Hello, everybody! Let me apologise in advance for the brevity of today’s blog post. It’s the day after my 14-hour journey from the US to the UK and I am incredibly jetlagged! It feels like somebody has scooped out my brain and replaced it with marshmallow (conditions not conducive to producing quality content). That being said, I still wanted to jot down my thoughts on this week’s episode of Fruits Basket (incoherent though they might be)! Continue at your own peril…
We’ve seen her in every OP and ED since episode one, but during this week’s episode we finally got to meet the littlest (and, arguably, the cutest) Sohma: the tiger of the zodiac, Kisa. It’s a happy coincidence that Kisa’s episode should fall on the very same week I take a look at another victim of bullying: March Comes In Like A Lion’s Hina Kawamoto. It’s interesting that, while the two girls handled it in two very different ways, Hina loudly and defiantly challenging her bullies, Kisa silently bearing up under the weight of her pain, I really think that one was no more or no less brave than the other. It would be easy to argue that Kisa, unlike Hina, (literally) ran away from her problems, but I would argue, even more strongly, that she was, in her own way, just as brave…
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!
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!
It took me quite some time to get ‘round to watching Violet Evergarden. There are two reasons for this: the first is that, for the longest time, I was much too poor to be able to afford a Netflix subscription and the second is that I was convinced that it couldn’t possibly live up to the hype surrounding it… Whilst I was spot on about being broke, I was dead wrong for suspecting it of being undeserving of the attention that it (still) receives! Violet Evergarden is one of the most gorgeous shows that my eyes have ever had the pleasure to behold, its sweeping, orchestral soundtrack is bewitching, and everything about its story and characters is designed to move you (mainly to tears)! It became an instant favourite of mine and I would be remiss if I didn’t record some of my thoughts on it. Whilst there’s no shortage of topics that I could discuss, during today’s blog post I would like to dig deep, really deep, into just one of them: the show’s fire motif.
Watashi Wa Bucho!! 