HaNaYaMaTa

HanaYaMaTa is one of the cutest Moe anime I have watched in ages. Set in modern Japan it is about a group of jr. high aged girls who all are awkward or lonely somehow finding one another and finding confidence and happiness through yosaki dancing. Throughout the story the young characters collect their confidence while facing various trials.

One of my favorite parts about this anime was that the art style was GORGEOUS. Vivid pastels and beautiful backgrounds made for a stunning mix.

The end of the anime actually brought me to tears. It had such a touching sentiment of the meaning of friendship... a sentiment I have never really fully gotten to enjoy the feeling of like people often express feeling. I am glad it was only 12 episodes, it went to all the basic young girl trope locations (hot springs, beach, bathtub, school roof, karaoke) and anything more might have been over doing it.

Dexter. Seasons 1&2 Mofus there are spoilers.

So this show just came on air on Netflix on Halloween. I have already watched the first 2 seasons, yes, I am being a bit obsessive.

Let me start off by mentioning I HATE crime dramas. The tropes, the boring plot lines, the stupid characters, the overdone story on repeat... but Dexter is not your run of the mill cop story. Thank goodness. Because I would not have made it through two seasons of this show in 4 days if it had been anything like every other cop show out there. I feel like puking when someone suggests watching Law and Order, or even shows like Bones or Castle.  So why Dexter? Because it is dark, because it is morbid, because Dexter hates everyone in the world possibly more than I do and fakes emotions more than anyone pretty much ever and that is an appealing thing to me.

I am an emotional person. I don't have issue emoting. But dating my boyfriend is pretty much what dating Dexter would be like. This show has actually given me amazing insight into his feels and mind.  He is not a sociopath killer as far as I can tell, but he does not play by social rules. Just like myself. I actually don't understand how this show was SO popular. Normal people must be relating to the boring characters like Rita and Dexters fake relations toward her.

Speaking of Rita. Talk about boring Oh poor waifu mom who produced kids and has an addiction to dating bad men. Boo hoo we feel SO bad for you. WAIT I really don't. She is the weakest character on the show and a big part of the reason why I don't feel like watching more. I don't want Dexter married. I want him fucking hot young arsonist ladies. Marriage is boring and if Dexter gets married I just can't see this show staying appealing.

Also Dexter makes me happy to live in the Pacific NorthWest. Ug I can just imagine how muggy it must be there....

Suicide Girls BlackHeart Burlesque- Or the first time I wanted a girl to keep her clothing on.

 So last night my partner and I decided to go to our first Burlesque. Now we were very excited at this idea. We both love the looks of Suicide girls. We love the Tattoos, the alt look, the teasing way they pose. Just look at this poster here, the girls look so fun and free loving in it, and express what I have always thought of SGs to be. So months ago we excitedly bought tickets and have been waiting for the day to happen.

A camgirl I enjoy watching the shows of and talking to AnnaBee made the comment she felt that SG was not pulling very good dancers for the show and that she felt they were more campy than sexy and not as good as they could have been because of how they were being directed. But I was determined to ignore this thought and watch these girls with my whole heart and support them.

 So the venue chosen for Portland, was Roseland theator. Which is a great venue for going and dancing your brains out to Electric, House, Rock and Trance music. But not so much for people chilling and watching sexy dances. I was surprised when I walked in the door to see they had fitted it with seating and it was quite controlled. So we got a seat about 7 rows back on the left side back with a great view of the stage. Pre-show there was some terrible music that was badly balanced blasting over the speakers too loudly. We thought it was just some distasteful pre-show music, until we found out the cute short girl standing akwardly behind an mac on stage was a SG 'DJ' who was actively choosing to play badly balanced music for us. Forgiveable because when the actual show happened the music was better balanced. The first three or so acts were fun.It was novel and exciting and the girls were marginally cute, even though it was obvious most of them were not professional dancers.

The biggest problem of the night was when one of the girls started feeling like she needed more attention. So she called out that everyone should get out of their seats and 'crowd around the stage' because they were going to make the show as 'Punk Rock as possible' suddenly my good view spot was terrible. Tall model girls, men with baseball caps, creepy single guy swirls and masses of humans were suddenly standing between my seat and the stage.My view from that point on was about waist and above of the girls when they were standing straight. They also encouraged everyone to video tape and picture the show. So even if people were short, suddenly their bright camera was up in the air directed at the dancers and further obscuring the show for everyone else! My night was ruined from that point on.

Now the girls were lovely creatures. Albeit a bit thin for my tastes. They put their hearts into dancing, and I guess I will mostly fault whoever directed them for bad taste in music, costumes, and choreography. Amazingly the best song choice imo was the choice they used for the Planet of the Apes dance.  The dance for that song had a slightly Japanese/Korean pop star feel to it as well.

So why do I mention that girls needed to keep their clothing on? I have zero issues with nakedness, sexuality or free choice! My issue was this is suppose to be a burlesque right? Then why was most of the entire show the girls dancing around in panties and pasties? I wanted to be teased and enticed. But instead I felt like I mentioned I like the color purple and suddenly my entire house is purple. Too much of a good thing starts being a bad thing! Tease me more, show me less. No really. PLEASE.

Best point of the night? When they asked people to get on stage and strip to win a gift certificate to their website, and this sexy full bodied purple haired girl gets up on stage and starts sexily removing her corset then throws her bra off to show us her lovely, large breasts with no pasties! What a beautiful unashamed lady.

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun

I watched this anime with the same enthusiasm I watch most Shojou anime. Which is actually quite a bit. I was hoping for a complicated romantic story with interesting characters and a thrilling plot. That is really not what I got. This anime almost qualifies as slice of life. It has no really defined ending. The plot arches are not wrapped up at the end of the anime. It feels a bit too much like just a blip from real life... but not really at all.

It is very hard to relate with the main character. Yes she is driven, but she is constantly succeeding and getting her way. Being the top person grades wise at your school is just this unheard of idea for me.

The secondary main girl was much more interesting.She was beautiful and hated guys for noticing this in her. Underneath her looks she really was a nerd, popular on BBS and good at working with technology and with that she didn't care about school (much more like a real girl IMO!)

Overall I give this anime a 2.5/5 stars. It was beautiful. It had potential. But it just fell short for me.