Anime 365 Challenge!

A cute boy meets a cute girl on a the train one day.  He thinks she’s nice, she thinks he is sweet, and he decides to help her find her long lost love.  Aren’t they both surprised when it turns out he is the boy she is looking for!  ”Ai Yori Aoshi” is shojo anime to the very core.  It is made up of two series, the first running 24 episodes and the second a mere 12 episodes.  Its animation style is very colorful and bright, and the main characters, Aoi and Kaoru,  are very cute and innocent looking.  It is not terribly surprising when it turns out they are meant to be together, though a suddenly serious turn in the story at the end of the first episode was rather surprising.  In fact it felt out of place within the cutesy romantic context of the rest of the show.  While I enjoyed the way this series looked, it was probably a little too much on the sugary sweet side for me.  I’m not so much into watching hour after hour of two characters making mushy eyes at each other, though I’m sure if you really like shojo anime you will love this.  

When a wayward princess that doesn’t know she is even missing runs into a man sworn to protect her and bring her home a whole mess of adventures are bound to happen.  ”The 12 Kingdoms” is a 45 episode TV series, with each episode running about 30 minutes.  I was immediately intrigued by the opening, as well as the clean and bright animation style.  The plot took a while to get up some speed at first, with alot of time spent on inner character development and less on story development, but by the end there was enough action to satisfy most fans.  I was not particularly impressed with the main character, Youko, and in fact found her rather whiny and unlikable.  However I’ve only watched one episode so far so maybe she will grow on me as the series progresses.

It is Day #1 of the Anime 365 Challenge! and my first pick for viewing is an episode of “3×3 Eyes.”  It is about a boy who hasn’t made much of himself, a girl who is really a super being, and their search for her mortality and his escape from a psychic bond that links them together. There are two OAV (original anime video) series that make up the “3×3 Eyes” story, the first consisting of four episodes each 30 minutes long and the second consisting of three episodes that are each 45 minutes long.  I watched the first episode of the the first OAV series, and I have to say I was hooked from almost the first minute of the show.  The early character development was pretty interesting, and the comedic elements wasted no time.  I don’t even think it was two minutes in before guys were wearing dresses and taking pratfalls.  Yukumo and Pai, the two main characters, were not the most exciting duo I’ve ever seen in an anime, but they also weren’t the most irritating or obnoxious and acceptable to adventure with for another six episodes. 

As a self-described Otaku (ultimate anime fan), I recently came to the startling conclusion that I don’t recognize many of the anime currently available for viewing around the world.  Most of the series that I have watched and loved over the years are over ten years old and not even listed with anime that fans are watching these days.  This, of course, is an unacceptable turn of events.  I refuse to be the kind of fair-weather otaku who insists that only the old-school shows are any good and everything that has come after classics such as “Ranma 1/2″ and “Sailor Moon” is total mainstream garbage.  So I have devised the Anime 365 Challenge!  I will watch at least one episode or movie of a different anime every day for 365 days.  It will be a long year, full of some good stuff, some not-so-good stuff, and some stuff that makes me want to poke my eyes out, but by the end of the Challenge I hope to have a better appreciation of anime as a whole.