I realized after posting last week's write up that I actually forgot to include a few links but let's start with what I posted this week. This week I talked about Show by Rock (which is cute but totally a fluff show, also I want figurines of half of the characters please and thank you), the webcomic Kiwi Blitz (which I also wouldn't mind figures of!), and a rather decisive book-becoming-a-tv-series The Magicians (just about every review I've seen of it/person I've talked to have mentioned how it seems to be a love it or hate it series).
What I forgot to post last week were the Shoujo You Should Know posts and, since Muse and I have finished up that column for the summer, a few final thoughts on things I forgot to include in the posts below the cut.
Previously we had Full Moon wo Sagashite (Searching for the Full Moon or just Full Moon) from me and Alice in the Country of Hearts from Muse and Muse really did manage to convince me to write about Shugo Chara! to wrap up the series. I remembered that SC was weird before I started writing but as Muse and I were practically laughing trying to put the review together we both realized it was even weirder than we remembered, which honestly happened a lot with this column! In retrospect I am glad we talked about this one since SC was one of my first fandoms and Amulet Spade was the first cosplay I did (and inspired a hatred of ruffles that lasted about three or four years afterwards, I had to get my mom to help me with the five feet of ruffles to go on the butt bow because I was so terrible on it) and yet, I never finished the series. It gets really bizarre towards the end (we were double checking the details and I was spluttering over a few things I didn't know) and as a result I've never been that interested in the rest of Peach-Pit's works. BUT, Muse and I did realize that Amu's outward persona is identical to NOPE: THE ANIME which was amazing (and I cannot wait for it to be a comic, yessss).
Back to the topic at hand, Muse and I realized that there were a lot of little things like that which popped up when we were doing the reviews, talk about Fruits Basket? BAM GET A SORTA-SEQUEL. Confess our love for Natsume Yuujinchou? HOW ABOUT SOME ACTUAL PLOT MOVEMENT? Wish? Well it's a bit spoilery but apparently Drug and Drop has an even stronger connection to the series than fans first noticed. Maybe we should do this column next year too if it causes all of these cool things to happen.
I also realized that while Muse and I talk about the anime adaptations of Natsume and SC we totally forgot to do it for Furuba and I had a few thoughts on Cardcaptor Sakura as well. For Furuba, we both recommend the manga over the anime, the anime is fine up until the last few episodes where it tries to wrap everything up way too early and everyone goes horribly out of character (plus, it was widely known in the US fandom when I became a fan that the director and the manga-ka practically hated each other by the end and she never wanted to work with them again which strikes me as a good reason to avoid the anime). If you do want to watch it however I have a nostalgic connection to the dub but I'm not sure how well that holds up. The CCS anime however is fine, it's expanded but I think it's all cute and the only problem I had with it came at the very end so if you want to go in unspoiled please skip this last paragraph.
For those still here, the anime for some reason cuts out the fact that Clamp once again had to bring in their love of clones/twins and Sakura's father is also Clow's reincarnation and that Sakura then splits the magic so he receives some of it as well. It actually wraps up a few plot points nicely, why Sakura was better suited to be the next Master of the Clow than Sharoan (she's a much closer descendent), why her brother Touya's magic was so tasty for both Yue and Ruby (he also comes by his magic from both their mother and their father), why her father has no family, and, in the manga at least, Sakura makes a few comments about how Eriol reminds her of her father and the manga demonstrates it by having them look similar. It's not a game-breaker for me that the anime omitted this but it's proof that at one point Clamp actually knew what they were doing with their plot twists.
