This has been a long time coming. Read here The things I am tired of hiding. Finally fucking revealing it.

Name: Yterbium Level Achieved: 16 From Batch: 76 Finished on time Anime Watched: [url=] [/url] Score of anime watched: Add me again

Favorite Anime Songs Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Opening 1 (Again - Yui) - YouTube Link Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Opening 4 (Chemistry - Period) - YouTube Link Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood OST - Lapis Philosophorum - YouTube Link Steins;Gate Opening - Hacking to the Gate - YouTube Link Steins;Gate - Gate of Steiner OST - YouTube Link Steins;Gate 0 Ending - Last Game - YouTube Link Made in Abyss OST - Tomorrow - YouTube Link Code Geass Ending song 2 - Mozaiku Kakera - YouTube Link Code Geass - Continued Story - YouTube Link Code Geass - Masquerade - Soundcloud Link (Original), YouTube Link (Piano solo) Shingeki No Kyojin Season 2 Opening - YouTube Link Shingeki No Kyojin Season 3 Ending 1 - YouTube Link Death Note Soundtrack - Ls Theme - YouTube Link Neon Genesis Evangelion Opening - YouTube Link Neon Genesis Evangelion Ending - Fly Me To The Moon - YouTube Link One Punch Man Opening - The Hero!! - YouTube Link Cowboy Bebop - The Real Folk Blues - YouTube Link Noragami Aragoto - Opening - Kyouran Hey Kids!! - YouTube Link Sora yori mo Tooi Basho Ending - Koko kara, Koko kara - YouTube Link Your lie in April Ending 2 - Orange - YouTube Link Boku no Hero Academia Season 2 Opening 1 - Peace Sign - YouTube Link Tokyo Ghoul Opening - Unravel - YouTube Link 1 (original), Link 2 (Hatsune Miku)

Favorite Korean - Japanese songs Nomico - Bad Apple! - YouTube Link 1 (original), Link 2 (English cover) Hatsune Miku - Senbonzakura - YouTube Link 1 (original), Link 2 (English cover) Raon - SeeU - Hide and Seek - YouTube Link 1 (original), Link 2 (English cover) Yorushika - Hitchcock - YouTube Link (original) Hatsune Miku - Irony - YouTube Link 1 (original), Link 2 (English cover) Miki Imai - Goodbye Yesterday - YouTube Link (original) Frederic - Oddloop - YouTube Link (original) World Order - Have a Nice Day - YouTube Link (original) World Order - Let's start WW3 - YouTube Link (original)

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Only except for a select handful of shows this Spring anime season has been pretty lackluster yet I am quite surprised to see the Summer series be blazing out with good looking new shows and really hoping to get whole lot more enjoyment out of these. As usual I’ll set to sort out the shows that I believe are highly worth watching and list my top ten most anticipated series of the season and then list any other honorable anime mentions worth checking out. Please bear in mind that I may not personally write impressions on all series list due to availability and will be making updates to this once confirmed where it will be legally available to stream in the U.S. Drop it like it’s hot! 10.) “Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?” English Subbed Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLIqiJStZJo And right off the bat will have an “isekai” light novel adaptation, just lovely…. While I really don’t think this one will be on the same levels as this year’s isekai breakout series “Rising of the Shield Hero” I am rather intrigued with it’s concept: Here instead of just a nerdy young adult being transported to a JRPG-like world this time we have a mother and son duo and it just so happens that the mother somehow becomes an overpowered, dual weapon-wielding, multi-target specialist! Or pretty much becoming the “barbarian” class from Diablo III while the son gets all completely newb skills yet must be forced to tag along on their adventures. I definitely know this will not be an anime that will take itself seriously but I’m hoping to have a pretty fun ride with this one and a big plus to have studio J.C. Staff for it’s production and coming from the same director that just finished “We Never Learn”. Premiers on 07/13, has been licensed by Aniplex USA so expect to see this streaming on their typical platforms (Crunchyroll, Hulu, etc) however nothing is set in stone yet. 9.) Cop Craft Japanese Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Fy8iYOQ7A Now we go from people entering fantasy worlds to ones where those worlds are now entering ours! This is actually a “buddy cop” story were a real world seasoned police detective joins up with a magical female warrior from a fantasy realm and must deal with conflicts between humanity and the other-worldly. This anime adaption is fairly hyped due to the fact it was originally created by “Full Metal Panic!” author Shouji Gatou and it features character designs by “Last Exile” series artist Renji Murata. However what I’m fairly NOT hyped for are the people behind the production which are coming from 2016 and 2017’s highly lackluster “Berserk” series director Shin Itagaki as well as studio Millepensee. At least on the positive side this will not be all done with mostly CG models and animation and there could be a chance the CG Berserk team may redeem themselves with this anime and I’m really hoping this will be a worthwhile series to check out. Premiers on 07/09 but no legal streaming has been announced. 8.) “A Certain Scientific Accelerator” Japanese Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq9ctlKPr-8 Japanese Trailer 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1En9K5B1jNg So after the just barely comprehensible series that was “A Certain Magical Index III” will J.C. Staff and their writers have learned from their lessons and past mistakes? Hell they better be because this is a spin-off series based off of one of the most badass and diabolical creations of the entire “Index-verse”! Much like it’s other “Railgun” spin-off this anime is also based on an ongoing manga series and from what it looks like it takes place between the events of Index II and III and after when Accelerator makes a huge sacrifice on protecting “The Last Order” whom is the last created “Misaka clone” yet made to resemble a very young child. Of course again J.C. is helming the production and it’s directed by Nobuharu Kamanaka whom last did “Big Order” and it’s adapted from the anime writer of “Shiki” and “Clockwork Planet”. Unfortunately, unlike any of the past “Index-verse” seasons and series, this is rumored to only be 12 or 13 episodes long and I am just praying this will not be like Index III where they were cramming in as much material and plot lines they can within each episode. Just please don’t suck! Premiers on 07/12 but no legal streaming has been announced. All past “Index-verse” series are streaming on Funimation Now and only the past “Magical Index” seasons are streaming on Crunchyroll. 7.) BEM Japanese Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbnxZMGK6NQ I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “never judge a book by it’s cover” and I’m sure that will always be same for judging an anime only by it’s trailer but sadly that’s really all what I’m doing here and deep down just by it’s looks this one seems pretty damn interesting. Even the overall style almost reminds me of Yasuhiro Nightow’s “Blood Blockade Battlefront”, it’s also based on a very older series called “Youkai-ningen Bem” which is going to celebrate it’s 50th anniversary just like with “Dororo” that finished last season. I wasn’t really able to get much details on the story other than it follows three protagonists by the names of “Bem”, “Belo” and “Bela” and each one are half-human and half-demon. Honestly I kind of like going into anime completely blind and crossing my fingers this will be a pretty decent show to check out and like to place a good bet on this one. Sadly it’s director is really not well known, just recently did the online anime one-shot for “Armed Blue: Gunvolt” and it’s coming from LandQ Studios who last did the “Sword Gai” series for Netflix. Premiers on 07/15, streaming on Funimation Now and Hulu. 6.) “DanMachi II” French(?) Subbed Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxBUkRqe_ys Newer Japanese Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNQjlePaV2c This is the anticipated anime sequel to 2015’s “Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? - Familia Myth” which also previously spawned a prequel side story “Sword Oratoria” in 2017 as well as a feature length movie “Arrow of the Orion” just this past February. Originally I gave the 1st anime series a score of 7 out of 10 and I personally didn’t think this series was all that much of a game changer in the light novel fantasy genre, and that was back when we weren’t getting “isekai” anime EVERY season, but yet still enjoyed it for it’s fun characters and it’s camaraderie between them, plus of course you cannot forget “Hestia” and her bountiful “gifts”, and J.C. Staff’s work on the series was pretty decently done at the time. This time around again we have J.C. at the anime helm and it’s adapted by the same writer Hideki Shirane yet it’s director is now Hideki Tachibana whom did “Armed Girl’s Machiavellism” and “Chaos Dragon”. Sadly I’ve personally not seen any of the prequel spin-off nor know anything about the movie and really crossing my fingers knowledge of both will not be mandatory (although a quick refresher of the older anime will be nice, it’s been four years anyway) but hoping to have a fun time with this one and love to see what adventures are next in store for Bell and the busty blue ribboned goddess. Premiers on 07/13 but no legal streaming has been announced. The 1st season is currently streaming on Crunchyroll, VRV and HIDIVE and the Sword Oratoria prequel is on HIDIVE and VRV. The movie will be released by Sentai Filmworks in U.S. theaters on July 23rd only. 5.) “To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts” English Subbed Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWM32ukSlTY Based on the dark fantasy manga series this story follows a group of specialized, monster transforming, super-soldiers called “incarnates” whom were all part of a civil war in the past but now have to learn and adapt to a more peaceful society or face certain death at the hands of beast hunters. Ironically this series completely reminds me of the just earlier aired anime “Fairy Gone” which really got lost in it’s highly convoluted story and numerous characters and factions and sadly I just had to dump it. At least it doesn’t look like we have to deal with any utterly shit-tastic CG models and animation and plus it’s done by studio MAPPA, at least they know how to make really enjoyable anime and they just finished the very well-made new adaption of Tezuka’s “Dororo” so the hype factors on this are pretty high. Oddly enough this series also coming from the chief director of “Yuuri on Ice”, Jun Shishido and it’s from the anime writer of “Zombie Land Saga” but I’m still putting decent bets that this will be pretty awesome to watch. Premiers on 07/01, streaming on Crunchyroll and VRV. 4.) Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace Note English Subbed (short) Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC-aqkNRw1E English Subbed (longer) Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8SFOqQsiLM Aniplex USA released the pilot anime episode way back in late December last year and being that this is based on the “Type-Moon-Verse” and “Fate/Stay Night” series I was immediately all over this one. The story follows the adult version of Waver Velvet, AKA: El-Melloi II, whom was one of the grail war masters from the “Fate/Zero” prequel series and now he works with other British mages that are part of the “Clock Tower” magic guild and solves supernatural cases around London. While Type-Moon’s go to anime studio Ufotable is too busy doing freaking awesome animation and magic with the “Heaven’s Feel” movies (as well as on “Demon Slayer”) this series is helmed by studio Troyca whom recently finished “Bloom to You” and also did “Re:Creators”, plus it’s director worked on both noted series, and their work on the pilot was fairly decent and I wasn’t all too disappointed on how it came out, sure it doesn’t have the same pizazz that ufo brings but they got the job nicely done. Even though this will not have the epic noble phantasm battles that the F/SN series is known for and it’s more or less a magical mystery show yet I’m very interested to see what comes about for this series and really hoping it will be well worth it for fans of the saga. Premiers on 07/06, has been licensed by Aniplex USA so expect to see this streaming on their typical platforms (Crunchyroll, Hulu, etc) however nothing is set in stone yet. 3.) Dr. Stone English Subbed Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YZzYeBartM Newer Japanese Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ei4KpfCOAI Based on the Shounen Jump manga series this takes place on Earth in the year 5738 after all of humanity suffered a catastrophic event turning all humans into stone! However, miraculously, two Japanese school kids, Taiju and Senku, become free of the stone curse and set to release all remaining humans that were turned all while surviving the now highly savage wildlife of Japan. This adaption is being done by TMS Ent. whom recently worked on the highly rated and very awesome “Megalo Box” as well as on the new “Fruits Basket” remake and it’s coming from the director of “Made in Abyss” Shin’ya Iino! I really believe this will be a highly interesting anime to watch because it just seems “different”, much like how “The Promised Neverland” was. Plus I’m kind of a sucker for survival series and experiencing how these characters will face all odds and overcome them and just more seems like a down-to-earth series without the use of magic, superpowers or inhuman skills, and the M.C. is a giant science junkie too. Really hoping for some exciting times and surprises with this one and have high bets this is a definite series to watch this season. Premiers on 07/05, streaming on Crunchyroll and VRV. 2.) “Fire Force” English Subbed Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzM43HZ6oeg Based on the manga series by Atsushi Okubo, the creator of “Soul Eater”, this follows a team of special fire brigades that are battling against transformed humans that spontaneously combusted into burning demons called “infernals” and mainly focuses on the new recruit Shinra Kusakabe whom is nicknamed “devil’s footprints” by his fire foot powers and is set to solve the mystery of his family’s death that happened 12 years ago. I am hugely hyped for this one only because I am a really big fan of the “Soul Eater” anime (yet sadly have not really checked much into the manga even though it has a different ending) and hoping to see the same highly creative and wildly imaginative stuff that series has brought with this one, plus this is the first anime that’s based on firefighters that I’ve seen and that’s pretty cool in itself. Sadly this is not animated by studio Bones but yet is being done by David Pro whom are just now wrapping up with their highly wild and weird adaption of the 5th series of “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” yet from the trailers they really seem to be highly adapting the same styles that the previous Soul Eater anime has brought and is already looking awesome. However its director’s only noted work was on “Mekakucity Actors” and the anime writer has not done anything previously (AFAIK) but just really crossing my fingers that will not detract this from being well worth watching. YOU GET TO BURNING and make sure you do not miss out on this. Premiers on 07/05, streaming on Crunchyroll and VRV with English dubbed episodes streaming on Funimation Now. 1.) Vinland Saga Japanese Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2aneW0sH7c Japanese Trailer (Ending Theme Ver.) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xAlirMzjCQ Japanese Trailer (Opening Theme Ver.) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVs4io58Gm4 Based on the manga series by Makoto Yukimura, the creator of “Planetes”, the story takes place in 1013 AD that follows a small Viking band and their saga within elements of the real life events such as the “Flateyjarbok”, the saga of the Greenlanders and the story of “Eric the Red”. This is the newest anime series from famed studio WIT whom are just wrapping up on one of the best seasons of “Attack on Titan” ever made! (Yeah, I’m calling it) It’s also directed by Shuuhei Yabuta whom recently done the highly surprising anime adaption of “Inuyashiki” and it’s written by Hiroshi Seko whom also wrote for “Inuyashiki” and both series of “Mob Psycho 100%”! Finally the series is already set to be 24 episodes long, nice! I haven’t read any of the original manga series but already just from the trailers, and it’s production team, this is looking like one epic amazing series to watch and plus I’m a huge historical action buff and this is 100% my most hyped anime of the summer and hell for the entire year! Yet I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this series will be an Amazon Prime exclusive so it will not be easily available to everyone but if you have it or not please, please attempt your best to check into this ASAP! Premiers on 07/07, streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. *** Honorable Mentions *** — “Astra Lost in Space” — Japanese Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD9o_8UjOvg Based on the manga series by Kenta Shinohara, the creator of “Sket Dance”, at least it’s pretty cool to finally see a pure future sci-fi anime that doesn’t involve the military and/or mecha and is all about space exploration. A shame the original manga only lasted 5 volumes where the previous “Sket Dance” went up to 32! I wasn’t all too much interested in the anime adaption of Sket but the concept of the newer series definitely has me intrigued and hoping it’s going to be a fun one. It’s coming from studio Lerche whom did “Radiant” and from the director of “Hakumei & Mikochi”. Premiers 07/03, streaming on Funimation Now and Hulu. — Granbelm — Japanese Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqW-YbHugT0 This is an anticipated new anime that’s coming from the same director of the highly popular “isekai” series “Re:Zero”, Masaharu Watanabe, and even shares the same character designer of that said series and it’s written by Jukki Hanada whom did both “A Place Further Than the Universe” and “Sound Euphonium” among many other well respected anime. Not much is really known of the story but it’s concept seems to be highly similar to the 90’s Clamp fantasy series “Magic Knight Rayearth” where school girls somehow get transported to another world and are able to gain magical powers as well as be able to command mecha-like armor. Unlike Re:Zero this is being produced by studio Nexus whom last finished on “Comic Girls”. Premiers on 07/05 but no legal streaming has been announced. — “Arifureta: From Commonplace to the World’s Strongest” — Japanese Trailer (old) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnVhWEAPOL0 Japanese Trailer (new) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoIaPNWLxy0 Yep, another light novel “isekai” adaption (I swear, it’s like a hydra, if a major one leaves, i.e. “Shield Hero”, then two or more less interesting ones will follow) where a group of high schoolers get transported into a JRPG-like world yet the M.C. is forced to only use basic transmutation powers where everyone else he knows gets high powered skills and magic and must overcome his hardship the best way he can, by creating guns! Bang! Bang! Also this is looking pretty dark and twisted and may turn out like last year’s “Goblin Slayer” but hopefully not as dumb. I am somewhat interested in this one just due to the fact it’s being produced by both studio White Fox (Re:Zero, Goblin Slayer) and Asread (Future Dairy) and also heard this was delayed for nearly a year but like to see what surprises this not all too original tale will have in store. Premiers on 07/08 but no legal streaming has been announced.

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Milestones 1st completed anime: Death Note - rated 9 10th completed anime: Shingeki no Kyojin - rated 8 25th completed anime: Noragami - rated 8 50th completed anime: Mushishi - rated 9 1st episode: Death Note Episode - 1 (September, 2018) 100th episode: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode - 12 (March, 2019) 500th episode: Monster - 23 (May, 2019) 1st completed manga: Annarasumanara (May, 2019) 1st chapter: Yotsuba to! Chapter - 1 (May, 2019) 100th chapter: My Young Cat and My Old Dog Chapter - 11 (May, 2019) 250th chapter: About Death Chapter - 10 (June, 2019) 500th chapter: The Breaker Chapter - 52 (June, 2019)

How long should you watch these Japanese cartoons to be able to talk about them as if you were a veteran? Surely, one year is far too short. Most people would consider that amount of time to be just the beginning. Though, I don’t seem to follow the norm. It may just be myself, but I feel as if I’ve experienced all the stages of an anime fan- according to Gigguk’s video. I’m not basing my ideas off his video, by the way. Anyways, I wanted to open this ramble by expressing the fact that I’ve only been watching anime for a short period of time. During this one year, I’ve gone through quite a bit and have evolved as a person- more than I have in the last few years of my life. I thought it’ll be fun to ramble about it and share my fun stories. Don’t expect this to be well written and organized. Everyone in the world who has television has probably seen at least one anime. In the early 2000s, television networks such as Toonami and Cartoon Network introduced the world to a new medium. This medium would define the childhoods of the people watching- introducing them to Naruto, Dragon Ball, and other shows. No, I wasn’t one of them. I’ve heard a little about these Japanese cartoons through friends during my Elementary school days, but none of it interested me. Instead, I watched things like Johnny Test, Fairy Odd Parents, and Spongebob. Occasionally, I would see a bit of Pokemon on my big television machine. Unfortunately, I was a carefree kid who didn’t look into what he was watching. What interested me was not a big box emitting little pixels into pictures, but becoming popular in school. The friends I had were usually the “cool kids”. We would do cool things like throwing paper airplanes, fart, pull down our pants, and bring a gun to school. It was me who brought the gun, by the way. Don’t worry, it wasn’t real. It was a cap gun (a gun that shoots nothing but makes a sound). Everyone thought it was real, so it was funny. I bought it because I thought it was cool to have a gun. I ended up seeing the principal and writing an apology letter. Actually, the kid who reported me really regretted it. Even to this day, he continues to apologize. That’s the extent I would go to in order to impress those who I view as “cool”. But, what’s weird is that I didn’t try to read manga when they did. I’d constantly see them read these Japanese comics, and you’d think this was a great opportunity to get closer to them by picking up on their interests. But, I didn’t even attempt to care. I started making paper airplanes, listen to dubstep, and even got into trouble because that’s what they did. What makes some damn Japanese comics a thing that I don’t pick up? – my guess is that I forgot. I can’t figure out another logical reason other than that. Let me make it clear that my intentions were to impress those in my school, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to do these things. You could say that my friends influenced me to think differently, and therefore I grew an interest in these things even after my friends have long abandoned the trend. For example, I actually grew an interest in guns. I bought it for the sole intention of showing them off to my friends, but my interest only grew more. I believe I bought three pistols and one sniper rifle. Money wasn’t an issue at all, so I also bought a load of caps that I ended up throwing away after my parents called my hobby “dangerous”. This experience was actually pretty funny because I briefly went through a military phase. I would walk around with pistols in my pocket and a sniper rifle on my back. I also had a toy knife that I bought for Halloween. Which reminds me, I believe my interest in snipers or long-range weapons (especially in video games) peaked when I bought the sniper rifle. I thought it was so cool that there was this long gun that had the ability to instantly kill from a long distance. Anyways, back on topic: gaming soon came after when I received an iPad mini for my Birthday. Fun fact: my birthday is on the 31st of December. And my parents gave me this gift several weeks before it. So, I don’t know if that iPad mini was for Christmas or my Birthday. But, I was really fascinated by the abilities of this new device. I had an iPod before, but it was a piece of crap. With this iPad mini, I would be able to play games like Geometry Dash, Blitz Brigade- and I don’t remember any other games before that. With the introduction of mobile games, provided me a way to become a YouTuber- my story about video games and YouTube is far too long to talk about, so I’ll just skip it. But, what led me to start watching anime was actually the YouTuber PewDiePie. Back in 2013, he made Corpse Party gameplay video. I watched about a quarter of his gameplay until boredom consumed me. And I don’t know why, but I decided to search up “Corpse Party ___”. I can’t recall what I put in that blank. Perhaps “episode one” or maybe even nothing. But, searching this up led me to discover the anime. I watched all of the episodes and swore to never watch anything like it ever again (exaggeration). It was quite a horrifying experience, but my idea of anime was still: “eh”. Ignorance was the issue in this case since I knew nothing and therefore my opinions weren’t strong. I didn’t revisit anime until early 2018 when I discovered School Days. It was through watching PewDiePie (once again) play Doki Doki Literature Club that I discovered another YouTuber who played Doki Doki Literature Club mods, who then played another visual novel called School Days. The same process as Corpse Party: boredom consumed me and I searched for an anime version. It’s a shame that my first experiences with anime were of two infamous shows. Any ordinary person would run as far away from anime as possible if they were in my position, but my curiosity overwhelmed that idea. “This can’t possibly be it.” – and it wasn’t, because I searched for more. Perhaps earlier experiences and motivations increased my “open-mindedness” towards anime. I was in a state in my life where I wanted a fresh start. Beginning from something new, and discovering myself in the process. Luckily, anime was there I was ready. But, for some reason, romance was my go-to genre. Searching through YouTube to find new anime, I would always put in the search bar “romance”. The teenage experience of realizing that you are attracted to the opposite gender is perhaps the sole reason. I’ve never had a truly great friend, so perhaps the idea of a special someone really appealed to me. Whatever it was, it opened up a whole new world to me: “Anime can make me cry!? WHAT!?!!” “Japanese songs are good? WHAT?!!” “HENTA-” … Actually, I have two manga that contains sexual content. The first one was the Darling in the FranXX manga (Japanese version). I couldn’t read it, and I gave it to a Japanese friend after I realized that I didn’t like the anime as much as I used it. The second one is the No Game No Life Please manga- a spin-off of the original light novel by the original author and his original wife. I didn’t know about its content before I bought them. When I brought it over to the register to buy, the cashier didn’t even try to stop me. Perhaps I look older than I am? I don’t care about sexual content, by the way. It’s just a funny story to tell. So, I went on this week-long binge of romance anime. I ended up completing a total of six shows during this time. Staying up all night and not eating. I was sick during this time, by the way- just in case you were wondering about school. After a month or two, I grew an interest in manga and light novels. I realized that shows that don’t end are usually adaptations. In this case, Oregairu or My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected pushed me to want to buy these Japanese books. You could say the Oregairu manga and light novel was my first, but I actually bought the One Punch Man manga at a nearby store in the process of waiting for Amazon to ship my order. So, I bought Oregairu first but obtained the One Punch Man manga first. In the beginning, you could say I was watching anime the way most people do (casually). It wasn’t until I watched Steins;Gate that I realized that there was value in analyzing and thinking deeply about what I consume. This was also when I realized that romance wasn’t the only appealing genre in anime. It took me quite a long few months to start picking up the pace, but eventually, I thought more critically, I was smarter, and my tastes and personality began to change. Digibro had a huge part in this development, so I’d like to dedicate another time for talking/writing about my experiences with his content. There are also specific shows, studios, and people that I’d like to dedicate another time for… Before I began writing, I knew that I’d hit this wall. There are a lot of things I want to go in depth about, and briefly writing about them isn’t something I’d like to do. For example, my experience with K-On is a huge topic to write about. But, this entire ramble was just a ramble- a way to push myself to write when I didn’t feel like writing. I guess I’ll continue when the time comes. Possibly, a future awaits…

Ep 01 > ch 01 / 02 Ep 02 > ch 04 + 06 / 07 Ep 03 > ch 08 / 10 Ep 04 > ch 11 / 13 Ep 05 > ch 14 / 16 Ep 06 > ch 16 + 18 / 19 Ep 07 > ch 20 + 22 + 24 Ep 08 > ch 21 + 25 / 26 Ep 09 > ch 27 / 28 Ep 10 > ch 31 / 33 Ep 11 > ch 34 + 41 Ep 12 > ch 35 + Ep 13 > ch 38 / 39

Anime Feminist never responded to my pitch so I'm putting the damn thing in here instead History is being written all the time. With enough record and evidence, we can look back at a particular time and make a pretty accurate guess as to what happened and what it probably looked like, and trust me, by the time we invent proper time machines I’ll jump right into one and you’ll never see me again. Sometimes, we discover new information that changes what we thought we knew before. The further back we go, the foggier our guesses get, which opens up room for artistic interpretation. So say you have a particular time period with enough primary sources to get an objective-ish look but still enough wiggle room to write the events into an interesting story. A time period like say… the French Revolution? And just as history can change over time, so can ideas and interpretations. Here, I’m going to be talking about Rose of Versailles, an anime from 1979 based on a manga by Riyoko Ikeda, and a manga from 2013, directly inspired by it; Innocent and its sequel Innocent Rouge by Shinichi Sakamoto, and how, in my opinion, the latter greatly expands on the former. So for a quick rundown, Rose of Versailles is about Oscar François de Jarjeyes, who her father decides to raise as a boy so she can take her father’s place as commander of the royal guards, which she does. There, she gets to meet famous figures such as Marie Antoinette, Madame du Barry and Jeanne Valois de la Motte. Over time, Oscar falls in love, becomes sympathetic to the revolution and joins the fight, eventually dying during a big battle at the end of the series. And that’s Rose of Versailles summed up. Innocent and Rouge, meanwhile are about the lives of the Sanson family, the real life family of executioners in France at the time. Particularly they focuses on Charles-Henri Sanson (real), the executioner for Paris, and his younger sister Marie-Joseph Sanson (fictional), the royal executioner for Versailles. As they grow up they meet famous figures such as Marie Antoinette, Madame du Barry and Jeanne Valois de la Motte. Over time, Marie falls in love, becomes sympathetic to the revolution and joins the fight. She may later die in a big battle at the end of the series, we don’t know yet, since Rouge still isn’t finished. So, yeah. While these summaries are gross oversimplifications, you can kind of see where one takes influence from the other. So, which did it better? Well, okay. That’s kind of the wrong question. ‘Which did I like more, and why?’ is more what I’m going for here, but I’ll do my best to make it more interesting to read than a disorganised rant. I didn’t like Rose of Versailles. I mean, I sat through all 40 episodes so I probably liked it a bit, but there were a lot of things that kept me from loving it. Many times, especially in the first third, they would introduce something important, like a cliffhanger, or a strained relationship, and then drop it. An example: At the end of one episode Madame du Barry attempts to poison Oscar’s mother, but Oscar saves her. But then the topic is never brought up again. Oscar and du Barry hardly interact from that point on, and du Barry is removed from the story shortly after because history demands it. This sort of focus shift happened quite a lot. However, while I may not have liked the show itself, I can definitely see it’s good points, as well as it’s influence. Oscar is a character who breaks gender norms both in the time it was written and in the time it was set and acted as an inspiration to many for years to come, such as Kunihiko Ikuhara, who based much of Utena Tenjou’s design and character on her. And that’s why it’s good. Even if the show itself might not hold up today from a technical perspective, the fact that it’s stuck around for so long and brings up topics still relevant nearly 30 years later, that to me is amazing. Meanwhile, Innocent is breathtakingly beautiful. Digitally drawn by a team of artists and researchers under author Shinichi Sakamoto, the era of the French Revolution and the lives of the Sanson family are drawn in all their beauty and all their ugliness. Clothing is drawn in painstaking detail with special attention paid to the patterns and folds, shoes are polished to a mirror shine and the levels of lighting are used constantly to give us a sense of the mood. Another thing worth mentioning is character design. Like I said, clothes are drawn in painstaking detail, and the hair and make-up choices are spectacular, taking influences from glam and punk rock in their hairstyles. And everyone has a different, iconic hairstyle. Thrown away, are the wigs and side-hair-swirly things of historical accuracy in favour of big, bombastic hair which (on the characters shared between shows) looks pretty funny if you put them side-by-side. Oh, another thing to love about Innocent (this is the last one I promise), is the infusion of fantasy into the story, for the sake of metaphor. Some chapters will step away from portraying everything literally in favour of something more imaginative, so the reader might better understand what the character is doing or feeling. One of my favourites is this throwaway chapter in Rouge where Marie Antoinette is mass answering flattering letters from nobles. So, question; How do you portray someone mass responding to messages with the same response all in a row, and do it in a way relatable to a reader from the 21st century? If your answer was Twitter, then you were right! @Antoinette1775 has 59,219,572 followers in the manga and of course someone went and made the account for real. The real one currently has 26. (well, 27 now) Now, both being centred around the French Revolution, it can be interesting to compare how both series portray it and the people involved in it. To start off, both of them have the royal family as major characters. For Rose of Versailles, Oscar has a strong friendship with Marie Antoinette that lasts until the end of the series, and in Innocent, Charles has a similar friendship with Louis XVI, but taken a lot further. Charles and Louis’ relationship was openly romantic but doomed to fail while Oscar and Marie ended up as friends on different sides of the conflict. Both series present the royals as reverential, and paint them in a sympathetic light, but each one take that in different directions. Rose of Versailles takes steps to further humanise the royals, particularly Marie Antoinette who for most of the show is presented as blissfully ignorant, like she’s perfect and nice and would’ve happily fixed the problems with the country but she just didn’t know about them, or at least her attentions were never called to the obvious class struggles between the three branches of French society at the time (called the three estates; the royals, the nobles, and the commoners). So when the people of the third estate come charging into Versailles in the final episode, the way her actions are presented feel more like they were meant to look admirable, rather than the stubbornness that I took it as. Innocent on the other hand, also paints a sympathetic picture of the royals (with a stronger focus on Louis this time), but takes a much more cynical approach. This version of Marie Antoinette has an outward appearance of dignity and beauty hiding a selfish, prideful woman beneath who doesn’t care that her citizens are starving, and Louis XVI (who was largely absent from Rose of Versailles) here is another selfish king who more-or-less agreed with the plight of the third estate, but would rather be at home making or playing with locks than doing anything about it. But he isn’t totally evil. Throughout the series, characters like Jacques say... So when Louis finally goes to his execution, he is happy to fulfil that request, both for the people, and for his children, so the problem isn’t passed down to them. The execution lasts six chapters and the aftermath is still going on. Who knows how it’s going to continue when volume 10 comes out. Okay, so far we’ve compared how each show presents the royal family, but there is a much stronger point of comparison we can look at. I think you’d be hard pressed to tell me that Marie-Joseph Sanon is not inspired by (or rather written in response to) Oscar François de Jarjeyes. We can see in the toco toco documentary that Shinichi Sakamoto owns the Rose of Versailles manga, written by Riyoko Ikeda and she, in turn, has read Innocent and enjoyed it. The cover of Innocent Chapter 87 features a quote from her: “I was shocked by the strength of the design and the unique aesthetics. The situation of the Sanson Family, carrying the fate of living backstage of the florid French history is being drawn vividly through this acute inspection of them” Both Oscar and Marie play very similar roles in their respective stories. Both are the lead female characters, both are fictional people inserted into real, historical events, both break typical gender norms in their clothing and their professions, both fall in love at least once, none of which end well and, oh, both have a close, personal servant near them named André with black hair and a kind heart, always willing to help those in need. I know the André thing is just Shinichi Sakamoto deliberately taking the piss, but it’s funny, so I’m gonna use it. While Oscar and Marie are very similar in a lot of aspects, just like before, it’s the ways that they differ that are the most interesting. Throughout Rose of Versailles, Oscar is very much the selfless, tragic hero. Constantly torn between her love for Marie Antoinette and what she knows is the right thing to do, going so far as to reach out to the queen one last time before leaving to join the fight. By the time Oscar leads the storming of the Bastille, she has lost everything, her friends, her rank, her André, but she fights on anyway, ultimately being shot down by the guards in the tower. She dies peacefully next to André as two unsung heroes of the revolution. Meanwhile, maybe half a mile away, Marie-Joseph Sanson sits calmly by her bedroom window, breastfeeding her child and watching the Bastille fall, then she moves on and goes about her day. The death of one of the most iconic female characters in the history of anime, is but a footnote in the life of Marie-Joseph Sanson. I have no way to know if that was the message Shinichi Sakamoto intended to get across, but having seen the ending of Rose of Versailles right before coming to this scene in Rouge, that was my main take-away from it. I think the most important difference about Marie when compared to Oscar, is that Marie is much more selfish. Marie cares about her own personal freedom more than anything. As a woman in France in the 1700’s, she felt stifled by the gender roles imposed on her by her traditionalist grandmother, and dreamed of becoming a great executioner, like all the men in the family, leading to a horrible confrontation with her grandmother. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I should tell you, that crest over her heart… it isn’t a tattoo. Anyone that tries to take Marie’s freedom away, she dreams of killing on the execution platform, and that includes the royal family. While she does prioritize her freedom above everything else, she also likes to see others expressing their own freedoms, breaking away from what is expected of them by society. Marie-Joseph Sanson; breaker or gender roles, openly bisexual, trans ally and mother to a non-binary child. Considering all this, I’d say that Marie’s values are more in line with modern feminism than even Oscar. In Volume 5 of Rouge, Chapter 30 aptly titled ‘Rouge Thèse (Thesis)’, Marie is fighting a man named Jacques inside the Palace of Versailles. If he breaks through the door Marie is guarding, he’ll be able to kill the king right then and there, but Marie has to defend him as part of her job as royal executioner. Marie and Jacques have met twice before, so Jacques tries to convince her to join him. The blood of the king splatters over each page, and out of it sprout images of modern day Paris. He dreams of a world where… “The towns will be full of food, the stomachs of the children will always be full, people will go to school with smiles on their faces.... And lovers will speak of love without regard to social class… Men will be able to choose their occupation regardless of birth and protect their families” he says, appearing in a sharp, 3-piece suit and expensive looking watch. But did you notice the problem? Marie certainly did, and she makes it known. She breaks into his illusion, appearing in her own suit, a loose tie and mirror shined oxford shoes to point out his hypocrisy. “So ya eat till yer bloated, fuck whatever women you wanna fuck, and get whatever job you want, sounds like a pretty sweet world ta live in if you’re a man..." “Marie has no objections about sayin’ hungry children should be able ta fill their bellies but…" (Oh yeah, she talks in the third person, just cause she can, I guess. Forgot to mention that) So... yeah. In a lot of ways, Marie feels like the antithesis to Oscar, only caring about the revolution so far as it benefits her, but in other ways she feels like a stronger version of what Oscar set out to be, similar to what Utena Tenjou was in the 90’s, but swap the romance for sadism and punk rock hair and you’ve got Marie. That’s not to say I think Marie is perfect though, or Oscar for that matter. My problem is the same for both of them, but it’s less to do with their characters and more about their place in their stories. Remember, both Oscar and Marie are made-up. They’re fictional characters inserted into actual historical events, which means that their agency in the story is always up for question. There’s an old joke that Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark would have played out exactly the same if Indy hadn’t been in the movie at all. The nazi’s still would’ve found the ark and still had all their faces melted off, and the same is more of less true here. The stories can only alter history so much before it stops being historical, and therefore, Oscar and Marie can only do so much in their stories, especially considering their jobs, both working right next to the royal family. So both inevitably suffer the problem of Oscar and Marie’s choices not really mattering very much in the grand scheme of things. Innocent circumvents this a little by sharing the main character slot between Marie and her brother Charles, who was real, but still, a lot of our investment is riding on whether or not we’ll care what happens when we know that no matter what they do, the outcome will always be the same. This is why I hate the idea of destiny. It’s so fucking depressing when you think about it. Luckily, considering the popularity of both series, this might only be a problem for me. I mean, even knowing about this, I was still invested in both characters all the way through. It also introduces the question of “how far can we stretch history before it becomes fiction?”. Rose of Versailles more-or-less plays the story straight, everything is presented as it happened, with Oscar there to witness it, and sometimes take part in it, while dealing with her own problems. Innocent takes a lot more creative liberties with it’s version, which is actually more due to the choice to focus on Charles. For example, there doesn’t seem to be any historical evidence that Charles-Henri Sanson knew the famous Madame du Barry, but here they become lovers for a short while, and du Barry even sneaks him into a ball in Versailles disguised as a noblewoman (which is actually one of my favourite bits of the manga). Oh, speaking of Madame du Barry, have you noticed how Rose of Versailles really doesn’t like her? It’s true to history that Marie Antoinette herself didn’t like her, because she couldn’t accept the idea of talking to a prostitute, but even outside of Antoinette’s view, du Barry is still presented as this really evil, manipulative woman and goes out of her way to poison Oscar’s mum. In fact, Rose of Versailles puts a pretty negative spin on a lot of the people who helped kick off the revolution, especially the women. My favourite example (and probably my favourite character in Rose of Versailles) is Comtesse Jeanne de la Motte, born to a poor family on the streets of Paris, but being an impoverished descendant of the Valois royal family, who climbed her way up to nobility from the bottom rung and led the famous “Affair of the Diamond Necklace”, until she was arrested and sentenced to whipping, branding and life imprisonment, until she escaped. This is one of the points where Rose of Versailles’ story diverges from history for dramatic effect. In the anime, Jeanne is broken out by her husband Nicolas, the two run away to a church hideout and die together in an explosion before Oscar and co. can catch them. In history, it’s still debated as to how exactly Jeanne escaped, but we can be reasonably sure that Nicolas wasn’t there in person. After her escape, she fled to London, published her memoirs and then died after falling out of a hotel window. Rose of Versailles’ version is probably more interesting to watch, don’t you think? Just as it did with Madame du Barry, Rose of Versailles goes out of its way to villainize Jeanne by adding in certain fictional elements, like trying to kill her fictional sister and letting the rich old woman who gave her opportunities to succeed (the real Madame de Boulainvilliers) burn to death in her house. To sum it up, Rose of Versailles seems to have it out for characters who climb up from the bottom of society, gain power and then use that power to disturb and destroy the monarchy, especially if those characters are sex workers. If was writing a story about the French Revolution, a character like Jeanne would probably by my protagonist. But how does Innocent Rouge portray these two characters? Well obviously in a cynical way, because this is Innocent and it hates everybody, but apart from that, they’re usually shown in positive, or at least neutral lights. It can be a bit difficult to portray du Barry positively once you find out she was a slave owner (a fact that Rose of Versailles omits), but most of the time, she’s seen as a positive presence in the series, especially in regards to sex, and the same goes for Jeanne. Jeanne’s character in Innocent Rouge is very different from what it was in Rose of Versailles. She gets a small cameo as a child in two chapters of Innocent, and when she shows up again in Rouge she’s grown up and has become a famous dominatrix when she meets Charles, a role that the manga never chastises her for (in general, Innocent is much kinder to sex workers than Rose of Versailles was). Towards the end of her story, the way she’s presented is closer to that of a heroic figure than anything else. She survives the Sanson’s assassination attempt during her branding and fantasises about destroying Versailles with her own hands, as the reader is treated to an image of a gigantic Jeanne punching the palace to pieces over a two page spread with the words: Fuck yeah! There’s still a lot of cool things about Innocent that I haven’t really talked about like the actual life of the Sanson family, how Charles is depicted vs his real life counterpart, the actual source material that Innocent is based on; ‘Executioner Sanson’ by Adachi Masakatsu, the story’s view on executioners and execution as a profession, the ‘humanised grim reaper’ aesthetic or something a bit closer to home like the LGBT representation throughout both manga, but if I went on, then I’d be here for another 3000 words so I’ll wrap up. Personally, I consider Innocent to the Rose of Versailles of the modern day, taking what was laid down in that story and expanding on it, taking it further and adding its own spin, with less of that weird pro-monarchy vibe I got. After this I may go back and read the Rose of Versailles manga, or watch the summary films. There was supposed to be a new movie based on the manga set for release in 2007, but looks to be cancelled, and a trailer is all that’s left. That’s got me a little sad, I think that could’ve been quite good. Meanwhile, Innocent Rouge is currently at nine completed volumes at the time of writing (the same number that the original Innocent ended at), with the start of the tenth still on the way. I don’t know how long it’s gonna go on for, but if it’s sticking to Charles’ full life story then we’ve still got a long way to go. And I, for one, can’t wait to see it. By the way, quick footnote before I go. You know Touch Off by Uverworld? That song that was used as the OP for The Promised Neverland anime? That song actually fits really well with the tone of Innocent. Seriously, if you read it, listen to Touch Off at the same time, you will not regret it.

Starting Date : 30/06/2019 Ending Date :

1. [X] Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
2. [X] Kimi no Na wa.
3. [X] Gintama°
4. [X] Steins;Gate
5. [X] Gintama'
6. [X] Gintama.: Shirogane no Tamashii-hen Airing
7. [X] Hunter x Hunter (2011)
8. [X] Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu
9. [X] Gintama': Enchousen
10. [X] Gintama Movie 2: Kanketsu-hen - Yorozuya yo Eien Nare
11. [X] Koe no Katachi
12. [X] Owarimonogatari 2nd Season
13. [X] Gintama.
14. [✓] Clannad: After Story
15. [X] Gintama
16. [X] Haikyuu!!: Karasuno Koukou VS Shiratorizawa Gakuen Koukou
17. [✓] Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2
18. [X] Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi
19. [X] Made in Abyss
20. [X] 3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Season
21. [X] Kizumonogatari III: Reiketsu-hen
22. [X] Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso
23. [X] Haikyuu!! Second Season
24. [X] Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen
25. [X] Mushishi Zoku Shou 2nd Season
26. [X] Cowboy Bebop
27. [X] Hajime no Ippo
28. [X] Mononoke Hime
29. [X] Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Tsuioku-hen
30. [✓] Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch
31. [✓] Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season
32. [X] Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki
33. [X] Monogatari Series: Second Season
34. [X] Mushishi Zoku Shou
35. [X] Natsume Yuujinchou Roku
36. [X] Mushishi
37. [✓] Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu
38. [X] Great Teacher Onizuka
39. [X] One Punch Man
40. [X] Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
41. [X] Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger
42. [X] Howl no Ugoku Shiro
43. [X] Natsume Yuujinchou Shi
44. [X] Kizumonogatari II: Nekketsu-hen
45. [X] Mushishi Zoku Shou: Suzu no Shizuku
46. [X] Monster
47. [X] Bakuman. 3rd Season
48. [X] Death Note
49. [✓] Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan 2
50. [X] Fate/Zero 2nd Season
51. [X] Hajime no Ippo: Rising
52. [✓] Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (TV) 2nd Season
53. [X] Haikyuu!!
54. [X] Natsume Yuujinchou San
55. [X] Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei
56. [X] Natsume Yuujinchou Go
57. [X] Ping Pong The Animation
58. [✓] JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Diamond wa Kudakenai
59. [X] Kara no Kyoukai 5: Mujun Rasen
60. [X] Mushishi Special: Hihamukage
61. [X] Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
62. [X] Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou
63. [X] Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Movie: Lagann-hen
64. [X] Aria The Origination
65. [X] Gintama.: Porori-hen
66. [X] Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin
67. [X] Ashita no Joe 2
68. [X] No Game No Life: Zero
69. [X] Steins;Gate: Fuka Ryouiki no Déjà vu
70. [X] Boku dake ga Inai Machi
71. [X] Gintama Movie 1: Shinyaku Benizakura-hen
72. [✓] JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Stardust Crusaders 2nd Season
73. [X] Kuroshitsuji Movie: Book of the Atlantic
74. [✓] Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.
75. [X] Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG
76. [X] Hotaru no Haka
77. [X] Hotarubi no Mori e
78. [X] Kamisama Hajimemashita: Kako-hen
79. [X] Shokugeki no Souma
80. [X] Uchuu Kyoudai
81. [X] Kuroko no Basket 3rd Season
82. [X] Major S5
83. [X] Slam Dunk
84. [X] Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen Airing
85. [X] Gintama: Yorinuki Gintama-san on Theater 2D
86. [X] Hellsing Ultimate
87. [X] One Piece Airing
88. [✓] Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan (TV)
89. [X] Violet Evergarden Airing
90. [X] Kara no Kyoukai 7: Satsujin Kousatsu (Kou)
91. [X] Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu
92. [X] Mahoutsukai no Yome Airing
93. [X] Usagi Drop
94. [X] Kingdom 2nd Season
95. [X] Mob Psycho 100
96. [X] Mushishi Zoku Shou: Odoro no Michi
97. [X] Nichijou
98. [X] Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara
99. [X] Bakemono no Ko
100. [X] Cross Game

Starting Date : 30th June 2019 Ending Date :

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