January wall: Akashi-san
February wall: Reach for Love
March wall: Destructive Aftermath
April wall: Cranes for Japan
May wall: N/A
June wall: N/A
July wall: N/A (wow I was dead for quite a few months there)
August wall: CLAMP Mascots Party Wall!
September wall: Himura Kenshin
October wall: N/A (thanks to work)
November wall: Tokyo Babylon – For Tomorrow
December wall: Howl and Sophie – Flight of Fancy

Ghost in the Shell:

Yūsuke Nakamura:

Kimi ni Todoke:

Yuri Kormin:

On a more positive note, I’m pretty excited about Kimi ni Todoke season 2. From the manga I know that season 2 should cover some fairly heartwrenching/heartwarming developments, so I look forward to picking up the new season. Gosick looks like another strong show from Bones that might be worth checking out. Fractale looks like a promising show as well, although my interest was mainly piqued by this thought-provoking Asahi.com article on director Yutaka Yamamoto:

Another concern for the industry is a possible shrinking fan base. Estimates put the population of die-hard anime fans at around 150,000. But Yamamoto suspects the number now falls short of 100,000.

Part of the reason, Yamamoto said, is that producers, including himself, devoted too much of their energies in creating cutesy “moe” (budding)-type characters in hopes of making sure-sell products in an already small market.

…His latest anime series, “Fractale,” to be aired from Jan. 13 on Fuji Television Network Inc., will target non-anime fans and one-time fans who have shifted away from the genre.

“The anime industry is said to have become introverted. But our business is about providing something fun and exciting to people. I decided to stop being inward-looking,” Yamamoto said.

Sounds good to me! Plus, Fractale is one of the noitaminA shows this season and this block has not failed to disappoint since the days of Honey & Clover. I’m about a third of the way through The Tatami Galaxy and am really enjoying it so far, plus I’ve heard really good things about Kuragehime, so I have high expectations for noitaminA to consistently deliver quality shows

Last but certainly not least on my to-watch list is Hourou Musuko, the other new series in the noitaminA block. I’m particularly interested in this show because of its focus on transgender sexuality, and it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the anime context. Plus I’m in love with the trailer – the animation looks like moving watercolors!

So in a nutshell – continue love for Bones and noitaminA. I also look forward to adding other series to my long to-watch list depending on the word on the street!

Update: I thought Beelzebub had potential, but wasn’t sure if it’s worth checking out. I’m now convinced to at least give the first episode a try!

1. Why why why do all of my favorite shoujo mangaka have to stop at cliffhanger developments in their series and go on maternity leave?? Cases in point – Tomoko Ninomiya (Nodame Cantabile) stopping right before Nodame’s big debut, or Karuho Shiina (Kimi ni Todoke) leaving right before a pretty big misunderstanding between Sawako and Kazehaya can resolve itself. (Not going to ruin Kimi ni Todoke for those of you who haven’t caught up to the hiatus point, but this crisis is HUGE. Probably not too hard to guess what happened and the amount of agony such an event would cause the reader.) I know Tomoko Ninomiya has since returned from her break, but still. Babies suck

…I AM kidding, for the most part. I just wish they didn’t have to stop tantalizingly before a major plot event. I can totally see the mangaka plotting this out with some evil editors though: “What? You’re going to have a baby in X months? Ok, let’s build up the story as much as you can before you have to leave so the readers will stay tortured and hooked until you come back!”

2. Princess Tutu seriously ROCKS MY SOCKS. The show’s creators are my new heroes – I love how the music and many different fairy tales are woven so cleverly into a lovely new story. All of the characters are awesome. Also, nothing about the plot is cliche – I just finished DVD 4 (of 6) and still have no good guess about how the story will end. I’m constantly on tenterhooks waiting for the next disc to arrive from Netflix. Also, I’ve watched Tutu’s transformation scene repeated 18 times now (once every episode?) but am still loving it every time.

3. RahXephon sucks. Granted I approached this series very lazily and spread out the viewing over a long period of time, but it just never kept me hooked enough to want to marathon it. I basically forced myself to finish watching the series today, and thought the ending was kinda dumb. I appreciated a bit more of the hidden themes and whatnot after googling some reviews (I had picked up this series because it had received so many positive reviews) but I’m not impressed by having to google in order to gain that iota of appreciation. I’m far too lazy of an anime viewer nowadays to really enjoy anything that requires trading a bunch of brain cells for understanding. Also, I think I’m completely over the whole emo boys who are emo for the sake of being emo crap (and to a lesser degree, surreal for the sake of being surreal sequences). I didn’t have much sympathy for Ayato at all. And in case you’re wondering, I really disliked Evangelion – and this is actually the other main reason why I picked up RahXephon, because I thought I might appreciate it more in contrast. As is, I (marginally) hate RahXephon a little less than EVA. I’m really not a mecha hater – I just seem to really dislike seminal mecha series.

…I’m probably extra bitter towards RahXephon because I had finished both of my Princess Tutu Netflix discs and have to wait until Monday to get the next one. As a substitution for Princess Tutu, RahXephon just doesn’t hold a candle

I picked up Kimi ni Todoke after reading Casey’s glowing review of it on Anime News Network. The story immediately sucked me in – the protagonist, Sawako Kuronuma, is a sweet and pure-hearted girl with creepy appearance and ways befitting of evil characters in horror films. As a result, she’s nicknamed “Sadako” after the cursed ghost in the popular Japanese horror film “The Ring” and isolated in school – that is, until she met Shota Kazehaya, an equally sweet but very popular boy from her class. Kazehaya’s interest is immediately piqued by the kindness he sees in Sawako underneath her forbidding appearances, and the story takes off from there. With help from Kazehaya, we follow Sawako’s personal journey as she slowly steps out of her shell, makes friends, and comes to terms with who she wants to become as a person, and what she would need to do to get there.

I love this series because it brought back so many memories of school days past – as such, the story feels very real. I couldn’t help rooting for Sawako as she tried to take on her inner demons and reach out to her classmates. There were many scenes that were rather heartbreaking in how well they showed the cruelty of kids. Even if it’s often unintentional, it still cuts. At the same time, while I was completely taken with Sawako’s internal struggles and growth, I was also absolutely infatuated with the emerging love story. It’s always refreshing to read a shoujo story where the main female character isn’t throwing herself willy-nilly at the main guy. And a lot of the love story circles back to the theme of personal growth – not only for Sawako, but also for Kazehaya as well as he finds himself affected by Sawako’s genuine heart and gestures. And that for me is a sign of a really great love story – showing that it’s not just one character involved that changes, but both characters for the better.

On an interesting side note, I skipped to the Chinese translation after chapter 13 in order to read ahead, and found the story much more compelling in English than in Chinese. It could be that I’m still adjusting to the differences in tone and nuances between the two languages. A part of me also thinks it might be because real-life Kazehayas are much harder to come by in the States than in Asia, where I more or less split my student days – making English-speaking Kazehaya much more appealing.

Regardless of my language preferences, I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading marathoning and will likely be indulging in a lot more of Kimi ni Todoke. Again, if you like shoujo series with a bit of a character twist and a simple yet compelling plot, pick up Kimi ni Todoke – you won’t be disappointed!

P.S. In case you’re curious, the monumental tear-inducing spot for me was chapter 7. If you’ve read it, let me know if you think my tears are justified