アオハライド ヾ(oﾟωﾟo)ﾉﾞAo Haru Ride a.k.a Blue Spring Ride✿ฺ

Ao Haru Ride is just another typical shoujo school romance with familiar repeated storylines, love rivals, predictable dialogue and generic characters. Does this mean this anime is not worth watching? Absolutely not. As someone who is guilty of watching many shoujo romances, I knew this anime would be put in my backlog the moment I heard it was coming out.

The story is about two former middle schooled students, Kou Mabuchi and Futaba Yoshioka, reuniting in high school who unintentionally rekindle their romance. Sounds familiar? Well it should because it's so generic. On top of that we have our typical love rivals and multiple proclamations of love between the main and supporting characters. As I was watching this I wondered why I consistently enjoy watching shoujou anime; you can predict the dialogue and you know exactly what's going to happen in each scene. After watching Ao Haru Ride I came to the conclusion that it's all about the characters and the quality of comedy. Although all the typical storylines with every shoujo romance has already been executed plenty of times in the anime world, it's all about the unique comedy that's keeps me coming back to watch more and more. I had a hard time trying to remember and episode where I did not laugh or find amusement in some of the scenes.

With most anime adaptations the characters are animated similar to that of the art in the manga, there's nothing special in terms of this. However, Ao Haru Ride manages to add it's own eye-pleasing artistic touch by brining flashback scenes to life by using a watercolour art style to animate these parts of the anime. Now I must admit when the anime started I was a bit hesitant to continue after the first five minutes because this watercolour style was used. And if the anime continued as so, it might ruin my whole experience watching; yes the watercolour scenes were nice but it was too aesthetically pleasing to continue the anime if it were so. Little to my knowledge the first scene of the anime is a flashback scene and the anime goes on to present time without the watercolored style (as seen in the gifs).

As with most shoujo anime, the sound and music are not standouts or even noticeable when watching. Ao Haru Ride is no exception to this. Although the opening and ending credits were very nice to listen to, the soundtrack was not a memorable one.

Characters are what make or break an anime. With Ao Haru Ride, it was refreshing to learn that none of the characters were unlikeable (even the love rivals tugged on my heartstrings). The other reason why I said I enjoyed shoujo anime is because of the characters. In Ao Haru Ride the ultimate focus is the interesting relationship with the main characters, Kou and Futaba. Kou Mabuchi comes from a broken family, which has effected his personality and how he lives his everyday life - his effected personality branches with his love interest Futaba and causes rifts within their relationship. But as the anime progresses we see how Futaba resolves Kou's issues and ultimately transforms Kou's personality around for the better. If I could describe both Kou and Futaba's personality in one word, Kou would be reticent whereas Futaba would be complex.

Ultimately it's the characters that orchestrate the enjoyment of an shoujo or any anime for that fact. All of them had either made me smile, laugh, or pay closely attention when watching. I happened to marathon this anime in one day if that says anything about how much I enjoyed this. As I was watching I didn't feel like the anime was rushed, even though it was 12 episodes - the fluidity from each story to story felt natural and not forced. 

If you're looking to add another shoujo to your list, watch Ao Haru Ride, you won't be disappointed.Otherwise there is little remarkable about the show. The seiyuu performances are solid and the art and animation are consistently good. It’s clear this series is intended as a gateway into a long running manga series. Here we only find an introduction to the story, with very little resolved at the end other than learning a little bit about Kou. It’s a decent romance, with perhaps a slightly more mature look at love than most, but it doesn’t set itself apart from the others in the genre.

 (✿╹◡╹) (✿◕ ‿◕ฺ)ノ

日本語を学びましょう。✿ヾ╲(｡◕‿◕｡)╱✿ lets learn japanese!!

hi all...

I will give you an overview on how to speak, write and read the Japanese language. This segment is added to help and aid those who would love to learn the language and are unable to join professional courses due to lack of time for proper class or other reasons, for those who would like to get  a feel of the Language and would be motivated to join proper classes later on.

I would also try my level best in helping out those of you who’ve already been taking classes and are about to or will be taking the JLPT exams. However, before we begin, one needs to understand that the best way to learn is always to find a professional teacher who has attained a degree in the language and as a teacher. Since I have neither, I hope you understand that my knowledge is limited.^^”. You are always welcome to share your views, ask questions when in doubt and I will do my best to answer as fast as I can.>o<. With that, let us begin! ^o^FACTS That you will need to know :

• The Japanese language is called “nihongo”in Japanese, where Nihon means Japan and “go” means language.  :) 

• The Japanese language has four scripts, 

1. “Hiragana” - This script is used to write any word that has Japanese origins. Like, “tamago”(egg). 
2. “Katakana” - This script is used to write any word that has foreign origins. Like, “Pascon” (Personal Computer) 
3. “Kanji” - This script is used to pictorially depict any word. The Japanese language has many similar sounding words but different Kanji to explain the difference in meaning. Kanji might sound like a curse, but as you slowly learn to be at home with the language you will start to appriciate the benifits of having Kanji. 
4. “Romaji” is the term used when Japanese is written using the Roman/Latin script. I will be using Romaji along with the other three scripts, using each at appropriate places. If all goes well, you too will be able to read and undersand all four soon. :)

Unlike any of the tutorials on the net, I want to teach you guys how to write and read along with how to speak. ^_^. After all, wouldn’t  you just love to be able to stare at those Japanese alphabets you see while watching anime and exclaim “HEY,I KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!!”? During my initial days of learning, every time I could recogonise a Kanji, it used to give me a thrill! :D. So while learning, let's learn it properly!Pronunciation of alphabets


The Japanese language has 46 basic alphabets, 25 modified alphabets and a few combined alphabets. This is true for both Hiragana and Katakana script. However, these are very easy to learn and remember. So, let us begin. ^o^
Basic alphabets:

a	i	u	e	o
ka	ki	ku	ke	ko
sa	shi	su	se	so
ta	chi	tsu	te	to
na	ni	nu	ne	no
ha	hi	fu	he	ho
ma	mi	mu	me	mo
ya		yu		yo
ra	ri	ru	re	ro
wa				wo
n

 Modified alphabets:

ga	gi	gu	ge	go
za	ji	zu	ze	zo
da	ji	zu	de	do
ba	bi	bu	be	bo
pa	pi	pu	pe	po

The combined alphabets are made adding “ya, yu and yo” to the “ki, gi, shi, ji, chi, ji, ni, hi, bi, pi, mi and ri” alphabets.  This will look and feel easier after you’ve practiced a fair few times. Don’t be afraid and give it a try.Combined alphabets:

kya	kyu	kyo
gya	gyu	gyo
sha	shu	sho
jya	jyu	jyo
chya	chyu	chyo
jya	jyu	jyo
nya	nyu	nyo
hya	hyu	hyo
bya	byu	byo
pya	pyu	pyo
mya	my	myo
rya	ryu	ryo

Here are the Japanese counterparts of the above, In both Hiragana and Katakana.
Now, you need to know that Japanese language has five vowels “a,i,u,e,o” and the remaining alphabets barring “n” are consonants that have been combined with the five vowels. “n” is a standalone consonant and sometimes its pronunciation changes to “m”. However, at all times, the written form remains “n”.
Some Fun Stuff
I once was trying to ask someone if they liked “chiken” (chicken), but the ‘e’ sound came out as an ‘a’ sound, turning it into “chikan,” which means pervert! Needless to say they were alarmed and confused—and it took me a bit to realize why!

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It’s a really fun, and not to mention cute, language! If you know English, and obviously you do if you’ve made it this far through the interview, you’ll already know a huge chunk of Japanese vocabulary.

That’s right, Japanese borrows from English—a lot! Don’t believe me? Let’s play a game where you try to guess the Japanese word:

Buruu berii (ブルーベリー)

Blueberry!

Koka ko-ra (コカコーラ)

Coca-cola!

Aisu kuriimu (アイスクリーム)

Ice cream!

1. Favorite word in the language. 

Ugh, this was really hard! I love so many words just for the accent or tone you say them in. After thinking long and hard I was finally able to narrow it down to two words that I love:

Meccha (めっちゃ) which is really just a word to show emphasis, similar to “very,” like meccha kawaii—“very cute.” It’s from a specific dialect only in Osaka, which where I used to live, so it really confuses other Japanese people when I use it. I guess it makes me sound more local!

My second favorite word is yabai（やばい). This word is slang for awesome, awful, horrible, cool, and dangerous. Yup, all those things all in one. So the next time your friend asks you how something was, simply reply “yabai” and let them do the guessing as to what you mean!

2. A word that doesn’t translate directly to English.

Omiyage. This word often gets mistakenly translated as the word “souvenir,” but it’s so much more than that. It’s hard to explain without getting into it, and I’ve written a whole article on it before, but to put it shortly, an omiyage is a gift you’re obligated to buy, usually for coworkers, and it often comes in the form of food.

3. A gesture in this language that differs from English.

If someone touches their pointer finger to their thumb creating a circle, that doesn’t mean OK! It’s actually the gesture for money. To give the OK sign, you’re supposed to shape your arms above your hand to make an ‘O.’ Think YMCA, only… O!

4. Any insane grammatical features/pronunciation/usage rules that blew your mind as a native English speaker. 

There are different ways to say “I don’t know.” One way implies that you don’t know because you don’t understand and the other implies you don’t know because you’ve never learned it. They are not interchangeable and using it incorrectly can create a lot of confusion.

5. Tell us a funny story or mistranslation you made in your language learning process. 

and its my favorite phrase 

一期一会 (ichi-go ichi-e) “One time, one meeting.”

This phrase reminds you to take every opportunity, as it may never come again.