Maria-sama ga miteru – You’ll Be In My Heart

chii — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:49:55 +0000

My friend over on Najie's Anime Place has taken an interest in making her own AMV's. I think this one turned out pretty well for her second one!

365 Days of Anime Characters: Day 123/365 Yuri

chii — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:37:41 +0000

Day 123/365

Yuri

From the anime Dirty Pair, Yuri is a member of Trouble Consultant team 234, code named "Lovely Angels", along with her partner in crime Kei. Every mission ends up complicated yet they always get the job finished, but because of the disaster they include with their solved crimes, they are given another nick name which they hate, "Dirty Pair".

Why I like her: I watched this anime with my sister and enjoyed the fact that both Yuri and Kei almost represent me and my sister. She's the more girls one of the 2 which could be considered the same for me and my sister. Both have tempers that you do not want to cross.

Why I hate her: She's too adorable to hate.

Overall: Old school action comedy romp. Both Yuri and Kei are sure to please! Girls whooping ass is awesome!

Kei and Yuri

Simoun

chii — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:40:18 +0000

This one was a surprise win for me. I'm generally not a big fan of the yuri anime genre because they are typically ALL the same. Simoun stands out among these yuri titles proudly. Sadly I think a lot of people would (and have) overlook this amazing title just because of the yuri tag. I will admit that is one of the reasons I stalled on picking this up till now. It's not that I don't like yuri titles... I just get bored with them because they are pretty boring for the most part. This one turned out very well becoming my second favourite yuri title.

The series takes place on a fictional world called Daikuuriku. War breaks out on this planet and the Sibylla Simoun pilot's must fight to end it.

Simoun are these crazy aircrafts that look very much like something you would find in a steampunk work. Which instantly made me think of Last Exile since I have just watched recently. The ships basically look like flying motorcycles that have two cockpits because it takes two girls to run it. It's powered by this green glowing orb in the middle of the cockpits that the girls first kiss each other then the orb. This alone is pretty funny. But it never takes away from the seriousness of the show. Granted when they go through 5 Simoun riders in a row smooching it does take the seriousness away a tiny little bit.

I really loved the choose your own gender idea. All are born female and develop as girls until they turn 17, when this happens they choose a permanent sex by going to the Spring. Sibylla are the girls that are allowed to fly the Simoun because they have not yet chosen a permanent sex and are allowed to fly as long as they don't choose.

Both animation and the soundtrack were stunning. Sometimes when anime flip flop between animation and still colour pictures it doesn't work out so well and throws the viewer off. But this anime pulled it off beautifully. I loved the soundtrack. Every track was so unique and really made you feel something. My only complaint about the music would be it was used in a lot of scenes that didn't quite fit what was happening. Wonderful songs just put in the wrong places at the wrong times. The all girl cast of Voice Actresses was REALLY strange. At first I thought there were no men in the show but eventually figured it out with some asking around just what was going on. Half of the time I couldn't figure out if what I thought was a male really was one. The voices on the older people were very hard to take seriously. Let alone how they looked. Some males would be wearing pearl ear rings on both ears for crying out loud!

Look at those gorgeous eyes

Stunning

A Simoun formation

The characters aside from the voice issues were really well done. Sure there were your annoying parts to some of the characters but those were pretty small. Something that really ticked me off was the constant bickering over Neviril because she was the best and everyone wanted to be chosen by her to be her "pair". It took her 8 episodes before she finally decided on one and it wasn't until the very last minute of the episode. Once they got that out of the way the plot was focused on much much more. Which made me super happy. This I consider the typical yuri part of the show which would be my only real complaint about the pacing. There's always girls battling over each other for something that is the best. Weather it be like in Maria-Sama (choosing of their petite soeur's) or in Strawberry Panic (choosing of the next Etoile), it's a very cliche part of the genre which I can't stand. One more thing that drove me a little crazy was their lips. Such a strange thing to bother me but they were so big and plump and exaggerated with lipstick, especially on Neviril.

Those lips drive me bonkers!

Every character in this show was real. They learned and made mistakes. No one was afraid to show emotion no matter how bad ass they thought they were. I can't really choose a favourite easily and I certainly didn't hate any of them. They were all good and bad in their own way which added to the show perfectly. If I did have to pick a favourite it would be Mamina. Go check out her 365 days of anime characters entry here.

Overall I would urge people to watch this show. Do not pass it up simply because it has a yuri tag and a slow first few episodes.

* Story 8/10
* Animation 8/10
* Sound 8/10
* Characters 8/10
* Overall 8/10

Oishii Anime » Yuri

Maria-sama ga miteru – You’ll Be In My Heart

365 Days of Anime Characters: Day 123/365 Yuri

Simoun