Happy New Year

Well it was a good Christmas for me! How was everybody elses holidays? *crickets chirp*
*cough*
Anyways I did get some anime related stuff so hurrah!
A Misa nendoroid! Ah LQ pic but still Misamisa!

I also got Higurashi dvds... well more specifically one because the rest didn't arrive in time, I got When They Cry vol 3 in time, 2 arrived the other day and 1 has yet to arrive XD.
I had to change my dvd player to multi-regional but google is my friend for that matter. Shame I'll probably never get the rest because of Geneon and all the stuff with them distrubution and all that~

Also Battle Royale vol 1 - Oh very very good, nice and gory, sadistic even and the story is very interesting and keeps going by the fact you really do not know what is going to happen next.. Thanks for that [Chibi]
I now have Princess Mononoke on dvd! Haven't got around to watching it yet, maybe tonight... kinda funny because it was actually on TV today - channel 4 too...

Games-wise -
Super Mario Galaxy - Argh I really can't believe how little I have played on this so far, so little time, brother on wii, other games etc Must play this in a huge marathon very soon!
Metroid Prime 3 : Corruption - OH WOW I FUCKING LOVE THIS GAME. Aha cruise contol aside this game is beautiful, I'm not so far with this either but it's what I've played the most, the controls are fantastic and the levels and graphics and style make me drool, I don't even like FPS but i love this game, Red Steel was a pain to play from the bad pointing and camera etc but this is wonderful *_*~

Pokemon Battle Revolution - heh, I haven't even played this because I chose a very bad time to start a new game on Diamond - level 24 as my strongest probably won't get me anywhere!

Brothers games -
Super Paper Mario - This game looks really fun, proved more to the fact he's addicted to it. It is very text heavy but the geeky chameleon makes up for it, search for it on youtube hillarious level. He's playing it right now :)
Simpsons game (PS2) - Oh dear, I haven't played it but it looks kind of awful, I have nothing wrong with cel-shading but the backgrounds and levels look cel overload! He says it's funny though so there's that, but one of the worst cameras ever.

Big Brain Academy (DS) - Looks fun must steal sometime - edit: it's bloody fun but im only good at memorising (all 9 gold medals) so i'm a C- TT__TT

Sonic & Mario at the Olympic games - I fail bad at this game the only thing I could win was swimming as Peach XD but it is fun and Sonic + Mario = ACE. Pretty much...



Also Christmas brings money
Money brings wonderful things--
I bought Final Fantasy III for the DS preowned - verrry addictive game but yet again I haven't played on it as much as i should >.>

MANGAAA-
WOW Borders in Preston is so much better than my local Waterstones they really really did have everything but I didn't have enough money! Oh well I got some at least!

Full Moon O Sagashite (Searching For A Full Moon) Volume 1 - Arina Tanemura

Blurb - A bittersweet tale of puppy love, tragedy, and aspirations of pop star fame. A spark of hope ignites to a blaze in twelve-year-old Mitsuki Koyama when a comical pair of magical beings appear to prove to her that dreams really do come true.
Young Mitsuki love singing and dreams of becoming a pop star. Unfortunately, a malignant tumor in her throat prevents her from pursuing he passion. However, her life turns around when two surprisingly fun-loving harbingers of death appear to grant Mitsuki a temporary reprieve from her illness and give her singing career a magical push start.

Ah Volume 1 at the beginning of the story where Mitsuki is still at her grandmothers and has no chance of being a pop star to find Eichi - enter Takuto and Meroko and the story begins...
The thing I love about it is that when the story goes it really goes as in it doesn't take a whole volume to introduce what the whole series is about and Full Moon does it without rushing either. By chapter 2 you're already into the story and all that's left is to introduce all the characters and to develop them which is what will happen. I already had volumes 3,4 & 5 before 1&2 anyways because I prefer them due to Mitsuki and Takuto not being my favourite, I don't dislike them they just never really did anything great for me.. I love Arina Tanemura's notes and storys down the right hand sides of pages they're so fun to read, probably my favourite of all manga artists to read and the 4koma at the end are always so funny.

Hit - Arina's writing

- Beautiful art style

Miss - Mostly about Mitsuki and Takuto

- Pop star side of the story isn't my favourite.. Prefer the *drama* of later volumes.

Full Moon O Sagashite Volume 2 - Arina Tanemura
Blurb updated -
Now that Mitsuki has debuted in the pop world, she is faced with the dark side of the glitsz and glamour -- pretty jelousy and scheming that just might be her undoing. Will her love for Eichi be enough to keep her on the road to stardom? Or wil the schemes of a mysterious new Shinigami stop her dreams short?

I really LOVE LOVE LOVE the cover for this volume, the colours are all really bright and it's the black on pink and the blue on pink, I actually accidently photocopied this when scanning, so at first I was like oh no not the coloured ink! But I love the cover so much it really doesn't matter! Izumi and Jonathan get their proper introduction in this volume and we're left with a cliffhanger! I forget how fast this series moves without feeling rushed, it's really beautiful I've read this so many times. Seriously if a shoujo fan has never read this there's something wrong with them! Also the anime doens't count, it's nice but it's full of pointless fillers and doens't have the same depth, also slight character personality changes but ah nothings perfect Full Moon is probably better suited for something like a drama than an anime anyways - the style doesn't carry through either but never mind. Things get serious for Mitsuki as in her soul due to Izumi being after it meaning things could turn for the worse for her... Now I just need Vol 6 & 7 and i'm complete and I can re-read it over and over again, again.
Bonus - Gin-yu Meika
A really sweet one shot manga, Kanon and Akayoshi are both extremely cute characters

Hit - The cover!

- Gin-yu Meika

- Izumi and Jonathan

Miss - Mitsuki borders a bit on peachy clean friendship speeches sometimes, which are cute and heartwarming but not everybody's cup of tea~

School Rumble Volume 2 - Jin Kobayashi

I know I said I'd do this 3 days ago or something but but like games...

Blurb - Harima Kenji has never lost a fight but his love for the clueless Tsukamoto Tenma is proiving to be his greatest challenge. After catching his cherished Tenma-chan and an unexpected rival in a lunchtime tryst, Kenji spirals into the deepest pit of high school Hades - plummeting so low that there's only one thing left to do: draw a manga. When Kenji hits bottom, whom will he find ther? Meanwhile, Tenma is determined to learn how to cook - this time preferably without setting the house on fire!

I only read all of School Rumble the other month so everything is still pretty fresh in my mind so it wasn't as fun to read as the rest but still damn funny. Most of the funny stuff comes from Harima this volume and it still feels like it's introducing a lot of the characters, because it still is of course. It's not my favourite volume but the pool ball and baseball are both funny. Also after reading the VIZ manga and then going on to Tanoshimi is kind of hard because of the sfx, most people seem to prefer them left as they are but i can't stand all the tiny scribbles of sfx:doki doki. The student grades page at the end of the volume is left untranslated aswell.

Hit - Funnier bits with Harima and the class activities
- More about Eri with her dad.
Miss - The wierd supernatural chapter with Yakumo, I don't like any of these with her really...

Negima Volume 4 - Ken Akamatsu

Ok I lied again and I didn't get the Negima ones done yesterday - I'm a bad person etc.

This volume of Negima is the beginning of the Kyoto arc which means the beginning of the fights getting serious and more of the class getting involved with the magic. Evangeline tells Negi about his father's house in Kyoto but seen as he can't take a break out of school he takes the whole class with him on a school trip. I like this volume mostly from at the end with Nodoka she's extremely cute in my opinion and being brave enough to confess especially with how shy she is makes her one of my favourite characters.

Negima! Volume 5

This was of course my Christmas present from CC, I actually got it before volume 4 because my local waterstones hates having the volume 4 books of any series. They never have them. The first half is mostly filler right before the big fight with the pillow/kiss Negi battle. Nodoka finally makes her pactio which comes in handy against the new character (and probably my personal favourite) Kotaro Inugami. The next volume will definitely be exciting because the big fight they've been trying to avoid occurs.

Should be going to Manchester tomorrow - hopefully goodies will follow..

edit: I got some books so i will review them sometime D:

(Sgt Frog, More Full Moon and the second Shana novel! (I had no idea they were translated))

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It's finally christmas here in England just gone past 12 (or it will be when I publish this post >=]...)
Oh well not much to say apart from I found the Air, Clannad and Kanon manga...

Clannad is alright

Air definitely has a cute style (I prefer it to the anime/game style actually lol)

Kanon is actually very cute and like silly faced that the anime never was so I think I might actually keep on reading it...



Also did I mention Merry Christmas?

MERRY CHRISTMAS





AND GOOD NIGHT~

Game Reviews, Pokemon to be exact...

Yeah, no anime or manga from me because... well... I'll leave that to the experts for now I guess. :S So for now, two reviews of the latest Pokemon games, Pokemon Snap for the Virtual Console (on the Wii) and Pokemon Battle Revolution for the Wii.

---Pokemon Snap---

I never managed to own a N64 (mainly because at the time I was a total Sony fangirl), so I never got the chance to play Pokemon Snap the first time around. Basically what you do is take photos of erm... Pokemon. Kinda like those nature watch programmes but with anime-style creatures, maybe. If you totally dispise the anime/the whole Pokemon-when-it-was-a-craze-thing then you probably won't like this game. ANYWAY, to the very small number of you that are still reading, this game appears pretty under-rated. Sure, I finished it in a day, but it's still pretty good.

The title screen, obviously.

The game is set on 'Pokemon Island' which I assume is in Kanto, although that really doesn't matter... *ahem* there are six areas which are Beach, Tunnel, Volcano, River, Cave and Valley, with a secret area called Rainbow Cloud. The six main areas are full of Pokemon running around and occasionally doing some funny poses. On your first way through the areas, you might spot some weird none-monster stuff that look like a Pokemon called Pokemon Signs. Take pictures of all of them and you get to the final stage. Some stages require you to re-visit when you obtain apples, Pester balls and the Poke-Flute to snap the Pokemon that you previously missed or couldn't get. When you finish the level, you can choose the pictures to be evaluated by Professor Oak, who will judge them on closeness, pose and whether or not they're in the centre of the camera.

Aww, I love Meowth... X3 On this game, they provide some of the best comedy.

The game is simple to pick up and play and is easy to learn, but addictive as hell, especially when trying to get a good snap of Mew but end up getting a far away shot his/her tail once again. T-T The graphics are good (but I never judge a game on graphics so, meh). The only problems with this game is that it is far too short and you'll probably see everything in a day, although it is almost made up for with the fact that you can send snaps to friends and of course, 'edit' them in the Photo Channel. Not really worth the hefty 1000 Wii points (about £7.50) when you consider that the awesome The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 are going for the same price but hey, I got OoT and three other Zelda games for free for my Gamecube so I can't complain.

So, would I recommend Pokemon Snap? Well yes, but only if you're a die-hard Pokemon fan, like me! ^^' However, this is surprisingly good for a Pokemon spin off, and I reckon this game is BEGGING for a Wii sequel featuring all 493 of those collectable monsters, that fit in your pocket. It just doesn't live up to the likes of Ranger, but do remember that this came out at a time when Pikachu was a recognised world leader.

---Pokemon Battle Revolution---

Now here's a game created specifically for Pokemon fans. Pokemon Battle Revolution allows you to upload your Diamond and Pearl teams and use them in glorious 3Dness. There are some drawbacks to this game though, and unlike Snap, these problems don't really have redeeming features. However it would be silly to compare these two games as they're completely different! Anyway, on to the review!

Cerulean_Charizard starts to review! It's an INTENSE BLOW!

Since I started with the positives for Snap, I'll start by being negative with PBR (so labourious to type out the whole name). First things first. All the game is about is battling. Very disappointing seeing as the Stadium games had those cool looking mini-games that I never got to play. =( However, at least we're not having to purify Shadow Pokemon. I HATED that. A lot. Another thing that was slightly disappointing was that the trainer customisation wasn't nearly as diverse as I'd expected. You pick one out of six models and each get a small number of clothes designs and really it's a bit crap and limited. There's no right hair colour for the model I picked. ¬.¬''' and my hair colour's not exactly uncommon.

Waaait! It's not all bad! If there's one really good feature of PBR then that definately has to be the multiplayer features! If you're on your own, you can battle online with fellow Pokemon trainers all around the world! This would be perfect if it wasn't for the abundance of ubers filling my wi-fi and wiping out my precious Charizard. Admittedly though, I do bring my Mew along, but it isn't as bad as say, Dialga, Palkia, Kyogre, Groudon, Mewtwo and some other uber against my Charizard, Mew, Torterra, Feraligatr, Aerodactyl and Umbreon. Super-competitive people annoy me too, but at least they have skills...

*Tumbleweed blows past*

Oh snapz, I went off topic into a rant. Allow me to get back onto topic by mentioning that finally, at long last, you actually see the Pokemon physically hitting each-other! Within reason of course, it's pretty funny to see the Pokemon walk up to their opponent in sometimes a quite comical way. Speaking of comical, the commentator can't pronounce names properly, particularly Rayquaza. It's funny to listen to, but if it annoys you that much you can turn it off. They should have brought someone English to dub the commentator. Right now I just thought of Peter Kaye doing it and laughed. Shouldn't have watched Pheonix Nights at school this morning...

*Tumbleweed blows past again*

BACK ON TOPIC AGAIN (sorry, I won't do this again in future) and the overall view. for the love of, well, anything, DO NOT BUY THIS GAME IF YOU DO NOT HAVE DIAMOND/PEARL AND YOU DO NOT HAVE WI-FI OR SOME PEOPLE TO PLAY THIS GAME WITH!!!!!! I stress this especially because the rental Pokemon really are full of fail and PBR does not cater very well for poor single players with no wi-fi seeing as there is barely anything in the single player mode. Plus the computer AI on single player is really fail sometimes. If you DO have these things though, I would really recommend this game.

******

Anyway, hope the reviews helped and if you didn't, I hope I entertained you with my bad reviewing skills when it comes to games. >.<

~Cerulean_Charizard

Neo 040

Picked up the January edition of Neo magazine in town today, Neo is England's anime magazine for those who don't know (who am I talking to?).

It came with a free promo ADV DVD which has episodes 1 of Pumpkin Scissors and Karau Phantom Memory as well as Le Chevalier D'Eon episode 2.

This months features:
Neo Awards
Anime Expose - Clannad
Manga Snapshot - Rose Mystery
Expo Report - Octobers London MCM Expo
Super-Hiro - Guide to Hiro from Heroes
Interview - GO!GO!7188
An Anime Christmas
Otaku Gift Guide
Poison Candy - New serialisation from Tokyopop by David Hine and Hans Steinbach

Looking at the UK release schedule..
The only new anime being coming out here is School Rumble, School Rumble Starter and the first DVD will be out on the 21st of January. The Naruto movie will also be out on Boxing Day.
With new Manga we have Megaman, Imadoki, GATCHA GACHA, Phantom, Samurai Girl:Real Bout High School, Suki and Zatch Bell! Apart from that there is also more Death Note, Full Moon, Naruto and Bleach. It's pretty funny to look at all this manga because Waterstones have had most of these for a while and I bought volumes 4, 5 and 6 of Full Moon back in August from the Forbidden Planet.

Bleach 1:1 is still at number 1 in the anime charts and the manga is the same as always Fruits Basket, Naruto and Death Note.

When I opened it in the queue at Gamestation I was surprised to see a picture of Ryou from Clannad in it, given the fact Neo deals more with licensed titles but of course if anything from this season would be picked for Anime Expose (What's hot in the land of the rising sun) it would be Clannad. The text is just a basic explanation of what Clannad is and a quick summary of what is going on within it.

Not to sure of what to think of this new manga in it (there's only 6 pages so far) but I think it will be very interesting if they keep on publishing it in Neo. I'm definitely interested. So far it reminded me a bit of Elfen Lied (which I must finish reading).

Reviews:
Ah! My Goddess
Moon Phase
Mushi-shi
Basilisk
Utawarerumono
Speed Grapher
Ergo Proxy
Shadow Skill
Guyver
Tekkaman Blade
Human Crossing
Bright Future
Dream Cruise
The Forgotten
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
The Wayward Cloud
War Angels
In Dream World
Bride of the Water God
Kekkaishi
DEATH NOTE (Editor's Choice)
Mario & Sonic at the Olympics
Mass Effect (NEO Gold Award)
Virtua Fighter 5
Ace Combat 6
Avatar the Burning Earth

If you live in the UK and are an anime fan then it's pretty obvious what you need to do - go out and buy it.

Naruto Chapter 380

This chapter was a lot better than the last one. Some of my interest has returned! Huzzah!

It seems that one of the Pains is Yahiko, out of that group Jiriaya had, or at least, the body has been taken over, according to him. Thing is, the one with the Rinnengan is supposed to be Nagato.

Meanwhile, back at Hokage HQ, I mean, at the Hidden Leaf Village, Tsunade is talking about her bet on Jiriaya's return. I also hope he gets back soon, that fight has really bored me.

Then the action cuts to Team Snake as they also find Akatsuki. Sasuke, being the arrogant... erm, idiot that he is, is all for fighting Itachi by himself. Suigetsu prepares to fight Kisame. We also learn the Suigetsu has a brother called Mangetsu, I thought I'd point that out incase it is important later... which it probably isn't, but yeah.

Nothing like a small self introduction...

Tobi and Naruto and the others have found eachother! Yay, Naruto is in his own manga again! Tobi's back which is also good because he is funny. Anyway, Naruto attacks Tobi with a Rasengan, and it looks like the Leaf are about to fight Tobi.

Finally, the chapter ends with Itachi and Sasuke get ready to fight. I wouldn't be surprised if Sasuke lost again, and got EVEN MORE emo.

Sasuke - He can see you. XD

Tune in next week, or something. I'm off to watch School Rumble.

~Cerulean_Charizard

Oh bugger

Well my laptop is broken.

It won't start up etc so I'm stuck with an ancient PC (with a slow 40GB hardrive to boot).
I don't know when it'll be fixed etc so that means no more anime related posts from me for a while!
It happened just after I'd been hooking my laptop up to my HD TVs and watching anime on there (damn it looked so good) so blah at all that.
Anyways yesterday I went to the Trafford Center in Manchester where I managed to pick up Vol 1 of School Rumble and Zombie Loan along with Vol 9 of Ouran (3 for 2 ftw).
Also you other three get your arses into gear and do some work or something D:


Hauu~ out