Thoughts on Hidamari Sketch x365 Episode 7: One Step At A Time

By TheBigN(oodly Appendage)

In life, there’s always an opportunity to get worked up, necessary or otherwise, about something, and so it often seems to be the case with Yuno. But as is most cases with our X’d protagonist, it’s understandable in this episode, as she begins her time at Yamabuki High School, a new situation, with new courses, new teachers and new students for starters. Though they might seem innocuous, we are all caught unawares when faced with something that we haven’t met before, especially when coupled with whatever life decides to throw at you when you’re not paying attention. It can be petrifying, bewildering, doubt-inducing, and very persuasive in reversing course back into what you’re used to, even if you’re not fine with what’s there, just because it’s what you know. But regardless of how we feel about them, the only way to progress and to get to progress when confronted with these new experiences is to keep pushing onward, no matter how long it takes to get there. So it’s good to see Yuno begin to tackle this new challenge of high school life, even with some butterflies flying around in her stomach, because everybody’s changing, and we never feel the same. :3

This says a lot about their outlooks on life. Though Yuno overdramatizes some.

Thoughts on Hidamari Sketch x365 Episode 6: Say

By TheBigN(ot my best stuff here…)

Communication between people is never 100% accurate, though we try our damndest to maximize it as much as we can. The sender and the receiver aren’t one and the same, so the message will always be interpreted a little bit differently to all of the participants. So in that sense, it’s interesting to see how much words have an impact on how we go about our lives, making and breaking our days, and our lives if we let them (Sticks and stones and all that jazz…). But you could make an argument that the worst words “said” are often the ones not said at all, but held in, for both parties involved. As someone who’s had his moments where he leaves things as they are because of words kept because of apathy, fear, selfishness, and other things like that, it’s frustrating to look back and see opportunities missed to change the situation for the better, or just opportunities to change how things are done. So I tend not to have too much sympathy for characters that tend to do the same thing, I was a little peeved this episode, which tends to be unusual. Perhaps it’s because Chika’s involved, and I’ve probably been corrupted. 😛

Frankly, this is never too hard to cause.

Thoughts on Hidamari Sketch x365 Episode 5: Homecoming

By TheBigN(o U)

It doesn’t hurt being the second oldest out of seven siblings, where you have loads of responsibility but not as much as the oldest one, but you still have a little leeway to get away with some things as the younger siblings do. At least that’s the situation that I found myself in, and still sort of till today. But of course, experiences differ in that case. One thing I didn’t necessarily like about things set themselves up (because who can control when they are born, other than the powers that be?) is the fact that my social identity can still be defined based on my relationship to my fellow siblings. Now that I’m in med school while my other siblings are still doing their thing, it’s not too much of a problem. But the fact that I can still run into people who say, “oh it’s X’s younger brother/Y’s older brother” can get annoying. Naturally, this reaction is a bit over the top when considering who people are more familiar with and so on, but sometimes I feel like I’m weighed down by any comparisons made about us, as I want to be regarded as my own person.

Can we keep her?

Thoughts on Hidamari Sketch x365 Episode 4: You Can Get It If You Really Want

By TheBigN(emesis)

“I never thought that having no restrictions would make things so hard.”

This quote from Yuno is the situation that I oftentimes face in writing this blog. Here, it helps the situation because I’ve already set my mind of my required post a week for the next couple of weeks by trying to get one of these x365 impression posts out regularly. But when I don’t have something, it can be pretty annoying trying to come up with something to write about.  And because I try my best to write something with substance (or at least something with a lot of text to it), when I can’t think of anything substantial to write, it can be a pretty frustrating. So that’s a start for me to do something like this, since just regurgitating whatever randomly comes to mind helps.

Granted, she would probably be a kind and benevolent god, but I do not think that is what she wants either.

Thoughts on Hidamari Sketch x365 Episode 3: If It Makes You Happy

By TheBigN(ikuman)

Well, who wouldn’t get embarrassed in the situation that Yuno found herself in while sketching in this episode? Chances are, if someone’s observing me working or typing up posts like this, I’d feel the same as well. I think it’s because focusing on doing things like this make us more open to any random observers then what we consider to be usual.  As we pay attention to completing most tasks that we’ve set out to do, our concentration is more on the task itself than on how we might be perceived by everyone else while we’re doing it.  When we’re “tracing on”, the situation becomes unintentionally intimate, letting people see how we actually operate, having them find out a little more about who we “really” are. It brings attention to us and it exposes us, so it’s natural that this sort of thing is unwanted my most. For me, I get very self-conscious and uncomfortable when the focus is on me when I don’t desire it to be. And I feel that Yuno could be of the same mind in that aspect.

Some people take to quantum physics instantly.

Thoughts on Hidamari Sketch x365 Episode 2: Calling You

By TheBigN(ip This in the Bud)

Suddenly, there were cell phones! Thousands of them!… Or so my thoughts went as I watched this episode. Of course, this is coming from someone who doesn’t have a cell phone, so seeing how frequently they were used in this episode is interesting enough for me to write about (or for me to care about, as I’m sure once I get one, the initial shock and awe would wear out quickly). So, naturally, I probably don’t really know about what the hell I’m talking about here.

I wonder what Future Diary Yuno would own?

Thoughts on Hidamari Sketch x365 Episode 1: Mirrorball

TheBigN(evermore)

I’ve been sorely in need of a new jolt of fun with Yuno and friends ever since I heard that x365 was coming out. I mean, reading the manga can only do so much, especially when you realize how much that Shinbo/SHAFT add onto some 4koma to make the anime that much more exciting. And the first (and second) episode(s) have made me a happy man. The fact that I re-watched the first episode 3 times in three days says something to me, in addition to probably watching the raws as they come out as well. So I’m figuring that since I’m spending some more time and effort on Hidamari Sketch x365 than most everything else that I’ll be watching in probably this year, I might as well do something with it. Starting here, I’ll attempt to make a post on every episode of x365 regarding some of the themes that worked for me in some was as I continue to watch. We’ll see how long this goes as I start up med school year 2 in two weeks, and if I can always manage to get something that I can wax insanely for every episode, but let’s see how far I can go with this. Don’t expect later entries to be quite as long as this one, either. 😛

I wonder why I related so much to this when I first saw it.