Pretear - The Corniest thing I've ever watched/read

Where do I even begin to start with Pretear? Okay, I'll start from the very beginning.

After randomly browsing the internet for anime I should watch, I stumbled upon the Wikipedia page for Pretear. While I thought that it didn't look that great, I noticed that it was a reverse-harem anime and I naturally got curious (because I'm very pro-reverse-harem). After downloading it and opening the file for the first episode I knew that this was going to be the funniest thing to watch. Not because it was a comedy, but because of how CORNY it was.

In the first couple of minutes into the first episode you're introduced to way too many main characters and you're left going, 'Okay, what the fuck was that?' You're left bemused not just because of the sudden splurge of characters but because you have to double take when you see the drag queen with the blonde ponytail and heeled boots. That's right, it's actually a guy.

When you're eventually introduced to the main character you'll soon realise that she's one of those characters that are akin to marmite. You either love her or hate her. Himeno = marmite. Personally, I don't think she's that bad. She's pretty much a typical, stubborn high schooler which I liked, but the fact that she did martial arts pissed me off. It wasn't just because it's the main thing that turned her into a mary-sue character, but because there was no real point to it, other than give her an excuse to punch Hayate whenever he gets too close and pervy. Other than that, she's a decent character for a reverse harem.

The other characters aren't really that great. While each of the characters have their own personalities and seem to have been thought out, I found myself wondering why there had to be so many. While the little kid characters were cute, I didn't think they were necessary for the plot and they only managed to confuse me further when first watching this. As for the adult characters... I have big issues with them. The character of Kei really pissed me off in the anime; he was stuck-up and self-obsessed. Same goes for the manga; he was stuck up and self-obsessed, but he had reason to be. In the manga he looked normal, he didn't look like a cross dressing weirdo.

One of the other main characters I have issues with is Sasame. When watching the anime for the first time, I found myself wanting to punch him when he said 'So do I' after Hino said that she believed all guys should be like him. I also found that half the things he said were some of corniest things I've ever heard in my life. It's worse than watching my mother's filipino drama films! And those were pretty bad! Thankfully, Hayate wasn't as corny as him. He seems like one of the most realistic and hilarious characters in the whole thing and he provided me with a great about of comic relief, as did the whole relationship with Hino.

The general plotline was relatively simple. Girl has to save the world with the help of seven 'supposedly' hot guys. There is very little in the way of twists and its all very linear, which is good for little kids, but not that great for 17 year olds who want something that can get their teeth into. With names like 'The Princess of Destruction', 'The Snow White Princess Pretear' and 'Puppet of Darkness', you wonder what in the hell the mangaka was thinking when he was writing the story. I mean, even my 8 year old cousin cringed at the names!

The art itself is bogstandard. Nothing stands out except for the creepy affects used in the anime when their eyes go emotional; it scared my cousin slightly when she first noticed it, which isn't really the effect desired from a romance scene. The costume designs were rather bizarre and crappy, though I loved how colourful everything was in the anime. (I <3 colour!)

In general, I think this was a pretty boring anime. Nothing elevates it above the rest and it's kind of embarrassing to watch with anyone except your younger siblings or cousins. The only thing that really makes it stand out is that it's one of those things you can really take the piss out of and not feel guilty about it because you know you're right.

Vampire Knight - Blood and Bullets

Phew! I've finished reading what has been published of Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino and I have to say that it's one of those rare mangas which I will never get tired of reading. It combines two of my favourite things, vampires and romance, so I had feeling that I'd end up being quite taken with it when I first started downloading it.

If you haven't read or heard of it, I'll summarize it for you so that you get the jist. The story mainly revolves around Yuki Cross who acts as one of the prefects and guardians for the Cross Academy. The Cross Academy, which is chaired by her adoptive father, is split into two classes; the Night Class and the Day Class. The Night Class are an elite group of students who are also absolutely gorgeous, which sends the Day Class into a panicked frenzy whenever they see them. This is where Yuki comes in. Along with her fellow prefect, Zero Kiriyuu, she must ensure that the change over of the Day Class and Night Class happens with as little interaction between the two classes as possible. Why must she do this? Because everyone one of the students in the Night Class is a vampire. It is Yuki's job to make sure that no incident arises which would alert the Day Class to the Night Class' true nature. She is one of the guardians of this secret.

While this may look like a very simple looking story, you'll find that it quickly gets quite complicated as the various characters all have their own secrets that they can't tell anyone about. While it is essentially a shoujo manga, it stands above the rest in that there is one hell of a plot. Everything is premeditated and theres a great deal of suspense. It's because of this that I think that I admire this manga so much.

The artwork is relatively well done. The expressions of each of the characters are detailed, with the characteristically expressive eyes and the highly detailed costume decoration which is usual in Hino's works. While there is often little in the way of background drawing, with gaps often being filled with blotting effects and etchings, it works well in contrasting the beautifully detailed drawings. One of the draw backs however is that the only way you can distinguish the individual characters is by their hairstyles alone, which made me a little confused when it came to the characters of Aidou and Kain as they kind of look similar.
However, regardless of that fact, this manga is very pleasing in an aesthetic sense.

The relationships between the characters is also another thing that attracted me to this manga. While at first it seems like Yuki is destined to be Kaname, you see that her relationship with Zero evolves to something much deeper when she allows him to bite her in order to inhibit his impending insanity. She begins to question what Zero is to her and it progresses to the point where Zero nearly kisses her (KYaahHH! XD). However, while her relationship with Zero changes, you also see Kaname coming to terms with his own feelings for love for Yuki, and he is the first to confess these to her. Oooh... it makes me go all goo-ga just thinking about it. I really am starting to resemble Renge from OHSHC... -.-;;

There are so many swoon-worthy moments in this series which is the main reason why I'm suggesting it to all of those people out there who enjoy romance stories. One prime example of this is when Zero hugs Yuki just as their study session ends and this is the point in the story where I finally realise that Zero feels more for Yuki than I had originally thought. Another point which will probably make fan-girls go all squee (including myself) is when Kaname asks Yuki if she wants to become a vampire and live for eternity by his side.

Well I'll probably stop reviewing now because I really could go on forever, but as I suggest earlier, if you haven't read this yet then you should at least read the first volume and see what you think. (A good place to download this is at MangaTraders ;))

Over and out!

(PS. I apologise for how romance-based my reviews are becoming, but I become a bit of a nutcase when it comes to romance. X) )

Hana-Kimi - Two Thumbs Up

Okay, so I finished reading Hana-Kimi. And I was so relieved when I finally turned the last page. It seriously wore me out. I'm not saying it was bad, but it really had somee hair-tearing-out-worthy moments and I was so relieved with the final outcome.

Now being a shojo anime/manga fan I loved HK. As far as character developement is concerned, it really reminded me of Kare Kano in how detailed it was. The characters were very well thought out and all the mains had their own back history and personalities which really helped you understand why some of them act the way they do, as well as help you get fully familiarized with each character. Out of all the characters, I think my favourite is still Sano. Why, you ask? Because that boy knew all along about Mizuki's gender and despite the various precarious situations the two of them got into he showed amazing self-restraint. He cared for her that much. If only there were guys like that in real life... *sighs*

For some reason, I found that many of the characters in HK reminded me of so many other characters in the other mangas and anime's I've read and watched. For instance, I couldn't help but think of Himejima as being the long lost brother of Ayame from Fruits Basket, and I found that Sano's possessive/jealous personality really reminded me of Arima from Kare Kano (though Sano > Arima. He is the 'Super God of Sexiness' after all).

As far as the plot goes, it was pretty much what I was expecting from this gender-bender manga. Most of the twists were focused on whether Mizuki had been found out or not and it wasn't anything spectacularly original, yet it was done in such a way that it always had you gripped and eager to find out what happens. This can also be said of the more romantic pages. Whenever Sano and Mizuki had an encounter, I always found myself reading it so avidly that when they somehow manage to get out of the situation I end up wanting to pull my hair out at how frustrating it is. The two characters remained so oblivious to the other's feelings that I was tempted to actually shout at my laptop, though I restrained myself so that I wouldn't get carted off to the funny farm.

This manga is generally one of those books that you should at least try to read. It has some absolutely hilarious parts to it whilst there are a shedload of cutesy 'squee' moments as well. So, if you like angsty, must-turn-the-page sort of romance mangas then this is great.


Right, onto my next project... Midori no Hibi!

Ja ne!

OMIGEE!! - Hana-Kimi

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! If I had known this manga would be this good, I would have downloaded it way way sooner! When I initially picked up the first Hana-Kimi book in my local manga store I didn't think much of it and I put it down without even flicking through. However, when I boredly downloaded it earlier from MangaTraders, I found myself totally hooked! I was actually laughing out loud for some of it!

Sure, the premise of a girl dressing up as a boy is generally quite overdone now a days, but Hana-Kimi just seems to be so much funnier than most stuff. It's even caused me to become slightly disillusioned with Ouran! And I never thought that was possible!

For those of you who don't understand what I'm talking about, let me introduce you to the manga Hana-Kimi, which authored by Hisaya Nakajo. After watching a television programme featuring high jumper Izumi Sano, Ashiya Mizuki becomes immediately obsessed with him. Scowering the internet and various newspapers for information on the high jumper, she eventually finds out where he goes to school and determined to meet him and watch him high jump, she packs her bags and flies all the way from the US to Japan. She then transfers to the same school as him in hopes of getting the chance to meet him. Now here's the interesting part, the school is an all boys school. And not only that, but she ends up sharing a class and a room with her idol!

Now, imagine some of the most hilarious things that can happen in situations like this. Whatever you've imagined, it's probably happened. Sleep-walking into his bed? Yep, that's happened. Getting caught in the shower? Yara. Getting kissed by him when he's drunk and has turned into his other form, the kissing fiend? Tick, tick. Calling his arch-rival a short-legged fox? Oh yeah. Seeing the gay school doctor dress up as a show girl? *nods*

All this has happened and I'm still only on volume three! It's amazing! And I think I've become a total Sano fan-girl! *squeals* So far it's been really great and I'm looking forward to the various other antics that are bound to happen, though I wonder how long it's going to take Mizuki to realise that Sano knows her secret. But anyway, I'll leave you with a little glimpse of the slightly bizarre doctor who is fast becoming my favourite character (after Sano, of course).

Ja ne!

Real Men Wear Pink - AKA Rurouni Kenshin

Wow, first post! Eek! Well, I think I'm going to start off with the first anime I ever watched seriously, and that would be Rurouni Kenshin. I was suggested it by a friend who is apparently one of the mods over at ANN and she suggested I try this one, so I did. I think it's probably one of those love at first sight sort of things when it comes to RK.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Rurouni Kenshin, I'll give you a brief summary. Kenshin Himura (AKA the Battousai) decided at the age of 28 that he wanted to atone for the sins of his bloody lifestyle as an samurai-assassin that seeks the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was after receiving his reverse-blade sword that he began wandering for ten years, helping others on his travels and living a very unstable lifestyle.
He effectively became a wandering ronin, which is where 'Rurouni' originates from.

However his wanderings stop when he is attacked with a bouken (heavy wooden sword) by a young woman called Kaoru in a case of 'mistaken' identity. He then helps her out of trouble with her dojo and becomes a lodger after she offered him a room to stay as way of thanks. And so the story continues, introducing many characters as you progress through the series.

While Rurouni Kenshin is aimed mainly at boys more than teenage girls, there was just enough romance and comedy in it to keep my hooked. While the art wasn't as good in comparison to the stuff my ex-boyfriend had forced me to watch, it was very good for an anime produced in 90s. I also had to love the pink gi they put Kenshin. It made me giggle like the little girl I am when I first saw him. He's a short little red-haired guy wearing pink! I found it difficult to take him seriously.

The characters that were introduced were all very well thought out, each with different personalities and I thought it was fantastically done. I also thought it quite funny how Saitou associated an animal with each of the three main female characters in the series and how very apt the associations were.

There were many giggle worthy points in the anime that stick in my mind. One of the main ones being during the Tokyo Arc when Kenshin is in the bath thinking about Yutaro and the whole mess with Raijuta and he suddenly realises something. In his sense of urgency, he practically leaps out of the bath and crosses the bush divide to where the ladies are bathing and ends up standing in front of them completely buck naked, eliciting the depicted reaction from them. Another amusing scene is during one of the dreaded filler episodes where Kaoru and Misao are having a bath and they discover a peeping tom. After hearing Kaoru scream in distress, the three guys rush to the girls' aid only to have Misao hurl buckets at them out of embarrassment that they'd seen her naked.

As far as the plot goes, it was great until the end of the Kyoto Arc. Then it started to suck. Badly. The filler episodes just pissed me off because of some of the corny stories they came up with, and I was really disappointed with the last episode. It seemed rushed and not very thought out. The sound track wasn't bad, but the art work in it was off from how the other RK episodes were and it had so much of the episode filled with old pictures of places that I grew quite frustrated.

After watching that, I was left with a very bitter feeling towards the anime ending which immediately sent me on a manga rampage. I got hold of some copies of the Jinchu Arc and read through it so as to calm my irritated nerves down. It did the trick. The ending was cute, wrapping up all the loose ends such as what happens to Yahiko and Tsubame and whether Kenshin and Kaoru have babies (Kenji = kawaii! miniture Kenshin).

Now because I'm one of those people who tends to get a bit obsessive about things (no, I'm not an otaku), I went looking for more on the RK ending. I found out that there was the Kenshin Kaden which I've yet to find a copy of and I also heard about the OVAs. I watched the first OVA quite happily, but the second one... *shudder*. I had heard from various people that I should keep away from the RK Seisohen OVA, which is advice I wish I had listened to. I watched it. I got depressed. I hated it. Along with KGNE, Seisohen has got to be one of the most depressing things I've ever watched. I know I'm probably exaggerating, but for me it's one of those 'Oh Em Gee, I want to slit my wrists!' sort of things. Not only that, but the makers went against the mangaka's wishes and gave a very unhappy ending to RK. So as a suggestion to those of you who are planning to get into RK, don't go near the Seisohen OVA unless you want to get teary-eyed and depressed.

Well, that's all for today.

Ja ne!