Every once and a while I get this urge to watch some anime that I haven't seen in a long while. The urge can come from just about anywhere - an inkling of a warm feeling will surface that says "gee, I'd love to see that again," or something indirectly reminds you of an old favorite. Other times, it's deliberate and comes from dissatisfaction with your current que of things to watch.

I was in the office yesterday struggling with square footage calculations in and excel sheet that was getting way to complex for my little brain to deal with when I felt the need to change the music i was listening to. I have stacks and stacks of CDs scattered about my desk, some of which were brought in months ago, some I have forgotten that I even own. While digging for the right 'mood' (I'd had enough Skinny Puppy for the day) I came across the soundtrack for Miracle Girls. Ah! perfect mood change. Just right if you are feeling a little gloomy and chipper enough to make you feel good. After a few rotations of that disk (and catching myself singing along to "Kisu no Tochuu de Namida ga") I was REALLY in the mood to watch the show again.

Now, my video shelves are a disaster. I'm seriously thinking that I need to carbon date some of the VHS tapes to see just how old some of them are. There is no organization - tapes are stacked at random, in no particular order, labels are haphazard at best. Finding anything requires the physical effort of digging thru three layers of tapes stacked two high on each shelf (never mind the effort of getting to the shelves themselves). After about a half hour I triumphantly pulled out a very old, dilapidated VHS tape with the words 'Miracle Girls 1-4' scribbled on a tiny label.

Miracle Girls is a sweet little show that originally aired back in 1993 and is based on an equally nice shoujo manga by Akimoto Nami. It's the story of twin sisters, Matsunaga Mikage (the one with the long hair) and Matsunaga Tomomi (the one with the short hair) who have ESP powers that include telepathy and the ability to teleport short distances (which requires both of them to link fingers) Tomomi is an active gal, into sports and things of that nature, and Mikage is a bit of a brain - who also has a propensity to blow up the science lab with her experiments. They have subtle quirky personalities that are a joy to watch.

The show doesn't have anywhere near the intensity of shows like Card Captor Sakura or Kare Kano - but that's one of the reasons I like it. It moves slowly, at a relaxed pace, and even tho it can be really silly at times, it never fails to make you feel good. Another thing I like about the show is it's sense of place - the girls live in Yokohama, an area that I visited and have fond memories of. It was nice to visit it again last night.

and that teleporting thing would come in REALLY handy sometimes...