Shuffle!

gfaqs copypasta. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS


I finished Shuffle. It had a rating topic recently on OT, I'm very surprised now that the scores were what they were (mostly in the average range, some negative ones) since I thought it was great. If the series were just the first seven or so eps then I'd understand the scores but when it became srs business and for the most part stayed there, it became waayyyy more interesting and very enjoyable. I only played Kaede's path in the vn so it was interesting to see everyone elses' path. And the way Kaede reacted in one particular one of them... it really strengthened her path.

Although I'm still somewhat disappointed with Rin winding up with Asa over Kaede (Kaede will always be the best of the girls tbh) I'm not like, bothered by it like I was bothered with Ichigo's pairing or Kashimashi's pairing, where I had a very hard time accepting it. Here, though it isn't the ideal pairing I have no problems at all accepting it. I was able to watch their happy scenes and feel genuinely good and not be wishing that he were instead having those scenes with Kaede. The anime really pulled off putting them together, I disagree with it but it feels very right so it's not an issue.

I really enjoyed the last episode. Seeing Primula with more than her usual expression was awesome. Some of her expressions were priceless considering her face is usually so flat. I'd say that made the episode alone, but it still was generally just a feel-good episode, and a great way to end the series. All in all I think Shuffle is a great watch.

Seizon -LifE-, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Link's Logbook, Nil no Koi☆Mahoujin, Byouto Shoujo Kan

Catch-up post. Seizon is GFAQs copypasta


I read Seizon -LifE- in one sitting after finishing Ichigo, I planned just to restart it but I couldn't put it down. Great manga. It really grabbed you for a manga so short and it was lots of fun following the protagonist as he dug up the facts attempting to track down his daughter's killer. Emotionally it wasn't as engaging on a sentimental level as I was hoping, someone regarded it in the same light as Ai-Ren so I was also holding it to high standards (I cried my eyes out on Ai-Ren) but it was still a great read with a satisfying conclusion.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Link's Logbook was great. It was really short, and often times really funny. It just took the source material and made it humerous, which is a lot better than it'd have been were it like the OoT and MM mangas (allegedly, I haven't read those yet.) Really though, a smile on my face for most of the reading. Worth the time.

Nil no Koi☆Mahoujin is a one shot about a young girl in a magic school who winds up getting a crush on this silent, badass type dude who's actually really sweet at heart and doesn't mean to be so intimidating. There's not much to say about it, but it was a really cute read and it could easily have been made into a (short running) manga series.

Byouto Shoujo Kan is pretty weird and twisted. Basically, these two lolis who need each other to live, one has to suck the blood of the other for weird scientific reasons that are explained but that I've forgotten already. The story is strange but it was dark and it had my interest piqued. I wouldn't have minded reading a more fleshed out telling of the story, focusing on different characters (given what happens to the two characters in the one shot.) Quite a few of the drawings were pretty suggestive too, I suppose could be a positive depending on what you're looking for. It didn't really match the darkness of the story though. I don't regret reading it, but it was strange.

Haruhi S1, Strawberry (Ichigo) 100%

copypasta from GFAQs


Haruhi is finished. I enjoyed it. Very happy I watched it in broadcast order, that was a way better final episode than the chronological final episode. I also never really felt disoriented story-wise while watching, perhaps because I watched it all in a short timeframe but when people argue in favor of chronological order because broadcast is disorienting, I don't think that's true at all. Of course some things that were happening but at the time unexplained were strange, but I never had trouble following the show.

I think broadcast order is great though because there was somewhat of a build-up due to spreading out the Melancholy arc (which was the best arc.) It felt like the show was striving towards some big happening and indeed that's what happened. So overall I definitely enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to S2 whenever I get around to that.


*STRAWBERRY 100% ENDING SPOILERS*

Ichigo 100% is finished

Though I strongly strongly disliked how things wound up, I still felt "satisfied" with the ending. It closed nicely given the circumstances. Some people said the ending was rushed, I disagree. It was fine.

My big gripe is that Junpei wound up with Tsukasa and not Aya. It had to be Aya, from the very beginning, it always had to be Aya. I don't understand how he could've wound up with Tsukasa. They never had that connection. Junpei always felt pressured around her and it was never a comfortable situation for them to be together. And yet they wind up together? It doesn't make sense. Tsukasa was the pairing that made the least sense. Satsuki made more sense, yet she was basically dropped from the story for the final chapters. It's just bull****. Why did the mangaka pair him up with Tsukasa?

On that same token, Tsukasa's relationship did develop more in the later chapters. And the mangaka did a good job handling Aya's feelings on the matter and given the circumstances I'm happy with how he worked things out for her. That she could remain on good terms with Junpei and mature as she did was great. I just would have preferred that that never have been the case, and that Junpei wound up with Aya and it was Tsukasa who came to terms with this. It just feels so wrong. It's just like, all this time it seems like Aya will have to be the one but as the manga nears its close, suddenly there's more development with Tsukasa and then next thing you know the relationship is actually set in stone. It feels like the mangaka just changed his mind. It's just... wrong.

Overall, I'll agree that it was a good read. I had a lot of fun throughout the majority of it, and though I disagree strongly with the ending, with what there is to work with the ending was definitely a good one. I am extremely disappointed, but overall I'm happy with the manga. Ugh.

Paranoia Agent

copypasta from a post on GameFAQs

Paranoia Agent is done. I'm surprised they were able to have the ending make some form of sense. I wasn't exactly expecting something conclusive but I'm not complaining, I liked the ending. Overall the series was bizarre and very entertaining, although when it sort of lost focus about half-way through and started doing single episodes focusing on a new person/group of people I felt that it sort of lost something compared to when it was following the Shonen Bat investigation. Also episode nine was completely pointless.

--

So yeah, when I first started watching anime years ago (like in 2006 or 2007, before I lost interest for two years before coming back to it) basically the two series that I was digging were Elfen Lied and this. Elfen Lied I bought all the DVDs for and saw in its entirety but I only ever bought vol 1 of Paranoia Agent and so it wasn't until I got back into anime in 2009 that I started on the other volumes. Finally got vol 4 recently and finishing it up was nice. It feels good to finish it since it's been so long since I started it :P

Next up I'm watching Shuffle, and reading Ichigo 100% online/A.I. Love You and GTO in physical format. Also I think collection and mail arrival etc pictures are pretty so I might start making those with my shipments as they come. Won't take a collection pic 'till my collection is more respectable though.

Berserk, Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa, Otomen, She and Her Cat

Playing catch-up with this post :x for the record the Berserk in question is the anime. Each discussion will contain SPOILERS for that particular series.

Berserk
This one was very enjoyable. It sort of reminded me of a medieval epic, something like Braveheart, or even Gladiator. It seems to take place in that era of time, but there's also a strong mythical element to it, with monsters and such, though the series doesn't really touch on that except for one particular fight in the middle and then the ending. There are basically five or six central characters, with the main ones being Guts, Casca and Griffith of those five. They're all pretty well developed, but especially the three I just mentioned. Since the anime has a lot of story scenes (going into it, I admit I expected mostly just a bunch of hacking and slashing) it's important that the characters are interesting, and Berserk's characters are definitely interesting.

The ending I found was quite powerful, though if it weren't so bizarre it could've had a stronger impact. It was crazy that basically every character we've followed throughout the series died in that one episode, with the exception of Guts and Griffith. It was pretty sick what happened, especially to Caska who did not at all deserve the death she got. It paints Griffith as quite the antagonist, and it sets up the series well for more story with present-time Guts, out to destroy the God Hand. It's unfortunate that the anime ends here, with so much more manga material to cover, but apparently when the anime was made this is how far the manga was so it couldn't be helped. It definitely makes me want to check out the manga.

Overall, a great watch.

Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa
I've always just called this one "the hermaphrodite manga". Basically it's about this girl's cousin who moves in with her, and while she thought her cousin was a boy, it turns out she's actually a girl... or rather, a hermaphrodite as developments would reveal. The bulk of the story is spent following the hermaphrodite as she (he? it?) goes through school life in the city while trying to conceal the fact that she isn't *actually* a she. As it happens, she also doesn't know anything about sex and this leads to quite a few funny scenes as her cousin introduces her to various things that she now has to deal with, being in a school environment where she desires to have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

So most of the manga is just light-hearted fun with the idea of a hermaphrodite protagonist, but there's also another side to it that isn't very enjoyable. At random intervals throughout the series the group would be attacked by mysterioud men in black, and these sections felt very out of place and for most of the series weren't explained. Then, about 3/4ths into the manga they give an explanation and it's all downhill from there. Making it so that the hermaphrodite is actually an alien was just stupid, and then the plot with the men in black being to capture her for testing or some such nonsense. On top of that, the ending was awful, with her going back into space with her father then coming back to Earth like a couple pages later to have sex with her cousin. Right. Totally random and just a horrible way to end the manga.

It's unfortunate that it took such a dip in quality, but most of the manga was enjoyable.

Otomen (vol. 4)
(copypasta from a topic on GameFAQs)

Best volume so far, by a long shot. I think I laughed more times throughout this one volume than I have over the other three volumes combined. Otomen vols 1-3 I'd rank like 7, vol 4 bumps it up to 8 at least no question. Whereas a lot of the humour in the first three volumes was hit or miss (imo), vol 4 just hits the bullseye every time. The first chapter kicked so much ass too. Ryo's dad is a great character, so to do a chapter on him experiencing girly things was the greatest thing ever, and his reactions are hilarious. Almost even better is that new flower obsessed character. How he'll randomly pop up in frames after he's introduced just putting flowers in people's hair, it's just so funny to read :D

Very very pleased with volume 4. Perhaps the best part of all was the total lack of complicated, bizarre plots that last for all of a chapter and don't seem to accomplish anything other than having Asuka get into a bit of trouble. Chapters like the forced marriage one in volume 2 I think it was, were just very very meh. Doing away with them, and just keeping up the comedy the whole way through is great. It totally overshadows the fact that Asuka still hasn't pushed to develop a relationship with Ryo, that doesn't even matter if it continues just as a laughs manga like this :)

She and Her Cat
I actually finished this one a while ago. It was a short film by the Voices of a Distant Star guy, basically about a cat and its life with its owner, a single woman. It was cute but there really wasn't much to it. There really isn't much to discuss about it. I don't regret watching it, and the animation was impressive being the work of one man but there really isn't anything else about it that's particularly interesting or great that stands out. It's just a short film about a cat :x worth watching since it's so short.

Next up on my list of animu to tackle is either Shuffle or Paranoia Agent, depending on what I wind up in the mood for. On the manga front, Strawberry 100% and Flowers of Evil.