Drabble Geeks

Geeks…Being Total Geeks.

Category: Anime/Manga

Super Bugs Everywhere

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What if everyone had a secret bug within them? Now, I already feel the shivers running down everyone’s spines. But what if I told you it gave you superpowers? Now, that would be pretty cool. Except there’s a catch: there’s a super-secret government agency after you to prevent you from having your bug. That is the premise of Mushi-Uta. Watching this anime left me wanting more. Not only were the characters fully fleshed out, but I could understand the motivations of both “sides”: the government agents and those who wanted to keep their bugs and live in peace. I really wish there were more, but I think I’m going to have to find the light novels to get a full grasp of the story because there is definitely more there, and I want it. Unfortunately, there might not have been an official English release, but I will take whatever I can at this point. Wish me luck in this endeavor.

Saving Fairy Tales

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I’m going to make a strong statement: I love mahou shoujos. For those not in on the lingo,
I love magical girls, of all types. Now, I am an aunt to a young niece and trying to find shows that I would be willing to watch and be age-appropriate with her. This led me back to LilPri (the short version because the name is atrociously long). Now, I first watched this anime years ago, when I was first getting into anime, so I was hoping that it was as appropriate as I remembered, because you can never be too sure with anime sometimes.

LilPri follows three elementary school girls, who are the reincarnations of Snow White, Cinderella, and Kaguya, who transform into an idol group known as LilPri to increase happiness in humans’ souls and save Fairytale World from destruction. They do this by helping different people with different troubles they may have in their lives, whether in the real world or the magical one. This is your quintessential musical magical girl with strong “girl power” and “believe in yourself” vibes. The other interesting thing I enjoyed was learning about some of the Japanese fairy tales and their take on some of our traditional fairy tales. Also, there are magical animal mascots, a must in any type of magical girl show, in my opinion.

Overall, this was a cute anime that I wouldn’t mind watching with a smaller child, or apparently enjoy in my free time, following people with no real troubles in their lives. (If only I could be worrying about absolutely nothing.)

Fighting for Death

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I don’t often read shounen manga, but this has been on my list for a while. I was told that it was amazing, and I couldn’t wait. The manga of interest today is Bleach by Tite Kubo. Very simply, you follow a boy named Ichigo, who is able to talk with ghosts. One day, he stumbles across a Soul Reaper, hijinks ensue, and he becomes a Soul Reaper himself. I think that’s all I can really say about this three-arc story without giving too many spoilers.

While the fights were interesting and the transformations were gorgeous, the story was a rollercoaster in terms of plot. The first and last arcs were amazing and kept my attention. The second arc, while each individual volume was good, I couldn’t have cared less about that story. I can’t really get into why I don’t care without spoilers for everything else, but honestly, you can just get away with reading the outer arcs. It also didn’t feel necessary. I had a friend tell me that Kubo may have been forced to write the second arc, and I completely believe it. The story could have ended after the first arc, and I would have been happy. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the last arc, and it was beautiful and gripping, but I could have lived without the drag that was the second arc. Overall, it’s a fantastic story, and I’m eager to see what the anime is like. Perhaps the show performed better with the second arc, given that they had more time to develop the story.

Singing Your Heart Out

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A lot of the time, singing in written media does not connect the way it should. You cannot hear the heart behind the words while sometimes you are just told the feelings that you’re supposed to feel. That is not the case with Full Moon o Sagashite by Arina Tanemura. Maybe it is just that medium of manga the lends to it so well, but it has so much heart and soul.

Full Moon follows Mitsuki, a girl who loves singing but has throat cancer that is preventing her from pursuing a career. Enter Shinigami, gods of death, who believe that giving her the ability to follow her dreams will allow her to peacefully go with them. On top of this seemingly basic plot line, there are many twists and turns that leave your heart racing and unable to put down a volume until the very end. While this manga was amazing, one of the best that I have ever read, there are some serious topics discussed which are impossible to say without giving plot away, so do take care while reading. I’m almost certain you will love the story.

Just Trying to Live Your Life

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I think a lot of people have their niche in which they may or may not feel that you fit in with the outside world, but it’s your world. For me, that world included anime, manga, and books, which eventually lead to the blog that I’ve had for a couple of years. I’ve even been judged for not being “girl” enough, whatever that means. I then found The Wallflower by Tomoko Hayakawa that felt too close to home in so many ways. I am in fact protagonist Sunako Nakahara without having my privacy invaded by a bunch of dudes.

This manga, in so many ways, is a crazy rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. We follow four, super-attractive guys, as they move in with the expectation of turning Sunako into a “lady,” filled with all the stereotypes imaginable while Sunako is just trying to live her life watching horror movies and true-crime documentaries: something that everybody is doing nowadays.

Also, for everyone’s well-being, the characters are all eighteen. I don’t care if it says everyone is in their first year of high school. That was a mistake, and we are not questioning it. Just remember 18, mainly for this one character who can’t keep it in his pants. You’ll know who I’m talking about.

Undercover in a School of Horror

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For whatever reason, mysteries and school life go hand-in-hand. All of the natural drama that occurs in school just offers itself to the subterfuge that needs to occur to have a good mystery. There is a natural tension that can be exploited. That being said, it could be simple or an overall rollercoaster, which is what we saw with Arisa by Natsumi Ando.

I think it was until the very end that I did not know what was going on in this story as we follow Tsubasa, who is trying to figure out why her sister, Arisa, tried to commit suicide. The only information she has is that it has something to do with her school, so Tsubasa goes undercover as Arisa. Going in, I thought this was going to be very shoujo-y, given the author, but I would say that anyone who loves manga and mystery will enjoy this. Yes, there are shoujo elements, but they are overwhelmed by the want to get the full story.

This manga talks about self-harm as these are thoughts several characters have had or actually carried out. Take care if you decided to read this.

Discovering Magic Pt 2

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After finishing the first series, as soon as I found out there was a sequel, I had to read it. Unfortunately, Modotte! Mamotte! Lollipop by Michiyo Kikuta, the sequel to Mamotte! Lollipop, fell into the trap that many sequels do. It would have been an exciting continuation of the story. All the characters being older had it not been the same story. And I mean exact—all of the plot points were the same. The only difference was that the characters weren’t gradually introduced. Since there are not any new characters, they all start at the same time.

Overall, it is a simple read and quick to go through. There’s just the added romance element that doesn’t really add to anything since the love-triangle has been resolved. It wasn’t bad; it just didn’t add anything to the story.

Discovering Magic

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It’s been a while since I read a cutesy manga. It’s been too long if I’m honest, but I think this was the best one to get me started again. Mamotte! Lollipop by Michiyo Kikuta was way cuter than it had any right to be. It’s a mixture of shoujo, magic, romance, and friendship that was just really cohesive and came together nicely. A high schooler named Nina accidentally gets involved with a magic contest from another world, and hijinks ensue. One thing I did love was that there was a well-written love triangle. In lots of media, it can become super obvious who the protagonist will get with because one of their options is trash. In this story, although I did prefer one of the boys over the other, I would have been happy no matter who she would have ended up with. They both were fully fleshed out and intriguing. If you like the cutesy stuff as well, I would definitely suggest reading this. There’s also a squeal that I need to get into as well. I just hope it’s a fair sequel worth reading.

Trading Happily Ever After

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If you love it when common-place stories get reimagined, as much as I do, I think you can get behind Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi or Okami-San and Her Seven Companions. One of the things that I loved about this anime even though there was a heavy emphasis on fairytales such as Little Red Ridding which is the most prevalent, the script gets flipped in interesting ways each time. Add on the quirky anime tropes that we all know, love and cringe at, you get a very interesting story. I would just have liked it to be longer. I wanted to know much more about the protagonist and the overall outcome of the struggles that she went through. That, and I wanted more romance, but what can you do. Through some research, also known as going on the My Anime List page, there are also some novels and manga series to go along with it. I’m going to have to check those out.

Searching for Bones

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One of my favorite shows is Bones. Even though it is officially done, I would love something that is very similar. That is how I find myself watching Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteriu, A Corpse is Buried Under Sakurako’s Feet, or Beautiful Bones. Really long names, but it is fitting with the anime. After looking a bit into it, this anime is based on a novel. I follows an awkwardly scientist who loves putting together skeletons and ends up helping the police on cases were there is nothing but skeletal remains of humans. Sometimes she steps in before that because of the incessant nature of her lovable sidekick. I greatly enjoyed the show. It was fast paced in everything seemed to be going somewhere. My main complaint is that the show doesn’t really end. It feels as though they hoped they would get a second season and didn’t. There’s just this huge cliffhanger. Maybe there is something else that I just missed when I was looking around for more, or I might just need to read the book. Either one is a possibility at this point.