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meganbmooreWHY do I not have any Spiral icons? I used to have a Kiyono one, but I can't find it. I must fix this...*breaks out her Haru from Fruits Basket icon...he looks a lil like Ayumu...)
And, yes, I finally caved to the need to rewatch some anime.
Spiral was one of my earliest animes, and is still one of my favorites(and has one of my favorite OTPs).
Spiral is about Ayumu Narumi, a high school student who's pretty much brilliant at everything, but rather bitter about it and more than a bit of an introvert and has nothing resembling social skills. The main reason for this is his brother, Kiyotaka, who disappeared two years ago. While Ayumu is good at everything he's ever tried, the reason for this is that he was always trying to match his brother. For Kiyotaka, everything was always effortless, and by putting everything he has into it, Ayumu is able to be almost as good as Kiyotaka, but never as good, which makes all his efforts meaningless. Two years ago, Kiyotaka disappeared, saying "I'm going to pursue the mystery of the Blade Children" and has not contacted his wife, Madoka, or Ayumu since.
Probably get to vol 2 sometime thisd week(rewatch=lower priority)
And, yes, I finally caved to the need to rewatch some anime.
Spiral was one of my earliest animes, and is still one of my favorites(and has one of my favorite OTPs).
Spiral is about Ayumu Narumi, a high school student who's pretty much brilliant at everything, but rather bitter about it and more than a bit of an introvert and has nothing resembling social skills. The main reason for this is his brother, Kiyotaka, who disappeared two years ago. While Ayumu is good at everything he's ever tried, the reason for this is that he was always trying to match his brother. For Kiyotaka, everything was always effortless, and by putting everything he has into it, Ayumu is able to be almost as good as Kiyotaka, but never as good, which makes all his efforts meaningless. Two years ago, Kiyotaka disappeared, saying "I'm going to pursue the mystery of the Blade Children" and has not contacted his wife, Madoka, or Ayumu since.
The series starts two years to the day from the day Kiyotaka disappeared. Ayumu, as is usual for him, is cutting class(he really doesn't need to go to get good grades) and napping on the roof. When he wakes up from the nap, he hears a girl scream from somewhere below and goes to investigate. When he gets there, he sees that the railing has given way and his classmate, Saiyoko, has fallen onto a truck several stories below, and a teacher who sees him above accuses him of having pushed her. Fortunately, Madoka is the one sent to investigate, not that she and Ayumu bother to clue her poor partner in to their relationship until she sends him home to make dinner(yes, when it comes to Madoka, Ayumu is a very well trained boy) Before that, though, he runs afowl of Hiyono, a superbubbly and energetic sophomore with a 3.9 gpa who runs(and apparently is the entire s taff of) the school newspaper. Hiyono initially thinks Ayumu is guilty, but is soon his only(odd) friend.
The first episode is mostly setup to introduce the characters, feel, and setup of the series, and the second is more of the same, with Ayumu investigating Saiyoko's mysterious past, and a death at her house, with episode 3-5 introducing the Blade Children(who and what they are is the driving force of the show, as even they don't know) into Ayumu's life. Episode two is also the first time we see that, even though she drives him crazy, Ayumu doesn't really mind Hiyono and is actually kinda entertained by her, he just wishes she'd shut up every once in a while, and by episode 3, he's pretty much made the newspaper office his home base, even though he claims she always bothers him, and in episode 4, while he's not exactly jealous, he doesn't like Kousuke flirting with her, and shows that, unlike just walking off like he will when others annoy him, he'll just sit there and put up with the prattle when it's Hiyono.
Hiyono is the kind of character that I usually, at best, accept as decent enough, but here, though she really annoys me every time I watch the first episode, she's my favorite. The main reason is because this is one of the few times where someone like this really is what's needed by the hero. For all his abilities, Ayumu has nothing resembling self confidence or self esteem. Even though he's started to get over his bitterness about Kiyotaka, he also knows that he'll always be "not as good as" him so he can never see himself as being as good as others see him, and he really does have no idea of how to interact with people. The only people he willingly interacts with are Hiyono and Madoka, who make him do it. Hiyono, however, has enough confidence in Ayumu to not only make up for his lack, but to fill up an entire cheerleading squad worth of Ayumu pep and confidence. The first evidence of her extreme confidence in him is when, after being invited to the piano concert of Eyes Rutherford, the first of the Blade Children we meet, only to find a bomb next to his seat. Hiyono unhesitately grabs the heat sensitive rod that will delay the timer, even though she knows that by doing so, there's no way she'll get away if Ayumu can't disable the bomb, which isreally the only thing that makes him try instead of just giving up(not that he doesn't still need a bit more prompting. Not that it wasn't draining for her, as she spends the concert sleeping on Ayumu's shoulder. She also prompts him into action on his own in episode 4, when Kousuke(my favorite of the Blade Children) tricks her with a simple card game and flirts with her and Ayumu, who was pretending to not pay attention, comes over mid-flirt and exposes the card trick, something that, a few episodes earlier, he would have just ignored. Yeah, he probably would have ignored it with anyone else(actually, he would have just walked away instead of sitting there the whole time) unless it was a case of someone being harassed by someone else, such as with Rio and the teacher in episode 5. By episode 5, it's obvious that a lot of his attitude towards her is partly payback for her annoying him, and partly because he gets a bit of a kickout of her over-the-top reactions. Hiyono is also far more useful than the majority of anime girls. Not only is she Ayumu's chief motivator, and not just in the "eek! save me hero!" way(though there are instances of that, too) but she's also Ayumu's chief source of information, being a relentless newshound. Without her, I doubt he'd ever have even considered getting out of the funk he's in at the beginning of the first ep, as until she gives him a push in the second ep, he seems to have reverted to his primarily passive ways.
Then there's Madoka, who, if they didn't remind us a lot, I'd forget wasn't Ayumu's real sister. Even though ayumu's the kid and Madoka's the adult, Ayumu's the real caregiver, cooking all the food(he even watches cooking shows and commercial channels for dinner ideas and cooking utensils...not that he's tricked by the promises of a deal, as he tells Hiyono, but they do have some good products) making sure Madoka gets up in time for work, etc. Until Hiyono came along, she's the only person who ever did see him as a second rate version of Kiyotaka, she just saw him as Ayumu, her kinda odd and pushy but lovable kid brother who needs to get out more and talk to people. However, she's only in his life because of Kiyotaka, which is something that neither forgets, which causes problems later in the series.
The first episode is mostly setup to introduce the characters, feel, and setup of the series, and the second is more of the same, with Ayumu investigating Saiyoko's mysterious past, and a death at her house, with episode 3-5 introducing the Blade Children(who and what they are is the driving force of the show, as even they don't know) into Ayumu's life. Episode two is also the first time we see that, even though she drives him crazy, Ayumu doesn't really mind Hiyono and is actually kinda entertained by her, he just wishes she'd shut up every once in a while, and by episode 3, he's pretty much made the newspaper office his home base, even though he claims she always bothers him, and in episode 4, while he's not exactly jealous, he doesn't like Kousuke flirting with her, and shows that, unlike just walking off like he will when others annoy him, he'll just sit there and put up with the prattle when it's Hiyono.
Hiyono is the kind of character that I usually, at best, accept as decent enough, but here, though she really annoys me every time I watch the first episode, she's my favorite. The main reason is because this is one of the few times where someone like this really is what's needed by the hero. For all his abilities, Ayumu has nothing resembling self confidence or self esteem. Even though he's started to get over his bitterness about Kiyotaka, he also knows that he'll always be "not as good as" him so he can never see himself as being as good as others see him, and he really does have no idea of how to interact with people. The only people he willingly interacts with are Hiyono and Madoka, who make him do it. Hiyono, however, has enough confidence in Ayumu to not only make up for his lack, but to fill up an entire cheerleading squad worth of Ayumu pep and confidence. The first evidence of her extreme confidence in him is when, after being invited to the piano concert of Eyes Rutherford, the first of the Blade Children we meet, only to find a bomb next to his seat. Hiyono unhesitately grabs the heat sensitive rod that will delay the timer, even though she knows that by doing so, there's no way she'll get away if Ayumu can't disable the bomb, which isreally the only thing that makes him try instead of just giving up(not that he doesn't still need a bit more prompting. Not that it wasn't draining for her, as she spends the concert sleeping on Ayumu's shoulder. She also prompts him into action on his own in episode 4, when Kousuke(my favorite of the Blade Children) tricks her with a simple card game and flirts with her and Ayumu, who was pretending to not pay attention, comes over mid-flirt and exposes the card trick, something that, a few episodes earlier, he would have just ignored. Yeah, he probably would have ignored it with anyone else(actually, he would have just walked away instead of sitting there the whole time) unless it was a case of someone being harassed by someone else, such as with Rio and the teacher in episode 5. By episode 5, it's obvious that a lot of his attitude towards her is partly payback for her annoying him, and partly because he gets a bit of a kickout of her over-the-top reactions. Hiyono is also far more useful than the majority of anime girls. Not only is she Ayumu's chief motivator, and not just in the "eek! save me hero!" way(though there are instances of that, too) but she's also Ayumu's chief source of information, being a relentless newshound. Without her, I doubt he'd ever have even considered getting out of the funk he's in at the beginning of the first ep, as until she gives him a push in the second ep, he seems to have reverted to his primarily passive ways.
Then there's Madoka, who, if they didn't remind us a lot, I'd forget wasn't Ayumu's real sister. Even though ayumu's the kid and Madoka's the adult, Ayumu's the real caregiver, cooking all the food(he even watches cooking shows and commercial channels for dinner ideas and cooking utensils...not that he's tricked by the promises of a deal, as he tells Hiyono, but they do have some good products) making sure Madoka gets up in time for work, etc. Until Hiyono came along, she's the only person who ever did see him as a second rate version of Kiyotaka, she just saw him as Ayumu, her kinda odd and pushy but lovable kid brother who needs to get out more and talk to people. However, she's only in his life because of Kiyotaka, which is something that neither forgets, which causes problems later in the series.
Probably get to vol 2 sometime thisd week(rewatch=lower priority)