[...] hool, though what they make me reminisce about exactly are entire different thin [...]…

Ooaaa?

Did we even watch the same anime?

I guess, although I’m not sure if others feel the same, that it is that sort of thing that makes me regret not getting into Japanese pop culture just that few years earlier.

N.B: Do read GTO. The anime doesn’t do the themes or story any justice and basically just turns it into a serious/funny middle school story with a different perspective.

@ A Day Without Me: It’s interesting when you rewatch shows you watched as a child and realize how differently you can view them now. It’s also funny, as what happened to me with Honey and Clover to some extent, when you view something the exact same way you did5 years ago.

@ gaguri: Yep, that’s pretty much how I feel about 5-2. It’s highlighted even more because so few anime take place at that age: aside from Noein and maybe some Ghibli movies, I can’t think of a single show with schoolkids not wearing uniforms.

@ IKnight: Good comment. I see you still have a knack for making my points better than I can :P
(For what it’s worth, I could imagine someone, somewhere, cringing at the thought of comparing CCS to 5-2, but I guess that doesn’t make it unnecessary)

@ Chris K: I’ve noticed that Ghibli does a good job with anything to do with childhood and innocence and growing up. Their stories never appealed to me subjectively, but they all seem to have a warm aftertaste and a vague message that you leave with, which is nice. I haven’t seen Totoro but I know off-hand that Whisper of the Heart was a pleasant coming-of-age story.

@ phossil: Incidentally, so do I. :P

@ Y10NRDY: It’s true, I don’t mind ecchi and I like the unrealistically fluffy moe stuff, but it’s such a breath of fresh air when you watch something devoid of pandering. I wouldn’t want all anime to be like this, but it wouldn’t want all shows to be like Key or K-ON either.

I like the idea that, if I read this post aright, you can find CCS, with its child’s perspective, much more convincing in its evocation of a more innocent time than Kyou no Go no Ni, even though it’s CCS that features magic. Which perhaps goes to show how hollow most arguments about realism are. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that CCS‘s characters are purged of all the spite and cruelty that children their age are capable of, to extend your own point that real ten-year-olds would be more annoying. In this world, isn’t that kind of innocence only found in fiction? Or, as you suggest, in hindsight, afterward. Though I’d argue that if anything that makes innocence more, not less, important.

Which reminds me that Now and Then, Here and There is probably the anime which did the most to convince me that childhood is actually important, by portraying a world in which it doesn’t really exist.

(Also, what makes a comparison necessary or unnecessary?)