Negima! Vol 19 (Ch 174) *SPOILERS*

Thanks to AQS for the scans.

Chapter 174: Now that summer vacation has started, Yuuna is staying with her dad again and sleeping in. She gets up and putting on a bra, notes that she's going to have to get a bigger one. Her dad is reading papers on Fate Averruncus (last seen in volume 6 after deciding not to fight Eva) when Yuuna busts into his study. He quickly hides the papers, but Yuuna sees this and is suspicious about what he's hiding. When she goes for it, she extracts ero magazines, which she throws at her father.

As Yuuna prepares breakfast, she decides she doesn't mind her father having such magazines around since he's an adult. She's stunned to learn her father has only been eating instant food stuffs and not preparing real meals. He compliments her on her cooking, stating she'll make a good wife. She replies (jokingly) that she'd like to marry him, which causes him to respond that maybe she shouldn't say things like that. She gets embarrassed because she was joking and trying to be cute.

Yuuna is a bit frustrated at her dad's slobby appearance and feels he's no good without her to look after him. She sends him off to shave and notices a photo fall from him. It is a picture of a blond woman and has a telephone number. As her father asks about Negi, she tells him a few things while pondering who this woman is. The phone rings and the number on the caller-ID is the same as on the photo. She gives the phone to her dad, who after talking a bit, hangs up and tells Yuuna he'll be late.

Later, Yuuna tells Makie, Ako, and Akira that her father is cheating, even though he's not currently married. They tail her father to his meeting with the blond woman. She's not happy with this woman and despite her protests, the other girls see nothing wrong, commenting that Yuuna's "Papa love" might be going a bit too far.

Professor Akashi and the blond woman talk while sitting in the outdoor section of a restaurant. She notes Yuuna and her friends spying on them, which he states is his daughter and her friends. Keeping up the appearance of normal talk, the two discuss Fate and the lack of a connection with Chao as well as his connections with the Graf.

Makie and Ako decide to check things out better while Yuuna and Akira are left behind. They learn the woman's name is Donnet McGuinness from England. Returning to Yuuna and Akira, Ako and Makie think Donnet is good, but Yuuna is not convinced. That night, she has trouble sleeping because of this and when she does sleep, she has a memory-dream of herself as a kid, holding a practice wand, walking home with her mother.

The next morning, Yuuna tells her dad they are going on a father-daughter date, no matter what. They spend the day together, spending lots of his money, and when the date ends, Yuuna tells her father that she's OK with him marrying the blond. He's puzzled by this but when Donnet shows up, Yuuna learns that Donnet was an old friend of her mother. Yuuna is embarrassed by this and when they walk home, Yuuna asks if he still like Mom. He says he still loves her. Yuuna tells him she won't get mad if he gets remarried and he reminds her he has no partner.

Thoughts: While we've seen cameos of Yuuna's dad from the festival, it was neat seeing how he is studying about Fate. That he and Yuuna's mother were mages seems obvious. Too bad we didn't learn what became of Yuuna's mother. For Akamatsu-sensei to do a whole chapter solely about Yuuna (with hints of Fate and the Graf also thrown in), I can't help but wonder if somehow she'll now be a factor in the upcoming Wales arc.

"Futari Ecchi" Coming to America?

It what I find to be a truly shocking event, TokyoPop has licensed Futari Ecchi, calling it Manga Sutra - Futari H. So why is this so shocking? Well, officially, Futari Ecchi is a manga published in the seinen (young adult) magazine "Young Animal." It is the story of Makoto and Yuura, who are still virgins when they are arranged to be married. The manga then covers their journey of learning about sex and also explores the sexual lives of people around them, thus the mangaka can cover all sorts of sexual topics. While each chapter has some amount of sexual congress, the title avoids the "hentai" label by keeping the amount of hentai material below a certain percentage of the chapter. The mangaka also adds sex-ed charts, drawings, and information, though it is all very dated today (the manga started in 1997).

I became aware of the title when a fansub group did the OVA's. Later I read a thread on a message board where folks argued over whether the manga was a hentai title or not. So, I borrowed the first few volumes and read them. My conclusion? It's a hentai title.

In Japan, it is illegal to show reproductive organs, whether in drawings or in actuality. To comply with this law, Katsu-sensei uses a less obstructive form of censorship. He either has the genitals strategically blocked or makes them invisible. But the reader still gets a very clear picture of what's going on -- major sexual activities. Katsu-sensei also uses sex-ed diagrams at times to show a penis entering a vagina legally. Ha!ha! Isn't he ever so clever?

In addition to Yuura and Makoto's sex life being looked at, we see Yuura's sister younger sister Rika (early 20's). She has not one boyfriend, but four. She has her main squeeze, who's her age. She has the rich guy (I think in his early 30's) whom she bangs in exchange for a taste of the rich life (gifts, fancy places, etc.). She has her sex-friend, whom she hooks up with from time-to-time when she needs a no strings attached shagging. Her forth boyfriend is her pity-sex friend. He's younger than her (he calls her "senpai"), he is not much around girls, and so comes to Rika for advice. Rika feels sorry for him and allows him to bang her.

But no, this isn't a hentai title at all.

I could keep going on, but why bother. You get the point.

Well, lets hear what the man has to say.

"This is not a hentai manga, rather an erotic manga for the thinking mind. It is a compass of love and sex, a reference dedicated to all readers who seeks the ultimate pleasure in life. This is for real. I am not lying..." --KATSU Aki, introduction to volume 1 of Futari Ecchi.

Oh, that is such a laugh. While hiding behind the educational, comedy, and even story elements, Katsu-sensei knows full well that his goal is to produce a manga that just barely fits into the seinen label, but provides "meditation" materials for those horny guys dreaming of marrying a girl like Yuura-san (or banging one of the other girls in the series).

I did end up reading five volumes (I think) before I was totally sick of it. I don't care for hentai. I don't care that TokyoPop has licensed the title. So why the rant? I sense that TP will also try to deny this is a hentai title, and that started with the title change ("Manga Sutra" -- please.). Plus, I suspect that TP will want to modernize and domesticate the title a fair amount to attempt to grow sales beyond horny American otaku who wish to scream out, "Yuuna-san! IKU!" while meditating. Even if this isn't a title I'd buy, those are things I strongly object to. I also object to attempts to label this as non-hentai. It is a hentai title, so if you are going to license it, admit it and go on about it.

Gah! I'll admit that this may be one of the stupidest rants I've done since the title's not out officially in English yet. I already hear some people wondering if America can handle this non-hentai hentai title and ranting about the evil religious right (or some other such nonsense). I guess that's what really annoys me when it comes down to it, with the possible TP domestication coming in 2nd.

Chobits Vol. 1 !!!

As far as I can figure, Chobits is a show for young men who want their girlfriends to watch an anime program with them even though it's got sex on the brain (or maybe because it has sex on the brain). The show's entire soundtrack from start to finish is sweet and bouncy with a feminine sensibility, and all the characters are insanely cute. It has many of the touches my wife appreciates in anime, and she's not a big fan. At the same time, though, it's clearly ecchi. For a show with virtually no nudity, it is filled with innuendo and storylines that make most harem anime look tame. Although it's based on a manga by CLAMP, a group of female writers, it's way outside their standard fare. The episodes I saw were light and easy to watch, but the glaring plotholes combined with the ever-present lecherousness hurt it.

Hideki is a farmboy from the outskirts of Hokkaido. He is, in many ways, a Japanese hick. When he fails to get into college, he decides to go to Tokyo and attend a prep school in hopes that he might get in after some dedicated hard work. As he arrives in the big city, he notices the latest craze everywhere: persocoms. Some are dolls the size of a pencil eraser; still others resemble grown women. Persocoms have taken the place of PCs and Macs, apparently because everyone has realized that beautiful girls are cooler than boxy workstations. Cook, calendar, and computer in one, each has its own particular design, though all of them can connect to the Internet. (Hideki's all excited about that one, since he's never seen online porn before. It's a plot point, I kid you not.) However, Hideki can barely pay the rent, let alone consider buying a persocom that starts at around $6,000.

But if you can't buy one, you can get one out of the trash, right? On his way home one night, Hideki finds an absolutely beautiful persocom out in somebody's garbage. Legally, he can take it, so he does, not noticing that her programming disc is left on the street. It turns out, however, that this persocom is different. Its activation switch is hidden (yep, I can bet you can guess where). It can move and speak the simple nonsense phrase "chi," even though it has no operating system. In fact, its system is so powerful that other persocoms fry their circuits just trying to tell what software is in this thing. Hideki decides to keep it anyway, naming her after her favorite word. Now Hideki has to get a job, go to class, and figure out what to do with Chi, who may be a legendary Chobits -- a home-made machine that doesn't need an OS that can move (and perhaps think) on its own. Of course, the existence of Chobits are an urban legend, but when you pick up your persocom out of the trash, who knows?

Chobits is virtually the definition of a girls' anime. Bright and bubbly, it's a far cry from typical shonen fare, which makes its content all the more unusual. However, it's got precedent, especially in the form of Buttobi CPU, a strongly ecchi show that it resembles on the surface. Certainly Video Girl Ai is of the same "unexpected magical lovers" genre as well, and that show continues to be a favorite of mine, so there's potential. Whether or not Chobits actually fits in that genre is questionable. The intro makes us to believe that Chi and Hideki are meant for each other, but there's no real sense of that from the opening episodes. All that said, Chobits is well-made, and whenever the music kicked in, it planted a smile on my face...but I can't say it will do the same for you. I'm not sure that the genre confusion might be too much for some viewers. Do most guys appreciate girliness in their ecchi comedies? Maybe, maybe not.

There are points at which I think Chobits might really work. For example, the third episode sets out with Hideki trying to find a job, searching the city only to get splashed by a waitress who feels terrible and (by accident) gets him hired. It's a good outing, and when Hideki isn't a ball of lust but a real person, he's interesting. There are minor character moments interspersed here and there, which are good. And, admittedly, Chobits can be darn funny at times; there are a few great belly laughs to be had.

But then comes something like the fourth episode, which epitomizes the show's problems. While in episodes one and two we deal with (unseen) persocom nudity and inappropriately dressed persocoms that give Hideki a nosebleed, the fourth episode is about Chi purchasing panties since Hideki is too embarrassed to go into a lingerie shop and buy them. That's the whole of it in a nutshell. While it too has its cute moments, the idea that everytime Chi sees panties anywhere she's going to get distracted isn't terribly funny.

It also points out a real issue in this first disc: Chi has no personality. Of course, that's part of the storyline, but everything points to some relationship eventually developing between Chi and Hideki. And this means what, exactly? The other women in the show -- the apartment manager, the waitress, the schoolmarm -- are surprisingly engaging characters, any one of which might make a good match for Hideki. Thankfully, the appearance of these capable, intelligent, working women saves the show from being a haremfest. But if he winds up with the brainless Chi rather than one of our smart, real women, I'll still be disappointed.

But the kicker is that the plot, while engaging enough during a viewing, is full of problems. Would anybody really expect that an extremely valuable persocom would be left in the garbage? Doesn't the fact that Chi's OS can destroy other persocoms make anyone nervous? Wouldn't it make more sense to turn off Chi until somebody could speak to what she actually is? And since persocoms are supposed to be of great use to their owners, why is Hideki so interested in one that he has to personally train that has no apparent use whatsoever? Much of this we have to write off to Hideki's naivety, but if so, he's about the most naive guy on the planet. Come to think of it, though, that's not far from the truth.

While I've been going back and forth on what to rate Chobits Vol. 1, I'm going to give it my lowest recommendation, and that's because it is fun to watch. Despite the problems, despite the subject matter, the show's got spirit. I'd give it one more disc to see which direction it takes. While I wouldn't recommend it to the sensitive or a young teenager, its spark suggests that it might get less crass and more thoughtful as it goes. But my frustrations with the show are real, and I'd bail if it gets worse.