Appa's Thoughts

Against her better judgment, some years ago a friend of mine showed me Adolescence of Utena. It was against her better judgment because although I was highly curious about the series, I had not seen any of it yet.

Now that I have seen all of Utena (as of about two years ago already, wow), I wanted to see the movie again. After all, I could remember a lot of visuals quite clearly but I couldn't remember the plot.

Now that I've watched it again, I've remembered that there is no plot, it simply is visuals.

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I started reading Mirai Nikki. Oh my gosh, Yuno is such a creepy stalker, and yet perhaps it's because of her that I can't seem to stop reading. That, and I'm a sucker for any time-space continuum kind of story devices.

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Even though I've already heard plenty about the ending, I keep thinking that one of these days I should just watch Evangelion and form my own opinion of it.

So! My friend had her annual anime party yesterday/today. A smaller group this time (11, including my 2-year-old nephew), although it's still bigger than the original seven or eight at her first which was just a simple sleepover. It's just feels smaller after a couple times when there were 20+ people in attendance.

Anyway! We watched anime. I got to sample some I had been curious about but never saw, but what I really enjoyed was Hetalia. XDD Another friend of mine hadn't seen it before and we were roaring in laughter at any little joke. Granted, I fear how this might be received in certain countries, but as an American who has spent the last two semesters revisiting and revisiting and revisting the lasting effects of World War II... well... I can't help but find it hilarious.

Also, it wasn't cosplay but I dressed up.



( You want to see more of this thing on my head )

Ah, the Hetalia theme is so stuck in my head.

I also have some art to talk about. It was neat seeing people's coloring renditions of the lineart I made, and while I was watching anime I drawing drawing at random things that seemed stereotypically "anime", and then I told them to think of a plot for it. I'm curious what, given an anime group shot, people would come up with for a synopsis. I'll post the picture at some point and give people a go at it, and maybe make a little contest (with a prize) for what people come up with. It'd be interesting to read.

Ow, my head. Not enough sleep.

While studying for an econ exam, I found myself thinking "so MC is the inverse of MR. Hmm, I could use some Slayers."

Actually what I could really use lately is some Kare Kano. Too bad those DVDs are 1000 miles away with my PSME and Haruka manga.

While I have no idea when I'll be able to make time for it, a friend and I do have plans to rewatch Arjuna sometime this semester. It's been about 4 1/2 years since I saw that series, and it's been about three years since I've been planning on watching it again.

And eventually I will finish watching Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku in Japanese. Don't get me wrong, I thought the dub was very well done as far as dubs are concerned, but it's one that should be watched in the original Japanese (though I tend to say this about every series). It's one I've been working on very slowly... and... you know, I think I've studied for enough hours today that I'll fit in an episode tonight now that I'm thinking of it. Which episode did I last watch several months ago, anyway?

And speaking of series I haven't seen in a while, my roommate recently saw Fruits Basket. Ahhh, I discovered that... wow. Seven years ago!?! I... as long as my math is correct... o__o Wow. Anyway, I bring this up because she started playing the opening on YouTube and I started humming along and then automatically started singing "totemo ureshikatta yo" and then noticed it was in English. I was quiet surprised.

EDIT: ;_______; My gosh, this was such a poignant anime. The next episode is one of my favorites, but I shall wait a while before watching it... since I've already been going at a snail's pace rewatching a 13-episode series.

So... I'm enough of a dork that my reasons for going to many spots aren't so much because they're simply famous, but because I've seen them in anime or they have to do with historical periods I like.

So I have my list thus far of places I've been and why, and then I'll happily take my F-list's suggestions for places in Japan that I might go that were settings in anime you know I like. Italicized ones are ones I'm already planning on going to or might go to.

Heian related places
Heian Jingu
Arashiyama (did the Juuni Hitoe!)
Uji (saw Byoudouin and the Genji Monogatari Museum)
The Imperial Palace
Seimei Jinja (As in Abe no Seimei)

Edo, Samurai related places
Toyokawa Edo Museum
Nijo Castle
Gifu Castle
Osaka Castle park & nearby shrine I'm forgetting the name of
Sekigahara
An Ukiyo-e exhibit

Meiji related places
Meiji Jingu
Some Shinsengumi spots in Kyoto? Although this would count more as Peace Maker Kurogane dorkdom than Meiji dorkdom

And the funner side of things:

Anime/Manga Settings
Iga Ueno (Tsuki no Shippo/Tail of the Moon)
Hiroshima (Kamichu, Asagiri no Miko)
Tokyo Metropolitan Building (X, Digimon Tamers, probably others)
Shibuya (ChoGALS)
Odaiba: Fuji TV Station, the harbor (Digimon Adventure! <3)
Tokyo Tower (Please Save My Earth(!), Digimon, Magic Knights Rayearth, ext.)

As far as Tokyo's concerned, I had also wanted to go to Ueno Zoo just because that's the zoo Alice and Rin went to in Please Save My Earth. XD *dork* That's also the zoo they went to in the Hana Yori Dango live action drama. Also, I have no idea where the National Library would be, so I probably can't go looking for the Universe of the Four Gods. ^^;; Too bad I won't have much time in Tokyo.

I also want to have another excuse to go back to Osaka, as I've only gone once but did a lot of stuff. I want to go back and find an anime goods store (I want more Haruka goods!), but I don't want to go for that reason alone...

I think wherever I go, I am doomed to learn the songs to little kids shows. And I mean way little. This morning on my way to the train station I found myself singing/humming "donna iro ga suki?" (What color do you like?).

I finally saw Sazae-san. If Maruko-chan is the Peanuts of Japan, then Sazae-san is probably more like the Flintstones or Jetsons or some other boomerang cartoon. I think I'll take Maruko-chan instead, since the "Pichana pichana" song is so much fun.

Still loving karaoke here. I sang the Rose of Versailles opening last weekend because BeruBara was on the brain, and in a little box with a microphone, I sound great. OSCAAAAAR!!!

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It is terribly obvious, if someone observes closely enough, that I am a Haruka fan. If the Shimon and Sefuru zipper pulls on my backpack don't give it away, then my Shirin and Takamichi illustration on my notebook will.

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I have a theory that if it weren't for Walt Disney and Shintoism, anime would not have become this popular. Seriously, would any other country have thought of something like Pokemon? I have a guess that somewhere along the long history and the fuzzy distinction between Shinto traits and Japanese culture where all these little harmless and powerful, formless and strangely familiar, seen and unseen creatures were born...wait, this is a long sentence, I forgot where I was going. Anyway, I think it's because of those that the little monster genre became so succesful. I also think it's mainly thanks to Walt Disney that there is such a strong animation genre throughout the world, because even Osamu Tezuka was highly inspired by Disney, and Tezuka paved the way for and inspired so many other creators, that it probably wouldn't have picked up much speed otherwise.

I have said before, though, that I don't really like modern day Disney (but, as a disclaimer, there are still recent movies I liked a lot, mostly Pixar), and though I liked a lot of them as a little kid, I just don't enjoy most of the older Disney movies now (though I can appreciate them). Mickey Mouse just doesn't do it for me. Still, as much as the Disney Princess stuff turns me off (now, anyway, I did like them as a little kid), Disney stuff is EV-ERY-WHERE in Japan. x__x;;

Okay, some dorky updates. All the anime I've seen since I've been here has been kid stuff, and I mean really silly kid stuff, lots of flash animation.

There are a couple I recognize from last year, such as the one I can't remember the name of for the life of me, but in English it'd be "Wind Up Samurai". It rather enjoyabley silly, and to stop being from doing mean things or being annoying, he takes out his dango sword and throws dango in their mouth and then apologize. Then once everything is better, this little beam of light from the heavens comes down and turns the wind-up key on his head. His voice, though, sounds just like an easilly annoyed, Japanese version of Sing-a-Ling from the Wee Sing Sing Along video.

Hung out in Nagoya yesterday with a friend who just started going to school to be a manga-ka. She showed me the anime goods store she goes to (I'm holding off on buying anything, though), and then we went to the Sakae district to do Purikura and some games, instead the DDR-like Taiko drum game (she was amazing, I was terrible), UFO catchers (didn't get anything, of course), and... uh... Silent Hill? That was followed by three hours of karaoke for under $10. We had our own private room and could sing as loud as we pleased, so man, that was fun!! There was also a feature to compete against everyone else in Japan who had sung that particular song that day and see how you rank. I did fairly well, and ranked #1 for Rie Fu's "Life is Like a Boat" from Bleach. That's probably because of my mad English skills.

I showed her my art later and her parents were really excited to look at all... ALL! ...of it, too. It was so embarrasing, but I was flattered that they insisted I need to debut in Japan. We drew a picture together later, though, and she let me try out her nice materials. It was my first time using screen tones and wow... I failed. XD

She also insisted on having me play Soul Caliber, even though I have next to no video game experience. She also took great pleasure in explaining it to me and showing me everything having to with Siegfried (sp?). She was such a fangirl that she even had tried translated all more-than-100 of his English version lines and had me help her with the ones she didn't know. I made a character, and we did a bunch of battles, and I did surprising well even when she took her handicap off.

Going weeeest~~ In a covered air-wagon~~~
Giddy 'up fue~~~l, giddy up giddy uuuuu~~p,
'Spite of the prices~~~~

Oh yeah, that signifies what kind of headache this will be. A long one. A long one which shall be made worse by partial sleep tonight, a couple long plane rides tomorrow, and carrying luggage. I just hope it's not the kind of headache which zaps my ability to speak Japanese.

It's sitting right here, up and behind my left eye for now. Migraines are so not cool. I wish I had the ability to sleep on airplanes, but I've never been able to.

Last night, I was transferring some photos between cameras and computer, so while waiting for the files to move, I tried out watching Princess Princess. It was cute, and now I'm glad I can put characters behind the pictures I keep seeing; I just wasn't interested enough to watch more. But man, did it sparkle.

Finally finished some things on my to-do list this summer.

First, I finished reading Read Real Japanese the other day, which was compiled and broken down by Michael Emmerich, with stories by six contemporary Japanese authors. I highly suggest this for every serious Japanese student, because you get to read them in the original Japanese with... gasp, no pictures! (Although the way he breaks down the grammar in corresponding sections is extremely helpful!)

( The six stories )

And due to the worst few hours I've ever had simply due to being a normal girl, my plans for this evening got changed, so I laid around and finished the Vampire Princess Miyu TV series.

( Some spoilers )

That all having been said, remember everything I was saying about the eerie similarities between my own character, Izumiya Hiro, and Miyu? Izumiya was going to have a little song she'd sing to herself, kind of with that tune you might hear in a child's tune, but with somewhat dark undertones. And what the last episode open and close with? Miyu singing the same kind of song!!!!

Of course, now that I mention that, I have Rin Kobayashi in my head singing the "mori no koyagi, mori no koyagi" song.

Watched another bit of Sayounara Zetsubou Sensei. I can see why a lot of people like it, and it can be funy, but over all it just isn't one I like much. However, the split personality gaijin/nihonjin stuff was so easy to appreciate. X3

Watched a few more episodes of Kurenai. I'm still not crazy about the opening, but the anime itself is very good. I've been watching it raw and enjoying not falling behind in the story, and I still love Murasaki a bunch. I really like the personalities in this show, even Benika. She's kind of like the good-guy Carmen Sandiego.

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Oh, and my kouhai and I should refrain from rapid-fire half-fluid Japanese if we're not 100% we're listening closely. She picked me up late last night and asked, "this is how we get to such-and-such street, right?" and I said, "why do you need that street? We can't get to your house to sleep over using that street..." "but we're going to the theater. You know, to see Batman?" "oh, I thought you said 'Rashomon'..."

So I watched The Dark Knight last night. I'm not actually a huge fan of American superhero movies because I get tired of all the big explosions and chase scenes and fight scenes that are just there to look intense for the sake of dragging people in with special effects. But anyway, it was good, dark as everyone says it is, Joker's acting totally stole the show, and just when I thought the movie was reaching a conclusion, it all took a dive for the tragic. ;__; But you know, Batman and happy endings just don't mix.

And then we sat out at the park until about 2:30 AM discussing world religions. Fun, fun.

I haven't watched Miyu in weeks. ;___; I'm so busy.
But I accidentally discovered the manga Lucu Lucu, which started out adorable, but inevitably around chapter 12 finally made the official switch over to 'typically shounen gag manga with sexy babes and jealous childhood friends'. Oh Lucu, I thought you were different. It doesn't detract from Lucu's sheer adorableness, though, and I love Lumiel, too (he reminds me of Zephel. Zephel the angel). Of course it makes me sad to see how religion is interpreted by Japanese pop culture, but... *sigh* That's how it is. I keep loving Lumiel all the more, though, poor kid.

Alas, there is a new season of Slayers. I shall eventually need to see it. ;__; Oh, nostalgia.

But you know what I've been strangely VERY nostalgic for lately? Ranma 1/2. Nothing will ever be quite like Ranma.

Oh. Ha ha. Right. I have an essay to write, that's part of why I haven't been watching Miyu this week (and why I've been distracting myself with Lucu instead.) I'll be skedaddling off now.

Renaissance festival was fun. I went with a group of five girls, all dressed up, one of whom and I were sure we knew each other but finially figured out that we went to the same two elementary schools, were in the same grade, had the same kindergarten teacher, knew the same people, went to the same teacher's piano recitals, yet we were never in the same class. Totally uncanny, all that.
I didn't buy anything at the festival (sans lunch), but I did ride on an elephant and ride on a camel. Yayness. I also had a picture with Prince Dashing (Charming was on the roof).

And now I am red as a tomato. Thanks to the sun, not Prince Dashing! I so do not want to go to work tomorrow.

Oh, and on the way back and at the near-empty pizza place, there was much random outburst into anime opening songs and a few characters image songs, some of which were by request (including 'Akai Itsutae' *beams*). They started calling me an iPod for having so many songs memorized. Not that I was the only one singing, and the other's started it! But three of us at a time singing the Bokurano opening or the Shounen Onmyouji opening was great. Ah, and on the way up I caught my childhood aquaintence singing a Chinese song I knew, despite her not knowing Chinese. Oh, and my friend I are total dorks for conversing in Japanese at a renaissance festival. Apparently, we can't give it a rest when we're together.

When I got home, I watched episode 3 of Soul Eater, the only one I had. It's very shounen, but the main girl looks pretty cool when she fights (from what I could tell in the opening and ending), and I like that the people are weapons, and hell yes, Death the Kid's OCDness was quite entertaining to me. Still, I don't think I could stand to watch much more. Plus, I was scolded today for not having watched Code Geass... however it's spelled. That one. And I was also scolded for barely being into Gundam Seed. *sigh* I have an anime debt.

Ow ow ow ow. Sunbuuuuurn.

Life-wise I have a full time desk job and I hate it. But I'm not letting summer, my favorite season, run away without me. I went whitewater rafting on the Arkansas river yesterday, and will be going to the renaissance festival tomorrow. Also taking a psychology class and doing 4-credits worth of Chinese self-study and keeping up on my Japanese practice. Migraines are getting worse. Sleep? What is that?

Fandom-wise my friend burned me a disc of new anime to sample. My thoughts so far:

Sayounara Zetsubou-sensei is not one that I'm enjoying. It gave it a couple episodes before I made my verdict, and there have been some funny jokes and unique bits, but in general, I'm done.

Special A was one I liked, just like she figured I would. It's not spectacular, but the basis premise is a lot like Kare Kano (smart, talented girl makes it her goal to top the #1 guy in the school, but is unaware that he likes her despite teasing her), so of course I related to it a bit. The feel of it kind of reminds me of Gokujou Seitoukai, but at least this one has male characters! It was fun and cute, but not really special enough to get me hooked.

Alison to Lilia is nice, but kind of blah to me. It couldn't get me interesting, but it reminded me a bit of Fantastic Children, but I'm not sure why. Now that's one I should see more of...

Kurenai has my attention. I saw the opening some time ago and thought it would be a silly gag-filled anime like Hayate no Gotoku or something, but I was pleasantly surprise by the seriousness and the animation style. I've only seen the first episode, but I want to see the second, too. I love Murasaki!

Nabari no Ou doesn't strike me as having a having a very unique plot, but I love the main character!! He's so sarcastic, but cute (when he wants to be, ha ha!). Funny, the comments my friend gave me on her readme were about the same: '...isn't a very special anime, but because there's a cute boy, enjoy. ^_^'

She also gave me an episode of Soul Eater (only because she wanted me to see one of the characters), but I don't think it's the first episode. Because I told her about it, she also got me the Baccano OVA! Hurray!!! I'm looking forward to that. I wish I could weave stories like that.

Well, with a full-time job and school and sleep (???) and other tasks and plans and responsibilities, I won't have much of a relaxing summer... but, I did an estimate of how many hours I spend doing what, and I do, in fact, have time to watch some anime!

Here's the plan:
--Princess Tutu
--Vampire Princess Miyu
--Seirei no Moribito

And if I have time for it... I'll press on with Gundam Seed like I promised my friend about a year ago. u_u;;

I'm 13 episodes into Tutu (FAKIR!!! Glee! And ahhh! So many satisfying visuals! and I will have a full rant when I'm done with it), 4 (unofficially 8) episodes into Miyu (not spectacular, but my kind of series to enjoy), and... geez, I've been so slow on it. Maybe I'm 7 or 8 episodes into that?

I really need to save money, so I can't order any new manga. Haruka (noooo!), Tenkuuseiryuu, and Boku-Tsuki will have to wait. However, my friend did say she got some later Gakuen Alice manga... I love Gakuen Alice. X3

Alright, that's my babble. I need to go be a productive member of society now.

I was looking to the curry dinner, but I finally rounded up the skit team tonight and wrote the darn thing, then spent a few hours typing it up (because apparently, my typos were rampant tonigyht. Yes, I'm leaving that typo there to illustrate). If they don't practice it or don't show up for any practices, I will personally print out the script, shred it, and pelt them with it. Stupid guys. >___< Arrrgh, and I hate seeing the flyer I made everywhere. Just because I'm the artistic one in the club, they assume that I'm good at making flyers!! With my work on this dinner and the Japanese studies board, everyone's started to see what a frightening dictator I can be when it comes to planning things and getting one people's cases if things don't get done.

And then one of them had the gall to tell me I should be the president of the club next year. HELL NO!!!! Yes, I get things done and I manage others effectively (but not always nicely). But I don't want to actually be responsible for anything. The current president does a good job making sure we do things but that people are still enjoying themselves. Dictators are not good at performing both of those functions. No, I refuse to take a position of responsibility in the Japanese club next year. For that matter, I'm thinking of quitting being a regular member of a couple of the commissions at church, and want to focus on things that look more appealing on resumes like SIFE projects, and I do not want to be in charge of anything. ROAR!!!!!

This is just my angry self who is awake at 2:30 AM because of this stupid skit I'm in charge of and don't even think is fun anymore.

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On the bright side, I actually saw some new ANIME today. Amazing!! That I had the chance, actually, not the anime themselves. I finally saw the first episode of Ghost Hunt, because I enjoyed the first volume of that manga a while back. It was decent. The other one I liked was Amatsuki. I caught a little piece of the manga a while back and it looked interesting, and the actual story is not what I expected, but interesting none the less. For me, the "modern-day kid getting sucked into another world" plots rarely get old for me. I probably won't actively follow it, though.

Sleep. Now. The unconscious thing. Yeah. But I'm not even sleepy. -__-;; If my roommate weren't going to bed, I'd just stay up and watch more anime or something.

Darn it, AMV's have ruined yet another experience! XD While looking for Utena AMV's back in January, I got one of a movie trailer for The Hours with clips from the Utena series, the movie, and from the Rose of Versailles series (aw, I miss that one). It was alright.

Now, however, I'm reading the novel for my class, and I keep thinking "so Juri is doing this..." instead of "Laura Brown is..." ext. XD Ahhhhhgh.

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Watched a few episodes of Records of Lodoss War with my sister, but we aren't watching any more because she got too bored. I thought it was very funny how similar the first episode was to LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring, and really, really enjoyed the old, detailed art. Ahhh, I miss it when anime had such attention to detail put into it, not just computer animated stuff just trying to out-glitter other anime. I love glittery modern anime of course, but it is a much different feeling for the hand-drawn drama that they work so hard on, and actually produce some pretty darn nice images for.

In case you're wondering how similar it was, it will suffice to say that they had a group which included a wizard with a staff, a dwarf named Ghim, and a blond elf who didn't get along with the dwarf. They were walking through some abandoned dwarf mines at the start of it. They got attacked in the mines. Sound close enough? Ooooh yeah.

Eeep. I should be doing economics homework.

Brief Rant: Apparently honor's students don't know biology. We have very interesting conversations in interpretation class, but today I wanted to yell "chrysalis" every time some said "cocoon" and shout "populations evolve, not individuals" when ever anyone threw the term around as we were answering whether or not a caterpillar and a butterfly are the same thing. I'm not even planning to study any more biology and yet this really bugs me.

I was also the one in my honor's course last semester explaining how certain traits are linked to the X and Y chromosomes and why men can only get some traits from their mothers. Am I in the right major?

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I already did a bit of a cost analysis on my other journal, and the conclusion I came to was that if I wanted to, I could afford going to Anime Central after finals this May, though it might be wiser of me not to because I'm a miser and I even regret spending money on a new pair of shoes (even while the old ones are barely intact).

Has anyone ever been to ACen, and can you say anything in one way or the other to twist my arm?

Yesterday, we were FINALLY going to watch the FY OVA together. 45 minutes before we were supposed to get picked up, my friend calls to say that she's sick.

*headdesk* DOOM!

No! It's only postponed! >__< We WILL eventually put my DVDs to use. And it'll only be the first time I watch anime with anyone here.

And apparently, I cannot focus on studying for a couple economics exam while I have an unfinished group pic in the works. *cough* I have no self-control when it comes to continuing or randomly trashing art. But hey, it's finished now. Now I must catch up on studying.

I started this series when it was still new and my sister discovered it, but the fansubbing went slow, so I'd usually just check for new episodes whenever it infrequently came to mind, then have myself a little Shounen Onmyouji marathon.

Checked again last week and got episode 20, but to heck with it. I don't need no stickin' subtitles (though with a series like this, they're really, really helpful!). So I finished watching it all raw yesterday and this morning.

It's a satisfying series, if for a few things that bug me: (1) the animation is very high budget and appealing with good action scenes and super shiny eyes without being too shoujo, but the human figures... people are not built like that. >_< (2) I love drama and near-death situations as much as anyone else, and because Masahiro was my favorite character, that made it even better, but... how many near-death situations can one character afford to have? After a while it looses its sting. They must be used sparingly or it wastes the effect! (3) Mokkun is still the ugliest mascot I've ever seen, but I love him anyway. He's cute in his own animal-like furry sense (rather than a ball of who knows what) and I liked that his personality carries over between that form and Guren, even if it's really hard to take him seriously as Mokkun. *giggle*

I also liked Masahiro/Akiko a lot, and that it wasn't seriously romantic- just that they're special to each other and you know what'll eventually occur. I also liked that the Shikigami could also be subtlety (or more blatantly by the end- I had no idea about T****** and S*****!) paired. Kazane really bugged me, but I really didn't mind her relationship with Rikugou.

The series had some very fan-pleasing scenes, the character designs are good although a bit stereotyped in some, and did I mention there were a lot of favorite scenes?? It's sometimes predictable, but not to the point that it's annoying. It's not a spectacular anime, but I did like it very much. The ending didn't rub too far in one way or the other, but it still made me sad (both because of "awww" content and because it ended).

I didn't like Baccano at first, but I still had those three episodes I saw on a disc that I was showing my sister some other anime from, so I rewatched them, and got interested. Fortunately, the friend who gave them to me came over yesterday and had the rest of the series for us. Yay!

We just finished. I'm really, really, really, really satisfied with that ending(s). A series like that needed a great ending, that's for sure.

I really liked how confusing it was. It shows that there's not just one main character and not just one event/plot line to focus on in, and yet they managed to tie them ALL together, which turned out great. The characters really grew on me, so I'm quite satisfied with this is. (Of course, there are a few that are easy just to roll your eyes at or shamelessly hate a bit.)

If you want an anime you have to be a little more involved in to follow, and don't mind blood, this is a good one. Man, even the characters I thought were really dull at first turned out being likable. My sister and I were watching the whole time and saying "oh, it's that guy! No... he must be that guy!! And... that's only because that guy was there, right? Then... OOOOOHHHHHHH!!! I get it, it's--- whose that?"

I am quite pleased with this anime-watching experience.

On a slightly different note...

When my friend was over, we watched some Yakitate Japan! and Ookiku Furikabutte. Both shounen anime, one about making bread, one about baseball. We have come to the conclusion that shounen writers analyze everything even more than the professionals do. Both are enjoyable, though. Yakitate is funner and the Japanese bread amuses me, but I'd probably prefer Furikabutte because it looks like a character development gem.

She showed me some other anime snippets that looked interesting, too. Only two are coming to mind. Koutetsu Sangokushi is not, repeat, NOT a shounen-ai anime, but maaaaaaaan, does it look like it!! The art is pretty, the music is pretty, but "it's so retarded", as my friend says. She also showed me the opening of the Tales of Symphonia (or was it Tales of something-that-starts-with-a-P-or-an-F?. The only one I ever followed with Tales of Eternia). The characters look horribly stereotyped, but... you know the thing about stereotyped characters? It means that those character types have worked before and therefore they are easy to like. I think I might be doomed to watch that OVA from what she showed and told me.

Wahaha. Baccano is great. Why didn't I like it at first?? Maybe because I thought there were too many characters to get into? That misconception has been blown out of the water.

Well.... only Lynne responded, but I may as well post my meme answers anyway. She wins by default. Pictures are included with explanations, but they vary in size!!

( But ya didn't see that one comin'... )

I made some fan statistical analysis of trends in my favorites, even though these aren't exactly the best representation of the kinds of characters I go for (though some are dead-on). But alas, those stats were just another form of procrastination. I need to go study economics now.