Awesome romance anime

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

First of all - I know I missed last week, my conscience told me. But since I needed sleep between sessions of hardcore studying, I couldn't help it :( Anyway, this week I'm continuing with my practical writing exercise, so yay for me!

I've never really liked full romance animes. I mean, I've always LOVED romance in animes - but only if the anime was of any other genre than romance itself. The school-love combo just gives me nothing - it's full of horrible melancholic moments and weird choices by the main characters, from wether to admit their feelings to bla bla bla...

Please don't be offended

But! This season I've been forced to eat my words - I think probably for the first time ever. Because I'm sorry to admit it, but I didn't really like Clannad. The After Story was great (let me specify - the marriage story was great), but the regular Clannad was so damn boring. Seriously, I considered skipping it all in all. Eventually I had to force myself into watching it because I wanted to properly see what After Story, the nr 1 spot on ANN was about. But it was just another story about how people form groups in a collectivistic society that will likely be their only network of connections next to their colleagues for the rest of their lives... damn I'm glad I live in the West.

After Clannad I've seen a bunch of faliures - that at least I thought were meant to be romance animes. Like Chihayafuru - okay, maybe it was meant to be a 'sports' anime, but seriously, wasn't everyone hoping for the storyline they began with the triangle to evolve.... ? Was that just me...? Woopsie... <.<
And then Natsuyuki Rendezvous. Bad. So bad. I had such high hopes - I was cheering for it until the very end. But it ended in complete randomness. I would like to take this time and ask: Excuse me, but what was the point of that entire anime? We all knew the ghost would have to give up Hazuki's body in the end, we all knew how sad that whole situation was... what exactly did this anime give us? The ghost was still floating around even after his wife had died after living decades and decades with another man.... So in the end there was no closure, no nothing. Stupid.
I also checked out Arcana Famiglia, which I knew was shoujou, but I tried anyway.... was bad, so whiny. Yuk!

Junjou Romantica

Okay, I guess I did like one romance anime, but that was probably because I had never seen one like that before. And it had sex, lots of sex. I like sex :x
I'm not even entirely sure this should be counted as romance - but they are doing romantic stuff, right? And the title says so... Perhaps a pretty straightforward anime pick for my very first yaoi, but then again it had some mushy feelings in it and all that. It's not like it was Ai no Kusabi reborn :D (oh yeah, those who have seen it blushed a little there). Didn't have lots of school in it - still evolved around a university, so I'm guessing that counts. Anyway, that was kind of fun and fresh. So, coolio. I'm borrowing this phrase from a friend. Cooli-o. Coolio.

But other than that I had never seen a traditional romance anime that I'd actually like. Until Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (My Little Monster) came along! Alright, maybe it's not very traditional in the sense of what goes on in there, but basically - it has romance, it has school life - I think I've found my perfect traditional exception, finally! 

First of all, it's funny - anyone who sees it and isn't completely derived of a sense of humor, should see that. Sometimes the fun is situational, sometimes it's just the things they say and the responses they give. The characters are special and not your typical: worn out hero-type gentle high school guy, who keeps coming to the rescue with only pure thoughts in his head; and the kind and useless lead female. No. This time the hero is a genius-boy who has extremely weird tastes, is brutal, a bit dirty-minded and actually has feelings he's not afraid to admit. But for a change, the girl doesn't get overshadowed - she's smart, blunt, knows what she wants and isn't afraid to say it either. Basically they're both downright honest - not such a common thing in anime, eh? So throw in a bunch of rich delinquents, a nice baseball dude, a cute but dumb girl who is also incidentally an internet geek, and a shy class-rep who isn't so shy after all when she falls for the male lead - and you get a mixture crazy, funny and romantic that actually resembles real life. Oh, and don't forget the rooster - the rooster is important!

I mean it isn't so unusual to kind of fall for your best friend, now is it? And it isn't unusual to tell the person you like them, try to figure things out. So where the regular romance anime goes on for episodes and episodes of denying their feelings, trying to be just friends, this one comes right out and says it: "Now that I realised I have feelings for you, I want to do all kinds of things to you..." - Haru.

So far in this show, they've confessed like four times, changed their priorities, realised the world isn't black-and-white, kissed, gone on dates, stopped dating - and it's still at episode 7! Every week I just cannot wait for another episode, it's freaking awesome! I'll throw in a few pics to illustrate my point.

Haru and Shizuku

Haru forces Shizuku to go eat out with him

Oshima having a moment with Haru... and Nagoya

A bit of the philosophy that drives Haru

Shizuku announces her ambition, Haru backs her up

Shizuku and Haru, almost there...

Shizuku flushed after a kiss attempt

Haru thinking about Shizuku

Basically - watch this anime or you'll miss out on a helluva lot of epicness!

More grains to spill next week - share your thoughts in the meanwhile!

Surprise, yaoi!

*Includes spoilers. Includes objectionable content. NSFW. All media credits go to their owners. *

I don't know about you guys, but when I like an anime I tend to browse pictures and extra info about it. I mean I can't help it - I just really really want to see if the male and female leads end up as a couple or if there are epic battle pictures about. Heehee :x
Sure, it has gotten me into a lot of trouble too, especially when I open a wikia of an anime that I haven't finished yet. I often find out things that I shouldn't for like another 100 episodes. And not all forums have spoiler alerts so sometimes I curse myself for even googling anything at all.

But nothing compares to when I end up on something very unexpected. Like yaoi. Surprise yaoi.

I mean I don't mind yaoi, I've even seen a few of them. They're different and refreshing in a way, although I would not watch them all the time. Buuuuuut, if I'm browsing Naruto pictures and something like this comes up:

Sasuke and Naruto

Then I definitely go like: AMAGAD, my eyes! They burn!!!! Why would you do this????

Ok. Phew. Breathe.
So then I calm down and figure: "Hey, okay. I mean I guess if I wish for Naruto and Hinata to be together (Yessir, I sure do. Go find your Sasuke, you horrible whiny bastard Sakura) then there might be people who would genuinely wish for the two main male characters to be together, right?"

But there are entirely different levels of yaoi that you can stumble upon and yes, you guessed it - I'm going to share a few of these with you today. Since I do not wish to transform this blog into an erotic yaoi heaven, I'll just stick to who are on the pictures, not how they're on the pictures. You can find the latter in Google.

The expected.

Vegeta and Goku

So when browsing general anime pictures, I guess it's not too big of a surprise if the main characters show up in peculiar situations. I may not always like it but if they're close friends in the anime or at least rivals or enemies, then it's bound to invoke some kind of attention and yaoi-fans like to be all over that. Let's say we have a girl and a guy character who always fight - people instantly think there's something more going on. So yeah, I suppose the same logic could work for the same gender. Naruto and Sasuke, Ichigo and Renji, Kira and L and so on. I mean if they turned out to be gay, I'm pretty sure those would be the partners they would choose, right? Be that as it may, the typical main-char combo is to be expected, so no reason to be shocked. Much.

Yumichika and Ikkaku

The possible.

This is the one where you're happily browsing pictures when you notice them two boys together, it catches your eye and you stare at it for a couple of minutes. Then you think to yourself: "Well I'll be... that would actually make sense." 
To be honest, I had already thought about the possibility you can see on the picture before I found it. Ikkaku and Yumichika are always hanging out together, Yumichika is very fond of his looks and feminine side - and Ikkaku lets such a guy hang out with him. Coincidence? I think not! The example here might be very shounen, but generally these are the guys that appear together very often. There was prince Schneizel el Britannia and Kanon Maldini in Code Geass, which was very freely hinted. But mainly it's noticable with almost any bishounen-harem style anime male characters.

The not-so-bad.

Iruka and Kakashi

Alright, let's get straight to the example picture. 
Hmm. Well this is unexpected. One is the very much epic Kakashi and the other Iruka, who some people call Naruto's honorary older brother. But it definitely falls under the category of: I've-never-seen-them-with-a-woman-so... 
I personally would never ever have thought of it, but now that it's here before my eyes, I'm thinking - that's not such a bad solution. Have you ever seen Kakashi with a woman? I've heard there was this ex-teammate of his, Rin, but she's dead, so... Who knows, he actually might be reading some yaoi from his little book. And what about Iruka? 
I've also seen Aizen-Grimmjow, Renji-Byakuya, Sanji-Zoro... I mean Sanji bleeds from his nose when he sees hot women, right? Well, boy, do I have a solution for you!

The how-the-hell-did-this-happen?

Hitsugaya and Ichimaru

So now we're getting to the part where you find a picture and it really stops making any sense whatsoever. Random characters have been pulled out of context and shoved into a yaoi scene where they would just never ever end up on their own. Sure - it may be possible in the way that it's possible for nerdy gamer-boy to date a hot actress or for me to pump into a billionaire who wants to invest into my business project. It's not impossible, but.... 

Coming to the picture (lol, no pun intended), lets talk about the Hitsugaya and Ichimaru relationship. Yeah, that's right. There is nothing to talk about. Exactly how does this make sense at all? Because they had a confrontation in the beginning? Because they're both prodigies? I'm pretty sure that if Hitsugaya has strong negative feelings for anyone, it's mostly Aizen. The other random couple beyond the reach of my tiny little brain is Rock Lee-Gaara. The rest of them kind  of blur into the next category....

Al and Ed

The double-u-tee-ef

But, but, but... they're brothers! And Ed marries Winry... And Al will eventually marry May... right? Right?! My world cannot shatter here.... 
Which is what I think every time I stumble upon something extremely wrong. Like Ciel and Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji. I even had a picture to post here but that was just horribad - pedophilia is pedophilia weather the little boy was willing or not -.- So stop that, dear yaoi fanatics. As well as incest. 
"Incest Brothers was a Swedish punk rock band formed in September 1978 in Järfälla." - Says Wikipedia. So how about we keep it that way and let the poor FMA heroes enjoy their newly retrieved bodies in a more traditional way, kk??

I have more grains to spill next Friday. In the meanwhile, what do you think about surprise yaoi?