Summer 2011 Final Thoughts (a.k.a. How the heck did I manage to watch all of these?)

So I’m late crossing the finish line, but at least I finished, right? There were a ton of series to make it through this season, and I wasn’t sure if I’d make it through writing this entry.  But, here we are, and I’m now wading through a rush of newly airing fall anime.

Final thoughts include: Bunny Drop, Tiger & Bunny, NO.6, Sacred Seven, Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, Kamisama no Memochou, Hanasaku Iroha, Natsume Yuujinchou San, Blood-C, Dantalian no Shoka, Ao no Exorcist, Kamisama Dolls, Nekogami Yaoyorozu, Uta no Prince-sama, Baka to Test 2, and Nichijou.  These thoughts are fairly brief, given the large number of anime covered in this season review, and are usually about two paragraphs long.  If I like the show enough, I’ll most likely return to it sometime for a re-watch and write a more detailed review!

Dantalian Ep. 7: “Parfumer” and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

I couldn’t help but compare this episode of Dantalian to the 2006 German film, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. I saw the film only once when it was first released on DVD in the U.S., and despite the one-time only experience, I still find it both deeply disturbing and beautiful at the same time.

The Cursed Woman in the Manor: Dantalian Ep. 2

Remind me how we loved our mother’s body
our mouths drawing the first
thin sweetness from her nipples

our faces dreaming hour on hour
in the salt smell of her lap…

and how we thought she loved
the strange male body first
that took, that took, whose taking seemed the law

and how she sent us weeping
into the law…
(Adrienne Rich, quoted in “Freud’s Dora, Dora’s Hysteria“)

“Hysteria is not a pathalogical phenomenon, and can, in all respects, be considered as a supreme means of expression”
(Louis Aragon and Andre Breton, quoted in “Hysteria, Psychoanalysis, and Feminism“).

Women and hysteria have long been topics of tense discussion in feminist and psychoanalytic circles, and was a popular approach for quite some time among literary critics.  “Hysteria”: (1) exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, (2) a psychological disorder…whose symptoms include the conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms…The term has a controversial history as it was formerly regarded as a disease specific to women.  Hysteria was once a phenomenon tied solely to women, and any male exhibitions of the same symptoms often resulted in assumed feminine tendencies.  But are these women truly crazy? Is this a disease passed down from woman to woman, or are there reasons for why their extreme behaviors and actions manifest later on in life?

Initial Impressions: Uta no Prince-sama, Dantalian no Shoka

Uta no☆Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%: Currently watching
I’m a bit bashful to have this show on my “Currently watching” list, especially since I made it clear on my Full season preview that I wasn’t going to even give this show a chance.  However, I found myself obtaining the first two episodes anyways and sitting through the first with the intention of reviewing it then dropping it.  Unfortunately, my fan girl side came screaming out with the first episode, and I ended up hungrily moving to the 2nd.  Yes.  There we have it.  I love reverse harems under one condition: the inclusion of a music environment.  Written in the same vein as Kiniro no Corda: Primo Passo, this anime features one girl in pursuit of her dream to become a music composer for idols.  Like in Corda, she attends a school dedicated to music, and again, like in Corda, she quickly finds herself surrounded by a handful of bishounen male idol and composer wannabes who all seem to find her irresistible.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!? The simple answer? I’m a bit of a music freak.  Having played classical music all my life, and as a once music performance major, I still have dreams of living a life of music.  Though that dream has come and gone, I find myself living it out through these types of anime (perhaps also the reason for my inclusion of The IDOLM@STER).  Though romance between students is strictly forbidden at Haruka’s school, I still smell love in the air.  I already have favorites from the first two episodes, including the cheery Otoya, the serious Masato, and the brooding Tokiya.  Ahhhh, I eagerly await to be swept away by their shiny locks and smooth-as-caramel voices….. /fan girl squeal