I just finished xxxHolic this morning, and it's my new favorite anime series! Seriously, highly recommended! Deep, mysterious, transcending, and very deeply philosophical and makes some excellent points on the true workings of the universe! Yuko: "The universe must always maintain balance", so enlightening! I've been going to Buddhist meetings as of late and I find it to be very much in line w/ what i've been seeing. And I love the art style too! It's reminds me of how traditional Japanese paintings are, very flat, w/ no outline for the characters. Granted they're anorexic and look like they have giraffe necks (lol) but all and all, I think that it blends the right, balance (SOB) between the old, traditional style and the new school style of anime. (ex. the 2nd closing theme, w/ Maru and Moru doing the air guitar, OMG, I thought that it was frickin hilarious!)
And I also liked the fact that they weren't afraid to do certain things, say certain things, or include certain things to keep the story intresting, yet lighthearted at the same time, and in the latter instance i'm talking about drinking/alcohol. And I REALLY liked it when they put this BS "underage drinking" refusal that I saw in Naruto, Bleach, and others in it's frickin place! Yeah, like a macho guy (or any guy really) is REALLY gonna turn down free booze b/c of the "I can't do it, it's illegal" mentality, ESPECIALLY somebody at that age who has a natural curiosity about the world and about all the things that adults do! OMFG, WTF!?! How full of $#!^ could you possibly be!?! And besides, just take a LOOK at some of the (illegal) stuff that they do and then just TRY to look at me w/ a straight face and say that that's how they would really act!
And I don't CARE if they're trying to say that "drinking is good for us, but not for you kiddies" first of all, I always just roll my eyes about that, b/c even for Naruto, that was the age my uncle had HIS first drink, and I had MY first drink when I was 14! Which is the same as the post time skip Naruto characters and even younger than the Bleach characters, especially "Chado" who's a bad mother f-er yet when offered sake, he said "i'm underage, I can't drink" to which I said "AHAHAHAHAHAHA..." and just rolled around the floor in hysterical laughter! But I KNOW they're full of $#!^ b/c in the first Dragonball movie, they show Gohan (a FIVE year old) eating an apparently alcoholic apple and geting, not drunk, but HAMMERED off of it! Now i'm not saying that that's a GOOD idea, but I just wanted to prove a point with just how full of it they really are! Yeah, they seem to have no problem with brutal graphic violence, swearing, phycological damaging, and even lolicon and shotacon, yet the sight of "minors" drinking makes them feel so sad and heartbroken! lol Yeah, GTFOH, anime companies!
And they're missing the whole point, one that I saw a leading educator say a few months ago that these sorts of things in moderation is not really that bad a thing! And besides, like I said, considering all the things that they ARE willing to show, expecially the level of sexual exploitativeness, I find it, JUST a little hard to swallow that this could REALLY be all that bothersome! And so, i'm really glad that upon Watanuki saying "I can't drink, i'm underage" everyone else said "No, it's just nectar" "Yeah, don't be such a stick in the mud!" Yeah, my thoughts exactly! Now if only someone could tell the anime companies the same thing! ^_^
