366 Days of Anime School Uniforms: Day 17/366 Mobile Suit Gundam 00

Day 17/366

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has pretty much nothing to do with school life unless you count taking the "normal lives" away from those that get involved with the bigger picture in this Gundam Universe. Poor little Saji!

This "uniform" isn't even really a uniform since the school they go to doesn't seem to enforce such a thing. Ahhh, the future! But Saji's school outfit that we see him wearing the first few episodes of Season 1, is clearly trying to pander to a typical boy uniform we see in all other anime.

He wears a white long sleeved shirt but rolls it up like a t-shirt. Why he doesn't just wear an actual t-shirt is beyond me but well maybe he gets cold when he's off screen! He wears a snazzy red tie and a blue sweater vest that compliment each other quite well. I don't normally like sweater vests at all but Saji pulls it off... somehow... The brown pants and shoes are a nice change from the typical black pants and shoes we see all other anime boys wearing. Overall it's a very simple outfit but clearly gets the point across that Saji just wants to be a school kid.

Overall: If I wanted to crossdress... Even then I don't think so...

The Special Exclusive Club: Anime That Made Me Bawl Like A Little Girl

No manly tears here unlike glothelegend's list. Or so he claims that they were MANLY tears. I personally think they were "Little Girl" tears like mine. I'm generally not one for crying over anime and all but the following 7 anime out of my to this date 2,442 watched anime list, have made me shed plenty of salty water from my eyes. Some just trickled out one at a time slowly, some streamed out fast but ended quickly, some poured out like they would never stop. Actually only one series seriously made me cry non-stop for a good 30 minutes.

Ordered from first anime to the last anime that have made me bawl:

1. Grave of the Fireflies
2. s-CRY-ed
3. Wolf's Rain
4. Oseam
5. Legend of the Galactic Heroes
6. Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season
7. Toward the Terra TV

Read below at your own risk since there be spoilers.

Now looking at my list I see 1 typical sad anime that everyone cries at. Or at least I see it mentioned all the time in "What anime has made you cry" discussions. That of course is Grave of the Fireflies. I was really young when I saw it so I really don't remember if I cried all the way through or at certain points. I don't think I'm willing to re-watch it to find out exactly what made me cry either. War based movies IRL always get to me so it was really no surprise that the first anime I cried at was surrounded by war, sorrow, and hardships. Oseam almost falls into this same category but there was no war in it. Just pure melancholy sadness all the way through. If I had to pick the saddest anime ever for someone and didn't want it to sound cliche, I'd pick Oseam hands down. Brothers and sisters sure have it tough in these 2 movies.

Wolf's Rain certainly made me cry but it wasn't because of the actual show that tears came out. I'd like to consider myself a pretty big animal lover. So at the end of Wolf's Rain when all the wolves were "laying" down. I just cried quietly while I was on the couch. Thoughts of my past pets that have passed away poured into my mind and with what I was viewing it was only natural to cry and remember. There is almost nothing sadder than loosing a loved one especially if that loved one is a pet. They become part of your family and there's just an emptiness left when they leave.

If you haven't stopped reading yet I'm VERY serious that there are HUGE spoilers below.

Character deaths always hit me pretty hard. Especially when I get attached to them. Most of the time I can see it coming like I did in Season 2 of Gundam 00. That's the one anime that made me really angry that I cried at because I knew my favourite character Sergei Smirnov was going to die since S1. I didn't want it to be true I guess but well S2 did everything possible to make me rage cry over his death. I'm just glad I was alone in the room at that moment because it probably would have looked a little silly seeing my reactions to the episode. Scryed for being a super excitable shounen series it certainly pulled the rug out from under my feet when Kimishima passed away as Kazuma carried his injured friend. The crying little girl didn't help make his death any easier. It's always really hard to watch a death happen but it's even harder to keep watching and see the reactions of those that cared about the character. That's when my tears generally start to flow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Space Opera's have got to be the best genre ever created. Weather it be real life ones like Babylon 5 (totally obsessed with) or anime ones, I become engrossed with the worlds and just gobble it all up like there's no tomorrow. Toward the Terra is the last anime space opera I have sat through and the last anime that has made me shed tears. It wasn't a lot of tears but the way they ended the series with pretty much EVERYONE I loved and cared dearly about in the series dead I just felt soul crushed. All through watching the series I was tangled with tears but none fell until the last episode. While I certainly did love Jomy and Keith a lot, Harley is the death that bothered me the most. He was just a secondary character that was the captain of the Mu's ship and all but I fell in love with his character. He was bold, charismatic, and knew when to take the backseat when it came to leadership. He was always there for Jomy when he needed to bounce ideas off of and always there to be a voice of reason when Jomy spiraled into self doubt. The series certainly wouldn't have been as awesome as it was without the amount of amazing secondary characters surrounding Jomy and Keith's epic battle.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes is not only my favourite anime ever but it also holds the title for me crying for at least 30 minutes over it. I had thought of the possibility of Yang Wen-li dying much earlier on in the series but that thought got put onto the back shelf in my mind as I became obsessed with the show upon viewing. When it happened my heart sank. I felt like the world was ending and I had just lost the man of my dreams with it. What made it even worse is how Julian reacted. What doubled that worse feeling is Frederica finding out. Hell even Reinhard getting message of Yang's passing was traumatic. Remember when I said that seeing how people react to a death is worse than actually seeing it? Legend of the Galactic Heroes takes the cake with death reactions for me.

So there you have it. I'm not completely heartless! Which anime has made you cry?

P.S. Anyone who says Clannad After Story shall be subjected to my laughter. ^__^

chii Finally Made One!

Favourites are a great thing. What makes these shows mine is that I think about them very often when I'm thinking about anime and wish to watch them more than once. Some of them I've already watched 5+ times. To be a favourite they also must be entertaining as a whole series. So if they have season 2's or more, I should have loved them just as much as their season one. Everything on the list below applies! I've been meaning to make this kind of list for many years now and I've finally sat down and mulled through all my anime titles and picked these 100 to be my absolute favourites.

Like digitalboy I'll be updating this list regularly from now on but not once a month. I will only update when I feel an anime has stood up to my standards to break into this 100 anime list. I will keep a list at the bottom of this page which of which anime has moved in and which it has kicked out. I doubt that it'll happen very often but time will tell. Check out my Does Not Want List for a taste of my dislikes.

1. Legend of the Galactic Heroes

2. Fullmetal Alchemist

3. Full Metal Panic!

4. Hikaru no Go

5. Macross Plus

6. Romance of the Three Kingdoms

7. Jyu Oh Sei

8. Baccano!

9. Ristorante Paradiso

10. Infinite Ryvius

11. Mushishi

12. Princess Mononoke

13. Serial Experiments Lain

14. Ninja Scroll

15. Berserk

16. Super Dimensional Fortress Macross

17. Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

18. Strawberry Marshmallow

19. Hi no Tori

20. Nasu: Summer in Andalusia

21. Gintama

22. Neon Genesis Evangelion

23. Koi Kaze

24. Oseam

25. Rose of Versailles

26. You're Under Arrest!

27. Durarara!!

28. Kare Kano

29. Kita e ~Diamond Dust Drops~

30. Twelve Kingdoms

31. Kemono no Souja Erin

32. Cowboy Bebop

33. Crest of the Stars / Banner of the Stars

34. Mobile Suit Gundam 00

35. Himitsu: The Revelation

36. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni / Umineko no Naku Koro ni

37. 3 x 3 Eyes

38. Whisper of the Heart

39. Honey and Clover

40. Now and Then, Here and There

41. Katanagatari

42. Kurenai

43. s-CRY-ed

44. D.Gray-man

45. Hunter X Hunter

46. Yakitate!! Japan

47. Detroit Metal City

48. Battle Angel Alita

49. Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

50. Last Exile

51. Turn A Gundam

52. Guin Saga

53. Blue Submarine No. 6

54. Haibane Renmei

55. Astro Fighter Sunred AKA Tentai Senshi Sunred

56. One Piece

57. Detective Conan

58. Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of Sinners

59. Bokurano

60. Claymore

61. House of Five Leaves AKA Sarai-ya Goyou

62. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo

63. Chobits

64. Vandread

65. Hotori: Tada Saiwai o Koinegau

66. Tytania

67. Heroic Age

68. Dirty Pair

69. Millennium Actress

70. Neko Rahmen

71. Kuruneko

72. Kuragehime

73. Puni Puni Poemy

74. Excel Saga

75. Arakawa Under the Bridge

76. Giant Robo

77. Dominion Tank Police

78. Canaan

79. Antique Bakery

80. Tokyo Godfathers

81. Iria: Zeiram The Animation

82. Nodame Cantabile

83. Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind

84. Grave of the Fireflies

85. Trigun

86. Alien Nine

87. Gunbuster

88. Texhnolyze

89. Rurouni Kenshin

90. Patlabor: The Mobile Police

91. Junjou Romantica

92. Ryofuko-chan

93. Gravitation

94. Gungrave

95. Sora no Otoshimono

96. Video Girl AI

97. Simoun

98. Shangri-La

99. .hack//SIGN

100. X: The Movie

Tuesday Tally Week 1 Starto! January 1-10

So honestly upon thinking about this project more I REALLY should have started it when I started my blog. It would have been amazing to been able to have seen my stats from last year but oh well. I can do it for this year though so starting fresh is best here! I started off my year in a house somewhere in the middle of Vermont nothingness. I had a great time and oddly was able to watch 30+ episodes of anime while surrounded by rambunctious friends.

January 1-3

Kuragehime ep 11 END

Overall: It was rather unfulfilling first episode of the year but I still love this series to bits even if the last episode was lackluster. I really hope we see another season of this show someday because I think it was brilliant and really funny. We need some darn closure too! Don't make me go read the darn manga, but oh wait... That's not even finished either!!! It all makes sense now!

Winter Sonata ALL

Overall: If you love your drama to keep coming over and over again before you can take a deep breath this show is for you. It's a lovely Korean made anime that is beautiful to look at and it'll make you fall in love with all characters. Starts off with the character as children and they GROW up! I love anime that do this so I was taken with Winter Sonata in a heartbeat. 8/10

Heroic Age episodes 1-6

Overall: Great start to this series honestly. I've been craving a great space opera anime for quite sometime now and this certainly wet my lips.

Arakawa episodes 12-13

Overall: Very interesting and fun way to end the series. I'm still not sure what's up with it but I hope we'll see more someday. I love everyone that lives under that bridge!

January 4

Gintama episodes 1-17 (re-watch)

Overall: It's good to finally get around to this wonderful series. I'm starting from scratch again because I'm watching it with my boyfriend and it'll be more fun that way. He's loving it so far and I'm getting more out of it funny wise a second time around for sure.

Heroic Age ep 7-18

Rio: Rainbow Gate episode 1 was watched as well but I'll talk about that more in a Winter Season Start Review post coming up soon.

January 5

Gintama episodes 18-28 (re-watch)

Overall: This batch holds some of my most favourite episodes. The tranny episodes were just awesome and the epic meat battle will never get old no matter how many times I watch it.

Kimi ni Todoke episode 00

Overall: Did we really need this kind of episode?

Starry Sky episode 2

Heroic Age episodes 19-26 END

Overall: I'm honestly still putting my thoughts together on this one. I'll definitely need a re-watch of it at some point too. I really, really loved it but it's hard to explain why. It has a lot to do with it being a Sci-Fi SPACE show with kick ass "mecha" like creatures. I enjoyed the music and animation a lot and the OP and ED were great. All the characters were liked except for the twins... I don't understand too much why they had to be the comic relief but there they were! Great show and I highly recommend! 9/10

January 6

Gintama episodes 29-36 (re-watch)

Naruto Special

Overall: It was a boring fight. I did enjoy that it was 6 minutes or whatever compared to the 10+ episodes it took in the actual series.

Gundam 00 Movie Trailblazer Crap

Overall: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhg.... Was a great way to start off my "Snack of the Week" project though!

January 7

Gintama episodes 37-43 (re-watch)

Starry Sky episode 3

Overall: This show is fucking SO ugly.

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls Special 2

Overall: Kissing guide! lol...

Infinite Stratos, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Yumekui Merry, Gosick episode 1 was watched for all but once again more details will be included in the Winter Season Start Review post coming up soon.

January 8

Gundam Seed episodes 16-19

Overall: It certainly was an emotional few episodes. I'm not liking this sand arc too much but I'm told that it's not all that bad so here's to hoping! Episode 19 at the very end made me a little sad for Sai honestly because everything has just gone to shit for the poor guy. *shakes her fist at Flay*

Gintama episodes 44-51 (re-watch)

Overall: Episode 50 has been one of the best episodes yet. It has about a million different parodies and references in it which was highly amusing. This show just rocks so hard!

Attraction Studio 4°C Short

Overall: This is all about not smoking. As weird as it is, it is also very interesting. Especially since you can actually interact with the show but only 4 times and it just involves clicking where they tell you to and wiggling the mouse back and forth. I highly suggest you check it out if you are a fan of Studio 4°C.

Cardfight!! Vanguard, Freezing, Oniichan Crap, Beelzebub episode 1 was watched for all but once again more details will be included in the Winter Season Start Review post coming up soon.

Finished the Manga Brother

Overall: I didn't like how they kept telling the situation at the beginning of every fucking chapter. That was super annoying because it was rather short being only 2 volumes. I thought that the younger brother looking older than the real older one was just weird. 18-23 years old were the siblings which was a little odd at times. The sex was pretty darn hot though! Only check it out if you aren't afraid of yummy man sex! XD

January 9

Gintama episodes 52-54 (re-watch)

Trigun: Badlands Rumble Movie

Overall: Very much <3 I'll gush about it more for this weeks Snack.

January 10

Gintama episodes 55-61

Dragon Crisis, Kore wa Zombie desu ka, Wolverine, Mitsudomoe episode 1 was watched for all but once again more details will be included in the Winter Season Start Review post coming up soon.

Level E episode 1

Overall: I picked a GREAT anime to episodically blog about this winter season.

~

Episode Count: 138 + 3 Specials + 2 Movies

Manga Count: 1

chii’s Anime Snack of the Week: Gundam 00 – A Wakening of the Trailblazer

This week I'm starting off with a Gundam movie that just came out. There's a lot of buzz going around about Gundam 00 - A Wakening of the Trailblazer and I'm sad to say that it is not positive for the most part. In fact, there is pretty much only rage about this movie from what I can see. How does a pretty awesome series of Gundam turn into such a huge clusterfuck? Watch it and find out is all I can honestly say. It's not THAT terrible and you'll totally cry and laugh over almost everything that happens in the 2 hours it takes to watch it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Positive Points

• Animation is pretty to look at.
• The pew pew battles are kick ass.
• You can see the oh so fun Gundam 00 cast again.
• The music was pretty good.
• Slightly less Saji Crossroad and his annoying bimbo.
• It's in space!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Negative Points

• The "plot" is so screwed up.
• Your favourite characters will not be what you remember them as for the most part. (some will be exactly painfully the same though)
• Aliens are suddenly in your Gundam show.
• The ending will make you rage.
• Lame new characters that don't really need to be there at all.
• The politics are retarded.
• A lot of random shit will happen that will make you pause to figure out what you just witnessed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why chii thinks you should watch it

First of all you should have watched all of the Gundam 00 series before viewing. I honestly can't see anyone enjoying this at all if they have no clue about the setting and characters. Although when I really think about it, it probably wouldn't be all that bad either. But this movie is to be watched to simply be entertained in one of the worst yet hilarious ways possible. If you watch it with a group that'll be even better as well. A true Gundam fan will sit through this movie, laugh, cry, and get really angry. Deep down you'll probably enjoy it as well. Something that brings that many emotions through a 2 hour viewing session is impressive even if they aren't all positive. I personally will probably watch this movie again... Just not quite yet though. Despite how much I have ranted about how terrible the movie is to friends and on twitter I still give this movie a 8/10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further reactions to this movie:

The Gundam 00 Movie Is the Comedy of the Year

Sayonara Gundam 00, My Wishes are Over Your Airspace

Gundam 00 Movie: Pixiedust Memories

Thoughts on Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer

Gundam 00 – What You Leave Behind

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 - A wakening of the Trailblazer Review - 80/100

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