30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime

30 Days Of: Anime, Day 30

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Day 30: Which anime has your heart?

There are a lot of anime that I love, but the one that will always be special to me is undoubtedly Haikyuu!!, which is probably evident from how many times it appeared during this challenge.

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I’ve mentioned before that it took me a few attempts to get into it, and I’m so glad I gave it those chances. I’ve met some really good friends through Haikyuu!!, and I can’t wait to see where it goes in the future.

This question wraps up the 30 Days Of: Anime (which took way longer than 30 days, but what are you gonna do?). I’ll leave it a little longer before I do the next 30 Days Of challenge, as I need to find one and I think I need a little break from it.

30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime

30 Days Of: Anime, Day 29

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Day 29: Your favourite character

I asked some friends how they would describe the type of characters I usually pick as my favourite. Some answers I got were psychotic, villainsunstablemisunderstood, dark, and mysterious. I would probably agree with these descriptors on a whole. I do think villains tend to be more interesting characters, and have more interesting stories, and certainly a lot of my favourite characters are villains or have villanous tendencies.

Having said all of that, my absolute favourite character from anything is Haikyuu!!‘s Bokuto Koutarou, who could not be further from any of those words if he tried.

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What I really love about Bokuto is that despite pretty much being a side character, and not really having too much screen time, is that he really makes an impact, not least of all because of his loud personality. Bokuto really demands attention any time he’s on screen, whether that’s because he’s yelling, or because he’s smashing a service ace.

Bokuto has so many facets to his personality and so many emotions which are often displayed across his expressive. His ’emo-mode’ shows off a vulnerable side, and proves that things aren’t even easy when you have as much talent and skill as him. Bokuto is brought out of his depressive states but his excellent support network bring him out of it, showing that we’re nothing without our friends.

Bokuto’s boundless energy makes him a joy to watch, and I love him very much.

30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime

30 Days Of: Anime, Day 28

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Day 28: Do you share your anime interests with anyone?

Whilst my anime watching habits and love of anime have far surpassed those of the person who introduced me to it, I have got many friends who also love anime as much as I do. A lot of these friends I met through cosplay and conventions, which is always a really good way of meeting someone with similar interests!

Mostly, I share my anime interests with Chelsie! We watch a lot of the same shows and recommend things to each other, and went on a holiday last year so we could go to an anime film festival (Scotland Loves Anime), as well as a weekend trip to a summer festival/convention called Tokonatsu (which we called anime camp!).

30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime, Uncategorized

30 Days Of: Anime, Day 27

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Day 27: Recommend an anime that most people would not have seen

It’s hard for me to tell what a lot of people haven’t seen as I follow a lot of anime fans on Twitter and there always seems to be a buzz about most shows.

I didn’t see many people watching Banana Fish when that was on, so I’d definitely recommend that to people. It’s hard to say what it’s about without giving too much away but it’s essentially about a Japanese photographer, Okumura Eiji, who travels to New York as an intern to assist with a piece about a young gang boss, Ash Lynx. The show then follows the story of Ash and Eiji as they get caught up with various gang and mafia activity. It has its funny moments, but they’re pretty few and far between, and it can be quite harrowing at times with some dark subject matter thrown in. There are tonnes of really well-written characters, from Ash and Eiji themselves, to the supporting cast and the main antagonists. There’s a reason it’s one of my favourite shows, so I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

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I’ll also mention here Oresuki, as it’s another show I didn’t see many people talking about when it aired, but one that I also really enjoyed. It probably couldn’t be further from Banana Fish if it tried. I don’t even know where to begin explaining the plot, but it’s essentially about a boy, Joro, and his life at school and relationships with his classmates and how they develop. Pretty broad, but Oresuki is genuinely one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen, with one particular running gag that is absolutely hilarious.

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30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime

30 Days Of: Anime, Days 25 and 26

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Day 25: Character you are most like

Up until fairly recently, I would have said Yamaguchi from Haikyuu!! for the answer to this question, but then I watched Love Stage, and the similarities between me and Sena Izumi are quite obvious. So obvious, in fact, that Chelsie made this comparison chart to show the similarities:

Izumi and I would both much rather stay in, and we’re both obsessed with anime and manga. We also both love Ryouma!

Day 26: A scene that made you cry

Here’s the thing… I cry a lot. Like, way too much. I’m very easily brought to tears, it turns out. If I listed even a fraction of scenes that made me cry, I’d be here all day. I’ll go for the scene that made me cry the most, which is easily the library scene in Banana Fish. I’ll say no more, and just leave you with the second OP, which is a banger.

30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime

30 Days Of: Anime, Days 23 and 24

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Day 23: Favourite Studio Ghibli

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I’ve shared my Howl’s Moving Castle cosplay before, but I’m damn well going to do it again. Howl’s is my favourite Ghibli movie and definitely the one I’ve rewatched the most. I also really love Ponyo!

 

 

 

Day 24: Ever been bullied for liking anime?

I think if I had been into anime when I was younger then I think I probably would have been bullied for watching it – the school I went to was an all-girls school, and if you had a hobby or interest that was outside of the traditional ‘girl hobbies’ then they tended to make fun of you, see also: me liking video games. As it is, I got into anime after my uni years, so I’m well past the stage where people bully you for interests (or so I’d hope), and also past the stage of caring. My non-anime friends and my family do rib me for liking anime a bit, but it’s all just good-natured fun and I’ve never felt upset or anything by it.

30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime

30 Days Of: Anime, Days 21 and 22

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Day 21: Favourite harem/reverse harem

At the risk of talking only about Ouran High School Host Club throughout this challenge, I do just have to give it a quick mention. It’s undoubtedly one of the best reverse harem I’ve seen and deserves at least a brief shoutout. It’s funny, heartwarming, and all of the boys are actually really good characters.

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I’ll talk a little more about something that’s not Ouran, and go for something I’ve watched fairly recently; Dance With Devils. This is another reverse harem, and honestly, I started watching it as a joke with Chelsie, as it said it was a musical anime, and we both instantly thought that nothing good could ever come of that. We were pretty wrong, and the songs are actually really decent. The plot is a bit contrived; a girl, Ritsuka, has a secret power buried within her and also happens to be in a school where some demons also go, and they want her secret power. There’s the standard power struggle as the boys all go for her, and some outside forces too, and although Ritsuka is your standard dumbass female protagonist, all of the boys are really interesting characters who are fun to watch. I’d definitely recommend this anime to others!

Day 22: Subs or dubs

I have watched some dubs in my time (Fairy Tail and Ouran are two shows I will only watch the dubs of), but generally speaking I prefer subs. I like to think I’m picking up some language skills as it goes, but that in itself is doubtful!

30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime

30 Days Of: Anime, Days 19 and 20

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I realised I have mixed up day 18 and 19, so we’ll pretend I didn’t do that and carry on…

Day 19 – Favourite anime ED

This is actually such a difficult question, there’s so many great ED’s out there. I’ve chosen the ED for Free! Eternal Summer, because if I think back I can think of many, many moments when I’ve had it stuck in my head on a loop.  So, enjoy!

 

Day 20 – Favourite tsundere

I picked Kyo Sohma for this question. Though I never watched the original Fruits Basket, I’ve been watching the remake, and whilst there are a lot of characters I love (okay.. literally all of them, they’re all great), Kyo really edges it for me.

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I think that what I love so much about Kyo is that you can really see how he grows as time goes on. He starts very closed off, but gradually you can see how much he cares for people and he starts to let people in. I guess that’s what makes tsundere characters in general so appealing, it’s really rewarding to put the time in with them and see them soften a little bit on the occasions where that happens, and it does with Kyo!

30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime

30 Days Of: Anime, Day 17 and 18

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Day 17: Who do you ship

There are two answers to this question, neither of which result in a particularly short description, so let’s get to it.

My first ship is Bokuto and Akaashi from Haikyuu!! Whilst wildly different characters, both compliment each other incredibly well. Bokuto needs Akaashi to keep him level and balance out his mood swings, and in return I think Bokuto helps Akaashi express himself a bit more. I think they’re both incredibly nuanced characters, and they both clearly care a lot for each other. Bokuto is obviously a lot more outward in his emotions and expresses them more frequently, but would Akaashi really take the time to learn all of Bokuto’s weaknesses to the point he can not only instantly recall them, but that he also knows how to overcome each one.

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My second ship is pretty much canon depending on how you look at the anime; Ash and Eiji from Banana Fish. They repeatedly say that they’re soul mates and that they love each other, and again, they compliment each other so well. They both change for the better once they meet each other, and they share a genuine connection.

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Day 19: Favourite shoujo/shounen

My favourite shounen is without a doubt Haikyuu!! Funnily, or at least to me anyway, it took me a few attempts to get into it. I had seen through going to conventions that Haikyuu!! was becoming really popular, so I decided to watch it to see what it was like. I watched the first two episodes then stopped, then the first episode again and gave up. I decided to give it a final attempt, though I’ve no idea why I still persevered at that stage, and the third time was the charm. I’ve been obsessed with it ever since, and it’s not just my favourite shounen, it’s my favourite anime in general.

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With regards to shoujo, it’s not a genre I’ve delved into too much, which I will be actively trying to change, but my favourite is probably Ouran High School Host Club. 

30 Days Of, 30 Days Of: Anime

30 Days Of: Anime, Day 15 and 16

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Day 15: Most epic or shocking scene

I’m going to try and keep this as spoiler free as possible…

A few scenes jump to mind here, so I’ll talk a little about each one.

The end of Banana Fish in the library was the most shocking scene I’ve seen in a while. It really got to me, and I was sobbing from basically the moment that happened to about half an hour after the end credits rolled. I don’t want to talk on it any further as I don’t trust myself to not spoil it, and I think it’s one of those things that really needs to be experienced unspoilt.

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Day 16: Favourite anime couple (canon)

I could write an entire essay here on why Bokuto and Akaashi are, in fact, canon but I’ll refrain and give you something that’s explicitly canon instead.

My favourite anime couple are Ryouma and Izumi from Love Stage. They’re just so cute together, and Ryouma loves Izumi so much. I’m also… very similar to Izumi, so it’s nice to see that someone loves him!

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Another anime couple I love are Narumi and Hirotaka from Wotakoi: Love is Hard for an Otaku.  They fit together so well and really compliment each other’s characters. I really hope it gets another season, as I’d love to see them together a bit more.

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