#20 - Rediscovery (ies)

Omygeezumcrow.

I have been on a ridiculously ridiculous remarkable cross game rediscovery.

AND I AM LOVING IT.

Seriously, I can safely say with utmost assurance that my favourite anime and my favourite manga is cross game. Like, 100% hands down no sweat total absolutely with all of my heart.

(Of course, in second place, for both anime and manga, would be FullMetal Alchemist. :D )

Aaaaanyways.

Cross Game is like the understated understatement of the...century. Seriously, there's so little hype and hoorayness for such a brilliant masterpiece of absolute briliant geniusness.

(As you can see I am not coherent anymore because it's so gigantumly awesome.)

It's quietly beautiful.

Sincerely moving.

Patiently amusing.

Refreshingly subtle.

Silently bold.

Surprisingly tender.

Suddenly exciting.

Oh well I could go on forever, but you know.

SO DIFFERENT from all those

-lets-go-fight-some-dude-and-try-to-look-cool-with-a-massive-ass-sword/katana/gun/weapon of choice-while-making-new-ass-kicking-friends-who-help-defeat-badguy- *cough*bleachnarutoonepiecefairytail*cough*

things, or even

-omg-its-a-magical-girl-who-can-transform-with-the-power-of-love/magic/friendship/singing- *cough*mermaidmelodycardcaptorshugocharaohthere'sthousandsofthemomg.*cough*

seriously cross game is a masterpiece. Because it's not overly dramatic, or over the top with romance, or even over the top with baseball. There's no..superpowers, or kissing or whacking up your enemies with a sword.

It's not just the story, though. Adachi's paneling, character designs and sceneries transform a simple story into a spectacular ..... piece of art. The smooth lines and quiet tones are gooooorgeous. Aaaaand of course, his dialogue - to die for. Seriously. They're so normal, it's honestly amazing. I mean, usually, in manga, we get either:

A dramatic scene. There's rain. The heroine is drenched. She's got humongous eyes, like a frog, and she runs after the boy.

She runs!

She runs!

She catches the boy!

They stare at each other, which takes up five pages!

Then, suddenly, the girl gives a huge sob, flings herself on the boy, and they start making out in the rain!

OR

The teenage delinquent with a strange hair colour stands up to face his DOOOOOM!

He attains magical mystical superpowers from a fairy/pendant/sword/magical girl!

He becomes so strong everyone is amazed by his powers of awesomeness!

He defeats the big bad with a huge unnecessary yell, with a lot of blood which came from nowhere!

He goes on attaining even more degrees of power until he becomes so strong no one can defeat him ever!

OR

well, you get the idea.

Cross Game? NONE of these things. Well. If you're used to Adachi manga, you'd know the quirky little dialogues he always has with his characters, and the subtle, implied, hints of romance, of sadness, of happiness. Nothing flashy or dramatic, just very real feelings that don't...over-present themselves, I would say.

If you're really really not in the know and you've never read an Adachi manga EVER, (In which case I ask : What have you been DOING all these years?!?!) then cross game is the best manga to start with. I feel that it has the best story and adachi dialogue out of all his baseball/sports mangas. After cross game, I'd say....H2, Touch, Hiatari Ryokou, Katsu! and Rough! are also on my much much MUCH loved list.

Adachi. Is. Genius.

Awesome awesome awesome.

REALLY awesome awesome awesome.

I actually had to post this JUST TO RAVE ABOUT THE AWESOMENESS OF CROSS GAME, how AWESOME IS THAT?!?!

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On another note, I don't like the KWMS anime because it STOPS HALFWAY. Because you know maybe the editors got lazy or something.

Just because the manga is on hiatus doesn't mean the anime has to stop completely!

Geez.

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Positively dying for all the Detective Conan episodes and movies. I wish I didn't have to download stuff all the time! (Although that may be free.)

I'm glad though. This is one series that really feels like it's never going to end EVER EVER.

I LOVE that. hohohohoho. Thank you muchly, Aoyama Gosho.

seriously, with 600+ episodes, 14 movies, 10+ ovas and 66+ volumes of manga (And STILL GOING!) I can just read / watch it one round and then start again because I'd already forget the beginning. :D

Hooray for long series.

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On the other hand, skip beat is actually getting annoying. There's zero scenes with cool acting, Ren is more of a weirdo/idiot/emo/did I mention emo? than usual, and Kyoko is being sillier/stupider/idiot(er?) than usual. Heeeey. What went wrong here!?!? Just because Ren's (not so.) mysterious emo looming dark and dreadful past suddenly shows up, the dialogue, acting and basically all the cool parts of skip beat just run away into the night?!?!

sheesh. True, not that it was a little hinky to begin with. (Come on, the premise and all.) But the acting (at the beginning) was pretty cool - to say the least, especially the improvs that were done for the auditions and so on so forth.

Have to wait this one out and see whether it's reaaally all that good.

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Did I ever mention the COMPLETE LACK OF CROSS GAME FANFICS?!?!

Yeah.

LexaLee