9 Anime That Make Me Smile

After Sunday’s Review / Rant of The Tyrant Falls in Love I needed to work on something positive so I thought why don’t I make another list since I have not done one in a while and since I needed a dose of positivity I thought I would make a list of anime that make me smile. Though when it comes to me most the time that can be a sadistic smile because of how dark my own sense of humor can be, but even I can smile at moments of joy as well, oh and I can guarantee no one will guess my number 1.

9. Black Lagoon

I love Black Lagoon so much, for it’s over the top action and some of the most kickass women in anime, in fact the series holds one of my all time favorite female anime characters in Balalaika the most badass woman I have ever seen in any medium. Plus you got Remi and of course the awesome nun’s like Eda at the local church. When I have an itch to watch a series with over the top action and awesome female characters I immediately reach for Black Lagoon and it definitely satisfies my inner blood lust for action and so does the next anime on the list.

8. Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate

Blood, guts, action, comedy and vampires? Hellsing and the newer series Hellsing Ultimate is another awesome anime that really needs no introduction in the anime community. This is one of the few anime where I actually prefer the English dub and this is because and I cannot be the only one that finds myself melting at the sound of both Alucard and Father Anderson’s english voices. It’s enough to make this fangirl forget her troubles and just listen to those voices…. that does not make me any weirder than any other fujoshi does it? Oh and of course I ship the two of them pretty ‘hard’ as well.

7. The Laughing Salesman 

As I stated in my first impression of The Laughing Salesman New sometimes you just want to sit down and watch something without an over arching plot and is completely episodic and this is happening less and less these days with new series whether they be anime or otherwise. I fell in love with the original series of The Laughing Man a few years ago now, with it’s simple premise of ‘if it seems too good to be true it most likely is’. This is a show that makes my inner sadist grin almost as wide as Moguro himself as there is just something so satisfying about someone getting their just deserts even if they deserve them or not. Wow that makes me sound like a horrible person almost, but I never claimed to be perfect, hopefully the next entry will make me look better.

6. Antique Bakery

Antique Bakery is an anime that leaves me feeling calm, relaxed and smiling. With it’s adorable cast including a bakery owner who does not really care for pastries, a gay pastry chef who can make any man fall for him, an ex boxing prodigy and the most adorable of the cast childhood friend of the bakery owner who is treated like a burden by said friend but has a heart as pure as he is clumsy. Though this series at times tackles some darker themes there is always still a relaxing vibe and good humor throughout the entire series.

5. Cyber City Oedo 808

I find this anime on dvd years and years ago in a bargain bin of dvds and I have loved it from the first time I watched it. It is pure 80’s cyberpunk fun with a hilarious English dub that has lines so cheesy they almost always leave me laughing I really think this anime could be considered a hidden treasure of the cyberpunk genre. So many anime in this genre are so dark and over serious which is all well and good but if you just want something fun to watch within the genre then give this anime a go.

4. Oriemo

I’m just going to come out and say this now…. I love this series! Yep I said it (well wrote it) and I don’t even mean I love this series as a guilty pleasure I legit love this series. The fact that among my anime posters I have quite a few from this series should be proof enough of that. I loved all the characters in this series especially the main group of characters that being Kyousuke, Kirino, Kuroneko and Saori. Their interactions reminded me so much of what it was like when I use to meet up offline with fellow anime fans when I was younger, especially the heated debates between Kirino and Kuroneko about their differentiating opinions on great anime. I also loved Eromanga-Sensei so I guess that makes me a fan of anime trash

3. Gourmet Girl Graffiti

Gourmet Girl Graffiti is the ultimate in relaxation for me when it comes to anime. The characters are all adorable and though I am not a huge fan of the slice of life genre… I am a fan of yummy food. Probably a little too much of a fan of yummy food actually… anyway watching the adorable characters enjoy such tasty food is just so relaxing for me and I can not help but drool at the yummy food almost as much as the girls in the show.

2. Kuroko no Basket

The last two anime on this list are sports anime, a genre I loved even before I was a fujoshi but perhaps helped shape me into the anime fan i am today. Kuroko no Basket is a series I always come back to when I want that sports anime fix. I love all the characters in this show especially Kagami and Kuroko and I just adore a good underdog story! Watching this duo’s relationship as friends and team mates grow throughout the series it just makes me a very happy fujoshi.

Other sports anime that almost made this list include – Hajime no Ippo, Eyeshield 21, Free!, Yuri on Ice, Hikaru no Go and Yowamushi no Pedal. Now I know what a lot of you are going to say. Where is Haikyuu!!? Well the truth is I have not watched it yet, it is one of many anime I have yet to get around to watching actually but I do plant to eventually watch it.

 

1. Ultimate Muscle The Kinnikuman Legacy

We all have that one show from our childhood that never leaves us, that one show we would rush home from school to watch. For many from my generation they might say something like Dragonball Z and I loved Dragonball Z as a kid, but there was one show I loved more than DBZ and that show was Ultimate Muscle and you know what? I still adore this show, no matter what kind of day I have had, if I sit down and watch a few episodes or clips from this show I am taken back to my childhood sitting in front of the tv, cheering the heroes on. Yes the humor in this show is very very immature and downright awful a lot of the time and probably something I should have grown out of a long time ago but you know what? I don’t care I still love this series even as an adult and  I don’t think i ever will stop loving this anime series.

What anime do you watch to put a smile on your face? Let me know in the comments below!

 

The Tyrant Falls in Love – Boys Love Classic Review… Fuck it this is a Rant

This is a comedy story…Fuck me…

Let’s see we have a character getting a hold of what can only be described as a date rape drug, another character ‘accidentally’ drinking said drug and then that character is pretty much raped. Oh but it’s ok because he is a homophobe who will fall in love with his rapist afterward. I defend the yaoi and boys love genre a lot with other anime fans but then an anime or manga like this one comes along and I just cannot defend this one I can not!

Rape does not equal romance, Dammit!

This is the one trope in yaoi I HATE MOST!!! As I stated in my review for Killing Stalking I’m not against the subjects of rape and abuse being in a story. But there need to be consequences for these actions, the status quo cannot just simply be reset or made into a happy ending afterward. That being said there is a review for one, yes one yaoi anime that does do the rape then romance storyline right. Yes, it can be done right… the punch line of a comedy anime is not the right way for it to be done!

Based on the manga of the same name, The Tyrant Falls in Love is a sequel / spin-off of another manga by the same author and I find myself really wishing they had made an anime of the previous manga ‘Challenges’ which tells the story of a young mans first love. Instead, we get the sexual assault of his homophobic older brother, by the way making the victim a homophobe really does not make the story any better. In the manga at least it goes into why the upperclassman is homophobic and though I hate to write this, it is almost understandable given his past.

The whole time I’m sitting there watching this anime, I cannot help but wish they had mad an anime of the previous story. The only reason I can think that they would choose to animate this one over the other one is that of how cliche the previous manga’s storyline. It is because however of anime and manga’s like this one that yaoi is seen as fetishizing the act of rape. I’m not saying get rid of it from media but for fuck sake, consequences for actions! That is just what pisses me off to no end with stories like this one, it’s like you raped me I hate you… oh you love me ok… no, it is not fucking ok…. damn this fucking anime and manga!

Well, this review…. nope it’s more a rant, isn’t it? Well, then we will be back to our regular calm reviews next week. Have you ever watched an anime or read a manga with a plot so infuriating it just pissed you off? Let me know below in the comments and let’s have a laugh about them together, shall we?

 

Close the Last Door and the Problem Tropes Found Within Boys Love and Yaoi

‘I’m not gay, I just love him!’ This is a line that is spouted all too often within a boys love anime and or manga that causes some hate within the LGBTQ+ community and I can understand why. It can undermine the gay community with suggestions of being homosexual as a choice, the character has chosen to be gay because the person they love is a man and this is a very inaccurate depiction of this kind of romance in real life and this is just one of the many problem tropes with the Boys Love and Yaoi genre that is on show in the anime and manga ‘Close the Last Door’.

Released in 2001 as a manga by Yugi Yamada and then later adapted into an anime in 2007 by Phoenix Entertainment at its core it is not a bad boys love or yaoi story it just has many of the problem tropes that can be found within the genre. It tells the story of Nagai who has had a long time crush on his best friend Saito which damn near breaks him on Saito’s wedding day. The story then snowballs from there with a drunk Nagai with another wedding guest hooking up to ‘comfort’ each other and Nagai finding out that the woman he married is not as loyal as he thought she was.

This story is not alone in the yaoi trope of depicting women as either a nuisance or demonizing them as ‘the bad guy’ of the story, whether that be getting in the way of the ‘yaoi’ part of the story and because of this they are often demonized and even hated by yaoi fans. it is not just Saito’s wife who ends up being demonized, at one point in the anime Naiga comments that he does not like women because all they seem to do is act needy and gossip. This is shown especially with the character of his ex-girlfriend who even though she knows there is no chemistry between the two of them, wants to go out with him again simply for social standing. This is probably the trope found within yaoi that almost annoys me the most, the first one I will be getting into in my next review. I understand that this is a genre that focuses on the male x male relationship but this can be done without seemingly demonizing the opposite gender. I’m not saying make all the women perfect because that would make for some very boring storytelling, not the mention it leaves a feminist level bad taste in my mouth. It would be nice to maybe perhaps see a female friend or co-worker in a more supportive role to the story and not just another hurdle for the main character to get over for a little drama in the plot.

Would I recommend Close the Last door? That is honestly a really hard question to answer. For all it’s faults it is very amusing manga and anime, but as stated throughout this review it does show many of the problem tropes of the genre. This does not make it a bad anime and I recommend the anime highly to anyone new to the boys love genre, the manga I only really recommend if you enjoy the anime and want to see where the story goes after the credits roll.

 

I Support Marriage Equality, but the Plebiscite is a Waste of Time and Money!

I really hate talking politics, I really do but as an Australian with a blog I feel a need to share my views on this one issue. I have always been a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and adamant fighter for Marriage Equality in Australia. As hard as it is to believe in this day and age Australia is still without Marriage Equality and for a country that claims to be progressive and inclusive within it’s culture this is a sad fact.

I am going to get right to the point with this post, right now it feels to me that this  is nothing more than a public postal vote to gauge public opinion. The fact of the matter plebiscite is quite simple, the government themselves do not need to do this. All they have to do is pass gay marriage in parliament, they do not need to do a plebiscite to do this. Now I know it is a bit more work than just that and I also know very little about how laws are made and changed in Australia like most citizens, but the way I see it is this. The only real reason I can see for this and this is only because of all the advertising the Government has being doing on TV is to get more people to register to vote.

The Australian Government knows at this point that whatever decision they make they are going to piss people off on both sides because this is an issue that ruffles a lot of feathers. You have the people saying no to gay marriage going on and on about either the sanctity of marriage (and I would just like to say to any of those making that particular cry, you do realize if you watch TV shows like The Bachelor you are one hell of a hypocrite) or the cliche cry of ‘think of the children’. Then there are the people for it who just want the same rights as every heterosexual couple out there has for marriage. Now me personally I want to see all my friends who want to get married be able to; whether they are gay, straight or otherwise.

 

Kiss Him, Not Me – Anime Review

One thing I have always found fascinating within anime is the meta-joke of an anime fan within an anime series and this is probably why I have had so much enjoyment in the past from anime like Genshiken, Lucky Star, Oriemo, and the more recent Fudanshi Koukou Seikatsu. There is a cathartic satisfaction in seeing characters enjoying the medium we love within that medium we are enjoying ourselves. This brings me to this weeks review of Kiss Him, Not Me – a reverse harem series with a die-hard fujoshi right there in the center of all these pretty boys.

^This right here is my biggest issue with the series. Keep reading to find out why.

Premiering in the Fall 2016 anime season, Kiss Him, Not Me opening episode is what made me stop watching it at first if I am completely honest and a lot of it had to do with how the main character Kae Serinuma was presented to us as the audience. The stereotypical, not so pretty fujoshi girl and then I found myself rather annoyed with her quick transformation to a hottie as well. As someone who has struggled with my weight for the better part of the last decade, it was infuriating to see this transformation in her. That being said I found it amusing how quickly the attitude of the boys around her changed when she physically changed because this reaction from them did very accurately show the difference in how people of different weight and treated and seen by society. The only thing I really liked about this physical transformation in the character was that it was only physical. Even after she changed her appearance she was still the same hardcore, anime loving, boy shipping fujoshi.

Now I have stated before that I am not a huge fan of the harem genre of anime. I find many of the protagonists in them, one dimensional and boring, luckily Kiss Him, Not Me does not completely fall into this category, but I could be biased on this with this one series because I did at times find her more relatable than other harem leads. Unfortunately, all the other problems I have with the harem genre were present in this series. The boys side of the harem I found incredibly dull and predictable and the same went for a lot of the humor in this series for me, that being said I get the feeling that if this anime had come out a decade ago I would have lost it laughing and have been able to get a lot more enjoyment out of this series.

If you are a fan of the harem genre and want to check out something a little different but not completely groundbreaking then I can recommend this series to you. I can also recommend this series to fellow fujoshi who enjoy laughing at themselves because a lot of younger fujoshi will most likely find our main lead very relatable. What’s your favorite anime featuring anime fans? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Stunned Once Again by the Yuri on Ice Fandom!!!

Debuting at Magnificon 2017 in Poland, a stage performance over six months in the making Yuri on Ice the Musical blends the story of Yuri on Ice with music from of all places Grease, with lyrics customized to fit the story of Yuri on Ice. This cosplay performance is just beyond amazing. If you have not watched this yet then you need to head over to youtube right now and watch it.

Another short post I know but this was something I just had to share with my fellow Yuri on Ice lovers. I was laughing so hard throughout this performance and I am sure all of you will as well.

My Thoughts and Feelings on In a Heartbeat

Since first stumbling upon this project on Tumblr some time last year, In a Heartbeat has been a short film project I have been watching with awe and fascination, for you see as well as being a yaoi fan I am also a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and could even be considered part of the community because I myself identify as NonBinary.  I know there is some division between the two, that being a yaoi fan and an LGBTQ+ supporter. I have in the past been accused of fetishizing homosexuals and I know that this is true for some yaoi fans but I like to think that as I have grown and matured over the years I can see a clear the line between fantasy and reality and I try not to blend the two too often. That being said I know that some of the best fiction can be inspired by reality so the line at times can be blurred. There are many LGBTQ+ films over the years that I have enjoyed and have given me that same feeling I get from a good boys love or yaoi story and In a Heartbeat is one such piece of media that I think that not just every yaoi fan but all animation fans should check out.