A- Extended Alice 19th, Angel Sanctuary and two more
Well I was going to move onto the B's but I found a more extensive anime list to list the things I have watched/read. And since this is not a rec list so much as a reflection list, it felt necessary to include it.
Alice 19th(Manga)
Yuu Watase was my first, somewhat temperamental love, in terms of mangaka and for a time, anything she wrote, I wanted to read. That desire didn't so much leave as was forgotten about. At any rate, Alice 19th fits into the slot between Ayashi no Ceres and Absolute Boyfriend. Because it was Watase-sensei, I bought two or three volumes of the manga...and to be honest, I don't remember a damn thing about it.
The (truncated) summary on Wikipedia: "The story follows Alice Seno, a fifteen-year-old girl forever in the shadow of her older sister Mayura, who achieves in everything she undertakes. At her school Alice becomes known as "Mayura's little sister". Older girls, judging Alice too meek to retaliate, torment her relentlessly.
Alice harbors a deep affection for Kyô Wakamiya, a handsome upperclassman and a member - with Mayura - of the school archery team. On the way to school one day, Alice rescues a white rabbit from the road despite the danger to herself, but she is rescued by Kyô and receives from the rabbit a bracelet with a single red stone. The rabbit she saves, however, is no ordinary rabbit. The rabbit reveals her true form to Alice and introduces herself as Nyozeka. Alice is told that she is destined to become a Lotis Master. The Lotis Masters use the power of words and communication to enter the Inner Heart of others."
If you follow Watase at all, you start to pick up the reoccurring theme of a girl, often harangued for being different (poor, possessed by a ticked off goddess) or overshadowed by someone close (a friend, a sister) Of course there is a boy, usually multiple boys (usually multiple hot boys) who vie for her affection and UST is all over the place. I think this is what Watase is known for. That being said--the style doesn't always work. As I said, I don't remember a thing about this. Would it change if I'd read more? Probably. But some things I only glimpsed at I can remember. Not that this is a particularly negative critique but--just that this is an okay work from a pretty good mangaka and I will have to pick it up again.
Angel SanctuaryOAV
Angel Sanctuary is shoujo, written by Kaori Yuki and made into an OAV by Bandai Visiaul and Hal Film Maker and wow, people, if you think Shonen could get dark, it has nothing on Shoujo. Much like Alice 19th, I'd forgotten I'd seen this OAV-- However, unlike Alice, it leaves a hell of an aftertaste. To give you a little taste of it, wiki summary time!
"Beginning in late twentieth-century Japan, Angel Sanctuary focuses on Setsuna Mudo, a 16-year-old troubled high-school student who is in love with his 15-year-old sister Sara. While struggling with his incestuous feelings for his sister, he learns that he is the reincarnation of Organic Angel Alexiel, who led a rebellion against her fellow angels after witnessing their slaughter of the Evils, a group of demons, after God's disappearance. At the conclusion of the revolt, she sealed away her younger twin brother, Inorganic Angel Rosiel, within the Earth, emotionally unable to fulfill his request to be killed before he became insane and destructive. Captured and branded a fallen angel, Alexiel is punished by having her body frozen and her soul endlessly reincarnated as a human whose life is full of misery."
Dark.
As.
Shit.
Painful. Miserable. Incestuous. (That seems to crop up in shoujo a lot. There are incestual overtones in Fushigi Yuugi and Ayashi no Ceres as well as the twins in Ouran. I wonder why that is)
and yet for all the hurt, it's the good kind of hurt. Don't get me wrong, the hurt is miserable--but it's the good kind of miserable. Like joining in on someone else's pity party. It's hard to explain really. All I can really remember was that it was dark and gorgeous and I'd watch it again. Not much to say about this other than, ain't nobody does misery like Japan does misery-- and shoujo to boot! Yeesh!
Arietty the Borrower
Studio Ghibli 2010, directed by Yonebayashi and supervised by Miyazaki-sensei.
Yay! My first Studio Ghibli film and iits...forgettable. Watchable yes. Good, absolutely. Gorgeous, oh man, breathtaking! But it's the kind of thing where you mention it to people they go Oohhh yeaahhh, that one! Whereas if you mention Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away--well there's a much greater impact. I remember liking this story a great deal. It was very Japanese, ironically. (And, in a way, I think, almost too Japanese for an American audience) The characters were nice. There was a faint hint of tragedy. But nothing really big or catching happened. Now I'm not saying that everything has to be dark or have explosions or whatnot, but you can have a strong memorable hook even in a slice of life kind of story.
All that being said, it was a good movie and I would watch it again (if I remember) because, if nothing else, it's well worth the look.
Astro Boy (2003)
A remake of the 1960 series based off a manga by the incomparable Osamu Tezuka, produced by Tezuka Productions, Sony Entertainment and Fuji Television.
I was considering whether or not to add this because I'd only seen a handful of episodes on Hulu, but then I figured it's my list, I do what I want. And I--liked it. It didn't leave a big impact, no, but it was inherently watchable. The story was engaging, the characters were fun and though it had some tropes (hell, Tezkua-sensei practically invented them) they were done with sincerity and charm. So I'd recommend watching it. I think you can still check it out on Hulu. And it's a great way to get an (updated) slice of anime history
Absolute Boyfriend: Robot Boyfriend in a Box that sort of looks like Tamahome. (they all do, really) Oh, Watase-sensei, you cray cray. Honestly, I am only drawn to read this because I am (apparently) driven to check out all of the Yuu Watase titles. So we'll see if it ends up on here
So that's IT, for good, with the "A"s and onto the "B"s...which will have to be split into two parts. Ahahahahaha. What have I gotten myself into?
Alice 19th(Manga)
Yuu Watase was my first, somewhat temperamental love, in terms of mangaka and for a time, anything she wrote, I wanted to read. That desire didn't so much leave as was forgotten about. At any rate, Alice 19th fits into the slot between Ayashi no Ceres and Absolute Boyfriend. Because it was Watase-sensei, I bought two or three volumes of the manga...and to be honest, I don't remember a damn thing about it.
The (truncated) summary on Wikipedia: "The story follows Alice Seno, a fifteen-year-old girl forever in the shadow of her older sister Mayura, who achieves in everything she undertakes. At her school Alice becomes known as "Mayura's little sister". Older girls, judging Alice too meek to retaliate, torment her relentlessly.
Alice harbors a deep affection for Kyô Wakamiya, a handsome upperclassman and a member - with Mayura - of the school archery team. On the way to school one day, Alice rescues a white rabbit from the road despite the danger to herself, but she is rescued by Kyô and receives from the rabbit a bracelet with a single red stone. The rabbit she saves, however, is no ordinary rabbit. The rabbit reveals her true form to Alice and introduces herself as Nyozeka. Alice is told that she is destined to become a Lotis Master. The Lotis Masters use the power of words and communication to enter the Inner Heart of others."
If you follow Watase at all, you start to pick up the reoccurring theme of a girl, often harangued for being different (poor, possessed by a ticked off goddess) or overshadowed by someone close (a friend, a sister) Of course there is a boy, usually multiple boys (usually multiple hot boys) who vie for her affection and UST is all over the place. I think this is what Watase is known for. That being said--the style doesn't always work. As I said, I don't remember a thing about this. Would it change if I'd read more? Probably. But some things I only glimpsed at I can remember. Not that this is a particularly negative critique but--just that this is an okay work from a pretty good mangaka and I will have to pick it up again.
Angel SanctuaryOAV
Angel Sanctuary is shoujo, written by Kaori Yuki and made into an OAV by Bandai Visiaul and Hal Film Maker and wow, people, if you think Shonen could get dark, it has nothing on Shoujo. Much like Alice 19th, I'd forgotten I'd seen this OAV-- However, unlike Alice, it leaves a hell of an aftertaste. To give you a little taste of it, wiki summary time!
"Beginning in late twentieth-century Japan, Angel Sanctuary focuses on Setsuna Mudo, a 16-year-old troubled high-school student who is in love with his 15-year-old sister Sara. While struggling with his incestuous feelings for his sister, he learns that he is the reincarnation of Organic Angel Alexiel, who led a rebellion against her fellow angels after witnessing their slaughter of the Evils, a group of demons, after God's disappearance. At the conclusion of the revolt, she sealed away her younger twin brother, Inorganic Angel Rosiel, within the Earth, emotionally unable to fulfill his request to be killed before he became insane and destructive. Captured and branded a fallen angel, Alexiel is punished by having her body frozen and her soul endlessly reincarnated as a human whose life is full of misery."
Dark.
As.
Shit.
Painful. Miserable. Incestuous. (That seems to crop up in shoujo a lot. There are incestual overtones in Fushigi Yuugi and Ayashi no Ceres as well as the twins in Ouran. I wonder why that is)
and yet for all the hurt, it's the good kind of hurt. Don't get me wrong, the hurt is miserable--but it's the good kind of miserable. Like joining in on someone else's pity party. It's hard to explain really. All I can really remember was that it was dark and gorgeous and I'd watch it again. Not much to say about this other than, ain't nobody does misery like Japan does misery-- and shoujo to boot! Yeesh!
Arietty the Borrower
Studio Ghibli 2010, directed by Yonebayashi and supervised by Miyazaki-sensei.
Yay! My first Studio Ghibli film and iits...forgettable. Watchable yes. Good, absolutely. Gorgeous, oh man, breathtaking! But it's the kind of thing where you mention it to people they go Oohhh yeaahhh, that one! Whereas if you mention Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away--well there's a much greater impact. I remember liking this story a great deal. It was very Japanese, ironically. (And, in a way, I think, almost too Japanese for an American audience) The characters were nice. There was a faint hint of tragedy. But nothing really big or catching happened. Now I'm not saying that everything has to be dark or have explosions or whatnot, but you can have a strong memorable hook even in a slice of life kind of story.
All that being said, it was a good movie and I would watch it again (if I remember) because, if nothing else, it's well worth the look.
Astro Boy (2003)
A remake of the 1960 series based off a manga by the incomparable Osamu Tezuka, produced by Tezuka Productions, Sony Entertainment and Fuji Television.
I was considering whether or not to add this because I'd only seen a handful of episodes on Hulu, but then I figured it's my list, I do what I want. And I--liked it. It didn't leave a big impact, no, but it was inherently watchable. The story was engaging, the characters were fun and though it had some tropes (hell, Tezkua-sensei practically invented them) they were done with sincerity and charm. So I'd recommend watching it. I think you can still check it out on Hulu. And it's a great way to get an (updated) slice of anime history
Absolute Boyfriend: Robot Boyfriend in a Box that sort of looks like Tamahome. (they all do, really) Oh, Watase-sensei, you cray cray. Honestly, I am only drawn to read this because I am (apparently) driven to check out all of the Yuu Watase titles. So we'll see if it ends up on here
So that's IT, for good, with the "A"s and onto the "B"s...which will have to be split into two parts. Ahahahahaha. What have I gotten myself into?