Sweet Dreams

I've decided to try something that I've been wanting to do for years (but couldn't because we were stuck with dial-up) -- actually follow a season of anime as it is airing! I have watched a few shows as they came out -- Sailor Moon Crystal, obviously, Arata the Legend from a few seasons ago, Free! (thanks to mellowcandle), Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (thanks to Tumblr), Space Dandy (thanks to cable, which we finally have) -- but I've never experienced the fun of just looking through the entire seasonal line-up and picking a bunch of shows that look interesting to check out. Even with Free!, Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, and Space Dandy, I only started watching mid-season, so I already knew that they had a good buzz around them. Granted, I only have a free account at Crunchyroll and have no interest in upgrading to premium, so I likely will be watching episodes a week after they actually air, but close enough.

The current plan is to check out at least the first episode of all these series that caught my eye. If the series seems promising, I'll continue watching it as it airs. If it doesn't really catch my interest, I'll just wait to watch the rest at a later date. (The completionist in me won't let me even entertain the idea of dropping it altogether, although I have already dropped The Fruit of Grisaia and Trinity Seven before even checking them out due to bad reviews over at ANN.) I may do quick weekly reviews here at LJ over the weekend, but I reserve the right to quit or skip weeks at any time. Here's the list:

Karen Senki - The only show I've checked out so far. It seems a bit like a Japanese RWBY, in that episodes are short (only ten minutes), the animation is non-traditional, and it has a bunch of awesomely choreographed fight scenes. It was a bit too brief to get a real reading on how I'll like the show, but I'm putting it on my "watch as airs" list anyway, since it won't take up a lot of time to watch anyway if the episodes keep to the same general length.

Your lie in April - This is probably my most anticipated series. A romance between a pianist and a violinist? (Those happen to be my two favorite instruments, by the way.) Yes, please!

Akatsuki no Yona - My second-most anticipated title. The reviewers over at ANN seem to think "girl in a Chinese-based fantasy world surrounded by hot bishies" series are a bit passe nowadays, but, bah, I still enjoy watching Fushigi Yuugi, so I'm pretty sure I'll like Akatsuki no Yona as well. It sounds pretty awesome to me.

When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace - I was a kinda on the fence about adding this to my queue -- that title certainly doesn't help inspire confidence that it'll be all that interesting -- but enthusiastic reviews of the first episode make me want to give it a shot.

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying - Another terrible title, but an anime series about the life of a married couple (wife is an office lady, husband is an otaku) isn't something you see much of, so I'm definitely interested.

Wolf Girl and Black Prince - Gotta be honest, the main reason it's on this list is because it's shoujo, and there isn't enough shoujo anime anymore. Otherwise, the summary makes me suspect that it's not the kind of shoujo I normally like -- more Hot Gimmick than Fruits Basket -- but, eh, maybe it'll surprise me. (The male lead can't possibly be as horrible as Ryoki, can he?)

Parasyte - the maxim - - Way, way, way back in the day, when the Sailor Moon manga was first published in English, it was in a manga anthology called Mixxzine. Parasyte was another title featured in that magazine, so I read the first few chapters. I liked it okay, but never enough to seek out the rest of the manga when Mixxzine ended. (This was before I insisted on finishing everything I started, obviously. I couldn't afford to!) So, this anime is letting me give it a second shot.

Celestial Method - Like WSBBC, this is another title I was iffy about until I read some reviews that got me interested.

DENKI-GAI - I think this series has the potential to be either downright hilarious...or hilariously awful. It doesn't have great reviews so far, but comedy is so subjective, I just need to check it out for myself.

So nine series in all -- ten if you count the ongoing Sailor Moon Crystal, and eleven if you consider RWBY as anime. That seems reasonable enough. Anybody else interested in any of these shows as well? Is there another series that isn't on the list that you think I may like?

First off, Politically Incorrect is posted at dotmoon and FF.net. (I'll post it AO3 either later today or tomorrow; I didn't have time yesterday.). Decided just to post the whole thing as a long one-shot, since it really wasn't set up to be a chaptered story. If you read it before, I made a few really minor changes, but also added a One Year Later scene at the end that you may want to check out.

The reason why I didn't have time to post it at AO3 is because yesterday Mom and I went to the movies -- we saw Hope Springs, which was pretty good -- then did a little shopping. Of course, that meant manga for me! At Barnes & Noble, I picked up Sailor Moon Vol. 7, Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden Vol. 10 (finally, a new volume!), and the first 3-in-1 omnbus edition of Skip-Beat, which I've always wanted to read but thought was too long. Actually, I still think it's too long, but you know me, I'm always a sucker for an omnibus... *laughs* We also went to Half-Price Books. For once, though, they didn't have anything I was interested in, so I decided to satisfy my craving for bargain-hunting out-of-print manga on the Amazon Marketplace. I ordered Vols. 4 & 7 of Othello, Vol. 6 of Doubt! (all three missing volumes from series I bought previously at HPB), and Clannad: After Story Collection 2. (You may remember that I got the rest of the series for ridiculously cheap during Right Stuf's holiday sale last year.) Also bought some newer manga: Arata: The Legend Vol. 9, Kimi ni Todoke Vols. 8 and 9, and Kobato. Vols. 2-4.

So, yeah, I'm going to be in manga heaven for the next couple of weeks. ^_^

I'm getting really bad about doing my meme questions, so today will be another two-for-one. They're related anyway.

19. A manga/an anime that you disliked at first but came to enjoy later on

Hmm, this is a tough question. I guess I would have to say the manga series Phantom Dream did get a lot better later in the series. I didn't really care for it at all in the beginning. As for anime.... Maybe Gundam Wing? It was a bit of a struggle to get through the first half, but past the recap, I enjoyed it more, although I never really came to love it. It's a pretty average series.

20. A manga/an anime you started out enjoying but ended up not liking as much

Ah, this question is much easier to answer! I've already mentioned Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic in reply to a similar question from this meme, but for anime, it's gotta be Kare Kano. It was so, so good until the last couple of episodes! Unfortunately, the ending is so terrible that it's tainted the rest of the series for me.

...'cause it kinda makes my head hurt. -_- But I saved so much more than I spent -- over $350 in savings, actually -- so that makes it okay, right? (And I finished the rest of my Christmas shopping this weekend, so I could afford to splurge a little on myself.)

I will give a rundown of the order, though:

Soul Eater Holiday Bundle
Black Butler Holiday Bundle
Pumpkin Scissors S.A.V.E. boxset
Girls' High boxset
Nanaka 6/17 boxset
Clannad Collection 1 boxset
Clannad Collection 2 boxset
Clannad After Story Collection 1 boxset
My Santa
Sailor Moon Vol. 2
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 1
Codename: Sailor V Vol. 2
Arata: The Legend Vol. 7

I'm a bit of an idiot, however. Those four manga volumes were the only things not from the 12 Days of Christmas sale. I included them in the order, meaning to use a "buy three manga, get one free" coupon that was in their last catalog, and then I FORGOT TO USE IT! *bangs head* I did email them right afterwards about it, so hopefully they can add it to the order. If not, no big of a deal. Still cheaper than buying at Barnes & Noble, and I can always use the coupon for a later order. Bit of a ditz moment on my part, though. I can't believe I did that!

(You might also notice that I didn't get the second half of Clannad After Story. They were already sold out of it. :( But the rest of the Clannad boxsets were so cheap ($5.99 each), that I decided to get them anyway. I'll get the missing one from Amazon.) 

Somebody knock some sense into me.

So, Right Stuf is having a Viz sale, which is great, because most of the manga series I'm currently following are from Viz. I'm planning to order Arata: The Legend Vol. 2, Butterflies, Flowers Vol. 3, Rasetsu Vol. 5, and NANA Vol. 21, along with two two-volume completed series: Flower in a Storm and What a Wonderful World. (May also pick up the three volumes of Ooku: The Inner Chambers that are out, but I keep waffling about if I want to start a new on-going series just yet, even though NANA is now caught up with the Japanese release with no word on when it'll resume.) That's not the problem.

The problem is what is is in the Bargain Bin. Look at these prices:

Hell Girl boxset - $17.99!
Magikano boxset - $9.95! (No, that's not missing a "one" before the "nine". It really is a complete 13-episode series for under ten dollars.)
Red Garden Part 1 and 2 boxsets - $8.99 each, for a total of $17.98 for the whole series!
Suzuka boxset  - $11.99! (For a 26-episode series, to boot!)

Argh! So cheap, which would be fantastic if any of those titles were on my "Must Buy" list. Unfortunately, none of them are.

Yet I still want them! (Well, not so much Magikano. Despite the super, ridiculously low price, it's a really stupid series.) They're so cheap!

Somebody please tell me that I do not need to waste money on series I only kinda-sorta want just because they're cheap.

*strongly considers adding Suzuka and Red Garden to the cart anyways*