Anime Hanabi

Anime Midnight Matinee: Kakurenbo

This is an artistic short film that I’ve honestly never heard of, but reading the description on Tubi it sounds interesting. A group of children decide to play a game of hide-and-seek in an abandoned city and get chased by demons. I’m not really sure what to expect, this might be a horror anime or maybe an action anime? The title page looks pretty cool, so I’m going to try it out. I don’t watch many small studio or art films, I just like the animation and stories I watch to be a little more polished than most small studios tend to have. Also, too artistic stories sometimes go right over my head, so hopefully this won’t be too avant-garde. Well, I’m definitely going into this one blind, hopefully it’s a good one!

First Impressions

The animation wasn’t great. It was computer generated animation, which I’m not really a fan of, and it did have the bobble head problem (a issue computer generated characters seem to have where the person’s head is constantly bobbing, floating, or nodding) a feature of computer animation that I find extra annoying. Though I’m not a fan of the animation style, I did like the character design. It looked similar to Naruto character styles, with similar costumes and aesthetic.

The background designs were very nice, a cross between ancient pagoda town and a modern abandoned urban landscape. From the very beginning of the film, the look and mood of the anime was dark and foreboding. This is definitely a light horror film, which I’m absolutely a fan of. In fact, I really liked the story of this film. It was nicely creepy without being gory, using jump scares, urban lore, and creepy settings to great effect. Though the film was short, it still did a great job expressing a good ghost story.

The Story

Like a classic Japanese ghost story, it starts with kids sharing a rumor about a creepy place that their friends just have to check out. Dun dun dun! The rumor goes that seven kids have to gather at this abandoned city nearby, and if they play hide-and-seek there someone will disappear! So of course a group of kids have to try it out, what could possibly go wrong?

Though at first it seems that everyone is there just for a thrill, as the kids start talking to each other it becomes clear that not everyone is there for adventure. One of the boys is there to rescue the lost kids that have already disappeared. He knows that the story is more than just a rumor. His little sister played there and already disappeared, so he’s going in with the group to find the lost children and get them back out again.

Of course, not everyone is altruistic either. There is a bully that’s going in just to show his lackys how tough he is. Too bad for the lackys that they quickly learn their “boss” is more than willing to sacrifice them, to save his own neck.

There is also a pair of mysterious twins that won’t speak to anyone, yet move in perfect time with each other. As if they’ve had training, cough, cough, demon hunter training?

Though the legend says that seven children have to play, there are eight that want to go in. No one is interested in being left behind, and there doesn’t seem to be anything stopping an extra kid from entering the city, so all eight of them enter. Very quickly the kids branch off to explore the empty city, moving in groups of two or three, and at first everything appears pretty normal, just regular shops and alleys. The only thing off is that there’s no people there.

But as the kids look around they find odd wooden statues tucked into alleys or perched in doorways, places where they don’t belong, and all of these statues are of demons. Then creaking sounds of wooden joints start to follow some of the children. Just out of their eye sight they hear rumbling as if something heavy is moving on the next street over, but they can’t catch sight of it. Then, screams are heard in the alleys where the children are playing, and one by one, kids start disappearing.

As the story reveals what is actually going on in the abandoned city and the fate of the lost children, the one heroic boy finds out that the worst fate of all, might be held for the child that wins hide-and-seek.

I really loved this story, it was wonderfully creepy. I’m totally going to re-watch it for Halloween.

In Conclusion

So did I like this movie or would I watch it again? Yeah, I think I would. I still don’t like the animation style, but the story was good enough that I can give that part a pass. The computer generated animation wasn’t that annoying, and most of the time the setting was so dark I hardly noticed. The story was nicely creepy and had that wonderful children’s ghost story vibe, and the setting really made the story come to life.

I really wish this film could have been a bit longer, the 25 minute run time couldn’t really give much background story on the characters nor show much character depth or development. With how rich the environment of the story and the interesting hints of the characters, I really think there was enough material to build on that this could have been a longer film.

#anime #animeMidnightMatinee #animeMovies #horrorAnime #Japan #JapaneseCulture #kakurenbo #paranormalAnime #scaryAnime

Anime Midnight Matinee: Penguin Highway

I remember that this movie came out a few years ago, and there as a lot of talk about it at the time. I didn’t watch it, and I don’t think I read the reviews, but I do remember that there was a lot of them. When the movie came out, I wasn’t really all that interested in it. There was a lot more fun anime being released, and so this movie just kind of drifted into the back of my mind as one of those, “Oh, I should try that out and see what everyone was talking about,” type things.

Because I got a little fed up with how bad the search feature is to find anime movies on CrunchyRoll, I was browsing the movie selection on Tubi and I happened across Penguin Highway. So now’s my chance to finally tick one of the many many anime on my “To Watch at Some Point, but No Hurry,” list!

First Impressions!

The animation for this movie is really beautiful. The characters have a soft, rounded look, while the backgrounds are realistic yet have a watercolor painted appeal similar to Ghibli Studio. I think the aesthetic of the movie was my favorite part. The story on the other hand . . . was very strange. Not the whimsical and quirky kind of strange of Ghibli or Madhouse Studios, but more confusing strange.

Like more than a few times while I was watching the movie, I wondered what was going on, what was the movie trying to express, why were these random scenes being shown? If the elements of the story were supposed to be visual metaphors, they kind of went straight over my head. And I’m pretty good with understanding poetry and literary fiction. Metaphors, similes, and hyperbole, are right up my alley! But there were many scenes in this movie that just had me stumped.

The Story

The story starts out with a large group of penguins showing up in a field in the center of town. No one knows where the penguins came from, they seem to just appear, and when they were gathered up by animal control, the birds disappeared from the back of the truck.

A little boy named Aoyama in fourth grade as in 9 to 10 years old (remember this age group) saw the commotion from the penguins and decided to investigate. He and his friend started looking into the nearby forest trying to find where the penguins came from and went. The Aoyama is really into science and makes this mystery into a whole research project.

While the boy is looking into the mystery of the penguins, it’s revealed that he has a crush on a woman that works at his dentist’s office. One of the dental technicians who is in her twenties often chats with him during his visits, and goes to cafés with him, and plays chess with him.

Remember his age group?

If red flags are going off for you, yeah I was thinking the same thing. One of the most bizarre things about this movie is that his parents seem to be totally chill about this adult that they don’t really know, spending so much time alone with their fourth grader. And by don’t really know I mean that she seems to have to introduce herself to almost everyone in Aoyama’s life, so she is a complete stranger!

In fact, at one point in the movie she invites Aoyama over for dinner, then he ends up falling asleep and spending the night at her apartment. And the parents seemed to be okay with their elementary student not coming home at night. The parents aren’t portrayed as social outcasts, criminals, or sketchy people. They are an educated, respected, suburban couple, that for some reason are okay with their little kid not coming home at night.

Another thing that was a little creepy, is this grown woman was well aware of Aoyama’s infatuation with her, but she didn’t put any boundaries on their relationship, instead encouraged a closeness. It just kind of put an “Ick” factor into the movie that I didn’t find appealing.

The story also introduces a smart girl from the Aoyama”s class. Ya know, someone more age appropriate? Who also is interested in science, is good at chess, and is also researching something in the forest. I was expecting the story to nudge Aoyama into a healthier more age appropriate relationship. Spoiler: It did not.

As the boy pursues his research into the penguins he finds out where they come from, tying in the lady from the dental office, the girl the likes science, and his own research together. After Aoyama finds out where the penguins are coming from, it doesn’t take long for the story to get really weird, like “What acid trip were the writers on when they thought this up?“, kind of weird. Complete with morphing worlds, transportation made out of penguins, and the edge of the world that isn’t.

In Conclusion!

In conclusion, did I like it? Not really. I do like trippy anime. I really liked Perfect Blue, Kino’s Journey, and plenty of Junji Ito anime, but this one just kind of fell flat for me. Though it was weird, it was also strangely boring at the same time. I was recently watching the Trigun movie and the Zombie land Saga movie, and for both movies the standard ninety minute run time seemed to blitz by in about twenty minutes. While with Penguin Highway, within a half hour of watching the movie I was already looking at the clock. The story seemed to drag on a lot longer than it needed to. I think the writers were going for a whimsical feel like Ghibli movies, but that didn’t really hit the mark. So the slow, draggy movie with sprinklings of “Ick” factor from the grown woman Aoyama has a crush on, kind of made this movie a dud for me.

#anime #animeMidnightMatinee #Japan #JapaneseCulture #movieReviews #paranormalAnime #penguinHighway #sciFiAnime

Anime Midnight Matinee: Fuuto PI Portrait of Kamen Rider Skull!

Ooo, I’m kind of excited to try this movie out. Though I’m not well versed in the Kamen Rider universe, and I don’t follow the live action stories in this series, I really liked the anime Fuuto PI, and I’m hoping the movie addition to this series will be just as fun as the anime.

For all the Kamen Rider super fans out there, sorry if it sounds like I’m missing the point in my movie review! I liked the anime Fuuto PI not because of the transforming super hero elements, I just like the PI and detective story parts. Lol, like I said, I’m not exactly a Kamen Rider fan. So coming from the very biased, not very educated or experienced point of view of a non fan, let’s see how this transforming super hero movie compares to the anime that I like for all the other parts!

First Impressions!

The animation is really good! There are some scenes that the animation is particularly smooth and detailed. Very impressive. I also really like the story. It has a lot of the detective elements that I liked from the original series. Yeah, there’s plenty of transformations into a super hero, and those were fine, but the detective parts were really good. I really liked the mentor character in the story Mr. Narumi, he is like the classic hard boiled detective from a 1920’s detective novel. Every little detail of this character was great for detective stories fans, from the fedora hats he loved to his impeccable suits to his gravelly voice.

The Story

I really like how this story was presented. This movie is really more of a pre-qual to the anime series rather than a continuation, but it’s framed as a narration. The main character of the anime series, Shotaro is sitting on the docks of Fuuto city telling his assistant Tokime about how he became Kamen Rider.

Then most of the story is actually a flash back of his childhood and teen years when he met a detective that saved his life from a monster attack and he soon became obsessed with becoming the down and out detective’s assistant.

It took years of determination, but eventually Mr. Narumi accepted him as an assistant. But Shotaro could tell that Narumi was definitely keeping him at a distance and not trusting him completely. As Shotaro was trying to win Narumi’s trust and acceptance the city they both loved and wanted to protect was being attacked by more and more monsters.

Finally one day Shotaro comes into the detective’s office to find that Narumi is gone. The office gets a phone call and Shotaro learns that Narumi is on a big and dangerous case and left him behind! And even worse, Narumi also left without his “Secret Weapon” as the mysterious caller called it. So Shotaro grabs the case that the secret weapon is supposed to be in and chases after Narumi, with the hopes of helping. Of course, considering that Shotaro’s super cool detective mentor isn’t with him anymore, clearly things don’t go according to plan after Shotaro catches up to Narumi, but there are plenty of monster fights, evil villains, and damsels to rescue!

In Conclusion

This was a great detective movie with lots of intrigue, a very cool detective, and some very good fights too. If you’re a fan of detective anime I would definitely recommend this one. That being said, it honestly could have more mystery in it. The minor plot twists weren’t very surprising, and it really felt like more mysteries could have been added so it was more like the anime series. I guess they trimmed the mystery stuff to add in more super hero stuff, which was fine, but I kind of wanted them to lean more into the detective story. But other than my totally biased want for a little more mystery, it was a solid movie with a good story, great characters, and excellent animation!

#anime #detectiveAnime #fuutoPiKamenRider #Japan #JapaneseCulture #movieReview #paranormalAnime

Summer Anime Midnight Matinee! “X” Welcome to the first in my series of anime movie reviews called Summer Anime Midnight Matinee! This time I’ll be watching the movie “X”. I have no idea what this movie is about, but I vaguely remember my older brother liking it when he was in middle school. So maybe I’ll like it too? I pretty much just picked it because it was on CrunchyRoll and easy to access. If I remember correctly, this movie is written by Clamp and I liked Card Captor Sakura and some other anime and manga by them, so even if I don’t like the story too much, I’m bound to at least like the animation and character design. So, going in totally blind, let’s watch “X”! First Impressions! Wow, it’s really a beautiful anime. This movie was first released in 1996 and for that era the animation is amazingly good quality. A lot of the character designs have a very Vampire Hunter D: Blood Lust look to them. And I can definitely tell this is a Clamp movie, there’s flower petals fluttering through the air everywhere. The movie literally starts with just flower petals floating around in a black background. Clamp loves flower petals! The movie also looks really artistic. There’s a lot of dream sequences, hallucinations, and visions, so the story is presented in a very abstract, artistic way. I definitely like that. The Story Wow, this is bleak. Like darker than Ergo Proxy style of bleak. The story is about a teen boy that’s supposed to stop the end of the world, but he’s just not that into it. The story is also really cyclical. The main character Kamui is told by his mother that she’s going to have to die, so he can become strong. Once he’s strong enough he needs to return to Tokyo so he can save his friends. So she dies, he becomes a strong magic user and returns to his home town. But because he returns, it begins the events that bring about the end of the world, endangering his friends. Stick with me now. The heavenly dragons ask him to stop the end of the world, but he says no, he just wants to save his friends. His friends that are endangered because of the end of the world. The end of the world that him returning to Tokyo started. Yeah. Then one of his friends (Fuma) is shown a vision from the bad guy earth dragons that shows his little sister being killed by Kamui. This isn’t actually a lie because technically speaking Kamui’s return started the chain of events that endangered them. So to protect his little sister, Fuma kills her by ripping a sword out of her. He needs the sword to kill Kamui, so Kamui can’t kill Fuma’s little sister. Got that? Even the head bad guy lady has a strange circular way of thinking. Supposedly she started the end of the world with the earth dragons to free her sister (the head of the heavenly dragons) from her responsibilities of seeing the future for politicians. So her solution was to destroy the world. Ummm, if the world and all the people are destroyed, wouldn’t her sister be dead too? So in the end, the earth dragons kill all of the heavenly dragons, then Fuma kills the earth dragons, then Kamui kills Fuma for killing his own little sister, which Kamui is kind of also responsible for endangering. Oh, and while this battle between the earth dragons and heavenly dragons is going on, all of Tokyo is destroyed too. If Kamui’s mom had just kept her mouth shut about her vision in the beginning, did nothing and Kamui had just stayed in the countryside and like called his friends instead, the world would have never ended, everyone would have stayed alive and it would have just been a cute Slice-of-life anime about friends in the city and the countryside. In conclusion! Did I like this movie? Ummm, yes and no. Much like the story, it’s complicated. I loved the look of the movie, the animation for its era was gorgeous. I also liked how the story was presented through a wide variety of dream scapes and visions. I liked the variety of characters that were easily identifiable from each other. There’s lots of things to like about this movie. It’s just the whole, no win, no happy ending possible type of story isn’t really my cup of tea. I kind of got frustrated by watching people make bad decisions that made no rational sense. There was a whole lot of “hurting with the intent to help” going on. #anime #animeMovie #Japan #JapaneseCulture #movieReview #paranormalAnime

I Knead Dough!

I have some kind of sad news, and unfortunately it has to do with the reality of things and not so much to do about anime. There’s really no way to sugar coat this. I’m kind of broke! Like, in debt kind of broke. Like I’m to the point I’m just paying of the interest on my debt and even that’s expensive style of broke.

So some harsh changes need to be made in my life. For the next few months I’m going to have to pick up more shifts at work, meaning I’ll have to come into the office more, meaning a whole lot of time is going to be gobbled up with work. Something has to give. I thought about just no longer doing any house chores, but my house mate vetoed that idea. So my only option is cutting down my writing time. I won’t be able to post twice a week anymore. I think going down to just once a week is still doable, I type very fast. It will be sad not doing the hobbies I love, and I’ll miss visiting all of you as often, but the money monster is slavering at my door and if I don’t feed it more it’s going to eat me.

There is a silver lining to this whole crazy summer. I had so much fun watching the Zombie Land Saga movie, that I thought it would be fun to do a Anime Movie Midnight Matinee for summer. I remember when I was a little kid, every summer my parents would take me and my siblings to an old drive in movie theater. I was always so excited because I would be allowed to stay up until midnight like the big kids. Of course, the movie started at midnight, so I only ever saw the first few minutes of the movie before I fell asleep, but it was still a fun memory of summer. And with my new super summer work schedule, if I want to keep watching anime I’m going to have some late nights, I might even be watching at midnight. So please join me every week this summer with my anime movie reviews!

#blogging #IKneadDough #movieReviews #someChangesToBlog #summerPlans

Angelic Layer Episode 25 (La Fin!)

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Last Time on Angelic Layer

Last time on Angelic Layer, Misaki finally has a reunion with her mom, but it’s not all hugs and happy tears. There’s a lot more emotional baggage heavy lifting and sad tears to go around. After Shuko drops the bombshell that she’s Misaki’s mom, Ojiro tries to arrange a meeting with the two, leaving Misaki alone with her sad thoughts in Shuko’s private room while he goes to get her wayward mother. Being overwhelmed with emotion, Misaki bolts. She ends up getting lost in the rain, but with help from Ichon, her mom eventually finds her. They finally have their reunion on a rainy Tokyo street corner, but it isn’t a happy one. They retreat to a cafe to get out of the rain, but they don’t have much to say to each other. It’s Misaki that reaches out and tries to bridge that divide between them. She starts talking about Angelic Layer, the one thing she knows they have in common. After a much needed apology from Shuko, they return to the stadium to find that everyone was still waiting for them and their match.

The End!

This is the last episode and probably one of the most epic of the series. The match between Athena and Hikaru is finally here, and even though Shuko is fighting against her estranged daughter that she has wronged for seven years, and they have just build a very fragile relationship after their reunion, the champion is not holding back. At all. Like not even a little bit, for a middle schooler, that’s her daughter, that she had abandoned. This episode had a lot of touching and heartwarming moments, but when I actually think about it, Misaki’s mom is maybe not the nicest person.

The match starts out without any of the new terrain that has become so common at the national games. The two opponents start their battle, but still no sign of terrain. Then as Hikaru and Athena’s fight really starts heating up, the arena bursts into a field of red roses. Though roses are seen as a purely romantic flower in the western world, in Japan roses are actually known more for their thorns. In fact, their Japanese name means thorns. And roses tend to represent the pain of love, or a complicated love that causes heartache. This sub-meaing of the terrain fits perfectly for the match.

The two Angels are trading blows, hard and fast with Shuko not pulling any punches for her daughter. After Hikaru smacked Athena with “Rolling Thunder” kick, Athena grapples Hikaru and slams her into the ground, wiping out most of her hit points. Things are looking pretty bleak for Hikaru. Then Shuko decides to end things quick and blasts Misaki’s Angel with a “Kill Everything” fireball.

The entire field of flowers is burned to ashes, leaving only a scorched earth. Hikaru is down and not getting up. The computers are still calculating the hit points but no opponent has ever survived Athena’s blast. As the moment drags on and the computers are still calculating, Misaki starts getting really worried. She starts calling to Hikaru to get up, she cries and calls Hikaru to keep fighting. Soon Hatoko joins in, then Misaki’s cheer squad, then more and more of the crowd is chanting for Hikaru to not give up.

Finally, the data is in, Hikaru has just a fraction of a hit point, but she gets up!

The battle continues, and Athena even tries to us another “Kill Everything” fireball, but it ends up being her undoing when Hikaru deflects it right back at her. And just like that Misaki wins! After the match is over we finally get our running into each other’s arms and hug scene between mother and daughter, and it’s well deserved.

During the end roll, it’s the holiday season, and everyone is out with their sweethearts. Misaki and her mom seem to be going shopping, and there’s Ichon sneaking around a corner spying on his crush Shuko. Ojiro starts scolding his older brother until he spots Misaki and then joins Ichon in his spying!

My end thoughts on re-watching this series after so many years is kind of mixed. I remember loving this series, and there are still so many things I really like about this anime. The main character Misaki is still the sweet, kind hearted character that I remember. A lot of the characters are still really fun and likable. Like Tamayo and Ringo. But there are other problematic characters that I don’t remember them being this bad.

Like Kotaro is really not a nice boyfriend to Tamayo. He treats her pretty badly over and over again. By the end of their romance arc I kind of felt like Tamayo deserved someone better. Mr. Ichon gave some serious Stranger Danger vibes in quite a few scenes, and it felt like Misaki really shouldn’t have followed him. Hatoko was really not a great friend. She mistreated and nearly bullied Misaki simply because she wanted to fight differently.

But I think the character with the most problems was Shuko. She shrugged off responsibility for seven years, and even when she finally decides to gather up some courage and talk to Misaki, she dumps most of the emotional baggage on the little girl to carry.

It’s funny that I don’t remember seeing any of these problems the last time I watched this series.

Happy Birthday Anime Hanabi!

Woo, it’s my wee little blog’s birthday today! I know I’m supposed to post an episode review, and I even talked about it in my last post, but with this special day, I just thought I needed to give my little blog a shout out! Wow, I can’t believe that Anime Hanabi is a whopping five years old. My blog is old enough to go on to kindergarten now! My little blog isn’t a baby anymore! Probably knows how to tie its own shoes and everything.

When I first started this blog, I never thought it would last this long. I honestly just started it as a way to relax and enjoy two things that I loved in one place. Writing and watching anime. And over the years I have had so much fun both writing this blog and reading the anime blogs of others. I’ve met so many wonderful anime fans. I’ve learned so much about anime I’d never even heard of before, I’ve gained such a deeper understanding of anime series I know and love, and I’ve learned so much more about writing itself. Being part of the anime blog-o-sphere has definitely made me a better writer.

So thank you to all the wonderful anime bloggers out there that have made this five year journey such a fun and memorable one, and I hope to continue on this Otaku path with my blog by my side for many years to come.

A Voice Without A Soul

Warning: This post is a bit dramatic involving something I’m very passionate about! If you would like to read something more lighthearted, my episode review of Angelic Layer comes out every Friday.

So last week when a coworker put on some music I was more than happy to hear it. I don’t have many days I have to come into the office, but when I do the rule is usually “No Music or Distracting Sounds!” but it was the weekend and the boss wasn’t in, so rules get flexible. Hee hee. At first the music sounded nice. It was sounded like some R&B music from the 90’s. I was kind of surprised that I didn’t recognize the song, I had an R&B faze and I was pretty well versed in 90’s music.

But that pleasant confusion only lasted about 20 seconds. Then the chorus repeated itself for no reason. As I listened to the lyrics, they become more and more nonsensical. The verse of the song was structure right, but it never seemed to move on, it just kept repeating itself. That’s when it hit me. Oh, this isn’t a real song, it’s AI slop. Yeah, my coworker had put on an AI generated “Playlist”. Very quickly the nice music turned into annoying background noise, and it wasn’t too long before someone asked her to turn it off. At the time, I just shrugged. This was the way of the world now. We don’t get nice things like music.

If you are a long time reader, it’s probably no surprise to you to hear that I really love music. I enjoy just about any kind of music. As long as it has a good beat, I’ll probably like it. I even enjoy learning to play music. I’ve studied piano, harp, recorder, and fife/Irish penny whistle. For a little while I even tried to write my own music. Lol, it didn’t sound very good. To me, there is just something special about hearing a song created by someone with a passion for music and with emotion wanting to express itself. To this day, the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard, was the sound of a human voice. Music is the voice of the soul.

Even days later, the AI slop pretending to be music still bugged me. The idea that something so intrinsically human as a song, something that humans have been making since before there was the written word, before there was farming, before there was the wheel. Likely about the same time we were harnessing the wonders of fire, that’s how long humans have been making songs. And now that’s been taken away from us. This might seem a bit dramatic to some, but my intense passion when I was at university, and one of my degrees was in Humanities, the study of what makes humans, human. To think that humanity is being replaced with a lackluster computer program is kind of horrifying to me.

With my spirits feeling pretty down about the whole situation, I of course, watched some anime. I was catching up on my seasonal series (I’ve been delighted by the anime this spring!) and I was watching a rather interesting spin of the tropey Villainess genre the anime, “An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess“. It really is a fun anime from the point of view of the prince charming love interest of an otome game. The cute and fun anime episode lifted my spirits, but what really healed my heart was at the end of the episode when the closing song played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KvtEhD2dOg

Even if you can’t understand all of the words in the song, anyone could understand the emotions being expressed. This is what songs are supposed to do. They are not supposed to be background noise to be ignored, they are supposed to express someone’s feelings. A song is communication. It’s humans making connections through shared emotions, thoughts, and experiences. To have a computer do this for us, is to choose to silence our own voices, to devalue the voices of others, and to become deaf to the hearts of people.

Anime Midnight Matinee: Trigun Badlands Rumble

I’m a huge fan of the original Trigun. I can confidently say that I’ve seen the first six episodes more than fifty times. I love the humor, the action, the gun fights, the characters, the whole dang anime! I even like the wonky animation of the series. In my mind Vash is one of the best main characters in anime history, and Trigun has one of the best endings of any anime series. Yup, that’s how much I love this anime. And yet . . . I’m sad to say that I actually have never seen the Trigun movie, Badlands Rumble. I heard about the movie a few years ago, but I didn’t know if it was an off shoot, or part of the original series and even when I looked into the movie, at the time it wasn’t available to watch on CrunchyRoll or other streaming services I had at the time. So I just kind of forgot about it. Well, while I was puttering around CrunchyRoll looking for movies for my matinee series, what should I find but the long lost movie I never got to see! Well, that oversight ends now. So is Trigun Badlands Rumble as good as the original series? Will it have all the laughs, the action, and the heart of the anime that is so dear to me? Let’s find out!

First Impressions!

First I would like to start with CrunchyRoll. Wow! It’s no wonder I hadn’t realized this movie was available, the path to get to actually watch the movie on CR is so bad, it’s just plain terrible. First you have to click on the series, then you have to click on the last episode of the series, then you have to click on the English version of the movie (at no point does it actually say that this is a movie related to the series, it just treats it as if it’s another episode) then if you have your account set to Japanese audio you have to confirm that you want to watch it in English even if you don’t, then finally the Japanese version of the movie will be available to click on, then you have to confirm again that you want to see the movie in Japanese even though your account is already set to Japanese audio! That was insane. I imagine most people that want to see this movie have never managed to navigate to it. CrunchyRoll, do better.

Now For the Movie!

I loved this movie! It was so good. Ten out of five stars! The animation is a little better than the series, but still stayed with the rough art style that I know and love from the original anime. All the main characters were there, not just Vash but our favorite insurance ladies Milly and Meryl, the background black cat, even Wolfwood came back from the dead to make an appearance. The scenery, the set-up, and the story was classic Trigun. I was smiling from ear to ear from the very beginning of the movie. There was action and hi-jinks, and crazy cowboy gun-fu throughout.This movie just brought back so many happy nostalgia feels! I really feel like this is a movie I’m going to want to watch over and over again.

The Story

In classic Trigun style, it starts with a flashback from twenty years ago when Vash interrupts a bank robbery. With his silly distractions no one ended up dying, but the town was trashed, Vash was blamed for everything, and the robbers that had turned on each other during the robbery, all got away.

Then we time jump to closer to the present (but not after the end of the original series, because Wolfwood is still alive) and Milly and Meryl are sent to a city to inquire about an odd insurance contract. $$5 billion to protect a statue! Granted it’s a huge statue of the founder of the city in the center of town, but that’s still a lot of money for a statue. And even more alarming is that the statue has been targeted by the notorious robber Gasback, the same robber from twenty years ago that Vash had foiled in the flash back.

No surprise, Vash is on his way to that same town on a desert ship train thing, where he meets a lovely lady gunslinger. The ship thing is also filled with rough and ruthless bounty hunters heading to the town for the bounty on Gasback’s head. One thing leads to another Vash ends up saving the lady gunslinger from a bunch or really scummy bounty hunters. After that he sticks to her like glue under the pretense that he’s smitten.

And where is Wolfwood in all this? He’s playing bodyguard to Gasback! Gasback’s gang found Wolfwood dying from thirst in the desert and saves him, so as repayment, Wolfwood agrees to protect Gasback until he walks into the mansion of the founder of the city.

With all the characters in place, the story is packed with silliness, drunken brawls, epic gun fights, clever heists, sneaky switchbacks, mustache twirling villains, and heart rending back stories a plenty. In the end all the baddies get what they deserve, the redeemable gunslingers learn to think of the big picture rather than their own petty revenge, and a few people learn the lesson that maybe taking the chance on doing the right thing isn’t so dumb after all.

In conclusion!

I absolutely loved this movie! It was so good. The characters I know and loved were in their best form, the new characters introduced for the adventure were interesting, and had depth, and the story felt like it was meant to be a movie rather than just a bunch of episodes sewn together. There were so many moments when I couldn’t help but smile or chuckle at just how good that scene was. And there were quite a few endearing little details that just made the story better.

I will say one thing, this movie was definitely made with the intended audience being fans of Trigun. Though there was a little tiny scene that gave a very brief background to Vash, it really wasn’t much. I think if you weren’t already pretty well versed in the Trigun story, you would have a hard time following the inter-character dynamics and many parts of the story. But for Trigun fans, this movie is a must see!

#anime #animeMovies #cowboyAnime #Japan #JapaneseCulture #movies #paranormalAnime #sciFiAnime #Trigun

Zombie Land Saga: Yumeginga Paradise!

Months ago I missed the chance to watch this in the movie theaters. There wasn’t any theater in my state showing it and all the tickets were sold out in neighboring states, so even a reeeeally long drive wouldn’t have helped. But finally, at long last, after months of waiting the Zombie Land Saga movie is available on CrunchyRoll! Woooo!

So, needless to say once I noticed it on the CR website, I had to watch it. I was actually kind of surprised to see it listed on the new anime page, there was no fan fair, no special promotion, no mention of it at all on the main page of the website. If I didn’t happen to be looking at the new anime page because of the coming summer season, I would have never known this movie was available. Crunchy Roll’s handling of this movie has been a bit, ummm, weird.

So without further ado, let’s watch The Zombie Land Saga Movie! Is it as good as I remember the series to be? Are the characters as wacky and lovable? Do we ever get more back story on that insane manager of theirs? Let’s find out!

First Reactions!

OMG, this is such a great movie! I have no clue why CrunchyRoll wouldn’t be promoting this like crazy. The animations was pretty good. The story was great. The characters were spot on, just as wacky as the series and we even got another character. The manager Kotaro is just as insane as he was in the series, if not even more than the series. And on top of everything else that is so wonderful about this movie, it still has the heart of the series which was all about never giving up even when times are tough. This was just such a fun movie. If you liked the series, you will definitely like this movie.

Here Be Spoilers!

I can’t really talk about this movie much if I don’t drop some spoilers, sorry. I totally get it if you don’t want to read further, the movie is still pretty new.

If you remember the series being pretty over the top and zany, not to worry, the movie up holds its past reputation. The last episode of the second season of the series, I kind or remember it ending with space aliens showing up. Well, this movie is the details about that. That’s right, space aliens attack and the only way to save all of Saga is zombie pop idols! Lol, I love this idea!

The story begins four years after the events of the second season, and everything is going pretty great for the band Franchouchou. They even get invited to be the idol ambassadors for a science expo being held in Saga. So, from the very beginning, before the space aliens show up we are already getting hints about spacy stuff. And of course, this being Zombie Land Saga, there is a ton of very beautiful scenes of our favorite zombie idols around Saga.

Then panic strikes when Tae “Zero”, the most zombie like of all the zombies goes missing! Sakura is frantic to find her, but she’s no where to be found. What happened to her? While she was riding and gnawing on a cow, she was abducted by space aliens. While she was on the mother ship of the space invaders, she ate one of the stones that powers their ship. And it’s a good thing she did, while Zero was wandering around the space ship, the invaders had been blasting away at Saga and threatening the rest of the world with destruction. But when Zero ate the power stone, it shut off their ability to attack. Zero, instantly regained her original personality and returned to Saga.

That’s right, we finally get to see what Tae/Zero’s personality is! Eeeeee! And surprise surprise, there’s reason their manager Kotaro always refers to Tae as a “The Legend”. Because she is. While the other (accept for Sakura) zombies are idols of the past, Tae is a literal super hero! Like a one woman army, commando, fighting to protect Saga from the dark and unnamed “Them” style hero! From Tae’s new confident up right posture, to her sharp and precise look, to her mature and knightly voice, it’s clear that Tae knows how to get things done. Needless to say this kind of leaves the other zombies stumbling in her wake. But there’s space invaders to kick to the curb, and there’s Saga to save, so she’s just the kind of take charge zombie they need.

I won’t ruin the whole movie for you, but with the new kick butt Tae, and zombies that never give up and never lose heart, the space aliens didn’t have a chance! The ending was really spectacular. If you love explosions, this ending has you covered. But more than just how explody everything was, this still had the Zombie Land Saga sweet vibes of everyone putting aside differences and working hand in hand together to make things happen and to save Saga. Of not losing heart even when things look their bleakest. Of standing up and keep fighting, even after they had seemingly lost everything. This was just a wonderfully exciting and inspirational movie!

End of the Spoiler Attack!

So if you were a fan of the Zombie Land Saga series, you should watch this movie. If you are a fan of watching cute girls inspire a community with their cheerfulness and songs, you should watch this movie. If you are a fan of watching murderous space invaders get their booties kicked, you should watch this movie. And if you are looking for something to watch this Four of July that’s as fun, funny, and inspirational as “Independence Day” with Will Smith, you should watch this movie!

#anime #animeReview #Japan #JapaneseCulture #movieReview #paranormalAnime #zombieLandSaga #zombieLandSagaMovie #zombieLandSagaYumegingaParadise

There’s a Season for That?!

Though it’s common for Japanese to boast that their country has four seasons, when you actually look around, Japan seems to have far more than just four seasons. In fact, they have hundreds! There’s the well known Cherry Blossom season, the family centric Oban Season, the westernized Holiday Season, the ever green Rainy Season, taste-tastic Macha season, the majestic fall Changing of the Leaves Season. And it goes on and on.

And recently I’ve found out about another beloved season in Japan. The Chocolate Mint Season.

Yes, they have a season just for chocolate mint treats! Chocolate mint ice cream. Chocolate mint pastries. Chocolate mint latte’s and chocolate mint cream sandwiches! Chocolate mint candies, and cookies, and milk shakes galore! If you love chocolate mint everything, this is the season that was born for you. There’s even chocolate mint dipped potato chips.

So in the spirit of this beloved season, and because I haven’t done a cooking blog post in a while, here is a very tasty recipe for chocolate mint custard. What’s nice about this recipe is that it’s a lot easier to make than the standard custard (no tempering eggs or careful steam bath baking required) and it uses another beloved food from Asia. Tofu!

Easy Chocolate Mint Custard

1 block firm tofu

1/4 cup melted chocolate chips

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

A few drops of mint extract (be careful, this stuff can be strong!)

1/3 cup sugar or equivalent of your favorite sweetener (up to a 1/2 cup if you like things extra sweet)

1/4 cup milk

Throw all ingredients into food processor and blend until completely incorporated and smooth. Pour into four dessert dishes or cute little 1/2 cup bowls. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Serve chilled, enjoy!

I’m serious, that’s it! There’s no double boiler, there’s no tempering, there’s no steam bath. This recipe doesn’t have any eggs in it, so none of those tricky techniques are needed. That’s why I like this recipe, it’s super easy. And the end result is a thick, creamy, almost fudgey custard.

Angelic Layer Episode 23!

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Last Time on Angelic Layer

Last time on Angelic Layer, the battle rages on between Misaki’s Hikaru and Ojiro’s Wizard. Though Hikaru might be fast and nimble with plenty of special moves, no matter what she throws at Wizard, nothing seems to get through his magic shield. Misaki starts doubting that she could ever win, but as round two begins she remembers all the people she promised she wouldn’t give up and she remembered that her goal was to fight Athena! With renewed fighting spirit, she launches another attack, this time watching carefully for any sign of how magic guard works. It takes a few tries, but she learns that it’s static electricity and takes off the safety cap from one of Hikaru’s wires, using it as a grounding wire. After that she can punch right through magic guard and wins the match! After Hikaru stomped Wizard, Ojiro asks Misaki out an a date!

Episode 23!

In this episode Misaki and Ojiro take a back seat, or rather a seat in the audience, and it’s all about the match between Sai and Shuko.

Sai declares that she’s going to win the match for her dead sister, and Shuko totally respects that. I think that’s what the big take away from this episode was, that both Shuko and Sai are well experienced fighters and they were enjoying themselves in a sparing match.

Katie, Sai’s second, half way through the match tells Sai that if she doesn’t use hyper mode she has no chance of winning, but Sai still refuses. She says that Shirahime can’t last long in hyper mode and she would rather have a long match against Athena and lose than have a fast match and maybe win. It really feels like they both just wanted the experience.

Even the research team noted that Shuko was fighting like she was in a practice match rather than trying to take down a foe. She even had a smile on her face as she was swapping blows with Sai and Shirahime.

And that’s about it for the episode. The layer terrain was Ankor Wat, so that was really impressive with water features and statues to bust up and jungle areas. The two Angels did all sorts of great fighting moves. Shirahime did a lot of wrestling moves and Athena did a lot of power moves. The fight was pretty good.

But, there really wasn’t much happening story wise. In the beginning of the episode Shuko mentioned that she was nervous about going out to compete knowing that Misaki might recognize her even with her interface head gear on. And she felt kind of bad before the match, still hiding from her own daughter, but that was kind of a side note and not really a big part of the episode.

At the end of the episode, after Shuko wins, she takes off her Angelic Layer head gear, waves her arms, and calls out to Misaki. Needless to say, poor Misaki is stunned that the mom that was always too busy with work to see her, or talk to her, or even send her a letter, was actually playing a game. Umm, Shuko? I really think you could have found a better way to break the news to your estranged daughter. This was quite the bomb shell to drop on a middle schooler.

#angelicLayer #anime #animeReview #clampAnime #episodeReview #Japan #JapaneseCulture #robotAnime #sciFiAnime #shojoAnime

Angelic Layer Episode 22!

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Last Time on Angelic Layer!

Last time on Angelic Layer things get a little awkward between friends, chance encounters try relationships, and budding lovey dovey feelings could get crushed under the boot of competition! After the dramatic beach episode, things are a little awkward between Tamayo and Kotaro. They end up getting stuck in the same broken elevator and forced to talk it out, but Kotaro actually manages to make it worse when he tells Tamayo that he never saw her as a girl. Misaki spends the day hanging out with Ojiro, only to find out that she reminds him of his first crush who he still has feelings for, and he probably just sees her as a little sister. With both girls striking out in the love department, things are looking pretty bleak. Then we get a big twist when Kotaro begrudgingly says he’s willing to try dating Tamayo, while Misaki’s next opponent is none other than Ojiro!

Episode 22!

In this episode we start off with a little scene of when Ojiro was young and first meets Shuko/Misaki’s mom. He was delivering some important files to his new big brother Mr. Ichon and wandered into the research lab. Shuko was there and invites Ojiro to try out playing Angelic Layer. Ojiro loved it and instantly got a crush on Shuko.

In the next scene Misaki and Ojiro’s match is still raging on. Ojiro’s Angel Wizard seems to have an unbeatable shield called magic guard that keeps deflecting Hikaru. No matter how or where Hikaru tries to attack, she still gets bounced off. After round one, things are looking pretty bleak. Misaki can’t think of a single way to get through the shield, and if she can’t land a blow, she’s not going to win. Even Hatoko, who has a lot more experience, is completely baffled.

Misaki started doubting herself and wonders if she should just step out, but then she remembers all the promises she’s given to people, saying that she would always try her best. And she remembers what got her into Angelic Layer in the first place. Athena, the white Angel! Her goal has always been to meet and defeat Athena. Little does she know that Athena is her mom’s Angel or that her mom was in the observation center rooting for her.

Getting her spirit back, Misaki jumps into the fight with more vigor. She decides the best way to find a weakness is to watch Wizard carefully. She quickly notices that every time she attacks Wizard there’s a flash and a few electric sparks. She has Hikaru remove a guard cap from one of her costume wires to use as a grounding wire and attacks Wizard again. And this time she breaks through Magic Guard!

After that the fight gets even more intense. Neither side wants to back down, and though for the first half of the fight Wizard was hiding behind his magic guard, he clearly didn’t need to. He’s more than a good enough fighter to take on most opponents. The two fighters blast through round two and are eager for round three. As the match pounds on, who is going to win becomes more and more uncertain. Then at last, in one final blow, with a kick to Wizard and a punch to Hikaru, Wizard falls and Hikaru wins!

This was probably one of the most battle centric episodes so far. It really was intense with Misaki throwing out all the different moves she’s learned from other opponents along the way to get to this point in the competition. It was very impressive.

At the very end of the episode, after Misaki is declared the winner and she goes over to thank Ojiro for the good fight. Ojiro replies by asking her out on a date and confesses that he just fell in love with her. Umm, he fell for Misaki’s mom Shuko because he could never beat her in a match and now he has doki doki feelings for Misaki because she beat him. He certainly has at type!

#angelicLayer #anime #clampAnime #episodeReview #Japan #JapaneseCulture #robotAnime #sciFiAnime

Angelic Layer Episode 24!

I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember.

A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare.

Last Time on Angelic Layer!

This episode is all about Shuko and Sai’s match. Sai declares that she’s going to win this match in memory of her dead little sister. The terrain for this match is particularly cool, it’s Ankor Wat. As Athena and Shirahime trade blows, Shuko pulls out all the stops to win, but Sai isn’t going to be easy to beat. Sai tried her best, but in the end Shuko wins the match. After she’s declared the winner, Shuko makes an announcement, she calls to Misaki revealing that she’s Misaki’s mom!

Episode 24!

This episode was filled to the brim with much awaited drama. At last the mother daughter reunion we’ve been waiting the whole series for!

Misaki gets the surprise of a lifetime when her the champion of the competition, Shu, wins her match then makes a startling announcement. She is Misaki’s long lost mom. Needless to say Misaki is really shocked and confused by this turn of events. She’s still in the tournament audience, when Ojiro shows up at her seats, tells her friends to stay put, and pulls Misaki away. While he’s hurrying along, Ojiro admits that he’s known about Misaki’s mom for a while, and he’s sorry he couldn’t tell her. Then he leads her into the staff only area of the stadium, right to her mom’s private room. Ojiro tells Misaki to wait there, and he’s going to go fetch her mom so they can have a proper reunion.

Misaki is left alone with her thoughts, and they aren’t good. She starts to wonder why her mom never tried to contact her before? Why did she leave and never come back? Had she done something wrong, so her mom was avoiding her? When Ojiro and Shuko return to Shuko’s room, Misaki is gone. Misaki is just a middle schooler, and this is a lot of emotional baggage to dump on one young girl.

Poor Misaki is lost in self doubt and confusion as she wanders the streets of Tokyo. It starts to rain, and Misaki wanders on. By now everyone knows that Misaki is missing and start looking for her. Shuko has the right idea that Misaki may have left the whole stadium and leaves the competition area too, looking for her daughter. But Tokyo is a big city and Misaki is just one little girl.

Ichon has a video of Athena shown on the big screen across the street from Tokyo train station. The same station that Misaki saw when she first came to Tokyo and first learned about Angelic Layer. Just as Ichon predicted, Misaki in her daze had made her way to the same train station and was captivated by the same video that she had seen months before. And that’s just where Shuko finds her.

The mother, daughter reunion gets off to a rough start. When Shuko finds Misaki, there’s no running into each other’s arms, there’s no warm embrace. Instead, the two family members burst into tears from all the emotional hurt and worry. They retreat to a cafe, to get out of the rain, but they can’t seem to think of anything to say to each other. There’s too many questions, too much distance between them.

Misaki, being an ever kind person, tries her best. She starts talking about the one thing she knows they have in common. Angelic Layer. And just like that, a connection is made. It isn’t a strong connection, it’s fragile and very timid, but they do start talking. After a while they realized that there are a lot of people that are probably wondering what happened to them. When they return to the stadium, they find that the entire tournament has been patiently waiting for their return and the match is still on! And so the episode ends with them taking their places, and getting ready for their match.

I think this is a really heartwarming episode, but it is kind of hard to miss that it’s Misaki that seems to be doing most of the emotional heavy lifting. She’s the one that tried to make the shared connection, not her mom. She’s also the one that forgave her mom almost instantly once her mom explained she hadn’t done anything wrong and apologized to Misaki. But when it came to trying to repair the relationship, it was mostly just Misaki doing the work. Shuko mostly was just apologetic and feeling sorry for herself.

Oops, I Did It Again!

You might remember that I recently admitted to a terrible addiction I had (Read the blog post here) or at least terrible to my wallet. Dun dun dun! Buying cute stuff to put on my book shelf. Particularly, buying blind box/bag collectables. I vowed that I would cut back, I vowed that I already had too many and I needed to stop buying these things. And then I was at a discount store, and what should I happen to find snuggled in among the candy displays? Yup, it was another one!

But-but, it’s on sale! It was half the price of a blind box collectable that I would find at a bookstore or gift shop. See, I’m not spending money on toys, I’m saving money on toys. I couldn’t just let such a wonderful deal pass me by. Or at least that’s what I told myself as I tucked it into my shopping basket.

It is pretty darn cute!

The Unboxing!

First I want to start with the packaging. The little paper wrap around the box is super cute. I like it so much, I cut it off carefully, and I plan to keep it for display purposes. Inside the wrapper, the box holding the toy is a thick high quality plastic that is fashioned like a steamer basket for dim sum, gyoza, and other steamed buns. Again, great for display uses. I could keep the toy inside this original box, but I’m kind of thinking of using it as a small jewelry/treasure box.

Before I opened the package, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. The wrapper makes it look like the “Dumpling” inside the box is pretty small. I even thought it might have a bunch of little dumplings inside it. Sliding the paper wrap off, I was surprised to find the box popped open by itself. And what did I find when I pealed off the lid? A huge squishy, ball. And when I say huge, I mean it. This “Dumpling” is about as big as a burger.

I was also really surprised about the feel of the squishy toy. Picking it up, it’s strangely heavy, like a water balloon. And it has the same texture as well kneaded bread dough. When I first pulled it out of the box, I thought it was just an odd blue blob, but turning it around I almost started laughing when I found it’s cute little face! It didn’t show any face on the dumplings on the package.

In conclusion, I totally feel zero regrets for buying my discount store find. It’s cute as a button, unboxing it was surprising in good ways, and I actually like both the packaging and the toy itself. Also, I think the squishy toy would be an excellent de-stressing toy to knead. I think the only problem I can find is that these kinds of toys tend to get dirty very easily and they don’t always come clean when washed. Hopefully this one won’t get too grubby.

If you would also like to discover some surprising finds, I would highly recommend treasure hunting at your local discount stores. I’ve dug up everything from canned giant squid (I didn’t even know that was a thing) to Korean BBQ flavored seaweed tofu chips, to cute squishy toys!

#anime #animeMerch #blindBoxCollectables #Japan #JapaneseCulture #kawaii #otakuCulture #otakuLife #shopping #superCute