Guess that one of my favorite anime ever has a place in this 12 days of Christmas series that can't even be called a series since there's no sign of continuity.
Maybe next year I'll actually plan things before starting and have a vague idea of where I'm going instead of making things up as I go.
Anyway, the reason why Natsume has a place here is because its third season aired this year and that the fourth one is starting next season. It's rare for an anime to do well enough to have 4 seasons, even rarer to have enough material to make these 4 seasons, especially considering the manga chapters are released every two months. (Now please make me a fourth of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei too!)
I'm having an additional reason as to why Natsume Yuujinchou should be highlighted in this period of the year, it's sweet. Sweet, adorable and heartwarming. Isn't it well needed?
New edition of the 12 days of Christmas that might end up being more or less than 12 because I don't know how my inspiration will follow me and more importantly, IF it will follow me through 12 days, or more.
Oh well, let's enjoy it while it lasts.
I was genuinely not going to do actually that many Christmas themed post but I don't seem to be able to escape it so, today's topic is going to ask you to be a little imaginative, I'll be taking my top 6 shows of my ACAA post, try to imagine how their characters would spend Christmas and would love it if you shared your opinions with me!
Working!! : Yamada would insist on spending it with her "family", cry when her wish was crushed by Takanashi, be comforted by the girls who would find it's a good idea, the manager will join because Christmas = food, Satou would join because Todoroki, Takanashi would finally accept because Taneshima, Souma can never miss any occasion to find more blackmail material, and then they'll celebrate together after the closure of the restaurant!
And I think it would be adorable.
Level E : I can totally expect Baka Ouji to bring a carnivorous Christmas tree to Earth. And then going all "But I thought you celebrated Christmas with trees" with his innocent eyes.
"WE DO BUT NOT WITH CARNIVOROUS ONES"
Something like that.
Fate/Zero : Iskandar would bring on himself to invite everyone to celebrate, it'll end up exactly like last week episode, they'd all argue and try to kill each other.
Natsume Yuujinchou : His friends would invite Natsume but he'd feel bad about leaving the Fujiwara alone but they'd tell him to go so he would, or he'd invite everyone at home.
I don't think I have ever read a Christmas Natsume chapter, nor a New Year one. I want to, it'd be cute.
Steins;Gate : I am firmly convinced Okarin would start by planning a little party with the labs member but would end up inviting everyone he meets (or nearly) the lab would quickly become too small and they'd end up at Feyris' place because of course Daru would want to go there anyway.
Tiger&Bunny : Since of course Bunny doesn't like Christmas, Kotetsu would want to help him forget and since he of course would want to see his daughter at least for Christmas he'd bring Bunny forcefully back home with him.
And of course before leaving Nathan would insist on throwing a big party with everyone, obviously disrupted because they can't party properly.
Or they'd have to take part in a HeroTV special. Or both.
Well, as obviously these are only my headcanons, you're free to disagree. But I had fun writing them and that's all that matters. (The fanfic writer that hasn't written fanfics in 6 months is talking ^^)
How can I resist joining a project hosted by someone who calls me his favourite fujoshi, there's no way I can right? I urge you all to go checkKidd's AniBloggers Choice Anime Award post for further informations on how to join and to just do it! (He said I was his favorite fujoshi after all, KYAAA *cough*)
And this is why I present you with my own list of 12 anime, movies and OVAs that marked, for me, the year 2011. Probably ranked. Or not. It's always pretty hard to rank things.
Damn do I have the feeling I'll be quite alone in some of my choices.
12) KamiNomi II (Spring)
Because this is probably the only harem anime I genuinely like. I don't usually like the genre and get bored pretty soon. It didn't happen. Not only that but the second season was much more enjoyable than the first.
11) Mawaru Penguindrum (Summer)
Only reason as to why it is so low in the ranking is that it's not finished, and, knowing the kind of anime it is, it can take a turn to have a disappointing ending pretty quickly. Even the risk exists, at least it was a very fun ride.
10) Usagi Drop (Summer)
Heartwarming and adorable piece of fluffy feelings. And realistic. And pretty.
09) Yondemasu yo Azazel-san (Spring)
I think more people should give a chance to that very short (one episode is only 10 minute) anime, it's totally nuts, crazy and over the top in every way (and a bit trash too, considering the favorite "food" of one of the main character).
Nyorin~
08) Hellsing Ultimate 8 (Summer)
It did something very difficult, making me cry for the death of a character. At least one character dies per episode you think I'd be used to it by now but nope, that one was horrible. Beautiful in a very sick way, but horrible. (Yes that's the only thing I remember about the episode, I'm not even ashamed of it. At all.)
And, since I'm talking about it, every character voiced by a seiyuu I really like die in that series. I'm glad he lasted that long.
07) Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (Winter)
Because I didn't think they'd dare to behead Mami. And because Kyubey is adorable. And because I really liked the story and the visuals and the music. (I didn't quite like Madoka the character but that's another story)
06) Level E (Winter)
That was hilarious. I love trolls. Especially alien trolls.
05) Working 2 (Spring)
This is the only reason you need :
04) Fate/Zero (Fall)
That's, for me, the second great surprise of the year. I'm not a fan of Fate/Stay Night. Not at all, so I didn't even consider watching this until I heard Yuki Kajiura was doing the music, and then I saw the first episode.
And I think I completely fell in love at the whole Sakura in the insect pool scene.
Anyway, I'm enjoying myself immensely while watching every episode and I just love the characters.
03) Natsume Yuujinchou San (Summer)
It's Natsume. It's adorable, peaceful and it has yokai.
02) Steins;Gate (Spring)
It took me off guard a bit too, it's something I heard about quite some times before it aired, so, as usual, I was a bit wary of the hype and expected nothing out of it, especially since I did see Chaos;Head before and thus assumed Steins;Gate had the same crazy themes and thus would be as hard to animate.
I was wrong, I'm glad I was wrong. Steins;Gate was amazing, I understood what they were talking about (since I'm not a scientist I'm sometimes lost, especially when it concerns time travel), I wasn't bored, even when re-doing the same days over and over, I loved the characters, felt sorry for them, supported them, didn't want them to die, wanted them to be happy. I loved the plot, I loved the surprises, the plot-twists, the romance. Everything.
01) Tiger&Bunny (Spring)
That is the first surprise of the list, I found no other interest in the first episode than the main character, I honestly thought the whole thing would be boring, hell, I wouldn't even be the slightest bit interested if Narita Ryogho didn't mention he was watching it on his Twitter. (Shallow, yes I know, though I can't really help to feel like I might be interested in something the guy who wrote Durarara!! likes ^^)
I expected some generic super hero show and it's exactly what I didn't get.
In the end I don't think I have cried more at any other show but this one, because I didn't relate to any characters more than I related to these two. (Crap, I outed myself as screwed up)
That's, I guess, part of the reason why I love it so much and obsess over it so much, but even speaking objectively the characters are really well written and realistically well written. Hell, even the seiyuu surprised me, upon seeing one of the main character was voiced by Morita Masakazu I sighed, thinking said character would be another fighting maniac without depth, I was wrong. Everyone else too was perfectly spot on and it showed me once again how perfect Tsuda Kenjiro is. If I had one complain to voice it'd be about the predictability of the story (because I honestly don't care much about the quality of the animation and saw worse anyway). But even with a predictable story it caught me in, and you had to actually think to predict it, I don't care much anymore at this point anyway, pretty much everything is predictable. (And I was wrong, I thought someone would die)
Still, the end of the series actually feel like a closure even if it's not, it leaves room for more thoughts and they keep on adding more depth to the universe. It's almost like an interactive story and I think it's great.
(Should probably stop before I write a novel about why I liked that anime ^^)
Suddenly I realized Un-Go was already at its Ninth episode and that in two weeks it'll be already finished. Where did my Fall go? (Granted, it doesn't feel like Winter at all yet but nevermind)
As such I thought it was about time to decide more or less about what I'll watch next season. (Instead of working on my Anime Blogger Choice Award post, damn procrastination ^^)
On my watch list for sure!
- Kyousougiga : In the hopes of finaly getting what it is all about I shall watch it.
- Black Rock Shooter : I liked the OVA and I'm curious about how they'll continue the story and how they'll balance the two worlds.
- Another : Horror story? Yes please!
- Nisemonogatari : Love Bakemonogatari a lot so I'll obviously watch this.
And they look like they're wearing a fried egg on the promo picture so ...
- Natsume Yuujinchou Shi : Well, it's Natsume Yuujinchou! <3
- Brave 10 : Sengoku Jidai is always a must. And I heard it had Kamiya so ...
Will at least check out (and probably end up watching anyway)
- Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou : Well, I usually trust Sunrise when it comes to adapting gag manga (*cough*Gintama*cough*) BUT I really don't want to see Kimi to Boku n°2 and Sunrise is either really good or painfully average so we'll see.
I think something's wrong. Usually my first list has at least 10 shows, I'm at 7, and I don't even know what's continuing.
Well, guess I won't have to feel guilty and suppress my urges to check more things when the season will start
And with this come the end of the Summer 2011 season.
With the end of a season come the final impressions post.
Want to know something? It's a disaster.
I tried to come up with a top 3 and this is what I got. All 3 being 24-episodes anime, 2 of which having debuted in Spring already, thus not really belonging there either, but the situation is that dire.
3 - Mawaru Penguindrum
2 - Steins;Gate
1 - Tiger&Bunny
They all got their dedicated posts already and Penguindrum is the first anime I ever felt the need to blog almost weekly. I'll leave it at one more thing before I move on to the other stuff and attempt to rank them, these 3 anime are awesome. Watch them.
For the rest, well, you're familiar with my Crazy anime watchlist corner, then you know what to expect, the rest of the post will be huge.
13 - Sacred Seven
First time ever I dropped an anime halfway through the season. Should tell everything.
12 - Utapri
I expected it to suck and so it did. No big deal. Was watching only for the seiyuu anyway.
11 - Idolm@ster
I expected it to be exactly what it is, watching this only for mindless entertainment, not very interesting but not boring enough to drop. Yeah, mindless entertainment.
10 - KamiMemo
On the other hand I had great hopes for that one. I lost all of them during the Hison arc, not only do I hate predictability but I hate it even more when they think the viewers are idiots.
I would have been ready to forgive them everything, really, if only it didn't have that much of a promising first episode. That's why it's so low, because I felt like they wasted the potential.
09 - Ikoku Meiro no Croisée
A cute story about a cute girl trying to get used to a new country.
There's nothing more to it.
And, while I was super excited to see my country portrayed in an anime, I think that cringing at all the inaccuracies and misconceptions kinda ruined it a bit for me. And well, I live there, even worse, I've seen the real Galeries du Roi, it's not really exotic or anything.
08 - Nurarihyon no Mago
I have a yokai bias. And I can't help it, it has a lot of great seiyuu and the fights aren't as boring as they could be. It's enjoyable but there's really nothing more to it.
07 - Ao no Exorcist
Loved the manga. Very much and, while some parts of the anime were a bit shitty (even when you do forget the fact these were an original storyline) it was still entertaining? Not the wonderful anime it could have been and definitely not a faithful adaptation but it has so little material to work on that it was a given from the start.
Could have been better. And the extra Mameshiba helped greatly my enjoyment of the last episode.
06 - Kami-sama Dolls
If you forget the last episode and the lack of answers we got it was an interesting anime and a fun ride.
Just lacked something I still haven't pinpointed to be really awesome (like, say, ... answers)
05 - Hanasaku Iroha
Despite being quite weak in terms of plot and character develpement, along with me being quite adverse to slice of life anime most of the time, I still found myself enjoying this. Not the best thing ever but still quite nice if you have time to spend.
04 - No6
It was a nice 10 episodes serie!
Would have been better with more answers and less useless scenes, which, considering it had only 10 episodes would have been a nice idea. It's quite sad because if it would have gone a "realistic" way with less emphasis on the characters and more on the city it could have been great.
What, you're saying there was a 11th episode? Where the hell did you get this from? ...
03 - Dantalian no Shoka
Despite the fact I'm still wondering what the hell was the point to this anime, if I take the episodes as separate 20min mini-movies it's actually quite nice.
Once again, not the very best out there, but still has enough entertainment value to spend time on.
02 - Usagi Drop
It was very, very, very good before I read the manga.
So if you're going to watch, don't read the manga beforehand, it spoils the fun.
01 - Natsume Yuujinchou San
Natsume is always adorable and awesome and it has yokai and there's going to be a fourth season guys. A FOURTH.
You should watch it. (But don't read the manga or it spoils the fun a little too)
So my general impression? Disappointed. Either I become too hard to please or this season was really weak.
I talked a lot today. Then again, a lot of things are ending, and since I'm too lazy to make a whole post for each of them ...
It's hard watching so many anime at the same time isn't it?
So many things are finishing, yet, nothing really started so far and I miss Steins;Gate.
In the meantime you can still check my tentative crazy watchlist for Fall.
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
And I come once again bearing a new edition of my bi-weekly crazy watchlist. One day I swear I'll be able to control myself and not watch as many things as I do now.
Or not.
Hey! I have the pleasure to announce two things. First, I failed my job interview, was very close to get the job but didn't get it, which isn't bad because the pay was low and I would have started today and would have had to move out in less than one day.
And second, much better, I've joined Organization ASG as an anime reviewer. Everything related to the current season stays here, the rest goes over there, please check it out
I think I'm a bit disappointed by this batch of anime. Don't really know why. On the other hand, it's still hot as hell and my laptop is so old it cannot handle more than one anime episode at a time. Must be why I'm so pissed off.
- Nurarihyon no Mago : Aaw FukuJun you're so good!
Rikuo you're making me laugh so much.
And Yukionna's gonna get pissed.
- Hanasaku Iroha : Aaw finally Okami-san makes her move!
But that was beautiful, her talk about not letting the other be alone was so beautiful.
Too bad that this is only something you can do when both party agrees to it. And I'm still not convinced by their couple ^^
- Ao no Exorcist : Despite being useless that was one of the most interesting episode in a while.
And the reference to Working! was really cute.
And Rin got the bunny plushie!
- Gintama : Please. No more Jugem.
- IkoMei : I can't decide if Camille is really mean or not.
But it would seem that I was right, she's in love with Claude.
- Natsume : Aaaw the shota fox is back!
And these episodes are always so adorable!
- Kami-sama Dolls : For once, I like Hibino. We don't understand exactly the same thing.
I miss Kuuko. I could have said the same thing about "the darkness in Kyohei's mind". Except I was convinced he took part in the slaughter in the beginning.
You know what? Thinking back, I would have liked it better if I was right.
- Steins;Gate : Fuck, this one was the most painful and sad so far.
Now, the great question is : will Makise betray them and go to CERN?
Whether or not you noticed I'd like to point out I added a link to my Google+ account at your right, feel free to add me! (and admire the subtelty with which I choose my icons!)
Under the cut are spoilers for Ao no Exorcist, Hanasaku Iroha, Ikoku Meiro no Croisée, Kami-sama Dolls and Steins;Gate. The rest should be free of them
- Nurarihyon no Mago : That Itaku guy looks like Jake Sparrow -____- (which reminds me, I still need to find that movie with Davy Jones in Japanese.)
And I just wanted to throw to the world that I can do chores much better than Nura, chopping included.
- Hanasaku Iroha : Damn Minko and her lack of empathy.
I really liked Jiromaru trying to find titles for his novel by asking the girls. I actually like Jiromaru and his pevertness.
I miss the mean Tohru of the beginning though.
And I still wonder how anyone could like Yuina.
- Ao no Exorcist : It became worse than I thought it would be.
I really did like the beginning, turning Mephisto into someone even more twisted is always a good thing.
But, you see, last week I was complaining about the characters being so open about Rin's being the son of Satan and such, well, I grew used to it.
So, why is everyone helping him, then 5min later suddenly give him the cold shoulder? Why?
I honestly wouldn't mind the change that much if at least everything was coherent.
- Gintama : I think I have only one thing to say : how did this manage to get on TV at such an hour?
- Croisée : Did I understood things right? Is Camille really in love with Claude?
I feel sorry for her in any case though.
- Natsume Yuujinchou : Back to the manga!
Matoba's entrance and Natori's first reapperance of the season.
I couldn't be happier!
- Steins;Gate : Oh my heart, my heart.
Moeka surprised me though, I never thought she'd be like this, though I do understand where it comes from, I definitely thought she at least knew FB outside of text messages.
And I didn't think she'd believe Okabe either.
(As a bonus impression : I'm so cheering for Okabe and Kurisu to finally and properly confess instead of throwing hints here and there that Kurisu doesn't remember and Okabe is too fixated on Mayuri's death to care about. It pains me.)
-Kamisama Dolls : I'm not too sure what to think about this episode. Sure it was fun but as I thought there wasn't much point to them going there, they could have done all of this in Tokyo. There must be something else.
I was told elsewhere that my daily (or nearly daily) quick reviews were helpful, if only for reminding people to watch a show or another.
To be honest, I've been trying for more or less one year to come up with a way of sharing episodes impressions without the need to do a full post complete with screencaps. These take time. I'm lazy.
So I think, considering the awful amount of things I watch, I'll do at least a bi-weekly review. Maybe even once every two days if I have the time, so things don't get too long. Because let's admit it, everyone's afraid of walls of text.
- Ao no Exorcist : What have they done with the manga I love? There was much more blood in the manga, and Amaimon was effectively sent back to the Gehenna and they definitely didn't react even close to this at the news either.
Oh well, next week goes back to the original storyline. Kinda.
- Hanasaku Iroha : Finally a focus on Nako. She's adorable.
I still don't understand how they manage to get along so well with Yuina though.
Still, I can't get over this.
- Ikoku Meiro no Croisée : Once again, Yune is adorable.
Every week, as a French, I feel like I should explain one thing or two, but, to me everything is normal, aside from the mistakes, so I never know what others might think strange.
- Nurarihyon : I loved this flashback arc very much, I'm sad it won't continue for much longer because the Supreme Commander was awesome! And very sexy ^^ Sorry but I do have some sort of girl side buried somewhere
- Gintama : Nothing much, your usual Gintama episode with a character commenting everything he finds strange in said episode. But it had Zura. And the Shinsengumi, sadly without Matsudaira.
And since they finished early they started next week episode, which looks like something I won't totally enjoy.
- Natsume : I never have anything to say about that show, it's never surprising but in a good way, the peaceful and heartwarming kind of way.
Even though this week was kinda gore, especially to Natsume's standards.
- Kamisama Dolls : This development is a bit unexpected. I don't understand why it's happening, I'm not exactly against it, if it means I can learn more, but I still don't understand. Guess I'll just have to wait until next week.
- Steins;Gate : I don't like Rukako's character. Does it tell you anything about my enjoyment of this episode?
Okabe was, once again, very awesome though.
See you hopefully on Sunday for the next installment!
