Minnie: Minnie is back with a Bakuman blog! Yippee~ I know how happy you all must be to see me back to blogging this manga this week… right? Anyways, you guys know my trend of blogging exciting manga chapters so here I am with a short and lovely entry on the awesome pair of Saiko and Shuijin in Bakuman~
Mikoto's standing ON a speeding car, fighting a giant robot. What's more awesome than that?
Garrick: I’ve been really inconsistent in blogging this recently. But this is the final episode, and it wouldn’t be right for me to not blog this amazing anime’s final episode. If you don’t know what’s been going on up until now… then… well, you probably should read this post. But if you persist in reading, then, well, I’ll recap the episodes I missed. Well, not exactly the episodes I missed, but the major arc that’s been finished up with this episode… along with the anime itself. (more…)
Minnie: Yes, I am still sick this week. Hopefully, after this week is over though, I will be back to being lively and healthy once more! Whee~ Anyways, Spring Break is coming up and I’m looking forward to lots of resting (not partying!). ^^ But who cares about what’s going to happen next week when we’re still struggling with this week right? Right. Let’s move on to Kimi ni Todoke~
I never acknowledge Dance with the Vampire Maid - so here's a screen of the maids' imagined version of Yuuki's novel.
Katt: So since Funimation has licensed Dance in the Vampire Bund, I’ve had to keep an eye out on their Youtube channel to see when they’ve posted their subs. Unfortunately, it’s taken a while; fortunately, at least I know that I like Funimation! I haven’t done research into what sort of ‘editing’ they’ve felt compelled to do – note to self: check out how some of the racy episodes have been altered when you get a chance. But okay, Funimation aside, episode 9 wraps up the Hysterica/Nanami arc quite neatly and gives us a transition into the next arc, which I assume will be the last one that the anime covers. We all know that I like to avoid doing plain ol’ plot summaries when I can, though, so I have found a theme in this episode that will tie the plot together instead! And that would be choice, in regard to the vampires in this series and their transformations (or births).
Garrick: Forgive me, I have no screenshot this time, because this blasted netbook decides that paint (my normal screenshot capturing device… AKA print screen, paste, and crop) doesn’t want to work. If I ever get my hands on my other laptop, that Minnie currently has, or my desktop… which is so conveniently downstairs… (and my back happened to completely implode on me, leaving me stuck in my bed for close to a week… [okay, more like 4 days, but w/e]) I might get a screenshot in there. If I don’t… or decide to be too lazy… then just deal with the giant block of boring text. Sorry. =P In compensation, I tried to be a bit more exciting with my post… Note. Tried.
Garrick: Ah, yes. Did I just waste 100 words on a random anime-unrelated story about why… I can’t get a screenshot in? Yes, I did. And considering that I normally post about… 250 words… I’ve got about… 110 words to fit it all in. (No, not really, just playing. Not even I could summarize an anime episode in 100 words. Well. I might. But I’m not going to try. Not now, at least.) [Oh, and I just wasted like... another 100 words...]
Garrick: ONTO THE EPISODE, DAMMIT! Anyhow, we’ve got Tsuchida… really on a bit of a depressed/unlively streak. Everybody but the girl in question knows why. I mean, it’s so obvious that even a group of kindergarten students can see it. Then again, either these students are really really perceptive… Or I was just a really really REALLY retarded kindergartener that could never ever ever ever ever see anything like this. (And a loner, but we don’t need to go into that.) Or… times have just seriously changed.
I expect it to be a combination of all three. Since I already know that the last two are true.
Garrick: Anyway. Really, the true point of this second to last episode is to figure out everyone’s motvation… and… well… cheer up Tsuchida. The first few minutes of the episode are really showing us that Tsuchida is really bugged by something, and pretty depressed and sad about SOMETHING, and of course, the first one to try and help is the ever adorable (and borderline annoying) Anzu.
Garrick: As it so turns out, Tsuchida gets sick from one of his dumb ideas… and… somehow, Anzu comes to his door and decides to help him get over his cold. I’m not sure what times have come to, but I should mention this. She went over alone. Unless Tsuchida and Sakura/Anzu either live in the same apartment complex, or are neighbors… I can not see a KINDERGARTENER going over to her teacher’s house and helping out. Alone. I mean… kindergardeners are usually 5 or 6, right? Hell, when I was 5 or 6… I couldn’t even… Uh. Wait. I don’t remember my life when I was that age. Just that I bit my classmate’s shoulder. ANYWAY! Point gets across, right? RIGHT.
Garrick: After Anzu’s mistakes inevitably end up scaring off Tsuchi’s cold… Anzu decides to fall asleep. And ends up staying the night. Oh, lord, we all know how that’s going to go across tomorrow at school.
Garrick: Anyhow, he gets better, but he’s still depressed. And this is when Sakura decides to help him. I’m not exactly in the mood to go through the speech she gives him while also using him to get some of her work as a writer done (Okay, I made that sound way worse than it was, but… it made me laugh. So that’s okay, people. If you want to know exactly what happened, you can watch it yourself.)
Garrick: This speech ends up giving Tsuchida the courage to stop worrying other people and finally get over his slump. Well, almost. At least, he gets the courage to finally ask Yamamoto how she feels about him. (and might I add… Yamamoto, while the typical perfect girl… really is adorable.)
Garrick: And as he walks up to Yamamoto’s big mansion/house/whatever thing… he starts to get cold feet. What do I say, will I look weird with these flowers, how do I ask her how she feels, and… well… along comes the younger Yamamoto (and I might add… she is ALSO quite adorable…) and tells Tsuchi that Nana isn’t at home, but at the Kindergarten.
Garrick: Of course, this cues a scene between the two… the perfect girl, and the love-struck guy who thinks he’s no good. And… yeah. Tsuchi never gets his question asked, but instead goes around the question using a sort of “If somebody…” blah blah blah… and, in the process, learns that Nana is indeed also in love with her work, and is truly trying to focus on that. And she doesn’t want to go out with anyone because of that. Even though she would be happy hearing it.
Garrick: All in all, it was a pretty inspiration episode, I just didn’t get into the inspirational parts very much because I’m really really really bad at portraying inspirational ideas and stories. Maybe I’m just not very inspirational myself?
Garrick: It did give a bit of a sort of story I can use for my own college life, also, if that means anything. In that way, I also believe that Hanamaru Kindergarten, as much as it seems, isn’t really FOR kids. It’s just about kids. Actually, not really. It’s about adults. Using kids to portray their stories. Not really “using”… but using. Uh. Never mind.
Garrick: Another thing I have to repeat about this anime in general… is how the heck does a mother let her 5/6 year old girl go out on the streets alone to somebody else’s house? I mean, I’m sure that Japan has its share of lolicons waiting on the streets to snatch a little girl off the streets. Uh. And, no, that’s not me, thank you very much. -_-
Garrick: It’s just a bit confusing to me, but I guess I can accept it, because, as you can tell, all of the characters (and the anime itself) really aren’t looking at anything bad. Not in people, not in story, and I guess that just doesn’t have to be taken into account. I just don’t want to see a little girl on the streets alone!~
Uh. Yeah. Seriously.
Garrick’s Rating for Episode Eleven: 8/10
Garrick’s Anticipation for the Final Episode (I think…): 10/10
Your drill is the drill that's gonna bust through heaven and earth and even tomorrow! *dies*
Garrick: I figure this would be a good episode to blog, because it… well… as my title says. Spans two entire ESB’s in one episode. That’s pretty awesome. And it’s better than the superbly comedic past few episodes.
Minnie: The reason for this being tremendously late? I’m still sick and I’m beginning to worry… Am I ever going to get better? Don’t worry. It’s not like I’m dying or anything. I just hate being sick, but not bedridden sick. You know what I mean? Anyways, I did manage to watch this episode and here is your lame, short, not-very-fangirl review on it~
Miken: Seeing as I’m watching more and more old shows on top of my 10+ new shows per season, I suppose I should at least leave some comments on the older series that I’ve watched/caught up on. The first and hopefully not the last post will be of Neon Genesis Evangelion. I had seen an episode or two many years ago, but I never really got the chance to sit down and properly watch it. However, my boyfriend annoyed asked me into watching it in its whole glory.
The first half of the series is tame enough. You can see that each character has his/her own problems, but it isn’t really overt. For the most part, the episodes also follow a standard “destroy the Angel of the week” plotline. It was while watching these episodes that I finally decided on my preference in Eva pilots going: (1) Asuka, (2) Shinji, (3) Rei.
Amazingly, Shinji didn’t annoy the crap outta me as much I feared. Of course, after having to sit through Ambassador Asshat Luke fon Fabre in Tales of the Abyss, the Shinji of the first half was bound to be pretty likable by comparison. As for the second half, he did seem to hit a wall about 20 times, but I empathized with him more then, since NERV is nowhere to be for any kid his age. Problems that ‘normal’ kids would encounter, like parent/acceptance issues are put under a magnifying glass due to the stressful and dangerous nature of their jobs.
Rather than being angry at Shinji, I was more frustrated with Gendo Ikari. Seriously, his fathering skills are only marginally better than Rosa Ushiromiya’s in that he actually sorta-almost-not-really means some good and has a slightly better Freudian Excuse. It seems like nearly all the time, he’s really manipulating Shinji — using his kid’s inadequacies against him in order to guilt him into staying on the team, also taking advantage of Shinji’s very obvious need for his father’s approval. Of course, it could be him taking Shinji and almost caring for him through forcing him to grow a backbone, but his methods really aren’t doing his son any good. In fact, they’re pretty much ruining what’s left of his fragile mentality.
Speaking of fragile mentalities: the pilots…Oh goodness I felt so bad for these children. It really hit me when Gendo nearly had Eva Unit 01 kill Toji in the failed Unit 03. I mean, it’s bound to send someone into a near-catatonic state when his control over his giant robot is removed and he’s forced to see his friend nearly die like that, especially when the guy who removed control from you was your own father, who knew full well who was in that other Eva. Doesn’t help at all that the Evas seem to bleed when they’re injured. Afterwards, I really didn’t blame Shinji from wanting to run away from NERV and the Evas. Of course, he got guilt tripped/lectured into going back. Then there’s Shinji having to kill Kaoru. Sure, Kaoru really creeped me out and it was obvious that something was wrong with him from the start, but Shinji was starting to really develop a friendship [albiet a very strange and probably unhealthy one] with the guy.
At the very least, I like the current Rei better than this one
Surprisingly, I didn’t really connect to Rei despite knowing how huuuuge she is in terms of popularity. I call a difference in culture here. I suppose that the Japanese are more likely to like a character of Rei’s nature, while westerners like someone more active/riled up like Asuka or maybe Misato. Rei was never an eyesore, but she was just kinda there for me. I did, however, like the backstory leading up to the creation of the first Rei, since it was nice to see just how Gendo changed [and somehow didn't change] while he still had Yui. For one, he definitely seemed kind of nicer, but at the same time, very cunning and not unlikely to pull some underhanded tricks.
We’re very sorry, but we ran out of money
As for Asuka and Shinji…I could connect to them to a certain degree in terms of their acceptance issues, which is why I liked them a bit more. The mindscrew of the final two episodes brought all of Shinji inner turmoil to a head in which he finally got to realizing that he had to start liking himself. The whole imagery of the way each character is and how other characters perceive him/her was definitely nice. It really shed a different light on the characters as well: Rei didn’t seem quite as empty as before as she discussed her own concerns about her existence; Asuka lost her strong-girl edge and revealed her many faults and revealed why she put up so many walls and sought the attention of everyone; Misato lost the mask of the caring and composed mother figure and her problems with her father and the roots of her relationship with Kaji were explored; and Shinji battled with his father issues as well as his own lack of personal esteem, eventually realizing that he had to perceive himself as better for others to perceive him well even when he is not piloting the Eva. While not really very visually amazing due to lack of budget, it did a wonderful job of fleshing out the characters.
All in all, the last 2 episodes…I had heard much about them before, but I didn’t expect them to be that confusing. Okay, so it does present itself fairly straightforward, but it leaves so much to be inferred. It doesn’t help when Hideaki Anno himself is the master of the Shrug of God. I’ll head off to the movies later, but as for now, I’m still scratching my head a bit.
Congratulations, Shinji~ Now how’re you going to get off that big blue ball and back to saving the world?
Series Overall Score: 8/10
It was nice and I can definitely see why it’s lasted so many years and is still very strong in terms of popularity. However, having seen this after seeing so many series and without the influence of nostalgia, I don’t think that it really ranks atop my favorites. Sure, I’ll probably remember this series years down the line when I’ve forgotten the names of “amazing for a little while” series like Darker than Black, and maybe then I’ll look on this more fondly. However, it’s just sitting at above-par at the moment.
What’s up next? Well, it might either be something more recent like Seto no Hanayome or something older than I am, like the first Gundam series or SDF Macross. Or maybe finally get to watching Cowboy Bebop in order. I really haven’t decided. After all, this post was made on a whim and my choice of watching older shows depends on my whims too…
Note: Any of you who lost 5+ hours of your life to any of the TV tropes links up there, I’m sorry. Here’s a gift.
Minnie: Hello everyone! It has been a LOOONG time since I blogged Skip Beat. For the most part, it’s due to my lack of energy to do anything productive lately. Another reason is because I haven’t had the opportunity to fully blog a SB chapter. This chapter though… is a must blog and here I am. Please enjoy the post~ <3
Minnie: I am going to say this once and hopefully, don’t need to repeat myself: I am sick again. I blame the weather. And with that out of the way, I am here with your newest blog entry on Kimi ni Todoke. If I am able to switch my dog’s name with my best friend’s name, you guys better be aware of name switching for this entry~ Let’s hope I catch them before I publish the entry itself~
