Yesterday was a continuation of the massive dragging I started by being too happy on Thursday… which leads me to suspect that I have Yet Another bug. This left me well-prepared to find out that, near the end of the day, one of my coworkers had just been fired. I’m not sure how I feel about it. The last time someone (who had been working for more than a month, to weed out some unimportant cases) was fired was multiple years ago, and that had to deal with theft. The present case isn’t anywhere near as clear cut.

Watched the second disc of Fruits Basket last night, which really lifted my spirits; it’s rare to find an anime that just makes you feel good. One of the episodes took place around New Years—apparently the Japanese have a tradition of watching the first sunrise of the year. I’ve admittedly never been a partyer, but this seems like a much nicer way to start off a year…. Sunrise, to me, seems more important than reaching midnight and the technical “new year.” This is something akin to the argument about when we should have celebrated the new millennium—2000 or 2001? While the latter was technically correct, the former still felt like the bigger change.

Of course, the best answer to the millennium question was both years, so maybe I’m making too much of this sunrise idea.

Today I went on an ill-fated trip to Best Buy, in a continuation of my quest to find a DVI-DVI cable. I actually found one in the store, but they wanted $50 for the bugger. I figured I could live with analog, at that price. Otherwise my day was filled with quite a bit of nothing.

I was happy to learn that nothing horrendous (for me) came out of Anime Boston this weekend, though. A good deal of the titles announced (Princess Tutu, Uchu no Stellvia/Stellvia of the Universe, and Kodomo no Omocha/Child’s Toy (!)*) are ones that Marin has claimed.

[*The licensing of Kodomo no Omocha—a show that apparently has multiple rights holders—has long been considered a sign of the apocalypse. Consider yourself warned.]

As for the other shows (the ones that sparked any amount of recognition in me, at least): I hear that Dokkoider is quite funny, and that Paranoia Agent is “the new anime by Satoshi Kon” (this is pretty much how everybody has described it—leading me to believe that nobody knows anything about the show). Feelings towards Onegai Twins seem to be much more mixed. So far it looks like I’ll be safe in sitting back and seeing how people react to these shows are they are released—they don’t strike me as Critical Titles That I Must Own Now.

What? “What anime shows are Critical Titles That I Must Own Now?” I don’t really know, myself—I’m being hyperbolic—but I suspect that Azumanga Daioh might make my list. I have a weak spot for Azumanga.