Future Diary

I stumbled across this anime and was intrigued by the plot. A very brief description of it would be that it's a combination of Danganronpa and Death Note, with some time travel tossed in.

The main character is named Yuki, a very solitary boy who keeps an observational journal on his phone. He has no friends, by choice, and is in every way an observer of his own life, not actually taking part emotionally. His only 'friends' are imaginary beings, a god named Deus, and a little sprite my creature. One night while talking with his imaginary friends, Deus tells him that things are going to change, and the next day, he finds that his diary posts on his phone have already been written for the day, telling him what will happen. He happily takes advantage of his soothsaying device, until on day, a girl in his class approaches him, and reveals that her phone is also special, also able to predict the future. This freaks him out obviously, but it isn't until that night when he meets Deus, as well as several other faceless strangers, that he finds out what's going on. He, as well as several other people, have been granted devices that tell them the future, and they must use these devices to find and kill each other. When a person has been targeted by another diary user, their own diary will tell them that they have a 'dead end', and they must try to change their fate if they can.
The last person standing becomes god. And all diaries are different, and reflect the personality of the user. Yuki is an observer, so his diary predicts events that will happen around him, but there are other types of diaries too. Yuki then is faced with a battle royale to inherit the seat of god.

I had some annoyances while watching this. Yuki is a very timid boy, which is fine, but he doesn't show any significant growth until very late in the show. He's always whining and crying, and the other characters comment on this as well throughout the story. What was refreshing is that this personality is usually given to females in anime, but all of the females showed various levels of considerable strength, which was nice. Yuno's character, the girl who is apparently obsessed with Yuki, was also troubling at times, but her character became more of a mystery as the show went on, so I was more curious about what her story was than annoyed by her rabbid obsession.

This is definitely not a pg show. There is physical, sexual, and emotional violence, as well as some nudity. It is a pretty good show however. The plot becomes increasingly complex and surprising, and will leave you guessing to the very end, after the credits. It's only 26 episodes long, and that goes by pretty quickly. It's one of those shows that you'll want to marathon. And while you might be annoyed by some of the characters at various points, you won't be bored.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011)

This anime is of the 'magical girl' genre, but unlike Sailor Moon or Cardcaptors or Shugo Chara, it's a bit darker.

For those who may be unfamiliar with this type of story, the magical girl genre involves stories about girls (usually ordinary girl next door type of girls) who are contacted by some magical being, and are given the choice to accept magical powers. They are then obligated to use these powers to combat evil magic already in the world, or to complete some task with their magic.

In this story, the girl's name is Madoka, and she is a sweet, good- hearted girl. She doesn't have anything that distinguishes her from any other girl... in fact, she may be lacking in several areas in comparison. Everything changes for her however, when a new exchange student transfers into her class. The girl stares at Madoka, who oddly enough had had a dream about her the previous night. The girl warns Madoka that if she values her friends and family, she should not make any changes to herself. Madoka of course finds this odd, but disregards it. Later that day, she hears a voice in her head calling out for help. The voice belongs to this cat-like creature, who the new transfer student is apparently trying to kill. Madoka and her friend are then exposed to the hidden world of witches and magical girls. The cat-like creature, named Kyubey, explains that he has the power to grant a chosen girl any one wish in the entire world. But in exchange for that wish, the girl must agree to become a magical girl, and devote her life to hunting down 'witches' or evil spirits that are the cause of many unexplained evils in the world. Madoka and her friend Sayaka are both chosen by Kyubey, and try to learn more about this world, to see if any wish they might make would be worth giving up their freedom, and maybe their lives. However, the transfer student is adamantly against Madoka becoming a magical girl, and does everything in her power to prevent this. Kyubey said that Madoka would be the more powerful magical girl who had ever existed to this point if she were to choose to turn. Is the new girl afraid of her power? Is there anything Madoka would wish for that would compensate for what she might lose? Why is someone as insignificant as Madoka so important in what seems to be the fate of the world?

As I said before, this is a darker manifestation of the magical girl genre. There is a very real possibility of death with every battle the girls may face, and indeed we witness several deaths. A couple, quite significant to the plot. The girls are fighting against these monsters, but they are also fighting against themselves for territory. If a girl kills a witch, she gets to cleanse her source of magic with what is left over from the witch, and if the girl doesn't do this, something bad may happen to her. As the story progresses, we find out that being a magical girl is not at all a fun thing, that a lot of sacrifice and heartbreak and loneliness results from the wish they make. We also learn that there may be more to the contract with Kyubey then we might have been initially told. The show deals with the idea of 'good deeds', and how much of yourself you would be willing to give for the benefit of someone else, without getting anything in return. It makes you wonder, is there anything you would want enough to sacrifice your life for, or at least your livelihood? Just how valuable are the relationships in your life? What would you give to keep them, or let them go? Just how much do you actually care about others? And more interestingly, what do you consider about yourself to be human? Your body?

An interesting, if not somber, show. The animation was interesting as well. The anime was very detailed at some points, but the scenes with the witches played around with animation styles. Another interesting thing about this show is that the main character of this 'magical girl' show, is for the most part, the only main character who is not a magical girl. It re-imagines the genre, and positions it for an older audience, who maybe grew up with the more traditional magical girl shows. It takes a little while to get into, but it brings a new level of complexity to the genre. It's only 12 episodes long and can be seen online.

Being Erica – Season 1

Being Erica is a show about a woman who is disappointed with where her life has ended up and as a result ends up seeing this therapist who sends her back in time to reconcile herself with regrets she has about her past. I thought the concept for the show was pretty interesting and I thought that the events of the past she went back to reconcile were relatively universal landmarks that are relatable to the audience. She gets sent back to situations like her bat mitzfah, her first sexual experience, the university group that could have landed her her dream job, event that went both well and not so well with friends and family, and in one episode she was even sent back to before her birth to better understand her parents.

One of the things I liked about this series was that at no point in any of the times Erica goes back in time is she able to alter the chain of events that have happened. She has a list of regrets that the therapist, Tom, sends her back to and she may change her perspective or may do something different from what she did in the past, but the resulting action that happened originally will still happen. The only difference is that she understands the situation for what it is and comes to realize that she is not to blame, or if she is, to own up to her faults and change her perspective or current actions to make things right. So really, even though this sounds sort of like a science fiction with all the time travel, it is more of Erica's rumination of her life and the actions she takes to own her life and make it what she wants it to be.

I thought that the characters were interesting and sufficient attention was paid to each of the minor characters. everyone in the show is given a story (minus Erica's boss, who is discussed more in the second season) and everyone is given a little bit of depth. We learn about Erica more and more with each episode as we see her struggle with her past, so needless to say that Erica grows as a character and who we see at the beginning of the series is somewhat altered from the person who we see at the end. An interesting show to say the least.

 

 

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

I saw this film recommended on a forum I occasionally visit, and while I don't usually run off to watch everything recommended to me, the title sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go. Aand I'm glad I did. The story starts off rather slowly and sets itself up like a lot of other high school romance/ slice of life animes, but it slowly progressed into a sort of sci-fi romance, which was really touching. 

The story follows a girl names Makoto who likes spending time with her two best friends, Kosuke, a serious, reserved sort of guy, and Chiaki, a fun-loving joker. Though the three of them have not always been best friends, we can see that they are very close and enjoy spending a lot of time together. The point at which the story takes a more sci-fi approach is on the day Makoto is late for school. She is late more often than not, but on this specific day as she is hurdling down a hill, a train happens to be passing by at the bottom of said hill and she is going to fast to stop. She tries to slow down, but ends up hitting the barrier between the pedestrians and the train tracks and sends herself flying in the way of the train. Just before she is squashed and our story is ended however, time stops and she finds herself transported back in time, and is safe from the squishing. She has some fun with this, though doesn't yet know the significance. Around this time she discovers that one of her friends is developing feelings for her, and because she doesn't wish to change their relationship yet, uses the 'time machine' to avoid his asking her out. At the end she is forced to choose between love and friendship, but not in the way you'd think. The ending is something of a surprise (you can kind of guess what'll happen if you pay attention to the clues), but the events that take place and the choices she makes leave you with a bittersweet feeling that makes the film worth the watch.

For those who have watched the ending, it would be an interesting argument to decide whether the love interest was truly in love or whether he just wanted to preserve a certain object... The aunt's story happens to suspiciously parallel Makoto's, but it was an enjoyable movie in any case.

The Root Cellar by Janet Lunn

I read this book back in elementary school, and I enjoyed reading it at the time.

The story follows this orphan girl named Rose who is sent to live with relatives after the death of her grandmother. Rose is something of a tomboy and doesn't really have any friends, so doesn't feel like she fits in when she arrives and spends a lot of time by herself. One of the places she likes to spend time in is a root cellar near the house, and one day she goes into it only to find herself transported back in time to the 1800's. There she meets a boy and a girl with whom she becomes friends. At that time the Civil War was going on, so the boy goes off to fight in it, and the sister and Rose then go off in search of him.

It's a good story about a girl finding a place for herself to be accepted and needed, and be finding that she gains a little more self-confidence by focusing more on how to help others. It's fun and adventurous and even throws a bit of history in there as well.