*Includes spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*
Lately I've been mostly watching Naruto from scratch which is why I haven't had a lot to write about. Everyone knows what happens in Naruto: Naruto is awesome, Sasuke is cocky and Sakura is a fucking retard. Great show. Here's a little spoiler from when Sakura killed Sasuke:
Aaaanyhow, I managed to squeeze in something else too. And I don't only mean my jutsu seal studies... *chants: pig-dog-bird-monkey-sheep* BTW this one still hasn't worked for me. I thought we had a bond, cat! Y U no come??
Righty.
But what I really wanted to talk about today were two romance animes. I watched the first a few months ago and after my typical annoyance at the overly melancholic style wore off, I have to admit I really liked it.
Kimi Ni Todoke or From Me to You or To Reach You... People should start switching to a unified translation style, honestly. If you haven't seen it then this one is about a girl who due to her resemblance to the Ring ghost is nicknamed Sadako (Sawako - Sadako - potayto - potato) and most of her classmates are scared of her. Not to mention people who meet her on the street. She looks something like this.
Since Kuronuma Sawako is mostly ignored or feared, she has a very low self esteem and always puts herself last. After being shunned for so long she has no people skills whatsoever and has become extremely shy over the years. But she also likes helping people and wants to be a part of the class, she always takes on the nastiest chores and is afraid to disappoint people due to having no superpowers (her class believes she can curse people).
And obviously there is a handsome and popular male lead, Kazehaya Shouta. Since he's not a shallow dickhead like everyone else, he for one treats Sawako as a human. And you've guessed it, he starts noticing how hard the girl works and that she's actually a kind and caring person.
Step by step Kazehaya helps Sawako make friends and grow into a decent person. She gains friends and the class starts treating her properly. She helps many people with her honesty and becomes more open to everyone. She even gains a rival. And all while Kazehaya and Sawako both fall for each other.
Now here's the catch: since Sawako has such a low self esteem, she does admit to herself that she has feelings for Kazehaya but is convinced that he couldn't possibly see her the same way. Kazehaya on the other hand doesn't even imagine that she could be seeing such a thing as a problem and when Sawako constantly says how they are only friends, he starts doubting whether he even means anything more to her.
Maybe this, a bit of a paradox, is what really catches one's attention. It's so easy to start doubting yourself when your head is clouded by strong feelings and read a lot into things that didn't mean much - or read too little into those that actually did. Kimi Ni Todoke really hits the spot with it. If someone becomes that important to you, every word they say and action they take seems to be of substantial meaning. It gets so hard to see clearly - and that even if you are good with people. Imagine if you've just recently managed to make friends and been accepted into a group. You'd never know what could be meant as a joke - or what could be serious.
Also, the more Sawako admits that she likes Kazehaya, the harder talking to him becomes. Another good point the show makes. It really IS hard to talk to the person that you're head over heals in love with, especially if you're a teenager. Maybe you'll say something stupid or maybe he or she will hate you if you say something wrong?
There are lots of inner thoughts in this anime and we can follow Sawako step by step through her doubts and fears. Of course, I found a large portion of them annoying and the extra soft intonation that the voice actor used made me want to vomit. Or at least close the video. But I didn't, I managed to follow through!
Another part that made me extremely angry was when Sawako's low self esteem actually made her reject Kazehaya. The poor boy came and confessed her his feelings, in front of people and everything. But by thinking herself not worthy, she brushed it off as a sign of friendship instead. Now that is not cool, Sawako. The poor boy came and opened up to you in front of everyone. You don't just go assuming he means it as "just friends". At least make sure. You owe it to the guy.
Luckily, after the mushy emo part ended, Sawako actually got a grip on herself, stood up and pushed down the mental wall that was preventing her from being with Kazehaya.
I liked the drawing style, even though it looked sort of pointy. It suited the show somehow. The colors they picked into the scenes were amazing though and so were the opening songs. Especially the first one. And I worshipped this guy:
Sanada Ryuu. He was cool and insightful and in love with his childhood friend. I thought that was a pretty awesome side story. His voice actor was the same as Gray from Fairy Tail (Nakamura Yuuichi) so he sounded awesome too. A really great character.
Just yesterday though, I finished Bokura ga Ita or We Were There. This one is the story of a young couple that get together in the first year of high school. The guy is uberpopular (like always) and the girl is a bit silly. Here they are now, Yano Motoharu and Takahashi Nanami:
In this case though, Yano used to have a girlfriend (technically he had several, but what counts is this one particular girl) who died a year earlier while in the car with her ex. Not such a good thing, huh. In front of others he treats the memory with a cold shoulder and ignores the topic most of the time. In reality though, he's obviously not over it. He still thinks about her often and even though he gets into a relationship with Nanami, he finds himself remembering all kinds of things about his past with the dead girl. Needless to say there are many incidents involved that start coming out one by one and most of them don't really help their relationship. So from the very description of the show you should see where it's headed - going to be lots of tears and hardships.
But unlike Kimi Ni Todoke, it also has some laughs. They do silly things and Yano is a fun guy. They talk to each other pretty openly and it actually resembles a working relationship - at least in the beginning.
Another thing that surprised me was that sex was actually a topic. They had showed already that Yano used to sleep with his ex-gf (and not only...) but then after Yano and Nanami had been dating for a while, it also came into question. They actually showed the beginning of the couples' first time pretty bluntly. Getting undressed... trying to break in... <.<
But obviously this happy part couldn't last forever, otherwise it would not be a shoujou. Things get messed up when Yano gets a flashback from his past and confuses Nanami with his ex for a second. That leads to a opening of Yano's heart which makes Nanami realize she can't make him happy since she doesn't want to be just a replacement. So from then on, there's lots of crying and even rivalry for Nanami's heart. Around the 18th episode it all resolves though.
Now the big question in my eyes is - if the main topic (the dead girlfriend issue) is solved... Then what use is it trying to make the show longer? Cause after the part that everyone was interested in ended, there's still like 7-8 episodes. And they're full of forced drama. It started out really great - there were emotions and laughter and some serious stuff. But then the topic turned into "what will happen in the future" and "will we be together forever"? My guess would be that they were trying to build an intro to season 2. But truth be told, for me, it kind of ruined the series. Had it stopped at 18, I would've rated it higher than Kimi Ni Todoke.
Another thing that really bothered me, was the drawing style. Half of the time they had not drawn one eye of the character and the background was just foggy. Profile views looked extremely awkward.
So all in all... what have I learned from these two?
It's better to have emo topics in between rather than a whole lot of it in the end. Yep. That's got to be it.
