dinsdag 2 april 2013

My two favorite anime: What and why?


Lately, I’ve picked up watching some anime again. For those of you who have no clue what anime are: they are Japanese animated series. The most famous ones here in the Netherlands are Pokémon and Digimon and such, but anime isn’t meant just for kids. There are a lot of anime that tell stories about more grown-up subjects and that aren’t as childish as Pokémon. So here I’ll list my two favorites, tell you what they’re about and why I like them so much.

Angel Beats! – This would be my all-time-favorite. Angel Beats! tells the story of a boy, Yuzuru Otonashi, who wakes up lying on the pavement of a high school campus. There’s a girl sitting close to him, equipped with a sniper. She tells him he has died, and that he’s now in a world after death. Wanting to find out how he died – since he lost his memory, Otonashi joins the girl’s rebel group, the SSS: a group that fights against God and the injustice in their former lives.
I like this anime a lot. It manages to handle a lot of subjects; love, action, music and tragedy. It’s an anime that really manages to reach your heart and the ending made me tear up. A great anime overall.

Stein’s;Gate – Also a big favorite of mine. This anime tells the story of Okabe Rintarou, who invents a machine that can be used to send text messages to the past, thus altering the present. He experiments with this, trying to better the life of his friends. However, this drastically turns around when things start to take his loved ones away, and Okabe has to do all he can to get back to the way the world once was, sacrificing what he has accomplished so far.
Once again, an anime that really sucks you in and manages to make you feel along with the characters. You feel their pain and despair, and you’re excited to see  what happens next. This one, again, also made me shed a tear. Besides that, it also involves some action and a more complicated storyline, which makes it interesting to “think along”

1 April Festivities in Brielle, the Netherlands



The 1st of April, better known as April Fool’s Day. But, in a particular city in the Netherlands, there are some other festivities going on. I’m talking about the town of Brielle. Here, they reenact an important event in Dutch history, which I’ll tell you a little about.

It was during the Eighty Years’ War between the Netherlands and Spain, also called the Dutch Revolt. On the 1st of April, 1572 the city was captured by the Geuzen (you’d call them the Beggars in English) upon the Spanish. It’s seen as the beginning of the rebellion against the Spanish king Philips II, and the Dutch eventually won the war and established the Republic of the Netherlands.

During the celebration, in the centre of town the streets are decorated by fishing nets and clotheslines, groups are people are dressed in the clothes they used to wear back then, the pubs sell huge glasses of beer and in the street there are fishermen trying to sell their catch, so in the whole city the atmosphere of that time is recreated. Starting in the afternoon, a huge outdoor-play is performed, with mock battles and cannons. The Geuzen brace the city gates and they proceed by marching through Den Briel. In the evening, there’s a Geuzenball, at which the Spanish, the Geuzen and the citizens of Den Briel dance with each other, like nothing has ever happened.

Overall, it’s a funny, amusing cultural event and something that gives the city a little publicity and fame.

Britain's Most Romantic Work of Art - Romeo and Juliet



This is the painting ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Sir Frank Dicksee. It was painted in 1884 and it is now exhibited in the Sounthampton City Art Gallery. ArtFund, the national fundraising charity for art, had asked over 2,000 Britains, and with 71% of the votes this painting is now officially Britain’s Most Romantic Work of Art. I suppose you all know the story of Romeo and Juliet, and this painting shows the parting scene of Romeo and Juliet after their wedding night. This is also the last time they’ll see each other alive. We see their last, romantic kiss, before Romeo will leave Juliet behind.