Oh Avatar, how do I love thee?

Enough to make me giddy the whole night and the day after waiting for the pictures to get uploaded just so I can photoshop a blue arrow on one of the monks and proclaim to my friends that I have found the airbenders, that they did not die, that the firebenders did not succeed, and that they are living in prosperity in a restaurant somewhere in Laguna, thus their big stomachs! 

Avatar: The Last Airbender Review

Firstly, I apologize tagging this show under my anime tag even though we know clearly that it is not an anime. I don’t blog about most American shows, so I just tagged it under my anime reviews since I didn’t want it to get lonely.:<

Secondly, now that I have seen the original source of the Avatar movie by M. Night Shyamalan, I can truly say that the movie is a big fat dud. I mean, I watched the movie first and I was already unimpressed by it, what more now that I have seen the cartoon? It was a pathetic excuse to make money of a franchise that people already love. Aang’s actor did not even get his playful personality right, so what more can we expect? 

In retrospect, this show is amazing. For a show that captured tons of audience not within the targeted age range is simply fucking fabulousmax, alright. I don’t even know why I didn’t jump in the bandwagon earlier. Admittedly, I watched this show because all the Korra hype is getting to me. It was, for me, rude to watch Korra without watching the first series, thus leading me into waterbending once I get near a swimming pool.

The characters are lovable plus the character developments are perfectly executed. One would not be able to finish the entire series and claim that he hasn’t even been touched at least thrice. Remember the episode titled “The Tales of Ba Sing Se?” It was like a filler episode, but it must be the best filler I have ever watched in my entire life. Zuko’s transformation is one of my most awaited moments, since even as an antagonist, his story has already stolen my empathy. I was watching, expecting any convenient time for him to change, soon, soon he’ll change, only to get disappointed when he doesn’t. GDI creators of Avatar! You just twisted all my feels again and again!

What I realized when I was watching the series is that the age demographic must have been shifted to a larger number. What with all the kisses and everything. One thing’s for sure, in terms of romance, the show does not believe in “only one true love” shit most shows have. You would have thought that after Princess Yue turned into the Moon Spirit Sokka would have promised his chastity to the moon, but no. In more ways than one, this show is pretty realistic despite all the bending and hybrid animals. But! But! Zuko may have kissed more than one girl but his and Mai’s story is one of a kind. Aaaah.♥ I can’t really explain how I felt when I watched the sunset scene.

You’re so beautiful when you hate the world.

I don’t hate you.

It was a mixture of awkwardness and IDK.

One thing to talk about besides love: ACTION. The fights are holy amazing. I read somewhere that the fighting styles are different for each bending element. Plus, when you’re watching it, when it’s war, YOU FEEL THAT IT REALLY IS WAR. There’s this intense feeling on my chest that kept on foretelling that this is serious business, you will see explosions soon.

1. My favorite characters are Iroh and Toph. Let me remind you though, that Toph is not always Toph since sometimes she is… MELONLORD! I love this show, really :tearbendingrightnow: 
2. My favorite episode is when the four firebenders went to the beach. It’s freaking funny and awkward. Haha so that is how the evil have fun. Azula is really socially award. :tearbendingagain: 
3. My favorite kind of bending is bloodbending. It’s really chilling, how much evil can be done when you have the will. Unfortunately, Katara used it in a guy that she accused of killing her mother. Lol. Poor guy. 

I loved what happened to Azula in the end. It was sad, it could have been avoided, but yes, but it was the perfect ending for a character like Azula. Having her friends turn her back on her made her lose her sanity, since her belief that fear can make her control everybody has been proven false.  

This review is all over the place. Gomen! I wanted to say so much things and it all just came out (;_; ) It’s hard compressing 61 episodes worth of feels so I’ll stop now before it gets messier. I’ll just look for someone to bombard with these thoughts later (can I bombard YOU?:D)

Overall Rating: 11/10 Masterpiessu

Katekyo Hitman Reborn AMV (my sister’s) and Review (mine)

Song: Easy Go by Kazuki Kato

Just being a proud sister and sharing my sister’s AMV of Katekyo Hitman Reborn!:) It must be my unsaid duty since I also shared her Durarara!! and Gintama (Yoshiwara Arc) AMVs before. Actually, I’m a bit jealous since she has the time, patience and skills to make AMVs while I have none, no matter how much I love animu. As you may notice, I also haven’t made my promise Katekyo Hitman Reborn! review yet. It’s quite problematic to make a single review on a 203-episode anime so I was stalling a lot. But I guess I’ll have a go now:

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is an addicting and great watch, as it is not like its shounen animu friends where all we see is fighting. Sure, there are tons of fighting scenes but in some way or another, the creators have managed to squeeze in some scenes (or episodes) where we could see character development vital in the story. Heed this warning though: you must have strong determination to be able to stomach the first 17 episodes of the series and all the fillers. The fillers aren’t as long as Naruto thankfully, but sometimes the momentum is broken and you wonder: “why on earth are they playing around when they’re supposed to be training desperately since their time is limited?!” But the agony of watching these spoilers is nothing to the agony of watching the first 17 episodes. So I suggest that you skip the 17 episodes, ask someone to tell you who the hell the characters are while watching, then voila: you see action immediately! You now know that the story really is leading somewhere, so you may watch the first 17 episodes after finishing some of the arcs (I watched them after watching episode 203 >:D).

Continuity in terms of strength levels is properly executed in this series, since after beating an opponent, their next opponent is clearly stronger than the last. I made it a point to mention this since this is what stopped me from finishing Bleach. Case in point:

Ichigo defeating powerful opponents then gets shamelessly being beat up by weaker opponents. Case in point in the case in point: the Bounto Arc. Seriously, who gets beat up by a guy who controls snakes after beating some shinigami captains?! Annoying!

I haven’t read the manga yet since duty calls, so I don’t know if this is still true for the manga. Another thing I admire in this series is that the fights never take longer than they should. Approximately only two episodes are needed for a single fight so the battle is never unnecessarily extended due to ridiculous power ups and unexplainable regenerating skills—and some characters can even rightfully regenerate. Also, the protagonists suffer losses more than usual in anime, so you really can’t predict the outcome of fights. All in all, a good anime! I should have jumped in the bandwagon and fanbase earlier.

However, it must be unintended, but women are depicted rather lowly in this anime. Haru and Kyoko are only useful when they cook and clean (when they decided to take things into action, they usually just cause trouble —> they also annoy me at times), and the only strong girl up to date is Lal Mirch, who wins in a battle but is then rendered useless at half of the entire Future ordeal. Chrome  is too emotional, and is only strong at the beginning of the series. I heard she has trained well before the final Future Arc battle but we don’t really have proof. Damn she’s lucky she has Mukuro. I wish I had my own Mukuro too.

My favorite characters are Lambo and Fran. My third runner-up is Belphegor. I actually do not support the guyxguy pairings in KHR, and my OTP is HaruxTsuna. Scratch Kyoko, I hate her. I also wager that Ryohei’s future girlfriend is Hana, not Haru, which is who my sister says is. Speaking of Ryohei, has anyone noticed that Ryohei is treated as a side character? She’s always referred to as “Kyoko’s oniisan.” (=__= )

Overall, I’d recommend it. The bishounens are a-plenty and Tsuna’s Operation X faantastic~ And Mini Mosca’s a cutie pie (made me creys) and Squalo’s so noisyyy~

Hey, have you ever watched a battle where the two fighters are seated in chairs the entire fight? :blink:

Secret Base | Ano Hana ED

We still don’t know the name of the flower we saw that day.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, or Ano Hana, is an eleven-episode anime which I can guarantee you one thing: it will make you cry. Now that I have finally finished it after a few months of stalling, I find it quite stupendous that I didn’t finish it earlier. I stopped at episode 8, and when I watched episodes 9, 10 and 11, I cried on every single fucking episode. I cry on some random parts of the episodes, but I always, always cry at the ending. It’s because of this song. It’s the perfect song to set up the mood, that even if I’m fucking trying to control the tears, then suddenly this song comes up, BOOM. Good bye self control. 

Ano Hana is, albeit its slightly supernatural setting, very realistic when touching on some issues such as friendship, family, love, jealousy and pain. The common synopsis for this series goes along the lines of one group of friends who drifts apart when one of them dies in an accident. Several years later, the group is brought back together when this dead friend appears to one of them, asking that her wish be granted so she can go to heaven. It’s such a simplistic plot summary. The synopsis didn’t even warn us that we had to prepare our tissues beforehand watching. Imagine watching this at the middle of the night comfortably in your bed and you realize you have to get up to get a tissue or a handkerchief. Not cool, man. You’re likely to settle for your bed sheets or sleeve because you don’t want to interrupt the drama. That’s what I felt, anyway.

What I loved most from this show is that the characters aren’t perfect, that even though Menma was somewhat perfect in her own way (even the voice acting for her is), her friends aren’t—that they aren’t capable of being not selfish even though they honestly want to be better. The guilt that they felt when the fireworks weren’t able to send Menma to heaven pushed them to admit their “sins”, and I was surprised that Poppo had one of his own. The character development in this show was flawless for everyone except Poppo at first, which is kind of sad since Poppo seemed to lift everyone’s spirit higher when things are looking down. It’s a good thing that near the end, Poppo’s character caught up when he admitted that it’s as if he could always, only watch. Like what’s happening to his friends now. Like when Menma died.

I tried to write several paragraphs on my feelings for each character, but as I assumed, I cannot put my feelings into words efficiently so I’ll scratch the idea. But please believe me, the anime executed the character’s emotions so well that 11 episodes, though seemingly inadequate, is strangely enough. The direct to the point lines always get to me, like when Jintan told Menma to stay with him forever by the river. The ending was the best though. Pretending that they were just playing hide and seek almost made my tear ducts irreparable. 

The bright and colorful visuals presented with emotions so raw—overall, it’s an anime that I will never forget.