YAY, AOI HANA ANIME LICENSED!!!!

YES!!!!! FINALLY!!!! At their Anime Expo panel this evening, Nozomi Entertainment announced that they're releasing Aoi Hana on DVD YAY!!!! ANN just posted more details about it. It's been about three years, but it finally happened. Now excuse me as I go back to happy-dancing over it while babbling incoherently.

Update: Here is Nozomi's Anime Expo trailer for Aoi Hana.

Fate/Zero Finale Recap

At long last, Fate/Zero's finale. It was rather grand. :-) My fellow recappers and I have many feelings about it, which you can read here.

In addition to the usual fan art, I'm linking a cute, short Saber x Irisviel doujinshi that one of my readers, Sha Yurigami, made based on this fan art. It can be downloaded here. Enjoy!

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Light novel review: Strawberry Panic, The Complete Novel Collection, volume 2

Volume 2 is, overall, noticeably better than volume 1. Volume 1's early problems involving Shizuma are long past, and the rules of the lesbian Wonderland that is Astraea Hill have been explained. Now for round 2 of the Etoile competition.

Volume 1 established the rivalry between Miator's Student Council President Miyuki and Spica's Student Council President Shion. The spotlight in volume 2 falls on Lulim's Student Council President Chikaru. Chikaru is a fan favorite because, rather than angst over love like the other major characters, she is whimsical and laid-back while still being very gay. In the anime, she collects girls like candy and has them dress up in cosplay and do random crap like solve mysteries or bake sweets for shits and giggles. Here, Chikaru does the same thing, but she and her harem just cosplay.

Amusingly, light novel Chikaru has a Grand Master Plan beyond macking on girls. As the only student with any ambition at Lulim, she wants to build Lulim up to a school whose glory rivals Miator and Spica's. She might seem like she's just having her kouhai Kizuna, Remon and Kagome cosplay as bunny girls and police officers so she can ogle Kizuna and Remon and go moe over Kagome, but she's really training them to be strong Etoile candidates.

But alas, if Lulim were to claim its glory when Kizuna, Remon and Kagome were popular enough to win the Etoile crown purely on their own merits, Chikaru would graduate before realizing her dream. And if she graduated before Lulim became more popular, she wouldn't have fulfilled her ultimate goal of having more cute Lulim girls to add to her harem. It's all very nuanced and complicated, you see.

Unlike the anime version of Strawberry Panic, the students from the different schools mostly don't socialize with each other in the novels. The thing I miss most about that here is Tamao and Yaya commiserating with each other about being in love with thickheaded idiots who don't love them back. It also raises the question of what would happen if two students from different schools wanted to enter the Etoile competition as a couple. That question is answered here.

We also meet Kusanagi Makoto, a former Spica student who returns from studying music in Russia to challenge Amane's place as the Top Star in Spica. Makoto proclaims that she wants to replace the lesbianism at Astraea Hill with "pure sisterly love" but, interestingly, wins her peers over by giving them jewelry and promising them kisses. To her credit, Amane is mature enough to know that Astraea Hill is not the center of the universe and doesn't care about being replaced as the Spica student with the most stalkers.

While novel Amane is more likeable than anime Amane, as discussed in my previous SP novel review, novel Yaya has gotten less face time than anime Yaya. Which is too bad, because I like her better than Amane. (Yes, I am that rare SP fan who likes Shizuma x Nagisa and Yaya x Hikari.) The novels throw Yaya x Hikari fans a bone when Yaya confesses her feelings to Hikari in a less graceless way than she did in the anime. But while her confession had repercussions on her and Hikari's friendship in the anime and they talked through it, here, the scene fades out and the entire thing is forgotten. Or so it seems. Just wait until volume 3.

This volume ends with neither of our lead couples looking good in the Etoile competition. Amane and Hikari run away from school. Nagisa decides to drop out of the competition after learning more about Shizuma's past relationship with Kaori and concluding that she can't compete with a dead girl. As idiotic as Nagisa is, I can actually understand her not telling Shizuma that she wants to hear her say that she loves her now, more than Kaori, because she wants to know Shizuma is saying it sincerely instead of because she knows it'll calm Nagisa down. It might be passive-aggressive, but it's understandable.

More things about this volume I liked- Kaname, to her chagrin, starting to have feelings for Hikari after having treated Hikari badly because Kaname likes Amane, and Shizuma's best friend Hitomi speculating that Shizuma's deep grief over Kaori was fueled by guilt as much as love. This plants the seed of a plot point that gives Shizuma's storyline more nuance than I expected. And I like that this volume fleshes out Shizuma's background and gives her friends Mizuho and Hitomi more of an active role than the anime does. (Although she isn't close friends with Miyuki here, an aspect of the anime that I liked.) It gives her a life outside her romances, making her a better-developed character than it initially seemed she would be.

So yeah, more of what was fun about volume 1 with much less of what was "meh." How will it all resolve!? Dun dun dun.

Fate/Zero's Penultimate Recap

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Pretty intense episode, no? I'm on pins and needles waiting for the finale, even though I've been spoiled by Fate/stay night. Here's the newest recap!

And of course, more fan art. The first one below is my favorite.

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Obligatory Kannazuki no Miko parody- extra-fitting because Chikane and Saber share the same seiyuu.

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Manga Review: Pieta volume 2

 Volume 1 of Pieta (reviewed here) left us with a pretty grim scenario.

Thankfully, the jump does not kill Rio. It turns out that she will be able to recover fully,  but Sahoko and Rio's psychologist Minori-sensei know that she'll try to commit suicide again unless what caused her to do it is actually dealt with.

They figure out that it was Rio's stepmother's doing. She owns up to her culpability and makes it clear that she'll do whatever it takes to remove Rio from the Martha Stewart fantasy of a life she wants by committing Rio to a mental institution as soon as possible. Even Rio's father is disturbed by her, and he tells Minori-sensei the truth about what his wife told Rio. Minori-sensei clears things up for Rio, and she decides to divorce her family. In one of my favorite scenes, Minori-sensei tells Rio that he and his wife have wanted to adopt her as a daughter for a long time. Even if she doesn't want to be adopted, they're still there for her if she needs anything.

As Sahoko continues visiting her in the hospital, Rio gets over her fear that she'll hurt whoever she loves. We also learn more about what caused Sahoko to become a hikikomori for a full school year. While Rio has a truckload of horrible family reasons for her issues, Sahoko comes from a perfectly functional, loving family. The explanation for her withdrawal from society works because, well, you don't need to have a traumatic childhood to have problems interacting with people. Some people are just like that. While Rio wore her problems on her sleeve and acted out when we first met her, Sahoko was that girl who hides her problems desperately in order to create normalcy in some sphere of her life. After she gets over that by opening up to Rio, she's able to actually feel relaxed and happy instead of just pretending to be. In short, both of their behavior from the beginning of this series makes sense.

Let me go on a small tangent. When Pieta was published, it was still popular to link mental illness to lesbianism in manga. Pieta subverts that by making its characters' issues have absolutely nothing to do with their sexual orientations or who they like, instead making Rio and Sahoko's love what helps them overcome their problems. You'll find thematic similarities in the recently popular Blue Friend by Eban Fumi, which seems pretty clearly influenced by Pieta, if you're looking for something similar in yuri. I also recommend Fuyumi Soryo's Mars, a non-yuri shoujo title that feels similar as well.

Rio's stepmother tosses out Rio's things and moves her own things into the house Rio occupied, but in a delicious bit of irony, the house catches on fire. Rio's possessions stay safe and out of the dumpster because of Sahoko picking them up and storing them at her house.

After leaving the hospital, Rio moves in with Sahoko. This series addresses the issues that could, realistically, come with Sahoko already deciding that she wants to spend her life with Rio by having Minori-sensei and his wife discuss them- satisfactorily, I might add.

Rio and Sahoko help each other study for their entrance exams and start college, looking forward to their lives together

We get a bonus chapter showing them spending a week at Sahoko's aunt's beach house, where they send an omiyage to Minori-sensei and his wife.

A sweet conclusion to a roller-coaster ride of a series.

Story: A

Art: A-

Overall: A

Light novel review: Strawberry Panic, The Complete Novel Collection, volume 1

At long last, I am reviewing the Strawberry Panic light novels.

Even though I have been an avid reader of manga since I was a kid, it took me some getting used to the idea of novels that read like manga (complete with full-page illustrations and onomatopoetic sound effects like "Flutter flutter" for sakura petals, "Swish!" for a skirt, and "Drip" for tears falling) when I tried the SP light novel, my first light novel read, as a college freshman. That said, I've never had any problem settling into fanfiction- go figure.

Like its anime and manga iterations, the Strawberry Panic light novel is about the love polygons at three lesboriffic girls' schools that are adjacent to and affiliated with each other on Astraea Hill- Miator, the oldest and most traditional school, Spica, the second oldest one that focuses on creating the leaders of tomorrow, and Lulim, where students focus on club activities instead of studies. Despite the description given for Spica, Miator's students can't bear coming in second place in anything next to Spica or Lulim, so it seems like the place to send a girl who wants to learn good leadership and competition skills, no?

Our protagonist, Aoi Nagisa, is a cheerful, bumbling, utterly unremarkable Miator transfer student who instantly attracts Miator's most popular student, Hanazono Shizuma. Nagisa's roommate Tamao also has the hots for Nagisa, as does Nagisa's kouhai Chiyo.

Over in Spica, we meet another transfer student- shy, unassuming Konohana Hikari. Hikari and Spica's butchy "Prince" Ootori Amane fall in love, but Amane's unwanted legion of ravenous fangirls would rather shoot themselves in the leg than see their beloved Amane-sama fall for one person. Hikari's roommate Yaya is also in love with her.

At the beginning of each school year, Miator, Spica and Lulim hold the Etoile competition. They don't describe it as a contest for the three schools' best lesbian couple, but that's what it is. Each couple is composed of an aînée (a.k.a. the Oneesama in the relationship) and her cadette.

When Tamao hits on Nagisa in front of Shizuma and rubs it in Shizuma's face, Shizuma overrides her by asking Nagisa to be her cadette in the Etoile competition. The other students at Miator aren't happy about it because, why should someone who just transferred in get to compete for the Etoile crown with their exalted Shizuma-sama? Shizuma also competed last year and won with her friend Mizuho, dedicating her victory and all of her love to her dead girlfriend Kaori. For that reason, I can see why some students would be bothered by Shizuma competing again with Nagisa. (Even though they weren't bothered by her dating and sleeping with half the campus prior to that?)

A lot of SP fans like Tamao x Nagisa more than Shizuma x Nagisa, but I'm on team Shizuma x Nagisa. Even though Shizuma isn't very likeable early in the story, she does improve (the turning point for her characterization being the pre-Etoile competition party) and shows that she genuinely cares about Nagisa, for some reason. I do feel bad for Tamao, since she makes her feelings clear repeatedly, but Nagisa doesn't get it since she's as dense as a brick.

Amane, of course, chooses Hikari as the cadette to her aînée. I like Amane x Hikari more in the SP light novels than in the SP anime because Amane has more of a personality and her relationship with Hikari feels sweeter here.

Despite the Miator and Spica students' qualms about Shizuma and Amane's Etoile partners, they rally around them because they want their school to win.

Nagisa finds out about Shizuma pledging all of her love to Kaori the year before, making her doubt the veracity of Shizuma's feelings for her, but they win the first competition (in which the aînées answer questions about how devoted they are) anyway.

The high point of this volume is the second competition, in which the aînées and cadettes dress in costumes, the cadettes are all squeezed onto a high platform with no railing, and the aînées race to pick them up on horseback from below. Nagisa winds up dangling off the edge of the platform hoping that her Oneesama will reach her in time.

Yes, this is trash. But as trash, it is first-rate. I always have a bit of a hard time starting it because I need to get used to the overripe, affected language. It doesn't help that 90% of the early portion of this volume feels like it's composed of descriptions of how amazing Shizuma is. She's pretty, smart, has glossy, shampoo commercial-worthy hair and an amazing smile, birds sing when she passes by them and the very sun and moon pale in comparison to her...thankfully, SP's author realizes that we get it already, and eases up on the flowery Shizuma descriptions as the book goes on. All of the descriptions are very flowery, in the way that a parody of the yuri genre (particularly old school or old school-influenced titles like Shiroi Heya no Futari, Oniisama E, Himitsu no Kaidan, and Marimite) would need to be. But I don't really mind as long as the intentionally cheesy descriptions aren't relegated too much to one character. lol

If you're already an SP fan, you'll like this. If not, don't bother.

No ratings until I review the third and final volume.

Fate/Zero Recap of the Week

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Sorry about posting this a bit late. The internet was being wonky last night.

After the build-up last week, this week's episode was pretty thrilling. More Saber badassery, just about everything Rider and Waver did, and even Archer had a cool moment. Here's the recap!

And you know the drill.

See way the bottom of this post for a source. Can't link to where I found this doujinshi cover image anymore, since Melon Books removed it after they stopped selling it.

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