What to Hate About Snow White with the Red Hair Episode 1?

What's wrong with the first episode of the Snow White with the Red Hair anime? What's there to hate and dislike about it?

Snow White with the Red Hair or Akagami no Shirayukihime is an anime and manga series by Sorata Akizuki. It's about an herbalist named Shirayuki. She's got beautiful red hair that's apparently really special and unique. This is the main reason why Prince Raj of the Tanbarun Kingdom (where she lives) wants her.

She doesn't want to be with him though, which isn't all that surprising since they don't even know each other (they've never met), so she leaves and heads to the neighboring kingdom of Clarines.

She'll end up meeting this guy named Zen who's actually a prince. From what I've read, they'll fall in love and end up together.

I don't know just how believable their relationship will be though because I couldn't get through episode 1 of this anime.

I just couldn't finish it, which was unfortunate since it started out pretty well. The beginning was actually quite interesting, particularly with regards to whole herbs thing what with Shirayuki being an herbalist. I mean, usually the characters would be into cooking or things like that.

Anyway, then we got introduced to Prince Raj who seems to be acting like the evil queen in the Snow White fairytale. I wasn't the least bit impressed with his character as he seemed like a walking cliché, a cardboard cutout with no personality. I mean, what's up with him suddenly wanting the main character just because of her red hair?

All he knows about Shirayuki is that she's pretty and has red hair, and, just because of that, he wants her? He didn't even confirm if the guy who told him about this was telling the truth or not. How does he even know the hair will be to his liking? What if he doesn't actually like that shade of red? Or what if his definition of beautiful isn't the same as the informant's?


Basically, I found that part really quite lame especially when the informant went on about Shirayuki and her red hair. Already, she's being made out to be this special snowflake, which was infuriating and annoying, to say the least. We're only in episode 1, and, already, I'm seeing the main character favoritism. Ugh.

And then there's the part where the protagonist cuts her hair. I have several questions regarding that because it just doesn't make sense. For one thing, what is the point of cutting her hair? Seriously, she was already leaving Tanbarun Kingdom (obviously, she couldn't stay since she didn't want to be with Prince Raj), so why bother cutting her hair?

It would have made more sense if she actually planned to stay, so she could hide in plain sight, but since she's leaving anyway, why not keep her hair?

Another thing to point out is the fact that she was actually wearing a hood to hide her hair, so why bother cutting it? What difference does it make if her hair is long or short if she's hiding it by wearing a hood?

As it is, the whole cutting her hair thing just comes across as completely pointless especially since it didn't really solve anything.

If she really wanted to get rid of her hair, then why didn't she just cut it all? Why didn't she decide to go bald? I mean, she cut it and now it's short, but it's still red, so, basically, nothing much changed.

Her hair still looks all unique and special even if it's short. If she wasn't planning to go bald, then why bother cutting it? Why only go halfway? The hair thing really pissed me off. Ugh, either go bald or don't bother cutting your hair. Sheesh.

After that, I just couldn't take it anymore. The damage was done. I couldn't get through the rest of the episode.

It just wasn't believable anymore especially when you see Shirayuki with a hood on and you can still see her red hair and- ugh. No. Just no.

Maybe I'll try to watch Snow White with the Red Hair again later on. But, for now, this is it for me. So, what about you? What did you think about this anime series? Does it get better in the later episodes? Is the love story believable?

*Notes:
- First pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above
- The rest of the pics are enlarged product images from Amazon.com; links shown above via Amazon's Native Shopping Ads widget

Disillusion Fate/Stay Night Song Quote Analysis

“Gently cast aside your fake self. And just be who you are.”
- Disillusion (song lyrics from Fate/Stay Night)

Disillusion is the first opening theme song of the Fate/Stay Night anime and it was sung by Sachi Tainaka.

Fate/Stay Night tells the story of a war for the Holy Grail where magus or magicians known as Masters fight against each other with the help of Heroes or heroic spirits known as Servants.

The winner of this war will get the Holy Grail and all of their wishes will be granted.

Needless to say, the storyline of Fate/Stay Night is pretty interesting, but let’s not get into that now. The Disillusion song sounds pretty awesome too. You can listen to a sample of it below to see for yourself.

Anyway, one reason that I like the quote featured above is because it’s so inspirational. It reminds you to be yourself, whoever and whatever you may be.

It reminds you stop pretending to be someone you’re not.

The addition of the word ‘gently’ instead of just saying the line without it gives the impression or the notion that you can take things slowly.

If you’re not yet ready, then you can take your time and build up your courage to try and be who you are.

You don’t have to do it so fast or so abruptly. You can take it gently and slowly. So, what do you think of this quote? Do you like it?

*Note:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by MizuSasori (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt

Problems With The Queen Selection Contest In Sugar Sugar Rune

Here are some questions and thoughts about the queen selection test in the Sugar Sugar Rune anime and manga series by Moyoco Anno:

(*Warning for possible spoilers for the first episode of Sugar Sugar Rune)

In episode 1 of the Sugar Sugar Rune anime, we find out that Chocolat Meilleure / Kato and Vanilla Mieux / Ice have been chosen to be the candidates for the queen selection test/contest that would determine who will be the future queen of the Magical World.

How were these 2 chosen? What’s the criteria for being one of the candidates for the queen selection contest? How come there are only 2 candidates?

Surely, there are lots of other girls in the Magical World, so how come it’s only Chocolat and Vanilla that have been chosen?

Yes, Cinnamon Meilleure, Chocolat’s mother, was once one of the candidates for the same test, but so what?

Does that automatically have to mean that her daughter should be a candidate as well? Candy Mieux is the queen of the Magical World, but what does that matter with regards to the contest?

If they’re just going to go with royalty, why not just have Vanilla be the queen without the need for the contest? After all, her mother is already the queen anyway, so what does it matter if Cinnamon used to be a candidate? Why does Chocolat Kato need to be a candidate as well? Why aren’t there other candidates?

Chocolat herself expresses surprise at having been chosen to be a candidate and I have to agree with her. Why was she chosen? Why her and not someone else?

Vanilla outright says that she doesn’t want to be the queen. She wants to be a baker and she wants her best friend to be the queen, so why are they still having this contest?

Why can’t she just lose on purpose or something? Then again, maybe Vanilla is still competing because she doesn’t want to disappoint Queen Candy.

Although, from what we’ve seen of the queen so far, she appears to be a very nice and kind person, so there’s a possibility that she might be understanding if her daughter tells her that she doesn’t want to rule the Magical World.

But, even if Candy wouldn’t approve of her daughter’s choices and/or even if Vanilla doesn’t want to disappoint her mother, there’s still a way out of this, isn’t there? Why can’t Chocolat and Vanilla just agree to keep this decision (of letting the former win) to themselves?

What if Vanilla just doesn’t collect hearts? Or what if she just helps Chocolat collect hearts? If asked, she can just say that she’s unable to get hearts. Why not do something like that if she really doesn’t want to be the next queen? What do you think about all this?

*Notes:
- Both Sugar Sugar Rune pics are from Amazon.com; links shown above

Yuzurenai Negai Magic Knight Rayearth Song Quote Analysis

“How long do I have to cry before I see tomorrow?”
- Yuzurenai Negai (song from Magic Knight Rayearth)

Yuzurenai Negai, which means Unyielding Wish, is the first opening song from the Magic Knight Rayearth anime and manga series by CLAMP. It was sung by Tamura Naomi.

Magic Knight Rayearth stars 3 girls- named Hikaru, Umi and Fuu- as the main protagonists or heroines. The 3 of them get transported to another world, which they’re tasked to save from evil before they can return to their world.

This particular quote from the lyrics of Yuzurenai Negai is really very sad and depressing, isn’t it? The word ‘cry’ here can refer to feelings of pain, sorrow, misery, despair and suffering. The word 'tomorrow’ can refer to far-away things like the future and even concepts like not giving up and hope.

It’s like saying how much longer do you have to face all of this suffering and endure all the pain and sorrow before you can see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Or how long can you put up with all of your worries and fears? How long do you have to take? How long do you have to endure all of this before either breaking down or giving up or, if you’re lucky, actually being able to see tomorrow?

In the end, that’s what we all want, right? We all want to see tomorrow. We all want to see the future. We wouldn’t want to give up.

In the end, what we really want is for all the challenges that we experienced and all the pain that we felt to be worth it. In the end, we want to see that all our hard work meant something, that it made a difference and that it wasn’t useless or for naught. What do you think about this?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by CoDLia (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Magic Knights Rayearth pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above

Sugar Sugar Rune’s Chocolat Meilleure Versus Harry Potter’s Lily Evans

Also known as, “Using magic for pointless reasons?”

What’s with the usage of magic for pointless reasons in the Sugar Sugar Rune anime series by Moyoco Anno? It’s like using magic only for the sake of showing it off to us, the audience, or something. But, then again, at least we can say that Chocolat Meilleure / Kato’s actions are much better than what Lily Evans (from the Harry Potter series of books by J.K. Rowling) did, right?

(*Warning for possible spoilers for episode 1 of Sugar Sugar Rune and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

In episode 1 of the Sugar Sugar Rune anime, we see one of the students in Chocolat’s school teasing one of the other students. The redheaded witch attempts to use magic in order to stop this.

But did she really have to use magic? Don’t you think that that seemed too extreme, not to mention pointless?

Of course, it was right for her to want to stop the teasing, but, why couldn’t she just talk to them? Why did she have to resort to using magic? The boys were already scared of her anyway, so it’s highly likely that they would have listened to her had she spoken to them. In fact, that’s exactly what happened.


When Chocolat’s spell failed, she used her words to get everyone to stop with the teasing and it did work, so what’s with the need to use magic in the first place? That part seemed contrived, like we just had to see Chocolat’s transformation sequence and the magic usage thing.

On the other hand, I did like how active Kato was in this situation. It’s so much better than what Lily Evans did when faced with a similar, but so much worse, situation.

In the Snape’s Worst Memory scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Severus Snape, Lily Evans’ best friend, is bullied by the Marauders.

It’s 2 (4 and more if you count Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin as well as everyone else who were happily watching someone get hurt while standing by and doing absolutely nothing about it) against 1 and Snape was on the losing side.

He was being humiliated and bullied and teased and made fun of in front of a crowd of people. It’s horrible.

Lily Evans steps forward to “help.” Guess what she does? But, first, let’s look at it this way: if you see a really good friend of yours, your best friend, being bullied and hurt, what will you do?

You’d run over to where said friend is, right? You’d want to help them up and ask them if they’re okay. Maybe you’d stand in front of them in a protective way, trying to shield them from their enemies/tormentors.

Basically, whatever else it is that you decide to do, there’s no way that that wouldn’t include helping your friend up and asking them if they’re okay, right? That’s what friends do. That should be a given, right?

Well, unfortunately, that’s not the case with Lily Evans at all. She sees her best friend, Severus Snape, being bullied by the Marauders and she approaches them.

However, instead of going over to Snape, cancelling the spell on him, helping him up and asking if he’s okay, she goes to James Potter and proceeds to shout at him and demand that he cancel the spell that he has on Snape.

What’s up with that? No, seriously. She’s a witch. She has magic. She has a wand. Doesn’t she know how to use it? Why didn’t she help Severus herself?

More than that, even if she didn’t know how to stop the spell on him, how come she never even bothered to ask him if he was okay? She only focused on James in this scene. The only time she spoke to Snape was to insult him and further humiliate him before leaving him to his bullies.

Why’d she give up on him so easily? Maybe if she’d helped out Snape right away and got him out of there before his bullies made things worse for him, he wouldn’t have had a chance to say that he didn’t need help from her.

But, really, if the way she helped him involved her talking to James and ignoring him, then maybe he really didn’t need her help at all.

Chocolat may have overreacted in trying to help someone and it may have been silly for her to use her magic in such a situation (especially since she was only up against humans), but she’s infinitely more admirable than Evans who didn’t really do anything at all.

At least Chocolat was proactive about this and when her magic didn’t really help, she used her words and made the boys listen to her. She made them stop.

That’s more than what can be said about Lily Evans who didn’t even manage to help Severus. She just made things worse for him and she left him to his bullies. How despicable. What do you think about all this?

*Notes:
- Pics are enlarged product images from Amazon.com; links shown above via Amazon's Native Shopping Ads widget

Change The World Inuyasha Song Quote Analysis

“I want to change the world.”
- Change The World (song from Inuyasha)

Change The World is the first opening theme song from the Inu-Yasha anime and manga series by Rumiko Takahashi. It was sung by V6.

InuYasha tells the story of Kagome Higurashi, a girl who is transported to the past after falling into a well. She then meets Inuyasha, a half-demon. The 2 end up going on a journey in search of the shards of the magical Shikon No Tama.

What do you think about this quote from the song, which is the song title as well? Do you like it? Well, who doesn’t want to change the world, right? With all the evil and the crimes and the hate and everything else that is wrong with the world, don’t you want to change it and make it a better place for everyone?

Don’t you want to make this world a happier and fairer place for everyone and get rid of all the bad guys? Don’t you want to make people smile and be happy?

We hear so much bad news pretty much everyday that it’s hard not to think and wish for the world to change, right?

Do you think we’re being idealistic in thinking this way? Is being able to change the world nothing but a fleeting, faraway dream that’s so far out of our grasp that we won’t be able to see this happen in our lifetime?

Or is there actually hope that this is possible and that this can be done? It’s so easy to say the quote, right? "I want to change the world." We can say it so many times, but it wouldn’t make a difference if we don’t try to change the world. Saying is different from doing.

Change doesn’t come easily and it certainly won’t happen overnight. Change needs time and effort. It’s not enough to just say that you want to change the world.

And maybe that’s why the song from Inuyasha keeps repeating these words in the chorus.

It sounds almost like a commitment, right, as if saying it enough times might get us to believe that this is possible and that it might spur us into action so that change can actually occur. What do you think?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by kirimatsu (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Pic is meant to symbolize the featured quote from the Change the World song
- Inuyasha pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above