Bakuman’s 90s-ness makes me happy.

Some thing, or rather many things, or rather everything, about Bakuman makes it seem like it’s from another era of anime. I can’t speak for the feel of the manga, but I know what I see when I turn this show on each week. I see a flashback to the 90s!

What first alerted me to this other-time feeling in Bakuman was the opening song. “Blue Bird”‘s lilting quality and sweet sound strikes me as unexpected for this shonen series. The character designs, especially Miho, the female lead, and her mother feel very much informed by Masakazu Katsura of Video Girl Ai fame (which also ran in Weekly Shonen Jump). In any case, they aren’t pulling from what is a modern and currently popular aesthetic. More than anything else though, it is the hopeful, sweet, and endearing pursuit of their dreams (and loves) that makes Bakuman seem nostalgic.

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Ume Note: Kimi ni Todoke tips its hat to Death Note?

Kimi ni Todoke’s 2nd season starts off with a 0 episode devoted to a sorta recap of the 1st season while also giving us a closer look at Kurumi. Kurumi has excellent growth in the short time we meet her, but that doesn’t hinder her mean-spirited, though cleverly hidden, nature. She becomes a character that you really enjoy seeing as she progresses forward. But enough of that seriousness, I laughed quite hard to see what I could only describe as a mini-Death Note homage in this episode!

Ode to Broken Things

If your anything like me you have found yourself dissecting your choices in entertainment and what they mean about you. I occasionally sit back and wonder why I truly enjoy the things I truly enjoy. During these examinations I have come to one major conclusion. The artists and works I usually like the most are usually very flawed. I loved Kinoko Nasu, Rumiko Takahashi, and Yoshiyuki Tomino but they are all idiosyncratic artists with highly imperfect works under their belt. This realization lead me to another even more shocking revelation.  All the most influential works in a genre are not the masterworks but flawed works. All the shows that define radical shifts are often riddled with major flaws but are inspiring despite that fact.

Flawed works are sometimes the most special of all; they are chance taking stories that don’t quite have all the details worked out. When breaking new ground it is no surprise when one gets lost along the way. This can occur in many different facets from having the amount of episodes suddenly shortened due to low-ratings or lulls in the middle of the story as they try to stretch or even extraneous characters taking up too much time. But these are also stories that surprise you with their decisions and that’s a most powerful and memorable reaction.

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