more random thoughts on Spring 08

Reviews get shorter as I get more excited and tired at the same time. LOL.

Oh, and cross-posted to Tachikomatic Days.

Neo Angelique Abyss: This is typical shoujo fare. Well, typical Angelique romance to be more precise. The only saving grace would be Angelique (the heroine, not the franchise)'s rather cute personality. Okay. I like her face faults. That's about it. I couldn't stand the random girls who refused to friggin' run away when told to do so. Goddamnit. The bishounen are rather stock affairs so far so I might not be following this.

Special A: Oh I love this. I'd take this over NAA as the shoujo series of the season anyday. I absolutely love Hikari even though the fact that she looks like Rahzel from Hatenkou Yuugi. It's very much in the trend of new shoujo manga with strong female leads who really take no nonsense from the usually annoying or tsundere male lead. Tsundere male leads are GOOD. Clueless female leads which make tsundere male leads go absolutely mad are even better.

Special A's looking fine for a high-school comedy at the moment. I'm looking forward as to seeing how this distinguishes itself from other shoujo goodies like Ouran, and Shiawase 3chome (which really, should be animated).

Vampire Knight: Another shoujo series for this season. Well, Spring is indeed the time for romance so it's no surprise here. The art style will take a little getting used to be for a first episode, I'm satisfied. I'm not raving about it but it's okay. Nothing much felt about it. Vampires hurray! Hot tsundere men, hurray! Decent female lead hurray! But it rubs me, well it doesn't rub me much at all. Shoujo is a hit and run affair with me. Sometimes I really go for a series (like Special A and possibly Itazura na Kiss) but other times, it's really meh.

I like the uniforms though. Plus, the humorous moments are funny, that I have to give it to them. I am a sucker for well animated funnies. Especially the whole PUNCH/PUSH scene.

Candy Boy: It's yuri. Now normally I like yuri (and I like a little BL but both in small doses please thanks) but this was... annoying. I didn't like the start of it, and I didn't like the end of it. I didn't like the middle bits too. It came across as clingy. Candy Boy, to me, is your girlfriend gone wrong. Not only has she turned into a lesbian, she's just attached herself onto your eyes and won't stop letting you see her attack other girls. Oh god. It feels very empty. Alot of fanservice but it's all fluff.

There's nothing sweet about Candy Boy. Period.

Nabari no ou: Slight BL hints were very funny and not overkill. I liked the pacing of the first episode though some of the nindo terms were lost on me because I was watching the raw. I'm quite thankful that there's finally another ninja series that made it on air besides Naruto because as much as I love Naruto (the manga), we really need some realistic portrayals of ni- Okay I know that sentence just made me sound like I'm crazy but really. At least it's portrayed in contemporary times, not some steam-feudal era with anachronistic phones and electronic systems.

Still, I do not like the choice of placing Kugimiya Rie as Rokujo. If she went for a lower-pitched voice, maybe I'd have liked it. But she sounds too feminine for a boy Rokujo's age. No, please no. I know that women can do shounen roles well - PLEASE LOOK AT PAKU ROMI AS KEY EXAMPLE - so don't botch it. I don't want to hear Shana in a boys body.

xxxHolic Kei: The first animated season of xxxHolic scared me. I never touched anything else xxxHolic animated ever again. Kei brought me back. Doumeki x Watanuki~ I hope they don't go and ruin this season. D:

Library Wars: HI. I THINK THIS MIGHT BE ONE OF MY FAVOURITES THIS SEASON? YES. INFORMATION BLOCKADE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I'm sorry but I really want to be on the Library Taskforce (and 170cm tall but that's beside the point) now and stand up for the rights of books. I love books. This appeals to the Lit major in me. <3 Hurrah.

OFF TO GET THAT GOOD GPA! :D

sweets paradise is paradise

I was blog-surfing the other day and came across a set of photos that looked extremely familiar.

Holy mother of Mont Blanc - isn't that SWEETS PARADISE? I thought as I recognized the decor and the impossibly delicious cakes (well, impossibly delicious for that price ;D). Hit enter for nostalgia lane.

I have a really bad memory - hence my OCD recollections with every possible detail in place - but it occured to me that this might be the Sweets Paradise that gweenmeanie brought Ian, me and the other guy to! (I'm sorry, all I could remember was the food, and the fact that there was a record store - HMV I think - next to it. And the wtf expressions Ian had when he was eating cake. My cousin is a very amusing fellow.)


It was the Ueno ABAB outlet? I did a google search and apparently the 7th floor of Ueno ABAB has Sweets Paradise and HMV, so I shouldn't be wrong. Er, I only remember walking through the shoes department in Ueno ABAB. =A=;; I really fail at life, don't I?

( nom nom )

Oh man, I really have a craving for cake right now. Speaking of cousins, there should totally be a cousins-only trip to Japan soon. So we can all spazz over cake and food. X3

I wish I had actually taken photos of the place but I think I was too preoccupied with eating flying around the place because in utter awe of the selection of cakes and food (pasta! pasta! curry rice! NEON GREEN SODA <3333) than whipping out my bulky S3 to take photos. I really should get a compact camera so I don't break my back. lulz.

I'm not a connoisseur of cakes so I won't go into how good or bad the cakes were but they were gooooood. Worth every single cent. (And more, really, because I stuff myself with mont blanc, strawberry shortcake and what else something with blueberries.)

Okay. Um. Yeah. I shall get back to essay outlines. I think I'm going to do Midnight's Children for my final EN2111 essay and do something on Othering, Coffee, and Starbucks in Japan for the USS term paper. I'm supposed to tie it in with my major (which is Lit and tentatively Japanese Studies) and some topic that was spoken about during the course so... yeah. I think I'm going to screw myself over but I'll have fun doing it? O:

I want to look for MoPara photos now. Wait. I have some.

EDIT: HobbySearch just informed me that my Guilty Gear Bridget is in stock! Should be receiving it around the same time my vPost shipment comes in. Seriously, I shall never use vPost Japan again unless its for books or Rakuten items. Importing my Figma Lelouch and Lucky Star Clayroids were such a pain in the ass.

EDIT EDIT: !!!!!!!! Okami for Wii is being released soon! (which reminds me to complete the game on the PS2... =A=;;)