Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

This anime was addictive. I binged the entire thing in a day. I honestly couldn't turn my attention away. It was well thought out and the voice acting was 5 stars. But most importantly, they gave you characters to fall in love with.

Our main character is Mirai, a teenage girl who is only thinking about how miserable her daily life is. She's seriously suffering from teen angst. But then she and her little brother are caught up in an earthquake while away from home. And it's in that moment that she starts to realize she really loves her family and doesn't want to lose them.

She starts with a frantic search of a collapsing building to find Yuuki, he little brother. And with the help of a woman named Mari, they start to make their way home.

Now, here comes the spoiler, so if you dont want to know how it ends, dont read below this line.

Yuuki doesn't make it home. I was devastated. They even wrote a really confusing episode where it looks like he died but then he's not dead and they tell us she just had a crazy dream. Then second to the last episode we find out Mirai has been talking to his ghost for 2 days! WTF!! I loved Yuuki. He was so kind and optimistic and I hate when writers do that to you. Trick you into being relieved that a character managed to make it and then...wham. .jk he died 3 episodes ago and everyone else was just hallucinating. Not cool.

Honestly, the show wasn't even worth watching without Yuuki as a ray of sunshine and a symbol of hope. I think that's why they kept him until the end, even in that form.

Even though I spoiled it for you, it was a great show. 5 stars overall. It exceeded my expectations. Even though I'm still pissed they killed off my favorite character.

Takane & Hana

So right now I can only talk about volumes 1 and 2. I just finished reading them today and I had to talk about it. Being able to discuss books is one of my favorite things about them. ^_^

I'm really enjoying this series. For shoujo manga, the story is really detailed and the main characters are great. Their personalities are well developed and they're such strong willed people, it is really fun watching them interact.

Of course, there are the standard cliche situations involving people who can't mind their own business, etc. But we all know someone like that right? And of course, the main premise behind why Takane and Hana are even a thing is far fetched...but that's what makes shoujo great. We get to live out crazy fantasies like that. I mean, who wouldn't want to meet a super hot, wealthy man (or woman) that you get along great with?

It's slightly longer than something like SP Baby, but only because there are more panels per page and the text is smaller. This helps the story be more full (so I'm not complaining).

Now it's time for ratings. Because the characters are great, the story is entertaining and cliches have been kept to a minimum....
       5 stars

Artwork
      5 stars

I am invested in seeing this story through. So happy reading everyone!

Children of the Whales

Way to go Netflix!
They seriously deserve a pat on the back for sourcing this series. Usually, by the time an anime makes it onto their site, I've already seen it once or twice. But this season, they really surprised me with new  and quality content. Okay, that's enough of that. Let's get into the details.

This anime checked all my boxes, artwork, uniqueness of story and voice acting. For the traditionalists you can watch it with subtitles. And for those who prefer to multitask while they watch TV, there's an English Dub option. ^_^

The pacing of the story in the beginning is definitely slow and it definitely has that slice of life genre feel. However, the lives of these characters quickly gets turned in a new direction when they discover another floating island with a mysterious girl. Then their island gets attacked, which leads to a few conspiracies and all sorts of secrets getting revealed.

At the risk of ruining the thrill for the rest of you, I'll stop there. But I will say that it was a very interesting first season. And I'm curious to see where the people of this island end up. Be warned, this is not your typical happy-go-lucky anime story. Characters you get attached to might die before everything's done. You just have to watch and see.