Honey and Clover (ハチミツとクローバー Hachimitsu to Kurōba)

          Created by Chikia Umino -  the title came about as the mangaka is inspired by these 2 albums – Hachimiitsu by Spitz and Clover by Suga Shikao.   

           Forget about a sweet mix of cocotion…2 spoons of honey and 2 spoons of clover and maybe you’ll end up getting something that is bittersweet … The same can be said of this series…a bittersweet realistic tale of the lives of these best buddies –  Takemoto, Mayama, Morita, Yamada, Hagu – who study in the same art university, live together, fall in love and their search for their true selves – what they want for themselves in the future.  It also offers a glimpse of life views through their eyes.

Guess Who?

Don’t she just look super KAwaiIi?!

Any ideas yet?

No prizes for guessing right though.

Clue : Something from ayazaY iA.

THE END by Mika Nakashima

What happens if you lunch at a shopping centre?

What WIll Happen if A Shopaholic lunches there?

Well…. you’ll end up buying something – big or small.  Shopaholics should definitely avoid such lunches at all cost if you have a big hole somewhere from the latest sale!

Today’s Venue : Great World Shopping Centre           

 Damage Location : That CD Shop              Damage Done : S$19.90            

Type of Damage : The End by Mika Nakashima 

This is a compilation album of songs sung by Mika Nakashima as punk queen NANA in the movies NANA & NANA 2 .  It consists of the opening songs “ Glamourous Sky”, “Eyes for the Moon” & “Hitoiro”.  Interesting facts are :  the lyrics for these 3 songs are written by the mangaka, Ai Yazawa, herself!  

I’ve bought Glamourous Sky few months back in Aug 06.

 

Reflections for 2006

           Every time around this year, I’m always doing this… 

I Did Not :

• Travel to anywhere (not for work and leisure at all! )

• Finish any Drama series in one sitting! (just a few episodes here & there)

• Splurge on any branded bags (no
  Louis Vuitton or Gucci or Prada bags/wallets)

• Party till I puke badly..or suffer from any alcohol poisoning

I Did :

• Read & bought a lot of Manga

• Bought and followed closely with some Anime

• Started dabbling with a few scanlations

• Became more vocal and expressing my displeasure with low service standards

• Officially become an aunty when my cousin gave birth recently (*Congrats*)

• Checked out some nice wine drinking places (Wine Company  & Wine Network at Dempsey Road, Villa Bali near Alexandra Road, Loof at Odeon Towers near Raffles Hotel) 

• Discovered new restaurants ( Greenwood Fish Bistro & Market ) and others at Greenwood Avenue.  Totally fall in love with the ambience of the whole stretch, minus the hefty prices for some of them.

  Alright, that sums it up for now.

Nodame Cantabile

“Nodame Nodame Nodame…” 

Weird..this has been happening to me for the last few days…

Have been chanting these words out of nowhere..Am i going mad? 

I guess it’s the subconscious mind that takes control, before I know it, I have strolled into Kinokuniya one afternoon and found myself buying the on-going series Nodame Cantabile by Tomoko Ninomiya! 

Well, it’s not really an impulsive buy, I’ve been reading it and it kind of appeals to me with its various mention of different Classical pieces, and its musical terms.  As a piano student once myself, I can really relate to it.  The struggles that one have to go through for being ‘almost perfect’ for a piece, and there are other students who can’t read notes or tone-deaf and can’t sing accurately.. 

 The Story :  Shinichi Chiaki is an arrogant &  talented top student (in piano & violin)  in the music university, but he dreams of being a conductor one day.  With a fear of flying, he was grounded in Japan and he wonders whether he can reach his dreams one day. After a fight with his teacher, he was being ‘demoted’ to a reject class and became Nodame’s classmate! 

       Nodame or Megumi Noda is a prodigy who can play a whole masterpiece from memory just be listening to it once.  Being a genius, & like all genius, she don’t care about anything else but Music and music, and more music!! (or maybe food?!)  A meeting between the two of them meeting is like a meeting of 2 extreme personalities – one is a neat freak, the other is a dirty slob. Will this lead to disasters? Or more like a Match made in heaven?  

Sex & The City DVD Complete

Finally got my own complete set of SATC.

In this wonderful pink box set bought in China!

Tanks a million to my wonderful gal friend who got it for me!!

Ergo Proxy

How do I end up with  Ergo Proxy ?

                 I have not been really sitting down in front of the TV and watching anime non-stop for few hours,  for almost a year. The ones that i closely followed was Blood+,  Honey & Clover, Ouran Host Club, Perfect Girl Evolution, and that is only like one episode per week?!

                The first few episodes of Ergo Proxy are quite impressive – dark, gloomy and mysterious.  Animes of this kind always seem to attract me..it reminds me of Blood+, filled with monsters and mystery. In Ergo Proxy, we have the Proxys, the Auto Reivs & a big big Mystery too. 

Story (taken from Wikipedia)

The story initially takes place in a futuristic dome city called Romondeo built to protect its citizens after global environmental apocalypse. In this utopia, humans and androids (AutoReivs) coexist with each other peacefully under a total management system. Behind the scenes, the government is conducting secret experiments on a mysterious creature called the Proxyy, which is believed to hold the key to the survival of mankind.

           The pace seems kind of slow, not sure why, but it don’t really bothers me yet.  I totally love how every thing is revealed to the audience bits and pieces, and not thrown in your face all at once.

The characters are interesting, but mostly of complex behaviours. 

Nana – Latest Chapter 64

OMG…

Just finished reading the latest chapter of Nana #64…..that is kind of depressing.

Why is it that just reading one chapter of Nana can make me feel such strong emotions?

One of the few things, or maybe The one thing for NOW that really makes me feel like shouting is the relationship between Takumi x Nana x Nobu.  That is one of the most realistic relationships that I don’t ever want to see it in a manga.  Its really too frightening true.

And no matter how many times I swear to keep myself calm after reading Nana, I just can’t do it. I guess Ai Yazawa is just too good, to be able to draw out the audience’s emotions that easily.  You can say…totally messing with our brains just with one chapter… Now even better still, with such emotions stirred up, I’m now left pinning for the next chapter to ‘arrive’ sooon.  Hopeless me…

Death Note – The Last Name

 

Death Note – The Last Name

Is going to be screened here on the 28 Dec 06! !

Great! This is one of the shows I’m looking forward to.  Have already watched the First Deathnote movie in the screens.  I wonder whether will this be as good as the 1st one.  Apparantly, Deathnote is still the #1 in Japan Box Office. This gives me more reason to catch it!

Looking forward to see Misa Misa in action! Her crush on Light really the cause of all troubles.  Even Light, aka Kira,  has a hard time dealing with her, since, a-hem,              she’s equally matched in terms of power.  To deal with someone with such a high IQ, you will need a L.

 I would expect some scenes to be different from the manga, since the first Deathnote movie showed L & Light becoming partners straight away, which wasn’t as straight forward as in the Death Note manga.

They miss out one of the more interesting scenes in the manga where L came very close to Light & actually sat squatting in an exam seat behind Him! Really Un- nerving!  I guess for this round – we’ll be seeing more of how L & Kira try to catch the 2nd ‘Kira’.

 I wonder what it means to have the last name? Will there by any more DeathNote movies after this? Can hardly wait! Will update again!

KouKou Debut – New Debut!

             I was so excited during the last 2 weeks….Was actually surfing through the yahoo auctions when I saw some seller posted a ‘KouKou Debut’ manga for sale!  I scrutinise the post…. are my eyes playing tricks?!
 作者：河原和音                                           The kind seller actually referred me to this website www.tongli.tw. It shows a mass release of KouKou Debut Vol 1 to 4 in the month of November!  Yippeee!! Totally way too happy…happily placed an order in my neighbourhood manga store so that I can be one of the firsts to get my first copy on this!   Today is the Day that KouKou Debut debuts in SGP!!             

                                                                                         

 Story      Haruna was a softball expert during her middle school.  After getting into high school, she set a new goal for herself – that is to get a boyfriend!  However, being totally clueless about fashion, she just can’t seems to attract anyone.  Here enters Yoh…who’s a fashion expert !  So what is going to happen to Haruna after a series of makeovers??