30 Day Anime Challenge -- in one day!
Aug. 25th, 2015 12:35 pmNow, onto this 30 Day Anime Challenge I found on Tumblr, which is a little different than the one I did previous. Gonna do it all at once, though, just 'cause.
( Meme! )
Chapter 19 of Melting Ice has been posted at the usual places. I've also begun posting Against The Rules over at AO3. For some reason, I completely forgot about it when I posted the rest of my stories there!
Another double dose of meme questions:
23. Best manga/anime villain
He may be the protagonist of his series, but I gotta say the best manga and anime villain in my opinion is Light Yagami from Death Note. He utterly fascinates me with his belief that he is on the side of justice, despite the fact that he becomes one of the most prolific serial killers in history. That dichotomy within him makes him an interesting character to observe and puts him a cut above most other villains, who tend to be evil just because. Plus, he's definitely smarter than the majority of anime/manga villains out there!
24. The best long manga/anime series
Manga - Easy, a tie between Fruits Basket and NANA. (Criteria: Over twenty volumes.)
Anime - Kaleido Star, of course! Honorable mentions go to Super GALS, Card Captor Sakura, Fushigi Yuugi, Sailor Moon, Fullmetal Alchemist (both series), and Code Geass. (Criteria: Over fifty episodes.)
16. A manga/an anime that isn't licensed but SHOULD be.
Oh, now here's an easy question: Ginban Kaleidoscope! I want this anime to be licensed so, so much, but I doubt it'll ever happen. It's kinda old (from around 2005 or 2006, I think), and it's a sports (figure skating) anime, which doesn't seem to do very well over here for some reason. Then again, I never thought the second season of Someday's Dreamers would ever make it here either, yet somehow it finally got picked up (thank you, Sentai Filmworks!), so maybe I shouldn't abandon all hope for GK. (Oh, that reminds me that the second season of Story of Saiunkoku would also be a nice licensing pick as well.)
As for manga, my top choice would probably be Naoko Takeuchi's The Cherry Project, which also happens to be about a figure skater. Hey, Codename: Sailor V and the reprint of Sailor Moon are both big hits, so why not license another one of Takeuchi's titles, even if it is old and features a sport? Second choice goes to Kagen no Tsuki by Ai Yazawa of NANA and Paradise Kiss fame. I still don't understand why it hasn't been licensed, especially since the live-action movie based on it was. It's only three volumes long and by a fairly popular mangaka, so it doesn't seem like much of a risk to me. My third pick is either Appare Jipangu or Epotoransu! Mai, both by my favorite mangaka Yuu Watase. The majority of her series have made it over here, but not these two. Again, they're both short -- three and two volumes, respectively -- and by a popular artist, so why not, Viz? (Okay, Epotoransu! Mai isn't all that great, admittedly, but one of the male love interests is a Sailor Moon otaku, and that's cool. :P And it's still pretty decent, just not as amazing as some of her other series.)
09. A manga/an anime you'd like to see more of
I just finished a rewatch of one of my favorite anime, Princess Nine, and I'm still disappointed that it didn't get more seasons. I want to see the Kisaragi Girls go to Koshien and win! As much as I love the series, the end was kind of disappointing.
As for manga, it would be wonderful to see Ai Yazawa finally recover from her mystery illness and complete NANA. (And maybe even see a continuation of the anime?) Also, I recently learned that the Story of Saiunkoku manga is only nine volumes long, meaning that it'll probably end at the same point as the first season of the anime. One of the reasons I started reading the manga is because I wanted to know more of the story past that point, so it's disappointing that it ended so soon. (The second season was never licensed, and the original light novels go on even further.) I'd like to see all of the light novels adapted into manga form.
Getting a little behind on this thing...
06. Your favorite character
Helios from Sailor Moon, obviously. Did anybody expect me to say otherwise? :P But that's kind of a boring answer to this question, so how about naming my top five male (excluding Helios) and female characters from anime and manga? (In no particular order)
Male Characters
Shigure (Fruits Basket)
Yasu (NANA)
Touya (Card Captor Sakura)
Harima (School Rumble)
Matsuda (Death Note)
Female Characters
Sora (Kaleido Star)
Ran (Super GALS)
Shurei (Story of Saiunkoku)
Yuko (xxxHolic/Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle)
Balsa (Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit)
As for manga... Well, there's a lot of manga I would recommend; it's hard just to pick one. It would be easy to say either Fruits Basket or NANA, since they're my favorites, but FB is sadly out of print now and NANA is on indefinite hiatus. So I'm going to go with Ceres: Celestial Legend. It has beautiful artwork, a great combination of drama, humor, and romance, and it's an interesting take on the legend of the tennyo.
1. Leave a comment to this post!
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the names of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies, or TV shows.
The letter she gave me was H.
Helios (Sailor Moon) - Of course he was the first one to come to mind! In case you've never met me before, I LOVE HELIOS. Enough said.
Hatori Sohma (Fruits Basket) - Who doesn’t love Hatori, right? I think he’s probably the most handsome of the adult characters, and I adore his friendship with the other two members of the Mabudachi Trio (Shigure and Ayame), playing the straight man to their goofy antics. His past is also one of the more tragic of the cursed Sohmas, which just makes me want to give him a hug. (But then he’d turn into a seahorse…)
Kenji Harima (School Rumble) - Um, last names count, right? Almost all the characters call him Harima, anyway, so it's okay. Anyway, he gives off the image of being this cool, tough delinquent, but underneath it all, he's actually...well, kind of a dork. *laughs* But that what makes him so loveable. (I love me some adorkable guys. ^_^) I love his earnest pursuit of Tenma's love, even though it's hopeless -- she's in love with another guy -- and the fact that he's an aspiring mangaka who loves to draw self-insert stories in which he ends up with her in the end. It's just so pathetic that it's cute!
Hachi a.k.a Nana Komatsu (NANA) - Nicknames count too, yes? When I first started reading NANA, I actually preferred the other Nana (Osaki), who was super cool and driven to achieve her dream of becoming a singer. In comparison, Hachi was just a little too flaky and irresponsible, and she sometimes kind of annoyed me. But due to certain spoiler-y events, Hachi was forced to grow up, while Nana fell to pieces. Now I adore Hachi for her strength and perseverance.
Shurei Hong (Story of Saiunkoku) - I’m almost finished renting the first season of Saiunkoku from Netflix, and I’m bitterly disappointed that the second season was never licensed in the U.S. (I definitely plan to check out the manga, though.) Shurei is a great female lead. She’s the daughter of a impoverished noble family who dreams of being allowed to take the Imperial Exams (barred for women) and becoming a government official in order to help the citizens of the country. Not only is she book-smart, but she’s pretty wise to the ways of the world, and doesn't let her hormones distract her from her goals even though several beautiful men are in love with her (including the Emperor) . She’s really just one hundred kinds of awesome.
Fruits Basket is over! *sniffles* I've known how it ended ever since the final chapter came out in Japan, thanks to spoiling myself silly, but it's so wonderful to finally be able to read it for myself.
I actually didn't cry as much as I thought I would, but the last volume wasn't really all that sad. In fact, I pretty much smiled the whole time while reading it. It's just so wonderful to see these characters, who have been through so much, get the chance of a "new beginning" of sorts. There were parts that made me tear up some, of course, but overall, it was quite an uplifting ending, in my opinion.
( Beware of spoilers )Despite that last thing, Fruits Basket is definitely now at the top of my all-time favorite manga list, and I honestly doubt anything will ever take it's place. It's just that good. ^_^
(Well, maybe, maybe NANA, which I'm loving more and more with every volume I read, but it'll be a difficult goal to reach.)
You know, I normally consider myself a very patient person, but it's been almost a month since I ordered the last volumes of Absolute Boyfriend and Yurara from Right Stuf, and I still haven't gotten them. :( According to my Order Status page, Absolute Boyfriend has been "Reserved for your order" for a couple of weeks now, but Yurara is still backordered. Gah! Can't they at least send me the Absolute Boyfriend volume so I'll finally have something new to read? It seems like forever since I've read a new manga volume! (Looking back, I think my last manga splurge was all the way back in April. Oh, my, two whole months without new manga!)
Yeah, I know, I shouldn't be complaining. I ordered them with my Trigun DVDs, so I got free shipping, and I know they're just trying to cut back on their shipping costs by mailing the order in as few packages as possible, but I can't help it! I feel like a heroin junkie looking for her next fix. *laughs*
Well, hopefully the order I placed yesterday will be in soon. Right Stuf was having a sale on in-stock items, so most of what I ordered was, of course, in-stock: Vash and Wolfwood keychains (so cute!), NANA 10, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles 17, and Full Moon wo Sagashite 3, 5-7. Only Vol. 4 of Full Moon and Vol. 12 of xxxHolic are backordered, and I'm crossing my fingers that they either get in soon or don't hold up the rest of my order.
I NEED NEW MANGA!!!!!!