This will mostly hold reviews/reactions of manga, real books and scanlations, that I have read. 75% of which are yummy, yummy yaoi.
There will also be rants and raves about anime and life in general...

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Haru wo Daiteita deux .... and this week's releases

I just re-read all 14 volumes of Haru scanlations. I fell in love with Iwaki-san and Katou-kun all over again.


Look at them! How can you NOT fall in love with them! 
Of course there were other characters that surround them, that support them or cause trouble, or both! 

I really wish that there was more. It's not hard to lose yourself in their lives, to get caught up in whatever emotion they were feeling. Or maybe it's just me....
Their story is so beautiful and has grown so much since... uh... 2003? I wouldn't have minded watching them grow old together... I bet Katou would still be the lovesick puppy he was when he first chased Iwaki and Iwaki would still be trying to train this said (horny) puppy ^_^ And I bet... they'd still be making sweet sweet love without the help of the little blue pill ;)

This was one series I really wouldn't have minded to collect no matter how many volumes they released.

It wasn't just the characters that improved over time, the art also did. Though some characters still looked like other characters from Youka Nitta-sensei's other works. ^//^



As for this week's releases.... I really don't know what to do....
I look online for this week's releases, and I get excited because of some of the titles I see... Then I go to the store.... And see that not all of the titles reached my little country again... It's a little... no... a LOT depressing...
I was happy to see Stray Cat though
" Kaoru is frustrated -- he's just been dumped by his boyfriend again! And it's all because he could never express his true feelings properly. What's wrong with him?! Feeling lonely and miserable, he takes a stroll through a gay park one day and meets a straight guy named Youhei. Although he seems to be an unassuming, gentle soul, something inside Youhei has caused Kaoru's heart to swell. Will Kaoru step out and express his feelings to Youhei? " -Amazon
I do have the scans, not really sure if it's complete.
I highly recommend this manga to cat lovers out there... both the animal and the "neko". If you don't know what I mean and you're really into yaoi... shame on you *wags finger at* (if you buy and read this manga you'll know what it means ^_^)

I reserved In the Walnut vol 2, 'coz it was on the list, but I just confirmed on amazon that I do have it already. So I guess I won't wait for the other bookstore's release of Stray Cat and just get one from the first store.... but that's still more than $2 more expensive! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! >.<

Oh yeah, the last volume, 6, of the Gravitation Collection is also out this week.

This one... I'll wait for the other bookstore's release... I hope it'll be before the holidays o.o

oh and... Finder vol 2 is supposed to be released, but I'm not really putting my hopes up for this one...

Methinks I shall read Stray Cat before I go to bed... Stay smutty my bishies :)

Monday, October 25, 2010

Haru wo Daiteita (Embracing Love) by Youka Nitta

This isn't a real review, or is it? I just happened to see it while I was going thru my scanlations and I remembered two one-shots that I loved. And my regret that I only got 2 out of the 5(?) volumes that were released by BeBeautiful...
I do have anime, Embracing Love: Cherished Spring

and I'm waiting for amazon to get Winter Cicada, or maybe I'll get it from Rightstuf, since they have it and I plan on ordering some manga from there soon...

this made me cry ;.;

The artbook, Kiss of Fire, is so sexy. And the extra manga in it is so cute!
Kiss of Fire front

Kiss of Fire Back and letter
I thought it had free stationery, but it was a letter. I'm not sure if it was something about their wedding or it was Katou's letter to Iwaki regarding this book. Like a dedication of sorts. I think... As you can see I bought it 2006, and my memory just doesn't want to work anymore :( there is a translation of the letter inside the book.
Damn.... I haven't seen it since I transferred rooms! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! >.<

*slaps self*

Anyway... back to Haru wo and my favorite extras (one-shots)... for now...
It's not like I don't like the main story of Haru wo or that I don't like the other one-shots. I du! A LOT! But these two seem to pop into my mind when I see the Haru wo scanlation folder.

One is The Plunderer. It's about Iwaki and Katou spending the holidays over at Iwaki's house. Iwaki's brother and his family are there and so is his father. 
Iwaki's brother doesn't like Katou, for obvious reasons, but seems to be dealing with their relationship in his own way.... 
The story begins with Iwaki's brother saying goodbye to Iwaki, 'cause they're going over to his in-law's place to show off his baby daughter, Hina, who looks a lot like Iwaki! Iwaki then enters a room where Katou is looking at pictures of Iwaki as a child.This then goes to Iwaki and Katou discussing how Katou 'stole' Iwaki from his brother. Which then leads to them doing it... WHILE THE BROTHER WAS STILL IN THE HOUSE! WAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA! 
*clears throat* 
Anyway... Katou wants copies of the pictures, so Iwaki suggests that he photocopies them in color, since the negatives were missing. And so, as Katou heads off to have the pictures copied, he runs into Iwaki's brother! Who sees the albums and takes them with him! And we are left with Katou crying hahahahaha! 
the page before the yummy smutt >D

The other one... Kato's Delicious Praise.
This finds the two lovers trying to get Iwaki to gain weight. He had to lose it for a movie he did. And that's basically it o.o
There is smutt of course. When I first read it I thought there wasn't going to be any 'cause Katou didn't want to do it, 'cause it'd cause Iwaki to burn more calories, which they were trying to avoid... but then Iwaki would have none of that hehehehe. In the end he did gain a little weight.
Now this is one feast I can really sink my teeth into

I really love Haru wo. Anyone who likes yaoi would love Haru wo.
Their relationship is really amazing. At first they're two AV actors trying out for a role in a gay movie, then they act together in a series developed after the movie. You can see them developing as actors and as a couple in the manga. The smutt is really really sexy....
And I liked what they did with Winter Cicada. A story within their story. The behind the scenes peek into what went into creating Winter Cicada. From the fire and having one of the actors hurt to not having enough money to continue the production. Of course, the production continued, thanks to the couple they met in America ;)

The only quibble I have is that some of the characters look alike. And I do get confused easily... 

Youka Nitta had trouble a while back when she was caught copying fashion ads and incorporating some of her characters in them as the main couple in the ad. One company didn't really mind, they even thought that it was an honor of sorts (not sure if it was Diesel). I guess the others didn't like it :( This led to the end of the series ;.;
I know it was wrong, but there were other mangaka doing worse things and they hide behind their famous parents and not get punished!!! But I digress...
 It's not like she was stealing the stories from these ads, they were just art inserts. It's understandable since Iwaki and Katou are also models. And so are some of the other characters in Youka Nitta's work.

I wish someone else would license this in english again. All 14 volumes... I'd buy all of them immediately, and not wait for them to go on sale... like I do some other titles... hehehe ^.^;;

Okay... that's it... it's almost 2 am and my bed is calling to me... 

Sunday, October 24, 2010

New manga..... and life

That was one of the longest weeks I've ever had... Thursday was the only day I was living(working) for, and Friday of course, that's a given...
The storm made the week a bit more exciting. Even with my huge umbrella, I still got wet... Twice! I do not like bringing that umbrella to work 'cause it's damned heavy! And since it was a storm, the winds were strong... It was like I was bringing a parachute of sorts... It's a choice between getting wet or getting dragged by my umbrella.

Even with a storm... nothing could stop me from getting my manga! 

And on we go to the new manga for this week!
I got a bit more than I expected, even though 2 out of the 3 manga I was looking forward to wasn't released.

Endless Comfort
Endless Comfort was the only yaoi that got released this week.
Double Cast 
Double Cast was SUPPOSED to be released, but the store said that it wasn't shipped :(
Under Grand Hotel vol 2
I have no idea what happened to this one... I'm hoping that it gets released next week



Now for the bishie filled manga
KuroShitsuji vol 3
My beautiful, beautiful Sebastian...got one for me, got one for RJ hehehehe


Ugly Duckling's Love Revolution vol 2
I think if I were surrounded with so many bishies, it'd be enough reason for me to lose weight... But I'm not... so I'm... Round o.o

Vampire Knight Fanbook
Just thinking about the girl annoys me... So I just look at the numminess... 
It pisses me off that NOW they decide to release a box set of vol 1 to 10 and it has a datebook in it! Grrrrr...

Kingyo Used Books vol 2
This is the only non-bishie manga. Well, he does have a nice smile :)
The first volume is beside my pillow, and I still have not read it... I am very interested in this series because it has stories of how certain manga affected the lives of the people that read them.
Hooo boy... This has 10 volumes and it's still ongoing :/

Cardcaptor Sakura omnibus
I wonder if they show more of Yukito and Touya's relationship o.o 
*squee*
It's just so.... pink... >.o

Only one yaoi was listed to be released next week. The Love Water novel.

Oh yeah, it's the infamous 3 day weekend! I'm already on my second day since it's already 1:25 am of Sunday. 
I'm also on my second day of the dreaded female curse. So I'm not sure about posting a review... 

Stay smutty! 

Thursday, October 14, 2010

New manga day!

Yes! It's Thursday again! New manga (new debt) and one I really wanted!!!

First... the one I thought I'd have to get online, or just wait for a long long time for the re-ordered stock to come.
Otomen
Getting this purely for the bishies... really thinking if I will be continuing to collect this series because there are currently 11 volumes out in Japanese, and it's still ongoing!

This Ugly Yet Beautiful World
I got all 3 volumes. That's the complete series. I got this because it was highly recommended... by someone...
Oh... I thought this came before the anime, but after reading the back cover, I found out that the manga was inspired by the anime. I think I have the anime in one of my hard disks that died... ;.;
As you can see by the parental advisory sticker on the cover, it's rated for mature audiences ;)

Gantz
The latest release of this very very weird series... not to mention perverted... This one I do plan to continue... even though it's on it's 29th volume and still ongoing x.x
This has all sorts of weirdness and perversions(?), right up my alley ^_^

and now... the manga I wanted! One of them anyways....
Stay Close to Me
This manga is just so adorable!!!! I love Yaya Sakuragi manga (I absolutely adored the Tea for Two series)... Naono Bohra is still my #1 mangaka though.
This is about a couple, who are already in a fairly good relationship, but the people around them are the ones causing problems... I think I already mentioned this >>
Anyways... I liked this, it's funny and really sweet. My only complaint? NOT ENOUGH SMUTT!

In the upcoming books, aside from Endless and Double, the second (and probably last) volume of Under Grand Hotel is coming!


I'm not feeling well... again... and it seems like my pc is also "not feeling well". Yesterday 2 of my hard drives vanished, today one re-appeared when I turned on my pc. I had to reboot because of something that pissed me off. Then they both came back to life! Though one still keeps giving me errors. As long as I don't use it, it won't make me hang.
I'll be tinkering with my pc again this weekend... *sigh*

Okay... that's it for today... stay smutty people! If there is anyone that actually reads this...

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Double Cast and Endless Comfort

I read the scans I had of the two manga that's supposed to be released this week.... And I remembered the feeling of frustration I had with Double Cast.

Double Cast is a bit similar to Haru wo Daiteita(LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this!). The leads are both actors, not AV though, and the younger one goading the older one into doing a project together... No smutt... But it's a cute story... not really necessary for the hard core yaoi fan though.

Endless Comfort is about a quiet dog trainer who sustained a terrible trauma when he was younger. It's not obvious though. He is gentle and he smiles a lot, one wouldn't think that he had that sort of past. The dog owner has his own emotionally troubled past. So basically it's a story of two people, finding each other and finding comfort in each other... Of course there are other people, like the dog owner's "lover" and his lover. They have a small story of their own.


In other news... I read somewhere that manga sales went down 20% or something... I just smirked and thought to myself, if they actually stopped blocking the release of some manga outside America then maybe... maaaaaaaaybe their sales wouldn't have gone down. But that's just my take on it...

I am guilty of looking for scans of licensed manga, if it was scanlated. But I do that just to find out if it is worth buying or not, I've bought a lot of manga that I've regretted spending money on. It sickens me to find copies of the some english manga already released, scanned and available for download. Scanlations for sharing, sure, but not the actual manga... that is just the worst thing you could possibly do to the translated manga industry *sigh*


Damn... I was wondering why the site I get the manga releases for the week wasn't updated yet... I then remembered that Monday was a holiday in the US...

edit: okay... after posting that, the site suddenly updated o.o something tells me this is going to be a frustrating day.... and there is no yaoi released this week... the release dates for Double and Endless were moved to next week...

Monday, October 11, 2010

New manga

So.... still no review... maybe next weekend when we have a 3 day weekend :)
I have read the baseball manga, it was cute and was pretty consistent with Gokuraku Cafe's lack of hard smutt, but there were a few yummy scenes in it ^.^

Anyways, this week didn't bring me ANY yaoi, even if there were 2 listed to be released this week... Though they were released, it just didn't get to my lowly country... again.... and I soooooooooooo wanted Stay Close to Me... Kizuna, not so much since I do have the first 6 already...

These are the manga I did get this week...

Naruto v49 cover
Naruto v49
I really don't have to say anything about this manga, do I?

Grand Guignol Orchestra cover
Grand Guignol Orchestra
This is a 5 volume manga by the mangaka that did Angel Sanctuary and Cain Saga(though I don't really know much about this one)... It's full of the supernatural and bishies, 2 of the things I am very interested in :)

Natsume's Book of Friends v4 cover
Natsume Yuujinchou v4
I fell in love with Natsume when I first saw the anime's preview pictures... of course I'm going to collect the manga!

Seiho Boys' High School v2 cover
Seiho Boys' HS v2
I was having second thoughts about continuing this series, but when I saw the cover and his smile, I just couldn't help myself. Even now as I look at this pic, I can't stop myself from smiling. I mean... come on... look at him!

I wasn't able to get the second volume of the Chobits omnibus because I stupidly thought that the store that gets it's manga later, had it cheaper... it wasn't and the first store already had both the copies they ordered reserved ;.;
Now I must remember to get DMP(June), Dark Horse and Viz (including Shoujo Beat and Shounen Jump) from the first store. TokyoPop(BLU) and non manga stuff from the second store...

Meh... I had to use flickr because I couldn't seem to get the image thing on this to work...

Anyway, next week's manga releases are:

  • Double Cast - I have the scanlation, but I don't remember the story much >.<
  • Endless Comfort - I have the scanlation of this one too! Japanese title, Koukyuu no Arika. This one I remember a bit, cause I love dogs :) .... I just don't remember the smutt level :( 
I'm going to revisit the scans of these, though I can tell you now that I will be buying them when they come out.

Oh yeah... I finally watched one episode of Hoarding, and it is different from Hoarders, though the themes are the same. I like Hoarders better...

Oh! Oh! The first ep of the Togainu no Chi anime has been subbed and released! I still have not downloaded it though, still not finished returning the files to my anime hard disk...