Kimi Ni Todoke, episodes 1-3

I come to you again with another trio of episodes to cover, and yet another positive review. I feel like I need to watch an anime I won't like just to balance things out! No, but seriously, I've been seeing alot of good lately, although I do have an older series I'll discuss later.

Anyway...

I could tell from a couple minutes in this series would hit home with me. The series focuses on Sawako, who is ostracized from her classmates because they are all afraid of her, for really no reason at all, as these things often are. They think she resembles someone from "The Ring." As someone who has been teased and ridiculed most of my life, I immdiatley felt for her. And her situation seemed even worse, as she appears to have no friends at all. But through all this, she keeps an amazingly kind attitude that astounds me.

I also really like the male lead, Kazehaya who I feel is drawn the best, and the only one to treat Sawako like SOMEONE. He is nervous around her, has legitimite respect her, and is helping people in the class view her differently. Another rival for him is beggining to emerge, but I really hope he stays focused on Sawako, she would have no idea how to fight for him, since she doesn't even understand his feelings for her, or even her feelings herself? Maybe this will push her to reliazing? It will be interesting to see how this develops

.A moment I particurally liked was when Sawako sees a puppy on the side of the road, sitting in a box in the rain. Even though it barks at her constantly, she takes her own umbrella and sets it over the dog to shield it from the rain, then walks to school wet. It's a nice parallel to the way she treats everyone, and how they treat her back.
It's hard to find a fault in this touching series, but if there is I would say the art. I really didn't like it at first, but then it's almost like it's on purpose, and there's these small beautiful moments, like when Sawako smiles, that are so jarring from the rest it's that much more nice to look at. '

9/10, simply because it was one of the ONLY anime to make me feel like crying the very first episode.

White Album Season 2, episode 1-3

Well, well.

TOUYA WHY???

With that out of the way, I can continue with my review covering the first three episodes of the new season. We start out with things very much the same for our protaginst, who is still a cheating jerk. The affair with Yayoi is getting out of control and annoying, other characters are starting to notice something. He's also quite mean to his father, who is in the hospital for goodness sake. That absolutely broke my heart. I was very glad Misaki called him on his crap, and I gained a litle bit more respest for her.

If we remember back to last season, because of Touya and his general idiocy, he was fired from working with Rina, and therefore we do not see much of her. We see only what we saw at the begging of the season, which is her interaction with Yuki. However, a plot line does begin to focus on her at the end of episode 3 when she quits Ogata Productions (about time!). What really annoyed me is that Yuki seemed completely niave to what was happening to Rina, who has been slowly been pushed out since the start of the show. Makes me wonder if she really DOESNT know, and in her case I wouldn't be suprised.

Haruka still isn't getting much screen time, but we are pretty into the current storylines, so I'm waiting for her to have a chance to shine, because I really don't have a problem with her, just want to know her more.

The other confusing thing that is going on is with Mana's mom and one of the singers in her employment. She is freaking hitting this poor girl, and of course I felt for her, but I really have no idea who she is or if we're supposed to know, since the girls from the other company have never been a focus.

Anyway, so mostly I'm just looking forward to more Rina, and hopefully Touya getting hit over the head by someone so that he'll stop being so stupid.

8/10 for the first three episodes.

Oh and I finally understand that it was an answering machine Yuki gave him at Christmas! I always thought it was a new phone or something, and I was confused.

White Album, Season 1

In an attempt to mix things up around here at SAR (which, when I googled the intials came up as Specific absorption rate on Wikipedia, and also a Jewish school in New York), which is the new shorthand for this blog, I decided to cover a whole season (I also watched the season pretty fast, by my standards), just to see how it works.

Here's a little summary of the series: Touya (in college) has been dating Yuki since high school. She loves singing, and now as she grows more as an "idol", releasing a single, having a concert, etc., she never seems to have any time to spend with Touya. It's a harem, so we say Touya chased by other girls, but Yuki is always number 1.

(main girl Yuki.)

Very first thought that comes to mind...Touya is a moron. In fact such a moron, that if he wasn't fictional, I would probably have to slap him. Yayoi, Yuki's so called "manager", always saying she's trying to "remove obstacles" from Yuki...not the right person to cheat with (whcih he shouldn't have done at all). If he was going to, at least do it with one of your other choices who actually CARES about you! I mean come on, this is a harem, you have options! Maybe it would have felt more like cheating if it WAS someone who he shared feeling for?

Yayoi in general confues me. What is her motive in all this? Just wanting a good time? It doesn't seem like she would have a reason to have a grudge against Yuki. The entire time I just wanted to reach through the screen and kill her. There was nothing reedeming about her at all.

Speaking of options, the girl I liked the most was by far Rina. Yuki, I do like her and Touya together, but it seems Rina has more time to spend with him then her? I mean of course, one could say that is because of Rina being pushed out of the spotlight a bit, or the fact Yuki wanted to be "better" for Touya or whatever. The other thing that weirded me out was Yuki didn't even kiss Touya any of the times they saw each other, other then when he came up to her room. I was very much like...huh? If you can barely see each other, wouldn't you want to do it? Wasn't it phyical needs Touya basically said he used Yayoi for anyway in that speech about how she cant be "Yuki's replacement."

(the evil Yayoi)

Anyway, back to Rina. I'm not sure what exactly it was about her, but she just stood out to me. Misaki was fine...but I wanted her to be with Akira, who really deserved a break after 5 years, don't you agree? Then Haruka, well honestly I don't even feel like we saw that much of her, but maybe that'ss just me? Misaki had the whole persumabe "arc" from the game, in which had an eneding feel, but maybe Haruka will get this in next season. Then Mana...I know she likes him, but I don't think Touya sees her as an option, and I'm glad. That would be...eh..ew.

(Rina)

To finish things off, the way White Album was executed was wonderful as well. The music was pretty, the art was definately nice, and although at first Touya's written thoughts were anoying, it grew on me (as long as I could find subs who did they horizontal, it was really difficult to read quickly when vertical and small), and the episode titles were interesting. The whole 1986 setting really made things alot more difficult for our main couple. Cell phones would have fixed (almost)everything!

There's a lot more I could say on the series, but as to not go on to much I will stop for now, and more can come up when I cover the second season (which I will do episode-by-episode). Overall...

solid 9/10. Loved it, except for that Touya doesn't really deserve any of his choices right now! He did seem to feel remorse, so we'll see, but from what I'm read he's still a moron.

Anime Crossroads

Orginally I wasn't going to use this blog anymore, because of my podcast, Sho-Rant. But I decided it's a different kind of meduim, and I can cover different topics then I do on the show. So I guess I'm going to keep it up! I'm sure you are all overjoyed to hear from me again.

On Friday I attended my very first anime convention, Anime Crossroads in Indiana. It simply worked out that I could get there...and I was very happy that I could. :D

When me and my friends (whose online names are...) Itsuma and Kika, walked in, it was kind of...awakard. We had never been to a con before and we didn't know what to expect. Most of the people around us, despite this being the first time for this specific con, were all dressed in costumes, and just had a general air of knowing what they were doing. I was shameless plugging myself the whole time, dressed in a shojoworld shirt. Being a walking billboard was fun, but I think I'll come in a costume next time. Not that I won't be advertising somehow...*shifty eyes*

But at opening ceremony, I started to feel more at home immediately. They played a video to a song I knew (but whose name I don't remember), and there were clips from lots of different anime close to my heart, such as Clannad, Ouran, DN Angel...and everyone was so excited about it! People would cheer whenever they saw whatever, and it was nice to be around other anime fans, because honestly I'm usually not. I go to a private school, and while there are a few fans here and there, most of the people, I was sad to discover, had NO idea what it was. What is wrong with them, the doctors will never know.

The hosts were funny too. They made lots of jokes about Vic Mignogna taking his shirt off? He finally did, not all the way though, and had drawn a six pack on. Seems he's a pretty popular guy. Wish I could have gone to his panel, sounds like it would have been alot of fun!
I began to wish we had made more time for this thing. All the big panels seemed to be on Saturday, or even later in the day. But unfotunately we had not seen the scedule ahead of time, so we only had a few hours to spend.

I did however get to go to one pretty interesting panel with Brina Palencia, who was in School Rumble. I asked her what her favorite episode was, in which she gave me a pretty decent lengthy answer. She seemed open to answering questions, and had a good sense of humor.

Me and my friend's favorite part was easily the dealer's room however. I had already spent some money out front (I am an impulsive buyer, its a problem), and none of us has brought that much...we made a vow to bring ALOT more next time. There was just so much stuff you don't see normally! And since this a new con, it's mind-boggling to think how much bigger it might be at another con. *gets lost in daydream*

I bought this cat ear hat thing (which I am wearing as I write this), and Kika obsessed over some cat ears her and Itsuma bought. NYAs all around.

So all in all, a good way to sum up my experience would be as Itsuma called it, a "practice con." I really understand them more, and am excited to go to another one in the near future. I