30DAC – FINALE: Anime You Wish Never Ended and Continued On

Wow, the end of our adventure already? Where you going in such a hurry, November? Anyway, I was actually really confused about our final prompt here. Does this mean continue on indefinitely or just a show I wish had gotten more time like another season? Because, in all honesty, even if I love a show, I’d be hard-pressed to say I’d never want it to end. Shows can have a lot of steam depending on their premise, writing and characters, but it’s incredibly rare to find a show that lasts for over a decade and still has the same staying power as it did when it started.

Western shows have the same problem. Even if a show is still okay, after numerous years of being on the air, practically everyone will agree that there is a time already passed for the show to end and give it the perfect ending. Like how in Supernatural most people wanted it to end after the Lucifer arc. Or Rurouni Kenshin after the Shishio arc.

Even my favorite shows like Baccano!, FMA(B) and Cowboy Bebop are shows I’m perfectly fine with being ended because they had a good solidified ending (Well, in Baccano!’s case, not really, but it’s meant to end that way, so yeah) and making them go on would probably just tarnish what is there.

However, I have two shows that I really wish were at least given another season. The first one in this regard is Fruits Basket.

Not for that reason! Honest! *cough*

I adore this show and its ending was…….okay, but leaves so much unresolved. We never meet the other two members of the zodiac, Kureno the rooster (though it’s hinted that the bird that Akito has around his house is Kureno given that his transformed state was a sparrow) and Rin the horse, and we never see the curse get lifted.

The only thing that was resolved was Tohru being able to stay with the Sohmas and her seeing Kyo’s true form. Just one more season is all I ask, but alas, my wishes go unheeded.

The second choice here is Ouran High School Host Club.

I’m actually pretty bummed that I haven’t gotten a chance to talk more about this series because it is one of my favorites. The ending of OHSHC is fine. I mean, technically there’s no linear storyline being followed, so the ending is really just a dramatic crescendo, but the ending is okay. I wish this series had continued on at least until their graduation. The fact that the series is mostly comedy with a mostly episodic style makes it a much better candidate for continuation over more dramatic and story driven series. And I really do just love this series to death. None of the characters bug me, practically every joke hits so well, that art and animation are great, the music fantastic and I just wish it had continued on. It may be too early to say it never will continue, but as far as I know there’s no plans for continuation.

And that, my friends is the end of my 30 Day Anime Challenge. It’s been a lot of fun and I even learned some stuff about myself. I always like doing stuff like this so maybe I’ll stumble upon another in the future. Until then, challenge COMPLETED.

30DAC – Day 29: An Anime You Wish Was Real

There are a lot of anime I wish actually existed. Pokemon, Digimon, One Piece and Fullmetal Alchemist. Some I’d like to exist purely to have the powers and mecha but then I’d have to remember that I’d be living in the same world they do, and it’s usually not pleasant.

To tell you the truth, I was going to choose FMA because the prospect of alchemy usage the way they present it is just so incredibly awesome and the world itself is perfectly livable and nice for the most part….barring the genocides and war. But I feel I’ve been singing FMA’s praises too long, so I went a different route.

My choice is Naruto. Why? Because that was literally the first thought I had when I first learned of the series. ‘Damn, I wish that was real.’ I mean, no matter your stance on the series, mine being decent, you can’t deny that the aspect of a ninja school (One for kids, no less) as well as learning all sorts of cool ‘magic’ ninja abilities would just be awesome. Not to mention all the cool weapons and specialized capabilities like bloodline abilities and ones that you can just invent to customize your style.

Granted, I’m being a little bit of a hypocrite here because, despite the world of Naruto being pretty cool, it can also be incredibly frightening when you think about it. People can control your every move through your shadow, control your mind, crush you to death with sand, blow fireballs at you etc. Plus, if you’re a civilian, you’re especially screwed if an enemy ninja targets you.

But eh, it’s not that bad for the most part. There are frightening aspects of our world, so I can’t be too strict there. It’s just a really interesting concept for a world as a whole.

….I just really want to write ‘Ninja’ on a resumé, okay? 😐

30DAC – Day 28: Favorite Anime Quote

– Tohru Honda “Maybe the reason you don’t see it is that it’s stuck to your back. What I mean is, a person’s admiral qualities, they’re just like, say, a pickled plum on a rice ball. In other words the person’s the rice ball and the plum’s stuck to their back. So, all over the world you can have rice balls made with all sorts of wonderful ingredients, all different flavors and shapes and colors, but since they’d be stuck in the middle of everyone’s back, someone could have a plum and not even know it. They’d look at themselves and think “I’m so plain, nothing but white rice,” even though it isn’t true because, turn them around and, sure enough, there it is. There’s the plum. So if someone is jealous of somebody else, well, then, it’s probably because it’s easier to see the plum on someone else’s back than it is on your own. Yup. I can see it. I can see it very clearly, Kyo. You don’t know it but you have a great big plum on your back.”

Some riceballs also have the shikon jewel in their backs.

I’m not going to lie, Tohru gets on my nerves quite often. She’s a major league doormat, and her incredibly gentle nature tends to get a little grating. Granted, she’s not like this all the time. There are several moments when she stands up for others (though rarely herself) and breaks down, but I won’t deny that her basically mousy demeanor aggravates me. That being said, she does have one of the kindest hearts and she has beautiful views on life. She’s definitely someone I’d love to have as a friend, and this quote highlights why that is.

This is a quote that I really need to hear and keep in my head as I go through life, and probably a lot of other people feel that way as well. In a world where having high self-esteem or a good view on life can be just incredibly difficult, this quote pokes through the clouds and gives a ray of sunshine. And unlike a lot of other positive quotes that seem unrealistic and cheesy, this one is presented in such a way that, while being very simple, also makes a lot of sense and is realistic. I nearly cried during this scene and only Tohru could be the one to make this quote hit home, especially since she may be integrating her own experiences into it given that she’s associated with riceballs. (In school, they’d play a game called ‘Fruits Basket’, the namesake of the series, in which all the kids would be given names of fruits. She would always be labeled as the riceball and would be excluded from the game since riceballs don’t belong in a fruits basket. It could be taken that this quote is her turning what was an insult for her into a positive thing, which is just what Tohru would do.)

I’m actually thankful for this prompt because this is a quote that I wish would be passed around more often. It’s a long quote, yeah, but it’s well worth every word.

By the way, you have something on your back. 😉

30DAC – Day 27: Most Badass Scene from Any Anime Character Ever

First of all, spoilers for Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Pretty much the whole entry will be spoilers so be warned.

Second of all, I’m sorry I keep making FMA entries. I just love the series too much. I promise this is the last one.

I’m going to go with Roy killing Lust in FMA:B. This. Scene. Is. Awesome. It almost made it into my epic scene spot, but it screams ‘BADASS’ just as much as ‘EPIC’.

She just asked for a light, Roy.

You have a homunculous being burst into flames over and over and over by Roy just standing there like a boss with the most determined and awesome look on his face, never faltering even though he’s facing a supposedly immortal creature who just nearly killed, and actually paralyzed, his comrade and severely wounded him moments ago.

That’s what builds to the awesomeness of this scene. He’s not only standing firm like a statue and blowing up a homunculus like it’s the Fourth of July, he’s also severely wounded while he’s doing this. Not only THAT, but in order to refrain from bleeding to death, he had sear his own wounds closed with his fire alchemy. Not only THAT….TOO, BUT he also had to carve a transmutation circle into his own freaking hand in order to make the fire.

And he was blindfolded, had both of his hands tied behind his back and was riding a dragon when he did it.

…..Okay, that last part didn’t happen, but you thought it might have, didn’t you? Because Roy is just that badass. The end.

He obviously had to her kill her before she got any closer. Can’t scuff that purty mug.

30DAC – Day 26: Best Anime Fight

I was going to choose Ed vs. Envy near the end of FMA as that fight, next to Ed vs. Greed, is one of the best animated and choreographed fight scenes in the entire series. Plus, the two major twists at the end of the fight were mind blowing.

However, I felt like there was another FMA fight that was way too entertaining to pass up. Ed vs. Roy.

In the episode titled Fullmetal vs. Flame, Ed is up for his State Alchemy assessment to renew his certification. This entails a show of skill to the higher ups to ensure that they’re still good enough to be State Alchemists. It also seems like you may need to one-up yourself on every assessment to ensure that you’re also improving. At least that’s how Tucker’s case seemed to present itself.

After getting fed up with Roy’s attitude and knowing that he was keeping secrets about Dr. Marco, a man who might have information on the Philosopher’s Stone, he decides the perfect demonstration for his assessment would be an alchemy battle between him and Roy.

And what a battle it is. For the most part, this battle is played up entirely for laughs. Ed spends much of the fight running from Roy’s explosions while Roy spends a good deal of the fight taunting him. Roy even starts attacking the audience to get to Ed (with no major injuries of course, being a comedy fight for the most part.)

I told you guys not to eat that candy from Willy Wonka’s factory.

The tides turn in the smoke with a decoy from Ed, who comes up from behind to slash his glove off of his hand. The transmutation circle on his glove is the main way he makes his flames, so Edward thinks he’s won, especially when he decides to make this insanely huge friggin’ cannon to finish it off.

The cannonballs must be the size of my house.

 

But Roy’s not down for the count as he reveals he has another transmutation glove on his left hand and blows up the cannon.

The most interesting thing about this battle is, by all means, Edward should’ve lost. The only way the fight ended up in a stalemate, or if you want to push it, Edward winning, was only because of Roy’s war flashback. That made for a really tone-shifting ending btw. This entire fight, from even before it started, was completely comedy with Hughes’ gigantic picture of his daughter to people booing or making fun of both Edward and Roy when being introduced, then at the very, boom, war flashback.

I guess it doesn’t really matter who won since it was the demonstration itself that meant to impress, but still.

This fight is just so much fun. It’s nice to see Edward actually take on Roy and it’s always fun to see Roy showing off. They play off of each other really well and their comedic chemistry just shines in this fight. Not to mention how over the top and crazy it is. It is definitely a fight I can keep watching over and over and still be smiling all the way through.

Uh oh, I’ve only been using stills this entire time. I have….no gifs? Okay, okay. Don’t panic!

I said don’t panic!

It’ll be okay! Just look at the baby Alphonse!

Okay, I just wanted an excuse to use this. Is that so wrong?

30DAC – Day 25: Saddest Anime Death

(Welcome. You’re in Spoiler City) I had no internal debate about this one, because this death always, and I mean always makes me cry. It was so sad that merely hearing music associated with it makes me cry.

The main character, Teito Klein’s, absolute best and only friend is Mikage Celestine. They are Zaiphon users who were training their abilities in the Barsburg Military Academy to become soldiers. Teito is a former sklave (basically a slave) who has lost his childhood memories. He is captured by the Barsburg Empire and sent to the academy to become a soldier due to his great talent.

Teito isn’t very sociable, and he comes off as cold because of how he’s been treated throughout life, but the outgoing, gentle, lovable and just all around great guy Mikage eventually becomes best friends with Teito.

Despite his dislike of violence, he dreams of being a soldier so that he can protect his family, but he willfully gives up this dream to help Teito escape after he’s charged with treason by the church.

He’s tortured for information and even his family is threatened with death if he does not tell them where Teito is. He escapes as a one-winged Kor, which is basically a failed attempt at trying to possess someone with the Ghost ability. In this case, the main baddie of the show, Ayanami, tried to possess Mikage with it.

Once a person is turned into a one-winged Kor, there is no saving them and reverting them back to normal like you can with a full-fledged Kor. If left alone, the one-winged Kor will eventually consume the soul of the person being possessed. The only way to save their soul is to kill the Kor and the person being possessed.

Mikage faces Teito and Frau, a bishop at the church that Teito flees to and one of the titular 07 Ghosts, Zehel, and eventually sacrifices himself on Frau’s scythe.

Teito is crushed by this, and dammit so was I. He deeply mourns for quite some time until Frau finds a little baby Fyulong and reveals that Mikage was reincarnated into that baby Fyulong who wishes for nothing more than to be by Teito’s side forever and protect him, even if he can’t remember who he used to be.

I have never blubbered my eyes out for so long at a show, and it made it so I can’t hear several songs on the 07 Ghost soundtrack (which is incredible, btw) without at least wanting to cry. Especially Tree’s Filtered Sunlight and Be Pure, My Child and Sleep.

Must….not….cry…

The bond between these two and their loyalty to each other was just so amazing to watch and it pains me that we didn’t get to see more of Mikage because he truly was an awesome character that you’d just love to know in real life.

The only thing that keeps me from crying when looking at Burupya is…..dammit, he’s so cute! Look at his wittle ears and his tiny scar!

You’re the best emotional brain bleach ever, Burupya!

Honorable Mentions (still spoilers): Toboe from Wolf’s Rain, Wolfwood from Trigun, Hughes from FMA.

30DAC – Day 24: Moment that Shocked You Most in Any Anime

WARNING: SPOILERS, DUH. Also, semi-gorey image.

Ga Rei Zero is a pretty interesting tale with complex characters, cool powers and great battles. It also has a completely shocking and downright trolling first episode.

The first episode, by all means, seems really formulaic. There’s a team of soldiers each with their own particular character traits tackling the various supernatural disturbances across Japan. Standard fare, yawn, move on.

They have a great battle, a fairly successful mission, a successful rescue, hooray! Looks like everything’s fine and dandy for the rest of this series.

Oh wait, they all got viciously slaughtered right before the end credits and we find out that there’s a completely different set of main characters, the person who did the slaughtering being one of them.

Quite literally for some of them.

I mean….what the hell!? Elfen Lied level gore and sudden deaths that just hit you like a brick made of knives to the face to all of the characters we’ve gotten to know thusfar. It’s incredibly effective. In fact I’d say it’s one of the best ‘pilot’ episodes of a show I’ve ever seen because it really latches onto you and makes you ask what exactly happened to get this point? Who is that girl? Was she an ally? Why is she an enemy now? What is going on? It is definitely right the hell out of left field and it is just blunt, awesome and incredibly shocking.

Nooo! Red doesn’t mesh well with orange!

Honorable Mentions: Krillin’s death at the hands of Frieza in DBZ. Zazie the Beast’s death in Trigun.

30DAC – Day 23: Favorite Attack Someone has Used in an Anime

Seed of the Death Plant – This move is horrifying. Kurama only needs a quick opening to shoot his seed into the opponents body…

Oh grow up!

And…that’s it. He wins. You die. That’s not the worst part. You die…from having a huge flower bush grow inside of you incredibly quickly and then burst out of your body like a bunch of xenomorphs.

Couldn’t find clear screenshots from the show, so here’s the manga version.

The only downside is that it does take a little bit of time to take root and feed from Kurama’s energy in order to bloom once Kurama wills it, so it’s not a quick end, but he’s definitely strong enough to hold his own for a few minutes against any opponent while it grows, so it’s just insanely scary. You could be dead and not even know it. And it’s never been shown if there’s a way to stop it. I’d guess removing it would be the most logical choice, but that not only requires detecting it or learning about it but also figuring out where on the body it was planted, precisely, and then getting the balls to dig it out of your own body somehow. And like I said, it doesn’t take that long to make the plant bloom, so you have to do all that within just a few minutes.

The best part of it is, the enemy is damn pretty when he dies. And you don’t even need to buy flowers for the funeral. It’s so cost-efficient.

30DAC – Day 22: Favorite Weapon, Gear or Armor Used in Anime

This was neck and neck and….neck between three options; The Punisher, Wolfwood’s weapon from Trigun, Automail from FMA and 3D Maneuver Gear from Attack on Titan.

Automail are incredible prostheses that can be modified in all sorts of ways to add weapons and other capabilities. The problem is the obvious negative to such a device; needing to lose a limb first. Ow. Plus, all the really cool stuff involved with Automail is really just alchemy.

The Punisher very nearly made it because it is truly an incredible device. It’s three weapons in one, a rocket launcher, a machine gun and it contains several fully loaded pistols. Plus it acts as a shield and just looks awesome. The major downside is the sheer size and weight of that thing. I really like it, and I’d love to wield it, but that is a major issue.

So, by the powers of deduction, you can surmise that the 3D maneuver gear won out. This is a device that is not only awesome, but it’s compact, fairly lightweight and is a device meant to make travel more convenient while also providing soldiers in the world of Attack on Titan to stand a fighting chance against beings much larger than they are.

This’ll be sure to win the rhythmic gymnastics competition next week!

For those unfamiliar, maneuver gear is a device placed on the hips of soldiers. Using triggers, they shoot out metal cables with hooks to forcibly latch onto any surface that it can bust through, usually trees, buildings and sometimes even the titans themselves. It’s a web-slinger, to a degree.

The gear also holds the blades that the soldiers use to take down the titans with the triggers for the hooks residing in the hilts of the swords.

The only real drawback to this device is that it runs on fuel which can run out incredibly fast if you don’t moderate it properly. While this is just an inconvenience when training or using them for recreation, this can be a death sentence if titans are around. It’s also obviously useless in open areas. While some may be fairly unimpressed with this choice, it is the option that I would say is the most fun. Falling would suck, but it’d be awesome to just swing around a city or forest like that.

Honorable Mentions: The death note, the borgs from Alien 9.

30DAC – Day 21: Favorite Goofy Character

I’m a fan of deadpan comedy characters. The comedy market is just so saturated with wacky and hyper characters, in all genres, that deadpan comic relief is usually a huge breath of fresh air when it’s pulled off well. For example, I think the funniest character in Fruits Basket is Hana with her censored threats of electric wave attacks and monotonely explaining that she’s failing her tests with a soft smile.

Just because you’re a deadpan character doesn’t mean you can’t be ‘goofy’ and that is perfectly highlighted with the character Agiri from Kill Me, Baby!

Kill Me, Baby is a series about two girls; a ‘normal’ girl named Yasuna and an assassin named Sonya. The series is basically a bunch of skits typically involving slapstick with Yasuna being the brunt of Sonya’s abuse, but the only reason Sonya abuses Yasuna is because she purposely annoys her.

Agiri is a lesser seen yet also prominent character. She’s a ‘ninja’ who typically pops up from nowhere with some odd ninja technique that is usually just a trick or to try to sell ninja items to the girls. And despite how it may seem, it actually appears that she is a legit ninja. Her house is even traditional styled and is covered in traps and tricks.

*gasp* Old man Jenkins? I mean, Agiri?!

She was definitely my favorite character on the show and even though she wasn’t in the spotlight as much as Yasuna and Sonya, she stole the show everytime she was on screen with her sneaky little smile and her light yet cheerful voice that never changes no matter what the situations.

While Sonya and Yasuna’s schtick tended to get old after time, Agiri kept coming back with weirder and weirder ninja tricks and sillier ninja items. Some of her tricks actually seem legit, which makes them all the funnier when they’re shown to just be a cheap trick somehow.

Agiri herself seems like a bit of airhead, and she seems to prove this time and again, but she also outwits the girls on several occasions, leaving them baffled and me laughing either way.

Now say ‘bye’ to the nice people, Agiri.