Me and duckies on the Lyme Park grounds
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I saw Howl’s Moving Castle for the first time last night. Confession: I know it’s blasphemy for a long-term anime fanatic of my disposition/history/snobbery, but I actually hadn’t seen any Ghibli films before this year. I’ve been trying to watch as many as possible recently! Nausicaa is probably my favourite, but Howl’s came close to stealing my heart. Especially Calcifer. And especially any scene with Calcifer eating things. And extra-specially any scene with Calcifer eating firewood that he feeds himself with his little fire-arms. <3
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Kaichou wa Maid-sama 8 I didn’t start watching this until a couple of weeks ago, but now I’m glad I picked it up! Having followed the manga for a year or two I was worried the anime wouldn’t do it justice. I heard rumours that Misaki wasn’t the ball-busting tough chick she is in the manga, and it’s true anime Misaki is a tad more deredere earlier on but she’s still a strong female protagonist. What I’m enjoying most about the anime actually, is Usui. Of course I like him in the manga. He’s an ideal shoujo hero - silent and manly, has perfect hair, always napping on rooftops, prone to making extravagant moves (jumping off of buildings, kicking down doors) to protect the girl he loves. But I have to admit I’ve got a soft-spot for his hapless rival Shintani, simply because Usui is so damn perfect and Shintani is an adorable goof. (Shintani hasn’t shown up yet in the anime by the way, so I’m looking forward to that!) But Nobuhiko Okamoto’s voice acting really takes Usui to the next level! He swings so well between the cool shoujo hero voice and a petulant monotone that can be teasing, perverted or apathetic (above) but is always hilarious. Manga Usui has plenty of perverted and quirky moments, but maybe because the manga is currently entering a more emo arc to do with his past or maybe because they are usually little single-frame asides, I don’t notice them as much as I do here. And it’s making me dig Usui more and more. Dare I say, I’ve caught the Usui-fascination. orz
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<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://f3licity.tumblr.com/swf/audio_player.swf?audio_file=http://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/626583446/tumblr_l2wg3nUmTd1qzrfi2&amp;color=FFFFFF" height="27" width="207" quality="best"></embed>Love yourself ���君が嫌いな君が好き��� - KAT-TUN (2010) Themesong to Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (2010), which I bought Linda for Mother’s Day earlier this month. (She’s a “horror onna” kind of like the main character Sunako, who is obsessed with skulls, blood and zombies etc.) I was never particularly interested in the premise of the manga or anime this is based on, because it seemed like just another F4/Host Club/excuse to have a bunch of hot guys living together in a house. The whole “trying to turn a weird girl into a lady” set-up is so overdone. If I really wanted to watch some tomboy and/or hikikomori makeover porn I’d just rent She’s All That. In case this particular group of ikemen wasn’t cliche enough already, there’s even a cute baby-type boy, a playboy who constantly brings home married women, and the heir to some traditional Japanese family (this time it’s ikebana) in the bunch. That all being said, the drama stars Kamenashi Kazuya as the Domyouji of this F4, Kyohei. I like Kame better with every drama I see him in and the more KAT-TUN songs I hear. It helps that he’s actually a pretty amazing actor (and that I may have read on his wikipedia page that he played baseball at a professional level before he because a boy-band star, WTF). He’s great as the gruff, plaid-shirted main love interest of Sunako. There’s an adorable kid that lives at the boarding house and narrates the entire show who was really believable too. And each character gets considerable character devlopment - unlike Nishikaido (tea-ceremony bocchan) and Mimasaka (incorrigible playboy) from HanaDan’s F4, Yamato Nadeshiko’s Takenaga (flower-arranging bocchan) and Ranmaru (incorrigable playboy) have interesting complexes and love interests. (As if you had to ask I was ALL over Takenaga x Noi-chan) Sunako’s obsession with the occult gives this drama a bit of quirkiness, complete with a couple of fantastical plot elements like characters getting possessed by spirits. There’s also some laughable “only in a shoujo manga” bullshit about Kyohei’s beautiful face causing riots and the breakup of his family. But at the heart there’s some serious stuff going on. The major themes concern people hating themselves for how they look and being too scared to accept others or face their problems honestly. It sounds like this drama is quite different from the original manga - mixing up the order of a lot of events, adding some serious tear-jerking drama to do with Kyohei’s family and turning the crazy landlady into a wise (but still crazy) widow with a son and a tragic backstory. I would have liked to see Sunako repeatedly plotting to kill Kyohei at the beginning because he is too dazzling (rather than just nutting him in the skull whenever she sees him) but the drama is pretty great in its own right, so no complaints.
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<object width="400" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fbr2RImJ4_I&amp;rel=0&amp;egm=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fbr2RImJ4_I&amp;rel=0&amp;egm=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="336" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>I feel kind of bad about linking you to that incredible video of Shirota Yuu as Tuxedo Mask without posting this for a bit of balance. I can’t have you guys going on thinking he’s just “THE PRINCE OF THE ASS~~”. Here he is looking much more respectable (depending on your point of view) and doing a nice cover of my favourite GReeeeN song. ちょっとカッコイイと思うよね��� (For reference, here’s the original song and possibly the most touching music video ever made)
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Samurai High School (2009) When Noogz told me Miura Haruma had been cast as Kazehaya in the upcoming Kimi ni Todoke film, I KNEW I had heard that name somewhere before. Turns out he was the “pretty boy” neighbour of Oguri Shun in Bimbo Danshi who I was “looking forward to seeing in more stuff” according to this post I made a year and a half ago. He also stars in Samurai High School, which we watched over the past couple of weekends. This is another DVD boxset we’ve had for ages that I never wanted to watch because the premise sounded retarded - goofy high school boy Koutaro (Miura) gets haunted by the spirit of his samurai ancestor, causing him to switch personalities and save the day/get into awkward situations and just generally wave a broomstick around while taking his hair in and out of a ponytail. Turns out it was awesome. There are lots of great “stand-in-a-field-and-shout” scenes where the samurai sense of right and wrong inspires bad guys and teaches lessons a la GTO, if you’re into that sort of thing. And it’s also a legitimately funny drama, thanks largely to the dynamic between Koutaro our alternatingly nerdy/gar samurai, and his tight-knit, hilarious but loving family. Koutaro’s dad was a real stand-out, stealing scenes every time he popped into his son’s room bearing popsicles or juice, but the rest of the side character actors were surprisingly good too! Koutaro’s childhood friend/love-interest is played by Ken Watanabe’s daughter Anne (who is actually a really good singer) and his super tall, super huge wimp of a best friend is played by Shirota Yuu who I’ve had a crush on since Hana Kimi (and who is also actually a good singer… lol. Seriously. CLICK THAT LINK AND THANK ME LATER) …did you click it? Gah… I know. I knowwwwwww~~~ d(*⌒▽⌒*)b  All I can think of right now is that moment from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon when Usagi and Mamoru are in the rowboat and she asks him “sooo, do u liek Tuxedo?”… Ahem, but back to Samurai High School, it’s lolz with good acting, I shipped the police officer and the teacher from the get-go, and Haruma Miura is going to make one HELL of a refreshing Kazehaya let me tell you for certain. <3
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Yutori-chan As expected, I love Yutori-chan. It’s hilarious and true and short enough for me to watch during crunch and it has the best themesong of all time. Here’s an English translation of the lyrics so you get the jist of why I love it so much: I just didn’t do the things you didn’t say I had to - why are you so angry?Unpaid overtime? No thank you!Sorry, but not tonight!What, you’re not even listening to me!I’ll say “Excuse me, I’m done for the day!” right on time.When I say something, those rigid adults respond right away with a “Because!”In one ear, out the other. Don’t let it weigh on you!I’m not being selfish, I’m just doing things at my own pace!Aren’t misunderstandings annoying?I want to be able to live honestly and true to myself!Working straight through the holidays?Don’t you need a break?I’ll take an overseas vacation instead - with pay!Things will work out somehow!Overexert myself? Tough it out? Nonsense!If trouble lasts for too long… I’ll count on you! Literally “残業とか NO SANKYUU” …Pure gold.
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Kimi ni Todoke 25 (End) Ayane and Pin are totally going to get together. Cross fingers. Haha, she’s so mature for her age and he’s so immature for his - they’re a match made in hell. I hope Karuho Shiina does more with the running gag of them always walking home together since she’s said the manga is going to focus on more of the side character’s relationships going forward. Oh hell who am I kidding, if that just means we’ll get some more development of Ryuu and Chizu I’ll fist-pump regardless. So yeah, fully enjoyed Kimi ni Todoke and all that. I’ve heard murmurs around complaining that this was a strange place to end the anime - especially since the conclusion of the school festival arc (chapter 40) would have been a more natural and satisfying ending - and I’m not sure what I think about that. To begin with, I don’t think I’ve been appreciating the Kimi ni Todoke anime as a discrete work. I find I’m increasingly more of a manga fan than an anime fan these days, since I read a lot more than I watch, and having been a big fan of Kimi ni Todoke since long before the anime was announced I mostly watched this series as a colourful soundtrack redux. Which was lovely, since this was a very faithful adaptation - and there was some stellar voice acting to augment all of my favourite characters - but I wasn’t viewing it with a discriminating eye. If I had to compare, I would probably say the manga is superior, simply because the pacing is better. Maybe dreamy shoujo manga pacing translates poorly on to the screen - I know I had the same issue with the Skip Beat anime - or maybe it’s personal preference and I tend to just prefer manga as I get older? (I’m not that old okay…) I don’t even know. But those long interior monologues do work a lot better on the printed page. I’m really not sure how people who approached this show without reading the manga would have experienced it… and I am quite curious. All I can say is I enjoyed it tremendously and I’m looking forward to the second season which is sure to be announced - since there’s a lot more exciting stuff to come in Sawako’s New Year! ^__^
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Cross Game 50 (End) もう終わりましたょ。世界中で一番のアニメかもね TT_TT　Too good, no words.
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Nodame Cantabile Finale 10 I’m not usually one to get excited about anime references in other anime - but God Warrior Nodame firing lazorz is epic lulz you guys.
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