3 posts tagged “anime”
I recommend! This anime doesn't have any explosions or space invaders or hot chicks, but it's got a lot of heart. I especially love the Nyanko Sensei character (the cat)~! It's about a boy who can see spirits, and he finds a notebook full of names kept by his late grandmother, who was also able to see spirits. She picked fights with spirits, and when she won she took their names as a symbol of their allegiance. Now, years later, Natsume finds the notebook and decides to go about returning the names to their rightful owners.
When I saw that youtube clip of the Japanese gameshow tetris, I inadvertently found out that there is a live-action movie of Gegege no Kitaro (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎)! It opened in Japan in April so I don't know if it's still playing. Kitaro is a manga that's been around for a while. I believe Shigeru Mizuki first came up with the character/story back in the '50s but I remember it best as an anime series I used to watch as a child. I can still remember all the words to the opening theme song! The anime was spooky but not scary and I think I liked that combination.
The story is about ghosts, or spirits that inhabit the world, and most living people aren't aware of them but every now and then they do some mischief and for some reason it's up to Kitaro to sort it all out. The characters are pretty funny, there's Kitaro, whose geta are like boomerangs, and his father Medama Oyaji ("Eyeball Father") who seems to have lost his body except for his eye, and a whole mess of spooky friends. I think when I was a kid I used to have a bit of a crush on Kitaro so it's kind of exciting (haha!) that he's being played by Eiji Wentz.
I was looking for some clips of the theme song on youtube and I discovered that while the song is essentially the same, they've revamped it for every new series. It's funny too, how telling the song version is for its time (for example, the '80s version, which is the one I remember, is very synth-y).
I started reading the manga Nana and I have to admit I'm pretty hooked. I've only read the first three volumes but it's quite addicting. I don't know why, exactly, because the storyline isn't particularly exciting, and the artwork is okay. I mean, it's good but it's not crazy like CLAMP. I suppose it's good because it's sort of soap opera-y but not in an annoying way. And Nana (奈々) is sort of ditzy, but again, not in an annoying way. I guess it's considered a shojo manga (it's on Ribon Mascot) but even my brother likes it. I'm glad I found another series I like. There's been a dearth of interesting mangas lately.
[edit, Nov. 3, 2007] I am currently on Volume 11 and the storyline becomes much more interesting, with the introduction of new characters and plotlines. There is an anime series but the manga is much more better, as Jack Sparrow might say.
