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.

Anime ATM 77 Little Witch Academia {First Cour}

So as I was buckling down to write the review for LWA, V informed me that the first "season" as denoted on Netflix was actually just the first cour. Then I proceeded to google said "cour" and learned that the first twelve episodes are in fact just the first half of the season. But since I had already mentally prepared to write the review, I will just give my thoughts on the first half first. Although it does make sense that the first 12 were just the first half of one season because honestly the last episode didn't seem like an end, it seemed like just a continuation. Why does Netflix have to be so complicated? In all seriousness I picked up this series in the beginning because of V. He said it replaced his current faves, or something like that I forgot the exact wording verbatim hehe, and I was shook. If V says its good enough to rewatch and he had such strong feelings about the cast I knew I had to watch it!

{Spoilers}

I think what makes this series so great is the amazing set of characters. They're all a little bit quirky, but at the same time you've seen those kinds of characters time and time again which makes them seem familiar. For example I see a lot of Yui from K-On in Akko. They're both a bit ditzy and not that into studying the traditional way, but when they've got their mind set on something they don't let anything get in their way. I think this familiar character gives a lot of people someone to connect to. Not everyone can be perfectly selfless and intelligent like Diana, but I think many people can resonate with Akko and her awkward but lovable self. Additionally I love how hardworking and unconventional Akko is. She's not from a witch family and while that's already a big disadvantage, all she can think about is how she wants to become like her idol Shiny Chariot. Personally I can't relate to wanting to be exactly like another person, but the idea of aspiring to become something greater than yourself is a beautiful thing. She's not afraid to break or bend the rules a little bit either. She doesn't let the fear of failure get in the way of her trying things. Episode 12 is a good example of this. Even though she was stuck with the grossest job for the festival, she wanted to do something to help the cursed spirit. It was a desire born of the unselfish desire to cheer up the spirit. And what's even more phenomenal about her character is that she still wants to go ahead with her plan when everyone else thinks she should just stick with the traditional way. Her radical mindset is both an inspiration to the characters in the show, but radical and world-shaking, rule-bending people should be embraced and nurtured in this world. I think that they should be the example we follow in order to change the world to be better. I think I see many parallels between myself and Lotte. She's definitely a fangirl and someone that blends into the background more than anything, but she has firm beliefs and always wants to support her friends. Another interesting character is Sucy. Her obsession with mushrooms is definitely creepy and you get that sort of occult, creepy witch vibe from her, but the episode of Akko in Sucyland really solidified how great of a character Sucy is. In the episode Akko walks through Sucyland and sees all the aspects of Sucy that she didn't normally see. I think that's some great insight into how a lot of these characters and the people around you seem kind of plain or one dimensional, but that's just on the surface. Beneath that is really interesting and surprising aspects of people. I think my personal favorite Sucy was the spit on the world Sucy. It was such an interesting Sucy. I'd definitely recommend that you watch even just for the characters. They seem really familiar, but at the same time it's these types of characters that I find are often extremely relatable and easy to connect to.

Another enjoyable aspect of this show is the different arcs. I briefly touched upon the Sucy episode which was already a masterpiece in and of itself. I like how each episode is kind of its own entity. It's got its own standalone quality that makes it a joy to watch. Another episode I really like is episode 7. It's the episode where midterms are coming around and Akko realizes that the fish that everyone is looking at in class is actually the teacher. Honestly V told me about this episode before I even started the show and without even seeing it I was so hyped. It was super ridiculous, but that was actually the best episode in terms of comedy. It was just a series of mildly unfortunate events that all together accumulated into this great episode. I can't even put into words how truly entertained I was by that episode so I'll just have to highly highly recommend that you watch at least that episode. Another episode that satisfied my hankering for shoujo was episode 10. It was super cute with more slightly unfortunate events consisting of a cupid bee and the Akko x Andrew ship sailing. But honestly the part that had me super ecstatic was when all the guys that were stung by the cupid bee and fell in love with Lotte brushed her off and she was super sad and then Frank came by and swooped in like the amazing and underrated secondary character he is. Honestly I'm so passionate about Lotte x Frank you don't even understand. The ships in this show are real and I'm very moved by them actually. You know when the characters are so cute and so precious that you just want the absolute best for them? My favorite pastime is to root for imaginary characters :').

One thing that almost slipped my mind about the universe of LWA is the role that witches play in this world. They're not revered anymore and magic is starting to fall out of favor in lieu of technology. The school is starting to run out of money which is the whole reason why they decided to accept Akko in the first place. But in fact Akko could be the second coming of the golden magical era. Perhaps she and Diana will band together in an effort to revive magic. One thing I'm worried about though is that if they do end up doing that, what if magic just becomes a parlor trick or something for entertainment? Why can't witches do magic without the sorcerer's stone anymore? It's definitely food for thought and I don't really know what to think. It could be due to the fact that I'm running on not that much sleep because I have zero self control, or because my analytical brain is being drowned out by my animal instinct to just feel distressed and drown in the stress that I brought upon myself. Who knows?

OMG and the episode with Lotte and Night Fall. The Twilight ripoff. LOOOL. Honestly I think if I was more observant then I would be able to see more references heh

And so that was my short little blurb on LWA first cour. I will be back with the full review probably in the next week, possibly two weeks. Overall I'm sure you can tell how absolutely precious this show was. I've got a lot more to say on characters like Diana and Chariot and the whole universe they're in, but I think I'll save that for when I've finished the whole thing. V says the Diana arc is really interesting and will give me a 180 on my opinion about her character and I can't wait. So instead of closing with my final remarks, I'll just say that this was a great start and it'll be bittersweet to finish. I'm not like V, I don't usually rewatch because there's so many things I've yet to watch. What can I say? I'm a novelty hunter.

Disclaimer: The screenshots you're about to see are from V and they seem lowkey blurry but I appreciate that he let me use them. TY V :)))))))))))))

Wow it's me!

From the funniest episode in the series. The face of regret.

Haruhi Suzumiya is that you?

And this was the best shoujo episode. TY again V

Anime ATM 76 Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun

I find that a good portion of my life is spent saying no to people. I say no when they want to go out because of my social anxiety, I say no when they want to play sports because I'm afraid of looking like a fool, I say no when they recommend me anime because I know I shouldn't watch more or it doesn't sound all that appealing to me, but then I end up, for one reason or another, watching it. It's a vicious cycle that I'm trying to ease out of. I'm trying to say yes to more things. I'm trying not to get too in my head about whether people view me a certain way. It's definitely a process. There's some days when I wake up and I'm like wow I'm a terrible person with no good points, but honestly I'm so blessed to even have these thoughts. I'm blessed that I have the time to think about myself, to think about something beyond my survival. I'm so extremely blessed and to think less of that is ridiculous. 

On another note, one thing I'm particularly blessed for is the conversations I've been able to have in college. Because everyone has so much to say. Everyone has such an interesting story and so many layers to them and are so introspective and open to share parts of their souls or their opinions and to justify them that it makes me really appreciate the higher education system which wants you to be a little bit more introspective. But more than that, it's the people that have come into my life and opened up a line of communication, those are the people that make me feel truly honored to have such friends. It's interesting how we can have a lot of different views on certain things, but at the same time they're all so open to hearing opinions and justifications of the other side. I think there's something really beautiful about that.

LOL wow maybe I should just start a lifestyle/introspection blog instead. JK you came here for the animu and the animu I shall review~

{Spoilers}

Originally I put this on my to-watch list because I saw the clip of Umeya quitting judo to pursue his interest in Gotou. It wasn't that big of a deal, but I guess in my mind I thought it would be more of a rom-com? And there definitely are some scenes that could be considered rom-com or at least a parody of it, but for the most part it's just comedy. It's this great sports anime that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's got a variety of people and I love how it doesn't focus just on Aoyama. In fact, if anything, Aoyama is the reason why you start the show, and then as you see all the different episodes featuring different people and the comedic bits they throw in you start to further understand why it's a great anime and why you should keep watching.

Just to further elaborate on my favorite aspect of this anime, or most anime I guess, characters, I really like how ridiculous they all are. They're all super unexpected and a bit bizarre, but if they didn't have such eccentric characters it wouldn't be the same. To start off with the guy who's name is in the title, Aoyama is a complete germophobe. In all the scenes you see him constantly cleaning everything until it's sparkling. He hates people touching him and he hates getting dirty, two things that are inevitable when you play any sport. 

However, in his heart of hearts he can't give up soccer. 

And it's really sweet. Because he's famous for the last five minutes of the game when he loses all inhibition and sacrifices his cleanliness for his desire to win. And while this explanation seems like he's completely self-absorbed, or not as connected to his teammates, what he lacks in physical connection to his team he makes up in his perceptiveness. He can see when his team is feeling down and does whatever he can to increase the morale of his team. In that way it makes him that much more of a complex and admirable character that doesn't leave his team behind in order to win. Maybe it's because of the team aspect of soccer, but Aoyama is an empathetic boy that just happens to show that he cares in a different way. It's also revealed in episode 7 that Aoyama does want to touch people and live a normal life, but he just can't because of his germophobic tendencies. This gave his character so much depth and honestly made me a little bit too sad. Like he wants so much to live a normal life, but he just can't because the world is too dirty. But having a germophobe character is still pretty funny, not to make light of people that do live like that, I'm sure it's a super high stress mindset of everything being unclean and it'd probably distract you from living a "normal" life, but some of the aspects of his character are so ridiculous. Like the reason he came to Fujimi High School was because of the white uniforms and the toilets.

Speaking of ridiculous characters, actually that's not even a good segue because they're literally all ridiculous, is Zaizen. He's our resident rich, spoiled boy. Going off of the OP it seemed like there'd be this really deeply rooted rivalry between Zaizen and Aoyama, but surprisingly there wasn't. Sure there were times when Zaizen would criticize Aoyama for being a useless germophobe, but Aoyama was also the reason they had a chance to progress farther in the soccer competition than ever before. Zaizen is actually a pretty big softie. He gave up the number 10 jersey to Aoyama which I'm sure took a great deal of selflessness, plus the fact that he's also a little bit of a tsundere also makes things a bit more interesting. 

Another funny thing about Zaizen is his family. His dad literally sees money as no object, like he would've paid the soccer coach, who by the way is such a closet soccer anime otaku and doesn't get enough screen time, just to put his son on the starting eleven. And the whole training camp episode was completely and utterly ridiculous, but also tons of fun because of Zaizen and his extra af family. I also really appreciated the small detail of Zaizen always slipping up when referring to his dad. Like he would always start off saying Papa and then revert to old man, which is both funny that he had to put up a cool facade in front of his teammates, but also ridiculous.

Probably the most ridiculous part of Zaizen's character is his mom. Like the way he described her made her seem like she was dead, but actually she was doing charity work for 5 years. Like who is this woman?

Yet another ridiculous character was Umeya. This dude trained his whole life to become a judo champion. And then overnight decides that he wants to be a part of the soccer club over a girl. Who is this man?

And it's so sweet because he understands that Gotou can't love him right now because her heart belongs to Aoyama and instead of being bitter about it and trying to sabotage her love for Aoyama, instead he becomes her wingman. His ultimate goal is to wait it out and for her to eventually fall in love with him which I can see happening, albeit it is a bit of a long-term goal, but it's still pretty sweet. Or maybe I just like the idea of unwavering love. In any case it was a pretty romantic episode.

A particularly large part of the show was actually taken up by the infamous three stooges of the soccer club. They had a surprising amount of screen time, maybe because the creators realized how important goofy characters were in transforming this from a regular sports anime to a comedic sports anime. For example Tsukamoto and his butt keepie uppie seemed like a running gag joke, but it actually got really deep in the episode where he faced the school his middle school bully attended. He was brought back to his childhood trauma and faced this mental block. This could've been the end of Tsukamoto, but Aoyama saw this and used it as a chance to increase his morale. It's times like these that are really important in team sports anime, that raise the feeling of camaraderie and support among the characters. But beyond that they were honestly the most relatable of all the characters. They remind me of me and my friends. Especially the last picture. That's us dissociating.

I saved my absolute favorite to last. I love Gotou Moka. First of all I don't think I've watched another anime where there's a girl named Moka. The name is so cute. I really like how she's kind of creepy, but in an endearing way. Like she got all these tools to unlock the soccer club's clubroom just to clean it and help out Aoyama. The way she works so hard for Aoyama and just wants him to do well is super cute and you can't help but root for her too. But I think my favorite part about her is how she looks super cute and when you see her around Aoyama she's a little shimmering star and then when people threaten Aoyama or do stupid stuff she pulls out the bat with nails, flowers and kittens on it. Like it's actually the best thing. I love how her character has the quality of duality. Like she makes these cute little stuffed animals and is a super kindhearted person, but she's also not a pushover. She knows what she believes in and she's just the best.

Something that made the show extra comedic and easier to take lightly was how often and easily the characters would transition from regular to chibi. It's hard to take them seriously when they look so cute and pudgy. That was pretty random, but I also think it was a good decision to make stylistically to convey the fun, lighthearted feeling that this series exudes. 

If you haven't figured out by now, this show is driven by characters. There is somewhat of an underlying plot of them wanting to get past the preliminaries and maybe even to nationals, but that's kind of lost in everything else. There's definitely a diverse cast and you won't get bored of seeing them do dumb stuff. I could go deeper into each of the characters, but honestly I think you'd benefit more from just watching it. Even if you don't really like sports anime or you think that sometimes the gay ships are too much for you, I think this one has enough slice of life and comedy to change your mind a little bit about sports anime. Not to say that this is like your usual sports anime because it most definitely isn't, but it's still a nice way to dip your toes in the water. Overall it was a great season of a new twist on a sports anime that I enjoyed. The art was spectacular and the OP was super artsy and had a great mood and feeling to it. The ED is a bit more of an acquired taste wit the vintage kind of art style. I know I missed a lot like the mangaka or the fellow clean freak, but I never said I was comprehensive. Teehee~

Some more side characters with interesting quirks lol

I love how they felt the need to add these disclaimers. Like I'm definitely gonna ride my bike like these people now because I saw it in a show

There are so many ridiculous things going on here. Like the three stooges spying on them. Or Umeya making the victory symbol as if Aoyama wouldn't see it. Or the judo captain with some cloth to blend into the wall?

Aoyama is a man of few words which is pretty funny. Like it makes you appreciate when he speaks a lot more. But my friend and I were also talking about whether or not we thought that the voice actor was particularly suited to him and couldn't really come up with a consensus. What are your thoughts? Peep that love triangle though!

And I'll leave you with this sequence because it's perfection. I'm obsessed with the cool tones they used for this show overall. Beautiful aesthetic oml