A Perfect Series?

Lately I've been thinking about whether there's such a thing as a "perfect" anime series ... one that has no flaws at all, from my perspective. I mean, I've watched well over 200 series since I started watching anime. Surely in all that, there is at least one perfect anime series. So I'm going to see if I can come up with a definition for a perfect series and then see if I've watched any that fit the definition.

Let's see. What requirements would a series need to qualify as "perfect"?

1) No main character death. I'd love to say no character death at all, but that would rule out 99.9% of all anime (*laughing* and 54.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot). Anyway, it would rule out most anime, so I'll say no main character death and let some deaths slide by. However, token death will take a series right out of the running as far as I'm concerned.

2) Awesome music. The music usually makes or breaks the series, so a perfect series should have some pretty great music. It has to be at least good, and the better the music, the better the series.

3) A plot. The series needs to have some sort of a reasonable plot line going, not so convoluted that you don't know who's related to what and why, nor so non-existent that you get tired of people posing while you wait for something to happen.

4) Resolution of the plot. This one's tricky. There are times when a plot is totally resolved and I'm totally unhappy with the end result, so this condition is not simply resolution. It has to be an acceptable conclusion to various plot lines. There's bound to be a happy medium between finishing out the character's life 20 years in the future and not tying up any plot elements at all. Many, many, many series have trouble with this requirement.

5) Pretty is nice. The look of the series attracts me to it in the first place, and though it's just one element, it's still important. This factor is not a make-or-break one. As a rule I just tend to like pretty anime better.

6) Lack of gratuitous violence. I have no real problem with violence as such, but prefer that it's in some way necessary to the plot. And I don't necessarily see the point of spraying blood everywhere as often as possible.

So what does that leave us with?

After consideration, here are some possibilities for the title of Perfect Anime Series:

Noir: This is a series that could justifiably be considered a "perfect" anime series in my opinion. It has really superb music and a great plot which is well resolved. And most importantly, the main characters survive the series. Yup, I have to put this one near the top of the list.

Serei no Moribito: This is another one that's high up there on the "perfect" anime series list. The music is truly awesome and it has a great, unique plot which they wrap up very realistically. Much as I'd have liked Chagum to stay with Balsa, the Crown Prince has to go back to being a crown prince. So even though I might have wanted a slightly different ending, the conclusion was still very good ... which is the criterion. Also this series is very nice to look at. And everyone survives. Just a really good anime series.

Witchhunter Robin: This series also fits all the criteria, mostly. At least you're led to assume that Robin and Amon survive the destruction at the end of the series, so there's no main character death and there's plot resolution. Plus the music is great, and the series is nice to look at.

Fruits Basket: This one is a little shaky on the plot resolution requirement. It's a non-ending ending, and although it's pretty good for this type, I may be stretching it a bit to call it a plot resolution. The rest of the qualifications are pretty solid though. Maybe not outstanding music, but good music.

Natsume Yuujinchou: This one is a little shaky on both the music and the plot criteria. The series music is okay, but nothing special. And there's not an extensive plot although there is a sort of under-plot of Natsume learning to interact with people. The series is gorgeous though and pretty well done overall.

Nodame Cantabile: The first season, not the second. This is a series that meets all the specifications, and does it with class. Of course most of the music from it is classical music, but it's awesome and that's the criterion. It has a good solid plot line which they resolve just perfectly. It's not a "pretty" anime, but not hard to watch. Basically a good solid series.

CardCaptor Sakura: Yup. CCS. It actually meets all my specifications. Hmmmm. Interesting that this was one of the first anime series I ever watched. I wonder if it set my expectations for later series and what I like and dislike?

Rurouni Kenshin: Again, one of the first series I ever watched, and again it meets all the criteria. There are deaths in this one (Shishio Makoto), but no major characters die. The plot is frequently intense, and each arc is resolved as it goes. The larger plot of what eventually happens to Kenshin and Kaoru isn't covered in the series, but for all that I still think it qualifies.

Huh! Surprisingly, there are more series that fit my prerequisites than I expected. Also surprisingly, not all of these "perfect" series are in my top 10 favorite series of all time. Which just goes to show that even with character death, iffy plot, so-so music and/or dangling plot lines, I can still like a series a lot.

Of course, there are a LOT of series that come close and maybe only miss one of the criteria. Here are some of the group of "runner's up".

Close-but-no-cigar series:

Cowboy Bebop: This was also an early series I watched, and it is still waaaaaay up there on my all-time-favorites list. Awesome music, decent plot, fun to watch. And they resolved the plot, but not in the way I would have wanted. They killed off a main character, who also happens to be my favorite character of this series - Spike. That takes them out of the 'perfect series' running, but it's still one of the best series around.

Macross Frontier: So close and yet so far. This one fits all of the criteria except for Michel's token death. Decent plot, which is nicely resolved. Outstanding music. No more violence than necessary for a war series. But they killed Michel, and unlike Spike's death in Bebop, Michel's wasn't necessary. Senseless, token death. No way can this be a perfect series.

Heroic Age: This series actually does meet all the qualifications if you think about it. For me, what keeps this from that perfect series circle is that there were just too many continuous battle episodes for this to be a 'perfect' series. I got tired of battle after battle after battle.

Ergo Proxy: I liked this series. It meets most of the criteria, but the plot is almost overly complex. Even after watching the series multiple times I feel like I've missed nuances. I did like the way they finally tied up the plot though. And I like the music. The series was too dark, though. Not dark as in mood dark, although it was that too. The scenes were often so dark that I had to watch the series at night when it was dark to be able to see what was going on. So it was a good series, but not "perfect".

I could go on, but I guess I'll stop there for this post. Ja

Bleach 3 - and filler arcs

I've talked about filler arcs before, and how much I generally dislike them. Filler arcs are the ultimate 'necessary evil'. If you don't want the series to diverge from the manga, you've got to kill time until the manga gets ahead of the series again. Usually the only good thing about a filler arc is that you know that they can't kill off any characters. The characters will have to come out of the filler arc not much different than they went in ... so that the plot can be resumed from the point where it left off. As a rule, filler arcs are tough to watch because they tend to be fairly insipid, and because they are interrupting a plot line that you really want to know what's going to happen next in. Especially in Bleach, I found these things to be true. (Don't get me started on the Bounto Arc).

All that being said, Bleach is currently doing a really entertaining filler arc. I was dismayed to know we were going to have another filler arc, but was steeling myself for the inevitable, when lo, and behold! A FUN filler arc. Considering the massive size of their cast and the unique setting, this arc has been a long time in coming. With all the material available to them, a Soul Society arc was just waiting to be done. So .... Meet Muramasa. Muramasa is a renegade zanpaktou. For those of you keeping up, that'll sort of make sense. If you don't watch Bleach, zanpaktou take a little explaining. Each shinigami has a zanpaktou. It is their sword, but it is also a part of their soul. As they grow and become more powerful as shinigami they develop a relationship with their zanpaktou, and also develop the ability to "release" their sword. The first level of release is 'shikai', and it causes the sword and owner to be more powerful, but the sword is essentially still a sword at this level. The ultimate release is called 'bankai', and at this level the zanpaktou has a personality and the wielder and sword are REALLY powerful.

In this arc, a renegade zanpaktou named Muramasa (fitting!) has killed his wielder, and has gained the ability to pull the zanpaktou souls free of their shinigami owners. The zanpaktou acquire humanoid forms and independence from their shinigami, and the shinigami are left with just a sword and pretty much no power. For the bankai-level Captains and Vice-captains, to say this comes as a shock would be a small understatement.

The fun thing about this arc is meeting the individual humanoid zanpaktou from each shinigami with bankai-level ability. Bleach has essentially almost doubled their already massive cast. I've posted pictures here of a few of the freed zanpaktou. On the left above is the materialized, independent form of Kuchiki Rukia's zanpaktou. Her name is Sode no Shirayuki. And on the right is Hitsugaya Toushiro's zanpaktou, Hyourinmaru. Down below are two zanpaktou, Renji's Zabimaru and SoiFon's Tsuzumebachi. They're all too cool, and all have personalities that seem not to reflect their wielder's very much, despite the zanpaktous always having been considered part of their respective shinigani's souls.

Muramasa has plans to free all the zanpaktou from their bondage and destroy Soul Society and the cruel shinigami masters who have kept their zanpaktou in slavery for so long. Currently, battles are going on between shinigmai and zanpaktou. I'm looking forward to where this goes and to meeting each zanpaktopu and watching the struggles between them and their individual shinigami counterparts. I'm seriously hoping that they'll run this filler arc for a while. I mean if they can do the Bounto for 50 episodes, why can't they do a good arc for that long?

Along with the struggles between the shinigami and their respective zanpaktou, the arc is also having fun with Ichigo's unique position. His zanpaktou is 'freed' just like everyone else's, but unlike everyone else this doesn't leave Ichigo powerless. Ichigo has a couple of things going for him still. One is the fact that he's human, not just a shinigami. Another is the odd fact that he has a half-Hollow soul. If any one person should have a multiple personality disorder, it's Ichigo. Luckily, his good-guy, human heart always manages to stay dominant, but his really powerful Hollow side has saved his bacon a good number of times. Probably you have to be watching this anime to follow all that. Let's just say that Ichigo has done pretty much everything the hardest way possible and often somewhat backward, so he's ended up with some 'traits' that have been both detrimental and totally necessary and useful along the way. A lot of Ichigo's power comes from the dark side of himself, which he manages to balance most of the time. In this arc, they have fun exploring Ichigo's other personality. Muramasa is trying to figure Ichigo out, totally unaware that Ichigo will probably be his ultimate downfall.

I never thought I'd say that I hope a Bleach filler arc lasts a while, but I do hope so with this one. It's pretty fun.

Valkyria Chronicles - and character death .... again.

Lately I've been watching some series that didn't really hook me hard in the beginning, but the plot and characters are interesting enough to keep me watching. Valkyria Chronicles is one of these series, and it's been something of a surprise to me in several ways. For one thing, as a rule I'm not that fond of series that are derived from games. They tend to be disjointed or derivative or require you to have played the game to know the back story and inter-relationships between the characters. So I wasn't expecting much from Valkyria. I began watching it for my usual reason .... I liked the way the characters looked.

Another reason I wasn't expecting much is that it's a war series. *laughing* Hai, hai. With my penchant for liking historically-based anime, I'm bound to watch war series. Human history is defined by periods of war and events are described in relation to it. We call something "post-WWII" or "pre-Civil War", etc. Humanity is described as a war-like race and we've managed to saturate our history with blood. We're still doing it. In my more delusional moments I like to think that we can eventually evolve beyond it. Oops, got a little philosophical there. Anyway, the problem with war-series, is that they are pretty much guaranteed to kill off characters. So I go into them expecting less over-all survival. Unfortunately I never seem to get the hang of not getting involved in the characters lives.

So, along the way in watching Valkyria, I've been slowly drawn in by the plot. On the surface it's fairly typical, with a nice love triangle going among the three main characters, and various side-characters interacting more or less happily, and a sub-plot that is hinted at in the OP, but not developed much yet (which in itself is a little scary, given that we're on episode 20 of 26. They may never really develop the sub-plot, which would be a shame.)

In episode 17 they kill off Isara, one of the main characters. I'm not sure yet whether this is the start of character decimation, or if she will be the series token death. Since everyone who's read my blog knows how I feel about token death, I won't go there. Where I want to go with this blog is this: WTF is the point of rubbing our noses in the death for TWO ENTIRE EPISODES!!?! Yes, the up-coming death was obvious. Episode 16 was a warm and happy episode showcasing the growing love relationship between Isara and Ramal. You just knew one of them would die, and sure enough in ep 17 Isara is killed. Take my advice. If you're watching this series, skip episodes 18 and 19, and go immediately to where the plot resumes in episode 20. 18 and 19 are excruciating, agonizing detail of how people live on and deal with the death of everyone's favorite. Of course Isara is the most non-threatening, lovable character in the series, so the whole cast is filled with guilt and despair, which the creators drag us through for two episodes. It took me half a box of Kleenex to make it to ep 20. 'K'sou. Was that really necessary? Her death was bad enough. Why waste two episodes of plot time on it?

*exasperated sigh* Given how much the Japanese like to kill off their characters, I'm going to have to accept that characters die, and stop ranting about it in this blog. Actually, that's not it. It's not that I can't accept that characters die. I just don't get why they have to die in the worst possible way. Yes, I know horrible, senseless death is a part of life. Maybe I want my anime to be a little less life-like. Somewhere there's got to be a happy medium. I'm not particularly fond of anime that's all sweetness and light fluff, with nothing more pressing than the next school day and confessing to one's boyfriend/girlfriend. Still somewhere between drag-everyone-through-anguish and don't-have-a-plot-to-speak-of, there's got to be reasonable anime. Right? I'm sure I'll be able to think of plenty of examples .... later when I'm less frustrated.

Still here!

Wow. I am so far behind in my blogging. I knew this summer was going to be bad, as far as free time goes. Hopefully it will get better.

You'll notice that I now have a second contributor to this blog. I invited "y" to be a guest blogger and post whenever, so hopefully there will occasionally be more from "y". We're both pretty busy, so we'll see. *laughing* With any luck it won't turn into a free-for-all. Occasionally we don't agree on certain aspects of anime. And of course I'm always right.

I'm still watching anime, of course. If I ever don't have time for that, better check for a pulse. I'm still watching the series I started in April and enjoying them. I tried out a few new series which started this summer but really wasn't interested in any of them except the second season of Spice & Wolf and one called Canaan. I'm only watching 12 series right now, which is probably an all-time low for me ... since I started watching anime seriously with Inuyasha back in 2002. Usually I'm following around 20 series at a time.

Higashi no Eden ended of course, and I will place that series firmly in my 'good series' category. It was a non-ending ending in that the story continues, but they tied up some major plot lines and nobody died. Two 'must haves' for a series to achieve my 'good series' list. I really enjoyed the characters which were done by the same person who did the characters for Honey & Clover. Takizawa Akira and Morimi Saki are in the picture to the right. Plus the music was good and the plot was really unique. I'm looking forward to the two movies they will be doing as follow-up.

I'm also following the new version of Fullmetal Alchemist. I've been struggling with this version because I liked the original version really well. I didn't realize though exactly how far from the manga the original series was. I've been faithfully watching this version and noting all the divergences from the original series. Now that they've introduced characters that were never in the original, and the plot has diverged completely, I went back to the manga (which I'm collecting but haven't read yet) and looked. Whatta ya know? The new version is faithful to the manga!! So I've finally given up on the comparisons and am enjoying this version as a separate anime series. I'm a little slow to come around sometimes, especially with a favorite anime.

So I guess that's enough to get this blog restarted. I'll put more in later.

Complete Closure- not always good

Hello! In my inaugural post on my friends anime blog I will step up onto the the soap box of closure in series and the japanese propensity to overuse it. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

An excellent example of this is Kurokami THE

ANIMATION - a series I just recently finished watching. Overall, I would say the series vacillated between being very original and disconcertingly derivative. The universe in which it is set has an interesting premise - the doppeliner system. Every person is kept alive by their amount of 'tera' (which I suppose is a sort of life force or matter). The doppeliner system states that every person has two other people who share their face. The catch is that the amount of tera is divided unequally between them and the person with the most, the so called 'master root', has the greatest amount of luck. And the even more disturbing catch is that if an unlucky substitute meets either their root or the other sub they individual with the least amount of tera will die - either by accident or illness. The series enjoys hitting people with cars in the most brutally shocking way (spraying blood an all). OK. Still with me? Next up, you have a species called mototsumitama which are supposedly keepers of the balance of tera. Incidentally they also have insanely high amounts of tera and so live very long lives. Mototsumiatama can also exchange hearts (literally) with a human to form a contract that allows them to be even stronger in battle assuming they can synchronize properly with their contractor. As I mentioned - an interesting premise. Unfortunately the series too often devolved into the main character, Kuro, and her contractor Keita fighting pointless battles over and over again. The writers seems to enjoy seeing her being beat up over an over again by a never ending stream of seemingly random people.

And so this brings me back to my original purpose for this posting. Closure. In the end of the series Kuro leaves the human world to isolate herself (for reasons that will become apparent should you watch the show). Keita, who we had been led to believe could live a happy life with Kuro, is shown marrying another main character, having kids, growing old and then dying. ?? Ooookay. Was that really necessary? I mean. You watch an entire 23 episodes of a show filled with magic and tera and other possibilities with the two main characters essentially being young people with their whole lives ahead of them. What is the purpose of ruining all that hope and optimism with fast forwarding and showing you the end of Keita's life? I'm not sure if it's a cultural thing or just a 'me thing' (The Notebook ring a bell?) but I despise the circle of life. And I plan to break it if I can.

*grin* This may be my first and last blog entry depending on how it's received. :P
ja ne!

New series - April 09

I haven't had much time to blog lately and that's going to get worse over the summer between business trips and vacation, so I thought I'd better get a blog in while I can. I decided to talk about some of the series that started this last April. Usually I like to wait until a series is over to talk about it because, of course, the ending often makes or breaks the series for me. That's not always true. I've been talking about Bleach and it's obviously not over, but the shorter series (11 - 26 episodes) I usually wait. Today though I feel like talking about some of the series I'm currently enjoying that started in the April batch. April and October are the two months that a lot of new series start, so I always look forward to seeing what will be introduced.

So far in this group I have some favorites and at the top of that list is 07-Ghost. This series just happens to be another one that I've been collecting the manga for a while now without realizing that an anime series would be adapted from it. So since I found out, I've been eagerly waiting for the series. I'm seriously enjoying it so far. This story is about a boy named Tate (Teito) Klein. Teito has no memory of his past at the story start, and has been raised as a military cadet although he started out a slave. He runs afoul of a very bad military type named Ayanami, runs for his life and ends up claiming sanctuary at a church with three very interesting bishops. This is the point where the story currently is, about 8 episodes along. Teito's about to lose his best friend (Yup, looks like a token death *winces*). I don't know where the story will go from here but I suspect there will be interactions between Teito and the bishops and the military. Also, Ayanami is shaping up to be one of the really great bad guys.

Another series I'm enjoying is Higashi no Eden. This series has got a really unique plot, but keeps the watcher as clueless as the main character is. As he figures it out, we figure it out. He, Takizawa Akira, has had his memory erased, but figures out that he is one of 13 people who have been given 11 billion yen each and been told to use it to save the world in whatever way they can. If they run out of money, they will be killed. Short of that they can do anything they want, including murder. The only way out is to essentially save the world. Takizawa gets involved with Morimi Saki in the first episode and she involves him with others. Along with the unique plot, I like the character style and the music. Unfortunately this series is only 11 episodes, so I'll know pretty soon whether it's a really good series or not by how it ends.

I'm also enjoying a series called Shangri-La. I began watching this one because the characters are done by Range Murata and I like his character style. The broad range of characters, a pretty unique plot and some good music have kept me watching. This is a post-apocalyptic type series following the life of a young pink-haired girl known as Hojo Kuniko. The world has placed a rigid cap on carbon emissions and the world economy is carbon-based. Jungles are taking over civilized areas in attempts to stop the carbon emissions and prevent the further rise of sea level. Besides Kuniko, other main characters include a trans-sexual named Momiko, a military junior officer, a child princess who kills anyone who lies to her by twisting them into crushed pretzels with her thoughts, a child computer genius who plays the world economy like a game, etc, etc. Basically it's an interesting story so far.

I'm also following a series called Tears to Tiara, mainly because of the white-haired character to the left. This is Arawn, the Demon King. The whole feel of this series is somewhat like Utawarerumono, but Arawn is surprisingly (refreshingly) good at maintaining a sense of the ridiculous and serves as a balance for the MANY foibles of the characters surrounding him. This series is adapted from a role-playing game, which generally is not my favorite type of series. Occasionally, I get irritated at the series when the idiots around Arawn are almost too much to take, but then I get over it. It certainly won't be the first series I've followed mainly for the sake of a single character, and he's pretty cool.

Pandora Hearts is another series I'm keeping up with. I really like the three main characters in this series, Oz Bezarious, Raven (Gilbert) and Alice, whose other form is a frigging huge black rabbit with a scythe. Oz is condemned to Hell (the Abyss) for not-yet-explained reasons, meets Alice there and together they return. Except the agreement they made in order to be able to leave the Abyss is illegal in the real world, and they're forced to work for a wacko character in an organization known as Pandora. So far the characters and plot have kept me watching. I almost dropped this one after the first episode and now I'm glad I didn't.

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom is another one from this batch that I keep watching. It has a little bit of the feeling of Noir about it, but that may just be because it's also about a pair of assassins. This pair is a lot more violent than Mireille and Kirika ever were and also have a lot less control over their own fate. A group named Inferno is out to control the underground and all it's groups, including the Mafia. An Inferno wacko called the Scythe Master created these two assassins by erasing their memories and teaching them to be the perfect killers. He started with a girl he names Ein and who is referred to by Inferno as Phantom. The series starts with the creation of Zwei, the guy. He was a Japanese tourist in the wrong place at the wrong time who is made into the other half of Phantom after he almost wins against Ein, even without training. I keep waiting for Ein and Zwei to break free from Inferno, and the series to become more Noir-like as they go up against their former bosses. Or anyway that's what I hope happens. I'll have to wait and see where the series goes.

The last one from this new group that I haven't decided whether to drop yet is Valkyria Chronicles and I'm not sure what keeps me coming back in this one. It has pretty characters, so maybe that's it. It's also developed from a role-playing game and is a war/military series. Two countries are at war, and the son (Welkin Gunther) of a famous general gets sucked into the militia, or actually follows a girl (Alicia Melchiott) into the Militia. He is really a gentle soul who doesn't belong in the military, but keeps coming out on top of situations because of his intelligence, and his half-sister (Isara) who is a mechanic who just happens to drive a modified tank. So far the story follows these three main character plus Welkin's best friend.

Anyway that's my synopsis of the April series that I'm currently keeping up with. It'll be interesting to see how many of them I end up deciding are really good series.

Trinity Blood - and Artbooks

Trinity Blood is an anime series that I have a soft spot for. It's the first series that was made from a manga after I had already bought the manga. I didn't realize that an anime series was going to be developed from it when I started collecting the manga. I just liked the look of it. Add to that, it's a vampire series, and of course it will be one of my favorites. I would have to say that it's definitely a vampire series with a twist though. The third factor in it's favor is a pretty unique plot and world view. Just basically a likable series. Plus they don't kill off any of my favorite characters although they do throw in a token death.

Just to give a very brief story summary, the setting is post-apocalyptic. The population has destroyed itself in some manner and concomitant with that, or shortly afterward, the "vampires" appeared. They are probably originally extraterrestrial because our sun harms them, but the series doesn't spend any excess time going into this background. They don't refer to themselves as "vampires" of course, but are called that by the humans whom they prey upon and whom they mainly consider a distinctly lower life form. The two main Powers in existence at the time of the story are the human-based Church (with a capital Ch), and the vampire's Empire. Certain factions within each group want reconciliation between the two, or want annihilation of the other group, depending on the faction. Also a third underground faction, the Rosenkreutz Order, wants the two groups to destroy each other so that the Order can create a new world.

The story follows the efforts of Abel Nightroad and Ester, a priest and a sister, to make contact with the Empire and try to create a more lasting peace than the current simmering stalemate. Abel and Ester's comrades and their vampire counterparts in the Empire make up the cast, along with various members of the Order.

There are several interesting plot twists beyond this basic story, but this gets the gist of it. This is one of those series that has all the elements that make me put it on my great anime list. The characters, done by Nakajima Atsuko, are gorgeous. The music is outstanding, one of my favorite soundtracks. The series has a relatively unique plot, and to top it off, all my favorite characters survive the series.

I have been thinking about Trinity Blood recently because I just picked up an artbook by Nakajima Atsuko, the character designer not only for Trinity Blood, but also for Princess, Princess and You're Under Arrest. I love artbooks. Not only are they really gorgeous, but you get some pictures of your favorite anime characters that it would be difficult to get any other way. Examples from the Nakajima artbook are the picture on the left above of Ester and the Count, and also the picture on the right above of Abel, which is part of a much larger picture.

I have more than a few artbooks from my favorite series. The difficulty with artbooks is that the pictures are in books. You have to get them out and look at them occasionally. Or I have a tendency to scan my favorite pictures and then use them for backgrounds on my computer, switching out relatively frequently. I've included some pictures from a few of my other artbooks in this post: pics from Shonen Onmyouji, Cowboy Bebop, Witchhunter Robin and Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. I'm always amused by the length of the title on that last series. Given my predilection for shortening names of series, I refer to it as "Baku". It's a historical anime, which is another type that I'm attracted to. I'm always curious about just how much or how little historical anime reflect Japan's actual history. There are persons from their history that appear over and over again in anime series. Of course, they have a lot of history. The Tokugawa Shoganate lasted longer than the US has been a country. Omoshiroi ne?