2,000 Pageviews!!!

Whooooooo!!!! This time it only took about 3 months to get another thousand pageviews!

I am VERY grateful to everyone who has seen this blog, and I am happy that my advertising has payed off (especially at Geek.Kon!)

Still, I am always open to any intelligent feedback on my posts and how I can improve the quality of my posts and this blog.

Here's to another wonderful 1,000 pageviews!

Cheers,
~Selena

Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Last Updated: 31 October 2014
Originally Published: 31 October 2014

Squeaky Clean Manga Volume View: Natsume's Book of Friends Vol. 1

Ahhhhhh! It's been forever since I published something manga related!!!

So, how exactly did I end up picking this up? Well, I was browsing the manga section of the library, when this caught my eye; something new. And I knew that the anime adaptation of this is somewhere in the top 30 on MAL, so that had me interested. So, what did I think of this volume?

We are introduced to a character I initially thought was a girl, Takashi Natsume. The reason I thought he was a girl was I thought his name was Reiko, which is actually his grandmother's name (she's important). His whole life, Takashi (he's referred to as Natsume in the manga, which I found to be very confusing) has been able to see yokai, spirits/monsters of Japanese folklore. (Gee, how many times have we seen this premise?) He then accidently releases a cat yokai, who informs him of his grandmother's "Book of Friends." It contains the names of all the yokai she met, and having these names, she can give them any order and they will obey. But yokai are after Takashi for their names, so he decided to return all of them, though doing so takes a great deal of energy.

What I found unusual about Natsume's Book of Friends is that this is a shojo series, but so far, has no sign of romance anywhere. This is evident in that Takashi is the only main character, while the others merely appear in their respective chapter alone. Sure, we do get some implication of possible recurring characters, but it was so focused on Takashi doing his "job" that it felt like I was watching the younger sibling of Mushi-shi. And like Mushi-shi, Natsume's Book of Friends took an episodic approach, something that manga-ka Yuki Midorikawa stated had never done before this. Episodic manga and anime tend to not sit very well with me, and this held true while I was reading this. Sure, there are implications of themes and ideas that stemmed from decent writing, but the manga focused more on "how to return the name" instead of fleshing out its potential for a quiet but powerful philosophical series. I just couldn't get attached to the story or characters, which usually is my problem with episodic manga and anime.

Takashi Natsume so far seems to have the personality equivalence of a loaf of bread. He's useful and necessary, but he's lacking in the personality department. Sure, he's smart enough to figure out the "little mysteries" associated with returning the names, but this doesn't equal a personality. Plenty of smart characters in anime/manga have personality traits other than their intelligence (Light, Lelouch, Ed Elric). Being taken in by distant relatives of his, he has to keep his new duty a secret, but that just seemed cliché to me instead of adding to his character. His "Sensei" Nyanko (the cat yokai) is also only hanging around because he wants to eat Natsume after he's returned all the names, so this didn't help his likability. These two have a very strained relationship, and I'm skeptical that it will change, really. I really don't think I need to mention any other characters, just because I know so little about them so far. This is not a character driven story, and that's a bit of a shame, because being character driven is usually the saving grace of an episodic anime/manga for me. 

Now, for the (semi) easy part. The art looks, I don't want to say sloppy, but...Natsume's Book of Friends even looks like the aforementioned Mushi-shi. The faces are simple, the backgrounds both realistic and surreal, and the designs of the yokai are very unique. I do, however, like Midorikawa's style of drawing hair, and Nyanko's small form. Midorikawa seems to be very fond of using the angry-vein makrks, but I guess this helped show the strained relationship mostly between Takashi and Nyanko.

So, what do I think of this volume? Well, I was kind of disappointed, but I might check out the anime, seeing as it's gotten a lot of positive feedback from the community, but I'll probably be skipping the first 4 episodes. Do I regret reading this volume? Of course not. But I'm probably not going to be picking up the second volume at all.

I would REALLY appreciate feedback on my posts and how to make them better!

Cheers,
~Selena

Last Updated: 25 October 2014
Originally Published: 25 October 2014

Squeaky Clean Anime Taste Test: Danganronpa: The Animation Episode 1

I said something earlier about not doing first reactions on short anime, didn't I? Well, this here is a different case (heheh) because I'm watching one episode a week of this with my school's newly reinstated anime club. Since 13 weeks is a good long while, I think this deserves a taste test. Okay?

We start off our story with our bland *sigh* main male character, Makoto. He seems to have a personality equivalent to that of Yuki Amano from Future Diary, being somewhat wimpy but determined to protect the girl he loves, who he actually just met. Him and 14 other gifted students enter Hope's Peak Academy, only to be trapped inside, and the only way out is to murder one of their classmates and to get away with it. The principal of this school, a demented stuffed bear/robot...thing Monokuma, seems to only have one purpose for this death game: despair. From what I've heard, this is actually a very poor adaptation of the original game, but because I don't plan on playing the game, I will somewhat disregard this when writing my full review. All the other characters have some sort of special talent that got them invited to the academy in the first place, whether it be academics, sports, or performing arts. Hopefully, this anime will establish the personalities of at least some of the characters in the anime.

The animation was done by Studio Lerche, who is actually quite new, and their only other notable work is another video game-to-anime adaptation, Persona 4. I guess I can't give too much credit for the character designs to Studio Lerche, but they are very unique. However, I will say whoever designed the characters was either a) determined to make each and every one of them look unique, or b) was ridiculously high. The set pieces all look fine, as there's nothing really exceptional about them.

For some reason, there is no dub out yet, even though it's been more than a year since this anime first aired. I'm assuming Funimation only has streaming rights to this and not a home video one. The Japanese voice acting is fine, but I will give special mention to the voice of Monokuma.
On the music side, both the opening and ending themes are quite unique, but seem to need an (ahem) acquired taste (I put that in italics because I'm not sure how else to word it.) AGAIN (ahhhh!) I didn't pay much attention to the OST, so no comment from me there.

Overall, I think this anime is going to suffer many of the same problems that Future Diary did (weak protagonist, a somewhat nonthreatening death game, horrible ending) but I did find myself at least somewhat engaged during the episode, but only because I was expecting a death right away, which did not happen.

So, those are my thoughts on the anime so far! Yes, I will review this when I finish it, so don't worry.

Cheers,
~Selena

Last Updated: 21 October 2014
Originally Published: 12 October 2014

Squeaky Clean Anime Review: Fruits Basket

I...have...sooooo...much...homework...

To be honest, when I first read the description of this anime on Netflix, I thought it sounded really stupid and childish. Oh, how I was wrong. How wrong was I? Let's find out!

Synopsis: Tohru Honda is a recently orphaned 16-year-old girl who now lives in a tent. One day, she's invited to live with the Sohma family, which includes her classmate Yuki. But the Sohma's have a secret: If any of them are hugged by someone of the opposite sex or are under a great deal of stress, they transform into the 12 animals of the zodiac. *hiss* Oh, and the cat. As Tohru meets all the different members of the zodiac, she also learns the darker sides to the Sohma curse but still manages to touch and change the hearts of all the Sohmas she meets.

Story: Fruits Basket takes a very slice-of-life approach to telling its story, with each episode being rather self contained. Often times, an episode is spent getting to know one of the members of the Sohma family (most often a guy, you know, because of the whole Tohru-hugging-them-thing to reveal what animal they are.) There are your standard slice-of-life episodes, including a hot springs, school festival, and Valentine's Day episodes that we've all probably seen many times before. But this isn't a bad thing, as characters are developed and moral lessons are taught basically every episode of Fruits Basket. This wasn't just a tack-on, because it never felt forced or dumb. Instead, I found myself smiling uncontrollably at times while watching this anime, and other times in a state of awe or loss. I've mentioned before in my reviews that I don't really like episodic shows. But I think part of the reason Fruits Basket worked for me is because I went into this anime with barely any expectations. It's because of this method of storytelling that I don't consider this anime AS MUCH of a shojo as others would say, to be honest. The comedy is actually fairly innocent, with only a sprinkling of sexuality here and there. It's rather light, without it being the focus of the story, and it's primary niche is its quirkiness. There's also plenty of drama and depressing, thought-provoking moments in Fruits Basket, so not everything is bishis, rice balls, and comedy routines. I thought the drama was handled really well, and was entirely believable, instead of it all feeling superficial. Overall, because of how Fruits Basket handled its' story, I would actually recommend this to be the first shojo anime anyone watches. But a bit of advice here: skip episode 22. It was such a pain to watch, personally, and I don't think it added to the story that much. The ending I found to be interesting, actually, in that is followed the manga instead of diverging off, like what Ouran did.

Characters:

As usual for slice-of-life and shojo anime, Fruits Basket is a very character-driven show. Every character is unique, has their own quirks, and a different problem in their life. The cast of Fruits Basket is actually rather large, but to me, it didn't feel like the characters were based too much on common archetypes of shojo anime. All these beastly boys and girls revolve around our protagonist Tohru Honda, who's sweeter and kinder than a teddy bear decked out in pink ribbons holding a basket of Mars Bars. Her desire to improve the lives of everyone around her is matched only by her desire to not be a burden to anyone. This may make her come off as a cookie-cutter or annoying character. I didn't think so, because she's not perfect; she has her own problems. There'a a certain joy I got out of these characters simply by seeing a character come back after their respective spotlight episode. It's the feeling of character relationships growing and changing that often brought each episode to a close, and very often made me feel extremely satisfied, just by seeing these characters interact. What Fruits Basket tries to emphasize with its characters is that no one is perfect. Characters still have flaws, even after Tohru manages to change their hearts. One thing I noticed about the characters in Fruits Basket is how a lot of them can pull a 180 character flip rather quickly and frequently. Yuki? Check. Kyo? Check. Kagura? Check. Hatsuharu? Oh yeah. This is mostly for comedic effect, but is occasionally used for drama and character development, like with Momiji or Kisa. And when the show does this, it's GOOD. I found myself holding my hands to my mouth from the shock of back-stories and thoughtful words that came from these characters' mouths. But I can almost guarantee to anyone that there will be a character you will love, and one that is absolutely annoying. I've heard from the haters of this show complain about all the characters being annoying, and to be honest, sometimes I can see where they're coming from. The only reason I can understand this is because of the character that was annoying for me, Hiro Sohma. Even though he did change a little for the better, this kid is almost as much of a brat as Aloise Trancy. (And he even looks like him)

Art: 
It pains me to say this, but there isn't anything that great about the art in Fruits Basket. But this is probably due to the fact that this anime was made back in 2001. From what I've seen, Studio Deen has only recently made anime with decent artwork, such as Hetalia and Is This A Zombie. All the character designs are very simple, but at the same time, classic shojo. The distinguishing feature of the characters is almost always the hair. The art is a bit different than the manga (which I am reading, actually), which must have come as a bit of a shock to those that watched Fruits Basket when it first aired. The color pallet is very muted and pastel, with probably the brightest thing being Kyo's hair. The use of exaggerated backgrounds during comedic scenes added to the effectiveness and appeal to the comedy. The set pieces have a hand painted look to them, but not so much that it is blatantly obvious, a la 1994 Sailor Moon. Overall, the art is a bit dated, but at the same time has aged surprisingly well. The simple sweetness of the art perfectly compliments the nature and tone of Fruits Basket.

Animation: 
As I've said before, animation is not usually the highlight of a shojo anime. Fruits Basket is one of Studio Deen's classic titles, and as I said above, they still aren't the best when it comes to animation. Animation is usually kept to a minimum, and sometimes small motions are repeated or go through loops. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing this time and is a bit understandable, as I believe Fruits Basket was animated at least partially with traditional cels. There are your typical anime shortcuts for emotion or action (anger veins, speed lines, the river of tears, many arms and legs while running, etc.) But the exaggerations are a good part of what made the comedy funny, and I just can't imagine Fruits Basket without them, really.

Voice: 
Like I often do, I'm recommending watching this anime dubbed, partially because Yuki sounds nothing like a guy in Japanese. Yes, you have Laura Bailey, Eric Vale, and Jerry Jewell (common Funimation leads) as Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo, respectively, but I didn't really recognize anyone else on the cast list. Which is good if you often associate English voice actors with their other roles in anime. Many old dubs are associated with being cheesy, but Fruits Basket is a bit of a different case. Either I didn't mind the cheesiness, or the anime was very often cheesy so the script went well with the anime. Probably a mix of both. Chris Sabat pulled off a flawlessly flamboyant Ayame, Kent Williams a cold-but-kind Hatori, and John Burgmeier was outstanding as the perverted, but fatherly Shigure. I think everyone pulled off their roles well, though some of the actors or actresses fell a bit short when it came to the drama moments. But I think this dub worked very effectively with the comedy, and that is enough for me to call this a good dub. There isn't much about this dub that can be called "outstanding," but there's nothing wrong with it, either, so if the sub and dub are equal, I always choose dub.

Music:
The opening and ending themes are both quiet, simple, sweet, but overall unremarkable. They're easily skippable, unless you like that sort of thing. A lot of the OST is as quirky or fun as the characters. Other times, the tracks were just "little sounds", simple melodies, or just piano pieces. Now, none of these tracks are bad, it just sometimes feels like the OST isn't there, really. It seemed to me that the only purpose for most of the OST was to make the slice-of-life sound very cute and fun. However, I give the OST points for being unique.

Execution:
I can't judge execution for Fruits Basket as much as I can with other anime, simply because of my lack of expectations when I started. If you're looking for a full-on shojo romance anime, you may be a bit disappointed with Fruits Basket. Thankfully, I did not have this mindset or expectation while watching this anime, so I thought the slice-of-life was handled and worked really well. And it wasn't just about the pretty boys, I also thought the balance between the comedy and the drama/character development was really great as well, giving Fruits Basket a lot more substance than if it was just a plain slice-of-life. This anime works perfectly fine as a shojo, but I consider this anime the kind that will cheer you up and put a big smile on your face. Fruits Basket is the kind of anime where you just watch one or two episodes after a long day, instead of marathoning it on the weekend.

My Enjoyment: 

There were plenty of times in Fruits Basket where I could not stop smiling. And when the show did get serious, I felt myself really sympathizing with the characters. Sure, there were a few annoying characters, but thankfully, I can count them on one hand, and they didn't show up often in the anime. Fruits Basket is my second favorite shojo anime of all time, but I think that's because I've seen more bad ones than good. It's mainly because of this anime that I don't consider myself a slice-of-life hater, a sort of beacon of past glory, in the sea of moe girl slice-of-life that occupies much of anichart every season. So, other than a few hiccups,and this was all due to personal taste, really, my enjoyment of Fruits Basket was very consistent.

The Score:

Averaging the eight numerical values for the categories listed above, I give Fruits Basket a 7.1875/10 and my orange flag. If you like slice-of-life but don't want all the characters to be moe girls, this is the perfect anime for you.

Story: 7.8 Characters: 8.5
Art: 5.6 Animation: 5.3
Voice: 7.2 Music: 6.2
Execution: 8.4    My Enjoyment: 8.5

For similar anime, I suggest the popular shojo Ouran High School Host Club. It's another reverse harem that's also a slice-of-life with great character development by means of a unique female protagonist changing the hearts of the people she meets. If you want a shojo that's short and more supernatural, I suggest Kamisama Kiss. Hey, it has the same director as Fruits Basket!

NEXT REVIEW: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann *cracks knuckles* *puts on fabulous red cape and sunglasses*

Last Updated: 15 Oct 2014
Originally Published: 11 Oct 2014