This is actually the second time I've read this particular one shot. Shocking, isn't it? It seemed really familiar, but it wasn't until later that I realized it was the exact same one =_=. Well It was good just for memory's sake I suppose.
{Spoilers}
Keep in mind this is ancient, from at least 8 years ago. But it's funny how some things are just so universal; this universality may or may not be the reason I couldn't recognize that I knew it before hehe. It starts off with Rei lamenting about how she didn't have a boyfriend, bumping into Yuuya who consequentially takes a picture of her with her dress caught on her book. Classic panty flash I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyways, their relationship starts to develop as they continue to meet every day at lunch. This changes when Rei sees Yuuya in the junior high division which made her think that Yuuya was a junior high student. (This was around the time that I realized that I had already read this but *shrug*) That would be super scary if that were true since Yuuya is often drawn smoking cigarettes, very scary indeed. Rei, once hearing that Yuuya doesn't like older women, immediately jumps to the conclusion that he's been playing with her this entire time. In actuality it is true he doesn't like older women because PLOT TWIST he's actually a junior high division teacher that's been in love with her for 5 years ever since he was a third year high school student and she was a first year junior high division. To be honest this part was a little creepy. Like what could he have liked about her without really knowing anything about her?
But all logic aside, this was a nice little one shot. A nice plot twist thrown in there. A resolved unrequited love. Quite nice for a short read-through. Man, oh man are one shots satisfying; not as satisfying as perhaps a completed manga you've followed for a while "but still good, yeah--still good" (Stitch from Lilo & Stitch (yes I did just quote that)). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Anime Ventilation 26 Anthem of the Heart
JAJANG! (Lol what are my sound effects even?) Here we have another anime movie! *crowd cheers* Who knows how I even found this movie? I feel like a lot of people haven't watched this which is a tragedy since it's super fun and cute, albeit a bit disappointing sometimes. But that's ok!
{Spoilers}
So originally I thought this would be a fantasy movie. From the opening it could be. An egg narrator wearing a hat. A girl obsessed with a castle which, plot twist, turns out to be a love hotel. Oh. Yeah. But then her dad has to come out with another woman out of the love hotel. Oh. And things just don't get better from there. It's just one downhill spiral from there. Since Jun's a chatterbox of a kid she has the inability to read the nuances of adulthood much less know what to say in those times. Which is why she tells her mom about how she saw her dad commit adultery. This leads to the divorce between her parents that she blames upon herself. Although she really shouldn't be blaming herself. It was her jerk dad's fault.
There is an element of magical realism (it's an actual thing) to this because of the talking egg. This magical quality really enhances the movie and elevates it to a whole other level which couldn't have been achieved with just a depressing plot line.
The plot continues with Jun, Sakagami, Nito, and Daiki being involuntarily put onto the Community Outreach Committee. Although all of them are adverse to the idea at first, Jun sees this as an opportunity for her to find her voice again after staying mute for so many years because she blamed herself for causing her parents' split. Their plan to do a musical slowly built a supportive community for Jun, a coping mechanism for Sakagami, a way to reconnect with Sakagami for Nito, and a way for Daiki to form a new bond with his team. All four of them grow in the most beautiful way as friends and individuals. When the musical all comes together, illustrating Jun's inner thoughts and struggles it seems as though all the pieces are falling into place and things will be okay. Not quite. Instead, with Nito and Sakagami realizing that their feelings had never ebbed since junior high, Jun feels as though her prince is gone and that she's not valued. So her solution? To hide away in the castle and not perform in the musical. Sakagami chases after her which would be romantic in any other context except for the one where he's in love with Nito which is the reality of the situation. Inside the ruins of the closed down hotel Jun and Sakagami are able to clear the air and Jun is able to finally realize that her parents' split wasn't her fault and that her words weren't toxic at all. Also Jun's confession only to directly hear that he loved Nito. Ouch. >~< But after that the musical was a success and the whole class was unified through this effort. It ended on a very sweet, hopeful note with Sakagami and Nito getting together and Daiki becoming Jun's prince, which to me is ironic since at the beginning of the movie the egg said he was her prince and Daiki was the egg in the musical. Foreshadowing much?
All in all it was a very sweet but slightly dark movie. If you're looking for a little bit of fantasy, drama, and turmoil this is a great movie to watch. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
{Spoilers}
So originally I thought this would be a fantasy movie. From the opening it could be. An egg narrator wearing a hat. A girl obsessed with a castle which, plot twist, turns out to be a love hotel. Oh. Yeah. But then her dad has to come out with another woman out of the love hotel. Oh. And things just don't get better from there. It's just one downhill spiral from there. Since Jun's a chatterbox of a kid she has the inability to read the nuances of adulthood much less know what to say in those times. Which is why she tells her mom about how she saw her dad commit adultery. This leads to the divorce between her parents that she blames upon herself. Although she really shouldn't be blaming herself. It was her jerk dad's fault.
There is an element of magical realism (it's an actual thing) to this because of the talking egg. This magical quality really enhances the movie and elevates it to a whole other level which couldn't have been achieved with just a depressing plot line.
The plot continues with Jun, Sakagami, Nito, and Daiki being involuntarily put onto the Community Outreach Committee. Although all of them are adverse to the idea at first, Jun sees this as an opportunity for her to find her voice again after staying mute for so many years because she blamed herself for causing her parents' split. Their plan to do a musical slowly built a supportive community for Jun, a coping mechanism for Sakagami, a way to reconnect with Sakagami for Nito, and a way for Daiki to form a new bond with his team. All four of them grow in the most beautiful way as friends and individuals. When the musical all comes together, illustrating Jun's inner thoughts and struggles it seems as though all the pieces are falling into place and things will be okay. Not quite. Instead, with Nito and Sakagami realizing that their feelings had never ebbed since junior high, Jun feels as though her prince is gone and that she's not valued. So her solution? To hide away in the castle and not perform in the musical. Sakagami chases after her which would be romantic in any other context except for the one where he's in love with Nito which is the reality of the situation. Inside the ruins of the closed down hotel Jun and Sakagami are able to clear the air and Jun is able to finally realize that her parents' split wasn't her fault and that her words weren't toxic at all. Also Jun's confession only to directly hear that he loved Nito. Ouch. >~< But after that the musical was a success and the whole class was unified through this effort. It ended on a very sweet, hopeful note with Sakagami and Nito getting together and Daiki becoming Jun's prince, which to me is ironic since at the beginning of the movie the egg said he was her prince and Daiki was the egg in the musical. Foreshadowing much?
All in all it was a very sweet but slightly dark movie. If you're looking for a little bit of fantasy, drama, and turmoil this is a great movie to watch. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
I cry. Such an innocent child.
Look at this camaraderie!
My heart sank.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Anime Ventilation 25 Garden of Words
Let's pretend that I didn't delete the note where I wrote everything I wanted to say on there...major life regrets. Sleep deprivation.
{Spoilers}
Calling all pluviophiles! (Or people in a drought like California heh)
Ah, this anime was really pretty. I've seen it floating around the Internet, images of raindrops, images of the two main characters standing on the stairway. All of it was visually stunning. Although in terms of art it's incredible, I have a few problems with the plot. Not that the plot itself is bad it's just a bit...controversial. The only reason I think this is because Takao thinks that his mom is a lush that doesn't work hard and drinks all the time. And when he meets Yukino in the park she's drinking beer in the morning and her only other food is chocolate. I don't know about you, but it seems like she's an adult drinking beer in the park...seems kind of like his mom dontcha think? Don't get me wrong, I see that they're different. She actually pays attention to him and didn't ridicule his dreams. In fact, she's the only one he ever told about his dream to design shoes. Their whole relationship is one full of longing and based solely upon one another's companionship. They build their whole relationship upon the fact that they're both there in the moment. They don't have to talk about much, but in a way that's the beauty of it. They just accept one another and find a kindred soul in a stranger. Things obviously can't stay like that. The whole movie couldn't be about their rainy day encounters because although that would be calming...it would also be too mundane for most people. The real plot twist comes when it's revealed that she's a teacher at his high school that was caught in a misunderstanding. This led to him regretting their whole companionship and made him lose trust in her. However, out of that came the cutest scene. It was the two of them at her house in such a sweet, domestic scene. You could palpably feel the calm comfort in that room. Until he just had to confess there! Which both shattered the mood, but created a very interesting series of events. It led to that beautiful picturesque scene on the stairwell...but it also led us to a very bittersweet ending. It ends off with both of them moving on. There was no real explanation why, but it could be inferred that it was because of his inexperience with life. When he left the shoes where the two of them used to meet every rainy day, with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds it was like a final farewell. It was goodbye to rainy days and running away from responsibilities. In a way, although it ended in a bittersweet way, it was more sweet than bitter because the two of them ultimately positively impacted each other's life. And that in and of itself is a beautiful thing.
All in all I think this is a great movie to watch if you've got a spare 45 minutes or so. It's a relatively short movie and I would watch more for the atmosphere and the visual aspect than anything. But it does have an aspect to it where you can start connecting dots yourself to kind of reach conclusions before they're unveiled. So it's a little bit mysterious; hey, if you like mystery maybe watch this one to unveil the secrets before they're explicitly stated!
{Spoilers}
Calling all pluviophiles! (Or people in a drought like California heh)
Ah, this anime was really pretty. I've seen it floating around the Internet, images of raindrops, images of the two main characters standing on the stairway. All of it was visually stunning. Although in terms of art it's incredible, I have a few problems with the plot. Not that the plot itself is bad it's just a bit...controversial. The only reason I think this is because Takao thinks that his mom is a lush that doesn't work hard and drinks all the time. And when he meets Yukino in the park she's drinking beer in the morning and her only other food is chocolate. I don't know about you, but it seems like she's an adult drinking beer in the park...seems kind of like his mom dontcha think? Don't get me wrong, I see that they're different. She actually pays attention to him and didn't ridicule his dreams. In fact, she's the only one he ever told about his dream to design shoes. Their whole relationship is one full of longing and based solely upon one another's companionship. They build their whole relationship upon the fact that they're both there in the moment. They don't have to talk about much, but in a way that's the beauty of it. They just accept one another and find a kindred soul in a stranger. Things obviously can't stay like that. The whole movie couldn't be about their rainy day encounters because although that would be calming...it would also be too mundane for most people. The real plot twist comes when it's revealed that she's a teacher at his high school that was caught in a misunderstanding. This led to him regretting their whole companionship and made him lose trust in her. However, out of that came the cutest scene. It was the two of them at her house in such a sweet, domestic scene. You could palpably feel the calm comfort in that room. Until he just had to confess there! Which both shattered the mood, but created a very interesting series of events. It led to that beautiful picturesque scene on the stairwell...but it also led us to a very bittersweet ending. It ends off with both of them moving on. There was no real explanation why, but it could be inferred that it was because of his inexperience with life. When he left the shoes where the two of them used to meet every rainy day, with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds it was like a final farewell. It was goodbye to rainy days and running away from responsibilities. In a way, although it ended in a bittersweet way, it was more sweet than bitter because the two of them ultimately positively impacted each other's life. And that in and of itself is a beautiful thing.
All in all I think this is a great movie to watch if you've got a spare 45 minutes or so. It's a relatively short movie and I would watch more for the atmosphere and the visual aspect than anything. But it does have an aspect to it where you can start connecting dots yourself to kind of reach conclusions before they're unveiled. So it's a little bit mysterious; hey, if you like mystery maybe watch this one to unveil the secrets before they're explicitly stated!
I think this is the most iconic image of the movie
I might be a little too obsessed with the rain and sunshine (motifs perhaps?)
Aren't these just stunning?
Absolutely beautiful. Just breath-taking.
Sigh, I have conflicting feelings about this.
Sources: http://i.imgur.com/ruxxIAp.gif, https://media0.giphy.com/media/49GpAgeHyrV72/200_s.gif, https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/1d/26/a1/1d26a13e19a8c91b9fdb8af269008979.gif, https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/66/6c/15/666c1553007a18c91c0b0d095bd776a3.gif, https://media.giphy.com/media/117tuXPBYe2Cuk/giphy.gif, https://66.media.tumblr.com/73e7741ab8b545dcdf216c51c48d8dc2/tumblr_mp11cclsmR1qbvovho1_500.gif
Friday, October 7, 2016
Anime Ventilation 24 Cheer Danshi!!
You know what sports anime was super good this summer 2016? This one of course!
{Spoilers}
There may be some of you out there that might be thinking to yourselves 'pffft cheer-leading isn't a sport' and to you I say 'oh ho ho, au contraire my friend.' I genuinely believe cheer-leading is a sport. It's so dynamic and athletic.
This anime is quite the ride. It's got the basic plot of any sports anime with a not so great team training hard and finding a coach and then succeeding as a team. However, what makes this so different is each of the individual characters. It shows the beauty and uniqueness of cheer-leading as a sport because through the members it displays the camaraderie they have for each other and how they support each other physically and figuratively. All of them rally together to overcome their differences and discover things about themselves that they never would've learned or come to terms with without the team. They showed that competition doesn't have to be a vicious thing; it could just be about having fun and lifting each other up in a positive way. This message in and of itself is beautiful and makes the series invaluable.
Each of the characters, even the most minor ones, are given a chance to shine as they all explain their journeys through cheer-leading with one another and how the sport has impacted their lives. Seeing each one of them grow, like Kazu and Haruki when they came to realize that it was a good thing that they had a friendly competition going on between them, really enhanced the overall value of the series. Also Takeru and Hisashi when they come to terms with one another is really realistic of how people can originally not see eye to eye, but eventually learn to respect and attempt to understand the other's point of view. It was especially nice that it ended up where Ton was the one with the girlfriend which is kind of ironic in anime since it's usually the most good looking guy that gets the girl or has the love interest in the series. This made it the slightest bit more original, which made it even more of a standout as such a dynamic and diverse anime.
Overall I would recommend this if you're looking for a sports anime with a lighter mood to it. This one has a bit of drama, but it's more inspiring and would be good to watch with anyone of any age. I believe that with an open mind, anyone could watch this anime.
{Spoilers}
There may be some of you out there that might be thinking to yourselves 'pffft cheer-leading isn't a sport' and to you I say 'oh ho ho, au contraire my friend.' I genuinely believe cheer-leading is a sport. It's so dynamic and athletic.
This anime is quite the ride. It's got the basic plot of any sports anime with a not so great team training hard and finding a coach and then succeeding as a team. However, what makes this so different is each of the individual characters. It shows the beauty and uniqueness of cheer-leading as a sport because through the members it displays the camaraderie they have for each other and how they support each other physically and figuratively. All of them rally together to overcome their differences and discover things about themselves that they never would've learned or come to terms with without the team. They showed that competition doesn't have to be a vicious thing; it could just be about having fun and lifting each other up in a positive way. This message in and of itself is beautiful and makes the series invaluable.
Each of the characters, even the most minor ones, are given a chance to shine as they all explain their journeys through cheer-leading with one another and how the sport has impacted their lives. Seeing each one of them grow, like Kazu and Haruki when they came to realize that it was a good thing that they had a friendly competition going on between them, really enhanced the overall value of the series. Also Takeru and Hisashi when they come to terms with one another is really realistic of how people can originally not see eye to eye, but eventually learn to respect and attempt to understand the other's point of view. It was especially nice that it ended up where Ton was the one with the girlfriend which is kind of ironic in anime since it's usually the most good looking guy that gets the girl or has the love interest in the series. This made it the slightest bit more original, which made it even more of a standout as such a dynamic and diverse anime.
Overall I would recommend this if you're looking for a sports anime with a lighter mood to it. This one has a bit of drama, but it's more inspiring and would be good to watch with anyone of any age. I believe that with an open mind, anyone could watch this anime.
This is super cool
Mizoguchi is such an inspiration. He learns that his words are just as valuable as the words of people he quotes. Learning the value of one's own voice is something I think is very underestimated and undervalued.
I just think they're super cute, hardworking, and talented individuals.
Sources: https://66.media.tumblr.com/5e89331134889156fa9bd60ab31f98d6/tumblr_o9upegHvB51vtkohso2_400.gif, https://67.media.tumblr.com/8ddb7fe7f72b0dd30d8d25154e04d795/tumblr_o4lobfmeK11tbp5fpo8_500.gif, https://67.media.tumblr.com/7529aabbba8938587e9352d9112fee95/tumblr_oa6kzjRfzX1vz6xlmo1_500.gif, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7v3sLF_JFSlgVOFg6YOiYJgnSdX5mI6zK_2Ni9LvLdwoaW2T3gZQIfrI4fHN2_2CXOjmN7AowBzugaGx0Ut5WyFqBFv0fCRKn3hGMFrb3XeT7p9JIe3-1ZSHHrSbejvX5y8EdzPVLYgA/s1600/CHEER+DANSHI.jpg
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Manga Review 4 Oshiete, Kurogane-kun
I could be absolutely crazy, but I think writing for my blog might be helping me with AP Lit.
∩(。・o・。)∩
{Spoilers}
I thought that maybe I wouldn't have time to finish up another manga because manga take obviously a long time to make with all the super long volumes and whatnot. So I decided to introduce the people that read my blog to lots of one-shot/shorter manga for that instant gratification that is sometimes necessary when you're craving a fast manga fix.
I stumbled upon this manga, surprise surprise, on Tumblr. I know, what a shock! But seriously most of the blogs I follow on Tumblr are anime/manga related. Anyways, this manga mostly attracted me because of its short length. I'm in the midst of a lot of unfinished manga and was craving closure.
This manga is comprised of 4 chapters, but each chapter is pretty long with around 50 pages each. The pacing of the manga I would say is pretty slow, but that's okay since it's a slice of life, school life sort of manga. It just fits with the genre. The progression of the story was quite typical of slice of life/school life manga where it has the class trip and the school festival arcs. So all of this was quite typical and mundane. However, it's always the little things that distinguish the meh from the good (I won't say excellent or the like because I believe to have a truly successful plot line with solid character development it has to be a long series). This was quite good. The main distinguishing factor is how cute the two main characters, Hakura and Kurogane, are together. Both of these archetypes have been done before, the antisocial, sadistic guy and the clumsy, ditzy girl. However, Kurogane is quite fun. He enjoys teasing Hakura and the short little scene where Hakura tastes the vanilla extract as he laughs at her is quite fun. It's moments like these which really make the manga cute. The real showstopper is when Hakura confesses for the second time and Kurogane is confused because he had thought they'd been dating since the summer festival. Their realization that the other misunderstood them was adorable. This imperfection and misunderstanding they had made the whole plot more realistic.
Overall, if you're looking for a pretty short read for instant gratification and some fun moments then you should definitely give this one a go. ヾ(￣ー￣ヾ)
∩(。・o・。)∩
{Spoilers}
I thought that maybe I wouldn't have time to finish up another manga because manga take obviously a long time to make with all the super long volumes and whatnot. So I decided to introduce the people that read my blog to lots of one-shot/shorter manga for that instant gratification that is sometimes necessary when you're craving a fast manga fix.
I stumbled upon this manga, surprise surprise, on Tumblr. I know, what a shock! But seriously most of the blogs I follow on Tumblr are anime/manga related. Anyways, this manga mostly attracted me because of its short length. I'm in the midst of a lot of unfinished manga and was craving closure.
This manga is comprised of 4 chapters, but each chapter is pretty long with around 50 pages each. The pacing of the manga I would say is pretty slow, but that's okay since it's a slice of life, school life sort of manga. It just fits with the genre. The progression of the story was quite typical of slice of life/school life manga where it has the class trip and the school festival arcs. So all of this was quite typical and mundane. However, it's always the little things that distinguish the meh from the good (I won't say excellent or the like because I believe to have a truly successful plot line with solid character development it has to be a long series). This was quite good. The main distinguishing factor is how cute the two main characters, Hakura and Kurogane, are together. Both of these archetypes have been done before, the antisocial, sadistic guy and the clumsy, ditzy girl. However, Kurogane is quite fun. He enjoys teasing Hakura and the short little scene where Hakura tastes the vanilla extract as he laughs at her is quite fun. It's moments like these which really make the manga cute. The real showstopper is when Hakura confesses for the second time and Kurogane is confused because he had thought they'd been dating since the summer festival. Their realization that the other misunderstood them was adorable. This imperfection and misunderstanding they had made the whole plot more realistic.
Overall, if you're looking for a pretty short read for instant gratification and some fun moments then you should definitely give this one a go. ヾ(￣ー￣ヾ)
Monday, October 3, 2016
Anime Ventilation 23 Fukigen na Mononokean
Ah all the summer 2016 anime are starting to wind down which is why my reviews are coming rapid fire even during the school year among much stress and sleep deprivation. {PS I wrote this on the airplane with 4 hours of sleep}
{Spoilers}
Fukigen na Mononokean is a really sweet anime. It might not look so with quirky yokai, but it really is full of heart warming stories and amiable characters. It revolves around Abeno, master of the Mononokean, and his employee Ashiya who can both see yokai. Abeno's past is never fully revealed but through the story we are able to get a better glimpse of how he is a sympathetic human being and not just a grumpy stick-in-the-mud. Ashiya was originally unable to see yokai, but after being possessed by Fuzzy he was able to see yokai. At first he only worked to pay off the debt he acquired when Abeno exorcised Fuzzy, but eventually he learned to love yokai too. All of their yokai adventures are super cute and show a variety of characters and encounters with yokai.
This anime was overall just a good time. It was entertaining, had a good plot, entertaining characters, nice visuals (I mean the whole underworld was so beautiful and such a contrast from the traditional general dark and dreary representation) and a decent OP and ED. Nothing more I could really ask for. I recommend you watch this if you've got some time and are looking for a supernatural type anime set in a slice of life high school setting.
{Spoilers}
Fukigen na Mononokean is a really sweet anime. It might not look so with quirky yokai, but it really is full of heart warming stories and amiable characters. It revolves around Abeno, master of the Mononokean, and his employee Ashiya who can both see yokai. Abeno's past is never fully revealed but through the story we are able to get a better glimpse of how he is a sympathetic human being and not just a grumpy stick-in-the-mud. Ashiya was originally unable to see yokai, but after being possessed by Fuzzy he was able to see yokai. At first he only worked to pay off the debt he acquired when Abeno exorcised Fuzzy, but eventually he learned to love yokai too. All of their yokai adventures are super cute and show a variety of characters and encounters with yokai.
This anime was overall just a good time. It was entertaining, had a good plot, entertaining characters, nice visuals (I mean the whole underworld was so beautiful and such a contrast from the traditional general dark and dreary representation) and a decent OP and ED. Nothing more I could really ask for. I recommend you watch this if you've got some time and are looking for a supernatural type anime set in a slice of life high school setting.
Is Fuzzy not the cutest thing?
The underworld is so beautiful
For some reason I find this eel to be super cute
Sources: https://66.media.tumblr.com/508855bee703e07eeea4155b67d4b145/tumblr_o9l4lmOWGs1qis4d8o1_500.gif, http://i.imgur.com/2zmus34.jpg, https://secure.static.tumblr.com/2dba4486a60dbec63dfac4b0faeeb82e/9li6z91/8tNocabei/tumblr_static_tumblr_static__640.jpg, http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire2/499d1ffbca96669333e4a36a93cfedd31470585504_full.png, http://i.imgur.com/TPoAqzi.png
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