AN's WoRLD

New blog

2012-01-29T10:30:00.002+01:00

The colour theme here is... ugly. Very ugly, if I say so myself. But someone has been messing with my blog and so I have spent all yesterday evening and today's morning to make a new blog. It's not completely finished yet, but most of it is, and so I have decided to give you the link. Please start following The Anny Blog instead and let's hope whoever messed with this blog, won't do it again, because I can't undo it, I'm afraid. I've tried, but not succeeded.

Update: Oh, btw. Good job, whoever did it. I was surprised and you made me laugh. I needed that. :D I never expected someone would do my work for me, but I'm araid i didn't like the colours that much. But i got a great laugh anyway.

First Impressions: Ano Natsu de Matteru

2012-01-13T03:17:00.001+01:00

Third in a row, not bad for a night when I got a migraine.

Anyhow, my very first thought was that the style is similar to Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai. and that the main character Kaito looked a lot like Jinta from previously said anime.

It's also in a summer setting and with, I assume, someone either out of this world or fantasy-like human girl, much like Meiko being a ghost. Difference would be that this girl that suddenly appeared isn't a ghost and therefore can be seen by others. (laughs)

It appears as if Kaito got seriously hurt when he was testing his recorder one night not long before summer break. However, the girl saved him and the next day she transfers to his school, and later is invited to his house for the night when he learns she doesn't have any place to go.

I had some good laughs and got pretty excited about this show, as I watched the first episode. Some fan service, but nothing too much, so far. I think this show could be one of the better ones this season.

First impressions: High School D x D

2012-01-13T02:37:00.001+01:00

"What is it I am watching?!"

That was the thought running through my head not once, not twice, but throughout the whole episode. I'm not much of a fan of nudity in anime. Fan service is a good thing, but I don't think an anime should be centered around getting as many panty and breast shots as possible in 24 minutes.

Artwise it's not your usual "moe" ecchi anime, but a more usual anime style. Not that moe isn't used a lot, but this is more the kind you could find in most genres. The colours and vibrant and some sometimes things in the background caught my eye in between the breast shots and the occasional blood splatter.

As for the story. Just watching the first episode actually confused me. I wasn't really sure what was going on, since it wasn't that clear that it was a new day. Otherwise I could guess what was happening, so it wasn't that interesting to me. But if you like demons, pervy main characters, boobs and light beam censorship, you should watch this. Or wait for the DVD/BD version to be free from the censorship. But to me this was just your usual ecchi kind of anime, and not something I'd like to watch.

First impression: Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

2012-01-13T02:27:00.003+01:00

I'm a huge Natsume Yuujinchou fan, that's not a secret, and I certainly loved all of the previous season, with a slight downer on the second one. This seem to follow the first and third seasons' example, being absolutely adorable and wonderful. Natsume has changed since the first season as a person and I really did notice that as I watched this first episode.

The style has no difference from before, however, I guess it grew on me. I first thought it looked a bit odd - especially the eyelashes - but now I don't even notice that. Otherwise the style is shoujo, but it doesn't look ridiculous with huge eyes or anything.

The story is as much fantasy as before, still being quite down-to-earth and it'd seem the concept is the same; it deals with relationship between humans, demon, and humans and demons. The characters drive the story forward, just as before, and it seem to keep it's quite light-heartedness.

Anime Winter 2011 (Ongoing season)

2012-01-07T18:00:00.000+01:00

We have probably all noticed the lack of blog entries on this blog, but I hope to change that. As a start, here is a late list of the anime that are scheduled for this ongoing anime season. I have changed the layout of the info a bit, as you might notice, and I have been kind enough to add films and all kinds of other things I didn't have in the list before.

I personally am really looking forward to Natsume Yuujinchou Shi (which started just a few days ago) and the .hack-film. Are you looking forward to something? Or is there something that already aired this season that you're finding an interest in?

Kyousogiga
December 1st, 2011
It's Kyoto, and yet it is not.
A microcosm of peculiar origins, "Mirror Kyoto".
A small incident causes a young girl, Koto, to wander into this world.
She runs into a mysterious monk, gets chased around by a tech-obsessed girl, and heartily enjoys her chaotic and colorful new life, but meanwhile, out of sight, a certain plan is being set into motion…
In this mysterious city where spirits and humans have been thrown together, the festivities are about to begin! (Translated from the official website, found at MAL)

Busou Chuugakusei: Basket Army
December 22nd, 2011
The story is set in August of 2026 at the Fuji Training Facility. Natori Touko, a third-year middle school student in the Eastern Private Defense Academy, is entrenched in field training with instructor Kamiya. It has been a harsh training regiment, but it is finally the last day. Kamiya proposes a extracurricular class under the name Newest Weapons Research. But then, an incident occurs that rocks all of Japan. (MAL)

Rinne no Lagrange
December 25th, 2011
Kyouno Madoka is a 17-year-old girl, who loves her home town Kamogawa and likes to help people in trouble. She rides a robot called Woks in her jersey wear and fights against aliens. (MAL)

Another
December 26th, 2011
26 years ago, in a third-year classroom of a middle school, there was a student named Misaki. As an honors student who was also good at sports, the charming girl was popular with her classmates. When she suddenly died, her classmates decided to carry on as if she was still alive until graduation. Then, in the spring of 1998, a boy named Sakakibara Kouichi transfers to that classroom, and he grows suspicious of the fearful atmosphere in that classroom. In particular, there is a beautiful, aloof girl named Mei Misaki who wears an eyepatch and is always alone drawing pictures. (MAL)

Senki Zessho Symphogear
December 26th, 2011
Humans have been menaced by mysterious monsters called "Designated Aberrant Disaster: Noise". Tsubasa and Kanade are a popular vocal unit "Twei Wing". They wear the new weapon "Symphogear" and fight against Noise to save the earth. (MAL)

Natsume Yuujinchou Shi
January 3rd, 2012
The fourth season of Natsume Yuujinchou.

Natsume Yuujinchou is a light and cheerful anime adapted from the manga of the same name.
Since he was young, a teenage boy named Natsume Takashi has been able to see spirits, but keeping this ability a secret has now become a heavy burden for him and has made his life difficult.
This begins to change when Takashi inherits his grandmother's "Book of Friends". He discovers that she, Natsume Reiko, shared the same ability as him and starts to understand why he was always targeted by both good and bad spirits.
After learning the true meaning behind the Book of Friends, which allows him to manipulate the spirits listed within its pages, Takashi undertakes a journey with his bodyguard, the infamous spirit Madara, to free the spirits of their contracts with Reiko. (MAL)

Shin Tennis no Ouji-sama
January 5th, 2012

This continues what happened in the "Prince of Tennis ", after the end of the tournament . In "The New Prince of Tennis," Ryoma and the others (team members and teams they faced) begin a new adventure when they are the only 50 middle school students to be invited to the Japanese High School Representatives Selection Camp where only the top potentials in the Japanese tennis world train. (ANN)

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2
January 5th, 2012
"Sheryl, Nero, Elly, and Cordelia are the most popular students at Holmes Detective Academy, because of the many cases they've solved with their Toys and teamwork. The students and the people of the Detective City Yokohama all look up to the members of "Milky Holmes", as they're called. But on a dark and stormy night, during a battle with their rivals "The Gentlemen Thief Empire", they lose their toys, and their fate undergoes a dramatic change..." (Crunchyroll)

Amagami SS+
January 6th, 2012
Second season of Amagami SS.

A second-year high school boy finds himself uneasy during Christmas time due to an experience in the past. However, this year at Christmas, he gets his last chance to ask out a graduating female senior named Haruka Morishima—or one of several other classmates. The story of the anime will be arranged in an omnibus format, with each heroine getting her own version of the story animated. Each heroine will sing her own version of the ending theme song. (ANN)

Highschool DxD
January 6th, 2012
The story follows Issei Hyodo, a dim-witted, lecherous second-year high school student who is killed by a girl on his first date ever. Issei is reincarnated as a devil, and from that day forward, he serves as an underling of Riasu, a high-level devil who is also the prettiest girl on Issei's campus. (ANN)

Kill Me Baby
January 6th, 2012
Kill Me Baby is a 4-panel style manga that follows the comedic life of a typical school girl Yasuna and her assassin classmate Sonya. Sonya’s attempt to fit in often fails when her natural assassin instincts kick in and Yasuna’s attempt to be more friendly with Sonya often gets her hurt or intimidated. Kill Me Baby’s cute sense of humor will keep you wanting more. (Amazon)

Recorder to Randoseru
January 6th, 2012
Miyagawa Atsushi is an 11-year-old boy who is 180 centimeters tall. Since he has a grown-up looking build but acts his age, he has always been running into troubles. On the other hand, his 17-year-old elder sister Atsumi is only 137 centimeters tall. Even though she has a childish looking build, Atsumi takes good care of Atsushi.(MAL)

Area no Kishi
January 7th, 2012
Believing himself to be useless at football, Aizawa Kakeru opts to become the manager of his school's football team, while his brother Suguru is its ace, and is even good enough to represent Japan. However, Kakeru may be harbouring a strong talent within himself that only Suguru can see, and the two often get into arguments over Kakeru's denial of his skills. Things are made more complicated with the return of Nana, an old playmate of theirs that Kakeru has a crush on. Join the brothers in their journey to the national and even international championships! (MU)

Zero no Tsukaima F
January 7th, 2012
The fourth and final season of Zero no Tsukaima.

Louise is a magician at the Tristein Academy, dubbed with the nickname "Zero Louise" due to her inability to effectively use her magic properly, resulting in zero successes. An upcoming test at her academy requires her to summon a familiar, a servant and partner to support her as a magician. Despite desiring a familiar that would be superior to her constantly mocking classmates, Louise ends up summoning Hiraga Saito, your average Japanese boy. Even with Louise and Saito both unwilling to accept each other, they have no choice. Louise cannot attempt another summoning and Saito cannot return to Japan, and so their life together begins. Based on the novel by Noboru Yamaguchi. (MAL)

Brave 10
January 8th, 2012
The story reimagines the legendary adventures of the 10 brave warriors assembled by the warlord Sanada Yukimura in the year 1600, in the middle of Japan's tumultuous Sengoku (Warring States) era. (ANN)

Mouretsu Pirates
January 8th, 2012
The story centers around a spirited high school girl named Marika. She keeps herself busy with the space yacht club and her part-time job at a high-class retro café. One day, two men suddenly appear and claim to be subordinates of her dead father. They demand that she assume command of the space pirate ship Benten Maru. A privateer ship's compact was made during a war of independence a century ago, and according to that compact, the ship must be inherited by the captain's next direct descendant. Marika finds herself embarking on a new life as a space pirate.
(ANN)

Nisemonogatari
January 8th, 2012
Sequel to Bakemonogatari.

The black swindler Kaiki Deishu, who once deceived Hitagi, returns to town and spreads the incantation which cursed Nadeko before.
Koyomi's sisters Karen and Tsukihi try to capture Deishu but... (MAL)

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki
January 8th, 2012
A slice of life anime about the Sato family, who keeps a round shaped cat named "Poyo". (MAL)

Aquarion Evol
January 9th, 2012
Sequel to Sousei no Aquarion.

The story will take place 12,000 years after the first Aquarion television series at a city modeled after Hong Kong. A new cast of characters, piloting a new Aquarion robot, will fight enemies from another dimension. (ANN)

Ano Natsu de Matteru
January 10th, 2012
The October issue of Gakken's Megami Magazine is announcing on Tuesday that Onegai Teacher/Onegai Twins story creator Yousuke Kuroda and Onegai franchise character designer Taraku Uon are collaborating on a new original anime called Ano Natsu de Matteru. The anime will be an adolescent romantic comedy.
The three main characters are the two girls Ichika Takatsuki and Remon Yamano, and the boy Kaito Kirishima. (MAL)

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou
January 10th, 2012
The original gag comedy manga follows the humorous yet "realistic" everyday life of Tadakuni, Hidenori, Yoshitake, and other students at a boys' high school. (MAL)

Papa no Iukoto Kikinasai
January 11th, 2012
Segawa Yuta is a freshman of a university. He lost his parents when he was small and was raised by his sister Yuri. Yuta has been living alone since Yuri got married to a middle aged man when Yuta was a junior high student.
One day, Yuri visited Yuta's apartment and asked him to take care of her three daughters while Yuri and her husband were on a trip. He unwillingly accepted the job but the plane Yuri took went missing. In order to prevent the daughters from being adopted separately by relatives, Yuta decided to take in all three girls.
A life of a strange family in a tiny apartment begins. (MAL)

Inu x Boku SS
January 13th, 2012
The Shirakiin house's daughter, Shirakiin Riricho, who has a complex about being unable to live independently and unprotected, feels the need to move out and live on her own under the condition of residing in the mansion named "Ayakashi Kan." In this mansion, only those who have cleared a very strict examination could reside in it, and for each resident, they are accompanied with one agent of the Secret Service (S.S.). Although Riricho has rejected the company of the S.S., while residing in the mansion she finds out that the agent dedicated to protecting her is actually the Fox Spirit whom she previously rescued. (MAL)

Gokujou.
January 16th, 2012
Kuribayashi Minami returns to Japan after a long stay in Los Angeles. She enters an upper-class girl's high school "Gokurakuin Jyoshi High School", so called "Gokujyo". She tries to dominate the school with her beauty but her plan is spoiled by the silly and pervert behaviors of her eccentric classmates. (MAL)

Black Rock Shooter
February 3rd, 2012
After the song hit Black Rock Shooter, came a pilot episode. Now comes the TV adaptation!

Smile! PreCure
February 5th, 2012
Once upon a time, there was a kingdom of fairy tales called "Märchenland", where many fairy tale characters live together in joy. Suddenly, the evil emperor Pierrot made an invasion on Märchenland, sealing its Queen in the process. To revive the Queen, the symbol of happiness called Cure Decor, "the Queen's scattered power of light of happiness", is required. To collect the Cure Decor, a fairy named Candy searches for the Pretty Cures on Earth. There, Candy meets a girl, who decides to collect the Cure Decor. Now, will the world earn a "happy ending"? (MAL)

Specials

Lupin III: Chi no Kokuin, Eien no Mermaid
December 2nd, 2011
Lupin III TV Specia

Arsene Lupin III is the grandson of the master thief Arsene Lupin. With his cohorts Daisuke Jigen and Goemon Ishikawa XIII and his love interest Fujiko Mine, he pulls off the greatest heists of all time while always escaping the grasp of Inspector Koichi Zenigata. (ANN)

Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock
December 17th, 2011
Jump Fest Special

Bardock, Goku's father who was suppose to die when Freeza's attack hit him along with the Planet Vegeta, he was sent way back in time, where the planet was inhabited by a strange creatures. There, after a while he met Freeza's ancestor, a space pirate named Chilled and fought him to protect the planet. (AniDB)

Films

K-ON!
December 3rd, 2011
Graduation draws near for Yui, Ritsu, Mio and Tsumugi, the four 3rd-year students of the Light Music Club. They, together with Azusa, decide to go on a post-graduation trip. Their destination, decided by lot, is London!(Translated from official site, found on MAL)

Inazuma Eleven Go: Kyuukyoku no Kizuna Gryphon
December 23rd, 2011
Inazuma Eleven Go film.

Matsukaze Tenma, a first year who loves soccer, has exceptional dribbling skills, but still has lots of room for improvement. The story starts with him entering Raimon Jr. High ten years after the first Football Frontier International, where Raimon has become famous for its soccer. However, an organization called Fifth Sector has taken control of soccer over the years, and the passion that Raimon once had for soccer is no longer there. (MAL)

Sacred Seven: Shirogane no Tsubasa
January 7th, 2012
A recap special featuring Alma and Knight's battles.

Alma Tandoji lives a lonely life. One day, Ruri Alba, a girl accompanied by her butler and maids, visits him. Knowing the power of Sacred Seven is latent within Alma, she asks him to lend her his powers. However, he refuses and drives her away since he injured many with his unusual strength in the past.
Meanwhile, a fiendish Dark Stone creature suddenly appears in this peaceful town in the Kanto region. Only Alma's power of Sacred Seven can fight against it. But Alma just lets his power run amuck and things begin to get worse. Ruri raised her gemstone in order to release his true abilities, My Soul I give to you.
With Ruri's wishes engraved in it, will Alma be able to defeat the Dark Stone? (MAL)

.hack//TheMovie: Sekai ni Mukou ni
January 21st
In 2024, the computer network prevails throughout the daily life. Arishiro Sora is a 14 year old girl. One day, she is invited to an online game "The World". After an accident in the game, the real world begins to deform. (MAL)

Berserk Ougon Jidaihen I: Haou no Tamago
February 4th, 2012
The first film in a series to cover the entire original story of Berserk.

Guts, a man who calls himself "The Black Swordsman" looks upon his days serving as a member of a group of mercenaries, the Band of the Hawk, nicknamed "the Grim Reaper of the Battlefield." Led by an ambitious, ruthless, and intelligent man named Griffith, together they battle their way into the royal court, and are forced into a fate that may change their entire lives. (ANN)

Dragon Age: Blood Mage no Seisen
February 11th, 2012
In a time of darkness and barbarism, the Chantry has arisen - a religious order seeking to bring stability to a world corrupted by sinister magic. Led by the Divine, the Chantry's Templar warriors ruthlessly restrain the Mages and their magical cabals. But when the Templars fail, the most elite order of the Chantry takes charge - the Seekers! (AniDB)

Scryed Alteration II: Quan
March , 2012
Recap and remaster film of Scryed.

A strange environmental phenomenon 22 years ago in the Kanazawa prefecture caused the land to split and protrude upwards reaching unprecedented heights, creating the secluded area known as The Lost Ground. Kazuma is a young mercenary who lives in the Lost Ground, looking for any work he can find to sustain his livelihood within the harsh environment. He is one of the few people that are gifted with the Alter ability, which allows him to plaster his right arm and torso with a metallic alloy. When this mercenary encounters HOLY, an order whose purpose is to suppress and capture what they call Native Alter Users, and one of the elite members of HOLY, Ryuho, an epic rivalry begins. (ANN)

OVA/OAD

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi
December 5th, 2011
OAD featuring an Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi and Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu crossover.

Taito has been really sleepy lately, and keeps dreaming of a female vampire who says she has given him her "poison." Sometimes he even thinks he hears her voice when he's awake. But after surviving an accident that should have killed him, Taito's world changes drastically and he realizes that his dreams are more real than he thought. (MAL)

IS: Infinite Stratos Encore: Koi ni Kogareru Sextet
December 7th, 2011
OAD centred around the IS Academy.

Japan engineered an armed powered exoskeleton "Infinite Stratos" (IS) and it became the mainstream of weapons. Since only women can operate IS, women dominate the society over men. Orimura Ichika is a 15 year old boy and accidentally touches an IS placed in the IS pilot training school. He is found to be the only man who can operate IS and forced to enter the training school. Ichika's busy school life surrounded by girls has begun. (MAL)

R-15
December 13th, 2011
OAD bundled with the 10th novel of R-15.

Takuto Akutagawa has a special ability for writing porn novels. He applies to Hirameki Gakuen a high school which only accepts people with "Unique" talent. Now he must chase his dream and direct his classmates to win an interclass competition. All while trying to create the prefect harem. (ANN)

Major: World Series
December 16th, 2011
OVA covering the World Series that the anime skipped. This OVA will be the final part of the Major anime.

Honda Shigeharu is a Major League batter on the rise. His son Goro is a Little League pitcher who one day hopes to follow in his father's footsteps. Hoshino Momoko is Goro's schoolteacher, and the first woman Shigeharu has been interested in since the death of Goro's mother. The destines of these three individuals will become intertwined as father and son experience both heartbreak and triumph on the baseball diamond. But when an unspeakable tragedy visits the family, it will take everything they have to pick up the pieces and reclaim their dreams. (ANN)

Rurouni Kenshin: Shin Kyoto-hen
December 17th, 2011
New Rurouni Kenshin OVA. This is a remake of the battle against Shishio, from Misao's point of view.

Himura Kenshin is a vagabond with a dark past and sunny disposition. Not a ronin but a rurouni, he was never a samurai, but an assassin of utmost skill in the Meiji restoration, who in the turning point of the war simply walked away. His travels lead him to Tokyo in the 11th year of the Meiji era, where he befriends a female Kendo master, a former thief, a brawler and a doctor all with their own secrets. Together they fight off the enemies surfacing from the dark past that Kenshin cannot escape. (ANN)

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi
December 21st, 2011
OVA bundled with volume 6 of the BD/DVD. It's a sequel to the original TV-series.

Kazuma's brother Ayumu needs to recuperate from an illness, so they move from the city to a rural mountain village. They plan to board at their father's inn, Yorozuyo, but get lost on their way. Wandering in the mountains, Kazuma stumbles across a girl named Ui Nakatsugawa. It's the first of many encounters in his new country life. (ANN)

Ai no Kusabi (2012)
January 18th, 2012
The story is set in the future on the planet named Amoi which is controlled by a supercomputer named Jupiter. Among the mostly male human population, the light-haired elite class is allowed to temporarily keep the dark-haired "mongrels" as pets. One elite member, Iason, encounters a mongrel named Riki in the slums and decides to take him in. However, Iason keeps Riki longer than it is socially approved, and rumors abound about their possible relationship. (MAL)

Gyo
February 15th, 2012
Something in Okinawa reeks, and it isn't long before Tadashi and his girlfriend Kaori realize that the smell is coming from dead fish, which are walking out of the sea. The fish are fused to metal legs and are infected with a disease contractable by humans that was invented as a weapon by the Japanese government. After Kaori is infected, Tadashi goes to find a solution to this putrid takeover, if there even is an answer to be found. (MAL)

Minori Scramble!
February 15th, 2012
Tamaki is an elementary school girl. Her father Dr. Yagiyama loves penguins and his excessive lectures about penguins makes Tamaki hate them. In order to get rid of her hatred of penguins, he engineers the penguin-roid "Minori". Tamaki and Minori run about the neighborhood to solve troubles caused by her father. (MAL)

Yuri Seijin Naoko-san (2012)
February 15th, 2012
Naoko, an alien maid, accompanies Misuzu and her friend Hii on her way to school to guard her from a groper that has been sighted on the neighborhood.

ToHeart2: Dungeon Travelers
February 22nd, 2012
Spinoff OVA of ToHeart2.

2011 and 2012

2011-12-31T17:48:00.000+01:00

It's already been a year again? How quickly it passed. During the last third this blog became quite inactive, partly due to my work, but I'll try to update more regularly this coming year.

2011 has been very stressful on me personally. My health has been in the dump and my mum has gotten sicker by the day in her clever tumour which moves when they try to get rid of it. It has also made my art go in a new direction as this year passed by. I have read more, I drew more as I want to draw, I tried new things and tried drawing fan art more.

There was the convention which I sadly didn't get a table and my sister got pregnant as well as got a healthy daughter. I got a trainee place as a pre-school teacher and I randomly got 6 games I love over the year. I learned to deal with some separation anxiety when I sold games I love for a camera I couldn't buy in the end.

In the end, I think 2011 wasn't too bad for me. Two of my friends have however had a very hard year. I really wish the two of them the best of luck next year.

My goals for the blog during 2012:
Review 13 books
Review at least 6 games (Pokémon White & HeartGold, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time + something more)
Change the appearance of the blog (and maybe the main website)
Review at least 2 animated shows
Review at least 2 comics

Other goals 2012:
Be on UppCon's Artist Alley
Draw a lot
Be creative
How did it go with the last year's promises/goals then?
I don't remember all my promises/goals from last year, but I definitely did well on reading more. I didn't read much more, but a little bit, at least. I also watch Olivia, which was a goal of mine.

Finally, life isn't easy, but if you find something to help you deal with hard things it'll always be better. I have my games and books to relax in between the stress from being around people or pains or any other things. Relaxing is important. I really hope I get more books and games next year. And that I get better at playing games so I can spend less time playing. And I will work on reviewing, so that the reviews won't take me all night to write! (laughs)

Happy New Year and a better year next year! Filled with games and books and all other thing you can possibly love!

Here's a small poll for you all! :)

It's Christmas Day morning...

2011-12-25T10:13:00.000+01:00

It's Day morning. In other countries children open their gifts around this time of the day. But here in Sweden Christmas is celebrated on the Eve and so I got my gifts yesterday. But before that, the day started with me waking up at 8 am and then watching some telly until the Christmas Peace is announced. From that on it was playing Pokémon White for a good 3 hours before I woke my mum up, as she went to rest for a bit before we were going to my sister's.

At 2.30 pm my sister's boyfriend came to pick me, my mum and my brother up and we took the around one hour trip to their house. There we ate dinner, watched some more telly, sang songs, tried to keep my 2 month old niece entertained because she was so tired she just started crying if it got boring, exchanged gifts and then my brother took part in a local tradition. He's completely out now, sleeping in his bedroom, in which I'm sitting and writing this entry while guarding my cat, as I don't want him to eat my brother's toes up.

So what did I get?

Let's start what I gave away. To my brother I gave my old tablet, which he really wanted, and a volume of Battle Angel Alita and Skip Beat together with my mum; To my sister, her boyfriend and their daughter I gave two boxes of chocolate together with the rest of the family and two hand-painted boxes I personally painted; To my mum I got a book. I can say all were happy about the gifts.

Then to what I got... I got two films (My Neighbour Totoro and The Black Cauldron) as a joint gift from my mum and my brother and random-access memory and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy from my brother; my sister got me Pokémon HeartGold; my mum gave me four of her paintings and two picture frames with the promise of giving me two more.

My mum also got two other books, and one of them is the first book from the series The Wheel of Time, which means I might sit down and read it in the close future. I have as a goal to read and review 13 books next year. I also hope to review some games. On my list of games I need to play (and which I have a console to) and review are as follows Pokémon White, Pokémon HeartGold, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. More about my plans closer to the new year.

How was your Christmas? Mine was, in the end, surprisingly good. I don't like Christmas, so I don't usually find it good or fun, but this year honestly was fun.

Trace (Kay Scarpetta series) by Patricia Cornwell

2011-11-28T21:48:00.001+01:00

Sorry about the long hiatus, guys. I haven't even have time to write down all the new shows this upcoming anime season. I'm still trying to actually watch some of the anime from the previous season, as well as this current one.
But, I started to work a bit every day so it takes up some of my time. Sorry about that.
Anyhow, I recently finished a book, so let's concentrate on that for now. This isn't really a review though. I feel like I've lost a bit of the reviewing touch. I'll try pick that up with time.

Kay Scarpetta has come back to Richmond to assist in solving the mystery of Gilly Paulsson's mysterious death. The child was prefectly healthy, but still suddenly died. As Scarpetta is in Richmond, a tractor driver is killed in what is probably an accident and for some reason they find the same substances on the driver as they found in Gilly's mouth. Two weeks earlier. How are these deaths connected and what's going on with Scarpetta's niece Lucy and Scarpetta's lover Benton?

I used to really like crime stories but it was some time since I actually read one, so when I picked this out of my shelf I was feeling a bit anxious. But I really liked it. Patricia Cornwell is a good author which I've heard of but hadn't actually read anything by earlier. She portrays the characters really well and I love how it all was intertwined. Well... It should be, since it's a crime novel, right? But I still especially liked how Cornwell wrote it. One of the best novels i've read recently.

Okay, out of things to say. I should read more in English. Then it'd be easier. Maybe I'll try writing in Swedish and then translate? I don't know. We'll see in the Future...

Ao no Exorcist

2011-10-15T08:28:00.000+02:00

It's been quite a while, haven't it! But here I am, with a new (short) anime review!

The world consists of two dimension - Assiah, the dimension of the humans, and Gehenna, the dimension of the demons. Humans can't go into Gehenna, but the demons can go to Assiah. Because of this, there are exorcists to exterminate the problematic demons. Shiro Okumura is an exorcist who has taken a pair of twins under his wing - the children of Satan, the king of demons. However, only Rin has the flames of Satan. With his powers sealed into a sword, Rin knows nothing about them and lives a fairly normal life. But what happens when Satan tries to come into Assiah...?

Ao no Exorcist - or Blue Exorcist in English - brought me laughter (a lot of laughter), tears, some anger...I went through a lot of emotions throughout the series. It's however quite the usual "shounen" anime you can see. But I myself really liked it. You get to learn about the characters quite well. I even remember the names for once! That's an achievement, as I usually forget everyone but maybe three characters.

It's only 25 episodes, but in my opinion the show can just end there. I haven't read the comic it's based on though, but as for the anime, I think there's no need for a second season. So, even if I think there'll be one, I think it's great as that. It makes me want to read the comic. (laughs)

Upcoming Anime: Autumn 2011

2011-09-12T12:00:00.000+02:00

So... Next season is right around the corner, even though the corner feels far off. This means a new entry is here, and that many new reviews are on their way. Sadly Last Exile 2 didn't end up among them, but lineup changes doesn't really get all the way to my knowledge right away. Anyway, here's the autumn lineup that I know of! With possible changes in dates or shows forcing fans to wait for yet another season.

I was supposed to post this,but blogger refused to let me log in for the longest period of time, so here comes an incomplete version. I'll be updating it as I get time, I promise!

Battle Spirits: Heroes
Starts airing: September 18
Comment: Fourth series
Summary: -
Genre: Action
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/11017/Battle_Spirits:_Heroes

Crossfire B-Daman
Starts airing: October 2
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: Adventure
MAL page: -

Hunter x Hunter
Starts airing: October 2
Comment: Remake of the 1999 TV series of Hunter x Hunter based on the manga by Togashi Yoshihiro.
Summary: A Hunter is one who travels the world doing all sorts of dangerous tasks. From capturing criminals to searching deep within uncharted lands for any lost treasures. Gon is a young boy whose father disappeared long ago, being a Hunter. He believes if he could also follow his father's path, he could one day reunite with him.
After becoming 12, Gon leaves his home and takes on the task of entering the Hunter exam, notorious for its low success rate and high probability of death to become an official Hunter. He befriends the revenge-driven Kurapica, the doctor-to-be Leorio and the rebellious ex-assassin Killua in the exam, with their friendship prevailing throughout the many trials and threats they come upon taking on the dangerous career of a Hunter. (MAL)
Genre: Action, Fantasy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/11061/Hunter_x_Hunter_%282011%29

Chihayafuru
Starts airing: October 4
Comment: -
Summary: Chihaya is a lighthearted tomboy, who's not especially good at anything in particular. Her dream has always been for her sister (an aspiring model) to become the number one beauty of Japan, or perhaps of the world. But then one day she meets someone who tells her that a dream is something that should concern only herself - and something she has to work hard for as well.
At the same time, Chihaya discovers a passion for the old Japanese game hyakunin ishhu, also called "karuta". (MAL)
Genre: Drama, Sports
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10800

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Starts airing: October 9
Comment: -
Summary: It has been a few hundred years since humans began to live on space colonies. In A.G. 101, an unknown enemy (UE) "GAFRAN" suddenly attacks one of the colonies "Angel". A long war against UE has begun.
In A.G 108, seven year old Flit Asuno lost his mother when UE attacked his colony "Ovan". His mother left him a memory unit "AGE" which had stored data of an ancient mobile suit Gundam. In A.G. 114, Flit completes the Gundam AGE and counterattacks against GAFRANs. (MAL)
Genre: Slice of Life, Action Sci-fi
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10808

UN-GO
Starts airing: October 14
Comment: -
Summary: Based from Sakaguchi Ango’s novel “Meiji Kaika Ango Torimonocho”.
Meiji-era story about a detective named Yuki Shinjuro, who solves various incidents that happen in his circle of friends. The adaptation will utilize an original story set in the near future, revolving around the detective and a boy named Inga, who continually encounter mysterious cases. (MAL)
Genre: Mystery
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10798

Fate/Zero
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: Prequel to Fate/stay night
Summary: War of the Holy Grail - Pursuing the power of the "Holy Grail" which grants a miracle, this is a contest in which seven magi summon seven Heroic Spirits to compete for it. In that battle whose conclusion was postponed three times, now, the fourth war commenced again. Entrusting their dearest wish of victory, the magi joined the battleground called "Fuyuki", but amongst them, there was a man who was always alone, and could not find out the meaning behind his fights. His name was Kotomine Kirei. Not comprehending the guidance of fate, Kirei was lost, and had kept questioning. Why someone like his was given the Command Seals. However, the fate of his fights crossed Kirei's path with a nemesis by chance. That person is - Emiya Kiritsugu. A man who was sterner than anyone else, more merciless than anyone else, and who sought the miracle of the Holy Grail.
Merely recited in fragments in Fate/Stay Night, this is the Fourth War of the Holy Grail 10 years ago. The truth which unfolded behind the battle between Shirou's foster father, Rin's father, and the younger Kotomine Kirei, is finally revealed... (Baka-Tsuki)
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Drama
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10087/Fate/zero

Shakugan no Shana III
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: Third season of the hit Shakugan no Shana
Summary: -
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Romance, Comedy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/6773/Shakugan_no_Shana_III_%28Final%29

Bakuman II
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: Second season
Summary: -
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, School
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10030/Bakuman_2

Working'!!
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: Second season
Summary: -
Genre: Comedy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10521/Working!!

Guilty Crown
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: -
Summary: The story takes place in Tokyo in 2039. After the outbreak of the unidentified virus "Lost Christmas" in 2029, Japan has been under the control of a multinational organization called GHQ. Ohma Shu is a 17 year old boy who has a psychic power in his right hand. He can use the power "Ability of King" to extract tools or weapons from his friends. He has been avoiding making trouble for others but his life changes when he meets a girl named Yuzuriha Inori, a member of a resistance guerrilla group called "Undertaker", whose members pilot mecha weapons to fight against the government. (MAL)
Genre: Sci-fi, Action, Fantasy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10793/Guilty_Crown

Mirai Nikki
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: -
Summary: Middle school 2nd year, Amano Yukiteru, is a boy who has problem making friends. He thinks of himself as a bystander and will always write down everything he sees in a cell phone diary.
Tormented by solitude, Yukiteru began to imagine things like a friend called Deus Ex Machina who is apparently the Lord of Time & Space. Seeing Yukiteru's miserable state, Deus gives him a new ability. His diary will now record events that will happen in the near future. Yukiteru is then forced to participate in a game which the winner will become Deus's successor. (Mangaupdates)
Genre: Mystery, Fantasy, Thriller, Psychological, Action
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10620

Kyokai Senjou no Horizon
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: -
Summary: In the far future, humans abandon the devastated Earth and move to the upper world "Tenjo". But Tenjo and the law of causation collapse by a war and humans returns to the Earth, which has turns into an inhabitable planet except for Shinshu area.
Shinshu is too small to accommodate all the humans, so they duplicate the area and create "Juso Sekai" in a parallel world. In order to rebuild Tenjo and the law of causation, the returned humans start reproduction of the history from B.C. 10,000. When the reproduction proceeds to A.D. 1413, a war breaks out in Shinshu and Juso Sekai falls onto the original world.
The humans living in Juso Sekai lose their land and invade the original world. People in Shinshu surrender and the land is divided by the invaders from Juso Sekai. They try to resume the history reproduction from A.D.1457, but the update of the history terminates in A.D.1648. A rumor of apocalypse begins to spread the world. (MAL)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10456/Kyoukai_Senjou_no_Horizon

Tamayura: Hitotose
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10232

PhiBrain: Kami no Puzzle
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: -
Summary: Daimon Kaito is a high school boy, who loves puzzles. One day, the president of the student council gives him a mobile device and it leads him to an underground ruin buried in the school. He challenges an " insolvable puzzle" hidden in the ruin with his girlfriend Nonoha, but the puzzle turns out to be the dangerous "The Puzzle of Sage" created by the black society "POG". He manages to solve the puzzle but it's the beginning of a puzzle battle against POG.
Genre: Fantasy, Action
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/9981

Kimi to Boku.
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: -
Summary: The story revolves around four teens — the good-looking twins Yuuta and Yuuki Asaba, the effeminate Shun Matsuoka, and the class head Kaname Tsukahara — who have known each other since early childhood. While they are not necessarily good or bad friends, they continue to hang out well into high school. The half-Japanese transfer student Chizuru Tachibana joins the circle of friends in this comedy about the everyday life of adolescence. (MAL)
Genre: School, Comdey, Drama, Slice of Life, Romance
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10460

Mashiro-Iro Symphony: Love is pure white
Starts airing: October ??
Comment: -
Summary: One day, Shingo's school combines with a girls' school. As a specially selected student, Shingo temporarily joins the girls' school until they officially consolidate. He meets various unique girls there, but they all dislike male students. To improve their relationship, Shingo works hard, and... (MAL)
Genre: Harem, School, Drama, Romance
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10397/Mashiroiro_Symphony:_Love_Is_Pure_White

Persona 4
Starts airing: -
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: Action Fantasy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10588

Maken-Ki!
Starts airing: -
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: Harem, Fantasy, Ecchi
MAL page: -

Shinryaku? Ika-Musume
Starts airing: -
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: -
MAL page: -

Fujilog
Starts airing: -
Comment: Second season
Summary: -
Genre: -
MAL page: -

Lupin III
Starts airing: -

Comment: Fourth TV series
Summary: -
Genre: -
MAL page: -

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
Starts airing: -
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: -
MAL page: -

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!
Starts airing: -
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: -
MAL page: -

C3 -CubexCuredxCurious-
Starts airing: -
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: -
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10578

Ben-To
Starts airing: -
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: -
MAL page: -

Busou Shinki Moon Angel
Starts airing: -
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: -
MAL page: -

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam
Starts airing: -
Comment: Second Season/Original tale in the LE universe
Summary: Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing is a new original tale in the Last Exile universe. It features new characters, new mechanics and an all new story centered around the young ace vanship pilot, Fam, and her trusted navigator, Giselle, as they pilot their vanship, Vespa, through the free and peaceful skies. (Funimation)
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Sci-fi
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10336/Last_Exile:_Ginyoku_no_Fam

Eden of the East

2011-08-22T10:59:00.000+02:00

Saki Morimi has just graduated and is on a trip with her friends. While she goes off to Washinton D.C. she is almost arrested by the police for throwing a rock towards the White House. But there he is - Akira Takizawa - naked, with only a cellphone and gun. Thanks to him she gets away and even manages to safely get back to Japan. But who is this Akira who claims he has no memories? And what does he has to do with the 20 00 missing NEETs and the so call Careless Monday where six missiles hit six cities in Japan?

Eden of the east is - excuse the French - a complete mindfuck trip. It starts off as interesting, to turn to complicated, then makes a turn to twisted, to suddenly turn to the answer to leave you with a feeling of "now what?" and "What's next?". This is, however, not a bad thing. If I hadn't known... These words made me think of the opening where Noel Gallagher - You know, the lead guitarist from Oasis - sings "it's all that I ever known" in the song Falling Down. This opening wasn't used for the whole series in the States and Canada though, so don't get confused if you know the opening as Invisible by Leah.

Anyhow, if I hadn't known there are two films that are sequels to the series, I would had been completely messed up now saying that the series didn't end in a bad way. The feeling it leaves makes you want to know what happened next, after all. I have yet to see the films - The King of Eden and Paradise Lost - so I can't say if Eden of the East as a whole with films are good, but as a series it's good as a mindfuck anime, making you watch the films.

I don't know how to better describe this series. I don't like being confused - as my friend Ms. S who I started watching the series noticed without a doubt - but I got sucked in with every episode after Ms. S went home. It's a bit hard to marathon, because of the information you have to process though, so we were definitely trying out a hard mission when we began. (I'm sorry, S! If I had known, I'd suggested something lighter!)

In the end of the day I give this show... I keep wondering if it should be 4.5 or 5. I have never felt so confused about where to put something at a scale that hasn't had to do with my health. But I guess we should go with the lower score. For now. Better be safe than sorry. (laughs)

I do recommend this show, I really do. It's a mix of emotions, mystery, mindfucking events and some very nicely censored naked people. Definitely something you should watch just to watch it. You know, how you should read classics for the sake of classics - watch Eden of the East solely for watching it! And you might enjoy the ride while at it. But as this is an anime with a grown up feel, I do warn for it to be a bit heavy, as I previously have mentioned.

Before ending this review, I am going to have you watch this clip below. It's a music video which will give you an idea of what you get yourself into when you watch Eden of the East. Or not. It's the alternative music video for Oasis' Faling Down. It's animated by the studio who animated Eden of the East.

Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime

2011-08-19T20:26:00.003+02:00

And I...How could I possibly atone?
How could I be healed, how could I be saved?
Miu...Answer me, Miu!
(Page 131)

Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime is about Konoha Inoue - The bestselling author Miu Inoue, who broke down withing a year after his success - and Tohko Amano - a girl who lives by eating books rather than food - who together make up the book club at their school, and the girl Chia Takeda's said love for a boy called Shuji Kataoka. One day Chia comes to the book club for help with her love and Tohko tell the younger girl that Konoha can write a love letter for the boy. In return Chia is supposed to write a report on the love if it turns out well.

But as Konoha has to keep writing letters for Chia to give to her beloved Shuji, he starts wondering about the boy from the archery club. And as he investigates, it appears that there's no Shuji in the archery club. There's not even on in the school! Now Konoha and Tohko are stuck in a mystery that has to do with something that happened at the school ten years ago...

Konoha is a second year who two years ago wrote a book for a competition. It was his first novel and it won and it was released under the pseudonym Miu Inoue. But it became a mess for Konoha, and he was burned out while his family had to suffer. Besides that he promised to never write. But as he started high school he met the upperclassman Tohko Amano who forced him into the book club after he saw her eat a page out of the book.

God, she's really eating it...That never gets any less surreal.
R-r-rip, crincle, flupp.
Nom-nom-nom - gulp.
(Page 8)

Konoha has been in love with a girl named Miu, but due to circumstances it's painful for him to remember her and thanks to the daily life he gets through the book club he thinks less and less of Miu. But the mystery brings back old painful memories for our main character.

The book is written in Konoha's point of view, with some letters and quotes of letters. The events are mostly chronological, with some flashbacks. The books is very well written, at least in the English translation by Karen McGillicuddy. The illustrations by Miho Takeoka are very pretty and fits the story. I'm a little sad they did so much editing to the cover art, but at least the main subject - Tohko - is still there.

While I was reading the end of chapter 5 a song came up on the web radio I listen to a lot. It was Ai Otsuka's Cherish. I just wanted to mention it, because I love the song and I felt it was very fitting at the moment.

With that side note out of the way... Finally we get to what I think. This books gets 5.5 out of 6 for enjoyment. It was a page turner and I didn't want to put it down. I was always itching to read more. I'm overjoyed I have the second book to read too - Birthdays can be really handy at times! - and will soon begin reading that one soon

The reason it doesn't get a full score is because that in chapter 6 I did get a hard time continuing. Suddenly the flow was slower, building up to something new and I didn't expect that. Unexpected things are good, but in this case the pace kind of got me lost and I had to take a break before being able to finish the book. The ending of the book, however, was good. It was just that unexpected slow tempo building up to a new turn of events that lowered the score slightly.

Gintama: Benizakura Chapter

2011-08-18T16:01:00.000+02:00

Another very brief review is up today.

Gintama is an alternate-history gag manga by Hideaki Sorachi. Gintoki Sakata is our lazy, nosepicking, Jump reading hero and together with him we have Shinpachi and Kagura who together form Odd Jobs Gin-chan. Japan has been invaded aliens in this alternate setting and that's all you really need to know about the back story to watch this film.

This film is a remake of the orginal Benizakura arc from the actual show (episodes 58-61) and isn't much different from the first version of the arc. You get the same hazy fragments of Gintokis past and the story is the same. Even though it's been a long time since I watched the episodes the film is a remake of, I would say even the jokes are the same. Since it's originally based on the comic, after all.

If you aren't sure of what to expect from the shows Gintama and Gintama', this film is a good start. you get the action, humour and setting with an actual arc from Gintama.

I liked this a lot, but I also love Gintama. Now it's been a while since I watched this so I won't give this a rate, but I do recommend this film. If you don't like it, you shouldn't try out Gintama, and if you don't like Gintama, don't watch the film. It's about as easy as that.

PS. I watched Porco Rosso with my friend S - she know who she is - the other day and the film was completely pointless. It was promising and had potential, but it's a mystery to me how someone can like the film, as it certainly wasn't worth the watch. Pointlessly spent time. I figured I could mention that here, since it certainly isn't worth making a whole post just to tell you a film is completely pointless.

Poll and commissions

2011-08-13T20:49:00.002+02:00

I am currently concentrating on taking commissions to raise money to get my cat his vaccinations. So I won't be reviewing as much for the time being. To commission me, do check this journal entry at MangaBullet. There are all the prices. To commission, mail me, if you don't have MangaBullet or deviantArt.

Other than that, life's going forward. I'm chatting a lot with people on different sites and through MSN. Getting comments at this blog wouldn't be too bad either! (laughs)

Lately I've been wondering if people would like me to go to conventions in other countries than Sweden. So made a poll here which I'll link to. (laughs) I hope to get some responses collected so I can see if I'll think about it or not. I might need to make research too. You know, what I need to do if I'm going to be in an Artist Alley or anything similar. I statred to think about it after the previous convention, as I think it would be nice to meet other conventions too. As it is, I only go to a single on in Sweden. I know thinking worldwide might be a bit big if I've only been to UppCon and no other conventions, but I'm specifically interested in Artist Alleys, and UppCon is the only convention with that.

So if you'd like me to stop by at a convention near you, vote! and if you don't have neither deviantArt nor MangaBullet you can comment here or mail me at the same mail I previously mentioned. You can find MangaBullet and deviantArt links to the left (going for an-tan is safer than ortitia on deviantArt). MyAnimeList is another site you can turn to though, as I check it almost daily too.

That's enough for today! Have fun!

B-gata H-kei

2011-08-10T11:48:00.002+02:00

Yamada wants to have 100 sex partners now that she entered high school. But first she has to take the first step of getting rid of her virginity, which she obviously can't get rid of with someone experienced. She sets her eyes on the plain and everyday-looking Takashi Kosuda, since he can't possibly have any experience. But Yamada herself is inexperienced and easily get flustered, while she without having a clue is falling in love.

That sure made it sound horrible. But there's no way I can explain this show without making Yamada sound fixated. Because she is. Over-the-top sex fixated. But that's what makes her and this show so much fun.

Yamada's a popular and beautiful girl and she's well aware of it. But the only flaw she has is her virginity and that's why she has t get some experience before she can get to the real thing. This is where Takashi comes in. He happens to pass by while Yamada falls and she decides from his appearnce that his a virgin. Now her quest begins to get rid of her virginity, but as every attempt fails, Yamada's feeling for the everyday-looking boy grows.

This show is easy-going and even though the theme is sex they never come that far. It's a comedy anime which gets 4.5 stars from me.

I'm sorry for the brief review. My cat takes up my time and I rarely get a long enough break to actually get to... anything. And when I do, he's lying on my lap, so I can't really type, because he's in the way of my keyboard.

Books of July

2011-08-06T22:44:00.002+02:00

I got a cat now and a lot of my time actually goes to the cat as he's still a kitten. I will try to read as much as possible though.

Also, I've updated the wishlist with the light novel series Haruhi Suzumiya as well as adding links. I need to go to bed now, but tomorrow I hope to get a review up and more books added to the wishlist.

What I'm currently reading:

Library copies
The Demon's Lexicon (Sarah Rees Brennan, English)

My mother's copies
Mother Earth Father Sky (Sue Harrison, Swedish)
The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel, Swedish)

Online
None

My copies
None

What I finished during the month:
I finished Kiki's Delivery Service. It's a very cute book and works well for parents to read with their children.

Next month's goal:
I didn't get through The Demon's Lexicon during July so maybe now during August? Otherwise I do have The Clan of the Cave Bear to read. Though I finished most of it in Finland already, so there's only maybe 150-200 pages left on that one.

A-channel

2011-07-21T22:59:00.001+02:00

Before reviewing A-channel, I wanted to finish watch the specials, which are called +A-channel. But as it doesn't seem like it will be any time soon, I think it might be better to throw this show out there before I forget about it.

A-channel is about the daily life of four girls - Run, Tooru, Yuuko and Nagi. It's based on a four panel (yonkoma) strip, and the chapters of the episodes aren't extremely long. It's a quite cheerful show to watch and it doesn't force anything on you. It's just daily life events.

There is an insert song, beside the opening and the ending in every episode, with voice actors singing, and the song has to do with the episode it's in.

Run is an airheaded blond second year. At times she blanks out and her friends have to save her from hurting herself. She has known Tooru since kindergarten and the two of them are best friends.

Tooru is a short first year. She's really attached to Run and doesn't like when people are trying to make a move on her, so she interrupts. She has trouble to find clothes that fit her because she so skinny. At first she didn't like Yuuko, because her first impression of Yuuko was when Yuuko and Run were in a situation that could be misunderstood, from Tooru's point of view.

Yuuko is in the same class as Run and has moved into the twon. She met Run at the entrance exams. She's a bit of a scaredy-cat who often gets teased by Tooru, usually out of jealousy of Yuuko's figure.

Nagi is also in the same class as Run. She's conscious of her weight and often tries different diets. She's intelligent and tend to make quick remarks to her friends. She hates both hot and cold weather.

I give this anime a 5 for it's cheerfulness. You don't have to hardcore watch it, since it's kind of simple. It makes you laugh

Some updates

2011-07-16T20:21:00.002+02:00

Yesterday a friend of mine came over and stayed over the night. I was able to rewatch AnoHana, and I have to say, it was really worth it. As you might know, I just watched it last month. And it was just as good the second time as the first time. I didn't cry as much as last time. I did get tears in my eyes though. It was fun meeting my friend, though. that was kind of my main point.

It seems like I will be going to Finland in a couple of days and I hope to throw up - not literally, though - a review or two before that. And perhaps get some scheduled in advance, so that this blog isn't dead while I might not have access to the net. The book list of July will however not get scheduled, which means it will be late if I can't get access to the net. I have read more than I was expecting this month, and half is still left, which is why I don't dare to scheduled. Not to mention, I read a lot during trips, because I don't really like having my MacBook with me, because it's heavy and not very useful.

I also just wanted to say that if anyone is wondering about whether I find any of the ongoing series worth watching, I'm willing to watch them. In other words, I do take requests. I can also watch finished series, if I just can get my hands on them.

That was all for now. Now I'm getting back to packing my suitcase. My mum told me to pack for two weeks, and since my suitcase is really small, it's a challenge, even for me who's become known in my family to be a miraculous packer, ever since I stopped packing unnecessary things. (I did that a lot as a child, hahaha! Like packing ten to twenty stuffed animals and my while wardrobe in the biggest bag I could possibly find.)

And a small edit: I've been approved for Amazon's affiliate program too, so expect book adds from Amazon as soon as I possibly can add them. I've been so busy keeping up with the new shows, reading and playing .hack, that I haven't added the adds. However in the wishlist, books available at Amazon has been linked.

Asura Cryin'

2011-07-10T14:40:00.002+02:00

Tomoharu Natsume is your average high school student. If it hadn't been for Misao Minakami - the spirit of his best friend - haunting him. But this doesn't really bother Tomoharu and when he moves into his older brother's house, he expects to continue his life as it was.

One day he is left with a mysterious briefcase, which leads his home to be invaded by different groups - all with the briefcase as their target. Not having any idea what the briefcase is, Tomoharu and Misao escapes with it. And from there on Tomoharu has to learn the secret about not only the briefcase...

Asura Cryin' is made of two seasons - Asura Cryin' and Asura Cryin' 2. I will cover both in this review as I think they shouldn't be separated at all to begin with. The reason? The first season give you questions, the second one answers them. But there are also answers in the first season to questions that would rise in the second season, if you skip the most confusing season out of the two.

Asura Cryin' has a very interesting and somewhat bizarre concept and many interesting characters. As I mentioned, the seasons are confusing by themselves, but together they make sense. However the execution of it isn't the best. I'm not sure if it's solely an issue with the animated adaptation of the show or the original comic is the original culprit. There are some important conversation with horrible timing, for instance.

Tomoharu Natsume is the main character and he lives alone, if you don't count his friend Misao. He's pretty average guy, and it also means he is a pretty boring character. The only thing that even caught my interest in this character to begin with, is the horrible hair design. He wishes to be strong to be able to protect people, but at the same time he doesn't want to hurt anyone.

Misao Minakami is the ghost of Tomoharu's best friend from their childhood. She died after a plane crash and became a "burial doll" - a spirit sacrifice to be used in Asura Machina. Misao is in love with Tomoharu. She's actually quite carefree, and doesn't find being dead too bad.

Kanade Takatsuki is a demon. Female demons, as herself, need love of the one they made a contract with to be able to use their powers and keep living. (Male demons uses their memory of their partner.) Kanade develops feelings for Tomoharu, but tries to keep them hidden.

These three are the main characters. We also have "Shuri" Kurosaki, whose twin sister died in the same incident as Misao, and a person who says he is Tomoharu's brother Naotaka.

This anime was, as I said, a bit confusing and has some flow and timing issues, and as much as I want to say the characters were deep, I can't be sure, as the anime as a whole is too short for you to learn enough about them.

I also mentioned the concept is interesting. Asura Machina is built in an alternate universe than the one Tomoharu live in, for instance. But there are many terms, like burial doll, Asura Machina, stabilizer, handler, Asura Cryin', daughters... It makes it a bit more confusing. As the show is quite short, I myself didn't grasp exactly everything the first time I watched it. I might watch it again, just to understand everything better.

Which means, this show is good enough to watch again. So, to make an end to this review, which must be somewhat confusing - because I'm really hungry and just wish to get a review up and therefore did this in a rush - I will name give three different ratings.

The first season by itself gets... 2 stars, mostly because it's really confusing. The second season gets 4 stars, as most people won't watch it before watching the first, which makes it less confusing and in overall it's not as flawed. The show all together gets 5 stars. If you can live with the flaws, it really is worth that.

This is not related to the review at all but... I sure don't like the new layout of blogger's user panel. I don't seem to find anything anymore. Oh well... I managed to get this up, didn't I?

Some inactivity for now

2011-07-07T07:26:00.002+02:00

I'm trying to catch all the new shows that are of interest this season, which is one of the reasons I'm somewhat inactive. I do have the following shows to review:

A-channel
Asura Cryin'
Asura Cryin' 2
B-gata H-kei
Seikon no Qwaser

As an addition to that, I also have watched the Gintama Benizakura chapter film, which also will be reviewed.

BUT, my stomach has been a bother lately and just earlier this morning it was even worse, so it might take some time before I feel well enough to get around reviewing anything at the moment. I do hope to be better before Sunday, so I can get one or two reviews up.

Sheep's Song

2011-07-05T18:31:00.002+02:00

The Takashiro family has a history of suffering from an illness that creates an uncontrollable thirst for blood. Kazuna doesn't know about this and was sent to live with the Eda couple as a child. But the sickness starts to show its signs and Kazuna comes in contact wth his older sister Chizuna who has been suffering from the sickness ever since she was a child. Knowing that th sickness is a heavy weight to carry, Chizna tries to ease her younger brother's suffering...

Sheep's Song (also known as Hitsuji no Uta in Japanese) is a dark four episode anime about vampirism, due to an illness. This naturally means both Kazuna and Chizuna are vampires, but their illness is a hindrance for them and it is told that people of the Takashiro family who suffers from the illness has committed suicide because of the mental pressure the illness put on a person.

The story is completely character driven and the characters are very well done. Even if it's a very short show, the lenght is good for it. Sadly this show was on a very low budget and as it always goes with shows with low budget - it suffers. The animation is made up by a lot of reused frames and the soundtrack isn't very good at all, but at least they coughed up enough money for a really good ending theme sung by Megumi Hayashibara (the voice of Chizuna) and Tomokazu Seki (the voice of Kazuna), which has an eerie and sad feel to it - perfect for this type of show.

I believe, if made right, this show could have been made slightly longer, but the length as it is was good too. So if you can get over the horrible budget the show without a doubt suffered from, this can be very enjoyable to watch. I myself had issues with the reused animation - especially for Kazuna's attacks due to the illness - but even so found it worth watching, because the story was good and the art was pretty.

By the end of the show I give it 4.5 stars, where the low budget is the only thing that lowers my rating from anything above.

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

2011-07-03T21:59:00.000+02:00

Takashi Natsume continues to give back names of demons and spirits his grandmother Reiko collected, but he also meets a lot of other spirits who he assists and get to know.

The second season of Natsume Yuujinchou is much like the previous season, however there were some changes comapred to the previous ones, most of them making me feel about sad. First of all it was the amount you got to know Reiko. In the previous season you got to see memories of the owner of the name whenever Takashi returned them, but this season the audience did only get stories about Reiko told. I found it a bit sad, as I really enjoyed seeing fragments, learning about Reiko. On top of that there was much less of Reiko in general this season.

Another change was the arcs. Previously there were no stories longer than one episode, but this season there were two arcs, if I remember correctly. I don't know if it's because of that, but the spirits and demons in this season just didn't feel like they got stuck. While I properly remember both Asagi and Akagane, kogitsune (the fox child), Tsuyukami (the Dew God) and many others from the first season, those who actually stayed in my mind were Gen and Sui, Kai, Miya and Yasaka, and the evil spirit who lured Takashi to give her name back.

While some characters didn't reappear (for instance I thought Mizusu would appear again, as well as the fox) this season, the audience got much more of Shuuichi Natori and Hiidari. I was surprised to see Hinoe, who first appeared in the first season during an episode when Mizusu was testing Takashi.

This season another character who can see spirits, who goes to same school as Takashi - Tooru Taki appeared too, together with some people that has seen spirits or demons at least ones. Tooru is from a family of onmyouji, and she can only see spirits if they step in a certain circle, which she draws.

We also learned more about Touko and Shigure Fujiwara, who has take Takashi in, this season.We also learn more about the relationship between them and their newest family member, and we even get to see it slowly change to a more family-like relationship. Takashi keeps growing as a person and get more experiences in this season, and just as the previous season it's about relationships between humans and between the spiritual and humans, and the hardships and fears Takashi has of people knowing about his powers.

This season was indeed a good one, and at par with the last season. The beginning was actually making me disappointed in what I was seeing but before I knew it I was feeling it was the same Natsume Yuujinchou I was watching earlier. The soundtrack is the same as the last season, and while the ending is similar to the music in the previous season, I don't feel the opening song fits the series as well. It's a good song, but I just don't feel it was fit for the series.

Once again, this season is also children friendly, but I do still advice younger children watch it with their parents or older siblings.

So, what do I give this season? It should be obvious! As it wasn't as good as the first season in the beginning of the season, it was still good, so I give it 5.5 stars. If it just hadn't been for the first episode making me disappointed, the rating had been just as good, as I don't rate series by their openings and endings.

I wonder if the third season coming out this season will be at par with these first two. Let's see this with excitement.

Natsume Yuujinchou

2011-07-02T19:04:00.002+02:00

Takashi Natsume has ever since he was a child had a high spiritual sensitivity, but he has always tried to keep it hidden, as people thought he was creepy. But when he moves to where his grandmother once lived, his life is starting to change.

The reason being a book he inherited from his grandmother - the Book of Friends (Yuujinchou). With the infamous spirit Madara as his bodyguard, Takashi is now returning the names his grandmother once collected, and so free them from the contract his grandmother made with demons and spirits.

Natsume Yuujinchou is the first season of a light and cheerful anime. Even though there aren't much of an overall plot, each episode's story is well though out. Takashi encounters a new demon or spirit almost every episode, but all of these are very well thought out - both the episodes and the troubles and backgrounds of the demons and spirits. It might seem the story would be about these demons and spirits, but it's deeper than that - it's about the bonds and relationships between humans as well as between humans and these spiritual beings.

Takashi Natsume is our main character. He's a quite lonely person as the show starts, but he is a very nice person. He doesn't like seeing demons and spirits, but he realizes with time he wouldn't actually suddenly stop seeing them, and he gets attached to some of them. As the series goes on Takashi makes a few friends, both people who are spiritual sensitive and those who aren't.

Takashi has made a deal with a spirit - who's mostly in a form of a maneki neko-looking cat - that when he dies, that demon can have the Book of Friends. In return the spirit, Madara, is Takashi's bodyguard, as there are more spirits and demons who wishes to have the names of others.

Having the name of a demon or spirit written down means a contract is formed, where the one who has the name is the master and can call the spirit or demon. To why Reiko collected these names isn't clear, but Reiko has met the same fate as many other with spiritual sensitivity - they are thought as creepy and are sometimes bullied and disliked and was therefore, much like Takashi, a lonely person.

As I mentioned, Takashi meets other people who can see spirits too. One of them is another student at his school - Kaname Tanuma - as well as a well-known actor, who is an exorcist on the side - Shuuichi Natori. Takashi also meets a man that used to see spirits and demons too, but suddenly couldn't anymore.

This anime is a very well done piece and even though the first season is short, it feels like every character Takashi meets has been in several episodes after you get to know them, even if many of them doesn't appear again.

The soundtrack and both the opening and ending are also very suitable to this show and I am so glad I watched it. While most of the shows I see are targeted to boys and young men, this show is targeted to girls. It's also safe for all ages. The very youngest should watch it with older siblings or parents, as it can be a bit scary for them. But at the end of the day, this is really a show worth watching regardless of who your are. After all, this first season gets 6 stars from me.

And now I'm off to watch the second season. Look forward to the review!

Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

2011-07-02T11:49:00.000+02:00

Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera is a franchise of the Dororon Enma-kun comic released in the 70s and the whole anime have this feeling, with covered 70s music (which I actually liked the most in the whole show), animation style and phrases from the era. Usually I don't watch newer franchises unless I have watched the older ones, but this is an exception, as I was just too lazy to try to find the Dororon Enma-kun anime which aired 1973 to 1974. This anime is mainly targeted to those who grew up with the original anime and comic, and has some perverted jokes. There's no actual plot and is just make you laugh (and perhaps relive your youth if you're 45 or older, as I have heard the comic was quite raunchy, but I have never actually read it).

The anime has a lot of references to old school anime as well as some to things that has happened in Japan. This makes this anime, without a doubt, a Japan targeted one, but even without getting the references you can have a lot of fun watching it. I didn't particularly like it, but it made me laugh and I had moments of going "What?" laughing either harder.

Most of the characters are over-the-top, which also makes this anime more enjoyable. The 12 episodes were just about the length this series needed as it's not necessarily the anime you'd show to kids and has no actual plot. Perhaps unless you live in Japan. Harumi - a human, unlike the Demon Patrol consisting of Enma, Princess Yukiko, Kappaeru and the hat Chapeauji - gives a lot to the show even though she's quite plain.

I would have to say this anime should be watched with an open mind, as even though the animation is better than it generally was in the 70s, this show is as much 70s as it could be.

I'm friendly enough to give a rating to this one, and as I was enjoying it but in overall didn't like it (this sounds odd, but there are shows like that, at times), it gets the hard-to-get 3.5 rating.

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

2011-07-02T01:40:00.003+02:00

A boy in his adolescence. A cousin wrapped in a futon claiming to be an alien. A childish aunt saying nonsense. A hardworking bench-warming basketball player. A classmate wearing fish costumes while playing baseball. A girl in a space suit. Makoto Niwa's life went from normal to filled with craziness the instant he moved to his aunt, and somehow he has to deal with it.

If I had been in my right mind, I would had thrown myself into bed as soon as I finished the last episode of this very great show. But luckily, I'm not and will now spend the next two hours to write about Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko!

So, let's now first get the title straight. Denpa literary means electromagnetic waves, and does also refer to people who have overly active imagination and live in their own world. In other words we're talking about someone insane. Seishun refers to adolescence, but often also implies to the joy of overcoming immaturity and to youthful romances. This means that loosely translated you could translate the title to Insane Girl and Adolescent Boy.

The show revolves around Makoto Niwa and start with him moving into a new town, into his aunt, Meme Touwa's, household. There he meets his cousin Erio for the first time - he didn't even know he had one until that point - who just happens to wrap a futon around herself and say she's an alien.

Makoto is very young-looking...

Makoto is just your normal boy. He does, though, actively count "seishun points" (ie adolescent points) which are based around the concept of seishun, as explained very briefly earlier. These keep track of the quality of his school life and he does actively pursue points. When he hears Erio thought she could fly and had tried to fly on her bike, he takes Erio with him to prove she can't fly. As they are going down the hill the breaks of the bike breaks and they end up falling bike, futon, and humans into the ocean and Makoto breaks an arm. This activity was worth 5 seishun points. (It is not recommended anyone do this though. It's dangerous! This is just an animated show, kids!)

Makoto is quite realistic as well as very sceptic and is an enjoyable character, as he man up when it counts. ("Man" up, haha! He's one of the youngest characters in the show, in my opinion.) You get almost everything from his perspective as he guides you with narration, along with his humour.

Erio Touwa is a serious case of denpa, and she has also dropped out of school, wraps herself into a futon, is a self-proclaimed alien and believes she can fly. Erio went missing for six month and remembers nothing of the time she was gone. She began to believe she had been abducted by aliens, but later it changed to being an alien. After the not-so-epic-falling-into-the-sea-incident, Erio starts changing, going from a hopeless loner to someone who does part time work at a candy store. It is not easy for Erio to find work though, as her reputation is that of the girl wrapped in a futon. The people at school also tries to avoid her, which makes Makoto try to avoid telling anyone he's her cousin.

Makoto's first meeting with Erio was quite a shock.

Meme Touwa is Erio's mother who has given up on Erio's denpa case. She acts like a child and says nonsensical things almost all the time. She is quite the puppet master and influences the other characters to get the story going. She is quite mysterious and you can't really understand what she's thinking, but as part of the audience, you know she's hiding something about Erio's father Elliott. She keeps saying things about Makoto which aren't true and it it annoys Makoto a lot.

Ryuuko Mifune is one of Makoto's classmates and she also finds her love interest in the transfer student. Erio started calling her Ryuushi as it sounded more alien than Ryuuko and to Ryuuko's horror it stuck to her as a nickname even after Erio dropped out of school. She is actively trying to win Makoto over and is the actual heroine of the show. She is quirky, but hard-working, and her speech is just way too cute and goes all too well with her character.

We also have Maekawa, whose first name I sure can't remember if I should know or not, who has apparent feelings for Makoto, and she teases Makoto and Ryuuko a lot. Personality-wise she's more or less Ryuuko's opposite, being analyzing. She sees like a very intelligent characters at first sight, but you can't be sure if she isn't just a weirdo as she wears very weird costumes in every episode.

Finally we have Yashiro Hoshimiya who appeared late in the show in a baseball match Maekawa asked Makoto to be in, but she made quite an impact on both the audience and the story. She claims to be an alien esper and no one believes her, however she showed proof of her powers in a couple of episodes. She says that both Ryuuko and Makoto have esper potential - which, interesting enough, is exactly what Erio said while she still was a serious case of denpa.

This show has many seishun elements, such as running towards the sun (though the variation of biking towards the moon was used), shouting out corny lines in public and working hard on sports, which are all quite cliché. However, these are excellently executed in the series, which makes a huge difference.

Before I say the rating I am giving this show, I will also way the end of it was a definite invitation of hope for a second season. Or fear for one. Because this is a hit or miss anime, with it's very special quirkiness. this quirkiness hit for me right away and even with a pacing that sometimes doesn't work perfectly, this is another great show from the spring season. I certainly hope for a second season and hope it will hold the same 5.5 star rate as I am giving this show.

And as a side note, the denpa theme is taken to the top, with a "denpa" opening. Denpa in music tends to refer to highbeat music with somewhat or very nonsensical lyrics and "cute" voices. This opening has instead very unique music with interesting singing voice, while the lyrics makes a lot of sense. The song is surprisingly addicting.

Scanner not working

2011-07-01T15:14:00.001+02:00

The scanner I was using is not working as it should anymore, so I can't scan my traditional art. Therefore I have taken picture of my two latest finished pieces.

This one was called SMOKE while I was working on it.

And this one was called Lotus Rains.

Also, I got some new marker today, together with two wallets to have them in, which I ordered from Letraset. Very handy, I must say!

Softenni

2011-06-30T01:27:00.002+02:00

Softenni is a sports anime. No, let me rephrase that...

Softenni is a comedy anime with a sports theme. It's about the soft tennis club in a school in Hokkaido (northernmost of the main islands in Japan), where we have the club president and gourmet Chitose Akiyama, the soft tennis ace Kurusu Fuyukawa who's often dressed up in weird costumes, the hotblooded idiot Kotone Sawanatsu, the foreign student Elisabeth Warren who wants to marry the coach, You Michimagi - a former national champion. We also have the perverted minded Asuna Harukaze.

As, I said, it's a comedy anime, and on top of that only 12 episodes, so unlike other sports themed anime shows, this doesn't drag the theme till your eyes bleed. Of course there are games and training camps, but there is also Asuna making everything to something perverted and Chitose who can't even hit the ball, even as the club president. Not to mention the coach - the former national champion - is so laid back you can at times wonder if he really cares about the soft tennis members.

This is a good anime with a happy aura around it and while being about sports, it doesn't take the sport too seriously. The animation is good and there are some unexpected events. Even if this isn't really a review - at most it's a summary or recommendation - I decided to give this a rating and - drums please! - after doing some math on what 80% out of six might be, this show gets a 5 star rating. I would had liked more of it, but only because it was just pure fun to watch and I would dare to say it's the best comedy anime of the spring season.

Books of June

2011-06-30T01:04:00.000+02:00

What I'm currently reading:

Library copies
The Demon's Lexicon (Sarah Rees Brennan, English)

My mother's copies
Mother Earth Father Sky (Sue Harrison, Swedish)

Online
None

My copies
None

What I finished during the month:
I finished First Fruits, which wasn't a too good read. I also finished Howl's Moving Castle, which is a must read.

Next month's goal:
I have high hopes of getting through The Demon's Lexicon during July. Mother Earth Father Sky is just something I read if I have absolutely nothing to do at my mum's apartment, because I have - for instance - forgotten to take something to read with me.

Upcoming Anime: Summer 2011

2011-06-28T06:37:00.003+02:00

I was unsure whether to have this section or not, but in the end, i decided to add it. This is a list of anime coming this season. I know it's a bit late now, but I have been changing my mind about this entry several times and it just dragged on for too long.
Note that these are just the TV shows (that I know of) and I can't tell for sure all the dates are correct.

Blade
Starts airing: July 1st
Comment: -
Summary: The story revolves around Blade, a "Daywalker" vampire hunter who was born with vampire and human blood after a vampire attacked his mother. While visiting Japan on a mission, Blade tracks down Deacon Frost, the vampire who killed his mother. Blade confronts "Existence," a mysterious organization composed of vampires modified by Frost.(Anime News Network)
Genre: Action, Fantasy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/6920/Blade

Rou Kyuu Bu!
Starts airing: July 1st
Comment: -
Summary: Hasegawa Subaru enters a basketball club of Nanashiba High School, but the activity of the club gets suspended because the club leader falls in love with an 11 year old daughter of the coaching teacher. Subaru's aunt asks him to coach a basketball club of elementary school girls. At first, he is reluctant to teach small girls, but he devotes himself to the club as he knows the complex circumstances of them. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Sports, Comedy, School
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10572/Ro-Kyu-Bu!

Kami-sama no Memo-chou
Starts airing: July 2nd
Comment: -
Summary: Narumi Fujishima is a plain high school boy, who has been isolated in the class. His classmate, Ayaka Shinozaki, invites Narumi to the gardening club and introduces a hikikomori detective named Alice to him.
Alice hires Narumi as an assistant to solve mysterious cases involving an illegal drug "Angel Fix". But the drug entraps Ayaka into danger. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Mystery
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10568/Kamisama_no_Memochou

Nurarihyon no Mago 2: Sennen Makyou
Starts airing: July 3rd
Comment: Second season
Summary:Rikuo Nura appears to be an average high-school kid. No one knows that he comes home everyday to a house full of the once fearsome yokai of legend, nor that at night, Nura transforms into the all powerful leader of these spirits. However, much to the disappointment of -well- everyone, Rikuo is determined to live as normal a life as possible. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Action, Fantasy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10049/Nurarihyon_no_Mago:_Sennen_Makyou

Sacred Seven
Starts airing: July 3rd
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: Action, School
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10156/Sacred_Seven

Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%
Starts airing: July 3rd
Comment: -
Summary: Nanami Haruka wants to be a song writer, so she attends an idol training school filled with beautiful bishounen. The school pairs each aspiring songwriter with an aspiring idol, but Haruka finds herself paired with 3 idols! To make things more difficult, Nanami is also not allowed to date any of her beautiful partners! (MangaUpdates)
Genre:Comedy, Romance, School
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10321/Uta_no%E2%98%86Prince-sama%E2%99%AA_Maji_Love_1000

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée
Starts airing: July 4th
Comment:-
Summary: The story takes place in the second half of the 19th century, as Japanese culture gains popularity in the West. A young Japanese girl, Yune, accompanies a French traveller, Oscar, on his journey back to France, and offers to help at the family's ironwork shop in Paris. Oscar's nephew and shop-owner Claude reluctantly accepts to take care of Yune, and we learn how those two, who have so little in common, get to understand each other and live together in the Paris of the 1800s. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Romance, Drama, Historical, Slice of Life
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/9938/Ikoku_Meiro_no_Crois%C3%A9e

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel
Starts airing: July 5th
Comment: -
Summary: Haruka Minazuki and Aoi Kannazuki are freshman high school students and best friends. During the day they help with school activities but at night they thwart enemies like Black Auction and other villains as Red Angel and Blue Angel, the Twin Angel team. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Magical Girl
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10217/Kaitou_Tenshi_Twin_Angel:_Kyun_Kyun_Tokimeki_Paradise!!

Kamisama Dolls
Starts airing: July 5th
Comment: -
Summary: Kyouhei, after moving away to Tokyo from his old town to get away from the events that happened, is on a goukon with his friends, including his old neighbor, Shiba. After drinking for a whole night, he and Shiba discover a dead, bloody body in the elevator. He is told by his younger sister, Utao with her Kamisama Doll, that Aki, an old friend, and his Doll are the culprits responsible. (MyAnimeList)

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Romance
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10372/Kamisama_Dolls

Natsume Yuujinchou San
Starts airing: July 5th
Comment: Third Season
Summary: Natsume Yuujinchou is a light and cheerful anime adapted from the manga of the same name.
Since he was young, a teenage boy named Natsume Takashi has been able to see spirits, but keeping this ability a secret has now become a heavy burden for him and has made his life difficult.
This begins to change when Takashi inherits his grandmother's "Book of Friends". He discovers that she, Natsume Reiko, shared the same ability as him and starts to understand why he was always targeted by both good and bad spirits.
After learning the true meaning behind the Book of Friends, which allows him to manipulate the spirits listed within its pages, Takashi undertakes a journey with his bodyguard, the infamous spirit Madara, to free the spirits of their contracts with Reiko. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Drama, Slice of Life
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10379/Natsume_Yuujinchou_San

Yuru Yuri
Starts airing: July 5th
Comment: -
Summary: Four fun-loving schoolgirls take over the former room of a tea ceremony club for their own "Gorakubu" (amusement club).(MyAnimeList)
Genre: Girl's Love, Comedy, School, Slice of Life
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10495/Yuru_Yuri

Morita-san wa Mukuchi
Starts airing: July 6th
Comment: -
Summary: Morita Mayu, a high school girl. She is extremely reticent and her silence and habit of looking at people's eyes straightly sometimes cause misunderstanding. The reason behind it is not because she doesn’t like to talk nor because she has nothing to say. The reason she rarely speaks is due to the fact she thinks too much before speaking, thus losing the timing to speak altogether. But she lives a happy school life with her classmates. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Slice of life, School, Comedy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10671/Morita-san_wa_Mukuchi_(TV)

Nyanpire the Animation
Starts airing: July 6th
Comment: -
Summary: A heartwarming story about a stray black cat, who was given blood from a vampire. He was taken in by a girl Misaki and started live with her. Nyanpire's favorite phrase is "Give me blood nya." (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10197/Nyanpire_The_Animation

Blood-C
Starts airing: July 7th
Comment: This is a new anime spawned from the Blood: The Last Vampire franchise. CLAMP is responsible for the story and character design in this.
Summary: -
Genre: Action, Fantasy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10490/Blood-C

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!
Starts airing: July 8th
Comment: Second season
Summary: The story centers around Akihisa Yoshii, the "baka" of the title. His academy rigidly divides up the student body into classes based on the results of tests. The prodigies are in the A class with reclining seats complete with air conditioning, but Akihisa is in F class, the lowest rung of the school ladder which is furnished only with low, decrepit tables and worn-out straw tatami mats. A girl named Mizuki Himeji is actually one of the smartest girls in Akihisa's sophomore year, but she had a fever on test day and was pigeonholed into the F class. Besides Mizuki (who Akihisa secretly adores), the F class also has Yuuji Sakamoto, the class president who has been Akihisa's friend and partner-in-crime since the freshman year.
The school happens to have developed experiments to summon fantasy creatures, and Akihisa decides to rally F class to take on the higher-tiered classes and seize their perks. The F class uses the summoned creatures in an all-out battle for school supremacy. (MyAnimeList.net)
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Fantasy, School
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/8516/Baka_to_Test_to_Shoukanjuu_Ni!

Mayo Chiki!
Starts airing: July 8th
Comment: -
Summary: Konoe Subaru, 17, has been serving as the butler of Suzutsuki Kanade in school, a classmate of Sakamachi Kinjirou. Due to an accident, Sakamachi discovers Subaru's secret... that he's actually a girl!? Apparently she will be removed from her position if anyone at school finds out. What will unfold from this chain of events? (MangaUpdates)
Genre: Comedy, Romance
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10110/Mayo_Chiki!

No.6
Starts airing: July 8th
Comment: -
Summary: The story takes place in the ideal city "NO.6" in 2013. Shion was judged as having "highest-ranked intelligence" when he was two years old and was allowed to live in the luxurious area "Cronos".
On his twelfth birthday, he met a beautiful boy called "Nezumi," who had escaped from a reformatory. Shion protected him, but the Public Security Bureau deprived Shion of all his privileges and expelled him from Cronos to "Lost Town".
Four years after the banishment, a mysterious accident leads Shion to the secret of the city NO.6. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Mystery
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10161/No.6

The Idolm@ster
Starts airing: July 8th
Comment:Adaptation of the game
Summary: -

Genre: Music
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10278/The_iDOLM@STER

Usagi Drop
Starts airing: July 8th
Comment: -
Summary: At the funeral of his grand father middle-aged single Daikichi finds out that he left behind an illegitimate child. As nobody from his family is willing to take care of her, Daikichi decides to do it himself, however without thingking of the consequenes this move has on his life.(Animeph)
Genre: Slice of Life
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10162/Usagi_Drop

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi
Starts airing: July 9th
Comment: -
Summary: Taito has been really sleepy lately, and keeps dreaming of a female vampire who says she has given him her "poison." Sometimes he even thinks he hears her voice when he's awake. But after surviving an accident that should have killed him, Taito's world changes drastically and he realizes that his dreams are more real than he thought. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Comedy, Ecchi*, Romance, Fantasy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/9750/Itsuka_Tenma_no_Kuro_Usagi

Nekogami Yaoyorozu
Starts airing: July 9th
Comment: -
Summary: Koyama Yuzu is running an antique shop. Mayu, a cat god (nekogami), is living off Yuzu and leads an idle life playing games. Lots of other gods visit Mayu and enjoy merrymaking. (Anime News Network)
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/9934/Nekogami_Yaoyorozu

R-15
Starts airing: July 9th
Comment: -
Summary: Akutagawa Takuto is a teenage porn novel writer. He enters Hirameki Gakuen, which accepts only geniuses with outstanding talent. He leads his classmates with his porn skills to win the interclass competition. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Comedy, Romance
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10611/R-15

Manyuu Hikenchou
Starts airing: July 11th
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: Ecchi*, Action, Romance
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10465/Manyuu_Hikenchou

Dantalian no Shoka
Starts airing: July 15th
Comment: -
Summary: Hugh Anthony Disward inherits an old mansion and a personal library from his grandfather. In the basement of the mansion, he meets a mysterious girl, Dalian. She is a Dantalian and a gateway to "Dantalian's bookshelf", which stores the prohibited books of the demons.
"Gensho (Illusory Books)", the prohibited books, endanger the balance of the world, but people are fascinated by the taboo. Hugh and Dalian solve the cases involving Gensho with their ability to access the Dantalian bookshelf. (MyAnimeList)
Genre: Fantasy
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/8915/Dantalian_no_Shoka

Mawaru Penguin Drum
Starts airing: July 15th
Comment: -
Summary: -
Genre: Slice of Life
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10721/Mawaru_Penguindrum

~~Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam~~
Starts airing: July ??
Comment: Second Season/Original tale in the LE universe
Summary: Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing is a new original tale in the Last Exile universe. It features new characters, new mechanics and an all new story centered around the young ace vanship pilot, Fam, and her trusted navigator, Giselle, as they pilot their vanship, Vespa, through the free and peaceful skies. (Funimation)
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Sci-fi
MAL page: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10336/Last_Exile:_Ginyoku_no_Fam

* Ecchi means it involves nudity of some extent as fan service

Dog Days & 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku

2011-06-28T02:25:00.003+02:00

I finished watching Dog Days yesterday, and 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku the day before that, so here's some thoughts about them.

30-sai no Hoken Taiiku is basically a guide for shy virgin 30 year old people on how to date, and - of course - get laid, so to say. I had my laughs during it, though I laughed more because of how pathetic I found the anime, rather than to any jokes. If you like jokes that at least implies to sex (and sex play), I think this could be cute enough for you, but otherwise you can stay away. There isn't really much explicit nudity as it's censored. Words are censored too, though if you watch it subbed, you might just get confused about the sudden voice change. This show is not for kids, so keep it away from your children.

Dog Days is however younger teens friendly. It's, in other words, PG13. It's about Cinque, who is summoned as a hero to the world Flonyard by the princess of Biscotti, Milhiore. There he has to fight for the country, while the scientist Rico and her team works on how to get him back to his world before he has to be back. It's a good anime for people starting out as it's not too long and it has a bit of everything. These is some innocent fan service, some action, some love. Not to mention the dog, cat, rabbit, tiger, fox (and so on) eared characters. It's a fun show to watch, and - as mentioned - a good one to show for someone just starting out.

AnoHana review

2011-06-26T13:08:00.003+02:00

A group of six children are really good friends and have formed a group called Super Peace Busters (Chou Heiwa Busters in Japanese) to protect peace. But one day Anaru asks Jintan if he likes Menma and he says he don't like such an ugly person. The second later he runs out and hopes to tell Menma he's sorry the next day. But tomorrow never came. For Menma, that is. The friends start becoming more distant and in the end their group splits up.

A couple of years later, a grown up Menma suddenly appears before Jintan while he's playing a game. Or actually, she is more like pestering him. But Menma didn't come back just to pester Jintan, she has a wish she wants fulfilled. She just doesn't remember what it was, but everyone is needed for it to be fulfilled...

This is Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai, or AnoHana for short and "We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day" in English. The eleven episode long series is a journey through memories and emotions. As my emotion manifests in tears in most cases, it was literary a cry-fest for me. And, without a doubt, this is the best anime of the 2011 spring season batch. And I still have to watch some more of this batch.

The reason for this opinion of mine isn't because this genre is fit for me. I prefer dark and twisted shows in general, if you really want to know. But this show still does take that first place, even if Deadman Wonderland for instance would have been the one I'd bet on. No, the reason is the flow, the story, the characters, how emotional it becomes and how it actually did have not too many nor too few episodes. Lately a lot of anime has been rushed into twelve or thirteen episodes when they should have been better off with maybe 20. But every now and then you can find one or two shows that are properly done.

Jinta Yagomi - Jintan - has since Menma died become a hikikomori - a guy who doesn't go to school. He only plays games, sleeps and eats during the days. And his father lets Jintan do as he wishes. He was in love with Menma and when she suddenly appears, it's a huge shock for him. He tries to tell himself the trauma from not apologizing for calling Menma ugly and the summer heat together with stress is manifesting in a hallucination as the form of a grown up Menma.


Jinta playing a game and Menma pestering him.

Jintan feels really bad about not apologizing and it keeps haunting him even years after Menma's death and he decides to try to fulfil her wish, even without knowing what it is. He tries all what Menma says could be her wish, and even tries what the others of the group says. But after a while he stops thinking about what it means, because she doesn't want Menma to leave.

Meiko Honma - Menma - is a ghost haunting Jintan and she doesn't really know why she is there. She assumes it is because she has something to do, but she doesn't know what it is. Menma's mother hasn't been able to come over her daughter's death and thinks Menma perhaps doesn't realize she's dead, but Menma is aware of it. If she's aware of the fact she drowned isn't clear, though. She used to tell her younger brother to protect the house, since she was part of the Super Peace Busters and had to protect all the world, when he wanted to come to the secret base with Menma. Her brother does remember that, even though he has very few memories of his sister.

Menma can lift and move things, as well as write while she's at the secret base, to show she's there. To communicate with others, besides Jintan, she writes in her old diary. This is what makes them all sure Menma's actually there, and visible to Jintan.

As time passes, Menma slowly starts remembering her wish, in the midst of all the fun she has with Jintan. Jintan's mother said that she didn't mind being reincarnated, but the only thing she would feel bad about, was that Jintan didn't show how he felt. This led to Menma promising to make Jintan cry, but her plan backfired while she still was alive and then she drowned.

Jintan's dead mother's altar. Menma prays every now and then for the mother.

Naruko Anjou - Anaru - has always had a crush on Jintan, and that hasn't changed. But she plays cold to him even though she's worried about him. She admired Menma as a child, but also detested that Jintan only looked at Menma. During the show she's described as someone easily influenced by others, and it almost leads to her being forced to have sex. She was luckily saved by Yukiatsu.

Jintan, Poppo and Anaru celebrating Jintan and Anaru catching all the Nokemon. Poppo thought it could have been Menma's wish to get a rare Nokemon game and them playing it together.

Anaru's the one closest to Jinta, as she is in the same class as him when the show starts, and drops off their summer homework, even though she did so just a couple of days before summer break was ending. She does though feel ashamed for actually being relieved when Jintan said he didn't like Menma, when she asked him about it as a child and she thinks she's a really horrible person because of that relief and the crush.

Atsumu Matsuyuki - Yukiatsu - is obsessed with Menma ever since her death. He's so obsessed that he dresses up as her as well as saying he can also see Menma, which leads to confusion, as Menma think's it could be her ghost. But when he says Menma doesn't want them to bother with her, she thinks the other Menma could be fake, as she really wants them all to be together. When he's caught he stops dressing up as Menma, but keeps being tormented by her appearing in front of Jintan.

Yukiatsu being caught dressing up as Menma.

Yukiatsu has a maniplative side driven by his inferiority complex to Jintan and his love for Menma, and he blames himself for Menma's death because he confessed his love the day she died.

Chiriko Tsurumi - Tsuruko - goes to the same school as Yukiatsu, which also is the school Jintan failed the entrance exams to. She's in love with Yukiatsu and is jealous of Anaru, because she believes Anaru would be Yukiatsu's backup if things didn't go well with Menma. Tsuruko is extremely serious and logical, and she wants Yukiatsu get out of the past and live in the present, because Yukiatsu's irreplaceable and she doesn't want him to suffer.

Yukiatsu suggests that Anaru and him becomes a couple.

Tetsudou Hisakawa - Poppo - believes in Jintan as soon as he hears about Menma's ghost and he is the first one to try to talk to Menma without seeing her and tells her he will make her wish come true. He is grateful to the group for taking him in, as he was an awkward child. He admired Jintan as a child, and somewhat still do as a grown up. Whenever he's not travelling with money he got from part-time jobs, he lives at the secret base, but the reason he travels is because the image of Menma floating further and further away won't leave his inner eye.

Super Peace Busters from left to right: Jintan, Poppo, Anaru, Menma, Yukiatsu and Tsuruko

The Super Peace Busters believe that Menma's last wish might be to send a letter to God, so they decide to do as the planned back then - making a rocket out of fireworks. Menma thinks it's a good idea, since she still isn't sure about her wish. When she doesn't move on it's a huge shock for all of the friends, and they hold a secret meeting and all of them blurts out their selfish reasons to why they wanted to send Menma off.

As I said, this is an emotional journey, which takes about 4.5 hours to watch in a go, and they are well spent hours. As Menma is a very lively girl you get caught in her happiness, but moments later you feel really bad because of the group fighting. So, despite it not being my favourite genre of anime, this gets 6 out of 6. A must watch, in other words. After all, it deals with shame, guilt, jealousy and the loss of someone important, and it's does it good.

First Fruits, Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Howl's Moving Castle - all in one

2011-06-17T17:19:00.002+02:00

First of all I wish to say... First Fruits is a very slow book and honestly quite boring book. When it said "a phychological thriller" I imagined some thrilling events, building up a suspense and in the end make me too afraid to sleep. After all, I've managed to read thrillers like that. But that was not what I got. At all.

First Fruits is about a girl whose father is a priest. A very successful priest at that. One day a new girl starts in this girls class, but that actually has nothing to do with anything really. Or well... It actually has, but I have to say quite bluntly that the new girl (whose name I forgotten by now, as well as all the rest of the characters, I'm afraid) just could be left out. The book was, as mentioned slow, and a lot of the events just felt unnecessary. I can, without further ado say that this book, I just didn't like and in the end I'm not nice enough to at least give it a proper review. Reviewing is hard when I read the books in Swedish though. Some of the English gets lost, after all.

Second I wish to state that the animated series Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a definite must-watch whether you like magical girl shows or not. In short it's your average magical girl show, which you have out in a washing machine, taken it out to dry, then thrown it into a dryer for way too long. When you take it out you throw it in the mud and have a dog chew on it. You take it up and surprisingly, it's a masterpiece.

Madoka is the main character, though when I finished the story, I would have stated differently. I will keep saying Madoka is the main character to anyone who haven't seen the show but in my heart I will always consider another character, though that specific character as well is very important.

In the first episode Madoka meats Kyuubei in a dream, wish she later rescues from Homura - a magical girl who Madoka found chasing Kyuubei. Madoka is joined by her friend Sayaka and not too long after, another magical girl appears. Homura backs off and it appears Kyuubei will make a wish come true, if you in return become a magical girl to fight witches.

But in reality, things aren't just that easy and fluffy. The reality is much darker and deciding on a wish is really hard. Madoka doesn't, in other words, become a magical girl immediately, but sees her senior magical girls be scared, fight each other and even die. And Homura keeps telling Madoka not to become a magical girl, while Kyuubei states Madoka would be possibly the strongest magical girl ever.

Finally I would just like to add that I finished Howl's Moving Castle and it's a very fun book to read. I read it in it's first translation in Swedish, wish also means many names are lost or changed to a more Swedish equivalent. This results in me not reviewing the book, but I definitely recommend it.

glow (Miku Hatsune)

2011-06-14T23:54:00.000+02:00

This video is so well-made I just had to share it! The song is quite good too, but I'm especially amazed by the quality of the video made in a software called MikuMikuDance. Usually videos made in MMD isn't this smooth, so I give my respect to the maker of the video, as it must have taken a lot of time and a lot of patience!

Convention Report

2011-06-09T20:15:00.000+02:00

So, I caught up on the sleep now, so I better keep my promise while I still remember how the con was.

Thursday

I travelled with my younger brother and we left early on Wednesday morning. We arrived after an almost nine hour long bus trip to Uppsala at around 5 pm. I spent the bus trip reading, while my brother slept most of it.
When we arrived to the convention area, we sat down in line and waited. In the line we met some people from the convention last year, and I made friends with the first-timers both in front of us and behind us in the line. I only later got the contact information to two of them (SuperHappyHorror and Sonazgirl), as I didn't meet the others after we got in at the convention.

You might wonder why I would like to come the day before, but the line is actually kind of like an event in its self. If you wish to meet people, the line is the best place to do so.

The night was tough, as it was really humid that night. I actually didn't expect that - if I had, I would had gotten somewhere to sleep instead of waiting in line during night.

Friday

Half of the Friday was spent waiting in line. Me and my brother (among many others) had gotten our convention tickets early, to get in quicker. So around 8 am all of us started migrating form the "official line" to a new one. In the confusion me and my brother ended up in the front of the line. Which is very good, as people tend to cut in line the ours before the convention!

When we finally got in - the convention opened late - I hurried to the wardrobe to get my things in there before another line would appear. For some reason Swedes really love lines. I have to admit I like the line before the convention, but that's only because everyone is really nice and pumped up. All other lines aren't anything I like to go through, as people are never well-behaved enough to not cut in line.

After getting my things into the wardrobe, I checked out the whole convention building, to get an idea of what was where. When I had done so, I went to the Artist Alley, since it was at the top. There I met Valerei and Nelly, who had a table there. Beside them were Malika, but I don't know most of the other people that was there. It's not until now I actually realize I should have taken all of their names. I do know that Gabbi and Nosebleed Studio was there though.

I met Akai and Ceres and a friend of Ceres'. Not at the same times though. I and Akai had a goal to meet 100, times but in the end we left the con with 96 or so times left to meet. Ceres I actually spent most of the convention with, I think. We had planned to have a table together, but it just didn't happen. I met her and her friend after I had been to the merchandise tent and bought 4 posters.

I left the convention area to sleep at around 6 pm. I was exhausted, and was so with reason.

Saturday

The Saturday was spent a lot alone, actually. I had a reserved seat at the Olivia concert and Ceres had reserved seats for the cosplay contest. And as I had gone to bed early I was also up early. I bought prints from Nelly and Valerei during the day and of course I was at Olivia's concert. She was awesome! I was tired in my legs and I wasn't really up to standing up to the music, but rather listening to eat with my eyes closed. I got my wish, as half of the people with reserved seats actually sat down. It was on the side I had my seat. (laughs) The only negative thing with the concert must have been the fact I yawned. The reason for people to yawn is actually lack of oxygen to the brain and I yawn really easily. And so I was yawning maybe 15 minutes into the concert. (As a small side note, my issue with blood circulation had me yawning in lectures in school and got me in trouble a few times. But I can't help it, you know?) But it sure wasn't because olivia was bad or anything! I have never been so happy in my life. Or so I thought...

Other than that I didn't do much. My brother found two games I had wanted for ages. At least I think that happened during the Saturday. Anyway, I was allowed to borrow money to get them! I can't believe I would actually regret it later.

Sunday

The Sunday is the last of the convention and also the calmest one. At least if you're in the actual building and not the marketplace with the tents and outdoor stage and similar. I took it easy and basically did nothing at all during the day. And in the midst of doing nothing - Okay, I was drawing a bit - I heard that Olivia was going to have a sign session in the merchandise tent some time later. I kept doing nothing and then just casually went to the tent and there she was! The session hadn't started yet and I walked back and forth trying to decide whether to get her signature or not! (laughs) In the end I got a pamphlet signed and also got to hug her and I was close to tears when she wrote my name and drew some hearts. (laughs)

I met Akai for the last time and went to the karaoke room. I still haven't sung anything, because I'm too shy. Maybe next time, maybe next time. Afterwards I watched the ending being streamed to the outdoor stage and after that I spent a couple of hours walking with a sign saying "Baibaihug?" and received hugs from both Swedes and Japanese. I met up with my brother around that time too, so we could go to the bus stop together. We had to wait for around six hours for the bus, but it was okay. I spent most of that time getting fried by the sun without knowing it and reading. And then we returned some time before 6 am. I didn't get to sleep until later in the evening, as I was helping out with selling doughnuts and drinks for a couple of hours. My brother was supposed to help, but was instead sleeping...

Possible Improvements

There where a lot of lines. A lot more than usually. They had tried to get rid of them by people being able to reserve seats, but they didn't get it to work, I guess. Last year things worked out well with the lines, and even though the Artist Alley and the entrances to the big hall were at the same level last year, the artists weren't too bothered by it. This year they closed the level, so that people couldn't access the alley either, even if it got closed to get rid of the line. Also, some of the personnel didn't have enough information to help out. When i asked when I could access the Artist Alley again I was told different things by different people. I even was told at one point I should be able to access the artist alley, even though I just moments earlier had been kicked out from there, even though I wasn't there to line for whatever event was going to start two or so hours later.

Other than that I don't have much to complain about. After all, it was a good convention, overall. And this is also the end of this report. I hope there will be another convention I can attend soon. And I hope to see some readers then, if possible!

Books of May

2011-06-06T21:30:00.000+02:00

This entry is late, but at the end of the month I just had too much going on with UppCon:XI and all, so I just forgot about this entry.

So, to what I'm currently reading:

Library copies
Howl's Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones, Swedish)

My mother's copies
All put aside, to read only one story at the time

Online
As above

My copies
As above

What I finished during the month:
I finished Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden some time ago and just yesterday I finished First Fruits by Penelope Evans.

Next month's goal:
I hope to finish Howl's Moving Castle and perhaps also Kiki's Delivery Service, but as I just bought new games at the con (I'll give a report on that later, when I caght up with the lack of sleep), I'm not sure I'll manage. But let's hope I can manage it!

Tomorrow series: Tomorrow, When the War Began (John Marsden)

2011-05-27T14:31:00.000+02:00

Third edition cover

A month too late, but now it's finally read! A lot of things happened this past month, so reading was lesser prioritized, than it should have been. But here goes! This is the review of Tomorrow, When the War Began.

Ellie and Corrie came up with the great idea of going on a camping trip. Taking some guys and some girls would be good, they thought and soon it was decided that seven friends, including Ellie and Corrie, would go to the Hell. They are gone for a couple of days, but what they left wasn't what they found. At all. Now the teenagers have to try staying alive while the country is at war and their parents are locked in.

This is the first book in the Tomorrow series, written by John Marsden. I have the second book daunting me mockingly on top of the pile of books I better read before the library demands them back. Whenever I pick up the story, no matter how much time passed since I read it the last time, I get sucked into their world. It's a well written book, in other words. It has also been adapted to a film with the same name during 2009 and 2010 and was directed by Stuart Beattie, and premiered in Oceania in Septemper last year and in UK in April this year. Just as a side note, the film has, instead of Ellie writing, it as Ellie making a video log.

It's written in first person perspective by Ellie, telling the teenagers' story of how they live during an invasion by a foreign power in Australia. The enemy is trying to get the war peacefully done, but Wirrawee has been hit hard, as there's a road the enemy military puts into good use. People are killed, people do their best to survive, people steal... Reality isn't as black and white as it used to be anymore. And you get a taste of it with Ellie telling you all about it. But as reality never is, it's not just all black and grey. In the midst of all the worries and hardships, there's friendship and romance.

Ellie's the one telling you everything, and she's the main character. But we aren't just following her, but also Corrie, Robyn, Fi, Kevin, Lee and Homer. And Chris, though he appears later.

Ellie's a thinker and she questions her thoughts. She thinks about surviving, evil, good, and how it is in the nature. Is the foreign soldiers really evil? Is she evil because of the soldiers that died because of her? Why does she have all these romantic feelings in her in the midst of a war? All these question is what makes Ellie a real person. She also has issues in her love life in the midst of everything. But she is - after all - a teenager.

Corrie is Ellie's best friend, but I have to say, I don't really feel I know anything about Corrie. I think she's the one who starts cleaning when she's nervous, but that's alsowhat I seem to know about her. There is some more on Corrie in the book, but it just didn't get stuck in my head. You know how it is, don't you?

Homer is a childhood friend of Ellie's, and also her love interest. Homer is Greek and also very attractive. Homer is, however in love with Fi. He used to be the clown of the class, but as the situation got serious, so did he. He took the role of the leader and everyone depends on him, as they know he is right about all his suggestion and he discusses about what to do with everyone.

Lee is the son of a couple running a restaurant and he's Ellie's second love interest. In this case, the love is mutual. He's another character that hasn't actually gotten stuck in my head. he's just there, but I just seen him as Ellie's love interest.

Fi is a high society girl and even though she doesn't see the difference between herself and her friends, Homer finds it hard to be around her, when he has fallen for her. Fi is yet another character that didn't get stuck for me. I hope to learn more about all of these hazy characters in the next book, though.

Robyn is the nurse, and she enjoys it. Though before the invasion, she would never had imagined to do what a doctor should do. Lee was, during the first days after they first returned home from the camping trip, shot in the leg and Robyn was the one taking care of it. if I remember correctly Robyn is Christian.

Kevin is Corrie's boyfriend and he is and adventurer. Whenever it's been calm for a while, he wants to jump into danger, but as soon as he gotten enough, he's scared of everything that can happen. In my opinion he's the guy who thinks he's something and tries to prove it whenever he forgets how scary things are.

Chris was, as mentioned earlier, appearing later. He is mentioned in the beginning, but I completely forgot about him until he is found at his house and asks to follow Ellie and the rest during a rescue operation. He "finds" cigarettes and alcohol a lot, and doesn't seem to take the situation as seriously. However, unlike the rest, his parents are out of the country, while the rest of the teens' parents are taken hostage.

I like this book, and I'm sure I will like the next one. It's in the young adult category and as there are some heated scenes I wouldn't recommend it to younger teens. This book is, however, not the best one I read, but it gets 5.5 stars. What lacks is the hazy characters. I want to know more about them in this book. However it is fast-paced without being hurried and even though there are a lot of things happening, it's not cluttered. Totally a must read!

Ever17 available for 360

2011-05-22T01:20:00.011+02:00

It took some time for me to get this information as I'm at my sisters. Ever17 is a visual novel styled sci-fi and romance bishoujo game that originally was released for Windows back in August 2002. Now - almost 9 years later, the Japanese Xbox 360 version is to be out!
I've been wanted to play Ever17 for quite some time, and even though I know there's an US version of the game, I just can't get my hands on it. It's really frustrating, but what can you do?
The US version, is for PC - naturally - and the game is also available in China and Taiwan - both for Windows - and as well in Japanese for Dreamcast, Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable. And, as mentioned, it's being released for the 360.

Also... These following two are of interest for me! (laughs)
Eiyuu Densetsu: Ao no Kiseki - Being the second game in the fourth series of Eiyuu Densetsu, it's naturally an RPG. The Eiyuu Densetsu series is made by Nihon Falcom Corporation and this game - Ao no Kiseki - is for PSP. I have yet to play any of the games though, but I have been told they are good. The original series (Dragon Slayer) was made back in '89, so it's a long running series!
Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland - Has been announced as a US version!

And off I go to bed... late - as always!

Catsitter for a week

2011-05-17T02:27:00.003+02:00

How come I always blog late at night? (laughs)

This coming week I won't be able to play any games, since I'm going to stay at my older sister's place and take care of her cats while she and her boyfriend are away. I don't have any games on my laptop, but I might take my PSP with me - we'll see. If not games, I'll be taking books.
I'll be going there sometime in the afternoon today. In other words, in about 14 or so hours.

Well... That was all I had to say for now. I need to get my things packed now! (laughs)

URL changed

2011-05-16T07:41:00.001+02:00

So the URL is changed now. Once again, now it's an-tan.blogspot.com I also did some minor changes in the colour scheme of the blog - for instance the colour difference between links and normal text. And I did some additions.
I really like the screenshot from Bungaku Shoujo, so it because the banner of the blog! (laughs)

Well, that's about it. I've been up all night playing Diablo II and trying to get the Internet connection up again and now it's already 7:40 am and I'm soon to get up! (laughs) I think I'll take a nap after I eaten my breakfast - which is porridge - so I have some energy to spare.

Bungaku Shoujo (film) [Book Girl]

2011-05-15T23:37:00.006+02:00

Screenshot from the very beginning of the film Bungaku Shoujo.

It's been an hour since I finished watching the film "Bungaku Shoujo" by the time I start writing this. I can't actually describe on what level I liked it, because it's the first time a film have given me goosebumps from being so good! It has only happened with music and that isn't very often at all. In other words - Bungaku Shoujo had me take away every favourite anime, manga (Japanese comic) and character from the favourites on my profile on MyAnimeList.net. Just thinking of the film gives me shivers out of pure joy, because I gotten to see such a good film.

The film is about Konoha Inoue, a seemingly normal second year high school student. One day early in his first year, he sees a girl reading a book under a Magnolia tree. But she suddenly does something slightly odd... She rips a pages and eats it! The girl - who is a second year named Touko Amano - notices Konoha and to keep her secret she forces him to join the literature club of the school.
Now he has to write "snacks" for Touko to eat, even though he had decided to never write again due to an incident earlier on. What's more, Konoha is actually a best-selling author under a female pseudonym!

I won't say everyone will like this film, but I definitely think it's worth a watch from everyone! The film has a bit of everything - comedy, drama, romance, mystery.
The soundtrack is by one of my all time favourite composers, Masumi Itou - also known as Hikaru Nanase - who made soundtracks anime series such as Scrapped Princess and Angel Sanctuary. It's fits the film extremely well.

The film itself is an animated adaptation of a series of novels I have yet to read. The series is called "Bungaku Shoujo", which in English is translated to "Book Girl", though the film is usually translated to "Literature Girl". The novels - Which, by the way, are called "light novels". More about that in a bit! - are by Mizuki Nomura. There are a total of eight novels in the series and so far two of them have been translated to English and the third is scheduled to be released in July this year. You can guarantee this series is in my to read-list!
The books in English are available at amazon for those interested.

Now, to the explanation of light novels. These Japanese novels tend to be directed towards high school students and younger, with a simpler language and more furigana - a pronunciation and reading aid for kanji, the Japanese characters - but more play with words and pronunciation. Sadly these puns can be lost during translations. It's not unusual for light novels to have illustrations either, and they have in recent years become more popular and the popularity has led to more adaptation to comics, games, animated films and series and live-action films.

So! I hope you will watch the film and I sure hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Though, as I said, I don't think everyone would like it. Which is too bad! (laughs) It's a great film, after all.
At the end of the day, this film gets 7 stars out of 6 from me!

Flashy Banners

2011-05-13T22:23:00.003+02:00

I guess it might be appropriate to apologize for the flashy banners form Play-Asia, but as I am from now on affiliated with them, they will be there. I might move them as times goes, but I most likely won't remove them.

Also, now the layout is black with yellow text. It's to match my main website. Also, soon I wll change the adress again. It will be an-tan.blogspot.com from Monday onwards.

On a side note I played the game RE: Alistair the other day and it sure is a fun game, even though it's quite short. I only spent a couple of hours, but i played it more than once. (laughs)

Inactiveness

2011-05-11T22:10:00.001+02:00

Due various things I've been inactive - both in reading and commenting blogs and as well as blogging, and this won't stop here, either.
I just stopped by to tell you I'm a bad blogger at the moment.
And I'm warning you for possible complete revamp of the blog to fit my website, which is in progress of getting a overhaul too.

30 Day BJD Meme Day 9, 11-12, 14-15, 17-22

2011-04-25T08:50:00.005+02:00

I have had so much going on, I've become a bad blogger! Here are some of the questions. Since I'm currently am away, I will answer the questions that require photographing when I get home.

9) What is your least favourite size?
My least favourite size would be the tiny pukis. But even so, I love them! (laughs) They are so adorable.

11) What kind of doll do you prefer, girl or boy?
This is a hard question, as I seem to like them equally, actually.

12) What do your friends think of your dolls/dolls in general?
Those who know about it doesn't mind them but it's nor like I'm talking about my dolls with those who aren't interested.

14) Have you ever had a floating head? What about a headless body? (What do you think you would do if you had either?)
I neither have had a headless body nor a floating head. If I had either I think I'd get a body for the head and a head for the body if anything. I'm not much for selling things.

15) What do your family think of your dolls?
My little brother actually find them quite cool and my mother thinks Lei is cute. That's about it, i guess.

17) What is your favourite item of dollie clothing?
I don't really have one, but Frederick's purple outfit is my favourite. <3

18) Do you have a favourite company?
I don't have any favourite companies, really. I don't have much experience from companies.

19) A least favourite company?
Leeke at the moment due the fact of two cases of plagiarism.

20) What is your dream doll?
My dream doll is a Crobidoll Thor. Crobidoll doesn't make him anymore.

21) One doll you love, but will never (probably) buy?
I will most likely never get the Victorique de Blois doll from Volks, even though I love her.

22) What’s your favourite doll scale prop?
I think it's my chair I have for tinies.

30 Day BJD Meme Day 3-8

2011-04-11T19:11:00.002+02:00

I have had issues with both editing and making new entries recently... I'm sorry for not writing anything. (laughs) But here are the parts of the BJD 30 day meme I didn't get to answer:

3) Post a picture of all your dolls!

4) What/who was the first BJD you ever owned? Do you still own them?
My first doll was Lei (to the left) and yes, I still own him.

5) What/who was the very first BJD you saw?
Hmm... That's a good question. I think it was a BJD when I either googled the lolita fashion or Rozen Maiden. But which one it was... That is a good question, because I surely don't remember anymore! (laughs)

6) Biggest size you own?
The biggest sized doll I have is Lei who is MSD. MSD stand for Mini Super Dollfie, though Lei isn't really that, but it has become a way of saying sizes. (laughs) In a less confusing way of saying it, he's about 40 cm tall.

7) Smallest size you own?
The smallest size is Frederick, who's a YoSD, also known as a tiny. I personally rather use the word tiny, even if it means pretty much any doll under 30 or 35 cm. Frederick is 29 cm.

8) What is your favourite size?
My favourite size would be SD. Those are doll around 60 cm and up. They are harder to pose and heavier, but I sure adore them! (laughs)

On another note, I have bought Lei a new wig and sold his old one. I was feeling we were straying apart because he looks too much like the old character. I am also selling art, games and DVDs to get some money. (laughs) So far I managed to sell the wig and one game.

Picture by me

Sorry for such a short entry

2011-04-06T21:34:00.000+02:00

I am supposed to post a picture of my dolls, but since Lei dived towards the floor and chipped his faceup... I'll think of something till tomorrow, I guess.

Today I've mostly been in bed. My head hurts from the treatment, ugh! Let's hope it's just a temporary side effect.

30 Day BJD Meme Day 2: Do you own any? If so how many?

2011-04-05T09:06:00.001+02:00

I was at the hospital today, to do a test on my heart, but I was sent back home since I didn't seem well enough. That's my day for you. Later today I'll be on the Finnish course, but I would rather go home. My stomach is aching and I feel like I'll faint from lack of sleep any second now. Oh well...

2) Do you own any? If so how many?

I own two dolls - Frederick and Lei. I got Lei first. He was supposed to be my character Kevin, but some time after I got Frederick neither really felt like the character they were supposed to be.
I ordered Lei on March 31st, 2009, from Peak's Woods and got him from the post office on April 15th. He was in fact at home at April 9th, but I was in Finland at the time. I felt so bad about him just being there for 6 days.
In November the same year I ordered from the company Leeke World. I ordered a boy with a pretty face hoping to change him into the character Lydhia (or just Ly), but it just didn't work and in the end I realized I had accidentally gotten myself a prince and not Lydhia. As I realized that, Lei appeared in my mind. And well... He became Lei. The character Lei also fits better than Kevin. I'm still learning about Lei and Frederick, but that's a lot of fun too.
Well, since I got my second doll I haven't bought any new dolls. I'm planning to, but I don't have the money to afford any right now.

30 Day BJD Meme Day 1: Why do you like BJDs?

2011-04-04T17:59:00.000+02:00

I decided to do this. A lot of people I know already done it by now, so I'm slow to the bandwagon. (laughs)

1) Why do you like BJDs?

Yeah... Why do I like them? I have a huge amount of reasons, I guess, but nothing weird.

One of the reasons are the fact I can have the character in my mind as something else than just something hazy in my mind or something I just draw. At the same time I am allowed to be just as artistic as if I was drawing.

Another reason is that you can customize the doll so much. A doll of the same mould from the same company can look completely different form another doll of the same mould and company since you can change wigs and eyes and make you own face up. You can mod the doll if you wish to and since people have different tastes people buy dolls from different companies! There are even people who make their own dolls!

Another one I guess it's the posing ability and the fact they feel more real than the Barbie-dolls I had as a child. Barbie always scared me a bit. (laughs)

I really don't know what to write, honestly. There are so many things to like about the dolls I don't even know how to express it in words. But I guess, in the end, it's the possibility to have your own doll instead of mass-produced Barbie-dolls, all with blond hair and blue eyes. Barbie is blond with blue eyes, right? (laughs)

Birthday meetup

2011-04-03T14:48:00.001+02:00

Lei was the birthday child of the day.

The meet-up for doll owners and their dolls was yesterday. It was at my place and we were 5 out of maybe 15 owners in the area.

The first things that my first guests did was... changing the lamp in my living room! (laughs) Thank you so much to those wonderful people.

After that they could start unpacking their dolls. There was about 18 dolls (I'm not completely sure), and I was the one with the fewest dolls with my darling Lei and the prince Frederick.

I got Lei about 2 years ago and his arrival date (April 15th) is his so called birthday. Since we couldn't really have the meet-up on April 15th or any date closer, we had it yesterday. Of course the theme of the meet-up was a birthday party.

I was supposed to bake a cake, but due to a lot of things I wasn't able to. However, one of the other owners made a really delicious cake!

We always have a lot of cakes and pastries and the like during our meetups. It was not that much this time, but since we only were five owners with a total of 18 dolls, no one took a huge amount with them.

I was amazed on how cute many of the dolls were. I have seen them before, but rarely have there been time to actually look properly at all of them, since we have been so many and even more dolls! I however just wanted to have a bigger doll. My dolls are 42 and 27-28 centimetres, but I like dolls in that are about 60 and up. (laughs) I'm so short, but want tall dolls!

I was going to make this blog entry right after everyone left but after a 10 hours long meet-up I actually was so tired, I fell asleep as soon as I went to bed. I almost fell asleep when I was going through FaceBook and other communities. Making an entry when I felt like that... I doubt I would even had written something I'd be able to comprehend later.

Below are some of the pictures I took of dolls. If you want to see more pictures, you can find some on my picture diary. The texts there are in Swedish, but you can still look at the images!


This is the sweet cat named Imp. She always seem to steal the show. (laughs) Her owner made the cake.

Sylphie is one of the newer friends in this area, since her owner just recently started to come to our meet-ups even though he lives further away than just the surrounding towns and villages to the "main" city of this area.

And Lottie An is quite new, even to the doll-owner. She's owned by the same owner as Sylphie and Angelie.

Frederick got bored later in the evening and tried to flee, but Angelie made him stay.

Angelie is a beauty, but it's hard to get a proper picture of her, without her becoming really pale.

To learn more about ball jointed dolls, I recommend going to the LiveJournal of BJD-WTF.

Picture by me.

April Fools have passed by

2011-04-02T01:02:00.004+02:00

There was a minor electric incident today. A fuse "went", as we say in Swedish. It means the fuse broke due oldness. Currently I'm completely out of light in the kitchen, and neither my refrigerator nor the freezer are working now. This means I might have to move in with my mother for some time, since I can't switch to a new fuse (I'm too short and can't reach). This might also affect the blog, as I might not be online for a couple of days.

I actually panicked when I realized my fridge and freezer weren't working. I don't know for how long I'll be without them and I had food in there! And it was quite late! Now the food is on the balcony over the night to keep cold for as long as possible, after I called my mother in panic.

I did something more creative than panicking over the fuse too. It was much earlier though... As mentioned before I started playing Pokemon and this is a product of that:

I also gave a small fright to some people, who believed a journal entry on dA, saying I'd give up drawing for music. When I explained it was a joke and that I'm not giving up drawing anytime soon, they did take it quite well. The shock combined with the relief and the fact it was April 1st was most likely the reason.

Did you pull any jokes? Or did someone make you believe something that wasn't true?

Oh, and nothing in this entry is a lie. I only do make up one lie during April Fool's and then went till the next day to officially apologise for lying. I detest lying, but it sure is fun when there's a day when you can pull a prank and have people go "Oh, I should've known! Today's April 1st!". But I think you should not do anything that would hurt someone.

Well... over and out! I have some dishes to wash (at 1 am?) in my dark kitchen!

Art by me

Books of March

2011-03-30T13:17:00.000+02:00

I know this is a day early, but I think I'll be too busy actually doing this tomorrow and I have time now that I'm eating lunch. And as I have grown up here in Sweden, I believe punctuality is a key to success. In other words, I prefer it early than late.

I used to do this monthly post on Bubbly Lolita too, but there will be some difference now. Before I only listed books I was reading or finished...

So, to what I'm currently reading:
What you can see in this section is what I'm reading, but instead of just listing the books and authors, language I'm reading in is also listed from now on. I also decided to show if it's a borrowed copy, if it's my copy or if it's perhaps online, by categorize them,. I also added comics I'm reading. I could list many here, but it's just those I read a lot from recently and hope to finish very soon.

Library copies
Tomorrow, When the War Began (John Marsden, Swedish)

My mother's copies
Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (Astrid Lindgren, Finnish)

Online
1/2 Prince (Yu Wo, English)

My copies
End in Tears (Ruth Rendell, Swedish)
David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, Swedish)
Mei wenti! Inga problem! Om livet i dagens Kina (Catarina Liliehöök, Swedish)*

Comics
Emma (Kaoru Mori)
Gravitation (Maki Murakami)

* I don't know if these are available in English.

What I finished during the month:
I didn't read a lot, but I finished The Da Vinci Code, which I reviewed yesterday. A close call - I'm aware of that - but at least I finished it!

Next month's goal:
I think a goal can do wonders. As I have said and most likely will say there are many way of feeling good about yourself and one of them are having a goal. Never set your goal too high. I could set up the goal "read and review 4 books next month", but even though I've once been an avid reader, I am still only getting back to reading. Therefore my goal for April is read and review John Marsden's book as well as starting another book I'm borrowing from the library.

Now with that finished... Here's a picture of my bedside table!

My bedside table is naturally always filled with books.

That's a Harry Potter pillow case right there! I prefer sleeping on my other pillows though. I mostly use that one as back support when I'm reading. I don't mind Harry Potter though. Actually I love Harry Potter! I do mind Dan who acts Harry Potter. He was adorable in the first film so I shouldn't feel any aversion against that specific pillowcase, but I just can't get over how much I disliked him in the third film. I couldn't even get through the fourth film because of the third. Oh. Daniel Radcliffe, how I dislike you!

Back to the books. I have them in three piles, from left to right - my and my mother's copies I'm going to read, the library copies I'm going to read and the reading diary, currently reading. The pile on the floor is read and I'm supposed to take them back to the library. If I have to give books back to some person, it usually end up beside the library-pile. And finally, the picture book is "Koirien Kalevala" (Finnish, roughly translated "Kalevala of the dogs" or "The dogs' Kalevala") which I am slowly read a page of every now and then. I like looking at the illustrations, which is why it's open like that. (laughs)

Okay, now my lunch's eaten and I have an errand I need to do as soon as possible, so I guess this is the end of this quite long post that was supposed to be aonly about books, but just happened to be a bit about my dislike for the Harry Potter-actor... (laughs)

The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

2011-03-29T19:00:00.002+02:00

Today I'm going to put my thoughts down on one of the books people either praise to the skies or hate from the depths of hell, much like the Twilight Saga. The difference would most likely be the group of people praising it isn't mainly teenage girls. The book I'm talking about is The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown.

And before I go on, I want to mention two things as side notes.
One. I read Angels and Demons a couple of years ago, so I had some expectations of the book.
Two. In Italian Leonardo da Vinci means "Leonardo from Vinci", The "da" is not to be capitalized like it's a name, just like we wouldn't write "I'm From Sweden".

Harvard professor Robert Langdon received an urgent late-night phone call while on business in paris: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been brutally murdered inside the museum. Alongside the body, police found a series of baffling codes. As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, begin to sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci - and suggests the answer to the mystery that stretches deep into the vaults of history.

Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine code and quickly assemble the pieces of the puzzle, a stunning historical truth will be lost forever...

This is what you find at the back of the copy I have in my hands. And it also leaves me nothing to add about the plot, besides the ending and some petty details, which most definitely wouldn't be summarizing the book.
However, the book itself actually starts with the murder of Jacques Saunière, the curator of the Louvre. After that we follow Langdon most of the book. However, this book skips between several characters, one of them being Silas, the one killing Saunière.

Langdon is our so called "hero". He's an older man, who's seem to be liked by younger women. He works as a professor at Harvard, as earlier mentioned. He is also quite known and has written several books. He seems to have some kind of understanding for younger adults, as he's a teacher, but beside being a handsome and bookwriting professor, he's just your average man with some odd quirks - like his Mickey Mouse watch. The way he asks Sophie Neveu to call him by his first name, also make me find him cheesy.

Sophie Neveu is our female protagonist. She's been traumatized by an event that she happened to see and after that she never talked to her grandfather - the murdered Saunière - again. She's the reason Langdon isn't in custody yet and she's quite quick. She is a strong female, but she falls under the stereotypic female - for this kind of book, at least - when it comes to looks. Overall, she's much like Victoria Vetra in Brown's first book, actually.

And as much as Jacques Saunière is dead throughout most of the book, I think the curator of the Louvre needs to be mentioned. I personally found him the most interesting character. Which is too bad because he was dead by the time the first chapter started. We don't get to know him personally, but what we learn about him are that he was a man full of secrets, among them being very important in the Priory of Sion.

As many twists there could be, I do expect most of them. The book is like a huge clock slowly turning. Especially during the climax. You can almost walk a head to get the treasure out, but as a rule you keep waiting on the pointer till you come to the point were you get the treasure. Overall the story is recycled from Angels & Demons, so if that ones was interesting, this book is quite the letdown. I'm actually dreading to read next book about Langdon.

However, I can't really say I hate it from the depths of hell. It's a quite interesting story, if you don't see the recycled overall. The character reactions are in general well done and the dialogue isn't awkward. I actually quite enjoyed it at times. However half of the enjoyment is lost due to long explanations in the middle of an exciting event. I'm used to long explanations and slow turn of events, since I'm a big fan of the crime genre, where the books can be just as slow as this brick made of paper.

So yes, I do have quite mixed feelings. One feeling I do have that is not mixed with anything is that this was like an Indiana Jones with the lack of the exotic environment I'm used to from the films and the excitement I get from watching them. A bad try at Indiana Jones, to say it shortly, I guess.

I would recommend this book to people who can handle slower events and like mystery. This book is a mystery-thriller with some mystery and some thrill, and a huge amount of text. I can't sadly say that just because you like Angels & Demons you'll like this book or the other way around. If you want action on a high level, turn the other way. And I can certainly say, if you like sparkling vampires, you surely found the wrong review.

So, what am I giving this book? I'll be nice and give it 3 out of 6. I can't say I like it nor hate it, but the feeling of recycling Angel & Demons could lower the overall score more. However, the ending saved it. After the villain is arrested I actually got quite excited about the story. I think it can have something to do with the fact that I was allowed to learn a bit more about Saunière.

Phew! That was long. I started writing this yesterday since I only had a couple of pages (read as 200) left to read and I felt I had the overall feeling of the book down. I had to make a couple of corrections and additions now right after finishing the book, but I certainly was quite correct in my assumptions. Now I will take a day brake from books and read comics, and then we'll see how my list of books looks like on Thursday!

Oh, this post is scheduled. By the time this pops up at my blog, I'm drinking tea and eating pastries and/or fruits together with some adorable people worshiping Finland as a country, while I try to decipher what they are saying in Finnish. I have to admit, they are quite good at Finnish by now even with lack of grammar and words, but sometimes you surely just can't figure out that "Growing many words much in head." should mean "My head feels like it's growing from all the words." and not "The words are growing in my head.". (laughs) Usually their grammar is much better too, but Finnish can be complicated sometimes, especially when your knowledge is very limited.

J.C.'s ratings:
I don't like the 5 star system. How come? Because anything is you find either bearable or just above liked end up as a 3 or 2, depending on if you want 3 as "like" or "so-so". But if you use a scale reaching from 1 to 10 you have way too many options and I find it hard to rate. Therefore I have a scale from 1 to 6. This mean I have no actual middle number where I can just add books to without actually saying what I think about it. I doubt you'll actually see me rate something 3.5.
1 - Not worth reading
2 - Very bad
3 - Bearable
4 - I quite liked it
5 - Very good
6 - Awesome

A notebook of wonders

2011-03-28T19:42:00.000+02:00

The end of the month is coming close and I am getting stressed about a few things:

I want to finish The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown before the end of the month
On Saturday my doll & owner-friends are coming, so I have to get my apartment sparkling till then
In a week I'm going to start a treatment which hopefully will result in a happier J.C.

These things make my mind go blank when I try to think of something to write and because of that I kind of posted late lately. So now I'm posting on time! And I have something to write about. (laughs)

I have this notebook. It's white with colourful butterflies on it. This notebook I call the Happiness-book. Not that I write down happy things or writing in it make me happy, but it might in the future. We'll see about that. In it I write things I did during the day that I should feel good about. Today is only filled with cleaning, but even so I write things down. For instance "I have washed the dishes". A very usual thing to do, but I wrote it down anyway.

The point of the exercise is to feel good about what you do, instead of feeling that you didn't do enough. There are more exercises like this. For instance you can look in the mirror and choose something you like about yourself. The next day you choose what is second best. When you don't find something you like you choose what you like the best of the bodyparts which you have left, and keep liking it till you feel you do like it. Something like that, at least. It's an exercise for self-esteem. Another exercise is to write down at least five things you are thankful for, even if it's sarcasm, every day. Perhaps writing something that made you happy during the day, everyday might do the trick for you.

All of these are about feeling good about yourself, what you have and what you do. People nowadays tend to feel bad about themselves, and I know how it is. It took me years after being bullied to feel okay about how I look and how I am as a person. I was often trying to see what was good about myself.

But you know what? Nobody's perfect, but at the same time we are all perfect just the way we are! Even flaws for you can be something great. For instance, I'm allergic to makeup - which was something making me feel worse about myself, since I couldn't "hide" behind a mask - but I save money and no animals get hurt from the makeup I buy, since I don't buy any! Another example is that I'm sensitive to sunlight and can't go out much during spring and summer - I get migraines, as I mentioned in an earlier post - but instead I'm making good online friends with people who are awake while I'd be a sleep! (laughs)

And that's how it works - everything has a good side. You just need to see it. And, as mentioned - nobody's perfect but at the same time we all are just perfect the way we are!

The Kitten and the Dog

2011-03-28T02:00:00.001+02:00

I couldn't think of anything to write, so here's story instead. I might or might not use it if I apply for creative writing on university when I managed to get a grade in Swedish B + one other subject.

In a forest, far far away, there lived a dog in a big pink house. The Dog had a neighbour, a poor little kitten whose blue house was very old and about to fall apart. The Kitten came over every day to work for the dog.
On Mondays she would write invites to parties every Saturday night.
On Tuesdays she would wash the Dog's clothes in the cold river.
On Wednesday she would clean the house.
On Thursdays. she made a list of which guest would come.
On Fridays she would wash the dishes
On Saturdays she would cook enough food for the party.
On Sundays she would clean up after the party.
The Kitten didn't get very much for her hard work, but she was very thankful for the leftover food she got and bowed many times before going home.
One day the Dog decided to employ the seven daughters of his very good friend, the Rabbit. The Kitten didn't get any more work from the Dog, because the rabbit daughters did the work much faster than the Kitten did by herself and the rabbit daughters did not ask for anything.
The Kitten had to leave the the forest to find new work and that made her was very angry. She might not had the finest house or finest clothes, but she had liked her life there.
The Kitten found an inn. She went inside.
- Excuse me, the Kitten said. Who might be the inn keeper?
A rat turned to her.
- I'm the inn keeper, the Rat said taking a close look at the Kitten. If you want to sleep here, I guarantee you can't afford it.
- Oh no! I just want to find work, the Kitten said.
The Rat looked at the Kitten before nodding.
- Work hard, then little Kitten.
- Yes, of course.
The Kitten started working at once and work hard but the Rat was very cruel and hurt the Kitten many times everyday. The Kitten didn't like the Rat at all, but she kept working.
One day while she was working a bear approached her.
- Little Kitten, little Kitten, he said. Do you not wish to work for me? I won't hurt you as the Rat does.
The Kitten shook her head.
- You are too kind, but I can't take your offer. I promised the Rat to work hard.
The Bear smiled.
- You are a hardworking kitten, he said.
- Thank you, the Kitten said with a bow. Now please, let me finish my work.
The Bear said good bye and the Kitten kept working.
But on her way from the inn to a room she rented from a fox, she met the Bear again.
- Little Kitten, little Kitten, I hear you are from the forest.
- Yes, I am. I used to work for the Dog in the forest. But now the seven daughters of the Rabbit was employed.
- I see, I see. Then I believe you should go home to your forest, the Bear said.
- How so? the Kitten asked.
- I have heard the Dog has fallen ill and the rabbits are not doing anything right. I would hurry off immediately. I will tell the Rat that you left to take care of a friend.
The Kitten bowed.
- Thank you very much. I will hurry, she said and hurried off towards the forest.
When the Kitten arrived to the pink house, the rabbits were jumping around in the house in panic. They didn't know what to do. The Kitten gave all the rabbits days off to visit their father and the rabbits immediately left, so that the Kitten could take care of the Dog.
Days passed as the Kitten took care of the Dog. The Rat in town got more and more impatient. After a week she couldn't wait anymore and went to her friend, the Snake, who was a powerful sorcerer. The Rat asked for the Snake to make sure that the Kitten never worked for anyone anymore and the Snake gladly did so. Because the Snake had known the Kittens father and had never liked him, and now the Snake didn't like the Kitten either.
Soon it started to rain in the forest. It rained and rained and didn't seem like it ever stop. After a few days the river flooded and a storm began. But the Kitten wasn't affected by the storm, because she was still tending the sick Dog. He soon was better after the storm started and asked the Kitten to stay, because in this storm she might get hurt. So the Kitten stayed. She read stories for the Dog, she cooked for him, and the dog even let her eat with him.
One day the storm suddenly stopped. the looked out the window and looked at the sun. But when thy looked down they saw pieces of wood. The Kitten hurried down and ran to where her house once had been. There was nothing left and the Kitten felt how she had to sit down on a rock. She started crying.
The Dog came to where the Kitten's house had been and said:
- I want a new house.
The Kitten looked at the Dog.
- And in that house I want you to live with me, little Kitten. Just the two of us.
The Kitten, who had secretly been in love with the Dog, wiped away her tears.
- Can it be purple? she asked.
The Dog just smiled as an answer.
The Dog and the Kitten sold the Dog's old house and moved out of the forest. Where they live today, no one knows. But I have a feeling, they live in a purple house.
But what happened to the Rat and the Snake? The Rat's inn caught on fire when no one was there and the Rat had to work for the Bear and the Snake was caught by the police for using magic without permission from King Lion.

Springcleaning and dolls

2011-03-25T00:20:00.001+01:00

I started my spring cleaning! Which is the only good thing about spring for someone who get migraine attacks when there is sun. The headache illness that kills even the best of moods!

Anyway! So I started my spring cleaning and I am going through my things. If I find something in really good shape that isn't too big, I might host a give-away. But I doubt it, so I'm planning on selling or throwing things away. I for instance have three TVs. One I use as my computer screen, one huge I watch TV on and then a smaller one I don't use. At all.

The reason I started my spring cleaning is actually dolls. I'm hosting a BJD owner meet-up next week! I hope to get some picture or two to add here on my blog. Wouldn't that be cool?
So far four owners have said they'll come and one said she might come. I both hope more will come and hope that's all. We have a lot of owners in my area. Not the village I live in, but the surrounding towns and villages. All owners together own between 50 and 60 dolls! And I think we are 15 doll owners in total. Which is actually quite a lot for so few inhabitants in our area.

For those who doesn't know what BJD is, it means - as you surely gotten an idea of - dolls. To be exact it means ball-jointed doll and is a highly customizable doll with a very proportional body and great posing ability. You can change eyes, wigs, face ups (you can make them yourself or ask someone else), clothes. Many owners have a character for their doll. My two - Lei and Frederick - are respectively a servant and a prince. In our area we have demons, angels, trolls, fairies, vampires, mermaids, flower-people, humans... Yeah, well... We got a lot. And even if a dolls can be the same "type" - mold - of doll, none of them look the same as the other.

Well... I'll stop talking about dolls now. I'm actually quite tired, and I guess that's were this post came from to begin with, haha!

I spent my day in 3s

2011-03-24T00:07:00.003+01:00

Yesterday sure wasn't a good day. I've had a migraine attack each day for 5 days now and yesterday was the peak, so to say. At least for now. I still have the throbbing growth migraines feels like in my head, but it's much better after a lot of resting.
Now that's it for the explanation of why I didn't write an entry yesterday.

As for now, I can't say I have much to say. My head still hurts and I've actually spent my day at three specific places; in my bed, in the bath and at my desk. What did I do? Well... Three activities; sleep, bath and play three different games. I also took three half pills of painkillers which none of the times help very much, and it also messes up my three 3s, by making them four.

First I spent about an hour playing Project Diva. To be specific I actually played one single song, trying to perfect it. My migraine at this time was so bad I could barely be in any kind of light, and sounds were like knives in my head, but I still played it.
The song I played was ryo feat. Hatsune Miku's "World is Mine" on Easy mode. I have unlocked Normal mode and cleared it, but since I just can't seem to get enough points to unlock Hard mode, I have decided to get a full combo - if not a perfect combo - on song on easy mode, or at least locking up all songs. I have a lot of the songs locked up, but well... some of them are hard, so I don't get anywhere at locking up the next song or Normal mode.
I couldn't find a clip on youtube with easy mode, but here you have the hard mode:

The hard mode isn't much different from normal mode. Basically just more notes.

After a while, I couldn't play anymore. That would be after maybe 10-15 replays and then some "Miku room"-checking as well as a look in the visual gallery with the load arts (which, if I didn't count wrong while I was half dead from pain, are a total of 196 pictures) and the videos (there are two). I have 16 unlocked pictures and 1 video. :)

So later I went to my desktop. Sitting up just doing nothing made my head slightly better, so I decided to use my desktop computer for once.

This game I believe people can recognise, even without seeing the end of the intro video nor the name of it. The very first The Sims game.
I had played for maybe 3 hours, when the game closed itself. Right before I was going to save. I'm happy to say I actually had gone on a holiday with my sim Nanami, so most of the game is saved, haha! But after that crash, I didn't feel like playing The Sims anymore.

So I went to do nothing. Then I remembered a friend of mine had posted about her playing one of the new Pokémon games and I mentioned I hadn't played any yet but that I wanted to, and she told me I should, since I'm missing something.
So, I decided to play them. From the very first game. Which of course means I have two options:
1) Buy a GameBoy and/or a GameBoy Color + games
2) Get the games as ROMs and get an emulator
I have to admit, I used the second option for now, however it just made me want a GameBoy and GameBoy Color more than I wanted before.
I prefer hand-held video game consoles, like PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and the GameBoys and I wish to have one of each. Well, if I was to have each of every one of the versions, it might be a bit hardcore (just getting my hands on an older PSP - I am an extremely proud owner of a second hand bought PSP 1004, in extremely good condition - was hard enough), but I think you get what I mean.

Anyhow, I have now spent 4 hours and 30 minutes playing Pokémon Red - the first game. It's so much fun, but the music are like knives in my ear. Usually I'd enjoy those knives, but with a migraine, nothing can be really fully enjoyed.
Here's the intro for the game, for those who never played Pokémon. Or like me - Never even played a handheld console game until I was 18 or so. That would be about 2 years ago.

I know it's not much, but the intro isn't longer than that, folks.

And with this long post about basically nothing, I hope you all are healthier than I have been. Now I'm going back to my bed to play some more Pokémon, before going to bed.

UppCon:11 Information

2011-03-21T19:15:00.004+01:00

Uppcon:11 is like, just around the corner. (Not. It's still over 2 months left.) So because of that I will now write down all specifics. This entry can also be found at my deviantArt and later on my website (which is in need of a huge update, lol.)

ARRiVAL
I will (most likely) arrive to Uppsala during Thursday.

WHERE WiLL YOU SLEEP?
I will only send that info to people I know will go to Uppcon and I somewhat know. It's a hotel though.

ARTiST ALLEY
I and :iconelfenceres: are in a queue in case there will be any open tables, but as it is now, I will not be in the Artist Alley this year.

BUYiNG ART
If you are interested in art in my gallery, I might consider selling it. This will be considered a trade and you can therefore trade art for either money (lol), merchandise or your own art. You can also pay in advance by donating points to me at deviantArt or through Paypal or bank transfer (Sweden only)
If you want art I make there, same rules apply as for trading.
Exceptions: Depending on my mood and how messy I am allowed to draw, I might give people gift art during the con.

ART YOU WiLL TAKE WiTH YOU
Please look here to see what I'll have with me

LEAViNG
I'll be leaving at Sunday. Most likely during the evening.

CELLPHONE NUMBER
Will only be given to a few. Some already have it, though I'm not completely sure who. ^^;

This entry will be updated as new information is known (to me).

I support being unique

2011-03-20T13:54:00.007+01:00

I've recently read a lot of blog entries how being into a style is hard.
Wait being into a style is hard? Being into a certain style?

Have you not noticed?
I am not you,
you are not me.
Still,
you buy the same skirts,
the same trousers,
shoes and jackets.
You even buy
the same underwear.
You style yourself to look like me.
The birthmark in your face,
is at the exact same spot as mine.
Yours made with make up,
mine's for real.
Your once beautiful hair,
now bleached to look like mine.
Your gorgeous eyes,
coloured with lenses to look like mine.
You lost weight to have my weight.
But you are taller,
please eat again.
When I look at you,
I'm scared.
Have you not noticed?
We are two different individuals.
I am not from the same country as you.
I don't speak the same language as you.
I don't understand what you're thinking.
Please, find yourself.
'Cause only you, can be you.
Copy all you want.
But let other people be themselves.
Clones,
I don't like them.
Have you not noticed?
That you are only happy,
when you get praised for what you did yourself?
If not, please take your time.
And remember,
you can only be you.
And I,
I can only be I.
Be unique!
That I believe is right.

Being into a style, taking inspiration from it - I understand that it can be hard, if you want to be true to it. But people seem to forget that being yourself is the most important thing.
I feel like neither male of female and it affects how I dress, how I think about make up. When I dress, I choose to dress like me. People might stare when I wear that red dress with a pair of red tights and black shoes, but it's my choice. People might stare when I wear my sweatpants with the legs baggy by wearing the ends of them just underneath my knees instead of around my ankles.
But it's just me, you know? I just happen to like the lolita fashion and take inspirations from it, buy both brand and off brand clothing. I just happen to like some other, older styles for males, so I take inpsirations form there too, buying things I think suits me. And me only.
What is important is you, not being true to a style. Take inspiration, but don't copy. You are, after all, the only one who can be you.

The picture is the ID-picture I use on deviantART. I drew it to show I am me, and not anyone else. The shirt has the unofficial flag of Swedish Finns. As mentioned I don't feel neither male or female. However, I am born female.

pray for

2011-03-20T02:06:00.002+01:00

I know there are people who really doesn't like Hatsune Miku. It makes me a little sad, but I understand not liking her high pitched voice.
However, I will still recommend this song for everyone. A lot of people are worried about what happens in Japan - I'm mostly worried about how the nuclear power plants will hold and how much radiation will escape. And you can think of that while listening to this song.

My thoughts are with my friend Sara's family, who live in Japan, when the very first words are sung.

"Is my prayer reaching?
Is it reaching you?
If this voice doesn't reach,
then I pray for you."

May as many be safe and I hope all do what you can and don't panic too much.

The mess you can never unmess

2011-03-19T23:39:00.000+01:00

Long time no blogging. Life is not much better than it was when I wrote my last entry in January. I visit a psychologist on weekly basis and might have to start with antidepressants, so I think you get the idea.
Also, my condolences to those who have lost tehir family and/or friends in the disaster in Japan.

So, I decided to change the name (and url) to this blog. It will now be about my interests. the main ones at least. In other words - music, books, some lolita, illustrators, illustrations, authors... Whatever comes to mind.
I will also have things like sketches and ideas. Perhaps. And also, I might write what I done during the day, if I have nothing else to write about.
Sorry to those who only cared for the lolita fashion. ^^; But it never purely was a lolita-blog, so it's not much of a change.

I need to change some things on the About-page, so I have for now hidden it. I also hid any other pages, but the home page for now. But my basic idea is that I will write a bit about myself right now and a bit about my life.

Finally, all Bubbly Lolita-entries will be tagged with only Bubbly Lolita. I will continue with the monthly list of books, I think. It's a good project. :)
As for that - here's my reading list:
1/2 Prince (Yu Wo)
David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)
End in Tears (Ruth Rendell)
Mei wenti! Inga problem! On livet i dagens Kina (Catarina Liliehöök)*
Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (Astrid Lindgren)
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
Tomorrow, When the War Began (John Marsden)
* I don't know if these are available in English, so the title is written in the language I read them in.
I managed to finish reading Handling the Undead by John Ajvide-Lindqvist during February. Otherwise there's not much change.

Books of January

2011-01-31T18:56:00.002+01:00

I haven't been feeling well lately, and it has greatly affected my blogging, which is really too bad! However, stp show I'm alive, here comes this monthly entry.

So, to what I'm currently reading:
1/2 Prince (Yu Wo)
David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)
End in Tears (Ruth Rendell)
Hantering av odöda (John Ajvide Lindqvist)*
Mei wenti! Inga problem! On livet i dagens Kina (Catarina Liliehöök)*
Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (Astrid Lindgren)
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
Tomorrow, When the War Began (John Marsden)
* I don't know if these are available in English, so the title is written in the language I read them in.

What I finished during January:
I was sadly too busy to read much at all and therefore I didn't finish any book. But I almost finished one. XD

Venus versus Virus

2011-01-08T17:21:00.001+01:00

I'm sorry for not updating when I should have. I went down with a cold. If you heard me talking right now you'd laugh because I sound like how you imagine an old witch from the fairytales you hear as a child.
Anyway, let's get to business. I will do this quite quickly, since I want to go back to bed. I was just up to drink a cup of hot cocoa and get something to eat, when I realized I need to get an entry done here.

The backside have, like most books have nowadays, a summary:

Welcome to Venus Vangard...
we've been expecting you
On the outside, it's you Gothic Lolita fashion boutique, but when seemingly normal high school girl Takahana Sumire walks through the doors of Venus Vangard, her life will never be the same. For Sumire discovers the the shop is actually a front for an agency that hunts and kills malevolent ghosts known as Viruses. Although Sumire develops the vision to see these Viruses, her path is not clear until she meets Lucia, the mysterious manager of Venus Vangard who presents her with a choice: watch from the sidelines as the Viruses prey on the weak, or join the agency and hunt down the Viruses before they destroy all of reality.

Let's strike that "lolita" out of the summary right away. I was doing my best to find that made the clothes Lucia wore and sell more Lolita, but however I see it, I see nothing actual Lolita in the series.
It wasn't because of that, that I first read the series. I got the first volume of the Omnibus collection as Christmas gift, so naturally I would read it.
However, one of the reasons I got the book was - besides being big, thick comic with this really cute but bad-ass blue-haired girl on the front - that the words "Gothic Lolita" appeared in the summary.
I haven't read more than the 3 first volumes, as the first volume of the Omnibus collection covers that much of the story, but I can say, the summary covers most of the story.
For the first three volumes there isn't much character development even if you learn some things about Lucia's past, however the story is interesting, in case you like action. Sumire is your typical unsure, weak main character. Lucia on the other hand is strong character with an angsty past. I would just say this series seem like you average thriller comic. (^_^;)
On the back it does say
"Venus Versus Virus is a non-stop thrill ride with a good share of chills."
which is a quote from ActiveAnime.com, but it could just as well be about the animated TV-series, so I can't tell for sure. The comic so far doesn't seem too thrilling in my eyes.
The art however is good and fits the story. The facial expressions are good ad varied. The style is consistent too and the backgrounds good.
Story: 5/10
Art: 8/10
Characters: 5/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 5.5/10

And before I finish this very quickly written and not very throughout review: The one shot in the end of the volume I have was much better than the actual series. I read it first and had high expectations on the series. It sure was a let-down. The one shot gets a 8/10 from me.

Now I'm off to sleep some more. I'm not the type to give in to a small cold, but I'm probably too sick to go to work tomorrow... Maybe I got the flu?

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T23:59:00.003+01:00

Happy New Year!

I spent my New Years Eve in a radio studio. The reason I was there, was because my mother and her boyfriend are in charge of the show! (°u°;) They are doing it every year, and it has become somewhat of a tradition in my family. I have been there helping out as a technician for a few years now. And so I did this year too. It was stressful! I'm used to it though, since I've helping out at the studio a lot ever since I was a small child. And it's a fin way to spend your last hours of the year in a radio studio. (>u<) Everyone working there are so nice. It's amazing how people are willing to make a radio show on New Years Eve and get nothing in return. It's always make me so happy to see. <3

Now, let's look back at the old year.
It started with me at the radio studio. And then I went home and went to sleep...
But if I take the whole year in detail it will take a year to tell you! So much more briefly... During the first six months of the year I was studying. It was quite hard as I wasn't feeling well neither in my soul nor in my body. I moved on June 1st from the collective living to an apartment rented by myself and since my health has been better. (^_^)
In the middle of the studies, however, I did take a break in the beginning of April. I was at a convention and sat in the first Artist Alley of the convention. It sure was amazing! And I wasn't tired in my legs when I left on Friday evening to sleep, haha! But after those three days of fun, it was time to go home and back to studying.
During more or less the whole months of July I was in Finland. My grandmother had fallen ill and I went with my mother and brother. Mostly as moral support for my mother in case my grandmother would die. While there I started to get stressed about being there. I didn't want to be there. Believe me or not, but I was feeling my grandmother was leaving this earth. I kind of kept a diary while I was there, which I posted on my previous blog, when I finally got home and had time and possibility to post it.
Even with my loud refusal I was forced to go to the funeral...
Days later I had my 20th birthday. I also has started to search for a job. In October I started helping out at a Saturday class. Meeting kids every week is fun, but it's exhausting. And I never know what is safe to wear, haha! I mean, I don't want a brand dress ruined because one of those darlings dropped paint on me or something like that. I do that good enough when I draw myself (I don't even dare to draw in lolita, because I'm such clumsy!). I also started going to a Finnish language class the Finnish association I'm part of holds, mostly as an assistant but also as a student.
Time passed by and December was suddenly around the corner. I helped out during the Finnish independence day, which is December 6th. Then Christmas came and passed and now it's a new year.
I don't really know where this year went. Even at my deviantart account you can see I barely drew anything this past year...

But now there's another year ahead! Let's hope it will be all good! (>u<)

Do you have any New Year's resolutions? I do!
See OLIVIA live. This is an odd resolution, but any concert but those without amplifiers will make me feel sick. I love that girl, so I don't want to chicken out because I'm afraid of the effects it will give. Her songs are great and she's pretty. I already paid for my ticket for the convention and a seat, so now I just need to get the bus tickets and I'm ready to go! In June...

Get some more clothes. I want at least two more JSKs and two skirts, a few blouses and cardigans. Since my wardrobe is in dire need of a filling. But I should get tights and stockings first, I guess. That's one of my biggest issues.

Do my best at work! I finally got a job and I'm not letting it go! I need the money, after all. I hope to learn more about myself as well as being a telesalesman. Or woman, in my case. Hopefully I won't come home crying!

Save money. I want to go to Baby, The Stars Shine Bright's and Angelic Pretty's stores in Paris. Since they are the only stores in Europe. However, it will probably take a while. But I'll try to save money for a vacation to France. Maybe year 2012?

Try sewing some pieces of clothing. Among those I hope to sew at least one JSK. I hand sew, so sewing takes time, since I don't take time to sew too often.

Read more. Last year I didn't get to read as much as I hoped to, but I hope to do so now that I work and don't have to stress about the same things as I used to.

Learn more pieces on the flute. Last year I didn't actually finish anything. I was so stressed up with school and then trying to find work I simply didn't care to play more than five minutes if anything. At least I took care of my flute, so it's in a good shape. I'll try learning one of two classical pieces as well as some songs from anime or films. I think it'll be fun!

Keeping this blog updated! This is probably the most important one, isn't it? So I'll do my best to write at least once a week. If there's anything you're interested in, give me a shout and I'll see what I can do for you. ;)

I hope you had a great start of the year! I sure did!

With Love

Books of December

2010-12-30T20:17:00.002+01:00

I wanted to make a list of book I'm currently reading and which I finished during December. I will post one of these monthly - hopefully - and I might give a review or a summary of a book or series of books every once in a while. If you have any suggestions on books, just comment the name of the book (or series) and the author, and I'll look it up! If you are wondering what I am going to read or have read, I suggest you go to my Goodreads profile, since it includes everything I am reading, am going to read and I'm filling it up with most of the books I know I have read.
If it's a loliable or a book about lolita, I would be really happy if you could suggest it! (>u<)
I could have posted this later, but I felt it's better to take it now. You'll understand why later, I guess.

So, to what I'm currently reading:
1/2 Prince (Yu Wo)
David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)
End in Tears (Ruth Rendell)
Mei wenti! Inga problem! On livet i dagens Kina (Catarina Liliehöök)*
Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (Astrid Lindgren)
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
Tomorrow, When the War Began (John Marsden)
* This book is about life in China and I believe it's only available in Swedish

What I finished during December:
I was sadly too busy to read much at all and therefore I didn't finish any book.

And... What I actually recommend from the books I finished 2010:
First I would recommend the first and second books of the series Vampire Diaries. Though not loliable (maybe it suits gothic lolitas), the series is well written and even though I had my doubts when the heroine was a stereotypical blond popular American girl, I was quickly deep in the story. The heroine isn't as shallow as she first seemed and she also grows as a person. Not to mention the very interesting story! Even though I found the vampire hype quite tiring, it was thanks to it that I found this series!

Secondly I would like to recommend a book with a historical setting. Set in England in the time after the French revolution, the book could suit a lolita very well. Once again the main character is female, however this female is not your typical female of this time. Sovay, which is also what the book is called, is a strong female character. The story is quite action-filled, but with the strong heroine she puts up an idealistic character. Historical novels isn't that popular, so I think you should take your time and read it. I, myself, couldn't put down the book once I started reading! It is filled with emotions you can relate to.

With Love

Lief's Sacred Night Print

2010-12-29T21:51:00.031+01:00

I know I said I wasn't going to write until Monday and I wish I could say I'm just slow to catch on, but I knew about this print for some time now. I read about it at some of the lolita blogs I'm following. However, since I've been too busy to google for it, I haven't mentioned it. But now I know where to find lief. So, preorders start on 30th this month, which is tomorrow.
To me, it's a must have in the closet this winter. Even though I can't afford it, which is too bad!
The skirt is longer than your usual lolita dress - the total lenght of the JSK is 110; which is basically to my ankles, but I'm one of the shortest grown up people I know.
It's in velveteen and is available in Ivory with black print, Black with gold print and Wine with gold print. I'm not much for gold prints myself, so my personal favourite is the black printed JSK. It's available as a skirt too. It's 77 cm in total length.
As mentioned, preorders start tomorrow and naturally this is limited.
I'm just mentioning it again: A must have in your winter wardrobe, in my opinion.

Kamikaze Girls and Tea

2010-12-28T22:16:00.005+01:00

As mentioned earlier, Shimotsuma Monogatari (English name: Kamikaze Girls) was planned today. Naturally I sat down and watched the film.

Momoko is the only girl in her town who wears lolita and has no friends. However, this doesn't bother her and she thinks her Baby dresses are all she needs.
When she runs out of money to buy her clothes, she decides to sell her father's old counterfeited clothing he used to sell and writes an add about it. Ichiko responds to the add and is amazed by the clothing. After that she comes every so often to buy more.
Well... if I say more it wouldn't be interesting watching the film, so let's stop there.
It's a very good film. You will laugh at times, since the idea of a yankee and a lolita being friends is quite hilarious, but there are times when someone actually says something extremely thoughtful. A film recommended to all. There's some action, comedy, love, friendship, fashion, cute girls... Well... There's not really any cute guys, but it's a film that has most of the things I can think of would be interesting for a film.
It gets a four out of five ribbons if you ask me. (^__^)

Moving on...
To my horror I noticed there is barely anything left of my peppermint tea. I drink tea on more or less daily basis, so to me this was a crisis, especially as I prefer herbal tea over the usual teas, as herbal teas are caffein-free.
When I went to the store, I was so concentrated on getting tea I actually forgot I need flour and sugar! (°__°;) But I did some interesting find.
Some time ago, the only herbal tea at the convenience store was peppermint (luckily for me, as it's my favourite), but this time it had more. I looked with great interest as some of the caffein-brands now offered caffeine-free alternatives. And my gaze stopped at a red brown package. Rosehip.
Without second thoughts I chose that one, as I wanted to try it out. I have drunk rosehip soup, so I wasn't scared to try rosehip tea.

The colour of the tea is actually darker than in the picture, but I wanted to show the colour. It's red, quite deeply red too. Wine or perhaps blood is a good description of the colour.
The taste itself is the one of rosehip. Which is natural as the ingredients are 95% rosehip and 5% other. I would guess this tea goes great with sweets like shortcake or ice cream. I wouldn't mind going to a tea party were they served this, not only because I like the taste, but also because it smells so good. It has a very flowery scent.

That's all for today and this week. On Monday I will give my opinion on the comic Venus versus Virus (at least the three first books). I might also write how my first day at work was at Tuesday.

With Love

Photo by me

Banner~

2010-12-28T03:17:00.001+01:00

It's been a few days now, but I have added a banner on the top of the blog. I drew it and it feature my character Karl-Erik. Yes, it is indeed a boy. However, I thought he would fit perfectly as he doesn't mind wearing lolita! Sometime me and my friends online call him Lulu, and you're allowed to do that too!
Karl-Erik will probably continuously be feature on the blog banner, since he is cute. :)

I'm going to watch the film Shimotsuma Monogatari (aka Kamikaze Girls) based on the novel by our own special Novala Takemoto later today, so I might write what I think about the film!
I will also start reading the comic Venus versus Virus by Atsushi Susumi, which apparently have some gothic lolita in it, so I might give you my opinion on that too!

Olivia Lufkin concert

2010-12-25T01:41:00.002+01:00

Olivia Lufkin

I will go to a convention in June. It's called UppCon:11. On this convention Olivia Lufkin will hold a concert.
I am a big fan, so I hope to get a reserved seat on her concert. If I don't get one, I prefer not to stand in line for hours, because I will be selling art and I don't want to be away from my table for hours.

Also, as mentioned, I will be selling art there. If you are going there and want to meet me, please do!
(UppCon is in Uppsala, Sweden, June 3rd-5th)

With Love