The end of my pride

The dreaded moment of all bloggers have finally come, that's it, Kuuki no Puraido is dead.

There's no real reason behind my decision to close doors other than it's just not as fun anymore. And I've always been a low energy person.

Now, it's not like I'm quitting anime blogging, I'll still be over at Organization ASG every week and more. I'll still be on Twitter and I'll probably be updating, March Story, my "portfolio" blog, more. 

Thanks everyone, it was a fun ride, don't forget me, I'll still be lurking in the shadows, stalking you, ready to attack at the moment you'll least expect. :p

See you! :)

Of life, the universe and anime blogging : the carnival

My big boss said I should do it, and so I am. I'm listenning to my big boss way too much lately and here I am writing my modest constribution to the Blog Carnival. That was actually pretty welcome because I was a bit stuck in the swamp of writer's block. Hell, I couldn't even do my usual WonFest pictures party. Which doesn't require much writing though. Anyway.

So, Blog Carnival here I come!

Why not get to reflect on what we like to read and for what reasons?

What I like to read is simple, it's editorials. Or things that catch my attention (that can be a lot of things, trust me). They make me think, they challenge my views of anime, that's why I like them.
Episodics are great, only if they bring something more to the show that I didn't realize or notice, if someone's writing an episode review just to say "this and that happened", then it's useless and not interesting. As for reviews, I may write them myself but I only read the ones written by people whom I trust the tastes. Which is, not many people at all.

What do we do when we stumble across a new blog?


You may find this strange but I start by reading the first post. Then I look at their categories, I don't like blogs that don't have categories, or tags, or anything like that. (Actually, my favorite thing to read on Tumblr are the tags), then I look at the writer(s) Twitter and if I can find which country they're from I like that too.
By then, I usually know if the blog will interest me or not.

What must a good animanga blog have and do?

I read so little blogs that I can't even answer, I guess a good animanga blog, and a good blog in general, must have a voice, a writer, or several writers that you can instantly recognize and remember, and somehow start to know by their posts. I like a blog to have categories, and see interactions between the writer of the post and the commenters. And I like a blog that doesn't kill my eyes. And a writer who's respectful, and a decent person. (Mainly, mindless fujoshi bashing turns me off, I haven't seen it often in the anime blogosphere, if at all, but I have had bad experiences on French part of the fandom and I wasn't even a fujoshi myself at the time)

What blogging behaviors annoy us?

As I said, mindless bashing, generally disrespectful attitude. Now I think about it, it mostly has to do with the attitude of the writer than of the blogging itself. You might write the best posts ever and have a blog that's nearing perfection, if you're an ass, I won't read. 

Sword Art Online Episode 3 : When fiction and reality collide

I found this episode pretty interesting, I don't really get why so many people seemed to dislike it.

Now you should know that unless I have actual stuff to say I don't do episodic posts, this one isn't exactly an episodic post, more like, short information on where some people from the industry find their inspiration.
For those who have thought they'd get to read a deep post, I'm sorry.

Anyway, I was watching the anime after a whole day of hard work (I work on Sundays, you can cry for me) and there was this panel.

Now, see a picture of a town near mine where I actually go every Christmas and tell me they don't look alike.

(Oh and before I leave, the armor Klein was wearing bore the Shingen crest, is it a coincidence or is it not? I don't think it's of any particular interest for the rest of the anime but I found that interesting to note)

[1st episode] Natsuyuki Rendez vous

I had no idea this was going to air so soon, I expected it for next week, not that I mind, at least my first impression will be done already.

So, Natsuyuki Rendez vous is the story of a young man who falls in love with a florist, and so he starts working for her, however the florist is a widow and it happens that the ghost of the deceased husband is still around though no one but the young man can see him.



Actually, I thought this would be bad, despite being Noitamina I had my reservations about watching yet another anime where the ultimate love interest would be a ghost. But actually it seems kinda cute. Definitely a shojo but cute.

Though I'd say it's more like a josei than a shojo because it seems like death will be a central plot point. I mean, the story isn't exactly about which one she'll choose (if she chooses anyone and even though it kinda comes down to that) but more about which place the deceased have in her/our life/ves.

I guess that's the main thing that made it interesting to me, instead of going completely surnatural like Tasogare Otome x Amnesia did, it takes a more realisctic approach to it and I can't help but be interested. Not to mention the voice acting really makes everyone on screen come alive.

In the end, despite my initial reservations I find myelf completely drawn by this anime, probably mostly because it touches my personnaly but it still remains a cute story about love.
Now all I hope is that it doesn't make me cry.

[1st episode] Binbougami ga!



Hey! It's time for you to read yet another first impression of something I didn't intend to watch. I'm so weak.

I probably would have given up and watched even if other people didn't talk me into it granted it's Sunrise and I'm usually curious about thei stuff.

This time their comedy is about Momiji, god of misfortune trying to repair the balance of the world. However she happens to be cursed by misfortune while her opponent is the luckiest person in the world. What the hell will happen?

And actually I wonder what happens too. Though it's the kind of absolutely hilarious nonsense I love.

Our two heroines make a wonderful duo (that I actually already ship, I'll always be a fujoshi) and despite fighting against each other they actually really look like they're friends more than enemies, it's nearly cute to watch.

I don't even know what to say because in the end there's not really anything to say, those two are nuts and I'm looking forward to more of their adventures and more development, because the first episode already showed a bit and I thought it was well played.

Another definite one on my watchlist, if they keep on being as fun and interesting I'm in.

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention that the really fortunate girl is voiced by Kana Hanazawa in her Kuroneko voice, I nearly didn't even recognize her and damn is she good, damn is Momiji's seiyuu interesting to listen to as well. She just gained a new fan.

[1st episode] Chouyaku Hyakuninishu Uta Koi

I'm on a roll!

So, this one, abridged as Uta Koi because we're all lazy, is, well, maybe not a story, this episode adapted 2 poems of the Collection. It's basically a series about love stories, or so I understood.

Exactly as they said in the series most of us are going to be familiar with the Hundred Poems through karuta because we've watched Chihayafuru. For those who are not the series offers a quick explanations, that is something I loved about it.

The two stories it adapted were pretty sweet and seemed to be really close to the poems they were supposed to adapt and we got to hear it actually included in the story, that was great too.
And damn were the stories cute, I got really invested at some points, it was that adorable.

And it had good seiyuu.

Another one I'll definitely follow. You should too if you liked Genji Monogatari or even if you want to know more about the Heian period, it seems like a nice introduction to it and the anime actually explains things

[1st episode] Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita

It might be a little late for me to do this but I thought I should anyway. I don't post enough actually.

In the world of Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, humanity has declined and life has become a bit complicated. Our heroine tries to make the world better being a mediator between the human world and the fairies.

I have to admit I have been a bit surprised by this anime. I thought it'd be something celebrating ecology in all its glory making it quite hard to watch. However it didn't.

It may or may not turn into an ecological anime and I must say I don't even care anymore.

Because this is pretty fun.
It plays a lot on the difference between what it shows and what it tells (and what it tells and what it shows) and that makes it interesting to watch, it's quite dark despite all this cuteness we're showered with, I always got curious of what would the heroine say to one situation or another, be it politically correct or totally not, because our heroine really may be evil after all. Not that I mind.

Often times the anime is confusing though, I never really quite knew how I was supposed to feel, that's probably what they were going for and they did it beautifully, however I don't think it'll be something to be enjoyed with your brain turned off.
If it stays so surprising I won't mind though.

I'm following this! Definitely!

[1st episode] Tari Tari

If you remember well this is something I was wary about, I mean, it's supposed to be about a music club, you can't really help but find similarities to K-On, which strangely enough I did find entertaining.

So yeah, Tari Tari is about a girl whose dream is to sing, unfortunately she's ostracized by the evil vice-principal (somehow those are always evil in anime, or nearly) from the choir club and since she can't sing in it, well, she quits. After all what's the point?

So obviously being an annoying little brat she can't help but continue singing anyway, that's what an heroine should do after all.

To be honest, there's nothing much to say about this, in that aspect it's like K-On, it's just about cute people (yeah because there are boys in this and one of them is moe as hell) doing cute things at school.
Where it differs from K-On, aside from the character design, is that it does seem a bit more mature and realistic. Things don't always go as well as they do in K-On, in that sense Tari Tari's probably for people who can handle seriousness in their anime.

Characters seem like they're going to have a bit more development and well, it has boys! Can you believe it?

It seems like it'll be an interesting thing to watch, the first episode flows pretty nicely, nothing really feels forced, aside maybe from the main character who's a bit too over the top for me.

Definitely on my watch list!

[1st episode] Arcana Famiglia

Ah well, I suppose I better get started on this new season since it rains and I haven't started working yet.

So, La storia della Arcana Famiglia, which I'll abridge, is a story about the "vigilante" (read as : mafia) family of a remote island that doesn't exist in our world (so that we're free from real world requirements). So apparently this island is full of villains but obviously that's not the main focus of the series, apparently that's going to be the story of how those boys will compete against each others using their magical arcana powers to win the girl.
Sounds awesome right?

As you may have guessed I am not too hyped up about this, which I thought would happen, it's an adaptation from yet another otome game after all. And the storyline of this particular one is so obvious that it's a wonder it sold. At least most other games have a better excuse to interact and fight over the girl than her father organizing a contest to marry her. That one is waaaay too obvious. And a bit boring.
But I'll get over it, I knew what I was getting into.

Usually my main reason for watching those adaptations are seiyuu, however, the only one who really shone in that is Yusa Kouji, I have fallen in love all over again. even Sugita Tomokazu sounded quite boring in this. Whoever's the responsible of this heresy (how can you even manage to make Sugita Tomokazu sound boring is beyond me) will be forever haunted by me.
Also, casting Mamiko Noto as Felicita was a bad idea.
Since I'm at it, the music wasn't exactly good either, pretty much the contrary, at some points I cringed.

Now the only other redeeming point of those adaptations is usually characters. The main one is usually plain, this one seems to have guts, however, her name is really unfortunate, because damn, that song, Felicita, we sung that one in German classes when I was in high school, everytime they say her name I can't help but laugh. Sorry.
As for the boys, well, aside from Jolly, Yusa's character, no one really caught my eyes just yet. Maybe the father and mostly because he's an ass.

I still have no idea whether I'm going to watch this, at least the second episode because the first made me think of a mix between KHR, Baccano! and Kuroshitsuji, and to be honest I'm curious.
But it's bad. Damn.

When anime meets litterature

Just so you know, the idea from this post comes from the book Ikebukuro West Gate Park because, as normal it is that the first 2 volumes made me think about Durarara!! (I'm still convinced Narita read it), the last one made me think about Tiger&Bunny, which is a little less normal. Unless there really is an evil organization that tattoos its mark on their members called Ouroboros in Japan but I highly doubt it.

Then I started to be convinced that everyone involved in pop culture in Japan somehow has read IWGP (which actually you should do too) and wondered what other influence I could maybe spot.

Sadly, my knowledge in litterature is primarily focused on European authors, but it doesn't mean you can't find any influence from them. Actually, these have been adapted a lot or at least a lot of Japanese anime have been influenced by those books.
Also, not counting light novels.

#1 The actual adaptations

Actually, there are a lot of those, even more in manga than in anime (Hell, they even made a manga version of Marx's The Capital).
I actually haven't seen a lot of those for which I have seen both the anime and read the original version. The only anime I can think of right now is Genji Monogatari which was a pretty good though really shortenned, adaptation of the book.
There's Howl's Moving Castle too and a lot of Ghibli works. Howl is a pretty good adaptation with Ghibli's defining style added to it.
Some others : Aoi Bungaku (pretty good initiation to Japanese "classical" litterature), The Count of Monte Christo, The Three Musketeers, etc etc

Please by all means add to this list.

#2 The influences

Again, those are everywhere because authors are always somehow influenced by something they have read or seen or whatever.
The one that comes immediately to my mind at this is actually a manga called Tsumi to Batsu that's been loosely based on Fyodor Dostoyevski's Crimes and Punishment, but set in modern times.
Some of those include works like Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (excuse me while I cringe at the French), Kuroshitsuji (no matter how you look at it, it's Faust), RomeoxJuliet (which is self explanatory, though I have actually never seen it so I assume it's only loosely based on Shakespeare's original), the Fate series (because some of the heroes are from books), Code Geass (because to me it looks like the whole thing is, loosely, based on the Bible) and probably a lot of others.

#3 And everything else ...

Actually this shouldn't really exist, I just can't really consider names a legit influence on a story.
But if you think about it, character names are often based on already existing characters.
Like, in Katekyo Hitman Reborn you have a whole team of characters whose names are based on demons, in Ao no Exorcist you have Mephisto which is from Faust.

There must be some more but I forgot.

In the end I guess that post wanted to summarize once again how amazed I am at how fluid Japanese are with categories. I am not saying French don't do it, we too have our "anime" loosely based on the Three Musketeers, but it's such a rare occurence that I can't help but admire how Japanese do it.