Kimagure Orange Road

Kimagure Orange Road is the story of the Kasuga family, but mostly the oldest son, Kyosuke as they move to a new town after being found out to be a family of ESPers after one of his sisters uses her ability to run a inhumanly fast time in a gym class. Kyosuke meets a beautiful young girl as he counts the 100 steps where as the beautiful young girl counts 99 this leads to his new school and how he immediately falls in love with her. However, by the end of the first volume, the beautiful young girl, named Ayukawa Madoka has agreed to help her best friend Hiyama Hikaru who is a year younger win Kyosukes heart. This starts a love triangle that puts Kyosuke in some funny and difficult situations.

Kimagure Orange Road was is a famous series from the 80s and was published in the famous magazine Weekly Shounen Jump. It consists of 18 volumes that spanned from 1984 to 1987 in Weekly Shounen Jump. It was made into an anime and also had an ova and 2 movies:I Want to Return to the Day and Shin Kimagure Orange Road Summers Beginning. It was even made into a novel series in the 90s. It was written by the mangaka Izuma Matsumoto who has only written this series and has never published any more. This is because he has taken a hiatus because of a health problem of cerebrospinal fluid disease which was from a car accident at the age of 3. Interestingly enough he made a statement a few years ago stating that he has pledged to draw attention to his disease through a new manga. Back in 1999 it was announced by a manga magazine that they were going to publish his new series but this never happend. So for those of you who will read and enjoy this series and mangaka, this is all you have to read.

Well, I enjoyed this series somewhat with its funny characters and the odd situations that they are put in due to Kyosukes ability of being an ESPer. One of the high points of the series was the change in the characters as the series continued and how the was caused by Kyosukes actions which shows his great character. I really liked the character Ayukawa and her great personalitly and attitude that was under her bad girl personna, the same can be said for Hikaru too, as they were caught smoking in front of the school and Kyosuke tells them its is bad for there health. This comment suprisingly stops them from smoking, never would happen in real life but its backs up the characters personalitys especially Kyosukes. There was a very interesting chapter on how Ayukawa got the old red hat she gave Kyosuke, it was very interesting ( i won't give any spoilers) and was my favorite chapter. I really hated the chapter with the author writing about himself going on vacation and seeing the characters and he draws himself as a job which was a waste of space. I also rather disliked how it took until the last volume for Ayukawa to admit she loved Kyosuke and how all the events involving it only took less then 1 volume. It didnt bother me how Hikaru didnt notice or how Kyosuke couldnt choose because we all knew Hikaru was dense and it was repeated over and over Kyosuke was indecisive. I wish the ESPer element was a little more significant, I really think it had very little affect on the series and was more or less there to attract the sci fi audience to the series. This isnt a complaint but i wish i would have seen how Kyosuke would tell and show Ayukawa he was and ESPer and how she would react

Well this is a solid shounen romance and one of the old school series of the genre. Anyone who likes shounen manga with romance plots would enjoy this series. I think it loses a little of its spark over the years as how things have changed but that holds true with almost every old manga. It was able to hold my attention and kept me truly interested in the characters problems but it strayed to much from the core of the story and came up with a lot of usesless chapters towards the end which is a turn away. But all in all it was a good manga that deserves to be mentioned as one of the great romance stories published in Weekly Shounen Jump.

7/10

Unbalanced X Unbalanced ch 49

This is a series that i enjoy that reminds me of onegai sensei which is probably the reason i like it. I guess i just have a thing for the student goes out with hot teacher thing. But this is actually a korean manhawa. This and Goong are probably the only manhawa that i pay attention to at the moment. So that in its self makes it very interesting to me.

Well for those of you who are new to the series it is about a boy Jin-ho who actually sleeps with a beautiful older women Sungeneim and takes her virginity while they are both drunk. At school Jin-ho finds out Hae-Young is his home room teacher and later on she even thinks she is pregnant but it was a false alarm. Afterwards is a series of awkward events between the two characters. Hae-Young half sister Caroline who she hates comes to korea to be a teacher. Caroline wants to make Jin-ho hers to which Sungeneims is irrated but as they have no relationship she refuses to do anything.

Jin-ho and Caroline go to a video room to watch a movie and Hae-Young is following there trail. Hae-Young buys the room next to theirs and hears some very *wink* sounds from the room and runs in to stop them but it is a different couple. Hoa-Young hurries off saying it is not any of here business anyway what they are doing. Jin-ho and Caroline are in the next room down were Caroline is making herself available to Jin-ho who seems totally oblivious. Until finally Caroline tells Jin-ho you can do what ever you want. Hae-Young is off eating telling herself nothings going to happen right?

Well to me this is a boring chapter with some useless thrown in ecchi elements. It annoys me how oblivious Jin-ho is with women but what comic character isnt? Well i hope for a more interesting scanalation soon.

Bitter Virgin ch 17 & 18

Finally after manga months solarious-suv has released new chapters of bitter virgin. They released chapter 17 & 18.

At the beginning of chapter 17 we see the story of how daisukes sister left for tokyo and it has been six years since she has returned home. After a short view of her leaving home we get back to the present with daisukes sister saying how daisuke would never do such a thing. in a sad side note we see aikawa say that if your raped you cant say anything because you are so scared which is from her personal experience. daisukes sister almost trips and falls and aikawa says that daisuke needs to be more gentle with her. she is 33 weeks pregnant. daisuke and his sister return home and she tells her mother that she will get her first grandchild. When there mother asks about the father daisukes sister says he is a client from a solo transfer. So the man is already married. her mother instantly becomes angry and hits her. there mother says that daisuke must be ashamed of his sister but daisuke stands up for his sister saying it is not a disgrace. daisukes sister says she wants to have the baby and daisuke notice she gives off the feeling of a mother. He realizes that aikawa has had these same moments of weakness.

In chapter 18 daisukes sister luggage comes as she is planning to give birth to the baby her in her home town. She has quit her job and rented out her apartment. daisuke sister tells her mother that the little guy is hungry. Her mother yells out in excitement its a boy. She seems to finally accept her daughters choice. There mother makes sure that they keep the pregnancy a secret from the other people in town. daisuke sees the kicks of the baby affect his sister and imagines how bad it must have been for aikawa who was only in junior high. yuzu runs up to daisuke yelling that he is going to have a baby. In response he yells that that is his sister. So now it is the talk of the school that his sister is pregnant. aikawa and yuzu go over to daisuke house after school to meet his sister. yuzu excitedly touches the stomach trying to feel the baby. yuzu then makes aikawa touch it who oviously is reluctent. and daisukes sister doesnt help been saying the baby wants to come out and say hi to its mommy. aikawa quickly says she has to leave and hurries quickly out of the house. aikawa runs away saying how it was a curse to have your stomach grow big. daisuke catches up to her and before he evens says anything aikawa says that she doesnt like kids and will probably never hold one. daisuke tries to cheer her up by saying they helped his sisters baby. aikawa smiles and agrees. daisuke wants to confront her about her secret but he cant. when he returns home his sister confronts him and asks ' that girl has been pregnant before, hasnt she.'

these werent that interesting of chapters i really dont like daisuke sister that much and i dont think she is very interesting. But the last page does leave a good cliff hanger for the next chapter.

Top selling manga of 2007

These are this years top selling manga in Japan. No suprise with all these widely popluar series.

Rank
Title
Author
Publisher
1
One Piece #46
Eiichiro Oda
Shueisha
2
NANA #18
Ai Yazawa
Shueisha
3
Nodame Cantabile #17
Tomoko Ninomiya
Kodansha
4
Naruto #37
Masashi Kishimoto
Shueisha
5
Fullmetal Alchemist #17
Hiromu Arakawa
Square Enix
6
Hunter X Hunter #24
Yoshihiro Togashi
Shueisha
7
Bleach #28
Kubotite
Shueisha
8
D.Gray-man #10
Katsura Hoshino
Shueisha
9
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! #13
Akira Amano
Shueisha
10
Gintama #17
Hideaki Sorachi
Shueisha

source oracon

Code Geass 2nd Season

Ah yes my last post of the day i have been posting non stop since i started this blog. This is by far the most interesting news of the day at least to me as it involves my favorite new series Code Geass. The 2nd season of Code Geass is set for premiere in April on Sundays at 5:00 p.m. Also the first season of Code Geass will premiere on the Adult Swim network in english dub in the spring of 2008. Big news for all you Lelouch, Suzuku, CC, and Kallen fans out there because you will be seeing plenty of them in the new year.

A list of the most sold dvds of the year in Japan were released and # 1 is the movie adaptation of the series Tales of Earthsea. A few other animes were in the top 20 My Neighbor Totoro, Code Geass, Gundam Seed, Gundam, Lupata, and Melacholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Rank
Units Sold
Title
1
242,000
Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki)
2
207,000
Ratatouille
3
121,000
Shrek 3 Special Edition
4
93,000
Leroy & Stitch (sequel of Lilo & Stitch)
5
83,000
My Neighbor Totoro
6
75,000
Cars
7
66,000
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Special Edition Final Cut: Jiyū no Daishō
8
63,000
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion#1
9
59,000
The World of GOLDEN EGGS #1
10
53,000
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion #2
11
51,000
Mobile Suit Gundam DVD-Box 2 (Final Volume)
12
49,000
The World of GOLDEN EGGS Season 2 DVD-Box
13
48,000
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion #3
14
47,000
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Standard Edition
15
47,000
The World of GOLDEN EGGS #2
16
45,000
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya #7 Limited Edition
17
44,000
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
18
43,000
Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea
19.
43,000
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion #4
20.
42,000
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion #9 (Final Volume)

Source: Gunota Headlines

Cowboy Bebop My First Review

Cowboy Bebop is a series of 26 episodes which in the series are called sessions. It was director Shinichiro Watanabe first anime ever who later direct Samurai Champloo. And boy did he start out with a bang he created an amazing series that is a anime classic and a must see for any person anime fan or not.

The story is about the wild and crazy stories of the captures or attempts of criminals by the bounty hunting duo of Spike Spiegel and Jet Black in there ship the Bebop. Along there way of capturing criminals they pick up some new team members like Faye Valentine a self proclaimed babe ( and she isnt lieing) and Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV or simply Ed who is... impossible to describe with words, a real character. Along the way we learn about the characters in every aspect like the past and we are able to get into the mind of each.

This series got me into anime and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It to me has one of the saddest endings ever ( i wont give any spoilers). It has great plot and character development. It not only was a commercial success in Japan but a huge success around the world and especially in the U.S. It was the first series i had ever seen that used music as such an important element the soundtrack was amazing it almost single handly made me like jazz well almost. It was that of an important element of the show it came up in every aspect from the episode titles like Jupiter Jazz to the interactions of the characters. The opening song i will remeber for the rest of my life and it was instrumental. Thank the soundtrack to the famous and very talented anime composure Yoko Kanno. The characters are all loveable and rememberable which will let you truly feel for the characters past.

This is and always will an example of anime at its finest. One of the greatest of all time hands down if not the greatest of all time a true masterpiece.

10/10