Pizzemmarria

DON’T EAT HERE:

City View Pizza

The moment I bit the pizza, I concluded that this pizza wasn’t worth my money at all. At least, it had to cost much less than it did. I ordered two slices of plain cheese pizza at City View Pizza Located at 17^th st and Spring Garden. The pizza was too hot caused by overheating which made the pizza really difficult to eat and not enjoyable. When I ate it, the mozzarella layer that was supposed to be soft and stretching, but when I ate it, it was really stiff and rigid; it didn’t stretch and didn’t give me the moisture and softness of a good pizza at all. The sauce was not enough and didn’t cover the pizza at all. And because of the overheating, most parts of the pizza were blackened and when you ate the crust, it would feel that you ate cracker at that moment.

2 thumbs down – 9/10 stars

EAT HERE:

Soho Pizza

I already ate pizza here several times. I have already tasted each pizza they serve, from plain cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza, to spinach and mushroom pizza. The mozzarella is soft and stretching. As you bite the pizza, the mozzarella will stretch so long that you have to keep chewing it down to your mouth. When you order the pizza, the pizza will be warmed in a brick oven and when it is served, the pizza is warm and is not too hot, therefore it is enjoyable and you don’t have to worry about burning your mouth. The crust has a proper texture, not too rigid or too soft. Soho Pizza also offer a lot of varieties of sauce for their pizza: ranch sauce, buffalo sauce, and barbecue sauce. It is a must try place for pizza, because they do specialize in pizza.

3 thumbs up – 8.5/10 stars

Rossi Pizza

Located in South Philadelphia, at Broad and Snyder, this is one of the places that I visit if I want to get a pizza. At first, I doubted this pizza place as the store is small and doesn’t seem to serve a good pizza. That time I was hungry and didn’t have any choice to satisfy my long for a pizza. It changed my mind. Like Soho Pizza, although they don’t serve many varieties of pizza like Soho, Rossi Pizza offers us a tasteful and enjoyable pizza. It is one of the places that you should call or drop by when you have a strong urge to eat a really good pizza.

2 thumbs up – 8/10 stars

Bokura ga Ita - category; anime (TV series: 26 episodes)

Story – 9/10
Bokura Ga Ita is a high school love story drama based on a manga by Obata Yuuki. You will be introduced to the main character, Takahashi Nanashi, the female protagonist high school student in her first semester in new school without any friends (yet). She eventually finds friends and by accident, is nominated and chosen as the students’ representatives in her class. The time comes when she encounters the most famous guy around her school which fortunately enough, is in the same class with her, Motoharu Yano. Relationship develops between these two, until they are dating. A lot of things unexpected happen since they are in relationship, mostly because of Yano’s past and Nanashi’s struggle to deal with Yano’s past that has been hurting their relationship.

Bokura Ga Ita presents us a simple idea of love story: high school romance. Although it seems that the genre of this anime is typical, Bokura Ga Ita has presented the story in excellence. The story part is developing accordingly, it will not leave us wondering of what really happens in the story. Each character’s background is brought to us when the story needs it the most, so audiences are not going to be confused of the developing story. Bokura Ga Ita also succeeds in capturing audiences’ interest with the deep story-telling of the characters’ psychology and development. When we watch this series, we will not watch some kind of exaggerated love story progress or over-fantasized love problems/conflicts. We will be offered a real-life-like high school romance situation which will most likely to bring us back to our own memories on that time. We will see how real-life-like high school students deal with their love, their problems, and their dreams as well as their families.

Visual – 9/10
There are several points in Bokura Ga Ita’s visual and animation which are notable. Although this series doesn’t give us any special effects or fancy computer graphic, Bokura Ga Ita will not disappoint audiences by its graphics.

The color used in this series is just simply bright and gives us the cheerful as well as light feeling thorough the episodes. In most of the special and romantic scenes, Bokura Ga Ita has done awesomely well in its visual by giving audiences such a romantic feeling which draws us into that moment.

The background is just beautiful and dynamic. It doesn’t have any stand-still images of background which we can usually see in less-developed anime. The background of people walking, talking, and automobile are done appropriately in this anime. As audiences who find details matter, then Bokura Ga Ita will not disappoint you.

Character design is just simple. Bokura Ga Ita is not full with too fancy or too flashy character design that sometimes attract audiences’ attention too much. Some people will find the character design too simple, but along with the story progress, they will get used to it and love it. Bokura Ga Ita also succeeds in having the characters’ expression read clearly by the audiences without confusion. there is no blank expression or any other expression that are not placed properly on every circumstances in the series.

The other element in visual which is notable in Bokura Ga Ita is characters fashion and style in the series. Bokura Ga Ita may be one of the anime that has done a great job of reflecting the fashion culture in Japanese teenagers nowadays. You will still see Yukata and other traditional clothes worn by the characters here, but on general occasion, you will find the characters’ fashion to be the up-to-date and dynamic. The fashion style of each character also maintained to be constant (so based on the character personality and sense of fashion, the characters’ clothes are following accordingly).

Audio – 9.5/10
When we watch the opening theme and listen to the song, it will capture our attention immediately as the song, the lyrics, and the background have briefly told us the genre and the idea of the series itself. Thorough the series, all background music and song used are just perfectly suitable for this series. There is no flaw in choices of song and background music. Audiences will not hit the point where we suddenly wondering, “I just realized it is so quite and I can only hear characters’ voice and conversations.” In Bokura Ga Ita, you will find how the music and song catalyze/strengthen the atmosphere and feeling brought to you as audiences. With this element, audiences will not fail to grab the feeling and atmosphere at the right moment.

Characters – 10/10
Character development in this series is done in a good shape. Bokura Ga Ita doesn’t rush nor too late in this issue. Throughout the episodes, we will be introduced to each character’s development accordingly, not too fast, not too slow, just fit perfectly with the timing. Character development in Bokura Ga Ita will relate tightly with the background of the characters as well as everything that happen in the present time around the characters. We will see clearly how the characters develop in this story without any bizarre or confusion.

Each character in this series is special and fit their roles well. Even the characters beside the main characters have to exist to make Bokura Ga Ita works, because the slightest thing these characters do or say (as long as it relates to the main characters) will affect the main characters’ development. The interaction between each character in this series is incredibly strong. There won’t be characters on which we will wonder why those characters even exist.

Because of the smart characters placement and development, Bokura Ga Ita will easily stir audiences’ emotion and feeling. Therefore, there will be a strong bond and feeling for each characters, like empathy or even hate, from audiences. But the reason is because we will know clearly what, how, and why the characters are like that, even sympathizing with the characters that play as the antagonists.

Reality Value – 9/10
One of the best anime with the best reality value I have ever watched. In Bokura Ga Ita, you will not be deafened by the high-pitched characters’ voice, or being over-killed by the time you start to get the feeling because of bad jokes or ridiculous acts of the characters. Despite the simple characters design, Bokura Ga Ita is a really serious and well-developed drama anime. In this series, when the characters talk, they talk. When they whisper, they whisper. When they curse, they curse. When they are confused, their mind speaks. When they cry, they cry quietly. These are the elements that are really difficult to find on ordinary everyday anime. The jokes are simple, but make us laugh. When the characters are sad, when they can’t express it, it captures us and we will want to cry along with the characters. It is because without realizing it, this value has brought us to the reality of life in this anime. The complexity of the characteristic is not beyond that one of real people. Bokura Ga Ita is an anime in which non-anime audiences will claim to be lovely and attractive. And really, it will capture you and grab your attention from the beginning to the end.

Overall - 9.3/10

Bokura Ga Ita is a must watch anime for every anime lover, drama lover, or just anybody that simply want to see the school life and love story from back then, in our past and memories. This series will satisfy us, the audiences, from the beginning to the end. although the ending still hasn't wrapped up the entire story for a "FIN", it has ended in the most appropriate episode. we will still wait for the continuation, but even if it doesn't come out or we don't read the manga, the ending can be treated as FIN. one of the best anime I have ever seen and will recommend to anyone!
NOTE: the manga is still running and currently is on volume 12. the ending of the series is the end of volume 7 in the manga. The official notice hasn't come out yet, but the second season of this series is in process and is going to air on June 2008.

Aishiteruze Baby [I Love You, Baby] - category: Anime (TV episodes:26)

Synopsis
Kippei Katakura is a popular high school student that use all of his time to the fullest for flirting with girls. It is until he meets with Yuzuyu Sakashita, her 5 years old cousin whose mother has abandoned her, when his life totally changes. His family assigns him to take care of Yuzuyu until her mother comes back. Kippei now is facing with something that he has never dealt with before. But thorough the process, he discovers love, something he doesn’t truly understand until now. His relationship with Yuzuyu grows strong and he learns a lot from his life, changes his lifestyle, and gets someone he can care for and vice-versa.

STORY – 10/10
Aishiteruze Baby is based on a genre that is not ordinary compared to many anime series. The idea is about filial love between the main characters, Katakura Kippei and Sakashita Yuzuyu, who are cousins. The story develops by presenting us with how the main characters’ relationship grows strong day by day, and how the main characters learn what love really means between them. Audiences will also realize how love between family can also be stronger than love between lovers, and how actually filial love will actually make someone more loving when it comes to their partners.

The story plot develops smoothly and audiences’ will be grabbed by the time they watch the series. Each episodes of the series acts like a flowing story-telling that audiences will never get bored of. There isn’t any plot hole when audiences will ever wonder, “what is the relation between this idea and that one in this episode?” or “what’s the use of letting us know about this fact?” All episodes are done neatly so that they correlate flawlessly with each other. And without realizing it, audiences will find Aishiteruze Baby as a series which has done balanced task over plot and characters’ development.

Because of the flowing nature of the series, Aishiteruze Baby will leave quite an impact on audiences’ enjoyment while watching the series. The atmosphere will blow audiences a warm feeling of love that is rarely presented by other anime series. The series is colorful, mixed with both main characters’ and accompanying characters’ family conflict and its conclusion, and it ends satisfactorily, the time when audiences will smile, exhale, and maybe shed a little bit tears of happiness.

VISUAL – 7.8/10
The biggest weakness of this series is its visual quality. The quality of the main characters are maintained pretty nice, although there are times in the earlier episodes when audiences will be distracted by the rough and not-neat characters’ design at some scenes. The characters’ design is pretty good, although the style is a little bit too ordinary. There is no specialty or something that stands out in the characters’ design.

The background of the series is also not paid enough attention, which if we pay attention closer will make us kind of regretful how the background is not supporting the series. We will encounter a lot of static and mute background around the characters on that screen.

There is no special effect implemented in this series, because this element itself is not really necessary in this series. But this series is kind of lacking in movement, that sometimes will make us realizing that the movement of the characters are not that smooth and it is not done in such a details.

Maybe the strong element in the visual section is the color, which saves the rating of the visual from being 6/10. The color used is not that special, but it fits perfectly with the all scenes in which the story develops. As there are some scenes which play strongly with audiences emotion and feeling, the color has done a great job of boosting the needed atmosphere.

AUDIO – 7.5
There is nothing special with the audio. It even can also be said that the audio is not getting enough attention to support the series. There are some scenes in which we will be left in a quiet atmosphere which is not convenient. The background music used thorough the series itself is really ordinary, and audiences may realize that the background music sounds familiar and used in a lot of other anime. Basically the series is using the ‘default’ background music, not quite original, and leave some disappointment in particular way.

The strong element is the opening and ending theme which suits perfectly with the theme of the series and when they are used as a background song in some scenes, they do a great job maintaining the atmosphere audiences need. With more proper and more original background music, this series may even be much better.

CHARACTERS – 10/10
What audiences can see is perfectly maintained and presented characters’ development. As the story goes, audiences will see how the characters change, what makes them as they are at that moment, without any flaw. Each character has effect and influence to one another, so they are closely related to each other.

The strongest element in this section is the characterization of Kippei and Yuzuyu as the main characters. They will leave a strong influence on audiences all they way from the beginning to the end. They fit the role well and present audiences with a pure and honest warmth of love between each other. Everything they do to each other together in this series, how small and insignificant it is, it is filled with love that is created by strong bond between each other. Audiences will cherish these two characters until the end. The two characters you will want to watch over and over.

Characters’ psychology is ordinary, but the theme is the element that makes the characterization in Aishiteruze Baby extraordinary. Characters in this series are shaped by their family’s love and conflict. The family is the strongest and most emphasized issue in this series. But it is not done exaggeratedly, instead, it has done a great job shaping the reasonable, well-paced characters’ development.


ENJOYMENT - 10/10 (additional strong element in this series)
Aishiteruze Baby will not make you want to leave and stop watching. It is enjoyable from the beginning to the end, as the story flows flawlessly, and audiences entertained by the characters’ well-paced development, and mostly the warm feeling of love between the main characters. Audiences will finish watching the series in satisfaction.




OVERALL – 8.7/10
This is a disappointing rate for this series as the most weaknesses are from the visual and audio which hurt the whole series the most. But because of the story, characters, and enjoyment elements from this series, audiences can neglect those weaknesses away and the series will still be a must-watch series for all. All type audiences should watch this series because of the theme of the series which can’t be found in any anime series often. Audiences will surely be filled with strong feeling of warm love, not from lovers, but from ones in the family instead. Aishiteruze Baby will show a lot of us that love from one of the ones in our family will also be strong and shape us to better person. Audiences will also realize that the love presented in the series is the love that cares, a lot, without actually expecting anything in return. It has such warmth that each of audience will realize and get by the time they watch this series themselves. It is must-watch series! Must not miss it!

NOTE: there are several differences between the anime and the manga. It is also strongly recommended that ones watch the anime first before read the manga. The anime basically ends at volume 5 of the manga which ends at volume 7 and is completely scanlated at the moment. Any comments and questions are welcome. Enjoy the series!