No matter how I look at it, it's your fault that I'm not popular.

*Includes spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

 As you might have guessed already, I really need to address this topic of one of the currently still (although I think it might be ending this week, but right now it's still) ongoing animes. Now I've been a weirdo all my life. As a child I used to play alone rather than find friends outside since - I just had so much fun imagining all kinds of stories and fantasize about getting super powers or similar. I'm not even joking: I really enjoyed spending time with myself. But as time passed, I obviously learned that staying all on my own was a bit too... weird. So I started fitting myself in. At first it was with a group of nerds and as time passed I turned it around entirely - tried being a bimbo and a rock girl etc. All so that I could feel like I belong somewhere. Except that feeling never ever came. And now, in the middle of my twenties, I've realized that all along I only needed myself and 1 other human to share things with. And that's what I've come to and it actually makes me really happy. Sure, I still socialize with other people at work or in uni and it's fine - but I don't ever want to hang out with large groups of friends again.

Tomoko

How this fits all in with the WataMote topic comes after a short introduction. No Matter How I Look at It, It's Your Fault That I'm Not Popular or WataMote for short tells the story of a fresh high school girl Kuroki Tomoko who has kept herself locked up in her room playing all kinds of ero-games and spending more time with the computer than with anyone living. And now she's under the impression that once she starts high school, things will work out as it would in a shoujou manga and she will be popular with both girls and guys and obviously some guy (preferably the most popular guy in school, as you could read from my previous post) will fall in love with her and... do naughty stuff to her. However she soon finds out that things don't just happen like that - especially if you're a creepy girl with messy hair, a whiny voice and can barely say two words to most people without stuttering. Basically a mojo - an unpopular girl.

"Cute" Tomoko

In her quest for becoming popular she tries out all kinds of scenarios, including dressing herself up in a "cute" manner, making a duck face, hitting on her brother and so on. And it's god damn horrible. I mean, the show itself is very good for portraying the mind of a teenage girl stuck in a shell which she has built into her own little twisted image of the real world. But damn, it's just awfully embarrassing. If you can watch this show with a cold stomach then I salute you - you are officially so kakkoii that you can't possible grasp how these situations can be real. And that's where the real punch kicks in - all these awful situations are very realistic. It's what really happens to people. And there are people who actually think the way Tomoko does - hell, I'm sure everyone has thought a bit like that. That literature and games should be based on more-or-less possible topics, so everything can happen, right? Except most of us has kind of grown out of it and knows that it doesn't really work that way exactly. But Tomoko is the perfect example of how every single romance anime showing an unlikely love between a popular guy and a wallflower girl is wrong. It just does not happen. At least not if you keep waiting for it and don't really do anything to make it happen.

And trying to make things happen is exactly what Tomoko is doing. Except that since she lacks a complete understanding of real life, things go horribly wrong. Like when she thought in episode 6 (spoilers inc.) that she looks better because she had sex with a guy... in a game.

So she then decides that if she has 2D sex every day, she'll turn popular IRL too. And it works!

...except it's because she hasn't washed herself and got a Coke splashed into her hair which attracted ants...

... so she ends up all lonely and sad that she doesn't have anyone to watch fireworks with and instead goes to an old rooftop where her and a couple of junior high school guys watch the action in a love hotel...

... and goes to a meet-and-greet where she requests peculiar things...

... and then mixes them up with her own voice and her mother hears it all...

... and then she pretends a random guy from the park is her boyfriend...

... which obviously doesn't turn out well and she has to apologize - why exactly is she doing it in a Ringu/The Grudge style, I'm not sure...

 ...but at this point my limit was reached. I can not watch any more of this show. I know I'm the number one whiner when it comes to typical romance-shoujou-school animes, but this just dashes to the other end of the scale and goes straight to batshit-crazy.

Now, I've already told you about my own adventures in the lonely side of the social life so you might imagine why this hits very much close to home. I can't watch this show more than 1 episode at a time and often I pause the stream before an embarrassing moment is about to come because it's just too painful to watch. But the saddest part of this entire thing is that there are people out there who are exactly like that and what's even worse - there is nothing, NOTHING you can do for them. Because they just need to live through these moments themselves and hopefully they'll learn something. You can't just walk up to someone and tell them: "Hey, you need to open up your eyes, get a grip and start communicating normally." Besides, what is "normal"? And why is normal so important anyway? I've been to the "normal" and it was boring.
Yet, while watching this show, I can constantly catch myself from thinking: "Oh god, PLEASE just handle this like a normal person." It's kind of sad. She is exactly what she is and unless she lets herself be weird to others, she'll never know what this "normal" thing is. I personally wouldn't know that I like being weird either, if I hadn't tried blending in first.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - if you've never experienced the feeling of being different, you really need to watch this show and get a glimpse of how it feels like. If you've been through the exact same thing, you can really look back and breathe a bit easier knowing that it's already past you. And if you're in there right now... well... please know that the whole world can be yours as soon as you graduate from the hell of embarrassment and awkwardness. Hang in there!
You too, Tomoko! Thanks for reminding us all how life really works. And if you can't get a grip on life, you can always just get a cat. Or a dozen.

O-isashiburi desu

*Includes spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

Yo! Long time no see. So much for the summer, huh? Don't know about you guys but I've been crazy busy with my internship and work and just stuff. I won't make any promises, but I'll try to post stuff that I find interesting. Ma... tama-tama ni.

So as a distraction from the considerable amount of shounen genre I've been watching, I checked out a romance anime that my sister suggested me. It's called Kaichou wa Maid-sama or just Maid-sama. You know how every single god damn shoujou anime has kind of the same plot? The female lead is a kind but special wallflower who somehow catches the eye of the most popular guy in school and with some peculiar magic it turns out so that they start dating in the end, right? Well... this anime is no exception. Seriously, the plot is so old, I want to smash a vase into the wall. On top of that *SPOILER*, the male lead is - naturally - the son of a wealthy noble family and bla bla. Seriously, it's not even much of a spoiler when everyone can already guess it. Besides it shows in the ending credits.

Usui and Ayuzawa

Anyway, there is one major difference though, this time. The girl is actually not a random wallflower but the student council president of a formerly boys-only school that was turned co-ed a few years earlier. And she works hard to turn the school into a better environment for the girls. In process, she kicks some rampaging teenager boys ass and oh, also, she works at a maid café. Yup. With the outfit and everything, look.

But actually, even though the plot is nothing special and you can easily guess their actions, the characters are pretty refreshing. The couple is actually suitable for a change. The girl is loud and bossy, but nice. And the guy is obviously hot. And awesome. But for a change they actually seem to be worthy partners that can both speak more than 2 words in a sentence when faced with each other. Sure, the girl is a bit of a tsundere and it takes her ages to admit her feelings, but hey, you can't have everything at once.

Honestly, this genre seriously worries me. I've been a teenage girl and I've surely been infatuated with the most popular guys, but that really does NOT mean that I wouldn't have wanted some other nice and funny guy all for myself. And I really don't think that being the most popular kid in school was written into the qualification. So, do teenage girls really only want that one guy? The guy who in reality is probably an asshole? Yeah sure, Japanese popularity might be a bit different from ours since they seem to worship good grades and good results in sports rather then being just the noisiest handsome guy. I don't think reality is all the lovely - if a teenage boy gets surrounded by a horde of girls who want him, he'll probably make use of that situation. But all the animes seem to support the idea that you HAVE to get that popular guy and he's DEFINITELY a nice guy. I'm telling you girls, you might be in for a horrible surprise.

Just for once, I would like to see a romance/shoujou anime where the girl wants some other, more interesting character. Show me a story like Hinata's, who has wanted the most hated demon-fox-kid since she was a child. Or just the story of two best friends falling in love, slowly, surprisingly. Or even two weirdos finding each other - I mean c'mon - there's got to be lots of people in Japan who'd watch that - it's the official nation of weirdos!

Well. That got a bit heated. Anyway, as if it wasn't enough, I started watching this Victorian age love story that takes place in England and the characters are a maid and the heir of a wealthy noble family... Wait, didn't I just tell that same story?
It's called Emma: A Victorian Romance or Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma. So, yeah. The female lead is called Emma and it's set in Victorian England. Other than that it's pretty much the same as the previous story.

William Jones and Emma

I also started watching an ongoing reverse-harem anime called Brothers Conflict. It's exactly as retarded as it sounds but I've honestly had a couple of amusing hours with it. So basically, a girl named Ema (lol) moves into a huge mansion filled with loads of bishounen since her father remarried. And basically everyone suddenly wants her. So in core, there are like 13 bothers out of whom at least 50% are in love with their new sister, but since they're all hot guys, there are obviously some semi-yaoi moments embedded into the thing. Double the incest - triple the fun! Yeah sure, they're not blood related or anything, but the girl makes a huge deal about becoming a family and everyone smiles and nods and then the next moment - boom! Her brothers are kissing her and throwing her onto the sofas. Good luck girl - a family that plays together stays together. And yet I somehow can't look away. It's retarded to the point where you just keep on watching to see what the hell can come next.

To be honest I'm still watching Naruto mostly - well Shippuden by now. The reason? It's because I've seen most of the series by watching it over my boyfriend's shoulder, but I really wanted to grasp the full thing. But since everyone has already seen the old episodes of Naruto, I'll stick with saying: SHINRA TENSEI! Bitches. Get out now.

P.S. Kakashi returning to life is still the happiest moment in my Naruto-life. Damn that man is incredibly hot.
P.P.S. I cried like a little girl, again, when Hinata jumped out in front of Pain to help Naruto - even though it was like my third-fourth time seeing it. I know normally Hinata barely manages to utter a word in his presence and that's probably a pretty rough setting for getting to like somebody, but... Naruto is a serious asshole if he still picks Sakura over Hinata in the end <.<

Strong anime!

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

So I've been on a break for a few weeks due to an intense research papers schedule and to be quite honest I'm still not in the mood for writing. But I decided that slacking must end here! So I'll try to say a few words about the couple of animes I watched in the meanwhile.

First of all, I had heard about Ouran High School Host Club before and to be frank, I thought the topic was completely random. But since one of my favourite seiyuus, Miyano Mamoru, plays the main character, it was inevitable that I finally had to get it together and check out what the Host Club fuss was all about. And it's a good thing I did! Because, even though there are several topics that wouldn't suit the tastes of an average male viewer from the West (like incest-ish gay and kind of pedophilia-like topics... not to mention cross-dressing), it is actually pretty amusing! I had no expectations whatsoever for this anime and yet I was sucked in pretty fast.

If you don't know the plot, then Haruhi, a nerdy looking fellow accidentally steps into the room where a bunch of rich and handsome guys entertain girls - for a small fee. Haruhi accidentally crushes a valuable vase and he is forced to work for the Host Club in order to repay his debt.. until it turns out that he is actually a she. Haruhi is then promoted to a full Host and starts entertaining girls too. And all in all it's a fun story. There are obviously plenty of dark secrets involving the sons of the rich and the powerful but in the Host Club they just goof around and try to enjoy their youth.
The funniest parts are when the club members visit Haruhi in her modest average household and are amazed at the things "poor" people have invented in order to survive. The commentary, the swift dialouge and situational comedy is pretty well made - I even checked out the trailer for the Host Club live action movie and that looked rather funny as well.

The other one that I watched was Hyouka. I've probably already mentioned the reason somewhere in my previous posts, but the main thing was this: 

Oreki Houtarou looks very similar to Yoshida Haru - the most epic, fun and aweseome romance anime male lead of all time. The sidekicks look similar too, if anyone cares.
But in general, Hyouka is about Oreki Houtarou, who is a low energy high schooler and his motto is: if he doesn't have to do it, he won't, and if he does have to do it, he'll do it as fast as possible. So that he could slack the rest of the time. Got to love that attitude, eh :P Anyway, he is paired with the silly-yet-beautiful Chitanda Eru who on the contrary is an extremely curious girl. She can get excited about the smallest peculiarity and - unfortunately for Oreki's low energy strategy - she wants him to explain everything to her. Oreki, being pretty good at deducting all kinds of reasons for different situations, gets swept along by Chitanda's colourful life. And so, they solve all kinds of tiny mysteries. It's pretty fun. But I wouldn't suggest watching it all at once or you'll get pretty bored pretty quickly. Here's a pic of the gang.

I'm on pretty low energy mode myself, so this concludes this weeks post. Laters!

Extremely busy

This week is a freaking nightmare. 3 research papers to complete and not much time left. Yay for me.

Spring anime 2013 (part 2)

*May include spoilers - if you don't ever watch the first episodes of these shows, then I'm not sure it can be spoiled though....
All media credits go to their owners.*

Okay! I don't have a lot of time today so I'm going to make this brief.
I watched Shingeki no Kyojin or Attack on Titan. And you'll probably hear every other anime fan yap on about it, because the beginning was rather memorable. And sad. As you might know, the Titans are back! And they are attacking the wall that people have surrounded themselves with to keep them bloodlusted creatures out. The main character Eren is an anxious boy who wants to go out of the wall and meet the titans out in their natural habitat - obviously when the action comes to him, he gets more than he bargained for. So yeah. Shit hits the fan.
This one will probably receive lots of high rates since it looks to be pretty well made. Did I like it though? I don't even know... I guess. Something about it bothered me, perhaps the overly psyched male lead. I'll definitely check out more before I make up my mind.

I also watched 2 episodes of Mushibugyou which is a pretty serious shounen. Giant bugs keep invading old time Tokyo and the son of a samurai travels there to join the Bug-Elimination-Office on his father's behalf. Yeah. That's about it. They battle bugs. Seems pretty good, not anything special though. The second episode was about one of the members - a female ninja who throws bombs. The third will be about another member - a criminal who looks like a mixture of Kenpachi and Zoro. If you like shounen, you will like this one, I'm sure.

Aha, then there was also the freak-show of the season. Aku no Hana or Flowers of Evil shows us painfully slowly the journey of a young man into "evil". Actually he just steals a pair of gym clothes from a girl in his class whom he has a crush on. Whereas in a romance-comedy anime this would turn out as the start of a beautiful relationship, here things go down a more realistic road and the situation gets really awkward. If you like a good mind fuck, you're in for a treat. A depressive treat, but nonetheless.
I don't. I'll admit that the execution very extraordinary but I just do not watch that type of shows. It's like the part of NGE where Shinji goes mental - just without the epic mechas and a futuristic world.

Just for fun and giggles I checked out Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko or Henneko for short. If you didn't catch that - it's The Pervert Prince and the Stony Cat (stony = never laughs). And. Well. It's a comedy-romance show with a personality swap. So basically if you're into that, go for it. The animation style is really childish and the characters seem like one tsundere after another, but I'm not saying it was bad. There were a few funny moments - if you like boys chasing girls with pornographic pillows attached to their backs. But in general: No. Just No.

The best out of them all was Hataraku Maou-sama or The Devil is a Part-Timer! Which is basically exactly what it says - there is an evil demon lord who is teleported to the real world with a general officer of his and transformed into a human. So, they have no choice but to suck it up and while the Devil Maou works for MgRonalds, his right hand man Alsiel researches a way to bring them back to the magical realm. Things only manage to settle down a little before the Hero Emilia, who followed the demon lord through the portal, discovers him working at the fast-food chain. But all that plot aside - this show is hilarious! At the very least, the first half of the first episode definitely is. Best humor this season, for sure! (I'm saying this without having seen all the new ones though...)
Although the Going-To-America topic may be a rather typical one,  I really thought this one was very well executed and what's most important - lots of fun! I took some pictures for you too.

Rawr mr Demon Lord.

Alsiel in his demon form

The Hero vs the Demon Lord!

A decisive attack!

...aaaand off to the real world we go. Sorry Alsiel, magic doesn't work here.

The resources have been cut down a bit. From a demon castle to one room only.

You cannot escape the hero!

Aaand here's just a treat from episode 3... uuuh!

Helllllo mr hot Demon Lord.

Okay well that's it for today since I have loads of college stuff to finish! But check out this Hataraku Maou-sama, cause it promises to be epic!

Spring anime 2013 (part 1)

*Probably doesn't include spoilers - if you care enough to watch the first episode. 
All media credits go to their owners. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.*

Aaaaaalrighty. Since nothing really seemed extra interesting this new season, I haven't been too eager with checking it out. But here's what I did see.
Date A Live. Yes, I started it. Yes, I watched the first 4 minutes. Yes, I closed the player as soon as there was a striped-panties shot of the main character's sister. Dude, no. Just no.
Then I watched the first episode of Karneval. I didn't actually expect much, but after watching it I thought it was pretty good. The action scenes were drawn pretty nicely and even though there was lots of jumping from one scene to another, it all came together half way through. I was thrilled to hear some of my favorite voices like Ono Daisuke (Sebastian Michaelis), Kamiya Hiroshi (Orihara Izaya), Suwabe Junichi (Grimmjow Jeagerjaques) and naturally Miyano Mamoru (Yagami Light - here he sounds more like Masaomi Kida), even though the last one only appeared for a few seconds in the end. The plot? Well... not entirely sure. There was a missing person, a white-haired chibi-chan, a huge secret defense organization and a LOADS of characters. I'm sure you'll catch on if you read a summary or watch the first episode yourself. Here's a few pics.

Here's the chibi-chan I was telling you about. They call him Nai.

Then some weird semi-sex scene... he pwns her though.

IIiiizzaaaayaaaaa.... just kiddin'. It's Gareki.

Don't you get the urge to sing "Tetsu to hagane ja magaru..."? Well, it's Tsukumo and Hirato, from Circus.

Hirato demonstrates his magic.

So anyway, the next thing I watched was Arata Kangatari or Arata: The Legend. It had a similar animation style to Karneval, but it seemed to be a bit more depressive. There was this boy, Arata, in modern day Japan, and another Arata in some fantasy land. And apparently the fantasy realm one had to pretend to be a girl in order to succeed a dying princess. However the princess was murdered by her bodyguards and Arata was framed, so he ran for his life and - camboom! The school boy Arata from Japan replaced him - due to some depressive reasons. That's how it gets going. I'd say Karneval was better, but this one doesn't seem too bad either - just way more cliche. I might keep an eye on it - but I sure hope it gets more cheerful. Here, I took a few pictures too.

The normal Arata.

The not-so-normal Arata...

The 60-year-old princess Arata is supposed to replace.

Shit hits the fan.

Now stuck with the loco people chasing you, huh Arata?

And naturally, stupid weak women get captured.

By the way, the abs I was so excited about, were Kannagi's, but turns out there's an even better sight. No idea who he is though.

Rawr!

Now after that one, I checked out Devil Survivor 2: The Animation. Well... it was a mixture of Death Note, Final Destination and Digimon Tamers. The topic was pretty intriguing and you already get a good glimpse of what's going to happen by the tenth minute or so. It had a pretty large scale, which is always a plus (at least for me) and seemed to be pretty well thought through. Is it really though - can't say yet. All I know is that the main character summons an epic kitty that looks like Xuen! I'm definitely going keep watching this one - out of the three it seems to be the most promising. Here's a sneak peek.

Daichi and Hibiki discussing future... before singing up to Dead Face.

Wanna see your friend dead...? Srsly, why would you want that?

Nitta's phone goes loco and starts summoning demons!

Lucky Hibiki got himself a tiger!~!!!

Hmmm, so in the end I took least pics of the one I liked most. Go figure.

My Teen Romantic Comedy is Wrong As I Expected was O-kay. Just okay. I guess there were some deep topics but since I'm not a depressive high schooler - at least not anymore - I really did not care about the topic of friendship/betrayal/keeping-disappointments-out-with-a-wall. There's a boy who has secluded himself, the most popular girl in the school and a cheerful girl who has a crush on the male lead. Not too hard to guess what's coming next, huh? I didn't even take pictures. CBA.

And then I watched all four of the released Red Data Girl episodes. There's a girl with weird powers and every time she touches cell phones or computers or some other electrical devices, they go out of order. She is matched up with a supposed guardian, a young handsome boy who is reluctant to change his current life style for her. So the female lead starts journey to change herself from the coward she is now. Sounds pretty cliché? I thought so too. But it turns out that it was executed rather differently. Just because she was timid, she wasn't entirely excluded from her school community. And she evolved even in the very first episode. Though I have to say that if I had only seen the first one, I probably wouldn't have wanted to watch it on a following week. I found that it gets better over the first few episodes.
I really want to stress that even though it's an anime, it feels way more realistic - the problems, the reactions. It does not feel like a typical anime at all, even though the subject itself doesn't exactly shine with originality. You'll just have to check it out yourself.
 
But yeah, those were the ones I did watch this week. I'll probably watch more further on, but can't be bothered to rush it just to gather them all in one post.