Rubblewolf's Blog

Anime Relations: Hana yori Dango

Okay so I meant to write this blog sooner, at least after I watched the first 20-25 episodes but I guess I became engrossed in watching Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flowers. So I've been watching HYD for the past week and I gotta say, I had a rough time getting into it at first. The art style took some getting used to (and it's not because I'm not used to 90s anime, I've watched a lot of 90s anime). I think it was the designs for some of the characters. Especially the girls. A lot of the girls looked a bit weird or off to me. Most of the guys ranged from ok looking to good. But I got used to it and once I did, I found myself starting to like the anime. I still like it actually, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here. LOL.

In the beginning I actually legit liked Tsukishi because she reminded me a lot of me, at least where being nice and always helping others is concerned and I don't blame her for kicking Tsukasa's ass once in a while, cause the guy needs a good slap to the face when he mouths off as he does. Speaking of Tsukasa, I didn't like him in the beginning. He came off as a total... IDK if MAL allows to really cuss but he was a jerk, a cocky jerk at that. Then there's the other members of the F4. Lui was... interesting...

The way Tsukishi hyped him for the audience made him seem like one of those quiet shy jerks who acts like a jerk but really he's a kindhearted person, but I found him to be boring. They made him classy and somewhat kindhearted, yeah. He was the first one of the F4 to be nice to Tsukishi, but IDK. He felt boring and wrong. After I lost interest in Rui and Tsukishi getting together, I turned my interest to Tsukasa because he was starting to mature and grow up some.

Again, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Let's talk about Akira and Soujiro. In the beginning when I didn't care much for Rui and Tsukasa, I actually found myself liking Akira and Soujiro a lot. They were funny and charming. They actully had a lot of patience in trying to Tsukishi with Tsukasa (or with Rui) and they didn't treat her like complete crap. I mean they were a bit rude towards her in the beginning but they quickly warmed up to her and they even supported her possibly going out with either Rui or Tsukasa. But sadly despite all of thier comedic moments and their charm, they only play the role of matchmakers or comedy relief when another side character, Kazuya is on screen with them. It's sad too because i really want to see them take the spot light so that the viewers can take a breather from the constant back and forth Tsukishi does with Lui and Tsukasa (especially Tsukasa, like dang girl, just hurry it up and tell him something, don't leave him hanging!).

Out of all the female characters, I absolutely loved Tsubaki and Shizuru. These two are so classy yet kindhearted. Both of them supported Tsukishi on whoever she wanted to date (Rui or Tsukasa) and they accepted her for who she was. I was actually sad to see Shizuru leave eventually, but I'm guessing she'll be back sometime close to the end of the series, albeit only as a cameo or something. Then there was Yuriko and her two gal pals, these three were fake as all hell and I wanted to beat the crap out of them. I kinda wish there was some character development for the terrible trio but there wasn't. When it seemed like there was, they immediately go back to being nasty witches and it destroys whatever character development there was for them. Then there's Sakurako. Sakurako annoyed from the first time I saw her. She was all too sweet and I kinda knew she was gonna be the fake sweet and manipulative girl from the get go. While I was getting frustrated with Tsukishi being indecisive about Rui and Tsukasa, I didn't see Sakurako's meddling as a fresh of breath of air. As a matter of fact I didn't like her little arc at all.

Finally we come to Junpei, the worst "villain" in the entire anime. I didn't like him, his character design the worst of all the guys on the show and his personality is even worse. I understand his motives for wanting revenge against Tsukasa, but that whole kidnap Tsukishi and beat up Tsukasa scene was extremely over the top. It made me extremely uncomfortable. It's almost worse than when Tsukasa almost raped Tsukishi while angry at the thought of her dating Rui or something. And rape is something no one deserves to go through. Unfortunately, the beat up Tsukasa scene and the Tsukasa almost raping Tsukishi and how all the characters dealt with it afterwards felt awkward and unsettling. It was as though the author really wanted to try and surprise the audience and make them accept that both the scenes happen and the characters are over it and fine with it because it's a love story and everything is gonna be sunshine and skittles.

Yeah, I'm sorry if I'm coming off as too harsh on this show. I've read some comments about the episodes I mentioned and I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking that there should be a warning sign or something or that those two scenes were HIGHLY unsettling. If I were Tsukishi, I'd be having a severe mental break down or PTSD or something from being nearly raped by Tsukasa and from seeing Tsukasa having his butt kicked by Junpei and his cronies like that.

And also I don't like Tsukishi's family, I mean I understand thier financial situation but you can't rely on your daughter to date and marry a rich dude alone. What if Tsukasa's parents (namely his mother) disowns him for marrying her and cuts him off from the family money? What then? I'll admit Tsukishi's parents are funny and I'm glad her mom stood up to Tsukasa's mom (her pouring salt on Tsukasa's mom's head after hearing the pebble comment was really her best moment.It was epic) but that moment as kinda ruined when Tsukishi's mom mentioned that Tsukishi marrying Tsukasa and inheriting the money when his parents die is better than whatever money Mrs. Donmyouji(sp?) offered for Tsukishi to break up with Tsukasa.

Like I said before, I wish we could get a few one shot episodes that focus more on the side characters than Rui, Tsukishi, and Tsukasa so we could get a breather from the ongoing drama between them, but sadly this is a shoujo anime, and most shoujo/romance animes must keep the spot light on the two (or three) main characters while leaving the side and supporting characters in the lime light. Which is a shame because while I've grown to like Tsukasa immensely, I still find Akira, Soujiro, Tsubaki, and Shizuka far more interesting than watching Tsukishi's decisiveness. As a matter of fact, I lowkey liked the minor interactions that Sakurako had with Kazuya because if they had their own little one shot episode/adventure together, I can totally see Kazuya slowly getting over Tsukishi and moving onto Sakurako and getting her to not be so fake.

That's pretty much it. I was gonna talk about the Rui and Shizuka arc but I think that was actually a good arc and I had no complaints with that. And as for Tsukasa and Tsukishi's relationship, I'm still on board with the two of them getting together, but I'm getting tired of Tsukishi flaking out on Tsukasa, especially after they've had a crap ton of cute moments together. I mean the man literally allowed Junpei and his cronies to beat the crap out of him just so she would be safe and she still stomped on his heart. He even went out into the freaking snow blizzard to find her.

I may have a lot of gripes with this anime but I'm going to admit that despite what I said about the characters, it does have an interesting cast and I'm glad the anime has quickly moved on from the whole red paper tagging thing to actually churning out a complicated romantic and friendship plot because other wise, seeing Tsukishi dodging all the kids being sent to mess with her and seeing her just merely insult and banter with Tsukasa would get boring really fast.

Well thats all for now.

Anime Relations: Bastard!! Ankoku no Hakaishin, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, Tokyo Babylon, Bubblegum Crisis, Cyber City Oedo 808

I posted this on a few other websites but I figured I would try here too.

So, I'm not sure if anyone can help or if anyone has watched anything related to what I'm talking about. Back in the late nineties, early 2000s (roughly about 1999-2001) I saw an anime, like possibly the last 10-15 mins of an anime.

So I can't remember anything about the plot because I can only remember this one scene, where a male character (or a female character or possibly an androgynous-looking character) was standing next to their car when they get a call or something via some kind of communication gadget (IDK if it was a cell phone the character had or what). As soon as the character got the call, they hopped into the car and either someone they were talking with (via the communication gadget thing/phone) called them something like Ryoko, Ryusuke, something like Ryo or the character themselves said or thought the name Ryoko (or another Ryo-related/sounding name).

From what I remember, the character had either long or shoulder-length or mid-length hair that was white or a pale blonde color. Another thing I remember was the character driving what looked like a topless car/convertible looking car through a lit tunnel.

That's about all I remember besides the anime looking like it was from the 90s or 2000s. As I said, I can't remember the plot so I couldn't tell you if it was like a sci-fi anime but I think it may have had a scene where the character I mentioned drove through a city (Possibly Tokyo?) at night time.

The anime as a whole could've been one of those early 90s OVA animes that had like maybe two or three episodes or a long movie or it could've been a regular anime series. I've asked around on Gaia Online and some people have suggested that I may be thinking of a scene and character from Cyber City Oedo 808. This scene in particular:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZT94_yTOls
I'm going to admit that I may have a few animes mixed up because when I was ten, I used to watch a lot of different animes, regardless of how old they were or what the story was about, but this whole scene and character that I described has somehow stuck with me for the past 17 or so years.

After looking around a bit I've excluded some characters with white or pale blonde hair that look like what I was thinking of:
-Bakura from YuGiOh (though his hair is about the length of the mysterious character I remember seeing)
https://www.absoluteanime.com/yu-gi-oh/bakura%5B2%5D.jpg
-Practically all the white/blonde-haired villains/guys and girls from Sailor Moon (though Sailor Moon fits the decade the anime may have been from)
-Inuyasha from Inuyasha (and his brother Sesshoumaru too! and Hakudoshi--the baby that work for Naraku)
-Tennyo from Tenchi Muyo
-Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo
-Kagato from Tenchi Muyo
A possible match (besides "Benton" from Cyber City) could be that one lady from Bubblegum Crisis
https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/1200x680/public/2017/11/bgc1.jpg
(the one in the formal suit on the right, with the silvery hair). But IDK. I appreciate any help I can get. Sorry for the long post. :(

Someone else suggests that I possibly saw the animes e' X-Driver and/or Area 88 but I'm pretty sure the anime wasn't a racing anime or a military/heavy sci-fi anime similar to Gundam or area 88. Because I remember the anime or scene, in particular, had more of a somber and supernatural feeling to it, kinda like Clamp's Tokyo Babylon ova.

More animes suggested to me are:
-Angel's Egg
-Bastard
-Agent Aika
-Ai no Kusakabi
-Spiral

I will update this blog as I remember more details and get more animes suggested to me.