I haven’t been watching a lot of anime lately because I’ve been quite bored with the spring season that has only offered one or two shows that I felt was more than mediocre. Luckily for me TJ Han has been propagandizing about a show called Gintama at every opportunity for as long as I can remember and it came to my mind one especially boring day.

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That’s right. I can proudly say I *might* be the first one to give a full review of Hidamari Sketch x365. Take that, you Garten‘s of the world who can watch RAWS with absolutely no problem! -You BigN’s too, with your free manga!-

Today I will review the first epi– poster found on BOTH the ANN page and the MAL page:

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Yes, I realize that I am ten steps behind everyone else in the blogosphere who has already had the opportunity of blogging this series, and no, I don’t think my posts will be enlightening in the least. It’s just that I had every intention of sharing my thoughts on this episode when it first aired, but because of my inability to think during my unconscious hours at home while I was in school, I just didn’t have the energy to do anything except to doze off to sleep and vegetate in front of the screen. Mind you, I lack the eloquent writing skills of my fellow co-blogger, but I’ll try my best to compensate for my lack in just about everything with…uh, something that might satisfy. Then again, probably not. Read on, if you please…

Oh, and apologies in advance if I sound whiny in this post. I promise I’ll try to avoid it next time you find me writing here.
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This episode was over before I knew it. To me, that’s a sign of a truly good show: You sit down to watch the show and get so lost in it that you lose track of time and even though it only felt like 8 minutes, it has actually been 20 and show’s over. It’s a good thing I have the entire series otherwise, it’d really kill me until the next episode. Unfortunately for shows today, none of those shows really get me that way anymore. Even Soul Eater, my favorite of this season isn’t like that despite how much I like it.

Quality hasn’t dropped either. Just. Just a wonderful show. [edit: upon re-read, this gets really “bloggy” so just a heads up]

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As I’ve said before, Honey and Clover is my favorite series of all time. Period. No ties for #1, it is undisputed. I was just glancing over the now filled out About page of ours and I noticed a lot of Honey and Clover’s under “Favorite Anime” and after reading maya’s little insert, I just felt the urge to revisit the anime.

Now I’m not going to do any recaps. Odds are, I’m guessing, if you’re reading this post, you’ve probably already seen the show yourself. If you want a recap, go to Memento. These are the only episode recaps that I’ve ever read in full and it’s like watching the episode all over again. Those really are amazing recaps. You may tell, the title of the post is sorta like an homage to Garten’s posts, too. I usually like flashier titles because without those, no one reads my posts and those types of titles attracts the eye. But for this show, I felt that the readers I want to attract are those who truly love this series and just want to relive it with me. Simple enough, just like the title. Me, I’m just gonna ramble what comes to my head as the episode progresses.

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Sorry to whoever came here looking for news of possibly another season after The Origination. I haven’t even started The Origination yet. I’ve only just finished Aria The Natural. And well, it was pretty damn magical.

I was lucky to grab all of The Natural and almost all of The Origination (I’m missing episode 10… help?) a day or three RIGHT before the licensing was announced and I couldn’t be happier about my luck. Unlike Gurren Lagann, I could sense that this series was going to be something I would loved from episode one of The Animation. I saw it right before I went for my first year of college and it made one of my best summers ever even better.

A similarity to my Gurren Lagann experience was that I was not able to watch The Origination until now. I mean, I dare not watch it during school where there was distractions abound. I didn’t want exams or silly drama getting in my way. Aria is just one of those shows where you know that if you start it, you must give your heart to it and you will get it back ten fold.

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Such a great shot, I have nothing witty to say about it.

Yes, you dont have to tell me. I, myself, am ashamed that I let this off for so long. I’ve actually had it all ever since the day the final episode was released subbed. I was downloading it episode by episode but for some reason, I was caught up on other things and never got to it. I even took it all with me to my first year at college… and just let it collect digital dust in my dorm room. Now that it was summer and pretty much every single person has told me that it made them cry [manly] tears [of manliness], I thought “Might as well”.

One reason that I didn’t continue every week was simply because it was not as epic for me in the beginning… well, now it is when I look at the grand scheme of things. As I was watching it though, I remember thinking that it was cool and such but… Either way. The past is the past. And well, it was indeed pretty epic making me almost shed tears. I say “almost”.

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A very misleading OP. She doesn’t even APPEAR happy in this episode

It may be because I’ve only seen episode 1 but I dont get what’s so hot about this show. If the show was animated like the OP, then I would understand (also pictured above). Hell, if it looked like this, I’d be on this even quicker. Very Shana/Zero-ish isn’t it? Actually, it’s because of the aforementioned linked picture that I left this show off until now. The picture I see now for the MAL page is some ugly character design and the main reason why I put it off until now.

Another reason: Ever since I was a wee lad, I’ve sorta always had this reluctancy to start new things. Kure-nai is no exception. No, I do not totally hate this show, but it started off on the wrong foot. It was the way it ended that made me think that maybe there was more to it. It ended well enough to make me at least curious about what shenanigans they’ll eventually get into.

But this little girl, Kuhouin. I dislike her. Oh so much. This studio did a good job portraying her to be the oujosama that she is, but it may have been too god. She’s annoying and when I first heard her voice, not only did I think to myself “Holy crap, it talked”, I thought “Holy crap, it talked… and it’s going to sound so damn annoying, isn’t it? Dare I say, annoying ‘as Hell‘? “.

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Leave me alone, Sam I am! Quit freaking messing around! Gimme green eggs and ham!

Get the ryhme? No, not yet?
Reading on is your best bet!

And here I thought I was never going to do episode-by-episode reviews again.
I guess just a show this good’s got my juices flowing… or maybe it’s in my BONES -LOLOLOL, get the reference, man?-.

Ahhhhhhh. Bad jokes aside, this episode’s good as we’re finally getting real.
Unlike all the other episodes, this one’s finally got the holy crap they could actually die feel.
-Of course we know they wont die because there are still 44 episodes to go, but still-.

The background also seemed a bit darker, didn’t it? It may have been just my imagination though.
So the questions of: Who’s this new evil, who’s the emo kid, sup with that swooooooord, and who’s going to come save the day… And for you, I have answers to none of the abo(ugh)ve.

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Over the winter, I heard about Studio Deen’s news about adapting Matsuri HINO’s manga, Vampire Knight, into an anime. Awesome! Then they mentioned that Mamoru MIYANO (Mamo-chan! ♥) was going to be cast as Zero. Awesome x 2! I think that may have been the impetus for my return to watching anime. I love the manga, and if one of my favorite seiyuu was going to be cast as my favorite character, then it was a sign from the universe that I should resume my fangirlish ways.

So, a few episodes in, and truth be told, I’m disappointed.

Let’s start with the heroine, Yuki. Okay, I understand that she’s a popular seiyuu and that she was originally cast in the drama CDs as well, but I think choosing Yui HORIE as Yuki was an uninspired choice. There have been times while I was watching the show that I thought I was rewatching an episode of Fruits Basket, especially with Kyo and Yuki, err, Zero and Kaname over there.

Away from me, you crazy fangirls!

Which brings me to my second point — I realize that shoujo series, by their very nature, are formulaic, thriving on the same familiar cliches but adding a minor twist here and there. I know that. I’ve read and watched shoujo to get that. But what frustrates me about the first 2 episodes of Vampire Knight is a lot of time is wasted on atmosphere and emoting. YES, I get that Yuki has a childhood crush on Kaname. YES, I get that Kaname is awesome and beautiful and a god among vampires (and human fangirls). YES, I get that Zero is a little (or lot) jealous of Kaname and Yuki’s bond. Now what? Is Yuki actually going to do something about her crush? Of course not. Some days, I wish some of these shoujo heroines would actually join us in the 21st century and grow spines. And brains.

(Yes, yes, I know it’s not cute for a Japanese girl to admit her feelings in a coarse way, but sometimes, the long-drawn out crushes are so aggravating…)

Believe it or not, I actually enjoy HINO-sensei’s work. I read a couple of chapters of the Vampire Knight manga and thought it was beautiful, entrancing, and sexy — just like the way vampires are supposed to be. I don’t know what part of that isn’t transferring over to the anime, but to be fair, I’ll stick around for a few more episodes. It may just surprise me in the end.

This would’ve been more interesting had Zero pulled the trigger.