Decisions, Decisions

So I'm having that problem. I have so much anime I want to watch, probably over 100, and I don't know what I should watch next. I've made a list of what I'd like to watch next, but I don't know which one to go with, so I'm asking for a little advise.

SO, here's the list:


Vampire Knight
Utena
The Twelve Kingdoms
Saiunkoku Monogatai 2
Code Geass
Seitokai no Ichizon
07-Ghost
Tears to Tiara
Valkyria Chronicles
Dual Parallel Trouble Adventure
Durarara!!
Earl and Fairy
ef-a tale of memories
Full Moon wo Sagashite
Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de- Hachiyoushou
Meine Liebe
Our Home's Fox Deity
Toradora!
Maiden Rose
Tactics
Boys Be
Enzai
Fuyu no Semi
Haru wo Daite Ita
Uragirl wa Boku no Namae O Shitteiru
The World God Only Knows
Air
Angel Beats!
Hetalia
Ore no Imouto
Princess Princess
Skip Beat
Kaichou wa Maid-sama
Kannon
Kuroko no Basket
Loveless

Anyone have a suggestion out of the choices above? If you'd like to go based on what I've already seen or recommend something else, this is what I've seen so far: Tayjena's watched list.

Any help is gratefully appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

And the First Year goes by

I just realized that today is May 1st and looking through my posts discover that yesterday was this blogs first anniversary. I really can't believe it's been a year since I started this already. It doesn't feel like it. Mainly because in this first year I haven't been able to blog as much as I would have liked to. Real life kinda got in my way a lot starting around last June. Thinking up topics to write about, was also a problem, since I don't do well with reviews and don't really want to do editorials. I just want to share my thoughts on anime, and sometimes, other things get in way of me thinking about anime.

At one point I had a bubble chart of topics I wanted to write about, unfortunately I lost the chart. Which in it's own way is alright, as I don't know if I would have every really had something to write about in those topics I picked.

But since this is an anime blog and it has been a year, I just decided as I'm sitting on the porch writing this to share the anime I've finished watching in this last year. And those are:

Ai no Kusabi (2012) - although this only consists of 4 episodes so far, I do hope for more.
Angelique - as much as I could find with subtitles and including through Neo Angelique Abyss
Azumanga Daioh
Clannad
Clannad After Story
High School of the Dead
Howl's Moving Castle
Ikoku Irokoi Romantan
Junjou Romantica 1, 2 and Ova
Lucky Star
Miracle Train
Okane ga Nai
Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi 1,2 and Ova
Shuffle!
Tenchi in Tokyo - Because I was never that into Tenchi when it first came out. Man, how the years can change your thoughts
The Secret World of Arriety
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle 1,2, and all Ovas
xxxholic

(All links go to Anime Planet since I mostly use that site)

I think that's all the anime I saw for the first time this last year. I know most of these are older titles, I just hadn't gotten around to watching them before. And generally I don't like to watch something when it's popular just because it is and everyone is watching that. I usually enjoy those more after all the hype is over with.

Some things I've re watched this last year, include:

DMC - Detroit Metal City
E's Otherwise
Fruits Basket - If you read my last post you already know why
Fushigi Yugi
Gundam Wing - Because I'm working on some fanfiction based on it
Hand Maid May
High School of the dead - this is because my boyfriend is obsessed with this one
Howl's Moving Castle - I just can't get enough of this one
Magical Knight Rayearth
Orphen
Ouran High School Host Club
Ponyo
Princess Tutu - This one it because I got my little sister watching it
Rurouni Kenshin
Spirited Away
Trigun
X: the Movie

There's probably more, but those are the one's I remember right now.

Some that I intend to actually finish watching this year:

Ah! My Goddess
Bleach - I only have a little more of the anime to actually watch
Gakuen Heaven - I feel like I've been trying to finish this forever
Love Hina - I bought it at a convention I went to with Cat a couple years ago, I started it... I should really finish it
Ranma 1/2 - Argh, I'm so close, I need to stop falling asleep while watching it
Starry Sky

And that's my watching list right now.

I won't even go into my want to watch list, as right now that includes some ninety anime and is always growing.

So in closing that's my year in review, as far as anime is concerned, and as much as I can remember. It really doesn't feel like I watched that much. And in truth it's not nearly as much as I want to watch in a year. Ah well, just means I need to try harder this year.

Until next time.

Bonds over Fruits Basket

So I spent the last few days watching Tsubasa: ReservoirChronicles and xxxholic. Then started reading the manga, a little backwards I know, but I was sick and his seemed to make more sense at the time. But that's neither here nor there. While watching these two I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to watch Fruits Basket. So last night I pulled it out and set up my laptop to play it. As soon as I heard the opening song, I instantly smiled, but it wasn't actually the anime that made me smile. While it played, I thought of my friend Cat and just how much I miss her, and why Fruits Basket is so special to us.

Here's the thing you have to understand about Cat and me, we've been friends for quite a while and we use to be neighbors. But even though we were neighbors for a while, it was actually a few years before her and I became friends. See, her brother and my sister were in the same grade and hung out quite a bit, but it wasn't until her mom came over to talk to my mom about something that we (Cat and I) finally met. She came into get her mom because they needed to go somewhere, and I distracted her with my Fushigi Yuugi manga. Haha! Then the two of us talked about other anime and soon started hanging about and realized there were more things that we were both interested in – namely  Johnny Depp, after all this was right after the first Pirates of the Caribbean had come out and we’re both completely obsessed with him.  

But getting back to what I was saying, Cat and I have a very interesting friendship. Now Fruits Basket was by no means the first anime we watched together, but it was definitely a very important one in our friendship. We initially started watching it at an anime club at the university here, and we both just fell in love with it. I think part of it was because it was the first anime we watched together that we both weren't fighting/drooling over the same character, as is what happened with Bastard’s Dark Schneider, she loves Kyo and I absolutely adore Yuki. But I think it goes a little deeper than that, at least for me. Now in my circle of friends I always felt like the outsider, like I was just there to fill make a circle but never really part of the group. And so the part in Fruits Basket when Tohru is remembering a game the children use to play, a game called Fruits Basket, where she was labeled the rice ball and no one called her to come play, that was how I felt. With Cat it was like, I had always been the ‘rice ball’ and someone had finally called for me to come play as well.

Now I’m not saying my other friends are any less important and I hope none of them take offense, and I love them all, Cat is just like another half of me. And I know that even though she’s thousands of miles away right now, when I see her this summer, I know we’ll pick up exactly where we left off like she’d been here all the time.

Fruits Basket just symbolizes our friendship for me and makes me so happy to finally have friends where I feel I belong.

The two of us even did something a little strange. We had both decided we wanted to buy the anime, but as both of us were struggling at the time, her a poor college student and me getting my first apartment, we decided to just buy one copy and shared it between the two of us. She kept two volumes and I kept two, she got volumes 1 and 3, which worked out since 3 had Kyo on the front, and I got 2 and 4 which also worked since the cover of volume 2 had Yuki on it. It couldn't have been more perfect. Since we generally didn't want to separate the series and we always watched it together, we took turns holding on to the whole series. Then after a while, we finished both of our series by buying a box set and splitting it between the two of us, with each of us now taking turns keeping the box.

 

So all and all, Fruits Basket, it just made me really happy to watch it and reminisce about my friend Cat. Maybe I’ll prepare a fruits basket with some rice balls for when she come home. If you don’t get it, check out Fruits Baskets to get the reference.

Until next time.  

Impractical Packing - Not Bring Anime!?

So one of my best friends and fellow anime addicts is coming home for the summer, and I had to convince her that she couldn't pack all her anime or manga to bring with her. It was hard to do, she's as bad as I am. Had to remind her that I have just as much as she does and most of her favorites are my favorites and that we have roughly the same ones, give or take a few. It's not the same as having her own copy easily accessible but at least it cut her list down. Also there was reminding her that she did need to bring clothes and hygiene things with her as well. Because where I might find it funny that she was naked for a month and a half with only her books and manga, most others may not have gotten the humor.

Still I had to think about if I were in her shoes. Visiting somewhere for a month and a half without my collection. It's absolutely horrible to think about. Not being about to put on my favorite anime, or that random one that just popped into my head for no reason, or maybe just one specific episode because it would make me feel better. And how about not being able to walk over to the bookshelf and pick up that one manga I've already read seven times, but for some reason I decided I wanted to read it once more.

The thought nearly killed me.

How on earth would I do it? Even if I was visiting someone that had them too?

It just wouldn't be the same as having mine sitting there just waiting for that moment I decide I want it. There's the hassle of getting a hold of the other person, then hoping they trust me enough to let me borrow it (not that when it comes to anime or manga that's a worry anyone needs to have with me), then having to give it back again within that time before I go back.

Still logic dictates that taking my entire collection anywhere with me unless I'm moving isn't practical. I just hope that when it's me taking a vacation she's there for me to remind me of this as I have a feeling I may forget it just as she did and need some convincing help to not pack that bag full of books and remember some clothes. At least one days worth. Haha.