Zíza

Even though it's been over a year and change since I saw the dorama, I've been subconsciously comparing and consciously have to admit that I liked it a bit more. I don't understand why I like a story like this stretched out into six episodes more than a two-hour movie. I simply liked the performances of the leads and Michi's dad more in the dorama. In general, I found everyone more likable in the dorama. Just like the dorama did, the film moves you. This story just does it too well. Even the ending of dorama I liked better. The other thing is that even though it's a movie, it took up a bigger span of time in their lives, and I didn't much care for that. On the other hand, here I liked their beginnings more – the phone calls (in the dorama it was more "action" like). And please, could someone explain to me why I found myself singing at the end: "It's a mystery to me, that even when life delivers blow after blow, I'm still an Optimist. An optimist who's not doing well right now."? Thanks, I'd really like to know...

I'm taking points off for the constant loosening of the ponytail and taking off the glasses when something starts happening, watching this happen over and over isn’t exactly awesome. The speeches annoyed me at times, too; sure, something had to be said, and sometimes it started out so clichéd that I had to smirk, but by the end something came out that made sense and probably had some truth to it. Otherwise, I had fun. It falls short of GTO, but it's still a good show about hooligans with good hearts, bad grades, and a goofy teacher. I kind of liked MatsuJun here (okay, I spent most of the time studying his hair, but that's beside the point... :-D), but the others don't fall too far behind – in my favor. Quite the contrary. Every character here really had something going for them. I enjoyed them all. Even the damn vice principal was likable in the end (I don't mean by what he did at the end, but maybe by the way he made a face at Yankumi...). One more thing I didn't like – the nurse's son... I don't know, that actor just can't act. Nice kid, but I felt like he couldn't deliver what was asked of him. Other than that, it's really great. Entertaining, amusing (I laughed out loud so much my roommate was scared something was wrong :-D). A strong 4 stars.

Yes, there are far fewer speeches here where his every word is meant to drive the nail of justice and righteousness into your heart, and into my funny bone, but I still liked the dorama better. Or rather, I was a lot more entertained with it. It's not bad, I'm sure you won't get bored with it if you like stuff like GTO, but I roared with laughter with that one, and here I only laughed a few times. The animation has an older feel to it, but it's dressed up in new garb, so MADHOUSE clearly has it under its wing. Maybe if I hadn't seen the dorama first and then the anime on the same day I'd give it a higher rating, but I can't help comparing, and for me living creatures just take the lead in this one. I'm kind of in love with the ending sequence here, I don't know if I can use it, but it's as if I started to get off on Enka :-D I think my biggest disappointment is that I didn't enjoy the class issues enough. Anyway, it's only thirteen episodes, so I can definitely recommend it.

Somehow the whole Inuyasha mania that was with me during Christmas 2008, when I devoured every episode and movie and welcomed it with open arms, has left me. Almost two years later, Inuyasha is back, promising to end what I loved so much. Was I looking forward to it? You bet! But surprisingly enough, I didn't enjoy it. I found Kagome more annoying than ever, not to mention Kikyo, who I'd like to call some exorcist of selfish souls on, and even that cutie Sesshomaru didn't improve my mood. Sango, Shippo, Miroku... yes, they were here, they fought. They all kind of gave it a go. In the end, only the magnanimous and pure Kagome prolonged the torment a bit (at least for Inuyasha, the poor guy had nowhere to go again... oops, I'm exaggerating :-D). Did you like the series that came before this? I don't guarantee you'll like this one too, even though it's "more charged, action-packed, and all", but if you're even slightly interested in how it ends and haven't read the manga – yay, go for it! But for me the result is just a weaker 3 stars. But don't pay too much attention to me, it got rave reviews aside from me :-)

There you go. Seen. I saw the Taiwanese version first (some moments of which are much more epic :-D), then I started watching this version; but since I'm an impatient person, I watched the anime around the 7th-8th episode, which this version sticks to pretty faithfully (but even in the anime some moments were much more epic, like their Christmas Eve dinner, if there had been blood...). It's still the same story, and I was embarrassed for the main character here as well. But I still had fun. I was like "yikes." [SPOILER ALERT] For those who don't know the story, there's a spoiler coming! And I have to admit, this was the only version where their wedding brought me to tears. I don't know why, probably a weak moment... ! End of confession :-D! I just kinda find it okay, this story about how a dumbass got portable IQ. I definitely recommend it to girls, to guys with more caution. It's for hormonal rebels, others probably won't get much out of it. And I, as a Hormone Storm, quite enjoyed the show. Pretty much 4 stars.

I enjoyed the first two episodes or so quite a bit due to the fact that I had already seen the Ariel/Joe pairing in It Started with a Kiss and there Joe was just the intellect and everything; here he was being childish, silly, and screaming. Ariel did a lot of screaming, too. Otherwise, boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. You're better off watching a Korean romantic comedy, where there’s also a lot of screaming, but I think they're way better than this. Actually, it didn't really get interesting until the tenth episode. At last there wasn't too much screaming and it dispensed with all the misunderstandings and everything that had irritated me in all the episodes before. Yeah, it was moving along, and I was like – wow, there's a romance, like really and truly? Like hell. There was nothing. And what about the ending? That was pretty WTF! Well, I don't recommend it, because if you want to see how Ariel and Joe get along, watch the aforementioned series. Throw this one away. There are so many better shows out there, you’d do better to watch them. A waste of time... A weak 2 stars.

I didn't enjoy the first six or seven episodes, I figured if it kept going like this I'd either drop it or wait a long time before finishing it. But lo and behold – it grabbed me. It started to entertain. The story is pretty simple, and at the beginning it seems like the characters are flat, uninteresting. But I somehow grew interested. Plus, I discovered a lot of clichés (e.g. gender-bender) and oddly enough, I was excited about it, I liked it. Besides, over time, people start getting mowed down in this (loved ones just disappear in a blaze of green drops of light ((wow, I'm poetic! :-D)). It's just a bit of a shame about the ending. As a mix of rabukome with a bit of mecha fights, I can recommend it. It's a good respite. A weaker 4 stars [BEGIN HUGE SPOILER!!!!] Damn, I kind of – a lot – wished someone would explore the roots of the flowers in their natural habitat, but they all have to survive… !!!

Happiness. What is happiness? But a golden fly...! And our dear Anego may not realize that until the end. I loved this coming-of-age story about the pursuit of marriage. Maybe it was a little disappointing that it was too "real", but at least the ending made me want to sweeten life up. I'm not saying the ending is sad, but the ending is probably too real. If you're tired of those slightly silly romantic comedies where it's obvious which two are going to end up together, and that together they really will overcome everything, and you'll witness their blissful kiss at the end, then watch this. I'd say it’s a story with a bit of a sour taste. Maybe there are a few truths in the saga, maybe not, but I have to agree that when we really want something, we think of nothing else, we push ourselves into it, then nothing comes out of it. Trying is nice, but too much of anything is bad. I can sort of recommend the special – it totally recapitulates the plot and moves it forward just a little bit. But maybe this is the push that Anego needs :-)

Is it serious? Is there intrigue involved? Mysterious corners? Comedy? Tsundere? Magic? A pretty good soundtrack? A cool lazy dude Ryner Lute? The initially quite passable, then quite annoying King Sion? Ferris the dango eater? Her blonde-eyed, freaky family? Fights? Death? Love? Friendship? Yeah, it's all there, but it's all kind of strangely thrown together. So strangely that I got tired of it halfway through, so I dropped it after 15 episodes. Goodbye to this overly colorful, magic-laden, medieval-tinged anime about...?

I got into this anime through the dorama; if I hadn't seen it I'd never watch this, as I'm very skeptical of the "dumb naive girl falls in love with the smart, handsome, rich, but cool..." thing. I first saw the Taiwanese version of It Started with a Kiss, where the main character was a real dumbass, to the point where I was actually embarrassed for her sometimes, yet the laugh-out-loud moments were more prevalent, and I liked them. There's a Korean version coming out at the moment that's very similar to the anime, and since it's only just coming out I can't watch all the episodes in one go the way I’d like to. So I've picked up the anime to make up for it a bit. That, to start off, makes it clear why I only skimmed through a lot of the episodes (especially the ones at the beginning, when they're still together in high school). It's mostly the episodes that I don't really enjoy, and I'm not really surprised if anyone drops them. It's just that if you endure it, get over it, then you get a pretty nicely arranged cliché on a platter that's a joy to devour. Here too, admittedly, I've skipped a few things occasionally, but basically from about the 15th-16th episode onwards it became rarer (now I don't know if that's a positive :-D) It’s good, engaging. Anyway, I very much appreciate that the anime charts several years of their cohabitation and non-cohabitation together. In the end, I think I like the anime quite a bit, and probably because I like it, I didn't watch the 25th episode, just in case: I'm afraid it would go too wrong, so for me this ended at the 24th episode, nicely, smilingly. Period, and a weak 4 stars.