August’s Final Denouement: Why Risa and Otani just make sense.

The school romance is a staple whether you are talking about shonen or shojo but when speaking of modern girls manga alone, there is an overwhelming amount of it. It is easy to say that you’ve seen it all before, that nothing can surprise you, or that they are just plain silly and unrelatable and for the most part, even as someone who reads a lot of them, you wouldn’t be far off the mark. They are fluff but every once and a while you come across one that makes the familiar feel so very special. Maybe Lovely Complex isn’t the most original school romance you’ll ever see, but it is a pillar on how to do it justice.

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Paradise Kiss’s Hiroyuki: One Point on Two Triangles

Paradise Kiss is all about relationships. Friends. Co-workers. Family. Lovers. And Paradise Kiss goes a long way to showing that all of these relationships, minor or major, make a difference and effect your decision, consciously or not. Growing through experience plays a solid tune throughout the series. As each character goes down their paths, some having a better idea of where they are headed than others, no one is alone on their journey. Hiroyuki, the seemingly average man among men, plays pivotal roles in much of the story despite being not quite part of the group.

hisuiconI always took away the message of Paradise Kiss being that what we think we want, what we actually want, what we need, and what we get are all very separate things. No matter how much we may try to get them to be the same we discover life is about dealing with the fact that these four things may never meet up no matter how much we try to make them. All the member of Paradise Kiss kiss deal with these clashes of desires and realities both romantically and professionally throughout the series. But there is one character who on the surface seems out of place. Hiroyuki Tokumori seems to be a minor character who is both above this and apart from this. But on further analysis we see that he is not only a key player in all the lives of the main characters but also just as torn and effected by these conflicts as everyone else.

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The Speakeasy: A Reverse Thieves Podcast – Drink #007

Anime 3000 presents The Speakeasy Podcast:
Drink #007: Official OUFC (Oxford United Football Club) Drink, Get into the game!

Sports manga and anime are some of the most popular staple series in Japan along side such institutions as shonen fighting and school romance. Almost any sport has at least one series centered around it with many sports like baseball, boxing, and soccer getting several every year. The classics of sports titles are influential on Japanese media and culture as seen by constant references, parodies, homages, and allusions. But why are sport series so well received in Japan but essentially ignored in the U.S.? What about the genre as a whole is so poorly perceived when it contains such a wide variety within? And we hopefully give people some good series to start watching/reading sports series!

Plus, a second giveaway for our birthday! Listen to the episode to learn how to enter! This contest is over.

(Listen) (Show Notes)

And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drink:

Official OUFC (Oxford United Football Club) Drink

1 part Aperol
1 part Pisang Ambon
1 part 7-up

Shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into Highball glass.