Heavy Metal Cover Girls: Look Out! She's Got A Violin!

Welcome once again to the wonderful world of Rock/Metal cover art. This time around we're going to meet some marvelous musical maidens.  Try not to cough during the performance.
Trust me. These ladies may do more than glare at you.

Mantus - Demut (Germany 2010)

An elegant young lady seeks out a quiet corner to practice her music. ..

Wait...

Why is there a whole mess of human bones just lying there?

Let's just back away before she sees us, shall we?

Mandragora Negra - Suenos De Realidad (Spain 2012)

So I'm assuming there's some hidden meaning here, or some symbolism at play.

And if anybody knows what it is, drop me an email. Try to use short words, please. 

Here's what they sound like. Melodic Power Metal and not bad, either.

Mago De Oz - Love And Oz (Spain 2011)

A nice elegant cover, and a nice, elegant, young cover girl. 

(I can't actually read Spanish but as far as I can tell, 

this is a compilation of Ballads from the Iberian folk-rockers. )

Another Spanish band and another violin -toting angel.

That's probably just a statistical fluke. 

Secret Signs -For A Lifetime (Spain 2012)

 

Violin purists are probably going "How will she get a decent tone out of that?

And where's her bloody bow?"

Meanwhile the rest of us are wondering why we never see nudist angels when we go roaming the woods.

Horseshit, lager cans and the odd redfaced jogger are more common round my way. 

Seven Dark Eyes - ...Across Oneiric lands (Italy 2008) 

Well a wandering swordswoman needs to have a hobby.

You can't be slaying and slaughtering 24/7, can you?

(BTW "Oneiric" means "Pertaining to dream". You're welcome.)  

All the covers so far have had a certain elegance to them, maybe even a touch of the wistful.

Time to take the blatant fanservice up a notch. .

Eden's Curse - Symphony Of Sin (USA/Germany/Italy 2013)

I would like this cover a lot more if it weren't for two things.

The leaves superglued to her boobs. 

Sorry, but that just smacks of the record label panicking.

"Quick, Cover up her nips."

Otherwise it's quite well done in an arty calendar sort of way.

Here's what they sound like:

Pretty good if you ask me.

I don't suppose there's any chance of you lot visiting Portsmouth is there? 

That's all folks. 

Anime: The World Of Narue (2003)

  Teenager Kazuto Izuka is a thoroughly ordinary teenage boy. Narue Nanase is an unusual teenage girl who claims to be an alien. Most people think she's a weirdo looking for attention but when Kazuto is attacked by a bizarre mutant dog-monster, he's rescued by Narue and her trusty baseball bat.
 It's when she reveals that she can teleport that things get interesting.

As it turns out, she was telling the truth all along.

  Urusei Yatsura, Ah! My Goddess, Video Girl Ai, Tenchi Muyo,  Onegai Teacher, Kanokon...
  Anime has a long and proud tradition of pairing hapless teenage boys up with girls who have something special about them. In fact, there's a reason series like this are known as MagicalGirlfriend anime. There's quite a few of them too.
 And that might be the problem I have with this series. It's definitely not the worst anime I've ever seen. (There's a blog post I'll manage one day.) but there's very little here that another series hasn't already done and usually better.

  Kazuto and Narue are likeable enough, I suppose, but aren't particularly memorable and since they pair up in episode one there's no real progression in their relationship. No real drama either. They just sort of pootle along having mildly amusing adventures.

 The first episode suggests that Narue might have to spend time fighting off hostile aliens but they don't bother showing up again until the very last episode.  Narue's sister shows up midway through but after the initial kerfuffle, slots neatly into the cast as though she'd been there all along. There's a UFO-obsessed classmate who is determined to unravel Narue's "secret" - but sends the entire 12 episodes utterly failing to notice that something is going on.

 You get the idea. Plot threads that nobody picks up on. A story that has only the sketchiest underlying arc. Characters that aren't as interesting as they ought to be.
To use a Buckaroo Banzai quote: This series goes nowhere and does nothing.

 World of Narue isn't horrendous but it's the anime equivalent of  digestive biscuits -  something to resort to when you haven't anything more interesting available.