Natsuyuki Redevous

This story follows Hazuki, who falls in love with the widowed flower shop manager.   When he gets to her house for the first time though, he runs into a half-naked man clinging to Rokka.  Hazuki thinks he is being told off in this fashion, only to find out later that the man is ghost of Rokka's first husband.  This anime is based off a 4 volume manga and was made with a total of 11 episodes.

*Slight Spoiler Alert!*
Now, after I finished watching the final episode, I noticed a good number of commentators felt that the series went down after Shimao (the late husband) took over Hazuki's body.  Personaly, I think the story wouldn't have gone very far with Shimao just annoying Hazuki at the flower shop and trying to ruin the relationship Hazuki was trying to grow with Rokka.

I wouldn't say this series is a must-see, but if you are in a mood for a more mature romance with some supernatural (ghost-wise) involved instead of those high school romance love, check it out.  =)

Here's the first episode on Hulu.  It is also available on Crunchyroll.

Blue Exorcist

So I just finished watching this today and started watching it this past Sunday.  This series is AMAZING!  Now, I did read the first three manga volumes of this series, but I wasn't extremely crazy about it.  This anime version had me hooked!  I love how the characters "pop" in this series by the way they are colored.  I highly recommend this series to be watched by everyone.  And I think you would love the plot and interesting twists there are towards the end.

This series has no horror what-so-ever, unlike the titles that tend to come out in America (and the moment it has the word "exorcist" in it, it is guaranteed to become an action flick).   This series made me think a little of Chorno Crusade, where there is Chrono who fights along with Rosette to help get rid of demons that are threatening humans.  There is that same hate/love relationship conflict with demons.

I know for some people, they may not like the whole sympathizing with the demons in this series, but I think that is more of what the Japanese culture feels about it (I need to do some more research on this).  I think to them, demons can be either totally bad or there are some good ones.  With this being focused more on a Christian belief and perhaps some youkai like demons, and Satan being the huge bad-guy, some people may start to dislike the series due to that.

Me, I keep an open-mind while watching.  I think of more of the plot and how it was presented.  And one thing to keep in mind is, it is FICTION.  That's the whole fun while we are watching or reading.  We go to a different world.  Sometimes, we don't like that world, but at least we know it is not true.

Some other things to note is, when I went to the official site, (I haven't mastered learning Japanese yet) there seems to be a movie coming out in Japan on December 28, 2012.  There has also been a live action version created.  That would be interesting to watch!

There is a total of twenty-five episodes.  Manga wise, there is currently nine volumes out, and the story is still continuing there.

Here's the first episode.  It is also available on Crunchyroll.