After finishing Asu no Yoichi, I am forced to admit that it is indeed a far superior anime than Toradora. It accomplished in twelve episodes what Toradora was unable to do in twenty-five and one crappy SOS parody.

I know what you are thinking. If Asu no Yoichi! was so awesomotastic, why wasn’t I blogging about it? In fact, I actually spent last month’s post blogging about Toradora and not God’s Gift to Anime Asu no Yoichi.  I know it will be hard to understand for most people, but sometimes when something is of such a high quality and infused with such emotional significance, even a blogger such as I becomes lost for words.

But, what exactly made Asu no Yoichi such a good show?  The answer is more simple that one would imagine. It was grandiose monologues about the heroic nature of the other characters given by Yoichi.  His directly pointing out the noble actions of other characters is what made the show “work.”

Well, that and hair bows. Yeah, hair bows and giant boobs…and exclamation points. Exclamation points are the mark of a great series.

Taiga and Ryuji are the only characters in Toradora that have experienced any “growth” throughout the series. I say that very sparingly because it wasn’t as if their character changed as much as it was that they were shown to have been accepted by those around them.  The key point here is that they were always the way they have been portrayed in recent episodes. For instance, Taiga has always supposedly been hyperactive and cheerful. Albeit, the presumed history would say it was only around her best friend Minori. This is shown in both the opening credits of the show (both versions) and in her interaction with Minori during each episode.

Taiga and Ryuji share the same distinction in that they were “misunderstood.”  The other characters have diverged from their set personalities at times or we were given some small glimpse into their inner thoughts, but for the most part all the characters are the same as when we were first introduced to them in the beginning. It is that we know more about them now, in particular, Taiga and Ryuji.

From my last Toradora post:

If there is one common vein in the connections between characters in Toradora, it is that the characters were fixed in a direction and they continue in that direction no matter the results.

I think this is what people have been seeing in the story that has kept them watching. Toradora’s story is about people being people. We’ve all grown accustom to characters having some type of revolutionary change.  There is always some event that forever alters the landscape of the plot and the characters themselves. Whether it be the average school boy who turns out to be the only one who can pilot a giant robot to save the Earth, or the Magical Girl who turns out to be the only one who can control the legendary power that can save the world. Most of all, we are conditioned to look for an antagonist, or something approaching that of an evil opponent that the hero/heroine must face in order to save that which need saving.  That conveniently distressed something-or-other.

It isn’t that Toradora is without these antagonist who are the enemies of our beloved characters. No, this is very much not the case. As a matter of fact, it would seem that there are an equal number of opponents, one for each of our cast. Each one has somebody to face off against in the final battle for all our salvation.  Of course, they may be a bit hard to find if you aren’t looking for them. Because, like you or I, the opponents that are most challeging to the characters in Toradora are they themselves. With each character, the one who is constantly tripping, stifling, and getting in the way of their wants is nonother than the same person who wants.

Needless to say, Toradora has kept things interesting. Some say there have been lulls in the plot. Others have said that it has been entertaining throughout. I place my self squarely in the latter. Of the shows that I’m following, it is still the only one that I eagerly await and watch as soon as I have time. And, time, is one of my more precious commodities these days.

Toradora keeps on doing exactly what I expect but in ways that are very interesting to me. I’ve found it interesting that Ryuji has remained ignorant for so long. In other stories, his character would have already been slightly, if not wholly, aware of his romantic feelings toward the main female character. For their part, the other girls are completely aware of their feelings.  They seem to plainly accept it while grappling with the results and the conflicts they present.

However, our beloved Taiga is the exception.  I believe this is the reason so many of us have grown attached to her character. She’s unique in this story not because she isn’t aware of what she feels nor is it that she hides her emotions. If anything, it’s more along the lines of willfully giving into those emotions while denying the benefit.

If there is one common vein in the connections between characters in Toradora, it is that the characters were fixed in a direction and they continue in that direction no matter the results. Taiga chases Kitamura. Ryuji chases Minori. Kitamura had already set his eyes on someone other than Taiga. Minori altruistically attempts to ignore her feelings for Taiga’s sake. Ami, for her part, seems to want a rescue. From what? Her, adult life, more than likely.

What does this all lead to? Why is it important? What has kept my gaze fixed on this story for so long?

There are a lot of answers for those questions, but the one that comes to mind first has to do with why and what we feel (if you didn’t see that coming, you haven’t been reading my blog very long ).  I can sit and think. I can reason. I can do any number of things that any other person can do. I have some amount of control over my actions. The problem lies in the extent of control that I possess. No matter what I believe or how hard I try there will always be aspects of my self that are outside of my control. There are things that will freeze my heart and those that will warm it through and through. Some things that will cause joy and other things that will cause great sorrow. I live with the realization that I have no ability to control what I feel, only how I respond to it.

The way we feel, the thoughts and emotions that bubble up from events in our lives are often out of our control. Emotion is to reason, as Chaos is to mathematics. They are seemingly random and fierce, but there is a type of order and beauty to them. Yet, they have a butterfly effect of their own. Why is it that the smallest things sometimes stir the greatest of passions. It’s just a bit odd.

If you really want to understand what I am talking about. Think about this: Have you ever reasoned an emotion, or have you emotioned a reason? Logically, we can reason why we would feel a certain way. That doesn’t occur the other way around. In fact, it doesn’t even make sense reversed. Emotion is a stimulus response. When it isn’t, it is considered a disorder.  I find it very intriguing, these things that we call feelings. They exist with all the substance of the reaction of flesh to flame, but they are intimately part of our being.

How very odd, indeed.

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You’d probably think me odd if I told you that I had a friend nobody else could see. Perhaps, I hear voices. Maybe, I let my imagination get the better of me from time to time…well, it happens.

Watching Chaos;Head is a rather unusual experience. I’m sure other bloggers have already expressed this sentiment in some way or form. It isn’t that we’re crazy, or that we’re out of touch with reality, much. Okay, we may be a bit out of touch with reality for short periods of time, but it’s all in good fun.

What I find most interesting is that the show seems to hit on a certain aspect of myself. That aspect being how closely I am to being completely out of touch with reality. Sometimes I feel that I have to really give it some effort to stay grounded, or I’ll may let myself wonder off. I find myself talking to myself from time to time. I have to admit, I’ve had a few rather rigorous conversations and arguments with myself before I realized that I was sitting in traffic and others were watching me. Hopefully, they just thought I was singing.

We all live in our own little worlds. That really should not be understated, because they are rather little when you think about it. I’ve spent time talking about how our “little worlds’ affect the perception of a story, but usually I take the stance that there is a majority similarity in the way things are viewed, despite there being difference of opinion based on personal history.

What would it be like to see the world differently, to such a great extent that the perception might as well be an orthogonal reality? Could one function or, at least, pretend to be normal? Probably not. That is if they were unaware of what others perceived as reality and what it was like. That alone entails that they had experienced something similar.

This is something along the lines of the old addage about walking in someone else’s shoes, just without the moral construct. Likewise, in my opinion, if one truly wants to understand then the only path is experience. Just walk up to the edge of insanity and jump right on over. Who knows? The fall may be worth it.

It started off relatively slow but has always had potential to end really well. It took a while, and I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it. Now I can say that Nabari no Ou is a good show…thus far. I’ve only watched the first nineteen episodes, assuming twenty-six in all. Most of that has been development of characters. The main plot is a little light. Basically, there is still time for this show to suck.

Okay, first lets start with the OP, it is my favorite amongst the shows I’m currently following. Yeah, it’s the “sha la la.”

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I’m not really all that hard to please. I’ve stated before, I only ask for a good story and interesting characters. That’s about it. Admittedly, these aspects of a show are very subjective. To that end, it is my opinion that Nabari no Ou has both. Of interest is the show’s male lead. It’s hard not to like Miharu simply because he doesn’t fall into the standard male lead molds.  We don’t often get a main male character that is defined mostly as feminine and apathetic towards the world.

The key element being that “apathy.” Usually, to explain this type of character’s distance from the world, shyness is used. Miharu, at first, simply doesn’t care too much about anything. Of course, we see a refreshing devilish side to his character surface every now and again. Oddly, that devilish aspect of his character tells us much about him. It shows that while he distances himself from the world he doesn’t necessarily have a lack of understanding of that world. In fact, he does understand; yet, he chooses to be seperate from it. Why exactly he has made this choice is exactly what the story seems to be examining.

The outsider, the loner, the outcast. These are all standard fair in the world of anime. In particular, among lead characters, they are used to reinforce the role of that character in the eyes of the viewer. That status plays no small role in the place that the plot has for them.

It also plays no small part in the effectiveness of relating to the viewer. No one really feels “common.” We know too much about the intricacies of ourselves to feel “common.” The problem is that others don’t see us the same way we see ourselves. Taken from the vantage of the outside world, we are remarkably similar. We have two hands, two feet, two eyes, two ears, and one nose. We speak and hear. We see and feel. The world has a place for those that are remarkable and those that are not so much remarkable. But, if you asked anyone they would say most people are “normal” or “common.”

While we don’t really feel normal or common, we learn to accept what the world is telling us. That we are normal and common. At the very least, most do not fight the assumption much. We still don’t feel common or normal.

Then we find something that we relate to. We are drawn to it because it seems familiar. There is a substance or spark of recognition. In this story, Miharu finds Yoite. He doesn’t simply empathizes with him. That wouldn’t fit into his character. Miharu is drawn to Yoite.

That which seems familiar in Yoite, he finds confusing. Is it that he is confused by his own intentions, his own self? Miharu stated goal in the first episode is to lead a “carefree life.” Until he developed a connection with Yoite that could be taken literally, as in not caring (apathy). After his interaction with Yoite that goal is pretty much gone.

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Maybe it’s just me, but I think it would be so totally awesome to have bat-wings and a tail =)