Sad day in the anime world

*Includes spoilers. (I'll spoil all over that baby, oh yea.) All media credits go to their owners.*

I didn't actually feel like writing anything this week. Today, on the 30th of March, I watched the last episode of Fairy Tail. And it was damn good. So damn good that I want to hit some people in the face with a brick for cancelling the show. ;_;
I don't feel like going over the ending and all the speculations regarding the 7th of July and the dragon king and the girl in Zeref's cloak, but I might at some point in the future. Though I will say this - if Mashima kills off Gajeel, based on Levy's last words, I'm actually going to write him a very nasty letter.
I think I'm going to re-watch the whole thing, just so that I wouldn't miss FT too much. Gyaah :(

Well in general I have been watching a bit of anime. I went on with Itazura na Kiss just to stop watching it again. That Irie-kun is a massive dickhead. No joke. I mean sure, the female lead is a horribly retarded girl and I don't know how anyone could be attracted to such a Tsukino Usagi rip-off, but that doesn't give Irie Naoki the right to bash her every possible moment. Also - to recite her love letter in front of the entire family? Dick move, bro!
So I just stopped. The badness of the show made my lose some brain cells, I'm sure. 

But then I stumbled upon a weird thing called Otona Joshi no Anime Time meaning something like Anime Time for Adult Women. The part that I happened to watch was the so-called season two, with only three episodes in it. Not that season one would have been any better - there was only one episode in that, I think. Anyway, consisting of three stories, it followed the lives of three women, living with their pain and joy. Although most of the stories were pretty depressive, I really liked one of them. It was the second story named "Life's Best 10". The heroine Hatoko was a pretty successful magazine editor(ish) lady, nearing her 40th birthday. She wasn't married and had no children. So every time she felt sad or lonely, she would think about the most vivid moments in her life - in total there were actually only 6. But the best belonged to a summer in her middle school, where she dated a boy for only three weeks - after which he stopped taking her calls and went out with other girls. Again, dick move, bro.

So nearing her 40th birthday, there was a middle school reunion coming up. And Hatoko was determined to meet up with the best memory of her life. And she did. And they slept together. Except that in the end, she found out that the guy was an impostor. And you know what? She found it to be the new most memorable moment of her life. How so exactly? Well you'll have to watch it to find out. But I really liked that attitude. Where others would have been hurt by the deception, she found it to be revitalizing. Good for you, girl!
 

Then I also watched a Korean animation, Yobi, The Five-Tailed Fox. It had aliens, a kyuubi, a portal to the underworld, a shadow-man, a love story, a kyuubi-hunter, a flying bus... come to think of it, what DIDN'T it have...

It was completely weird. I though I was already accustomed to the Asian peculiarity, but this was a whole other level. It could've actually been pretty heart warming, except that the crazy kind of sucked it out. At least for me. I mean c'mon - it was a story about a fox spirit of the mountain that was adopted by the aliens. I'm sorry I couldn't take it seriously.
I really prefer Japanese weird. Well... to some point ^^

Anyway, that's it for today.  

Spring season

*All media credits go to their owners.*

Well now. Today I just had a look at what seems to be interesting in the new season of Spring 2013. Here's a general overview, you can have a look at it yourself.

Well this Karneval is a maaaaaybe. I might have a look at it, but in general it looks a bit too flashy. Also the topic of 'secret organization that fights crime' sounds like something I've seen a hundred times. Well I'll have a look, anyway.
The next one that looks interesting from that list is Shingeki no Kyojin or Attack on Titan. Though I have to admit that the revenge topic doesn't sound like something extremely new either, this titans theme is pretty exciting. Like really, they seem to be huge on the picture. I'm intrigued! Gonna check that out!
Then Date A Live sounds like another random teenage romance anime, but since it has time-space-whatnot topic in there, I might actually have a look. Not expecting too much though.
Now Devil Survivor looks like something that might actually be good. If they pull it off of course. The topic of death and death gods and demons is always alluring and ever since Death Note, I'm pretty sure everyone is eager to see another epic mind-play. I will definitely keep my fingers crossed for this one. Since it's based on a game and I for one have never even heard about it, I won't get my hopes up too high. But the cast seems pretty decent - Suwabe Junichi (Grimmjow), Sakurai Takahiro (Kururugi Suzaku and Namikawa Daisuke (Gray (FT)) among others.
I'm also going to check out Red Data Girl. Not for any particular reason. Well, I like Fukuyama Jun (Lelouch). And I liked the picture on ANN.
Then Yahari, Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru or My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong, As Expected looks like something I'll probably have a look at. Not that I'd be too into the very likely tsundere situation there, but hey - why not? I'm probably not too into all the space topics they are offering us this season, might as well try the romance ones.
That Mushibugyo sounds like some shounen - so I'm definitely going to have a look at that. Also, the blonde guy in the background of Arata Kangatari has sweet abs - totally going to check that out :D

And that's that. The rest of it looks either too cute or too sci-fi. How many potential animes did I get now? Okay, that's eight. Out of those I expect 3 to be worth anything. Lets hope I'm right.

Two major disappointments though. First, naturally, the cancelling of Fairy Tail. I still cannot believe it. I read on some forums that apparently it's due to several factors: continuously low ratings and sales (I'm guessing ever since that starry heavens arc? Cause that was god damn boring and the latest arc is the best there has been so far, so it wouldn't make sense for the last one to cause the drop, right?), Hirano Aya (Lucy) hating all otaku and wanting to quit her seiyuu career all in all, and to give the manga time to get a bit further ahead. Whether these assumptions are correct at all, I've got no clue. But regardless - this situations sucks! They're going to stop the anime in the middle of the best arc yet. Arghhh!!!
Another bummer was that the second season of Kuroko no Basuke or Kuroko's Basketball is not being released. Damn it! I was really looking forward to that. I just recently watched the OVA too and it was awesome, got me all pumped up. But no go :(

What are you looking forward to this Spring?

On vacation!

Yo ! I'm on vacation. Eating lots of yummy food and going to the spa and the movies and much more.
See you next week!

Black Butler

*INCLUDES SPOILERS. All media credits go to their owners.*

Well now, as promised, I will talk a bit about what I've been watching. I'm pretty sure most people out there know about Black Butler or Kuroshitsuji and have either watched it or refrained from watching it. That last part is just a wild guess of mine.
It's the story of a young boy, Ciel, the heir to house Phanthomhive whose family was murdered a while ago. He then forms a contract with the demon Sebastian who vows to fulfill the revenge Ciel Phantomhive wishes to take on the unknown culprits. Here they are now on a fan-art picture.

The general style is pretty goth-loli and to be fair, the bishounen style of it all instantly makes you think of harem-slash-yaoi topics. Which is the first point I really want to discuss. The ANN information rates the objectionable content as 'significant' and I really did not notice that beforehand. Sure, in the first couple of episodes there were some brutal images, but I didn't really think it would be quite as "significant".
First of all, the corset scene. You can view the original here:

Now... when I first saw it, my eyes were about to pop out. Out of the blue, suddenly a pure yaoi scene appears! But that was far from the only one, there were loads and loads of references to the fan-favourable option of Sebastian serving his master in many ways.

  
Anyway, since that (and by that I mean yaoi) seemed to be where the general direction was headed, I was almost hit with a brick when it happened that Sebastian decided to seduce a teenage nun in order to gain further information on a cult inhabiting an old church. Seriously, I thought I was imagining things until this scene appeared:

  
 Well that came as a surprise! I bet loads of female watchers out there either got a nosebleed or wished to heavens they were a part of that cult.
In any case, the mature topics aside, I was pretty surprised at the brutality of some of the scenes too. For example when it turned out that the angel working for the Queen of England had sewn Ciel's parents together so that they may be together for all eternity.

  
But fine, those two were dead anyway. She did the same with the Queen, on her own request, and sewed a part of Queen Victoria's late husband onto her chest. Which eventually went rotting...

Now I'm sorry, but I actually thought this was some kind of a classy anime, but the amount of goth-style gore is amazing! How do I feel about it... uhh... not sure, really. At least it left a strong impression, right?


But one thing about the show, which I have to say I really enjoyed, was the ending. Usually when a hero makes a pact with the devil or a demon, he finds a way to overcome it. But in this case, Ciel was elegantly taken to his death, every step of the way preparing him for the inevitable. And nothing stopped the situation. He accepted his fate and even though a part of him had hoped for a new life, he solemnly agreed to his contract and gave up his life. It was a breathtakingly beautiful scene, a perfect ending.

Ignore the credits.
Of course, then it turns out there is a second season -.- My sister keeps pestering me to watch it. But no! I don't want to. Iiya da! For once, the hero actually died in the end and I want to keep it that way. At least in my head. I watched the OVA since I knew it was only linked to the first season and it was funny. But to have a new story start after such a marvelous ending?? No thank you.
The only other viable option is to start reading the manga since my sister tells me the storyline is entirely different after like episode 12-13 from the anime. It may not be such a bad idea. But I would still have to read the entire beginning too - how can I just jump in from out of nowhere! There might be differences! Omg!

All in all, a decent anime. I rated it very good on ANN and even though some parts I enjoyed a lot, I can't still place it in contrast with other animes. I supposed it had a decent story at first but then at some point it felt like the depth of it was exaggerated and fake. Is it because of the manga differences? Perhaps. Maybe it's just me.
If you figure out what exactly was wrong with it, let me know.   

*Panicmode*

Guys! Guys, guys! What should I do now? Every anime that I'm watching right now is half way through! I can't pass a final judgement or talk about the things if I don't know how they finish!!

So right now I'm watching Black Butler, which I've started like 2-3 times. Now, finally, I've managed to get further with it. But before I discuss some things, I really want to see all of it.
Same with FMA.

So I'm just going to finish those and then add a new post.
 
Also, what the hell!! Did you hear that Fairy Tail is about to end??? Dafuq, just when the topic is getting really thrilling. You can read about it here. Hiro Mashima said though that it is not the end... well... I sure hope so. Dammit. Am I really going to have to start reading the manga?? Unbelievable.

Lots of shoujou... and some FMA!

*May include spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

Okay... you're not going to believe me but I just checked back here to blogger now (Sunday) and my scheduled post had not been posted... I even have proof:

Look at that! What the hell happened.
Anyway, here is the post that was supposed to be live, as follows.


I've got no idea what's wrong with me... but recently all I've been doing is reading romance manga. Where the hell did this urge come from??! Am I coming down with something?? Must be that...

Misao and Kyou

In any case, I started with Black Bird this week and it was all cool and awesome until it turned into another Twilight story. Yuk. A demon falls for a mortal girl, they want to get married, yada yada, whatever. Sure, it existed before Twilight, but that doesn't make it any better. Although it actually started pretty well and I thought it was going to be a bit more meaningful, they managed to crush my hopes. In the end it was just winding and winding problems preventing them to be happy. What the hell is up with that anyway? I guess there wouldn't be anything to write about if you don't go for the problems in the relationship, but since it was also listed as fantasy/action I was expecting something a bit more... high paced? Brutal? I don't know, SOMEthing. It wasn't exactly horrible either though, I suppose it was better than a random regular shoujou manga since they actually had to overcome supernatural problems. And they did show some blood and brutality... hey I guess it wasn't so bad after all. But something was lacking. Don't ask me 'what exactly'. Shiranai!

Mei and Yamato

Then I moved on to Sukitte Ii Na Yo or Say "I love you" which I had actually seen as an anime already. But I wanted to see what was going to happen next so I figured I'd just read it from the beginning. Otherwise I wouldn't know the characters they built in the manga. I actually liked it. The plot was pretty plain but there were realistic characters and lots of side stories so I didn't have to listen (well, read...) the female lead Mei whine about everything. People were broken and insecure but they found their solutions and the whole story was dynamic, well built. I also liked the main point the manga had: if you have a problem, get a grip and talk to your partner about it. Geez. You don't have to walk around thinking all kinds of BS all day long, suppressing your thoughts and feelings. Since it's still ongoing I might check back later on!

Chiwa and Hokuto

Okay, the next one I started just yesterday. It's name was Hapi Mari - something that should be Happy Marriage. Looking at all these names and genres I just have to take a good look in the mirror and figure out what the hell I was thinking when I opened the manga. I haven't finished it yet but what was I expecting? Obviously there were going to be problems regarding an arranged marriage turning into a real one. Duh. Well I finished the fifth volume and it's turned into somewhat of a The Bold and The Beautiful story. Family business successions and the relatives all being at each others throats. And of course spice that up with a company president's wife a.k.a. female lead who (naturally) has a bit of an inferiority complex. Well, still... It was better than a random shoujou I guess. The story was a bit different and it was aimed more towards older readers. But the topic - not sure if this kind of a thing is actually on anybody's mind - trying to make your husband fall for you? I suppose it might be in a society where you're not really supposed to speak your mind. Right? Right? Damn it must be hard living in Japan as a woman. Who the hell could be happy with a supportive role only. When the family expects you to set aside your own aspirations and help out your man full time. Then again, it's not like women could get to very high positions there anyway, right? Might as well support your husband then <.< Damn you Japanese people - you've got it all figured out!

To balance the massive amount of romance related topics, I started the original FMA yesterday morning too. Why have I not seen it already? Because I watched Brotherhood first and it is to this very day my favorite anime of all time. I loved the story and the characters - especially Ling Yao and Greed. Oh boy, when they mixed those two up, was I psyched or what!!! And those voice actors - damn! It was Mamoru Miyano and Yuuichi Nakamura together - who can resist!
Anyway, back then when I figured I should watch the original too, I started it and after the first episode I couldn't bring myself to continue. Since I really loved the characters and the plot I kind of didn't want to lose what those had brought me. I felt like the value of Brotherhood would diminish if I saw something less epic.
But now I've decided it's time to see the first version of the series too - just so I could decide for myself which one is better. I've heard though that Brotherhood is closer to the original manga. I wonder if that's true? I can't bring myself to confirming that just yet. But I will definitely make a decision about the two anime series.
So far it seems that Brotherhood started with more of a bang and pulled me right in, whereas the regular FMA starts out a bit less core topic related and goes deeper as it evolves. Then again I just started it so can't say anything for sure!

I'm hoping to finish it by next week. So maybe I'll devote the next post to comparing them two? Who knows *shrug*.