Omurqi

What to write in a bio... I've never been able to do this properly.

I'm a psychology student from the Netherlands, who spends too much of his free time watching anime, browsing A-P and playing instruments. I'm a bum by nature, although I've been trying to become a bit more active lately (or rather, I have to if I want to reach my goals :P)

A little bit about myself. I love lots of things: Music, playing guitar / bassguitar / piano (/singinglulz) on my amateur level, sports, the human mind, philosophy, art, literature, movies, series, anime, manga, basically every medium to tell stories, sweet things, salt things, bitter things (especially in the form of cholocate), kiwi's, mangos, curry (the last two being an exceptional combination), sushi, pancakes, pizza and the zillion other things I could mention here.

Music is my biggest obsession though. I listen to almost every genre, from Metal to Indie / Altrock to Classical, there's a genre for every mood, DeathCore & friends being the exception, in which case I don't even hate the music itself, but the grunting T_T

My favorite and hated genres

The reason I haven't filled out my Fav / Least fav genres, is because I don't really have an "all-time favorite" genre, and there are always exceptions to Least Favorite Genres.

If I had to say, my favorite "genre" would probably be mindf*ck series, but that's not recognized as a genre here. I'll just list my general favorites / least favorites here, but by no means do I limit myself into watching these genres.

Favorites: Mindf*ck, Psychological, Comedy, Random, Drama, Romance

Least Favorite: Harem, although there's a fine line here. I really can't go listing harem as Least Favorite Genre, with Clannad so high in my top list, and while usually liking Kanon2006, Air and alike. The sort of harem I dislike are the Love Hina / Rosario to Vampire Capu2 sort of harems. The ones where the male lead and one of the girls have a crush on each other and thus go superakward / hostile against each other (...), not to mention ZERO plot progression, or such a boring plot you forget about it halfway in.

How I use my ratings

• 5 stars - Masterpieces. Series that are just-that-good and have a special place in my heart. They've all, without fail, affected me in one way or another while watching them.
• 4.5 stars - Pretty damn close to 5 stars, brilliant anime, but didn't affect me as much as the 5 stars have. These also all hold a special place in my heart.
• 4 stars - Something I greatly enjoyed while watching. At the very least, this anime has one side it excels in and gave me exactly what I wanted from the series, or pleasantly surprised me.
• 3.5 stars - The good-but-not-great grade. These series probably gave me what I was looking for, and I really did enjoy watching them, but didn't present me with much out of the ordinary.
• 3 stars - The borderline of things I honostly enjoyed. These anime had their enjoyable moments, but also things that ticked me off.
• 2.5 stars - Probably had more things I disliked than things I liked. It's not unwatchable, and will probably pass as slightly above average on some people's watches, but not on mine.
• 2 stars - Barely watchable, and definitely not good, or even average.
• 0.5 - 1.5 stars - Stay away, as far as possible. Only buy these shows for ritual burning. Either that, or something that's just so far away from my preferences I had to hold back from scratching my eyes out while watching this.

Latest anime I'd recommend

• Aria the Animation / the Natural - First of all, this is definitely not a show for everyone. It's a slow-paced show that, if you want anime to be a form of quick, easy entertainment, won't appeal to you. It's shallow on the surface and has almost zero plot progression. It however provides you with episodic stories about a group of undines (gondola tour guides) exploring the idyllic city of Neo-Venezia. What this anime does best, is making you (or made me, at least) remember about all kinds of events and feelings from your own childhood. From enjoying the feeling of the sea washing across your feet at the end of a hot day to playing games to only walk in the shadows, this series presents you with all these kinds of emotions from both the perspective of an innocent child and from a grown-ups'. For those who have seen it, I find the main character in this anime just as, if not even more likable as Ryu from Bartender, my previous nr. 1 most likable anime character ever.

• Spice and Wolf (+S2) - My personal fanboyism-show, I just can't get enough of it. It's one of those conversation-heavy, character driven shows and is for most parts slow-paced. Yet, even though those tags usually make a series almost impossible to rewatch, this one has a huge rewatch value (atleast for me). The anime has trading and gaining profit as main theme, and it works really well with Lawrence's way of talking and Horo's charisma and teasing. I'm sure most people will enjoy this, I'd recommend it to almost anyone, but don't be expecting "Grave of the Fireflies"-emotional punches or "Kino's Journey"-symbolism, as I said, it's fanboyism, I can't explain why I'm giving both seasons 5 stars.

• Kino's Journey - One of the very few anime to actually leave me speechless at the end, not because of a strong emotional punch I took, but at the sheer brilliance of the series. Usually, anime with very little action and character-development going on will have a couple of dull moments, no matter how good it might be as a whole. This was not the case with Kino's Journey. It was a thought-provoking (yet far from confusing, what most other thought-provoking anime tend to be) journey trough both the ugly and beautiful sides of the human race. The main character, Kino, was the perfect lead for this role. She had the perfect personality to travel following her believes, holds strong to them, and was about as far from hypocrite as one can be.

• Grave of the Fireflies - Anyone who isn't crying in disgust over the Drama / War genre (civilians PoV, not the militaries') should have seen this movie. I'm not even going to explain what it's about, just watch it. This one instantly gone to spot 6 in my top 25 and has the first 5star rating I've given out in a long time.