Friday, May 4, 2012

My pile o' things to review


For anyone curious, here's the backlog of things that are already out that I'm going to put the top priority on reviewing after I start my post-school year posting.

Blue Friend volume 2 (I previously wrote about Blue Friend here.)
Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo volumes 1 and 2 (I reviewed the original KTS collection published by Yuri Hime here.) Volume 1 reviewed here. Volume 2 reviewed here.
Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls' Culture in Japan since it seems relevant to yuri's roots.
Pieta volume 2 (Volume 1 reviewed here.) Volume 2 reviewed here.
Poor Poor Lips volumes 2 and 3 (Volume 1 reviewed here.) Volume 2 reviewed here. Volume 3 reviewed here.
Prism volume 1 Reviewed here.
The second half of Red Garden (First half reviewed here.) Second half reviewed here.
Rinne no Lagrange season1 Reviewed here.
The huge Strawberry Panic! light novel omnibus thing-a-ma-jig Reviewed here, here and here.
Wandering Son volume 2 (Volume 1 reviewed here.) Volume 2 reviewed here.

Of course, I'll review Mouretsu Pirates after it finishes airing. And Fate/Zero, after its second season wraps up. I've already written so much about F/Z (i.e. episodic recaps) that I'll probably just review both seasons together. There's also Jormungand and Saki Achiga-hen. Even though I reviewed the first two seasons of Queen's Blade, I'm going to throw in the towel for QB: Rebellion. Rebellion's first two episodes felt like the anime equivalent of a bullet to the head. From what I've seen, Rebellion has less of what I liked about the first two seasons (an all-adult fighting female cast- aside from Ymir and Nowa, who hardly appeared; and characters who I would ship hard if they were in a less crappy series, like Tomoe and Shizuka) and ramps up what I disliked (in the form of service that either has a really sadistic edge, like the part with the dragon fighter, or is "ewww"-inducing, like the octopus gag). But I know, Queen's Blade has always been tasteless crap and I'm not remotely who the folks writing QB have in mind as their audience.

I do still plan on trying Yuruyuri season 2 and Horizon season 2 this summer. I don't expect Yuruyuri to improve, but I actually have some hope for Horizon. Why? Because: A) Malga (one half of Horizon's lesbian couple, who really deserve their own series) will supposedly play a much greater role in season 2 than she did in season 1; B) Toori (Horizon's male lead) got together with the girl he worships at the end of season 1 and, hopefully, won't be "comedically" groping random women before being punched away anymore (this is what irritated me most about season 1- sexual harassment presented in a "Har, that scamp! Boys will be boys!" way); C) the first season covered the prologue to the Horizon novels' main storyline, so who knows, the "real" plot could be better; and D) most of season 1 of Nanoha sucked, but I came to love Nanoha because of its later seasons. (See: my current icon.) I'm open to liking Horizon's second season, even though I understand why someone wouldn't be.

4 comments:

Steven said...

That's quite the list. Looking forwards to reading the reviews when you get to them.

Katherine Hanson said...

@Steven- Thanks! :-)

Eggrolls said...

I'm surprised you didn't catch the third season of Queen's Blade before taking on Rebellion.

That season actually enhances the subtext between Nanel/Melpha, plus there were some sweet moments between Tomoe and reformed Aldra, especially nearing the end of the final episode.

There is another premium book two episode parter that serves as a prequel to Queen's Blade Rebellion, and does explain a lot of what's going on.

Haha, I'm one of the few who stuck around for the yuri. Mercifully, Rebellion has not let me down yet, despite the mountains of fanservice.

Katherine Hanson said...

@Eggrolls- Ah. Thanks for letting me know all that! I didn't know about the two episode premium book OVA.

And I should have said so earlier, but I did try the third season.

I skipped through most of the third season's first episode because Elina is my least favorite QB character and listening to her talk for almost the entire thing was unbearable. ^_^; The second episode was more watchable since it starred Alleyne and Nowa, but it also had a lot of Nyx (my second least favorite), which was pretty grating, and there was still no apparent plot beneath the service. (I know, watching for the plot in Queen's Blade, lol.) After that, I wrote off QB's third season as QB's equivalent of Ikki Tousen Great Guardians (which I tried and dropped before moving on to Ikki Tousen's fourth season). I will check out the third season's final episode to see that part with Tomoe you mentioned, since she's my favorite. (She deserves a better show!) I'm not big on Nanael or Melpha. XD

Also- I have never hosted a guest review before, but you seem articulate, and if you would like to write about Rebellion after it wraps up (and/or QB's third season), I'd be happy to post it.