(anime babble)

[reenka]

I started off making a list of my favorite anime to prove to malafede I wasn't just into shmoopy shoujo, but then I realized I had to post it 'cause it was simply taking so long to come up with every title & comment & stuff. I imagine no one really cares, but if anyone was like, 'hmmm I wonder what anime Reena's into so that I can go out and watch', 'cause you're just that bored, well, hey. Who am I to deprive you?

I've always loved fantasy & romance & adventure, and those are my favorite genres of anything. So my favorite anime are......


- Please Save My Earth - my adoration for this has no limits. NO LIMITS. I am so in love with Shion & Rin it's embarrassing, rather. I am in love with the world & the themes & did I mention little!Shion? Because I adore him. And the idea of their powers and how they are all interconnected and Alice/Mokuren.... Alice. There's a lot of me in Alice. I think she's the closest to what I see myself as that I've ever seen in anime -or- fiction. But then, I don't think what I see myself as is all that similar to what other people see me as. But anyway, PSME = <3333333333333333333

I love psionic stories, and I love growing-up stories, and I love love-stories and star-crossed predestination may not be realistic but it makes for great fairy-tales. It's probably got my favorite plot out of any anime, hands down and no contest. And probably one of my favorite all-time plots/themes.

- Hana Yori Dango - yeah, okay, fine. Romantic comedy. But not quite... not all comedy-- more like dramedy. It's my favorite pure shoujo of all time. I can't stand stuff like Marmalade Boy (though I watch it), and HYD doesn't have that much in common with the Meg Ryan movie thing. Heh. I don't particularly like schmoop, just comedy & romance, yeah. Oh and Tsukasa <3333333333333333 And yeah I kind of identify with Tsukushi, moreso than with any other shoujo heroine.

The thing I adore about HYD is the style (in the anime), too-- just how different it is. And the mood-- all the faded colors and the piano music and.... god I love that English-boarding-school look and the blatant nostalgia. If an anime has blatant nostalgic themes, I'll prolly adore it.

But really, this sort of romance is my favorite. Feisty/indomitable yet positive female and arrogant/broody yet secretly sensitive male-- omg I am a total sucker for that. She slowly 'reforms' him and in the end, he's kinda wrapped around her little finger. I think it's just not very feminist of me, but that was my formative relationship so I think I'm doomed to be fascinated now.

I don't think it's sappy though. HYD isn't sappy and my own ideal of it isn't sappy... it's just intense. Two personalities at war, that's what gets me. Complete opposites who challenge each other and need each other and... just, their personal growth being a result of knowing each other. Wah.

...And yeah, I could never see what the big deal was with Utena. Just. Not my thing (which is weird since it's all fairy-talish & symbolic but... it didn't have that heart I usually cling to).

- Kodomo no Omocha - I love Hayama. That is what it comes down to. I don't just -love- him, I ADORE him. Yeah, I always love the (secretly angsty) smartass, yeah. He's like Rin, except like... even cuter. It's just physically impossible for me to resist him. If I ever had a child like him, he would totally get me to do anything he wants. It's kinda sad.

And again with the violent clash of personalities (Hayama & Sana). I love it when the girl starts out -hating- the guy and thinking he's a complete prick and intending to give him the what-for. A lot of guys so totally need that. And well, the arrogant poopy-heads need it even more. So yes, much with the happy.

Also, it's completely hilarious and a brilliant mix of flashes of drama in the middle of complete insanity. Sana is basically me when I'm on a lot of crack, and also if I was even remotely extraverted, heh.

- Fruits Basket - OMG THE SHEER ADORATION. I mean, Kyou (must love the angsty smartass!!), yeah, but... it's like mind-candy to me. I dunno, it just is. Also the idea is really cute and the theme of beauty's redemption of the 'beast' usually gets me no matter what angle you have. And all the characters are so... distinctive and archetypal and the girl characters are just as interesting as the boys (if you don't count Tohru-- but I don't really mind Tohru like some people do).

- Anything by CLAMP except CCS, which freaked me out with the first ep I watched-- no, seriously, it really did! - mostly I'm still stuck on RG Veda, which was so beautiful I tingle just thinking about it. Mmmmmmmmm. RG Veda-style anime is my crack. So pretty. So pretty it -kills- me, kills me dead.

I like X, too, but I still haven't watched the whole series, 'cause I'm bad. But I still like the themes of Tokyo Babylon & RG Veda more, 'cause I was never into the apocalypse stories much.

RG Veda was one of the first anime tapes I owned. I'm all sentimental about it, clearly. But CLAMP's more complex style is still my favorite, no contest, all this time later. ...This is probably why I actually watched all of Rayearth -.-

- The Vision of Escaflowne - Well, the whole other-world thing. And Van-- is my type (...I have a feeling people will start making fun of me any moment). But anyway, I liked how understated the Van/Hitomi thing was, and I definitely like Hitomi more than any other girl in a fantasy anime with a heroine at the center. Plus. Wings!! No, seriously. That's a big, big huge plus :D

And the plot was rather good. I was actually interested. I didn't mind the mechas 'cause it was character-driven. Overall, it was really good except for the ending, which was understandable too. I really liked the movie, too (which I felt had a much better ending). And the music. The character designs weren't -too- bad, especially in the movie of course.

- The Song of the Wind and Trees - This is my favorite shounen ai, and one of my all-time favorite anime... and I feel this probably says a lot (too much?) about me. It's all over-the-top angst and pain and tragedy, but in a different way than say, Bronze. Maybe I just have a kink about boarding school boys and hero-types falling for hopeless degenerate tramps (okay, I know I do). I think that one moan in their kiss scene was sexier than any other shounen ai sex scene I've seen-- and that includes all the graphic sex stuff.

Well, again, I'm a sucker for nostalgia and boys in hopeless love. Heee, with each other!!

- The Legend of Basara - I love this, though I actually haven't seen the last few episodes. The Legend of Basara is prolly the only anime I'd seriously consider reading as a manga, 'cause it prolly has one of my all-time favorite plots, and a female character I can get behind a 100%, without any need for me to pine over the male leads or whatever. Though of course I love the angry-yet-angsty Red King. The whole thing is right up my alley with the legend-of-the-savior and the girl-heroine and the cross-dressing and misunderstandings and pretty villains and just-- everything. The whole apocalypse thing doesn't apply, since I only dislike pre-apocalypse, not post-apocalypse, heheh.

- Angel Sanctuary - ahhh, the pretty! Boys with wings! And! Forbidden love (aahhhhh kink)! And! The fight against death & evil angels and! And! The slashiness, OMG! *dead*

It's so sad that it's only an OVA. So sad.

- Kare Kano - I don't love it, but I really like it. It seems to get better on rewatching. I think the characterizations are really good and not in a squeeing OMG I LOVE THEM sort of way, which is refreshing in a way. I don't squeal in utter fangirl adoration but instead of watch their story unfold. It's kind of quirky and sad and just, a mixture of everything. Though sometimes the silliness really doesn't work for me.

The style-- with all the still-frames-- is really interesting, too.

- Fushigi Yuugi - shut up. Just. SHUT UP! I know it's lame. But that was what started my shoujo madness, so now I'm sentimental.

It actually got really boring by the end, and I skimmed the last few eps madly. Actually, the whole second half was boring. I really liked it when it was that stupid will-he-won't-he angst with Tamahome (SHUT UP) and the whole introduction of the world and the concept. I'm a sucker for the whole escape-into-the-world-inside-the-book scenario (Neverending Story is like, my favorite movie EVAR, and I feel like if you really understand why, then you know everything important about me just like that), though not to the point where I think much of Magic Knight Rayearth is any good (though clearly, I watched it anyway).

I always thought I -should- get into Ayashi No Ceres, but really that was going too far with the melodrama and the-boy-you-can-never-have-because-he-doesn't-exist-except-to-serve-you-in-your-hour-of-need. Though actually, the storyline is much more up my alley, 'cause I love the fairy-tale.

- Vampire Princess Miyu - yeah, I'm predictable. Creepy (but not horrific) fantasy, well-animated, and with an ambiguous melancholy romance at the center. I wish there was more of it. `Mermaid Scar' prolly goes into this category too.

- Robot Carnival - I have such great memories of it... it was one of my first anime experiences. And I still think there's not much in its genre that tops it (not much in its genre, period, of course). All of the pieces are so completely brilliant and vivid and haunting, especially the robot who became a boy, and that piece with the inventor who fell in love with his robot. It's just completely beautiful.

- Iria: Zeiram the Animation - this is probably the best-drawn sci-fi OVA of all time. Heheh well, I think so, anyway. I adore the animation & background world-building of this to pieces. I mean, the plot is kinda 'eh', but the backdrop is brilliant, and the animation is delicious. Plus I really like Iria and her little sidekick. The style is unique and imaginative as hell and I just enjoy watching it a lot. You can pretty much get me to watch anything if it's pretty enough, clearly. Not that I mind sci-fi thrillers (must stay true to my roots, all that).

- RahXephon - really beautifully animated, and I like the story (though I still haven't finished it). I usually actually like mecha shows when they have a philosophical twist... in the beginning, I watched a lot of robot sci-fi anime (and liked it). Like, I think I have all three tapes of Armitage. Ahahah not many shoujo fangirls can say that, right. Plus I watched all of Bubblegum Crisis and enjoyed it. *flashes geek credentials*

- Tank Police - AHAHAHAHAH. Yeah, I like that sort of humor. Just thinking of the mini-tank and the huge inflatable penises makes me laugh.
~~

Oh, and all you peeps who wanted the daily-writing community?

Here it is: scribble_daily
~~

EDIT - Omg, joosetta's latest H/D pic is just so yummy..!..!! Aaahhhh, the -Draco- and their -hands- and, and.... 'spretty, mmmyes. Though this one scores for super-hotness. Because. Tongue fetish, me? Nooo.
    *sigh* And then there's sherant's mirror!wank, which is just. Yeah.

Comments

[malafede.livejournal.com]

I am in a rush like you wouldn't imagine, but your list is a go! I approve.

Please Save My Earth is one of my favourites of all times too, except my favourite character was for some reason Jinpachi. I need to stop myself from commenting on Hana Yori Dango, but: feisty/indomitable yet positive female and arrogant/broody yet secretly sensitive male dude, I so blah the feisty.

I'll add more later! And Angel Sanctuary! Ahahahaha. The writing is so hysterical at times and yet there's Katoh. And Rociel. And one can always vent a lot of spleen by spitting venom at Kira and his mullet.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Oh, I read your post more carefully, and your list is no longer a go. This makes me sad. I think... it's kinks clashing, though my total amusement at stuff like Hana Yori Dango isn't due to squick or anything. It think it's just that bad. Like telenovelas, only worse. I mean, the Fab Four? What? I think we spent a night laughing just at that concept. Oh, of course it gives me rage against the system the fact that it's published and successful in Italy whereas the really good stuff like The Song of the Wind and Trees isn't because it doesn't have the mass-appeal.

I also realised you are talking about anime, and anime... are basically always inferior unless you're talking Utena. Which I don't really think lacks a heart, more like lacks melodrama. You should read the manga for: Please Save My Earth, Fruits Basket (though I sort of read it for a lark and the gay and Shigure, and Tohru is retarded), CLAMP especially (how can you go without their art and writing if you liked the anime?) and Angel Sanctuary BECAUSE THE ANIME IS CRAP AND OFFENSIVE. Kaori Yuki is a slave of her own kinks, and her long plots (...plots) hurt my brain, but she does well with character building sometimes and short stories.

oh, forgot half of it

[malafede.livejournal.com]

What freaked you about CCS? RGVeda has pretty art (I could bring the artbook they published last year when I come over, or was that two years ago?) but I only really cared for some characters, which weren't the main characters. Ryu, Soma, Kujaku, Kendappa and Taishaku-ten. X is good for the aestheticism, it's a divertissment on the tropes and an exercise in building an epic, I think. Oh, yeah, and an excuse for the gay. Fuuma/Kamui so hot. But Clover is their best work I think. And guess what? It's unfinished. Rayearth = ahahaha.

I watched Kare Kano for a while because of Hideaki Anno... that, and it made me piss my pants with laughter. Then it became all diet-angst and romantic trite yet pretentious crap and I was like - oh, not you too. I have a friend who really likes Kodomo no Omocha - she says the portrayal of childhood is really realistic and well-written. I have only one thing to say about Fushigi Yugi: Suboshi/Amiboshi. The rest of it is all nebulous (though I was one of the few Miaka fans around, I hear).

Re: oh, forgot half of it

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Hehehe I think I just like 'traditional' romance waaaaay more than you do :> So yeah, kinks :>
CCS... well.... Sakura (she's like Tohru except younger, more saccharine and more bouncy... *shudder*)... Tomoyo or whatever her name is just -scares- me with the cute/sweet stalkerishness... the little lion-type creature-- I just generally dislike talking sidekick animals.... Anyway, yeah, it's aimed at 11-year-old girls and I'm not exactly its target audience. I don't like Sailor Moon, either, but I'd like it less if Sailor Moon looked 9 instead of 14 or whatever. Happy shiny sweet 9-year-old girls scare me. Actually, I think a lot of it's the character designs. The huge angelic eyes coupled with the angelic expressions of childlike innocence. Yes, childlike innocence creeps me out, what can I say. Or something. o_0

I mean, I loved Kodocha, so it can't be that I can't watch shows about children. It's just... I think it explains everything 'cause I love Sana and can't stomach Sakura. They're both bubbly & sweet in their way, but Sana seems more like a real girl instead of a scary caricature. Mind you, I just saw one episode.

I don't like Kare Kano that much, heheh. Prolly about as much as I like FLCL, maybe a bit more :>
I have like, a really high tolerance for 'romantic trite' crap :> Not as high as some people, of course :>

Re: oh, forgot half of it

[malafede.livejournal.com]

I will never shit on Sailor Moon because I think it was great what it said about compassion.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Heheh I was just trying to prove I'm not -just- into shoujo ^^;;;
I don't tend to read manga for -anything- (though I'm really tempted with Clover-- sounds really good). Y'know how people have issues with anime 'style'? I have issues with manga 'style', plus it's a lot of trouble to find/get since my neighborhood comics store doesn't really carry it so I'm not really exposed to it. Plus it comes out in tankabans which is a bit confusing, on so-so quality paper-- and it's black and white. I realize it's a sign of l33tness to read b&w comics, but for me the color & movement & music is a large part of what attracts me to anime.

I mean, I love comics, but I have issues really following ones that don't come out in graphic novel form, and a lot of what attracts me to art -period- is color. My sense of color is very primary, and often times even dominates my sense of story-- so I really dug Neil Gaiman's collaboration with Alice Cooper halfway for Neil but halfway just for Chris Bachalo's coloring. I just have weird preferences when it comes to comic art-- and artbooks are a) very expensive & b) hard to come by just by browsing. If I could, I'd prolly have oodles of artbooks (partly 'cause they're colored).

So yeah, I know everyone says 'the manga is better', but I mean, for me, the color/sound/movement really makes up for a lot, and anyway ignorance is bliss :>

I don't really care about the peripheral/non-central characters like -ever-, so I didn't care about the Fab Four or anyone but Tsukushi & Tsukasa. And Tsukasa really is my type (one of). Sad but true. I'm really a sucker for a lot of the stereotypical romance cliches, yeah, I know that. I did say that it was my favorite -shoujo-. It's very much within a genre, and I think anyone not into the genre wouldn't like it :> Though I'm likely to dislike shmoopy things like Marmalade Boy while tolerating melodramatic things 'cause they hook me. And no, I don't watch soaps or read epic quest novels.

I liked the Angel Sanctuary OVA 'cause... it was enough to make me interested, y'know. I know that the manga is much more in-depth/complex, but fact remains I don't -read- manga ><;; At all.

I have read scanlations of HYD because I was desperate to have the story end better than it did in the anime, but that's my only experience, really. I kind of enjoyed the HYD manga, but nowhere near as much as I liked the anime. And that really is weird 'cause I adore comics as a genre. It's just, some central things about manga style are really different from American-type comics, y'know-- in art, style, writing & distribution (as well as availability-- 'cause I could just -rent- anime from almost any video store).

Utena-- I think if I watched more of it, I could grow to actively dislike it, and I dunno why, even. Its symbolism just rubs me the wrong way, and since I'm particularly sensitive to symbolism-- yeah. I dunno. Also, the humor/silly bits weren't amusing to me :/

[malafede.livejournal.com]

I think one must have a love for the surreal to dig Utena. Which I have. There's the study on the ego (self/other issues all over the place - dude, the incest) and subversion of unpopular character tropes (I LOVE Nanami) and well, all the stuff about gnosticism and revolution. Revolution is like, my way of life. It's meta in its commentary and sometimes parody and sometimes aestherizisation (?) of shoujo formulas. Dude, Utena has tons of meta.

Besides that, it's a coming of age story in the sense of becoming adult enough to stop hiding inside yourself and facing the world outside. I actually cry everytime I listen to Rinbu:

I will go on living bravely and heroically
Even if the two of us become separate...
Take my revolution.

(bold because it's that important)

(I think the song applies to Miki and Kaoru too, which makes me a puddle of go. Distortion of distortion = reality. Broke that shell, Miki, you idiot!)

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I do have a love for the surreal... I mean... surreal is just a type of fantasy, and I dig nearly all fantasy, heh.
I think it's Utena's particular brand of overt meta that bothers me. Like... in general, I prefer not to -have- to focus on a story's 'theme', y'know... at least in some cases. Sometimes a story or movie or what have you is obviously a metaphor or is deeply symbolic, but I want to get that out of the story myself, kinda, rather than having it shoved at me. Perhaps it's because Utena's ideals just... seemed construed and put there instead of natural.

Mind you, watched less than 10 episodes... or at least, not much more than. I remember all that stuff about The Revolution... and mind you, I love the -idea- of revolution (especially when it's in cheesy 80s High School movies, but that's another story). But when it was just introduced, I was more confused than anything else. I was like, whuh--? I think that's where the surreal comes in, because it's not -supposed- to 'make sense', necessarily, yeah, okay, but Lain (and say, even Kodocha) is surreal too-- just in a different way. Any heavily stylized piece is going to be somewhat surreal-- it depends how deep the affectation goes, for me.

I perceived the 'style' as affectation too many times in Utena-- all the ceremony and grand pronouncements and thick symbolism seemed almost -too obvious-. I think that was the problem, for me-- I found it both too obvious and rather obscure (in terms of its stylization) in an uncomfortable way. By 'heart' I tend to mean, the meat-and-bone of a story that has to exist there, completely apart from meta. The meta can only work for me as an added layer, not the primary one; but then, whereas you -look- for ethos, I actually want all overt ethics/ideals to go away-- to be subtle. If I can -tell- what a story is saying for certain, I'm likely to feel spoon-fed and patronized as a viewer. I find such things too didactic and not subtle enough.

I love meta and shoujo both, obviously, but I can only bond with a story if it worms its way into my heart regardless of formula, so to some extent it must be opaque to me-- even as it can be self-referential, it must simultaneously be a -real story- happening in real time for me to care. I dunno, it's hard to explain. My issues with Utena have much to do with how I like my meta :>

I want to come up with 'the point' independently, near the end-- I want to have the story lead me along without me ever realizing it 100%. Otherwise it's more of a curiosity, for me-- some sort of overly high-minded philosophical treatise with no life to it. In the end, Story must retain primacy over Theory for me to enjoy it. Basically, it should work on both levels, but it's more important that it work as a narrative. And just being surreal doesn't change that-- because say, Alice in Wonderland is both surreal and meta, but it retains that primacy of Story thus it works for me.

But I think this returns to the fact that I'd rather not have to analyze/think about things as I watch them, not -consciously-. I don't generally think about 'themes', I just -feel- them. Utena felt very cerebral to me, which is why I said that about 'heart'. Cerebral is anything that forces me to think, heheh. Serial Experiments Lain was kind of on the borderline of how blatant I want my theory to be in things-- I think it was still 'story' driven, but the 'theory' was -very- very near the surface to the point where I couldn't fully enjoy it.

And to me, it doesn't matter whether or not I enjoy or agree with the ideals at hand, too. That's prolly why I can watch cliche romance in the first place-- I enjoy it on a very gut level-- I pretty much enjoy -everything- on a very gut level: it's only afterwards that I analyze. Utena just messes with my process, I think.

*cries*

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Break that shell.

Man, I want to catch you on aim.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Breaking shells is... positive......? Yet cryptic.

Also, I'm awake, but this isn't necessarily good since it's 7:30am & I haven't gone to sleep yet o_0