| Hetalia Figurines! |
[May. 8th, 2009|11:03 pm] |
Whee! My Hetalia figurines arrived today, and it turns out that I managed to get all 9 types (8 normal + 1 special)!
( Cut cut cut! )
(This post has reminded me that I have yet to post my Suikoden Tierkreis Special Edition entry. Now THAT is one limited edition that was really worth it. But more on that next time.) |
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| Psyren |
[May. 4th, 2009|11:30 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | manga, psyren | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  Fangirly | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Grateful Wolrd by Butoukan | ] |
Psyren was a new shounen series that I picked up a while ago and totally fell in love with, but had to take a break from since I read up to the latest released chapter at the time and had no more to read. The short break stretched on till I realised recently that I had about 28 or so new chapters to read, which I pretty much all marathoned yesterday. (Not too difficult since each chapter is about 20 pages or less.) AND OH MY GOD THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT WAS TOTALLY UNEXPECTED AND I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE IIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. *dies*
But since my fangirl burblings will be full of spoilers, let me first provide a quick link to wiki for those who have no idea what Psyren is (I cheat because I suck at summarising), and a list of reasons why I love this series so that hopefully I can get people interested in checking this series out. :D
( Reasons why I love Psyren. )
( And now onto the spoilers! ) |
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| Tales of the Abyss Special Fon Disc 1 |
[Apr. 27th, 2009|11:46 pm] |
As testimony to how Tales of the Abyss has completely sucked away my soul and literally cast it into the abyss (haha) of otakudom, I've decided to buy the Japanese dvds (which are ridiculously EXORBITANT), partly because now that I'm earning my own money I want to do my part to support the industry, but uh, mainly because the first press Abyss DVDs come with special drama cds. :p
But yes, despite the extortionate price of the dvds, I think the purchase (have only bought the first one so far and just ordered volumes 2 and 3) has been really worth it because the first drama cd, called the "Special Fon Disc 1", has been absolutely HYSTERICAL. I've decided to do a summary of it for those people who can't understand Japanese since it's too priceless to NOT share.
But I can't emphasis how much this summary doesn't do the drama cd justice. You absolutely MUST listen to it if you're a fan, because there's no way I can describe all the nuances and details of the voice acting. Things like Luke yelping like a poor scolded puppy or snapping and going crazy yelling, or Jade sort of singing and saying really stupid "act cute" things, or Tear speaking in a super genki voice... all the awesomeness just can't be put into words.
And so, I've decided to share. Feel free to download away! :D (Note that it's in wma format though.)
One thing to note is that the drama on the Special Fon Disc 1 isn't really like the other Abyss drama cds, but is actually made to sound like some of the Abyss characters are hosting a radio show. When I first heard about it, I thought it was going to be the real life seiyuu hosting it and occassionally slipping into character, but it turned out to be a totally scripted episode with the characters. I think I actually like it this way better, since the second track is the free talk by the seiyuu anyway. (Which I'm sorry to say I didn't manage to summarise because my ability to understand "real" Japanese sucks. ^_^;;)
( On to the summary... may possibly lapse into utter fangirlyness and (n)utter incoherence. :p ) |
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| Tales of Graces |
[Apr. 12th, 2009|09:03 pm] |
... Is it me or is the main character (grown up version) voiced by Sakurai Takahiro? *squeals*
(I hope I'm not wrong! And yes, a proper entry sometime soon, I promise!) |
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| More shoujo anime! :D |
[Mar. 12th, 2009|10:52 pm] |
(This para added after finishing the entry: Seriously, I really don't know how I do it. Everytime I think I'm starting an entry that will be just a paragraph or two, three at the most, it ends up ballooning into a gigantic monstrosity that never ends. *sigh*)
Oh wow! I was checking out the list of upcoming Spring 2009 anime, and I was completely bowled over to find out that Hanasakeru Seishounen is being made into an anime! Considering how it's pretty old, I'm surprised that they're reviving it! Seems like there's been quite an interest in turning old shoujo manga into shows lately, because a drama that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) risakochan introduced to me recently, Yuukan Club, was also based on an old shoujo manga.
Anyway, I sort-of-but-not-really rambled about the Hanasakeru manga awhile back. (Randomly, when I went to dig up that post, I found out the sample pic of the Hanasakeru manga I'd linked had been wrong all this while. O_O I've fixed it now but I can't believe it's taken me this long to realise).
I say sort-of because I've not actually read beyond the first volume of the manga. Itsuki Natsumi writes awesome stories (she's done Juuousei, Yakumo Tatsu, Oz and Demon Sacred, amongst others - all apparently very popular in Japan but not so much elsewhere since it's nigh impossible to find [English] info on her online.), but since they actually have PLOT, and often have fantasy/sci-fi elements, my Japanese is too poor to understand what's going on. So I'm really happy that they're turning Hanasakeru into an anime, since I can watch the anime to get an idea of what's going on and then FINALLY get around to reading the manga without my brain hurting too much. :p
( And now we come to the heavy stuff. ) |
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| I received a letter today that told me... |
[Feb. 26th, 2009|09:27 pm] |
I PASSED MY JLPT 3!
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*dances around the room in glee*
*spins*
*prances*
*twirls*
I was so worried that I might have failed after the test was over (since my grammar section was HORRENDOUS), but it turns out that I did really well! I actually managed to get 100 each for both the Vocabulary and Listening sections, but as expected my Grammar section was really terrible - only 139 out of 200. ^_^;; Shows I definitely have a LOT of boning up on grammar to do.
I know this sounds totally ego but I'm quite proud of myself since my score of 339/400 essentially means I managed to get an 84.75%! (Yes I used a calculator for that. :p) I think it's been YEARS since I got a score in the 80s. Ah, how I "pine" for those primary school days where getting a 97 out of 100 would be met by my parents' "Why didn't you get full marks?" *wry laugh*
( Cut for more language rambling ) |
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| \(≧∇≦)/ |
[Feb. 23rd, 2009|11:17 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | video games | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | boingboingboingboing | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Whatever the song for the last stage of Ouendan 2 is called | ] |
OMG! I FINALLY FINISHED THE FREAKING LAST STAGE OF OUENDAN 2 ON DOUMEKI KAI MODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHICH MEANS I'VE FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY MANAGED TO UNLOCK THE FEMALE CHEERLEADERS MODE!!!!!!!!!!
*bounces off the walls in excitement*
*bounce bounce bounce bounce*
*bounce bounce bounce*
*bounce bounce*
*bounce*
After god knows HOW many hours I've spent on this damn stage altogether (which had to be spaced out over the course of many days with long breaks in between or else I'd probably have hurled my Nintendo DS across the room in sheer frustration), it's FINALLY over and done with! Leaving me with TERRIBLY ache-y and sore arms yes, but nonetheless it's finally completed! *beams with unadulterated satisfaction*
... Though now this means that I have to play at least the first stage on the female cheerleader mode in order to unlock the rival cheer girls. Not to mention the prospect of clearing ALL the rest of the stages in said mode. *dies*
(Ouendan, wherefore art thou such a masochistic game. i_i) |
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| *dances* |
[Nov. 7th, 2008|10:29 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | afa, rl | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | Gleeful but also sleepy | ] |
Omg! I just won a free pair of tickets to AFA08! :D:D:D
I was planning to go with my friends anyway (and was considering cosplaying but I don't think I'll be able to finish my costume in time. :( ), but it's just so thrilling to think that I won something! I think it's been forever since I last won something - it might even be the first time I've won something on my own. (Partly due to the fact that I'm often too lazy to join these contests even though they're the really easy "just answer a question that has a really obvious answer" kind. :p)
And yes, I know I've been horrible with updating lately, but I've been busy, and since I started work this week I haven't really had time to even really think about blogging. Even though I don't ctually have much of anything to do at work (I think they're still trying to decide what to do with me), I'm just not used to having to wake up early and stay and look awake the whole day so I'm usually bushed by the time I come back home. Hopefully I'll get used to this soon! I have a whole backlog of entries I want to write. (But so what else is new? :p) |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 11th, 2008|12:56 pm] |
My review of the Tales of the Abyss anime was supposed to be lumped in with my opinions of the other anime series I've tried out, but since it kind of, uh, exploded (Me? Obsessed with Tales of the Abyss? What talking you? [<--- Couldn't resist that bit of Singlish. XD]), it has been given the honour of getting its very own entry. :D
Since I've already played through the game once, I'm going to try avoiding giving any spoilers since I want more people to watch this (looks in hyourinmaru's and sapphodil's direction especially) and I don't want to spoil things for them. But do note that a fair amount of babbling consists of comparisons with the game, which I'm currently replaying now. (Entirely coincidence, I assure you. *whistles innocently*) Also, be warned - lots of (very disjointed) fangirl squeeing ahead!
( Tales of the Abyss <3<3<3 ) |
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| *_* |
[Oct. 8th, 2008|09:56 pm] |
OMG I JUST FOUND OUT THAT SKIP BEAT IS GOING TO BE AIRED ON ARTS CENTRAL IN SINGAPORE ON THE VERY SAME WEEKS AS THE JAPANESE TELECAST! MY KEYBOARD HATH NOT ENOUGH CAPS FOR THIS PIECE OF GREAT NEWS.
To the Arts Central person who decides what anime gets aired, YOU HAVE MY ETERNAL GRATITUDE. (And lots of my love. <3<3<3)
*coughcoughsalthoughI'veactuallywatchedthefirstepisodeonyoutubealreadycoughcough*
p/s Am also currently checking out some of the new fall anime season series that I said I'd watch (Tales of the Abyss! <3<3<3), but will leave my fangirling to the next entry. |
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| Random seiyuu ramblings |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|07:19 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | seiyuu | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Life Goes On ~side K~ - Antique Bakery OP | ] |
I find I've been noticing more and more "new" seiyuu lately. I say "new" since these guys aren't actually new in the truest sense of the word, since most of them have been acting for quite a few years already, but more like that they aren't one of the mega-name staples of the industry: Eg. Midorikawa Hikaru, Ishida Akira, Miki Shinichiro etc.
( Snippety-snip! ) |
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| Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut Premium Box |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|03:50 pm] |
I finally got around to opening my Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut Premium Box and omg, I am so so SO happy! I could barely contain my fangirl squeals at the gorgeous artbook filled with all of Inomata Mutsumi's beautifully breathtaking art, and the packaging was really lovely as well - the cardboard box containing all the contents is very sturdy, and they chose one of the best Stahn and Leon pictures to adorn it. (I don't like the Stahn-Leon picture that adorns the manual as much, so I'm glad they didn't choose that.)
( Cut for length ) |
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| Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi ~Yoshino Chiaki no Baai~ drama cd Review |
[Aug. 30th, 2008|04:21 pm] |
Just a little background information on the Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi series before I start my babbling...
Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi is a series by Nakamura Shungiku which revolves around the lives of characters connected with a publishing company. It's actually set in the same world as Junjou Romantica, since various characters make cameos, such as the director(?) of the company that Usami works at, the father of Misaki's sempai, and although Usami himself doesn't make an appearance, the books he writes does. The series is actually split into two mediums - one is a manga written and drawn by Nakamura-sensei called Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi ~Onodera Ritsu no Baai~, and the other is a novel series called Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi ~Yoshino Chiaki no Baai~, which is illustrated by Nakamura-sensei but written by Fujisaki Miyako, the person who also writes the Junai Romantica/Egoist novels.
Anyway, a drama cd was recently released which combined the first part of each series, and I decided to give it a try since I really liked the manga, and having not read the novels, I wanted to listen to the Yoshino Chiaki portion (I haven't listened to the Onodera Ritsu side yet). And it turned out to be wonderful! *_* Fantastic acting, endearing characters, surprisingly lovely background music... I couldn't ask more from a drama cd. *_*
( On to the review! )
I'll probably post up a summary of both parts next time, since I really like the series and I want more people to get interested in it. I think it's a pity that it's not very well known - I'm guessing it's because the series hasn't been scanslated, and it doesn't help that the Chiaki portion is in novel format which even less people read. (I haven't read them myself since I'm waiting for my Japanese skills to get a bit better before I buy the novels. :p) For fans of Junjou Romantica, though, I highly recommend it since it's very faithful to Nakamura-sensei's winning formula of having great characters and humour to essentially keep the cliche plot afloat. |
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| CORRECT Skip Beat anime cast. *hits self on head* |
[Aug. 16th, 2008|12:38 am] |
I'm sure most Skip Beat fans will know this already, but it turns out the anime cast I posted before was purely based on rumour and speculation, and now the new cast has been confirmed as per an official announcement on Hana to Yume. Thanks to ivles, sapphodil and usagijen for bringing it to my attention! Although it now makes me feel very stupid for getting so worked up about it, not to mention I'm even more embarrassed because I posted faulty info on the official Skip Beat LJ. I apologise to anyone whom I've accidentally misled with that false information. So don't mind me, I'm just going to crawl into this right ol' corner here and poke at some mushrooms ala Tamaki...
... Or maybe not, because now I want to comment about the new cast. :p
( Cut cut cut! ) Thanks to chris_rijk from the Skip Beat yahoo group, who kindly provided this scan, it seems like Konishi Katsuyuki has been confirmed as being Ren's seiyuu. That scan also has some samples of the anime artwork, which I'm actually quite pleased with. I think Nakamura-sensei's art style is quite difficult to transfer to anime style and so far I think the animators have done a good job converting it to a more generic anime look yet still keeping some of the uniqueness of Nakamura-sensei's art. The designs look very crisp and clean and not sloppy at all. (*coughcough* Antique Bakery character designs, I'm looking at you. *coughcough*)
My only one complaint would be Sho's hair - it looks way too flat for my liking, plus I think I prefer him with brown rather than blonde hair. Blonde just doesn't really seem to suit his image as much, and I think colouring it blonde makes Corn's hair colour a little less special. They've got Sho's arrogant smirk down pat, though. ^_^ |
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| Update |
[Jul. 20th, 2008|12:13 am] |
Forgot to mention - am currently on a graduation trip with my family, so I probably won't be updating any time soon since I don't have regular internet access. Hopefully once I'm back home I'll have the time to catch up on all my very long overdue posts. :p |
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| *has the urge to dance madly around the room* |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|08:29 pm] |
I AM SO INSANELY HAPPY RIGHT NOW.
(Beware of disjointed random fangirling - my brain is too delirious with delight right now to make any sense)
The fall anime season is going to be AMAZING. Not only is the awesome Skip Beat going to be made into an anime (Oh how I hope it runs for a good number of episodes!), Tales of the Abyss is going to be made into one too! AND it's been confirmed that it's not going to be just 4 OVA episodes as the Phantasia and Symphonia ones are (although Symphonia's probably getting another 4 in the future), but 26 episodes instead! AND THE ANIMATION LOOKS GORGEOUS. I really hope they manage to keep the animation quality up throughout the entire series. *crosses fingers and prays hard*
This article also claims that the scenarios for all the episodes have already been written, which can only be good news since that means the likelihood of the series getting cut short due to possible lack of popularity is almost nil - it would have to do abysmally (pun intended. :p) for them to cut it short when all the episodes have been scripted out already. The only negative thing about this bit of news is that I was quite dead set on buying the DVDs when they came out, (yes, I am THAT obsessed with Abyss) but now that the series is going to be 26 episodes instead of just 4, my wallet is doomed because Japanese anime companies are evil and charge sky-high prices for anime dvds which generally only have about 3 episodes (or LESS. D:) per dvd. -_-
( A new Tales game )
( Another upcoming Tales game )
Whew. What started out as a mini babble about fall anime that I'm looking forward to turned into a monstrous Tales update. Maybe I should have named the entry more appropriately. :p |
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| Europe trip |
[Jun. 17th, 2008|01:44 am] |
Going on an Europe trip from 17th June to 1st July, so I won't be able to do any commenting during those days. Though I suppose it doesn't make much of a difference considering how slowly I keep up with my flist. ^_^;; |
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