White Day is on the way

March 9th, 2008

Last month, in order to assist you with the difficult task of Valentine’s Day gift-giving, I offered up a few ideas for your gift-giving pleasure.

Well…White Day is around the corner, so if you received something from the person you like, now is the time to show your appreciation. Here are a few thoughts for gifts to say “thanks.”

You don’t have time to spend handmaking truffles, but Lindt has done it for you! Here’s a bag of 20 White Chocolate Truffles from Lindor – perfect for you and your honey to share:

Want something completely different, here’s white chocolate covered coffee beans.

Back to the classics: Say “I Love You” with white chocolate roses!

And for folks that can’t or won’t eat white chocolate and are looking for a fun and unusual way to express your feelings, I strongly suggest the amusing, and highly addictive Bella Sara Fantasy Horse Card Game Collector’s Tin:

(I bought the wife a pack on these Friday – she went out Saturday morning and bought more, and is now bidding on eBay for the ones she wants. *Very* addictive and very girly. lol)

Happy White Day from Okazu!

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »


Burst Angel Anime, Volume 5 (English)

March 9th, 2008

This review was made possible by the generosity of Daniel P., and I offer many thanks in his general direction. :-)

Today’s lesson is how you can take a moderately entertaining action series and ruin it, part 37. We’ve talked previously about things like doing reset endings so everything that happened up to that point is rendered meaningless, and getting sidetracked in long, drawn-out and irrelevant back or side story. Today’s lesson is “establish a primary couple as the focus of the story then ignore it completely.”

The early volumes of Burst Angel establish Jo and Meg as the primary couple and set Meg up as the *reason* Jo fights with such gusto. In Burst Angel Volume 5, Meg just about drops off the face of the series.

So we start off with the second half of Jo’s battle with a samurai in an alternate dimension against a monster, which is coincidentally similar to Django and piloted by a girl who is clearly the same as whatever Jo is. She says that Jo has to come back with her, but, no, that’s not happening. Jo fights, wins, we leave the alternate dimension and move on.

We move on to…a filler episode about a cyborg who used to be a classmate of Kyouhei’s. Very tragic.

Then Akane from Osaka drops in and police cybots go beserk and – can you guess? Jo has to fight them! Only, Akane seems to be victim du jour.

And where is Meg in all this? Jo’s boon companion, her Boston Marriage, her raison d’etre? Sitting in the trailer eating pizza and not much more than that.

Once again, I found my attention slipping off every episode, because the thing that made Jo interesting was her dedication to Meg and her passion in saving her. The Jo of this volume appears to get fired up over any old thing donuts, ants, and uses any old excuse for a fight. So…what was the point of Meg in the first place? We don’t even get a nice reunion after Jo and Meg are together again after Jo’s been missing for a while.

Lots of extras, as usual, interviews, radio dramas, American voice cast BSing while an episode plays in the background, and a two-sided DVD cover, which made me think how creatively they manage the costumes for maximum perviness.

Ratings;

Art – 7
Story – 5
Characters – There’s more than one? Seems like Jo’s the only one in the story now. 5
Yuri – 0
Service – 6

Overall – 5

Today’s lesson – don’t forget the winning formula.

Posted in Bakuretsu Tenshi | 2 Comments »


This Week in Yuri

March 8th, 2008

There’s a lot to talk about this week, so let’s jump right in!

The top story this week has got to be that Maria-sama ga Miteru was licensed for release in Region 1. We’ve been squealing about that for a few days, so other than more squealing there’s not much more to say. I did write Right Stuf to ask what their pre-orders looked like in the first 24 hours. I don’t expect to get a reply. :-)

Before there was Utena, before Rose of Versailles, Osamu Tezuka created the first manga girl prince Sapphire, the Ribon no Kishi. And this year writer Takahashi Natsuko and artist Hanamori Pink will be reviving the series in Nakayoshi magazine. The art is way too moe for me, and the story already appears to be very girly and heterosexual, but of course I’ll take a look.

Yuri fan kyouka tells us that there will be a special section of 100 Yuri doujinshi artists at Comitia 84, the Yuribu. If you’re in Tokyo on May 5, get thee over to Big Sight! (And if you *are* going, drop me a line – I’d love to have someone buy for me. lol)

Here’s an important thing! Yuri Monogatari 5 contributor Niki Smith (“Your Hair”) is up for voting on this year’s Tokyopop’s Rising Stars of Manga! Her story “Crabapple Crush” is a Yuri story, so get over there and vote in the People’s Choice vote! Good luck Niki!

And once again, we’ve got some updates on Yuricon:

New Japanese-language Links Page!

On the Yuricon Shop:

Ragnarock City

Finally, Aoi Hana 3

and the newest from the creator of Maka-Maka, Mars no Kiss.

Also, new Yuriko Fanart from JanaP!

And don’t forget our 2008 Poster Contest!

Last up, don’t forget that there are two new contests here at Okazu!

So you have three ways to win prizes. :-)

That’s it for this week’s report, but I don’t doubt that there’ll be plenty more next week!

Posted in Miscellaneous | 4 Comments »


1000th Post and 1,000,000th Visitor Contests

March 7th, 2008

It dawned on me yesterday that I’m about a month and half or so away from my 1000th post here, and probably about three days or so away from my 1 millionth visitor since I started using this stats package, so the last couple of years.

Even though it isn’t really, it seems kind of important; all those zeros, you know? And I want to do *something* to recognize these milestones. Plus I have a lot of fun crap sitting around the house that I can give away. So, I am announcing two contests for readers of Okazu.

The 1 Million Visitor Art Contest:

It’s sort of traditional on Japanese blogs to get “Thank for XXX number of hits” pictures, but I never even check my hits, since most people hit more than one page at a visit. So we’re going with “Thanks for 1 Million Visitors” here.

There’s no rule other than this – a pretty Yuri-themed picture with “Thanks for 1 Million Visitors” on it. The top 7 get posted here – one a day for a week – and prizes. Fair enough? I don’t care if it’s fan art or original, but I’ll probably be biased for original. :-) And nothing explicit. We’re going for “Yay, Yuri!” not “Hawt lesbo sexxors.” ;-)

Send entries to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject line “1 million.”
Include the following:

Your name
Contact info so I can get an address to mail you stuff if you win.

I’ll accept entries until… let’s say March 31.

***

1000th Post Contest:

This one is even easier. Just vote for your favorite post here. That’s all you have to do to enter. I’ll draw names at random from all the entries for prizes. Winners get announced on my 1000th post. :-)

Send entries to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject line “Favorite Post.” I’ll accept entries until Post #990. I don’t know when that is yet, so don’t ask – I’ll announce it. (This is post #954, if that helps.)

Include the following:

Your name
Contact info so I can get an address to send you stuff if you are a winner
The URL of your favorite post here on Okazu
The Title of that Post
Why you like it best

If we get any kind of majority, I’ll name that the best post evar. LOL Otherwise, you all just be entered for prizes.

***

If you have questions, use the comments field, but assume the simple and obvious. I’m not trying to make it hard – I have a loads of small silly fun stuff to give away. I look forward to your entries!

Posted in Okazu News | No Comments »


Maria-sama ga Miteru Licensed by Nozomi/Right Stuf

March 6th, 2008

Nozomi and Right Stuf have an adorable announcement “Nozomi, Right Stuff and the Students and Faculty of Lillian Girls’ Academy are pleased to announce the North American debut of Maria Watches Over Us.” On Lillian stationery.

How cute is that? :-)

So – Good heavens, Marimite is licensed for the US!!!!

We’re getting subtitles only, season box sets for VERY reasonable prices. I am about to go pre-order my copies right now.

…A sign of the end times, surely. Hope I get my DVDs before it all comes crashing down. :-)

Posted in Maria-sama ga Miteru | 9 Comments »