Ritsuka (dark hair) and Sobei (light hair.. but this rave isn’t really about him)

Loveless is just one of those anime I could watch/read a thousand times and never get tired of it; I absolutely adore it. I have spent hours of my time (which I don’t have a lot of anymore since school started) watching and reading this particular anime/manga combo. Loveless has slowly but surely taken over my heart. I suppose one could say that is a normal reaction for me seeing as I have I have said same with multiple anime but I am insisting still, that Loveless is a special case. It has secured its spot in my list of addictions (which includes One Piece, Naruto, Ouran High School Host Club, and a bazillion others) because it has taken the word “neko” to an entirely different level, it speaks the importance of keeping memories, and its characters left me spellbound.

Now you may be wondering what I mean’t by ‘it has taken the word “neko” to an entirely different level’. In the anime/manga all of the younger characters are cat people. Now I suppose you’re wondering why only ‘younger characters’… well it’s because they haven’t been in a “serious” relationship yet. In other words, they haven’t done anything promiscuous. (Thank God, seeing how the main young characters are twelve!). Most people don’t necessarily think of stuff like that when they decide to create a new manga. Normally it’s based off of one of the more popular topics like Giant fighting robots or zombies. It’s quite unique that they would put so much detail into such a topic. (more…)

Ohh the glory!!!!!!!!!

I’m normally not one to watch the “popular shows“, but recently I’ve found myself watching One Piece. While I was never able to bring myself to watch it until now, the moment I started, I became hooked. I’m not sure what initially lured me into its utter randomness, but something did, and I am proud to say that I have watched a decent amount of episodes in the past few weeks. I believe this new found obsession is caused by three main reasons; the strength of the anime’s characters, the power of its message and the wonder of its lore.

Let’s begin with everyone’s favourite thing about anime: the characters.

Characters are figments of the author’s imagination that embody a form which everyone can relate to. While I do love a good story and tend to be drawn into the plot, this particular anime’s characters so firmly grabbed my interest that the plot was  was completely overwhelmed. Thinking on it now, this possibly stemmed from the fact that I am more able to relate to these characters than most other anime I’ve watched. (more…)

In the last few weeks I’ve noticed that due to my own set of values I have a serious problem with female characters that try to steal the male protagonist from their female counterpart .Ume Kumurizawa, (image above) is one of those characters. Hailing from the anime/manga Kimi Ni Todoke, she shows herself to be a “Kikyo” type character and if you saw my first post ever, you know about my intense dislike for her. Ume tends to have an “I’m the most perfect person in the world” attitude because of her beauty and is extremely irritating. She even stoops so low as to manipulate everyone into thinking she’s the perfect angel when she’s everything but that.

Now most anime characters are beautiful; it’s just a fact you have to accept. It’s when the character knows that they are beautiful, and unscrupulously uses it as a way to entice and deceive people that it gets on my nerves. While its true most characters who are aware of their beauty don’t so this (Tamaki Suoh from OHSHC, Kyohei Takano from The Wallflower, etc.) Often enough you get that particular character who uses their beauty as a weapon, and Ume is that character. For instance, she has convinced all of Kazehaya’s followers (Protagonist who she madly falls in love with) that he was made for everyone (i.e, share him), so that she could have a chance to get closer and clutch him into her grasps. It’s this type of manipulation places her at the top of my ‘anime characters i despise’ list. (more…)

You really are, aren’t you?

Recently I started watching Death Note (one of the few anime I have yet to watch). Now, I’m not completely done with the series but I’ve watched enough of it to be able to identify my favorite character. As of the moment, this would be Light Yagami. He has a very interesting view of wrong and right; has solutions for the problems that occur during his revision of the world; and is probably one of the most independent characters I’ve seen.

Light, also known as Kira (which is probably how I’ll refer to him), uses the Death Note to create a world based on his sense of right and wrong. He writes down the names of people who have done something morally wrong (so basically murderers, rapists, and/or thieves) and considers it justice when they die forty or so seconds later. In the process though, he is technically killing people; which by his standards is something wrong. This makes me believe his judgement is something along the lines of “do as I say, not as I do”.  While he is my favorite character, his righteousness will eventually get on my nerves. (more…)

OHSHC is probably my all time favorite anime. It was quite possibly the first anime series I’ve ever watched in a single sitting. The main reason I love it is because its theme revolves around the fact that appearance doesn’t matter (which is very ironic considering some of the characters), it has an amazing story line, and in almost every episode there’s an underlying message.

Firstly, onto that amazing underlying message, as Haruhi (the female protagonist) repeats several times throughout the anime: “Appearances don’t matter, it’s the inside that counts.” This is a pretty big message these days as it’s constantly being spoken about to the younger generations. This theme, though very inspiring, is also very ironic; since the point of the club is to share their beauty with the world… It’s quite the paradox when you think about it, “Appearances don’t matter, but I need to share my beauty with the world”. (more…)

Kei Takishima from Special A is quite a unique character. To be completely honest, he is one of my favorite male protagonists from all the anime series that I’ve seen recently. He’s claimed that spot on the list because of three main reasons: he’s very cold and not very outspoken to the world (except when it comes to Haruki Hanazono, the female protangonist); He can be considered a “lonely prince” (if you’ve seen Ouran High School Host Club, you’ll understand); and he’s just naturally a good person overall.

While Kei is very cold to the world (including his brother and childhood best friends), one girl, (Haruki) stands as the sole exception. Haruki is as the only person in the world who can make him more relaxed and smile freely. And this is simply because he has been in love with her since childhood.I find it amazing the amount of devotion he has for her even though she is constantly challenging him for his title of first place. Just the fact that he allows it because “he loves to see her smile” shows how much she means to him. (more…)

Kikyo from Inuyasha is honestly one of the most infuriating characters I’ve ever watched. Even after she finds out that Inuyasha didn’t kill her she still sides with Naraku and his plans of killing Inuyasha. Of course her argument is since she’s a technically “a living corpse’ all she wants is to become human again, but that chance died when she decided to shoot Inuyasha to a tree. She could’ve continued on living if she didn’t shoot him with that arrow. She would’ve been free to live a Priestess life hood, but no she killed herself with shooting him with her arrow.

True at the time she did think that he betrayed her, but back to the original point of that she eventually figured out that he didn’t but she still hated him for something he didn’t do. Which brings me to why she would hate him. My first reason that she’s jealous of the fact that he’s beginning to love Kagome who I have been routing for since I first started watching the series. My other reason is the fact that Inuyasha never died the day she died though that had been her original plan. He was able to move on 50 years later while her soul was moved into Kagome (must’ve made her dead self tremble in rage). Plus the fact he’s falling in love with her reincarnation must’ve have been a punch in the face. (more…)