Anime Spring Season 2012!

What with the Winter season coming to an end, I am sure anyone who is remotely interested has already viewed the chart for Spring 2012 and what goodies it is bringing us.

For those only looking it up now, here you go:

So what is it bringing us??

What I WON'T be checking out:

• The two Zombie related anime: Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? , Sankarea
• The worse version of The IDOLM@STER:  AKB0048
• Ghost and Animal stories: Tasogare Otome x Amnesia , Arashi no Yoru ni
• Unrealistic Kid stories :  Upotte! 
• Sequels to anime I never watched: Phi Brain , Fate/Zero , Queen's Blade, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san

Everything else is fair game. What is left of it anyway. 

What I definitely WILL be checking out:

• Sequels to anime I have seen and enjoyed: Kimi to Boku S2
• Battle : Zetman
• Sport : Kuroko no Basuke . Ginga e Kickoff!
• School lives: Hyou-ka , Sakamichi no Apollon , Gokujyo
• Board games: Saki: Achiga-hen 

Also looking forward to the new Detective Conan movie! 

I know Moretsu Pirates is continuing on the next season, which I think is the only one from the my batch. 

Let me know what you think of the next season?!

xoxo

How can I sit there and watch my wife die?

Chapter 229

After the double KO in the last chapter between Ked and M21 with assistance from Yonsu, Yonsu ponders M21's strength and who he really is.  Her thoughts are interrupted with the arrival of Rodin who was last fighting Regis. He calls Ked pitiful and orders him to, "Stand back, I will sort this out."

Sort WHO out?! Yonsu?! She'll die for sure. Assistance needed!! 

Rodin asks Yonsu what their, the KSA's, relationship with our knights are, and why is she helping them. He also asks about her powers, which are higher than those that should be under the KSA.  He says that there is much to answer although he doubts she will comply and begins to attack.
Yonsu is then stuck playing dodge, as one hit from Rodin in full power could kill her. She manages to reduce the impact of a direct hit, and as she gets desperate, assistance comes in the form of an already quite beaten Sangeen: "How can I sit there and watch my wife die?"

Major SWOON. 

Sangeen and Yonsu attempt a combined attack and whilst they hopefully wonder whether it worked, they're attacked through the rubble smoke and taken out.

Enter Regis. Rodin is surprised Regis can still move but advises him to stop his "futile struggling". Regis however has enough strength for a final attack, summons his energy, and attempts to use mind-control on Rodin so as to 'stop his movements momentarily.' 
A close call for Rodin as he barely manages to block in the last moment, wondering what caused his body to freeze for an instant.

Rodin then attempts to finish Regis off, but is interrupted by the arrival of their Captain and the Elder, who question what is going on. The Elder voices disappointment while the Captain asks how they dare "shame the name of Cerberus, by letting the likes of them injure you" and "disgrace the Elder."

Elsewhere Rai and Frankenstein get closer to the battle zone, and Rai comments, "How strange. It is faint, but I sense a familiar aura in the direction we are heading." Frankenstein wonders who the familiar aura could belong to.

END.  


Unless the familiar aura is Yuri, we are in for a shock! Yuri did not make an appearance in this chapter but the devil is more  or less ensuring we get some Cerberus to join our knights...and Yonsu and Sangeen are pretty much IN, if they live.
The battle itself does not look to good for Frankenstein, who does not wish to let his Master fight under any means. Frankenstein vs Cerberus Captain + Elder + Yuri (maybe) does not sound too advantageous.
We are also missing the young clan leader, Seira. Hope she make a badass appearance soon.

Check out Noblesse at Egscans!

Let me know what you think? Who will battle whom? 


xoxo

Azuki Banzaaaaai!!!

BAKUMAN Ch. 172

Be honest now. 

You weren't expecting it. 

Considering how long it took the boys to get an anime, and all the circumstances surrounding the voice actresses, regardless of how much Azuki really deserves it, you were NOT expecting it. 

Took me ages to turn to the page with the announcement, trying to calm myself down and prepared for utter disappointment

. 

And the difference is staggering.  

I am so incredibly happy. Its odd, but I said it before, Bakuman has an amazing ability to really drag your emotions into it, so I actually feel happy for them!

Congratulation Azuki! 

Congratulations Mashiro! 

Let NOTHING come in the way of the wedding now!

~I doubt that though.~




WOOT  WOOT! How happy are you? Were you sceptical too?

xoxo

Shocks and Revelations ~BLEACH! Ch. 484-485~

Ch.484 The Buckbeard

Starting from "In 5 days Soul Society will be annihilated by the Vandenreich"

The 'Vandenreich' refuse to tell us who they are, but only fuel our suspicions by adding that "It's easy to guess who we really are...". 

So we'll stick with badass Quincy for now. The hybrid kind. ~will explain in a bit~

SHOCK REVELATION:

THEY CAN BANKAI

So a little bit more advanced than the Quincy. Well its been a couple a centuries since their 'destruction'.

Back at Ichigo's fight ~I don't want to call it a battle~ Ivan is pissed that Ichigo's Bankai does not vanish.

SO...they can Bankai AND make other's vanish...??


Ivan then retreats into a shadow that 'only hides the chosen ones', which according to Ichigo was not the Garganta used by the Arrancars.

Well he said he wasn't an Arrancar. In fact the thought of it pissed him off.


REVELATION:

Their Lair

Surrounding familiar much? It should be. I don't think any more dimensions should be introduced. 

We are then shown the man behind the mask who spoke to the commander, he then get into a little verbal argument with Ivan and SHOCK lost his arm for it. Not via Ivan but by 'The Empire's King'. 

We've seen a lot of arms cut off in our time with BLEACH. From the top of my head there was Grimmjow, Ishida, Ulquiorra, Commander Yamamoto...but this scene more reminds me more of when Aizen brought Grimmjow to his knees with only his spiritual pressure.

It was at that moment that the power hierarchy was seriously established with Aizen. Here, we find the man who lead the declaration of war at Soul Society and gave the commander a tough time, put down much too easily.

This Empire's King has taken his position at not-to-be-messed-with top!

Ch.485 Foundation Stones

The chapter starts off continuing on with the Empire's King (the Vandenreich leader) and simply showing how sick he is. "If you're not going to sit down I guess you don't need your legs." Sick, sick bastard.

There's a detour at this point but lets continue with them. We are given the name Luders Friegen for the man who has lost his arm; he explains that they will invade in 5days, "the necessary time required for soul society and *them* to be prepared for battle." He was then asked by the King whether or not he was a prophet, as he keeps talking about the future.

Upon the answer no, he was killed.


SHOCK I thought he was important; we even got his name.

The king turns his attention to Ivan, he states he has no "reasons to praise you or blame you" but his job was over as he did "enough to slow down Ichigo Kurosaki." 


I don't think slowing Ichigo was necessary, like what was he going to do, run to SS and fight those who invaded??

The king tells Ivan that he "can become the foundation stone to build peace" and kills him.


Double SHOCK, I thought these characters would last longer. The king clearly doesn't care for his followers. 

Luders' Death

Ivan's Death

One of the cloaked figures then ask the King whether he was fine with his disposal of the two, as Arrancars make good soldiers as they don't need to be taught to fight.

They were Arrancar then...?


The King says he doesn't care as he can get as many Arrancars as he pleases, as Hueco Mundo is already his territory: "just another foundation stone to invade Soul Society."


REVELATION they are in fact in Hueco Mundo.

SHOCK we are then treated to the image of Ex-Espada 3, Halibel.

You would remember Halibel as the Espada who battled Captain Hitsugaya and Vaizards Lisa and Hiyori but is betrayed and slain by Aizen who states that he is done with her as she is not strong enough to fight for him.

REVELATIONS from BLEACH Official Fan Book 3: UNMASKED: At the end of the battle with Aizen, the fake Karakura town was lifted and replaced with what was originally Soul Society. When this happened the fallen Espada were also transferred to SS. Here Apacci (one of Halibel's fraccion) led Orihime, who returned with Rukia and the rest from Hueco Mundo, to Halibel where she healed the Tres Espada's deep wounds. Halibel and her fraccion then returned to HM.

We are therefore unaware of how many Espada survived. Halibel's was guaranteed. However, Baraggan (2nd Espada) and Yammy (10th/Zero Espada) were said to be dead, as well as Stark(no.1) and obviously, Ulquiorra (no.4).

Personally I look forward to seeing the Espada we KNOW we left alive in HM...eh, Grimmjow. ^^

BACK TO THE CHAPTER:

Over at Ichigo's end there's 2 pages of random chit chat, and a phone call comes in for the boy Ryuunosuke, where he is asked to return urgently for a funeral.

SHOCK:

Although we did see it happen, we saw a lot worse in BLEACH before and the characters SURVIVED. Matsumoto, Hinamori, and basically all of the vice-captains during the war. So this is a FIRST in Bleach, where a prominent good guy actually dies. Although an entire war passed we didn't see it happen before. Though we're starting pretty small, as we weren't too close to Sasakibe.
We are set to expect many deaths this time round as it is the FINAL WAR. The extent of their strength could not be summarised better than the details given in the call:

"In a 182 seconds long battle 106 members of the Division died." "We don't know how they got in nor how they left...we reckon they used a transportation mean that the Shakonmaku cannot block...!"

SHOCK 106 MEMBERS IN 182 SECONDS KILLED! By like a handful of intruders.

Our next SHOCK literally fell from the sky and slammed into Ichigo. Former-Ex-Espada 3, Nel Tu.

"Its bad Ichigo. Help me Ichigo. Hueco Mundo is...is..."


And we already know what it is...its been taken over.

DONE!

So what we know so far...

Really simplified:

In Bleach we have the Humans, the Shinigami, the Hollow, and the Quincy (spiritually aware Humans).

We had Shinigami with Hollow powers, the Vizard.

Hollow with Shinigami powers, the Arrancar.

Human with Shinigami powers and a Hollow within, Ichigo.

Now we have what we were led to believe to be Quincy, able to Bankai, in control of Arrancar. I believe they have a power that Aizen sought. The reason why Aizen was so interested in Ichigo and Orihime. A power that transcends these boundaries.
 I also believe that the FullBring arc, however useless it felt, must have had SOME hints as to what these Vandenreich really are.

But theories, theories. We shall wait and see.


Let me know what you think! Your thoughts/ theories! 
Much love. Happy reading! 

xoxo

Introducing: Cheese in the Trap!

Having returned to college after a year long break, Hong Sul, a hard-working over-achiever, inadvertently got on the wrong side of a suspiciously perfect senior named Yoo Jung, the school's most popular upperclass man. He's good looking, rich, smart, and even nice. From then on her life took a turn for the worse and Sul was almost certain it was all Yoo Jung's doing. So why is he suddenly acting so friendly a year later? ~MangaUpdates~

Genres: Josei, Comedy, College Life, Slice of Life, Romance, Mystery

Original Korean Webcomic 

No, I too don't ordinary like Manhwas but I find webcomics different. The art is amazing and is seriously not a problem. So READ ON! 

NOT SHOUJO!

This isn't the girl-meets-boy, he is mean, its a misunderstanding, she falls in love. 

That crap's been done! 

Cheese in the Trap is complicated. Its not a light fluffy read. Its intriguing, tense, and worth the time.

I am so entirely used to the clichéd shoujo story as there aren't many serious projects that involve a young woman. 

Even if searching for Josei instead of Shoujo, you tend to get Manga that have an older woman with mature topics of sex and love but are not slice of life. They are not realistic and in fact they tend to act like teenagers- mulling for hours on end on the stupidest of things, like Hapi Mari ~although I do follow it~. 

So if like me you're a young woman who needs a little more from Josei projects, check out Cheese in the Trap ~I have no idea why its called that~.

Sul is a refreshing female protagonist: intelligent, hard worker, independent, and not looking for a man!! She's not even embarrassing! 

You go through Cheese in the Trap mainly via her point of view and most of the first season tells us her story by going back and forth between the past and present; and its done immaculately well. You won't be confused thanks to the fact that this is a webcomic and when addressing the past, its done flashback style - black background and reduced colours. 

NOT A LOVE STORY! 

It is however building up to it. Rather realistically. Naturally! 

ATM, although we have been through all of the 1st season's 46 chapters, she does not go doki doki over anybody. But it isn't the kind of building up where the protagonist is oblivious and the story DRAGS, like Skip Beat! ~which I also follow~. 

The story isn't meant to be the search for love. But an ordinary life story of a college student, whose ordinary life is messed with by her sunbae ~korean senpai~ who has some unknown agenda, and a story of his own. 

Everyone else on campus LOVES this sunbae and Sul is smart enough not to voice her opinions on him. In fact she doesn't know whether he's the two-faced devil or whether she herself is just a paranoid psycho. 

Many who read CitT are split between whether Yoo Jung, the sunbae, is good or bad. You don't know whether he is some serious evil mastermind or simply misunderstood and innocent.

More and more Yoo Jung gets involved in Sul's present and personal life and is nothing but nice.

Slowly the story unfolds. Especially with the introduction of an old friend of Yoo Jung, Baek In-ho, who knows the true Yoo Jung and despises him. Each chapter leaves you on edge for MORE! 

Cheese in the Trap is really one of those great finds. I absolutely adore this project and highly recommend it. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, this story was originally available at Webtoonlive but at the request of the author/artist scanlation was called to stop as it is distribution of their work without permission. 

Fear not! In comes hero: Odd Squad Scanlations. They found a method for us non-readers of Korean to read directly off of Naver, where the CitT is published, via translation overlay; thereby supporting the author for their work by increasing traffic and remaining legal. 

Therefore you can find chapters 1-24 at most manga readers websites, although I recommend reading it in its original long-webcomic-format, which you can still find on Webtoonlive (although it is hidden) via this link: 

http://www.webtoonlive.com/webtoon/cheese+in+the+trap/ch-first/ 

Go to the next chapters by clicking NEXT CHAPTER, the chapter links won't get you anywhere. 

From 25 onwards, visit the Odd Squad magicians at http://www.oddsquad.org/p/citt.html and follow instructions there. 

HAPPY READING! Let me know what you think and if you're a reader what you think of it ALL! 

xoxo

Pause

Spring Cleaning sucks. Back soon.

xososxo

Noblesse ~Chapter 226~

Previous chapters: Tao, Takeo, and M21 are not doing too well in their battles against two of Cerberus members and it turned for the serious worse as the two other members of Cerberus decide to join and clear things up before the arrival of their Elder. At the end of chapter 225, Rai also makes the decision to "Protect the life *he has* built here" and join the battle, much to Frankenstein's dismay as he is afraid of his master's condition to battle.

Chapter 226 

Yonsu is hurriedly driving to get to the site of battle when she is stopped by a loud crash of Sangeen falling on top of her car injured. She is shocked by his appearance and asks about the battle the Union Agents are involved in, and informs him the other two have gone to join. Sangeen doesn't think that the three would be able to battle all four members of Cerberus, and tells Yonsu to hurry and drive them there. 

The chapter then concentrates at Tao battle with one of the agents. He uses wires and an electric surge to fight, and just when he thought the battle was over, the agent slices through Tao's wires revealing his true form. He suggests that that Tao and the rest are Dr. Crombell's creations and attacks Tao once more, this time immensely overpowering him.

M21's battle is no better as he is getting a major beating, and at his best manages to scratch the agents true form arm. We are then shown Takeo who is worrying as he tries, in vain, to gain contact with M21, and realizes that both Tao and M21 are in need of help. He then hears a voice on his receiver telling him to "Go Assist Tao."

Back at M21's battle, the situation is dire, as the Cerberus he is fighting decides to end the battle and is about to attack when he himself is attacked. M21 is joined by the final member of the RK-4, Regis, wearing a mask like everyone else. 

"Sorry I am late."                                                                                              "Apology accepted."

_______________________________________________________________

Ya, I am sure EVERYONE thought for a mini-second maybe Frankenstein and Rai made it there extra quick, but this is no less exciting. First Regis, then the other 2 from Cerberus, then Seira, then if it is even necessary at that point, Frankenstein and Rai. Also the one leading Cerberus, who Frankenstein believes is strong, Yuri is likely to make an appearance at that point. I'm strapping in for a long eventful battle. 

Excited?  

xoxo

An Update on Anime Winter 2012

This is an update from the blog post on Sunday, 5 February 2012: Catch Up Winter 2012.

A list of what I am watching and in order of preference:

1. Natsume Yuujin-cho
2. Chihayafuru
3. Brave 10
4. New Prince of Tennis
5. Moretsu Pirates
6. Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou 
7. Inu x Boku SS 
8. Aquarian Evol
9. Bakuman S2 (Only this low because I read the manga)
10. Recorder to Randoseru 

Area no Kishi leaves the list as I haven't watched an episode in forever, which is disappointing as I had high hopes for it at the start of the season. 

Brave 10 climbs many spots up because I absolutely love it!! Everything I could want from an anime. Highly recommended.

xoxo

This IS a Love Story ~Kore wa Koi no Hanashi~

It says ~A Love Story between a 10 years old girl and a 31 years old man.~

After recently moving into his grandmother's house in the countryside, Shinichi is bored with everything despite his success as a novelist. That is, until one day, when a young girl with a stray cat appears at his doorstep. A girl with a very tragic look in her eyes...

I remember when I first found this manga, my reaction was like 'OMG Gross' but I was curious as to how the Mangaka could execute such a story so that it was allowed to be published in a Shoujo manga magazine, Aria. Aria, best known for No.6 which had an anime last year, is aimed at an older female audience of the ages16-22 which does give it some leeway. 

I am very glad I was curious enough to check it out as the scanlations are 16 chapters in atm and I am quite hooked.

Although the title declares it a Love Story, it has yet to cross such waters. So far it has been a very heart-warming story of finding companionship and a place to belong in an unlikely place, and a becoming of age story for a girl who has her first love/crush with an older man.

The man, our main guy Shinichi, does not welcome it nor encourage it, he sees himself as a guardian to the lonely girl, as she reminds him of his younger forsaken self. However her true feelings and childish honesty slowly brings him out of his lonely shut-in writer ways. 

The girl, Haruka, is a distant child and has a tragic past involving her parents, both still alive. She finds a cat in the man's yard and wishes to care for it, bringing her into Shinichi's life, and slowly starts to care for him too as he doesn't do much for himself. 

Other characters are involved too. 

A boy from school with a crush on her. A girl with a crush on the boy. Shinichi's editor/friend from highschool and another former-classmate friend.   

Now if you have an open mind and check this out I doubt you will regret it. The art is simply amazing and the character expressions tell half the story. It falls under Shoujo, Drama, Romance, and Slice of Life. ~See, no lolicon~

Two rather different people, a child and a grown man, find support in each other in a subtle beautiful manner, and so far its anything BUT gross. Its pure in it essence and explores very realistic emotions. The story is only beginning to unfold so who knows to what depth it will delve into.  

Hope you check it out and Happy reading!

xoxo

Bad@$$ BLEACH! ~2 Chapters Update, 482 & 483~

 Ok, lets do this! I gave BLEACH a few weeks so as to get the plot ball rolling and boy is it ROLLING.

Ch. 482 : Bad Recognition

Personally, I thought it was a damn Good Recognition.

Strange dude who introduced himself as Ivan Azgiaro in the previous chapter got kicked off Ichigo's bed and out of the ~quickly opened by Inoue~  window.

He and Ichigo engage in battle and Ivan was kind enough to tell us NO he is NOT an Arrancar, ~been there done that~, but flashes something too familiar to ignore.

And this point I'm sure EVERYONE was like OMG A QUINCY!!

Ishida: I am the LAST Quincy. Many chapters later, meet my dad, also a Quincy. Now this?! Ishida LIED. >< 


We should be practically positive that he is in fact a Quincy, and there are more, as Captain Mayuri introduced them to us at the start of the arc as "The only ones capable of removing Hollows from existence itself are THEM, and them alone" ~which no I didn't get back then either~.
We do know that Quincies destroyed Hollows soul and all, unlike the Shinigami who purify the souls of hollows allowing them to rest in peace, which created the unbalance between worlds causing the war between Shinigami and Quincy, and the extermination of Quincies. We also know, according to Ishida, that they DETEST shinigami.

NOW the question is whether they can eradicate Shinigmi as they do Hollows, ie. soul and all, as the chapter continues and takes us to Soul Society where the 11th squad are investigating vanishing souls in Rukongai's 64th District. The footprints give evidence that it was not the work of Hollow, but people of the village.  ~I did not understand the pairs of a barefoot and a sandal. I get it shows they weren't Hollow, but why of the same village?~


Back in the Gotei Thirteen, the Commander's office was EASILY infiltrated ~so easy I was like WTF?!! ~ by a group of cloaked people who inform the commander that they are there "To declare war on you."

Ch. 483: KriegsErklarung 

Which is *Declaration of War* in German apparently. 

Cloak figures then asked what we were all thinking, WHY is security so soft for the office of the Gotei 13 Commander?!  To which we got a seriously badass response: 

Yes. Please and Thank you.

To which they responded that "Those will be your last arrogant words, Genryuusai Yamamoto."

Pffttt, you're the arrogant one.

We go back to Ichigo's battle with Ivan and Ichigo shows us that he's all grown up now and realizes when Ivan is taunting and simply provoking him. However, when Ivan taunts Ichigo to bring out his Bankai, Ichigo decides 'to play his game', and does in fact go BANKAI. 

WHY I ask you?  WHY?!

This excites Ivan extremely, and plans to destroy Ichigo's Bankai once and for all, with something or the other and an odd incantation of Melting and throwing a cup to the ground after joy. ~Seriously made me lol~

Shame for him, Ichigo is stronger than that. 

Then a Getsuga Tenshou. 

Then we go back to the Gotei 13, where the silent vice-captain of the 1st squad, Sasakibe, is executed via large arrow. ~Qunicy much?~

We are then informed by the cloaked group, "In 5 days Soul Society will be annihalted by the Vandenreich."

Who? Not the Quincy???

So are we looking into another war between Quincy and Shinigami? ARE THEY QUINCIES or is Tite just pulling our leg? 


xoxo


Side note: I am LOVING what a BAMF Ichigo is!

Also loving Ayasegawa Yumichika's new look and hair-do!! By far the prettiest character!

xoxoxo