If there’s a part of me that’s both pleased and frustrated with myself, it’s that over the course of this run of the 30 Days of Anime Challenge is that there is some consistency when it comes to certain questions. It’s not so much that I keep going back to a particular well, but rather that there are simply just a few shows that really define anime in a large way for me. Part of it is that I’m overwhelmed by so many shows at this stage, it really takes something super special to stand out anymore in a long term sense, and the inability, for the most part, to go back and rewatch shows just for the pleasure of it is mostly gone. So when I finish a season or a home video release, there’s a stack of discs there to dig into next and the next season of shows is coming at me quicker than I can imagine some times. So the newer shows are at a disadvantage.

Still, this method allows me to go on about one of those things that I really, really adore. The last day of the challenge involves picking a show that you wish would go on forever and ever. There are plenty of choices that can work for this. I’d love to see the next evolution of Maison Ikkoku. I’d love to see a more detailed look at the reconstruction phase of Macross and I’m the one that’s still out there clamoring for Robotech: The Sentinels to be made. I’d like to really make it clear to Bandai Japan that they need to be animating more Crest of the Stars. But when it gets right down to it, the one show I want to see more of is one that’s already been beautifully mapped out.

Kimagure Orange Road.

This series is one of those key pieces that kept me being an anime fan in the early ’90s when all that was coming onto the shelves were more girls with guns, big action, or fanservice pieces. This was one that said there’s much more out there. And as I watched those six OVAs and the (only) movie, I wanted more and more until I finally got that beautiful laserdisc set of the TV series. But between those two releases, I read what is to this day the only, only fanfic that I have ever read. Kimagure Orange College by Stephen Tsai. The fanfic ran for 40 episodes and showed college life for the characters and where they go after the events of the first movie.

“This pilot story and the episodes that follow are a fan-fiction series based on the characters in Kimagure Orange Road. They are intended to take place after the movie, “I Want to Return to that Day”, and follow the characters Kasuga Kyosuke and Ayukawa Madoka as they start the next phase of their lives in college.  Although we will see some of the characters from the original KOR series make appearances, the focus is on the two main characters, their challenges as they progress through college, the friends they meet and how their lives and relationship evolve in a different environment. It is our intention to try to keep the writing with a similar style of the humor that the KOR series exhibited.”

From what we get there, it also leads to a great launching point where you can see them as adults, coping with kids of their own someday and so forth. The whole property is one that could go on for awhile to be a great drama with humor and it has plenty of potential. It’s the one show that if I had the means, I’d fund it myself and be stupidly happy for the rest of my days.

Ah, perchance to dream. At least until reality slaps me across the face as Ayukawa does.

What series would you like to “never” end?