Crazy Japanese stuff in anime

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

Okay, so this week it all started with me showing the Mameshiba world to a friend of mine. He laughed and scratched his head and showed it to all his friends. (Btw if you don't know what Mameshiba is, I really urge you to go click the link - hours of Japanese style mental fun).
I first saw the Mameshiba ad when I was watching Ao no Exorcist (Blue Exorcist) and for some reason the stream had these crazy little dog-beans running around and singing in ridiculously squeaky voices in between the real show. Here:

So by the end of the series, I was more looking forward to these dog-beans than the show itself. Turns out the little buggers show up at the most unexpected time to pester you with extremely random trivia.   
Now, let me ask you - who the hell thinks of something like that? So one day you go to work and tell your boss: "Ok, so today we could work on these characters who are beans... but also dogs! And to make things more interesting, they also have a broad horizon!" "Ow, right, brilliant plan!"  
Well... I hope he got a promotion, cause the Mameshiba are very entrancing.  

But it got me thinking about all the completely mental stuff that you can encounter in animes - and I don't even mean the usual things like trying to see girls panties or getting a nosebleed when you think about too perverted things. 
First of all, Japanese people have really weird ideas about western culture. It's as if their legends and myths were true, and ours are just... optional. Like good ol' Saber here.
 

Let me break it down for you: the chosen one just happened to be a girl, named Arturia, but since no one thought it was possible for a woman to rule and yet the will of Excalibur was unquestionable, they all pretended she was a man. Okay, that may not be too bad, right? Except then, in Fate/Zero, we are revealed that Arturia married Guinevere who became her queen, mostly just for the appearance of it. A 'king' has got to have her queen, yo. Then everyone freaked out when Guinevere fell in love with Lancelot. Let me quote (from FSN wikia):  

When Lancelot and the queen began their affair, the Knight of the Lake considered fleeing Camelot with her, but his loyalty to Arturia and his sense of duty prevented him from doing so. When political enemies of the king exposed the affair, the queen was ordered to be executed. Left with little choice, Lancelot attempted to save her, killing several of his fellow knights including Gawain's brothers Gareth and Gaheris in the process. 

Which is why Berserker was born. There's a bit of a different view on it under the Saber link, but the point remains - basically there were two woman, married to each other, but there was no lesbian action nor was neither of them allowed to secretly get a guy. Sounds legit. Very much Japanese-style self sacrifice. And a beautiful western legend - raped.

Another curious thing - maybe not so much about crazy Japanese stuff, but more about their view on life and love - there is almost never ever any love or kissing (and things are faaaaaar from sex) in anime, especially if it's about school and magic. But then in 11 Eyes, it suddenly becomes OK! Because they're doing it to give the guy more power - so that he could go save his girlfriend :D
Dayum dude, your girlfriend might not be too happy about that.

Anyway, coming back to real Japanese weirdness, have a look at what they've done with the French Maid concept.

So they took a sexy costume, added cat, made the girls say 'nyan-nyan' to satisfy Japanese perversion and shoved them into café's. Awesome. That's exactly who I want to be serviced by - submissive Japanese hybrids of cat and maid.

Now let's talk about the legendary move by Hatake Kakashi. Oh yes, Naruto knows all about it, the poor boy. Sennen Goroshi or a Thousand Years of Death/Pain. Well yes, it sure sounds like it. What exactly went through the heads of whoever created this? "Well, I've got a plan - lets make this grown up epic ninja, who is also the rolemodel and teacher of these three kids, stick his fingers up the boys butt. But only as a lesson, okay?" .... Right.
Btw, seen this move elsewhere too. I'm guessing that means they really use it, huh...   

Aaaand then there's Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai (Seriously, Fall in Love With Me) or Majikoi for short that is pretty much on the highest level of mental I have ever seen (okay, at least among the more respectable ones). One girl sneaks into the male lead's bed every morning to try and have sex with him, so he leaves a rolled up futon with a cucumber attatched to it as a decoy. Why? He doesn't want her.
 She also replaces all of his porn with images of herself (overly attatched girlfriend much?), even made him an erotic video game starring... herself. There are scenes where the protagonist wiggles his balls around to show how much they resemble some Japanese deep fried food; people hold embarrassed conversations in the buff for like 5 minutes in a row, talking about how it shouldn't be embarrassing; a penis-festival; a lesbian limbless cyborg... pretty much everything you can think of.
What caught my eye especially was a totally new level of street perversion. So this little dude, Ikurou Fukumoto is obsessed with getting panty-shots with his camera and when he fails, he calms himself down with his ultimate technique:

Yes, he pretends his fingers look like girls lower body. And yep, the inside of his elbow is her butt. For some reason, I'm not sure this is entirely fiction... oh that's right! Maybe because Japanese people tend to sniff dirty panties, too...   

I have more grains to spill next Friday. In the meanwhile share your opinion - what crazy stuff have you seen?

...and then came the sequel...

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

In the light of a new season starting in the anime world, I'm inclined to be a bit melancholic about all my favourite shows that have ended - and I mean in general, not the previous season. When I watch or read something that I really grow fond of, it's extremely hard to let go of it in the end. Let's say I'm reading the Game of Thrones series and finally, finally, mr Martin finishes the damn saga. That's terrifying! It's like the end of a world! Although I don't like waiting years and years for the next part of the story, at least there is something to look forward to. It's kind of like losing something from your life if there is nothing else coming! Here, let me paint a picture:

Regardless, however desperate I may be, I recognize that at some point all good things must end. Or they stop being good. And yes, Hollywood, I mean you especially. Although there may be money to be made from '[insert name here] Adventures 2&3&4...' due to the gullible hopeful fans of '[insert name here] Adventures 1', story and qualitywise it would just be better to stop with the first. Sometimes before the first.

I'm not sure if that idea entirely works in the anime world though. There definitely are some animes that have overstayed their welcome, like the endless sequels of Digimon (I did like the first 3, by the way), Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Gundam - there are plenty. But more surprising are the ones that become a more special and diverse story with sequels. I'd say, at least to some extent, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Naruto Shippuuden do that. If you look at the top anime list here, you can see that many sequels are ahead of their first part in the list. So today I'll be focusing on the ones that I think absolutely profit from having a sequel or a second season.

Code Geass

Although this one was probably never meant as one season only, it's original run time was from fall 2006 to March 2007. The next season aired over a year later, in April 2008. It's not very uncommon for shows to get canceled and sequels to be announced and called off again, so if I had been watching it from the Japanese TV back then, I would've been rather scared that the first season would be the end of it. Even if there are various reasons for delaying a show on purpose - from creating more word of mouth marketing to polishing every edge of the new piece of work - you can never really know what's going on behind the curtains and weather your beloved show will make it back to the screen.
But thank goodness it did, because it was clearly the second season that brought it home. Where the first part was what built the story and gave it colour and some background, it was the pace, new variations and characters of the second season that provided such an epic culmination. It brought so many new elements and yet managed to keep the vibe from the first part - not to mention create new word of mouth publicity with the ending and become one of the most legendary psychological and strategic minds anime ever.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

This one has a very specific topic so I don't really blame you if you haven't seen it - or have avoided it.
The first season, which ended in September 2006, painted a rather bloody picture that could arguably be targeted to very sick people only. There were a couple of live-action movies and even a spinoff OAV before the 'official' second season aired July 2007, but it really was the second season that saved everything. Where the first season was cute-kids-getting-brutal, the second gave it some kind of context and reasoning which made it less sickening and more tragic. I know people who've watched a few episodes of the first season and then looked at me in disgust for having seen two seasons of it and never ever speak of it again. In my defense - I even told them that it may be pointless to watch the first season if you're not going to follow through the second since otherwise all you'll remember are twisted pictures from a story with no point other than killing people off over and over

Clannad: After Story

Probably one of the most famous sequels as well as a long time top of the ANN best anime list, Clannad: After Story is what saves the anime for me. The sequel, which aired similarly to previous examples a year after the first season ended in October 2007, has earned a lot of praise and won many hearts. 
You may call me a cold bastard and I would agree, but the regular Clannad left hardly any impression on me. Perhaps it is due to so many school animes out there and every other one of them trying to be so very overly melancholic. Or maybe I'm just a heartless bitch. 
Whereas I fully acknowledge that without the first season and the first half of the second season there would not be such a rich back story and contrast, the story itself only begins for me with the second half of the sequel. That last part is where the "Real Clannad" starts and takes off from the ground of  'a bit above average' and becomes something special. The excruciatingly long introduction pays off. Another sequel surpasses its original.

But one of the greatest surprises was something very unusual. I just recently finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Yeah, I know what you're thinking: that's not anime. True that. Still, the influences of Chinese culture and Japanese animation are so intensely visible in the series, that I would most often find myself wondering why they weren't speaking in Japanese.
When I first ever saw this cartoon it was when my sister was 6 and she watched it during the mornings. I didn't think much about it back then, it seemed rather tasteless. But with the urging community of 9gag, I decided to watch the show and guess what - it turned out to be awesome. There was the mindset and subtlety of Asian cultures skillfully mixed with American straightforwardness. It had great action, was very well drawn and no one really denied their feelings - the full package. A full shounen protagonist who is great at battles and knows how to handle spiritual stuff. What more can a girl ask for!

Now when I finished the original and went on to the Legend of Korra, I must say I was rather sceptical. We all know how the Western world butchers good things with sequels. But as the show evolved, I discovered my fears were for nothing. With matching undercurrents from the first show, the Legend of Korra kind of picks up like it's the most natural thing in the world. True, the world has changed and instead of the traditional China-like world, one might say there are new settings brought in from the red China - communist ideas in the world of element bending. And true, there seemed to be a lot take from the USA around the 40s, but all in all, it was the special and specific world of the four elements. Also, bits and pieces of the past were shown with our favourite characters from the original show all grown up, doing great deeds. 
I mean, dayum! Look at Aang, he grew up to be uberhandsome! Oh yes you did, yes you did!

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I have more grains to spill next Friday. In the meanwhile share your opinion - which sequels do you like or hate?

Epic anime women

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

Over the years I've seen quite a few animes and wether they're shoujo, shounen, slice of life, romance, drama or any other genre, there is this one thing that has always bothered me. The lack of powerful women. Sure, there are a few that have neat tricks up their sleeves or they provide strong support. But as for being actually strong on equal terms to male characters, there are very very few.

First, lets make it clear: powerful does NOT equal headstrong or tsundere. Powerful in the sense of having physical (or mental if the anime is about that particular feat) strength of their own - that does not revolve around kicking boys in the head and causing nose bleeds
The second prequisite is that there have to be some, but at least one, male characters of equal strength. Why? Because it's not really any kind of competition if there are only women, now is it? Wether we women like it or not, men are physically stronger, so if it's only females battling it out then there is always room for "A strong man could've beaten them all!"
Third, the woman has to be - if not human - then at least organical. If they're already modified with electrical gadgets and metal, well, it doesn't really count as fair play anymore. Also, it leaves room for: "She only beat him cause she's a cyborg."
And finally - no guns. I mean I don't mind girls with guns, but how would I count it as a strength? Are women stronger when they have guns? Sure, I guess. But aren't men? Yeah, they are. But how do I calculate this as a strength? Was Yoko from TTGL strong? I mean I guess she was - she had to carry that massive thing around. Was it equal to Simon and Kamina...? How about Riza Hawkeye from FMA? And Seras Victoria from Hellsing? I mean she was a vampire so she was obviously strong, but can we compare it to Alucard? I don't know and I'm no expert regarding guns so I'm leaving them out. End of story.

Now a little explanation of why I'm interested at all. Since women are naturally weaker, it's only logical to give them other kind of strengths and tools. They can be healers, supporters and tamers of their men, mental guides - anything that involves nurturing and caring. It seems that especially Japanese people value women by their grace and gentleness. 
And that's fine. I don't mind characters like Nagisa from Clannad, who tries hard to grow on her own and be there for Tomoya; Winry from FMA - the mental and mechanical support of Ed and Al; Mayuri from Steins;Gate who with her simple and gentle personality helps lift everyone to their potential and bind the group together; and the classical Tomoe from Rurouni Kenshin working as a sheath to Kenshin's sword. Many others as well, I'm sure everyone has their own favourites.

But then in other end of that Japanese grace are the loud obnoxious female characters that hide their weaknesses behind a hurricane of emotion and farce. Mostly they make me want to smash their stupid faces into brick walls. 
Like Sakura from Naruto. Yeah? So you decided you'd go after Sasuke to finish him on your own, failed miserably and had to be saved by the man whose feelings you keep ignoring? Or Asuka from NGE. So your mommy doesn't recognize you, how about you take it out on poor Shinji, eh? Even Saber from FS/N. Of course it's Shirou's fault that she's not at her full power, but that doesn't change the reality of how her runs in and gets beaten up all the time. God dammit, woman! Stop that!
I'm sure not everyone agrees on these particular characters, but imagine there's that one character you find annoying. And then there's dozens and dozens of these characters - they appear to be stronger than average but get themselves in trouble all the time just the same.

So when watching a shounen or anime similarly filled with action, it's like a fresh breeze when some anime women turn out to be pretty worthy on their own. For a change, you don't have to think: 'Dammit, why did she show up? She's only going to get in the Hero's way' and instead you can actually catch yourself going: 'Hell yeah, backup! She's gonna come kick some serious butt!'

So you can imagine how happy it makes me, to finally be able to actually look up to someone.

I have compiled a short list of the epic anime females, that make me smile.

5. Natsume Maya

Natsume Maya

Maya is treading on the edge of my criterias. She never actually managed to beat the beautiful Takayanagi Mitsuomi nor her incest-oriented brother Shin, but she was still portrayed good enough to train the Hero, Souichiro Nagi, as well as the younger Takayanagi brother. Her methods were refined, her style unquestionable. It was a great choice by the creators that she often walked around in her child-form, drawing the attention off her ridiculously "feminine" shape and giving room for some genuine wisdom and respect. Even if she wasn't truly all that strong, I'm glad there is a full-time female mentor character out there.

4. Kirigakure Shura

Pupil of the previous strongest exorcist and kind of a senpai to Rin and Yukio, Shura is displayed as a real crowd pleaser. Barely covered, fond of drinking and video games, Shura also comes with a mysteriously dangerous past. What's there not to like, right? Right?

3. Shihouin Yoruichi

Shihouin Yoruichi

Compared to the other candidates, this one stands out due to the normal size of her chest. Rare sight. I'm guessing bigger boobs in anime are supposed to remind us that this is after all a woman and not a strong man in disguise...
Now, if I had the ability to turn into a cat... well, purr. 
Although Yoruichi might lose a bit edge as the show evolves, at least in the first saga she makes a pretty meaningful appearance. She isn't shown to take on Byakuya entirely, but then again she isn't afraid to snatch Ichigo right from under his nose. It is a little disappointing that when the Arrancarr saga starts, she needs to be saved by Urahara during her fight with Yammy. But at the end of the day - she was a captain, the inventor of shunko and the Goddess of shunpo. Also, if Urahara treats her as an equal.... *wink wink*

2. Hamyuts Meseta

Hamyuts Meseta

If you've ever watched Tatakau Shisho - the Book of Bantorra, you're bound to remember this name forever. Mainly because of how the meats constantly repeated it. Hamyutsu Meseta o korose! Something of the like anyway.

But I'm guessing her chest, bunny-embroidered white shirts and godlike abilities with a sling will contribute to the purpose quite nicely. It's true that she was programmed to behave like she did in order to kill Ruruta, however throughout the series we are shown bits of her that are still very much human. The ending and Matt's feelings for her only highlight it and prove that she is one awesome woman!

As a sidenote: Aaaahh, what a nice grown-up relationship - no nosebleeds, no embarrassment. 

1. Erza Scarlet

Erza Scarlet

Erza, the beautiful scarlet goddess of magic and armor. Among the five that I mentioned, this one fits the job description best. Finally, FINALLY there is one epic woman that brings hope and strength with her. When watching Fairy Tail, you just know, that if Natsu or the others are in trouble and if Erza finally shows up, hope has returned. She fights Laxus and his thunder palace, Midnight, Azuma, one of the toughest enemies to beat - herself in Edolas form, not to mention Jellal, the man he loves. And many others. Erza carries pride, righteousness and amazing conviction with her head held high making her definitely the most desirable anime woman to look up to.

Go go, Erza! Beat them all in the hopefully-upcoming-magic-tournament-after-starry-heavens-arc!

P.S. Don't tell me what happens in the manga!

I have more grains to spill next Friday. In the meanwhile you can share your opinion  - which female characters do you find epic?