One of the things I like most about Kure-nai, aside from the adorable Murasaki, is its slice-of-Japanese-life elements, a topic which has already been discussed to no end by other bloggers. It’s a [gaijin's] window to the Japanese culture, providing insights on the Japanese way of life of characters like no other animes I’ve watched.

That said, I find it surprising that despite the number of people who mentioned the Japan-esque aspect of Kure-nai, no one seemed to have bothered looking into the significance of the Hina-doll and why the Kuhouins found it detestable that Souju died while holding onto this doll. Oh wait, there’s one, Teeif. Even Japanese blogs never seemed to have mentioned anything about this, I guess this was no longer a mystery to them since they’re, well, Japanese o.O Nonetheless, I found this subject fascinating enough to take a plunge into the Hina festival, to find out what the Hina doll really symbolizes.

You wouldn’t (usually) find me watching anything loli. Note that, I placed “usually” because I’d like to keep an open mind though, and who knows there might be some loli anime worth watching. Anyway, Kurenai wouldn’t be the kind of anime in my watch list. After all, the premise of a high school guy living with the seven year old girl he’s protecting sounds like loli to me, especially so, that it is anime. Stuff like that do happen in anime, afterall. “But Kurenai is not loli!” I hear someone protest. Right-o. But even the obaasan at the baths commented on Shinkurou being into girls “like that” and Tamaki telling Murasaki that Shinkurou has lolicon.

Wow, hisashiburi~ It’s been a long time since I last wrote about Kure-nai, and now I’m brimming with guilt, shame, and a chunk-load of thoughts accumulated from the episodes that aired. I was planning to post a teaser-spoilers regarding the coming revelations about the fucked-up Kuhouin family after watching episodes 7-8, to prepare people for what is to come, and also to assure people that this anime is neither headed downhill, nor it is going to be just a fanservice show. But then time passed so damn fast and episode 9 already aired (and was subbed) before I know it! T__T My planned spoiler is now spoilt orz. Anyways, as I have realized now, not writing about Kure-nai is a SIN! More so, not watching it! It’s one of the best this season has to offer, no doubt about it.

Just a word of warning, this post is now convoluted due to the horde of thoughts I have. My apologies for the lack of coherence and structure, not that my post(s) have any of such to begin with =[

FACE MY WRATHH!

I never really intended to rant but sigh…

I was randomly checking my animesuki forum profile today when I noticed that I was given a negative reputation for my comment regarding episode 4 (and also episodes 1-3 if that person reacted to my deep-frying post), for praising the anime for the changes it made to the novel. It was way back April, but I just noticed it now. He/she gave this justification for deeming my post as realll baddd: “censorship is bad. approving it is even worse.” What’s this, have I lost all my freedom to choose which of the anime and novel I prefer now? Mind you, I wasn’t outright bashing the novel, I was actually showing both sides, with a strong leaning towards the anime. And what do you know, I’ve watched till episode 6, noticed bits of the novel that was changed or wasn’t included, and I thought how nice it would be if they included that (the scene where Murasaki got hurt, the elaborate details about Shinkurou’s past, etc)! ARGGHH. T___T

I couldn’t care less about the reputation stuffs, really, but I do know for a fact that I do not deserve this negative reputation. It’s not like I b*tched, like “Down with the Kure-nai novel!! you filthy book filled with pedo loli vibesss!!!!” Ok, so you (whoever you are) disapprove the censorship in the anime. Is it because you favor the additional innuendos in the novel, among others? Whatever your reasons are for preferring the novel, it’s your opinion, and I respect that. Respect mine too. Am I not a free citizen entitled to my own opinion? You’re like censoring my opinion too, with what you did.

After watching episode 4 last week, I was ready to churn out an insightful post on the episode, but it turned out to be a total mind-fart. It’s not that I had a sudden Kure-nai writer’s block (I wouldn’t want that to happen D: ), but rather because the post I had in mind for episode 3 continued to linger in my head, as though haunting me for taking it for granted O_O So here I am, writing down this long-overdue piece dedicated for episode 3 and the sudden burst of thoughts I had thanks to that train scene (and also some bits in Murasaki x Tamaki’s convo). OGT already gave his insightful thoughts on this one, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I expound on it a little further, and add my own personal touch.

The train scene in episode 3 really hit close to home, as it mirrored one of the great struggles I faced with for years — being assertive and confrontational, having the guts to stand up for what I believe in, a sincerity vs hypocrisy struggle – a struggle I’d like to think as ever-present in non-liberal Asian countries like Japan and ours, among others.

After three episodes, well what can I say~! The staff behind Kurenai never ceases to amaze me with what they have done to this anime, transforming the supposedly lackluster novel (at least in terms of the overall pacing and plot progression) into the awesome anime that we see now. They certainly know how to make the most out of an anime adaptation, incorporating foreshadowing, revealing bits of Murasaki’s past and Shinkurou’s dark side with each episode, something which is yet to be tackled in the novel, as far as the halfway point of the first volume goes. Without revealing all this, the anime would not have been as compelling and awesome (for the lack of a better word). With the early revelation of Murasaki’s past, we get to see the complexity and depth of Murasaki’s character, and the reason why she acts the way she does.

From what I’ve read so far, there was not even a mention about Murasaki’s family background; Murasaki just came out of nowhere in the novel, unlike in the anime where we actually see how Benika kidnapped her from the Kuhouin household. We also don’t get to see a glimpse of Shinkurou’s ‘dark’ trouble-maker self, till past the halfway mark of the novel. Instead, we see Shinkurou’s past and how he met Benika, early on in the novel. Though in my opinion, it was a rather sloppy shoved-in-your-face kind of revelation, where you get to see the entire past in an instant (it’s a complete wall of text in the novel, 8 pages worth of Shinkurou past, all at once!) T__T

While tons of other bloggers have given their praises for Kure-nai (especially for the adorable Murasaki), allow me to join in the bandwagon just for fun. Contained within this post are my impressions, insights, predictions, and what have you.

My eagerness for this anime was apparent in my earlier pimpings, though I should say that after watching two episodes, it far exceeded my expectations. It completely blew me away. I mean, who would’ve thought that I’d find myself crying buckets of tears just by watching the first episode? I know that my tears are somewhat shallow, considering how I’ve shed them for KimiKiss and True Tears as well, but this time around it’s of Aka-chan to Boku or Aishiteruze Baby quality. That’s how genuinely moved I was.

The bond between Murasaki and Shinkurou is one of the purest and sweetest ones I’ve seen thus far, as exhibited in episode 2, where not even a trace of lolicon and other pedo elements were present in their hot spring bath scene together. Their relationship is like that of siblings way back the 80s or 90s, where the minds of people were still not corrupted by the vile thoughts plaguing our society now.

I love the tagline of this series, “People become stronger when they find someone they ought to protect”. rawr, so GAR

Not too long ago, I pointed out Kurenai as one of the animes I’m looking forward to in the Spring Lineup. Yes, I’m looking that far ahead. Although I don’t have the actual novel in my hands, I managed to find it *cough* somewhere else *cough* It took me weeks of perseverance, to keep me from buying the novels on impulse. I thought hard, wondering if it’ll be worth my time and money, considering the pile of unread mangas and novels (*cough* Saiunkoku *cough*) I have. I browsed through the novels again, supposedly for dispelling my excitement (the want-to-buy-it kind of excitement) for it, only to end up failing to resist it more orz.