Like The Tomato
Nothing here but my musings about daily life, books, anime, and food.
- Anime Title: Chainsaw Man
- Episodes: 12
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll and Hulu
- Publisher: MAPPA
This anime came out alongside the newest season of Bleach, so obviously I placed this on our anime watchlist. And after hearing a lot of people giving this anime such good words, my hun and I finally decided to pick it up.
This anime follows the protagonist, Denji, an impoverished boy and an unofficial devil hunter to pay his father’s debts. One incident happened that made him form a contract with a cute dog-like devil, Pochita. The contract basically fused their bodies in turn giving Denji the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. He later joined the Public Safety Devil Hunters, which was a government group focused on killing devils.
Pretty interesting premise, and it delivered. Denji was a different sort of main character compared to a lot of the Shonen main characters we experienced before. He did not have a clear-cut goal. No big dreams of being a leader of something. No big goals of revenge. Nothing like that. And to me, that was refreshing to see. He only had one simple dream – to live a good, comfortable life. And he reached that goal the moment he joined the Public Safety group. So for the rest of this first season, it was just about maintaining it. He did have some mini-goals in the series – to hold breasts, and to kiss someone. Some people might argue that those were pretty shallow goals and I argue back, he already reached his dream, and now he could focus on what matters for a kid his age. I couldn’t hate him and wouldn’t criticize him for it. Those were fair goals for a 16-year-old boy.
The thing that made this anime stand out for me was how female characters were portrayed. We’ve all seen how female characters were portrayed in some of the popular Shonen anime. I don’t need to reiterate that. But this anime showed some strong female characters that did not fall in the token female category.
Let’s talk about Himeno for a quick second here. She was hot. Let’s not make this any more complicated than that. It was so easy to just put her there for fan service. They did not do that. Sure, you see her in a tank top and a pair of underwear in her own apartment. You saw her undressing to take a shower and even then it was not explicit. This was something that you would do at your own apartment. She was the leader of a group of devil hunters. A LEADER and very capable at that. A role that would normally be given to a male character. But on top of that, she has flaws. She could be considered promiscuous. A playboy, as you may. Having kissed most of the team members apparently. She has depth. Carrying the guilt that she had multiple partners die on her watch. That was a heavy burden to carry and she even visits their graves regularly.
How about that scared girl who wanted to kill Denji to survive? Kobeni. This character I had to marinate in my brain first. Sure I found her annoying the first time she was introduced. She was scared shitless and she was not thinking straight. But now that I had some time to think about it, being scared was the normal reaction for someone who was in this business. The only way for them to survive that situation was to sacrifice Denji. And she tried to do that because that was the logical thing to do to save the other members of the team. But you know what? She overcame her fears to even save Denji later on and we were shown how capable she really was.
How about Power? The fan favorite. The manic pixie dream girl character. She was not my favorite, to be honest, but I saw the appeal. She was feral. Because she was. She was fun. She does what she wants. She does not care. And for all the trios that we saw in anime, this female character did not blend in the background. She did not have any romantic attachments to either Aki or Denji. She was not useless. And for the most part, she was on equal footing with his partners. She has her faults, she is not the strongest, and she fucks up, but she does not care. She would still say that she was the best out of all of them.
Makima, I mean, the boss. A female boss. We have not seen enough of her yet, but all I know, just from watching the anime, was the fact that she is one scary bitch. And I would not want to mess with her, EVER. Because her contract with whatever devil makes her that powerful.
Overall, I found this anime enjoyable. It did not give me the chills compared to some of my favorite Shonen anime. But it did the job. The animations were good. At least I think so. I enjoyed how the fight scenes were carried out. The execution overall was great. And I would like to watch the second season when it comes out. Because I want to see what happens next. Do I think it was overrated? Do I think it was overhyped? Sure. But I see the appeal of the anime. The bottom line is enjoyment is preferential. Some people will give this an S rating and some will put it in A. I will put it in the A rank category.
One weekend, my hun was in the mood to watch an animated movie. We did not really have anything on our watchlist. But I have been eyeing this movie on Netflix for a while. So we just decided to check it out.
- Title: Bubble (2022 Film)
- Run Time: 100 minutes
- Directed By: Tetsuro Araki
- Distributed By: Warner Brothers Pictures (Japan, theatrical); Netflix (worldwide)
This movie was set in dystopian Tokyo where bubbles made the city uninhabitable. However, a bunch of orphans lived there anyway. Tokyo was now being used as the center of parkour tournaments for these youngsters to barter and trade supplies. Hibiki was introduced as an exceptional parkour talent and a member of the Blue Blazes. He mainly isolated himself and wore headphones because of his hearing ultrasensitivity. This was very loosely based on The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Or at least I think it was. There were definitely some marked similarities between the two.
The premise was interesting. I enjoyed the few parkour tournaments that were shown in the movie. I enjoyed seeing Hibiki slowly come out of his shell once Uta was introduced. He started opening up to his peers and hanging out with them. The only fleshed-out character for me was Hibiki and maybe Uta, barely. I wished that they had enough time to give the other characters a bit more meat. It was a bit difficult to know the characters, especially the ones who were members of the Blue Blazes considering that they all lived in one ship. They kind of just blended in the background.
My hun and I agreed that this would have been better as a serialized anime than a movie. Aside from a lot of the characters just being background, the conflict was resolved pretty quickly. Almost rushed, in my opinion. Basically, this happened, bubbles came down the world, accumulated in Tokyo, parkour tournament, Uta appeared, parkour tournament, then the conflict was resolved. Done. All wrapped in a 100-minute film.
Regardless, it was a pretty decent film. The animation was great. And the soundtrack was pretty good as well. I enjoyed it while I was watching it. I was engaged with the story and with Hibiki. The movie made me smile and made me cry. I cannot ask for anything more. However, it did not do anything exemplary. Would I watch it again? Maybe, but it definitely would not be my go-to.
- Anime Title: given
- Episodes: 11 episodes, 1 movie, 1 special episode
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: Fuji Creative Corporation
- Title: given
- Author: Natsuki Kizu
- Genre: BL, Drama
- Volumes: 8
- Run: April 30, 2013 to March 30, 2023
I found this anime by accident. I do not remember what I was doing at the time. I could be studying, which was a high possibility. But I found this one night and stayed up for hours to actually finish the anime. And I have rewatched this anime many times since then.
The anime has two major arcs – Ritsuka and Mafuyu arc, and Akihiko and Haruki arc. The manga has three arcs – the first two being the same as the anime and the third being the Hiiragi and Shizusumi arc.
The first arc focused on the Ritsuka and Mafuyu relationship. From the moment they met on the stairs of the gym to their first live performance. Ritsuka was the genius lead guitarist, and Mafuyu was the shy musical genius vocalist. I enjoyed seeing Ritsuka’s journey in coming to terms with his feelings for Mafuyu and his music. It was young love and I was there for it. There was also the journey of the band itself and how it grew. A watcher could leave it as that. Enjoy the ride of young love and great music. But this was also a story about grief and moving on. About opening your heart to new love. It was amazing. All the things that needed to be said to a past lover all wrapped into one song. Did it pull at my heartstrings? Yes. And I cried every single time that song played.
The second arc focused on the relationship between Akihiko and Haruki. Akihiko was the playboy drummer, and Haruki was the leader of the band and bassist. Now, this was a story of unrequited love. It was so relatable that it was difficult to watch. It was too real. We have all been there. Admiring someone from afar. Deeping those feelings for someone as time goes on. Being heartbroken because for some reason or another, that other person just does not see you the same way. It was hard. Seeing these characters in pain because they were hurting each other or just the pain in the situation they were in, let’s just say that my heart broke for the people in this arc.
The third arc focused on Hiiragi and Shizusumi’s relationship. These two were Mafuyu’s childhood friends and also Yuki’s bandmates. Another young love. But more focused on Hiiragi coming to terms with his feelings for Shizusumi and Shizusumi’s unrequited love for Hiiragi. It was a whole misunderstanding trope and all that. This was pretty good as well. Shizusumi stayed by Hiiragi’s side this whole time while watching Hiiragi put Yuki on such a pedestal. Hiiragi trying to make Shizusumi understand that he was never in love with Yuki, to begin with. Ugh. Such angst.
So the first arc for anime was a serialized anime with 11 episodes. The second arc was a one-hour movie. And the third arc was manga only. The manga has 8 volumes although volume 8 is not available in English yet, which I am patiently waiting for. (Per Amazon, the title will be released on Oct 10, 2023.)
I say give it a try. My hun did. He liked it enough. I loved it. I think I said before that this was not a 5-star for me. But you know what, after rewatching the anime this week, I don’t understand why I even said that it wasn’t. I mean sure I can find faults in it if I really try, but honestly, I don’t want to. That’s how much I love this story. And the soundtrack? I would even rewatch this anime just for the music alone. It’s that good.
- Anime Title: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Episodes: 64
- Where to watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: Aniplex of America
This anime is overhyped and overrated. Yes, I know this is an unpopular opinion. From my previous posts, I think you can deduce that for the most part, I think this anime is okay. It’s not the greatest thing I watched. And I had to stop watching it because it became a chore. Basically, it came to the point that I was watching it just to watch it because it was part of the anime list that we wanted to finish.
I do however understand why a lot of people chose this as their greatest anime of all time. I understand its popularity. I mean, this is one of the first anime that became mainstream for a lot of people. It became available to a wider set of audience. But I think that ultimately became its downfall for me. Since this anime is so popular and loved by many, I expected more. And I should not have.
What did I like? The subject matter. The premise was really good and interesting. Brothers involved in alchemy trying to retrieve their bodies back. The bodies that they lost because they tried to resurrect their dead mother through alchemy. There were definitely some political struggles going on. And the episodes can go dark so quickly. These were all positives in my book.
What else? Characters are likable. Aside from the homunculi, I think the MCs and the supporting characters were great. I personally like Roy Mustang and Captain Armstrong. The way Mustang killed that one thing lives rent-free in my head. It was visceral. And that puts Mustang as one of the darker characters in the anime regardless of how noble his fight was. My favorite character, despite his short-lived screen time, was Maes Hughes. Such a lovable character and I mourned with Mustang when that happened to Hughes.
What fell short for me? I think the plot was barely moving. Episode 35 and we were still talking about that one incident. Seriously? All I could think of was can we move on to the next topic? 35 episodes in, the plot barely revealed the whole larger concept, but still talking of that ONE INCIDENT. I know, they were connected, but that was also just one incident out of what? Five? I mean come on.
I am not new to watching slow plots – I’ve seen Naruto and Bleach where a conflict can drag on. But those anime had something going on per episode, even the filler episodes had something going on in them. To say that I was getting sleepy watching an episode of FMA was a huge understatement.
I know I should not be even talking about this anime since I did not finish it. But I think 35 episodes is enough for me to form opinions about it. This will not be the anime that I will recommend for a new anime watcher. I would definitely lean toward an anime that’s a bit more fast-paced and cover the plot in 12 episodes.
Will I ever give this one a chance and continue on? No idea yet. I am leaning a bit toward not continuing on. I would lie if I say I would not want to see Mustang kill another thing in the most visceral and satisfying manner (which he will because I saw a clip). My boyfriend said that he might continue watching at a later time. I told him to just let me know if he reaches that specific Mustang episode. I just really want to see that one.
- Anime Title: Sasaki and Miyano
- Episodes: 13
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: Kadokawa Pictures Inc.
Ah the story of young love. You know how it is. Your first love. I mean the feeling of yearning, being scared that the person you love will run away once you confess your feelings, the excitement when you see that person walking the corridors, the butterflies in your stomach when that person just even smiles at you. Yeah, all that packaged in this nice BL/Yaoi anime.
I picked this up because it’s BL, which is my romance preference. But I got so much more from it. From the moment that they met, until they got together, it was such a ride. I mean, my experiences were nothing like this but it did give me a sense of nostalgia as I think about that moment I saw him during P.E. class back in high school. Anyway, we will not rehash my ill fated first “love” here. We are going to talk about this anime.
One thing that stood out for me was the character development and internal struggles. Both the main characters – Sasaki and Miyano – have good character arcs. From Sasaki’s struggle with hiding his true feelings for Miyano just to not scare him away. To Miyano’s struggle with his sexuality. The anime was really good in depicting these emotions. (Ask my boyfriend, if you do not believe me)
The sweet moments were such gems. I still remember Sasaki’s reaction when Miyano gave him a gift for White Day. It still makes me smile. That reaction was too precious and basically lives in my head rent free.
The supporting characters, their friends, were also such good ones. You cannot find better friends than these boys. I mean, seriously, they are so supportive that it hurts when I think that not all friends are like these guys in real life. Such treasures.
Voice acting were done beautifully. I watched the anime both in dubbed and subbed versions. The actors were superb! I did prefer the dubbed version more, which does not happen often when I watch anime. I have rewatched this anime so many times in the dubbed version because the voice actors just did great.
I have watched a fair share of yaoi anime, and this for sure does not follow the regular trope that I am used to. This is such a slow burn romance that leads to that one moment in episode 12. I loved every minute of anticipation, every minute of the journey these two characters took to get together.
This post does not give the anime any justice whatsoever. It was so much more. My hun gave this anime a 10/10, a person whose preference does not fall in this category. But he enjoyed it a lot. And I am glad that I shared this with him.