MANGA READING CHALLENGE 1st Manga Completed: ChocoMimi 10th Manga Completed: Kasane 20th Manga Completed: Hoshi Mamoru Inu
Truthfully, I have been interested in anime-esque media since I was young, to the point of taking out 'How to Draw Manga' books from my school library when I was younger. The only movies I had watched during my adolescence were the most major Studio Ghibli movies like 'Spirited Away', 'Howl's Moving Castle', and 'The Cat Returns'.
I have loved animation since my childhood, watching Disney/Pixar movies and Western cartoons like Looney Tunes. With the formal introduction to anime by some online friends and some senior members of my university's anime club, I have become enthralled with the medium and would like to explore every genre possible! It has become my new medium of entertainment and creative appreciation: particularly because I am very appreciative of different art styles. I love how anime acts as a medium, and not a 'genre', for such a variety of stories!
If you cannot tell already, I am not picky with genre. I am firm believer that any story, no matter how serious or ridiculous, can be good if it is well-executed and/or entertaining to me. Therefore, I do not hold stories with more adult themes and darker messages/tone than I do other those that are more light-hearted or silly. Additionally, my ratings follow the numerical system with its value grading given on this website. (though I do know other users interpret the scale differently).
I can understand how difficult it is to produce a good piece of media and that taste is subjective. Thus, I do my best to be fair and openminded with regards to any thoughts I may have.
My other hobbies include: reading (I am focusing on classics right now), playing video games (from adventurous Nintendo games to puzzle games like Portal to serious series like the Batman Arkham series), drawing (as my main creative outlet), working out, and being in nature (as I am a science student who is attempting at a career in conservation).
Here are my thoughts surrounding anime that I have decided to drop:
Silver Spoon: The kind of characters portrayed were nothing new to me, but I did feel the agricultural setting was a pleasing shift in environment that I thought would be a 'breath of fresh air' in terms of story-telling (considering how amusing it could be to have a city boy become involved with the hard work and sacrifices of agriculture for the first time). Ultimately, I thought the comedy and bizarre animation contrasted too much against the hurdles of being at an agricultural school, and of the serious themes like achieving dreams, success versus effort, dreams, sacrifice etc.
K: I liked the animation well-enough, but found the action and slow-motion scenes to be choppy. I found myself not caring for the characters. I thought the fantastical elements were jarring against the crime-esque settings of turf wars.
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic: I thought this show was going to be set up as a fun, fantastical journey with a main trio. However, I felt like any character development was either lost the moment the characters were separated OR was jarring for the sake of comedy that I don’t think fit the genre (such as Aladdin’s perversions with his gentle wisdom). It also did appear that the antagonists were the same, one-note, self-entitled, sadistic elitists.
Aldnoah.Zero: I could barely get through the first episode for this one. The animation is passable, but there wasn't a single character that was entertaining or interesting to me. I had a feeling that this was going to be an extremely 'black-and white' conflict that would offer nothing new, so I dropped it to not waste my time.
Rurouni Kenshin: This anime had a lot of potential to be a good samurai story on military power, oppression, and the nature of justice and evil for me. However, the weird stylistic choices and goofy moments of slapstick were really distracting and ruined any immersion for me. It didn’t help that I thought the other protagonists, Kaoru and Yahiko, were reckless and obnoxious for me to watch. Kenshin, as a very strong character who is attempting to atone for his violent past to work towards a better world without being an executioner, was the only interesting character that held my attention. For this reason, I may watch the prequel that describes his life before he became an atoner instead.
Lost Song: I wanted to give this NetFlix anime a shot because I was initially drawn into the premise of weaponized song, particularly in the idea of contrasting heroines by social class within the backdrop of war. It’s unfortunate that the animation quality appeared to drop off when the plot started to pick up (except for the backgrounds). I ended up thinking that the emotional segments and royal love triangle with the privileged heroine Finis were advancing too quickly with what little was shown. Most of the characters, except maybe Henry, were one-note and uninteresting (where this was an example of cliches being annoying rather than simply entertaining).
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