my little obsessions ~ anime characters

when a child I used to say I have no favourite colour, I didn't like to choose my favourite movies or books, and choose something I prefer in general. I still believe that every thing on Earth has its good and bad points, advantages and shortcomings.
I believe the same now, but surely I can name a few types that are of greater interest for me
'lady' type
why I call this type 'lady' is that 'twas called like this on a website themed 'learning Japanese via anime and manga'. there were some 8 or 10 types of characters who 'uttered' phrases in particular 'situations'. for example, greeting a person would be polite 'hello' for a girl, 'welcome back, master' for a butler, some exclamation for a delinquent or an archaic expression for a samurai. 'lady' was an elegant girl looking like a real lady from a rich family, who used polite expressions with not-so-polite grammar forms indicating her sense of supremacy. whom I remembered as soon as I got to know this type was Kanzaki Sumire from 'Sakura Wars'. I wonder if Tomizawa-sama is especially good at voicing 'lady' type? though Hino Rei isn't the lady as she was depicted on the website, and didn't speak like one, I believe she was of this type, too
'lady' type, another one
I would think that 'tis my subjective opinion if not for the fact that my friend agreed with me. apart from 'ladies' who are truly ladies, and 'ladies' who behave with the same arrogance, there are also young girls who can be extremely polite and seem to be very kind, but have something in them that makes me think they have 'second nature'. sometimes I would use words like 'varmint', 'guileful' and 'canny' to describe them - better to say, mixture of these, but creating a positive meaning as the result. such is Alicia from 'Aria', for example. close to her is Todoroki from 'Working' who is far from being cunning, but behaves similarly. if this can tell you anything, I would name interjections like 'ara-ara' of Alicia's and other exclamations as their signature
to be continued

my humble opinion on... many things

thing #1

new Berserk

I was a small kid when I watched the TV series of 'Berserk'. and I loved it. yep, the me, who was some 15 (?) years old loved it very much

I should admit, the greatest object of my fascination was Griffit, who was obviously a bad guy - yep, he was... or... was he? no, for me, who was 15 (or not?) years old, Griffit WAS a bad guy. still I felt a great deal of interest and... pity? towards him

the other object of my fascination was Kaska. strong and proud women have always been one my favourite types of heroines

were I ignoring everything else? no way. I loved everything else as well. I loved that work for the very fact that it portrayed everything so that it stabbed me in the very heart, even things I disliked - violence, human weaknesses, dramatic stories

there was only one thing I ignored - the music by Susumu the Great Hirasawa - those times I could not allow myself downloading everything I wanted, and I only listened to several tracks. it turns out, I listened to the main ones that every fan knows - 'Gatts', 'Behelit' and 'Forces' and some others

now I read another studio made a new version of this masterpiece. I know already how much biased I am when it comes to remakes of 90s classic works. BUT. I was not wrong in my prediction. most people who watched it noted that it has less charm than the original TV, less credibility in terms of coherence with the manga, and everything that was changed - graphics, plot developments, seiyuus - did not add any good points to the new 'Berserk'

new approaches to classic artworks are always good. I should not shut my eyes to them! or so I thought

well. there ARE things that should rest in piece. I mean, things that should not be touched and remade - ever, by anyone. 'Rurouni Kenshin' is an example. 'Berserk' became another one

thing #2

Nisemonogatari

one day, when I become a REALLY fluent Japanese language speaker, I WILL sit down to read the whole bunch of '-gatari' ranobe. I will! I know it!

unfortunately, now I cannot. my Japanese is too poor to read them without looking up 90% of words in the dictionary. and when you have to do that, only a VERY interesting work can make you cling to it without dropping

'-gatari' novels are probably not THAT interesting. '-gatari' animes, though, are interesting enough for me to celebrate the fact that 'nisemonogatari' had already been aired in Japan and two more novels are currently in the process of creation

now that I recall watching 'Bakemonogatari', am I such a fan of the series? nope, I am not. I am just happy for the fact that stylish, cool and unique animes are not extinct. though we have no more 'classic' masterpieces like those of my beloved 90s, we can have something like '-gatari' to enjoy. hope the seiyuus, graphics and music are the same in the coming series. hope the coming ones will be the same interesting and strange - enough to keep me watching, even though I had no favourite character to wait for, and could not feel any sympathy towards anyone

thing #3

Sore de mo Sekai ga Mawatte Iru, Hanasaku Iroha and... Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu

though my best source of info about anime is world-art.ru I like myanimelist for providing info which is absent in the Russian service. for example, recommendations

actually, 'recommendations' as phenomenon disappointed me greatly. things like 'similar artists' on Last.fm or JPopSuki hit the bull's eye once in a while, but their general helpfulness is doubtful, to put it mildly. generally, I have either to check out whether the recommendation is really based on something, or to search for additional info to make my request more precise

unlike those websites I mentioned, myanimelist does not give random recommendations - it allows users to write their own, and the most important part of them are the explanations of the recommendations given. those explanations allow to find specific info and understand WHY exactly the person thinks the two animes compared to be alike

this particular feature allowed me to find a few animes which are similar to 'Working!!'. oh, I should say 'Working!!' - while being far from an ideal - impressed me very much, so much that I cannot oust it from my head, and so I embarked on a search for a slice-of-life with a love-story that would remind me of Satou-Yachiyo, main characters of different types like Poplar, Kyouko and Aoi who would create constant turbulence, and beautiful everyday life in Japan

however, I only faced recommendations that emphasized the sides of 'Working!!' I did not pay much attention to - 'comedy', 'hilarious', 'strange people', etc. well, yes, I do like these things, but the setting decided everything, in the end. Mashimaro, or DRRR, or Azumanga will NEVER be in the same line with 'Working!!' - they have another style, another manner and probably - another aim?

some of the recommendations, however, were really relevant. out of them I picked up 'sore de mo sekai ga mawatte iru' which describes a cafe again, and also provides a good company of main characters, and 'Hanasaku Iroha' which impressed me already much with the graphics and interesting plot description

however, these two missed another important point. the only recommendation which highlighted my favourite couple - Satou-Yachiyo - was the one offering... 'Haruhi'. and I was like o___O

I mean, from everything I heard about this piece, there is NO WAY Satou-Yachiyo could resemble the main couple of 'Haruhi'. moreover, knowing how popular 'tis I already felt a kind of despise towards this, perhaps, good anime, so I firmly decided NOT to watch it EVER - so many unpopular things wait for me, huh?

still, if the person who recommended it saw some similar points... there might be... and I will never know if I don't check myself

mama mia... will I end up watching one of the most popular animes ever? noooo 嫌だ！！！　Ｔ＿Ｔ

p. s. - somebody, please find me an anime with a couple reminding of Satou-Yachiyo. I would do anything for you.... >____<

my humble opinion on 'Working!!'

plot and characters

looking at the list of the anime Yoshimasa-san took part in (I mean the director of 'Working!!') I see good things are not apart from each other. like father like son, so as to say

he trained well as scenario writer in 'Aria', became an episode director there as well, and directed great things like Solty Rei, Kaleido Star OVAs and Sketchbook Full Color's (though I personally watched none of these, I just know they are good. they ought to be!)

direction of 'Working!!' is also very good and it can be quite a good example of a modern comedy. I still recognize funny elements so peculiar to 'elderly' ones like DGC, but they are not overemphasized, and the general story does not yield to fanservice - even when girls jump, or the 'camera' shows them from the floor, we see no PANTSU, so the comedy is not spoiled by anything like this

a bad point there is - unlike what I could expect from the anime description, the characters are not THAT diverse. the manager, Kyoko, who was named an apathetic person IS apathetic, but not unnoticeable, and 'tis she who turns out to be the most 'violent' in terms of using her vitality with full understanding of what she does. vice versa, Yachiyo who wears a katana and Inami who punches every boy are not very apt to using their strength when 'tis necessary - better to say, the plot evolves so that they have no need to. so, Yachiyo never really protects anyone with her katana, and even more - she is the one protected. and while I waited for Inami to be a boy-hater, she is quite opposite. not that they are worse because of this, but I am slightly disappointed

 a good point - Poplar, Takanashi and Souma only proved what they promised to be judging by the description. another good point - Satou proved to be even better. and another good point - I recognized Aoi's seiyuu!
 

seiyuus

well, at first I though I was mistaken because there ARE seiyuus whose voices sound alike and the type of heroine Yamada is could simply make me feel the same as Alice Caroll did in 'Aria'. BUT my feeling was right - their seiyuu IS one person, Hirohashi Ryou. I feel kind of happy

others' seiyuus were completely right in their place. no one seemed to be odd, no one made any visible mistakes. well, except for the fact that people like Souma, no - like most of them - sound as if I have heard them one trillion times. not that this is bad, I already accept the fact that there are only a few REALLY recognizable seiyuus. I mean, I could never mistake the voice of Ogata-sama, or Suzukaze-sama... well, ok, this is a bad example, such 'otokoyaku seiyuu' are just the only ones in the world... ok. BUT. I haven't forgotten all of the main 'Rurouni Kenshin' seiyuus, or 'Sakura Taisen', or the voices of DUP or PKO from DGC, or that of BSSM's Peach Hips, etc. - nope, we have no more seiyuus like that. give up

the only thing which distressed me greatly is that Ono Daisuke-san who is such a perfect 'dark type', so suitable for introverted logic guys, is actually famous not only for his characters like Satou, but also a hentai seiyuu. T____T

oh, well, then there is another disappointing thing...

music

while a good anime is still possible to find, good music seems to be extinct. the more recent works I watch, the more sad I become. none of the seiyuus are good in singing (REALLY good, I mean. singing good for karaoke does not count), and none of the OPED composers can create something really unique and memorable. same goes for characters' theme songs. boring

well, in this case we have at least nice OSTs, though none of them went to my Walkman playlist

conclusion

some say there might be a third season. I would be glad if so. and I agree there are still many things to resolve. and the potential is great, the plot, the characters, the comedy and the serious part are not exhausted, and are not exhausting yet. I would be really, really glad to watch the third season. even with all its bad points, this is still one of the best animes we can have in the new decade of the 21st century