Who Moved My CHOCS???

Had a few more 2007 Flashback posts to toss up... But no, today being Valentines/Cynic Singles' Appreciation Day and all, I thought this post would be more in order... (In other words I'm too brain-drained to do any more serious posts for now, so I'll just settle with a fluffy rant with the excuse that I just realized what day it was today... being a hikikomori makes it all too easy to lose track of time after all)

Truth be told, I have nothing much of my own to say about this particular date of crass commercialism and hypocritic idealism... Err, scratch that, said too much already. *ahem* So instead I'll just rant on about how miffed I am that we don't practise celebrating V-day the way the Japanese do -

I WANT MY GIRI (OBLIGATORY) CHOCOLATES!!!

For the uninitiated, the Japanese, being the Japanese after all, have their own version of how this day is to be celebrated, and if sources are to be trusted, it might as well be called Chocolate Day (which suits me just fine =P). Basically women spend a ton of money on chocolates to give out to their male friends/colleagues/loved ones (Crass commercialism 4tw!). The last group obviously gets the fancier stuff (Honmei-chocolates) while the rest simply get the Giri-chocos - which basically says you're special to me and all, but I can't afford to spend as much time and effort on you ;D

In anime, girls are traditionally depicted in spending their own efforts and 'making' these chocolates themselves (which really boils down to melting bought chocolate into shaped moulds or the occasional truffle... mmmm.... Truffles...). Many a time, a character with absolutely no cooking prowess will have to seek the help of a domestic goddess from her circle of friends to educate her in this delicate art, and this is usually prompted by said girl realizing feelings for a usually dense boy. Said boy will be subjected to girl's furious blushing as she finally musters up the courage to hand the chocolates to the target of her affections (usually with much dawdling around for the whole day) only she will try too damned hard to appear nonchalant about it and pass them off as the mere obligation variety, while repeating unnecessarily loudly "D-d-don't misunderstand this. It's only giri-choco..." Reference: any harem anime with a Valentine's Day scenario and at least one tsundere.

A 'typical' Valentines Day scenario gone wrong.

Of course, all this supposed effort is not for naught... A month later on March 14th, the Japanese (and as far as I know only the Japanese) celebrate the so-called White Day, when the chocolate receiving men of Valentines become the chocolate givers to return the favour to the ladies... Fair enough, I suppose, seeing that love (for chocolates) is something that should be shared =P At any rate, the person who thought this whole idea up must be some cunningly money-minded confectioner(Woo-hoo commercialism!).

The typical White Day scenario in anime, btw, is when useless male lead conveniently forgets or has some dumb excuse for remembering White Day and as such is subjected to the torment of wrathful girl.

Anyways, this year's V-Day will probably be of no particular importance to me, shall probably be having dinner with loved ones (i.e. family) out at some hawker centre (lol) to avoid the icky jostle of couples in 'posher' establishments. My anime viewing will go on as usual, I certainly won't be expecting myself to rewatch stuff like Lovely Complex or Tokyo Marble Chocolate (or the School Days Valentines OVA, LOL. Speaking of which...). Meanwhile I shall be miffing about the current absence of chocolate coming my way... Stuff is is probably wayyyy to overpriced this time of year anyways (bloody commercialism), so I'll just have to be satisfied with whatever little's still left in the fridge T.T

Here's wishing everyone a 'Happy' V-Day (hey, fellow single-tons, think of all the money you're saving!), whether you're spending it with loved ones (2-D or 3-D), the internet, or just treating it as any other day ;P Now if you excuse me, I have a fridge to raid...