Solidarity with Japan

Kath, the incredibly insightful, intelligent, and inspiring* blogger behind My Funny Little Life, suggested we bloggers join together in solidarity with Japan. In essence, Kath is going to blog a lot about all things Japanese (including food, culture, and entertainment) and asked her readers to do the same. I think this is a wonderful idea, so I thought I would start off by telling you all about my experience with Japanese animation, commonly referred to as “anime“.

I am not an anime expert by any means. In fact, I have watched only two anime series so far, but man, were they incredible. At my last job, I worked with a guy named Paul who was really into anime. He owned hundreds of anime DVDs. In an effort to educate me on anime, he loaned me three DVDs. Paul knew about my love affair with all things secret agent, espionage, crime fighting, ballistics, packin’ heat, etc. So, one of the programs he loaned me was about a secret agent. It was called “Najica Blitz Tactics.” I didn’t like the series at all. The show seemed more focused on giving glimpses of the girl’s panties than on the bad-assness of being a chick with guns. Clearly the intended audience for this show is… not me:

No reason to watch this program unless you ❤ panties!

 

I wasn’t too optimistic about my future with anime at this point but I put the second DVD in. It was called “Chobits” and pictured a cute little girl with crazy long, swirly blond hair on the cover.

When will they make computers that look like Jake Gyllenhaal?

 

I loved Chobits from the very beginning!!! It takes place in the future, in Japan (duh?), and focuses on an 18-ish year boy named Hideki, who dreams of one day owning a persocom. A persocom is a personal computer but is in human form. One day on the way home, Hideki stumbles upon an abandoned persocom and takes it home. The persocom is beautiful (the blond babe from the cover). Its disc seems to be corrupted, and the only word it will say is “chi”, so of course Hideki starts calling her Chi. She also learns to say his name, Hideki, which is super cute. The series focuses on Hideki’s relationship with Chi, and his attempts to restore her memory. It’s a sweet series and I definitely recommend it to anyone new to anime. Conveniently, I just discovered you can watch it online! Sweet! I have just re-watched the first episode and enjoyed it all over again. (The site gives several options for language. I prefer Japanese with English sub-titles. Also, you may have to refresh a few times to get it to play.)

After Chobits, I watched the last of the three DVDs my friend loaned me, called “His and Hers Circumstances” (“Kare Kano” in Japanese). Another winner! This show is about two high school overachievers who are enemies, then frenemies, then fall in lurv. Aww. It’s a super cute high school romance. I’d get so caught up in it, I’d completely forget I was watching animation. You can watch Kare Kano online, too.

This picture makes me all kermelty.

So, as it turned out, I liked anime quite a bit! I watched the entire series of Chobits and His and Hers.  Then I sort of drifted away from anime and haven’t watched any since.  I think it’s time to pick some up!

Anime FTW!

* indeed the alliteration is intentional!

Have you ever watched anime? What was your favorite series?