Fairy Tail, Hakuoki, and SNSD's The Boys

Natsu, Gray, Erza, Lucy

So I've started watching Fairy Tail. According to Hulu, I'm not even halfway through it. xD Only on episode 16. BUT!! I will say that I ENJOY this anime--I'm not just trying to plow through it to make a review, like I did with Freezing, Yosugo no Sora, and Oreimo. I absolutely love the characters thus far and though at this point there's no main plot, it's funny and action-packed enough that the lack of an umbrella plot doesn't really matter. I'll go into a more detailed review once I finally finish it, probably over the winter break. (Which starts in 2 days!! YES!!!)

[Very back row: Sannan, Kondou, Harada, Shinpachi] [middle row: Heisuke, Saito, Okita] [center: Hijikata] [not pictured: Chizuru, the protagonist]

I'm actually almost done with this one. I have 5 more episodes of the second season left to go, but I can't just watch them now because I SHOULD be studying for my 2 exams I have tomorrow night... lol. (Yes I am most definitely procrastinating.) In any case, I like this anime, too. My favorite thing about it is that it's very mature. There isn't a whole lot of humor, but rather a whole lot of historical references and action, and character development, too. I think the anime's only downfall so far is that it's based of an otome game, or basically one of those dating-sim like games made for girls instead of boys. (Hence the reverse harem shown above.)

The reason this is a downfall is because Chizuru is boring as hell. She's MEANT to be, because the only purpose she serves is to put the viewer in her shoes, so the viewer feels like SHE'S the one the guys are falling in love with. Except this completely backfires for people like me, because I am waaaay too lively to ever feel like I could fit into such a polite, soft-spoken, boring role. xD So I just end up feeling like I'm not in the role, AND I'm watching some boring person in the role, so her character really does nothing for me. Further what makes her so "special" is... really, really stupid. You continuously watch others with the same special trait do awesome stuff, and she's just like "OKAY I'LL PUT MY HAND ON MY SWORD LIKE I'M GONNA DO SOMETHI--oh wait I got saved. 8D Yay." I think her only upside is that she doesn't talk in a fake voice like many anime girls do. You know the one: overly cutesy, sometimes very pouty-whiny sounding, annoying in general? Yeah, Chizuru just sounds NORMAL and I thank my lucky stars for that.

Again, a more detailed review will come once I finish watching it.

Going clockwise, from the top center: Yoona, Jessica, Yuri, Sunny, Hyoyeon, Sooyoung, Seohyun, Taeyeon, Tiffany

I'm too lazy for a full review at the moment--plus the guilt of procrastination is building--so I'll just review the title track.

But, let me say that I haven't been impressed with any of SM's albums for the past year and a half. BoA's Hurricane Venus is probably the best out of any of them that have been released. f(x)'s album--the one with Pinnochio on it--was awful. SHINee's album was okay. TVXQ's was okay--and that's saying something coming from me, because I usually love their albums. Super Junior's album was alright, but not as great as they used to have. SNSD's...

This entire album sounds like they don't care about music. Now, I'm not going to say "OH NONE OF THEM ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT MUSIC THEY JUST WANNA MAKE MONEY." No. I'm sure a few of them, if not all, do in some way. BUT! I will say that the songs on THIS ALBUM make it sound like they couldn't care less about music and performing. The album isn't cohesive. The songs sound like they could come from completely different artists... and this is not a good thing. Further, none of them sound particularly inspired by their own music. It's a problem. What was already a mediocre song just becomes even more so because you can tell they know it's mediocre, or at the very least, you can tell they would have preferred to sing something else.

01. The Boys
The instrumental track itself if very well-composed. If I listen to the instrumental, I am amazed at how much thought when into it. There are such miniscule things in the track that you don't notice from just the first listen. The girls' vocals are pretty good in the verses and bridges. I absolutely cannot stand the chorus and the rap, however. They are extremely uninspired, even in Korean. As for the lyrics, the English ones are awful. The Korean ones are just as awful. Sure, they sound nice... at first. Then you get to this lyric:

I think I'm falling more and more for you, who is becoming more and more perfect.

SNSD went from being the Goddess Athena, promoting bravery in all endeavors and self-confidence, to being lovestruck nymphs. What the heck? I also really resent the word "perfect." SNSD is supposed to be GIRLS' Generation. It's damaging to girls to think that their boyfriends are "perfect," because then when the relationship goes sour, they blame themselves, thinking that if he's perfect it couldn't have been partially his fault. Further, why is this message directed at boys in the first place? Or at least, why ONLY boys? Shouldn't girls have bravery and self-confidence, too?