Anime Blurb 48 Room Mate

So the other day I decided that I would find some more recent anime (as in from this year) for my friend and I to watch. From the picture and the small summary on myanimelist.net this seemed pretty promising. The palette of the clip seemed very pleasing and the episodes were only 4 minutes long. What I didn't realize...was that this is one of those otome games adapted into an anime. I don't know if I just haven't watched enough of the otome to anime adaptations to find a really good one or something, but from my experience they all suck.

So the premise of this ~48 minutes in total spread over 12 episode series is this girl couldn't get a job so her relative sent her to be the manager of her boarding house/hostel/community living space. In it are three guys: Shinya, Aoi, and Takumi. The POV is you're the manager girl (who never appears) and these three guys are just living their lives...and then fall in love with you for no reason. They try to introduce a plot by inserting a "no romantic relationships with the manager or else" rule, but that doesn't really do much. So it's basically just fuwa fuwa fluffy times. Oh and if you like shirtless guys, at the end of every episode is a picture of one or all three of the guys together with clothes on and then with lens flares or whatever other extra af edits they wanna use they reveal abs and naked upper halves. If I were a guy I can only imagine how awkward you would feel.

Overall, this was very painful to watch. There was no plot, the only content it had was the overused cliche like the supportive girlfriend, the sadistic guy that calls you a dog, the cutesy guy that tells you he'll become a man for you, the wall slam, the one compliment "I'm nice? No one's ever said that to me before" that gets them to fall for you, the list goes on and on and becomes more cringey by the minute. There's just shirtless guys and the flattest, most stereotypical characters you could ever find anywhere. Unless you're bored and you've got roughly 42 minutes to spare (save yourself 6 minutes by not watching the lens flare revealing their abs) I don't think you should watch this if you value your time. There are better things to watch, heck even playing through an otome game would be way better than watching this. Well, maybe if you were a 12 year old tween with no real understanding of relationships and you haven't been exposed to any romantic things so you think that this could really happen and you like this sort of cliche then you'd enjoy this. But to each their own I suppose.

Oh and the pacing of the nonexistent plot is very erratic

All my screenshots were Aoi because his style is my style so I resonate with him on a stylistic level

Ok I was kinda disturbed at this point because I thought Shinya was hooking up with some single mother and gonna marry into their family but it turns out it was some app and it's kinda funny how distraught he is over his game

*presents you with more cliches*

Anime Blurb 47 Masamune-kun no Revenge

I've graduated high school which means...now I can say that I watch high school slice of life anime to reflect upon my own (terrible, traumatizing, reality-check inducing) high school experience and feel the feels. Something like that.

{Maybe spoiler-esque, but not really}

So, as many of you might often do, I stumbled across this anime in a "Top 10" of anime to watch in the upcoming season. I made a tab on my phone for it...and promptly forgot about it because of work and such.

My first impression of this anime was about the soundtrack. There's something very simplistic and vaguely familiar about the background music they play in some of the scenes. There were trumpets and various other instruments, all of which together made something really interesting and subconsciously engaging.

The plot itself wasn't the most engaging I have to say. It's a fairly quick watch only because the content isn't very complex. It's based around a guy set on revenge against his childhood crush because of his weight. He went on this intense training regime and is now the super hot, finessed stereotypical protagonist anime boy that you think of when asked what a stereotypical anime boy looks like. Masamune's whole plot against Aki, his childhood crush, was to woo her and then revealing that he was the "Pig's Foot" from so many years ago. It's pretty straightforward which leaves a lot of time for the creators to put a lot of fluffy and fanservice. Because what's a harem anime without panty shots?! If you're a guy then maybe you're into that sort of thing, but as for myself I'd rather focus on plot and characters. *ahem* So while this might not be the most plot heavy, I think the characters themselves are quite nice. As in the characters moved along the plot. Whenever a new character was plopped in (Neko, Gasou etc) the plot would move forward. There's a lot of filler episodes in between just to give some fuwa fuwa feels like when Aki and Masamune go on a date. or when they clean the pool together, or the whole group goes to Aki's private island. Lots of fillers. But I guess that's what slice of life is basically. It's just me, but I'd like a little bit more character focus or maybe more relevant arcs.

But characters though! I love Yoshino. You thought she was some ditzy lackey for Aki, but in actuality she's a secret thug. Whenever she has that black hooded jacket is when she really shines. Masamune's right when he calls her Master because she's really the mastermind behind it all. She's super driven to do what she feels is best, but also in turn that makes her super lovable because she's so compassionate. She takes no crap from no one, but when she care's about someone she'll protect them with her dying breath. Okay, if we're being honest here Neko's name confuses me. Like do people really name their kids after animals? And she's not a cat girl either so maybe it's just a misnomer? But she was half there to make it more somber and act as a love interest and half there to add to the satire. She was deathly sick and had to go overseas for surgery and came back completely fine?! And her whole love for Masamune was completely fake and basically by lottery at first, but then she ended up falling in love with him or at least her idea of him?! Neko just raises so many questions, but I guess if you just watch blindly you might like her just because she's cute. But there's also a hidden layer to her like when she ran away onto the roof to throw letters off of it and Masamune confronted her about her strength. She could've continued to lie to herself about her condition, but instead she faced herself and realistically assessed her situation.

One thing that sort of irked me/freaked me out about the characters though was how the older people looked 5. Like actually in the picture of Masamune's mom and his dad it looked like straight up pedophilia. What kind of fetishes were they catering to in this anime? Certainly some not very orthodox ones. And Sonoka too. Chibi fetish perhaps? One can only speculate.

On the societal spectrum I guess this anime could make you rethink your perspective of people. Even though Masamune is super attractive now he had to work hard for that body and even though to everyone else he looks like a rockstar in actuality he's pretty shy and awkward.Even asking Aki for her number means he has to psych himself up for basically a whole day. Plus the guy looks like a playboy but he gets all his pointers from shoujo manga which he studies as diligently as a textbook. He's a textbook example of the saying "You can't judge a book by its cover."

One more thing I swear. If you're looking for a happy, complete ending don't watch this anime. The ending isn't the kind of resolution that ties up all the ends. It feels like you'd have to read the manga to fill in the gaps so if you're not down to read an entire manga...you might want to reconsider watching this one. Just saying.

Overall if you've got some free time to burn and you're not super picky then this is a pretty good anime to watch. There's some solid characters. It's a relaxing plot. It's pretty to watch and the soundtrack is good. It won't blow you out of the water or make you cry, but it's pretty calming.

And now...THE MAIN EVENT! (Some of them might have the scrolling time stamp bar at the bottom because I took those screenshots on my computer since my phone was being a rebel)

Aki looks like a badass feminist but...

She's really a smol cinnamon roll that's insecure after Masamune 'left' her which is complete bs but we forget about that because she's cute

If you're hesitant about kissing a girl then think of her as if she were a ham -ace advice from Masamune

Look at his eyes! They kinda remind me of Beatrice's from Re:Zero

Also the joke about him being the bottom kills me

He's the purest maiden of everyone in this show

See what I mean? Why do they look like babies when they're older?

Her monotone is so funny omg throughout the whole play with this blank face

This was so random and unnecessary but I love it

Such a badass omfg she's the best

Okay you'd need the right backstory for this to be relevant to you but just know that fireworks scare her for a good reason

She changed outfits unnecessary (fan service ftw)

More prime dating advice from Masamune: switch from playboy to tsundere real quick

Me @ everything

They don't look alike at all. What are these people comparing?!

I'll end with this sweet friendship because their relationship is so pure and beautiful.

Manga Review 16 Aura from Another Planet

So I'm pretty sure the creator of this manhwa also created Hive. There's that. Take it as you will.

This was what I imagine an acid trip feels like lightweight. Because at the beginning it seemed as though it would be a "how aliens adapt to Earth" series and then it turned into a teen rom-com and then again it turned into an action series? It's hard to explain or give a clear genre to.

I have to say that the only reason I read this was because it was on Webtoon and it was a completed series. That was it. There was no real other enticing factor for me. The premise was interesting for sure, but at the time I wasn't really looking for anything sci-fi/action. And if you know me you know I'm all in for aesthetics and great plot. So let's just jump into it why don't we?

Aesthetically, the art is definitely more geared towards action. It's got the iconic 'kaboom' and 'smash' onomatopoeia that are so prominent in action comics. The color palette is consistent and it's got this muted sort of aesthetic throughout. Very primary color-ish as far as the main characters go. No one had outlandish hair and from a visual point of view it all looked relatively normal. Save for the black mouths and how that one zookeeper guy became white and blue. That was a little...

The premise of this comic again was something I wasn't particularly interested in. It was an experiment for me as well as the author. Literally in the creator's epilogue they wrote that this whole thing was just an experiment. And it was a wild ride. It could've taken a very traditional turn and just been about how Aura and Auger adapted to life on Earth, but instead it became a sort of political/societal commentary. It dealt with issues such as government which led to an interesting discussion in the comments section about different political systems and the mentality of the people. If you want a more in-depth and wayyyyy better analysis of things like that than I can give you, you should head over to the LINE Webtoon app because wow those people are good. And beyond the political aspect was the socio-cultural aspect. Because it seemed like everything was all hunky-dory on Leviathan, the planet Aura and the others were from, but there were some obvious flaws. Like if life was so great there, why did they all start emigrating to Earth? If this wasn't Leviathan, how were people able to harness mana? Why would they need mass buffs to brainwash people if it was so great? Was there a great god Leviathan? There were so many questions that were raised that it was hard not to be enraptured by this alternate society and wonder. That wonder kind of leads you to contemplate our society and its constructs.

One of the poignant societal elements that this comic touched upon was the issue of appearances. I don't want to start sounding preachy or anything, but it was interesting seeing the blind eye people turn to girls in danger. When Zizi was being stalked, literally no one did anything. They just all stood by and took that creep's word against hers. No one questioned it, no one even gave her a second thought. If Gosu wasn't there Zizi would've been another number for the statistics. Sure she's an imaginary girl, but she's also signifies the risk that every girl or boy for that matter is in. I can't stress this enough how we actually need to care about others and not just brush aside their concerns.

Another element that made this comic way deeper than it should've been is the other dark backstories people had. Like Gosu. He seems like your average, run-of-the-mill stony faced strong male hero. But beyond that he's a family man. Sure he gets mad at his mom and sometimes says things he shouldn't, but he always regrets it and does things to help his mom out as best he can. He even starts picking up his schoolwork to give her less to worry about. Under that stony faced demeanor he's a real guy with real motivations and a big heart (even if sometimes it's hard to take him seriously with his chair summoning and hair changes). And the teacher too. Oh my lord, he wanted to become a teacher to help kids like his old teacher helped him. And lost hope in everything around him when it wasn't that easy. Is there anything more heartbreaking? It's not just the soul crushing event of having no one believe in you that hurts the most, it's when even you start to doubt yourself. It's hard to accept the truth that not everything is pure and good in this world, but you've just got to do your best. That's so cheesy. Ugh why am I preaching right now?

Beyond all that deep stuff, I give this comic an A+ for the comedy. The amount of times they break the fourth wall is ridiculous. I think it was probably because the author thought to themselves "wtf am I doing?" but it also made this comic that much more enjoyable to read. And when the minor characters identified themselves as minor that was gold. And all of their facial expressions! Don't even get me started on the bara af rabbit. I'm still pretty disturbed about that. But the comedy was sincerely great and made it so much more candid and an easier read to binge.

I realized while inserting my screenshots that I forgot to mention the actual alien things like portals and elixirs. Well there's a lot of sci-fi action going on here with elixirs you can feed to animals/eat yourself to become mutant creatures. And there's kind of magic that's also ridiculous in here. Aura is one of the people on Leviathan that're called buffers and they cast spells called buffs. They're really ridiculous and serve to boost your stats like in a video game with +100 confidence or something like that. The premise is pretty interesting as Aura's buffs often go wrong, but they also desensitize you to stuff like death. Literally they get stabbed with lightsaber-esque mana weapons and get up perfectly fine. Like hmu with that shizz when Leviathans come to Earth for real (lol can you tell I'm starting to lose it?)

Overall I'd say if you can handle the slightest bit of creepy content and general ridiculousness then you can read this comic with no problems. There's a lot of profanity, but it's all censored to the point where you (or at least I did) become desensitized by it. It's super funny, super thoughtful, super ridiculous and it's finished. What more could you want? It's got the perfect amount of tension to keep you reading, but the pacing is good enough where you can stop yourself from reading all 100 episodes in one day. I think.

Yay for screenshots!

How could you not love these sexist jabs? Pfft

This will be more funny once you know the context I swear

asdfghjkl; the fourth wall has been breached

Ok this was really touching, let's be honest. And it just struck me that I didn't talk about Aura's buffs. RIP me.

RIP fourth wall

Gosu is the real winner in how to approach math textbooks 

Sniffing glue is the real hardcore drugs 

:') when a gangster delivers the real hard hitting lines

Awhhh isn't the teacher so great in a bittersweet sort of way

He's the fakest little b!tch if we're being honest here. A creepy yandere through and through.

Anime Blurb 46 Durarara!!

This anime is almost a full 7 years old at this point, but at any rate I just watched it. I don't think anime should be like a lot of things in life that have a shelf life and after are tossed away. So even if it isn't an anime that came out this season I don't think it should deter you from watching it. Join the hype train late. Join it when there's no one on it. Whatever. Anime is about your own preference and finding your own little niche anyways.

So I started this anime after watching a "My Top Favorite Anime" type video as I often find myself doing once I've finished doing work (or before I start my work because haha procrastination). The premise seemed interesting, but I actually stopped watching it for a solid three months. And then I picked it back up. Because although the first episode is convoluted and it seems nonsensical I figured that there must be a reason why so many people like it. Also gang anime. I like gang anime. Fun fact: all my friends are shocked when I say I like some of the gang anime out there because I seem like such a slice of life/shoujo girl and while they're not wrong I do dabble in other genres!!

{Spoilers, probably}

I have to say that at the start it's not very engaging. You might argue otherwise, but my friend and I both agree that the first episode doesn't hook you as intensely because of how rapid-fire it happens and you're kind of lost as to how all the characters are connected. I can't say it gets better right away. There's a lot of double identities, overlapping mysteries, pasts and ties with other people, things of that nature. But I think that's part of the appeal. It's about the mystery and wanting to figure out how all the pieces come together. Oh boy and when they do it's extremely satisfying. I think the best part is the sort of dramatic irony they've got going on where you figure out the puzzle before the characters even do. For example, in the Dollars group chat, at first all of the members are pretty much clueless as to who the others in the chat are except for Izaya but he's special since he's a shady information broker anyways. The most dramatic part of this whole thing though, and what really brings this anime into a multilayered dimension is the fact that the trio that the story revolves around all live double lives. Anri is secretly the mother slasher Saika, Masaomi is the OG literally of the Yellow Scarves, and Mikado is the creator of the Dollars. What's really interesting is when they all get immersed in their separate sects and all wonder about each other. All of them show empathy for the other two and do their best to keep them safe. The situational irony is not lost on the audience.

Besides the complicated relationship between the main three, there's also an overlapping web between the gang members and other characters that are featured. The most overarching one would be Izaya because as the information broker he's closer to the puppet master than any of the others. He's an easy character to hate, but at the same time he's pretty ingenious. The true anomaly is Celty. If you've ever heard of DRRR chances are the first thing that pops into your head is the Black Rider with their cat helmet. She's like the mascot of DRRR I think, or at least the most iconic. She's a bit of a mystery and adds a lot of magical realism to an anime that otherwise would've been more along the lines of a regular crime drama. She also serves as a connection as well as a buffer in between the main trio. It seems like a lot of the adults are more aware of the situation at hand rather than the kids and that serves as another interesting thing to hypothesize about while watching the show. It'd take a long time to go into, but the amount of overlap with all the characters is amazing. Even the ones that only make brief cameos serve a purpose. No one is a filler and that in and of itself is a hard and beautiful thing to master.

I wouldn't say that this anime is for the faint of heart. You definitely have to be ready for some stabbing, some swinging crowbars, slicing cars in half with freeway signs (Heiwajima I'm looking at you), and demon possessions. But it's more suspense than anything that keeps you on your toes. Suspense and uncertainty.

If you didn't get this before when I was doing more of my blurb a few paragraphs up, I really enjoyed the characters. They were definitely different from what I initially thought. Sure, Masaomi was the archetypical perverted jokester, but he's surprisingly protective. He doesn't let that teacher get his way with Anri and he's a pretty respectful kid, gang aside. He's got a moral code and he's a trusting kid, until of course Izaya disturbs him forever because of what happened with Saki. I still can't get over the convoluted way in which it alluded to him having problems with Anri but he apparently loved Saki the whole time. Maybe I just took some signals wrong, but it seemed to me that his relationship with Saki wasn't the best. And oh my goodness when it was revealed that Anri was Saika I died. That was one of the other mysteries that didn't make sense until they revealed it and I audibly gasped. It was great. You wouldn't have expected that. She seemed like such a flat character...until she wasn't. Same goes for Mikado. You never would've thought that he was main character material. He was kind of cowardly, he didn't really assert himself as class rep, more like meandered into it. He moved to the big city almost on a whim and because of Masaomi to make a name for himself. And in the process of revealing his back story he became more than just a flat character turned main character. He's the most relatable to the everyday person. Most everyone wants to be special in one way or another, they don't want to become boring and irrelevant so it's easy to relate to Mikado. At first he appears to just be the guy with the funny name, outshone by his more flirtatious and outgoing friend Masaomi, in fact for a second there it seems like Anri could end up with Masaomi instead of Mikado. But Mikado really pulls through and serves as the kind of norm turned special case character. I could probably go on for days about characters but it'd end up a jumble.

Overall this was a masterpiece. I definitely recommend you watch it even if you don't think it's your style. If anything you'll definitely appreciate the amount of time this took and the complexity that surfaces. There's so much going on and it ties itself into a pretty bow by the end that you can't help but sigh in satisfaction when you're done. 11/10 sincerely

P.S. I don't have any screenshots because I watched this on Netflix and it doesn't let me screenshot heh