Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

Well, as I've noted, I was running short on things to order, so in addition to the comics here, I also got all the drama CDs for MY HiME, MY OTOME (ein), and Strawberry Panic. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to listening to those yet, so I'll just talk about comics and videos.

「ちょこパフェ」/Choco Parfait (Izumi) [A]: It's cute and all, but I still don't like children. Mlle. Chloe is nice, but she is apparently only a one-shot character. On the other hand, it only ran to two volumes, so the rest isn't much of a commitment. . . .

「CLAYMORE クレイモア」 (Yagi Norihiro) [A]: This one was in Yuri Shimai way back in VOL.2, but despite the fact that it's right up my alley, I never bothered to read it. The main reason for that was probably the fact that I didn't find the illustration style terribly compelling. It's not ugly or anything, it just doesn't seem that special. The eyes are smaller than in most of the other things I'm reading, which makes it a bit more realistic, but the noses and mouths don't seem to be enlarged any, so the faces seem to have a lot of whitespace on them. Anyway, the elements promised in Yuri Shimai haven't appeared yet, but, to be fair, they were showing Book 3 in their article. In any case, I don't mind reading straightforward hack and slash either, so I'll continue with this one (hopefully through the kick-ass site, if I can get ahold of arifyn again).

「舞‐乙HiME　Zwei」/MY OTOME Zwei (Some Dude with Lots of Readings for the Characters in His Name) [—]: Well, this was more contemporary with the previous post, but it wasn't in my amazon account (because I downloaded it), so I forgot. Anyway, it looks like Ms. Kruger will get some action (after being reduced to hetare status for most of the TV series), but Ms. Viola won't. I liked to see that they were in a stable relationship after all the (admittedly very cool) trouble in the previous series, but they were minor enough characters that all we see is that they have strong mutual trust and loyalty, Ms. Kruger isn't comfortable being groped in public, and (slight spoiler) Ms. Viola doesn't see anything wrong with casual flings with other ladies. Ms. Tokiha and Ms. Mikoto are good, too, but they always seemed like they had a more casual (platonic?) relationship. And I still don't like the latter's hairstyle. Meanwhile, Ms. Yumemiya and Ms. Blan don't seem to have made any progress. I also didn't get around to watching Episode 2 until yesterday, and thus when I found that the file was corrupt, there were of course no more seeds. Fortunately, Doremi was kind enough to release a softsubbed version, which is of course the next best thing, so perhaps I'll watch it on Monday.

「姉妹の方程式」/Shimai no Hōteishiki (Nonohara Chiki) [A]: This one has almost the same premise as Bimbō Shimai Monogatari, which I mentioned before, but this time it's a goofy comedy with exaggerated characters. Still, there's not much to see. The third daughter seems to read some yuri, but is usually moete'ru about BL (incidentally, the same as a supporting character in the new four-panel strip starting in Comic YuriHime VOL.6—although you don't find that out until VOL.7—and apparently a lot of the mook's readership). Also, the second daughter is apparently strongly attached to the first, but we don't see much of that. By the way, the title means "sisters' equation" or some such, no doubt because each of them has a numeral in her name (10^n–1, where n is the ordinal of her birth). For some reason, "1,000" (「千」) is a common character in ladies' names, but other than the occasional "1" (much more common in male names), the others aren't.

「PILGRIM JÄGER ピルグリム・イェーガー 巡礼の魔狩人」 (UBUKATA TOU/ITOU MAMI) [A]: This is another boys' fantasy action series from VOL.2, so I tended to associate it with CLAYMORE until I read them. This one has prettier pictures, but it's also a lot deeper—setting it in Renaissance Italy gives a lot of background (which is discussed between chapters). And demonic chicken heads (go geeks!). Anyway, the heroines are essentially gypsy demon-hunters. I'm not sure what Yuri Shimai saw in their relationship that caused them to put this in the top 10 for that article—They said something like, "What do those words really mean?" but the picture was too small to read the dialogue, and it apparently wasn't in this volume. Still, it's entertaining enough to continue. Like the Hakushaku Cain Series (which I forgot to mention earlier—see below), there seems to be a group of villains with supernatural powers and names of tarot cards (in this case, the greater arcana and the kings and queens of the lesser, judging by their numbers).

「忘れられたジュリエット」「少年の孵化する音」「カフカ」「赤い羊の刻印」「ゴッド・チャイルド」/Wasurerareta Juliet; Shōnen no Fuka Suru Oto; Kafka; Akai Hitsuji no Kokuin; God Child (Yuki Kaori) [—]: As I mentioned before, I was going back to read the unadulterated forms of these (and the parts that hadn't been released back when I was reading scanslations) as research for a future character (whom I probably won't ever get to play now that I've lost my Eberron group). Anyway, these (three collections of short stories—including some non-Cain one-shots—and two miniseries) are known as the Hakushaku (Earl—not Count, as some have thought, because the Saxons replaced those in Britain) Cain Series, after its hero. It's set in Victorian England, although the dates aren't very specific. (In the story, both the Jack the Ripper killings and Ms. Victoria's Diamond Jubilee happened when he was 17.) Like TenKin (which she wrote between Akai Hitsuji no Kokuin and God Child), it doesn't pull any punches, so it has lots of angst, tragedy, pseudo-psycho-drama, and supernatural horror. I particularly liked the series of revelations about Riff at the end. It doesn't have any real yuri (one minor character is described as a lesbian—once in the entire series), but, like her other big work, has a lot of fuel for BL lovers' imaginations. Fun Fact: The three characters (香織里) in Ms. Yuki's first name ("Kaori") are often read in other names as "Kaori," "-ori," and "-ri," respectively—as compared to Ms. Saki Kaori, who only has the first two.

THE INCREDIBLE TRUE ADVENTURE OF TWO Girls In LOVE (Maria Maggenti) [—]: I heard about this one long ago, but didn't get around to watching it until now. It's a nice little high-school love story, with strong themes of ostracization.

LAPSIA JA AIKUISIA (Aleksi Salmenperä) [—]: Well, I believe I can honestly say that this is the first Finnish movie I've seen. Unfortunately, in this one, the subtitles got really offset towards the end, which was annoying and confusing at times. The heroine's struggle between the macho athlete boyfriend → fiancé and the tall, dusky-skinned, curly-haired beauty reminds me of something. . . . Also like the L word, there's some stupid man who insists that even if lesbians want to have a baby, they have to do it the old-fashioned way. You'd think he'd be more open-minded about it, considering that he works at a fertility clinic. . . . Good movie, anyway.

Also haven't watched Fingersmith yet. Gimme some time, here.

Continuing from before, here's my December stuff:

「R.O.D READ OR DREAM」 (Kurata Hideyuki/Ayanaga Ran) [A]: I've known about this one for quite some time, as besides the Yuri Shimai article, I've also seen THE TV series. Unfortunately, the key points there were the relationships between "Sumiregawa-sense" [sic] and "Yomiko-sensei" and between Ms. King and Ms. Hishi'ishi. However, as the TV series was an original story based on a crossover between the READ OR DIE novels and comics and the READ OR DREAM comics (the ones I'm discussing here), neither of those was expected to appear here. Essentially, I bought it just because of the chapters posted on daily_yuri. Low expectations make for low disappointment, I guess.

Incidentally, I was disappointed in both the ~DIE comics and the OVAs because of the lack of focus on the two sense(i)'s relationship. The comics had the "first kiss" bit in chapter 2 but little else, as they otherwise focus on the relationships between the three kami-tsukai. The OVAs were so stuffed with action that they didn't even have space for Ms. Sumiregawa at all (making her appearance and relationship with Ms. Readman in THE TV unexplained to those who haven't perused the other media), and even the dropping of her name was lost in translation because the American distributors didn't have enough respect for the series to bother to find out what they're talking about [sic]. If I really want to get to know the series, I'll have to overcome my lethargy and actually read the original novels.

「あいたま IDOL no TAMAGO」/ITAMA IDOL no TAMAGO (Shiwasu Tōko) [B]: I still don't give a damn about comedy, but, oddly enough, that's the genre that keeps putting out good stuff. This is another one set in a private school with a special scholarship program for a special type of students, but instead of duelists, this time it's media idols. The key point is of course the heroine's mooning over the variety of (female) celebrities, complete with plentiful drool and nosebleeds. There's also one of the starlets who has noticeably strong feelings for the heroine (although they've been written off as friendship so far), and one who is idolized even by some of the other idols. Anyway, I'm looking forward to more of this one, despite the fake preview of the next volume.

「１４ ジューシー It's so JUICY!! Welcome to watermelon junior high」 (Asada Hikaru/Asakura Maru) [B]: Yes, it's quite exploitative, but I like it, dammit. There are two key points. One is Heroine #1 (upper right on the cover, who has the quadruple threat of being tall, good-looking, good at sports, and fond of the first-person pronoun "boku," which in combination always results in huge popularity among female underclassmen. (She claims not to be interested herself, but she seemed tempted at least once.) The other is Heroine #2 (left), her "just a best friend" (disputed territory), who is always jealous but hardly seems ready to be exclusive herself. (We'll just ignore Heroine #3, shall we?) There are some male characters, but the focus is on female student managers of athletic clubs. Since it, unlike most of my readings, is set at a city school, there's no official outerwear, as you can see from the cover. The illustration style is quite pretty, although not as polished as that of Ms. Hayashiya or that Fujieda guy. Of course, what stands out most is the proportions of several of the characters. (The faculty/staff are all well and good, but 90cm at age 13? Do they have steroid testing for the managers, too?) Anyway, there's no "1" on the cover (other than the one in the title), but the illustrator suggests in the afterword that there will be more, so I'm keeping my proverbial fingers crossed.

「スズナリ！」/Suzunari! (Iwami Shōko) [A]: Here's another one about a buxom, cat-eared young high-school co-ed who's crazy about her "o-Nei-chan" [sic], but this time it's not just about weirdness and service (although there is some of each). It's still somewhat comedic (as necessitated by the four-panel format—stupid traditions), I like this one a lot better, because it has actual not-particularly-caricatured relationships. The last strip in the book is a good omen.

「PANI-PONI」 (Hikawa Hekiru) [A]: Nothing about which to write home.

「ひだまりスケッチ」/Hidamari Sketch (Aoki Ume) [A]: Ditto.

STRANGERS IN PARADISE (Terry Moore) [—]: Wow, where do I start? I'd still like to type a post about the mechanical elements as promised, but that is a story for another day. Anyway, this one I remembered mentioned on daily_yuri, where I hadn't been reading the American comics, but I had a gift card for Von's and it looked pretty, so I grabbed the first volume then. The reviews say it's particularly "real," unlike the stuff I normally read, but without any experience in that area, I can't say personally. It has a lot of angst and drama and comedy, and a lesbian mob boss, as in another series—but this time, she's also a misandrist. I don't like the fact that they're portrayed as villains in these cases—The heroines in this one aren't so picky, and the "good-guy" lesbian in the other one only had her orientation mentioned three times in the entire first series. (We'll see how the second turns out, but there's been nothing in the first two volumes thereof.)

Speaking of not having friends with common interests, I may as well waffle a bit about what media I've been consuming lately. This isn't as pointless as most things I type, since arifyn actually claims that he reads these posts—although, of course, since we don't have any common interests, he doesn't have any comment, because he doesn't know any of these series. Last year, I tried to convert blitzcon to the dark side by lending him what I then had of my two favorite series (Book 1 of Iono the fanatics and, of course, the first four of HAYATE CROSS BLADE), but I never heard a word about it since—except that he was busy working and watching mainstream cartoons.

First of all, the continuations of previous series, ranked in approximate order of preference:

「はやて×ブレード」/HAYATE CROSS BLADE (Hayashiya Shizuru): Yeah, I've been dropping this name for years (which explains why it has my most-used series tag other than the ubiquitous Star Wars), but what do you expect when it's been my favorite for all that time? Yes, I still can't stand comedy on principle, but there are still yuri elements (with progressively increasing sexual innuendo) and fighting (with a significant badass factor on the upper ranks of the kentaisei, although they tend to only show this in side stories, since the heroines haven't gotten that far yet), and Ms. Hayashiya is among my favorite illustrators in terms of style.

Anyway, this is the gakuensai-hen, which marks the first major cospla factor due to the numerous maid-themed class projects. (Oddly enough, considering the fact that it's serialized in a semi-moe-themed boys' mag, and the content of numerous others of the author's works, this series hasn't previously shown anything other than school uniforms and street clothes. The kentaisei even wear spats—the Japanese kind, not the Duckberg kind (when you're the richest duck in the world, you don't have to wear pants)—and the PE uniforms include reasonable shorts and track pants instead of those stupid bloomers that are fortunately dying out in real life but still popular in animation and comics for some reason. They haven't even shown school swimsuits, except in one of the "thanks for buying" papers that you get when you buy from Tora no Ana.)

Despite my predictions last time, it turns out that the heroines do have a bit more than a cameo in this volume, along with a massive cast of minor characters. This also marks the first time that the non-kentaisei student majority have taken any major action, although there still hasn't been a single one of them named. (Even the zako who got half-assed character pages in Book 1 and this one are all kentaisei, except perhaps Ms. Tatewaki—who wears the S-Rank uniform, but has never been seen carrying a blade or with anyone identifiable as a shin'yū. Of course, it could also be said that it's not much trouble to give them names, as they're mostly parodies of J-pop duos. Also, speaking of Ms. Tatewaki, of five named young ladies who wear eyeglasses, she's now the only one where it can still be reasonably assumed that she does so because of poor eyesight.) There have been a couple of other recurring characters who were students but not kentaisei, but they have been identified only by title: the Leader of the Jersey Judge-tai and an ordinary judge (who appears in her normal capacity and as a number-presenter on the inside front jacket of four of the books) and the Captain of the Nurse-tai. The latter is another of my favorite characters due to her wild appearance and personality—hardly stereotypical for a nurse. Unfortunately, she only seems to appear when there's an impending medical emergency, which was only at the end of Book 3 and beginning of Book 4.

While on the topic of zako, the A TEAM brings another element that this work was lacking. Up until now, the akogare and "-sama"-zuke, archetypal elements of yuri-themed works and particularly school stories, including some of Ms. Hayashiya's favorites (Utena and MariMite) have only been really represented by Ms. Tatewaki, but now we have another 80 examples. Interestingly enough, the two club leaders are also addressed as "-sama" by their cronies, although they are in the school's lowest grade level. The "mysterious club member #00" draws a strong parallel to the similar fan club in TOKYO-UNDER GROUND as well. (I wonder what happened to #1–3, though. . . .)

The character boom also manifests in the previously foreshadowed big fight featuring two side characters and two others who didn't even appear until Book 4. Ms. Zhū is the first non-Japanese individual featured in the story, and not in a good light, as she's perhaps the most vicious "serious" character who's appeared so far. Meanwhile, if Ms. Sid is true to her foul-mouthed word, my favorite Ms. Mikado will get to show her stuff in the near future—which is pretty much the main thing about which I'm expectant, after the other S-Rankers got their spotlight (in one case, literally) in Book 5, and Ms. Kamijō (who I had thought was just a sub-chara, since she had been up to that point, as Ms. Amachi points out in the drama CD bangai-hen) in Book 6. (I've been expectant about Ms. Nagi's appearance for quite a while, but I'm not sure if that'll even happen, considering that she was supposed to have another half year of rehabilitation, and in three years, only a couple of months of in-story time have passed.)

Ms. Mikado is also apparently going to get her "Shigeru Family" mascot soon. This is another thing that follows the increasing number of characters. This is also the second time that Ms. Kurogane is making a pair without knowing one of the two shin'yū for whom it's intended. (She met Ms. Inori during this volume, but since it's already been shown that she's not familiar with the "White-Suits," it's doubtful that she made the connection. 「無知とくいです」) There's also the second time that a mascot's official name has contained an element that's not Japanese—Greek last volume, and French this time. I've been thinking for a while about the reasons for which of each pair has the masculine given name, but Shigeru/Shigemi are the only case in which it's actually shown that Ms. Kurogane decided who got which (and only after Ms. Mudō refused either way). As with Ms. Takami(/Takagi)'s and Ms. Asakura(/Sasakuma/o-Kami)'s (whose names I, fittingly enough, can't remember), it appeared to be just a spur-of-the-moment decision. (Of course, in the case of Ms. Inugami's and Ms. Kuga's mascots, it's rather obvious that their appearances—and, in the latter case, the name—are personalized for their bearers.)

「ストロベリー・パニック（！）」/Strawberry Panic(!) (Kōno Sakurako, Etsumi [Takumi] Namuchi, etc.): I've now watched the entire TV series (sans exclamation point) and read the first two comic compilations (with exclamation point), and wow, they are sure different (although perhaps not so much as the equivalents for My HiME). Book 2 kicks off with the introduction of Ms. Kenjō, who, even more than the other minor characters, looks and acts absolutely nothing like in the show. She was one of my favorite characters in the animated version, due to her boyish style and great voice, but her character design wasn't all that interesting—She just looked like an evil version of Ms. Ōtori, which was also essentially her role for most of that series. In the comics, she's one of the ever-popular tanned blondes. She's one of several characters who got held back a grade (making her the same age as Ms. Aoi) in the comics, and rather than being a rival, she claims to be Ms. Ōtori's biggest fan—making her Ms. Konohana's rival instead, although she seems particularly less evil this time. Unfortunately, that also means that they don't have her relationship with Ms. Kiyashiki, which was another reason I liked her in the show.

Incidentally, I like the comics' character designs significantly better than the show's (where everyone is far too thin) or the game's (where they all have big round eyes, which reduces individuality—don't be fooled by the front covers, which are by Ms. Etsumi). Miator also has a great winter uniform design, in mostly black with, unusually enough, a reasonable-length skirt. I even like the bloomers that are shown on the cover of the second book (despite the complete lack of Miator athletics in the comics themselves)—perhaps because of the better color scheme, or because they don't look as square as usual. The comics also have more individual-looking hairstyles for the sub-charas (except in the case of Ms. Sakuragi, for some reason).

The end of the show was again rather difficult, as quadrangles just can't persist and still have appropriate closure. For some reason, I liked Ms. Aoi's other two suitors better than Ms. Hanazono.

「コミック百合姫」/Comic YuriHime (Anthology): Another solid volume. Ms. Hayashiya's Strawberry Shake Sweet is continuing on the same vector as before, focusing on the main two and the new two. (Ms. Saeki didn't even have an appearance!) I guess now that Ms. Kinjō and Ms. Enomoto are supposedly "an item," there isn't anything interesting to draw about them anymore. (And perhaps poor Ms. Sudō would be happier if you would just forget about the fact that she was once—very briefly—a significant character.)

I'm not liking Ame-Iro Kōchakan etc. as much as Fujieda's other two yuri series, as it's much less dynamic, as the adverts are quick to point out. (At least in the pilot, there was a chainsaw. . . .) That Kindaichi guy (who was also in one of the other anthologies I found a while back) continues with his less-than-crowd-pleasing stories—In this case, one of the "heroines" is a transsexual who is physically male. Hatsukoi Shimai has also finished its second story arc, and it sounds like Ms. Tōno (who was previously little more than an incidental gag character in the comic version) might get some more focus in the next one. The previews for the new serials starting next season look pretty, too. Incidentally, this is also the first time the now-regular Tora no Ana advert on the back cover is yuri-themed. (In the days of Yuri Shimai, they had a couple of KingsKings [sic?] ads instead, which are of course BL.)

「青い花 Sweet Blue Flowers」/Aoi Hana: Sweet Blue Flowers (Shimura Takako): Still good. Nothing really jumps out at me, though.

the L word (?): This is an unusual one for me, as it's an American live action series. It's also a premium channel show, so there's lots of nudity, sex, and swearing. Maybe that's why I haven't posted about it here, even though it was a couple of years ago that I downloaded the first two seasons. I like it quite a bit, but for some reason I always feel unpleasant after watching it (perhaps it's too real?), so I haven't gotten even halfway through the second season. Incidentally, this is also a very bad title for search engines due to the lack of rare words.

「最後の制服 Our Last Season」/Saigo no Seifuku: Our Last Season (Hakamada Mera): All of a sudden, it's the last volume, which I was hardly expecting, considering that all but one of the major characters were first- and second-years last we heard. Anyway, it properly wraps up the story threads, although not all are as happy endings as one might have liked (inevitably, considering all the love polygons). Ms. Hakamada does good work in Comic YuriHime as well, but I don't much like her illustration style mechanically.

「１年７７７組」/1-nen 777-gumi (Shu Kazuki): Oddly enough, I decided to continue reading this one, even though the male-female relationships get much more of the spotlight. The last panel of the last book is also a bad omen.

「俺フェチ ORE FETI」 (Kuwahara Hihihi): And I read this one to the end too, despite the fact that it's mostly random weirdness. Unsurprisingly enough, the ending is less than satisfying. The sequel series doesn't sound like it has anything good in it, either.

I'm waiting for a lot of others, too. That's what I get for not reading mainstream weekly comics like those in Shōnen Jump and Hana to Yume. This also means that I can't read Wikipedia entries without spoiling the parts that have been published in serial but not yet compiled. It does irritate me that there is always so little information above the "spoiler" tags.

I've also been desperate enough to try a number of new series since my last post on the topic, but this is getting really long, so I'll save that for another time (or two).

P.S. If someone other than arifyn and blitzcon actually bothers to read this, feel free to ask for clarifications on the Japanese terms and jargon.