I avoided reading anything on Kanon when it was airing. Pretty much, I thought Kanon would be a solid tear-jerker like Air, something that had a light hearted bit thrown in here and there to provide contrast, but really just wanted to make your eyes water. So far after eight episodes, Kanon has had me laughing a lot, very much more than I thought I would be. Yuichi, the male in this harem, is one funny SOB. I actually like the guy, which is an odd feeling for a harem show.

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Le Chevalier D’Eon scored well with me on a lot of notes in the beginning. The story borrows the setting of pre French Revolution Europe, uses the history and historical figures, twists them up, throws in zombies and wizards called poets in an intrigue filled plot. Sounds like it could be interesting, but add in wonderful art direction, solid animation (for a TV show), and a cast of characters that don’t fall into the usual collection of fetish archetypes and it should have been bait for best anime released on R1 dvd for 2007. I wish I liked it more.

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I’ve been so busy lately that I actually have a backlog of everything, not just anime, but my other loser activities as well. Times like these I go for funny and junky stuff like My-Otome, that admittedly, is not quite as good as taco rice (an Epic Win), which is actually healthy while still being junky, and that’s enough to rank taco rice higher than My-Otome, a show that probably isn’t healthy at all. Still, I think I’ll take My-Otome every time, no matter how much trans fat it may have.

Poor cheeky monkey. Far away, yet so close.

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I knew Air TV, and Misuzu’s story in particular, was a tear-jerker. I thought I was ready for it, but no there I was blubbering on the couch. That doesn’t surprise me though. After all, when I was a kid I loved Little House on the Prairie.

A script like this in live action would be vomit inducing, but with anime, reality doesn’t have to get in the way. It can be beautiful. Part of why I love the character of Misuzu is I can feel my cynicism evaporate, if for only for 22 minutes, which is why I couldn’t stop when she walked.

The episode that stuck with me the most on Mushi-Shi volume 3 is episode 14, Inside the Cage. While traveling through a bamboo forest, Ginko meets a man who can’t seem to leave the forest no matter how far he walks and what direction he goes. The man longs to return to his village after being gone for several years. He has such fond memories of the place and wishes to return with his family, even though the villagers who could travel to his home where he lives with his wife and child no longer visit. Even the man’s sister does not come and it’s all because his wife and child are different. What happens when the thing you have been longing for doesn’t want you?

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