Why do I keep doing this to myself? XD another week, another mediocre reverse harem anime. In my defence there are some great anime of this type! Ouran High School Host Club, Fruits Basket and Yona of the Dawn spring to mind. I guess I keep hoping for an undiscovered gem I can gush over for a time. Well no one said the search would be easy…
Another blank face from our heroine
Anyone who has been following my blog for a while knows I’m a little partial to romance, I love romantic anime and manga and especially games were you get to choose the flavour of character the protagonist ends up with. However, if you’ve played one of these dating sims you know that the female lead tends to be, well, how should I put it?
Vacant
Yes unfortunately otome games leads tend to have very little in character, emotion, development, brain cells but is this a bad thing?
It’s been a tough few weeks for me so I decided I needed something light-hearted and funny to boost my spirits. While scrolling through a list of potential options I came across Kenka Bancho Otome, which originally was an otome game, so I knew cute moments and cuter boys would be rife! But what is its hook? What makes it different from every other otome turned anime? Well it’s about a girl cross dressing to attend an all-boys school, OK so not a really unique concept but then this is no normal otome all-boys school full of rich musicians/princes/ceos/deities etc.
The school is actually the thug school, where gangs and criminals attend and kick the hell out of each other for supremacy, even the curriculum is dumbed down to middle school level as they know that these kids are unlikely to study… ever. Our poor protagonist has to not only attend this school as another gender without being found out, but has to fist fight with the other guys to be THE BOSS! Already I am sold on this concept, a classic underdog tale with a sprinkling of intrigue and romance.
This is their entrance ceremony.
Unless you’re very lucky, you’ll have to accept the fact that you’ll have to work for most of your life. It is a cruel fate but one that is necessary to live in modern society. Most of us will also have to work in at least one of three main areas at some point, office, retail or service (meaning waiting tables) these can be very soul destroying places to work, yet as human beings we have to find a way to survive! (Plus when you need money, any job is acceptable).
With so many people having to do the same thing, we get a collective joint experience as no matter where you are in the world these work places fall into the same patterns. We all know what it’s like trying to get into work during rush hour on public transport, dealing with an impatient customer or colleague or embarrassing yourself in front of your boss but knowing you still need this job so you just suck up the humiliation until it eats away at you and you start wondering how little you really need to live off before you’re legally declared a wild animal… But I digress!
Aggretsuko knows your pain too well! In fact it is pretty disturbing how much any office worker will relate to this show!
Ah the break room venting session.
Well now we’ve covered most of the critical characters in The Ancient Magus’ Bride its times to move on to more of the side characters. These are powerful in their own right but are a little more neutral in their allegiances. The series expands more on its mythology now, introducing some Slavic and European creatures into the ever growing compendium. It’s nice to see how much variation was included in the series as a whole even if they weren’t all given large roles.
I will say I’m starting to notice a recurring pattern; mythology generally dealt in extremes; either a creature was stunningly beautiful or horrifically ugly, this made it easy for us to recognise when something wasn’t quite right (unless the creature was adept at shape shifting/tricking) and gave the victim a fighting chance to live or prove to everyone listening to the story they were a dumb ass who deserved to be eaten and don’t replicate their mistakes.
A lot of fae in the series have fallen from the kawaii tree and hit every branch going down.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride kinda skips this, I mean even the chimera were pretty OK looking from my perspective xD it is an anime so everything not horror related is generally pretty but I guess I’m saying I would have liked to see a little more of the ugly creatures xD Or even exceptionally beautiful ones! They all seem very safe pretty/cute for me.
A pet shop of horror? Sounds like my kind of place! I actually found out about this series by researching for my mermaid anime post. There was a mermaid based episode that looked particularly haunting and trying to work out the context only intrigued me more. I thought hey why not watch the whole thing? Then 4 episodes later it was over and I was left blinking confused and wondering where the rest was.
Yes it’s one of those, advertising anime, the sole purpose is to lure people into buying the manga. In my experience it’s 50/50 whether it’ll work though as they usually rush things and don’t commit which can turn me off reading any further. However this time was a win! Sort of…
Count D might stand for Dr Dolittle
Ah it’s that wonderful time of year again where everyone makes up geeky names for May related things like May the forth be with you. One of my particular favourites is Mermay because it sounds really good and it gives us all a chance to think about mermaids. Possibly the most famous mythological creature aside from a unicorn and a dragon and all because of that Disney film… OK so maybe not quite, but Disney and a certain red head definitely have a lot to do with our current perception of them!
It’s kind of hilarious that all across the world sailors were fantasising about half fish women, the sea must be a lonely place. Of course there are also mermen, but this is one area the ladies have truly dominated; with their shiny hair, beautiful voices and ample, supple… tails! Japan was no exception and so they also have their mermaid stories and influences which is what I’m rambling to get to. In honour of this totally fictional honour I wanted to compile a list of mermaid related anime for us all to enjoy in this fishtive season.
Evangeline Blue from Pet Shop of Horrors
Ooo aren’t I getting edgy? Well no… Of course the question I’m asking is a little facetious. An outside source like fans cannot physically ruin an anime, but people can ruin things in so many ways! And humanity is hugely creative in the way it likes to mess things up.
I’m sure this is something we’ve all come across, fans are everywhere for everything. For some reason we mostly associate them with music i.e. bands and geekier interests like science fiction, anime and video gaming. But they really are everywhere; sports, dancing, food etc. However in my opinion there is something extra insidious about geek fans and that includes anime.
They are always watching…
So far I’ve talked about the biggest names in faedom, all have vast amounts of power and the fear and respect that goes with it, but what about the little guys? The ones who actually do useful things and don’t demand things be done their way? Well today they get their time to shine!
In The Ancient Magus’ they are just as important as the more powerful fae and critical to mages being able to use their powers. Today I’m going to look at the three main servants in the series but there are many more who are tied into some weird service contract that no one seems to question (except Ashen Eye but no one trusts that guy).
Not all heroes wear capes T^T
Ah romance! Most seek it at some point even if only in our dreams and the media we consume T^T now you may have noticed when it comes to anime, manga or video games with animeness attached, they have a certain way they like to address romance. It’s exactly the saaaaaaame!!! Well not entirely but as humans we do love repeated patterns! We fall for the same thing over and over again and that includes love interests.
Deredere is onomatopoeia in Japanese and means love struck so any character type with dere attached refers to a type of love interest and how they act when in love. In the romance genre or any series with romantic elements there are 5 prominent deres, these apply to both male and female characters, so let’s fall in love ❤️
Don’t be afraid!
Scattered Thoughts from the Participatory Culture
A straw-made nest for anime, its music, and wishy-washiness.
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Hinode Reviews 
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