[*Whatever By The Books*]

So much manga, so little time… Speaking of so much, so many drugs, so little time…anyone heard of a drug manga/oneshot? Not stuff like crack or pot, but pharmaceuticals?

This is the first time I’ve seen an otaku version of Lancer (artist unknown, speak up if you drew this nice piece), but when I searched Danbooru for ‘manga‘, I got a bunch of random and several very-H pictures. I suppose they came from manga. XD So the next thing was to search under ‘otaku‘…which I’ve done before, so many of the pictures weren’t new. This one did have lots of manga on the floor, though!

Imagine that much, and multiply it by a hundred. Maybe. And that’ll be how much I have on my computer. (I have about the same number on the floor of that picture on my ‘to read’ shelf in real life.)  I’ve been singularly downloading like a maniac, and felt like posting today because I saw something funny.. Continue Reading »

At first, I thought, hrm, let’s read a bit of manga before I sleep and test tomorrow. But then I ended up reading all the volumes I had…lucky I didn’t have ten of them or something. -wry-
Continue Reading »

(Picture drawn by kirusu, via Danbooru. Flandre and German Shepherd-san. ^^)

Eh? A post? Yes, I read this during lunch at 4pm, and was writing up a review for Goodreads, so thought I might’s well crosspost. Also, if you have a goodreads or shelfari account, do feel free to add me as a friend there! I’m always on the lookout of good books to read. :)

Speaking of good books, Book Depository has 10% off until Tuesday, 26th May 2009. That’s tomorrow! Get your buys in if you’re after books — I’ve found they always have a competitive price — just bought Inubaka 5, 7, and 11 at USD$8.55 each and pre-ordered Otomen 3 at $7.50 (post-discount prices). Have bought from them a bunch of times and have always had a positive experience — those prices are inclusive shipping, too! Woot. Alright. On to the review. Continue Reading »

Mother’s day is coming up! (For people in Aus, anyway. I never knew until I checked that mother’s day was different in different countries.. ._.) Sanae from Clannad is probably one of the nicest anime moms I’ve seen around..though I can’t really remember many of them. ._. Toradora’s Yasuko…uh..who else? XD

So I think I’ve spent almost 100 bucks in Kino over the past week…largely due to a sale. :P It’s not much when some people I know have easily spent over 200. :P Part of it went to a book for mom as part of her mother’s day gift~ I thought it’d be damned easy to find a vampire novel for her (she’s been into it, somehow -_- At least she’s stopped thinking Twilight is the bees knees..) but apparently not!! Mention a few vampire book authors worth reading and I’ll see if I’ve heard of them/seen them in store. :P Continue Reading »

Ehh?! I’m not doing anime today?! Yes, I’m not. I’ve been watching Kami no Shizuku, which is based on the manga of the same name, about wine and a wayward son finally realising the true person his father is. It’s a game where a young man new to the allure of wine, Kanzaki Shizuku, fights with his father’s last-minutely-adopted son, the hateful Tomine Issei, for his inheritance of a wine collected worth over 20 billion yen (or some large number that I didn’t keep track of).

While I can’t really get over the fact that the actor playing Shizuku (Kamenashi Kazuya) is somewhat more girly than I’d expected, it’s been pretty interesting so far — Naka Riisa as Shinohara is pretty and amusingly exaggerated. (Though I don’t know whether I care much for it if she acts like that when she’s actually really unhappy…) Only issue I have is with Tanabe Seiichi as Tomine Issei — he’s so UGLY. I’ve always pictured Issei as a charmer — one of those snakes who looks handsome but has a black, black heart. But this guy is ugh. He’s just gross and creepy.

Of note is Takenaka Naoto, who plays Robert, an eccentric friend of Kanzaki Yutaka’s. (Shizuku’s father.) He looked strangely familiar, and I was convinced he was Stresemann in Nodame, even though he looks a lot less weird (but still strange) here — and it actually is him! He’s listed on DramaWiki as an actor and a singer, and I wonder how he sounds; the few times he sung on Kami no Shizuku were unexpectedly nice.

In any case, I did some screenshots of episode 3 — nothing as amazing as anime generally is, but have a look at the gallery if you’d like, or just read on for a short summary and slideshow of the screenshots. Continue Reading »

Pretty picture courtesy Danbooru. I’ve covered the manga and the first ep, now it’s time to cover the ending theme! Ever since someone mentioned it on chapter 5 of Maria Holic on my scanlation site (JE Scanlations), I’ve liked this quirky song. Somehow, I managed to miss it on the first episode of this anime; but maybe that’s cos the version I had was a cut-down preview. (Maybe.) It’s a great song, though! And I was tickled by a version I found, so here’s the post dedicated to Kimi ni, Mune Kyun.

By the way, Kimi ni, Mune Kyun (Uwaki na Bakansu) seems to kinda mean My Heart Beats For You (Naughty Vacation) — someone correct if that’s not accurate? Continue reading for the four youtube videos! Continue Reading »

M to N no Shouzou stands completed at six volumes, but doesn’t seem very popular — it’s not licensed in English, and there are no groups consistently scanlating it. The mangaka of this quirky series is none other than Tachibana Higuchi-sensei, the one who got me into scanlating (Gakuen Alice) in the first place, almost two years ago now.

Gee, talk about feeling old. XD Like Gakuen Alice, M to N is published by Hakusensha, serialised in Hana to Yume. Why on earth is M to N quirky? Definitely because of the characters, who more-or-less embody the term ’strange loves’. Just look at the title. M is for masochist, N is for narcissist. The two characters have problems in their past that resulted in their current out-of-control state when hit by some stimuli. It’s a comical effect, yet Higuchi-sensei’s portrayal is sensitive enough that you not only laugh at, but also empathise with the characters.

The art style in M to N is purely Higuchi-sensei; but possibly because this is an older manga (drawn eight years ago, in 2000), I find the quality can be slightly inconsistent. That said, I’m biased and love the art in Gakuen Alice, which just seems to get better and better. :P

Higuchi-sensei takes the chance to let her darker side free in this manga — compared to Gakuen Alice, characters are much older and, well…weirder. At heart, though, it is still a great shoujo romance. JE Scanlations will be releasing chapter 8 in about five minutes’ time. Go have a look if you’d like. ;)