Review of "Katanagatari"

 

 

As I said in yesterday's article, I want to write about the one of Nishioishin's novels "Katanagatari" today.

 

"Katanagatari" consists of twelve volumes, and is about the story in fictional ancient era like Japanese Edo period.

 

To summarize the story, the hero named "Shichika Yasuri" who is a human but also a sword, and the heroin named "Togame" start on a journey to gather twelve special swords which should be somewhere in their country together.

 

One of interesting settings of the story would be "the hero is a human but also a sword."

 

You would not understand what I said, would you?

 

No problem if so. That can't be helped.

 

That's because I didn't also figure out it in the first place.

 

"The hero is also a sword" means that he is a strong fighter as if he were a sword because of his special fighting style named "Kyoto-Ryu" which does not require any weapons to fight with someone.

 

He doesn't have his own motivations for his fights as he is nothing but a "sword", namely just a weapon which should be used by someone.

 

(To be continued...)

 

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Recommendation of Nishioishin's Novels

I like Nishioishin's novels.

"Nishioishin" is a Japanese novel writer.

But, the range of his work is recently expanding to other media, for example comics and animations, because every his works are so popular in Japan.

One of his famous representative novels is "Monogatari" series .

You may know "Bakemonogatari" which is the first volume of this series, though I have also intorudeced it in this blog.

However, I would like to recommend you his other terrific novels as well today.

The works I want to do so are as follows;

1. "Zaregoto" series

2. "Ningen" series

 

 

3. "Densetsu" series

 

 

4. "Katanagatari" series

 

 

 

I will tell you why they are recommendable next time onward.

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Can Japanese Anime Culture Improve Your Foreign Language Skills?

Here, I want to ask you two questions.

Question 1: Do you like Japanese Anime, comics or novels?

(Isn't it needed to ask such a question of people who came here?)

Question 2: Do you want to study foreign languages or improve your foreign language skills?

 

 

If both of your answers to the above questions are "Yes", I would like to suggest that you try studying foreign languages through Japanese animations, comic or novels (Of course, other media are also OK.).

That's because the person who suceeded to improve foreign language skill by that is nothing but me.

I have been studying English in earnest for about one and a half year.

Acquiring English skill is not easy for me because I am a Japanese.

However, my English skill has been improved enough to open this English blog now.

I think that Japanese animations, comics and novels played very important roles in developing my English skill.

Could it be you wonder why Japanese cultures improved "English" skill?

That's because many Japanese animations etc. are translated into English and other foreign languages thanks to their popularity around the world.

So, I can study Englsih through them which were translated.

The most important point of this method of studying is that we are able to enjoy studying, in other words, we don't to feel "It's a study".

I actually read a lot of English versions of Japanese novels untill now, and it certainly affected my skill.

Of course, the causes which improved my English skill were not only the method but also other normal studies like internet online lesson.

Especially, for beginners, enjoying animations etc. in foreign languages would be difficult.

But it should be so effective for intermediate or upper level people.

For people who are learning not English but Japanese, the method would be useful, I guess.

Let's study by making the most of Japanese cultures!

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"Koyomimonogatari"("Monogatari" Series) has been released!

 

As you may already know, the latest volume of "Monogatari" series (novel series) was finally released on May 20, 2013 in Japan.

The titel is "Koyomimonogatari."

The word "koyomi" means "calender", and "monogatari" means "story" in Japanese.

But, the former also means the first name of the hero in this novel series, "Koyomi Araragi."

Therefore, the meaning of the title would be "Story of Koyomi Araragi."

As this meaning the titel indicates, the new volume woud be about the stories of him which happened between other stories that have already been revealed in the previous volumes.

Of course, I don't know all the contents of the latest volume because I have not finished reading it yet.

However, "Koyomimonogatari" may be something like a side story , so you would be disappointed if you expect new development of the main story.

Though, I can't surely say such things are true.

So, I want to review "Koyomimonogatari" again after I finish reading all.

 

 

 

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 15 "CLANAD"

■ The 1st Place "CLANAD"

 

 

The 1st place of my Japanese anime raning is "CLANAD."

 

This anime was based on the original game for PC whose name was the same.

 

 

The original game would be the type of one categorized into "Gyaru-Game", which means the game where you pretend as a hero of the game, and try to make good (romantic) relationship with a girl you are interested in.

 

However, I don't think it is not just "Gyaru-Game."

 

It would rather be correct it is called "Naki-Game",meaning the game which make players weep.

 

Actually, much tears welled out from my eyes over and over again because of the heart-warming stories during playing the game version of "CLANAD."

 

The remarkable point of this anime I want to emphasize is that its quality of the stories was as high as the original game version although arrange version is usually more inferior than original.

 

Both the anime version and the original game version were translated into English.

 

So, I strongly recommend you to try them.

 

I apologize for refraining from revealing the detailed story.

 

But I can't do it because the story is really really moving.

 

 

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 14 "Hyouka"

■ The 2nd Place  "Hyouka"



The 2nd place of my Japanese anime ranking is "Hyouka."

This anime is the type of one I like the most!

That's because it expresses various feelings of main characters not directly but indirectly.

In short, the anime is not just one which can only let spectators who love cute female characters excited.

The reason why how it is would be that the author "Honobu Yonezawa" is not for light novels aiming to "Otaku" but general novels.

He writes a lot of mystery novels, so the contents of his works are not simple.

"Hyouka" is not exception of that, of course.

It is also categorized into the field of mystery.

One day, the hero named "Hotaro Oreki", whose motto is "I don't do what I don't have to do. I do what I must do as shortly as I can.", joined "Classical Literature Club" in his high school against his will.

He met a beautiful and a little bit mysterious girl named "Eru Chitanda" in the club.

She is usually polite and mature, but she gets exited without suppressing her overflowing curiosity when she faces wonder or mysterious things happening aroud her.

He can't help caring for such her personality by using his amazing reasoning power after all.

Anyway, I would like to emphasize the way of expression of character's feelings in this anime is wonderful rather than other things.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 13 "Sword Art Online"

■ The 3rd Place  "Sword Art Online"




The 3rd place of my Japanese anime ranking is "Sword Art Online."

I have introduced this anime over and over again in this blog, especially in the earlier articles because I love it very much

To tell the truth, it was so difficult to decide where I should place the anime in the higher positions of this ranking.

"Sword Art Online" series is very fantastic, but there are still some great animations which can compete with it.

I will reveal them in the later articles, so please look forward to know what they are!

Anyway, I should talk about "Sword Art Online."

As usual, this anime is also based on the novel version as the original thereof.

Originally, the original novel was published on the author's website only.

The web version got good reputation from many people some time later, so it was decided to publish it as novel books to sell.

Then, more people knew the presence of the work.

Finally, the anime version thereof was broadcast last year in Japan.

Nevertheless, the time when I knew such a process, no, even the presence of the "Sword Art Online" was after watching the anime version.

I wanted to try the original novel version because the anime version attracted me strongly.

The point I admired regarding the work was the setting behind story.

The story is about virtual worlds, computers, network systems, online games and  something else related with these fields.

That's why high level of knowledge about these fields should be required to write this type of novels, I guess.

However,  the author's one seems to meet this condition because the detailed setting of story made me feel that it was likely to be considered exhaustively.

Probably, that would be the reason why the work is not just fantasy battle animation.

Even now, I continuously read the novel version, so I would give you the review again.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 12 "Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru (My Youth Romantic Love Comedy is Wrong as I Expected)"

■ The 4th Place "Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru (My Youth Romantic Love Comedy is Wrong as I Expected)"

The 4th place of my Japanese anime ranking is "Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru (My Youth Romantic Love Comedy is Wrong as I Expected)."

The reason why this anime is at such a high place is that my evaluation of it is recently growing at high speed.

Of course, the fact that the anime is being broadcasted in this season would affect my evaluation.

But, I think that I'm being attracted by it because I have finished reading all volumes of the original novels thereof just several days ago.

It would be precise that I feel I would like to recommend you the novel series rather than the anime version.

Why do I feel so?

That would be because the story is not a type of one which can be enhanced by a way of expression of animation.

As I mentioned before, the charm point of the work is the hero's monologues. So, novels would be more appropriate to the work than animation in order to express them enough.

This article became the introduction of not anime but novel without realizing in spite that its title is "Japanese Anime Ranking"! Anyway, I would like you to try the original novel series too.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 11 "Bakemonogatari" (Monogatari series)

■ The 5th Place "Bakemonogatari" (Monogatari series)

The 5th place of my Japanese anime ranking is "Bakemonogatari."

It's also the anime which I has already introduced before.

It's based on the original light novel series named "Monogatari" series.

The reason why the series is called so is all the titles of novels belonging to the series have the word "monogatari (which means "story" in Japanese) ."

I like the anime series because the conversations between the characters are very very interesting.

There are always lots of jokes or "Boke and Tsukkomi" in their talks.

Although you may know if you are familiar with Japanese culture, "Boke and Tsukkomi" is a kind of talk styles in the field of comedy in Japan.

It means that someones peaks jokes or strange things, and then, the other points out how strange they are, or something like that.

Many "Boke and Tsukkomi" are really included in their conversations, so it would not be exaggerated to say they consist of "Boke and Tsukkomi" only.

I have heard that some people don't like this characteristic of the anime very much, but you will be able to really enjoy if you like it as me.

On the other hand, probably thanks to the original author "Nisioishin" who writes normal novels as well, the story of the anime has a aspect of serious one and is not easy but somewhat complex to understand it deeply.

It would be attractive point too.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 10 "K-On!"

◾ The 6th Place "K-On!"

The 6th place of my Japanese anime ranking is "K-On!"


You may know this anime because it is very popular and famous in other countries as well as Japan.


The characteristics of it are the story about "Light Music Club" which is a kind of club activities in schools, and the design of characters.


Many anime fans were attracted by loveliness of the characters, I guess.


Needless to say, I am the one of them.


The design of characters itself might not be prominent enough to be emphasized especially, but it would have been made more attractive by the setting of characters' personalities.


Furthermore, the anime would remind us of pleasures and bitterness of club activities in schooldays.


I'm sure you will want to go back to the past and join the "Light Music Club."


The songs played by the characters in the anime is so good as if they weren't ones used for anime.


So, I want to recommend this anime to you also from the point of view of music.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 9 "The Familiar of Zero"

■ The 7th Place "The Familiar of Zero"

The 7th place of my Japanese anime ranking is "The Familiar of Zero."

This anime might be the one I was absorbed in for the first time in the works based on original light novels.

I knew the anime because my friend intoroduced it to me when I was a college student.

To tell the truth, I suspected whether it was interesting to me in the first place.

Thinking back now, I might have somewhat negative impression for the animations based on light novels.

However, I realized that I was attracted and moved by the more doramatic story than my expectation without noticing when I was watching the later chapters of it. In the end, I was even weeping.

This anime should be classified into the genre "Battle Fantasy" or somthing like that.

The hero named "Saito Hiraga", who should have been one of normal Japanese students, was suddenly summoned into the world he didn't know, by the heroin named "Ruise", who was a student in the magical academy in the world.

He was forced to be her familiar without understanding the situation for some reason, but he accepted it somehow and he decided to fight for her.

I can assure you that you will excite dynamic battle scenes and be attracted by loveliness of the heroin or other characters.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 8 "Magical Girl Madoka Magica"

◾ The 8th Place "Magical Girl Madoka Magica"

The 8th place of my Japanese anime ranking is "Magical Girl Madoka Magica."


This anime was not one based on light novel unlike most of the animations I introduced until now.


In other words, it's an original anime created by a Japanese animation company, "SHAFT, Inc."


Their works often receive good reputations for their a little bit abnormal expression style of anime.


Actually, "Bakemonogatari", which I introduced in this blog before, is also one of their works.


Anyway, I am one of the persons who was astonished by unpredictability of the story of "Magical Girl Madoka Magica."


You may think it is the so-called "Moe" anime because of pretty looks of the characters.


But, don't be deceived.


That's because unexpected cruel stories might be hidden behind them.


If you want to be deceived, I strongly recommend this anime to you.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 7 "Chuunibyo Demo Koi ga Shitai"

■ The 9th Place "Chuunibyo Demo Koi ga Shitai"

The 9th place of my anime ranking is "Chuunibyo Demo Koi ga Shitai."

First, I explain the meaning of the title of this anime "Chunibyo Demo Koi ga Shitai."

"Chunibyo" is the keyword required to understand the anime.

"Chunibyo" means a kind of disease which most of us suffered from when we were second-grade students in junior high schools.

Of course, it's not real disease, no, rather, we must not call it "disease" maybe.

We used to behave as if we were characters of animations, comics, TV games or novels, who usually have special powers we can't get in the real world, when we were teenagers.

In short, "Chunibyo" represents such particular behaviors they show.

("Chuni" means "second-grade student in junior high school", and "Byo" means "disease" in Japanese)

This anime is the story of guys who used to be patients of the disease "Chunibyo."

We could enjoy behaving as if we were heroes or heroins of fictions when we were children.

However, we become adults who can not do because of shame or something before we aren't aware of that as if such behaviors were wrong.

This anime can remind us of the hearts of children we should not forget.

Further, the anime is the work of "Kyoto Animation", so I can assure you that it's interesting to you.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 6 "Toradora"

■ The 10th Place "Toradora"

The 10th place of my anime ranking is "Toradora."

This anime is as popular as the other animations I introduced in this blog.

It's categorized as love comedy. But, I think it's not just one which makes us enjoy.

The recommendable point of the anime would be reality of school life everyone have experienced in the past, in other words, it would remind us of some pleasures and bitternesses in our school days.

The characters play together, squabble with each other, fall in love and something like that in the story.

They may be trivial things, but realities in schooldays.

We like the animation because we can sympathize with someone in the characters.

And, the anime has elements which can have us moved as well.

I can imagine tears will well up in your eyes in the later stage of the anime.

I think even that I want to delete my memories about the anime and watch it again in order to be moved once more if I could.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 5 "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"

■ The 11th Place "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"

As you may know, this animation is very famous among not only "Otaku" but also ordinary people.

That's because the presence of this anime was introduced in various medium, and a lot of related goods were released.

In fact, it is the anime based on the original light novel which I watched for the first time.

I was deeply absorbed in it at that time.
So, I can say it would be an appropriate anime for beginners to try for the first time.

I want to omit detail explanations about this anime becauase I introduced it before.

But, I have to say that you should also read the original novels thereof if you have already watched it.

Thay have been published up to volume 11. It is the evidence indicating their popularity.

Actually, I have not finished reading all of the volumes yet, so I am considering if I will restart to read them again.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 4 "A Certain Scientific Railgun"

■ The 12th Place "A Certain Scientific Railgun"

The animation on the 12th place of my favorite anime ranking is "A Certain Scientific Railgun" I introduced before.

Actually, this animation is not about main stories of the original novel version of "A Certain Magical Index", but about side stories thereof.

But, I can say that I prefer "A Certain Scientific Railgun" to "A Certain Magical Index" if I try to decide which animation is more interesting to me.

The reason why I prefer "A Certain Scientific Railgun" would be as follows;


1) "A Certain Scientific Railgun" focuses on science or technology, while "A Certain Magical Index" focuses on magic or religion. I like the former better.


2) I like the heroin of "A Certain Scientific Railgun" , who is "Mikoto Misaka", better than one of "A Certain Magical Index", who is "Index."


How simple and selfish reasons they are!


Anyway, Which animation do you prefer?

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 3 "A Certain Magical Index"

■ The 13th Place "A Certain Magical Index"

This is also the anime based on the original light novel series having the same title.

The anime is the story in the world where the science have progressed much higher than our real world, and on the other hand, there is magic and special abilities like psychokinesis as well.

I think this setting of the story is one of interesting points the anime has.

A hero of this anime, "Toma Kamijo", is a junior high school student living in the above-mentioned world.

Students in the world learn and develop their own special abilities.

But, Toma Kamijo doesn't have his own special ability.

So, he is a inferior student in the school.

Furthermore, bad things always happen around him because of his unbelievable bad luck for some reason.

One day, he met a mysterious girl wearing strange clothing like a robe.

She said to him that she was a magician.

He felt she was suspicious, but he gave her some food because she argued she was so hungry.

After all, he allowed her to live in his house with him.

However, he was gradually realized she was really a magician and has mysterious power which I could call as mysterious disease.

Then, new magicians who chased her emerged in front of him, and...

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 2 "Anohi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day)"

◾ The 14th Place "Anohi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day)"

If I try to express this animation in a word, it's the animation makes us moved, so-called "Naki-Anime" in Japanese.

The story is about a not energetic hero, "Jin-tan", who used to be an energetic and powerful boy, and his ex-friends.

One day, his female friend named "Memma", who should have died when she was a little girl, emerges in front of him suddenly.

However, the person who can see her with his eyes is "Jin-tan" only.

This animation is the story of such the hero, her and their friends.

In the end of the story, you should be so moved by their friendship.

Needless to say, I cried when I finished watching all chapters.

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Japanese Anime Ranking part 1 "Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (I Don't Have Many Friends)"

I want to show you my ranking of Japanese animations I have ever watched.

I am going to reveal step by step from low ranking.
If it is useful for your reference, I will be so glad!

■The 15th Place "Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (I Don't Have Many Friends)"

This work has been introduced in this blog.

This animation is based on the light novel having the same title.

This is about the story where a hero, who has not had friends since he was a child, is forced to join the new club named "Neighborhood Club" by one of heroins who has also no friends.

As I said "one of heroins", there are two main heroins, Yozora and Sena in this animations.

Yozora, Sena and the hero named Kodaka are original members of the "Neighborhood Club."

The two heroins fell in love with Kodaka. So, they are rival with each other.

One of important element would be their small fight over him.

Another point I want to emphasize is that this animation is comedy.

In just my opinion, the story itself may be neither wonderful nor touching.

But, I assure you this animation will make you enjoy as comedy!

....Oops, I reminded other important thing. The two heroin are so cute.
Though, I want to push Sena.

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The Opening Theme Song of "Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru", "Yukitoki"

One of the attractive points of Japanese Animations based on light novels is theme songs thereof.

Some people who have never watched the animations have negative impressions against the theme songs used for them.

They always feel disgusts as soon as they hear the word "Ani-Son (which stands for "Anime Song") ." 

However, I want to emphasize there are lots of wonderful songs in the field of "Ani-Son."

It would not be exaggerated that there are more fantastic songs there rather than in the field of general J-POP.

The opening theme song of the animation "Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru" isn't a exception of that.

The song is "Yukitoki" sung by a Japanese female singer "Nagi Yanagi."

She is a very popular singer among fans of Japanese animations because of her clear, soft and beautiful voice.

I am the person who was attracted by her tender voice.

Her songs are often adopted for theme songs of animations or TV games.

In fact, the ending theme song titled "Kimino Shiranai Monogatari (The Story You Don't Know)" for one of popular animation "Bakemonogatari" is also sung by her who joined "Supercell".

I want to recommend you to listen to her songs if you are interested in "Ani-Son."

　　　　　　　

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Characteristic of Heroes in Japanese Light Novels or Animations

Japanese light novels and animations are so popular among people called "Otaku."

What do you think why they love light novels and animations?

That's because the heroes in them are similar to "Otaku", I think.

The common point between them would be their personalities.

Most of the heroes like comics, novels, animations like "Otaku."

And, they usually don't like to get along with others reluctantly.

Such personalities would make readers and anime viewers who are called "otaku" empathize with the heroes.

But, that's not all.

The heroes have strong will power and kindness in addition to the common points with "Otaku."

In short, they have both common points shared with "Otaku" and attractive personalities all " Otaku" don't necessarily have.

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Empathy With "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru"

The hero of "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru (My Romantic Love Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected)", whose name is Hachiman Hikigaya, doesn't have friends. 

I am not a person who has no friends like him, but I cannot say that I have a lot of friends.

That would be why I can empathize with his feelings during reading the novel "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru."

He is always thinking alone without chatting with friends in his classroom.

He is always observing people around him without talking with them.

However, he doesn't hate to spend spare time alone, by reading novels or comics, playing TV games, watching animation he recorded, and so on.

In fact, I also like to spend time alone rather than to play with my friends.

My most favorite time may be the time when I am alone in my room without being interrupted by others.

Perhaps, this would be a common point for him and me.

I can enjoy "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru" thanks to the empathy with him, exactly.

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Novels of "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru"

  

An original of "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru" is Japanese light novels like other animations I have introduced in this blog until now.

I believe that we should contact originals of works if we really want to enjoy the works.

So, I read the novel version of "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru" as usual.

Although I have read only volume 1 thereof, I can say this work is so interesting as I expected.

One of charm of this work is the hero's monologue, so we can fully enjoy it when we read the novel version which isn't cut due to limitation of broadcasting hours unlike the animation version.

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Attraction of "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru"

As I said in the last article, I am now absorbed in the animation titled "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru", which is being broadcasted in Japan from this April.

The biggest attraction of this animation would be a hero named "Hikigaya", I think.

His most important characteristic is that he has no friends.

He is always alone in the school.

Why?

That's because he doesn't reluctant to adapt himself to others.

He was not weak but rather has so strong will power, so to speak.

Ordinary people should easily change themselves to get along with others even if it is against their honest will.

However, he exactly doesn't change.

So I guess he is so strong.

Moreover, He is normally lazy and has no motivation for everything.

But he is actually kind and knows what he really should do in important situations.

He's so cool!

Nevertheless, the largest question coming up in my mind is "He would exactly be able to make a lot of friends if he were in our real world!"

You also think so, don' you?

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"Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru" Will Live Up to My Expectation

                             

The animation which is broadcasting in this term in Japan, "Yahari Ore no Seisyun Love Come wa Machigatteiru" seems to be going to popular.

I heard that, so I tried watching the animation.

It was the story of three students, non-energetic hero, beautiful and intelligent girl and a little bit idiot but energetic girl.

I thought the story setting was somewhat similar to "Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai" I had watched until some time ago.

However, it wasn't the animation where the hero was troubled by or enjoyed with a lot of girls around him. It would rather have more serious or profound scenes, so I prefer it to "Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai."

I can't explain the charm of this animation in detail now because I don't have enough time now. So, I would like to do so in later article. Please expect that!

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"Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai" is Interesting As Comedy

Recently, I have been absorbed in the novel "Sword Art Online."

However, I couldn't help watching other animation as soon as finishing watching "Tamako Market" because I felt that Japanese animations was really interesting to me when I had watched them after a long time.

What I chose as the second target was "Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai." The title means "I have a few friends" in Japanese.

The animation seemed to be classified as "Disappointing Love Comedy." The setting of the story itself, where main hero and many cute girls were spending their school life together, was not rare, but peculiar and intense personalities of main characters made me interested.

In particular, two main heroins, Yozora and Sena, had strange and disappointing personalities instead of their prominent beauty and intelligence, and they often said ridiculous words which should have been prohibited to be broadcasted on TV. Honestly speaking, I was surprised at that...

On the other hand, the animation also had a certain element of something like romance or seriousness. The balance between joy and serious would not be bad.

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I Have Completed All Chapters of "Tamako Market"

After all, I have watched all chapters of "Tamako Market" as I predicted.

But I'm sure my action was not bad selection on my life. Did I exaggerate it?

I was so moved when I finished watching this animation.

That would be because "Tamako Market" showed me various faces and other expression people had by describing their daily life naturally and attractively.

This type of animation should be worthful, while there are recently a lot of animations about more stimulous theme, for instace battle, magic, unhappiness, love and something like that. I like these serious animations as well, of course.

Actually, the story itself of "Tamako Market" was not profound, but it was expressed very dramatically thanks to Kyoto Animation. So, we are always attracted by their animations.

I could find many my favorite characters in this animation.

The maturest character was Mr. Dera, I guess.

He was not a human but a bird which was able to speak human language.

He always paid attention to feelings of people around him as if he had not done so.

His presence must have made this animation more attractive.

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Tamako Market Was Also An Good Work of Kyoto Animation.

Although I said "Tamako Market" might be boring to me before, I finally watched the animation and attracted.

It would not be dramatic but have enough power to make us feel like comfortable.

"Tamako Market" is the story in Usagiyama Market where a heroine whose name is Tamako lives.

All people living there are so kind. So, their conversations and attitudes can make my heart warm and relaxed.

Further, the wonderful point of the animation would be how to show the story to us, I guess.

It can be also said that this point is the characteristic of animations produced by Kyoto Animation.

I could say "Tamako Market" is one of their masterpieces as well.

I have not finished watching all chapters of the animation yet.

I want to do so as soon as possible!

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Review of "Sword Art Online 10 - Alicization Running - Part 2

The second part of SAO volume 10 is the story in Underworld where Kirito is captured.

Kirito and his friend, Eugeo whom he firstly met in Underworld, finally entered the academy for swordsman in Central. A year had already spent since the story of previous volume.

I feel the story is proceeding somewhat quickly since it entered the new chapter "Alicization" series.

Perhaps, the setting of the story that speed of time stream in Underworld is faster than that in the real world makes me feel so?

No way! it must be just my imagination.

Anyway, Kirito became a novice trainee of the academy and was following his mentor, Rina-senpai ("senpai" means "senior" in Japanese) who is a beautiful girl, as her valet.

He can always see beautiful or cute girls in virtual worlds. I can't help envying him...

She is not only mature and kind but also has good personality like Asuna who is Kirito's lover.

So, I was worried he was excessively attracted by her despite he has the lover.

Replace him with me, really!

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Review of "Sword Art Online 10 - Alicization Running -

I have finished reading the volume 10 of "Sword Art Online" novel series, "Sword Art Online 10 - Alicization Runnning -."

This volume was as interisting as previous ones to me.

The story of the volume is vaguely separated into two parts.


One is about the real world.

The other is about the virtual world called "underworld," where Kirito has been captured.

In the former story, Asuna went to an secret institute with a cooperator to find out where Kirito was and rescue him.

The point which attract you would be the conversations between Asuna with the cooperator and researchers in the institute.

That's because you could find some secrets of "Underworld", no, not only "Underworld" but also virtual world itself, in their conversations.

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Should I Watch "Tamako Market"?

Although "Tamako Market" was broadcasted until last March in Japan, I am now considering if I should watch it.

In fact, I already tried two or three chapters of "Tamako Market", but I stopped because I had many other things I should have done.

The reason why I am worried in such a manner is that "Tamako Market" might be bored, while it was created by "Kyoto Animation."

Oops, I forgot to tell you "Tamako Market" is Japanese animation in the first place!

Anyway, I can't help having much expectation for the animation because of the fact it was Kyoto Animation's work.

On the other hand, it was not arranged animation based on novels or something but an original animation created by Kyoto Animation. Actually, their original animations broadcasted before were not evaluated as so good among Japanese anime fans.

That's why I wonder if "Tamako Market" is interesting to me.

Nevertheless, I would watch after all, I guess.

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