Character Spotlight: Rei Kiriyama and Hina Kawamoto

Artist: GeorgeTheOtaku

The second season of March Comes In Like A Lion (which I finished just last week) packs even more of an emotional punch than the first. Throughout its 22 episodes, I laughed, cried, and cheered as I shared in its characters’ many victories. Though the franchise has many wonderful characters (which is, by far, its greatest strength), my absolute favourite is Rei Kiriyama. That being said, Hina Kawamoto really gave Rei a run for his money during this second season. So much so, that I felt it would be a disservice not to jot down a few words about her too. Writing about more than one character might not be in keeping with Character Spotlight tradition, but the best thing about Watashi Wa Bucho!! (or I’m the boss) is that, yes, I’m the boss! This allows me to throw the rulebook out the window at any given moment, so there! 

Fruits Basket (2019) Episode Nine – a Bullheaded Addition to the Sohma Clan

During this week’s episode of Fruits Basket (2019) Tohru’s class is made to run a marathon around town. While en route, Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo encounter Hatsuharu (Haru) Sohma who, as it turns out, has been looking for them for three whole days (you couldn’t have called them, or something?). During their encounter, after Haru and Kyo briefly exchange fists, Yuki collapses. Haru, in ox form, carries Yuki home and, while he’s resting, tells Tohru what he means to him. When I sit down to write about each episode of Furuba I usually pick two or three things to unpack in detail. But this episode (which was probably my favourite so far) was full of so many interesting details that I don’t think I can approach my analysis of it like I usually do! As such, this post is going to be a little less focused than usual, I hope that you’ll bear with me!

What It’s Really like to Be Married to an Otaku

I’m currently watching an anime called “I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying”. It’s a collection of amusing shorts about a young married couple: Hajime and Kaoru Tsunashi. The pair love each other deeply. That being said, Hajime is a massive otaku, whereas Kaoru is more your bog-standard salaryman man woman. This results in all kinds of confusion and misunderstanding on Kaoru’s part. It’s not the best short anime that I’ve ever seen, but it offers up a decent helping of funny and even touching moments. I really think that it’s worth watching by virtue of the fact that its main focus is a married couple – there really aren’t many shows like that out there. This is quite appealing to me, being a married lady myself! It’s nice seeing my demographic and the things that we go through on a daily basis represented like that! What’s more, is that it’s a fairly accurate portrayal of married life. Though my experience varies ever-so-slightly from Kaoru’s in that both my husband and I, and not just my husband, are massive dorks! For those of you who may be interested, below is a brutally honest account of what a marriage between two otaku looks like. Enjoy!

Character Spotlight: Takeo Gouda

I may be only seven episodes into My Love Story!! but those seven episodes were more than enough to propel Takeo Gouda straight to the very tippy top of the list of my favourite romcom heroes, before Toradora’s Ryuuji, Clannad’s Tomoya, or even Ouran High School Host Club’s Tamaki (whose reign as my favourite romcom hero has gone unchallenged for a whole 10 years)!

Ty’s Year in Review (2018)

This has been the first year (since 2012, and, boy, does that feel like an age ago now) that I’ve made a conscious effort to watch a good percentage of seasonal anime. I do feel that, as an aniblogger, it’s important to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the anime world and that keeping up with seasonal shows is a good way to do that. But, blogging aside, it’s also so much fun to be part of the conversation and to share memes, news, and theories with other anime fans. That’s difficult to do if you’re only watching the most ancient and/or obscure shows out there!

Anyway… I managed to watch 30 of this year’s anime. I know that that’s a pretty paltry figure to some, but I’m not in the habit of dropping shows, so I prefer to only pick a handful per season that I know beforehand that I’m likely to enjoy. In the following post I attempt to collate what I loved (or loathed) about the 30 shows that I watched this year.

Author’s note: if you feel that an anime has been unduly underrepresented, chances are, I didn’t see it. See the bottom of this post for a list of the shows that I did see this year. If you’re looking for something a bit more comprehensive, check out The First Ever WordPress Anime Awards. This features an impressive collection of categories and nominations put together by a team of brilliant bloggers (including yours truly)!