Metatastic Long-Winding Intro

I was in the mood for some Halloween anime/manga treat a few days ago (back when it still WAS Halloween), but somehow, I ended up rewatching the Halloween episode of two of my timeless favorites instead — Daa! Daa! Daa! (aka UFO Baby) and Aka-chan to Boku (Baby and Me) — both of which also happens to involve one or more babies. I haven’t talked about these two series in the blog, or rather, they aren’t really talked about in the ’sphere, period. I’m not even betting my hopes on it happening any time soon, because y’know, the new season is all the shizz, and who would even go out of their way to discover them antiquated animus, right? So I thought, why not trick and treat myself into writing about them?

Halfway through the Daa! Daa! Daa! Halloween episode, I was already tearing up. The episode was moving in itself (it was the episode where we got to know much about the lead guy Kanata’s past — something that he himself wasn’t aware of — the time he spent with his mom back when she was still alive, and how he got her love for pumpkins and home-made food from her), but the nostalgia factor made it even worse (if you weren’t seeing it from my sentimentally biased lens at the very least it’d make you go ‘awww’).

The Aka-chan to Boku Halloween episode, although not one of the most moving episodes in the series, proved to be heartwarming as ever, and reminded me of the time I was watching it in Star Mandarin back in high school — the laughter and the tears, and how it made me wish I had a brother like Takuya.

I’ve almost forgotten how much I loved these two series, and it all came back to me in this rewatch. And here I thought I was just an apathetic viewer and didn’t love animes until recently. Oh so wrong.

I contemplated on including Daa! Daa! Daa! and Aka-chan to Boku in my Top5 animes when I first joined MAL, then changed my mind when I realized how juvenile it was. I wasn’t able to think this through, I thought to myself; That having this on my list shows my poor taste, especially when matters of image and what my list says about me is involved. Perhaps I felt guilty, that I was including an anime that wasn’t really of quality. Oh noes other people’s Top 5 Animes List are so EPIC and shiny, while mine is so sissy~

But here I am, a decade later, finally realizing my true feelings: I loved them all along, and I still do. And there’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Declaring certain animes as my favorites even when I didn’t genuinely love them (at least not yet), that’s what I should be ashamed of.

I don’t want to turn this into a ‘How We Choose Our Top x Animes List’ post or a ‘What My List Says About Me’ post (Stripey, omo, schneider, and digitalboy already posted about this) because all I really want to do is remember love for these two shows. But inevitably, this got me thinking about the way I personally choose my favorites, or the methodology I want to adopt. No rankings though, I hate them to the guts because it forces me to pit my favorites against each other.

It took me a decade to realize that I really really love Daa! Daa! Daa! and Aka-chan to Boku (and that I really am a shoujo fangirl at heart). If anything, this proves how timeless they are for me. Despite being simple & sweet, light-hearted & funny, not too angsty, not too happy and sappy either — just the right balance of quirkiness, sweetness and warmth — it sure tickled and touched my heart, and it still does. More series to add to the list of Animes for the Whole Family, especially Aka-chan to Boku.

At the same time, I thought of the other series I included in my Favorites List: Toshokan Sensou, Darker than Black, and Honey & Clover in particular, and realized that I didn’t really love them the way I thought I did. Call this my mid-otaku-life crisis.

I like Toshokan Sensou, very very fond of it. Now the rose-colored glasses have worn off, and I start to wonder whether I really loved it or was simply caught up in the hype back when it was airing. Like a spur-of-the-moment thing, the same way with True Tears. Perhaps I really loved it, but perhaps not. Either way I owe it to myself to step out of being the Toshokan Sensou hype machine that I was, and figure out whether my love for it was indeed genuine or not.

I watched Honey and Clover 3 years ago, but did it resonate with me right then and there? Not quite so. But that could just be because of my apathetic viewing habit that time, or the simple fact that I still didn’t know how to appreciate an anime like this back then. Is H&C awesome? Why yes, I know it is, but I have yet to feel its awesomeness, genuinely so — the awesomeness ^ nth level that would make its way to my heart and soul.

For Darker than Black, objectivity influenced my decision a whole lot and I alienated myself in the process. I watched it, understood how awesome it was; I recognize its value and worth, but I feel cold and distant to it. Is this what happens when you watch a series during one of the dark and dreary points in your life? Or did it fail to move me, nothing else but that?

When a series you loved (or thought you loved) doesn’t linger in your thoughts after watching it, or you don’t remember much of it, does this mean you didn’t really love it? Should it take yearsss before you come to grasp that you genuinely love/d a series? Some people acquire the wisdom to discern that with time and experience, so we can’t exactly say that. But when a series does linger in your mind even after sometime, and only gets better with age, like wine, it’s a sign that there is something special about it. I have yet to feel this for Toshokan Sensou, Honey & Clover and Darker than Black, and only time will tell if I will, but not until after a rewatch.

Then I wondered, would I have had this Very Special Love for Daa! Daa! Daa! and Aka-chan to Boku if I discovered them at a later time? Would watching other series of the same vein prior to these two hinder me from enjoying them to the fullest? Is love supposed to be a race? Omo’s list of favorites proved to be interesting in this regard, as he shows a list of his personal favorites and its alternate universe counterpart — how it would look like had he not watched anime in the 90s — while acknowledging the influence of ’said past animes with his opinion on RaXephon and FLCL, two series which “work more powerfully if you have context in terms of other anime you have seen, although they are both quite potent by themselves”, according to Omo.

So… would Nadesico and Magic Knight Rayearth have resonated so much with Omo had he watched it in a different time and space continuum? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. If so, despite the notion that we might not enjoy certain animes because we’re not yet ready for it, does that mean it’s also possible to get past that ‘right time’? I suddenly feel deprived of the right to proclaim any anime to be timeless…

But oh screw this, objectivity be damned. For me, Daa! Daa! Daa! and Aka-chan to Boku are timeless gems. There’s a plethora of factors affecting one’s enjoyment of a show, but I remain confident that anyone can enjoy these two series even at this day and age. Not as EPIC High calibre as, say, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Rose of Versailles, and Princess Tutu, but AWWWSOME(ly heartwarming and sweet) in their own right.

Objectivity is good, it enriches our perspective; but like everything else, too much of it can be damaging. What makes us interesting as humans is our complexity — no one is alike — and our ability to feel, our emotions. All people might agree about what makes for an objectively awesome anime, but in the end, what really matters is what we genuinely feel to be personally and subjectively awesome. When we talk about subjectively awesome shows we personally love, we can create a Spiral Energy so great we make the most impossible of feats possible. And the best thing about this is, you know for sure that it’s not just a bunch of pretentious crap. You’ve got real people talking — people who do not simply know what they’re talking about, but feel it with their heart and soul.

And this one’s for you, o [objectively] subjectively awesome timeless animes~

Daa! Daa! Daa!

The premise of Daa! Daa! Daa! is but simple (and silly): Two high school kids, Miyu and Kanata, ended up living under the same roof no thanks to their eccentric parents, who left their children for the sake of pursuing their childhood dreams. And then, out of the blue, a UFO falls from the sky, with an alien baby named Ruu and his baby-sitter-pet Wannya. As if living with someone you barely know wasn’t enough, Kanata and Miyu were also forced into parenthood as they take care of Ruu, on top of surviving crazy high school and alien invasions (not really hostile ones, fortunately) from time to time.

“Leaving your kids alone, WTF are these parents thinking?!!” Fortunately, this is shoujo. So instead of b00bs, T&A, pantyshots and whatsoever fappable fanservice, we get lots and lots of guilt-free rabu rabu scenes designed to make girls (or anyone else with an ‘inner fluffy fangirl’) go KYAA with its sweetness, unadulterated moeness, and total fun factor. Not to say that fappable fanservice is bad, but it’s certainly something I can live without.

A simple boy-meets-girl-with-an-alien-baby-twist story at its core, a fun and heartwarming shoujo romance comedy at its best. “a frivolous and silly premise laid a foundation for such a heartwarming, funny and fun story”, as one commenter by the name of sakura_13 in the Baka-Updates page said. Yes, I was cheating, this was a comment on the manga, but the same can be said about the anime too.

Every episode of Daa! Daa! Daa! doesn’t stray off from this one philosophy: it has to be fun, and/or sweet. The series knows well its target audience (like damn right it does! — Miyu x Kanata is my OTP KYAA~!), and also knows well what it means to not simply pander, but provide something of Total Quality to the said audience. And even those outside of it.

I admit, what initially hooked me into this is the romance between Miyu x Kanata (it’s pretty well developed, despite its simplicity, and it’s always fun to see them bantering), and the uber cuteness of Ruu-kun, one of the most adorable babies in the 2D world. But look a little deeper, and you’d see a gem of a shoujo series — adorable and heartwarming through and through.

My most favorite episode, the Cinderella ep~!

Right from the start, we already know that Miyu and Kanata are meant for each other, but this is one of those special (rare?) cases where you can’t help but watch all the episodes to not miss a single moment, in a romantic context and even those which are not. And with the rich and crazy world of Daa! Daa! Daa!, you will never find yourself saying that this is yet another dull and boring shoujo show — all thanks to Miyu and Kanata’s eccentric parents, wacky classmates, alien connections, and all other elements (zOMG fairy tales~!) that makes this a wonderful WAKU WAKU wonderland~

Their fate has been written on the stars…!

WAKU WAKU, DOKI DOKI, totally fangirlgasmic. The above screenshot came from the Halloween episode where we also find out that Kanata and Miyu already spent quite some time together back when they were teeny tots. They are sooo [conveniently] made for each other, and I have no complaints whatsoever (are you kidding me?!).

And there goes your token loli~

Aka-chan to Boku

How’s it like to be a 10-year old kid who, after losing his mom, is left with the responsibility to take care of his baby brother? Such is the life of Takuya with his little brother Minoru, and what Aka-chan to Boku is at its core. Blessed with a loving father they might be, but since he has to work to provide for his family, Minoru is left in Takuya’s care most of the time.

This is not easy, especially for an elementary school kid. There were times when Takuya questioned his fate, unfair it is that his life seems to be manipulated by this unconcerned little brother who deprived him of the right to be a normal kid. But instead of dwelling on the angst and dark pits of how it’s like to be in Takuya’s shoes, Aka-chan to Boku shows us what lies in the path of acceptance and love, the joys of having a little brother, pain in the ass it might be at times.

Later on in the series, we get to know some other Takuya’s classmates who also happen to have little siblings, each with their different family situations — the source of many of the priceless fun antics in the show, and the heartwarming side of it all. The love triangle between Minoru and his two female classmates in the daycare, both of whom happens to be the sister of Takuya’s classmate, always makes for a fun watch.

And when the focus shifts to the 温かい家庭 [warm and loving family] aspects (each episode has ‘em), I BAWWW like a little baby.

“urusai! urusai! urusai!” was soo 90s, but Shana ended up with the patent for it.

As much as I want to babble about the Halloween episode and tell you about Takuya’s tsuntsun classmate Akihiro, I’m gonna refrain myself from doing so and save all I want to say in the Coming Posts.

Watching Daa! Daa! Daa! and Aka-chan to Boku feels like eating a warm taiyaki¹ on a winter day. Warm and sweet, tickles me and my taste buds~ あたたかい。。。くすぐったい～

Further Reading

Let THEM show you why Daa! Daa! Daa! is one of the best shoujo series to date.

In case you want to find out more about Aka-chan to Boku, here’s this Aka-chan to Boku review on EX (pretty detailed so it might be a little spoilerish).

P.S. I plan to blog every episode of Aka-chan to Boku, because it deserves all the love it can get. I’m not just doing this because of the lack of subs. With or without subs, my desire to blog this won’t change.

P.P.S. If you notice a blogging slow-down this November, that can only mean one thing: JLPT1 CRAM MODE ON!

Credits to あきのん for the Halloween fanart

1. specifically ‘warm’, because there’s a taiyaki ice-cream [↩]

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