Squeals Galore

Ello lovies~
So here I am again, with another review for SIHK. In this episode there was more fan service than the previous one, with the episode pretty much starting out with a make out scene (courtesy of Onodera being traumatized by episode 1's chu and thus having nightmares of Takano-san kissing him. Thank you, paranoia. The fangirls are in debt to you.)

Overall, the episode was rather adorable, this one taking on the chapter in the manga where Takano and Onodera head over to help a mangaka who's running behind, as well as the episode where Takano-san tells Onodera that he's the guy Onodera dated back in high school (his last name changed due to his parents divorcing). Throughout the episode there are a lot of squeals from the fangirls and "EHHHH?!s" on behalf of Onodera (I found his reaction to everything to be quite priceless.)Although there were a few changes that they made in the anime which I kinda didn't like.

For example, when the two come back from the mangaka, the scene opens with the two of them on the couch looking like zombies. I felt that the humor from the whole "why is the sun shining x,x?" moment was lost in the anime. Also, the part about Tanako-san and Onodera being neighbors was changed in the anime. In the anime, Onodera has just moved in and is, coincidentally, Takano-san's neighbor. In the manga, he had already been living there and they had never seen one another simply because of their different schedules. I'm not sure which version I prefer. I kinda liked how in the manga it begins with Takano-san saying "that was fast. Did you come to confess?" and Onodera being like "what are you talking about...I live here." with both of them are standing in front of their respective doors. I just found that to be a great scene...not so sure about the anime >.>;;

On a completely different note, I once came across this video and I simply had to share it with you. Yeah. It's one of them 'effing epic vids' Enjoy!

~GD

Insert Maniac Fan Girl Squeal Here

*creeps back in* Holy crap....has it really been an entire year since I've updated this thing? O_O Wow. That's kinda epic in a really sad kind of way.

Anywhose, a thousand gomen nes for vanishing on all of you-I blame college. It sucks. I know I've been posting summaries for Trace and Hana to Akuma, but those two have ended and frankly so much crap happens in both that if you really wanted to know what happens, I'm gonna tell you to read them. They're good reads and frankly, with all the crap that happens, reading them might make more sense to you than be summarizing them.

But onto the more important topic-mainly the subject of this post. As the title says, I'm in fan-girl mode right now. Why? Because Sekaiichi Hatsukoi episode 1 is finally out. And I must say, I was grinning stupidly the whole way through.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a GIANT Nakaumura Shungiku fan. Ever since I first stumbled across Junjou Romantica, I have been an avid fan of hers (now that I think about it, I think JR was the first boy x boy I ever came across...kinda opened Pandora's Box for me >.>;;). So for me, something like this is enough to make me giddy all over. So, without further ado, here's my review:

Summary in a Nutshell: Onodera Ritsu is a 25 year old man who has left his father's company due to his co workers complaints that the only reason why he is so successful is because of his connections. However, at Murakawa Publishing (the same as in JR ^_^), instead of being assigned to the literature department like he requested, Onodera finds himself assigned to Emerald (spin off of Ruby): the all male shoujou manga editorial department. To make matters worse for our poor hero, on his first day the editor-in-chief "sexually harasses" him by using Onodera as a model for a kiss scene (frankly, if it were me I wouldn't object but...). Thus begins the case of Onodera Ritsu and his life working as a shoujou manga editor.
(NOTE: yes, I have skimmed over some parts-don't want to spoil everything, now do I?)

Seiyu-wise: Seiyu speaking, I was very happy with the cast. My personal favorite I think was Takano-san. He sounds just like I imagined he would, so I was pleased with that. Onodera's was perfect too as was Kisa's and the other lovely gents at Emerald.

Animation: For me, there are two things I am a stickler for in regards to a manga becoming an anime: how good the voice acting is and how well done the animation is, the latter being more important to me. If the animation sucks, I usually don't fly for it. However, considering that I absolutely adored Junjou Romantica, I was 99.9% positive that I would not be disappointed with the animation quality. And I was right. Animation-wise, so far this is a beautiful adaptation of a beautifully drawn manga (main reason why I love Nakamura-sensei is because of her art style). The animation really does justice to her work, and the background music is oh so lovely.

Faithfulness to the Manga: If I had a list of things that peeve me to kingdom come, animes not being faithful to the manga they are based on (or vice versa-yes Escaflowne, I am looking at YOU) would be pretty high up on the list. But, fortunately, so far faithfulness seems to be the way this is going-again, pretty much like JR, which was also pretty faithful.

Favorite Moments: as for top favorite scenes, there's quite a few:
- When Kisa faints from his chair: just made me snort very loudly.
- When Takano-san flings the ruler at Onodera's head: that just made me burst out laughing and had be re winding to that scene like 10 times
- The Kiss: you had to know it was up there. The kiss Takano-san gives Onodera as a 'model' for a mangaka who can't seem to get the angle right. Needless to say that was a "kyaaa~~" moment for me. While I knew it was happening, it's a completely different thing to see a scene like that as an image, an another to see it animated. Fan girl explosion here.
- When Takano-san realizes who Onodera is: I just loved the way they animated his eyes widening. Reminded me of JR and Usagi-san's reaction when Misaki confessed to him. Supah Kawaii ♥

Opening/Ending Themes: While they weren't instantly addicting as Pigstar's Kimi=Hana/ Shoudou, I'm sure the opening and ending themes for SIHK will become favorites of mine as well. The sequences themselves are lovely, with the opening being super perky and the ending theme having a slightly more serious tone to it, which I found balanced out nicely.

Overall, I am very pleased with where this anime is going. Here's hoping it'll be just as good as JR
Till next time~

-GD

The Chu that all us fangirls waited for

The Opening

The Ending

The end of one epic leads to another

Okies...so last time I left you guys with Trace, Jin had found a diary written by Rose that explains everything about who she is. Here's what happened.

Turns out that Rose's father was murdered by Jin 10 years ago. He was the one man who loved her despite being born a Trace, so obviously she felt the need to avenge her father's death. Lemon's father was also killed by Jin. So the two of them joined forces along with this random child of a Trace, whose motives are still unknown.

Anyways, so for 10 years Rose watched Jin, seeing him become an emotionless, perfect killer. She decided that the best way to get to Jin was to expose him to the color red, the smell of roses, and to have a plea for help-hence her first words out of her mouth to him being "please save me."

Everything went according to plan, all the way down to the final day. However, Rose developed true feelings of love for Jin. She writes that even if everything else about her was a lie, let this one feeling known to have been true. So in the end, despite seeking revenge for her father, Rose developed pure feelings for Jin. But the plan had to go on, and so she killed herself.

This concludes the sectioned titled Rose. Next is the chapter called "Rebellion." in this section, Mr Beggar has been souped up, and everyone has joined together to take down the government and exploit its corruptness to society. On the side lines, Han Tae Eun, the girl from the begining chapters who found Sa Ghang Gwon (the trace who tried to live a life as a normal human) has been turned into a Trace. It is pretty obvious that the little freaky child who helped Rose and Lemon with their plan has caused this.

What this kid wants to do is beyond me. Maybe he's just there to cause havoc and screw everything up? All good stories need that one character that exists just to screw everyone over.

So that's pretty much what's been happening in the world of Trace so far. Honestly, I am loving it. I cannot wait to see what Mr Beggar and company do now and I am curious to see how Han Tae Eun will live now being a Trace. Will she go to the same school as Sa Ghang Gwon? Considering how close she was with him and seeing how badly she wanted to become a Trace just so they could go back to being together, this wouldn't surprise me. I doubt Sa Ghang Gwon is gonna take this well though.

Lets see...other news....any other good mangas I can recommend to you peoples...I started to read Noblesse (I think it's also a webtoon. The style is exactly like that of Trace-being colored and all), but it didn't really peak my interest so I dropped it. Usagi drop is cute if you want Shoujou...though I've only read the second part (when the girl is in high school).

Well, I've been on a Kristin Chenoweth craze these past few days so here are three performances of hers that I absolutely ADORE.

(just fast-forward the first 26 seconds)

Well then, till next time!

~GD~

Took her long enough...

Well ladies and gentlemen, after 45 chapters, after all the screen shaking, after all the screaming, after all the sheer drama, it has finally happened. Hana confessed to Vivi.

Yes. She did it.

So currently in the world of H2A (in case you are just tuning in), Vivi made an agreement with the Demon King that he would marry Rosemary, provided that the Demon King ensures Hana safety. Hana, after much hesitation, does not want Vivi to marry anyone else and so, with the help of her Demon buddies and human friend, travels to the Demon World to stop this from happening.

There, Hana tells Vivi that she does not want him to get married and cries. Rosemary crashes then and has Hana thrown into a cell, but that doesn't last long for soon Hana is able to break free. Vivi tells Rosemary that he is breaking it off-showing a more empathetic side of the so-called Bitch of the Demon World (see previous post about "Bi-atch not being so bad" for more info)

Anywhose, Hana finally meets Vivi where she tells him that she loves him and-here's the part where we all scream in joy-that she WANTS TO BE HIS WIFE!
I know. I died too.

But the greatest bit is Vivi's initial reaction. While everyone is all like "^///^ aww~" he's like "-_- Hai?" So it takes him a minute to realize that she's serious. But when he does he tells her for being an idiot for making him worry so much and to not worry-he's already broken off the engagement with Rosemary. This surprises the Demon King (who has witnessed all of this) and is like "oho~ what about our agreement?" and Vivi confidently retorts by saying he'll destroy everything and that he'll protect Hana. Rosemary pops in and apologizes to the Demon King saying that Vivi is a "terrible Lolicon (XD)" and so they canceled the wedding. Which redeemed her in my book.

So everyone begins to leave, the Demon King saying that he is no longer interested. But of course, he can't leave without the last laugh. As he is leaving, the Demon King turns over her shoulder and grins at Hana telling her that he was very moved by her proposal, causing the poor girl to blush a la tomato.

So that ends that chapter. Personally, I loved it. However, it did raise a few questions in me mind. First off, what's going to happen to the Demon King? It's been said that his powers are weakening-a possible sign that he is dying (T_T NOOO!!, which is why he wanted Vivi to take over the throne for him. But now that Vivi has officially turned down the throne (I think), what's going to happen next? Also, I never quite got what 'danger' the Demon King was going to promise to protect Hana from. Was it just the general demons from hell? What's gonna happen now? And finally-when the hell will Hana grow a few inches? Now don't get me wrong-I love this coupling. Really. I think it's fricking adorable. But...would be nice if she didn't look like his daughter, y'know? *shrugs* That's just me being anal, I guess.

But yea. That's it for Hana to Akuma till the next chappie.

Okies, side note:
- If you are into Shounen-ai, I highly recommend this manga called Seven Days. It's really sweet and not too mushy. Art is lovely, which is always a bonus.

Words Cannot Even Begin to Describe...

O_O Holy. Shit. That pretty much sums up these last few chapters of Trace in a nutshell. Yea. Talk about epic.

Ok, so last time I left you guys in Trace, Jin was the perfect Casanova and told Rose that he would be the stem that protects her. So. What happens next? Ohhh, what DOES happen next indeed?

Ok, first off Lemon falls (literally) from the sky, shooting bullets. Lovely way to enter. So he and Jin have a little manly tussle, with Jin (oddly) getting his ass whooped. Jin finds this quite odd, because HEY! He's 'Da Shit' around town-why the hell is he getting his butt kicked so easily? Turns out Lemon is not a Killer. He's a Killer Hunter. Yea. No wonder he's got the upper edge in all of this >>;;

So now that Jin resembles something like that of a porcupine, with needles sticking out of him in all possible directions, Lemon moves to Rose, taunting Jin about how he cannot do anything both b/c a) Jin kinda has knives sticking out of him and is bleeding, and b) He has Rose as a shield of some sort.

But does that stop the ever so smexy Jin? Of course not! So he fires. And hits Lemon straight on. Much to everyone's surprise. Seeing Lemon lying on the floor, dead, Jin feels a great sense of relief wash over him and laughs that 'holy shit we just escaped death' laugh. A first time for him.

But the happy-happy-joy-joy feeling does not last.

For the next thing Jin sees is Rose holding up one of them dagger thingys to her neck, telling Jin that he "wasn't supposed to shoot." And then she stabs herself. In the neck. Suicide.

Yes. After all this, she goes and fricking STABS herself! I know. I was like "WHAT ZEH HELL!?" too.

So Jin collapses there only to wake up in his room with Anchovy watching after him. They both cry (another first for Jin) and that is where Jin ends his story to the K4 kids-much to their protests.

(now in the present time of the story)
However, as he is leaving, Jin remembers a bit more of what happened after Rose died. He found a diary of sorts of hers and in it, it said that this was the one thing that she wanted to keep true about herself.And here comes the shocker bit.

Her real name is Kim Eun Ah. And she is a Trace. Her power? To read people's minds.

Yea. So ends the chapter. Epic, huh? I know. Well, that's all that's been updated for Trace, so...

Till next time!
~GD~