Shows I have been loving

It has been way too long since I have last updated this blog. I have been quite busy and to be honest, a little unmotivated to write some reviews/playlists but I am back with something different which is shows I have been loving recently. I decided to do this because I have been watching some shows and hope that it will help those who are looking for something new to watch(though a lot of these shows are quite popular). 

 Anime

1. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
This anime/manga is about a 2nd year high school student named Saiki Kusuo who was born with psychic abilities. One might think that having psychic abilities will make their life easier but for Saiki, it only makes it harder. His wish is to have a quiet and peaceful life; however it tends to be disrupted by his powers and those around him such as his classmates, people he encounters and his parents.

First of all, I just had to watch this anime so many times because it is extremely funny. This is something I would highly recommend when one is having a bad day. It would for sure cheer you up. Also this is the right anime for you if are into slice of life and comedy. I think this is a bit similar to Gintama such as the comedic parts and characters but as far as I know, there are no serious scenes compared to Gintama.


2. High Score Girl 
This anime/manga is about a boy named Haruo Yaguchi who is a gamer. He primarily spends his time in the arcade playing Street Fighter. Haruo considered himself to be the best player until a girl named Akira Ono shows and ends up beating him. This slice of life anime/manga shows Haruo's life from elementary to high school and has a bit of romance to it as well.

Overall, I thought this was a cute and simple show. It just felt like it was youth so a typical life of kids. It made me curious about video games especially ones from the 90s. I did not know that Street Fighter was popular among gamers. This anime I believe shows that being passionate about something can bring people together even those who weren't into that certain hobby prior to it. 



Drama/Tokusatsu

1. Kamen Rider Build
Kamen Rider Build is about the country of Japan where a martian exhibition has brought the Pandora box was opened which led to the formation of the skywall that split the country into three regions: Hokuto, Seito and Touto. The main character Sento Kiryuu who has no memory of his life prior to a year before has gotten a job at the Touto Institute of Advanced Matter Physics and is aided by Souichi Isurugi and daughter Misora who can purify the smash bottles as well as fugitive Ryuuga Banjou and journalist Saya Takigawa to find out his past.

This was the first Kamen Rider series that I watched since Drive and it was just amazing. This has officially been added to my top 5 Kamen Rider list. There were parts that did not make much sense and was a bit frustrating to watch but overall, the plot was very strong as well as the acting. I felt that this was the right series to start watching Kamen Rider again. Though my love for Kamen Rider has not gone away(and probably never will), it is hard to find time to watch as an adult due to time and I am not someone who is committed enough to watching it every week. The comedic parts were spot on and it was something that even adults are able to enjoy so I highly recommend this series if you are someone wanting to start watching Kamen Rider.



 
2. Tokusatsu Gagaga
Tokusatsu Gagaga is about an office lady named Kano Nakamura who is a huge fan of Tokusatsu but keeps it a secret to her coworkers because she does not want to be judged for her hobby. She then eventually starts finding those with the same or similar hobby such as a 3rd grader and a woman in her thirties.

This drama is way too relatable. As an otaku who doesn't want people to know that I am one, I understand how she feels so much. Though I consider myself to be more of a casual tokusatsu otaku meaning that I just like watching the actual series; there are certain things I can understand such as saying that you like a certain actor on one of the series and just watch it because that actor is in it. One of the reasons I do like to watch Tokusatsu is because there are actors out there that will end up becoming extremely famous such Takeru Sato and Masaki Suda after being on a Tokusatsu series and it makes me feel happy to see someone from these shows succeed.


3. Kamen Rider Ex-aid 
Kamen Rider Ex-aid is about Emu Hojo who is an intern for the Pediatrics Department at Seito University Hospital. He is a genius video game player who goes by the alias "M". The bugsters, a type of computer virus has been affecting human beings. In order to save those who get affected by it and to stop those behind it, he transformed as Ex-aid and joined the The Cyberbrain Room(CR).

 I thought Ex-aid and Build were both very strong when it comes to the storyline. Ex-aid was very fun to watch. I liked how he heroine became a Kamen Rider although I wished she was able to fight more. When Poppy did transform, it was very short and she seemed very strong so I hoped she had more of a spotlight. The one thing I was a bit bothered about when it comes to the series was the design. It wasn't the best and I thought it would get better as the series progresses but it just got worse. 
 
American Sitcoms

1. Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation is about Leslie Knope who works for the Parks and Recreation. She loves her town Pawnee which is a fictional town in Indiana. One day, she meets a young woman named Ann Perkins who complained how a pit next to her apartment injured her boyfriend. This leads Leslie to come up with an idea of creating a park on that spot. This wacky sitcom shows politics in a comedic way.

This show is one of my favorite American sitcoms of all time. The first season is very underwhelming but it gets better throughout the second season onward. Every single character in this show is fun yet crazy in their own way. An interesting fact is how it showed all the problems of a small/rural town in a funny way. I did a paper on this show for my Rural Anthropology class at university which about a 1/3 of the people in class wrote about Parks and Rec as well.



2. One Day at a Time 
One Day at a Time is a remake of the same show that aired in the 1970s. This show is about the daily life aa Cuban-American family. It is focuses on topics such as PTSD, divorce, substance abuse, and growing up.

This show has so many meaningful moments. It has the fun and happy times along with the dark and dramatic times. I think many people regardless of race can relate to at least one thing from this show. When I figured out this was canceled by Netflix, I was a bit sad because a very good show that deserved much more had to end.


3. Fresh Off the Boat 
Fresh Off the Boat is about a Taiwanese-American family who moves from Washington D.C to Orlando, Florida in order for the dad Louis Huang to open up his own restaurant. The family first has a hard time adjusting to their new home such as having to deal with living in a primarily white area, not being to make friends as well as fitting in with the neighbors and the mom Jessica Huang having to deal with her hair frizzing because of the humidity.

As an Asian that grew up in the United States especially in a primarly white area, I can relate to  quite of the things on this show. Being told my food looks awful, people not knowing the difference between any of the Eastern Asian ethnicity and having a hard time getting along with the "other" Asian person in my area/school. I think this show shows a life that many Asian-Americans deal with. I'm very amazed this show was able to do five seasons and if it ends after the fifth season, then it still is able to create an achievement of being the first show with an Asian-American cast with more than two seasons.

Happy 10th Annivesary Hey! Say! JUMP/How I got into them

I was originally going to write a happy 9th anniversary post last year but I got lazy at it. Anyways, today is Hey! Say! JUMP's 10th anniversary. I cannot believe it has been 10 years since these guys made their debut. It feels just like yesterday when I first saw them as teenagers who made their debut. I'm very proud of all their achievements and the improvements they have made over the years and I wish them good luck to all the years ahead.
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Anyways, my story of how I got into them is a bit long so prepare your popcorn and just sit down and chill.

Back when I was in elementary school, I used to buy a Japanese magazine made for each grade. When I was in 4th grade, I discovered Hey! Say! JUMP when they just made their debut on the December issue of the 4th grade magazine. When I first saw them, they looked a lot younger(and they were) than other boybands such as KAT-TUN, NEWS, Arashi etc. So when I saw the years they were born in, I was happy to discover that all the members were born in the 90s although they are all a bit older than myself. Back then, I did not know the eras in Japan so I didn't know Heisei is a era. So, I just assumed that they were just a group made of guys born in the 90s.

Before I started to actually try to get to know the names of the members, I just made up names for them. For some reason, I refused to read anything on that magazine. I made up a name for Chinen especially and made up a story in my head about how he was a relative of mine(I am not related to him at all). Eventually I found the courage to read and the first name I remember reading was Chinen Yuuri. I thought he was cute and he looked rather close to my age(I was 10 years old back then). By refusing to read anything and at the time though and I couldn't read much Japanese anyways, I ended up mistaking Yamada and Chinen. Yamada was featured in a different page as well and maybe because of their hairstyles being similar in the pictures, that might've been the reason why I mistook them.

The magazine didn't provide much information so I decided to go on the one site that had quite a bit of information. That site was Wikipedia. Normally people would go on YouTube to look up a singer but back then, I thought Wikipedia was the best source to look up anything. Honestly, I thought looking up people on Wikipedia was this scary thing to do so I tried to look them up secretly. I ended up hiding the fact I was interested in HSJ from my parents which was a really big mistake along with looking them up on Wikipedia. But I was able to learn the names of the members and learn basic information about them which I thought was all the information. I continued this for a almost a year and during the middle of it, I think I got bored of them so I ended up taking an interest in things such as Pokemon and Hannah Montana.

It wasn't until I went to Japan in November 2008 that I realized what I've been doing isn't how you get to know a group. My cousin was a fan of them at the time so what I did was watch her fangirl over them. She would have my aunt buy magazines such as Duet for her, watch the dramas they were in and have pictures of them on her desk. I remember her having pictures of a member which I don't really know who it was but I'm assuming it was Yamada since he was her favorite member. This made me feel stressed because it made me realize everything I've been doing was wrong and I just didn't know how to tell anyone that I've known who they are for a year.

When I got back to the U.S, I decided to finally take a step forward and listen to their songs. Due to the fact I've only looked them on Wikipedia, I never listened to any of their songs nor kept up with their current image(I have no clue why I didn't look them up on google images). What I did is I listened to the karaoke tracks of their songs on a Japanese DS game called Daigasso Band Brothers DX. I kept this up for a few weeks or so. I knew that I didn't know what the group itself sounded like so I decided to ask for their CDs from Santa(Yes, I believed in Santa Claus back then). Was I able to get their CDs on Christmas day? Obviously not. But I was able to get a Miley Cyrus CD. This led me to finally look them up on YouTube. I was extremely nervous just typing out HSJ. But I was eventually able to type it and when I clicked on Mayonaka no Shadow Boy, I just got hooked. I got addicted to the song and the music video. It was just something I've never seen before. After finally being able to listen to one of their songs, I just fell in love.

But while my life on the internet was a paradise, my real life wasn't the most happiest. It was winter break and it was 1-2 weeks longer due to the snow so I had more time. But due to spending all my time on the computer, my mom got mad at me and tried to get me to do activities such as piano and to hang out with friends I barely had. I remember when I was at a Japanese grocery store, my mom was saying that I needed to do something that involved a group of people while my dad was saying I should talk to friends who don't live close on Skype. At that store, they have a Kinonkuniya and on that same day, we went in and they had the CD for Mayonaka no Shadow Boy. I was thinking of buying it but my parents were there so I knew that if I bought it, they would ask me what I bought and maybe figure out I was a fan of HSJ. So I ended up not buying it.

I continued watching music videos, makings and variety shows secretly for a while. But around the beginning of January 2009, I finally decided to tell my mom that I was into HSJ. So what I did was I showed her the music video for Mayonaka no Shadow Boy and just told her that I've been interested in them for over year. What did my mom think? She thought it was a normal thing for a girl around that age to be into these things. So she wasn't mad at all and wasn't even surprised when I told her I was a Yamada fan. I remember her saying that I haven't changed at all when I told her that.

After that, I was finally able to get started on everything. I was able to get the CDs and DVDs from my grandma in Japan, buy magazines at Kinokuniya. However, it wasn't until last year that I went to their concert but I was able to do all the basic things fans do. If I didn't discover Hey! Say! JUMP, my life would've been so much different. I would've not listened to any of the music I listen to now, watch the shows I watch and I just would be doing something that is extremely different. These guys made me who I am today. So again, congratulations on their 10th anniversary and I can't wait to see where the future takes them.

Anyways, listening to how other people got into them, I know my way is a bit unusual. What did you think? And if anyone is willing to share how they got into them, feel free to comment below and share your story.