Manga Discoveries: Flower Boy, Modern Samurai, & Smooching Cat (ft. Liar Game Drama Season 2)

[ LIVE ACTION DRAMA MARATHONED ]

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally I've finished the whole second season and even the movie. Slept until 2 AM just to finish it, ahahahhaha!
Well, of course, the manga is still better.... in all aspects. I didn't see the point of making the series have Biblical references though (the vaccine thing became angel/demon stuff, and the Garden of Eden thing)... hhhmm... but it was okay. It just got my mom more intrigued, ahaha.
And oh, the drama gave me a nicer Yokoya, a female who's sort of like a Yokoya + Akiyama combo, a Nao saying she wants to see Akiyama more, and an ending. So I'm pretty satisfied xD Not to mention there was a scene like this and a poster image (not sure if it's authentic though) like this. Those two main characters keep on getting sexier, huh? xD Teehee~
Wah! Hey manga! If you plan to make the series much longer still... at least gimme more Akiyama x Nao scenes, will ya? Lack of OTP scenes is driving me crazy, haha!

[ NEW SERIES SPOTTED ]

From Left to Right: Hanamatsuri, Samurai Drive, Tenchi Shinmei
Favoritism: Hanamatsuri > Samurai Drive > Tenchi Shinmei

Manga Discoveries: God of Fire, Female Alien, & Anti-Church (ft. Crepuscule)

[ FEATURING A MANHWA ]
H*P is an anime and manga blog, so I didn't think of featuring manhwa here, because even if the art style's the same... they're still different from each other.
But drats, I happened to read Crepuscule lately and I couldn't get it off my head ^^; Ahahaha! Ugh, even if it's not exactly manga, I'll post it here in H*P, as a feature at least ;D So here goes:

It's about a human boy who has become an outcast in his community because his red eyes imply that he's a monster, particularly a vampire. However, one day he meets an actual vampire. They eventually become close friends and due to some circumstances, he was brought to a world where everyone is a supernatural creature. The boy who was mistaken for an "abnormal" kid among the ordinary kids before is now the "normal" one. Interestingly, he's still different among the rest in both sides. And as you read more of the story, he turns out to be even more different than he already is.
Back to the story, the two friends got separated. But the story doesn't just focus on how our main character will adapt to his new environment nor on how he will reunite with his friend. There is more to it; the mystery behind the painting and whoever helped our leading character easily pass his entrance exam are some of some of the keys that could help us unlock behind the mystery of the main plot.
The storytelling may be so simple that you could mistake it for a kid's manga. Many parts of it are actually pretty cliche even. But it's actually deeper than it seems.
It has a nice set of characters too. They could either annoy or delight you, but so far, I don't find any of them 100% stereotypical. I admit that many of the jokes are a little lame, but the characters are so adorable that you would no longer mind those ^^ Hehe.
This series isn't really that outstanding but even with its short chapters, it remains cute and interesting. I guess that's its charm~
By the way, I've heard that the creators of this series only post the chapters in some web forum.... and yeah, it's not exactly published officially. It shows that even those who aren't professionals can share to us wonderful stories =D
I'm quite hooked to this xD Setz's my favorite~ (He said "You will die" in a happy and innocent face xD Cracked me up so much) Hopefully he hasn't turned into a typical dark tsundere bishie when he got older.

[ NEW SERIES SPOTTED ]

From Left to Right: Hi no Kagutsuchi, Akatoki Hoshi Residence, Blood Soul
Favoritism: Akatoki Hoshi Residence > Blood Soul > Hi no Kagutsuchi

Manga Discoveries: Hell, Flower Necklace, & Dark Side (ft. Bakuman 110)

[ CATCHING UP ON READING LIST ]

So these three made it as the most loved characters of the series xD I'm quite surprised that Hiramaru made it there to be honest (I was expecting Shuujin) but I'm happy that such a fun dude like him made his way up here xD I love that guy... he's fully aware that his editor manipulates him and even praises him for it. That cracked me up so much xD Hahahaha!
Nice to see Saiko there, and oh Eiji should remain on top! Battle series mangaka being inspired by a little "RL" romance scene.... he's soooo adorable xD And oh Saiko.... he only had Miho as his other favorite thing.... daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw~ He's such a pure pure boy it's pretty unbelievable. Gotta cuddle him, haha!
Latest chapter hadn't been exciting though. It drives me crazy to see my best friend duo acting like they're in bad terms even though they're not really in bad terms (They're that complicated!! Aaaahh!!!)
And oh hang in there Kaya! I would hate to see you and Shuujin separated because of his stupidity ;_;

[ NEW SERIES SPOTTED ]

From Left to Right: Inferno, Hana no Mizo Shiru, Monochrome Myst
Favoritism: Hana no Mizo Shiru > Monochrome Myst > Inferno

Manga Review: Seven Days

Seven Days
by TACHIBANA Venio and TAKARAI Rihito
(Published by Taiyo Tosho in Craft )

A third year high-school student, Shino Yuzuru, met Seryou Touji, a junior in the archery club, at the school main entrance on Monday morning.
Seryou is popular among girls and there is a rumour saying that he must go out with the first person who declares love to him on Monday and then he breaks up on Saturday.
Due to curiosity, Yuzuru asked Seryou to go out with him on that day... (MAL)

[ OVERALL IMPRESSIONS ]

Manga Discoveries: Young Masamune, Future-Seeing Guy, and Story Collector Dude (ft. Kuroshitsuji 51)

Oh my god.... I've been catching up on series and at the same time checking out new ones as well. I hadn't been doing this for so long so this addiction had been quite... uncontrollable, lately. Ahahaha.
Since they're so many I guess it's better to do them by batches, starting with either a series I'm already following or a oneshot, and then to introduce 3 or more new series I've discovered recently:

Kuroshitsuji - Chapter 51

The official beginning of the new arc! w00t! I was sad that Arthur didn't become part of the main cast but in exchange, it's someone from the circus arc that took that place! Yay! What's better is that Ronald will be playing a big role in this arc too! He's so much fun; I'm very happy that he's in this~
The phenomenon this time involves resurrection of the dead, eh? No wonder the shinigami are involved in this. Oh this is interesting!
It was nice to see Ciel being happy because of Lizzy... Sebby ruined the moment though, bwahahaha!
I love this series but believe it or not, I'm not done marathoning the second season yet (only the last episode's left). I think I still can't accept the fact that it might be the last Kuroshitsuji related media that I'll see with Alois on it ^^; Waaaaaahh!!! Aloissssss!!!

From Left to Right: Neo Dragoon, Enigma, 13 Club
Favoritism Order: Neo Dragoon > Enigma > 13 Club

Anime Review: Night Head Genesis

Night Head Genesis
Animation Production: Actas, Horipro, Media BlastersL, Four Some, Bee Media | Director: Yoshio Takeuchi | Storyboard: Masahiko Murata | Music: Shigeru Umebayashi | Original Creator: George Iida

It is said that 70% of the human brain capacity is unused. If humans possess incredible power, it is strongly believed to be lying dormant within this region. This unused 70% brain capacity is known as "Night Head".
The famous work 'NIGHT HEAD' is going to break the silence. They were abandoned by their parents because of the psychic power they possessed. They are the Kirihara brothers, who lived in a laboratory within a barrier-protected forest. They have escaped from the laboratory, and a new wave of 'Revolution' is about to arise.
A new "Night Head" is about to be awakened.

[ OVERALL IMPRESSIONS ]

Season Preview: Winter 2011

Lack of hyper posts recently.... we've been really busy in various stuff this past few months. Hopefully this early season preview will make up for it ;D
Sapphire Pyro here, and I'll be dominating this post for now because I can xtine06 has some stuff to attend to. But she'll be adding her inputs here eventually ;D
This is going to be shorter than the usual season previews because aside from the fact that there aren't much upcoming titles in this season anywayz, uploading images just take me too long x_x I'll make up for it with... long comments, haha!
As usual, we;re going to be focusing on series only. As for OVA's and movies, I'm excited for Goulart Knights; Koisento seems interesting; but the one I look forward to the most is Supernatural; followed by Mirai Nikki:

SHE SCARES ME!!!! For some reasn I find her freakier than those Higurashi girls O_O.... COOL xD
IMHO, the upcoming season's shows don't seem to be as interesting as the previous season's. I familiarized myself as much as I can on the original materials of these upcoming shows.... but none had really hit me so far =/ Still, a number of them are still very promising so here goes:

Beelzebub
Sapphire Pyro: *RECOMMENDS* As long as the anime staff won't mess up, this will certainly do well because the source material is so much fun xD
Yeah, yeah, it's the standard shounen wherein the main character is just so unbelievably indestructible that no one can beat him. But the funny twist in this is that.... he has to take care of a baby (though it's no ordinary baby ;P)! Plots with "babysitting" isn't limited to shoujo/josei alone! Hahaha!
This series can be appreciated by NOT taking it seriously. It's so ridiculous and amusing that could make you laugh your a$$ off because it's just so... crazy! Haha! But surprisingly, for a "stupid" story, it manages to show some intereseting twists and... it has a story!!!
Another thing that's so cool about this series are the fight scenes.... they're just so badass xD Ah well, we're talking about delinquents after all.... but at least the fighting characters here are actually likeable. The biggest relief for me are the females..... it's one of the few shounen series without a damsel-in-distress... w00t!
I used to blog this before but.... waaahh.... I can't do it anymore x_x

Cardfight!! Vanguard
Sapphire Pyro: *FACEPALM* Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy???!!! Will these Yuugi Oh! wannabes ever gonna give up? Stop being a wannabe! I firmly believe that no series could replace Yuugi Oh in its throne.
*sigh* Or perhaps there are still tons of kids that suck up to these kinds of shows/games? But damnit... I'd rather they think of something new; create a new phenomenon! But noooooooooooooooo! Market over Innovation, huh? This is too sad...

Dragon Crisis
Sapphire Pyro: *HEADACHE* I've had enough of plots involving non-human girls being so fixated on a "normal" leading guy. The plot even mentions that she goes as far as wanting to bathe and sleep with him?
I don't think I need to guess abot it having ecchi and loli fanservice.... which I never appreciated. And this girl needs to be protected that much? Oh gawd, I'm so tired of stories like this. It might've been more interesting for me if the dragon girl is the violent type, not the fragile type. Ugh, just thinking how lame the plot seemed to me already makes me sick...

Fractale
Sapphire Pyro: *INTERESTED* It had an interesting concept of what the future is going to be like: everything's so high tech and people can go around without using their real bodies. It's sci-fi but it seems to have some supernatural twist, because of the dark stuff going around in the convent. Smiles are being regarded as something significant in this... which is cute.
The story in the manga is pretty interesting so far (even with the usual "normal boy's life suddenly becomes not normal when he meets the girl" plot). The art's really really gorgeous too *_* I'm hoping for the anime's art to be better or more wonderful than the manga's. Those scenes seem nicer in color *_*

Freezing
Sapphire Pyro: *NAH* I thought of checking out the first chapter because the plot mentioned about sibling love (younger brother loves older sister so much). Being an older sister with a younger brother myself.... I just couldn't resist it ;D
Sadly, this doesn't seem to be that different from other supernatural action harem shows (with fighting women)... it looked like only the women do the fighting... and of course they are sexy and will give the reader as much fanservice as possible.... yeah, even naked ones.
I'm not interested in boobs nor with women exposing their sexy legs. I see nonsensical fights and cfrequent blushes.... but a story I do not. Or perhaps I'm just being biased because this is not my type of fanservice... sorry =_=
I did get my brother to sister love though.... but the other stuff in it are just too unbearable for me ^^;

Gosick
Sapphire Pyro: *ROARS* Yes, I'm a huge sucker for mystery stories set in historical Europe.... but this one is really SICK... in a negative way!
I've seen a lot of genius characters but the genius loli here is just too unbelievably genius that makes her seem to me that the mangaka is trying TOO HARD to make this girl as incredible as possible. I mean, being able to read so many books yet talking normally to someone AT THE SAME TIME? Unless she's not human, I call her Mary Sue.
I've also read/watched a lot of mystery manga/anime, but the cases here couldn't be compared to those because the detective work in this sucks so much. The girl's deductions being correct are too coincidental... and she didn't even bother to investigate EVEN A LITTLE. She just knows everything! While sitting there! Oh gawd, another Mary Sue charactersitic. And did I mention that she's really very pretty? And it has been mentioned that she's like a human doll. I'll forgive this series if she is indeed one, or something like it.
The other characters? Leading guy's too lame to be a son of military officer. The inspector with a weird hairdo is too stupid to exist. The short haired girl has two sides and she's just there for the leading guy to have another person to talk to and be suspicious about for the sake of adding more "mystery" in this series.
And oh, it looks like the author is very proud of his/her knowledge in French because I was getting tired of only seeing the simple sentences like "How are you?/Are you alright?" and "I'm fine. Thank you." being written in French (I think they're supposed to be conversing in French, but only those lines are in actual French).... and ah, also the counting numbers in French in a certain chapter. Jeez, stick to Japanese. Or just use French words when it comes to terms and stuff.
I think I was too disappointed in this that I've been ridiculing even the little things. I can't help it!!! =_= BONES! Please do something else instead of this x_x

Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Mr. Lovecraft
Sapphire Pyro: *FACEPALM* I am soooooooooooooooooooo sick of plots with non-human girls rescuing normal high school boys. IS THIS THE TYPE OF PLOT THAT SELLS????
Oh gawd... that thought alone is giving me nightmares.

Hourou Musuko
Sapphire Pyro: *OKAY* It shows a unique and more realistic presentation of what people with... complicated gender statuses feel and act like.
However, though the story's really nice and interesting, I find it boring. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the fact that it's by the creator of Aoi Hana or it's because I don't find this serious and dramatic slice of life shows that appealing.
Anyway, I think this series is good, but just not my kind of thing. It's hard for me to tell what makes it remarkable, so I suggest that you look into Aorii-chan's post for more appreciation to this title ^^

Houkago no Pleidas
Sapphire Pyro: *HMM* Car manufacturer involved in some highschool anime? That's.... something new. And it's by Gainax, huh? Perhaps it'll be something worth checking out because it's something.... quite unusual, hehe.

IS: Infinite Stratos
Sapphire Pyro: *FACEPALM* WHY are there increasing mecha shows wherein the machines could only be piloted by girls except for a certain machine that could be piloted only by the leading guy? Are they copying Evangelion and trying to be as popular as it? Oh crap.... so many imitators try too hard but can't see the obvious that legendary series can't ever leave its throne....
Back to IS... ah well, seeing that there are going to be plenty of girls here with the leading guy being the special opposite sex.... I sense ecchi and harem once again. No... I'm tired of this.

Kimi ni Todoke 2
Sapphire Pyro: *YAY* I am still not updated with the manga nor have I finished the first season, but I still consider this as one of the most heartwarming shoujo series I ever met. And when you think it's using shoujo cliches, later you find out that it actually doesn't. The characters are charming in their own way. The story's simple yet really lovely. You can't get enough of it ;D

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka
Sapphire Pyro: *NAH* Serial killers? Zombies? BUT THEY LOOK LIKE MAGICAL GIRLS THAT HAPPENED TO SEEM A LITTLE VIOLENT???? And the leading guy has to go along with these girls? Errrr..... I don't find the premise that fascinating anymore so.... pass.

Level E
Sapphire Pyro: *INTERESTED* I've read some chapters of the manga and oh my god it's soooo hilarious xD It seems so random at first but things start to connect little by little. It's so entertaining and at the same time so interesting xD Now THIS type of alien shows that writers should look more into.... not the sexy alien girl that always lets herself to be groped by the leading guy that many ecchi shows are not yet tired of using =_=
And ooo.... two studios working on it? Staff seems promising? I can't imagine this anime going wrong... especially that the original material is awesome enough ;D

Mistudomoe 2
Sapphire Pyro: *CRIES* I could never appreciate shows with children being as perverted as grown men; much more if in the show, they are hell more perverted than the actual adults in it. So NOOOOO!!!! STOP DOING THIS KINDS OF SHOWS!!!! IT SCARES ME!!!!

Onii-chan no Koto nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!
Sapphire Pyro: *CRIES* WHAT'S WITH THE INCEST CRAZE???!!!! Honestly, I could actually tolerate stories with incest BUT NOT OF THIS TYPE! Aaaaaaahhhh!!!!! I'M SCARED!!!!

Rio - Rainbow Gate
Sapphire Pyro: *HMM* I have absolute zero knowledge on the original material but it has Pandora Heart's staff so.... hhhmmm.... perhaps it could turn out nice.

Starry☆Sky
Sapphire Pyro: *FACEPALM* If you're only after the bishies, seiyuus, or prettiness, then perhaps this is something worth looking forward to. BUT I'm not one of those so I'M AVOIDING THIS CRAP!
I had NEVER seen a good anime/manga series that is based on a reverse harem game. The plots are more-or-less the same, and the bishies will all be too protective or have some special relationship with the overly special leading girl.... who will either be the naive type or the always-blushing type. AND IT IS ALWAYS HER ROLE TO BE USELESS AND TO CRY A LOT!!!! UUUGGGHHH!!!! JUST DIEEEEEE! DIEEE!!!!! DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
Please don't liken this to Hetalia just because if Hetalia is to nations, this one is to zodiacs. Aside from bishies and personifications, that's their only similarities. Hetalia being NOT reverse harem and having women that don't need to be protected/rescued all the time made all the difference.
I love the seiyuus of Starry Sky. The artist of the manga is even a favorite of mine. But the plot's too hopeless.... it's impossible for this to be.... anywhere near impressive.

Usagigoya
Sapphire Pyro: *NAH* Too kiddie... 'nuff said.

Wolverine
Sapphire Pyro: *SIGH* GIMME GAMBIT INSTEAD!!!!!!!!!! *ehem* Ironman was such a disappointment and I don't think how this Wolverine anime would turn out will be any different from it even if the trailer looked really awesome. I also think it won't ever be as cool as the Wolverine movie. (Hugh Jackman! Love ya!)
I'm sorry Madhouse... I love you, but I really think it's better when Western studios do Western comics. =/

Yumekui Merry
Sapphire Pyro: *SCREAMS* ANOTHER GODDAMN KITTY SHOW!!! STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!! *despises the kitty that freeloads at her home that she's being unconsciously bias to cats* I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE NEKO CRAZE!!!! IT ALSO DOESN'T MAKE SENSE THAT IT'S NEKO GIRLS WHO ARE IN THIS DREAM THING!!!! AAAAGGGHH!!!
There are so many species in the feline family. WHY CATS? There are tigers, leopards, lions, jaguars, and so on. THERE ARE SO MANY SPECIES IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM!!!! STOP USING CATS ALL THE TIME!!!! AAAUUUGGHH!!!

Alright, that's it. Opinions are opinions. First impressions are just first impressions. There's always the chance of the show being better than what you first thought of it (though from experience that doesn't happen that often).
If you want to see the chart version, Scamp was kind enough to create one