Josee, the Tiger & the Fish

Always reach for your dreams, and remember, the world isn’t so scary once you give it a chance

Everyone has something they want to strive for, but some of us may give up the pursuit if things seem or get too difficult; this is what the movie addresses, yet tells you not to forget your dreams.

Josee, the Tiger & the Fish follows Tsuneo, a student who dreams of studying abroad, and Josee, a girl who is wheelchair-bound. Tsuneo’s looking around for other part-time jobs to fund his study abroad in addition to his part-time job at a diving shop and, after a chance yet dramatic encounter with Josee, lands a job looking after her. From there, we see how the two of them get along, be it seeing the world from Josee’s eyes and how Tsuneo deals with looking after someone like Josee.

Koe no Katachi

The past can come back to haunt you

It’s not often you come across a manga where a person has a disability, and this is what drew me to Koe no Katachi. The huge difference in what you usually come across in the world of manga and anime, you know your fantasy worlds, typical high school romance stories and what have you,  is a nice breath of fresh air, and after coming across it via tweets when the movie was what everyone was talking about and seeing a couple of clips, I just had to get in on the hype.

And it truly is amazing. Koe no Katachi follows Ishida Shouya, a boy who’s bored with life and tries to add some excitement to it by becoming somewhat of an adrenaline junkie. His fearless actions are adored by his friends even though they aren’t really fans of what he does, if you get what I mean. Nevertheless, they want to be around him.

Kikenchitai Danshi

A tale of two “kings”

Thanks to Twitter, I came to know about this manga and put it on my “to read” list. And it’s quite different to what I expected just from seeing one image of Kuroki. Pretty interesting too if you pay attention to what’s going on from the beginning, unlike me who didn’t until about halfway through what’s been translated so far. Clearly I’m losing out here

So Kikenchitai Danshi. It’s a romance manga set in high school, but it’s quite unique from the get go which was surprisingly good. Our leading lady is Satsuki Kurei who attends a high school close to two all-boys’ schools that are the complete opposite to the other, and are both “ruled” by “kings”. By this I mean one guy from each school basically rules the others in their respective schools, and one is known as the White King and the other as the Black King due to their personalities. I’m sure you can guess that one is more prince-like than the other. 

Crayon Days

Love can come from anywhere

It’s been a while since my last post, but I haven’t just been studying away; I’ve been catching up on some anime and starting new ones before I get round to reviewing them, but I will try to get more content up quicker for my beloved readers ^^

Here we have Crayon Days. It’s a lovely short and sweet story featuring two people who get closer through their love for art. It’s different because I’ve never come across a manga that features a different kind of school since it’s normally been a standard school or a boarding school, but this is a unique angle for a romance manga.

Our MCs of the story are Ichinose Shima and Akatuski Saji. Shima is a new student at the Tokyo Art School, which is a big change and step for her since she’s a country girl who wants to prove she can be good at art. As for Saji, he’s a famous student known for his impressive art skills. The two have contrasting personalities and artistic abilities; Shima is more child-like and naive which is portrayed through her drawings which seem to lack that depth and emotion people see in art, whereas Saji is the quiet type who’s a perfectionist and shows that depth and emotion in his work.

Namaikizakari

Love at first touch?

More like grope, but I’ll get onto that in a bit.

I can’t remember how exactly I first came across this manga, but after a long break from it because it’s ongoing, I went back to it only to find about 20 newly translated chapters. Talk about good things come to those who wait am I right?

Anyway, I started it again from the beginning and I loved Namaikizakari all over again, and how it progressed in the new chapters.

Namaikizari stars Machida Yuki as the MC. She’s a second year at Ryohoku high school and manager of the basketball club. As she’s recruiting first years at the start of the new school year, she encounters Naruse Shou, a rather tall and good looking guy who accidentally gropes Yuki after someone knocks him over. But Yuki bravely continues on acting as though nothing happened, given how she has younger brothers and sisters to deal with and is able to deal with stuff (not this kinda stuff though).

Okobore Hime to Entaku Kishi

No ordinary princess

Another ongoing series, I didn’t like where the story has currently stopped. But from the comments I have seen on MangaHere, the mangaka isn’t feeling well enough to carry on with the series. Get well soon Akatsuki Kaori!

Moving on now, and I do like where this series is headed. Okobore has a princess as our MC, known as Princess Leticia or The Leftover Princess in her Kingdom. Her title comes from the fact she was given the throne instead of her two older brothers, because if either of them became King, Civil War would follow suit. So, her King father decided that the best way to deal with this problem would be to give Leticia the throne instead. A pretty good idea and an interesting backstory. Well done for making that decision Leticia’s dad!

Leticia isn’t an ordinary princess either. She’s a strong-willed person who will do what she can to make people see her as someone different to being the Leftover Princess, and will do what she can to maintain peace during her reign. What’s more, rather than leave it to her guards and what not to handle things, she ventures out into the Kingdom to get a feel for the place she is going to rule as Queen someday, and is educated in stuff no man would think a woman should learn, such as reading maps and what not. 

Watashi no Ookami-kun

A treat for all the Fruits Basket fans out there!

I absolutely love Fruits Basket, and for those of you who have been with me since the beginning will know this from one of my very first (and very dull) reviews I posted back when the blog was called Only Animanga. But times have changed, and I hope my posts have changed for the better and are keeping you guys interested and awake while reading them.

I digress.

So, Watashi no Ookami-kun. I came across this when I went to Forbidden Planet in London and was checking out what manga they have (and wow do they have a big manga collection!). The synopsis did mention that this is a manga for fans of Fruits Basket, and it didn’t lie. I really enjoyed it.

It’s a very short series though, only four volumes long I believe. Now I like stories of different lengths so I’m not fussed about this because you do find hidden gems in the short series of manga and anime out there, and this is one of them.

Amnesia

Teams Toma and Shin all the way!

I say that, but Kent is the most sweetest and genuine out of the four (bless him), followed by Shin. I say Team Toma cos he’s my favourite, but I’d take either Shin or Kent to be my BF if they were real. With Toma’s looks.

So Amnesia. I came across the game first on Vita since it was free on PS Plus last month, and because I’ve never played visual novel games before I thought I’d try it out. And wow was it gripping. I started off with Toma and the Diamond Route, followed by Ikki and the Spade Route. After it was Shin and the Heart Route, and finally sweet sweet Kent and the Clover Route. Respectively I got a bad ending, a bad ending, a normal ending, and a normal ending. Now I’m playing through Toma’s Route again to see if I can get a better ending with him. Hopefully I do. It seems to be going well (for now).

I then went onto the Amnesia Wiki to see what else is in the game (there’s another Route which I haven’t unlocked yet), and turns out there’s also an anime. So of course I’d check it out, and the first thing I’ll say is that it needed a couple more episodes.

Orange

16 again…with extra feels

I’ve seen 17 Again, and all I can say is, Zac Efron will look like Matthew Perry when he gets older, despite there being no resemblance whatsoever. But I do like the Audi R8 that features in the movie. Gotta love R8s.

There’s no link between 17 Again and Orange at all. So don’t get too excited/disappointed/whatever you feel about this because I just remembered 17 Again as I was watching this. Hence the subtitle.

Ok so, Orange. It’s a “change the past” type anime with ERASED and Anohana vibes to it. Like a lot, with almost as many feels as Anohana, but more animated characters than either of these anime. You’ll see what I mean.

Hapi Mari

For better or worse

Funnily enough I thought of that while watching Kuroko no Basket after someone said it during the intense battle between Kagami and Aomine. Such a good match.

This is the second time I’ve read the manga, and I can say that there are quite a few things I forgot and remember. Hapi Mari introduces us to Takanashi Chiwa, a 22-year-old University drop out (yup not high school for once!) who quickly becomes Mamiya Chiwa within a few pages into the manga. That is, because she meets Mamiya Hokuto, the President of Mamiya Enterprises who “wishes” to marry her. By that I mean, and this made me think of 50 Shades of Grey which I have not and never will watch (I watched Everything wrong with 50 Shades of Grey by CinemaSins), they enter into a contract as husband and wife because his grandfather wanted him to marry the granddaughter of the love of his life. Yes you heard right; it’s an arranged marriage guys, with added drama and twists than you’d find in a standard marriage.