Aoi Hana ~ An Adorable, Sweet Yuri Story!

First, an update: I have now added some annotations to the Links page. I’ve been meaning to take care of that as I’m somewhat of a perfectionist, but at least that’s taken care of. Next, we finally come to an underrated series that I’ve always wanted to review, but never quite had the time to do so due to a long forced hiatus and the breakdown of my laptop. This will also be my first post pertaining to yuri, which I am a big fan of, and I would like to introduce you to Aoi Hana (or Sweet Blue Flowers in English). Aoi Hana is a short, sweet 11-episode series, and it’s rather unlike most typical yuri series.

In the original manga’s story, Fumi and Akira were close childhood friends until Fumi had to move away. Ten years after losing touch with each other, the two girls meet again as high school freshmen. The two struggle to reconnect after so much has changed, and both deal with the trials and tribulations of high school — sometimes independently and sometimes with each other’s help.

Return of the Dreamer… And Carnival Phantasm!

Well, I’m finally back home from Seattle after a 3-month long summer program and a successfully completed animation project (although the project could definitely need more improvements, but there wasn’t any time left…). Now, let’s get right into it: Carnival Phantasm. For those who don’t know about this series (or an OVA series?), this is a crossover series with the famed TYPE-MOON series, Tsukihime and Fate stay/night, combined together. This series will surely cater to any TYPE-MOON fan, because of so much good substance from the series that we have come to love. The only thing that doesn’t sit well with me is that there are sadly no characters or substance from Kara no Kyoukai, which would have made Carnival Phantasm so much better and satisfying.

Chronological Record #1 ~ My Own Style of Watching Anime

If you think that this blog has died out, think again. I’ve been real busy with college plus my animation (3-D, not 2-D, just to clarify and I’m terrible at drawing) project is really starting to pick up much faster now and will be shown in a premiere to a small community in about two more weeks (Eek. Must catch up on motion, lighting, and rendering!). But anyway, here’s a short post editorial, actually expanded with the passing weeks and me working on it a bit…

My post title shows what I’m writing about. When do you usually watch anime? Personally, I watch anime at different times depending on the atmosphere and mood; that is, there is a time and place for everything. The reason why I do this is because I want to enhance my watching experience and enjoy anime much more. For instance, Blood-C is nice to watch at night because of the whole dark feel and bloody violence, and Usagi Drop is nice to watch during the morning or afternoon when it’s calm and has a light-hearted sunny atmosphere. Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, in my opinion, would be nice to watch during late afternoon or early night due to the Industrial Revolution feel (I’m not sure how to describe it, but this was the best I could come up with). And The iDOLM@STER would be fitting for dusk, just when the sun is setting and when the glamor of the budding idols begin to shine.  However, there are some series which could be watched anytime since they have a different feel, of which I speak of, of course, Mawaru Penguindrum. Mawaru Penguindrum is a completely different series, and it has so much variance of atmosphere and mood in it, making it suitable to watch almost anytime.

And then there are times when you eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks while watching anime (which I do very often, I must confess). Eating French food or Japanese food while watching Ikoku Meiro no Croisee does give a rather strange, but pleasant mood (try it!). And there was a freakish coincidence when I was eating curry when watching episode 3 of Mawaru Penguindrum. I assure you that I had no idea that curry would be a theme in this particular episode, and the curry that I ate became much more delicious (even it was just your average microwave curry…). Pocky, the ubiquitous Asian chocolate snack, is a great snack to munch on for every particular series, I daresay, since it’s a nice filler snack to pass the time and enjoy anime. It’s rather like eating popcorn at a movie theater making the experience much more enjoyable, wouldn’t you say? ^_^

Finally, there are the times when you watch an anime series with someone else, say a family relative, a friend, or a boyfriend/girlfriend. I have little experience with this, having only watched anime together with people in an anime club in high school which was … lacking. But there’s no doubt that it would be nice to watch anime with someone and be able to enjoy anime, even if it is frowned upon sometimes by the ignorant people who consider it childish and cartoony. Nevertheless, being able to talk and share your reactions immediately while or after watching an anime must be extremely gratifying as it will be fresh in your minds. But who am I to say? It would be nice and insightful if you guys have any experiences to share, so do share your experiences in the comments.

Now, I realize that for many people (or you ani-bloggers!) it’s unrealistic to be able to watch some anime series at certain times due to schedule conflicts in real life (college, work, etc.), but I do feel that it does give more satisfaction and more enjoyment to watching anime for me.

What bests fits your own style of watching anime? Or do you have your own unique way of watching anime?