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.  

Anime music

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

I love anime music. Most of my playlists these days consist of anime music only. Sure, once in a while I don't mind listening to "normal people music", but in general having to spend time in a group where they listen to dubstep or whatever music is hip these days, is a total nightmare. Of course, if I decide to play my music in that group everyone gets really uncomfortable - "What is this BS?" 
BS?? BS??! It's just regular pop music - merely in Japanese. How can you not like that? Alright... okay... well I guess I wouldn't want to listen to Indian pop music either...
Anyway, whenever I watch an anime, I check out the opening and ending themes during the first episode and if they happen to change half way through, I listen to those too. Mostly I can't be bothered to listen to them all the time though, especially when there are lost of episodes to watch still. Actually, it even irritates me a bit if I am forced to watch the entire opening due to slow loading. But I also have to admit that for some animes, watching the opening and/or ending adds a lot of value.

First of all, if it's a weekly show that I follow, I'm way more likely to listen to the opening. Mainly because I like having a sneak peek at what's still to come and which characters I have already seen. Like Fairy Tail for me. Although this far Fairy Tail has had the best openings for a long anime - all of them were pretty catchy and listening to them kind of gives exciting expectations. My favourite - at least tune wise - is opening number 6, which you can see below. Though I have to admit that number 10 that shows the end of the Tenroujima arc has some pretty epic scenes - like that one scene where Laxus opens his eyes, omg omg!
 

But in some cases I really think listening to the opening and the ending kind of entwines into the topic and helps you dive into the world shown in the anime and emerge afterwards. I've seen people say that about Clannad, for example, but if I'd have to choose one, it would definitely be Ano Hana. It's a pretty serious anime with a deep topic that really hits home. If you let it. And yet it doesn't really come off as depressive. 

But had I not listened to the ending theme all along, the finale of the anime would've been only half as epic. The sadness and joy were entwined and the song playing as the background gave it so much more depth - especially if you thought about the words. It's as if the tunes were amplifying the thought behind the scenes. I'll add it here too.

 

Out of the very few openings I've listened to just because it's awesome, this next one is the latest and so far the catchiest. Also, I really like what they've done with the opening - half way through you can see a review of the previous episodes, which is really good especially considering that the first half of Durarara! shows very different characters each episode. Although for some reason I could not find the original opening video in the Blogger posting options, I still think this one gives a nice idea why one would wish to listen to it at the beginning of each episode.

 

Naturally there are loads of others that I really like and I could even list you my entire playlist here, but that would be kind of out of place, wouldn't it :P

Which openings/endings do you think fit the anime extremely well?

See you next week!

The Anime Movie Paradigm

*Includes spoilers (Seriously this time. I'm going to tell about endings of movies, be careful). All media credits go to their owners.*

Yo, guys. Sorry about the delay - it has been a crazy studying weekend. But I'll take this Sunday morning off and ditch the climate changes report just to complete my weekly task of blogging. Yes! Feel flattered!

Do you know how to recognize an anime movie that is going to end bad? Well now. Besides the fact that most of them don't end so well. 
It's when it all starts really good and adventurous. No joke. I have actually witnessed only a few of them that end well - most of them, no surprise, by Miyazaki. I guess that's how the man got famous. "Oh here's an idea - how about I don't kill of some of my main characters by the end of the movie...? That could work!" He sure was a pioneer, eh. And thank goodness, cause if Totoro had sacrificed himself in the end there to save the girls mother or some similar BS....  GRRR!
Sure, there are exceptions, like Hosoda's 'Summer Wars'. But that also starts out kind of slow and only evolves into a massive story. So it doesn't actually qualify under the 'good start, bad ending' category.
I'm going to make a list that proves my point.

Jubei

Ninja Scroll - We see a lone warrior striding down a bridge - epic setting - and soon a pretty epic beginning battle! That's about when you know shit is going to hit the fan. It really is. Sure, there are epic fighting abilities and battle scenes in between, but in the end he basically rejects his girlfriend's offer to spend the night, then she dies, then he kills everything, then he spends his life in solitude. Awesome, dude. You must be so happy with your life choices. I guess I can see sense in there too though - who would want their wandering hero to be a homebound husband, eh?

Millenium Actress - I'm not usually the type that likes to watch anyone's biography, but I had a feeling that one might be good. And it was - except it was obvious from when the director and his assistant arrived at the fragile actress' home, that things were not going to end well. Basically, what this movie shows us, is that it's okay to be obsessed with some dude you only talked to once in your teenage years for the rest of your life. No joke, 60 years minimum. That's like an extended overly attached girlfriend syndrome. And then, obviously, it's only going to end with: "Oh, he's actually dead already, sorry. Now go follow him in the afterlife." A bit heroic, I guess. But mostly alarming. Don't actually ever do that, girls.

Mononoke and Ashitaka

By the way, it's not like Miyazaki has all good endings. Like Princess Mononoke. Sure, the prince hangs out with Mononoke and her wolf crew and it's all fun and giggles, but basically what is said is that humans are vile monsters who like to kill the forest-kami and wolfs are smart enough to know that. Even the happy ending with the head being returned and all, it's still going to be a sucky future for most of those people from the village and not to mention the prince. Sorry, dude, I don't think she's ever going to give in. Luckily lots of women from the village want you.
Also, that Sprited Away stuff - not so happy either. Yeah, Chihiro saves everyone but then they promise: to meet each other again some day! Just a wild guess but I'm thinking, what, 10... 20 years? I guess Chihiro would have stuff to learn from the Millenium Actress. 
And one other thing - Howl's Moving Castle may have ended well, but what it  mostly showed was how the poor boy was in pain the entire time because the girl could not start believing in herself fast enough. Seriously, am I the only one who thought it was an agonizing movie? Thank goodness it ended well after all.

Chiaki and Makoto

Now The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, hmmm. A happy one? A sad one? I'm pretty sure it's Hitomi and Van all over again. Didn't Chiaki say he was from waaaay further in the future? Even if he did wait for you like you asked, Makoto, I'm pretty sure you would either be an old lady by then or he would be a child... Not so awesome. And you just had to go and waste all those jumps, didn't you. And on pudding and karaoke! Bastard! I have to admit that I still felt sorry for her. Also, Chiaki is the nicest Japanese male name, in my opinion. Oh yes, you are, oh yes, you are!

Gin and Hotaru

Of course, when it comes to pure dramatics, I don't think this one can be beaten - The Forest of the Fireflies. I'm not going to actually spoil the synopsis here, but since this movie is already in the list, well.... It's a nice movie, cool mystic stuff, Japanese folklore and shinto mixed in there. Awesome. Aaaaaand as soon as you learn about Gin's condition, you know it's all going to be fucked up. Dammit. The characters are pretty good, at least. The girl is lively and dynamic and the guy is pretty straightforward and open. Coolio.

But nothing will probably ever beat 5 Centimeters Per Second. Not unless someone makes an anime movie about kitties and puppies dying in horribly heartbreaking manners. 5 Cm per Second is a movie you watch and think to yourself: All life is meaningless. The world is horrible. 
- Great, that's exactly why I want to watch anime <.<
Luckily afterwards you realize how great choices you've made in your life and see that you're such a smart person for not being a loser weirdo who can't get a grip on his/her feelings and make a move.

Today we salute you, mister Shinkai, for making everyone, even that homeless guy at the corner store, feel like they're the happiest person in the world! Thank you for that.

Takaki and Akari

See you again next week - I'll be on time, I promise :)