Office Mono
Those of you familiar with
ALC Publishing will no doubt be rolling your eyes at the choice of this circle for review. But, the reason ALC chose to translated and print
Works was that it was really quite good. :-)
Tadeno Eriko is the primary artist of
Office Mono, and I think her art style is clean and easy to enjoy - a nice example of the
josei genre of manga. (Josei is manga targeted towards older girls and women.) Like my other favorite authors, Yamaji Ebine and Rica Takashima, Tadeno-sensei does solid artistic work and had a nice depth to her stories.
Office Mono's series
Lavender of Romance tells a series of stories, some one-shots, some with second and third chapters, about a variety of women in lesbian relationships. There are reasonably few schoolgirls in Tadeno's work - she favors characters that are in the workforce, something that appeals strongly to me. Which is not to say that there are *no* schoolgirls or college-age women in her stories. Another strength of Tadeno's works are the wide variety of ages she covers - everything from the usual high school crushes to older couples who have been together for decades.
In a nutshell, that's the real reason I like her work so much - the variety. (That and a single panel in
Lavender of Romance 6 where a woman is looking at her half-dressed lover (who is short and stubby, much like yours truly) and sees in her mind an adorable stuffed teddy bear. This is the kind of image that anyone in any releationship can totally identify with, even grumpy ole me. :-) It's another idiotic grin moment, definitely.)
So if you want to enjoy this wonderful anthology pictured above, or some of her earlier LoR issues, you can find them available at the
Yuricon Shop or from
Alamo Square Distributors.
Pasterage
Pasterage is one of those circles that is comprised of a really nice guy who gently obsesses on sweet yuri love. Pasterage characters invariably wear frilly dresses (when not in school uniforms) and the stories are invariably adorable and harmless, with a soft edge of goofy to them. I find myself grinning like an idiot when I read them.
The two characters seen in the above picture meet, not surprisingly, in school. Sayuka, on the right, and Shino, left, have a rocky start to their relationship, as Shino is momentarily infatuated by an Utena-like sempai. And after they become a couple, their hand-holding happiness is likewise interrupted by an infatuated kohai, but frilly dresses and yuri googly-ness prevail. Shino and Sayuki live forever in frilly yuri bliss.
And really, what more can we ask from a doujinshi? :-)
Again, no ground-breaking efforts (and no sex in the school library...sorry Jen!) from Pasterage, but here is their lovely
gallery for you to enjoy. :-)
Sakuraike
I've been wanting to talk about some of my favorite doujinshi circles for a while and this seemed as good a time as any...
Sakuraike is right up there in my top ten of yuri doujinshi circles. My first introduction to them was throught their "Tact" series, which told the stories of Satsuki and Kana - two typical high school girls who fall in love, are thwarted from getting together...and finally, finally, manage to have sex in the school library. :-) The "Tact" books include a another series about boyish Mako and her best friend who's name escapes me at the moment. Best friend has to pretty much beat it into Mako's head that she really is attracted to her, because Mako is convinced that her boyishness is off-putting. Silly Mako.
Nothing Sakuraike does is deep or ground-breaking, but I really like the two different styles that their books always include and the characters, even when they angst, seem to get together (and have sex in the school library...), which always makes it a pleasure to read. :-)
The newest doujinshi by Sakuraike includes a story about a straight girl who is a yuri doujinshi artists, and her very gay, very besotted with her girlfriend partner. It's a goofy meta-look at the world of a doujinshi artist, with some in-jokes and insanely cute yuri thrown. And the best part is...we'll have a few copies to sell at Yuricon's
Yuri Revolution event in Tokyo! So if you're planning on joining us in April, you too can enjoy all this yuri goofiness! If we have any copies left at the end of the event, I'll bring them home and put them up for sale on the
Yuricon Shop manga page and give the rest of you a chance at it. It's a really fun little doujinshi.
In any case, visit the
Sakuraike gallery for a few pictures of Satuski, Kana and all their other characters. Enjoy!
Plastic Little
Plastic Little, The Adventures of Captain Tita and her "friend" Elise is a great American comic book of a manga.
Tita is a scavenger, like her father before her. She scavenges the seas of her world in her ship with a loyal group of pirate-y types. Into this neatly amoral lifestyle pops Elise, an irrestibly adorable blonde, whose personal problems embroil Tita and her crew in a larger and more volatile political/legal situation. In other words, the bad guys begin shooting. This is not a bad thing, because it gives Tita a chance to look extrememly butchy as she rescues Elise over and over from various nefarious henchmen.
Because this is a Urushihara Satoshi story, all the women take their clothes off frequently, and show us their breasts constantly. For women on the run, they spend alot of time in the bathtub, but hey, whatever. And of course - everyone looks like their clothes and skin are made out of latex. :-)
While this story has good action, and fun characters, I call it an "American comic" because it also lacks depth - and conviction. While Tita is cool as hell and has Elise hanging off her and cuddling up to her in many a popular screencap, and there's an unmistakable "heroine and her rescuer fall in love" vibe about them, we never really learn anything about either of the characters beyond the superficial comic-book characteristics...and we never see that thing between them develop.
So, while
Plastic Little is fun, and yuri-implicit...it's not really much more.
Ratings:
Art - 8
Characters - 7
Plot - 7
Music - 6
Yuri - 3
Overall - 7
What I would give for Elise to give Tita a big ole' smack on the lips somewhere in this anime....sigh....
ROD The TV, DVD Volume 4
What can I say about
ROD The TV DVD Volume 4 other than, "Omigodomigodomigodomigod!!"
Watching *this* volume of *this* anime is as close to having sex as you can get without doing anything even remotely like having sex.
Episode 13 of ROD is quite possibly one of the best episodes of anime *ever.* Certainly right up in the top three for me. This whole volume had me on the edge of my seat, and I already know what's going to happen - I mean really, how amazing is that? In fact, although I just watched these epsiodes, I kind of want to watch them all over again right now.
In the original TV broadcast, episodes 15 and 16 had serious art degradation, but Geneon announced that this would be corrected in the DVD release - and it was. The art seems a bit over-kill on the shading department now, but it is a big imporvement over the original...and damn straight too, because this is THE volume, kids, THE one! Nenene's big scene was, in the original version scarred by seriously crappy art. Scarred no more, we can sniffle along with Nenene, as she learns just exactly what's been going on for the last five years. (And boy is this volume creepy as hell, as we realize just how nuts Joker and Wendy are.)
The translation seemed a little inconsistent, as the translators occasionally slip into telling us something like what the characters said, as opposed to what they actually said; but there are also a few spots where this translation was significantly better than the fansubbers' - especially in Wendy's exposition of what the real deal is. This mix of science, history, medicine and fantasy is not easy material to be translating. Clearly. And I, for one, applaud the translators for their fine effort.
Best scene ever in any anime ever, for my money, is when Nenene hauls off and belts Joker. I watched it three times, just because it feels so damn good. LOL
The only downside to Volume 4? The pencil board. This one isn't just yucky or offensive - it's downright getting towards illegal. I was NOT happy with this pencil board. If I haven't made it clear, then let me be plain. Lolicon grosses me out the door. And folks who find it sexy gross me out too. I'm sorry, but...you're wrong in the head if you think kids are sex material. I include the folks who decided that this pencil board was a good idea. Hey guys - you were wrong. It wasn't. This was in plain-old bad taste.
Other than the pencil board from hell, this DVD has been the single best purchase on DVD all year. Run, don't walk, to the
Yuricon Shop and get thee thine own copy of ROD The TV Volume 4!
Ratings? 10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10 ad infinitum ad nauseum
Yuricon and Shoujocon team up to present Onna!
Shoujo Arts Society, the organization that backs
Shoujocon, and Yurikon LLC, the company that brings you
Yuricon and
ALC Publishing, have teamed up to create a brand-new, all-in-one festival of women's roles in animation and comics,
Onna!.
Onna! is about women in all aspects of animation and comics; from behind the scenes work in producing, directing, publishing and editing to the more visible writers, artists, voice actors - and even fans! We'll be showing anime for, by and about women and Onna! is planning storng yuri, yaoi, josei tracks, along with shoujo and shounen fare - but don't expect Onna! to be anything like "the usual." Even the anime you already know and love has a lot to tell us, and we'll be exploring all the aspects of anime, manga, western animation and their fandoms that are of interest to, and about women.
We've got some really great guests, fun games and great anime already lined up. So, block off Columbus Day weekend, October 8-10, 2005 on your calendar, and visit the
Onna! website for more information about registration to this special event. :-)
Eve no Ringo/Eve's Apple Manga, Volume 2
Now *this* is good trash!
Eve no Ringo, (
Eve's Apple,) tells of the continuing misadventures of high schooler Kirika, an up-an-coming young manga artist, as she tries to break into the professional manga world. You may remeber from
Volume 1, that she was hired by Blue Velvet, a S&M Ladies Comic.
In Volume 2, Kirika gets a brief chance to move into a much more popular shoujo manga magazine, but the Kind Editor's offer is quashed by a self-proclaimed evil rival. Not content with simply trashing Kirika's dreams, her rival, Mio, sends faxes to Kirika's school, telling anyone who finds them what Kirika is doing in her spare time. Insane rival has fantasies of Kirika being gang-raped by drooling guys who assume that she's a pervert. Instead, when she arrives, rival girl finds that mostly no one knows Kirika, except her small group of friend who think she's plenty nice.
Why didn't the faxes work? *Because*, they were faxed to the Doctor's Office and the person who found them, the school doctor, LOVES Ladies Comics! She gets no less than 5 titles a month! She was so excited to meet Kirika, one of her favorite artists...and then she indulges in a spot of "seduce my favorite artist." Apparently the school doctor is doing research on sex and what turns people on - and she gets Kirika right in the erogenous zone. But the doctor was only testing out her thesis, so poor Kirika is left gasping and moaning, but quite unfulfilled.
The crazy hardcore older mangaka Miyamae from Volume 1 seduces away Kirika's best pal and "research" buddy Matsuda, which leads to a few moments of agonizing and confusion. And Evil Editor takes Kirika on a ride to explore the tawdry world of car sex. No, they don't have car sex, you goofs. Although Kirika was worried there for a moment, too. :-)
And, in the end, Kirika explores S&M with Yumiko, who doesn't "get" it, but wants to make her boyfriend happy. Kirika ties Yumiko up, but she doesn't enjoy that at all. However, when she's got Kirika at her mercy - it all begins to make sense, now! And off Yumiko goes. So, once again, poor Kirika is left alone, gasping and moaning with nowhere to go.
Poor Kirika. That was the refrain all through this volume. This is, as I keep saying, utter, dire trash. But it's funny and fun, and for crap, it's pretty wonderful. :-)
I really hope Kirika gets some of her own in the next volume, I'm kind of feeling bad for her!
Rose Hip Rose
Rose Hip Rose, by Fujisawa Tohru (creator of
GTO,) *should* be great. It has everything I like. So...why did it suck so bad?
Kasumi, aka "Rose Hip Rose," is a full-time school girl, with a little light special operations on the side. She's cool, she's hot, she's got a tattoo of a rose on her inner thigh and she packs a gazillion weapons. She has a run-in with a regular-guy schlub schoolmate on the train, which guarantees that we will never lose this character, that he will fall in love with her and accidentally find himself involved in nearly every chapter in some exceptionally annoying way. In the end, she'll probably come to like him, because that's the way these things go.
But that *wasn't* why this manga sucked.
Kasumi is also part of an elite force of trained-from-childhood special-ops assassin-soldiers and, of course, they have been split up and many of them are assumed to be dead. As soon as Kasumi lets slip that she's probably the only one left alive, another one pops up *immediately,* in the way of such things.
Uber-hip cool schoolgirl operative Natsuki (pictured above) is the most annoying lesbian to ever grace manga...ever.
Natsuki is in love with Kasumi and makes no bones about it. (Kasumi is, of course uninterested, saving herself as she is for the schlubby guy, no doubt.) In fact, Natsuki makes her appearance by saving Kasumi's cute butt and weilding an extra-big gun. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
But, despite being the uber-competent hot lesbo with big gun, Natsuki insists on calling Kasumi "Kasumi-tan." (You have probably run into this honorific with the ridiculously cute and highly pornographic "OS-tans". If not, go search the term on
Google.) "-tan" is meant to be an ootsy-cutesy version of "-chan" and I, and all people with sense, find it highly irritating. It would be like a high school girl calling a guy named Bill "Billy-willy" all the time. Can you feel your teeth clenching yet? Once or twice it would be irksome, but forgivable. As a habit, it is a hanging offense.
This appalling habit of speech, and the fact that
Rose Hip Rose has essentially no plot (running around after a bad guy while he taunts you and kills people is NOT a plot,Tohru!) tanked the series utterly for me. And, of course, the fact that as a lesbian, Natsuki safely only shows interest in the one person she can never have. It may be realistic, but its boring as hell.
If you're looking for a pointlessly violent and repetitive story, with a lesbian thrown in for service,
Rose Hip Rose is your baby.
Ratings:
Art - 8
Story - 4
Character - 4
Yuri -2
Overall - 4
Now, if you're looking for *good* shounen trash, tune in tomorrow. :-)
If it's the weekend, it must be time for another advertisement!!
And so it is.
It has been an utterly brutal week here at Yuri Central, as we fight, erm, chat pleasantly, with the printers, in hopes that the second edition of
Rica 'tte Kanji!?, by Rica Takashima will be available soon. The special pre-order sale of 20% off the cover price is in effect until February 1, so get your orders in today at the
Yuricon Shop.
In our effort to offer high-quality yuri manga to all yuri fandom, we've also added more untranslated manga from Amazon Japan through the Shop's
manga page, including the manga I voted number one most yuri manga of 2004 -
Free Soul, by Yamaji Ebine. None of Yamaji Ebine's work is available in English translation at the moment, although some of her books have been translated into Chinese, French and, I believe, German. But really, her simple, unique art style make translation almost unecessary at times.
So, please do give the Shop a visit, place those orders for
Rica, and get yourself some fine yuri manga!
And have a nice weekend. :-)
Notes from the Second Maria-sama Ga Miteru Novel
For a brief, shining moment, I was not swamped at work and managed to finally finish up reading
Kibara Kakumei, aka
Yellow Rose Revolution Konno Oyuki's second
Maria-sama ga Miteru novel.
As with the
first novel, nothing significant from the second novel was left out of the anime and/or manga. Most of what was left out were little details that, for me, make everyone that much more 3-D and human. (This will probably not be the case so much with the fourth novel,
Rosa Canina which was handled in a single anime episode - I'm sure that we missed quite a bit. The manga hasn't yet begun, so I have nothing to compare the anime with as of yet.)
While I was reading
Kibara Kakumei, I took notes of things that were left out, or mostly, just interesting, so I could share them with those of you who are unlikely to read the novels in Japanese. Here are the things I thought interesting enough to jot down:
Yoshino's bedroom - this is described as looking like a old man's library, with floor to ceiling bookshelves in dark wood, with "incongruous" flowered curtains. In fact, the room *was* a library previously, and it seems to suit Yoshino well. :-)
We get to actually meet
Yoshino's mother for a very short scene, and we can see that she's one sharp cookie. Even though Rei says nothing to her, Mom knows instantly that something has happened between Yoshino and Rei...and she ends her scene with an incredibly complex pun about Rei's family and the stew she's cooking which revolved around the word, "sweet". Basically she was, in one sentence, commenting that Rei's family has their own way of seasoning the stew and that they are too nice for their own good.
Tsutako, as she snaps pictures of girls in the martial arts clubs in various states of (un)dress, thanks God for being born a girl, so she can do things like this! LOL Minako, the newspaper club president, is suitably scandalized. :-)
The most surprising scene in the book begins with Yumi repeating the words,
"Bumper crop?" LOL Shimako has returned to the classroom carrying a vinyl bag full of stinky gingko nuts and chortling to herself. Apparently, Shimako had muttered the phrase as she passed Yumi. I admit - it's put a whole new shade of weird on doll-like Shimako for me.
In the scene after Yumi finds Rei standing in the greenhouse, grieving, and Sachiko pulls Rei back to the Rose Mansion,
Sei and Youko have a scene in which, even as they are explaining why they really can't do much, are doing amazingly much. Their competence is quite stunning. They tell an incensed Sachiko that they can't interfere, but then Sei turns around and asks Shimako to report. The younger girl promptly replies that she can't find Rosa Foetida, and then details what's going on it the school quite coherently. Sei and Youko then go onto explain how the relations between the rose houses work to a still-incensed Sachiko.
Yumi is momentarily
jealous of Rei and Yoshino's closeness and wonders, bitterly, if she were to leave, would Sachiko even notice, much less grieve.
In the novels,
Katsura-san is a much more active gossip-monger than in the anime, where she is just one of many. Katsura also is named to be one of the girls in Yumi's class who breaks with her grande soeur, as a way of imitating Yoshino. All in all, some five girls *in Yumi's class* return rosaries...so you get a better idea of just how much of a ripple effect Yoshino's actions are having.
Sei also explains, in the discussion with Yumi about
Eriko's behavior *why* Rosa Foetida's nature has any bearing on this situation. In a nutshell, someone like Eriko, who always knows what's going to happen as the outcome of her actions, wouldn't do anything to interfere with Rei and Yoshino - because she would find this unpredictable, and hence, fascinating. I don't think the anime made this connection, quite. It helped me understand Eriko a little more - and also explains why she chose Rei as her soeur.
One of the scenes that was entirely cut out consists solely of
Yoshino pacing in front of the hospital and we get to see how really, she's terribly frightened of the surgery - and feeling very alone. I liked this short scene alot - I think it gave Yoshino a depth that had, until that moment, been lacking. I've said it before, but it remains true, that I sympathize with Yoshino most of all the characters - and I *totally* knew how she felt while she tried to be brave enough to do what she had to do.
Yumi comments intelligently that, with all the fuss going on at Lillian, Yoshino doesn't even know about any of it...and she's probably be appalled to find out. But it's Yumi that accidentally lets Yoshino know...and she finds it all hysterical.
During the scene when Yoshino is telling Yumi about the mistakes in the newspaper survey; again, we get the sense that Yoshino is very alone. (We know from an earlier conversation with Katsura, Yumi's classmate, that Yoshino has no friends in her class because she's out so often. And we learn that although Yoshino and Yumi have both been attending Lillian since infancy, they really haven't ever been in a class together, so Yumi is not really familiar with Yoshino - or how her health affects her and the people around her. Katsura describes in lurid detail what one of Yoshino's seizures look like.) As Yoshino tries to explain her relationship with Rei - and the flaws in it, we get the feeling that
Yoshino is desperately reaching out to Yumi so that someone, somewhere, understands her. It's the first sign that she and Yumi will become real friends, which is nice.
When
Rei finally has her meltdown - in the arms of a teacher - she uses exactly the same phrases to describe her relationship with Yoshino as Yoshino did to Yumi...which heightens how much denial she'd been in.
Ultimately, at the end, when Yoshino shows Rei the scar (and gets yelled at by the nurse afterwards for doing so) Rei says it makes
Yoshino look like a pirate - so that explains THAT doujinshi! LOL
Last thing.
Sei eats REALLY strange stuff. Yumi comes to the Rose Mansion and find Sei eating a taromasalata and mayo sandwich and drinking green tea, while Youko is eating onigiri and drinking black tea. Yumi thinks that they should switch drinks for consistency. :-)
Taromosalata sandwich???? Yumi thinks that that's the kind of thing that only a die-hard fan would eat. As a dip for pita, taromosalata is *excellent*, but I kind of agree with Yumi...a sandwich of it would be odd. :-) I assume that this choice of food was meant to heighten Sei's "strangeness" and foreign qualities, which becomes important in the next novel.
I've just started to read the next novel,
Ibara no Mori/Shiroi Hanabira, the
Forest of Thorns/White Petals, and already some of the above trends are repeated. I promise to report back on the things we missed as soon as I'm done!
Azumanga Daioh, DVD Vol. 6
Short review, today, on a short volume of short vignettes about a short period in one's life.
Well, here we are at the final volume of
Azumanga Daioh, and as with my first viewing, I'm kind of bummed. Only this time, I know why.
This entire series, which up to now has focused on goofball comedy, all of a sudden gets entirely too maudlin for me at the end.
Well, that, and there's only three episodes on the DVD.
BUT, we do get those excellent liner notes, another pin (Of a cat! How unexpected!) This time the pin is Maya, the Iriomote cat which adopts Sakaki-san. - something that, while I won't wear, at least *liked*. And we get the
Azumanga Daioh mini-movie as an extra on the DVD, which was nice, but still not nearly as funny as the TV series was.
Lastly, in the final few moments of the story, we get one last shot of yuri obsession, as Kaorin spends a tense moment trying to explain, rather urgently, just how *important* it was that she get a copy of that picture Tomo took of her and Sakaki-san. :-)
It's nice to know that I can visit this crowd whenever I'm in need of a laugh, and overall, ADV did a reasonable job with it. Thumbs up for this last volume in this excellent series.
Final Ratings for Azumanga Daioh on DVD from ADV:
Story - 9
Characters - 9
Art - 7
Music - 8
Translation - 8
Extras - 9
Yuri - 8
Overall - 8.5
A very worthwile addition to any anime (and yuri) fan's collection.
Stellvia of the Universe, DVD Vol. 2
Remarkably,
Stellvia of The Universe really *is* the good, the bad and the ugly all at once.
What with the utter dearth of anything interesting at all this new anime season, it's a good thing that so many of last year's best series are now available on DVD for decent viewing for the western yuri fan.
Before move into today's review, let me just plug two things:
To purchase this DVD and other fine yuri anime series, please visit the
Yuricon Shop where the new
Yuri Anime page has opened! We've included some of the best yuri-related series available and more will be coming in the near future, including
Stellvia. (In fact, I'll make sure to add Stellvia tonight, in case this review makes you want to run out and buy the DVD! LOL)
Secondly, if you'll notice in the right-hand column of this web log, there is a single Google advertisment.
Yuricon and ALC take a tremendous amount of time and money to run, and so, I am doing every possible thing I can to make a few cents to help get yuri manga, events and community out there to you. This web log gets about 160 visitors a day. If each one clicks the link in the ad, and futzes around at that site for a second or two, I'll get a few cents that I can put into new yuri manga or events. It wil only take a second or two and trust me - I *really* appreciate it! So, if you enjoy this weblog, click the Google Ad and help me out. To those who do, I give my heartfelt thanks.
All that having been said, let me get back to the good, the bad and the ugly of the second volume of
Stellvia.
Let's start with the good.
I had forgotten how much I actually enjoyed this series the first time around. As cynical as I am, I found myself getting into it all over again. Yes, I know the story, yes, I know all the (few) twists coming in the plot, but you know - the characters are really quite interesting and I found myself getting really into what was going on, despite myself. :-)
I realized that, at least here back at the beginning of the story, the lead character, Shima, is really more interesting than I remembered. Even though Shima is another idiot savant-type character who fails utterly every first time she tries a thing, but then, inexplicably, excels beyong everyone else, she's still someone you can care about.
The Yayoi/Ayaka story is more compelling than I remembered, as well. I'm a sucker for a rich backstory - and of all the cast members, really, only these two have a life prior to Shima's arrival. The fact that they are a yuri couple notch them up in interest level for me. The fact that they are voiced by Orikasa Fumiko (Meia in
Vandread, Ruki in
Digimon Tamers) and Toyoguchi Megumi (Layla Ashley in
Avenger, Satou Sei/Rosa Gigantea in
Marimite, Meg in
Bakuretsu Tenshi,) puts them right there up on the top ten for me of all the anime lesbians on
The List at Yuricon. The fact that their backstory isn't a happy one makes it that much more interesting to me.
However, the absolute best thing was *exactly* as I remembered - the dialogue. For all that the characters do not look their ages - they definitely, definitely *sound* their ages. It was really refreshing...even though this was a re-watch.
Now for the bad - this DVD has three episodes, no extras and boring packaging. It looks like we're getting the same exact nothing they got in Japan...and given the full price of the DVD, it hurts a little.
And the ugly - The CG art is way better than I remembered, but oh my god, is the regular animation...inconsistent. No, wait, it's just plain terrible. I mean, the characters start out looking five years younger than they are, which I find annoying, but...but in episode 6, the art simply collapses into appallingly shoddy, unforgivably awful work. This was particularly distressing as the plot is really thickening just about then too. Shima's neck was disturbingly long, the faces were frequently askew, Arisa almost never had a whole face at all and Yayoi looked like she spent the episode wearing a wig that kept sliding. Awful, awful, awful. The bad art was genuinely distracting, which is not a good thing.
Yuri-wise, this series is definitely still worth a look. In this volume, we are getting serious tension building between Yayoi and Ayaka, and I even have to admit that Arisa's reactions to Shima and Kouta's growing closenesss look awfully like resigned jealousy, something I missed completely the first time around.
Like I said way back when I reviewed it the
first time,
Stellvia is still a space opera, but still a really, genuinely enjoyable one.
The Girl Got The Girl, But....
Well,
Kannazuki no Miko ended, and Chikane and Himeko ended up together, but, really, it made NO sense at all.
Do we care?
Not really.
It doesn't matter that "eternity" seemed to last no more than about 3 minutes, and that raping a person so that they will kill you is a stupid idea, and that the whole mecha thing was a giant waste, and the bad guy was a complete nothing....it doesn't matter because Chikane confessed her love and her physical desire for Himeko, who basically told her that she wouldn't kick her out of bed and kisses Chikane in a nice visual parallel to the kiss at the end of the first episode (which, by the way, proved me wrong, because in my
first review of
Kannazuki no Miko, I was pretty sure they would *not* get together. Wrong again. LOL)
Because pictures are sometimes actually worth a thousand words, I will eschew a description of the insensible ending and simply offer a picture which not only succinctly summarizes the end of the series, but is also highly amusing. This magnificently succinct picture was drawn by Juji and is now used here with permission of the artist, for which i am imminsely grateful! This was meant to summarize the first episode, but it seems to work for the last - and many of the middle episodes, as well. :-) Thanks Juji!
And there you have it. The end of
Kannazuki no Miko, as interpreted by a genius among fans. We await sequels with bated breath. :-)
Now You See Yuri, Now You Don't
A little fan enthusiasm goes a long way towards making a mediocre anime slightly less mediocre. Sadly, even implied yuri could not save
Uta-Kata or
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha from endings that will ensure that they disappear into the oblivion they so richly deserve.
These two series were so unininspiring that for
Uta-Kata I'm just quoting my comments from the
Yuricon Mailing List, rather than even come up with new ones:
Uta-Kata ended with a soft thud. To no one's surprise, the whole thing turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy that will perpetuate eternally. My biggest complaint was that the so-called "rules" of the engagement seemed to be violated completely by the last chapter. Saya goes on and on about "the rules" but Ichika has no options on absorbing and using her jin power. It was a set-up and an obvious one at that.
The faux-yuri kiss at the end was designed entirely for screencaps - it had no other meaning. I felt nothing about Manatsu's departure... how sad is that?
Oh, and my last whinge about it, the big secret that Ichika was keeping, (which wasn't that she was absorbing the powers of god-like beings, oh, no...)just...disappeared. All of a sudden, she wasn't moving away, which sucked the little meaning there was out of the previous episode. Once again, it may have been explained in the
dialogue while my attention wandered, but as "system reset" endings go, it seemed exceptionally lame.
And Keiko and Satsuki's relationship disappeared into the same chasm Ichika's secret did, so there goes any canon yari.
***
As for
Lyrical Nanoha, the ending was predictable, stereotypical and stock. Fate and Nanoha finally team up to fight Fate's crazy evil Mom, who, predictably, loses. Fate ends up under arrest for her crimes against humanity - regardless of the fact that she was a construct created by crazy evil mom and was tortured on a regular basis. Nanoha feels guilty, wants to see Fate, etc. Tearful ending, lots of hugging and crying and "there, there" and sure, if you want to, you can easily see a proto-yuri relationship there. If you want to to.
Let's say we do want to - where does that leave us? Nanoha growing up with her lover in space jail, getting rare conjugal visits, maybe a letter or two a year from Fate, asking for more money for the appeal...try explaining *that* to the rest of the gang at school.
No...I think we're going to have to say that this series was a wash for yuri fans.
Ratings? Surely you jest. Well, 5's all around, if you insist.
Phantom Memory Kurau: Good Anime, Bad End
\Usually you can tell when an anime is going to suck, but in the case of
Phantom Memory Kurau, they had me fooled right up to the very end.
Back in November when I
first reviewed Kurau, I had two beliefs - that it was a brilliant series, and that it had very little yuri. Well, I find my opinion now 100% reversed on both counts.
What was a finely crafted exploration of science and emotion, love and friendship and ethical ecological and humanitarian responsibility, in the end, became nothing more than a weak fairy tale. I maintain that the final episode was written by a 6 year-old who, when questioned about what should happen said, "They all got married and had babies and lived *happily* ever after! The End!"
In the beginning, there was alot of good material between tough-as-nails cop Ayaka and mystical-powered-agent Kurau, a lot of love and shared experience between Kurau and her Rynax "twin" Christmas...and in the end, there wasn't anything. Just Ayaka going off with her child, and Kurau, having been stripped of her Rynax entities and the power they brought, has becomes stale, flat and unprofitable...and a mother, although apparently, not a wife. Only Christmas is left, alone with her Rynax energy, until, unexplained (and inexplicably) a new Kurau-Rynax clone appears to fulfill her dreams and bring her happiness. The end.
I spit nails for a long while after watching this last episode, I admit. I don't understand why they chose such a shoddy, pat ending to what had been right up through the penultimate episode, so excellent.
However, in retrospect, my opinion of the yuri potential of the series has changed. In the beginning, I stated that Kurau and Christmas seemed more like sisters to me than lovers - especially as Christmas had been formed from Kurau's own Rynax energy. But it was a side story that changed my mind. In this side story, we encounter a young boy, also a Rynasapien, who is desperately looking for his "twin" (Rynax, apparently, function well only in pairs.) I had assumed that all Rynax pairs were like our idea of twins - two beings who are related, in this case, by the Rynax energy...in other words, a kind of sibling. So it was a bit incest-y for me to imagine Kurau and Christmas as lovers.
In the side arc, the boy (whose name is escaping me at the moment...) who is looking so intently for a twin finally finds one and finds some happiness for a short while. It's a tragic arc, but there is no doubt that they have bonded deeply and permanantly by the end of the arc. So, clearly, Rynasapien do *not* have a pre-determined twin, but can find one as chance allows. Which means that they are not, a priori, related or bound to each other. Which means it can be a kind of love that brings them together, as opposed to a kind of energy-bond.
You see where I'm going with this? In short, Kurau *could* be in something that looks more like love with Christmas than, say, sisterly affection, and vice versa. Now...I'm going to hold on to the fact that the first Kurau and Christmas had that sisterly relationship. But the second Kurau, the one made up of only Rynax energy and Christmas' hopes...*that* one could be, if we so desired, love. So, yeah, based on that, I'll up the yuri rating.
But the overall still goes down because the ending totally blew.
Ratings:
Story - 7
Character - 9
Art - 8
Music - 8
Yuri - 7
Overall it drops to a 7 because it was, *overall* a good series, but the final episode was a 1. Maybe a -1, because I felt like they owed me when it was all over.
Just watch the first 23 episodes, the go write your own ending - you'll be a happier person for it.
Live Action: PGSM/ Beginnings and Endings
A very Happy New Year to all you yuri and shoujoai fans!
I thought I'd start the new year off by posting some wrap-up comments on last years's anime, mostly to kill some time while the new season takes shape. ;-) But also, there were very many good thing and bad from last year that deserve final wrap-up comments.
Let's start with one of the most fun things that 2004 brought us,
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the live-action Sailor Moon television series.
As you may remember from my
July entries on this fabulous show, there was tons of yuri potential and implicit yuri - enough to start a wave of fan-created works for another ten years.
But to wrap up I really wanted to focus on one relationship...the one that subsumed all others by the end. Rei and Minako. The screen started to curl at the edges when they starred into each other's eyes, and by 2/3 of the way through the series, I was not the only one screaming "Get a room!" everytme they interacted. But it was in the ridiculously predictable, completely implausible and really silly finale of this series that drove home the Rei x Minako thing.
Because, you see...Minako died. Our beloved pop idol and hearthrob to everyone in my household, succumbs to whatever mysterious disease she had, and dies. They did an entire epsiode where the Senshi deal with nothing else but this single fact. And boy did Rei grieve, just exactly like a woman who has lost her lover grieves. Not like a good friend (Ami and Makoto did that), but definitely as a lover.
And in the end, Rei goes postal. And damn she did it well. But when she returns to herself, and fights one last time to save the earth (and dies...of course, because the Senshi dying comes as regularly as Old Faithful) when she calls her weapon into her hand...there in her other hand, is Minako's weapon.
(A quick aside - all of the Senshi get weapons in PGSM. Sailor Jupiter gets the long-handled weapon, so that fits nicely with her planet really being an Outer planet, not one of the little wimpy Inner ones....)
So, in the end, there's Rei, fighting not only with her own power, but with Minako's too, and there we are, two 40 year old women crying like babies because we're complete losers. LOL Waaaah!!!!
Oh, of course everyone comes back to life, but you knew that. And we're all reunited and live happily ever after, because this is Sailor Moon and that's what we do.
But let me tell you - Rei and Minako were SO the item. It really made alot of the stupider parts of the end worth it. And I was really glad to see that the folks who brought us PGSM didn't leave the yuri fans out in the cold. :-)
So, if you've been putting off watching PGSM because it looks cheesy and predictable, well...it is, but it's also yuri-riffic, which is always a good reason to get recommended daily supply of Senshi. :-)
Final Ratings for PGSM:
Story - 8
Character - 10
S/fx - Hahaha
Costumes - 8
Yuri - 8
Overall - 9
If you didn't watch PGSM before, really....do. It's quite wonderful. Then put your hands together and repeat after me, "Please gods, let us get to the Outers".
