My Anime/Manga of 2021

I lived the NEET life for a few months this year and watched/read so many things. This post will contain everything I’ve started/finished this year.

Note; this post is very long.

Anime

My Anime/Manga of 2020

I looked through my list and realized that even if it’s a year with lockdowns, I barely have any titles to add here. So this year I will do something different and just comment on everything I started/finished this year.

Here goes!

Amnesia Memories: Toma Day 1-5

Haiyaaaaaaa it’s now time for my Onii-chan’s route. I’m sort of excited and anxious at the same time. My capacity for reading yandere stories went down tremendously in the past few years, so fingers crossed I’ll make it through his route.

I first watched the Amnesia anime in 2013, and nine years later, my fav character is still Toma nii-chan. Toma is infamous even among people who haven’t seen Amnesia. I show pictures, and my friends would say ‘oh, the cage dude?’ I still like him despite that cage thing. Yeah. It’s almost painful.

I still remember that when the COVID-19 pandemic first started, the Amnesia team gave out a picture of Toma’s bedroom (with the cage) for people to use as their Zoom background. I used it in one of my classes, and no one got the reference. That’s probably for the best lol.

Anyway, let’s jump right into the game!

Amnesia Memories: Shin Normal and Bad Endings

I misspelled ‘bad’ as ‘bed’. No, Amnesia does not have bed endings.

Anyway, I went back and changed some of my choices to see what happens. First, I changed my choice of suspect from *spoiler* Toma to Shin, and he replied with a ‘yeah figures.’ This change in attitude on the MC’s part affected the conversation with Toma at the park the following day. He said something along the line of ‘it makes my heart all tingly that I’m able to go back to being your older brother’.

This time, Shin did not have much time to ransack Toma’s house for evidence and had to hurry back.

MC chose to study with Shin, and he mentioned that she was his inspiration to study hard and get a scholarship.

The confrontation between Shin and Toma happened the same way, but instead of recalling that she mistook Toma for Shin and that Toma was the one who pushed her to the rock, her denial was so strong that MC refused to acknowledge the memory and buried it again. Toma told the other two to just think of it as an accident. Shin wasn’t too happy, though; he didn’t want to pretend nothing happened, but he didn’t want MC to think that he’s trying to ruin her relationship with Toma either.

Orion didn’t think that what happened to MC at the bottom of the cliff was an accident, but there’s nothing they could do now.

Three weeks passed, and Shin asked for a breakup. He knew that her memory loss and what happened with Toma was affecting her, and he wanted to break up so that they can start over again. He and Toma would be on equal grounds then, and whoever wins her heart over again this time can do it without any regrets. MC was like ‘oh? Come and get me, then.’ (Loool I love her when she said that)

That was the good end. TBH I also really like this ending, because it resolves Shin’s guilt about not realizing Toma’s feelings for the MC, and despite having doubted Shin before, MC is regaining her trust in him just like in the good ending.

Amnesia Memories: Shin Good Ending (Day 26-31)

Shin and Marie went to see Toma, but he took a car somewhere. Marie decided to go watch a movie with Shin, and they had a pretty nice time together afterwards.

The next day, Shin setup a meeting with Toma after work. Toma met Marie at work, and he remarked on how she chose Shin again even after she lost her memories. Marie brushed it off, and after work was done, they went to meet up with Shin.

Amnesia Memories: Shin day 21-25

Recap: Before the amnesia, somebody pushed MC (I’m calling her Marie) down a cliff, and Shin is the most sus. Therefore, the whole crew goes back to the mountains to gather evidence that Shin is innocent.

I have no idea why Shin always sounds like he is talking on 1.25x speed. I checked my settings and there’s nothing wrong. Huh.

Anyway, the group arrived at Shinano. Rika started bickering with Shin, and Toma came in to stop the fight. Rika tried to leave with Ikki, but he and Kent were like ‘why’d you assume Ikki would leave with you?’ Ukyo came along as well, as the final guest.

Shin and Marie had their strategic discussion after arriving at the lodge. Given the circumstances of what happened during the incident, Ukyo wasn’t suspicious although both barely know anything about him.

Amnesia Memories: Shin day 16-20

After two years of forgetting about the game, I’m back to playing Amnesia!

Marie couldn’t concentrate, and she decided to walk home with Toma. She treated Toma like an ordinary guy, not like a brother, so he felt weird.

The next day, they went over to see Ikki and Kent. Ikki was being his usual self.

pangaea/ezel – bonutzuu’s (obscure) manga archive

pangaea/ezel is the sequel to pangaea by Rin Asano.

I got all seven volumes from a second hand bookstore, and they didn’t have the first installment of the series, so while reading the first volume, I was trying to piece together what happened in pangaea from character dialogues. The story is simple enough, so I could guess what happened in the prequel.

In this world, there exists a sacred tree called the Kalpataru, which can make any wish come true. Lyzel/Raizel is an amnesiac boy in possession of one of its branches in the form of a long stick, which gives him amazing combat abilities.

At the beginning of the story, he was with his band of friends trying to get to the sacred city to find out some truths. They were attacked by another guy who got superpowers from the fragment of the Kalpataru in his body, and got separated.

Since pangaea/ezel picks up from the middle of the story, the plot is really complicated so I’ll try my best. I may not be 100% accurate since I got really confused myself.

Mardock Scramble – let’s scramble some eggs! bonutzuu’s manga archive

I love when things go on sale. This was 70% off. It’s in eBook format, which means my mom won’t nag me for buying too many manga.

Mardock Scramble is a 7-volume manga adapted from Tow Ubukata’s novel of the same name. On my blog, I reviewed one of Ubukata-sensei’s previous works, Le Chevalier D’Eon, before. He writes great stories, so I had high expectations for Mardock Scramble, and it did deliver.

Mardock Scramble started with Rune Balot (Balot as in that food where you eat a fertilized egg with a developing embryo) getting murdered, then burned inside a locked car. She miraculously survived thanks to Dr. Easter and his partner Œufcoque (pronounced oof-cock). Rune is an important witness that can bring her murderer, Shell Septinos, to his punishment, and so the two convinced her to stand up and fight for justice.

Rune was revived under regulation Mardock Scramble 09, where experimental technologies can be used to save a witness’s life. Rune’s burnt skin was replaced with some kind of super-advanced metal fiber that gave her a lot of cool abilities, like interacting with electronics without touching them, or super human speed and perception. Œufcoque, a shapeshifting AI weapon that usually appears a yellow mouse, became her partner and help her adjust to her new life, and thwart Shell’s attempts to silence her.

My Girlfriend is a Girl from Russia (แฟนของผมเป็นเด็กสาวจากรัสเซีย) – bonutzuu’s light novel archive

I’ve talked a lot about light novels from Japan and wuxia novels, so I should also talk about light novels from Thailand, where I’m from.

I have mixed feelings about this book, and I’ll tell you why.

My Girlfriend from Russia (I don’t know what the official English title is so I’ll call it that) is a light novel published by Palo Publishing.

One day, Cha, a single romantic novelist received a phone call from his ex, asking him to meet up at her old house. There, he met Anastasia Yada Palov, a half-Thai-half-Russian elementary school girl who is his ex’s daughter. It turns out that his ex needed to go abroad to treat her illness, and asked Cha to take care of her daughter for the time being.

Ilegenes: Giyoku no Koukyoukyoku – bonutzuu’s manga archive

The title, Giyoku no Koukyoukyoku, is a mouthful, so I’ll refer to this is as Ilegenes: Symphony of the Illusory Wings. This manga is a direct sequel to Ilegenes: Kokuyou no Kiseki (the Path of Obsidian) and a prequel to the novel.

Ilegenes is a shoujo sci-fi/military manga. The events take place on an island called Ilegenes, famous for its advanced technology in genetic engineering. However, as with biology and its ethical nightmares, people try to use this technology for the wrong purposes, and that’s where our protagonist comes in.

Story

Fon Fortinbras Littenber was a third-year student in Ilegenes’s military academy and the leader of ‘Elfenbein’, an anti-government organization aiming to expose and get rid of corrupted politicians. Fon planned to run for dorm master of the academy, so that he could make the rules more relaxed, and he and his friends in Elfenbein would have more wiggle room to get out of the dorms and do their anti-government things.

Things were not easy, however, when two females joined the all-male military academy. One of them is Gabrielle “Gabby” Grey, who possessed the same ‘peacock eyes’ that Fon had.

Peacock eyes are symbols of the ‘purge children’, genetically engineered superhumans. Gabby came here to become to queen of Ilegenes, starting with taking over the academy, and so she had to get rid of Fon first. However, Fon could not do anything to her, because it is programmed into the purge children that older children cannot harm the newer ones. F comes before G, so Fon is older than Gabby, and he can’t do anything to harm her while Gabby had the rights to get rid of Fon if she deemed him defective.

Lemuria: Umi no Mokushiroku – bonutzuu’s (obscure) manga archive

I can barely find information of this manga online, so here it is. I’ll write about it.

Lemuria: Umi no Mokushiroku is an old school seinen manga by Kishi Daimurou.