Okazu

Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime 4, Part 3

Okay, okay, I have finally read "Nanami to Misuzu". So, Misuzu is having weird dreams. In the first, she imagines herself in a field of flowers, making a cute little flower garland. But when she puts it on what is originally Nanami, it all of a sudden turns into Ichijou-sempai! Misuzu awakes in a sweat, and is asked by her maid if there is anything wrong. But...OMG! The maid is Ichijou-sempai! But, no, it's not Ichijou Rina, Misuzu's sempai, but her nearly identical younger sister Runa. To further confound and confuse Misuzu, at school Ichijou-sempai (the real one) gives Misuzu back her flower garland from the dream. Misuzu gives it to Nanami. The cat girl cheerfully relates that she has six sisters: Hitomi, Futami, Minami, Yoshimi, Itsumi, Mutsumi and, of course, she is the seventh sister - Nanami. (If you didn't follow that, it's a counting thing - 1-7.) When Runa arrives, Misuzu calls her Ichijou-san, which brings Rina out to join them. Utter nonsense occurs for the entirety of the last page.

"Simoun" - at last, we'll have two whole chapters to work with. Before the new chapter we get a color page with pictures, captions, etc of the anime - pretty shiny ad basically. This is followed by the standard color pages of anime we are already talking about at the Yuricon Mailing List. You can find reviews of all of them here on Okazu, as well: Strawberry Panic, Loveless, and Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl. The last color page has random yuri-flavored goods, CDs and manga that have largely also been covered here on Okazu. :-)

The new issue of "Simoun" begins with Neviru dreaming of her former partner, Amuria. When she wakes, she wonders if she'll ever be able to fly again with anyone. Looking over, she sees Aeru curled up n the floor uncovered, covers her gently with a blanket and sits with her for a while.

The next day Lodoreamon, one of the pilots of Call Tempest, is having a crisis of identity. She's afraid to continue as a pilot, but hasn't decided what to do about going to the sacred spring. When Aeru approaches, she finds Lodoreamon with another pilot whose name we don't yet know. Both Aeru and the other pilot are firm in their desire to be pilots. Mamina, Lodoreamon's partner, arrives and snidely suggets that eru doesn't want to fight and fly so much as simply be Neviru, the Golden Pristess' partner. Mamina snarks about Aeru's sharing a room with Neviru, when there are perfectly good empty rooms available. Neviru shows up and says it's not big thing to share the room, but mamina insists that as Neviru is a special person, it *is* a big thing. The unnamed pilot takes her leave, since "this conversation has nothing to do with me." Aeru comments that she doesn't know the girl's name, and is told by mamina that she its not neccessary to have that information.

When challenged about her non-decision to go to the spring, Aeru says that she's accepted her path in life and feels good about it. She'll know when it's time - right now, she has something else she wants to do. Her tranquility revives Neviru for a moment, but she subsides back into melancholy quickly. Lodoreamon worries that Mamina resents her staying with her in the same room. Mamina says that if she wants a partner to protect her, she should go find herself one that plans on becoming a man. Lodoreamon is devastated, and Mamina is obviously using tough love, which is hurting her a little as well.

Neviru and Aeru has a private little conversation about how much Aeru loves the sky and wants to fly. Neviru lightens up, going so far as to take Aeru's hand, but once agin, her eyes drop and she pulls back as she thinks about Amuria. Aeru continues, though, commenting how in the sky, there are no borders or boundaries.

Mamina interrupts, harshly mentioning that that kind of thinking could get them killed, how they are focusing on a dream, rather than reality. Mamina challenges Aeru - if Aeru doesn't fly with enough skill then Mamina would become Neviru's partner. Aeru refuses - she says she wants to fly with Neviru, but has no interest in flying with Mamina. Neviru commands Aeru to fly with the other woman. Aeru agrees, since Neviru wishes it. Over to the side, Parieta and another pilot watch Lodoreamon during all this. They ask if she's worried - she says she is.

Aeru and Mamina almost immediately run into a crisis, forcing Mamina to admit her own confusions and concerns. They recover and land, whereupon Lodoreamon runs up and calls Mamina an idiot for risking herself that way. Lodoreamon says that she wants to be with mamina, to be at her side - not to be protected by her, but to share life with her and fly with her. Mamina lightens up enough to tell her to do what she wants, which is about as good as Lodoreamon was every gonna get, so she's happy. Pleased that they made up, Aeru turns to Neviru, only to be told that Neviru cannoy be her partner. End of long chapter - to be continued next volume.

"Voiceful" begins the final chapter with Hina about to do a live radio show. She hits a wall and can't speak, much less sing, until Kaede comes to the rescue. They, after a mutual confession, assumably live happily ever after. :-)

Mucchiri Muuni continues her story from last issue with "Song Song Roman". Tsubaki and Umi are at school where Sa-chan, a younger student has developed a raging crush on Tsubaki. Umi finds herself obsessed and jealous - and freaked out by her own emotions. When Sa-chan confesses to Tsubaki, she is rejected bluntly - and to make matters worse - Tsubaki kisses Umi in front of her. Sa-chan cries uncle, and school life goes on happily.

And that, as they say, is that. :-)

I will be out of the country for more than a week, so no new posts for a while. Please take some time to read and enjoy the many years of backposts I've written. Consider purchasing 100% yuri from ALC Publishing, to not only show your support for yuri, but to get yourself and your friends great yuri manga, essays and novels! If you've enjoyed my reviews and comments, synopses and stories over the years, buying a copy or two of Shoujoai ni Bouken: The Adventures of Yuriko, Volume 1 is the perfect way to say "thank you!" :-)

See you in May!

Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Yuri Hime

posted by Erica Friedman @ 12:23 PM 1 comments links to this post   

Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime 4, Part 2

The second half of Yuri Hime 4 begins with the first issue of the new Hatsukoi Shimai arc. This was the arc I was waiting for - the one based on the Koi Shimai 2 Drama CD.

All the girls at the school are blown away when a hunky young woman arrives on motorcycle and asks for the staff room. They are wowed by her boyish charm and her openly seductive teasing - and even more wowed when it turns out that Hiiragi Touko has arrived to be a substitute teacher! Touko-sensei, for some reason, really rubs Akiho the wrong way and her bad feeling doesn't get any better when Touko-sensei neatly inserts herself into Chika's personal space at every possible turn.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this chapter was that it did NOT follow the Drama CD word for word, but elaborated a bit on some of the interpersonal relationships that have already been established. So we get to see Chika and Haruna have a quiet, romantic, moment together, something we never really had on the CD. We get to see Teshigawara yell at Chika - and hear the rest of the class teasing her about her ongoing issues with Chika. Touko, for her part, is smooth and sexy and pretty plausible, so that was cool. And Akiho's instant dislike for Touko was a perfect prelude to her later involvement with the teacher. I was really happy with this chapter.

Following closely on the heels of such happiness came Morishima Akiko's Yuri life illustrated column with 4 pages of eye-bugging "WTF? Is there really such a thing?" Spring has arrived and Akiko's editor decides to take her out for a yuri-ful adventure. (Bear in mind kids - this is all real. Akiko is a real person, her editor ditto, and she's about to go to real places.) They start with "Imoutoke Cafe Nagomi" in which all the waitresses address you as onee-sama and act like your adorable little sister. Cafe Nagomi is in Akihabara - the address and phone is printed on the bottom of the page. Then, off to my beloved Ikebukuro section of town and "Maid Refloxology" at (I SWEAR I am not making this up!) M@IFOOT. It is exactly what it sounds like - a reflexology bar where maid-outfit wearing massage therapists rub your feet. I laughed for a solid ten minutes at the name "M@IFOOT." Brilliant! Then, off to B:Lily-Rose, also in Ikebukuro. Take a deep breath. Sit down. Relax. At B:Lily-Rose, the hosts are women in suits, roleplaying Boy's Love couples. The women in suit jackets are seme/tachi/butch/tops and the ones in vests are uke/neko/femme/bottoms. How very wrong is this? I am STILL laughing at the idea. Akiko-sensei, once again, I am insanely jealous. I really ought to write her and tell her so. LOL

"Tsuki ni Onegai o" is the newest chapter in Morinaga Milk's continuing saga of Hitomi and Nana. This one is from Hitomi's point of view. She and Nana, now second-years at school, are desperately squeezing in time together at night after school and clubs and before dinner. Hitomi coments that she'd like them both to be grown up, so they could live together. Nana blushes, but does not protest. They've both matured and it's obvious. Nana goes back to school and randomly asks Abe (her classmate and the protagonist of an earlier chapter herself) how old one had to be to be considered "grown up." Hitomi finds herself the object of open akogare/admiration/desire from one of the new first-years on the basketball team. Hitomi wrestles with trying to find balance bewteen her desire to be part of a team and her desire to be with Nana. She has a little crisis, worrying that her limited time with Nana will drive her away. In the end, she is a happy young lady and decides that she can have it all.

In this issue's "Nami to Misuzu" funny things happen. I don't know what they are, because I find this particular series a tad tooth-grinding. If I ever read it, I'll rewrite this summary.

I'm going to break this into three parts because I'm pressed for time. I'll finish this issue up tomorrow, promise! (Yes, yes, Simoun!)

Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Yuri Hime

posted by Erica Friedman @ 3:03 PM 2 comments links to this post   

Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime 4, Part 1

This, the newest volume of Comic Yuri Hime once again proves that yuri manga can be targeted to an audience of women (and judging from the letters section, mostly lesbian!) and be sexy, funny and a darn *good* read.

Really, the very worst problem with Yuri Hime is that it is a quarterly publication. I wait with baited breath for the day that it is a bimonthly - or even better, a monthly magazine. It hurts me a bit to know that it will be summer before I can once again enjoy these stories. Secondarily, not every single comic appeals to *me*, but I am not the world. LOL It's a genuine strength of Yuri Hime that the types of stories and the art is varied enough that there are things I like - and things I don't. This particular issue was overall excellent, with great things to come.

As always, we start with the cover. Haruna (left) and Chika (right), the leads in Hatsukoi Shimai grace the cover once again, this time in fetching spring ensemble. Gone are the days of one or the other looking surprised or vexed. They are shown here holding hands openly and facing us directly with happy smiles. Think back on covers of yuri manga...how many can you think of that show that? Not that many, trust me.

The first story is new, "Tokimeki Mononoke Jogakuen." This is the story of a young girl on her first day at a new girl's school. Her mother is sad that it's raining on her first day, but Arera tells her that it's okay - she is a rain fairy, after all. On the way to school, she take a short cut through a cemetery...which seems to go on and on and on and on.... Arera sees a beautiful woman, approaches to ask her directions and finds herself entwined by the woman's long, stretchable neck. Arera is, of course, freaked, but more so when the woman starts to scream in pain and ask her to push the button on the back of her neck. Arera does, and the neck snaps back like a vacuum cleaner cord. Turns out, this is Arera's teacher. :-) Her classmates are a cat girl, several oni, a bodiless head of smoke, and other non-humans. There's a moment of anxiety when they mistake her for a real (tasty smelling) human, but she assures them she's a rain fairy. She's accompanied to her dorm (which she didn't now she was assigned to and tries to escape only to find that she is inexplicably trapped on top of a cliff) to find that her roommate is a licking demon - a long-tongued female demon that enjoys, erm, licking. Yeah - more next issue as Arera deals with weirdness. The color page for this is exceedingly suggestive - remember, kids, all female demons have heightened sexual needs - that's part of what makes 'em demons. ;-)

The climax of "Kotonoha No Miko To Kotodama No Majou To" finds Letty facing down the god of Tsumugi's shrine, in order to release the miko from her bondage to the place. The god appears as Tsumugi since, as she points out, the miko is the most important thing in Letty's mind right now. The witch demands Tsumugi be released, and the god offers a deal - if Letty can handle her power, she'll let Tsumugi go. The god blasts Letty with everything she has. Back in the room with Tsumugi and Suzushiro, the red thread that attaches Tsumugi to Letty snaps. Tsumugi wants to run off to the shrine to save the witch, but Letty reappears, weak as can be, but alive. The god takes Suszushiro as her next miko (which works perfectly, as Suzu was in love with Tsumugi from afar and can now worship her up close and personal as the god.) Letty and Tsumugi kiss, Letty makes a new red thread to bind them (and in the shape of a heart, I might add - Letty's such a romantic) and the two go off after throwing us the boquet at their wedding. This series is going to be released as a collected volume in the coming months. I'll be sure to let you know when the link goes up on the Yuricon Shop.

Mako's most recent contribution, "Michikusa" wasn't as awful as her other stories, although her art will never really be appealing to me. We follow a couple who all the other students are making fun of, because they are always together and hold hands. One confesses that her feelings for the other are exactly what the other kids are implying. No crisis occurs and they continue to walk along the grassy path, doing flower ID, holding hands. Much happier than her usual fare.

"Goshuujin-sama to Issho" hits a whole LOAD of fetishes that aren't mine. LOL In this story a rich young brat wants a puppy and gets a puppy girl who she instantly loathes for being a mutt. Muttgirl is clumsy and dorky and emotionally fragile and it kills her to see her mistress so unhappy (which brats almost always are.) Eventually they learn to love one another and live happily...but one will always have dog ears and a tail and a collar and somehow that's just...yeah. If it's your fetish, it's adorable. Enjoy.

Hayashiya Shizuru continues the pre-New Year's arc in "Strawberry Shake Sweet," in which Ran has just made her modeling debut. It's Julia's worst nightmare - Ran looks gorgeous. She keeps herself going with the promise of seeing Ran someday soon, while Ran is doing the same thing, interspersed with work. Her new photographer and she are walking together when another woman accosts them. This was a former idol and someone the photographer "cultivated closely." Now, spurned by the photographer, the former idol is bitter and obsessed. She warns Ran, who is clueless as always. Ran and Julia end the issue with separate, but mutual self-cheerleading and promises to be together - eventually, soon.

Chi-Ran's story "Kanoujo ni naritai!" I think takes us back to an earlier couple. Either that, or all her stories are so similar that I'm having trouble keeping them apart.... Matsuri is a famous model. She and erm, the other one (sorry, I'm really, really tired today) are sharing a place to live for some reason or other. Girl is obsessively attracted to Matsuri and wants to be just like her, but really, what she wants is Matsuri, you know, naked and close. Matsuri seems to have either no inhibitions or is coming on so strong that only an idiot wouldn't recognize it. Our resident idiot fights back her feelings just as long as she can until, while sharing a bath, she kisses Matsuri. They end up in bed (in a Chi-Ran story? shock!) and live happily ever after. This series is also upcoming as a collected volume, so keep your yuri-dar on that for one too. :-)

And that's going to be where I cut for today. I'll try very hard to finish part 2 (Touko-sensei! New Simoun!) before I leave for vacation at the end of the week. In the meantime, if you have not yet read any of the wonderful manga running in Yuri Hime please consider doing so - it's really good, 100% yuri. If you have, and you've read scanlations or raws, PLEASE think about supporting the authors and writers and the publishers who are backing this endeavor by buying a copy with actual money. You can get your copy of this, and other volumes from Amazon JP through the Yuricon Shop (which, by buying this way, incidentally helps supports Yuricon and ALC Publishing, as well. ^_^)

Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Yuri Hime

posted by Erica Friedman @ 12:56 PM 6 comments links to this post   

Maria-sama ga Miteru: Drama CD 8 - Itoshiki Toshitsuki

There's a good chance that this, the eight Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CD, Itoshiki Toshitsuki (translated by subbers as The Loving Times) is my second favorite, coming close after Ibara no Mori/Forest of Thorns.

Considering that this, of all the Marimite stories has the very least yuri of all, you're probably wondering "why?" The answer is simple - this Drama CD is hysterically funny.

One of the things missing from the anime for this arc was the low comedy - the slapstick silliness that characterized Yumi's impression of Rosa Foetida's apparent waywardness. And the anime also cut Sachiko's anti-adultery rant which is totally worth hearing, just because it *is* shocking. For a clearer idea of why this is a funny story, you might want to take a look at my review of the novel of the same name, Maria-sama ga Miteru Itoshiki Toshitsuki. It's a funny novel, and this drama CD has a lot of fun with the goofy mistaken identities and implied sexual misconduct. The CD is also way faster paced than the anime, which worked well for broad comedy.

This disk also includes the story of the graduating Rosa's party. Funny as hell, even without visuals - and Itou Miki gets to laugh a little harder this time around like she's supposed to instead of Sachiko's reserved chuckle from the anime. :-)

Ratings:

Art - N/A
Character - 9
Story - 8
Music - N/A
Yuri - 1
Loser FanBoy - 1

Overall - 8 In this case, the story rules.

As a silly little fun thing, I took a picture of all the plastic stand-up dolls that live on my work desk that were extras from the first half dozen drama cds. It's not a good picture - I took it with my phone in poor lighting, but you'll get the point.

Someone asked me a gazillion years ago for a picture of them. Here it is. :-)



Tags: Yuri Drama CD, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Maria-sama ga Miteru Drama CD

posted by Erica Friedman @ 3:47 PM 0 comments links to this post   

Drama CD: Hana no Asuka-gumi Gaiden (Supplementary Story)

Important Note:I'm having internet connection problems this weekend, so if you comment and it doesn't get posted, it's not because I hate you, are censoring you or any other paranoid fantasy you might possibly construct. It's just that I'm not online. Thanks in advance for your patience. :-)

This CD that you see here in the picture to the left is quite possibly one of my prize possessions. For many reasons. As you know, if you are a regular reader, one of my very favorite series is Hana no Asuka-gumi, which was exceptionally popular in the mid-to-late 80's. I have never really reviewed the original manga series (which is available still in reprint from Amazon Japan. This is the link to Hana no Asuka-gumi Volume 1. By clicking the author's name you can find the other volumes.) Lililicious has begun scanlating the original manga as well. It's a loooooong series, so be patient with them. It's not easy to translate, either, what with all the gang language.

I discussed the original manga briefly when I first reviewed the new manga series. You can find my reviews here: March 25, 2003 and January 14, 2004.

And I reviewed the two anime OVAs on April 3, 2005 and May 31, 2005.

Lastly, I have also reviewed the Hana no Asuka-gumi live-action movie and the first volume of the New Hana no Asuka-gumi manga.

Once you've read all of those, you will still have absolutely NO clue what I'm talking about - but you'll understand how much I like this series. :-)

Briefly, for those of you who do not want to do so much work, the story of Kuraku Asuka takes place over a series of 27 manga volumes, with 6 "supplementary" volumes, 2 extras and a novel, as well as several Drama CDs and a TV show that was only marginally related to the manga. The live action movie was even less related than the TV show, which at least kept the main characters in modern Tokyo.

Asuka is a 14-year old who had a rough time at school with bullies and tried to kill herself. She is NOT saved by her love interest Yohko. Instead, Yokho uses and abuses her badly and Asuka has to pretty much save herself over and over from both the bad guys who want to defeat her, and both the women who are in love with her - Yohko and the head of all the gangs in Tokyo, the bizarre and melodramatic Hibari-sama. Asuka manages to save a damsel in distress every story arc as she becomes the best fighter and the most prominent target among the girl gangs in town. Hibari-sama's organization is complex and fasicainating and no matter how many times I write about it, you really won't be able to follow it all unless you read every last volume of the original manga. Sorry. (I have written two fanfics for this series in which I explian a little about the world of the Zenchuu Ura. You can find those on my One-Offs page on "Worldshaking" Fanfic, if you care to look.)

All of the above, and the *incredible* sexual tension between Yohko and Asuka and Hibari and Asuka are why I love this series in general. The reason I love this particular Drama CD however is that the main character of Kuraku Asuka is voiced by none other than my absolute favorite voice actress EVAR, Ogata Megumi. And oh my god, is she perfect. Let me just take a moment to drool and sigh here....

This series and this Drama CD dates from waaay back when female roles were drawn and voiced to appear older than their years, as opposed to today's trend towards younger than. I so prefer the old school on this. Hibari's voice is the perfect scheming queen, Kasuga is voiced like she's a S&M ojou-sama, and Bara no Miya's voice cuts right through me. But Yohko and Asuka...gawd.

For everyone who have ever used the word "hawt" when referring to something that's visually appealing but content free (or not even appealing, but openly sexual and they have no critical judgement) - may you one day have the pleasure of hearing Yohko and Asuka talk to each other on this CD. This, my friends, is hot like "the CD player has started smoking" hot. Listening to Ogata Megumi screaming, moaning and shouting "Yohko!" is really, really almost as good as sex. I can only think of one other name I'd like to hear her scream and moan more, in fact.

This is quite possibly MO's first role ever and how I wish that she had voiced Asuka in the anime OVAs. Oh well, a lost opportunity for all of us. Did I mention that Yohko was played by Koyama Mami, the woman who voiced "Miya-sama", Ichinomiya Fukiko in Oniisama E (Brother, Dear Brother)? And that Soumi Yoko, who played BC in Vandread so brilliantly here plays Hibari-sama...with a voice that could peel shrimp of their shells, as she asks Asuka to come closer so she can see her face better...

Sorry, I'm drooling again.

Let's not overlook Orikasa Ai, who has been playing pretty blonde boys for*ever* and who here voices Kasuga like she's going to swing out of Hibari's sight and go slap a few cute girls around to relieve tension. lol Ikura Kazue (who is currently working as Chopper in One Piece, but established her girl gang street cred as Asamiya Saki, the lead in Sukeban Deka plays a mean (and I meant that literally and figuratively) Bara no Miya.

I could go on and on down the cast, but I know you folks aren't the same level of seiyuu otaku I am, so I'll stop. :-)

Ratings:

Story - 9
Music - excruciating, yet sticky - 6
Characters - 9
Yuri - 7
Loser FanGirl - 100

Overall - 9

THIS is what Hana no Asuka-gumi should be.

Tags: Drama CD, Yuri, Hana no Asuka-gumi, Asuka and Yohko, Asuka and Hibari, Girl Gangs

posted by Erica Friedman @ 2:34 PM 0 comments links to this post   

Jyoshi Kousei - High School Girls Anime

This anime is based on the manga series Jyoshi Kousei (High School Girls in English), which I reviewed in August 2005. For the first two episodes, at least, the anime has followed two manga chapters closely - but not the first two, and in a way that is putting off some manga fans.

As with the previous to New Spring 2006 Yuri Anime I have reviewed - Jyoshi Kousei is not yuri, but is of interest to the yuri fan community.

If you read the earlier review of the manga, or if you have read the manga itself, you know that there are two yuri-ish couples in the story - Yuma and Ayano, who are childhood friends and so close that their relatives and even Ayano's boyfriend assume that they are going out. "Outsider" Eriko and "insider" Kouda Akari hit each other on every single raw nerve almost immediately so, of course when they become friends they become really *close* friends in the way such people do in anime. I am not alone when I noted that these two are a quite implicit couple. However, at least for the first two episodes of anime, neither of these couples are implicit or explicit. Yuma and Ayano have barely spoken, much less bickered emotionally - and Kouda has yet to suggest something outrageous and suggestive to Eriko. Boo hoo!

Okay, so the anime really does follow the manga closely - the first episode is the the first chapter of the manga and the second episode is the first chapter of the fourth volume? Why? I have no idea, except that maybe they were the two most panty-shot and perviness-filled chapters that the animators could find. The first two episodes of the anime have so many panty shots that I found myself feeling a little ill. At least in part because the shots are long, detailed, *very close up* and...did I mention they lingered? It was SO irksome, I picked up the manga to see if it was that bad, convinced that it couldn't possibly be that awful.

It is. lol

Apparently the problem lies with myself once again. When reading the manga, I can skip over annoying bits quickly. When watching the anime, I have to abide by the pace set by the animators - and they like panty shots much, much, much, much, MUCH more than I do. So if I want to watch the anime, I'm going to have to deal.

So here's the swing vote on this. If they give us back our yuri, I'll suck it up. No yuri - no Erica watching. They get two more episodes to make me happy. :-)

The opening credits are very cute 90's shoujo anime looking, but the ending looks as if a box of Mezzo-Forte opened on the characters of this anime. The characters then do little dances to the closing theme, which appeals to me mightily.

Ratings:

Art - 8 (At least the variety of underwear color and design is refreshing...)
Characters - 7
Story - I really can't tell yet. At the moment 5, but here's hoping it gets better.
Music - 7
Yuri - 0 grrrrr
Loser FanBoy - 8 (Did I mention the variety of underwear color and design? Sigh...)

Overall - 7


Tags: Anime, Not Really Yuri Anime, Jyoshi Kousei, High School Girls

posted by Erica Friedman @ 3:29 PM 3 comments links to this post   

Aria the Natural Anime

Once again - not overtly yuri. But for the Spring 2006 Yuri Anime Season, this second season of Aria, entitled Aria The Natural has the same yuri triggers that were in place for the first season, which I reviewed back in November 2005. Aika still has a raging case of akogare for Alicia, Akira and Alicia still reek of "let's get the kids out of here so we can have some fun..." and the general LFB sentiment of "it's a bunch of beautiful, sweet women all together so there must be yuri in there" is the same as always.

But this series is not without problems. But these are much more indicative of *my* idiosyncracies than any actual failing with the series itself. Primarily, I loathe cats and do not find them to be charming, mysterious, cute or special. I just find them irritating. Entire episodes crafted around cats are pretty much always going to leave me cold. Unfortunately, Aria is crawling with cats. And the animators have a strange, unhealthy obsession with Aria-shachou's butt. I'm really thinking I don't need to see it any more than I already have. Really. And that IS a problem with the series itself, not me.

I also found Akari and Ai's behavior questionable in the first episode. The pagan in me kept saying, "this is a BAD idea" when they happily wandered off behind a group of guisers. "Nonononono" was the other thing I kept telling the unheeding aforementioned girls. Have they never heard of fairies? Have they never heard tales of stupid children who wander off after disguised who-knows-whats and are never seen again. Lucky for them the cats like them, or that would have been the end of the series right there...but I suppose that we're back in the "my idiosyncracies" section of criticism here. I've been in the mask, kids - you *don't* want to follow the masked dude. Okay?

My third point is sort of a lop-sided compliment, rather than a complaint. Because I find Aria so pleasant and charming, I found myself unable to stop comparing pictures of the real Venice with the images of Aria in my mind, as I looked at my sister-not-in-law's vacation pictures. (A problem compunded by the fact that the other pictures were from Versailles and I kept seeing Rose of Versailles in my head.) But it is in no way the series animators' fault that I am a hopeless otaku. LOL

I think the animation for this season is a bit tighter than the first season. They seem to have skipped over most of the early chapters of the manga, but I hope they'll consider doing a kitsune wedding episode, as that was really quite nice. And I keep hoping we'll get more of the three fairies, Athena, Alicia and Akira, because I like them. :-)

Ratings:

Art - 8
Characters - 8
Story - 5-8 depending.
Music - 7
Yuri - 1
Losr FanBoy - 1 (unless you're a cat anus fetishist. Then - 9)

Overall - 7

It's always worth spending a quiet moment with Aria and Akari, Aika, Alicia, Alice, Athena and Akira.


Tags: Anime, Not Really Yuri Anime, Aria the Natural

posted by Erica Friedman @ 2:53 PM 2 comments links to this post   

Yume Tsukai Anime

Welcome back to my reviews of the Spring 2006 Yuri Anime Season. I'm going to try and finish these up this week.

Let's get this out of the way - this anime is not yuri. It may look yuri and feel yuri, but it ain't. In order to convince you I'll have to offer a gigantic spoiler, though. So, let's cut to the chase - Kei isn't a girl. There, now that that's out of the way...let's talk about Yume Tsukai.

The manga came out ages ago - we discussed it on the first and now long-gone version of the Yuricon Mailing List, so we're talking back in 2001. (A quick glance at the listing on Amazon Japan for the Yume Tsukai manga gives me a date of, yes, June 2001.) The manga is deeply weird, with incredibly detailed and disturbed art, a violent and unpleasant dreamscape, with lots of yucky Freudian sexual metaphors and a wopping load of lolicon. Not only are the characters put into many quasi-sexual situations, but the one adult male character is openly obsessed with little girls. Like most obsessives, he doesn't know when to just not talk about it - and like most men he doesn't understand the meaning of the word "shut the fuck up already, I said no."

So you can understand why I did not review the manga here. :-)

Hoever, there were many interesting things about the manga, and I'm glad to say that they kept all of those, while minimizing much of the yuckiness for the anime.

The art was really just too detailed to translate well to animation, unless they had an enormous budget and long schedule - clearly they did not, because they've just simplified the art a bunch. And while Hajime remains a "funny" pedophile, he's not being too openly disgusting - just sort of saying that he likes little girls once in a while, just so the rest of the characters remember to bash him around for fun.

And bizarrely, I think, for such an openly pervtastic manga, the anime transformation scenes are the least suggestive/sexual I've ever seen. They are quite innocent of any flesh at all. It's kind of a relief, really. I was all clenched up waiting to see what they would do for that.

Okay, so why *am* I reviewing this story? Because while not really a yuri story, the plot has some serious yuri elements. In the first episode we follow a series of girls as they disappear into a classroom and are never seen again. Satoko finds herself drawn there, but is saved by grade schooler Rinko. Rinko's advice leads Satoko to a strange shop that seems to specialize in figurines, where Satoko meets Touko, Rinko's sister. Touko, Rinko and the aforementioned Hajime are all "Yume Tsukai" - Dream Users. They use a kind of pre-Shinto shamanic magic to travel into people's dreams and free them from the evil bad things in there. In this case, Satoko is drawn back to the classroom, where we learn that it is her unaccountable desire for classmate Kei, which draws her on. When Rinko and Touko get into her dream world, they fights Kei's avatar, a giant evil version of the little ghosty charm thing you hang out to make it be sunny (it's called a teruterubozu, just in case you wanted to know.) Kei looks like a girl, dresses like a girl, so as far as Satoko is concerned Kei is a girl. (And Kei appears to be female well into the manga, but...Kei is not a girl.) So don't get your hopes up.

No Evil Psycho Lesbian (TM) for you.

However, the girls Kei enthralls don't know that til waaaay down the line, so assuming the anime follows the manga, you can get vicarious yuri thrills, if you like that kind of thing.

Actually, what appeals to me most about this series is the shamanic magic the Dream Users use. Seriously. I find it fascinating - and it's why I'm watching this anime, despite the fact that the manga squicked me.

Ratings:

Art - 6
Story - 6
Characters - 6
Music - 6
Yuri - 2
Loser FanBoy - 2

Overall - 6

Thinking about it, I almost feel bad for the lolicons who do tune in looking for all the same stuff as in the manga, only to find that it's all been hauled out like the trash it is. On second thought - no I don't.

Tags: Anime, Not Really Yuri Anime, Yume Tsukai

posted by Erica Friedman @ 7:31 PM 7 comments links to this post   

Yuri Manga: Pre-order WORKS from ALC!

ALC Publishing, the only all-yuri publisher in North America is proud to offer a brand-new 2nd edition of WORKS, by veteran Japanese yuri manga artist Eriko Tadeno for pre-order on the Yuricon Shop.

This wonderful 100% yuri manga contains four sexy and sweet stories about lesbian life and love - from a school crush to adult coming out to a May-December office romance. This volume includes several short gag comics and commentary from the author specially written for her English-language audience.

Pre-order WORKS today and save off the retail price!

ALC Publishing - where the girl always gets the girl. ;-)

Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, Yuri Manga in English, WORKS, Eriko Tadeno

posted by Erica Friedman @ 7:00 PM 0 comments links to this post   

Drama CD: Hayate x Blade 1

People have been mistaking my review of the Hayate x Blade *Mini* Drama CD for a review of the *actual* Hayate x Blade Drama CD, so I thought I'd better get that done. The mini CD came with the April issue of Dengeki Daioh - the full Drama CD is available from Amazon JP through the Yuricon Shop.

I have to admit that the drama CD, (which was released as Volume 1, so we can expect more,) was surprising on several levels. Most importantly for us, the focus on yuri was upped quite considerably from the manga - but in a strange fashion. But let me get to that in a second.

For those of you unfamiliar with the basic plot of Hayate x Blade (or Hayate Cross Blade, if you prefer,) you might want to read some of my earlier reviews of the manga: Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3. (A review of Volume 4 is forthcoming.) The review of the Mini Drama CD, linked above, has a list of major cast members, so I don't have to do all that gushing and jumping up and down in excitement again. :-)

In short, this series is about students at a girls' school who, paired up with sisters-in-arms/partners...read into that as you will...fight with swords for rank, prestige and other tangible and intangible rewards. Our heroine is grumpy Mudou Ayana, a skilled swordswoman with a past, and hyper Hayate, a young girl with a mission.

The beginning of the Drama CD is half a dozen very short tracks, which detail in very silly ways, a typical Hoshidori battle for Ayana and Hayate (in this case against Suzuki, a student with a grudge against Ayana, but whom Ayana has completely forgotten.) This is interspersed with flashbacks on how Ayana and Hayate met, fell in love, wait...no! (imagine the sound of Ayana punching me to the moon)...

...

...

Hayate's stories go a lot like that on this CD. She's sidetracked easily. Her sound effect for a flashback is very amusing, too. :-)

So we learn about how they met and became shinyuu, and why they fight.

In the opening tracks, we also meet and spend time with Amachi Hitsugi, school chairwoman and principal and her partner Shizuku...and Hitsugi's lovelorn hanger-on, Tatewaki.

After the first half dozen tracks the story settles down a bit and we follow Ayana's bout against Suzuki, and Tatewaki's hopeless bid for Hitsugi's attention. The last few tracks are significantly longer....but much, much weirder.

In the manga it is Ayana's roommate, lesbian Jun, who frequently comes on to Ayana and gets pummelled into oblivion for it. In this CD, Jun has a very minimal role (boo, hoo!) but *Hayate* is all OVER Ayana. She manages to say the Japanese version of "coffee, tea or...me?" about a dozen times - and of course, gets pummelled everytime for it. This is a really abusive, violent comedy, let me tell you. LOL But if you're familiar with the creator's, Hayashiya Shizuru's work, (Strawberry Shake Sweet and myriads of Jesus Drug doujinshi...) you're familiar with her style.

Tatewaki also has a strangely inflated role. In the manga, she's an "oh, you're here too?" kind of character, but she's all over this CD. It's horrible and pathetic and really mean-spirited (and, obviously, funny) the way she's treated. LOL For instance, Tatewaki makes soba noodles for Hitsugi-sama, and the rotten so-and-so goes and shares them with Shizuku right in front of Tatewaki! *And* she's all lovey-dovey and flirty with Shizuku while she's doing it, just to rub salt in the wound.

One of the final tracks involves Jun, Hayate and Tatewaki concocting a plot to get Ayana for hayate and Hitsugi for Tatewaki. Need I mention that it's ridiculous, over-the-top, full of random bondage...and a complete failure?

The last track involves Hayate trying to get a night alone with Ayana. Under the guise of studying, she plays the wife, but Ayana's not a happy hubby. She locks Hayate out of the room, until Hayate shares a tear-jerking, gut-wrenching sob story that turns Ayana to emotional mush. She lets Hayate back in on several conditions.... The next morning Jun archly asks her about her romantic night alone with Hayate. Ayana asks where she heard that they spent the night together? Hayate, of course, Jun replies...and we end the CD with more unspeakable (and kind of uncommunicatable on Drama CD) violence. LOL

So yuri? Yes.

Anything good? Well Hitsugi and Shizuku are awfully snuggly.

Tatewaki and Hayate are more goofy than anything else. And Ayana gets the usual tense moment with her former partner, Yukari.

Sadly Momoka, Isuzu and Jun all have teeny tiny roles here - I look forward to more of them all in future CDs. Isuzu *still* manages to be all googly over Momoka in the few moments she's on, which was lovely.

The sound effects, of which there were many, tended towards the "silly noise" type, for auditory slapstick effect. But Hayate's "flasback" sound still wins. :-)

The final track, to my delight, was a bonus track in which all the seiyuu are given a chance to discuss a theme - and today's them is!: The moment you realized you were a moron. LOL This is very fitting, as you know if you're familiar with the series, since every chapter beings with a variation on the theme of baka, i.e., idiot or moron, in this case. Alot of the seiyuu's moments of baka-hood seem to revolve around difficulties with Tokyo's train system, which made me laugh - I've been there.

(I'm not 100% sure, and I really have to go back and listen again, but I could have sworn I heard them mention Morishima Akiko, the manga artist who drew up the Yuricon in Tokyo report for Yuri Hime 1, and also drew up a report on the recording of this CD for Yuri Hime 2.)


Ratings:

Story - kinda weird but fun 7
Characters - 7
Voice Acting - also kind weird but fun - 7
Yuri - 7
Loser Fanboy - no visuals, and yet *still* fanservice - 2 lol

Overall - 7

It wasn't as hysterical as the Mini CD, but it's still pretty fun, and funny. I'm looking forward to more!

Tags: Drama CD, Yuri, Chicks with Swords, Hayate Cross Blade, Hayate x Blade

posted by Erica Friedman @ 5:57 PM 0 comments links to this post   

Yuri Anime: Simoun

Next up in our New Spring 2006 Yuri Anime Season reviews, Simoun. I touched briefly on the Simoun manga that premiered in Yuri Hime 3 in February. There wasn't too much to say about it, as the publication is quarterly and we've only seen one chapter. (T-minus one week to Chapter Two in Yuri Hime 4 - the link is up on the Yuricon Shop.) So, I had no specific expectations going into the anime.

The premise of the Simoun anime appears to be the same as that of the manga. Our protagonists are Neviru and Aeru, two female warriors from an embattled society. Everyone in this world is born female, but at some point (it was originally stated on the website that the choice was at 15, but it has since been changed to 17) that everyone chooses whether to remain female (which they must do to continue to fight) or to become male. Most yuri fans appear to be a bit hesitant to embrace a story in which a sudden gender change might render a lesbian couple suddenly straight, but I'm not that concerned.

The main objection appears to be that in the middle of a really wonderful yuri love affair one character might suddenly decide to change her gender. This is reasonably unlikely for several reasons, based on what I have read and seen so far:

1) This decision is a once-a-lifetime choice. At 17, you go to the sacred lake and chose. Then it's done. You don't choose again, and the choice isn't reversable.

2) The main characters we are following are all going to be female because they are warrior-pilots. To fight you have to be female. I expect one or two to change gender as the story goes on, but the bulk of any main relationships you'll see are going to be lesbian.

3) The manga is running in Yuri Hime, which is a yuri manga publication for a yuri audience. I think it unlikely that they'll piss the audience off by changing too many of the couples mid-flight, as it were.

Interestingly, all the characters in this anime, male or female, are voiced by women, which I thinks puts a very unique spin on the masculinity of the male characters. I though it an original touch. In addition, several of the leading male roles are drawn with very feminine features.

Let's go over the bad first, as I frequently do when there is more good than bad. The thing I like least has got to be the character designs. The clothing is less annoying than it is in the manga, but in general, I don't care for the characters' faces - especially their eyes and mouths. Most especially our heroine Neviru, looks, with that mouth, just like a sex toy blow up doll. I find that very unpleasant.

That about covers the bad. Now the neither good-nor-bad, but it makes for good conversation:

The opening episode has several yuri kisses, which are clearly not plot drivers. On the one hand, they are, to my realistic eye, yuri service to sell the anime to the widest variety of fanboys/girls. On the other hand, I think that they might also represent a tradition. As I mentioned on the Yuricon Mailing List today (please excuse the cut-and-paste):

One - the pilot pairs kiss each other before departing.

Two - the pilots then kiss a green gem-like thing that must be understood to be the energy source for their ship.

I conjecture that Neviru's original partner and she were (I think it's fairly obvious, actually,) much closer than just partners. Neviru's partner and she shared kisses because they were lovers, and the other pilots, seeing their princess sharing a kiss with her partner were moved to do the same - and from there it became a tradition. It's not entirely unlikely that the partner-pilots grow exceptionally close, as they hold each others' lives in their hands. Think of them as Spartans. But now it has become a tradition and regardless of partner one shares a kiss, to remember the fragility of life, to remember love and peace and good things, before one boards for battle.

Now let's look at the second kiss, the one that, perhaps, activates the ship's power source. We know pretty much nothing about it, and personally, I hope we never really do learn anything about it. It'll make writing fanfic easier. lol

So - let me just take a flying leap here and say that the technology does not have to be activated by a kiss. It might be both pilots touching the gem that activates it - or their intent brought to bear upon the gem but, like the kiss shared between pilots, the kiss on the gem focuses the mind and intent *directly on* the technology, and makes it activate. So it becomes part of the tradition - a kiss for your partner, a kiss for your ship.

In a sense - a very feminine way to approach battle. In another sense, a fun, cheesy way to gain instant yuri street cred. Whichever you want. It matters not. :-)

Serge then pointed out that the kisses may well be an older/religious tradition quite apart from Neviru and her partner, as they all refer to God quite a bit in reference to the whole thing. So there you go, justification for the conjecture. :-)

Now for the fantastic:

On the definitely good side, we have to start off with the background art, and the CGI of the mecha. The designs for the mecha are unique and the computer animation is lovely. The backgrounds are, like the picture above, watercolor-esque and very appealing. The two combined work for me, absolutely.

Also, story-wise, I absolutely ADORED the point of view in the first epsiode. Nota Mamiko (Shimako in the Marimite anime) voices an "enemy" pilot. A large portion of the first episode is from the perspective of a pilot from what is (to us anyway) a miserable over-industrialized world, which has demonized the protagonists' society, Simoun. Simoun is shown as a garden-like, beautiful world, without taint of smog or grime, in which the technology is as beautiful as the people. I really, really liked how we first see Simoun through the eyes of someone who seeks to destroy it. This kind of writing is more important to me than any kiss will ever be, in an anime, at least. :-)

Music was good, a huge chunk was Bach, although the exact piece is escaping me and that's annoying the heck outta me...

Ratings:

Art - 8
Characters - hard to tell, let's go with 6 and revise later
Story - 7, with some genuine hope for more/better if the writing keeps up
Music - 8
Yuri - 8
Loser FanBoy - 3

Overall - 8

After two episodes, I think we can, perhaps, look forward to a decent anime with some unique characteristics, at least. Time will tell whether it is actually *good*, but at least it's not starting out from the gutter! LOL

Oh, and P.S. - Simoun was the name of French-made series of airplanes. Just thought you might like to know. :-)

Tags: Anime, Yuri Anime, Simoun

posted by Erica Friedman @ 6:20 PM 8 comments links to this post   

Yuri Anime: Strawberry Panic

I'll do my best to make today's post simple and straightforward, so you have less room for cognitive dissonance, but I have little hope of you all following the logic. So, with a deep breath and a dash of desperation, I bring you the first of the Spring 2006 Yuri Anime Season reviews.

I first encountered Strawberry Panic as a series of short stories published in Dengeki G's Magazine. (These have now been collected into a single volume, which is NOT the same as the first volume of the manga.)I reviewed these stories as a whole in January 2004. These stories were all short, plotless vignettes. Each one gave the briefest glimpse into a "yuri coupling" (the phrase used on the original website which is now gone) between two girls who attended one of three schools - the same schools with unpronouncable and untransliteratable names as those in the anime.

Because Dengeki G's is a magazine for loser fanboys who play dating sims and h-games with characters that all look unpleasantly young (and who, I am sure, call out "oniiii-chaaaan" at every opportunity,) in every short story, we meet a horribly lolified girl who does something exciting like trip and scrape her knee, or fall inexplicably into a pond, or make lunch. In each of these vignettes, the older, admired/desired girl is cool only by comparison with her partner who looks 6 years old. At the end of every vignette, we read a breathless thought of love, or perhaps a scandalous confession of like or, in some case, even a quick peck on the cheek! Shock!

Now here's the part where you have to work hard to follow me. *Based on the aforementioned stories*, the anime is not that bad.

Don't get all hairball on me - I am not saying that the anime is not bad or - heaven forfend - good. I am saying, in what I hope is a clear and concise manner that given the utter craptasticness of the stories from which the idea came, the anime is less horrible than I expected.

The anime, while loli (duh) and distinctly derivative of Maria-sama ga Miteru, and school uniform fetishy, and just plain stupid, is still better than I imagined it would be, because for however bad the Strawberry Panic anime is - it is *still better than the original stories.* (And incidentally, better than the manga, as well, in which Nagisa is one of those horrible creatures who refers to herself in third-person.)

Okay. So, I'm the only person on this continent whose expectations for the Strawberry Panic anime weren't disappointed. But I had a priori understanding of how dire it was going to be.

Now, let's get the actual review over with quickly. Strawberry Panic is trash. It's written for the lowest common denominator, will have as many cliche's as possible crammed into each episode and the yuri is only fanservice. This is a classic use of yuri as a sales tactic. Yuri is the fetish du jour here. This is NOT sweet, it is NOT cute and if you really, really, can't see why I'm saying this, you, sir are a Loser Fanboy. LOL (In fact, as I stated last week, the inability to tell a good story from trash is pretty much the definition of LFB in my book.)


Ratings:

Art - 6
Characters - 4
Story -
Music - 6
Yuri - 8
Loser Fanboy - 8

Overall - 6

Will I watch it, since it's such crap? Hell, yes! I find crap as amusing as the next person. But the first person who tries to, say compare Strawberry Panic with something decent like Strawberry Shake Sweet, which is yuri by a woman for women (and men), will be branded on their forehead with the letters L, F and B! LOL

Tags: Anime, Yuri Anime, Strawberry Panic

posted by Erica Friedman @ 4:31 PM 14 comments links to this post   

Yuri Manga: R.O.D - Read or Die, Volume 1

In an effort to enrage more people with opinions that are not theirs, I *promise* to review some new season anime from tomorrow on. However, today, I thought it might be nice if I got a break and let guest reviewer Sean Gaffney enrage a few people instead. Thanks again to Sean for his opinions which are not yours (or, frequently, mine.) :-)

R.O.D. - Read Or Die, Volume 1

I'll take 'Die' for 500 please, Alex.

The Read Or Die OAVs, when they first came out, were a favorite of mine. Yomiko was scatterbrained and likeable, Nancy was beautiful, appealing, and tragic, Joker was cool yet detached and mysterious, and Wendy fell over a lot. Also, the story worked well and made sense. And Yomiko was a very likeable superhero.

Then there was Read or Die the TV. This introduced a grumpy writer friend of Yomiko's, Nenene, as well as three other Paper Masters. Yomiko was the missing bit around which the first half of the series revolved. I fell in love with Nenene from the start. The Paper Sisters were all emotional cripples and freaks, but were also
likeable and sympathetic. Joker and Wendy had changed the most, and were essentially the villains of the piece, but even so I didn't really mind as much. And when Yomiko and Nancy returned, things got even more complex. Yomiko wasn't as shiny this time around, and she was far more practical and realistic. But she was still, despite it all, a likeable and sympathetic superhero, who in this series played a support role for the Three Sisters who starred.

I haven't read the novels, so don't really know what they're like. If they're like most anime novels, though, I imagine they're written first person from Yomiko's point of view, so I can imagine that, while they draw from the same plotlines as the manga, Yomiko has to be sympathetic purely based on the popularity of the series and the POV.

Then there's the manga. This first one is basically an adaptation of the first novel, and contains the first meeting of Yomiko and Nenene.

Let's get the good out of the way first. It's hard to ruin Nenene, and she's clearly the highlight of this story. Grumpy yet still energetically teenage, she is easily recognizable to those who know her older self from the TV series. She's a good likeable audience identification character in amongst all these superheroes and supervillains.

OK, that's it for the good. Let's talk Yomiko now. I notice that the artist seems to enjoy drawing faces that are laughing maniacally, sneering insipidly, or just otherwise insane. Which is good, as this Yomiko seems genuinely unbalanced. This is not necessarily a bad idea. The TV series carried its flawed heroines off wonderfully, and I include Yomiko in there. There's nothing wrong with a tragic/messed up backstory driving you, nor is it wrong to emphasize Yomiko's book obsession.

But you've got to make her REMOTELY likeable! Come on! The Yomiko of the manga (clearly less experienced than the anime versions we know), is a headcase. She reads like a person who is a Bookevangelist, and like Jerry Falwell, it comes out creepy. She's at her best in this first volume, working well in the conversations with Nenene, and the bit about her not taking her glasses off was one of the few really good pieces of writing in the volume.

I think another big problem is subtleties. The anime were both rather oblique in the way they handled characterization, especially in their plot revelations. The manga is as subtle as a hammer to the head. Plot points are shouted at the top of their lungs. "Did you know I can do this! Because I can! Now watch!"

Any other good news? Yes. This is the best of the four volumes. It's still readable, if not likeable. There are occasional good bits. The ending is rather sweet.

But man, if you want your Yomiko fix, stick to the TV screen. And I say this as a huge Nenene fan. Yomiko's a freak here, but not a fun one.

--SG

This is Erica, once again wth a note for Sean, really. I have a few of the ROD novels and for the one I picked up and started to read, the beginning was from the point of view of a completely, hopelessly insane villainess. I loved her instantly. I don't know if the rest of the novel was from her POV, but we can both keep our fingers crossed. LOL When I complete the Marimite novels, the ROD novels are next up.

Let me also remind you that if you *do* desire to picke up a copy of R.O.D. Volume 1, you can simply click the picture or the link above and you'll be instantly transported to the Amazon page. This goes for almost all the manga and anime I review here that's available through Amazon or Amazon JP.

Thank you once again, Sean, for giving me the night off!

Tags: Yuri, Yuri Manga, R.O.D., Read or Die, Yomiko and Nenene

posted by Erica Friedman @ 6:44 PM 2 comments links to this post   

Yuri Anime: Mai Otome

There were so many things wrong with Mai Otome (or Mai Zhime if you prefer,) that I had very low expectations of it from the first. And with the cataclysmically badly written reset ending that made the first 24 episodes of Mai Hime meaningless, I expected a train wreck at the end of this series.

I'm pleased to report that my low expectations were surpassed. :-)

Don't get me wrong - Mai Otome is not Haibane Renmei...or even Stellvia. It's a fanservice-filled action romp through several tedious fetishes with a plot thrown in for good measure. But given that, the ending was pretty damn good. The key point, I think, is that unlike Mai Hime, which was very serious in all the moments outside the fanservice-based moments of "humor" (look, heh heh, her tits are big! Heh, look she has no underwear, heh), Mai Otome was actually fairly light hearted, (with copious amounts of fanservice-based "humor," as well, duh.)

Things the end of Mai Otome *didn't* have:

- Giant Shizuru x Natsuki lovefest reunion

- Nina getting a clue

- Mashiro comprehending that rebuilding the palace was *still* a bad idea for her subjects - even if it had her happy giant sunflower on it, instead of a giant laser.

- Spontaneous reincarnation of every person who had previously died. (They sort of brought back a few key people, but that was done with an actual tie-in to the plot. And it was nothing like the "our viewers are idiots" mass reincarnation from Mai Hime.) In fact, they so very did NOT bring some people back, that I can only assume that that was the major complaint they had heard on the first series.

Things the ending *did* have:

- The calvary thundering down the hill to the rescue about three dozen times. And as stupid as each one was, I enjoyed it every time. :-)

- A really amusing, if obvious, gag involving Miss Maria.

- Chie and Aoi lovefest reunion

- Haruka getting a moment of actual cool

- All the Otome getting a moment of actual cool

- An epilogue which not only made some sense, but gives the most obnoxious plot complication (Nina and Sergey) a chance to reset in a semi-organic manner.

Ratings:

Art - 8 (On a head-to-head comparison, the art for Mai Otome is SO much better than that for Mai Hime)
Characters - 8
Story - 7
Music - 7
Yuri - 5
Loser FanBoy - 8

Overall - 7

Overall, I really think that this ending was as good as we could have hoped for from this series. This summer there are 4 Mai Otome movies slated for release...let's see if they can manage to not ruin the TV series for us, shall we? :-)

Tags: Anime, Yuri Anime, Mai Otome, Mai Hime

posted by Erica Friedman @ 7:02 PM 11 comments links to this post   

Yuri Anime: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl

I wanted to end the previous season before I took a look at the new season of yuri anime and I thought that Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl was a good place to start as it was a remarkable ending.

The Kashimashi anime moved in a totally different direction than the manga has taken. I can't say that it was a bad thing. Without giving away any of what's going on in the manga (I'll wait for Volume 3 to come out for that) I can say that the anime had only one seriously weak plot complication, where the manga has that and at least one more and the chance that it may develop into two more.

More importantly, the anime ended. I mean - it *resolved*. Decisions were made, choices were finalized - it ended. For real.

No, really. I mean it.

Hazumu remains a girl and chooses one of the two girls who loves her. It was so...normal.

Think of all the dumb things that could have happened: Hazumu turning back into a boy was the one I was waiting for. But she didn't. How weird is that?

In fact, then ending was so normal - so much like a thing that might have actually happened in real life (with the one exception of the silly plot complication, if you've seen it, you know what I mean) that it kind of just went under the radar. No outcry of "OMG! An anime actually ENDED! With a RESOLUTION!"

Instead there was a huge silence. So - after all these years of watching crappy unresolved restart endings we FINALLY get a real ending and it's a yuri ending where the girl remains a girl and get the girl and...thud. Nothing.

Go out and watch the damn ending already! LOL And when you have, join us on the Yuricon Mailing List where we can call it Kashimashi Girl Gets Girl. lol

Ratings:

Art - 7
Characters - 7
Story - 7
Music - 7
Yuri - 8
Loser FanBoy - 5

Overall - 7

Poor Loser Fanboys, Hazumu doesn't turn back into a boy and still get the girls. Boo hoo for them.

Tags: Anime, Yuri Anime, Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl

posted by Erica Friedman @ 11:08 AM 1 comments links to this post   

Yuricon News: Yuricon mentioned in Newsweek Japan

This week's Newsweek Japan (Cover: Nippon Daisuki) feature article, "We've all fallen for Japan!" Newsweek Japan, April 5, 2006. Page 24) discusses the upswing of recent Japanese culture popularity in the US. Covering the growing popularity of manga in America, Yuricon nets a mention.

Yuricon founder Erica Friedman is quoted as having become a fan of anime and manga through "Sailor Moon" and having been inspired to create a community for fans of yuri which became Yuricon.

Yuricon was founded as a celebration of yuri in anime and manga in 2000, and ALC Publishing, North America's only of 100% yuri publisher in 2003.

To learn more about Yuricon or ALC Publishing, please visit http://www.yuricon.org or email yuricon@hotmail.com

posted by Erica Friedman @ 1:27 PM 0 comments links to this post   

Now This Is Only My Opinion, Part 2

Last week, I offered to wax opinionated on anything you asked, so here we are. A lot of the questions are Marimite related, so take all answers with the requisite grain of salt.

Q: I might as well ask the most obvious question (to me): Which Lillian schoolgirl would you want to be?

This is the "most obvious" question? It wouldn't be to me, but okay... I'm not in the habit of wanting to be fictitious characters. And to be very, very honest, the idea of going to a Catholic school does not appeal to ex-Jew, currently pagan me. BUT, if I absolutely HAD to be someone at Lillian, well then there's no choice at all. Lesbian, comparative literature major and dirty-old-man at 18, I'd have to go with Sei. And the sky is blue. :-)

Q:I STILL want to know if you think Rei and Yoshino are sleeping together. And hey, I can't seem to remember any evidence besides their word that they really are cousins...

Other proof? You mean other than the fact that the author says as much? Authors, despite fan's hopes and dreams *do* have final say. Rei and Yoshino ARE cousins. Their fathers are brothers and their mothers were soeur at Lillian. I do not think they are sleeping together, no.

Q: Not sure if you are familiar with the fanfiction of Paul Corrigan, (and I don't mean to plug someone else's work on your site, nor am I affiliated with Paul Corrigan in any way) - but after your reading of the Marimite novels and such, what do you think of his characterization of Yumi and Sachiko in fanfics like this one? http://tinyurl.com/hdvup - Just curious on your take on it.

I am familiar with Paul and his curious brand of Canada-insert fanfic. I was not familiar with this story, because I mostly do not read fanfic other than those written by the members of the Fanfic Revolution. However, in the spirit of trying to be as fair in answering as I could, I went to the link and tried to read it. Again, to be perfectly honest, I was unable to get past the poor formatting and swiftly and randomly changing tenses and points of view to encounter the characterization that you spoke of. It seemed to me that story was that Sachiko had propositioned Yumi, but due to Sei and Youko's unintendened inteference they got nowhere and everyone ends frustrated. I did not care for it. At the risk of sounding abominally pompous, I did it better in Distance.

Q: Any opinions on Shizuru and Natsuki of Mai Hime/Otome fame? (or any of the other couplings in that universe)

Nope. None at all.

Q: And while I'm at it, what DO you think of Kannazuki no Miko?

It was a funny, train-wreck of an insensible anime, and a slightly more heinous manga, clearly written by and for people who haven't the least little idea what rape does to a person. But the multitudes of children (who tell me that they are NOT young, they're 20! Which is young, hello...) who think it was beautiful and fantastic and sexy HAWT yuri make me want to commit murder. Repeatedly.

It was fun. But it was NOT good.

Q: Who is the greatest anime villain of them all?

What a great question! I have no idea...there are so many.

Desslock from Starblazers was my first, with his beautiful blue skin and stylin' orange hair, but no one gives him any respect these days.

Char (Mobile Suit Gundam) would have to be up on the list, because people still know who he is, but he never tickled my fancy.

Gendo from Neon Genesis Evanglion, has been fairly timeless. Still cosplayed today, so he's got to be on the list, even if he was very easy to draw, since his face never moved. And he was the impetus for Ogata Megumi to scream alot as Shinji - so that has to account for something.

(I'm doing a little review of my entries in the November '03 issue of Animerica, in which I contributed to a "Rogues' Gallery" of evil, and wrote a short piece on the "Badass-ness of Being Bad" to assist my memory.)

Gestapoko from the Kekkou Kamen anime is offensive in every possible way, so she's on the list, absolutely. A Nazi-regalia-clad S&M "queen" with the look of a street hooker from "Hunter" Gestapoko made Alan Harnum collapse in horror once - that's got to count for something!

Because of the recent Live-Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon I have to put Queen Beryl on my list. She was just another red-headed baddie until she was brought to life in the newest incarnation. And woo-hee, she was GREAT! The nails, the breasts, the *dress*! Beryl's da bomb in every way.

Goldie Musou from Gunsmith Cats has always been one of my favorite Evil, Psychotic Lesbians (TM), for her driven insanity and desire to make a sex toy out of Rally. I respect that kind of vision in a woman.

But I have to say that my *personal* number one favorite villian ever is... Eudial of the Witches Five from the Sailor Moon anime. Doorknobder is the most pathetic miserable wretch of a Monster of the Day, Eudial is so hopeless, and so funny and so cracked, that I've loved her from first sight. I mean - she collects the parking and driving tickets she gets! Eudial can have my heart any day - pure or not.

Q: Do you know if anything ever happends between Sachiko and Yumi?

Um, do you folks realize that Maria-sama ga Miteru is for young teens, right? No one is going to have sex in this series. Move on already! These girls are experiencing love based on desire and admiration, not desire only. I am prepared to bet money that none of the soeur couples will ever be seen having sex in the books proper. Ever.

Q: I've been wondering for a while, what exactly are your feelings about the 'onee-sama complex' in Yuri?

It's a perfectly natural extension of the usual sempai-kouhai relationships all Japanese form throughout their lives, and has roots of tradition that date back to pre-literary times. What I don't get is everyone makes such a big fuss over it. It's just a thing.

Q: Flat tax. Yes or No?

Doesn't Matter. It's not the tax system that is flawed (although it is, of course) but that *any* system of goverment or taxation is inherently flawed because people are inherently monstrously selfish. And regardless of the system of taxation, rich people will be able to hire professionals to wangle out of it, governments will always count on the middle class (a part of which I proudly account myself) to bear the burden of the lowest class, who are the unlikeliest to seek the correct kinds of help to lessen their loads for many and various reasons.

Q: Aside from the ones you've mentioned here on Okazu (or maybe even including them, for those who haven't read all the archives), what original yuri doujinshi circles do you read?

My top Circles currently are, off the top of my head: Jesus Drug, Sakuraike, NWXP, Office Mono, Girlish, Pen-Pen Gusa Club. Some of these do original, some not. I'm on a Jesus Drug kick at the moment, as I've become a horrific Hayashiya Shizuru fangirl.

and lastly, from email:

Q: What is a loser fanboy?

The answer, when I solicited it from a number of people was, "you." Seriously, because those of us who KNOW we are losers don't seem to have to ask. And the only folks that do seem to ask are definitely the ones who fit the unwritten criteria.

What do *I* think makes a loser fanboy (or girl, to be fair)? Well, an inability to distinguish between well-constructed stories with well-developed characters from crap is the primary quality.

Let's take a few series for comparison. Now, this will seem inequitable because the "My Favorites" are all manga. They are not anime. Why? Because they have no fanservice, which is another thing LFBs don't seem to notice is quite repulsive.

So - my favorites currently:

Hayate x Blade - probably the most likely to have a chance at an anime. No fanservice (random panties, breasts, bathing suits, obsolete for twenty years gym outfits, etc), some amusing double-entendre' from time to time, however. Lots of random violence. Fantastic characters, great backstory, high emotion, absolute hysterical stories and did I mention the charming characters?

Iono-sama Fanatics - No fanservice. Not really any scary bloody violence, just kind of cool cuts across the face-type violence. Implications of sex, no actual sex shown. But funny, and cute and really unique and original. Incredibly well-written story and wonderful characters.


Super popular anime: Mai Hime/Mai Otome - Can we say monstrous huge boobs jiggling and panty shots, and implications of panty shots and MORE panty shots - oh, and tentacle monsters in the pool and incest and intergenerational sex, and obsolete gym uniforms for TREKKING ACROSS THE FREAKIN' PLANET, because we want our girls to have NO PANTS on for cryin' out loud.

Kannazuki no Miko - lesbian rape is sexy.

Okay - now, look at the list and tell me which ones are more popular.

Now - you'll argue and say, "but the anime is subbed, so I can see it, and the manga isn't so I can't." Which is true, but it doesn't mean that you're right. Anyone with a brain will understand immediately that the bottom two will always be more popular. Why? Because of Loser Fanboys.

And there you have it. My opinions.

This was fun. I may make it an annual event.

posted by Erica Friedman @ 7:34 PM 16 comments links to this post