Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne

The Onii-chan referred to here is Takanashi Shuusuke, who we assume to be a junior in high school. Being your average male teenager – and considering his double-edged personality – Shuusuke often finds himself carnally attracted by his younger sister Nao. To complicate matters, Nao also has hidden desires for Shuusuke, and while he thinks she’s innocent and pure, in truth she’s forever hatching plots to push her brother to commit incestuous acts with her. The ebb and flow of their not-so-filial-relationship develops a tsunami-like impact when Shuusuke eventually finds out that Nao is adopted. Despite this, he vows to treat her as he would his nonexistent biological sister – no menial task given the lengths Nao scales just to get him to see her as more than just that.

I got into watching this highly entertaining – albeit unabashedly perverse – anime because of GotWoot Subs. They did the best subbing work on Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin, which I actually followed just for the heck of watching something that deals with the paranormal, and I’ve been downloading some of their releases since. [They’re really good, although they take on shows ‘no one else does’.] Because I never planned to watch OnK – it was never in my ‘to watch’ list on MAL, and I never scoured DVD encampments for it – it doesn’t fit my type. Strangely though, I followed it until the end, and honestly, it’s good. Brainlessly, wantonly comical, but that doesn’t make it any less of a laughtrip.

There honestly isn’t much of the character aspect here though. In fact, we hardly ever know what these kids busy themselves with aside from collecting porno mags and looking up girls’ miniskirts. Not to mention, two of Nao’s friends and some other girls who show up in the latter episodes are given very little airtime – in truth, their on-off presence does nothing to push the plot forward, whatsoever. But I do appreciate Shuusuke, and I really like his friends, the AGE Explorers. I love how their relationship’s so warm even though they’re bonded by something as crazy as a love for all things pornographic. They remind me that friendship is found under the most absurd circumstances, that friends are bound by the weirdest reasons. I guess that’s why I love those boys.

The art’s good – or maybe that’s because I torrented everything, and I’m just shocked by the transition from pirated DVD grain to massively multi-pixeled clarity. The colors are rich, and well-blended, and just right for an anime of this kind – not too shounen, but not too adult either. Still, it’s the music I love best about OnK, really. I love both the OP and the ED, and even the BGM is super kulit, like something you’d expect out of a Doraemon episode. I particularly love these lines from the chorus of the OP:

I want to cross that line | I just have to know how paradise tastes |

Maybe it’s sweet, or maybe it’s not | Either way, it’s a fabulous world |

That should give you an idea of what to expect from this show. I guarantee you’ll ask yourself multiple times why you’re watching this show, but I also assure you that once you reach the last episode – which is completely off the anime timeline and just plain inconsistent with the rest of the series, but never mind – you’ll realize all the censored panty flashes and major WTH moments were worth it.

Recommended for: open-minded people looking for a lung-deep laughtrip

Recommended Subbing Team: GotWoot Fansubs [gotwoot-subs.net]

Episodes: 12 (2011)

Photo Credits

Index Down

Emory.edu

Singing Nodame Style

Tonight, M came over just as I was watching the Proposal Daisakusen SP. Given she sings, I thought I'd show her bits of my favorite JDorama, Nodame Cantabile, just to get an idea of what she genuinely thinks of classical music. Imagine the giddiness I felt when she got hooked to the show almost immediately, and when what I originally planned would be a ten-minute preview turned into a three-hour marathon. Nodame is addictive. Seriously. I mean, the only JDorama M ever enjoyed before it was Absolute Boyfriend, and I've a feeling she only liked that because of Night's abs. Because, well, if I had gotten hooked to that thing, those monay would have been my reason.

Nodame Cantabile is narrated by Chiaki Shinichi, a gifted senior at Momogaoka Music College with a widely-fawned over prince complex. Due to childhood trauma, he is unable to travel to Europe, and improve his skills in the heartland of classical music. Moreover, he is at a rocky point in his studies, as he is putting up with the piano when he really wants to be a conductor. Given he knows he is underperforming in terms of his full potential, Chiaki becomes bitter and miserable whenever he is reminded that he's not moving forward.

After one particularly depressing-wasted evening, he becomes friends with his next-door-neighbor and kouhai in the piano department, Nodame Megumi - or Nodame, as even she calls herself. He takes an interest in Nodame, who has excellent playing technique but little drive to become a professional musician. As he takes it upon himself to tutor her - cooking dinners and cleaning her perpetually trash-packed apartment on the side - he finds more doors opening for him, more opportunities coming his way, orchestrated by no less than Nodame herself.

Originally a bestselling manga by Ninomiya Tomoko, Nodame Cantabile now has an 11-episode live action series (2006) starring Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi, complete with a 2-part SP filmed in Europe, as well as a 2-part blockbuster movie franchise. It also has an anime spanning 3 seasons, done by one of my favorite anime production houses, JC Staff (Ghost Hunt). Aside from Oricon-topping albums and a special Nodame orchestra, I've heard it's also inspired an actual cafe in Japan. And because of the manga's popularity, Ninomiya-sensei has expanded theNodame universe to include an Opera Hen single volume manga. Last I checked, it wasn't fully uploaded on mangatraders yet, but it should be soon.

If I knew anyone reading this could share my appreciation for Nodame, I'd write down everything I love - and hate - about it. But since I'm not even sure anyone reads this blog regularly - more so reads it for the reviews, which are almost always raves - I'll have to resort to the gasgas advice, "Watch it and judge it for yourself." I can't recommend any good subbing groups for this because my personal copies are only soft subs, and I don't even know who worked on them. But, should you come to love the show - and I highly doubt you won't - you might consider reading Garnet's per-episode recaps and reviews of Nodame Cantabile (Google: Memento, Garnet, Nodame Cantabile). She's also got excellent screenshots, which are now part of my random pictures collection.

Do yourself a favor and watch Nodame Cantabile, live action. Japanese slapstick romcom minus the gag-worthy cheesiness so common in love stories (ehem, Koreanovelas) these days.

NB: Photos not mine. Don't know who owns them.

The Awakening

Let's pretend I'm actually good at tracking dates and say that two full weeks have passed since I started watching Bleach. To be honest, it's not that good. It's long-winded, has a tendency to underplay emotions, and to paraphrase Mary, "half of the series is spent with Ichigo trying to learn bankai." At least it was up to the point where she dropped the show altogether and gave it up as a bad job. Then again, Mary and I usually don't see eye to eye when it comes to these things. She loved Clannad, which I gave up on after Episode3. But, well.

Point is, Bleach is interesting. For all its unnecessary (in my opinion) emphasis on battle scenes - which are mostly predictable, given this is Kurosaki *freakin'* Ichigo we're talking about - Bleach keeps me hooked because of its characters. Fine. I admit to having a soft spot for handsome men (ehem, boys) with troubled pasts and stormy eyes, but even if Byakuya and Toshirou weren't there, I'd probably still watch the series. Probably. The zanpakuto are interesting in their diversity, and the enemies are swell, too.

My beef with this series (the main one) is that it gives very little thought to death. Of course, you could argue that the story deals with people who see death as a natural, inevitable end (the shinagami being what they are) but still, I watched this series after Gundam SEED, where Kira was all "What have I done? How do I atone? Can I atone? No, I can't!" I suppose it's somewhat wrong to judge one series based on another one's criteria, but still. I think Bleach slaughters too many people.

Joyce, who introduced me to the world of Bleach, once complained that the series puts too much emphasis on Toshirou. And having seen a considerable part of the show, I say, Hell yeah. But given I was a Toshirou fan even before I started watching the show, I don't mind much. Not really, no. Although I wish they'd feature Byakuya more often, too.

Love this series for its music, its characters. I also like Kubo Tite's way of creating "romance", where he doesn't explicitly say if his characters love each other or not - it's up to the audience to make sense of the "It's complicated" relationship. I hate it for a lot of things, including its length. And Ichigo being all-powerful, invincible. And the fact that a lot of things keep popping up halfway through the series - the King's Key, for example, which is apparently what Aizen's really after - just to make the plot more complicated that it originally was. Gah. A Meitantei Conan in the making. Only with hotter guys in kick-ass uniforms. Roy Mustang would drool if he saw Matsumoto in her battle gear.

PS Ep146 is in wmp min mode right now. Photo courtesy of the unsuspecting KalvinK, deviantartist extraordinaire.

I wish I had an Arima

The girl is Miyazawa Yukino, who tricks her classmates and teachers into thinking she's THE perfect student. The guy's her boyfriend Arima Souichirou, who IS the perfect student - although he's not exactly a sane person. Their story is chronicled in the manga series His and Her Circumstances, which I'm hooked to at the moment. I've never had the patience to read manga scans online - because I reeeally hate having to click all the way to the bottom of the page, and then the next - but for this particular story, I don't really mind all the clicking. It's THAT good. Now, I'll go read.

ghost hunt mysteries

Again, my habit of reviving the long-dead love for a long-forgotten anime at the most inopportune time, aka a few days before a major exam, is kicking in. For the past two days, I've been waking up every morning to the image of JC Staff's Ghost Hunt, which I firmly believe is one of the best anime series ever.

Shame though, 'cause it lacks closure. BIG TIME. The first time I watched the series I was left at a loss, so I had to spend a couple of hours searching the Net via my very slow dial-up collection just to quench my thirst for answers. For those who are wondering, and might be reading this, here are the answers to some questions regarding Ghost Hunt that might be bothering you.
Why does Naru react so badly the first time Mai calls him Naru? Moreover, if Naru is a nickname given by Mai, a new acquaintance of Naru, why does Lin Koujo call Naru Naru?That's because Shibuya Kazuya's nickname is Noll, which is read as Naru in the Nihonggo. In truth, Naru's name is Oliver Davis, the renowned psychic who is constantly praised throughout the anime. Why a child named Oliver would have a nickname of Noll... is a different story.
Regarding the effectivity of the curse that plagued Naru during the After-School Spellcaster Arc, my theory is that his Japanese name is Shibuya Kazuya, but after he and his twin brother Eugene were adopted by the Davises, his name was changed to Oliver.
Whoa! Naru has a twin brother?!Yes, actually, it's Eugene, Naru's apparently kinder brother, who appears in Mai's dreams. In fact, in the original story (not the anime) when Mai confesses her love to Naru, the latter says it's his brother that she's in love with, not him. Eugene is also the person refers to when he tells Mai of someone who once told him the same thing Mai said: Hate me because I'm me, not because I'm Japanese. Apparently, Eugene died in a car accident in Japan, which is why Naru is in Japan in the first place - he's looking for his brother's body.
So Naru's weakness... the one Masako uses to blackmail him...?It's the fact that Naru is Oliver Davis; a secret he wants to keep hidden, which is why he's so aloof to the media. Masako once saw him at a public demonstration of his PK abilities, so she knows his real identity.

You know, writing this, I realized it's pointless answering questions this way. If you'll read Ghost Hunt's Wikipedia page [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Hunt] you'll find the answers to most of your questions by reading the character profiles. So hop hop! Go on, find the answers, and join me in praying for a second season!

A Succession of Filler Chapters

You know those filler chapters that writers put in the middle of serious sections of an anime just to add some sense of lightness to heavy stories? Think of those, back to back to back. That's basically Marmalade Boy. It's light and bright, not to mention sappy, from beginning to end.

The story revolves around Koishikawa Miki, a typical 2nd year high school student just like all other heroines in animedom, and the changes that happen in her life due to her parents' sudden decision to get a divorce and remarry The Matsuuras. Matsuura Yuu, the couple's only son, is the main complication in Miki's life, because the moment she first lays eyes on him, she thinks, "He's gorgeous!" and eventually, she falls for him, even dating him after a while. Because Yuu is a handsome guy with a pleasing personality, and Miki's pretty charming herself, they encounter a lot of "obstacles" to their relationship, That's basically it.

During the first ten episodes of the series, I found myself incapable of ungluing myself from my laptop; seriously, the slapstick-type humor was that addictive. Also, because the show was made in 1994, the art and the music are very different from romcom anime that exist today: the makers exploit the shadow effect, and they often insert 'the twinkling sound', which I'm sure you're familiar with. Also, it has only 1 main theme, and I think 3 ending themes, which is not something you see often today because most new series shift Endings and Openings every few episodes.

The downside of Marmalade Boy is that it's VERY long. 76 episodes, all in all. I know it's not much compared to other anime - Gundam SEED and Destiny have a total of 100 eps - but given that the episodes of Marmalade Boy are just repeats of previous ones, there's really not much to look forward to. It's always the same pattern of introducing a new character (either a boy or a girl) to create a love triangle, and Miki and Yuu overcoming the difficulty and falling deeper in love with each other at the end of every episode. Even though there's hardly any variety in the series, however, a lot of important things happen in each show, so I can't really say the story doesn't progress.

What makes this anime different from others is that it's got two bests for me: Best Love Affair and Best Confession. Best Love Affair goes to Namura Shinichi and Akizuki Meiko, who are a high school teacher and his student, respectively. Although their relationship is a bit sappy, and can drive some people to the brink of irritation *Joyce, ehem, Joyce*, I still think it's a really cool interpretation of the traditional older man - younger woman template. For Best Confession, I vote Yuu's confession of love to Miki as the most 'kilig' one ever. I've always thought that confessions were serious and mushy and melodramatic, but this one was anything but, and still it was effective. Not to mention, it happened by the seashore, and Yuu was pretty nonchalant about it, so plus points!

Overall, Marmalade Boy is a must-see for fans of good old anime romcom. You have to know, however, that it's REALLY long (yes, the added emphasis is necessary) and really barf-inducing at times - but not on a Twilight Saga level. In my personal opinion, and I believe this strongly, it's more of an anime classic that Hana Yori Dango is. At least, I enjoyed watching it much more than I enjoyed watching 3 versions of the HYD story.