Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

For my seventh post in the “12 moments of anime 2009” series I’m choosing the K-On! beach episodes.

      Anime and fanservice goes together like peanut butter and jelly, and mom and apple pie, and that fanservice comes in many flavors; a new robot for mecha fans, a new weapon for military fans, a new move for martial arts fans, and so forth. So, me being as fan of cute/hot girls doing cute/hot things, my fanservice of choice revolves around those girls being placed in an environment where cute/hot things can occur; the beach, the onsen, a sleepover, a festival, or anywhere else the girls get to be cute. So, for my seventh post in the 12 moments of anime 2009 series I choosing the K-On! beach episodes, while most anime only give us one beach episode K-On! graces our eyes with two beach episode out of its 13 episode run (episode 4 & 10). Without further ado, the girls of K-On! at the beach.

Beach episodes=bikinis, melons, and equipment comparisons

The beach episode also affords the girls the opportunity to enjoy water sports and sand sports.

Also, the beach episode allows the girls to give us, the male viewers, many pseudo yuri moments to indulge our hidden desires.

So, whenever I find out that an anime featuring cute girls is about to have a beach episode, my heart leaps for joy!

Since it’s the Christmas season I’m choosing the Christmas episode from the Minami-ke Okaeri series for my six post in the “12 moments of anime 2009” series.

      Tis the season to be jolly, so what better way to spend Christmas then to spend a Christmas evening in the kids’ paradise that is the Minami-ke household. The Minami sister’s parents are overseas for work, and the only “adult” supervision the girls recieve is an occasional visit from their uncle who drops off their living expenses and drives them to the beach or to an onsen. So, the sister must content themselves with daily school life and the company of good friends who have become their family.

        The one thing that I’ve always liked about the Minami sisters and their friends is that there’s not a bad person amongst them, and while they may at times tease or needle each other for the most part they enjoy their mutal frienships. So, as Christmas day approaches share a toast with Haruka, Kana, Chiaki, Mako-chan, Uchida, Touma, and Yoshino to good friends. The only thing missing from this garden of flowers is me sitting next Uchida, Merry Christmas.

         For my next entry into the “12 moments of anime 2009” series I’m choosing Fumi’s confession to Akira that she’s a lesbian from Aoi Hana episode 4.

        First of all, I have to say that I absolutely loved this episode, the range of human emotions and uncertainties displayed by both Fumi and Akira felt true to life and believable. Too often in anime when a main character finally reveals their real feeling it’s takes so long and is done in such an over the top manner that it stretches the limits of believability, but in Aoi Hana it felt true and right.

        I felt that the scene where Fumi confesses to Akira that she a lesbian and is in love with Yasuko, and that she and Yasuko are dating was very powerful and poignant. Fumi who is a very sensitive and insecure girl placed a lot of trust and pressure on Akira at that moment. As Fumi said at the beginning of their conversation she really values her friendship with Akira and doesn’t want to ruin it. I could feel the tremendous emotional pressures building on Akira with her childhood friend not only confessing to her that she’s a lesbian but asking her not to find it and her gross, and please don’t hate her.

        You can see how this plays out with Akira by the thought that she places on this situation during her train ride home, while she told Fumi that she doesn’t have a problem with girls liking girls she also wonders if she’s too simple minded, and we also see her uncertainty playing out why she sort of asks Kyoko about this. I also felt that Fumi displayed a tremendous amount courage and vulnerability in this episode. Fumi displays a tremendous level of courage by telling Akira that she a lesbian but she also shows her vulnerability when she practically begs Akira to not find her gross and not to hate her.

          This episode touched on the very human desires of wanting to love, and be loved, and also the very human need to be accepted for who you are by your friends, and the toll that these desires can take on someone when the relationship falls outside of what mainstream society considers normal.