I have always been an anime fan. I was sidetracked watching Koreanovelas but my love for anime never faded. This is what I am currently watching:
My brothers made me watch it. They, too, love anime! After watching a few episodes, I can tell why they liked Bakuman. The plot of the story revolve around two highschool students dreaming of becoming "mangakas." Moritaka, nephew of a manga artist, is the animator, and Shujin makes the story. They both have different inspirations and motivations in their quest to become recognized Manga artists. My brothers are good at drawing, too; and they love the humor as well. I took note of some of my favorite lines in the first few episodes:
"I don't think studying equals being smart." - Shujin, a top student
"Just talking about dreams won't make them a reality." - Moritaka
What started my love for anime is this:
I remember sporting SailorMoon paraphernalias during elementary days. Handkerchief, bags, socks, pens, erasers, stickers, band-aids, puzzles, stationaries, paperdolls. Name it! I am Sailor Venus, and my sister is Sailor Jupiter. A lot of other animes came out after this.
There's Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT by Akira Toriyama. Son Goku trained hard to look for the 7 dragon balls also seek by so many others for different reasons. Collecting it altogether can summon a wish-granting dragon. I am not a fan, but I did enjoy watching Goku as a young boy, growing up, having a wife and Gohan, battling against countless villains, dying, running the long dragon in the heavens to be resurrected only to battle villains again, turning into a giant monkey and a super Saiyan, doing the fusion with Vegeta, and turning into a child in GT. It was broadcasted in Japan from 1986 to 1996! Wow.
There's also Ghost Fighter by Yoshihiro Togashi. Eugene's RayGun, Alfred's strength and sword, Dennis' transformation to a "beautiful" wolf and his rose thorns whip, and Vincent's third eye, Master Jeremiah and "her" young version, and Jericho. Of all the characters I liked Vincent. He's the mysterious, "kakkoii" guy, kinda like Sasuke.
Hajime no Ippo by Joji "George" Morikawa. I have never liked boxing until this one. I was a wrestling fan, though. (My lolo and I used to watch late night boxing). What I love about the story is Ippo's perseverance and the comedy in every episode. Ippo also remained humble even after winning against more experienced boxers.
Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki. Samurai X. I so loved the movie! Love really can change a person. I did not watch much of the anime series because I liked Tomoe and Kenshin's love team more than with Kaoru. But I liked how Kenshin looks so normal and even peaceful on the series, and look so cool with his samurai fighting the villains. He is, after all, Hitokiri Battosai, the assassin.
Card Captor Sakura. The first Sakura I adored. Sakura Kinimoto. I had a huge crush on her brother, Toya! Hehe. I loved the anime series and watched the movies too. Tomoyo and Sakura are just so cute. Her unique outfits catching each Clow Cards and the video coverage c/o Tomoyo are simply adorable. Syaoran Li just made the story even more exciting, with their arguments and disagreements, and his discovery of her feelings for Sakura. Yukito, whose true form is Yue, made the two young loves' feelings even more complicated as they somehow felt "something" for him. The connection they felt was, as they found out later on, related to the cards. And of course, there's Keruberos or Cerberus. His true form is so cool.
Rukawa! Rukawa! L-O-V-E Rukawa!
Slam Dunk! by Takehiko Inoue. Everyone loved this anime! No matter how long the run seemed, as Hanamichi Sakuragi tries to make his slam dunk, (almost like a football field) we loved how he tried hard to be recognized by the people and his ultimate crush, Haruko. Each character has a distinct personality. Kaede Rukawa, the team's star player and Sakuragi's rival; Hisashi Mitsui, the MVP 3-point player; Ryota Miyagi; and Takenori Akagi, the team captain who is also Haruko's brother; make up Shohoku's team.
Mido Ban's Evil Eyes, and Ginji Amano's Lightning power like Thors, make up Get Backers by Tadashi Agi and Rando Ayamine. They recover lost items like stolen artworks for a price. Ginji was once the leader of "The Volts" and is known as "Thunder Emperor," but his partner, Ban, kept him from his destructive nature. That is, until they went to Babylon City and met the previous group of Ginji. I don't remember the ending of the series, making me want to watch it after Bakuman. Argh!!
I even watched Claymore by Norihiro Yagi. Mark made me watch this. The story is not for the faint-hearted. Even my uncle read the manga, so we have a collection of the manga series in Nihonggo. We can't read it, but since we watched the anime series, we can only imagine what the characters were talking about.
The Claymores are female warriors who were trained to kill Yomas (male Claymores who became awakened beings after excessive use and quest for power). Claire and Teresa are the main characters.
Chobits. I learned a lot of Japanese phrases watching this anime. Itekimasu... Itterashai... Okairi... Tadaima... Phrases we use at home whenever my Japanese cousins and uncle are around.
Chi, a persocom (personal computer) in human form, is so kawaii! How she calls Hideki is just so cute. If this age of Chobits will ever come, I would love a small one just like Sumomo.
and of course...
The all-time favorite. Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto
There are a lot of other anime series I've watched, but these are some of my favorites.
What's your favorite Anime?
Who's your favorite character?
