The Forgotten

I am looking through my own blog archives now and then, and reading them as well. I have quite a case of amnesia when it comes to old anime series after all. Interestingly enough, I had touched upon a few anime/manga series that I have actually forgotten or dropped. So I went on a little trip down memory lane and see what’s up with those old stuff.

Tsubasa Chronicle

What’s wrong with this series? I guess maybe CLAMP lost a bit of their magic, as both the anime and manga are not compelling and interesting enough. I dropped the anime halfway through the first season, and I can barely recall the yawns I made. The anime is [painfully slow->record-times], thanks to the wonderful traditions of good old Bee Train. The manga, while it caught me for a while, just isn’t coherent enough. It feels like it’s not giving me enough story, with all the alternate-dimension oddities which give me less apathy towards minor characters who get left behind all the time. To think that it featured many of my favorite CCS and CLAMP characters. I thought that Tsubasa Chronicle would be the ultimate [CLAMP Crossover series->clamp-crossover-tracker], and I particularly like crossovers and similar stuff like parodies and spoofs. The manga seems to be ending soon, so good riddance. I want that old CLAMP goodness again.

Negima

I don’t hear too much buzz on Negima lately, be it anime or manga. Certainly I would want to follow this again. I think I stopped somewhere within the school festival arc of the manga, but I faintly recall that this is really having a good run. This is shounen and harem done right, with an equal amount of action and fanservice. Generally, Akamatsu Ken’s manga series are way stronger than the anime, with both Love Hina and [Negima anime series->mahou-sensei-negima] failing to recreate the original feel. And yes, I haven’t watched the SHAFT(ED) edition of Negima yet. There seem to be new OVAs to be released though, so maybe it would tide me over to follow them again.

Futago Hime, Pretty Cure, and Mermaid Melody

All are nice mahou shoujo series no doubt, but during my stint in Japan, I became too busy to go watch long anime. With less raw release support on this genre, you would also find less fansubber support, so they are hard to find even today. Futago Hime is [sugary cute->futago-hime-dances], but after a string of uninteresting episodes I found it hard to consume. Pretty Cure started off loud with good action scenes and an interesting set of characters, but it is also standard monster-of-the-week fare. And… character changes per season? And recently it became too sentai-ish for my tastes. Now, Mermaid Melody… I can’t remember why I dropped this. This is actually a good anime. I still have the songs in my playlist too. Someday I hope to swim around this series again.

Naruto, Prince of Tennis, Initial D, One Piece

And we go to the long long road of shounen anime, where it never freaking ends. Naruto had been a [disaster->sasuke-girl] for me, because as it treads further, the action [worsens->sasuke-girl-2]. Imagine this, it came from true ninja teamplay dynamics to a massive array of fireballs and impossible magic techniques. Similarly, Prince of Tennis became too unrealistic. Having high school guys play tennis that could rival Nadal and Federer? What the F? Initial D is still a bit grounded to reality though, having the continuing growth of Takumi to be slow but sure. Now, One Piece, is a series I DEFINITELY want to get into. Reports say that this has been really an epic, epic, epic pirate journey so far. It may still remain to be IMO the best shounen property of all time, and I STILL don’t see any end in sight. If only I had time. I am a couple of hundred chapters and episodes behind, but given the drive to follow it again, I definitely will.

Death Note

Yup, I called Death Note “over” after the L arc. There have been so many complaints about the less-than-awesome arc that followed after that one. I don’t think I’m missing much anyway. But I caught a sneak peek of the real end when I watched the second live action movie. I watched it raw in a Japanese theater no less, and it’s a funny story of oddly screaming Japanese teen fangirls beside me overpowering the theater audio at times rendering me completely helpless trying to figure out the dialogue. Enough about that though, so I wonder if I’ll still do catchup on the next arc. There’s also the quite unrelated L ~change the world~ live action movie, which looks average too.

Maria-sama Ga Miteru

The lovely, lovely world of Marimite. I haven’t watched the latest OVAs yet, so I miss that enchanting and warm air of lovely sophisticated ladies. The imoutos and their onee-samas… sigh. I want more of those non-event events where nothing happens except just Yumi and Sachiko strolling, talking about nothing, worrying about the smallest of things, like “will onee-sama be mad” etc.

Fruits Basket

Once upon a time this is one of my all-time favorite shoujo series, but has somehow faded away from my heart since. I bought Fruits Basket manga up to volume 10. I tried to keep up but somehow there’s a part of me that refuses. Why? I dunno. All I can remember is that Fruits Basket is just so sad. There’s so much suffering behind the hectic comedy. Maybe there’s this side of me that refuses to go onward to the story, so I probably stopped at the part where it’s safe to say that some characters are happy. No dark past secrets revealed, nothing to bawl or cry over. Maybe this is preparation for an awesome manga marathon. If Fruits Basket remained to be on its prime until the end, maybe this will end up to be my favorite shoujo series ever. For now, I’m holding on to some happy memories.

NANA

I almost forgot how awesome this series is. I was really updated with [NANA->] until fairly recently when the anime was over. I also watched the live-action movie (NANA2) on a Japanese theater, and it’s a funny story of a ronery guy watching NANA alone with other Japanese couples around me. LOL, enough about that. The one thing that stings me in this series is how Hachi went to the “wrong guy”. So far that “wrong guy” can’t redeem himself in my point of view. While many-a-Hachi X Takumi fan would definitely catfight with me over that, I just can’t see their chemistry. Yes, it seems logically right, but I just didn’t like this kind of direction in the story, and my reaction to this was stronger than some of my favorite “failed” shoujo pairings. I was really rooting for Hachi X Nobu at some point. Go Hachi and Nobu! Moar drama FTW! Oof, my “non-girl” fangirl self kicking in again. I don’t know what happens further on in the manga, short of revealing rocker-Nana’s mother. I would want to follow it again.

To Heart 2

Yes, I’m having catchup problems with To Heart 2. No it’s not about the anime, it’s about the new Another Days game. If there’s one thing I admire (and hate) about Leaf and particularly this game, is that they have good writers. Good enough writers to render me confused. See, I have fair command of Japanese when it comes to bishoujo games, but the script of To Heart 2 has some quite complex sentences. I’ve had no problems understanding the story with Key or Circus titles that I played, but with Leaf and TH2AD, it has been a chore. It’s hard to consume, so I am not touching the game at present. Sorry to say, the continuation of my [features->toheart2] would be delayed because of this.