What I'm Watching
Jul. 16th, 2020 01:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsbluevenomFor my first post here, which I expect will be occasional and far between, I figured I would just jump right in with what I'm watching.
Some time ago I decided I wanted to get more into anime, due to an overall disappointment with American cartoons. In the US, at least, cartoons are considered strictly "for children" and tend to be more comedic, mostly made to sell toys, and have bold and simple art styles.
This doesn't mean they can't be good, but I don't always, or often, like simple and bold, and the amount and type of comedy often undercuts any serious themes the storytellers try to work in. There are a handful of exceptions to this I can think of (and the exceptions are very good), but they're the exceptions that prove the rule, and honestly tend to be highly influenced by Japanese anime regardless.
Anyway, I was tired of it, and wanted animated shows that had a degree of mature storytelling - not necessarily mature themes, mind you - and beautiful animation. So I went onto Amazon and carefully picked out some offerings on DVD that looked like they might fulfill that want and appealed to me specifically based on their premises, while also branching out a little bit. I like most kinds of fantasy, not so much horror but it depends, I do like comedy, and science fiction. I decided to branch out to the slice-of-life genre as well.
For some reason I desperately wanted a food-related or cooking-related anime as one of them. I... can't remember exactly why.
So for all that I went to google and looked up the list of best Japanese anime out there. This was not nearly as useful as I'd hoped. I wasn't surprised, but still. What people in general consider to be the best anime and what will appeal to the individual person can be very different. And that's not to say I even disagree - objectively most of the lists I saw had anime that were, indeed, very good. They just weren't what I was looking for. I realized I wanted to see things that weren't on everybody's "best" lists. Amazon's search and "related" features were more useful in that sense (which I hate because Amazon is hugely, objectively evil, and I'm trying to wean myself away from it).
I did have the sense to google best anime cooking shows, and got much better results. After carefully reading up on literally every cooking-related anime result I found and narrowing it down to the ones that were actually available for purchase in the US, then reading the reviews on on each of those on Amazon, I settled on Gourmet Girls Graffiti.
I just started watching it today - yesterday? It's very late/early here - and it is adorable. It's a really cute slice-of-life anime about three girls who get together to cook and eat, the central themes being loneliness, food, and friendship. Each episode makes me cry by the end, even though it's really what I would call an emotionally gentle show. Maybe that's why, actually. Sometimes you just need something soft and easy.
So if you're looking to get more into anime, or just want to explore a little, I highly recommend Gourmet Girls Graffiti, though it will make you hungry.
Some time ago I decided I wanted to get more into anime, due to an overall disappointment with American cartoons. In the US, at least, cartoons are considered strictly "for children" and tend to be more comedic, mostly made to sell toys, and have bold and simple art styles.
This doesn't mean they can't be good, but I don't always, or often, like simple and bold, and the amount and type of comedy often undercuts any serious themes the storytellers try to work in. There are a handful of exceptions to this I can think of (and the exceptions are very good), but they're the exceptions that prove the rule, and honestly tend to be highly influenced by Japanese anime regardless.
Anyway, I was tired of it, and wanted animated shows that had a degree of mature storytelling - not necessarily mature themes, mind you - and beautiful animation. So I went onto Amazon and carefully picked out some offerings on DVD that looked like they might fulfill that want and appealed to me specifically based on their premises, while also branching out a little bit. I like most kinds of fantasy, not so much horror but it depends, I do like comedy, and science fiction. I decided to branch out to the slice-of-life genre as well.
For some reason I desperately wanted a food-related or cooking-related anime as one of them. I... can't remember exactly why.
So for all that I went to google and looked up the list of best Japanese anime out there. This was not nearly as useful as I'd hoped. I wasn't surprised, but still. What people in general consider to be the best anime and what will appeal to the individual person can be very different. And that's not to say I even disagree - objectively most of the lists I saw had anime that were, indeed, very good. They just weren't what I was looking for. I realized I wanted to see things that weren't on everybody's "best" lists. Amazon's search and "related" features were more useful in that sense (which I hate because Amazon is hugely, objectively evil, and I'm trying to wean myself away from it).
I did have the sense to google best anime cooking shows, and got much better results. After carefully reading up on literally every cooking-related anime result I found and narrowing it down to the ones that were actually available for purchase in the US, then reading the reviews on on each of those on Amazon, I settled on Gourmet Girls Graffiti.
I just started watching it today - yesterday? It's very late/early here - and it is adorable. It's a really cute slice-of-life anime about three girls who get together to cook and eat, the central themes being loneliness, food, and friendship. Each episode makes me cry by the end, even though it's really what I would call an emotionally gentle show. Maybe that's why, actually. Sometimes you just need something soft and easy.
So if you're looking to get more into anime, or just want to explore a little, I highly recommend Gourmet Girls Graffiti, though it will make you hungry.
