Anime ATM 79 Gabriel DropOut

It's the first week of spring quarter and I'm already dying under the stress and anxiety that come along with a fresh start and no idea what to do with my future. In terms of academics I have a lot of struggles, but my personal life is definitely one to be grateful for. Honestly, because it's the beginning of the quarter I don't feel much motivation to do anything as the workload hasn't hit hard yet, but it's looming. 

Anyways, Gabriel DropOut! V had recommended it to me for the longest time and I've always put it off because the screenshots he sent me we alright, but didn't give me enough motivation to actually watch it. So I put it off, but with the new quarter starting I wanted a nice fluffy 12 episode anime to start out with. And it definitely doesn't disappoint in terms of the fluffy factor. Also there was this one point in which V and A both asked me whether Vigne or Satania was the better girl and I'm happy to report back that I've come to the conclusion that Vigne is best girl.

{There are no spoilers in slice of life let's be real}

If I had to say what this show is a mashup of I'd say it's got the Umaru vibe with the girl who has two different personalities, one being a lazy homebody and the other one being perfection personified, encompassed by the character Gabriel. And it's also got the bizarre Nichijou vibe with the slice of life content with the home life, school life, reoccurring shticks, and an endearing friendship dynamic. And it's got a little bit of that parodied fantasy life with demons being not so evil and angels being not so pure that Konosuba kind of has with its misleading and comedic characters. Now that I look at that I think I've summarized the whole of Gabriel DropOut if I'm being honest.

One thing that was reoccurring and was the premise of a lot of the irony present in this series was the stereotypical worldview of angels and demons. As angels you would expect Gabriel and Raphiel to be perfect and as demons you would expect Vigne and Satania to be conniving and evil. However, to everyone's surprise and to comedy lovers' delight, this is not the case. In fact to classify the four of them into their given archetypes would be pigeonholing their entire personalities. It's laughable that a self-proclaimed archdemon Satania would be scared of a dog that steals her melon bread every day (one of the more frequent reoccurring shticks) and that she would fall for the tricks of a demonic infomercial channel. It's endearing how pure and caring Vigne is, though she's supposed to be a demon. It's a bit strange seeing Raphi and her sadistic side taking pleasure in Satania's foolishness. And it's the most jarring to see the introduction of the series with Gabriel graduating at the top of her class and starting off her studies in the human world off swimmingly and then fall into the world of gaming and microtransactions and living a life of decadence. I think the most pleasure in watching a show like this beyond all of times Satania becomes the butt of everyone's jokes and laughter is how human Gabriel DropOut makes these characters. If they followed the stereotypes and the one dimensionality that could've been this show, it wouldn't have been as comedic or ironically funny as it ended up being.

Honestly speaking though, it's just a nice show to unwind with. There's not a lot of thinking involved and it just makes you feel really wholesome and pure watching it. Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots. With these kinds of shows I feel like most of the time I just want to screenshot the jokes or their faces, but it's not really as funny out of context than it is when you're watching each arc and laughing along with them in a live action manner. So for the sake of that I decided it'd be better for you just to watch it on your own and laugh about how relatable the characters are and enjoy each of the arcs at your own convenience. 

I'd recommend watching this if you're not really looking for a high commitment anime. This kind of anime is one I'd say is best to watch when you need a little bit of happiness in your life. There's no real lesson to be learned, but it's just nice watching a show with so many relatable moments and cute girls lol. I'd recommend watching with a friend actually, they don't have to be into anime or anything, but it's a lighthearted watch that'd be fun to watch with others. I say that partly because I watched two episodes with E and then another 3 or so with V and it was a really nice bonding experience. Ye. 

Manga Match 23 Love So Life

It's ya girl coming at you after calculating her winter quarter GPA and turning into a potato during her spring break. Honestly after looking at all of the L's I've taken this quarter it really makes me rethink how I spend my time. On one hand I don't want to be socially dead, but on the other I don't want to have a bad GPA. But what's the point of keeping up good grades besides getting a job? Life after childhood is based on getting good grades to get a good job and have a good life. And we've all bought into that mentality. I wonder what it looks like on the other side of that mentality. I wonder if I'd be happier on the other side. But I'm not quite sure if I'm brave enough to try. So for now I'll strengthen my resolve to work harder.

On another note, I've just made a really simple chocolate tart and it's setting up nicely in the fridge I think. The crust hasn't turned out the greatest, but I think it was a strong effort. Since I'm home for a week I'm trying my hardest to do a lot of nice things for my parents because I live away from home for three fourths of the year so I want to try and make up for all the chores I'm missing. And this is kind of the only way I can make up right now for being such a huge financial burden on my parents. I'm trying to live in the moment more and just revel in how blessed of a life I live in order to find more happiness in day to day life. There's no reason to be so down about everything. But at the same time I feel like living in the moment sometimes leads to a place of comfort and complacency. And once you reach that spot you stop wanting to strive for something beyond. I'm still looking for that sweet spot in between. Sometimes I think these blog posts are the only times I truly reflect, my little diary entries alongside my blog posts if you will.

Now into the manga review!

{Spoilers}

To be honest, at the beginning of this manga I found all of the characters to be a bit too much. Shiharu was a bit too perfect. The twins were so young and when they originally began to talk it was just too childish and they were too emotional. But that was probably because I was just irritated at everything in my sleep deprived state. Once I was back to normal and rested I was able to see this manga for what it really was. It was super heartwarming and beyond cute and pure.

Some parts of this manga were a little bit questionable. For example when Akane and Aoi went to their grandparents house and they met their cousin Riku there it was lowkey incestuous. And we have to also think about the main ship of Shiharu and Matsunaga and the huge age gap between the two. But if you've got different morals than me or are willing to overlook the questionable morals into the story beyond it's great.

Shiharu is a hardworking high schooler who has dreams to become a professional day care worker. She's super good with children and mature beyond her years because of the experiences from her youth. When she was young her mom died, leaving her alone, which forced her into an orphanage. When this part of her story was revealed, it showed how resistant Shiharu was to the traumatic turn her life took. She couldn't accept that her mom had left her and had a hard time coping with the loss. However, she found her passion for child care in the orphanage and that gave her the strength to do well in the orphanage and try her best every day. Once you get that part of Shiharu's life and her underlying motivation it's hard not to root for her.

She's not the only one with a tragic backstory. The other main character Matsunaga also had an unfortunate family dynamic. His parents were basically separated for his entire life and he spent most of his days alone. The only one he could really go to was his older brother. His family life certainly was not ideal and that forced him to try doubly hard to be a successful and proper adult. Despite that he was able to grow up into a fine adult. This strong sense of morality as well as the yearning for the family life he was never able to experience led him to taking care of his infantile niece and nephew when his older brother went MIA and his sister in law tragically died. However, even though he strengthened his resolve to create a safe environment for the baby twins while waiting for his older brother to return home, he had a hard time until Shiharu entered their lives.

With Shiharu there they were able to live a happy and peaceful life. The story follows this little family unit as they explore the familial dynamic they weren't able to really discover in the proper and traditional sense until then. It wasn't just about creating a good environment for Akane and Aoi, but also for Shiharu and Matsunaga to experience what having a family and a loving home feel like as well.

It was all rainbows and sunshine until the inevitable moment when this little familial unit was broken apart so Akane and Aoi could live in a more steady environment with their maternal grandparents and eventually with their dad who came back. When Shiharu and Matsunaga were parted with Akane and Aoi my heart broke a little bit. It was good for everyone, but goodbyes are the worst. I wanted to cheer for them and say that it could've worked out with everyone just living in Matsunaga's family home, but it might have turned out differently if everyone were to be selfish like that. I know it was all for the best, and that everyone grew up to be fine people, but it's just the thought of what could've been that kills me.

Also speaking of what could've been is all the relationships in this manga. It definitely is shoujo with all of the romance. Like Nao's unrequited love for Shiharu.

Look how this sad boi is so sad inside but has to pretend like he's ok he needs to be protected

Honestly if you've got a manga or anime where the unrequited love is returned and the childhood friends actually end up together please tell me because I'm tired of rooting for the people that don't end up together. I love the childhood friend trope and I love all of the unrequited loves and I just need more of them because they make my heart hurt. But if we look past Nao's sad love story, the blossoming relationship between Rio and Takeru was really cute. They were such pure and endearing supporting characters. I wouldn't have minded a spin-off of their relationship to be honest.

All in all it's a touching story of people finding home and love. It's got endless heartwarming scenes. It really feels like you're growing up alongside these characters. Honestly I've learned what it means to be a good parent at least a little bit through this manga. The connections that they made and the kindness and maturity of everyone in the manga is what I strive to be apart of. Ahaha I kind of ran out of gas towards the end. It's been a long day. Sorry if the quality hasn't been that good. These are mostly for me in any case, just as kind of a bookmark of sorts that says "you've read/watched this already don't do this again" because sometimes I forget hehe.

Look at these precious faces I can't get over them

Honestly the way Shiharu is so strong and tries her hardest to make sure no one sees her weaknesses makes me sad, but at the same time makes me admire her that much more

The real lady killer is Aoi confirmed

V was telling me how if I were to be proposed to this would be me and honestly where is the lie because yeah it would be

My favorite part of this manga actually might be how Akane and Aoi has matured. Aoi is so mature for a little kid and Akane is so carefree and their dynamic is so cute, but at the same time realistic. 

They've gotten so big :') Catch me next time reading the sequel Love So Happy~

Manga Match 22 Kuragehime {Princess Jellyfish}

If this isn't a throwback, I don't know what is. I started reading this manga maybe 4 years ago now and accidentally discontinued it. Well, I suppose in the timing of manga I don't think it's been completed for so long that this review is now irrelevant. Or so I hope. But in any case I started this manga after having finished the anime for it. That was an extremely long time ago now, back when the series was actually on Netflix.

Pro tip: If you don't care about people looking over your shoulder (trust me, even if they do see it they won't judge, they're too stressed out about their own lives) you can read manga before lecture starts. It's pretty impossible to enjoyable watch anime before class starts unless you get there super early, but it's possible to get some chapters of manga in before class starts. This goes more for college than high school, unless you're a second semester senior. Then you should just go ham and watch seasons in class tbh.

{Spoilers}

Honestly speaking, since I reread a lot of it and it was pretty familiar, there wasn't a whole lot of shock factor in reading it again. I think most of the enjoyment for this particular series is from the transformation of the Amars and the quirky comedy that happens at Amamizukan.

The story revolves around a group of all female NEETs and their home at Amamizukan. They live their lives peacefully, living off of the fruits of their baby boom generation parents. Everything was fine until their home was put in danger. Their sanctuary was going to be fall prey to the predatory land sharks. And so their genius idea was to start a clothing line with the jellyfish motif. Well, it was mostly Kuranosuke's idea, the strange, cross-dressing son of a politician. And they go through ups and downs while trying to keep their new line afloat in the risky world of fashion held together by a motley crew of Amars.

This is very much so a manga that you read when you're looking for something light. This manga is a very slow burn, with only a few arcs. And I think the time that the creator took to build up those arcs makes them very solid and a fluid read. There's no random things thrown in, perhaps because the whole political sphere aspect was a bit strange to begin with. Or maybe it seemed like nothing was random because it was well thought out and weaved a net of its own into how a story should play out.

If you enjoy humorous and ridiculous antics I think that this would be a good read. Each of the Amars has their own interest, with Tsukimi's being jellyfish, Banba's being trains, and Jiji's being older men. Each one of these has its moments as a kind of strange gag that's both amusing and distinctive of Princess Jellyfish. I think this kind of feeling stems from the creator's personal experience. I get that feeling through her bonus pages. Many times authors will doodle in a little margin with a little blurb, but in this manga Higashimura put in interesting personal stories that made it easier to get to know her and understand her comic more deeply.

If you're wondering if this was a serious manga, sorry I'm not explaining it very well hehe I guess you'll just have to read it for full effect, it very much is so with the idea of being a princess. At the beginning of the story, Tsukimi sees Kuranosuke and her first thought is how beautiful and confident of a princess she is. She had this unfulfilled dream that one day she would grow up and be a princess, however she felt like that was never actualized because of her obsession with jellyfish, understated mannerisms, and unfashionable qualities. And realized before her was Kuranosuke, her princess. However, through time the readers, Tsukimi, and Kuranosuke are able to go through this princess transformation together and learn what it really means to be a princess starting from the inside. It might seem kind of cheesy and overly cliche, but I think we all need a reminder sometimes of what it means to be a princess and to be beautiful on the inside. I think this fairy tale quality that Kuragehime has is what sets it apart. Like it says at the end of the manga, it's not a definitive happily ever after because this is a neo-fairytale in the 21st century.

If you were looking for a modern day Cinderella story, look no further than Kuragehime. It's a great manga to read in your spare time with great pacing and easy to understand motivations. It's got eccentric characters and plot twists and even some spicy political drama (not really the last one, the politics in this are highkey a joke, I just wanted to throw that in there).

I don't know why, but I really like when this happens. It reminds me of the creation of the universe memes. Do you know the one I'm referring to?

It's kind of interesting how at the beginning Kuranosuke's all about changing your outward appearance, but in the end he's able to see and appreciate inner beauty as well

Ah, did I mention the understated love triangle? Admittedly when I was younger that's the main reason I read along with this manga hehe

We can't forget about Hanamori, our favorite human trash. JK in any other context he'd be such a sleazebag tbh

Look at this beautiful princess T^T

But why? Why does it need to be this way?

The movement in these three panels is honestly breathtaking. Reading through it and seeing and experiencing the motion that Tsukimi's feeling is really powerful

I don't know whether I should feel sorry for Kai, or for Hwayoung, or for both of them? It's a hard call, but definitely worth pondering.

And Clara our favorite little narrator :')

Anime ATM 78 Little Witch Academia {Second Cour}

When I started this anime I thought I was in for your regular ol' slice of life/fantasy anime. I wasn't expecting such a heart-warming, chilling, absolutely enrapturing, purely enchanting show. I certainly wasn't expecting to find such a masterpiece in an anime that I hadn't given much thought to before. From the end of the first cour all the way up until now at the very end I was hooked. Honestly I almost abandoned sleep for this show, but I thought for the sake of the quality of the post I left the last 4 or so episodes for today (2/27) and oh boy am I glad I did.

{LOL you can skip the next paragraph if you hate when I give lectures}

One thing I have to side note and apologize for is the fact that I don't have any screenshots. I was watching it on Netflix. You might scoff and say "what kind of trash anime watcher watches things on Netflix?" or even say "wow, how lazy" and while I do understand your sentiment and I do harbor some guilt about the lack of visual stimulation in this post, I also believe that not having to stop three or four times every episode at least to get some screenshots greatly increased the amount I enjoyed this anime. I wasn't thinking about which scenes would look especially great as screenshots. I wasn't thinking about which subbed scenes would be great to add in for comedic effect. I could just watch in the moment and laugh and cry and just feel whenever I wanted to. I think that's what I've been lacking for a while now. I've just been thinking about the screenshots and not living right there and then and just letting myself be fully immersed in the show. I recommend you watch like that. I think the best way to enjoy anything is to just let yourself be swept away by it which sounds like something so simple, but it's also one of the most moving experiences you can have. My ballet teacher used to tell us that while we were in the studio that we shouldn't stress about things going on outside of the studio, that we should cast away all of our worries in order to dance the best that we could. Watching anime should be the same way.

{Spoilers}

By the first cour, almost everyone's character has become fleshed out. You learn who's who and all about their different quirks. So with the beginning of the second cour you get a sense of who people are, and while for some of them they stay the same like Lotte, Sucy, and Amanda, for characters like Diana, Professor Ursula, and for Akko they change and grow in some fundamental way. Seeing the complexities of each character and how Studio Trigger is able to characterize each one of them so subtly with wordless scenes and hidden motivations and pasts make them all the more convicting and fascinating. It's almost like watching real people with all of their different facets and flaws.

Take Diana for example. For a while now she's been the privileged ojou-sama. She's been the aristocratic know-it-all that no one really likes because of how perfect she is. However, we're able to learn a lot more about her through other people and how she interacts with them. In the episode 19 when it's revealed what Diana's home life is and then later on in the cour when it's revealed that she's just as big of a Shiny Chariot fan as Akko is, your heart melts. At the end of episode 19 when she expresses how grateful she is to Akko, her humanity is revealed and you can't help but feel sympathy for this girl that was held up to all of these Herculean expectations and how she was crushed and molded into this perfect person that the Cavendish family was supposed to be. And we as people that are all held up to expectations, of perfection like Diana, of familial obligations, of anything that life tosses at us really, resonate so strongly with her. She is first and foremost portrayed as a perfect person, but underneath she has her own convictions and desires the same as anyone else. I think the glimpses we get of Diana as a hard-working and driven individual is something beautiful. She's not perfect naturally, she's had to work for what she has and against extremely unfavorable circumstances to get where she is. The way that her character is portrayed is just wonderful, and if you didn't like her in the first cour, don't worry, I didn't really like her either. But now, now she's just amazing.

Honestly the second cour was where it was at with the deep and complex characters. Like Croix who showed up in the second cour as the new and super high tech professor that was here to revive magic with the help of science. Side note, for the first couple of episodes I kept thinking about the carbonated, overpriced bubble water brand Le Croix every time I heard her name. But that's besides the point. I think what struck me the most in a very subtle way was the fact that she eats instant noodles. Don't take this the wrong way. I don't just fixate on random things. Like her eating instant cup noodles seems like such a menial thing, but why would Studio Trigger put that in if it wasn't significant in some way? Like she's doing all of this high tech magic and she's dressed super cool, but underneath all of that she's just a normal girl. When there's flashbacks of when Croix and Chariot were students at Luna Nova, Croix is always depicted in casual clothes, wearing a hoodie and sneakers and similarly in flashbacks Chariot is depicted wearing her performing clothes. At some subconscious level you compare Chariot and Croix to one another and while one impresses you physically, the other leaves something to be desired. Croix is what I imagine in our world to be like a CS major or an engineering major, late nights in a sweatshirt working on a project and eating cup noodle. She seems so relatable and her lifestyle relates so much to a lot of college students I know that prioritize their academics and their projects over their health, that it's easy to find similarities between her and real life people. Also the disparity that occurs when she's working on her energy absorbing cubes versus her eating cup noodle is insane. Like I can't get over it. I don't think I'll ever be over it. Maybe it's a subliminal message about the evils of cup noodle. And beyond her value as a relatable character on a mannerisms level, I think everyone can relate to her when the Shiny Rod picks Chariot over her.  I think we can all relate to the thoughts that we have when things don't go your way and someone else seems to be put on a pedestal. You feel kind of betrayed by the world and you might even feel like the other person didn't work as hard or wasn't as deserving of whatever you had desired. And that might bring you to do something extreme. Perhaps not as extreme as Croix, but still.

The most plot twist-ish, I mean obviously this is subjective, character was Professor Ursula, or should I say Chariot du Nord. She was such a good mentor to Akko this whole time, helping her find the words, waking up early to help her with her magic. On the surface without thinking about it, it just looks like she's helping Akko out of the goodness of her heart, when in fact she's doing it out of guilt. She unknowingly stole some of Akko's magic back when she didn't even know Akko, didn't know the consequences of harnessing people's magic. It's heartbreaking really to think about her initial motivations, however they're also so real and so human. Sometimes you love and care about someone not because you're a selfless person, but instead you do it out of guilt or duty. And while that isn't a love born out of purity, it can become a strong and stable sort of love that can be beautiful in its own way. When you think about how Chariot was put under so much pressure and her smile was smothered out by the expectations held by other people, not unlike Diana, all because she wanted to make the world happy, it makes your heart hurt thinking about how she caved under the pressure. But I think out of the mistakes that she made when she was young, she was able to grow into a dependable teacher that never gives up on her pupil. Shiny Chariot was Akko's hero, but Professor Ursula was her mentor. And while for some people their hero and mentor are the same, I think sometimes the mentor is the unsung hero of people's stories.

And the star of the show Akko. She's a piece of work. But it was certainly a pleasure following along with her bildungsroman, how she worked her way through the difficulties of becoming a witch and succeeded for the most part. Put bluntly she plowed her way through and through perseverance was able to make her dream of meeting Chariot come true. Along the way she was able to overcome some of her shortcomings like her inability to be patient or her bull-headed nature. But I think it was her shortcomings and clumsiness which made her so endearing. Without Akko certainly the show wouldn't have been as entertaining and it wouldn't have been quite so uplifting. Because of her, LWA was a star. There were so many ups and downs and even times where Akko's spark almost flickered out, but her happy-go-lucky attitude and iron horse work ethic pulled her through. Why does this sound like I'm signing her yearbook? I can't quite put into words how determined and beautiful Akko is. Maybe it's because I can't relate to how driven and brightly she shines. I guess you'll just have to watch yourself to really see. I was talking to V about when she found out that her childhood hero Chariot was actually Professor Ursula and how she had stolen her ability to fly. We were talking about her reaction to that unpleasant reality bomb and how I couldn't relate to that and how V thought she should've been angrier. I was thinking about that and I thought it was interesting. Like we both had watched the same episode, but his opinion as to how Akko should've acted was different to mine which shows how people see Akko differently and react differently to her. It's fascinating really how characters can impact people in a multitude of variations. Just food for thought haha...I don't really know where I was going with that.

But in any case thanks for sticking through to the end of this blog post. It probably wasn't that engaging or exciting, but I enjoy giving my two cents. If you haven't watched it already I highly recommend you watch LWA. The music and art style have a very light hearted and cute feeling. And it's overall a very inspirational watch. I feel like this kind of story is repeated over and over again, but you can't really get tired of it because we all need a reminder of how we should keep reaching higher and higher to achieve our dreams. Because the real magic is inside of you.