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Saturday 31 October 2009

Manga Review: Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou

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Title: Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou
Author:
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Fantasy, Slice of Life
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a girl who feels that she has no talent in anything and wants to change herself because of it. To that end, she goes off to enroll in magic academy that she learnt of through a magical ad she found only to find out that the practice of magic has undergone a change in the past century. Instead of shooting Starlight Breakers from a staff that talks, magic is now commonly done by programming them in the digital equivalent of magic spell runes and executing them just like normal computer programs. The concept certainly sounds interesting but I haven’t seen it being used for anything particularly new to me. Hopefully I’ll see what I want to see in the manga sometime soon but it seems it’ll take a while till they get past the parts that the anime already covered. Gotta love the characters though, well designed and excellent chemistry.

Manga Reviews Index

Friday 30 October 2009

Manga Review: Shoujo Shonen Go Go

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Title: Shoujo Shounen Go Go
Author: Yabuuchi Yuu
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Gender Bender, Romance
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a girl who reunites with a childhood friend who recently moved back to the neighborhood. Unfortunately she’s forgetting something about her pretty friend who just moved back – she’s actually a he. So basically we have a set-up for a girl protecting the truth of a guy that looks like a girl and she actually likes him as more than just a friend. So basically it’s a manga with a plotline towards pseudo-yuri. Sadly it does not pay off very much in the end but I guess it was a decent read with some good moments.

Manga Reviews Index

Thursday 29 October 2009

Manga Review: Shoujo Shounen

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Title: Shoujo Shounen
Author: Yabuuchi Yuu
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Gender Bender
Art: C
Originality: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Humor: C
Action: C

Impression: This is about a primary school boy who gets recruited as a female singing idol because of his singing talent to help out an Idol agency. There’s not much more to it than that because the characters are pretty flat and the plot is ridiculously simple. Can’t be helped since this is an old manga so this was as good as it got for a plot like this back then. I actually read the spin-off first and liked it a lot more than this so maybe my expectations were higher than they should have been. Still, I got bored reading this.

Manga Reviews Index

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Manga Review: Mon Suel

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Title: Mon Suel
Author: Kizuki Akira
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Seinen
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about the problems within a family of three people. The father has gone missing leaving his college student son responsible for the house and his sister who’s still in primary school. The guy’s best friend is there to help the two of them but trouble stirs up as he finds out the secret that was hidden from him. This manga shows that not is all that it appears to be even though the reality is more improbable and darker than what they perceive it to be. It was a good story but the ending certainly leaves a bad taste in your mouth. These kinds of things never end well and despite how realistic the end was, it’s hard not to dislike the characters for the way they treat each other.

Manga Reviews Index

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Manga Review: Maid Shokun!

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Title: Maid Shokun!
Author: Kizuki Akira, Satou Nanki
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Seinen
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: I like Kizuki Akira’s works. He’s always doing Seinen stories and his art style is rather unique and complements the complexity of his characters very well. In this story, we follow a bunch of girls who work at a maid café. Normally this kind of plot would go down a light comedic path but this guy takes that moe induced concept and turns it into a realistic look into problems and issues concerning the people who work there and their line of work. It’s quite an interesting read as it shows that the maid café business is not just smiles and laughs like we’ve come to expect of the business and that reality creeps right into this business as well. The only flaw I can think for this manga is that those who believe in the idealness of maids may become disillusioned by this manga. LOL.

Manga Reviews Index

Monday 26 October 2009

Manga Review: Magical x Miracle

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Title: Magical x Miracle
Author: Yuzu Mitani
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Fantasy, Shoujo
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a girl who gets recruited by a small group of people who work at the palace to fill in for their master wizard who has gone missing because she looks very similar to him. She has to keep this act up in order to maintain the peace in the kingdom until the real master wizard comes back. This was a pretty good shoujo manga that actually put more focus into the story than any romance subplots even though there are plenty of bishies around. It does a great job with the main character’s development and manages to pull off a degree of sympathy for some of the characters. I found that the most fascinating character was actually the master wizard himself even though he’s not around for most of the story which speaks volumes about how good the author is with her characters. The manga ended with a bit of fizzle because the climax was an entire volume before the end but I suppose it does serve satisfyingly as an epilogue albeit an unnecessarily in depth one.

Manga Reviews Index

Sunday 25 October 2009

Manga Review: Kami Sen

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Title: Kami Sen
Author: Momose Takeaki
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Supernatural, Romance, Comedy
Art: A
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This is about a guy and his family’s failing hot springs and their family’s guardian deity who one day is released from sealed state and returns to the world of the living. At first it seems that their luck has turned around with their hot springs returning back to what they once were but the god that their family is watched over by is actually a god of misfortune. This is basically a funnier version of Kannagi, quite possibly a spoof of it too, with more entertaining characters and jokes. It has greedy amoral grandfather, a childhood friend that’s a look-alike of Mio from K-On!, a loli goddess in denial about being a goddess of misfortune and her modernized sisters. It’s a manga that was intended for laughs and lands right on the mark.

Manga Reviews Index

Saturday 24 October 2009

Manga Review: Iono the Fanatics

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Title: Iono the Fanatics
Author: Miyabi Fujieda
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Yuri, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is the story of a queen of a made up country whose hobby is to collect girls to be part of her harem of Sobame (something like a cross between servant and a wife). This queen is so fond of girls that she has thousands of Sobame under her rule but finds that she is lacking a number of black-haired girls in her harem so she flies over to Japan to find some. It’s a fun short story with quite a good bit of silly characters and humor. There’s actually quite a bit of yuri in here that’s being downplayed so the humor is the main focus of this series. It’s worth reading if you’ve been running out of good manga to read.

Manga Reviews Index

Friday 23 October 2009

Manga Review: Holy Hearts

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Title: Holy Hearts
Author: Kamishiro Akira, Higo Yukari
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Fantasy, Slice of Life
Art: B
Originality: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Humor: C
Action: D

Impression: This is the story of three girls with reputations of being top of their respective fields who are studying in a school where they learn to become sisters (magic nuns) so that they use their abilities to help the world. Even though that’s the setting, I’ve only seen slice of life bits of the manga and rarely ever from the fantasy part. Seriously, what’s the point of having them in a fantasy world if all we get to see is them doing the dull everyday stuff? I can’t say that I want to though since it seems that the author doesn’t have the imagination for that. The characters are one-dimensional and never go beyond that so it makes an already uninspired plot even more so. I don’t recommend this one, it’s not bad but it’s certainly not good.

Manga Reviews Index

Thursday 22 October 2009

Manga Review: Hayate x Blade

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Title: Hayate x Blade
Author: Hayashiya Shizuru
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This is about a girl who goes to an all girls academy specializing in sword combat to replace her twin sister who recently got injured and is unable to attend. There she finds an opportunity to save her foster home from being taken over by gang members in fighting the other students and ranking up with her partner. This manga is a splendid mix of the comedy and the shonen battle manga genres. The author knows when to slip in the silliness in the fights and it really does make the battles more fun to read. The characters are pretty damn entertaining, especially the student council president/owner of the school. Surprisingly enough, the manga doens’t really offer very much fanservice for one taking place in an all girls school but there do seem to be hints of Yuri here and there. Not enough for me to call it a yuri manga but just enough for me like the characters even more.

Manga Reviews Index

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Manga Review: Half & Half

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Title: Half & Half
Author: Seo Kouji
Release: Oneshot
Status: Finished
Genre: Romance, Seinen
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a guy and a girl who get run over by a truck but god offers them a chance to live again but that only applies to one of. For the next seven days, the pair have to stay near each other constantly and decide which of them will be the one to get a new lease on life. I remember someone telling me that this was sad but I honestly didn’t feel sympathy for the characters. The story was very simple and could have easily been done with far fewer pages so I feel like the author could have done so much better with this idea. It would have worked out better if it was about the selfishness and conflicts that two individuals would deal with but to use it for a short unfulfilled romance story was a bit of a waste. That’s just me though, it is meant to be painful for the characters but the author doesn’t express it properly through the manga.

Manga Reviews Index

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Manga Review: Ghost Hound: Another Side

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Title: Ghost Hound: Another Side
Author: Shirow Masamune, Asahi Kanata
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Supernatural, Shonen
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is a manga adaptation of an anime I absolutely love that was made a few years back. IT tells the story of three teenagers who slowly discover the other realm where spirits live through out of body experiences that they experience when they go to sleep. As implied by the title, the manga isn’t a straightforward adaptation of the anime but rather an alternate retelling with a slightly different storyline. The anime was simply amazing with its deep characters and fascinating take on the supernatural world but ended on a rushed note putting a damper on what could have been a masterpiece. The seems to be heading down the path of a shonen manga so it’s not going to turn out as well as the anime did. Most of the original concepts are still there though so it’s probably worth taking a look at.

Manga Reviews Index

Monday 19 October 2009

Manga Review: Kunisaki Izumo no Jijou

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Title: Kunisaki Izumo no Jijou
Author: Hirakawa Aya
Release: Oneshot
Status: Finished
Genre: Shonen, Gender Bender
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a guy who has very girly features and grew up playing girls in the Kabuki shows that his family puts on. He wants to play a guy role for once and does his best to express his masculinity, often failing. The twist here is that is a shonen battle manga where Kabuki is the source of power. That is not something I’ve encountered before but the chapter was pretty solid and would have served really well as the first chapter for a series. I wouldn’t say it would make for a good Shonen batlle manga plot if it were to go for long run but who knows. I would look forward to any other works that this author publishes though.

Manga Reviews Index

Sunday 18 October 2009

Do people actually read my thoughts?

A few days ago one of my friends, Pijul, got me into a discussion about how people were balanced out in life and that their happiness is adjusted with the bad things in their lives. I can’t say I agree with that because I believe we don’t have the right to determine other peoples’ perceptions of happiness – only an individual can judge their own happiness. I managed to convince him about that piece of my perspective and in return he asked me why is it that I don’t enlighten others with the various bits of wisdom that I’ve accumulated over in my 19 years of living instead of anime. My reasons for that are (1) Anime is my hobby and I really enjoy it (2) I’ve gone through far more anime than I have with schools of thoughts (3) People don’t go to the internet to seek instant enlightenment – they go to paid professionals for that.

But seriously, I do write them up once in a while and they tend to be very preachy when I do them so I don’t do them too often. There have been several occasions where I wrote entries to post up here but after taking a second look at them I realize that I could bring in unwanted things if I posted them up. I’m not even sure what I’ve actually mentioned here on my blog but I do remember typing them up so it gets confusing at times when I bring up a matter that I may or may not have discussed here. Here’s a list of things I worry that my takes on some matters may stir up:
  • Trolls(Obviously)
  • Flamers(Same as above)
  • Religious debates(I prefer to handle these anonymously)
  • Religious rage(Can’t tell you how many Christian extremists I’ve pissed off online at those debates. For that matter why do so many of them sound like bigots?)
  • Atheists(Almost as bad as religious bigots only they’re a lot more tolerant of things. I think they have a hive mind)
  • Cults(There actually is cult that got started by someone who didn’t intend on it and kept on denouncing it while he was alive. Life of Brian DID happen)
  • Fans(I prefer to be heard. Not seen)
  • Cospiracy theorists(They’ll try to rope me in on their freedom fighter gang)
  • Secret organizations(Namely the Illuminati and the Freemasons. NERV probably counts too)
  • Government agents (The Spetnaz worry me. Airborne upside down hatchet throwers are scary)
  • Moralfags (Yes, I do go to 4chan. Sankaku as well)
  • Republicans (I really don’t trust their so-called integrity. Merchants of death? Please…)
  • Movie writers (Too many hacks in Hollywood to trust. They’ll just try to turn it into booze, weed and women)
  • Political uprising(Last thing I want to do is support a rebellion in another country. I’m not pizza hut.)
  • The devil(My soul is not for sale. I will forever retain all rights to my individuality.)

I’m half joking about that list but as to which parts I’m joking about are up to you. In any case, I am person who has thought a lot about the universe, life and all that other metaphysical stuff. It’s gotten to the point where I start feeling ancient around my friends when they talk about stuff that I should be but am not interested in. Even Afiq said I seemed much older and mature as a person and answered yes when I asked him he thought that I was wise. Apparently my self-standards of normalcy are ridiculously high compared to my demographic group. It’s to the point where I am actually surprised that my friends hadn’t considered ideas I count as basic philosophy even once.

I’m betting 99.9% of adults don’t ponder the same magnitude of metaphysics that I do by the time they reach their mid-life crisis. 98% would never even think about it in their entire lives which to be honest I am actually happy about. Much of what I thought brought despair with it; much more despair than what an Emo but not an Elmo would go through. Emos would just stop at the initial despair and fail to read further into it opting to bitch and complain about their sad painful existences instead whereas Elmo is quite possibly the most nefarious of all the muppets. I cannot trust those innocent looking eyes for they are like peeks behind the curtain of the dark abyss. Where was Zetsubou Sensei when I was going through the most metaphysically rich phase of my thought process of my life so far? It wasn’t an anime yet so it was probably just in the 100s chapter count at the time. Tis a pity I didn’t have the opportunity to yell that catchphrase whenever I stumbled across a new insight. “ZETSUBOUSHITA!!” is rather enjoyable to say really.

ZETSUBOUSHITA!!

To give a small look into what I see through my eyes, I will present a paraphrased analogy taken from Kara no Kyoukai: Remaining Sense of Pain’s Novel and a brief discussion I had with Hakim about Obama. First comes the analogy. Let’s say common sense was channel 3 on the TV and that normal people could only watch that channel. An insane person on the other hand would only be able to watch a different channel like channel 5, a channel tailored to their perspective. Without access to channel 3, the person would remain stuck only on channel 5 and thereby unable to understand a normal person at all. The same applies vice versa so the majority, the ones who watch channel 3, would mark the outcast as insane. If that person could switch between channels 3 and 5 as they liked then they would be able to fit in and still have extraordinary insight of the TV which in this analogy refers to reality. To describe my perspective would be to say normal people are watching channel 3 on old CRT television sets while I’m watching channels 3 and 5 at the same time on a HD Plasma TV using Program in Program feature. Sure, my focus will be split and I won’t see every detail in channel 3 but I’ll still see the rest in clear crisp refreshing quality and have a wider perspective on things.

Now onto Obama. Let me clarify that while I am more partial to Democrats than Republicans, I never cared for Obama in the first place. My vote would have gone to Hillary Clinton in the democratic nomination and also in the presidential election against McCain if she was up and my vote counted. It’s certainly not because of his race because a black president was definitely a refreshing change for the stagnating Eagleland. I didn’t like him because of his slogan and the hype that he was generating from it. Hope is a very flimsy illusion and I didn’t appreciate how unrealistic it made the Americans during the elections. Hope is good for human productivity but it also casts a shadow of despair that grows larger with that hope. Though I still have to say that it was very good strategizing on his part and that the prospects of him as president at the time were better than having a republican who gets swayed by capitalism easily.

However, the subject concerning Obama that I was discussing with Hakim was not the man himself but rather the Nobel Peace Prize he got. Like the rest of the majority of those who know about it, Hakim believes that Obama didn’t deserve the prize and from his tone at the time, even seemed mad about it. I don’t know why is it people feel angry at others for being more fortunate than they are but it really is an ugly thing to see. I wonder who exactly did he have in mind for the prize, I do remember him mentioning Lady Gaga that day but I’m not sure if that was during our Obama’s peace prize talk. As you can see, that is where most people stop to think about the prize but I immediately looked at the consequences and the reasons behind the events. A lot of anger has been directed at Obama because of his unprecedented ownership of the honor because many think that he hasn’t done anything to merit the award including himself.

The way I see it, someone deliberately did this to add pressure onto Obama’s administration reduce his integrity as a leader. If he fails to live up to his promises in time then his chances at being re-elected have been significantly reduced because of this award and people would not be able to take him seriously. This was something beyond his control and yet people blame him for not deserving the award that someone else chose to give him. I even read an article in the paper yesterday of some kid asking Obama why so many people hate him. This goes to show you that public opinion is easily swayed by the media and that most people prefer to listen to the big voice in the sky than to think for themselves. That is a mentality that really should be done away. Why else would so many Americans buy into that Merchants of Death nonsense when they actually stand to gain a lot from the healthcare reforms that Obama proposed?

I wouldn't be bringing this up if I wasn't sure that my thought process is different from most people. Hakim certainly didn't see past the fact that Obama didn't deserve the award and looked genuinely intrigued by how I saw the event. Through my journey into despair, I widened my perspective, gained the ability to look at things objectively and apparently enough wisdom to make people ask me for advice even though I actually have no experience with love and that sort of thing. I've also become ridiculously tolerant of things and actually do mean it when I say I'm so at peace with myself that I would have no regrets if I died now. That doesn't mean I want to die though, I prefer to live and intend to keep on living as long as I can.

There are many paths a person can take in their lives to find themselves. Mine was through the exploration of metaphysics and despair. You can come out of it either as an Emo or a Wise Old Man character but in both cases you won't be able to see the world the way you did before. I can honesty say that I've become a completely different person from who I was when I began my adolescence and that my I've gained a new appreciation for things I did not and lost some that many do. Anyway, this should fill my quota for my thoughts post this month.

Manga Review: Aozora Pop

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Title: Aozora Pop
Author: Oouchi Natsumi
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Shoujo
Art: B
Originality: C
Story: B
Characters: C
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a girl who wants to become a model like her late mother but her father is against her dreams because of the situation that her mother went through. One day she goes to join an audition for new models keeping it a secret from her father and after a bit of the usual developments, she becomes a model. This reminded me a lot of Penguin Revolution only that the characters are a lot more bland. They don’t really go beyond their labels and the way the story moves has already become a cliché and is completely predictable. I can’t find anything particularly remarkable about this manga but I think it’ll probably appeal to those with dreams of becoming a model.

Manga Reviews Index

Saturday 17 October 2009

Manga Review: God Does Not Play Dice

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Title: God Does Not Play Dice
Author: Takeuchi Motoki
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Art: C
Originality: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Humor: B
Action: C

Impression: This is about a high schoolteacher who hasn’t physically aged since her father made a wish on some magical dice to keep her locked at that age. When she finds out about the reason she is the way she is, the teacher begins a hunt for six magical dices so she can reverse the effects of her father’s wish. This is a very silly manga with jokes could either hit or miss depending on your genre savvyness. By that I mean, the more experienced you are, the less you’ll laugh. I’d only recommend it if you like lolis and cheap laughs.

Manga Reviews Index

Friday 16 October 2009

Manga Review: Blue Drop

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Title: Blue Drop
Author: Akito Yoshitomi
Release: Oneshots
Status: Finished
Genre: Sci-fi, Yuri
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: The setting is the future where the world has been taken over by a race aliens that are all female lesbians and the aftereffects of the war that raged on the planet a thousand years into the future after that war. Alien experiments, rebels, secret government agents all accompany this story. The book is split up into five different one-shots that are all connected to each other in one way or another so there is a bit of a storyline here but it is still a bit confusing , especially if you’re reading the chapters out of sequence. The author has a great imagination but much of it is dedicated to ideas could come off as fascinating or freaky. I’ve also read the serialised version of the story and that wasn’t exactly the most compelling read as it too had a lot of turn offs. It’s worth a read if you can tolerate the more disturbing content but if you can’t then I suggest you stay away from this one.

Manga Reviews Index

Thursday 15 October 2009

Manga Review: Aki-sora

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Title: Aki-sora
Author: Itosugi Masahiro
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Seinen, Ecchi
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about group of siblings who have very questionable sexual tendencies and try to live their days while dealing with these urges of theirs. Here’s a warning, this manga is NSFW and contains smut. And in spite of that it also has solid characters, good storytelling and great art. The art was what drew me to this manga so I was in for a bit of a shock when I read further into the story. What puzzles me is why exactly the author thought it’d be a good idea include all those R rated scenes in there when the rest of the manga is pretty good. It really does make me consider what exactly is the social norm outside of my country as I can’t say that teenagers aren’t interested in that stuff but it would be rather unnerving if what’s shown in the manga really is acceptable in other countries.

Manga Reviews Index

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Manga Review: D-Frag!

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Title: D-Frag!
Author: Haruno Tomoya
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This is the story of a guy who believes himself to be a top class delinquent but then one day he finds a group of girls doing weird acts in a room as part of their club activities. He and his pals get roped into the room by this clubs and his buddies get taken out by the girls. Each girl has a pun on their names to represent their various elements and they corner him into joining the club. The humour in this manga is rather over the top and silly so it’s very difficult not to chuckle at least once while reading this. The guy is a delinquent playing the straightman role and him being always being one upped by the girls is one of the main sources of entertainment here. It’s relatively new in the scanlating world but I’m eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

Manga Reviews Index

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Manga Review: Esprit

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Title: Esprit
Author: Tsuitsui Taishi
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Adventure, Fantasy
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: A

Impression: This story is set in a world where communities are contained on individual islands referred to as "homes" and in one of them there live a girl who knows nothing about the world outside of her island. An agent of an organisation dedicated to discovering new "homes" one day finds her home and she is inspired to join the organisation and explore the world. I like this one a lot. The girl is refreshingly cheerful and airheaded but she's got Kamina's never say die attitude and the strength to back it up. I don't particularly care for the pacing though which is slow but the characters are definitely the strongest aspect of this manga. It also has very nice idea that really play up the adventure portion of the story so I'm expecting this manga to get better the faster they release those chapters.

Manga Reviews Index

Monday 12 October 2009

Manga Review: Bungaku Shoujo to Shinitagari no Pierrot

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Title: Bungaku Shoujo to Shinitagari no Pierrot
Author: Nomura Mizuki, Kousaka Rito, Takeoka Miho
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Seinen, Mystery, Psychological
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a former novel writer who has had a traumatic experience in the past and quit because of it and spends his days at school with his senior, a literature girl who literally eats the pages of books she likes. He writes her a snack everyday and after enjoying the treat as it should be enjoyed, she goes on to chomp down on it going as far as to comment on the flavor. It's based on a light novel series and each novel detail in a case involving someone who has some sort of complex issue that they have to figure. So far I've only been through the first arc but it's been proving to be an interesting story with some very unique ideas. I can relate to some of the guy's difficulties with responding to other people because I have my own way of looking at things. It's not like I don't understand why they do but it's more like I'm also watching a different channel at the same time if it were to be explained using tv channels. The Kara no Kyoukai analogy about psychics in the third novel if you're familiar with that work. In any case I find this manga to be deeply intriguing and the pacing to be addictive. It really is a pain to have to wait for new chapters for mystery manga.

Manga Reviews Index

Sunday 11 October 2009

di:stage Extension Set 01 Black Ver. Review

Last month I ordered two sets of di:stage extension sets and I got them four days ago because of how busy my things are getting around here. For reasons unknown to myself the extensions only showed up on the last day of the month so it was barely released in time. I wish the manufacturers would set proper release dates instead of just generalizing things to early, mid and late [month]. Half the time they even go as far as to just put the month only. Even then that doesn’t stop them from postponing the item release. Bandai does it so I don’t see why Good Smile and Max Factory can’t. Zaki ordered Good Smile’s 1/7 Saber Lily PVC figure and that got delayed twice and for several months. At least the level quality seems to be very far above satisfying so that’s good.

Bought two of them

We can play spot the difference with boxes too

Back view

Side view

Anyway back to the di:stage extension. This set cost me 525 yen, 1050 yen for both which cost me B$ 16.60, from Hobby Search and the shipping was B$ 10 (would have been B$ 8 if the yen hadn't gotten stronger) since I bundled them with Zaki's Saber. This unit 01 black version meaning that there’s going to be more of these extension sets coming out and probably in other colors besides black and transparent. This set was designed to elevate the original di:stage layer to a higher level and build on the display’s structure design freedom. This adds a whole new dimension to the display base as you can now modify the vertical factor of the entire display. Based on what the item comes with, it is possible to build stuff buildings, bridges, racks and walls so long as you have enough of them. Heck! You probably build a whole house if you can afford that much time and money. However that also means there is one clear problem with this set; you CAN’T use it all without an original di:stage base. Hopefully no one was stupid enough to buy them without getting the original ones first.

It comes with two new speech bubble types, no new stage cover though






Like the first di:stage, this extension set comes in a figma sized box with half of the thickness. That’s 22cm x 15cm x 4.5cm for those of you curious about the exact dimensions. It comes with the cardboard and bubblewrap to protect the contents too with a total of 5 layers of protection. That’s nice on their part for product safety but it also makes it excessively annoying to get to the contents. I even used my swiss army knife to make thing more interesting but it didn’t help very much. I wonder if I’ll be able to figure out a way to make use of all the bubblewrap and cardboard I’ve been getting from them.

Recently found my swiss pocket knife so I put it to use here



This set comes with:
  • 1 Manual
  • 2 Speech Bubbles
  • 4 Vertical Side Connectors
  • 2 Pillar Bases
  • 4 20cm Pillars
  • 4 10cm Pillars
  • 12 Tunnel Type Corner Caps
  • 8 Flat Type Corner Caps
  • 2 Cap Removers
  • 4 Thick Corner Connectors
  • 4 Thin Corner Connectors

Pillars

Chopsticks sized

The first thing you’ll notice about this set are the pillars. Four of them come in chopsticks size and the other four come in crayon size. You can take a look at how these compare to the figmas in one of my pictures and if you do, you’ll see that that you won’t be able to use the short pillars if you were planning to put one stage above another as that purpose is left to the longer pillars. Those short ones are there so that you can put an elevated stage next to a grounded one so you get something like a step. Be careful when you slot them into the holes as the pegs could snap off even though they feel pretty sturdy. Keep that especially in mind when you handle the longer ones as physics dictate they are more fragile than the short ones. Also, the manual says you shouldn’t slot them into the stage slots for some reason even though they do fit in there. A tighter fit but it still fits so you just have to be even more careful if you do.


Connectors

All the caps

The rightmost one is the removal cap




Before Caps

After Caps

You need two thin ones to connect a corner

That makes for four in total


Very tight connectors

The stages are prepared


Looks like a hangar







Viewpoint 1

Viewpoint 2

Viewpoint 3

Viewpoint 4









That's it for my review and expect reviews of Emiya Shirou and Kagami Winter Uniform Version figmas that I've ordered for october. Hopefully I won't have to wait till the end of the month for them. I also got a Char Aznable with his cockpit seat a couple of weeks ago for B$ 14 at Hua Ho Kiulap. I'm not sure if the quality of the item is because it was made years ago or if it's actually a bootleg but it's nice to have the Red Comet in my room. Sadly I do not have any of his units but Sazabi will be in my collection should I find the extra cash I need to fork over for it.

Sieg Zeon!



I cleaned up my table

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