Fall 2008 Impressions; Part One

Kannagi!

Mahou Shoujo Nagi Sanjou!

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Fall 2008 Anime

It’s finally here! The big Fall 2008 season lineup! It wins as my longest post ever in the history of Death by Moe with it’s big 5k+ words.

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[BLCD] Eien no Shichigatsu

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Eien no Shichigatsu

Pairing: Konishi Katsuyuki x Shimono Hiro

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[BLCD] Three Reviews

It’s summer and I had a LOT of time on my hands so I devoured three BLCDs at once: Ashita no Kimi wa Koko ni Inai, Pride and Shimekiri no Sono Mae ni.

Ashita no Kimi wa Koko ni Inai
Pairing: Toriumi Kousuke x Suzuki Chihiro
Original Work: Sakiya Haruhi

If it’s by Sakiya Haruhi, then I’ll most definitely give it a listen. Just so you know, she’s the goddess who wrote the Shinayakana Netsujou series and Nejireta EDGE which are both works I really enjoyed. God knows how much I wanna read the original novels but my inability to read Kana and Kanji prevents me from doing so. Anyways, Ashita [I’ll abreviate ’cause the title’s long] was another great listen. Well, it looks like I won’t be hating TeacherxStudent with stories like this around [Chocolate Cosmos should be glad I’m bearing it].

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Orera no Natsu wa Owaranai

Okay, so I FINALLY managed to get my hands on the Oofuri’s EVENT DVD. It’s been like two months since I watched Oofuri and I still love it so much. Oofuri NEEDS another season. I’ll be pissed if I don’t see one coming out in the near future.

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“I FORGOT TO MASTERBATE!” – Shimono Hiro

I had absolutely NO IDEA what to name this post so I went for Tajima’s famous line from Oofuri. I’ve just come back home from another math exam I probably failed. That was random, I know. So back to the main subject. To try and forget my disappointment about how I did on my test, I’ve decided to write a post that actually makes some sense for once. The subject being another one of my top favorite seiyuus: Shimono Hiro-san!

On the ranks posted on my about page, he’s currently second but he often to levels up to first rank and back down again so you can say he’s at the same level as Sakupyon for me. His most recent role in anime is Tadashi in Special A. His other notable roles (that I know at least) are Tajima from Oofuri [Ookiku Furikabutte], Agate from Cluster Edge, Hiro from Ef -a tale of memories- and Subaru from Tokyo Revelations [TRC OVA] … (but I won’t be mentioning Agate again because I gave up on Cluster Edge after two episodes despite its awesome cast)

Between Subaru and Mimio [BLCD (also a manga): Love Neco], I’m not sure what I heard first. Though ironically, both of those characters are of the same genre … i.e. the cute/quiet types. I’m betting Shimono is better known for his “genki” and high tension characters more but he plays the quiet types well too. This guy’s voice is so moe that no matter what character he does (as long as their cute) he’ll do well. But Hiro from Ef isn’t very moe-inducing though, so I guess he’s an exception.

Anyways, whether it was Subaru or Mimio, at that time, I still didn’t even know Shimono’s name. The first time I listened to something acknowledging his presence was when I gave “Bitter Valentine” a listen. His aegi koe reminded me of something like Kappei’s but, unlike Kappei’s, I liked Shimono (I’ll admit it killed my ear drums the first time … he’s really loud).BUT He’s so ADORABLE that I just don’t care. Just hearing his voice puts a smile on my face. He kinda lets out that whole “happy” aura, y’know?

Hiro from Ef aside, you don’t really hear Shimono do any emotional/dramatic scenes in anime much. I don’t even remember Ef that well so I can’t use it as an example. Instead, I’ll use the BLCDs Honey and the first drama of Hanafuriro [Kimi mo shiranai Jaren no Hate ni] … where in both there were scenes I thought I was going to cry.

If Shimono was JUST cute, he wouldn’t get so far in my ranks [take Takeuchi Ken who’s absolutely adorable but never once got me all emotional (the lack of dramas I heard of him might be at fault though)]. The reason I love him so much is that his voice can make me both cry and smile with the same damn character (SHIHO!!! T_T)

And if I were to explain why Shimono beats Kamiyan in my ranks … well, I wouldn’t be able to explain. It’s probably because I take moe over everything else. Shimono’s moe and Kamiyan’s (well, he can be moe like in Hero Academy) more the elegant/cool type? Or something like that.

Also, I absolutely love how Shimono is in the freetalks! The one in Honey and Hanafuriro especially. Oh god, in Honey he was absolutely adorable. He has the cutest laugh I’ve ever hears and he’s just … just … MOE! I really can’t explain it any other way. In the Hanafuriro one, he was getting teased by Midorin the entire way and …. should I really repeat it? it was so CUTE. OTL. I think I can rephrase this entire most in three words: “Shimono is cute!”

Honestly, the weekly dose of Shimono in S.A isn’t enough for me [god knows how much I’m praying for another oofuri season]

(and here’s a Izumi pic to end the post … yes, yes, he’s voiced by FukuJun not Shimono but the pic was so GAH! I couldn’t help but post it)

(all the pics are from pixiv ^_^)

(sorry they’re all Oofuri pics, haha)

(EDIT: My blog’s reached 11k views! MAH GOSH! Thank you everyone who passes by XD)

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Suzu Love <3

-squeeesss-

Mah. Gawd.

I’m having Scythe and SuzuKen overload lately. Actually, super DAI DAI DAAAAAIIIII Suzu overload its probably what’s affecting Scythe’s personality. Ryutaros is so adorable. I think I’m going to collapse. Gun Form is so AWESOME!!!! Next is Ura-chan because of Yusa ❤

Yeah. I did this poll thingy tho’ that basically ranks male seiyuus according to your preferences. I got 10 number ones so I basically concluded they were my top ten.

1 櫻井孝宏 (Sakurai Takahiro)
2 下野紘 (Shimono Hiro)
3 鈴村健一 (Suzumura Kenichi)
4 諏訪部順一 (Suwabe Junichi)
5 中村悠一 (Nakamura Yuuichi)
6 成田剣 (Narita Ken)
7 野島健児 (Nojima Kenji)
8 福山潤 (Fukuyama Jun)
9 保志総一朗 (Hoshi Souichirou)
10 遊佐浩二 (Yusa Kouji)

It’s ALMOST perfectly accurate. Yusa and FukuJun should arrive after Yuutan tho’. Suwabe would go before NariKen and Kamiyan after Suzu. I’m also kinda sad Mamo didn’t get in. Ishida was pretty close too tho’ and Miyu Irino too.

Basically …

1 Sakupyon, 2 Shimono, 3 Suzu, 4 Kamiyan, 5 Yuutan, 6 FukuJun, 7 Yusa, 8 Suwabe, 9 NariKen and 10 NojiKen
The poll is pretty long tho’ T_T but it was fun so yeah.

Here’s a Chara Sheet (sketched) of Scythe. I was bored and drew in in history. Really, Suzu overload’s made it so that every time I write its Suzu’s voice I hear on Scythe. T_T Srry, NojiKen. Tho’ now it makes it more fun ‘cuz Kira’s voiced by Sakurai still in my mind. Four chapters of DC are already written while I’m at it. XD

Here’s Kira while I’m at it. I kinda made him a little too skinny but … wtv. Kira is love. Suzu and Sakupyon is love. BL is love. BANZAI!

(Just finished Shounen Yonkei. I’ll rant about it tomorrow. But I’ll say this … it was the prettiest thing I’ve heard in a while. How the FUCK did MikiShin and Midorin not get on my top ten again?! CRAP)

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ありがとう

It. Won’t. Go. Away. -dies-

(I haven’t lingered on an anime this long since … euh … I don’t know. This might be the first time, actually)

I just wrote a review about Oofuri on MAL about an hour ago and I STILL want to talk about it. Maybe listening to its ED isn’t helping me move on from this anime but really … I just can’t stop thinking about Oofuri. It might be because I finished it so quickly and I’m unsatisfied but this didn’t happen when I watched Yami no Matsuei.

That said allow me rant some more about how much I love this anime.

There are three major factors that matter to me when I choose an anime. When I look for something to watch, the cast is what I look at first. Second is the plot and third is the animation/art. As long as at least 2/3 (or 1/3 if one of them is REALLY interesting) I’ll preview it then decided whether or not I’ll continue it. I watch every genre of anime. I don’t particularly enjoy everything I watch but I’m pretty open-minded to whatever. Plus, when it comes to anime, I find everything goes.

Anyways, when to decide if I want to watch an anime or now after previewing, characters play a HUGE factor in my choice. It sometimes ends up that even though the plot is ridiculous or the animation horrible but the characters are awesome, I’ll watch the anime anyway.

I said I’m open-minded to everything right? But that’s because it’s rare I find an anime that I really love and enjoyed.

Ookiku Furikabutte is one of those rare anime.

I’ve been watching anime (seriously) for almost five years now … which really isn’t a lot compared to others (what can I say? I’m still in high school) so I can’t say I know much. Perhaps I know more than people around me in RL but here I don’t have much confidence in what I know.

Looking through the list of anime I’ve seen, I can’t recall a single time I enjoyed an anime as much as Oofuri. I’m still hooked on the Death Note fandom sure. Ouran and KKM still manages to make me squee whenever I watch it, sure. Yami no Matsuei was a masterpiece sure. Code Geass still gives me heart attacks.

But for some reason the feeling I get when watching Oofuri is different.

Oofuri isn’t a “It’s so awesome, it blew my mind away” type anime. It’s not a masterpiece. From a general point of view, I guess Oofuri is just average.

I have absolutely no idea why I’m so hooked. The characters? The plot? Really. It’s not anything exceptional. It’s just a high-school baseball story about a first-year who joins a newly formed team and develops his character throughout the series. Typical slife-of-life with sports (and some BL undertones)

Sure. Loudmouth Tajima and his “CRAP I FORGOT TO MASTERBATE!” line K’O’d me.
Sure. Mihashi’s chicken faces and funny mannerisms, plus the strange type of uke-cuteness that radiates from him makes me want to glomp him all the time.
Sure. Abe’s explosions at Mihashi who can’t express himself properly makes me laugh like hell.
Sure. Mizutani and Izumi’s bishie-ness made me squee all the time.
Sure. The third-episode confession made me fall off my chair for perfectly sane reasons.
Sure. Non-tan’s, Shimono Hiro’s, FukuJun’, Mamo’s, Yuutan’s, Yonaga’s presence contributed to my love of Oofuri.
Sure … -tte, I’ll stop now.

Maybe it’s because of all those little reasons that I enjoyed Oofuri.

Because after all … little details make the difference, right?

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