IMHO. 'Shugo Chara' ~ is longer better than shorter?

If I were asked what anime to recommend for a young boy, I would be in a puzzle. But ask me what a young girl may watch, and I have a ready list of anime series for all tastes - from anime adaptations of tales and children's books to new takes on classic fairy-tales and completely original slice-of-life stories.

Would 'Shugo Chara' be in that list? I doubt. At least I didn't expect to see a 'PG - children' rating for an anime which goes beyond kabe-don scenes and scenes of 'he caught her when she was falling', introducing scenes of ear-biting, ice-cream licking, which don't really look vague at all, to say nothing of cross-dressing and a girl with a brother-complex kissing her brother in the lips.

I mean, this 'inserting a key into a lock' moment... Should it really be so obvious?

Unfortunately, 'Shugo chara' lacks originality in everything. This idea of a girl with a special ability to purify spirits, this search for a special something that has unique powers and can grant wishes, this school club that has a secret mission, and, as if these qualities were connected, a glass orangery with a small tea table.

This is a warning to all anime directors on Earth: attempts to make short anime out of long ongoing manga maybe more or less successful, but any attempt to make an anime series longer than it could be if it followed its manga source - be damned.

I've seen it already in anime like 'Sugar Sugar Rune' or 'Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne'. Filling anime with fillers, forgive me this tautology, makes it hardly watchable. 51 episodes were probably tolerable, but 51 episodes followed by 51 episodes, which were, in their turn, followed by 25 episodes nobody really asked for, were a disaster, not only because there were so many, but because  there was hardly any story in them. Compare with Sailor Moon, which has its own share of fillers, but manages to present an exciting, developing (sic!) story including not one, but 5 arcs, while being 200 episodes long.

Why I didn't rate 'Shugo chara' as 1, or 'appalling', and gave it an 'average' 5, is because it was partially watchable, these watchable parts being the comic relief of moments that could otherwise overburden me with Spanish shame. Talking about saving the world is watered down by simplistic reasoning.

Discussing serious matters is interrupted by an angel adjusting her halo.

And 'dokidoki' moments are watered down by discussing the realistic aspects of 'hiza-makura'.

It never hurts to have just a little self-mockery.

In fact, 'Shugo chara' had much more potential than was used, thanks to the wonderful character design done by the original manga creators. Girls could find many various designs, not only girly frilly dresses or Japanese kimono, but also signature leg warmers, chokers and wristbands, with plaid pattern and 'Gothic' elements. As for men's fashion... I think I may have been missing slender guys in leather.

The only good thing 'Shugo chara' introduced, in contrast to borrowing from manga, was voice acting, since music was very, very secondhand. I was almost ashamed such nice seiyuus spent so much time voicing this nonsense. Here is the list: Aki Toyosaki, Saeko Chiba, Kanae Itou, Kana Asumi, Nana Mizuki, Yuuichi Nakamura, Akemi Kanda, Ayumi Fujimura, Junko Minagawa, Rie Kugimiya, Atsushi Abe, Mitsuki Saiga and many others. Akira Ishida was probably still bound by his contract of 'voicing a hundred of 'mystery-man-who's-watching-over-the-main-characters'. Not that I consider any of them my favourite seiyuus of all times, but they are good when together, creating that atmosphere of happiness, which was so abundant in 00s. Maybe they weren't absolutely special like older seiyuus I admire, but they have become kind of  'silver age' for me. The only exception was my beloved Miyuki Sawashiro. She stands out whenever she is involved. Even before I realised it was her, I was captivated by that voice.

In fact, that may be the reason why Yoru, the cute cat-resembling 'guarding character', became my favourite character out of all. I could literally give anything to stop this guy making such a sad face.

P. S.

I remember some maitres of anime describing how young animators should come out into the world and look at as many things as possible to be able to draw them naturally. Well, out of all animators who created 'Shugo chara' only one seems to know what violin looks like when played. And that is despite the fact that violin is not just an item for a single episode, but an important recurring theme.

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IMHO. 'Tamayura' ~ OVA, 2 TV series and specials, totally made of kindness

When I first watched 'Tamayura hitotose', it was just a short series for relaxed entertainment. What I didn't expect is that by the end it would turn out into such a wonderful coming of age story with the characters so deep and the story so full.

Speaking coolly, I can say 'Tamayura' is a great source for learners of the Japanese language and culture. It brings out many important aspects of the Japanese society such as taking bath together with friends and family members, even if they happen to be of the opposite sex:

gratitude and respect towards parents and relatives:

proper attitude to serving the clients:

and the importance of supporting and inheriting the family business:

But the main idea of 'Tamayura' is that this world is entirely made of kindness. To an unprepared person it will seem saccharine sweet. Especially if today in the morning you had to make your way into the bus with your elbows lest you fail to secure a seat in the bus. Especially when a couple of days ago another suicide bomber killed a dozen of people in some country.

The idea of total kindness and happiness appears the very moment 'Tamayura' starts and does not leave the screen even for a second. Happiness is everywhere, in the head:

in drawings:

 in photos and memories:

 in sweets:

 in fairytales:

Next time you worry about entering a new collective, try to whistle.
Okay, just a bit more happiness

 aaaaand

However, after watching lazily the first episodes about peaceful everyday life of several teenage girls eating desserts and having fun, I gradually noticed myself taking one by one paper tissues to wipe the tears streaming down my cheeks. By the last episode of the specials, I realised how grave the issues in the story had become, and how realistic the way the girls were dealing with them was. If some stories may be called 'bittersweet', this one I would call sweet-bitter, in the order of appearance.

graphics

If the first episodes may be simpler in terms of shapes and details of different things including faces, the last specials change very much adding even more lustre to everything. However the backgrounds were gorgeous from the very beginning. That wonderful ability to create beauty in everyday life and notice beauty in ordinary things is probably something I respect the most in Japanese.

music

If there must be a fly in the ointment, it will be music in 'Tamayura'. While the background melodies were good and always fitting the situations, the OPEDs were extremely weak expressing nothing in particular, being just average tender songs performed by average singers. The best songs in all 'Tamayura' parts were 'Yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara' and 'Sotsugyou shashin', both performed by Sakamoto Maaya with her soft voice, but both being songs of the legendary Matsutoya Yumi. Which proves her legendary-ness once again.

voice acting

Since seiyuus with soft voices will never cease to exist in Japan, there will never be a problem to find proper seiyuus for cute teenagers in Japan. However, I can probably say I am completely satisfied with the performance of the 'Tamayura' crew.

conclusion

As for me, I would never agree that living on memories is enough. Memories will not bring you a cup of hot tea when you catch a cold, will not fill your stomach when you're hungry and will not hug you when you feel blue. However, there's no argument to the fact that just being near each other is not enough. The saddest thing is that not everyone of us is blessed to live in the world similar to that of Fuu - a world full of kindness and of people who would welcome her back whenever she wants to return.

p. s.

and a tint of humour just enough for the story not to become too serious. A funny PE teacher:

 mom's old friends from a biker club:

 and his majesty the Pink Cat

my humble opinion on 'kaichou wa maid-sama' ~ I never read or watch ongoings!

can this count as criteria to decide what are you favourite works - the fact that you make an exception to your rules and start watching/reading an ongoing, despite that you were previously against this?

plot and characters

I cannot deny the obvious. KwMS is shoujo. shoujo has its own characteristics. shoujo may seem a bit far from reality. in the end, I started watching the anime because of the very fact that I wanted a romance, I wanted a shoujo. however, this is more than a simple shoujo for me. I have watched and read dozens of shoujo works, but this one is special

why?

'cause this shoujo is not entirely shoujo. at least, not the ordinary one

why?

as many have noticed (therefore, this is not purely my subjective opinion), Misaki is not the typical  shoujo character, fragile and wanting to be constantly protected and taken care of in a huge war between human and monsters that involves the whole universe... nor she is an all-forgiving 'maiden in love' who is unable to oppose others, including the 'male protagonist'. this fact was perhaps the main reason why I like KwMS so much

another reason came to me after I spent quite a time with this work. both anime and manga have one very important characteristic. they apply to my condition of verisimilitude - there is only one 'imagine that...', only one assumption, and the rest of the story never crosses the borders of realism. moreover, this assumption is not expressed in '...that such a person exists' speaking of any character in the story, including Usui. everybody in KwMs looks like a normal person - yes, there are such people, there must be such people, even if they are rare species. unlike ordinary shoujo stories where characters are absolutely ideal, or at least ideal for a certain part of the audience, characters in KwMs are not assumed to exist, they do. instead, the assumption we face is - 'imagine that all these guys have been able to meet due to...' - attending the same school, working together, living in the neighbourhood, etc. this coincidence is far more acceptable. they were able to meet, however strange or miraculous it might seem, but why not? the probability theory is inexorable. the chance of their meeting was small - but we cannot say there was no. the only fact we have to assume is that this chance out of many others came to reality
speaking of romance, sometimes rough statistics can help to understand the contents better. how many kisses there were in the anime? only 2. how many hugs? I remember only 1. how many other touching moments that made my heart beat fast? uncountable. this romance is about true feelings, not about watching a crowd of bishies fighting for one useless main heroine
speaking of other characters than Misaki and Usui, they could be really poorly done, taking into account the genre. an average shoujo work makes only those characters important who relate to the main heroine in a way of either being her own rival, or being a rival of her beloved. a more serious shoujo may have a group of characters supporting the heroine and a group of her 'enemies' in some way. this is what we have in KwMs, and those characters are beautifully portrayed. also, note the number of the 'third line' - not only the closest surroundings of Misaki is done in detail, but even Satsuki's sister, the beach house owner, or the guys who were involved in incident with Miyabigaoka, etc. unexpected depth for a shoujo

humour

I rarely create an additional paragraph in my reviews, but KwMs has a special aspect I must describe. the greatest contributor to this side of KwMs is, of course, Sakurai Hiroaki-sama. this person should be carved in stone so that other anime directors know whom to follow up. I adore his DGC, and while watching KwMS I recognized so many elements that he cherished and kept alive through these years - the overall feeling of light humour in every episode and things like
SD

the inscriptions inside the frame of the video

 funny faces and sound effects

 different (ir)relevant objects

KwMs is able to make fun of everything including irrelevant characters which are usually created in all seriousness

including also proper names - instead of thinking up of some name, they emphasise the level of ridiculousness of the situation

and including Usui himself. while bishies in other shoujo works prove to be cool with how they are wielding ancient swords or modern bats, riding horses or bikes, Usui proves his coolness with... breaking an egg

this is what I call self-critical attitude and appreciate greatly

graphics

I have never been a fan of JCStaff, however this studio is responsible for many good animes I watched. and they were good in terms of graphics no less than anything else. pleasant to watch and bright enough to cheer you up
the characteristic feature is that the moving objects are done in a usual manner but the backgrounds are all pencil and watercolour

and some of the frames are so obviously special

music
Mizuno Saaya-san is not an outstanding singer, so I cannot say I am particularly happy with the opening theme, but 'tis not too bad, either
the REAL balm for my soul was the using of heidi.'s two songs. visual-key-rock is not a usual accompaniment for a shoujo, huh? since then, I am their fan!
another delighting thing is the background music. pretty, suitable, absolutely 'hitting the bull's eye' of every moment in the anime. though most of the OSTs are not really suitable for separate listening, the more I watch some scenes from the anime, the more I understand that the background music is absolutely perfect accompaniment for all the scenes
what I liked a lot is the album with YumeMishi songs - the singer is a seiyuu, again, but he DOES sound like a professional singer and his voice was ぴったり - absolutely fitting - for his character, a rock band leader and vocalist. 'yume no hana' is one of my favourite songs
are there any shortcomings at all in KwMs? oh yes, they are character image singles. really boring, I could not even listen to any of them from the beginning to the end. not bad, but not good. just... mediocre. especially comparing them with the 'virtual live' album. well, at least all the seiyuus are good at singing unlike many other popular seiyuus who only scream or squeak or pronounce their lines instead of singing them (I particularly dislike Working!! OPEDs. all of them)

seiyuus
I almost forgot to write this paragraph because there is nothing to say actually. they are all absolutely gorgeous and realistic. everybody was 'at the right place'. especially exciting 'tis to hear Fujimura after I heard her as Niche in 'Tegamibachi', or Asumi after I heard her as Popura in 'Working'. if you want to enjoy the seiyuu's work even more, you absolutely MUST listen to the audio dramas. while anime was thrilling enough, dramas are even more embarrassing. several times I paused the track because I was either laughing from the funny situation and perfect implementation of it by seiyuus, or I was especially impressed by some particular intonation, or I wanted to listen to a phrase which was hard to understand because a lot of difficult words were pronounced with high speed or I was nose-bleeding because of Okamoto. audio dramas are rarely THAT good for me
 

conclusion

I can open whatever episode and start watching without exhaustion and boredom. both the romance and the funny elements belong to the kind you can reread and rewatch many times and enjoy them more and more. I love this work more than anything, and there are only a few others that can stand on the same position