I did a bit of internal screaming when Vampire Knight ended at episode 13. I’m not sure if the anime ended as strongly as it started, but I was still hooked enough to hunt down the manga and marathon it until about 4AM on a workday. I couldn’t believe they broke the anime up into two seasons Dx I guess it’s mainly because the manga hadn’t finished yet. The manga definitely grew on me a lot more than when I first flipped through vol. 1 at Borders; I also really enjoyed the big twist-reveal about Yuuki and am dying to find out about what happens next.
So with Vampire Knight temporarily done I was at a bit of a loss about what to watch/read next. Not to say that I don’t have a full watch/readlist right now, but I wanted to pick up something that can really hold my attention like Vampire Knight did. So I picked up Nodame Cantabile manga from where I dropped off, and it’s STILL AWESOME. Most people who know me knows that I freaking love this series to death, having watched anime, manga, and live action – I just can’t get enough of this series, it’s definitely an absolute favorite. I’ve forgotten some of the finer details of the story since I took a pretty long hiatus from the manga, but the plot is still going strong with quite a few threads creeping in with the appearance of Chiaki’s father. I’ve had so many laugh-out-loud moments reading the manga… usually whenever characters go into blank-eyed angsty/moody mode… or when Chiaki (fondly) imagines Nodame in weirdo forest mode… seriously FTW stuff.