i've decided to write about anime, finally. i've been meaning to for months. this is going to be long, and i'm not going to use the more feature, so beware. >:D

okay, so… paradise kiss ended a long time ago. what did everyone think? i thought it was great. i stopped announcing new episodes being released, and around that time people stopped talking about it. so… did everyone even finish watching it? >:P all the way through parakiss i was drawing parallels between it and BECK. the ending was similar, even, but BECK's ending was a lot more… hmmm… degenerate. still a "happy" ending, i guess. when i watched the last episode of parakiss, i actually didn't know it was the last episode. only around the last half of it did i realize, "hey, i think this is the last episode! O_O" kinda sad, really.

another anime that ended was gokujou seitokai. i've been kind of hush-hush about this one, but i rather enjoyed it. :( you can definitely tell it was based on one of those dating simulator video games. there's a bajillion characters that get one episode of development each. the character design is a little wonky, too, but it's not bad at all. the ending was nice, if not completely expected, but at least we have everyone's secrets out in the open. everything was overly resolved, if anything. x_X and that's rare for anime.

a lot of people said gokujou seitokai was a ripoff of azumanga daioh. i had no idea, so i decided to see azumanga daioh. the episode count really freaked me out (130!) but then i realized… each episode is five minutes. i can handle that. :D i'm about a quarter done the series now. and… it's nothing like gokujou. at all. on the surface, yes, but the story is… totally different. if you call this a story. similarities include a strong girl with glasses, a super-hyper girl, a clueless girl, a tall cool girl, a girl who overly adores the tall cool girl, two female teachers, very similar facial expressions, and the list goes on. but gokujou has puppets. you can't beat that.

but i rather like azumanga daioh. last night i had to pause the show for at least five minutes while i went into the biggest laughing fit i've ever experienced while watching anime. i'm sure my face was nearly blue. i could barely breathe. >_> and now i'm noticing that the creators of gaia online are fans of azumanga daioh. >:D the kiki kitty gave them away. :D i'd provide screenshots, but it's not working for me. o_o and i know how, too, so this is really weird. anyway, moving along…

somehow i heard that the anime school rumble was pretty good. i can't remember how i heard of it, really, but i've been wanting to see it for many months now. i first heard of it before it was licensed, but now it is. :( but i downloaded it anyway. haha. :D i watched the first episode. it does look good. *_* i love how the school life genre of anime is constantly being reinvented, but never drastically. i can see why people get sick of "yet another school anime" and stuff, but i like it. >_>

and, to complete my school life anime binge, i decided to finish karekano (why did i provide a link for that? >D). i've only seen the beginning, and i'm dying to know what happens. i've been dying for years. and now i will finish it. :D it's low priority, though… i've got so much other stuff to watch first. :( i'll get around to it.

and then. something happened last night. a lot of the 2006 titles have been airing in japan, so i've been stalking animesuki like crazy lately, looking up each title to see if it'd be any good. and, yeah, i notice lunar anime released the first episode of something called ouran high school host club. just look at the genres there. ALL of them are what i like. and the story sounds a bit different. so i downloaded it. i just watched it. at first i was like, "oh no, is this yaoi, or something!?" but it so isn't. :D though it really amuses me how close it is. :D TWINCEST YAOI, even. >D so i'm going to be horribly addicted to this show. especially how it CRIES OUT UTENA!!! big, rich school. a super-elite group. ROSES everywhere. androgynous main character. ARROWS POINTING AT RANDOM OBJECTS WHILE MAKING A BEEPING NOISE!!! TWINS!!! i mean, HELLO!? all they need is some swordfighting and it'd be complete. also, to my surprise, kawabe chieko (naru in PGSM, 5th ami in seramyu) sings the theme song. O_o big surprise.

oh, and somewhere in the middle of all this, i'm rewatching ayashi no ceres. years ago, i bought some really crappy dvds which were obviously bad hong kong bootlegs translated from japanese to korean to taiwanese to zulu to chinese to english. worst subtitles i've ever seen in my life. it really distracted me from enjoying this show, and i feel the world owes me. >D so i managed to find a torrent of it and i downloaded it. >D i'm so bad. but at least i can understand it now. and they call each other their proper names, and not "kwok sung" or some crap like that. -_- that was so stupid.

also, i heard mermaid melody pichi pichi pitch was licensed, but then they dropped it. o_O i know kley likes that anime. i think i'm going to watch it. :D sometime. :D i recently found out kanbe miyuki (3rd usagi in seramyu) sings the theme song for this show, or something. o_O so now i HAVE to watch it.

aaaaaalllllllsssssooooooo, bringing this back to parakiss, one of the groups that subbed it (the only group that finished it, i think o_O) is subbing gokinjo monogatari!!!!! FINALLY!! i know it's a really old anime (1995 x_x) but i'm so glad i'll finally be able to see it, as it hasn't been licensed at all (and probably never will be). so far, the first episode is released, and i love it. mikako sounds the same in parakiss, so i'm guessing this is the same voice actress here. i don't remember if tsutomu was in parakiss or not. was he? O_O briefly? i totally didn't know his voice actor was like… er… THAT GUY THAT'S IN A LOT. O_O chichiri from fushigi yuugi. o_o artemis in PGSM (not the anime though). o_o male ranma. o_o i heard he was inuyasha's voice, but i wouldn't know (nor do i care). from the manga, i always considered him to have a more manlier voice. :( i guess he can be a cool boy with a high pitched voice. he's got the babyface look, i guess. :( noriji amuses me as much as he does in the manga. >D and i love it when they say "nice body-ko". >_> just for no reason. i think i really love how the animation is identical to the manga. o_o it's so interesting to watch, even though i do enjoy when the animation style is completely different than the manga (just to make it seem different, especially if you know the story already).

oh, i must mention this. the next season of ah my goddess (that link has no info yet, so here's another) aired two days ago in japan. so excited for that!! i loved the first season, though i thought the ending was a bit rushed. i think it took several volumes of manga for what they did in two episodes. x_x but, yeah, but i'm still excited. the groups that fansubbed it did such a good job, and i can't wait for more, which should be any day now. the first season is being released on dvd right now, and i'm really considering buying it (when i have the money… AFTER buying an ipod >D). i have the OVA and movie, so i guess i have to. :(

and, finally (promise!), i decided to watch interstella 5555 a couple weeks ago. it's pretty much a music video to daft punk's discovery album. the entire album. but it has a story. and it's anime. there's no dialogue, but the story is really apparent (which is part of what makes it so brilliant). i saw the first few scenes (up to the part where they get kidnapped) when it first came out, but never got to finish. but that was what got me hooked on daft punk. how sad, really. x_x i decided it was finally time for me to finish watching it. and i did. :D and i love it. :D

so, yeah, this all snowballed over months, so don't think i'm a loser for piling all this anime crap up recently (right before finals, no less). :( all i'm going to say is… i'm going to have lots of stuff to watch over the summer. :D yay! :D