Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

After the problem that prevented me from entering the first time, I found that Paizo also has a few free items† so you can find out about their setting and thus write things about stuff they already own, which is what helped me in the other one. One of the interesting things that I noticed is that the Queen of Korvosa is rumored to be sleeping with her female bodyguard. (Although it's only one sentence, at least they didn't feel the need to throw in anything claiming that's any more scandalous than any other affair, like in the one I mentioned earlier.) In any case, given the depictions of the King (it's debatable whether he was still alive at the time of the portrait) and Queen, one can hardly blame the rumormongers—or the couple, if it's true.

Of course, they're trying to run a business, so the information in the free stuff pales in comparison to the commercial products. Interestingly, they've chosen to do most of their background expansion in their adventure serials. As you can see from its pilot, the current one centers on city and the Queen. (The latter part is expanded in later issues, but those are heavy spoiler information.) In addition, I have an idea for an adventure set in Korvosa, so it may be worth buying those and/or the city guidebook to build up my knowledge for the next RPG Superstar contest.

In addition to this, Paizo is also making its own version of the RPG based on D&D v.3.5, so it will not have to be heavily updated. Sadly, they aren't allowing others to use it, so anyone else using the d20 System will have to do the same themselves to avoid having to make new rules every time the Wizards decide to replace the base. The guys who tried to make a better ruleset* (and succeeded, except that they didn't fix the most fundamental flaw enough; it's also compatible with Pathfinder) also require you to make a deal with them to use their enhancement, unlike the d20 System and OGL themselves.

*By the way, I hear that the original True20 setting includes a lot of characters who don't make pointless restrictions on whom they love based on what equipment they have.‡ I might look into that, too.

Edit (2008.04.05): †‡Updated here

I've posted my notes for future posts (previously previewed in in the works posts) on my Yahoo! Group, so members can check out prospects for anything they might want to read at any time. (Sadly, Firefox opens it as an HTML file, so formatting is absent. Maybe I should just keep updating it as an LJ post in my Memories instead.)

Meanwhile, I've found out a few other things about Yahoo! Groups:

*lokodraucarn actually did use a Yahoo! account to join; he apparently just used a separate email address. Thus, as far as I know, there is no way to join without a Yahoo! account.

*I can actually link you directly to individual files, as I have above. However, you will probably still have to join and sign in to access them.

*I have pinpointed the rule for whether or not I'm allowed to edit files directly at the group: only files of 20 kB or less. At least this gives me a way to deal with it, if I want to try and make sure I can use it. It still seems pretty stupid, though.

Also, you may note that the number of titles in the "kansō" section is growing and growing, particularly with the recent splurge. I'm thinking that I'm going to prioritize the ones that haven't already had full write-ups on Yuri na Hibi (at least since I've subscribed) or been posted on daily_yuri. I also have at least one that I want to type up for an aid to the description when I try to sell it on ebay, but I may not get around to that anytime soon either.

I'm too lazy to post my kansō for what I've read so far of my oversized order, but there was so much stuff that I actually managed to find a couple of good things in the insert adverts too:

1. The cover illustration for Oto×Maho 3 looks pretty. Of course, it's listed as "comedy," so I'm pretty sure the teasers at the starts of the summaries for 2 and 3 are gags, but it specifically says at least that they have a date scene (although the meaning of "date" seems considerably lighter in Japanese). Of course, they're (light) novels, so I'm not likely to get around to checking them out anytime soon.

2. Yahoo! Comic seems to have a hell of a selection of titles available for free tachi-yomi (reading in the store before (or instead of) buying). I'll probably get to this once I finish the stuff on hand; I've downloaded the software in the meantime, so maybe it'll get a once-over from the virus-scan by then just in case. . . .

Although I don't comment on journals of people I don't know, I do read them regularly (except the parts about cooking). The former (along with her posts on lililicious and daily_yuri, where I don't even read the comments anymore because of the negative ones) is an excellent source of all sorts of yuri- and lesbianism-related information. (Although I didn't need the part about Hiper Radio!! because she told me about her source (which has RSS), it was good to hear about the fact that only a very small part of the audio file was relevant—and which part that is.) The latter contains interesting essays on the travails of an artist. Although I avoid art like the plague, I think this sort of thing is relevant to anyone in a creative field.

The few things I have in common with these people also mean that they occasionally remind me about things that I've forgotten, such as:

*I should reread the good parts of Lens no Mukō sometime. Apparently I don't remember much of anything about it. I'm very bad about remembering details (particularly in such non-flashy stories as these) from only going through them once. That was the reason that draskireis threatened to kill me once. . . .

*There was a regular character named "Redd Herring" in A PUP NAMED Scooby-Doo. As you may have noticed, I have a reason for the name for almost every character I create (both because I'm bad at making them up and because I love allusions and trivia), but rarely in such a heavy-handed (?) manner. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that almost everything I ever make bottoms out at PG-13.

My readership appears to be at an all-time high (apparently at least two regulars!), but I've accumulated quite a lot of stuff during its absence, to say nothing of my sloth and the fact that I've built up a lot of new things due to year's-end-and-beginning splurging. So, I'd like to see if you have any requests or suggestions. What I've got in the works is as follows:

( Ridiculously long notes )

So, to work through my backlogs, here are more thoughts about some visual novels I've played:

Note: From what I've seen, Japanese use the English "heroine" to refer to the chief protagonist ("shujinkō")'s female love interest even if the protagonist is also a lady. (This is especially prominent in ones where you choose a scenario based on one in particular.) Since you won't know which character is which unless you know the games, I'm using this system for brevity and clarity.

Kurenai-Doki no Uta, Chapter 1 (Atelier of Chiharu): I've posted about Chapter 0 here and here. Sadly, I never got through this chapter. Although it is some interesting stuff, including commentary on societies both mortal and keyō and how life is after giving up one's humanity, the fact that I no longer have the patience to wade through large chunks of text was my undoing. The fact that the protagonist and heroine don't look like they're going to be getting back together anytime soon (which is just as well, since I've learned not to post on daily_yuri) doesn't help. According to the circle's page, it's currently on hiatus but planned to go up to Chapter 9, and considering that 0 and 1 each take umpteen hours (perhaps a single-digit number for fluent readers), there's a long way yet before a conclusion. I also didn't reach any suggestion of why this one was rated "18 and up," but with the story focusing on two guest characters (one male), I didn't have particularly high hopes about that, either. Chapter 0 already showed the internal organs of a human who'd been cut in half despite being "all ages," so I can only imagine what sorts of things would require such ratings (as usual for Japanese stuff).

Natsu no Hi no Resonance (Saitō Kagura): I was alerted to this one here. Fortunately, it's not nearly as long and meandering, so I was able to sit through it. The central theme is a weird techno-fantasy anomaly that's never really explained, but, like in a recent review, that's not the point. It's not a happy end, of course, and as with Yami-Bō （う～、思い出したくないな）, people on daily_yuri are complaining about something that I didn't see, which means either that the translator assumed something I didn't, or that I just missed it. I was more bothered by troubles with the game engine, such as the facts that you can't turn down the ridiculously loud sound effects and that you can't use "skip" because there aren't any choices to stop (so you have to make sure to save). It would also have been nice if there were a few CG events (full-screen set pieces), but that's not a big deal. This is also one of the rare occurrences of a lady who uses the first-person pronoun "boku" just because she's cute and energetic, not because she's boyish as is much more common.

Aoi Shiro Taiken-ban (SUCCESS): I mentioned this one back here. Although the game is for PS2, they were kind enough to provide a downloadable playable demo (downloadable here) for PC. Of course, before that, they released the OP (also downloadable from the same page), which is a good preview. Apparently, there will still be some blood-sucking, but from this sample, it appears to be only a 1:2 ratio to kissing, so that ought to be good enough for me. There's also an obvious water theme, but that's not enough to put me off.

Anyway, this is a commercial product with full voice, so it's a lot easier reading than the other two. One related interesting element is that you can choose a voice to tell you about the options in the main menu (although only the protagonist's is available in the demo). The game itself is the usual combination of (1) generic backgrounds with character images showing their current emotions/etc. and (2) CG events with at most slight changes when people move, but both are much more dynamic, with sprites moving around at different distances and the camera zooming and panning to whichever part of a set-piece is currently being described.

In terms of actual characters, I get the sense that the protagonist's voice seems more mature than you generally hear for a second-year high-school student (equivalent of an American junior). It's not like she sounds like an old lady or anything, just more serene, or something. I guess that's to show that she's an assiduous sort of person. It's also interesting to see how one of the main heroines reacts from the standpoint where I know about her feelings (from here*), but the protagonist apparently doesn't. Meanwhile, someone from the second page of characters steals a lot of scenes because of her extremely extroverted nature, but I think most (if not all) of the first page has a destiny advantage over her in terms of long-term plot.

*We only get the description of their meeting second-hand, so I'm not sure how the protagonist saved her from a boring speech with hime-sama dakko. . . . I also find it amusing that the other heroine refers to the object of her affection as her "daughter," as in Ōran Kōkō Host Club.

Despite the fact that the story centers on a girls' school kendō club and the swordswomen they encounter on their getaway, there haven't been any with badass speech patterns so far, but I imagine I won't be disappointed by the heartless swordswoman and the oni queen (a spoiler, yes, but c'mon, they tell the story about the eye in the first scene, so anyone who even starts it can guess just as well as I did). Speaking of the latter, I think I heard that the name "Kohaku" is traditionally paired with "Hisui" like in Tsuki-Hime, but it apparently isn't this time unless that's the name of one of the others in a previous life. Meanwhile, all of the students are from the first two school years, despite the fact that this doesn't appear to have the necessity of keeping them for a series as in HAYA-BLA. There's also a male character who's rather sparkly (and I'm not talkin' 'bout the top of his head), but I doubt he'll be much of a problem, as he seems to be a nice guy and doesn't appear in the video.

All in all, I'm quite expectant about the last one, even if it will set me back quite a chunk of change. . . .

These days, I have so many Japanese books to buy that by the time I get one, I don't remember what I'd read about it that prompted me to put it on the shopping list. This means, for one thing, that I generally go into each one with a clean slate, no spoilers, preconceptions, or particular expectations. This is especially true in the case of Aka×Pink, which I put off from a previous order because it was another novel that I'd bought accidentally. (For all I can remember, this one may predate "Yuri na Hibi.") Now that I've finally read it, I have enough kansō to fill an entire post.

Of course, in the interim, this one spent a lot of time sitting around the room, so I'm well acquainted with the cover illustration. I thought it just reminded me of Sai-Kano because of the content, but upon closer inspection, it's by the same guy. (I didn't remember the name because I didn't give a damn about that innovative-but-borderline-harem series in the first place.) Since I don't pay attention to prose, I hadn't heard of a major comics guy doing illustrations for novels before. Then again, there are only two real illustrations in the entire book. . . .

Anyway, from the blurb on the back, you'd get a certain idea of what sort of book it's going to be. But despite the fact that most of the characters are very unusual people, it's written pretty straight. (It isn't often that you read a book where the most normal guy in the cast is also the chief comic relief. He's the source of the quote in the subject line—yes, in Roman letters.) I suppose a human might have trouble taking such eccentricities seriously (although not so much as in Sai-Kano), but I like the way it explores these innovative personalities in a respectful manner.

In a similar way, despite the fact that the participants in the central fight/hostess club have to have cheesy/fetishy stage personae and outfits, and the matches are partially just for show rather than competitive, it's compared to MMA (with an octagon cage, despite the fact that PRIDE takes place in a square ring with ropes) rather than pro wrestling. I never had much interest in MMA, where the main MA (particularly among Brazilians and Japanese) is jūjutsu, because I don't much like seeing men rolling on the floor and grappling. (I guess that's in focus because it's effective in bare-handed combat. You don't need to choke someone out if you can stab or shoot him.) This one, however, focuses more on (somewhat) more dignified striking and stand-up. (I find it amusing that the one who admires "Mirko-san" is known as "Mīko-san.")

The story focuses on three main heroines, with each narrating one chapter. They are three very different individuals, but their common ground (other than occupation) is their seeking to understand what they want in life and reconcile it with what others want of them. (Incidentally, they also all use "watashi" in hira-gana, including the tough one who sees herself as a man and uses according speech patterns otherwise.) Although the different narratives overlap a lot in the same scenes, it's rather interesting to see which heroines feel it significant to describe which parts in full, and which they didn't seem to perceive at all.

Of course, yuri was still my main incentive behind this one. It's hard to say much without spoiling some of the interesting psychological elements, but suffice it to say that many of the most significant relationships in the story are between the heroines, and the line between friendship and romance, like much of the tale, is rather ambiguous. I quite liked it, with the exception of the fact that one of the relationships ends with a rather loose end.

All in all, I quite enjoyed this one and recommend it highly. Besides that, my ability to get through it led me to think that I might be willing to actually try some more novels on purpose—but, then again, I hardly have any shortage of reading material. It would be more useful to get back into reading prose in English, in case I might become able to write novels of my own, which would circumvent the problem of drawing that's currently my only real obstacle.

By the way, I was interested to see that the author is a lady who has a "my boom" about a particular color of lipstick, and who pumps iron at least once a week. The elements about practicing kara-te (she's a black belt who made it to the national championship in '02) and receiving a love letter from a younger lady are apparently autobiographical. I guess that like me, being an unusual person gives her a viewpoint that allows her to portray things differently from normal people.

This time I had a small batch, so I'm trying to drop them all down here before I get the next one and end up being distracted again. But if I always use the same number of items for good luck, why is this one smaller than usual?

説明しよう！†

I did indeed pick 13 items in my original order. However, due to the fact that the release of one of the items kept being postponed, I had a chance to trim out some mistakes I had made: one that I had bought elsewhere (and posted kansō here‡), one that I had accidentally put in the cart twice and ordered elsewhere, and one where my suspicions were confirmed, resulting in its removal as per my policy. When I heard that Yuri Michelin (?) was pushed back again to February, I finally gave up on having it in this order, so the survivors finally shipped.

Anyway, the actual kansō:

「Comic YuriHime VOL.9」 (Anthology): I don't remember too much of these, no doubt due to the difficulty of keeping track of multiple series with multi-month gaps in-between episodes. Nonetheless, it's all good. (Actually, I haven't gotten around to reading the solid blocks of text yet. I'm somewhat curious about an entire article on the Himitsu no Kaidan series, which I found very disappointing from a yuri standpoint—but, then again, I'm a man.) I found it amusing that, unlike Ms. Kiryū, Futami saw the good side of not being blood-related to one's sibling. There's also a second one-shot from the person who did the one about the yakuza heiress earlier. Apparently she/he likes "bad girl" protagonists—and sex, although the latter is pretty ubiquitous in this mook lately.

「MY OTOME Zwei」 (Higuchi Tatsuto/Abeno Chaco): Fortunately, this one follows the chronology from the Ein animation rather than the comics (although there is an allusion to the latter), yet has just as much nudity as Yoshino/Satō's works. (Incidentally, I can't seem to find that post on one of my sources that describes exactly how much you see of which characters in Episode 3.) The chief things I like about it over the OVAs are the increased focus on the relationships between Ms. Kruger and Ms. Viola (although still not much) and Ms. Chrysant and Ms. Armitage (the latter because the author admits that she's her? favorite character), and the complete lack of appearance from Ms. Marguerite (which is better than seeing the depths to which she'd sunk in the show).

「Gakuen Utopia MANABI STRAIGHT! Massugu Go!! Amamiya Manami 3A NO.45526 SEIOH GAKUEN 1」 (ufotable/Tartan Check): The title refers to the punch visible on the cover, which is one of Ms. Amamiya's trademarks. In any case, the primary heroine is quite cheerful and provides lots of skinship, mostly with the secondary heroine; there's some hint of admiration for a character who shows up later on, as well. A standard sports lady and an assiduous tsun-dere (hmm, seem to remember one just like that from Na*na*ki!) round out the cast. I have some difficulty telling the four heroines apart visually, as they're all the same size and shape, and all have short hair other than the fourth.

「Shiharu Genesis 1」 (Kondō Rururu): There are plenty of stories about reincarnation of demons, but it's unusual to use that as a premise for a honobono girls' school life comedy. . . . Like X and Ten-Kin, this follows the 1999-based chronology, but in this case, that's only the birth of the Devil, so it's set in the near future, before her awakening (thus avoiding the continuity problem the other two had, in that they were not finished by the time 1999 passed and the world didn't end). You may notice that I said "she," which fits in with my description of the series in the first sentence. It's not clearly stated, but I assume that this follows the standard in Japanese secular sources that demons (and possibly angels) do have gender, so this would probably fall under the heading of "transexual yuri"—although in a fantastic manner, like KA・SHI・MA・SHI. Anyway, it's mostly about the friendship between the two major heroines, but there are hints that Lilith is looking for a bit more (unsurprisingly, considering that she's often described as the bride of Satan, despite the fact that she is also commonly called the first human woman). Stating the presence of any given reincarnatee is not much of a spoiler, as all are identified by their names (e.g. ルシファー → るしはあ → しはる).

Speaking of names, this work also follows the Japanese convention of "Lucifer" being the demon name of the Enemy, as compared to his Latin angel name. In Ten-Kin and DEVIL & DEVIL, his angel name was Lucifel, a fabrication using the Hebrew "el," which is found in many angel and human names. In the former, "Satan" is a title applied to his seven lieutenants (and not him), while the latter has "Satan" as the hereditary title for the ruler of hell.

Like CHRNO CRUSADE and Project AnthraXX, a running gag is that the chief demon is actually a very nice person. And like Ten-Kin, there is also an angel who is reincarnated in parallel to the fallen—although this time they reversed the missed opportunity by making them both ladies. Personally, I'm glad I wasn't actually reincarnated as a Japanese lady in 1999. I appear to be the most popular angel in Japanese media; in Earthian, DEVIL & DEVIL, and this, it looks like I'm the only one taken from Abrahamic scriptures and apocrypha. At least in this and Ten-Kin, I get to fight, instead of being in what appears to be a purely administrative post. . . .

「Neko Mokoro 1」 (Otokasa Aki): Another one set in a magic school for ladies, although this one is in some sort of space opera setting. The heroine's feelings originate in the fact that the object was the first other person she ever saw who looked human, but she remains loyal even after meeting various other beauties. An amusing running gag is that, although the heroine spends most of the first volume only being able to see her admiree from afar, she has many fantasies about what would happen when they meet, all following the same pattern, including that what they're doing towards the end of the dream is always censored (or perhaps left to the reader's imagination, but I like the sound of the first one better). The heroine's reaction when they finally do meet face to face is also quite nice. Of course, it's hard to say they have good prospects for a relationship if they don't even know one another, but I'm confident (as is the cover to Volume 2). Incidentally, this series is also the first I've seen to portray the difficulties of mermaids living on land.

「PENGUINMUSUME 1」 (Takahashi Tetsu): On the inside pages, this is called "PENGUINGIRL 14," where the "14" means (numerically, not phonetically) the same thing as in 14; the exploitative nature and the overly developed figures of the two chief heroines are other parallels. Sadly, this one loses out in the key point, as the athletic lady and her suitor (suitress?) are Heroines #2 and #5 rather than #1 and #2, and the former doesn't seem to have a huge following of underclass fans. (I told you the "boku" was an important selling point!) Still, there are several good prospects—I think the hime-sama dakko was a nice touch. (Incidentally, that's the one point that punk Zidane wins over Squall. It might have something to do that Ms. Til Alexandros was actually a real princess, though.) Heroine #1 has been related to the term 「ミーハー」, but unlike Ms. Kuremi, she's interested in men, too. Heroine #2 also knows a hunk when she sees one, but then again, so did Meg (too lazy to look up her surname).

Other points of interest include the fact that, for some reason, the ladies' uniform has a slit skirt with a fake petticoat doohickey. Meanwhile (not much of a spoiler), like in Ruro-Ken and Iono the fanatics, the drag queen guest (hopefully)-chara feels the need to show concrete proof. (Is it a coincidence that all of these were written and drawn by men?) Also, the Japanese heiress has a head butler named "Sebastian" (contrary to most old geezer butlers I've seen, who are called "Jī" or "Jīya" by their masters), while the American? one ("Marie Chupacabra W. Whitebear" sounds quite multicultural, but since the "W." is pronounced "Double-U," English has as many points as French and Spanish put together, and we all know how English speakers love giving their kids names from other languages, as anyone who knows my family can attest) has a head maid named "Maguro." Takahashi beat me to the punch with his badass eyepatched maid, but her personality is completely different from mine's, and the world still has room for plenty of gantai moe. There's also the same misunderstanding about the term 「メイド」 as in HAYA-BLA, but this time it's because she's Chinese, not because she's had an unusual upbringing.

「Kyōkan Astro 1」 (BannoNegi): From the title, I thought this was going to be set on an educational starship or something, but apparently the "ASTRO" is just the name of the athletics wear company that the main heroine patronizes. (I haven't the foggiest idea where they got the 「艦」.) Anyway, this is something of an unusual series, as it's set in a high school, yet the main characters are the teachers. (There was a student with good taste and a name who appeared, but only for one strip. Perhaps she was hospitalized after the heroine's hug.) Still, they are mostly in their 20s, as is to be expected from a society where female sex appeal is supposed to peak in the teens or earlier and ladies are ostracized for not marrying and retiring by the age of 25.

Anyway, the chief heroine inadvertently provides a lot of good scenes, mostly with the other who fell for her on the third page, but also with the other two main heroines and several lesser characters. (The story starts out focusing on a small group of individuals, but later adds some others, likely when it was clear that the serial was going to continue. Kubo did a similar thing with BLEACH, I imagine due to the fact that he wasn't told until the last chapter that his previous series was being cut.) I believe that falls under the heading of "tennen." The other characters are disappointing, but on the whole, I think this is my favorite of the new ones.

「HAYATE CROSS BLADE DRAMA CD Vol.2」 (Hayashiya Shizuru): Since this one has audio, I haven't gotten around to listening to it yet, but I do notice that they've skipped ahead to the Gakuensai part. Obviously they don't have the demand to adapt the entire series, so they're just doing the favorites.

Conclusion: Apparently the loss of luck wasn't terribly significant, as these are all worthy of continuing to read (with the exception of the one that was only one volume).

P.S. I was going to discuss a few new vocab words from this batch, but I've already spent my computer sessions for three days typing this, so I'll follow that up later. So much to type, so little time and readership . . .

†I first remember hearing this element used by Seki Tomokazu (played by Seki Tomokazu) in Love Pheromone (half of Love-Ge), but I can only assume it's more prevalent in pop culture than I've noticed. It's also used commonly in PENGUINMUSUME.

‡I know that you can't access this if you're not a member of daily_yuri. However, if you actually care, it's no trouble to join. You don't even have to have it on your friends page. The only risk I see is that someone might see your membership on your userinfo and think you're weird. You can also join whenever you want to read a post, then immediately quit again when you're done.

For some reason, I've been going through my old downloaded videos that I hadn't gotten around to watching yet, as well as viewing some new ones flagged by Ms.? yuri_amagasa. One of the perks of doing this is that I can post the good bits on daily_yuri, which, unlike posting here, usually results in actual communication between at least two different people. What I've had has been something of a mixed bag, but nothing I've regretted watching.

However, this reminded me that one of the other things I hadn't watched was the rest of the MariMite OVAs. OVAs tend to be difficult, as I tend to lose track due to the long time between releases of individual episodes. If memory serves, the last one I happened to watch was the episode where it showed at the end that Ms. Hosokawa would be featured in the next one. As ever, I'm too lazy to read novels, but from the various fanzines I've perused, she stands out as quite a lovely character. I know all the new underclassmen have to call the quintessential everywoman "Yumi-sama", but Ms. Hosokawa really means it. (We don't need to think about our tsun-dere friend with the annoying hairstyle.) Upon a bit of research (which I had to do to find her surname, as the like isn't often heard in the series), it turns out she's also played by Ms. Koshimizu Ami, whom I remember from half a dozen other 21st-century animated series (although she only played a yuri character in one of those).

And what reminded me about that? Ironically enough, it was the bad news about Ms. Fukuzawa's choice of petite soeur. (It was a long time coming, but I have to admit that it was never likely that such a major character would lose just because I didn't like her as much—much like our problem back here.) I'll just have to try not to think about that when I watch the rest.

I know there's only one person here who gives a damn, but I have an unusual history with MariMite. My first encounter with the series came back in '04, the very first time in my life that I actually went out and ordered comics for a reason—including the first volumes of Yuri Shimai and Yuri Tengoku. These were also the only fanzines by other than the original creators for which I have ever paid, because jpqueen had not yet pointed out the fact that they were such. (In retrospect, one of them actually has a story that sends an interesting message about Ms. Hosokawa, even though she only appears on one page—the one right after the spread (sorry) in the upper right.) From these two anthologies, I managed to piece together a vague idea of what the hell the series was, and was ready with Azureus when the animation came out. It was much later, through daily_yuri, that I happened to come into contact with Ms. mizuno_youko and her massive archive of fanzines.

Personally, MariMite is a bit laid-back for my tastes (and has those damned sailor uniforms that are supposedly the archetype for "rich girl" schools), but, as noted in that issue of Yuri Shimai, it's something of a bible for the community, so it's essentially a must-read/-see/-something (or preferably more than one of the above). I've included at least one tasteless reference in my own projects, too. . . . Still, it's better than certain ripoffs with large amounts of added unpleasantness.

Meanwhile, I would be remiss to let this go without talking about one or two language elements that I've been wanting to mention for some time. As you can no doubt guess from the title (which I haven't bothered to list in full in this entire post) and the fact that it's set in a mission school, loanwords like "Maria" and "rosario" (no, not the guy from DRAGON HALF) are key plot points. The fact that these are the Portuguese versions is presumably a holdover from the Jesuits (remember the orange-robed dudes from SHŌGUN?). It may seem odd that a Catholic school is the setting for the (arguably) biggest yuri phenomenon in history, but the Japanese aren't terribly strict about religion these days (although I hear the purges of the Buddhists in the 19th century were motivation enough for one puny monk to become the third toughest of the Juppon-Gatana), as illustrated by their assertion that there's no need to be a follower of an Abrahamic religion to attend a Catholic school. I also find it somewhat odd that, in some cases, a gift of an image of a dying naked guy is a symbol of sisterly love. Well, at least the Vatican no longer preaches the policy that wearing a rosary around your neck is disrespectful.

So, I cleared Xenosaga I・II. As you may remember, I watched THE ANIMATION (based on Episode I) way back when it was actually news (picked out on the sole criterion of one promo showing Ms. Uzuki and Ms. KOS-MOS curled around one another—I was rather desperate in those days); I just happened to find this game a while back. Despite the extremely linear nature of Japanese console "RPGs," the two were very different experiences. Judging by the differences, it looks like the show tried to cram too much into the first part because they didn't get the green light for the rest of the story. . . . By cramming, I mean that they threw in extra elements with major characters like Ms. Pelegri and Jin, who don't do much of anything in the first game. There's another whose role was quite altered, but you'll have to watch the show and play the first couple of chapters of the game if you want to find out about him.

The flip-side of the coin is that a lot of less important characters had to be clipped from the animation. (Yeah, you have to hire less actors that way, too.) I think the loss I'd mourn most is Ms. Miyuki Itsumi, who one (other than myself) might say seems to admire her sempai a bit too much. (Ridgely is her sempai, too, but like the rest of the cast as a running joke, she isn't so impressed with him.) I was also amused to find a pudgy, chair-ridden, sunglass-wearing mad scientist named "Sellers." . . . Apparently, even 5,000 years after the exodus from Earth, Japanese lineages are still mostly separate from white folks, although they have their names reversed and written in katakana across the board.

As you might expect from two DVDs adapted to a dinky cartridge, the presentation is a bit lower-budgeted than the PS2 version. With the exception of the main villain, voices are only provided for the PCs' battle lines (since when is "Go ahead, make my day" something you say after you've taken out all the enemies?), and FMVs are brief and infrequent. The cut-scenes, which are the manna and potatoes of the game, are split between the normal field screen (tiny, cartoon-proportioned sprites on an isometric map), full-screen "event" images, and half-screen portraits of the characters speaking and emoting. Sadly, the usage of these three is rather inconsistent. For instance, some characters who are not important enough to have the latter portraits are represented at times by silhouettes of existing portraits and at others not displayed at all. The sprites also look quite cheesy to one like myself who hasn't played 2-D video games much lately, and the area maps look rather pathetic as well. I would have liked it if they did away with the puny sprites and expanded the other two prettier methods, like in Shadowgate and its ilk (although on a much larger and more modern scale). It would also be nice if you could access an illustration archive [like in a full visual novel].

The story is a massive tapestry of a huge number of characters and factions, joining other glossary-supplemented stories such as THE WHEEL OF TIME and FINAL FANTASY TACTICS. It seems like everyone has a different agenda and a different background (well documented by the substories, which are available as archives), and every character seems well planted in the storyline. (I was particularly amused by the "long-lost brothers.") There are so many layers, there's a new surprise around every corner, and everything hangs together. And how many video games have you played that reference the works of Fuller, Hawking, McCartney, Jung, and Melville, as well as elements from Judeo-Christian-Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist religion? Also, if you don't know about the concept of the Sohal (?) [Zohar], a quick translation of the finalé's subtitle should give you a clue to where they got the idea.

Aside from the stupid minigames with which you'll be familiar if you play the FINAL FANTASY series (why must I have good hand-eye coordination and quick reflexes to be able to complete an RPG?), the fact that you have to hold down a button to move at a reasonable speed, and the ubiquitous wandering around dungeons being attacked out of nowhere by wandering enemies, I found that the battle system was not worth the trouble of learning to use properly. I don't mind the fact that mêlée attacks can hit anywhere while ranged attacks are only usable against the enemy right in front of you, but there are so many other elements that are just complicated. I was particularly bothered by all the special formations. For one thing, you can't look up what's available except during combat, and since most of them had drawbacks in proportion to their advantages, I didn't bother with them most of the time. Even the one that was useful enough that I used it got partially nerfed later when that old fogey gave us another one that overrides it if I put the strongest character in front. (It is amusing when enemies' critical hits knock us into special formations, though. . . .)

But more annoying were the ES (power armor) battles. There are differences from normal combat that seem to have no purpose, you have to use different items, you can't use the powers of half your characters (including two of the three healers), and the hit-point totals are so large that it's more difficult to gauge numbers. In the first place, you only suit up for boss battles, but later on, you have to fight wandering monsters in this mode, which is an exercise in pointlessness. Virtually any fight can be resolved by: 1. moving your character to the front line; 2. using two Y-button attacks; 3. repeating until all enemies [are] beaten down; 4. getting ridiculous amounts of Experience and [numbers of] Points.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on Episode III soon, so I can waffle about it, too. Someday I'll probably also go back and play through these ones again, just to help grasp more of the intricacies of the story (if not the game itself).

Edit (2008.04.07): Some small text tweaks

I've finally gotten around to reading Chapter 0 of the visual novel I mentioned way back. I'd never read one of these before, so it was an unusual experience. It took me several tries to realize that I needed to right-click to save, which was a big help.

My comments (no particular spoilers):

The circle that made the game is known as Atelier of Chiharu. The Japanese loving the word "atelier" aside, I only recall seeing the name "Chiharu" used for minor characters in yuri-themed works: HAYATE CROSS BLADE, PURE Marionation, and "Kanojo" (one of the main characters in this case, but only a short story, so relatively minor) (included here and probably here). I can only assume that's coincidence, as in the case of my _hizuru comparison.

The story itself is very heavy on the melodrama, with a good dose of graphic violence and some light moments (often switching moods very suddenly). I don't know the language well, but I can tell that it's a lot more poetic than anything I write. It was somewhat unfortunate that the engine used doesn't have a system for ruby text, so ate-ji and the like have to be added in brackets afterward.

The writing isn't the only fancy part. Despite this being a freeware game (and thus having a low enough budget that they had to use open photos for the backgrounds), there are numerous full-color illustrations and half a dozen BGMs composed for the game. That's presumably what helped me to overcome the attention-span problem I have reading prose. The men tend to be a bit ugly, but the ladies (and one yasa-otoko) look quite nice.

One minor thing that bothered me was that the main characters are members of traditional Japanese families, which means that the ladies all have to use polite forms when speaking to the men. On the other hand, I rather like the concept of the family dōjō where they don't teach actual martial arts, just whatever method can be used to kill most efficiently—much like Ms. Inferne's teachings in Project Artificer. And in any case, I have no complaints about the fact that the main heroine is ridiculously strong.

Another interesting thing I noted: The heroine was bothered by the fact that she has trouble with history class because they have to memorize so many dates; she wishes they would learn about the significance of events instead. I agree with this, and I think that in my schooling, it was more the latter style. This seems likely to be a common difference between Western and Eastern education, as we are more right-brained and they more quantitative (?). This reminds me of how I could never write anything with such metaphysical and artistic elements as this, since I can only properly process more down-to-earth themes. Maybe that says something about the difference between their mainstream society and their cult media.

Incidentally, if you want a taste of the illustrations, I've stored what I've collected for daily_yuri here.

Apparently my observation wasn't all there is to offer. See also this thread (started off-topic, but has some notable parts in it). I don't know if the part in the intro post is a spoiler, because I haven't read that mod.

So, I've finally finished with MY OTOME Zwei. (I was wrong about it being only three episodes—actually, four.) Of course, the first thing that caught me was the fact that it's so irritating that there's no baseline for volume level, so I have to change it every time I listen to something different. (The "Dancing Mad" I have is a .mid, but I've been listening to it through MPC too.) Also, the fact that Media Player Classic is unable to read the aspect ratios of video files (and thus that I have to use override to get the right proportions) gets on my nerves.

Anyway, my kansō for the first volume are here. As a whole, I didn't like this series as much as the previous one, as the MY HiME Project's drift away from yuri elements continues. Also, as an OVA, they had to pack in lots of combat and people saying "Holy cow, I can't believe that's happening!" which leaves little chance for the characters. I also couldn't follow the specifics of the latter, since I wasn't motivated to rewatch any of the episodes to pick up on more of the dialogue.

( Spoilers for the entire OVA series )

Of course, there's the preview of ０～S.ifr～ at the end. I can't say I have high hopes for this one, as I've noted the trend above, and the only character relationships I can expect to be spotlighted are between Sergei and Ms. Yumemiya's parents (of which, naturally, one is also male).