Like The Tomato
Nothing here but my musings about daily life, books, anime, and food.
Man, I am feeling some major food coma right now. I have been so sleepy since eating dinner. Yeah, I had a pollo asado burrito for dinner and it was so good. I inhaled it and now I am feeling it. I’ve been yawning and yawning for hours and having some major difficulties keeping my eyes open.
I was able to hang out with my hun today. We watched some anime episodes. Which was good. It’s been a while since we hung out, I feel like.
Bungo Stray Dogs. It was pretty nice to see some background on Chuuya. We really enjoyed the interaction and banter between him and Dazai. It was easy to see why they are rivals. But it was also easy to see why they work so well together. Of course, they would clash. Both were young when Chuuya joined Port Mafia. Mori said that only another diamond can polish another diamond – and for these two, yeah I see that. Can you not see the ship?! We also got introduced to Fyodor Dostoevsky – the Russian manipulative villain. Not gonna lie, he is very intriguing. Let’s see what kind of menace this one brings.
Parasyte. It seems like we would be seeing some kind of character growth from Tamura Reiko. Well, at least, it seems like the anime was hinting at it. It seems like she might be feeling some kind of motherly instincts for her baby. I still find it really funny that she just says “quiet” and the baby stops crying. I think that takes skill. And I would like to learn that. Honestly, I just want Murano to find out what Izumi is. I just want to see how she’ll react.
I plan on reading a bit tonight. I have been reading sporadically for a few hours today. Which was good. I cannot complain about that. I just get annoyed with what I’m reading. As I should be, I knew I was going to have a difficult time reading Lolita. The only thing that takes me out of the book really was the French phrases interjected in some of the paragraphs. I had to bust out Google Translate because I was curious about what they meant and how they would sound spoken. We shall see though. As I said, food coma is hitting me pretty hard right now.
- Anime Title: Angels of Death
- Episodes: 1 Season – 16 Episodes
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: Kadokawa Pictures Inc.
My man suggested this anime for us to watch. I cannot remember why exactly, but I think we were watching this alongside a romance anime and we needed to watch something that has a little bit of edge to it. Yes, we tend to do this. We like mixing our fluffy anime with some edgy anime.
This anime was a trip. I enjoyed it a lot. It definitely has the concept of an escape room, but you know, unhinged. The anime started with Rachel waking up in the basement of an unfamiliar building. And there, she meets Zack – a scythe-wielding serial killer wrapped in bandages. Rachel wants to be killed by Zack, but Zack promises to do it after she helps him get out of the building.
This anime is in no way a romance – it shouldn’t be. Rachel was 13 and Zack was in what seems to be his 20s. But that promise they made to each other is what pretty much kept them alive and kept on moving through the floors of the building. That my friend is love in the most twisted way. And to be honest, it was one of the aspects of this anime that I loved the most. And the ending. THE ENDING! I mean, it was executed well. It definitely wrapped up this whole promise made between Rachel and Zack. Let’s just say that the ending fits perfectly with the premise.
The anime presented some uncomfortable scenes obviously. It has a dark premise after all. The building Rachel and Zack were in has 6 floors. And each floor has a floor master these two need to defeat to move on to the next floor and eventually get out of the building. Anyway, I was really uncomfortable with the floor master of B5. I cannot deal with that character. The level of obsession that this character showed, it was just difficult to watch. Don’t get me wrong, none of these floor masters was likable (each of them is either a sociopath or a psychopath). There were a couple of floor masters who were palatable and one of them I genuinely like.
My favorite character for sure is Zack Foster. There is a simplicity to him, a certain kind of innocence in a way that I just want to wrap him up in more blankets. I mean we got to see his backstory and how he turned out because of his experiences. It just made me feel like he needed to be protected is all.
Anyway, I just found out this anime was based on a game. Not sure if my boyfriend told me about that, but yeah, the anime was based on a game. Not sure if I would be able to find the game on PC but I might try to see if I can. This was classified as horror. The anime doesn’t feel like a horror anime, a thriller for sure, and a bit psychological.
Bottom line, we enjoyed the anime. And the soundtrack was not bad. I really like the opening and ending songs for sure. I might consider rewatching the anime just to experience the ending again.
- Anime Title: High Card
- Episodes: 12 episodes
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd.
My boyfriend picked this anime for us to watch. Not that I was not interested in it. I just simply neglected to add it to our watchlist. I am glad that we got to check this one out. We had fun.
What is this about? In the Kingdom of Fouland, there exists a secret 52 deck cards. It’s called “X-playing cards”, which give the users special abilities. Though originally held by the royal family, the cards were stolen and scattered throughout the kingdom. Fast forward to the present day, where we are introduced to Finn, a thief trying to raise funds to save the orphanage he calls home. Finn decides to try his luck at a casino to gain money quickly, where he gets into a squabble and meets people with special abilities. During this encounter, Finn learns how to use the 2 of Spades, the card he has been holding. This leads to his induction into High Card, a group of people assigned by the royal family to recover the 52 playing cards while disguised as salesmen for the Pinochle car company. Of course, High Card is not alone in this quest. There is another group, Klondike mafia family, who wants the cards for nefarious purposes. And the story goes from there.
This anime is definitely action-packed. A lot of cat and mouse chases trying to get a hold of the 52 cards – who will get to this first and all that. It was fun. This season focused a lot more on Finn Oldman and Chris Redgrave – two members of the High Card. Sure, we got to see the other members – Leo, Wendy, Vijay and Bernard – but the season heavily focused on Finn’s and Chris’ background story. Their motivations for joining High Card. Their friendship and all that.
Between Finn and Chris, it was Chris’ story that made the show for me. Not to say that Finn is not a likable character. He is – with his main motivation in doing things and eventually joining High Card to save the orphanage that he grew up in. But Chris to me is a very fleshed-out character. We were only allowed to see the surface of this flirty womanizing character at the beginning. But as the season progressed, we got to see what he was hiding behind that mask of his. Yes, it was a mask. He exhibited this noncommittal persona because ultimately as revealed in the season finale, there was no use in getting attached to anyone. And that in itself made Chris so real to me.
The friendship between Finn and Chris also progressed naturally. Sure, they may not admit it outright but they are buddies. They rely on each other a lot. And the fact of the matter that these two understands each other is something so beautiful to see. Of course, the fujoshi in me wants something more to develop but I mean, that’s just me.
Season two has been approved for this anime, and I am hoping to see more of the other members of High Card. We got some background on Leo and Wendy, but I want to see a bit more. We didn’t really know anything about Vijay aside from his ability. So hopefully these characters and Bernard as well could get a more fleshed-out story in the coming season. I can also do without Sugar Peace. I cannot stand that detective. She can just be nixed in season two. She is aggravatingly annoying because of her decisions. I cannot.
This is a fun anime. It’s pretty fast-paced with action in pretty much every episode. It does have a heart as well, which elevates the plot. The soundtrack is pretty good too. I definitely love the opening and ending songs. My boyfriend did not seem to mind letting me play the opening and ending songs for almost all the episodes.
- Anime Title: Tomo-chan Is a Girl!
- Episodes: 13 episodes
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: Aniplex of America
Since I saw this anime on the list of winter anime, I knew I would watch it. Why not? Finally, a tomboy in a romance anime. In this anime, we follow Tomo Aizawa (a tomboy) who has been in love with her best friend, Junichiro Kubota. This follows Tomo as she tries to get Junichiro to see her as more than one of the boys.
The comedy here stemmed from Tomo trying to be “girly” so that Junichiro would notice her. This was due to the fact that her other best friend, Misuzu Gundou, told her that she needed to be more traditionally girly. Honestly, this was the only thing that I found a bit meh about the anime. It was funny. Seeing Tomo out of her element and trying to navigate the girl world was chaotically comedic. Though I laughed, I just found it a bit difficult to agree that Tomo needed to change herself and be girly.
Anyway, Gundou as a character was interesting to me. Why? She seemed like a dark character to me. A lot of girls were scared of Tomo because she was tall and loud and could kick a dude’s ass without batting an eye. But honestly, Gundou was the scary one. She was cunning and almost sadistic. I loved her devilish smirk that often graces the screen. She was often seen messing with Tomo and Junichiro.
There were some characters that my boyfriend and I did not know how to feel about at the beginning – like Carol. But it did not really take away from our enjoyment of the anime. It was really nice to see the progression of Tomo’s and Junichiro’s relationship. I mean, it was young love. What not to enjoy about it?
Overall, this was a pretty good romance, slice-of-life anime about young love. We definitely enjoyed it. Would I watch it again? Maybe. I mean, it would not be my first choice of anime to rewatch. I want a season two though just to see what happens to this love story. Just note, if you’re going to give this one a try, watch the sub. The dub for Tomo sounded unnatural.
- Anime Title: Haikyu!!
- Episodes: Season 1 – 26 episodes; Season 2 – 25 episodes; Season 3 – 10 episodes; Season 4 – 25 episodes; 2 movies; 2 Land vs Air episodes; 3 OAD episodes
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: Toho
I am not a sports anime fan. All these years, I’ve only watched one sports anime, and that was Slam Dunk from back in the day. I watched it when I was still in the Philippines, and the reason why I watched this was because basketball was or still is big in my home country. Anyway, we’re not talking about that. I am just saying that I would normally not watch a sports anime. Haikyu!! was highly recommended to me by Chris. I just never got around to watching it until recently.
And oh boy, I was glad I finally watched this. This anime was that good even if you don’t normally gravitate to something like this. Not going to lie, this anime made me care about a sport. I am not a sports person. Period. But it did! I wanted to keep on watching and watching just to see where these characters would go, how much each player would improve in each episode, and how much the team would grow as a group.
Every episode in this anime was exciting. There was no downtime. Even what you would consider downtime was exciting. Every single episode has something going on in it. Just because in every episode, there was some kind of internal realization, some kind of character development, some kind of struggle. And it was a treat.
It was nice watching Hinata Shoyo improve every single time. It was nice watching Kageyama Tobio not just improve as a setter but actually be a team player. The anime could’ve stopped there and focused on these two characters alone. But no, they extended the character development to the whole Karasuno team. Sure, there might be a couple of characters that barely got any screen time, however, they were shown improving as volleyball players as well as actually integrating themselves into the team. It was actually great seeing them turn from individuals to a cohesive Karasuno team.
Again, the anime could’ve stopped there and just focused on the Karasuno team. But no. The anime showed the other teams. Sure others got more highlights compared to the others, but it was great seeing each team adapt to pressure. Especially the ones that went against Karasuno. As Karasuno was improving on the spot, so did the team they were up against. And it was exciting seeing each team one-up the other. Some members of the opposing team got their own character development in the series as well, which was great. It made me root for other players that were not from Karasuno.
This anime adaptation did so much and did it really well. The story was great. The character development was top-notch. The animation during the games was chef’s kiss. The soundtrack was good too. My boyfriend and I were pumped the whole time we were watching this. And that was all we could ask for a sports anime. And we cannot wait for the conclusion of this series.
The normal benchmark, if I liked an anime, is if I would ever watch it again. And I would definitely rewatch this anime again. I might do just that before the conclusion movies come out. This anime became one of my favorites hands down.
- Anime Title: Horimiya
- Episodes: 13
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll and Hulu
- Publisher: Aniplex of America
Who does not want a good cute slice-of-life romance anime? Well, to be honest, my boyfriend would not watch this anime on his own. He most likely would not even give this one a second glance. And that was fine, I was just glad that he has been open to watching some anime that he would normally ignore himself.
Anyway, what made me watch this? Because of this clip. One day, I just saw it on my YT feed and I was like, what the heck is this? And I was glad, I took the time to look it up. This anime was golden.
What is this about really? Sure, it’s easy to just say that this is a rom-com about young love. But ultimately, this is about people having part of themselves that they hide from other people. When it all comes down to it, you only let people see what you want them to see. And this is about finding that one person who will accept that part of yourself that you hide from the world.
I really appreciated how this anime did not make mundane things over the top as other anime had done. The storyline was solid. Nothing to complain about that. It was seamless. The natural progression of Hori and Miyamura’s relationship was great. There was nothing more amazing than finding someone who can accept and also love that hidden part of you.
The way this anime dealt with conflict was pretty good too. There were definitely some misunderstandings among the characters and you know what? They talked about it. It was so easy to just let these characters wallow in doubt and let them jump to conclusions, but no, the anime let the characters talk about these things. We as viewers were not waiting for the resolutions until the last episode. I say that was pretty healthy way to resolve some conflicts.
The anime did not shy away from heavy topics either – from separation anxiety, bullying, isolation, suicide even. They were presented perfectly and dealt with healthily.
What made this anime for me though was Miyamura. I just love his inner monologues. Also, I felt like he had the most visible character development. I mean, his experiences in season one shaped him to be this person by the end and I loved it. He started as this shy high school loner kid and by the end, he was this confident person with friends.
I also liked the fact that after Hori and Miyamura got together, the anime shifted to the characters around them. It would have been so easy to just keep these characters as background and just focus on the main love storyline. I really loved Tooru Ishikawa. Sure, he was not the main character but he was so fleshed out. It was impossible not to love him. He was friendly, supportive, and just an awesome guy.
Overall, this anime was really good. I loved the story. I loved the pacing. I loved how real the anime was. I loved the characters. This anime was pretty up there for me. I gave this a 9/10. My boyfriend gave this an 8/10. This would be one of the anime that I rewatch from time to time.