Burst Angel Anime, Volume 1 (English)

June 23rd, 2007

Let’s all show our appreciation to Daniel today for his kindness and generosity and for sponsoring today’s review! Thanks Daniel!!

Watching Volume 1 of Burst Angel reminded me of a lot of things. It reminded me why I never reviewed the anime in the first place, primarily. ^_^;

Okay, so, after a really silly rap theme that does not benefit much from being translated we are introduced to a dystopian future Tokyo in which nearly everyone is allowed to carry a gun. This has only served to heighten the chaos and violence in an already chaotic and violent city. The government has created a paramilitary force, RAPT, to assist cleaning up, but they seem to be as much the problem as the cure.

In the middle of this we meet the schlub du jour, Kyouhei, who is trying to make enough money to go to Europe to train as a chef. He’s a nice kid and a good cook and through no fault of his own, he gets embroiled with four freelance agents; three of whom are mysteriously named after sisters from Little Women. Jo, the fighter of the group, clearly has superhuman powers, Meg, her caretaker and chief kidnapping target is mostly there to be saved. Emi (Amy) is a hardcore tech otaku and loli fodder. Sei, who is not named Beth for some reason, is the money and assumably, but not apparently, the brains behind the team.

It drives me crazy – why three of the four??? The wife says I need to let it go, but…

Thankfully for all Yuri fans, the focus of the series is not Kyouhei, as first seems. Rather quickly, the focus shifts to the place where it will stay through most of the series – Meg and Jo.

The four women take on jobs from Sei’s contacts which usually lead to several things: Meg being kidnapped, Jo having to blow lots of things up with and without her giant robot Django, and involvement with any number of stereotypical bad guys and shady conspiracy figures. By episode three hints of the larger plot have reared their ugly head (and yes, that’s a pun of sorts). Despite my lack of interest in the actual plot, I have to give them snaps for doing something with it, even if it’s all pretty predictable.

Here’s things I thought were bad: the opening theme is laughable, the plot is rather dull, the use of the giant robot is a hand wave we must simply accept, and for all that Jo’s dedication to Meg is *very* obvious, there’s not much reciprocity, at least in this first volume (Don’t write and tell me about later bits – I know about them, but I’m not reviewing those volumes yet.)

In fact, compared with the Bakuretsu Tenshi manga (click this link, the top three are the English manga reviews,) the Yuri in this series is seriously leveled down. (The manga came second, so really it leveled up the Yuri.) Meg comes off as being nothing more than a victim for Jo to save. More deadly, during an episode commentary in the extras section, the voice actors for Jo and Meg and the director are all going on and on about how they are so best friends, that Meg and Jo – best friends for-evar, etc, etc. I was like, “they aren’t best friends…”

Which brings me to the best thing about the DVD – the extras. Each disc will have commentary on one episode – of course this is commentary with the English staff and actors. It wasn’t very interesting, but it was kind of fun to listen to – and it made me listen to Monica Rial as Jo. She absolutely did a good job of sounding nothing like her speaking voice, I’ll give her that. She wasn’t as deep, or monotonal as Watanabe Akeno, but she definitely did a decent job. Also included in the extras are three radio dramas and two bonus tracks with the original voices actresses – subtitled. You just *know* I liked that. Opening and ending credits without text, and outtakes which I’m watching are right now and really aren’t very funny – mostly stumbling over lines – and trailers. The DVD box has a reversible cover and the liner notes include character sketches and info on characters, the art, comments from Watanabe and info on the opening and ending themes. All very cool indeed – too bad the actual anime isn’t that interesting. ^_^; Okay, The Japanese seiyuu commentary isn’t any better, either. (Bug bites, dreams about whales…pollen season…seriously….)

I do have to mention something Toyoguchi Megumi says during the first bonus track – that she wasn’t used to doing radio shows with other women, she’s usually with older men. Remember, this was pre-Marimite days for her. I bet she’s way used to it now. Also, ironically, just as Jo was the first butchy character Monica Rial ever played, the same was true for Watanabe Akeno. Ironic, huh.

Ratings:

Art – 7 with a strong favoritism paid to the CG over the conventional art
Characters – 5
Story – 5
Yuri – 1
Service – 6

Overall – 5

The extras are stellar. Best part of the series so far.

Posted in Bakuretsu Tenshi, English Anime | 1 Comment »


Yuri Anime: Doki Doki School Hours, Volume 3, English

June 22nd, 2007

Many thanks to Ted for sponsoring today’s review! (Want to sponsor a review, too? Check out my Yuri Wish List!)

Volume 3 of Doki Doki School Hours, aka Sensei no Ojikan, is as time-wastingly amusing as the previous volumes. :-)

We watch Mika-sensei struggle with her task as the MC for graduation ceremonies, the completely ridiculous field trip to Kyoto where someone gets lost, the excitment when a new student teacher arrives and the usual mid-summer supplemental class thing. None of the situations are especially original, but most are handled well enough that it doesn’t bore.

The characters’ personalities are all well-established by now, so our resident gay boy and girl are given free rein to be as openly gay as possible. In particular, Rio’s attention to Mika-sensei starts to change a bit in this volume. No longer satisfied with just teasing Mika-sensei, she starts to affect changes in her life to influence her mood and expressions. And this is what I want to chat about today.

In real life, you know you’re besotted when the person you love is doing something really ordinary, or stupid or annoying – and you think it’s cute anyway. Like enjoying the way they chew, or how their hair is all messy in the morning, that kind of thing. In this volume Rio spends large amounts of time doing just that. She messes Mika-sensei’s hair up, just to squee from the cuteness. ^_^ In other words – stupid anime it may be, but I’m calling Rio’s crush “real.” She definitely gets lots of touching Mika time in this volume – the first two episodes she has Mika in her arms a large portion of the time.

Ratings –

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 5
Service – 3

Doki Doki remains a fun Sunday afternoon silly time thing to watch. Or something to stick on when a few friends are over and ignore. ^_^

Posted in English Anime, Yuri Anime | No Comments »


Yuri Manga: Battle Binder Plus

June 21st, 2007

I was cleaning out my shelves and picking through my files for stuff to get rid of, when I came across a few olddddddd series I never reviewed. Before I make these series go away and clear off the space, I thought I’d take a look at these deservedly obscure titles. :-)

To my utter shock, as I surfed around the intertubes trying to find a picture (I never did and had to scan the cover in,) I learned that today’s objet d’review was actually translated by Antarctic Press. It looks like they published it way back in comic book (pamphlet-style) format and it’s probably flipped, as well. I have never read it – never even *seen* any of the issues until today, so can’t comment on how good. bad or indifferent it is. I found my untranslated copy at the home of all deservedly obscure manga, Book-Off.

Battle Binder Plus is a, uh, well, piece of crap. Unless you’re the person who writes descriptions for Radio Comix. Then it’s “Classic translated adult manga from Japanese artist Rulia 046! Space Cop Kalone (aka Charon) always gets her man- or woman as the case may be! Cover colors by ARNie, English adaptation by Elin Winkler. A real piece of manga history!”

I won’t tell you which one of us to believe. I’m not sure I *know* which one of us to believe. :-) But I sure as heck didn’t see the heroine boinking any guys, I’ll just say that.

The story, such as it is, begins with lesbian sex, moves on to gruesome violence, then flashes back and forth between lesbian sex and violence indiscriminately, with some hardsuit-style armor and light mutation for fun. There’s a plot. Of course there’s a plot. Does it matter? Would you really be combing used manga store shelves to get it for the PLOT? Please. We’re more honest than that here.

Is it worth reading? Sure. What the heck. Why not. It’s better than a User’s Manual or a filling out office paperwork. And Charon’s sort of fun as she leaps around destroying naked women, robots and naked women robots.

You know, I think I won’t get rid of this manga. It’s too stupid to lose. One day I’ll be staring at my shelves thinking, “what I’d really like to read is a story about a lesbian cop that has sex with, then crushes the head of, a predatory android.” This book will totally come in handy then.

Ratings:

Art – sort of old school big hair – 7
Story – beats me – 5
Characters – cool lesbian cop, duh – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – 8

On the one side, it really is trash. On the other, at least it’s not coy, or loli, or anything other than good, solid, honest adult female cop x android trash. Oh, and the author appears to be kind of famous-ish, too.

Posted in Hentai, Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »


Lesbian Animation: Plica-chan

June 20th, 2007

Back in February of 2006, I reviewed a 4-panel comic called Plica-chan. Plica-chan is a serialized comic that currently runs on the Love Piece Club website and in the newsletter for the LOUD organization. Unlike Yuri manga, Plica-chan is a realistic, bitter and funny take on actual lesbian life in Japan – complete with closet and internal and external homophobia and cluelessness.

Last year, Plica-chan was animated. The result is not an anime, but an animated version of the 4-panel strip with voice overs. It’s more like a Flash animation than an anime. The movie is available for purchase on the Love Piece Club website, but I don’t think they ship outside Japan. I used a buyer to get my copy.

The movie has several chapters: Blue Sky in the Window, Useless “How to Sex” Tips For Lesbians, Stop Multiplying Machiko, Please, One Day Next Summer and an additional short about the Lesbian and Gay Parade in Tokyo – Let’s Go to the Parade. Each chapter covers some random daily situations from Plica-chan’s point of view and those of very closeted Machiko. Each chapter is supplemented by Q & As about life as a lesbian in Japan today. Some of the answers make you want to cry from joy, others from sadness and others are just really odd. ^_^

The scenarios in Plica-chan are thought-provoking, many are pointed and a little bitter and some are pretty funny – even when they are being thought-provoking and bitter. I imagine that most Yuri fans will be shocked when they see this movie as neither animation, story nor characters are anything at all like what one comes to expect from “Yuri.” There are no Shizurus here, or Harukas. These women are struggling against an overwhelming tide. The fact that *any* women manage to carve out a life as “a lesbian” in Japan is worth celebrating, I have to think.

Technically, the movie is very nicely done; it comes complete with English subtitles. The music and animation are both very decent and credits are in Japanese and English. (Unfortunately, they run one after the other, while the end theme sort of lingers unnecessarily.) The voice acting is much better than I expected – Mari’s voice was deeper than I would have guessed, while Plica-chan sounded exactly the way I hear her in my head. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6 (minimalist, but not unpleasant)
Story – 7 (more bitter than sweet)
Characters – 7 (like real people, they are sometimes very annoying)
Yuri – 10
Service – 1

Overall – 7

Because saying you understand lesbian life in Japan because you read Yuri manga is like saying you’re good at hand-to-hand combat because you play RPGs, I very much hope to be able to show Plica-chan at Yuricon’s 2007 “Yurisai” event. If we can show it, it’ll be this movie’s US Premiere. ^_^

Post event note: We did show it. The reception was interesting, as many people found it sad, rather than funny.

Posted in LGBTQ | 3 Comments »


Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 3 (English)

June 18th, 2007

Sorry to be away so long. Life exploded again.

In a desperate attempt to find some balm for my harried soul, I watched the third and final volume of the Strawberry Marshmallow series. For the time it lasted, it was just the thing. ^_^ (And somewhat belatedly, and sheepishly for forgetting initially, my deepest thanks to Ted for once again making a review possible. Thank you Ted!)

In this volume, we continue to watch Itou Nobue, her sister Chika, Chika’s sociopath friend Miu and two younger girls, Matsuri and Ana do basically nothing. But they do nothing very amusingly. They sit around watching a hypnotist, play soccer, go to a public bath and talk about Santa Claus. Amusingly.

Miu is, as always, the highlight of the show. Having decided to “hypnotize” Chika, Miu says that she will turn Chika into her dog, Satake. When Chika leaves the room, Miu runs off, and returns accompanied by the pup. Matsuri, always the perfect straight man, believes that Miu has succeeded until Chika shows up in person. Miu comments that she’s a little worried about Matsuri’s future to which Chika rebuts, “I’m worried about yours.”

There is less Yuri tension in this volume than in the others. Miu continues to vie for Nobue’s attention, but that’s about it. What this volume does have is Miu actively seeking out situations to screw the rest of them up, and even better, signs that despite her protests, Miu absolutely cracks Chika up. Chika is also not above some retaliation. I approve. ^_^

The extras with this volume are nice. There’s a reversible DVD case cover that has more than one picture.  (See my review of Shinobuden for context.) Also a pencil board of the girls, with Miu featured on the other side. There’s a really nice video feature, as well – music videos of the characters accompanied by their image songs sung, of course, by their voice actresses. That was awfully pleasant.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2
Service – 4 (bath, cosplay….)

Overall – 8

In fact, for her efforts in this volume, I think I’ll bump Miu up from Evil Psycho Lesbian-in-training to full EPL status. ^_^ For the gag at the bathhouse as they all drink milk, she deserves the promotion.

Posted in English Anime, Ichigo Mashimaro | 2 Comments »