Having Your Hands Full With A Handful

Having Your Hands Full With A Handful

 

 

 Once In a while this little segment might help you find a list of shows you may want to check out, whether all a part of the same service, company, release during the month. I like to call it Having Your Hands Full With A Handful. Which every eager anime fan always wants when it comes to having shows to watch. If you see the show brought up in some form or way in the future, it could be because you heard it first or hey maybe it even was mentioned before. For this particular article, here are a handful of shows if you’re visiting Cruncyrolll for the first time or just got yourself a fancy subscription you might want to check out. There are a ton of great shows and these could be the first patch for you to enjoy or the next. In my opinion I believe you should run not walk to whatever device, whether phone, tablet, laptop/ computer or TV and start watching now.

 

Space Brothers – A story of two brothers that dream of going to space. Fast forward to present day of them older Mutta Namba, once a car designer has lost his job after head butting his supervisor. The reason? Why he was making fun of his little brother Hibito who happen to be in the newspapers. Out of work he remembers the dreams that followed him for so long, looking up to the sky wondering what it’d be like if he followed his dream to become an astronaunt. Hibito had grown up to do just that and is set to be the first Japanese man to land on the moon. When he finds out about his older brother predicaments, having always looked up to him remembering the two’s promise to go to space together, he knows that Mutta is destined to go to space just like him. Without knowing his application was sent in, Mutwa is accepted to take the Astronaut test at JAXA and his chance of joining his brother in space like they had always dreamed. The show is uplifting, inspiring, funny and always touching, it’s reputation precedes it and with good reason, a rare insight into what it is like to dream to go to the stars and one of the most accurate depictions of it in anime period, if you need a reason to be hooked on Cruncyroll than this one might be a wise choice for you.

 

You’re Lie In April- Another show filled with dreams, their weight and their importance is the romantic You’re Lie In April.  Kosei Arima was once a child prodigy as a pianist, the tragedy during that time involving his mother had stopped him from pursing it further. That all changes in a moment when he meets gifted Violinist Kaori Miyazono in a park, she would bring him closer to the piano once more and face him with a real reason to play as both confront the massive challenges in this life and the love they would feel from it, daring them to push ever further. The show is fantastic, perfect to a tee if you enjoy music as well as the classical sense I recommend checking this show out because the performances are emotional showing how pivotal the emotion is, you can taste the emotions in the air during the music and the colors of life as the two characters connect. If love gives you a greater value of life then this show is an insight into how. Resolutions coming through performances as they are outside them, with such well thought out character devolvement with a small well-knit cast and connection, as said before this takes the concept of romance to it truest form. Anyone concerned of any aspect that this show might seem like on the surface should place that aside and watch this milestone of a show. Seriously.

 

Parasyte The Maximum.  A show that comes at you with the speed of a rocket, is Parasyte the Maxium. As an alien parasitic race decends on Earth, Shinichi Izumi will find one of the creatures inside him, his arm to be precise who would be called Migi. Realizing that the two are depended on each other’s survival they are faced with the concern of other parasites infiltrating human society that can pose a threat to them, as well as anyone else. The questions of morality for a human and the reasoning for another being are often crossing each other for the two, especially when the show takes its turn to the very personal. It moves you along with it in something that is both thrilling, in parts horrifying when the parasites reveal themselves in the humans and genuinely emotional. I’m not just talking for the humans like Shinichi only, even though his struggles are often tear jerkers. Even with scenes of action, the show is thought provoking on the question of what it is to be human, to become human or to become something else.

      Which it helps to view on many levels. Of course with all the well thought out questions presented you’ll wonder is there an answer to them or should I say do the characters have answers for them, well yes there is. The resolution on the many questions presented by the show and Shinchi and Migi themselves bring up, reach a final answer that might shock you or make you say you know what that’s true or at the least say I suppose that makes sense. If not it will at least make you think in yet another perspective that opens up a whole new realm of thoughts.  A show a long time in the making based on an extremely popular manga in the 90’s. Parasyte transcends genres with ease to put on display what a show is like when it grabs you and you find yourself grabbing back.

 

Durarara X2 – After a few years of anticipation Durarara returns with it’s large cast of characters only to add another truckload of characters. There’s a story in every place in the city, nowhere truer than in Ikebukuro, even if it’s been a while since you’ve watched the first season the show reminds you that it’s pace and multiple perspectives even of the same events can be fascinating. It challenges you to catch all the foreshadowing around every corner and believe you me something’s coming. That’s the thing  about the series, you find yourself content to sort of linger, lost in the characters and yet it’s always driving toward a bigger storyline. There is something about the show that captures the essence of a city, sort of embracing it with love but revealing a core that’s present in all while still making Ikebukuro distinctive.  Those who never saw the first season or simply need a refresher are in luck as its first show is also on Cruncyroll. It might feel more natural that way because trust me when I say, the show picks up where the other left off, it’s a new chapter but a part of the same story. This is a story you’ll want to stick around for as even from the start you can tell there will be much more to say than in just this season.

 

Magic Kaito 1412 – A new show for the magician under the moonlight, the rival of Conan Edogawa from Detective Conan. The show looks at how and why Kaito Kuroba became a magician having it’s own share of mysteries but of course it’s main draw is it’s magic. Which the show does with some unbelievable animation as we see Kaito on his many announced thefts always having to face Ginzo Nakamori who happens to be the father of his child friend and love interest Aoko. You get cool insight into how the tricks are done and yet it doesn't spoil that special feeling that’s always been attached to Kid Kaito.

       The interesting thing about this character is his thefts are not for personal gain. What he’s searching for is connected to the circumstances surrounding his father supposed death and a organization he has to look into who may very well be responsible for it. The show has to be a magician as well to manage his life as a student and managing to be there for Aoko as well,  while trying to keep what he does a secret. Their love connection is a little more willd and energized compared to Conan and Ran’s, Kaito tends to make fun of Aoko, antagonizing her in sometimes perverted ways and or simply with magic, although he’s also shown the other side that actually cares about her. If he has one thing over Shinichi it’s that he wasn’t fed an experimental pill that turned him into a child and now can say his feelings for her, so no excuse now. Another interesting thing is since the jewels as said have as specific reason for why they’re in his crosshairs, most of the time he brings them back by mailing them to the Inspector which probably keeps Ginzo's reputation intact. If you need another reason to watch it than try for a moment to consider it it’s own thing in some ways and you might succeed after all Gosho Aoyama created the Kid Kaito manga first.

 

One Piece – So I threw a big one in here, in the sense that it's popular and long running. However my choices always have to do with what I love to watch about them. It’s easy to find dozens of shows that do something wrong, it’s harder to find shows you can love, after all it’s why we watch Anime to enjoy ourselves, it’s also why I enjoy writing about them. If that speaks on any sort of freedom than it may connect with what One Piece is truly about. Luffy as a child dreamed of becoming a pirate even though he ate the devil fruit which made him a rubber man. No devil fruit eater can swim, they’ll sink and drown, if that wasn't enough of a challenge Luffy doesn't even have a ship or crew when he starts out, he’ll figure it out on the way though he figures as he sails to the grandline and beyond, in search of One Piece the treasure of Gold Roger who used to be King of The Pirates as he becomes the next King of the Pirates!

      One Piece is both popular and long running, what I love about One Piece is it’s storytelling, with all the craziness there are honest emotions driving the show, it can go dark places and than it could make you laugh a few episodes later. The characters are always something new, the main cast can’t help it but put a smile on your face, they are so distinctive as are the other thousand characters in the series but it’s what makes them so important in the Straw Hat Crew and you have to love it that in many ways their captain didn’t plan it, he simply wanted it when it was right in front of him. If anything he willed it to happen. 

      They kind of guide you through all wonderful, beautiful, unique aspects of the world of One Piece. There are the places that you won’t believe, each island like it’s own world, in the sky, and even below water, nothing is off limits. Weather can change in an instant depending on the sea you’re on, animals of all sizes and appearances can and will appear, powers you won’t believe, most from devil fruit eaters much like Luffy and some of the other crew members, as well as friends and foes in the series. Some are just human but extremely gifted, swordsman that can cut through large seemingly indestructiable things, those who can move fast, kick so hard their foot is on fire and even air walk.  You'll feel thrilled in every episode and the last thing you see makes you wish you could watch the next episode.

      The foreshadowing is of epic proportions and nothing feels like a repeat, the author may not flaunt it but he has a real grasp on the way people are sometimes, how goverments work, how public opinon can work, how power struggles can work and how deep this show is. You love the show for the way it fills you with joy, you expect everything to work in a certain way, almost make up your mind on it only to be shown that it isn’t necessarily going to happen. That’s also what makes the main cast and Luffy so cool, it can be as rough as our world but they don’t care, it isn’t going to stop them. They may not want to be looked at as heroes after all their pirates but you can’t help but do so. The very aspect of them supposed to be viewed as evil to some in the show, shows that it isn’t too far of a stretch to incorporate many views of the same thing. You love them but yes pirates are something to fear too, plenty of others to root for but some are just messed up, to a new level of they got go, not to mention those that aren’t pirates, tyrants, rulers, regular people and the government. The supposed good guys have a lot of not nice people with rank, even if there are some that are awesome and you love as much as their enemy the pirates.

 This one is truly one for the books and how long it’s run despite being intimidating to people getting into anime or those that are used to shorter series, even those that have topped out at two hundred to three hundred episodes, it’s part of the show’s charm.  Another bonus is Cruncyroll now has all the episodes from the start until the present. So if you’re squinting with some doubts or just holding mangas of your other favoirtie shows and wondering to add another to the handful, then give it a try. There’s many the anime I’ve seen and I’m not ashamed to count this among my favorites.

 

    Not the handful you expected, that's ok consider this a segment that  will pop up more often than not, giving a handful to the possible jaded, or uncertain fan who doesn't know where to look next. It's not always that there's nothing to watch but rather it can be a bit overwhelming even for people that have been watching for years and years. Even if you're waiting for that certain show and don't see it in these handfuls, by no means does it mean it won't be spotlighted anyways.