Moving Sites

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I last posted anything, but I wanted to inform you that today I will be moving to Wordpress! Though there are some restrictions, I do like the feel of the site, so I will now be moving there. This blog will stay up of course, in the case anyone comes across my posts and whatnot. I will, however, also be transferring my posts to the new blog, so you may read them there if you so wish.

I've been very busy lately, so I'm not sure if I can make frequents posts even over there, but I'll try. Thanks to everyone who's visited this blog. Hope to see you in the new one!

LINK TO NEW BLOG: https://wanderingwynn.wordpress.com/

News: Hetalia (ヘタリア) Season 6 Announced!

IT IS CONFIRMED.

Guys. I am literally freaking out right now. Just the other day, I was like, "It's so sad to think there won't be another season of Hetalia in who-knows-how-long." And then. I learned. Season 6 has been announced. At first, I was thinking, Oh, bullshit. I'm being bullshitted right now. However, I desperately searched around the web, trying to find something that would prove I was right. I didn't want to get my hopes shattered, after all. However, with Anime News Network being the one to announce it and Tumblr going full out batshit insane, I slowly realized this was true—a dream-come true, if you will.

So guys. HETALIA IS BACK, BITCHES!

NothappyAustriajustbeatChibitaliabutstillhurrah!

I finished the previous five seasons, the specials, and the movie this summer, and boy did I marathon through it. I had a lot of fun watching it: 50% from fangirling and 50% from just the weirdness of . . . Hetalia. I am seriously still in shock right now. THIS HAS MADE MY NIGHT! (Actually early morning, but who cares!)

So I bet all of you want me to stop fangirling. *pouts* Okay . . . I-I'll stop now . . . And you might want me to actually talk about some facts and my expectations. Well here goes.

Apparently this news has been around since Wednesday, but unfortunately I didn't get the memo (probably because when I first heard the title World Twinkle, I had written it off as a joke [now Tumblr is poking fun at it too]). But nope! That's the title. World. Freaking. Twinkle. I don't even know how the creators/writers came up with that title, but that seriously makes me giggle so hard. You can easily misread it as "twinkle" or "Twinkie" or many other things. But then, this is Hetalia, people. It's time we accept the weirdness.

Flying Mint Bunny! :D

As far as anyone knows, we can expect Hetalia: The World Twinkle to make its appearance by late 2015, or if we're really desperate mid-2015. Of course, this all depends on how long this series will be. Hetalia Axis Powers and World Series are 52 and 48 episodes respectively, but season five, The Beautiful World, only had 20 episodes. Since the animation according to the teaser looks like Beautiful World, I can assume it'll be two-cour (though I'll be hoping it will be more than that).

If I have to list my expectations, I'll be hoping for some South American and African countries. Out of both regions, only about two or three characters have been revealed. I just really hope there'll be more. >.> I also hope there'll be more character songs. Beautiful World was disappointing in this aspect, because even the ending song didn't match the greatness of Axis Powers' or World Series' ending themes (due to there not being different country versions of the song, which was very disappointing).

I've seen quite a few people say, "Is this show still not dead yet?" And all I'll do about that is:

Take that! Slap to the forehead!

In all seriousness, though, yes, Hetalia is still alive and well. While I do believe the fan base has died quite a ways since the series first began, there are still plenty of fans out there who are stoked for the new season. I am one of them. And because I and others are fans, we will watch the newest season of Hetalia—even if it's titled something as bizarre as The World Twinkle.

And with that—

Santa, how could you curse? D: Oh wait, that's Finland, never mind.

Episode Reaction: Ronja the Robber's Daughter (山賊の娘ローニャ) Episodes 1 & 2 – Surprisingly Entertaining

I'll be honest, I came into Ronja expecting it to be a pain to sit through and watch. I thought the CGI would put me off so much I couldn't bear to watch it. And thanks to those low expectations . . . Ronja the Robber's Daughter was very entertaining. And here's why.

Our story begins with two nobles traveling with their guards and musicians. A skull of a goat crosses their path and they look at it confused. Suddenly, their guards get swooped off their horses (literally) when two robbers attack. The other guard is taken away and the nobles rush their driver to get them away. As they hurry away, robbers on horseback appear and tell them to pull over and give them their values if they value their lives. The nobles don't stop and continue their escape. Suddenly, another robber appears and apparently the two robbers have history together. They argue over who gets to have the possessions first and the nobles slow down their horses to a full stop and the robbers continue arguing ahead.

They're soon stopped by one of the robber's comrades, who tells him he has important news. We cut to the robber hurrying on horseback to his home, a large castle on a hill. When he goes up the tower and enters the room, he asks his wife if the baby's arrived yet. The wife, simply eating some bread, bluntly tells him no as babies come when they want to. In both relief and disappointment, our robber, Mattis, falls on his knees.

That's a freaking nice castle—though it could do without the friggin' annoying harpies.

Later that same day, it seems his wife's baby is ready to be born. She asks Mattis to kill the irritating harpies flying outside the castle, saying she wants to sing to their newborn child so it can be a jolly person. Mattis goes and shoots arrows at the harpies, but they easily dodge him. As he screams out his baby is about to be born, a harpy flies down to him and sits on the ledge of the watchtower. She says that his baby is going to be a "thunder-and-lightning-baby," meaning it will be ugly. In anger, Mattis shoots at the harpy but she evades the arrow easily. The harpies take their leave from the castle.

They mentioned once the harpies were beautiful . . . Yet to see that, I'm afraid.

Back in the castle, Mattis's child is born, a daughter, whom his wife names Ronja. We get some cute montages of Ronja growing up, notably of her crawling (almost walking), Mattis feeding her rice (and her making a mess of it), and everyone just being their happy-go-lucky selves. From these scenes, we develop a sense of closeness between Mattis and Ronja, noting the sense of protectiveness (but thankfully not overprotectiveness) Mattis feels for his daughter.

These guys are precious, seriously.

We skip to a few years later, when Ronja is old enough to run and talk and be a kid. I'll assume that Ronja is around 8 to 11 years old at this point. Mattis realizes that Ronja has grown up quicker than he could ever imagine (literally, she did; one second she's a baby incapable of anything except cooing and crawling, the next she's a kid who can dance and interact with fellow humans)—

See? I wasn't kidding. Look! Look!

—and he knows it's time for her to experience the forest. Before he lets Ronja go, he tells her about the dangers of the forest: harpies, dwarfs, and enemy robbers; getting lost; the river; and Hell's Pit. Ronja asks what she should do in these situations, Mattis gives her hopeful answers for each one except Hell's Pit, in which he says there's nothing to be done if she fell in there.

Before Ronja leaves, Mattis has her promise to be back before sunset. Ronja promises to be back on time and leaves the castle, off on an adventure in the unexplored forest.

At least they got the background art down.

I was honestly surprised how quickly I got used to the CGI. It's awful, definitely, but it also somehow fits into the story and world of Ronja. Yeah, I'd prefer traditional 2-D animation, but this wasn't that bad. I can understand if some people can't stand to continue watching because of the animation, but for me I could manage just fine.

The real charm of Ronja is its characters and music. Since both episodes aired together (garnering a time of 40+ minutes), we got to know each of the characters and their interactions with each other. Sure, I don't remember everyone and their names (save for Mattis and Ronja), but they're all likable and have their own little quirk. My favorite character would have to be the mother and her no-nonsense attitude. (Sometimes I feel like she should be the chief instead, lol.)

The music fits the story to a T, as it's a fantasy and has an upbeat atmosphere. Ghibli has always been good at one thing, and that'd be music. And there's no exceptions here. The music further enriches us in this fantasy world.

Story-wise, there's none as far as I can tell. So far these first two episodes were just for setting up everything, which I'm totally cool with, considering this is a two-cour show. And I can honestly say I'm looking forward to seeing where this is going. I wonder if this will be a coming-of-age story (since most of Ghibli films are like that) or if this'll just be a whimsical fantasy-adventure story. Either way, interested in what's to come. And with that, take care, otakus!

Episode Reaction: Yona of the Dawn (暁のヨナ) Episode 2 – Character Motivation

This episode was very enlightening for us non-manga readers. Not only do we get some background story and character motivation, but also some kick-ass action from Hak and Soo-won. Damn, does it get me pumped up for more badassery. Okay, so onward to the meat of the episode.

We are taken to a little before the end of last week's episode, with what happened before Yona was set to execution. Yona asks Soo-won why he'd kill her father, a kind and cowardly man, and Soo-won instantly shoots those words down. That "kind and cowardly man" apparently killed his father by stabbing him to death, only to release the official statement that he was in an accident. Soo-won explains his father, the older brother of King Il, was a courageous general who won countless victories. However, their father chose Il as the king of the kingdom, confusing many people. Despite this, Soo-won's father smiled happily to the end, saying he doesn't mind not taking over the throne and he'll stand alongside his brother.

Damn, the background animation.

Now this brings the question of: Is that really the truth? Can we really believe a gentle king like Il would murder his brother brutally? Maybe, but I personally believe if that were the case there was a reason for it. Perhaps Il's brother wasn't as noble as he seemed. Perhaps he was actually a corrupt man who was planning to usurp his younger brother. We will see.

What a sweetheart. It's impossible to believe this guy is a murderer. . . . But maybe that's the point.

I have a feeling that Soo-won's advisor (whose name I cannot recall) is the one pulling the strings. I truly believe he is manipulating Soo-won and was the one who fed him those possible lies. Again, we shall see.

Don't listen to him, Soo-won, he's obviously a manipulating cheat!

So the guards take Yona to the courtyard to execute her when Hak comes in to save the day. He kicks everyone's ass and prepares to face off Soo-won. As they fight, Hak asks Soo-won if he was only an illusion, pretending to be a kind man when really he was just a murderer plotting revenge against the king. Soo-won says he's exactly that as he killed the king. This enrages Hak and he manages to cut Soo-won's shoulder. Soo-won wobbles back at this injury and it is then that Hak realizes a guard is holding a sword to Yona's neck. As Hak drops his weapon in surrender, a stray arrow distracts everyone, enabling Hak to pick up his weapon again and kill all the guards.

Ha-ha, as if holding a sword to his neck is going to stop Hak. Ha-ha, gimme a break.

He takes advantage of this distraction and grabs Yona as he runs. They meet up with a servant, Min-soo, who was the one to fire the arrow. They plan to escape the castle when Min-soo offers to be a distraction, pretending to be Yona and cause the guards to chase him while the two make their escape. Hak agrees to this plan, and Min-soo tells Yona he has faith in her as a princess before running off in one of Yona's cloths. As expected, the guards chase him down while Hak and Yona make their escape. When the two successfully escape to the mountains, Min-soo is shot down. Despite not knowing this character for too long, I really felt a jolt of sadness at his death. I found it rather sweet he was loyal to the princess until the very end, going so far as to sacrifice his life for hers.

:(

Soo-won and his advisor notice the open gates and they know they've successfully escaped, so they send out a search party. Over in the mountains, Hak and Yona are slowly ascending the mountain when Yona, who is not accustomed to walking so far and hard, is exhausted, so Hak suggests they rest for the time being. As they do so, Yona wonders if she and Hak are going to die, and she begins to cry as she realizes she never said a word of thanks to her father for her birthday. But then, Hak hugs her and tells her she can make it up to him by living.

YES, GIMME MORE SHOUJO FLUFF!!!

We cut back to the present where Yona has shorter hair and ambushes a large army with her mini one, and holy shit are all these guys badasses. Ugghhhhhh, I want mooorrrrreeeee.

The badassery keeps getting better. (And let me tell you: it's quite a feat to still be a badass with a chipmunk as a companion.)

You would think it'd stop there, but noooo. Yona pulls out an arrow, saying she'll claim back her kingdom, and shoots before the episode ends.

WHAT. THE HELL? You can't end it there! I want to see how she became such a badass. ;__; But God, if this episode didn't make you pumped up for more, I don't know what will. I am so excited to see Yona's transformation from incapable, innocent princess to a badass warrior. I AM SO EXCITED, I CAN'T EVEN. If this episode was enough to make me love this series already, I can't imagine what future episodes have in store for me. And with that, take care, otakus!

Episode Reaction: Bonjour♪ Koiaji Pâtisserie (恋味パティスリー) Episode 1 – WHY IS IT SO SHORT???

It really breaks my heart when I learn that a two-cour series I was hoping to be twenty-something minutes long per episode is actually five minutes. Sigh. Stop breaking my heart, fall anime. But whatever. To my pleasant surprise, Bonjour♪ Koiaji Pâtisserie is effective in setting everything up in episode one. We got our important characters introduced and just what kind of challenges our heroine may face.

Our episode begins with a girl named Sayuri (finally a character's name I can remember without looking it up!), who's arrived to a baking academy to learn how to become a pâtissière, just like her parents. At this school, she has befriended a girl named Ran (whose name I can remember due to Super GALS!, *cough, cough*) and her first day of school is beginning when the three bitches of the school overhear her conversation on how she's there on a scholarship.

Yeah, I bet. When you have a school that looks like a freaking palace, tuition rates must be high.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Um, excuse me, but . . . she completely deserves the scholarship because her skills were good—in that, I mean better than yours. The best come up on top: if your skills aren't better, then sorry, you'll have to try harder and get better. So instead of whining about not being good enough, become good . . . bitch.

So anyway, a redhead (and one of the love interests) appears and yells at them to stop arguing and blocking the way. Then, the McGonagall of the school overhears their arguing and shoos them off to hurry to the entrance ceremony. When they leave, she asks Sayuri if it was a mistake to give her a scholarship. On this note, she leaves. Ran explains that that woman is a first-class pâtissière, so you bet your ass she's a stern woman. She kicks out students who she thinks don't have competent skills—and apparently there are countless of them. With this in mind, Sayuri heads to the auditorium where we are introduced to the three other love interests. While she sees they are handsome, Sayuri thinks to herself she has no time for romance as she desires to graduate and become a full-fledged pâtissière.

"...and become one of four guys's girlfriend!"

Despite its short episode length, I really enjoyed this episode. While we have common shoujo tropes in here *cough, cough*bullies*cough, cough* I thought it was an enjoyable watch. Sayuri herself is a likable heroine. While not being very developed, I already admire her determination. She reminds me of Haruka from Uta-Pri in that respect. I hope her personality gets more fleshed out throughout the next twenty-three episodes.

We've only been briefly introduced to our four love interests, but I'm already loving their designs. Three of them are instructors and the redhead is a student. (I believe . . .? I don't know, it's never clearly clarified.) We barely know any of them but they seem to already fall into certain archetypes—nice guy, hothead, shota, and hard-ass—however, I'm expecting them to develop their own unique personalities soon.

I'm not kidding, I thought of Seijuro and Momo from Free! for a second there.

Pretty hot for a teacher, not gonna lie.

He's pretty fluent in Japanese for a Frenchie who's never been to Japan before.

We will now present our hard-ass traditionalist!

Oh, speaking of . . . Ran tells Sayuri that a romantic relationship between an instructor (see: those guys above) and a student (see: main heroine) is absolutely forbidden. Sayuri assures herself, however, she won't be getting herself into a romance because she wants to become a pâtissière. . . . We'll see about that. ( ¬‿¬)

The art style is definitely a strong suit for this anime. In fact, the character designer of Uta-Pri was the one who was put in charge of the animation, so the colors all harmonize very well together. There is another show, however, about pastry making, and that show is called Yumeiro Pâtissière. I know, I know, it's unfair to compare both these anime to each other, but I can't help it. The premises are very similar. All I can think about is how delicious those sweets in Yumeiro looked, and I'm really hoping the sweets here will match those. *crosses fingers*

Oh, sweet Mama. Come to me. *purses lips*

I am sad to report that there's no opening or ending song. :c I mean, come on! Even The Circumstances in My Home's Bathtub had an opening and (kinda) ending song. Why can't this? Granted, we're only on the first episode, so the next might have one . . . maybe . . . hopefully . . . I don't know. :(

Otherwise, this was a pleasant watch and I look forward to seeing more of it. And with that, take care, otakus!

Episode Reaction: Shirobako Episode 1 – For the Love of Doughnuts, Don't Drive Like That!

P.A. Works, I love you, but Glasslip should be renamed Glasshit, because . . . it's shit. Thankfully, however, Shirobako doesn't seem like it will stoop that low anytime soon.

Story plays out like a slice of life: just the everyday lives of our characters. We are introduced to five girls who plan on becoming a part of the animation industry in their own ways. They are all a part of the animation club at their high school and for their school festival they created an actual anime. Like, they did all the work themselves. And from what we see of it, it looks pretty damn good—for high schoolers, especially. These girls promise—in the name of donuts—they'll reach their dreams eventually and meet again.

IN THE NAME OF DONUTS, I SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO REACH MY DREAMS.

This episode, we focus on [insert name here]. Yeah, again, for the fifteenth time, I suck at remembering character names. This trait also applies to me in real life: I'm better at remembering people's faces than their names, so don't get offended if I ever meet you in real life and don't remember your name. Anyway, recently the character's animation studio released its first episode of a fictional idol anime. However, they're running behind on the key animation for episode three.

Our main heroine is then sent to go find a key animator to animate the parts. And that's where this woman comes in:

Yep.  It's not just you, dearie. We're all looking at the same place.

Again, can't remember this character's name for the life of me, but I can tell she's a hardworking woman who, if given a challenge, will do it right—no matter how tired or in pain she is. I like her; I hope we see more of this woman later. So as you'd expect, they barely manage to get the whole thing animated on time for dubbing.

This raises the question, though, why are they animating episodes three and four when episode one just aired? I always thought animation studios were way, way ahead of the airing episode, possibly completely finished if it's a one-cour. After all, there's way more work to be done for an animated series than a live-action one, so I don't really know why they're so behind on the animation. Ah well.

I've always adored P.A. Works' animation style, and Shirobako is not exempted. I love all the character designs—whether they were the main characters or the supporting cast, everyone has their own unique design that fits their personality. Speaking of the characters, holy crap are there a lot of them. There are honestly 15+ characters introduced here, including the main cast. There is a two out of five chance I'll actually remember all of their names, like damn. I can't even remember the main characters' names. Hopefully I'll know most of them by the end.

I agree with you 100%: Donuts are love, donuts are life.

At the very least, I do remember many of their personalities. The main character focused on this episode is a huge doughnut-lover but also a hard worker. She's dedicated to her job and works almost 24/7, but she's a bit of a softie when it comes to pressuring key animators to finish their work. However, I found her to be a very fun character to watch and look forward to seeing more of her.

I swear, she looks like an even older Miuna from Nagi-Asu.

There are really no other characters of significant importance to mention except the main heroine's friend (who is in the front of the promotional image), but she doesn't have enough screen time to warrant a discussion of her character. But I expect to find out more about her later, perhaps even next episode.

This is what trying to see behind the credits is like.

In the music department, I don't really remember any notable soundtracks, but the opening was likable and the ending was forgettable. But from what I can remember of it, it was pretty cute.

All in all, Shirobako has proven to us in only its first episode it's going to be a fun, entertaining ride throughout, giving us knowledge about the anime industry and poking fun at anything anime-related (from ten-second still frames [reference to Glasslip] to combining two studio names together [G.I. Staff, lol]). And with that, take care, otakus!

Heeeyyyy P.A. Works, I see what you did there!

I told you, lol.

Episode Reaction: Your Lie in April (四月は君の嘘) Episode 1 – Beautiful

It's time for music, because today (or in reality, yesterday *cough, cough*) is the first episode of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, also known as Your Lie in April. This is to be our drama-filled, romantic music anime of this and next season (it's two-cour, guys!), and I'm looking forward to this emotional roller coaster.

Our story opens up with our main protagonist, Glasses-kun the Third (seriously though, so many Glasses-kuns this season, tsk, tsk), who is composing a song on a sheet of paper. Things go awry, though, when his childhood friend accidentally throws a softball through the window where he's sitting at and hit him perfectly on the side of his head. After cleaning up the blood and shattered glass—

Dude, please go to the hospital ASAP: that's way too much blood.

—Glasses-kun's friend asks if he'd go on a double date with her, since their other friend (for the sake of this reaction post, we'll call him Playboy-kun) is going on a date with her friend. Glasses-kun agrees to go and they agree to meet at a park.

On the day of the date, Glasses-kun is the first to arrive—or so he thinks. He hears the sound of an instrument playing, and when he goes to investigate he is met with the sight of a beautiful girl.

Can someone please remind me what the name of that instrument is? 'Cause I'm too lazy to look it up. >.>

After a few mishaps here and there, the girl is introduced to be the childhood friend's classmate, who Playboy-kun is going on a date with. The date location is revealed to be in a music hall, and when he sees this Glasses-kun is hesitant to attend and says he'll be leaving. However, the girl stops him and pulls him with her to the music hall, and the episode ends.

I thought this episode was an evenly paced and enlightening one, and I look forward to the rest of the series. I really liked the atmosphere and mood the episode created, and I very much want to listen to the OST when it comes out.

Uh-oh. Is this foreshadowing I sense?

Our main character, Glasses-kun, may seem like a nice guy, but he has a dark and sad past. His mother taught him how to play the piano, and would beat and scold him if he did something wrong. She crafted her son to be a master pianist so he could go to a European competition in place of her (who was stuck in a wheelchair for an undisclosed reason). I honestly found the relationship between him and his mother an uncomfortable one. I understand she may have been a traditionalist who believed in "tough love," but beating your kid until he has bruises and is bleeding lightly isn't the way to go about instructing them. At least that's what I personally believe.

However, immoral or not, her teachings did turn Glasses-kun into a skillful pianist who can play better than I ever could. Yet, due to his mother's early departure, Glasses-kun plays the piano with no heart or soul, and he finds that he could no longer play the piano when he was eleven.

Playing like a machine: with no emotion or passion.

She may be cute, she may be adorable, but she's a demon from hell!

I feel bad for referring to our second main character as "the girl," but I am awful at memorizing names, so please bear with me. Anyway, "the girl" is a very likable and pretty adorable person. She obviously has a strong love for music and seems passionate about any and all instruments (her forte being the violin). I also really like her design (maybe because my favorite anime girl designs are blonde hair/blue eyes). I'm kind of expecting some sort of sad past, but then she could just have a pretty good one. Either way, I look forward to getting to know her.

Nice colors, I noticed.

I can't say much for the childhood friend, but I guess we can infer a few things. For one, like the image above may suggest, she's an athlete—a softball player, to be more specific. Second, she may or may not be in love with the main character (but I'm pretty sure it's the latter, since I've seen plenty of romance anime). However, she is not forcing her love for him down his throat, but instead trying to help him find happiness through love. So she's a pretty nice character in that regard.

Nice lighting too.

As for the last main character focused on, I have almost nothing to say (even less than the childhood friend). We don't know too much about him yet, but he's also an athlete (a soccer player) and apparently a playboy. Being in his final year of junior high, he's already been with three girls (hey, not too shabby there, son).

Everyone's already said it, but I'm gonna say it again: animation quality is amazing, higher than most standards. What I really enjoyed was how colorful everything is, mainly the bright pink of the cherry blossom trees, and its strong contrast to the gray moments. After seeing all these colors, we learn to appreciate them when we enter the world of monotone.

I wonder which image is more eye catching. Hmmm???

The animation was also very good in the opening. Speaking of, the opening song was good but I've already forgotten how it goes. But I expect I will eventually come to remember and love it.

Is the other person the character appears with gonna end up being their true love? Hmmm???

Now prediction time! I guarantee the obvious ships will sail, but I will be caught off-guard if the anime decides to switch it up. I expect sometime in the future there'll be some big misunderstanding or fight and the characters will avoid each other for a while, but eventually come back together and have some sort of big music competition at the end (and may or may not win). I hope that Your Lie in April will minimize the amount of clichés and just be a lovely show.

Will they end up as a couple by the end of the series? Hmmm???

But even then, I am getting this strange Bride to Terabithia feeling where the blonde girl is going to die. Very . . . morbid of me, I know, but I just can't shake that feeling off. While I expect plenty of drama, I don't think the anime will go so far as to take away the light in our main protagonist's life.

I highly recommend checking out this episode of Your Lie in April. It's cute, it's uplifting, watch it and see your spirits soar with happiness. And with that, take care, otakus!