The Unremarkable Beginning

Day One.

There’s nothing special about this day. So if you’re asking why I started writing this blog on this day, I honestly don’t know. My body have no sense of time anymore so my day started at 2 p.m. I woke up with a terrible headache because I haven’t had much sleep for days. I guess, I should mention this. Aside from being an otaku, I’m also an insomniac. At first, I thought sleeping is a waste of time. There are so many things I could be doing instead of sleeping. Because of that way of thinking, I started sleeping less and less until I couldn’t sleep at night even if I want to. Anyway, back to this day. I had a good start. I had breakfast while watching episode 2 of “Papa to Musume no Nanokakan” (パパとムスメの７日間). I loaded several episodes overnight. (Sometimes I feel bad for my laptop. It doesn’t get the rest it deserves) In case your wondering, “Papa to Masume no Nanokakan” is a Japanese series about a father and daughter switching bodies for 7 days. It’s like a Japanese version of Freaky Friday. I know people would say, an otaku should be watching anime and not dramas. Well, lately I’ve become a drama otaku. Makes sense right? After all, the term otaku applies to all forms of obsessions. I’ve been an anime and manga otaku for as long I could remember. I’ve been a gemu otaku around highschool. So I guess you could say, I’m trying new things as I grow older. But of course my day wouldn’t be complete withought watching at least one anime and today I watched two. After breakfast I watched, “Hitsuji no Uta” (羊の歌、ひつじのうた) and “Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru” (きっと永遠に). There’s nothing that special about them in terms of animation, music and creativity. But I loved their storyline. “Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru” or in English: “I Love my Little Sister” was a story about twins who fell in love with each other. Some people may think it’s sick and disgusting but I really love stories about forbidden love. Stories about relationships that challenge the laws of society. You could say that I hate some of society’s unfair laws. Laws like: you couldn’t date a co-worker because it’s unethical. You should not fall in love with your student because it’s not right. You can’t love your brother because that would be incest. You shouldn’t let anyone know you’re an otaku because people would think you’re weird.

Who gave people the right to judge other people just because of who they date, what they look like or how they feel? Everyone should do what makes them happy even if society does not agree with them. Just because the majority thinks something is right, doesn’t mean it really is right. I remember this story from the book I read by Paulo Coelho:

There was once a peaceful kingdom. But one day, the an evil wizard put poison on a well, which was the source of water for the entire kingdom. Anyone who would drink water from that well would be insane. And so, after drinking the water, everyone in the kingdom have gone mad. But the royal family, who drinks from their own well were saved from this fate. They were the only people who remained sane. But since everyone in the kingdom were crazy, they wouldn’t listen to their king. He’s the one who’s different from all of them, so they thought he must be the one who’s crazy, not them. Since there are more of them, they think that they’re right. The king gave up and he and his family drank the poison and became crazy like everyone else. But since everyone’s crazy, no one is there to tell them that they are insane.

I guess, the moral of the story was: Just because majority of the people say that they are right, that doesn’t mean that we should just accept everything they say and think. Who knows? Maybe the whole world drank that poison and people like me who doesn’t conform to society’s standards are the only people who are truly sane.

Going back to today, the other anime I watched, “Hitsuji no Uta” or “Lament of the Lambs” in English, had a similar story as “I Love my Little sister”. It’s about a boy with an unusual illness who fell in love with his older sister who shares the same fate as him. It was a very dark and creepy anime and I loved it. The pace was a bit slow and there were a lot of re-used scenes but I love how this anime was presented. The colors were dark and sometimes completely black and white. The music had a very gothic feel to it which was perfect for the anime because it’s about vampires. And I love vampire stories!

Since I loved the story of both anime, I decided to watch their live-action versions. To my utter surprise, the lead character of “I Love my Little Sister” was one of my favorite actors, Matsumoto Jun. I liked Jun in Hana Yori Dango, Gokusen and Kimi wa Petto but I’m not a huge fan of his because, for me, he lacked versatility. “Hitsuji no Uta” was a bigger shock for me because the 3 lead characters were portrayed by three of my most favorite actors. The lead role, Kazuna, was played by the Johnny Depp of Japan, Oguri Shun. Shun had been my number one favorite Japanese actors ever since I first saw him in GTO. It’s not because of his good looks but because of his acting abilities. He impressed me even more when he started taking on a number of diverse roles. His immense versatility really amazed me. His leading lady in this movie, Yaegashi, was portrayed by Minami. I only saw her in Yukan club but I really liked her acting. She’s one of the few female actresses that I enjoyed watching. And the other leading lady, Chizuna, was played by Katsuki Nato. She was really good in Hitsuji no Uta and she did a really good job as Shigeru in Hana Yori Dango. Anyway, “I love my little sister” bored me to death. The pace was unbearably slow and the silence was a bit too much. Also, even though Jun nailed the part of Yori, the girl who played his sister, Iku, was nothing like her anime counterpart. Iku was supposed to be cute, friendly and bubbly. But the Iku in the movie was dull and lifeless. But I did enjoy watching “Hitsuji no Uta”. I admit it had a lot of flaws but the performance of the three lead actors was more than enough to compensate for that. They really did justice to their characters. Plus they added a really cool scene that wasn’t in the anime: the part where Kazuna imagined killing his classmates by sucking their blood. Shun was amazing in that scene! He makes a really good vampire. The movie was a little less morbid and twisted than the anime. The anime ended with the two leads killing themselves but in the movie, no one died. The incestuous relationship between Kazuna and Chizuna was also not shown in the movie. But aside from the unsatisfying ending, the movie was a pretty good adaptation of the anime. Haven’t read the manga though.

After watching two anime and two movies, I surfed the net to search for new anime and dramas to watch, update my anime and drama lists on my website, reply on some forums and say hi to some on-line otaku friends. After doing my online errands I returned to watching “Papa to Musume no Nanokakan” while playing with my cat “Ichigo”. Ichigo, his wife and two kittens are my only companions at home. Ichigo’s a really spoiled cat who loves getting all of my attention. He dreams of becoming a model or at least I think he does because he loves it when I take his pictures. He even poses for me and he whines when I stop shooting. After several hours of watching, I finished all 7 episodes of “Papa to Musume no Nanokakan”. It was a really great drama and it’s now one of my all time favorites. It was really fun watching the two characters struggling to live each other’s life. No offense to those who loved Freaky Friday, but what happened to the characters in that movie was like a walk in the park compared to what happened to Koume and her dad. The two lead actors in this drama were flawless in their portrayal! They were incredibly convincing! I really enjoyed watching them from start to end. And the story had a lot of moral lessons. The last episode even made me cry. It was a very inspiring, funny and heartwarming series and it was a perfect way to end my day. After watching dark, creepy and sad anime and movies, “Papa to Musume no Nanokakan” left a smile on my face. I wonder what it would be like to switch bodies with my dad? That wouldn’t be a good idea. Definitely not. Better stay away from peaches…just in case.

Well, it’s 4 AM already. I guess, I better go to bed. I feel bad not being able to do much today. I planned on uploading videos on my site and downloading some manga but I totally forgot. The painting I started was still unfinished and I still have a pile of costumes to mend. Well, I hope I could finish it all tomorrow. I better start watching Claymore and D-Gray Man too because I’m so far behind in the anime scene. I wish I’m in Japan right now. I missed out on a lot of good anime and dramas because of all this traveling. I miss going to Akihabara too. Well, it can’t be helped. I had no choice.

End of Day One.