Digimon Tri Kokuhaku

Like basically every other kid from the late 90s/early 2000s, I’m absolutely in love with Digimon Tri. After seeing Saikai I already wrote that this anime pushes all the right buttons and two movies later, it still does. It has the right amount of 90s/early 2000s vibe to it, but still modern enough to not feel “old”.

I think the main reason why Digimon Tri is as good as it is, is because the anime knows it’s audience damn well and the audience is the same audience from 17 years ago. It’s not meant for teens or adults and it’s not meant for just any kids, it’s meant for the kids from that time who’re now adults. Of course this anime is very well watchable for kids as well, but let’s be honest: to understand what’s going on generally speaking, you need to know Digimon in some way or the other. To understand the more specific character relations and plot developments, you need to have seen Digimon Adventure and Digimon 02. Digimon Tri explains absolutely nothing and this is a very strong indication who this anime is meant for.

After 3 movies we’ve now reached the halfway point. It’s progressing real slow, because we have to wait for months between every new movie/batch of new episodes, but the wait is so much worth it. The moment I hear the intro, I’m sold, I forget my impatience and just enjoy the ride. I have to admit, the second movie Ketsui was lacking the wow factor a litte bit, because it had a lot of build up going on. It was still very good, though.

Saikai benefits from the massive waves of nostalgia after seeing these characters and Digimon again after so many years. The second movie doesn’t really have that so much. Kokuhaku on the other hand has it again, because that’s when the Digidestined go to the Digiworld again. So far, the humans have stayed in the human world, but now they’re all back into the Digiworld! That’s so exciting! And the way they did it, too! They didn’t care about the possibility of not coming back home, because they’ve already gome through this when they were in elementary school. I just loved it when, I think it was Joe, said by waiting they’re just going to turn into adults. That really hit my inner child, it’s like telling the audience that even though it’s been so long and we’ve all gotten older, it’s okay to be a child again and do what you love.

I have to admit the return to the Digiworld, even if it’s just the rebooted one and apparently not the same from the past, because we see noticable differences, was my absolute highlight of the third movie. I felt like my 13 years old self again, being glued to the TV. That was a straight nostalgia jab into my face and I love this anime for doing that. I honestly think Kokuhaku was the best movie so far. We saw how much the Digimon love their humans, how much they all evolved, we finally got a better glimpse of our actual opponents, the entire reboot idea was simple but effective and Tentomons megaevolution was so cool! Besides, Takeru and Patamon … right into the feels.

Talking about feels! You can’t talk about Digimon withou shipping wars. We finally got a hint of Takari, which was cool. We all know Takari was that one pairing, that absolutely needed to happen ever since we saw these two adorable kids in Digimon Adventure. Besides, their brothers are Yamato and Taichi, who used to fight so much, the alpha-males of the group so to speak, and now they’re totally best friends, but I would just love to see Taichi getting jelous over Takeru for steeling his baby sister away. We haven’t seen anything from Takeru that specific, but he was very occupied with Patamon in Kokuhaku, so he’s excused. I hope it’ll come.

On the other ship that totally should set sail, there has not really been going on that much. I do feel the love triangle between Taichi x Sora x Yamato is being hinted on and slighty teased every now and then, but it’s very low key. The shipping wars have been huge in this fandom and I think it would be cool, if they acknowledged it a bit by teasing it slightly more. Not too much, they don’t have to go the Avatar road, I mean they were just cruel to their fanbase. Admittedly, they were nice enough to clear it all up at the end and even though a good portion of fans was still unsatisfied with ALTA, everyone’s pretty cool with Korra. How often do you have a lesbian endgame ship? I’m totally shipping Makorra and I still think that end was cool.

Either way, Digimon Tri is the ultimae chance to right what’s wrong. It’s the chance to free me from my ultimate shipping nemesis Sorato and finally make Taiora canon. Please, Digimon Tri, MAKE IT HAPPEN!

 

Girls of the Wild’s

Girls of the Wild’s is a Manhwa fully colored and published online. It’s about Jae Gu Song, a poor guy who has to take care of his younger siblings after their mother left them due to personal problems regarding the recent death of their father.

So in other words: he’s head poor and needs to go to school while working. After Middle School he decided to go to a formerly Girls-only-School nearby, because he was given a scholarship simply for being there and ended up as the only male student in the entire school.

This school is special, though. It’s all about martial arts and the students are ridiculously strong – mind you, they’re all girls, except our main character, who feels terribly out of place, because he can’t do any fighting at all. He’s even been bullied during his Middle School days and meets his bullies again, getting nothing but a beating out of it.

He befriends the president of the Taekwondo Club and S-class-student, Dal Dal Choi, a cute and small girl with deadly kicks. At first she wanted to befriend Jae Gu, because it was said to bring her points for her grades, but she developes a huge crush on him and follows him around everywhere.

Another friend of his is Moon Young Lee, president of the Boxing Club and S-class student, as well as close friend of In Gyi Yoon (“Queen”). She has a crush on him at first, but later moves on to another guy.

The third and last of his main group of friends is Queen Yoon, she’s not in a specific club, but an S-class-student as well.She’s close friends with Moon Young and the strongest fighter at Wild’s high and won last year’s “Wirld’s League” with no problem at all. She’s very cold and starts out on the wrong foot with Jae Gu, but later develops romantic feeling for him.

In an act of revenge, Queen chose Jae Gu as her first opponent in this year’s Wild’s League, however since she doesn’t need to go through the prelims, Jae Gu would need to win those first. His initial idea was to simply forfeight the first fight and therefore get out this dilemma unharmed. He eventually decides to take the prelims seriously and learns basic fighting moves in Boxing and a few simple kicks from Dal Dal and Moon Young.

This is the basic overview. Interestingly, though, MAL lists this manga as a harem, something I don’t quite agree on, because it’s more a love triangle than a real harem, especially since Moon Yong drops out, what leaves only Dal Dal and Queen. Sure, the rest of the school is still kind of interested, since they get points for being close to him, but the story doesn’t really care about that at all.

I usually don’t like harems. I have a soft spot in my heart for Love Hina, because it’s the mother of all harem manga, but it’s not just random girls throwing themselves onto the main character. It does have a very clear main pairing and above everything else, is really fun to read. I don’t see this manhwa as a real “harem”, even though the set up smells a lot like it. It’s really not.

So if you don’t like harem, don’t worry, there’s not much harem in here. Would I recommend this Manhwa? Sure, why not. It’s fun seeing the girls being the strong ones for once and Qeens younger brother is really funny. It’s a good read.

Sakamichi no Apollon – Episode 4 & Korra episode 11 spoilers

So, I’ve been trying to catch up with my anime lately and this made me remember just how great Sakamichi no Apollon is. The pacing, the music, the love… Love Dodecahedron. Seriously, this is not a triangle anymore and I’ve just reached episode 4, while10 episodes aired so far. I can see no end to this, but… f*ck it, it’s awesome. We have Sentarou and Ritsuko, who’re childhoodfriends. They meet the new kid in class, Kaoru, who just moved into town and fell in love with Ritsuko, who’s in love with Sentarou, who falls in love with sophomore Yurika, who falls in love with Junichi, who happens to be Sentarous idol and seems to love Yurika back. And you though Korra was a mess? Oh, how I love these things.

I’m really rooting for Kaoru, but he did some pretty dumb moves, like… you know… kissing Ri-chan out of nowhere, while he’s perfectly aware of the fact that she’s still in love with Sentarou. For some time it actually looked like Sentarou had some good chances to get Yurika, until she saw Junichi playing. If the both of them get together and Sentarou has no chance anymore, this also reduces Kaorus chances, but I highly doubt its so easy. I’m really interested in the story and the characters, plus the music is awesome. Everyone has his problems and although they come from different surroundings, their problems are surprisingly alike at times.

My biggest problem? I can see a major dramatic ending and I hate bad endings. Call me a clichée-loving-chick, but I just like it better when the characters are happy at the end, although I perfectly understand and appreciate the necessarity for a dramatic and tragic end. It sometimes has to be tragic to work. Forced drama is the worst, but here and there it has to be tragic to work out and I get the feeling this anime will have such a tragic end that will make you cry rivers of tears, but will burn itself into your memory as the finale of a truly great anime. I hope I’m wrong and Sakamichi no Apollon will end on a happy note, but just as great.

_____________

On to Makorra. New spoiler-clip. It killed me. Right into the feels. See for yourself
So amazing! Mako and his adorable smile while he’s talking about Korra and… and… and… “I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

These 37 seconds! Why are there only 37 seconds of this! But with this, Makorra is so going to be endgame. Noticed the way they looked at each other? Literally jumping at each other with their eyes? This is the perfect situation for a following kiss. I’m just saying, because the amazing way they absolutely dreamingly look at each other’y eyes smiling like love-stuck idiots. “Can you feel the love tonight.” Hell yes, I can, get those two a room. Now. The sexual tension is killing me and damn you Mako for telling Korra that you can’t imagine a life without her now. In the ears of a shipper this equals “We’re meant for each other and I will love you forever and ever.”, how can you do this to me? I’m in heaven right now and my faith in Korra has not only been restored, but reached new dimensions.

Ok, honestly, I don’t think there will be a kiss, but this promo is so explict Makorra, it jumps right into our faces, so… Bryke, stop the shiptease already and give me my Makorra, we all know they’ll end up with each other, because they’re meant for each other and all that crap, I seriously ship them too hard.

The Legend of Makorra – Episode 10

I’m a Makorrain, I mostly write about Makorra, but if I had to sum up episode 10, I’d do it with these two words: Lin BeiFong

Oh my God, she managed to out-epic herself. She’s stealing the show. She’s literally stealing the show. I’m just saying. You know, I absolutely jumped in my chair due to all the feels I had with the entire Makorra-jelly-Asami-stuff going on, but… when Meelo said: “This lady is my hero” he was damn freaking right, this woman really is a hero. And they even had to let her say the words! Whatever happens to me, don’t look back… this literally means that she’ll be in deep shit, but will sacrifice herself for thze wellbeing of her ex-boyfriends family. Just how awesome can one character become? Lin certainly is setting up new standarts here. Just for a notice, I bet she’ll kick ass even without bending and I can toitally picture Toph being all like “You dared to hurt my Baby-girl, now I’m going to hurt you.” if she knew. Well, as of now we don’t even know if Toph is still alive (actually, I think there’s a high possibility she’s dead), but I can totally picture her going into mama-bear-mode over her “little girl”.

I really pitied Lin, I mean, it must’ve been so awkward to protect Tenzins family, bue to their past relationhip, but she did it nontheless and you can tell me what you want to, but I’m convinced she still treasures him a lot. As much as I like Pema, I think Linzin would’ve made such an awesome pairing, it’s a shame they broke up. I’m sorry, Pema, beautiful new son you got there. Back to Lin, her mother is most likely dead, she doesn’t have a boyfriend or a husband (the only man capable of handling her is probably Tenzin and… we all know what happend), she had to step down from her position as Chief and leave her beloved work, that was probably pretty much her entire life and in the end she sacrified herself for Tenzin and his family. And she KNEW she was going to get her bending taken away from her and, hell, did she kick some serious ass before that happend.

Am I sad she lost her beidng? Surprisingly, no. I’m absolutely convinced that she’s strong enough to handle it and still be the awesome hero-lady she was while she had her bending. She’s mentally and physically a lot stronger than Tanho and won’t break from this experience. While I’m talking about breaking: I get the feeling that Asami is this >>| – |<< close to breaking up with Mako. She was so freaking jealous, it actually made her seem human for once. Like I said in my previous entries, she has every right to be pissed and when Mako declined having feelings for Korra, I wanted to punch him in the face, because… Mako, you know perfectly well that you’re in love with Korra and your actions were so obvious, lying will only make it worse. And Asami knows this, too. Please, somebody, rescue us from this painful relationship, it’s totally going downhill by now anyway. If you ask me, their relationship is already past the point of no return and my prediction for the finale: Asami will turn her back to NTA because of her jealously and in all honestly, I don’t like this scenario. I would’ve preferred a friendlier version without Asami turning evil.

On the other hand: Mama-Mako watched over Korra in her sleep holding her hand being all worried. My Makorra-feels! And Mako went to get some hot water for Korra, that was so unnecessary. I mean, aside the fact that Korra needs it for… what? Pema’s the pregant woman giving birth in this episode, not Korra. Well, maybe for healing? Besides, she’s the Avatar. Mako can firebend and heat up the water and Korra could do it herself just as well. Nice escape by Pema though, I wouldn’t have wanted to stay in the same room as Asami and Mako in this situation as well. Nasty situation, but… Mako held her hand when she was asleep, I don’t care.

The parked car by Korra was amazing btw, just as amazing as Mako comforting Korra after they fleed from Airtemple island. Yes, we have the same situation again: Girls looses everything and this time, Mako doesn’t have to be reminded to comfort her, no, he actually gets it himself this time. Yay, I’m so proud of Mako. It would’ve been better if he actually sorted out his problems with his (soon to be ex-) girlfriend, before holding Korra in his arms right before Asamis eyes., Yes, that was pretty dump and so we hurt Asami yet again. Ouch. Actually, I’m feeling bad for Asami right now, but I’m happy for Korra, I mean, she must’ve noticed something, including Makos sweet behaviour towards her and the fight he’s having with Asami, As much as it’s Makos fault for not saying anything to Asami, Korra is part of this love-triangle as well and she could initiate a solution, but I doubt Korra is sensitive enough for friendly results. Still, she could at least do something that leads to Mako and Asami sorting this mess out. She was the one who kissed Mako back then, she was the one who confessed her love for him and made him all confused, so it’s partly her fault as well.

I’m not trying to blame anyone, because they’re just teenagers in love and have no clue how to handle this mess properly and they have to rescue Republic City, too. It’s probably just way too much for all of them. I’ve vome to a point where I just wait for Makorra to finally happen, because thanks to the mess between Asami and Mako that has build up in ep 10, there’s no way this relationship can survive. But… I don’t want Mako to ditch Asami and just go into lovely-dovely mode with Korra. I doubt he will, though. He may be a jerkbender, but he’s not that cold. At least I hope so.

All in all, the episode was awesome and next up is the grand finale and I absolutely can’t wait for it. Prepare for Makorra, prepare for some more bending taken away from important persons, prepare for epic firenation warships ripping wholes into Amon (seriously… Iroh! IROH!) and some more love-triangle-drama with Asami, Mako and Korra.