Merry (belated) Christmas

Hello blogger, long time no post! It has been a very hectic month. I hope that anyone reading this had a very nice holiday. Mine was pretty nice. I'll admit that I'm glad it's over now. As much fun as I have in the weeks getting closer I just wasn't on the ball this year. I'll be sad when we get rid of our Christmas tree though.

Anyway, I'm a little disappointed with my updating. Or lack thereof. I do plan on updating more now that my schedule is getting back to normal. I definitely want to post about Welcome to the NHK, which is a fantastic shojo anime. And since my friend and I finished that series we've moved on to Ergo Proxy which is proving to be very interesting.

Game-wise I had gotten two mystery computer games for Christmas. One was called Twice in a Blue Moon which is based off of James Patterson's Women's Murder Club mystery series. I ended up beating it yesterday and I had only loaded it on Saturday. The story was awesome, but the game was really short so I was a little disappointed. The gameplay was interesting -- different than what I'm used to in my usual computer games. It would switch between a search and find where you had to find and click on different items on a list, (I wasn't overly fond of this, it's alright but gets old after awhile) then after you find all the items on the list you get a puzzle. I LOVED the puzzles. They were a lot of fun and solvable with a little brain power. The lists of items you had to find were really random so it didn't even feel like it was relevant to the mystery. I'm still not sure what finding 2 clocks has to do with a copy-cat serial killer. LOL

So overall the game was OK. I'd give it a 6 out of 10. The art was really pretty, and like I said, the story was great. It just went a little too fast for me and I think they could put a little more to the game-play to keep people interested.

I can't remember the title of the other mystery game I got but I know it's about discovering the truth behind Edgar Allen Poe's death. It looks really interesting so I'm excited to play it.

I also got a Nintendo DSi and Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for Christmas so I've been playing with that too. I like the Nintendo DSi a lot. I had been thinking about upgrading for awhile now. I still had the original Nintendo DS and as much as I love it I thought that I might upgrade since my top screen has a scratch (Ok, so it's barely noticeable...it just drives me nuts) and it was starting to get old so I worried the battery would kick out on me. I was playing Spirit tracks on my old DS on Christmas eve so when I got the DSi on Christmas I was pretty surprised at the difference in quality when I switched the game over. The colors are so much richer now. I also like having the larger screens. Especially with Ace Attorney: Investigations coming out in the near future!!

I'm having way too much fun with Spirit Tracks. Seriously. I think it's becoming my favorite Zelda game. I love that Zelda is actually PART of the adventure, and she has such a strong personality it makes me laugh. The game-play is a lot of fun, and I love that -- unlike Phantom of the Hourglass with the Ocean place-- you don't have to keep repeating what you've already done in the Tower of Spirits. I also like riding around on the train. I think it's a fun change for Legend of Zelda.

Oh, and I've been fanspazzing over the sequel to Hotel Dusk. I think it's called Last Window, and I had a fit of fangirly joy when I first saw some info on it. I AM SO HAPPY. Oh, THE ART. FKAHfjHKAH

Okay. Enough about gaming.

I lied in my last post. Instead of starting Lie to Me after mom and I watched Season 4 of Bones (which sucked, in case you wondering.) we started watching The Closer. Which is the shit. I love strong female characters. I'll talk more about it next time. We're only on Disc 4 of Season 1.

Last but not least, I'm still watching/reading Kimi Ni Todoke. The series is so adorable I can hardly stand it. One of the few times I don't mind that the main character is almost infuriatingly naive`. (It's probably because she's so damn cute) The series can only be described as heart-warming. I just hope the anime keeps sticking with the manga story-wise. It would be a shame if they ruin the ending with a rush job to speed up the story.

So that's my insanely long post for today. If I don't post again till next month I want to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

2010 here we come. Where has the year gone?

Till next time~

Merry late Christmas and a Happy New Year!

P.S. I'm still trying to work out going to Setsucon. If I do get to go I plan on cosplaying as Hobo!Phoenix. WOOHOO

Zenkaikon! And some other stuff.

Oh jeez, its been such a busy month I don't even know where to begin this entry. Well, last entry I talked about how I might get to go to Zenkaikon. I did get to go and I had so much FUN. I cosplayed the Undertaker from Kuroshitsuji. I didn't even like the series that much, but I LOVED the Undertaker so I couldn't resist the opportunity to cosplay him. I took lots of pictures, and I was surprised to have so many people want mine! I also got lots of hugs from various people. I really enjoyed it.

I'm trying to work it out that I get to go to Setsucon in January. It's possible that it won't work out but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I haven't fully decided who I want to cosplay but I think I have an idea. We'll see~.

Besides that I've been helping with our new puppies. We got two yorkie puppies on Wednesday. They're MONSTERS, but I love them. We've been putting little fences up to prevent them from killing themselves. LOL.

Anime wise I've been watching Soul Eater, Welcome to the NHK, and Kimi Ni Todoke. I'm enjoying all of them very much. Soul Eater has some very interesting concepts (I love the human weapon idea) but in a lot of ways I feel like I'm watching a better version of Naruto, Bleach, etc. I loved Naruto for the longest time but there were so many flaws, and the fact that it's STILL going on 470 chapters later, that caused me to drop it. I'm hoping Soul Eater doesn't turn into another one of those series that never end. On the bright side the anime is only 51 episodes and it ended already. (That doesn't mean a second season won't come out but we'll see.) I also plan on reading the Soul Eater manga since I've read that the anime reels off track. My favorite characters ended up being Stein and Death the Kidd. That wasn't predictable AT ALL. LOL.

I'm also seriously loving Welcome to the NHK. I plan on making a post specifically for the series once I finish it but I'll throw out what it's about now. Welcome to the NHK centers around a 22 year old college drop-out who has withdrawn himself from the world. He has become a "Hikikomori" which is someone who is afraid to interact with other people or even leave their home. He believes everything to be a conspiracy and even has hallucinations where his household appliances are talking to him.

The show is hilarious, but there are so many moments where you just feel horrible for Satou (the main character). There's something really sad about him. The cast of characters in the show are all so REAL that the show grabs you right away. At least it grabbed me right away. I'll definitely talk more in depth once I finish it but it's one of the best shojo anime I've watched in a long time.

Last but not least I've been watching the anime adaption of Kimi Ni Todoke. I've read all the translated chapters of Kimi Ni Todoke and talked about it awhile ago. In all honesty I was a little nervous about how this would be turned into an anime. The manga is ALMOST in first person in a lot of ways. It's very much centered around the main character's thoughts. However it has adapted into an anime perfectly. The only way to describe the story is heart-warming. I think there are about 7 episodes out now and I look forward to the release each week. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the rest of the story will play out in both anime and manga form.

I've also been reading a lot of manga lately. I read the series Cherry Juice, and I read all the translated chapters of Suki-tte Ii na yo (Say I love you). Cherry Juice was OK. I wasn't all that impressed and I thought all the characters looked the same. I hate when that happens. However I really enjoyed what I've read of Suki-tte Ii na yo and I look forward to reading more in the future.

I can't think of anything else I want to talk about this time. I should be heading to bed since it's now midnight and I have work tomorrow.

Today we put the Christmas lights on the house. I can hardly believe it's almost Christmas again.

We're on the last disc of Criminal Minds. Then my mom and I are going to watch Season 4 of Bones and after that we're going to start Lie to Me. YAY!

Till next time~

Happy Halloween one day late!

So much for posting more often, huh? Sorry about that. Still busy, busy, busy.

So what have I been up to the past couple weeks? Well, I've been reading a lot lately. I finished Libba Bray's newest books "Going Bovine," and then I read the book "The Amaranth Enchantment,". Now I'm working on a mystery "The Ghost and Mrs. McClure". I'm really enjoying the mystery. There's something really cute and charming about it. The ghost is this detective from the 30's and I've discovered I love almost anything related to the 30's story telling-wise.

I've also been reading a lot of manga. I started the series "Dengeki Daisy," and it bounced onto my favorites list. It's by one of my favorite shojo mangaka's, Motomi Kyousuke, whom I recently found out is a man! LOL. I had never knew that before. I found it really interesting.

Anyway, the story is about a girl named Teru, who's parents have both died and lived she with her only relative, her older brother. Her brother got sick with an illness and before he passed away he gave her a cell phone telling her that she can contact someone named "DAISY" using that phone anytime, and they will always protect and care for her. So she keeps in contact with this DAISY, sending him messages daily about trivial things like what happened to her that day, or a picture of herself.

Then by a turn of events she ends up breaking a window and getting stuck as the slave for a pushy janitor at her school named Kurosaki who turns out to be DAISY himself. Only she doesn't know it.

I know, I thought the plot sounded really lame too. XDD However, after I started reading it I was surprised to find out that Kurosaki's personality is the complete opposite than what you expect in a shojo manga. The second you find out he's DAISY you expect him to be some really sweet and encouraging type of guy. He isn't. He's actually pretty mean to the main character, and not in the classic shojo mean where they're just cold and do stupid things that are really cliche'. He's not cold. Not at all. I think what I like so much about him is that he acts like an actual GUY. His real age hasn't been revealed yet, but I'm assuming he's in his twenties, and that' s how old he acts. He's brash, obnoxious, and crude. Another thing I really like about the character is that he smokes. I know that sounds like an odd thing to like about a character...but it just adds to his personality.

Then the main girl, Teru, she's around 16 or 17 years old. In the beginning of the manga she lives in an apartment by herself and she's poor. I really really like Teru as a main character. She's a very strong individual. If you haven't figured it out by now, I like strong female leads.

There are only 15 chapters of Dengeki Daisy translated, but I love the way the story has played out. Lately I had found myself getting fed up with shojo manga. I felt like I was reading the same storys over and over again. I'm really thrilled to have found Dengeki Daisy. I think one of the main reasons I like it so much is because it's written by a guy. Besides it being a romance genre manga, it's not super prettified. In fact, I LOVE the way the art is, and the expressions are hilarious. I've liked all the manga I've read by him so far.

I've also read some short series in the past week like "Adarushan no Hanayome," which was about a prince who gets stuck marrying a 10 year old princess to stop the war, and "Koi, Hirari," which was about a girl falling in love with a Kabuki dancer. They were both cute, and rather interesting.

Then this past weekend (which is sadly over D: ) my friend and I finished up the anime Paranoia Agent. Weird series. Really weird. Then it was my turn to pick what show we were going to watch. I decided on "Welcome to the NHK," which she watched before. We only got to watch the first 3 episodes, but so far it's hilarious. I'm really loving the main character, and his neighbor Yamazaki. XDD

I also started watching Soul Eater out of pure curiosity. It's interesting. I haven't found what all the fuss is about yet, but its definitely snagged my attention.

So besides AAAALLL that, I've been watching Criminal Minds with my parents, working, and getting my cosplay together for Zenkaikon. Which is still super secret. There's also been some not-so-fun stuff going on in my personal life. In all honesty this Fall hasn't been the happiest of times, which is a shame since I love Fall. Oh well. Maybe Winter will be better!

As always, till next time lovies! Oh, and if someone is reading this and you're magically going to be at Zenkaikon let me know! I'm so excited!!

A fountain of rambles

ACK!! WHERE DID HALF MY OCTOBER GO. UPDATE FAIL. FAIL. FAIL. In my defense my life has been one big explosion of stuff that hasn't left me with the free time, or want, to update. However I'm here now so lets get this party started.

So let me rewind it back to the last time I posted. Hmm, what have I been doing? Besides work I've been watching some shows with my friend. We've been blasting through shows together lately. It's amazing. xD The latest anime we watched together was Kuroshitsuji. We finished that and now we're watching Paranoia Agent. I might do a post on Kuroshitsuji later. It was a very interesting show. I can't say I loved it but I didn't hate it either. It was pretty nifty.

Separate from that I finished Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens. That was one of the most pointless shows I have ever watched. I'm still not sure what the plot was supposed to be about. xD However, it was pretty entertaining. And the animation was pretty. That's always a plus.

Now I'm watching Kimi Ni Todoke. A couple months ago I stumbled across the manga in Shojo Beat when they translated the first chapter and it automatically tugged at my interest. Since then I looked it up and read all the chapters that have been scanned. Then I found out that it was going to be made into an anime. (I even posted about it a couple times. =D) I'm so happy to see this as an anime. It's just such a cute story. Cliche' as hell, yes, but the main character is just so charming. She's a sweetie-pie that you automatically find yourself rooting for. Actually, almost all the characters make you care for them. I think the art style is another charming aspect to this anime/manga. It just adds to the character of the story. I dunno. Maybe I'll be able to explain better later. This will definitely fill my fluff quota for the month.

I also got myself all caught up in Kaichou wa Maid-sama. Another manga that's being turned into an anime, which I'm also very excited about. WOOT!

A couple weeks ago I had someone recommend the manga Shinobi Life to me. So, instead of doing the smart thing and just ignoring it, I went and looked it up and ended up reading ALL THE TRANSLATED CHAPTERS THAT WERE AVAILABLE. So that tacks another unfinished, non-scheduled fan translated manga I'm reading to add to the list. xD The interesting thing about Shinobi Life is that the story is completely out there. It's about a ninja that's from the past and falls into a time zipper to the future and sees a girl that looks exactly like the princess he has sworn to protect. I read the first couple chapters and thought it was really...awkward. Then suddenly the story kind of became it's own and I couldn't STOP reading.

Chalk another one up on the "Waiting to be updated" list. Fail.

Oh, and I've been watching Criminal Minds with my mom. That show is love. It eats my soul. I would throw myself at the feet of any of the men in that show.

I might even throw myself at the feet of the girls in that show.

Awkward.

In the land of gaming I finished Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. It was so adorably cute. The animations in those games are just the shit.

Now I'm playing Tales of Legendia and I'm not sure if I like it. Shirley is more annoying than MARTA from Dawn of the New World. I never thought I would say that! And Senel has a one track mind. SHIRLEYSHIRLEYSHIRLEY MUSTSAVESHIRLEYSHIRLEY. The first 7 hours of the game I've spent trying to rescue Shirley after I already saved her one time and she got RE-KIDNAPPED. I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS.

However Cam Clarke voices Will Raynard which brings me to have ecstatic fits of joy everytime he speaks.

And last but certainly not least, I am reading Libba Bray's latest novel "Going Bovine". I'm about halfway through and I must say it is so refreshing to be reading a novel where the main character is a guy. Even better is that he actually thinks like a guy. I love Libba Bray's ability to write dark humor.

Well, I think that's everything! I'm a busy little bee (buzz buzz), but I'll try to post more often now that I'm thinking about it again.

OH, OH, OH! In about two weeks (if all is well) I'll be going to Zenkaikon! (Anime convention!) I'm going to be cosplaying, but I'm not going to say who since that is a se-cret~. I'm so excited though! This is something I've wanted to do since I was 14, so I'm really happy that I might have the opportunity to go this year.

Till next time, cupcakes!

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

So I watched this movie with high expectations from all the people who loved it. I'm going to say that I was severely disappointed and expected a lot more from it.

The story is about a 17-year-old high school girl who discovers her ability to leap through time. The movie basically follows how this affects her life, how she chooses to use her ability, and what happens when she makes some big mistakes.

I assumed that there would be some really interesting concepts with her ability to 'time leap'. I was mistaken, since half the movie is about how she jumped time to get better grades, redo a moment when she might have embarrassed herself, and making sure she gets the last pudding. While I was expecting at least a little frivolity (who wouldn't?) I didn't expect this to make-up the majority of the movie.

I was also disappointed with the ending. There were some twists to the plot that I felt came out of nowhere. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that the ending was pretty predictable and wasn't explained very well. The entire ability to 'time leap' was completely shrugged off as something that young girls can do sometimes. I found that to be a very lame plot fail.

On the up side the animation in this movie was lovely. Most of the movements were very fluid, things you could see happening in reality. The voices were all done really well, too. My only complaint in that regard was that some scenes would run a little too long that it seemed awkward. For example -- There's a scene where Makoto (main girl) was running and was short of breath. The scene spanned for quite awhile and it became that her gasps seemed off, or fake. That could have been easily fixed if they cut that sequence down a bit. At least, that's what I think.

There wasn't anything overly-special about the characters. You could watch almost any high school based anime and find the same characters, so there wasn't anything that stood out too much in that regard. Same with the character development. It was there, but it was average and predictable.

I can't think of too much to say about the movie, to be honest. The whole thing was JUST average. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't wonderful either. If you like the slice of life, shojo genres then you would probably like this movie. Just don't expect anything ground-breaking.

In fact, I found myself getting bored at some parts. This is something I won't ever rewatch.

So overall I'd rate it a 6/10. It's okay, but it left a lot to be desired.

Baccano!

Okay, so I'm finally doing my post on Baccano! Here we go!

Baccano! has a little bit of everything. There's alchemists, demons, immortals, thieves, assassins, the mafia, and there are about 20 main characters. The story mainly centers on two out of the ordinary thieves, and the affect that they've had on the other character's lives. Throughout the entire show there are 3 stories being told that are only a year or two apart from each other. What makes Baccano! even more interesting is that it's based in the 1930's. That alone adds a lot of character to the show setting it aside from other anime. The actual plot to the show is just how all these characters were/are connected to each other. Whether the relationship was good, bad, or ugly there was some form of connection between almost every character.

The show is a lot of fun. The characters all stand on their own. No cookie cutter syndrome going on. However, the downfall of Baccano! is that the way the story is told can be extremely confusing. Not only is it jumping time frames randomly, but the story is being told almost backward. The first episode is actually the end of the adventures. It's a very interesting way of telling a story, and I enjoyed it, but half the time I felt really lost. Really, if you want to understand the story completely you're going to have to watch it a second time.

That's my only complaint on this series. Other than being confused throughout the whole thing everything else was top notch.

I really want to talk a bit about the humor. I found it astounding how funny this series was. There were some downright horrendous moments. You could feel sick with disgust, and then a few scenes later you're crying from laughter. Isaac, and Miria (the two idiot thieves) add so much to the show with their crazy antics. Or Ladd (an assassin), who adds a morbid sense of hilarity to the show that you know you shouldn't be laughing at, but you just can't help yourself. I am so very impressed with the variety in the characters of this show, I can't even express it in words. I would tell someone to watch this JUST for the diversity in the characters.

The music was superb. There was a lot of swing, but there was also the dorky little tunes for those silly moments, and it all just fit the show perfectly. It helped make the setting even more, and that's important. You'll find yourself humming some of the songs after you finish because they're just so catchy.

Oh, and a must mention is the opening. The opening to Baccano! is the best anime opening I have ever seen. You get a feel for every characters personality, and there are A LOT of characters. You actually feel like you know what you're getting into. You can SEE the thought that went into it. The music, what the characters are doing, the art. It's all so great that you must watch it. YOU MUST--

Overall, I think this is a really great series. In truth, I absolutely adored it. I found myself not being able to wait to watch the next episode. The animation was lovely, the music was great, the plot was interesting, and the characters were just amazing.

And a shout-out to the voice acting. It was all very well cast. There wasn't one character that's voice didn't match the character they were recording for.

The only people I wouldn't recommend this show to are gore haters. I, myself, am not a gore fan, and this was about as much as I could take. So if you're super squeamish about these kinds of things -- this is not for you. Also, if you're easily offended, then no. Don't watch it. Come back when you gain a sense of humor. There are some things people might find offensive.

So all in all, I'll give it a 8/10. Even though for my personal taste I'd give it a 10, because I loved it so much.

Maids? What is this??

Okay, so on the 7th this month it was officially one year since I started this blog. Yay! It doesn't really feel like a year, but I'm proud of myself for keeping this going for as long as I did. Here's hoping for another year of mindboggling rambles from me!

Even though I haven't been updating as much as I used to. =(

Finished Baccano! (OVA's and all) today with my friend. Will post about it later. Absolutely loved it. Just want to bake over what I watched, and what I want to say about it.

So I mentioned last entry that I was starting Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama, thankfully it's only 40 chapters in so far, and I'm all caught up. I actually like it a lot more than I thought I would. I've come to notice that it's very rare for Shojo to come out of it's cliche' over-used plot shell (and Maid-Sama is no different) but there's something very charming about the story. I'm not sure if it's because the characters are so likable, or the fact that she introduces some of the over-used plot-lines in interesting ways. Yes, Usui is a tad too perfect, but I actually like him a lot, and I like how boisterous Misaki can be. I like the fact that she can be downright mean. Most of the time they make the main female either extremely ditsy and unintentionally troublesome, or something of the sort. Misaki is tough, and being tough she has a reputation that she doesn't mind having. I don't know. There is just something very refreshing about her character, even if there is the usual "I'M OBLIVIOUS TO HIS FEELINGS" thing going on. (Which can get old, Special A, I'm looking at YOU. xD)

So I'm looking forward to reading the chapters coming up, and watching the anime adaption that is coming out in the future.

Oh, and I now know the official airing date of Kimi Ni Todoke! YAY! October 6th~! I'm really excited. Even stranger, if I remember correctly, October 6th was the airing date of Vampire Knight Guilty last year! Too bad Kimi Ni Todoke won't be a show that needs much speculation or I'd do a post for each episode. =( Who knows? Maybe I'll find a series soon enough.

Still playing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. It's so cuuuute! The little animations are just as adorable as the last games. Apparently there is also going to be a Professor Layton movie! EEEK!

Criminal Minds is the shit. Seriously. If you like crime shows and have yet to watch it then you should go watch it. Right now. Get going, shoo!

All the guys are extremely attractive.

I'm just saying.

I can't think up much more to say. I feel like replaying Tales of Symphonia again. Or the Ace Attorney games.

Not sure how I'm going to spend this weekend. Maybe playing Professor Layton, and Boom Blox.

I can't wait for Ace Attorney: Investigations. I want it NOW.

Oh, and my friend and I are coming up with ideas for a shared blog thing. That's all I'm going to say for now. We have all these ideas, and it's really exciting. I hope it all goes as planned!

Till next time~!

Bucket of Update

Okay, so I lied. I never did the posts on REC, and the books. I'll do it eventually....maybe. >> For now I'll just post up a quick update on what I've been doing.

I haven't had a lot of free time the past 2 weeks. I was being trained for some new stuff at my job, which is really exciting. Now that my schedule is switching over I should be able to balance my time better. I hope. LOL. I seriously love my job though, so I'm thrilled to have learned so many new things!

I also finished Physical Therapy which is great. So that should help with the time management too. YAY!

Now even though I've been busy I'm still feeding my fandom frenzy. I finally finally finished Special A. For now I'm not going to make a separate post about the series. It was a good series, however, I feel like it could have ended 20-25 chapters earlier than it did. For me, I get impatient when a plot is going nowhere. Manga has a bad habit of being dragged out longer than necessary. Shounen is especially guilty of that. (I'm looking at you Naruto, Bleach, One Piece...) The only problem is when Shoujo stretches longer than it needs to it's almost worse. Since Shoujo is usually based around the romance category there's only so much you can stretch out until it gets repetitive or boring. In my opinion, Special A got to that point.

I felt like it got to the point that Hikari was no longer developing. Even more so, I thought Hikari changed in later chapters. She got DUMBER. And if it was possible she managed to get more oblivious after her and Kei got together. How is that even POSSIBLE? I get being oblivious to his affection before the relationship, but AFTER it was formed? Really??

There was a lot of good parts in the series too. I really liked the side characters. Megumi, Tadashi, and Finn especially. Out of all the relationships I actually liked Megumi/Yahiro the most. I'm not sure why it appealed to me more than the others. Maybe because at the end of the series it still wasn't set in stone. Or that Megumi didn't really want to like him. In fact, she kind of hated him. What can I say? I like improbable relationships.

So yeah, I did enjoy Special A. I wouldn't have finished it if I didn't. I just think it would of been a much better manga if they ended it earlier. So all in all, I'll give it a 6.5-7 on a scale of 10. If you like Shoujo, you'll like Special A. It will definitely make you laugh, and in the very least, smile.

Okay! Now that I covered the finished series let's get to the stuff I've started/been working on.

Since we finished Samurai Champloo so quickly, we are now watching Baccano!. All I can say is, Oh my God. I am so glad we decided to watch this series. I am absolutely positively in love with it. I don't even know how to explain what is so great about it. It makes absolutely no sense at first. We're up to episode 7, so I'm still not positive about what's going on. The first episode leaves you extremely befuddled, yet intrigued. The show is based in the 1930's, and the characters have some of the best designs, (some very accurate too!) and the MUSIC. The music is silly, and fun one minute, and serious business the next. I'm not going to say too much since I still don't have a strong grasp on some things, but let me just say that the opening to Baccano! is the best anime opening I've ever seen. You get a feel for each of the character's personality in 3 or 4 seconds each.

Oh, and we have managed to recognize 3 voice actors from other shows we watch. LOL. GO US.

My mom and I also started a new show. We finished the Monk season we were on, and now we started Criminal Minds. It's GREAT. Probably the most suspenseful show I've ever watched. I'm in love with the soundtrack to the show. Sadly, I can't get my hands on it. =( It has some of the best instrumentals. Oh, and the COOLEST screen transitions. Seriously. The show just oozes awesome. All the characters are badass, and the character development in just the first few episodes is great.

I'm watching a lot of shows that I'm seriously loving.

Other than that I started reading "Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama!" which translates to "Class President is a Maid!" or something like that. LOL. I started reading it more out of curiosity since a lot of my favorite artists on DeviantArt say how good it is. I figured I'd give it a shot while I can still catch up to how many chapters are out.

We went to see a play on Thursday night. It was "The Last 5 Years," and there's not too much I can say about it. It was good, but sad. (Obviously, since it's about a deterioration of a marriage) EPAC never ceases to amaze me with the talent we have around these parts.

I ordered Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. It should be here tomorrow or Tuesday!!

Alright, I think that about covers it! I've finished 2 more books since last post, (I think) and I'm just trying to enjoy the pool while it's still open.

Till next time~

Samurai Champloo

So on Sunday I finished Samurai Champloo, and now that it's been absorbed, I would like to make a post for it.

The story for Samurai Champloo was written by Shinichiro Watanabe, the same person who wrote Cowboy Bebop, so I automatically had high expectations for this series. I was not let down in the least. In fact, Samurai Champloo has now become my favorite anime of all time. Any anime fan should at least watch one of Shinichiro Watanabe's shows. Once you do almost no anime can measure up. He sets the bar extremely high.

So the plot for Samurai Champloo is for the three main characters to find a samurai that smells like sunflowers. That's it. That's the goal for the whole series. Sounds pretty boring doesn't it? Only it isn't. From the first episode this series will grab you and demand your attention till the very end. There are three main characters in this series and they're all complete opposites in every way. The characters are Fuu, a cute 15 year old girl who has no family and was working in a tea house when Mugen, a loud-mouthed, crude, idiot who lives for the thrill of a fight, and Jin a proper, quiet, serious samurai get into a fight and destroy the place. A series of events then follow, and Mugen and Jin end up owing a favor to Fuu. So that's where their journey begins, Fuu demands that they not fight until after they find the 'sunflower samurai' to prevent them from killing each other till their journey is complete.

As you go through this series you barely learn anything about the Sunflower Samurai. It's not really until the very end that you find out why they're looking for him. Only it doesn't matter. As you follow them on this journey you watch the characters relationship grow and develop. You get to know the characters bit by bit in a very natural way that doesn't feel like they're just announcing things so the audience watching knows. You start to feel like you know them personally, and in other ways it feels like they're a mystery. The characters don't even like each other, especially Jin and Mugen, yet they manage to have this odd bond that is just so interesting to watch.

Samurai Champloo is heavily influenced by hip-hop. Both by music, and dance. How does that work? I wasn't sure either, but oddly enough, it fits right with the show. The animation is so fluid and real. You can tell that they based it off of real human movement. Even with Mugen's outrageous way of fighting the movements are just so realistic. Mugen's fighting style is completely based off hip-hop dancing. His feet are rarely on the ground, and he's spinning and flying all over the place. His fighting style is offensive, and in your face. It fits his character perfectly, and if you like fight scenes you'll love watching him. Jin's fighting style is based more off of traditional martial arts and sword fighting. More defensive, and strategic, but just as fun to watch. The art is just as great as the animation with the grafitti type style suiting the whole hip- hop theme perfectly.

The character designs are all so fun. It's based in the Edo era, so the clothing is very traditional. There's a wide range in how the characters look as well. You will never find yourself confusing someone for someone else which is nice. Mugen being the more rugged type has stubble on his face, his hair is bushy and untamed, and even his teeth look a little nasty. Jin is clean cut, he has long limbs, and a long face, he keeps his hair in a ponytail like most traditional Samurai do. Honestly, it's just fun to watch the show to see the art in it. It really is a masterpiece in it's own way.

Some episodes will make you laugh hysterically, others will make you start to tear up and want to burst out crying. By the end of the series you will be so attached to the characters you will want to cry just because the series is over and you don't get to spend anymore time with them. This is another series where you feel like you're getting a glimpse into their lives when they're together. That's a mark of a truly great series. At least, that's what I think.

Now, the only complaint I have is the horrible HORRIBLE opening song it has. It is the worst opening I have ever heard. I muted it almost every time the opening came on. LOL.

I think that's all I can say on Samurai Champloo. If you haven't figured it out by now, I loved it. Loved it. I'd give it a 10/10. To me it couldn't have been any better than what it was.

Unless they changed that opening.

Till next time.

Professor of the Special Abyss

Okay, by not posting for awhile I have LOTS to talk about so instead of making excuses I'm just going to get started. Heee.

Since I last posted I've read/finished 4 books? Maybe 5. I finished two different animes and started a new one. Finished Professor Layton, watched the last episodes of Dead Like Me, and finally started Season 7 of Monk. Or whatever season that's before whatever season is starting now.

I think what I'm going to do is make a couple different posts. I want to be able to concentrate on specifics when I talk about some of the books/series I finished. I remember that worked really well for me when I used to post about Vampire Knight Guilty episodes. I miss doing posts about Vampire Knight episodes. D=

So what anime series did I finish? That's easy, Tales of the Abyss (finally), and Special A! I'm going to cover Tales of the Abyss first. While I really enjoyed the anime I was a tad disappointed with the ending. The fight with Van was very...easy. After all the work of GETTING to that point they made the battle way to easy. (If you played the game you would probably feel this way even more since that fight was extremely HARD.) However, I was very impressed (as I mentioned previously) with how the anime was made.

Tales of the Abyss has one of the most confusing plots ever, and in anime form it was even more confusing. The diagrams that would come up to try to show you what they were talking about were no help at all. LOL. Not that I hold it against the anime. As I said, the plot is CRAZY. So I still stick by my "If you're going to watch the anime watch it with someone who played the game." suggestion. You might still get lost, but it's nice to have someone who can explain it to you. Or, do one even better, and PLAY THE GAME! The original format is always the best. Really.

Onto Special A. The last couple episodes were cute. The final episode was packed with cheesy goodness. This is one of the few times where I tend to stick by the manga. Where the anime was fun to watch and enjoyable, I really enjoy the story more in the manga. It might just be that I never really adjusted to the anime Kei. I'm not sure. I have yet to finish the Special A manga. I'm in the 70's so I'm getting there. I'm in burn out mode again where I read too much, and now don't feel like reading manga. It's just how I work.

Professor Layton's ending was extremely cute. I loved it. Actually I just loved the animations in that game. There was something so adorable about them, and they were very well done! I'm working on finishing all the puzzles in the game. I'm already excited for the next one coming out. I think it's called "Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box". Sounds mysterious.

Another anime I finished was R.E.C., which I'm going to do a separate post for. I'm just going to say that it was a lot better than I expected it to be.

The books I read were "Death By Latte," "Death by Denim," and "Goddess Boot Camp". I also finished "Duplicity Killed the Dachshund" and we're finishing up "Fearless Fourteen". I'm in a reading mood lately. *__*

I finally hit Chapter 4 in "World of Goo". YEEEEEEES.

Tomorrow I think I'll post up some stuff about R.E.C., and maybe some stuff about the books I read. It's my dad's birthday tomorrow so we're going out to eat. Yay!

I should be in bed soon.

Work tomorrow.

Physical Therapy is going fine. Even though I don't really like it. (Mornings, peh.)

The art of procrastination

The lack of updates. Oh, dear me. XD Sorry, life is just really busy for me right now. I'm still adjusting to my work schedule even though I've been working for quite awhile now. Now I'm starting physical therapy next week. According to the doctor I have a winged scapula, which isn't anything serious, the doctor just hopes it will help make it less noticeable. I'll have to get up and be ready to go before 9 in the morning. Waaaah!

Hmm, so I think I have around 5 episodes left of Special A, and I'm at chapter 70 of the manga. Really cute series. Cliche', cheesy, a lot of WTF moments, but enjoyable. It's made me laugh out loud multiple times. It's definitely shojo. Some of the episodes are altered from the manga, but they stick pretty true to it. I always appreciate that fact.

My friend and I are almost done with Tales of the Abyss. We're really excited to get started on Samurai Champloo. I think we'll be able to start by the weekend! YAAAY! I really am enjoying the Tales of Abyss anime. They made Guy even more adorable in the show. Then after Samurai Champloo we're doing Baccano! which looks really good.

I sat down and started playing "Art of Murder" Sunday. It's a pretty interesting game. The only complaint I have so far is that it's another one of those games where if you miss ONE SINGLE ITEM, you can't do anything else. I hate that. I multi-task in reality, I can multi-task in games. Plus it's frustrating not being able to do ANYTHING. That's the big mistake most mystery games make. They concentrate too much on the one item you need to find at that point in the story. Hotel Dusk was great, and so was Trace Memory. While sometimes you got stuck, you still had a pretty good amount of options of what to do. If not, you at least had a general idea what to look for. So we'll see how the game goes. Knowing me it will take me forever to finish since Okami, Professor Layton, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and Vampyre story sit unfinished. I also have two games I have yet to start. Ehehe

And I'm replaying Apollo Justice. LOL. FEAR MY ULTIMATE FAILAGE!

I've been watching Hetalia on and off because it amuses me to no end. I love love the idea. The fact that they make fun of every nation makes it even better. It's just so ridiculous you can't help but enjoy it. Germany is the shit.

So I think that's all I have to update about for now.

I know it's kind of short, like I said, I've been really busy.

We went to see "The Producers," again on Thursday. It's even better the second time. Then Saturday night we had a producers marathon for our girls night. Fun!

Till next time, lovies!

Weekend jig

Can I have one now, please?

Weekend, yay!

I said I have a lot to talk about last post, and I guess I do. I'm really happy for the weekend even though I love my job. I'm looking forward to some pool time, and I have a list of stuff I want to get done this weekend. Namely some hardcore gaming!

I have a whole pile of games sitting that need to be finished, and some that need to be started! I think I might play one tonight. I already drank a soda without knowing the friend I stay up late with is away for the night. So I'm kind of on my own. I'm probably good till 3 in the morning too. Heheh

In other news I splurged and bought myself a tablet. I've wanted one for years, and I finally caved. It came with some software that from what I've played in, so far is easy to use and fun. That doesn't mean I'm giving up work with a pencil. Absolutely not. It actually might make me work harder so that I can get into coloring. *__* All I know is last night I was paint chatting with a friend and we ended up laughing so hard the game skipped her turn because it thought she was away.

So I started reading the manga Special A. I'm around chapter 62, or so. I decided I'd give it a shot since it was complete and under 100 chapters. (99 chapters, LOL) It's a very interesting idea, with all the cliches you expect from shoujo manga. It's cute though. I'm really enjoying it. I'm also watching the anime while I'm at it. It sticks pretty true to the manga even though they changed almost all the hair colors. I'm not sure why they did that. I really like Kei and Hikari's relationship. It's so out of the ordinary, and I think that's what makes the story so entertaining. I always find it interesting to see how writers are going to liven up a story that has been told so many times before.

My friend and I continue on in Tales of the Abyss. I think they did a really good job of turning a game into an anime! It's so much better than the Tales of Symphonia OVA. The only complaint is that while both the game, and the show are hard to understand, it's really complicated in the show. If you haven't played the game it tends to get even more confusing. The diagrams that they put in almost every episode are no help at all, and it tends to overload you with information. However, if you just go with the flow you get the gist of it eventually. That, or talk to someone who played the game, someone who doesn't mind explaining some of the more complicated parts of the plot. The anime has managed to make me fall in even more love with Guy. He is such an amazing character, and his costume design is wonderful. That's the most appealing part of the "Tales of" games for me. The character designs! I absolutely LOVE how crazy the costumes are! Even the most insignificant characters get their own detailed set of clothing, and I just love that. Same with the Ace Attorney games. GREAT CHARACTER DESIGNS. LOOOOVE.

I finished reading Northanger Abbey. I'm not sure if I mentioned I was reading it before. I really enjoyed it. I think it's possibly my favorite Jane Austen. Even though I love Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park too. Okay, in actuality, I like all the Jane Austen's except Emma. I didn't care for that one at all. There was something very endearing about Catherine, and Henry Tilney is now my favorite Jane Austen male EVER. Mr. Darcy is still amazing, but there was something very charming about Mr. Tilney. We also watched the 2007 film for Northanger, and I loved it. They changed a lot of the story, but the cast was GREAT. Especially who they cast for Tilney. His smile was enough to make any females insides go to jelly.

I'm sure there was more I wanted to say, but this will do for now.

I have a physical on Wednesday. Icky.

However, Thursday we're going to see "The Producers," again. YAY!

Dead Like Me rocks my socks.

Till next time~.

The Producers

Hello again. It is I, the epitome of fail, who hasn't updated in almost 2 weeks. However, by waiting as long as I did I have a good amount of things to talk about, but this post will be fully concentrating on the play I went to see last night.

The play was called "The Producers," and it's a comedy about two guys who decide to try to cheat the system by producing a flop of a play on Broadway, and then taking the money they raised for themselves. The two main characters are Max Bialystock (a once big name producer, who now hasn't produced a good play in forever), and Leo Bloom (a sheltered accountant with an anxiety problem who has never really taken a chance in his lifetime.). Together they hatch this scheme, and start their crazy adventure.

Now if the main characters weren't funny enough the cast of characters is extremely diverse. Every single character has their own set of strange quirks, and they were all hysterical. All of the actors, and actresses were very talented, and did wonderful with their parts. The most notable characters were the director, Roger Debris and his assistant Carmen Ghia. Really, Roger lit up the room, especially when he came down wearing a glittering evening gown. The whole scene in his office was just too much. Really those two stole the show.

All of the choreography was impressive. With as many people in the cast as there is there was always something to be watching. I'd find myself watching the other people instead of what I was supposed to! There were plenty of little jokes to always keep things amusing, from a blind violin player, to a bunch of pigeons with swastikas on their wings. One of the most enjoyable numbers was when all the old ladies were dancing with their walkers. The entire show was just FUN. There wasn't one scene where you weren't laughing or smiling.

The interactions between the two main characters Max and Leo were nothing if amusing. Max who is very full himself, with shy Leo who hugs a blankie whenever he gets stressed was very entertaining. Throw in a Swedish secretary with language barriers and you have a very interesting setup. Of course Ulla (the Swedish secretary) is extremely annoying, but that was her job and she did a really good job at it.

I just want to take some time to give major props the guy who played Franz Liebkind, the Hitler enthusiast who wrote the play that Max, and Leo decided to produce. Not only was his German accent great, but he has one heck of a voice on him! There was something very endearing about him, even as he put on a swastika and pledged his allegiance to Hitler. LOL. His dancing was snazzy too.

So yeah, the dancing, the singing, the acting, the costumes!, all of it was superb in my book. EPAC knows how to have a good time, and put on a great show. It was just so much fun! Who knew that you could put cross-dressers, and Nazis all in the same play!

If you can't tell by now, I absolutely positively loved the play.

We're going to go again in a week or two.

Hee~

Busy, busy, oh so busy

Hey there! I was thinking about what I should do while I'm sitting here, and I decided to update my blog. Sorry if there are some mistakes, I'm talking on the microphone with my friend so I'm a little distracted.

So what's new with me? Hmmm. Well I watched the Cowboy Bebop movie. I really enjoyed it. Seeing Spike again made me happy, and just seeing the whole Bebop team together was nice. I didn't quite understand why Faye was chosen to be kept alive by the psycho, but whatever. It didn't matter. It was a good movie, even if the ending was a little abrupt. The animation and music made up for any faults. The animation was GORGEOUSLY AMAZING, THE PEOPLE SEEMED SO REAL. BAAAH. I'm sad it's over. Like, really sad. But that's when you know a series was great. When it leaves you longing for more, instead of like "Gee, that's finally over."

Kind of like how Naruto is.

Only that's not over yet.

Yeesh.

Don't get me wrong, I love Naruto. I just think all good series must come to an end. I mean really.

My mom and I just finished rewatching all three seasons of Bones. It makes me sad. I want to start over again! D=

I was playing Ocarina of Time tonight. I'm now in the Fire Temple. WOOT! FINALLY OUT OF THAT HORRID FOREST TEMPLE. I HATED THAT PLACE. I've been told by two people that the water temple is worse. Oh joy.

Faster than a Kiss has been updated more frequently lately. It makes me really happy since it's such a cute manga. Even though they reuse the same scenarios way too much. Good for some laughs though~.

I spent a good 5 hours in the pool this weekend. It was great. Then Sunday night I went to a Bowling banquet since my brother is super awesome, and won 3 awards. (I'm proud of him, sue me.) It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. His friends invited me to sit with them, and we all played spoons. We were laughing almost the whole time. I'm glad I went along.

There's not much else to talk about from me. I've been really busy lately. I'm meeting up with a friend tomorrow to watch some Tales of the Abyss. WOOT. When we finish that we start Samurai Champloo!

See you space SAMURAI.

See you Space Cowboy

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I've been really busy with stuff, some good, some bad. I'm not here to talk about the bad though, this place is all about the good! SO, what have I been up to in my free time?

Well, I finished Cowboy Bebop awhile ago. The ending almost made me cry. It was probably the best series I've watched. There isn't anything I can really complain about. It was just a great series, and it had a great ending. What's really interesting about the story is that it's just a brief moment in time. When the series ends there's this feeling that those characters lives go on. What makes it even more believable is that they didn't all stay together for a happily ever after. Spike went and did his own thing, Ed being the tumbleweed that she is, left. They hint that maybe Faye stays on the Bebop with Jet since she finally found where she belongs. I hope she did. The idea of Jet being all alone makes me sad. Jet with his apron, and bonsai plants. What was even more interesting was that the plot was almost in the background. It was going on, you got pieces of it as the series went on, but it was never once shoved in your face. That is the first series I have ever watched/read that ever managed to keep the plot as a BACK STORY. Bravo, Cowboy Bebop. Bravo. Any fan of anime needs to watch Cowboy Bebop, it will raise the bar on all anime you watch forever.

I read a manga series called "Ringo Nikki," for fun the other night. It's written by the same mangaka who wrote Lovely Complex. It was cute. You could see that the main characters Ringo, and Mic-Chan looked very much like Risa, and Otani from LoveCom. I like reading popular mangaka's early series. You can always see elements of their characters from previous series in the newer ones. I've recently hit a kick where I'm trying to read complete manga instead of adding more to the list of waiting to be updated ones. I have too many that I might never get the chance to finish.

I've been playing "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," with one of my friends. We get on the mic. and play at the same time. It's mega fun. I always end up laughing so hard I think my face might fall off. I just got to the point where I got Epona, after putting Link to sleep for 7 years. I love how Link is perfectly OK with the fact that he was asleep for the past 7 years, and is all grown up now. XD Gotta love the Hero of Time.

I got my other friend started on watching "Tales of the Abyss" the anime now. She has confessed that the costumes ARE amazing. Oh yes, I have backup on this fact now. XD I absolutely love Tales of game costumes. They're so crazy fun. We just watched episode 8 together the other day. WOOT! I think tomorrow we're going to watch the Cowboy bebop movie. I'm excited. I had to get it from Netflix since I couldn't find it anywhere on the interwebz.

It keeps raining, and I haven't had the chance to swim at all this past week. I might have jumped in once. So not cool. The weather was AWESOME today though. I hope it stays that way all the way to the weekend.

I'm currently reading "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It's actually a good book, but I always get so fed up with the run on sentences in the classics. The foofy way of talking gets old too. JUST SAY WHAT YOU MEAN, PLEASE. Besides that I'm also still reading "Death by Latte," by Linda Gerber, and I put "City of Ashes" (Cassandra Claire) on hold for now. I might put "Death by Latte" on hold too. I really, really, want to read "Carpe Corpus," so we'll see what happens.

I should probably get to bed soon. I have work tomorrow. YES. That's right. I got a job. I'm working at the library. How cool is that? 8D

I'll try to get back into the habit of updating more often. It's just been really hectic lately.

I've been having trouble sleeping at night too. D=

See you Space Cowboy (till next time ;D)

Rambles of a distracted person

Doesn't the coach look like Larry Butz from the Ace Attorney games!?

Hello all~!

What's new with me? Well, today my friend and I watched the 20th episode of Cowboy Bebop. We only have 6 more episodes!! That makes me sad. I like the show a lot more now. I really love this batch of characters, and I can see why people consider this to be one of the classics. It's amazing. I'm going to have to rewatch episode 20 because it was so awesome. I don't even know how to explain what's so great about the show. It's just very personal. My friend said something to the effect of -- "It's like you get a chance to look into their lives for awhile." I agree with her. You don't really feel like you're watching a show. It's very in depth.

Besides that I've also been reading "Kimi Ni Todoke" (Reaching You, or From Me to You) I found out about it in my Shojo Beat magazine, and after reading the first chapter decided I'd like to read more. Sadly only the first 8 chapters are scanalated. So I read all those, and now I'm sitting here longing for more. The story is about a high school girl who doesn't have any friends. She's named "Sawako," but everyone calls her "Sadako" (which was a character in a horror movie whom she resembles) because she isn't very good at speaking to others, and when she smiles she appears scary instead of friendly. Everyone assumes she can see spirits, and there are even rumors that if you look in her eyes for longer than 3 seconds you'll get bad luck. Sounds kind of like "Perfect Girl Evolution," at first, but then you see her personality and I think that's what makes the manga so appealing. You expect her to be dark, sadistic, or maybe depressed. Instead she is the complete opposite. She's optimistic, and cheery, and all she wants is to make friends with the entire class. She volunteers herself to do things that nobody else wants to do so that nobody else is unhappy. Of course a boy is the first person to talk to her, and of course it's the most popular boy in school. Cliche, yes. Predictable, yes. Yet, somehow, it's really enjoyable. The characters personalities are all fun. She ends up making two girlfriends later, one is a tomboy who proudly claims the fact that she battled (and won) 99 guys in junior high. The other is more girly (lots of make-up), and is dating a boy in college. They're both really loud, and laugh obnoxiously in many situations. They don't really fit in anywhere either. So they're the perfect friends for Sawako.

In Autumn they're making an anime out of "Kimi Ni Todoke,". I'm excited!

Also, I think I found out the date that "Another Code: R" will be released in North America. I believe it said September 4th. So now I can look forward to that in Autumn, and "Ace Attorney: Investigations" in Winter. Tonight I downloaded "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," even though I should probably be finishing up the other games I've started or, you know, start a game I own that I haven't even bothered with yet. I'm a genius. 8D

We went to a play last night. We saw Steel Magnolias, which was very good, but very sad. They did a wonderful job. They had a real mother daughter pair for the parts of M'Lynn, and Shelby which I think gave it an even more realistic feel. It's not really a play you can talk about much, but I will say that it was really great, and I enjoyed it very much.

This morning I went swimming for the second time so far. The water was freezing. I'm hoping tomorrow will be nice so I can go down and not freeze to death in the water.

Not a very long post, but it was a very busy week. So I'm spending the weekend being lazy, and swimming, and maybe some gaming. I think I might also be finishing up Cowboy Bebop this weekend. Which is both exciting, and sad. After we finish Cowboy Bebop I think we're watching "Tales of the Abyss." I hope she likes it.

My friend is chatting in my ear on the mic. I can't concentrate anymore. XD

Later lovies~!

Beboping

Hello all! It's been awhile. I've been quite busy so I didn't really have time, or feel like sitting down and updating. If you look at the time stamp on this one you can see I even waited till late. Well, anyway, let's just jump right in!

What have I been up to....well, I've been reading a lot, and I've been watching anime on and off. I've also been rewatching the Bones episodes with my Mom. We ended up watching "Judas on a Pole" 3 times in the past 3 days. xD We both really love that episode. I even downloaded the Placebo song that was in it.

My friend and I started watching Cowboy Bebop together. We're up to episode 8, I believe. We watched 3 episodes today. The series is pretty cool. The animation is absolutely WONDERFUL. You can tell just by looking at it that the creator studied how people actually move. When Spike (main character) kicks someone it's a little sloppy, it's not perfect. It's wonderful! I'm not big on spaceships, and 'future technology', but they do a great job on it. So this wouldn't be something I normally watch on my own, but I'm enjoying it. I'm really looking forward to watching Samurai Champloo with her too. I think that one will be more up my alley.

One really great thing about Bebop is the characters. In the past 8 episodes you already feel like you KNOW the characters. The show doesn't even put you on the edge of your seat that much, which is strange. Most shows push for that. Cowboy Bebop has a very mellow feel, and the music is wonderful! They even managed to give the token big boobed anime girl that is scantily clad a PERSONALITY! That NEVER happens! Her name is Faye, and she's lovable, and obnoxious. Her clothing actually makes SENSE! I'm looking forward to continuing on with this series.

My mom and I also finally finished "Lean Mean Thirteen," and it was awesome as always. I can wait to start the next one! I already know I'm going to reread all of them after we finish. Rangerrrr

Haven't watched Tales of the Abyss for awhile. I might watch one or two tomorrow.

I've also been playing "Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn" on and off. I'm working on finishing it, that way all my Wii RPGS will be finished. I really want "Another Code: R" to come out over here, or at least get some information on it. I keep scouring my Nintendo Power magazines every month for some information on it.

The Twilight -- New Moon trailer came out. The acting still sucks. LET US ALL SPEAK IN MONOTONE WITH NO EMOTION WHATSOEVER. When Jacob phases he looks like a giant teddy bear. RAWRRR, I WILL EAT YOU WHILE LOOKING FLUFFY AND ADORABLE.

I'm a tough critic.

The High School Debut extra still has yet to be translated. Whhhhhy? I don't want to wait any longer!

Carpe Corpus came out. I'll download it once I finish "Death by Latte".

I think that's everything. I should draw before I go to bed. I haven't been doing that as often as I should.

Till next time~.

Chitter chatter

My poster! Isn't it AWESOME?!

Alright! Update time.


So what have I been up to...hmm.


Well, last Wednesday was the American Idol season finale. Kris won!!! I was so happy! I didn't like Adam at all in the end. Probably because they pimped him so much, and I always reject that. I also didn't think he was that amazing since I go to the theater all the time, and I see people just like him or BETTER than him. He's not that different. Really. I also think he'll lose some of his fanbase after he's recorded. Adam was all flashy performances and screaming. Once you take away the visual he won't seem that great. Not that I hate him, or anything. I think they both have great futures ahead of them. Not that I regret voting for Kris for 4 hours. :D


It was also my birthday on Wednesday. I'm now 17. Ick. Okay, it's not that bad. I'm now the same age as a lot of my favorite characters. Lloyd from Symphonia, Luke from Abyss, Jas from Kitty series, Tamaki from Ouran....17 must be an ideal age for writers. XD Not quite an adult, but old enough to make their own decisions.


My birthday was fun. We went out to dinner (my grandpa came along and picked on me), and I got a new TV for my room. It looks HUGE. I have a small room, and now I have a 22" flat screen. How epic is THAT? Gaming will be even more awesome now. Plus my amazing online friend's always make me feel really special. I love them to pieces. The friend's I actually know in person are pretty spiffy too. ;D


So on Sunday my friend and I finished watching Gungrave. Wow. Just wow. The ending was....great. Not at all what I expected, but great nonetheless. This series was very...morbid. There was very little happy moments, and even when there were, you knew it was going to come to a halting stop at any moment. You're kind of on the edge of your seat the entire time. I almost started crying at the end. I was really close. They really painted a great image of how the syndicate can work, and like Death Note, the deterioration of Harry as his hunger for power grew. I generally avoid sad series (and VIOLENT), but I'm really glad I watched Gungrave. The one thing about this anime however, is that you can definitely tell it was based off a video game. I don't consider that a bad thing, but (especially during the Lee fight) it was a tad over the top. I mean Bob turns into this giant thing that looks like a turnip. I was half hysterical during the Lee fight because of the way he was SCREAMING. It shouldn't of been funny, but it WAS. I was really happy with the Bunji vs. Grave fight at the end. Very in character.


So now that we finished Gungrave we have now started watching Cowboy Bebop, and then after that I'm making her watch the Tales of the Abyss anime with me. Speaking of which. I've watched up to episode 9 so far. I'm very very happy with the anime. They're sticking to the game, and it's really enjoyable. I'm glad I've reached the point where Luke decided he wanted to change. It was hard to watch him being such a jerk again. He makes it so hard to like him in the beginning.


Alright, so I wanted to save this for last since I'm so HAPPY, and I would of put it in the last post but I wanted to put a picture of it up so I waited. Last Thursday my mom and I get home from the grocery store, and there was a message on the phone. She comes back and plays a message from EPAC saying that I won the Altar Boyz raffle I entered. I SCREAMED. Friday we went and I got a poster that all the boyz signed. I couldn't believe it! I'm going to hang it up on my door since I don't really have space anywhere else. I'd hang it on my ceiling but it's on a wood board. Not that I mind. It means that if I ever want to move it I don't have to worry about it tearing.


EEEEK, how awesome is THAT!?


Alright, I think that's everything. I downloaded World of Goo for my birthday and for such a ridiculous sounding name the game is a lot of fun. I might go play that for awhile. Or draw...drawing is good.



Till next time!

P.S. Don't ask me why there's a huge white gap at the end of the post. I have no idea.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World--FINISHED!

Eeeep, I've been busy the past couple days! I'm in an extremely good mood today! I think it's because the sun has finally been out, and it seems like it's here to stay for awhile. (Now it will rain tomorrow)

I finally finally finished "Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World". I think I finished it on Sunday. I was severely disappointed with the ending. I'm a huge fan of the "Tales of ..." games habit of giving a bitter sweet ending. You're happy, and sad, and sometimes a little confused, so you have to think about it and (especially with Abyss) kind of come up with your own theories on what happened. The ending was cute, and it was nice for the characters to be happy, but it was just a tad too cheesy for my taste. I'm not putting any spoilers up this post. I might do another entry where I go into detail and elaborate, but I'll leave this one safe for anyone to read. Right now, I'm just going to stick up some of my opinions on the game in general--

The good--

+The battle system is fun and pretty easy to learn (If you've played other Tales games, it's the same as those)

+Story is good enough to keep you interested

+The new characters are pretty entertaining, especially the villains

+Graphics are good, a little choppy at parts, but overall enjoyable

+Z skits are FINALLY recorded, instead of having to read them

+Lots of monsters to choose from and level up for your party

The Bad--

+Some of the voice actors were just plain annoying. If fans of Symphonia pick this up it will be a hard to get used to some of the new voices

+You can only level up Emil and Marta. The other characters level up automatically, and you can't change their weapons

+Took away the ability to skip through cut scenes.

+Short. You'll be lucky to get 40 hours of gameplay.

+Flashbacks to things that happened 5 minutes before.

Really, this game was made for the fans of the first "Tales of Symphonia". If someone new to the Tales franchise picked this game up they probably wouldn't bother to get another one. Overall I'd give the game 7.0 on a scale of 10. Just because I know the Tales games are a lot better than this. So I would tell fans of the first game that it's worth playing just to see our beloved characters again. If you've never played Symphonia, or a Tales game for that matter, I'd tell you to go pick up Abyss, or Symphonia. Both are much more worth the money, even though they're harder to find now that they're a couple years old.

I started this post on Friday, and I'm only posting it up now on Monday, so it's going to be a little shorter. I'll do a post a little later today, with more stuff I've been doing so that I don't confuse myself. Mostly I just wanted to talk about "Dawn of the New World" in this post, so it's all good. =)

And remember kiddies, courage is the magic that brings dreams to real-*bricked*

Later~!

Books, books, and more BOOKS!

Since I already used Lord of Misrule's cover, I'm using Midnight Alley since it was one of my favorites.

Helloo~. It's been awhile, well a week. Which is awhile in my book, and I'm back with a new update. So lets get to it!

Today I was concentrating on finishing up some stuff I've started. I originally planned to finish "Dawn of the New World," but I didn't get to that yet. I might to that later tonight, or tomorrow. I did however, sit down and finish Itazura Na Kiss.

The last two episodes were really cute. I'm not sure if I like their kid very much. XD She's a little brat. The entire series was cute. I probably won't bother to rewatch it, but it was enjoyable. Even though I never accepted how rude Irie was to Kotoko. Even though Kotoko could be extremely annoying most of the time.

Now I can concentrate more on Tales of the Abyss (the anime). I also watched a few more episodes of Gungrave with my friend. Wow. Just wow. The character development in Gungrave is so awesome, and the fight scenes are LOVE. This is about as violent as I can get in a series, anymore gore and I wouldn't be able to watch. Really, though, I don't know why more people haven't watched this series. It's great. After we finish Gungrave we plan on watching Cowboy Bebop together. I'm excited!

I also finished reading "Lord of Misrule" today. After I got by those few chapters that I was feeling bored with, I rediscovered why I love these books. I really enjoy the element that vampires ARE evil in these books. They aren't out to be your best friend, and they generally look at humans as property and food. Along with my favorite character, Myrnin, a vampire who is slowly going insane, (and isn't that far from it) and wasn't that normal to begin with. In the excerpt of the next book (Carpe Corpus) Myrnin is walking around in what she described as "Good will looking pants, with a long open jacket, flip flops, and a couple strands of Mardi Gras beads." That is just epic win. I love that character so much. He constantly betrays the heroes, yet somehow manages to keep Claire's (the heroine of the books) trust even when he openly tells her he's going to break it.

So yeah, "Lord of Misrule" was really cool. I still think my favorite will either be "Midnight Alley," which I believe is the one where Myrnin is introduced, and when Claire sells herself to Amelie and starts making her own decisions, or "Feast of Fools," where Myrnin is up to crazy shenanigans again.

Oh, and now I downloaded "City of Ashes," by Cassandra Clare. I read "City of Bones," back in June so I can't remember too much about the book. I just remember how much I hated the ending. The story was really good, though, and now that "City of Ashes" is on the kindle I downloaded it. Since "Carpe Corpus," doesn't come out to June 2nd this should hold me over till then.

Still reading "Lean Mean Thirteen," even though my mom keeps putting off reading more chapters trying to conserve it since she doesn't know what we'll do when we run out of Stephanie! I really want to read more though. She's been with Ranger a lot in this book too. Heeee~.

I've been reading a lot. *__*

That's all for now, lovies~!

Till next time.

EUREKA!

I can't think of a good opening line this time. XD So here I am. Updating after 6 days, which is better than 9. Really. It is.

Last night we went to see Altar Boyz again! It was great, as always. Tonight I might get to go to a benefit they're doing for the Playhouse. They're trying to raise some extra money. I've been begging my mom to go. They're just going to be singing some popular songs and stuff, but I loved the play so much I want to go! There was also talk we might go see the play one last time tonight. O_o That would be CRAZY AWESOME. I've seen a couple plays two times, but never three. My dad acted like he might want to see it. The only problem is that it seems there might be severe thunderstorms tonight so my mom is hesitant to go.

I entered the raffle last night. >> If you win you get a poster signed by all the boys. ROFL. I REALLY WANT IT.

Okay, so, my Nintendo Power came in the mail yesterday and they had info on the new Ace Attorney game. They were calling it "Ace Attorney: Investigations," which in Japan is called Gyakuten Kenji. In other words, Edgeworth's game. The bad news is, they act like it won't be released over here till Winter. Which makes me sad. I was keeping my fingers crossed for a Fall release. The good news is, the game sounds extremely awesome. There's been a lot of changes, and it's not quite what I thought it was going to be, but I'm really looking forward to it. Really.

Okay so, there is literally no court trials in this game. They're focusing solely on gathering the evidence and piecing it together to figure out what happened. I was a little sad when I read this, but the way it sounds there will be plenty of other things to keep you busy. That's not the only thing that changed, instead of being in 1st person perspective when you're looking at crime scenes you will now be guiding Edgeworth with your stylus or control pad. There is going to be a mix of new characters, but also some old ones popping up here and there. The creator refused to say if Phoenix would make a definite appearance or not. Which is killing me. I want Phoenix to be in the game!

Besides all that, in this game there is going to be a new 'mode'. It is called 'logic mode' and while Phoenix had his magatema to unlock the secrets in peoples hearts, (LULZ, that sounds really lame in text. It's badass, I promise you.) and Apollo had his bracelet that made him able to zero in on people's nervous habits, Edgeworth has his logic mode. The Logic mode is going to allow you to piece together the information and evidence you gathered and put it in order so you can figure out what happened. (At least, that's what I gather from the information they gave us. My own logic mode. ;D)

You will not only get to play as Edgeworth, but also as whoever he's partnered with on the case. I know that the first chapter of the first case your partner is our much loved detective from the past Ace Attorney games, Dick Gumshoe. Later a new character comes in, a girl named Kay Faraday. The article called Kay Faraday, a "self-proclaimed thief of truth," and she's the one that has the strange device in the game. So while Edgeworth doesn't have a nifty magatema or bracelet, Kay will make up for that with her machine that will allow you to reconstruct the crime scenes even if its been tampered with, or evidence has been removed.

Cross examinations aren't completely gone. When you're interviewing suspects it will be very much like cross examining witnesses. You can present evidence, and you will have to watch for contradictions of the things you already know. The voice recognition commands (Objection, Hold it, Take that!) will still be in the game, and there will also be an all new one joining the set. "Eureka!" which will be used for Logic mode.

Finally, there will be an all new rival for Edgeworth in this game. Your rival (as the article described) will be an "aggressive but charismatic international police agent, and his lovely but cold assistant". I'm curious to know what his name will be in the game.

Besides all that, the game is set both before, and after "Trials and Tribulations," there will be appearances from miscellaneous characters from throughout the game. Including Wendy Oldbag, the scary security guard that has a huge crush on our wonderful Edgey, and Franziska Von Karma the whip wielding prosecutor whom Edgeworth considers his sister. Maggey Byrd will also make an appearance in this game, and of course, we already know Gumshoe will be around.

All in all, I'm really excited for this game. I miss the vibrant cast of the Ace Attorney games, and can't wait to see them again. I'll be curious to see the personalities of these new characters coming in. Oh, and the character designs!! *swoon*

OBJECTION! TAKE THAT! HOLD IT!

Till next time, lovies!

P.S. The image found on this post was from this wonderful site right here.