.jpg)
Hello hello! Anime Wrap-Up is a new section of this blog, directed to anime I've consumed in any way during the previous week/month.
Let's get to it! Today we're covering the week from January 15th to January 21st.
You know by now, the gif will show you what we'll be talking about:
.gif)
╭────────── · 𓆩🌻𓆪 · ─╮
╰─ · 𓆩🌻𓆪 · ──────────╯
Sakura Trick
This first anime I've technically finished on Sunday night. But by then
last weeks Wrap-Up was all ready to be published, so I figured I'll just
throw it in here.
I am talking about Sakura Trick.
This anime took me too long to finish. I started way back in 2019 (or
so) but I dumped it because back then LGBT themes were too much for
me... and I was scared of getting caught watching in.
In the end, I picked it up and admittedly I cringed through half
of the show. It isn't bad, but it can be a bit awkward to be honest...
Watching two young girls kiss, the tongue close-ups and the
awkwardness is sometimes too much to handle.
The last two episodes were a bit weird too. When they introduced
Sumisumi as a new character in the 11th episode, I was a bit
surprised but I figured there will be something important about her.
Unless it was her obsession with boobs and casual fondling of
Haruka's chest, I have no idea what she was supposed to do in this
anime.
We got a love confession, but in the end our high-schoolers don't
understand what love really is, so it was a wasted
potential.
I was a bit disappointed that the focus wasn't on more
characters - we knew about different relationships and had some
other implied, but Haruka and Yuu were the only ones in
spotlight and honestly, watching them kiss all the time got
boring really quick.
This anime might seem as a wasted potential, but with
plot so limited, I think they did a good work.
Sakura Tricks gets a score of 5/10 which I think is more than enough.
𓆩🌻𓆪 ─────── 𓆩🌻𓆪
Ganbare, Douki-chan
Out of boredom I gave a shot to Ganbare, Douki-chan + special under the same name.
Douki-chan is a very very short anime that introduces us to three
pretty girls and one male love interest with no eyes.
What I really enjoyed was the fact that the girls were not portrayed
with the flattest stomach you've ever seen.
I disliked everything else. It wasn't really made like an anime, much
more like some animated short that wants you to check out the original
work (manga I believe) - so it really didn't leave much of an
impression.
The special was just one 6 minute long episode of them being naked in
a pool, touching each other's chests.
If girls (mature woman, cute flat-chested MC and young big-boobed a bit
annoying kouhai) that are more than half the time naked, moaning in
their dreams what you consider peak media, check out the manga. Don't
waste your time with the anime. 👐
2/10.
𓆩🌻𓆪 ─────── 𓆩🌻𓆪
Zetsubou no Kaibutsu (Despair of the
monster)
When I was watching Zetsubou no Kaibutsu I was thinking 'wow this looks like
those videos on YouTube with sad background music' - you know,
this one:
And it turns out I was somewhat right. DESPAIR OF THE MONSTER is a
short animated movie made wholly by one person (who was 39 at that
time) which is... adequate to the way it turned out.
The art is bad, the animation is awful, the story is really not
that great nor that heartbreaking and really it just seemed dumb
to me, all of it.
I am going to spoilt it here, so look away. 😂 The whole
story didn't have a good pacing and the main point came out of
nowhere. Without being explained what or what is happening,
suddenly the parents decided to end it all. If they could get the
drug, why couldn't they leave for their home planet? That aside -
I hated how it ended. I could understand the mom who killed
herself to not witness her kids deaths. The father though, what a
fu*king a*shole. Instead of taking it on himself (as HE was the
one who decided to kill his kid) he gave the girl money and sent
her away, while burning the flat - killing himself and probably a
few more people since he blew up the apartment. And then our MC
killed her brother, went to confess her love to her classmate and
dramatically killed herself at dawn, with one single tear falling
down her cheek...
I wanted to vomit.
1/10, awful awful, awful!
𓆩🌻𓆪 ─────── 𓆩🌻𓆪
Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudou-bu - Yabai
(For Better or Worse)
(For Better or Worse)
To continue with short anime, we have Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudou-bu - Yabai a special for
the first season of Tsurune. As there is not much to cover, let
me just tell you it's been a while since I saw Tsurune, so it
was refreshing to see my adorable baby boys on screen
again.
This special had a unique comedy (to this show at least) and
gave us a little plot twist at the end - what more can you
wish for in a teaser for another season... that I will
hopefully watch soon.
𓆩🌻𓆪 ─────── 𓆩🌻𓆪
Kimi ni Todoke (From Me to
You)
I started watching a lot of new shows this week, but I also
had a lot of finals in college. Still, I am incredibly happy
that I managed to finish Kimi ni Todoke. I knew
this one is great and it's quality is out of the window, but
I was surprised by how great it really was.
From me to you is not just a romance anime. It explores
love, but in more ways than just one. It's not just about
the two people on the poster, the relationship it covers
are everywhere, and they don't touch just the MCs.
I plan to make a full on
review
where I'll talk about Kimi ni Todoke more, so if you're
interested, please go read that. For now, I will just say
that I loved Kimi ni Todoke and I can't wait to start the
second season as soon as possible.
10/10 and I
recommend it to you all!
I would like to bring to your attention two graduation
works I had the pleasure of watching. The first one is
called Mahou no nai Sekai de Ikiru to Iu Koto (the work
of Akiwashi) and Gaitou to Neko (the work of Akitsu Fukuchi). They are 7 and 5
minutes long, have no dialogue but are so worth your time. The first one
shows you a new world of magic and makes you want to create your own
story, the second one makes you ugly cry.
They are not really "anime" like the others on this list... but they
sure are worth your time!
𓆩🌻𓆪 ─────── 𓆩🌻𓆪
I My Me! Strawberry Eggs
Another great show I managed to finish is anime from 2001
titled I My Me! Strawberry Eggs a show that was for everyone back in
2001 but has trouble luring in new watchers. Which is really a
pity!
I have quite a lot to say about this, so again, visit my review. To
say the most important, I'm going to emphasize this:
It's
fun to know that the Japanese used the sex-change trope in 2001 right.
I am very conflicted about this anime though.
The art can be really cute, the jokes
can be really funny. Some characters designs are amazing some aren't
such pleasure to look at.
As someone who is studying to be a
teacher, I liked the trope of wanting to be a good teacher and I liked
the aspect of our MC doing everything to help his students.
The character of "Baa-chan" is typical
for old comedy anime, and it worked great in this show as well. Overall,
the anime did a great job at presenting the story they tried to cover,
so I can't really say anything bad about that.
ALSO, great job at showing how
dangerous sexism is. I am a woman, still I appreciated the way this
anime addressed boys having hard time around women in power. I had the
displeasure of seeing it happen in person, but the way Hibiki is
defending her male students is really great and speaks volumes. This
anime has a strong tone of gender rights...
We got a romance out of the blue that got the key
focus - and that was a weird shift. And it was a unhappy love triangle
as well.
If you want to read more about it, I got you! I My Me review!
𓆩🌻𓆪 ─────── 𓆩🌻𓆪
Given movie + Uragawa no Sonzai
(Given The Movie + given: on the other hand)
(Given The Movie + given: on the other hand)
We're finishing off this week with Given movie and Given: Uragawa no Sonzai a special OVA. Finding out
about Given was a great day for me and when I finished the anime, I
caught up with the manga immediately. Not knowing if there will be
more, Given got forgotten...
My joy when I found out about the movie was immeasurable! It took
me the longest time to watch it, but somehow I finally made the time
and at 9:57 on Sunday I began my journey. (And seems like I made it
just in time, as Given sequel is coming out!)
Knowing what the movie will cover made me nervous, ready to cry but
also excited to see it animate and to hear it.
As expected, the movie made me burst with emotions and in the end, I
understood the story better and changed my view and opinions on some
characters. Understanding them better with age proved to be key to
understanding everything about this show. Having bad
experiences helped me feel sympathy for some of them.
I liked it. I liked it a lot. Though there is something I want to
point out:
.png)
.png)
Horrible, horrible use of CGI! I hate it!
That aside, Given filled me with lots of love - for the story, the
characters and just overall. I don't want to spoil anything, so I
will just say, please, please watch it. My score of
8/10 does not really
mean anything important. It's great and there is a big controversy
in it, which makes for a great dialogue!
Immediately I jumped to finish the last available piece, the
special OVA that takes place in between the moments from the movie.
We get a better focus on Uenoyama and Mafuyu's relationship (seeing
some fun scenes but also getting our heart broken). I think it was
very important to see it, and it also makes for a great mirror (as
in getting to know what the boys need to face to be happy). Again,
watch it. Watch the whole series.
For some reason, I can't add all the screenshots that I would like to
here, so please, visit this post on [Anilist] or on [Imgur] - thank you! OVA gets the same rating as the original series:
9/10.
╭────────── · 𓆩🌻𓆪 · ─╮
╰─ · 𓆩🌻𓆪 · ──────────╯
Even though I was very busy with school this week, I think I
managed to finish a lot of shows. January really makes me think that
this year will be a great year for me and anime!
Thank you for joining me this week! And remember you can comment
now using Disqus! Talk to me about your thoughts!
