Note to Self

Over my years of anime-viewing and manga-reading I’m sure that I have at some point come across series that made me rather teary-eyed. However, I can’t really remember any that managed to make me drop honest-to-goodness tears. I’m happy to say that I’ve finally met my match in a terrific manga series called Kimi ni Todoke. Granted I could blame some of those tears on raging hormones and a bit of general emo-ness at the time… I definitely don’t think this would be a tear-jerking series for the average reader. Tears aside, Kimi ni Todoke is really a wonderful read. If you enjoy reading bittersweet schoolyard/first love shoujo manga, you definitely have to check out Kimi ni Todoke!

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Kimi ni Todoke

It’s been a while since I’ve settled down with a nice long shounen manga series. Not to say I’m a shounen n00bie – I followed most of the ongoing series featured in the Taiwanese equivalent of Shounen Jump back in middle/high. So I’ve had my dosages of Rurouni Kenshin (adored), Hunter x Hunter (ok until it turned really weird), Shaman King (ok until it turned utterly convoluted/uninteresting), etc. And then more recently D.Gray-man (dropped but will hopefully pick up again someday?)… I think it’s fair to say lately I only pick up shounen if I like the character design, or have seen many pretty scans floating around and really want to wall said scans. AKA I usually read shounen to satisfy my silly “no-walling-unless-read-or-watched” rule, less so because I’m dying of curiosity about the plot.

But then there was Bleach – undoubtedly the longest shounen series I’ve managed to stick out recently (I’m up to chapter 201 now! xD). While marathoning/slugging through the story I find myself constantly being reminded of all the things I both love and hate about shounen manga.

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Bleach

I’m definitely really getting into Bleach as the plot thickens and hints of conspiracy abound. Reading Bleach is great for random associations and (minor as of now) complaints in a similar vein as my Urahara rant I get the feeling I’ll have more Bleach ramblings as I blitz on, but anyways…

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Bleach

Here are two Bleach pages that I especially liked the text of, so popping them up here for safekeeping

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Bleach

I’ve been gunning through Bleach the manga. I can kind of see how this one might be  more enjoyable as anime instead of manga, but my mom’s come to stay with me for a couple of months and it’s kind of weird to be like “Mom, please leave me alone. I need to watch some anime now.” Maybe it shouldn’t be weird but I don’t have that level of otaku-comfort around my parents yet.  They know I’m a raging manga fan though, after finally discovering the entirety of my rather substantial manga collection for which I pinched away years of middle/high-school lunch money. This happened a couple years ago, so they’ve more or less given up nagging me about reading manga.

Anyways… On the awesome character that is Urahara…

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Bleach

I decided to catch up with Nodame Cantabile again, probably because I was watching (and weeping over) Immortal Beloved yesterday. Beethoven is without a doubt one of my favorite composers ever. Despite being extremely incompetent at the actual delivery of a lot of these pieces, playing through the passion and the feeling in many of his sonatas when I was in middle/high really turned music into a big part of my life; something I came to depend on and cling to.

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Nodame Cantabile

I have a higher quality version of this scan saved, but I just really liked the caption Because man, these characters are seriously some of the most tortured out of CLAMP’s whole repertoire. After the whole reveal with Syaoran I tried to mentally prepare myself for a huge bummer in Fay’s past. Still killed me when I got there, it was so freaking disturbing/depressing. But now Fay is definitely one of my favorite characters ever xD

(Courtesy of onemanga.com)

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

Since I’ve more or less caught up with my current anime episodes and am just waiting for the final subs of the final episodes, I decided to indulge in some manga and dived into Tsubasa. I had gotten up to volume 11 or so back when I was last in Taiwan, but haven’t read anything since. Picking it up this time I actually started a loong ways back at volume 4. And things were moving along quite happily with the worlds-hopping, feathers-collecting, budding romance between Syaoran and Sakura “formula” if you will. Until chapter 120 onwards that is, and then it was like WAM. CLAMP fucking kicked in and went, oh wait, we’re CLAMP, we freaking love messing with and messing up our characters, indulging in some pretty-boy violence and making people bleed bucket-loads. TIME TO THROW IN THE DOUBLE-WHAMMY!

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Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

Here’s a Nodame Cantabile playlist… some of my favorite pieces from Lesson 106 to Lesson 118 ; D;

Lesson 106 – The second half of Nodame’s salon concert

Liszt – Legendes, “St Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds”

Lesson 112 – Tanya’s first preliminary performances for the Canton International Competition

Bach – Well-tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue no. 22 in B flat minor

Lesson 118 – One of Nodame’s lesson pieces for Auclair sensei
Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat, op.110 1st movement

Nodame Cantabile