Anime ATM 108 My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

Fun fact, the manga this anime was based on was my introduction into the subgenre of shoujo/josei isekai. This was either the first or one of the first plots I discovered with this sort of concept and I fell in love. That's why when I heard it was going to be adapted into an anime I was super excited. In fact, when I saw that it was airing during finals week, I was super tempted to watch it and forget all about my obligations, but I refrained. Instead I watched lots of clips on Youtube that people were posting. Honestly, that was both a good and bad decision. Good because I didn't just binge watch all of the episodes that were currently out and sacrifice my grades. Bad because lots of those clips just featured the highlights of the episodes and since I've already read the manga which covers everything in the anime so far, nothing was super novel. It was really nice to see all of the characters brought to life.

Overall, it was a pretty good adaptation. It's definitely got that otome game, shoujo sparkle flair to it. And if you turn your brain off of all the cringy parts or the fact that some of the lines in the show are just so that everyone gets a line in a scene or just so that nothing is ambiguous, it's a really nice show. But some parts are a little bit too self-explanatory or it's just to give a certain character more screen time. Also, since they're otome game characters, their backstories pretty much follow the cookie cutter otome game character's background story and character so there's no real surprises. What I'm saying is that it was a really nice and cutesy show, but there was no real spice. And as I was watching, i realized that you know what? It's okay to not be super over the top and have all these crazy subplots going on. Especially since the whole concept itself of an otaku girl being reincarnated into a game as the villainess instead of the heroine is pretty unexpected. That paired with the fact that Katarina is seriously Disney princess material; she's super kind, hardworking, pretty, ditsy to a fault, loyal, courageous and almost any other naturally attractive quality, makes it enjoyable to watch in and of itself.

Also, I should mention I watched 9 episodes in one day and then finished it off in the next day. It was that addictive. Honestly speaking I think the first episode was the best, but I think it was the best just because I had been anticipating watching it for so long. It's like when you're super hungry so your food tastes extra good, not necessarily because the food itself is out of this world. This isn't to take away anything at all from the anime. The concept of it is amazing. It's great sometimes to take a step away from this world and escape for a little while; especially with the state of the world today. It was nice to take a break from job searching. It's getting kind of exhausting trying to sell myself.

Second favorite episode might be episode 6 which was all about summer break. LOL even though I complain so much about things not having a plot, somehow I really liked that episode. But they're all good in their own way of course. Just some wholesome show with an accidental reverse harem :')

Anime ATM 107 Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

This actually aired back in the day, but I didn't watch it because I was satisfied with the manga. But then I saw a really cute clip on IG of Hirotaka and Narumi and decided to watch it haha. The power of suggestion. After watching it, all I am is more bitter and still single. Oh well. But it definitely made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside while watching it. 

I've definitely seen some really nice Youtube videos reviewing this anime and talking about how it portrays adult life and mature working adult people romance well. I can neither confirm nor deny this claim as I am a 20 year old child that passes as an adult on a good day. But what I can say is that it's not a super showy shoujo sparkles kind of romance. And it's not the kind of romance with lines that would be really cringy if someone were to say it to you in real life but is somehow passable in manga format. You know what I'm talking about. It falls in a happy place that feels realistic and genuine. 

If you've ever wondered what your life might be like as an adult otaku, this show might be a glimpse into the future you's life. The show features different kinds of otaku: games, BL, and shoujo mainly. It focuses on four main coworkers that all secretly happen to be otaku. Well, it's not necessarily secret, just not a well-known fact. There's two main couples, and both are really really cute. The dynamics of Hanako and Kabakura's relationship is kinda like an old married couple in a way, but there's also an interesting gap dynamic going on with Hanako highkey wearing the pants in this relationship and Kabakura the shoujo otaku. While Narumi and Hirotaka kinda felt like the main couple to me, especially with the whole childhood friends thing going on, definitely don't forget about Hanako and Kabakura; they're really sweet. 

It follows their daily lives as office workers during the day and otaku during nights and weekends. But it also shows them doing "normal people" kinds of things. LOL idk how else to say it. I definitely don't mean to box people into certain labels, but there's definitely a variety of dates and hangout activities they do, both otaku and non-otaku-centric. For example, they go to the amusement park on dates, but they also go to the summer Comiket and buy doujins together. That kind of thing. There's definitely lots of fun little side stories and just wholesome get-togethers and hangouts. They live the sort of ideal adult life I think a lot of us wish we will have in the future. Obviously it glamorizes work and adulting and everything like that, but I'm hopeful adult life is actually like that *wheeze*

Overall, it's a really sweet romcom slice of life to enjoy. It gives you something to aspire towards as you become an adult. It also might make you bittter that you don't have this super cute relationship, but hopefully watching this could satisfy that desire for human contact while we continue to shelter in place. It's just really really nice to watch all of these cute and fluffy moments and indulge in this life that's different from your own. Ah, I love escapism. 

Anime ATM 106 Asobi Asobase

Truthfully I got really lazy and almost forgot I watched this show altogether. Good thing it's the first thing that pops up on my "Plan to Watch" list on MAL. 

Nowadays what gets me to watch anime/read manga is when clips or screengrabs are recommended to me on IG or Youtube. Otherwise I haven't really been watching much LOL I'm always too distracted by Animal Crossing or job searching. Very sad. Oh, also I've graduated from college so theoretically I should have more time to watch anime, but that hasn't been the case so far. I think I've just been really anxious over adult things like the looming start of paying back college loans and the fact that there aren't a lot of jobs I'm qualified to do. But I'm sure things will work out eventually. 

Asobi Asobase is definitely a breath of fresh air and a nice escape from the everyday troubles of life. The humor is pretty ridiculous. It's kind of like Nichijou on crack. But also kind of scary. It follows a main trio of girls: Hanako, Olivia, and Kasumi. They're part of the Pastime Club which isn't really a club because they don't have enough people, but they have fun together doing things like kendama or playing in a kiddie pool inside. There's a lot of inhuman screaming that goes on, mostly from Hanako and a lot of the times I found myself turning off my brain just to watch. Not in a bad way, but just in a "it's necessary to suspend your belief and knowledge of reality" in order to really enjoy this show. At least, that's what I felt when I started watching. I'm definitely not confident in saying anything beyond that this is a comedy anime of middle school girls doing interesting things. 

If you like really strange humor and you enjoy slice of life antics where there's no real plot, but just lots of crackhead behaviors exhibited, this would be a good anime for you. Maybe don't watch it out loud though, someone might be really disturbed by Hanako's inhuman screams. 

Anime ATM 105 Toilet-bound Hanako-kun

I think this is the closest I'll ever get to watching something relatively recent. I might start the reboot of Fruits Basket so we'll see, but for now this is a true statement. Honestly the reason I started this was because I was scrolling through the IG Discover page and saw a set of screenshots from the anime. They looked really interesting so I thought I'd give it a go. And it was a roller coaster honestly. Also a good reminder of how good anime with a plot is. The mystery kept me going and really I watched all of it in three days, which is pretty good considering all the work I had for the week teehee~ Maybe I should recommend my little sister to watch this one. She's gotten pretty interested in anime as of late; during her spring break she binged watched a whole like like Kaichou wa Maid sama, Haikyuu (S1 and S2), Promised Neverland, and she's watching Anohana right now. Although she keeps telling me Anohana isn't interesting smh.

{Spoilers because there's a plot}

So, for those of you who don't know, Toilet-bound Hanako-kun is a supernatural story that takes place in a school that's both a junior high and high school I guess. There's rumors about the Seven (Apparition) Wonders of the school floating around. Our main heroine Yashiro Nene seeks out the seventh wonder Hanako to ask for her wish to be granted. However, Hanako refuses to grant her wish in the quick-magic sense so she takes drastic measures which in the end have her end up as Hanako's assistant. From there she's enlisted to clean the bathroom Hanako inhabits and help him spread rumors to keep the other wonders alive. All of the wonders seem pretty scary, but most of them are nice or at least the story is written in such a way that even if they're temporarily scary, there's still a little bit of comedy thrown in there to make it less scary. A favorite on-going joke is Nene's legs which apparently resemble daikon or the fact that she's not popular with boys. It's an endearing narrative overall that switches between a comedy and mystery all under the umbrella of the overarching supernatural yokai theme that goes on. There's lots of likable characters that they meet along the way like Tsuchigomori and Yako (aka kitsune udon lol).

The third MC is also endearing in his own way: Minamoto Kou. He's the second son of a long line of exorcists, but he's still learning his way and lives in the shadow of his older brother Teru. But he's a really pure and nice kid who's trying his best to figure out if exorcising spirits is the right thing to do in every situation. You could go as far as to say it's a bit like an allegory for the US prison system. Perhaps we shouldn't just throw everyone in jail for any crime and instead have a reformative system rather than a punitive one. Or perhaps I'm just reading too much into this after watching the new Maleficent movie and trying to analyze why they thought it was a good idea to make this second one. Who knows?

There's also this underlying mystery of Hanako that's explored throughout the story. But we never find out the whole truth which is both disappointing, but also appropriate for the pacing of the story I feel. If we were to find out in these brief 12 episodes, it'd feel a little bit like cheating. I hope that this series becomes really popular and we can get another season. I really enjoyed the gothic lolita vibes that the show gave off. It was a great balance and juxtaposition of a spooky supernatural but also a cuteness to it that made it easy and enjoyable for a scaredy cat like me to watch.

Overall, it was an excellent watch. It was comical, engaging, entertaining, and mysterious all packaged into one that kept me watching and wondering. I hope that more people could watch this and enjoy such beautiful art. I mean even just looking at Nene and how cute she is, she almost gives the show a shoujo vibe. But most definitely if you like yokai shows, I think you would really enjoy this one and its format which is reminiscent of other shows I've watched similar to this in the "problem--->solution" in each episode with overarching mysteries spread throughout to give a variation in pace. It was so jam-packed actually that at some points I wanted a filler arc of just our three MCs having fun at a school festival or something like that. I didn't get that, but I really craved it. I guess it's my slice of life side coming out. Watch for some good mystery and strange humor :')

Anime ATM 104 Akatsuki no Yona (Season 1)

WOW! Okay a little backstory, a while ago, and by a while ago I'm pretty sure like 2 or 3 years ago, S recommended that I watch Akatsuki no Yona. I was like "Oh yeah I'll get around to it eventually" but obviously I haven't did until now. And that was a mistake. Akatsuki no Yona is SO GOOD. I'm so happy I started it, even though I did so in the middle of quarantine and in the middle/tail end of midterms season, but it's alright. Also, I was inspired to start this because I saw some random anime account that posted a series of screenshots of Hak and...I fell in love. Haha. It's only kind of a joke.

It's been so long since I've watched an anime with plot. Okay I did watch Boku no Hero Academia. And yes that does have a plot. But there was something about the pacing of this anime that really gelled with me. Each arc was around 4-ish episodes and it felt really satisfying to see Yona grow and her cohort of fellow OP characters. I think that's what I've been doing wrong all along really. I kept relegating myself to just fluffy shoujo stuff thinking that that's what I really enjoy. But actually, having gone back to something with plot was so refreshing and I binged 9 episodes in one day. That's how good it was.

Anyways, this is a pretty old anime; it came out in 2014. So, there's probably lots of good reviews out there, but let me just glorify it further.

{Spoilers!}

A basic synopsis would be there's this princess named Yona in Kouka Kingdom that lives a really privileged and pampered life. She thinks her life is super great, she's about to turn 16 and her father is a great, if a little softhearted king, not believing in war or weapons. This anti-violence agenda irks some of the kingdom and leads to Yona's childhood friend Su-won leading a coup to murder Yona's father. The king dies and Yona was next, but she escaped with her bodyguard and other childhood friend Hak.

From then on, Hak and Yona end up as travelers around Kouka Kingdom under instruction by Ik-su, a priest who can communicate with God to find the four dragons from the creation myth of Kouka Kingdom. There's different arcs that follow their happening upon each of the dragons and the adventures that they have together. That's a super cheesy description, but in the most simple terms that's what happens.

I think what I found most engaging about the whole thing was the fact that the pacing was really nice. It was the right proportion of action happening while also character development and interpersonal relationship building. For example, when you think about Shinha and his sub-arc, there's a little bit of everything. You've got this little kid that just wants to make friends, but has been shunned because of rumors about his powers causing people to be paralyzed and then his mentor dies after becoming blind (oml when he put the bells on his mask so Ao would know where he was) there was a lot of heavy stuff going on there. But there was also this relationship built between him and Yona as the two are able to find support in one another as Yona is able to bring him into the light and Shinha offers her comfort and strength. In the same vein, all of the dragons in their own way lend their strength to Yona after realizing the benefits that it gives each of them and the bond that ties them altogether.

It was a nice touch too to have each of the dragons come from four incredibly different backgrounds. It gave diversity beyond just them having four different powers, but also delved deeper into how each dragon trait would be accepted by people and how each of their backstories led to them leading four different lives. Still they all converged and are on this shared quest with Yona and Hak.

It was really heartwarming as well to see how the group is growing in terms of numbers but also in terms of character development. It wasn't just an instant connection between them or Yona not doing anything to prove herself, there was a mix of everyone doing their part to better themselves.

I'm still not really sure how I feel about Su-won. I think from a purely political standpoint, he might be good for the kingdom. The sub-arc where he goes to the Earth Tribe and hypes up the Earth General was super smart. He bolstered the tribe's morale, strengthened its economy and inter-kingdom trade, and sized up the Earth General's willingness to side with him. Su-won is super clever which both I respect and am intimidated by.

However, just from the first season I feel like it could end up where the four dragons and Hak help Yona rule the kingdom as the ending shows a table with multiple chairs around it instead of a throne. I feel like that could indicate her success, but if she does succeed it'll be bittersweet. But of course it would also be revenge and justice for the late king that was killed for his anti-violence agenda. However, Yona's travels through the kingdom and different tribes is showing that the late king's policies were rather neglectful. There's many hard truths to swallow in the show and I think different people could have different takeaways, but regardless I think this show is wonderful.

Please don't put it off for years like me before watching it. I highly recommend it. I'm a fan of the characters, their growth, the story's pacing, and the weird sort of OP/ED music style between the first 12 episodes and the last 12. Go check out the anime if you haven't already to know what I'm talking about.

P.S. As you can see, I've run out of scheduled content really so I'll just be posting whenever I get the chance. Unfortunately, this blog is no longer my priority, but it is my hobby! So I'll keep updating it of course whenever I do finish something. Until then, take care!

Manga Match 100 The Memorandum of Kyouko Okitegami

I think after I introduced V to the last manga (Manga Match 99) he felt like he had to one up me so he gave me this one. I was a little bit skeptical to be honest, especially after he dubbed Kyouko as "waifu material" which is kinda gross. But I decided to pick it up anyways and ended up really liking it. Some parts were a little bit scary, and it has to do a lot with murder mysteries which I'm not really good with, but it did stimulate my brain and was a really well-written mystery manga. The only thing is, don't be deceived. Even though it says that the manga is finished, really it's only volume one so the bigger overarching questions have yet to be addressed which upset me. I thought I would find out who wrote on her wall and the origins behind the Forgetful Detective by the end but I didn't!

The story revolves around this very unfortunate man that always gets accused for things he hasn't done or otherwise gets caught up in rather unfortunate happenings named Kakushidate Yakusuke. He often hires this detective named Kyouko Okitegami to help him solve his problems. She's very good at her job, but she can't take any long-term job that would take more than a day to solve because once she falls asleep her memory resets to when she was around 17 years old. This in itself is a frustrating mystery. I wish I knew why this happened to her.

Almost every episode is a different mystery case that Kyouko has been hired to solve with a pretty regular format that all mysteries go through, just at a heightened pace because of Kyouko's time limit. It's a regular shtick for her to talk about getting paid; we stan a ruthless businesswoman. There's definitely a lot to say about each of the cases that she solved, but I think to go into each one would kind of take away from the whole magic that the story evokes. So I'll leave it at that, but wow mysteries are truly addicting to read. I actually skipped my section to stay in bed and read this manga; that's how good it was. 

Manga Match 99 Tonari wa Nani wo Kuu Hito zo

Truthfully, this manga has been repeatedly recommended to me on the MangaRock app, but it never appealed to me. The premise of a girl relying on her neighbor's cooking didn't really interest me. But, I started to run out of interesting things to read so I thought I'd give this a shot. Plot twist: it turned out to be really good. There's definitely a time and place for manga that're like 4 chapters long or manga that's over 100 chapters long, but this one with 14 chapters hits the sweet spot of it could take you two days to get through of you could binge it in one. And I was just in the mood for that kinda thing. So this came at a perfect time really.

{Spoilers, but it's shoujo/SoL so don't worry}

Suzuna has lived her whole adolescent life up until this point without friends in some farming town. After living like this, she realizes that it's time to make her college debut so she works really hard and moves to Tokyo for college for her new exciting life to start. Except she never learned how to cook or actually take care of herself, so if her next-door neighbor hadn't checked up on her she probably would've died. Thank god for Seto. He's Suzuna's next-door neighbor and happens to be in the same department and year as her. He helps her learn how to cook in exchange for some of the fresh produce her parents send her from their farm. It's a very domestic manga with lots of cooking montages and SoL arcs like club circle activities, sakura picnic-going, and a vacation in a rich friend's house. And of course there so happens to bloom a very cute and subtle love between Suzuna and Seto. It was an especially satisfactory romance to watch since at the beginning Seto was set on Suzuna not being his type and Suzuna seeing him as more of a teacher than love interest, though slowly and sure things started to change and it was really cute. Especially as Suzuna started to show more interest in him and he kept giving her really non-romantic things like the edamame plant for her birthday and soy sauce as a white gift. Is this what they call gap moe? Not sure.

Overall, a really solid short read. You might learn some cooking tips as well! So this is an educational read you could say :) And I would recommend it since it's a pretty natural progression of their romance and a good slice of life to get you feeling kinda nostalgic/anticipatory about college (depending on how old you are).

Manga Match 98 Yumiero Patissiere

This was one of the first anime that I remember watching and it heavily influenced my desire as a child to become a patissiere just like Ichigo. When I grew up I realized that baking was more of a hobby than a career for me. And especially since I've seen so many amazing baked creations and such on Instagram, I'm really glad I didn't go to college for a business degree. LOL I wanted to be a business major so I could really run my own baking business. I think we dodged a bullet there.

The manga version of Yumiero Patissiere is a little different from the anime. In the anime, the romance was definitely left more open-ended from my memory so that they could make that sequel where they're all adults. But all of the characters are pretty much the same and the story follows very true to the anime. So really I didn't read it for anything new, I read it for some sort of creature comfort I would say.

The manga and anime both follow this girl with an incredible sense of taste which goes along well with her creative imagination. She's scouted by one of the best pastry chefs in the world and ends up going to this super elite baking academy called St. Marie Academy. There she meets Kashino, Hanabusa, and Andou aka the Sweets Princes. She's thrust into this world and has to work really hard at practicing her baking skills to catch up to everyone else. Thanks to her hard work and practice she's able to flourish at the Academy despite her klutzy nature.

There's definitely a level of fantastical magic going on here with the element of Sweets Spirits. The Academy is actually connected to the Sweets Kingdom which is this lovely magical world where little fairies make sweets and come to the human world to apprentice with the dream of becoming Royal Patissieres.

And the story basically just follows the main four and their sweets spirits as they all work hard for their dreams. There's nothing more I could ever desire. Maybe it's just because of the nostalgic aspect, but I felt very satisfied reading the whole thing through. If you're also interested in baking or like rather fantastical works, I would say this is a good read. It's definitely very shoujo-y, but it's also inspiring to see how far imagination and hard work can take you. Just a very comfy read that gets you though the tough times.

Anime ATM 103 Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll

It's Day ? of shelter-in-place and honestly I've been pretty busy with remote classes and other things to do around the house. No matter how much I clean, there's always more. And I've been baking a lot too which has been rewarding in its own way. I know for some people they're getting pretty antsy at home, but I think that this is fine. When I was brushing my teeth this morning I even thought that I could live on a space ship. Obviously that was just a fleeting thought and tremendously fantastical and mildly unrealistic due to my motion sickness, but it's kind of an amusing thought. Also, since I'm in two science fiction English Lit courses this quarter, I've had some time to think about the world that Violet Evergarden lives in a little bit more.

As we all know, I couldn't stop gushing about the first season. It was so beautiful and heart-wrenching and a roller coaster all around. The movie didn't disappoint; visually it was absolutely stunning. KyoAni did an amazing job with all of the transitions and dreamy time lapses, but you don't need me to tell you that, you already know it was breath-taking.

In terms of plot, it tells the story of Violet working as a Doll, but in this strange new capacity. She's been assigned to be the tutor of Isabella York, the daughter of one of the aristocracy for the 3 months before her debut. Originally Isabella is stand-offish and seems to not fit in with the other girls that go to her all-girls private academy. Don't worry, there's no cat-fighting or anything shallow like that going on. In fact all of the girls are really wholesome and lift one another up which we love. Violet ends up as her companion and confidante during these 3 months and they become close friends. It's left pretty open-ended, so you could argue that they were more like lovers than friends, but really I'll leave that up to your interpretation. Truly in my heart of hearts I'm hoping that Gilbert somehow miraculously returns and that Violet and Gilbert can live happily ever after, but I'm not sure if that'll ever happen. :(

At the end of the 3 months Isabella has become a "proper lady" for her debut. But, before Violet leaves, Isabella reveals her past as a commoner before, living with Taylor, a little girl she adopted as her own sister, who we've been getting glimpses of all along. And then we see precious baby Taylor getting the letter from Benedict.

Three years later we meet a little more grown up Taylor who's come to Violet's workplace to become a mail deliverer and deliver happiness to the public. It's very wholesome and a real bittersweet happily ever after in the way of Taylor and Isabella's "reunion" of sorts.

Oh, and Benedict appears a lot during the movie. I know I was talking to my friend E about the show and she really liked him haha.

The movie as a whole evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia for simpler times. I mean they write and deliver letters and the world seems to move a bit more slowly than nowadays. I know that this is just a romanticization and I should be glad for how much the world has advanced, but it seems really beautiful, the way that they live in the movie. The whole world is rebuilding and there's an air of revival with the war over and everyone building and progressing as Benedict notices during his mail route. And you can see obvious signs of progress with elevators, wide-spread electricity, the radio tower (that looks a lot like the Eiffel Tower?) and more cars, but it also seems rather different and exciting.

Overall, I think the movie is really beautiful. It's touching and there's an intimately human quality about it. All of the characters seems so comfy and familiar, especially if you watched the show. But, even if you haven't, I think that you can empathize a lot with each of the characters and appreciate the storytelling that makes it seem like you're walking in step with Taylor on her mail route or you're right there crying with Benedict as he delivers Taylor's letter. The movie lets you into an intimately human realm that you can empathize a lot with in a world that's somewhat familiar to ours that helps you to immerse yourself in the world KyoAni has brought to life.

Anime ATM 102 Tsuki ga Kirei

Well, we can thank the corona virus for one thing. Since we're in social distancing/quarantine/self-isolation/shelter in place or whatever you want to call it, I've had a lot of free time this spring break. Of course since we're not going back to physical university and I've moved back home indefinitely, truly I've had a lot of time to contemplate whether or not I should keep posting on this blog. Because I schedule these to come out every week, actually I haven't been writing blog posts for somewhere over 3-ish months? That's a little scary isn't it? And actually I've been finishing some manga and webtoons that I've been following, but I never really wrote a blog post about them just because I felt like I had nothing really interesting or valuable to add to the conversation. However, I remembered recently that the reason I started this blog was more so for me to document what I watched and what my feelings were for myself. And so, I probably won't update this blog weekly, but rather just whenever I finish a series and I want to talk about it? Or we'll have to see. Maybe because of the corona virus I'll be really bored and just watch lots of stuff I want to blog about. Also, I'm grateful that we've come so far that most people have forgotten about this cringy blog. Phew.

Anyways, here we go with another Anime ATM! 

{Spoilers, but it's just really fluffy romance so you know what'll happen approximately}

Okay so recollect your feelings and sentiments from middle school. You're awkward. You don't know what you're going to do with your future. You have big aspirations but don't know what to do with them. You're not quite mature enough to be considered a full-fledged teenager or young adult, but you're also not a baby. 

Now, transport your middle school self to Japanese middle school with the same sentiments and you're in the middle of 2 love triangles. And that's Tsuki ga Kirei: The Synopsis. You're welcome.

Just kidding, in all seriousness I think it encapsulates what it means to grow up as an adolescent and not really know what you're doing. It's a really sweet romance between two unlikely middle school classmates and their awkward and mellow relationship. And then there's 2 love triangles with an unrequited love for each of them. Yikes. 

So there's Akane who's this really shy and anxious middle schooler. She's on the track and field team because she really enjoys running. On the track she seems really cool and graceful, but off the track she's super anxious and easily embarrassed. 

And then there's Kotarou. He's a soft-spoken, gentle kind of guy that's lost in his head a lot. He thinks in quotes from serious classical literature authors and sticks by what those teach him about life and love. He aspires to be like these authors and also writes serious literature for writing contests, although the results are often disappointing. 

The two fall in love despite not having a whole lot in common. Or rather, Kotarou confesses to Akane out of the blue after exchanging a few words and having a few interactions. And then Akane agrees, but I can't remember if she ever said she liked him back. She just said that she wanted to talk to him more...which is close enough? 

And their whole relationship highlights some of the troubles you have when you're in middle school and you don't want anyone to know you're dating so you keep it a secret, but also you can't really meet each other because you normally wouldn't have anything to do with one another but love is a funny thing. Also you're both middle school students so you can't go on legitimate dates because neither of you have money. 

But despite all of this, the show is really endearing. I think it's pretty true to the realities that middle school romance has to come to terms with and it's overall really sweet. 

The one thing I didn't really like was Akane's track friend Chinatsu. This girl was so pushy and insistent on confessing to Kotarou for closure even though she could tell it made Akane uncomfortable. And just the whole thing whenever she would interact with the two of them like in the amusement park episode, that was really bad. But also, I think if you were in a similar situation, you might have a different opinion and be able to empathize with Chinatsu. But even this was pretty realistic because if your friend does fall in love with the same guy, it's not always pretty. Thank goodness Akane was mature about it and didn't turn the whole show into a soap opera. 

One kind of random thing I enjoyed about the show was all of the little short clips at the end of some of the episodes. They played after the ED and showed other characters and their little side stories which I found to be endearing. 

I chose this anime as the first one to watch after a long time because it had a pretty high MAL rating. i will say that the scenery B-roll shots were beautiful and I enjoyed how they told a full story going from middle school romance and then at the very end showing through their LINE messages how they stayed together and ended up getting married, but I'm confused on how it got such a high score. I would say it's really cute and pretty realistic (idk though I'm no love expert so :) ) but I'm not sure I would recommend it just because I feel like there's more engaging romance stories out there? But I mean romance doesn't always have to be engaging, exciting, or a whirlwind romance. Some people prefer when it's more of a slow-burn which I totally get. In that case, I think that you would really enjoy it. 

One other thing, if you do end up watching the anime, please keep an eye on Akane's drawstring knapsack. I swear in every episode it's a different size. But maybe I'm just crazy. 

Okay, bye! Until next time~

Manga Match 97 More Various Manga I've Read

Pardon if my review seems a bit lackluster, but I'm just trying to wrap up loose ends while I still have time and to go into the new year fresh.

Shinobi Quartet
Ninja reverse harem with a rich daughter that all of them want to protect

:) I hope that this is enough of a synopsis for you to gauge if you want to read it.

It's cute if you're into those otome games where there's various capture targets and they all pretty much like you. I haven't looked that much into it, but if it was based off an otome game I wouldn't be surprised.


I'm a Villainous Daughter so I'm Going to Keep the Last Boss
This is another story with that josei isekai thing going on. This girl reincarnates into her otome game as the villain Irene. She realizes that the way to avoid her bad endings and dying essentially is to capture the Demon King Claude as her own. Along the way she does what every girl in these isekai does and charms everyone with her otherworldliness (surprise surprise) and improves the living conditions of the land. It's surprising how many of these people make soap as the thing they sell in these new worlds, although it does make sense for hygiene reasons. Long story short she ends up in a  fairytale romance with Demon King Claude and they live happily ever after. And Claude is a very wholesome and lovable boy. :)


My Male Friend
This is a Korean manhwa about my favorite trope, say it together with me everyone, the childhood friend trope. It gave me a lot to think about. And it's very very cute. I love this kind of manhwa feeling, it makes me vaguely reminisce about Our Relationship is if you know that manhwa as well.


Mainichi Kiss Shite Ii Desu ka?
Apparently I also read this but never reviewed it. Oops. But it was alright, nothing to write home about.

Manga Match 96 No Longer Heroine

I think I just have a problem where if the manga's morality/believable nature is bad enough, I can't put it down. That's exactly what happened with this manga. Because I think if you've read enough shoujo, you start to put yourself in the main heroine's shoes. That's where the idea of this manga stems from. You believe you're this fairytale perfect heroine that's super righteous and always immaculately beautiful, gracious, and perfect both inside and out. Obviously though we're not all the main heroine of a shoujo manga for one reason or another. So this manga explores the reality of being grounded and not allowing yourself to be swept up in these delusions.

{Spoilers}

The story follows this girl named Hatori that thinks shes the main heroine in this made up love story she came up with in her head between her longtime friend Rita and herself. Rita goes out with any girl that shows interest in him just about, but Hatori plays this off as if it's no big deal. After all, she always tells herself, the end game will be between herself and Rita after all. But in life, there's never any guarantees. Rita ends up falling in love with an unlikely "side character" named Adachi. Their relationship is super wholesome with the cliche "boy protects meek nerdy girl from being bullied and teaches her to love herself" kind of arc. Hatori, of course, sees this and immediately feels threatened. Here comes a genuine heroine that loves Rita, even if she's a bit submissive, and they're living happily. Hatori's place in Rita's life is being claimed by Adachi inch by inch.

Hatori is also kind of a jerk. When she feels her place being threatened, she doggedly pursues Rita, confessing her love finally because she can't stand to see her place being overtaken by this random girl. And I think if you've ever had an unrequited love and were ever too scared to confess, you can really sympathize with Hatori. Of course the way she goes about it is incredibly immoral, but somehow you can't help but feel bad for her in these times of desperation. At least I can, a little oop.

Then along comes another variable to mess things up even more, playboy Hiromitsu. He comes into the picture as this playboy that'll help Hatori forget all about her love woes. And while Hatori's busy trying to suppress her feelings for Rita finally, Rita and Hiromitsu both catch feels for this dumb girl. Okay, I say dumb girl, but please don't take offense. She's just trying her best to forget Rita, even though she obviously can't because she keeps going back to him which just hurts Hiromitsu who genuinely fell in love with her more.

In between this time and the end is this sort of tug of war with Hatori. On one hand, Rita finally loves her back. On the other, she's got this sweet patient boy Hiromitsu who genuinely loves her and wants to treat her right. Maybe I've just got serious sympathy for the second leads, but Hiromitsu is such a nice boy, so why can't Hatori see that?

By the end of the story, Hiromitsu's let go of possibly the first girl he ever truly loved. Adachi realized she can find her own happiness and can be loved. And Rita and Hatori lived happily ever after in their idiotic couple world. Obviously there was a lot more turmoil involved that gave me lots of secondhand stress, but that was the gist of it.

Shoutout to Nakajima for being honestly too good of a friend to Hatori. Even when she kinda caught feels for Rita, she realized what was happening. And she was always so patient and loving towards Hatori, even if it was displayed through lots of tough love. She was the realest one.

Overall, if you've ever felt like shoujo was getting kinda stale and you're looking for a spicy story that's in the same vein as shoujo but a new spin to it, I'd say check this manga out. There's many questionable twists and turns in the story that'll keep you hooked.

Manga Match 95 Happy Cafe

Truly I've been reading this manga that was completed already over a decade ago for a while now. I think I had started it when I was in a place where I just wanted to read something fluffy and completed to distract me from the stressors of daily life I'd been facing during the quarter what with moving in, settling down, learning how to live by myself, how to properly budget but also treat myself well, and how to deal with the massive workload I gave myself. I'm pleased to say that I was able to accomplish all of that with average success, but this was at the expense of my anime/manga time. So, only just now, have I finished this long manga. 

If you're looking for something that's pretty wholesome and is able to distract you momentarily from the stress of living in this world, this is the manga for you. It follows this girl named Uru who's in high school and works part time at a cafe run by two ikemen Shindo and Ichiro. Uru has recently moved out of her mom's house and knows straight away that she wants to work at this cafe because the cakes made by Shindo always fill her with a sense of happiness she wants to give to the world as well. She's the human embodiment of "happy-go-lucky" and nothing much changes throughout the series, except for maybe the arc where the true cause of her father's death comes to light. Other than that, her happy-go-lucky attitude is her driving force throughout the series to act as the glue for all of the cafe customers. In fact, if she wasn't exactly the way she is, I think it'd be hard for so many of the problems the customers came in with to be resolved. Basically, this manga just follows their daily lives in the cafe, as neighbors, and as normal people puzzling out their place in the world. 

And since it's shoujo it always flirts around with this idea of romance among the cafe workers, but we can kind of set that aside, since Shindo is practically handed the title of "main love interest" from the get-go. 

Overall, it's a wholesome manga that adds that little bit of brightness to an otherwise harsh day. I think we could all benefit from internalizing a little bit of Uru's cheer. 

Manga Match 94 Kin no Tamago

It's been so long since I last finished anything or at least it feels that way. The school year is just zipping by with roommate difficulties, academic difficulties, and extracurriculars on top of that. But we're almost done everybody!

{Spoilers, but it's slice of life}

Now, I dunno about y'all, but my classic anime/manga girl reference for ditzy, happy-go-lucky girls is Yui from K-On! So, imagine Yui, except she's a light novel editor for a publishing company. And instead of playing the guitar with her friends and having a grand ol' time, her dream is to publish a novel that sells 10 million copies.

Great, so now after that quick visualization exercise you now have: Sakurai Tamako. Her boss accidentally called her Tamago so that's where the whole golden egg thing came from if you were curious.

This is a really cutesy kind of slice of life meant for you to read after a long and stressful day of school/work. Tamako is just starting out at this publishing company and she has this super ambitious goal to one day publish a work that sells 10 million copies. This doesn't go as smoothly as we might hope, but it's more about enjoying the journey anyways, right? So Tamako ends up having to do tons of research and training reading lots of light novels and going to bookstores and seeing how everyone advertises their products. Her story is basically one of perseverance throughout tough times as you work towards your ambitious goal.

The story stops after 19 chapters and 2 volumes, so we'll never know if Tamako is able to reach her goal, but at her trajectory and with the supporting characters around here I'd say she's got a pretty good chance.

Overall, if you're really stressed out and you just need some cute happy-go-lucky girl with josei manga vibes to unwind, this is the story for you. It's not too heavy and the humor is pretty solid with some nice chuunibyou moments and such that I personally enjoyed. 

Anime ATM 101 Kimetsu no Yaiba

Confession time: I put off watching Demon Slayer until maybe three weeks ago because it's rated R on MAL and the last time I watched something rated R on MAL was ReZero and I couldn't sleep for days after. And because I love myself and didn't want to not be able to sleep again I refrained. I was pretty adamant about not watching it, but I was eventually persuaded because my housemates said they would watch it with me.

{Spoilers, but so many memes are out there you've probably seen the equivalent of the anime}

For the first couple of episodes, my housemates would say "warning" before any blood showed up. And for the first half of the season I was super disturbed. But I figured that you know I'm 20 years old now so I should be able to handle it now. I'm a strong independent woman and I can for sure watch gore and demons no big deallll. And even though I watched the entirety of this season, I can't say that I could handle anything more gore-y. Already this was kind of hard to watch at some points. *wheeze*

So, as we all probably know at this point, the concept of Demon Slayer is that there's this boy named Tanjiro who's really hardworking and wholesome. One day he goes to town to sell firewood to provide for his family and comes home to his whole family slaughtered and his sister Nezuko who "survived" but is now a demon. RIP the most cute checkered family :(

With a crazed Nezuko in tow, Tanjiro runs into Giyu who's the first demon slayer he's encountered. Because apparently in this world, demons aren't commonly encountered and most people don't even know about their existence. With Giyu trying to kill the only surviving member of Tanjiro's family, Tanjiro stands up against him to protect her and earns Giyu's respect I guess? So then off Tanjiro and Nezuko go to Urokodaki's house for Tanjiro to train to be a demon slayer. All the while Tanjiro's training for the Final Selection where he would go, as the name would suggest, to the final trial for him to become an official demon slayer to avenge his family.

The arc with Urokodaki and all of the children that he trained to go to the Final Selection that died was a really well-emotionally developed story line. It showed the anguish and difficulty people that want to become demon slayers must take and how it's not without risk. And I think that even though the demons are so ugly, they juxtapose the demon slayers so well in making their feats even more impressive. (LOL if this sounds terrible it's because I'm exhausted and my apartmentmates are playing MarioKart behind me)

One of the charms of Demon Slayer is how well-developed all of the characters are. Even though Tanjiro could come off as "holier than thou" because he's so wholesome and genuinely compassionate towards everyone around him, it wasn't ever annoying or overbearing. This is probably because the man's work ethic is actually insane. And the way that he cares for Nezuko is really amazing like he just carries her in the wooden box on his back for miles and miles even when he's injured.

Because the season is 26 episodes, I kinda feel reluctant to go through each of the arcs. But they linked nicely together with only a few filler episodes in between that felt more like a welcome reprieve for our heroes to rest up while they trained for the next battle instead of a complete waste of time. And every time they were in the middle of an arc and the episodes would end it would be almost a given that there was a cliffhanger. That's one of the reasons I was happy to binge the show because the cliffhangers weren't too bad on my part. Especially during the spider arc that went on for what seemed like forever, it was handy that all of the episodes were out by the time I started watching.

As I finish up the season, V has actually just started it (honestly one of the only times in this day and age that I'll have watched a show before him) and he says that the first two episodes outline a plot very similar to Jojo. Personally I haven't watched Jojo, but even so, this is amazing.

Especially the final fight with one of the Lower 12 when it was Tanjiro and Nezuko against Rui, visually the whole fight sequence was amazing. In general, the way that they animated the show was so engaging and beautiful, it was hard to tear your eyes away from the screen.

As all shounen hero anime go, a lot of this show was about personal growth and development to defeat the bad guy. However, it was so interesting to watch with all of the interesting and unique characters like Inosuke with his pig head and Zenitsu with his awesome lightning power but cowardly nature. And the Hashima! They're so cool! Everyone is honestly so cool in this show because of their power/specialty. So no I didn't get bored with the endless cycle of personal growth, probably because Tanjiro is so hardworking and the gore kept me on my toes.

Overall, I think this was the most hyped anime of the season and it was well-deserved. It also has this season's best girl, cutie Nezuko who really stole the show. But just the way that they would animate the characters with vacant eyes were super cute as well hehe. And Kanao!! Such a cutie!! It was a good balance of cool powers and fight sequences, scary gore scenes, and engaging characters.

It was refreshing to watch. It's been a long time since I thoroughly enjoyed a show and couldn't put it down this way. It reminded me once again of why I fell in love with and started watching copious amounts of anime in the first place.

Honestly I'm kind of disappointed in how unable I've become in conveying how amazing this show was and I should've allowed myself more time to just soak in how impactful the show was, but alas I just jumped in headfirst. So, just know that even if my review is quite brief and all over the place, I genuinely enjoyed watching Demon Slayer. It was especially cute to watch it together with my housemates hehe.

Manga Match 93 Cardcaptor Sakura

This is a real childhood nostalgia moment for me. When I was in elementary school, before I knew anything about the world of anime and manga, I went to the bookstore with my grandparents and encountered Cardcaptor Sakura in the form of this tome of comics that you read from right to left. I didn't know what manga was and I didn't really know what I was getting into, but I really liked that book. I liked it so much that I tried to find more online and I found these random, really poor quality rips of the anime on Youtube or something and watched those. But then someone took them down I think so that was the short life of my independently discovered love of this manga. 

Fast forward like 10 years and I finally finished the manga. To be honest, I think I had the second or third volume of the manga all along, because only halfway through did things start to look familiar and it made sense why I was always so confused over what was happening. 

{Spoilers, but it's pretty cutesy so not a whole lot of plot twist}

As we all know, Cardcaptor Sakura is a magical girl manga created by the iconic CLAMP. It centers around this elementary school girl Sakura and her quest commissioned by Kero-chan (aka Kerberos) to capture all the unruly Clow Cards wreaking havoc on her city. Clow Cards are kind of like spirits trapped inside each of the cards with a different power such as illusion or fire and were all created by this famous powerful magician named Clow Reed. Sakura goes around with her friend Tomoyo and later on Shaoran to capture the cards. This is the basic summary of the first arc anyway. In the second arc, Clow Reed's presence is mysteriously felt after the Clow Cards have been captured and mischief is afoot once again in the city. To deal with this new obstacle, Sakura changes the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards and becomes more powerful along the way. At the pinnacle of this second arc, Clow reveals himself to be reincarnated as Eriol, a transfer student in Sakura's class. He needed Sakura to gain magical strength in order to split his magic into two so that he was no longer the most powerful magician and could live a normal life. 

While the plot may seem a little bit childish and like every hero story, I think there's a bit of charm to be found in the whimsy of childhood found in this manga. Because it centers around elementary school children there's lots of wonder and innocence to be found. And there's quite a bit of diversity in terms of Yukito and Touya being a canon ship as well as Tomoyo's unrequited love for Sakura. 

Maybe I'm just partial due to the childhood nostalgia factor, but this was such a fun read. It really brought me back to my little magical girl stint and made me really appreciate the genre once again. I think it's obvious that I'd say you should read the manga. It's full of a little girl with a can-do and hopeful spirit saving the world and all of her friends supporting her along the way. It's wholesome and whimsical and delightful beyond words and I think if you like my recommendations, you'll find this one to your liking as well!

Manga Match 92 Heavy Object + Itsuka no Haru

I don't want to spend too much time talking about Heavy Object. It was slightly perverse with a really rushed plot that randomly took place in Alaska with a few heroic individuals and was altogether just ok. I think V thought it was worth a go since my unexpected genre that I enjoy is mecha. But...these mechs weren't super cool. It was just ok. 

Would I recommend this? I'd say that maybe because of how short it was, 5 chapters, maybe it's worth a quick read? But honestly they reach a little too far for my liking for the jokes and it was pretty rushed. So otherwise, I think you can find some anime at least that are a lot better (haven't really gotten into mecha manga much yet so I can't vouch for that medium but I'd assume as well that the longer series are probably more worth it in terms of return on investment).

The next manga I want to talk about it Itsuka no Haru. I know how in After the Rain I kind of bashed the age gap. I think it's just because they're in such different places in their lives that it just seemed a little bit of a stretch. But in this one, I guess the age gap is a little less so it's kind of ok? Maybe I'm just trying to justify myself here. Anyways, this is a short little story of Yui and how she helps her classmate that's actually 10 years older than anyone in her class experience his youth. It's a bit touching when they explain that Itsuka had to drop out of high school in order to take over his family's soy sauce company after his parents pass in order to carry on the tradition and provide for his family. I think I just have a soft spot for these kinds of touching backstories that just add to a character's dimension though. In general, the story is kind of basic, but it's just really cute to see this guy that was robbed of his high school life get to go back and reclaim his youth in a way. And the romance is just an added bonus hehe. I know, I'm just shoujo trash, whatever!

And would I recommend this? Yeah I think that it's pretty cute and a short read for some quick doki-dokis. Hmmm...comparing the two manga of similar length with different content...I wonder if I'm biased hehe whatever.

Anime ATM 100 Koi wa Ameagari no You ni

I do realize that there are many many many great anime out there that I have yet to experience. And I also acknowledge that if I don't really like an anime I can just drop it. I further acknowledge that my taste has become trash because I just watch whatever gets put in front of me. Now that we've addressed all of my various shortcomings in the world of anime, shall we discuss Koi wa Ameagari no You ni otherwise known as After the Rain?

{Spoilers}

In terms of atmosphere and setting the mood, the show is very successful. It's got this rainy day aesthetic where it's always almost about to rain, in the midst of raining, or just after the rain...as the title of the show would suggest. As a self-proclaimed pluviophile, I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the show!

Alright, to start my short synopsis of the show, it would be something along the lines of: there's this girl named Tachibana that's a junior in high school who used to be on the track and field team until she experienced a horrible injury to her Achilles tendon. In despair over her injury, she finds refuge on a rainy day in a cafe/family diner where she encounters its middle aged manager that cheers her up with some cheap magic trick. From then on, she falls in love with the cafe's manager Kondou and works part time there in lieu of after school track activities. The story mainly follows these two and Tachibana's honestly taboo love for the manager who's deep in the middle ages of his life at 45. However, I think it went in a different direction than I was expecting. I was expecting the manager to be kind of reckless and accept Tachibana's love as some sort of honor like "oh I've still got it and I can date a high school girl even though this is blatant pedophilia." However, the show takes a twist on this expectation of mine and instead replaces it with this clumsy love that I can almost support. Tachibana herself is a little socially awkward, not being of many words but having a truly kind heart. The manager is kind of the same, a very sweet and soft-spoken guy that according to Nishida, another waitress at the diner, kind of stinks lol. He kind of gives off the vibes of a pushover that just lets everyone walk all over him. For the first part of the show, he stays as this confusing object of Tachibana's love, but even his backstory is explored. In the past he was a college student with big dreams of being a novelist, but life got in the way and he ended up divorced and the manager of a diner, too scared to write anymore and disappoint his younger self. When he encounters his old college friend Kujou who acts as a foil for his character, being almost everything that Kondou isn't.

By the end of it, I think the relationship between the two of them as well as everyone surrounding them pushed them to revitalize their dreams and chase after them. We left off at a bit of an ambiguous ending in terms of if Kondou and Tachibana ever get together, but it was a bittersweet kind of ending that I really didn't mind.

Overall, I would say it was visually very beautiful. It's the kind of anime that I see a lot of those people who make AMVs and compilation videos pulling from. In terms of actual content though, it was pretty slow and soft-spoken, if you could use human attributes to describe anime and not be weird lol. I'd say there's definitely a market for this kind of thing, especially if you're looking for some kind of age gap anime or some pseudo-romance type of thing. However, I wasn't absolutely blown away.

Manga Match 91 Various Manga I've Completed

Here's a compilation of manga that I've read that haven't left enough of an impact on me for them to receive separate posts about them. This could be entirely because I've forgotten to do a post for them right after completion (this is actually the case but I'm trying to justify my actions) or because they didn't inspire me to write a post about them up until now. 

First we're going to start off with one that's actually a completed version of this newer subgenre of isekai where it's usually a girl that dies and is reborn into an otome game or a fantasy world where magic is real. Yeah, from my brief description it doesn't seem all that interesting, but I've really enjoyed discovering new isekai from a female's perspective. The only downside is that I think that this subgenre has only caught on recently, and thus there aren't many that are completed. This is one of the few that are. It's called Eh? Heibon Desu yo?? which is an interesting title in and of itself with the punctuation and colloquial nature of it.

It follows the rebirth of this ordinary schoolgirl from Japan that dies in a tragic accident and by "transmigration" ends up reborn as a baby in this fantasy land as the daughter of a count. Her father looks after the surrounding land and she uses knowledge from her past life in order to improve life in this new world. That's basically it. She teaches them things like how to increase crop productivity and about prenatal care, as well as alternative cooking techniques. It's a pretty mundane (in a good way) isekai about this little girl trying to do her best for everyone in the surrounding area. There is this one part that focuses on how OP her powers are, but overall it's just a very cute and calm story.

I'd say that if you're looking to be introduced into this new subgenre or you're like me and you're head over heels for this type of isekai and are looking for a completed one that this is a good read. It's 18 chapters so it's relatively short and it's lowkey realistic too with some pretty cute worldbuilding aspects as well.

This second manga is called Kaichou-kun no Shimobe and it features a closet otaku girl that lives a humble life, Hirayama, and a two-faced popular school president that's secretly the next head of the yakuza, Kujou. The story itself reminds me a little bit of Wolf Girl Black Prince, but with less romance and more conflict between the two main characters. This one is definitely more of a comedy with Kujou being almost a completely delusional idiot. Despite his outward appearance of someone put together and cool, Kujou is actually directionally challenged, not good at fighting, unable to swim, and is full of himself among other questionable character attributes. Hirayama on the other hand is a hard-working girl that just wants to draw her fan manga for Comiket and such, but doesn't want to be exposed at school for being an otaku so she's basically enslaved by Kujou. The story loosely follows Kujou's journey to become less of a self-entitled brat, as well as a spicy little subplot in there about how Hirayama and Kujou first met as children and led Kujou to believe that she was his fated fiancee through a tragic misunderstanding on his part.

I'd recommend it if you're looking for something that's definitely more of a comedy and if you get a kick out of kinda dumb characters like Kujou. I think that you'll find the yakuza portion of the story surprising as well. There's not a heavy plotline to follow or anything, but it's an interesting read.

The third manga was quite surprising. I think I found out about it through a collection of manga focusing on the theme of aliens. It reminds me kind of that series by Stephanie Meyer's The Host (yes I know the author of Twilight whatever) with the whole aliens taking over the bodies of humans thing. It focused on this girl named Chiyo and this popular guy she has a crush on named Tsubaki. The relationship between the two is just one sided love on Chiyo's part with Tsubaki treating her like the mortal enemy. This seems like the normal set up for a shoujo, but there's a twist when, due to various circumstances, an alien comes to inhabit Tsubaki's body. The alien goes by the name of Shin-sama and when Shin-sama is in control of the body Tsubaki doesn't remember any of what occurs during that time. Chiyo is conflicted because Shin-sama looks like Tsubaki and is actually nice to her which is kind of a dream come true. The only catch is that Tsubaki dies a little more the longer Shin-sama inhabits the body. And so, eventually the romance between Shin-sama and Chiyo is cut short as Shin-sama's friend's UFO comes to take him(?) away. And Tsubaki has changed too and become less of a jerk and more of a sweet and sensitive dude. So then Chiyo and Tsubaki end up going out...which I don't really know how I feel about this whole thing. And Shin-sama comes back to Earth and possesses a dog, only to see Chiyo end up with Tsubaki, the guy she's liked all along. And I really felt for Shin-sama because he loved Chiyo, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

It really was a wack manga. There were so many times I thought to myself "wtf am I reading?" in a good way. The feeling I got from the story itself was also super intriguing. The art style was a little strange for my tastes, but I think that's just the style from that time. I'd really recommend it. It's a short 7 chapter read for something that's very unique.

Manga Match 90 Classi9

You know, when I picked this manga up I didn't expect to love it so much. I hadn't even realized that I liked it until I got to the end and the scanlator said something along the lines of "even though the ending was rushed because the manga got discontinued, it was still good" which is a sentiment I share. There were a ton of screenshot-worthy and picturesque moments to capture that are both aesthetically pleasing and emotion evoking. Is emotion evoking even a proper phrase?

{Spoilers, but it's pretty light-hearted slice of life}

This story takes place in Vienna with a bunch of famous musicians you've probably heard of all enrolled in the same school. It fallows Taki Ren's experience through the school with familiar arcs such as the music festival and internal competition which could be likened to a school festival and sports competition of sorts. The only thing is, this school is an all-boys academy, so for Ren to enroll, she has to hide her identity and pretend to be a man.

She encounters many famous musicians who are with her in the trouble-making class S- which include Wagner, Back, Hadyn, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky. Those names should be pretty familiar to you. Each of these famous musicians (and a few bonus characters) are portrayed in the manga in a way vaguely similar to their real life historical counterparts, but with a few artistic liberties taken to make them more personable and engaging in the story. Overall, all of these musicians will wiggle their way into your heart and make you feel like you know each of them by the end. Personally, when the cast of characters is this large, I tend to lose track of who is who and end up frustrated because it seems like a fruitless exercise to get to know everyone. Perhaps because all of their names are familiar or perhaps because each of their personalities and dynamics were so unique, I didn't have quite the same trouble trying to remember everyone's names!

Because this is a slice of life kind of manga, there's no definitive plot per say. It's more about the camaraderie that develops between Class S- and some of the funny antics they get up to because of their eccentric personalities. The class as a whole starts to get closer with the introduction of Ren who catalyzes their relationships into a more intimate one of familial ties which is pretty cute to watch unfold.

Overall, I definitely didn't do a good time persuading anyone to read this. But you should read it regardless of my execution because the story is so good. Usually with manga that have a similar premise, they lose themselves when the plot starts to revolve only around romance. In this case, the romance takes the back seat as each of the musicians works to build the others up and enjoy their time at the school. 10/10 would recommend. I'm not sure why the manga was cut short, but it was wrapped up nicely with a bow of an ending with all of the feels that I'm certain you will enjoy.

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. This is Chopin, the poet of piano, playing for Liszt and Ren and it looks like they've been transported to an underwater wonderland. Just looking at this image gives me goosebumps.

The internal competition is something that I think, if the manga were to go on, would definitely be a "redemption round" kind of arc if they were to continue on for another year. I mean just look at all these cinnamon rolls helping out their friend.

This whole section of trading partners was amazing. I haven't seen anything quite like this in terms of utilizing both sides of a page in order to create this kind of intimate moment. It weirdly enough reminded me of a father-daughter dance at weddings? 

Putting together these screenshots of the manga, I realized that it's been a long time since I've done screenshots. But I hadn't really felt compelled to, even for this manga, until I saw that scene with Chopin playing the piano. I even read past that part and meant to continue my streak of not including pictures, but I just had to go back and capture this. Please please read this! It's so good and so worth it.