…do these even count as “anime boys”? I mean, they’re boys from different media which may or may not have anime…

Day 33 (Extra Day 9) – Manga Only

Eesh, I don’t have that much choice all round – I’m a fan of most manga because they’re anime and vice versa, meaning most of the adaptions I run into are faithful adaptions or manga-only characters are characters I won’t find out more about most of the time (see King of Thorn‘s Zeus and the eldest bro from Oushitsu Kyoushi Heine). However, I did say I was reading Hana-Kimi and that’s had a drama but never been an anime (so all the boys are manga-only, hahaha!). Certainly, the gay jokes wouldn’t fly in 2018, but otherwise the manga is good for killing time.

I wouldn’t be mentioning it without there being some Good Quality Boys, and this series definitely delivers – whether it’s the idiot from Osaka, the Ideal Love Interest with some problems or some fun-to-laugh-with side characters, you’re set. So who do I pick???

Normally I don’t go for the ladies’ man, but this time I pick Minami Nanba, the manager (“residence advisor” in Viz terms) of dorm 2. He doesn’t seem to come into his own as a character until his aunt Io (who’s a great character!) starts coming in to boss him around. After that, he really starts to grow on you, especially during the school festival arc where Nanba is expected to lead the cheering club and get dorm 2 rallied up for the sporting day’s events…he does both jobs spectacularly. (Not to mention the fact he looks good in drag, but that’s just a bonus.)

As soon as Mizuki turns Nakatsu down in volume…17, I think it was?…you can tell the poor boy ain’t gonna win, but Sano also has his daddy issues which spill over to his brother at some points as well. Meanwhile, Nanba has Nakao so either way, he doesn’t lose which is why I picked him (even if Nakao is a bit too possessive…).

Sure, the joke about Rio being Nanba’s (other) aunt and someone he could have as a girlfriend, due to how Nanba and his relatives look young for their age, gets a bit overdone by volume 15’s end, but it’s not like they’re vampires like the author of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure…right???

(I’m kidding about Araki being a vampire, but urban legend says he is one…)

Update: Io is actually his mother, but same argument there…

Day 34 (Extra Day 10) – Video Game Crush

My knowledge of video games may be tiny compared to other people’s – I’m mostly a casual gamer, a fan of things like match 3s and Picross…things that don’t have characters to have crushes on. The most hardcore I am for games only shows up where Pokemon‘s involved, but thanks to MAME, I know about some old arcade games as well.

Unfortunately, I can’t intoduce you to hot boys from arcade games, as they’re mostly full of bishoujo – two notable ones are “cute ’em up” Twinkle Star Sprites and full-of-Engrish Money Puzzle Exchanger. Due to severe underdevelopment on the character side, none of those games’ six dudes are good enough to talk about…

To avoid repeatedly using series from past posts, let’s pick someone from Pokemon. While playing through Black 2,  I developed a thing for Christoph, Curtis’s alter ego. Maybe it was just that “two-sided” thing I mentioned in previous posts, or maybe it was the beauty spot near his mouth…

…I think the biggest things about it back in the day were 1) because you had to chase this sidequest for 50 different calls for one glimpse at Christoph, and 2) “implied romance sidequest” is something more out of an otome game (also an area I dabble in from time to time, but not enough to blog on) and not something expected from a Pokemon game. That really makes you think about how much love the people at Game Freak put into their game to give the player value for money…

By the way, I also like Riley from the Sinnoh era for his looks and Steven Stone from the Hoenn era for his coolness + battle strategy. You’d probably think Wallace (also Hoenn) is up my alley…but he ain’t. That’s a tad too flamboyant for my taste…

The funny thing is, according to quick Google searches, all the Pokemon characters I listed off have appeared in the anime…but Curtis/Christoph hasn’t…

So that’s the second-last challenge post done. Just the ultimate crush to go…if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll already know who’s reserved that spot since the beginning!

Here’s Mel and Arthifis’s posts for the prompts. I get the feeling someone’s going to pick a character from Final Fantasy or Fire Emblem, as those are kinda popular with people in anime circles…Update: Nope, although there is a fakeout GIF on Arthi’s post.