Let the good times roll! 😀

No story is entirely complete, I think, without adding a bit of happiness to it. Even if it’s a tragedy, it needs to be seasoned with happy moments. That is what makes us care, as an audience, about what happens. Because if there is no joy, there is no hope, so why bother caring at all?

Even if there is next to nothing good that happens, still, it needs to have joy within it. Otherwise, it comes off as just something depressing and soul-sucking. At least, that’s my take on it.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of such. It was just a matter of picking ones I really liked, for whatever reason. 🙂

And I have to say… it’s good to be closing in on the end of this Anime Pick 5 Challenge with some happier notes. 😀

In no particular order, five moments from anime that made me smile! I hope you enjoy them! 😉

1) Friends reconnect with Jazz Medley
Kids on the Slope

Actions speak louder than words, and music is the language of the soul.

A small rift has formed between two friends, but they manage to reconnect through their music. The result is joyous, both for them and for their audience. 🙂

2) Racing back home for Tohru
Fruits Basket

Lacking the appropriate YouTube clip, I shall have to describe this moment instead. My apologies for how this will inevitably fall far short of the real thing. 😉

The three Sohmas of the household are off to their family’s New Year’s celebration, as is tradition. Kyo and Yuki are obviously preoccupied with thoughts of Tohru, who assured them she would be fine on her own. The elder member of the trio can’t help but have a little fun with them.

“I’ve heard there’s been a rash of burglaries. Culprit’s still at large… Oh, well, let’s go.” As the younger boys twist with what they imagine Tohru’s reaction to a burglar would be: invite him in, serve tea, and get his life story. The humor is interrupted by the arrival of Tohru’s friend.

Said friend laments the fact that this will truly be a sad, sad New Year’s for Tohru. It is, after all, the first one since her mother died, and they used to celebrate New Year’s together. Now, to hear the same bells, to see the same sunrise, but to be alone… that will truly be sad for her.

The Sohma men are shocked by how they failed to realize this, and the younger two immediately, and in unison, take off running for home. For Tohru.

Off they go, cursing themselves for not realizing, when it’s so obvious. She always puts everyone else first, and she’s always smiling, but how could they miss the fact that she was suffering so? She assured them she would be all right… but not a person in the world would really feel that way in her place.

And they arrive. They arrive, out of breath, having run furiously all the way back home. They arrive, and find her having a humble meal with the portrait of her mother, her eyes lined with tears on the verge of falling.

Of course she tries to pass the tears off as something else entirely, but the two boys collapse in exhaustion, and relief that they did the right thing by coming back.

They are where they should be: where they can be there, for Tohru.

…yes, it brings a little tear to my eye every time, but it’s a good tear. A happy tear. 🙂

3) Vash triumphs, and grows up
Trigun

I believe this is cued up for, basically, the very end of the series. It’s been a long, bloody road, with friends and enemies and countless bystanders put into their graves, all culminating in a final showdown. Through it all, Vash has held to an ideal he inherited from a woman who was like a mother to him. That ideal has been tested, thrashed, and broken, and here he stands, at the pivotal moment, where he will either hold true to it… or not.

I have always enjoyed this scene, and the poetry of it. The triumphs of a battle won, a well erupting with water in the desert, a decision made, a casting off of the past to step forward into the future… what’s not to love? 🙂

4) The Cutest of Mutual Confessions
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Honestly, this just makes me smile every time I see it, and every time I think of it! 🙂

5) Rest Your Bones
One Piece

Ending on a quiet, serene, and musical note. This is one of my favorite scenes from the show. It’s just so peaceful and beautiful, a calm moment of happy, hopeful rest. 🙂

And that’s five anime moments that made me smile. 😀

How about you? Any favorite moments that made your lips turn inevitably upward?