Anime Eureka

    It’s been so long that I haven’t been updating my blog so I decided to make one update today. I wouldn’t want my blog to feel unloved by its author. LOL. I haven’t been watching anime lately as well, but there was this one time that I went to an internet café were my friends and I usually hang out and I got really bored, I saw my friend which was beside me, watching an anime which I found the characters quite cute. So instantly I watched it with him and found myself laughing for the entire episode that my friend was watching. After that, I asked him about the anime we just watched and then he told me about it.

 

 

(credits to closetanimeotaku.org for the image)

 

    It’s about a guy named Ryuji Takasu who is unbearably being feared by a lot of people from their town due to biological inheritance where he might actually look like a total crook or delinquent so mostly people think of him more like a villain but his real personality doesn’t really match his looks. One morning, Ryuji accidentally bumped on a little girl from their school which turned out to be called as the “Palmtop Tiger.” Despite from her being petite and beautiful, she is quite undeniably a violent freak. She is like the opposite of Ryuji, she may not look like a delinquent but she is, on the other hand, Ryuji may look like a delinquent but he’s not. Unfortunately, “Palmtop Tiger” or Taiga Aisaka got mad for bumping her and made distraction from the hallway by bullying Ryuji. On the later part, Aisaka accidentally inserted her “love letter” to the wrong bag where she is about to confess her feelings for someone and it turned out that the owner of the bag where she accidentally put her letter in was Ryuji. So the love complex started at that very moment.

Under the care of her adoptive family, Saya Otonashi has been living the life of an anemic and amnesiac, but otherwise ordinary schoolgirl. Saya’s happy life is shattered when she is attacked by a chiropteran, learning that she is the only one who can defeat them.

Armed with her katana, Saya embarks on a journey with her family, allies, and her chevalier, Hagi, to rid the world of chiropteran and rediscover her identity. The course of the journey reveals the background history of the chiropterans and Saya’s very deep past, which extends into the mid-19th century.

The series is initially set in present day (September 2005) Okinawa City (Koza), on Okinawa Island, near the US Kadena Air Base. In the course of the series, Saya visits locations across the world, fighting enemy chiropteran and searching for her origins.
(source: wikipedia)

Comment:

Starting from the characters, I loved them all. Except from the fact that Saya just takes too long to realize her strength, she always get scared on the early episodes. Hated the part where her father had to die because she’s too lousy and scared. Anyway, not being a hater here, I love Saya so don’t worry.

Another thing is, the artwork looks fine as well, Solomon and Haji are my best found love there.Solomon reminds me of Tamaki from the Ouran High School Host Club and Haji is such a sweet servant which I lately discovered that he might just be a perfect Edward Cullen for me.

I might say, there are some parts that you might just bore yourself off but you just can’t let yourself stop watching it since you’ll be too eager of what will happen next, but sometimes the story is just too predictable but still, you’d still find your excitement there. I could say, I spend 2 days watching this entire series and I have to say, I felt so sad with the ending but it was a sweet though.

Lets talk about the soundtracks, I’m not really into their opening songs but really into their ending one. The 2nd and 3rd ending songs of their series became my LSS and really loved those songs. Anyway, all in all this anime is great, check it if you’d like to feel the world of love and hate of the vampires.

 

(credits to asianpopcorn for the image)

 

Ouran High School Host Club is one of my favorite comedy anime series that every episodes won’t fail to let me laugh so hard. it’s a pretty hilarious series that for sure you’d be able to enjoy watching it.

STORY LINE:

As far as I have watched this before, it was quite very original when Haruhi Fujioka, a transfer student in Ouran High School where she was able to enter that prestigious and wealthy school despite the fact that she was just a "commoner" in which she doesn’t have any wealth to be proud of, but she passed because of being special intellectually. One day, Haruhi was looking for a place to study because she find the library too noisy to stay in. Haruhi found a room that she thinks a good place to study, but unfortunately, upon opening the door, she found these 6 handsome gentle men giving her such a warm welcome from their host club. Due to her uneasiness with the guys, she made one single move that will change her life differently. She accidentally hit the 80 million yen worth of vase and it fell down from the ground, shattered in pieces. From that day on, she had to pay for her debt as to be the slave of the club and her life begins to change in an unexpected way.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:

The characters’ development were just right. Nothing to comment on how fast and how slow one character develops to. The series even gives some episodes specially to put much detailed exposure of that particular character which was to understand them even more.

ART WORK

Beautifully done. Very original artwork and I love the detailed settings. The characters were very beautiful as well especially the Hosts.

SOUNDTRACK:

A must buy album! Starting from the OP song to the ED song, I love all of them! I have also heard the songs from its soundtrack and I love it very much! Though the soundtrack has more instrumental music than of the songs, yet isn’t a disappointment at all because it is still a good music.

    The story of Skip Beat! is about Kyoko Mogami, a wistful yet cheery sixteen year-old girl who loves her childhood friend, Shotaro, but is cruelly betrayed and thus seeks revenge against him. She used to spend a lot of time at Shotaro’s parents’ inn and learned a lot about housekeeping, hostelry, and other stereotypically correct feminine jobs (sewing, cooking, serving tea traditionally, etc.). Shotaro, not wishing to take over his parents’ inn, becomes bored of living in Kyoto and decides to move to Tokyo to pursue a career in music. Sho, as he is called by his fans, asks Kyoko to leave high school in Kyoto Prefecture and her life behind to help him. Upon arrival in Tokyo, Kyoko lives an unreasonably frugal life, spending nothing on herself and doing whatever she can for Sho, who is ranked seventh in the top twenty most popular entertainers of Japan. It appears that Shotaro never helps with the cost of food, apartment, or necessary products. However, one day as she brings him his lunch at a company building, she overhears Sho complaining about her to his manager, saying that she is a boring and plain girl that he’d like to be rid of, proceeding to sweet-talk and flirt with his manager, whereas he hadn’t even put his arm around Kyoko in her life. Unlike other heroines in the same situation, Kyoko doesn’t shed many tears when she learns that Sho thinks she’s only good for housekeeping. Instead, her "Pandora’s box" opens and she vows vengeance on Shotaro. Enraged, Kyoko attempts to attack Sho, but is instantly carried off by security. Sho mockingly tells her that if she wants revenge, she had better become a bigger star than him. And so Kyoko, vowing revenge, changed her appearance and started to enter the entertainment business. Little did she know that her journey will not go as smooth as she thought. Skip Beat follows Kyoko’s journey to climb the showbiz ladder as she meets interesting people along the way, all in the hopes of revenge and finding herself in the end.

Source: [link]

COMMENT:

   I was, once again, browsing over crunchyroll’s page and looked at the “Recently Popular Anime” section of the page and saw “Skip Beat” as one of the list there. By looking at the thumbnail, I already figured out that it’s a comedy romance. But since boredom was killing me, I wasn’t hesitant to try and watch it. Starting off with the OP song, I kind of like it and the video is okay too. About the artwork, I preferred the manga more attractive and better than the anime. Plus, the characters from the manga looked a lot better looking than of the anime series.

   Watching from the very first episode, I already had fun and enjoyed watching it since Kyoko, the lead character, have such a hilarious personality. Thought that Kyoko was very lucky to have the famous artist “Shou” living with her on an expensive apartment and for the record, he was her childhood friend and her long unrequited love. She was so desperate to serve her Shou-chan and does not think of herself at all as long as she can do everything for her beloved childhood friend.

   Kyoko gives her all efforts for Shou even though she doesn’t receive any in return. She never realized how stupid she was until she overheard Shou talking to his manager that he doesn’t care if he’s Kyoko’s number one and he only invited Kyoko to come along with him to Tokyo to serve him as his housekeeper and said that it’s natural that she’d work like a dog for him and planned to send Kyoko back to Kyoto. After hearing the harsh words of Shou, I never expected that the type of her would’ve act like that and it was really hilarious. I thought she would actually cry in front of Shou but instead she laugh out loud like an evil witch and that was extremely funny. From that scene, it is where the story all begins. Kyoko made a haircut and make over to look different and more modern. Her goal is not to have revenge against Shou and defeat him in his career. Quite an interesting anime, I never thought I would actually watch it. Still waiting for the 5th episode by the way, hoping that it’ll be extremely funny again.

 

     After Ai Enma’s supposed death after the events of the 2nd season, her three helpers, Ichimoku Ren, Wanyuudou and Hone-Onna live out their lives in relative peace. This is suddenly shattered when Kikuri returns to recruit them. Meanwhile, Ai mysteriously reappears from the dead and uses the body of a young schoolgirl, Yuzuki Mikage, to continue the Jigoku Tsūshin operation. Yuzuki is aware of Ai’s presence however, when she can see what Ai sees.

Source: [link]

COMMENT:

    I was just browsing on crunchyroll looking for some series to watch and my brother just told me that Jigoku Shoujo has released its 3rd season so I immediately searched it and watched the first episode. Starting from the OP, I didn’t like it that much compared from the last two seasons. The plot on the episodes on the other hand seems to be depressing since the victims we’re not worth sending off to hell since they we’re mistakenly misunderstood. Since Ai doesn’t have a body anymore, her spirit possessed the body of a girl named Yuzuki Mikage since Ai cannot walk around that easily being a butterfly so being on a human form is better.
 
    Ai’s new kimono was stunningly beautiful and looks good with her. The new member whose name is Yamawaro was quite cute too, I’d like to have Yamawaro and Ai as pair there. LOL. Anyway, still waiting for episode 5 and hopes it’ll be good.

 

 

    Fushigi Yūgi (ふしぎ 遊戯? lit. Mysterious Play) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuu Watase. It was originally serialized in Shōjo Comic from May 1992 through June 1996. The manga series was given an English language release in North America by Viz Media, which started in 1999. Spanning eighteen volumes, Fushigi Yūgi tells the story of two teenaged girls, Miaka and Yui, who are pulled into "The Universe of the Four Gods", a mysterious book at the National Library.

    The series became very popular and was later adapted into a 52 episode anime series by Studio Pierrot. The series originally aired from April 6, 1995 through March 28, 1996 on the anime satellite channel Animax and the regular cable channel TV Tokyo. The anime series was followed by three Original Video Animation releases, with the first having three episodes, the second having six, and the final OVA, Fushigi Yūgi Eikoden, spanning four episodes. A thirteen volume Japanese light novel series also followed Fushigi Yūgi. The novels were published by Shōgakukan from January 30, 1998 to September 26, 2003. On October 25, 2003, Watase began releasing a prequel to the manga series, Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden.

Plot

    High school student Miaka Yūki is under a lot of pressure to pass the entrance exam for the competitive Jonan Academy. Her friends do not believe she will get in, but she is determined to because her best friend, Yui Hongo, has applied for the same school and she wants them both to go to the school together. While at the library one day, Miaka and Yui come into contact with a strange book there, known as The Universe of the Four Gods. As a result of reading this book, they are then transported into the novel’s universe. Inside the novel she discovers that she is the Priestess of Suzaku and destined to gather the seven Celestial Warriors of the god Suzaku in order to summon Suzaku and obtain three wishes. She falls in love with the Celestial Warrior Tamahome, who eventually reciprocates and Miaka’s desire to use a wish to enter the high school of her choice begins to shift towards finding a way to be with Tamahome. Unfortunately, Yui, who is also drawn into the book, is quickly manipulated by the emperor of the land of Kutou into becoming the Priestess of Seiryuu and working against Miaka.

    The series describes the various trials that teenagers Miaka and Yui face, both quest-driven and personal. Feeling betrayed, the two oppose one another as priestesses, bringing together their own respective warriors and vying for the chance to be granted three wishes by the gods whom they hope to summon.

     Much of the story also revolves around the inability of the Universe of the Four Gods to grant the wish for Tamahome to become real. In the first OVA it is revealed that there are two major reasons why Tama cannot stay with Miaka. Even though Tamahome was made into an actual person in the real world (named Taka), the difference between the memories of the "real" Taka and Tamahome made it impossible to stay with her until the memories of Taka were restored, and he was merged with Tamahome. In addition, Tenkou was interfering with the powers of the Universe of the Four Gods, and this wish could never be made while he existed.[2]
The last part of the story, Eikoden, discusses a new priestess entering the Universe of the Four Gods, and seeking to undo everything Miaka and Tamahome have done together.

COMMENT:

    Fushigi Yūgi became one of the most popular anime series here in our country the first time it was aired in a local channel (GMA). If Dragon Ball Z has a lot of fan boys, this anime has a lot of fan girls. Of course, since the anime itself has a romantic genre, girls would’ve actually loved it.

    Since it became very popular, it seems like everywhere I go, I could hear someone talking about it, I see people buying mini cards of it, people who keeps on saying some lines from the series, lovers keeps on calling their partner Miyaka or Tamahome and a lot more. It has greatly influenced almost all teenage people who have watched and liked it. Despite the fact that the anime became that popular, we can never deny that there are some haters too.

    I, myself don’t really hate Fushigi Yūgi, in fact, I am an avid fan of it. The thing that I hate about this anime is Miyaka Yuki, the main character from the series. No offense to all the Miyaka fans out there, it’s just that it irritates me so much to see her and Tamahome getting together so well while her best friend struggles in that peculiar world. Besides hating Miyaka, I just love to watch the series which is full with love.

    I preferred Yui for Tamahome at first, but when Suboshi fell in love with Yui, I changed my mind. It seems that Suboshi and Yui is the perfect couple for me but sad to say it didn’t happened, too bad for me though. Overall, I love this series though I hate Miyaka so much. *peace*

 

 

    Please Twins! (おねがい☆ツインズ Onegai Tsuinzu?, Onegai ☆ Twins), is an anime television series, scripted by Yousuke Kuroda and produced by Bandai Visual, which was later adapted into a light novel and one-volume manga series. It centers around a family of three teenagers in high school all living together who are unsure which two of them are related to each other due to a reference from an old photograph. The Please Twins! anime series is a spin-off sequel to Please Teacher! that first aired in Japan on the WOWOW satellite television network on July 15, 2003 and finished with a total of 12 episodes plus a later OVA episode released on DVD. The series was later adapted into a light novel in 2004, which spanned a total of two volumes and, soon after, into a short one-tankobon manga version (authored by Japanese mangaka Arikan), which was serialized in MediaWorks’s Dengeki Daioh magazine in September 2005.

Plot

    Please Twins! is a story mainly revolving around three high school students: Maiku Kamishiro, Karen Onodera, and Miina Miyafuji. The three were drawn together by a photograph of their childhood home which later makes all of them seek out the house in the picture. However, the picture only has two children - a boy and a girl. Hence, only one of the girls, Karen or Miina, is related to Maiku. The only other identifying feature of the pair in the picture is that the boy and the girl have eyes of the same unusual color; a feature that furthers the ambiguity as all three of them have the same eye color.

    The main concern of the male lead, Maiku, is that he is in love with both of the girls, and he does not know which one is his twin. In addition, the two girls are in love with Maiku, forming a love triangle that can’t be resolved until the truth of their relationship is known. The three main characters, mostly the two female leads, are in a predicament of wanting to discover their past versus the risk of losing a romantic relationship.
The events of the story are set after Please Teacher! and characters from the series appear in supporting roles throughout Please Twins!.

Source: [link]

COMMENT:

    I have also, once again, watched this series just 2 years ago and I really find it very interesting. I thought that they were really triplets but then the later part of the story states that there are only twins, which made the scene turn into a confusing stage. The critical part is, both of the girls have fallen in love with Maiku which made them cross their fingers and hopes that either of them is Maiku’s real twin sister. Thy even made a contract that neither of them should confess their feelings for Maiku until they find out who the real twin sister of Maiku is.

    Unfortunately, I didn’t like the ending since the real twin sister of Maiku turned out to be the person whom I wanted to be Maiku’s couple. I didn’t like the fact that it turned out that way, and I was hoping too much for it to happen. Too bad for me, I couldn’t do anything about it to change. Although the plot seems to be quite showing an incest affair,  I somehow find it funny where both girls changed their objectives from finding out who’s the real sister is to hoping the other one is the real twin sister of Maiku. Overall, its an interesting series, you’ll have fun and it’s quite exciting as well.

 

   

    Bokura ga Ita (僕等がいた? lit. We Were There) is a Japanese romance manga by Yuuki Obata, centering around the high school life of young freshman girl, Nanami Takahashi. It was serialized in Betsucomi, with the first tankōbon volume released on 2002-10-26. It was adapted as a television anime which began airing on 2006-07-03.

    In 2005, the manga won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo. It is one of the most popular shōjo manga in Japan, having recently been on the Top 10 best selling manga in Japan for many months. Both the manga and anime are especially popular among teenage girls.

Plot:

Manga

    The anime basically follows through the plot line of the manga until Yano and his mom move, leaving Nanami behind. The story continues with Nanami, 21 years old and in her final year at S Girl’s College, and already living in Tokyo. It turns out that she has not seen Yano for consecutively 5 years since the parting at the train station. Half a year into Yano’s arriving at Tokyo and he completely cut off all communications with Nanami. The reason to this is unknown at this point, leaving Nanami both heartbroken and confused. It is believed that no one knows what happened to Yano. The story follows on, with Nanami deciding to leave her feelings for Yano behind and begins dating Takeuchi. However, the letter soon confesses that he did meet up with Yano (and was probably the last person to see him) before Yano actually disappeared.

    It turns out that ever since moving into Tokyo, Yano ran into a lot of problems such as financial difficulties, finding a place for his dog, Lalami to live in (but managed to do so thanks to a close classmate, Aki, who later falls for him and even meets Nanami in the company they work at), and his mother’s health problems. His mother’s health deteriorates both mentally and physically (especially after Yano’s dead father’s wife shows up with the incline to take Yano back with her). Throughout this time, Yano has kept his problems from Nanami, in hope that she can concentrate on her studies. Twice he made the attempt to return to Hokkaido to see her, but failed to do so because of his mother. This is unknown to Nanami, however. Finally, Yano’s mother took her own life (note that this takes place around half a year after Yano’s arrival at Tokyo). Since the funeral, it is stated that Yano ‘completely vanished’. It is shown that he did see Takeuchi around this time, telling the latter that he is leaving Nanami in his care, and that he has decided to give up everything from his past, even those dearest to him. Yano seems to believe that it was his fault that his mother committed suicide, stating that ‘I was the one who killed her’.

    Roughly half a year later, he made a phone call to Nanami’s house which was then picked up by her mother. This too, was not told to Nanami until she was 21 years old. Yano’s personality appears to undergo a change. He has since started dating many girls, but states that he "does not treat girls like anything important" anymore. During this whole time, Yamamoto Yuri has not given up on him.

    The story continues a year after Nanami realizes the truth, with Aki who now works with Nanami in the same company, suspecting that she may have found Yano. Her suspicions turn out to be correct. However, though Aki finds out that Yano is aware of Nanami’s whereabouts and her relationship with Takeuchi, he makes no move to see her. He even states that this is how he wanted it to be. The same goes with Nanami who decides not to meet Yano even after Aki gives her details about his whereabouts and informs her that Yano is currently a designer collaborating with their company. She tearfully admits to Aki that she has no confidence of making a clean break with Yano. It is shown that Yano is now living with Yamamoto Yuri and he also reveals that Nanami is ‘different’, stating that she will survive even on her own.
On the day of Nanami’s birthday, as seen from chapter 50, Takeuchi proposes to her but he got rejected by Nanami. In the latest chapter 51, Nanami resolves to look for Yano. Upon being told that he is going on a trip, she ventures to the airport and sees the back of someone who resembles Yano. She calls out his name in tears, but the scene is left with a cliffhanger. Takeuchi, on the other hand, visits Yano’s home and comes face to face with Yamamoto Yuri.

Anime

    Nanami Takahashi, a 15 year old high school student, falls in love with and begins dating the most popular guy in school, Motoharu Yano. However, their relationship is not easily maintainable. Yano’s past, as well as the complex emotions they bring up, make it difficult to be completely honest about how he feels. To add more troubles to their relationship, caught in the middle are Yuri Yamamoto, the younger sister of Yano’s now dead ex-girlfriend, and Masafumi Takeuchi, Yano’s best friend. Yuri’s past with Yano goes deeper than one might suspect and her feelings run deeper than she portrays in public. Takeuchi cherishes Yano’s friendship, but at the same time, he may lose it for someone dear to him, Nana. The story revolves around how Takahashi must search deep inside herself and find her true feelings for Yano while be able to trust and accept Yano’s feelings for her as well, deciding if Yano is indeed the one for her or if someone else can provide better solace. There will possibly be a sequel that will most likely follow the plot of the manga.

Source: [link]

COMMENT:

    Same as Ouran High School Host Club, I have also downloaded this anime two years ago. My first impression for this anime was “BORING” and I couldn’t appreciate it’s artwork. But as soon as I tried to continue watching this series, my impression changed from “BORING” to “EXCITING”. The plot is basing in real-life happenings and the feelings of the characters were very well expressed.

    It’s a good romantic series and I think a lot of people could relate to this one. It’s not something that is out from this world and it’s really typical that you could understand their feelings of how they express it. Why they act that way, why they fell in love or why their hearts was broken. You will feel pain, you will feel happiness, you will feel sadness, loneness and you will see what a teenage love is like.

    I cried and laugh as I watched this series and I think others have and will too. Experience how to fall in love and how dreamy it is to be in love, that you won’t notice that you have forgotten what reality is. Love will always be around and we never know, we were there all along.