It has been forever since I bothered writing a short review for something, but I just had to write something about this show as more people need to watch it.

Polar Bear Café (Shirokuma Café): A charming, puntastic show filled with memorable moments – 9/10

PLOT: Polar Bear Café is about the daily lives of a bunch of animals who frequent a café run by the titular Polar Bear, including a panda, a penguin, a llama and a sloth (among many others). There are a few random humans thrown in there too – the perma-smiling Sasako, the bumbling zookeeper Handa and the panda obsessed florist Rin-Rin, but the cast is mainly animals. Animals that no one bats an eye at when when they’re casually wandering about town buying groceries, or working in a bakery or running a bar – they’re fully integrated into society. And yet there is a fully functional zoo where a number of the characters actually work! You kind of take this strange setting for granted after a few episodes – it just works.

Polar Bear Café is a show I couldn’t watch without a smile on my face (trust me I desperately tried when watching the later half of the series on my own in public, being caught grinning and giggling like an idiot when there’s pastel renditions of wild animals emitting showers of sparkles and hearts on my screen is not fun); the show just thrums with feel-good vibes. It’s also consistently hilarious, and displays excellent use of puns, parodies, basic comedic timing and the usual tsukkomi/boke routines. The series uses all the run-of-the-mill s’life situations (festivals, onsen, road-trips, all the holidays you can think of) but simply having the characters be animals puts an interesting spin on things, as they have a unique outlook on things. I don’t usually get on well with s’life shows, but I adored Polar Bear Café – it just balances the mundane with wit so well.

The characters are probably what kept me coming back to the show so much – the central quartet of Polar Bear, Penguin, Panda and Sasako just have superb chemistry and play off each other brilliantly. The side characters are also wonderful and all get their own episodes to shine – my favourites have to be Polar Bear’s long suffering childhood friend and bar owner Grizzly and poor overlooked but utterly charming Llama.Polar Bear Café also has “The Feels” in spades – it just gets under your skin and forces a reaction out of you with alarming frequency. After 50 episodes these characters feel like old friends and I was desperately sad to see the series end, I do hope we get more at some stage.

ANIMATION: The animation is by Studio Pierrot and is very simple but serviceable. The animals are well drawn and surprisingly expressive given many of them lack the usual facial features humans rely on to determine emotion (just where are Penguin & Panda’s eyes anyway??). The over all look of the show is quite soft and pastel, and there is creative use of sparkles, bubbles, hearts, flowers and sweatdrops to punctuate gags or emotion. On the flipside the humans in general are actually terrifying in their inexpressiveness – Sasako in particular has completely dead eyes that are rather unnerving. The show also experiments with unusual visuals in its many EDs – stop-motion, live action, shadow-puppets and paper cut-outs all get a turn, and it is clear that the staff had a lot of fun making this series.

MUSIC & VOICE ACTING: The cast of Polar Bear Café has to be one of the most star-studded I’ve ever encountered. Everyone seems to be a noteworthy name – the central quartet consists of Jun Fukuyama, Takahiro Sakurai, Hiroshi Kamiya and Aya Endo – but the extended cast reads like a who’s who of popular seiyuu! They all seemed to have lots of fun working on this series as well, as the chemistry is brilliant and the acting is really excellent on the whole. A few actors even voice a number of different side characters giving them completely different voices and displaying their range well.

Another thing of note is that there are a lot of different EDs for this series and each of them is an image song, sung in character by the seiyuu – resulting in some truly wonderful songs. I particularly loved Panda’s ‘Bamboo Scramble’ by Jun Fukuyama and Llama’s ‘Llama Mambo’ by Daisuke Ono, but all the song are special in their own way. Even the OPs are pretty damn good, but I’ll always like the first OP best.

Overall I just have to reiterate who utterly charming this show is – it’s a wonderful show to watch if you need cheering up (just avoid watching episode 44 for that purpose – it’s a proper tearjerker). When I first picked up the series last Spring I never would have imagined it turning out to be this good – always a joy when that happens. So yes Polar Bear Café is a show I’d highly recommend picking up – it deserves much more love!

Okay it’s that time again and once again I’m somewhere interesting – Melbourne!  Amusingly this is the 4th birthday post I’ve done – really hard to believe the blog has been around that long!  So yes, if you’re keeping track, today I turn 30 and I’m officially not ageing past this point!  I will be 30 again next year, and the year after that, and the year after that!  Thankfully due to my superior genetics I can probably get away with this for about 5-6 years since I currently look to be about 24-5 according to most people I meet! Hahahaha~!

So yes, I’m currently in Melbourne, but thanks to this fecking city refusing to give me a job (seriously, WTF is up with that?) I am so broke that we can’t afford to celebrate me leaving my 20s behind – no doing anything amazing like I envisioned when planning this trip and certainly no getting stupidly drunk thanks to the ridiculous prices the Australians charge for alcohol!  Ah well, I’ll do something memorable once I have money again…….whenever that will be.

So yeah, a much more subdued 30th birthday than I wanted, but at least I’m somewhere interesting!

Love you all~!

Cara

Right-oh~! Let’s finish up talking about our trip through China shall we?  By this stage we’d been constantly travelling for 3 weeks – not really staying in one place for more than a couple of days, so we were pretty exhausted and managed to get sick.  Not the nicest way to spend the remainder of our trip through China.

We were left to our own devises for our first day in Guilin, since originally we were supposed to on a train for the whole day (changed to flying from Xi’an at the last moment). First impressions of Guilin were good as it is a bit more relaxed than Beijing or Xi’an – its primary industry is tourism so the people also seem much friendlier and less likely to push you over.  In general it’s just less crowded and claustrophobic.  Since I had developed a head cold that was driving me nuts, we found a pharmacy & after I mimed some of my symptoms I was handed a red box of tablets covered in Chinese writing (Google later told me it was flu medication – success!).  The rest of the day was spent wandering about laughing at the “style” in Chinese department stores, having a nice quiet lunch by the river and admiring the street artists selling beautiful wall scrolls for a pittance (had to buy one).  That evening we spied a nice looking restaurant on the 2^nd floor of a building and went in to take a look.  It was a lovely looking place, but when we looked at the menu we soon scampered out of there – not quite ready to sample the wonders of braised cat, crocodile, snake or turtle

Next day it was back to our guide but I was feeling rather feverish and congested so wasn’t really up for all the hiking up peaks that was on offer.  First up was Elephant Trunk Hill – a famous landmark that resembles an elephant drinking from the river.  It was a pretty interesting shape, but I was more interested in seeing how many elephant shaped things I could spot in the park – bridges, lights, statues, etc.  Then it was off to Seven Star Park, so named for the seven peaks in the park.  The highlight of this was the Panda House, which unfortunately only has two pandas (rest of them were in Beijing apparently).  Still it was pretty cool to see the panda’s sitting out in the open just chilling – not much in the way of service~! service~! going on.  Imouto and I both fell in love with the Red Panda’s though – they are the cutest things, I so want one!  The mini zoo also had monkeys, flamingos, emus and kangaroos – it was pretty fun.

Next was Fubo Hill, with its cave temple at the base of it.  The temple I could handle, even with its tiny twisty stairs & corridors, but one look at the hill with its hundreds of stairs and I knew I wasn’t going up there.  I elected to stay at the base and read (well attempt to read, ended up posing for photos and fending off people trying to sell me crap) while Imouto & the guide scaled the peak.  After Fubo Hill it was off to the Reed Flute Cave – a beautiful system of caverns full of wonderful limestone formations.  The cave was really nicely illuminated – if there is one thing we’ve noticed about Guilin, it’s that they know how to show off the natural beauty of their city.

Next day I woke up with full blown fever and started to worry about my ability to keep up with the itinerary – we were off to the Long-gi rice terraces after all.  It was quite an experience just getting to the rice terraces – the road went from nice dual carriageways to bumpy back roads pretty damn quick, and that was well before we hit the helter-skelter narrow ribbon of a trail that wound up the mountains.  The sheer drop over the side was pretty terrifying – you’d be dead well before you stopped falling!  We eventually got as high as the car could go, and just looking up at where we were meant to go had me panicking – there was no way I was getting up that far given how rough I was feeling.  The winding trail up was pretty steep and stepped the entire way.  Before too long I was utterly exhausted and about to either faint or have a panic attack – being unable to take a full breath because of the fecking head cold just compounded things.  I made it to the halfway point before deciding enough was enough – I was stumbling on the stairs and didn’t feel like dying up a Chinese mountain.

Imouto & the guide continued on since neither were particularly winded, while I sat and tried to calm myself down a bit with a large pot of jasmine tea.  Even at the halfway point the views were stunning, so I wasn’t too disappointed I didn’t make it to the top to see the entire vista.  Imouto took some amazing pictures – because it was just about time for the rice harvest, all the fields looked like gold; it’s really pretty.  After having a lunch of some local dishes, we headed down which was much easier.  We passed some interesting sights – a horse going down the stairs, a man selling a bag of frogs, another with a turtle, loads of women selling local cloth & silver jewellery and there were chickens running about the place too.

Upon reaching the bottom, we were both feeling pretty damn rough so attempted to sleep most of the way back.  We stopped at a tea farm on the way, and were guided about the place & instructed on the tea making process before getting to sample some of the locally produced tea.  I’ve taken a real liking to proper Chinese tea – it’s pretty tasty!  By the time we got back to the hotel, Imouto had a terrible pain in her stomach & had a fever – food poisoning yay!  We had already arranged with the guide to go out on the night-time boat cruise around the city’s lakes, but Imouto really wasn’t up to that so I ended up going on my own.  The cruise was really interesting – Guilin is really brilliant at using different coloured lighting to show off their waterways, trees, bridges & mountains.  They even had musicians & a drum show on along the banks for the boats going past.  Even though I was feeling a touch queasy (mild food poisoning on top of a cold – yay!) I was glad I went.

Next morning we had a 4hr cruise along the River Li to Yangshou…..which was interesting considering both of us had food poisoning.  We were sharing our table with a nice family from California who had been travelling for the past few weeks through different countries.  Imouto spent most of the trip playing cards, hangman or rock, paper, scissors with their young son, while I enjoyed the stunning scenery & fended off the questions of our guide (I was entirely sick of “using my imagination” to see shapes in the weird rock formations).  We reached Yangshou in the early afternoon, and after checking into the hotel my stomach decided to get worse sending me straight to bed, which scuppered plans of exploring the lively street outside packed with stalls.

I had come round a bit by that night so we did go to the evening river show put on by the locals.  The show was amazingly well choreographed, being by the same person who directed the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.  It was entirely on the river, making use of the peaks as a backdrop & the water as a stage – I really enjoyed it.  Well, apart from the singing – neither of us can really listen to that caterwauling for very long without developing a migraine.  Imouto started to feel really ill again towards the end, so when we got out and our guide tried to find transportation back to the hotel, we were somewhat dismayed to discover he could only get a motorcycle rickshaw thing.  Well, it was an experience anyway…..of the near death kind!

Next day saw us still suffering, but went wandering about the town anyway.  Yangshou is a very pretty, but quite small town with not a whole lot to do when you are most definitely not up to biking or hiking.  We mostly spent the day browsing through the multitude of stalls and shops aimed at tourists that make up the main street.  So many bargains to be had, but we only bought a few small things since we don’t really have much room in our bags.  You would spend a small fortune on stuff though – some things were really pretty!

Next day we were taking the overnight train from Guilin to Shanghai, so spent the morning trying to sort out our bags and scrubbing ourselves clean in preparation for feeling grimy on the train that night.  Thankfully Guilin train stations waiting room was nowhere near as mental as Beijing’s, so we managed to get seats with little bother.  Getting to the train was an adventure through – place seems to completely lack elevators or escalators, so we had to haul our bags up and down three sets of stairs via very steep ramps……which was fun.  Once we finally got on the train (which was another adventure since it involved more hauling up stairs) we discovered that we were sharing our room with two American girls – and much rejoicing followed.  Getting four peoples luggage into the fecking room was like playing tetris – there seriously is no bloody room in those things!  We spent a good while sharing stories of China (and generally bitching about people) which made the journey go a bit faster anyway.

Sleeping is exceptionally difficult to do on a train, think we managed a few hours each on and off – if that.  When we reached Shanghai, we didn’t actually know we had – it was 20mins ahead of schedule and there was no announcement.  It was only once the cleaning staff started bustling about that we managed to find out that, yes this was Shanghai, so it was off the train and away to the exit we went.  Latest guide met us and we went straight to the hotel and got checked in – it’s a pretty nice looking hotel, although it is located down a smelly back alley!  Considering we were both knackered from spending 20 hours on a Chinese train, we were only fit for dinner, shower & bed.

Guide picked us up early next morning and took us to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre first.  As dull as the name is, the exhibits were actually pretty interesting – the highlight being a huge scale model of downtown Shanghai.  Shanghai really is a modern city – much of the skyline was only built in the last 20 years; which explains why so far everything seems well organised and clean when compared to the other Chinese cities we’ve been in.  Next we went to the Bund to take some daytime pictures – the skyline and contrasting architecture is really interesting and pretty; we quickly decided to come back to the area in the evening to see the night-time illuminations.

After a quick wander round the Bund, we went to Yuyuan Gardens & Market – an area filled with lovingly restored traditional buildings and beautiful Chinese gardens filled with koi ponds.  The gardens were so peaceful it was hard to believe that the heaving market was only a stone’s throw away!  We had lunch in the middle of the market in a very nice restaurant.  Food was nice, but neither of us was really up for eating much unfortunately.  After lunch we were taken to the French Concession area of the city – the buildings in the area have been restored to their former glory and the entire area is now an upmarket shopping area filled with boutiques and expensive restaurants.  It was interesting to see such European styled buildings in the middle of a bustling Chinese metropolis, but we really didn’t get why the Shanghaiese make such a big deal about the area.

Our guide had run through his entire itinerary at this point so we were dropped off at the hugely busy pedestrian shopping area close to our hotel & the Bund area.  We decided to head to the other side of the river and the skyscraper observatories, so we took the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel under the river.  It was a pretty cool thing – very trippy with lots of strobe lights and music, we enjoyed it!

We opted to head for the tallest current observatory – the Shanghai World Trade Centre with its skywalk on the 100^th floor.  The views were spectacular – Shanghai really has a fantastic skyline.   We were also accosted by a Chinese tour group who had clearly come out of the boonies, because we had to pose for photos with the entire group.  Individually.  Repeatedly.  Such a surreal experience.  Also there was a giant Pikachu wandering about…..we don’t know why.

Next day after taking a much needed lie in, we decided to take one of the sightseeing buses around the city to see what else was on offer.  The red line turned out to be mostly stuff we had seen the day before, but it was interesting to hear a bit more about things.  We changed onto the green line which went further out of downtown to take in some temples, so we jumped off at the Jade Buddha Temple.  It was a pretty nice Buddhist temple, but what we liked best was the chance to feed the shoal of koi carp in the decorative pond.  There were loads of them, in a whole rainbow of colours, and they had absolutely no fear of humans – even nipping at Imouto’s fingers in their haste to get the food!

It was fairly late in the evening when we finished viewing the temple grounds and we weren’t sure if the bus was coming back so not really want to hang around since the place was swarming with extremely demanding beggars, we elected to try to find the metro.  After wandering about a bit and asking for directions once, we eventually found it and got back to People’s Square in the city centre.  Spent the evening having a leisurely dinner and chatting with three very friendly Chinese students who wanted to practise their English on us.

For our last day in China we decided to head out to see some of Shanghai’s museums.  We knew the museum in People’s Square was free entry & fairly close by so we went there first.  Gotta say we’re entirely sick of security checks by now – my god do the Chinese love their metal detectors & x-ray scanners!  Once in the museum we quickly realised it was pretty small and crap – mostly shards of jade, bronze pots of varying sizes, scrolls of scribbley calligraphy and stone statues of Buddha in various states of disrepair……pretty boring.  We left soon after and decided after much deliberation to give the Museum of Science & Technology a whirl instead.  So it off to the subway again and over the river.  This museum was much, much better, but we were really pressed for time so we only saw a small portion of it.  Dinosaur skeletons, loads of stuffed animals & robots were what we had time for before having to head back to the hotel to await our lift to the airport.

The drive to the airport was uneventful – thankfully this guide isn’t the talkative type and was content to leave us alone.  However he did accompany us to the check-in desk, which kind of threw me off – I’d have preferred to do that on my own really.  Randomly they wanted to see inside Imouto’s case for no apparent reason, but after they seen that we weren’t smuggling fireworks or drugs we got checked in & through security……and away from our guide at last.  Must say Shanghai airport is quite modern & spacious, but there isn’t a whole lot in it and good luck to you if you want an ATM!

And then we were on our way to Australia.  Have to say Imouto and I really let out a sigh of relief to be leaving China – it was an exhausting experience!  Still I would definitely never say I regret going (Imouto might though – my god she really did not like China) as we saw some absolutely wonderful things; but yeah, the culture shock was rather intense.

My god this was a long post…….next time I’ll fire up something about what we’ve been up to in Australia – not all that exciting though, it’s mostly been panicking about having enough money for rent and food!

Okay, god knows how long this post will take – our impression of China was drastically different to Japan, and while it was an irreplaceable experience and I’m glad we went, I can’t profess having any desire to ever visit the country again!

Getting to Beijing for a start was somewhat traumatic.  Our flight was rerouted through Shanghai rather than being direct as expected, and we felt rather harried while going through the immigration and transfer procedures, plus Imouto had her carry-on bag broken by the harpies at the security check and we nearly died of shock when exposed to Chinese driving for the first time.  Getting to the hotel was such a relief – and yes we had hotels rather than hostels for the duration of our time in China as well as a private guide & driver – I did not trust my ability to navigate round China the same way I did in Japan, and I am so glad I did so because even with an agency organising everything for me I still felt found the trip stressful.

Our first day in Beijing was jam-packed.  Our first stop was Tienanmen Square – which isn’t all that remarkable, just a massive square filled with Chinese people trying to flog us stuff or knock us over.  The square was decorated with amazing floral displays since it was the start of a national holiday though.  Shoving our way through the crowds we made our way to the Forbidden City next.  The architecture was really impressive, but it was difficult to really appreciate the place since it was just so crowded and the Chinese just don’t seem to be able to form orderly lines or appreciate other people’s personal space!  Still our guide was excellent and told us (well I say us, but Imouto wasn’t really listening so it was mostly me) lots about the palace and the interesting buildings and treasures we were seeing.

After lunch we were taken to the Temple of Heaven.  The Temple is a beautiful complex of buildings, and once again our guide was a mine of information, about the purpose of everything on the site.  We took a brief stroll through a pretty park, before going to a theatre to see a Kung Fu show.  It was amazing!  Absolutely astounding how these men can perform such difficult feats and make it look so easy!  Afterwards we went to a restaurant for a dinner of Peking duck – the table was filled with enough food to feed four, but Imouto and I put in a brave effort and cleared quite a lot of it.

It was a very early start the following day, but we were soon wide awake when our driver hit the freeway on the way to the Great Wall!  Holy crap – there is no way in hell I would ever attempt to drive in China, people are fecking mental with absolutely no regard for road markings, indicators, other cars or their own safety!  About 20mins we decided it was way too terrifying to keep our eyes open so attempted to doze off (which was difficult considering how fond the Chinese are of sitting on their horns!).

We did make it to the Great Wall in one piece though – we were taken to a section known as the Mutianyu section, which is a more difficult section to access & climb, but accordingly it is much less busy than the tourist heavy (but easier) Badaling section.  We were very lucky to get a spectacular day – beautiful clear blue skies, so we had excellent views of the Wall running along the mountain tops.  It really is deserving of its title as a Wonder of the World.

After lunch we went to a cloisonné factory and were given a tour of the workshops and shown how they produce the most beautiful vases, plates and pictures with copper and powdered stone.  It was amazing stuff – the factory was quite small and rundown feeling, but the fabulous things they produced was just wonderful.  We looked through their shop and showroom, lamenting the fact we couldn’t really buy anything larger than a keyring due to lack of space.

We then headed back into Beijing to go to the Summer Palace……which was heaving with people!  I’d imagine the beautiful gardens, covered corridors and pretty peach-shaped lake filled with little boats would be very soothing and enjoyable to stroll around on a quiet day, but that day it was just stressful to have to constantly weave in and out of people, pressed on all sides by ignorant people who refuse to get out of your way.  Imouto and I don’t deal with crowds well, so we elected to head back to the hotel early rather than continue further into the gardens – we needed some time to ourselves to de-stress!

Our last day in Beijing was free for ourselves to explore, and it turned out that the Olympic Park & Birds Nest Stadium was within walking distance of our hotel, so we decided to have a wander round there.  Have to say we were a touch disappointed by the Birds Nest – it’s nowhere near as nice looking as it appeared on TV, signs of disrepair and lack of cleaning were everywhere, and the middle of the stadium looked like a bit of a dumping ground for old props. The exhibits were few and far between – over all it just felt like a massive waste of potential.  Wandering around the grounds we once again found ourselves drawing a lot of random attention from Chinese people, who almost fell over themselves to stop in their tracks to stare at us – we even had some random woman and her child stop me to ask for a photograph!  Even though I had been warned this may happen, I still found it fecking weird.

After we popped out for some dinner our guide met us at the hotel and we started heading towards the train station – white-knuckle grip on the door handle for the Beijing traffic once more.  The train station was chaos – and we had about 2 hours to wait for the blasted overnight train to Xi’an! Eventually it was time to board the train – now this was an experience.  We were in the first carriage so had to walk the entire length of the train, dragging our bags along with us.  Once we finally got to our compartment, we discovered that the entire carriage was pretty much completely booked up by a German tour group – all 27 of them, and our room-mates were two nice German men; the younger of which spoke pretty good English.

However the compartment made some of the hostel bathrooms in Japan look generous (speaking of which, let us not speak of the horror of the train bathroom – we dared not brave that disaster area!)  We had to do so some artful arranging of our luggage in order to fit into the fecking compartment – we were very lucky that the Germans only had small overnight bags with them! Sleep for me didn’t really happen, and Imouto only managed a handful of hours on and off; reason being that the train driver seemed to have the same obsession with the horn that all Chinese drivers have – which is fecking bizarre since we were on bloody train-tracks with no other traffic to contend with!

We reached Xi’an early the next morning, feeling tired, grumpy and grimy.  I really wanted nothing more than a shower & a change of clothes, but it was not to be as our new guide shepparded us into a car and headed straight for the Terracotta Army in a bid to get a jump on the crowds.  Well, I would have hated to see the place when the true crowds arrived if this was the case – there were just hordes of people everywhere and there was no one keeping order of things at all!  It was difficult to appreciate the history and scale of the place, because we were preoccupied by not getting knocked over or hurt since the swarm of Chinese folks just have absolutely no regard for anything around them.  We soon resorted to kicking and elbowing people in a bid to get some breathing room – thank god we’re both fairly tall!  It was the same thing in all three pits, and we were slightly disappointed by how the Army was presented – the Chinese don’t seem to have much skill at displaying priceless items of their cultural history, nor are they very good at preserving what they uncover.

After lunch, even though we both said we’d rather take it easy and see one of the city’s pagodas, our guide dragged us off to the nearby city walls and gave us a couple of bikes and told us we had 100mins and that the walls were 14km long……yippee.  Now I haven’t been on a bike in a good 15 years, so it was a pretty interesting experience to have to relearn when knackered, not really dressed for the occasion and carting around a really heavy bag.  I actually think we both were a little overwhelmed at this point since we broke down into hysterical laughter at one stage before deciding to just head back.  Thankfully this time we were taken to our hotel and we basically crashed from exhaustion.

Our final day in Xi’an found us at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which sits in the grounds of a Buddhist temple, quite early in the morning (although the ever present swarm of people was still present).  The temple was actually quite chilled but we elected to skip scaling the Pagoda itself when told that the stairwell was very narrow and steep – I didn’t fancy having a panic attack in some random Chinese Pagoda!

The guide then announced we would be going to the museum next, to which we had to ask “the same museum with the horde wrapped round the block twice over that we passed earlier??”  Of course it was, so Imouto & I stuck our heels in and said, thanks but no thanks, we don’t want to go through what we did yesterday – neither of us could bare the thought of having to squeeze through bodies all over again.  Our guide was a bit put out by our flat refusal to follow the itinerary so we ended up wandering about, watching some dancing fountains (and getting soaked) before eventually heading for lunch – a traditional Xi’an speciality dish in one of their best restaurants we were told.  I did like the restaurant, it was the nicest we’ve been in yet in China, but the food was pretty woeful.

First they present you with a bowl with two crumpet type pieces of bread, and we were told to shred these into tiny pieces.  We did so – not entirely seeing the point of having the customer create breadcrumbs, but we did it.  Then were asked to choose either mutton or beef – we went with beef, and off the waitress went with our bowl of breadcrumbs.  After a bit the waitress came back with our bowl, to which a beef broth & rice noodles had been added.  After being assured that this combination of shredded bread & beef broth was delicious, Imouto and I tucked in……….and it tasted exactly like a salty beef stock with gloopy bits of bread floating in it – pretty rough.  We stuck it out though, managing to finish the majority of the bowl (being hungry helped), but then they came out with bowls of soup…….which turned out to be more fecking beef broth.  Drinking what tasted like bisto gravy was just not happening for me!

We hit up a market after lunch, rather caught up in all the bootleg bargains to be had (but would have preferred not to be pied pipering our guide around with us), before heading for the airport and our flight to Guilin.  Had to be said that we were thoroughly sick of Xi’an and how inflexible our guide was at this stage.  But we immediately relaxed once we were checked in and left on our own.

However we once again experienced the stares and blatant photograph taking – making us feel like some sort of zoo exhibit, there was even a fella on the actual plane snapping pics of us & I kept catching him starring throughout the flight – very disconcerting.  We found ourselves desperately hoping Guilin would be less stressful and crowded and signs were good once we landed and met the latest guide.  The night-time riverside illuminations were really pretty and we found ourselves looking forward to seeing some of the sights the following day.

Now I think this post has been plenty long – I’ll write about the rest of our time in China next post!

Okay shall attempt to restrain myself this time and fit the rest of our Japan adventure into one post.  And of course it will probably be twice as long as the first post…….because this is Cara.

I had originally planned to get a fairly early shinkansen down to Hiroshima, but unfortunately due a slight moment of lost in translation we ended up on the wrong train and headed an hour in the wrong direction before i realised and got us back on track.  As result we didn’t arrive in Hiroshima until pretty late in the evening and only had time to go eat, but things picked up the next day thanks to glorious weather with minimal humidity!

We headed straight for Miyajima to see its temple and famous floating torii gate – really we couldn’t have asked for better weather to make the trip.  The ferry crossing was quick and gave us great views of the island with its forest covered mountains and the shrine with its vermillion lacquered pillars.  The stroll along the little streets packed with stores selling all sorts of bits & bops and a plethora of foods was really enjoyable – as we had gotten there fairly early it wasn’t too packed.  Walking along the shore we were greeted by a load of random deer sitting the shade & getting right up close with the tourists – it was really charming!  We headed into the main shrine, all of which is built on the water – it made for stunning views, such a peaceful and very pretty place; definitely one of my highlights of Japan.

After lunch we headed back to Hiroshima and went straight to the Atomic Bomb Peace Park.  The whole area has a hushed, contemplative quiet around it – the burnt out shell of the dome was really rather striking, and the memorials with their paper cranes were very touching.  The museum was filled with poignant tales of victims and survivors and has to be one of the quietest museums I’ve ever visited – everyone just naturally keeps a subdued silence throughout the exhibits.  Imouto had a migrane so we cut our wandering around Hiroshima short, I’d like to make another trip there someday.

Next day we took the short 2 hour train journey to Kyoto and then we had to navigate through Kyoto’s massive station.  The place has 11 floors and multiple exits & my god is it busy – people everywhere and going in every direction, utter madness – found our way out eventually though!  We headed out for dinner after getting settled into new hostel and washed up……..which is when we discovered a complete lack of ATMs that take foreign cards, which scuppered plans for a nice meal out since I only had 1000yen in my purse & nowhere really takes plastic.  Upon consulting my lovely twitter peoples, we found that the Post Office the best place to go for ATMs for foreign cards, but by this stage the place was closed – so it was cup ramen for dinner!

Next morning after finally getting some cash, we grabbed some one-day bus passes and caught an extremely crowded city bus to the Kinkaku-ji temple – The Golden Pavilion.  It was a pretty drizzly day, but that did nothing to take away from the beauty of the pavilion and its surrounding gardens.  The gold leaf on the building must be dazzling when it’s a sunny day, because even in the rain it was a gorgeous sight.  After wandering around the place, drawing our fortunes (I of course got Excellent luck, Imouto had to settle for Fairly Good) and lighting a few candles, we jumped back on the bus to head onto Nijo Castle.

Part of the Castle was undergoing restoration, but the sections we did see were amazingly well preserved.  We were allowed to walk through the main castle building (shoes off & no photography of course) and were amused by the fact the floors were designed to squeak so as to warn the occupants of intruders.   After strolling through the castle’s gardens, we went to the station for lunch and thoroughly stuffed we jumped on a train for Inari.

The Fushimi Inari Shrine is something that I always wanted to see, and it’s multitude of vermillion torii gates leading up the hillside did not disappoint.  It was a gorgeous shrine with lots of little & large alters scattered throughout the complex.  We made our wishes and rang the bells at the main alter before heading up through the torii gates to take pictures.  We were coming back down around sunset which just made everything all the prettier.

Since we were halfway down the train line I decided to go a few stops further down just to take a snap of  Kyoto Animation’s building.  It’s a very innocuous building – if you don’t know what you’re looking for you’d definitely miss it, but I got my picture anyway (even though Imouto’s reaction was “you dragged me all the way here to take a picture of a fecking sign!?”).

Next morning we got the train to Nara – it takes about an hour from Kyoto. We were expecting to see deer roaming about the place in a similar manner to those on Miyajima, but were not prepared for just how many of them there were.  Everywhere we went we saw groups of deer strutting or lying about the place, pestering tourists for food.  We also discovered that deer make the most hilarious noise – they’re like squeaky toys!!

We had a good wander around the temples in Nara, but the highlight was probably Todai-ji Temple with its massive bronze Buddha.  Amusingly there is a pillar with a hole carved through it near the back of the hall.  Apparently this hole is the same size as the giant Buddha’s nostril, and if you can squeeze through it, you are sure to attain nirvana.  After watching some eager parents shove their kids through, and a tiny slip of a Japanese lady squeeze through, Imouto decided to have a go……but couldn’t fit her shoulders through!  Shortly after a group of school boys started attempting to make it through – conclusion was that unless you were a child, a rail thin woman, or a skinny teenage boy, you weren’t getting though that hole!  Ah well enlightenment is overrated.

After wandering about the park a bit more and sampling the e-number rich concoction known as shaved ice & syrup, we headed back to Kyoto for dinner and then had a wander round the Gion district.  Unfortunately it was rather late by this stage so we didn’t really see much going on, but the area itself is rather pretty.

Next day we spent the morning at the International Manga Museum which I found very interesting – don’t think Imouto was quite as interested given the relative lack of titles she was familiar with.  The museum also had a special exhibition on run by GAINAX and even though the majority of the exhibit was in Japanese, I still enjoyed looking through the story boards and animation process for Gurren-Lagann.

We then headed for Osaka, our last stop in Japan.  Since it was still pretty early, after we settled ourselves we headed right into the heart of the city – the Namba area with its neon Dotombori Street and Den-Den Town .  Just wandering about round Namba was an experience – so many people, so many weird advertising banners and shops selling random food/stuff.  We then decided to sample one of the foods Osaka is famous for – takoyaki.  We found it surprisingly tasty, if very fecking difficult to eat with chopsticks they gave us without the thing falling apart in our laps!

We wandered about a bit more, discovering things like a massive cosplay store selling tons of costumes, wigs, make-up and contacts, another store selling men’s pants with manikins with horses heads outside it and shopping centres the size of a small town with tea shops selling slices of cake for over 1000 yen!

Next day we went to the port area of the city to go to the aquarium.  For all that the people went on about it being one of the biggest in Japan; honestly we weren’t overly impressed as it was actually quite small – just having a massive central tank filled with Pacific Ocean fish, including a whale shark.  Still it was a fun way to spend a morning – we took tons of pictures.

Coming out of the aquarium, we decided to take a boat across the bay to check how much Universal Studios Japan would be.  The walk down was lots of fun – tons of shops and restaurants to have a look round.  However when we got down to the ticket area, we discovered that entry was over 6000yen – that’s over £50 each!  We gave that a miss and got back on the train heading for the city centre.

We decided to have a look at the Floating Garden Observatory in the Sky Umeda building – a roof top viewing platform with phenomenal views of the city.  We got some amazing pictures as the sun was starting to set  – was slightly nerve-wracking taking the glass elevator, steep escalator and walking round the very open observatory though – Cara is not all that great with heights.

After a quick dinner we headed back to hostel as we wanted to take part in the drinking party hosted by a member of staff there – Mr Yano.  We got back just in time, and Mr Yano met us at the door to ask if we were joining him.  We just had time to clean up a bit and meet a few of the other guests before we were back on the train and headed for a tiny little Japanese pub.  The banter was great as we tried some traditional Japanese bar snacks and of course we also sampled some of the alcohol available like plum wine, Japanese beer and sake (I didn’t much enjoy the sake, but Imouto must of had a few bottles of the stuff).  The group was still up for more fun when were finished drinking, so it was off to karaoke for more beer & lots of singing!  Mr Yano (who was real character – 62 years old and brilliant craic) came with us thankfully and operated the machine for us – no blind stabbing at buttons this time!  We stayed out singing well into the wee hours, and then dragged ourselves back to the hostel.  We had a great time, and met some really lovely people.

The next day came with the hangover from hell, so slept in late and then headed to Osaka Castle for a look round its gardens.  We had been told that it wasn’t worth going into the castle itself, so contented ourselves wandering about the outside for the rest of the afternoon soaking up the atmosphere.

Our last day was mostly spent organising our stuff and getting the train up to Narita.  We were staying at a hostel near the airport since we had an early flight to Beijing the next morning, so didn’t really get to see anything other than the view outside the window.  But we were knackered at this stage so that wasn’t too big a loss.

So that was our adventures in Japan – I seriously want to go back someday, we only got a taster of the country in those two weeks and I really want to see more.  Next post will find us in China – which was a completely different kind of experience entirely!

So it’s been brought to my attention that many of you would be interested to hear a bit more of what I’ve been up to these past five months and perhaps see some of my photos – well I suppose that gives me something to write about!

I have been keeping a travel blog for my family & friends at home to keep track of, but I won’t be copy pasta-ing all that into this blog – for one it’s now over 30 word pages long, and it’s full of personal information that I would prefer to keep separate from this anime blog.  So I’ll edit things a bit to make them better suited to here – I’m sure you’re all more interested in the pictures anyway! This post will cover Imouto & I’s experience in Tokyo.

So we only had two weeks in Japan because it is pretty expensive and we needed to ration out the cash while not skimping on doing stuff.  Our plan was 5 nights in Tokyo, 1 in Hiroshima, 3 in Kyoto and 3 in Osaka with the final night near the airport in Narita since our flight to China was quite early in the morning.  So anyway, after a long 11.5hr flight from London we arrived in Tokyo early in the morning and nearly died in the humidity.

Immigration took forever but was rather uneventful and I got our rail passes and onto the first few trains with little hassle – however I got us rather spectacularly lost when I got off at the wrong stop and the combo of jetlag, heat, and really heavy bags started to stress me out.  Still we made it to our hostel in good time despite that little blip.  Room was pretty nice but had to laugh at the itty bitty bathroom we discovered in the cupboard – not enough room to stretch your arms out let alone swing a cat!  We did pretty well in the face of jetlag, only sleeping for a few hours before changing and heading out to explore the area and find something to eat.

We were staying in the Ueno area of Tokyo quite near the train station so it was pretty handy to get around. So the first day we decided to take it handy and have a wander round Ueno Park & zoo – because being huge children is what this trip is all about.  We decided to head to Harajuku after lunch.  The place was heaving, and there was so much style on show!  Imouto & I decided we were very jealous of all the women with their cute clothes – things that would only look good on a rail thin Asian woman unfortunately.

For a change of pace we headed into Yoyogi Park and took a stroll through all its beautiful cedar trees until we reached the Meiji Shrine.  The shrine complex is rather simple, but beautiful in its simplicity.  We were very lucky to see a traditional wedding taking place when we got there – all the kimono & ceremony were really a treat to see.   After making our wishes and pulling a fortune we left the Shrine and headed back into the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku.  On route we stumbled upon a local festival procession complete with a load of blokes carrying a traditional float – fun times.

The following day was all about my being a huge geek and dragging Imouto along for the ride.  As a result we hit up the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Akihabara and Odaiba to see the Gundam – we even gave karaoke a whirl.  The Ghibli Museum is a gorgeously designed building stuffed full of beautiful features – I was utterly enamoured of the stained glass windows & light fixtures.  Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum, so had to settle for enjoying the exhibits & snapping the exterior & roof garden.

Of course I was in my element in Akiba, but the couple of hours we spent there was nowhere near enough time to really get round everything, so settled for browsing through Mandarake (got so sidetracked in the doujinshi section, Imouto lost me there for a while – still couldn’t find any Shiki doujins though), a few of the huge arcades (even had a go at the creepy purikura photobooths that make your eyes gigantic) and having a giggle at the Meido Cafe advertisements.

We made it down to Diver City in Odaiba in the evening just in time to catch the last show for the Gundam – seeing it all light up with the smoke & music was pretty damn amazing; Imouto and I both agreed that it was a highlight, and she doesn’t even like Gundam shows all that much!  We also got on the giant ferris wheel in Palate Town – the nighttime of Tokyo in all its neon glory views were stunning (although our cameras were both rubbish for night pictures).

Since we were pretty hyper at this point we decided to give karaoke a whirl – which was interesting.  For a start the staff didn’t really speak any English, so I was going on my rather piss poor Japanese and knowledge from anime to try and decipher what the feck we were meant to do in the booth.   Eventually after stabbing a few buttons I managed to call up a few Japanese songs I knew and chanced upon a couple of English language ones for the Imouto – rather amusing to try and sing purely from memory since I can’t read Japanese!  Our attempt to order drinks was rather tragic too – we wanted plum wine, but ended up with whiskey & tonic water…….eww.

Next day we just spent sightseeing round Ginza and Ikebukuro – the ice cream museum in Sunshine City was a highlight, who knew rose flavoured ice cream would actually be tasty?  I was also quite amused to find they had a Tiger & Bunny promotion running with lots of desserts themed after the show – was on my own in that amusement though, Imouto hasn’t seen the show!

our last day in Tokyo so we headed off for a mixture of old and new.  Starting off in nearby Asakusa, we went to the Senso-ji temple – a beautiful complex of traditional buildings and gracefully landscaped gardens.  The street leading to the temple was rammed full of traditional little stalls selling the usual tourist wares & some local speciality foods.  We stopped to try some dango since I’ve forever been curious about them – they were very, very tasty!

After wandering about the temple for a bit, seeing another traditional wedding (and getting rid of the very talkative little old Japanese man who stopped to chat), we hopped on a shuttle for the nearby Tokyo Skytree.  This tower only opened in February and it is absolutely massive – 360ft!  Unfortunately it was an overcast day with some rain, so we didn’t get to see Mt Fuji, but the views of the city were still breathtaking.

After a bite to eat, we had a stroll through the Imperial Palace Gardens and the area around Tokyo station, before heading for the bright lights of Shinjuku and Shibuya.  In Shinjuku we stumbled across an Irish pub, so just had to stop for a drink and some onion rings (because nothing says Ireland quite like onion rings?).  On route to Shibuya we experienced Japanese rush hour trains and the mentalness that is the scramble crossing outside the station as well as getting to see the Hachiko statue.  Sitting in the Starbucks overlooking the scramble crossing was an experience – people everywhere!

That’s all we had time for in Tokyo unfortunately – there is so much I still want to see and you could easily spend the entire two weeks in Tokyo and still not see everything.  I will definitely be back at again to explore the area around Tokyo too – I’d like to see Nikko, Yokohama, Kamakura and Hakone.

Well this post certainly ran a bit overlong!  I had intended to cover the whole two weeks in one post, but guess my rambling got away from me as usual!  To make up for it here’s more pictures!  I will try to get the rest of Japan into one post next time!

Being disconnected from the currently airing shows has definitely been a strange feeling for me.  Since 2006 I’ve been following the seasons, following up to 30 ongoing shows at a time and I’ve been quite clued into the aniblogosphere and all its trappings since 2008/9.  However now I find myself cut adrift, clueless about what I’m missing because I daren’t venture into any blogs for fear I encounter the dreaded spoilers, as I am planning on catching up on the highlights of the seasons I miss while I’m travelling about.

I suppose I didn’t mind so much at the start, the adventure was fresh and I was excited to be out doing and seeing new things, but I’ve now been away from home for 5 months, midway through my trip, and I’m really starting to miss my routine and all my friends in the aniblogosphere.  I miss the excitement of waiting for new episodes to come out for hotly anticipated shows, I miss bitching about the terrible/disappointing shows on twitter, I miss taking the absolute piss out of those ridiculous shows and laughing till I cry on Skype with SCCSAV – basically I just miss being able to talk about my passion.

It’s amazing how it just became second nature to me to take for granted how easy it is to just log into a computer and find someone to talk to regardless of where they were.  Being constantly connected to the net was just something I took for granted until I started travelling.  You’d think in this day and age it would be easy to find free internet access, but we’ve really struggled!  When we do get access communication with home, backing up photos and searching for work/accommodation understandably takes precedence over my animanga addiction, but I can’t help but feel the withdrawal acutely!

So far on my journey I haven’t really met anyone that shares my interest in anime/manga – if I’m honest I’ve probably only made one friend that I can see myself keeping in contact with and he’s not interested in the scene at all (in fact we don’t really have much in common, but he’s good craic to talk to).  But yeah I really miss being able to log into twitter or skype whenever I want to have a chat about a particularly interesting episode/series I’ve just watched.  The kind of easy conversations about my hobby we have is something I find myself missing more with each passing week.

Australia seems to attract a type of traveller I don’t have much in common with – the Imouto has mentioned the same thing……it’s making me feel old, which is distressing since my 30^th birthday is drawing closer with each passing day!  But even Imouto says she feels old in comparison to some of the kids we’ve met – and she’s 19 ahahaha~!  Still it is an irreplaceable experience to live in another country for a few months, but I know now that the Australian lifestyle is not for me – guess I’ll have to try on some other countries for size!

Travelling is lots of fun, I’d really recommend it – the poverty thing is something I could do without, guess I just got far too used to my creature comforts and lightning fast broadband back home!  But it is really amazing how little you can live on – haven’t really added much to my 2 bags in five months…..although could really do with replacing my wardrobe; think I’ve dropped a few dress sizes since I left – thank god most of the stuff I brought is meant to be loose fitting or has a belt!

So yeah, that’s my little status update thing – basically I miss all you mental anime folks and can’t wait to get talking to you again, and meet some of you when we reach the States in June!

Okay part two then! This year I watched about 30 movies/OVAs that got subbed/released this past year – plenty to choose a top 10 from.  I am so relieved I decided to write down everything I watched this year – I sometimes struggle to remember exactly what I saw in the past year, especially when it comes to OVAs and movies.  Anyway, on to the list.

10. Mai Mai Miracle

Mai Mai Miracle was an enjoyable wee film.  Set in post war Japan it explores the stark differences in social class in the period, but is mostly about friendship.  The two wee girls strike up an unlikely friendship fueled by ushakable enthusiasm and rampant imagination.  On the whole it made a fun watch, if ultimately rather forgettable.

Mai Mai Miracle touches on a lots of different themes but fails to commit to any of them fully which is kind of disappointing.  The best thing about the film is the direction and visuals, which were both wonderful.  Not a must see, but enjoyable.

9. Minori Scramble

Minori Scramble is a really fun, childish romp.  Utterly madcap there’s never a dull moment in this OVA, and it is amazingly cute (so much so I was actually freaked out a bit by Minori).  The pacing is frantic, but crammed with laughs and smiles – the entire show is full of mental characters who are a lot of fun to watch. It’s about a little girl who’s half penguin, half android – what’s not to love!?

Cute and colourful, fast paced and fun; I can think of worse ways to spend 40 minutes – worth checking out if you want something to make you smile.

8. Wasurenagumo

This year’s stand-out from the Young Animators Training Project was undoubtedly Wasurenagumo.  An impressive combination of cute and creepy, this short OVA is about a little spider girl and her affect on those that take her in.

For the majority it’s just a cute and fun little caper similar to Minori Scramble, however its the twist at the end that really makes this OVA stick in your mind – just amazingly creepy.  The other instalments in this years Young Animators Training Project were rather forgettable, but Wasurenagumo was definitely worth checking out.

7. Miyori no Mori

Miyori no Mori is your standard forest threatened by developers fare, but it is a nicely presented example.  Miyori carries this film and she is really is interesting to watch, being well developed and well acted.  If it wasn’t for Miyori this movie would be pretty forgettable.

The real star of the show though is the visuals.  The way the forest and it’s inhabitants are presented is just a treat.  It is still a rather run of the mill story, but it is nicely presented, if not a must see.

6. From up on Poppy Hill

Ghibli’s latest offering was a much more grounded piece than the whimsical, magical escapades that Studio Ghibli are famous for.  I quite enjoyed the much more realistic tale, but it wouldn’t be my favourite from Ghibli, feeling over-long and with a few elements that I really didn’t like.

As with all Ghibli movies the visuals are utterly stunning and the entire world is beautifully portrayed.  I also liked the characters and the dialogue was fun.  But it still feels rather ordinary and lacks that extra sparkle I’m used to seeing from the studio.

5. Steins;Gate OVA

This was really an epilogue for the TV series and I just enjoyed having the characters back on my screen again.  No new information was given, it was just closure and gave greater attention to Okabe & Kurisu’s relationship, which was nice.

But mainly it was just seeing the whole cast acting like lunatics in LA that made the OVA fun.  The cast of Steins;Gate are a major part of why the show was so genius, and lets be honest, more Okabe is always brilliant.

4. Berserk: The Golden Age – Egg of the High King

So this year I finally watched the original Berserk series, and then the subs for the first of this set of remake movies came out, so I watched that too.  I really enjoyed Berserk, and this animation upgrade sure made the show look a bit prettier.  However there is a bit of dodgy CGI going on, but that doesn’t really detract much from the movie since Berserk has a great story to tell.

While I would recommend watching the original show, the movie is not at all a bad way to be introduced to the series.

3. UN-GO Inga-ron

The UN-GO OVA really answered a lot of questions left over from the main series.  Being a prequel it addressed the origin story of Inga and how Shinjurou ended up becoming a detective.  I’d probably recommend watching this OVA before watching the final arc of the TV show because the information it contains make the finale make a hell of a lot more sense.

The OVA has the same deft direction and interesting dialogue that made the TV series so good.  Definitely a great way to finish off one of the better shows of the past few years.

2. Code Geass: Nunnally in Wonderland

Yeah I’m  sure a lot of you are rolling your eyes right now, but my god was this fun!  Taking a cast of characters and sticking them into a Alice in Wonderland theme has been done to death, but screw it, this was hilarious.  I giggled my way through the whole episode, and then immediately rewatched it just to laugh all over again.

The OVA isn’t exactly stunningly animated.  Like the majority of Geass specials this is more of a picture slide show, the fun is all in the writing and voice acting.  Really short and pointless, but a lot of fun.

1. Hotarubi no Mori e

I loved this film.  It’s by the same author as Natsume Yuujinchou and a very similar atmosphere permeates the movie – which is probably why I enjoyed it so much.  I really like these kinds of  stories and Hotaru & Gin’s story was really lovely and bittersweet.

The visuals are quite simple employing a soft palate and again rather its all very reminiscent of Natsume.  The writing and voice acting are excellent making you feel really invested in the characters.  It’s just a very simple story well told – I loved it.

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So that’s my top ten movies & OVAs of 2012.  Honourable mentions to Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha I: Departure, Dantalian no Shoka: Ibarahime OVA and Ai no Kusabe.

Again nothing monumental or overly memorable in this list (unless something came out in the last few months that I’ve missed??).  Here’s hoping 2013 has some gems in store for us!

Even though I didn’t watch anything from the Autumn season this year, I still managed to watch a lot of anime this year completing 52 shows.  My over all impression of 2012 is that there were plenty of memorable shows, but not many that were a threat to my top 50.  The primary reason I found many shows memorable was because they were really dumb, really bad or an awesome combination of both.  However because this is a ‘best of’ list there will be no Guilty Crown, Sword Art Online or Phi Brain, even if they were shows that were true milestones in my 2012 experience.

For this list I’ve chosen shows that ended their run in 2012 regardless of their start date.  I actually struggled to pick 10 shows despite having plenty to choose from – an indication of how this was a pretty mediocre year overall.

10. Eureka Seven AO (Summer 2012)

Eureka Seven AO ended up being an entirely different show to its predecessor, even if the tie between the two series was pulled much closer in the second half of the show.  I probably enjoyed the series more when it was hinting at what the link between the shows was; the build up was extremely well done with an excellent air of mystery.  It all unraveled a bit when the time travel element took central stage – not many shows get time travel right and unfortunately E7AO’s attempt just felt muddled and confusing in the end.

The series did to a lot right though, I enjoyed the characters and the world setting immensely, and the animation, direction and music were all top notch.  Definitely worth watching, but not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

9. Gintama S2 (Spring 2011)

A sign of how meh a year is, is when I stick in a long running shounen show, but I love Gintama so I am utterly unrepentant.  Second season had an animation upgrade, but it was still the same show and I really enjoyed it.

It’s easy to explain why I love Gintama, its just a really fun, well written comedy with brilliant, colourful characters and has absolutely no qualms about parodying anything and everything.  Comedy series that stay funny after years are very rare, but Gintama is one such show.  Hopefully there will be more in the future!

8. Natsuyuki Rendezvous (Summer 2012)

Natsuyuki Rendezvous was a very well written shows.  Its wonderfully flawed characters just came to life on screen, and I found myself completely immersed in their lives.  I can’t say I loved the characters, but I cared sufficiently that I was moved by the show on occasion.  I rarely have an emotional reaction to series, so the fact Natsuyuki managed that is a major plus on it’s side of the scale.

The animation was very simple, and the character designs not overly memorable, but the way the show was completely saturated in flowers made it stand out a bit.  However it’s probably the acting that elevated this show and made it memorable – truly excellent performances by the whole cast.  An enjoyable watch.

7. Mirai Nikki (Autumn 2011)

Future Diary is a ridiculous series.  Which is why it was a stupid amount of fun to watch.  However there is some substance under all the dumb, the concept is interesting and explored well, the characters are memorable and engaging to watch and the there are a ton of plot twists to ensure you never get bored.  Sure not everything makes sense, and often the show throws out twist upon twist with no real value added to the plot, but it never stopped being entertaining.

The animation and direction ended up being very good on the whole and the voice acting brought the crazy characters of Mirai Nikki to life.  Really fun show.

6. Sakamichi no Apollon (Spring 2012)

Apollon was another show with some exceptionally well written dialogue, although it was also yet another show that was afflicted with excessive amounts of unneeded drama towards the end.  I enjoyed the show most when it was exploring its setting, letting the characters just run free and revelling in the wonderful music.

Its second half mostly abandoned this in favour of lots of drama though, and it all felt a bit excessive by the end.  The major issue was probably that there was a lot of manga material to cover in a short amount of time, and the epilogue in particular felt extremely rushed.  Still on the whole Apollon was  a great show with excellent production values and music.

5. Natsume Yuujinchou Shi (Winter 2012)

The fourth season of Natsume Yuujinchou still reduced me to fangirly squeals and lots of ‘feels’.  I just love this show and I still haven’t gotten bored of it even though it sticks to a very particular formula.  I just love the delicate, evocative atmosphere that permeates the series, and the characters are a joy to watch develop.

Natsume Yuujinchou is just a very endearing show, and it managed to tug at my heartstrings, and so long as it continues to do that, it will still be high in my favourites.

4. Humanity Has Declined (Summer 2012)

Jintai was a rare show this year – it was pretty left-field and deranged in places, and not many shows this year took risks like that.  Jintai employed black comedy to great effect, and had some brilliant moment that I will remember for years to come (bleeding bread, chickens in the boardroom, those fecking fairies!).

Of course it wasn’t perfect – some episodes were boring or too obtuse to be entertaining, but on the whole it was a very interesting watch and I’d happily recommend it….so long as you’re not completely freaked out by those fairies!

3. Tsuritama (Spring 2012)

Tsuritama was colourful, fun and well written – I really enjoyed it.  Considering the amount of time spent on the fishing element of the series, I am very surprised I liked Tsuritama as much as I did, but it did help that it has lots of quirky characters and a very deft touch on the direction front.  The plot was well written too, making the optimal use of its running time to tell the story, but above all I enjoyed the characters.

The central quartet were fun to watch interact and they all had very distinct personalities (helped greatly by the wonderful voice acting).  I also really loved the bright colours and textures employed in the animation – it made Tsuritama very pleasant on the eyes.  Fun show, definitely on of my highlights of 2012.

2. The Daily Lives of High School Boys (Winter 2012)

Nichibros was a great comedy.  It had a great mix of s’life, absurdity, parodies and satire which made it a very fun watch.  As with all comedies it wasn’t perfect, and it did have some dull segments, and I still can’t remember the names of the main trio, but the good stuff outweighed the bad and the show was just a good laugh.

Strangely the segments with the few girls in the show were probably the best in the series – it was refreshing to see a series show cute teenage girls in a different light.  Hope a sequel is on the horizon.

1. Aquarion EVOL (Winter 2012)

Ah Aquarion.  Of all the shows this year (that were legitimately good) Aquarion is the most memorable for being utterly ridiculous.  Glorious production values, awesome combining mecha, a large and varied cast of characters and fabulously camp – Aquarion had everything going for it.  Sure the actual plot was bit weak and I couldn’t have cared less about the main characters, but every week Aquarion delivered fun in a very shiny package.

It was actually refreshing to see just how Aquarion kept upping the ridiculous each week, the twists were legitimately stupid in places, but, just like with Mirai Nikki, it ensured that watching this series was in no way ever boring.  Loved it.

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And that’s my top ten of 2012.  Honorable mentions to Utakoi, Thermae Romae, Hyou-ka and Lupin III: The Woman Called Mine Fujiko.  I’ll have the 2nd part of this recap with movies & OVAs done by the weekend……hopefully.

So yeah, not the strongest of years – you will have to tell me if I’m missing any must sees from the Autumn season!  Here’s hoping there are some gems in store for us in 2013.

Happy New Year folks, we’ve survived numerous apocalypses so lets hope that 2013 gets off to a great start!  January 2013 marks Caraniel’s Ramblings third birthday, something I can’t quite believe!  There has been a steady decline in activity however, between my continued crappy health, a pretty meh year for anime and the fact I have now taken off round the world!  Still the blog is still open and I haven’t quit just yet!

This coming year will be a strange one.  I can’t follow the seasons like I usually do, so season previews, episodic blogging and my usual best of lists are out…..which doesn’t really leave any content at all.  I’ll figure something out, have plenty of older shows with me, just need to find time to actually watch them!

Anyway it’s time for WordPress’ annual report, which gives an interesting look into the stats for the year.  Unsurprisingly it’s still the season previews that attract most attention, which I’m happy with since they take such a long time to compile!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 98,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Past reports:

2010

2011