Plenty actually and lazy to do screen shots, am watching the following now:
Finished watching this last week but lazy to post:
Both are good, prefer Love Shuffle more... More updates this weekend. Need to catch with some -- sleep.
I love this 13 part ( Season 1) anime. Natsume no Yuujincho means Natsume's book of friends. And it is no ordinary book of friends, in fact it is a ghostly kind of friends.Yup, it's yurei, youkai and obake a lot. Now, every one knows that Japan has ghosts ( of the long hair kind which is a bad characterizations ) but besides the usual floor crawling kind, their culture is rich which stories of monsters, fearful ghosts as well as fairies.
Natsume is a young boy who has inherited the gift of the 3rd eye. The ability to see residents of the "netherworld" and to him that is gift he rather not have. His ability has left him being shuffled among relatives ( parents died young ) as no one would want a young child who kept insisting there is something in the room when there was nothing there. Till he was accepted by a childless couple in the small outskirts in Japan. However, his spirit visions don't stop and continue to chase him. Worse off, every yurei he meets, keeps telling him he looks like someone they seem to know.
One day, while running away from one yurei, he accidentaly breaks the seal that houses a large youkai known as Madara. ( voiced by Hatake Kakashi's seiyu ) and this youkai tells him that he looks like Reiko. Natsume's late grandmother. Who had also the power to see ghosts as well as "seal" ( by taking their name ) them in what she calls her book of friends. She later uses it to summon the ghosts for her own bidding. Reiko seems like a powerful person, who can beat the crap out of humans and ghosts a like and ended making some powerful enemies when she took their name.
Natsume strikes a deal with Madara ( who turns into a cat called Nyanko sensei ) that while he works to return the names of the ghosts stuck by the deal, any remainder will be given to Madara, who will also eat Natsume at the end of the deal. 
Each episode, you will get to see the different yurei, obake, small gods that make up Japanese legends. Now how many are really from Japanese legends i am not sure but some are down right creepy - like those with 1 eye or those that crawl on the floor. Some are downright cute and sweet. I have to say there were some episodes that were so sad, really, you need tissues. There are really no frightening ones ( like in juon ) but it gives you a good inside of how deep japanese cultures are. My favorite story is of the one where the yurei is peeping behind the man's shoulder. 
Natsume, is not alone in his quest and in his journeys, he meet people past and present that are "special" like him. When i say past, he gets to know about his late grandmother a little bit more through the ghosts that he meets in his quest to return their names. At the same time, meet other humans who can see ghosts like him.
What i like about this show:
* The ethereal feel about the show, it looks so... soft... and feathery
* The story line of course.
* Natsume's trusting nature of human and otherwise and the friendships he builds with people around him.
* The music, the intro and ending song was pretty good in my books. Especially the last song. Can't find it anywhere but it is a pretty awesome song.
I found that his grandmother was one scary lady to begin with. Takes some guts to bop ghosties on the head with little thought and beat the crap out of them and he seeks to distinguish himself away from her.
I only wished they could extend the story line a bit more. For me 13 episodes was short. After the first season, they introduced Zoku Natsume no Yujin Cho as a continuation but the series still feels that it has more to tell. For those looking for horror yet not to be scared witless, then try Natsume Yujin Cho for starters.
Ok, not the real cat shit but bro introduced this to me over the weekend and i am sort hooked on gun totting rabbits man. Watership down gone bad! It's based on the manga Apocalypse Meow but based in Iraq. If you wonder how they get rabbits for americans and different races representing different animals- check this out on wiki. Hehehe. This is due out in 2010 as a anime series about 12 episodes i think. Who thought that bunnies were soft - think again.
I have watched this for some time and haven't really found the "mood" to post things up on my dorama blog but hey. This is a good one to catch. If you guys don't already know, there is a movie out of the same name with the same cast of the show. The movie covers a condensed version of the dorama while the series ( by Fuji TV ) goes into more details.
The story is as most people know based on the mobile phone novel that had 36 million readers ( wow ) and i didn't initially pick it up because after watching Sky Of Love - i was thoroughly depressed. However, when the lead actor popped out on Astro... i thought i decided to check it out ( yes i am that shallow at times ).
Do you remember when you were in your teens, you had many friends but there is a small group which you were much closer to? Well, watching Akai Ito will bring back memories of such times. The red thread of destiny ( akai ito ) revolves around Atsushi Nishino and Mei Takemiya who from birth were bounded together by destiny and met when they where 15 going to 16 years of age.
Mei first met A-kun ( pronounced ah-kun and short for Atsushi ) in class when she picked up his chocolate bar. Theirs is a funny meeting at first, they keep bumping to each other in akward moments -such as, A-Kun, witnessing Mei being told that Yuza ( the person she originally liked before A-Kun ) was interested in her sister, her jumping around trying to get a phone reception on the school rooftop etc. ( That was a bit hilarious in some sense )
A-kun is initially a bit withdrawn from everyone and always seems to be having some chores or rushing off somewhere - and when asked by everyone he will say " i have things to do or" his favorite - "some adult situations to handle ... " however the group dynamics of mei's friends pulls him towards them.
The show does a flash back of how Mei and A-kun met 6 years back at a front of a cake shop and A-kun discovers a photo which gaves him indication they have met before. A little by little he realizes she was the little girl at the cake shop and slowly starts to fall in love with Mei. Check out the bit where A-kun asked Mei out on a first date- that was so cute! Lol
However, things turn a bit drastic after this, after the initial lovey dovey feel. As young teenagers, hormones raging, love affairs don't normally restrict to just a couple but there are others that interested in our hero and heroine. Taka, one of the guys from the group is interested in Mei, while Sara, ( the goth lolita girl ) was interested in Taka. Mei and A-kun themselves had a history in their family that has embedded deeply in drugs. A-kun's "adult situations" was actually his mother's drug problem that requires her to be in and out of rehab and hospitals as well. He hides his family problems from everyone including Mei, except with only the help of a guardian and Mami a girl he met when he was younger.
During a field trip to Nagasaki, Mei and A-kun set themselves up for a date which gets cut short 1/2 way as A-kun's mother gets admitted to hospital again this time. Leaving her alone with her friends in Nagasaki, Taka tries to make a move on her however, Sara who was having a crush on Taka feels betrayed and thought that mei was going out with Taka. She then decides to commit suicide unable to bear the hurt caused by this revelation. Here's where the story goes very fast pace here.
A-kun's mother's problems requires him to leave town for her rehabilitation to kick in and Mei, struggling to come to terms with Sara's attempted suicide starts of a series of misunderstanding that tears the 2 young lovers apart. Unable to understand A-kun's sudden departure from town ( he refuses to explain why to her and decides that the best way for her is to be cruel to her ) and also being blamed in school for Sara's suicide attempt, Mei, moves closer to Taka, the only person she thought understands here.
You need to watch the series as to what happens to A-kun and Mei from then on and whether these two star crossed lovers really get back together. The story will delve deeper into drug abuse and what happens to families when it happens, abuse ( yes, there is and i will not spoil your story you need to find out who ) and teenage pregnancy. I promise you at the end of the show your eyes won't be dry.
The 2 young thespians in this show deserve credit for this show. Junpei Mizobata plays the young A-kun. Now, when i watched him Hachi One Diver, i was not so impressed with him there. But in Akai Ito, he shines. A-kun is not one person who speaks a lot, but a lot of his emotions, feelings and thoughts are conveyed through Junpei's facial expressions. Also A-kun's character belies the maturity of a person so young bearing all his mother's problems stoically on his own. In someways, A-kun has become quite emotionally detached, that he rather put up with Mami liking him rather than to honestly tell her how he feels. There are some angles he looks a bit like a young takuya kimura with very expressive eyes, given the right drama, i think he can make it to takuya's level.
Mei was initially one character i thought who was pretty spineless but she turned out to be one of my favorite characters- her strength grows from each episode. The girl who plays mei looks sweet ( not very gorgeous but fits the story well ) and would love to save everyone except her self. The bits that really irked me in her character though when she accepted abuse from Taka ( aha- spoiler ) with reasons that i cannot fathom why one should. Possibly she blamed herself for his anger or insecurities. However despite what fate has thrown to her, unlike those around her that resorted
The other characters were well played, all likable yet characters with distinctive issues with each one of them. Only one i really do not like is Taka. I am not sure why they pick a guy who looks like a girl... what's with the over plucked eye brows for guys... Some how or rather he ended up not being my favorite character.
I have read some comments, this show is just for teenagers only but i don't really think so. A story if well told, will get audiences from all ages. The storyline maybe familiar but the actors and all carry the story to a point everyone can enjoy. If you start feeling any of the emotions any of the characters in show feel, i think it's a good show in my books. If you don't have anything to do this long weekend, catch this show.
