroes who support ALC by buying Yuri Monogatari 6!

Posted in Yuri Monogatari | No Comments »


Yuri Monogatari 6 Video Trailer

April 19th, 2009

Thanks to JD Glass for this great video trailer for Yuri Monogatari 6! Please post it on your Facebooks, blogs, MySpaces, Twitter is and get the word out!

I’ll have a recap of the party with some pictures as soon as I’ve had more coffee and watched some Kolchak.

Posted in Yuri Monogatari | 6 Comments »


YM6 Launch Party & Events Update

April 18th, 2009

I am of course, not “out of office.” I am getting ready for the Yuri Monogatari 6 Launch Party tomorrow at the Rare Flix store in the Secaucus Outlets.

Join JD Glass, Rica Takashima, Althea Keaton, Jessie B and some of the staff behind ALC Publishing for a late-late brunch, Yuri anime and lots of great conversation!

I will therefore not be posting a news report tomorrow, because I plan on sleeping in and kicking back. I’ll see you all tomorrow anyway. :-)

Going forward, you should probably know that ALC is *not* planning on being at Otakon this year, but we do plan on hitting up Anime Las Vegas 2009 – the furthest west we’ve made it since Anime Expo in 2002.

We do hope to be at AnimeNEXT and MangaNEXT as usual, barring disaster.

In any case, don’t expect a post again until Sunday at the very earliest. Have a lovely weekend and see you in Secaucus!

Posted in Yuri Monogatari | 4 Comments »


New Anime Season Spring 2009: Saki

April 15th, 2009

Saki is not at all what I expected. After watching some of the dreck that has preceeded it this spring season, I was all ready to really hate yet another moe fakey Yuri thing.

Well, okay, Saki is fakey-Yuri, but it’s pretty easy on the brain and not vexatious to the soul like Queen’s Blade. And we can rest assured that while it make be fake Yuri, it will not at least, be Flesbian.

We begin the anime series with two distinctions, Ueda Kana is Saki’s voice and Saki’s gaze is more typical of the male audience, rather than the female. She notices Nodoka, an attractive girl who is wearing the same school uniform as she. Having noticed her, it would be unreasonable to think that the girl is “just” a passerby. Indeed Nodoka turns out to be a champion junior Mahjong player and a member of the school’s Mahjong club.

Saki’s friend invites her to join them for a game, but she says she does not like Mahjong very much. In reality, there is something else entirely going on.

Saki is a fairly typical sports/hobby idiot-savant type character. Having grown up in a ridiculously competitive Mahjong playing household, Saki has learned to play with the utmost skill and discretion. In fact, regardless of the conditions, she plays to a plus-minus zero every hand. She’s so good at this, that she approaches the level of genius.

Nodoka is the first one to recognize Saki’s genius, and her interest in Saki becomes palpable. Light skinship apparently catapults this series into “Yuri” territory for some fans.

I don’t know if Nodoka and Saki’s friendship/rivalry will make it into my personal definition of “Yuri” but my brain didn’t hurt at all after watching the first episode of this series. So…despite the fact that I know nothing about Mahjong, except that my mother has played it every Wednesday since I was a small child and I can still remember the sounds of the tiles and her friend’s voices, I’ll probably watch this because it’s entertaining and not taxing.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters: 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 2

Overall – 7

Unless it does something very unpredictable, this series is like every other series of its kind. Watch one, you’ve watched them all.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 10 Comments »