Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun (Seasons 1 & 2)

How can something be so beautiful and so sad at the same time?

These two series follow on from each other fairly well, and even the episode number (in the anime, not as listed) follows on in ascending order. It's as though the series was supposed to be one long one, but they decided to put it in two halves (I have not read up on this, nor know the actual reason behind this decision).

Shino.

The story follows Shino, an apparent pre-pubescent boy, and his childhood friends, Sousuke and Hamaji. They were orphaned due to a terrible incident in their village five years prior, and stuck together as family, the only survivors. With strange ties to the church, a lack of memories of the past and demonic powers, this story covers it all. Some things are not even revealed until the very end, so it has plenty of questions to keep you watching.

Hamaji.

I found it really intriguing, there are hints to keep you guessing but it is also pleasant to watch by just going with the flow and not thinking too much. I would also call this a casual anime, you get obsessed with watching it, but you don't feel the need to watch every episode in succession (it came out a year or two ago, so I watched it when I had the time, instead of making time for it).

Sousuke fighting himself/ other half.

If you liked Spirited Away, Fruits Basket, or any other anime with spirits, demons and all things legendary, then check this out. You won't regret it, that is my personal guarantee.

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

Grisaia no Kajitsu (Fruit of Grisaia)

NO, THIS CAN'T BE OVER!!!!

This is a series that I loved so much this season, and I am truly sad to see it go. Apparently there is a second season, so I will be eagerly awaiting this. It was a Visual Novel first, so I need to read that now, and if anyone knows where I can find it, please let me know.

"Mihama Academy—on the surface, a closed learning environment established to nurture students who find themselves at odds with the world around them; in actuality, an orchard-cum-prison built to preserve fruit that has fallen too far from its tree. Whatever the circumstances behind its establishment, Mihama Academy is at present home to five female students, all with their own reasons for "enrollment." For better or worse, each girl has established a routine obliging of her current situation; life moves at an idle, yet accommodating pace within the walls of Mihama. Yet with the arrival of the institute's first male student, the nearly preposterously opaque Kazami Yuuji, the students at Mihama begin to fall out of step with their predetermined rhythms. Will Yuuji prove to be the element the girls around him needed to take hold of their lives once more, or will the weight of their pasts prove too steep a wall to overcome? And in the first place, just who is Kazami Yuuji? While the true nature of the "job" he is wont to alight to at the most haphazard of moments remains shrouded in secrecy, one thing is for certain—his encroachment upon the quiet orchard known as Mihama Academy will prove itself momentous in one way or another. And of course, one cannot discount the possibility that perhaps Yuuji himself carries the weightiest past of any of the students..." (From animeultima.tv)

Even after watching this, I am not too sure of what is was truly about, but it was entertaining. I love how less than halfway through the series, we begin to find out why the girls are at this school, or in better words, what is wrong with their past. The last 'story' is the longest, spanning 3 or 4 episodes but it is very in depth and quite emotional. It's not a  mystery that you can simply predict, but little hints here and there are provided (not enough to piece anything together) but the full story is explained. Yuuji's story is interwoven and explained piece by piece throughout the series. 

The title is subtle yet truthful to the series, where the girls have fallen too far from the tree in which they were grown, they are not doing or being what is expected of them. 

I really do recommend this series, if you do not watch anything else from this season, this is the one. I don't want to spoil any of the series, so I shall stop here.

Unconditional love,

Cazzie x