There are hundreds of great anime opening themes songs out there. Starting with EVA and ending with the numerous Manogatari series songs. Even though I would love to mention all the FMA Brotherhood OPs, the Eden of the East, Steins;Gate, both Nichijou OPs, Ping Pong, Love Hina, Chobits… the list goes on. I am going to go with Tatami Galaxy.

Why? Because not only is this song by Asian Kungfu Generation amazing, but the unique art style also makes this one of the most recognisable and memorable OP in anime history. Of course the show itself is rather niche and not that mainstream, but everyone who has seen it rates it highly, not just cause of the plot and the characters, but because the OP and ED are both top tier level. The chill music, together with the combination of realistic backgrounds and weird art style of the characters make this OP my favourite and I have it on the top of my playlist.

Oh I have a lot of favourites. Such as: Ryuuji and Taiga, Araragi and Senjo, Izaya and Shizuo, Isaac and Miria… etc… But I guess at this point in time I would have to say Takeo and Yamato from Ore Monogatari. Why? Well because their love is genuine and out of pretty much every anime I have seen, this is the only one which focuses about 20 episodes on the relationship after they have become a couple; the hurdles of being in a relationship and the overall satisfaction when overcoming these obstacles. Thats what puts the as my favourite anime couple. Because they are the most realistic one, not over dramatic and crazy, just plain rabu rabu and cute.

2026 update:

I would without a doubt say it is Rintaro & Kaoruko from The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity because of how wholesome they both are, and how pure their relationship it. Which is actually not that different from Takeo and Yamato.

I am not going to go on a ramble on how a lot of anime MC’s are useless and annoying. I will just mention one, which in my opinion ruined the show. Ouma Shu from Guilty Crown. He was worse then Shinji in Eva… just annoying and clueless. The show was great, music was epic, art was beautiful, but Shu.

I don’t have much more to say, without fully bashing the guy, so I will leave it at that. Tomorrow will be an interesting one.

Crying isn’t a manly thing, but god damn even I have feelings. So to put it simply: Wolf Childern. Why? Well ever since first watching the movie in Japan back in 2012, I have always thought that this is one of the most touching family stories I have ever seen. And watching it over and over (4 times now) makes me appreciate it even more with every re-watch. And every time I cry and a few particular scene. I don’t want to go into spoilers, so all I can say is that there are multiple moments throughout the movie which will bring a tear to anyones eye. So my last re-watch of this was in 2014 Autumn, so yes, this would be the last anime I watched that made me cry.

Want to read my non-spoiler review of the movie, click this link.

What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more.

Disclaimer: I was still a teenager (18) when I watched Toradora, so please understand that me adoring Taiga (who is 17 in the end of the show) is perfectly fine.

But yes Taiga, so small, so cute, so waifu. But to be more serious, the reason why I had a crush on Taiga, was not just because of herself, I was more thanks to Ryuuji, who I admired and wanted to become so that I could support my own Taiga. Basically if I wish I were in Ryuuji’s shoes and have Taiga as my waifu.

Taiga is small and cute, but she is also a Tsundere. While I like tsunderes, sometimes they are a bit too violent, and Taiga is no exception. However the concept of love from hate has always been something that I thought was amazing and to be one of the most strongest forms of love. Also her growth throughout the series is something I would love to see in any girl I am with. Taiga started off in a dirty house by herself, not knowing how to take care of herself or interact with people, but thanks to Ryuuji, she grew into a fine girl with lots of friends and housewife skills that can only match Ryuuji himself. One thing I still can’t forgive her for is leaving him for 1 year, I think there could have been a better compromise, but thats not something I can change.

So thats why Taiga is my first anime crush and my top waifu. If there is a real life version of her, please introduce me to her!

This is a hard one. Picking a favourite anime out of this list… But if I had to chose one, I’d probably stick with Toradora. It was my very first favourite and I want to keep it as my most favourite because of the plot, characters and general atmosphere of the show. Though I wouldn’t go around and recommending it to every single person I see, and I won’t say that all other anime aside from it is bad, but it will always have a soft spot in my heart.

Aside from Toradora, I’d say my other favourite would be the Monogatari series, as it a beautiful peace of animation,with great character development, engaging dialogue, thought provoking themes, deep plot, intelligent humour, symbolism… meanwhile at Shaft. I also guess that Taiga and Shinobu are the sole reason why I love tiny girls so much. But thats a discussion for another post.

Essentially anything I give a 10 on my list is a favourite of a genre, or has something unique, that other shows have not been able to show me. And I of course would recommend you take a look at those shows, if not all then at least some.

In 2013 when I just became an exec in anime@UTS, Anthony and I started this “game” where every day we would post 1 question on the club FB group and all the new and existing members would reply to. These questions ranged from favourite anime characters, to most hated moments, but were always related to anime. We called it 100 days of anime. Now, almost 3 years later, the list has found me again (thanks to a certain kiri bird), and I decided, why not do it again, this time on my blog. It would give it new life, and honestly when was the last time I blogged about anything anime related?

Day 1 - Very first anime

Ok, so this one is a bit tough, mainly because when I was a kid and watched Cartoon Network and Jetix, I had no idea that some of the shows I watched were actually anime (Japanese made animated TV shows). So excluding stuff like Pokemon, Digimon, Shaman King, etc. my first anime would be Chobits. Its a romantic comedy about a guy in modern Japan, who falls in love with a robot (I know crazy right… We shall see who has the last laugh in about 20 years when that becomes the norm). Its a rather touching story about love, hardships and life in general; spiced up by sci-fi and echi.

Why did I watch it? My friend Andrew from the UK (well he is actually Ukranian, but lives in the UK) came over to Latvia for a visit and he just got into anime himself. What better way to share your interests then to spread them around. We opened up YouTube and watched my first ever (proper) anime, English dub though.

Then I watched Love Hind, Ouran, Umisho, Hayate, Zero no Tsukaima, Index, etc… etc…

As per tradition, every year anime@UTS heads over to Auburn to experience the beauty of the Japanese sakura trees.  This year was no different. Unfortunately due to the large storm that hit Sydney the previous Monday, there weren’t many blossoms left, but enough to get us excited and to take so many beautiful photos. This year it wasn’t just UTS who attended either, all of AnimeSydney  was there together! If you have never seen Japanese sakura, you should defintelly check out Auburn next year in September. I know for sure that we will be there again.

Photos here:

Portable electrical vehicles are all the rage these days. People are getting lazier and lazier, so they don’t want to walk from place to place, they want to ride something, something that will do the work for them. First came Segways now self balancing unicycles and boards. Well Japan has just one-upped us once again. They bring the world the WalkCar. Its a flat board, with 4 motor powered wheels. No need for stabilisation and is powerful enough to go up hills and push loads.

This device is without a doubt going to be very useful for a variety of tasks, however it raises an interesting question: when will convenience start making our life worse and not better. To iterate, sure it may be very convenient to ride this device up hills and when pushing loads, but what is stopping people from using it all the time everywhere. And if we do, won’t we slowly transform into those fat and lazy human blobs that we saw in WALL-E? There is no end to human laziness, and eventually our ingenuity and strive for convenience will be our downfall. Think about that before using one of these boards on a regular basis.

You know how much I love Apple and apples. I love the tech and I love eating all sorts of delicious fruit. What I don’t like, is when apples start flying. Now that, my friends, is terrifying.

Las night I was heading back home at around 11pm. Then while walking back home on the empty roads of Rhodes, minding my own business, I hear a whizzing sound of something falling, I thought it was a bird flying by, or maybe a broken tree branch, but I was greatly mistaken. A Granny Smith apple had fallen onto the bonnet of a parked car.

As any normal person, I look up to see, wether I was walking past an apple tree. Which I was not, and where it came from I could not spot. Leaving it be and proceeding home, I was bewildered by the apple that’d flown. A few seconds later, and to my surprise, another apple had fallen from the skies. This time much closer to me, so I couldn’t just … let it be. Pretty damn shocked I ran for my flat, away from all these apples that fly and go splat! Reaching my room and telling Alex the story, he laughed for a bit, but then he got worried. Crazy people are crazy indeed, lets be a bit carful. Agreed!

Hope you liked my little tale. I tried to rhyme the best I could, cause I thought I might be a poet, but didn’t even know it!