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.  

Brain vs. Heart. Which is the one having the most impact on your enjoyment of anime?

I was thinking, letting my brain randomly wander through the maze of my imagination (which is pretty much always a bad thing), and it wandered toward anime. I started thinking about my two favorites (which are Durarara!! and Tiger&Bunny) and why I liked them and if I could only choose one which one would I choose.

Turns out I couldn't choose and I started to wonder why.
Leaving technicalities aside (everyone knows I generally have a thing for good voice acting and both of those anime made me start to fangirl over a lot of "new" voice actors) I quickly realized I liked them both equally because they each appeal to different things I like.

Durarara!! is a fest for my brain. Tiger&Bunny made me cry so many times I stopped counting.
Unfortunately things aren't that easy because if you think about it, I wouldn't have liked Durarara!! as much if I wasn't that invested in the characters and didn't want them to be happy, and it's not like it didn't emotionally affect me either. I can say the same for Tiger&Bunny, sure it made me cry but it's not all there is to it, I/we have easily spent countless hours talking about damn theories about this. We still do.

So now what? Is it all about a good balance? It should be about a good balance but on the other hand it isn't really.

Why? Because we each have different emotions and each react to different things. We don't always like to think while watching anime because after all it's entertainment.

If I take Tiger&Bunny as an example, I liked it that much and it is and will stay one of my favorite anime of all time because I could relate to the characters and their story to a point I didn't know was possible (too much if you want my opinion), it's pretty much the reason why I could get into it so much.
The characters in Durarara!!, well, it was much harder to relate but the story is what drew me in.

That being said, I can't possibly answer the question I titled my post with, because to be honest with you, most of the time, it's my brain who's enjoying anime the most, because, most of the time, the things that are supposed to get me emotionnal don't, for various reasons.
Not to mention it usually feels so artificial that it pisses me off more than anything else.

So I guess that for me enjoyment of the brain comes first, I'd much rather just have fun than being touched if it feels forced.
Probably why I don't usually like romance anime.

The rewatch value

Lately, it seems I have lost quite a bit of interest in anime (Sacrilege!) I had no idea having a life could be so time consuming. If only it was a life but it's just work. Granted, I don't mind, I want the job. But since on top of that I'm preparing exams and not getting the job I'm also having plans of moving countries, well, all of this to say that a lot of things have been going on in my head.

As a result, it's not that I have lost interest in anime, it's that my brain seems to want to see things I actually know the value of. It wants to re-watch things and have absolutely NO interest in trying to find anything new. At all.

So I've been wondering, what brings you to re-watch some anime?

Here are (some of) my answers.

#1 It's really good
That goes without saying, the anime I have seen the most are my favorite anime ever, mainly Durarara!! and Tiger&Bunny.

It's especially true for Durarara!! but these are the kind of anime you always manage to find something new in, no matter how many times you watch it. Steins;Gate is another anime that would fit in this category for me. 

#2 It makes you feel really good. Or it makes you feel something at all.

You may think it's tied with the previous one but not necessarily. As much as I love Durarara!! it never really made me feel anything, Tiger&Bunny did, too much. 

Steins;Gate too. 

A friend of mine told me she was constantly rewatching Mushishi because it was her favorite feel good anime. 

#3 It's just fun

I'm currently re watching Oreimo. For no particular reason, just that I knew it would make me have a great time without the need to think too much about what I'm watching. Just mindless entertainment, but mindless entertainment I knew I appreciated before. 

What is the best anime of all time?

Nopy talked about the best anime of all time and obviously I had to jump on the bandwagon and post about it too. Because it made me think, what is the anime I consider as the best of all time?

I'll start by telling you flat out that the best anime of all time doesn't exist since, after all, nothing is perfect, actually it would be really strange if everyone recognized the same thing as the best of all time. I'd totally be freaked out and think that something is fishy. And we all have different lives, we all have lived different things and as such we react differently to the same things.

That question made me think because I have honestly no idea on which criteria I should base my selection. What should I consider first? The entertainment value? The feelings? The plot? The characters? The writing? Animation? Music? Voices?
You can't even separate these, anime is a whole and deciding on a "best" anime of all time is obviously subjective.

Worse of it all? It changes. Everything changes. You'd have asked me a year ago what the best anime of all time was I'd have said : Durarara!!

Because Durarara!! has amazing plot and amazing character development and well, a really, really, really amazing plot, good music, awesome voice actors, very entertaining and not too hard to understand either. Yeah, but.

But something different came out. Not better, just different. Something with easy plot, predictable but not so much it became boring plot, good music, awesome voice actors, awesome writing, awesome character development and feelings. Lots of feelings. Well it's not that much a matter of feeling as a matter of how I identify with said feelings.

More than anything else it gave me hope. And I think that any work that manages to give that to its viewers/readers/whatever completely deserves the title of "best anime of all time" at least in one person's heart.

Now I'm pretty sure you're all wondering what I'm talking about aren't you? If you know me well enough you should have guessed I was talking about Tiger&Bunny. If you don't know me well enough then now is the perfect moment to learn something about me. (But you can forget it if you want ^^)

Do you have a fandom bias?

Pyro posted a blog post about her fandom bias, the small facts that can transform a show you're not interested in at all into a must watch.
She talked about hers and asked about ours, it actually made me think a lot so that post will be my answer.

The only problem is : I'm pretty sure I am forgetting things but it will have to do.

- Seiyuu
A good seiyuu cast can hold me through the most boring of shows. Almost. (Well, there are things that are beyond saving, even with my favorite seiyuu)
It did get me through Uraboku, which is everything but good, and on the other hand my fascination for people like Kamiya Hiroshi is the thing that made me start Angel Beats for example.
As such, it has good and bad sides.

- Yakuza
Sadly, this is the bias that is always, always used against me to make me read BL manga.
On the other hand, it made me discover stuff like Gokusen which I would NEVER have checked otherwise and became my favorite drama of all time (since both the manga and the anime version suffer from horrific art)

- Yuki Kajiura (and a few other composers)
In an anime I am very sensible to music and I can tell Yuki Kajiura or people like Sawano Hiroyuki are the composers as soon as I hear their music in an anime, a great soundtrack helps me finding the show enjoyable.
And if it wasn't for Yuki Kajiura I would never have checked Madoka or Fate/Zero.

- Sengoku Jidai
Rather than Sengoku Jidai I have developed over the years a soft spot for Akechi Mitsuhide, probably one of the less likeable warlord of the era and I feel obligated to watch every single anime featuring Sengoku Jidai in the hopes of seeing him.
And you have to admit the era has a lot of potential, in terms of battles, in terms of interesting politics and in terms of colorful characters.

- Narita Ryogho
I like this man and how he writes and how good and faithful the anime adapted from his works are. I'd watch anything if he's somehow involved. I'd watch anything if I know he's watching it as well. (Wouldn't have tried Tiger&Bunny if it wasn't for him, I'm forever grateful. And he's watching Fate/Zero and seeing him stay up so late to fanboy about it is adorable. I love Twitter) (AND I WANT A SECOND SEASON OF DURARARA!!) (AND ANOTHER ONE OF BACCANO!) (AND FOR HIS OTHER BOOKS TO BE ANIMATED!)

- Psychopaths
You probably already have noticed my love for, well, rather questionnable characters. Tell me there's one in something and I'm watching whatever you were recommending.

I don't even have that many. I thought I'd come to find many more considering the amount of stuff I watch. Oh well, guess I'll just blame curiosity.
Anyway, I'll ask the same question she did back in the days (because that post slept for quite some times in my drafts), what are YOUR fandom bias?

Summer 2011 - My favorite anime music

Being a very picky music enthusiast, especially when it comes to anime, this summer season disappointed me.
In term of OSTs it's not exactly what I'd call mindblowing. Not bad either just pretty average, even Iwasaki Taku for Kamisama no Memochou has been somewhat disappointing and not like himself. If anything the most noticeable music writer this season has been Yoshimori Makoto for Natsume Yuujinchou San. And not for the good reasons either, just because his work is sometimes too recognizable and it does disturb me a bit to watch something very peaceful and adorable, see a beautiful scenery and suddenly believe I'm right in the middle of Durarara!!.
Don't even get me started on the two idols anime, the music is everything but their strong point. Not that I am able to find any right now, but I digress.

Instead of complaining let me tell you what I did like. Mainly, only three songs.
Well, at least it'll be short right?

Dantalian no Shoka OP - Cras numam scire

Dantalian no Shoka ED - Yes prisoner (I am very diversified aren't I?)

And last but not least, my favorite even before hearing it Sacred Seven OP - Stone Cold

Watching RAW or not watching RAW?

There's nothing better while waiting for your food than to write a blog post is it? To sum things up I'm dead hungry. I need a distraction. Which is why ... I won't write about food.
I'll write about watching anime RAW instead.
Don't get me wrong, I love the subs, I don't even mind dubs, if they're done right. (Though I still have some problems catching everything with English ones, but that has to do with the fact I don't practise enough)

Nowadays subs are out more or less within 10 hours after the first showing of the episode on Japanese TV. So why watch it RAW?

Because sometimes you're just too impatient?
To be honest, that's how it started to me. Everything because of this show :

You know that feeling when you just NEED to be next week already, that this cliffhanger is too awful to be true and such? That's how I was after each and every episode. So, obviously, the sooner I get to see the next installment the happier I was.

Second reason are spoilers. I hate them. With a passion.
Normally I avoid places where I could see them, in that particular case it was impossible. It's impossible for Tiger&Bunny too. As soon as it finishes airing spoilers are all over the place, some people are delicate, some are not, sadly.
(On the other hand, for Durarara, spoilers or not, I always ended up being surprised, even after the third watch so I guess it doesn't really apply)

And last, it really does help your Japanese comprehension improve. A lot.
It still depends on whether or not you're fast learner but it really does help.

On the other hand watching RAW comes with a few problems. Mostly, understanding it.
To be honest, I rewatch most of the shows with subs afterwards, except if it's really awful and/or I know the manga well enough to be sure I understood pretty much everything. Examples at hand Sacred Seven for the first and Deadman Wonderland for the second.

So, do you watch some anime RAW or not? And why?

WonFes Summer 2011 or look at these beautiful things I'll never get

As you may or may not know last week-end took place the Wonder Festival summer edition and, as for every event like this, I spend hours just looking at these beautiful figures I'll never get.
And sadly I feel like I need to share the things I would get for sure if the world was perfect. But since it's not cry with me?

The ones with the Dengeki copyright are from there and there. The others are from Gigazine.

(Oh and this is very image heavy, I'm sorry)

Judging from all these pretty things I'm not the only one who obsess over Kyubey. 

I also realized my favorite Mahou Shoujo was Mami and I like Madoka's design more than I thought. 

Of fandom and interesting goodies

You probably know it by now but when it comes to goodies and weird interesting stuff, Japanese are really good at it, just see all the places where Hello Kitty have been put and you'll have an idea of what I'm talking about, also, since I've seen it, I'm dead set on getting that Pacman necklace /shot
Anyway, it happens that I'm currently into a very crazy fandom (with crazy, but wonderful, but very crazy people <3), mainly Durarara!! and it happens that this serie has crazy stuff.

First were the fragrance dedicated to each one of the main characters, obviously not my favourite but it would be so easy if I could have the same favourite character as everyone. Then again, it saves me money.
So, what I was trying to say is that they re-released the bottles, much more tiny, and as a set.

Isn't it cute?

Wait a bit because there's better, they're going to release a cake, a birthday cake, for each one of the previously mentionned characters (then again, mine happens to be forgotten, but well, we don't even know his given name, I can't hope to know his birthday can I? ^^)
Obviously limited edition, have a pic!

All of that to say that I'm definitely doing one of those for Izaya's birthday, definitely /shot
And you can find the stuff on this website.

Durarara Episode 12.5

Somehow, while I have a sudden inspiration to write fics (seriously I still don't understand what came to my mind on that day ^^) this blog has been kind of forgotten, I'm sorry.

Anyway, what I was trying to share was my joy concerning upcoming 12.5 Durarara's episode.
Here is the link to the official site

So question is, do you see what I'm seeing?
Well I heard somewhere the Orihara twins were supposed to appear too but they're not on the pic, let's hope anyway.

No, the important (and unexpected) people are : Isaac, Miria aaaand SHIKIIII! I get to see more Shiki! And I'll hopefully get more Izaya talking with Shiki, because his "Shiki no danna" is definitely something and him interacting with the Awakusu-kai is aways interesting.

August 25th, a little less than 2 weeks to wait