dawntodusk's Blog

Anime Relations: Shisha no Teikoku, Haikyuu!! Second Season, Gintama°, Ansatsu Kyoushitsu 2nd Season, Boku dake ga Inai Machi, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns 2nd Season, Ajin

As usual I suffer from motivation problems around this time of the year. NO ONE IS SURPRISED. Coughs.

I was so despo to watch Shisha no Teikoku that I even watched in with Chinese subs and naturally... I didn't understand shit lmao. Too many English culture references that I probably won't even get in English. The visuals were a real treat though, easy on the eyes. Sans the gore. Never gonna forget the movie opening with the resurrection of Friday with lovely close-ups of the entire process and that hugeass needle/drill/thing. The plot was a bit... idk. Can't tell what's going on, don't think it was going anywhere, but I didn't have high high HIGH expectations coming in so I didn't really feel disappointed. Murase barely got to talk as Friday and I cried anyway. Friday whyyyyyyy. A lot of things shocked me in this movie but I liked it. NOT ONLY BECAUSE OF FRIDAY BUT. Yeah. He sure helped.

Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns S2 was ok I guess. The ending was disappointing, a low-profile case with little interest. I think I've mentioned before that the original series' cases were better but I'm getting used to it.

The gem of Winter 2016, Boku dake ga Inai Machi. Me: lmao GAY AF. Ok let me explain. I found the manga meh but the anime was just. Not better. At all. Sense is goodbye. GOODBYE. THANKS FOR CRAMMING IT ALL INTO THE LAST FEW EPS BUT WAIT thanks for taking Airi out of it instead of wasting 2348945 episodes on her tangential inspiration to Satoru. Now, people said the end was rushed. A few months down the road, I actually vaguely appreciate that more time was spent on the Kayo arc because that was the only good arc. And the anime-original ending was, as said, GAY AF as well as being rubbish. To be fair, manga ending was pretty crap too because once Satoru stopped having revivals the novelty of the series went hard and fast to the gutter.

On the other hand, we have the underdoge (I guess) of Winter 2016, Ajin. Yoooooooooooooo it was pretty cool (sans the shitty ED by everyone's favourite singer Miyano). It's one of the few series where I like both the anime and manga (though lately the manga art is getting shittier), and also one of the very rare series where the CG works for it. The anime was a bit more on "IMPACT!!!!" than the manga at times as the latter can have some key moments understated as they may very well be in real life. On the other hand, the anime definitely rewrote some scenarios to avoid offending public sensibilities, yet they worked fine in their respective scripts and I ain't complaining about what ain't broke. As for the voice-acting, Miyano (singing abilities notwithstanding) was great as the slightly sociopathic Kei that formed a dichotomy with Satou. Both are manipulative and clearly sociopathic, but manifest that in different ways such that their face-off brings a new dimension to the typical protagonist-antagonist split. In general I really think well of Ajin even though it followed in the footsteps of the gore-spattered monsters-predating-on-humans wave started by Shingeki no Kyojin, because it actually looks at societal consequences, herd mentality, and just the wider society in general. Life does not go on as usual, though people try to - I appreciate that acknowledgement of typical human reactions.

There is Haikyuu!! Second Season, also known as the Insta-Happiness Drug(TM). The fact that I've yet to meet anyone who hates Haikyuu is probably a testament to its universal appeal lmao. It's one of those anime that makes you feel happy no matter what. Also I think it has pretty good pacing for a sports anime. AND it's not utter bullshit like a certain rainbow-themed basketball anime.

Moving on to Gintama' (2015). Ah. We have reached the slew of serious arcs, which are not my cup of tea especially as the manga seems headed towards its end. But as I have complimented Gintama for before, the magic in the series' villains is in how you can hate them whole-heartedly but still cry buckets when their redemption arc finally comes along. I'll never be ready to say goodbye to something I enjoy so much but I guess it's gotta go when it's gotta go.

I honestly had 0 plans to watch anything off Spring 2016 - and carried through with them for once - so I was mostly catching up on Winter leftovers like Ansatsu Kyoushitsu 2nd Season. The manga developed the second half of the story better without a doubt but there are also some crazy good production values in the anime. Sans the end. I can see the budget dropping like the pound's value around episode 23 or so, it was just a sloppy bunch of smoke and flashing effects to cover the lack of animation. I personally do not like how it ended because despite the author's intent for an optimistic ending, all I can see in their future is PTSD/depression/regrets. Maybe not all of them, but to tell me a whole class of people can face something so traumatising and all walk out smiling like superstars 7 years later sounds pretty damn idealistic to me. Yeah, no. The premise was pretty unrealistic to begin with, admittedly, but well. It was pretty ok. (The manga did everything better!!!)

Onto manga! Again, I tend to read a lot more now. It has to do with installing a manga app on my phone. 4am binge-reading sessions are more common than I'd like to admit.

Last time I mentioned reading the Legend of Sun Knight light novel series. Now I read the manga. Lmao it....... ended. Ok, sure. It adapted the best two volumes of the novel imo so story-wise it was pretty tight. Art-wise, it was getting better over time. It was probably a good idea not to adapt into volume 3 and 4 because it'd just start a strong sense of whatever once Grisia goes blind and "oops we can't find a good place to cut the story anymore hehe".

A long time ago I saw Olimpos being recced around so I finally read it one day. It certainly had nice art and the story certainly gave me a strong sense of whatever as it headed to absolutely nowhere along with all the shits I could possibly give about it.

I must admit I was mostly skimming through Ao no Honoo out of curiosity (it's Kishi after all). I guess it was just really old? Might have been better if it'd stayed a novel, it wasn't very exciting as a manga.

Until now I still can't bring myself to talk about how Aphorism went. IT DID NOT DESERVE THIS. IT HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL AND WAS ONLY JUST STARTING TO LIVE UP TO IT. THE BRILLIANCE WAS JUST STARTING TO SHINE THROUGH. I loved it so much but that kind of ending when a series gets axed is just.
SCREW.
EVERYTHING.
I hate you all involved in killing this series.

Oh yeah I should mention I also did read the manga for Boku dake ga Inai Machi, which when juxtaposed against Aphorism, I find hilariously unfair it got to shine as an anime when the latter didn't. It was good when he was trying to save Kayo; after that it was only ok, and actually pretty disappointing considering how good the Kayo arc was.

So on some recommendation I read Ao Haru Ride. Um. I finished it in 4 hours so that should say something...? It was slightly ok at the beginning, if off-focus and contrived in the way most shoujo manga in high school setting are when they have a massive checklist of tropes to tick off; it was simultaneously also enjoyable in how honest it was about trying to hit all those tropes. Girl starts off being friend with guy she likes? Check! 2 girls liking the same guy? Check! Denial of interest? Yup yup. Repeatedly failed first date? All clear! Ambiguous first kiss with denial of meaning? Mm-hm. 2 guys liking the same girl? Whoa we're making pretty good progress on this list!

Yeah so it was like. The basic shoujo manga starter pack. With the requisite 3000 pointless developments that are way too convenient (or inconvenient) for words. Life doesn't work like that omg. Though I'm finally at the age where I can muster up enough sympathy for 15 year-old children and understand that at that age, they often make stupid decisions when paralysed by uncertainty and fear as I also am doing at my grand old age of 23.......... it's just unbelievable how the plot tries so hard to make life hard for them to get even one thing done. Or worse, how the plot fails to convince me that this is a perfectly plausible situation to invest my emotions in. Like Kikuchi's introduction and development. His reason for liking Yoshioka was so pale and shallow, his courtship so uninspiring, that I could smell his destiny to fail from the moment he threw his gauntlet into the ring. And how so conveniently, even he has someone who is interested in him at the very end. That last part also tars the series with a brush of "happiness is only achieved when you have a potential person to date", and how shoujo manga MUST end happily, so no one can be alone at the end. That's highly unrealistic. Even if we take love as the be-all-end-all in a shoujo manga, it's just not going to happen that everyone INCIDENTALLY meets their fated one by the end of a manga that is supposedly centred around only 2 people. So despite my greater capacity to sympathise, the manga wasn't able to capitalise on it.

Enter Orange. Like with Aoharu, I finished it in approximately 3 hours when I should have been sleeping. Unlike Aoharu, this, THIS!!! is the kind of shoujo manga I want to read. I think this year there's been a sudden rush towards storylines that involve changing the past/knowing the future e.g. BokuMachi, Re:Zero, ReLife. Well, if even shoujo manga are incorporating that, I don't mind if they do it as well as Orange. In stark contrast to Aoharu (and probably others like Hirunaka no Ryuusei), there isn't a race to tick off the standard tropes. Hell, you know the future from the start. No surprises there. There's no dramatic first kiss here. No excessive focus on main couple either in fact; the other relationships in the group are also significant and hook you in with how easily you can see it reflected in yourself. No happy endings are forced upon anyone, and if they're happy, it's because they define their happiness and go for it.

Clearly, I'm enamoured of this manga. There is a lot to admire. While being a simple shoujo manga, it also nicely wove the future with the present, fleshed out a narrative about how difficult it is to support someone in depression, lent considerable weight to the potential of friendship, and never made it seem easy to change your predilections and predispositions (because it surely isn't). As a reader, I was distressed, elated, curious, or upset along with the characters. This is in total contrast with Aoharu where I was just annoyed. To be fair, when I gave it its score, I ignored the Haruiro Astronaut side story, the awkward art at the beginning, and probably a bunch of other stuff that didn't even make it into my memory. BUT even if I did knock its score down, there's our local MVP Hagita Saku to pull it right back up so whatever, it's pretty much a masterpiece to me.

Yeah so in keeping with tradition, after a quiet winter/spring, it's time to go hardcore in summer! I probably missed out on some good spring shows but eh. Catch up if I hear of anything good. And if I have time. I'm watching so much in summer it's actually scary.

Anime Relations: One Punch Man, Noragami Aragoto, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns 2nd Season: Akechi Keibu no Jikenbo

Um. It's 2016.

Also I should say, if you want me to fight you, bring the fight to my door because I can't be assed to move to yours.

I don't think anyone is going to argue that One-Punch Man was the highlight that established itself as the frontrunner in the first week of Fall 2015. I'd agree in the first week too. The animation. Hella. It looks so carefully rendered and directed that even I, who have the aesthetic appreciation of a donkey, can be impressed. (Then I heard that the original manga already was like frame-by-frame animation so. ok.jpg) Then as the weeks went on the quality dropped so much lmao. ok.jpg indeed. Other than the impressive-then-disappointing animation, I feel that it's pretty 'safe' for a parody but still pretty entertaining. Gory too. And I don't understand if there's a specific direction that it's heading in, but I'd be ok with a second season.

Then there is the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns: Akechi Keibu no Jikenbo that MAL resolutely refuses to approve as an entry no matter what. Lately MAL has been doing that a lot and I feel like yelling WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST THE SERIES I WATCH/READ WTF. Anyway before you misunderstand, it's not like it's good or anything. I just don't want to see this title in the future and wonder "hmm have I watched this" and rewatch it only to find that I've already watched it and didn't enjoy it. Which is what happened with this special. I didn't enjoy it. It was very weak on the mystery-solving side and heavy on the drama. This is not what I watch Kindaichi for dammit! If I wanted drama I can just go back to any of the 489579546 titles out there! Dammit Akechi why do you suck more than Kindaichi!!!

To be honest I don't know what is the prevailing public opinion of Noragami Aragoto because I don't know anyone talking about it so I'm going to assume it's not as big as OPM. Personally I enjoyed this more than OPM, but maybe because I do enjoy the Noragami manga. Noragami Aragoto was 10x better than S1, but also tells you why you should shove anime-original endings into the trash where they belong. Mainly,
Hiyori S2: I thought I was special and wouldn't ever forget about Yato! (faithful to manga)
Hiyori S1: Lmao already forgot Yato and Yukine.
My hatred for S1 will never die. Anyway Aragoto was really good, though I think they changed some details again because they felt less impactful than the manga. I can't be bothered to go scour the chapters to check though. I guess the anime staff just can't be weaned off ending a season on the traditional feel-good all-together note. But the animation was soooo good, and I really liked the direction in the OP (which was one of the few things I liked about S1), so I can overlook this fudging lmao. PRETENDS IT WAS ALL S1'S FAULT.

Recently does it seem like I'm watching less and less anime lmao because IT SURE FEELS THAT WAY TO ME (nah jk I'm just slow). So to pad my rage-filled blog posts, I also watched Akatsuki no Yona! The manga's only beginning to grow on me and I thought having voices would help hasten it along. Turns out, voices are a mixed bag which I can talk about later, but my most pressing concern is wow, why is the animation budget so shit?? Why are the artistic choices so bad?? Why does the scene of Yona cutting her hair off look nothing like a flaming metaphor and more like a red-purple blotch with 40% transparency?? Why do all the other girls in Awa dress in the exact same clothes?? ... I can go on forever but this is aggravating me as well. On to the voice-acting. The voices aren't really worth watching for if you've read the manga. Hakuryuu's voice is the worst, Jae-ha and Gigan are the best. Actually Gigan is the best, full-stop (I think Sakakibara Yoshiko is like, the one to go to for old lady bosses for a while now). Su-won's episodes interested me more than the rest since to begin with I was curious about how he would rule a country (and even then I do find Kusanagi Mizuho's strategies... simplistic, if not naive). In a sense, akayona isn't as good a match as arslan was for me.

Time to talk about manga, and this is where I panic and realise I HAVE MADE A GRIEVOUS MISTAKE. READ TOO MUCH SHIT ABORT ABORT.

Some time ago there was a meme going around on Zannen nagara Chigaimasu. and until today I still don't know if this is just a pun or if the author is really that bad at writing (in the course of investigation, I looked up the author's most famous work and discovered that she is indeed damn horrible at writing, so much so that using 'damn horrible' is an insult to the phrase 'damn horrible'). Why does it exist. I didn't give it a 1 because I burst out laughing at least twice, but I don't know if I'm meant to laugh or not. If it's meant to be a satire/parody, it's actually doing... a pretty bad job of it too. It's neither here nor there and the art isn't great. Why does this exist again.

I also read Emma on somenyan's recommendation. I don't really root for the main couple but nothing actually offended me in the entire series. People were indeed that asshole-ish in that era if they have monies (referring to Papa Campbell). I do like how in the time the main couple spent apart the dude actually spent time growing a spine and learning the art of politicking instead of just moping and dreaming of Emma all day erry day, but at the same time didn't become so disillusioned that he lost the passion to go after her when she reappeared. I must applaud the author for doing some impressively extensive research into that era as to what were the fashions and the trends and the latest inventions (music history was kinda neglected but I really rather people don't even try).

No idea where the idea to read Sakamichi no Apollon came from but I read it anyway. It's ok. Melodramatic at times but again I totally understand the 'music is my life' schtick because I'm also into music even if it's not jazz (fyi jazz is hard and you actually have to be insanely good at whatever instrument it is before you even try jazz style). But Sakamichi gets reeeeeeally melodramatic. Was the bike accident necessary? Was the dude picking up Ritsu's phone necessary? Was the long time before clearing up the misunderstanding necessary?? The extra stories in Sakamichi no Apollon: Bonus Track were ok too, they didn't devalue the original story so I'd give them a pass. Oh, and before I end it, I need to say that the series doesn't really have the feel of being in 1966 for some reason.

After 1000 years, I have finally finished reading Spiral Alive. How am I alive /badpun/. The last few chapters finally got on the web while I shed tears of relief. Jokes aside, I find it enjoyable, maybe even more so than the original Spiral, and it felt less expository (maybe because the chapters came out with YEARS in between so you know, you kinda forget most of the words? lol). The art got loads better compared to the original so yeah. It revives some of my love for Spiral tbh.

There was Takatou Shounen no Jikenbo from the Kindaichi series, which was okay-ish. Too short for my liking actually, I do wish it had been longer.

I really want to call this next series "The Manga That Shall Not be Named" or even "The Manga That Should Not Have Been". But then no one would know what I'm talking about so. Let's call it Oikawa Tooru's paedophilic lesbian porn doujin based on Kishi Yusuke's sci-fi novel Shinsekai yori. I was gonna pretend it doesn't exist when I read it last year out of spite but then I saw its rating was so high and concluded that all the people like me, who hated it, must have dropped it early and did not have their ratings factored in. I'm here to correct that injustice by giving it the score that a travesty like it deserves. Actually, now I want to make a post on how much I hate it. It's desecratory trash that insults the novel and the reader. Even the grotesque art is misused to insult your intelligence. Everything is wrong with it. Don't read it.

Ok finally. I spent the last week reading Legend of the Sun Knight (light novel), a story of bad career and life choices by the protagonist. The Sun Knight is a scheming, money-grubbing, lazy, scheming, petty, vengeful, under-handed asshole. Did I mention scheming. Despicable doesn't even begin to cover it. He's a walking devil in disguise (actually he reminds me of Allen, since both got their personalities warped by their scary as hell teachers). Plot-wise, I find it a bit weak and the foreshadowing was poorly laid. There was inconsistency in the details as well. But then I also must confess to having high standards for plot and direction that maybe 1 in 3 series widely recognised to be 'good' can hit my target. Anyway, the strongest point in this series is the humour, which... started dying after 2 and a half volumes. I really feel like the author could have spent more time developing the humour and the non-mob characters before throwing them into a plot that centres exclusively around Grisia (and his angst and his darkness and his whatever), because it's so hard to care about the human sacrifices to bring him back to the light when you can't even remember who they are. Incidentally I finished the first 2 and a half volumes fast, the rest took a lot longer to drag myself through because it isn't funny enough. Time to try the manga I guess.

Anyway, happy 2016! Started a few more manga like Mizutama Honey Boy (funny!) and all dem SH manga which should stop taking a break before they even reach 5 chapters. What to watch in 2016... I'm looking forward to D.Gray-man but I have no idea when it'll air. Winter season will just be me catching up Haikyuu and Kindaichi, and also AssClass S2. I plan to try Ajin, but seeing the ED theme by Miyano Mamoru is like. Lmao. Thanks but no thanks. (Hope it doesn't turn out to be like Tokyo Ghoul.)

Anime Relations: Kuroko no Basket 3rd Season, Kekkai Sensen, Gangsta., Gintama': Futon ni Haitte kara Buki Nokoshi ni Kizuite Neru ni Nerenai Toki mo Aru, Arslan Senki (TV), Ansatsu Kyoushitsu: Deai no Jikan

Uh... lol. I'm pretty sure that at this point it'd be easier for me to wait till Fall 2015 is over and write a post that consolidates it all but. Well I have time today! Mysteriously so! I should read my readings lmao.

So, before the season, I finished Kuroko no Bullshit S3, the ORIGINAL(TM) mahou shounen anime. *looks at smudged writing on hand* I mean Kuroko no Basuke S3. The mahou shounen thing still applies though, it's utterly unbelievable in every single bullshit. I can't believe I finished this bs but I'm someone who finishes things for completion's sake, and I guess the non-game interactions are ok enough... I guess. Still bullshitty though. And I prefer Haikyuu.

I also got to Gintama Jump Festa 2014. It's 2015 already though. Yeah. It's not the funniest story they could choose to tell but the rest of it was funny? The politically incorrect talking about production woes that is.

Onto Summer for real. One of my favourites of the season was Arslan Senki, for its really good characters and its pretty good production (thanks Arakawa, it's no Gin no Saji but it'll do). Arslan is such a cute kid and his interactions with Elam are like getting shot through the heart. Narsus is a certified ass and Daryun is the only one who can burn him. Though there were a few characters I didn't like as much. But I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR A LAST EPISODE THAT BASICALLY SETS UP FOR A SECOND SEASON THAT MAY NEVER COME. Also lmao wtf squeezing Etoile's character development into the last episode feels like a strong sense of nothing.

Gangsta. next. Lmao people got mad at the ending and I can see why because it's really just... nothing. But to be fair, by this point the manga is still a millefeuille that you don't know where to cut and it's STILL BUILDING ON THE SAME SHIT A TON OF CHAPTERS LATER. I never watched it for the story so I can't really be dissapoint, because the manga's direction choice is rubbish anyway. I watched it for the seiyuu basically (some good, some weird, some unexpected). And also the colours to help me differentiate all the gruff old men. The manga is still disappointing but that's another story.

After 15949 million years, the last episode of Kekkai Sensen finally airs and it is hella. Kekkai Sensen definitely has its own flavour. THIS IS HOW YOU DIVERGE FROM THE MANGA: an illustrated example by the best. If there's a season 2, I'm definitely up for it. The art is good, the direction is amazing (some of the better eps are almost on par with Shinsekai yori ep 10 for my favourite episode in terms of directing). Always funny even when serious. I don't know what is going on and some of these lines sound ripped off a cliched drama script, but when the cast does it - hella. Ishida Akira being a nutter? Yes please. Kugimiya Rie talking to herself but sounding like two very different people? Give the lady an award please, this outshines her work as Generic Tsundere Lead by 10,000 miles. The rest of the cast doesn't fall behind either, it's all established names doing what they do best.

Also like a couple days ago I finally got my hands on the Ansatsu Kyoushitsu: Deai no Jikan special. It's better than the last special and it did keep the spirit of assclass overall, but it just lacks substance lmao. But it's 10 minutes, so idk what was I expecting.

I really read a shitton of manga these days. Like, I guess getting a manga app on my phone is the culprit. That and discovering chinese scanlation sites.

Because Soga Shiina is doing one of the Marchen adaptations, I read her Necromancer and it killed my hope for Kyuuyaku Marchen. Apart from basically ripping off Marchen in concept, it's also a massive casket of wasted potential. Am I supposed to feel for the endgame when there's been about 0 development for them until the time comes when the plot twist is needed. Marchen was tragic but this is just... if you cried at this, your tears are wasted.

Sidonia no Kishi. .................. WTF IT ENDED??? WTF?? It's just rushing everything in the last chapter like the author suddenly went "I don't want to do this anymore let's just end it now." Like getting tired of the game and flushing all your cards down the toilet. Suddenly out of nowhere A WHOLE NEW WOOOOOOOOORLD (don't you dare close your eyes) (not that it matters because even with your eyes open you won't see it coming). The ending with Tsumugi felt like such a major cop-out, not that it ever built up much because the whole "lol she dies" is rushed anyway. Yeah, in the end it feels pretty lousy. Nothing accomplished. EXCEPT LMAO LMAO I CALLED IT IZANA AND MIDORIKAWA ENDGAME LMAO I CALLED IT LONG AGO.

My friend was actually pretty crazy about Liar Game a while ago and I was bored enough to read it. Well, I started out bored. But then I finished it in like 3 days by sacrificing sleep so what does that say about me. In the end it was another one of those "lmao wtf it ended??" kind of manga. I liked how it started but like another famous strategy manga, the strategies eventually became so convoluted that it's enough to say "IT'S ALL PART OF THE PLAN" and act like your opponent is eating out of the palm of your hand all the while. And then asspull some 180 to win it all. Spoilers from here on. The ending was seriously lmao. They could have said that the players diverged from the book and proved that humans are more complex than what even brilliant people expected, and then broadcast the recording anyway. But seriously wtf is with that broadcast ending. Crimson Labyrinth already done that, and done that better. This is just the kiddy version of that end for a game so ugly.

And then, as proof that I read shoujo manga, I finished Hirunaka no Ryuusei. I read it because I saw this panel where the girl looked really pretty. And then it turned out the panel was in the last chapter (lmao onto infinity) aaaaaaaaaand this goes straight into the pile of "reasons I don't read shoujo manga". Granted, I like that the author doesn't feel the compulsive need to shove the protag together with the angsty asshat no matter what happens. I like that it's about healing and learning from past painful experience, and that the first love which burns like a firework and explodes in your face isn't the only way to love, and indeed usually isn't the love that lasts for your life. I like all that, but for god's sake there's way too much of the YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE FOR ME card being played. Cut down on all those useless montages (collages?) please, they're frankly embarrassing to read.

Now with that checked off the list, someone really needs to call the polices on Shishio-sensei. I know he has his fans but I'm not one of them. Morally shady teacher-student relationship aside, any kind of relationship where you have to perpetually worry about "oh noes did I make him angry" at every turn, especially when the one in question is on the side of power, is just not healthy imo. Add to that a side of saviour complex, and this whole thing sounds as fun as a bed of nails. Yeah, I'm at that stage where I'm into maturity in relationships, and no, that doesn't mean for you to recommend me manga with adult themes. APPURU I'M LOOKING AT YOU. Onto an inconsequential note, the endings are real convenient for everyone lol. The Tonari no Otoko side story feels like a WHAT IF KEN-SAN AND MAENO-- /bricked

YAY DONE. Now I can slack off Fall all I want mwehuehue. Ok but I'm seriously behind on Fall, not much time to be watching shows. Fall's ok, not many shows I'm excited for but it's not like there's nothing at all either. I WANT TO WATCH SHISHA NO TEIKOKU DAMN IT /writhes

In which the manga reactions mentioned in previous post did not appear in the morning.

I read a bunch of Arakawa Hiromu works, most of them one-shots. I was suffering from a Gin no Saji withdrawal (still am) and I can't really say the shorter works did anything in helping that. In general, Demons of Shanghai >= Raiden-18 > Souten no Koumori > Stray Dog. The former tend to be funnier and wittier; though to be fair, one-shots don't necessarily give the best comparison.

I tried reading and dropped Owari no Seraph. Like, my friend linked me some pages which seemed funny out of context but then the overall feeling this manga was giving me was one of chuuni in rainbow gradient Microsoft Wordart, comic sans. I almost felt secondhand embarrassment for the author, it's like he took the whole story out of a handbook titled "How to Write Your First Shounen Manga" and yeah, there's absolutely nothing that was surprising. Character development takes place in like three panels which is supposed to give them depth but only gives me a sense of wtf when a certified asshole spends all of one panel yelling "DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GIVE UP HERE". In short, they're yelling their development at you, not showing it. Yeah, and there's a lot of yelling in general. Help.

With Maoyuu Maou Yuusha I think I fared better (got further). I want to take this seriously so much because it's everything I study but lmao. LMAO SO HARD. I can't give two shits about their romance or Hero or Maou because even in the midst of such a business-like manga, they're still using gags straight out of Zero no Tsukaima, both in content and maturity. Everyone wants to bang the Hero for some reason unfathomable to me, idk why it'd be like doing a petri-dish since he's just as shallow. The boob gags get tiring. Then eventually I tired of the economics too because Maou just airdrops every modern invention into the medieval period without considering how "EYY WE HAVE DEMONS AND MAGIC HERE SHOULDN'T OUR ECONOMY RUN A BIT DIFFERENTLY FROM THE ACTUAL DARK AGES". Also I learned it all before in econs. Also I'm way ahead on econs (expectations ruin everything and there are way more factors than what Maou cherrypicks to explain).

I thought the Honey and Clover manga would be better than the anime, and in some ways it is. No hideous OP for one. Better development for and between Hagu and Yamada for another. I can sympathise with their artist struggle at least. On the other hand, holy shit someone call the police on Mayama. That's just illegal, predatory and basically something out of 50 Shades (without the pretentiously rich part). I never saw Rika as having any real chance to say no since Mayama basically forces his way back in. Someone just bring her to a psychiatrist already holy shit this is not how anyone should be treated. Meanwhile, the endgame for Hagu destroyed one cute relationship a la Usagi Drop, and generally kidnapping and lawbreaking seem to be the themes of this manga.

I've already said most of what I thought about Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso in the relevant post about the anime, but not everything is applicable. Like, without the music and piano animation, it's just a painful high school pining manga. The artist struggle is ok, but I wish Tsubaki would fall off a cliff. Ok, so that's the same in the anime but at least I had nice music to distract me!

On the bright or not-so-bright side, I finished Pandora Hearts! I've stopped understanding what was going on 30 chapters ago, and no, finishing it doesn't make me understand any more. The ending made me sad-ish so I guess that's something?? Although, when I think back on it it's really just the same tropes being churned out one after another: villain's changes of heart (lmao the famous Talk no Jutsu), heroic sacrifice, rebirth, happy ending. Same shit, prettier art. OH BUT SHARON AND REIM IS CANON LMFAO.

Most recent is Isshuukan Friends., which features the sad story of me giving up on the English scanlations and reading the Chinese ones and yelling "DAFUQ IS GOING ON" for a few chapters. Anyway, finally done with it. Rather expectedly, it was cute and fluffy. The amnesia issue is never going to be quite satisfactory (it was predictable all the way lmao) but mainly my main gripe is NOT ENOUGH KIRYUU. The special chapter made up for it though.

Yeh but I'm seriously not watching or reading much this season (recommendations pls).

Anime Relations: Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Specials, Death Billiards, Natsume Yuujinchou: Nyanko-sensei to Hajimete no Otsukai, Haikyuu!!, Natsume Yuujinchou: Itsuka Yuki no Hi ni, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Shinigami Byouin Satsujin Jiken, Sanzoku no Musume Ronja, Durarara!!x2 Shou, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, Isshuukan Friends. Specials, Ansatsu Kyoushitsu, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun Specials, Death Parade

So, like, tbh I really forgot most of what happened in those two seasons. Too busy gallivanting across Europe and um. Playing touken. May touken never get an anime.

Anyway I forgot a lot of stuff by now so if I sound less critical than usual it's not because I've suddenly decided to become a nicer person.

In that one month prior to my departure to Europe I rushed a few specials. Among them, Death Billiards. I watched it only because I was planning to watch Death Parade and it supposedly spawned the latter, and holy shit I did NOT see that plot twist coming. The special itself wasn't really well-scripted or anything but I guess it's because it's meant to be animation eye candy so I can let that slide.

At that time I didn't know how Death Parade going to make a whole series out of it, but I remarked that a better script could put it as a grimmer version of Bartender. I'm not sure what to say about that judgement now that I've actually watched the TV series. I felt that the concurrent themes of memento mori and empathy only came out strongly in the ending, and the ending itself was unexpectedly good (I bawled like a baby) considering how weak the episodes were. Weakly linked thematically, I mean. It was just hard to see what was the common thread sans "lmao SUFFERINGZ!!!". And I also felt like it was trumpeting conservative values at times, which felt kinda ick. Chiyuki arc best arc I guess. Also the animation was good throughout, thanks Madhouse.

Briefly, the rest of the specials: Kindaichi OVAs, which I always come back to every few months because I'm a sucker for these kinda things. The OVAs cut so much material from what I knew to fit in the time, but they also had the best animation, best character faces, bright colours and non-grainy videos so I guess it's a tolerable trade-off. As for Natsume Yuujinchou specials, the Nyanko-sensei one was draggy and almost unwatchable, but the Yukihana one was fairly good Natsume fare, accentuated by how you don't have to sit through 11 eps of it. It's also nice for Natsume to meet an ayakashi that doesn't threaten him and is cute while at it. And interesting in contrasting how he and Reiko reacted to their isolation. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun specials were super cute and the short length means the comedic timing hits the nail RIGHT on the head, but of course you get less because they're so short. Isshuukan Friends specials are like, scraping the bottom of the barrel where specials are concerned. I mostly finished that one for completion's sake.

Ok and not a special, but I marathoned Haikyuu!! Tbh it was better than kuroko no bullshit, everyone was cute and they really focused on volleyball tactics over... bullshit mahou shounen powers. The casting wasn't what I expected but I got used to it. I don't have much to say about it because it wasn't bad.

Now onto Winter 2015 proper. And Spring too, I guess.

There was Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, and I really need to say this. The piano. THE PIANO. JESUS CHRIST THE PIANO. You've probably heard this from every classical musician who watched it, but I loved the animation (THE PIANO!!!), loved the artist struggle, loved Kaori and Hiroko too. Why is it not even an 8 on my list then? Eh, I'm not even remotely interested in their *~*romantic struggles*~* (unless it Chopin) and Tsubaki just left a really bad aftertaste. She never grew up and just felt plain out of place in this anime which can only, let's face it, sell on the basis of pretty piano animation. Well, the budget went down too, but I maintain that their high school romance angle can burn for being melodramatic. Her kicking Kousei was basically the worst way to end the anime, a timely demonstration of indeed how much she's grown. Much wow. Incidentally, everyone tells me Nodame is better and I'd believe it because I think it's difficult to get worse than this.

And then there was the much-anticipated Durarara!!x2 Shou, which turned out to be eh and disappointing. What I liked about S1 was how everyone with their individual goals and motivations crossed paths and interacted, or maybe just passed each other by. But for that to work, that needs some realism, or at least some believable grounding. S1 provided that by having characters we all thought or imagined exists, so we can believe they exist in this DRRR world. S2 just went full-wack supernatural, complete fantasy realm with zero attempts at justifying or showing how a rational person would justify their experiences. New characters which were introduced were plain supernatural or unrelatable, or both (like Chikage, Vorona lmao), and it totally killed the human interaction drama aspect I loved. Characters that didn't get developed in S1 remained undeveloped while these new characters kept getting rolled out. Verdict: bad, but at least someone stabbed Izaya.

I also must confess to having watched Sanzoku no Musume Ronja, like all the way to the end. I thought it was going to be plotless Ghibli eye candy, but it was pleasantly coherent. But still, it was veeeeeeeeeeery slooooooooooooooooooow and the animation stopped being eye-catching near the end. Still, it was a hell lot more comprehensible than Kaze Tachinu. But lmao this anime wasn't a hit (can you blame us??) so I guess we're probably never gonna see another Ghibli again.

Oh yeah and there was Ansatsu Kyoushitsu, which I'm actually reading. I thought it was pretty good for an adaptation. The cast and studio is massively improved over the first OVA aired during Jump Festa. I might have felt some parts were a bit draggy but I have to admit the manga's not my favourite to begin with. Oh, and Karma is the devil incarnate lmao. I lost count of the number of times I yelled "HOLY SHIT THIS KID". May this one tweet summarise him: HOLY SHIT KARMA, SATAN IS WAITING FOR YOU TO DIE SO HE CAN ABDICATE HIS THRONE.

I got bored often in Europe so yes, I did read a lot of manga and for that reason the manga reactions can WAIT TILL MORNING LMAO. Maybe I'll edit this post. Maybe I'll make a separate post. I DO WHAT I WANT MOM. Oh yeah I'm waiting forever for the last episode of Kekkai Sensen to air, someone find this anime a timeslot already.

Anime Relations: Rayearth, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Movie 1: Operazakan - Aratanaru Satsujin, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Crystal, Nagi no Asu kara, Kyousou Giga (TV), Donten ni Warau, Terra Formars, Gugure! Kokkuri-san, Psycho-Pass 2

Ahem. So it is that time of the year again. Let's not talk about life choices until this post is over.

Fall 2014 was a terrible season basically. Not a season I'd love to see repeated ever.

More like, I watched a lot of completed series. Which were bad. There weren't many good shows this season so it just adds to the feeling of the season being bad. Let's... finish the season first before we talk about the rest.

Let's start with Terra Formars because like, congrats, I finally gave a show a 1. Tbh I only watched this show to see how they were gonna make giant cockroaches scary but the stench of fail was already coming from the first episode with how... lame... the script and events were. Let's not even go into the worldbuilding. Actually, let's do. The cockroaches shouldn't bear that much semblance to humans or any of our ancestors, that's not how biology works. The base DNA is so different that divergent evolution is no explanation, and the terrain on Mars is so different from Earth that convergent evolution is an even shittier explanation. The gravity on Mars is weaker, so why would the cockroaches evolve to walk on two legs? That makes it difficult to move. The oxygen content on our terraformed Mars is lower, so why would cockroaches grow bigger and hence increase their surface area: volume ratio? The poorer oxygen intake would hinder their brain development so how did they get to be more intelligent? IT JUST MAKES NO SENSE. I won't even go into the allegations of racism because the biology is already pretty damn wrecked.

And then their technology. Save for mentioning that they have spaceships and gene alterations, their buildings and equipment still look pretty lame-ass 20th (not even 21st) century to me. Why do you even need bug powers? How about inventing new weapons? It's the future I don't believe weapon development has stagnated for that long. And of course countries still play by the same rules. Suuuuuuuure take a look at the world now, no one is following Cold War-era allegiances anymore. Ugh basically this show is a joke, and it's an unfunny joke. I literally watched 3 episodes just to make sure my rating of "absolute shit, do not touch" can be taken into account.

So eventually I also dropped Sailor Moon Crystal. I was actually pretty excited about it before it went on air... but yeah, it happens. Pretty often. Toei continues to disappoint I mean entertain with their faces. It's basically for kids or for people who are nostalgic about their time as kids, and since I'm neither I just got annoyed. The animation isn't great, the voice-acting is subpar, the plot is... questionably childish (like a power fantasy a child would write), and the script is so embarrassing. I walked into this show expecting it to be about five girls but it's not, it's really only a show about how great Usagi-chan is guess what SHE'S NOT.

Now let's move on to... Psycho-Pass 2. Now if anyone reads this (not that anyone does), I'm gonna get flak for this but... all I can say is, thank gods it is over. It sucks. It really sucks. People expect season 2 to start a new arc, not animate some alternate timeline fanfiction of season 1. The story is still the same as before in the sense that they're going "oh someone Sybil can't judge has rolled along", except this time the loopholes to exploit are so... unintelligent and goes against previously-laid down rules. Instance: s1 established biometric scans to be outdated, s2 decides retina scanning is the way to go. Instance: Sybil in s1 can be flexible in giving their workers tools to deal with the threat by say, locking Dominators in paralyze mode, s2 decides NO YOU MUST FIND SOME OTHER WAY TO TAKE DOWN KAMUI. And "oh we'll revoke Akane's Inspector rights but not Shisui's." Ok.jpg. Shall I continue? One more. The brains of Sybil were supposed to be criminally asymptomatic, but Tougane Misako got judged to be a latent criminal and shot. lolbai. Also lolbai Sybil because s2 dumbed them down so much that I'm sure natural selection will have them offed soon.

The characters also became so bland, Akane included. Some review on this site said that s2 leaves you with questions like "What the fuck is wrong with Shimotsuki?" and I agree, what is wrong indeed. It's not even that she's a bigot (most of them are), she plays too hard at office politics then does a 90 degree turn and shoots into the stratosphere with "I just want to protect myself whine whine". Tougane was the most interesting, then they made him into a mommy's boy. Wow, what a loser. There's a new Makishima (i.e. pretentious shit) on the block and her name's Akane. Those season finale speeches lmao. What, did you think I meant Kamui? Nah, he isn't even un-lame enough that I would refer to him.

The worst of the season were those two, so now let's move on to more positive shows! I think... ok... not really... next is Donten ni Warau. I really wanted to like this, having read the manga before the adaptation aired, but I also gotta admit it sucked real bad. The pacing is awful, they chopped up events and rejoined them here and there so instead of being pretty light-hearted for about half the way it... got depressing fast. Actually depressing is a compliment. Boring is more like it. Nice and important scenes got cut. Scenes no one asked for got inserted. If it weren't for the voice cast it would be unredeemable. Among the best in the cast are Miki Shinichirou for being heartbreaking and having such an accent, Sakurai for... his usual typecast, Yusa Kouji for sounding like him, Noto Mamiko for making the character twice as good as she was in the manga, and Toriumi Kousuke for turning the tables on all the expectations we had when he said his first line. And of course, Nakamura Yuuichi saving shows 2k14 lol, this marks the second consecutive season he's rescued a show from a slump. But lol he probably wouldn't win any seiyuu awards, that'd probably go to Kaji again or Hanae Natsuki. Grr.

Yeah so the voice-acting was great in that show, but the directing wasn't. In fact it was really bad, misleadingly bad. Animation budget 404 not found. The OP/ED are actually pretty good, it's rare for a one-cour show to get two OPs and differently animated scenes on top of that, but it's not really making the show a good one because OP/EDs are additions. Yeah. Well, I guess at least in the anime it's much easier to tell what's going on in big battle scenarios, like how one person ends up at the top of the cliff while her friend who was next to her 2 seconds before is at the bottom. Yeah. The manga was still more fun. Yeah.

And finally for this season we have Gugure! Kokkuri-san which actually I dropped at first lol. It wasn't godawful but... it's a show about a girl who lives in a household of stalkers. A couple of episodes are ok but there isn't quite enough magic in the execution for me to devote all the way. The jokes fall flat quite often and I didn't get attached enough to the characters to find their quirks endearing. So I dropped it, and later picked it up again because I saw a scene where Inugami listed like a million reasons why he hated Kokkuri so I wanted to see that. And after seeing that I just stuck with it all the way since I already watched most of it lol. In general I think it suffered from too many side characters who were milked for their one trait that could be turned into a running gag. By that I mean, they make the same joke three times. In one episode. Yeah. It's not great, Ono Daisuke sounds exactly the same as he did in Barakamon, but it fit better in Barakamon. Some people compared the two shows but lol I think comparison only puts Kokkuri-san in a worse light.

So... that's done with Fall. I'm also following Shigatsu and Sanzoku and honestly those two shows are probably the best of everything I've watched this season, but since they're only halfway through I'll throw them in with Winter. Winter starts in 3 weeks and it looks to be so much better already.

Yeah, actually I watched a lot of other stuff that maybe I should make another post for them, because it's really A LOT. But. Let me try.

So there was this show that I was meaning to watch for a while, and finally got down to it. I can see why a lot of people recommended Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and quite honestly I would recommend the first five episodes or so to anyone. The show starts out like a horrifying mirror in an earth-shattering crisis, in that it asks you when everything has been destroyed, who would you be? Who would you want to be? Any anime that can accomplish that has pretty set itself up to be incapable of failing... except, not fulfilling its potential is still very much on the cards. In the middle it began to feel very much like it was just adding crises for the sake of filling time. No matter how accurately researched and animated those aftershocks are, it happening every single time the main group enters a building gets somewhat stale. Granted, it's a tragedy drama, so there's nothing to show if there's no medical crisis every episode. But then it moved into the supernatural and that was a bit wtf. If I pretend the supernatural is just Mirai's coping mechanism, it works pretty well with the show, I guess. But it still could have been handled less jarringly. And of course it ends with a hint of optimism, where Mirai's family gets back together and becomes more bonded than ever. Though, I always thought what's really sad about the show isn't that it takes a crisis to pull parents back to the families they neglected but that many times the parents end up neglecting their children even more. Not all crises end in better people as this one did.

I also tried out the somewhat famous Princess Tutu. It's famous for being that series that tumblr anime feminists shove in your faces as "REVOLUTINARY FEMINIST ANIME BECAUSE!!" but my reaction was kinda along the lines of "NOT AS REVOLUTIONARY AS IT'S MADE OUT TO BE". It still has the tropes of the main girl liking the popular elegant guy and being NTR-ed by the (secretly delicate) asshole. It just probably came before we named it a trope. While the ballet references supposedly make it sound clever and sophisticated, it really only makes it sound pretentious because they weren't incorporated well. You'd think a show where Siegfried chooses Odile in the end would be something beautiful and gripping, but it really just leaves a sense of 'ok so what' at the end. Maybe it's because my sympathy for Rue is pretty much nonexistent. Just because she saved Siegfried doesn't excuse all the asshole-ish things she did in the early part of the series. Same for Fakir. The voice-acting was all round bad. The animation was... expected for a series of that time. I don't understand why Mytho likes going around without pants. The last few episodes were basically about a guy with writer's block. That's... it. Underwhelming, I know. At least the music was fantastic, making good use of Tchaikovsky's three famous ballets and many more classical pieces, arranged or in their original form. Really, the OST was worth sitting through everything for.

In hindsight I could have just went straight for the OST. Don't remind me about it.

In a break away from the DOOM and GLOOM, I did pick up Kyousougiga (TV) and wow. Just wow. It's amazing. Understanding the story is probably impossible, and you gotta go with some suspension of disbelief, but rolling along with the antics of the characters is so damn fun. So. Damn. Fun. I haven't just sat back and enjoyed a show like this in a long time. The voice-acting is top-notch all round, it's been a long time since I've seen Suzumura in a role that suits him so well. Kyousougiga is fun, it's colourful, the music is great, and most importantly it's just really entertaining to watch. Understanding isn't a must; really, just rolling along with it is probably the best way to go. At the end it was even kind of touching and I loved it. You can draw parallels between it and any family out there, but it's not necessary to dig around for something profound. It feels deep and it touches something intrinsic I guess, but this is a show that I can say with some certainty that it's for everyone. No overanalysing needed to enjoy.

Commercial break over, time to return to the crap pile. I will never ever trust MAL's recommendations section again because I picked up Nagi no Asukara based on the massive number of recommendations for Shinsekai yori and I spent most of it wondering "where is this mythical similarity they spoke of?" I see none except for the number of kids, and even that fades fast as Nagi-Asu adds more and more, younger and younger, self-justified and annoying kids. Strict rules? Nagi-Asu is tame. Discovering the truth about their world? LOL not really because their world-building is one of the worst I've ever seen. I've raged quite a lot about this so I'm just going to copy and paste: Plotwise, I've read spoilers and I've concluded that Ena does everything as a deus ex machina. Characters? Hikari is an annoying little shit and apparently no one grows physically after five years, regardless of their hibernation status. Thanks design staff. There's too much romance, which I guess is my fault for not paying attention to the genre labels. However, what's a real waste is that it has the best animation and colouring, coupled with really good OP/EDs that made me give yanaginagi a second chance to win me over. The worldbuilding was so stupid that it destroyed all the potential though, and honestly I would never recommend this to Shinsekai yori because the latter has a story. I dropped it because like, I've seen both OPs and EDs and that means I've seen everything good about this! If all you want is eye candy though then yeah Nagi-Asu does just that.

That wraps it up for TV series I think. One bored day I started watching the Rayearth OVA and finished it all in a couple of hours. It's... very CLAMP-style, by which I mean they take their established characters and stick them in an alternate universe like some epic fanfiction being animated. Yeah I know I used the same metaphor twice now but that's the most accurate description of the plot. The characters look better than usual in the OVA but that mashin... no. They look like freaking Digimon from that season everyone hated. Overall the OVA was watchable but so very draggy. And I see literally no point to it.

Because I discovered that some nameless sub groups have been making efforts to get Kindaichi material subbed, I managed to get my hands on the subbed Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Movie. Basically the subs are terrible, which made for a terrible watching experience, but more than that the pacing was so draggy... It has none of the suspense of the Kindaichi mysteries I'm used to, and it all felt contrived. Nothing like the usual Kindaichi. I should have passed on this one.

On the manga side, I also read a lot of manga. Not all were good. But let's try to make them sound good. Or at least worth talking about.

Vampire Juujikai. I recall not-so-fondly an acquaintance in my high school days worshipping it, which meant I wouldn't like it, and I was right on the money. Shirodaira's works are really formulaic i.e. wordy and difficult to read because of all the extended exposition on FATE CREYS, but this has gotta take the cake. It's one thing to have a hero blessed by fate; we've all seen at least one in each of his works. It's another to have a hero that's blessed by godmoding and being somewhat-psychic as well. In Spiral, Kiyotaka and Ayumu explain their prowess by logic and clearly logic has its limits because at many points they were scrambling to cover their asses; in Zetsuen no Tempest (to be discussed later), Hakaze's luck is explained by magic but she eventually turns on that magic to struggle with fate. The hero in this series, Strauss? Nah, god-mode. The characters are also disagreeable, both with me as the reader and with themselves as a coherent character. It's not as good compared to the former two works, and the art is also harsh on the eyes. And then suddenly aliens too? I'm outta here.

Upon hearing that Claymore has finally reached the end of its run, and recalling that a couple of seasons ago I marathoned the anime, I went to give the manga a go. It's... interesting, but not as good as it's praised to be. The character development is actually pretty flat. The characters start out as diversified and yes, interesting, but they do not develop save for some side characters like Miria. Even if they do develop it's coupled with some bullshit like how youki lets you see the future and wipe memories like wow amaaaaaze. My bullshit senses are tingling here. Thankfully, Raki still isn't a main feature, being shafted in favour of the Claymore ladies. And I guess I can't say it's that bad because I did finish it all in two days. Hey, I'm not gonna complain too much if there are badass women portrayed pseudo-realistically and not turned into cheap sex ads for dudes.

Now we shall touch upon the last of Shirodaira's great works, Zetsuen no Tempest, the other ZnT that had a great music score. But this is the manga, so no. I ended up reading most of it in Chinese, and gosh it was so wordy that it took me a long time to read one chapter. Doesn't help that one chapter can have 50 pages. I think the manga is less overblown than the anime, which tried to involved the two boys as MAIN CHARACTERS(tm) to the bitter end. The manga had more of a natural progression in that way, because it didn't try to have the boys participate in the final battle beyond their abilities. Shirodaira's style isn't all explosions and sparkles after all, it's talks about fate, boring as they may be! Then again this manga is better than the vampire one. The special chapters at the end were super cute like omfg why Evangeline why did you marry Samon whyyyyyyyyy ;_; Wasn't it Natsumura that you liked? Or more like, everyone thought Evangeline had more chemistry with Natsumura but that's kinda unique about Tempest. All the characters you never thought would hook up, hooked up. It was pretty ok to read but gosh, so wordy in Chinese........

Yup, that's most of it. I started a couple of webcomics like Noblesse (lol the other allegedly groundbreaking vampire story) and I Don't Want This Kind of Hero. I like the latter a lot more and I've caught up with the official translation so far for that. The former, not really but my interest is waning because it just gets to be battles and more battles. And I skip battle scenes so yeah, not much in store for me LOL.

Looking forward to Winter 2015, which begins in three weeks. Merry Christmas to me!