Tuesday, November 18, 2008

thoughts: Special A

This is slightly overdue only because I had wanted to post it first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, last thing at night will have to do because of all the work hours I've been getting. And because of all the work hours to come, posting this month may be postponed.

Oh well...



It was a long and hard decision as to what I wanted to do with this anime. When I first set eyes on it, I was gleeful. I'm a hopeless romantic after all and the series was clearly labled as "romance" and "comedy" and also had the word "shoujo" following it. Granted this was before I really understood what "shoujo" truly meant in terms of anime and manga, I wanted to watch S. A. anyway.

The beginning of the series was quite the fun ride. There was humor, there were bishounen, and Hikari-chan was pretty adorable. Akira was absolutely wonderful with her violent tendencies, her high-class behavior and her creepy doting on Hikari. Tadashi wasn't bad. The twins were a little odd and Ryuu was kind of hot. Sadly, Takishima Kei was rather arrogant and that sort of annoyed me. I don't care that he's rich, talented, and good-looking. He was arrogant and he was annoying.

All-in-all, I'd enjoyed those first few episodes of Special A.

But as the series progressed -- and I scouted out the manga to get a second view of the series -- I began to become irritated with it.

Why did I come close to dropping the series altogether? It was quite simple. I had never, ever been so irritated with the two main leads of a romantic comedy like I was with Hikari and Kei. (We shall make no mention of Peach Girl at the moment since I prefer to think I never watched it, though since Suzuken was cast in it, I may make mention of the series some other time.)

Basically, it was sufferable to watch as each episode, Kei shows absolute obviousness on just how much in love he is with Hikari, and the stupid girl just assumes that he's trying to pick a fight or challenge her or look down on her. And as for Kei, maybe if he understood just how thick-headed Hikari was, he should have just come straight out about his feelings for her instead of waiting for her to figure it out on his own. I'm quite certain that everyone and their mothers and uncles and distant cousins are quite aware that Hikari is not going to figure anything out on her own about Kei's feelings or even her own.


As far as the storyline goes, it had quite a bit of potential. But sadly, it would have had more potential had it been shortened into maybe a four OVA series. Or maybe if the episodic feature were more interesting. Instead, each episode only added onto the stupidity that was Hanazono Hikari -- only God knows how she managed to get into S.A. with that missing brain of hers -- and the arrogance that was Takishima Kei.

Needless to say, I got bored of it very easily.

The series is simply just a story of the everyday lives and few not so dramatic events surrounding the seven members of S.A.

The members compete with jealous students in their high school. The members compete with each other to decide on where to go for a vacation. The members go on a vacation in Hawaii. The members work on the school festival. Hikari gets recruited as a tutor for Kei's little brother Sui.

The members meet and play "family" with Yahiro's little brother Chitose-- and I must say, this episode was actually quite fun. There was the all too rare fan service shot that shoujo manga usually doesn't have, but in anime, it's a must. Observe this when watching the part where Hikari must pick an Hibiscus flower for Chitose and Kei comes to her aid.

Other plots include Hikari dressing up to attend Yahiro's birthday party as Kei partner. Hikari has gotten a cold and must be taken care of by her S.A. friends because Mama and Papa are off on a trip. In the same episode was crammed the Megami and Yahiro dating episode where Megami speaks for the first time and even sings for Yahiro.

If this scene weren't preceded by Hikari-chan making a moron of herself, pyon. It'd actually look cute... pyon.

Basically, lots and lots of things occur with no definite destination like any typical episodic storyline. The only thing that the series plays off of is the idea of an excellent group of students called the S.A. and their daily lives, and Takishima Kei's undying love for Hikari as well as their eternal rivalry.

All else are just inclusive factors in the storyline that could be done without if necessary, but add to all the fun that should have been a decent shoujo manga to anime adaptation.

So why did I pick up this series again?

It's hard to say. For one, even after wanting to drop the anime, I continued to follow the manga and some of the details pertaining to future plot devices were rather satisfying for my hopeless romantic, shoujo manga obsessive mind. No matter what, S.A. is a shoujo manga romance first and foremost. I've probably sat through worse series/movies/etc...

And the manga boasted a very interesting "passionate kiss" scene between Hikari and Kei that made the fangirl moe-ness in me squeal with pleasure. I was curious to see just how much of the manga that the anime would adapt.

So with that in mind, I picked up Special A once again after getting ahold of every episode up to the end, and then watched it without prior biases and some things to look forward to.

As expected, the personalities of those in S.A. continued to annoy me. When the series changed themesongs, it did nothing for its own welfare and I was starting to have my doubts. But I persevered.

I think of the four couples advertised in this series, Tadashi and Akira have the best story, even though it's quite short. I love them the most.

I must say that I rather enjoyed the relationship development between Akira and Tadashi. Between the two of them, they probably have the loveliest romance in the whole anime series. A few things were altered in comparison to the manga and I feel like I like the anime version quite well. This is not to say that I don't like the manga version, because either way, Akira and Tadashi make a rather adoring, if not lovable, romantic couple.

Boy twin, Jun-kun was given a pairing with Hikari's personality twin Ushikubo Sakura who had to go through pains to win the young prince's heart. Megami was paired up with Saiga Yahiro -- an odd combination that was brought about due to Megami's need to protect Akira and Tadashi by giving Yahiro something else to focus on, like a girlfriend. They were quite cute and I liked how Megami could bring out a different, kinder side to Yahiro and saw Yahiro for the good person he was. Ryuu, of course, as hot and mature as he is, has those rare bestial-doting tendencies and so was left with his animals and without a love interest.

Left for the ending was the final pairing of Hikari and Kei -- who were both together from the start. With a little twist of manga plot around anime plot and we give Hikari a reason as to why she needs Kei in her life. And thus she realizes that she needs to be more honest with herself. So, using the Grandpa Takishima wants to take Kei away from Japan plot device, our remaining six S.A. heroes fly to England to find their Number One and bring him back to school with them.

For every hopeless romantic fangirl in the world, this is the Special A moment we all await.

Surprisingly, I am quite pleased with the ending. Even though it took twenty-four painstaking episodes to arrive at that point, I like what I saw and I saw what I liked. While there was no "passionate manga kiss" placed into the anime, there were various endearing moments between Hikari and Kei towards the ending few episodes that make up for the stupidity, arrogance, and annoyance from the first half of the series. There were enough "huggles" moments to make the shoujo fangirl in me grin whole heartedly, and I still stand that Ryuu is quite hot and needs to find himself a girl.


All in all, I was very pleased with what came of picking up S.A. once again. To tell the truth, I rather enjoyed those last few episodes of S.A. and when Hikari finally realized her feelings for Kei, it was a weight off of my shoulders -- and probably off of every other fan/viewer's shoulders. It's a little unnerving watching the clueless Hikari go through life only thinking of challenging Takishima Kei until she could catch up to his undeniably impossible level.

I will admit. Hanazono Hikari has heart. At least she's not one to give up just because things look too difficult and she's a hard worker and does everything with the utmost fullest of her extent. She's a very idealistic girl. Sadly, she's also a very stupid girl as well who probably only gets to her high academic level through sheer luck and determination.

I can't help but to think that maybe Kei could give slack just a little and lose to Hikari for once. But then again, doing that would just be an insult to Hikari's willpower and he probably knows that as well which is why he never lets up on his skills.

"You're special," is what Hikari tells Kei, and for the first time in the entire series, I actually thought she was extremely cute.

The ending is good. I liked it. Even if the beginning was beyond rocky, the ending is quite worth the arduous journey-- that is if one can be patient enough to withstand the entire journey to get to the ending. And so there is little good to say about Special A because all that is good about it would be the bishies, the romances, sometimes the comedy, and the final good ending.

Although, I have to point out that this series boasted some of the most eerie set of people within a group of seven. Between the inhuman physical abilities, beyond high intelligence, and strange personalities, its hard to say that people like this truly exist in real life. Hikari, Sakura, and Akira alone could team up and beat the living snot out of a war-trained muscle man. Ryuu could easily be the smartest person in the entire series without all his obstacles. And Takishima Kei is just impossible in existence.

Special A... watch it or leave it. I would say, leave it for a rainy day and watch it while you're waiting for something better to come along.

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