I want you to know I had to work very hard to keep myself from embedding a Youtube mash-up of something, anything, set to “Don’t You Forget About Me.”

Hopefully I got you curious.  That was the plan.

My eleventh anime “moment” isn’t one so much as many.  It’s Legion; it is many.

Specifically, nearly any moment in Toradora!

You may still be wondering about the Breakfast Club image above.  If you’re one of the true and faithful, you’re just smiling while thinking about o-haaaa! or the general opinion on people who call themselves ditzy.

I don’t, generally, find myself supsceptible to moe.  At least, not when it’s readily identified for me.  Mikuru is, for me, one of the least interesting characters of Haruhi Suzumiya.  (That is, until I read the part in the book where Daisuke. . .  Uh, I mean, Koizumi,¹ tells Kyon she’s putting it all on because they know Kyon likes that kind of thing, then she got interesting to me).  Anyway, what I mean is, if everyone’s feeling, during their moe-feeling-time, the way I feel much of the time when I watch Toradora!, then I finally get it.

Possible-moe isn’t the whole thing for me, no, that would be too simple, too pure.  I also like the way the show’s constructed, the way it plays with themes, blah blah.

Never mind that shit now — we’re here to share moments, mother-fuckers.

Essentially, I feel all warm, fuzzy, and possibly cry-ey (criey? — yes, I know weepy, damn you, I’m coining neologisms here, step away) whenever I watch Toradora!  Meanwhile I’m also engaged in a strong arc of soul-shaping, for the characters and sometimes me (when I’m not busy being cry-ey).  It’s more than footage of cute puppies.  It’s cute puppies that make you feel like you can take on the world (more on things that make me feel that way later in the countdown).

Now I’ll explain myself.  I’ve never seen The Breakfast Club myself, but I get the impression it serves as that kind of film for a lot of people around my age (25 this year, if you’re curious at all — August, if you want to mail me wonderful things on an annual basis).  I hear it has a lot of great, heart-warming moments that still have a backbone behind them, telling a story about interesting characters that rise up out of their obvious stereotypes to become something more to each other and the viewer.

Does any of this sound familiar to you?  Now, I don’t know if I’ll ever watch The Breakfast Club.  A person I didn’t like all that well kept trying to foist it on me a few years ago.  This is irrational, I know.  The feeling remains.  However, Toradora! does the same things for me, and in a time when I think I needed it a lot.  Not to get too heavy on you, but I went through a break-up that, while not violent, ended up being awful in new and special ways.  Also, I finally ran into a creative writing teacher who, as I’d always been warned about and had never had to deal with personally, came out and said the sort of writing I’m pursuing isn’t work pursuing; at one point he shouted at me for daring to turn in a zombie story, as they’re puerile and no one gets anything out of them any longer — this from a professor who admits to reading nothing new unless someone he knows wrote it, so he probably hasn’t noticed the rising zombie tide that seems to emblematize something meaningful for our society now.

Anyway.  Short version:  a lot of shit went down.  Probably more on this later in the countdown.  But for now, I can end by saying I was just plain old happy whenever I watched an episode of Toradora! this year, and I plan to feel the same way next year.

HOLY SHIT IT’S NOT TOO LATE!!!

¹: Yes, I just made a voice-actor joke. It won’t happen again. Probably.