As The World Turns is no more. Alternative soap operas can be like anime shows.

This post comes a few weeks after my favorite soap, As The World Turns, ended. I was slightly busy catching up with my current animes shows ending and making tons of nendoroid posts to give my soap a proper send off. I am a slacker.

I know a lot of my readers are like UM…I am here for the anime/manga/figurines, not an American soap that is (was :( ) directed towards women. Well I will try to tie in how soap fandom is similar to anime fandom. That and this blog is about my life and for like 9 years this show was in my life.

That and I usually would blog my anime episodes while watching my soap so maybe it does apply? I don’t know I am just sad that my soap has ended.


I guess I will tie in soap fandom/anime fandom first since this is primarily an anime blog and that is why people tune in.

I want you to imagine your favorite anime show. It could be any genre but it would probably be easier if you imagined a romantic/drama piece. Imagine your favorite characters and how you cheered for them to get together and become a couple. You cry when they go through sad moments and laugh when they have silly issues. You give side eyes to people who come between the couple and love the characters who support your favorite couple.

Now imagine that show not lasting 2 or 3 seasons but for 52 years! Or for my post 9 years. You characters don’t get together after 24/48 episodes and live happily ever after. They cheat on each other, get cheated on, have a whose your baby’s daddy scenario at least twice, and they remarry other people in between the bad patches.
A soap opera is like an anime drama that lasts FOREVER! They usually start off as teenagers/young adults and you watch them mature into dysfunctional adults with real relationship problems. You know what is best for that character but you cringe when they are set up with someone other than their destined partner. You might not get closure for years! It’s a constant roller coaster of emotions and ups and downs.

So I guess my point is being an anime fan and a soap opera fan at the same time isn’t that big of a stretch. Soaps might cater to a much older demographic than animes but they still connect to the same kind of people. People who feel strong connections to characters and are into the drama with people who are supposed to be relatable but they are anything but relatable. Both genres take the viewer into a land that could be possible but way too many WTF moments happen so the viewer is just happy to be watching the drama and not be part of the drama.

Now that I have explained the anime and soap angle of my story extremely horribly on with my BAWWW! my soap is over. XD

Carly was my favorite character from day one. The very first episode I saw of As The World Turns was when Carly woke up from accidentally sleeping with Mike because Jack called off the wedding but he changed his mind and wanted to get married and magically Carly got pregnant so who is the baby’s father. EXACTLY PEOPLE!

So right off the bat I should have been “disgusted” with Carly but I wasn’t. She was human and at the time single so her “cheating” on Jack wasn’t really cheating. Yeah she sorta screwed her cousin Molly over by sleeping with her boyfriend but…I guess I forgave her. Carly introduced me to the concept of who is your baby’s daddy. She introduced me to having 346 weddings and being capable of loving different people at one time but always loving THE ONE always.

Carly got a bad rap. She did the exact same crap that everyone else did in the show but she was deemed the bad girl. Now I didn’t see her arrival to Oakdale so that might have painted some people’s perception of her but seriously people/nonexistent characters. She slept around with people like everyone else, had a baby drama, and had some businesses fall apart. Just like everyone else. But she was forever the bad girl and it was sad that she seemed to accept this role too. :( Didn’t really enjoy the self deprecation.

For a while the character I hated the most was Katie. She was everything Carly was but people treated her like the innocent character with a heart of gold. So yeah I hated her and her Jack stealing ways. She fell in love with so many people all the time but it was always portrayed as something innocent and something to be treasured. When she cried everyone rallied behind poor innocent Katie and her tears.

But then Janet came to town and my Katie hate faded. Which pissed me off slightly. Katie and her drama still sucked but since Janet sucked MORE Katie seemed better. So yeah I was mad. But Janet was HORRIBLE! Some dude didn’t talk to you after prom so you don’t tell him for 15 years he has a kid?! And then when you do decide to tell him you want to steal him away from his new bride?! Then after doing all this crap you are painted the WOE IS ME SINGLE MOTHER and everyone lines up to save you? Just no.

So not only was Janet’s whole “I came to town a homewrecker but feel bad for me because I have been a single mother my whole life” storyline was boring as hell…she was dumb as dirt. Three different times people came from her hometown and all three times those people turned out to be bad people who caused havoc in Oakdale. One KILLED her daughter’s father yet every time someone rolled in from Janet’s home town she was like NO THEY ARE A GOOD PERSON. Like…the first time okay maybe that is okay. But times 2 and 3? Stop whining that people aren’t more accepting of your people when all your people suck, even the ones who aren’t gangstas.

My favorite plot/storyline was when the teenagers were more front and center. Like when Maddie was being plagued by a stalker and people were all like WHO IS THE KILLER?!??! Gwen made a great friend and Will was a pretty awesome boyfriend/husband and Casey….well he was a jerk with Gwen about the dead baby ain’t mine crap but Maddie brought out something special and human in him. I liked the terror and finger pointing that went on with this insanity. :( Maddie being raped by her brother-in-law was an extremely real and horrible topic but was well acted and I think it was accurate to what rape victims have to go through.

I would have picked Luke’s coming out story as my favorite but looking back now…Noah really sucked as a boyfriend. Perhaps that is my bitter Team Reed Oliver showing but yeah Noah sucked. I can forgive him for breaking poor Maddie’s heart :( after she went through that rough time but it was one drama after another with Noah. I’m not gay, okay now my dad sucks, oh look I want to marry a girl so she can stay in the country, what you do mean my teacher is in love with me, and I AM BLIND AND IT IS YOUR FAULT! So much of Luke’s adult gay life was spent trying to hold on to a guy that didn’t deserve him I really can’t rank it as the best part of the show to me. Luke deserved better and that better got run over by a train.

I am not sure what my least favorite plot was. I am going to ignore the entire last year as I think the plots were all destroyed due to the fact that the show was ending and things needed to be tied up and everyone needed to go back to their specific partner. And that Henry/Barbara pairing was gross so…yeah.

I guess what made me the most upset was when, right after Lily’s character went through the weight pill disaster, they replace the actress WHO HAD BEEN ON THE SHOW FOR YEARS AND WAS THE HEART OF THE SHOW was replaced with an actress that was a size 2. That truly pissed me off. Beyond words. And the replacement actress SUCKED so Lily’s character was destroyed for no reason. Woe is me.

There were a lot of ups and down with this show. I was depressed to learn that it was going to be cancelled because I knew they would rush all the plots and force everyone back into their specific pairs. Like I wanted a Carly and Jack reunion but it felt empty to me. Lily and Holden were a hot mess all year. And Craig just floated from one woman to another leaving a lot of people pissed in the end. However I am pissed that Noah’s happiness was more important to the writers than Luke’s and killed Reed off for no reason.

So what am I to do now? I would come home from work, watch an anime episode, and then watch my soap as I blogged. It helped me focus and keep on track. Now I come home and there is no drama in Oakdale, no cat fights to cheer on, and no more awful characters to hate. A sad little void in my life. Animes come and go but I thought this soap would be here to stay for a long time.

Of course I am not a little old lady who has been watching this show for 50 years and is devastated that show is now over. But I am sad. I have been watching this show for 9 years and I felt invested in the characters and now it is no more. So the world will keep on turning but As the World Turns has signed off forever. It shall be missed by this blogger in any event.