It has been a short while since I’ve done a tag… it’s time to change that!
A couple of months ago now (!), I was tagged by Rise over at Phoenix Talks to do the Colorful Stories Tag. Rise covered the world of dramas so well in their post, to the extent that I’m definitely looking into watching a couple of them myself, but as they said – they could have done the tag five times over! Rise covers so many different topics on their blog; anime, dramas, manga, movies, and music. Their articles on visual kei in particular always interest me, personally! As Rise was so kind to tag me, make sure you go and check out their site here!
So, now without further ado, let’s take a look at the rules and dive straight into the challenge!
The rules
- Share your favourite stories—movies/books/anime/manga/drama/songs—by classifying them on these seven colours’ traits:
- red: passionate, exciting, invigorating
- blue: peaceful, calming
- pink: romantic, caring
- orange: warm, motivating
- black: mysterious, thrilling
- green: fresh, unexpected
- white: random
- Send this challenge invitation to at least one of your friends.
- Link back to the original post here! And, enjoy!
Red: Passionate, Exciting, invigorating
One show in particular comes to mind when it comes to being passionate and exciting, and that’s Haikyuu!!. Hinata’s passion for volleyball, his passion for improving, is simply encouraging. Watching Karasuno’s team compete in tournament after tournament, beating competitors deemed better than them, is exciting. It’s wonderful.
Haikyuu!! was the first sports anime that made me feel like this. It was the first sports anime I actually enjoyed and it has opened up many doors to other sports anime for me. There’s something about Haikyuu!! that I find comforting. Despite the amount of energy involved, despite the amount of excitement, I find it oddly comforting to sit down and watch the Crows play the sport they enjoy the most. Sure, there are plenty of other anime that could fit the terms passionate, exciting and invigorating, but nothing quite beats Haikyuu!! for me.
Blue: Peaceful, calming
It isn’t without its drama, admittedly, but Amaama to Inazuma is what leapt to mind when I saw the words ‘peaceful’ and ‘calming’, which is odd – I’m sure Kouhei Inazuma would argue otherwise!
Nevertheless, watching Amaama to Inazuma was such a relaxing time for me. It was a wholesome experience, watching how a single dad was so determined to learn new things for the sake of his daughter, and the episodes focused more on the cooking lessons is potentially why I’m adding it here. Minimal drama, and educational at the same time. Of course, Amaama to Inazuma does have its own drama, but it’s certainly not a heavy watch by any means.
RELATED: Amaama to Inazuma Review
Pink: Romantic, caring
As soon as I read the words ‘romantic’ and ‘caring’, I knew I had to include Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light here. This was a relatively recent watch for me, the movie having been recommended to me by my MAL Secret Santa at Christmas time, but am I glad I actually listened to them!
Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light follows the story of how Hotaru Takegawa forms a relationship with Gin – a masked forest spirit. It may be a relationship that isn’t always romantic in the typical sense of the word, but I am struggling to come up with another story that shows two characters who care for one another in such a way that this short movie does. Not only that, but the animation in Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light is what makes it truly romantic. The art is phenomenal. I had to mention this little gem somewhere on my blog and to include it in the rainbow I’m creating here just somehow makes sense to me.
orange: warm, motivating
Idol Jihen is probably the one anime on this list that gets look down upon the most. Its not the greatest story of all times, I know that, but it deserves so much credit than it gets. An original story by MAPPA, Idol Jihen follows several groups of idols becoming involved in politics, all of them wanting to save the day by solving Japan’s environmental and waste issues, as well as investing in the country’s culture!
The issues that are present in Idol Jihen may seem a little far-fetched compared to what the actual Diet members may deal with, but this novel anime was a pleasure to watch. I’m adding it to this rainbow under the ‘motivating’ label as it did make me feel like we could all make a difference to the communities we live in. Perhaps not on the same scale as the girls in Idol Jihen achieve, but it was still motivating nevertheless. Not to mention that they prove to everyone who doubts them in one way or another that they are capable of doing other things than just singing and dancing!
RELATED: Idol Jihen Review
Black: Mysterious, thrilling
I had trouble picking just one title for this prompt, so I’m going to cheat a little bit and present two that fit both ‘mysterious’ and ‘thrilling’. The first one that came to mind was The Promised Neverland. Airing during the Winter 2019 season, this popular series followed the orphans of Grace Field House as they discover the truth behind their orphanage, as well as the true nature of their “Mama”, Isabella.
Although its second season may be somewhat controversial, there’s no denying that the first season was impeccable. Every week, we viewers were left hanging, the plot covered in mystery that left us wanting more and more each week. It’s not often that I watch an anime seasonally nowadays, but I can’t think of any that I watched as religiously as this one. It truly was a rollercoaster ride.
A more recent series that also proved to be a thrilling journey was Fugou Keiji: Balance:UNLIMITED. Not only is the clashing relationship between Daisuke Kanbe, a man of extraordinary wealth, and Haru Katou, a justice-seeking detective, an entertaining one, there is so much to uncover about Daisuke himself that leaves so many questions to be answered. How come he has so much money? Who is the girl? Where are his parents?
Although completely different in nature to The Promised Neverland, this series left me wanting more after every episode. It may start in an episodic nature, but as the main plot is introduced, it comes along with many complexities that come together to form a thrilling crime story that I simply loved. Definitely one to watch if you haven’t already. (As long as you don’t let the loud Daisuke stans put you off…)
Green: Fresh, unexpected
As with the last prompt, I also struggled to pick just one story for this fresh and unexpected prompt. So, here come another two stories that I really just had to mention here. The first one that came to mind was Majo no Tabitabi – a series about a young witch called Elaina who loves to travel to different places. Inspired by her favourite book, she travels from nation to nation, experiencing all the world has to offer, both its bright and dark sides, and meeting new people along the way.
I’ll be completely honest: when I picked to watch this show back in the Fall season last year, I didn’t really expect much from it. I knew it would be quite episodic in nature, as we spoke about it during my Fall 2020 seasonal anime discussion stream, but I was a little bit unsure how this would turn out. Well, it turned out wonderfully. I ended up relating to Elaina quite a lot, particularly as someone who likes to travel, and it was so nice to experience different places (albeit animated ones) alongside her, particularly as COVID-19 has stopped all travel recently. It’s provided a breath of fresh air for me personally, and is definitely a series I would recommend if you like to travel.
The Reflection is a show that I am still currently watching, but I wanted to mention it here because it’s so different and unexpected! Produced by Studio Deen and premiered in Summer 2017, The Reflection has superhero marvel (see what I did there?) Stan Lee credited as the original creator. This was what had me initially interested in watching the show, but my interest remained upon completing the first episode.
The show has a unique animation style, bringing in a quirky colour palette that I have never really seen before. It’s cheesy – its spammy soundtrack is absolutely cheesy – but there’s something ridiculously charming about that somehow dragged me in. Some may argue that it is an X-Men rip-off. And, realistically, it is. However, The Reflection is more for an audience who doesn’t necessarily watch other Marvel titles. Heck, even my superhero film-hating boyfriend began to watch The Reflection with me! You can tell that this was an animated experiment in more than one way, but the legendary Stan Lee by no means “saved anime” as people may have been hoping for. I may not be completely recommending this show, but I needed to include it here, for it is arguably the animated definition of the word ‘unexpected’.
White: random
I had a real big struggle identifying which story to include here. However, I ultimately decided to go with my current only 10/10 rated anime. I am certain that this accolade is not going to last long, but it can still be said that this story was my first 10/10 anime that managed to keep its score (others have been 10/10 in the past, but their scores have been altered as I watched more and more anime). Ladies and gentleman, this story needs no introduction, for it is Makoto Shinkai’s most recent blockbuster, Weathering With You.
This story hit home hard. The film follows Hodaka Morishima, a runaway high schooler who is struggling to financially support himself, who meets the orphaned Hina Amano who is also trying to find work in order to sustain herself and her young brother. Hodaka attempts to rescue Hina from a gang of shady men and they decide to be runaways together. Hodoka discovers that Hina has a strange power – the ability to call out sunshine whenever she prays for it. She soon becomes a “sunshine girl” – someone who will clear the skies for people when they need it the most.
It’s a charming little romance that inevitably reminds us all that having such a power comes at a price. I remember watching this in the cinema and then proceeding to cry well into the dinner we had afterwards. Even now, listening to Daijoubu by RADWIMPS – one of the endings to the movie – I get a little emotional. Sure, the same happened with secret base from Anohana, but there’s just something about this track and the story behind it which makes me more and more emotional than anything else I’ve seen before it. How could I not include Weathering With You on this rainbow of my favourite stories when it has this sort of impact on me?
Let’s pass it on…
This is always the hardest part of these tag challenges. I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it! However, I am very much interested to hear what my good friend and Japanese culture blogger, Musseyama, has to say about this. Musse – as someone who loves to write about music, be reminded that it can be a post about any medium – not just anime!
I did try searching this tag to see who has already done it, but I couldn’t actually find anything on the Reader, making it a little awkward to find who to tag… However, I’m also going to tag fellow bloggers, Una and Lina at Hallyu Reviews to carry on the tag. I’ve seen the tag floating around the anime / Japanese-media centred blogosphere quite a lot, but I think it’d be interesting to see bloggers capturing the Korean media side of things in this tag!
If I haven’t tagged you, don’t fret! I’m still interested to hear what you would include in your rainbow. Would it be anime-related or something completely different? Let me know either way by commenting below!
Sounds like a wonderful tag! There are many anime that bring to mind a specific color. With all the cherry blossoms out there, pink is probably the most common for me.
this is such a lovely tag!! i adore haikyuu!! with all my heart and soul hehe💜
Haikyuu’s so lovely – I agree! 🥰