This is my all time favorite J-dorama. Though in general, I don’t watch that many doramas because they’re often too slow-moving for me.
Kou Kou Kyoushi [高校教師], translated into High School Teacher, is about, surprisingly, a high school teacher and his relationship with his student. Koga Ikumi is the docile new teacher at an all-girls high school. The day before school officially starts, he meets a pretty stranger at a game arcade. And such is his luck, the next day said stranger shows up in class as one of his students.
***Warning: spoilers ahead
Continue reading ‘Kou Kou Kyoushi [2003] – the dorama of student-teacher relations’
It’s been a long, long time since an anime has gotten me this emotionally attached to it. The last time this happened was circa summer of 2006, when I, in an attempt to escape from RL issues, marathoned through H&C and used up a whole box of tissue crying my eyes out at every twist and turn. Now every time I sit down to watch a Kaiba episode, I do so knowing that I’m going to get some masochistic pleasure out of getting my heart mutilated and broken by this fantastic monstrosity. Regardless, I know that I will keep coming back for more abuse because it IS that good.
Continue reading ‘Kaiba 04 – all the unfinished business that you left behind’
Before I actually picked up the nominally controversial Kodomo no Jikan and read it, I had heard so many interesting things about the series. And most of what I picked up through the grapevines go something like this: child porn, fan service gone too far, immoral justification of pedophilia, cannot be licensed due to being inappropriate for US audiences [because apparently we’re just so fucking moral-minded and too pure to be tainted by such appalling narratives from Asian countries with their exoticized sexuality and their kama sutra].
After hearing all of that I was like, “OMG! No way! That’s disgusting! [I wanna see!] How can something like that even be allowed to be published? [Me see! Me see!]”
So eventually [inevitably] I got the manga, read it, and found that I have much to say about it.
Kodomo no Jikan [A Child’s Time] is about an elementary school teacher who gets assigned to his first class of 3rd graders. In the class is Rin, problem child extraordinaire, who develops strong feelings towards him and goes to great lengths to seduce him. Lengths that include (but are not limited to): sexual extortion, nude cell phone pictures, spermy haikus, exhibition of various loli parts, and… you get the gist that series is a step up from your standard ecchi. That’s the synopsis in a nutshell.
step through the curtains for more awesome
Continue reading ‘kodomo no jikan: in which i am going to mind fuck you till you own up to your shit’
This entry is also cross-posted at THAT Animeblog. Impz recruited me over the past weekend and kindly introduced me to a number of bloggers on #AB, all of whom have been quirky and memorable in their own ways. Future anime editorials will be posted both here and over at THAT. Although I will update this blog more often with my own thoughts and opinions on a variety of Japanese media in which my entries will be a lot more free with the crazies and the personal because the mentality is –> my blog, my comfort, my freedom of expression. Now to get to the topic at hand.
Originally, I was scared that the series wasn’t going to get subbed because it was so radically different from mainstream anime. So I was ecstatic when I found out that Ureshii and Froth-Bite has picked up the series. The amount of time and effort they put into their work is remarkable and it really shows through the excellent quality and wonderful subs in Kaiba. A big thank you to the people over at Ureshii and F-B subs. And now onto the spoils of their hard labor.
Continue reading ‘Kaiba [01]: this is how we operate’
hiroki endo – hang
an iron hook / we had to fasten him with a hook / we had to tell him something / with a hook / while the dirty floating bundle / fell / drop / by / drop / from where the / missing / would fling a stone upon us
First of all, thank you for the warm welcomes from everyone who commented on my first post. Looking forward to getting to know the anime blogging community.
Secondly, Hiroki Endo IS GOD.
And that pretty much sums up my reactions and feelings about his works. But for the sake of proper blogging, I should probably elaborate.
I reread “Hang”, one of Endo’s short stories from Tanpenshu over this past weekend. Now I am going to rave about it.
Continue reading ‘hiroki endo - hang’
Just finished tinkering with the various design options of wordpress, which are actually quite limited and disappointing. But maybe that has more to do with the fact that I’m not very computer savvy so things like web design and HTML coding intimidate the hell out of me. I was actually going to wait awhile before I posted my first entry because I haven’t figured out what my objectives for this blog are. But the blog felt depressingly empty, like a new house without any furnitures. So I went ahead and wrote up this non-entry to fill in the blankness and make this cyberspace a little bit more cozy.
One of the anime that I will definitely be blogging about is Kaiba (from Masaaki Yuasa, director of Kemonozume). I have been looking forward to this anime ever since I read Bateszi’s entry, written back in March and watched the 15 second teaser he kindly linked to.
My taste in anime have always tended towards the series that are marginalized from the limelight of mainstream anime due to their deviation from the criterion of fan service and consumer demands. I have a soft spot for series like Princess Tutu, Honey & Clover, and Welcome to the NHK! These underdogs are often overlooked and underhyped because of the unconventional subject matters that they deal with. Apparently fairy tale mythology, college life, and hikikomori aren’t hot topics that would attract a large audience. Understandable. Different folks, different strokes. Idealistically, I want to say that no anime series is better than another and that each has its own flaws and merits, but that’s a loaded statement that I can’t and wouldn’t want to stand by.
Besides Kaiba, I am also hoping to get into Dennou Coil, which I know is last season’s anime. I never got around to watching it while it was airing due to lack of time and will. I’ve heard so many good things about it, but I’m afraid that my friends might have overhyped it for me. I hope I won’t be disappointed. From all that I’ve heard and read, it seems like it would be worthwhile to delve into.
And… that will conclude my ramblings for this first post. Sorry for the lack of structure and coherency. Next post will be more focused. Thank you for reading and happy anime viewing.