insaneneko

Good things happened last week:

1. My deadline is over! Still lots of work, but the big horrible soul-sucking deadline has passed.
2. The order I’d given up for dead showed up! It turns out I’d accidentally selected surface mail instead of air mail, thus it took forever to get here. Will get into the contents later, but seeing it appear was a very joyous moment.
3. The Natsume Yuujinchou OVA arrived! More Natsume! So pretty! The story was just ok (tho the extra story with Nyanko-sensei and the little kids was pretty funny), but I was so happy to see anything new (in such good quality) I'm not too unhappy. Of course, now I want *more*…New TV season, please.
4. I watched the lantern scene in Tangled in 3D at home and was actually pretty impressed. I own a TV and Blu-ray player that happen to do 3D (I bought them for other things and the 3D was completely superfluous to me) and finally unpacked the glasses to try it out after watching the entire movie in 2D. Naturally not as impressive as in the theatre (I want a bigger screen!) but still quite lovely.

Quick comments on the manga:

Super Lovers 6...I still don’t get Haru or Ren and because of that I just wish they’d get it on. I like it when there's more brotherly fun and affection but the angst and confusion between them seem quite silly to me.

Ikasama Memory 2…Wow, I knew that the entire volume wasn’t about the main couple, but I didn’t expect their part to be less than half. The scene when they get together is so sweet, but…I wanted more! I didn’t dislike the second couple, but I am disappointed. There should’ve been another chapter, at least!

I laughed while reading: I Like Big Trucks And I Cannot Lie: Cars, Trucks, And The Lady Brain

So. Hakkenden. I've seen the latest (ep 4) and so far am enjoying it. It's very faithful to the manga. ( Specifically… )

In the end, though, I can't help but still feel anxious. Where is this anime heading? GAH.

Unrelatedly, what a sweet wedding article. The last paragraph is so lovely. ♥

Yesterday I got a small order from Japan that made me UBER HAPPY. My happiness was slightly diminished when I realized that Castle Mango volume 2 (the final volume!) was out and I hadn't ordered it. But back to the happy stuff...

Ameiro Paradox volume 2 (also final volume!) by Natsume Isaku: LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. Can I say love some more? It keeps the light, humorous touch of the first volume, just with couple-issues (rather than becoming-a-couple issues) as well as the work stuff. Onoe is adorably dorky and you can so see why Kaburagi can't help but be in love. SO CUTE. ( my favorite bits )

Super Lovers volume 5 by Abe Miyuki: Still kinda odd, but now that the twins are truly settled in their roles I feel more comfortable. I still can't get the hang of Haru and Ren's relationship and Haru in general just baffles me, but I can deal. Not *that* fond of the new character introduced in this volume and the developments that come from it. Haru being an overprotective mother hen and total dork never stops being amusing, though. And the commentary from the peanut gallery (everyone else, mostly the twins and the other workers at the cafe) are great.

Silver Diamond volume 25 by Sugiura Shiho: I had previously bought volume 26 but forgot to stick volume 25 into my shopping cart. (My chagrin when I got my box and realized I hadn't ordered 25 was huge. HUGE.) Oooh, man. I love this series so much, and I really want to get my hands on volume 27 (the end!) when it comes out later this month. How much better can it get? It's fantasy with great characters and great friendships, in an interesting world. In the end, though, I love this series because it has heart and the angst/bad-shit isn't overdone. The reveal re: the sanome was pretty awesomely nasty but not over the top, mainly because we see it through the eyes of someone who is uber-repressed at this point. I want to know how it all goes down!

I will have to do a mini-order consisting of SD 27 and Castle Mango 2 for later this month...

I bought the November issue of Ciel as part of my mega order just to get the next chapter of Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi. ( It initially felt like a let down... )

Looked at the Hakkenden chapter in Ciel and was very WTF??? There's too much of a gap between the last Tosuisha volume and this chapter for me to follow. I also learned that there are some reissued volumes with added material in them? Now I have to buy a whole new set of the manga!! I have no idea what to do with the 13 volumes I already own as I really don't have the shelf space to store lots of extras. *sighs* Can the yen get a little cheaper to help a poor fangirl out. ;_;

I also flipped through volume 6 of the manga. The only new thing was the Takano's case 1.5, which was adorable but TOO SHORT. I loved Takano thinking how he had to play it cool as he walked to his house with Ritsu. I didn't quite love the reference to shoe sizes...A bit TOO much of a coinkidink for my taste. I want more Takano's case, though! Love the dichotomy between his poker face and his really cute "first love" thoughts.

I'm home, I'm exhausted, I am embracing the sunny high 80s weather here after the cold rainy season of Japan. I would've been okay with rain and cold if I had been well, but...these things happen on trips, I suppose. ^^; Ate a lot of good food and did lots of sightseeing. Two places I highly recommend visiting: Kurashiki in Okayama Prefecture (Ride the river boat!!! Get to the tourist info office at 9 and reserve seats--they are only 300 yen/person. It helps to know Japanese since you get lots of good info from the river boatman, but I think just floating along down the canal is pretty awesome) and Adachi Art Museum in Shimane Prefecture. Adachi is super duper famous for its gardens (which are indeed breathtaking) but the art inside is pretty awesome as well. Lots of late 19th cen/early 20th cen Western influenced Japanese art. Also, Shimane really wants foreigners to visit so you can get discounts into a lot of places if you show your passport. Adachi was half-price! I also enjoyed the prefectural museum right near Izumo Taisha. They have the corniest video explaining the myths regarding Daikokusama/Ookuninushisama (same kanji, different readings, the curse of Japanese!~!), the god enshrined at Izumo Taisha. Instead of doing the logical thing and making an anime, they did a really cheesy mash-up of live action and really REALLY bad sfx (the scene when Daikokusama gets run over by a molten boulder and is burned to a crisp is pretty tacky). It was helpful until all the names got to me and everything became a blur.

I couldn't find a single copy of Ao no exorcist volume 6 in all the bookstores I looked in. Of course, I didn't have a chance to look in many....But it was kind of amazing to not find it anywhere. It was even not in stock on Amazon!!

(BTW, Amazon Japan will ship for free in Japan for any price and if it's in stock it'll almost always be delivered in two days! I'm so jealous since I always have to give two weeks for free delivery from Amazon US to get here. ;_;)

I was very surprised to find out there's yaoi doujinshi for Summer Wars....It even merited it's own section in K-Books! I never even dreamed of slashing that movie...Am I losing my fujoshi lenses?

I bought the May issue of Ciel just to read Super Lovers chapter 10 in Japanese. I had to laugh at just how badly Ren's essay writing skills in Japanese were. I also enjoyed reading the chapter of Junjou Romantica in the same issue. That Za-Men mangaka makes me laugh and icks me out at the same time. Also, Usami jealous makes me smile every time. I wish I'd been able to buy the next issue that has the new Hakkenden chapter in it...I've missed that series so much.

I had no idea that there were FOUR volumes of Yume musubi koi musubi. I so couldn't get into the series...I hope her next series is more to my taste, especially since I've liked everything else she's done.

Wow. I idly checked on Abe Miyuki's current status and found out that a very old manga of hers, Kimi wa boku wo suki ni naru, is being reissued under Ciel (Volume 1 is out already, apparently the entire series will come out in three volumes)! According to one review Hakkenden will also come out under Ciel??? I have no idea if this is true. I just want new Hakkenden! I am still completely baffled by Super Lovers and want my supernatural gorgeous guy harem back! >_< Though, I have to agree with this blog post in that if the series is coming out under a BL label could they actually turn the damned thing into full-on BL? I also would love to see a continuation of Komatta Toki ni wa Hoshi ni Kike that is also out-and-out BL, if we're throwing out wishes. :P But going back to Kimi wa boku wo suki ni naru, I feel sorry for anyone who started reading Abe-sensei from her recent works because the cover is her new art but the inside is her very old art. Some of the reviews on amazon were quite put out! I own the original series so I don't have a reason to buy the rereleases...Unless the review that mentioned an extra book for those who buy the releases are correct. I'd like to see the characters from KimiBoku drawn in her new art!

It's been interesting reading the reactions to HarperCollins new ebook for libraries policy (One link round-up here. I liked the discussion at Smart Bitches in particular). These kinds of things are why I haven't jumped on the ebook bandwagon yet.

I am not much of a perfume-wearer, but I am tempted by the Jo Malone tea fragrance blends. You can smell like Assam (& Grapefruit) or Earl Grey (& Cucumber) or (Fresh) Mint, and layer (Sweet) Milk or (Sweet) Lemon over either. Most reviews are pretty positive (such as this one). I'm going to have to check these out.

Loving the pretty shelving in best of book storage at interior design blog Design*Sponge.

I finally saw the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice and liked it! It didn't have horrible changes like the Persuasion movies and the additions made me laugh. WTF is up with Darcy taking a dip before meeting up with Elizabeth?!? Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennett were amazingly well acted. Seriously, though, what really made me enjoy watching the series was just how lovely Jane and Elizabeth's relationship seemed on screen. I did catch a tiny bit of the recent Keira Knightly movie and was repulsed from what little I saw. She's waaay too unsure of herself and the scene where she gets the letter from Jane re: Lydia and Wykam was greatly altered. I already didn't think Keira Knightly made a good Elizabeth, but seeing just a little bit of her in action did not make me want to see the entire movie.

Speaking of movie adaptations, I think I want to see the upcoming Jane Eyre movie despite the fact that I dislike the book. The trailer just made me want to watch it, even though Mr. Rochester totally doesn't match my mental image of him at all.

I've been in a bit of a blah fandom/BL-wise. No fandom loves, no good BL novels, no good manga. I have been craving more "Hakkenden" by Abe Miyuki, and just explained to friends over dinner how baffling I find "Super Lovers," the series (I assume) she's abandoned "Hakkenden" for recently. I haven't started rereading the Fujimi Symphony novels yet, either. I was kinda disturbed by the idea of Founding Fathers slash potential.

I've been working and trying to figure out how to eat mostly non-meat meals. It's amazing to discover how much meat played the central role in meal planning now that I'm trying to do something different. Been borrowing scary numbers of cookbooks from the library...It reminds me of how I used to borrow so many I'd lose track of them and end up paying tons of overdue (or lost!) fines. :P

Thanks to modorenai for pointing out a post with the first chapter at komahoshi. Damn irritating way to read the chapter (each image took forever to load and can't be saved...), but at least I got to see it. It's about a high school first year named Haru visiting his biological mother in the wilds of Alberta, Canada. His mother has taken in a mysterious kid found laying on a road without his memory and speaking Japanese named Ren. Ren runs around with the dogs. Haru, who is by nature very nurturing, takes care of Ren. Slowly Ren comes around, even though he's very afraid of nice people and Haru is the nicest person he's met so far. Haru finds Ren adorable and promises to have him come to Japan and live with him when he moves out of his house after graduating high school. At the end of the summer Haru returns to Japan and is met by his father and stepmother. The chapter ends with them in a car accident.

The story and the characters felt kinda disjointed. I couldn't get a good feeling for the characters, but then Abe Miyuki tends to be wishy washy in the beginning of her series, IMO. Is this going to be BL? Because Haru is about 15 and Ren is 8 when they first meet. I certainly hope the first chapter is a "how they meet" thing and the story will jump forward to when Ren is no longer a little kid if they are meant to be romantically involved. Otherwise I will be squicked. :P I really wonder what will happen in chapter 2 since the ending of chapter 1 was very ominous. I'm assuming the parents are dead, so what happens to Haru and his two younger brothers? Also, I'd think Ren will hold Haru to his promise and will come to Japan in two years...Or maybe not. I really don't get what kind of story this will be. Happy family manga? Angsty painful manga? Mix of both? *scratches head*

One really irritating detail: At one point Haru has a fever. The thermometer reads in Fahrenheit, but Canada uses Celcius ,right?

I reread Komatta toki ni wa hoshi ni kike! by Abe Miyuki the other day, 25 volumes of it. I couldn't find volume 19. :P Wow, the art in the beginning is so different. It was hard to read, it was so bad compared to her art now. ^^; After several volumes I got into the story and enjoyed it, until I hit the kid who adored Kiyomine from intermediate school enters the picture and makes so much trouble. I wanted to strangle that kid. He should've been kicked out of school, frankly. I'd forgotten just how much of the series features him very prominently! I started skimming after a while, I got so irritated.

The everyone goes to Africa when Kou-san disappears thing was really excessive and pointless. I wish Abe-sensei just stuck with Ayako (her reunion with Kou-san was so understated and sweet!), Kiyomine, and Takara. The last volume was so, so gay. Are Kiyomine and Takara (and Reiichi and Okuno, and Asou and Kuzumi) together? It's so ambiguous yet...so gay. I don't *need* any of these people to be gay (frankly, Reiichi being gay with Okuno would pose some problems...Though I suppose he could have his brother produce the next generation if need be...), but at the same time it was frustrating.

I also reread Aiteiru door kara shitsureishimasu (Into your heart through the door) by Yamada Yugi. I loved the extra story they stuck in the Libre reprint! It pleases me to see a couple I find totally adorable having a raburabu daily life. Also, Shunji's silent scaring off of the other guy and Shouichi's total obliviousness is just pure joy. XDXD