Saturday, April 18, 2009

Slice O Life/Toradora Continued...

So the other night I was "reviewing" Toradora. I say "review" because most of the people who read this are my friends and they probably don't care about me reviewing something they will never watch. Sadly, that means anime as a whole. *sad face*

Though I never really did review the anime (too many other blogs have done this several months ago, towards people who cared. lol) but I did kind of go off on a tangent last time which I will continue about Slice of Life. After I wrote my last post about Toradora, the next day I went online to another anime blog and noticed a post by this one guy. What he had to say intrigued me so I clicked on his name and it brought me to his Blog. His topic for that day was Slice of Life anime and how it's one of his favorites! So I was obviously hooked. I went back and read his last 20 posts. One of them being about Toradroa. Ha!

So this dude rocks and in his post he described his love of Slice of Life like this and I totally agreed...

"Call it simply getting older. In the so-called "real world," life is a bitch. OK, it isn't really that bad. But after 8 hours of soul crushing work everyday, I tend to want something relaxing. I'd like to escape to a world of fun and games, of silly everyday moments removed from the daily grind of a working life"

Hell yeah. That's basically how I feel. But while he compares it to work (which is how I deal with it now these days) several years ago I would compare it to taking care of my mom. That was the worst time of my life as anyone could relate to. But my anime fixation went up during that time. Why? Because I would watch certain Laugh Out Loud Anime. Anime that for a few several hours of my friggin day I could go without feeling sad. Ranma 1/2 being the main one. Watched all 7 seasons during that time and as funny as it was I would tear up with that too. It had amazing character development and that's what I dig. One night while watching it I decided to bring the DVD down and watch a few episodes with my mom. I knew she wouldn't be able to understand it because of the cancer, but it's a very bright, colorful, and silly anime. I figured she would get a kick out of it. And she did!! I really don't think she understood what was going on, but I know she loved Genma as a Panda and how he and Ranma fought. So one night I saw this picture online and I REALLY wanted to draw it. So I did and drew this Ranma picture for her knowing she would recognize the characters. I did it on huge posterboard and it sat by her bed until the day she passed. All the smudges and crap you see on the picture are from when the dumb nurse would trample over my artwork when it would fall off the wall. But whatever, the drawing still lives. Here it is...

After my mom passed I didn't want to talk to anybody for awhile. While sulking in my house for several weeks I discovered a little anime called "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu" or "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". Given the fact that it has Melancholy right in the title how could I not be drawn to it??

As it turns out, not only was it amazing, but it actually brought me out of my depression and made me laugh. A LOT. What's also funny is that Haruhi does have some supernatural themes going on, in the guise of a Slice of Life.

Brilliant. Slice of Life mixed with the Paranormal. What more can I ask for?

Sadly, this might have to be an on going post, because I wasn't expecting to go so much into "mom" territory but it kinda flowed with what I was trying to say. That's the beauty of blogging.

Til next time...

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