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Black Lagoon ブラックラグーン 2: Mangrove Heaven

This is hilarious, Rock so unhappy his company will kill him to destroy the disk, that he flings a gun into the ocean and starts kicking the torpedo can. *^_^*

Again, I love the character design, Dutch with the light glinting off his glasses, and even Benny is individual.

A head on game of chicken against the helicopter! Rock might turn out to be a bit mad and clever :D

Dutch: "We sure picked up one crazy son of a bitch."

Wow, i love the shot where the torpedo has smashed through the glass into the helicopter, the look of surprise ^_^.

Dutch is so happy his sunglasses aren't broken. This is so cool!

I love Rock being polite with the microphone, everyone please duck! (as Revi fires the rock launcher, hehe!)

Black Lagoon ブラックラグーン 1: The Black Lagoon

I love Black Lagoon! <3 Some of my favourite images from the first episode are above, no they're not in order.

The intro music is super cool; ending music is a bit poor, atmospheric and mysterious though.
OP - Red Faction by MELL
ED - Don't Look Behind By EDISON

I love the bit where Rokuro hides underneath a Torpedo. Revi/Levi is shaping up to be an ultra cool strong female character, she's got a great attitude and the killings at the bar prove her skill.

Dutch is a good chracter design, especially when he sits on the boat with Rokuro, i like that Dutch is realistically physically bigger than Rokuro.

Benny is the computer hacker type person in the boat, haven't seen much of him yet, maybe his chracter develops later on :)

Poor Rock being dumped by his company, and almost drunk under the table by a girl, just as well all those men burst in to try and kill them all ;)

Wizardry ウィザードリィ 1991: Anime Movie 50mins

Oh, yes! This is the single worst anime I have EVER had the misfortune to see, I placed it in the torture category when i rated it on animenewsnetwork.com.

I bunch of guys go into a dungeon, because a bad guy has stolen a powerful amulet. They fight and kill some monsters. Meet a girl who's boyfriend went down there before them and went crazy, so she *spoilers* has to kill him. One of them dies of course it's the old guy who you don't really care about but he was their healer so feel a bit sad. Then they kill the bad guy. Bury the dead guy. THE END.

Aaaaaaargh, did I really watch that? well no...I started skipping through it to get the gist of it.

I think it was based on a computer game, which explains a lot...*dies*

On the plus side, woo I found something worse than fist of the northern star @_@...just.

Reiko the Zombie Shop 1: Rei Mikamoto

I've been trying to put my finger on why this manga disappointed me. The storyline is ok, for the little girl murders *spoilers* the older sister gone mad because her little sister was annoying, going on a killing spree, and Reiko redicting her own life to destroy the murderer was pretty cool. the chracter of reiko is better drawn than the annoying magical girl chracters i've been reading of late, but it's still not edgy enough. The rest of the chracter design in cliched and annoying, particularly the rock star and egotistical reporter woman. The girl abused by her father, and girl pregant with her teachers child are such dull ideas, would have been much more fun if the mother had molested her daughter, and the teacher had been murdered by the quite hard working girl. Nothing really surprised me here :(

The above pink picture of Reiko is SO MISLEADING. She's not nearly this cool in the manga, always explaining who she is and using the same boring summoning spell. Might be worth copying that picture though it's awesome! Love the eyes, but overall the composition of the pages just isn't egdy enough for a horror to make it anything special.

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 12/35

23 Christmas: haha i liek the short break during the violent bits. Their santa claus sucks, swapping one present for another, at least then i might have got a rich child's present *_* or none at all :S

24 Curing Insomnia:
羊 [ひつじ] - (n) sheep.
クレヨン crayon
Mentaiko (see picture) 明太子: Salted pollack or cod roe, spiced with powdered Chinese red pepper called togarashi (唐辛子). Surrounded by a thin, elastic membrane, mentaiko is usually pink to dark red.
Togarashi: Contains Chinese Chile, Orange peel, Seaweed, Ginger, Poppy seeds, and Sesame seeds.

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 11/35

21 Birthday Party: nothing seems to go well for yamanamisan. Ami chan is always 5 years old :S
呪い [のろい] - (n) a curse, a charm.

22 Snowball Fight: I want snow in my bedroom too! :) Wow i love evil kenta with a dragon and fire in his eyes, and kenta with an evil tiger!

Oh WOW the return of the potatoes on the move, Issa's favourite flower, kawai!

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 10/35

19 Trading Diaries: average episode running round writing diaries, Issa's bamboo eating life is amusing :)
笹 [ささ] bamboo

20 Mr. Yamanami Murder:
アリバイ alibi
hahahahahahahahahahahha yamanami hug pillow, wow i didn't think it was going to be that!
酷い [ひどい] - (adj) (uk) cruel, awful, severe, very bad, serious, terrible, heavy, violent.
yup, i think that just about sums up Iyo! *^__^*

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 9/35

17 Cards: 1502 cards, some edible! >< Poor kenta loses at everything, he's the unluckiest bear alive :'( then he gets stuck in a computer game. Kawai!

18 Fall Of Terror: poor Issa is scared of everything, and his new face is actualy freaky @_@
a kuma: ah bear
akuma: devil

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 4/35

7 Catalog Shopping: weird pyjamas! I knight suit as a pyjama?! Only in Aniyoko! One scarf with no 'features'? An exploding alarm clock! I like yamanami -san more now, Uma desu.

8 Cold: haha strange flashback to trainspotting when the animals are on the ceiling when she wakes up! wrap this around your arm and you will be able to flip pancakes with ease! how bizarre @_@

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 3/35

5:Puzzle With A Punch: Joya no Kane: new years eve bell tolling. Lol this episode is funny, Ami's despair at the rules or non existent rules of the Aniyoko puzzles that Iyo sets before Kenta can be turned back to normal. Poor issa covered in biting fish for no apparent reason!

6: Mystery Pot Party: May as well learn some vocab while i'm watching this!
ホログラム hologram.
秘密 [ひみつ] secret
人参 [にんじん] carrot
葱 [ねぎ] spring onion
白菜 [はくさい] chinese cabbage
南瓜 [かぼちゃ] Japanese squash
I'm glad they didn't eat Iyo's pet turtle!

Akagi (Legend Of Mahjong) 闘牌伝説アカギ 闇に舞い降りた天才 8: The Sign Of Rebirth

Akagi disappeared after that legendary night in 1958. He had a look in his eyes of a child bored with a toy, and Nangou knew after that he would never gamble on Mahjong again, because he could never capture that look/feeling.

Akagi is found again...or so it would seem, but he doesn't possess the same air about him, he can memorise loads of tiles but his play is not Godly. The Akagi is seen fighting 4 guys, and it comes to light that he is known for random assaults on punks, and is working in a toy factory! :(

The guys in the toy factory have a scam where they play mahjong to unfairly screw the younger workers out of their monthly wages. Akagi doesn't rise to the challenge to beat them, nor does he choose to defend a young worker who knows his pay will be lost if Akagi doesn't take his place, it's disappointing, i hope they follow this through in a later episode.

Akagi is confronted by the fake Akagi, who shows his amazing talent of predicted the required number of Shan Ten within seconds, a feat impressive if it was learnt in 5-10 seconds but the speed! Then the real Akagi does something even more impressive, he predicts the number of Sgan Ten without even looking he has worked out the remaining tiles before the fake has even looked at them.

Cool! I can't wait to see the next episode, I'll have to wait for the fan sub though :'( It's frustrating becuase eps up to 26 are on the raw torrent, but my Japanese is inferior, especially with the new Mahjong terms I find equally confusing! ><

There are notably no female chracters in this anime: I really think this was a good choice, since the angualr exaggerated facial features espcially the nose would render themj unattractive to say the least. Although I'd love a female player to have a tile down her bra, and be able to cheat her way out calling people baka and pervert for looking at her there. *giggles*.

Zi li Sou: A Yaku Man hand composed of only word tiles.

Akagi (Legend Of Mahjong) 闘牌伝説アカギ 闇に舞い降りた天才 7: Innocent Demon

Ichikawa cheats! He knows he will win. Fortunately things turn around when Akagi knows he can win after the luck of the dice, throws away a Haku to force Ichikawa to cheat again, but the cheat is a trick, Akagi has manipulated Ichikawa and wins and Ichikawa is broken (and ever so slightly pised off). Akag's talent is Godly. :)

Akagi (Legend Of Mahjong) 闘牌伝説アカギ 闇に舞い降りた天才 6: The Talent Of The Villian

It's so clever how Akagi deals the winning tile breaking up his pattern, to lose less points. Then blufing a bad hand, dealing dangerous tiles to control the table. It's also fun when he calls the wrong tile, then switches a tile when he does this.

Furi Ten: you cannot declare a Ron on a tile you already dealt.

Akagi (Legend Of Mahjong) 闘牌伝説アカギ 闇に舞い降りた天才 5: The Treacherous Tsi li Men

Despite Akagi's variety of style and equal wins, his wins are of lesser value so Ichikawa is winning in points with his stable tactics. I like how they omit a suit to make it a battle betwen the two of them and increase the risks. That the side players are playing what they perceive to be safe tiles and Akagi manipulates this and offbalances them, mwahahaha. Great stuff!

Live Tile: no tiles of that kind in the pond.
Straight Through: having one of every tile in a single unit.

Akagi (Legend Of Mahjong) 闘牌伝説アカギ 闇に舞い降りた天才 4: The True Pariah

The wager is now 8 million! Equivalent to modern day 80 million. I love seeing Akagi from outside that smokey room, but you sgtill have no idea where he is from, where does he live, what are his motivations? The spinning gun with a blind man is SO COOL! The risk, knowing that in reality there are no risks because it moves 7 times before it shoots and it's going to be empty. Awesome.

Akagi (Legend Of Mahjong) 闘牌伝説アカギ 闇に舞い降りた天才 3: Strategy Of The Maverick

caterpillar cheating: sliding tiles over and under, evil man! and then WOW akagi knocks over a tile by accident which is really part of the four that are facing downwards where he's slipped his real last tile. sooooo cooool. *shhh Hazel overenthusiastic*. JUST as he winds and saves nangou's life he makes ANOTHER bet! double! manipulating them into more games so as not to damage their reputaion by refusing, cooooool! The episode ends, and as Akagi wonders into the distance you wonder, just who is Akagi?

Ten Pai: needing only one more tile to win.Hands are shown when noone wins at the end of a round. The one not in Ten Pai pays a 1000 points to the one who is.
Men: to complete your whole hand without calling on any tiles.

If you win with a riichi you can turn over the dora tiles for extra indicators (?)

Bai Man: a hand with 8-10 Han worth 16000-24000 points.
Chin Itsu: to win by having all the tiles of a particular number suit.
Hon Itsu: to win by having only one number suit, and the rest word tiles.
Tan Yao: to win not using 1 or 9 of the number tiles.
No Ten: to be more than 2 tiles away from winning.
Dead Wall: the last 14 tiles in the stacks that are off limits. When all the tiles besides these 14 are drawn, the game ends.
Hell Wait: waiting on a tile when the other three are either in your hand or in the pond.
Yao Chu Tiles: the 1 and 9 of number tiles and all word tiles.
Ren Chan: when the head wins he gets to be the head in the next game too.

Akagi (Legend Of Mahjong) 闘牌伝説アカギ 闇に舞い降りた天才 2: The Awakening Of Talent

This is great stuff! Akagi uses great skill to read Ryuuzaki, looking carefully at his discarded tiles and predicted which tiles he needs, which are safe to discard and which are in the danger zones. I love the idea that you have to be certain of your own judgement, and how Yagi tries to undermine Akagi's belief in his decisions, but Akagi knows what he's trying to do and gives as good as he gets, they both end up passing a tile when they could have won it's SO COOL. I LOVE THIS!

...and the shouty end music is actually good/appropriate too, balances the gentle intro <3!

Closed Wait: when you are waiting for a tile in the middle to complete a straight.

Arkham Asylum (batman): Grant Morrison, and batman lego! <3

Very dark and twisted; love it.*Spoilers* I love the treatment for duality, from a coin to dice, to tarot cards. The character design is so disgusting but bold, and the story made me laugh out loud:

Batman:"Well, you'll pardon me for saying so, but your techniques don't seem to have had much effect on the joker."

I particularly liked the batman and joker design, with his impossibly long chin and horrific teeth. The bat picture on one page was evil. The joker words are written almost illegibly which is annoying. I love the voices i can hear narrating it, if that doesn't sound too weird.

"and the dolls house. Looks. At. Me" amazing pace, artwork, shock factor!

The picture of martin hawkins when he is fried, all blue, and the expression on his face...the surprise...

when the lightning strikes the coin, and the story seems to feel complete.

Oh, and batman lego, pretty awesome yes?

Pretear 新白雪姫伝説プリーティア 1: Kaori Naruse/Junichi Satou

Only picture I liked in this book is the image of the princess of disaster. *spoilers* I thought the storyline was terible until the twist that the last pretear became the princess of disaster and Hayate was responsible. Underaverage magical girl book. Not that I'm really sure what an overaverage magical girl story would be like :S

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 1: Andy Seto

This is worth looking at for the artwork, especially the way the water is spiralled around like dragons as an example of the power of the new kung fu, very atmospheric :)

The fight between Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai is enjoyable. I love the spinning leaves, and fight poses in general, like dancing.

Comic Party こみっくパーティー1: Sekihiko Inui

Quite a fun read, despite the fact I'm not keen on the artwork. About a guy dragged to a comic convention to realise his potential as a doujinshi artist. Some fun chracters at the convention, but overall a bit uninspiring. I quite liked the girls at the comic party with water guns that looked like real guns giving yellow cardsn to people who misbehave.

To Heart トゥハート 1: Ukyou Takao

Terrible. Avoid. 2D chracters, shallow story, terrible artwork.

Akagi 1: The Genius Who Decended Into Darkness

I love Mahjong, and the animation style here is edgy and dark. Unusual pointed facial freatures, but it works somehow. *Spoilers* wow, I love how Akagi is a surviver of the chicken cliff race, his car plunging into the ocean becasue neither cars braked and he swam to safety. Cool! Akagi is completely fearless, his confidence exacerbated by Nangou's fear, and the music is cool, and it's a fun way to learn about mahjong, <3 *^_^* I love how Akagi sets it up so the cheat in front of the police, so the yakuza can't get all mad at him! There are so many new words in this anime though :'(

The merchandise for the anime is pretty cool, like the zippo,

I wonder how many people around the UK are familiar with this game as a result of the free PC Mahjong games that came with computer packages, I know I felt addicted for awhile, plus the lady saying 'pong' and 'whatever else i can't remember in chinese' was so cool! I wonder if games like this can increase obsessive compulsive behaviour or help to control it, or make any difference whatsoever :S Totally irrelevant, but felt the need to write this down, had a dream that there were only 335 degrees in a circle, it's interesting how confused I became once they changed this! A pentagon with 67 degree angles stopped me from solving a problem, but then my classroom flooded so I had other issues. I love my weird dreams ^_^ Han chan: a session where each player gets to be 'head' twice.

Hane Man: a hand worth 12000-18000 points.
Riichi: where a player declares they only need one more tile to win, but sacrifices a 1000 points.
Shimo Cha: player that draws right after you
Ten Pai: needing only one more tile to win
San An Kou: getting three separate three of a kinds without calling on another player's tiles
Tsu Mo: means either to draw a tile or to win by drawing from the deck.
Dai San Gen: having three or more of a kind of dragon tiles. One of the most valueable hands.
Chi Toi Zu: winning hand of 7 pairs.
Yaku Hai: bonus tiles, specifically referring to dragon tiles and certain wind tiles.
Su An Kou: 4 three of a kinds.
Yaku Man: A name for special hands worth the most points in Mahjong.

Kill Me Kiss Me 1:Lee Young You

Surprisingly enjoyable! Cousins Tae and Jung-Woo who look like identical twins, swap schools so that Tae can get closer to the boy she fancies for a week. Of course it backfires when another boy takes an interest in her, confused that he must be gay *^_^* there's a nice pace to the story, absorbing characters, and it's interesting how Tae is a 'better' boy than her cousin :)

Favourite manga quote: In the history of bad ideas, I am now convinced that most of them involve cross-dressing.

Amazing Agent Luna 1: Defilippis + Weir, Shiei

Amazingly dull ><. Avoid!

Full Metal Panic Overload 1

Lots of explosions and poor character design. As Sosuke swears to protect Kaname Chidori in a quite spectacular fashion, with no awareness of how 'normal' people behave. Overall underaverage romp.

I'm Late!: holding a piece of toast is a cliche image for a late person in anime/manga
Wakadaisho series, Yuzo Kayamai: an actor and singer in the 1960s, movie star was in aforementioned series.
Koppepan: bread, sometimes with a slit down the middle with cream.
Suikawari: summertime game where you crack open a watermelon with a stick while blindfolded. Funny picture here.
Yukata: clothes worn to a summer festival.
Takoyaki: octopus in batter ball shaped. Sold by street vendors and sit down restaurants in Osaka.

Chobits ちょびっツ 1: CLAMP

Enjoyed the issues of owning a persocon, but if falling in love with a persocon is an issue why make them so realistic ><. Finding clothes for her, and her power to destroy other computers she was connected to was funny. I'm looking forward to seeing how the story develops and just what Chi is. Chi is such an adorable chracter, unfortunately she is the only character that stands out.

Yotsuba&! よつばと！1: Kiyohiko Azuma

Adorable, curious little girl who is learning about the world around her. Cute and funny, character design is just wonderful. Yotsuba means four leaf clover, the little girl's head resembles a four leaf clover. Suitable for all readers and delightful to read.

Neighbourhood Association: called chonaikai.
Throwing Salt: a mock purification ceremony to rid Fuka of Jumbo and Kaiwai.
Namu: start of the namu amida butsu chant.

Kimi Shiruya-Dost Thou Know: Satoru Ishihara (yaoi)

A fairly average yaoi tale of kendo fighting boys coming to terms with their feelings. Not much depth to the chracters.

Ma-ai: proper distance when fighting. There are three basic distances in Kendo: Chika-ma - short distance; To-ma - long distance; and Issoku-Itto-No-Maai - between these two. The latter means, literally, "distance of one step - one blow".
Otoshimen: counterstrike to the helmet
Zashi warashi: protective house spirit
Nonohana: wild flowers
Omamori: protective talismans. Dedicated to Shinto an Buddhist Deities. They enclose papers or pieces of wood with prayers on them. They ward off bad luck.

More yaoi titles can be found here.

Great Teacher Onizuka 1: Tohru Fujisama

I love this manga! Onizuka may be a punk with mad hair, who sits next to excalators looking up girl's skirts, and he may go into teaching for all the wrong reasons, but you get the feeling his heart's in the right place, and as the story unravels your feelings are proved right. Favourite moment is where the students from his class who try to blackmail him are dunked in the river, and his resultant promotion. Nanako is a likeable chracter, and again you like her even more for her faults. I really want to read the next manga, and see how Onizuka's character develops :)

There is an anime of this?! Must check that out sometime too *^_^*

The Yellow Jar Volume 1: P. Atangan

These really are two delightful tales. Although not as beautiful as ukiyo-e artwork of the time, it captures the atmosphere. I'm not aware of the original tales or how closely they follow traditional tales. Rather than separate stories it would have been nice to intertwine these ideas into one long adventure, rather than separate stories. I guess I just prefer things with character development and flow, but I'll definately be wanting to read the rest. I love how the woman's tears turn into a river, but why didn't she just get upset sooner then ><, and i kind of wanted the younger sister flower to die then come back as a vengeful ghost and put a curse upon the monk and his garden, then he could have become the demon who kidnapped O haru san, and the tales could have been linked, but i guess that's missing the point of the joy of the original stories :)

My favourite picture is Nikotuchi under the moon light, with the grey clouds swirling around him, really captures the emotion of the moment, and there's just somehting about the moon with a flock of birds flying in front of it.

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 8/35

15, Art Of Punch Lines: aaw when kenta freezes thinking he'll never be popular. i'd go with hooligan over violent...haha! Kenta flying through space wanting to say the punchline *giggles*. Kenta starts to wither and disappear by not saying punchlines! Oh no! Lets surround him with gags till he can't take it anymore! LOL.

haiku 3 lines, 5,7,5 syllable driven poem (I'd forgotten the ratio)
kuku times table
shukuhai toast...why didn't i learn that in Japanese!?...useful...wonder if marmite is marmite in japanese...i wonder if they eat marmite in Japan? :S
shakuhachi bamboo flute

aaaw Iyo and Kenta in space, I love the way this jumps into another universe.

16, Aniyoko Word Games LOL when Issa's face turns into Yamanami. poor thing, and the word games make no sense to me ><. FIVE THOUSAND word game version?! Aaw Issa with Bamboo! *^_^* Kawai! Legendary beast Iyogon! Poor issa, but wearing a explorers outfit, kawaiiiii! Meteor attack...ok i relaise my note mean nothing to other people, but they'll remind me and make me laugh about the things i liked. Ukulele trio!

I've got that fantasist girl end song in my brain now, kawai! *bounce*

Also, i'd like to point out the fact that we've been evolving from dust to this, for billions of years and i still can't remember what i went upstairs for ><

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 7/35

13, Muffler Story: one of the less interesting stories, about Kenta's granny.

14, Iyo Affair: Oh no, I take it back, I love the bunny, when she has a personality change it's boring! How to cure a bunny, boil it...tickle it...drop a washing pan on it's head?! *giggles*

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 6/35

11, Fortune Telling Paradise: in aniyoko you are a mat! people walk all over you...poor Ami! I like potatoes on the move, hahahahaha. This is definately me when i was 6 having conversations with my soft toys. The aniyoko chanting freaked me out! Creepy!

12, Big Fight: a bunch of kentas! It's like my nightmare where i have to figure out which teddy bear is mine from the factory where they are all going to be incinerated!...and Iyo...I really want to kill that rabbit! Gah! Evil!

Animal Yokocho アニマル横町: 5/35

Each episode of Animal Yokocho represents two episodes - so episode 5 is actually 9-10/70...not cufusing at all: espicially since I'm also watching them out of order O_O!

9, Secret Diet: It's funny, I prefer Issa, Kenta and Iyo as animals rather than children, if they were children I probably wouldn't watch, or at least it would be more disturbing to see purple Dieto Jiusu coming out of Iyo's ears! Mud wrestling as part of a diet plan...sounds like a plan!

10, Fan Letters: aaaaaaw when kenta dresses up as a mosquitoe(ka) catching(tori) dog(inu) it's soooo cute. I like word plays because it helps improve my Japanese.

Dosukoi:words of encouragement for a sumo wrestler.

The Law Of Ueki うえきの法則 - The Law Of Songs OST

Lots of power pop, rock type music. I enjoyed 2:'special ne everyday' because it's catchy and bouncy. 7:MORE is a cute girly song. However...8:give me more?! Sounds like something they'd play at a pop/trance club and i'd only dance around to it if i'd had at least 6 vodka shots @_@. Sure this is a great albumn if you like japanese mainstream music, but not for me.

Books about anime and manga: holiday reading

I love libraries! *^_^* Very happy Hazel. Reviews to follow...