Letter to a friend...

Let me tell you a story...

There were once two girls that were part of a group of anime watchers. One of these girls was one of the ringleaders and the other just started to socialise with the group. The ringleader gave the newbie a list of anime to watch and sent her on her way. During the year, the newbie came back with her comments and the two would discuss their favourite parts of the shows until the bell rang for PC or the end of lunch. Now, after a two week holiday, the newbie came back with her review of one of the shows the ringleader was so energetic about. However, just as the newbie started, the ringleader clamped her hands over her ears and loudly proclaimed "Don't tell me how it ended!". After the ringleader calmed down, the two had a more formal discussion to find out why the ringleader did what she did. The newbie found out, the the ringleader saw a bit of the movie and was heartbroken that her favourite character died in it. The newbie, slightly upset over not being able to talk about the show, told the ringleader that she MUST watch it through to the end no matter what happened in it, though she never said why to watch it. And for three years, the not-so-newbie asked the ringleader if she started to watch it, but the ringleader said that she hadn't and moved onto a different anime. Every. Single. TIME!

Now the newbie has grown up (slightly) and started finding her own shows, but the ringleader still hasn't finished one of her originals! It's a true story too, although to be fair, the newbie wasn't new to anime, just new to the group. In fact, it's a miracle that the newbie wasn't seriously messed up from the anime she watched as a child, but it was probably due to the fact that if she couldn't deal with it, she'd walk off and wouldn't return until the scene was over or the episode was finished (something the newbie keeps doing when watching all types of TV now) and that she'd forgotten a lot of the stuff that happened. The newbie is still waiting for a character to die, and she often enjoys talking to the group about their theories about how the character will die (and everyone in the group thinks it would be best if the character died. He backstabbed the only person who tried to understand him, left his village, went over to the dark-side, killed his brother, became some hybrid between depression and madness, then attacked his village, attempted to kill his 'former' friends, and probably a lot of other things too. And he STILL has fangirls?! It's completely ridiculous! He must die! If he doesn't die soon, I'm doing a Thursday Next and jumping in the book to do the deed myself!)

*Ahem* *Ahem* Sorry, got a bit off topic there. Had to start to control myself there (Once I get going, it's hard to stop...). Oh, has anyone figured out who the newbie was? That's right, it was me. The ringleader in question is a friend of mine, Carla.

Going back to the story, did I ever mention Retreat on this blog? Maybe not, but at Retreat, we had to write affirmation letters to the people we wanted to thank and tell we admired. I wrote to Carla, telling her how much I envied her ability to get along with everyone, or at least tolerate them. However, at the bottom of the note I said; "I'm not sure if this is really the place to say this... But you have to watch Clannad After Story. It's been 3 years Carla, and nobody else as watched it. I'm getting a little bit irritated that I can't talk about it too, so hurry up! From, Memphis".

Funnily enough, I got a letter from Carla too. This is how it opened; "Dear Memphis, I have loved being your friend and having you in my PC this year. Its so nice having someone to talk anime with & I love our conversations. And I promise when I get 'round to watching Clannad: After Story, it will be half your fault :P".

We then had a joke about 'great minds think alike', but we both thought it was the funniest thing that we had written about the same thing in our letters. Just so you know, none of us knew who were writing letters for who and what was on them.

Anyway... I recently started to re-watch some anime, and I decided to re-watch the Clannad series, mostly because I got pretty lost towards the end. So, I found a page that attempts to explain the story. It does a pretty good job too. So, as a result, I decided to write another letter the Carla and remind her to finish what she started, but I'm not sure if I should send it... I always think I seem like the biggest idiot when I'm writing, so I'm not sure what to do... I mean, I always seem pretty blunt when writing (because I want to get straight to the point), and I wonder if that bluntness gets mistaken for something else entirely. Anyway, I was wondering if you guys can give some feedback, tell me what you really think about the following letter, because I'm seriously stumped here...

Yo Carla! How's England going? This is probably a stupid reason to send you a message, but you seriously need to get around to watching Clannad After Story this year (whenever you want though. I'm sure you have other better things to do, like sightseeing). I'm not going to spoil anything (you'd probably have my head if I did), but I found a good site that attempts to explain things that happen in both seasons (because I got completely lost close to the end). Anyway, I'm going to re-watch the series, so I thought I'd just remind you that you have yet to finish it. This e-mail sounds so stupid now that I've written it, but, well, you got me to watch it in the first place! You have to finish it! It's coming up to four years now!

... You guys still here? It's a long ranting post, but if you're still here, thanks for putting up with it. And feedback! Please! I seriously don't know if I should send it, or change it, or not even bother! Anyway, have a nice day everyone! Sorry about the rant!