http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:Little-Reed&section=today deviantART RSS for by:Little-Reed en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:39:25 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/28995989/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/28995989/ Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:26:14 PST By: Nanae Chrono
Who also published: Peacemaker (1&2)probably most known, Momotama (newest)

Chrono is extremely skillful at making a completely nonsexual action into what looks like sexual invasion by mind alone. Pretty wicked stuff. In Peacemaker I was pleasantly surprised by the eyecandy quality of the imagery of the fight between Okita and the rebel leader. Also how Tei-chan *could've* had a crush on Okita, *could've* not. Everything Chrono does is an implication, while at the same time the author also uses bluntly sexual characters to contrast with the non-obvious ones with lots of sexual tension. While there are scenes that really get down to the zippers and the lacy underwears, those had their focus on other issues instead.

Perfect example - Vassalord. Charles must remain celibate out of priestly duty as well as the principle of things, while Charles' master vampire simply -loves- to tempt virgins and youngsters. Chrono manages to make the master vampire Lavlo (sp?) at the same time an ojisan as well as an extremely tempting (though not girly) uke-ish man BUT NOT. It's complicated. I love complicated.

Chrono also plays with a lot of unpleasant gore/violence, while managing to make it 'beautiful' in a story-like quality. Peacemaker was built on a little bit of historical myth (Hijikata & Okita the legendary figures, just like what Gintama's Hijikata and Sougo were based on)For gore/violence in Peacemaker you get the ninja girl beaten/raped to death, and in Vassalord, Lavlo is stripped, his intestines get pulled out, and his spinal column gets picked out one by one, and since he's a vampire he's alive and conscious during every second of it.

Lovely (?)

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/28423378/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/28423378/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:06:14 PST
Wow. Some stuff in this story could be considered implied guru (if you don't know what that is, do not read this.) -- despite having such a juvenile art style D; There's something rather perverse about this manga content even though it never outright makes references to any sort of sexual nature. The implications are sort of just thrown in your face without warning sometimes. The characters are pre-teens, and the gods that attack them do use some very, erm, wrong methods XD"

(Well, okay, my first impression in the beginning was that this was a manga containing men with odd beards, but later that didn't matter so much anymore so I continued reading.)

God Sweepers is a manga about - well, god sweepers. Ever-so-slightly implying shounen-ai and shoujo-ai (yaoi & yuri) of sorts, this Japanese original fantasy is rather dramatic, a bit fast-paced in depicting each turn of events, and has a few surprises every other page.

The style of this author is something comparable to a...maybe, junior high level, not-too-well-proportioned manga art styles. Surprisingly though (and I was honestly surprised) the story is a page-turner. The story is innovative in some of its details, and some characters in here are somewhat likeable (...) The way the characters in relation to the setting is one of the things I like about this manga. What I personally believe could be done better is the pace of plot development - too fast, omits details even though every turn is very dramatic. And the juvenile art style doesn't help. ...I admit I became curious in the beginning due to its very WTF beginning ---------- basically all the gods in Japan are trying to get the main character to take off his clothes.



Alright, fine. Not just any clothes - but a special temple garment that hides boy A from the gods' eyes. Inside the boy's heart, there lives a spirit that's basically The Spirit in this story. If a god eats The Spirit, that god becomes all-powerful and can then rule over the whole world, so to say. The boy A is - if you want to give him a stereotype - an Oh-no-don't-hurt-me-but-I-believe-in-you-anyway uke-looking young teen. I love how in the appendix of the first (?) manga there's a small parody interlude:
The gods: "Take it off! Take it off!"
boy A: (blushes) "Y-you guys... Aw! Alright, but just a little bit <3"
His knights in shiney armor: "No! Don't do it! (peeks from between fingers)"

There's an immortal tentacle girl in it --- D She spends 1/3 of the time naked DD
That's where I thought it got a bit guru-ish. One of the gods was trying to kill the god inside tentacle girl, and apparently the god inside the girl lives in her (of course, where else) uterus. So in order to kill the god in the uterus (...) the attacker summoned a what looked like two stories high hot, lava rock to drill into tentacle girl from the bottom up. Ouchiez.
But, you know, she doesn't die, ever, so ...

Her brother is a little-sister-complex 妹控 sadist that fantasizes about hacking his sister into little pieces with a blush and grin on his face. A rather initiative pervert, too, since he was the one who planted that god in C's uterus.

There's a little-brother-complex 弟控 in it. He's the sterotypical gentle-long-hair-protective-guard-dog-with-a-tragic-past.

Ginkun is a lolicon. He blushes when hugging 12-year-olds. What was he blushing over?! XDD

Everyone's at least a bit perverse in this story. How glorious. ... Or it could just be me.

The manga gets slightly philosophical - though at the pace it was going, this could be easily missed. It's the question of the possibility of the coexistence of gods in people's hearts and people facing a whole world full of gods. A had a conversation with the god of land about how human beings should live while opposing the existence of the gods (why he thinks such subject matter would be understood by a 12-year-old is beyond me) A and B are predicted by the dead gods in 'hell' that they'll never be able to have happy-ever-after. Also, in the end of volume 3, C says: "I don't think I can kill the gods forever. 'Cause...I saw...they're everywhere."

Now, did the whole story end at volume 3? Er, I'm a little confused. Either it has ended on a note that these god sweepers will continue to sweep out the 8 billion (or million?) gods in Japan and thus --- an open ending, or that "End" a... ]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/28162342/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/28162342/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:23:38 PST
Manga: 漂泊者 Rover (rough translation)

Action/Adventure Japanese history, western myth Elves, Roman history, and pseudo-Nazi military ------ big crazy Crossover story.
If you are a fan of Hellsing - this is the same artist Kouta Hirano.
Mainly for me this artist's 'signiture' is 耍狠, ruthlessness.

You basically see the main character waltz into a sea of enemies, be it monsters, other vampires, or the army, and then kill everyone with a vicious grin on his face. Now, I wasn't a die-hard fan for Hellsing (I was in love with the anime's music, and the interactions between the vampire and the owner, but that was it.) 'Rover', on the other hand, shows potential. It makes uses of different historical figures in the Japanese wars (and later I suspect a Roman historical figure or two, 'cause two have popped up without identifying themselves), which provides a certain level of relativity for those who love wild history stories. It provides the readers a very out-of-this-world spin-off on the question of "What would these famous people do if they were in blah blah blah blah blah...." An example from the beginning would be when the main character was thrown into a place suddenly where two young elves (odd ears, as he called them) looking down at him fearfully in the middle of a forest.

The main character Shimazu Toyohisa (1570~1600) was basically famous for his loyal commitment to his uncle (who became his adoptive father after his own died) and had died in the battle field voluntaring himself as bait for the enemy to allow his adoptive father to escape.

Oda Nobunaga（1534~1582) was the first of the three most important leaders in the feudal war time. His name is pretty much a must-know for Japanese feudal war history. He called himself 'The Sixth Maoh' because he taunted Takeda Shingen, which implied that he was at odds with Buddhism at the time. His leadership unfortunately broke down after the famous betrayal of Akechi Mitsuhide (under Oda's leadership until his betrayal, later became the emperor.)

Nasu no Yoichi (1169~1232）on the other hand was mythicized for his skills in archery. It was rumored that the enemy head had placed a fan at the head of a ship, taunting Yoichi's army about how no one would ever be able to shoot that, and right away, Yoichi shot it with a single arrow. In Rover however, Yoichi is depicted very differently from the historical one (manly, with a wife, and died at the age of 63) as a 19 years old pretty face who the main character mistook as either a girl or a male 'serve' in the beginning. [I'm not sure of the terminology's translation in English, but a male 'serve' was basically a male child that was responsible for a military head's everyday life needs - including food, clothing, bathing, and sex.] My first thought was --- BUT AREN'T THOSE BOOBS? (it turns out it's just a very misleading fold of fabric ... )

You'd think these people would be boring, or serious. Cause, y'know, they're war myths.

But of course not. It's a crazy crossover story. Hilarious conversations ensue, like:

"W-wait a minute!! H-h-h-how did that hairy monkey become an emperor?!"
and
"Isn't Toyohisa a little countryside village with nice, honest farmers in it?" (400 years ago)
"DIE!!!"
and
"How old are you?"
Oda: 50-ish
Shimazu: 30
Yoichi: "HAHAHAHAHA. (I WIN)" <--- 19
Oda: ....This guy is NOTHING like what the historical records described...

Imagine how three historical figures, 18 and 400 years apart could discuss Japanese history.

These three people in Rover were being observed secretly by the thus-far-unidentified pseudo-Nazi group (dubbed this solely because of their uniforms - who knows, later maybe they're some heroic world-saving scientists...) as people with 'invasive' characteristics, even in this bizarre, strange place. They were seen as dangerous factors, threatening to take over this land even though Shimazu had just landed here. (He barges into the elf-bullying army man and demands that he leave his head with him.) He was right, too, these are people that thrived in war. They never stopped fighting. Thus the great, complicated big historical-fantasy world crossover begins.

I like this beginning, having read only the 7 chapters posted online thus far. I hope the thrills, humor, and wtf-ness keep up D

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/27946689/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/27946689/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:18:20 PDT
Hoozuki no Shima 鬼燈之島

About truths, lies, accidents, and delusions. Children and adults. Trust and chains of misleading incidents. The story is about an island on which seven children have been sent one after another to a school there for special education, similar to the types of institutions youths are sent to before they get to juvie institutions. On this island are four teachers including one principal, and just the seven children. The story begins when the sixth and seventh children - a brother and his blind sister - are sent to this island. An unusually tense atmosphere covers the island - fueled by not only its isolation, children's unease with adults in the first place, as well as a rumor of a previous girl in this school that had mysteriously disappeared. It is rumored that her ghost appears at times to certain children - either by vision, by sound, or footsteps...etc. The children, together, witness a number of events that led them to a horrifying conclusion - the adults have taken them to this island to kill them off one by one for their insurance money.

One day the children device a plan to escape. The chase begins. This is a packed story of suspence, great thriller, in which the reader never really knows the truth until the very end of Hoozuki no Shima. The reader is given a number of perspectives, information, as well as each character's own speculations, and left to decide for themselves at each point in time - should they or shouldn't they kill to survive? This story, though the setting much simpler than reality, does find good basis on the way of truths and lies work in reality. One is left to wonder at each point - is this real? Did that just happen? Should they continue with such an action? What if they're wrong?

As a flower, the name of the island means lies and falsehood. I was quite happy to be surprised turn after turn in this short story, even till the very end. I enjoyed the personal background stories, especially that of my favourite character Sho, who is a child of an IQ of 180, whose mother tried to commit suicide taking Sho with her by driving their car off a cliff. When Sho woke up, he simply looked down at the dead body of his mother, thinking, 'Shit. She almost killed me.' Various personalities and mentality come into play when speculating the truth - and Hoozuki no Shima definitely played well on weaving a storyline using that very mystery - what is the truth?

Helpful to my school paper. Very, very.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/27456703/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/27456703/ Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:47:47 PDT
Have had the cold of STUPIDITY.

And lost the one brain cell that I'd kept so preciously...

Now what am I going to use to write my paper with? D8

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/26855739/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/26855739/ Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:13:50 PDT
AND THEN I GOT MYSELF A NEW ONE OF COURSE.

I'm back in America, but moving again.

And then there's settling in...

And then there's school...

GAHHHHHH--------------- *finds a corner to claw*

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/24609901/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/24609901/ Tue, 05 May 2009 21:26:44 PDT
If I don't melt too badly, I'll come back with a less barbaric appearance and a family-messed mind.

...ha. *BURN*

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/24204503/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/24204503/ Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:51:22 PDT
Dorohedoro is about two worlds - a magicians' world (no Harry Potter influence, completely original) and a creatures/humans/monsters' world (Called the Hole). The magicians have this cruel tradition to venture into the Hole to hunt and experiment on the creatures there as a way of proving themselves - and in the beginning the Hole residents fought back. They lost terribly, and thus the scale was completely one-sided. Ever since then, our main character --- a very friendly but very amnesic character began to look for the magician that turned his head into a lizard's head.

Sounds wacky for a start? Wait, there's more. There's another human head within the lizard's head. Of course. Why not? I love it 8D The whole plot starts out with a very simple mission to look for the lizard head's cause, and turned into a complicated web that depicted the amazing and original world(s) in Dorohedoro. The magic ranges from hilarious to gory, and the monsters (or really the victims) are the funniest and saddest little souls ever.

The women in this manga are --- very, extremely masculine. Muscles and fists. I'm not very too into that, but it's logical in that world. And it's new to me. Not easy to adjust to, but still interesting. Every character in Dorohedoro is interesting and original.

My absolute FAVOURITE is Mr. Heart. He's a killer magician working for the head (mob-like) magician. His mask is a heart, the organ shape, and his favourite thing to do is to use the back of his hammer to break people's heads. I adore this character setting!!!! Watching him go on a killing spree is so satisfying

...yes. I'm done. I'm a very docile and nice citizen, really...

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/23832460/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/23832460/ Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:33:00 PDT
HA.

Don't you just love how Neuro's final weapon protrudes from his middle finger?

Final boss battle: GIVE HIM THE FINGER DANG IT!! 8DDD

This manga rocks.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/23195385/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/23195385/ Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:18:17 PST
Passed out in the afternoon for a good three hours after a week in which I had an average of 3 hours of sleep per day. During this nap I dreamt that I felt my sore throat and used thermometer on myself, and then read 37 degrees Celsius and was like "Meh, normal, thank goodness." ----- until I woke up and realized that I really did have a sore throat and nausea and definitely have yet to reach the thermometer.

Nice.

And gah, so tired.

EDIT: OH. I FINALLY REMEMBERED. Happy Valentine's Day, dammit.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/22413057/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/22413057/ Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:57:15 PST
Meh, hopefully this semester there wouldn't be a death period again, even though in some twisted/sugar-topped/blurred-sighted way that was kinda fun X___x

To ze 2009 winter semester!! En garde----!! D<

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/22212166/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/22212166/ Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:25:23 PST
Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy boxing day shopping, all 8D"

Think of all the food ... *droolz*

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/21336377/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/21336377/ Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:54:20 PST

When I first read Takayama's Amatsuki, I did a review rant on it, about it being beautiful on the eyes but hard to comprehend - the plot and background info was just too much to take in all at the same time. Amatsuki incorporates a futuristic world paralleled with an ancient world, one with hyper technology and other with gods, mythical creatures, and magic at work. Both Buddhist philosophy, Zen Buddhist thinking, as well as, surprisingly, a tiny bit of Christian Bible story of the Garden of Eden were all incorporated into it (and I hadn't got to this part until just recently. It's a hard manga to understand) The new series Chant Dancer follows a similar suit.

Chant Dancer is yet another beautifully drawn manga with tastefully adorable characters, each with their own complexity as well as idiocy that makes them all lovable. This manga has a more AU setting, reminds me a bit of Yami No Matsuei, making use of the Asian gods legends and using this Trainer and Pet (sort of) system to maintain the safety of humanity. It's relatively simpler setting (or, so far, knowing Takayama, she might just complicate it further?). I disliked the beginning a bit, because it's one of those typical nosey reporter highschool girl finding out about a whole new dimension to her modern life kinda intro. Overdone, though Takayama's characters seldom fall into the cheesy category, if only to attract the BL lovers with charming boys. She also (....if it's a he, I apologize) incorporated mythical creatures such as slave ancient cats and bulls and such. They make a charming addition to the colorful world the author has (quickly, a bit rushed, perhaps) built up.

Nevertheless, it's a promising series, even just for its beautiful art. I look forward to further updates.
...
...
...
And to finish my homework. Damn.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/21240374/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/21240374/ Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:21:13 PDT
...MAN. Naruto's new chapter really did it. Q()Q

I really wish Kakashi wouldn't die (but it says ... but then ... WAHHHHH)

Evilness! TTxTT

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/20401193/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/20401193/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:32:42 PDT
Anyhow, I have three busy first weeks, and then I don't know what I'm going to do for the rest of all that time to make up for the lack of courses to take T^T Seriously the last years are difficult and complex. I really wish I could graduate sooner.

I read ghost stories again like the last time I made the same mistake. Man, I hate it. Image memories stay with me so clearly, and then these memories just creep up unexpectedly, scaring me for no reason at all T^T BAH~~ So annoying!

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/19960052/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/19960052/ Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:51:38 PDT
Anyway, I came back to Taiwan to visit my parents for three weeks. It's great to see this place now all cleaned up in comparison to my memory of it from four years ago. The streets are litter less now and subway (not underground. Are those called RT instead?) is really convenient. There are even two layered parking spaces for bicycles now, which is a great idea for a crowded little island in need of more space. I am in a different part of the country than I was four years ago though, so it might be due to that as well.

Anyhow. Food is great. It's always great, no doubt, but since I've been living independent from my family I've been eating, or rather, starving, like a poor student that I am. Eating odd and primal things such as an entire jar of pickles for one meal or just rice and miso soup for months at a time. I'm currently eating meat. Protein. And that is a great improvement already. Perhaps too much, because I suspect indigestion from the sudden abundance in nutrition. How sad

I will be back in Canada at the end of August. Before then, let me indulge in a thorough tropical and well fed life.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/19551982/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/19551982/ Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:15:21 PDT

This is a shounen jump manga that ended in 2006, in 8 volumes, by Nishimori Hiroyuki. A big comedy story X3 This is a story about the encounter between a samurai (?) in the modern day, who has a complete misconception of what Japan is supposed to be like today, and a very normal, mousy little high school first grader, let's call him Takeshi from rough translation, whose eyes sparkle like a little rabbit when he really wants to say something to correct the samurai's severely ancient thinking. Together the two get into all sorts of trouble because the samurai insists on being a justice deliverer to fulfill his duty. In the process, the samurai and other high school punks come to believe that Takeshi is their Daimyo (?). They eventually come into conflict with the local mafia, and face the impossibly dangerous gangsters with courage...and plans.

The main development is really how Takeshi transforms from a mousy kid to a .... equally mousy Daimyo. Because he's so harmless looking and calm (or so scared that he's expressionless) when facing the punks, these amazingly off rumors started spreading around about him. Eventually he's famous for being a cold blooded, having a pressuring atmosphere, charismatic leader .... which he never was.

Oh yeah, and the samurai Shiro has awesome family members. A dad (never appeared in person in the manga though) who took Shiro to America to live in the mountains with the Aboriginals to train him into ... this hybrid Aboriginal Japanese ancient person that he is... A mom who looks like deer Bambi, small, cute, round sparkling eyes, and a very off common sense. An older brother (they were seperated since babies) who is willing to go to crazy and hilarious measures to protect his mother and 'eaceful' home. This brother is envied by Takeshi and the rest of the punks, because he's one of those boys who have good looks, looks civil, and can get girls just by saying hi with a smile. This guy's actually really hilarious.

This might sound very serious, but this all is a hilarious comedy. I don't think I've stopped laughing at all from the first volume to the eighth. The ending was a happy ending, even though it's slightly regrettable that we don't get to see how nice Cotowari's step father used to be, because he's supposed to be very loving even though he's mafia. It was a nice, though slightly rushed ending; but a good story altogether, for laughs, definitely.

....I'm so hard working in my final week. So hard working......not playing around.......sooooo.....hard working......... D8
PS: my grammar is getting better and better....in the opposite direction.....

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/19312001/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/19312001/ Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:59:29 PDT

.... but of course I can't say that it's as good as the manga ;x;

The story line (at least thus far) is completely different, just with the same names and main character setting. They actually SKIPPED YUJI'S CASE GRAHHHHH~~~~ #### ...Still, I guess the only choice of actor for Shibatora really is Koike Teppei, since he is known for his baby face and all. But unless they actually get a kid to do the job, no one at that age (in the known acting circle at least) can look as young and small as the main character in the manga...which is a shame because it's one of the sources for repeated jokes in this story

The manga Shibatora is a heart warming cop story about a young looking cop entering the service of Young Criminal department. The story is set in modern Japanese society, with a small dash of supernatural power, which is the main character's ability to literally see future death threat if someone's in fatal danger. Most stories that this manga depicts are rooted in current young criminal issues such as stealing, homicide with plans of suicide afterwards, gambling, robbing, drugs, gang violence...etc. The authors place small drama twists on these issues and make Shibatora an entertaining, touching story to read.

My favourite aspect of this manga is still the characters. I love personality issues, psychological background stories and such, and the authors do a decent job of showing much personality through each criminal's behaviors, meaning there're very little 'junk pages' in this story. My favourite character has to be Yuji, the second criminal. Not for very profound reasons, just because he is such a thoroughly nice person, committing crimes out of really naive and good intentions. Being a very smart guy helps, of course, and he's definitely a uke type that I like

I just hope that the Japanese drama version of this story doesn't disappoint, because this type of story can VERY easily become a cheesy 'I'LL SAVE YOU ALL WITH LOVE' type of drama. That, and that the manga would hurry up and update soon!

~

Update:

I watched the first two episode.
.............................................

They practically murdered the original drama, the character designs, ESPECIALLY YUGI THEY FREAKING SHAVED HALF OF HIS HAIR!!! They turned into odd concoctions that are neither juvenile enough nor good for the eyes.

I am dropping this Japanese drama version. Not watching this anymore. T^T

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18951880/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18951880/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:50:52 PDT
The Antique Cake Store is about four men who by chance came to work in the same small cake store. Each came with their own unique backgrounds, from former boxing champion to genius cake master. Within this simple cake store setting, both the customers and the four men themselves weave a heart warming story.

I admire this story even more after I read the manga version. Though, to my slight surprise, the original setting for the genius cake master in the manga is a lot ... gayer than the Japanese drama version. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised seeing as tv dramas need to control the sensitive topic of homosexuality to a certain level, but I think the original story, while the chef's sexuality has yaoi fangirls' support, serves a different purpose. I didn't know this until I read the whole manga.

To me, this is a story about memories, forgotten memories, and their influence to people's behaviors today, sometimes without the person's awareness of these memories. For instance, the store owner, as a kid, was kidnapped for two weeks when he was 9, and he forgot everything that happened within those two weeks, except that the kidnapper was a man who liked to give him cake to eat. In the beginning of the manga, the store owner in his highschool year, told the chef who was his classmate, that the chef was a disgusting homosexual. In the later part of the story, it is revealed that the store owner never did have so much hate for homosexuals, but as soon as a male looks at him with a certain type of gaze, he in reflex experiences the terrifying fear that he felt when he was kidnapped when he was young.

This is interesting to me since I'm recently learning much about the unconscious influences from psych class. And of course, the chef's own story had a lot of interesting plays on memories too. The other two men: the ex boxer and the store owner's servant, bring to the story similar amount of sorrow and joy as well with their own life stories. Overall, I like the simple but unique character designs, I like the focus on amateur psychology, I like the simple setting and the great use of it as a stage for small, touching life drama. The drawing style is very simple. Not bad, but not incredible either. Though the change in the chef's usual demeanor and his 'transformation' whenever he makes use of his attractiveness is shown very nicely by the drawing style. In those instances, he's surprisingly sexy

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18789240/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18789240/ Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:48:53 PDT
(A: ....coming from you, it's especially not convincing. = = )

In order to, er, assist my paper writing for the day, I started watching the new series ROOKIES (not the English one in 1970s, but the 2008 Japanese drama!) and wow! I'm happy I found this series!

Going back to the often used delinquents and passionate teacher setting, ROOKIES first reminded me of Gokusen (I & II). However, the Gokusen series focuses more attention on the humorous situations that come out of a mafia teacher and her moral teachings (and beatings that always come before that). Also, Gokusen relies more on pretty faces. No, that's not a bad thing, just less down to earth.

ROOKIES, on the other hand, has a really solid story that's not as simplified as Gokusen storyline. While it's hard work for the passionate teacher to gather up the previously (and still is) naughty students up for their Baseball Club, the hard work does not end there with a happily ever after. There are fights within due to various things, fears to face, teachers, and teamwork to work on. Real issues found in team building processes.

They do have girly lines such as "...you guys...(tears all over face)", same as Gokusen, though. ROOKIES do have pretty faces, though I have to say, the actors were better looking, from my personal view, BEFORE the ROOKIES series than after

The ending of episode 5 (while predictable) was really touching, especially the hand sign. ROOKIES is airing currently, so I have to wait each week for the next episode. Not a bad thing, necessarily, seeing as my papers really need to be written sometimes before somebody kicks me out of that class and announce me an imbecile TxT

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18740737/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18740737/ Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:09:48 PDT
This manga first caught my eye because of the rather unique drawing style. Where as most manga use screen dots, gradients and patterns and pure black ink outlines, this manga is completely medium dark grey pencil (or pen) sketch. The style is relatively simple, but easy on the eyes. Despite of what I suspected in the beginning, this style did not become a bore even as the manga progresses over 30 chapters (short overall, but long considering the style).

The best part about this manga, really, is its story. It's a story in the 'slices of life', 'growing up', and 'healing' categories. It's the type of story that is similar to "Honey and Clover" (except with a perverted element added to it). I have to say, in the beginning (even till the middle perhaps), it totally did not look like a story about any of that. Kurosake began as a TOTAL PERVERT. I'm capitalizing because, well, the meaning of the title 'chun wun' means "king of jacking off". BUT WAIT. Don't let that turn you off. It's totally not about that

Kurosake started out as one of those social outcasts in junior high. He had no dreams to look forward to, no enthusiasm for anything bright or fun, other than reading a lot, his daily goal is to jack off to the imaginary story of him raping or powering over one of the girls in his class (the choice of girl changes daily too = = ) And while everyone probably has fantasies and jack off or whatever, Kurosake needs to do it in a girl's bathroom. This whole (nearly obsessive compulsive) process is like his second life, where he feels powerful and completely satisfied with his imaginations.

Outside of this second life, Kurosake's just a boy who's not very extroverted, expressive, but is actually not too bad on the head. His inward sarcasm toward things that his classmates do show a reflective nature. Observant, cool headed, pretty smart, just not good at dealing with emotion and expression. His secret, however, is one day found out by a girl in his class. He is then threatened to help her deal revenge toward her bullies. And thus starts the moral struggles. He sees in this girl himself, and the road of helpless decay that he could be going down. One day, he decides to be true to himself, everyone else, and face the mistakes he had made head on.

Hmm, it's sounding a bit cheesy the way I describe it, but the important stuff is in the process of Kurosake changing his very character, and in the process, changing the girl's character as well. Most readers' comments to this manga series (complete 30 chapters + 1 epilogue) is that Kurosake really has courage. I agree. A lot happened in the process (I'm still amazed that it's all in pencil sketch like drawing style throughout), and there were times in which he nearly gave up his will to all the negative things that were taking over. The author doesn't over dramatize things, although I hardly believe this can happen in reality. Seeing a character who's been socially inadequate, closed up, perverted in personality and actions growing up and face himself is a moving thing for me.

As a naive stretch, I'd like to see that happen in reality.

Noted Link: [link]

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18662150/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18662150/ Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:53:36 PDT
Actually this time took a lot less time because of experience with Daymare Town 1, but still, DT2 had more creepy points to it. The little figures actually change every once in a while, so when you go back to the same room even if you didn't do anything, the black figure or butcher might suddenly be pressing against the screen looking at you or something. That makes it scarier than DT1, which was just really silent and slightly eerie.

Most memorable scene for me: Gallery portraits
"Siona in a Dress made out of Cashmere"
"Bugsbag in a Dress made out of Siona"

Whoah~ Sick!

I didn't leave with as many coins as could, but it doesn't matter to me. Beating the game was enough, and that eerie pressure gone after the game is beat is a good feeling.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18496934/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18496934/ Sun, 25 May 2008 15:17:01 PDT
OwO

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18131054/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/18131054/ Fri, 02 May 2008 10:24:17 PDT I really wish I can have a good dream sometimes. Wonder why it's never happened to me before T^T

'RESET' by 筒井哲也 is a one-shot thriller about three main characters: an internet psycho who tries to play god to all the local area network online players due to a grudge that rendered him third degree burns from years ago, a smart, talented ex-prisoner now working community service for the police over this case as the internet psycho kills people through the internet, and lastly a very normal, young housewife whose husband was killed by the psycho through the internet. There're also side characters such as a teacher trying to save a student who fell victim to the internet psycho's attempt to kill her.

The whole thing isn't very gory, just very interesting - the creative way of sending death messages to everyone who can hardly tell the difference between the virtual world and the real world anymore. Since the game that the psycho created is so realistic, people forget that they're in the real world, and so when they see the message 'Game failure, RESET', they kill themselves, even in the real world. The game itself is full of opportunities for people to kill each other, themselves, or just kill for fun - as the ex-prisoner observes, it's a sick game where people can let out their thirst for death and violence like it doesn't matter to the world or themselves.

As expected they eventually find the real criminal and arrests him, but then there's a small, pleasant surprise as to how they end the gaming problem. The ex-prisoner took over the game manager position, and turned everyone's bullets into little plastic pebbles, soft tipped knives, and for those who liked to kill themselves in the game, he sent them a cheesy gaming message of something like, 'lease love your own life. A message from the local police.' or something like that. Kind of a cute ending, after seeing so many people die and such a deep, chilling discovery of everyone's death wish.

All the characters, by the end of this one-shot changed their views toward life, and I think it had a nice, rounded ending.

...I still wish I had a nice dream. It has nothing to do with the manga though >"<

Link Storage (Chinese): [link]

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17990682/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17990682/ Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:32:03 PDT
I discovered this series, both the manga version and the anime version last night, and have been watching what's available currently. I must say, the art style in the manga version is gorgeous I like this light hearted, adventure, and at the same time beautifully designed style.

The story starts out with normal modern Japan, in which a highschool boy (main character #1) who failed his history exam was forced into a school trip with several other students, in a high-tech virtual ancient Japan world facility. It is in this trip that some sort of magical force was at work and the highschooler finds himself stuck in the virtual world, with youkai (or demons or pixies...etc.) trying to kill him. He meets student #2 who is also stuck in this world, but due to time difference, #2 had already stayed in the ancient world for 2 years. They join a monk and a cursed girl for a while, before they are pulled into a huge battle over creation powers and have to decide which of the two sides they must support.

It's not an incredibly original plot, but it's not cheesy either. With the details on the world, the customs, the human/youkai interaction, and characters themselves being such interesting subjects of attention, this series has potential to be lovable.

I had a lot of trouble understanding what was going on, however, with the way they narrate the story. I don't know whether it was because the uploader of the manga made some sequential mistakes, or the story is just done with bad narration. What seemed to be a pretty simple plot got me completely confused by chapter 10, at which I still had no idea what was going on other than the big structure. I think they try to stuff too many things at the same time, and so the narration doesn't flow well.

The art is lovely though, I must say again :3
This Boten character -----> I DIG. He's such a queen uke, for those who understand BL or yaoi terminology. (But of course, I often have opposite views compared to majority's take on this subject matter.)

There is little to none fanworks on the Amatsuki series. Apparently it's a very slow-progressing manga, and the anime has only released episode 3. The anime is easier to understand, though I still think the story doesn't flow well. Still, I look forward to the updating manga all the same, and hope that the fandom for this manga series will flurish to satisfy!

Chinese Manga link for storage: [link]

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17933841/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17933841/ Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:12:57 PDT
Hitman Reborn has gave me an adorable surprise by giving 59 a kitty weapon that looks exactly like a cat-version of him It's so adorable~~~~~ Scratchy, and adorable. ><

Tsubasa was not so incredible until ch185.

Kurogane, you're totally POWNED now.

Look at that, just look at how you're smacked over the head by Fai that easily and you DIDN'T HIT BACK. HA! Aren't you well-trained now?

I've also been checking out anime Persona Trinity Soul. Its soundtrack and reference to disappearance in the sea remind me a lot of movies about the Bermuda Triangle. Mysterious, eerie, but remains earthly. Personally, this anime's episode/plot arrangement isn't very impressive. Its subject isn't focused enough, rendering my attention here and there all the time. The plot doesn't flow well enough and other than Jun's presence and the art style, the plot doesn't grab my attention from the beginning. The arrangement of this anime feels like a jumble of different genres thrown together.

The first few episodes are steadily stressing and mysterious, while from about episode 6 (?) suddenly we get this whole episode of warm fuzzies and joking around. And then after that it's a disarray of both. Though it does have its moments - on their own, they're really not bad. I like this type of art style for anime - slightly on the dim greys side, good body and facial proportions (the worse case example for this that I've seen is, unfortunately, Saiyuki= = ). I like the moment that Ryou started screaming I also like Jun a lot. His type of character generally pulls my attention.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17799666/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17799666/ Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:37:22 PDT
Gilgamesh is a pretty old anime. A really dark, gothic mix of what looks a bit like X-Men and Gundam Wing, except all in black, blood, and ugh-cough-I-die dramas. The art style of this anime isn't my favourite. While as a still picture they can make some pretty gorgeous images (all the while being very very gothic in style), as a moving picture they really are too old for my taste. It's the kind that has characters' mouths open close in uniform motions while the voice doesn't keep up, and everyone has really large eyes, mascara, thick top and bottom lips, and lots of gloomy thoughts to express.

I started watching Gilgamesh because I found this nice trailer, and wanted to know what the background music of it is. [link]
While I usually dislike English voice for J-animes, this trailer looks pretty cool, like some sort of action movie, upbeat, cool, and bloody - well now I know the actual anime isn't upbeat, active, or cool at all - but still it's a nice trailer

From this other clip I find out that there are a lot of character deaths in this anime, and I heard the ending is really strange ---> I'm curious about how the ending is strange, so I've been watching Gilgamesh for an afternoon now (while I should be studying for my final exams. And yes. I'm sober.) I'm really still eagerly waiting for some cool x-men power effects and gory action from this anime, and I'm on episode 6. Maybe it'll get all cool later, who knows.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17447189/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17447189/ Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:05:48 PDT
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control is about four different, somewhat eccentric men who are working in four very different fields of work. One has been a lion tamer for many years, one is one of the top robot-builder/designers in the world, one is an old gardener who dedicated his whole life into shaping a garden into a beautiful collection of green animals, and one is one of the only experts in the world on molerats that have just been discovered a couple of years ago. Shooting the video with different equipments ranging from low saturation, grainy quality camera to highly saturated, high-tech cameras, the whole film is a big, creatively arranged collection of very short clips of various quality and style. There is no consistent filming style in this video, giving the viewers flashes of various quality images that never gets tiring. Also, the artist added in old video clips like clips from "The Darkest Africa". These clips are very entertaining to see amidst the various clips of the four men.

They interviewed each of the four men about their views on their work, the meaning of their work, significance, and many other things, and the conversations are quite philosophical in a certain sense and very interesting to hear. The filmer then mixes the voices of the interviews up with other images - so for example, while the lion tamer is saying to a large lion "down boy down!", the video clip shown at the same time would be the robot-designer controlling a robot as it kneels down....or something along those lines.

All in all, this was a very interesting, creative, and inspiring documentary video. Often, as my prof mentions, documentary videos are seen as sort of a second-class citizen in the film world; however, "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control" is really an example of a work of art as a documentary. Some of the clips in this documentary are amazingly gorgeous. My favourite must be of the old gardener in the raining, misty garden at night, holding a black umbrella, while a faint light flickers off of the plant giraffe leaves and rain drops fall down in slow motion.... It was so beautiful

....Wow I'm such a geek for writing this much. Anyways go watch this film!

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17243961/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/17243961/ Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:14:43 PST
...





>< !!!

THE MUSIC IS SO GOOD

A very old, reused, and simple concept - time manipulation - yet this anime managed to give it a new, young look with its upbeat, childish attitude. At first I was rather confused by how different the background designs are with the characters - but that can be overlooked when the story is this good.

I find each of the choice of little actions like scratching the back of the neck, movements of the eyes, and the interactions of all the side characters very well placed. The arrangement of narration through action, in this anime, is very good - balanced, well-paced, and doesn't go beyond the reality of a character as young as the main character.

And because I'm a girl, it's natural that I go ohhh and ahhh over the last romantic scene, which I thought was lovely. The music is really what grips me at that point.

Oh and I think the main character's little sister is SO CUTE. I WANT ONE OF THOSE.

And that's my Me-To-Wall Rant of the Day.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/16758485/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/16758485/ Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:21:20 PST
= w = <3

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/16359295/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/16359295/ Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:13:05 PST
Honestly, I love singing so, so, so much.

It's just that I never really thought I loved it enough that it actually works effectively as my anger relief. I'm the type of person that represses everything bad/sad/angry for a long while, and then every once in a long while, I would try to release all these anger and stress in things like drawing, wondering aimlessly in parks, and occasional sports. But today I sang, and I think this is the first time that I've ever felt so released from anger.

Wonder if it'll work as effectively next time?

I hope it does.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/16303023/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/16303023/ Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:21:46 PST
Looks like I will have no play time for yet another while T___T
Hopefully I can get this class conflicting time thing fixed because I can't find another course to take in its place!!

I hope all had a good holiday anyway~

Cheers.... or try to

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/16028560/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/16028560/ Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:11:08 PST
Will be away at a computer-less internet-less (GASP) place for nearly two weeks, hopefully I'll survive it with my sanity intact by the end of the two weeks.

Haven't updated anything in a long while now - am currently busy trying to kick the lock and handle off of my door to replace it with a new one. Why am I doing that? Er, ha, ha, I want a lock because I'm such a .... That is all. 8D

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/15619642/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/15619642/ Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:09:41 PST
.... breath, breath, okayyyyy......

*Goes hugging paperbags in a corner*

T___T

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/15588168/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/15588168/ Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:10:39 PST
For some odd reasons, when it comes to entertainment, I'm all ORGANIZE THIS, PLOT, LOGIC, AND STRATEGIES!!! * 0 *

.....And then when it comes to school and homework I crash in a corner and become the worst slob and procrastinator ever.

Wonder how that works...? D;

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/15007675/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/15007675/ Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:07:58 PDT
Some make it pretty, nonetheless.

Sabbath Cafe, by Emiko Yachi, is a very subtle, well-arranged story revolving an orphan who is looking for a reason for his existence. We start out with the introduction (by bystanding friends-to-be in an International Private school) of Dai, a mysterious and aloof loner Japanese boy who apparently grew up in Chicago and didn't know squad about Japanese. He is a typical A student, quiet, distant, and seems to dislike, intently, other people's intrusive presence.

A group of friends eventually gathers around him, through various circumstances, they start to really get to know Dai and his private life (which was a big lie at one point, to the extent where Dai paid people to pretend to be his family to fend off anymore intrusive questions from his nosy classmates). Through time and incidents, especially through one British boy (here comes the long, pretty blonde hair, and 80s styled vests and tight jeans. Oh, and flowers.) who was of a particularly nurturing nature.

The whole story spans over 7 volumes of manga, at around 95 pages each. Yachi has a very flowy style of drawing - not a lot of black, just dissolving lines, faint grays, and lots of white spaces. This suits such a story, though, since it is life drama, subtle, round-about, and about psychological level of parenthood and solitude. I really couldn't find much of any plot twists that I disliked. I think the story was very smoothly done, at a good, slow pace - just enough for the readers to absorb what is being hinted at, without waving it blatantly in the readers' face.

And like I said, since the drawing style reminds me of 叶芝真己 a bit, except about 1/2 less macho than that - I suspected hints of shounen ai in this story in the beginning - but really, after I finished it, I decided that it could be without romance altogether and it would still be just as good. I wouldn't want to change anything in it - though a bit of fanfic would be nice too

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14992414/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14992414/ Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:44:03 PDT
But MAN - this really got me hooked like one chilling psychological thriller movie!!

Lost Control is a very rough translation of the original title - because I don't know the ramanji spelling of the title. This manga is rated R-NC17 - an adult comic, for its explicit sexual content and violence and gore. Don't read it if you're squeaky about those things.

Think of it as a thriller movie. Lost Control basically is one of those movies in which a young, normally brought up woman starts her career in the society, and, through various circumstances, meets, and invites a psychotic sicko into her life without knowing. And you know what's so cool? This villain is a woman. (And no, it does not go on to reveal hot lesbian graphic sex scenes - the sexual content is due to the fact that this antagonist uses sex to get certain things from her boss and such. There's also a psychotic rapist-stalker at one point of the story.)

Just like the movies, the villain of this story is brilliant, charming, and disarmingly friendly young female, who very quickly wiggled her way into the main character's life - from spending the night at her house just a day after they met, to moving in with the girl later on in the story. The main character, easily deceived, unknowingly had her life basically handed over to the villain.

The gore content of this manga is not a lot, but still rather chilly. This story is quite realistic in comparison to a good number of thriller mangas out there - so the gore does not contain fantasy things like monsters eatting human limbs or some other elaborate blood-scene. What's chilling about this story's gore content was how easily, and how simply certain people were killed indirectly by the antagonist. For instance, the woman set her eyes on killing a young man trying to help the main character out at work.

After speaking to the male for a couple of times to warn him off or buy him over (none of which worked) she settled for killing him with the simplist way possible - she stole his glasses (he had very bad vision) and placed his coffee can beneath his feet as he leaves his car for a moment to get something. Then when he came back due to a fake phone call for help asking him to go to a certain location, he couldn't help but drive without his glasses - the can, which he thought was the brake paddle, caused him to be run over by a truck. And here's the only unrealistic part of the story - The main character always has nightmares of what was happening or happened before, so you see her dreaming about how the truck knocked the guy's head off from his shoulders, and the remains of his face.

Uwah~ That was freaky! But very brilliantly done! (....Why can't my essays be about mangas instead? -3- )

There were many practical things that the villain lady did later that was witty and easy. The whole point is that it's so simple to ruin a person's life - none of that dramatic theatrics was used. The whole story spans over five volumes of manga. The drawing style is rather realistic as well - though with flatter shading than those muscular martial arts Hong Kong styled comics that I stay far, far away from (no offense - I just don't like those)

Though the only thing I found dissatisfying was the ending, probably. It was a little bit like an easy way out, to use the whole 'lost of memory after the final horrendous act' thing - because that's so old I was surprised that they used the tactic. But it was, at the same time, rather moving, to see that the main character sort of finally got it in the end - what she set out to do in the beginning, which was to look for what she wanted to do in life.

....Man, why do I always like the mangas my friends don't like or don't dare to read? X_x And geeze, my essay sure looks blank still D8!!

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14983149/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14983149/ Tue, 09 Oct 2007 09:51:32 PDT
GAH! I really am gonna ruin my last chance of finishing that essay if I don't do it now!!
(But I'm still here complaining and not eating lunch and all)

Panic~ Panic~ WAHHHHHHHHHHH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


...
...
...


Okay I'm better now. - . -

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14909855/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14909855/ Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:29:38 PDT
[link]

As it turns out, Yako has a much bubblier voice than I had imagined. I didn't really think she would be that little-girl-bubbly, seeing as she has this vigorousness whenever she sets eyes on doing a task (mainly to finish the mountain of food she orders, but occasionally serious things like visiting psychotic murderers in jail).

The graphics weren't of a very good quality - the transference of Nougami Neuro from manga to anime is a slight failure. Of course, this is stated with a lot of bias because I seldom actually like the graphics of anime, but I do have to point out that Neuro's face in the anime is often disproportioned, especially the eyes. His voice - some people disagree with it - I'm okay with it. It's not as fun as I imagined, not as much ups and downs and a little thicker than I'd expected, but it's not that bad compared to the graphics.

RAW partial episode one can be found here:
[link]

Note: They do have a pretty funny opening though. It was pretty satisfying <3!
[link]

Hopefully it only gets better.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14881599/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14881599/ Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:28:55 PDT
Gosh, I finished 99% of this game MONTHS ago, and just got stuck on the last little door code-cracking thingie - FINALLY, that was passed as well just a few minutes ago. I can't believe I spent such a long while trying to understand what that last door was about. But the other doors were fun - I liked the doors more than I liked the 'finding the hidden objects'.

Ravenhearst is one of the lovely mystery cases of hidden objects games from Big Fish Games. They made three or four of these so far, but I think Ravenhearst was the best out of what they have now (also the newest). The plot hooks me a lot better than the other few, probably because it's a little more creepy than the rather silly mystery cases from the other few games in the series.

The graphics are lovely as always - though more on the depressing, we're-all-dead side. I both hated and loved the environment sound effects: It's part of what brings the whole picture real, but it also made me feel irritation (partly because there's a woman voice that keeps whispering "Get me out of here....", and I'd be like "SHUT THE HELL UP I'M DOING IT ALREADY~~ >
ENDING SPOILERS HERE

The ending disappointed me a little - I mean, the creepiest room in Ravenhearst (personally, only) was the Attic, that doll in the cradle looked rather malicious.... But the ending was.... THAT. Too clitche! Come on, skeleton in a coffin? Why in the world would I be surprised?! And all that happens is that it flashes and then she 'is free now'. =.= *mumbles complains*

I rather wanted to know what exactly was wrong with the male character - that psycho that kept her in Ravenhearst. I wanted to know what was wrong with his head, and I wanted to know what happened to him in the end! They never said what happened to him! Che...! - 3 -

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14837287/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14837287/ Sat, 29 Sep 2007 07:04:29 PDT


]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14713369/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14713369/ Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:55:10 PDT
After browsing through the English fandom and the Chinese fandom, I came to the conclusion that, really Tsubasa suits specific genres only in each fandom.

English fanfics do pretty good adventure stories when you can find a well-written one. English language paints emotional pictures out of rough details (in comparison to Chinese). English can get intense - event-wise and emotional tumbles. However, English lacks the artistic image that Chinese fanfics really grow on.

Chinese fanfics are filled with pictures. To begin with, the Chinese letters evolved from pictorial symbols in the first place. So along with that artistic element, there is a broad, wild range of colors, textures, smell, taste, and sound to the language used in Chinese fanfics. It suits Clamp fanwork in the aspect that Clamp have extravagant, flowery styles.

Genres like parody/humor, romance, fantasy and witty-angst are good for these two fandoms. However, good ones are not easy to find - they exist, but just in a number less than I hoped/expected. Kuro/Fai fandom, to be precise, is easily filled with overly-emo Fais, way-too-soft Kuros, overly simple-minded Kuros, less-than-adequately-complicated Fais. Thus when I find ones that are actually just right, I'm very happy.

And damn I wish I could write good Chinese fics, but they just don't come to me as easily as English. And while I rant on this subject matter, after a few tries, I realized that my English writing style doesn't suit the Clamp fanfics. They're just so full of colorful images that my distanced, faint narrative doesn't quite cut it. Will look for ways of getting around that.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14629305/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14629305/ Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:56:40 PDT
Just read the latest, ch 166.

AHHHHHH poor wittle Fai ~~~~

Honestly, it's like the whole Tsubasa Chronicle is done in order to torture him or something. That, and to 'subtly' (...or obviously) pair him and Kurogane together. Kurogane is just like a big, faithful puppy. You can't help but love how he protects Fai with a gruff face and a million different reasons for cover-ups. I mean, come on, --- he sacrificed his ARM in a split second for Fai!

I absolutely abhorred the beginning of Tsubasa Chronicles, because I can't stand the lack of anything exciting (no blood, shallow, boring battles, and everyone seemingly docile - in the anime. The anime was horrible compared to the manga) But after the focus shifted to Fai, everything became bloody, insane, and AWESOME

Now I just wish they'd update faster >
]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14607733/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14607733/ Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:12:55 PDT
Well this story is that of the latter kind. By Toru Fujieda, just as a scattered side note. When I started reading this short story spanning 6 volumes of mangas, I thought it was a yaoi story, and worried that the interaction between the characters would proceed to become cliche and unnecessarily gay (I have no problem with yaoi in stories, but some yaoi stories are just too ... brainless that I see no reason why they have to be gay in the first place)

It wasn't like that. It wasn't about that at all

As it turns out, the odd little moments where the main character (a hard-working, slightly naive and optimistic eldest brother of the three boys in his family) was pushed around and kissed by the second main character (a tall, uniquely attractive male who seems to be a genius) - those were not kisses between equals at all. They were kisses given by a messed up mind with intentions far different from anything pertaining to lust.

If I spell out the reason, it would spoil the ending. And the ending was one big happy ending, in a slightly twisted, but still happy way. This situation cannot happen in real life, I would say, but really, it did solve nearly every problem. Also, after the ending, there was a small side story about the second boy of the main character's family - that was a touching story as well. (Well, I guess for me, to see psychological problems hidden in between very mildly put daily life plots is enough to make me squeal. I'm just that much of a fan of applied psychology)

As for the art style - it's shoujo, definitely, but without the alarmingly large girly eyes that sparkle and kill my vision most of the time. Most characters in this story are male anyway. It's done in a cutesy way, I guess, but with a tad of unique allure - especially with the second main character. He danced, and manage to look beautiful AND manly. I liked it

Noted Link: [link]

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14579678/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14579678/ Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:03:07 PDT

So far (currently on chapter 6), Le Visiteur proves to be a humorous, uniquely built story surrounding a funny and interesting setting. The art style is pretty simple, nice on the eyes, and not too complicated. I adore the character design of the main character, although I admit that he does, as some readers suggested, look a bit like the psychotic magician in Hunter x Hunter (having the red hair and cat-like slit, long eyes.)

It's hilarious how this story uses so much ancient torture techniques, but you don't see one drop of blood - and all you want to do is laugh. With its setting - a man who grew up in the basement of a monastery and had never stepped outside before in his life - the main character's unique take on life and fun makes this story very enjoyable.

And, as of the current issue, there is an antagonist mysteriously rising up in the main character's odd little world. It'll be very, very interesting to see how the guy will fight his enemy without leaving the basement....or will he? (AHAHAHAHA~ Cheesy question~)

Noted Link: [link]

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14477879/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14477879/ Mon, 03 Sep 2007 19:29:13 PDT
And I don't know the title in English. It's just a rough translation (which sounds cliche and bad) I only know that it's by Takumaru Sasaki.

It's simple: I'm in love with the simplicity of the settings, down-to-earth-without-exaggeration character settings, and the awesome, not-too-complicated storyline.

It's a great short story spanning 5 volumes of manga, with a drawing style not particularly extravagant or busy. The most screen tones they use are grainy grey, and not anything more complicated than black, white, and gradient grey. The way people are drawn are pretty simple, acceptable, and with personality. I especially love how, even though the girl character had red hair, she's anything BUT rash and loud like many typical redheads in mangas.

This story is rather like a long gangster movie: a war of abilities, strategies, emotions, and chance. The whole story is fueled by absolute hate. Rage drives the two main characters as they pick off their targets one by one, as simple citizens having their revenge.

The girl is .... Oh I loooooove this character. She's brilliant. She's not emotionless like many stereotyped cool-headed females in animes. She has emotional moments, and then she deals with it and passes on. As for the guy (the second main character), he's a funny one. Interestingly, though he dresses in gothic clothes, he would've been a great family man if he didn't enter this huge revenge plan of theirs.

And the ending, ohhh it makes the whole story not cliche. And especially the ending, the story feels like a movie. Love it X3 I think if I ever (which is basically never) draw anything close to a web comic, this kind would be part of my goals.

Noted Link (Chinese) [link]

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14448656/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/14448656/ Sat, 01 Sep 2007 23:11:46 PDT
It's so... so... so... GIRLY! O()O

Okay, granted that the anime isn't that manly either, but really, I didn't expect such large, shiny girl eyes to appear on the first page. There's apparently a girl that doesn't even appear in anime. And she's the typical main female character who conveniently stumbles into the plot situation so that she can look shocked and stutter, 'Wh-what's happening?!'

Hei's normal demeanor isn't as socially simple (cue the awkward scratching of back of head and laughing like an idiot) as he is in anime (which is too bad. I liked that part), and seems more sly, complicated, and cold. His mask was never even on for the first chapter, and he continued to walk around bare-faced in his usual black cloak and uniform.

The drawings style reminds me a little of Ouran High School Host Club (I've only seen the anime version) It's odd that the story almost has nothing to do with anime version. Hmmm, surprise surprise! =S

Noted Link: [link]

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13901488/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13901488/ Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:19:23 PDT
It was actually pretty good. I like the graphic - very detailed, shimmering and fairytale like, and interesting. I also like the active role of the player to solve the mysteries and games in each stage. The clues and goals were very hard, but not the brainless-click-click-click level, thus player actually has to think about things a bit.

The only thing is that the demo is really short. I don't know how different the actual game is, but it's got potential to be a lot longer, and perhaps harder (though then I wouldn't know if I'd be able to solve the stuff )

Overall enjoyable, relaxing, and fantasy-filled little adventure on your own.

Note: Keep for future sake - [link]

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13814058/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13814058/ Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:09:37 PDT
I'm quite taken with one of the major murderers that continues to elude Neuro's demon hand - X. (X is the only murderer-thief that always, always manages to escape.) For someone who conveniently looks innocent and sweet, X is a horrifying killer with a habit of analyzing his victims down to the very last cell by cutting them up and stuffing them into a glass square box - which became famous as "The Red Boxes", because all that's left is liquified victim, not even missing a drop of blood. X himself claims that his way of killing isn't to make 'art', but to "find out about this person's possible relations with himself", but still you can't deny that it's crazy and incredible at the same time. ....Okay, I think so, maybe not everyone would... >_>"

The artist of this manga is kinda funny - not as in she's humorous, but I think it's kinda funny how she seems like such a serious and negative person, when her story is so FUNNY. Sometimes she leaves comments in her box that seem rather depressing, like - "...I drew this and that and suddenly I wanted to cry." And then in the next page, the story itself makes me laugh and laugh and laugh.

Also, I never seem to have a talent to draw scary things - whenever I try deliberately, I end up drawing some harmless blob with teeth that don't even look sharp. So whenever I look at mangas with scary monsters in them, I get really happy and excited. I think it's pretty and difficult to create - original styled monsters. But I am determined to practice creating my own monsters until I am satisfied.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13781625/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13781625/ Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:57:07 PDT
Warning: This manga contains shounen-ai.

Shiho Sugiura's first completed manga (which I would translate its title, but it sounds really stupid so I decided not to.) was also a shounen-ai, but I had a very distinctive feeling of dislike toward it. The characters were just too brainless for me to like. And there is a difference between brainless and fooling around. However, her later Silver Diamond turned out to be a really funny, light-mood fantasy adventure story about a highschool boy and an (non-serious) attempt at saving a foreign world.

The main character, the high school boy, was suggested to be thrown from the other world when he was a baby, and then was adopted by a human grandfather. His natural ability to make plants grow leaves his house a jungle, and every seed he touches a bush or a tall tree. Our second main character is an assassin, who, due to character A's similar (aka exactly the same) looks as his assassination target, tried to kill character A on the spot. And later, this tall, gorgeous, cool-looking assassin turned out to be a suspicious idiot with no common sense. Then there is of course the other two supporting characters (what is an adventure team without having four members?) - C (pretty, pony-tailed GUY, who was meant to be born as a girl. A mutation and a mistake), and D (a formerly blind young man sent, again, to kill A and failed. Turns out to have a kicked puppy complex).

While the plot is quite simple - to save the world, the setting of this manga was quite detailedly thought out. Nothing dramatic, but everything makes sense and are new and intriguing. A world that lives on plants and bones. The humor really pulls the whole manga through. (You can't help but sympathize with the rest of the characters when the first thing character A does in his attempt to save the world is to start cooking breakfast because it was 9 am sharp when they arrived)

I have just realized that there really isn't much to say otherwise about this manga, because really, you can't comment about humor. Humor is humor is humor is humor. And it's good stuff - humor. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13718054/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13718054/ Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:22:40 PDT [link]

"Death Role Prisoner 042" by Yua Kotegawa (Note: I really don't know the English translation of the title)

Honestly, for a fantasized story, this is a very touching one. It's also one of the very first time I didn't feel like I wasted time on a story with a sad ending - that's because I didn't think it was a sad ending.
From the very first chapter of this manga, we were told that the main character, a prisoner who murdered seven people in a underground life-death competition show, would only live for the coming three years. But the thing is, he really "lived".
This story was about the main character, since he was on a death role, he accepted the offered opportunity to go outside of his dark and disgusting cell, to work as a janitor in a high school --- at the cost of being the very first subject of a psychology experiment, in which a small chip is planted inside the main character's brain so that if he ever gets agitated enough to decide he wants to kill someone, the chip would explode inside his brain.
To begin with, the author noted that this was completely based on fantasies inside her head, therefore, it has no base on reality or any real legislation in the law world today. And once you accept that, there is no problem believing that the events would turn out the way the manga did. Because psychological therapy is never that personally attached between the therapist and the patient, no touching, no personal feelings involved, and definitely there is no way that a therapist should get drunk in front of the patient and sleep in the same room. However, the whole point of that therapist (the second main character) in the story was not to give the main character therapy - it was to put the second guy in a position where he could by pass all the security guards, all the experiement observations, and become a real person to the main character. And through difficulty, they became friends. Not as in they went on an exciting adventure together - it was like, to keep the main character calm and stable is difficult. Like keeping a hungry lion inside a kindergarten full of babies. That's the whole difficulty of the experiment.

The story was written with humor, patience-required endurement, and touching conclusions, because for someone as into psychology therapy as me, it really would be a beautiful dream to see a wreck of a patient slowly grow up to a person who's really living as a person. There were a few dangerous happenings, especially when they tried to add more experiment patients inside the highschool --- one who raped and killed mothers in front of their children for three families, and another one who raped little kids and dumped their bodies in some alley afterwards. But then you could see how the main character really changed, by the fact that he suddenly thought that, wow, there's something wrong with these people! (in the beginning, he was exactly like that as well)

Some comments I saw on the site I read this manga in were not really good, but that's completely due to the lack of a happy ending, and also some people didn't read the author's notes. I personally believe that for a imagined story, it was a very smoothly planned one, with no big dramatic plot, but a very good patient way of building up to a beautiful story of someone who truely changed for the better. This is a story that I really love.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13675381/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13675381/ Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:55:40 PDT
And it's odd that it's always the last few hours before due date like these that I would get the most inspiration for writing fanfics - which I should put away, because once I start, I cannot stop for the next few days without break.

I don't look at this as an addiction anymore - I just categorize all of this junk into four big letters called L-A-Z-Y. Someone should slap me. I'm not a baby anymore but I still can't control myself at all. What a depressing thought.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13568459/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13568459/ Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:19:21 PDT

Happy birthday Canada!! Here's a maple-sugar cake. Now share it with me! :} ]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13536024/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13536024/ Fri, 29 Jun 2007 08:04:59 PDT "<

Although there are still homework to do and presentation to prepare, I am happy that we finally get a break. And by a break I mean cramming everything that I didn't do into the small week of no class in order to finish those long awaited tasks - G-license, bank stuff, fellowship things, and AHHHH gotta get those lists ready.

....is this still a vacation?

I still sleep at 2am at night every night since the beginning of this week. And it's not because I want to stay up, but because I'm working - x - I've been more tired this week than I have been during midterm week, since in that week, I actually remember to keep a good sleeping pattern so I wouldn't get too tired on exam day.

Have been hypnotized by the game 'Chocolatier' these days - gave me cravings for specialty chocolates. Real life chocolates are never that nice ;_; I miss the box of handmades that a friend gave me for birthday (They were SO GOOD. And I finished the entire box the next day). Seriously though, I'm so easily 'bought' by good chocolates ="= Best friend got me to relax at her house by stuffing me with truffles. Is that bad? Yeah I think it is, for me! o_o

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13422829/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13422829/ Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:30:35 PDT )
When I first saw the summary, the word "clitche" and "cheesy" came to mind. I mean, the Undead? The supernatural powers? = . =
With those kind of cheesy summary, the anime can either be really good, or really bad.

I actually saw episode 14 first before starting to watch the series from the beginning. That made a difference on my first impression.
The beginning was fun. The plot isn't original at all (it's derived from a playstation game, so it couldn't be too complicated anyway), but the characters' interaction (espeically between Kyouichi and Tatsuma) and the action parts were nicely done - again, in the beginning only. The longer it dragged on, the more I felt like it was losing its appeal. The plot progresses pretty quickly, so you don't really get a lot of insights. I'm all for the little pieces of humor between action and adventures, thus I loved the fighting scenes and such. It reminds me a little bit of Samurai Champloo for some reason. I wonder if it's the style of fighting scenes or the drawing?

--> the Undead (of the Returned Dead, as they called it) are very unoriginal. Kinda like a mixture of traditional tales, Bleach-form demons (instead of spirits), and some aspects of Taoism/Buddhism that involved chanting and casting away of demons. The first demon that they ever fought in episode 2 looked like that long haired girl from the Ring I burst out laughing when I saw that, even though it totally wasn't the occation to do so
--> They have a really hot English teacher, though she speaks bad English, as expected She deals with students who jump from the three storage classroom windows to fight, while the rest of the students watch and clap, from day to day. She rides a motorbike to school, and yells though the school speaker at the mysteriously eccentric science (?) teacher, Inugami sensei, who feeds the rabbits like an obsession. I want a pretty and crazy teacher like that~~
--> The forensics lab is a funny place. The forensics doctor has to deal with dead bodies tearing their way out of the morgue and running away all the time. And he runs after them yelling, "No fair! I wasn't done with you yet!!"
--> I wish they give the girls a little more ... personality. They're boring The justice class-president who is kind and gives righteous speeches ("You don't want to do this. This isn't right. You can change!! LET'S ALL BE FRIENDS!!!") (she's pretty sexy in kimono though. The schoolgirl thing is just too old.), and the other girl who is tough and protective of girl number one. Oh and there's the News club girl. That's a classic in animes. They always chase the supernatural phenomenon like 100% stalkers, and then stand in shock at the scene, whispering, "What...what is all this?" (Though I thought her first reaction to everything - snapping a picture with her digital camera, is quite funny. Episode 13)
--> It's funny how Kyouichi is extremely understanding and careful with his words when Tatsuma is faced with problems, but when it's Aoi (the class president girl) Kyouichi turns sharp-tongued and harsh. It's like he doesn't know that he's embarrassed over facing the girl he likes or something. Although I personally think he has more of a samurai complex than a real crush.
--> Tatsumi's selling point is his mysterious aura. And sympathy points. He's that quiet, spacing-out, odd guy who is gently insightful and has a mysterious past. Though his powers so far doens't really impress me, it's interesting to watch him nontheless. It's one of the reasons that would make me want to watch more. Episode 14, which I watched first, revealed a little about his life. (And that little bit is actually more than all other episodes) It's funny how he would pull up his hoodie when he's embarrassed.
--> Tendo looks like an okama parrat.
--> But his partner Claire is a super awesome little crazy girl! Gotta love how she goes insane over a rip in her sleeve. And she's sarcastic too
--> This anime has a thing for people with one of their eyes abnormal (popping out, changing into the wrong directions, growing new patterns...etc)

Overall, I like this anime only for its action/fighting scenes and slight bit... ]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13305632/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13305632/ Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:11:11 PDT

GAHAHAHAHA~~~~ OMG, I actually got it right... XD"
In Hitman Reborn volume 8, Gon was about to get his personal weapon from the lizard, and I was thinking --- "it's probably something harmless like GLOVES."

...

Hehe, it was worse. It was a pair of MITTENS.
Even though it got more and more powerful later on, it's still *unweapon-like*

Even though some of the turns of events in Hitman Reborn were predictable, they weren't by any means cheesy plot twists. This manga is pretty funny, has no particular deep meaning, but does catch the essence of the way to make people keep reading it. Cliff hangers, my good citizens, that's the way to go.

What's his name...the katana wielding boy, he's funny to watch. Smoking bomb boy is also very funny to watch. Lots and lots of fan-works on these two in the Chinese fanfiction fandom. Can't deny it. They have hilarious interaction.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13249597/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13249597/ Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:19:31 PDT
The battle of logic has never been such a focus in mangas. Although at moments one would think that the manga version of Spiral, which originated from a novel, drags on a little more than necessary, the truth is, the moment the reader starts to understand what is going on, Spiral has pulled that reader into the ever expanding whirl of a never ending story line. Spiral starts out as a story about a passive genius who lives in the shadows of his brother, who has been so incredibly intelligent and lucky for unknown reasons that people compare the elder brother to a 'god'. The great thing about Spiral is that, at one point in the story, you really start to become in sync with the anxiety of the characters, who are all battling for their own lives.

The setting of Spiral is a rather unique one. The normal high school setting that includes the police of the modern Japanese society --- none of which is abnormal, until you get to the fact that the Bible philosophy is added into this large blender. So in that entity which is neither reality nor virtual, you sort of float through a dimension which has endless possibilities, all the while following a set of logic that works its way through the seemingly unresolvable chain of problems that are set up by the author. Although the genetic turn of the story line surprised me a bit, it only added onto that Sci-fi feel of this story.

The most powerful thing about Spiral, personally, is its method of portraying true despair through ---- not sentimental events nor emotional breakdowns ---- but through reasonings. Logic.
The cold hard facts that add up to despair. The kind that --- even if one person tries to kill himself fifteen times, he still wouldn't die.
The person who last breaks down wins the war. Which was absolutely painful for me to read, because many times in the story I thought the character would have broke down already.
The last volume --- especially the ending, I thought was the most powerful part of the story.

Although there are parts of the story that really only confused me more, Spiral was overall an exciting battle with a unresolved end --- ah, but that would be a spoiler right there.

....And now I have to go sit in a corner to regret the time I spent on reading exciting stories rather than studying the freaking brain I was supposed to do....

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13234074/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13234074/ Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:18:43 PDT

Kazuya Minekura's manga works have always been really amazing. Although Saiyuki is the most famous and wide-spread work of Minekura's, personally, Saiyuki's complication level cannot compare to Wild Adapter, story depth wise, or character design wise.

(One can even see a lot of characters shadowing each other in Minekura's works. Kubota is like a mixture of Hakkai and Sanzo from Saiyuki, while Tokito is of Goku and a bit of Gojyo. And yes, those are oversimplifications, but the resemblance is definitely there.)

(A random note: in Minekura's works, whenever you see a character with rectangular glasses, that character must be complicated, mysterious, and absolutely brilliant)

While there are some pretty obvious hints of shounen-ai in WA, it's still a very powerful story, especially with the emphasis on characters' personalities - my favourite thing to study, ever.

WA is a very multi-layered story. Different people perspectives, different events that reflect people's nature, truth, and backgrounds, all evolving around two main characters - one of which is a pretty simple guy with a complicated past, the other is an extremely complicated guy with a relatively simple past. Tokito and Kubota, respectively.

(...Although I have to say, their names are not very catchy. I still don't remember their names by heart even though they're the focus of WA, and I've read five volumes already.)

The two main characters' interaction is really the main hook of the story, because the influence they cast on each other is so visible and so subtle at the same time. At first glance, Kubota (his personality is an enigma, which makes me really want to know more) seems like the one in control, the one with power, but then the reader would find on the next page that the one who really controls the complicated, powerful one's world is the simple guy. Unintentionally, too. Kubota just has a whole system of thinking all on his own, but he just happens to be so powerful in wisdom and abilities that people around him are influenced unconsciously. (On the other hand, he also believes that he doesn't actually exist, or close to it.)

And I also think it's crazy how, if I substitute the complicated guy's role with a dog (or a lone wolf - one that's territorial, primitive, and detached from humanity), it makes perfect sense. The fact that this guy has no interest in women, men, humans altogether adds even more to that "beast" interpretation of him. It's funny how the simple guy is the one who has a partial beast body, but the true beast is the complicated guy, who, on first glance, looks like the wisest, most temper-less gentleman in the world.

Anyway, although I'm also very curious about STIGMA by Minekura (I heard it's very good as well, but I don't know where to find it), so far, WA is definitely my favourite from Minekura. I just hope that she'd get better soon from her illness so that she can continue to show us what this story leads to.

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13054116/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/13054116/ Tue, 22 May 2007 17:34:22 PDT <

I find this relatively new anime quite interesting so far. It's ambiguity on the good and evil and its chain of mysteries make it a really good story.

It's funny how even after the first 6 episodes, I still can't discern whether Hei, the main character, works for the good guys or the bad. This is not one of those I-do-all-for-myself way of life either, since he IS working for an organization; however, the fact that the most brutal murderer (the red head, I forgot her name) in the world called Hei "The most brutal of them all", and the fact that she said it while Hei interrogated her by breaking every one of her fingers, sort of adds up to the fact that he's not a very one-sided character. So far, Hei's actions have been rather random - sometimes he'll be really kind to the prisoner or object of mission out of true kindness, and sometimes he can smile a kind smile as he make up a whole story of lies while plotting how to kill this person in front of him. Hei is a really interesting character to watch.

Hmm. I usually think *too much* about animes, and too deep into the story, thus I often see things that are probably not there, but it's fun I still want to finish watching all the Ergo Proxy episodes online, and Hitman Reborn (Goooosh that's a funny manga. I will check out the anime adaption of it, but I heard that the anime version is really out of proportions =_= )

.....But DAMMIT I HAVE TO WATCH BRAIN & BEHAVIOUR ONLINE FIRST. AND I DON'T WANT TO!!

]]> ~Little-Reed http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/12903288/ http://Little-Reed.deviantart.com/journal/12903288/ Wed, 09 May 2007 18:18:37 PDT
I know I've watched the whole thing a number of times already but...

>w< Was in the mood for it tonight in order to procrastinate from doing some work la!!!!

Eh, I have an hour or two left...hmmmmm .... work? ....play? .....work? ....play??

Ah, I also checked out Ergo Proxy. I was never really into the cyberpunk stuff, but I liked this one!! Maybe because it reminded me of the Witch Hunter Robin, because of the style of Real Mayor...well, the producing director (or something) is the same guy anyway...

.....am in the mood for dangos....That was random.

]]> ~Little-Reed