How Blue Spring Ride changed my perspective on romance anime | ANIME REVIEW

Episodes: 12 plus 2 (1 Season: 12 EP; OVA: 2 EP) 

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shoujo, Slice of Life

Theme: School

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

If you're into romance anime, this is a charming and simple anime. There's no distinct storyline to be followed, no superpowers to unleash. This is just a story of a girl as she struggles with identity, acceptance, and love. 

This is surprisingly interesting for me. The story does not have a plot that will specifically hook you to the show, the setup is just relatable. The characters, their actions, and their decisions are all very familiar that you somehow see yourself in them. 

The high school setup is probably one of the catches of the show. It is an exciting season for most of us, we did not only learn about school lessons but life lessons in general. Almost everything is exciting. This show reflects many of those memories, making this truly interesting.  

The simplicity is what makes this anime good. 

My takeaway:

In this life, we encounter tons of people. Strangers that became friends and even lovers. We love radically without the thought of the red flags, we sometimes don't think about the future and just live in the moment. The problems may wait for their turn. 

Some aspects were filled with regrets, the ones that got away, our "What if's". There are chances, there are hopes that we keep on holding on for some strange reasons, even if it does not make sense. 

What we can learn from all of this is if we lose our first chance, we should learn from it and grab the opportunity for the second chance once it presents itself. We will never know if a third one will pop again.

We live and move forward, time only moves forward and we should do the same as well. We should only cling to the past to learn and reminisce. Living in the past stops our present to progress. 

//BlueSpringRide

//sebajisoka

Liwanag Sa Dilim

More than a decade ago.

2 precedential election

2004 and 2010

We campaigned for Bro. Eddie as the president of the Philippines. We failed, the majority wants a different leader. But we learned a lot. We learned about politics, and we learned about different policies and different stands. 

What we wanted is a clean government free of corruption. Gusto namin yung magaling, yung malinis, yung may pangarap para sa bansa. 

This year, it was Leni Robredo, the current Vice President of the Philippines. She is the best candidate.

If we look at her track record, she has done great things. 

If we look at integrity, her office has the highest audit rating from COA.

If we look at experience, educational background, or even dynasties. 

She is that candidate.

Akala namin nakamit na namin ang tagumpay. 

Masakit. Sobrang nakakalungkot. Siya yung nakita naming pag-asa ng Pilipinas. 

Di ko alam kung bakit, di ko alam kung paano. 

Para bang kami'y pinagkakaitan. Gusto kong lang naman maintindihan.

Mahirap man tanggapin, unti-unti na namin nayayakap ang katotohanan. 

Hindi ito ang nais ng karamihan. 

Hindi parehas ang aming pinaglalaban

Hindi parehas ang aming naiintindihan

Pero para sayo pa din, Pilipinas, ang aming panalangin.

Dito sa bagong itinalaga, ikaw ay iaasa.

Ipaglalaban, tatayo sa tama, at patuloy na mamumuna.

Iangat ang pagiging tapat at paulit ulit na ilalahad ang katotohanan.

Kami'y walang tigil na magbabantay

Hinding hindi ka susukuan

Dahil bukas ay may pag-asa na patuloy na naghihintay. 

Kaya siguro hindi tayo'y hindi nagwagi 

Dahil mayroong ibang plano

Ang Diyos na tayo'y pagbuklurin 

Para matunton ang pag-kakaisang ninanais

Na tayo'y patuloy na mangangarap

at patuloy magtutulungan

Dahil higit sa kulay 

Higit sa simbulo

Tayo ay tao, tayo ay Pilipino. 

Nagmahal, patuloy na magmamahal

Dito sa ating bayang 

//LiwanagSaDilim

//sebajisoka

Soft Rains of April

There's not much of what happened this month. I just started a new section on my blog, it's about anime and manga reviews. Other than that, well, my schedule has been changed and we now have a dedicated room as computer stations. 

Since my schedule has been changed, we managed to sneak in some groceries and went to the wet market. It was one of the adult things that are so much fun for me. We get to buy the food we want. Alright! 

There's also a game in our office where we participated. I solely won a cake. It was nice and sweet. 

We also went to Ikea to explore and buy a little something for our home, we bought their iconic Meatballs. It is indeed good tasting. 

Photo Dumplings!

//SoftRainsofApril

//sebajisoka

How Steins;Gate changed my life | Anime Review

Steins;Gate / Steins;Gate 0

Episodes: 47 ( Season 1: 24, Season 2: 23)

Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Suspense

Theme: Time Travel, Psychological

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

Steins; Gate is a pretty slow-paced but well-written time-travel anime with a lot of twists and turns. As you know, time travel is a complicated concept, many shows and movies have tried but to me, nothing has conceptualized it beautifully as Steins; Gate.

We follow our main character, a self-proclaimed mad scientist who's crazy about inventions and time travel. We were introduced to his funny characteristics and his relationship with his friends.

They tackled the complicated laws, the intertwined process with the timeline, and the paradoxes. There are lots of key terms that will help us understand as we proceed with the show. 

Aside from the sci-fi part of the anime, they amazingly crafted characters and their arcs. Many reviews indicate that the first 12 episodes were really slow and it will be peaking from that. But to me, it establishes the characters, their thought process, and the dynamics with each other. 

It may be hard to follow the story at times but every moment becomes really interesting when they started to reveal things one by one.

Each character has enough airtime base on different things, they have specific roles that magnify the whole story. 

The first season provides us with the horror of the concept of time travel, this show made me realize how destructive time travel is, and how the government will definitely try chasing the machine or its concept. How a time-traveler will impact the world massively by altering the past. 

The second season is interestingly crafted as well, it tackles the alternative timeline away from the first season. It exalts key moments from the first season and shows us what happens if our character proceeds with a different timeline. We will totally understand the decisions made, specifically the impact. It changes the character on how he views things and his priorities have changed. 

My takeaway:

As cool as it sounds, time travel is a crazy idea that can be really dangerous. It affects tons of people. the world and even your sanity. There are lots of paradoxes that can blow our minds. But above that, this show somehow stands on being satisfied with what we have now. 

The story's goal is to go back in time when time travel has not been invented yet. It undoes the consequences of messing with time. 

Life is intended to move forward, what we encounter, the good and the bad, the people and relationships, is part of the experience. It's the law of nature. We can only advance. 

It subtly discusses that we should live by our decisions and not take for granted the time that we have now. To live with every moment knowing that we can never go back. 

//Steins;Gate

//sebajisoka

Anime Review: Beastars

Episodes: 24 (2 Season)

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Shounen, Slice of Life

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Beastars anime is an adaptation of the Manga of the same name. It resembles the 2016 Disney movie, Zootopia. This anime tackles a lot about society, it is interesting since they are using animals as representation. 

In a world where there's a gap between Carnivores and Herbivores, the interaction between the two sides becomes interesting. The herbivores are viewed as weak, and the carnivores are strong. The reliability of the situation is noticeable as you watch the series. 

The world-building is top-notched. There are amazing main characters and supporting cast. Their backstories are well thought out. 

We have the main character, Legosi. Awkward, shy, and a wolf. We explore perspective as we watch him struggle and deal with love, racial status, and standing up according to their strength.  

There are lessons to be perceived like sexual compatibility, trust among each other, and dealing with uncertainty. It showcases the bravery of one's rights and fighting for what one believes in.

Beastars is an anime of the ages. Please don't get fooled by their furry presentation. The anime is really good. You should definitely watch this,

//Beastars

//sebajisoka

Anime Review: Darling in a Franxx

This anime is being recommended so many times from IG and Tiktok, I learned about this around the same time that I learned about rent-a-girlfriend but I'm not interested due to the theme of having robots. 

But as I was browsing on what to watch next, I stumbled upon a short review of this anime and I started checking online if I should watch it. So, I did. 

I don't exactly know how to describe this but this anime is mostly about robots, aliens, and a complicated love story. It has a nice storyline compressed into a 24 episode anime. There were hints of clues throughout the first few episodes that give these suspicious elements on what's going on.

I enjoyed watching this but I don't put it high on the list. It's fun and emotional. A love triangle is a common theme and also, saving the world. There are also some sensual elements of this anime that are quite funny to watch for me. It will definitely be ignored by young audiences but yeah, it has those parts. 

This anime could be better, but I understand that this has been good and simple. 

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

//sebajisoka

Anime Review: Aoi Bungaku

Eyy. Since I'm into anime now, I'll start a new series on my blog. Anime and Manga reviews. So, I started this month with Aoi Bungaku. Here's my review: 

Aoi Bungaku or Blue Literature series

Aoi Bungaku has been on my watch list for a while and for some reason, it did not catch my interest to watch it immediately until recently. It just does not appeal to me that much, it just happened to be the next anime on my list. 

This anime is not for the faint of heart, it is dark, depressing, and psychological in a way. The theme might not be for everyone but this is a great work of art and literacy. It speaks volumes about human psychological depth in a way that can be interpreted in a simple and unexplainable way. 

It is complex and insanely beautiful. It contains 6 different stories in a span of 12 Episodes. 

No Longer Human 

Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita

Kokoro

Run, Melos!

The Spider's Thread

Hell Screen

While all of them are really nice stories, my personal favorites are No Longer Human and Kokoro. 

No Longer Human contains a mystery and agony of oneself toward what's happening outside and inside your life. The decisions that you've made and the complexity of adapting. To be honest, you can interpret this in any way that you wanted to or how you see things from your perspective. 

Kokoro explores the story underneath another story. How life might be beautiful and tragic at the same time. How humans react and manipulate a story. 

This is one hell of a ride for a 12 episode anime. Well written and truly.. tragic. 

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

//sebajisoka