Ao Haru Ride anime adaptation review

Ao Haru Ride is a shoujo manga series created by Io Sakisaka. Its anime adaptation, which is produced by Production I.G. and directed by Ai Yoshimura, was aired from July 8,2014 to September 23, 2014 with a total of 12 episodes (and hopefully more seasons in the future). The title literally means Blue (Ao) Spring (Haru) Ride, but I discovered secondhand information claiming that the title actually means Youth Ride, according to the author.

Apparently, shoujo manga and anime are targeted for girls who are around their teenage years or older because these things are usually about cheesy high school romance. I'm a dude...I shouldn't be enjoying anime or manga like these. I'm supposed to enjoy things like gigantic robots with laser swords,warriors saying some epic lines while fighting for at least 4 episodes, or girls exposing their tits accidentally in front of the main character. Well, I actually enjoy these shoujo anime shows. They are like my purifiers after watching so many shows that depict lewdness and violence.

Now, let's talk about the two main characters of the story.

YOSHIOKA FUTABA - Way back in junior high, she was one of the popular girls of the school. The boys really admired her beauty, but most of the girls were jealous and despised her, thought that her cutesy looks and personality made the guys pay attention only to her. She disliked all guys because she sees them as rowdy and noisy individuals, except for Kou Takanashi who was also in the same school as her. Tired from the kind of attention she had, she decided to change her personality as unfeminine as possible on her high school life.

My impression on her is that though she has somewhat a nape fetish on Kou (lol!), she's a real beauty! She's the most beautiful heroine I've ever seen so far from all the shoujo anime that I watched. I like girls with long hair. Her beauty is so simple, and I definitely like it. Her comical expressions throughout the episodes are so funny, and adorable!

KOU TANAKA (Kou Mabuchi) - Yoshioka described (Junior High) Kou as different from all the other boys. He was short, and had a bit of feminine look and voice, but a kind and cheerful person. He suddenly transferred to a different junior high school due to reasons, and returned to his hometown as a student of the same high school as Yoshioka. He's taller, voice is deeper, and a stone-faced person. His personality changed from cheerful to cold towards others. He's not popular with the girls.

My impression: He's not like your typical shoujo male main character who has their own overly ridiculous Mr. Perfect-like features. Kou's not the type who comes dashing like a knight in shining armor or Prince Charming in the first few episodes. He's like an average, realistic guy just like us, and that's what I like about this dude. I thought that Usui Takumi from Kaichou wa Maid-sama was the best dude I had ever seen, but if I have to choose between Usui and Kou, I pick the new guy because he was a realistic male character.

What do I think about the anime adaptation of Ao Haru Ride?

Since this is a shoujo anime, I assumed that I'd be seeing ultra cheesy scenes that make girls scream their hearts out, but I was wrong. There were really sweet moments that made me smile, but the story really did not focus on who will confess their love first towards the other, and other things like rivalry just like in any shoujo anime. It focused more on how Yoshioka will break Kou's cold personality and be open towards her and their group of friends. The supporting characters were great and well- balanced. There were no dumb-looking girls who only like make-up, guys who suddenly challenge the male MC for a duel, or any character that looked out of this world. The art style is really nice. I like what each character look. I also like the opening and ending songs of the show.

Are they really going to kiss? You have to find that out if you haven't watched it.

To summarize things up, I want to say that this is the BEST SHOUJO ANIME THAT I EVER WATCHED, so far. I'm looking forward to read the manga. I hope that there will be a new season of it!

How anime healed my broken heart

  Tomoya Okazaki - Clannad

It was weeks after my graduation when she told me that she was still not ready for a serious relationship with me (although we were already more than a year together, and that was her stupid excuse.) , and ended up with a new boyfriend in just a month (WTF!) . I was already at loss, depressed, and felt like I was already dead. I burned every memento that reminded me of her, deleted every data that's related to her, bought alcohol and drink alone in my room, and sometimes go with my friends in the city and have some fun together with a bottle or two just to make myself happy. It wasn't enough.

I got bored eventually...bored of being sad and pathetic on that situation. I wanted to become happy again. It came to me that there was something I want to watch. A story about a poor guy who became a butler, and serves a young and rich lady in a giant mansion. It was hilarious!

                                       Hayate No Gotoku, also known as Hayate The Combat Butler



This was when my addiction to anime started to kick in. After watching it, I started watching more ,and more. I've become happier in every show that I watch. I started collecting anime merchandise as well. I am no longer the guy who was crying for a girl who left me just like that.

This is just 1/3 of the list of what I had watched, and it keeps longer and longer until now.

My addiction to anime developed into something better. Some of the shows that I have watched reflects Japanese culture. From their way of saying 'Ohayo' , up to their cultural festivals, I have fallen in love once again, not with another girl... but with Japan. I realized that I want to set my life goal there. I want to become an English teacher there for at least a year, or just a simple tourist for a few days someday.

Nagisa: Do you like this school? I like this school very, very much. But everything keeps changing. All the fun and happy things are changing. But even so, are you still able to like this place?

Tomoya: Isn't it fine as long as you find it? Isn't it fine as long as you find the next fun and happy moments again?

Furukawa Nagisa and Okazaki Tomoya (Clannad)

Okay, this post is not exactly about how anime can help you deal with heartbreaks. If there's a lesson you could learn from this blog post, it's that there is no shortcut for moving on, not even death can help you on that. You don't want to be a wailing ghost that's still suffering from a heartbreak, right? You just need to let all that sadness out. Let time heal you while you cry, and indulge yourself to many distractions until you get over it. Soon, the next happy moment will come into your life.

Ozine Fest 2014

                                     Ozine Fest 2014 announcement photo in Facebook

April 25, 26, and 27 - Ozine Fest 2014 was held in SMX Convention Center. This was my second attendance to an anime convention. I attended the event ALONE, even the first one. I have no friends...well technically there are, but some of our interests don't match up and they are not as hyped as I am when it comes to anime. 

Okay, let's go back to the Ozine Fest! It was a three-day convention, but I only attended on the third day. I thought that I wouldn't go there because of some circumstances.

The entire convention center was packed! It was swarming of anime lovers like me. I had to fall in line from the outside of the gigantic convention center until to the second floor just to buy a ticket. It took me around an hour. Lesson learned: PRE-ORDER A TICKET WHEN YOU HAVE THE CHANCE.

Kirino from Oreimo wearing a wedding dress

Nendoroid versions of  Neptune from Hyperdimension Neptunia and Asuna from Sword Art Online

Kuroneko from Oreimo

Misaka Mikoto and Shirai Kuroko from Toaru Majutsu No Index / Toaru Kagaku No Railgun

Yoshino from Date A Live

I had the urge of stealing these figures from their glass prison. Who doesn't like genuine figures of their favorite characters in their room? These figures are quite expensive. Are you willing to buy these figures that have a price of around Php 2k-4k ? I can only afford bootleg versions of Nendoroids that are 4 times cheaper than the original ones. *sob *sob

                                                             Ozine Fest 2014 souvenir tees

I bought one for the price of Php 350. I think it's rubberized, so I'm REALLY AFRAID of putting this shirt in our washing machine. I saw some guys wearing this shirt already at the event with the girl as their front of their shirt. Why am I saying this? The part where the girl is supposedly the BACK part of the shirt!

A t-shirt booth in the convention

TOMODACHI- Means friend in Japan, and it's also a name of a group of t-shirt makers from Thailand! At the event, they sold tees with different characters from Kantai Collection, Nisekoi, and much more, including their  mascot character, Tomo-tan. I bought a tee with Shimakaze of KanColle on it (the third picture below the Tomodachi) for Php 700. The paint is not rubberized, so I guess it's safe to put it in the washing machine. The quality is good, and I didn't regret buying one. Thanks TOMODACHI!!! Here's their Facebook page by the way: https://www.facebook.com/tomodachiTShirt  

Of course, how can you call it an anime convention without COSPLAYERS?! I built up my courage to take photographs of cosplayers unlike before. I have to admit that I'm actually an introvert, so socializing with random people is quite a challenge. I took a number of photographs, but I never had the chance to take a SELFIE with my favorite characters.

Before you see these photos, I want to remind you guys to have some respect on the cosplayers. Sure, some of them don't look like the characters they were portraying accurately, but cosplaying is all about having fun. We cosplay these characters because we love them! I hope you enjoy. :)

No-Face (Kaonashi) from Spirited Away wanted to give me free gold. 

Superheroes from the west were also here

Some of the girls from Attack On Titan

Keima Katsuragi of The World God Only Knows along with Jafar of Magi

'

Mirai of Kyoukai No Kanata

Elizabeth of Gintama having a sword fight with Ichigo of Bleach

Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield from the Resident Evil games. There was the zombie guy from the movie Warm Bodies in the event as well, but I didn't have the chance to take a photo of him. Maybe these two were trying to kill him, so that's why they were at the event.

Kotori/Efreet and Tohka from Date A Live

Who says fat people can't cosplay? Here's an awesome cosplay of Ursula from the Little Mermaid

The lovely Queen of Yandere, Yuno Gasai of Mirai Nikki

Mako and Mikisugi from Kill La Kill

Cosplay of game characters: Corvo Attano from Dishonored and Ezio Auditore from Assassin's Creed 2.

Steve and the skeleton archer from Mincecraft

Jack Frost from  Rise of the Guardians and Queen Elsa from Frozen were walking together in the Mall Of Asia.

                                                         

Asuna of Sword Art Online

Random guy waiting to get noticed by senpai

I already went home after a few hours. It was a good call because I saw a photo of  a lot of people filling up the SMX grounds in Facebook. It looked like it was hard to walk around with all the people. There was even an incident about an employee shooing away bystanders who only went inside the convention center  just to take photos with the cosplayers and not for the event. I looked into it and understood both sides of the coin. Both sides are at fault too, including the event itself. 

The ones who were shouted and shooed by the said employee felt ridiculed. Employees should be nice to their customers even how irate they could be.

The building was packed! Imagine one employee dealing with 100 people. There are only a few of employees doing front line work in the convention center, and there were around a thousand of us. They didn't have time to take a break or even eat lunch with all the people coming in. They were doing crowd control for our safety by removing these bystanders who didn't bother buying their tickets and enter the event.

The Ozine Fest 2014 seemed to be a successful event, but I hope next time they would be a little bit more organized, and reserve a larger room. A friend of mine told me that they only just crammed and made actions for the preparation of the booths in such a short time. They announced the Ozine Fest several months ago.

My legs were already tired and felt sore. My main purpose of going to the Ozine Fest was to buy a new bootleg Nendoroid (don't have much money to buy original ones), but I didn't find any of my liking. So I bought something else instead. The Ozine Fest 2014 souvenir shirt, KanColle shirt from Tomodachi, bag tags with the characters Kirino from Oreimo, Maria and Kobato  from Haganai, and pin badge with the characters Eren of Attack On Titan and Ryuko Matoi of Kill La Kill. 

Overall, the event was fun, and I'm looking forward to attend the Ozine Fest and more anime conventions!