Oohayo minna! Irrasahimashe! That's about all the japanese I know, perhaps a daijoubo and iie betsuni here and there more, but don't expect all the fancy schmacy jazz some of you erudites have learnt because you had the time and patience on your hands!
Hmm? About ME?
Yep, that's exactly what my life is like. Plenty of crazy stuff happens right around me but I'm never the object of such craziness, I'm always the stunned bystander, left wistfully staring... or gawking (I pray it's not the latter, but sadly it is 90% of the times)
Recently I seem to have developed a somewhat retarted habit of using one word thrice in a row, I blame these god damned addictive shoujo scanlations I can't scarf down fast enough! While we're on that, I'm going to straight up admit I have a hugantic peter pan compex about high school romances and happy endings, so much so that I avoid the BEST titles if I know that there's the teensiest bit sadness in them (yes, my levels of ostrichdom amaze do they not?), case in point NANA. That mangaka can draw crazy cool titles, but Parakisu itself scarred me for a month, I am not touching another tear jerker!
How did I get into the anime/manga/otakudom craze? Oh come now, you know it's going to take over the world eventually, it was inevitable. Sighh... you're still curious... Well, it started the way it always does with Cartoon Network thinking farsightedly for once and airing some anime during the daytime slot. It was Speed Racer. Hehe, to be honest, I couldn't have asked for a better first-timer to pop my anime cherry! Those forever open mouths and the whirlwind dub speed! This was of course when I was barely 8, so I may have taken it lightly, and not even realised that the people who were behind the creation of that masterpiece were different from Hanna Barbera...
Next came Ninja Robots, and this is where the obsessive gene took root! It aired weekdays at 4 30 and I absolutely HAD to be awake/skip parties/run home from friend's houses when the clock struck 4 25, coz this was my first exposure to smexy bishies controlling super human mechas! It made quite the impression, however, it was discontinued soon enough and I was left a hollow shell of a 10 year old because of it.
Aaah the golden period... Fall 2000. My friend may have casually "mentioned" or shook me a 100 times in the bus ride home from school that the most awesome and life changing anime I'll ever see [I am completely clueless about the existance of manga at this point, to me it may have sounded like mango mispronounced by a toddler] was airing on AXN and I absolutely had to see it! Ironically, I missed it the first time she instructed me to see it, and I was most apologetic in the bus (and kind of resentful, it was just TV after all I thought! Hahah how much would change in a week!). Next week I dutifully tuned in at 11AM and da ding... 2 of the most handsome men ever created entered my existance and floored me! I may have been catatonic through the 8 hours is took for Fushigi Yuugi to reair at 7 in the evening! Yes, this is the real stage that anime gripped me hard, where day and night, during boring physics tests and english class I saw only a bishie approaching the animised me in place of the shoujo in my fanstasies and fan sites browsing took up 60% of the day once school was over. Sigh... good days!
Manga is a pretty recent phenomenon, as recent in fact, as late january 2009. I was always aware since 2000 that SE Asia produce boatloads of comics but only in black and white, and initially I wondered how people were moved so much without colour! *flayed* Once I gave it a shot though, I understood the hoopla surrounding the artwork and complex storylines, as compared to what I was accustomed to. So the first manga I did end up reading later turned out to be another of Watase's titles (not a coincidence) Zettai Kareshi and I fell in love all over again.
Crazy crazy crazy about Night Tenjou and other Watase Yuu bishies. Actually, I'm perma-swooned over bishies in general! I feel very strongly about independent and strong willed female leads in manga/anime and love good lol-inducing shows like School Rumble and Ouran where characters cry rivers of tears, slump into corners and turn into puppy dog poses when faced with their respective heroines. I have pretty much never experienced the head over heels feeling for a real bishoumen so I try to vicariously live it out with the appropriate manga and would love suggestions on any particular manga/anime to read and watch!
This is me reading the many delicious manga releases I find in plenty. Of course, a sprinkling of tasteful smut never hurt anyone! ~_^
Gosh darn it, they ought to allow more than 7 fav peeps~! No one can limit their love to just 7! So here are the other top contenders in no particular order:
Yuna Anisaki - Very raburie delicate bishies!
Mikimoto Rin - LOVE the chasteness and the tension!
Kyousuke Motomi
Kanoko Sakurakoji
Mitsuki Kako
Nakamura Asumiko
Ayumi Rin
Aikawa Saki
Ukyou Ayane - OBVIOUSLY! No one does smut like she do smut!
Must read further mangakas (personal notes)
OSAKABE Mashin
Sugi Emiko
While it's touching sometimes when a bishie suddenly kisses the crying heroine, I really get annoyed if it happens too often in a manga coz it really messes with your brain and ... girls should be happy when they're kissed man, stop it with the pained damsel expression and watery eyes already!
Oh and the soundtrack/OST/character singles from Fushigi Yuugi still bring a tear/several of them to my eyes whenever I listen to them, which is almost every day. I love the upbeat soundtrack for School Rumble and Ouran. It's total dance revolution!
I love love love playing casual strategy/time management games of the playfirst and sandlot variety, and have wasted many a youthful days trying to beat my high scores and secure an online medal! Yes, obsession does strange things to your sense of clarity indeed!
Eee hee hee also, when I hear the karaoke versions of some of my favourite anime OSTs I really really really badly want to learn to play the piano (forte, not casio) so that I can play them as well as the original composers have. Good grief will I ever grow up?!
If you ever need someone to serenade you with Setsunakutemo... Zutto or Yume Kamo Shirenai or some equally moving/sappy song, don't hesitate to ask! I live to sing these falling in love and unrequited love songs!
Most useful thing you'll read here: My reviews are heinously ruthless, but only because I feel deeply for the shoujo genre (*_~), and don't want others wasting their time on mangas which don't end up moving you or resonating on some level. So if you enjoy solid storylines where the heroine does more than swoon (though swooning is the most important part!) and weep, and the intimate scenes take your breath away momentarily, and the story arc actually progresses beyond two characters moaning each other's names, you might find my reviews useful, otherwise, even I think they're a tad too harsh towards some of the mangakas. I mean they work hard on this! It is NOT easy to draw as well as think up characters AND write dialogue! It's a killer profession man!
But most importantly, I need to get myself a yukata 'coz those things look freakin' awesome!
PS There's more to me than anime and manga obviously, but it's not as interesting, though if you absolutely insist on knowing, buzz me on facebook or on the message board below!
