BEING UPFRONT: A Pictorial Guide to Bodacious Women in Anime--Page 8 (Mi-P)

BEING UPFRONT: A Pictorial Guide to Bodacious Women in Anime--Page 8 (Me-P)

Print/licence statuses at the end of the entries refer to North America (that's where I live, so...).

THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA (Jpn: SUZUMIYA HARUHI NO YUUTSU)
Mikuru Asahina (small) (two pictures); Mikuru Asahina (big)

Asahina (small) in bunny girl outfit from Haruhi Suzumiya

Asahina (small) in maid outfit from Haruhi Suzumiya

This 2006 title, based on a popular series of light novels, made itself quite prominent in part for its presentation quirks, most notably what is probably the first occurrence of episodes appearing on home video in a radically different order than originally broadcast. Oh, and for the infamous, controversial "Endless Eight" episodes in the second season, but anyway, the second episode is where the story proper starts. A cynical and sardonic young man nicknamed Kyon (his real name is never revealed) is starting his first year in high school. The attractive young woman who is sitting behind him in homeroom introduces herself as Haruhi Suzumiya, and brashly states that she is not interested in ordinary humans and wishes to meet aliens, espers and time travellers. Yep, we got a live one here. This understandably freaks out most of their classmates, but Kyon starts talking with her, and she eventually opens up to him, to the surprise of their classmates who dealt with her in middle school. At one point she reveals that she has tried and dropped several high school clubs because they were too "normal" for her. This inspires her to start her own club, which she names the SOS Brigade, with the goal of finding aliens, espers and time travellers and hanging out with them. Kyon is literally dragged into becoming a member, and she commandeers the Literary Club's club room, drafting its sole member, the quiet and unruffled Yuki Nagato, in the process. Shortly afterward, she strongarms an extremely beautiful but very shy girl from the second-year students to become the Brigade's "mascot," mainly because her petite height, looks and manner convey a moe element that could attract interest in and new members to the Brigade. And that's not all; Haruhi notes that Mikuru also has big breasts, and proves it by groping her through her uniform, much to her shock and embarrassment. After standing dumbstruck at this spectacle, Kyon separates the two of them, and shortly afterward, for some mysterious reason, Mikuru actually joins the SOS Brigade. Unfortunately for her, membership includes Haruhi dressing her (and sometimes herself, and Yuki Nagato the odd time) in various outfits--as in, physically changing her clothes for her, despite her protests that she can do it herself. This includes a bunny-girl outfit, which she and Haruhi wear near the front gate at the end of the school day to hand out SOS Brigade flyers for a short time before school staff breaks it up, and which she winds up wearing a lot in an SOS Brigade-produced amateur movie (the first picture above is a scene from it). Most of the time she ends up dressed as a maid and serving tea to all the other members, which Kyon quite enjoys. Not long after she enters the scene, she takes Kyon aside and tells him the truth: She is actually a time traveller from the future, who has been sent to observe Haruhi, but can't give many more answers than that--classified information. Yes, this series is more than a high-school comedy. Of course, this makes him scratch his head and wonder, but, since he's quite attracted to (and protective of) her, he goes along with it. This is later confirmed when Mikuru Asahina (big)--the older version of her--shows up in front of him, and proves her identity by pointing out the star-shaped mole on one of her breasts. It turns out that he had told her about this...but not yet in present time. Ah, paradox. This version of her is obviously more voluptuous and confident; also, since she's in the OP sequence, it's not that much of a spoiler. It kind of makes up for the times when Haruhi is basically abusing her, but then again, as the band Therapy? puts it, happy people have no stories. If nothing else, the first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is worth checking out for something that subtly parodies some overused anime tropes, while giving the viewer interesting characters and stories. Season 1 recommended; Season 2 is largely considered to be audience trolling.

In print on Bandai Entertainment, Inc. (bilingual DVD; note that the Special Editions of the first season include extra sub-only DVDs of the episodes in broadcast order). They have also released the super-deformed gag series, The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya (bilingual DVD) and the movie The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (bilingual DVD, bilingual Blu-Ray).
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MIDNIGHT PANTHER
Lou; Kei; Sonya (left to right)

Central Park Media had a pretty good measure of success with their release of the original manga by Ms. Yu Asagiri, and figured that releasing the OVAs here would be the next logical step. In both, in a bizarre neo-medieval setting, we meet a trio of girls who operate as an idol group called the Pussycats by day...and as assassins by night (as if the terrible music of that one song of theirs we hear wouldn't be enough to do the job, but I digress). Lou is a tomboy who is given all the monster-killing jobs so the creepy/irritating old lady who acts as their manager can have spare parts to make magical potions with. The other girls give her a lot of teasing over not being feminine enough, and while she obviously doesn't make it into BU for sizable tracts of land, she is given a couple of great jiggle takes, including one where she stomps up to Kei (in the fine tradition of Noriko from Gunbuster) to get mad at her for putting her body down again. Kei is the cute and perky one (who just happens to have an overactive animalistic side), and Sonya is the deep-voiced seductress who makes sure to have a good time before carrying out her duty (mainly so the readers/viewers can see, of course), and these two are responsible for going after men. Their failure rate is very low, needless to say. For their performance at King Bad's (don't ask) castle, they don't even sing; Lou just looks cute and Kei and Sonya wobble their way into the rather depraved audience's libido. I've read some of the manga, and, compared to that, this destroys any trace of charm that the story had. It's a nice little change of pace from Anime18's typical overcooked tentacle fare and Sex For Complete Bastards 101 titles, but you'd be much better off with Lunatic Night or Visionary instead.

Out of print (previously on Anime18 on bilingual DVD).
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MIYUKI-CHAN IN WONDERLAND (Jpn: FUSHIGI NO KUNI NO MIYUKI-CHAN)
Door; Hatter (center of picture); Cheshire Cat (top row, left to right);
Queen; Gargoyle (bottom row, left to right)

This OVA is based on the excellent four-woman manga team CLAMP's adaptation of two classic Lewis Carroll stories. And something tells me the lesbo-erotic tone of this version (all male and animal characters are now women in costumes) was based on the part of CLAMP writer Ageha (formarley Nanase) Ohkawa's brain that likes to collect ecchi computer games (Note: According to Sumire's Anime Birthday Calendar, she was born on the exact same date as me; coincidence?). In part one, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, when Miyuki has to pass a door with a girl on it, she's in for a shock when she finds out where the doorknobs are. The tea party with the Hatter, a Bunny and a Dormouse puts her even further on edge, and the Cheshire Cat does more than rub against her leg. What, you want more? The Queen turns out to be a whip-wielding dominatrix (voiced against type by Kikuko Inoue, who is best known for her roles as Kasumi Tendo in Ranma 1/2 and Belldandy in Ah! My Goddess), who takes a shine to our dear Miyuki and wants her to take a shine to her boots with her tongue. The second part, Miyuki-chan in Mirrorland, starts with Miyuki being flown to Mirrorland in the arms of a quite nubile gargoyle (who gets a peek under her skirt before starting the flight). The adaptation is wild, the art is beautiful (and not really typical of CLAMP's style, but that's character designer Tetsuro Aoki's doing), and the story is pretty funny. Check it out at least once.

Out of print (previously on ADV Films on sub-only DVD).
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For more information on Lewis Carroll, whose works Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass Miyuki-chan is based on, you can visit the Lewis Carroll Society of North America home page.

MOUSE
Mei Momozono; Yayoi Kuribayashi (second and third from left, left picture); Rinya

By day, Muon Sorata is a cute but hapless college student and assistant instructor of Fine Arts at the Yamanoue Complex, where a group of three students have a crush on him and two teachers and the school nurse regularly give him a hard time. By night, he is Mouse (right in left picture), the latest in a long line of thieves using that name who keeps Japan in thrall with his daring robberies, which have included entire buildings. He is assisted in his dramatic deeds by three ever-(and-over-)loving servants, including Mei, the math teacher who can infiltrate places and influence people, and Yayoi, the aforementioned nurse, whose night job has her throttling computers and brewing up gas and other chemicals. I might add that all three of the servents also look good in almost everything they wear (or don't), so if one doesn't get a facefull of their looks already, well, maybe the maid costumes will do the job. No? How about the catsuits? Late in the series, we meet Mouse's old adversary, One, and his own two assistants. Rinya is the one who uses clubs whilst fighting, as Mei unfortunately finds out. Good choice of weapon; if she misses with them, she can always clobber her enemy with her emphasis. Screenwritten by (and based on the manga scripted by) Satoru Akahori (yep, him again), this was possibly the most controversial anime TV series of the Spring 2003 season. A lot of western anime fans hated it for its over-the-top fan service (bounce was not spared here), lack of writing quality (it's an action/gag/ecchi series, not Evangelion, y'see) and theme songs (admittedly, Under 17's lead singer's nasal vocals drive me nuts, too). I've also heard about Japanese fans finding it inferior to the manga; never mind that that's almost always the case in these situations. Now, these things may be so, but one thing is forgotten in all that--the series is still a lot of lightweight fun (a couple of scenes involving bondage notwithstanding, but they're not that glamourized), and, at only 12 13-minute episodes, quick fun at that, if it's your idea of it. Suffice it to say that it's mine, but your own milage may very.

In print on Anime Works, a division of Media Blasters (bilingual DVD). Both discs are now in one Litebox for a great price.
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The Yuka Takeuchi Fan's galleries for Mei, Yayoi, group shots and animations.

NARUTO
Tsunade (BWH: 106/??/?? cm)
(Source: statement from Jiraiya, manga chapter 406) Big favourite long-running shounen manga and anime (although the anime's stretches of terminal filleritis have been diminishing that as of late), a lot of young North American fans' gateway into anime, lots of ninja, lots of action, annoying title character who put me off the series in the first few episodes (yeah, he gets easier to take later, but I can't be bothered)...if you're at all into anime nowadays, you know about this series. Let's try to make this quick so I can link-check and post this at last. Tsunade, a member of the Senju clan, is a descendent and student of previous Hokage (leaders of the village of Konohagakure), who came to find this a burden after both her father and boyfriend died in their own pursuits to become Hokage. This made her disillusioned with both this title, and in the pursuit of dreams. Meeting series lead Naruto Uzumaki restored her belief in these, and she takes up the position of Fifth Hokage, with the intent of protecting Konohakagure on behalf of her lated loved ones. While she hates the bog-standard everyday duties the title encompasses and passes them off to her assistants, she does fully participate in important matters, using both her talents in destroying buildings with her massive strength and in healing serious injuries. She is also well-known for her weakness for and in gambling, and for her appearance. Yes, she had to be added here. Dig this: It turns out that she is actually over 50 years old, and maintains this appearance using her ability to control chakra. I wonder how well she and musician Jonathan Goldman (known for recordings designed for chakra toning exercises) would get along. Again, Naruto ain't my cuppa, but I would be wrong to not represent Tsunade.

The TV series Naruto and Naruto Shippuden and several movies related to them are in print on Viz Media, LLC (bilingual DVD; the second Shippuden movie, Bonds, is also on bilingul Blu-Ray).
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NEW CUTEY HONEY (Jpn: SHIN CUTEY HONEY)
Honey Kisaragi
plus various villainesses I couldn't complete this thing without including Go Nagai's wonderfully corrupted update of his popular (yet atypical) 1970's magical girl show for a 1994 OVA series. Nagai started out doing giant robot shows like Mazinger Z, and then made a positive artistic change (in my opinion, anyway!) when he turned to doing more character-driven shows, especially with characters designed to cause nosebleeds, be it by fist/face contact or eye/figure interaction. For these OVAs, he upped both of these factors in the same person. Any female character who looks beautiful, is fundamentally kind and compassionate and can kick much booty when she needs to (which is pretty often, against the evil forces in Cosplay City) is good in my books. Part of this lovely android's talent is to change her appearance and costume at will; the pic you see here is how she normally looks/dresses. Of course, Nagai had to make her transformation sequences a fair bit saucier than how they originally were. Mind you, it wasn't that much of a stretch in attitude; the lyrics of the original 1973 TV series theme (which was re-recorded for this) commented on how nice her behind and breasts were! I guess it was just a matter of time before somebody offered more explicit proof dB). Also, it appears that all the bad guys Honey has to go up against are actually bad girls. And we all know how well Nagai does bad girls, right? However, seeing as they're all basically monsters of the week, I'm not going to spoil the remaining bits of story by listing them here. You really have to see them for yourself.

Out of print (previously on ADV Films on bilingual DVD). If you're looking for it, get the Anime Essentials two-DVD set, not the singles, as it fixed problems the singles had.
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NURSE WITCH KOMUGI (Jpn: NURSE WITCH KOMUGI-CHAN MAGIKARTE)
Megumi Akibal Magical Maid Koyori-chan (Koyori Kokobunji); Kim Nicholas Fidel Muammar Tikriti Adolf de Komachi (left to right)
Magical Maid Koyori-chan was awarded Miss Stuck Up, Newtype Japan Heroine of the Year reader's poll, 2002.

Magical Maid Koyori-chan from Komugi-chan

The Soul Taker was a TV series that combined action with abstraction and psychology in the shadow of Evangelion. It's definitely one of the heavier bits of watching I've enjoyed. So somebody had to take it and fling it inside out. Komugi Nakahara, the cute and lively bunny-eared mutant nurse at the Factory, is now the female lead. She's a high school student who is working on becoming a cosplay idol singer, under the direction of Yui Kirihara's KiriPro Agency and Shiro Mibu's management. She is also the part-time titular magical girl, whose mission is to fight Angrar, who escaped from the Vaccine World and is trying to infect Earth with transdimensional virii. KiriPro also represents the model Megumi Akiba, and Yui frequently has to put up with the squabbling that ensues when Megumi baits the underdeveloped Komugi (who's 17, by the way) by pointing out how much bigger her own chest is. However, Megumi's an Honourable Mention when you put her up against Koyori Kokobunji. She's a classmate and friend of Koyori's, another idol-in-training at KiriPro who is especially in demand for centerfold photos (for obvious reasons), a very nice person...and Nurse Witch Komugi-chan's enemy. It turns out that she was infected by the virus, and now battles with the Nurse Witch as Magical Maid Koyori-chan. In the sixth and last OVA of the original series, Karte 5 (2 1/2 followed 2, y'see), the producers decided that Koyori's body wasn't enough Upfrontness for the series, and cranked it up a couple of notches. To me, that's like people seeking out crack because regular cocaine isn't enough for them, but anyhoo...a large number of Japan's population has been mysteriously disappearing, including all of Komugi's co-workers at KiriPro. It turns out that they've all been kidnapped by a very girlish woman (in personality, not in figure) named "Komachi-sensei." She has hypnotized everybody into thinking that they're enjoying a nice, happy, carefree high-school life--which should be a tip-off right there, since high school is a prison. While Komachi has all those dictators' names in her name for a reason, she makes Koyori look like she's made of cement in comparison. Parodies abound in this wonderfully silly OVA series (Karte 4's skewering of anime studios is notable, with my man Satoru Akahori especially getting it in the neck), and as such, is much more big fun than just the bags under Koyori and Komachi's chins.

Out of print (previously on ADV Films on bilingual DVD), but the Complete Collection is easy to find--and leaves the extras on. The sequel two-OVA series, Nurse Witch Komugi-chan Magikarte Z, is not licensed.
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OGENKI CLINIC
Nurse Ruko Tatase (BWH: 90/60/90cm); Diane Melon (72!!"/24"/36") (left to right)
...and every other female cast member, for that matter!
(Source: Ogenki Clinic manga)

This is an erotic farce (three 45-minute multi-story OVAs), and as such, the proportions of all of the female characters are as insane as the comedy. The female lead of the series is Nurse Ruko Tatase, the assistant of the clinic's Dr. Sawaru Ogekuri. When she isn't whipping the clinic's patients into shape in one way or another, she's busy keeping the lecherous doctor in line, or fighting off entire subway cars of men after they try to feel her up. While you can hardly consider her a feminist icon, you can at least give the series' creator a bit of credit for not giving her the personality of a doormat. One of the most extraordinary features of the anime portrayal of Nurse Tatase is that she is voiced by Kikuko Inoue (I guess she just wants a break from those housewifish roles now and again). And she isn't even the biggest woman in the series. Professional escort Diane Melon also gets caught up in the goings-on here (so to speak), whether it's recommending that her more dysfunctional clients go to the clinic or occasionally tumbling the seemingly insatiable doctor himself. She's the first anime woman I've seen who falls under the bigger-than-your-head category (more have followed since; banzai!), and so I award her the title of Anime Queen of Backache. The thing is, the eps featuring her are in the Kitty Media release Welcome to Ogenki Clinic (which actually contains four of the tamer episodes), except for her face for one moment on a computer screen, and I haven't checked out Anime18's releases because they're dub only and their dubs give me gastric distress.
Many, many thanks to Abhoth for his re-interpretation of the crappy quality (and inappropriate for this page) picture of Diane Melon I sent him into the stunning piece of work above. To get the full-size version in a new browser window, click here.

The first North American release, Welcome to Ogenki Clinic, consisted of the third OVA on subbed or dubbed VHS only, and is (as you can guess) now out of print (previously on Kitty Media (18 and over only, please)). The first and second OVAs, packaged as Ogenki Clinic Adventures, are in print on Critical Mass Video (18 and over only, please) (dub-only DVD!; previously on Anime18). By CPM's account, their OC releases were dub only because certain parties were blocking their original performances from being distributed around the world (and I've got a damn good idea who one of those parties is). If anyone knows how to contact the original producers so that I and anybody else who wants to can let them know just what we think of this crap, please contact me.
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