30 Days of Anime

#29 Best Side (or Underappreciated) Character ( Shiori Shiomiya from The World God Only Knows)

The World God Only Knows is like a dating sim in anime form. It’s that simple. Shiori is just… one of the girls you can ‘conquer’. At first glance she’s a standard Librarian nerd but… oh man, she’s so cute. 

She’s always thinking thinking thinking. Thinking about everything someone can do or say, always thinking of the worst, overthinking until she doesn’t say anything at all. Because, she either thought so much she missed her queue, or she’s worried it’ll sound stupid.

And she works so hard. Someone asks her for books on firetrucks, and she collects every single book in the library that mentions it, leading to an entire cartful. And she knew all of these books had firetrucks in them, because she read every one of those books.

And I just… want to hug her and give her just a little self confidence and she’s just too cute when she actually does get mad, and she has every reason to, but she’s so mortified that she actually lost her temper that she then feels she has to apologize later for ‘yelling’. 

/Worst character summary

Calexico - “Pepita”

30 Days of Anime

#28 Best Anime Villain ( Kira from Death Note )

First off, let me say that I tend to root for the villain, because I know they’re going to lose. The villain, no matter how powerful, is always the ‘underdog’ in a way. 

In anime though, I don’t care for the villains much, because a lot of anime’s don’t have a real villain at all, the ‘enemy’ is a government or organization or idea, or the villain is very cliche and ‘evil’. Or worse, sympathetic. 

Kira, or Light, whatever, is intelligent, good looking, has a strong sense of justice… He’d probably make a fantastic hero.

Kira is also a monster. Maybe he started out trying to do the right thing, but that goes straight out the window the moment of the Lind L. Tailor incident. Once he starts thinking “anyone who opposes me deserves to die” Kira becomes a true villain.

And really, the best villains are the fallen heroes, the ones who, even till the end, think that they’re doing good even when it’s so obvious that they’re not. 

And oh how I rooted for Kira, right up until the end. Halfway through, when L loses? That was a beautiful moment. I honestly believed that Kira was going to win. I hoped he would. 

I think, the best villain is the kind that makes you wish for his success. The kind of villain that sways you to their side, even after you’ve seen every horrible thing they’ve done. 

I mean, that takes skill. 

llucifers:

What Would You Do: If you saw a waitress bashing gay/lesbian parents?

This video made me cry. I honestly had the biggest judgement over the state of Texas and truthfully, this video made me eat my words.

30 Days of Anime

#27: Your Favourite Heroine ( Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena )

[Spoilers Ahead]

There are a few things that a Hero needs to be. They need to be heroic, obviously. Pure of heart, willing to do the right thing no matter what. They might stumble, but they’ll always get up, and at the end of the day they’ll win. And they’ll win the right way. 

Utena is a hero. She tries to emulate a prince, and all the things a Prince should be, and in many ways she succeeds. 

I find Utena very cool, and very admirable. She’s strong and beautiful and good.

But what I like most about Utena, is that she’s trying to be this perfect person. She is not naturally like this. And she has these flaws, these imperfections, and she desperately tries to hide them, while clinging to this very false, ‘prince’ image she’s made for herself. And everyone’s telling her she’s not a prince. And no matter how many times they say it, she doesn’t ever accept until… she does.

And she becomes dirty. And she becomes broken. And at the end, she still tries to do the right thing, only to fail. 

As far as a ‘hero’ goes, Utena is either the best, or the worst, or maybe both. That’s why she’s my favourite. 

[end spoilers]

The Byrds - “John Riley”

30 Days of Anime

#26 Your Favourite Harem Anime ( Maburaho )

I have no idea why I watched this all the way through. But I’m glad I did. 

As the story goes, they live in a world ruled by magic. Average people can cast magic less than a hundred times, and when you use up the last of your magic you turn to ash and die. Our ‘hero’ boy can cast magic eight times. Due to… connections, he goes to a school where everyone can cast magic thousands of times, which makes him the loser among losers.

But. Turns out he has a long line of great magic users in his family, and chances are high that his kid is going to be the most powerful wizard or witch ever. So now a bunch of girls want to sleep with him and get pregnant so that they can have his Super Kid. 

The three up there are the main contenders. Pink hair (Yuna) is the girl he met as a kid, the childhood friend that moved away that you all know is going to win. The other two are Super Sexy Chick (Blonde) and Stoic Traditional Japanese girl (Blue). They don’t matter.

The series is pretty light and entertaining and predictable for the first half. Our ‘hero’ keeps using his magic, proving his love to all girls that come near, and his harem falls for him more and more, but his childhood friend is still the clear winner. 

Right up until two points. 

A) His real childhood friend comes around. The one he grew up with. 

B) All that magic using catches up with him. He can only use magic eight times after all, and he goes through it pretty quick.

So, unsurprisingly(?) he dies.

And the series keeps going after that. 

30 Days of Anime

#25 Favourite Josei ( Tramps Like Us (Kimi wa Petto (You’re my Pet ) ) ) 

I… have never watched a Josei anime apparently. Oops. 

So I’ll just ramble on about this fantastic manga instead. 

Tramps Like Us is about Sumire, a 20 something year old woman. She’s tall, beautiful, cooks well, went to an american college (despite being a Japanese woman), and has a pretty high ranking job at a newspaper company. 

The problem here, is that no one wants to marry a woman a like that. Her fiancee dumps her because he’s got an inferiority complex. So she decides to only date guys who are ‘better’ than her. Specifically, taller and with more money.

And then she comes home to find this scrawny, homeless boy sleeping outside her apartment in a cardboard box. 

She gives him a meal and some first aid and tells him to be gone by morning. He wants to stay. And she tells him (with the intention of scaring him off) that he can stay, but only as her “pet”.

He goes for it.

So now she has a ‘pet’ boy who’s shorter and broker than her who she wants nothing to do with… and soon finds the ‘perfect’ guy who is better than her in every way. He’s even an old sweetheart of hers!

As the story goes on, Sumire tries to figure out which she wants more: the perfect guy… or someone that she’s comfortable with, and can be herself around. 

Kate Bush - “Running Up That Hill ( A Deal With God )”