Over the course of the last two months, I coaxed myself through 7 complete episodes and 10 minutes into ep.08 of Marimite. I even started thinking about completing it, when three days ago I accidentially thought: "School government in Shingu was so much more fun", and it was the drop which overflowed the cup of my determination. I quit this horrible, bleak, dreary excuse for an anime, and was so happy to unwind watching Shingu that I went through 16 episodes in 3 days. Forgot to blog even.
Isn't it past time for you to grow up?
To be fair, Marimite is not bad per se. As mentioned previously, the idea is that girls are being friends in it. Unfortunately, the relationships are set up to pump angst for no good reason, and it's pretty much the defining feature of the show. When Shipon were angsty in Stellvia, she had a good reason: the fate of the whole world depended on her performance. Yumi's tears were completely self-induced and hollow.
The show may be full of valuable life lessons for little girls, but its entertainment value for me is negative. I'm glad it works for others, at least.
Words:
お姉様がた: you can use 方 the same way as 達.
へんじ: "response", different from こたえ/answer... somehow
そうたい（する）: leave early
いらいら（する）: be irritated
宿題を上げよ: [I] assign homework [to you]
けち: cheapskate (?)
温室【おんしつ】: hothouse/greenhouse
You can come over to play with my daughter any time.
In contrast, Shingu is plain fun. The more I rewatch it, the more I like it. Back when SDB introduced me to it, I was rather sceptical. I mean, all the visual imperfections and stuff... But I think seeing Gurren-Lagann helped me here. Shingu's scope is actually about the same, its biggest comparative downside being the screwed-up story of Muryo. Also, there was not as much growth in Shingu; lonely Nayuta does the job that Simon shares with Rossieu et.al. But if Gurren-Lagann is one of the four greatest series ever, surely the Tatsuo Sato's masterpiece deserves to be categorized as simply great.
Thank you for the small word of epic encouragement.
BTW, just to illustrate the above, think how Shingu and Gurren-Lagann handle the times when a hero needs a good shake-up. Asogi and Muryo did not use a good punch in the face, like Kamina and Simon did. I actually liked the Shingu's way more than the TTGL method.
Words:
屋上【おくじょう】: [on] the roof
運動会 vs. たいくさい (elementary school vs. high school)
お見送り: walking home, also parting, farewells
らせん: they all love spiral: Naruto, Shingu (Kyoichi's), and Gurren-Lagann
みっかが すぎた: three days passed.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to continue watching and enjoying the remainder of the show, blogging be damned. I need to rest from Marimite some more.
UPDATE: Steven says that doesn't feel much sympathy. But it's ok. And certainly, Harumi Mineo was absolutely amazing, Feena class, out of this world great character.
IN E-MAIL from J. Greely regarding へんじ:
The general rule when two words have basically identical meanings, is that the one based on on-readings is more formal, because all of the Chinese-derived words were historically used by the upper classes.
Also, I grepped through the Tanaka Corpus, and in most cases, henji referred to a reply, and kotae to a solution, with some overlap. Most of the henji examples were more formal, although there were several expressions that used o-kotae. Not a definitive answer, but suggestive.
I suppose it goes well with people using -gata for -tachi.