Returning to the story of yesterday, you will recall that I mentioned that there were two bloggers whose moments I was exceptionally struck by. I covered one of them in my endless attempt to convince people that H2O is at least marginally worth it.

Today, is my other story.

As I’ve mentioned a few times, my feelings regarding anime tend to run in cycles. As much as I feed and survive on raw moe-moe harem visual-novel megane anime power, sometimes my palate grows tired. Maybe the season grown sucky. Cynicism sets in.

Although my cynicism pales to that of more vocal bloggers, I still do find myself in a bit of a lull, wondering what really is the point to watching the next episode for Shiny Sparkly Shoujo VII or I Can’t Believe It’s Siscon.

Luckily, I’ve found a fairly reliable remedy … or perhaps, it found me.

A simple love story is enough to cure many a heart, or in my case, to get it restarted again. And although I have plenty of those to turn to everywhere I go, sometimes, the bitter angst or brutal conflict of a standard dramatic story is too much for me.

I just want something simple, something soothing. And I found such a thing is very prevalent, in exceptional examples of the shonen romance. The emotional side, as opposed to the fanservicey ones I tend to bring up and lambast every other post.

I’ve already brought up two examples in Haruka’s Secret and Toradora, earlier in this list. But this time I’ll cite a manga, one that I was lucky enough to have the ability to marathon in one day.

For although I have shown much proof over the last week or two of the ability of simple things to reduce me to simple components (that is: mush), Midori Days really probably is the best example I could cite for such a characteristic.

Midori Days, helped me remember love.

12 Moments of Anime 2008
#05: Midori Days ch. 82
with assist from Genshiken ch. 47 and Kare Kano

I keep insisting I don’t really like manga. It’s probably a failure on my part. My lack of imagination makes it such that the lack of color and animation tends to be at least a minor annoyance.

But more than that, pacing tends to be somewhat of … a problem. I read fast. Really fast. Too fast. As a result, a lot of manga that might be ‘good’, skim right over my head.

The forced-pace, 25-minute segment size of anime is much better for me, since it allows me to match more naturally to the pace the writers desired, and as thus notice things more, and really become enveloped in the world the anime creates.

However, I’ve discovered that my inability to read manga in slow, bite-sized sections can, sometimes, work as a plus.

It effectively makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer, in terms of manga quality. The titles that don’t grab me rather quickly, tend to go right back into the bookshelf from whence they came. But the ones that do …

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the throes of unproductivity. Probably some of my worst instances of such as when I insist the world stops for a manga that seizes my heart and doesn’t let go.

Of course, considering how emotionally and creatively enriched such a mangathon makes me (similar to the case of narcissu), one can hardly call it unproductive.

Midori Days was probably one of the more memorable manga that I read to conclusion or to the cutting edge this year in one sitting.

This is already a rather elite class – off the top of my head: Midori Days, Liar Game, Kodomo no Jikan (as mentioned in day 4), Hayate, Ressentiment – and even still, Midori Days was probably the only one to have that sort of grip on you, that makes your stomach churn and your heart burn.

Perhaps this is because while the other titles listed thrilled me psychologically, intellectually, or comedically (insert rolling on floor), Midori Days functioned on such a simplistic and basic level that it basically breaks through all shields a person could put up.

Well, that’s what I felt of it anyway.

I cannot remember my emotional mood at the time (other than the fact that I was rather bored with whatever I was watching), but I know such a thing tends to influence me. For example, while the shoujo manga Marmalade Boy
may be a touch on the angsty side nowadays, back in middle school when I was young and restless, it fit me rather well, and I enjoyed it as such.

In any case, I feel I can safely disprove such a claim; I was perusing the final volumes of Midori Days again last night, looking for a particular chapter (the one with the cute homely megane osananajimi – who, me, biased?).

And still, I felt myself drawn into the story again like I was reading it for the first time. And I certainly feel like I am in a sane state of mind, even at 1:30 am (that’s sleepy, but still sane).

The power of Midori Days probably comes from its character cast. Although it is quite large, it never feels unwieldly.

The core cast is strong and well developed, and the while the side characters take turns rotating in and out of the spotlight, each one has a role to play and an effect on the story.

While vague, I say this mainly because everyone is fairly uncomplicated and has a simple, yet effective story. Naturally for a romance-of-life (yes, I am coining new genres), nearly everyone’s interactions revolve around love, but the differences in relationship dynamics makes every character worth it.

Whether it’s the person searching after a lost childhood love (or really any love at all), the person franticually pursuing their first love, the one that is confused by their own love, or so on, I think, it’s easy to say you’ll find someone to sympathize with in Midori Days. And that’s what can create a strong bond between person and manga (or anime, etc).

And come on. Seiji has a freakin’ girl grafted onto his arm. You try to tell me that’s not creative. The stories in Midori Days are similar, but not repetitive, in this sense.

In fact, this gets to the point where picking a moment in specific becomes very hard. There really is no one crowning point of Midori Days, simply because as soon as it had me, the emotional awesome-o-meter was just sort of pinned off the charts at any good chapter – which is really a lot of them; the serious chapters are touching, and the comedic chapters are legitimately funny.

The one I eventually picked, in chapter 82 near the end, is the final fanfare of Runner-Up Girl, Takako Ayase. After trying and failing in a number of ways to confess to our man Seiji, she finally brings down the hammer in a fairly appropriate setting, at sunset after school.

It’s a relatively typical confession, but that doesn’t stop one from really -feeling- it. It couldn’t be done better on Takako’s part, how she announces her feelings with pride and confidence; and Seiji’s refusal, citing, of course, his love Midori, is done with maturity and warm fuzziness.

And your heart can’t help but ache for this event, how Takako maintains a composed, confident demeanor until she is finally left by herself under the lonely streetlights. You really get that feeling, “if this is how my love is going to end, it would be all right.”

The emotional equivalent to yesterday, how Otoha physically went out in style, Takako’s feelings went out gracefully.

It’s really how Midori Days handles itself in this manner, not just in this moment but in all its moments.

And it works, because you don’t have to be pretentious to enjoy it. You don’t have to work to understand it. There’s no analysis, no 3000-word blog posts. Just emotion.

And that’s masterclass work.

-CCY

(In the end, I never really discussed the second blogger, Pontifus (http://superfani.com/?p=2542), who picked a moment from Genshiken, a manga which, to be honest, I never really read. Skimmed the first few volumes, and I didn’t hate it; but I was overall nonplussed, and put it back on the shelf.

So the fact that, when checking out the chapter Pontifus cited, I felt like I had been hit with a bullet train of emotion, speaks that much more for the power of the emotional moment in manga – or for my weakness to this kind of stuff, but I digress.)

Really, it’s not such a bad thing, personally, for me to be going quiet. Sure, having not much to say means that no anime has really struck me in an incredible way (or at least enough to make it out of my MAL mini-blog), but on the flip side I haven’t watched anything really bad of late either. It’s all rather ordinary and that’s welcome, kind of like how cars don’t routinely explode on my way to work or how my computer turns on every day without myself having to sacrifice a few virgins.

As such it’s kind of ironic that the thing that gets me back into the talking groove again is not something I’ve watched, but something I haven’t.

Where we last left off in regards to myself and Itazura na Kiss, I was standing on my chair screaming “F*** YES KOTOKO, YOU GO GIRL” in response to the 14th episode, much like another three-capital-letter blogger (OGT) whom I read frequently.

If you want to make your own imaginary graph and extrapolate how awesome I think ItaKiss is from my enjoyment of the first 14 episodes (and that is a lot of awesomeness), you would imagine it would be up there with the Tier 1 shows (KimiKiss, Kaiji, ef, etc) by now.

Instead, a rather peculiar thing happened, as you may have inferred, in that instead of being on a golden pedestal somewhere ItaKiss has found itself on the side of a milk carton with the caption “Have you seen my awesome?”

And while ItaKiss may be the blond-haired poster child for abandoned shoujo anime, Amber Alerts have been placed out for its brethren as well, those being Special A and Toshokan Sensou (Library War).

These are three anime I haven’t really been arsed to watch in the last two weeks, despite the fact that I’ve waxed at least moderate amounts of love for each of them on this blog before. The question is:

Why?

(Oh yes, and I do spoil ItaKiss and Special A through about episode 14 or 15, so play it safe as applicable.)

There are two major types of factors to examine in the so-called decline of the shoujo queens in my viewing list, internal and external, and for the purposes of keeping things mysterious and dramatic I’ll go with the seemingly more pertinent one first: what’s wrong with the anime themselves.

My problem with Itazura na Kiss is that it ended.

“Silly CCY, you must be a fool of monumental proportion,” you chuckle to yourself, “ItaKiss is only on it’s 18th episode of 25!”

And you would be correct, at least on the second statement. But listen to my rationale:

Itazura na Kiss opened with Kotoko daydreaming of being married to Naoki.
As of the end of episode 14, Kotoko is now married to Naoki in Canada, because if you get married in Canada, you get married in real life.

Show’s over, nothing to see here.

Now of course that’s a bit harsh, as most anime tend to have a recalibration of goals somewhere down the line, and I’ve always professed a bit of love for anime that don’t just stop dead once the main couple gets together.

But for some reason, ItaKiss already really feels like it has climaxed, like it has finished, like there’s not much else for it to accomplish.

Perhaps part of this is the fact that ItaKiss is, for me at least, exploring uncharted territory; I’ve never watched an anime where the main couple gets married more than five minutes before the end of the final episode, and so to see Kotoko and Naoki tie the knot barely halfway through is completely stunning (in the best of ways).

I’m hoping it’s just a perceived problem, but I’m beginning to see a bit of a “what now” dilemma when viewing the story. What can we have? Family problems? Relationship issues? Childbirth? Who knows – to be frank, for some reason, at least the 15th episode hasn’t grabbed me as much, perhaps because it falls back on Ye Old Standby of introducing some romantic rival who appears, takes a potshot at grabbing Naoki, and fades into the mist.

It’s not the worst of offenses, but the meager payoff of a short deredere Naoki moment all of a sudden is not cutting it, perhaps because since they are married, I expected the dynamic between the two of them to change more than a bit.

Maybe it has, and I’m not that observant, but in my mind, Kotoko has achieved victory, and so there’s not much else for me to be interested in from her side, unless something interesting happens.

And what else was there? The side characters in ItaKiss were always at the best passable and at the worst mood-killers. Kin-chan’s evolved a small amount, but still ranks on the ’stupid’ side. Especially so since the Engrish girl previously infatuated with Naoki is due to make a double switch with Kin-chan, previously fascinated with Kotoko, with the intentions of having a Happy Ending for Everyone moment, to which I respond 1) meh and 2) what about Kotoko’s cooler rival, Nadeshiko or whoever.

So, I get the feeling that ItaKiss is good enough concluded there as is, at least while there is other stuff to be watched.

What about Special A, then? The perennial underdog to ItaKiss, while S.A. was never a standout star in its own right, the exceptionally likable character of Hikari, combined with a lovesick hero and a decent sense of humor made it a worthwhile watch at most times.

Indeed, when I last left off S.A. at the end of episode 15, I was proclaiming that it might have a chance to overtake ItaKiss if it didn’t make the same mistake of falling into a predictable groove.

And perhaps the problem here too is that I haven’t given it the chance it deserves. I’m a bit suspicious of it after all – it’s a good fluff watch, but like a NASCAR race, I quickly get tired of watching things go around and around in circles with nothing happening.

Because, after all, it’s been, what, 15 episodes, and only the slightest of development between the main couple of Kei and Hikari? In an episode or two, all the side pairings are fleshing out nicely, keeping my overall opinion of the series positive, despite my lack of an urge to view it; but Kei and Hikari are moving forward at about the pace of a catatonic snail with the equivalent of two broken legs. And it bugs me.

Perhaps this is because I do like Kei and Hikari so much individually as personalities, but less so as characters. They are fun, enjoyable, cute, whatever – but are they deep? Do they grow? It’s tough for me to tell, and with every passing episode I worry that S.A. is going to fall into that aforementioned trap of “don’t pair up the main couple until the end” that is so buzz-killing.

So I’ve left S.A. on the backburner as well, if only to keep ItaKiss company. It’s true that I have delayed S.A. a bit only because I felt that of the two shoujo shows, I should watch the “better” one first, and since I haven’t felt in an ItaKiss mood in a while, S.A. has been stuck in place.

But really, perhaps the thing I am waiting on the most is an explosion on the frontlines, a declaration from one of the raw watchers that This Episode Is Awesome, to give me motivation to power through S.A. and reach the good stuff.

As for Toshokan Sensou…it’s really very rarely that I can say this, but I have no excuse.

Perhaps the one factor I can cite the easiest, that’s out of my control, is that my usual download place (since my computer’s torrent speed is horrid) only carries the 300+ MB version of Toshokan Sensou, and really, nothing will make me fork out twice the usual hard drive cost for an episode, given how much of a packrat I tend to be.

And that’s really it, in terms of the show’s problems. I can’t complain so much about the show – maybe it is a bit of Toshokan Sensou’s fault that it’s a jack of two genres, master of none, but I think the overarching theme in this whole problem is that I’m having a bit of pilgrimage of sort, that’s taking me away from the shoujo genre for once:

If you recall correctly, I have hinted or perhaps stated at one point in this blog that I am of the male gender.

Now of course, there are a million different differences that two people of the same gender can have, but I imagine that still, if you took a bunch of male anime fans and placed their genre preferences on a chart, you’d notice a serious trend.

And while I may try and try to shove myself into the relative minority (although not an absolute one) of guys who really do enjoy shoujo work, in the end, something as simple as a shonen romance-comedy can grab me better than anything else.

This was demonstrated to me when one of my friends (ironically, female) tossed me the Midori Days manga and said “Read this, it’s good.”

Naturally, I was skeptical, one, because she had recommended titles that weren’t the most appealing in the past, and two, because I’m horrible at manga. The forced pacing of anime works much better for me, preventing me from skimming past important material and adding extra nuance.

But right from the first page, Midori Days had me hooked, to the extent that I read 40 chapters in a single sitting. It really was, one of my first instances of being absolutely enraptured in a long time.

In a sense, it was one of those works that just clicked. The characters were excellent, the story didn’t fall into too many filler pits, the comedy was on its game, everything. I might almost say it was like being whisked back in time to my simpler days as a kid, reading D.N.Angel and other works in the library.

It was here that I discovered that I could never really escape my roots – not that I was trying to at all, but in the sense that even though I can enjoy such complex, deep, or maybe just feminine works today, something simple, a bit crude, and straightforward still can capture my heart.

And so, for a bit, the dramatic relationship tumblers and the complex relationship webs took a back seat in favor of a more uncomplicated pleasure, the simple entertainment of rooting on the underdog girl in love, being viscerally thrilled by fight scenes, or just laughing at a ridiculous situation.

In the end, does Midori Days have something ItaKiss, S.A., and Toshokan Sensou do not?

For all I know, no. As I was searching for the words to describe Midori Days, the more and more I realized it was almost like a shonen version of Special A. Maybe a different setup, but the same mechanics of confess-fail-repeat aren’t lost there. Nor the “fighting for the underdog” feel in ItaKiss.

Perhaps Midori just has a special spark. Or maybe the stylistic differences between characters and their portrayal in shoujo and shonen works are different.

But in the end, I think it’s all just phases. Right now it’s time for the revival of the uncomplicated shows, the ones where you can just enjoy without having to write a 2000-word dissertation. The Mission-Es, the Midori Days, the Nogizaka Harukas.

The other deserving – the S.A., the ItaKiss, the Toshokan Sensou – will get their time soon enough, being of no less worth.

-CCY

(Oh, and speaking of reading in the library, I found a volume of the Shugo Chara manga in my local public library the other day. I had a major fangirlboy moment, especially since I was blaring Black Diamond through my earphones when I spotted it.)