Welp, I'm on another anime binge.

I wasn't really big on anime growing up, that was my sister's thing. My sister used to watch Toonami a lot, and was a heavy Sailor Moon and DBZ fan. The latter of which I would watch with her sometimes, but I wasn't really a fan for various reasons, including the stupidly-long arcs that mostly consisted of a lot of build-up to a single fight. It wasn't until my early twenties, when I was working and coming home at late hours did she turn me on to Adult Swim. I fell in love with series like FMA, Ghost in the Shell, Trigun, and Inuyasha because of that.

It wasn't until much, much later that dove head-first into the medium. When I was still working at the chicken-killing plant, a younger coworker introduced me to 'Fullmetal Panic', which I found to be humorous and entertaining (though not quite memorable) but was ultimately inconclusive in the romantic-subplot department. That's why, when I found myself without a job for quite a while, I ended up binge-watching any anime with a romantic subplot.

This was mostly shonen/adventures with romantic subplots, but I watched some shojous as well. The difficulty here, was that I was actually watching all of these anime with my twin brother, and while we could easily knock out an entire season in a day, we had a very hard time deciding what to watch. We both agreed that we wouldn't watch anything inconclusive (which the genre tends to be, due to most anime only being a short, 12-episode season meant to further market the source material) or anything containing anything like rape, or anything of the sort. The fact that we lived in a one-room apartment meant that we had to decide on things like this, though that wasn't so bad, considering our similar tastes, it could get a tad annoying.

I don't mind half of the low-brow anime that we watched, but there were few anime that we ran into that I could really support and get behind and call them exceptional works. Spice and Wolf be among them, as would Lovely Complex, Maid Sama, and a few others. Then there was Toradora and Clannad.

These two anime . . . 'god tier', is as best as I can describe them. Both are romantic dramas that focus on very different things, but ultimately are the best at what they do . . . tugging on your goddamn heartstrings. I gave up on looking for anything that would effect me even remotely as much as these two anime, up until now. Now, I don't have my brother to worry about, seeing as now we have individual rooms, and I'm just looking shit up willy-nilly.

I still have this 'will they/won't they' craving with anime, but I don't have to screen every god damned thing I watch in order to fulfill that need, and I'm kind of trying to side-step that inclination, anyway. If I absolutely know that something doesn't contain a romantic subplot, I probably won't watch it . . . which is why I tend to not let myself know that much about the anime I watch, these days. I need to let go of expectations and just watch things that reportedly have good writing.

That doesn't mean that I'm not still fruitlessly looking for an anime like Toradora.

Well, here's a look at what I've been watching lately.

Sound! Euphonium

I went into Sound! Euphonium thinking that it had a serious 'yuri' subplot, but I was wrong. The anime doesn't have any romantic subplots at all. There are several times that the anime sends odd messages, and basically behaves as a better romance-story than most slice-of-life romance stories . . . but it's just friends being exceptionally affectionate. that's pretty much it. And it does that well. I feel like that needs to be said, because anyone going in expecting one thing, is going to end up missing what the anime is, and what it does well.

Sound! Euphonium basically follows a high-school band class that, at the behest of a new instructor, decides to shoot for nationals. It's a competition story about a group of kids that learn what it really takes to hope to succeed, and the sour reality that awaits most who give it their all. We get a real taste of the harsh reality of competition, what it means to compete with one's peers, to step on toes, and the regret of those who didn't chase their dreams.

I don't think I can describe it, other than this is miles ahead of other slice-of-life anime, and certainly miles ahead of the grand majority of anime taking place in a high-school setting.

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Usagi Drop/Bunny Drop

This is basically a short anime that revolves around a thirty-something year old bachelor who takes on the role of taking care of a young child after nobody else in the family would do so. There's really nothing else that I need to explain, here. It's heart-warming as hell, and a huge departure from the usual fare.

Kimi Na Todoke

I'm actually pretty disappointed in this one, but it wasn't bad. It's biggest crime is really just being so highly regarded despite being so ordinary and run-of-the-mill.

The main premise is that the main character, Sawako (nicknamed Sawdako) is your typical shy, asocial character, but with the twist of everyone thinking she's like the girl from the ring.

My main problem with the anime is that the male love-interest isn't on-screen enough, and because of that, there's not really that much chemistry or development between him and Sawako. We know they like each other, but the anime never really makes an effort to actually sell it. There's no journey, no emphasis on these two really getting to know each other past their initial feelings. Sawako's newfound friendship with two supporting female leads is actually far more interesting than the romantic subplot . . . in an anime that's supposed to be a romance story.

It's also inconclusive, a 'read the manga' sort of plot, so there's that.

In the end, it basically does what every single anime I've ever forgotten does.

Though, the anime does put things into perspective. I no longer think Clannad's romantic subplot (Nagisa and Tomoya) is nearly as weak as I thought it was. I sort of have a hate-boner for romance-stories where the girl is super-nice, and the two main characters instantly get along without ever having a fight or conflict. Those stories are a dime a dozen, and they tend to put me to sleep. At least Clannad does that type of relationship much better than others.