Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl
Since we're on the topic of Dengeki, let's talk
Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl. Again, adorable, not-quite-girl yuri that's a lot of fun to read.
Hazumu is an alien. An alien guy. Through a freak accident, he ends up on earth as a female human in high school. I have no idea how he ends up in that state, I haven't ever read the beginning of the story - I promise to tell you when I get around to it. (Or maybe a faithful reader can enlighten us.)
Hazumu is an endearing character...in fact "she" endears herself almost immediately to Tomari and Yasuna, two female classmates who are undeniably in love with Hazumu.
Tomari is a blonde, and tends towards the ever-so-slightly butch, while Yasuna, a brunette, is a total femme. The two have a friendly rivalry about Hazumu which, because of their completely different personalities, hasn't really erupted in any kind of conflict.
Hazumu is also desired by a male classmate Asuta who has, typical of men in these kinds of manga, no balls. He simply fantasizes from a close distance and tries to convince himself he doesn't care. He's your basic nosebleed boy. Bwahahaha! Gosh, we just can't ever get enough of that joke...ha.
There's a host of other regulars including Ayuki, a very introspective and attractive schoomate who I like on account of her not being any kind of comedic relief and "Sora"-sensei, a guy who is clearly also an alien (his name is spelled with the kanji for "alien") who is watching over Hazumu.
To be frank, I have read only two chapters of this series, and despite my initial reservations, it is kinda sweet and cute, in an unhurried and pleasant way. I expect no resolution of the love triangle, but one can hope. I'll probably go back and get the early volumes to see what I missed - eventually.
On the down side, Hazumu's reactions swing from completely human to, "Gee, these humans are strange, I don't understand why they wish to do this thing." It jars a bit - but it serves to remind us that Hazumu is not a human nor, really, a girl.
The art is typical of the genre and...hoorah!...there is little loli sign. The girls are teens, but at least they vaguely look like the manga-standard approximation of the high school age. I weep with gladness.
Ratings:
Art - 6
Characters - 7
Story - 7
Yuri - 9
Overall - 7
Low rating for such a totally yuri story? Let me see a real kiss and it'll go up. :-)
Pure Marionation, Volume 2
All's well that ends well, in
Pure Marionation, another too-cute-for-words yuri from the folks at Dengeki/Mediaworks.
Back in
December 2004 I wrote a review of the first volume, which was fairly lukewarm. This is certainly a yuri story - with a happy ending and everything, and after reading it, I can now definitely suggest it to those who like the "cute and sweet" kind of yuri.
If you remember,
Pure Marionation is the story of Anon, a "marionette" or android cute girl. Ostensibly, she is enrolled in Waffle High (no, seriously, that's the name) to test out her AI, codenamed ALIS. Immediately, Anon's secret is discovered by classmate Miamo, who is sworn to secrecy and determines to protect Anon from...I'm not sure what.
Anon meets and befriends Aina, and the story, what there is of it, begins. The entire second volume is given over to their growing love for one another. The crises they face are small, and seem to involved an inordinate amount of undressing. lol But mostly, it's all about Aina becoming more and more aware that she doesn't just love Anon as a friend, but wants to do things with her which one doesn't do with other girls.
I'm going to make two small comments before I get to the good part. One: the setup with Anon's ALIS being tested sort of fall apart when it turns out that there are like a gazillion marionettes already at Waffle HS. So...what are we "testing" if the system already works so well that we've got half a dozen of these things walking around without being discovered? And the introduction of an even *cuter* next generation ALIS to be Anon's little sister did not make me happy. It was Usagi and Chibi-Usa all over again. The new marionette falls for, of course Aina, and a war of affection ensues, which was at least resolved quickly.
My second comment...Dengeki has a real loli streak which, as we all know, doesn't do it for me. It must be a guy thing, because when guys tell me that a story is a "cute" yuri story I see a loli story...and I wonder why they don't see that. It worries me, it really does. These characters are 15-16, but they are drawn to look way younger and it just really, honestly creeps me out. I think that 15-16 is way too freakin' young as it is. Give me 25 and I'll be a happy person.
Second and a half complaint, erm, comment - Dengeki also does quite a bit of "not quite real yuri" with girls who are not human or not really girls. Yes, its still yuri, because the character who falls in love with the protagonist is still in love with a girl...but for some bizarro reason, probabaly because I'm a lesbian, I'd really much rather see two girls (preferably women, thank you) who are both actual girls (or women) fall in love with each other. I appear to be in a minority in the manga world. Maybe real women just aren't cute enough.
Okay, all that having been whined,
Pure Marionation DOES have a really romantic and happy ending! :-)
Anon comes to realize that she is really in love with Aina. She decides to confess to Aina that she is a marionette and, assumably, that she is in love with her. At which point Aina pulls away from the object of her desire completely. The school festival is coming up - Aina is on the organizing committee, which affords her a gazillion excuses to avoid Anon. Anon's little marionette heart breaks and she chalks it up to the heartbreak of first love, but she's one unhappy little AI.
Meanwhile, every single other girl in the school is rooting for Anon and Aina to get together, which is kinda nice. They seem to be planning something, but have the good graces to not be obvious.
The school festival finally arrives - the highlight of the which is going to be a fashion show of wedding dresses (can you see where this is going?) and Anon and Aina are both supposed to be in the show.
Anon is all kitted out, but Aina is nowhere to be found. JUST as Anon is supposed to go out, Aina comes in late, is shoved into a tux(!) just in time to walk out on Anon's arm.
From out of nowhere a girl dressed like a nun shows up and performas a marriage ceremony and tells the two to kiss...which they do. The entire school burst into "Waaaah" and applause for them.
Okay, despite my earlier complaints, this was a *really* cute ending.
The epilogue tapers away in a small bout of painfully happy embarassment and the promise of a future together.
So, yes this is yuri - Aina is human and she definitely fals in love with a person she thinks is a girl - and she physically desires her, so ther is NO question about the nature of their love. And Anon is a female marionette, so it's not like she was a guy or partly a guy or anything, even if she isn't really human.
If either loli-ish art or the not-entirely-human-girl thing bothers you, then this is probably not your cup of tea (and I would recommend avoiding
Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl and most other current Dengeki yuri, as well.)
I did enjoy
Pure Marionation, but it doesn't stop me from wishing that Dengeki went back to the old
Battle Athletes model of high-school love, with girls who look older, rather than younger, than their ages.
Ratings:
Art - 7 well done, just not to my taste
Story - 7
Characters - 8
Yuri - 10
Overall - 8, but your mileage may vary.
ROD The TV, Volume 5
I will never get tired of writing about
ROD The TV - are you tired of hearing about it? Too bad! In fact, I may have to rewatch it in about 6 months, just to write about it again. lol
In a nutshell,
ROD The TV is, by Volume 5, full on into the second "season" and neck deep in complicated plot. This is not an anime for people who like to do something else while watching TV. You really need to *pay attention.*
Amazing action, wonderful storytelling, the plot deepens without becoming mired in tediousness, even when it's all backstory and confession. Wendy and Joker are consummate baddies, if only because they otherwise seem perfectly normal, and our gang of heroes turn out to be some of the coolest, most admirable and bitchin'est women in anime. All of them. While the backstory definitely fills in some blanks, it actually serves to make the plot more complicated - and the characters as well. Did i mention good storytelling? For once, I feel that the writers really did an excellent job in crafting a plot and carrying it through to the very end. Every episode ends on a damn decent cliffhanger - something that is not easy to do at all.
But what really stands out in this volume for me is the poignant and apparently unresolvable love triangle of Yomiko, Nancy and Nenene. And they make no bones about it - it's shown for what it is, two women who want nothing more than to be the emotional prop for a third, who doesn't have the fortitude to decide between them. And oh my *god* is it good! I'm not a big fan of unresolvable sexual tension, but...oh yeah baby, this volume rocks, for that one thing alone.
The art is pretty consistent, which was a nice change, but the translation was *terrible*. Very dubtitled. There were quite a few scenes I found myself correcting the subtitles mentally, which I think does a terrible disservice to the fans. "I didn't want to get you involved" and "I didn't want to get you in trouble" are NOT the same thing at all. They are the same syllable count for the dub - why didn't you translate it the right way, Geneon? Lazy, lazy, lazy. Points off for that.
The packaging is, as always, good, with double-sided cover and mini-poster. The pencil board is, once again, highly distressing. Not criminal so much as awful, awful, awful art. What exactly is Nancy's left breast doing? And why is Junior's torso so horribly elongated? These are questions which will likely never be answered...
If you haven't watched any of
ROD The TV don't start in the middle. You can do that with, say,
Sailor Moon, but not this series. Wait for the final volume to come out and get the box set, then turn off the phone and computer, invite intelligent friends over and marathon as much as you can watch. (We've done all of the
Sailor Moon S season in one day and all of
Marmalade Boy in two, so a mere 26 episodes should be easy!)
Ratings? 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10.
Run, don't walk, the the
Yuricon Shop and get your copy today! Then join us on the
Yuricon Mailing List to delight in the moment when Nenene wins our collective hearts by belting Joker in the face. :-)
Passion Fruit, Vol. 1: Sweat and Honey
From the only publisher who has really attempted to market josei manga, Tokyopop, comes the first volume of an intriguinging collection,
Passion Fruit: Sweat and Honey. I say "intruiging" because while it had some definite merit, and I'm glad I read it, I'm not entirely sure I *enjoyed* it.
Special thanks to faithful reader and beloved sycophant Sean Gaffney for pointing me in the direction of this volume. :-)
Folks who read
Cookie magazine will be familiar with the artist of this particular anthology, and if you've visited the
Lililicious website and looked at the
Shibuya series, again, you'll see the familiar style of Okazaki Mari, who was also a contributor to
Yuri Shimai magazine. Clearly a "friend of Yuri's."
(Wouldn't that be a fun new code to use? Everyone knows the old "friend of Dorothy". right? Yuri fans could say that we're "friends of Yuriko". LOL)
This collection had several stories that included some yuri-sh interaction, but none of the stories end with the girl getting the girl...in fact, in most cases that was a relief. As with most short story anthologies, the characters were rather more dysfunctional than usual and the endings tended towards pat. But that's a fault with short stories in general and shouldn't put you off this particular collection.
The first story, "After Sex A Boy's Sweat Smells Like Honey," is an ambiguous tale of two female cousins. One of them is initially repulsed by the other's fragility, but in comparison to the men she is seeing, comes to find her more and more appealing.
"About Kusako" was, to me, a very disturbing story. Moeko finds a girl growing out of the ground, like grass, as she walks her dog. (Hence the name, "Kusako," which would mean "grass girl".) Kusako is incapable of moving, so Moeko waters her and shields her from the hot sun and generally grows fond of Kusako. Moeko returns to the field after a prolonged period of time to find Kusako withered and dying, but small Kusakos everywhere. If this kind of stuff lived in my head, I'd be creeped out.
"Sister" was my favorite story. A young woman's older neighbor passes out nearly every night on her doorstep. Out of duty and kindness, she drags the woman in and tucks her into bed. Eventually, she confronts the neighbor about her miserable life, only to learn that she knows *nothing* about her...except that she loves this "old hag". I won't give away the ending, because I really liked it. :-) No, it isn't yuri, but it was pretty great.
"The Land Where Rain Starts To fall" has a *very* similar feel to the "Shibuya" series Okazaki-sensei wrote for
Cookie. It's a vignette of an apparently dysfunctional couple - Kaya, who refuses to come to school and Kumi, who seems appallingly low self-esteemy-y. They engage in some sexual play, ostensibly to seduce or annoy Kaya's older brother. The vibe off of Kaya is heavily incestuous, Kumi seems more like a plaything. But she's actually completely aware of Kaya's machinations, and goes along with them willingly. In the end, the girl does not get the girl, but this series has, perhaps, the happiest ending in the volume.
The last story was written by Hiratsuka Mari, and is a bittersweet nostalgic look at boys in school and their too-sexy-for-her-own-good teacher. It was cute and fluffy.
I'm still not sure I'm comfortable with her art or her storytelling. The art is too loose for me to find appealing, while the stories are too tense...but those are the very qualities that make her stories, even the short ones, work.
Ratings would be variable, so let's call it an overall 7.
No, it isn't the 100% yuri we all long for, nor is it happy, really, but I definitely think
Passion Fruit Volume 1 is definitely worth getting. Support josei manga, support yuri themes in Tokyopop manga and cough up a few bucks for
Sweat and Honey.
Dengeki Daioh Monthly Magazine
Why didn't any of you *tell* me that
Dengeki Daioh had so much yuri-riffic manga!?! Sheesh...crappy fans you are. ;-)
Anyway - quick review today of
Dengeki Daioh, the monthly magazine that has brought fans of shounen yuri about a bazillion series.
I have said over and over that Dengeki is our friend. We should all run out and demand an anime of
Hayate Cross Blade. Geneon appears to be making just about every freakin' other series in the book into an anime...
Here's the March and April rundown of yuri-flavored in
Dengeki Daioh:
Hayate Cross BladeNiNin ga Shinobuden - yes, *that* Shinobuden. And March's chapter had Shinobu dressing like a boy and sweet talking Kaede half into bed. Until Shinobu gets jealous of herself and reveals the act. lol
Sokyuu no Fanfir - this is based on a novel series which I have read reviews that state that there is yuri. I have no first-hand information myself.
Yostubato - You know this one, right? By the author of
Azumanga Daioh, it has a questionably yuri older sister and "friend."
Uta-Kata - and bizarrely, I came in on the chapter that was dealing with Episode 9's budding yuri relationship between keiko and Satsuki. Good timing, huh?
Kashimashi Girl meets Girl - no, I haven't reviewed this yet. Be patient.
There's a load of other decent series, like
Starship Operators and some that other people find decent and have been made into anime, that I don't care for so will simply pretend don't exist. lol
Anyway - if you have disposable income, like to read raw manga and want something worth your time, grab a copy of
Dengeki Daioh.
Ikkitousen DVD Volume 3
God help me, I *really* enjoyed
Ikkitousen Vol. 3. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I'm seriously thinking about going home and rewatching it again. Today.
In a nutshell, this volume of the anime version of
Wani Comics' offensively fanservicey, trashy, faux-historical/martial arts epic, details the transformations of Housen Ryofu from psychotic lackey into honorable uber-warrior and Shimei Ryomou from psychotic loner into super-vassal. And despite myself, I really enjoyed the hell out of it.
Ryofu wakes up with the realization that she is dying, and decides to go out with a bang. She's determined to take Toutou out before she goes - a fine goal, in my opinion. She heads off to a mountain hot spring to train with *the* master and gain an undefeatable technique and the strength to go with it. Before she leaves, she explains to Chinkyuu why she has to do this, and Chinkyuu responds by explaining why she will stay with Ryofu until the very end. In a single volume, Ryofu goes from being a superficial baddie, to a surprisingly deep heroine.
In the meantime, Goei has brought Hakufu and Koukin (who remains THE most annoying character in the series) to the same hot spring, in order to train. Well - they are there to train, she's there to "take the water" as they say in Jane Austen. Hakufu almost immediately runs into Ryomou who has been drawn there for reasons that remain obscure and convenient.
At the hot spring Ryomou has an epiphany. Well, one epiphany and the beginning of a second. Firstly, she meets and is wowed by Goei, whose casual sensuality simply blows her away enough to remove the stick from her ass for a second.
Then, when she and Hakufu meet Ryofu on a mountain path, Ryomou realizes that her true fate is, was and always will be to serve Hakufu and protect her. In a single defiant gesture, she stands before Ryofu to protect Hakufu with her life. Ryofu laughs, says she doesn't have the time and runs off.
In the meantime, Chinkyuu makes a bad decision which ends up getting her raped and tortured at the command of Toutaku's lackey, Kaku Bunwa. Bunwa is one of those second-in-commands that you enjoy watching being taken down, because she thinks she's so clever, but she ain't. I'm sure you know the type. When Bunwa tells Ryofu about Chinkyuu, Ryofu goes off to save her lover/vassal in a stunningly impressive display of coolness and ki. Ryofu notches up several ranks of wow as she blows the life out of Bunwa's enforcers without hardly moving. Waaaahhhhh....coooollll.... I just love a woman who can blow a man's heart out of his chest.
Ryomou, having determined to serve Hakufu to the death, runs off to see "her" again. Not Hakufu...Goei. Bing Bing! We got a winner here! Ryomou discovers Goei falling to her knees in the street, as she has just met the Fighter that, historically, killed Hakufu. Goei begs Ryomou to protect her daughter and, Ryomou, in her second epiphany, swears to make sure that Goei is never sad. From vassal of the daughter, to serving the mother in one smooth move. Yay Ryomou!
Some other stuff happens - we learn why Toutaku always has bandages on his body, but you know...who cares? And we're supposed to care about the dragon that is awakening within Hakufu, too. But we don't, do we? Because *we're* watching the yuri-fest going on in the background. LOL In any case, Koukin will do all our worrying for us, so we're free to watch the cool chicks.
The yuri goggles are getting dusty on the shelf while we watch this volume, I can tell you. The yuri is so blatant, starting with Ryofu's waking up naked next to Chinkyuu right down to Ryomou vowing to keep Goei from ever being sad.
Yes, there's fanservice, but I simply tune it out now. And for once, there's actual nipples instead of that wretched convention of clothes that have exploded but conveniently hang down *just* to cover the nipples and groin, which I find absolutely tedious. In some ways, the fanservice was *less* stupid because it was more overt. At least it was more honest and less coy.
One final rave about this particular volume - the pencil board did not actually suck! Can you believe it? On the one side is Ukitsu (the Fighter who is supposed to destroy Hakufu) looking seductive and sweet as opposed to kick-ass, which I always find to be a disservice. But! On the other side is *my* favorite character, Goei. Yes, Hakufu's mother. LOL What can I say? I adore her. Anyway, there she is mostly dressed, while her kimono falls sexily around her. She looks just as sensual and aware as she does in the actual show - no frontal lobotomy here. So this pencil board wins. I may actually use it, instead of locking it away with the
ROD The TV boards in the "please don't think I like these" collection.
I'll be honest,
Ikkitousen is NOT a *good* anime. But given this series' general suckiness, this DVD is a good volume. (And, for the record, the anime is significantly superior to the manga, which you'll notice I have not reviewed. Be patient.)
The yuri rating for
Ikkitousen, Vol. 3 is an easy 9. All the other ratings remain as before.
One last thing - we do have all of
Ikkitousen available at the
Yuricon Shop. If you're interested in getting this series, you want to go through our site, if only because Amazon has the various volumes all listed with slightly different spellings and it's damn hard to find them. We've collected them in one place, to make it easier for you. Be appreciative - it took me a *long* time to find Volume 3 in their listings!
Obscure Yuri Manga
Part 3
One last really obscure yuri manga you've never seen or heard of before, then I'll move on, I promise. :-)
Utahime Fight is a collection of short stories drawn and written by Kakunouchi Narumi, creator of
Vampire Princess Miyu and
Juline (and many, many others...). Her oeuvre is shoujo manga fantasy and martial arts, frequently at the same time.
Utahime Fight includes three stories, all of which are about magical, mysteriously attractive girls and they effect they have on the people around them. In the first story, a girl and her two friends (one male, one female) are really magical fighters for something - probably love and justice. The third story is about a magical creature that enchants a young man and brings love into his life.
But the story that concerns us is the second in the collection, entitled "Keep Trust." It's a fairly trite set-up, standoffish cool girl rebuffs cute passionate girl's overtures of friendship at school. They find themselves locked in the library one night and poof! they find themselves in the plot of a movie, in which a prince strives to save his mother and his land. (The movie had been the topic of much discussion at school, and the heroine, whose name escapes me at the moment, is totally agog over the idol who stars as the prince.)
Our cute, blonde "warm" heroine becomes the Prince's confidant and encourages him to persevere, while the "cool" brunette falls in love with her from a distance. To make matters worse, as they say, warm girl likes to touch cool girl, snuggle with her in bed and, worst of all, cry in her arms. Cool girl is quietly dying inside the entire time until something happens to threaten their lives, and she admits, finally, that she loves warm girl.
At which they wake up in the library in school. They have a final scene in which they admit that they love each other and story ends.
Not groundbreaking, but quietly sweet. Drawn in Kakunouchi's usual sweeping, loose-lined art, it's a little hard to follow any action, but that's her signature style and it doesn't bother me.
Ratings:
Art -8
Story - 7
Characters - 7
Yuri - 7
Overall - 7
For yet another random find in a used manga store, this little collection was quite enjoyable.
Obscure Yuri Manga
Part 2
This time, blowing the dust off the cover was totally worth it.
Onegai Suzune-chan is the kind of dire crap that I really enjoy.
Brough to you by Wani Comics, the same folks who also ran
Ikkitousen, you can expect a ton of fanservice and sex, with a soup�on of plot thrown in for good measure.
Amagi Suszune is the 23rd
Onmyouji of the Misora Shrine, the scion of a long line of court wizards, if you will. Her ardent, and often horny, girlfriend Karen and she make love just about every freaking place they can.
That's the plot, so don't expect much else.
Oh, there's some demons and spirits and the like, and some of them have sex with Karen and/or Suzune too, but mostly this manga is a gigantic fanservice-y lesbo lovefest. I quite like it, if only because Suzune and Karen absolutely totally love each other to pieces. There's no assumption that the lesbian sex is the appetizer for either of them - they are totally, 100% a couple. And the sex is pretty hot, even if it is a bit silly at times.
There's another lesbian in school, who is a bit over-the-top with her "I like to have sex with girls" attitude, but I'm probably just jealous that she's so open and annoying at so young an age. She and her girlfriend, and (Karen and two straight female friends) are bewtiched by a horny old shrine spirit into having a lesbian pileup, but Suzune beats the crap out of the spirit and everyone has a good laugh and moves on.
Even the inevitable hermaphrodite chapter is fun. A sakura tree/sex spirit that had been previously captured by Suzune makes a deal with Karen - she gets a male appendage for the evening, he gets to go home to his tree. It was a really sweet moment, even if it was utter filth. LOL
As you can see, literature this ain't. But for an utterly meritless trashy roll-in-the-hay manga, it's brilliant. One more reason why trawling used manga stores is, indeed, worth the time and effort. :-)
Ratings:
Art - 8
Story - Ha. Ha.
Characters - 8
Yuri - 10
Overall- 9
One more piece of excellent crap. Yay!
Cleaning Out The Obscure Yuri Manga Closet
Part 1
When I say I have *alot* of yuri manga, I mean, I have so much, I've forgotten half of what I own. So this weekend I was crawling through some of the older, obscurer of my collection and thought I'd write a few reviews, because how else will you learn about these gems...and the not-so-gem-like, too.
Today, we'll start with
Vaelber Saga, a story that I believe richly derserves its obscurity. I have volumes 1 and 2 and have never been motivated to get 3. If anything good happens in 3, someone tell me and I'll go get it. :-)
The world of
Vaelber Saga is an over-drawn monster-infested post-apocalyptic Earth. The action is full of movement and violence that one can barely make out past all the heavy black ink lines...I'm sure you know the sort.
Our heroine Jum has a talking cat/fox kind of animal, really long hair and a mission that has something to do with the "Vaelber," the nature of which I never really figured out. She wears an outfit that I can only describe as "a really dumb choice for an post-apocalyptic world" and swings an overlong sword without cutting her overlong hair.
Can you tell I love this story?
Jum discovers and, after a really prolonged battle with one of those monster guys that never dies no matter how many body parts you remove, she saves our damsel-in-distress, Mina. Their eyes lock and their hearts pound, and...yeah, so that's about it for them. Later, Jum watches Mina bathe, contemplating why her heart is beating so loudly and, after saving Mina from one of those monster guys that never dies no matter how many body parts you remove, they find themselves naked and well within touching distance. The look into each others' eyes and move closer and then pull away, beet red and as horny as hell. But of course, nothing happens.
Thank GOD for the reigning Evil Queen-type character, Maria. At least she just goes ahead and sleeps with her chief henchchick, Freya. I quite like both of them - too bad they will be defeated. Why is that? Maria looks completely competent to rule this dismal little planet...and we're supposed to be happy that Jum will eventually defeat her and replace her with a blushing, simpering child? Ugh. No thanks, count me in on the side of the baddies here, kids. For one thing - they have much nicer clothes.
There's also a questionably uber-butch character, Giselle, who is a friend of Jum's from waaaay back who will invariably betray her. If only it leads to her finding solace in Mina's arms, it might be worth it. Wanna take bets?
So, yeah, this series has genuine yuri, of two kinds - the "why do I feel this way around you?" kind and the "get over here wench" kind. And yet, it's a boring, boring manga.
If you like post-apocalyptic demonfests with unrealistically drawn swords and a strong D&D feel, you might like
Vaelber Saga more than I do. Or not. Whatever.
Hayate Cross Blade, Volume 2
Could
Hayate Cross Blade get any better? I can't imagine how. Unless Hayate grows up suddenly and she and Ayana kiss passionately...but even without that, this manga still rocks. (And you know, thinking about it...I'm not sure they really work as a couple...)
At the end of Volume 1, we leave Ayana and Hayate, our newly paired
shinyuu having just fought off 18 other teams to move up an entire rank in one huge, embarrasingly amusing
randori. Hayate is speaking to her friend, first year Momoka, one of the very few unpaired swordswomen in school, about just why she remains without
soeur...woops, I mean
shinyuu. ;-)
Momoka tells Hayate that she has a person with whom she wants be paired - her old sempai from her kendo dojo, Riona. Rio-'nee is a year older and entered the school first. When Momoka entered, she relates in a heart-rending tale, she found Riona paired with an abusive older classman. At that *very* instant, the two appear and we see Riona's partner haul off and belt her across the face! Shock! Momoka challenges the upperclassman to a duel, to rescue her beloved Rio-'nee. Hayate is moved to tears...
In the meantime, since Hayate is helping Momoka train, Ayana is left in peaceful bliss to fend off her randy roommate Jun. Jun is our resident openly desirous best friend type, who makes no bones about wanting to jump this particular sempai, but Ayana isn't interested. (Of course, she's still pining away a little for Yukari, her former
shinyuu. You can tell by her reactions everytime she runs into Yukari.)
Does Momoka win the challenge? What do you think...of course she does! But the outcome is nothing like Momoka expects, as Riona opts to stay with her current partner, since she's really not as abusive as she seems and in fact, being slapped upside the head every once in a while refreshes her. Erm, yeah. (And man, Momoka was so kewl and princely as she fights for the woman she loves...sigh...stupid Riona.)
Which is where the fun *really* begins, because the only other unpaired girl in the school (not every student is a fighter, but if you are, you can't fight without a partner) has been haunting Momoka trying to get her to team up. I use the word "haunting" quite literally. Inugami Isuzu is the CREEPIEST girl ever. The art for her is brilliantly funny, drawing on alot of current horror movies that you will recognize immediately. She's got an evil black aura around her head and even the way she moves and talks are creepy. To top it all off, Isuzu is clearly a witch. I adore Isuzu...she's so skin-twitchingly awful. LOL
After resigning herself to losing Riona, Momoka makes Isuzu's physical appearance a little more friendly looking, which actually on serves to make her *more* creepy. Hayate dubs Isuzu "Wanko" (puppy girl, a play on her family name.) At last, Momoka and her new
shinyuu can join the battle.
This manga is so good, I'm adding it to the
Yuricon Shop asap, and I cannot *wait* for Volume 3.
I mean, chicks with weapons, tons of yuri fun, almost no fanservice....no, really, I can't think of any! Can you believe it?
Hayate Cross Blade is a strong favorite so far for best manga of 2005. It'll be damned hard to beat, anyway....
ALC Manga to be carried by Diamond Comics
ALC Publishing has just signed a distribution agreement with Diamond Comics Distributors, the largest comics distribution network in North America. Starting in the May 2005
Previews magazine, you'll see our all-yuri anthology
Yuri Monogatari, followed by
Rica 'tte Kanji!? and more to come.
Now getting ALC all-yuri manga is as simple as dropping by your local comic book store, cracking open a copy of
Previews and placing your order!
You can also find ALC yuri manga at our friends at
Anime Castle and, of course, always at the
Yuricon Shop!
Stellvia of the Universe, DVD Vol. 3
This volume of
Uchuu no Stellvia marks the end of the first arc - and was suprisingly more interesting than I remembered the first time around.
One of my complaints has always been that Shima, our heroine, follows that weird "idiot savant" pattern so common in female-lead shounen anime. You know, she's a failure at a thing the first time she tries it, but after a "Gamabare!" or two from whomever is her emotional prop, she masters it immediately.
Well, upon rewatch, I find that I was mistaken. In fact, Shima spends an enormous amount of time in Vol. 3 practicing her skills, which result in her improving. Perfectly sensible, and how on earth did I miss that the first time around? Not only that, but the lesson is pounded home when Rinna points out that the only reason she is so good is that she had no friends, so practiced pretty much all day every day since she was a child.
Leila-sensei even comments that Shima's seemingly irrational emotional ups and downs make sense - after all, she's very young, and it stands to reason that she'll vaccillate between being hyper-energetic and completely self-conscious and unsure of herself. Heck, I do that now, and I'm hardly young any more... lol
So, okay, okay, I was wrong! Sheesh...
So, where does that leave me? Rewatching this series has forced to me turn my dislike on Kouta, Shima's soon-to-be love interest. I will never like him, on principle. LOL But I will grudgingly admit that, at the end of this volume, he becomes an interesting red herring/plot complication. Unfortunately for you, I will not explain what I mean - so you'll just have to get the DVDs for yourself from the
Yuricon Shop and watch the series to understand my cryptic words. LOL Or, you can join the
Yuricon Mailing List and ask me there. I promise to spoil the series rotten for you. :-)
On the yuri side, we get only a little of the dynamic between Yayoi and Ayaka in this series, as we're all focused on the resolution of the Second Wave. 20/20 hindsight leads me to believe that Yayoi was attempting to find some closure before Ayaka leaves on the mission, but chickens out at the last second. (Which makes for a nice place to write a fanfic, I think.) I have completely moved over to the Arisa is in love with Shima camp, but even Arisa can see that it's hopeless, so it stays at low-level crushiness, for which I think Arisa deserves snaps.
Again, the absolute *best* thing about this series is that all the characters act their ages, and the dialogue *sounds* their ages, too. I really feel like these characters are exactly what they appear - something I rarely get from an anime. (Can anyone say Haruka and Michiru? I mean, really - they were suppose to be *16* when we first met them. LOL)
I won't whine about the bare packaging and scant episode count again...you've heard it before. I'm just getting into the DVD when it's over. But other than that, I honestly think I'm enjoying this series *more* this time around than I did the first time.
Once again, if you like space opera, good characterization, a catchy, yet unsingable opening theme and a lovely yuri relationship, Stellvia is still a good watch.
Hayate Cross Blade, Volume 1
From Hayashisa Shizuru, the author of
Strawberry Shake,
Yuri Shimai's yuri love comedy, comes
Hayate Cross Blade, a delightful mixture of whimsy, action and lots of lovely yuri.
*Special thanks to Touko_no_doriru-san, who told me about this terrific series! Thank you so much for the heads up!*
I probably shouldn't even be writing this review yet, as I haven't had a proper read-through of this mang - but it really is so wonderful, I wanted to rave a little. I promise to read it more thoroughly before I review Volume 2. :-)
To put it simply, Hayate (the redhead on the left of the above cover) is a heroine of the uber-genki, out-of-control sort. (Readers familiar with
Strawberry Shake can easily liken her to Julia.) Hayate's sister was supposed to have attended a special elite school, but is unable to attend, to Hayate decides to masquerade as her. Of course, this ruse is quickly uncovered, but she is allowed to stay...on a few conditions.
The school is the sort that, had it ever truly existed, I would have moved heaven and earth to attend. LOL The girls all carry swords and rank at the school is attained by joining the "Way of the Stars" which basically means sword-fighting with the other girls to move up in rank. There appears to monetary compensation for high ranks - with a large prize at the very top.
Hayate lives with a young woman Chiharu (who continually insists, quite forcefully at times, that she will marry Hayate) and what appears to be her daughter. Hayate doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with this - and she does act very father-like to the daughter. As it turns out, Chiharu runs an orphanage, and Hayate and her sister were raised there.
When she attends school, she immediately she runs into several problems. She falls foul of intemperate upperclassmen, of course. And the house she lives in is trashed. Along with the special circumstances of her being allowed to stay at the school, she now *needs* money and rank, so she joins the "Way of the Stars" to attain both. In order to participate in the Way, one needs a partner, so Hayate picks the most aloof, least attainable and easily the most skilled girl at school...a girl who was once the highest ranked ever, but who, for reasons that have many rumors attached to them, but no hard facts, has left The Way.
Through sheer insanity, Hayate convinces this girl, Mudoh Ayana, to be her partner - but the Council makes one condition. Since Hayate is a beginner, they must both start from the very bottom of the ranks.
We learn very quickly that Hayate has some genuine innate hand-to-hand skills, even though her sword technique is rough, and that Ayana's past history includes a deeply painful break-up with her former partner, now the highest ranked sword fighter in the school.
As you can imagine, this manga is filled with all *sorts* of hints about the relationships between the various partners, and there is overt
akogare on Hayate's part for her new uber-cool partner (which makes for a cute rivalry with Chiharu.)
Basically, you got the whole
soeur thing going, with the addition of swords and fighting. This is very good thing, IMHO. :-)In this case, the relationship is referred to as "shinyuu" which can be translated as both, "close friends" and "sisters-in-arms".
The art is, again, familiar to anyone who has read
Strawberry Shake, and the characters are all instantly likable. I definitely give this series a whopping big thumbs up.
Ratings
Art - 8
Story - 8
Characters - 8
Yuri - 7
Overall - 8
A solid entry to the yuri lists, and one that I will follow with great enjoyment!
Maka-Maka, Volume 2
After well over a year�s wait, the second volume of
Maka-Maka is now available in print. That�s the good news.
The bad news is that this looks like the end of the line. The online version of
Maka-Maka hasn�t moved past December 2004, so Volume 2 seems to be it. Unless the printed version is still running, and frankly, I�m too lazy to check. Feel free to do so and get back to me. ;-)
Volume 2 has color posters of Jun and Nene in poses that men seem to find attractive, but leave me wondering why and the usual hidden cover with naked girls underneath.
When we last left them, Jun and Nene were just on the cusp of a nearly monogamous relationship, looking forward to a bright future of lots of lesbian sex. Volume 2 follows our intrepid young protagonists as they gleefully enjoy sex in inappropraite public places and appropriately private ones. It would be all very nice if they didn�t drool so much. I am not a fan of bizarrely leaking bodily fluids, but I guess each to his or her own.
What is striking about this particular volume (other than the playing dress-up quality of it, which focuses as much on their clothes as any other one thing) as just how pathetic all the men in this series are. And yet, we are lead to believe that these two women still occasionally long for �the penor� as my language-impaired l33t young friends call it these days. It was oaky, in the first volume, when it seemed Jun and Nene had, quite coincidentally, had miserable lovers at roughly the same time, which made them long for someone, anyone, better. In this volume, it seems as pretty much all their male lovers sucked �all their male lovers *ever* and pretty much every guy in the book comes off as a raging asshole.
But I�m kind of missing something somewhere when, after a string of abysmal encounters with men, they�re still sleeping with guys even though they are having not-at-all-abysmal sex with each other. I�m clearly missing something. Probably the requisite �penor.� If I had one o�them, it would make more sense�I guess.
Anyway, other than the drool and the guys, this was a pretty nice book. LOL I think it�s funny how Nene is such a crybaby, and I quite like Jun�s casual nihilistic style. Plus, she looked really cute in the kimono that Nene made for her. :-) This volume also includes each girl telling an angst-ridden backstory which explains their character. It�s not terribly convincing, but it makes a nice change of pace, and teaches us once again that (shock!) guys are assholes - a lesson about which I retain a healthy skepticism. If they were that awful, I can�t imagine that that many women would sleep with them�or maybe I�m overestimating straight women? I�ll leave that question for the philosophers.
Is it worth getting? If you like almost completely realistically portrayed explicit lesbian sex�yes. If you like sweet romance with flower-laden backgrounds�nope.
For what it�s worth, I quite liked
Maka-Maka Volume 2, even though they never sent me one of the scale figurines from Vol. 1. Boo hoo.
Notes on the Third Maria-sama ga Miteru novel
Part 2
The "extra chapter" of the
Ibara no Mori novel, is really a whole second section. As Tsutako mentions in the first part of the novel, this section has no illustrations - apparently Girls' Love is the same as Boys' Love in the publisher's eyes. From my own perspective I have learned that it is *a lot* easier to publish gay love/sex in print than in graphics. Words have to be focused on and understood and are, therefore, safer. Pictures are a whole 'nother issue.
On the
Yuricon Mailing List I received a lot of questions about this section, so let me answer them right off - no, Sei does not think about that fact that this was her first kiss, or that it was with a girl. Nor does she reflect on what it might mean to "be gay." You'll see, she does acknowledge that that she might have homosexual feelings for Shiori, but the thought that she might "be gay" isn't really relevant.
Let me interject my own experience and understanding here: I think that, if Sei and Shiori had run away together and found themselves alone and with the opportunity to have a physical relationship, they would have done so. I've seen this before - up until a young person kisses another person, they are, like Sei, unsure of just what it is they're wanting to do. After that kiss - it's less confusing. :-) So I don't think Sei is being ingenuous. Nor do I think she "is gay." She may well decide she's a lesbian at some point in her future (which based on reading future books, she does), but I'm pretty sure she'll have to fall in love with another woman for it to be something she considers. After all - she's been going to an all-girl school since she was a child. It stands to reason her initial affinity is for another woman.
Now, don't get me wrong. I think she's gay. LOL For one thing - she has gaydar!
And on that note...onto the notes!
Shiroki Hanabira1)
It was an accident that Sei was there to meet Shiori - she had woken up too early that morning and was at the school too early. Sei tells us that she was not a very social person - she was aloof and anti-social, spending most of her time reading novels by herself.
The first half of this chapter is almost identical to the anime and manga. They cut out only minor descriptions. In fact - very little was changed or cut out of this chapter. I was pretty impressed.
2) In the greenhouse, as Shiori sits by Sei in the warm air,
Sei is overcome with the desire to do *something* but she doesn't know what. Her heart is beating, her body is shaking and all she can think of is that she wants to be in one body with Shiori.
This scene was brilliant, btw - the descriptions of Sei's reactions and need were, to be blunt, exactly the mirror of my own at that age, in that situation. It was, not surprisingly, a very powerful and sexy scene.
3) The one chapter that was cut out in its entirety was basically a monologue in which
Sei recounts her growing infatuation with Shiori:After the greenhouse, she is obsessed with the need to understand what these feelings are. She couldn't be sure whether or not it was romantic love - she knew she loved Shiori's soul, her spirit, but she felt that Shiori's body was just decoration for the inner self.
Sei reads a lot of love novels, to try and see if this is what she's feeling - the only thing she learns is that she really comes to hate love novels. lol
So, Sei starts looking at books about homosexual love, but she finds nothing that really reflects what she's feeling. (Again, this jibed with my personal experience - interestingly, *this* novel is quite realistic, which bucks the trend and once again points out that Konno Oyuki is a really good writer.)
Finally, she turns to textbooks on reproduction to figure out why she felt this way, and determines only that something in her is broken - but she's no closer to understanding what it is, or why.
4) During the planning for the school festival,
Sei asks her onee-sama to dissolve their bond, because she has no intention of taking Shiori as a soeur. This scene is in the manga too, not the anime. Her onee-sama says that she did not take Sei as soeur to have Sei take a soeur, she took Sei as her little sister to be by her side until she graduates. I think that this scene very neatly characterizes the White Rose family as we see it, since Sei has a similar situation with Shimako, and Shimako with Noriko.
5) When Shiori rejects Sei's kiss in the church, her reasoning is that "Maria-sama is watching." Sei goes cold and walks away, but not before thinking that she had lost to a 2000 year old ghost. This was in the anime and manga...but the next line, that
Maria-sama was nothing more than a stone statue, while she herself was living flesh, was left out of the anime. I thought that line was pretty great.
6) As her grades slip, she is called into the teacher's staff room and asked why,
Sei fantasizes about saying, "Because Kubo Shiori broke my heart, what are you going to do about it?"7) Sei is called to the Guidance Office during the break after exams (her exam results were the worst score she'd ever gotten.) Sei figures that its about the grades and absences, but when
she sees that both her homeroom teacher and Shiori's homeroom teacher are there, she feels sick, because she knows that her relationship with Shiori will come up.
When she's confronted with the relationship, she turns, not to her homeroom teacher (who brought it up) or her mother (who is quite hysterical by this point) but to the Principal, because she knows that Shiori has stayed with her, and because Sei assumes that she knows that Shiori is a good person.
At the end of the scene, as she's leaving, the Principal's final shot about not being part of the people and activities around her is lonely,
Sei realizes that, of all the people in the room, only the Principal knew - really understood - what the real relationship between Sei and Shiori was. Obviously, from our perspective, we know why...but Sei doesn't - all she knows is that her feelings were completely transparent to this woman, and it terrifies her.
8) On the last day of school for the term, a Xmas Eve service is held at the church. Although Sei hasn't seen Shiori for weeks (and she tells us that although she had put distance between the, her yearning to be with Shiori grew with everyday they were apart), Sei assumes that Shiori will have to attend the service. She's right - and
she sees Shiori there, looking well, and is at peace for a moment.
Later, of course, she wanders back to the church, in hopes of running into Shiori, only to find Shiori waiting there for her. (The scene of Sei and Shiori kissing and planning to run away together is exactly the same in book, manga and anime, with the exception of it taking place behind the church, instead of in front as in the anime.)
9) While waiting for Shiori to show at the train station, (she waits more than 6 hours....)
Sei is approached by a drunken guy and an OL who ask if she's all right. Sei feels tears well up, but she ruthlessly holds them in. The OL and guy hang around and she thinks to herself that this is a special punishment.... (Which, btw, brings me to a difference in manga and novel. In the novel she doesn't ever equate her feelings for Shiori with punishment for her scoffing at god.)
10)
When the third term begins, her onee-sama keeps Sei very busy, so she can't brood. Sei sucks it up, because she knows that she had slacked for the last two terms.
Sei cuts her hair, because looking at her own long hair makes her think of Shiori's long hair, so she gets rid of it.
11)
Sei finally reads the letter Shiori left her in mid-February, a month and a half after Shiori left her. Afterwards, she thinks about Shiori's words, and comes to the conclusion that, if they *had* run away, they probably would have had no other choice but to kill themselves, that they really didn't have a bright future. Sei feels that Shiori has some kind of premonition of that when she came to the station and saw Sei, so she felt she couldn't go. In retrospect Sei believes that it was better that they both lived.
Interestingly, the book, manga and anime all end this story arc completely differently.
In the anime, Sei joins Yumi as they head to the Xmas party at the Rose Mansion, telling us that it's her "Happy Birthday."
In the manga, we see her thinking about all this, and about her parting with her onee-sama who tells her that she will have a soeur of her own...then we see Shimako greet her with "onee-sama" and Sei looks a little surprised, then smiles and greets Shimako.
In the novel, Sei thinks about her onee-sama's words, about how the "future heals the past" and we are told that, as Sei stares up at a blue sky between the sakura tree's branches, she has come to believe that those words are true.
(This ending struck me as really poignant, but odd too, because I ended a Marimite fanfic with almost the exact same sentiment before I read this book. How weird is that? LOL)
And there you have it - all the many, many notes I took as I read this novel. I'm about 1/3 of the way through
Rosa Canina. I'll report back when I'm done. :-)
Tags: Maria-sama ga Miteru, Marimite, Ibara no Mori, Forest of Thorns
Notes on the Third Maria-sama ga Miteru novel
Part 1I'm incredibly busy with work,
Onna!,
Yuricon in Tokyo and
ALC Publishing stuff, so I will be posting this entry almost exactly as it was sent to the
Yuricon Mailing List. I hope to catch up a bit in the next few days, but please forgive me while I cheat a bit.
My first though upon reading
Ibara no Mori was that Sei's thoughts - and therefore her sentence structures - are significantly more complex than Yumi's. (Of course, the irony is that, if this had been written in English, it would have taken me maybe 2 hours to read - it's really not a long book and I'm a very fast reader.)
I took approximately 10 pages of notes as I read this - really too much for the few changes that were made, but there were so many scenes that were worth noting that I got carried away. :-)
My initial overview is this - the anime, with some really minor exceptions, was very faithful to the book. The manga was slightly more faithful, but also had changes. One change was in both and I am still slightly perplexed as to why it was made...but I digress.
Was anything major cut out? One scene - one monologue - from
Shiroki Hanabira, was. It wasn't major, really, but it was significant. But other than that, the changes were mostly minor. All in all, the anime (I'm assuming that few of you have read the manga) was pretty much a decent retelling, and captured the story quite well. But after my write up, you can decide for yourself. I'll do this in two parts, because I have *alot* of notes. :-)
When I finished the novel, I thought three things. One, Konno Oyuki is a really good writer. My belief in that grows with every novel I read. She may be writing light novels, but she is no lightweight as a writer. Two, this was NOT an easy novel to read. The second half is really raw, and not at all "light." I think almost anyone who had a tragic love affair would sympathize with this story...but I'm betting gay and lesbian kids all over Japan who read it were crying their hearts out - this book should be on school's reading curriculums, I swear. Three, I thanked the gods once again that my story didn't end the same way as Sei's - after I finished reading, I went upstairs and kissed my wife and thanked her for not making my first love a tragic one. :-)
***
I.
Ibara no Mori/Forest of Thorns1)
The beginning of the novel is really stark. After the usual history and description of Lillian Academy and the happy Christmas season, the book begins with a really harsh excerpt from the novel "Ibara no Mori" in which the protagonist talks about wanting to die. It's really effective and shocking.
2) Yumi's classmate Katsura shows herself to be a
full-blown gossip-monger in this novel. She's been prominent in the background of the other two...but in this one, we can see that she's really a nosey parker. :-)
3) Tsutako - Tsutako is *clearly* the author's favorite character...and she's rapidly becoming mine, as well.
Tsutako has the clearest grasp of human nature of everyone in the book. Because she is outside all the usual connections, and a voyeur, she sees what's going on around her...because she is a smart cookie, she understands the bigger picture. She was the one who called all the copycat soeur
dissolutions "playing at being Yoshino". She's your go-to for important exposition.
In the beginning of the book, Tsutako gives Yumi a wonderful meta-discussion tutorial about the world of teen novels, (all of which explains things that happen in the novel we are reading.) For instance, she discusses how often there are novels that are ostensibly teen novels, but are really written for adults. That different genres get different color covers, and that stories with Boys' Love don't have illustrations (which later explains why there are none in the
Shiroki Hanabira section.) This was a BRILLIANT bit of expository writing.
4) We've seen this before, but it's made plain that,
when Yoshino gets excited or angry, she completely falls out of Keigo, (the formal speech level that is used at Lilllian) and calls Rei, "Rei-chan" in public, instead of "onee-sama," among other slips (BTW, one of the reasons Yumi is always hemming and hawing is because she sucks at Keigo and is hesitant when using it. Also, btw, Sei doesn't speak in Keigo, unless she's being ironic.)
5) While discussing the rumors going around the school with Sachiko, Rei and Yoshino, Yumi watches Yoshino go all pouty at Rei. Yoshino complains that Rei never tells her anything, Rei becomes placatory and
Yumi thinks, Hey now, you two...this isn't the time for flirting (sharing sweet nothings). Then Yumi wishes that she could get all pouty at Sachiko. Sachiko then catches her eye and Yumi is mortified (because we all know that her thoughts show on her face....)
6) In a scene that was left out of the anime and manga, Sachiko and Yumi go into the bookstore to buy "Ibara no Mori" - Sachiko accosts a store employee, addresses him in Keigo and asks him to, basically, lead them to the right section, get the book for them, and generally assist them. Yumi wonders if this guy has ever been treated like this before and laughs when the guy starts responding in Keigo - she bets he's *never* done that before! Yumi spends the scene
marveling at Sachiko's ability to handle "the help" and her general wow-ness.
7) Ah hah! Yuuki, Yumi's brother, tells Yumi that "a sempai" (we can bet that it's Kashiwagi, I'm thinking) told him that he looks like a Tanuki (raccoon-dog supernatural thing. You see lots of fan art of Yumi as a Tanuki) and that he is a "natual fool"(in the sense of a jester-type fool.) Yuuki basically lays it down that Yumi and he are the same in that respect...so that's where
the whole Tanuki thing
comes from. (Later, Tsutako is, naturally, described as a fox/kitsune.)
8) Yoshino comments to Yumi that Rei told her that
last year Sei was a pretty scary person, so she was really surprised to come to school and find that she was different.
9) Sei, on being called into the Student Guidance Room sees Yumi and says,
"Oh, I guess we're being called in about our illicit homosexual relationship?" which is obviously ironic considering the circumstances of the year before. Yumi is, of course mortified, because the entire first-year student body is huddling in the hallway and hears this. (BTW Sei's ability to *be* ironic strikes me as odd...it's very un-Japanese.... I'm amazed at Konno Oyuki's ability to write irony at all, really.) I think this line was in the manga, but I'm pretty sure they cut that line out of the anime! lol
10) Sitting at the Yamayurikai meeting just before Sei tells Yoshino and Yumi about Shiori, Yumi is daydreaming, mostly about Sei and the rumors and why there's a connection at all.
She gets hit in the forehead with a balled-up chocolate foil wrapper and looks over to see Sei grinning at her. Sei makes a gesture of 10 fingers, crosses her hands at the wrists, then does 10 again, then touches her face. Yumi is totally confused until Sei writes it down... 10 x 10=100. 100 faces - Hyakkumensou. In other words - everything Yumi is thinking is showing on her face again. Yumi gets all indignant and and draws everyone's attention to herself by crying out. Of course no one noticed Sei, and she's hysterical as Yumi gets nailed for misbehaving. LOL
11)
Sei reads 1/2 of "Ibara no Mori" while Yumi and Yoshino are cleaning the council room. When she gets to, assumably, the parts that are going to be more difficult for her to read without reacting, she sends them away. This makes more sense than just sending them away right off. She sends them to the college cafeteria to get ramen. The college cafeteria is pretty far away, and it will take a while to get and eat ramen, so she's giving herself a good hour or so to read the rest of the book. (Yumi is amazed she can read that quickly at all...but Japanese teen novels aren't very long and, we learn later, Sei spent *a lot* of time reading when she was younger and less social, so she's a fast reader.)
This is Yumi's and Yoshino's first time eating in a cafeteria, (as opposed to getting food from their milk hall and eating it in their classroom) so it's like an adventure.
12) After Sei's confession, Yumi thinks to herself that Sei's love is like a burning flame, and that
Sei must want to stay away from Shiori to keep her from getting burnt.
13) Yumi is filled with a desire (non-sexual - the author bothers to TELL us that) to see Sachiko.
Sachiko actually seeks Yumi out and gives her a ride home in her big, black car. Uncharacteristically, Sachiko comes right out and asks Yumi what Sei told her, then interpolates from Yumi's silence (Yumi is uncomfortable telling Sachiko without Sei's permission.) Sachiko tells Yumi, again, surprisingly straightforwardly, that she didn't *know*, but she guessed what was going on. She was Shiori's classmate, after all and knew that she and Sei were friendly. Then,
after Shiori went away, not only did Sei cut her hair, she grew "thin and empty."As Sachiko fixes Yumi's hair ribbon, Yumi decides that she really enjoys the "skinship" Sachiko has with her.
14) During break, when Yoshino invites Yumi over to figure out who "Suga Sei" really is, Yumi watches Yoshino bully Rei into cooperating and comes to the conclusion that
Yoshino is "a lion at home and a mouse abroad." LOL Poor Rei - someone should have told her that the femmes always get their way!
15) And
there is an actual *reason* that Cosmos wasn't giving out the Suga Sei's bio. Kasuga-san had two reasons for hiding her identity: 1) She is the president of a company, and it wouldn't really do for her to be writing this book under her real name, and; 2) She was concerned that the readers wouldn't want the image of an old lady as the author, since it's obviously a teen angst novel.
Here's the one thing that was changed for the anime and manga and it REALLY bothered me - in the book
Yumi figures out that Kasuga-san is Suga Sei. She just puts two and two together, which makes all the daydreaming about it worthwhile. In the anime and manga, the secret is given away by someone else, which really annoyed me.
16) Finally, for this section of the novel, as Yumi watches Kasuga Seiko and Satou Sei walk away together, she thinks to herself that
she is actually *seeing* Yoshino's time machine - two women, separated by decades, with amazingly similar experiences.
17) This was in the manga, but not the anime, and it was a separate little illustrated manga that ran in Cobalt Shueisha, as well:
After Yumi leaves Sei to walk Kasuga-san to the Principal's office (and how creepy would it be if you suddenly realized that your school principal, who is a nun, had tried to commit suicide because of a tragic lesbian love affair when she was your age???) Yumi meets up with Sachiko, who gives her a Christmas present of a handkerchief. Yumi is upset because she has nothing to give her onee-sama, but Sachiko tells her that it would be nice if she could have one of Yumi's hair ribbons - which she takes from Yumi's hair and ties it into her own. (You gotta give Sachiko credit for being uber-romantic there...)
Yumi and Sachiko walk off to the Rose Mansion hand in hand and Yumi thinks that she is so happy that she almost wants to cry.And there you have it, my thoughts on the first part of
Ibara no Mori.
Tags: Maria-sama ga Miteru, Marimite, Ibara no Mori, Forest of Thorns
Four Special Guests for the Yuri Revolution!
Yuricon is pleased to announce four special guests who will be joining us for our historic Yuri Revolution event in Tokyo, Japan, on April 16, 2005!
Novelist and essayist
Mori Natsuko: Mori-san is a popular writer of science fiction and has contributed essays to "Anise" magazine. Her most recent essays for
Yuri Shimai have piqued the interest of fans around the world.
Scholar and lecturer
Mizoguchi Akiko: Mizoguchi-san has lectured widely on queer identity and yaoi comics, from a uniquely lesbian persepctive.
Yuri manga artist
Tadeno Eriko: Tadeno-san returns as a special guest to a Yuricon event for the second time and we're thrilled to have her join us once again. Tadeno-san is a well-known yuri managaka, whose collection "WORKS," was translated into English in 2004 by
ALC Publishing.
Yuri manga artist
Rica Takashima: Author of
Rica 'tte Kanji!?, Rica Takashima made a name for herself with her involvement in
Phryne and
Anise magazines, and her collection has just gone into a second edition here in the US. It's very exciting to have her helping out on this historic occasion!
To learn more about the Yuri Revolution tour and event, please visit our
Events page or join the
Yuri Revolution Mailing List
Ultimate Girls
Well, what can you say about an anime whose intitials are "UG"?
Frankly, I think the acronym sums it up nicely. This anime makes me wretch. Yes, Silk and Vivienne are into each other, so of course they talk around each other, blush madly in each other's direction and grab each other's breasts in the bath. Yes, this is what girls do.
NOT
Gah, this anime is disgusting. The henshin scenes are cleverly crafted to make anyone with the least little bit humanity left feel filthy.
I don't care if it has a genuine clear cut yuri couple - it sucks. If you think it is "cute" or "funny" or "sexy," this is a major hint that you are a "bottom-feeding perv."
Anime and Manga - A Cultural "Acting Out?"
This is an adaptation of an article I wrote on July 31, 2000 for a website that no longer exists. I was a site administrator at the time, and one of the conditions of my position was to write...publish or perish, in fact. I was cranking out quite a few anime and manga reviews...and no one had a clue what I was writing about. So I received many questions about this "anime" stuff. :-) I thought it was funny to see how little my opinions have changed in 5 years...and I wanted to share with you all. :-)
Here's my response to the questions I received, in essay form:
Of course, as I rant and rave about all the anime and manga I consume, I'm eventually asked, "what *is* it about this stuff that you like so much?"
I love that question. :-)
For one thing, if there is a single quality that exists in anime that nearly completely lacks in Western animation, it has to be character development. How many times can we see the gang in Scooby-Doo find that the bad guys wears a mask and was really the old caretaker, before we start to crave something more?
Over the course of a 26-episode series, or a 10-volume comic, the one thing I can practically count on is the emotional growth and complexity of all the characters - not just the hero/ine, but also the bad guy/girl, all the secondary characters and frequently tertiary characters as well.
But that's not what this article is about. ;-) This article is about all the *other* things I love so much in anime and manga - the qualities that make it so popular, and why it was inevitable that anime and manga be created specifically in a culture where there is a tremendous social pressure to conform.
1) Anime/manga heroes are usually "different."
It is an axiom here in the west that we are all unique. Not so in Japan, where those who stand out are frequently pressured to conform by schoolmates, coworkers and family. "Pounding in the nail" is the phrase that is used to express the collective desire to keep everyone at the same level. Very often the hero/ine of an anime or manga series is different - too tall, too short, bad at schoolwork, a complete brain. It doesn't matter much - as long as the character stands out. Conversely, the character is occasionally average, but the circumstances of the series make them unusual - these series usually are filled with gags as the unwitting hero/ine attempts to seem "normal" as things around them fall apart. And, of course, many series portray a perfectly average hero/ine surrounded by many people of extraordinary looks and/or powers...frequently of the opposite sex.
2) Taboos are not.
Many people assume that anime/manga series are all pornographic. That is not at all the case. While Americans are obsessed with violence, but complete hypocrites when it comes to sex, the opposite is the rule in Japan - they tend to be more sqeuamish about violence than sex. Many of those things that we consider taboo are dealt with in a less Victorian manner in anime/manga.
Up until recent social pressures began to affect the laws of Japan, teenagers in Japan were assumed to be (or about to be) sexually active, and thus series' directed at them often deal with sex and love in a reasonably direct way. Mind you - this doesn't mean it's realistic! From what I've seen it pretty much ends up doing what western series do, portraying it as all violins, flowers floating by and hazy lighting, OR nasty dirty demonic sex. There rarely seems to be a happy medium.
Anime and manga often have gender-bending characters. Cross-dressers, gays or lesbians - some of the coolest characters in anime and manga are the bent ones. This does not mean that Japan is more accepting of these qualities in real life - just that it's less threatening in *theory.* Plus, let's face it - women look good in ties. ;-) Also, strong emotional, even sexual relationships are considered normal for Japanese kids - relationships that are left behind as part of their childhood when they get older and get married. It goes back to the sex thing - it just isn't a scary concept.
3) Magic and the occult are everywhere.
Another sticking point for many Westeners - Japan is not a Christian country. Their religion is primarily a shamanic one, centered around fertility and harvest festivals. Does this mean that the average Japanese salaryman believes in magic? No. No more than the average American office worker. But they like to see it in their anime! And so do I.
To sum up, from my years watching anime and reading manga, I've noticed that many of the themes dealt with in these media are *not* what the average Japanese person wants to cope with. The pressures of remaining in conformation with societal norms are rather enormous. I believe that many of the things that make anime and manga so popular are those very things that make life difficult in Japan. In effect, anime and manga are a giant cultural "acting out" of things that can't be dealt with easily in real life.
For me, these qualities are some of the most attractive things about this
particular form of entertainment.
***
And there you have it - I'm pretty much *still* watching and reading anime and manga for exactly the above reasons. :-)
And I promise - more reviews coming soon!
