Anime festival Asia 2010

Will be held in Singapore!! For those looking for more information, follow them on facebook =D http://www.facebook.com/animefestivalasia

Oh man, can't wait to know the exact date and the singers attending this event!! By hook or by crook I will definitely attend this year's event.

-edit- exact date and venue have been confirmed: 13 and 14th of November, at Suntec international convention and exhibition centre, halls 403 and 404

READ ABOUT WHAT I DID AT AFA HERE ;D

Haven't been up to much this month since my last post, just watched world cup, more anime, read books and updated stories. No news from comics connection regarding the Legal Drug manga I 'ordered' -_- Spotted the 3rd volume around 2 months ago and bought it without thinking too much. Asked if they had the first two volumes and left my contact number at the counter. Technically not ordering but the guy said it'll take 2 weeks for the manga to arrive =( false hopes T__T

Here it is, looking sexy and unopened on my piano.

My current laptop wallpaper =D


Hmms english. Haha

Big Windup! Ookiku Furikabutte

After completing the first season of Ookiku Furikabutte (Big Windup!), I've decided that it deserves the 2nd place in my favourite anime list. 1st goes to HxH of course XD

It was plain awesome, even for a person who knew nuts about baseball (except that you try to hit the ball with a bat and run somewhere before the opposing team gets the ball)

Story is about this wimpy pitcher, Ren Mihashi, who had been bullied by his middle school baseball teammates, thus under the impression that he's the lousiest pitcher ever. He then transfers to Nishiura High School intending to quit baseball cos he believes he's not good enough to succeed. However, he is dragged into the baseball team by the coach. Assisted by his new teammates, especially the catcher, Takaya Abe, he grows in stature, confidence and skill, helping his team to excel.

Partly taken from wiki, cos summaries give me a headache =l

Anyway, I'm here today to fangirl over the characters and certain aspects of the anime. My favourite character is Abe, because he is so dependable and his droopy eyes are hot.

These screenshots are all from the opening sequence cos I realised that Abe doesn't look very photogenic from the shots I took during the anime hehe.

Next is the adorable main character Mihashi! His mouth becomes a diamond shaped when he's flustered---- extremely cute XDXD looks like a bird! -squeals- though he teared a lot throughout the entire season, I wasn't too irritated cos Abe did the scolding

Sho cute desho?!

As expected of a team sports anime with 99% of the characters male, there are a few of yaoi pairings. The most obvious and popular one being Abe X Mihashi. I don't blame the fangirls, seriously. The subtitles made me cringe at times.. Well, if you don't see anything wrong with the next sentence, I apologise in advance for having a dirty mind -__-

Abe thinking to himself: I want to make him (Mihashi) feel good.

When actually what he meant was to let Mihashi gain confidence and experience the awesomeness and satisfaction after throwing strikes and outing the batters of the other teams. These kinds of misleading subtitles were repeated a few times in the season and in other situations too X_X

This is unlike Prince of Tennis where the relationships aren't always made clear and the animation itself seem to encourage such shounen ai stuff.

Mihashi and Abe.

I mean, urgh. I don't accept shounen ai for this series because the relationships have been stated quite clearly right from the start. Pure friendship, like Killua and Gon in HxH and I'm quite angry with the subs for putting such a thought in my mind. Now I can't look at emotional scenes of Abe and Mihashi without having that shounen ai factor clawing at a corner of my mind. Partly my fault too =((((( sigh

Abe: Hands off my uke please.

Fan girls are free to come up with and like all these pairings and I'm not saying that Oofuki anime doesn't fuel their imaginations in that direction but as someone who simply enjoyed and was touched by the friendship, the subtitles really spoilt it for me. Of course, it might just be me being biased cos I heard that the manga drawings are even more suggestive than the anime =/

Angel Beats!

I wish Togashi would run out of money quickly, and get back to Hunter X.

Just last week while I was looking around on 'watch anime now' website, I randomly clicked on an episode of Angel Beats! and the video started. The clear and strong piano opening was extremely captivating and I ended up watching the entire opening sequence before clicking on episode 1.

Alas, the video for the first two episodes were spoilt so I jumped straight to the 3rd. Plot was pretty easy to pick up even without any background information. The animation was also good though the graphics look very game-like. I was mainly attracted to the music and luckily for me, the 3rd episode was regarding music (4th episode was on baseball) or I might have stopped watching all together.

Angel Beats! is a surprisingly funny anime with many touching parts. I had cases of goosebumps at the end of most episodes. Never close to crying but the scenarios warmed my heart while giving it a little wrench. Ehh that sounds really weird X_X hahaha but you get what I mean lah.

Just a short series of screenshots from episode 3, showing the ultimate Pi attack and a blooming obvious conclusion.

Battle start!

KO!!!!

Hahaha Many more funny parts throughout the series =D Bishies, action, humour, friendship and a little romance XD Me like!

I've also been entertaining myself with some tear-jerkers. Just cuz I feel like it =/ It started off with Angel Beats! and Hunter X's hiatus putting me in a melancholic mood, so I decided to go all the way. Watched the last four episodes of Wolf's Rain which are also the OVA and cried alot when Toboe died and during the last episode T__T

Next up was Samurai X: Reflections (Rurouni Kenshin Seisouhen) which is also the 2nd OVA. I think I've mentioned this OVA at least twice in my previous posts over the years but please bear with me XD

So there I was, watching the sad little tale and preparing to bawl like a baby when suddenly, Gintoki from Gintama appeared! My eyes almost popped out!! I almost thought that I was watching the wrong video and that the whole thing was a Gintama parody.

There! Looks just like Gin-san desho~?!

Of course, on a closer look, Gintoki doesn't wear glasses like that and he isn't as muscular as Enishi (that's the real name of the dude above). The hairstyles are different too =DD But Enishi really does look like Gintoki wearing Midou Ban's glasses XDXD

Yea, that unexpected appearance by the Gintoki look-alike ruined the sadness I was trying to build up since the start of the OVA..........

P.S. Kenshin's voice is too feminine, I'd prefer a lady with a deeper voice to do the voicing.

The first time I wore a dress without shorts underneath

Right, the title sounds slightly obscene XD I wore a pair of super short shorts at first because my trusty ny ones were too long for the dress (!!!) and to my horror I realised that the short shorts were too loose and kinda dropping off. So off I went to the ladies to remove them.

First day of work as an outdoors promoter was alright, nothing too strange/ interesting happened. Hmm though there are a few things worth sharing--

1. I perspired like a pig despite applying rexona anti-perspirant deodorant all over my back and neck area. Perhaps it only works on the underarms =( Was kinda hoping to use it to keep my sweaty palms in control but I guess it just doesn't work that way.

2. While we (8 of us) were in the blue dresses and sitting at along the grass patch curb along chevron house, a lady suddenly squeezed herself in the middle of where we were sitting and got her husband to take photos. Ahahaa a groups of (pretty) girls wearing the same uniform sitting in a row = instant photo taking spot.

3. I'm really bad at using the silky girl eye liner I just bought.

4. My court shoes still take the skin off the back of my ankles despite the shoes not being new and the area protected with plasters.

There were more people who couldn't be bothered about the product even though I stressed the words 'free trial' and smiled so sweetly. Well, my job isn't to get them to buy so I don't mind cos most of the people were very polite in showing their disinterest. Of course, got daoed a few times too but that's alright =D Thanks to my good attitude. Will post pictures next time. Pictures posted

Halfway through, I suddenly thought about Hunter X going on a hiatus after chapter 310 and that got me a little moody =(

Yes, Togashi is taking a break yet again. Got the info from onemanga forums where forumers credited Koneta as the source of the news. They saw he's a reliable source so... -sobs-

I don't know what's up with Togashi.. taking the easy way out from the resolving the hanging problems in the manga or maybe he has already lost interest in continuing this series. I doubt the second point cos he could have ended it prematurely but he did not.

Most probably, Togashi wants to take his own sweet time to think of the future developments and then boomz! Release the chapters all at a go. Why can't he churn out a chapter once a week like all the other mangakas.. Or at least, publish a chapter once a month, I can bear with the wait. Going on such frequent hiatuses put him at risk of being cancelled from Shounen Jump and what will become of us fans then?

Just don't quit on me now, Togashi, I can't take it ( quoting bella here! Hahaha) but what choice do I have... -resigned sigh-

Thoughts on Hunter X Hunter 307

Time for some rantings again =(

In chapters 305 and 306 when Gon matured physically in a matter of seconds, I was filled with dismay =( The first thing which came into my mind and triggered the sadness was along the lines of Killua's reaction.

It surprised me that people at the forums after reading those chapters (I'm a lurker at onemanga forums) only discuss the very practical and technical consequences of Gon obtaining such an aura, ie the effects on his future nen usage, his life span, ability to defeat the king blablabla. Only two mentioned Gon's friendship with Killua and how Killua would feel. Even then, no one really picked up on those points T___T

I'm not complaining. Just a little shocked at how people can view the same manga and jump straight to focus on such different aspects.

Then came some spoilers of chapter 307 on the forums which showed bits of Killua and Gon's first meeting after Gon's transformation. Oh man, I couldn't stop my eyes from watering after viewing those disjointed images. It just showed Killua pushing Gon away from something and Gon's blank face (with tears!!). It was just so painful to look at, I tell you =((

Perhaps I was too emotional... because Killua's not going to leave or hate Gon even if he transforms into a demon; their bond is stronger than that. Still, things have changed, and if there is no way to undo what Gon has gone through, won't the difference in age become a constant reminder of how he has failed to save Kaito if Gon continues to be with Killua? Since Kaito's irreversible death was what started off Gon's anger which resulted in this gain in power, Gon is never going to be cheerful or happy ever again. And I can't stand that! I don't want to see Gon with that heart wrenching face anymore.. and think about poor Killua! -Sobs-

I guess this shows that Gon and Killua's friendship make up a large part of the reason why I like HxH so much and any cracks in their bond will affect me really hard. I also tend to become an emotional fan girl when characters who were originally happy and cheerful become permanently emo or angsty (rmb Kenshin and Subaru?)

This picture or Gon looking at his hands and tearing hit me really hard too. I was thinking if Gon was crying for himself (probably not) or for Kaito. Or he was crying at the memory of Kaito telling him to always give a finishing blow to the chimera ants. Does Gon even understand what he has given up! Gon, you baka! T____T

I don't believe Togashi will let Gon die this way. After all, Gon's the protagonist! Killing him off would mean the end of Hxh and there are still too many loose ends to wrap up. Sometimes letting a character live is even more cruel then killing him off and we all know that Togashi doesn't show his characters much kindness. So in a twisted way, we can expect Gon to live.

As for the King.. he won't die either. Neither will he achieve world domination. Komugi does not necessarily have to be the one who stops the King by invoking his memories because the Meyrem is still showing his humane side even during his concussion after the explosion. Komugi has already done her part many many chapters ago. Still, something has to happen.. to make him remember. I'm counting on Pufu or Yupi to do something stupid.

Genai Ryodan. T____T I've not seen Shalnark, my laogong for soooooo long! I don't need or want them to join in the fight (lest more characters die). Just hoping that Togashi draws a short chapter on what they're doing in NGI after the things have died down a bit. Please? Pretty please?

The life of a sick and unemployed person

is almost equivalent to the life of a... pig? Okay I'm not sure how a pig lives but I have been sleeping more than half my day away and slacking when I'm awake.

Laptop in the morning, lunch, read books, sleep, watch tv, dinner, watch tv and read, sleep. Repeat cycle with some variations between watching tv and reading books. Gaaahh and I still lost weight. I have recovered my voice but the coughing fits and phlegm still trouble me once in a while.

Will blog about HxH in the near future because now is not the best time for me to... produce tears and mucus =( I will get a block nose and if a coughing fit comes then, it's only too easy that I choke and die.

Actually I dread using my laptop these few days. I'm supposed to be updating the fan fiction but i'm not and the longer I drag, the harder it is to get the story out. Doesn't help when the reviewers don't seem to like the pairing I have in mind much =((

Cowardly guy!!

Hunter X Hunter 307

I wonder if I was the only one who teared just looking at two raw picture scans from the latest chapter.

Elaboration here