Chiesu-desu! Looks like I was right about the new episode image showing that Winter’s approaching. What better time to emphasize love? I’ve always found that people are “warmer” in the winter any way. And so this episode titled “Chizuru’s Love” is obviously about love. I really didn’t expect them to expand on a romance besides the one between Kazehaya and Sawako. And what a treat it was. I also wasn’t expecting this kind of arc to work its way to the ending of the series. I actually have some qualms about the arc though, because if my hunch is right, they’re going to make this one a bit dramatic (you’ll see as I expand on the episode itself) that it might outshine the Sawako-Kurumi arc. That shouldn’t really be the case because this anime’s premise does surround Sawako more than it does Chizuru… but anyhow, episode 18!

“And nearing the end of the series.” Unfortunately.

The episode opens up with Sawako thinking about how there’s only a month left to the ani… to the year. It appears Yoshida’s also really excited for the final… for the end of the year. And it really shows in her mood. You could kind of say she glows. But she’s not the only one glowing, Kazehaya walks in and gets some of the spotlight. Though he comes in with some bed head, I wonder if anyone else spotted that on the first time through?  It actually makes him look a lot better in my opinion… though I shouldn’t be lingering on this… just because.

“My bed head’s worse than that by over 9000 units of win.”

“If you weren’t the lead character of this anime, I would have totally called her a stalker.”

“Except I didn’t do that, now did I?”

But we can’t have everything so bright and cheery. Yano seems to have come into some bumps in her relationship with the college guy and has donned Sawako’s trademark ominous aura. Sawako thinks a bit about the relationships around her, especially the one-sided one between Ryuu and Yoshida. I didn’t really get what she meant when she said that, “Chizu-chan and Sanada-kun almost seem like they’re breathing the same air…” Of course they’re breathing the same air… after it having been breathed by John Wilkes Booth who breathed it from Edgar Allan Poe who received this same bit of air from that ridiculously large hole in Darvaza, Turkmenistan that continues to burn natural gas since 1971( I know that is chronologically incorrect, but so was “The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi” and it worked out. Now what say you?)…

Yeah… that one. Of course they’re breathing the same air, they’re kind of right in front of each other. Hopefully breathing.

The episode continues with Yoshida visiting Ryu’s house and inquiring about what Ryu wants for his birthday… and once again about New Years. Seems like something big is going to happen on New Years. They continue to keep us out in the shadows when Ryu gets a call about something happening in the next week. I actually really like it this way, it gives the viewer more of a reason to prevent themselves from getting distracted to have mini-cliffhangers throughout.

It appears Yoshida wants to go out shopping and so Sawako tags along. Turns out it’s a gift for Ryu ( YES! ). Though Yano can’t join, still donning her “aura” and saying that she needs to meet up with her boyfriend…

“Bai bai”

It oddly transits (Yes, that is in fact, correct usage.) to a scene of one of Kazehaya’s friends, Joe (Inoue Joe? [Is Joe a common Japanese name nowadays?]), confessing to a girl. Apparently she always sending him “hot vibes” …

“Yeah. That guy.”

“Yeah. That guy.”

“I would like to clarify that your vision is not messed up and that the image itself has a blur effect.”

Poor guy gets rejected. Rather, she didn’t even know he was. Ouch. But I think it was a good touch to this episode, it actually did have a purpose, and you’ll see that later on.

Transit back to Yoshida and Sawako at a mall. Yoshida decides to get Ryuu a baseball mitt sack (Initially I thought it was a pair of boxers). Later on in the day, Sawako can no longer hold herself back and finally asks Yoshida if there was somebody she liked. Both Sawako and I were thinking it’s probably Ryu… yet Yoshida comes out with a shocker…

“WUT?” “Where did that come from? Seriously.”

But Chizu appears to be a girl in love and she actually looked cuter in this episode. But then this brings a few things to light. That Ryu’s love for Chizuru is one-sided and that it must hurt for the one he likes to like his brother. Yet, when Kazehaya and Ryu are talking, Ryu seems happy about his brother coming home. Is he hurt or not?

The next day, Yoshida and Sawako are browsing a magazine and whoops Freudian slip, she reveals that she wants to get clothes for Ryu’s brother, Tohru. Enter Yano. Out with the good mood.

Wow. It appears that Yano got slapped for speaking her mind to her boyfriend (now ex).

Enter Joe. In with the good mood. Joe comes in and declares their companionship as broken hearts.

“This event marks the creation of ‘The Lonely Hearts Club’ ”

So earlier on I mentioned the importance of Joe’s rejection. Well it tied in with Yano’s own broken heartedness and really emphasizes on the situation between Ryu and Chizuru. Is Ryu also broken hearted in this situation?

By the end of the episode it becomes clear that Ryu’s finding it increasingly difficult to tell Yoshida of Tohru coming.

All in all it was a good episode, that really brought out more of a dramatic plot than the Kurumi one did in my opinion. I really had the feeling that the series would go downhill after Kurumi’s arc but it turns out it’s only going up. Still, I feel that if this arc outshines the rest of the series, it would have done little justice to the premise of Sawako and Kazehaya’s romance.

Screen block nao?

Yay. New episode image! Seems kind of winter themed. I wonder if it’s come to that point in the series? This episode was a sweet little one, Sawako gets to introduce her new friends to her family, see Kazehaya and Maru again, and “heal” Pin-sensei. Goes to show that this one’s chock full with win. So why not make this a win post and be a bit more creative with this one?

A day in the life of Sawako Kuronuma

( ^_^)／ やぁ！ everyone.

Today was such a great day!

Every morning, I feed rice to the cute little birds outside ( *v* ) They got really close today. After that, I go for a jog. Along the way I pick up all kinds of trash. :3 It’s just a little something I’ve gotten used to doing. “Do one good deed a day”  I want the world to be clean and refreshing… (o////o) I wasn’t thinking of anyone in particular…  Then I go home and shower. It’s always refreshing to take a shower after a nice jog. After my shower, I usually clean and eat breakfast… except today was a bit different. I took quite some time deciding what to wear and how to arrange the things in my room today. I was trying to make my room as cute as possible :3 Because Chizu-chan and Ayane-chan came over today! Before they came over I was making a cake so we could enjoy it together, but I found out that they brought cake for us (and my parents too! <3)  (≧∇≦). I was somewhat regretting making the cake, I wish I prepared something less sweet. Too much sugar might be bad for us (^_^). Dad seemed a bit tense when he first met Chizu-chan and Ayane-chan but afterwords he spent a lot of time staring at them ( ^-^; ). We looked at a lot of pictures together and some were even from the party after the sports festival. There were some pictures of me and Kazehaya-kun. Though I was asleep ( -.- )zz. I can’t believe I did something like that with Kazehaya though ( *////*). Ayane-chan said something a bit shocking :3 Confessing…love…kyaa!~ I don’t think I could do that… yet, I wouldn’t be able to support someone else who did… like Kurumi-chan.. I wonder how many rivals I will make? ( ^-^ ) I haven’t talked to Kurumi in awhile. We started telling ghost stories, but Chizu-chan insisted on going down to wash the dishes. Maybe she likes cleaning? Chizu-chan was on the phone when she got back and it turns out it was Kazehaya-kun! Apparently, Arai-sensei got sick and he wanted my help. I saw him the other day taking out adult videos from the store for research. I wonder what kind of documentaries he watched. But he looked kind of pale the other day. It was such a good day ( ^-^ ) I got to see Kazehaya-kun and Maru-chan again! Maru-chan didn’t growl so much this time!\( ^ 0 ^ )/ We waited for Arai-sensei to get better and then went off to home. It was pretty late though. Arai-sensei gave me some advice before we left and Kazehaya-kun walked me home. ( ^////^ ) Every moment I spend with him feels special… It’s time for me to sleep. Today was a great day
( ^ – ^ )/ Oyasuminasai. 

Well, there we have it. I really liked this episode, had a lot of silly moments and I especially loved Ryu’s attachment to Maru. His expression when Ryu first sees Maru, and then his expression when he has to leave Maru. Totally priceless! It also brought in a large contrast to his often emotionless, and blunt personality. Also, there was the scene with Sawako and Pin at the video store. Then there was the time with Kazehaya nursing Pin xD. Lastly to top it off was the scene with Kazehaya and Sawako in the end…

“Kazehaya was most likely a girl in his past life.” “Might have even been a nurse.”

“Seems like he listens to the Red Hot Chili Peppers” Are they popular in Japan?

Screenblock nao? Just experimenting a bit with the screenblocks, click a picture to enlarge.

Remember the days when we watched sailor moon? Or our first manga? Remember the feeling just after reading or waking up every saturday morning because a new pokemon was being captured? I still remember them and now there are many new emerging “otakus”   in the USA, Australia and many other English speaking parts of the world who feel how I felt. They’re not just reading the manga. They’re living and breathing pages of them. Volumes, series, collections of them. Everywhere, people are reading or watching their favorite characters, actions, shojo, mystery, it’s all fun.

Who here dislikes that?

Me.

It’s been over 10 years since I’ve watched the 1st episode of pokemon back when Misty was still around and Yugioh wasn’t about dueling on bikes. When I first started really getting into Japan’s complex world of “animation” I read Magic Knight Rayearth by CLAMP, recommended by my friend. I was interested by the artwork, no one here in the states had anything like this. So I continued reading my manga in the local bookstore whenever I was in town, and just sat there and read since mangas are so much more expensive here than in Japan.

For the first few years I watched all the major animes that came from bookstores since I had no idea that animes were also from visual novel games or other sources like anime that isn’t licensed. For about some months/years I didn’t watch it very much since I was also getting into RPG games and so I wanted to focus on that instead. In my guild, they’d say something about a popular anime, and at the time I would agree if I liked it. At this point in time I wouldn’t.

And now, to the present. After I stopped playing RPGs for a while, I somehow got back into anime watching after hearing about all the new animes from Chase and looking at an anime blog dedicated to Code Geass, but with funny, sarcastic humor. [Part of which how I got into blogging]

Now not to diss fellow manga readers but to reflect my views of this strange culture. Why do some resent newcomers and others don’t? Most of us “otaku” are a bit more refined in tastes in blogs, following the latest series, talking more in depth of what we saw, reviewing in a professional sense. I myself am kinda resentful towards new people, but to say I would confront them because doing so is rude and spoiling their happiness. I once tried to open an anime club at my school, but seeing the people I have seen, and an anime club guide based off of Geshiken, I noticed many things that seemed a bit odd, so I just dropped the idea.

1) They’re hooked on so much licensed animes they praise it.

Narutards, bleach fans? Those who buy all those volumes of manga on a plot that extends well over 30 volumes when the main plot is already done? That’s fine still reading long series, but when they constantly talk about it and blah…it gets annoying a bit. Most new otakus are either fangirls/boys of long series, but I can understand why.

2) From drawing for over 5 years, most art is…

Well, it’s fine to show appreciation for a certain series, but showing off art and calling it good when it’s totally uneven and disproportionate? No way. Even I can draw better [not to brag] and I don’t think I’m totally good at yet. I got a lot to go before I can sell it off to people or call it “perfectly good”. Although opinions unlimited, I think some can agree with me that calling bad art good, is bad.

3) Learning Japanese

Sure we might say some Japanese phrases with our friends in a joking matter, but I don’t like people who go beyond the anime and imitate Japanese people. Going around in a kimono is fine, anyone is free to do that and learn a new culture, acting wapanese and asking an Asian a Japanese question/or stating something in Japanese isn’t. Bad example I know, but my point is some take it a bit too far and make it bad.

4) The only subject you’ll hear

As my experiences with friends that are into manga and other people around my area that are, they never seem to not talk about anything else or leave out manga in a conversation. Some are so immersed in it, it seems they have nothing else to talk about other than that. People are free to do whatever they want to do, but it’s just annoying in some ways when you hear the same thing over and over, and you just want to talk about something else without the conversation wandering to anime. I know some people like to talk about that all day long, for me I don’t since I’m not very hardcore.

By no means do I want to shame the people I know in real life, but perhaps it is just me with issues. Again, people are free to do whatever they want, and it would be rude to interfere. Is anime a special hobby where things are still tense and not many people know of it and the people that do try to keep it “pure” as possible? Should all the above be open and accepted as just a normal thing? As more and more people embrace this popular culture, more and more scenerios like above will happen. Who knows how much more anime will become more mainstream[In US?], and this somewhat awkwardness will disappear.

This episode’s a re-cap of everything that has happened in Kimi ni Todoke thus far.
“Was a recap really necessary?”
“Why do they do recaps?”

Those questions came to mind when I first watched the episode. Generally recaps are to recall the ongoings of the series to allow the audience to remember some key things before the coming arc/scenario. I’ve seen it done in long-winded series’ like Reborn! but I haven’t quite seen it like this in a series only expected to run for 24 episodes. But you never know, they may have something in store for the viewers.

Now in terms of the episode itself, the recap was interestingly presented through the little ghost men (Does anyone know what they’re referred to as? Little ghost men is just so inconvenient) that Pin sees. I found it to be interesting, but also a kind of smack in the face for the viewer. One thing as a writer, one must take care not to assume that their audience isn’t able to think recall for themselves. We’re a smart bunch aren’t we now? The ghosts recall some key things, and rather than telling you about them, why don’t we do our own visual recall with an image extensive screenblock!

There you have it, my own visual recap of Kimi ni Todoke. \o/ 7 more episodes to go (if I did my maths correctly).

Sorry for a month absence. When I installed my new motherboard, turns out that was faulty as well, so I had to order a new one and got that one replaced.

As for anime episode reviews…I don’t know whether to start over with a new series, continue, quit, or do something different. I kinda don’t want to be boring with my entries, but I think it would be fun just to talk about other things. I know I wanted to do something different than reviews on my old blog, I just never did it.

So from now onwards, I’mma see what else I can do rather than episode reviews.

Happy Belated Val day. x-x

Could this be the conclusion of Kurumi’s antagonistic ways?! The one episode to end this long-winded rumors arc (it ended a few episodes ago, but they just kept on coming back to it…).

The episode starts off with Kurumi and Sawako crying about Kazehaya. Though it wasn’t as deep as I put it out to be, a bit of humour in there to make it light. I really have stopped anticipating “heavy” drama out of this anime at this point. It seems like it just won’t happen.

“Everybody’s Sawako” wipes Kurumi’s tears away…

“That’s what she said…”

And Kurumi reciprocates…awww…

Kurumi goes “zetsuboushita!” at the thought of Sawako and Kazehaya being together and the two of them spend time talking about Kazehaya…

…and it escalates even further and further…

“…”

…until the unexpected climax of the scene… Kurumi stands up and looks in the distance, the shade of the tree above them encompasses the two… and Kurumi exclaims,

“KAZEHAYA THINKS I LIKE ARAI PIN!”

I actually really liked the thought narration that Sawako says throughout the episode. Thinking about what the two of them could possibly be if not friends. Finally, we get a flashback outlining why Kurumi likes Kazehaya, and why she relied on “making” him into “Everybody’s Kazehaya” until he would fall in love with her. Though, the flashback is still a bit fake. Really now, do Middle Schoolers in Japan really obsess that much over a guy?…And to the point that they would say, “Hey, we should get in her way if she starts liking somebody. She got in our way too, so it’s only fair.” Kurumi and Kazehaya have an encounter alone in the classroom that results in her crying as well as falling in love with him. I see where it’s coming from, she fell in love with him because he had been there for her at that moment. I wonder if it had been another guy like Ryuu that it would have been a different situation. Maybe Yoshida as the main character against Kurumi. o.o. I liked how generic Kazehaya looked back then, reminds me of Karasuma Oji from School Rumble.

Finally, back in present time, Kurumi encounters Kazehaya after school. Like every other male protagonist in an anime since 1963, he’s thickheaded and only realizes that Kurumi doesn’t like Pin-sensei after she yells it at him. I actually really admired and begun to like Kurumi at this point when, despite knowing that Kazehaya likes someone else, she confesses to him. Kazehaya actually looked cool for once in the whole series, apologizing. Then, Kurumi lightens the mood.

A slight transition of scene takes us to Sawako and Y&Y where she tells them her feelings for Kazehaya. They talk about how aggressive Kurumi was over Kazehaya and Yoshida shows us just how aggressive she could get too.

The next day, Kurumi comes to school in style, wearing sunglasses. Turns out she spent a lot of time crying. Really, I’d say it makes her look cooler, now the guys will notice her even more! Pin-sensei says something smart for once, making Kurumi feel better knowing that Kazehaya may be thinking about her. Kurumi goes on to confront Sawako and declares that the two of them are rivals. I really liked how the episode went back on Sawako’s thought narration and answered it in the end. \o/ +1 internets for Kurumi! This episode marked not only the (assumed) end of Kurumi’s antagonism, but also the end of the sports festival. : ( Sawako’s class lost though. They hold a party to celebrate the end of it all at a Karaoke hall and there’s a lovey-dovey moment between Kazehaya and a sleeping Sawako. Way to take advantage. Screenblock nao?

Alright! Chiesu-desu. Looks like notcliche is back up, but with that, we’ll need to do a rewrite of episode 14 of Kimi ni Todoke. So how about it now? I’ve made it a treat and have a full screen block for you as opposed to my awesome (?) MS Paint pictures.  You may be asking, “Chasu-sensei! Will you be re-writing the review exactly the same way as last time?”, well unfortunately the document that I had stashed the review in was taken by a sneaky little snark (might have been a boojum) and my memory has also been taken away so we’ll start it off fresh now.

The episode continues on from the cliffhanger(?) from the last episode. Notice the (?). You saw what I did there. It wasn’t really much of a cliffhanger to me, it’s more like something inevitable finally arriving. Sawako finally finds out that a bulk of the rumours had all been part of Kurumi’s ploy to get Kazehaya. Though it really didn’t do something in her favour now did it? After Kurumi confesses to the crime (just finished up reading my law textbook over) Yano and Yoshida abet Sawako to lay down the law (Alright enough of the law terms) on Kurumi. I actually found this part to be one of the most artificial parts to the series, it kept reminding me of turn-based battles… Nevertheless, Sawako cries and does little. Kind of shows how much she considered Kurumi a friend.

“Braiiins?”

“YOU CAN DO EEET!”

“Even Rob Schneider was there to encourage Sawako.”

One thing I’d like to make clear, I used to think of Yoshida as being someone there to provide some comedic relief, but this episode, she really shined when she had her own little spiel against Kurumi.

“Fleas are really problematic, huh?”

“So do I… except that would require a gender change.”

“-Insert Innuendo Here-”

Finally, Yano threatens to tell Kazehaya *GASP*. Kurumi appears unaffected by this, even going as far as saying, “See if I care.”

…Of course you don’t care… especially when we find out that she has been standing at that same spot after both a volleyball game and a soccer game (alternatively 8 minutes and 35 seconds through the episode since that scene).

Thought you wouldn’t see some MSpaint now did you? Muahaha.

“Everyone’s Sawako” manages to convince Yano not to tell Kazehaya and she later goes on to confess her feelings for Kazehaya to Kurumi. Makes sense. Couldn’t keep in a fanboy squeel at this point, but I still kind of thought it might be a painful thing for Kurumi to have it rubbed in her face. They have a cry together. Screenblock nao? Lol a bit insensitive but I’m not gonna dwell on it. All in all, I’ve felt that this episode was a bit too flawed for me. Though honorable mention to Pin who puts on a bishounen act for Yano, Yoshida and Kazehaya.

“Was rejected for the position of lead male character.”

“You have my sword. And my bow. And my axe!”

“*doki doki*”

We’ll make a bulk episode review release this weekend. A long weekend for me plus my birthday is on monday 8D. Really late on this one, but I’m a bit OCD you see, I’ve got to cover everything, no exceptions. (*-*)

We’ve dealt with a handful of episodes with Kurumi antagonizing poor Sawako, but this time around the misunderstandings are on her. I didn’t really quite like how obvious and unworthy her ploy of getting Kazehaya to give up on Sawako was in the beginning but let’s just pass that off as dramatic irony. “Let’s cheer them on from the shadows”? Really? Kurumi’s linguistic abilities only stretches so far. Reminds me of the whole idea of the shadow cabinet. Nonetheless, this was a story whose basis is simplicity and nothing more, simply love, so it’s excusable. Right from the get go, we get a *dramatic* scene (Not as dramatic as the dramatic prairie dog though) where Kazehaya runs to Sawako and Ryu, rick rolls them, and takes her away. Poor Kurumi is left yelling “Why?!”. Clearly, it’s because he doesn’t like you. I like how Ryu just walks away going, “Well, whatever…” At that point he probably acknowledged the idea that “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and,

Yano reveals to “Everyone’s Yoshida” that Kurumi was the perpetrator of the rumours… Though Yoshida assumes that Kurumi liked Ryu though… so we can’t Yoshida hasn’t quite got  But it’s not just Yoshida who is plagued by obliviousness, Kazehaya thinks that Sawako likes Ryu. Sawako explains, and has an inner-soliloquy about how much she likes Kazehaya. I couldn’t suppress my fan-boy squeal when Sawako said “I’m madly in love with him.” I like how Kazehaya puts himself down and Sawako comforts him not knowing what he means… they seem to have a boyfriend-girlfriend moment…even before it happens.

We get back to Yano and Yoshida who’re continuing their discussion about Kurumi’s motives and Ryu happens to pass by. Back outside again, Kurumi is still outside the storage shed… she’s been there for like ten minutes… Pin wins the game when he rejects Kurumi…and in front of Kazehaya. There that ends the game… Actually, no, I’m not in any jurisdiction of power to end the game. So guess what… You just lost the game.

The episode concludes with Yano and Yoshida gathering evidence and confronting Kurumi… in a cheesy turn-based battle of sorts. Seriously? Is that how feisty girl fights get? I think not. This falls short completely of my expectations, and I think did the same for many of the viewers. All in all, it was a heavy plot-developing episode… it’s just that the plot isn’t coming off as strong as it should be. The basis of most conflicts in Kimi ni Todoke thus far has been misunderstandings, I’m starting to thirst for a bit more open conflict that can draw the viewers in more. Onwards, to episode 14!

Screen block nao? Nope. Here’s another MSPaint pic.

No, I’m not referring to the Full Metal Alchemist 4th OP in the title, so to all you Asian Kung-Fu Generation or FMA fans (Calm down and take your seats [Just kidding]) I give my apologies. In other news, Crystaru to Chasu to is back in action. At least just Chasu. Crystaru’s new micro ATX motherboard, processor, and RAM came in; but it appears that her RAM was dead on arrival : (. But I’m home again to this comfy little blog.I didn’t end up getting a new case just yet, but I’ve been eying the NZXT Tempest Evo enthusiast for quite some time [Because 6 fans definitely isn't overkill]. I’ll give that a look after my birthday later this month (I’m getting older, but that won’t stop me from rewatching Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Rest assured my brethren [To whom that's directed no idea, just wanted to add a geeky remark]). Now with all that boring news aside, it’s time for our rewrite. I’ll get onto blogging about some of 2010’s anime. Unfortunately, screenblocks will be on a hold until I can switch to a new ISP because they had to go and add a limit to my download and upload ( (-.-;) I got the letter after I finished up downloading Aion and a few things off nipponsei…).

So, animes I will be covering:

• Kimi ni Todoke continuing on from where we left off [Episode 12], a bit to write but at least exams are done.
• Durarara!! because it’s just that good
• So-Ra-No-Wo-To

I originally wanted to do coverage on Ladies vs. Butlers ~ Except we’re family friendly here… well sort of. Harem’s popularity has been really going down hasn’t it? But studios are still pulling some harem titles out of the concept hat.

Once again, there will be no screenblocks or screenshots D: I did think about doing some of my own visual representations of episodes on MSpaint…

Never again.

Well, once again, Chasu is back and he’s coming right back at you (Just like Kirby did)!

So strangely unfortunately, both my and Chasu’s computer broke. Mine due to my motherboard (since Jan 2005) and his to a bad hard drive. I dunno when I’ll be back to reviewing anime, but hopefully by Wednesday-Friday this week if the motherboard I ordered fits my computer case. When I do get back…I’ll probably do a ketchup post and put multiple episodes in each post. [ So bad right now since I took a break from review last Christmas week ] [Hey Chasu, whenever you get back get me some donuts you otaku...just kidding. ]

But the good thing is, I get a new processor, RAM, and a new motherboard. Hooray, more gaming to do. Oh and that new external drive for hording anime episodes. . .

~Crystaru

Update: Took the computer to the store for repairs. Will be done more or less than a week. Around Mon-Thursday if there’s no problems updating the motherboard drivers to my hard drive. Chasu is probably coming back this weekend, depending if he’s getting a new case on his compy or not.

Update: Got mah compy back earlier. Ready to post more posts ahead.