かいほう
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 (10n-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.