Written by M.Harajima
 “Love has nothing to do with age” - This is a phrase that you will hear throughout your life and someone as young as a kindergartener even understands this like Anzu in Hanamaru Kindergarten. Growing up, we all experience crushes throughout our lifetime whether it’s with a celebrity, that popular classmate that’s way out of our league, or with a teacher.
In Anzu’s case, she first bumps into her new kindergarten teacher Tsuchida-sensei, but has yet to discover who he is, while waiting for her mother. Upon running into him on the street, she misinterprets him trying to help her as him trying to pick her up. This is the beginning of her long persistent love for Tsuchida-sensei even though we find out later that he has eyes for someone else.
 Anyone with some common sense would realize the difficulty in a relationship when you are just a kindergarten student but it’s probably the innocence of a child that keeps us believing and dispel all those impossibilities that may sneak into one’s mind. Despite the age difference, Anzu’s mom was the student of Anzu’s dad before they got married. Anzu’s mom has given her daughter reassurance that Anzu will marry Tsuchida-sensei in the future. Therefore, Anzu’s mind is filled with Tsuchida-sensei as she is always in admiration of him.
While most people choose to keep their crushes on the down low like Tsuchida-sensei, as he never expresses his feelings directly toward his love interest as of yet, Anzu, on the other hand, is a very vocal child. She vocalizes her love for Tsuchida-sensei and even brings him lunch one day realizing later how awful it tasted.
 It’s fun and entertaining to watch the innocence of children and how no matter how young we are, we all understand the basic concept of love and its limitless nature. Anzu is a child with a very lively personality that doesn’t take no for an answer and will fight for what she wants which creates the many happenings that occur in each episode that leave us wanting more. I hope you’ll join me every week in watching what is a very eventful day in kindergarten!
 
Written by Rikun
 When you think of a shounen anime series, what kind of images pop into your mind? You’d expect bombastic action and thrilling adventure, don’t you? Perhaps a hotheaded hero who uses his sheer willpower and friendship to beat down the most powerful enemy in the universe? Maybe you’d be expecting a complex system of martial arts and secret fighting techniques that attempts to explain why stuff explodes in epic proportions, complete with dudes yelling out every single one of their attacks. Or maybe you just want to see dudes bashing the stuffing out of each other for no other reason than to look awesome. If that’s your cup of high octane tea, then by all means enjoy all the action.
If, however, you wish to take a more subtle approach to shounen anime and get away from all the noise, then Tegami Bachi would certainly be a good place to start.
The story is simple enough. The show’s title, Tegami Bachi, translates to “Letter Bee”, and is a term used for deliverymen that travel from town to town in the world of Amberground to deliver letters and packages. Said deliveries contain the heart (in an emotional sense) of the sender and allows everyone it the world to live in harmony. Because Amberground is such a bleak wasteland in-between towns infested with monstrous insectoid Gaichuu, such transfer of precious cargo is the most dangerous job in the world. Those who choose to take up the mantle of a Letter Bee not only have to deliver the very heart and souls of the citizens of Amberground, but also know that their life might be cut short at any time.
 Tegami Bachi does have several of the staples of a shounen series that works well. Specialized weapons, ferocious monsters, and superpowered combat abilities are the norm in this series. However, the bleak, almost dreamlike world of the Amberground wasteland is a much more subtle setting than the typically outrageous ones many shounen series fall back upon. The action in this series, while thrilling in its own right, doesn’t constantly pump you with adrenaline every waking second the way most other shounen series do either. While this may seem like a boring way to present a shounen series, let us all keep in mind that many times action is most effective when it immediately follows a mundane situation. The thrilling moments then come as more of a jolt of energy rather than a constant stream, which in many cases tends to stand out more.
 The atmosphere of Amberworld does a great deal to set the mood of the series, toning down the bright, colorful palette that has made shounen anime popular amongst fans. The world is set in perpetual night and practically everything is sucked into a cold, blue world. One can really get the sense of how cold and bleak the world has become, which makes the delivery of hearts from one town to another all the more important for humanity’s survival. Adding onto the fact that the specialized weapons use the power of the heart to defeat the Gaichuu, it’s no wonder that there is strong emphasis on the emotional drama that occurs between the various characters that our main character, Lag Seeing, will encounter throughout his travels.
Bombastic, in-your-face action and over the top combat is extremely popular with anime fans, and will continue to be popular for as long as anime exists. However every once in a while it’s nice to get away from the mindless smashing and come to a series that not only provides an emotional bite, but pushes such emotion towards center stage. In this regard, Tegami Bachi will give you that nice, calming atmosphere that stands out against a sea of unruly violence. Not to say that Amberwood is the nicest place in the world, but the change of atmosphere may be the breather that many new fans could be waiting for.
Written by Marzgurl
Bringing you the top stories from the past week in case you missed it:
 New DVD releases for this week
Mania.com has listed new releases of anime on DVD this week. A variety of anime new and old, for the fans young and aged, are getting some DVD treatment, including Dragon Ball Season 3 Collection from FUNimation, Ramen Fighter Miki Lite Box from Media Blasters, Piano: The Melody of a Young Girl’s Heart Bundle from Nozomi Entertainment, Skullman Complete Collection from Sentai Filmworks, and NANA: Complete Collection Part 3 from Viz. Each of these boxed sets will be released from their respective companies as of the week of February 2nd, 2010. Currently, Ramen Fighter Miki can be viewed on Crunchyroll.
Genericon XXIII Announces Voice Actor Guest Robert Axelrod
In a press release on February 3rd from Genericon XXIII, Screen and Voice actor Robert Axelrod is the latest addition to the Genericon XXIII guest list. Some roles Axelrod may best be known for include the voices of Lord Zedd and Finster on the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, and assorted characters in Akira, The Big O, Captain Harlock, Cowboy Bebop, Digimon, Fist of the North Star, and Robotech. Other convention events include 24-hour video game room, anime and sci-fi screenings, role playing games, a cosplay contest, vendors, artists' alley, panels by special guests and fans, a concert, gaming tournaments and more. The convention takes place February 12 through 14, 2010 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.
 Ghost in the Shell Screenwriter Draws from the Manga
Kofi Outlaw of screenrant.com was able to to get some comments from Hollywood Ghost in the Shell screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis. She states that the movie, due to be released in 2011, will be based on Masamune's original manga, and not necessarily the anime movie or TV series adaptations. She also mentions that it will be action-packed and that "...There’s still going to be a lot of atmosphere – [The movie] is about vast possibilities – all of this technology, the Internet – it’s about the limitless possibilities of this technology.” The Ghost in the Shell Hollywood adaptation is being produced under Dreamworks and is directed by Steven Spielberg.
Dragon Ball Kai
According to ANN, on Tuesday February 2nd Navarre Corperations had announced that Funimation will be licensing Dragon Ball Kai and that it will be released in the states in the "latter part of the fiscal year". The news was later confirmed on Funimation's official blog with the words, "the answer is yes." Dragon Ball Kai is a remastering of the widely popular Dragon Ball franchise which started airing in Japan on April 5, 2009. With a trimmed-down episode count, updated visuals, and remastered vocal recordings the series seeks to stick closer to the original manga penned by Akira Toriyama.
Did you know that during its conception, Mobile Suit Gundam was originally named "Freedom Fighter Gunboy". The gundam unit itself were originally called "Gundom" as a mixture of words "gun" and "freedom". It was later changed to the spelling we are all familiar with because creator Yoshiyuki Tomino figured the name "Gundam" signified a powerful unit weilding a gun that could hold back powerful opposing forces, much like a dam holding back powerful floods.
Naruto Shippuden ©2002 MASASHI KISHIMOTO / 2007 SHIPPUDEN All Rights Reserved., Hanamaru Kindergarten © YUTO/SQUARE ENIX, HANAMARU KINDERGARTEN COMMITTEE, Gintama ©HIDEAKI SORACHI/SHUEISHA・TV TOKYO・DENTSU・SUNRISE, Durarara © Ryohgo Narita/ASCII MEDIA WORKS/Ikebukuro Dollars, MBS, Hanasakeru Seishonen © INA/NHK Sogo Vision ・Pierrot, Shugo Chara! Party! © PEACH-PIT,KODANSHA/Shugo-Chara! Project,TV TOKYO
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