#i do hope to get the hanako one for this month for the bonus

[intomybubble]

The placement is temporary (probably) but I finally decided to put up my Hanako-kun and Haruaki poster celebrating their 100th chapters!

It’s just so cute! I really love them both (tho Haruaki is ranked higher in my heart, especially when comparing their actions in the last few arcs :/)

[ridley-was-a-cat]

What I Watched Last Month - October 2024

Gridman Universe – Bringing together characters from SSSS.Gridman and SSS.Dynazenon, this sequel movie delivers both a satisfying cap on the stories for each series, and a buttload of mecha-kaiju action that had me clapping like a seal. A sequel like this always runs the risk of ripping holes in the earlier resolutions to create space for more story, but thankfully they avoided that here, creatively bringing everyone together without undoing anyone’s hard work. It was nice to see all the characters again, especially those I thought were gone for good, and the romance sub-plot was really sweet. The action scenes were a perfect blend of 2D and 3D animation, with some great kaiju designs and a ton of exciting fight choreography. The Delicious in Dungeon Easter egg at the end was a nice touch. 9/10

One Piece Fan Letter – Any time Megumi Ishitani directs One Piece, you know you’re in for something special, and this one-off extra episode following a couple of bystanders in Sabaody on the day the Straw Hats returned to the ship post-timeskip was no exception. Despite the short length, it packed a complete story about two very different characters – a little girl trying to deliver a fan letter to Nami, and a Marine soldier torn between his duty and his admiration for Luffy – that fit the space perfectly and put a big smile on my face. Coupled with fantastic storyboards brought to life by movie-quality animation, it was honestly one of the best anime I’ve seen this year. 9/10

Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light – This beautiful short movie from the mangaka and studio behind Natsume’s Book of Friends follows a girl who befriends a young man who lives among the yokai in the forest near her grandfather’s house, with the condition that he will disappear if touched by a human. After watching a half dozen seasons of Natsume, I could guess at how the story was going to play out, but the particular way it resolved left me a weeping mess. A deeply moving love story I won’t forget anytime soon. 8/10

Memories – I picked up this triple feature movie by a trio of accomplished directors as a quick spooky season entry. The first story is a delightfully eerie psychological horror set in space, the second was a fun horror comedy set on earth, and the third was a dystopia with a striking visual style. The first story, Metallic Rose, was my favorite, as it used its limited run time for a perfectly paced and genuinely creepy story with fantastic visuals and a great soundtrack. But the other two accomplished what they were trying to do and were entirely enjoyable in their own way. 8/10

Magic User’s Club – A year after an alien force swiftly conquers the Earth, a group of high schoolers in a fledgling school club train with magic while planning to defeat them. The five kids are a lot of fun, with a wide variety of personalities leading to some amusing misunderstandings and a couple of sweet romantic interactions. I especially liked that the boy with the crush on the club president wasn’t treated purely as a joke, and how the scene where he talks about his one-sided feelings with one of the girls is one of the series’ best written moments. With only six episodes, the story kind of ends just as it was getting started, but it was a genuinely enjoyable short series. 7/10

After-School Hanako-kun Part 2 – Like they did last October, this was a four-episode series of ten minute shorts, where the characters get into silly little situations like having their gender swapped for a bit, or running a cafe when they don’t know how to make coffee, that resolve themselves after a chuckle or two. It’s a fun bonus series, and I hope they make it a yearly tradition. 7/10