#i recently got to read the classmate reincarnation one and before i did not care about their school life | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

paintedrecs · 4 years ago

Note

Helloo i saw a tweet you made saying you recently watched a bunch of gay animes and i was wondering if you could perhaps make a list and post them on twitter? I'm always looking for anime to watch and i know your tastes align with mine. If it isn't too much of a bother perhaps? I hope you have loveky days!!!❤❤❤❤

Hey friend! I put off answering this, sorry, because my answers tend to be unnecessarily long and I was v tired when I got the original message. But if you’re still interested, here’s a lil rundown of some of what I’ve been watching/reading. In reference to this tweet, where I was watching a show that definitely isn’t gay but is kinda gay if you just squint the tiniest bit, which I’ve gotten used to doing.

If you follow me on twitter, most of these proooobably won’t be new? But I talk about/RT things on a scattered basis, so maybe there are some you haven’t checked out yet.

So, the canonical gay! I’m only going to list the ones I liked and/or remember most - my Quest For Gay Anime started two years ago, and I watched pretty much everything I could get my hands on, but at that point, there were only a few I loved enough to rewatch/buy/recommend. The list has gotten a little longer since then, unfortunately for my attention span and wallet.

(I’ll be honest, a lot of the really popular/older BL have too many consent issues for my tastes - I understand the context and all that, and no hate on anyone who loves stories that didn’t particularly appeal to me. But I’m including this note cause (a) if I don’t put a really well-known BL anime on this list that’s probably why (b) I’m gonna drop in a few that toe that line but I’ll try to include warnings where relevant.)

ANIME FAVES

DOUKYUSEI (Classmates)

This is kinda where it all started. I saw a tweet going around with a trailer for a very soft, lovely movie about two boys falling in love, and I thought whaaaaat an actual gay story? Where they kiss? And I don’t have to just imagine it??

Still one of my top faves. It’s beautifully animated - like filming watercolors? It always makes me feel languid and happy. The story and characters are realistic, in a very kind, hopeful way, as these two navigate starting a relationship that neither of them expected. It’s available on Amazon video - I own a digital copy there, hah, as well as the physical blu-ray, because I watch it often enough to want both.

I also recommend the manga, although I’ve only recently discovered that apparently the story did not end after the first three volumes, so I can only recommend that far. (I’ve heard it, unfortunately, gets angstier, and it’s still incomplete? The first three volumes feel complete to me, so I’m happy to leave it there if so.)

The movie pretty much covers the first manga volume - it’s a very accurate page-to-screen translation - and there’s some really wonderful relationship building and exploration of family dynamics in the next two volumes.

HITORIJIME MY HERO (My Very Own Hero)

Another huge favorite that I have literally watched like 30 times at this point. Two gay couples, double the fun, although this pairing is by far my favorite.

I’ll direct you to my very long post on this topic for more information, but the short version is:

Warning: there is an age gap and student/teacher relationship, but it’s treated very thoughtfully and is directly addressed as part of the story. They have to navigate through how to make their relationship work (issues with friends, coworkers, society). And they didn’t meet as student/teacher - it’s a lot more complicated, with some fantastic family dynamics. There’s a lot of angst to Setagawa’s backstory that makes you really appreciate the happiness and love he finds with Kousuke & his whole family. (Many more details in my watch-this-anime post.)

The series is 12 episodes long, with a WONDERFUL (happy) ending that makes me cry LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE TIME. Gosh I love this show a lot. It packs some serious feels - I cry, I laugh, I cry again, but for happy reasons.

It’s from a manga, but I do not recommend the manga. The manga falls into a lot of the tropes that I personally don’t like; I think the anime does a much better job of tackling the complexity of their story and treating these two with the thoughtful nuance they deserve.

Can be found on Amazon; I bought the blu-ray, and it’s one of the exceedingly rare cases where I love both the sub and the dub. There are slight differences in translation that really makes it worth watching both.

GIVEN

Wow, this one. Available on Crunchyroll, 11 episodes with a movie coming soon.

It’s newer to my list, and it’s really, really good. I’ve only read the first two volumes of the manga so far (with two more on preorder), because tbh I have trouble reading scanlations online and find it a lot more enjoyable to just wait for the official translations in paperback form.

So far the anime lines up pretty closely with the manga, so I do recommend both, although at this point I enjoy the anime more - partly because of some of the choices they make in rearranging/expanding scenes, and partly because it’s a story about a band, so it makes a huge difference to be able to actually hear the music.

And Mafuyu’s song is worth it. Wow. I listened to it on repeat for like two weeks after the episode first aired.

Uenoyama (the dark-haired stern-looking heart-of-gold character, I have a type), is my favorite. He is a MASSIVE disaster gay, and a lot of his scenes are absolutely hilarious. The dynamics between the characters aren’t what you’d expect - it’s amazing to watch the seemingly quiet Mafuyu come out of his shell and display his true personality - and there’s some really gritty, emotional material, too.

What’s fascinating about this one is that there are parallel stories going on about past loves and heartbreak, and how truly loving (and losing) someone doesn’t mean you can’t find happiness again.

(Warning and a spoiler: there is a suicide that happens before this story starts - Mafuyu’s ex-boyfriend - and while nothing about it is graphic, that event is central to Mafuyu’s story, so there are some weighty episodes. It ultimately leads to him meeting Uenoyama and joining the band. And finding himself again.)

The movie’s gonna focus more on the secondary couple, but I’m still excited to see more of them! And...more angst, I imagine, but hopefully a lot more happiness as well.

SARAZANMAI

Okay, fair warning: this show is weird.

I think if you’re familiar with Japanese folklore, particularly kappas, you might have a much better intro than I did, but considering the creator laughed about how much they got away with by hiding the weirder parts of the story during the initial pitch, I...am not sure about that.

It’s weird but I liked it a lot. I’m not even going to attempt to explain it in the space available here, but the wiki page has a decent summary if you’re curious before diving in.

The very, very condensed version is that the main characters are three middle school boys who get turned into kappas by the kappa prince, who sends them on missions to retrieve “dishes of hope” every episode. In the process, they learn more about themselves and each other, since each time they complete one of these missions, it results in one of their big secrets being spilled to the others.

I like the main trio (and there’s a gay subplot there, too, where one of the boys is in love with his best friend but doesn’t know how to tell him), but I started watching the show because of the “villains,” Reo and Mabu. They have a deeply angsty backstory that you don’t get to until the last couple episodes. Up until then, they have a transformation sequence every episode that ... yes, gets repetitive, Miraculous Ladybug-style, but I still sat and watched, entranced, every time.

One of the things I like about this anime is that while it is very, very gay, it’s not about being gay. It’s a fantasy story where several characters just happen to be gay. As much as I love romance (which the rest of these recs definitely have been), I like being able to see gay people (or kappas...) in different genres, just existing.

And if you can’t get into the show (11 episodes, available on Crunchyroll), there’s a spinoff manga about Reo and Mabu being disaster dads to a baby girl they find on a dish in the middle of the street. I think it’s a human AU (kinda?), but it’s super sweet and funny and I liked it a lot.

THE BETRAYAL KNOWS MY NAME

Okay, so this was an early favorite, and I rewatched it recently and laughed a lot about how massively dramatic it is, but I don’t care, I’m still into it.

We’re skirting the edge of “canon gay” here, because you never get an on-screen kiss, and it’s technically a shoujo manga. But...it was at the top of a lot of BL lists when I was first hunting for good stuff to watch, and the relationship between Yuki and Luka is deeply romantic (and achingly piningly good) and central to the story.

The title’s linked to one of Luka’s frequent lines: “I will never betray you,” which he earnestly tells Yuki at every opportunity he gets. Luka is an extremely powerful demon, and Yuki is part of an immortal (via reincarnation) clan that hunts demons. But in Yuki’s past life, they fell in love.

Yuki was, at that point and in previous lives, a woman, but something changed this time around: he was reborn as a man, and without any of his memories.

Luka, who waited for Yuki to be reincarnated so they could be together again, still remembers and still loves him. But he keeps his devotion on Yuki’s terms, refusing to force the memory of a relationship that Yuki might have wanted to forget.

There’s one particularly great scene where the leader of Yuki’s clan asks Luka if anything has changed - if they can still rely on Luka to stay by Yuki’s side and be his protector. “They have the same soul,” Luka says. Gender doesn’t matter. He loves Yuki. He’ll always love Yuki.

And Yuki, though he doesn’t remember loving Luka, begins to slowly, inevitably, fall in love again.

The anime is 24 episodes - while it doesn’t fully close out the story, it does have some closure, or at least a solid sense of an upcoming happy ending. (I own the DVD; I don’t think the show is currently available to watch online.)

There’s also a manga, which is beautifully illustrated, wow, the sheer level of detail in this blows me away. Which, unfortunately, was way too much work to maintain at that level and ultimately destroyed the author’s health, so the last few volumes get shorter and shorter and the story trickles to an unsatisfying conclusion.

I still love it a lot, though, and it’s another example of establishing a great relationship within the context of a much larger story - a sweeping, complicated fantasy epic.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Those are my primary favorites, unless I’m forgetting anything (and for the purposes of this post, I’m leaving out things like Tiger & Bunny and Promare, which are very gay and embraced as such by the creators but also not something I’m comfortable including in a Definitely Canonically Gay, You Won’t Ever Be Disappointed By Future Reveals list). If I have the energy, I might make another post like this for those kinds of stories.

But there are a few others that I enjoyed, if not enough to buy copies of or collect merch for. These include:

No. 6

Dystopian, so definitely very dark and kind of visually disturbing in places (for instance, people rotting from mystery infections). There’s a central m/m romance and one kiss, but the ending is kind of an open one without a super happy conclusion. It doesn’t have high rewatch value for me - I’ve only ever watched it once and don’t really feel inclined to go back - but it's got good storytelling and is worth viewing.

Kizuna Koi No Kara Sawagi (Much Ado About Nothing OVA)

That last bit of the title is important to get you to the correct OVA, since there are different variations of this story. It’s been a long time since I tried the main anime, but I did not like it - I had major issues with its story, particularly with the sexual assault plotline. I did, however, love the OVA and have recommended it to people as something that can be watched independently.

There's still a little dodgy content in it (as with a lot of things in the BL genre), but it's mostly a lovely established relationship story with a lot of bittersweet feels, with flashbacks to how the couple got together.

It’s necessarily a "happy" story either, though, because they're in a loving, committed relationship in a society where they can't be open about that, and it takes a toll. They're doing their best to work through the difficulties together.

Ai no Kusabi

SERIOUS WARNINGS FOR THIS ONE.

It's about a society with "Blondies" as the elite ruling class and dark-haired "Mongrels" from the slums. There's slavery, plus some serious sexual consent issues...which I found extra prevalent in the newer version (prettier animation but much more cringey on the content).

The 90s version has rougher animation but a more interesting story. The relationship is still not necessarily healthy, but it reads as a lot more of a forbidden love BDSM relationship.

Even so, the ending is SUPER unhappy. I cannot emphasize that enough. I was watching all these things on my own without any warnings, so this one hit me really hard, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days after. I’m not sure if I'd watch it again, but I've had interesting conversations with others who did.

I guess what I liked about it is that it’s a very different kind of story - and like I said earlier, it’s nice to have variety in genres. As long as every story isn’t dark and tragic, it’s worthwhile to sometimes experience ones that are told well. And weirdly (since this is not something I would watch with my family) it reminded me to some extent of the movies I grew up with - the 80s and early 90s had a lot of dark sci-fi, and my family really loved watching them, so there’s something...nostalgic about how disturbing it is? Thanks parents. At least this one’s gay.

Gakuen Heaven

To pull us back from the darker content, here’s one that I guess was adapted from a dating computer game. As far as I can remember, it was pretty free of cw; fun but not as emotionally engaging as some of the others. It’s pretty much just a fluffy story about a boys’ school on an island with a mystery plot and a romance.

MANGA RECS

I sprinkled some manga recs alongside the relevant anime, but here are a few others that I’ve only experienced in book form. (I’ve got one on my nightstand right now that I need to read, but if it’s good I’ll just update this post I guess, I’ve put this reply off for long enough.)

OUR DINING TABLE

Unlike a lot of the other manga I’ve read, this is a single volume, which means it has a nice, solid conclusion that wraps everything up wonderfully and doesn’t leave you any room to worry that the author will insert unnecessary drama down the line. (That’s an issue, ok? It happens a lot.)

A very soft, sweet romance that’s actually a lot more about building family - which is something that hugely appeals to me. Highly recommend. Loved it, bought it, will definitely reread it. I’d love to see it eventually made into a movie, like Doukyusei.

MY BROTHER’S HUSBAND

This is a hefty book - I ordered it after seeing a joke-tweet about the live action adaptation (which I haven’t been able to find to watch online). I was surprised by the size of the book but even more (pleasantly!) surprised by its contents. I’m not familiar with the author’s other works, although I’ve heard this is the uh....softest and sweetest of his writing. It’s honestly way more uplifting and healing than I was expecting.

Again, it’s largely about family: a quiet, very private Japanese dad dealing with a visit from his deceased (estranged) twin’s extroverted and cheery Canadian husband. This could go down some very dark paths, but it really doesn’t...there are some smatterings of homophobia mixed in, since that’s sort of the point, but there’s a lot of wonderful self-discovery and building new family bonds.

OUR DREAMS AT DUSK

Oh man. This series. Irene Koh (Legend of Korra comics illustrator) recommended it on twitter, and I picked up the first volume from my library and then could not stop. All four volumes are now out in official translations, and they’re so, so good.

These are definitely on the more realistic side - less of an idealized, prejudice-free view of the world, with more of an accurate picture of what it’s like to be not-straight in Japan.

And I phrase it that way because there’s a lot of variety in the characters in these books. The main character is gay - just coming to terms with the fact that he is, because life would be so much easier if he didn’t have a crush on the hot guy at school.

Content warning: it gets so bad at school, in fact, that he starts out the book planning to commit suicide. It’s dark. But it gets much better, and by the final volume he’s grown so much in his confidence and sense of self-worth - because he becomes a part of a community of other people who teach him that it’s okay to be himself.

And all the other storylines are wonderful. Some of the other characters you get to know include a trans guy, an ace woman, two girls who (spoilers!) get married in the fourth volume, and a much older gay guy who’s been with his partner for several decades.

It’s not a fluffy story - there’s some really tough material throughout, and people aren’t always nice, even the ones you really, really want to be - but they also learn and work hard at communicating with each other. I think these are pretty extraordinary books. Beautiful and heartbreaking but also deeply affirming.

#anime recs #manga recs #long post #I'm sure I've forgotten something oh well I'll just do a follow up post #sorry for the slow reply anon #Anonymous

39 notes · View notes

promptmepairings · 8 years ago

Text

In Another Life [Chapter 2/??]

Title: In Another Life [Chapter 1]

Pairings: HakuKai / SaguKai

Rating: M

Word Count: 2,010

Summary: No matter how many lives they meet in, Kaito is still a thief. And no matter how many times their love ended in tragedy, Kaito still loved him. Reincarnation AU || Kind-of based on “In Another LIfe” by Vienna Teng.

Read it on AO3

The first life was vivid, detailed, and long. He could remember nearly every moment, every feeling. The middle ones were less so, they were muddled and often confusing. They sometimes blurred together, bringing him new, equally confusing lives. The second one occurred in the 1900’s, once again in Japan. He’d been the son of a baker whose mother died giving birth to him. He had the smallest inkling from this memory that his father had hated him for it. Kaito had been there too; he visited the shop twice a week, buying a single loaf of bread each time. And Hakuba had fallen for him all the same. He was a thief then too, a master pickpocket. Their love affair had been brief that time, ending with Kaito being killed in a carriage accident while crossing the street to get to the bakery.

The next was shocking. He could remember bits of it. Things like what his house looked like and what he did for a living (he was a welder this time; hardworking, honest). And he could remember the knight that had wandered into his shop one day, all smiles and confidence. He could remember what he said when the knight had asked if Hakuba could create a hollow sword handle, one with a needle embedded in the hilt: “That seems like cheating.” And the smirk that followed, “Kinda like stealing victory, eh?” Years of friendship delving into something else, ending with a bloodstained newspaper dropped on his doorstep, headline: Famed Knight Beheaded for Sodomy. The last memory from that life was a feeling of hopelessness, though at the time he didn’t understand why.

His fourth life was long. Late 2010’s America, a child of Japanese descent whose parents had landed jobs in northern Ohio. He never seemed to be at home, though he’d been here since birth. At a young age he had researched reincarnation, his fourteen year old self finding the idea fascinating. The internet had everything to tell him about it; it was filled to the brim with philosophies, research, and theories. Apparently that had sparked something in him, as his memories from his previous three lives came flooding back with flourishing detail. The happiness, the pain, the recurring people, and the people who never came back. His parents were always different; his friends were always different; he was never in the same place. But there were two constants in his lives, he learned. One: that he’d fall in love with Kuroba Kaito, and Two: that, inevitably, Kaito would die because of him. Had they not planned to run away together, Kaito may have lived. Had he never worked at the bakery, Kaito may have lived. Had he never kissed him one late night after a siege, Kaito may have lived.

So he made a pact with himself that time. He’d written it down; he’d signed it; he’d locked it away in the top of his bedroom closet: he would not get involved with Kuroba Kaito, should he meet him ever again. There had been enough heartbreak and he had done enough to hurt him. But he hadn’t met him yet this time.

Years passed and the promise, the vow, still weighed heavy in his mind. Dreams of his past lives haunted him, from both ends of the spectrum. Happy memories he wished would happen again (quiet days in bed, hands held loosely over the dinner table). Sad memories he wanted to forget (death; Kaito dying in his arms, the blood pooling around his body in the dirt road). His head ached from loss of sleep for months at a time; he either never wanted to wake up or never go back to sleep. School was monstrous; the expectations from his parents daunting and looming. His grades were impeccable (all-nighters were easy when you dreaded sleep). Nothing seemed to interest him; he was lost and he didn’t want to be found.

And a Kuroba transferred to his school late into his junior year; he didn’t quite catch the first name as he focused in on the new student’s face, his heart skipping a beat when the syllables that fell from their mouth formed the dreaded ‘Ku-ro-ba’. Unisex clothes, no ‘reliable’ gender markings, and Hakuba could clearly see the resemblance this person had to the Kaitos of his past lives. They came in to class every day wearing everything from dresses to flannels, heels to work boots, and Hakuba was easily smitten with them physically. He was hesitant. He ignored them; he didn’t see why a stranger warranted such curiosity from the other kids. And Kuroba, well, they had no reason to talk to him.

But, oh, his classmates were curious, and curiosity mixed with puberty was never a good combination. They bickered and argued in hushed whispers for weeks. Hakuba caught a few of the conversations accidentally, not realizing he was eavesdropping until it was too late. Mixed murmurs of “of course Kuroba is a girl,” or “bro, I bet you 20 bucks he’s a boy” and Hakuba couldn’t care less. The culmination of this curiosity ended in a group of boys cornering Kuroba on his way out of the school: half-circle built around them and Kuroba’s back to the wall in an adjacent hallway. Hakuba had nearly passed them by without stopping, his vow of neutrality heavy on his mind. But he could hear them talking and it sent a chill down his spine. Teenagers were vile things, really. And could he actually pass by someone in need?

He took a step toward them and Kuroba’s face came into view. His breath hitched when he saw it; the smirk that Kuroba was wearing was one he’d seen before. They locked eyes and it fell for a moment, only to flicker back across his face when they refocused on the group of boys. A snap of his fingers and a puff of smoke, doves bursting from the cloud and scaring off the circle of boys. He’d learned later that week that all of their wallets were missing, vanished seemingly out of thin air. People seemed to lose interest in Kuroba, the luster of being the new kid in school fading. And Hakuba felt a strange sense of relief.

Two weeks, five hours, and twelve minutes went by before he thought about them again. His pens had started to go missing from his desk; his pencils next, followed by his dream notebook. He’d also noticed Kuroba hanging around in the halls after school let out, strolling through with that ever-present smile carefully placed on their face. And Hakuba didn’t pay any mind to it, really, until the dream journal showed up again. Exactly a week after he had noticed it missing, he had found it, propped up on the top shelf of his locker. He picked it up, turned it over in his hands, flipped through the pages, and that was when he noticed it—little notes in the margins of the pages, little thoughts of ‘I know, that was awful,’ and ‘you see, this was what was going on with me.’ And his heart nearly stopped, he was sure of it, and then started right back up again, jumping to his throat, when a hand gently touched his shoulder.

“I remember you too, ya know,” Hakuba turned at the voice, calm, calm as it always was, calm as it always had been, “I wasn’t sure at first…” Kuroba broke off, their head falling the slightest bit, “I wasn’t sure if you were you, and I was almost certain you didn’t remember me. But…the way you looked at me that day when I was cornered. Blind adoration, it’s how you always look at me, y’know, how you always have. So I took a chance and stole that little journal you’re always scribbling away in.”

“Kuroba,” Almost a whisper, Hakuba could feel his chest growing tighter. All the guilt, guilt, guilt. Kuroba took his hand, kneeled to the ground and kissed it.

And with that tell-tale crooked smile, “Yes, Angel?”

Hakuba pulled them up and wrapped his arms around them; he clutched at the other person, trying to get his brain to recognize that this was real, Kaito was here, they were safe, dear lord, they were safe, and they remembered him too and they wanted to know him again.

Kaito went home with Hakuba that day, under the guise of studying. In reality, they wanted to exchange stories. It felt odd to Hakuba. He felt like he’d known this person for his entire life and yet he knew nothing about them. It wasn’t until they’d swapped stories of their most recent lives together that he recognized how well he knew Kuroba Kaito.

“I wondered how they got proof on you then, but I suppose back in those days the courts didn’t need things like proof or even reliable accusations.” Hakuba was lounging on his bed, back against the headboard, looking intently at Kaito. Said Kaito was sitting in Hakuba’s desk chair, spinning around like an idiot and playing with a pack of cards they’d pulled out of literally nowhere.

“Well, it was kinda like that. The men I’d been travelling with had been caught, ya know—in the act—and they were tortured into confessing. In the process, they’d asked about me, their only travelling companion, and they’d told the men torturing them that I was also involved with another man. SO,” A dramatic twirl in the chair, their head resting languidly on their right hand, propped up on the chair’s armrest, “they arrested me. Tortured me. Told me I’d tell them, or they had other ways to find out who I had been involved with. But I didn’t break as easily as they thought I would. They ended up killing me, though I wasn’t beheaded. I can’t imagine what the poor S.O.B they used to impersonate me in front of the masses went through. It seems they never found you, though, from what you remember.”

“I’m so—”

“No.” They paused, “you don’t get to say that. It’s not your fault. None of this was ever your fault, idiot.” Kaito had crossed the room and was now sitting beside him on the bed; they flicked Hakuba’s forehead. Saguru glared, huffing and turning toward them.

“I never said it was,” He started, stopping before he could finish with ‘but it felt like it was, every time.’

Kaito sighed and leaned against him; they took Saguru’s hand and intertwined their fingers. The warmth of them on Hakuba’s side, the same callousing of fingers sliding against his own, it brought back so much. For the first time since he was fourteen, he felt at ease.

Remembering was a lot easier in pairs, he found. Piecing the holes of his second life together through Kaito’s dramatically-over-done retellings, he found that the inkling he’d had about his father was true—he had despised Saguru for killing his mother, and through Kaito he had learned his father was an intensely physical man, to put it nicely, and that Kaito had been planning on taking him away somewhere in that life as well.

“I was actually on my way to tell you that I’d saved up enough money to get a horse to take us two towns over when I got hit by that carriage. I swear they were aiming for me too. Carriages are slow, dammit, how could you just ‘not see’ a person?” And they’d laughed about it with that old laugh; the laugh that had wheedled its way into Hakuba’s heart, bringing that warm-at-home feeling to his chest, even when they was joking about their own death. It had been too long since he’d heard it last, long enough to forget just how it made him feel.

But, they never mentioned that first time, that first life. Apart from calling Saguru ‘Angel’, the only remnants he got were the occasional slip that Kaito made into rough Japanese, things Saguru knew he’d heard before but couldn’t quite place. Memories, it seems, are complicated things.

#hakukai #sagukai #dcmk #hakukai fanfic #fanfiction #hannes writing #hannes fanfic #admin hannes #dcmk reincarnation au #reincarnation au

3 notes · View notes

soaker87 · 7 years ago

Text

Some Thoughts on Recently Finished Anime

A few shows haven’t quite wrapped up yet, but I just wanted to rant briefly about the ones that did.

Possible spoilers for Sakura Quest, Sakurada Reset, Saiyuki Reload Blast, Netsuzou Trap, Isekai Shokudou, Monster Hunter Stories, Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun

Sakura Quest:

I really liked the ending. Ended up kind of bittersweet, but less of a blow than I thought it could have been. I found the show, overall, to be pretty hit or miss. But when it hit, it really hit. It could actually come off as painfully relateable a lot of the time. I don’t always care for series that are too grounded in reality and hit so close to home, but it certainly does give me a lot of sympathy for the various characters and what they’re going through. Sanae and Ririko’s arcs in particular had this effect on me. The issue being, other times the show was actually kind of boring. There were a few episodes where I was just zoning out so much that I was just letting it play in the background and reading something else on another tab. While I think there are many shows where 13 episodes is just too little, and they need a second cour, I actually wonder if Sakura Quest would have benefited from being a 1-cour series. But on the other hand, then it might have felt too rushed and pointless. I did like how we got to explore all the characters, besides just the main girls. Erika’s arc was actually one of my favorites, and I liked how even characters like the bus driver got some importance.

Since the show is considered a spiritual successor to Shirobako, I kind of feel obliged to compare the two. Shirobako was definitely better, and more consistently engaging. Of course, I think that has a lot to do with Shirobako’s subject matter, which was producing anime. For people who are really into anime, it’s fascinating. Where Sakura Quest had a much more niche focus on the tourism industry. And also fell a lot more into slice-of-life. Nonetheless, I did find Sakura Quest pretty interesting

Sakurada Reset

Oh boy. This show. There were actually times I was calling it Glasslip 2.0 or a slightly-improved Charlotte, neither of which is a complement. But honestly, it’s much better than either Glasslip or Charlotte. It just has a lot of issues. I think I was drawn to this show at first because it was just so mysterious. I’m really a sucker for shows with that kind of atmosphere. I thought it might even be a full-on mystery solving anime. Part of the problem is, I’m not even sure if the show itself knew what it wanted to be. It did have some mystery solving aspects to it. It was also a story about super-powered people (and the actual dangers of it). It was a romance story. I also think they wanted to make Kei the type of character like Lelouch or Light who is super talented and smart and can resolve any complicated situation. And... it was just plain senseless at times. Don’t even ask me what was going on all the time. But, I liked Souma, and I liked that in the end, she kinda, sorta won (except not really). Even the ending was trippy. But oh well. I mostly finished this because I like to complete things. I don’t entirely regret watching this. I enjoyed the romantic bits and there were some cool twists in the second half, even though some of them were resolved way too fast (like when Haruki got reset back to before she met Kei, complete with her hair growing long again. That was a real curveball that I thought was going to be a much bigger issue than it was. But it did get me excited for the next episode)

Saiyuki Reload Blast

I watched this on a whim because I’m a huge Toshihiko Seki fan, and I’ve never touched the Saiyuki franchise prior. I was surprised to find that I was enjoying it a lot. Especially the past-life arc. I love reincarnation plots, and it was really fascinating. Also made me start shipping Goku x Sanzo like burning. So I ended up actually marathoning all of the previous seasons of Saiyuki (except the movie because I could only find it dubbed, though I didn’t look too hard). I actually had no trouble following the plot despite jumping in during the fourth season, but it was nice to see what happened before (despite that there was a ton of filler in the older seasons, from what I’ve read). And ultimately the plot still hasn’t gotten anywhere in over 100 episodes. I’m not sure it’s ever going to get anywhere. XD Although at least it’s made progress, having Nataku kind of remember Goku again in the last episode. And Dokugakuji’s dead. That was plain cruel. Actually, I wish we got to see the rest of the Kougaiji party in Blast. Despite that she seems to be an unpopular character, I actually really loved Lirin. She was super cute. But she only is shown for a split second in this season in a memory. Oh well. Also, Sharak Sanzo is incredibly cool, and I’m glad she didn’t die. I was kind of expecting it because she was so cool.

Netsuzou Trap

I expected this show to be super trashy and bad, so I was actually pleasantly surprised with it. I mean, I like watching trashy bad stuff sometimes for kicks, which is why I picked it up. But I actually found the plot pretty unique and the characters interesting. The episodes were short, but the pacing felt just right. And the payoff in the last episode was just plain sweet. I feel a bit bad for Takeda, though. He was a legitimately sweet guy. But at least he still seems to be on friendly terms with Yuma.

Isekai Shokudou

I like food-porn shows, but this one turned out kind of disappointing to me. In the beginning, it grabbed me, with the inventive concept. But I feel like it could have done more to not become so repetitive. It was just a different person coming to the restaurant each episode and being impressed by the amazing food that exists in the human world. Kind of nice how they would explain about the lives and cultures of the otherworldly beings, but it also made the show feel something like a documentary at times. It wasn’t a horrible show by any means, just a lackluster one that could have done a better job with the great premise it had.

Monster Hunter Stories

I’m counting this because while the show is going to continue for who knows how long, it did wrap up its first “season“. I know this show was listed as 48 episodes from the start, until it was renewed. Oddly, it isn’t even having a season two. Just outright continuing right where it left off, with the finale of the last episode starting off the second arc. I really did enjoy the first show, and in a way I think they should have ended it. I do think they can do some neat things from where they left off, having a team of Riders now, including Cheval. Although I’m not sure why I should care about Nariki, and I’m hoping Ayuria doesn’t stay stuck in the role of damsel in distress for too long. She was one of my favorites in the first season. I see they have a more traditional team of villains now. I’m already calling the blonde guy switching sides, because he looks all angsty in the OP and he’s in such a prominent spot in the new key visual. Well, I’ll have to wait and see.

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun

This was definitely one of my highlights for the season. Being largely slice-of-life, the finale wasn’t so much a finale, but still a good episode. I’ve never been too big a sports anime fan. I picked this one up for Michiko Neya. But fortunately, it’s not really a sports anime. It’s just a comedy anime centered around the members of a soccer team (and their classmates). All of the characters were actually pretty great, and overall, the most memorable episode to me is going to be the manga one, which was just plain brilliant. I do wonder if it’s commentary on the writers part about the annoyance of executive meddling and trying to please the fanbase. But it was funny.

Since I mentioned picking it up for Michiko Neya (who is tragically under-cast these days) Miwa was a fantastic character who was cute and awesome and fun to watch. I still love that she’s actually an otaku. But Moka gives her a run for her money in being best girl, because she’s a stalker with a spiked baseball bat.

I’m super open for this to get a season 2. I’m not sure how popular it was, but it was too much fun.

0 notes