Tactics Advance Progress Report. Well, as of press time, I have already completed 138 missions in 50 hours and 27 minutes. That gives me 162 missions left to complete. However, I'm thinking of skipping all the minor missions and just go straight to the major ones so that I can finsh the game fast. Anyway, I have created a second save file which I can use if I want to complete all 300 missions and job classes.

The reason why I'm in a hurry to finish Tactics Advance is because I want to start playing Tactics Ogre this week. I tried it for a few minutes a while ago and I became interested with the story right away since it's of the same mold as that of Final Fantasy Tactics and the first two Suikoden games. What's also interesting is that you can actually choose the path you want for your main character--or so I heard. He can be a goody-two-shoes or a not so goody-two-shoes, depending on the burdens,dreams and qualities you assign to him. For my character Alphonse (Apparently, this is the character's official name; I saw it in a walkthrough, here are the things I chose:

Bear which burden? Affection
Walk which path? Wealth
Design which plan? Strife
Swear which oath? Revenge (I was actually torn whether to choose this or Victory. The result of a toss-coin gave me this.)
Share which vision? Terror
Shape which future? Change

Obviously, I'm trying to go the non-goody-two-shoes path. I was actually thinking of Cao Cao while I was choosing the traits and the future of Alphonse (using strife to ensure change will take place. It's kinda like Guo Jia's Darkness Technique). I'm excited to see as to how my character will act as the game progresses, what decisions he will be making that will cause terror and strife. It's actually refreshing to play a game wherein the main character doesn't always walk the path of justice and righteousness.

( Wherein Meme gets even geekier and talks about the game's Turn System )

Shiki 13-15. These are the chapters that I've been waiting to get scanlated ever since I saw the Chinese scans. It's mostly because of the Tohru - Natsuno feeding scene which wasn't as horrifying as it looked especially with the translated dialogue. It's actually a pretty sad scene showing a friendship that is true yet complicated. (By the way,the conversation between Tohru and Natsuno about the concept of human beings becoming an accepted source of food in the society was quite interesting. More or less, Tohru was trying to say, as he compares the killing of human beings to humans killing animals for food, that humans aren't that special that they should be exempted from becoming food for others. Humans are still part of the food chain, after all.)

I was also looking forward to the scenes involving the Kanemasa people. Aside from Sunako and Tatsumi, we barely see the other family members. It's interesting to know how they don't like to be called vampires, which they are but with some major differences. For one, they don't sparkle. Or at least, only one of them does.



I don't think the fact that he looks and sparkles like Chou Koumei is a coincidence.

( More vampire talk )

RoT 292.This chapter shows the aftermath of Zhou Yu's genius -- killing twenty thousand people in the east and dumping heir corpses in the river in order to create chaos in the west:hiting two birds with one stone. Eight Geniuses, each one of you, you never stop to amaze me. But I think, the highlight of this chapter is the appearance of a new character. And I love how he talks and how his men had to verify what he really means. XD

"We put some fucking rocks downstream and that mother-fucker gets all flooded. Once they return to Lujiang, we’ll leave a pile of shit at Haihun."

"Boss, do you mean… station at Haihun?"

"The lot of ‘em gotta shit, right? Oh hell, say station then. Ask our Lord for five thousand more men so they can shit up the place."

"Yessir."

" This dumbass Liu Xun can’t see through my gut at all. Start the fight already – my hands are itching so bad the pus is ’bout to break out!"

" Sir, here comes a representative from Shangliao."

" Shangliao’s leaders have met among themselves, boss. They will not pay rations tribute to Liu Xun."

"Good. Tell’em to flee with their mothers if Liu Xun flares up! Once Liu Xun closes in on Shangliao, my troop will drill him a new asshole."

"Boss… do you mean an ambush from behind?"

Oh, Lu Meng. How I love your crude and dirty way of saying things.

Just read Shiki chapter 13-15. Oh, the Natsuno/Tohru angst. For Tohru's sake, I wish he'd just die, and I mean really die because it's obvious that he is suffering from doing something that he doesn't want to do in the first place. I'd blog more about this once I get back from Roxas. I'll be staying there tomorrow until Monday.

Meanwhile, here's a meme taken from fannish5

List the five scariest characters ever.

• I consider most of the 108 outlaws of Outlaws of Liangshan Marsh or All Men are Brothers or Suikoden or however you want to call it to be quite scary. For example, there's the crafty Lady Sun (also known as Sun the Witch) who likes to drug her victims and turn them into dumplings, which she actually sells in her tavern. (Well,at least, she doesn't purposely serves them to the relatives of ehr victms unlike a certain pink-haired 'villainess' I know.) Then, there's Li Kui whose fiery temper has taken hundreds of lives. He has no regard for gender, age , status and character. He kills whenever he feels like it. However, I think the scariest of them all has to be Song Jiang because all of these 107 strong, talented and merciless outlaws bend to his every will and they never question him at all. They do everything he says (Song Jiang could have conquered the whole world if only he had been more greedy and power-hungry enough), even when Song Jiang's sense of morality becomes a little bit twisted at times. ( S P O I L E R S )
  
• Houshin Engi's Dakki is scary because not only is she sly, powerful, and intellectually gifted, she is also merciless and makes hamburgers out of handsome, young men. I think she and Lady Sun would get along well and they could, in fact, trade recipe secrets.
  
• I know this is cheating but majority of the characters in Ravages of Time fit the 'Scariest Character' title; I just can't choose one. They're the type of people who'd form an alliance with you and then sooner or later, you'd find out it's nothing but a part of some scheme to stab you in the back. To make matters worse, almost everyone is a freakin' genius. You don't really want to mess with this bunch.
  
• Luck Stealer's Kurusu Yuusei is also scary because of his ability to steal a person's luck, which can lead to death if he wills it, or if he's being sadistic, he can steal enough luck to make you suffer for a long time but not enough to kill you. (IMHO, it's a fate worse than death)
  
• NEURO. He gives me the creeps. But I love him. XD

Before anything else, cavechan, just a heads up, another team (blackabyssteam) has picked up Shiki. (Finally, this manga is getting some attention, because we know it's severely lacking that despite how good it is.) So far, the team has scanlated only chapter 12. Still, can't wait for the SC tankoubon scans.:D

Okay so chapter twelve shifts the story back to Toshio again. Poor Toshio. He really looks like shit now. He has dark circles under his eyes and looks like he ha forgotten what a razor is. But it's really understandable why the guy has no time to maintain his physical appearance, considering what he has to deal with. And it seems they have become an unhealthy obsession for him. I saw last month's Chinese raw and while I don't understand any Chinese, the pictures already say it all. It was a very difficult moment for Toshio because it involved someone dear to him and what made it even worse was that Toshio knew he had no choice but to do it. He had to set aside his personal feelings for what could be the first step towards the salvation of everyone living in Sotoba.

On the otherhand, Muroi is looking mighty fine as always. :D But I can't help but think that he has a certain connection to the Kanamesa people, aside from his chummy relationship with Sunako. Speaking of Sunako, she's looking creepy as usual. I love her though, and her fashion sense. ( Cut for spoilers )

Overall, Chapter 12 was a good chapter. And I think Ikumi-san is pretty cool. :D

Meanwhile, RoT's 290th chapter was finally uploaded this morning! I'm crying out of joy because I waited for this chapter to be uploaded in Baidu for nearly three weeks. 291 even got uploaded first. Anyway, the scanlation for this chapter was also done this afternoon. Shodar really didn't waste anytime and us loyal followers of the series are really grateful for the fast editing. :D And we are grateful for another dose (albeit short) of Organizer a.k. Wise Man Lu! Also, add Sun Ce and Zhou Yu to the mix, and I am a very happy reader. :D

I think Organizer Lu's early appearance has made the Sun Ce/Yu Ji storyline even more interesting than it already is, especially with the internal and external strategies he has set up. I no longer want to speculate as to how the recent events could lead to Sun Ce's demise because things have gone even more complicated and I don't want to stress myself thinking all about it. XD I'll just wait for the next chapters.

Meanwhile, why wasn't Zhongda and Organizer Lu's enounter shown further? They must have talked after Organizer Lu and his men saved Zhongda right?

As for Outlaws of the Marsh, I'm already on the 29th Chapter and I just noticed one thing---WHY ARE ALL THE WIVES IN THIS NOVEL GREEDY, ADULTEROUS, UNGRATEFUL, SCHEMING BITCHES WHO LOVE MAKING THEIR HUSBANDS LIVES MISERABLE? There's one who isn't but she kills people and turns them into dumplings.(But ILU,Lady Sun!) There's also another one who is actually normal and is very loyal to her husband--but she hung herself. 0_0

On a different note, I visited HelloQuizzy again and you know what that means.

( The Official Myers-Briggs Personality Test )

I am so disppointed with this chapter. No, it's not because of the story itself. Actually, this chapter is pretty good as always, but I'm sad because of the severe lack of Yukio (again) and because Rin stopped wearing the hairclip. :( I know he lost it during the fight last chapter but I'm sure Bon has supplies?

Speaking of Bon, I didn't expect him to be such a flirt. I thought that's supposed to be Shima's role. XD Too bad for them, Shiemi is socially-challenged. She doesn't recognize flirtng even if it hits her in the face. XD And Rin's reaction to Bon's awesomeness was priceless! Of course, it inspired him to memorize the Bible verses too but he sorta failed...Oh Rin.

Meanwhile, I love the colored splash page. Katou, Fujiryuu and Asada are some of the artists whose colored pages I always looked forward to seeing. Going back to the AoE colored page, I find Eminem's (To non-AoE readers, no it's not the actual rap artist. It's a nickname Rin gave to one of his classmates) insertion to be quite amusing. He looks so out of place as usual. Also, Bunny boy is missing. Well, Paku is too but she's dropping from the class (or so she says) so it's not like we'll be seeing more of her later. I wonder if Katou-sensei deliberately chose not draw him because he has not been properly introduced in the story yet (But so is Eminem. Why is he there?) or he just completely forgot about him.

Now about the story---( the mystery continues )

Meanwhile, I've made more Suikoden icons because pretty illustrations must be turned into icons. LOL (3x Zhang Qin; 2x Bai Sheng; ix Shi Jin; 1x Zheng Tianshou; 2x Sun the Witch)

001	002	003
004	005	006
007	008	009

I love Suikoden. Suikoden II is one of my most favorite RPGs of all time (it's because of Hai Yo's cooking contest XD) and I enjoyed Suikoden I enough to play it again and again (Tir McDohl is love.). And if only I had the appropriate console, I would have purchased every Suikoden game that Konami has made. I love Suikoden so much that I even tried to find the novel from which the games are loosely based from. Sadly, I can only find the novel in Chinese. I can't find any English translations online nor can I find a translated version in any of the local bookstores. Pity. I also can't find an English version for Houshin Engi.

But I digress.

When I first heard about Akaboshi~Ibun Suikoden, I became interested right away because, yanno, it's Suikoden. It's about rebellion. Collecting the 108 Stars. Overthrowing the tyrannical government. It's based on Chinese literature. It should be fun. Right?

( More whining under the cut )

Meanwhile, I've already downloaded RoT's 35th volume. I love the Sun Ce cover. What the heck--I love anything Sun Ce. :D Now for a few petty comments:

Am I the only one who feels a bit cheated that the Zhang He Versus Zhao Yun/Zhang Liao fight wasn't shown? Maybe even just one round of it? Based from Zhang He's description, it sounds epic and full of GAR.

I've already mentioned this to the1daylight before, but I'm saying it again. The scene below really makes me sad.
( A picture paints a thousand words )

Meanwhile I find the page below very funny in all its irony, especially Cao Cao's line because it's true. (He just doesn't know it yet. LOL)
( Oh , Ah-man if only you know )

SO MUCH SUN CE VS GAN NING AWESOMESS!

You know, I kinda pity the Taiping guys, considering how Sun Ce is using them. It sucks to be them. (Then again, as if Yu Ji won't plot against Sun Ce sooner or later. -_-)

On a fully unrelated note, I saw the raw for Tegamibachi 31. And look,an OTP moment!

( Lag, I'm sorry. You got Oniichan back but I'm still crying. )

As I've said in my previous post about Ao no Exorcist, I really like Shiemi. She's cute but not too cute that she becomes annoying. And as what ensuing has said, Shiemi really tries her best to be strong . While I don't agree on her twisted view of helping Kamiki by becoming her bitch (and Rin doesn't agree either, bur Rin, you dolt, it's somewhat your fault too -_-), I do understand where she's coming from. Shiemi doesn't want to be a person who hides behind someone's back all the time (in this case, Yukio's or Rin's); she wants to become someone who is strong enough to help others too. That and she's really desperate to have a friend. It's a pity that Rin doesn't seem to realize how his denial had affected Shiemi. But I guess he was just being your typical teenage boy, one who cares too much about his macho image and is afraid to be teased by other boys his age because the one person he's closest to, aside from Yukio, is actually a girl.

Meanwhile, I'm starting to get an RPG-esque feel from Ao no Exorcist, most especially now that we know that the Exorcists are actually divided into five classes (Aria, Doctor, Tamer, Dragoon and Knight), and the class an Exorcist belongs to depends on his weapon of choice and capabilities. (Similar to the Hunter types in Hunter X Hunter.) It reminds me of those turn-based, strategy RPG games like Final Fantasy Tactics.

So in the AnE world, everyone has to be a Meister in any of the classes in order to be an Exorcist, similar to the FFT world wherein the most basic job class is the Squire. Aria is an exorcist who fights by reading the Bible or the sacred scriptures. I think I can compare this to FFT's Oracle class. Dragoon is someone who uses heavy weaponry. Yukio is under this class as well as the Doctor Class , which makes him twice as awesome. But I digress. Dragoon can be compared I guess to the Lancer class. Doctor reminds me of the White Mage Class and the Chemist Class; Tamer makes me think of the Mediator Class and the Summoner Class (since a Tamer's main job is to control a demon); and the Knight Class--well, FFT has its own Knight Class too. Rin has chosen to be a Knight since Knights uses swords and he has a sword. Very logical choice, Rin.

Now, there's something I find ironic. ( Spoilers ) But I guess, this makes Ao no Exorcist all the more exciting. The schemes have just started and I can't wait for the day when these characters' real motives are shown.

On a fully unrelated note, shirtless!Rin FTW.

Now, on RoT 269. First and foremost, I find the panels with Sun Ce on it a bit melancholic. Chan Mou has drawn him either with his back turned or only with his profile shown, and if you do see his face, his eyes seem lifeless. I don't know but maybe these sad vibes I'm getting from the panels is because I already know Sun Ce's fate in the story. On the other hand, Zhou Yu and Sun Quan are looking very fine. I really like Sun Quan's character design. It's because of the hair flip , I think.

Also, I like how the Yu Ji storyline is being handled so far. Chan Mou has given Yu Ji tactical skills and an ambition to control the populace through religion so this makes the arc a lot more interesting. And Yu Ji looks so evil on the third to the last page, which is rather ironic for someone being referred to as the Great Saint. His expression is not saintly at all nor is his plan to send Sun Ce to hell.

Meanwhile, I am surprised that Archie's engagement to Veronica has actually become such a big deal. I haven't bought nor read Archie for a looooooong time now (like 10 years) so I'm not very updated with canon. But like other people, I'm a bit upset. Betty/Veronica is OTP.

Earlier, I downloaded an LQ raw of Ao no Exorcist's fifth chapter. First, I think the Shiemi splash page is rather nice. I like Shiemi; she's cute but not overly so that she turns out to be annoying. And I like her dynamics wih Rin. While they have the chemistry to be paired off with each other (I know fandom will do that eventually. Heck, I'm starting to ship them. A bit.), I think they work best as friends.

But to be honest, Shiemi and Rin's friendship isn't the main reason, why I'm posting today. It's about Rin's new hairstyle! In the previous chapter, Suguro gave Rin a hairclip to keep his fringe away from his eyes since Rin is complaining how bothersome his fringe is when he studies. I did mention before that I like him better without his fringe and hoped he would go fringeless on the next chapter. Well, what do you know--he did just that! Now, Rin looks as cool as Yukio. XD

And speaking of Yukio, I'm glad there's more of him in chapter five. And he gets to save the day again too!

Meanwhile, there's already in Ao no Exorcist community here in LJ. There's not much activity yet but hopefully, it'll start getting active real soon. So fellow worshippers of the Okumura brothers in my f-list, join -

aonoexorcist : D

On a fully unrelated note, HMK, the scanlation team that does the scanlations for Ravages of Time, has already started releasing volume 33, which contains a two-chapter sidestory about how the Handicapped Warriors came about to serve the Sima Clan. I'll probably blog about that later but for now, I just want to say that I love how the grown-up!Sun Quan looks. I'm excited for volume 33 because there'll be a lot of Sun Quan in this volume. As I've mentioned in my Twitter, I'm slowly transferring my obsession from Sun Ce to Sun Quan because my favorite Sun son will be kicking the bucket real soon. :( Well, I wish he won't but you can't really mess with history, can you?

Also, about the volume cover--aren't the Qiao sisters supposed to be exceptionally beautiful or something? They look pretty average to me though. I find Sun Shu and Shan Wu Ling to be much prettier, honestly. Nothing beats Xiao Meng's beauty as Diao Chan though. (STFU Haters!)

Anyway, I wonder if Chen Mou would flesh out their characters or if ,like in the novel, their whole purpose would be just to prove that Sun Ce and Zhou Yu are straight and are not sleeping with each other. be known as Sun Ce's wife and Zhou Yu's wife.

I confess: I love Yasuhiro Kano. I really do. Even if Pretty Face and Mx0 were pretty generic, I loved them both for being simple and funny. I
also love the art. I think Kano's got a lot of talent as an artist; and he's a tight storyteller. He simply needs a better material to work on.

When I saw that he's going to do a oneshot for SQ, I was pretty excited, especially because the preview I've seen showed a manga that is out of
Kano's usual choice of genre (which is comedy, or rom-com with a bit of fantasy.). I heard that Kano's oneshot anthologies are usually darker but I haven't read any of them so Loop will be my first introduction to Yasuhiro Kano's "other side".

Loop is about a man named Jean who has the misfortune of reliving the night of his death over and over again. On the 100th time, he makes an attempt to escape his pending murder while uncovering the real reason why he keeps coming back and the secret behind his death.

I enjoyed Loop alot. The story was fast-paced and interesting. And bloody. I love blood. I think Kano should use his "darker" side more often because he is definitely good at it. I'd like to see him come back to Jump(preferably in SQ or Ultra) with a work like Loop.

So in chapter four, we finally get to know the names of some of Rin's classmates. Sadly, it does not include Eminem yet. He wasn't even in the chapter much. Heck, Yukio wasn't even in the chapter much. (Boo!) I lament the lack of Yukio.

Meanwhile, I find Shima kinda cute. I guess it's the happy, laidback disposition that got me. As for Suguro--well, it seems he is being set up as the manga's token rival-friend, which I think will make his relationship with Rin very interesting once Suguro finds out that Rin also has the blue flame. Either Suguro ends up Rin and be his enemy, or two they sort out their differences and remain friends . It's too early to tell which way Katou-sensei is going with the story. In the meantime, I like their dynamics. I was laughing during the last couple of pages wherein Suguro suggested to Rin that he use a hairclip for his fringe. It was so cute. It was like watching two girls sharing hair tips. By the way, I think Rin should follow Suguro's suggestion and try the fringe-less look, really. He looks fine without it.

But I think the best part of this chapter is the revelation about Mephisto Pheles. ( SPOILERS )

As for Amaymon,doesn't his character design remind you of Tao Ren? I guess it's the hair. He's not as egotistical as Ren though.

( Is it required for the sons of Satan to have a quirky fashion sense? At least, his fashion sense is a lot better than Mephisto's... )

And speaking of Ren, I miss ManKin. I mis Yoh, Manta, Lyserg, Faust (our old Nokia phone still has Faust as its screensaver.) and I miss Horohoro!! Oh drats. Now, I have the urge to read ManKin again.

But on a fully unrelated subject, I have finishing catching up with the scanalations for Amatsuki.The plot is moving on nicely so far. Little by little secrets are being revealed. I love the backstory between Ginshu and Bonten. But frankly, I'm still confused as to what is really going on (Are they playing the game or are they not? ); I guess it'll be much clearer on the next chapters. However, for now, I know for sure that I love Bonten! And Tsuyukusa. And Utsuboshi. And Susutake. And Toki. And Kon. And Kuchiha. And Kurutobi. Everyone! Why Amatsuki's English fandom is so small, despite its awesomeness (great story, great art, Bonten), will forever boggle me.

I can finally sigh in relief. I thought SQ will totally cancel Ice Revo from their line up. It turns out that it's simply going to be
to be converted into an online comic like Tales of Innocence. Better that than none. So I assume, any series that doesn't do well in the readers poll gets converted to an online comic? Or did they transfer Ice Revo to their website to give way for Mayu Shinjo's new series? Speaking of Mayu Shinjo, here's an image of her new series with Naked Ape's Rico on the side...



Sadly, there's still no information as to what her manga will be about. Also,I found out that Go Shimei Desu isn't Mayu Shinjo's first manga in SQ. She published a one-shot in October last year, and I tried to find a scanlation , or even a raw for it but it seems no one really cared enough to scan that one-shot.

Anyway,I'm giving Mayu Shinjo the benefit of the doubt. Who knows? Maybe she can pull it off the way Yoko Kamio did. Maybe she becomes better as a shounen manga-ka. Ah, I can hardly wait for next month. XD

I dn't believe this. According to the news I got from the SQ thread in MH, Ice Revolution will end in SQ #08. Why oh why? I think Ice Revo is a unique , funny series. I mean, how many manga do we have that is about ice skating? *sigh* Well, I hope, SQ doesn't cancel Ao no Exorcist or else I will be seriously mad. *shakes fist*

But despite Ice Revo's cancellation, I'm still slightly happy because I heard that Naked Ape will be doing a oneshot for SQ. I used to read Switch so I'm interested to read Rico and see if it's anything like Switch.

Also, Mayu Shinjo is writing a new series for SQ. I was never a fan of Mayu Shinjo (in fact, I hated her works, no offense to her fans) but I'm interested to see her transition from shoujo to shounen.

Oh shit. Evangelion has been remade and I did not know about this until now? And to think I call myself a fan. Some fan he? Anyway, I found the trailer for Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, the second part of the Rebuild tetralogy (otherwise known as Hideaki Anno’s attempt to milk some money out of a very old cow).



From what I’ve seen (and read about) , the movie will cover Asuka’ s arrival up to her and Shinji’s fight with one of the Angels, but with some changes. For one, there’s a new character was added—some girl named Mari Makinami Illustrious. Also, the EVA Unit 02 has been redesigned and Asuka’s last name was changed from Sohryu to Shikinami, to continue the Japanese maritime vessel name trend. Personally, I prefer Asuka Langley Sohryu to Asuka Langley Shikinami. The former sounds way cooler, more apt for a bitchy badass like Asuka.

But changes or no, the remaking of Evangelion became a very good news for someone like me who has recently rediscovered my love for Evangelion through Gakuen Datenrokou, the AU Evangelion spin-off manga that is serialized in Asuka. The manga features the Angels taking human forms while the EVAs manifest as handheld weapons. I like it much better than Angelic Days because of the art, the characterization (no cheerful Rei here) and the storyline. The only thing I like about Angelic Days is the sheer Asuka/Shinji-ness of it. (As if my icon isn’t obvious enough, I am Asuka/Shinji-biased. XD)

Going back to EVA 2.0, it’s set to show this coming June 27th. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find a torrent for it. (Leecher! XD)

And what’s this--- there is a plan for an Evangelion live-action film? No kidding? I wonder who they will cast for the movie. I wonder if it will be good. Well, I sure hope so. Meanwhile, I’d like to share this fanmade trailer I found in youtube. This has to be one of the best fanmade trailers I’ve seen for any fandom. The editing, the music—they were all perfect. The idea about Kirsten Dunst as Asuka is a bit amusing though. And who is Keanu Reeves supposed to be? Kaji? Hyuuga? Probably not Gendou because as much as I like Keanu, I don’t think he’ll pass for a believable Gendou Ikari.

The more I read JUMP SQ, the more I love it. The magazine markets itself as magazine that serializes good quality manga and based from the manga I've read , it does deliver its promise. Tista, Luck Stealer, Shiki, Kure-nai, Tegamibachi and Ao no Exorcist---these are manga of varying plots, genre and art style. All different from each other and in my opinion, all surprisingly good.

Now, I'd like to add Ice Revolution to the list. To be honest, I didn't expect to get hooked to this series, especilly with the summary I got from MangaHelpers:

Being the daughter of a dojo manager, Oozawa Masaki has been practising nothing but karate. Her chance encounter with a certain young man sparks her interest in figure skating. Can a mannish Masaki transform into a sweet, lovely girl on the skating rink?

It's a manga about ice skating. Not really my cup of tea. I thought there's no way a manga about ice skating could be that fun. But I tried it anyway because I was curious about how the other SQ series are. I thought I'll never get past the first chapter. Boy, was I wrong! I fell in love with the story after readng the first chapter and them I went ahead and downloaded the rest.

Masaki is such a lovable character. You just can't help but root for her in her quest to be good in ice skating, and in her quest to get Kaoru as well. I literally squealed in this scene:

( Your Prince is right here )

And I normally don't do that.(Though to be honest, I ship her more with Saya. There's not enough Yuri in this world. Haha.) Now, I can't wait for chapter 8 because chapter 7 ended in a bad way for Masaki. I hate Kaoru for making her cry. He's such a dense boy. At least, there's Saya. :(

My internet is soooo slow right now. I can't dowload even just a 3 mb file. And this has to happen just as soon as I find out that there are new updates for Mr. Fullswing! I've been stuck on chapter 27 for thelongest time (a year or two, I think. KO-Scans was the team doing the scanlation back then.) and I really , really, really, REALLY want to know what happens next. I've waited two years for an update, ISP. Don't deny me the chance to read it.

Meanwhile, I guess I'll do some catching up with Kure-nai. Luckily, I was able to download the chapters that I've missed earlier this morning.

On a fully unrelated note, I'm currently listening to the news about what happened to Rochelle Barrameda's sister. First, the husband and his family killed Ruby Rose and then they placed the body inside a metal container, and then they slid the container inside a cemented box. And then this cemented box was thrown into a lake. That was really, really heinous. What happened to Ruby Rose reminded me of the book I've read before (If I'm Missing or Dead was the title I think), wherein the author's sister went missing for so long, only to find out later on that her husband had killed her.Makes you wonder if these people can still actually sleep peacefully at night after what they did.

After reading the third chapter, I can truly say that I officially love Ao no Exorcist. Not only that, I can also officially say Rin and Yukio have become two of my most favorite manga characters in general, and what's amazing is that they managed to enter my list in just three chapters.

So chapter three begins with Rin crying his heart out while reading a JUMP SQ edition that has Tegamibachi (or Mailbachi as it's drawn in the panel) on its cover.Yukio enters and does his role as the spoilsport younger twin. He snatches the manga from Rin's hands as Rin complains about the kind of books ( "For kids") that Yukio demands him to read. He orders Yukio to stop trying to make a fool and out him, and Yukio replies by saying hat he's not making a fool out of him...though he does not deny that he (Rin) is one (a fool). Ah, Yukio and his witty comebacks.

I love him.

Moving on, Rin reasons that he won't really learn anything if all he does is read books. Yukio acknowldges his point , but still he insists that Rin reads his reference materials so he can be prepared for their next lesson. All of this they do while also in the middle of arguing who's the real owner of the JUMP SQ magazine

I really adore the interaction between the Okumura twins. Even if the story goes downhill later on (which I pray does not happen), I think I'll still be following Ao no Exorcist just to read about them and how they interact with each other. I can't really choose who's my favorite. Personally, I find Yukio the cooler twin but that doesn't necessarily mean that I think less of Rin. While Yukio is cool , I think Rin is just simply adorable.

Back to the chapter, Yukio receives a request for him to perform an exorcism rite. Upon knowng this, Rin insists to acompany him. Yukio declines at first, but eventually agrees after a mild persuasion from Rin. While Yukio goes and meets his client, who happens to be the owner of the shop where he gets his supplies, Rin goes and meets the shop owner's daughter by accident. Her name is Moriyama Shiemi.

Their first meeting isn't exactly friendly, and it's because Rin broke the gate of warding which only reacts to demons. Rin vehemently declares that he is neither a human nor a demon. It does nothing except scare Shiemi even more. I can't blame her though. With Rin looking like he's going to eat her alive, no doubt she's afraid.

So she tries to crawl away as far as possible. She only gets a few feet, however, before she stumbles to the ground. Rin approaches her and he discovers that there is something wrong with her feet. It turns out that a demon has been attaching itself to her through the garden soil and has been parasitically feeding through her heart.

About the new character. Well, I like her. She's actually pretty cute and so loli. Though I think we may have a closet!seme in Shiemi. She got Rin to do the work for her. How she got him to do that, I so want to know. And I so want them to be BFFs because I think they'll be great together as friends.

( Friends...? )

But you know, I think the real reason why I like Shiemi is because she fangirls Yukio like whoah.



I think this panel is really cute and funny, with Rin blushing like that because he's getting a compliment, only to find out that he's being upstaged by his younger twin agan. Sorry Rin. You're cool but not Yukio's level of cool. Oh and since I've mentioned panels, the panel below contains what has to be my favorite facial expression from Rin.



Oh Rin, you just can't hide your excitement, can you? XD

Has Tista already ended its run in Jump SQ? I went to the magazine's homepage and I no longer see Tista in its lineup. That's too bad. I thought Tista would run a little bit longer. And since Tista is done, I hope the scanlations pick up. I think Illuminati-Manga has stopped scanlating it? Anyway, I've seen some new titles in SQ. Well, they are new to me. Two got my interest. One is the story about the Four Kuzumoto brothers, the other one is Ao no Exorcist. I couldn't find any scanlations or raw for Kuzumoto so I read Ao no Exorcist instead.




Ao no Exorcist is about a fifteen-year old boy named Rin, who is sort of a troublemaker. Unlike his intelligent, seemingly weaker twin , Yukio, Rin always gets into fights and has no direction in life. But he has secret, a secret he himself didn't know until his guardian has been killed. Rin is actually the son of Satan. He has no intentions of joining the King of Hell however. Instead, he joins the True Cross Order and trains himself to become an exorcist, to fight the minions of his very own father.

So far, I'm liking Ao no Exorcist a whole lot. The art is pretty nice,especially the colored pages. I'm a sucker for series that have gorgeous colored pages. The story is okay, so far. I've only read two chapters so I can't say much yet. But I do love the humor. Below is one of my favorite panels.

( Who's the real Slim Shady? )

Oh, Rin. XD

The characters themselves are quite interesting. I love Rin, and his varying expressions. I love Mephisto Pheles and his ultra-weird fashion sense which reminded me of the Earl from D.gray-man (That's where their similarities end though because Mephisto actually is a good guy. And he has a pink limousine.). And I love Yukio because he is so cool. *_* He's like the Jiggy Pepper of Ao no Exorcist.



See? He even uses a gun, just like the Letter Bee idol. :D But what I'm really looking forward to in the manga is the interaction between Rin and Yukio. I love their dynamics. I also can't wait to know more about Rin's other classmates. Especially Eminem. LOL. God, one month is too long to wait for a chapter. This is one of those days wherein I wish the series I'm following is a weekly comic instead of a monthly one.

I mentioned in my Twitter that I will be doing some catching up with the latest chapters of Tegamibachi chapters, which I did and did in just one sitting. Actually, I did some backtracking too since it's been months since I last read from the series. Last chapter I've read was chapter 14 . What is was all about, I could even barely remember. Heck, I didn't even remember much about Tegamibachi except for some character names like Lag , Niche, Gauche (Goos). And of course, the oh-so-cool Jiggy Pepper.



With a name like that, it was simply hard to forget him. And it does help that he happens to be one of my favorite characters in the manga.

( Jiggy Pepper Mini-spam )

Yeah, I love him.:D

Anyway, backtracking did me a lot of good because I was reminded why I even loved Tegamibachi in the first place

Tegamibachi was one of the four series that I had been following faithfully when JUMP SQ first came out. (Others were Shiki,Luck Stealer and Tista, two of which are not getting much scanlation love and I think SnoopyCool and Aku-tenshi have Shiki on hiatus?) It tells the story of a young boy named Lag Seeing and his quest to became a Letter Bee or a courier. Simple? Not quite, for the job of delivering letters proved to be quite dangerous because of the many gaichuu (armored insects), ready to attack anyone or anything who has a heart.What I liked most about Tegamibachi is the touching stories behind each letters. For a story that is focused on hearts, this manga also has a lot of ,you guessed it, heart--and an awesome art, to boot. I love Asada's coloring style. It has this , I don't know, ethereal feel. The characters are also very likable, especially Lag. When I first started reading Tegamibachi, he reminded me of D.Gray-man's Allen Walker. They both have this certain charm wherein you simply just can't find a reason to hate them.


The plot of Tegamibachi has become even more interesting, now that Goos, after his brief disappearance, is finally back. It's not really a good thing though.( Spoiler text and pics ) Inspite of the depessing things that are happening in the manga, I found something to smile about.



They are so cute together. And I like that despite being tied to a wheelchair, Sylvette can actually take care of herself. I'm not sure which direction Asada is taking though since there are some Lag/Niche foreshadowing especially during the latter chapters. Well,Lag/Niche or Lag/Sylvette--either is fine with me. But I do prefer Lag/Sylvette a little bit more. :D

Edit

Tegamibachi wll be animated. Yes ,yes,yes!!!

I finally gave in. I watched the movie adaptation of Inkheart, and like other book-based movies, the film differs from the book, quite largely in fact. The movie was okay, not as spectacular as the book, but it was watchable. I have one tiny problem with the screenplay though. It seems to assume that the viewer knows all about the world of Inkheart. It was rushed and there's an obvious lack of character development. Aside from that, I am not too keen with Farid's characterization at the end of the movie.

( Book and Movie Spoilers Ahoy! )

The movie has a lot more deviations from the book (some are really minor, like Meggie reading The Wizard of Oz instead of Peter Pan), but the thlngs I've mentioned above are the ones that struck me the most. Casting-wise, I think almost everyone was perfect. Well, Elinor should be fatter but it's okay. Helen Mirren got Elinor's attitude down to a T. Even Brendan Fraser was good as Mo, though initially I thought he seems awkward for the role. I know Cornelia Funke herself mentoned that Mo's character was actually inspired by Brendan Fraser, but I kept seeing his 'The Mummy' character or George (of the Jungle). He grew on me though. He and Eliza just portrayed Mo and Meggie's relationship so well.

On afully, unrelated note, cavechan already posted Chapter 11 in sotoba and goodness, page 45-46 was simply, woah! *_* And there's another colored page. I loooooooove FujiRyuu's coloring skills. I wll never get tired of saying that.

And baby Natsuno? Cutest thing evar. <3

It's been a long time since I last read Shiki. Last chapter I've read was Chapter 10 and that was way back in December. Right now, SnoopyCool has already scanlated Chapter 10.5, which is another sidestory, this time with more appearances from the vampires of Sotoba and goodness, was that Natsuno with a wrench? (What happened to the shovel? XD) ( Spoiler text ) Anyway, I'm interested to read the direction the story is going. I can't wait for chapter 11, but probably not as much as chapter 12. (Tooru, we miss you! )


On an exciting, Shiki-related news, the series now has a Voice comic! How unique is that! I wish an anime would follow soon.