thoughts: Himitsu Kichi (manga)

Creator: Nakahara Aya
Genre: comedy, drama, romance, school life, shoujo
Volumes/Chapters: 4 oneshot stories



File 1: Boyfriend's Secret
Ikeuchi Kana is a first year high school student who can't stand childish boys. At a coffee shop near her house, she met the mature and good-looking Kaneda Kyouichi who, according to her investigations from the shop owner, is a twenty year old college student. She confesses to him not soon afterwards and he unhesitatingly agrees to go out with her.

Of course, after learning that Kana is a high school student, Kyouichi displays strange behavior, expressing that he thought she was the same age as him. The matter is, there is a secret about Kyouichi that the shop owner lied about, and when Kana finds out, it is a matter of whether or not she still wants to date him and if so, whether or not she wants her friends to find out. Also, Kyouichi has the nickname of Kanegon?


File 2: My Own Secret
Haruka Hiroko was walking home one day and by chance saves a boy being bullied. "I want to be a strong guy like you!" the boy exclaims, and by doing so, Hiro-chan angrily tells him that she's a girl-- although she has always been mistaken for a guy since young. Even though she dislikes that, at school it seems she has a reputation to keep as a cool judo club member and so keeps a secret about having a crush on the school idol, Yoshinaga-kun.

At school, she meets the weak boy she saved earlier, learning that his name is Kotake Jun and that he's in the handicrafts club-- he is quite girly as well. Meeting him afterschool at a convenience store, Jun unexpectedly learns that Hiro-chan has a crush on Yoshinaga and agrees to help her become girlier so that she can confess her feelings. In return, Hiro agrees to train Jun in judo so that he can become stronger.

An unexpected twist in the end has Hiro reevaluating her crush for Yoshinaga and her relationship with Jun.


File 3: Girlfriend's Secret
Seiji is the main vocalist to a local band and he is also in love with Eri, the girlfriend of one of his band members, Katagiri. But when he fell for her, it was because she told him she was moved by his singing. He had no idea that she was the girlfriend of Katagiri. By chance, Seiji learns something about Eri-chan and ends up in a complicated mess of secrets in order to help Eri-chan stay with her boyfriend.

But as time goes by with Seiji being the only person who knows this secret, it seems to draw the two closer, causing Seiji to become more and more jealous of Katagiri and his relationship with Eri-chan. In the process, Seiji is also told something revealingly shocking about himself.


File 4: My Secret
Afro Kawashima is thirty-four years old, has twelve years of experience as a performer, and is stuck on doing uninteresting and stupid gags and so he is not a famous actor. He is also the father of Kawashima Emi who is tired of being the lame actor's son. As this is the situation, Emi keeps his relation with the well-known Afro Kawashima a secret, and no matter how dotingly his father acts towards him, Emi can only return indifference.

And then one day, Afro Kawashima shows up to school revealing all the lies Emi had been telling about his family background. Not only that, but now everyone knows that the two are father and son.

***

There's something unique about the way Nakahara-sensei details her stories, even in oneshots. Each oneshot in this collection details a particular secret that each of the main characters has. As the readers, we learn about these secrets pretty early on, but the secret is still kept going up to the end of the short story.

The unexpected twists, especially in the first three oneshots are fun when found out. The second story may not seem to have a secret other than Hiro-chan's obsession with the school idol, but the surprise at the very end will have you rolling in your seat with laughter.

Between her witticisms, her surprises, and the facial expressions and whatnot, Nakahara Aya does not cease to amaze in her delivery of storytelling.

I like her work a lot for these reasons, as there has not been a story in which some part did not make me want to laugh out loud. These are especially found throughout Lovely Complex, but that will be for a different post in the future.

Himitsu Kichi is a fun and cute oneshot collection full of laughs, if not romance. Nakahara-sensei displays her awesomeness yet again.

first impression: Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou (anime)

Natsume Takashi is a young boy who can see ayakashi-- a trait that other humans do not have. He inherited from his grandmother, Natsume Reiko, this ability to see ayakashi as well as the all-powerful Book of Friends. With the Book of Friends, Natsume Takashi is constantly being attacked and seeked out by various demons and spirits who either wish to have their names returned, or who just want to own the book for their own evil purposes.

This is a continuation-- the second season-- of Natsume Yuujinchou which ended on thirteen episodes during the 2008 fall season.

To be exact, this particular post is more for my own opinionated thoughts rather than for a first impression. As a first impression, it is more a way for me to compare the first season with the second season's beginning. In a way, Natsume Yuujinchou fans of the world will be given a chance to compare Natsume Yuujinchou's second season with the glory of its first season.

When I first picked out Natsume Yuujinchou from various other broadcasting anime in the fall, it was because I had been drawn to the advertised poster. This is all explained in first impression: Natsume Yuujinchou.

As the first season drew to a close and the anime loving community was informed of a second season, I was extremely ecstatic. After all, the first season was rather short and left much to be desired. While I had intended to draw up some hype on the soon-to-be-aired Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, my busy schedule and loss of motivation sort of threw all of that into the dumpster.

But lo and behold, having finally gotten my hands on the first episode of the second season of Natsume Yuujinchou, I am thoroughly revived and ready to tackle my almost abandoned anime blogging once again.

And now back to the anime.

I remember why I liked this series so much. It's relaxing and it makes you really think about every situation and every scene and every dilemma. As I had described it in the end of series thoughts, instead of being an action packed, supernatural and fantasy adventure, Natsume Yuujinchou borders more on a serene, slice of life, drama-esque type of genre. Supernatural elements just happen to be its basis, used to better distinguish Natsume Takashi's growth and development and how he learns to deal with the world around him.

The second season starts off in very much a bit of a bang compared to how the first season had started. Of course, once again, our beloved hero is being chased by some greedy ayakashi out to get him for the Book of Friends, and again, Takashi-kun meets up with a danger to himself involving more dangerous ayakashi. The second season has Takashi tripping over yet another barrier and releasing yet another high level ayakashi from its seal. And then the story goes from there.

It feels less of a sequel and more like a continuation from the first season, exactly where it had left off. Little seems to have changed save for Takashi-kun's level up in emotional and mental quotients.

The anime is still aiming for the same feel and wonder as the first season.

The only difference I can filter out of it is that Natsume Takashi seems a bit livelier than he did from the first season. It could be because of a plethora of things, such as all the friends he had made from season one, and how much more secure he is feeling in his own home now. His sense of duty from accepting the presence of youkai has been amped up a few levels-- its as if he feels that, since he has the power to do so, he needs to play mediator between youkai and humans.

Otherwise, his personality still remains quite the same: he is a good kid with nice qualities and a penchant to think for other people's sakes. He's just a little less monotonous, more active, and less depressing-- not that he had been depressing in the first season at all.

The second season seems to be trying to bring up the comedy just a little more, but hopefully it will incorporate that element as the first season had done-- the first season had the perfect dosage of every genre it portrayed and hopefully the second season will remain as such.

I have to admit though that the first hit of comedy which involved Takashi-kun being smashed in the face with a soccer ball unawares as he is reminiscing was very classic. I jumped and then I gasped and then I laughed. The bit with Natsume Takashi's overpowering strength towards ayakashi is quite admirable-- and amusing-- when he is pissed off enough to take action instead of just relying on his unreliable feline/high-level ayakashi bodyguard.

On top of everything else, I think that I have become mesmerized everytime Takashi-kun does his little clap and blow bit when returning a name to the present ayakashi. Something about how he does it and the fact that he has proven to be quite the bishie and kind-hearted boy... it just makes me unhesitatingly add him onto my list of favorite bishounen males.


Natsume Takashi has become one of my favorite main anime characters. Hands down, he's great!

The theme song is more upbeat than the first season's, but I like it. It kind of synchronizes with Takashi-kun's personality as he continues through this serial anime journey. It took me two watches, but I had noticed that the first half of the theme song shows scenes without ayakashi and the second half shows those exact same scenes with the ayakashi. I feel like it's really significant in showing just how natural the presence of youkai are in the Natsume Yuujinchou world.

Overall, I will continue to look forward to watching the rest of Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, although I know I'll be hard pressed not to compare it to its first season.

On an end note, the ending theme is not only animated beautifully with Takashi walking through snow and his friends joining him one by one, but it is also catchy and pretty. I will wait patiently for the full version of this song.

spotlight: Natsume Yuujinchou (anime)

It's a wonder that I've even been trying to show my enthusiasm for blogging. I've been slacking off extremely for the past couple weeks-- past month, actually-- and had even disregarded the December spotlight.

However, with the coming of the new winter season in anime as well as my continued love for shoujo manga, I think I can manage to post a few things here and there for the sake of keeping this blog alive somehow.

To start the year off, my first order of business happens to be the first spotlight of the year. The Januaray spotlight goes to none other than one of the best anime series of fall 2008 and hopefully of the winter season in 2009.

***




I'm hooked on this particular anime for many, many different reasons. I truly do believe that Natsume Yuujinchou can easily be called a "diamond in the rough." It's also one of those surprising pleasures that you would have never thought you'd fall in love with.


As explained many times before, I picked up this anime series purely because I thought the poster was gorgeous. The summary seemed cliched, just like any other supernatural series, and I hadn't had much high hopes for it in the first place. But then, after watching the first and second episode, ditching it for a while and then picking it back up, I found how refreshing and mellow the series made me feel.

I fell in love with it and then I basked in the moment of knowing that a second season would be airing soon after.

This is a true episodic series in which every episode has a story of its own, which also pertains to the rest of the running story line. And everything just kind of falls into place neatly and nothing seems forced. If a filler had been interjected, I don't think I would have noticed. Because even as the series progressed in a nonlinear fashion, our main hero, Natsume Takashi continues to develop and continues to grow and continues to learn new things about hisself, about the world around him, and about his special ability.


I fell in love with Natsume Yuujinchou, despite my main genre being romantic comedies based around shoujo manga. Comedy meshes naturally with the drama, the melodrama, the supernatural, and the everyday slice of life elements.

Instead of being a supernatural series with a side of drama, comedy and adventure, Natsume Yuujinchou prides itself on the drama and slice of life areas, which just so happen to have supernatural, comedy, with a side of adventure and sprinkles of action. Natsume Yuujinchou is not flashy or fast-paced, and Natsume Yuujinchou does not force action or comedy.

In a sense, it depicts one specific kind of subject: "This is what your natural life would be like if you could interact with ayakashi." And then, "This is what Natsume Takashi's natural life is like, having always been able to interact with ayakashi." There is nothing thoroughly exciting and funny about being able to see these things, and we are shown this through the flashbacks and the emotional stress that Takashi-kun exhibits throughout the series. He is in contact with ayakashi every day of his life, every hour of every day, and everything is suddenly second nature to him. Like interacting with various people, Takashi simply ignores what he doesn't care to see and deals with what he thinks should be dealt with.

This life is not an adventure for Takashi, this is just how life is for him. And the series does well to depict how he comes to accept his abilities and the constant presence of ayakashi around him. Yes, he is different from others and because of this, he has been shunned and thrown from household to household. But somehow, Natsume Takashi has been able to manage himself quite well.

In other comments and posts around the anime-internet community, it has been mentioned that Natsume Takashi's personality is quite different from manga to anime. In the manga, I've read, he is more melancholic and less kind than he is in the anime. Frankly, I really do prefer to see a serene and good-natured Natsume Takashi over one who will brood and hate because of his lonely and tortured history. Somehow, it adds onto the wonder and amazement that is the anime of Natsume Yuujinchou; the character of Natsume Takashi makes the series such a hit.


Everything from his past history, his flashbacks, his insecurity, his sense of needing to know where he belongs, and his consistent state of kindness and serenity towards the world and the people around him despite all that has happened to him make him a very unique person.

And it is this part of the series that makes for an awesome beauty. The characterization of Natsume Takashi. He can be melancholic, but in a rather subtle way, and he can be a bit terse. But he is depicted overall as a very nice boy who cares about the people around him and cares about the welfare of any perfect stranger, be that stranger ayakashi or human. He is simply lonely and full of concern about what will happen to him and about all the people he may or may not trouble because of his ability to see and communicate with ayakashi.

In a perfect world, one would be hard pressed to find such an optimistic person who has gone through what Natsume Takashi has gone through. But it is this type of person who allows the viewer a sense mysterious hope that not all views of life are filled with drawbacks and malicious evil. There is always a silver lining.

Natsume Yuujinchou is a wonderful and lovely series. And if you think I haven't boasted enough about it, then you haven't read my thoughts on the first season. Another written post for the second season may enter into this blog as well as soon as I finish watching it.


Throughout this post I have mentioned only the series itself and the main hero. I have made no mention of the fat cat, which is also a significant factor to the series. Of course, I feel like the anime really fluorishes because of its tone and it's slow paced storytelling. The characterization of Natsume Takashi is wonderful, and the supporting role of Madara/Nyanko-sensei is a must as the cat actually gives Takashi the hope that there is somewhere he belongs and someone who will always be with him. The introduction of each ayakashi and their episodic storyline can be touching or amusing, and they all add onto the greatness of Natsume Yuujinchou.

Natsume Yuujinchou is probably not for those who seek shounen adventures and the like. But I definitely recommend this series to anyone and everyone who just wants to sit back and relax with a good series. It is a series that needs to be felt rather than rushed through, and I enjoy watching the entire series slowly by episode as it seems only right to feel at ease when watching such a serene series.


Indeed, as the first spotlight of 2009, there is no other who could take the place of Natsume Yuujinchou, the unexpected treasure of 2008's fall season and the looked forward to love of 2009's winter season.