Gintama: Am I Missing Something?

How many times has it happened that someone has told you that you just have to watch something because it's so incredible, but then you've gone in, watched it, and come out the other side feeling distinctly "meh"? For me, this is what's happening with Gintama. I've seen countless people praise it to the heavens, and telling me that it's hilarious and that I just must watch it, but I'm currently 42 episodes in to the first series and frankly, I just don't get what the big deal is.

Now, I'm not saying that I can't see the appeal at all, as I have found myself almost in tears with laughter at some episodes and that's what's kept me watching for so long. Unfortunately, the humour content is varied to say the least. While some storylines clearly demonstrate the genius that it's so famed for, the others all swing and miss, and when it's not being pant-wettingly funny, I honestly find it rather dull. Some of the most recent episodes that I've watched sum this up for me perfectly. Episode 38 saw the gang enter a snow sculpture contest, and I swear my parents thought I was insane, laughing away to myself as I watched it on my iPad in the middle of the holiday cottage. It took crude humour, extreme competitiveness, and oodles of snow to create one of the funniest pieces of animation I've seen in a long time. Conversely, episodes 41 and 42 focused on a storyline surrounding Kagura, her long-lost father, and their strained relationship. While there were odd instances of Gintama's comedy gold (such as Gintoki leaping into action with a battle cry of "I'll pee on you! I'll pee my sweet urine on you!"), I spent most of my time clock-watching and waiting for it to get entertaining. In a weird way it's kind of like the reverse of Bleach. Ichigo and co. are better when they strip away the ultra dumb comedy and focus on more serious plotlines, whereas Gintama is better when it doesn't attempt to be serious, sentimental or have some kind of deep meaning and instead centres on the wacky, crude and violent humour.

I love self-referential and fourth wall humour at the best of times. This is one area that Gintama truly excels in... ... well that and rude, crude gags!

That I'm still not in love with this series leads me to question: am I missing something?

Maybe it just takes a while to get going? If that is the case however, then I'm sorry but 40+ episodes is WAY too long for a warm-up. By now it should be in full swing and I should be contemplating in investing in some "Tena Lady" products to control my laughing-induced "accidents". But still I'm not.

Perhaps its comedy just doesn't match with my sense of humour? Well, maybe, but that wouldn't explain why I find half of the content hilarious.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the series by any stretch; in fact I generally quite enjoy it. I'm just a little disappointed and somewhat perplexed. I genuinely want to love it and half of me does. I won't give up watching it, because I'm sure that somewhere down the line, something will click and that'll be it, I'll fall in love with it. But for now, I just don't quite get it.

When Bleach is Good...

Since I'm currently in the middle of a marathon catch-up session for Bleach, it's been pretty much at the forefront of my mind. I soon got to thinking that I've written many a post about why Bleach (in particular it's anime) fails on so many levels. But what I've yet to really do is actually look at the good in the series. It's an incredibly popular series, so it must be doing something right, and frankly, I'm beginning to feel a little bit guilty about ragging on it so much, so here we go with a genuinely positive post on Tite Kubo's hit series.

Warning: Spoilers Ahoy!

Bleach is my first shounen love. And much like that first crush you had at school that never quite goes away, I will always have some lingering affection for this series no matter how many times it disappoints me. Even when I've sat through godawful episodes of Karukarizer or Hitsugaya playing soccer, I can still remember the time when I first discovered it. I distinctly remember sitting in my room marathoning my way through the first seventy odd episodes marvelling at the Soul Society arc, and wondering how I could have lived so long without seeing something so grippingly awesome. It was one of the first anime that I encountered and without any shadow of a doubt in my mind, is a large part of why I became so entranced with anime in the first place.

Undoubtedly, that Soul Society arc was Kubo's strongest moment. The characters were fresh, the world was well built and the intrigue of the plot was brilliant. I remember being semi-distraught when Aizen "died" (only semi since although he seemed nice, we didn't know him much), but then the revelation that he was the mastermind behind everything and was a genuinely evil git hit me and goddamn it was good. For me, that was Bleach's finest moment. That twist gave me such an incredible rush that I was drunk on the pure storytelling. With every twist and turn I was on the edge of my seat, and frankly, when it came to the big battles I could have wet myself with excitement - and that's something that's not changed (the kick-ass fights, I have perfect bladder control, thank you very much). It quickly became something that I immediately recommended to my male friends, and was actually one of the series that properly got my best friend into anime - though he has since fallen out of love with the franchise after the excessively bad filler and would probably rather forget enjoying it at this point.

Bleach may not have been able to live up to the consistently epic nature of its two closest shounen bretheren (Naruto and One Piece) plot wise but when it's good, damn, it's good. I've stated in the past that essentially Kubo is more about style over substance, and while from a narrative point of view that may not be ideal, it makes for some pretty awesome and action-packed battles. Story wise, Hueco Mundo was kind of weak. It was a rehash of the Soul Society arc and Ichigo kept powering up out of basically nowhere. However, the focus was more on the clashes with the espada, and it made for some exciting combat. There are some incredibly engaging fights in that section of the series, especially when it runs into the Fake Karakura Town arc and they DO keep you really engaged and wanting more.

For me, it feels like the Bleach fights are like a night of heavy drinking. You watch them at the time and start dancing on the sofas as you get that incredible buzz from seeing some epic crap go down. But then, in the cold light of day, you look back at it and see the reality: in that when jumping around you fell off the furniture and took half the bookshelf and a precious antique vase with you. Yet, despite all of that, you'd do it all again in a heartbeat because the buzz was just that good.

As Ichigo and Ulquiorra battled it out, I got chills down my spine.
That was one epic battle.

Take the Ichigo vs Ulquiorra fight. It was coming, and we all knew it had been for some time. We'd had the teaser clashes that served as a measuring stick for Ichigo's abilities, and then we finally got to the main bout. Watching Ichigo go all out to the point where he goes into full on berserker mode and destroys his opponent was some epically awesome viewing and gave that rush of pure adrenaline-fuelled awesome that every shounen series should present to its audience. However, looking back now, you can't help but wonder where the hell that power-up came from. Since Kubo currently flat out refuses to explain exactly what is going on with the flame-haired teen, it all seems like little more than a convenient power up requiring zero training, at a time when he suddenly needed it. But despite all of that, if I could watch that fight for the first time again and feel that high, I'd totally take it, plot holes and all!

And that is exactly why I have managed to keep watching and reading Bleach. No matter how many times I look at it, shake my head and tut, that rush, that gorgeous, glorious, shounen rush keeps me coming back for more each and every time.

My name is Cassie, and I am a shounen junkie.

Bleach Anime Catch Up Marathon: Week One

With the announcement that the final episode of the Bleach anime is to air on the 27th March, I decided that it was about time for me to finally catch up. At the climax of the arrancar saga, I stopped watching the anime as the infamous filler was to follow and I had little inclination to watch. That was a little over a year ago and now, fifty-three weeks later, here I am about to start catching up on the anime in time for the finale in just under four weeks time. I've worked out that to catch up in time, I need to watch about two episodes a day, and what follows is... well, frankly, I don't know. Simply put, I'm going to write this as I watch, so who knows what the hell will emerge from this. I could end up loving the filler and praising the anime, or (the more likely scenario) this could end up as one long rant. One day I will actually write a positive post about Bleach as for a long time, it was one of my favourite anime out there, and I do have fond recollections of it. But this is about the here and now, a semi stream-of-consciousness wall of text, and the final year of Bleach anime.

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It's currently 8pm on March the 1st, and after having accidentally had a little too much wine with dinner, I am sufficiently tipsy enough that I figured it would be a good idea to commence my Bleach catchup marathon now. 5 seconds in to episode 311, and I already know that I'm not drunk enough for this to be a pleasurable, or even tolerable experience. Am I really depriving myself of the fun of Lego Harry Potter on my xbox for the (mis)adventures of Karukarizer?! On the upside, I'd forgotten that Bleach has some pretty decent opening songs. On the downside, this is really butt-awful filler. Like, I'd rather be watching Naruto getting his ass handed to him by an ostrich right now kind of terrible filler.
Watched: 2 Episodes

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March 2nd: Day two of the catch-up.
Tonight, I have also imbibed a significant quantity of alcohol and am now determined to focus on the small pleasures in each episode. Oddly enough, while hot sweaty Renji doesn't play a big enough part for my liking, this episode isn't actually too terrible.

Oh crap... next episode in and Kon's back. I used to like him, now he simply signifies the beginning of godawful filler. Yup... this is gonna be bad. Jesus, why I am I watching this?!  Wow... Patches could have a field day with this episode. Guy tries to get back with his girlfriend on the premise of "I like your food" and girl accepts without question. What. The. Freaking. Hell?! Damn you Pat, now I'm thinking all feminist because of you!
Watched: 2 Episodes

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March 4th: Day four of the catch-up.
Yesterday I didn't watch any Bleach, so I now have extra to watch in the next day or so. Now starting episode 315. Oh crap, it's a Yachiru episode. Huh, that actually wasn't bad, Bleach is definitely better when it's being a bit more serious, and this one actually made me like Yachiru a little more than I did.

OH. HELL. NO! No freaking way, not another Hitsugaya footbal episode, please dear god, anything but that! Oh thank heavens, not a football episode, though it is painfully obvious where this is going. Dead kid wants to see snow, oh look, the most powerful ice zanpakutou user just happens to be around.

Ooo, new opening! Plus the beginning of a new arc. Intriguing. If the OP animation is anything to go by, this might actually end up pretty good. Then again, it's still a filler arc, so I don't hold out too much hope.
Watched: 3 Episodes

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March 5th: Day five of the catch-up
The new arc isn't looking too bad, though it seems to be moving fairly quickly at the moment. Hopefully it won't burn out too soon or turn out to be like the zanpakutou arc: interesting at first, but soon turning to crap. Worryingly, I think I'm warming to Rukia.
Watched: 2 Episodes

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March 6th: Day six of the catch-up
Soul society is in crisis, so Orihime organises a barbeque... Seriously. Guh, it's crap like this that's why she's one of the top hated characters on Anime-Planet, well... that and shit like "Oh my, you're a bad guy trying to kill my beloved KUROSAKIIII-KUUUUUUUUN and you're injured. Must. Heal." Oh man this barbeque just gets worse. As much as seeing Kon get tortured is amusing, Ishida getting pissed over a shiitake mushroom is just stretching it. I mean... really?!
Watched: 2 Episodes

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Since this is getting long, I'm going to split this into weekly chunks. Stay tuned for the next part soon!

Bakuman: The Manga Within the Manga

Warning: This post is discussing content, which will possibly contain spoilers for those who are not manga current.

There are many reasons why I enjoy Bakuman, but one of the biggest is the plethora of different manga within the storyline. Each week I lap up the latest chapter and many times, particularly when the focus is more on creating the manga more than everyone's social lives or the rankings, I find myself really wanting to read some of the stories that this fictional young bunch are creating.

For my tastes in particular the series that I most want to read are Eiji's. As much as I love some of the more offbeat tales, my heart truly lies with good old mainstream battle manga, which is more Niizuma's forté. I'd love to be able to sit down and power through Crow, or wait anxiously for the next chpater of Zombie Gun. I confess that it does make me feel like somewhat of a failure as a Bakuman fan that Mashiro and Takagi's works aren't top of my "wish I could read if it existed" list.

Speaking of the Ashirogi Mutou manga, I think the one I most want to read is P.C.P. closely followed by Detective Trap. For me the ingenius twists, turns and pranks in these two are what would really get me hooked, kind of the like the clever deductions in Detective Conan, but with that more adult flair that Takagi and Mashiro bring to their work. Incidentally, Tanto is one of their works that I'm really not interested in in the slightest, which is odd as the idea of a kid with numerous comical gadgets and inventions would normally be something I'd at least consider. It does lead me to wonder if maybe the lack of passion within the tale bled through into my own consciousness.

Of course outside of the central authors, there are again a plethora of works to choose from. While Fukuda's Kiyoshi Knight doesn't necessarily appeal to me, the likes of Hideout Door and to a certain extent Otters 11 do. I almost imagine Otters being something like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei but with an otter guy instead of a suicidal teacher, meanwhile the gorgeous art on Hideout Door and the more light-hearted fantasy element intrigues me. In fact, when looking at all the different series that appear, from Panty Flash Fight to +Natural, there's something that could potentially appeal to everyone and to me, finding myself wanting to experience so many of the manga within this series, is the mark of a successful story. Tsugumi Ohba has not only managed to come up with an engaging manga, but also several highly interesting concepts to play alongside it, meanwhile, Takeshi Obata gets to showcase his wide variety of drawing styles, and to do both of these so well is no easy feat. Well done, and keep up the good work!

Monthly Round-up: February

Well, I've been a bit more prolific this month with any anime watching, and am slowly getting back into the swing of things.
 
Anime I've Watched:

• Working'!! -Along with Bakuman. and Chihayafuru, Working'!! has been one of my favourite series of Fall 2011. With a more balanced depiction of thecast, it's been fa more entertaining than the first series. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and was genuinely upset to watch the final episode knowing that I wouldn't get to look forward to watching the next episode. Now All I can hope is that they license it over here.
• Shinryaku!? Ika Musume - I'm not sure why, but I lost a little steam when finishing off this series. It's good easy fun, but I reckon that I may still be suffering from withdrawal of season one's ultra catchy opening. It's just not quite Ika-chan without the Shinryaku! Shinryaku! Shinryaku! Shinryaku! at the beginning to make you brain melt out of your ears. 
• Ben-To - So I finally finished watching this series, though by the end it was a complete struggle and I enjoyed it about as much as a dog crap donburi. While it initally seemed like a fresh and enticingly quirky series it soon became stale and once the humour of the supermarket battles waned, there really wasn't all that much left to tune in for.
• Poyopoyo - Oh my god is this cute! I can't honestly say that I'm as enamoured with this as I was with Chi's Sweet Home, but I'm certainly enjoying it. Poyo himself is an enigmatic ball of awesome even though the poor bugger keeps getting sodomised by next door's cat. Light, entertaining and above all, fun. Definitely can't wait for more of this. 
• Kill Me Baby - I started the Kill Me Baby manga last year and quite enjoyed it, so when I saw that there was to be an anime, I quite anticipated it. I have to say that it's not bad. Not brilliant, but not bad. I find the manga more enjoyable, but I don't think it's quite as awesome as it could be. Little bit of a disappointment. 
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos - Thanks to Conqueror of Shamballa, I have a fairly low quality bar when it comes to what makes a good Alchemist movie. Essentially, if it doesn't mess with and ultimately ruin the end of eier series, then it's all good in my book! Luckily Sacred Star of Milos didn't ruin anything. It's not one of the most spectacular shounen franchise movies out there, but better than most. For me it sadly fell into the trap that most other films do, it may have awesome action, but somehow the original vibe gets somehow lost along the way. 

Ongoing Anime I've Watched:

• Bakuman
• Naruto Shippuuden
• One Piece
• Chibi Devi 
• Gintama (Resolution Anime - currently 159 episodes to go until completed)

Manga I've Read:

• Working! -While suffering from withdrawal of the anime, I decided to start the Working! manga. I have to say that I've been thoroughly enjoying it, though the artwork looked a little odd a first. Definitely an ideal read for
• Shinryaku! Ika Musume - Oddly enough, I found myself enjoying the Ika-chan manga more than the anime. It's nice, light relief and a really easy read. I did find that it was comfort reading, which is why I powered through the majority of it while I was ill this month. Also the short chapters make it ideal for picking up if you only have a few spare minutes.
• Onani Master Kurosawa - This was an odd manga. I've already gone into this in more depth in a previous post, but it was an odd one. To this day, I'm still not sure whether I actually enjoyed it or not. It was odd and I found it interesting, but to say like or enjoy is something I'd find difficult to ascertain. Aditionally, I also read the light novel, which continues on after the events of the manga. It provided a fairly stark contrast to the unsavoury nature of the manga, and frankly not much happened. The novel basically felt like a fluff filler DVD special that can be taken or left. 

Ongoing Manga I've Read:

• One Piece
• Naruto
• Bleach
• Gin no Saji
• Beelzebub
• All Rounder Meguru
• Fairy Tail
• Acid Town
• Black Bird
• Bakuman
• Nichijou
• Buyuden
• Teppuu

Manga Musings: Onani Master Kurosawa

Myriad manga are set in the school environment and granted, a lot that I've come into contact with focus on cute high school girls. Onani Master Kurosawa however, is unlike anything I've ever read before. At its heart it's a coming-of-age drama that follows the titular Kurosawa as he matures from his anti-social beginning, looking down on everyone around him, to learning the importance of friendship and social contact. Where this manga differs is through is that the central themes, and eventual catalysts for his change are revenge and masturbation.

Kurosawa is a self-alienated boy who keeps very much to himself. He actively chooses not to interact any more than is absolutely necessary with his classmates, and - despite hiding it well from others - actively despises the one person who consistently attempts to reach out to him - a kind hearted otaku named Nagaoka. The only thing the boy actually cares about is his "Daily Duty", and every day after school he waits in the library until everyone leaves before retiring to the girls' bathroom where he proceeds to jack off while picturing one of his female classmates. Charming, right? Well it gets better as when he notices a girl being bullied, he decides to dish out his own form of justice where he steals their uniforms and leaves his sticky white calling card all over them.

Now, I'm no prude by any stretch of the imagination, but the scenes with Kurosawa jerking off in the girl's lavatory weren't pleasant. They were explicit without showing anything (other than a few... "stains" on the wall), mainly due to the blunt and coarse internal dialogue. I confess at this point I was on the verge of dropping Onani Master for its sheer grossness. But I felt I should give it more of a chance. Following his stunt with the bullies, the victim, a quiet and frankly nutty girl, Kitahara, approaches Kurosawa in the bathroom and says that she will keep quiet about his daily activities, if he'd perform the same, twisted vengeance on anyone else she so desires. Frankly, this didn't sound like it was going to get much better, since now it seemed to be a manga about manipulated wanky justice. However, shortly after, the story took a turn that made it far mroe interesting. Slowly, through his relationship with a girl in his class, Kurosawa begins to undergo a gradual transformation and what follows is a fairly impressive tale of love, atonement, and the importance of never being alone.

I personally think that the artwork is probably the most impressive aspect of Onani Master, which doesn't necessarily fly the flag for great story and characters. However, the art style is unlike anything I've seen in another manga. The main drawings look to have been drawn by pencil, and instead of using screentone, the shading has been created again by pencil. Then in an odd contrast to this very hand-drawn feel, the gradient tones appear to have been digitally added. It's an odd sort of effect, but at the same time it's oddly effective. This rougher, more sketchy style of artwork, complements the crude nature of the content - after all if a scene with a boy whacking off was crisp, precise and pristine, it would give off too much of a clinical vibe, and this is meant to be dirty. Dark, unsavoury, and dirty.

Certainly, if you can get over the initial parts with Kurosawa's vulgar, no-nonsense toilet exploits, then you may well enjoy this manga. Honestly, I'm glad that I did continue reading. It may not be one of my favourite series ever, but for a teenage tale with a twist, it was quite impressive. So if you have some spare time, it's only four volumes long, why not give it a go.

Naruto Filler is Getting Worse

Several months ago, I wrote a post on the filler episodes in Naruto. In particular I was praising Shippuuden for at least attempting to link its filler with the story, as well as voicing concerns about the "Tales of Days Past" standalone episodes. To quote myself:

"It remains to be seen how the filler situation in Shippuuden will continue. I can, however, say with some confidence that if the crappy "comedy" episodes stick around, then any vague good that the earlier plot-relevant filler arcs did, will soon be overshadowed by the poor quality fluff currently halting the main narrative's progression."

Sadly, the above seems to have come to pass as following an all too short run of actual plot (a meager 25 episodes, of which several contained flashbacks of previous content), we were thrown back into more mundane fluff. This time, instead of recalling memories of the past, the premise for each standalone story in the twenty episode run is Naruto encountering someone or something during his painfully long sea voyage to the Lightning Country. Initially, it's bearable. OK, catching a giant swordfish is a brainless distraction but whatever, it's only one episode. Unfortunately, the "only one episode" delusion doesn't last for long, and soon you want the torture to end - JUST GET OFF THE GODDAMN BOAT ALREADY! It's Frodo shitting in the woods all over again.

Even the "comedy" elements lose their charm rapidly; there are only so many times you can see the "Oh Gai is seasick, how HI-LAAAAAR-IOUS!" gag before you wish they'd just give up and toss him overboard to see how he fares with the sharks. 

I'm somewhat behind with the anime and still attempting to trudge my way through the inane drivel that's currently gracing my screen, and with each twenty-four minutes of my life that ebbs away watching Naruto get poisoned by mushrooms, fight his own clones, or get into a battle over marriage, I feel less and less inclined to start the next installment. Frankly, the only thing keeping me going is the eventual promise of plot, and GOOD plot at that. It's a genuine shame that the fluff has descended to this level, when it was at least tolerable before - since it's now making me dread the next time that the story takes a break and I'm wedged back into this crap-padded cell known as filler. For now, I'll just have to soldier on and hold onto the tiny ray of light that is a semi-humourous moment that raises a smile and doesn't involve Gai vomiting over the side of the ship or practically dry-humping solid ground every time they dock for supplies.

Fun With Poo

Yes, dear reader, you did read that title correctly and fair warning, this post will likely be crude. If you think that this may offend you, then please don't read, as it could get a little gross. However, this whole thing is a bit of fun (with a serious point hidden away somewhere) and well, forgive me, but this was composed at 2am when it all seemed like such a brilliant idea.

It all stemmed from a conversation I had several months ago discussing shounen manga, specifically the big three (One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach). Then at one point I came up with an analogy to highlight how the three mangaka often appear to work... through poo. I suggested that if each of the trio were told to incorporate a turd into their work it could go as follows:

One Piece (Eiichiro Oda) - I could imagine the introduction of a character that had eaten the Poo Poo Devil Fruit, which gave the user the ability to turn his entire body to poo, and shoot small (but deadly) fecal projectiles from it's hands. Upon more thought I could also imagine a running gag of this guy slipping over when in turd-form since... well... it can be slippy. Naruto (Masashi Kishimoto) - I'd say that in a story that's generally more serious, this would likely be a little light relief, and would be a "gag jutsu", much like Naruto's Sexy Harem or the Thousand Years of Pain. The Poo-poo no Jutsu, a powerful technique that causes the unfortunate victim to develop sudden, volitile diarrhea. Bleach (Tite Kubo) - My thoughts on what Kubo would do with a turd, was quite simple. I suggested that he would simply dress the poo in sunglasses and make it look cool.

It may seem like a throwaway idea, but in essence it displays how I see the way that the three mangakas work. Oda's One Piece has much more of a humour content than the other two, thus I can imagine that if presented with a ridiculous inclusion like this, he could use it as a starting block for something bigger, maybe a mini arc or something. Oda can take the ridiculous and make it sublimely ridiculous. Kishimoto also has that sense of fun at times, but Naruto is a much more serious story. That said, he does manage to infuse moments of levity some of which that are crude and in your face, so the inclusion of something so gross could be done without affecting the gravity of the main plotline. Finally, when it comes to Kubo, while he does have some moments of decent storytelling, it always comes across to me that he's more concerned with the style of Bleach rather than its actual content. It seems, moreso than the other two series, that it wants to look cool. It has the cool character designs, the stylised fights, and while it contains some humour, it's not on the same, almost puerile level, of the other two. So while claiming that he'd simply have a turd in sunglasses may seem like a cop-out answer (and in truth I couldn't see him ACTUALLY doing that if presented with this challenge), it symbolises more the approach I believe he'd take. Somehow, he'd find a way to make a steaming lump of faeces look cool, which when you think about it, is quite an impressive talent.

Monthly Round-up: January

First up I have an apology to make for the severe lack of posts this month. There's little good excuse and I've certainly failed hardcore at the "Blog more" resolution I made. 

Initially I had planned to do a weekly round-up of what I've been watching and reading, but thanks to my (possibly unhealthy) addiction to Skyrim, before I knew it I'd already missed the first two weeks. So, I decided to do a monthly one instead. At the moment I'm not entirely sure how these posts will go, and they may well morph into something completely different, but we'll see how it goes. I'm also hoping that by keeping a record of what I've watched/read this year, my next 12 Days of Christmas post may be a little easier, since last year I forgot what I'd seen in 2011 and what I'd watched before!

Anime I've Watched:

• Arrietty - I've barely watched any anime this month, but it felt quite fitting that my first of the year was a Ghibli film, and the latest one at that! Thoroughly enjoyed it, though wasn't quite as blown away as I had expected to be. Still loved it nonetheless.
• Morita-san wa Mukuchi 2 - I finally finished off the last episode of this, and while it's harmless enough, I'm kind of glad it's over. I was definitely getting more and more bored throughout the series' run.

Ongoing Anime I've Watched

• Chibi Devi

Manga I've Read:

• Vinland Saga - From starting at volume four, I've now managed to get up to date on this, and damn it's good! It's definitely very tough going to reading it as it's scanlated.
• Black Paradox - The final two chapters of this were finally scanlated, so I managed to finish it off, and even by Junji Ito's standards, it's bloody weird!Definitely not my favourite of his works so far, but it won't put me off reading any more.
• Faster Than A Kiss - Another of the 25 Days manga that I wanted to get up to date on. Quite enjoy it, though at one point I found it a bit repetitive. It definitely got more interesting when it started delving into Kazuma's past and his relationship with his family.
• Black Bird - Again, a 25 Days request that I wanted to get up to date on. Still really enjoying this one, especially since while it has all the shoujo romance, it also has a fair bit about the politics of the youkai clans, which for me gives this series an extra edge.
• All Rounder Meguru - Now up to date on this 25 Days manga. Still enjoying this one. I must say I remain surprised at how much I've enjoyed the mixed martial arts manga I've read. I assumed my love for HSDK was mainly due to the humour of the Masters (which it is) but I think there's also some inherent part of me that enjoys the combat side.
• Nichijou - Started and read all that's translated of this. I've certainly gained more of a fondness for Nichijou than when I first started the anime. No longer bored by it and find it quite amusing.
• Hanamaru Youchien - Another series I picked up and have read all that has been translated. Just as cute as the anime, shame that not more of it is available to read.

Ongoing Manga I've Read:

• Bleach
• Naruto
• One Piece
• Beelzebub
• Bakuman
• Fairy Tail
• Ao no Exorcist
• Mononoke
• Kill Me Baby
• Otoyomegatari
• History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi (Resolution Manga - currently 262 chapters to go til up to date)

 As you can see from the above list, I've been shockingly poor with anime this month - something that I'm working on this month as I still haven't finished most of the Fall season, and I owe a post on my final thoughts, with luck that should be coming soon, alongside a post on whatever Winter titles I eventually pick up.

Nerdy New Years Resolutions

First of all I'd like to wish everyone out there a very happy new year! I hope that 2012 will be made of awesome for all of you.

In the past I always used to make New Years Resolutions that were pretty damn easy to keep and while I used to be good at it, in the last couple of years I've failed miserably to fulfil them. This year however, I now have a blog and with various different anime and manga related things I wish to do, I figured that maybe by posting my resolutions here and potentially blogging about them, it might actually help me stick to them. So here we go, lets see how many I actually manage to stick to!

Anime:

• Finish series one of Gintama and start series 2.
• Re-start and then finish Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn.
• Make a sizeable dent in the backlog of Detective Conan I still have to watch. I'm not going to say get up to date because I'm still 400+ episodes behind.

Manga:

• Get up to date on History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. I'm well over 300 chapters behind.
• Get up to date on Toriko.
• Get up to date with Medaka Box.

Blog:

• Blog more than I have been in the previous few months. With 25 Days of Manga and 12 Days of Christmas I proved that I am capable of regularly updating, so I aim to try and keep some of this momentum going and maybe aim for 2-3 posts a week.
• Finally get my series of posts on youkai up and running. I've had the ideas plotted out in my head for a while, just need to actually get to doing them.
• Re-watch both Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullemtal Alchemist: Brotherhood and blog about them.