Character Spotlight: Haruka Inokuma

Chihayafuru is an amazing anime with (soon-to-be) three two-cour-long seasons under its belt. It ought to come as no surprise, then, that it has a huge and varied cast of characters. You’ve got your three main characters, Chihaya, Taichi, and Arata, whose passion for karuta is nigh on contagious, their teammates, whose encouragement propels them forward at the most crucial of times, their friends in their respective karuta societies, their parents, some of whom are for, some of whom are against their dreams, and their many, many rivals, including the quirky queen, Shinobu, and the mysterious master, Suo. Why, then, have I decided to dedicate this month’s Character Spotlight to Haruka Inokuma, a relatively new character with only a few episodes of screentime under her belt? Well… 

Fruits Basket Episode 17 – the Importance of Mentors

Fruits Basket has done it again! This week’s episode managed to alternate between sad and happy, tragic and encouraging scenes without giving me whiplash. That these scenes, so different in tone, flowed from one to another so seamlessly was extremely impressive! I have so much respect for Takaya-sensei and those responsible for bringing her manga to life. During this episode, we found out how Uo managed to patch things up with the Hondas, by renouncing her life of petty crime and going straight. My brief summary might have made that sound easy, but, in actuality, it was anything but… 

Fruits Basket (2019) Episode 16 – a Most Fashionable White Knight

Given that Fruits Basket tends to follow light-hearted episodes up with darker, gloomier ones, the fact that, for the past two weeks, the show has been fairly light-hearted makes me pretty nervous about what might be in store in the coming weeks! Setting aside my creeping dread for the time being… During this week’s episode, Kyo, Yuki, Tohru, Hana, and Uo take the frugal-to-a-fault Tohru shopping. During their outing, Uo opens up about her past, about her connection to Tohru’s mum, Kyoko, and how this connection paved the way for their friendship. Though Uo’s past is, by no means, all sunshine and rainbows (her mum left their family while she was still very young, her dad developed a drinking problem, and Uo, left to her own devices, joined a gang of ruthless delinquents), this week’s episode still managed to be fairly upbeat, even funny, at times, largely because of the difference between the expectations that Uo had of the “Crimson Butterfly” and the reality: doting mum, Kyoko. 

Ty’s Pirate Crew

This week I was nominated twice over to participate in the “My Pirate Crew” tag. Thanks to both Karandi and Winter Reverie for considering little ol’ me! Whilst a fun tag, the idea of being stuck on a boat indefinitely is not my idea of a good time. I’m not the strongest of swimmers and, to be honest with you, the ocean freaks me out (did you know that we’ve explored more of space than we have our own oceans? Who knows what kind of horrors lurk in the deepest depths?). I’d much rather stick to exploring land, thank-you very much! That said, that wouldn’t be in keeping with the “My Pirate Crew” tag, so, to make up for being stuck on a boat, I’ll pick the most fun shipmates there ever was!

The Rules:

1. Display the My Pirate Crew logo and add ‘My Pirate Crew’ as a tag.
2. Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to their blog.
3. Link back to the original post here (so I can compare your crews to mine).
4. Select seven anime characters and give them a position on the crew. These are the positions you can to fill. Warrior, sniper, chef, doctor, scientist, navigator, strategist, mechanic, entertainer.
5. Nominate 5-10 bloggers.
6. Set sail and rule the seas!

Without any further ado, here’s my crew!

30 Days of Anime – #22 My Favourite Anime Weapon

#22 What Is My Favourite Anime Weapon?

Saya Otonashi’s Katana

Today I will be, once again, cheating with this challenge (this has now become a kind of trend), as my actual favourite anime weapon is Attack on Titan’s maneuver gear. Alas, I already waxed lyrical over this amazing piece of weaponry during an earlier entry for this challenge, so, so as not to bore you guys to death, I thought that I’d discuss my second favourite weapon: Saya Otonashi’s katana (since I have not talked nearly enough about Blood+ for my liking)!