Free! Iwatobi Swim Club (Anime Series)

Free! Iwatobi Swim Club
Written by: Masahiro Yokotani
Directed by: Hiroko Utsumi
Produced: Kyoto Animation
Release Date: Began July 4, 2013--ongoing

The story of the Iwatobi Swim Club centers around 17 year old Haruka, an introverted young man who seems to be uncomfortable everywhere except in the water. He lives alone (his parents conveniently absent in typical anime fashion...the excuse this time is that they moved for work), skips school on a regular basis, and seems to be disinterested in what's happening around him, at least on the surface. 

In the past Haruka was part of a swim team, swimming (as he repeatedly tells us, only "freestyle") in races and relays. He and his three friends, annoyingly chipper and bubbly Nagisa, responsible and encouraging Mako, and competitive and determined Rin, won their middle-school relays, and then parted ways. Rin went on to train in Australia to be an Olympic swimmer, and Nagisa followed his family to another school. Leaving only Mako to tend to Haruka's swimming-related OCDs.  Haru, never interested in the idea of the "race," quit when Rin left, and Mako followed, one by one the team fell apart, and a few years later the swim club itself closed. The story opens with Nagisa transferring into the high-school Haru and Mako attend. In a fit of nostalgia (and brandishing packets of salt to ward away ghosts), the trio decides to break into their old swim club and take a trip down memory lane. While there they run, coincidentally, into Rin, who has returned to attend an private school with an elite swim team, still working towards his Olympic goals. 

Inspired by the past, Nagisa convinces Haru and Mako to join him in starting a swim club at their new high-school. and expected shirtless hi-jinx ensue as they gain an extra member in the form of neurotic, perfectionist (and poor swimmer) Rei. And with Rin's little sister as team manager the group tries their best to make a good showing at their first meet. 

Welcome to this week's episode of "catering to teen girls."
Clockwise from the top we have:
determined glasses dude, angry aggressive dude with a sensitive core, responsible big-brother-type,
cutey face bunny boy, and sullen haunted loner with secret feelings. 

This is a show I would continue. I am six episodes into the series, and in some ways this is a predictable male-harem type anime...there's a guy for every girl here. You like brooding dark and aggressive ..well, this anime has that covered. Stoic with a hidden tenderness...oh, yeah, we got that. Cute and flirty...sure. Awkward genius in glasses who happens to have an incredible body...yup. Responsible big brother type who wears his heart on his sleeve...not a problem. So, why watch it if it's so predictable? Well, hot-anime-shirtless-ridiculousness aside (I think the "swim club" choice was seriously influenced by the amount of skin the scenario offers), this is a very interesting character study. 

Haru, the main character, has an icy personalty that is a little off-putting, but his genuine passion for swimming at points borders on the metaphorical and philosophical. Despite his sometimes apathetic stance, there are hints that there are deep conflicting emotions at work in this character. Except when he is swimming (and is at his most joyous) he seems devastatingly sad. Most obviously this deep sorrow emerges in his relationship to Rin. Haru's unresolved, and contradictory, feelings of friendship, devotion, guilt, and loss become a major undercurrent to the series, at least so far. There's an interesting dynamic between Haru and Rin. The one-sided competition Rin feels keeps him motivated, but causes an widening rift between two people who seem to not only admire and respect one another, but care deeply for one another (in a heterosexual way; don't get excited yaoi-fans). Each of them clings to the friendship that they formed in the past, but each wants to move past that loss, or even through it...as both characters say in separate situations "I want to move on." Their past, and their competition with one another, is not allowing them to do that. 

If you can't swim, you should not join a swim team.
I don't care how many sparkles are surrounding you...sparkles don't float.
(Or do they? I can't ever remember.)

Each of the characters seems to have some sadness or loss that they are attempting to move past, and as a team they may be able to mend one another's broken bits. I'm looking forward to future episodes. I can already hear (this series just began in Japan less than two months ago) the sound of fan-girls squeeing over this series. I would expect that there are fan-sites, fiction, art, etc. popping up every hour. This is the kind of anime a teen-girl would like, but...and we need a but here, it does have more than just cute/sweet situations, shirtless boys, and awkward affection. There's a story here about loss and redemption, about individual goals and our desire for collective support, and about how passion and freedom are strange bedfellows (one ties us down while the other liberates us). It's surprisingly deep stuff for an anime with an average of ten shirtless minutes per 22 minute episode AND one of the worst closing credit sequences I have ever experienced (you were warned). Other than those closing credits, I think this one is worth a watch. At the very least you'll be on the popularity bus before this turns into the next Ouran High School Host Club. 

Angel Beats (Anime): First Impressions

Sentai Filmworks, 2010. 13 episodes.

I don't know if any of you, Dear Readers, have ever worked with kids in a creative capacity, so let me share with you. They are overwhelmingly creative. They are endless fonts of insane detail and additions. Whether they are working with art, crafts or language they are on imagination overload. Ask them to invent a character for a story and you'll get undercover princes/princesses who are ninjas who work on construction crews and command animals telepathically and can also breath underwater and whose parents are astronauts who are stranded on a planet occupied by jelly monsters with a thousand eyes and lobster hands who can float through the air and live on lunchables (no punctuation!). And that's just for starters.

This is, sadly, kind of the feeling I get from my first viewing of Jun Maeda's Angel Beats. I am overwhelmed. The complications are illogical. In short, I am confused. 

Oh, so you say there's a high-school in the afterlife where: 

• The lead character "wakes up dead" with amnesia.
• There are school uniform wearing machine-gun hotties.
• There is a group of "rebels" having trouble with the name of their rebel troop ("Not Dead Yet Battlefront"). They are the expected, stereotypical cast of weirdos. I could go down a checklist. (Glasses guy, violent dude, precious girl, relax-bear, etc., etc.)
• Their mission is to fight against God. (???)
• There is a pretty girl with a sword-arm whose goal is to "kill" the dead. The anime uses the word obliterate, but still. 
• The dead are "obliterated" so that they may be (now this is just the presumption the rebel troops make) reincarnated as sea creatures. 
• They have a secret hide-out on campus with secret words and booby traps and espionage. 
• Everyone is ultra-violent, and there is copious blood loss, but all of the injured survive to fight another day (which makes me question the logic of any of it really). 
• Their enemy, sword-armed Angel (who may actually be an angel) is actually a digital creation in this semi-digital high-school purgatory. (When did it go 0s and 1s?)
• The first nefarious mission for Not Dead Yet Battlefront is to "shred school lunch tickets." (Yes, from the cafeteria in the afterlife.)
• The diversion they plan is an impromptu concert from an all-girl rock band. 

I have no freaking idea what is going on anymore. I am so confused! There seems to be some sort of "logic" that's either missing, or escaping me personally. It's a high-school in purgatory? Are there consequences for not attending? Who teaches the classes? Why the elaborate wait-station? Why does someone have to be "killed" there to be reincarnated elsewhere? Why would a dead person have amnesia? What about all the other people populating this "place?" When one character hypothesizes that the non-fighting characters might be NPCs (non-participating characters, like in a role-playing game), that doesn't make things clearer...only more illogical. Why would you need a diversion for NPCs? Why would a NPC, or any of you, need to eat? And if you did need to eat, why eat school lunches? Who is paying for them? Do you have to get a part time job in high-school purgatory? Do you live in the dorms? Who assigns them? Where is the administration? Are Japanese kids so education-minded that they could effectively run and organize a learning institution on their own? What does "god" have to do with this? Is that lady really a computer? Is this like a Tron thing?

I GOT A GUN, Y'ALL!
Is that Kyo from FuRuBu back there? No. Okay.

Cover Art by Sentai/Aniplex
courtesy of Wikipedia

Now, maybe, just maybe these questions are answered sufficiently in further episodes, but I will never know, because BLEH! Here's what's surprising to me. This is a celebrated anime with very positive reviews and that too baffles me. This review by Theron Martin on Animenewsnetwork.com applauds the complexity of the series. I agree it is complex, but for me...that complexity seems purposeless, and erratic, and just weird.

This one is a no-go for me, but if you've seen it feel free to chime in and argue for this series. I want to know what I'm missing.

So-What Sunday: Girl’s Bravo (Anime)

1^st Season

Funimation 2004

Already I am annoyed. 

In season one, episode one of Girls Bravo, we are introduced to main character, Yukimari Sasaki. Sasaki lives alone. He is also short and scared of girls because he’s bullied by them. He breaks out into a rash whenever he’s near a girl, which I am sure is a euphemism for sexual arousal along the lines of the ubiquitous “nosebleed.” 

Unfortunately, the girl next door, Kojima (who has “breasts the size of small pork buns”…yes, that is a quote), keeps bugging the crap out of him and beating him up. With the background info out of the way (establishing Sasaki as a whiny bag of beat-down), the "story" (my quotes this time, they are ironic) begins as Kojima knocks him out and he falls into the tub. Then he gets sucked into a world populated mostly by women, but those women do not make him break out in a rash. Hooray or something. In this other world he is a hot commodity and his allergy is non-existent.

Oh, my bad, is this your tub?
BOOBIES!

Too bad that on his return trip a naked girl from that world is transported back to earth with him…HIJINKS! 

This anime is described as a sexy romp. It is not one. It is a ta-ta filled harem anime, and I think the intended audience is teenagers, because it’s too childishly lame for adults, and too racy for kids, but then again I am pretty immature, and my first reaction was, “This is dumb.” So, I stopped watching…take that for what it’s worth I suppose. 

The End . 

P.S. If you're into anime bewbs, you can google image the title with safe search off and there are ta-tas aplenty to be seen. Enjoy! 

The Rule of Standing on Tiptoes (manga)

Title: The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe
Author/Illustrator: Puku Okuyama
Genre: Yaoi? I suppose incidentally it is.
Publisher: DMP
Rating: 16+ YA, but really doesn't need to be (zero sex or sexual situations)

Cover: Kosuke (Ham-chan) on Raku (Luck)'s shoulders
as Raku steals his chips. These boys are goofballs!

Okay, first of all, this is freaking adorable...adorable...like one of the most adorable things I've ever read, so I am going to keep writing adorable over and over again as I review it. ADORABLE! The Rule of Standing on Tiptoes is an adorable high-school  romantic comedy/friendship story about the tallest boy in class and the shortest boy in class. Short, hyper, hamster-like Kosuke and tall, popular Raku first meet when Raku hits Kosuke with his bike on the first day of 10th grade. Kosuke, who is immediately nick-named Ham-chan by Raku, is the first to discover Raku's secret--he's only half-Japanese. The secret isn't a big deal, but Raku stands out so much already because of his good looks and height that he'd rather keep his blue eyes (he wears black contacts) and his light brown hair (he claims he dyes it) under wraps to keep him from standing out more. His personality is vastly different from loud, boisterous, pierced, bleach blond Ham-chan, but despite their differences they form a fast friendship as they make their way through the pitfalls of high-school.  Somewhere along the way each, individually, starts to form more difficult feelings of love and devotion to the other. Did I say adorable? Because seriously, this is adorable. There's no graphic sex, no weird drama, no astonishingly unrealistic beautiful boys, no big obstacles, no secret pasts (I mean unless you count Raku's heritage), no psychic powers, no conniving rivals (one standard high-school-type rivalry is pretty tame), no aggressive lusting...there's nothing but an absolutely genuine feeling, sweetly awkward friendship that turns into an absolutely genuine feeling, sweetly awkward sort of love. Adorable.

On a side note there is something about Kosuke (Ham-chan)'s gestures and personality that reminds me of Ms. Shakespeare. Some of it may be the way he hyperactively panics before over-rationalizing and putting on a stoic face. Some of it may be because she is kind of adorable. See exhibit A and B below:



On the  left the adorable Ms. Shakespeare and surly Dr. M battling for the only copy of a manga!
On the right Ham-chan and his ex-girlfriend race to school to prove who is faster!
It really does look like us.

 So, the manga is adorable, and Ms. Shakespeare and I are adorable. Facts is facts, Dear Readers.

This really is one of the most honest seeming yaoi manga I've ever read. Okuyama has really captured that swoony-sick feeling that accompanies a timid sort of love. It is well worth a read if only to re-experience that feeling again. Oh...adorable (just wanted to type it once more).

Alice the 101st (Manga)

Title: Alice the 101st 1 and 2
Author/Artist: Chigusa Kawaii
Publisher: DMP
Rating 16+ (YA)
Buy it: http://www.akadot.com/alice-the-101st-vol-0102-gn-bundle-p-31824.html (2 issues for $8.99)

Chigusa Kawaii's second series Alice the 101st  is a shoot off of much beloved (by me) La Esperança.  What does this mean?

• Well, lots of her signature wind-blown art. (Where does that wind come from? Aren't they in a room?) 
• Lots of  sweet-faced school boys dealing with strange new feelings. 
• Music. 
• Elaborate backgrounds and bustling city scenes.
• Discussions about the future. 
• Crippling self-doubt.
• Daddy issues. 
• Guest appearances by Georges Saphir. 
• One tiny, miniscule glimpse of Robert Jade. 

Aristide Lang (who would like to be called Aristo, but is instead dubbed Alice) is a new violin student at Mondonvielle Music school. Mononvielle only allows in 100 students a year, yet for some reason they bent the rules and accepted Alice as the 101st. Rumors fly around the school, because apparently school boys are vindictive gossips, and although it is first suspected that Alice got in thank to "connections" his classmates soon realize that this oddly talented, barely taught, country-rough, violinist not only has a strange skill, but that his father was an acclaimed violinist who attended Mondonvielle as (duh-duh-daaaah) a 101st student. Alice is out of his element, his roommate Theo thinks he's embarrassing because he plays by ear and can't read music, he's being pursued by an overly optimistic upperclassman named Vick, and he's being harassed by the substitute violin teacher who thinks he's a waste of time. To top it all off the second seat violinist, whom Alice calls Blondie Diamante (I forget his real name, and I like Alice's nickname for him) is a douche bag snob with an out-of control ego who has it out for Alice.

I like Alice. I think he's cute and sweet and adamant. He's playing for love and to get closer to his deceased father who was a virtuoso named Claude Savatier. How can I not like him? He's a diamond in the rough. A kid with talent and heart, who may not be the smartest cookie in the jar, but is still pretty tasty. He is attending Mondonvielle to "meet" his father. The museum in the school houses his father's violin, the "Margo." And in order to gain access to it, and actually play it, he must become one of the best in the school, a rival to oddly sweet, oblivious, and totally weird first seat violinist Maximillian.

This is a good start to a lighter story from Chigusa Kawaii, and I enjoyed the first two volumes. They don't have the same torturous emotional impact as La Esperanca, but very little does. I like that she decided not to compete with the earlier work and instead took it in a different, far more humorous direction. It was a good choice, and it will keep me reading on into later volumes. Another thing that will keep me reading on is the hopes of seeing a bit more of Georges and Robert.

Like this:

Right there under the "Vick!" is Robert. It's a small panel , but I don't care.
Georges had a recital and Robert was there.
Hooray!

It's cute instead of soul-crushing, but sometimes we all need some levity. I look forward to more of Chigusa Kawaii's work, and think this second series of hers is off to a good start.

Flower of Life--Manga

Some days Ms. Shakespeare and I both feel that we could easily change the title and purpose of Squeefinity into the We Love Fumi Yoshinaga blog. We do love Fumi Yoshinaga. This artist and writer of us-favorites (like fan-favorites only more specific) Antique Bakery, All My Darling Daughters, and Not Love, But Delicious Food makes me Happy has written a ton...yes, a TON of other titles, and nothing Ms. Yoshinaga has written has failed to be mature, complex and honest about the struggles, insecurities, small triumphs and heart-sinking failings all human beings face, regardless of gender, sexuality, social status, finances or goals. She shies away from very little, fully acknowledging the complexities of her characters in her manga.

This series Flower of Life, centers on the complex lives of a group of high-schoolers. Traditionally her characters have been older, some even facing mid-life crises, but this time she has developed a true, and honest feeling, coming of age story. The characters Harutaru, Shota and Majima, are all high-school students facing different obstacles. The story begins with Harutaru's arrival at school. Haru arrives mid-year because he had been hospitalized and treated for Leukemia, his boisterous personality, blunt honesty and positive attitude, and bleached hair are his trademarks. He instantly befriends Shota, a pudgy little fanboy who is too cute for words (everybody thinks so), and creates a quick enemy of Majima, a pale (creepily beautiful) otaku with serious personality issues.

Harutaru and Shota
How cute is Shota? Supercute! Haru talks about wanting to eat him up.

Flower of Life makes me happy. It isn't super dramatic. It isn't a love story (although there is a fairly scandalous love affair later on between the androgynous school teacher and Majima). It's a story about kids struggling with life and decisions that will affect their future. Haru's older sister suffers from some rather intense agoraphobia. Shota struggles with self-esteem. Haru struggles with his future, and the possibility that his leukemia will relapse. Majima struggles with actually having feelings. Other classmates have their own stories and we see glimpses into their lives and their individual obstacles, some of which can be overcome, some of which will remain long-standing. It's a slice of life: sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes confusing, but always completely and utterly straightforward.

My favorite part of this series comes in the last volume. In it, Shota (writer) and Haru (illustrator) decide to take their little manga club, and their doujinshi (an amateur or fan created manga--some are original stories, and some are fan fictions) to the next level. The two make a good team, although they struggle with their egos like any duo working on a creative endeavor. The story of the two boys struggling to find success in manga writing and illustration may be a way for Yoshinaga to share her experiences as a manga-ka. Shota, even says at one point, "I'm expressing in manga what I can't explain in words." This statement may speak to Yoshinaga's approach to manga writing. Certainly her work has a subtlety and maturity that many writers shy away from. I suppose critics of her work could suggest that she is a little obscure and slow-moving in regards to plot, but I like to think that like all good writers, plot is a product of character development.   Yoshinaga is not just a good artist, she is a good storyteller. I recommend all of her work. I haven't seen anything by this manga-ka that hasn't been interesting and insightful. She speaks, even in her few yaoi titles, about the human experience: love, pain, insecurity, desire, fear...all the things that make us human.

So-Bad Sunday! Ramen Ikaga?!(Prince of Ramen)-Manga

Ordinary high-school student and "The School's First Ranked Bishonen," Shirafugi Sumire, likes ramen. That's not odd. I freaking love ramen. I prefer good ramen (real imported ramen that is not 5/$1), but I'm not one to put on airs, I'll eat poverty-ramen and I'll like it. So, a reliance on ramen as plot-device doesn't really make this a manga deserving of So-Bad Sunday! status. In fact, I don't really know that Ramen Ikaga?! is a bad manga...it's just a little stranger than most things I read. Nah...nah, it's bad. Bad and goofy and random and just..."really?" We'll get to the story soon, I promise, but first I want to talk about ramen some more.

Here's my favorite kind:


Ooooh, so tasty. The price above is for a case of it--$17.95 for one packet would be almost as ridiculous as the plot of Ramen Ikaga?! Even with the good ramen (or udon) you have to doctor it up--I suggest green onions, a little carrot, some thin sliced celery, a can of those little salad shrimp and maybe even an egg. Freaking awesome! Sooo spicy good! But my favorite thing about the Nong Shim Neoguri Spicy Seafood Udon Type Noodle is that I have never had to marry an extraterrestrial pervert as a result of making it.

Sumire is waiting for his Prince!

Ramen Ikaga?! begins with Sumire making ramen, the instant he pours hot water in the bowl he discovers that things are not what they appear to be. The bowl itself is actually the spaceship of the Second Crown Prince of Cup Ramen, Kanmen (his name actually means "dried noodle"...eyeroll), who hails from the planet of Cup Ramen on the far side of the Andromeda Galaxy. When Sumire adds water to his ramen he unwittingly proposed to Kanmen according to their planet's customs. The men on Cup Ramen are actually miniature and only grow to human size when their partner pours water on them, intending to "couple" (their words, not mine). Sumire refuses, but Kanmen is pretty persistant (despite the fact that he already has an arranged marriage back on planet Cup Ramen), and the  miniature Prince Charming harasses Sumire by flying around in his ramen space ship and wooing him in all sorts of "comical" ways.

I think it's trying too hard. There are "panda bombs" and a dominatrix disguised as a "dangerous infirmary sensei" (I think they mean school nurse...to top off the weirdness, the translation is pretty bad as well), boy/boy one-sided love obsessions, and then it gets, surprisingly, weirder. There's another prince from planet Spagettina (named, appropriately, Carbonara, and whose spaceship is a giant floating version of Michaelangelo's David) who wants Sumire for his own, and uses an impossible to defeat fighting style called "al dente" to steal Sumire from Kanmen whle they're on a date and the amusement park, and later Kanmen is snatched by his fiance Princess Rainmen, a uber-cute yandere (""sweet outside-crazy inside") girly-girl weilding a mace....and then there's body-switching, and everybody (EVERYBODY) falls in love with boring Sumire...aargh! This shit is just stupid. I mean, okay, okay, "look at the imagination!" I guess?  Here's my question: how dumb is too dumb? I mean, I would give a little lea-way if this were for kids, but it isn't. It's yaoi, and it's a little pervy at points. I just cannot imagine what was going through a publisher's head when they thought, "You know what? This is brilliant." It isn't. It isn't brilliant, and no amount of puns or quirky tongue-in-cheekness is going to save this manga from being anything except bad.

Despite that, I'm kind of glad I read it, because it is the kind of thing that makes and impression. Not a good impression, mind you, but an impression nonetheless. So, Dear Readers, Ramen Ikaga?! deserves a place on Squeefinity's So-Bad Sunday! list. Man, is it bad. Just...phenomenally bad.

Eerie Queerie--Manga

Okay, again, I feel bad reviewing an older manga with limited availability, but Eerie Queerie! is worth discussing, at least a little bit. This four-volume series by Shuri Shiozu was an early addition to my manga collection (I have a lot of manga...a bookshelf of manga), and it remains one of my favorites. Not because it is exceptionally complex (it isn't), not because it is well illustrated (it isn't), not because it is angst filled and character driven (it isn't...not really), not because there are possessed masks housing goat-demons who try to seduce high-school mediums, or embittered ghostly servants forced into cat cos-play by perverted bisexual priests, or cross-dressing shrine "maidens" who woo lost-loves with funny faced frogs. Ah, I'm such a liar, it's totally those last three things.

Eerie Queerie! is adorable and ridiculous. I wind up "ooh"-ing and giggling aloud every time I read it. It's just so...cute? Certainly the main character, Mitsuo Shiozu (same last name as the author...on purpose!), a high-schooler who can see the dead and is extremely susceptible to possession, is a goofy, giggly teen with a heart of gold and a deep connection to his few friends. He has spent a lonely life, but due to some unforeseeable hijinks involving a dead school girl, he forges a close friendship with (super hot) Hasunuma who is interested in folklore and the occult. His first, best and most-devoted friend, Hasunuma, obviously has strong feelings for Mitsuo that go beyond friendship and a willingness to protect innocent Mitsuo from the world. However, confused Mitsuo fails to make the connections between Hasunuma's feelings and their affectionate interactions...Mitsuo realizes his own feelings of love towards Hasunuma later, and is appalled that HE might be taking advantage of his "innocent" friend (Hasunuma uses every ploy in the book to get Mitsuo closer to him, or lay "claim" to him in front of rivals). As a reader I cannot help but laugh and laugh at Mitsuo's confusion and the entire comedy of errors that is Eerie Queerie!.

Here is a typical Hasunuma move (with a typical Mitsuo response):



Hasunuma is kissing Mitsuo as he leaves to go on a school scavenger hunt. Mitsuo is at first alarmed by Hasunuma's overtly affectionate ways, but Hasunuma tells him that "that's just what friends do." Mitsuo, having no experience with friends (and secretly desiring all that yummy affection) is reassured and begins to accept the "normalcy" of Hasunuma's touchy-feely-ness. Ichi, the third man in their group, is constantly bothered by Hasunuma's advances on Mitsuo...he thinks Hasunuma is taking advantage of Mitsuo's ignorance and naivete...Ichi is right--he is.  


Hasunuma is my favorite character in this series. His devotion to Mitsuo, his playfulness (despite the serious nature of his feelings), his sweetness, his sacrifices and his infinite patience make him a little swoonworthy. Everytime I reread E Q! I find myself rooting for Hasunuma (he's the biggest flirt in the world), and rolling my eyes at the baffled reactions of Mitsuo. Hasunuma is not the lead in the story, but he is the romantic lead...it makes for an odd and compelling will they/won't they situation (actually more of a will Mitsuo realize/won't he realize) which all works out happily (and goofily) in the end.

Eerie Queerie! isn't deep and profound. It isn't soul-shattering. It isn't much more than a ridiculously amusing supernatural comedy, but it is really, really cute without being annoying or precious. Ultimately, it is worth a read, especially if you like aggressively perverted Shinto priests...and it turns out I do.

Note: the rating on E Q! is 16+, but there is NO graphic sex in this. There are sexual situations and a crazy amount of innuendo, but no actual sex. As far as yaoi goes, it is pretty tame, and sweet without being smutty. The only risky character is the Shinto priest who does get a little "handsy" at times. I would say that this might be more of a PG-13 series than a restricted one, but that's just liberal ol'me.

Day 22 - Favorite Anime Character Team Up: Hikaru and Kaoru from Ouran

Double Evil! Hehehe! Funny and evil.

Here's why they're my pick:



The twincest thing is all a game...they're so rotten and mean. They stage fake fights, they torment poor Tamaki, and they're just generally mischievous. Hooray!

Incidentally, they were in the running for "Anime Character you Feel Most Like" as a duo, of course.

I, My, Me: Strawberry Eggs (anime)

Hibiki Amawa is a recent college graduate who has taken up residency in a boarding house owned by aggressive, gun-toting land-lady Lulu Sanjo. He is looking for a job as a Physical Education Teacher and is living off of his meager savings, but eventually his savings run out. Nearby Seito Sannomiya Private Co-Ed School is hiring a Phys Ed. teacher, but despite Amawa’s excellent credentials refuses to hire ANY male faculty, claiming that men do not have the instincts to care for and instruct children. Still desperate for a position, Amawa disguises himself as a woman and is hired on immediately. The series is, for the most part, a standard and expected gender-switcheroo comedy, full of close-calls, odd crushes, and goofy disasters. Thematic issues with gender and sexuality do play out in some interesting, albeit mostly predictable, ways, but it is ultimately the sweetness of the show that kept me watching. The characters genuinely care for one another, and want to see each other succeed. With great episode titles like “Forbidden Eyeliner,” and very tender moments between friends and classmates, the series is worth watching.

There is, however, something in this anime that makes me slightly uncomfortable, to say the least. Amawa throughout the series develops strong feelings for awkward, immature, and naive student, Fuko Kuzuha (and vice-versa). Amawa is approximately 20 years old, and Kuzuha is 15. Their age difference is disturbing given the current conditions of their relationship (teacher/student…and erroneously same-sex?), but the age difference wouldn’t cause much uproar later in life. This isn’t a case of pedophilia really, because the closeness of their ages seems to thwart that interpretation, however the age issue is still too great to be deemed socially acceptable. And, in defense of the main character, he/she recognizes the problems with succumbing to a more physical relationship (and is adequately disturbed by his love for Kuzuha), and the series ends with a declaration of love, a reveal of identity, and promise from Amawa to return once Kuzuha reaches maturity. Despite the obvious problems with the relationship, and sexual tension, between these two characters, there is something sweetly innocent about their affection for one another.

So, to sum up: I, My, Me, Strawberry Eggs has a stupid title and contains at least one potentially skeevworthy relationship, but somehow manages to remain funny, sweet, a little sad and completely watchable.