Rayearth

Rayearth by CLAMP... :( . First of all, I'm not a fan of CLAMP's artwork, and I found many panels confusing to look at. Second, and more importantly, I found the story EXTREMELY cliche and cheesy. It's about 3 Tokyo junior high girls that get transported to another world where they are the "legendary magic knights" and must save the princess in order to save this world they're in. The girls often mention how this world/legend is a lot like a video game, but the problem is it's TOO much like a video game. It's basically:
1) Get informed that you must save the world to fulfill the prophecy
2) Find the magic weapon-maker who sends you to collect the magic materials for your weapons
3) Fight various enemies that randomly appear in an attempt to stop you along the way
4) Get the materials, get the weapons, then one by one get literally upgraded and increase your friendship along the way
5) Defeat the bad guy in a G-rated manner (there's a bit of a twist but I won't give it away)
I wasn't expecting much judging by the back cover anyway, but still...ugh. There's an anime, but I dare not watch. Sorry CLAMP, sorry Taylor who lent me the book, but Rayearth gets zero stars out of five.

P.S. Please vote on the poll!

Howl's Moving Castle

Finally! My friends told me this was a good Ghibli/Miyazaki movie so we watched it at one their birthday parties on the weekend. It's based off of a novel by Diana Wynne Jones, and it was really quite good. It's about a girl named Sophie that gets a curse from a witch that turns her into an old lady. She ends up in the moving castle (it's what it sounds like) of a wizard named Howl and she and Howl fall in love. It's not the most interesting or exciting film but still pretty entertaining. Markl and Calcifer are my favourites, and Turnip Head was too until that thing that happened to him that I won't give away. Three out of five stars.

Princess Mononoke

Phew, this one was better than Nausicaa! It's seemingly set in feudal Japan and is very good (though quite long). Gods in the form of large animals live in a forest and some can turn into demons that are driven by hate. A boy gets cursed by a demon and goes on a journey to hopefully find a cure, but instead meets humans that are waging war agaist the gods of the forest. The animation in this one seemed a little different to me, but it was still alright. I got confused as to what the wolf girl's name was, Mononoke or Sana or San (it's San for those who are curious), but she was my favourite character besides the cute/creepy little kodama. It also came to my attention that the monk with the red nose held a good resemblance to Wario. Another great film from Hayao Miyazaki and good ol' Studio Ghibli. Four out of five stars.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

The trailers looked good, the reviews and sumaries sounded good, my friends said it was good...but alas. Nausicaa is about a young princess living in a post-apocalyptic Earth (way in the future) near deadly toxic jungles. The remains of human civilization are fighting each other and the jungle is spreading, so the princess has to get them to make peace and all that jazz. I paid $30 for it and was excited to watch it, but was greatly disappointed. Even though it's a pretty good story, I just found the film a little boring. I'm not sure if it was the pace or what, I just know that I felt a little let down by this so-called masterpiece. Two out of five stars.

P.S. I also purchased Princess Mononoke, so stay tuned for a review.

Mermaid Saga

I didn't like this 13 episode anime, I guess because I thought the story progression was boring, and also it's extremely violent and bloody (and the blood looks really dumb). It's about a man that's immortal because he's eaten mermaid flesh, but the flesh usually kills the eater or turns them into a monster. He meets an immortal girl and they go on a journey together. The last episode is by far the best, and also the scariest, not for the ending of the story but just in general. The last two episodes were apparantly too violent to air on TV, so if you have a weak stomach or a faint heart, think twice before watching this (and apparently the manga is even MORE violent). One out of five stars.

Manga vs. Anime

It's finally on my blog...the eternal question. I have previous posts called Physical vs. Online and Dubs vs. Subs, but this is the ultimate battle (okay, maybe I'm over-doing it). I've read more manga than I have watched anime, and what I prefer about manga is that it contains the original story/dialogue (anime sometimes changes the plot line a little or adds/excludes certain characters). Anime on the other hand is "easier" in my mind because I don't need to go to downtown Victoria and purchase each volume in order to finish the series (as I don't like reading from a screen). Also, the art of anime is often simplified in order for the animation to be easier, although sometimes the art in manga is not very good. It's really all a matter of opinion, so tell me in the comments if you prefer manga ro anime!

Mistress Fortune

At last, I've been waiting for so long! Mistress Fortune is a one volume fantasy/romance manga by Arina Tanemura. I thought it was cute, with lots of laughs. The art is great, and it's a shame it's such a short manga. The end contains two bonus stories which are very funny, as well as a double-sided poster (hooray!). It wasn't that deep or anything, but still very enjoyable. Three and three quarter stars out of five (I've been very fractional with my ratings, haven't I?).

P.S. I updated the poll, please vote!

New Post...Coming Soon!

Just letting y'all know that I WILL be posting a review soon. I've started watching the anime for Mermaid Saga and have ordered the Mistress Fortune manga, which should be arriving any day now. Three sentence post, I think that's a record for me ;)

Relief Post

I'd nearly forgotten about this blog's existence, so I felt the need to randomly update it (I haven't read any manga or watched any anime lately so I apologize). Two mangas I want to read right now are:
Mistress Fortune by Arina Tanemura
Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura by Arina Tanemura

I want to finish reading:
Vampie Knight by Matsuri Hino
Cactus's Secret by Nana something-or-other
Rasetsu by Chika Shiomi
Black Bird by what's-her-face
Chibi Vampire by someone-with-a-K-in-her-name (maybe I'll resort to the anime, *sigh*)

I meant to make a post on the 12th to wish Arina-sensei a happy birthday, but as I said I practically forgot about Mang-ime Face...Happy late birthday, Arina-sensei! I'm waiting for the North American live action film of Death Note to come out (I don't know if they've even started making it and I'm not sure if I'll even want to see it). Once again, out of ideas to post.

Deathbook: The Musical

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOsoODwTWHY

This is a hilarious video someone took at an anime convention of some people doing their own musical version of Death Note. You have to have read/watched Death Note to get it, so if you haven't then don't waste your time.Thanks to Taylor for favouriting this so I could see it! Go watch!

Uh-oh...

Just to let you all know (although I assume "all" is just Kirsten and Jenny and possibly Sarah...that's depressing), I will be posting much less often now (that's kind of old news isn't it?) because I'm running out of topics and have been busy with school since I have exams coming up. I post on my music blog at the same time I post on this blog, so that hasn't been very frequent, but I still have lots of topics for that and will probably post on that one more often (keyword: probably). That is all.

My YouTube

If anyone is interested in my YouTube channel, my username is jkrg100. I've only posted one video but I've made another one. However I was unable to upload it and will try again later. Please subscribe if you have a youtube account. Sorry for the irrelevance to the blog, bye!

QUESTION

So this post is different because rather than reviewing a manga or anime, I would like to ask about them. There is a series I've been wanting to read called Fushigi Yugi by Yuu Watase (it's 18 volumes and has an anime). After Yuu-sensei finished Fushigi Yugi, she wrote the PREQUEL, called Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden. I'm wondering if I sould read the prequel first for obvious reasons, or if I should read the the original first because the prequel may have references to it or somehting. If you have a suggestion or a review for this series (NO SPOILERS PLEASE), then I'd love if you'd leave a comment :D

Black Butler

I don't know how many volumes there are, but I've only read one and there's also an anime I haven't seen (I'm not a very good "critic" am I?). This one's about a twelve year old boy in England who is the only remaining member of his wealthy family. He has a butler named Sebastian who caters to his every need and takes very good care of him, but is Sebastian really human?! POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT: Just the asking of that queston kinda gives a way the fact that Sebastian is a demon. Two of my friends are very into this series and told me it gets really exciting further into it. So, based off of my little knowledge, two and a half out of five stars.