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The Battle of Hope and Des-bear -- I mean Despair



Doesn’t everyone love a good mystery? Of course, we do, we’re humans. Curiosity is practically written into our genetic code. The proverb should really be “curiosity killed the human” and not “the cat.” We’re far more reckless than they are and we all know cats are far too lazy to be curious about anything that doesn’t have to do with food or boxes. Whether it’s some mysterious stain on the floor, an unknown sound, or the strange sealed Snickers wrapper filled, not with candy but air I discovered, we have this inch in our mind that ... wants to get to the bottom of it. We have this strange urge to know that which is unknown. It’s why we continue to explore space, why scientists even have their jobs, and why we as a species are the most intelligent on this earth. We should really act like it more though. This quest for knowledge is something that isn’t only necessary for the human race but is also fun. Even for those of us that don’t necessarily like learning about different subjects, we generally like to know all there is about what we do like. Regardless of the type of person you are, we’ve all found some type of mystery in our life that made us curious at one point or another. Now, I hope for your sake that the mystery didn’t involve a dead person who’s killer is still on the loose. That would be very unfortunate, however, there is something strangely fun about that concept, for me at least. No, I’m not some psychopathic killer or anything like that, but I do love pretending to think like ones. There's just something so thrilling about using your sleuthing skills to try and recreate a crime in your head. Trying to deduce exactly what happened. Who's to blame. Whodunit, if you will. It scratches a really specific itch in my brain. That itch is why I love the mystery genre in general, and why detective stories are my favorite pieces of literature. I just love the feeling of being the Watson to the stories Holmes and trying to even outdo whoever the hero is. I, myself, want to be ahead of the story. I don’t want the story to tell me the solution to the mystery, I want to play detective myself. That desire is why detective novels feel differently than any other piece of literature to me. They almost cross the literary plane and let me into them. It’s like I can actually take part in it. It’s less a novel and more a cooperative experience between me and the characters to bring the culprit or culprits to justice. That’s how I feel at least. Maybe I just have way too much of a romanticized view of being a sleuth. It would be pretty neat, wouldn’t it? You have to admit they’re cool...hey! You have your fantasies! Let me have mine! You can imagine now how much I would love a game that lets you be the detective. I wouldn’t have to imagine being a sidekick to one, I could just be them myself. You’re the sideshow now, Mr. Holmes! And to nobody’s surprise, yes, I love mystery games. Unfortunately, they’re few and far between, and of course, I haven’t played every single one of them. Today, however, I will be talking about an anime based on one of the more well-known ones out there. The anime of one of my favorite video games with one of my favorite stories of all time. That’s right you ultimate detectives out there, puhuhu, I’ll not waste any more of your ursine. Say bye-onara to your friends and family because class is in session. Oh? Don’t worry. This academy isn’t too strict. We have fun and play games here, yes, just friendly games. Of course, you’ll be able to graduate as well, you just need to put in the effort! Anyone can if they try!



Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc was a murder-mystery, visual novel, adventure game released first for the PlayStation Portable in 2010. It was developed by then Spike (as of 2012 Spike Chunsoft) a Japanese company that many of whose games aren’t the most well-known over here in the States. That isn’t helped by the fact that many of their games weren’t localized out of Japan at all, pre-Chunsoft days at least. Now they’re in the public eye a bit more. Three years later Danganronpa: The Animation was made. An anime based on Trigger Happy Havoc. Given the popularity of the game, it isn’t all that surprising that this followed. It was produced by Lerche, a fairly new anime studio established just in 2011, responsible for series like Assassination Classroom, Monster Musume, and Classroom of the Elites. It was directed by Seiji Kishi who has quite a decent resume, including directing Angel Beats. But what’s more valuable to Danganronpa: The Animation, is his work on various other anime adaption of games, such as directing both Persona 4 series, the films for Persona 3, and Devil Survivor 2: The Animation. So we have a director who clearly knows a thing or two about working video game stories into an anime form. That’s a big deal for me as I was most worried about that. Anime adaptions tend to lose something special in translation, and having someone experienced spearheading the project, it should lower the chance of that. Does that mean it eliminates the chance? No, unfortunately. Anime portrayals of games come with a unique set of problems that are hard to deal with for anyone. Ultimately though, there’s really only one thing Danganronpa: The Animation needs to accomplish: it needs to honor its source material. It doesn’t have to be the same. It just needs to do it justice. That’s all.



Our story begins by introducing us to a prestigious private high school known as Hope’s Peak. This isn’t your normal school by any means, no, only those worthy of the title of ultimates can enroll in Hope’s Peak. If the academy thinks you have a talent, whether that talent is baseball player, idol, detective, mechanic, magician, imposter, whatever you can imagine, the school may scout you. If you accept then you become the ultimate whatever your talent is and enroll in Hope’s Peak as they help nurture and grow your unique talent. We start with our main character, Makoto Naegi, a young talentless boy about to walk into Hope’s Peak and begin his new school life. I know what you’re thinking: how could Makoto have gotten selected if he’s talentless? Well, Makoto does have a talent, he’s the ultimate lucky student who only got accepted into Hope’s Peak as a prize in a lottery. But as you will soon find out, ultimate luck Makoto isn’t. As he’s about to enter the school the world distorts and he passes out. The next time Makoto awakens he’s sitting on a desk in an empty classroom all by himself. All his memories prior to walking into Hope’s Peak are gone. Scared and confused, Makoto searches the classroom. It’s like a prison. The windows are all boarded up, not letting a single drop of sunlight in. Cameras are pointed at him, watching his every move. Finding a note that tells him to go to the school’s gym, Makoto reluctantly does just that. Upon Arriving Makoto is greeted by 14 other so-called “ultimates” like him. But they too don’t have any memories from entering Hope’s Peak onward. Just waking up in a strange high school and that’s it. As if the situation couldn’t get any worse, they meet the principle of this school. A small monochrome colored jokester of a robot bear called Monokuma. But just as this school isn’t normal, neither is their principal who claims that they aren’t there to learn, but instead to play a game instead. A “killing game” to be more specific. If they wish to graduate and leave Hope’s Peak behind for good they must kill one of their fellow students. Not only do they need to commit murder, but they must get away with it as well. Whenever a body is found, the remaining students must investigate the scene, if they want to live that is. After some time a class trial is held where all of the remaining students including the culprit, or the “blackened” gather in a courtroom of sorts to discuss the case. At the end of the trial there’s a vote. If the “spotless” students figure out who the blackened is and vote for them, the blackened is executed and the rest of them may continue the killing game as normal. However, guess wrong and the blackened wins the killing game and gets to graduate from Hope’s Peak, and the other students get executed instead. At first, the students all reject this killing game, as any sane person would, but they soon find that there really doesn’t seem to be any way to leave normally. They have all the food, water, and comfort they would want at Hope’s Peak but staying there would be like staying in prison. Not all the students are keen on that idea either, but they agree to work together anyway. It isn’t long before Monokuma throws yet another wrench into the ultimate student’s plans: a motive. Yet, another reason to “graduate” besides just leaving the academy. It isn’t long after this that the killing game starts for real.



I’ve always been quite a big fan of Danganronpa’s story. There’s just something about it that is really, really fun. Maybe it’s solving the crimes, maybe it’s the sense of suspense you get when you can’t even trust your friends, maybe it’s a combination of everything. However, I’m talking more about the game when I say those things, and though I will reference that here and there we are talking about the anime. The anime, of course, tells the same story as the game. Very, very faithfully, I might add. As in A to B to C all the way to Z follows the game almost to a T...get it? Except for a few times locations of events change for convenience. Anyway, this begs the question of who the audience actually is. In my opinion, it’s more for fans of Danganronpa already, rather than to new fans. It’s more of a love letter to those who like it already and want to experience it in a new way. Because the story in the anime is more like an abridged version. Not abridged as in it skips important details, you’ll get a basic concept of everything, but abridged as in it shows you just the important parts and that’s it. This is unfortunately the problem with many anime adaptations of games. Danganronpa: The Animation is ultimately trying to fit a 25 to 30-hour game into 13 episodes of an anime. Essentially, fitting 25 or so hours, into around 4 and a half. When you take into account how much of the game’s length is reading dialogue, messing around, playing that cursed junk spitting gumball machine, or spending time with the clear best girl Kyoko, you can cut the time up a bit, making it easier to manage, but it’s still hard to get it just right. In Danganronpa’s case, it loses quite a bit because of time constraints. It goes from being a mystery you can solve yourself, to one that you just watch unfold. One of Danganronpa’s strongest points is the murders. They are incredibly creative, with many twists and turns along the way. Gathering evidence and trying to piece the story together is what makes them so fun. But in the anime, the investigation portions are skipped for the most part. You’ll see a quick scene here and there with some evidence pop on the screen like in the game, and poof! We’re already in the class trial. While the game gives you a chance to slowly take things in and sort out the details of the case beforehand, the anime focuses mainly on the class trail. Much of the time the characters throw out facts that you’ve never heard before because, as I said, the investigation portions are largely skipped. This means you don’t get to really participate, you get to watch. That alone removes a big part of what Danganronpa is from the anime. Because class trials are where much of the story unfolds, it means that’s where a lot of the anime takes place, including the whole final episode pretty much, which is already almost the length of two, bringing to light the time constraints. Still, this is like the game. Much of it is shouting and pointing fingers. However, when you take away the participation aspect, it means the anime mainly consists of people yelling at each other, revealing evidence you barely know about, all the while standing across from each other in the same room. It’s not the most interesting thing to watch. Especially, if you don’t find the story interesting, and because it’s so fast, I fear some people won’t. That means the anime fails in that regard. As I said, I feel like it’s more of a love letter instead. For those of us who know the story already, it will be fun to watch everything brought to life. But that then creates another issue. If it is a very faithful recreation that only focuses on the main story points, what does it bring to the table? If you’ve played the game, why watch it? There’s of course, the fact that you get to see the characters mobile and brought to life, but again they’re mostly standing in the class trial courtroom. And with nothing new brought to the table, does it really matter? In my opinion, Danganronpa should have pulled more of a Persona 4 Golden: The Animation but not as extreme, as in rather than focus solely on the story they should have focused on some of the side stuff. Maybe some of the bond conversations between Makoto and the cast would have been nice. Maybe what the characters do when they aren’t murdering people, you know? Maybe use it as a chance to see more of &!@##$ and %%@@##! as they get taken out so early. Sure, then there wouldn’t be quite enough time to focus on the story, but I think letting that slide a bit since the target audience, at least in my mind, is those who already love Danganronpa would have been a better choice. This isn’t to say they should skip the story entirely, like in Persona 4 Golden, just don’t make that the main focus. You could say that that would alienate the group who is first experiencing the story with the anime but I feel it already does that in away. Maybe alienate isn’t the word, but you wouldn’t do Danganronpa justice if you experienced the story first with the anime, like I almost did a few years back. This isn’t to say Lerche did a bad job, or that Kishi is a bad director, both of those are false. It just demonstrates what I already know to be true: that anime adaptations of games never really work, from my experience. They end up being rushed or miss the mark in some way, not from any fault of the creators, just because the source material is a long game, often meant to be played slow. Turning that into a fairly fast-paced anime that you watch rather than play seems to be nearly impossible. Oftentimes the anime adaptions just feel like they take the bullet points of the game and figure out how best to fit them into the episodes they have, without putting anything else in it. It generally just has me asking why?
Why does it exist in the first place? I wonder who exactly it was made for. Still, Danganronpa: The Animation does about as good of a job as they could do with the amount of time they were given. It covers all the main points fairly well and lets you experience the story at a quicker pace. It was a nice refresher to me honestly and I did enjoy it. I just can’t help but think there could have been more. Truly, The Animation's biggest problem is that it doesn't have enough time. 24 or even the odd 20 episodes would have allowed the whole thing to be slower-paced and would have created time for more extra stuff as well. Alas, that isn’t what we got.



Danganronpa has got a very useful cast of characters. It may sound like an odd word but it fits well. The cast is very eccentric, as you might expect from young students who dedicate their lives to one specific skill. The ultimate idol will be cutesy, and popular, the ultimate programmer will be quiet and smart, the ultimate swimmer will be athletic, they are very exaggerated forms of whatever their skill sets are. I call them useful because this blends well with what they were made to do: kill. They each have a very unique set of skills that they can use to create an interesting murder mystery. They’re useful for the story they are in. Notice I am avoiding the word “good” when complimenting them. I’m not trying to tell you the characters in Danganronpa are bad, per se, just that they are predictable because of how eccentric they are. They are trapped in their own character tropes. I could use one sentence to describe nearly every character in Danganronpa if I wanted to.
Aoi Asahina, the ultimate swimmer: “I like being energetic and also donuts!”
Hifumi Yamada, the ultimate fanfic creator: “2-D is better.”
Toko Fukawa, the ultimate writing prodigy: “I’m worthless! But take me, Byakuya!”
Byakuya Togami, the ultimate affluent prodigy: “You are all peasants! I’d sooner die, wench!”
Yasuhiro Hagakure, the ultimate clairvoyant: “Dude, I’m dumb, but I can tell your fortunes like 30% percent of the times.”
You get the picture. This isn’t to say all the characters are like this, quite a few aren’t. Kyoko Kirigiri, the ultimate ??? is a fan favorite for good reason. Not only is her backstory interesting, albeit predictable, she actually has a lot of character growth and isn’t trapped by her talent so much as the others. Some great twists later on as well. Even though Makoto isn’t my favorite main character in the series (that would have to go to Hajime from Danganronpa 2, for those curious) despite his excessive blandness, he’s actually a pretty solid character all around. He’s naive and innocent, making him about the most unfit person to be in a killing game so it makes for plenty of interesting scenarios. In addition, he manages to become more of a critical thinker, like Kirigiri, as a result of the killing game, changing him a bit. Does he become kind of bland at the end? Sure. Still, he’s not bad by any means. However, as I said the biggest strength of the characters is how they are used. Because they all have their own unique skill set, they are able to kill in interesting ways that may not be possible otherwise. Perhaps their skills lead them to dispose of evidence in a way only they can, or perhaps they can be framed in a way that incriminates them in particular because of their eccentricities. Some characters could even spice the killing game up by tampering with a crime scene because they don’t want to be bored, making for even more interesting mysteries. If they were just a group of average teenagers mysteries like this wouldn’t happen. They would likely cry for a while, eventually, murder someone out of that fear, fail the trial, and that would be that. But because of the eccentricities of the characters, they work really well, it just causes the unfortunate result of them hardly ever breaking from their set tropes. Unless they decide to murder someone, that is. It usually comes as a big shock.



When I said Danganronpa: the Animation was faithful to its source material, I wasn’t only talking about the story. I meant every single aspect of it. Lerche took special care to make sure The Animation looked and felt like Danganronpa, and they did a fantastic job. If you’ve played Trigger Happy Havoc and enjoyed the portraits and various animated bits throughout, you won’t be disappointed. I’ve always been a big fan of Danganronpa’s art. One, because it just looks nice, though some might say bland. It has vivid colors that pop out at you and for the most part, is a joy to look at. Yet it manages to look drab and dark at times as well. I can’t lie, I’ve always been a fan of their signature neon pink blood. I've always enjoyed how much that contrasts the situation the characters are in. It’s about high school students locked in a school against their will, forced to kill each other at the command of a robotic teddy bear with the voice of Elmo, yet when someone gets murdered, often in a brutal way, you get assaulted by this bright-colored blood and go “it’s so pretty.” Again, no I’m not a serial killer, but you can’t deny that there’s something really fascinating about seeing such dark scenes mixed with such bright colors. As for how the art looks most of the time, it’s good. As I said, it’s Danganronpa. If you like Danganronpa’s art you enjoy it. One thing I’ve always been conflicted about is the eyes. On one hand, they’re kind of bland compared to other anime art styles, yet the muddy eyes look kind of depressing in a way that is fitting. I am glad they actually chose to stick with the games art style as well, it makes it not feel out of place. There are a few times where it looks pretty bad, “zoomed out syndrome” if you know what I mean, but it’s passable a majority of the time. To bring up a point from earlier though, a large portion of The Animation takes place in the class trial room so considering the art isn’t exceptional when that’s all they’re doing is up to you to decide if that’s an issue. It isn’t bad, but you could say they missed an opportunity to make fairly boring set pieces interesting. What they do to spice things up is something I’m not sure how to feel about. Rather than try something new they employ the same strategy the game does where it flashes to the different characters as they say their lines. Similarly, when Makoto calls a person out on a lie, he loads a truth bullet and shoots the yellow lie. I like it because it feels like the game, it’s almost like an easter egg in the anime itself. The problem is, if you haven’t played Danganronpa, it feels out of place. You’ll probably wonder why this lame high school student is suddenly loading some mental chambers with whatever the hell truth bullets are about to shoot his classmates floating words. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the outsider audience. On the flip side, however, it does give the anime its own unique identity that will stick out in anyone’s mind, even if that identity is slightly out of place. The soundtrack is another thing that gives Danganronpa its own identity. Players of the game will know that very well and will not be disappointed with The Animation in that regard. Much of the OST will sound very familiar. In fact, a good portion of it is taken directly from the game or changed with slight modifications. All your favorite tracks from Trigger Happy Havoc will be present with some new tracks here and there. The soundtrack is fun, peppy, suspenseful, and sometimes just plain weird, but all a joy to listen to. The old tunes fit in well for the most part. I think the main reason I personally find them out of place at times is that slow, atmospheric tracks usually bode better for a slower-paced exploration game than an anime that often cuts to save time. If I had no preconceived notions about the music beforehand, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal. Regardless, for old fans and new ones, I promise you’ll enjoy what’s returning. As for the new tracks, they all fit in seamlessly to the point it gets hard to tell what wasn’t in the game originally. And I have to say I adore “Never” the opening song. It somehow manages to be a very different type of song for the series, yet fits the vibe of Danganronpa so well.
A vibe that I personally love, and I know many others do as well.



A lot of the time I watch things like Danganronpa: The Animation, or Persona 4 Golden: The Animation and Persona 5: The Animation, and animation, animation, yatta, yatta. I usually come away feeling mildly disappointed. Not necessarily because the thing I watched was bad, more that it fell short, or didn’t do things the way I would have liked. Unfortunately, Danganronpa left me with a similar feeling. Despite what some may take away from this, I didn’t dislike The Animation whatsoever. Did it go how I would have made it? No. But I enjoyed it, think many others would, and I think it’s better than many other similar adaptions. My main issue is the same problem I have with Persona 5’s adaption for instance: it’s rushed. In order to fit the entire lengthy story into a much smaller frame of time, certain things need to be cut out. In Danganronpa’s case, it comes at the cost of losing a bit of its identity by skipping the investigation portions. It loses out on a lot of the mystery aspects of its murder mysteries. If it were up to me, first of all, I’d have given it 20 episodes at least, in a perfect world that is. But I would take more of the approach Persona 4 Golden took. Rather than follow bullet points of how the story should progress and attempt to fit it into episodes, I’d focus more on optional stuff and breathe some new life into it. I’d give returning fans a new experience. Of course, this would come at the cost of rushing the story, but as I said, it is already rushed. If you can’t do something complete justice, I would focus on what you could do to make the adaptation special in its own way. I said earlier I wondered why it exists if it doesn’t add anything new to the table, but I suppose it’s for those who don’t want to sit down with a 20+ hour game. I completely understand that. I enjoyed getting a refresher of the story from it...then I went back and started replaying the game. What was my point again? Kidding aside, if you want to know what all the Danganronpa hubbub is about, but don’t want to commit to anything too lengthy, I’d recommend checking The Animation out. However, if you do like what you see, I would highly recommend you not finish it and pick yourself up a copy of the game and play it instead. After that, you can revisit the anime. As of recently, Danganronpa is available on mobile now for all the various App Stores, I'm pretty sure, so if you have the capacity to watch anime, you likely have the ability to at least pick the source material up there. I just can’t see myself recommending you first experience the story with the anime. Though I think it did about as well as it could with the limited time, it is not the ideal way to take in the experience. You’ll just spoil yourself and dampen the game as a whole. If you don’t care about that and hate video games for some reason, go right ahead and just watch the anime. It isn’t perfect but you’ll enjoy it. They did a good job for what, I find, is usually an impossible task. I commend them for that. As always this was just my opinion and isn’t any more or less valid than yours or even Monokuma’s for that matter. Who are we to judge the type of entertainment he prefers? If you have a problem with that, I’ll sentence you to a thousand licks by the Elmo bear himself! That whole deal from the third game with the monokubs was awfully creepy, wasn’t it? Yeah, you don’t want that. I highly recommend you don’t listen to an un-ultimate ingrate like me and watch the series for yourself and form your own opinions. I hear Monokuma likes those with many opinions. Next time you find yourself in a killing game he might let you graduate early. Better than murder at least. Well, aren't most things after all?



Thank you very much for reading ~



I wonder how I would do in the killing game? If I would give in to my fear or whatnot. I feel like I would either do really good or absolutely abysmal. I’d either be the first one to die and set the mood for everyone else or I’d be that one boring person that makes it to the end because they aren’t really a threat and before they get killed the actual heroes have already saved the day. I'd be that one character in the class trial who is like "no! That doesn't make any sense!" And starts arguing with everyone confidently, just to have the main character correct me with some obvious piece of evidence that I didn't realize was there because I couldn't actually bother to investigate. Blood is scary, you know? Hey, it’s not glamorous but I’d rather live. Who cares if I scrape on by? I sure don’t!


And remember kids, killing is not cool and you shouldn’t do it. Nor should you make sport of such a thing either. That’s why fiction is great. Things that would be horrible in real life can actually be enjoyable. Ah, fiction. I feel a bit bad for enjoying the character's pain, but it’s ok. It’s not like they’re real people in the first place. They’re just fiction after all. It's ok to enjoy it, right? Right...

I’ll see you next month.

Asteroid in Love: Wait, it’s About Space, Right?



Hello, everyone. I’ve developed a good few interests over the years, various hobbies that I enjoy spending my time with. One of which, I’m doing right now. I think they’re a very important part of life, and I’m sure most of you would agree with that. A lucky few may even turn these passions into careers or turn them into something more viable in their everyday life, but for many, that won’t happen. However, they are still incredibly rewarding experiences and life would certainly be far worse without them. I was never a very passionate person when ... I was younger. I didn’t have all that much I liked. I was stuck in my own incredibly small world and never tried to get out of it, partly because I didn’t know how but I also just didn’t want to. I pretty much liked video games and that was it. The only thing that really got me through. And for a long time, I was ok with that world. The problem is, and this is something I wish I could tell my younger self, is that that world is small. It’s a shallow, tiny, unimaginative world, and that I shouldn’t have confined myself to it. I should have tried to branch out into the rest of the immeasurably huge world there is. I would have told myself about all the amazing things that my idiotic self was missing out on. Eventually, my thick skull understood, I started to experience various different hobbies, and soon the small world I knew seemed to be just that, “small.” I remember when I first read a book, like an actual novel, and liked it. I appreciated what it was. I understood it. It made me discover this whole new world that I never knew existed. It was eye-opening. And as a byproduct of that love for literature, I now have a passion for writing. Something, believe me, I never thought I’d have. I was about the farthest thing from a writer in my mind, but when I stopped to really think about it, it kind of started to make sense to me. My point is, these various passions you can discover in life can not only be fun or rewarding, but they can also broaden your horizons, they can change the way you think. I bring this up because I have a recent passion I’ve found in the past year, and I honestly can’t believe it took me this long to realize it, because the objects of that passion I see, quite literally, every single day...or night, I suppose. I have a newfound appreciation for stargazing and really the universe we live in altogether. I never really looked up, or at least I don’t feel like I ever did. When I looked up earlier this year and spotted Orion, it was like I actually saw something up there. It was no longer just nothingness like I assumed. Something that used to look so empty to me suddenly lit up with life. I no longer saw glowing dots, I saw Taurus, Auriga, Canis Major, I even saw a shooting star! I didn’t see dots, I saw life made up by those dots. I then started to read up on some of them. Now when I look up, I see animals, heroes, gods, and monsters, stories about those characters, various epic legends about them. I went from seeing an empty sky, to a beautiful sea of stars, stars that built constellations, that bring epic stories to life. I saw life up there, and from that, I understood how incredibly small I really am. Most clear nights, if I can, I go outside for about 40 minutes, weather a storm of bugs, grab a chair, and kick back under the stars. I just stare up at them mindlessly and I feel content. I understand how small this world really is and it makes me feel at peace like nothing can bother me. I don’t have a care in the world (or any other!), even if something is bothering me that day. It erases everything. It’s almost like a reset. It is the most relaxing experience I have ever had in my life and it has been right above me the entire time. It was like my eyes were truly open for the very first time to the wonders of the universe that we are in. If you never have, please just go out one night and look, really, really look. I know not everyone will have the same experience I did, but I know some will, and for them, it will make a world of difference.



“I don’t care about some space rocks?” I hear you, very angry random person, saying. Why do I give you my life story? Well, because that’s how I make it personal and all. Ahem! Besides that, you like anime, don’t you? Why are you reading this if you aren’t? Maybe you’re the real space cadet here, not me. Asteroid in Love was a 2017 slice of life, comedy, romance(?) yonkoma series (four-panel manga) written by Quro, which as of now is their only work. As time went on the various shorts were compiled into three separate volumes, before, in 2020, an anime was made. It was produced by Doga Kobo, known for YuriYuri, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun, Plastic Memories, Himouto! Umaru-chan, and various other moe and non-moe series you’ve likely heard of. They even did 11 Eyes, apparently. That was a trip. It also had a really stupid name. It was directed by Daisuke Hiramaki, who has worked on various anime in regards to animation and even directed an episode here or there, but this is the first time being a director for the entirety of an anime. Before we get started, I wanted to bring up my brief history with Asteroid in Love, because I do have one. I had actually started watching Asteroid in Love earlier this year when it aired, but at the start of the third episode, I dropped it. Why? I’ll talk about that later. Still, I wouldn’t have done that now. Maybe I was in a bad mood that day? I think I just had a lot of current anime I was watching at the time and I needed an excuse to drop something. I absolutely hate doing that. I’d rather suffer through something just so I can put it on my watched list. I mean, that’s why I watched Girlfriend Beta. If you enjoyed that series, more power to you, I wish I did the same. I wanted to drop it immediately. Anyway, expect more of my dropped series to show up in the future. They’re worth checking out. Sometimes your opinions may even change. Will this be one of them? Who knows? I sure do.



One night on a crowded group camping trip, ditzy, cheerful young Mira sees a boy sneaking off into the forest alone. Curious, Mira follows only to find out the boy’s name is Ao and learns he left the campsite to get away from all the noise and enjoy the stars. Not knowing much about the universe, Mira starts asking question upon question, all of which Ao answers with ease. An already astonished Mira is even more amazed when she learns of a star named after her. This makes Mira wonder: “Ao, is there a star with your name?” Disappointed to hear that’s not the case, Mira wants to name a star after him. Ao says that’s nearly impossible, the only real possibility would be to name, not a star, but an asteroid instead, although the chances are slim to none, especially for such young children. But if there’s one thing Mira’s good at, it’s not thinking, it’s taking action. “We’ll discover a new asteroid together and name it Ao.” And after that night, Mira never ran into Ao again. Since then, Mira has always had a fascination with stars, and during her first year of high school, she decided to act on it and join the astronomy club. Unfortunately, that club is gone. But all hope isn’t lost. It merged with the geology club, to become the “Earth Sciences club.” Neither club wanted to do this, causing some friction between the club’s members. Regardless, Mira joins only to find out that Ao is a member as well. Finally reunited, the two are resolved to fulfill their dream of discovering an asteroid, and take part in various astronomy and geology activities along the way.



Asteroid in Love is a slice of life anime with an almost all-girl cast, bar a few characters, many of them old men for some inexplicable reason. This should be enough for you to guess how the plot plays out. It’s the characters just living their lives, occasionally with astronomy or geology involved in it. Originally, why I dropped Asteroid in Love was because I thought it was all over the place, storywise. I thought it had no focus and was like most other slice of life anime I’ve seen, which isn’t my favorite genre, to begin with. I don’t entirely agree with that anymore, but much of what I thought before is true. The plot is absolutely everywhere. I mean, in one episode, we get a resolution to a pretty major cliffhanger from the previous episode, we fast forward to two characters graduating, there’s a fight between Mira and Ao, and that fight gets resolved all in 20 minutes. Other episodes it looks like one thing will be the main focus, just to have it fast forward to a Christmas party, next Mira’s in her second year. It’s fast-paced, which I actually quite like, but it’s unfocused. Another big reason I dropped it before was that I thought I was lied to. As of episode 3, I didn’t feel like it was about the stars at all. I mean, we were having a barbecue and looking at rocks. Next Mira’s in a maid outfit working at a bakery, like what? I feel like the main point isn’t about astronomy. It’s not about geology really either. It’s more a combination of both, like the club, but that’s not quite it either. The plot is more about hobbies in general and how by sharing those hobbies with others, you may be able to find new interests yourself or maybe even discover something new about your own hobby. The characters gain interest in other things as a result of the Earth Sciences club. Mira learns about various aspects of the earth and how things are formed and even takes interest in their clubmate Inose’s love of cartography. It’s unrelated to astronomy and somewhat distant from geology, yet the character can take interest in it all the same. Sakurai, the vice president of the Earth Sciences club and ex-president of the geology club even starts to take an interest in the stars and even learns some planets and constellations by the end of the series. A character who would sooner marry a rock than a human if it were legal, begins to broaden her horizons and gain new friends as a result. This is something you would expect from an anime about asteroids and space in general. One issue is, however, that’s only a portion of what it’s actually about. It’s more, I’d say, 40% astronomy, 40% geology, and 20% other hobbies. None of this is a problem, but it makes the title a bit misleading. I quite like the whole geology versus astronomy thing going on. I think it’s clever, considering an asteroid is somewhat of common ground between the two fields, and how the characters realize the only real difference between them is one looks down to find knowledge and the other looks up. It’s cute, I like it. My problem was that I didn’t expect that going into it. But even with the knowledge that it’s less about astronomy, but more astronomy along with geology, it makes the other stuff seem more jarring. This anime likes to be educational, which I love. The best way to learn is when it’s easy to digest and interesting to the person learning it. Sneaking information about various subjects into something the learner is already interested in, I think, is a pretty good way to teach. However, it starts to feel like too much when it feels the need to stop and explain to me the various types of hot springs, or how riptides in water works. “Teacher, is this going to be on the test?” It feels a bit like that at times. It’s not a problem, per se, but it’s a little too much when it’s unrelated from the main topics of the series. That’s why I say it's less so about astronomy and geology, and more about sharing your hobbies in general. It’s the main lesson, I guess you could say, of the anime. It’s about how two seemingly unrelated things can share similarities with each other. How you might not think your passion shares anything with this other person’s passion, but when you stop and discuss them, you realize you were wrong. It’s how anyone can find common ground with each other if they just try. I like the message a lot, but it’s not what I think people will expect. If you are like me and hear it’s about two people trying to find an asteroid, you’d expect a bit more of the “finding an asteroid part.” Not just the last episode and a half centering around it. You’d expect a bit more learning about constellations and such, and less how to make Valentine chocolate, or obligatory beach episodes. The best way to describe it is what I said before, it’s all over the place. It bounces from plot point to plot point like a yo-yo gone rogue, and the things it does focus on are often lacking. I would rather have an episode about searching for different stones in a cave or something, rather than one where the cast explores a geology museum. Maybe an episode about artificial satellites, and not one about seeing one in a museum. There are one or two episodes that honestly feels like the creators just got back from a vacation, sat at a table, and were like:
“That was fun, guys, but you know what it needed?”
“What?”
“Anime.”
“I agree completely.”
“But we all need to be anime girls--”
“--You needn’t say another word.”
That’s what you focus on? I know slice of life is often just about character’s often boring day to day lives, which is my main problem with them but watching the characters go to two separate museums? Is that interesting to watch? Sure there’s some good humor, which Asteroid in Love has a good bit of, but it can hardly save an animated field trip. However, I can’t hold it entirely against the anime because some of the reasons it’s the way it is, I'm sure, is from the source material. I don’t know how to-the-panel the anime follows it, but I imagine it’s difficult to make a complex, coherent plot out of a bunch of random gag stories in a four-panel manga. I’m sure the manga follows some kind of plot progression, but I imagine it’s still quite hard to tie those into anime. Still, this doesn’t take away from the fact that it often feels like a jumbled mess. A fairly entertaining mess, what with its comedy, but a mess nonetheless.



I give Asteroid in Love a lot of credit for, on paper, having a concept I don’t see depicted in anime all that much. Sadly, I was disappointed when the series didn’t follow through with its full potential. However, one area I was pleasantly surprised, even if they were lacking at times, were the characters. Unfortunately, though, they fall into generic tropes: Mira; the ditz; Sakura; the tsundere; Monroe; the big sister type; Ao; the quiet, intelligent one, etc. The characters themselves, for the most part, don’t go too far outside their respective tropes, but they do grow as the series goes on. Whether it’s Sakurai finally gaining interest in other hobbies besides geology and learning to appreciate her friends more. Or Morino who, despite the difficulties, follows her dream of becoming an astronaut. They all learn a thing or two by the end. My favorite of the characters and this was a giant surprise to me, was Mira, I think she’s a great main character and by far the deepest. She comes off as literally one of the dumber creatures on planet Earth at first, but you realize as the series progresses that she isn’t. She’s not dumb, barely even an airhead, she’s more than that. An airhead wouldn’t be able to give a perfect, intricate, well-thought-out gift to her friend after being confided in. An airhead wouldn’t get upset with themselves and reflect on their inconsiderate actions to become a better friend. She’s a surprisingly mature character. Her cheerful personality is just that, her personality. Yes, she’s a ditz, but that doesn’t define her. Even at the ending of the show, though it may not be what you’d expect, both Mira and Ao show their maturity. They’ve grown a lot over the year and odd months, or so, the series takes place across. That goes for all the characters really but is most prominent with Mira. If you’re anything like me, she’ll surprise you. But that’s probably the only way the characters will surprise you. Because regardless of some of the conflicts in the story, if you have seen more or less any slice of life anime about a group of (often girl) friends hanging out with each other, you know what you’re getting into. Even though they grow, when they aren’t going through many struggles, you’ve likely seen about a thousand characters like them. I know Asteroid in Love is only 12 episodes long, and a very odd 6.5 recap episode, but I believe the time could have been used better. First of all, make the conflicts in the story last longer. I mentioned it earlier, but there is a big conflict in the story that threatens the character’s very lives together, something that dares to rip them apart, something that is hinted at for two episodes, is resolved in a whole 4 minutes. The characters get together the previous episode, make a plan, then put that plan into action, which takes no time at all. The tension builds, and builds, and builds, making you think a rainstorm of emotions and struggles are coming, only to see it result in a pitiful raindrop. Give the character’s more time to grow, and less time watching them frolic in a museum. I want more of Mira struggling with her own personality, maybe the other characters as well. But I understand that super deep characters are not always the goal of a series. Asteroid in Love sets out to have cute and funny characters that make the audience laugh, and I’d say they serve that purpose quite well. The chemistry between all the characters makes for many good laughs. One of my favorite being when Ao tries to explain to this child about our solar system, only to overwhelm the poor girl to tears, and have Mira step in and act like a buffoon to cheer her up. The characters overall work for the purpose they were made for. Sometimes that's all you really need. And again, coming from a yonkoma, I believe they were made fairly deep for the anime adaptation.



I’ve only watched four series produced by Doga Kobo, Asteroid in Love being one with GJ Club, Nozaki-Kun, and 11Eyes being the other three. From what I’ve seen in both Nozaki-Kun and GJ Club, I’m quite happy with the artwork we’re normally given by them. And for a lot of the other series they’ve made, I continue to think that. Asteroid in Love is, thankfully, no different. I adore the art, it’s right up my alley. Whenever I think about my favorite art style in anime, my mind immediately goes to Chuunibyou. It has such an inviting art style. The animation itself is downright gorgeous and the art is soft and bubbly. The colors are beautifully vivid and it’s just a pleasure to look at. Your eyeballs should be thankful to be graced with its existence. I don’t get the exact same feeling, but I get a similar one when I see the art in Asteroid in Love. I like it for many of the same reasons I love Chuunibyou, with the exception that it isn’t quite as good, nor is the animation as fluid. However, I was so drawn to it, and it stood out enough in my mind, that the art was one of the reasons I even watched Asteroid in Love in the first place. And during my time watching the series, I wasn’t disappointed. It’s unique in my mind. In a world where a lot of anime being produced looks pretty samey, seeing one look like this is welcomed. I was also happy that, from what I could tell, they got their starry skies looking accurate. It was fun to see one of the characters look up, contemplating something, and I go: “I know what that is.” It’s to be expected that an anime about space to be accurate with, well, space, but It’s still nice to see. It feels like there was actual care put into the subject matter. A level of care that isn’t always taken. I don’t have very much to say in regards to the music. It’s fine. The opening and ending are both pretty nice. I prefer the latter, I think it’s really good. They’re both pretty cheerful along with the animation, as one would expect for a series like this. There’s a nice tune here and there that may make you tap your foot or give the occasional head bob, but overall pretty standard. I will say one thing I did quite like though. As the episode is about to end, the ending theme will kick up while the characters are talking and often transition to the actual ending animation really smoothly. It’s nothing too special, but it gives the show some identity and even gets me a little excited to watch the next one. At least more than the ending just popping on to tell me the episode is over and being done with it. It puts a little more emphasis, not only on the ending of the episode but what will happen at the start of the next one. It hits me in a weird spot where I want to praise it. I think I just have a thing for smooth transitions in scenes. If only I could be that smooth in my transitions! Curse you, Asteroid in Love. Teach me your secrets!



Now I know the question you, still probably anger reader, are thinking: did my opinion change? Sure. It changed in the way that I dropped it three episodes into it before from a lack of enjoyment to watching all twelve episodes, writing about it, and having fairly positive thoughts walking away. So, yes, in that way, they did change. However, 9 months ago me got some things right. Is Asteroid in Love a series about space or even asteroids? Uh-uh. Not really. Sure the main characters have a dream that they follow, but that dream is more a plot device for the antics in the show than anything else. Every now and then there will actually be scenes focused on gazing at the stars or about space, and when there are, the series is easily at it’s best. There’s no competition. My favorite scenes in the series are in episode 7 where the Earth Science club hosts an event to get children interesting in space. There’s even this one little girl who acts like a brat, but they eventually help. It’s cute. Not only is it about space, we learn various interesting facts on that front, we still see the characters all interacting with each other in their normal comedic ways. We get an episode about stars and space, where nothing suffers because of it. If the entire series was similar to that, it would have been out of this world, pun fully intended. But unfortunately, priorities are a thing and people have different ones. I don’t dislike what we got at all, but I am disappointed in what it could have been. It has a goofy, lovable cast, that used in a more focused story, would have complimented each other very well. There was a chance to make something truly unique here, but instead, we got a fairly good slice of life series that ends up being similar to many others. *cough* At least I enjoyed this one though *cough* As always this was just my opinion and isn’t any more or less valid than yours or that angry guy from earlier. As is my one about most slice of life series. Am I a little hard on them? Probably. I do believe they serve a purpose. It's nice to watch them in between other stuff, for example. Hey, Toradora! is one of my favorite stories ever, so maybe I’m just a hypocrite. Who knows? That I don’t know. If you have a problem with that -- the opinion part, not the hypocrisy thing, nobody likes them -- then I will get Ao to force you to tears with knowledge as well! Knowledge is power and power is scary, and I don’t know about you but scary things make me cry. I highly recommend that you don’t listen to this crybaby space cadet and watch the series for yourself and form your own opinions, not form your own opioids, despite what my autocorrect may be trying to tell you. I hear forming lots of them makes you cry less. So maybe form them in moderation, a few tears don’t hurt every once in a while. It’s healthy for you.



Thank you very much for reading ~



I wanted to mention something kind of neat at the end here. My interest in stargazing is because of Asteroid in Love, at least in part. I wanted to learn about space and the stars, as I never took an interest in it when I was younger. I found Asteroid in Love and thought: “Wow! I can watch this cute series and learn!” And then I got angry from the lack of actual knowledge and went outside one morning and decided I was going to learn from the source. Yeah, that’s how it happened. My oddly quick temper at the time is what gave me this new interest. So, thank you for making me mad Asteroid in Love, I’m glad I gave you a second chance after all.


Happy stargazing! And remember kids, stay off drugs, they’re bad for you. I’ll have to have a word with Google Docs about the radical propaganda it’s trying to make me promote.

I’ll see you next month, likely with less drug paraphernalia.

In Defense of Guilty Crown
and
He Who Must Bear its Sinful Weight



Hello, everyone. If you’ve seen the reviews for Guilty Crown ... you’ll notice that people are vastly conflicted on it. A large portion of the reviews (especially the top ones) are negative. I’ve seen this most prominently on My Anime List, but I’ve seen it elsewhere. Negative reviews are always going to make it on the top. Generally, there’s a bunch of reviews with the common consensus and then one review stuck in that the people who disagree with that consensus push up to the top. It plays out that way regardless of what that consensus may be. This always happens and is to be expected. What I find interesting in Guilty Crown’s case is that the anime itself on My Anime List gets a 7.56 out of 10. So out of the over 450,000 people who watched it, the consensus is that it is good. However, if you look at the ten top reviews, of them over half are 4 or lower with the highest being 10, but is meant as a joke. This shows that the more outspoken of people (including the ones who read reviews and felt compelled to do more than just watch it) seem to think Guilty Crown ranges from being bad to a complete mess. This all made me curious. Now you could say part of the blame lies in the fact that negative emotions tend to drive people to take action more often than positive ones, but that’s a debate for another time. I wanted to know why things were like this because I had watched Guilty Crown at that point and didn’t understand why so many people seemed to feel the way they did. So I began to dig a little into it and found that the reasons (which often are fairly valid with context) go all the way back before I watched anime and to when Guilty Crown premiered in 2011. So if you’ll please bear with me, I’ll talk about Guilty Crown at length here. I’ll talk about the reasons I loved it, the places I felt it fell short, and I’ll address the similarities to Code Geass and the almost overwhelming (and sometimes it seems universal) hatred for the main character. I’m doing this for a few reasons, but the main one is because I feel very passionate about this anime in particular and I want to voice my opinion on the topic. If you’ve read the title, you know where I stand already and if that bothers you, you are more than welcomed to leave but I would appreciate it if you would stay and hear me out to the end. My goal here isn’t to tell you Guilty Crown is the best anime that has ever aired and all should bow to its might. I’m here to talk about the good and the bad of the show and ultimately to defend it from some of the accusations I’ve seen against it. That is all I’m here to do.



Firstly, I want to explain my history with the series, or I suppose my almost lack thereof one because I feel that it's important to understand my point of view. I had originally heard of Guilty Crown about four years ago from the second opening song “The Everlasting Guilty Crown.” After I heard (and adored) that song, I went on to listen to the first opening “My Dearest” and loved that too. That’s more or less where my knowledge ended. I had listened to the songs and watched the openings many, many times. And through that, I came to love the music, and I thought the visuals were breathtaking. Ever since then I had Guilty Crown on my mental “list” of stuff I wanted to watch, and I hadn’t seen or read about it at all. I didn’t even know of the plot, as can probably be judged by the...we’ll say “fitting” time I decided to watch it. But with various things lining up, like me paying for Funimation now instead of Crunchyroll, and me deciding on a whim just because, I chose to finally watch Guilty Crown. And so people are aware as well as for the sake of transparency, I had not watched either Code Geass or Neon Genesis Evangelion (Guilty Crown gets compared to both a lot for various reasons) until I started to see the controversy surrounding the series. That’s very important to mention because that seems to be one of the main reasons people are so conflicted. It seems to be a “you like what you watched first” type of scenario. However, I wanted to address these issues with a fair bit of knowledge, so when I knew I was going to write this, I thought I should do my homework properly to understand both sides of the story. I then went on to watch the entire first season of Code Geass and all of Evangelion, not counting the movies, all of which I will watch at a later date. Because I wanted to be thorough, I decided to watch Guilty Crown, yet again, after watching the two series it was supposedly borrowing from. I’ll be the first one to admit that doing so doesn’t help me completely understand both sides, as despite whatever I may try to do I still watched Guilty Crown first, and I, unfortunately, don’t possess the godly power to turn back time. If I did, I’d probably be some rich inventor back in the past living the life of luxury, using my knowledge to become some ruler, loved by my allies, feared by my enemies, resting my head in a heavily fortified castle each night, and certainly not wasting many hours of my limited time in this life researching and writing about the fictional merits of a glorified flipbook. With all that being said, I did everything I possibly could to get to the bottom of this series in a fair, unbiased way. But of course, as humans are biased creatures by nature some of that will always get through no matter what I do. I am a human after all. So I apologize for that. Well, without further ado, Let’s see if Guilty Crown is innocent.



Objection!



I don’t know why I made that reference. I’ve never even played Phoenix Wright.



In the not so distant future of December 24th, 2029 a meteorite collides with Japan, bringing with it a mysterious and deadly biological hazard later known as the “Apocalypse Virus.” This event, “Lost Christmas” as it is known, plunges Japan into a state of panic and anarchy. Unable to control the outbreak itself, Japan seeks help overseas. In response, The United Nations sends an organization, GHQ, to their aid. The virus is contained, a vaccine is made, and Japan manages to get back on its feet, however, it comes at a cost. Because of how indebted Japan becomes to other nations, The Land of the Rising Sun all but loses its independence as a country, leaving the quasi-government GHQ in control. Our story takes place 10 years after the events of Lost Christmas. Young down-on-himself highschooler and social outcast Shu Ouma goes through life flying under the radar. He isn’t very good with people, and despite having “friends” he doesn’t consider them as such. He does his best to read social cues, which he often fails at, and tries to just go along with the conversation, tell people what they expect to hear. Because of this, Shu feels like he never really shows himself to anyone, and perhaps if he did, nobody would like him. These thoughts only send Shu deeper into his own mind, where he constantly thinks of himself as a selfish coward. One day, as Shu is in an abandoned building he uses as a hideout, he finds a girl named Inori Yuzuriha, bleeding out. He recognizes her immediately as the vocalist of “Egoist” a popular music group on the internet he often listens to. Before he can ask what happened, a group of GHQ soldiers known as “Antibodies” force their way in and whisk her away. Feeling like even more of a coward, Shu decides to do something for once and follow the directions of Inori’s small spider robot, Funnel, and take the vial contained in it to the specified location. There he is saved from a group of ruffians by a strong young man known as Gai. Before Gai can take the vial from Shu, the area is attacked by GHQ alongside their giant robots known as “Endlaves.” Understanding the vial is very important, Shu does everything in his limited power to protect its contents. During his retreat, he runs into Inori who seems to be in danger. Mustering all his courage, he runs up to save her, only to have the vial shot open and it’s power consumes him. He is granted “the Power of King’s” in his right arm. This lets Shu reach inside of people and draw out their “Voids,” manifestations of the holder’s heart, to use as weapons to fight. Wielding Inori’s Void that takes the form of a gigantic sword, he fights off the attacking GHQ. Shu later learns that Gai is the leader, and Inori is a member, of a terrorist organization known as Funeral Parlor who hopes to gain Japan's independence back from GHQ’s clutches. Joining on Funeral Parlor’s next missions, Shu sees first hand the murderous will of GHQ as they gun down innocent people who are supposedly “infected” with the Virus. Gai then asks Shu to join up with Funeral Parlor and use his special power to help liberate their country, but Shu wonders if that’s the right decision. What exactly is Gai fighting for? How does murdering people stop murderers? Where will this fighting actually get them? What if GHQ is actually right? And so the ever complacent Shu gets pulled in every direction as he tries to maintain his everyday life, all the while his right arm contains the power to shift the tide of the civil war taking place all around him.



I want to start this topic by saying something that some might find controversial, and even more, are sure to disagree with, but I believe it to be true. Had it not been for Shu, Guilty Crown’s plot would be far worse. I’ll explain why that is when I talk about Shu more in-depth, but for now, I’ll talk about the story as a whole and let that comment sit a bit. So, what will immediately come up when talking about the plot is the similarities to one of the most beloved anime of all time, Code Geass. Both involve a highschooler getting a strange power known as the Power of the Kings, and both use them to fight a civil war going on in a Japan that has lost its independence from outside forces. The differences come from why Japan has lost its independence. In Code Geass’ case, it comes from a tyrannical country known as Brittania that wishes to more or less rule the world, calling the countries it conquered “areas” which is why Japan is known as Area 11 and its people, Elevens. In Guilty Crown’s case, it’s because of Japan relying on outside help to contain a virus and becoming indebted as a result. The stories also progress in a similar way, such as much of Guilty Crown's first half taking place over a series of battles against GHQ. This is also why I believe the first half is the worse half. Not because it’s bad, per se, but because it is simple. It lacks any identity, apart from what Shu brings to the table. The second half of the show, also the more messy half, is when Guilty Crown really begins to gain its own identity. The battles are toned down a bit, the virus issue is brought to the forefront rather than being a plot device for why Japan is in the state it is like before, and plot points that have been set up from the beginning start to culminate. As I said, it is the messier half, I will not disagree with those who say that. Several things may not make sense at first glance, or motivations of characters that seem odd, or various other things that have you asking questions. The pacing, while being better, is a complete shift from what you grew accustomed to the first 12 episodes and can be a little jarring. There is also just a lot that happens during the second half, to the point where you may need a pen and paper to keep up, and certain aspects of it aren’t well explained, Inori, which I’ll talk about later, being one of those. The problem is that the second half of Guilty Crown tried to do too much with too little time, and as a result, became a bit sloppy overall. Not bad, mind you, sloppy. There’s a difference. It’s fun, suspenseful, and entertaining, but everything gets muddied together and certain aspects may get left behind because of it. However, it managed to become its own thing. Even though I largely disagree with the statement, I understand how one could find Guilty Crown similar to Code Geass in the first half. The only thing that really separates the progression of each respective series is the main characters themselves. I think we can all agree that Lelouch and Shu are vastly different characters, however, they are both more or less in the same situations with few differences despite them being not at all similar people and their motivations entirely different from one another. With that being said, however you feel about the second half of Guilty Crown, as opinions seem to vary, I don’t see any way you could possibly relate it to Code Geass. Guilty Crown completely becomes itself, although that self becomes messy as a result.



This now begs the question: if Guilty Crown is really only “copying” Code Geass for the first half if at all, and the main characters are so vastly different from each other, where does this opinion come from? Well, without context, I hardly understand the opinion, with context it becomes a vastly different story, however. To understand this we need to go back a bit in history and talk about the anime industry in general. Much of anime, as I’m sure most of you know, comes from various other sources like many visual mediums. Anime comes often from light novels and manga mainly. Because of this, it becomes hard to get something that’s wholly unique. Of course, someone who has read the manga or light novel will still get a unique experience watching their favorite series come to life, and many people will never see the source material in the first place. This means an anime series will still be unique regardless, but it’s much more difficult to be original when you are building from something preexisting rather than starting from scratch. With that in mind let’s take a look at anime studio Sunrise’s 2006 mecha anime Code Geass. Unlike many, many anime series, Code Geass was an anime, a true anime. It was an anime written by Ichiro Okouchi to be an anime, for an anime audience. It came from nothing else. It was an exciting series about a tragic story of war following an angry young man who wanted revenge on his own family for wronging him no matter the cost. It was new, and nobody knew what was going to happen, there wasn’t even any way to find out if you wanted to. Mix that in with the already unpredictable nature of the show and it was exhilarating. That’s just what Code Geass was. It was itself. There was no framework. Nothing preexisting. You had to wait and find out what would happen. Ichiro Okouchi and Sunrise had full control to make what they wanted to make, and so they did, and the anime powerhouse that is Code Geass was born as a result. This isn’t to say Code Geass was the first to do this or that its popularity was because of it, neither of those statements is wholly true, but it was certainly a factor. To name an earlier example that’s also relevant to what we’ll be talking about today, Neon Genesis Evangelion is another one of these “true anime” I mentioned before. It does happen, but the fact remains that it is a rarity among the medium. How rare? Well, from what I could find, these series make up less than 1% of all anime in existence.



So how does this fit in with Guilty Crown? Well, Guilty Crown is among that prestigious 1%, and unfortunately, is the complete opposite of Geass in terms of its originality. That was one of it’s biggest downfalls. Produced by Production I.G, a studio who most prominently produced series such as Bunny Drop, Psycho-Pass, and Haikyu!! It was written by Hiroyuki Yoshino, a writer who did some work for Code Geass, and a name you might recognize from earlier, Ichiro Okouchi, who composed both the story and script for the same series. So you can imagine back when Guilty Crown came out in 2011 there was a lot of hype surrounding it. Not only was it another original anime, but it was also a series with staff and writers that had worked on Code Geass. It was sure to be a success. It was going to be amazing. It was going to be something original like no one had ever seen. For proof of this hype let’s turn to October 15th, 2011 to when Guilty Crown premiered its first two episodes in the states (the second of which was a worldwide premiere) in a panel at New York’s Comic-Con of all places. One of, if not the biggest, conventions on the planet, premiered this anime, not once, but twice. The second time, hosting a panel interviewing some of the staff. This was no normal anime, and the hype surrounding it followed appropriately. It was marketed as being wholly original. This was said by one of Guilty Crown’s producers, George Wada, during an interview after the event:

“One of the most important things is that we wanted to do an original series. So, from a studio's point of view, we wanted to create the next generation of anime with this show.”

Later in the same interview when asked how the more “Japanese style” of the story would appeal to a worldwide audience, chief producer Koji Yamamoto responded:

“The basic concept of the show is in a Japanese style, a Japanese concept, and that is what makes it more original than other shows.”

So it’s clear that the staff and studio themselves thought very highly of their work. That confidence spread to the masses who were excited to get their first glance at this supposed “next generation of anime.” And so they did, and they were not given what they had been led to believe they would get. The problem stems from multiple things, but I believe expectations above all else. There’s a reason people often tell you not to have them, they normally do more harm than good. There are a few types of people who I’m sure went into Guilty Crown when it aired, of course, I can’t say anything with certainty, but I can make an educated guess based on what I have seen. There are the people who wanted it to fail from the beginning, which there will always be, the type who are tired of hearing about it and tend to hate it just from that. Some more neutral viewers will likely form their own opinions without being influenced by another group. There’s a group that is likely to be influenced by others. And finally, there are the people who completely, hopelessly fell into the hype. They wanted all of their expectations to be met and they wanted to see this most original anime series ever made. And when they saw something that in its setting, is quite similar to another beloved series the staff worked on, their expectation turned on them immediately. And seeing the staff somehow not even understand these similarities made this issue even worse. When asked in the same interview about how they planned to differentiate Guilty Crown from Code Geass, the producers all wondered what similarities the two even shared. Once the statement was explained in more detail to the point where it couldn’t be easily ignored by anyone, Yamamoto states that:

“We're not trying to be like Geass. We didn't plan to take anything from it for this show. Actually, as for the setting, Code Geass is quite apart from, way beyond modern Japan. But for Guilty Crown, the situation is more natural. So we're not trying to do a similar plot. Of course, there are some similarities.”

More or less the best argument that is given to the contrary, is that Code Geass takes place in a more unique alternate world, while Guilty Crown takes place in a more natural, modern Japan. Now I completely agree with Yamamoto, I don’t believe they wanted to take anything from Code Geass, and even if they did, I don’t see a problem. It’s pretty much impossible to have something wholly unique anymore, and I believe Guilty Crown did enough different to stand out, however, the issue comes from the blatant obliviousness of the staff themselves. Reiterating how Guilty Crown is original, how it is unique. Even saying how the Japanese independence centered story at its core (which is almost the same scenario as Geass) is what will make it stand out from other series, presumably Code Geass included, certainly didn’t help their case. If the staff would have calmed down a few notches and looked at what they created more objectively (which I know can be hard sometimes as someone who writes as well) instead of thinking Guilty Crown would be some messiah to lead the industry towards its future, there would have been far less kickback. And I believe a lot of the opinions still present today are a result of those original viewers whether advertently or inadvertently. Look at it this way. Going back to those groups of people I talked about before, let me ask this: of them, which is most likely to have positive views of the anime in question? The answer? Pretty much none of them. One group was likely sick of it before it began and expected failure from the beginning. The next wanted and fully expected it to succeed, but because of the obliviousness of the creators, their expectations crushed them under their own weight. Another group, likely the minority, looks at it fairly and concludes that it does resemble Geass in ways and that the creators shouldn’t have tried to claim full uniqueness. The last of the groups, in my mind the majority, is the one most likely to be influenced by all the other groups that have now largely turned negative. That leaves a bunch of negativity. Much of it, not necessarily a fault of the anime itself, but those who created it instead. Let me ask you this: how many stories have you seen that share similar plot points to others you’ve seen? Probably a lot. I know I have. I’ve even written some. As I said, 100% uniqueness is borderline impossible, the difference is those stories don’t often throw into your face how original they are. They take inspiration from other sources, honor that fact, throw in their own ideas and run with it to make their own unique experience. That’s ok and that’s what Guilty Crown itself does. It is not a rip-off of Code Geass, and I will continue to defend that point, but it is certainly inspired by it, and it most definitely takes plot points from it. Shu’s power, though it works differently than Lelouch's, even shares the name “the Power of King’s.” In my mind, that’s more a homage, as you could just call it something else easily enough, but why pay homage to something that you weren’t inspired by? Am I supposed to assume that these two powers that involve eye contact created by shared staff were named the same thing by mistake? What hurt Guilty Crown the most were the ones who made it themselves, and how all that hype they played up changed to disappointment. That continues to this day even if it isn’t realized. When people hear it thrown around that Guilty Crown is a mere rip-off of Code Geass and go into it assuming just that, they expect it to be a failure so it will be one in their mind. That’s also why it seems to depend on what you watch first. Not necessarily because Guilty Crown is copying Code Geass, but because if you enjoyed Code Geass and heard that Guilty Crown is copying that, you won’t just take the similarities at face value and as a result, you’ll be more critical of it than it may deserve. And if you find out what the creators have said, it pushes you further into that belief. That’s not to say Guilty Crown doesn't deserve some of what it gets, it most certainly does, believe me, but the accusations that it is just a rip-off of Code Geass holds absolutely no ground apart from a way to counter the vain words of its creators. It’s an accusation that is entirely false, but because of Guilty Crown’s own creators refusing to objectively look at their work, it has started to look like the truth. And whether the accusations are true or false doesn’t actually matter in the end. Many people continue to believe them and spread it to future viewers who follow suit. That is why I believe Guilty Crown gets the reception it does.



But if I just ended it there, that wouldn't be fair at all. While I think that pretty well covers the comparisons to Geass, what I said above assumes that everyone who dislikes Guilty Crown comes from that group. That simply isn't the case. I've seen many valid reasons people are against Guilty Crown, and personally, I agree with some of them. One of the biggest involving aspects of the plot progression. I said earlier the first half is essentially mech battle after mech battle with little deviation from that formula until about episode 9. I'm not a big fan of the whole "monster of the week" type of storytelling. It's one big reason I feel like the beginning of Evangelion is fairly weak, and Guilty Crown does this but instead of monsters it's "what Void will I use for today’s battle?" This also brings to light another issue with the plot that depending on who you are you'll be more bothered by this than others. That's the fact that Shu's Void is a deus ex machina. He always has just the right Void to solve any problem to get out of any situation he finds himself in. I don't mind this plot device all that much if it's done decently. In Guilty Crown, there's an actual reason why Shu always pulls the right Void beside pure luck. It can still be seen as lazy writing, but at the very least there's a valid reason for it, even if that reason is, again, awfully convenient. There's also that quite jarring tone shift from the first half of the show to the second. Though I quite like it, if you were a huge fan of the first 12 episodes, it will come off as odd. This could just be them not knowing what to do with the series, which would be odd considering Guilty Crown, since conception, was planned for 2 seasons. There's also the issue of the amount of fanservice in the show, and that it treats the female characters like items. I don't get that, to be honest. There’s some here and there, but nothing too out of the ordinary for something marketed largely towards pubescent boys and man-children. One example people seem to have problems with is Inori’s outfit and how much skin it shows and how ridiculous using it in warfare is. To that, I agree, but I could give you about a thousand examples of both men and women in fiction who often have questionable fashion for their situation, so I don’t think it matters all that much. Fiction has to make sense within the bounds of its own reality, not necessarily ours, and some things can be overlooked for the sake of style. Do you think it's practical for Joker to run around thieving in Persona 5 wearing flashy red gloves? What about Cloud wielding a 7ft sword in Final Fantasy Vii? No, but it looks nice, now doesn't it? I suppose the worst offender in the fanservice department is likely when one of the Endlave pilots of Funeral Parlor gets hurt (she’s synced with her mech so she feels it’s pain, just anime things), she occasionally looks to be feeling something other than pain. With a skin-tight full-body suit it doesn't make it look any better, but that wardrobe isn't entirely different from something like Evangelion. Though in that show instead of seeing a pilot look slightly aroused after getting a fist to the metal ribs, you'll see them suffer as though someone was ripping their arm off, veins popping out, screaming, the whole deal, so there's that. Also, Evangelion did the suits better. They at least seemed semi-practical and were actually cool looking as well. Sorry, Guilty Crown, I know you based yours off of theirs but you failed on that. You also failed quite a bit with your world-building which was super unfortunate as it had the potential to be great. Instead, you do little with it and just use the whole loss of Japan's independence as a reason for war. A war that never really goes anywhere, honestly. It feels almost like a test run of Shu's powers and that's it. And this may just be me nitpicking as somebody who tries to avoid doing this in their own writing, but I don't like how Guilty Crown starts off giving you some boring backstory on how the world got where it is for like 2 minutes with nothing but a few images flashing by. Give me the backstory naturally, over time. Don't just say "here" and dump the plot in my face. I've never appreciated that. It's lazy. You should find a better way to do it. You probably could have just left it out and the audience could have still pieced much of it together. Have a little faith in us. Instead of doing a “Void of the week” beach episode, maybe spend more time fleshing parts of the story out so a plot dump wouldn't be necessary. Anyway, this is not all the parts Guilty Crown fails at. Everybody will see their own failures as some will see success, sometimes they'll even be the same thing for people. While everything I said previously stands true in my mind, the last thing I want to do is generalize everybody who dislikes Guilty Crown as being part of the "it's like Geass" group. If I did that, this would be no better than the people who purely judge Guilty Crown off of Geass, or the ones who claim that you only like it because you saw it first. People like and dislike different things for various reasons, sometimes it is no more complicated than that.



I now want to talk about the characters in Guilty Crown, but especially Shu Ouma, our protagonist, at length here. I have hardly ever seen any character as universally hated as this man is. Sure, there have been some, but that’s usually because they’re a villain, or a bad person, or evil, or have less personality than the sack of potatoes in my kitchen, something that makes you want just to hate their stupid little face. I don't think Shu is any of those things, yet is despised by the community. Some of this, I get and some I don’t. First, we’ll discuss the kind of character Shu is. He is not your typical hero, in pretty much anyway. He isn’t cool, per se, he’s not brave, he’s down on himself, hates himself even, and has several bad personality traits that are shown throughout the series. The main reason I find that he is so disliked is that he is often called a wimp. That Shu needs to buck up, and that he’s painful to watch because of it. This leads to a bit of an interesting topic that I think speaks to this situation as a whole. Do you remember when I mentioned earlier that Neon Genesis Evangelion was important? Well, Shu is where that fits in. The protagonist of Evangelion, Shinji Ikari, often gets the same criticism as Shu does. They are generally disliked for the same reasons, I.e. wimpy, seeks pity, self-hatred, etc. Now Shinji has more of a cult following than Shu for various reasons, one of which being that Evangelion is a much bigger deal than Guilty Crown and people are always ready to take up pitchforks for their argument, but it’s interesting how both Shu and Shinji seem to get the same disdain by viewers. There needs to be a common denominator there. Shu and Shinji are fairly similar characters, not the same, but they certainly share various aspects of each other. The main one being the fact that they are not necessarily “heroic” is the usual sense. Going back to the same interview from earlier, a producer, Ryo Ohyama, answered a question relating to Shu’s character when a comparison to Evangelion was brought up:

“As for Ikari Shinji, that's a show from 1995, and Shinji is more passive. They're both in their own world and they don't come out from that world. So Shu is kind of a 2011 version of Shinji: He has friends, but he doesn't have connections with them yet. The relationships are skin-deep. That's more of a 2011 type, nowadays, of a 17-year-old boy. So that's the difference between Shu and Shinji.”

While I think there are more differences than that, It’s clear that if nothing else, the producers see somewhat of a resemblance between the characters. And from the criticism of the characters, the viewers do too. Just what is it about these characters that make people feel this way? Well, I believe it goes back to that concept of what being “heroic” actually means. In our minds a hero is pretty clear cut: They fight, usually against the odds, for what they believe in or to protect something or someone they care about. They are not usually afraid, but if they are, they power through it. They do what needs to be done with as much courage as they can muster, no matter the enemy. That is the usual concept of being heroic, someone who is willing to fight for others, despite the risk to themselves. While both Shu and Shinji display these traits at times, they don’t display them far more often. Several times throughout Guilty Crown Shu completely runs away from his problems. Even right at the beginning of the series he’s scared, worrying only about his own well-being and fails to protect Inori. Then he hates himself for it, and the cycle repeats. Even after he gets the Power of King’s and gets a bit of spunk, it’s a fickle thing, he loses his confidence very easily, most of the time the people he cares about get hurt because of it. That isn’t heroic...because Shu is not a hero, not in the traditional sense. And this is I think the biggest reason he gets the hate he does. Both Shinji and Shu often display self-hating tendencies, often pity themselves, get stuck in their own head, and despise themselves for not being perfect. They’re too far gone to listen to anyone else, and so the cycle of hate continues. This is the reason people both like and hate these characters, it’s the same fact, but depending on the person they perceive it differently. One side thinks they’re beyond feeling sorry for and get annoyed by their actions, the other side thinks these feelings make the characters more human, and can even relate to them in ways because of that. We even learn in Guilty Crown that one of the reasons Inori cares for Shu is because he is “unapologetically human.” He’s a failure, he makes mistakes, he fumbles around, and he gets back up and often goes and makes the same exact mistakes again. But that’s what makes him human in her eyes: because he’s far from perfect. So we’re left with one main point of commonality here, how both Shu and Shinji are not the ideal “hero” and how some take their flaws as either the humanity in them or nothing but self-pity and that the characters need to grow up. I could sit here and give you some psychological reason as to why this is, such as people don’t like these more “human” characters because they reflect the more negative part of our own humanity that we would prefer to run from, so our instinct is to displace our own hatred on to these characters as it’s safer than facing the music ourselves, something that’s ironic as both Shu and Shinji do this several times themselves, but I don’t think that quite covers it. I think it is true for some but not all. Another argument I’ve seen is that you won’t be able to relate to the characters if you haven’t been through something similar in your life, I’ve never quite liked this. While it is easier to understand something you yourself have been through, this argument assumes that people lack empathy, which for many isn’t true. Just because you may not like Shinji or Shu it doesn’t mean you can’t relate with them. I can’t stand that argument, to be honest. It’s such a cut and dry statement, it leaves no real room for discussion. It’s just like, “Oh, you’ll never get it” and that’s it. It’s hardly even an argument, but for some, I’m sure that is also the truth. One theory I’ll add to the topic is that the whole “hero” concept might be more important than it seems. Many people watch anime and use other forms of entertainment as escapism. A way to get away from their normal lives, a way to forget, if even for a moment. Some people just don’t want to watch a mopey, self-hating teenager, they would rather watch a hero and feel better about things. I know if every anime had protagonists like Shu or Shinji, despite how much I like them, I’d probably go crazy. That may be the reason the next anime I’m going to watch is a chill slice of life series about a bunch of friends looking for an asteroid. Or maybe it has nothing to do with that at all and is instead because I watched Code Geass. For those curious, yes, I still feel dead inside, and feel as though I lack the emotion known as “joy” because of the last few episodes of season 1, but getting back on topic! Fiction has a rare power in the way that despite none of the stuff you see being real, the feelings and experiences you get when seeing them are. They can change you as a person. A lot of who I am is because of the many stories I’ve experienced over the years. When you see an ideal person, real or fake, it can inspire you, and slowly that will rub off on you, and in some cases make you a better person yourself. “If they can do it, so can I!” Like that. I am who I am in large part from the characters in those stories, and If I grew up seeing nothing but Shu’s and Shinji’s, well, I would be a very different person, that’s for sure. Overall I don’t think there’s any single right answer for why people feel the way they do, it’s likely a combination of every argument you can think of and more. Shu and Shinji are both complex characters and we as humans are complex as well, perhaps that is why we can’t quite understand them. Maybe they are simply just humans, and unfortunately, humans are one of the things that we understand least in the universe.



Now from the last few paragraphs, you might think Shu is the only character in Guilty Crown, but believe it or not, there are more. Bah! Who cares about them though, more Shu! (Kinda) joking aside, there are quite a few more that are good, and some that aren’t. Some that make the show quite a bit better and some that…don’t. Inori Yuzuriha, our female lead, falls into a bit of a gray area for me. She’s not a bad character, but not an altogether interesting one either. I don’t really get her. I mean, for the first 10 episodes of the series she’s completely shafted, and by that, I don’t mean she’s not in it, I mean the story has little to do with her. She is more a motivation to Shu rather than an important aspect of the story. Without Shu, her character is nonexistent for much of the series (which I suppose brings some truth to the iconic “I am yours” line.)
It isn’t until halfway through that we learn about her backstory, which is admittedly quite an interesting, if not odd one, only to have her existence be supporting Shu until the last few episodes when she’s important again. She always matters, not because of herself but because of Shu. There are also just certain points where she contradicts herself, and I don’t really understand her actions. There’s a moment early on where she disobeys Gai’s orders for Shu’s benefit, just to tell Shu that all she’s done was because she was following Gai’s orders? Like what? That’s the best you can come up with? Don't quit your day job, Inori, you’re better at singing. You could say her contradictions are a result of her backstory, which yes, I could see, but it still comes off as confusing regardless. Another character that is confusing to a similar degree is Gai Tsutsugami. Our leader of Funeral Parlor is an interesting character and I would say (despite some real flaws) the best in the series next to Shu. He is the complete opposite of our protagonist. Whereas Shu is emotionally driven, weak, cowardly, Gai is confident, level-headed, brave, Gai is everything Shu isn’t. Attention is drawn to this several times throughout the series. Gai is the Yin to Shu’s Yang, and it’s something that comes into play as each respective character grows, though Shu much more so. That’s not to say Gai is without problems, he suffers from similar issues to Inori where his motivations aren’t all that clear, even when you have all the information available. I swear, it’s like the writers even poke fun at this when Shu and other characters are always asking what he fights for. But besides the fact that he seems to flip back and forth on issues like a gymnast, all and all he’s an interesting character that supports the show quite well. Then you have characters like Tsugumi (the brains of the operation) who is in charge of Funeral Parlor’s intel, and controls various machines with a full-body catsuit? Yeah, she feels as out of place in a story about a virus and warfare as you’d expect. At the very least, she’s more memorable than most of Funeral Parlor’s goons who get little screen time unless there’s a mission that needs doing. The exception to this is Ayase Shinomiya, who (mostly) is a fantastic character. She is a bit of a rarity in many forms of media, but especially anime, as despite her being disabled and stuck in a wheelchair, she is not weak, and is not portrayed like that. There’s an episode where Shu dares to make that mistake and she somehow throws him on the ground, knocking him unconscious, while being in a wheelchair. How? I don’t know. I watched it and I couldn’t tell you. She also pilot’s Funeral Parlor’s Endlave, which brings a question to light that only I probably wonder about. The Endlaves works similar to the Eva units from Evangelion in that the pilot is “synced” with the mech so they feel the same pain it does. My question is: in Guilty Crown, the connection is less direct as they’re synched through a helmet in a device away from the actual mech, so since the pain seems to be transmitted through the brain and not the actual nerves in the body if Ayase’s Endlave got its leg cut off would she feel some kind of phantom pain? Does anybody else think that? There has to be someone! Come on, Guilty Crown, rather than your staff shooting themselves in the foot we should have asked what happened if you shot Ayase in the foot! Where I said she’s mostly a great character, is how towards the later parts she kind of falls into that more troupe-y weak girl, which some could say is her growth as a character by allowing herself to be weak. I don’t know. Take it as you will. Shu also has his armory of Void weapons to manipulate -- I mean his lovely friends at school. Some are interesting, some are not, and the ones that aren’t interesting initially actually become so later on. I can’t go into it without spoiling things but know for the most part that they aren’t your stereotypical supporting cast, or, at least, aren't used in that way.



Did you enjoy talking about someone besides Shu? Good! Now I want to talk about him one more time, as he is the most important character in the whole story after all. I said I’d talk about what I believe separates him from Shinji the most and why he helps make the story good as a whole and that’s what I intend to do now. Starting off, I would say the biggest difference between Shu and Shinji is actually the reason Shu is such an interesting protagonist for the story he’s in. And that difference has to do with Shu’s mental state. Comparing him to Shinji, when Evangelion begins, we are introduced to our main character who -- quite frankly -- is already broken. He has issues that he has had from a young age and those issues get worse as Shinji pilots Eva 01. Shu on the other hand, while lacking self-confidence, isn’t damaged, per se, besides some memory loss, in many ways, he is just your average self-wallowing teenager. The difference is we see throughout the series how Shu’s mental state begins to crack. Unlike Shinji who is mostly damaged from the beginning, we get to see Shu’s transition as it happens. One of the things I’ve never understood is that there's a point near the end of the series where something happens to Shu that changes his character. That’s as vague as I can be without spoiling anything, and the common opinion seems to be that it came out of nowhere, and he is a poorly written character, in part, because of that. I completely disagree with that statement, though I think there should have been another episode or two dedicated to it. Ever since episode 1 Shu’s fragile mental state has been a major part of the story, to the point you could even say that’s what it’s about. I mean, I can count on one hand the number of times this man smiles in the anime. Numerous times he gains confidence, either in himself or someone else, just to be stabbed in the back immediately, thus cracking his mental state even more. While Shu doesn’t go through as much as Shinji does, he goes through quite a bit and it affects him worse as he is a more emotional person than Shinji is. Every little thing that happens hit him like a truck. He shoulders everything by himself. All of this eventually adds up to him having a breakdown, he simply cracks. I don’t see how you could say this is out of nowhere, it was expected. I would have been surprised if something didn’t break him. Not only is he highly emotional and self-critical to begin with, but he also gained a power he never wanted and gets used by everyone for their own selfish needs. He’s often forced to use his powers, powers, that again I want to draw attention to this fact, he never wanted in the first place, to protect his friends. But his power uses his friends' hearts as weapons and puts them in danger as a result. He is now using his friends as pawns in a similar way that he’s been used. To quote something Shu himself says later on, and I think the best tagline for Guilty Crown as a whole: “The right to use my friends as a weapon, that is the sinful crown I shall adorn.” A far cry from the innocent kid who looked at people around him and earlier said: “I wonder if it’s the selfish people who get ahead in this world, after all.” He’s a kind and sensitive person stuck as a pawn in a cruel game played by bad people. It would break anyone, especially someone like him. As I said before, Shu isn’t strong, having the Power of Kings doesn’t change that. If you suddenly acquired a power it wouldn’t rewrite your DNA. You would still be you. And that’s why I think Shu makes Guilty Crown so much better. Without him, Guilty Crown would be a mecha anime about dystopian Japan, mixed in with a virus and mech battles. Nothing too interesting. With him, however, it becomes a story about a fragile boy, caught in the middle of a war he wanted nothing to do with, with a power he never wanted, as everyone around him betrays and uses him for their own agendas. It becomes a story about a young boy’s mental state, and how fragile of a thing that can actually be.



Are you tired of talking about comparisons? I know I am, but it couldn’t really be helped. That’s the elephant in the room with Guilty Crown, but I think it’s finally time we talk about what the show does that’s wholly unique. Guilty Crown does absolutely beautiful things with both it’s art and it’s music. Music is so important to Guilty Crown, it is not background noise, it is not for ambiance, it is a way the story is conveyed. It is a necessary part of Guilty Crown's identity. It is as important to what the series is as the story, characters, voice actors, anything else you can imagine. If you doubt me on this, go watch the first 4 minutes of episode 1, you’ll understand exactly what I mean, I promise you that. There are times when the music syncs so well with the animation on screen, it approaches near rhythm game quality. And the OST is so diverse! There’s slow songs, fast songs, rap, pop, even opera! There're songs in Japanese, songs in English, even one of the most recognizable songs in the anime is in german! The OST really feels like it covers just about every base and pretty much anyone could find at least one song they would enjoy in it. When I write about a game or an anime, I always listen to the soundtrack at least once to get a feel for it. I listened to the entire 3 hour OST of Guilty Crown almost two times over and went back to listen to specific songs several -- and by several I mean a lot more than several -- times as I wrote this. I even listened to it just playing games for fun. It’s fantastic and it’s a soundtrack that will stick with me for a long, long time. Hiroyuki Sawano absolutely hit it out of the park with his compositions for this one. While I’ve never watched anything else he has worked on, he has big titles like the Seven Deadly Sins and Attack on Titan in his wheelhouse, and if they are half as good as Guilty Crown in the sound department, I’m sold, I’m a fan for life. But as I said, the reason the OST is so good is not only because it’s good on its own, it’s how well it compliments the series as a whole. The artwork in Guilty Crown is also a special thing. I can’t tell you how epic the moment is in the first episode where Shu acquires his power, takes Inori’s Void, and looks up at the camera, cold stare in his eyes, and “Bios” starts up. It’s mesmerizing and Guilty Crown is full of moments like that from beginning to end that without the art and music would mean nothing. It’s art, that’s truly the only word that can describe it. And I made fun of the character design earlier when I talked about Tsugumi, but there’s actually an interesting story behind it. The music for most of the opening and endings were done by Supercell and Egoist, the former being a Japanese band and the latter being a fictional band by Ryo (the lead of the former) and a recent member at the time Chelly (who does Inori’s vocals for the singing) created just for Guilty Crown. The reason this is interesting is that one of the illustrators for Supercell was Redjuice, who went on to be selected for the character designs for Guilty Crown’s cast, as they thought his concept art fit the theme of the show. And I think Redjuice did a great job, and as for Tsugumi, he claimed that the studio had no problems with her cat ears so he felt like he got to put his own style into the anime. Yeah, everything has a story when you get right down to it. But it was ultimately up to the studio and animators to bring those characters to life and they sure did. I honestly wasn’t expecting it from Production I.G. Not because they’re a bad studio, I just never hear them talked about and I never knew of anything they made having exceptional visuals, but whatever they did, they did it right. The animation is so fluid! I swear I almost had a brain aneurysm when I saw Shu stumble as he was running away. “That was so smooth!” Or when I saw Inori bang her head on a desk in the first episode. “Ow, that hurt, but wow, did it look good!” It’s not the type of thing you can really explain because instances pop up all throughout the show. You’ll notice them when you see them and if you are half as strange as me, you might find sick enjoyment in someone banging their head beautifully as well. I also got sick enjoyment out of seeing how horribly scared Shu looks at times. His facial expressions are just masterfully done. Maybe, I’m just messed up, but man do they make it convincing. It’s just the type of thing that makes me stop and think “somebody had to draw that” and it blows my mind briefly. I love the art and music both in Guilty Crown and I have no problem saying they are the best parts of the show. That’s the honest truth in my heart, but don’t take my word for it. Even with how incredibly conflicted people are with Guilty Crown, no matter how many negative opinions I saw, they almost all ended, in one form or another, with the same thing: “but the music and art are phenomenal.” No matter how much people take up arms on either side, I rarely have ever seen a single person attack either the art or music and for an anime that’s so divisive, I think that speaks for itself.



So to answer the question on everyone's mind: is Guilty Crown a masterpiece or is it nothing but a poor copycat of Code Geass? Well, like most arguments, the truth lies somewhere in between. I personally adored my time with Guilty Crown, and while I believe it has it's fair share of problems, much being in it's pacing, character's, priorities, and the creators themselves, I still highly enjoyed my time. I'd recommend Guilty Crown to anyone interested in a suspenseful, action-packed series, with a few twists and turns, following a boy and his fragile mental state. And hey, it's appropriate for our world right now because pandemic and all that! If you can look past the similarities to Geass, I see no reason you couldn't enjoy both of the series fully. Despite what many people say, they are quite different in many ways, and each has its own merits. Take that from someone who watched both series for the first time practically alongside each other and really enjoyed both. I really hope that some of the toxic rhetoric sounding Guilty Crown doesn't keep people from giving the series a good try. I would hate for anyone to ever miss out on a series that may be a gem for them just because of a few toxic opinions floating in the community. That's why I always stress how important it is to give these things a try yourself regardless of anything you may read. When you write an opinionated piece you have a lot more power to affect people's views and expectations than you may think you do. Even this, which likely nobody will read, has the power to change one or two people if they would see it and that's a very special thing and I hope greatly I always respect and never take that fact lightly. As always this is just my opinion and isn’t any more or less valid than yours. If you have a problem with that, I’ll call up Shu and have him tear your Void out and expose how embarrassing it is to the world...if you’re 17 or under. Only that group has Voids for some reason. Ahem! I highly recommend you don’t listen to some man-child and or pubescent boy like me and watch the series for yourself and form your own opinions. I heard that if you form enough of them, you might finally be able to get to the center of that pesky Tootsie Pop you've been working on. Take care of the owl first though. He ruins everything.



Thank you very much for reading ~






I most definitely think I bit off more than I can chew there, but hey, I think I swallowed it in the end. But I will admit that took a lot longer than I wanted or expected it to take just a few weeks ago. I went into Guilty Crown out of pure curiosity, expected to watch it, then get something written in two weeks as per usual but ended up having it take more than double that. Not only did I have to watch one anime, I had to watch three! What I thought would take me 22 episodes, with rewatching Guilty Crown, plus Geass and Evangelion, it actually ended being 94 episodes I watched for this. I will say, however, this is the most fun I’ve ever had researching and writing about an anime yet, so I had an absolute blast. Despite the amount of work, I’d do it all over again. I likely wouldn’t have watched either Evangelion or Geass this soon if not for you Guilty Crown, so thank you for that. It's been a blast lately. It also left me with an interesting thought. What do you suppose my Void would have been? A sword would have been pretty neat, like Inori. Be illegal to pull that out anywhere though. Maybe some kind of pocket knife so I have tools on the go? I think I’d rather have something useful so if I ever needed it I could just yank it out. Could you imagine how useful it would be to rip out like a clean pair of clothes whenever you’re out? Maybe like “oh, it’s raining, I better pull out my Void jacket!” “Oh no! I spilled my drink! I better grab my Void mop!” I think it’d be helpful. But I guess you don’t really get to pick your Voids since they’re the manifestation of your heart, and your desires and all that. What would the manifestation of sarcasm be then? A Void that’s literally nothing. A Void that’s actually devoid of anything. Yeah, I’d be ok with that, I like the irony. Maybe I already have one then! As long as it’s not a refrigerator like that one guy. That’s somehow insulting and boring all at once.

Anyway, I’ll see you, not in a month, but for your regularly scheduled programming!

So in two weeks.

Surprise! I like to stay on schedule when I can. It really bothered me this took longer.

C3: the One With the Rubik’s Cube



I’ve been watching anime for quite a while now. Not counting Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, which I watched when I was too young to know what anime was, I probably started about six years ago, give or take. In that timeframe, you can watch quite a few series. That’s why My Anime List (MAL) is such an important resource! Being able to keep a record of everything you’ve watched as well as record how you felt about a series and see it all in a list isn’t only helpful, it’s incredibly satisfying. It affects that part of your ... brain that makes you want to watch more and keep the list going. When I first started watching anime I never used MAL, nor did I know of its existence. That means that by the time I did start using it a little over two years ago, I had already racked up a good many series to register. Now, I consider myself to have a decent enough memory, I usually don’t forget all that much and when I made my MAL account, I could remember everything I had seen prior. Well, almost everything. I have a bit of a story to tell. You can imagine how years of watching anime without keeping a record, then suddenly trying to remember everything you’ve seen could be tricky. I don’t care how good your memory is, something will slip through the cracks. C3 was that for me. I couldn’t remember anything about it really and certainly not the name. All I could recall was what the main character looked like, that she had something to do with a cube and just one scene from the show. That was it. You could imagine how finding a specific anime with just that information could be difficult. And it was. I kept it in my mind for a while and kept trying to think of the name but to no avail. Then, finally, for some reason I can’t even remember, it just came to me: C3! Perhaps I had seen a character somewhere, or a video related to it, I honestly don’t know. Whatever gear started turning in my head, I typed it into MAL and sure enough, I got the right series. Ok, yes, I watched all 12 episodes. Oh, now I have to rate it? Oh, yeah! That’s pretty hard when I don’t remember anything about it. And that was the thought process that led to this moment. That was about a year ago, and as I was trying to find an anime to talk about this month I was reminded of C3 and I decided to satiate my cursed curiosity for this conundrum of a cube once and for all.



C3 (pronounced either C-Cubed, C-three, or CubeXCursedXCurious) is an action, supernatural, harem series that started as a light novel written by Hazuki Minase (a writer who has done some scriptwriting for Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya) in 2007. It ran for seventeen volumes over six years, had three volumes of manga made, and finally in 2011 made its anime debut. It was adapted by Silver Link, a studio who has done quite a few recognizable works, Baka & Test, WataMote, Chivalry of a Failed Knight, to name some, and was directed by Shin Ōnuma who directed all the things I listed above and much more. The soundtrack was composed by Jun Ichikawa who I suppose most prominently did the arrangement of the first Pokemon Diamond and Pearl OP, and as a Sinnoh fan myself, I can appreciate that. Something else that’s interesting to note is that C3 has a TV-MA rating, which not a whole lot of series has. Was I surprised when I found that out? Sort of. I kind of get why, but we’ll get to that later. Let’s find out if C3 is any good, shall we? What? I should have remembered from before so I didn’t have to watch it again? I mean, y-yes you have a point, but, uh, well...shut up! I’ll curse you!



Our story begins with a delivery man, who likely doesn’t get paid enough for his job, carrying a giant black cube to a doorstep. But this doorstep doesn’t belong to just anyone, no, it belongs to Haruaki Yachi, our high schooler protagonist. Yachi’s father who is overseas sends him weird stuff all the time, so he’s fairly desensitized to his shenanigans and throws the cube in storage. That night as Yachi is asleep, he hears strange noises coming from somewhere in the house. What dangers could it be? A murderer? A thief? A violent psychopath? No, it’s just a stark naked girl with long blue hair eating the young man’s rice crackers...and all of the other things I mentioned. Ahem! The girl’s name is Fear Kubrick and she was a “cursed tool” made during the height of the inquisitions, who after being filled with so many negative feelings of hatred, gained consciousness and took on human form. Now, along with her dark past, she comes with a curse: whoever’s her owner will be driven mad and eventually use her for torture, as they revel in their victim's pain. Our friendly neighborhood protagonist, Yachi, is unswayed by this, as he is a nice guy and has a strange immunity to all curses. Fear could never drive him mad...well, at least not from the curse anyway. He informs Fear that she could break her curse by replacing people's negative feelings of her with positive ones. Feeling deep regret for so long, she is overjoyed by this. And so Yachi and friends live their lives trying to protect the cursed cube from those who wish her harm as she gradually tries to repent for her sins and become more human and along the way, help save even more cursed tools.



Ok, so a story about a girl that’s a cube? Or is it the other way around? I can get behind that! I like both of those...things? Rubik's cubes are neat, right? Wait, she fights with one!? My first impressions of C3 overall I must say was pretty good, far better than I remembered or expected, though I didn’t remember anything in the first place. From the first episode, you’re quickly thrown into things headfirst and get a good enough understanding of what the series has to offer. That fast pace is something that stays for the whole anime, but thankfully doesn’t ever feel rushed. I was also pleasantly surprised by the uniqueness of the plot. Through Fear, we learn of this story built around cursed items that take on human form. It’s an interesting concept that can potentially lead to some interesting scenarios. It creates this story about tools growing consciousness, about tools that can’t or won’t think for themselves breaking free from their masters. Tools that won’t commit the crimes they're told to do. It’s oddly a motivational story in a lot of ways. And we see it through not only Fear but through the other cursed items as well, like Konoha Muramasa, one of Yachi’s friends. She starts to lose her grip when she sees blood, but she manages to control herself. Fear’s the same way when she hears screams. But they’re both trying to change, despite the world seeming not wanting them to. The main point in Fear’s arc is this question of if she even deserves salvation in the first place. Does a cursed tool have any right to be happy? Do they have any right to live at all?



Questions like these are at the forefront of the plot and it also gives way for some interesting motivations for villains. One the one hand, there are the villains you would expect: ones that want to destroy Fear because they see her and all cursed tools as a plague, but there’s also another type of villain, one that loves cursed tools. I thought this was especially interesting because the whole plot centers around Fear trying to break her curse and live a happy life. Yet this new villain wants more or less the same thing: to see cursed tools be happy. The goal is the same however, the difference is the means at which they accomplish that goal. While Yachi prefers to break their curses and let them live happily as humans, you have villains who wish to fulfill their curses, ones who wish for the cursed tools to stop fighting their “true selves.” Villains that actively try to make Fear and Konoha go back to their old selves. To give in. It has you questioning the characters, especially Fear. Is she really worth defending? Was she really just a tool, unable to fight the will of her master, or did she just suddenly grow a conscience? Which one is her true self? The sometimes gentle, always hot-headed, rice cracker loving human, or the quite frankly homicidal maniac? Fear struggles with these questions throughout the plot and so do you, the viewer. There’s this sense of an identity crisis. One that really every character goes through at one point or another. An example is Kirika Ueno, who although being human also suffers from being a tool to a master, and her arc is about becoming more than that and following what she herself wants and not what others tell her. However, one character is an exception to this theme and that’s Yachi. He doesn’t suffer from an identity crisis, but unfortunately, he is afflicted with “bland main character” disease. What is perhaps the exact opposite of an identity crisis, and a crippling illness to be sure. For the most part, C3 is a story about overcoming your past, regardless of whether you’re a human or not. It’s about breaking the shackles chaining you to that past and heading towards the future. I think perhaps the most fitting epitome for the story as a whole is a scene right at the end of the series. A melancholic Fear asks Yachi a question as they overlook their quiet town from the rooftop: “there are humans who act like tools and tools that act like humans, what’s the difference?” Which are the other cursed tools? Which is she? Yachi smiles and simply says, in a sentence that sums everything in the series up perfectly “a simple tool never wonders whether it’s a tool or a human.”



For as interesting and unique as I find the plot to be, it isn’t all hunky-dory. There are a few unanswered questions the anime leaves you with, mostly about the cursed tools themselves. First and most importantly just what exactly are the cursed tools? We’re never giving anything concrete about them. We don’t know how they’re made, what exactly they are, or how they even take human form in the first place. We’re left completely in the dark. From Fear, all we know is she was used during the inquisitions and had so many negative feelings funneled into her that she became sentient. We don’t know how that works, or why she can turn into a human and switch whenever she wants. We even see later on that cursed tools don’t necessarily have to choose a human form, it can even be a doll. But why, or how it works we never know. In that way, we hardly know which form is their true form. We’re also never really shown how curses work either. We know that the cursed tools are trying to break them and that positive feelings are how (which again is never explained) but we don’t really see how they work. Because Yachi is immune, it seems as if the curses aren’t really there in the first place, so they don’t really seem necessary to break. I suppose it’s so they can live without Yachi, but let’s be honest, it’s a harem series so that will never happen. Perhaps making the curses affect him in some way but have him struggle to fight it for the cursed tool's sake would have been more interesting. We do get to see a little about curses and their potential tolls from Kirika, but she isn’t a cursed tool like Fear or Konoha. So it’s hard to know just how devastating they could be.



There was another thing I was kind of surprised at, we never get any information about Konoha. Someone who has supposedly been Yachi’s close friend for a good while. We know her “trigger”: when she sees blood, but not exactly what happens if she loses herself. We can take a wild guess from Fear, but we don’t know for sure and as we’re never given a backstory, it’s hard to make assumptions. So I suppose I would have just liked to see a little more about what makes the cursed tools tick. A little about who or what they are. And maybe that is explained in the light novels. The anime only adapted a small portion of it, but in just the context of the anime, we’re left with a lot of questions about the concept the story itself is centered around. And that’s hardly ever a good thing.



Generally, C3 takes itself fairly seriously. Of course, it has some comedy along with it, but much of the plot involves themes of murder, sometimes torture, and the occasional character might get dismembered. Now, this is all true, but another true thing is C3 is a harem anime and as a result has some fan service. I’ll say this, the fanservice feels largely unnecessary, (as it usually is) with the occasional upskirt shot or innuendos here and there and sometimes quite forced boob humor as Fear (as everyone will remind you) has a flat chest. It’s nothing new for the genre, but to give C3 credit the fanservice never cancels out the serious portions of it. There’s none during fight scenes and moments where anything important happens. It’s usually just for comedy, however, how funny you find it will vary. At the very least, it isn’t overbearing, though it doesn’t need to be there at all.



I’ve been waiting to talk about this! So there’s one aspect of C3 that helps convey the story wonderfully, but I have one main qualm with it: that’s the art. The art does a lot of things right, which I’ll get to in a second, but I want to start instead, with something I didn’t like about it. I do not like the character design of C3 much at all. I’ve already talked about Yachi and how you couldn’t pick him out of a crowd if you tried, but that carries to the rest of the cast as well. Konoha is the super generic more mature looking glasses-wearing girl that we’ve seen about a hundred times and I can think of multiple examples off the top of my head. Fear’s alright but she looks like 90% of small tsundere characters in the world. Though I will say I quite like how in battle she fights with a Rubik's cube and uses all sorts of grizzly looking tools. It shows a great (and borderline humorous) duality to her cute appearance. The only character design I really find interesting (bar the villains which I think are pretty good) is Kirika, both for her actual design not looking like a million other characters, and how that design is partly a byproduct of her backstory, which is a pretty interesting one. I suppose I like Kuroe Ningyohara’s design as well as her powers, but her, uh, forceful(?) personality mixed with the questionable fanservice, and her design was a little off-putting.



However, I overall adore the artwork in C3 and think that it is one of, if not the best part of the series. Not only is it just good looking being colorful, vibrant, bubbly and just a pleasure to look at, but it also does quite a few other things well. The fight scenes and the various ways the characters can fight are well done. I mentioned before about Fear in battle, and I really do like it. From a drill, a giant sword and chain, or even a breaking wheel to an iron maiden, she has just about all the horrible punishments you don’t ever want to imagine at her disposal, and using them as she does in battle is surprisingly cool to see. Don’t worry though, no torture here. She’s beyond that now. But my reason for loving the art goes beyond that, it’s used in C3 in a way that gives it an identity. The anime is almost trippy to watch, with it cutting to different styles of character's faces or towards what the subject of conversation is. It’s sporadic in what the camera focuses on and it does this all in time with the soundtrack as well. To give my favorite example, there’s a time when what is essentially a ransom tape is being recorded and as the villain is talking this menacing music plays in the background. In time with that music, every 10 seconds or so, it will cut to a monochrome view of a clock, its hand jerking forward with a ticking sound. Not only does it signify that the video is recording, but it also adds to the severity of the situation. With everything combined it almost becomes stressful to watch. There are also other clever parts in which the art is used to convey violence but in a less violent way. For instance, when a character might receive a nasty cut, rather than show it, it flashes quickly to an all-white background as you see little red lines start to appear and drip down. It turns something that isn’t so artsy like violence and turns it into something that almost looks like an abstract painting, but is obvious enough for you to know what just happened. It’s incredibly well done and something I have never seen before. I think it’s wonderful.



As I mentioned briefly the OST is also a strong point. Not only does the soundtrack accompany the visuals well, but it also pops out. Rarely have I ever watched an anime where I immediately notice the soundtrack. Once you start hearing that a cappella track in the first episode you’ll be hooked. The OPs and EDs are quite good as well, with some very Japanese sounding tracks, along with some quite good art. Perhaps I should have mentioned this earlier, but I loved the visuals in the first opening. Fear dances gracefully to the song and looks beautiful while doing it. I think it’s funny how later in the series she tries to learn how to dance to that exact song but fails miserably. It’s a subtle but great joke. Back to the tunes, there are all sorts of tracks from super lighthearted stuff, to menacing “you know it’s about to go down” tracks. And I said it before but the a cappella was great! I never heard something like that used in an anime. I was actually hoping to see Jun (not Jim autocorrect!) Ichikawa’s other work, but it seems he still hasn’t done all that much. A shame really. However, the uniqueness of C3’s soundtrack will stand as a testament to the work he can do.



I suppose now I’ll talk about the elephant in the room: the TV-MA rating. So, do I think it deserves it? Yes, probably. Not for the fanservice, because it rarely goes past being suggestive and there’s no nudity or anything. If anything I’d say it’s because of the plot more than anything. I mean when you really get down to it, it is a story about a homicidal killer trying to repent for her sins, regardless of how deceptively adorable that killer may be. There are also quite a few scenes of graphic violence. I mentioned how it’s usually down in an artsy way, which it is, but not the whole time. I mean in one scene a character has their stomach cut open and the villain shoves their hand inside and starts squeezing. I mean the art makes it look like somebody’s just reaching into a bag to find the right color jelly bean, but I’ll tell you this, you wouldn’t want to eat those ones. And it’s not like they can do that all the time. After someone gets dismembered, you’ll still have to see a bloody stump in its place, y’know? And, I mean there is a part where someone gets violently drilled to death, clone or not, they have blood and the art can’t cover that up. Though I admit, that scene was one of the most clever and evil things I’ve ever seen a villain do, so I liked it quite a lot. Oh no, maybe the curse is getting to me? I’ll say there’s certainly worse violence but it isn’t exactly mild either. It’s more than you’ll probably see in your Naruto’s or you Dragon Ball Z’s (I suppose dismemberment happened in that quite a lot too!) or whatever the kids are watching these days. If you’re squeamish, maybe stay away. It’s up to you! It’s not my job to watch after you, youngins!



I really debated whether or not to do this. I’m generally of the mindset that I don’t watch things multiple times (especially if they aren’t great) because there are so many other things I could watch. But I made an exception for C3, purely because I’ve had a fascination with it ever since I forgot its name. I hate giving a rating for something I barely remember, so I really wanted to fix that. And because of this whole review thing It gave me a chance to, for that, I’m grateful. I really did enjoy C3 quite a lot, far more than I thought I would. A series that in my mind I would have been like “oh, yeah the cube one,” I can now go like “oh, yeah the cube one, it was pretty good.” It honestly made me want to go back and rewatch some other series that my memory is a bit foggy on. Well, that will have to wait for another time. I’d still rather add something new than something I’ve already seen. But if anything C3 showed me that it’s worth going back and experiencing something a second time. You never know how your opinions may change. Another reason I probably feel this way is because when I had watched C3, I was very early in my anime career, only having a handful of series under my belt. I wasn’t able to tell what C3 had done right, and on the flip side, what it had done wrong. But now I could. And for that, I’m grateful to it. C3, when I decide to take a look at an older series (and maybe even talk about it) I’ll owe it to you. Thank you, C3, and thank you, Fear, you adorable monster you.



As always that was just my opinion and isn’t any more or less valid than yours. If you don’t like that, Fear will curse you! Your punishment? Forced to have a Rubik’s cube glued to your hand until you solve it. Oh, the horror! As always, I highly recommend you don’t listen to me, your grandmother, your friend’s cousin, or anyone else, and instead watch C3 and form your own opinion. Forming opinions is fun and like milk keeps your bones and your body strong!



Thank you very much for reading ~


I have a strange desire to go mess with a Rubik’s cube now. Wait! I can’t believe it! I finally finished it! Well, one side that is. Funny story, I had never used a Rubik’s cube when I was younger so I assumed once you did one side that meant you completed them all. What a poor innocent idiot I was.



Anyways, I’ll see you next month!

I like magic, you like magic, we all like magic! Well, unless you don’t, I guess there are some people like that. Magic comes in various forms. Oftentimes the type we see in anime tends to be the fantasy type of magic. I.e. people who control fire, water, earth, wind, ice, lighting, yatta yatta, etc. They live in worlds often full of magical creatures, and do magical things magically, of course. I find it interesting how the word “magic” now triggers these types of thoughts in people because of how popular this “fantasy” type of magic has become. But as much as I like that ... type of magic (believe me I do) that is not what we are going to be talking about today.




Instead, I will be talking about the magician type of magic. No, not the fantasy type! Not the staff-wielding ones! I’m talking about the good old fashion illusionist type of magic. “Why?” you may ask. Because that’s exactly what (or it should have been) Hatena Illusion is all about! Published in 2014 and written by Tomohiro Matsu, Hatena Illusion is a romantic comedy light novel that ran four volumes long until it’s creator’s unfortunate death in 2016 at the young age of 43 from liver cancer. In 2018 it received a manga, and finally, on January 9th, 2020, Hatena Illusion received a 12 episode anime series adaption by Children’s Playground Entertainment. Not the most, eh, well known of studios, we’ll say, but that doesn’t always mean anything. Of the few works they did that numbered about 6, only one of them really stands out to me as being memorable and that was Citrus, though based on who you ask, that’s either a good thing or a bad thing. Regardless, a lesser-known studio doesn’t mean something has to be bad.
The anime was directed by Shin Matsuo. Though this was his first director position, he had worked as episode director and animation director for various things, including a couple One Piece movies, a few episodes of both Ouran Highschool Host Club and Tokyo Ghoul, as well as doing key animation for a few things, such as the 4th Pokemon movie and some episodes of Soul Eater. So our director does have a decent resume, despite being new to his position.
So, was Hatena Illusion very good? I don’t want to tell you that right now. You have to read on and find out. Hey, don’t look at me like that. I need to have some fun! Ok, you’re bored? Ok, how about a trick? First pick a card, well, in your imagination. Now close your eyes, stroll down a bit and open them again!















Now I’m safely down here. Tada! The card served no purpose. I never said I was very good, did I? Leave the illusions to the illusionists as I always say! Ahem! Anyway. Our story begins with Makoto Shiranui, a young boy who aspires to one day be a magician that can replace all the sadness in the world with happiness. Both because of a promise he made to his childhood friend, Kana (Hatena) Hoshisato and to accomplish his own dreams, he travels to the Hoshisato household to study under Kana’s father Mamoru, the magician he looks up to more than anyone else. Upon arrival in the Hoshisato residence, Kana realizes that her childhood friend and “prince” was more of a “prince” than she had originally thought when she learns that Makoto wasn’t a girl that dressed like a boy, but just a boy after all! Who’d have thought it? Kana’s more progressive than any of us! With this news in tow, Kana gains a bitter attitude towards Makoto and wants him to leave immediately. Which might have been a possibility had Makoto not been the clumsiest human on earth, knocking over and breaking a vase in the Hoshisato residence. Now he must become a butler to pay off his debt to the family but don’t worry he’s still allowed to go to school because anime. Eventually, Makoto learns of the oddities in possession of the Hoshisato mansion and its occupants: strange magical items called “Artifacts” that were once stolen and abused by those who were never to know of their existence. To stop this from happening, Kana’s mother, Maeve, became a thief to steal back the artifacts and keep them from evil hands, which she does with her husband Mamoru at her side. Kana, wanting to help her parents in their endeavors, is a thief in training using her artifact, Muff-Kun, to help her fulfill her duties. As if all of this wasn’t enough for the young magician-in-training, Makoto discovers that his magic wand Maeve gave him was also an artifact. Donning his artifact’s true power and naming it the...wait for it…”Smile Stick,” Makoto assists Hatena with her thievery as her one and only partner. And thus, the story of the thief who swears to steal sadness and the magician who vows to replace it with happiness begins.




Truthfully, the story is a little odd. I like it, but I wish it was more about the actual magician business and less about the artifacts themselves. I originally was interested in Hatena Illusion for one reason: the artwork showed Kana and Makoto all dressed up in something that reminded me of a phantom (or gentlemen) thief, which is a concept I’ve been incredibly fascinated with ever since I first played Persona 5. Hatena Illusion kind of disappoints me there. It is very much about thievery, but only part of that is shown. It’s more like the anime is largely about Kana saying she’ll be a thief, but a small portion of it is her actually doing it. And when you finally get to the heist it’s over almost as soon as it began. As an example, the last arc revolves around the cast finding three special artifacts. Makoto and Hatena set out to find one of them. There's a solid episode and a half building up to this, and once they get there, they walk into a room, spook some guys with guns, and walk out. I could have gotten the artifact more stylishly than they did. Maybe they should learn something from the Phantom Thieves! Sorry, I got carried away there. As I did before my little outburst, I want to talk about the story arcs a bit. Most of the arcs are character-driven, which is generally good and I don’t exactly mind it here, I just think it takes away from the actual purpose of what the story should have been. I mean the first arc builds upon Makoto and Kana and introduces you to the artifacts. It’s fine and understandable they would start there. Then from there each of the main characters get an episode or two (or three) dedicated to them, and before you know it you're already at the end. I suppose it’s more that 12 episodes really wasn’t enough to focus on the characters, because as I said, it means the thievery and the magic plays second fiddle to it. It isn’t about a “master thief” stealing artifacts, It’s about a girl sorting out her family problems and occasionally doing some thievery. What should have been the main point only shows up typically at the end of each arc for a few minutes. It’s disappointing. However, when the anime does things right, they’re done right.


I think Hatena Illusion has a great sense of humor and is its main strong point. Whether it’s from Mamoru’s desperate attempts to get his daughters’ attention or his...eccentricities, we’ll call it, Makoto’s ridiculous magic such as making a flower come out of the barrel of a gun that is pointed at his face (yes that happens) for defense, or just the amazing butler with the most butleriest name ever, Jeeves, Hatena Illusion never failed to make me laugh. Even if part of that was just because of how ridiculous the story was at times. Kana’s whole point is to steal sadness, right? It certainly did that more than a few times for me.




Though I admit her tsundere tropes did annoy me a bit, Kana isn’t as bad as others I’ve seen before. She felt like more of a tsundere just because, I suppose. Like they wanted to make her one, and every now and then threw in a scene where she acts like one to be like “look, fanboys, a tsundere!” But unlike a lot of tsundere’s she actually shows some growth by the end of the story, albeit it’s a little. Character growth you say? What a novel concept! Considering the story is character-driven that should mean the characters had time to develop, which they kind of did, at least some of them. Makoto and Kana get a decent amount of growth, but their relationship doesn’t really change much past the first arc where they’re like “be my partner!’ to each other and stare off into the sunset. Honestly, Kana’s little sister Yumemi (who’s story arc is super sweet and my favorite, except that it’s too long) is probably closer to Makoto than her sister even is. At least she’s hugged him once and never tried to kill him. Sadly Makoto and Kana get mostly stagnant, as far as their relationship goes, but they do both grow in their own ways. Such as at the end of the series Kana not punching Makoto into oblivion at the mere mention of a compliment, which as we know is an amazing accomplishment for one of her species


Jeeves the butler, is basically a butler, but as I mentioned, he is the most butler-like butler to ever—um— butler...so yeah, take that as you will. Ema, the Hoshisato maid, gets quite a few episodes to her, yet she’s still largely the most uninteresting character to me. I think it took too long to do her arc frankly. I think you could have wrapped it up in like a single episode and sentence. You have some other characters that show up for an episode or two that are mostly forgettable. Seriously, Makoto has some friends in school that are only in the anime for like two scenes. They’re so uninteresting I don’t even remember what one of them looks like. I had to look it up to remember! Don’t even get me to tell you their names, I have a feeling the almighty internet could hardly tell you that. Watch Hatena Illusion, I bet you’ll forget by the end. By the end of the same episode probably. There’s an ok, if not confusing “villain” for most of Hatena Illusion, I have trouble really getting her character. She doesn’t make much sense to me honestly. Her motives—I can’t call them dumb—because they don’t exist! She just kinda does things, for little reason. The main “villain” I suppose would be Maeve's mother and Kana’s grandmother, but that’s only for one scene at the end of the anime, yeah. 12 episodes is a fickle thing.


Perhaps the biggest character-wise disappointment comes from Mamoru and Maeve, arguably the most important characters, as much of the stuff that happens in Hatena Illusion happens because of them. For mostly the entire Anime Mamoru is out doing god-knows-what, probably magic, so we see very little of him. He pops in (out of literally thin air, because magic) acts as some decent comedy relief then pops back out. You see him a bit in the final arc, but not much. Maeve is unfortunately far worse, as the entirety of the plot, save the final scene, she’s not even there. One time in the middle of the series she shows up as a duplicate from an artifact, but she’s always elsewhere. The last arc is about getting her back home. And the worst part is you're given no real explanation as to why this is. She’s either stuck finding an artifact, or stuck at her village with her mother, or something else. Like, why can’t you just break her out and bring her home or something? I know her mother is supposed to be strong, but you have tons of artifacts and magic. Just do it! Makoto has vanishing magic that lets him just make things disappear. Like, go bring her back, dude! I just wish that the one that Kana loves and admires so much she makes it her goal in life to be like her was actually shown for more than five minutes in the series.


Oh, yeah! Makoto has parents and a sister. He talks to them like once on the phone. I forgot but I suppose he had to be born somehow. Hey, at least they seem loving and actually care about their son. That’s more than you can say for most anime parents.




As I mentioned, the main reason I watched this anime was based on the artwork I saw for it. The funny thing is I didn’t even know it was about a thief, I just knew magic was involved in some way. It just goes to show how much Persona 5 has influenced me when I see these characters in very over the top costumes, I instantly think of it. And I’m talking about this because that was one thing about Hatena Illusion that, to my surprise, I really liked: the art. When the studio making an anime only has a small number of things under their belt, and those things aren’t the most beloved of things, you would expect the art to potentially suffer from it. In Hatena Illusion’s case, that’s not true...completely. Though I've seen some conflicting views on this, I like the art style. It’s colorful, vibrant, cheerful even, and I think it’s fit the type of magic story it wants to tell. However, I’ll be the first to admit it suffers from a few things.
One: Hatena Illusion suffers from (though not as bad as other series I’ve seen) a problem I like to call the “first episode curse.” This curse, at least I imagine, is the result of the creator working incredibly hard to make the artwork lovely for the first episode and then realize it would be impossible to keep up the same quality the whole series, thus the following episodes end up being a step down as a result. Hatena Illusion does suffer from this. The first episode is largely the best-looking part of the series, and the rest of the series isn’t as good looking, but it isn’t like the “normal” art is bad. Hatena Illusion’s art ranges from great to mediocre, generally hanging around the pretty good area and dipping into mediocre for certain zoomed out scenes, which are notoriously bad in certain anime, but in Hatena Illusion it isn’t awful I’d say, just noticeable.
The way I’d describe it is the anime has different art qualities it shifts between. Some scenes look fantastic, some look ok, and very few of them look bad. The first episode is largely part of the better-looking art, while the subsequent episodes are a mixture of all of it. But the art, even at its worst will never really offend you, I've seen far worse, and more importantly, when it works it works. Albeit the art ends up being a little inconsistent overall. I will admit that.


To make mention of another aspect of the art I wasn’t fond of, and this is a nitpicky thing but something that did bother me, when I saw that Makoto was going to actually fight, I got super excited. “Whoa, he’s going to fight with magic?” I wondered happily. I thought maybe we’d get to see him throw cards, or coins, or do all sorts of Illusions. Unfortunately, the fight scenes in Hatena Illusion are underwhelming. The first time we see Makoto fight is when Kana is losing a fight with her aunt because the Hoshisato’s have family issues, he swoops in and does “vanishing magic” to teleport Kana. He then uses “Illusion Magic” to create blades of light to stab his enemies. Neat, and I get it, but I want them to have more fun with it. Freaking throws her in a box and stab it with fake swords like some magic iron maiden thing. Saw her in half! Throw some cards around, show me something! Your hero wears a top hat! However, despite them not running with the idea as much as I like at times, there are some memorable moments. The gun as I said earlier, and also a move where Makoto throws a bunch of doves at a woman, throws a cloth over her and just takes the artifact. I never expected to see magic like that in a fight, and I wish there was more of it.


The music that accompanies the fights and other scenes of the show are nice as well. They sound like a piece you would hear as you take your seats, the lights dim, and you look in amazement as your favorite magician takes the stage, ready to perform their magic for all to see. Opening and endings for Hatena Illusion are fine, I prefer the latter. The former is more upbeat as you see the different characters floating in a trippy kaleidoscope-like visual in the background. The art overall is nice, and better than the ending, though I don’t like the song as much. The ending is much more up in your face and gets you pumped to watch the next episode. Art wise is focusing almost entirely on Kana and her being a “master thief.” A few neat visuals such as spotlights flashing by, causing her clothes to change from her normal outfit to her thief attire, to her school uniform. It shows the various identities that she has. I imagine this is the type of song she listens to before a heist to get ready. But I can’t help but laugh when I watch it. It gives off the impression that Kana is such a cool, calm, and collected thief, but she just isn’t. I suppose that’s part of her charm.



Finally, we arrive at the end. The end can be sad sometimes, but it’s also the beginning or something deep and philosophical like that. The ending was what largely disappointed me the most about Hatena Illusion. Not that it was a bad ending, or that I was particularly sad for it to be over, it’s more that had the anime had more than 12 episodes I feel that it truly could have been something special. Had they had more time to flesh out the characters without taking away from time from the thievery. Had more focus been put on actual magic. I’d have loved to see Makoto actually learn some magic, not just use his Smile Stick. I feel like Hatena Illusion ended right when it could have begun. I would have loved to see more adventures of Makoto and Kana. I’d like to see more of Maeve. I'd like to have seen a lot more, and I feel like largely the reason I’m left with these feelings is from the short length of the anime. Could they have used their time better? Sure, they certainly could have. I’ve seen anime with fewer episodes do more. Hatena Illusion could have had its priorities figured out better, but of course, that’s just a difference of opinion. In the same way, I would have loved to see more magic, some people would enjoy the more character-focused story. I just can’t help but see it as a waste. You have the various interesting character’s enveloped in this magical world, yet you choose to focus more on the boring aspects of their life. Like why show two episodes about Yumeimi getting bullied and not wanting to go to school when you could have used that time for something more interesting. Of course, that’s a problem with the source material, not the anime. I just wanted more, more of the interesting setting they gave me. I don’t often run into something that I feel is entirely unique, especially in the often oversaturated landscape that is anime, but that’s what Hatena Illusion was. Never had I have seen (or wanted to see) a young girl with her magical muffler become a master thief to steal sadness along with her tophat-wearing magician partner and all their shenanigans that ensue, but here I am, wishing I had a little more. Hatena Illusion is far from perfect, and I will be the first to tell anyone that, but if you want a unique approach to an anime about magic, give Hatena Illusion a try. I promise, if nothing else, that you will get a kick out of it once or twice.



As always, my opinion isn’t any more or less valid than yours...or Fred's back there. I would highly recommend not listening to any random idiot on the internet like me and instead go watch Hatena Illusion for yourself and form your own opinion because free will is a pretty neat thing! But I did just tell you not to listen to me, so do what you want, or don’t. I’m starting to confuse myself.


Anyways! “Ladies and gentlemen! I must bid you adieu!”

Wait, "Ladies and gentlemen" is what magicians say when they arrive, not leave? Oh. Now I have to go change the script! Oh, whatever, nobody has to know.

“Goodbye, Ladies and gentlemen! See you next week!"




Actually, it won’t be next week.

Toradora! (Don’t forget the exclamation point. That also means I need to yell it every time!) Is a romantic comedy anime-adaption of the light novel by the same name written by Yuyuko Takemiya in 2006. Toradora!, in basically all Its iterations, did extremely well. So well that in only 2009, only 3 years after it’s release, the light novel had sold over 3 million copies in Japan. Just like the work it spawned from, the Toradora! anime did exceptionally well. It’s also incredibly well-known to the point where if you have any experience in anime, outside of the super mainstream stuff, you’ve probably at least ... heard of it. It’s become somewhat of a household name for anime fans. I watched it for the first time around 5 years ago or better. Then I heard of a Toradora! Christmas Rewatch some fans started. You start watching it on December 6th and watch one episode a day until you finally finish it on New Year's Eve. People don’t just watch it around Christmas for no reason, though. One: It’s all about love, and Christmas is the perfect time for all that cheesy goodness. But the second reason is that almost the entirety of the latter half of the anime takes place around Christmas and Winter. It’s a surprisingly big part of the show. That’s why the Toradora! Christmas Rewatch happens. I decided last year to take part in it. Then I decided this year to do it again. Long story short, It’s turned into a Christmas tradition for me, and I wanted to talk about it. Of course, I didn’t watch one episode a day this year like I was supposed to because I really wanted to get this out by Christmas Eve. So, I didn’t do it right this time. Sue me, I guess.



Ryuji Takasu is a second-year student in high school and a complete and utter delinquent that terrorizes everyone in sight, or so people think. Ryuji is actually the opposite, a very caring and kind person, who happened to get the scary eyes of his father. Eyes that not only cause people to run from him but also give him all their valuable possessions for no reason. Despite his eyes, Ryuji wants to live a normal life full of happiness and love. Working on both of those things, he has a crush on Minori Kushieda, an energetic girl in his class. He looks at her like a ray of sunshine and optimism that could rub off on him. After talking to her, if nervous grunts and saying a name count as talking that is, he walks away to collect himself when he’s suddenly stopped by a strange invisible force in the hallway. However, as Ryuji looks around he noticed it isn’t an invisible force at all, but instead Taiga Aisaka, a short girl that’s become notorious around the school and has garnered the nickname of “The Palmtop Tiger” for her short appearance and even shorter temper. Ryuji, now with the snot thoroughly beaten out of him after his run-in with Taiga, returns home and discovers a pink envelope in his bag that seems to be a love letter. Ryuji holds it up to the light and notices that there’s no letter at all. Just an envelope. It was from Taiga, of all people, and meant for Kitamura. “What a klutz”, Ryuji thinks as he goes to sleep. Shortly afterward, noises can be heard from the house. Was it a ghost? Was there a thief? Was somebody trying to make Ryuji’s poor household even poorer? What monster would do such a thing? Turns out “The Palmtop Tiger” herself, Taiga, would as she breaks in with a wooden katana. Fortunately, she isn’t there to steal Ryuji’s possessions, but instead to kill him. Wait, wouldn’t that be worse? She does this in a fit of embarrassment-fueled rage that’s a danger to everyone in sight. After realizing she had forgotten to put the actual love letter in the envelope, Taiga spares Ryuji’s life for another day, just as she’s about to behead him. The two eat a meal together because that’s what you do with an intruder who attempts to kill you gruesomely. Taiga is noticeably upset at the whole ordeal and to make her feel better Ryuji shows something even more embarrassing. Ryuji’s box for his crush. Filled with love songs for her. Filled with mixtapes they’d listen to on the road in his fantasies. All sorts of creepy stuff that would make somebody get a restraining order. Taiga discovers her friend, Kushieda, is the girl Ryuji likes and is repulsed. Ryuji, fed up with his intruder, tells Taiga to leave the house and bribes her to do it. He agreed to help her get closer to Kitamura if she would just leave his house. She agrees and eventually, Taiga helps Ryuji get closer to Kushieda in return. And so the love square about two people trying to set each other up with their own friends begins.



Toradora! is a rom-com and regardless of how you feel about the genre, I think we can all agree that the holiday season is the perfect time for it. Toradora! does a great job at being a rom-com and what I mean by that is it‘s a perfect blend of both romance and comedy. Sometimes a series might be more on the romance side and completely forget about humor, or you might have something with so much comedy it manages to drown out any weight the romance is supposed to carry. Toradora! doesn’t have either of those problems. It will have you invested in the drama and laughing a minute later, very seamlessly I’ll add. The comedy isn’t only there for humor, but to also break the tension of some of the serious moments. If something starts to get too heavy, a joke usually lightens the mood. Toradora! is very good at blending these things together. Neither of them cancels each other out, they support each other instead, as a good rom-com should. Another thing that separates Toradora! from other rom-coms is how it handles its subject matter. Toradora! is about a group of teenagers ultimately trying to find love. Not a groundbreaking story by any means, but what is unique is how it doesn’t focus only on the happy, joyous parts of romance as you may expect. In fact, I’d say, above all else, Toradora! focuses on the negative parts of love and the pain and sadness it can bring along with it. Fun for Christmas, I know. That’s not to say it won’t have you saying “awwwww” at your screen as you smile like an idiot, that will certainly happen, but you’ll have lots of moments that make you truly realize the weight of what these characters are doing. It’s a bunch of kids trying to find love and unintentionally hurting other people along the way. They all want happiness, but that happiness conflicts with each other’s happiness. Not everyone can be happy. Someone will get hurt. That’s what Toradora! focuses on and it’s not something I see being the main focus often, especially in the genre. The characters reflect this more serious and realistic look at love as well. Toradora!’s characters are flawed. They are fake. They were masks. They hurt people, be it intentional or not. They are selfish at times. They are irrational. They think they know what’s best for each other. They are indecisive. They can’t figure out what they want for themselves in life. They are all of these things and more. That isn’t because they are poorly written, or unlikeable even. In fact, it’s the opposite. Again, Toradora! is about a group of teenagers that try and find love. Love is messy. Being a teenager is messy. Put these things together and you get an even bigger mess. All of the characters are trying their hardest to be the best they can be, but sometimes they trip up. Maybe that hurts someone. Maybe their indecisiveness causes problems for others. Maybe their meddling in on their friend's lives hurt each other, rather than helping. Sometimes in trying to figure out who you are in life, you may try different things, wear a mask, be different than normal. Maybe you learn that that mask is the only way you can survive. It’s a very difficult time in anybody’s life and the characters in Toradora! reflect that perfectly. None of the characters are bad people, by any means. They may be selfish and they may hurt people, but that’s not their intention. They’re trying to find the best way to make everyone, including themselves, happy, and in doing that they start to learn that it’s an impossible task. No decision makes everyone happy. As painful as it may be, what makes you happy, may hurt people you care about. It’s hard. The characters make mistakes because it’s hard. Toradora!’s characters just want happiness, but along the way, they learn that that happiness comes at a price. Do you claim your own happiness at the cost of someone else’s, or do you sacrifice it for theirs? Another big theme of Toradora! Is misconceptions. Having a preconceived notion you believe in so strongly that you refuse to look at anything else. Do you ever daydream and get your head wrapped up in an idea? I think we’re all guilty of getting lost in our heads at times. There isn’t inherently anything wrong with dreaming about something or imagining an ideal situation, you can do that just fine. The problem lies with not realizing what’s around you because you’ve blinded yourself by your “Ideal” vision of your life. You can want happiness and want love, but if you get so wrapped up in your head about what those things are and how they’re achieved, you might not even realize when those things are staring back at you. They may not look the way you imagined, but they’re still there all the same. Taiga and Ryuji as our main characters are lost in their misconceptions. They’ve blinded themselves by their own “ideal” love and only when they can see past that, do they become happy. Ultimately, they both want to love. They want to love and be loved, but they want to love themselves most of all. They don’t love their flaws, so they choose a partner that is their “ideal.” One that will rub off on them and maybe even get rid of their flaws. They believe they can’t love themselves with their flaws so they try to erase them. When they should be finding someone who will accept their flaws and help them grow past them instead. But unless they stop blinding themselves and get rid of their “ideal”, they’ll never realize that their happiness has been staring them in the face the whole time. Every other character realizes this, some of them attempt to help them see. Some may try to mess things up for their own selfish wants, but everyone can see, even the audience can. Everyone except the two who have blinded themselves.



Toradora! Tells a beautiful love story. A love story that wasn’t only brought to life by the characters and plot itself, but also by the art and music. When it comes to art, It looks good. Now, going on 12 years old, which is crazy, Toradora! still looks fine. Looking at it, you can tell it’s older, but not quite 11 years old. It’s aged pretty well, all things considered. That’s fine and good, but what I wanted to talk about art-wise is less about how things look, and more about how things are presented to us. More specifically how Toradora! manages to tell parts of the story without words and only with the characters' emotions. Some of the most iconic moments of Toradora! In my mind are when no words are spoken at all. There are many examples in Toradora! where the art does such a great job of conveying the emotions of the characters. Such a good job, that something as simple as a weak smile or a stare that lasts for a few seconds has the power to convey far more feelings than anything else could. It’s hard to really go into specifics without spoiling parts of the story, but there’s raw emotion in the characters, and that’s something that Toradora!’s art does a fantastic job at showing. To give a very vague example, there's a part near the end where emotions are running high and one character grabs another's hand. They struggle to wiggle their hand out but can't and eventually accepts it and holds tighter. Such a powerful scene with few words spoken. It only lasts for a few seconds but is beautiful. It’s one thing to have a good story and raw, emotional characters, but it’s another thing to be able to properly convey that in every aspect of the anime, even the art. It deserves to be commended. When talking about music in an anime, most people’s thoughts usually go directly to the opening and ending songs. It makes sense. They’re usually quite good and easily the most recognizable tracks. You also hear them the most. Toradora! has some decent ending songs with some very good openings. Now, music is subjective, like most things, but I really enjoyed the openings a lot. Not only because of the songs, but art-wise as well. The first opening song is very upbeat, crazy, and fast pace. It reflects what Toradora! is very well. The opening depicts all of the characters just hanging out and having fun very lightheartedly. It fits the show, especially the first half of it. Then you move on to the second opening that plays for the last third of the show. The characters are all depicted as more distant from each other. The lightheartedness is almost completely thrown out the window in both the song and animation. More stress is visible. Things are reaching a boiling point. Only to have the last part of the opening, be all of the characters gathering together laughing and smiling at the camera. It’s very reflective of what Toradora! is. A group of friends that care for each other, but hurt each other. No matter what happens, or how distant they become, they return to each other because that’s what you do when you care about someone. Endings are less symbolic. It’s mostly just like “hey you haven’t seen the characters smile in a bit. Here’s some happiness” or at least that what it feels like in the latter half of the show. The rest of the OST is good as well. Kind of has this cheerful vibe that makes you in a good mood. Not quite “I’m going to run a marathon” levels of upbeat, more like something nice to listen to while you get some chores done around the house. There is one song that if I didn’t mention, I’d be hunted down for, however. That song is Lost My Pieces. Lost My Pieces is gorgeous. It’s such a gentle and calm sounding song. So gentle that it almost sounds like it will break if it’s played too loud. It’s both beautiful and sad, which is reflected in the moments it’s played. I listened to it, not only when writing parts of this, but other Christmas projects I was working on as well. It’s the perfect song to curl up in front of a fireplace on a snowy day with some hot chocolate, if I had any of those things nearby, that is. It’s still great without those things. It’s not often that a song of that isn’t the opening or ending song gets so much recognition. It without a doubt, deserves it. There, I mentioned Lost My Pieces. Don’t come after me.



I wanted to use the end here to talk about the possibility of a Season 2 of Toradora! Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything. So, should there be a season 2? No, I don’t think so. Don’t get me wrong, would I get a big sense of joy to get to watch these characters again? To watch them be brought to the modern era? To watch their lives continue? Of course, I would, but even so, I don’t think I want it to happen. Toradora!, unlike way too many series, has a perfect ending. I hesitate to call anything perfect, but the ending is certainly close. It’s an amazing pay off after watching the anime, especially the more emotional stuff later it on. All the stress instantly fades away at the end. Everything feels whole. It all feels as it should. I don’t want a season 2, simply because I don’t believe it could live up to its prior season. Toradora! is a beautifully wrapped anime from beginning to end, that is complete with the incredibly satisfying ending. The ending is part of the reason, I come back to rewatch it. I know that at the end of all my emotions, I’ll be able to look back on Toradora! very fondly as an anime that can put my emotions through the wringer while warming my heart all the same. I love Toradora! the way it is, for what it is, and I believe many, many people would. I loved rewatching it each time I have, and I look forward to loving it again next year. Toradora! truly is special. I’d highly recommend you check it out. As always, I think you should experience Toradora! for yourself. After all, this was just my opinion and it isn’t any more or less valid than yours. Seriously though, watch it. More than anything I’ve recommended to this point. It’s good.

And I'd appreciate any feedback on how I could make these better. I’m still very much learning. Even though I’m satisfied with how this turned out, I can always improve and I want to. Feedback of all kinds is appreciated!



I wasn’t exactly sure where to mention this without disrupting the flow of everything so I’ll put it here as a bonus for reading through what I wrote. If you did, I appreciate it. Thank you, really. I had a blast working on it and this project in particular really meant a lot to me. I wanted to talk briefly about the origin of the name Toradora! because I found it interesting. It isn’t just fun to say, it has meaning, and not meaning that’s hard to understand outside of the culture. It’s a simple, multilayered name that I found really clever. It just requires a bit of explanation to understand. So the tiger and the dragon are two big symbols in Chinese lore. They’re two incredibly different powers, yet similar all the same. They usually represent a balance of power, like Yin and Yang. I mention this, because in Toradora! this tiger and dragon theme is explored. Taiga Aisaka is the tiger and Ryuji Takasu is the dragon. They even make mention of how they’re connected by fate, like in Chinese lore. They’re even given nicknames relating to this. They’re two wildly different, but similar powers, like the tiger and the dragon. Now, how does this Chinese lore fit into the name? Well, “Taiga” is the Japanese pronunciation for the English word “Tiger.” Another word in Japanese that means “Tiger” is “Tora.” That's the first half. Ryuji is the second half. “Ryu” is a word in Japanese that means “Dragon.” If you take the Japanese pronunciation for the English word “Dragon”, similarly to Taiga, you get “Doragon.” Knock off the last syllable and you get “Dora.” Slap them together with an exclamation point to add some excitement, and you’re left with Toradora! Toradora! means multiple things. It means the tiger and the dragon and by association, Yin and Yang. It also means Taiga and Ryuji, our main characters. The name means two sides that can’t exist without each other. Light and dark. Two sides of the same coin. A balance of powers. It represents two wildly different, but similar people, who are connected by fate itself.

Life can be pretty boring most of the time. So boring in fact, that we desperately want something odd. Something out of the ordinary. Something that really piques our curiosity and challenges what we know as possible. When we see some odd occurrence, our mind likes to run wild and paint a picture of what strange otherworldly force could be responsible. Unfortunately, the answer to these occurrences is usually as mundane as life itself. But, hey, there’s nothing wrong with being curious like the humans we are, is there?


Life can really wear you out and take a lot of your energy away. Some people may ... relax or do something similar to recharge that energy. Or maybe it’s better not to spend it at all. Hotaro Oreki lives his life by those words. Rather than giving anything his all, like the true energy conservationist he is, Hotaro believes it’s far better not to use energy in the first place. He believes it’s best to go through life with the minimum amount of effort possible. A wrench is thrown into His plan when his sister, Tomoe, sends him a letter “suggesting” he should join his school’s Classic Literature Club, as she once did. The club currently has no members, so Hotaro may be the club's only hope. Unable to resist his sister, Hotaro reluctantly signs up for the Classic Lit Club. Upon arriving in the club room, he is shocked to see Eru Chitanda, another student at his school. This is odd since the club room door was locked and Hotaro should have had the only key. Eru mentions that the door was unlocked when she walked in and that it should be impossible to lock or unlock the door without a key. Hotaro has always been very perceptive and has a knack for putting information together, but it’s always too tiring for him. Eru asks Hotaro to help her solve the mystery of the door and satisfy her curiosity. Unable to resist Eru’s gaze, he agrees to help and manages to solve the mystery. It turns out Eru was there because she also wanted to join the club. Hotaro resists but ultimately ends up joining as well. This old club went from 0 members to 2 just like that, but that 2 soon turns into 4 when Hotaro’s friend, the always cheerful, Satoshi Fukube, along with the steadfast, Mayaka Iraba visit the club and end up joining too.


Now, as this is a mystery anime the plot unfolds with many mysteries along the way. These mysteries are usually pretty interesting, most taking 1 episode, some taking more, and it’s fun to play detective alongside the characters like any mystery plot. These mysteries usually border the line between being real and being supernatural. Hyouka likes to show you that little mysteries, such as a mysteriously locked door, or a strange haunted shadow can happen every day. Watching Hyouka honestly made me feel like finding the nearest gum wrapper and use my detective skills to find out the truth of who could have possibly have left it. Now you could go on the opposite side of the spectrum and say this makes Hyouka boring. While I do not agree with that, I will admit that the conclusions to some of Hyouka’s mysteries are pretty underwhelming and leave a lot to be desired. It ultimately comes down to what you want from Hyouka. If you want grandiose mysteries spanning many episodes with mind-blowing conclusions, you should look elsewhere. If you want intriguing everyday mysteries that will have you scratching your head, you’re in the right place.


The characters in Hyouka are good, but leave me a little mixed. Each character in Hyouka does a good job of filling their role in the story. Hotaro acts as our detective who’s always one step ahead of the audience. Eru drives the story and Hotaro forward with her curiosity. She also plays a similar role to the audience, acting as a kind of catalyst for Hotaro to drop his exposition on. Satoshi is the self-proclaimed “database” that provides Hotaro with the random necessary information to solve the mysteries. And Mayaka honestly doesn’t have a set role in the story outside of being the kind of bossy one who helps with the mysteries occasionally. That in no way means she’s a bad character. She gets quite a bit of development outside of the classic lit club and their hijinks. I honestly wish every character was like her and stepped out of their role every now and then. What I mean by that is Eru outside of being the curious one, really doesn’t get much development. She’s the one character that I think her role consumes her in a way. I feel like the character are so stuck in their roles at times that they don’t have the chance to develop outside of those roles. This is a mystery anime, so I understand that the main focus should be on the mysteries, but it would’ve been nice to let the characters step out of their shoes for a little bit. In no way does this mean I dislike the characters, they just feel pretty one tone at times. Despite my faults with them, I do still really like these characters. They aren’t perfect and feel real because of that. They’re the type of characters that I’m happy when they’re happy, and get mad at them when they do something stupid. That’s probably why I’m a little hard on them. It’s because I truly care, and want to see the best of them. Most of the episodes in Hyouka involve the characters just sitting down talking to each other. Heck, episode 19 is just Hotaro and Eru sitting in a room for over 20 minutes. When something like that is still interesting to watch, you know must have done something right. Whether it’s interesting because of the characters, the story, the mysteries, or a culmination of everything. You have to admit it’s impressive to make an episode that is essentially an extended conversation interesting.


Where do I even begin? I have one word for the art: stunning. The art in Hyouka is absolutely gorgeous, I can’t think of anything I don’t like about it, or even find average for that matter. Hyouka is colorful, fluid, and outstandingly beautiful as I’ve come to expect from Kyoto Animation. Something that’s completely unnecessary, but is very welcomed is how Hyouka changes up its art. Usually when the gang is putting together a timeline for a mystery or other situations the art will change to a completely different style. One style could look like ancient etchings, while another one uses a lot of pastel colors. Some styles super simple, some more complex than the usual art. There’s a lot of variety that isn’t easy to explain, but it helps make each mystery and episode feel different. Hyouka art is simply timeless. It’s honestly hard to believe something in 2012 looks better than a lot of stuff coming out today. It looks great 7 years after and I’m sure it will look great many more years to come.


Even with Hyouka’s minor faults, it’s just one of those anime that really touched me. It left me with that empty feeling when you finish something good and makes you want more. As far as I know, there still isn’t enough material for a season 2. And while it would definitely be nice, I honestly don’t mind. The ending of Hyouka definitely won’t satisfy everyone, as every ending wouldn’t, but it wraps things up in a nice little bow that leaves me fulfilled. Sometimes it’s best for things to just end. Not everything needs to last forever, nor should they. Hyouka is a beautifully crafted series from beginning to end. The intriguing mysteries of the classic lit club, lovable characters, and breathtaking art formed an experience that I believe is worth a watch. Season 2 or not, I won’t soon forget Hyouka.


With all that being said, this was just my opinion and isn’t any more or less valid than anyone else’s. As always, I highly recommend you watch it for yourself and form your own opinions. Seriously, though, watch it. It’s good.


Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it.


I give Hyouka 9 pen spins out of 10.
(I actually spent time learning how to do that. And no, I don't regret it.)

Companionship is something that most of us long for, in some cases we need it. Even those of us who prefer our alone time tend to enjoy the company of others once in a while. Every type of companionship is different, whether it’s family, friends, your significant other, or a pet, they all have something to offer. One thing I think we can all agree on is there’s nothing quite like the relationship between a person and their pet.

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Subaru Mikazuki is a novelist and complete social shut-in. He has such a distaste for people and relationships in general that he would much rather sit ... alone in his room and read books, never having anything to do with the outside world. Subaru’s parents loved to travel and would always ask for him to come with them, but he refused every time, saying he’ll go next time for sure. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a next time as Subaru’s family died in a car crash on one of their trips. Now Subaru sits alone in his family home, with no idea what his next novel will be, almost never leaving the house even for food. One day when Subaru is visiting his mother's grave he stumbles upon a stray black cat. The cat's strange actions hit Subaru with inspiration for his next novel. Thinking the cat may provide even more inspiration, Subaru takes the cat he (eventually) names Haru into his home and they start their lives together. This anime has an interesting way the episodes progress. Each episode is basically broken up into two parts. You have the first half that focuses on Subaru and the second half where we see somewhat of a retelling of the events from the first half, but through the eyes of Haru. Not all of the episodes follow this formula, but most do. You may think this cheats you out of episode length, but it really doesn’t at all. Enough different stuff happens and seeing everything through the eyes of a cat is entertaining enough to add a lot to the episodes. I’ve never seen an anime tackle this type of approach and I think it works really well for its purpose. For a story about a socially inept writer who takes in a cat, you might expect everything to be sunshine and rainbows, but that isn’t the case. This anime is definitely one of the most wholesome series of the season, nothing can take that away. Even with the wholesomeness, though, this anime tackles some surprisingly heavy stuff at times and manages to mix the lighthearted tone of the series with the occasional serious themes well. I’ve said it before, but I love it when even a lighthearted story knows how to take itself seriously.

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I like the characters in this anime a lot. It’s one of the strongest points for me honestly. I love how each of the side characters aren’t only interesting on their own, but they all also help grow Subaru in some way. For this being a story about a cat you’d expect the main focus to be on the cat. Haru is definitely a major focus, but it’s very much a story about Subaru’s growth as a person and all the people (and cat) who make it possible. The amount of growth Subaru has from the beginning is amazing, but it never happens so fast where it feels rushed. It happens at a slow enough pace where it’s believable that his mind and attitude would start to change. It isn’t like the growth makes him a different person, it’s more that the growth makes him the best version of himself he can be. Everyone in Subaru’s life has a hand in this change, from Subaru’s childhood friend who’s always looked out for him since he was young and continues to buy food for him since he often forgets to eat. Even his editor, who checks in on him when he doesn’t call for a while and pushes him out of his comfort zone. Subaru starts to realize that there are people all around him who care deeply for him and it’s amazing to watch his growth. One of my favorite characters is Nana Okami, a clerk at the pet store Subaru goes to. She teaches Subaru how to care for Haru and he starts to understand that he can’t do everything alone. He learns that books can’t teach you everything and that one of the best ways to learn is to get out there and experience life instead of reading about it. And to think all of this character growth comes from Subaru taking in a pet. So Haru is the most important character in the story in a way. This anime is a testament to all the wonderful things that can happen when you open your heart a little bit.


I have trouble putting into words how I feel about the art in this anime. I want to say it’s kind of unappealing to me, but I can’t exactly figure out why. It doesn’t look horrible, mind you, I just feel weird about it. The characters faces are drawn kind of sharp and their bodies look kind of lanky. That’s really the best way I can explain it. You also have moments where the characters faces get really exaggerated for a joke and the artwork looks good for that, so I do like it at times. The best way I can put it is the type of art this anime has isn’t bad, just not exactly my thing. It falls somewhere in between average and boring for me most of the time.


My Roommate is a Cat had a lot more to offer than I originally expected. What I thought would be a cute little story about a first-time pet owner, ended up being a fantastic story about a cat that changed the life of her owner. It isn’t just a story about a cat. It’s a story about a man who learns to open his heart to the people around him and change for the better. I’m certain Subaru’s parents would be proud of him.


With all that being said, this was just my opinion and isn’t any more or less valid than anyone else’s. As always, I highly recommend you watch it for yourself and form your own opinions.


Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it.

I give My Roommate is a Cat 7 purrs out of 10

Do you ever tease someone? Is there somebody that you just love getting under their skin, or maybe you just love their reactions? Sure, teasing is a lot better when you’re the one doing it. The person getting teased usually doesn’t enjoy it, but teasing typically has no malicious intent. As weird as it seems we often tease the people we love. There are many ways to show affection after all.


Our story centers around Nishikata and Takagi, two friends and classmates who are very competitive with each other. Takagi loves to tease Nishikata whenever the two of them are together, this often leads to ... Nishikata getting in trouble in class. These two love to try and one-up each other, but Takagi is often the winner of their tease battles. “I’ll get her next time,” is what Nishikata often thinks, but will he ever actually get the upper hand? Hilarity ensues as these two friends fight the ultimate tease war, a war that is most definitely one-sided. This may seem like a pretty simplistic concept, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Teasing Master Takagi-san knows exactly what it wants to do and does its best to honor that. It wants to make a sweet and funny love story of two friends who constantly try and get the better of each other, and it does a fantastic job.


There is a very small cast of characters in Teasing Master Takagi-san. Again, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You have Nishikata, our main character who is at the mercy of Takagi, and Takagi, the scarily intelligent master of teasing herself. Nishikata is pretty naive (I want to say stupid at times as well) and is always falling for Takagi’s tricks. You’d think he would catch on to her by now and keep his guard up, but it isn’t entirely his fault, Takagi knows exactly how to manipulate him to get a reaction she wants. She’ll also often manipulate Nishikata to think or say something perverted then viciously tease him for it, again showing how cunning and sometimes cruel Takagi can be. I’d talk about the side characters a bit, but there honestly isn’t that much to talk about. They fall into archetypes for the most part and aren't that memorable. They’re a nice diversion from the tease war and that's about it.


The art isn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s far from bad. There’s aren’t any noticeable quality drops, at least that I’ve noticed. It gets the job done fine. I will say that I don’t think I’ve watched an anime that had character designs quite like these. When I say that I mean Nishikata and Takagi mostly, the rest of the cast is pretty normal. I don’t know what it is, but I just don’t see many characters that look like Nishikata. I also really adore Takagi’s design. Again, I don’t know what it is and can’t exactly put it into words. They both just look different and I love it. Something I love about the opening is how much personality they managed to cram into it. You watch this opening and you get a great look into the characters of both Nishikata and Takagi. You also get a good grasp of who the side characters are in the second or two they’re on screen. I think it’s impressive to get that through in such a short amount of time. The opening song “I Didn’t Say That,” and the whole thing in general just bleeds personality and is really nice. This anime has quite a few endings, 7 to be exact. Now the visuals usually change slightly between each ending, but the song is different for each of them. Having that many songs for a 12 episode series is pretty incredible. They could’ve just had one normal ending for every episode and have one more for the last episode, but they went beyond that. That amount of work definitely deserves some praise. As someone who tends to skip endings unless I really like them, this series is a little wake-up call that will make me watch them for now on. I never want little details to go unnoticed like that again.


I also want to give special credit to Takagi’s VA. I love her voice and her laugh and they both fit Takagi’s character so incredibly well. I couldn’t imagine another voice for Takagi honestly, it’s fantastic.


If you’re looking for a fun anime to watch, one that you don’t have to think too hard about, one where you can just relax and take in the characters and adorable story, you could do a lot worse than Teasing Master Takagi-san. I was originally going to watch this when it was airing, but for one reason or another, I never did. Man, am I glad I came back to it. With all that being said, This was just my opinion and isn’t any more or less valid than anyone else’s. As always I highly recommend you watch it for yourself and form your own opinions.

Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it.

And as a little side note get excited for season 2 this year, I know I am.

I give Teasing Master Takagi-san 8 blushing Nishikata’s out of 10

(Quick disclaimer, this is only a review for season 1)

We all have a part of our past that we’re embarrassed of, pasts that we don’t want to define the person we are now. We all have a side to us that some may find weird, sides that we wish to hide from everyone else. Some of us may even embrace that side no matter what anyone tells us. We may embrace it because we enjoy it, we truly believe it, or maybe because we’re just running away from reality. No matter what that reason is Chuunibyou teaches us that there isn’t anything wrong ... with being a little different than others.


Chuunibyou, or “eighth-grade syndrome” as it is more commonly known, is an odd occurrence that affects children around the start of adolescence. Chuunibyou is typically, but not always, born from the desire to be special, to stand out to people. Chuunibyou can manifest itself in many forms, some of them more extreme than others, such as believing you have an ancient God inside you or believing you have hidden powers that you can barely control, to believing you have the knowledge of all your past lives. Yuuta Togashi is an ex-chuunibyou who enrolls in a high school so far away from his middle school that nobody he knew before should be there. He does this in an attempt to live a normal life and forget about his chuuni past. All seemed to be going well until he gets involved with the very much still chuunibyou, Rikka Takanashi. Rikka claims her right eye is a “Wicked Eye” and wears an eyepatch to contain her powers, this, of course, is nothing but her own delusion getting the best of her. The story progresses as Rikka and Yuuta, along with some of their friends, live out their crazy lives together with all the weirdness that Chuunibyou brings. Despite the odd premise, one of the main themes of Chuunibyou is acceptance. It’s about accepting people for who they truly are. It doesn’t matter if people see you as a little weird. It doesn’t matter if you stand out. You don’t have to be like everyone. You can live your life as you, and be happy doing it. People will eventually accept and even grow to like you for who you are. You wouldn’t expect an anime with such an odd premise to get deep at times, but it really does. I always appreciate when you have a story that doesn’t take itself seriously, but still knows how to make really emotional meaningful moments.


Chuunibyou has a cast of weird, but definitely lovable characters. You have the always airheaded Rikka Takanashi, who is without a doubt lost in her delusional world but does, in fact, realize that she is living in her own delusions. Her being self aware like that creates this odd situation where she’s crazy, but is aware she’s crazy, so even though she is crazy, she actually isn’t. She’s a really interesting character. Yuuta Togashi is a really good main character for the series. Seeing him try and forget about his Chuuni past, and even sometimes getting caught up in it again with the help of Rikka is always cute and fun to see. Yuuta tries to act mature, but you often see him get carried away with things and just have fun which makes him more endearing. The first person to talk to Yuuta when he arrived at high school, Makoto Isshiki, is hopeless when it comes to love, but that never stops him from trying. Yuuta often gives him a hard time but is grateful Isshiki gave him the time of day and became his friend. They do trust each other and their interactions often lead to really funny parts of the series. There’s also Shinka Nibutani, elected number 1 in the class most beautiful girl competition. She’s a girl everyone wants to be, or be with. This is how she seems on the surface, but after getting involved with the chuuni gang, she starts to show her true colors more. She’s a lot blunter when she speaks, even harsh at times. She also often gets in fights with Sanae Dekomori, another chuunibyou and one of Rikka’s only friends as well as her faithful servant. Dekomori acts childish most of the time but is actually very intelligent. Her “power” is Mjolnir, her twin tails that she swings around like nunchucks. There’s also Kumin Tsuyuri, the professional napper of the group. Kumin is a bit of an odd character. She usually goes with the flow and acts obviously, but there are times when she acts like the upperclassmen she is to the gang and helps them out when they need it. Because of this it is a bit hard to get a grasp on her character at times. This character section went a little long so I’ll just talk about Rikka and Yuuta’s families together. I really enjoy an anime where the main cast actually has family around. Rikka’s sister Toka really wants her to break from her delusions because she cares about Rikka and wants her to face reality and live a normal life. She tries to break Rikka from her delusions with force, this leads to Rikka believing her sister is evil. Yuuta family is unfortunately not shown much, but I always laugh at Toka’s interactions with his youngest sister, Yumeha. Yuuta also has another sister, Kuzuha, who’s slightly younger than him, but gets more or less no screen time. Same is true for his mother and father, with the exception that his father gets absolutely no screen time and is only talked about.


The art in Chuunibyou is gorgeous. It’s colorful, fluid, there isn’t really any noticeable drops in quality, and all around looks great. Where the art really stands out is how they use the visuals to sell certain jokes, or just make something funny happen in the background. I laughed so many times from just the simple unnecessary things they animate, it just makes everything so much funnier and charming than it has a right to be. The visuals when we get to see through the eyes of our chuunies is also great. It’s like Chuunibyou suddenly decides to become an action anime, before reminding you that it’s a comedy by showing what’s actually happening outside the character’s delusions.
I don’t have much to say about the opening or ending songs. The opening, “Sparkling Daydream,” fits the anime well enough. We get to see a little bit of the characters personalities throughout, which is always a plus. This opening is also the origin of the popular “Rikka Finger Spin” meme so of course, I need to mention that. The ending song, “Inside Identity,” is a lot more intense in both visuals and music compared to the opening. Nothing against the opening, but I find Inside Identity to be more catchy and overall just more enjoyable.


I just want to do a small section here dedicated to the VAs. These Characters are voiced perfectly. I want to give special attention to Yuuta, Rikka, and Dekomori’s VAs, but really everyone did an amazing job. Chuunibyou also has a pretty solid dub, which I’d also recommend.


From beginning to end Chuunibyou is a funny, beautiful look through all the weirdness that this “disease” can bring. For all of its comedy and crazy antics, there is a lot we can learn from Chuunibyou. We can learn that there isn’t any wrong with living in your own world, you just need to have the courage to face reality as well. Regardless of what anyone thinks, just be yourself and be happy, your happiness is the most important thing after all. This was my second time watching through it and I loved it so much more than I did the first time. I watched Chuunibyou for the first time probably about 5 years ago at this point. Man, time flies. With all that being said, this was just my opinion. My opinion isn’t any more or less valid than anyone else’s. As always I highly recommend you watch it for yourself and form your own opinions.


Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it.

I give Chuunibyou 9 wicked lords out of 10.