Well, I’m watching this as someone who’s already reading (and is pretty much a fan of) the manga, so I’m going to have that obvious bias. I already enjoy the series enough on its plot and through the characters. I can only look at how it does as an adaptation. So for my first impression is that, yes, it is doing a good job as an adaptation.

I’m still not sure why I’m interested in this series, I suppose I’m just a fan of a certain sort of slice of life every so often. Where things go day by day, focusing on the characters, but with still some development and some sort of story.

First of all, I’d like to say…Damn you JC Staff! You pulled me in right away with having adorable little music at the beginning. That sentimental music that either completely resembles a music box or at least brings them to mind.

So the basic premise of this series is Akira and Fumi helping each other through their romantic troubles (mostly Akira helping Fumi) with some side characters floating around that I barely even paid attention to in the manga. Even the anime seems to know that none of the other girls are important since the opening focuses purely on Akira and Fumi. The only other two characters with some importance just get a picture scrolling by with one of the main girls. Whoopee.

Basically, I’d call it mellow slice of life yuri. Or something.

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Animation & Art

I’m sure people got hung up on the character designs right away. Well, let me just say that the girls all actually look better than they do in the manga. A lot of that is owed right away to at least having color (the manga is entirely black and white, with even little to no gray). Plus the simple designs of the manga just convert well to anime.

However, I love the character designs for this anime because it ensures one thing: fanboys just looking for pretty girls with big boobs stay the hell away. The girls like nice, but none of them are stunning. It’s mostly the art style that causes this, but I appreciate it. For a more grounded series like this one, having all of the girls be beautiful would feel weird. It reminds me again of why Nagisa was such a great lead girl for Clannad. Compared to the other girls with their long hair, she felt more “real” in her design (lol minus the ahoge). She was a shy girl that didn’t really stand out and she looked that way. (Of course she was still amazingly adorable, but most of that comes from her personality)

But I really should stay on topic. Um, the animation and art is pretty much what you’d expect from JC Staff, except that things are detailed because of the source material. The animation (outside of the dancing in the opening) obviously isn’t much to brag about either, but it doesn’t need to be.

My only problem was the there’s not a lot of variety in the colors and everything looks really light. It kind of adds to the atmosphere I suppose, but it’s still slightly annoying. The only character that seems to stand out is Akira…which is good in a way. It goes along with her personality. I’m at least glad that everything isn’t shiny like it was in the promotion picture. That didn’t quite feel right to me.

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Music

The section that’s really just about the opening and ending (theme and animation) because I barely notice most background music. Even when I do all I have to say is that “it fits” or that “it doesn’t fit at all”.

Opening: Kokikodan – “Aoi Hana”

So first of all, the opening…I love it. I suppose the word to use would be that it’s “charming” if that makes sense. And it perfectly fits the feeling of this series. Having Fumi and Akira dancing in flowers and holding hands was just too cute. It’s a yuri anime, but it’s so easy to see it as an anime that focuses on friendship. I mean at least to where I’ve read in the manga Fumi and Akira are still just pure childhood friends, but still with that possibility of something more I guess? Which the opening shows very well.

Until the ending shot anyway where they totally make it obvious that this is a yuri anime. Those who read ANN’s description without any mention of yuri are going to go once they see that part.

Overall, the opening was just very nice. Both of the girls seem like themselves, but there’s one shot that made me go, “That’s not Akira!” because she looks far too mature and lovely. Maybe it’s some change that occurs later in the series that I haven’t seen when she falls in love with Fumi. Of course, my favorite shot was the one I used for the top image of this post. So nice and peaceful~

My one complaint is that one of the best parts is blocked by credits. When Fumi and Akira turn into themselves as children. It was a nice touch, but you could barely even see it. I didn’t even bother to grab a screencap of it.

Oh and as for the song itself…it fits. Quite well. Of course it’s not anything I’d listen to on my own. That’s all I have to say on that. It fascilitated the adorable frolicking and then that calmness at the end. So it did it’s job.

Ending: Ceui – “Senteforia”

The ending animation was absolutely nothing special. It was all just illustrations from the manga, the actual tankoban covers I believe. Not very creative. Just add in some panning and you have the ending animation.

But the music was pretty. It reminded me of something I might hear in a Key game…or something.

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Characters

Really, the only thing I could probably comment on the characters are if their seiyuu fit them well. When you’ve read the manga, hearing the seiyuu at first always feels just a little bit awkward, but I’m glad to say there were no miscasts. But nothing so great that I can give them their own section.

Now I need to say that JC Staff seems to be working that “magic of animation” because both hearing and seeing Akira animated made me grow to like her a bit more. Fumi too. Some certain thing in their words and actions just come across better when you can actually see and hear them. Also, the opening did a lot to help that.

Fumi is your pretty typical shy megane girl. She’s not outspoken and when she was younger she used to be a crybaby. She’s a weak character overall. She always wants to be loved and have someone to love. At the beginning of the series she’s just broken up with someone, but she finds someone new rather quickly. Her romantic relationships compared to her friendship with Akira (which picks up as if it never left off) feel rather shallow. Though even so, you have to feel bad for the girl. Nothing seems to work out so you just want to hope for her happy ending.

But even if I say that Fumi is weak, that just means that she grows stronger as the series progresses. She’s shy and not very confident, but she becomes very aware of herself and her own feelings.

Now Akira would probably be Fumi’s exact opposite. She’s outgoing and energetic. She’s a pretty typical genki girl and acts quite a bit like a normal teenager besides her unimaginable amount of energy (and her occasional childishness). Though really I suppose the only place she seems like a normal teenager is at home. She hurries to school and talks with her mom with a pout sometimes and she hates her overprotective brother.

I also love how honest and innocent Akira is. She has almost no reaction when she finds out that a friend is dating (or likes) other girls. She’s surprised, but she doesn’t make a big deal out of it. The thing she becomes most concerned with is that they’ll be happy (or something).

Really, neither girl is anything too new I think, but they feel different when they’re together. Like how Fumi should be more mature since Akira is so childish, but Akira usually takes care of Fumi and it’s been that way since they were young. When Fumi used to cry, Akira would make her feel better. And…I’m sure Fumi contributes something to the relationship too, but I can’t quite think of it and put it into words. Basically, to be simplest you could say that Fumi really treasures Akira.

And agh, I kind of hinted beyond the first episode here. I’m sorry. The best example of this in the first episode would be where they first meet on the train and Fumi is too shy and such to do anything about being groped and Akira steps on that asshole’s foot!

It was quite some time ago that I first read the manga that I forgot this moment and forgot why I adored Akira at first. She’s so silly and stuff, but she’s strong which goes along with her being outgoing I guess. She’s not afraid of what people think of her. At this point in the episode, she only thinks that Fumi is a stranger after all.

Hmm…now what else? I suppose shipping might as well go in this section too. Though I’m sure many people might be confused that I’d have a ship for a yuri anime, but I totally do. I think it’s a common idea that I’m not a yuri fan because I rant about fanboys turning all sorts of girls gay for each other. I should clarify that I only hate those relationships for the same reason why I hate others. They don’t exist or they’re shallow. Boys just couple them together because yuri is hot. Because they’re guys. It’s expected, but incredibly annoying. What can I do though? I’m a shipping snob!

Though people should already be familiar with me adoring Tomoyo (CCS) and Ushio (SDC). I love friendship that’s so deep that it either turns into love or gets confused with love. Meaning, I love relationships where I feel an emotion could be genuine. Notice I didn’t necessarily say realistic, but genuine. So in that case, it’s simply that I like couples and relationships

However I don’t really like yaoi at all. Or maybe it’s more like I can only watch anime with cute girls and there’s not really that much obvious yaoi in anime with cute girls(but I like Yukito and Touya fine for example).  I’m a romance fan in general, so as long as there’s girls and romance involved in an anime I can watch it.

So, getting back to that shipping, I’m a supporter of the obvious couple: Akira and Fumi. They’re so close that they immediately reconnect when they meet again. Both of them understands the other and…well that’s always been my biggest factor in deciding shipping. Two people who understand or “suit” each other.

Geh, so much on shipping and not a thing on the side characters. Well, I am quite fond of Akira’s brother. I always love the big brother characters, especially when they’re good older brothers. I guess it’s the same way that boys like having a good younger sister. Not that I really have to dream about it, I already have a good older brother who scared off bullies for me and won’t let his (disgusting) friends go near me. But Akira’s brother must be a different level of onii-chan that you’d only see in anime. He totally reeks of a minor sister complex. Saying she looks good in her uniform and being so nice to her when she treats him like he’s such a bother.

But yeah, aside from him there’s not a lot of characters I really notice or like. I find Sayoko downright annoying and Kyouko to some extent too.

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The Conversion

From anime to manga, I had a feeling that as long as it was done right, the anime would be better to me. This is one of those series that people who have read the manga actually may enjoy the anime more because the manga…doesn’t have much to it outside the story. So just seeing it animated and hearing voices already adds more excitement. I feel like it’s actually the people who haven’t read the manga that may get bored with this.

To me it was the perfect adaptation. It pretty much followed the manga step by step (from what I remember) but it seems to be the perfect series to convert. There is something new to get simply from watching it animated. A lot of adaptations fail simply because they aren’t adapting something that isn’t that easy to adapt. Then from there you also have problems with animation and art and down a long line until you reach troublesome original content which is what brought down some of the series people complain about most.

Now, even though I said fans of the manga would enjoy this most, I’m sure there are people just watching this for the first time that can get enjoyment out of it. They just need to like and want a slow moving series. I’m sure this is perfect for those who enjoy slice of life and yuri…on the more grounded side for both. It’s probably not your escapist series which is what most anime fans want. So in that way, it’s not for lots of people.

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Overall, I enjoyed the first episode quite a bit. I was a little worried about the animation moving too slow by trying to be artistic or something. Maybe a worry caused by the first PV and the slower nature of the manga. But things turned out all right.

Still, this is just the first episode, I’ll have to keep watching to see if it takes some dramatic turn for the worse. But JC Staff has been pretty spot on since

Where instead of having more freetime, it seems I will be having less! So much so that Weekly Extra got skipped last week! Though it’s really a temporary situation. I reminded my manager that, even though I’m 18, I want to be part-time. This is, of course, because I’m still a “newly healthy” girl. If you understand what that means.

So with two weeks there’s a lot of (boring) stuff to cover. New section on cosplaying where all I do is ramble incessantly and come to absolutely no conclusions! Yay! (I guess this is because I’m looking for advice?) And the current plans on blogging for the new season. Also, a Real Life, but anime-relevant (90% lol) announcement. (Also a shocking lack in pictures, it’s really quite awful…for me)

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Anime

Watching Pandora Hearts (finally) and I have noticed that the widescreen version seems to have much better picture quality (though it’s still not that great). At least if I judge based on the super light screencaps I’ve seen. So I’m sticking with widescreen releases. Less stress that way for me too so I can just watch it at my leisure without going, “Agh. Backlog.” (This is what I was doing with K-On! too before I decided it was too much pandering crap even for me).

Also watched Umi Monogatari, but the first impressions on that will be coming out later in a combined post.

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Manga

Another awesome chapter of Faster than a Kiss came out (chapter 11) though I’m not really going to talk about it. It seems really stupid to explain every time a chapter comes out why the chapter is awesome when it’s so obvious~ I think I’ll stop my coverage of it now that I’ve successfully lured most of you to read it. Because it is an awesome shoujo manga that is everything that shoujo manga should be. So much fluff and dokidoki moments. Ah~

Plus for me it becomes totally lovable when the two main characters are both cool and silly (and just darn entertaining overall). So I can’t guarantee everyone would like it, but any fan of shoujo that hasn’t given it a chance should by now.

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Fuyu’s Wishlist

A Riannon nendoroid!!! Score! Kotobukiya released a figure that I was on & off considering as a serious purchase. It looked really nice, but I decided against it because I didn’t want to spend the money on it ($60+). But then it went on sale on HLJ…but I still held back because Riannon really only strikes me as a “seasonal favorite” so even in six months I’ll probably already be bored with her. Even if the figure is really nice…(still getting tempted).

But a nendoroid! That’s absolutely perfect. Since I’d get adorable little silly expressions that would be the side of Riannon that I love so much more. Plus it looks like Good Smile is releasing Arawn too so I could get the both of them if I want. That might be good~ Though it really depends on what my money situation is when they’re released. (I don’t plan on preordering them).

Basically, a nendoroid is cheaper and because I adore them so (but rarely are their characters I want made as a nendoroids) I’m not able to get them often. So when the opportunity arises, I want to jump on it that much more!

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Cosplay

So yes, I decided to add a cosplay section if these ramblings are going to become regular. Then I figured I could make a Cosplay & Conventions category for finished cosplays (or at least almost finished?) and…well anytime I would go to a convention in the future I could make my posts in that same category. Easy, right?

So…on Shugo Chara! it should be said that yeah, it has to be Amu. Even Nadeshiko’s hair is too long for a first try at wigs. Though I still need to find the right shade of pink and I need to make sure it would look all right on me. My hair has always been the same dark brown  and I’m not a pale as I used to be (that was because I was sick so it’s a good thing) so a pink wig might look awful on me. Though at least I confirmed ten months ago that I look fine with bangs.

Though actual styling shouldn’t be too much of a problem if it’s simple enough. My friend is a hairdresser and has some experience in cutting wigs. I’ll just have to suck it up and ask her if I can’t find something perfect. Since I don’t talk about anime with her anymore, she probably thinks I outgrew it.

Now on actualy costumes…To be honest, it’s hard to find something recognizable for Amu that I can imagine putting together for a decent price or being able to sew myself. If I have red x-clips though, anything should be somewhat recognizable.

This might actually be the best option for its easiness and it should be somewhat recognizable since the outfit was in the first opening and is what Amu is wearing in one of the most recognizable scenes from early in the series…which is what everyone who’s seen Shugo Chara! has seen.

There’s a big problem though. Amu only seems to wear this outfit at home…so there’s no shoes!!! And I can’t even begin to think of what you’d wear with that outift. So it’s pretty much scrapped. It’s a shame though since it was so perfect. Amu is even seen wearing her x-clips in the way I’d need to (I’m not the hair up, it’s too much trouble).

Though when she wears the same stockings she always seems to have the same pair of shoes. Like on this cover of a DVD:

So that might just work. So I might be able to go for that outfit from episode one, but I don’t know. I kind of don’t want to. I feel like I’d be wearing it because it’s easy and not because it’s what I wanted. (Though looking for shoes made me think that the vol 14 outfit itself actually looks quite cute~ ) So…basically I’m still thinking about it. More suggestions are very welcome.

I really should save the worrying until I find out how I’d look in a pink wig anyway. Nothing moves forward until then. (Though at this rate, I may just end up in the uniform anyway)

I’m still open to other characters too of course. Just anything that looks like it’s possible (both in terms of wigs and an outfit) for an amateur like me.

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Blog Related

Summer Anime (2009)

We don’t need updates anymore because the season’s already started! Once the last anime airs the widget is going bye-bye (or maybe before then if I get sick of it).

So…blogging plans instead. I’m officially skipping Umi Monogatari and it will be included in my “Extra Impressions” post released…later. It came out when I was too busy and being the first (not disgusting) anime airing this season, the blogosphere is flooded with impressions anyway. Most people on my blogroll reviewed it I think and from the brief things I read (seriously, I’ve been busy), they won’t steer you wrong. If anyone’s curious on my impressions and needs them nao. I liked it. It was exactly what I thought it would be. I’ll be watching it, but not blogging it.

Now my blogging slowdown…yes, there has been one. Because I worked a bunch when I first started out. I guess I kind of wanted to get that debt I owe my parents out of the way really early. If I can I might cash my first two checks at the same time and pay my parents in full and start fresh. But anyway, I’m obviously not as energetic as the average 18-year-old so I asked for less hours. After today I have the whole week off until Saturday! Except that will be the 9 hour day from Hell because it’s the 4th of July. *shudder* Damn my tourist-infested town! At least I’ll supposed to be making a lot in tips.

Oh and because I haven’t changed the poll until now (so long, but at least I got it out before June ended), I finally did change it. To a selfish question asking how many people I’ve influenced to read Faster than a Kiss. Because it’s a great shoujo as far as shoujo-ness goes.

Now as for Shugo Chara!’s latest episode. It’s coming. Either later today (tonight?) or early-ish tomorrow. It’s just difficult when I work so many hours on the weekend. Not that it matters much since I didn’t really have a lot to say. A few good moments, but I really just couldn’t get away from the fact that the whole thing had no point except to take up time. So any emotion it tried to stir up just fell flat with me.

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Random Thoughts

oh no~ Nagisa is too moe~ Can you even “handle” her?

We Love Laughing at ANN – BECUZ NAGISA IS “INTENSE MOENESS” WHILE DRAMATIC PASSINGS IN HALLWAYS ARE HEARTFELT & TOTALLY NOT FROM EMO TEEN MOVIES!!!111 (overdramatization ftw because I haven’t mastered “professional bias” speak)

Um yeah. Basically, ANN reviewed Clannad again and much laughter ensued. Because watching someone use “moe” in that negative sense and then specifically mention how Tomoyo looked nice in her glasses is just…classic. Secret Tomoyo fanboy has a megane moe? Also totally explains why he talks negatively about Nagisa since 80% of Tomoyo fans specifically dislike Nagisa for…all sorts of reasons (most of them equaling “butthurt that Tomoyo wasn’t the end girl”. I’d just like to say that Kyou fans are generally great though~

Slightly Unrelated – But not really. I just wanted to say how I totally love guys (sarcasm?) who think that liking the girl who literally kicks ass means they’re allowed to say they like strong women. Even the ones who don’t even say it, but just give off that air of superiority and how everyone who likes the weaker girl is enforcing a negative stereotype.

Sure, there’s that subservient thing some guys are into, but I think the ones who really are “bringing women down” are the ones that spend so much time thinking about it that they notice that they chose “the stong one.” Because weak girls couldn’t possibly exist! Not even if weak boys can exist! And there’s something wrong with you if you want to get married and raise a family rather than all of the shitload of possibilities that are out there for you! And blah, blah, blah.

Frankly, it’s a bit off-topic but you see it pop up in harem anime discussions and stuff. Quite frankly, I find it as a source for endless amusement. As we are well aware, especially when someone calls Nagisa unrealistic. “Anpan” is quite the random addition for moe but comparing her to another girl like Tomoyo…what’s the difference between “anpan” and 1000+ hits? Oh wait, one is cute and even moe (*shockgasp*) and the other is super cool fighting. One blatantly appeals to “cute/moe” fans, the other blatantly appeals to fans of girls who can “take care of themselves”. My question would be, which girl ends up better by the end of her route? I always feel like Tomoyo slides back a bit. I would never got after a guy after he leaves me for something stupid and noble. I’d call him stupid and slap him around and shout at him until he sees sense, if I’d even want him anymore. I do not go after idiots who do not consult me before making decisions that affect me and do not appreciate being protected.

That I find insulting. And it was kind of the whole point of Clannad which is why I love the reset so much. So Tomoya can freaking learn how to properly think. Bah. Stupid self-sacrificing boys. Good thing they have nice girls who will hug them (tehe~!) or gently tell them that they don’t regret things…cause I’d kick their asses. Nothing they can do about it because I’m a girl and they can’t hit me back (oh and now I’m anti-feminism for using my gender as an advantage lol).

Random on Randomness – Just want to say how I love this section so~ It cuts down on my rants posts and from people getting confused that “rant” means I’m srs bsns angry. Most of the time it’s small annoyances that I laugh at while I rage. And by calling them “random thoughts” along with other random thoughts, no one thinks anything of it.

Scanner Was Fixed – Which means I’ve been doing some scanning~ I’ll be posting what little stuff I have wanted to scan on Kokido-chan when they’re ready. But that ad with Nagisa and Ushio from Megami I wanted so badly is already being taken care of. Edited to be shown in (close) to its proper glory!

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And um…a small announcement? There is now a 90% chance that I will be attending my first convention at the end of September! That convention? New York Anime Festival of course!

To be honest I’ve been considering it for a while, I just didn’t want to say anything in case it didn’t work out. I was waiting until the end of July for a couple of things. Guest announcements (to make sure it was worth it) and seeing if I could save up the money. Well, guest announcements actually made me push my decision up. Because…because…Yui Makino!!!!111 Makino-san~!!! She’s one of the guests at NYAF and I…I died as soon as I saw it in my reader and made the decision right away. I had to reread it so many times to make sure I didn’t just trick myself and it could have been another seiyuu named Yui. But it wasn’t a dream~

I’m putting all merchandise purchases on hold (except for a preorder or two I think) so I can make sure I save up the money. If I only work 20 hours a week I still make about $160 a week (well, minus taxes and then adding tips).

All that’s left is to figure out what I’ll be doing to get to New York and where I’ll be staying. The original plan would be for my parents to come with me and do fun New York things while I was at the convention, but my dad has to work overtime at the end of September. My mom would probably get bored coming by herself too. Of course, I have no anime fan friends (hence my love for blogging) and my parents are very adamant (and understandably so) about me not staying with people I haven’t met in person. I’m kind of against it too, though for a different reason. More than anything I think, “That’s so embarassing~”

Oh well, I’m sure it will all work out. Worst case scenario, my mom can just come up with me and be bored. And yes, this is why cosplaying has been on my mind. Though I’m sure most people guessed that I was planning on attending some convention. Now you know which one.

Booo for work. Another extreme fangirling chapter (though slightly less because plot takes up a lot of space) and I haven’t had time to get to the post until now. *sigh* But at least reading the chapter again put me right back in a good mood. One word sums up this chapter: d’aww. Well that and: “F— yeah. Right again.” Though this time almost everyone was right. With just the reasonable amount of doubt because…it’s CLAMP we’re dealing with here.

I wonder if I’ll ever get sick of getting to see the stuff I want though. But probably not, this chapter seems to end that (though there is still one possibility to extend it one more chapter). I’m satisfied though. I think I got everything I wanted except for one thing.

Screw any other random shit I may have to say. This post is six days late and I want to get right to it!

Ah. Good. Nice to see Sakura’s friends (the Magic Knight Rayearth girls which still just makes me so happy). Umi’s reaction is particularly great.

And that’s the last we’ll be seeing of these girls. It’s just a cameo after all (like most CLAMP characters in this series), but it was nice that their cameo was saved until the very end and was made such a suitable one. Magical girl friends…I just totally love CLAMP for holding out for that.

Still, I wonder if Sakura ever got the chance to explain why she was hugging someone that seemed to be a stranger. And I wonder if she had to make something up…well we’ll never know because that’s not important.

“…but I always believed.”

What’s important is hugging! And oh gawd…there was more hugging~ And Syaoran~ Saying such awesome things too! Oh~ *loses the ability to say proper things for a while*

The continuation of this scene was just so great. It was only about two more shots of them together, but you know I loved it. Loved it so much that insteasd of being able to talk about the equally cute following pages I used it as my top image. Though the continuing line there, “Believed that I would find you” deserves a mention too. Just because it’s all so great and happy and…I love the world today.

Everyone have some flowers! *starts throwing them around* Yes. That is precisely the effect that these scenes have on me. They make me want to throw flowers all around the world.

“I’m sorry I made you worry. But the child and I are fine now.”

Hey~ Before I even get the chance to go all stupid again saying things like, “Marriedness~ And babies too~ They’re parents~ Ah~ Ah~ (more incoherentness), CLAMP has me making frowny faces. What happened so that Syaoran would have to worry about Sakura, huh? And their baby!? I am most unhappy, except that well everything obviously turned out all right and it really might not have been anything at all anyway.

…Because Syaoran is always going to be a cute worried little thing even now that he’s older. Ehe~ I suddenly have fond memories of all of the times Sakura would fall asleep randomly and Syaoran would make all sorts of adorable worried faces. God I missed my fluffy Tsubasa.

“I was afraid I was going to lose you just like back then…”
“I’m never going to leave you behind. I promised, didn’t I?”

GAH! Dammit so much happines while remembering awful horrible memorie sand I’m all conflicted between “Kyaa” and trying to block out those memories and dammit CLAMP! They are the masters of storytelling I say!

Really, they find all of the perfect ways to make something dramatic and stuff. It’s amazing. Any emotion that they will get out of you, the way they tell the story they get the most of it out of you. Multiple emotions at the same time and…god. It’s amazing. The scenarios they come up with and stuff. Fanboys the world over would be destroyed if anyone ever contacted Ohakawa to write a route (or a few) for a dramatic Visual Novel.

…Ehe~ I’d kind of like to see that now actually. A CLAMP VN with the whole gang of them working on something (there’s always character designs and CGs too~).

Also…zomg there was hand-holding in one of those panels!!!

“That even if it meant being punished, I wanted to live with you.”

AND ZOMG! There’s cuddling in this one!

I am also once again reminded of how great these lines are. Normally, this super romantic eternal love and sacrificing for love stuff doesn’t fly with me. I find it too corny and I mack gacking noises and everything. Now I know why.

No one ever takes the time to add anything to the relationship besides those lines. They usually come too early before you can think of them really being connected and loving each other that much and it’s just ridiculous. CLAMP always has the lines match the proper amount of feeling and struggle though. CardCaptor Sakura had cute lines that were often repeated for proper effect. They were simple ideas matching the age group. Chobits had a similar thing going, but it brought it up a notch because of all of that persocoms and humans conflict.

Tsubasa gets to go all out with stuff because they had an epic journey across dimensions and you know died and stuff. Kind of adds to the idea that, yeah, stuff was sacrificed.

Also, they get away with anything because they offset anything with zomgcuddling.

“Your father and mother said that the baby looks just like you when you were his age.”

We of course know the obvious implications here which would make me complain about plot butting in on my cuddle time (even if it’s plot I was right about), but that’s prevented by them looking like a married couple that are new parents which they totally are and…

…I kind of drift off right there in my thoughts.

“…one with the same existence as yourself.”

…How the heck would she know that? Sakura turned into the “I know everything” character when I wasn’t looking. I mean sure, she had dreams and stuff before but…well you know! It’s different. Though not entirely expected for those of us who knew that reborn Sakura would be Sakura-mama. (Oh wait I just spoiled it before I was going to spoil it. Who cares?)

Though part of me wonders if this is because Sakura got some of Yuuko’s power like Syaoran got Clow’s (which we learned earlier but can now connect with Syaoran because we already spoiled it). If that’s the case…wow. No wonder why Sakura-mama was so incredibly awesome. No wonder she and Syaoran can put the whole world back together with their mad magic skills. (It’s true though~ We saw it happen~)

“The other Syaoran. You were created in this child’s image.”

LOL PARADOX.

I love how easily CLAMP can get past this paradox too. Because unlike many time traveling stories, there’s no science here. It’s magic. Therefore problem solved. Magic fixes everything. Except dead people obviously. Whole point of the story.

And now with the famous theory (and paradox’s) official confirmation, I’d like to point out that this whole series is officially the clones’ story. So suck it. I am still quite bitter about people going along with CLAMP’s “change in a protagonist” and believing that cSyaoran and Syaoran could be the same person just because one was a clone of the other. Didn’t you guys ever read any other work by CLAMP!? Created beings are separate and have their own feelings. Go back and read Chobits and CCS again!

Also those people who thought rSyaoran could jsut take cSyaoran’s place are now officially sickos! Don’t ship a girl with her future son! (lol, but this still makes me laugh)

Um…I really don’t have anything to say about what’s going on here, except that…I wanted to use the Yuuko image. I miss her. (When is a new chapter of xxxHolic coming out so I can find out what’s going on!?) DX

“And I suppose then we will proceed toward ‘that time’ again.”

And you shall also proceed to kick major ass by being very awesome. Rebuilding worlds, protecting your other selves, shoving butt-chin’s little plans in his face. All with the delicious irony being that they’re actually the clones he created to further his plans. Oh I love it~

Which reminds me…I wonder if the others are going to be finding out about them being the clones? It seems awkward for their son to find out (oh memories~), but it feels like Fay, Kurogane, and Mokona should really know. If they don’t guess at it themselves by seeing how everyone looks exactly the same. (Fay might even already have figure it out, sneaky magician)

“I swear I will protect you. My most precious person and my precious son.”

Ehe~ The “most precious person” stuff still gets me all stupid and giggly after all of these years. Especially when it’s combined with hugging. Oh and Syaoran still gets to stay stuff about how he’ll protect Sakura and stuff which is familiar from even the very first chapters of Tsubasa.

Coming toward the end of a series always leaves me feeling so nostalgic, but this seems to be getting me feeling that way more than anything. It’s all just so good~

Best scene in the chapter in my opinion. I shouldn’t have to explain it because Sakura’s smile explains enough. Pay more attention and develop more feeling if you don’t get all happy and stuff seeing that scene. There’s something wrong with you!

Though to be honest I didn’t pay this scene much attention on the first time through. It’s one of those scenes that you just love dearly when you look at it more closely.

Hmm…I wonder if this is right after Sakura had the dream when she met ccsSakura…well she doesn’t have the staff though so that might dismiss the possibility right away. Still, the way Sakura acted it just felt that way to me. Plus with the significance of the sakura petals and stuff too.

Tch. Every time I’m reminded of that scene I just think of how I want to see more of it. How did ccsSakura know? I mean I’m sure she had a dream because she’s the world’s most powerful sorceror and stuff, but still! I want to know exactly! There was a time when the two greatest Sakura’s in the world met (haha, and of course the two greatest would naturally share the same soul because no other Sakura in the world comes close to the original moe mahou shoujo and anyone who says otherwise is clearly delusional) and I want to see more of it!

Hahaha~ So cute~ I always get a special joy out of a little Syaoran. (Oi, it still feels weird that there’s multiple ones… )

*bliss* Sakura-mama is, of course, in her element when she’s being a mama. I underestimated how much I would enjoy these scenes.

They don’t give us much plot-wise, just getting a peek at how they are as a family is nice. Syaoran used to be such an adorable little boy until all sorts of serious things happened to make him all serious too. Which stinks. it’s still my own complaint about Tsubasa that everyone can’t be as adorable as they should be because too many bad things happened and everything can’t be all wonderful and fluffy. Even when things return to happiness, there’s still a lot of bad memories. It stinks. No one is adorable and naive anymore!

*ahem* But the rest of the chapter doesn’t really have any obvious new information. It’s not just happy family fluff either though, you have to read between the lines a bit more. With Sakura and Syaoran looking so serious, it’s probably time to be sending Syaoran away and for them to be taking their place in the plan soon as well (in that tube, apart, as if the poor couple hasn’t already had enough troubles ).

Then Sakura also apparently wasn’t feeling too well not long ago, which may be because she had a dream or something…I wonder if it would be the dream that she saw the other Sakura in Clow or if it’s the dream where she met ccsSakura. It’s really hard to keep all this stuff straight, isn’t it? I seem to have an easier time than some people. No idea why. Maybe it’s the way a person’s mind works when they write themselves (or at least intend to). You look at everything to see the possibilities and can connect them with the past because you take note of all of the small things.

…But even if that’s the case, please don’t ask me to explain stuff. No one ever understand when I do somehow.

Anyway, even if I’m off with everything else I’m sure that now we’ve finally reached the end of this flashback because Syaoran is at the age he was when he went to Yuuko’s house and when his dad gave him his sword and all that good stuff. Plus it feels like the end of this chapter feels like a close to this part of the story somewhat, with the shot it ends with.

I guess I didn’t really mention how I feel about Sakura and Syaoran being grown up. There seem to be lots of different opinions on it. Most people seem unhappy about Sakura growing up, but I’m actually more conflicted about Syaoran (grown men can’t be adorably blushy) and I actually like Sakura as a grown up. She’s so sophisticaed and mature which perfectly fits with the mentality that clone Sakura was developing anyway. It’s not like she’s ccsSakura…if she ever grew up fully I think the world might break in half. But overall I’m happy with them grown up anyway. Can’t have them being awesome parents unless…well they’re parents.

Now then…next stop: SAVING THE WORLD! Now let’s get back to the present so I can have my reunion with the whole gang, ‘kay? I got pretty much everything I wanted…minus a wedding (which I really didn’t expect anyway) and Touya and Yukito’s appearance too I suppose. But whatever! Reunion nao please. I want to see Sakura-mama calling Mokona “Moko-chan” again~

Oh yeah and xxxHolic is getting another…something, so Tsubasa OAD announcement for this arc nao please.

]]> http://simplicity.kokidokom.net/2009/06/tsubasa-reservoir-chronicle-chapter-223/feed/ 10 http://simplicity.kokidokom.net/2009/06/shugo-chara-doki-episode-88/ http://simplicity.kokidokom.net/2009/06/shugo-chara-doki-episode-88/#comments Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:07:06 +0000 FuyuMaiden http://simplicity.kokidokom.net/?p=10968

HA! ON TIME! Pretty big backlog otherwise, but at least the Shugo Chara! post is finally on time. Even though I actually had quite a bit to say. I guess episodes that start to conclude an arc are like that. Especially when it’s a filler arc and I have to give my final critiques. I definitely think they do better this episode and last week wasn’t really that bad (aside from fail end).

The realy problem is that Lulu’s “fundamentals” as a character just aren’t good. So any episode with her can only be so enjoyable from a blogging perspective.

But at least there’s just one more week and then we can move on! Hurray!

The only thing left to be concerned at this point is if Lulu will still be involved after her arc ends. Even if she ends up more likable when her arc ends because she’s no longer being stupid, selfish, etc. she still doesn’t really fit with the cast. Her look is too different and she still feels kind of more “ridiculous” than the rest of the characters. I don’t know, maybe it’s just feels like that because she still just doesn’t feel like she fits in. There’s no character that really compliments her. She sorts of seems to clash with everyone if you know what I mean. So her working together with them would feel odd I suppose.

Well, we’ll just see what happens I guess.

-

Thoughts

The episode’s not really bad actually. But it’s not good either. It’s only as good as it could be with them messing up Lulu’s whole situation every step of the way, so it’s hard to feel like the emotions are really genuine. After all, I don’t really know anyone with a real attachment to Lulu.

We start off with a pretty good scene. Lulu and Amu confrontation and Amu being her awesome mahou shoujo self saying all that, “It’s awful to use other people’s dreams” and such stuff while still looking for a reason why Lulu would do it. Because Amu believes in Lulu since she’s not really a bad person and…stuff.

Well, we know the drill. It’s really not going to be anything special because Lulu’s stuff was just a filler arc. Things can usually take two routes and Lulu’s follows the route that’s similar to Utau’s. You know, the basic “befriending” route. Kick your friend’s ass (as nicely as you can) and then help pick her back up. Of course with Amu, who doesn’t like to fight her friends, there’s more talking than kicking ass (which is a last attempt and really the speeches are more like Amu’s final move).

Ooo. That’s messed-up Lulu. That’s your precious mama!

So Lulu, being caught in this situation and backed into a corner, does the usual last desperate “evil” stuff (meaning full bitchiness!) even taking stuff out on those she loves most. The first stage of befriending! Desperation on the part of the future friend (who could have sort of been a friend, but then had to go all poser evil when they were discovered, like Kairi). That way they can go off and do ebil things so there can be a fight and stuff.

Lulu was especially bitchy because she’s an ojou-sama. Ah…I actually like her more when she’s full out bitchy. She doesn’t do nice very well if you ask me. Her poser tsuntsun-ness annoys me. As did her comical ojou-sama-ness actually. The desperate villainy suits her quite nicely. Lulu might have been a better character if they didn’t try so hard to make her silly.

lol. Back to the emo park when bad things happen.

Look! Amu had the time to put up her hair before leaving.

See like last week I still think that Amu and Lulu getting closer right before the bombshell was dropped was good (despite how I feel that Amu’s friendship with Lulu lacks proper feeling. Not sure what it is, but it feels forced and a little off like most things involving Lulu), but that reveal…god that was stupid. I hate “serious” moments being handled comically. Any feeling that you could possibly get from it is destroyed.

Because I can’t get that stupid “oops” moment out of my head I have a little harder time taking the whole thing as seriously as I should. They have the usual dramatic or sad music playing in the background and I can’t help but roll my eyes and think about how it’s all “oh so dramatic.”

Also, Doki seems more fond of Amu going emo on stuff rather than getting more angry and demanding answers. My Amu-chan is an upfront girl about people’s dreams! You’re telling me that she can yell at Ikuto way back in episode 13 (as much as that sucked on its own), but then only leave Lulu’s house at her request. When Lulu said it wasn’t any of Amu’s business she should have said, “That’s not good enough” or something and demanded an answer. She’s Amu-chan!

*sigh~* But then again, I guess she just needed a little time to feel better about it. I guess it’s not developing that differently than from when Kairi did it, but thinking back to episode 22 with Utau helping and then having to switch to fight Amu…Amu demanded answers from Utau right away, even if she didn’t get them.

Just a personal complaint I suppose. I guess it all comes down to how Amu and Lulu just don’t feel that close. With all of the fillers we’ve had, there could have been so many more times when Lulu and Amu met on the street. It feels like any friendship stuff happened just last week (the main example for Lulu being “good” that the charas gave was Lulu nursing Nana back to health) so the “emo-ness” (it’s not quite “emo” so I shouldn’t be saying that I suppose) feels unnecessary.

And of course the whole thing was solved pretty quickly about Lulu being a good person and Amu deciding to help, which is actually fine by me. That scene was pretty “typical” but I liked it well enough.

Also…damn cute smiling. This sort of thing is fine~ It feels like Amu’s “cute” smiles have grown up a little…or something. It’s hard to explain. At least in this situation where Amu smiled genuinely with her charas, but sort of purposefully still. Like she can be optimistic purposefully, without it being fake.

HAHAHA! Knew it. Lulu’s mom prefers doing variety shows right now~ I think she loves acting, but probably wants to focus on being Lulu’s mother because that’s what she enjoys most. Awww. How nice that would be.

Waiting for this was agony! And Lulu still didn’t get it. It’s really about time for Lulu to find out that her mom is happy doing what she’s doing. Making wishes for other people is bad. Especially in something like this. I’m sure Lulu’s mom would have wanted to do things on her own anyway if she did want to do movies again. And Lulu obviously didn’t know the lesson Amu learned with Dia, that you make your own shine!

So. Another piece is in place. Lulu lost her reason for searching for the embryo and is going through denial and will reach more desperation. She’s almost a properly lost child. Now go do evil things, have the guardians find you, get incredibly upset when Amu smacks you with some good hard truth, reach MAXIMUM DESPERATION and ? yourself, and then get befriended. Hurry, hurry!

Psh. Guardian’s being so shocked is…okay I guess. Though as an outsider it’s kind of like, “Come on! Anyone that gets involved with Easter at all is always someone you know.” Though even so the shock feels overdone because I’m kind of sitting over here going, “Why is it surprising? Lulu never struck anyone as selfish or bitchy?” Sheesh. Mahou shoujo character are so trusting.

XD Yoru~! *glompin’* That’s why he wasn’t hanging around. Oh god it makes perfect sense. If the guardians were discussin the ?-eggs while Yoru was around, he would have known who was responsible and told them. Satelight was taking care of a plothole I never even noticed. DAI SHOCKU!

Rima’s mildly outraged face is just the best. Rima does not like people having secrets! Especially when it means her time is being wasted! She needs that for date time with Nagi.

New Rima expression makes me smile, kyaa, and overall very happy. (Oh and Nagi’s got the same expression~ Except less outrage because no one can be more outraged than Rima!!!)

Serious Rima (note: not srs there’s a difference) is also very nice. My Queen~

I am most amused by Amu actually completely explaining the befriending sequence of events and planning how she will go about it. “We have to stop her, but Lulu must have a dream and is being used by Easter. So I’ll tell her I’m behind her and stuff!” Hey, it’s worked before, so it’ll work again. Go for it Amu-chan! Though now I’ll miss you just doing stuff as you go along.

It’s okay though, Amu does her best “make it up as I go along” plan in the future. Of course with a tsundere that’s the only way that future event could proceed and…ohohoho~ We’re getting closer, aren’t we?

Aww, after annoying me last week by being selfish and overly-dramatic (really my two only pet-peeves with characters), Nana earns all her love back this week by being…well a shugo chara. So cute. Explaining herself and how she loves Lulu and all the charas understanding, because that’s how they are! All charas!

Of course Eru is still the best because she was the first one to show the full extent of chara love…and while she was being ignored and mistreated by Utau too. Oh Eru~! DAISUKI! (Why isn’t she here!? I want to hug my favorite adorable chara who I miss so much!!!)

This didn’t happen. I’m ignoring it. Aside from the memory of Kanae-san’s sweet voice…that’s always nice~

Anyway, Dia’s dramatic entrance is reset again at a lower setting than ever because this has happened in one way or another three times now. It was fine when Dia was just popping up in Amu’s dreams, but this is ridiculous. I don’t like how Dia got turned into this, “guardian chara of other charas” who can solve all other chara’s problems and stuff. It’s ridiculous. Charas are supposed to exist for the one they were born for and they can’t be hatched until their time comes. That’s how it works. I hate that Satelight randomly changed those rules.

Now when Dia comes out, it’s just going to be like, “So what?” Really, I’m sure some people like this because they’re fans of Dia and I like her too, but come on. This is ridiculous. I know every anime has differences from the manga, but I really wish this wasn’t one of them. Change something else that doesn’t have to do with the main theme of the story.

Ah. So the reason why we can’t figure out what the heck Nana is, is because Lulu’s dream was to do pretty much everything. And that’s why she has that power when she chara-changes I guess?

The clothes are so incredibly random for a chara that’s meant for “fun” though. I guess it’s just because Lulu kind of always dressed in that old fashioned way though.

LAWL. I forgot what random powers the x-eggs used to have when they were a whole bunch of them so I had no idea what to expect from the ?-eggs. I believe we’ve had a x-egg worm before. So two giant ?-eggs is pretty tame compared to that.

Woot! Full group fight. It’s been a while! And it looks like it’s gonna last a while too!

Cute Yaya image is cute.

So they went through and had Rima and Yaya kind of do their own little battles with dreams…that was pretty cool actually. Couldn’t do it with Nagi for obvious reasons though and I guess it would be hard to turn Tadase’s dream into an object. Still pretty cool though.

One thing I never expect to dislike are the big confrontations in Shugo Chara, but those were always manga material before now. Though I guess you could say that Yua’s handled it pretty well (though it was mostly one on one with Amu and Yua). Glad to know that Satelight can handle that pretty well on their own.

The most baddass clown you’ll ever seen

What moves will those who dare challenge Rima try!?

Ah. Comedy. (Muahaha, excellent~)

“I see. You must belong to a child who loves comedy.”

“However, that doesn’t make me laugh one bit.”

Yeah. You guys better f—ing watch out. “Comedy is serious business and you better not be using it against Rima-tan”…spam is here.

“You lack discipline. Start again from the start.”

RIMA-TAN!!!!!111 I love you so!!!11

It’s been to long since I got to see Rima show someone just who is the Goddess of Comedy! Don’t misuse it bitches or else you’ll get owned Rima-tan style! Rima is the Goddess of Comedy you fools! And so learn already that you don’t stand a chance!

Oh god, and this time it wasn’t silly so I got to hear Rima’s Queen voice while she lectured on comedy. Oh Rima~ I love you~

Yay~ Slightly different speech-ing  from Amu. It was actually more of a conversation, which is good. People just haven’t been asking Lulu the right questions and pointing stuff out to her. Like I’ve said before, sometimes obvious thing slip by someone because no one else has pointed it out and they’re too distracted to notice.

But the real mahou shoujo speech is coming up next week. Because…

The biggest thing in the preview doesn’t happen until the very end of the episode! Lulu willingly ?-ed herself. Kind of made me think she was a bitch again because she knew it wouldn’t be good for Nana. Bitch. You better do enough crying next week.

Now then…is it going to take all episode to get Lulu befriended, or are we getting a mini-epilogue? Epilogue or a very epic fight would both make me pretty happy. Just as long as we don’t get any bullshit recaps after this. Let’s move right along to important stuff, kay?

-

Preview

It looks like it’s all really just epic fighting with Lulu’s ?-chara-nari, but an epilogue after this is always at least a little bit inevitable, so I hope we get it in this episode or else…*sigh* Another recap. Do not want.

Oh but there was this:

KYAAA!!!!!!

Hell yeah! *squee* Kyaaa! OMG~! And etc all the way to the moon! (lolwut?)

Looks like we’re getting the best “Nagi protecting Rima” moment yet. So I am quite looking forward to next week. Ehehe~ Gawd it looks so adorable in the previw. Ehehe~ *off into dreamland~*

Waitress Sakura because I’m officially a working girl. Just not in a cute uniform like that…though I do look pretty cute in a visor if I may say so.

I started off pretty strong this week, but I got tired out by the end by my own stress and anxiety (because of the work which I will talk about a little at the end). So not much happened, but I have a decent post. Too bad it’s a day late. Heh.

A decent number of anime (with my progress on the season), a long manga rambling for Koko ni iru yo!, more looking ahead, wishlist, and…the usual stuff. No AMV though. I was picky this week and just didn’t have anything to say on anything I saw and was too lazy to go looking.

-

Anime

Had to use a Nia image~

So I had my wisdom teeth out so I watched a couple of anime on the first day I was laying in bed. First I finished off my rewatch of Gurren Lagann which has been going for a couple of weeks. Not sure what to say except that I think that anime gets better every time I see it. I just love how it can have that “do anything!” message without being a corny mess. I don’t even need to explain it because everyone who watches it knows what it is. Oh and the characters get awesomer too. (And I love Nia~)

Then I watched the movie Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo which I bought a while ago as a “rainy day” DVD when it’s on sale, for a time specifically like this. My feelings on it are rather calm. Basically it was “okay” to me, probably just okay because I expected a little something more from how much everyone loves it. It started off dull for me, but it did warm up and turned into a good story, but I still don’t quite feel like it met expectations. But movies rarely meet my criteria for being entertaining since so much of it runs on characters and there’s not enough time to develop everything properly. Other things I judge are awesomness and story and Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo just didn’t quite meet the quota for either. Still a very good movie though.

I really am in one of those moods where I’d rather just marathon everything and so it causes all of my anime to build up. It’s not exactly good though, because sometimes I get over that mood before I watch stuff, like when a new season comes along, and I just never get back to it. I already think this season is going to have a lot of casualties. I’ve already given up on Hatsukoi Limited despite all the good stuff I hear about it. It’s not exactly new, so I don’t need to force myself to watch it, right? Better to watch the stuff I’m already watching I think.

Oh yeah, and for those who probably didn’t notice, K-On! was dropped for me a while ago. The way I see it, I can read a chapter of the manga, play the ending if I so desire and I’ve saved myself like…20 minutes. K-On! really is too much if you’re either not completely new to moeblobs (therefore not getting tired of how everything is familiar) or if you just love moeblobs that much. I guess I don’t. I’m a moe snob. Proud of it too.

I was more tempted to watch Shakugan no Shana II just because I knew what to expect from my viewing (more incredibly slow shit in the first half) than to catch up on the remainders of the season. Ah well, such is my lazy nature. So I ended up finishing that after needing to stop at episode 7 a while back because it got so boring. The series overall really isn’t that bad…after you get through the first nine episodes.

My one complaint is that even past the first nine episodes, at least until the last four or so, certain characters get all whiney with all of their inner conflict and turmoil and I feel like smacking them. There’s just too many characters in this story that serve no purpose but to…have their own problems really. It’s quite annoying. The series gets so slow when there’s no immediately approaching danger. I always despise the aftermath of anything too, because it usually gives everyone time to start making their own so sad speeches about what happened in the last conflict. Then right before the next thing or during it, you get this dramatic conclusion that’s either, “Well duh” or “Didn’t you figure that out five times before?”

The five times before thing usually applies to Kazumi. She always has some problem going on and has the same epiphany (to different levels of resolve at least) a bunch of times before she moves onto the next problem. I feel bad for the girl, because she really doesn’t serve any purpose to the plot as a whole. She’s kind of just…there.

Anyway it wasn’t really that bad and was actually good enough to make me look forward to the new season (especially since Fuyu is a naughty girl who knows plenty of spoilers from the novels~). My major complaint would be how slow it was at first and then (probably because of that) how things seemed to really rush at the end. Of course I can’t really complain much about the rush if we get a third season. Who really cares anymore~

-

Manga

So two more chapters of Koko ni iru yo! are finally out and while for a while I’d say my fandom would be dwindling, it’s totally back now. And the chapters just confirmed that I’m a Hinata fan. It’s weird because plenty of people I’d normally agree with are going for Teru, but for some reason I’m completely cold to him. He “knew” Hikage first, he’s stubborn, he’s a little cold. Those are usually what would come together to make me root for Teru.

But I don’t know, I find Hinata’s personality so much more fitting for Hikage. They’re more similar, but I suppose there’s the “opposite” thing so many fangirls love, but I don’t know. With a shy girl like Hikage it just seems off to me. It’s actually a little bothersome that Teru knew Hikage so long, but Hinata was the one that reached out to her in person first. Friends online are great, but you need real relationships with people you can see face to face and trust. Also, Hinata is nice, that should bother me, but somehow he’s nice while still properly being a guy. I don’t quite understand it myself, but most guys that are as nice as Hinata with his polite way of doing things would sicken me.

I think it had something to do with that part of his personality that made him confront Teru when Teru’s being all sneaky and trying to keep secrets from his best friend (I’ve said it so many times, if it’s to protect them, it’s forgivable, but it’s still not cool). I always love the boy that makes the challenge first~ He’s so nice without being a pushover. He sees that Hikage wants to help Teru so he lets her go and he helps Teru as his friend to recognize his own feelings, but he has no intention of letting Hikage go. He’s a good friend and can still be a proper boyfriend which…should make the world explode or something. I don’t know. Guys usually aren’t capable of doing it as neatly as Hinata is able to.

Though I have to say, I don’t like Hinata being called “boring” so often like it’s a fact. I guess any tsuntsun stubborn boy always gets to be seen as interesting. Usually we do take it pretty regularly that the “nice” usually “princely” boy is boring because he’s perfect Though I obviously disagree since I found a boy who was nice, but somehow managed to get my full attention from the start fascinating. Teru’s the one that’s actually more boring to me because he seems a little copy & paste. His type isn’t anything new really, but for some reason he’s missing the charm that others have. I think it’s because I don’t really see him get all embarrassed like those boys usually do. So it’s not like I don’t think Hinata wouldn’t be boring to others, but to me he is easily preferrable over Teru who has no charm for me.

Hmm, but going back to the lack of embarrassment…I guess the simple answer to why I prefer Hinata is because he’s just so cute. It’s been way too long since I had a pure shoujo couple that just runs on blushing and smiling and still has some substance.

Also the, “I’m right here!” scene in chapter 15 made me so happy, like the title right~? (Wish I could have seen the raws to see if it was really “koko ni ir yo!”. Sadly it was followed by a, “I guess I’m not needed” line which put me in a bad mood. I always hate it when the character I don’t favor doesn’t change my opinion of them and just does all the things that would make me not like them. None of that! You have to fight for the girl you like! Love is a battlefield!

Of course, my #1 love for Hikage also plays a factor. I want to trust her to the person that I think is better for her. They both obviously treasure her, but I just personally feel like that person is Hinata. Since she wouldn’t have moved forward at all without him and how he wants Teru to do his best as well too, kind of feels like so it’s Hikage can have whoever she treasures more herself.

As for the boys though, as expected when they’re together they’re both great. But the fact that Hinata is kind of the more straightforward one in their friendship and helps Teru with his problems may be yet another reason why I prefer him. But I really think some boys just irritate me when they’re involved in shipping because I want the story to be more straightforward and stuff and the triangle seems highly unnecessary so that frustration would be taken out on the boy I would see as unnecessary because I don’t prefer him. But they were so cute when they were adorable shoutas. Friendships and being with people should be the main thing to take away from this series I think. So I’m sure no matter what happens everyone will be happy at the end.

Basically my idea being, Hikage is happy now so to me it feels like the story is already over. So now matter what I’m probably going to stop enjoying the series from here. Ema Toyama really should have made Teru have more of a presence earlier on to make him “fit” better.

-

Looking Ahead

DAMMIT! Stop making stuff come out in Fall. Thank God I decided to take a break from school after the Hellish stress of trying to deal with graduating while sick these past two years. I don’t have to worry about things getting in the way too much. Unless I’m feeling confident and well enough to go to full time hours in Fall. Then I’m in trouble.

A new shoujo anime adapted from a manga in Ribon has been announced for Fall. That manga is Yumeiro Patissiere and was brought to my attention by Kiseki (thank you for that btw~ even if I’m tortured by yet another series for Fall). Right away there’s the paralyzing fear that they’ll continue on this bizarre new trend of 3D animation with this series since it’s from one of the three magazines geared towards the younger fans. If they do I will be most displeased, because I’m actually looking forward to this.

I love cooking in shoujo manga, I don’t know why but I do (must have something to do with the adorable desserts and aprons). So I want to watch this! Another problem pointed out by Kiseki though is that there’s only 10 chapters, which means fillers no matter what (even if it happened to be a 13 episode series). I can’t say how that would work out since I’m not really familiar with the manga, but I’m already a pro at dealing with shoujo fillers. Though aside from Shugo Chara! it’s been quite some time.

Which basically would mean I’d probably watch it, but not really consider blogging it. After Shugo Chara! ends, I’m really going to need a break. Which is just as well since there are already two confirmed series for Fall that I’m guaranteed to blog (Kobato and Haruka). Then if you add on all the possibilities, I’m already in deep dookie for scheduling this Fall.

Oh well, I’m just happy to know that I’ll have some cute fluffy series from one of my favorite magazines this Fall after all. Just keep that 3D crap away from me and to save on animation budget, you can make the actual episode shorter and add in a cute cooking segment! It’s better than 3D shit, that’s for sure.

-

Fuyu’s Wishlist

The only Lucky Star merchandise I have ever wanted. Though it’s just because I love Macross Frontier so~

Too bad I never really liked any character too much so I can’t complain about who does and doesn’t get to be Ranka. Though Miyuki as Sheryl was most obvious (and Kagami as KlanKlan was second most obvious). I suppose having the “most typically moe” Tsukasa be Ranka makes sense, but I do not accept anyone without green hair as Ranka (purple clashes horribly with orange). And Konata as our trappish Alto…is actually kind of win. Never would have expected it so it was awesome. Also what is awesome is that Kagami isn’t either of the girls in the triangle. Screw you yuri fanatics.

Yeah…I’d want it, but even with a job I don’t just have money laying around. There’s plenty of other stuff I’d buy first. Like real Macross Frontier merchandise…if they ever came out with anything that I thought was worth buying online. Like a decent Ranka figure, not a 3D version of something that was 2D in the series itself.

I also don’t really buy too many adorable keychains, because almost every series gets at least a few. You get bored with them pretty easily. So if I bought every keychain of gachapon I thought, “Oh cute!” for, I’d have piles of them sitting in my room. I still don’t even know what to do with my Shugo Chara! ones.

So yeah, it’s a nice idea, but I think it’s only Wishlist material…For now~ (Oh and let’s not even talk about the current price for a set)

-

Blog-Related

Summer Anime (2009)

Geh. I actually completely neglected my post this week even though quite a few videos and pieces of information came out. I’ll get on it…soon.

-

Random Thoughts

I’m Serious Guys – Cut it out with the Twilight trailers. & Any fucking contests just for a New Moon trailer with Shugo Chara! especially! (WTF!?!?!) The trailers all suck. Doesn’t matter how much work you put into it, nothing matches or works so it’s all going to suck. Especially if everyone makes one because they’re ALL GOING TO LOOK THE SAME!! I thought parodies and AMVs and stuff were supposed to be original, but I guess empty-headed fangirls just think “I like these two things! This is awesome!” and that’s enough.

Really, there’s nothing to make you dislike a series more before even trying to experience than having others besmirch (look it up) the characters you love with…whatever that shit is. I keep all of my opinions on Twilight to myself because it’s not fair since I haven’t read the books, but come on!

Whatever. I’m done now. Just pissed me off that I saw a video pop up in my subscriptions again this week after last week’s mini-rant. Not like I can really tell people not to do what they clearly enjoy, but it doesn’t mean that I have to like it.

Cosplay – Yup. Right now I’m looking into doing some cosplay, which may or may not lead to another section on this post. I’m deciding between that or a category. Either way, this post is getting too filled up, so something should probably get moved out of here. Maybe…I don’t know.

Anyway, I’m only at the stage where I’m looking into costumes I could make that I would want to wear (meaning characters I like enough). I want to do a Shugo Chara! cosplay, but Amu is so common that it kind of lessens my excitement. But Utau and Rima would both have impossible wigs, so they’re not really options either. Though I did consider Black Diamond Utau because the wig could be shorter, but…it doesn’t seem as recognizable to me (thought it would be cool). So I’m looking into different, but recognizable outfits for Amu since her uniform is so overdone (though it’s probably what I’ll end up doing anyway). Not her chara-nari’s because even if I think some are possible, I really shouldn’t attempt when my mother and I are both so out of practice. Especially without patterns.

Nagisa is also a possibility, but I’m trying to decide between the summer uniform and her grown-up mama version~

But any other suggestions are welcome too~ Though I only want to even think about two costumes. It’s bad to overload yourself. But I may change my mind if something good comes up.

Of course, the most important step will be seeing how I look in a wig so if that doesn’t work out, I’m scrapping the whole idea altogether. I think people shouldn’t go out in cosplay if they don’t really look good. I don’t see why it’s different from going out in every day life, you don’t leave the house before you make sure you’re not a mess, right? And to me it’s just as important for cosplay. It’s bad to “ruin” a good character by looking bad I think. That’s why it’s okay to think, “ugh” about cosplayers, even if it’s rude to say something and downright sneaky and nasty to talk about them online later like a highschool teenage bitch.

-

My first day of work was so boring. Kind of a letdown after how I stressed myself out. Well I had to go at 6:30AM and was having trouble sleeping so some of the stress made sense. But all I really did was watch videos. Then I even got interrupted from that easy task every so often when someone needed to use the computer. So boring.

Watching the videos also gave me a little moment where I got scared seeing how complicated everything was. I totally forgot that I wasn’t just doing the register. But it actually looks pretty easy and kind of fun once you get into the routine. This is coming from a person who thought being a cashier was kind of fun too by the way. I like pressing buttons.

So yes, I’m officially working. And I already got enough money to pay for Sumomo, but my parents are just taking half of my paycheck until I pay everything back. So nice~ Especially since I insisted on it being half when they were saying, “Pay whenever.” This is because I got over my, “I want to buy everything!” feeling that’s been plaguing me as soon as I got the money to buy stuff. Everything doesn’t seem quite as good now. That’s how reality works I suppose.

]]> http://simplicity.kokidokom.net/2009/06/weekly-extra-working-girl-now/feed/ 18 http://simplicity.kokidokom.net/2009/06/shugo-chara-doki-episode-87/ http://simplicity.kokidokom.net/2009/06/shugo-chara-doki-episode-87/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:25:09 +0000 FuyuMaiden http://simplicity.kokidokom.net/?p=10855

What!? A post on Monday!? And the world didn’t explode!? Yeah…I’m making fun of myself a little, but I still won’t be making a habit of being this late. It feels unnatural. There’s just a few reasons behind it.

I feel like this episode was pretty okay, but it didn’t really appeal to me specifically. That was one major reason I didn’t blog right away, because quick impressions told me everyone else liked it, but I found myself incredibly bored throughout most of it. I really got no real entertainment from it and when they finally moved forward, I should have been happy, but the way they’ve handled things incorrectly until now just seemed to kind of…explode to me.

The other reason why I was late posting? Well since most don’t follow me on twitter…and since my widget either never loads or people don’t check it because it’s at the bottom, Monday (today) was my first day of work and I am very prone to stressing and freaking out. I actually had a nightmare about overlseeping and missing work which hasn’t happened since (totally dorky confession coming up) the last Harry Potter book was coming out. I had a nightmare about missing the part and then everyone spoiling me. Woke me up in the middle of the night both times and everything.

But it’s all good now~ I won’t take up any more time with off-topic ramblings and I’ll talk about my first day of work in the next Weekly Extra (which is also being posted a day late because of the shift).

Oh! And I got my Graduation present. I mention it because it’s Shugo Chara! merchandise so everyone can be sure to look forward to that post. *is going to go crazy with pictures*

-

Thoughts

So since I didn’t really think a lot about this episode and because it’s so late and my thoughts are kind of…more mild now, this will be a short one. A few observations and then my personal outrage as an amateur writer.

So…I’m annoyed right away because we’ve already had episodes where there was some minor thing going on about food in brief moments. I seem to remember a certain recap with a lot of donuts…

Yeah. It’s really not the kind of thing you can do that much. I understand why it was like that (so Nana could get sick) but it was still…boring. It feels like as soon as Satelight gets back to Lulu, they just stop trying again.

For some reason it also felt like it’s been a while since the guardians have done much, but it’s only been since a couple of weeks ago that Yua came for the photo shoots. I guess it felt like it had been long since they talked about anything relevant, which is actually true. The number of fillers between the last big thing that happened and their next talk felt longer than usual to me. Not that it matters since it was resolved this week…

…But I did kind of wish I got to see a sad looking Amu~ Because of Ikuto~ But Amu changes in episodes that focus on Lulu (will explain that later), so I guess it’s only to be expected. *sigh*

Anyway, maybe I feel like the guardians haven’t been around much, because…well they really haven’t done much fighting as a group recently. Amu’s been on her own or with just one person a lot lately.

I felt suspicious that things would so randomly go the way Lulu wants them to. I had the feeling that Lulu just had to be misunderstanding, but by the way her mother talked it didn’t seem to be that way.

Hmm…maybe something will go wrong next week and that’s what will lead to Lulu’s crisis. Though I’d prefer if she’d stop being stupid and realized that she’s wrong already. Oh and that she’s selfish for wanting the embryo for her mom who is already perfectly happy. Which by the way, makes me want to have her mom turn the role down herself because she wants to stay in Japan and stuff. Ohoho~ That would be a nice way to break Lulu down.

But um yeah…back on track. I still want that epic, “You’re being selfish” speech I keep imagining Amu delivering. But like I said, Amu changes in episodes with Lulu. This is because serious things don’t exist in episodes with Lulu because if they did, it would be even clearer how much trouble Lulu is in. It was incredibly surprising, now that I think about it, that ramen kid showed up in that episode with Utau. But of course, what Utau told Amu didn’t have any impact on that part of the episode. It was really like watching two different episodes with two different tones.

…I was really “meh” on the whole of Nana being sick thing. Nana became an annoying, dramatic brat (rather than when I like her as a good chara~) and the reason why she was sick being so obvious too after she was eating in every shot before that.

But it did show the nicer side of Lulu which was a plus. Seeing her worried about someone other than the needless (and rather selfish) worrying for her mother was nice for a change. She really is stubborn (though sadly in the unpleasant way unlike the rest of the girls), so like with all stubborn girls it was nice to see her put aside her selfishness to do what she has to.

Though it was annoying how she still got all, “I can’t believe I’m calling Hinamori Amu” when everytime they’re together they pretty much act like friends. Lulu trying to see her as an enemy and someone she shouldn’t associate with to herself is really quite…ridiculous. Overly tsundere when you get upset at yourself for just calling someone. Good tsundere is when you only get all tsuntsun when someone else points it out~ Like Utau~ (So cute~)

…I love this picture. This picture with the Easter employees looking so menacing and evil, truly like the pedophile stalkers they all so are. Having Lulu think of them this way is the best thing that has ever come from Lulu for me.

Amu is so cute when she’s talking on the phone.

Oh heck~ She was just cute in general this episode. She gets cuter in personality when she has pigtails going. Which I can actually kind of understand and see as kind of realistic~ When I was younger (before I became conscious of it) I used to act “cuter” when I had my hair in some cute style. I don’t know why, because it’s not like I could see my hair, but when I had pigtails in they bounced and I guess that made me bouncier~ I don’t know.

All I know is that Amu was cute this episode~ At least part of it must be owed to that polite way people behave in front of someone’s parents. It’s so cute from the outside~ (I find myself even thinking this about my friends )

Actually giving credit to the cute blushing Lulu screencap, because I can’t help but love the dere side of every tsundere. Especially when it’s friendship involved~

I wouldn’t even really call this episode a chara episode since it’s just four of them. Amu’s chara and Nana. Which explains why it wasn’t as entertaining as the episodes usually are. Charas have limited personalities, so you need plenty of them interacting to make sure there’s plenty of material to work with. Or at least give the spotlight to lesser-scene charas. Amu’s charas are in every episode and Nana has been in almost as many lately since ?-egss run the fillers.

Also…I am filled with despair that I don’t get to see Eru in a nurse’s uniform.  Suu was cute too…but…you know, she’s not Eru. *despair*

I’m not happy that Amu lets Lulu boss her around like she’s Utau or Rima or someone. I feel like Lulu hasn’t earned it. They haven’t really had enough friendship time and their relationship changed in just one episode (which was a cute episode, the Christmas one).

I guess I can kind of give some of the credit to Amu changing over the course of the series, she’s more likely to forgive, but…eh. Amu’s a stubborn little tsunderekko too, you know. After Lulu got frustrated with Amu, Amu should have done a cute little pouty thing or something. Still keeping quiet because Lulu’s just troubled about Nana, but…well you know!

Okay. So I did find this part cute. For some reason. Taking the feathers from a bird and then sewing it…it was very cute. But just this part. The rest felt like they were trying too hard or something (like the little outfits).

Many shots of cute Amu smiling this episode. I couldn’t take them all. Amu had the moe turned up this episode and when I finished that ended up being the only thing I really enjoyed…or at least enjoyed enough to remember. (More SaiMoe boost conspiracy theories will be floating around again~)

Though Fuyu has some things to say on that. Explaining how Amu changes in episodes with Lulu…or rather episodes where the real plot doesn’t exist. It was like this back in the baseball episode too. Amu was darn cute, but the cute side of her was really the only side you got to see in the episode. She was acting like a more typical mahou shoujo heroine.

Now, she didn’t get annoying or anything, but she was just smiley and cute all episode (but more restrained). Satelight can get away with it because Amu is so often stubborn and stuff that her nice, cheerful side is extra cute. That is the magic of stubborn girls! But it feels like they’re just forgetting Amu’s full personality so it’s bothering me.

Nuuu! After Amu saw the jewelry, she stared at Lulu and kind of went, “hmm…” while thinking about something…But that’s not right! Look at that expression! It was the perfect opportunity! They finally had a chance and they didn’t do it! Why!? WHY!?!?!?

As for what I’m talking about, shame on you if you don’t know! I wanted to hear Amu-chan’s “jiii–” She’s the only one of the girls who hasn’t done it! It’s not fair! It would sound so cute! Then I could finally make a compilation “Jiii–” video and post it on YouTube and watch it everyday (all 10 seconds it would include ). We’ve had Utau, Rima, Yaya (right?), and Ami. Why not Amu!? Why!? It’s just too unfair!

*throws an eternal fit for eternity*

Well, I guess we still have some time, but after Lulu is done it’ll pretty much be down to serious business. And to wrap Lulu up it will be serious too so…there is no time. Ah! It was my last chance! I hate you guys! *more fits*

Ah. The Utau comparison. Obvious to all that Lulu is an inferior version of Utau. Of course, Amu’s too polite to say so. She’s just comparing them because they’re both so tsundere…mainly (and really only) to her…except Utau is better at it.

“You know Ikuto?”

I will take this as an Amuto moment because of how Amu’s face changed. She didn’t get smiley or just confused, but it’s like that. Like she’s surprised and a little restrained. Which totally isn’t on purpose (because Satelight isn’t smart this week), but you know…if Lulu hadn’t given the answer that she did, it could have turned into a little conversation where Amu would mention what happened and if they’re friends Amu could maybe talk about it~

But that didn’t happen. I probably ruined this episode for myself thinking about all of the “what could have been”s.

“Well Nana knows Yoru, but I don’t really know him well.”

Because I give credit for the things done well in an episode when I’m ripping on it otherwise. Lulu actually came up with a good excuse. Because charas totally run off and play on their own without their owners full knowledge.

Aww…that’s kind of cute. Lulu was happy that Amu was happy and said good things about her mom. The benefits of the tsundere (too bad there aren’t more benficial moments because Lulu is ultra-tsuntsun).

Also…Amu’s got a knockout smile. Best of the episode (and there was some good competition too). I’d blush if I was sitting next to her (no, this is a lie, I’d totally tackle-glomp her). Yes. That one picture makes this post worthy of the criminally cute tag.

Not quite the sleepover I wanted. So I felt a little grumpy. Why can’t Rima-tan (and Utau~ Come on~) stay over at Amu’s house? Meh.

Still…sleepovers are good. And they talked about something the two of them have in common, charas, and it shows a little how Amu is more mature than Lulu thinking about stuff like that and prompting Lulu to think about her own dreams some more. It was…kind of nice.

Now let’s watch Satelight ruin it.

Aww, somehow I always love Amu’s bedhead (it’s just cute somehow~). But Lulu’s hair actually looks neater after a night of sleep. How is this possible?

Though really, Lulu looks better this way. One of the things that annoy me is her look. Her hair is just too unbelievable (it really makes her not fit in with the other characters) and…it doesn’t look like it could belong to a nice person if you know what I mean. She looks more elegant (like she’s supposed to) and less ridiculous and like she could be nicer with this hair.

But whatever.

One tsundere friendship moment for the road before things get ruined. It was a nice touch that they made the two of them get closer right before stuff happened, but they really did…well bah. You’ll see.

“Today, we’re gonna take some ?-eggs and find the embryo!”

…

GRAGH! I can’t believe that this is how they revealed it. Someone just blurted it out stupidly. This is incredibly stupid, it takes no skill to write this stuff, and it is incredibly difficult to believe. No matter how silly, like someone would ever really blurt that out.

Especially having it be a silly moment which would lead to the drama of the situation. This is…just totally below what I even could have expected from Satelight. I seriously thought they would go for the “equally easy, but at least didn’t make an idiot out of anyone” choice of having Amu see Lulu right after healing a ?-egg. This way makes an idiot out of everyone, even the guardians and Amu who never got the chance to discover it for themselves.

All of this time we’ve had to spend on Lulu and the whole thing gets revealed by Nana accidentally blurting it out. I’ll give them some credit for making the big reveal right after Amu slept over Lulu’s house. That way it kind of hits Amu more. Though I think it would have been better if Amu hadn’t gone from stubborn to total mahou shoujo making-friends mode with Lulu so easily and remembered about what a bitch Lulu had been. That way it would have taken their friendship more time to develop. Rather than the one episode change from frustration to smiley shoujo gal-pals~

I’d also like to point out that a major point in me having no feeling in this is that despite this moment taking forever there was still no emotion invested in it. There were about three episodes focusing on Lulu and her relationship with Amu. Outside of that Amu and Lulu just met randomly like…maybe seven times tops?

So most of the time there’s been contact, it’s been Lulu watching Amu fight ? stuff. So the odds were overwhelmingly in the favor of Amu just running into Lulu and I thought a scene like that would have went really well. It practically wrote itself. Especially after a chara-nari already wandered over to Lulu once before, it could have happened again.

I suppose they just wanted to get it done with rather than writing another episode where that could happen at the end, which is good I suppose in the long run, though one can’t help but wonder why they’re rushing now when they’ve dragged it out for so long. Also, even if I want to get it over with, I at least expected it to be handled better than this. I really can’t see it as anything other than poor writing. One of those moments I often imagine from Satelight where they’re just looking on how to please their fans:

“They’re really getting sick of Lulu now. After Yua, the girls probably won’t stand for her any longer. Add that to them being pissed about Ikuto being held captive in a room with his violin as a flashlight-”

“Ohoho~ I thought that was a nice touch if I do say so myself.”

“Yeah…uh…sure. Ignoring the randomness of it, it does seem quite evil and makes an impact, but that just makes the fangirls more restless. Anyway, no one wants Lulu around anymore.”

“Fine. We’ll just get rid of her. Just have Nana be an idiot and announce the ?-eggs right in front of Amu at the end of the episode and we’ll move stuff along. The end.”

Like I said, good to finally move along, but they should have done better.

Well, this will be an awkward scene to leave. Especially since Amu still needs to get dressed.

Let me basically sum it all up by saying that I am so glad that Lulu and Nana are going to be disappearing from my sight soon. However, I think a lot of people didn’t expect the “big reveal” (pfft yeah right) to be this episode since I saw a lot of people referring to this one as a “chara episode” but I kind of did. So some people may have gotten excited about the story moving faster sooner while I got exactly what I expected…or rather a little less. Then the whole thing just didn’t entertain me enough to make up for that absolute failure in story development at the end. It reeked of, “just throw it in there” carelessness.

Or maybe I just don’t like episodes that have charas for entertainment when Eru isn’t around. Totally possible. (Though I did enjoy episode 50… )

As expected too, it didn’t help that this came after Yua and the revelation that…*gasp* Yes! Satelight can do a good job developing a filler character when they actually try. But why should they try to develop and make the character who is going to be around for a season and a half likable? That doesn’t make any sense at all! (Note the HEAVY sarcasm)

Meh. Well, I guess I’ll just be happy that it’s almost over and we can move onto the plot. I recently had a great reawakening in excitement for Amuto-ness (not that I lost my loved, it had just been slipping my attention more lately since there was nothing new coming out), so I’ll be happy to get to those episodes. Especially that one. But even before that I at least have Amu crying for Ikuto when she hears part of his story from Tadase.

Ah. I ended up writing more than expected actually. Less screencaps than what’s become normal, but…lots of writing for those screencaps. I guess I still had a lot of critique.

-

Preview

Hm. Lulu does a ? chara-nari. It never really occurred to me, but it makes sense. Right now she’ll be more lost than plenty of the kids she forced that on. It’s also a good way to redeem a character. Turning their own power against them so they know what their victims have been through.

However, it doesn’t really mean I expect to enjoy it. I’ll still find problems with it because I don’t really feel like Lulu deserves much sympathy. If most of her moping is because of Amu it would be fine, but I don’t think Lulu’s selfish nature would change quite that easily. At least if I think that way I can only go, “Ah. I thought so” rather than ”

Also wtf. Dia needs to stop popping out whenever she Satelight wants her to. She’ll pop out when Amu shines. When she’ll be properly born (or hatched rather). That’s how charas work. Cut it out.

So, I said that my next merchandise post would probably be when I got my graduation present, but…it didn’t quite work out that way. I found a figure for pretty cheap not too long ago and so I just went for it. This was before I had a job and everything, but the deal was just too good.

Plus, I can never pass up a figure for a girl I love since they so rarely get proper figures that I would want. So I got Sumomo from Nanatsuiro Drops, the girl I’d probably call the cutest anime girl…ever? Well, she’s definitely in the running.

Her figure isn’t quite as cute as she is, but what does it really matter? I got her for $13.50. She’s worth that to me.

Well $13.50 plus shipping so it ended up being like $18, but eh…I never really consider the shipping as part of the price. Irresponsible, but who cares! That also explains why I always go so far out of my way to get free shipping too, because I never think to consider shipping when I want to buy something.

But before I get too into this, anyone reading that doesn’t know Nanatsuiro Drops or Sumomo has to at least watch the opening for the game.

Isn’t it the fucking cutest opening you’ve ever seen for an eroge!? Dammit, I don’t know why they changed the song for the anime, but at least they used it as an insert in the final episode. There’s also the Pure version that was for the PS2 version. I like it less because there’s another girl taking up time that should belong to Sumomo. But other than it’s not much different…eroge elements are taken out. Like Sumomo and Haru have clothes on in the last shot. Plus there’s extra scenes I guess too because they add in stuff to make up for the H-scenes getting taken out.

Anyway, I don’t care which version (because I’ll only follow the Sumomo route), but I need this game. It’s inspiring me to go ahead and try to learn Japanese again…eventually. When I get over my “freedom~” from school feeling.

I decided to go outside to take pictures to get better lighting than I got for Rin. There’s really no single bright place in my entire house and it’s incredibly annoying lately. Anywhere with okay lighting is usually all yellow looking and…bleh. It’s not like I really intend to do figure photoshoots, but I want the picture to look okay.

So I took my posterboard and cut out a piece of wrapping paper to take outside and do quick shots with. I used the wrapping paper on the bottom so that the base wouldn’t just blend in. The only problem with the pictures would be the shadows from the branches, but I think it came out well overall.

I first saw this figure back in January or something and it was set to be released in February (though HLJ has it for December, but I didn’t look on their site back then), but there were a few things holding me back from pre-ordering. The main thing being that I had no job, but then there was the price too. If I had a job and it was my money, I wasn’t at all sure I’d want to spend it on this figure. I found flaws in it that I did not like, even in the promo images where they’re supposed to make everything look good. It was made by Jun Planning which I wasn’t familiar with. Basically, it was $44 and I didn’t feel like it was worth that much.

But then I was looking through figures on sites like I’m prone to do every so often (this was before I even knew I had a job, so it’s just to make myself suffer). This time it was 7’s fault for talking about his own figure buying and stuff. So, eventually I went through the Nanatsuiro Drops merchandise and saw that Sumomo was on sale! For $13.50, like 75% off!

She came in different colors and all of the versions except for the one with the original colors was on sale. I probably would have wanted the original one, but I went for the Blue/White version. Now that I have that version, I think I prefer it over the original. Her hair kind of stands out…a lot, but the world knows by now that I love blue.

The other versions were Blue/Pink and Green/Yellow, which I think both have their own little charms (I like the green one second best). The other two are still on sale for the same price, but for some reason the Blue/White one (the one I ordered) is back up to full price. Maybe because I bought one, they don’t need to have them for sale anymore because they’re not overstocked or…something? But the original one is on sale right now (for around $17.60) as part of another sale.

Still, not entirely sure if I would have paid around $18 for one. Don’t know why a few bucks makes a different to me, but it does.

Because there are quite a few flaws I see with the figure, but none of that makes me regret buying it. $13.50~ after all.

The main problem I would have would be with her face which is the only problems I ever seem to have. It just doesn’t look like Sumomo to me. The eyes just don’t really capture her moe-ness, which is understandable to some extent, but come on! Her face is kind of flat, so I’d mostly blame that…though even if her face had more shape, the eyes would still be…not round or whatever the problem with them is.

Though I will tell you it looks a lot worse in the photo. Close-ups suck. But you can tell from the other pictures how flat her face is, she looks awful from the side. Though after having her on my desk facing front for a while, I’ve gotten accustomed to her look now and she really is quite cute.

So the face would be my main complaint (though I now find her cute), but there’s other smaller issues. The rather common problems with paint are present (wanderings~ into other areas) and she kind of looks rather plain overall. No details at all really.

Her base is also huge. I have no idea why it’s so big, but it is. Sumomo also doesn’t fit into her base that securely. On the walk back into my house, her base fell right off and I had to carry it back separately. Kind of annoying. Then at my desk she leans forward and almost fall off her base after just a couple of hours. Very annoying. I’d complain about her coming off of her base in general, but one of the things I do love about her is her overall shape so I kind of like holding her. It’s just fun. Reminds me of the day when I had dolls.

Another thing I like is her hair, though it’s lacking in detail like the rest of her, I can at least say it doesn’t look bulky or something weird. Sumomo’s hair must be something that’s difficult to get right while still making it look cute and work as a figure.

Oh and like Rin she has a skirt that casts-off, a feature I will never use (yay?). It already so short that you can see up her skirt pretty easily from behind so the cast-off ability seems mildly reduntant to me, but I never understand cast-off anyway.

But unlike Rin she comes apart really easily to do it. It’s not a problem I guess because she still stands up right. But that reminds me of how easily she comes off the base, only time will tell if her slipping off of it so easily will be a problem for me. Right now she stays put though.

But overall, I like a lot (for the price I paid~). She’s 1/8 scale like Rin so I can put the two of them together without making it look odd. Though it still does a little because Sumomo is so loli-ish and so much shorter than Rin.

My favorite part is probably Yuki-chan looking so srs bsns like our protagonist turned mascot would. So very cute. Odd that I took no pictures of him by himself, but whatever. Maybe its the shipper in me!

The box is also my favorite box I’ve gotten for a figure yet. It’s so pink and…adorable. There’s really no need to talk about the box since no one buys a figure for the box, but…come on! It’s cute~! It’s like you can look at the box, then see Sumomo inside and go, “That’s not Sumomo!” though. Well, I guess this Sumomo has a more srs face you don’t really see on her (though I still say that makes her not look like Sumomo).

Well I already said I didn’t even really feel like paying $18 for this, but I think that’s me being overly dramatic. I wouldn’t advise anyone but a fan of Sumomo to get the figure (and to get it in a different color so you can get it for less) and even so you could regret getting it because the figure doesn’t quite do Sumomo justice. It’s a personal decision you have to make. If it’s worth putting up to you, I say it’s worth $13.50.

But if you want to try searching for one of the Good Smile ones instead be my guest. I don’t really care for how big Sumomo’s hair is in the school uniform version, but you’ll make me insanely jealous,if you manage to get the Stellar Spinner version. She looks so adorably beautiful in that version. And she’s so elusive that I can’t even find an image of her on the site! (I think it came with a limited edition version of the PS2 game)

Though this whole thing has really made me want to go back and watch the series. At least the cutest episodes. I’ll be skipping the episodes with the classmates, thank you very much. So I guess the figure did its job in some way. It got me excited~ And I’ll keep getting excited as long as she’s sitting next to me (on my left, if she’s on my right no light get to her at all and she looks awful).

Screw the plot, I want a Len holding a violin shot~ Yeah~

So yeah. It’s been a little over two months. How has everyone been? Did you forget about what happened in the first part? Yeah me too. Had to read my own post to refresh my memory and all I really got was a Len spam.

Not that I’m complaining, but of course after that spam my brain completely died and now I can’t remember anything.

Okay, I am kidding, but as a refresher, bascially last time there were three new bishies. One was a mean teacher who picked on Kaho, another was a mean random dude that picked on Kaho as well, and the last was a super nice blond bishie who…was perfect?

Um…something tells me I wasn’t moved away from Len much. *goes back to the Len images* No…no I wasn’t at all~

Now, for the record, I write this post as I’m watching the episode for the first time, so it’s…kind of insanity? Yeah. Kind of.

-

Summary

Kahoko is still feeling the emo drama from last time silently and despite this she tries to cheer up Kaji about his own violin emo drama, but fails and Len succeeds (lolololol).

Kaji shares what he learned with Kaho in front of the jerk bishie and Kaho plays again and everyone goes to see her. Then it’s decided that everyone (including Kaji and not Kaho) will play in the ensemble.

-

Thoughts

Well, I kind of want to say that this one isn’t as good as the last episode, though truthfully they’re about the same. It’s just last time there was more Corda nostalgia working for it, now it’s…just not an ending.

Though I am vastly amused by all of the people that expected a conclusive ending in this two episode special. Wow.

So starting right off where we left off…Kaho is unhappy. Aww…and everyone in the world wants to go, “Why so serious?”

No? Just me then? Okay…then “Why so serious?” Haha.

Kitties! (Shut up! I wanted to use my kitties tag!) Seriously though, the kitties felt random.

But who cares, because…Holy shit the kitty meowed!!! (…Shut up)

However, we will not be having a kitty eating picture, because the kitty sounded like a freakin’ slob.

NUUUUU! I want as much Len as I can get as often as I can get him!

…Though I did still totally think, “Haha~ That’s because Len’s too cool to hang out with you guys.” But I’m unhappy, I can’t do any other picture of bishies until I get my #1. #1 is #1 after all!

..Whoa. Looks like Kaho has like…dead eyes going there. Shouldn’t she be smiling when she’s playing the violin if she loves it so much? Tsk. Tsk. Much too serious for our lead girl.

Oh wait, I can show our megane-senpai bishie Ousaki-senpai because the power of megane can overpower all!

Bah, but it bothers me to no end that Kaji appears first, but I really have to mention him. His weak littly voice is really getting to me. I like my Mamoru-san to be voicing real guys! At least I like it better when he’s not being depressed though. My depressed bishies need to suffer more and keep their mouth shut and go, “tch” and stuff like good smexy bishies. *disturbed*

It really is bothersome that he’s given all the screentime, but it can’t be helped since he’s new and the special can be appreciated by all the fans in Japan that played the game with him. But still~ We other fans want to see our own favorite (Len~!), right?

srs Tsuchi-kun face may as well make it in if I gave Kaji a way in.

I’m just going to do twice as many for Len~ (Though how does one double everything you already have? XD )

Nuu! Now he’s even stealing time with Tsuchi-kun that should rightfull belong to Len! (Wut. I’m not a yaoi fan at all, where the Hell is this coming from!?)

And so Kaho falls in love with another boy’s instrument playing. Is she ever going to actually fall in love with a boy himself?

Also…it was only a second or two, but YEAH! I missed my corny split screen moments!

Bah. So basically, he’s just got some inferiority thing going. In that case maybe he’d fit well with Kaho. Well of course not, people that get mopey specifically need someone who isn’t mopey to smack them into shape!

Also…I was holding back this remark: Well duh you’re not as good as Ousaki-senpai, he’s my #2 bishie and you’re pretty far down in the rankings dude. But yeah, there’s also the “well Ousaki-senpai is older” excuse until…

Of course! Len makes everyone feel bad about themselves. XD

Also…OH MY GOD FINALLY! Now give me a shot of teenage Len so I don’t feel like a creepy pedo girl. I can’t properly fangirl until then!

THERE WE GO! Oh wait. I can’t see his full face.

… *throws an eternal fangirl fit* Almost 12 minutes in, I expect to have at least one incredibly awesome picture of Len, now hurry up and gimme!

Oh well, I’ll just take the episode up until now as the opening act for Len’s drawn out entrance. Yeah, that sounds about right.

AH! THAT’S BETTER!

Sheesh, that took forever. Tch, and it looks like I even have Kaji to thank for finally getting me that shot. (No I don’t he was hogging up all the screentime anyway! >_<

Fuyu’s likes getting all the expressions, because that’s what Fuyu likes~ (What is it about Corda that turns me into such a typical fangirl I wonder~) Too bad one got deleted and I don’t have the energy to go get it. You’ll all just have to suffer~

Dude. Stalker. Peeping in a window. And imagine my surprise that Len was so civil and nice about it~ Makes me a happy fangirl I guess~ (Maybe he’s used to people peeking in the window because of Kaho )

Vaguely grumpy srs face is <3 on Len~

Oi! Are those words coming out of my Len’s mouth!? …Ehe~ I kind of like that~ Nice speech-giving Len is fine too~

And more “ehe~”s. Saying that stuff about Kaho~ Ehehehe~

Len x Kaho shot because~ Fuyu’s still got some shipper fangirl in her as well as the crazy bishie on working today. (Oh wait, except I’d show this picture anyone because of Len…oh well, just…just go with it!)

I believe Len supporters are the biggest faction in the Corda fandom, but even that power only gets us one shot in the whole two episodes of the special, eh? Sucks~ I like being a 70% extreme majority better.

But of course the thing that Len says to get Kaji out of his funk, it says without even knowing. That’s my Len of course~ Ehe~ *pokepoke*

Who cares how I feel about Kaji as a character and the super rush development that has to take place in two episodes? I got a Mamoru Miyano song in the background of this scene. What else could a girl possibly want?

Though it’s have a bad effect…makes me want to watch the Skip Beat! game’s opening video and that won’t be good for me.

But things are all nice and jerk bishie comes along to ruin the day. So…I want a bishie fight! Someone punch someone in the face and ruin the others good looks forever! It shall amuse me.

(Jerk bishie is still a hawt bishie though~ It’s even cute how he gets “huh?” about Kaji’s VIOLIN LOVE speech~)

Ouch~ I love it~ *freakin’ disturbed, okay!?*

Aww…Kaho just learned the same lesson she’s learned a dozen times. But who cares, it’s one of those super detailed shots, so she looks pretty~

Now, back on track to guys as it should be! Look at Len~ Sitting like that~ Doesn’t he look good? Of course he does. Because he’s Len. That’s right~ Ohoho~ (I just get stupider and stupider as this thing moves along… )

Shot from the preview from the last episode~ (Plus a bonus pre-shot~)

Aww, isn’t it nice how everyone goes to see Kaho playing? Especially double up on Len, looking all good like that~ XD

And a full bishie shot, isn’t that nice? *slowly losing interest, wants to be stupid about Len some more*

Oh yeah~ Now that is a full bishie shot. We can ignore the cute but unnecessary girl (Fuyumi-chan~) for the bishieness. She’s shoved way in the back anyway.

…Now I feel a little jealous of Kaho… Who wouldn’t want all those guys smiling at you? Heart-attacks would be well on the way~

…I felt like someone might now be treated grumpily because Len doesn’t mean to compliment anyone to their face. Because he’s cute like that sometimes~ Ahaha~ Though he wouldn’t be so obviously stubborn, but still~

Epic shock scenes like this are what happen when you got a GIGANTIC reverse harem.

Len’s face changed the…third least I think (because Azuma and Keiichi don’t have emotions…in their different ways ) but it still changed, so I’m one happy fangirl.

I actually loved the animation with the performance on Corda for once~ It wasn’t boring at all. In fact it moved so fast that I missed a screencap of Len (which were the only ones I took ). *gasp* How awful!

I am angry! Look at that emoticon! That’s angriness! Rawr~

And so apparently the deal with the jerk bishie is that he’ll be entering the school.

So…thirdo passo or whatever it would be called now please?

“Now, let’s go to my stage!“

No, let’s not. lol. Because apparently you don’t go, because this is where the episode stops.

Seriously, that’s it. No more Corda. So sad, isn’t it? Until they make a third game or something and animate that as well. Who knows, maybe you can be optimistic and hope that the special was a test run!

…Well whatever. I’m going to go read the manga where I can hopefully get an ending…someday. Apparently the manga is still going with no end in sight from my view. Though that’s actually fine by me~ More bishie time.

What the heck CLAMP! This is even better than the last chapter! 16 more incredibly satisfying pages. And part of me totally didn’t even expect to get this! And then you deliver it in a way that’s ten times more awesome than I could have imagined and…gah! I love this!

I…I can’t even say anything that’s not a spoiler. I’m just trying to take up space so it doesn’t pop up in readers and so that there’s some stuff before the cut, but…oh come on! Let’s move on already shall we? Beware of the extreme reaction right away that I had at the end of the chapter.

I told you it was extreme.

I fully expect to be bonked on the head by numerous people for finally going over the edge. I’ve been holding back something that big for a while, but…but! Oh! This is just too much! I got CCS flashbacks and…oh god!

*flails around for a few hours or so*

…I’m totally doing it again guys. I don’t care what people think of me.

GAH! OKAY STOP!

Whew. That was close. I almost hit an endless loop. Though I think I’m being a wuss, that was only three times as many as before (then again it about covered a whole page on my monitor~).

From this point on I will try to be coherent and um…stuff. *braindead from…what happens~* Seriously, I used all of my positive and fangirling tags plus I created at least one more. Also every page will be given the proper attention because every page is awesome in its own awesome way.

Though first, we must take a sad break from the fangirling. For our wonderful Yuuko who made all of this possible. Watching over all of the kids until they could get their proper happy ending and just…making all of us so happy because of it in the process.

Yuuko~ I love you~ I hope that we’ll get to see you again someday, somehow. It’s CLAMP, so it’s possible. Even if it’s just a shadowy appearance with a vague mention in another series, I really hope we’ll see you again.

Now she deserves at least one line of ’s I’m sure, but after my fangirling up there it feels like it’s not quite sincere, but you guys should know how sad this is. I was kind of holding it off until last week, but just because it’s what has to happen and it’s what probably should happen in the story (unless more CLAMP miracles exist) it doesn’t mean that it would make me happy. TT____TT

Maybe with her and Clow both gone there can be some sort of happy ending there too…I don’t know, but I hope that after all of these miracles, CLAMP won’t let us down.

“Those children’s dream…is only beginning… I wish the greatest of fortune… upon them all.”

Right at the end, thinking of others Yuuko. T_T

*sigh~* But I really have to do my best to get back into fangirl mode. At least by the end of the chapter it should be easy.

Oh! Sakura really looks great in a uniform (abrupt mood change is easy when it comes to Sakura apparently~). Yes, yes, Princess Sakura is all well and good, but every Sakura really should have some sort of school uniform. Even if she’s forced to cross dimensions to find it! Or something like that~

Gawd…I really want to glomp her too~ I’m feeling so jealous~

Obviously Edited for Convenience

And oh my god! The Magic Knight Rayearth girls! They were taking so long to appear. We got their gods back in the first world (Hanshin Republic) and then other characters (including one just from the anime) appeared throughout. Then finally we get the main cast of girls…as Sakura’s friends~

It’s a suitable role for them I think. They deserved something that stood out a bit more. Somehow I bet that their appearance was kind of being saved for something important like this…maybe even this exactly. Scary to think that all of this was planned out exactly and we had no idea.

Anyway, I love how each of them still seems to be themselves, though I bet they’re just a bit older. Hikaru especially had me smiling (though I am filled with sadness that her braid seems to be shorter).

“This is your first time in Hong Kong, right?” Right~ Sakura~

Intense fangirl screaming tons of fangirl screaming. You totally knew what was happening as soon as you saw Sakura in a uniform, but you know you got that much more excited when you saw “Hong Kong”. Because…because! Come on, this is so great and I won’t be spelling it out for anyone that didn’t read or watch CCS. Go read it now before I revoke all of your anime fan priveleges!

Another little break for some Magic Knight Rayearth love. It really is nostalgic to see all of the girls acting like themselves. Umi and Hikaru especially and Fuu is still the calm, mature character. I love it~

It’s too bad that the girls are all so into their roles that Sakura doesn’t totally fit with them, the chapters too short I think. But it’s still nice to see Sakura smiling with them. It’s all of the CLAMP magical girls together, you know!

“It isn’t just Hong Kong. I’d like to visit all sorts of places.”

All that dimension traveling wasn’t enough for you Missy? *fake sternness* No, it’s totally okay, because I love the stuff that’s coming up next. I just have to be all tsundere and pretend like this chapter doesn’t have me going at every little thing.

“There’s someone I want to meet.”

There! There it is! And with that expression. So mature and still with all of the cuteness of your age and…there’s totally romantic stuff in here too and…oh god! I love this!  *tries to hold off from more screaming*

I don’t know how CLAMP does it, but they come up with some of the best romantic scenarios and such without them coming across as mushy and corny. There could be a thousand other series with this sort of line or scenario and not a single one I may have encoutered does it right. (Usually with the most basic thing being missing: proper couple development so I actually care about them meeting again)

“…Sakura-chan’s kind of grown up, isn’t she?”

And there’s more Umi teasing which I would certainly love, but my first reaction was, of course, “Well yeah, she’s like twice as old as you girls.” Well, kind of…I guess there’s her time before being a clone and stuff too, but that doesn’t really matter. Let’s ignore it.

“Those eyes…it’s like she’s always searching for something.”

She’s searching for her most important person.

I love the look in Sakura’s eyes. Another thing that I quite don’t understand quite how CLAMP does it. Sakura looks a little sad, but patient and content at the same time. Because she knows that she’ll find Syaoran again someday, but until she sees him again, she’ll miss him. Of course, she still has that Sakura-bran positive outlook and optimism so she won’t let herself feel down and will just keep going to different places and searching until she meets Syaoran again. And…it’s just way too great. I love Hitsuzen and stuff. It’s good stuff.

So~ Sakura also goes to places where there’s sakura trees. I wonder if she had a dream~

If she did, it’ll come true now, right? (so corny, but I love it~)

New life, new story, new…everything! Starting right now, right? Right? :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0

And for a little bit I’ll be silent, because if I don’t I’ll ruin it! This awesomeness reunion speaks for itself!

Okay, I do have to say just one thing, because, because~ They’re expressions again are just way too great. Sakura after searching so long is so surprised and then so unbelievably happy that it looks like she just can’t believe it. And Syaoran with having Sakura appear right in front of him gets surprised and then smiles and…how long have they been living waiting for this moment?

It’s just too beautiful and wonderful and it made me fall in love with this couple again (as well as CLAMP~).

>_< There’s absolutely nothing you can really say, you know? So I’ll just me my immature self and say, “Stop standing and looking at each other (though savoring the moment is good). You’re Sakura and Syaoran! You know what to do!”

“I’ve finally found you…”

YES!!!! THIS!THIS!THIS!THIS!THIS!THIS!THIS!THIS!THIS!THIS!

*streaming tears of joy and other incredibly insane reactions*

–Wait! Stop right there and try to be coherent.

Well, I didn’t really cry (I never do for manga), but this scene had me shaking like mad at my computer and I couldn’t think straight for so long. All that went through my head was the world’s longest “kyaaa!” because that’s still going on.

Because as any good fan knows, this is something that Sakura x Syaoran fans wanted from the beggining. Not quite sure how exactly it would work out, but there had to be a reunion with a hug. Some stupid idiots transferred that to the other Syaoran and the other Sakura, which is actually fine that I think about it. More hugs…though it won’t be as epicly wonderful as this one. That’s impossible after all of the time they spent apart and…ah~!

Ah! Look at how Sakura just ran right into his arms! It’s beautiful! (lol, and now let’s think of Sakura’s conveniently forgotten knight friends and where they are during this )

I really have to stop, asking me to talk coherently about this scene is just impossible. Just…well you know~ Anyone who was still feeling the “meh”ness has to say that they’re totally Sakura and Syaoran, even if they’re not exactly the same. With Syaoran’s calm smile and Sakura running into his arms so happily, this is…kyaaa~! I love it. *has to rush off to read all of CCS A.S.A.P.!!!*

But first I wonder if I can be a little greedy and wonder if CLAMP is just going to leave things here. They could answer are questions about these two being the parents (which now seems like 99.999% likely if they’re going to be living in Hong Kong with those clothes like the parents) and some other stuff (like with Touya and Yukito both being called blood relatives) by continuing a few more chapters from this point.

…Okay so I want a wedding and I want more fluff and I want to see them being parents outside of a crisis situation and stuff. Please~ PleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePlease~

GOD I am so glad I decided to blog this separately, can you imagine waiting a whole week for this to come out!? I already couldn’t put this at the end of my scheduling so all the other posts that have been building up and waiting each got pushed back a day. This is going to be my favoritest moment for shipping this entire year. No! Shhh! It’s Sakura and Syaoran hugging after a long time apart! It is impossible to beat.

Now then, I guess I’ll just sit here and wait for the next chapter to see if the CLAMP women to decide to kill me after all with some more fluff. *sets up a comfy chair and pulls out CCS manga for the wait* (Then it’s some TRC to relive the past fluffy moments to make this moment so much more special~)

Yeah, I seriously neglected Weekly Extra this week. All I have is Manga, AMV of the Week, a small Looking Ahead section, and not much else. Anything else is just boring stuff that’s explaining what’s going on. Booo~ This sucks~ I don’t even have many images.

Of course, every Weekly Extra can’t be great. Sometimes I have so much info in these posts that I could just separate all of the categories into posts of their own and I’d have one of the most active blogs around! Just without a lot of substance.

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Manga

So~ I got impatient. I accidentally stumbled upon some raws for some quite distant future chapters of Sora no Manimani and…I totally scanned through them (I can’t say read since I…can’t read it). Started at chapter 39 and ended up at 43. One thing I have to say for sure is that Sora no Manimani has to be one of the hardest series to try to understand raw. The art style is so simple and the hairstyles are all so restrained and normal that it’s hard to tell everyone apart, especially with almost no screentones.

New characters seemed to have shown up so that made it even harder to follow. But it’s hard to tell if there’s been any extreme development, but…I did take note of every possible Mihoshi x Saku moment. It’s the shipper in me…though this time I really jumped on this pairing, didn’t I?  Right in the PV…lol. Love at first tackle I suppose~

Oh and here are the moments I took note of:

Ch 39 – show

Ch 40 – show

Ch 41 – show

Ch 42 – show

Ch 43 – show

Ch 44 – show

Overall, I’m so happy looking at later chapters. It seems to be the same level of fun and overall happiness so I love it. The shipping is just a bonus~ A bonus I happen to love, but a bonus nonetheless. Oh and Mihoshi is so cute, I got to see a couple of different hairstyles and it made me so happy.

The only problem I see is that I feel like this series should last forever. It’s one of those things where things have to move slowly, so then when it would finally pick up for an ending it might feel weird because the tone changes a bit (not that I still won’t love it~) or you get a non-ending which would really stink. But either way, I love this series even more now and it’s been a while since I’ve had a long-term “fun” series, so I’m looking forward to loving it for a while.

…And now I’m impatient for scanlations. I’m such an idiot.

More chapters for other manga came out that I should be interested (like Faster than a Kiss) but somehow I haven’t gotten around to reading anything. God I’m lazy this week.

-

AMV of the Week

Sakura Kiss by NekoxChan11

Link for the Disabled Video~

You know for once I don’t really want to say anything except that you really have to watch it. There’s on part in there that I absolutely love that I can’t even hint at because it will ruin it if you read this before you see it. But if you see it you’ll probably know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, since talking too much about this video makes me feel like I’m ruining it I’ll just say that I usually don’t like anime songs used in AMVs but this is an incredibly wonderful exception. A video for all of the pairings that the fandom has officially decided are canon by just how popular they are among the majority. Other pairings don’t stand a chance if they interfere with these ones. For once I love the fandom that pairs everyone up because they all just fit.

Oh god and how I love multi-couple videos from the POV of Amu, Utau, and Rima. It just makes it so much better somehow, even when it gets a little OOC (that’s what makes overactive shipping fun!). Especially when they alternate so nicely between all of the pairings and everyone get equal screentime. Ah~ I love it~

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Looking Ahead

Fall 2009 is going to be my favorite season ever~ The second season of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu will be airing in Fall. Now add that onto Kobato. and Kimi ni Todoke (which I don’t talk about, but am excited for), plus all of the possibilities and it’s shaping up to be an exciting season.

I mean we have Little Busters! which KyoAni is holding back from us and with all of the info on Angel Beats! coming out a Fall release seems likely. If I got both of those I’d have 5 anime I’d be totally psyched for. The most I’ve had has been…three? Yeah probably three.

Then you add on the next season of Shana coming up (though I don’t think it would be Fall, but maybe?) and that’s another show I enjoy well enough.

The point is, I could totally deal with no more Shugo Chara! if I got even half of this awesomeness. Oh wait and I will. Definitely. Awesome.

Right now I need to finish those last episodes of Haruka though. I’m planning to finish either tomorrow (the 9th) or the 10th when I’m stuck in bed because of getting my wisdom teeth out and will want something to cheer me up. But yeah, I’m totally blogging it again in Fall. I also want to blog Kobato. and if a Key show airs…damn I’ll be in trouble. Good trouble though~

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Fuyu’s Stuff

Right now I just want to say that this section is probably going to get suspended while I work on my current project. It’s a manga coloring that I hope to include in my next set of banners. So I don’t want anyone to see it until then.

I’m still making progress with my other stuff though! Slowly, but there’s progress (except not much with the TRC MMV actually). I have a Komaki x Kusame video for SDC that…is kind of hard, but I’m sure will turn out well. Then I’m also going to be spending a lot of time on my Mistress Fortune MMV now that I found a good song. Just one that’s kind of hard to edit with, but it’s perfect for Kisa-chan and Gin-kun.

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Blog-Related

I got a new sets of banners up this week. I forgot to mention it in the post I think, but I’ve really never been so happy with a set or even a single banner before. They all turned out better than what I was aiming for when I started…which was really nothing. I kind of just made it up as I went along. Anyway, this set will probably stick around until the Summer shows. If I add any banners, I’ll be sure to mention them here as well.

Also, I’m feeling the overload when a bunch of stuff comes out at once. I’m going to start working on my Corda post once this is up and hopefully have that scheduled for Tuesday. Then I got a package today (Monday) so I’ll be geting a post up on what I got as soon as I can as well. If you add in that I’m planning on finishing Haruka I may have a post for Tues, Wed, and Thurs. Busy, busy week.

EDIT: Okay, so Ch 222 of TRC came out and I’m like…dead because of it, so I’m moving everything back a day because everything needs attention, but TRC needs it first! So, TRC for Tuesday (oh gawd, it killed me), Corda for Wednesday, and my merchandise post on Thursday.

Summer Anime (2009)

Updates

• Added Airdates for Umi Monogatari (06/29) and Taisho Yakyuu Musume (07/02)
• Episode Counts for Umi Monogatari (12) and CANAAN (13)
• New PV for Umi Monogatari

So Umi Monogatari will be the first anime of the season. That may be troublesome since I’m considering making it an anime I do episodic blogging for, but since it’s main “rival” Taisho Yakyuu Musume airs not long after I should be able to make a decision. No surprises in episode counts either. It’s Summer so everything will be between 10-14 episodes, mostly sticking around 12 & 13.

But god…lots of Umi Monogatari updates, aren’t there?

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Random Thoughts

Shugo Chara Egg! & Guardians 4 – I forgot to mention this last week, too distracted by cute girls, but I’m kind of ticked. On the single there was a Shugo Chara Egg version of the song and while I like Guardians 4 better (original is usually best) it was still good. Darn cute in fact. The girls sound younger and I’m sure they are, but they’re cute. Now I’m kind of ticked that they never got the chance to do something with a cute song that didn’t sound awful.

Well I guess now they do, but still. It’s such a shame because when an awful song isn’t in the way, I can appreciate how cute some of them sound. One of them kind of reminded me of an older Ushio from Clannad or something. Hard to explain, but it was cute. And it really is too bad.

Dammit Magazine Stores! – I can’t find the July issue of Megami from anyplace I trust. Not on J-List and Sasuga seems to have removed single issue magazines from their listings and I’d sure as Hell like to know why. Like I’d buy a subscription for Megami when I rarely find anything I want. If anyone can help me with this, I’d be grateful. I plan on sending an e-mail to Sasuga once I think I can do it without being like, “WTF!?” I just hope that this time I get a reply from someone who speaks English as a first language. My last e-mail from them was rather hard to read. If their site is in English they should be able to correspond in proper English as well.

Cut it Out with Twilight trailer Parodies – I am serious. I’ve seen two for VK and SC! since the stupid trailer for that new one came out and it’s bothering me to no end. Like I said, I won’t judge the books that I haven’t read really, but I will judge the trailers and how the characters are depicted in them. Amu does not have a deep voice and seeing her lip-sync that freaks me out and Ikuto has a personality. Cut it out. At least keep it to VK with Kaname being the emotionless since it suits him.

Ugh…I really don’t mean to be unfair, but with the way Twilight is always invading my anime fandom, I’m really growing to dislike the series without ever reading it. My conclusion being the same as always: fans ruin everything.

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And that’s it. It’s pathetic this week, isn’t it? Don’t say it’s not to cheer me up, because I’m not bothered by it. It’s just what I think of it.

Anyway, just in case anyone didn’t bother to read “blog-related” I have two posts that should (hopefully) definitely be on the way in the next two days though I’m not quite sure of the order yet. My post on the second episode of La Corda D’oro~secondo passo~ and on the anime merchandise I got in the mail today. Plus I’ll finally be finishing Haruka soon, so there will be a post on that.

Look forward to it! I guess…