A Whisker Away

Hey guys!

Today I thought I would write my thoughts on a show on Netflix called A Whisker Away, which I watched recently. This is interesting because from the title alone, you probably wouldn’t have the slightest clue what this would be about. But if you read it in its Japanese title, you know you can expect it to be mellow as it is literally “Wanting to Cry, I Pretend to Be a Cat” (泣きたい私は猫をかぶる). What could this story possibly be about??

Sasaki Miyo seems like your average high school girl. If you saw her around outside or in school, you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong, except that she was a little weird. She spends most of her time in school chasing after her crush, Hinode Kento persistently although her feelings go unreciprocated. Unknown to most people, Miyo is unhappy with her life as her mother abandoned her at a young age and she now has to live with her father and stepmother.

One day when she wanders off on her own at a festival, she comes across a mysterious mask seller who sells her a cat mask, known as a Nō which is able to transform her into a cat when she puts it on. As a cat, Miyo frequently visits Hinode at his house and spends long hours with him as she watches him go about his activities and he tells her about his troubles. Although Miyo longs to tell Hinode that the cat he loves and the girl he hates are the same person, she is unable to do it out of fear of rejection.

Things come to a head when Miyo’s problems regarding her parents and a rejection from Hinode reach her breaking limit. She runs away from home, deciding that it’s better to live as a cat than as herself due to the pain. At the moment of her decision, her human face falls off and the mysterious mask seller turns up to collect it, saying that now that she has decided that she does not want to be human, she will soon turn into a cat permanently. It’s time for Miyo to really think if despite all her problems, it is still worth living.

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Putting myself in Miyo’s shoes, I think anyone would have easily felt the way she did as her life was in such a mess. She felt abandoned by her mother, isolated from her father and stepmother and was rejected from the guy whom she wanted acceptance from the most. On top of that, she could unconditionally receive acceptance from Hinode if she was a cat. There were clearly more pros to being a cat than staying as a human. Or was there?

I came across this word while scrolling through Facebook the other day and it piqued my interest.

Ikigai, which means “a reason for being”, is used to refer to having a direction or purpose in life, that which makes one’s life worthwhile. It seemed that while Miyo was fine in putting up with her family’s circumstances (even if it means putting on a facade), her ikigai was dependent on Hinode because that’s what made her look forward to the next day. In addition, the thought of winning him over made life worth living despite it being dreadful. While you don’t expect teenagers that age to have a meaningful purpose in life yet, we get to see exactly why it is dangerous to place your purpose of existence on someone else. I think that’s the beauty of this show, because it explores such a deep question: what are you living for?

No matter how bleak the outlook seems, there is always something worth living for because here’s the reality: all things will pass, good and bad. Although our pain now may seem endless and the problems enduring, if we anchor ourselves to something stable, stay positive and keep moving forward, we will eventually move past the obstacle that we thought we couldn’t climb. Miyo sort of realises this too, albeit a little late when she’s on the brink of turning into a cat permanently as she realises that if she does turn into a cat, she will never be able to see Hinode again and fix her relationship with her family. She learns that life is still worth living despite its downs because you can always try again and again. Of course, she and Hinode eventually get together in a bit of unrealistic fashion (Hinode confesses that he doesn’t hate her but that doesn’t mean he likes her romantically either y’know?) and she manages to fix all her relationships with the people around her.

Still, I was rather surprised by the story and at how much I liked it despite it being a little predictable. The art is captivating at certain moments and the emotions portrayed are raw and real because the problems Miyo face and how she deals with them are relatable. Most of all, the message of the story is clear: life may not be perfect, but it is always worth living.

So, what are you living for?

Noragami

Hey guys, welcome back to another anime review, something I haven’t done in a long time. Funny how this blog is starting to shift towards shounen content but I promise that this isn’t indicative of it becoming a shounen review blog.

I’ve been watching Noragami recently and although I’ve heard about the buzz it generated back when it first came out, I didn’t feel compelled to watch it until now. I know the reason why too. It’s because even though Noragami is a good enough shounen to watch, it didn’t feel as epic as some other shounen stories where the fighting is intense and the story universe is complex but compelling enough that you’d want to stick around.

In case you’re new to the story, here’s a quick gist of the story. Noragami is about a god named Yato who used to be a God of Calamity, born out of human wishes. Unlike other gods that are enduring and have their own shrines, Yato doesn’t have one and can cease to exist once there are no more believers in him. His fate soon intertwines with a high school girl named Hiyori who gains the ability to slip her soul out of her body due to an accident. Wanting Yato to fix her condition, Hiyori is tied to Yato and becomes an invaluable friend to him as the story goes on. The two are also joined by a Regalia (AKA shinki) that Yato takes on, giving him the name Yukine. The story is pushed forward mostly with regards to Yato’s past, as well as his current relationships with others.

Without giving away too much, I would say that Noragami is enjoyable enough to watch. I found myself curious about Yato’s past, the dynamics of being a shinki, as well as the relationship between Yato and Hiyori. However, what’s missing from the story and stops me from advocating that everyone should watch this series is possibly a clear drive from our main character. Something that the viewers can easily get behind, accept and support in order to have a strong emotional connection to him or her. For example, Naruto’s drive to become the Hokage (Naruto) or Tanjiro’s drive to do everything he must in order to find a cure for Nezuko (Demon Slayer). Such single-minded traits are tried and tested hallmarks of a good shounen story.

Yato does have a clear drive though – he aims to become a revered god that is recognised by humans and eventually have a shrine built for him. In fact, most of his time and energy is spent on getting his name out there by doing odd jobs for desperate people. But somehow or another, it doesn’t feel resolute or rather, strong enough for me to fully get on board with it. Maybe it’s because I feel that Yato is quite a mysterious character and because he’s not a simple person, it’s difficult to get on board when his motivations are unclear. In addition, Yato doesn’t speak his mind often on things that actually matter, which inevitably frustrates the people around him, myself included. I’m hoping that the story picks up now that I’m going to switch over to the manga from the anime as I felt that the story arcs so far were interesting but just barely managed to sustained my interest.

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Although Yato provides most of the comedic moments, which come from him acting childish or arrogant (which I didn’t find very funny actually), I’m more interested to see his real serious self because that’s when I find him truly compelling. It’s those moments that I find myself sitting up a little straighter in my seat and really glued to the screen. It helps that Kamiya Hiroshi is the seiyuu behind the voice of Yato because he has this alluring voice that pricks up your ears when you hear him speak.

I won’t comment too much on Yukine and Hiyori because I didn’t think too much of their characters. I like that Yukine learns from his mistakes and strives to become better in order to live out his duty as an exemplary Regalia and that Hiyori grounds the two guys by being a constant pillar of support but that’s about it.

Would I rewatch Noragami? No, I don’t think so because even on an animation level, I didn’t find the fighting scenes very artistic or visually compelling to watch. The story pacing is also kind of slow and I sometimes felt that too much screen time was given to situations that didn’t need it. But as I said earlier, I’ll be continuing the story in the manga as I’m curious about Yato’s past. Hopefully, it’ll be one to exceed my expectations.

Character Review: Agatsuma Zenitsu

Hey guys!

So I thought I’d do something a little different today. I get inspired by really random things that strike me as and when they come. So as I was reflecting on myself, my personality, and character, I was reminded that I am actually similar to Agatsuma Zenitsu from Demon Slayer.

Here’s the ironic thing though. While I was watching Demon Slayer, I really didn’t like Zenitsu. You see, he spends a good amount of time during his scenes whining and wailing about the dangers he is about to face. At one point, he even hides behind a young boy to protect himself from a Demon. That was truly a wtf moment and I thought to myself – even if was afraid of facing the Demon, he shouldn’t have hidden behind someone that was weaker than him and stood no fighting chance at all against it. You just don’t do that.

And just when you thought that Zenitsu would man up during the Natagumo Mountain Arc, he doesn’t and wails constantly about being afraid until he gets ignored and left behind by Tanjiro and Inosuke. He doesn’t move a muscle until he realises that his crush (Nezuko) had been taken into the forest along with Tanjiro and subsequently charges in without much thought.

Seeing the way Zenitsu was, I found myself really annoyed by him. Kinda like, hey you’re a Demon Slayer right and you signed up for this so you should’ve expected just as much when it came to your assignments. But when I took a step back and some time to reflect on his character, I realised that I could have been Zenitsu too. We all could have been. Because unlike his friends and most of the other Demon Slayers, Zenitsu didn’t become a Demon Slayer because he wanted to. He didn’t have a tragic past like Tanjiro (who had his whole family killed and his sister turned into a Demon) or Inosuke (who believed that he was abandoned by his mother until it was revealed that she was actually killed by Douma while trying to save him) that he could use as motivation to spur him on to kill Demons.

Zenitsu was really just a normal boy. A normal boy who somehow found himself in this position of being a Demon Slayer and therefore in this situation to kill Demons as he is told. Through his character, we can realise and be reminded of the Demon Slayers’ humanity. It’s easy to forget because all of them are so damn OP (overpowered) and they basically almost never show signs of fear in the face of danger. But Zenitsu is a gem because he’s not like them. Being OP and fearless is not the norm as it’s portrayed out to be. In fact, Zenitsu is more human than them because of his rational fear and natural instinct of self-preservation (to run LOL).

If I was in his shoes, I think I would be terrified too. I think anyone would be unless they had a clear reason for being a Demon Slayer.

Zenitsu also has low self-esteem. He constantly thinks he’s a useless burden on others and doesn’t think that he has the potential to do great things like his friends. Can you really blame the guy when his friends are so talented and OP though? The fact that he’s only learned the First Form of the Thunder Breath despite there being six forms and that he’s constantly being surrounded by talented people who are constantly progressing at a fast rate, you can understand where the low self-esteem is coming from.

To translate into simpler words, he showed an ineptitude for fighting – meaning he was just an average student and the people around him comprised of brilliant people who had more drive and aptitude than him. Considering these two facts, his low self-esteem becomes understandable and we are able to see his self-pity in a new light.

However, despite all of Zenitsu’s weaknesses, what is most admirable about him is his ability to push himself to do his best so as to not disappoint those who believe in him. This is an important trait because it shows that despite our fears and insecurities about ourselves and our abilities, we are able to overcome them if we have something to protect beyond ourselves. And we are only able to become more than ourselves if we live for others.

To protect the faith that his master had in him (and any innocent citizens in the vicinity), Zenitsu was able to become more than his fears and weaknesses and by the end of the series, you get to see his exponential growth in his fight against Kaigaku. By this fight, Zenitsu is no longer the whiny, weepy boy that we once knew in the Drum House Arc and he boldly fights Kaigaku to avenge his master. He even talks back to him in the beginning, no longer the scared, junior apprentice. I think that this growth is significant and worthy of praise. It’s a shame that he tends to get overlooked and overshadowed by the more outstanding characters. But Zenitsu’s a true gem of a character and I’m glad that such a character like him was in this story. It’s important to showcase the humanness of humanity in a story whereby it’s possible for people to lose it when they become literally inhuman.

That’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed reading my character review of Zenitsu. What are your thoughts on him? What did you think of his character amidst the other super OP characters? What did you think of his character growth? Let me know!

One Punch Man

Hey guys!

So I know it’s very unusual for me to be back so soon but I think my material is all piling up because they all just came at around the same time so I should just clear them out as soon as I can.

A week ago, when I went out for dinner with my cousin, we had this discussion on anime. I’ll skip the details on us hotly debating on various anime and just get to the main point. The discussion ended up in an anime challenge: he would watch the first three episodes of Naruto while I have to watch the first three episodes of One Punch Man.

I’d heard of One Punch Man and had already seen clips and images of it here and there on Instagram and Facebook but I wasn’t exactly up for it because of its art and genre – seinen. As I’m first and foremost a shoujo type of person, shounen and seinen never really appealed to me but over the years, I’ve since then come to acquire a taste for certain ones. To me, they had to be really good or else I wouldn’t even go near to its description page.

BUT.

One Punch Man exceeded my expectations! I didn’t decide that I liked it right after the first episode because I felt that it deserved a second chance so keeping to my promise, I watched two more episodes and One Punch Man had me by the third episode.

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THE STORY:

Saitama is a regular guy who is looking for a job. One day, on his way home after a failed job interview, he finds a crab monster (who apparently used to be human but turned into this monstrous thing because he ate too much crab LOL) in his pathway who announces that it wants vengeance on a kid who had previously offended him. Unfazed and indifferent, Saitama doesn’t run away screaming in fear from the monster, which surprises him. Feeling merciful because he notes that Saitama has the same set of “lifeless eyes” as his, crab dude decides to spare him and leaves to hunt down his prey.

Still unfazed by the fact that he had just encountered a monster, Saitama carries on with his journey home. On the way, he meets a boy who fits the description of the crab dude’s target and his conscience is pricked: Should he just ignore him and go home because it’s none of his business? Or should he stay and protect the boy because he knows that the monster is coming for him?

Within minutes, crab dude appears, having found its target and lunges towards the boy. Just in the nick of time, Saitama throws himself at the boy and manages to push him out of harm’s way. He gets bashed up at first but in the moment that he decides he wants to become a hero, he finds the strength in himself and kills crab dude by pulling out one of his eyes.

Since then, Saitama gave up searching for jobs and worked hard for three years to train and strengthen his body. Sticking to a strict regime to be done and completed every day, Saitama’s body became stressed until all his hair fell out but in return, he obtained immense strength and invulnerability. Three years later, present-day Saitama does hero work as a hobby – a hero “for fun” as he calls it. He is now so strong that he has gotten to a point whereby taking out his opponents with a single punch has no kick to it. As a result, Saitama has become pretty laid-back and even more unfazed by the unnatural things that happen around him simply because no one poses a threat to him anymore. This situation totally reminds me of Aomine from Kuroko no Basket but Saitama takes the situation a lot better in his stride HAHA.

As the story goes on, Saitama meets various monsters who claim to be the best while he easily defeats them without so much as batting an eye with some comic suspense. He soon meets Genos, a teenage cyborg who after seeing Saitama in action once, is amazed by him and immediately persuades him to take him on as his disciple. Saitama doesn’t give in until episode 5 or 6 however, because he thinks that there’s simply nothing for him to teach Genos because he’s a cyborg and he can’t teach him the strength training routine that he used for the past three years HAHA. Loyal and dedicated to his new self-proclaimed master, Genos’ ability to keep a straight face in everything that he reports to Saitama is absolutely comical and hilarious. Together with Saitama, the duo make up the serious-disciple-and-blur-master pair.

Another interesting character that has appeared so far is Sonic, a ninja who seems to take on work for his own agenda. When he first meets Saitama and fights a little with him, the encounter leaves him very interested in the mysterious bald guy who plays the hero “for fun”. He seems to have an unusual bad habit of smiling a creepy child-like grin whenever he faces strong opponents and he seems to be an interesting character, one to look out for in future episodes. In addition, when I first heard Sonic speak, I immediately recognised his seiyuu’s voice and found out that it belonged to one of my favourite seiyuus, which is Yuuki Kaji. Yuuki Kaji is love, Yuuki Kaji is life.

In conclusion, I think that One Punch Man is fantastic – the idea of an ordinary man who turns into the world’s strongest hero is almost impossible that it’s so fascinating to watch. With his training routine, one would expect Saitama to just get very fit but not build up muscle and such enormous strength and invincibility. He’s not even very buff, just lean and muscular (as you can see in episode 5) so I’m speculating that there’s a secret to his body, which would be the reason why he has such inhuman strength. And the idea of being too strong such that doing what you love becomes something boring because it no longer poses a challenge to you? Fabulous. And what’s most fabulous about it is Saitama’s resulted personality HAHAHA.

I’m sure nobody expected to love a hero like Saitama when they first heard of One Punch Man. Neither did I. But after watching him for a minimum of three episodes, how could you not come to like this blur egg-headed dude?

(Oh yes, I’ve heard from friends who have told me that the manga is even better because One Punch Man’s mangaka is extremely good and detailed at drawing action scenes. When I took a look at one of the chapters and flipped to an action scene, I saw what they meant and THEY ARE RIGHT. The action scenes actually look like they could be extracted and transformed into a storyboard by themselves. How cool is that?)

Anime Challenge: One Punch Man COMPLETED. And results: Exceeds Expectations.

Boruto: Naruto the Movie

Hey guys!

Today I’ll be reviewing Boruto: Naruto the Movie, which I watched in the cinemas last Friday (which was once again the last day of its showing. HOW does this happen to me AGAIN???). My apologies that it took a while but here it is!

Boruto: Naruto the Movie takes place a few years after The Last: Naruto the Movie and it focuses on Uzumaki Boruto, Naruto and Hinata’s brattish yet prodigious son. In the background of the story stirs an impending threat with relation to Otsutsuki Kaguya that threatens to destroy the current era of peace.

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THE STORY:

Now a Genin, Boruto is put in a team with Uchiha Sarada, Sasuke and Sakura’s daughter and the mysterious Mitsuki, under the guidance of their team leader, Konohamaru. Smart and adept at picking up skills (just like Sasuke), Boruto has already mastered the Shadow Clone Jutsu and has already started to use nature transformations (three, in fact). After single-handedly subduing a bear for their mission, Team Konohamaru is introduced to a new gadget called a Kote, which stores and releases jutsu and can be used by anyone, including non-jutsu users.

Later in the Hokage’s office, Katasuke, the developer of the Kote pitches his idea to Naruto to allow its use in the Chunin Exams. However, Naruto immediately refuses, saying that allowing the use of the Kote would not showcase a shinobi’s true abilities.

As the story progresses, we see the strained relationship between Naruto and Boruto, who finds it hard to accept and connect with a father who is rarely around. When Naruto fails to show up personally at Himawari’s birthday celebration, Boruto snaps and bursts out angrily at Hinata, saying that Naruto must have been lucky to have experienced the joy of having no parents and goes into Naruto’s study. There, he sees Naruto’s old, tattered orange jacket and in a fit of rage, throws it out of the window.

When the doorbell rings, he immediately gets up and runs to the door. Upon opening it, he throws a punch at the person at the door, who turns out to be Sasuke. When he realises that Sasuke is Sarada’s dad and his dad’s only equal and rival, he stalks Sasuke to seize an opportunity to talk to him.

At the Hokage’s office, Sasuke throws a scroll from Kaguya’s castle to Naruto and tells him of the impending threat and that he needs help deciphering it. The two also discuss Boruto and have a bet on whether the nature of shinobi has changed. While Naruto says that it has, Sasuke bets that it hasn’t.

On the way home, Sasuke is ambushed and attacked by Boruto, who fails miserably and is tripped over instead. Amazed at Sasuke’s abilities, Boruto asks him to take him on as his disciple. Unimpressed, Sasuke asks him if he can make a Rasengan and tells him to find him again only when he can.

This pushes Boruto to quickly master the Rasengan from Konohamaru and not long after, he returns to Sasuke and shows him his tiny Rasengan. Noting that it is way smaller than what it’s supposed to be, Boruto gets frustrated and flings it at a tree, dismayed at how pathetic it is. He then runs off and Sarada, who had been watching the whole time, approaches her father and speaks on Boruto’s behalf to get him to accept him as his disciple. To which, Sasuke replies that he never said he wouldn’t take on Boruto.

And so Sasuke begins to train Boruto for the Chunin Exams and tells him a little about Naruto back when he was he was a kid when Boruto asks him about Naruto’s weaknesses. Team Konohamaru successfully makes it through Rounds One and Two of the exams (with a little cheating from Boruto) and proud of his son, Naruto visits Boruto in his room and personally congratulates him.

In Round Three of the Chunin Exams, the Genins are randomly paired off for a face-off and it eventually boils down to Boruto vs Shikamaru and Temari’s son, Shikadai. An exciting battle ensues but Shikadai manages to get the upper hand and corners Boruto into giving up. Unwilling to lose while his father is watching, Boruto makes use of his Kote once again, making Shikadai surrender and him the winner. (Notice in the GIF that Boruto uses the Gentle Fist technique inherited from his mother)

Suspecting something is amiss, Naruto does a check on Boruto’s wrist and discovers the Kote hidden there. Immediately, he disqualifies his own son from the exams and declares Shikadai the winner instead. The family drama isn’t over yet but it doesn’t last long due to the sudden appearance of Otsutsuki Momoshiki and Kinshiki, the greater threat who intend to gather Kaguya’s scattered chakra and cultivate them into pills so that upon consumption, they would be granted eternal youth and enhanced powers.

A battle ensues, causing wreckage to the amphitheatre and forcing the spectators to evacuate. Realising that their target is himself, Naruto asks Sasuke to protect Sarada and Boruto while he stops their attacks and is ultimately captured.

Boruto wakes up in hospital and suddenly it hits him that his father is gone. In despair, he flees to the Hokage’s office and looks at the various portraits of the various Hokage. There, he finds the old and tattered jacket of Naruto’s and puts it on. Looking at himself in the mirror, he declares himself to be uncool. Appearing behind him, Sasuke agrees and asks him what he’s going to do about it. He tells Boruto that Naruto is still alive and together with the four other Kage, they travel to the dimension that Naruto is held captive in.

The four Kage manage to immobilise Kinshiki and with the combined strength of Naruto and Sasuke, manage to subdue Momoshiki in an epic battle. However, the battle becomes far from over when Katasuke appears, having jumped through the portal at the last minute and shoots Momoshiki with ninjutsu in an attempt to capture him. In an instant, the villain absorbs the ninjutsu, uses the shadow jutsu to trap the four Kage and impales Naruto with chakra rods.

All hope is seemingly lost, until Momoshiki is hit with Boruto’s Rasengan as instructed by Sasuke, which throws him off-guard and releases the four Kage from the shadow jutsu. To perform the final blow, Naruto asks Boruto to make a Rasengan and surprises him by adding enormous power and size to it. With help from Sasuke as a diversion, Boruto manages to hit Momoshiki with the Rasengan, effectively destroying him.

With the threat finally over and obliterated, Sasuke and Naruto sit next to each other, with Sasuke commenting that he’d won the bet. The shinobi world is at peace once again and the old generation looks to the new generation for them to pave a future for themselves.

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As usual, that recap took FOREVER. Let’s get straight down to my opinion on it:

I absolutely LOVED Boruto: Naruto the Movie. There was just so much to it that could be expanded and explored but I guess not everything is meant to be fleshed out and revealed in a mere 95 mins huh.

Storyline-wise, this movie was a lot better than The Last and it probably had to do with the introduction of the new generation of shinobi. Kishimoto just had to make it such that Boruto was different from Naruto in almost every aspect apart from his looks – smart, possesses considerable prodigious skill, has a family, yet takes them for granted.

BUT that’s exactly where the interest is drawn to. If Boruto was a good boy and dumb but likeable as the Hokage’s son, things wouldn’t be so interesting and there wouldn’t be a story at all. Boruto: Naruto the Movie shows us that despite the many strong differences between Naruto and his son, both are still ultimately the same in that they both longed for attention and recognition from the people they wanted it most from. In Naruto’s case, it is the villagers and in Boruto’s case, because his father outshines him and is the Hokage whom everyone looks up to, it is from Naruto.

The focus on Naruto and Boruto’s relationship from strained, to even more strained, to reparation and reconciliation was wonderfully delivered as we saw how Boruto was suddenly hit with the realisation that he could very easily end up like Naruto himself without a father when Naruto put himself on the frontline and told Sasuke to look after him and Sarada. His transition from not being understanding and appreciative comes like a slap to his face and right after that when he is told that Naruto was still alive, he resolves to set things right and bring him back. I’ll admit that I nearly teared up when Naruto added more power and size to Boruto’s tiny Rasengan and this montage of the Rasengan’s history came onto the screen.

 The fight scenes were amazing, as usual. I can never get tired of watching the Naruto and Sasuke combination fights with all its extremely badass background music and sound effects kicking up my adrenaline a hundred miles per hour. The scene whereby the two stood side by side again to fight Momoshiki particularly struck a chord within me and I remembered the time back when they stood together in the exact same way before they fought with Madara. Anyone else remembers that particular scene when looking at this screenshot above?

Also, I’m really glad that they brought Sasuke back into action because everyone really missed him in The Last. Here in this movie, we got to see Sasuke’s softer side, which he shows to Sarada, Boruto and Naruto. I absolutely adored the way Sarada addressed Sasuke, calling him “Papa”, watching him protect her and training Boruto as though he was his own son. We never could’ve imagined that our cold-blooded world criminal could become such a softie, could we?

It totally warmed my heart to see the new generation of shinobi and I was completely riveted by Shikadai, who seems to have almost all the same characteristics as Shikamaru but has his mother’s eyes and blunt way of speech. This kid is definitely one freaking genius because both Shikamaru and Temari are brilliant analysts and strategists.

Lastly, I’m glad that the movie ended with still some questions left unanswered. THIS MEANS THAT THE NARUTO SERIES ISN’T OVER YET. With that questionable post-credits scene begging the question of who Mitsuki’s mother is and Sasuke and Sakura’s love story still in the dark (yes, we still want to know exactly HOW Sakura managed to snag Sasuke in the end), the series is far from over.

As usual, my overall rating for the show: 10/10 

And rewatchability: 9/10

Charlotte

Hey guys!

It’s been a while! I’ve been busy with work and other activities the past few weeks so I didn’t have much time to keep up with all the anime I’m following and search up good manga worthy enough for reviewing. However, in my absence I was still constantly active on Instagram so I didn’t completely disappear. If you want to see the various anime and manga that I’m keeping up with and STILL haven’t followed me, hesitate no more and click HERE.

Among the summer anime that I had gotten started on, Charlotte is probably the only one that I’m still following.

Why? Because it’s so goddamn GOOD. It’s full of feels and action and you don’t know what to expect next. I remember that my fandom for Charlotte totally shot up right after I had watched episode 7.

The series isn’t completed yet so I’ll quickly run through what the story is about and what has happened so far.

THE STORY:

Charlotte is about a group of teenagers who are brought together because each of them wields a special ability that is unique to them. The reason behind why they have abilities is unknown but these teenagers will lose them upon reaching adulthood.

The story follows Otosaka Yuu, who wields the power of body possession, though it is only for five seconds. He lives together with his younger sister, Ayumi who does most of the domestic chores at home and likes to put pizza sauce into everything she cooks. Yuu prides himself on his looks and cheats on his exams to obtain extremely high scores that he is otherwise unable to get to get into a top high school. He is later scouted by Tomori Nao and Takajou Joujirou from Hoshinoumi Academy who reveal that they know of his ability and orders him to transfer schools and join them in the student council.

Without much of a choice, Yuu transfers into Hoshinoumi Academy and joins the student council in scouting out other ability-wielders to offer them safety by enrolling in Hoshinoumi. They successfully recruit Nishimori Yusa, a popular singer who turns out to be an ability-wielder too and meet many other ability-wielders. Can the Houshinoumi Academy student council save all the ability-wielders?

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READ THIS NEXT PART AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION

It is later revealed that Yuu’s sister has the power of collapse and when she is cornered by a jealous schoolmate who threatens to hurt her with a penknife, she accidentally activates her ability, collapsing the entire school building and killing herself in the process.

Shocked by grief, Yuu becomes unable to function normally and begins to distance himself from his friends. Dropping deeper into trauma, he leaves home and recklessly picks fights with thugs and wins with the use of his ability. This destructive behaviour eventually stops when Nao appears at a critical moment. She takes Yuu home and makes an agreement with him never to have anything to do with him again after she makes him one meal. Yuu’s walls begin to collapse when he tastes the familiar taste of pizza sauce and breaks down uncontrollably. He promises to return to school to the student council.

Yuu begins to develop feelings for Nao and he accompanies her to the concert of her favourite band, ZHIEND. During the concert, Yuu faints and is taken to hospital. While unconscious, he has a dream of being in a research facility and having an older brother. He awakens to find that it wasn’t just a dream, but actual memories. He is asked to be taken to see someone who will give him all the answers he wants and is taken to Otosaka Shunsuke, his older brother, who is revealed to have been responsible for most of everything that has been set in place.

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MY OPINION: 

I love the concept of Charlotte. Stories about people with superpowers are always interesting to watch and although slow and predictable in the beginning (the first 5 episodes), Charlotte totally stepped up its game in episode 6 by throwing us and its characters into a completely unexpected situation – no one would’ve seen that coming. Ayumi’s death happened so fast that I as the viewer could also understand what Yuu was going through in episode 7 because I myself, had grown somewhat attached to Ayumi. Episode 7 made a huge impression on me because I’d never felt so much for a character before for a long time and the fear I’d felt when Yuu was going berserk was real. I was genuinely concerned and worried about what would happen to this character, if you know what I mean?

And who would’ve foreseen that Yuu and Ayumi had a handsome older brother! That was brilliant and it fitted the story perfectly. I love that Shunsuke’s character was that of the doting, loving older brother who would sacrifice anything, if it meant creating a better world for his younger siblings, as well as other troubled ability-wielders. It totally made sense that he was behind the current system of protecting ability-wielders. A scene that I really liked in the series was the forgotten memories of Yuu of the research facility in the original timeline. It gave me a better idea of what it was like for them to live under the oppression of the researchers and why Shunsuke felt that they had to create a system to protect other ability-wielders, leading to the current timeline.

Charlotte‘s art is absolutely beautiful too, giving each scene its respective appropriate feel to it. The characters are likeable and on top of that, I think many viewers can identify with each of them at different points in the story. I love Yuu and Shunsuke’s deep love for their family and the people around them, Ayumi’s innocence and optimism, Nao’s level-headedness and Kumagami’s loyalty to Shunsuke. Overall, what keeps me watching this series is the fact that anything can happen at anytime and it’s usually things that you don’t expect. Or maybe it’s just me who’s rather slow at spotting hints hahaha.

Character likeability / Character background: 9/10 (Not everything is revealed yet but it’s all slowly unfolding beautifully. I like)

Overall story: 9/10 (Charlotte is undoubtedly the best 2015 summer anime in my opinion. It’s so original and it keeps you on your toes every episode)

Re-watchability: 8/10 (Yeah of course I would re-watch it, to see the story from a different perspective from the beginning, now that I know most of the answers to many of the unanswered questions many would have in the first few episodes)

Hal

What if the one dearest to you suddenly passed away in a tragic accident? And what if you didn’t have a chance to say the most important things you would have wanted to say to that person? 

How would you ever be able to move on and forgive yourself? 

Hey guys! Welcome back! I’ll be doing a film review today, on a film that quite grabbed my attention a while back. People online have been saying that this film was really sad and good so I had it bookmarked on my anime list but didn’t watch it immediately because I wasn’t ecstatic to be in the sad emotional mood haha. And yes, the story is pretty sad and heartbreaking.

So anyway, the film is rather short (for a film), timed at around an hour or so and is entitled Hal. Its characters were designed by Sakisaka Io, the mangaka of Ao Haru Ride and Strobe Edge and their voice actors are fantastic, contributing to a world that you can be absorbed into to fully appreciate.

So let’s go into the film:

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The story starts off with the explosion of a plane in the sky that has just taken off. Locals on the ground look up in horror as the tragedy takes it course and an old man collapses to the ground after receiving and reading a notification on his phone.

We’re told that Hal has died and that because of that, Kurumi is unable to eat, sleep or cry. In despair, the old man, most probably the grandfather of either Kurumi or Hal tells his robot, Q01 to “save that child”.

And so Q01 becomes Hal and goes on his way to Kurumi and the original Hal’s house. As a robot, Hal doesn’t know what it means to “feel” and makes his way to the house, observing his surroundings and the people around him. His mission now is to help Kurumi feel what it’s like to live again and is given a parting gift from his care centre doctor: a Rubik’s cube that once belonged to Hal.

When Q01 Hal reaches the home of Kurumi and Hal, he tries to talk to her and introduces himself to her. However, Kurumi is closed off to the world and without saying much, clearly indicates to him that she wants to be left alone. Q01 Hal gets the point and leaves but sticks around to clean and tidy up the house a little. While cleaning, he comes upon the Rubik’s cube again and decides to solve it to decipher the messages written on each side. He then cooks a meal for Kurumi, leaves it outside her room and tells her that he would return the next day.

Upon returning the following day, Q01 Hal greets Kurumi and discovers that the food he’d left outside her room was left untouched. Kindly, he asks her if there’s anything she desires and goes out into the streets to do some shopping. On the way, he interacts with other people and gets the help of little kids to help him solve another side of the Rubik’s cube. The message on the side of the Rubik’s cube that the kids solve state: “I want a pet giraffe” and so Q01 Hal goes in search of a giraffe that he can bring back (haha so cute!)

He tries to take back a decorative giraffe that belongs to an old man but fails after getting scolded by him and relates the story to his doctor and some old ladies. The doctor states that the giraffe was listed as $0 not because it was of no value but because it was priceless. Q01 Hal interacts with the old ladies in the centre and gets the help from one of them to call up the owner of the decorative giraffe to let it go. The owner accepts and Q01 Hal and the doctor go over to carry it to Kurumi’s house.

When Kurumi sees that Q01 Hal had brought back a pet giraffe, she leaves a note by the door with the words “Thank you robot Hal”, making him surprised and glad. The doctor also encourages him, telling him that he did good. From then on, Q01 Hal continues to solve the rest of the Rubik’s cube sides and go about his daily routine of looking after Kurumi.

One day, while doing grocery shopping, he bumps into one of Hal’s friends Ryu, who greets him as though he was never gone (or rather, never died…) but he doesn’t stick around for long before he is chased by two men in white suits and is forced to run to escape from them.

When Q01 Hal returns to Kurumi’s house, he asks her if Hal ever abused her, seeing as the Rubik’s cube newly solved side reveals Kurumi’s wish for Hal to stop using violence. She reveals that she and Hal had a fight before and then shows him flashback memories of the fight projected on a screen. When the memories end, Kurumi states, “If only human emotions could be displayed like data” and Q01 Hal apologises to her for hurting her feelings and failing to understand her more. But Kurumi admits that she was at fault too for failing to fully understand Hal’s grievances.

Q01 Hal manages to solve another side of the Rubik’s cube with help from the centre’s old ladies and this time, Kurumi’s wish is to go to a festival in a yukata. In order to obtain yukatas, Q01 Hal goes to visit Kurumi’s grandfather according to instructions given to him by his doctor. Here, we see that the old man from the beginning of the story was in fact, Kurumi’s grandfather and he gives two sets of yukata to Q01 Hal, one for Kurumi and the other for himself, one that Kurumi had made for Hal.

Q01 Hal invites Kurumi to go to the festival with him and after apologising to him for not being able to understand him, she agrees to his invitation. On the day of the festival, Kurumi spots a few Rubik’s cubes on the table and decides to write a message on one of its unused sides.

Kurumi and Q01 Hal then go on their festival date doing festival things and end up playing at the river. It is then Ryu appears with two others and tells Q01 Hal that they made a huge loss of late and proposes that they cash Kurumi in to regain what they had lost. Angered, Kurumi pushes Ryu into the river and yells for Q01 Hal to run.

A chase ensues and rain begins to fall from the sky as the day shifts into night. While running on some wooden planks of a house, Kurumi falls through them and into the river below. Q01 Hal tries to save her but is pounced on by Ryu, who had caught up. Ryu punches Q01 Hal, yelling at him to wake up and to try and remember. Q01 Hal begins to recall his memories and we’re taken back to the fight Hal and Kurumi had before the flight took off.

In the flashback, Kurumi stands up and angrily takes her luggage in hand and heads for the departure gate of the fated plane and we realise in horror that the one who died, was in fact Kurumi.

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MY THOUGHTS 

*spoilers included, read at your own discretion*

Even though I knew that Hal was going to be a sad, tragic story with a plot twist (since everyone said so), I totally failed to notice all the tiny hints that were being dropped throughout the show and was completely stunned when the plot twist was revealed. Right after the plot twist was revealed, I was wondering to myself why didn’t I see it coming?? and then realised how very clever and vague the story had been all along, right from the start.

It isn’t the end for Hal after he realises that Kurumi was already dead and he struggles to come to terms with reality for a while after that. He has a little talk with Kurumi’s grandfather, who tells him that the dead will always be with them and that he often talks to them. In the end, we see Hal eating a meal by himself at home and after taking a bite, he says to Kurumi that the food is delicious.

BUT DON’T GO AWAY AFTER THE CREDITS ROLL because right after that, there’s a little scene that shows us Kurumi’s Rubik’s cube pile. And the shot zooms in for us to see the message that Q01 Kurumi had written on the day of the festival, making us all teary-eyed.

Honestly, that last bit was a killer, it was so touching.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching Hal even though I didn’t know where the story was going half the time and just went along with it. But because I did, I got to feel the full impact of feels the people behind Hal intended their audience to feel. Yes, it’s a tragic story but I think that it addresses a very real situation in which a loved one dies and the ones left behind are left emotionally shattered. And finding the will to live again is something that deserves a whole lot of praise to me. Well done production team 🙂

As for the robot therapy used in the story whereby a robot takes the place of the dead loved one, I would like to know your thoughts on it. Would you use robot therapy yourself? What do you think are the pros and cons of such a method? Is it of more good than bad on the already traumatised loved one or the other way around? Let me know what you think on this!

Character likeability / Character background: 8/10 (Despite feeling completely lost as to who the characters are, details on them are carefully and wonderfully laid out and unfolded as the story goes by like a jigsaw puzzle)

Overall story: 8/10 (It was cleverly thought out, had great animation – nice work choosing Sakisaka Io! – and a brilliant soundtrack that greatly contributed to the mood of the story)

Re-watchability: 8/10 (Although it’s sad and a little slow-paced, it’s touching and I wouldn’t mind re-watching Hal again to better understand the story now that I can watch it from a different perspective)

Preview: Prison School

Hey guys!

Welcome back! Today I’ll be doing an instant reaction post on the first episode of Prison School, one of the new 2015 Summer Anime series. I have been intrigued by the plot of this story ever since I read about it and a friend of mine even told me that this is gonna be really perverted but I don’t know how far the ecchi-ness will go so I’m gonna try. We’re keeping an open mind here, so the fact that I’m a girl watching this show for today flies out of the window okay?

I’m doing this in a different format for the first time so this is how it’ll go. I’ll be giving my thoughts and comments as the story goes on through the episode, stopping whenever I feel like it. These thoughts will be written down instantly the moment they float into my head while I’m watching the episode so I think it’ll be interesting. It’s to give the post a more “instantaneous” feel to it since what I normally do is to watch through an entire episode then try to recall what it was about and write out my thoughts on it while doing a recap. But I can’t usually remember details all that well so I always have to go back and re-watch the episode and write out my thoughts at the same time so I’ll be changing the format here.

Please tell me what you guys think of the new format and I hope you’ll find this form of writing and reviewing closer to your heart! 🙂

Let’s begin!

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Already into the first minute of the episode and I’m already getting a good idea on what I’m getting myself into. Five guys are being punished/tortured(?) behind a dark and foreboding looking sky. They are all thrown to the ground by the figure of a girl who we can’t say much about, other than her huge assets. Clearly, we see where this is going.

I’m not going to lie, Fujino Kiyoshi is the most handsome one out of the lot of five guys. I don’t know anything about him yet so I hope his personality won’t be half bad.

Hahahahaha… I spoke too soon huh. What was I really expecting from this decent looking dude in an ecchi anime anyway hahahahaha

LOOOL. So much for that huge declaration and bravado *clap clap*

HAHAHA does this also mean that Chiyo-san has weird tastes in men??? It’s not cool if she ends up liking him because of a sumo guy on his eraser XD

OHH so it turns out that she has the same eraser, hence the sparks. This love won’t last honey hahaha.

So it turns out that Chiyo-san really loves sumo wrestling and wants to go for student sumo league tournament that’s coming up. She asks Kiyoshi if he would like to go with her to see it and he almost immediately replies that he’ll go! Oh honey you are sooo in trouble now hahaha

So the other four guys have decided to go peeping into the girls bathroom because they’ve never seen what a girl’s breasts or bare bottom looked like and Kiyoshi’s like NO we can’t do that!

Until…

HAHAHAHAHA. OH. EM. GEEEEEEE XD

And the funniest thing about this is that Kiyoshi was the one who opposed to it and now HE’S the one who says “Let’s go”

The boys are now on their way to commence operation: bathroom peeping but when Kiyoshi hears of which class’ girls they’re headed to, he gets a huge shock.

“That’s MY class!! Which means…”

MUST PROTECT CHIYO-CHAN! 

Which leads to this:

PFFT.

Also, what kind of window opens upwards like that?

The boys commence their peeping operation by using video call from two phones. Kiyoshi is all opposed to it until he sees Chiyo-chan walking away from the changing room… which means that his buddies won’t get to see her naked right? And so, he immediately jumps right back into the operation LOL. He offers to dangle one of the phones into the changing room and does it pretty well until he is told that that phone is his.

XD

He drops the phone out of shock and has no choice but to go into the girls’ changing room to retrieve it. Just when he retrieves it, a girl walks into the changing room – it’s Chiyo-chan! Halp.

… And up on the roof, the other four minions scoot away completely ditching Kiyoshi hahahaha

After a few seconds, Chiyo-chan calls out “Mayumi?” and it turns out that she’s near-sighted and can’t really tell who Kiyoshi is. She tells him to get undressed and drags him into the baths. To the unbelief of the four minions.

The minions are so jealous of Kiyoshi that they figured, if Kiyoshi could do it, so could we and so:

Do these bozos actually think they can all sneak into the girls’ bathroom like that??? Halp I don’t know how much of this ridiculousness I can take XD

Okay so the ridiculousness ends quite fast after that. The minions get caught by the underground Student Council and get thrown up on a stage and each tied to a stake. Kiyoshi is not spared.

Ouch. The punishment looks brutal.

We’re then shown the boys carrying huge wood blocks just like in the beginning and they’re treated harshly by the vice president who seems to enjoy hitting them like a super sadist. She even commands Andre to lick her boot and he nearly does it until Kiyoshi steps in and tells her to stop.

That night, when the boys talk about the boot-licking, Andre wails at Kiyoshi:

“Why did you stop me from licking the vice president’s boot!” 

… あれ?

That’s my reaction on the right right there haha! Such masochists minions tsk tsk.

And so the five boys are all sent to do a bunch of labour work day in day out. It even includes doing meaningless work like finding four-leaf clovers under the strict super-S supervision of the Underground Student Council. While away on his own, Kiyoshi returns a baby bird back to its nest and from the tree branch, he sees Chiyo-chan.

Aww. She still believes in him. And just when you think our hero is going to speak the truth, he totally lives up to our expectations and says yes! Well done Kiyoshi, your consistency is there XD

Upon her leaving, Kiyoshi then calls out to her and promises to go to the sumo wrestling match with her in two weeks’ time. Chiyo-chan smiles and then leaves, leaving Kiyoshi stuck on top of the branch when the Underground Student Coucil’s Secretary comes into view, looking for him. She fails to look up (which is damn weird, like couldn’t she just run to the nearest toilet???) and decides to go pee right under the tree that Kiyoshi’s on, inadvertently exposing her butt to him. Shocked, our hero tries to hold himself together but a crow arrives at the bird’s nest and attacks him, making him lose his balance…

…and fall right in front of her.

Why does this guy get all the luck in the world hahahaha

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MY THOUGHTS

So Prison School was not a totally bad as I thought it would be and I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching this episode. By the halfway mark, I was already drawn in by the story.

What is so funny about this show is the not-so-controlled desires of five boys who are plonked in the middle of an entire population of girls. Being surrounded by girls day in and out in school, the boys are given no choice but to look at them and let their minds run wild with imagination and fantasies.

Kiyoshi is the most sensible one of the lot, trying to stay pure yet almost always failing to keep to it because of peer pressure, curiosity and lust. It’s just hilarious and he doesn’t fail to disappoint when you expect him to fail to keep to his words HAHA.

As for the other four minions, they must be either terribly curious or deprived of females to want to see them so much. Their desire for female contact and interaction goes beyond understanding – so much such that they become super-Ms. Thank goodness Kiyoshi’s pride is still intact in that area ha.

I wouldn’t mind carrying on to watch and follow this series, though some of the scenes in it really go for it, since it is of seinen genre. Such as direct in-your-face breast scenes and bashing up scenes that turn really bloody, showing you a little girl smiling cutely with blood all over her hands and uniform like some yandere *COUGH* – Midorikawa Hana – *COUGH* I guess I just have to either ignore those or get used to seeing them.

Other than that, Prison School is amazing. It’s funny, cheeky and ridiculous – a story about the internal desire struggles of boys going through puberty while having to keep them under control in the environment of an all girls’ school. I don’t think you will be able to resist the absurdity of the boys’ antics. If you’re a girl, you’ll probably squirm at certain scenes just like I did (we try to keep an open mind) but you’ll still find yourself enjoying this show. If you’re a guy, then hell yeah, you WILL enjoy this show XD

Kuroko no Basket: Tip Off

Hey guys!

Welcome back to another review post! I’m posting this to mark my completion of the Kuroko no Basket series (seasons 1, 2 and 3) because i just couldn’t get enough of it! The journey to defeat all the members of the Generation of Miracles seems too fast and too good to be true. Now, I’m at the now what? stage. Defeating all of them to prove that Kuroko’s way of basketball is the strongest style of playing the game rightfully should be the end because that was the purpose and the goal driving the story right?

Right???

But that can’t be IT! -sobs-

I hope there will be an epilogue or something, something to show us about the characters’ lives after defeating the Generation of Miracles and how they’re doing now. I mean, winning one championships doesn’t mean the end of the world, there are many other competitions that everyone can participate in again to prove their mettle. The battle is never-ending. But I guess if that happened then the story would kind of lose its meaning and get pretty boring huh.

So anyway, because I was feeling all hyped up after completing Season 3, I went to watch the smaller episodes that are specials, either NGs or OVAs etc and I came across Kuroko no Basket: Tip Off which is episode 22.5.

Kuroko no Basket: Tip Off tells of the Generation of Miracles’ past, back in Teiko Middle School. It follows Kise Ryota from the time he joins the basketball club to the time when he begins to respect Kuroko for his exceptional passing skills.

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When Kise first joins Teiko’s basketball club, within two weeks, he is promoted to the first string and is taken to the first string court by Momoi. There, he is told that he will have a trainer and is given a scare when Kuroko magically materialises in front of him.

 

He’s totally surprised and dumbfounded that his trainer is a guy with a complete lack of presence and immediately doubts Kuroko’s capabilities.

True enough, Kuroko’s skills are displayed in a practice game whereby he dribbles the ball and shoots, with Kise captured by the shot, totally expecting something awesome from his trainer…

Until it completely fails and bounces off the rim of the hoop XD

 

Kise is completely dumbfounded by this point and is confused as to why Kuroko is his trainer. After cleanup, on his way out of the school entrance, he is greeted by Aomine, Kuroko and Murasakibara who was waiting for him. Aomine proposes that they go and celebrate Kise’s promotion into the first string and drags him away without waiting for an answer.

Next thing that we know, all four characters are standing outside a convenience shop eating ice cream and Kise demands to know why they’re celebrating at a convenience shop and why HE had to pay for all the ice cream XD XD XD

 

Aomine replies that Kise’s a model anyway so he’s got the money to do it and Murasakibara adds that buying a whole box allowed them to get a deal hahahahaha. Kise’s not happy and he goes on to say that they even picked up some strange guy along the way, who turns out to be who else – Midorima XD

Midorima hilariously answers in his deadpan way that he just happened to be at the convenience shop first, then Kuroko invited him to the party. I find it hilarious that they called this somewhat welcome celebration for Kise OUTSIDE a convenience shop a “party”. Excuse me while I go somewhere and die of laughter first.

At this point, Kise asks Midorima who the hell he is and we realise that they still don’t know each other yet. Midorima introduces himself and soon after that, the party is split into several things happening at once – Kuroko discovers that he has won an ice cream, Murasakibara goes off and returns with more snacks and the group is joined by another person – Momoi, who is ecstatically staring at the ice cream stick Kuroko had given her. Kise stares at the disarray and sighs lol.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a snatch thief on a motorbike speeds past the gang, knocking Momoi down and a woman crying out for help to catch the thief. Immediately, Kise and Aomine drop their bags and pursue the thief. Calmly, Midorima remarks that they will never catch up to the motorbike and takes Murasakibara’s snack and launches it into the air HAHAHA

 

Murasakibara’s snack flies into the night sky so high that it even catches Kise’s attention and he looks up to see it fly above his head…

 

Kise looking up to the sky to see this flying projectile heading towards the motorist killed me.

Unsurprisingly and comically hilarious, the snack hits it target on the head and the gang successfully catches the snatch thief XD

On the way home, the gang talk about their awesome team effort in catching the snatch thief and Kise asks if everyone there is a regular and Aomine confirms this. Kise is stunned that even Kuroko is a regular and decides to find out what’s so special about his trainer the next day. He goes around asking the other regulars what they think of Kuroko (Murasakibara, Midorima and Momoi) but is unable to get a satisfactory answer from any of them either because of laziness, eccentricity or overwhelming feelings of love HAHA.

After a few more practice games against Kuroko, Kise seriously doubts Kuroko would be any good in a match and questions Aomine why a guy who is worse than him is his trainer. In the next basketball practice, Akashi decides to have Kuroko and Kise play in a match with the second string players against another school. 

And it is during this match that Kise discovers what Kuroko’s true skill is and begins to respect him deeply. Furthermore, it is when he realises that he enjoyed playing basketball and that this sport is the one for him.

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I really enjoyed myself while watching this episode because I wanted to see more of the Generation of Miracles when they were back in Teiko. And the scene of them celebrating Kise’s promotion to the first string was just so hilarious and heartwarming. In that scene, they were all just normal club mates who could freely fool around with each other before all the angst kicked in later on.

Aomine was so cute and likeable, always smiling and messing around during practices with his teammates. And his relationship with Kuroko back then was so ideal. I don’t know how else to describe it. Everyone else was pretty much the same, just miniature versions of themselves – and Akashi was so cute even as a calculating young boy!

And this episode was perfect because I’ve always wanted to know how Kuroko trained Kise back when he was his trainer. It turns out that he didn’t do much though and was in fact, looked down upon by his own student hahaha XD

To round up for the Kuroko no Basket series, here is my verdict:

Character likeability / Character background: 9/10 (Because I can’t seem to hate much of the characters, and pretty much like the characters in Naruto, most of the antagonistic characters in Kuroko no Basket are not malicious by intent and act the way they do because of internal struggles e.g. Aomine, Akashi)

Overall story: 9/10 (It’s inspirational and full of learning points, mostly about not giving up)

Re-watchability: 10/10 (It’s so funny, action-packed and full of ridiculous yet absurdly amazing OP abilities of the Generation of Miracles, you won’t have time to take a break because you’ll just want to watch more and more!)

Preview: Kuroko no Basket

Hey guys!

Welcome back! For some reason, after watching Shingeki no Kyojin, I had this craving to watch more action-packed anime. But it couldn’t just be any random shounen action anime, I’m quite picky about what I watch. So I ran through a few shounen anime titles in my mind from my bookmark list and carefully contemplated if I wanted to watch them.

Eventually, I decided to try watching this anime called Kuroko no Basket, a show about basketball, filled with characters who had multi-coloured hair. I didn’t have any expectations for this show and I didn’t know much about it, except that only a while ago, there was some hype about it in Japan so it occurred to me that the story must be pretty good enough to give a shot.

I watched Kuroko no Basket‘s first episode a few days ago so here’s the recap:

We’re told that back in the day, Teiko Middle School’s basketball team made its way to the top by beating out all competition. They were so good, that they rose to distinction as the unbeatable basketball champions in the entire nation and were eventually called the “Generation of Miracles”. Each player had different individual talents and later went on to different schools with top basketball teams upon graduating. Although people knew of the five talented regulars, rumour has it that there was a phantom sixth player who was a part of the Generation of Miracles, though not a lot is known about him.

Our attention is taken to Seirin High School’s CCA fair. At the Seirin Basketball Club’s booth, a tall guy with red hair fills in an application form, asking to join the team. He leaves an impression on Aida Riko and Hyuga, the club’s coach and captain respectively before their attention is shifted to another application form that they had missed out. Riko reads out the applicant’s name and is surprised to see that he’s from Teiko Middle School’s Basketball Club, guessing that if he’s a first-year, then he must be from the Generation of Miracles.

At the Basketball Club’s first practice with the newcomers, Riko orders all the first-years to take off their tops to assess them. When she reaches Kagami, the guy with red hair, she’s stunned to see that his body fitness is through the roof and that all his stats are so high that she can’t see his potential. Just as she’s about to finish up, Kuroko Tetsuya, the first-year who claimed to be from Teiko Middle School’s Basketball Club appears right in front of her, making her do a double-take. She asks him since when he’s been there and he says that he was there all along. Riko gets confused, wondering if such a guy with so little presence was really on such a strong basketball team before. Her doubt is further deepened when she asks him to take off his top to assess him and sees that his stats are all below average.

After practice, Kuroko sees Kagami playing basketball by himself and after the two have a brief talk about the Generation of Miracles, Kagami challenges Kuroko to a one-on-one game. Kuroko agrees and the game begins. However, it doesn’t take Kagami very long before he realises how bad Kuroko is at basketball. Frustrated, he ends the game and tells Kuroko that he has no talent for basketball. Kuroko disagrees with his opinion on the strong and weak and says that he loves the sport. He also adds that he’s a shadow.

During a practice match pitting the first-years against the second-years, when the first-years start dropping behind in points, Kuroko steps up and for the first time, displays his basketball talent. He stuns everyone with his invisible passes and helps his team to close the gap to catch up to the second-years’ points. At this point, Riko realises that Kuroko was the sixth phantom member of the Generation of Miracles.

After practice, Kagami goes to his favourite food joint to have a mountain-full of burgers. When he sits down at a table, it takes him a while before he realises that it was already occupied – by Kuroko and nearly chokes on his food (HAHA)

While walking home together, Kagami asks Kuroko how good the Generation of Miracles are. He voices his dream of beating them to become the best basketball player in all of Japan. Kuroko however, immediately pisses him off by matter-of-factly stating that from what he’s seen, at his current level, he wouldn’t be able to reach their feet. But he goes on to say that he’s decided and  promises to help Kagami become the best player in Japan.

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I found the plot of Kuroko no Basket compelling and immersive. A single guy wants to be the best player in Japan and to do that, he needs to beat all the members of the Generation of Miracles. He forms an unlikely friendship with a quiet, almost-invisible guy who promises to help him fulfill that wish and that’s what’s interesting because the two are opposites. Kagami is loud, impulsive and aggressive, always charging head-on in everything he does while Kuroko is quiet, observant and cool-headed. The idea of two opposites coming together to become good friends and a powerful, formidable duo is intriguing and the fact that all the basketball players, especially the players of the Generation of Miracles have ridiculously absurd yet cool abilities makes the series so thrilling and exciting to keep on watching.

So far, I’ve seen the appearance of three other members from the Generation of Miracles: Kise Ryouta, Midorima Shintaro and Aomine Daiki but I haven’t seen Aomine in action yet. Other than Kuroko, I really took a liking to Kise because he’s sassy and hilarious when he wants to be. Midorima struck me as this superstitious dude who relied heavily on horoscopes and lucky items, which can be pretty hilarious and ridiculous like a raccoon statue or a stuffed frog. As for Aomine, I haven’t found out much about him yet but he seems to be strong, somewhat cold and someone who’s always raring for a challenge.

I love Kuroko no Basket‘s story line so far and am pretty sure I’m going to continue watching more of it. I wasn’t so into basketball and wasn’t sure how a story revolving around one particular sport would turn out since the last sport anime I watched was Free! and that series was quite different but watching Kuroko no Basket has lit a new interest in me to know more about basketball.

Will Kuroko and Kagami help Seirin, the newbie basketball club rise to the top and defeat all the players of the famed Generation of Miracles? Watch this amazing high-paced series to find out.