The Salty Anime Challenge Day 10: What is Something You Dislike About a Show You Love?

Alright, this one’s getting two rants because, admittedly, the first one isn’t the fault of the writers or anyone making the show – it’s just an unfortunate happenstance that a lot of shows suffer from.

One of my favorite anime is Fruits Basket. I think on many levels it’s damn near perfect. Nearly all of the characters are well-written and likable and even Akito is instantly hateable as an antagonist even if you don’t get to see or hear of his misdeeds in the anime nearly as much as the manga. Tohru is one of my favorite anime characters ever, and I wish I had her as a friend. I think everyone needs someone like Tohru in their life to cheer them on and always make them feel welcome or put a smile on their face.

The rather large cast bounced off of each other very well. Even Kyo and Yuki’s shtick, which you’d think would get really old really fast was always great to watch because we were either constantly learning more about their dynamic or they were being hilarious bickering like an old married couple.

The comedy is fantastic, the dramatic parts are very well done and I just wish I could live in this world with these characters.

However, the big issue I always had with the series, and this may seem petty, was the fact that we never got to meet all of the zodiac members. Two members were missing – Rin the horse and Kureno the rooster.

Even before I had read the manga, I felt robbed that we never completed the zodiac because you’re left with a deep feeling of nagging. You keep acknowledging that there are twelve members of the zodiac yet you neglect to include two. It’s like having a beautiful puzzle and nearly finishing it only to find that the box is missing two pieces.

I know they’re in the manga, but I want them in the anime. I realize that, had the series continued, we probably would’ve gotten to see Rin and Kureno, but it stopped short.

This is common in a lot of anime. A majority of anime run 26-ish or less episodes and simply can’t cover all of their manga source material, should they have it. Many shows don’t expect to get a second season, so they wrap everything up in one. Fruits Basket attempted to do this, but in the end we’re two zodiac members short and the curse is still strong. I don’t know if I’m just a weird form of completionist, but I’m actually saltier about the missing zodiacs than I am the curse still being around.

Who says the curse really needs to be lifted to complete a full story here anyway? It’d be nice to see that, but I’m not sure I’d say it’s necessary. Having Kyo’s character arc come full circle is enough for me.

I feel like it’s more necessary to meet the other two zodiac members, especially Rin considering how major of a role she takes in Hatsuharu’s life.

If I wanted to be a little saltier, I’d put some of the blame on the writers because, honestly, we could’ve lost a few episodes to bring these two in, but what can you do? Who knows? Maybe Fruits Basket will be the next anime they spontaneously continue out of nowhere.

Second rant is definitely falling on the shoulders of the writers and could’ve been avoided. I love Digimon. It’s fun, well-written and has plenty of great characters and storylines. The relationships between the DigiDestined and their Digimon never ceases to warm my heart. I could watch this series a thousand times over.

However, taking the opportunity to compound yesterday’s entry, it suffers from ‘Main character gets all the best stuff’ syndrome. In this series, only Tai and Matt’s Digimon are able to Digivolve to Mega level – and I’ve always found that to be complete bullshit.

Not that the other Digimon become useless as we get late in the series…..but they get pretty damn close. It even takes Patamon until nearly the series finale before he reaches Ultimate. I don’t mind too much about that because MagnaAngemon’s debut was awesome and Maganangemon himself is amazing, but still.

It’s not so much that I feel the others are useless later on, it’s that I just feel robbed. There’s absolutely no reason why they couldn’t have had Mega debuts late in the series, especially considering that each DigiDestined gets one final focus episode after WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon debut. You can still have them be the strongest, if necessary, but I just wanted the others to get their time in the spotlight before it was over.

The others get even more shafted in the second OVA (second part of the movie) where most of them are friggin’ absent from all the action. TK, Patamon, Izzy and Tentomon get to do a little because they have to be there, but outside of Izzy saving the day because Izzy’s awesome, the other kids don’t even know anything’s going on. And Sora’s off in Love Interest Land pouting over Tai giving her a hair clip for her birthday. Come on.

And while I absolutely adore Omnimon and his debut was incredible, it’s yet another instance of the main characters getting something super awesome and special while the others are quite literally useless now (Besides Izzy). So now they’re the only ones in the gen 1 DigiDestined who not only have Mega forms, but they can also DNA Digivolve into Omnimon.

…..Oh…Hi elephant in the room.

 

You really want me to talk about this? It makes no sense, and I’m not even sure it’s canon.

 

Oh fine, whatever. In the third OVA/the final part of the movie, TK and Kari randomly and suddenly reveal that Angemon and Angewomon can Digivolve to Mega….with no problem whatsoever….even without crests…..and no one comments on this….also, their Digivolution unlocks Golden Armor DigiEggs….somehow…..and they knew that would happen….somehow.

Seraphimon and Magnadramon are amazing (more partial to Seraphimon)….but what the hell? Where did this come from? This little trick would’ve been real helpful….a bunch of times in the past and future, guys.

In Digimon Adventure Tri they finally allow the others to Digivolve to Mega, which I thank them for infinitely, but I still feel super robbed when I watch the original series. Again, give your secondaries some love.

Building on that, they have a similar issue in the second season. After everyone’s able to DNA Digivolve, Ken and Davis are able to go one step further and beyond with their Digimon while everyone else gets left behind. They seemingly make up for it by making the ending one of the biggest examples of sudden inclusion you could ever write, but it’s still apparent.

This isn’t really an issue in Tamers, but the most famous entry for this is Frontier. I didn’t get into Frontier nearly as much as the original three series, but Izumi, Junpei and Tomoki basically become decorations by the mid point. This friggin’ trope, man.

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 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 12: Favorite Anime Scene

Well, since I see ‘Most Epic Scene Ever’ on this list, I guess I have to go a different route here. There is one scene that I can keep watching over and over and for some reason it never gets any less funny, and that is a scene from episode 13 of Fruits Basket.

 

Background on the show’s not entirely important here, barring a note I’ll get to in a minute, but the three main characters, Yuki, Tohru and Kyo meet up with Yuki and Kyo’s cousins, Hatsuharu and Momiji who recently started going to their school. Momiji looks really young for his age, and decided that he’d look cuter in a girl’s uniform than in a guy’s. The class president sees this and demands that he change into a boy’s uniform immediately to conform to school dress code.

Hatsuharu, hearing his loud and obnoxious blatherings, gets incredibly irritated, snaps and ‘goes black’. The note I was mentioning before was that Haru and the Sohma family, Momiji, Yuki and Kyo included, are cursed with different animals from the Chinese zodiac. Yuki’s the mouse, Kyo’s the cat (different story), Momiji’s the rabbit and Haru’s the ox. Because of this, Haru has a bit of a side effect where he has basically two sides of his personality; the white side which is extremely calm, kind and respectful and the black side which is really intense, angry, violent, flirtatious and sometimes rude. He doesn’t get many moments to show off this side, and this is definitely the best black Haru moment in the series.

He chews the living crap out of the Class President going on the best tangent ever trying to argue his side for Momiji. The Class President keeps trying to fight back, but gets shot down time and time again. Even when he gets put down a peg with a bit of logic, he calls out Haru for also not obeying the rules by assuming his hair is dyed because it’s both black and white. (It’s really that way because….well, moo)

 

Oh he can convince you, alright.

 

I don’t really want to explain the scene full out, watch it for yourself, but it did include one of the most shocking and risque moments in the series at the end of the scene. It’s absolutely hilarious when you realize what he did.

Technically, Momiji was in the wrong here as you agree to school rules when you enroll, including dress code, but it was incredible to see this loud hothead get his ass verbally handed to him.