Sara’s Anime Picks

Sara E.M. — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 23:17:47 +0000

My American beau and his family are celebrating Thanksgiving (I'm still in Canader), so I thought I'd write a light-hearted post. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I rarely watch anime anymore, so there are plenty of series I haven't watched, but I thought I'd write about some of my all-time favourites.

Itazura na Kiss

This 2008 anime is based on the 1991 shoujo manga series by Kaoru Tada. It's a romantic comedy about a highschool girl's fight to be with her crush, who is apparently waaay out of her league----she's in the bottom of their grade and he's the top of the class. It's a cute series, but sometimes it's hard to watch the fixation she has on the guy she loves----reminds me of how stupid I was in highschool!

Saikano (Saishuu Heiki Kanojo)

I haven't seen this series in a long time, but I remember really loving it. The art is adorable and if I remember correctly, the series is only 13 episodes long.

Fushigi Yuugi

This series has a special place for me because it's the first anime series I watched--sort of my gateway drug into anime. I think it was the first time I saw a girly heroine. The main character, Miaka, cares about boys, clothes, and all sorts of other "girly" things, but isn't stupid or completely useless. I'm a big fan of Yuu Watase's work; she combines shoujo themes with some pretty great action sequences. Although it's nice to have a very feminine main character at the center of a story, I wouldn't consider Miaka a terrific role model. She's completely obsessed with leading man, Tamahome, and has an unsettling fixation with eating (isn't being skinny but constantly obsessing with eating large quantities of food a warning sign for a eating disorder?). Also, I'm not comfortable with the main premise of the story----since Miaka is the Priestess of Suzaku importance is placed on her remaining a virgin to satisfy the god of Suzaku. And so, it was nice to be exposed to a girly main character back when I was still a tomboy, but the series isn't exactly an example of a story that empowers women.

Ayashi no Ceres

Another Yuu Watase series, but this time, there is an element of critique towards the impossibly high standards when it comes to the portrayal of love and relationships in storytelling. A lot is said about the treatment of women in what the series has to say about masculinity.

Rurouni Kenshin

This shounen series is another one of my "firsts". This series has some of the most beautiful fight sequences in anime (although they can be frequently interrupted with monologues). Kenshin is a great character and the series has a nice story. It's a bit long at 95 episodes, but to be honest, I lost interest in the mid 60s when the the first story arc ends and then stops following the plot of the manga. There's a weird second arc about some lame Christian character----he's not lame because he's Christian but because he's sort of another Battousai, like Kenshin, and is trained in the same style; this was pretty much the key plot point of the first story arc with Kenshin's nemesis Shishiwhatever-zombieman. Dudeman, if you're a Kenshin fan don't send me angry emails----you know just as well as I do that long-haired crucifix man is boring and redundant.

Lovely Complex

This series is just adorable and hilarious and you should watch it!

Peach Girl

I loved this series----OH NO WAIT, I forgot...I hated hated hated this series. This series is frustrating horrible fluff. Horrible fluffy CRACK. I don't know why I couldn't stop watching and ended up seeing the entire series. The ending made me hate it even more. Arrrgh~! I dare you to watch all 25 episodes of crappyness. Look, Funimation offers an even more annoying version online----the entire series, translated into an annoying dub.

NANA

All girls need NANA. This is the motto of the series' website. This is absolutely my favourite series. Storytelling at its finest! The creator, Ai Yazawa, is a genius of character and plot development. It has a very honest feel about it. I find quite often that many anime series make an attempt to be meaningful and mature storytelling simply end up feeling pretentious. Either that, or they layer the plot with absurd amounts of symbolism so they can impress fans in a post-modernesque faux-academic manner. NANA doesn't pretend to be something it's not----anime, after all, is entertainment. But it entertains while presenting its situations and character interactions in a wonderfully believable manner. Yazawa has a knack for making you relate to her characters. With the incredibly successful manga still ongoing, the anime awaits a second season.

Anime I'm still planning on finishing:

When I do find time to watch some anime, I continue to watch Honey and Clover. I remember liking but not finishing Skip Beat and would really like to finish Paradise Kiss, another Yazawa title. If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave it in the comments.

Sara’s Room

Sara E.M. — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:20:22 +0000

Heeey~! Let’s write a post about things in my room I like! Okee! Hmm, what do we have? Yes, that green cat is Cringer from MotU (I no longer have his Battle Cat armor). Apparently, he’s guarding a few copies of Shojo Beat; I haven’t had a subscription this year because I never got around to reading them very often. Though, I do like scanning through them when I get stuck drawing and need some shoujo inspiration.

At the top of one of my little book piles is Hamlet. If I’m not mistaken, this copy is from my highschool days and somehow was never returned. I really like the binding–oh, and I like Hamlet…though I think I enjoy MacBeth more (Cyrano was my favourite). There’s some manga at the bottom of the pile; I don’t think I’ve read any of them. I like the artwork in Kamikaze but have no clue what the story is about. I have read some of the Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, but not lately. Wedged inbetween Kamikaze and my random copies of Secrets of Sorcerers is a Harry Potter book. I’ve actually only read the last two HP books (and by read I mean listen to Jim Dale read it to me). Now, here’s the really good stuff; my Carl Sagan books! Cosmos, Broca’s Brain, and The Varieties of Scientific Experience.

This book is definitely one of my favourites. It’s edited by Sagan’s widow, Ann Druyan, and contains his talks from the Gifford Lectures. The subtitle is “A Personal View of the Search for God”, but there’s plenty more here than just religious debate. I think Sagan explains nicely why science clashes with religious and spiritual beliefs so often, in a way that is really clear for those, like me, who have no background in science. I’m reading and listening to a few of Sagan’s books so I tend to mix up what I’ve read from which book, but what I love about Sagan is how he can explain science topics simply while still sounding ‘magical’. I think that’s what some people find missing when listening to many scientists talk; it can seem dry or cold…like there’s no emotion involved in their work. Sagan talks about nature in the same sort of poetic way that new age gurus try too. If you’ve ever heard someone say, in response to science, that they just want to believe that “there has to be more than this“, as though they just aren’t sastisfied with the ‘plain facts’ and just want that magical feeling about the universe, then you should point them towards this book; Sagan makes the universe seem just as, if not more magical than any spiritual guru could, but he just so happens to have evidence for the claims he’s so passionate about.

Now, we can’t forget about my Sky-Watcher telescope! Sadly, I haven’t used it in awhile and probably would if it wasn’t stuck in my room. The nice thing about living in a small town is there isn’t a lot of light polution, so I can just take it out onto the back deck for stargazing. And it doesn’t take very long to drive out of town away from the street lights.

Man, I really dig Jupiter and Saturn! Jupiter was the first planet I saw when I first bought my scope. I was all “wthasdkfjwoeihosif~that big bright star turns into a PLANET in this thing homg! Magic!“. It has tiny lil specs orbiting it, awwww…so cute! And yes, Saturn and its rings still amaze me each and every time I see it.

There Are Four Lights » Sara’s Room