Talking to a Wall
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.