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Yuri Anime: Simoun, Volume 2 (English)

January 19th, 2008

It’s “Hold the Presses” weekend here at Okazu! It is with much thanks that I review the second volume of Simoun today. The fantastic folks at Media Blasters got me a pre-press copy this time, so I could get a jump on this review. ^_& (That doesn’t get you out of giving me a real one, guys! )

Because this is a pre-street copy, I don’t have case, cover or the physical extras (or lack thereof) to comment on, but I’m still asking for all the cover art to be collected into a book or something for the final volume.

(February 25, 2008 Note: I received the street copy – thanks John! – and other than the pretty disk, there’s no physical extras.)

I was assured that some of my suggestions were taken into consideration for this volume. In general, I feel like the subtitling was more smooth all around, but still no romaji or kanji for the opening and ending songs. I’d *really* like to see that. It used to be the standard for DVD releases – when did that stop? No typos at all that I found. Well done! And did I mention that they keep the honorifics? They do. Write them and tell them that you prefer it that way, so they expand it to other titles.

The story of Simoun, Vol.2 is…compelling. Not good. Not interesting, or entertaining – compelling. I had to sit through the whole disk, because just watching one episode was just not enough.

The volume begins with Chor Tempest, now officially on milk runs, bearing up under the spiteful potshots from the other Chors, showing that they are still jealous of what was – and may once again be – the finest of all Chors.

Mamina arrives, with a belly full of arrogance born of desperation and Yun comes burdened with multiple layers of duty and guilt.

A peace conference brings hope, then tragedy, then hope again. And Dominura uses the time-honored tradition of shared suffering to bring out the best in her heterogeneous Chor. Traumatic events make Neviril recognize the one thing that she and Aer share.

I have a lot of notes from this volume, but the one thing I wanted to comment on is that Anubituf may well have put his finger on it, when he says that it might be better for Chor Tempest to not return to the Arcus Prima. I thought that was exceptionally insightful – and maybe even prophetic.

The final episode is so heavy with irony it seemed a bit overburdened and maybe not the best place to end the volume, but then…

The extras include a really fabulous commentary from the director and the artistic director/character designer. The director comments that he quite specifically wanted this series to avoid dramatic formula. So, the last episode’s ironies were laid down *purposefully* to be that heavy-handed. He wanted a realistic, yet contrived world, and one that had many things left unexplained. I was so pleased to learn that that had been done with a specific vision, rather than as some haphazard reflection of lack of time and/or resources. And there’s a couple of great revelations in this extra that would be spoilers, so I won’t share. Just do watch this, even if you don’t usually watch the extras.

The other extra, an interview with Parietta’s and Kaim’s VA would have been good, but kept being interrupted and cut short by the irritating “host” lollipop with eyes, a computer modulated voice and a rampant case of condescension.

Overall though, a slick and pleasant edition of *still* one of the best stories in anime. Now give me romaji/kanji lyrics and the remaining cover art and I’ll be happy. ^_^ It’s a great series.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 4

Overall – 8

Best scene? When Mamina and Yun arrive and Floe snarks that she’ll probably say something like Chor Tempest doesn’t live up to it’s reputation (translated as “is a letdown”) and the giggling when Mamina says it word for word. Very like a passel of girls, war or no. ^_^

Posted in English Anime, Simoun, Yuri Anime | 2 Comments »


Loveless Manga, Volumes 3 & 4 (English)

January 18th, 2008

Heartfelt thanks go out today to Zyl and Kabitzin for their sponsorship of today’s review!

I’m only reviewing the Yuri arc in this series since, for Yuri fans, Kouya and Yamato are the main attraction – although there are plenty of other intriguing relationships in the story.

We pick up Volume 3 as our young protagonist Ritsuka grapples with his relationship with Soubi and with what it means to be a Sacrifice, as well as with the residual mystery of what exactly happened to his brother. It seems apparent that Ritsuka is torn between really wanting to know the answer to all these things, and really not.

Soubi is attacked by a pair of Zeros, Fighter and Sacrifice who have been engineered to feel no pain, but manages to defeat them by using the time-honored method of age defeating youth by using brains instead of brawn. He takes in the defeated and abandoned Zeros, primarily, I think, to provide the recommended daily dose of bratty catboy and to provide much-needed exposition for Ritsuka later. Because, let’s face it, by making Soubi so reticent, the author had kind of tied the plot into a Gordian knot that *someone* had to cut. ^_^

At the very end of the volume, we encounter two high school girls who act as if they barely know one another, but then are later seen to be very close. Kouya and Yamato have arrived. Yay!

In Volume 4, Ritsuka gets his clue handed to him on a plate, while we learn about the creation of the second Zero pair. As Ritsuka comes to grips with his pairing with Soubi, Kouya and Yamato fight to stay together. This time, it’s Ritsuka’s insight that allows him and Soubi to win the battle.

In a lynchpin moment, Kouya and Yamato resolve to die to remain together – they do so by rejecting their former lives and their bondage to being “Zeros.” They leave the field of battle, dead as Sacrifice and Fighter, but reborn as two girls with the even stronger bond of love between them. A really terrific end to what might easily have been a tragic story.

The end of the volume includes a nice (and nicely placed) side story about Ritsuka, as seen through the eyes of current school friend Yuiko and an old school friend, Osamu. The comments at the end of the book by editor Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl did an exceptional job of tying it all up neatly. In fact, her insights probably contributed strongly to my ability to engage with the story.

I was surprised that I enjoyed the manga as much as I did. I wasn’t a huge fan of the anime, but there’s more layers here. I’m not able to put my finger on it exactly, maybe something about there being so many *different* ways of relating to other people illuminated by the manga characters. It might have just been because of the volumes I chose to read, or it may well be because the creator is a better writer than I inititially credited. Or I’m in a different mood, or something else. Who knows. Whatever it is, I saw more depth, more complexity, in the many relationships in this story, and less oppressiveness about the primary couple, than when I watched the anime. Maybe it was just because of that little story at the end of Volume 4, and the idea that Ritsuka is just a kid sometimes made me feel a bit better about everyone in the book. Plus, you just know that Kouya and Yamato are out there somewhere riding the train, holding hands and just being together. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 6

Overall – 7

I think I’d characterize the main emotion of the Loveless manga as Ero-emo. All the angsting is so erotically charged, even though Ritsuka can only pick up on some of the current himself (as Lillian cogently points out.) Since Kouya and Yamato are a little older, *they* understand. And Soubi is practically the epitome of ero-emo. ^_^

Posted in English Manga, Loveless | 3 Comments »


Yuri Drama CD: El Cazador de La Bruja

January 17th, 2008

Had a *brilliant* time at the signing last night, I’ll post pics and comments this weekend. In the mean time, a review of an actual anime-related thing! Can you believe it?

It’s not too often I can call a Drama CD just about perfect. Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to: Madrigal Halloween is pretty much the only one I’d give that title to so far. But El Cazador de la Bruja: El Bosque del Eco must certainly share the title. It has everything an El Cazador fan could possibly want. Ellis teasing Nadie slightly inappropriately, Nadie saying, “Yuigon attara, dozo” in that way she does, with the smile obvious in her tone, Ellis brightly saying “Yes sir!” when she gets her own way, Ricardo saving the day, Lilio not speaking until she does and then creeping us all out, Blue Eyes sardonically narrating, and sharing a moment or two with one of her unnamed henchchicks. Unfortunately, Rosenberg pretending to be a decent guy to Melissa, who is desperately trying to trust him. And, of course…LA being a freakazoid.

And magic, and violence and miracles and action and great music.

Perfect.

For fans of the series, this was an episode that fits in the final third of the series – after Ellis has realized that she’s in love with Nadie, but not vice versa yet.

The story begins with our heroines arriving at a town with no money, and no prospects – there’s not even an Amigos Tacos in the place. A pervy old guy approaches them with a request to pose for inappropriate pictures, which is negotiated down a bit, until they are sidetracked by finding an emerald necklace. Oh, the pervy old dude says – that belongs to the Professor, it’s part of a treasure from the mythical Ringing Forest. So off Ellis and Nadie go to return the necklace and make the world right.

Only, they encounter the Professor’s wife dying from a gunshot wound, and who gives them a casket. They try to return all of this to the Professor who turns out to be a fake, in it for the money – and his partner, the pervy old guy. Nadie and Ellis fall for the oldest trick in the book and are drugged. Ricardo wakes them up, then watches hopelessly as they drive off to get their revenge – well, they don’t actually say that, but let’s be real.

LA delays the creepy guys, Ricardo saves their lives, LA eventually kills them anyway and in the end, Ellis and Nadie learn that the casket actually holds a skeleton, the spirit of which possesses Lilio and says that it has come home, followed by the manifestation of the El Bosque del Eco, the Ringing Forest. And all is well again. In the epilogue, Ellis tries to get Nadie into a daring bathing suit, if not for the pictures, then just to enjoy her in same. (She obfuscated a situation a bit earlier in the story, too, in order to undress Nadie – when confronted about it, all Ellis would say was that Nadie was sexy that way.)

In the beginning and middle of the story, Rosenberg lies beautifully to Melissa a bit, too.

This DCD comes with the extra of a postcard of the cover art of Nadie and Ellis looking happily at one another. And the cast and crew credits come in English and Japanese, something I thought was kinda cool.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 6

Overall – 8

Unless I’m hallucinating, Jody “Blue Eyes” Hayward’s henchchicks never get any voice credit – or, indeed, names. Anyone know who they are and why that is?

Posted in Bee Train, Drama CDs & Audiobooks, El Cazador | 13 Comments »


Lesbian Novel: American Goth (and Event News)

January 16th, 2008

In honor of the fact I will be joined *tonight at 6:30* for a book signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe, by author J.D. Glass, today’s review is something I wrote for her brand-new shiny novel, American Goth.

C.S. Lewis once said that myths “are lies…breathed through silver.” Perhaps, then, we can see fiction as a golden filigree of words forged by a smith into an ornament that decorates our lives with tales that are not real, but are not really lies.

American Goth is such a book – an alchemical reaction of ink, paper and intent, forged in the mind of a writer to tell a tale of a quest, of a destiny, of the life of a woman.

In American Goth Glass combines and balances many tensions, as a young woman grasps at her chance to make a life after tragedy; rebuilding herself and her emotional stability with unfamiliar (to her) surroundings, people and rites. Glass’s blend of music, ritual and sex forms a bond of its own, as we find ourselves drawn into Samantha’s life, her quest and her growth.

Less hard-edged than Glass’s previous novel, Red Light, this novel is no less edgy. Like a piece of Celtic knotwork, the reader will be following multiple threads through many connections, until the whole resolves itself into a powerful and exquisitely detailed pattern.

This was the book that I was waiting for when I was 20, when a large part of my time was spent combing through literature searching for some reflection of myself in the universe. I imagine that there are quite a few young, pagan, lesbians out there who will be delighted to train with Samantha, to find themselves part of a destiny greater than themselves and most of all, to find love.

**

Join us tonight to get your own copy of American Goth signed by JD, Shoujoai ni Bouken or Yuri Monogatari signed by me and Tough Love signed by Abby Denson, for a faboulous triple play of fun! I hope to see you there!

Posted in Events, LGBTQ, Novel, Queer Fiction | No Comments »


Light Novel: Maria-sama ga Miteru, Kira Kira Mawaru

January 14th, 2008

On my first day in Tokyo, I went to the Manga no Mori in Ikebukuro, walked into the store and was confronted by dozens of Yumi faces, all laid out dozens deep. The newest Marimite novel was on sale. ^_^ I’m only sorry that I couldn’t get a picture for you, because there were *a lot* of books in those piles. And I saw those piles in every manga store I went in to. It made me smile every time.

Of course I nabbed a copy – and decided to read it without dictionary or anything. Just read it, like a book.

Sure, I missed stuff, and some conversations were kind of hard to follow. But you know it felt so good to just pick it up and start reading and be able to follow enough of the story that I can report back to you.

Kira Kira Mawaru comes after a massively climactic novel in which many important spoilers occur, so it’s pretty fluffy bunny light. And, as a result, I almost stopped reading it as soon as I began. Because you see, I have a written statement in my house in which I posited the premise of the final book of the series – and this was it. So I opened the book, read the first line, and closed it in panic. ^_^

This definitely *could* be the last book in the series. It ends in a way that if Konno never wrote another word, the series could end handily right there. Which depressed me no end. I won’t be happy until the next book comes out, proving that there is a next book. ^_^

In any case, Kira Kira is about a day at the amusement park. Yumi and Sachiko are joined on their date by Yuuki and Kashiwagi, Rei and Yoshino, Noriko and Shimako, Tsutako and Shouko and eventually Touko and Kanako. The main plot of the book is that everyone (except for Touko and Kanako, but that’s a different story) arrives late for various reasons and in a bad mood. The reasons why they are late and why they are all out of sorts is pretty much the plot. And in every case, it’s pretty minor. Except…

Shimako and Noriko’s reason for being out of sorts is a massive spoiler which I will not share. I will tell you this – it changes nothing. It’s just a fact. But it is a massively spoilery fact. (If you *do* know what it is, kindly keep your mouth shut. Thanks.)

On the other hand, I will share with you Yumi, Sachiko, Kashiwagi and Yuuki’s reason for being late. You know that red sports car Kashiwagi drives? It’s not really his, it’s his grandfather’s. (That’s not the reason. Wait for it…) So Kashiwagi and Sachiko arrive at the Fukuzawa house and when Yumi and Yuuki get in the back seat, Sachiko complains that all the streets in the area are narrow, which struck both Yumi and myself as a really odd thing to complain about. After driving for some time, they stop at a gas station and after some back and forthing, the seating arrangements are changed – Sachiko will be driving. In fact, the sexy red sports car they are in is hers. Her grandfather bought it for *Sachiko.* O_O ORLY? Yumi immediately begins to fantasize about sitting in the front seat next to Sachiko driving, only to be harshly yanked back to reality when she realizes that Sachiko is a petulant driver and Kashiwagi is “helping”. Yumi is glad that she’s in the back – she and Yuuki stay very, very quiet for the rest of the ride. ^_^

Give Sachiko some time, Yumi – she’ll grow into the car and fulfill your dreams of sexy red sports car potential. I’m sure of it.

In terms of Yuri, Yumi and Sachiko are hand-holding fools the whole day. At one point as they get onto the Haunted House ride, Yumi holds Sachiko’s hand, enjoying the romance of it and briefly wondering if the boys are behind them also holding hands. Then she white-noises her brain so she won’t think about that ever again.

Noriko and Shimako are practically joined at the hip. I don’t think they let each other’s hands go from the moment they arrive. While waiting on line for the ferris wheel, a couple in front of them kiss and a pack of young boys behind them start jabbering about it. Noriko wonders how they are seen as they stand there and hold hands. As sisters Friends? Something more? (The concept she uses is as close to “friends with benefits” as I’ve ever seen used in Japanese.) She really doesn’t care, and continues to hold Shimako’s hand.

Yoshino and Rei arrive at the place not speaking to one another. But when Yoshino gets sick from overdoing it on the tea cup ride – a pretty painful scene, actually. I was totally ready to slap Yoshino to the moon – Rei rescues her in the most gallant and magnificent way. Rei 10, Yoshino, 0. They make up, of course, before the end of the book.

And Shouko is the winnah on Yuri longing. She doesn’t just watch Tsutako – she *watches* her. She is so overtly gaga over Tsu that it’s a bit embarrassing. But she gets some really good quality Tsu time – even a few personal insights. If there was a couple in this book where I wanted to see one turn and kiss the other, it would be them. Tsu, you dolt. Kiss the girl already. (The wife suggests a great AMV idea – “Kiss the Girl” from Little Mermaid, and all the moments in Marimite where they *should* *just* *kiss* already. Feel free to make this AMV and send it into Yuri Studios.)

By the time they find Touko and Kanako, and are all are together to watch the fireworks, Yumi is surrounded by shiny happiness. The lights around her are sparkling – kira kira mawaru. And definitely, positively, there will be many more days of happiness like this.

The author’s afterword was very intriguiging. She comments how this series has been called many things – among them “soft Yuri” – but what she sees it as is “fantasy.” Not sword and dragon fantasy, but “girls private school” fantasy. These novels are contemporary, but Konno specifically mentions the lack of cell phones in the book as one of the fantasy elements. She points out (as have we all,) that perhaps the school does not allow keitai on the grounds, but that doesn’t explain why they don’t have and use them away from school. She’s very funny about that – for one thing, she says that this is one of the “fantasy” elements in the story, you just have to take it for granted that they do not have cell phones. It’s a handwave you must accept. Secondly, she comments that, you know, when she was in school there *were* no cell phones and somehow she survived. I hear ya, sister. ^_^ The point of all this is – 1) no, they don’t have cell phones and 2) she knows the series is seen as Yuri. That is all.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8, except for Yoshino who was a 5 and Shouko who was a 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 3

Overall – 8

Even the wife wonders about my scoring – no, the overall score is not an average of the scores above it. Each score is taken on it’s own on a scale from one to ten. So, a story could, potentially,be high on everything, but if I simply hate it, get a low overall, and vice versa. In case you wondered.

 

Posted in Light Novel, Light Novels, Maria-sama ga Miteru | 18 Comments »