Bang bang and you are dead!

Another year just zipped by like that.

( TV )

( Movies )

( Anime/Manga )

( Music )

Wow, it has been awhile since my last entry. Anyway, this is a list of my favorites from 2006.

( TV )

( Movies )

( Anime/Manga )

( Music )

Sigh more inconsistencies from Konomi-sensei...

( Spoiler )

And I finished reading Katsu! by Adachi. Great manga.

I just spent Saturday reading Adachi's Rough (the entire 12 volumes). Although it isn't as great as H2 (will any of his other work be as great as H2 I wonder), I enjoyed it. I wish he had spent more time on the sport (swimming) than on the romance between Yamato and Ami. My favorite supporting was Ogata. He was so selfless and just such a great guy. Time to move on to Katsu.

Sorry if the post is a bit weird...I am just so tired of studying and just wanted to do something...

So what have I been up to lately?

1. Watching this kdrama called "Alone in Love" starring Son Ye Jin (of A Moment to Remember and The Classic fame) and Gam Woo Sung (from the highest-grossing movie of all time in Korea, The King and the Clown). I absolutely love this drama. It is so different from the typical beautiful boy meets beautiful girl, boy and girl get together and run into problems or can't get together, etc. Son and Gam play a divorced couple who are still in love with each other. Supporting characters include Gam's character's best friend (a OBGYN doctor) and Son's younger sister. The acting is EXCELLENT, the direction is great and the dialogue is very witty and touching.

2. Just read about 25 volumes of Adachi Mitsuru's H2. It was so addictive. It reminds me of Slam Dunk except SD also spotlights on the supporting characters and H2 has romance involved. Anyway, great manga! I really like the Hiro character and I am torn whether he should be with Haruka or Hikari. Next up on my plate, Cross Game.

3. The new POT (308) listed the names of several other Shitenhouji characters as well as the entire lineup between Fudoumine and Shitenhouji.

( spoiler )

( Spoilers... )

After last week's boring chapter, this one was actually pretty exciting. Can't wait to see more of the Shitenhouji/Fudoumine matchup.

FET basically doesn't have a translator for POT anymore. If you are a POT fan and can translate from Japanese > English and want to translate for us, please feel free to contact me.

Just watched the third episode of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. I won't be watching this show anymore. It is just not the type of show I would watch. Also dropping Nana and Digimon Savers. I am already reading the manga so I don't think I will be missing much from not watching Nana. It is really hard to want to watch something when you already know what is going to happen. As for Digimon Savers, it is just blah. If I hear it gets better later on, I'll watch it again.

Saw the first episode of Himawari. I really like the character designs but the episode was mediocre at best. The opening scene was cool though.

So far I am definitely keeping Zegapain and Ouran. There are a couple of shows that haven't been subbed yet but I am interested in watching.

From asianfanatics.net

Top 12 Songs (not ranked)
1. Anthony Wong - 維納斯
2. Ronald Cheng - 三生有幸
3. Twins - 幼稚園
4. Fiona Sit - 尋找獨角獸
5. Kary Ng - 愛你變成恨你
6. Denise Ho - 圓滿
7. Joey Yung - 赤地雪
8. Juno Mak - 朦
9. Jancie - 今夜你不會來
10. Leo Ku - 一生何求
11. Bernice Liu - 實情
12. Hacken Lee - 婚前的女人

Favorite Mandarin Song:
Lee Hom Wang - Kiss Goodbye

Favorite Commercial Song:
Joey Yung - 赤地雪

Newcomer Song Award:
Bernice Liu - 實情

Why isn't Eason Chan's 最佳損友 on there!? #2 and #5 are probably my favorites out of those 12. #7, 10-12 are decent too. The rest are blah. Sigh. HK music has been so boring these past few years.

I have heard great things about this series on anime blogs and forums and so decided to watch the first two episodes. The animation is really nice, voice acting is great but I am not sure if I like this. While there are some really laugh-out-loud moments in each of the episodes, on the whole I didn't think the episodes themselves were that great. I'll watch a couple more to decide whether I'll follow this, but most likely I won't.

Other things: In case people are wondering, PoT manga is returning next week with chapter 306. Hopefully that will be the Fudoumine vs. Shitenhouji match. These past few months, I have been watching this kdrama called Spring Waltz. Just learned today that the drama will be delayed because Daniel Henney accidentally broke Suh Do-young's cheekbone while filming the punch scene for episode 12. SDY is gonna have an operation soon. I wish him a speedy recovery. The extremely hyped TVB series Dance of Passion will start airing on May 1st. I can't wait!

Took a study break and saw the first episodes of Nana and Digimon Savers.

Nana 1 - I am a huge fan of the manga. I was incredibly disappointed with the live-adaptation movie (although I love the music), so I was a bit cautious coming into the first episode. Fortunately, the first episode was good. The pacing was good, the voice actors are decent, the ending song is nice (nothing tops Endless Story though). The only complaint I have is that in the transition, Ai Yazawa's style is lost.

Digimon Savers 1 - I used to follow Digimon obsessively (01 was great, 02 a bit disappointing, Tamers my favorite, Frontier totally sucked). Anyway, first episode of this series was okay. So far, neither two of the three main characters are that interesting to me. Maybe they will grow on me later. Character designs...it doesn't look that great to me. I guess I was too used to the character style of the old seasons. The songs aren't great either. Digimon songs were so good back then. I'll watch this no matter what though and maybe as it continues, it will become as great as Tamers.

Saw the first episodes of Host Club, Kiba and Zegapain.

Host Club 1 - Quite pleased with this first episode. I remember reading the first chapter of the manga and I didn't like it (okay, I admit I didn't even finish reading the entire chapter). Animation is good and so far Haruhi seems like a fun character. I was quite surprised to find out why light bulbs kept going on throughout the episode. I didn't see that twist coming.

Kiba 1 - It was a decent first episode. I am intrigued with what's going on with the story, but the main character Zed is just so freaking annoying to me and the dialogue was kinda blah (maybe it was the fansub translation). I don't think I can endure Zed so I'll just forget about this series.

Zegapain 1 - I have read blog reviews on the first episode and I think it is overrated. While it certainly was not a bad episode, it wasn't anything impressive. I have nothing to complain about it so I'll give it a couple more episodes. I haven't seen a mecha series since Stellvia and hopefully this will get better.

I guess I'll give an update on what I have been up to in terms of anime and manga.

Anime - Not really watching much anime nowadays. There isn't that many series that interest me. The last series I really enjoyed watching was Mushishi. I heard it is starting up again with episodes 21-26 in May or June. Definitely looking forward to that. In term of the Spring 2006 anime season, I don't know if I'll watch anything yet. There is so many new anime this season. It is pretty overwhelming to pick ones that I want to watch.

Manga - In terms of manga, I still really like Bleach and Hunter X Hunter. Unfortunately, the latter is on a long hiatus right now. I started reading Clamp's TRC and xxxholic and I love them! Just really good characters...that's kinda the reason I am reading them. I also started Nana and it has probably become one of my favorite shoujo manga now. As for POT, given up on it. So ridiculous and stupid...

I'll try to update this LJ more often, but I doubt anyone is actually reading it anyway.

So FET released chapter 151, 268-272lq!

I am heading to Australia for 3 weeks next Tuesday. I am so excited! See you guys next month

Yippee!!! San Antonio Spurs won Game 7!!! That was a rather nice 2nd half, very exciting.

Anyway, we released chapter 150, kicking off volume 18, and chapter 267lq, where we see Kai's move the Viking Horn. More releases this weekend :)

1 more chapter released. 7 more before we catch up to jump :)

We just released chapter 265lq. It is the start of singles 3 between a very unexpected player from Seigaku and a hated (or liked) player from Higa. Enjoy. Thanks to Neenya for helping on the editing and Misao_chan for proofing. :)

The quarterfinalists for the Nationals are confirmed. Woohoo!!! Finally learned how to use lj-cut.
( spoilers! )

Oh yeah, yesterday, we released chapter 264lq.

Hirakoba. Taka. Fuji. Fourth Counter.

Two more chapters woohoo! 263 is translated so expect it sometimes this week.

Can't wait for this week's Jump chapter. I hope we get to see the other rival schools.