Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin – The Primal State of Being

Indeed.

This post contains spoilers.

A few weeks ago, if you had asked me what Attack on Titan was, I’d be like – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, WHATEVER. MOVING ON.

Ahem, that would’ve been an extremely annoying response. But who cares now!? Few weeks in, I’m following the anime religiously and even re-watching it like a cow regurgitating grass. Horrible imaginary, true; but very much like the grotesque portrayal of the Titans themselves no(ok, I suppose that imagery was more gross than grotesque.)? I’m not sure about depiction of titans is in the manga, (arawr does though, so ask her what she thinks) but I nearly fainted when I saw it animated. The whole nature of the anime is quite unforgiving.

A little bit like this:

And showing how a titan chomps down the protagonist’s mother.

So hey, what was my initial response? Well, dear reader, you shouldn’t need to ask since I’m about to tell you anyway!

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.

——

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.

One-Shot on an Impulse – Pinocchio Dreams

Pinocchio Dreams (ピノッキオは夢を見る)

Manga-ka: Fujitsuka Yuki

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, School Life, Sci-fi,  Shoujo, Supernatural, Tragedy

Fubuki’s dog, Chloe, gets hit by a car. Kio spots her and tells her to come with him to save Chloe. After Toba Daisuke, who is famous to weirdo, saves Chloe, Fubuki finds out Kio is a robot! She is shocked and creeped out but they eventually become friends. 

The final one-shot in the Kara no Shounen(Empty Boy) anthology by Fujitsuka Yuki, published by Hakusensha. 

———-

It’s been a long while since we’ve posted anything, but I won’t go into details about our MIA-ness until I feel like blabbing so. Allow me to release upon anyone of you, a post I wrote on impulse, as well as a homage to our most frequent and fun posts – the one-shot recommendations. So how did I get inspired to write about this one-shot? It has to do with a game that some of you might heard of and that is, the League of Legends(which I have been quite obsessed with, although I’m totally into Diablo 3 at the moment). My favourite ‘champion’ or character, to make things simpler, is called Orianna – the lady of clockwerk. So each ‘champion’ or character has a lore and Orianna has a very sad story in which she is a product of her creator’s effort to replace his real daughter called Orianna. It’s a tragic story, but how does Pinocchio Dreams compare?

Well, the only relation is that both stories feature a character that is created through advanced technology. I’ve always been enthralled by the idea of robots learning and attempting to be more like humans, its melancholic yet so soft and gentle(not Orianna though, she’s a killing machine). It’s about a conscience that grows from childhood innocence into a character with much stature and care though they risk being insensitive which often leads to confusion. But, sometimes, the mere act of thought, the act of thinking, is enough to touch one’s heart. Pinocchio Dreams really unleashes a wave of emotions within me. Emotions that I would compare to ‘sympathy’ or ‘pity,’ but really not the words to describe so. It’s positive, full of heart and love. It is hopeful and sweet, melancholic. Like life, its fleeting, yet it is timeless, because those feelings that are experienced, will be remembered for a lifetime.

“It’s the thought that counts right?” – Kio, from Pinocchio Dreams

Fujitsuka Yuki is a great mang-aka, her art is unique and distinguishable, girly and manga-y(not sure myself what that means), yet they convey all the character’s emotions, and her story-telling beautiful. I have written about another one-shot from the same anthology before – Sunny Spots Typhoon, and I highly recommend the entire anthology. This one-shot is one of the best I’ve read and I love re-visiting it, over and over again. This one-shot was first published in Lala DX in 2006 and after being compiled in the Kara no Shounen anthology, Fujitsuka Yuki included a short little continuation which is just bliss.

A rather lengthy rant for a one-shot. Have a good week, and perhaps, we will meet again soon.

Overall Rating: 5/5

-chungky

Curtain Close for The iDOLM@STER

The iDOLM@STER ( アイドルマスター)

Based on the XBOX 360 game The iDOLM@STER 2, The iDOLM@STER follows 13 aspiring idols aiming to reach their goals

Genre: Comedy, Music, Slice-of-life

Status: Completed at 25 episodes

Co-directed by Takao Touko and Nishigori Atsushi. Produced by Aniplex and A-1 Pictures.

———

First of all, we wish you a rather belated MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone as well as a HAPPY NEW YEAR! MW just turned one year old a few months back, and the stark difference in the amount of things going on in our life compare to back then is.. @_@

A year ago we had so much plans with how far we could take MW (or at least Chungky did, while I gave my pessimistic input) but now we’re simply too busy to execute it even when we have the platform to do so. Writing it down in solid form reminds me of the ending of The Idolmaster, actually. That said, this post does contain spoilers, but in general what I think is appealing about this anime isn’t it’s story as much as the characters themselves so go ahead and read on =D

After not writing anything up for so long, I’ve chosen to do a post for The Idolmaster as compared to something else like maybe Mawaru Penguindrum. When I thought about it, I did look forward to Mawaru Penguindrum a lot more and I did enjoy it a lot more, but since I know that there’s a much larger fan base for it, and time constraints are only gonna let me do a single post for now, I’ll leave it to the other fans to do it justice =D Most of all though, I’m hoping this review would encourage those people who were turned off by the whole ‘yet another harem’ label attached to The Idolmaster to see that it’s an anime about the idols rather the male protagonist – after all, it’s not exactly a dating sim.

Special Summer Rant – Mawaru Penguindrum

Mawaru Penguindrum (輪るピングドラム) / Revolving Penguin Drum

Three siblings, twins Kanba and Shouma, and the in-and-out-of-the-hospital Himari who’s in poor health, live together at the Takakura home. One day, when the siblings are out on a trip to the aquarium, Himari collapses. The doctors state that nothing can be done for her anymore, but then, a miracle occurs…

Genre: Slice of life, Comedy, Fantasy

Status: Currently airing, planned for 24 episodes

Directed by Ikuhara Kuniko (Sailormoon and Revolutionary Girl Utena), who also did the script, screenplay and series composition. Produced by Brain’s Base and Mainichi Broadcasting.

———

It’s official. This is my favourite for the season. This summer where there’s a significant cesspool of not-so-great anime, this is like the Madonna among the Jenna Roses. I really, really liked the way the narration started and ended that first episode about fate – yes, there have been stories that went all ‘UP YOURS, FATE AND DESTINY!’, but this monologue went into a whole cycle and chain of why fate is Hitler. It’s probably what ensnared me from the beginning.

The fact that the OP (Nornir by Ruetsuko Yakushima Metropolitan Orchestra) that followed just next to tugged my heartstrings and pulled out my heart probably has a lot to do with how I’m obsessing over this after the first friggin episode.

Figurine – Natsume Yujincho 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Natsume Takashi by Alter

Product name: Natsume Yujin-Cho 1/8 Takashi Natsume Complete Figure

Manufacturer: Alter

Product Line: Altair

Original Title: Natsume Yujincho (Natsume’s Book of Friends)

Character(s): Natsume Takashi & Madara (Nyanko-sensei)

Copyright: Midorikawa Yuki, Hakusensha

Sculptor: Naoto Moriwaki & Mirano

Specifications: Complete Pre-painted PVC Figure
Size: appx. 180mm (1/8 scale)
Includes base

Release Date: 07/2010

Original Price: 7140 Yen (including tax)

From the heart-rending, nostalgic anime Natsume’s Book of Friends comes a beautiful new 1/8 scale statue of Takashi Natsume himself! Takashi, a boy born with a natural ability to see spirits, is posed on a super-detailed 3D base along with his companion, the spirit Madara, or Nyanko-sensei. Depicted taking it easy in a natural setting, everything from the ripples of the water (created with clear materials), to the moss on the tree have been faithfully reproduced. You can even detach the kimono Takashi has over his shoulder for more display possibilities.

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Wooohooo! My first ever figurine and it’s marvelous I say! Extremely happy & very satisfied! I’ve scanned the front box cover (the first pic) and other illustrations on the box since they’re gorgeous and I’m sure you’ll all love them!

Anime Amped! Mahō Shōjo Madoka★Magica (魔法少女まどか★マギカ)

Mahō Shōjo Madoka★Magica (魔法少女まどか★マギカ)

Beloved family, good friends, laughter and tears – these things make up the ordinary life of Kaname Madoka, a second year student of Mitakihara City Middle School. One night, Madoka dreams of a mysterious dark haired girl struggling against a terrible evil; the next morning she discovers that the girl, Akemi Homura, has transferred into her class. This encounter will lead to an incident which will alter Madoka’s fate forever.

Genre: Fantasy, Psychological, Thriller, Tragedy, Magic, School Life

Status: Currently airing, planned for 12 episodes.

Directed by Shinbou Akiyuki, produced by Aniplex, Shaft and Nitroplus. Written by Urobuchi Gen with original character design by Aoki Ume and music by Kajiura Yuki.

Rated PG13 (bloodless violence)

arawr: Okay, I actually looked up the rating and some sites said R17 and others PG13. This isn’t a kid’s show but I don’t think it’s that adult either, so I chose the lower boundary.

———

I started watching Madoka Magica under the (very) insistent recommendation of my brother – who I had strongly suspected to have gone mentally deranged back home while I was away – I mean, he was telling me to go watch a mahou shoujo anime. There was no way I was gonna watch some sort of PreCure show – then he started going on about what it really was about. I would say he glorified it a little too much since it didn’t meet the sort of earth shattering impact I thought it would  – but, despite all that I do believe that Madoka Magica is worth the watch for the Winter 2011 anime lineup.