12 Days of Anime (2014) – Day 8 – Giving a Renowned Anime a Chance

Every year, for Day 8 of my 12 Days of Anime, I recall an experience where I gave an anime a chance. So far, my list has included:

• Giving a Bad Anime a Chance (Softenni, 2011)
• Giving a Forgotten Anime a Chance (Yuru Yuri, 2012)
• Giving a Disappointing Anime a Second Chance (Tamayura ~more aggressive~, 2013)

For every rendition of this tradition, I have attempted to cover a distinctive and different focus with each post. The first year was on an anime that I originally deemed bad, but stuck with it to see if I could salvage some entertainment from it. The second year reflected an anime I never gave a chance to, not even an episode when it first came out. The third year was on a sequel to an anime that I was frustrated and dissatisfied with and was originally planning on skipping. Here, for my 2014 version about giving an anime a chance, I look back at a greatly admired, highly acclaimed, and universally respected anime that I never made an effort to watch in my many years of watching anime. For Day 8, I will reflect upon watching Mushishi, and how that watching this renowned anime was one of the highlights of my year.

12 Days of Anime (2013) – Day 8 – Giving a Disappointing Anime a Second Chance

I’ve tried to follow some themes in my 12 Days of Anime posts, and Day 8 has traditionally been reserved for an anime that I normally would not have watched but ended up enjoying greatly.  In 2011, I gave a bad anime (Softenni) a chance and in 2012, I gave a forgotten anime (Yuru Yuri) a chance.  In 2013, I changed my stance again, and decided to reexamine an anime I would not have watched based on how dissatisfied or frustrated I was with an earlier installment.  And earlier this year, Tamayura ~more aggressive~ aired.  Considering my displeasure with Tamayura ~hitotose~, the first television series in the franchise, I considered passing the sequel without a hesitation.  It even took me about a week after the first episode aired to even watch the first episode.  But since that moment, I found myself enjoying Tamayura like never before and it’s all thanks to giving a disappointing anime a second chance.

12 Days of Anime (2012) – Day 4 – Awakening to the Sports Genre

Unbeknownst to most, if not all, I am a passionate and fervent sports fan.  All throughout my life, sports has had a fundamental and irreplaceable role.  Even today, I spend more time watching, following, and discussing sports than all my time spent on anime, manga and this blog combined.  You figure it’d only be natural for me to be a fan of sports anime seeing how enthusiastic I am about sports.  Well, for whatever reasons, I never found myself interested or excited about any sports anime, save for Battle Athletes Victory back in the 2000.  In fact, I believe that was the last true sports anime I’ve watched (shows like Softenni do not count).  Then, in Autumn of 2011, I started Chihayafuru, an anime revolving around one girl’s love of competitive karuta.  It wasn’t until well into the second half before I realized I was watching a genuine sports anime.  Not only that, but I was loving it, too!

12 Days of Anime – Day 8 – Giving a Bad Anime a Chance

Watching Softenni was not one of my top 12 anime moments of the year, not even close.  But why you’re seeing it here for the eighth day is because I gave it a chance, even though I knew it was a bad anime.  And you know what, the earth didn’t shatter, the oceans didn’t dry, and the sun didn’t burn out.  And Softenni proved me wrong and turned out to be a somewhat decent and enjoyable anime.

Spring 2011 – Season Review

With all the Spring finales having finished and the Summer anime season starting briskly right behind, it’s about time to recollect all that anime that aired during the past three months and see how they fared.  Yes, it’s time for the Spring 2011 Season Review for the 12+ series I watched.  Below will be some quick reviews and evaluations comparing some of the very best and most memorable to a series I just could not finish despite having lofty hopes for.

Softenni – 12 (Finale)

Thinking back to before the season began, I thought Softenni was just gonna be another worthless ecchi anime, probably because the camera couldn’t focus on anything besides everyone’s panties in the PV.  Thinking back to the start of the season, I was unimpressed with the anime for its bland comedy and clichéd characters, not to mention the pitiful excuses so that they could add in unnecessary fanservice.  I picked it up though, since I thought it would be a challenge to blog this anime for an entire season when I otherwise would’ve dropped it, especially after that uneventful first episode.  But the series began to evolve, most noticeably when they had the practice tennis match (episode 6), with more authentic comedy, a decline in pointless fanservice, and an definite shift of focus toward tennis and the characters having fun together.  The latter half of Softenni really grew on me once these transformations occurred and I began to enjoy the series as a whole.  Now that it’s over and I look back on Softenni, I can say I have no regrets watching and blogging this anime.

Softenni – 11

So the story behind Softenni, or what I’d like to think was a story, was Asuna and the rest of the soft tennis team aiming to play in the national tournament and eventually end up as national champions.  With only one episode left in the anime, it has become obvious the girls will never become champions, let alone play in the tournament.  That shouldn’t be surprising, seeing as the manga is still continuing and this is only a 12-episode season, but that’s quite a tease they put on us.  Still, it’s a thousand times better, at the very minimum, than making an anime original ending.