Zoushu's Blog

Anime Relations: Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen

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Anime Relations: Fumetsu no Anata e

In this post I will write about my thoughts regarding the manga called Fumetsu no Anata e/ To Your Eternity, for the sake of memory. Which means that there will be “spoilers”. I started reading Fumetsu no Anata e on October the 21st and I basically binge-read it for four days. After reaching chapter 116, I took a break from reading it for some days. Yesterday I resumed reading it, and finally finished reading chapter 151, which is the latest chapter at this point of time.

Overall I very much enjoyed Fumetsu no Anata e. From the very start, I always had a desire to read the next chapter so I consider that a good sign. I went in with an optimistic view of the series, so that may have influenced my perception of it somewhat. There were certainly boring areas, and dragged out areas. For example, the defence of Renryrr was a bit exhausting to read. I guess that’s fitting in a way since Fushi was exhausted too.

I liked the art, it of course very much resembled the art in Koe no Katachi. One of the things that pushed me to actually start reading the manga was discovering that it was made by the same mangaka as Koe no Katachi. The art is very pretty and I appreciated it a lot. The characters were quite distinct through their design and choice of clothing, and there was a lot of nice scenery as well. I particularly liked the design of Eko/ Iddy, it’s a shame she hasn’t been getting a lot of detailed panels in the later parts of the manga. I found it somewhat creepy whenever he said things as a wolf (like “thank you”), it seems to have been the intention, but others might have gotten a different vibe from it, I don’t know.

The premise of the story is fairly unique. It’s not something new to have an immortal main character with special powers, but I think Fumetsu no Anata e put a nice spin on it. Fushi starting out as a “blank slate”, then gradually transforming into something like a human being/ person was nice to see. I liked that he lacked things like manners and the ability to speak, and that we briefly got to see the process of Pyoran teaching him how to speak properly (“what this?”).

I liked that there was a real threat to Fumetsu, the “knockers”. Before I started reading, I had expected the main character to be the only supernatural element in the story and I kind of wonder what the plot would have been like if there were no knockers around. It’s a nice thing that the had the ability to steal his memories, because that way he can in a way die. If he loses his memories, “Fushi” will essentially be dead and we will get a new being instead.

One of my favorite moments in the series was seeing Eko help out with stuff in Renryrr and receiving appreciation for it. I also liked when Fushi turned into the bear and mauled Hayase. I feel like I have forgotten a lot of things at this point. No event in the manga brought me to tears (well it’s a manga not an anime), but I was a little saddened when March died, and when Parona was revealed to have been killed. And with the boy at the start who lost all hope at the end, that was rough. Going back in the story, I remember thinking that when Hayase left Parona and March to get killed by the bear (during the sacrifical ritual), Hayase became irredeemable. And she just gets even worse lol. Her craziness certainly made the manga more interesting though. I didn’t expect her to actually be obsessed with Fushi after what he did to her.

I’m a bit confused about the knockers. They are aware of what suffering is, and claim to want to save humanity, yet they kill humans in the most painful ways throughout most of the series. Was their goal to wipe out all humans so that their souls would be stuck in “paradise”? But are the humans in Fumetsu no Anata e really suffering so much as to justify ending their lives, and are they truly happy in the afterlife? How long have the knockers been doing this weird stuff with attacking people, was it just when Fushi appeared? I also wonder if the knockers were originally humans too, they certainly have personalities of some kind. Another thing I’m confused about is how Gugu had his face crushed by a giant log, and even though it was resting on his head he is still alive somehow, and seems to be able to speak, see, and breathe fine.

One thing I thought about yesterday that I don’t really like is that not enough information is given about the setting. Everyone can talk with each other just fine, and the Fushi’s friends from the past have no issue talking with present day people, despite belonging to different cultures and different time periods. This isn’t much of a problem, a lot of series do the same thing, and it helps the story a lot. But I really hoped there would be more details given regarding what the world looks like. How big or small is it? What countries are there, and what are their relationships with each other? Fushi is travelling around after all, so wouldn’t these things be relevant to us as readers? I was thinking about Yanome. It’s clearly the equivalent of Japan in this story, but what do we know about Yanome? How large is its territory, how many live there? Is it an island nation like Japan, or is it connected to other countries by land? When Fushi leaves Yanome, he does so by boat but that doesn’t necessarily say a lot, because that body of water could be a lake, or Yanome could be a peninsula that’s only connected to a larger continent by a thin area of land. I was rather happy when I discovered that Fumetsu no Anata e’s setting was a fictional world similar to earth, and it was cool seeing their unique writing system, but upon reflecting upon it, the worldbuilding was rather underwhelming, and disappointing even. Worldbuilding was maybe not supposed to have been the main focus of the story, but yeah.

Another thing that I’m not completely sure I like is that Fushi has the ability to revive the dead. Of course, it can weaken tension and lower the stakes and such. But it was at least balanced a bit by the fact that a lot of the time, the souls of those who had died would just pass on, rendering them unrevivable. One could also argue that it makes the series a bit unique, ‘cause I think most authors would have decided to not let the main character have such a ridiculous ability. I kind of expected every person Fushi encountered to die at one point (which technically happened). Before I started reading I also expected Fushi to have less of a humanlike personality, allowing him to better handle the deaths of those around him. In the end, I am glad we get to see more of some cool characters, such as Tonari.

The chapters after chapter 116 were for the most part not that interesting, but they were fine. It did get more interesting when the knockers were reintroduced. The part where Mizuko kills her mom certainly made things more interesting, and I’m mostly content with how this event was later explained, and the details of Mizuko’s and her mom’s backstory. But the knockers clearly can’t be perceived as the good guys in that scenario, because even though Mizuko’s mom did bad things to her daughter, she was constantly being controlled by the knocker inside her, causing stress and more. Basically, made her fuck up even more, and then used her fucking up things for Mizuko as an excuse to kill her lol. And despite all this, her ghost in the end decides to leave when Mizuko appears to prefer her fake mom. That’s extremely messed up.

In the most recent chapters, the knocker focus has been mostly gone again, and the focus was instead shifted to Fushi’s feelings and relationships with his friends. I liked how he was afraid about thinking of them growing older and eventually dying, and thinking of how his time with them was limited. Because I sometimes have similar thoughts when thinking about my family and other things, it’s a terrifying thought that you will only be able to do certain things a set amount of times. Like celebrating a holiday for example. There are only so many years.

Enough time wasted for now. 😎

Anime Relations: Hibike! Euphonium

For a long time I haven't been making many changes to my "favorites", so since I would like to do so, and I would also like to remember what I had put in my favorites before, I will write down my current favorites below. Not all of these are actually my absolute favorites, but I had various reasons for putting them there, such as wanting to highlight or remember something in particular. So that's a reason why I may change them in the near future.

Favorites
---ANIME---
Hibike! Euphonium
Arakawa Under the Bridge
Uchuu Patrol Luluco
Tanoshii Muumin Ikka

---MANGA---
Chainsaw Man
One Piece
Magi
Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet
Koe no Katachi

---CHARACTERS---
Oumae, Kumiko
Gekko, Moriah
Armstrong, Alex Louis
Midori (from Uchuu Patrol Luluco)
Pedro (from Koe no Katachi)
McCarnathy, Morel
Marlborough, Luculia
Thorkell
Kasane, Teto
Houshou, Marine

---PEOPLE---
Koyasu, Takehito
Kurosawa, Tomoyo
Yamamori, Mika
Sandrovich, Yabako
Kino, Hina
Fujimoto, Tatsuki
Okodaya, Tetuzoh

Anime Relations: One Piece

I didn't bother much with scores before, but I decided I wanted to rescore everything on my anime list since I want to reevaluate what my absolute favorite series are. By redoing all my scores, and adding scores to the many series I had not added any score to yet, think I can get the scores to better reflect what I think of each series. For a lot of anime, I scored them based on the first few episodes, and so the rating in such a case does not always represent my final view of a series.

Because I want to remember the scores I assigned in the past, I am compiling them down below.

Old ratings:
10 (six series): Haibane Renmei, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Tanoshii Muumin Ikka, Hibike! Euphonium, Koe no Katachi, Hibike! Euphonium 2

9 (three series): Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Houseki no Kuni (TV), Dorohedoro

8 (ten series): Wolf's Rain, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Steins;Gate, Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken (TV), Zankyou no Terror, Gangsta, One Punch man, Uchuu Patrol Luluco, Liz to Aoi Tori, Kimetsu no Yaiba

7 (four series): Kyoukai no Kanata, Kekkai Sensen, Baki, Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari

6 (two series): Yuri Kuma Arashi, Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica Gaiden (TV)

Anime Relations: One Piece

Up until now, I had not bothered with changing old ratings/ scorings of mine, because it doesn't matter lol. And in the last one or two years I have for the most part not added any scores to the manga I have read either.

Because I have had a history of assigning scores to manga that I have not yet completed, never changing scores leads to many of my scores not being accurate to what I actually think of the series.

I thought it would be fun to just redo all my scores, and add scores to series that I didn't add any score to yet. The main reason I decided to do this is because I want to reevaluate which series are my absolute favorites.

I don't want to forget what scores I used to have, so below I have compiled all my old scores.

Old ratings:
10 (five series): One Piece, Oyasumi Punpun, Tokyo Ghoul, Helck, Fire Punch

9 (six series): Fullmetal Alchemist, Vinland Saga, Prison School, Koe no Katachi(one-shot), Boku no Hero Academia, Chainsaw Man

8 (twenty series): Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Hunter x Hunter, Claymore, Angel Densetsu, Dorohedoro, Jojo pt7, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Shingeki no Kyojin, Gangsta, Jojo pt8, Montage, One Punch-Man, Nanatsu no Taizai, Koe no Katachi, Tokyo Ghoul:re, Platinum End, Yakoskou no Neverland, Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru

7 (eleven series): Berserk, JoJo pt3+4+6, Karate Shoukoushi Kohinata Minoru, Bakuman, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Shokugeki no Souma, World Trigger, Tsubaki-Chou Lonely Planet, Shuumatsu no Walküre

6 (eleven series): Gantz, Fairy Tail, Adolf ni Tsugu, Jojo pt 5, Terra Formars, Ansatsu Kyoushitsu, Hunter x Hunter: Kurapika Tsuioku-hen, Magi: Sinbad no Bouken, Cherry Boy, That Girl, Chi no Wadachi

5 (three series): Mudazumonaki Kaihaku, Manga no Tsukurikata, Manga of the Dead