So now, all that is possible.

So, for the few people that is still following me, please now redirect your attention to:

http://fnsna.net/

Thank you.

Reasons?

• I need to do some leveling up in real life.
• My schedule should be quite busy this term, based on my courses and my workload this early in the term
• Find a web hosting, it gives more freedom to do stuff other than just posting on a blog.
• Improve my writing skills?…..
• I actually don’t watch that much anime recently: I’m just watching Kimi ni Todoke and Hidamari Sketch×☆☆☆ this season so far. [So I should think if I really want to blog about anime when I don't watch that much of them.]
• etc…

I do have several topics that I want to blog about, but never got the plan to research and write about them….

>_<. So for now, thank you for reading and hope to see you soon

At the mean time, you can check my twitter, as I tend to tweet random stuff here and there: http://twitter.com/FNSNA

See you later,

CCY, kevo, moritheil, blkmage, eternal.

PS: Not going to be following ISML that much, but if I have support, I would still support Yagami Hayate.

Now…back to OS

HAPPY NEW DECADE

Hope to an even better year and decade to each of you

Now that it is new years even in Toronto, I just want to say:

My last post was a disaster. OTL

Few days before going back to Canada: Might make a post about the loot that I got during my stay in HK.

Now, more thinking and planning for future posts. （ ´,_ゝ`)

Merry Christmas

CCY’s Twelve Moments in Anime event have always been on my mind through out the Christmas vacation. Yet, because I knew that I was too busy this Christmas (as I went back to Hong Kong for various reasons), I wouldn’t have time to have the time to write a post everyday. So I decided to not join.

Yet, by coincidence, I was sitting in front of the family computer 30 minutes before the arrival of the new year in Hong Kong (FYI, it is 13 hours faster than Toronto). With nothing but to spam twitter before the new years, I decided to do what other bloggers did in days in 30 minutes before the new years, to talk about 12 things related to anime in 2009. In order to do that, I didn’t make posts, but just thought of topics right on site and just tweeted about them.

I have to say, it was a bit messy:

1: ARIA: an anime that I rewatched in 2009, gave me endless miracles and calmness. A good departure from the endless moeblob in recent anime

If I went with kevo style of trying to put everything into the 12 days of Christmas song, I would have placed ARIA in the third day, as the main focus of ARIA is Akari, Aika and Alice. ┐(‘～`；)┌  [Well, you can say that ARIA gave me one cute Akari-chan :3]

2: Saki: When MJ meets moe and over the top action. The results are exciting. Despite the yuri overtone, the anime was still excellent

Knowing how to play Hong Kong MJ even before Saki, it was actually the fact that Saki was a MJ related anime that got me interested in the first place (and also the fact that people on irc started playing MJ after watching Saki). While I did post (read: rant) about how that there is a huge yuri overtone in the anime (of how there are several almost official yuri couples just from the anime itself) and how it provides huge amount of fanservice (I say, Nodoka’s oppai is too annoying). It still doesn’t take away the fact that Saki is fun to watch, mostly is because how stylish they play MJ. It is also good such that more people are exposed to Mahjong [it is a fun and exciting game].

3. Kimi ni Todoke: Haven’t even finished the anime, I found myself loving every part of the story. Good character development + Sawako 10/10

Just finished watching ep7, and is still liking this anime very much. The reason is that Sawako is someone that so touchable, not like the mass moeblob famous with K-ON and Lucky Star, but someone so realistic. Throughout the few episodes I watched it already touches on themes like friendship and love, and also hints of themes of jealousy. In the end, it is a 10/10 anime that is not all sweet and moe but really shows character development and character relationships, something that I view more importantly.

4. Umineko: From Maria to the decision to take away important parts made most of the characters forgettable: making the anime disappointing

Even before the anime Umineko started airing, I had already posted saying that Higurashi and Umineko would be vastly different and that lots of people looking for Higurashi in Umineko would be quite disappointed. Heck, I have a feeling that I was correct on that one. So it wasn’t as much of a surprise of how Umineko would end up if they took the Higurashi way to do Umineko: not fitting, yet, thats why Studio Deen did.

Studio Deen knew that the crazy face was useful in Higurashi because it would greatly contrast the characters from their normal state to their…”Spirited” state? So having that in mind, they used that face to Maria everytime Maria started blabbing out witch related issues.

The results was less than satisfactory.  While other character might have that face from time to time, Maria was the main victim to this ugly rendering.

Added with the fact that even in the Sound Novels, each game was packed with information. Adapting it into an anime means that the games must be squeezed into a limited time, so parts of the game must be cut. This is but a sad side effect of the adaptation, that some of the information, and with a big chunk of the them relating to character background, it ended up making a lot of the cast without a solid background, rendering them plain and forgettable.

5. Toradora: The sudden speedup of plot after the snow trip and the absurd ending placed a dent on the once excellent anime. Taiga still moe

I checked Toradora, the series ended in 2009, so it is still considered to be part of 2009 anime. While no where near my top anime, I still found Toradora to be a solid anime. Most of the times, I would be annoyed of any loli-like tsundere voiced by Rie Kugimiya (yes, including Shana). Yet, with Toradora, not only it gave me a reason for Taiga to act like a tsundere, it also gave me a quite rounded character for someone with such stereotype. So by the middle of the series, I found myself supporting Taiga quite a bit.

So, even if the middle part of the series dragged on a bit, it wasn’t too much of a problem. Then the snow trip came up and passed, then like a blizzard, everything came rushing down, with a huge bang in the end.

For some people this came in shocking because….as you logically see it, it was just too out there, as it was in no way consistence with the theme of the series.

Well, while it is quite shocking to see how it ended, it still doesn’t cover the fact that the anime was solid. At least this absurd end did not stop Taiga from winning 2009 Japanese Saimoe. Despite facing against 4 Saki contestents, she was able to defeat them and ironically, landing the first Japanese saimoe victory for character voiced by Rie Kugimiya.

6. Clannad AS: [Actually AS ep18] http://kevo.dasaku.net/?p=746 @kevo31415 Nuff said

Clannad After Story focused on the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa, yet ironically I found the relationship between Tomoya and his dad even more pure and more tear jerking then any other ones. Kevo has a better coverage of it than me [aka, I'm stealing ideas].

7. OEG: Are you correct in your usage of the word otaku? Appeared and stirred up discussions throughout the anime blogosphere

No matter if you support the Otaku Elimination Game or not, the effect that they have on the anime blogosphere is something that cannot be overlooked. Even blogs that they have not included in their list (me included) have taken interest in the topic of ‘otaku’ and have started discussions about the semantics of it. For the good or worse, they did come and shook the anime blogosphere

8. Kyo-Ani trolls almost everyone with Endless Eight: No only are the fans annoyed by it, apparently the VA are also angry over them

A quite search about Aya Hirano and Endless Eight will show that even Aya Hirano didn’t liked how KyoAni executed Endless Eight

After knowing how Endless Eight repeated itself for 8 episodes, I avoided second season of Haruhi for all I can this year so I couldn’t comment much on the episodes itself, only relying of outer sources on how annoying it is.

Maybe Endless Eight have affected me also, as I would have happily watched Haruhi Second Season if it wasn’t for Endless Eight.

9. Evangelion: 2.0: While 1.0 stayed loyal to the TV series mostly, from what I heard, 2.0 is a whole different thing from the TV series

You see the trend? I didn’t watch Evangelion 2.0 yet, but is hearing interesting things about it. On how different it is from the TV anime. Which not really a big issue here, but with Evangelion 2.0 virtually different from TV anime, it has set the stage for an entirely different conclusion to Evangelion, maybe one that will put a end to the confusion of the TV ending and movie ending (And the “I feel sick” translation in the movie end ┐(‘～`；)┌ )

10. Kimi ga Shiranai Monogatari is quite famous. I’m not a fan of it yet, but having to buy 2 copies of the single for fd means something

You know that I’m running out of time when I start posting random stuff like this. This, added with the huge amounts of posts about Bakemonogatari, I’m VERY interested in the anime, will watch once Blue-Ray subs are fully released.

11. Marathon of Gundam: lesson learned: I shouldn’t marathon months long of anime, all on the same genre and all about GUNDAM

So, while Gundam is good stuff, I doubt watching only Gundam for 2-3 months was a good idea. In my opinion, it wasn’t. While marathoning several Gundam series (Z, ZZ, F91, Victory), I found a hidden gem, F91 [actually it is so hidden, that the creators decided to hide it even more by fitting the TV series plot into a movie, only showing some of the goodness], along with one of the most beautiful Gundam songs I ever heard: Eternal Wind.

Despite F91, which was a movie, I wasn’t too fond of the fact that rest of what I watched was over 40 episodes long, and watching them together made it seem that I was watching a long long series, making myself less able to enjoy each individual series as much.

12. I ran out of time

Ya, by the time I got to the twelve event, they started countdown already, so I was only able to write that before saying HAPPY NEW YEARS….

So to fill up, let just put: Nyoro~n Churuya-san: While for others, this is nothing special, as it is just short episodes of Churuya-san saying nyoro~n here and there, wanting to eat smoked cheese and Kyon-kun not letting her get some. Yet, what is interesting is that this series is aired through Youtube, and not any other medium (or even NicoNicoDouga). While I am not certain if this is the first time that anime studio have used online media as a major medium for transferring shows to its audience, but it is interesting to see KyoAni embracing Youtube and even it if just using it for simple and short anime like Churuya-san and Haruhi-chan.

For all that is still in 2009:

Happy Advance New Years

Some other bloggers that joined in the Twelve Moments in Anime:

kevo

CCY

_eternal

Eater-of-All

Nazarielle

Moritheil - Twelve Dramatists that defined 2009

Then what is this? Are they just a bunch of anime fans too?

In the recent few months, a rather controversial (within the anime blogging circle) appeared. Calling themselves The Otaku Elimination Game, they call themselves to correct the mass error in the usage of the word ‘otaku’ in the western anime blogging circle. Within the other few anime blogs that I have glanced through when I was follow the OEG, that quite a lot of the bloggers in the community had voiced supported (while, obviously some, mainly more famous bloggers, have either ignored or strongly voiced opposition to them) for the OEG. The reason is out there and true: out commercialism is just there to capitalize our anime fandom, by using a word that we are supposed to be called upon, when in history, that same word have been used negatively in the country that it originated from. That word I’m talking about it otaku.

According to Otaku Elimination Game, otaku is:

a psuedo-offensive word used to describe someone who has such an obsessive interest in a particular subject that they don’t leave their house because they are too engrossed in it

From: http://otakuelimination.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/the-word-otaku/

Upon reading this, I was immediately shocked on how closely this definition framed an otaku to a Hikikomori. This compared to the other definition of otaku shared by some anime bloggers:

“having an  interest in anime, manga and stuff related to them”

Which tends to frame the word otaku to the meaning of an anime fanboy. The former places the word in a negative light by placing it close to a social problem in Japan, while the latter places in a more neutral, or even in a positive light, making is as if otaku is just one of the many kinds of fanboys out there (like Apple fanboys etc…). While I do understand the logic behind the latter definition, I find myself supporting OEG’s definition more, if not completely.

For OEG (yes, I’m going to use Wikipedia as a source!):

Most of the times that the word otaku have been used in Japan, especially in the media, it is used negatively, for example:

Tsutomu Miyazaki, a serial killer that killed four little girls (or lolis, as we like to call them). Not only killing them, he played with the corpses of those lolis. So finally when he was arrested, they found anime and horror films.  (Notice how in here, they didn’t find a whole collection of anime and manga). In the end, he was nicknamed  The Otaku Murderer.

• So For Miyazaki, his greatest interest was not in anime, but according, was more on horror films.

• Otaku was used negatively, as to show how much of an outcast that he is compared to the other people. Obviously I don’t think a lot of people want to associate themselves to a loli murdering killer, but that was what the Japanese media was trying to convey then.

Obviously I didn’t give the full picture of the gruesomeness of the incident, so here is a Wikipedia page about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Miyazaki

That example alone, I hope, can stop you from using otaku as if it is not a negative word.

Against OEG (or for loanword definition):

Yet, it is still not totally illogical for we, westerners (I’m Chinese, mind you), to use otaku as if it is analogue to an anime fanboy. After all, we have taken other Japanese words as loanwords, and make them similar yet completely different meaning words. Since I’m talking in an anime context, I shall use the words hentai and ecchi as an example. In Japanese, hentai usually means pervert, while ecchi instead means lewd or just sexual intercourse. Yet, in English (as far as I can tell), hentai means anime pornography, while ecchi ended up meaning lewd anime materials (but not too pornographic in nature). While you can say that the usage of the loanwords are incorrect and everyone should go back and use the proper meaning of hentai and ecchi, but the fact is that this have been true for years already and it is almost impossible for a immediate change back to the correct Japanese usage.

Also, taking from a western example, the word nerd was treated negatively when it first came out in the 1950’s, using it to refer to the socially inapt people in schools to spent more time on the less famous stuff.  While this started off quite negatively, it had changed for the better since the boom of the computer industry, with the people considered nerds to be pushing the whole economy in new directions.

Yet, at the same time, we have to recognize that nerds was started off as a discouraged sect in the classroom who, with their own knowledge, pushed themselves to be successful, so while both a otaku and nerd tend to be socially inapt, nerds tend to use their time in something technical that is actually useful in the real world, while otaku might end up indulging in mindless entertainment that will usually not end well.

When looking at the supporting statements of both sides, OEG’s definition of otaku seems more correct. The fact that otaku is a loanword does not take away the fact that it was used negatively in the past and maybe even present in Japan. Compared to the loanword hentai , which is used to call someone a pervert, at least the English counterpart have something that relates to pervert; the loanword for otaku, the word to describe someone who is so consumed in their hobbies that they forget the world around them, the English counterpart is just ….anime fanboy (wait, what?).

I think I got my idea through.

Good thing that OEG didn’t have my blog on the list, if not, they would surely complain me because I’m using so much Wikipedia as sources ┐(‘～`；)┌ (OEG actually commented here :3)

Wikipedia Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Miyazaki

And:

http://otakuelimination.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/the-word-otaku/

I donno what to put, so here is a picuture of Kaorin from Azumanga Daioh

Because y lack of research and my current preoccupation with a new visual novel, I decided that I’m going to postpone some blogging ideas that have been on my mind and just talk about some stuff that have been happening in the past week and something that is going to happen. Well, it is also because that this past week been more interesting compared to the several weeks before, so it is a good chance for me to write and think over about it.

• I’m going back to Hong Kong for Christmas
• Yesterday is the first time I saw snow this year
• There were changes in my portable audio/video equipment
• I’m starting Cross Channel, and thats why I’m too lazy to blog about Maria-sama

I’m blogging this in the kitchen so that I won’t forget what I want to talk about later, but this is not helping, as [goes to check] some of the pasta is stuck to the pot now T_T.

Going back to Hong Kong

Hong Kong Saiko!!

Having stayed in Canada for more than a year without going back to Hong Kong (I did go down to USA for two occasions during this 1 year and 4 months)), being urged by parents, having more and more reasons to go back, and me wanting to get more CDs and figures, I decided to go back this Christmas. While honestly, if I had the choice, I would rather choose a time where not everyone one else is trying to go back and that I have more time to stay in Hong Kong. Sadly, because I couldn’t find a job early enough, I couldn’t have gone back for a maximum of one month during back in August. Enough complaining, because I actually get to back, which is good already.

So I’m leaving Canada at December 20th and returning at January 6th, skipping the first few days of class, something which was necessary because there were no mileage tickets suitable for me before that day. If that was the only problem, then I would be perfectly happy, but the fact is that when I’m going to Hong Kong, I need to transfer 4 planes, and I need to sleep at Atlanta for one night, fun eh? While coming back is a bit better, but I still need to transfer 3 planes. (But be happy, one of the transfer point is Japan, so you can get some Japanese goodies [sadly, there is no Akihabara inside the airport :3 ] )

All that aside, it will be good trip, and it will be a nice break from all the working and studying. Ah, haven’t seen my oyaji, kaasan and inu (^_^) for a while.

Yesterday is the first time I saw snow this year

As talked about in The Toronto Star

Not that I haven’t seen snow before, but it is just for Toronto, the city that I’m current in right now, haven’t received any snow until the beginning of December, which that itself wasn’t that much. It was only yesterday that I really saw and felt that snow is falling.

For me, this is a reminder that, the last two weeks before going back to Hong Kong would be a very cold one, as I don’t have any thick jackets with me in Toronto, and is only passing by everyday with a sweater and a wind breaker. Ganbare!!

There were changes in my portable audio/video equipment

.......

This is an interesting one.

So sometime last week (or two), I decided that I have had it with my iriver P7, a 4.3 inch PMP that I purchased around August, before the start of my work term. I realized that the iriver is too big to carry and that I can still live by with my tiny Phillps 2Gb. So I decided to tweet that I’m going to sell the iriver, to test if anyone is interested in it.

Then, several days before, I also got fed up with the fact that a part of the cable for my Altec Lansing earphones was showing and that there are some problem in the jack that sometimes make one side of the earphone mute, so I took out my ugly and expensive Etymotics er4p, a earphone that I purchased when I was still following high-end earphones. Despite the appearance, I took it and used it…

pure bliss ヽ(´▽`)/ it reminded me the reason that I got it in the first place

Yet, at a turn of events, I broke my Phillps player yesterday. At first, the player just froze, with music still playing, but just not registering any of my clicks. At that time, because I was walking, I didn’t have anything thin to poke the reset button, so in sheer stupidity, I decided to crack open the player (as this player is crackable even with just your nails). The result is that I placed too much forced onto it, and when I cracked open it, I also cracked the connection between the screen and the motherboard. And without success of finding a replacement connector, it is assumed to be broken.

So today, without any other choices, I went with iriver P7 + Etymotics er4p

I’m starting Cross Channel, and thats why I’m too lazy to blog about Maria-sama

Hmmm, what awaits me in this messed up VN

Remember when you were small and didn’t know what a visual novel is, but found is fun flash game called Nanaca Crash!! and played it several times? (That was referring to myself) Well, Cross Channel is where the characters in Nanaca Crash!! are from. [Not that the flash game have much to do with Cross Channel itself].

Upon reading Wikipedia, I saw that Cross Channel’s scenario is written by Romeo Tanaka, someone who is currently helping Key create Rewrite (IMO, this upcoming visual novel has too many star creators in it, I mean, Ryukishi07 also!?). So, seeing that I don’t have much anime shows that I feel like marathoning, I decided to start playing Cross Channel [started yesterday].

So far, it is quite messed up. щ(ﾟДﾟщ)

Lastly, it seems that several bloggers are preparing something for the 12 Days of Christmas (Hi kevo), ganbare, you guys (　´Д｀)ﾉ(´･ω･`)　ﾅﾃﾞﾅﾃﾞ

This will happen to you if you watch too much Maria-sama ga Miteru

After having a nice kraft dinner, I proceeded to finish the last few episodes of Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th Season (I don’t even know how to pronounce it). Hence, bring my marathon of the whole Maria-sama (excluding the Specials from the 4th season) to and end. In conclusion, despite the fact that this anime is shoujo anime, I found myself enjoying the series (maybe it is because this anime is shoujo anime, that everyone have a bit more character depth and that they don’t provide as much fanservice as other anime *cough*Saki*cough).

Even though this series have a huge yuri overtune, it wasn’t as bad as Saki, mostly because it is both backed by character depth, has a reason for their dependence for each other, and it is elegant. Obviously I would not fall for yuri that easily, but…they are so elegant. ヽ(´▽`)/

I remembered reading that this anime is very similar to ARIA (one of my favorite anime of all time, OF ALL TIME!), and in some degree it is true. Like ARIA, the pacing of this anime is quite slow, and that it will develop one problem and takes either the whole episode or two to, well, get over the issue, which usually is handled in a anti-climax way. But different from ARIA, Maria-sama seem to take every small issue, and exaggerate it, only to, again, end it with something simple. Though I did say that they like to exaggerate really small issues, the did it in an elegant way, keeping in tone of the anime, making it seems is if it was natural and not forced. In short, its another slow paced slice-of-life kind of anime, but just at lot more elegant.

The main focus of the whole series is around Yumi-chan (voiced by Ueda Kana ヽ(´▽`)/ ). She started off as a normal girl that had a hidden crush on her going-to-be onee-sama, Sachiko, then continued till her second year, where she was lifted to a high position from the student body. Of all the characters in the series, Yumi had the most character development, both her inner personality and the other’s view of her. Without watching development of Yumi, I think I would be quite surprised on how much Yumi actually changed by the end of the 4th season. And this reflects on one of the strengths of this series, the strong character depth and character development.

Maria-sama ga Miteru (first season)

The first season started with a fairly good introduction of the characters and their personality, and of their relationship between each other. It started off with the focus of Yumi and Sachiko, and shaky their sister relationship was. Actually, the first season show spend most of the time discovering how shaky each of the main sister’s relationship was. Though by the last episodes, it displays and promises a more closer future between the characters. Lastly, comedy (mostly by Yumi) was minimal as most, but still useful to keep my interest in watching the show.

Maria-sama ga Miteru ~Haru ~ (second season)

Haru continuous from where the first season left off, but it focuses on Shimako and her smaller sister (imouto, I’m going to use that instead), Noriko, but then ends with the main focus on Yumi, Sachiko and Sachiko’s ‘annoying’ cousin, Touko. Similar to first season, second season felt it was really watching a continuation of the first season (for example, second season opening was just first season’s opening with voices; not that the song is bad, but just…the same), so all the goodness and badness stayed. Again, it was slow, elegant, and character based. While the comedy is still present in this episode, it became quite dark by the end of the second season. Also, when presenting and portraying Touko, the anime made Touko in quite negative light, and because of her importance in the 4th season, this negative light was fitting for her now.

Maria-sama ga Miteru 3rd (third season)

Different from the previous two season, this was released as five OVA’s, which each spans for 50 minutes (meaning about ten 30 minute episodes). With the longer time, the OVA presented 4-5 distant events (only episode two and three is a bit connected). While it still too time to develop the character relationship between Yumi and Sachiko, it seemed to be more of an application of their relationship instead of building them up (to show how close and  strong their relationship are). Different from the previous seasons is that because of the application and not the building up of relationships, there was more comedy placed into this season, which I sometimes actually disliked, because took away precious time, time which more character relationships can be developed. And ironically, the stalker  that showed up, Kanako had their problem still hanging there by the end of the season, which was disappointing also, because the OVA just left there with several problems hanging the for the 4th season to deal with. Also, not only is Touko annoying, she is pissed at Yumi! щ(ﾟДﾟщ)

Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th (fourth season)

While the fourth season did focused on most of the cast, Yumi and Touko (along with Noriko) took the center of the stage. Sadly, this was not apparent as first as the first few episode started on the wrong foot and quite frankly, was a mess. Not only was the plot messy, at time it seemed to throw the relationships and characteristics that was build from the previous three seasons, rendering it foolish at times, and the catchy opening doesn’t help, as it is in conflict of the over elegant feel that the anime had given off with the previous seasons. Yet, the anime as able to regain footing as it started to focus on Yumi and Touko, and to be honest, it when everything came into fruition. In this part, we see how Yumi was able to maturely handle the situation despite having no confidence in it at first, and of Touko transformation from just an annoying brat and casts Yumi aside, to someone who wants to be close to Yumi, because of Yumi’s kindness. While the closeness of Yumi and Sachiko is beautiful, Yumi and Touko’s new born relationship is just spectacular.

While I do like the second part of the 4th season the most, the first half of the season dragged it down so much that if I had to choose the favorite season out of all four, I think it would have been the first or second season.

Gokigenyou

Talent  [ARIA]

When you examine the main cast in ARIA, almost of all them have a unique talent that is used to their advantage as an undine. Akari, even though she was not raised in Aqua (the planet that the story takes place), had made friends with a lot of the local people, so much that Aika and Alica got curious and followed her secretly in one episode. Alicia, one of the Three Water Fairies, is so talented in her rowing skills that she became an undine at the age of 15, the youngest ever to do so, and cheerful personality. In the same steps as Alicia, Alice is also talented in her rowing skills, so much that she was scouted when she is still attending middle school, and that she immediately became an undine upon graduating middle school. Lastly, there is Athena, while being an airhead, she is named Siren because of her beautiful singing voice. ……

Then there is Akira and Aika, both which doesn’t seem to have any obvious talents that stands out from their circle of friends. This idea was explored in ARIA – The ORIGINATION episode 5, where the depressed Aika asked Akira how can she not be painful being the last one to become an undine, which seemed to be because of lacking the natural talent that her friend, Alicia and Athena has. To which Akira describes her hardships of being the only one left behind. In the climax of that hardship, she concluded (amplified by the loli Aika) that she has no talent and that she should stop trying to be an undine altogether.

Yet, in the flashback, Aika responded that even if you don’t have it, you can make it. This means that even if we do not have any talents, we can still strive and create talents for ourselves. While it means that we need to work even harder than those with talents, but we will surely treasure such talents when we actually attain them.

How about those with talents? Well, with the more talented ones, they are all using their talents accordingly, all becoming a undine that puts their skills to good use (for example, Akari with her describe and embarrassing speeches, it would be a huge benefit when she is describing the scenery to her clients).

So the lesson from ARIA, people with talents should use it to boost their lives, and people with talents that aren’t as special, work harder and make one yourself. While it takes time and effort to become well-versed in something, it is possible

Family Prestige [Maria-sama ga miteru]

Talked about in Maria-sama ga miteru OVA episode 1, it shows the differences of the family prestige that Sachiko Ogasawara has and the jealousy that her summer house neighbors has on it. In this episode, it showed that her neighbors became quite jealous of Yumi Fukuzawa, someone not only doesn’t have any family prestige, but is only a middle class, to be the little sister of Sachiko, and tired display Yumi in a negative light as much as possible. While the main differences of what the neighbors and what Yumi cared for (Yumi cared for Sachiko’s well-being while the neighbors cared for her family prestige), it is a shout out to how negative it is to just care for and complain someone else’s goodness and not try to try to attain such goodness. While Yumi was also passive in the beginning in becoming sisters with Sachiko, she did take steps to know more about Sachiko, and finally becoming her sister (and expectedly became a member of a family with massive amounts of family prestige).

Ironically, it is the same family prestige that Sachiko is tired of, as it took away the closeness of her family. So even though you might think it is the best thing that you can have, it might be a burden for the one that actually have it.

In this part, I used examples to show how with talents and family prestige, that we are supposed to mind our own problems. Its true that there will be people that are smarter, more skilled than we are, but that does mean that we can complain about it, but instead we should look on our problems and skills and horn it to better ourselves.

Even those that find flavor in my academic excellence, they themselves are miles ahead of talent. They are people who can just grab a guitar or keyboard and sing sweet songs, someone who has a lot more self-control over himself. It seems that while I’m praise that I’m receiving from my good marks (and some that I don’t even deserve) is just a façade to hide the insecurities and the incompetence in the other things that I do.

The fact is that I am too hung on keeping my marks high, so that I can get into a good university for masters, that I tend put almost my whole life on the marks, and would be full swayed by them, after all, without all the good marks, I have nothing else to hide myself in. Yet, the irony is that because I am so swayed by the marks, I need time to rest, and those resting time would likely corrode my study time in the long run.

Thinking back, I was never that hung on studying and keeping my marks up there until university. For those who had known me from Grade 7, you would have noticed that I was quite a lazy slob, having almost failed some courses despite being in such a low and easy grade, and it was not until grade 9 that I started to put at least some effort to get an ‘ok’ mark.

Maybe it is when I arrived in University of Waterloo, I was surrounded by both highly prepared students (AFM) or just very smart students (CS), crumbling on me, the person was in the top 10-20% of the class. While the environment did change, I think it is me being viewing marks more and more importantly, putting more and more time into it, striving for the good Term Dean’s List. Yet, at the same time, I know that mark don’t even fully reflect how much we know of a course, let alone of the other various intelligence outside of academics. I know the contradictions, but I am not brave enough to take the step, as I cannot imagine how my whole life would be if my marks goes below passing.

To put it in an anime example, it is like Yukino Miyazawa from Kare Kano finding out how while her friends around her doesn’t have as good marks as she does, they are either skilled in other non-school related tasks, or already have plans for the future. It is not that I don’t like having good mark, but it is just so unimportant compared to how much you guys can do instead

I guess the marks themselves does not fully reflect my stupidity

I’m all for deepening of character relationship between the characters and of character background of the character, which they included seemed enough seeing how the anime had to balance the amount of gameplay and the amount of character background and development of them. Having those two in the anime would be good enough, and I would have finished the anime quite satisfied; yet, to attract and keep the audiences watching, they had to add ecchi and yuri overtone to almost all of the character interaction outside the game. For example, while it would have made sense if Saki and Nodoka was friends that they were going to the nationals together, the blushing and the holding hands part was a bit too much for me. Call me conservative or a excessive shipper, but in the actions and the speeches of those two, there was a strong connotation of them being a yuri couple, and actually, it was annoying.
If only Saki and Nodoka was the only ones in the anime that blushed that often it wouldn’t been that annoying, but sadly, the anime decided to turn that to 11 and make anyone that had either a close relationship or a desire to know more about them (Mihoko and Hisa) seemed that they are infatuated to them. While I seem to be overreacting to it a bit, but I wished that the producers didn’t make it so like an yuri anime, the Mahjong scenes were overkilling enough already.

I think one of other fact that is not helping this is how the characters in Saki looks like: almost always having blushed cheeks and drawn in the way that make everyone look cute, or moe, hence pointing to the fact that I’m overreacting a bit too much. Yet, sadly, this also shows one of the problems in recent anime: the over reliance of moe. I personally is also a victim of such devices, but it seems that a lot of recent anime either use moe so that people would be interested in it or use it as an excuse to have lame jokes, empty plot lines, or just trolling. For Saki, it was the amazing Mahjong matches that kept me forward, and not the instant glory or moeness that Saki gives. Yet, without the moe in Saki, I doubt that it would be as well known, and that with less people talking about it, I might have not even known of this anime. Hence a Catch 22 situation. ┐(‘～`；)┌

Lastly, to illustrate how much yuri overtone that Saki has: I would rather watch Maria-sama ga Miteru [Marimite] (the female lead, Yumi, is also voiced by Ueda Kana ヽ(´▽`)/ ) instead of Saki if it is wasn’t for the Mahjong. Well even before watching Maria-sama, you know that you will be getting yuri-like relationships, but not only did Marimite handle is more elegantly (yes, it changes everything (ﾟ∀ﾟ) ), I think that more than half of the time it did not imply yuri. This also helps that Marimite is drawn in a way that is not as cute as Saki, making it seem less forceful [Maria-sama ga Miteru started as a shōjo manga (manga for females aged at 10-18), so does that mean that I’m supporting shōjo manga and not …. seinen manga (manga for males aged at 18-30, which is my age group). What is happening to me??? (ﾟдﾟ) (ﾟдﾟ)