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For animekritik: A list of shoujo recommendations

Originally this was supposed to be just another comment to this question, but the list quickly grew out of hand. So, I decided to make a post out of it.

In this genre, it so happens that longer series are most often better than the short ones. After all, if a series is popular it typically gets long. People are fickle, so if a series is long, there are good chances that it really is high quality. For me, recommending shoujo is a big fight between series that I thought are objectively good (such as Moto Hagio’s manga) or those who left me in tears at some point in my life (such as “Parfait Tic” which, for many reasons, will not be included in this list).
I also don’t know that much about the Year 24 group except for their most famous ones, but this list can serve as a good reference for what is out there.

Kare Kano: My favorite shoujo of all times. It’s relatively modern but not fancy-looking or anything. It also doesn’t have the best art in the world especially in the first volumes and its premise does not strike you as special. Nevertheless, it was widely popular, especially with the anime and is generally a very pure romance.
“Paradise Kiss” and “Gokinjo Monogatari” are significantly shorter, finished and both have nice stories as well.

Nana: Before Kare Kano, my favorite shoujo. After volume 8 the story becomes fairly erratic and shallow, but back then, when the series was not as popular, it had many elements almost every girl could associate herself with, namely the obsession with a man (or men in general). The series hits the sad truth that as long as a woman is heterosexual, no matter what else she does or what her character is, her world revolves around men in some form or another.

Honey & Clover: H&C is Nana for older girls, more or less. It’s a little more light-hearted and, if you ask me, much more oblivious and naive about relationships, but it hits home pretty well too with its bittersweet aftertaste. Another thing it does well is the depiction of love that can happen in a moment and last throughout the whole series. People move on, but very slowly, and almost no other series does it as well as this one.

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It has 1301 words and an estimated 5:12 mins reading time.
Posted 08 May 2011 † Sasa § Manga ‡ Comments (6) °

50 animes of the decade

Wow, I even stopped doing season preview, ahaha. And I didn’t even watch any (= not even one SINGLE) show for Summer and Fall this year. Chances are that I won’t for the next seasons either, but hey, life is still long and catching up is always possible.

But! The decade is ending, and gaguri inspired me to publish my own list, simply because above everything else (that is not human), I love lists the most. I’m not commenting anything, due to severe lack of time though (finals are next week, for all those of you who don’t go to the same school as I do), sorry. And I will only do series, because I think there is a huge difference between series and movies. I might consider doing a list for movies (and OVAs) too though.

Normally I churn out lists in minutes, but this time, it was quite difficult! I also understand why it has to be a top 50 of the decade. The first 20 are total all-time favorites and I love them to pieces. (And yes, Ichigo Mashimaro, at least the first season, absolutely must be there. ;) So here we are:

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It has 358 words and an estimated 1:26 mins reading time.
Posted 05 December 2009 † Sasa § Anime § Hitlist ‡ Comments (23) °

A short summer season preview, or: Why I don’t get overly excited about Noitamina series anymore

drrt drrt

Following this list, I conclude that I have found 4 of those series very good (Honey & Clover I and II, Hataraki Man and Nodame II), I found 3 of them good (ParaKiss, Moyashimon and Eden of the East), I dropped 4 of them (Nodame I, Ayakashi, Hakaba Kitarou, Toshokan Sensou and Genji) and the rest were never touched due to lack of interest beforehand. I foresee Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 will end up being one of the good series, making it 4 series in each of my ‚categories‘. Thus, following my statistics, noitaminA series are now rather a hit or miss for me, unlike 2 years ago when I was eagerly awaiting the newest series in the time slot.
In comparison to that, Noise has more to offer for me: I have started reading the manga of Aoi Hana which has a lot of nice yuri subtexts between the main characters and even some real yuri pairings including kissing action and a dose of realism.

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It has 340 words, 2 images and an estimated 1:22 mins reading time.
Posted 26 June 2009 † Sasa § Seasons ‡ Comments (5) °

Subtitles please?

Instead of studying, I have just spent the last 4 minutes of my life watching this little special. It makes me wonder if I should watch Inukami, hehe. But of course it was mostly the appearance of Kino no Tabi in SD version that makes this little video so incredibly precious - it’s been such a long time!

Permanent link to this post (60 words, estimated 14 secs reading time)
Posted 24 March 2009 † Sasa § Rant ‡ Comments (2) °

Amazing, I have not made a Spring Preview yet!

The main reason is probably that I have nearly every single Winter show this year on hold, although there are some nice to extremely good ones (Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Maria+Holic, Rideback).

Spring, however, is the season of many series to chose from and so here we are:

saki

Ristorante Paradiso
It’s the only show I have never heard of before and only put it onto my preview list on a whim, because (unlike Josh) I think that it looked very interesting and unusual. Perhaps as a girl, I can see the difference between Ristorante Paradiso’s look and, say, Hana-somethingsomething (which looks like utter crap)? I mean, Nicoletta looks cute and those chefs around her are a little too old to be your average bishounen, no?
In fact, I actually have the manga on my I-wish-somebody-would-scanlate-these-list (but with 200 series on it, I barely remember any of them). When I looked at this picture again, I immediately went “Oh my god, this looks like it’s a goddamn BASSO adaptation!” Actually basso is a certain Natsume Ono’s pseudonym for his/her yaoi manga, but since the only title ever scanlated is a yaoi, I can’t help but remember him/her under basso. I could kiss his/her feet for these manga, and of course this sole fact shot “Ristorante Paradiso” into the no.1 spot of my preview list.
I have never heard of a manga running in Manga Erotics F get an anime adaptation! GASP It makes me want to write in all caps and drown myself in enthusiasm. Somebody should go and scanlate this manga…

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It has 1168 words, 11 images and an estimated 4:40 mins reading time.
Posted 20 March 2009 † Sasa § Seasons ‡ Comments (5) °

AFA 08: Day 2 Journal

Day 1 had me walking around the venue numerous times. Day 2 on the other hand was mostly a waiting game. I reached around 1100hrs to photograph any items I missed out yesterday. Thankfully, the crowd was at bay. I whittled away the time at the Industry Seminar area while waiting for the Cosplay Mania event to start at the main stage.

Impressive line-up for free seminars. Audience was mainly studying/working in the animation industry.

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It has 839 words, 21 images and an estimated 3:21 mins reading time.
Posted 26 November 2008 † MrMayat § Rant ‡ Comments (2) °

AFA 08: Day 1 Journal

What self respecting animeblog doesn’t have an anime convention coverage these days? That said, Sasa flew me all the way to Singapore’s first large scale anime convention, Animation Festival Asia 2008. (Oh wait, it’s only a 30min train ride from my place)

Time: 1100hrs

Place: Suntec Convention Center Lvl 4

First Impression: Long Line is long

Even though I was pre-registered, I waited in line for 15 mins, which wasn’t that long in fact. (Turns out that that they didn’t even check my pre-registration code) The first thing that greeted me at the entrance was the huge-ass Gundam Exia model. A slight tilt the right, a long line of gundam otaku were lining up to pay for their purchases.

The Overwatch

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It has 918 words, 29 images and an estimated 3:40 mins reading time.
Posted 24 November 2008 † MrMayat § Rant ‡ Comments (0) °

Winter Season Preview - So much anticipation, so few comments

Since my other website is dead (what the heck?) I decided to follow my inner desire to do my winter preview. There are so many things I am looking forward to after all:

drrt
This definitely is the most beautiful scene of the whole series.

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou
Zoku! Ahaha, what a surprise to see that name. Natsume Yuujinchou would have been the best summer season if Hidamari didn’t exist - and they both got a 9 from me on MAL. As some of you might know, I absolutely can’t wait for the next season to come out, especially since it takes the scanlators ages to move on with the manga.

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It has 569 words, 8 images and an estimated 2:17 mins reading time.
Posted 09 November 2008 † Sasa § Seasons ‡ Comments (9) °

First Impressions and Status on the Autumn Season

drrt

Order by watching priority (more or less):

Lucky Star OVA: Finished
It’s always the OVAs that I watch that I like the most. Perhaps it’s because OVAs are mostly released after series that become rather popular and that I have thoroughly liked. Oh, with this pattern, perhaps there is hope for a Hidamari OVA? That would just be too brilliant.

Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: Watching
Another OVA, yay yay! I will never get over the fact that SZS is over (same for Natsume Yuujinchou, by the way).

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It has 793 words, 1 image and an estimated 3:10 mins reading time.
Posted 09 November 2008 † Sasa § Seasons ‡ Comments (11) °

To me, Code Geass redeemed itself with its last episode

All hail Nunnally
When I saw this, I wanted to cry. What the heck?

It took me ages to finally continue watching Code Geass. Through episodes 18 and 19, I shook my head with disinterest, boredom and absolute facepalm, and believed the whole show would never come to a decent closure. While I was reading blog postings on the following episodes, I lost interest in continuing altogether because I felt the story completely sunk into nonsense. (Marianne and Charuru plot some silly, evil plan and abandoning their children? Lelouch and Suzaku rule Britannia? Hello?)

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It has 366 words, 2 images and an estimated 1:28 mins reading time.
Posted 29 October 2008 † Sasa § Anime ‡ Comments (4) °