Chungky’s Mini Fall/Winter Anime Rant – Tonari No Kaibutsu-kun | Kamisama Hajimemashita | Suki-tte Ii Na Yo

Welcome to my short winter anime rant post! Why a mini and not a thorough cover of winter anime? Because first of all, I’ve always been a more manga-oriented person. Second, I don’t watch anime as extensively even though I love it(kind of overlaps with point one but oh well…). Third, I only watch what I like, as in, I don’t really bother to check up on things that I don’t normally venture into(which is kind of hypocritical, unless people HIGHLY recommend it). Fourth point is unnecessary, but watching everything is a bit insane.

【企画】ポフィンをどうぞ【ぴくトレ】 by patty

If you found the top part of this post pointless(which probably is) please read on!

The one thing in common between these three anime(besides being romance & shoujo) is that I followed all three of the manga series right from when they were serialised. When it was announced that all three were getting an anime this winter season, I had this hipster moment and obviously I couldn’t help but cry out to people that “I TOLD YOU SO.” It’s quite satisfying to know that manga that I’ve followed from the beginning(back when no one even heard of them) managed to receive anime adaptations. I guess in that sense it kind of tells us avid manga readers that they’ve made the cut(shallow comment).

Now to the anime. Only one was impressive. The other two were pretty disappointing and I’m kind of holding back a nasty word to describe them. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun exceeded my expectations. Kamisama Hajimemashita was average though it did have it’s little bright moments(nevertheless disappointing). As for Suki-tte Ii Na Yo, don’t even get me started. Pardon my French, but I thought this was absolutely horrid to put quite bluntly. At one point I saw a glimmer of light at the middle but boo…

I initially written a more comprehensive post but I decided to give each of these series an individual post since I was going way over the limit of a rant.

I’ll start from my absolutely favourite to the the absolute hated.

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun | The Monster Seated Next to Me

So let’s start with Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun.

One-Shot for the Weekend – Natsu Yasumi Zero Zero Nichime

Natsu Yasumi Zero Zero Nichime (夏休みゼロゼロ日目) | 00 Day of Summer Holiday

Mang-aka: Akizuki Sorata

Genre: Romance, School Life, Shoujo, Slice of Life

Sometimes love visits you in the most simple yet unexpected moments in our daily lives. Where love can come in even a form of a pop of a bubble, to give us the courage we need to take our relationships.

Originally published in Aoi Lala by Hakusensha.

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You’d think that because it’s winter, we’d toss out a winter themed recommendation. Or perhaps choosing a summer one-shot for the winter is way predictable? After a few weeks of adjusting my life in the States again, I hope to start blogging more consistently. Akizuki Sorata has been one of my favourite manga artists of all time, it’s strange that I’ve never really pushed her work as strong as I may have done but I do have my own reasons and frankly, she doesn’t need that extra publicity anyway. Her work can pretty much do all the talking and I hope to cover her most popular work in the near future. I chose a summer one-shot because I really need a bit of warming up, like literally. The temperature just plummeted 20 degrees and my sister has been sending me photos of London being thrashed by snow. I dislike snow unfortunately. I’ve also been suffering silently in my room freezing and I’ve just bought a portable heater to make myself feel like a normal human being.

But weather-y rants aside. This is a breath of fresh air for those who need some escape from the wintry months both physically and emotionally. In some ways summer is about being carefree – do whatever you want and be adventurous and in this instance, in love. Summer love is a strange little thing, it’s always associated with pain and everything seems to fall apart after the sweaty season. But yet, most of us are willing to go through it again, whether we be hurt or not. I believe in taking the plunge. This one-shot is fresh, the scenario is new, but with the nostalgic summer spirit of bubbles cascading in the air. The characters are normal, familiar, they aren’t blown up just like slice of life is suppose to be. And with Akizuki Sorata at the helm, she never fails to add her poetic touch and remind us that reality is often just as sweet as the imagination. So here’s my current winter manifesto, take the harsh winter with a summer heart. Or for some, embrace winter with a mind full of snow(quoting Wallace Stevens).

Rating: 4.5/5

One-Shot for the New Week/Year – Adolte and Adarte

Adolte and Adarte (アードルテとアーダルテ)

Manga-ka: Nakamura Asumiko

Genres: Drama, Fantasy, Seinen

A one-shot about twins both living opposite lives. Will they ever find something in common with each other apart from their physical appearance? And how different will they be if they ever trade places?

Originally published in Poco Poco by Ohta Shuppan.

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One-shot reviews/recommendations has always been a very Manga Weekend thing, so before we leave New Year too soon here is a one-shot post. The one-shot I picked isn’t exactly mind-blowing or exceedingly impressive but in any case, one that I want to wish you all a good year with.

It’s simple, straightforward and predictable. We find twins separated by birth who eventually find their way in life, that we can always start fresh even though we remember our roots and past misgivings. It’s about breaking the status-quo in a way and off to start a new adventure. That itself is common, cliche and straightforward, but what comes after this story, we don’t know but it’s hopeful and that is what I want to wish all of you. There were nasty themes in this one-shot, like greed and regret but in the end, we watch people move forward. Let our lives be a constant testament that there will be a brighter tomorrow no matter what has happened. If 2012 was good to you, I hope 2013 will be even better.

Rating: 2.7/5

Nostalgia : Reminiscing – The Last Unicorn

I was chatting to arawr earlier and she happened to be lurking on our own blog. That what a good time we had blogging and how we should just change our blog name to M.W.W.W. Manga whenever we want. I Loled so hard.

But save that for later. Allow me to reminisce about The Last Unicorn. Or more like fake reminiscing since I never watched or heard of it until last week. Isn’t the Renaissance style picture of The Last Unicorn so befitting for M.W? Since we’re almost non-existent.

I came across The Last Unicorn when I bought a shirt with the poem from the novel embroidered on it. It was thought provoking deep and also plain depressing. But, I was never a bunch of sunflowers anyway. On the shirt contained part of the poem called Eli’s Song and here it is below:

What is plucked will grow again,
What is slain lives on,
What is stolen will remain—
What is gone is gone.

What is sea-born dies on land,
Soft is trod upon.
What is given burns the hand—
What is gone is gone.

Here is there, and high is low;
All may be undone.
What is true no two men know—
What is gone is gone.

Who has choices need not choose.
We must, who have none.
We can love but what we lose—
What is gone is gone.

If this isn’t the epitome of beauty and sadness merged into one, I have no idea what is.

I knew this poem had to be from somewhere, so I researched and found out it was from The Last Unicorn. There’s something extraordinarily dangerous about the topic of unicorns. From my experience, the idea of unicorns always induces jokes or other ‘nasty’ connotations. Say the word unicorn and I think of this large teenage boy attempting to fly screaming “I’m a unicorn,” as a joke between his friends. But basically, I was a bit taken back. When I first saw the poster picture of The Last Unicorn, it felt incredibly nostalgic, it was the same feeling I got when I re-watched Fern Gully except I never even heard let alone watched The Last Unicorn before. This was the type of movie we all watch as kids and hold onto because we grew up with them. Forget the Disney movies, these movies were more in lined with the Ghibli films because of one thing, they don’t exactly have a happy ending which I believe contributes hugely to their epic-ness-ness.