*whispers* they are so beautiful

Shonen-ai titles have a bad habit of queerbaiting (at least in my experience) so let me know if Silver Diamond delivers.

I am hereby seconding the Adekan recommendation. The art is sort of like if CLAMP and Nakamura Asumiko (of Doukyuusei) had a love child and the love child was under the influence while drawing. For a manga with no actual on-page sex or nudity, it is filthy, the way the panels just ogle Shiro's body and the author's fixation twisting his skinny spine into the most awkward positions ever. Im not normally into super skinny but the way she draws his jutting hip bones and bumpy rib cage is like porn. And with legit creepy stories that in my opinion put XXXholic to shame - it's quite entertaining!

Nocturnalux wrote:

Oh yay, glad I've converted someone to the wonders of Adekan!

There are some delicious artworks as well, I'm tempted to get one.  It includes Anri in a pink cowboy outfit. Really.
It really is amazing how decadent and sexy the whole thing without having to actual sex scenes, takes some talent.

I completely agree that the stories reach a level of 'wtf' that is nothing short of disturbing. Have you reached the 'Cat Woman' (Neko Onna) part yet? [That girl whose feet and hands got amputated by human traffickers and was being used to lure other victims. The whole thing was made even worse once we realize that Shiro too was once a victim of human traffickers himself as was Anri who I swear waltzed over from Loveless one fine day. Loveless as simply not messed up enough for Anri.]

Loveless wishes it was that messed up.
Honestly that one story arc (the Neko-onna) reminded me of the Ai no Kusabi novels. There's one description of these genetically engineered sex dolls that are created blind and without teeth for....obvious reasons.





NO HOMO HERE, NOPE NOPE NOPE.

I\m interested to learn more about Anri, I'm only in the 4th volume so far.

Shiro and Anri are all well and good but let's just focus on that sexy back, shall we?


(shit quality pic, sorry )

Yeah, Adekan really is something else.

And on the subject of, 'what do you mean this is not actuall BL', I give you Ilegenes.
It's a lot like No.6 except the gay is not canon although it sure veers close to it.



And a random example:



It actually gets gayer as the story progresses and the fact that the character design reminds me of Miyamoto Kano's adds to the homoerotic vibes.

Adekan really needs to get more attention. Which reminds me, when I returned from my holidays I had a manga package waiting for me, including the first two volumes of Adekan.

And speaking of highly slashable anime, is anyone watching Ranpo Kitan? I'm loving every second of it, from the trippy take to the source material while keeping the twisted sense of 'wtf' and genius that is the hallmark of Edogawa Ranpo to the trap lead who crossdresses and makes his best friend all hot and bothered. Here's just an example:



Kobayashi's crossdressing started out as plot relevant but he seems to have taken a shine to it.

Talking of cross-dressing characters, my favorite is Rui from the excellent Gatchaman Crowds:


Rui seems to identify as male, but cross-dresses when in public. In the first season this seemed to be to preserve his anonymity, but now everyone knows his identity and he still does it. Who can blame him, really?

I'm also enjoying Ore Monogatari (My Love Story), Ushio and Tora, GATE, Gangsta, Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, and Prison School (which I started watching just to see how bad it was, but got hooked immediately).

(also, agree with OITL, trap is gross word)

Last edited by purplepolecat (08-26-2015 12:36:56 PM)

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 … ary/.92589

I'm really looking forward to this! It's a track anime (poor Rei should have held out on quitting track, he could have been the MC!)  It's based off of an otome game apparently, but the trailer doesn't seem to be pushing that angle much at all, so hopefully it won't be too bad. And it's by Madhouse too.

It's a bit early to say, but I think the blond guy with the ponytail will probably end up being my favorite.

Last edited by HonorableShadow (09-11-2015 01:13:34 AM)

HonorableShadow wrote:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 … ary/.92589

I'm really looking forward to this! It's a track anime (poor Rei should have held out on quitting track, he could have been the MC!)  It's based off of an otome game apparently, but the trailer doesn't seem to be pushing that angle much at all, so hopefully it won't be too bad. And it's by Madhouse too.

It's a bit early to say, but I think the blond guy with the ponytail will probably end up being my favorite.

o hi there, not-Haruka

I'm impressed that they aren't anime-colored coded. Four characters will nearly similar hair color (light brown to blond)!!! HOW WILL VIEWERS TELL THEM APART

So like.

One Punch Man.

((EDIT 1: After recommendations, I have adjusted my review a spot.

Hey all,

Stupid insomnia keeping me up into the wee hours of the morning.

So... here goes my first try at this.  Right now, I'm going to cheat, and move some of already done reviews from PBB over to here.  As such, be advised that I did this one some four years ago. It's weird though... looking back at this older review, I can see how much better my newer ones are... still... I'm lazy, and I don't want to clean up my first attempts at this... though... I did clean it up a bit.  Hopefully my updates / clean-up make the old product shine a bit better.

Anyway, without further ado, begin re-posting.

Shamanic Princess OVA -- Originally Posted 21 Feb, 2012, Edited / Updated 3 Jan, 2016, Edited 18 Jan 2016

Okay, so here goes my fist re-posting of a review.  On this older review, I used my PS3 with HDMI cable to a Panasonic Viera. My copy of Shamanic Princess OVA is the complete edition from U.S. Manga Corps.  Shamanic Princess OVA is a 6 episode anime, totaling 180 minutes of time, including intro and ending credits, from Bandai and MOVIC. Neither Robert's Anime Corner Store nor The Right Stuf list it anymore; however, it is listed on eBay. And… I'm not 100% sure it's real, official, licensed copies. So… this might be a trickier one to find. Anyway, my DVD is a 2000 edition.  I'm not sure if Shamanic Princess has a manga either.

Tiara, has been sent on a mission by the Guardian World to investigate the disappearance of and recover a stolen artifact, the Throne of Yord.  However, upon arrival at the scene of the crime she meets up with one of her old friends Rena, who is also looking for the Throne of Yord.  Tangling the issue, Tiara also is reunited with an old flame, Kagetsu, who may or may not be harboring the Throne of Yord.  So begins Tiara's mysterious investigation.

The front of the DVD slip-cover has an eye-catching picture of Tiara and her familiar Japolo. The back hints at other characters, and contains a good summary of the OVA. The slip-cover is also reversible. The inside is black-and-white, contains the chapter-stops, as well as the actors who played the various characters. U.S. Manga Corps did very well on making the DVD slip-cover interesting.

Shamanic Princess is a mix of high fantasy and dark drama, with an alternative take on the magic/mystic system. Instead of four elements and void, this OVA's take on magic is that of contracts. I guess you could say the magic in this show is similar to voodoo. The spirits bound to Tiara, the protagonist, are only granted joy, if their actions bring her joy.  Tiara, a prominent practitioner of shamanic magic from the Guardian world is sent down to Earth to recover the Throne of Yord, and capture its suspected thief Kagetsu. While completing the task of recovering the Throne of Yord, Tiara realizes that not everything is as she was told, and she must uncover its secrets, as well as those of its defenders.  Tiara realizes there comes a time when one needs to question the authority and tradition that gave her the very powers she possesses and channels.  For me, these sorts of supernatural mysteries are engaging and contemplative.  However, the story is slower in pacing, to include the fight scenes, which might be off putting to some. The story is also very introverted in nature, which might make some of the audience lose interest. Still, though, I enjoy how CLAMP tells stories.

The art and character designs, to me, resemble early CLAMP manga-style, i.e., R. G. Veda years.  So, expect everyone to have very elaborate and highly detailed costuming, and have very expressive (i.e. big) eyes.  The women are full of vavoom, while the men are lithe and slender. I find I do favor CLAMP-style beauties, so I like the form that Bandai took in drafting up their cast. That being, long hair, slender legs, full bosom, graceful elegance, and just... pretty to me. Yeah, I know, lame goth girl likes the frilliness of the costuming and characters.  Color palates also hint at character traits and personalities; as such Sara, the mysterious waif, has a silver theme, while the main protagonist Tiara are hot reds and yellows.  Bandai also establishes some very detailed and various backgrounds, such as haunted forests, poppy fields, school, and rain falling on windows.  The choreography for the series, especially the fight scenes is fluid, with a great attention to the small details. Still, the artists do cheat a bit.  They do use the trick of different still backgrounds over recycled transformation / action / summoning scenes.  However, this does allow these scenes to pile on the detail, offering a hiqh quality effect.  Overall, it is an artstyle that I enjoy very much. 

Another aspect of the show that I feel is done well, is how the characters develop, and how the cast are all related to each other in some manner. For example, Lena, one of the antagonists, is equally as powerful as Tiara, yet has an inferiority complex to Tiara. Tiara, while brash, confident, and powerful, is also torn by feelings for her best friends, as well as for her former lover turned criminal. The tale also does very well establishing and defining the emotional bond between Lena and Leon as well as Tiara and Kagetsu.

Shamanic Princess uses a very surreal-dream like quality in its art to tell its story. It's a ghostly and mystic sort of enchanting. For example, any time the moon is shown, it's a full moon, but has an exaggerated crescent highlight. As such, Shamanic Princess heavily uses symbolism to convey several themes. For example, during the transformation sequences when the shamans change from their shaman garb to their ultimate form, it alludes to the idea that girls can seemingly change into women overnight. The art style is also bewitching. What I mean is, it's a subtle blend of beauty and growing-up. A good illustration of this is when Sarah, Lena, and Tiara are shown as children picking poppy flowers, and then later shown as adults.

For dubbing vs original seiyuu, I have to select the original seiyuu.  While U.S. Manga Corps does use Crispin Freeman as one of the Voice Actors… none of them really mesh with their parts well. It is unclear if it was the script, the actors, or the directors that made the English dub only be average.  As such, after watching the first two episodes in the dub, I switched over to the original Japanese with subtitles for the rest of the show. The translation does well, though there are a few parts where it is unclear if U.S. Manga Corps just mistranslated the story, or tried to adjust the story to better fit an American audience.

For some additional negatives and mixed thoughts. It looks like U.S. Manga Corps simply took their VHS release, and combined them all into one DVD. What I mean by that is after every two episodes, you get the additional USMC credits. It's a nit-picky complaint, but I found it a spot annoying. Next, U.S. Manga Corps also seems to have changed their translation part-way through the show. At first, one of the characters was subtitled as "Sarah", and then it is switched to "Sara". Not really sure why they did it, but... it was changed.

On a technical aspect, the DVD holds up well. Even with the high amount of detail, and flashy, transformation and combat sequences, I cannot see any problems with colors washing out or shimmering. The day and night scenes also stood up well under the scrutiny of my PS3 player and HDMI-enabled TV.   However, I did notice two times where a white line appeared across some of the frames. As far as I can tell, my DVD doesn't have a scratch on it, so I'm guessing it was a problem with the encoding of the DVD.   The series itself was presented in the previous 4:3 ratio aspect, so you'll have to make due with black-bars on the sides of the screen.  Sound effects, voices, and music hold up well, and makes good use of the 2.1 channel stereo.  I didn't hear any popping, fading, fuzz, or distortion.  Overall, solid marks for tech specs. 

For extras, the DVD contains an introduction to the various characters, trailers to other U.S. Manga Corps anime, intro and closing credits. The DVD is also coded for DVD-rom features, such as additional art, scripts, and additional information about the characters.  Overall, not bad.

Overall, Shamanic Princess is an awesome take on shamanistic magic, the struggles of growing up, and asking the question of when its okay to question authority.

Overall: A ))

Last edited by CarolineWellwater (01-18-2016 08:26:58 PM)

CarolineWellwater wrote:

Snip

Sorry to interject, but Shamanic Princess was not by CLAMP, and CLAMP had nothing to do with the production. However, the character designer did work on the anime adaptation of Magic Knight Rayearth.