Yuri Visual Novel Review: Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo Watashi no Ouji-sama

***NSFW IMAGES***

***SPOILERS AHEAD!***

Watashi no Ouji-sam(My Dear Prince) is the second game in the  Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo yuri visual novel franchise! Just like it's predecessor My Dear Prince tells a sweet, romantic and sex filled love story between two girls! And just like it's predecessor My Dear Prince is funny, cute sexy and just plain awesome! :D

Not a whole lot changes from game to game in the Sono Hanabira series aside from the main girls. The visual novel once again takes place at St. Michael's School for Girls. The novel this time follows shy class president, Kitajima Kaede, as she has her life turned upside down with the sudden return of her outgoing, peppy and VERY amorous cousin, Kitajima Sara. Just as in the last novel the two girls in this entry go very well together and seeing there love blossom is a blast to watch! Kaede is your typical shy girl who hates being the center of attention. She would much rather fade into the background and avoid contact with others. To that end she wears glasses and has her hair tied into a braid to look plain(I will say this right now, her plan fails. Kaede is too damn cute and lovable looking like this XD).

Fucking adorable! *drools

Sara is Kaede's cousin but is vastly different from her cutely nerdy family member. Sara works as a model and thus is very popular in school. She is outgoing, friendly and beautiful and she makes it a habit of being very open about what she thinks and feels, mostly towards Kaede of course. It is when Sara is alone with Kaede that Sara's personality truly shines! Sara has harbored more than family like feelings for her cousin since childhood and as soon as they reunite, she wastes no time in trying to..."get close" to Kaede ;) Sara provides a lot of the wonderful comedy in this novel as she does everything in her power to be alone with Kaede, bond with Kaede, have sex with Kaede and get Kaede to be more confident in herself. Trust me when i say you will be making multiple saves just to go back and revisit some of Sara's cuter and funnier moments! :D

Fucking sexy! *drools again

The interactions between these two girls is some of the best in the series! Seeing Kaede try and fend off her cousin's advances while sometimes giving in to her own desires is funny and sexy to watch! Likewise seeing Sara continually show love and faith in Kaede is adorable and heart-warming to see. The best moments of course happen as Kaede realizes her own feelings for Sara and becomes a more happy and confident and open girl in the process! The sex scenes between these two are fucking amazing as well! These moments are injected with the perfect mix of love, comedy, randomness and sexiness any great yuri product needs!

 

There is no denying the deep chemistry between these two! Sara and Kaede are yuri GODDESSES! XD

The artwork and music for this entry in the Sono Hanabira series hasn't changed one bit. Not that it needs to. The artwork was amazingly detailed and beautiful to look at to begin with! Backgrounds are the same as the first game save for new images for Sara and Kaede's home and the nurse's office at there school. The artwork for the girls and the love making scenes are once again gorgeous to look at with the girls having a soft and gentle art style to them. The love making scenes show great passion, making sure you can see and feel the love between these two girls! One can't help but want to stare and look at the images for a long while over and over again! And I don't just mean the sex images! yeah I would never suggest a thing like that! Honest, hehehehe.....

The music is also exactly the same as the last game with no additions or changes whatsoever. But like the imagery and art work that is not a bad thing at all. The music fits wonderfully with this new couple and is still a joy to listen to! The voice work for the novel is once again top notch! the voice actresses for Sara and Kaede could not be more perfect with Kaede being able to sound cute and shy and nervous most of the time, and then confident and sexually seductive when things change! Sara sounds just right with her peppy and care free voice. Her voice actress perfectly projects Sara's confidence, random nature, slightly ditzy personality, and constant love and desire for Kaede without a hitch! Simply flawless voice work!

With this second game the Sono Hanabira franchise shows it is one of the best yuri properties of all time! Awesome sex scenes, an ultra cute and perfectly matched couple, wonderful sound and visuals combine to make Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo Watashi no Ouji-sama a knock out entry in the franchise! Do not miss out! :)

Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo Watashi no Ouji-sama score: 10/10(As if there was ever any doubt!)

 

Yuri Visual Novel Review: Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo

***NSFW Images Ahead!***

Released way back in 2006, the Sono Hanabira franchise has gained legendary status among the yuri fan community and for good reason! While yuri existed in hentai visual novels before most of the time they were mixed in with materials that more often than not, yuri fans wish weren't mixed in with there yuri, myself included. Then along came the very first game in the ground-breaking Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo franchise and it ushered in a new era of pure yuri visual novels, with Sono Hanabira at the head of the pack! :D

The first game in the franchise follows young first year, Nanami Oda, as she enters the prestigious St. Michael's School for Girls(despite her meh school scores :P). On her first day she meets the extremely beautiful and popular second year, Yuna Matsubara. After the fateful meeting, Nanami makes every attempt to be near Yuna, even going so far as to join Yuna on the schools Environmental Protection Committee to be near her. But after an odd turn of events, Nanami and Yuna are swept into a fun, loving and awesomely perverted whirlwind romance! :D Part of the appeal of Sono Hana are the characters who are cute, beutiful, funny, interesting and awesomely weird often at the same time! Nanami and Yuna fit all those descriptions and the love they have for each other is one of the franchise's best! Nanami fits well into the cute average first year category who's sense of right and wrong and common sence are a perfect balance to Yuna's random perverted nature. Yuna however steals the show with her very weird and very perverted tendencies in regards to Nanami. Her antics(ranging from trying to get sex from Nanami during school to tricking Nanami into becoming the aggressor) provide good laughs throughout! The passionate romance between these two opposites is just what the yuri doctor ordered! :D

Nanami Oda(fucking CUTE!)

Yuna Matsubara(fucking HOT!)

Being a visual novel on the PC, one may think there is some sort of gameplay element to Sono Hana. Well....there isn't really. Visual Novels are more like slightly interactive manga but with color images and voice acting. The most interaction you have is setting the sound, graphics and music volumes to your liking, saving your progress, as well as simply clicking to see the next part of the conversations and progressing through the story. There are instances where you can make some very basic choices. These choice moments won't have any impact on the outcome of the story whatsoever but by picking the right thing you can extend the story a bit by leading to more yuri romance scenes. Nothing fancy or deep at all but for what it is it gets the job done. 

The art and sound direction to Sono Hana is simply amazing! The art is very soft and beautifully detailed and is a true joy to look at! There is a reason why the game has a gallery for several of the images seen in the story! Background images are highly detailed and fit really well with the characters. The girls themselves look simply beautiful! The soft look of the girls and the tenderness into the love scenes really sells the romance between these two cuties! Often times you may find yourself just sitting there and looking at the art(though you will most likely be looking at the sex scenes more :P)!Likewise the sound does a really good job of helping to bring the world of Sono Hana to life! The music is very catchy and fun to listen to, even if it does tend to repeat way too often. Maybe more tunes could have been added for greater diversity. The voice acting for the girls is simply amazing! The voice actresses did an amazing job bringing there characters to life, and the voices fit the personality of the girls very well! The writing of the game is also pretty good but at times there can be some cheesy lines. The important moments are well written and the lines fit the personalities of the girls well. A lot of the cute and random moments also have some good lines of dialogue to them but sometimes the things that are said in other parts may make you chuckle with the cheesiness of it all! Though for me that chesse adds some charm to the game and the series overall! :P

Simply put, Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo is one of the greatest things to ever happen to yuri and the first game in the franchise really helped to establish that popularity! Great yuri romance, fun and cute girls, amazing art and sound all combine to make Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo a truly MUST own for fans of yuri the world over! The fan translations that have been done for this game are very well done and you shouldnt wait to download the game and English patch for it! If you even consider yourself a lover of yuri in the slightest, stop wasting time and go buy/download this game! :)

 Damn, Nanami has some perverted thoughts too! :D

Fuuuuuck...the cuteness is too much! 

Yuna has no self control....awesome!

Guess Nanami can't control herself either! *drools

*drools and bleeds from nose

Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo score: 10/10

 

Yuri Anime Review: Queen's Blade Season 1(Blu-Ray)

***SPOILERS AHEAD!***  ***NSFW IMAGES AHEAD!***

 

A 2009 ecchi anime series, Queen's Blade is actually and adaptation of a series of visual combat books. The story takes place on the great continent of Gainos where every 4 years a tournament known as Queen's Blade is held to determine which woman will rule the continent next as queen! We follow Leina Vance as she sets out from her kingdom to avoid becoming the next countess as well as to follow in the footsteps of her mother and become a powerful warrior. Along the way, she encounters( and fights) several strong and unique female fighters who all vie for a chance to become queen! Like Strike Witches, Queen's Blade has a very large cast of powerful and beautiful women and almost all of them are lovable! From all-powerful warriors like Claudette Vance(Leina's older half-sister), to a scheming and silly angel named Nanael, to the shape-shifting Melona(who shoots acid from her breasts! :D).

Leina Vance

Claudette Vance

Elina Vance

Melona

Risty

Nanael

Shizuka

Tomoe

Echidna

Menace

Airi(one of my favorites!)

Nowa

Alleyne

Irma

Ymir

Cattleya

Melpha

Aldra(current queen)

Like i said, pretty big cast! O.O Despite there being so many characters, all the girls get there chance in the spotlight, where we learn part of there pasts, there personalities, desires, and reasons for fighting in the tournament. Of course some of the girls are still more interesting than others. :P The action itself is pretty decent. The animation quality for the show is pretty good. The girls are beautiful to look at and the environments and world they inhabit look great. Some of the fight scenes are more fun to watch than others. Not too bad but more could have been done with the battles. There is definitely room for improvement on the action front.

 

Perhaps the best part of all(at least for me anyway XD) is the fanservice! There is a TON of female nudity, panty shots, suggestive poses and more throughout the series! Queen's Blade nearly ventures into hentai territory at some parts! :D Of course the copious amounts of fanservice may be off putting for some, so Queen's Blade is not for everyone.

Just a sample! You're welcome! :D

Since this is an ecchi anime with an all female cast there HAS to be some yuri! Thankfully it is not always played as just fanservice. Several of the girls have real feelings for each other that develop pretty well over time, especially in season 2(more on season 2 in the future). Of course some of the yuri is just for silly fun, such as Elina's lust full advances towards her older sister Leina!

*Note: Yuri pairings n Queen's Blade I support!

-Leina x Risty

-Echidna x Leina

-Tomoe x Shizuka

-Elina x Leina

-Airi x just about anybody

-Nowa x Alleyne

And this being a fanservice series there has to be yuri kisses! Three to be in fact! :D

Awesome! XD

To top off the fun cast of characters is a very strong cast of voice actresses! Some of the best in the biz in Japan lend there voices to the leading ladies and really help the characters to stand out and shine!

As for the US Blu0Ray release itself, color me impressed. The picture quality is pretty amazing and looks great on a high definition display. The sound is good provided you have surround sound. They also packed in the bonus OVA episodes as an added bonus! A pretty sweet deal I'd say! Sadly i have no comment on the dub. I'm a sub person all the way!

Overall season 1 of Queen's Blade is pretty good. We are introduced to the world and the characters at a steady pace, the animation quality is pretty awesome, the fanservice and yuri is damn fun! The only knocks against it are the OK action sequences and the fanservice not being for everyone. But for everybody else this will be a fun series to watch!

 

 

Queen's Blade Season 1(Blu-Ray) overall score: 8.5/10

Queen's Blade Season 1(Blu-Ray) Yuri score: 9/10