Ninja Nonsense Anime Volume 2

April 15th, 2007

Ninin ga Shinobuden, known here in the west as Ninja Nonsense, is pretty aptly named. There’s ninjas…and there’s nonsense.

Once again, my thanks to Sergio Aviles for sponsoring this review from my “Yuri Wishlist.”

When I reviewed Volume 1 of this series, I labeled it a “Yuri” anime. Not so this one, although there is some Yuri-ish implication and service. But by and large, it’s just silliness all the way down.

There’s fart jokes and crotch jokes and nudity jokes and being scared jokes and gags about sex and food and various body parts…and one or twice some slight ninja-ing goes on. But not much. ^_^

This volume also makes it maddenlingly clear that the protagonist of the series here is not Shinobu, despite the series’ original name, but Onsokomaru. He is the catalyst for pretty much every gag.

In terms of Yuri, the best scene is one that turns out to be a fantasy. But the scene is important for two reasons: one, the massive Yuri-service in and of itself, which is kind of fun, and; the more important two, it parodies the viewer’s interest in that service, even as it feeds the fantasy. In fact, that, in a nutshell, is a good definition of the series. If we, the viewing audience, are Fans of either gender then our assumptions, needs, fantasies and service are all given to us with an open hand…and then with a caustic gag about what a hopeless Fan it makes us. Even Shinobu’s desire for Kaede is parodied as a fannish sort of thing. It’s broad comedy with a sharp edge. And I like it.

I also want to note that the liner notes are really pretty good – better than the “character bios” in the Extras section of the DVD, which appear to be based off of the first episode only. Someone did do their homework over there at the Right Stuf. So thank you, unnamed researcher. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 3
Service – 6

Overall – 7

Insert clever one-liner here to end the review.

Posted in English Anime, Shinobuden | 2 Comments »


Yuri Manga Artist News, Yuricon News and Thanks

April 13th, 2007

First of all, let me take this opportunity to thank each and every person who wished the wife and I well on our civil union. And extra special thanks to everyone who sent us something. We were both quite breathless with everyone’s generosity and kindness. The deed is now official, the papers have been filed. We are a union, even if we are not really “civil” in any sense. :-)

Now, on to news.

***
I know that a lot of people hang out in a lot of different online spaces. I can’t be everywhere, but I thought I’d give everyone a rundown on the various spaces and groups where you can find Yuricon (or me.)

Yuricon ML: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Yuricon/
This is a general chat list where your comments on anything remotely to do with Yuri are always welcome! This is the best place to get Yuricon and ALC News and updates, since I post there first…and often I post there and forget to post elsewhere. Woops…

Yuricon Announcements ML: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Yuricon_announce
This is more like a newsletter- you get the announcements. That’s it. There’s no chat and no way to reply.

Yuricon in LJland: http://community.livejournal.com/yuricon/
This is a group someone set up on LiveJournal to which I sometimes remember to post news announcements. I do occasionally check in to reply to comments. If you have a LJ and check that regularly, it’s one good way of getting Yuricon and ALC news.

Okazu: http://okazu.blogspot.com
This, the thing you are reading, is my “official” blog, which I am now updating on the order of 4-5 times a week. It includes reviews of yuri anime, manga, live action and related (sometimes not so much) films and books, as well as news and updates. Other than the YC mailing list, it is the best place to get updates and news – and you can get it on an XML feed to make it easier to get updates.

Mixi – http://mixi.jp/show_friend.pl?id=7455248
This is a Japanese social networking site. It is, therefore, in Japanese. I’m really bad about updating this, for fairly obvious reasons. If you have a mixi account, let me know and I’ll add you as a friend. It’ll make us both look cooler. :-) I am going to try and post there a bit more often.

Yuricon MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/yuricon
Yuricon MySpace Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/yuricon
Like the LJ Community, I’m going to post news and updates here, but not much else. But feel free to add me as a friend, or ask me to add you. Like Mixi, it’ll make us look so much cooler. ;-)

Last, but not least, you can usually find me hangin’ on IRC in the evenings at [email protected] and [email protected], two wonderful scanlation/sub groups that you already know about (or should, if you don’t) where we talk about yuri from time to time. :-)

Hope I’ll see everyone *somewhere* online! :-)

***

And last, some headlines from the Yuri News RSS Feed on Yuricon!

# Curve Magazine interviews Yuri Artist Althea Keaton

# Polish magazine Komikz talks to Yuri Mangaka Rica Takashima

# Lesbian Graphic Novelist June Kim is interviewed by Afterellen.com

# Get your Library card for the Yuri Manga and Doujinshi Library at Yuricon’s 2007 “Yurisai” Event

# The Cutie Honey Movie relased by Bandai

Get your irregularly updated Yuri News with RSS!

Posted in Yuri Manga, Yuri Network News, Yuricon | No Comments »


Yuri Anime: Maria-sama ga Miteru OAV 3, Suzukaze Satsusatsu

April 12th, 2007

This time, the picture and the title link will link to the Collector’s Edition. For those who might want, here is a link to OAV 3 without extras.

But, before I spend a review gushing about the third Maria-sama ga Miteru OAV, Suzukaze Satsusatsu, I want to finish some business from the second OAV.

My copy of the collector’s edition for the second OAV only just arrived yesterday (a delay that had to do with another item in the order, not the OAV itself.) I thought you might like to know what came with it. ^_^

The box for the second OAV has a plastic thin cover of Yumi and Sachiko superimposed on a red rose (The third, pictured above, has Shimako and Noriko over a white rose.) The film picture can be placed inside the box, which gives you a cute scene of Sachiko fixing Yumi’s collar in front of the statue of Maria-sama. Goodies include original art postcards by Hibiki Reine, and some rather amusing screenshot postcards from the anime. There’s white paper coasters, with both the Lillian crest and the series title. Last, but in no way least, Yumi’s red hair ribbons. ^_^ The last is plain silly, I think. I did not feel any desire to wear them while watching, but I fear that many fans probably did.

I have not yet ordered the third OAV set, since I’m waiting for something else to be available to place my order, but you can be sure that I will be doing so shortly – and I’ll report back, promise.

In the meantime, I’ve had the chance to watch the third OAV twice now…let the gushing begin! Is there be a single person in the world who does not love Sachiko after this? If you are one, I don’t want to know, really. Because she is just *so* wonderful. (The wife says that we should be able to say now, after watching this OAV, that saying you like Sachiko is like saying the sky is blue. lol) Itou Miki and Ueda Kana have really built their characters up from typical stereotypes to just about flesh-and-blood people. But really, eEvery character in this series passes my “would I have them over for lunch?” test with room to spare.

This OAV introduces first-year admirer of Yumi, Hosokawa Kanako, and covers the adventures of the Yamayurikai members as they attend the Hanadera school festival.

There are honestly so many things to like about this OAV, I don’t even know where to begin…the story is absolutely fantastic and the ending just about as ridiculous and romantic at the same time as it can possibly be.

I really liked the voice actress for Kanako. People who follow spoilers, fan art, etc, tend to think the worst of Kanako, so it was a real pleasure for me to see her portrayed at the beginning as a pretty normal person, so that her apparent sudden descent into madness strikes one as really extreme. I liked her voice a lot, as well. It’s very pleasant – when she’s not hysterical, that is. ^_^

The whole Hanadera festival was brilliant. From the extra board tacked onto the festival name (which was in the novel and something I thought was very funny) to the utter randomness of the goings on, I think the feeling of general wackiness was captured well. The look on the girls’ faces as the boys all rushed the scaffolding for the contest was pretty much perfect. (And I couldn’t help but notice that Noriko was the only one who wasn’t completely freaked. As we’d expect from our resident public school girl…)

The lynchpin scene where Yumi is mistaken for Yuuki is short but pretty scary, I thought. And the end of the story, as Sachiko throws off all social propriety and personal fear to run across a field crowded with men and straight into Yumi’s arms…seriously. Do I need to even *say* how wonderful it was? Okay then. It was wonderful. And it’ll be wonderful every time I watch it, I’m sure. When we show it at Yuricon’s 2007 “Yurisai” event, it’ll be just as wonderful as it was the first time. ^_^ If you’re not grinning just then, check your pulse. You’re dead.

Oh, and the moment when Yuuki kneels in front of Sachiko, and the guy who’d just got to the top of the tower does too, as Sachiko looks, speaks and seems so queenly…I thought that was a great touch.

I haven’t watched this yet with the seiyuu commentary, but I enjoyed that track on the first two OAVs, as they get distracted, talk about other stuff, then find themselves watching the anime, captivated, because it’s just so *good.* ^_^

Lastly – the new ending credits. Let’s just say that they up the Yuri rating a few points on their own….

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6
Service – 1

Overall – 9

This one is the best of the bunch so far – but wait, because Ready, Go! is *bound* to be fantastic, with more Yumi x Sachiko moments. ^_^

Posted in Anime, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Yuri Anime | 7 Comments »


Spring 2007 Anime Season: El Cazador

April 11th, 2007

It’s going to be very anime-heavy in the upcoming days, as the new 2007 Spring season has begun, and there are several series worthy of attention from the Yuri fan. And, thanks to the continued generosity of my readers, I have an even larger pile of anime to watch now. There’s also a greatly belated end-of-season review I really must do sometime soon. So, manga, live-action and Drama CD fans, I’ll try to get at least one thing in a week for you. But anime is where we’re at for the foreseeable future.

So, here we are just barely into the spring anime season. Which of the several series of interest do we with start with? Well, as the large bulk of attention is being paid to Nanoha StrikerS, let’s buck the trend and start with El Cazador instead.

El Cazador is the third of the “chicks with guns” trilogy by Machimo Koichi and Bee Train – the trilogy that began with Noir and continued with Madlax. (And, I’m of the belief that the latter will be hard to beat, given Bee Train’s preference for ambiguously yuri relationships.)

This series has all the “6 degrees of yuri” signposts: the aforementioned director and production company, Fiction Junction Yuuka and savage genius for EP and OP artists, Ai Shimizu (Mikoto in Mai HiMe/Otome, Hatsumi and Fuji-hime in Yamibou among others) and Itou Shizuka (Rei in Maria-sama ga Miteru, among others) voicing the lead roles. Also joining the cast are Hisakawa Aya (who was Chloe in Noir and Rimelda in Madlax making this a hat trick for her) and Toyoguchi Megumi (Sei in Maria-sama ga Miteru). So, cast, crew and music all scream “Yuri.” The big question now has to be – what about the plot?

We don’t yet know, of course. ^_^ Bee Train stories usually take a good 8 episodes to get going. I’m always willing to give any series about that to gain, keep or lose my attention. And we’re only two episodes in at this point. But I expect it to be in the same realm of ambiguously Yuri relationships as the first two entries in the trilogy – that is to say, I’ll bet there’ll be enough Yuri somewhere in here to make us happy. (I sincerely hope we don’t revert to the Avenger model, which was not at *all* the kind of thing I’m looking for.

Let me be lazy for a second and abstract some of my initial response to El Cazador from the Yuricon Mailing List :

El Cazador has so many of the elements we have come to expect from Bee Train that it almost seems a parody of itself. ^_^ The credits have all the same elements as the Noir and Madlax sequences did. It felt a bit like watching a James Bond flick when Cubby Broccoli was doing all the opening sequences. There was a…uniformity…even though they are all different. Same here.

The setting is different from both Madlax and Noir – this time the American southwest or perhaps a Mexico-ish place. The characters look different but again, they are similar – tough, competent, but slightly flaky gunwoman; cute, flaky younger woman with no memory of the past. Repeated murder in the past footage (without plinky musical theme, though…). Weird object with no meaning as of yet, and grand conspiracy in the background. This time, instead of Soldats or Enfant, we have Project Leviathan.

Last, but hardly least, the end credits give us annoying guy in a mask. Oh, and NOW we know where Friday Monday’s little brother got to. He’s the bad guy in this one. ^_^

I was a tad disappointed by the animation for the first episode. The people all look thin and featureless. But it does set off the highly detailed backgrounds of sand and office doors nicely…

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – I’m deferring this until the story gets going
Characters – 7 (By episode two I kind of like both Nadi and Ellis…)
Yuri – 0 as of yet, unless you count the fact that Hisakawa Aya’s character is clearly an Evil Psychotic Librarian type.
Service – 3 (Crotch shots, maid costumes, I’m sure there’ll be bathing scenes.)

Overall – 7

Nadi’s the goofy, tough gal with a heart of gold type, Ellis is flaky with a distinctly sexual thing going on with her mysterious power. So, there is definite potential and a good track record backing it up. But only time will tell whether Bee Train comes through for us on El Cazador, or not.

Posted in Bee Train, El Cazador | 7 Comments »


Yuri Anime: Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 2

April 10th, 2007

Volume 2 of the Strawberry Marshmallow anime makes me regret that I was such a good kid. Now I wish I could go back and be eviller….

And because I was watching this with Serge, the Cult of Miu now commands three loyal followers. Bwahaha. Or something.

The first episode of the volume, “Sleepover,” is the one that non-Yuri folks argue is not Yuri, and those of us who count ourselves among Yuri fandom argue is Yuri. I say to you, verily it is Yuri. Not on Nobue’s side, but on Miu’s – which makes perfect sense to me as I see her as the very epitome of an Evil Psycho Lesbian-in-training.

But while “Sleepover” is amusing and watching Miu openly vie for Nobue’s attention and love is cute, it is the second episode of the volume that leaves me breathless from laughing. In this chapter we get to enjoy Miu’s brilliant story-telling skills and, incidentally, get to see Chika play along…which reminds us that they are actually friends. (I’m actually sitting here chuckling at Miu and Chika’s version of rock-scissors-paper. Snort, flypaper.) Most importantly, we get a scene which is so visual it’s actually rather difficult to convey in text: Nobue has fallen asleep. Miu challenges the others to stay in the room, but write instead of talk. The contrast of Ana’s obsession about ginger ale, and its relation to frogs, and Miu’s gag art which simply slays Chika (and most of the viewing audience) is simply hysterical.

Miu’s continued sociopathic behavior makes the inevitable trip to the beach and summer festival episodes just about as enjoyable as those old tropes can be made. It’s not that Miu is just a sociopath that makes her funny – it’s that she’s a funny sociopath.

This is probably my favorite volume of the whole series. If you want a giggle or two on a down day, slap this volume in the DVD player…and don’t drink anything unless you want it coming out your nose.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 5

Overall – 8

You ever notice how often the Yuri and Service ratings are the same???

Also, keep food and drink away from your computer keyboard as you watch this volume or disaster is likely to occur. ^_^

Forget to mention, too – this DVD comes with a mini-pencil board which is nice if you like mini pencil boards. (I have converted many people to the gospel of pencil boards. They are just so darn useful.)

Posted in English Anime, Ichigo Mashimaro, Yuri Anime | 2 Comments »