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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the truth about myself I was not even aware of ~ analysing my own blog

incoming search terms and websites that refer to my blog are sometimes so funny I cannot resist making a post like this. if you think your search queries are private, you are mistaken. I can see them. and I can troll them ^____^

who else wants emma to end up with hans a victorian romance

oops. obviously I do not. I was absolutely satisfied with the ending in both the anime and the manga. however, there is one thing I would like to mention. there was no proposal to Emma from Hans in the original manga. moreover, there was another woman whom Hans could 'end up with'. haha, discover it yourself if you want

anime ecchi tit, etc

watching only a few anime series with ecchi led to a huge number of people directed here. as if 'ecchi' is the most frequent word of this blog. I do not even have a label like this. and meseems, I have just contributed to this process by mentioning the word 'ecchi' several times. what a pity! there is not actually anything about ecchi here, since I only mentioned it in regard to the anime I watched, which is not something to occur in the future regularly

ashita no nadja why does nadja choose francis

yeah. I would like to know that, too. especially when in the manga Francis and Keith-Black-Rose were one person. and especially when Nadja changes her mind in the last episodes of the anime and never decides anything, following her mother's idea - 'is it he who you need? or the other one? or no one of them?'

"rurouni kenshin sad" wallpaper

wow. not only I sell wallpapers here, I even sort them according to their 'mood' haha ^.^

boku wa kowai lyrics romeo and juliet

the only thing I cannot understand why this query led to my blog, since I have never even mentioned 'boku wa kawaii kowai'. have I?

sad flute in letter bee background music free download
well, not only there is nothing to download here concerning Letter Bee, but I also wonder what that 'sad flute' means. first of all, there were a lot of melodies with flute, and a lot of sad melodies in Tegamibachi. secondly, if you are eager to listen to it, you just download the OST album and search for it. am I wrong?

tegami bachi letter bee porn pics
this is the most hilarious thing I have ever heard of! ahaha......
well, ok. there are hentai doujinshi based on popular anime/manga. I have seen some RuroKen hentai manga. what comes to my mind when I read something like this is my friend's exclamation of grief - 'I can understand hentai with some guys, but Full Metal Alchemist! how dare they create hentai based on such a pure thing?'
Tegamibachi, from my point of view, never gave any hints on possible hentai. I tried very hard to think up who may be the possible couples for an activity like this. actually I could not find a single one. however, while discussing this with my friend, I noticed something. 'tis not 'hentai', 'tis not even 'yaoi' or something... 'tis 'porn'. so, this is what I am doing in my blog! I am uploading porn live action with people cosplaying Letter Bee characters! >____<
ahahaaaaaa, this query will make me die laughing...

saiga mitsuki, mitsuki saiga

there are 4 queries 'saiga mitsuki' and 4 'mitsuki saiga'. haha, since they are separate, it means that the total number of times was 8. too bad there is not anything really helpful in my blog about Saiga-sama

upd. 01.05.13
ashita ni nadja porno hentai
this is kind of a comprehensive phrase including all of the tags there are in my 'list of strange tags'. Nadja, porno and hentai in one line... just... wonderful... wonderful, because I am wondering who and how would want to see a Nadja-based hentai?

upd. 07.05.13
emma manga ecchi ? this is another surprise. ecchi in Emma. I wonder who would need it?
but everything else is beaten by...

 

erotic photo of letter bee

yeah. erotic PHOTO. you see? 

'Nishi no Yoki Majo' ~ sweet? sickly sweet?

'Nishi...' is one of the rare cases when I have to criticise almost everything, and still admit I liked it very much. now that I think of it, 'Nishi...' is an anime that has broken many stereotypes and expectations of mine

plot and characters

first of all, this is not a fantasy I am used to. since this is not the achievement of the anime creators, I cannot praise them for making good characters and putting them into the brilliant, fascinating, absorbing fantasy world - this praise must go to the ranobe author, Ogiwara Noriko-sensei. however, I do not know exactly how everything was in the original, and so I judge the anime version separately, and I give it a high mark as a fantasy story, due to interesting interpretation of typical fantasy elements, for example unicorns

another genre of 'Nishi...' is 'shoujo', and for a shoujo, perhaps 'Nishi...' is one of the most tolerable works I have ever watched. it certainly plunges to the most dangerous 'shoujo' depth, but does not leave the aftertaste of disgust, not being a sickly saccharine shoujo. 'tis not common to have a Main Heroine admitting her feelings so quickly and expressing them so bluntly, even though in the end she stays within the frames of a Kind-to-Everyone-and-Wanting-to-Save-the-World type

the story, however, is so lame that I doubt it can be really called a story. most developments are so rash that the spectator cannot catch up with what is going on. in 13 episodes there are at least 3 story layers, none of them properly developed. most of crises are solved with the help of 'a piano in the bush' as we call it in Russian - contrived coincidence

former enemies turn to allies in a couple of scenes. 5 minutes before the end. a mysterious person (whose identity is not revealed and who appeared like a miracle in front of the Main Heroine only two episodes ago) says to the Magic Star

and the wish is granted, and the world is saved. however fantasy this may be, world-concerning disasters are not supposed to be overcome like this
also 'Nishi...' has humour - very strange one. it rather makes you o____O than laugh. especially young Adele who constantly tries to make a yaoi couple out of her brother and Main Heroine's beloved

and an all-female academy where...

in order to maintain peaceful coexistence with other countries
and, of course, I did not expect Main Hero to come there as...

or The-Prince-on-the-White-Horse saving not the Main Heroine, but her crossdressing boyfriend...

graphics
is one of the main points to judge when you watch fantasy. the world may be described in words as beautiful and gorgeous, but it depends on the designers and artists to make it happen. are amulets decorated with ornaments? are castles' architecture striking one's fancy enough? are dresses frilled? do they give the impression of some magic being worked? the answer is yes

however, concerning objects of smaller scale, as much as I was fascinated with 'Aria', the same disappointed I was with 'Nishi...'. even though some close-ups look good

more frequently they do not...

also, beware of lots of fanservice

seiyuus
here, again, I had just the opposite of what I expected. Orikasa, unfortunately, spoiled the whole role. her Firiel was so positive and energetic that when she obviously needed to be sad she failed to sound as such. when Firiel was crying or angry, her voice hardly ever shook. other seiyuus who were not bad but failed to leave any impression were Ishida Akira, Saitou Chiwa and Fujimura Ayumi. they seem to have lost their own voice tone and timbre to the extent I did not even recognise them. maybe those was their true voices, but I like it better when they have those special 'overtones' which made them so distinguished for me in roles of Ayuzawa/Cecily, Aika or Chrno
instead I discover Hirata Hiromi as one more female seiyuu voicing male characters (they are my soft spot...), who brilliantly made Rune (I wonder who decided to spell his name as Roux???) into a living person, hear Saiga-sama voicing a female character, which was truly interesting, and finally get to know how Tanaka Rie's low voice sounds

music
I may sound heretical, since I love Masumi Ito/Nanase Hikaru, but I totally understand why people are not very happy with the ED. before watching 'kanata' performed by Mariaria - which consists of Hikaru Nanase herself and Saneyoshi Isako - one should better be prepared by having listened to at lease a couple of other Nanase's works. however for me, with an experience of 'Haibane Remmei', the song was no surprise. the same no surprise was 'starry waltz' by kukui, as Shimotsuki Haruka's music style and vocals are an unforgettable phenomenon. I might be a little less fascinated with the background music here than I was in other fantasy anime series, but I believe that the OST is also pretty well done - by Nanase-sensei again

conclusion
after some animes with sad ending I cry and feel devastated. after some animes with supposedly good ending I do that too, because I am frustrated with how it ended, like in case of 'Princess Tutu'. after 'Nishi...' I feel almost elevated. I am so satisfied with it that I find myself smiling silently. a strange feeling I cannot get very often, but it literally feeds me
'Nishi...' is one of the examples why anime can become a 'raison d'etre'

Saiga-sama ~ one doesn't need to be a Takarasienne to be a true otokoyaku

her Jing from 'King of Bandit Jing' was amazing, though this fact is not entirely her achievement (character design is also important, ok?)

her Francis Harcourt from 'Ashita no Nadja' was amazing again. this time, she DID change everything considering this character and the anime on the whole - I mean, if she wasn't there I wouldn't be interested in the character and I would probably drop the series very soon

I simply wanted to check whether she performed any OPEDs or insert themes or image songs etc.

I simply wanted to listen to her voice when she sings just to know what it sounds like

I simply wanted to see the list of her roles

I simply wanted to have a look at her...

and now... she's no longer a seiyuu I liked once. she level-upped inside my head from 'Saiga Mitsuki' to 'Saiga-sama'