Wednesday October 17, 2:34 p.m.
Had my hour-long chat with The Anime King last night. Just the usual talk about anime, work and getting together for another round of food and anime on Sunday. I'm almost done with the first season of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"...I think what has made it so popular, besides the fact that it's been categorized as a moe example of the genre, is that one is not quite sure what one is gonna get from episode to episode. In the last few days, I've seen Haruhi and the gang handle an apparent murder-mystery, the annual cultural festival at their school, and now a "Star Wars"-like battle in outer space. Makes it even more of a contrast to the serious nature of "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya". Not too sure about the second season since it has the perhaps infamous "Endless Eight"storyline which didn't sit well with too many of the fans. I'm also on my way to finishing up "Joshiraku", the nutty show about five female rakugo comediennes. I haven't heard anything about a second season but The King is pretty optimistic since he's read that it's gotten a good deal of popularity
And then this morning, I got a call from The Wild One. He's back from Japan with his family. Everyone enjoyed their time in Osaka but the flight back was a domestic nightmare since the kid was caterwauling for virtually the entire trip. And people wonder why I don't have children. In any case, the feelers are back out for getting another lunch or dinner together.
Speaking about feelers, it looks like both the NHL and the NHLPA are testing theirs on the latest proposal to end the month-long ice hockey strike. In a best-case scenario, it's possible that hockey may be back on TV as of November 2, but that is a gigantic IF. Fairly good timing if all goes accordingly since baseball will be gone by that time. Looks like the New York Yankees will be disappearing with a whimper, which will probably give the rest of the United States reason to celebrate. I think for me and a number of fans in Japan, it would've been nice to see Ichiro getting that World Series ring. Ironically, it looks like he's once again been surrounded by underachievers, but of the post-season variety, and not the chronic ones when he was with Seattle. But then again, the Yankees got farther into the post-season than the Blue Jays have in the last 20 years.
