Like The Tomato
Nothing here but my musings about daily life, books, anime, and food.
Do you know what I hate the most? Waking up in a bad mood. Why? Let’s see, you would think I would be in a better mood this morning. I slept for 9 hours. But that was not the case. Let’s just say my dream was stressful and I woke in a really shitty mood.
Anyway, despite my sluggish start and laziness creeping in, I think I still had a pretty productive day. I cleaned the kitchen counter and freed some space, threw trash, cooked beef caldereta and rice. So productive.
My hun and I watched some anime today. It was fun like always.
Sk8 the Infinity. My hun likes Adam and he said that it was his character that made the anime. I mean, I understood though. Adam was definitely theatrical. Adam was fun to watch for sure, but the hook for me was the relationship between Reki and Langa. And of course, the shallow part of me just like seeing Cherry on screen.
Inuyasha. For the most part, the episodes were fun and I was enjoying watching the anime. Then it would a female-centric episode and it annoyed me. I would forever have issues with female characters from older anime. I just could not stand how they were written. And this anime was no exception. The last two episodes that we watched focused on Sangu. I was happy when she got introduced and joined the group because finally an actual female character that I would see regularly who could actually fight along with Inuyasha and Miroku. But of course, they just had to put these episodes on how she got easily manipulated by Naraku. I cannot.
Naruto. This show was just getting better and better. As predicted, after that hair-cutting scene, Sakura remained useless. USELESS. Whatever. Kabuto’s real allegiance got revealed. And Sasuke got a taste of power and bloodlust. That was something. My hun enjoyed that a lot. He was also surprised that this anime could be pretty violent. And it was. This anime was just good and I really enjoyed it the first time I watched it. And I’m glad that my love seems to be enjoying it as well.
I did not get to read last night. I passed out. I planned to resume reading The Lies I Tell or honestly, I really just want to start reading Heaven Official’s Blessing Book 2. We shall see though. Either way, I would be reading tonight.
Had a late start today. Yes, I woke up late. Well, way later than normal. And I think that was a major factor in my mood today. Not that I’m not lazy daily. But I just found myself dragging the whole day. It was fine, I mean I was still able to go to the H-Mart to get some groceries. I wanted to get some Filipino food but the restaurant was so busy that I just decided to get some Filipino breakfast to go instead of dining in the restaurant.
I got home and took my sweet ass time to do laundry and wash dishes. But the dishes got washed. And now the last load of laundry is waiting patiently for the dryer.
I tried reading this afternoon. The keyword is tried. Because one hour since I started reading, I only read ten pages. Not my fault that I could not focus. The food coma hit me so hard that I had to keep reading a sentence so many times. So I gave up and just laid down and cuddled with my dog because why not.
I am planning on reading tonight though. Because I need to take advantage of this mood. After those weeks of a reading slump, yeah, I want to take advantage of this. I picked up a new book, The Lies I Tell. I mean it’s interesting right now. The story is still in the set-up stage. But that is fine. I might want to pick up Heaven Official’s Blessing Book 2 after I read a couple of chapters of this new book. But we shall see. If the story picks up, I would probably just read this continuously. Yes, I have a habit of reading multiple books.
Again this is just a plan since I have a huge feeling that I will pass out. So we will see what I end up doing.
- 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.
I did not do much today. Just cleared one side of the counter. It was not too bad. It was still somewhat productive for sure. The kitchen side of the counter will be for tomorrow. I like doing a reorganization this way – one area a day. I mean I have the time right now to do it this way so I am taking advantage.
I read a lot last night. I was able to make a dent in Heaven Official’s Blessing Book 1. And I am enjoying it a lot. The banter for sure was fun. I kept laughing last night. I had to force myself to stop reading or else I would not get sleep. I know I know. I have no sleeping schedule at the moment, I have no need for it right now. And I could just have stayed up and finished the book. But I still need to function on a daily basis so, unfortunately, I still need sleep. Anyway, I like where the story is going so far. This definitely falls under some kind of historical fantasy genre with elements of Taoism, Buddhism, and Chinese mythology. It has its funny moments. As I said, I do enjoy the banter a lot between these gods and this ghost. And it has some kind of mystery mixed in there. This also falls under the danmei category. But I do not mind. That is my preference anyway.
I got to hang out with my hun today! Early too. We get to watch some anime. Cause what else can we be doing?
Sk8 the Infinity. So far, my hun was intrigued, and I would take that. So far Reki made a board for Langa. And we got introduced to Adam, which took this anime to the next level. I just loved this anime when I first watched it. It was so enjoyable. And I’m glad that I enjoying it with my hun right now.
Inuyasha. I starting to like the show a bit more now. That episode where the demon slayers were introduced was dark and I enjoyed that one. Sure, Kagome was on that episode but you know, for only a few minutes. For that, I was thankful. That episode with Kikyo and the kiss, and Kagome saw all of it, that one was good. I think it was nice to see how deeply Kikyo and Inuyasha feel for each other. I mean, I did understand why Kagome needed to be alone after that, I mean who could compete with a dead person? Then after that, I got annoyed again. Because the freaking Sacred Fragment was again stolen from Kagome – easily. I cannot with that plot.
Naruto. Orichimaru got introduced. You know, him shedding his disguise and everything. That introduction was so good. Sakura was annoying. She had the audacity to call Sasuke a coward. Bitch, you had no right to say that when all you did throughout this time was sit. She got a character arc with her hair-cutting scene. I know that was supposed to be a powerful scene, a character growth, but damn, I just cannot. Aside from that, rewatching these episodes was definitely enjoyable.
Plans tonight? Just finish reading Heaven Official’s Blessing Book 1. I have a hundred pages left so that would not be too difficult to be done tonight. I am planning of picking up the second book right after.
Boy oh boy. I only had one goal today – to reorganize my craft cart. I regretted that decision after taking out the stuff on the top tier of the cart.
I have so much shit. I was looking at them for a while and all I could think of was “How in the hell did I accumulate all this stuff?” Way too many marker pens, fine liners, pens, highlighters, and stickers. Not to mention, the charging cables, USB ports, power outlet USB box thingy. I have a lot of them. Mice, keyboards. Notebooks. Index cards. Random paper with designs on them. Tracing paper. Sticky notes. A random mirror. I mean, I could go on. But the gist of it was I have a lot of shit on this tiny ass cart.
I did my best. But it will have to do. At least everything is visible now, so when I journal I can just grab what I need. In my head though, “I really do not need all this crap. But I will not get rid of them.” My logic does not work when it comes to stationery.
And because I was entitled to a reward after that “massive” reorg, I ordered pizzas (Hawaiian and Meat Lovers) and 2 liter Mountain Dew. It was perfect. Pure heaven.
Then my body decided to remind me that I am not a youngster anymore and that bending and reorg resulted in back pain. So that was that. Thank goodness that after three slices of pizza and a glass of soda, the food coma was real and I took a nap. A massive nap that apparently I needed. It was great.
Plans for tonight. READ!!! I was reading earlier before I succumb to the food coma and took a nap. So I will continue where I left off. No anime today. I might play something in the background while I’m reading though. Something that I will not pay attention to. I cannot read in a quiet room. I need to have some kind of video or show or music playing in the background. The silence is deafening to me.
I was productive today! I mean hey, I gave myself a pat on the back. I organized my shit, and threw a lot of stuff away. I found a place for my watercolor paints. I found my lost watercolor brushes! I was happy about that. Tomorrow, I would be doing the same thing tomorrow – focusing on my craft cart, a mess I tell you. So I want to get that done tomorrow and reorganize.
Also, with all the cleaning that I did this morning, I found a bunch of blank notebooks! Yeah, I am a little bit obsessed with stationery. I am actually scared of my craft cart. It’s just overflowing right now and I have no idea what it contains at this point.
While doing some chores, I discovered this podcast called Chosen Family. I am on episode seven and so far, I am enjoying it. It’s funny and they talk about some queer stuff. And my demisexual heart is all for it.
Anime recap:
Inuyasha. Apparently, Inuyasha is stronger when Kagome is there with him. Why? Because he needs to protect her, so his full potential is in full force when she’s around. Like seriously? I think we are getting to the romance part of this anime, and I am not sure how I feel about it. Because I cannot stand Kagome whatsoever. We shall see though. I mean, for the most part, I am enjoying the anime when Kagome is not on the screen.
Naruto. The Chunin exams started! The first exam is done. And now the second exam just started and it’s getting good. I mean yeah. I am trying so hard not to spoil anything for my hun to be honest. And all I could say was “OMG, it’s getting good now!!”
Tomo-chan is a Girl. We finished this anime! And it was good. My hun did give it a 10/10. I am putting it on that scale as well. It was enjoyable for sure. The subject matter was executed well. And the animation was good. I was very hesitant to put it up there as Sasaki and Miyano since that anime was really top-tier for me. But I could see rewatching this anime multiple times. This is definitely a slow-burn one. But the anime is definitely worth it.
Sk8 the Infinity. One thing that I clarified before we started watching this anime was the fact that this is a yaoi anime. When my hun saw one episode, he was like, “You said there are no yaoi undertones.” I laughed and said, “I said it’s not yaoi.” He seems pretty interested in it but then again we are only on the first episode. He was watching me when Langa got introduced and he found it odd that I was not fawning over the character. Minutes later he realized why, they also introduced Cherry in this episode.
Time to read now. Planning on getting some dent on Heaven Official’s Blessing Book 1. I did read some earlier before I hung out with that guy across the country but I need to actually sit and read tonight.