Japanese Animation

       For the past week I have been struggling to find something new to watch. I did find a few things to watch, but none of the shows are worth really mentioning. They were alright, however it just didn’t really catch my attention. Honestly at that point I just decided to hit the internet and started google searching shows that would be worth watching. I came across a show called Berserk. If anyone likes the movie 300 I highly recommend checking this show out because it reminded me so much of the movie. So this anime was actually created in 1997 and was meant to be made in several arcs telling certain parts of the main characters life. They only ended up making what they call the golden egg arc, which basically is how the whole story started. It gave introductions to the main characters and the setting it was in. They also made the same arc into three movies which is the same story just with less detail, so I’ve read, and that is what I ended up watching. The movie is set up in a medieval time period with knights and metal armor and swords.  As you start of the movie series you meet the main character who is this man who wields a giant sword and who is proficient in using it. As the fights start playing out you can immediately see why I relate it to the movie 300.  The sword fighting was just so intense and animated in such a fantastic way. It seemed very realistic in who a fight would end up being, meaning it was showing off dirt and grim mixed in with blood. A very grueling setting. As the movies play out into the second and third one the animation gets better and more modern. It also starts playing into a larger story that starts to bring in mythological creatures and demons. Yet, it never dragged down the story and made it cheesy. It was still intense and kept me at the edge of my seat. After I finished the three movies I wanted more. So I started doing some research and starting this summer they are going to animate a new arc of the story from the manga which is good news for me because I was hoping I would get more before I started reading it. 

This week I have been watching the anime called “The Irregular at Magic High School.” I have seen this show up in Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Netflix. For some reason I have kept putting it off and not watching it. However, this week I needed to watch something and I figured I would finally give this show a try considering the ratings on all three video streaming services showed it was good. I am glad to say I wasn’t let down. The show is good, but there are a few things I don’t care for. Such as, the brother and sister of the show have this weird brother and sister complex and I feel like they are quite literally in love with each other. That to me seems a little too weird. There probably is a deeper meaning behind it, but it just kind of was a turn off to me that doesn’t seem to me necessary in the show.  

This week I recently started watching a new show that is called Kiznaiver. I actually looked into it because I recently decided to cancel my Hulu account for Crunchyroll and it was a show that was in the top 5 of the most popular shows that are out right now. The shows in this category often changes a lot, which I realized it is based on the fact that new episodes come for shows and everyone is catching up on the latest stuff. Even then the show is popular enough to never drop below the top ten meaning a lot of people like it. As for this reason I can see why it is popular. I normally don’t get into shows that are as goofy and cheesy as ones like this, however the story telling can be awfully dark and the goofiness of the show helps keep a good balance of a dark story being told with a light mood.

Hell Yeah! Naruto is finally back onto its main cannon episodes after that long tiresome streak of filler after filler of episodes. I am so stoked to finally get to finish the anime since it is so close to the ending of the manga. At first I never read the manga and was hoping that the shows fillers would stop soon and I would be able to finish watching it. However, filler after filler came and it seemed like the show was going nowhere and it drove me to reading the manga. Don’t get me wrong the manga was great, but I feel like I am just more into the anime. I like watching the fights play out and how the animation looks. For me it is just more fun. It is definitely a personal interest. I also read the manga so I could go watch the Boruto movie since that happens years after the war and involves the next generation. Now the show is back on and am I super excited again to watch. I finally get to see how they are going to animate it. I am like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to the Naruto anime. However, it seemed to be in this last episode that we are going back into fillers. Does anyone know if that is true? Or is it still staying with the cannon to the end. There isn’t much left to show and I think they should just finish it up. Everyone I have ever talked to about it all what to see Naruto finally finish up too. They want to see the story that it was intended to be. I hope everyone is just as excited about this as I am!

I recently found a new anime to watch for the coming months considering that it is new and ongoing. The show releases every Friday if I am not mistaken. I actually found this anime while scrolling through IGN’s YouTube channel in which they were naming a few anime to be on the lookout for spring this year (which I’ll put a link at the bottom to). The show that I got turned onto however, is called Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. IGN informs you that the show was made by the same studio that made Attack on Titan.

 For me this was already good news considering I love Attack on Titan and I know a lot of other people do as well, so I had to check it out. I was not let down at all either. This show is fun and action packed. What I really like about it is that it has really cool steam punk characteristics. Yes, Attack on Titan you could possible say the same thing, but to me Attack is more medieval. That’s not the point though; this show seems to be more revolved around the invention of steam. For example, they use steam powered guns and trains and so forth. The cool thing with this show is the enemies are in a sense zombies, but they are harder to kill because they have these weird orange hearts that are blocked by metal cage.

 Overall, the show was really cool and exciting to watch. It does remind me a lot of Attack because of the animation style and somewhat the story is set up the same way. There are creatures killing off last of mankind and humans are just fighting to stay alive. In saying that, it still wasn’t a bad show and still cool to watch. The only real downside is that it is an amazon exclusive. Lucky for me I have an amazon prime student account so I was able to watch it.  

Spoiler Warning:

Over the past two weeks I watched an anime called Erased a couple times through. I would highly recommend this show to anyone, especially people who like mystery stories. This was a story that could happen in real life, with the exception of one essential plot motivator. The story followed around the main character Satoru who experienced this unique phenomenon that would happen to him which he referred to as “revival”. He would go back in time when something bad was about to happen. It was his decision to try and fix what was possibly going to go wrong or leave it alone. For example, the opening scene where Satoru goes a couple minutes back in time and stops a truck driver is an example of him choosing to try and fix that problem. However, these time jumps played an important role in Satoru’s future. A question arose from my mind: why does this happen to Satoru? It doesn’t seem to be like a superpower in any way, but more like a burden. I had this conversation with one other person. In my opinion, this revival phenomenon was a way to help him try and fix the wrongs that had happened in the past. It had affected him to some degree, but was never present until the past events (events that happened when he was 10) had affected his life when he was 29 and had finally caught up to him. I think all the moments before the main jump back was to get him prepared for what he is capable of,  ultimately changing the future. I want to know what other people think of this and what they think was a reason that these time jumps only seemed to happen to him?

I’m starting this blog today and I want to let the readers know what I’m blogging about. I wanted to write about my thoughts and I guess in my own way a review about what anime’s I watched or currently watching. If I am not watching anything new I might talk about what is to come in new episodes that are coming out to series that I follow. I do want to give a warning; I will most likely have spoilers in my writings.

             As my first post I want to start off with telling you the readers my top 5 list of anime shows that I have watched along with a brief description. I have watched multiple shows and enjoyed many different stories; however these shows have caught my attention.

1.      Naruto – Yes, my number one is Naruto. A lot of people that watch anime might be saying, “of course it would be Naruto, that’s so typical.” This was the show that made me interested in anime. It has an amazing story. It's such a large world that the writer explains and gives backstory to many characters with such elegance that it makes almost every person that you come across interesting and wanting to learn more about.

2.      Full-Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood – To be honest I watched this show a long time ago I can’t give as much a description as I would like since I can’t remember the small details of it. However, the story was heartbreaking, touching and the ending brought me to tears.

3.      Erased – This story literally had me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was watching it. It was a mystery story with an interesting twist. I found myself trying to predict what would come next. Ultimately I would have never guessed the ending to the story. I do want to talk about this show in a later post.

4.      Attack on Titan – This show was one the bloodiest and one the greatest action packed anime’s I have watched. I also learned quickly to never, ever start getting attached to a character because they might not stick around for too long considering how much goes on in this show.