Sakura of DOOM

I swear, my brain hasn't entirely been sucked up by anime and manga! Maybe just 90%?

*headdesk* It's like high school all over again... (that was the first time my brain was fried by anime and manga)

I watched this on a half-deflated air bed in Mariposa and giggled so much during some episodes that I couldn't figure out what just happened. Also, rachelmanija fell off the bed. Twice.

Kurosaki Ichigo is a normal teenage guy, if by normal, you mean normal by shounen standards. Aka, he has been able to see spirits since he was young, has a tragic past (sort of), is grouchy beyond belief, and possesses many skills that he really shouldn't. Also, he manages to get himself a job as substitute Soul Reaper, thanks to an unfortunate accident with Kuchiki Rukia. Rukia's not too happy, since this turn of events leaves her without Soul Reaper powers.

There's a great deal of fighting, since one of the main duties of Soul Reapers is to prevent Hollows (unhappy dead spirits turned malevolent) from eating other, good, dead spirits (pluses) or from eating other people. I have to say, Hollows are really creepy, particularly when they look sort of like No Name of Spirited Away -- a mask on a large blobby body, but even worse, because they're usually vaguely buglike and the masks are really freaky.

But! Forget the plot for now! I'm not really watching this for the plot so far, though I can see how it'd get interesting later. I'm watching for Rukia, who is extremely cool! First, she wears hakama!!!!!!!

(see above re: high school and first manga ever read being Kenshin and OMG hakama!!!!! I joined kendo solely because of the hakama. Well, I also joined so I could bop people over the head and carry a bokken around but... hakama!!!)

But! She is cool even without hakama! She's very short and grumpy and serious, though she's not quite as grumpy as Sanzo. But I love that she talks like a guy and uses all the uber-masculine casual forms. Although she still refers to herself as "watashi," so I guess the creators or something didn't want to go with "ore"? Someday I will watch anime where a woman refers to herself as "ore" and it will be nifty. Anyhow. She gets herself a body and starts hanging around Ichigo because he's got to do Soul Reaper stuff. And whenever other people talk to her, she morphs into Super Shoujo Mode and starts tacking hyperfeminine endings on and I swear, her voice goes up an entire octave.

And she gets Shoujo Sparklies as well!

Other things that I was particularly amused by were the insane teddy bear of DOOM and the parakeet (also of DOOM).

In one episode, there's a talking parakeet whose owners all apparently have something absolutely awful happen to them. I do realize that being a parakeet is rather tragic, particularly when one's owners keep dying off, but every time I'd start taking the episode seriously, they'd have this dramatic shot of the parakeet in its cage, silhouetted against a red background, wtih loud, tragic, ominous music! And then Rachel and I would look at each other, say, "Parakeet of DOOM!" and cackle insanely.

I mean... parakeet! Of doom! HEE!!!!!

Whenever someone would put the parakeet's cage down and in all seriousness say, "Stay where you are! I'll come back for you!" we'd start giggling madly again, because... parakeet! In cage! Of doom! And being cautioned to not move even though it was in a cage! Then, of course, the owner very kindly put the parakeet's cage on a wall in case said parakeet got run over by cars.

That's when Rachel fell off the bed.

The parakeet had a suitably tragic backstory, and I'd feel bad for him, except I was too busy being totally amused by the fact that he was a parakeet.

In conclusion, I am twelve.